UC-NRLF 
 
 B M IDS 15 La 
 
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7 ^.f^ 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
BOEDEE BEAGLES 
 
 TALE OF MISSISSIPPI 
 
 BY W. GILMORE SIMMS, 
 
 .IUTHCR OF "RICHARD HURDIS," "THE PARTISAN," " MELLICHAMPE 
 " KATHARINE WALTON, 1 " THE SCOUT, 1 " WOODCRAFT," ETC 
 
 "So, at length, 
 
 The city, like a camp in mutiny, 
 Saw nothing- else to wal^ her streets unharmed 
 But these, your free companions." 
 
 VAN ARTEVELDE. 
 
 OFTHE 
 
 DIVERSITY 
 
 DONOHUE, HENNEBERRY & 
 
 407-425 DEARBORN STREET 
 1890 
 
PRINTED AND BOUND BY 
 
 DONOHUE & HENNEBERRY 
 
 CHICAGO. 
 
J840 
 
 BORDER BEAGLES, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 COURT SEASON. 
 
 "I have got 
 
 A seat to sit at ease here, in mine inn, 
 To see the comedy; and laugh and chuck 
 At the variety and throng of humors, 
 And dispositions that come jostling in 
 And out." BEN JONSON. The New Inn. 
 
 THE little town of Raymond, in the state of Mississippi, wai 
 in the utmost commotion. Court-day was at hand, and nothing 
 yas to be heard but the hum of preparation for that most im 
 portant of all days in the history of a country-village that of 
 general muster alone excepted. Strange faces and strange 
 dresses began to show themselves in the main street ; lawyers 
 were entering from all quarters "saddlebag" and "sulky" 
 lawyers men who cumber themselves with no weight of law, 
 anless it can be contained in moderately-sized heads, or valise, 
 or saddle-bag, of equally moderate dimensions. Prowling 
 sheriff s officers began to show their hands again, after a ten or 
 twenty days absence in the surrounding country, where they 
 had gone to the great annoyance of simple farmers, who con 
 tract large debts to the shop-keeper on the strength of crops 
 yet to be planted, which are thus wasted on changeable silks 
 for the spouse, and whistle-handled whips for " Young Hopeful" 
 the oiJy son and heir to possessions, which, in no long time, will 
 be heard best of under the auctioneer s hammer The popu- 
 
 166365 
 
12 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 iation of the village was increasing rabidly ; and what with the 
 sharp militia colonel, in his new box coat, squab white hat, 
 trim collar and high-heeled boots, seeking to find favor in the 
 regiment against the next election for supplying the brigadier s 
 vacancy ; the swaggering planter to whom certain disquieting 
 hints of foreclosure have been given, which he can evade no 
 longer, and which he must settle as he may ; the slashing over 
 seer, prime for cockfight or quarter-race, and not unwilling to 
 try his own prowess upon his neighbor, should occasion serve 
 and all other sports fail ; the pleading and impleaded, prosecu 
 tor and prosecuted, witnesses and victims Raymond never 
 promised more than at present to swell beyond all reasonable 
 boundaries, and make a noise in the little world round it. 
 
 Court-day is a day to remember in the West, either for the 
 parts witnessed or the parts taken in the various performances ; 
 and whether the party be the loser of an eye or ear, or has 
 merely helped another to the loss of both, the case is still 
 the same ; the event is not usually forgotten. 
 
 The inference was fair that there would be a great deal of 
 this sort of prime brutality performed at the present time. 
 Among the crowd might be seen certain men who had already 
 distinguished themselves after this manner, and who strutted 
 and swaggered from pillar to post, as if conscious that the eyes 
 of many were upon them, either in scorn or admiration. No 
 toriety is a sort of fame which the vulgar mind essentially 
 enjoys beyond any other ; and we are continually reminded, 
 while among the crowd, of the fellow in the play, who says 
 he " loves to be contemptible." Some of these creatures 
 had lost an eye, some an ear ; others had their faces scarred 
 with the strokes of knives; and a close inspection of others 
 might have shown certain tokens about their necks, which tes 
 tified to bloody ground fights, in which their gullets formed an 
 acquaintance with the enemy s teeth, not over-well calculated 
 to make them desire new terms of familiarity. Perhaps, in 
 most cases, these wretches had only been saved from just pun 
 ishment by the humane intervention of the spectators a hu 
 manity that is too often warmed into volition, only when the 
 proprietor grows sated with the sport. All was crowd and con 
 fusion. At one moment the main street in Raymond was abBO- 
 
COURT SEASON. 13 
 
 lutely choked by the press of conflicting vehicles. Judge Bun 
 kelPs sulky hitched wheels with the carriage of Colonel Fish- 
 hawk, and Squire Dickens bran new barouche, brought up 
 from Orleans only a week before, was " staved all to flinders" 
 so said our landlady "agin the corner of Joe Richards 
 stable." The squire himself narrowly escaped the very last 
 injury in the power of a fourfooted beast to inflict, that is dis 
 posed to use his hoofs heartily and, bating an abrasion of the 
 left nostril, which diminished the size, if it did not, as was the 
 opinion of many, impair the beauty of the member, Dickens 
 had good reason to congratulate himself at getting off with so 
 ittle personal damage. 
 
 These, however, were not the only mishaps on this occasion. 
 There were other stories of broken heads, maims, and injuries ; 
 but whether they grew out of the unavoidable concussion of a 
 large crowd in a small place, or from a great natural tendency 
 to broken heads on the part of the owners, it scarcely falls 
 within our present purpose to inquire. A jostle in a roomy 
 region like the west, is anything but a jostle in the streets of 
 New York. There you may tilt the wayfarer into the gutter, 
 and the laugh is against the loser, it being a sufficient apology 
 for taking such a liberty with your neighbor s person, that 
 " business is business and must be attended to." Every man 
 must take care of himself and learn to push with the rest, where 
 all are in a hurry. 
 
 But he brooks the stab who jostles his neighbor where there 
 is no such excuse ; and the stab is certain where he presumes 
 so far with his neighbor s wife, or his wife s daughter, or his 
 sister. There s no pleading that the city rule is to " take the 
 right hand" he will let you know that the proper rule is to 
 give way to the weak and feeble to women, to age, to infancy. 
 This is the manly rule among the strong, and a violation of it 
 brings due punishment in the west. Jostling there is a dan 
 gerous experiment, and for this very reason, it is frequently 
 practised by those who love a row and fear no danger. It is 
 one of the thousand modes resorted to for compelling tre fight 
 of fun the conflict which the rowdy seeks from the mere love 
 cf tumult, and hi the excess of overheated blood. 
 
 If there was a sensation among the " arrivals" at Raymond, 
 
14 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 there was scarcely less among the residents. The private 
 houses were soon full of visitors, and the public of guests 
 Major Mandrake s tavern was crammed from top to bottom 
 and this afflicting dispensation led to the strangest disruption 
 of anciently adjusted beds and bedsteads. Miss Artemisia 
 Mandrake, for example, was compelled to yield her cushions 
 to a horse-drover from Tennessee, and content herself with 
 such " sleeps" as she could find in an old arm-chair, that stood 
 in immemorial dust in a sort of pigeon-roost garret. It was to 
 this necessity, we may be permitted to say in this place, that 
 she for ever after ascribed her rheumatism, and a certain awry 
 contraction of the muscles of the neck, which, defeating her 
 other personal charms, was not inaptly assumed, by the damsel 
 herself, to have been the true cause of her remaining, up to the 
 time of this writing, an unappropriated spinster. Major Man 
 drake has certainly had excellent reason to repent his cupidity. 
 
 The rival tavern of Captain Crumbaugh was in equally 
 fortunate condition with that of the major. They were both 
 filled to overflowing by midday, and after tlmt you could 
 get a bed in neither for love nor money. And yet the folks 
 continued to arrive ; folks of all conditions and from all quar 
 ters ; in gig and sulky, or on horseback; some riding in 
 pairs on the same donkey and not a few short-petticoated 
 damsels, led by curiosity, from the neighboring farms, and 
 mounted in like manner, on battered jades, whose mouths, ossi 
 fied by repeated jerks, now defied the strenuous efforts by 
 which the riders would have sent them forward with some show 
 of life and spirit, as they emerged from the forests into the 
 crowded thoroughfare. 
 
 " Well, there s a heap of folks still a-coming, and where in 
 the world they ll find a place to lie down iu to-night, is a rnost 
 past my reckoning, I m sure the major IIP n t got another bed 
 left, high nor low ; and as for the captain, I heard him tell Joe 
 Zeigler an hour ago, that all was full with b^ni. Yet, do look, 
 how they are a-coming. Can t you look, Jack Horsey, if it s 
 only for a minute. You hav n t got no more nateral curiosity 
 than " 
 
 " Shut up, Bess, you ve got enough for both of us. What s 
 it to me, and what s it to you, where the folks sleep ? Let 
 
COURT SEASON. 16 
 
 them sleep where they can ; there ll be no want of beds where 
 there s no want of money. If they have that, the captain and 
 the major will take good care that they have every opportunity 
 to spend it. As for you, go you and see after the poultry ; 
 court-time is a mighty bad season for chickens ; they die off very 
 -sudden, and the owner is not always the wiser of the sort of 
 death they die. Push, Bess, and see if you can forget for 
 awhile the business of the two taverns." 
 
 The good wife was silent for a space, but this was the only 
 acknowledgment which she condescended to yield her stubborn 
 and incurious husband. She did not leave her place at the 
 window, but continued to gaze with the satisfaction of a much 
 younger person, at the throng in the thoroughfare, as it received 
 additions momently from every new arrival. At length the 
 stir appeared to cease the carriages to disappear ; horses 
 vanished in the custody of bustling ostlers, and their riders, 
 making amends for the day s abstinence, on a dry road, might 
 be seen, in great part, at the bar-room of the major or the cap- 
 tam,washing away the dust from capacious throats by occasion 
 al draughts of whiskey or peach brandy. 
 
 The latter article seemed most in demand at the house of 
 Captain Crumbaugh. He had the art of preparing it to per 
 fection ; and " Crumbaugh s peach" was, in my day, a sort of 
 proverb with all who travelled in his parts. Major Mandrake 
 took care to have the very best whiskey of particular strength 
 and peculiar flavor ; and there was a class, and this no small 
 one neither, that might readily be found to give it preference. 
 I class myself among none of these. The oily excellence of 
 the peach of Crumbaugh is still a flavor on "memory s waste;" 
 (query, " taste ?") and whiskey was never a favorite of mine, 
 though I have partaken of it along with governors and judges, 
 senators and saints. 
 
 But to return to the curious Mrs. Horsey. The dispersion 
 of the crowd, as it ceased to furnish her with any new subjects 
 of interest, necessarily left her somewhat more free to remem 
 ber the injunctions of her husband ; and she was about to turn 
 from the window, with a long drawn sigh of weariness, or dis 
 satisfaction that the show was over, when a smart-looking 
 youth, whom she did not know, rode up to the door. 
 
16 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Horsey a gentleman on a fine roaft horse 
 he s at the door I reckon he wants to see some of us, and 
 maybe comes to look after -a lodging for to-night. I knew the 
 major was full, and the captain " 
 
 " Now, the devil take the major and the captain, and all the 
 taverns in the state, since they "drive everything out of your 
 brain that ought to be there," was the angry speech witn 
 which the stubborn husband interrupted the wandering solilo 
 quy of his spouse. "Why don t you see what the stranger 
 wants, woman? you heard his knocking, and there you stand 
 guessing about tavern business, and such matters as you ve no 
 need to think, much less to speak about." 
 
 "La! John Horsey you re too positive and contrarious, 
 not let a body think " 
 
 " No ! What the devil should you think for ? that s my busi 
 ness, I tell you now, as I ve told you a good hundred times before. 
 But go to the door ; don t stand there staring like a gray owl 
 in a green bush ; go and open the door and see what the man 
 wants, unless you desire that I should get up with my lame 
 leg and show him in. Won t you go, I ask you." 
 
 Well, John, don t you see I m going? You re always in 
 such a fret." 
 
 " Enough cause too, with such a trouble as you are." 
 
 " Yes, sometimes I m anything but a trouble ; there s no word 
 you have too good for me ; and then agin " 
 
 "There s none too bad," said the splenetic husband, finish 
 ing the speech as she had begun it ; " but go to the door, as if 
 you had some life in you, or the stranger will batter it down 
 before you get there." 
 
 There was some reason, indeed, for the apprehension ex 
 pressed by Horsey, as the applicant for admission, seeing that 
 no heed was given to his first summons, yet hearing, without 
 doubt, a buzzing of the sharp controversy going on within, had 
 renewed his application with redoubled force, employing for 
 the purpose the butt of a loaded whip, every stroke of which 
 told like a hammer upon the plank. The dame started in com 
 pliance with the clamors from without, rather than the impa 
 tient commands within ; for she still seemed panting for another 
 word, and muttered between her teeth, as she slowly moved 
 
COURT SEASON. 17 
 
 toward the door, something which, to the jealous authomy of 
 her liege lord, seemed to denote a resolution still to think as 
 she pleased and when she pleased, in spite of his declarations 
 against her right to do so. 
 
 " Look you, Bess, go to the door : and move a little more 
 quickly, if you don t want to make me mighty angry. See 
 what the stranger wants ; and remember we don t keep a lodg 
 ing-house any longer. We have no room ; we want no com 
 pany." 
 
 This was spoken in those subdued tones, and with that show 
 of suppressed and striving feeling, which, perhaps, denote a 
 greater degree of earnestness and resolution than any words 
 mio-ht do. The effect upon the wife was instantaneous, and 
 her hand was soon upon the lock. 
 
 " Remember, we have no lodging," murmured the husband, 
 as the door opened. " I only wish I were a mile or two back 
 in the woods, where I mightn t be worried as I am about board. 
 There was a time when I might have been glad of a good 
 stand on the road, but it s not so now. I can live like a gen 
 tleman, and why should I be bothered to get breakfasts, and 
 see after strange horses, for people I shall never see but once, 
 and don t want to see at all ? I ll " 
 
 The words of the stranger, spoken in bold, free, musical lan 
 guage, which reached the ears of the invalid at that moment, 
 put an end to the soliloquy. 
 
 " Mrs. Horsey, ma am ?" 
 
 " He might swear to it, if he knew only half as much as I," 
 exclaimed the invalid. 
 
 The stranger, a tall, well-made youth of twenty -five or there 
 abouts, meanwhile, drew up his steed, lifted his cap handsomely 
 from his head, like one born a courtier, with a grace that found its 
 way instantly to the lady s heart, and proceeded in his inquiries. 
 
 " I have been advised, Mrs. Horsey, by a particular friend, 
 to seek lodgings at your house during my stay in Raymond. 
 Can I have them ]" 
 
 Before the good lady, prefacing her denial with a long apol 
 ogy and a pleasant smirk of the face, could bring out what she 
 was preparing to say, the rough voice of the sultan from within, 
 gave his answer to the stranger. 
 
18 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 "Can t have em, my friend this is no lodging-house nc 
 room to spare." 
 
 " Very sorry, indeed," said the old lady. 
 
 " Not sorry at all, stranger," said the truth-speaking Horsey ; 
 " for you see, if we wanted to lodge you, the thing might well 
 enough be done. But we don t set out to keep company, and 
 there are taverns enough in the village." 
 
 " Scarcely, if the story is true that they are all full," replied 
 the stranger ; " but let me alight and see you. I have a mes 
 sage to you, madam, and to your husband from my friend Car 
 ter, who tells me that* he lodges with you, and that you could 
 easily find me lodgings, also, for the little time 1 mean to stay 
 in Raymond." 
 
 The effect of this speech was instantaneous upon the man of 
 the house. He barely heard the youth through ere he replied, 
 
 " Eh ! what s that you say, my friend ? Did you say Carter 
 was it Ben Carter that sent the message?" 
 
 " The same," replied the youth while entering the house. 
 
 "And why the d 1, stranger, didn t you say so at first ; 
 without any prevarications. What s the use of this cursed 
 long palavar, when two words could have done the wlfole busi 
 ness. Of course we can give you lodgings. Ben Carter told 
 you nothing but the truth. He has a habit of speaking the 
 truth which would be very good for many other people to take 
 up not meaning you, stranger, for if you be a friend of Ben 
 Carter, I reckon, it s like you are of the same sort of stuff." 
 
 " You speak only as my friend deserves, Mr. Horsey. Carter 
 is the very man you describe him. True in all his words, and 
 just in all his dealings with men, it is my pride in esteeming 
 him one of the most valuable and closest friends I have. It is 
 not amiss, Mr. Horsey, to add that he has an opinion of you, 
 no less favorable than yours of him." 
 
 " Tush, young man, soft soap don t tickle me at my time of 
 life," replied Horsey with an Indian grunt of seeming indiffer 
 ence. " I am as I am, and it s no great matter what I am, see 
 ing that I m of little use in this world at present, and likely to 
 be of less ; yet it s not a bad thing to have the good words of 
 them that s good. It sort o reconciles a man to a great many 
 cyil things that might otherwise bring him a mighty deal of 
 
COURT SEASON. 1^ 
 
 trouble. And Ben Carter is a good man when did you see 
 him last ?" 
 
 " Some ten days ago. He left me at Monticello, and was on 
 his way to Jackson, from which place he promised to return 
 directly to this. He was to meet me here to-night." 
 
 " Well, I reckon he ll he as good as his word, if there s noth 
 ing to stop him on the way. He s mighty punctual tohisbusi- 
 ness, and when he says he ll do, you may count it done. True 
 as steel, is Ben Carter, and it s no use to say farther. Bess 
 let s have something. What ll you take, stranger ? there s 
 some mighty fine peach, some of Crumbaugh s peach, as they 
 call it, which is pretty much the same as calling it the very 
 best in Massissippi. I have some old Monongahela besides, 
 which I can speak a good word for sugar, Bess." 
 
 The beverage was soon prepared, and the two were about to 
 drink, when Horsey reminded the other of a degree of inequal 
 ity between them which needed to be reconciled before they 
 could properly drink health together. 
 
 "You have all the advantage on your side, stranger; my 
 name s John Horsey that, it seems, you know already; but 
 yours what s your name? There s no pleasure in calling a 
 man stranger every minute, when you re talking and drinking 
 together all the while. 
 
 " True," replied the stranger ; " but I never thought of that. 
 My name, Mr. Horsey, is Vernon Harry Vernon. It is not 
 improbable that you have heard it before from my friend 
 Carter." 
 
 "Don t recollect don t think I ever did. Vernon, Vernon 
 
 it s a good name enough comes smooth and easy to the 
 
 tongue as a gentleman s name ought to do always ; but Harry, 
 Harry Vernon ! You wasn t christened Harry, I reckon, Mr. 
 Vernon] Must have been Henry, and they call you Harry 
 for short." . 
 
 "For short, say you? Well, it may be so," replied the 
 stranger with a laugh, " but long or short, I was never called 
 by any other since I have known myself; and never, until this 
 moment thought of asking which of the two I had the clearest 
 r7~M to make use of." 
 
 "The old people living, Mr. Vernon t Your health, air, in 
 
20 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 the meantime. That s what I call peach brandy, sir no 
 make b lieve none of your whiskey run through peach timber 
 such as they give you at Orleans. Old Crumbaugh warrants 
 that stuff, and gets bis price for it. Did I hear you, Mr. Ver- 
 non ? the old people, you said they were living." 
 Neither, sir." 
 
 " Try another sip, Mr. Vernon," said the other consolingly, 
 " peach perfectly harmless ; Crumbaugh keeps the temperance 
 society house; warrants his peach; calls it sobriety peach ; 
 and so you ve lost both parents, Mr. Vernon ?" 
 
 "Both all, sir. I may almost exclaim with the Indian, 
 that there runs no drop of my blood in the veins of any human 
 being." 
 
 " Don t say that/Mr. Vernon, don t say that. It s much more 
 than any man can say, and be certain. Fathers, sir, are apt to 
 leave children where they never look for them ; there s some 
 thing of that sort at my own door, Mr. Vernon, and so " 
 " La, John, how you do talk." 
 
 " What, you re there, Bess, are you ?" The chuckle of the 
 veteran was arrested, and probably a long string of confessions, 
 by the timely ejaculation of his wife, who happened to be busy 
 in the closet "these women, Mr. Vernon but you re mar 
 ried r 
 "No!" 
 
 "Be thankful, young master it s a pleasure then to come, 
 if it comes as a pleasure, which is something like Bazil Hun 
 ter s pea crop, a very doubtful up-coming. You will run 
 your race like the rest of us, and come up at the post as usual, 
 but it won t be the starting-post, I tell you ! You was saying 
 something aboiit the Indians, and that brought up some recol 
 lections of mine when I was among them. I ve been among all 
 the Southern Indians, except the Catawba. I ve never been 
 among them, and I reckon there s but few of them now left to 
 see ; but I ve been among the Creeks and the Cherokees, the 
 Choctaws and the Chickasaws, and there was another tribe, 
 when I first came into these parts, that I hear nothing of now, 
 called the Leaf River Indians; there was but few of them, and 
 I think they belonged to the Chickasaws, but they were the 
 handsomest Indians I ever did see in all my travelling, and I 
 
COURT SEASON. 21 
 
 early. I used to trade, when I was little, a mere sprout 
 of a boy, from Tennessee, through the mountains, into North 
 and South Carolina then, after that, to the Mississippi; and 
 fnany s the time I ve made out to carry a matter of five pack- 
 horses I, and three other lads of Tennessee through the 
 rery heart of the nation, without so much as losing a thimble, 
 find almost without having a scare. In one of these journeys 
 I saw my wife, then a mere bit of a girl. What! not gone, 
 Bess! It s gospel truth, Mr. Harry Vernon, from that day 
 there s been but one pack-horse in our family, and that s Jack 
 Horsey himself." 
 
 " La ! now, John," cried the wife with uplifted hands, " the 
 stranger don t know your ways, and he*l take for true what 
 you re a-telling him. That s jist the way with him, stranger " 
 
 "Stranger! the gentleman s got a name, Bess. Mr. Ver 
 non, Mr. Harry Vernon ; remember, now, it s not Henry, but 
 Harry Vernon. Mr. Vernon, this is my wife. You d soon 
 enough find that out, if you lodged with us awhile. And now, 
 Bess, be off, and look after supper; a silent wife, and a sing 
 ing kettle it s not always we can have em, Mr. Vernon, but 
 that only helps to make them the more desirable." 
 
 Mrs. Horsey was not to be sent off, however, in so conclusive 
 a manner. The complaints of Horsey, touching the constraints 
 upon him of his better half, were ludicrous enough ; contrasted, 
 as they were, with the almost despotic sway which he exercised 
 at every instant. Perhaps a latent desire to show her guest 
 that her good lord did not have it altogether his own way, led 
 her on this occasion to dispute his commands. 
 
 " It s not time for supper, John Horsey. Now that you re 
 lame, you seem to think of nothing but eating and drinking." 
 
 " Did mortal husband ever hear to such a woman ?" was the 
 exclamation of the sultan. The wife mistook for compliance a 
 mildness in the speech which was only due to the astonishment 
 of the speaker. She continued : 
 
 " It s a good hour to supper yet. We have our hours, John 
 Horsey, jist the same as the major, and " 
 
 "Now d n the major, and d n the captain, and d n all 
 the taverns in Massissippi. Thus it is, Mr. Vernon, a wife 
 will make a man swear, sir, when there s nothing in the world 
 
22 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 farther from his wish. You see, sir, my wife will do and say 
 just what she pleases, as I told you. She will always be 
 bringing up to me those cursed taverns ; but I ll stop that, or 
 there s no snakes ! Look you, Betsey !" 
 
 Here his finger guided her to the door, through which she 
 made her departure in the shortest possible space of time. A 
 look had done what, probably, no word in John Horsey s vo 
 cabulary could have achieved half so soon. 
 
 " A good woman enough, Mr. Vernon ; but women, sir, are 
 women ; and the very best of them are incapable of serious 
 concerns: they are all triflers mere children a sort of gin 
 gerbread creatures, tl^p ginger of which lasts on the tongue a 
 deused sight longer than the molasses. But, as you were say 
 ing, Mr. Vernon, you are a lawyer." 
 
 " You have guessed rightly, sir, that is my profession indeed. 
 Your ears are something better than mine, I think, for I do not 
 recollect ever having told you the fact." 
 
 " Nor did you, my dear fellow," replied the old man with a 
 hearty laugh. " It was, as you say, a mere guess of mine, and 
 Jack Horsey s guess is seldom short of the mark. It s a way 
 with me to take for granted, just as if my neighbor had said it, 
 the thing which it appears to me reasonable to think he will 
 say ; and I could ha 1 sworn, from a rakish, sharp, lively some 
 thing about your face and eyes, and a little swing of your 
 shoulders, that you was a lawyer, or going soon to be one. 
 You practise in Monticello ?" 
 
 " I came from Monticello last, but it is not my residence." 
 
 " Well, but you practise law somewhere in Massissippi." 
 
 "I shall in season, I doubt not, provided I get clients. 
 Young lawyers find in this their chief difficulty. They practise 
 with some such rule as governs a good angler where the fish 
 bite best, there you are sure to find them. For my part, I am 
 but too lately admitted to determine where the best water lies 
 for my purposes ; I have not yet thrown out my lines." 
 
 " And that you won t do till your hooks are well baited, for 
 that I believe is one of the first lessons which a lawyer learns. 
 I know d if you had begun to practise, you hadn t done much 
 in that way ; your chin is almost too smooth, though that s no 
 as times go, if so be your tongue proves smooth and 
 
COURT- SEASON. 23 
 
 oily like your chin. But there, it seems to me. Mr. Vernon, 
 that your difficulty lies. I m afraid you haVt g >t the gift of 
 the gab. I haven t heard you say much." 
 
 " And for a very excellent reason, Mr. Horsey . you haven t 
 given me a chance. Your tongue has utterly outwagged mine, 
 and I yield the palm to you, where my vanity, perhaps, would 
 allow me to yield it to few other persons. But, it is now my 
 turn, and if I do not prove myself quite your equal before I m 
 done with you, I will at least convince you that I am not en 
 tirely without my claims to take rank among the mouthing part 
 of my profession." 
 
 " Spoken like a man, and a good fellow," cried Horsey with 
 a hearty laugh, and with no sort of discomfiture at a retort as 
 just as it was unexpected. " I have better hopes of you now, 
 Mr. Harry Vernon. Ecod, you gave it me then a raal dig 
 in the side with a sharp elbow. The truth is, I am a leetle too 
 much given to hearing myself talk, and what s worse, I can t 
 easily be convinced that it is not my neighbor whose tongue 
 all the while has been making the Jidldbaloo. Somehow or 
 other, thinking of what the man ought to say, that I m talking 
 to, I come to think he says it, and half an hour after, could al 
 most take my Bible oath to the fact. It s a strange infirmity, 
 Mr. Vernon ; don t you think so ?" 
 
 "Very very strange," said the other, smiling at the seem 
 ing seriousness of his companion. 
 
 "And so, you were telling me you practise law in Orleans/ 
 
 "Ah, Mobile, yes Mobile you said." 
 
 " Nay, nay, Mr. Horsey, I said neither," replied the youth 
 laughing out aloud ; " this is only another sample of the infirm 
 ity you were telling me about another of your guesses and 
 I will not tell you how far from the truth. But it is my turn 
 now, and while I throw another stick upon your fire, and draw 
 my chair a foot closer, I will prepare my thoughts for the cross- 
 examination which I mean to give you in turn." 
 
 " Ah, well ; but wait a bit and take a bit, first, as we say 
 in Massissippi. We ll have it over after supper, when you 
 may try your skill upon me, for a first witness, and see what 
 you will get for going. I m a tough colt to ride, when the bit 
 
24 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 hurts mo; and he must be a skilful rider, indeed, if he saves 
 himself a throw." 
 
 " We shall see, we shall see," said Vernon, confidently, aid 
 with a smile of good nature; while the old man, with whosi 
 humor the course which the youth had taken seemed admirably 
 to tally, told him a dozen anecdotes of the young lawyers round 
 about the country, with most of whom he had had sharp passes 
 of wit, and in all cases, according to his own phrase and show 
 ing, had " come down uppermost." 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 
 
 " If you look in the maps of the orld, I warrant you shall find, in the 
 comparisons between Macedon and Monmouth, that the situations, look 
 you, is both alike. There is a river in Macedon, and there is also, more 
 over, a river at Monmouth; it is called Wye at Monmouth, but it is out of 
 my ,prains what is the name of the other river; but tis all one, tis so like 
 as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both." 
 
 SHAKSPERE Fluellen. 
 
 THE landlady spread her little board, on which a broiled 
 chicken and sundry smoking slices of ham soon made their ap 
 pearance. Chubby biscuits of fresh Pittsburgh flour, formed 
 a pyramidal centre in the table arrangements, and a capacious 
 bowl of milk stood beside them. Coffee, which is the sine qua 
 non in a western supper, was of course not lacking ; and appe 
 tite, that commends even the unflavored pulse and the dry roots, 
 rendered necessary no idle solicitings to persuade our young 
 traveller to do justice to a meal, in preparing which, the good 
 hostess had spared nothing of her store. 
 
 " Fall to, Harry Vernon, and don t wait on me," was the 
 frank command of Horsey, as, grunting and growling the while 
 he worked his rocking chair, foot by foot, up to the side of the 
 table, and drew from it one of the plates into his lap. Vernon 
 r had his good word for the hostess, and in a little time proved 
 himself to be in possession of the best wisdom of the traveller 
 
RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 26 
 
 whom experience teaches, that good humor arfd a cheerful spirit j 
 are the most valuable companions which he can take with him V 
 in a course of western travel. We recommend them to all your 
 ill-favored bookworms who carry their stilts with them into our 
 swamps and forests, and fancy all the while that they can see 
 anything, who never cease looking on their own pedestals. 
 
 Vernon had been already something of a wayfarer. Necessi 
 ties of one sort or another, had schooled him into a knowledge 
 of men of every sort, and it was a rational boast which he was 
 sometimes wont to make, in the glow of a youthful and paidon- 
 able vanity, that he could go from Tampa bay to the Rocky 
 mountains, and win good usage and a smile with his supper 
 every night. Such a brag may be made by few with safety. 
 Invidious comparisons constantly rise to our minds as we think 
 of the little and peculiar luxuries of our homes, and we lose 
 our appetite for that which is before us, by suffering our feeble 
 fancies to trouble us with the memories of what we can not 
 have. Your Englishman is a traveller of this sort. From the 
 first jump which he makes from Dover, or Liverpool, he begins 
 to smell out novelties which are always offensive to self-conceit, 
 simply because they are novelties. His sole business from that 
 moment, seems to be to discover in what things his present dif 
 fers from his past, and to find fault and grumble accordingly. 
 He turns up his nose with such an inveterate effort from the 
 beginning, that it remains in that inodorous position for ever 
 after. 
 
 But we have nothing now to do with him. Vernon, as we 
 have said, was of very different temper ; lively, bold, frank, 
 generous, he was just the sort of person to commend himself to 
 the southern and western people. His dignity, never apprehen 
 sive of doubt and denial, was never on the watch to take offence 
 at everything in the least degree equivocal. To avoid contro 
 versy, to avoid the crowd, to yield gracefully in argument, and 
 to forbear pressing his advantage at the proper moment were 
 some few of the maxims by which, avoiding every prospect of 
 offence, he gained the most substantial victories, as well over 
 the hearts as the understandings of those with whom he con 
 tended. Fluent in speech, with a memory abounding in illus 
 tration and anecdote, a fancy, lively and playful, an imagine 
 
 II 
 
26 BORDER BEAGLEH. 
 
 tion vigorous and bold, the profession which it seems he had 
 chosen, appeared to be that in which, above all others, he prom 
 ised most to excel. Such, we may add, was the opinion of his 
 friends, and such, were it proper for the narrator to predict, was 
 the appropriate event after the lapse of that usual period of 
 probation, to which it is natural and well that all ambitious 
 minds should be subjected. Precocious greatness is generally 
 very short-lived. 
 
 There was that superiority in the mind of Harry Vernon, 
 which never suffered him to think himself above the occasion. 
 He could descend from the abstract to the practical with an 
 ease and rapidity at once singular and successful. To rise 
 from the actual to the abstract is a far easier matter, and hence 
 it is that we have so many theoretical men, who always fail in 
 the attempt to carry out their own principles. To accommo 
 date himself to the understandings of those he addressed, with 
 out degrading his own, was another of those advantages the 
 result of actual experience in the busy world, which, added to 
 the store of our young traveller, and supplied to him as it has 
 supplied to others, in many instances, the lack of money and 
 the aid of powerful friends. Before supper was fairly ended 
 he had shown some of these possessions ; and Horsey, the rough, 
 garrulous, grumbling invalid, was not unwilling to hear another 
 voice than his own occupy those intervals in the progress of 
 the meal, which he had seldom failed to fill up hitherto from 
 bis own resources, and to his own perfect satisfaction. The 
 youth requited him with story for story, joke for joke, and 
 when, at the usual hour for retiring in the country, where folks 
 are very apt to go to bed with the fowls, the worthy dame in 
 timated to Vernon that his bed was ready whenever he wished 
 " to lie down ;" her spouse blazed out like a splinter of fat light- 
 wood bade her begone and not send the young man to bed 
 at dark, to tumble about half the night in sleeplessness and 
 st apor. 
 
 " That s the way, Harry ; and by the Lord Harry, it s a 
 ironstrous vexing way my wife has got. She goes to bed at 
 dxrk, you see ; she s kept up a little longer to-night than s cus- 
 t* mary with her ; and before day-peep she s a-stirring, and 
 Bossing, and a-calling up the niggers. Now, you see, I jan l 
 
RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 27 
 
 sleep soon o* nights for the life of me. I never could ever since 
 I was a lad driving my pack-horses over the mountains. Twas 
 then I got a sort o* habit of sitting up late. When we d come 
 to a running water, or a spring, or some such fine place for a 
 camp, why we d drive stakes, cut bushes, make tents, and fasten 
 our horses. Then we d feed em, git up a fire, and set to pre 
 paring our own feed. Well, we d have to do all this mighty 
 slyly, I tell you, for fear of the Indians. We d gti, away from 
 the main track, hide our horses pretty deep in the small woods, 
 and put our fire in a sort of hollow, so that nobody could see 
 the blaze. Then we d git round it, put down a hoe and a grid 
 dle, bake the biscuit and broil the venison. Ah ! Vcrnon, it 
 was mighty sweet eating in that fashion. There s no moal I 
 ever ate that come up to them. And as we d eat, we d talk 
 about what happened to this one, and what happened to that ; 
 and how many scares and dangers we d had ; and then we d 
 steal off, taking turns at that business, to look after the horses, 
 and up and down the road, to see if all was right. And so we d 
 pass the night, Mr. Vernon ; and in the morning, betimes, we d 
 brush up and gear the animals, and put on our packs, and be 
 ready for a start by dawn ; and many s the time, Vernon, my 
 boy, in them days, that I ve taken Sweetlips, that ugly long- 
 shanked rifle you see there in the corner, and dropped a turkey 
 from his roost in the tree jist over the horses, so fat that his 
 breast-bone split open by the time he thumped the ground. 
 Ah ! them days, Mr. Vernon, them blessed days, with all their 
 troubles, and all their dangers, I d give all I m worth, or ever 
 hope to be worth, if they only were to go over again. But it s 
 no use pining for what can t be got. We can t always be 
 young, Mr. Vernon, and if we could, pack-horses are gone out 
 of use, and there s no Indians to make us lie snug and sus 
 picious, telling stories that helped to frighten us the more. 
 The Ohoctaws will soon be gone, and the Cherokees and Creeks, 
 I s pose, though they re something farther off, and I don t know 
 so much about them. You can tell though, Mr. Vernou, seeing 
 you re jist from Mobile." 
 
 Horsey, with an inevitable tendency, had recurred to his old 
 practice. The youth replied good-humoredly : 
 
 "I haven t seen Mobile for months. Mr. Horsey; but yotr 
 
28 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 forget, it is my turn to question now, and lest you should start 
 off, and throw me out again, I will begin at once. Have you 
 had many visitors in Raymond many strangers, I mean, until 
 ihis time, within the last two weeks?" 
 
 " Psha, Harry Vernon, say what yon want in plain terms. 
 Is it a man, or a woman, you re in chase of? It s a man, I 
 reckon ; for Ben Carter an t the chap to encourage young law 
 yers to be running about the country after women. Am I right 
 iii my guess, Vernon ?" 
 
 " Suppose I tell you, then, a woman?" 
 
 " Well, I ve nothing to say ; but I hardly think it. Are you 
 !Ure it s a woman, now 1" 
 
 " Nay, there s no certainty about it. A small man in woman s 
 clothes, might very easily pass himself off for one," said Vernon, 
 with an air of musing. 
 
 " Yes, nothing very strange in that, if he had to make a run 
 for it, and had hope of outdoing his enemy s head sooner than 
 his heels. Your chap has no such hope, I reckon, Mr. Vernon." 
 
 " It may be not ; but man or woman, Mr. Horsey, have you 
 had any strangers in the village lately ?" 
 
 " Well, I m the very last person in Raymond to see stran 
 gers, unless they come to me. I ha n t walked out of the house 
 for the last five weeks, and jist make out to hobble up to bed, 
 when it s time to lie down. There s my wife, now she can 
 tell you more than I. She sees everything and everybody, I 
 think, that comes into the village ; I don t know but she sees 
 whoever goes out of it. She s a most curious woman my 
 w if e likes to pry into everybody s business, and know all 
 about them, but she means no harm; good woman she s fast 
 asleep now." 
 
 A hearty laugh of Vernon followed these praises of the wife, 
 which she was no longer in a condition to hear ; and drawing 
 Higher to his companion, he renewed his inquiries, though with 
 a slight change of topic. 
 
 " Your wounded limb disables you from seeing much of the 
 world at present, Mr. Horsey, but it has not always disabled 
 you, and there are some parts of it which I know you have 
 Been, about which I would like to obtain some information 
 the Choctaw purchase for example." 
 
BETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 29 
 
 "How do you know I ve been in the nation t" demanded 
 Horsey with some gravity. 
 
 " You told me so yourself." 
 
 " The d 1 I did ! Can it be possible ! Well, it is strange 
 how difficult it is, when a man s growing old, for him to keep 
 his own secrets. Out he pops with everything he knows, and 
 with the help of a long tongue, he will empty the longest head. 
 Are you sure I told you I had been in the nation Mr. Vernon ?" 
 
 " I think so, sir." 
 
 " You are not certain, then. It is very probable you are 
 mistaken, sir. I should wish to think so, for I look upon it as 
 one of the last signs of dotage when a man can t keep hie 
 secrets." 
 
 " But this is no secret, surely. Can there be any harm in 
 stating so simple a fact," demanded the youth, with curiosity 
 mingled with amusement to discover in a man of so much good 
 practical sense, an apprehension so ridiculous. 
 
 " So simple a fact has hung a man before to-day, as your law 
 books should have told you. Not that I fear to be hung for 
 anything I ve done, whether among Creeks, Cherokees, or 
 Choctaws. I ve had something to do with all of them in my 
 time, and can show some marks of my acquaintance with the 
 red rascals; but then there s no sort of need to tell everything 
 a man knows, even when it does him no harm to tell it ; and 
 when a man s brains become like a bottle of sassafras beer, 
 ready to boil over when a little warm, I think he may as well 
 cast up his accounts, and get his coffin made. But, sir, I have 
 been in the purchase and maybe can tell you what you want 
 to know." 
 
 " To what portions do the people go who settle there now ? 
 Which are the portions most in demand ?" 
 
 " Oh, there s a sprinkling of our people everywhere, there s 
 no stopping them when they begin. When you think you ve 
 got to the eend of the settlements, there s still some farther on ; 
 and the business of the squatter always carries him over the 
 line of the old settlements. But the quiet folks that have got 
 something to go upon and something to lose, they stick a little 
 behind. It does seem to me, that, if it s them you re asking 
 for, you ll find a smart chance of them between the Yazoo and 
 
30 BORDER BEAGLE8. 
 
 the Big Black, mostly along the edges of the Big Black, and 
 not often west of the Yazoo. A heap of little towns are grow 
 ing up along the Black. I could name to you a dozen, but it i 
 no more use naming little towns than little chickens, there s so 
 many of them, and they all look so much alike." 
 
 " And the gamblers, Mr. Horsey, where do they keep 1" 
 
 " Nowhere in particular, and that s the same as saying every 
 where. But I needn t ask you, seeing you re Ben Carter s 
 friend I was going to say I hope you wasn t looking after 
 company among them." 
 
 " No, no but they are numerous?" demanded the youth with 
 interest. 
 
 * As peas in a fair season." 
 
 They are audacious, too ?" 
 
 " D d infernal impudent, if you let them. If you go up 
 in those parts it s my advice to you to keep finger on trigger 
 and use your pistol at a word. It s a most always the quickest 
 hand that gets off with fewest scratches, and to stand palaver 
 ing with a scoundrel, that you know to be a scoundrel, about 
 what s right, and what s not right, is, to my way of thinking, 
 little better than begging an ass not to kick you, while you 
 make a slow journey under his heels." 
 
 " But you re not always sure that it is a scoundrel " 
 
 " Sure as a gun ; there s no chance of a mistake if you keep 
 your senses about you. But that s the trouble. It s how to 
 keep your senses about you, Harry Vernon, that s the great 
 est question. Now, I m clear to say, that it s only by getting 
 drunk, being put in a passion, or having soft soap poured down 
 their backs, that men lose their senses, and afterward lose every 
 thing beside. If they wouldn t listen to smooth words from 
 every stranger they meet ; if they wouldn t stop to hug the 
 whiskey bottle, instead of taking a quiet kiss and walking on ; 
 if they wouldn t get into a passion about every fool speech 
 they hear, then I m clear, they d never get cheated out of their 
 money, and knocked on the head, like a blind puppy in a dark 
 night. Now, Harry, you see the danger before you. So long 
 as a man keeps his senses, there s not so many dangers in life, 
 and they may be all got over by a quick head and bold heart 
 But it won t do to beliove in sweet-spoken strangers, and it 
 
RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 31 
 
 won t do to quarrel about a fool jest, and it won t do to get 
 drunk. I wouldn t advise a lad to go up into the Yazoo, now, 
 while it s unsettled, as I may say, and none but scatterers about : 
 but if you must go, mind your own business, make no more 
 friends than you can help, and keep sober as a judge. Come, 
 sir, you ve been talking long enough, let s have a toddy." 
 
 "Thank you no more, Mr. Horsey; and let me correct 
 your errors as we proceed. It is you and not I who have been 
 doing the talking for the last half hour ; and to say truth, I am 
 so well pleased with your eloquence, that I m for having more 
 of it." 
 
 " No gammon, my lad, none of that. But I m willing to tell 
 you all I know, so long as you don t ask for it all. What s 
 next?" 
 
 " What officers of the law may be found in those parts, in the 
 event of my being in want of them ?" 
 
 " Lord keep you from law officers in your own case, my lad, 
 though as a lawyer, it s like enough, you ll be making them 
 toil hard enough in the business of other people. But what 
 makes you think of them do you calculate on any trouble?" 
 
 " Nay, that matters not, my friend. Should I have any 
 trouble, which a man of the world, who lives in the world, must 
 always look for, I should like to know in how much I may de 
 pend upon the countenance and protection of the law in the 
 places to which I m going." 
 
 f> " Depend upon a hickory sapling and your own teeth rather 
 Depend upon steel and bullet, Harry Vernon, when you re on 
 the Yazoo. What the d 1 would a man expect to find out, 
 away on the very outskairts, as I may call it, of civilization I 
 Would you have gentlemen and Christians in a part of the world 
 where there s no timber cut, no lands cleared, no houses built, 
 nothing done, but what s done by the squatters and that sort 
 of people ? No, no ; your only chance is a keen eye, a quick 
 hand, and a steady head. Trust to these in the Yazoo ; there 
 are few better friendp anywhere." 
 
 " The counsel of one who has certainly done more by their 
 help than most men," responded Vernon, with a compliment 
 that was not displeasing to the veteran, ana sbow e d a degree 
 of intimacy with his history on tne part oi his guest) which 
 
32 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 proved him to have been no inattentive auditor of himself and 
 of his friend Carter ; " but," continued the youth, " what can 
 you tell me of the Braxley settlement ?" 
 
 "Not a syllable I know nothing good of it, however; 
 though I couldn t say, more than from general report, anything 
 bad agin it." 
 
 "What of Ford s camp 1" 
 
 " Nothing." 
 
 " Georgeville ?" 
 
 " That s sprung up into a village since my day. I believe 
 it s a poor affair : but two or three stores or thereabouts. 1 
 never saw the place but once, and then there was but one ; I 
 didn t stay in that longer than to take a sup of whiskey. If 
 there s nothing better in it than the whiskey, don t go there. 
 It s a place to shun, Mr. Vernon." 
 
 " What of Lexington ?" 
 
 " Don t know the place." 
 
 " Squab Meadow ?" 
 
 " Never heard of it." 
 
 " There s a little village called Lucchesa, that lies somewhere 
 upon Green Briar Creek in Carroll county. Do you know 
 anything about that ? it s a new village." 
 
 " New to me, yet 1 think I have heard the name ; there are 
 several little villages grown up since I ve been in those parts, 
 and, for that matter, they grow up every day. I know the 
 country well enough, but, bless your soul, Mr. Harry Vernon, 
 it s no sign of ignorance in Massissippi, not to know the towns 
 by their names. We can t find names for half of em." 
 
 This was said with some signs of impatience, and the youth, 
 though still seemingly desirous of pressing for information which 
 was yet desirable to obtain, was compelled to rest contented 
 with the imperfect statistics already gleaned, which, perhaps, 
 no continued examination of the old man would have rendered 
 more complete. 
 
 " I am afraid I have wearied and worried you, Mr. Horsey, 
 without much help to myself. What I get from you is to the 
 *iil as satisfactory as the comparisons of that categorical per- 
 eoiiage, Captain Fluellen; There is, says he, a river in 
 Macedon, and there is also, moreover, a river at Monmouth, &c. 
 
RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 8 
 
 The youth gave in full the passage which has been prefij-ed 
 as an epigraph to this idle chapter, and which we care not to 
 repeat again. Portions of the quotation, however; and the ui- 
 thority referred to, seemed to disquiet our landlord. 
 
 " Fluellen," said he ; " where was he captain ? There s Cap 
 tain Feuelon, I know, that heads the Buck Swamp Rangers, 
 and that s the nearest name to it, I can think of. I know Fen- 
 elon, and a mighty clever fellow he is ; a little too fond of ilie 
 girls perhaps ; but that only hurts himself. It isn t him, you 
 mean." 
 
 " No, no Fluellen is a captain far more famous, I thfnk, 
 than Fenelon will ever become. He is one of the honored 
 names of Shakspere the world renowned " 
 
 "That d d player-man!" cried the impatient landlord, in 
 terrupting the eulogy which our hero had begun, of the merits 
 of the divine bard. " Look you, Mr. Vernon, if you want *.hal 
 we should keep friends, and part friends, say no more of rtiat 
 player-fellow and his cursed books ; don t I beg you." 
 
 The youth was silent from wonder for a few moments, tc be 
 hold such an earnest countenance as the speaker wore whih he 
 uttered this serious remonstrance. When he recovered breath 
 it was to expostulate. 
 
 " In the name of wonder, and all the wonders, Mr. Honey, 
 but how is this ? How is it that you are so hostile to a writer 
 whom all the world joins to honor and applaud?" 
 
 "The world, Mr. Vernon, may honor as it pleases, an I it 
 frequently gives honor where very little is due. But it s the 
 honor which the world gives to this same player-fellow, wHch 
 has done more to make me an unhappy man, than anything in 
 the world beside." 
 
 The wonder of the youth increased, and a single word < -m 
 veyed his farther interrogation : 
 
 " How t" 
 
 " I have a son, Mr. Vernon ; you haven t seen him in wy 
 house ; nor, till this minute, have you heard his name from ray 
 lips ; nor, perhaps, from the lips of Ben Carter, though rou 
 may have got a good deal out of him. Well, sir, this son > 
 mine, got in with some of these player fellows at Mobile or ( T t- 
 leans, and they carried him to their blasted stage-houses, whf ? 
 
 I* 
 
84 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 he got possession of these Shakspere books, and he s nevei 
 been worth a picayune since that day. He took up with the 
 stage-fellows, got to making a d d fool of himself before the 
 Mobile people, and had the impudence to send me a paper, a 
 printed paper, with a great heading, and his name among the 
 rest to play some pieces out of Shakspere. Sure enough, that 
 very time my neighbor here, Major Mandrake, that keeps one 
 of the taverns, being down on a visit to Mobile, saw Tom Hor 
 sey, with his own eyes, come out in front of the whole people, 
 with a gold crown upon his head, and covered with spangles, 
 and dressed up, in a most ridiculous way beside, jist for another 
 chap, who come out afterward, to stick him with a sword. And 
 there he rolled about over the floor, until he died, and the peo 
 ple shouted and clapped their hands, as if he had done some 
 great thing, and it was jist that d d stupid shouting and clap 
 ping, that led the fellow to make such a bloody fool of himself. 
 But mind you, I don t mean to say that he died in airnest it 
 was all pretence all make b lieve ; but, by the Eternal, Mr 
 Vernon, I d rather a thousand times he had died in raal airnest, 
 in a fair fight, than to have fallen into such a folly, and brought 
 disgrace upon his family." 
 
 A playful commentary upon this speech rose to the lips of 
 Vernon, as the old man concluded ; but the youth saw that the 
 grief was too serious and sacred, to suffer any light or irrever 
 ential remark. He contented himself with inquiring into the 
 fate of a lad in whom he begun to take some interest, the ra 
 ther, perhaps, because he saw the matter in a less severe light 
 than the father, and possibly because he thought that the back 
 woods boy, wanting in all the advantages of education and city 
 life, who could relish Shakspere to so great a degree, must be 
 of something more than ordinary metal. 
 
 " And where is your son now, Mr. Horsey ?" 
 " The saints know best, Mr. Vernon. Tom Horsey has not 
 darkened these doors since March gone was a year." * 
 " But you hear from him ?" 
 
 "Ay, sir, and of him. I hear from him when he wants 
 money, and of him when he has it.- He makes me hear when 
 he s out, and makes everybody else hear when his pockets are 
 full. The misfortune is, that this Shakspere fellow never comes 
 
RETUiitt OF THE PRODIGAL. 36 
 
 alone. He brings with him late hours and strong drink, and 
 damned bad company, Mr. Vernon; and what with him and 
 them, Tom Horsey is in the broad road to destruction." 
 
 " But do you provide him with money when he demands it 
 for such indulgences." 
 
 " Fill your glass, Vernon ; let us drink, and say no more. 
 I m a surly, crabbed sort of creature ; they will all tell you so ; 
 and yet, they all wonder, and I wonder at it myself, that I have 
 so little strength to do the things that I resolve upon. The 
 boy s my only boy, bad as he is, Harry Vernon ; and he gets 
 more money from me than I ought to give him. But, what s 
 that ? Did you hear nothing, Mr. Vernon ? no voices none 
 just below the window 1" 
 
 The old man trembled with sudden agitation, while bending 
 forward to listen, as indistinct accents fell upon his own and 
 the ears of his guest. 
 
 In another instant, the room *ang with a loud burst of de 
 clamation from without, in which Vernon detected some lines 
 from the bard whom the old man had so terribly denounced, 
 but which now seemed to awaken in his mind any other than 
 hostile feelings. Meanwhile the voice proceeded, and the pas 
 sages spoken seemed not inappropriate; and, perhaps, were 
 chosen from their partial fitness, to those relations between 
 father and son, which had formed the subject of the previous con 
 versation. The passage was from the speech of Bolingbroke, 
 third scene, fifth act, of Richard the Second : 
 
 "Can no man tell of my unthrifty eont 
 Tis full three months since I did see him last: 
 If any plague hang over us, tis he. 
 I would to heaven, my lords, he might be found 
 Inquire at London, mongst the taverns there, 
 For there, they say, he daily doth frequent, 
 With unrestrained, loose companions," <fec. 
 
 The eye of the father caught the glance of his guest earnestly 
 fixed upon him, and in that instant he recovered his composure. 
 
 " Now, out upon the scrub ! he comes at last, with his player- 
 verses in his mouth " 
 
 "Ay; but how truly do they suit, Mr Horsey!" was tb 
 repl} of Vernon. 
 
86 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 " Yes, indeed, well enough ; but will they cure the mischief 
 that they tell of? No, sir ; this graceless rascal thinks it hand 
 some to swagger with a belly full of whiskey, and a brain full 
 of Shakspere, at the lowest tavern in the city of New Orleans. 
 By the Lord Harry, but he comes not in my door!" 
 
 A loud knocking from without answered this resolve; and, 
 following the glance of the father s eye, Vernon rose quietly 
 and opened the door to the son. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FATHER AND SON. 
 
 "This fellow I remember 
 
 Since once he play d a farmer s eldest son ; 
 
 Twas where you woo^u the gentlewoman so well; 
 
 I have forgot your nnme ; but sure that part 
 
 Was aptly fitted, and naturally performed." SHAKSFESK. 
 
 THE prodigal waited for no invitation to enter, but bounced 
 \n, the moment the door was opened. Seeing the stranger, he 
 stopped short for an instant, his deportment bearing equal marks 
 of confident assurance, and a reasonable consciousness of his 
 own demerits. The habits of the player-men, however, got the 
 better of his misgivings, and, without yielding any farther no 
 tice to Vernon, after the first glance, he advanced towaii the 
 father, prefacing his movement with a hearty salutation, 
 of somewhat rowdy fashion, which made the old man wince 
 in his seat, at the gross disregard of his dignity which it be 
 trayed. 
 
 " Ha, dad ! there you are, prime and hearty, as though yon 
 never had a son, to bring you cares for inconsiderate youth, 
 and how s the old lady, our venerable mother, keeps she well V 
 gone to bed, I reckon, and fast; so I take it for granted she s 
 as she should be, and you, sir, you and " 
 
 Here his eyes wandered to the seat which Vernon had re- 
 occupied. 
 
 Puppy!" exclaimed the father, "can t you leave off youi 
 
PATH Kit AND SON. 37 
 
 cursed player nonsense, Tom Horsey, when you re in a gentle 
 man s presence. That, sir, is my friend, Mr. Vernon, Mr. Harry 
 Vernon, of Natchez, or New Orleans, or elsewhere." 
 
 " Sir, Mr. Vernon. of elsewhere. I am glad to know you. 
 If I mistake not, tliou art Harry Monmouth, " was the prompt 
 address of the actor, extending his right hand, with an air of 
 princely condescension. 
 
 "Moninouth, no !" cried the more literal father; "Vernon, ] 
 said, Tom Horsey Mr. Harry Vernon." 
 
 "The same a good name, I think, sir, a very good name, 
 and I m glad to know you. Mr. Vernon, as I said before, 
 there s matter in this ; and, some allowances must be made 
 for the prejudices of age, and a hard school, sir, against the 
 drama. It is only in the presence of gentlemen, sir," to his 
 father " let me tell you, that players should speak. The very 
 element they live in, sir, is the applause of the gentle and 
 the wise their pursuits are caviare to the general; and let 
 me tell you, sir, that you risk not a little when you give way 
 to this harsh and most unjust manner of speech, in respect to a 
 profession, whose ill report while you live, it is said, will do 
 you more harm than a bad epitaph when you die. You will 
 find the passage in Hamlet for the rest, sir have you any 
 thing to drink ?" 
 
 This speech was pretty evenly divided between the father 
 and his guest. When it was concluded, he turned to the little 
 table that stood between the elder Horsey and Vernon, filled a 
 glass for himself, and drawing a chair from the corner of the 
 apartment, placed himself, with a show of sang froid, which 
 was not altogether felt, directly beside the father. The old 
 man could no longer restrain his indignation. 
 
 "You d d conceited squab, where have you been these 
 sight months ? Put down your glass, sir, until you answer me." 
 
 Diy throats must needs make short speeches, sir I have 
 been at school." 
 
 "Do not mock me, Tom Horsey ! don t go too far, boy, in 
 playing your d d theatre stuff on me. 1 can t bear it much 
 longer you ll put me in a rousing passion." 
 
 "We ll have a rouse to-night, sir Mr. Vernon, the king 
 drinks to Hamlet. Don t think, sir," addressing his father. 
 
88 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 " don t think, I shall forget you, dad, but your glass remains 
 unfilled. Shall I help you ?" 
 
 " Help yourself and be d d. Answer my question. Where 
 have you been these eight months ?" 
 
 " Egad, sir, that s the most puzzling of all questions, and the 
 most correct answer that I can make you is that which 1 have 
 made already. At school, sir! In the great school of the 
 world, sir, I have been acquiring my humanities or getting rid 
 of them. Don t you think me reasonably improved ?" 
 
 " What have you done with the money I sent you ?" 
 
 " Paid my schooling with it, sir." 
 
 " That is to say, you drank it out at taverns upon your roar 
 ing companions, your drunken actors, your bully gamblers, and 
 all that strange sort of cattle that you herd with in Orleans." 
 
 " Alas ! my father, revile not thus. Wherefore will you 
 speak of things which you know not. Have more charity, I 
 pray you. As for the poor sums of money which you sent me, 
 they were as nothing to the good which they procured me. 
 They brought me to a knowledge of the fine generous spirits, 
 who are as much above the dirty wants and slavish necessities 
 of common clay, as the divine Shakspere is beyond all the thou 
 sand priests and pretenders that officiate at the altar of the 
 muse. Had you sent me ten times the sums you speak of, I 
 had freely shared them all with the noble fellows whom your 
 parsimony has chiefly compelled me to leave." 
 
 " Ay, and where would their generosity have carried you, 
 you ridiculous spendthrift. To the calaboose, to the calaboose, 
 you rascal. If it has not already carried you there. Pitiful 
 sums indeed! but you sha n t impose on Mr. Vernon. You 
 shall bay what these pitiful sums are ; you shall tell him what 
 money I sent you, and let him say whether I have not been 
 almost as great a spendthrift as yoursblf." 
 
 "No doubt, no doubt I make no question, dad, but that 
 your extravagance has always exceeded mine. I am but a chip 
 a small chip of the old block; and " 
 
 " Why, you impudent rascal, my spendings have been alto 
 gether on you. If I have to reproach myself with any extrav 
 agance at all, it is only in having given you the means to make 
 a fool of yourself." 
 
FATHER AND SON. 3P 
 
 " Wisely, indeed, and worthily bestowed* you do not re 
 pent, sir, of having provided for my subsistence ?" 
 
 " I have done more, sir. What amount did I send you by 
 Bill Perkins 1" 
 
 " Some fifty or a hundred dollars, as I think." 
 
 "As you think! as you think! Tom Horsey, will you lie 
 too ? Have your player-fellows taught you this among theii 
 other accursed lessons. Speak, are you in earnest ?" 
 
 The old man s voice trembled, and passion seemed to be suc 
 ceeded in his choking utterance by a fear that falsehood was to 
 be included among the other profligacies of one whom his own 
 tenderness had rendered somewhat incorrigible. Vernon 
 watched the scene with curious interest, and he remarked the 
 sudden flush which mounted up into the son s cheeks at the ac 
 cusation, as if conscious innocence revolted within him at the 
 injustice. Such was the impression of the spectator, and it was 
 confirmed by the effect which it seemed to produce in the youth s 
 tone and general manner. 
 
 " You are a little too hard with me, sir," was his reply. " 1 
 admit that you sent me some money by Perkins." 
 
 "Three hundred, not fifty, sir not fifty or a hundred, but 
 three hundred dollars, Tom Horsey." 
 
 " Right, sir ; Perkins brought me that sum, which I trust 
 you did not really think me base enough to deny. When I 
 said less I simply meant to compute it by the time it lasted. 
 It was the very sum you name, sir, but it might just as well 
 have been the fifty it was very short-lived." 
 
 " Very well, sir," said the father, glad to have an excuse to 
 forbear reproach and harsh language. " And had it been fifty 
 times as much, do you think it would have lasted much longer 
 with such company as you keep ? No, sir, they would have 
 spent my gains and your gettings, and counted my thousands 
 as you have learned to do by fifties and hundreds. But that s 
 not all. You got money from my factor in Orleans. What 
 sum got you ? for to this day I have never learned." 
 
 " I sent you two thousand dollars by Major Mandrake." 
 
 "I got it, but the crop sold for more, sir cotton was 
 selling at sixteen; I had the price current cf the week, 
 and have it now. What did my cotton bring? You sent 
 
BORDER BEAGLES, 
 money but no account of sales; what was done with 
 
 r 
 
 11 Gad, sir, I know not, unless we used it to raase snow one 
 night at Caldwell s when the storm gave out. I remember, we 
 were rather short of snow." 
 
 "Tom, Tom, don t rouse me don t put me in a passion. 
 I m sick I can t beat it easily; and besides, I don t want Mr. 
 Harry Vernon to see what a d d fool I am to let you treat me 
 as you do. What did you get from my factor in all ? let me 
 know that. You sent me two thousand what did you keep ?" 
 
 " Well, sir, as nearly as I can remember, about seven hun 
 dred" 
 
 " Seven hundred !" 
 
 " There may have been a forty or fifty tacked on to it ; but 
 it certainly was not more than that. Suppose we call it sever, 
 hundred and fifty dollars the very head and front of my of 
 fending, hath this extent, no more. " 
 
 " And enough too, in God s name, to ruin any man that s got 
 so little to go upon as I," responded the father ; " but there is 
 more, Tom Horsey you took a hundred and seventy dollars 
 with you when you went ; } T OU collected ninety dollars from 
 Michael Hopper for so many bushels of corn ; and what have 
 you done with Martin Groning s note for sixty-seven dollars? 
 If you got that, it makes " 
 
 " But I Haven t got that, dad. Groning s a great rascal ; 
 there must be lawings ere you get that gold we shall have 
 to set Master Phang upon him, dad, before he settles." 
 
 " No, let him go. It s but a poor sixty-seven dollars, and I 
 shouldn t miss so small a matter, if my own son didn t help me 
 to the loss of a great deal more. But now count up, count up, 
 Mr. Vernon, these moneys, as I call them out to you, and then 
 say whether I m parsimonious, or whether there s a spendthrift 
 in my family, that ll let out at a thousand mouths what his fa 
 ther was compelled to take in at one." 
 
 " Nay, don t count up, I beg you, dad," cried the profligate ; 
 "why will you bother Harry Monmouth with these small 
 chores. To count up money that you have not, is to impov 
 erish memory most cursedly. The very thought of my spend- 
 ings is a misery, since it onlv the more forcibly reminds me of 
 
FATHER AND SON. 
 
 the little that is left to spend. Wherefore have I left my com 
 pany, my comates in exile, 1 but that the candle was at the last 
 snuff wherefore have I trudged homeward on weary legs " 
 
 " Yen don t mean to say that you walked from Orleans here, 
 Tom Horsey ?" cried the father, to whom the last fragment of 
 a quotation uttered by his son suggested a new cause of appre 
 hension. 
 
 " Not all the way. I had a cast in a steamboat as far as 
 Monticello, and a fling in a wagon for some twelve or fourteen 
 miles above ; but, by the Lord Harry, the widow s mare did 
 the rest." 
 
 " Why, where s your horse ?" 
 
 " Gone gone the way of all flesh." 
 
 " Dead how was that the botts?" 
 
 " Ay, botts enough to take off a dozen horses. The sheriff 
 suspected I was out of money, and not able to keep him any 
 longer ; and so relieved me of the charge." 
 
 " Seized for debt !" exclaimed the father aghast ; " a colt of 
 my own raising seized for debt ! eat his head off in a livery 
 stable ! ah, Tom, Tom ! you ll kill me yet !" 
 
 " At the suit of one Stubbs, a tailor ; a fellow that helped me 
 lo fit up my wardrobe, and brought suit for all his suits. Thus 
 was I nonsuited. But I punished the scoundrel, you may be 
 sure. I basted him with his own yard-stick the night I left 
 Orleans, till there wasn t a seam in his carcass that couldn t 
 count stitches. You shall hear particulars some day, Harry 
 Monmouth ; a devilish good story but " 
 
 " Look you, Tom, this gentleman s name is Vernon, and not 
 Monmouth. None of your tricks, I tell you." 
 
 " Vernon, is it ? I ask pardon, but I thought it was Mon 
 mouth Harry Monmouth it was Harry you said I ll swear 
 to that." 
 
 "You ve a free tongue to swear, Tom Horsey; but how 
 would you like an oath of mine to cut you off with a shilling, 
 and leave you to the miserable life you have so miserably begun. 
 Answer me that, sir : what would you think of such an oath f 
 wid wouldn t it be justly deserVed, Mr. Vernon ?" 
 
 " Nay, father, do not bother Mr. Vernon any more in thii 
 aatter, and above all matters eschew the sin of swearing. 
 
42 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 Oath-taking is a bad business, and unless you take some suck 
 rash oath as that you speak of, I think I may promise you with 
 safety to do nothing again rashly as long as I live. I am come 
 home to be a sober fellow, follow the plough, drive the wagon, 
 bleed horses, and cure bacon. In short, do just whatever is 
 needful to make money, and keep it afterward." 
 
 " Can you keep to this ?" cried the delighted father, who de 
 sired nothing more than such a concession on the part of his 
 son, as should savo his dignity, and obviate the necessity of 
 more scolding. 
 
 " I think so I ll try, sir." 
 
 " Ah, Tom, for awhile only, I m afraid. You ll be reading 
 in the newspaper about some new play-house or some new 
 actor, and then, nothing will suit, but off you must go to see for 
 yourself; as if the reading of it wouldn t do as well." 
 
 "It shall it shall in future, dad. Don t be afraid of me. 
 I think I shall keep my promises this time, for, do you see, 
 whatever might be my own desires to go to Orleans, the drub 
 bing I gave the tailor, Stubbs, will stand against me in the 
 black books of the law, and I have too great a respect for that 
 stately dwelling, the calaboose, to risk the chances of admission. 
 p-As for the theatre itself, by my fears, I have just as little reason 
 to venture near it. My chance is all up with the American, 
 and my hopes with Caldwell ; but for that, dad, it might have 
 been, that you hadn t seen me home to-night." 
 
 " Well, whatever it was, I m glad it happened so ; but you 
 don t mean, Tom, that you quarrelled with the actors." 
 
 "Ay, with the very chief of them the manager." 
 
 " Well, the stars be thanked, I m a great deal gladder than be 
 fore. There s no fear of making up the matter, Tom, is there V 
 
 " But little, unless you lend your help." 
 
 "God forbid! I lend my help ! I d burn down all their 
 establishments, if I could. But how T\as it, Tom what was 
 the quarrel ? You didn t lick him, too, as well as the tailor ?" 
 
 " Egad, no ! The boot was on t other leg ! It was because 
 I didn t lick him, that we quarrelled; it was, by my soul !" 
 
 " Come, come, Tom, don t, now 3 ; none of your d d nonsense. 
 We know it s all gammon that ! No man. would quarrel with 
 another because he didn t lick hira." 
 
FATHER AND SON. 43 
 
 "True as gospel, dad. profeminiinlTy speaking. An excellrut 
 adventure, by the way, Mr. Vernon, and 1 must tell it. Dad, 
 fill your glass! an excellent joke fill, Mr. Vernon! You 
 shall hear how I can c, over the manager how I struck him, 
 even when soaring in his pride of place. " 
 
 " 1 thought you said you didn t strike him, Tom ?" demanded 
 the matter-of-fact father. 
 
 " You shall hear, sir. Understand, you are at the American 
 Theatre in New Orleans, Caldwell, manager; and your humble 
 servant doing third and fourth-rate characters at tenth-rate 
 prices. Ten dollars a week is scarcely enough for gentlemen 
 of my cloth ; and just at this time Stubbs was writing to me in 
 the very language of Master Shallow, * I beseech you, Sir John, 
 let me have five hundred of my thousand, in other words, of 
 less classical grace let me have but half of my bill. " 
 
 " Drop the theatre talk, Tom," whispered the father ; " drop 
 it, d n you, if you can." 
 
 " It was necessary to remit, to raise the wind. This was the 
 difficulty. I had got rid of. the seven hundred, and the three 
 hundred, and the other odd Itnndred ; and I had even drawn 
 the week s salary in advance. I had the horse, it is true, but 
 the colt was a favorite I had helped to raise it; and, by Ju 
 piter, I had much sooner have parted with my velvet plush 
 breeches, than with Corporal." 
 
 The old man gave an approbatory chuckle as this show of 
 proper feeling escaped his son in his narrative. 
 
 " But you should have gone to the factors, or wrote to me for 
 the money, Tom, and redeemed the nag. I d rather than twice 
 his value that you had not lost him." 
 
 The son winked to Vernon, as he replied 
 
 " Ah, dad, Stubbs is not the only tailor in Orleans ; and one 
 suit is not all that a poor devil actor has to suffer before his 
 wardrobe s eomplete. As I was saying, I knew of no present 
 mode of raising the wind, and I had but one mode left me. I 
 went to the manager, implored him for a loan, on the strength 
 of future services. He denied me ; but was I to be denied V 
 You shall hear how I fixed Ifirn. That very night I was to 
 play Richmond to his Richard. The manager had a very 
 Grange notion that he was a tragedian, and was, therefore 
 
44 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 continually going out- of his element, to try waters which were 
 quite beyond his depth. He did well enough as a genteel 
 comedian, but that did not satisfy his ambition; and among 
 those who knew nothing better, he did monstrous well. I re 
 member the first time I ever saw him was in tragedy. I went 
 to Orleans, dad, if you remember, with uncle Wat Stevens, and 
 he treated me to the show." 
 
 " Damn him for it," was the fervent ejaculation of the father 
 The son proceeded without heeding the interruption. 
 
 " Like the rest of the gaping countrymen around, and the 
 house was full of them, I thought him a wonderful man, though 
 I soon learned other things when I looked a little more into the 
 matter. But the opinion of the manager himself underwent no 
 change. He was still ripe for tragedy and nothing else, and 
 was that very night, when Stubbs sent me his impudent letter, 
 to play Richard I, Richmond. We went through the piece 
 very well, till we got to the death scene. Then Richard tried 
 his best, and I buckled to him. I had wounded him, and he 
 had fallen ; but that was nothing to a man determined to outdo 
 Kean, and make the ghost of Grffrick gape with astonishment, 
 and shiver in his shroud. He rolled and writhed about the 
 stage, keeping up the fight as he did so, and striving to show 
 his skill of fence while in the death agony. It was then that 
 the thought seized suddenly upon me to avail myself of the 
 particular predicament in which he stood lay rather to 
 bring him to an accommodation to compel him to my own terms. 
 What do you think I did, Harry Monmouth Master Vernon, 
 I mean how do you think I fixed him? A thousand to one 
 you can neither of you guess." 
 
 Vernon confessed his inability, and the father, now an atten 
 tive auditor, and a pleased one too, as he beheld the evident 
 attention of his guest, and observed the more modest demeanor 
 of his son, disclaimed with equal readiness any ability to con 
 jecture the ruse de guerre made use of by the debtor to extort 
 from the dying actor, the loan he found necessary to keep him 
 from his tailor s clutches. 
 
 "I knew it I knew it was beyond you both," was the 
 chuckling response of Richmond to these admissions. " It was 
 a thought of my own, and my own only ; and what was it, yon 
 
FATHER AND SON. 45 
 
 will ask. Hark ye then in your ears ; it was simply to forbear 
 killing him. I began to play slowly, to evade his strokes and 
 avoid pursuit of him. You may imagine the predicament of 
 Richard, half-dead, and inviting the fatal blow. He called to 
 me in a hoarse whisper, while twisting and writhing after me, 
 and sticking right and left, at moments when, in order to keep 
 up appearances with the audience, I suffered our swords to 
 mingle. Why the devil don t you play, Horsey ? " 
 
 " I answered him in a suppressed voice, speaking in the 
 gorge of my throat, so that he could distinctly hear the empha 
 sis which I employed, and supposed that it could not altogether 
 escape the hearing of the audience. Yet, such was not the case. 
 It is an art of speech which I possess, and of which, Mr. Ver- 
 non, you shall have a sample some day. 
 
 " Look you, Richard, said I, * it was only to-day I asked 
 you for a matter of seventy dollars to pay off a d d tailor that 
 was troubling me. You refused me ; was that done like Richard V 
 
 11 * Strike on, you d d fool, said he, or I ll strike you off. 
 What are you talking about? Strike! 
 
 " Never till you consent to let me have the money. You 
 sha n t die by my hands to-night, Richard. I ll leave you half- 
 dead upon the stage, and for once there shall be no catastrophe. 
 Will you let me have the money V 
 
 " Yes, yes, anything, was his answer ; but strike on, the 
 pit is getting impatient. Strike ! strike ! 
 
 " We tugged away quite heartily then for a few seconds, the 
 house roared with applause, and some of the groundlings, after 
 he had received the coup de grace, actually encored the perform 
 ance, clearly signifying a desire that he should do the death 
 over again. But, would you think it, the ungrateful tyrant re 
 fused to let me have the money the next morning, and added 
 to the enormity of his conduct by giving me my walking ticket. 
 Was it not shocking, Mr. Vernon ? Did I not merit the money 
 for the humor of the thing] But he had no soul to feel it 
 none, none !" 
 
 Before Vernon or the father could answer the question, or 
 comment upon the transaction, another person entered the 
 apartment and interrupted the dialogue. The introduction of 
 the new comer must be reserved for another chapter. 
 
4<! BORDER BEJLO 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE WHY AND THE WHEREFORB. 
 
 "It tastes 
 
 Of rank injustice, and some other end 
 Time will discover ; and yet our grace is bound 
 To hear his accusation confirmed, 
 Or hunt this spotted panther to hia ruin." SHIBLEY 
 
 THE stranger was one of whom the reader has already heard. 
 The quick eye of Vernon distinguished his friend at a glance, 
 nor was that of the other less observant. The warmth of their 
 embrace, when they met, spoke for a deep mutual regard be 
 tween the two, not only superior to that which belongs to or 
 dinary friendships, but something more than could be expected 
 to appear in the case of persons so unequal in years". Mr. Car 
 ter could not have been less than forty-five ; a tall, well-made 
 man, with a fine, full, but dark countenance ; an eye, black and 
 lively, but of benevolent expression; and a look of amenity 
 and kindness which denoted a degree of soberness and subdued 
 thought, in which the buoyant spirits of the youth of twenty- 
 five, could scarcely find much that was congenial. Vernon 
 could not have been much more than twenty-five ; his tempera 
 ment was evidently lively, if not rash ; and good humor and a 
 playful spirit, seemed to predominate in his disposition. 
 
 The gravity, the almost sadness, of Carter s countenance, was 
 unreflected in his own ; and yet, it may be added, the sympa 
 thy was quite as close between them, as could be hoped for 
 under any circumstances ; and whatever might be the difference 
 of their moods and wishes, undgr the influence of unequal ages, 
 there was none of that exacting severity, on the part of Carter 
 or of that distaste to discipline, on the side of Vernon, which 
 endanger the relation. If Carter was grave, even to mcl- 
 
THE WHY AND THE WHEREFORE. 4*J 
 
 ancholy, lie was, at the same time, benign and indulgent. He 
 could make allowance for the impatience of youth, esteeming it, 
 perhaps, a fault that was not without its virtues, in a country 
 which calls more imperatively for boldness and adventure, than 
 any other more sober qualities. If he smiled at the follies of 
 youth, it was the smile of indulgence, or, at most, of pity, and 
 not the ascetic grin of scorn and malevolence. 
 
 Vernon, on the other hand, warm, impetuous, and lively, 
 never once forgot the superior years of his patron for such 
 was Carter nor suffered his veneration to undergo diminution 
 because the latter sometimes encouraged him by the familiar 
 freedoms of the companion. The utmost confidence prevailed 
 between them, the result, possibly, of a mutual and perfect 
 knowledge of their respective claims and character. The ob 
 servation of Carter had taught him that his protege was a man 
 of the strictest honor, the nicest sensibility, the most fearless 
 courage and the finest talent. Vernon was no less assured of 
 the high virtues of one who had been to him a protecting and 
 wisely indulgent parent, in the place of all others, from his 
 very first moment of reflecting consciousness, to that in which 
 they meet the reader. 
 
 The entrance of Carter was the signal for the flight of the 
 soi-disant actor. His genius quailed before the eye of the new 
 comer, in whom he recognised a well-known monitor, who did 
 not spare his rebuke, and whose influence upon the father, had 
 tended in no small degree to restrain his eccentricities, by di 
 minishing the money, which the old man was but too ready to 
 yield to his requisitions. Still, the deportment of Carter was 
 kind and gentle to him, as to all the rest, and as it was, habit 
 ually, to everybody. His salutation differed not from his wont, 
 when he shook the hand of the young man and bade him wel 
 come home, after so long an absence. But this forbearance in 
 no wise encouraged the erring Master Tom. From a dashing, 
 nonchalant personage, he became suddenly subdued to the awk 
 ward country lout, only anxious to know how* best to effect his 
 escape without challenging attention to his movements. This 
 he was soon enabled to do, when he found the regards of Carter 
 chiefly bestowed upon the youth, and his shoulder turned upon 
 himself. He stole away, and was followed after a little while,, 
 
48 BORDEtt BEAGLES. 
 
 by old Horsey, whom a sturdy negro assisted to his chamber. 
 It was there that the father again found Young Hopeful, and 
 renewed the various dialogue, a sufficient sample of which the 
 reader has already had. We will not distress him by a repeti 
 tion of the dramatic slang, with which Tom replied to, and an 
 noyed the old man ; whose chief objections to the quotations, 
 lay, perhaps, in the difficulty which he found to comprehend 
 them 
 
 Our present purpose carries us back to the apartment which 
 we left. There, the two, apparently resuming a subject already 
 partially considered, were earnestly engaged in the adjustment 
 of topics, the business of which will form no small portion of 
 the ensuing narration. It may serve us, therefore, who design 
 to trace its progress to the end, to give some heed to a confer 
 ence which will, perhaps, the better enable us to understand 
 some of its objects, and of the histories of those who are most 
 conspicuous in its details. 
 
 " You are resolved then, my son ; you know all the adven 
 ture its troubles, its dangers and the numberless difficulfies 
 that surround it. These, you see, at least, if nothing beside ; 
 and with a perfect knowledge of these, and with the farther 
 prospect of incurring these risks and difficulties without effect 
 ing your purpose, you freely and voluntarily determine upoc 
 the journey ?" 
 
 " Freely, willingly, my dear sir, and with a satisfaction, not 
 easily expressed, that I find you willing to confide to me a 
 charge of such importance," was the unhesitating reply of the 
 youth. 
 
 The other squeezed his hand in silence for a few moments 
 ere he resumed. 
 
 Perhaps, Harry, since such is your resolution, it is due t< 
 you that I should unfold myself a little more. Your confidence 
 in me deserves it, and were it not so, the confidence which 1 
 have in you leaves me without fear that I incur a risk in giving 
 you my nearest secrets. From this I can suffer no harm, now, 
 not even in feeling, by its revelation. But a few months, nay 
 a few weeks ago, it had been otherwise. I am now free to re 
 lieve myself from the accumulating pressure of a grief a grief 
 of youth, that I have learned to silence, if not subdue Imt 
 
THE WHY AND THE WHEREFORE. 49 
 
 which at length breaks from all restraints when I am no longer 
 young 1 . You have seen this man V 
 
 " I have, sir." 
 
 " Ay, but not to know him. He is my senior by five years, 
 but he was my associate my friend when we were both 
 young. Boyish friendships are of little value at any time, and 
 in most cases they are of evil consequence. The name is per 
 verted, the tie is not an enduring one, and, even if other harm 
 does not come of it, the effect is evil in teaching us lessons of 
 distrust, when genuine worth implores our confidence, and true 
 friendship might be had by kindred worth. But I will deal in 
 facts and not in maxims. 
 
 " William Maitland was my habitual associate from boyhood. 
 Ae came to Mississippi together, and for several years I had 
 no reason to regret my confidence in him. We lived together 
 harmoniously, sought the same sports together, made the same 
 journeys in company, and took pleasure in the same society. 
 My labors grew prosperous, however, and his did not. This 
 made him discontented. He left me and went down to Orleans, 
 where he invested his capital in trade. Two years elapsed be 
 fore I again saw him. I had in the meantime become acquainted 
 with the family of Colonel Ralph Taylor, of Pearl River. He 
 was a worthy old gentleman, but the chief attraction of his 
 household in my eye, was his youngest daughter Ellen. I 
 loved her, Harry, with all the ardor of a heart as purely un 
 selfish in its pursuit as belongs to mortal ; but I told her not rny 
 love. I feared to do it, as I saw nothing in her deportment 
 which, to my watchful eyes, held forth any encouragement to 
 my hopes. Perhaps, it was, that, with all the doubts and tim 
 idity of a true affection, estimating its own claims at the hum- 
 blest rate, as sincere affection is most always apt to do, I shrunk 
 from pressing upon her those regards which I felt, and occa 
 sioned a kindred doubt in her mind of my real purposes. I had 
 reason to think afterward that I deceived myself that she 
 really loved me that but this is needless. Enough, that at 
 this moment I received a visit from Maitland. He came to 
 borrow money, and finding me not at home, and his wants be 
 ing pressing, he foliowed me to the residence of Colonel Taylor. 
 There he saw Ellen ; and, to shorten a story already quite too 
 
50 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 long, there he won her. But not at this first visit. He cam. 
 back with me to my residence, which was then at Woodville, 
 and procured the money which he required. But while with 
 me, he artfully procured from me all necessary information 
 with regard to the Taylor family its character, connections 
 and resources. I did not reveal to him my feeling for Ellen, 
 but he must have seen it. A short time after this, while on a 
 visit to Natchez, I was seized with the yellow fever, which 
 nearly brought me to the grave. For days I remained without 
 consciousness of what was going on around me ; for weeks with 
 out strength to leave my chamber. In this time Maitland pros 
 ecuted opportunities which I had seemed to neglect. He pressed 
 his pretensions upon Ellen, and in a moment of wilfulness of 
 heart, such as seizes upon the best of us at times, she accepted 
 him. I had reason to know afterward that she had not been 
 insensible to my attentions, and that she was taught to believe 
 that I had trifled with her. William Maitland knew of my ill 
 ness all the while, but studiously withheld the utterance of what 
 he kneAA r . The first knowledge I had of my loss was the notice 
 of their marriage in one of the Orleans papers, to which city 
 he removed her a short time after the event. Since then I liavs 
 but once seen her, and then " 
 
 Carter paused in his narrative as if struggling with the chma~ 
 of those emotions with which he had evidently striven earnestly 
 for some time before. He rose from his chair and paced the 
 room a while, the eyes of Vernon in the meantime being fixei 
 upon the fireplace. 
 
 " I had thought myself too old and too strong for these weak 
 nesses, Harry, but the affections which grow up in solitude sei- 
 dom become obtuse. Were I a citizen, now, I could deliver 
 you this narrative with a smile ; but, as I am, I almost regrt> 
 that I have begun it." 
 
 " Do not, then, pursue it, sir, I beg you at least not on mv 
 account," said Vernon. 
 
 " Nay, nay, Harry, it is begun, and the beginning is half tho 
 battle always. I must now finish it, or never. I trust, having 
 opened my bosom to you, to be better able to preserve silence 
 on this subject for ever after. The affair staggered me in ic 
 ?ard to Maitland s sincerity and faith. I was puzzled to deter 
 
THE WHY AND THE WHEREFORE. 51 
 
 miiie upon his conduct ; and my chief suspicions arose, not so 
 much from his having married, as from the studious secresy 
 which he had observed toward me on the subject. I got no 
 letter from him; I heard of no inquiry or invitation nothing, 
 indeed, of him or of his business, until he had removed her to 
 Orleans. He had need of me again. He became the candidate 
 for an office of great trust, and applied to me to be his surety. 
 It was then that I saw Ellen Taylor for the first, and, I may 
 almost say, the last time, as the wife of another. She is in her 
 grave now ; but it will not disparage her memory, with you, 
 my son, when I tell you, that it was from her but half-conscious 
 lips, that T was taught to believe that I might have been tls3 
 happy possessor of her hand, as, to the last, I was the real pos 
 sessor of her heart. Do not attach blame to the pure spirit of 
 her from whom this confession came. It was while her mind 
 wandered in the delirium from which she never recovered, that 
 her sweet lips told me this blessed truth. 1 kissed them, Harry, 
 in a fond requital, when the angel had left the tenement in 
 which it had been so troubled ! I kissed them, Harry, when, 
 colder than the marble which was so soon to cover her, I well 
 knew that there was no danger that his lips would remove the 
 sad and sacred seal which mine had set upon them !" 
 
 The struggling tear of Harry Vernon soon followed that of 
 his patron. His silence was the best show of sympathy that 
 his good sense suffered him to make. The other after a brief 
 pause proceeded. 
 
 " The surety which I then gave for Maitland is the cause of 
 our trouble now, as you may readily suppose. But for her, 
 Harry, I had not given him my name, for I had sufficient rea 
 son then to distrust him; and, but for her but that I still 
 loved, fondly enough for any sacrifice I had not been guilty 
 of the greater folly of persuading our friend Garbage to a simi 
 lar risk. The defalcation of Maitland will nearly ruin Gamage 
 as well as myself. But this I can not suffer. As it was be 
 cause of my entreaties that he consented to sign Maitland s 
 bond with me, I must save him harmless as far as I can. To 
 this point then, your commission extends. Let Maitland give 
 up the money which he is known to have taken from the bank, 
 and we will pledge ourselves not to prosecute, and I will secure 
 
62 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 to his children he has hut two the amount of twenty-fit j 
 thousand dollars, in any form of investment which he may pry- 
 scribe, so that it be under any disposal but his own. Nor shall 
 he be left otherwise unconsidered in the matter. I will give 
 him my bond, stipulating the annual payment while he lives of 
 three hundred and fifty dollars, being a sum quite sufficient for 
 his wants in that privacy to which he must, for his own and the 
 sake of his children, for ever after confine himself. He will 
 see from this, if he be not besotted and ripe for destruction, that 
 I have no disposition to pursue him with malice. But my for 
 bearance is no tribute to my regard for him, any more than to 
 his worth. But he is the father of her children, and I would 
 wish to save them from that shame and sorrow which justice 
 might, without compunction, freely visit upon him. You now 
 understand, precisely, the relation between us, and will thus be 
 better able to exercise that discretionary power in any arrange 
 ment you may think advisable to make, which you could not 
 so well have done without this knowledge. I am guilty of no 
 ill-advised or idle flattery, my dear Harry, when I declare my 
 perfect willingness to rely upon your judgment and to abidt 
 by any course which you may resolve upon. I have found yoi 
 always worthy ; I doubt not that your ability will keep pac< . 
 with your worth. But you have no easy task, and your hope 
 of success will depend very much upon your being unknown to 
 Maitland. 
 
 " But for the risk of spoiling all, you should not go alone 
 upon this mission, nor, perhaps, should you have gone at 
 all. My appearance would alarm his fears and prompt his 
 flight, and indeed, the appearance of any stranger will hatf e a 
 tendency to awaken his fears and compel his caution. He, no 
 doubt, wherever he may be, will have his creatures on the 
 watch, and be^ himself watchful. Your genius must contrive 
 its own modes for disarming his fears, and appearing in his 
 neighborhood as an ordinary character. I can give you but 
 little counsel that is not general. One rule is a good one al 
 ways among strangers in our country, and that is to be secret, 
 yet have no secrets. Utter yourself without reserve, yet say 
 nothing which had better be reserved. Have no mysteries to 
 your neighbor, though every thought be hidden. This it 
 
THE WHY AND THE WHEREFORE. 58 
 
 enough; your own reflection must do the rest. I have wearied 
 out your patience, Harry, but I have now finished." 
 
 " You spoke, sir, of his connection with gamblers : io this 
 certain ?" 
 
 " Yes ; he is known to have lost a part of the property which 
 came by his wife at faro in Orleans. He is also known to have 
 frequented places of habitual resort by the blacklegs of that 
 city. What connection he may have with them now, is simply 
 conjectural, but there is great reason to fear that his separation 
 from them will never be complete while he lives. He had a 
 passion for play which has probably grown upon him, and 
 which will no doubt lose him his ill-gotten spoils, unless he is 
 very closely and suddenly pressed for them." 
 
 " May he not have lost these moneys already, sir may not 
 his defalcation and flight have resulted from his losses ?" 
 
 " I hope not, and think not, for we happen to know that the 
 particular parcels of gold and paper which he took, were in tho 
 bank up to within three hours of his flight." 
 
 " That may be, sir, yet he may have appropriated the sums 
 taken to the payment of previous losses." 
 
 " This is probable in part. I make no doubt that he was 
 compelled to appropriate in this manner, but it seems scarcely 
 probable that he would have foreborne supplying himself with 
 the means of future indulgence or support. That he did not 
 appear at the tables after the robbery, we know from those 
 whom the bank set as spies upon them. Suppose, however, 
 that ten thousand dollars be already gone, which will be a lib 
 eral allowance, we can afford that we must, indeed, and some 
 thing more but let us struggle for the rest. I make no secret 
 to you, Harry, of the fact that my own responsibilities to the 
 bank, and the resolve which I have taken that Gamage shall 
 go harmless, will leave me destitute utterly destitute unless 
 we recover something of this loss. * 
 
 " My efforts shall not be wanting," was the simple assurance 
 of the youth ; " you have provided the necessary papers, sir ?" 
 
 " I will do so, and expect the other documents from Orleans, 
 by Friday next. You will be compelled to defer your departure 
 until then. Meanwhile, it may be well if you attend upon the 
 court. It will help to conceal your present object which it 
 
54 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 is important that yon should concc.il hero as elsewhere if you 
 should appear like the rest of your profession seeking its usual 
 opportunities. I doubt whether you ll get business, but that 
 lack is too general among beginners to occasion wonder ; and 
 it will be quite enough to show that you want, and would not 
 refuse it, if it were to offer. But let us take a breathing spell 
 you have ridden far to-day, and so have I. A good night s 
 sleep will freshen our minds, and probably help us to new ideas. 
 You saw the youth the son of Mr. Horsey had he been 
 long before me ?" 
 
 "An hour, perhaps not more.* 
 
 "A thoughtless, improvident lad, with some capacity but 
 little ballast. With his own turn of mind, and his father s in 
 dulgence, he will come to nothing. Caught young, and in other 
 hands, he would have done well. It is too late now. I need 
 not counsel you to say nothing that he should not hear ; but, 
 keep your papers close ; make no memorandums that he may 
 read. He is honest, I believe, but has a prying, curious dispo 
 sition, as much the result of an idle, restless mood, as of anything 
 else. Let him not feed it at our expense, when a little timely 
 prr,de T ice may save us any risk. And now to bed, Harry, as 
 Tom would phrase it, with what appetite we may." 
 
A.LL THE WORLD A STAGE. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ALL THE WORLD A STAGE VARIETY OF PLAYERS. 
 
 Clack. But are there players among the apprehended! 
 Scentviell. Yes, sir, and they were contriving to act a play among then* 
 selves just as we surprised them, and spoiled their sport 
 Clack. Players! I ll pay them above all the rest. 
 
 RICHARD BROOME, 1632. The Merry Beggar*. 
 
 WHEN Harry Vernon entered the hall the next morning, the 
 first person he met was Master Thomas Horsey, who encoun 
 tered him, scion les regies, in the most approved fashion of the 
 theatrical world, with a fitting quotation, to provide himself 
 with which, he had, no doubt, groped half the night through 
 his pocket Shakspere. 
 
 " My cousin Vernon ! welcome, by my soul ! I ve been wait 
 ing for you, sir, with the impatience of a thirsty throat, to which 
 anything like delay in the antifogmatic, is almost certain bron 
 chitis. Here, sir, is garden mint fresh, sir I pulled it my 
 self; or, if you prefer the animal julep, here is an egg I did 
 not lay it myself, but will warrant it quite as fresh as the mint. 
 The whiskey is at your elbow, the peach at mine, and the sooner 
 we fall to, the better. A good sherris sack hath a two-fold 
 operation in it. Which take you ? What! neither?" 
 
 Horsey put down his own glass in wonder. The idea of re 
 fusing a morning dram had never entered his brain. 
 
 "You are not serious, Mr. Vernon? you will surely take 
 one or t other the peach brandy?" 
 
 Neither, Mr. Horsey. You must excuse me ; it is not a 
 habit with me to drink in the morning." 
 
 "It is not, eh? Well, I m sorry sorry for your sake not 
 less than my own. The habit were not a bad one, Mr. Ver 
 non, nevertheless; and I commend you to better examples 
 
BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 hi this particular than it lias !>ecn your fortune to fall upon. 1 
 drink, sir, to our better acquaintance. I should have relished 
 much to have had some conversation with you last night, but 
 that learned Theban, Master Benjamin Carter, making his ap 
 pearance, sent me off in a jiffy, and dammed up my ideas quite 
 as effectually as if he had run the great raft of the Mississippi- 
 bend into my brain. He s a sober old boy, that, Harry Mon- 
 mouth likes not my merriment he loves no plays. and still 
 less players, and smiles in such a sort. I tell you what, Mas 
 ter Vernon, though no man can think of Ben Carter more wor 
 thily than I do, yet, .by the faith that is within me, I fear him 
 something that is I rather tell thee what is to be feared 
 than what I fear. He hath ever been a sort of curb upon me ; 
 he sees through my follies, when dad is about to reward them 
 as virtues ; and the tricks which would triumph over everybody 
 else, he seems to unravel as easily, and trace home to the true 
 author as certainly, as if he had a gift of divining. He s a re 
 lation of yours, Master Vernon ?" 
 
 "No, sir none an acquaintance of my father, and friend 
 of the family." 
 
 "You re from below? left the old people? Egad I had 
 almost asked if you had not left them with light heels and 
 lighter heart. I ve been so much used to doing that sort of 
 business myself that the suspicion was natural enough, though, 
 seeing you with Ben Carter, such a conjecture would have been 
 very foolish. You re a lawyer ? Come to plead at Raymond ! 
 Got any business to go upon yet?" &c. 
 
 Young Horsey resembled his father in one respect : he had 
 all his curiosity. We have thrown into the compass of one 
 paragraph the hundred questions which he contrived to ask be 
 fore the rest of the family made their appearance. In the sight 
 of Carter his ardor was something restrained, though, in the 
 mild benignant countenance of the latter, one would set,k in 
 vain for that sign of power to which the young actor ascribed 
 so much potency. He finished his breakfast before the rest, 
 and, as he left the room, catching the eye of Vernon, ho put on 
 the aspect and manner of an awkward clown, terrified at finding 
 himself in so solemn presence, and striving to leave it with a* 
 little noise as necessary, by moving on tip-toe and backward to 
 
ALL THE WORLD A STAGE. *>7 
 
 the entrance. Once there, he bounded from the steps, and by 
 a single agile movement was in the middle of the road. Tha 
 next moment he might be heard, spouting a favorite passage at 
 the very top of his voice 
 
 " If Tom would only leave off that d d player-book," began 
 the father apologetically to Carter. 
 
 " It is a folly that will do no harm, my good friend, unless 
 you stimulate it by hard usage. The book is innocent enough 
 it is not that, but the love of praise, which turns your son s 
 head. Listen to his speeches patiently, and he will think you 
 the best audience he ever had ; and if you can sometimes con 
 trive to clap your hands together in this manner when he has 
 concluded his speech " 
 
 " As they do at the theatre-houses ?" demanded the father 
 with some eagerness. 
 
 "Ay even so." 
 
 "Well, Carter, what then what ll be the good of it?" 
 
 " I think it not unlikely he will be content to stay at home 
 with you and mind his business." 
 
 " But he promises to do so now, Ben Carter. He says he s 
 done with Orleans and the play-houses. He has good reason 
 for it, I can tell you. He s grazed upon the sheriff at Orleans, 
 and had a queer bout with the head man of the theatre. He 
 told us all about it last night I didn t quite see into the fun 
 of the thing, but Tom says it was deused funny, and Mr. Vernon 
 was mightily tickled at the story. I think there is a change 
 in Tom, and us he promises so fair " 
 
 " Don t rely too much upon his promises. He can not so 
 soon break away from his old habits, and must be allowed some 
 little farther swing before he dismisses his levities sufficiently 
 to suffer him to come home and go to work. Only do not by 
 unnecessary harshness drive him into them. Notice his follies 
 as little as may be, and tolerate his speeches even where you 
 do not exactly understand them. The scorn of a father not 
 unfrequently drives a son to defiance ; when some little indul 
 gence to his idle tastes, might leave him free to see into their 
 absurdities himself. Let me warn you, however, to give him 
 as little money as possible. He wants but little in the country, 
 and where he asks for much, it is a sure sipi of profligacy 
 
58 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 Do not expect to see him sober on a sudden. I would rather 
 he should not become so. I should suspect him of a worse of 
 fence still, than any you have ugainst him hypocrisy. The 
 best sign in his favor, since his return, is that he still continues 
 his spouting, knowing your hostility to the practice though 
 it may prove him wanting in proper reverence, it saves him at 
 least from the suspicion of disingenuousness. Give him em 
 ployment as soon as you can, and let time do the rest. A sud 
 den change is seldom to be relied on ; and a transition from 
 one extreme to another, is almost always the practice of a 
 rogue." 
 
 "But Tom is honest Tom s no rogue, Ben Carter." 
 
 " I believe it, Horsey. Do you take care that you do not 
 make him one. It is not uncommon for you to denounce him 
 as a rogue to call him rascal, and scoundrel, and such abusive 
 names as these. To give him the rogue s reputation, is to take 
 from him one of the great inducements to be an honest man. 
 Beware that you do not this." 
 
 Meanwhile, the subject of this discussion was pursuing his 
 walk, with all the heedlessness of a wayward mind, through all 
 the nooks and crannies of the village. He was busy seeking 
 dut old haunts and old associates. Tom Horsey was popular 
 with everybody in Raymond but his father. His pompous 
 declamations, his .noisy humor, the readiness with which he 
 joined in a joke, and the steadfastness with which he pursued 
 (t, commended him naturally to all the younger portions of the 
 community ; and now that he reappeared among them, there 
 were salutations on every hand. Smiles and pleasant speeches, 
 that inflated the vain heart of the youth to the utmost, encoun 
 tered him at every corner, and he swaggered along the main 
 street with the air of one conscious that his movements were 
 witnessed by an audience far more indulgent than ever Rich 
 mond found at Orleans, even when he bestrid the tyrant, and 
 commanded his own terms from the prostrate and ungenerous 
 manager. 
 
 There was a miserable little rookery that stood at the west 
 ern entrance of the village, where a still more miserable sort 
 of business was carried on by a man named Hawkins. This 
 man was an idle worthless creature, and his obvious pursuit* 
 
ALL THE WORLD A STAGE. 59 
 
 were supposed by many persons to be only a sort of cover foi 
 other objects which were, possibly, far more profitable, though 
 not so legitimate. In his shop might be seen a barrel of whis 
 key, a kitt of tobacco, a few knives, pipes, candles, and coon- 
 skins ; seldom anything more ; but there were shed-rooms to 
 his dwelling, and upper chambers, which were asserted to be 
 very well fitted up, in which no limited profits were made out 
 of the ignorant and the unwary. Public Justice had her eye 
 upon this establishment, but, up to the present time, nothing 
 had transpired of sufficient importance to justify her in setting 
 her hands upon the lintel. The proprietor kept a closer watch 
 upon her movements, than her emissaries maintained over his ; 
 and whatever might have been the suspicions of the neighbors, 
 Hawkins met them with a bold front, and challenged their inquiries. 
 
 To this house the actor drew nigh. His approach was 
 watched by the proprietor and another man, who stood with 
 him at the entrance. 
 
 " Here is the very chap himself," said Hawkins. " This is 
 the younger Horsey the crazy actor who run away to Or 
 leans, and paid the manager, it is said, for permission to appear 
 and spend his father s picayunes as fast as they are made. Yet 
 the old fool dotes upon him, and will leave himself bare to give 
 the youngster his buff breeches. By a little management we 
 may get out of him all that we want to know, or, at least, all 
 that he is able to tell. He is vain of his abilities as an actor* 
 and by feeding his swallow, we may easily pick his teeth." 
 
 " Is it he that struts so ?" demanded the other. 
 
 " The same. This stranger, Vernon, lodges with his father. 
 It is known that he inquired for Carter on his first arrival, and 
 received directions to the house of Horsey." 
 
 " And what can this silly fellow know ? If he be the man 
 you speak him, would they be fools enough to trust him with 
 any of their secrets ?" 
 
 " Scarcely I do not hope for that. But Tom Horsey is one 
 of those restless, fidgetty sort of persons, who are continually 
 meddling with the affairs of other people. He will glean from 
 his father all that he knows of Carter and Vernon, and if they 
 are not exceedingly sly, he will see into their concerns as far 
 as themselves." 
 
CO BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 " It can do no harm to sound liim. He draws nigh." 
 
 " Hawkins advanced from the doorway, and addressed the 
 actor in a fashion of his own. 
 
 " Horatio, or I do mistake myself/ " 
 
 " The same, Mr. Hawkins, and your good servant ever/ 
 How does the world use you still in the old stand, I see." 
 
 " Ay, Tom, and at a stand. But where have you been this 
 year of Sundays. I haven t seen you since the gander s neck 
 was last soaped/ " 
 
 " No more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me/ " was the reply, 
 followed by a hearty laugh from both, as the phrase, which 
 may seem somewhat mysterious to any but southern readers, 
 reminded them of one of those practical jokes, in which 
 it was Tom Horsey s misfortune too frequently to indulge. 
 "No more of that, Hawkins, I pray you let that story be 
 forgotten." 
 
 " Forgotten, indeed ? impossible ; the story s quite too good 
 and I must tell it to my friend here. Saxon, Mr. Thomas Hor 
 sey ; Tom, my friend Ellis Saxon, a gentleman from the Yazoo 
 a glorious fellow like yourself, loves a joke from the bottom 
 of his heart, and will die some clay in a frolic " 
 
 " In a ditch !" cried Horsey, concluding the sentence. " Par 
 don me, Mr. Saxon, the prediction is just as like and more like 
 to fall upon me than upon you ; and it s an old rhyme of a song 
 that the western boys sing when they re boating down to Or 
 leans :" and he repeated the lines that follow : 
 
 "Though we be not wise or rich, 
 Yet what matter touch the snag 
 We can frolic in a ditch, 
 Fierce at poker, brave at brag." 
 
 " A good song I ve heard it a hundred times, though not 
 lately. The boatmen are done up now. These steam-sturgeons 
 have cut up as pretty a branch of business as ever needed a 
 long pole, and deserved a glorious frolic. But what of that, 
 Tom Horsey ? Is there to be no pleasure in the world because 
 we can get to Orleans now in ten days in place of forty ? If 
 the steam-sturgeon does up the broad horn/ there s a long 
 horn that raises the steam. Come in, my son, and take a sup 
 of whiskey while I tell Saxon about the goose s neck." 
 
ALL THE WORLD A STAGE. 61 
 
 " No, no, Hawkins, let ihat dog sleep. I ll come in and join 
 you with the whiskey, but no scratching old sores, say 1. * 
 
 "What, you re not afraid of consequences now don t you 
 know the old Squire s done up gone to his long nap. He ll 
 tiever trouble you about it, sonny." 
 
 " No matter, I ve sworn off from these tricks, Bill Hawkins ! 
 
 I ve promised the old man to put on a straight coat, crop my 
 hair and go to meeting o Sundays " 
 
 " And be at all the love-feasts ! what of all that, Tom ? - 
 do you think to keep your neighbor from being happy because 
 you have grown sour. Because thou art virtuous, shall there 
 be no more cakes and ale V Come in, thou reluctant saint, who 
 would put on two faces of tragedy and comedy at the same time 
 
 come in, and Saxon will tell you of the splendid blowout on 
 the Georgiana steamboat, going up the river last month. They 
 had a play on board, Tom Horsey an amateur play and 
 played Julius Caesar to more than four hundred persons, the 
 part of Brutus by our old friend, Hugh Peters, the limping 
 schoolmaster at Clinton." 
 
 " Hugh Peters play Brutus the impudent pedagogue ! You 
 don t say so, Mr. Saxon ; do tell me all the particulars. Hugh 
 Peters, indeed ! What could have put it into the leatherhead, 
 to think that he could play Brutus ?" 
 
 "What but hearing us spout the dialogue at school That 
 you have wronged me, &c. But, come in ; the water s on the 
 fire, and the whiskey on the stand." 
 
 The news of the amateur performance was quite enough for 
 the mercurial Horsey. His good resolutions were forgotten in 
 an instant, and in two minutes more he was sitting between 
 Hawkins and Saxon, in a little cupboard-like apartment, back 
 of the house, a kettle upon the fire, glasses upon the table, and 
 everything in preparation for one of those regular rounds to 
 which the young actor was already but too much accustomed. 
 
 " These steamboats have their advantages after all ; and so, 
 Mr. Saxon, the chaps on board the Georgiana got up a tolera 
 ble piece of work, did they ?" 
 
 " Ay, on the upper deck, Mr. Horsey ; and considering the 
 short preparation they had, the thing was really well done. 
 There was one chap, an actor from Orleans, named Tilton " 
 
62 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 u Tilton, I know him a mere candle-snuffer what the d 1 
 did he pretend to do?" demanded Horsey, interrupting the 
 speaker. 
 
 " He played Caesar played the ghost rather, and did it so 
 well, that he scared the women half to death. His face was so 
 pale I can t conceive how he could have brought himself to 
 so death-like a complexion." 
 
 "Psha, sir, the easiest thing in the world a little chalk or 
 magnesia does it and as for the whiskers, the mustache, the 
 imperial, and such small matters, they lie, sir, at the end of a 
 burned cork, and may be had at a moment s warning." 
 
 "Ah, indeed!" was the response of Mr. Saxon, made with 
 the utmost seeming simplicity. 
 
 The conceited Thespian continued : 
 
 " These are the arts, sir, of the actor ; and, though not ab 
 solutely essential to the artist, yet you can not conceive how 
 much they help the imagination of the spectator; in the arous 
 ing of which lies, probably, the great secret of the good drama 
 tist and perfect actor : but what you tell me of Little Bowlegp 
 so we used to call Hugh Peters ye gods, it doth amazic 
 me ! to think that he should presume to play at all, and then to 
 play Brutus twas a test part a fellow that talks through his 
 nose, and swings- his arms about like a windmill that walks, 
 for all the world, like a strutting gobler, and has a face like a 
 squash. Ha! ha! it must have been very ridiculous, Mr. 
 Saxoii." 
 
 " Not at all," was the reply. " We were all too dull, and 
 wanting something to enliven us, the thing did well enough ; 
 and there were some present, who thought Caesar was done 
 quite as well as Caldwell himself could have done it." 
 
 " Caldwell be d d !" was the irreverent response of Horsey 
 to this opinion. 
 
 " Pardon me, Mr. Saxon ; I mean no offence, but it agitates 
 my bile, when I hear Caldwell spoken of in tragedy I should 
 think better of Herr Cline, the rope-dancer. I m a soused 
 gurnet, sir, if Caldwell is anything but a comedian a devilish 
 clever comedian, who spoils himself by attempting anything 
 else ; and as for these folks in the steamboat, being pleased 
 with such performers as Tilton and Little Bowlegs, they must 
 
ALL THE WORLD A STAGE. Jb 
 
 have been most cursedly tired of the boat, or must have had 
 the smallest possible particle of good taste and good sense 
 among them. Brutus, Hugh Peter/ Julius Csesar, Jim Til- 
 ton* candle-snuifers in extraordinary for the American theatre 
 it s very ridiculous. Hawkins, trouble you for that spoon, 
 and the sugar." 
 
 A quiet smile of contempt played over the cold, dark features 
 of Saxon, as he saw the importance which the youth attached 
 to the matter, and beheld the swelling indignation with which 
 he spoke of the despised amateurs. As if disposed to humor 
 the folly and conceit of the youth, he continued the topic. 
 
 " But are you not exceedingly aristocratic in your notions, 
 Mr. Horsey 1 Because a man has been forced to snuff candles, 
 does it follow that he is incapable of something better ?" 
 
 " Surely not, sir, surely not. The fates forbid that I should 
 deal in such a pernicious doctrine. What was Shakspere him 
 self, my masters ; his early career is enough, without other au 
 thority, to prevent me from such sheer folly of opinion; but 
 Tilton is no Shakspere, nor no Garrick ; and, however he may 
 have played the ghost of Caesar, I tell you, he will be nothing 
 but a miserable candle-snuffer all his life. Look you, I reason 
 thus, Mr. Saxon. I have seen our friend, Hawkins, jump for a 
 wager, and know his best pitch to a feather s width. Shall I 
 not be able to say, Thus far can Bill Hawkins jump, and no 
 farther V Even thus do I tell you that Tilton was born to be a 
 candle-snuffer, and nothing better unless it be a call-boy on 
 the stage." 
 
 " Yet was it said," remarked Saxon quietly, " that he was go 
 ing to open the theatres at Vicksburg and Natchez." 
 
 " Gods, grant us patience ! but it is scarce possible !" 
 
 " I heard as much myself," was the confirmatory statement 
 of Hawkins. 
 
 " The d d fool ! he s mad utterly mad. On the word of 
 a gentleman, Mr. Saxon, this fellow has no sort of rank no 
 reputation no ability. Were I a manager, he should have no 
 employment at my hands. The fellow is perfectly incapable." 
 
 "He is going to have a roaring company, nevertheless," 
 said Hawkins. He s engaged Peters for third-rate characters 
 and is getting: up recruits from every Quarter." 
 
34 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 f "I shall forget myself! Was there ever such an insolent 
 pretender ?" 
 
 The amateur was almost furious. The moment had arrived 
 when he could be best practised upon ; and the game was con 
 tinued. 
 
 " They say he has taken up actors even here in Raymond 
 Was not this young fellow Vernon, one of his men ?" was the 
 inquiry of Saxon, urged with a manner of the most perfect in 
 difference. 
 
 " Yes, I think that was the name. He came into town last 
 night," replied Hawkins. 
 
 "Who? what? Harry Harry Vernon ! Psh a, Haw 
 kins, I know all about that. He s none of them he s no actor 
 nothing but a lawyer riding the circuit. He s a sort of rela 
 tion of sour Ben so we call Ben Carter and I s pose the old 
 boy s got him some cases. He stayed with us last night, and 
 I took a julep with him this morning. Told me all about it 
 himself." 
 
 " Indeed ! He s a relation of Carter, and no actor, then ?" 
 demanded Saxon. 
 
 " No ! he s no actor has no notion of it. As for his being a 
 relation of sour Ben, I don t know whether I m right to say 
 that indeed, for that matter, I think he told me he was not 
 only an acquaintance. No, he s no actor, I assure you ; and if 
 all your information about Tilton and Bowlegs be no better 
 founded than this, I wouldn t give much for the new theatre." 
 
 " You may be deceived even in this, Mr. Horsey," said Sax 
 on. " This young man Veruon, they say, is going up into the 
 Yazoo. Did he tell you that ?" 
 
 " Lord, no ! There s no truth in it, I m certain, and sour 
 Ben is too strict a chap to be very close with an actor. If he 
 only once dreamed that Harry Vernon had such a notion, he d 
 throw up his hand in a minute. I know sour Ben too well : 
 he d cut loose from the young un, and leave him just rope 
 enough to hang himself." 
 
 "What you say rather strengthens the report. If Vernon 
 knows this of Carter, as without doubt he does, would not this 
 be reason enough why he should keep his secret while under 
 the old man s eye, particularly, if he has any favor to look for 
 
ALL THE WORLD A STAGE. 65 
 
 at Carter s hands as it is said he has? Now, they dc say, 
 and I may as well tell you, I heard it A-om Tilton himself, on 
 board the Georgiana, that Vernon was engaged secretly to play 
 first characters." 
 
 "The devil! you say first characters!" was the exclama 
 tion of the astounded amateur. " Who could have believed it 
 the fellow was so sly. But I needn t wonder at that. Egad, 
 I played a shy game at first with Ben Carter myself. Bat, 
 Harry Monmouth well, to confess a truth, the chap played 
 the sly one cleverly, if what you tell me be indeed the truth. 
 But I am not certain yet." 
 
 " Look into it," said Hawkins carelessly ; " and so sure am I 
 that Saxon has good authority for what he says, I ll go a quart, 
 and a dozen cabanas upon it." 
 
 " Soh ! it s a bet," replied the amateur. " Our hands upon it, 
 Trojan, and it will be a close tongue that can keep my worm 
 from getting under it. I ll through Harry Monmouth s knap 
 sack before he takes his crumbs out, or may I never look down 
 upon the footlights again. Mr. Saxon" drinking "the 
 stage, sir, though it be carried in a steamboat." 
 
 "Very good devilish good, Tom," cried Hawkins, appa 
 rently delighted with the modest play upon words which the 
 actor had attempted. " You were always clever at these things, 
 but your frolic seems to have freshened and improved you. But 
 what did the old man say, Tom, when you came back ? The 
 story was that you had made his factor hand over to the tune 
 of three or four thousand dollars, which you lost at faro in one 
 night." 
 
 " Not so bad as that, Hawkins, though bad enough still. I 
 have worried the old man something too much, but I have 
 promised him reformation, and " 
 
 "Will keep your promise if you can." 
 
 " Well said, Hawkins," responded the youth with a sigh ; if 
 I can. The task is a very difficult one; for this d d stufl 
 you ve been telling me of Tilton and his floating theatre, hag 
 put me in a most inconceivable state of combustion. I should 
 think well of the plan, if that wool-headed candle-snuffer had 
 nothing to do with it. In good hands a theatre at Natchez 
 
 " Under the hill," said Hawkins with a sneer. 
 
66 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 "No, no! there s too much bell-broth there; the gruel is 
 slab, but not good enough in that quarter, unless in playing 
 Tom and Jerry, to which I do not much incline ; but for a re 
 spectable establishment, I doubt not that we should be able to 
 keep it up, and put money in our pockets, at least four months 
 in the year. We could then shift our quarters, as the old 
 players did, from one barn to another. We could go to Vicks- 
 tmrg, Grand Gulf, Manchester, Port Gibson, and all about, and 
 drive the prettiest and merriest gipsy business one could desire. 
 By the Lord, our plot is a good plot as ever was laid ! but it 
 would spoil the best plot, ay, and the best pla^- too, to have 
 ftuch a botch as Tilton in the management." 
 
 " Tilton, or no Tilton, Tom, remember the bet. We must 
 satisfy it before this youth, Vernon, leaves Raymond." 
 
 "My hand on t. But are you for court now what s to be 
 done any murder cases. I like to listen to them; they are 
 so many eggs for tragedy, which unborn Shaksperes may 
 hatch. What say you, men go along with me." 
 
 " Time enough ; the court won t open for an hour, and there 
 are only a few cases of assault and battery ; nothing of interest. 
 Stay awhile and sup your whiskey, and we ll go with you then. 
 sax on, your glass waits." 
 
 Let us leave the trio for awhile. 
 
HUMORS OF A CLIENT. 67 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HUMORS OF A CLIENT NEW MODE OF ARGUING A CASE OF 
 ASSAULT AND BATTERY. 
 
 "See, where he lies, slaughtered without the camp, 
 And by a simple swain, a mercenary, 
 Who bravely took the combat to himself." ROB. GREENE, 1560. 
 
 VERNON, meanwhile, accompanied by his friend and patron, 
 proceeded to the court-house, in the area in front of which he 
 encountered the curious gaze of all the natives to whom the 
 face of a stranger is instantly obvious, and in the examination 
 of whom they do not always content themselves with the keen 
 scrutiny of the eye. " Whar* are you from, stranger ?" and 
 " whar are you guine !" and " what s your business here V and 
 " what do you do there ?" are the ordinary questions by which 
 the forest-born contrive to obtain possession of that intelligence 
 for which the Atlantic citizen has his morning gazette. 
 
 The crowd was fast assembling, and Vernon left alone by 
 Mr. Carter, who was required to attend to some pressing busi 
 ness elsewhere, was, of course, compelled to go through his 
 examination like all the rest, and bore it with the most becom 
 ing fortitude and good nature. Not that he answered his 
 inquisitors with a strict regard to the truth ; this might have 
 exposed him to defeat in the purposes which he had in view ; 
 but with that ready adroitness which is the sign of keen and 
 quick imagination, and which, by the way, is one of the very 
 first requisites in a country circuit lawyer, he answered them 
 in such a way as to reveal nothing, and yet satisfy them that 
 he had nothing more to reveal. When asked about New 
 Orleans, he could tell them a long story about the new big 
 steamboat ol which they had heard wonders ; and by con 
 versing freely with Tom, Dick, and Harry, about matters with 
 
68 BORDER BEAGLES: 
 
 which neither himself nor Tom, Dick, or Harry, had anything to 
 do, convinced all around that he was no starched, stiff-necked 
 upstart, so solicitous of his own birth, family, and fortune, as to 
 dread the effect of their contact upon his nobility. 
 
 " A cute chap," said one, " that fellow, Vernon ; knows all 
 about that Orleans railroad and the big steamboat; says 
 Madame Lalaurie, she that licked her poor niggers to death, and 
 tied em week after week without hog or hominy, will get 
 mightily smashed among the Orleans lawyers." 
 
 " He s an Orleans lawyer, then ?" demanded another. 
 
 " I rether reckon so," was the reply, " though, by the powers, 
 he didn t tell me that." 
 
 " Well, but now he s moved into Massissippi, or how could he 
 come to plead here in Raymond." 
 
 " That s true I ll go and ax him where he lives now ; I 
 rather like the chap," was the opinion and resolve of the 
 baffled inquisitor, whom Vernon had contrived to lead from 
 himself by freely enlarging upon other matters, which, for the 
 moment, amply satisfied the hearer s curiosity. 
 
 But the youth had disappeared from the spot, and was then 
 in the rear of the courthouse where he had been called by 
 Carter who held him in close conference. Meanwhile, the 
 court was convened, his honor had taken his seat, and the 
 crowd, hurrying with that strange curiosity which is never so 
 well satisfied as when it hears of the misdeeds of its own 
 nature, and which is never so active and apprehensive as in a 
 secluded country village, soon forgot all concern for the inter 
 esting stranger, and gave itself up, soul and body, to the 
 clamors of officers, silencing clamor; the calls of jurymen and 
 witnesses; the small wit of small lawyers, and the sapient 
 wisdom of the judge, whose oracles, generally monosyllabic, 
 are accompanied by a shake of the head, worse-wise than 
 Burleigh s. 
 
 Carter, having concluded the relation of a matter which 
 belonged to the expedition of his protege" was about to with 
 draw with him to the great moral bull-ring, when one of those 
 little and most amusing incidents took place, which could only 
 take place in a country such as ours, where a bold decisive 
 "Zlraracter is formed l-y the adventurous life nhicli it tnnkc* 
 
HOMORS OP A CLIENT. 6l 
 
 piominent, if not necessary ; and where a free spirit and 
 genuine humor seem absolutely to result from the absence of 
 any of those educational restraints, which, in New England, 
 graduate all intellects to an interesting level, making them as 
 completely the creatures of mould and measure, as if God had 
 decreed them, even in morals and expression, to the exquisite 
 republican equality which they deny to none who have a 
 money qualification and are not Irish and Catholic 
 
 A broad-faced, brown-cheeked, good-humored looking farmer 
 approached the two, and addressing Carter by name as an 
 old acquaintance, turned from him to his companion, and slap 
 ping him upon the shoulder with all the familiarity of an old 
 acquaintance, spoke to him in some such language as the fol 
 lowing. 
 
 " Look ye, now, stranger, they tell me your name s Varnon, 
 and that you re a lawyer, and I reckon it s true what they tell 
 me. You re a friend of his, Ben Carter eh?" 
 
 Carter answered by introducing Vernon more formally to 
 the interrogator, whom Vernon himself satisfied on the subject 
 of his other interrogatories. 
 
 "Well, Harry Varnon," said the old man in continuation, 
 "I like your face by the hokey but I do and without 
 meaning to praise you to your teeth, I tell you you re a d d 
 smart-looking fellow ; and I want to give you some law busi 
 ness to do for me now, before the court s over here in Ray 
 mond." 
 
 " Your business is his, Mr. Shippen," said Carter, anticipating 
 the reply of Vernon, " and I think that my friend will do jus 
 tice to himself and you at the same time." 
 
 " Let the boy talk for himself, Carter. I want to hear him 
 talk since I m going to hire him, you see, to talk for me in the 
 courthouse. By his face, he ought to have a mighty free 
 speech, and that s the sort of thing you see that will best suit 
 me at this present. What say you, Harry Varnon, are you 
 willing to argify a little business for me in a mighty bad case." 
 
 The other professed his willingness to do what he could for 
 his client to the best of his ability, and in such a style as to 
 satisfy the old man that he was not likely to prove a bunglei 
 in his business. 
 
70 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 * That s your sort," said he ; " and now look ye, Varnon. 
 The law is agin me here for licking a d d Yankee trader, that 
 8;iid something sassy to my darter Nelly. She s only a child, 
 Master Varnon, a leetle over thirteen years old, and couldn t a 
 meant any harm in what she did ; and if there was any harm 
 in it, d ye see, why I was the only one to blame in the matter. 
 ] gin her a five- dollar bill to go to Watson s store to buy some 
 little truck, and he said the bill was a false one and a counter 
 fcit, and spoke so to the child as if she meant to cheat him 
 and she a gal too that I got angry as a buster, and went 
 straight off and mounted him. 1 pulled him out from his shop, 
 and it wasn t at all sheepish nay, twas rether wolfish the 
 way I handled him. I made his sides ache, I tell you. Well, 
 the long and short of the business, then, is this : instead of 
 coming out and making it a fight after his own fashion, with 
 any we pons, jist as he might think best for himself, he goes 
 a-lawing me about for damages, and he s put down his bruises 
 and black spots at five thousand dollars ; as if his laying up a 
 week, and putting a mush poultice on his shins, and a piece of 
 raw beef to his eyes, should have cost him so much money. 
 Well, you re right to laugh, for that s the true state of the case, 
 and now what do you think you can do witlj it ?" 
 
 " You have counsel already ?" asked Vernon. 
 
 " Oh, yes ; one Graham, here, that comes from Monticello ; a 
 mealy-mouthed chap that don t please me at all ; but he was 
 the best I could get to do the business when I wanted it. He 
 answered Perkins, who is Watson s lawyer, step by step, in the 
 law-papers he put in ; and I s pose did that part of the business 
 tolerable well ; but then, he <*n t talk, Varnon ; and he trim- 
 bles and looks afeard when the other lawyers talk, and that 
 vexes me, to have a lawyer that s afeard to open his mouth in 
 my business ; and I wo n t have him talk for me if I can help 
 it." 
 
 " But, Mr. Shippen, I can not think to supersede Mr. Graham 
 in this business ; it is against the courtesy of the bar." 
 
 " There s no superseding at all. Graham s quite willing to 
 get somebody to help him ; for, look you, he says that he knows 
 nothing that he can say to help me. He says they ll prove 
 everything agin me, and there s no sort of defence that he cao 
 
HUMORS OF A CLIENT. 71 
 
 make. Now, lie says, if I bad only let Watson give me the 
 first clip, he could defend me very well ; but wouldn t I ha 
 been a blasted fool to ha let him, when everybody knows that 
 a first clip is half the battle? No no ! none of that stuff for 
 me ; it may be law, but I reckon there s no reason in it none 
 that ll sarve a man here in Mississippi." 
 
 " I don t know that I can do much more for you than Gra 
 ham," said Vernon, modestly ; " you, at least know, Mr. Ship- 
 pen, that the law favors him most who suffers the first injury." 
 
 " You can talk, Varnon, and that s something more than Gra 
 ham can do. You can tell the people what a darned skunk of 
 a fellow that Watson is, to go and scandalize a child and she 
 a gal too to call her a cheat and vilify her in front of his 
 shop ; and by the Eternal, if that a n t provocation and injury 
 enough to justify any father for licking the rapscallion that 
 does it, then I don t know any sense in our having laws at all. 
 Well, then, all I want is that you should talk your mind freely 
 to the people about these things. I know well enough, that by 
 the law-books, a man s not to lick his neighbor for bad words, 
 ginerally speaking ; but then, you see, here s a case different 
 Here the bad words is spoken to a gal child, that has a charac 
 ter to lose, and there s no such thing as standing that ; and it 
 does seem to me that it s right to make a monstrous difference 
 between blackguarding a man himself, and blackguarding his 
 darter. Well, Varnon, you re just the man now, to hit the 
 skunk hard on these p ints. Do you score him now, up and 
 down, hip and thigh, for half an hour half an hour by the 
 watch and there s a clear fifty dollars in your pocket. Say 
 the word only half an hour now I don t want a minute 
 more ; and it s a bargain." 
 
 Vernon laughed at the humor of the proposition, but seemed 
 disposed to hesitate ; when Carter, fearing that some nice point 
 of objection might suggest itself to the youth, and knowing the 
 importance to his present object of his appearing in Raymond 
 only as a lawyer seeking practice, immediately closed with the 
 offer on the part of the youth. The old farmer, however, was 
 not so well satisfied. 
 
 " Let Varnon talk for himself, Ben Carter ; he s got a tongue 
 of his own, and it does me good to hear him use it. Com, 
 
72 BORDER BEAGLES, 
 
 Varnon, my boy, say what you ll do. I ve spoken to Graham 
 a ready, and lie says he s willing. It mought be that you think 
 he a n t ; but between us, he s mighty glad to get the trouble 
 on to some other body s shoulders, for he s plainly told me that 
 it s a darned black and blue case, all agin me, and he s no no 
 tion of any way to turn it about to my benefit. I m candid you 
 see I don t hide nothing from you. I expect to sweat a little 
 at my fingers ends for this beating, but, by the hokey, five 
 thousand dollars will swallow me and all my substance, and you 
 must rub that down to a mere sarcumstance. I m willing to 
 bleed five hundred, but the other is quite too digging. It ll 
 plough me out of the ground to raise it ; and root and branch 
 must go along with it. A good talk now, that ll show what a 
 skunk Watson is, and what a shame it would be to let a child 
 a gal child too be abused by such a varment, and called a 
 cheat, and vilified as if she was a bad woman at the foot of 
 Natchy hill .will help me mightily, and I don t think the jury 
 will mind the law so much, when the reason and the right of 
 the thing is so clearly in my hand. Do your best, my chicken, 
 and the money s in your pocket." 
 
 " Did I understand you that Watson made no defence V 
 
 " Took his beating like a holy martyr." 
 
 " What ! did he not strike a blow ?" 
 
 " Not the breath of one ; he jist called upon the people to 
 see how I handled him, jist as if he had a liking for it. That s 
 the worst part of the business for me, so Graham says." 
 
 " I ll close with you, Mr. Shippen. I ll plead for half an 
 hour." 
 
 " Jist half an hour, Varnon ; do it well and stick to him for 
 that time, my chicken, and by the hokey, I don t want a min 
 ute more." 
 
 " I will do it," repeated the youth, rather amused with the 
 aspect of the affair, and the requisition of the farmer ; and n < 
 so hopeless of his cause as Mr. Graham had been. From thav 
 very feature, last related in the case, which Graham thought 
 the most unfavorable, the quickwitted Vernon argued the very 
 best results ; and having appointed to meet Shippen within the 
 hour, to make the acquaintance of Graham and confer with 
 him on the business so far as it had gone, the stouthearted de- 
 
HUMORS OP A CLIENT. 78 
 
 fendant left him for awhile, as fully satisfied with the proceed 
 ing, as if his case was already won. He was one of those wor 
 thy republicans who was not unwilling to pay for his libertieo , 
 and the right to speak his mind, though it might be only through 
 the lips of another, was one of those rights which he esteemed 
 cheaply paid for with fifty dollars at any time. 
 
 When he had gone, Carter resumed his conference with Ver 
 non, which related, we need scarcely say, to the projected mis 
 sion of the latter. Other items of intelligence had reached him 
 which furnished additional clues to those already in posses 
 sion of the course taken 5 his flight by the faithless friend 
 and absconding debtor ; out as these matters are destined to 
 have their distinct development in the regular progress of the 
 affair, they demand none of our attention now. 
 
 When Vernon entered the court-house he found his new client 
 awaiting him with the " mealy-mouthed" lawyer Graham. A 
 few moments sufficed to put Vernon in possession of all the facts 
 so far as their litigated character had become apparent to the 
 attorney on record. During the course of his narrative, Graham 
 did not scruple, though in the presence of Shippen, to declare 
 his utter hopelessness of his cause ; a sort of sincerity which is 
 of very doubtful propriety, since it never yet discouraged a lit 
 igant, and has often ruined a very worthy practitioner. It was 
 amusing enough to Vernon to survey the countenance of Ship- 
 pen as these opinions fell from the lips of his lawyer. How he 
 would lift his eyebrows, and roll his tongue within his jawc, 
 and then turn away exclaiming 
 
 "Never you mind, Charley Graham never you mind- 
 there are more eggs to be hatched this week, than was ever 
 laid by your mother s best hen ; and some of the chickens, let 
 me tell you, will be long spurred before they chip the shell. 
 Only half an hour, Harry Varnon ; only half an hour, my boy ; 
 but let it be well talked." 
 
 At length, in its due place upon the docket, the long-expected 
 civil case of Watson v. Shippen, sounding in damages of assault 
 and battery, was called, and the several parties responded ac 
 cordingly With the first sounds of his name, Shippen perched 
 Lho&elf behind Vernon, and renewed his exhortations arid his 
 
 4 
 
74 BORDER IJTCAni -^ 
 
 promises. The plaintiff, Watson, was also present a huge 
 mammoth-feeding sort of person, half as large again as Slup-.rM 
 land having the appearance of one, who, if lie had not utterly 
 lacked the spirit, could have annihilated, or at least, have swal 
 lowed his assailant. His downcast look, halting, hesitating bui 
 sly manner, sufficiently denoted the cold, calculating and cow 
 ardly wretch such as Shippen had described him whocouia 
 wantonly insult the young girl, whose indignant father he dared 
 not face, and could not contend with. 
 
 His attorney, Perkins, opened the case with considerable 
 spirit, passed slightingly over the provocation by which Watson 
 had drawn upon him the wrath of the defendant, and dwelt with 
 proper details of law and fact, upon the enormity of the outrage 
 which the latter had committed ; described the cruel manner in 
 which his client had been dragged from his dwelling into the 
 public thoroughfare and beaten by the big-fisted pugilist, whom, 
 in his passionate exaggeration, he made a giant, while the plain 
 tiff was diminished to a feeble and delicate person, whose 
 Christian forbearance, while receiving the injuries complained 
 of, was the subject of most unbounded, and, it may be added, 
 most unmerited eulogiurn. After this, it seemed something of 
 an anti-climax to show that a physician s aid was called in to 
 heal his hurts ; particularly as the cross-examination determine d 
 the extent of this attendance to be little over three days ; and 
 the medicaments employed to be of little more cost than " eyo 
 of newt and toe of frog." A pea poultice was shown to be 
 one of the most successful applications of Doctor Shinbone, 
 and the application of the i ,ncet, his most serious operation. 
 With these proofs and the commentary which he made with so 
 much unction upon them, Mr. Attorney Perkins, was willing to 
 close his side of the case. 
 
 "You see," said Graham, in a half-whisper to Verne: ; " it it 
 as I have told you. He has proved everything, and ;<ir caso 
 is to be made out of his witnesses only." 
 
 The words, spoken however slightly, were audible to li 
 keen ears of the defendant behind, who, smarting with the de 
 clamation of Perkins, retorted, before Vernon could speak. 
 
 " And a good case, too, Charley Graham, if a man had it in 
 him to bring out. Up and at him, Harry Virnon, and giv? 
 
NEW MODE OP ARGUING A CASE. 75 
 
 him enough of it. By the hokey, Charley Graham, you t-dk 
 as if your liver was all cream color." 
 
 A sly twinkle of Vernon s eyes was perceptible to the court, 
 as, arising from his seat, he coolly took out his watch, and noted 
 &-; precise minute before he commenced his operations. The 
 targain, meanwhile, which Shippen had made with the strange 
 lawyer, to talk for him half an hour only, had got into consid 
 erable circulation, chiefly with the assistance of the defendant 
 himself; and the curiosity was general, not less to hear the 
 young and handsome stranger, than to see what he could make 
 of his limits. 
 
 Yernon did not belie public expectation. Cool in temper 
 rapid in reflection, and singularly fluent of speech, he com- 
 tranced his task by reviewing briefly the evidence which had 
 been given. He dwelt with much more emphasis than Perkins 
 on the gross insult which had been offered to a young child, of 
 good parents, and one of a sex, which needed, from the delica 
 cy of its structure, the kindness and indulgence of man ; and 
 could not live either in his harshness or disesteem. This harsh 
 ness, he proceeded to show, was quite hostile to that claim 
 which had been so eloquently made by the opposite counsel, 
 in behalf of the Christian meekness of his client ; this meekness 
 heing the result of his cowardice, and not of his Christianity ; 
 since it was very visible in his encounter with the man, and 
 was singularly wanting to his deportment in his interview with 
 the child. " It is very well," proceeded Vernon, " to insist 
 upon the integrity of the laws, to prevent the brutality of vio 
 lence, to compel the strong arm to desist from strife, and refer 
 to the authorities assigned by society for such purposes, to re 
 dress its wrongs; but there are some cases," he said, "where 
 outraged Humanity becomes a rebel ; and when, to wait for the 
 dilatory process of the laws, might be to ruin her for ever. IL 
 all cases, where the reputation or the virtue of a woman a 
 wife, a sister, or a daughter are at stake, the sudden blow of 
 the outraged relative is a blow struck for Virtue herself, and in 
 compliance with laws which are infinitely more sacred than 
 any that can be framed by man. And, so universal," he con 
 tinued, " are these laws, that I can not bring myself to believe 
 that his honor, who now sits upon the bench, and you, gentle- 
 
76 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 men of the jury, or any man of proper spirit and feeling 1 , could 
 forbear, in like circumstances, to do as my client has done. Ay, 
 gentlemen, even if the place of sanctuary which, the ruffian had 
 chosen for his retreat, had been the altar of God itself, ratiier 
 than the counter behind which he sells his wares, it would not 
 nave shielded him from your honest anger, any more than the 
 latter place has protected Watson from the just vengeance of 
 a father. 
 
 " But I do not rely only on these points, gentlemen of tha 
 jury. There are others scarcely less important to be dwelt 
 upon. Watson has come into court clamoring for justice. ! 
 should say he has already had it that never was justice mads 
 so clearly manifest as when Shippcn punished him for the defa 
 mation of his daughter. He founds his claim, as every man 
 must, who comes into court, upon his strict compliance with thb 
 laws. But his eloquent counsel has not deemed it sufficient to 
 confine himself to this modest claim. He not only asserts him 
 to have borne the part of a good citizen, but of a most becoming 
 Christian. Look at his meekness under stripes, says Mr. Per 
 kins, and you have the very deportment of the old apostles un 
 der like indignities. Gentlemen of the jury, it is a new doc 
 trine to be taught here this meekness under blows this 
 calm, Christian toleration of injuries this patient bending of 
 the shoulders to any assault. But the counsel has himself 
 proved quite too much for his case and client. He has shown 
 you, by the evidence, that, so far from being meek under his 
 suffering, he, at the very moment, called upon the bystanders to 
 witness not his courage in resenting injury the courage o 
 proper manhood, which always forbears insult, and always re 
 pels it but the blows which he submitted to, that they might 
 be counted down and paid for in money. This base creature, 
 gentlemen, this pretended Cliristian, had no abhorrence of the 
 shame to which he was subjected ; had no consciousness of the 
 disgrace and degradation ; had, it seems, no actual feeling of 
 the blows, while he consoled himself with the reflection that 
 they were to be paid for ; that he should get money for every 
 stroke ; th^t his blood was to be weighed in an opposite scale 
 against five thousand dollars of my client. He comes into court 
 not for justice, but for money lie comes not to sustain the 
 
NEW MODE OF ARGUING A CASE. 77 
 
 aws, for lie himself violated them, when he slandered the inno 
 cent daughter of this old man ; but to speculate, like a misera 
 ble pedler, upon what may be made out of another s violation 
 of them. Does such a man come into court with clean hands ? 
 Does he not come into court with the basest of all base feelings 
 in his soul ? And would not such a man as this, who thus bar 
 ters his blood for money as freely as another Judas, barter his 
 very God for a far less sum ? I have no sort of doubt of thio 
 myself. I believe, as conscientiously as I do that I now stand 
 before you, that neither your lives nor your honors could be 
 safe in such hands, were it profitable for him to dispose of them, 
 and were the danger not too great for one endowed with such a 
 dastard spirit. 
 
 " Let us go back to that chastisement of which he complains, 
 the dishonor of which he thinks can be all removed by five 
 thousand of my client s dollars ; and I, too, will pray yon 
 to give as close attention to it, as was prayed for by my 
 worthy and eloquent opponent, though with a far different ob 
 ject. He called upon you to admire the meekness of this new 
 apostle come down upon earth. Your Christian feelings were 
 exhorted to take pattern after this blessed example of Christian 
 forbearance. Behold this lamb under the furious claws of this 
 lion going about seeking what he may devour. See how he 
 prays for his cruel assailant. Such was the picture of my able 
 brother. Let me pray you to give as much heed to one that I 
 shall draw. See, then, this miserable poltroon, submitting to 
 the assaults of one to whom, in physical capacity, he is a giant 
 hear him how he shouts to the people. He calls upon all 
 around to see that ho strikes no blow himself he begs them to 
 take particular account of the number that he receives. When 
 jeered by the spectators for such tame and unbecoming sub 
 mission, he grins, with a miserable delight, even while his foe 
 is kic> mg him. Never mind, he shall pay for this, is the an 
 swer that he makes; for all these kicks I shall have coppers ! 
 His enemy wrings his nose Ah! he cries with a miserable 
 chuckle, that shall cost him a thousand dollars. Let him kick, 
 he will have to pay for all ! And this, gentlenven, is the sort 
 of person, the Christian, of whom we hear a eulogy that would 
 rank him idth any of the apostles that ever was Saved aliva in 
 
78 BUKDEU BEAGLKts. 
 
 the cause of God and of mankind. To my thinking, so far from 
 calling him a Christian, gentlemen of the jury, I can scarcely 
 count him human. There is so much of cold insensibility about 
 this creature something so utterly bloodless, yet so malignant, 
 that, were it not at the same time so very base, I should esteem 
 it devilish, and worthy of Lucifer himself. 
 
 " But, gentlemen of the jury, I am not yet done with this 
 part of my subject. I would like to place before you the evil 
 effect of encouraging a prosecution, such as the present, sound 
 ing in individual damages ; and the ground which I take for my 
 objection is in the very fact upon which Mr. Perkins rests his 
 strongest argument, namely, the patience with which this crea 
 ture submitted to be beaten. This very patience under blows, 
 I hold to be disgraceful to the manhood of the person, as it 
 would be to the manhood of the nation that submitted to them 
 tamely; and to pay him for thus submitting, will, gentlemen, 
 be paying a bounty to the rankest cowardice that ever de 
 graded man. Every dollar which you give to this mean crea 
 ture for this affair, is neither more nor less than a bounty to the 
 coward ; the effect of which must be to raise a brood of cow 
 ards throughout the country. We want no cowards in this 
 country. Our object should be to discourage them, to with 
 draw from them the countenance of the courts, and the ap 
 proval, even indirectly, of all honest men. We punish the 
 coward in the field, yet give a bounty to him in time of peace. 
 What a monstrous contradiction a contradiction not to be 
 reconciled by any resort to common justice or common sense. 
 Let us punish them alike in every case refuse them counte 
 nance in ordinary life, and never trust them in the field. Do 
 not suppose, gentlemen of the jury, that I am disposed by these 
 remarks, to encourage the wrong-doer in his violence, and to 
 drive the weak and unoffending from protection. Had this 
 man, Watson, who is neither weak nor unoffending, made good 
 fight, and been overcome after an honest struggle, by Shippen, 
 I should have been among the first to say that he should have 
 had a few hundred dollars damages; but, under existing cir 
 cumstances, it is my firm conviction that you will give him only 
 such damages as will carry the costs of prosecution, and dismiss 
 him from the presence of *he court with the unmitigated scorn 
 
NEW MODE OF ARGUING A CASE. 79 
 
 of all Avho have listened to the dishonoring testimony, which he 
 has this day, in his own case, produced against himself." 
 
 The half hour had elapsed, and Vernon sat down amidst 
 half-suppressed murmur of applause. Shippen, as soon as h( 
 had touched his seat, jumped up, clapped him upon his shoul 
 der, and exclaimed, so as to be heard by all around 
 
 "At him agin, Harry, only for a quarter more, and you shall 
 have another fifty." 
 
 The tears were in the eyes of the old man, and the fervency 
 of his expression, the frank, feeling tones of his voice, so oppo 
 site as he appeared in every respect to his opponent, Watson, 
 moved the sympathy of the whole court in his favor. But Ve/- 
 non declined his offer. He felt that he had made the proper 
 impression, and that anything more would only tend to weaken 
 and impair it. He was one of those fortunate men, of whom 
 there are so few in our hemisphere, whether in the senate, the 
 forum, or the pulpit, who know where to stop ; and, though 
 flattered by the obvious effect of his argument, so novel, and in 
 some respects ingenious of which we have given however, a 
 very feeble report he firmly resisted all the persuasions of 
 Shippen to renew the speech. 
 
 This single fact was not without its effect, upon the minds of 
 those present. That a lawyer should refuse a fae for a matter 
 seemingly so easy of execution, and that he should resist a 
 more difficult matter with young lawyers the temptation still 
 to talk when the auditors were willing to hear were events 
 to which our southwestern people are not habituated. The 
 confidence which his refusal indicated in what had been already 
 said, had its influence also. They jury retired from the box, 
 but before the verdict was returned which, par parenthese, 
 gave only nominal damages as Vernon had suggested Carter 
 entered the court-room suddenly, and in a whisper summoned 
 the young lawyer away. 
 
 " The governor is at Mrs. Baxter s, and would like to speak 
 with you a while." 
 
 Shippen would have detained him , and released him only 
 with a promise that he should go home and spend a night with 
 him, and see his wife Susan, and Bella, the little girl who had 
 Heen the innocent cause of the trial, anrl his plough oxen, and a 
 
80 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 fine blood mare that he had just got from Georgia, and a thou 
 sand other matters, most of which, at that moment, Vernon 
 might have had for the asking. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 POLITICIANS IN COUNCIL ESPIONAGE GLIMPSES OF 
 OUTLAWRY. 
 
 "I do accuse thee here 
 To be a man, factious and dangerous, 
 A sower of sedition in the state, 
 A turbulent and discontented spirit 
 Which I will prove." Sejanus, BEN JONSON 
 
 LET us return to the shed-room in the shop of Hawkins, 
 vhere we left our quondam friend. the soi-disant actor, carousing 
 with his new companion, Saxon. Hawkins had left the two for 
 a while, and during his absence employed himself no less busi 
 ly than did they, and possibly to more useful purpose. The 
 0od liquor, aided by the arts of Saxon who had his own 
 policy in it had been productive of its customary effect upon 
 the erratic youth, who was now plainly in the seventh heavei* 
 of theatrical hallucination. He treated his comrade to the 
 choicest selections of the old fathers of dramatic literature, and 
 mouthed in the becoming style of the best modern artists. Now 
 he gave imitations of Kean, excelling in the spasmodic hoarse 
 ness of his utterance in the fury of the Pythia without her 
 inspiration now the lugubrious winnings of Cooper, when cle 
 clining toward the fifth act; and now the guttural growl oi 
 Forrest, when, with singular bad taste, he imitates even the 
 death-rattle in the throat of the obese Vitellius. With much 
 talent, and a good deal of taste for the profession to which he 
 so desperately inclined, the want of a proper education in 
 schools furnishing intrinsic standards, left Horsey entirely open 
 to that worst of all misfortunes to talent in any country and 
 one which is the particular evil in ours the formation ^f hir 
 
POLITICIANS IN COUNCH 81 
 
 style and judgment upon models essentially erratic, and unreg 
 ulated by any just principle. To make a point, rather than to 
 act well the part, was too much his desire, as it seems the pre 
 vailing ambition with all our Daggerwoods ; and in the course 
 of a brief hoar, Saxon was treated to a dozen different readings 
 of all the disputed passages in Macbeth, Hamlet, Richard, and 
 the rest. 
 
 It was curious to see with what industry the youth had accu 
 mulated authorities on Shakspere. He had Gifford, Malone, 
 Steevens, Seymour, Rowe, Farmer, and some thirty or forty 
 more at his finger-ends, and could we look at this moment into 
 the little closet which was assigned him as a sleeping-room at 
 his father s house, we should see the works of all these persons, 
 accumulated on the table by his couch; he being also one of 
 those erring persons who read by night in bed. 
 
 These books were all he had left to show for the thousands he 
 had dissipated of his father s income ; and whether his outlay 
 had been a profitable one or not, would have been of no diffi 
 cult decision, were the father chosen to resolve the question, 
 To do the youth justice, however, it may be added, that he had 
 learned something of good from the schools, however erring and 
 even vicious, through which he had gone. A knowledge of 
 books, and even of men, infinitely beyond that usually in the 
 possession of persons in his secluded home, had been the result 
 of his Avanderings; and the roughness of the country clown had 
 been fortunately exchanged for a manner, which, though it 
 might be sometimes swaggering and obtrusive, was seldom 
 rude, and never brutal or insolent. As a further set-off to his 
 deficiencies, Tom Horsey was a good-natured, generous fellow, 
 who readily forgave injuries, conciliated friends, and took the 
 world always, as the world is required to take its wives, for 
 better or worse. " It s a damned bad world," Tom was in tLe 
 habit of saying over his cups, " that would not be content to 
 take him too on the same terms." 
 
 He did the world injustice, however, as Saxon strove busily 
 to convince him. The cool, wily outlaw, for such he was, lis 
 tened patiently to all the youth s recitations, and even encour 
 aged him to continue them by suggesting the quotations ; but, 
 at decent intervals, he would contrive to insinuate a side que& 
 
b liUKDEH BEAGLES. 
 
 tion touching other matters and in relation to persons, }:*y which 
 he contrived, in the overflow of the youth s garrulity, to get 
 from him everything within his knowledge in regard to his 
 father s concerns, and those of Carter his lodger, and Vernon 
 his guest. Some particular interest seemed, in his mind, to 
 lang over the probable proceedings of the latter; and all his 
 remarks, even, when he spoke of playing the topic on which 
 Horsey could always be commanded were calculated to fill 
 the latter with the persuasion that Vernon was about to go up 
 the country. 
 
 " If he does then, Saxon, by the pipers, I must pay for the 
 music; that is to say, I must treat according to the bet between 
 us for then, I shall take it for granted it is as you say; and 
 he s going up to join that booby Tilton s company though 
 he s but a poor codling if he does. That fellow, Tilton, is the 
 merest dolt and dunderhead, if you believe me, that ever bowed 
 to an audience. What the devil can he hope to play himself? 
 and as for his management management indeed ! A fico for 
 the phrase the thing can t answer, Mr. Saxon." 
 
 " Perhaps not, Mr. Horsey, yet what is the poor fellow to do? 
 Young ravens must have food you know the quotation?" 
 ^ " Ay, ay, * mine ancient, are you there 1 But let that humor 
 pass ! It is my doubt that this chap Tilton is but a crow ; 
 and will never get his corn in this field. If he can, God speed 
 him, I say, and help him to a better mind and finer figure 
 matters in which he needs all the help that God and man can 
 give him. As for the figure, I would not be his tailor for all 
 the cloth there would be more cutting to be done on the mar. 
 than the stuff. What I chafe at is his chance of failure, which 
 is so great for failure in a new scheme, throws back the 
 period and the prospect of success ; and the thing, which in 
 g.md hands might, nay must, be successful, would, I am free to 
 Uke another bet, be sure to fail in his." 
 
 / But if he gets good actors to begin with, Mr. Horsey." 
 
 Ay, that alters the case, but when did you ever know a fool 
 choose wise help 1 It is scarce a thing to be hoped for, how 
 ever much desired." 
 
 " What of this young fellow, Vernon, if 1 be one of th? 
 company 1" insinuated Saxon. 
 
POLITICIAN l.\ COUNCIL. 
 
 "You know my thought on that point. Dad says he s a 
 lawyer, and he as good as told rne the same thing himself. I ll 
 look into the business when I go home. But, let him be as you 
 think, and still I can say nothing of Til ton s choice. Harry 
 Vernon may be a smart chap enough, and certainly looks like 
 one, but the stage requires something more than that. Is he a 
 reader, say you ; has he discretion of points ; knows he his 
 author ; knows he his audience ; and to sum up all in little, has 
 he the divine gift, the born intelligence which makes the actor 
 a born actor, as completely as the poet is a born poet, if one at 
 all? These are the requisites, Master Brook, and a fellow 
 may be smart at law and smart at physic, who would show but 
 a dull ass upon the stage ; as I have seen a chap make a fine 
 speech at muster grounds from a stump, who sat a horse like a 
 jackdaw. To speak plainly, though I would not have it reach 
 Harry s ears, my best reason for doubting his being an actor is 
 that I believe he has no turn, no talent for the stage. I like 
 Harry so much already, that I should be sorry to see him fail." 
 
 "But why not join Tilton yourself?" 
 
 " Ah, Saxon, your question takes me all aback. If it were 
 not this d d fool Tilton, who will spoil everything, and, like 
 others who are as great fools as himself, though probably better 
 actors, he will be casting himself in all the first characters. If 
 I could be sure " 
 
 The sentence in which he was probably about to show the 
 weakness of his heart in its yearnings toward the old vanities 
 which he had so recently and solemnly renounced, was cut short 
 by the sudden entrance of Hawkins. 
 
 "Horsey," he cried on entrance, "I am afraid we shall lose 
 that bet with you. I have just got away from the courthouse, 
 where I left your friend Vernon in full argument." 
 
 " The devil you did. Said I not, said I not ! But what s 
 the business what s the case murder, rape, burglary, bat 
 tery?" 
 
 " Battery, battery ! He defends old Shippen against Watson, 
 whom he drubbed for insulting little Bella, his daughter. Wat 
 son got no more than he deserved, and your man Vernon s 
 serving him like all the world. I think the jury will hardly 
 singe Shippen s skirts, though Watson thought to smoke him tc 
 
84 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 the tune of two or three thousand dollars. Vernon s put a new 
 color on the colt, and people who thought him rather black 
 when he was first carried into court, now look upon him as 
 a rathsr pretty cream. He ll get off slick and easy ; that Ver 
 non s a smart fellow " 
 
 " By the ghost of Caesar, but I must hear Harry, I must. 
 What say you, Mr. Saxon, will you go along? what say you, 
 Hawkins ?" 
 
 An expressive glance of the eye, which the latter gave to 
 Saxon, led him to decline the invitation, and Hawkins pleading 
 business, the actor set off alone. He had scarcely taken his 
 departure when Hawkins, in a hurried and somewhat agitated 
 manner, taking Saxon farther into the apartment, and closing 
 the inner door, remarked 
 
 " Would you believe it, Saxon ; the governor has just got in 
 from below." 
 
 " Ah, indeed ; he comes alone I" 
 
 " Yes, and has gone to Mother Baxter s. But you take it 
 very coolly. Will you not be off?" 
 
 " Why should I take it otherwise. I know not that I have 
 anything to fear from his coming," was the calm reply. 
 
 " How ! said you not that you knew of advisers having g jne 
 to him from Alabama of that d d ugly business of Grafton; 
 and of your course from the Black Warrior, across to Missis 
 sippi." 
 
 " Yes ! But this is no trouble to me here. These advisers 
 tell of my aiming for the Yazoo, but nothing of my being so 
 low as this. Raymond is the last place where he would think 
 to find me." 
 
 " What can he come for then V 
 
 " That is a secret I should like to fathom. Can t we contrive 
 it, Hawkins. You have a room at this old woman s ?" 
 
 " Yes : but it s monstrous dangerous. It is risking every 
 thing." 
 
 " True ; and there are cases where everything must be risked, 
 
 if anything is to be saved ; and this is one of them. It is im- 
 
 : portant to find out how much of our secret they know. If they 
 
 have a list of names in Mississippi, the owners of thorn twist 
 
 take tracks for Texas without more delay. There i* no wiving 
 
POLITICIANS IN COUNCIL. 85 
 
 them else, and i misdoubt that this fellow Vcmou is employes 
 on some business above against us, which, it is absolutely 
 t necessary that \ve should gain a knowledge of." 
 
 " But this pleading speaks against it. The youth seems 
 really nothing more than a young beginner at the law on his 
 first circuit." 
 
 " That may be, and there is no good reason why a young 
 lawyer should not now and then try his hand at a more profit 
 able business. A governor s proclamation, with a reward of 
 two or three thousand dollars, is no bad inducement to a con 
 fident youth to try the capture of an outlaw. I must see more 
 of this youth and more of the governor before I leave 
 them ; and the long and the short of the matter is, that we 
 go to your room at once. He is even now, you say, at Mother 
 Baxter s." 
 
 "Even now and more another matter of which I forgot 
 to speak Carter has been with him ever since you came." 
 
 " And Vernon lodges with Carter ! see you not ; can you 
 doubt, Hawkins ? If I do, it is only the more resolutely to see 
 how far they are linked together, and to ascertain their objects 
 truly. We must see to it. I will leave you and take the right 
 hand side of the way toward the courthouse. Send Jenkins 
 round to the crooked oak with my horse, that he may be con 
 veniently in readiness. I may have to scud on short notice 
 That done, take your way to Baxter s, and meet me at the 
 entrance. Perhaps it would be quite as well to send the old 
 woman into the kitchen, or on some wild-goose errand, that the 
 coast may be clear. See to it now, Hawkins, with all your 
 eyes; for we arc in no sort of danger here; nobody here will 
 suspect us, unless we blunder through stupidity or haste." 
 r Saxon looked carefully to his pistols, which were well-con 
 cealed in the bosom of the overcoat he were. Nobody would 
 have suspected, under the calm, cool, dignified movement, the 
 doomed outlaw, standing on the brink of danger, and thought 
 ful only on the means of extrication from perils that environed 
 himself and comrades on every hand. His bowie-knife, that 
 dreadful instrument of summary and sanguinary vengeance, 
 whose edge, sharpened to a razor s keenness, was rendered rtill 
 terrible by the condensed weight of a sabre thrown into 
 
BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 uack, was adjusted in his breast so as to answer the first 
 movements of his hand ; and, with the confidence of one who 
 has prepared himself at all points for the worst, the bold man, 
 who is probably already recognised by the reader of our 
 previous work (Richard Hurdis) as an old acquaintance, left 
 the shop of his comrade and emerged calmly into the thorough 
 fare 
 
 Proceeding witl corresponding boldness, he went forward 
 where the throng was thickest, entered the courthouse, looked 
 on and listened for a brief space to the proceedings, then took 
 his way slowly to the house of Mrs. Baxter, where he had 
 appointed to meet with his comrade. Hawkins had so con 
 trived it, as to keep the passage clear. He led him through it 
 with slow and cautious footsteps, up the narrow stairway, and 
 thence into his chamber, which lay on the left hand, being the 
 room opposite that which the governor occupied. The little 
 landing-course at the head of the stairs a sort of platform, 
 some five feet wide, was the only space that separated the two 
 chambers. When Hawkins had closed his door, he gave Saxon 
 to understand that but a few moments had passed since Carter, 
 accompanied by Vernon, had gone into the governor s room, 
 ,iid his intelligence quickened the anxiety of Saxon to inquire 
 ,nto the purport of their business. Though scarcely governed 
 by so keen a motive as the outlaw, let us, however, go forward 
 more boldly than himself to procure the desired knowledge, 
 ana at one s enter the chamber in which the three are now as 
 sembled. We shall lose little by our delay, since the prelimi 
 naries of introduction those little formalities without which 
 the world does no business civilly occupied the brief space 
 between the entrance of Vernon to the conference, and the 
 beginning of our own and the outlaw s espionage upon its 
 progress. 
 
 "Our mutual friend, Mr. Carter, assures me, Mr. Vernou, of 
 your perfect capacity to do for me a certain business which is 
 important to the interests of the state, and which requires as 
 much secrecy and courage as intelligence. Can I hope for your 
 assistance ?" 
 
 The youth answered him briefly, that any service not incon- 
 with that upon which he was at present engaged would 
 
POLITICIANS IN COUNCIL. 
 
 be cheerfuLy undertaken by him, which would subserve :.!> 
 interests of the state, and oblige his excellency 
 
 " But your excellency is not aware, perhaps," he continued, 
 " that I am to leave Raymond, possibly to-morrow, for the 
 Yazoo neighborhood." 
 
 " It is that fact, in part," was the reply, "which prompts my 
 application. It is in that very neighborhood that your assist 
 ance will be required. I need not add, that, apart from th- 
 state s commission which will be given you, an adequate coin 
 pensation will be assigned for the time which may be consumed 
 in the service, and the degree of labor and peril to which you 
 may be subjected." 
 
 " It will give me pleasure, sir, to serve the state, even without 
 these considerations ; but, I must remind your excellency of 
 one qualification with which I prefaced my first reply. If the 
 ties required at my hands, shall, in any way^ affect the object 
 which I have in view, and which I must, under existing cii- 
 cumstances, esteem paramount to every other, I shall be com 
 pelled to decline the service, though I do so with extreme 
 reluctance, as a loss of opportunity for honorable employment. 
 Will you oblige me, sir, by suffering me to know the nature of 
 the business." 
 
 " Certainly. Briefly then : we have advices by express from 
 the authorities of Alabama, which inform us of a singular and 
 extensive plan of outlawry, which has its source either in that 
 state or in ours, and perhaps in both, and numbers no fewei 
 than fifteen hundred eU < rents in the two. This number has, 
 I doubt not, been gfie ously exaggerated. If it be not, we are 
 in very sad condition. Of one thing these letters assure me, 
 that many of our citizens, hitherto held in good esteem, are 
 sworn confederates of these banditti, and in one disguise or 
 another trail through all parts of the state, and sometime* 
 operate in fixed places with even more effect, as they appeal 
 under characters the more specious and imposing. Then we 
 have positive intelligence that some of our justices of the 
 peace belong to this band, and we are scarcely in doubt that 
 militia officer, of whom the public has hitherto thought \vry 
 highly, is himself a leader among these outlaws. Their Com 
 mander-in-chief, one Clym or Clem Foster, msfo his ^sc.-uv 
 
38 HORDEIt BfcAGLKS. 
 
 Iron, certain citi/ons of Tuscaloosn county about three weeks 
 ago, and was reported to have crossed ove" by way of Cotton- 
 gin Port within Viic last x en days. A man answering to his 
 description was sesn m Jiac neigh Dorhood about that time. 
 Thus, you have in brief the aspect of affairs, You see one of 
 the chief difficulties in. our way. To move openly, and with a 
 force drawn frorr. any other quarter of the state, to act upon 
 that in which these scoundrels congregate, would be only to 
 expel them temporarily, and we should fail probably in taking 
 a single prisoner. To place a special commission in the hands 
 of any person in that neighborhood, of whom we are not sure, 
 would be equally indiscreet, since it might be placing the whole 
 power of the state, for the time, in the control of one of the 
 very banditti whom we are striving to subdue. We want a 
 bold spirit, who will act vigorously when occasion serves ; but 
 one who can keep his secret, work himself so adroitly as to 
 sound those with whom he mingles, sift the worthy from the 
 unworthy, and embody them in the proper moment for the 
 capture or destruction of these wretches." 
 
 Vernon heard the speaker with close attention. We have 
 summed up in short, what was only delivered in a dialogue of 
 some length, in which the questions of the former necessarily 
 led to the revelation of many facts, of which, it is quite proba 
 ble, the governor spoke with some reluctance and with very 
 imperfect knowledge. When these facts had been obtained 
 tiie answer of Vernon was immediate. 
 
 " Your excellency shall judge for yourself of what service I 
 can be to you in this business, and how far it will prove con 
 sistent with my present objects to accept of your appointment. 
 While you will not deem my reluctance to arise from any lack 
 of desire to do my duty to the country which protects me, you 
 will, at the sair.e time, hold me guiltless of the vanity which 
 A ^uld assume me to be possessed of those endowments which 
 you esteem, and correctly, to be necessary to the proper success 
 of the person you select. You are probably, in part, advised 
 of the mission upon which I go to the Yazoo. I am in pursuit 
 of one, also a criminal, who, for aught we know, may be one 
 of these very ban<>^> Will it be iny policy to undertake thip 
 
POLITIC! - IN COUNCIL. 89 
 
 trust, when its execution may lead i::i i into conflicts and neces 
 sities which may defeat my present purpose?" 
 
 " Will it not ?" replied the governor. " The capture of one 
 of the band, the discovery of the secrets of one, and that one 
 not the person whom you pursue will these not be rather 
 more likely than not, to lead also to his detection?" 
 
 " 1 am afraid not, your excellency. Apart from the obvious 
 consequence of taking upon myself an additional employment, 
 which must be, to a certain extent, the diversion of my atten 
 tioii from, and my pursuit of, the one object; these felons, 
 according to your own showing, are in possession of so complete 
 a system, that unless you strike them, by a simultaneous blow 
 upon every link of their operation, you endanger the success 
 of your whole project. No one man, setting out as I do, with 
 so little preparation, and without concert with any other opera 
 tives, can possibly hope to effect anything in this double busi 
 ness. It would give me pride to act in this matter, as your 
 excellency desires ; believe me, sir, I feel deeply this honorable 
 compliment ; but I am perfectly convinced, that, unless it posi 
 tively happened in my way, to act upon the information you 
 give, I should esteem it unwise to go aside from my path, and 
 jeopard the success of that other purpose, which, as it is of 
 vital importance to Mr. Carter, is, I assure you, of little less 
 importance to me." 
 
 The governor seemed much chagrined by this answer, and 
 otrode the chamber with ill-concealed disquiet. Vernon resumed. 
 
 " When, however, I decline the assumption of this charge, 
 as a distinct and responsible appointment, your excellency, I 
 do not mean to say that I would not do anything, if called on 
 in a moment of emergency, to promote the welfare of the state 
 and secure its peace." 
 
 " You would confer on this subject with another, should I 
 send him to you you would act with him if it took you not 
 off from your present business ?" demanded the other eagerly 
 
 " More, sir ; I acknowledge your right, in the state s emer 
 gency, to call upon me to risk my life should that be necessary." 
 
 " Enough you shall have blank commissions to use at your 
 discretion, and I will give you Stay! did you hear nothing, 
 Mr. Carter ?" And as the governer put this question bis fingei 
 
BORDER BKAGLKS. 
 
 pointed to tlic inner door, leading to the stairway. A slight 
 rustling movement was evident at this moment, and instantly 
 approaching it, his hand was extended to the latch, when it 
 partially unclosed without his aid, as if in consequence of the 
 sudden withdrawal of one s grasp from without. The dark 
 outline of a man was perceptible through the aperture. 
 
 " The outlaw himself, by heaven !" cried he, as he beheld 
 the indistinct outlines of the person without. "It is Foster 
 it answers the description." 
 
 With these words the governor rushed to the door with the 
 intention of pursuing, but his purpose was defeated by a hand 
 from without, which, grasping the handle, drew it to, and held 
 it firmly against all his efforts. Meanwhile, steps were heard 
 as of one descending the stairs. The moments were precious, 
 and with that promptness of movement which was a prime and 
 distinctive feature in the character of Vernon, and tallied well 
 with his keen intellect, no less than with his great personal 
 strength, he threw his weight with a bound against the obstruc 
 tion, and bore it with a single effort from its hinges. The 
 frame-work was sustained only by the person from without 
 whose grasp had hitherto secured the door. In another moment 
 the arms of the youth were wrapped around him, and, in spite 
 of his exertions, he was hauled into the room to answer for his 
 essay at eavesdropping. 
 
 "What means this violence, gentlemen," demanded the eaves 
 dropper, who was no other than Hawkins. 
 
 " Who are you ? what do you here, and where is the other 
 ruffian, your comrade, sirrah ?" 
 
 " Hard words, sir, and you shall answer for them," was the 
 reply of the fellow. "I am here because I lodge here that 
 is my chamber, and by these stairs I descend from it, and go to 
 it when it pleases me. Take your hand from my collar, young 
 one, or I will hurt you." 
 
 He accompanied these words with a threatening action, which 
 Vernon, to whom they were addressed, only answered by hurl 
 ing him to the ground with as much ease as if he had been an 
 infant ; setting his knee upon his bosom, and drawing thence 
 the bowie-knife, the possession of which he suspected, as he 
 saw the fellow unbuttoning his vest. 
 
POLITICIANS IN COUNCIL. 91 
 
 "But the greater villain must l>e sccnrrd. I saw liis person 
 
 T have seen him before, and 1 am sure 1 can not be mistaken. 
 
 ft is Foster you heard him descending he can not be far 
 
 let us take this fellow forward till we can deliver him to an 
 
 officer, and set some in pursuit." 
 
 " You carry me not from this house," growled the fellow from 
 beneath the knee of Vernon. "This is my house my castip 
 and you shall answer for this, or there s no law for a pooi 
 man in Mississippi." 
 
 "You shall have law enough, my man," replied the governor. 
 Ben Carter since this fellow will give us the trouble to carry 
 dim run to the sheriff, and bid him bring his posse. We 
 si; all provide him closer lodgings for a time, and he may then 
 play eavesdropper to those who are more of his own com 
 plexion." 
 
 In due time Hawkins was delivered to the sheriff, and pur 
 suit commenced after the outlaAv ; but the hounds were soon at 
 fault ; the fox had baffled them, and was now out of reach 
 taking a zigzag course within five miles of Raymond, as coolly 
 as if there were no sheriff within fifty. By night he was back 
 again, and lingered long enough to hear from those who little 
 suspected his interest in the narration, a long story of his own 
 escape, and of Hawkins commitment. The story, went that 
 he and the governor had grappled fairly that the governor 
 had got all the advantages, but that he had got off. Which 
 WSJB pretty nearly the true state of the case. 
 
92 BORDER BEAGLES 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 OUR HERO TAKES THE HIGHWAY "THE STAR" IN CHA88 - 
 
 PLAY AT CROSS-PURPOSES. 
 
 "I hope that I shall ride in the saddle. O, tis a brave thing for a man 
 to sit by himself! He may stretch himself in the stirrups, look about, and 
 see the whole compass of the hemisphere. You re now, my lord, i the 
 aaddle." WEBSTER. The White Devil, 
 
 THE necessary documents had come, court was over in Ray 
 mond, and on a cold, frosty morning, while yet the day only 
 glimmered with a faint redness through the eastern chinks, 
 Harry Vernon, booted and spurred, prepared to mount his good 
 steed, on his journey of adventure. Carter stood beside him, 
 having given his last instructions. He was visibly affected with 
 the thought of parting from one whom he regarded as warmly 
 as he could have done his own and only child ; and this feeling 
 was much increased, as he beheld the unreluctant and prompt 
 determination of the youth to undertake and execute to the 
 "best of his abilities, a labor which involved the prospect of so 
 much fatigue, and, possibly of so much peril. This last con 
 sideration, at the moment of separation, pleaded more strongly 
 in the old man s mind than any other. 
 
 " And yet, Harry, my son," said he, " when I hear of this 
 banditti, and behold the audacity with which they act, I am 
 afraid to let you go. God forbid that you should risk your life 
 that 1 might recover or save a few thousands, which I should 
 be suffered but a few years to enjoy, and which I need not now. 
 It is not too late let William Maitland go, and prosper, if he 
 may, with his ill-gotten treasures why should I send after 
 him, to possible loss, one that I value so much more? Why 
 should you undertake this toil, which takes you from a profes 
 sion which you have so honorably begun ; and carries you 
 among the profligate and the dangerous ?" 
 
OUR HERO TAKES THE HIGHWAY. 93 
 
 " Nay, nay, my more than father," replied the youth affec 
 tionately, " you make the risks too great, and the object lesn 
 important than it is. There is but little danger, I trust, as I 
 shall manage the pursuit ; and it was only in order to avoid un 
 necessary encounters, that I declined accepting the governor s 
 offers. On this point I shall be well guarded. I shall proceed 
 slowly, moderately ; neither seeking the crowd, nor yet avoid 
 ing it ; and only penetrating into forbidden places, when there 
 are probabilities of my finding William Maitland within. The 
 loss is much greater than you think for, since, though you arc 
 liable only for the amount of your bond, yet, in a moral point 
 of view, you are not free from responsibility for all the money 
 over that amount, of which he has robbed the bank. Your 
 readiness to answer for his honesty, implied in your guaranty 
 for so much money, induced their trusts ; and, though they may 
 demand of you but thirty thousand dollars in law, in morals you 
 owe it clearly to them to spare no exertions which shall, in ad 
 dition, get them back the other sums for which they have no 
 responsible guaranty. A moment s reflection, under your own 
 convictions of what is right, must clearly establish to your mind 
 this truth. As for my danger set your heart at rest, as I shall 
 certainly set mine. I have a cool, deliberate temper, which 
 will not flare up at every fool s folly, and I am, I think, suffi 
 ciently under the guidance of prudent thought, to keep from 
 the heels of any brute in his moment of anger. Give me your 
 prayers, my dear sir, when I am gone, and I know not that I 
 shall find or need any better protection." 
 
 " Yet it is needful, my son, that you have some of the more 
 carnal engines. You have weapons ?" 
 
 " Enough, if pistol and bowie-knife can ever be enough. J 
 have a pair of pistols, and a small but ^leavy knife. I doubt if 
 I shall need them." 
 
 ;; I have then only to repeat what I have said before, Harry : 
 x have no desire to drive this man to utter destitution. He has 
 children the children of Ellen Taylor and she in her grave. 
 God forbid that I should do anything to make them destitute or 
 wretched. Let him yield everything, and, as I have told you, 
 I will secure to them the sum of twenty -five thousand lollars, 
 ude/: such restrictions as will keep it from his creators, and 
 
94 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 from his own profligacy. I need not say to you, however, that 
 he is one upon whom you can not rely ; you must have him in 
 your power ; you must keep him in your power, and the money 
 must be disgorged, before you sign papers. Avoid, I need 
 scarcely tell you, all unnecessary exposure of his villany, for 
 her sake, for the sake of her children, both of whom are fe 
 males." 
 
 " You have written, sir, to Mason at Vicksburg ?" 
 
 " Yes, and to Fleetwood at Benton, and Mercer at Lexington, 
 They will provide you with funds when called upon." 
 
 " There is nothing more to be asked," said the youth, leap 
 ing to his saddle. " I will write to you at Natchez when ne 
 cessary. God bless you, my dear sir, and jkeep you in health 
 farewell !" 
 
 He did not stop to hear the parting accents, tremblingly ut 
 tered, which the good man sent after him in blessings. In ten 
 minutes the forest had shrouded him from sight, and the tearful 
 eyes of Carter strained after him in vain. 
 
 Let us return to Saxon, otherwise Clement Foster, the out 
 law of Alabama. Having satisfied himself, by personal inquiry, 
 of the condition of Hawkins, his companion, in Raymond, he 
 left the village at midnight, and, to verify the scripture phrase 
 which denies all rest to the wicked, he rode nearly fifteen miles 
 at that late hour of the night. His course lay somewhat across 
 the country in the direction of Grand Gulf. He came at length 
 to a little farmstead, which stood in a half-dilapidated condition 
 at the head of a " turn-out," that was barely perceptible at any 
 time from the road, and only obvious at night to one familiar 
 with it. Here he routed up two men, who proved his confed 
 erates, and with whom he conferred for an hour before retiring 
 to rest. This he did at length in a shed-room of the hovel, 
 which, it would seem, from the tacit manner in which it was 
 got in readiness for him, without orders, was reserved for him 
 especially. Some portions of his conference with these men, as 
 they may affect this narrative, should be given to the reader. 
 
 "Has Jones come up from Pontchartrain 1" demanded the 
 leader. 
 
 He was answered by one of the men in the negative. 
 
 IIs will -then be here tc -morrow, but I shall not wait foi 
 
OUR HERO TAKES THE HIGHWAY. \)-) 
 
 him. He must go on as fast as horseflesh will carry him, an-d 
 meet me if he can at Brown Betsy s to-morrow night. You can 
 counsel him to come soher, if he comes at all, for I wish him to 
 skulk and follow, and play at point-hazard, perhaps, with at 
 keon a lawyer as rides the Mississippi circuit. Be sure and 
 tdl him this, that he may drink his alkalis and purge himself 
 -( the whiskey-bottle. It is a day s purgation ; but he must do 
 it while he goes. He brings your share of the money from the 
 Atchafalaya business ; but, by the Lord Harry, Stanton, money 
 -ooms to do you little good. You are even now in rags." 
 
 " That s because I don t get it by good means, I suppose " 
 said the fellow spoken to, in half-sleepy, half-surly accents. 
 
 "What, do you preach too, sirrah? But go to bed, and 
 forget not when you waken what I tell you now. You will 
 also remember it, Drake. The matter is of more consequence 
 than you think for, and will swamp us all, if we keep not our 
 eyes open and our heads clear. To sleep to sleep." 
 
 At day-dawn, the outlaw was again in motion, visiting other 
 haunts and dwellings of his fraternity, that lay in his way, 
 while pursuing nn upward course that carried him along the 
 waters of the Loosa Chitto or Big Black river. It so happened 
 that this very course was that taken by Vernon, though the 
 latter, as his progress was straight-forward, was necessarily 
 much in advance of the outlaw. 
 
 At the time of which we write, this regu n of country was 
 very thinly settled. The traveller rode fort} or fifty miles per 
 day, very frequently without seeing sign of human habitation, 
 and his road lay through swamps that seemed like vast rivers 
 of mire, which his horse, with a feeling like his own, would 
 approach with a footstep most mincing and deliberate. Travel 
 in such a territory is travail, indeed ; and to one accustomed 
 only to the stage and steamboat facilities of the Atlantic states, 
 it has the aspect of something even more afflicting. The swim 
 ming of creeks surcharged by freshets, and wading through the 
 ooze of a cane-brake, each plunge into which makes the mire 
 quiver around the very shoulders of your horse, would be some 
 thing of a warning to young couples to stay at home the first 
 month after marriage, in that neighborhood, and not go upon 
 connubial expeditions of two or three hundred miles, just after 
 
96 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 the knot has been safely fastened. Its disruption might be no 
 infrequent consequence of such a doubtful practice. 
 
 To one like Vernon, however, bold, and governed by a tem 
 perament that gloried in a dash of romance, the occasional per 
 ils of such a course were lost altogether in the novelty of the 
 circumstances ; and he dashed through the creek with a confi 
 dent spur, without stopping like more wary adventurers to 
 probe his footing with a pole, then drive his horse through the 
 stream, while he " cooned a log" above it. 
 
 These little obstructions were not unfrequent in his route, but 
 they offered no impediment to him. The duties of life and 
 manhood, opening for the first time fairly upon his conscious 
 ness, were provocative of that stimulus only, which we are apt 
 to see in the forward boy, to whom nothing gives so much de 
 light as being permitted to flourish with the tools of full-grown 
 men. He had neither father nor mother, with painful misgiv 
 ings of himself, to awaken his own painful thoughts ; and, un 
 like most young men of his age, his heart remained perfectly 
 uncommitted to any one of the hundred damsels, who, in every 
 civilized community, seem always to lie in waiting for fugitive 
 hearts. In short, he had little to lose of positive possession, 
 whether of wealth or affection ; he had everything to gain in 
 both respects. His income was yet limited, and for ties, he 
 knew none nearer than that with the worthy Mr. Carter. His 
 present object was calculated to serve himself no less than his 
 patron, though the handsome reward offered by the bank for 
 the recovery of the lost money, or the delivery of the felon, 
 would never have moved the proud young lawyer from his 
 chosen place at the bar, but that the interests of his friend 
 his preservation, in fact absolutely required it. But this the 
 reader already understands. 
 
 The turn of noon was at hand, and as yet our young traveller had 
 eaten nothing. The thought of himself made him considerate of 
 his horse, a noble animal, the gift of Carter some two years be 
 fore. A pleasant rising-ground oil his right, from the f( ot of which 
 a little branch wandered prattling across the road, s;:ggcs ed all nec 
 essary conveniences for i ef reshment, the other appliances being forth 
 coming. 
 
 " We will ride, Sylvan^ up this hill, which seems ras-y enough to 
 
OUR HERO TAKES THE HIGHWAY. 9? 
 
 give you a good hour s employment, and, in the meanwhile, Mrs. Hor 
 sey ." biscuits and smoked beef shall answer my purposes. The good 
 old lady ! how she wondered to find her plate of biscuits missing, 
 and how she routed the cook, and Tom, the waiter, and the whole 
 household, except the true thief, touching their loss. I suppose, 
 by Ms time, Carter has told her all about it the why and the 
 wherefore. Good old man ! If I can oaly save hini this money, 
 I shall feel that I have done something to deserve the favor which 
 he has always shown me. If mind and body can do this t^irg 
 such as I have shall be given without stint or hesitation to the task so 
 Heaven prosper me in my own purposes hereafter." 
 
 This soliloquy was muttered as the youth rode his horse upon 
 the hill, and led him to a spot where he might graze freely with 
 out wandering. He stripped him of the saddle and vaMse, which he 
 placed beside a log, then seating himself, drew forth Lis little store 
 of provisions, the biscuits which had been appropriated by Carter 
 the night before, to the probable consternation of his wor by land 
 lady. To have asked for them, would have been to declare the 
 purpose of travel which Vernon Lad in view, nr.d this, once 
 known to the mother would have been , c :oon known to the son Tom, 
 and through his communicative medium to every third person, at 
 least, in the little world of Raymond. The knife of our traveller 
 was already buried in the smoked beef, when his ear extinguished 
 a sound not unlike that of en approaching horseman. The e:irs of 
 his own steed pricked upward at the sound, and when it became more 
 distinct, the conscious animal whinnied as if with the joyful con 
 viction that he was about to Lave a companion. Yemen started to 
 his f set as the horseman came in sight, and was absc lutely dumb 
 with astonishment to recognize, at a single glance, the person of 
 our eccentric friend, Tom Horsey. His horse was w< 11 heated by 
 hard riding, and covered with foam ; and he himself, though chuck 
 ling mightily at having found the object of his search, alighted 
 from his steed with the air of one whose bones ached with his un 
 wonted jolting. 
 
 " Ah, Harry, Harry ! What shall I say to thee, Harry ? 
 Shall I call thee a traitor to friendship to heel it before day- 
 peep, and say no word to the fellow most after thy own hea.rt ? 
 
98 BORDEK BEAGLES. 
 
 That was the unkindest cut of all. 1 I did not think it of thee, 
 Harry ! By the gh ost of Garrick, I did not !" 
 
 Much annoyed at his pursuit and presence, Vernon was quite 
 too much surprised at the event, and too curious to know the 
 cause of the actor s pertinacity, to express himself as freely, and 
 perhaps as harshly, as he might otherwise have done. 
 
 " Truly, Mr. Horsey, I know not what you mean, or what 
 you have to complain of. I am surprised to see you here." 
 
 " You need be ; you deserve no such love at my hands, 
 Harry Monmouth. You should have spoken out like a man 
 though you said it in a whisper. Am I a man to blab ? Can t 
 I be trusted, think you ? By Pluto, Harry Vernon, I can be as 
 close as Ben Carter himself, and the dry cock should never have 
 heard a syllable ! Bah ! I am monstrous tired. That rascally 
 horse goes all one-sided he has been ruined, by dad, and will 
 never suit any but a lame man again. I do think he has dis 
 located my hip." 
 
 " Your father s horse, Mr. Horsey ? How can the old man do 
 without him ? You will surely return with him immediately." 
 
 " Devil a bit, Harry, devil a bit. He deserves to lose him 
 for not having a better in the stable, and I will trade him off 
 the first chance, though I get one old as Methusaleh." 
 
 " But wherefore are you here, Mr. Horsey ? You do not 
 mean to travel, surely." 
 
 "Do I not? Look at the bags! Filled, sir filled to the 
 muzzle, with my best wardrobe. There s a Romeo and a Ham 
 let, two field-officers, and a Turk in that wallet, not to speak of 
 certain inexpressibles, which will do for a dozen uncertain char 
 acters. But this is dry work. What s in your flask?" 
 
 He did not wait to be answered, but clapped the bottle, which 
 lay with the bread and beef at Vernon s feet, to his mouth, and 
 long and fervent was the draught which he made therefrom. 
 
 " Good whiskey that, and whiskey s an honest beverage. 
 And now, Harry, a bite of your biscuit. You will laugh, per 
 haps, but, of a truth, I look upon FalstafFs proportion of bread 
 and sack, as decidedly the best for a traveller in winter. This 
 is a nipping and an eager air, and nothing blunts its edge so 
 well as a good sup of Monongahela. This dough stuff makes 
 one feel as dry and crusty as itself. But you do not eat, Ver 
 
OUR HERO TAKES THE HIGHWAY. 99 
 
 " Why, truly, sir, I am so surprised to see you here, that 1 
 had almost forgotten that I was hungry. But, perhaps, you 
 bring me some message from Mr. Carter V 
 
 "Carter, indeed! Oh, no! I was quite too sly for that. 
 The moment Jim told me you were off for it seems he saw 
 you and Carter go to the stable by dawn, or, as he swears, be 
 fore it I had just risen to take my antifogmatic ; and at the 
 word, I at once guessed what you were after ! " 
 
 " Indeed ! And pray what was that ?" demanded Vernon, 
 with some curiosity, interrupting the garrulous speaker. 
 
 " Ah, ha ! all in good season, my master. You thought to 
 blink me, Harry, but you must know I had a hint of your true 
 business two days before from some clever chaps in Raymond." 
 
 The wonder of Vernon increased, but the other suffered him 
 as little time to indulge it as to make inquiries. 
 
 " I tipped Jim the wink set him to saddle Gray Bowline, 
 dad s old dot-and-go-one, and fasten him behind the stable, 
 while I donned my first come-atables, and rammed the rest in 
 dad s old saddle-bags, where I ll show them to you when you 
 please. These I handed to the sooty scamp, Ayho will do any 
 thing for my love when paid in money and he got the nag 
 caparisoned in twenty minutes, and ready to my heel. Down 
 stairs I went, and plump ! met the old lady, my ever ven 
 erable mamma, in the passage-way. Tom, says she, where 
 are you going so soon ? * Don t ask me, mother, says I, look 
 ing monstrous hurried, and going fast ahead, don t ask me, I 
 beg you ; and off I went. In two minutes I was on and off. 
 A few bounds brought me into the woods, and your track was 
 fresh enough for the eyes of a young hunter. I heard of you 
 once by the way, but your nag goes monstrous fast, if he 
 goes easy! Mine! by the petticoats of Ophelia after her 
 drowning he has skinned me utterly all of one side. I have 
 found you, however, my dear Harry, and I don t value the 
 skinning. We shall never part again. Skin or no skin under 
 my bends, I keep up with you though the devil s brimstone 
 smokes under your horse s tail." 
 
 " Indeed, Mr. Horsey, but there go two words to that bar 
 gain," replied Vernon, with an air of resoluteness, and a faoe 
 of but half-concealed chagrin. 
 
100 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 " Agreed shall be one of them, Harry," replied the unem 
 barrassed actor. 
 
 " But how, Mr. Horsey, if I tell you that our roads lie apart 1" 
 * Impossible ! they do not, Harry by my soul they do not ! 
 I have the best information on that subject. As I said before, 
 1 know your secret, your whole plan of operations, and, by all 
 the blessings of the foot-lights and a fine audience, if you do 
 not suffer me to join with you in the business and share profits, 
 I ll run against you. I ll take the morsel from your mouth, 
 And pluck the golden-eyed success away 
 From your young grasp. " 
 
 " What can this witless fellow drive at ?" was the unspoken 
 soliloquy of Vernon, ere he replied to the speaker. " Can he 
 really know anything 1 it is scarcely possible. There is some 
 mistake ; and I must sound him cautiously." Aloud : 
 
 " And what may be this goodly scheme of mine, Mr. Horsey, 
 in Avhich your mind is so resolutely bent to share. I am .posi 
 tively puzzled, and know not how it is possible that a purely 
 private business " 
 
 " Purely private, you call it. Egad, before I m done with 
 it, it shall be public enough. You thought yourself mighty 
 secret in your schemings,<md I confess you did blind me for 
 awhile, and I took it for granted that you really had no other 
 object in view than to run the dry course of a lean lawyer, and 
 jog from court-house to court-house, circuit after circuit, pick 
 ing up your pay in corn and bacon, and getting a bastard fame 
 from speeches as full of words as Gratiano s, made in cases of 
 trespass, pounding, black eyes, and bloody noses. I give you 
 iredit, now that I discover your purpose, for being something 
 colder, and for an ambition of a more enduring and ennobling 
 sort. But I can hardly forgive you, Harry, for keeping a dumb 
 side to me when you knew my passion. I can be trusted, as 
 you shall see. You will find me a man after your own heart, 
 if your heart be open ; a fellow wise enough to speak only 
 upon cues, though otherwise a born rattler ; and one who, what 
 ever his woolheaded neighbors may say, can always tell a 
 hawk from a handsaw, in whatever quarter the wind may bloAv." 
 
 Puzzle on puzzle!" exclaimed Vernon, now more than 
 aver convinced that his companion was mad. " What is it that 
 
OUR HERO TAKES THE HIGHWAY. 101 
 
 you really mean, Mr. Horsey ? speak plainly, or I shall suspect 
 you to be a candidate for bedlam or the calaboose." 
 
 "Bedlam or the calaboose! Come! I don t like that so 
 well, Harry Vemon. I take it as something unkind, sir, that 
 you should speak in such fashion. But, I see how it is ; I for 
 give you ; it is natural enough that you should look on me as 
 one likely to go between you and the public. But you shall 
 find me generous. By the powers, Harry, I care not much 
 where I come in, whether as one, two, or three, when a friend s 
 fortune and desires are concerned. You shall go before, and I 
 will follow, or we will enter side by side, on equal terms, march 
 ing to equal victory. Envious or jealous of rival merit, I never 
 was and trust never to become, satisfied that success has twenty 
 thousand hands, and one willing for every bold, worthy fellow 
 that stands ready and dares to grasp it. Harry Vernon, I 
 drink to our joint success." 
 
 The actor repeated his draught, but Vernon began to be se 
 riously annoyed by the intrusion, and thought it high time to 
 put an enc t it. Never dreaming of the conjecture which had 
 taken such possession of his companion s brain, and ignorant, 
 of course, of the stories which had been told him, he could form 
 no positive idea of the subject of his ravings, and began seri 
 ously to consider him a fitting inmate for the calaboose or bed 
 lam, as he had already suggested, to the other s momentary 
 discomfiture. His first movement, therefore, was to restore his 
 spirit-flask to the valise, then, assuming what calmness of man 
 ner he could, and taking especial care that while his words 
 should be inoffensive, they should be to the point at least, he 
 addressed him in a manner which was intended to bring his 
 play at cross-purposes to a conclusion. 
 
 " You have said a great deal, Mr. Horsey, which for the life 
 of me I can not understand. Pray tell me, without quotation 
 or circumlocution, what it is you mean what you intend 
 and above all what scheme it is, which you assume that we en 
 tertain in common. I am not peevish nor fretful in my dispo 
 sition, yet I am not willing to suffer any trifling or merriment 
 at my expense." 
 
 " Or, in more legitimate phrase, considering our purposes." 
 repeated the actor 
 
102 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 "TlmiiL h I am not spleiiM ive and rash, 
 Yet have I in me something dangerous, 
 Which let thy wisdom fear. 
 
 Prithee, my good Hamlet, smooth thy looks, and dismiss that 
 cloud, full of lightning, that teems in threatening above thy 
 brows. I mean thee no harm, no hurt, no offence. I am a 
 fellow, as I tell thee, after thy own heart, and thou dost wrong 
 thyself no less than me, to be angry with me. Why wouhlst 
 thou that I should tell thee in plain, point-blank matter, what 
 is thy business, and what should be mine? as if thou waci 
 resolved not to know, and couldst deceive me any longer. Do^t 
 thou not seek Tilton ?" 
 
 "Tilton !" exclaimed Vernon in profound astonishment, min 
 gled with something more of good humor than before, as it now 
 became obvious to him that Horsey had blundered upon the 
 wrong man, and knew nothing of his secret, of which he had 
 been in some little apprehension. 
 
 " Ay, Tilton, Tilton, the little lamplighter and candle-snuffer 
 and letter-carrier for so many years at Caldwell s. He, who has 
 now set up to be an actor, a manager, and what not ; and is 
 going to open at Benton, where thou and I if thy stomach be 
 not too proud, Harry Vernon, for such companionship, as I 
 greatly fear me it is will star it together, to the confusion and 
 admiration of the natives. There ! you have it ; and might 
 have saved me all this trouble by owning to the truth before. 
 Deny me now if thou canst, my bully rook ; thou art not aim 
 ing at Benton thou dost not seek for Tilton thou wouldst 
 not leave the dry bones of the law, for the wit of Mercutio and 
 the marrow of Falconbridge. In short, thy ambition leads 
 thee not to emulate the Garricks and the Keans, the Macreadys, 
 the Forrests, the Coopers, the " 
 
 The unmitigated laughter of Vernon silenced the actor, whose 
 face nf exultation it turned of a sudden into soberness. 
 
 " What do you laugh at, Mr. Vernon, I should like to know ? 
 
 " Who put this silly thought into your head, Mr. Horsey ! 
 Who could have bedevilled you with this nonsense?" 
 
 " Bedevilled ! Silly thought ! I see nothing silly about it, 
 Master Vernon, and wonder that you should. Do you deny it V 
 
 " Every syllable." 
 
OUR HERO TAKES THE HIGHWAY. 108 
 
 u What, that you are about to appear on the stage ?" 
 
 " I do." 
 
 " You are not going to Benton to join the company ?" 
 
 " On my soul, I am not." 
 
 " Or wherever the company may act ? You go not to join 
 Tilton r 
 
 " I know nothing of the man." 
 
 "It won t do that cock won t fight, Harry Vernon," re 
 sponded the other, after a pause. " I have the matter on good 
 evidence. Deny it as you may, I believe it ; begging your 
 pardon for seeming to doubt you ; but the truth is, that all the 
 circumstances tell against you. 1 am sure you are going to join 
 Tilton, and, my dear fellow, confess the truth ; you will not 
 trust me with your secret, for fear that I shall blab it to Ben 
 Carter. But, on my honor " 
 
 " Believe what you will, Mr. Horsey," replied the other with 
 recovered gravity. " I have no sort of objection to any strange 
 notion that you may take into your head ; only, I pray that 
 you may not bother me with the mare s nests that you may 
 discover, nor challenge my admiration of the eggs." 
 
 " You re angry with me, Harry. Come, my dear boy, hand 
 out your flask again, and we ll take a sup of reconciliation." 
 
 " No, sir ; I will let you drink no more while you are with 
 me. You have taken a mouthful too much already." 
 
 How, sir, do you mean " 
 
 The swagger of the worthy histrion, who was not apt to be 
 a braggart, and was in truth a good-meaning felloAv, was cut 
 short by the sudden and angry interruption of his more solid 
 and resolute companion : 
 
 " Look you, Mr. Horsey, my road lies above, and yours is 
 below, with your parents. Let us separate." 
 
 " Nay, nay, Harry Vernon ; but you are quite too hard upon 
 me. Don t be vexed with me, because I am a d d good- 
 natured fool, that loves good company too well to quarrel with 
 it. I don t mean to vex you, but I am resolved, unless you put 
 a bullet through my cranium, to keep up with you to Benton. 
 I d rather lose anything short of life than lose the chance of a 
 good engagement. So, whither thou goest, thither will I go 
 also where thou leadest there will ! follow at least, until 
 
104 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 the manager gives out the casts, and then, Harry, as thou wilt, 
 and the author pleases." 
 
 This resolution, though it annoyed Vernon, as it expressed a 
 determination to keep with him whether he would or not, and 
 might for a while operate against his objects, was yet expressed 
 in terms and a manner so very conciliatory and the poor 
 histrion seemed so completely to speak from his heart, that 
 Vernon resolved to bear with him awhile, nothing doubting, 
 that, when the other found, as he was like to do in another 
 day, that his footsteps did not incline to the place where the 
 actors had pitched their tents, he would be very willing to leave 
 him without more words. He contented himself, therefore, with 
 renewing his assertion that he had nothing to do with the 
 players, and that Horsey deceived himself, or had been grossly 
 misled on the subject of his inclining to the stage. But the 
 reasseveration was of no avail. The faith was infixed too 
 deeply, and with a chuckle, as he mounted his nag, the enthusi 
 astic actor replied 
 
 Oh, what s the use, Harry, my boy, of keeping up that 
 ball ? It must come down sooner or later, and one would think 
 you would be weary of such a sport. Let this humor cool 
 it is no good humors. Look not coldly upon me, for, on my 
 soul, if thou wilt have it so, thou shalt have the choice of the 
 cast whatever it may be, and as for little Tilton, he shall learn, 
 as a first lesson, that we shall neither of us do anything for 
 him, unless we do it to our own liking. And now to horse 
 to horse 
 
 Wanton ns youthful goats, wild as young bulb. " 
 
 It was scarcely possible for Vernon to resist laughter; cer 
 tainly, he found it impossible to keep anger with such a crea 
 ture ; a thing so light, so weak, so utterly wanting in all 
 those timely calculations of propriety and good providence, 
 as to make it seem a sort of brutality to visit upon his faults 
 with harshness. They took horse together, and while they 
 rode, the actor seasoned the way and dialogue with quotations, 
 
 " Thick as leaves in Valambrossa." 
 
 Vernon strove at every opportunity to disabuse his mind of 
 the error which it had -adopted in reference to himself: but hit 
 
SUPPER PROSPECTS. 106 
 
 very earnestness seemed only the more to convince the other to 
 the contrary. His answer to all such efforts consisted only of 
 a half-laughing rebuke to his companion, who aimed at the 
 monopoly of the best character, and was jealous of that inter 
 position and rivalship on his part, which he studiously assured 
 Vernon, at the same time, should never annoy him. The latter 
 gave up the effort which he found so perfectly unavailing, 
 leavmg it to time, the general rectifier of man s mistakes, to 
 put a conclusion to this. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 SUPPER PROSPECTS BROWN BESS A COTTAGE HEROINE- 
 BLOOD AN* OUNDS. 
 
 "How indirectly all things are fallen outf 
 I can not choose but wonder what they were, 
 
 Rescued your rival 
 
 If I fit you not 
 
 With such a new and well-laid stratagem, 
 
 As never yet your ears did hear a finer, 
 
 Call me with Lilly, JBos, Fur, Sus atque Sacerdos." 
 
 BEN JONSON Tale of a Two. 
 
 YOUTH is not the season for enduring enmities. That is a 
 cold heart and a malignant spirit which preserves its bitterness 
 and asperities through the summer, and in spite of all its sun 
 shine. Harry Vernon, besides being of a just and generous 
 nature, was also of a cheerful and social one, and he soon 
 discovered that there was no good reason for keeping up a 
 cloudy front to the vacillating and wayward creature who rode 
 beside him, and whom an erring judgment, and, probably, fine 
 but misdirected endowments, were hurrying on to his own 
 destruction. By degrees he resumed his kindly manner to the 
 obtrusive but well-meaning actor, and as he found that he could 
 not rid himself of his company, he resolved to make the most 
 of it. This resolution once taken, it required but few wordi 
 
lOd BORDER BEAftLRS. 
 
 MI i he part of V>rn<>!i to unlock all >.> of memory and 
 
 experience in Horsey s possession. Tho erratic creature, from 
 long wandering into forbidden places, had picked up a whole 
 sale, if not wholesome, collection of anecdote and story. His 
 imitative faculties were good, and he illustrated his scenes by 
 taking off, with considerable humor, the various persons who 
 appeared in them. Shakspere, too, was at his fingers ejuls, 
 and there was no lack of passages, to fill out his own remarks, 
 and enliven their deficiencies. The dog read well, too, with 
 the single reservation, that he had not yet learned that nice 
 and most necessary art of all that art which scarcely one of 
 our artists possesses in a meritorious degree of subduing his 
 utterance to the demands of the character, and the capacities 
 of his own voice. This evil results, in most cases, from the too 
 great size of the theatre, which, as it calls for great physical 
 powers of voice, must, except in the case of energies singularly 
 masculine, for ever defeat its nicer regulations. 
 
 Horsey had throat enough, and the very best of lungs, and 
 he was glad of any opportunity for using them. The woods 
 soon rang with his sonorous passages, and Vernon, with the 
 feeling of the cautious citizen, always alive to ridicule, could 
 not help now ar.d then looking around him, as if apprehensive 
 that, other ears were suffering from those clamors that seemed 
 almost to perforate his own anew. 
 
 These declamations, be it understood, however, were not 
 given with the reckless rapidity of one who has nothing beside 
 in store of his own ; but the actor ingeniously contrived that 
 they should only occur in such places, in his own dissertations, 
 where they might enforce and illustrate what he said. This 
 was one of his arts additional, by which he contrived that his 
 masterpieces should be brought into play ; and, like the fellow 
 who had a gun-story, and in order to introduce it fairly into 
 company, acquired the art of imitating the report of a pistol, so 
 Tom Horsey practised, when alone, those generalizing opinions 
 on a thousand subjects, under some one of which he could always 
 classify the fine things of Brutus and Cassitis, Hamlet, Hotspur, 
 and Macbeth. When, with a generous consideration of his 
 companion, and a moderation which few great talkers are jirrsno 
 to practise, he had tired himself fairly down, lie came to i. halt 
 
S17PPEB iMio.si KCTS, 107 
 
 and declared aloud his resolution to pause in time, for fear he should 
 also tire down his hearer. 
 
 "But, could you hear me, Harry, when the scene is filling, 
 when the characters are by, the audience silent and watchful, 
 and the curtain drawn it would be something. You would 
 say it were something, and that I were no insane fool, as some 
 of dad s friends will have it, and Ben Carter among them. I 
 feel that I have it in me, Harry Vernon, and, by the Lord 
 Harry, but it shall come out. I have never had a fair chance 
 yet, but the time must come. Hitherto, they have taken ad 
 vantage of my necessity, and I have been compelled to walk 
 through wooden parts, which I scorned to move in with any 
 wasteful animation of my own. Nothing but the delight of be 
 ing upon the boards, amid the blessed blaze of lights which are 
 nowhere so lovely to my eyes as in a playhouse, could have 
 made me endure the damnable persecution and miserable jeal 
 ousies of those poor, incapable creatures, that were able to do 
 nothing themselves, and hated the very sight of others who had 
 it in them to do everything. I could tell you stories of the 
 drudgery of the stage, of the malice and the meanness of the. 
 actors, of the mercenary baseness of managers, their impracti 
 cability and insolence when successful, and their d d dishon 
 esty when otherwise, which would shock you to hear, and 
 which you could scarcely ever believe. But you \vill learn for 
 yourself. One week with the little lamplighter unless you 
 make a hit and then you can snap your fingers in his face, 
 and kick him with your worst boots, and still have his thanks 
 one week with him, however, as a stock-player, and you will 
 curse your stars that endowed you with faculties, yet left them 
 at the mercy of such eternal skunks as your generality of man 
 agers are sure to be. But let us bully little Tilton, and play 
 our own characters, work our way up the Mississippi, break out 
 like little comets with a double length of tail in Louisville and 
 Cincinnati, and, by-and-by touch the Park boards the zenith 
 of theatrical eminence in America, where Mr. Kean told us, 
 with an equivocal sort of compliment, that the taste for the 
 drama was periodical and then, the devil take the hindmost 
 hey-, for the crown and the triumph, the chariots and the horse 
 man 
 
BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 *"A kingdom for ;\ ^ -.\^< j-i-inc,-- fo net, 
 
 Ami rnonarchs to oehuld tin: &ut-ii;ng scene. " 
 
 " Supper first," said Vernon, "or I shall never sufficiently 
 ascend that highest heaven of invention, to behold with you so 
 respectable an audience, or to regard it with any sort of satis 
 faction when 1 do so. Look ahead see you ?iothiner of a log 
 house ? There should be one on the left, a little in the woods. 
 That must be our baiting-place to-night; and, if you will prick 
 up your beast, Mr. Horsey, which, in your own industry, you 
 have been indulging long enough, we shall probably avoid 
 the prospect, of which there is some present danger, of being 
 compelled to sleep in Big Black swamp to-night, with nothing 
 but Shakspere to keep us warm or satisfy our hunger." 
 
 " And enough, too. He has kept me warm and been my only 
 supper many a night. But, I do see something of an opening, 
 and it is to the left. By the ghost of David, Harry Vernon, an 
 if it slial! be a large one, we ll have a few passages we ll make 
 a rouse. Because thou art virtuous shall there be no more cakes 
 and ale! it is a house ay, and ginger shall be hot i the 
 mouth too. " 
 
 j. "Husli!" said Vernon, with singular gravity. "Be still, if 
 you do not want to lose every chance of supper. Chickens in 
 these -parts take to the woods whenever they hear or see a 
 stranger they know, poor devils, by a sort of instinct, the 
 fate that awaits them." 
 
 " Gad, if that be true, it is a very singular fact. Are you 
 , serious, Master Vernon V 1 
 
 Serious ! Do you think I could jest about such a matter I 
 But, see there s the woman of the house. She must have 
 heaid you the last three miles. If not utterly out of voice from 
 your late exertions, you will perhaps be the best spokesman 
 here. See if we nan get beds and bacon the chickens, I sup 
 pose, unless she has them in coop already, can not be though i 
 of." 
 
 " A very singular fact !" muttered Horsey, as giving spur tQ 
 his steed, he led the way to the wigwam, leaving Vernon U 
 follow at his leisure. 
 
 "Accommodations!" said the woman, who was a somewhat 
 ill-favored person, probably forty years of age, having a face 
 
SUPPER PEOSPECTS BROWN BESS. IDS 
 
 sober and grave even to sternness, and speaking in accents slow, 
 harsh, and indifferent have I accommodations for two for the 
 night ? Yes, sir, I have ; but they are none of the best, and 
 neither of you gentlemen would be much the better of them. 
 Perhaps, you d better ride farther, and you ll be suited belter. 
 The night s clear enough, though it be cool, and, if you re go 
 ing to strike for the lower ferry, you ll get a place to lie at, ten 
 miles ahead. The upper ferry-house is farther on, but not 
 much, and the road s pretty clear in a starlight. You d better 
 ride on, I m thinking." 
 
 "Nay, my good madam, that will hardly suit is," replied 
 Vernon, riding up " we have already ridden near forty miles 
 to-day, having come from Raymond, and I am resolved, unless 
 you positively deny us shelter, to go no farther to-night." 
 
 " I m sure I don t deny you, sir ; I only tell you how little 
 we can do here to make you comfortable. We re mighty poor 
 ueople in these parts, and have little to give strangers to make 
 Jiein satisfied. Now, ten miles beyond " 
 
 " No more, my gooa madam," said Vernon, alighting from 
 his horse; "we stop with you to-night; and the sooner you 
 give us supper the better. In the meantime, you can tell my 
 friend here what I have already told him, that your chickens 
 have already taken to the woods." 
 
 "Chickens--" 
 
 The speech of the woman was cut short by Horsey, who had 
 been steadily watching her features with an air of interest, and 
 who now advanced, laid his hand on her shoulder, with a de 
 gree of familiarity that made her start and look disquieted, if 
 not angry, as she strove to withdraw herself from so great a 
 freedom. This, however, he v ould not oiiffer. 
 
 " By the cut of your teeth, as the cheese said to the mousn, 1 
 w you, my worthy professor of sassafras and gunja. Bn/wn 
 Clayton, as I live !" 
 
 " And who are you, young mister, that s so free with my 
 name- -my name that was, I mean for though I m Brown 
 Bess, I m no Clayton now? What s your name ?" 
 
 "Why, Bess, you re getting old, my girl your memory s 
 failing you. Don t you remember me dor. t you remember . 
 little Tom Horsey, that was your best customer when you 
 
110 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 cakes and beer at Hogler s mill that burst your bottles bj 
 shaking, and punched your cakes out of the tray by a long pole 
 sharpened at the end ?" 
 
 "Yes, and got punched for it himself," responded the woman, 
 is these reminiscences of Horsey awakened her own "And is 
 rt you, Tom little Tom, indeed? Why, ysu c&.i eat your 
 cakes now off my shoulder." 
 
 " Ay, Bess, and a bit of the shoulder with it when I happen 
 to be so hungry as I am just now. And so you re married 
 and who did you marry, Bess? I hav n t heard of you for 
 these ten long years." 
 
 " But I ve heard tell of you, Tom Horsey. They said you d 
 gone crazy ; and that didn t seem strange, for you always had 
 a little twist in your understanding, and couldn t do things jist 
 like other people." 
 
 " Did you ever hear such a defamation of genius ?" exclaimed 
 Horsey to Vcrnon in a manner of affected misery. * But go on, 
 Bess. What did you hear /" 
 
 "Why, they said as how you had turned fair fool, and how 
 they d got you down among the player people at Orleans, and 
 how they dressed you up in a jacket and breeches, full of colors 
 and spangles " 
 
 " My Romeo, by the shade of Juliet !" 
 
 " And how," continued the woman, " they brought you out 
 before the company, and worried you, jist like so many curs 
 worrying a pig that had got into the tater patch " 
 
 "Exquisite comparison, by my soul !" 
 
 " And how they all stuck at you with their swords, and how 
 you fell down and pretended to be dead, and then how they 
 dragged you out by the heels; while everybody, men and 
 women, little and big, laughed as if they would split. After 
 that I heard no more of you, and concluded you wore dead for 
 good." 
 
 " For good, say you ?" exclaimed the actor, as the woman 
 concluded. "Well, Vernon, only think now that this is the 
 representation of one of my best performances my debut hi 
 Macbeth, for my benefit when it so happened that a cargo of 
 Islrmaelites irom Pearl river, that had crossed Ponchartrain 
 that day, came to the American, with every particular bail 
 
BROWN BESS. Ill 
 
 on end, to see their old schoolfellow, Tom Horsey, son of 
 John Horsey, the lame man that kept tavern on the river-road : 
 and this is the d nable report which they carried hack to the 
 country in their ignorance and envy. Is it not a most abomina 
 ble trait in man, that he hates to see his neighbor s successes ? 
 Every whipster with whom he ever hunted possum in a dark 
 night, or shelled corn in husking-time, is ready to disparage 
 those talents which he can not rival, and to pull down that 
 merit in a companion which he thinks and it is a sarcasm 
 upon his own deficiencies. By Pompey s ghost, it is my own 
 people that have ever been the first to decry my performances, 
 and to wrest from me the just rewards of my labors." 
 
 " Well, don t you be running down the Pearl river people, 
 Tom Horsey ; they re a mighty good sort of people, Tom, and 
 I only wish I was back ag in among em," said the woman. 
 
 " Selling cakes and beer V 1 said Tom. 
 
 " Why, yes, sellin* cakes and beer ; it s a mighty good busi 
 ness for the time it lasts." 
 
 " Five months at least, Bess I remember all about it from 
 May to September, and, if the season was very warm, a month 
 longer. Gad ! rny picayunes melted as rapidly in those months, 
 when I was a boy, as my Mexicans have continued to melt ever 
 since I was a man." 
 
 "There was another thing, Tom, that they told about you," 
 said the woman. 
 
 " What was that ?" quickly demanded the actor. 
 
 " Why, that you spent your father s money a deuced sight 
 fastei .thp.n he could make it, and that you are a mighty great " 
 
 " Say no more, Brown Bess ; leave it where it is, at the 
 1 mighty great. " 
 
 " Riprobate, I was going to say " continued the matter-of-fact 
 woman ; " and I reckon, Tom, it ie not far from the right word " 
 
 " Perhaps not, Bess ; but no more of that an thou lovest me : 
 I am reformed now grown quite sober never drink unless 
 when the spirit moves, and I expect soon to confess a working 
 of mind as active as ever was your beer, whenever I can meet 
 with old brother Abrams " 
 
 "Why he s dead! dead five years ago!" exclaimed tha 
 womaii. 
 
112 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 " Dead, you say ! Who could have thought it. Why h 
 was the last regular preacher that I ever heard. It makes me 
 melancholy to think of it ; so let s in to supper, Vernon, with 
 what appetite we may. You re married, Bess ? Where s your 
 husband, and what is he what s his name?" 
 
 A dark cloud rose arid rested on the woman s brow as slit* 
 heard this question, which she answered slowly and briefly. 
 
 "His name s Yarbers he s a middle aged man, that ll be in, 
 1 reckon, directly. But I m truly thinking, Tom, that you and 
 the other gentleman had much better ride on to the other house 
 It s a short ten miles, and an easy road." 
 
 " Can t think of it, Bess ; by the soul and substance of the 
 fat knight, I can not. We must partake of your hog and 
 hominy to-night ; and I m surprised, Bess, that you seek to 
 send us forward without supper. You were not wont to be so 
 inhospitable. Marriage has changed you, Bess." 
 
 " I reckon it has, Tom," said the woman, " but I m not want 
 ing you to go without supper. I could get it ready for you in 
 a short five minutes, and you might easily ride then." 
 
 " By the Lord Harry, Bess, but this is altogether too bad ! 
 What ! pack us off the moment we ve swallowed our coffee, on 
 a long road in a dark night. I 1?11 you, Bess, it won t do. We 
 sleep in your house to-night by the peepers of that blessed 
 saint Monajahadjee, of the Chickasaws, that slept every day 
 in the week but the eighth, and never opened one eye, unless 
 it was to see if the other was shut." 
 
 " Well, just as you will, Tom, but, perhaps, the other gen 
 tieman here ? " 
 
 "The other gentleman here is my Cast :r; we are Castor 
 and Pollux, the inseparables. He never goes without me, and 
 I never go without him, and so, strange as it may seem to you, 
 we never go without one another. If we never go without oun 
 another, we also never stay without one another, and, Bess, 1 
 have drawn this proposition almost syllogistically to you, in 
 order that you should understand that we shall sleep together 
 i/. the same bed, provided you can not spare us one apiece." 
 
 " Ah, Tom, you re the same rattlepate that you ever was 
 and the older you grow, the wiser you don t grow. I cun t UB 
 derstand the half you say." 
 
BROWN BESS. 113 
 
 v< Not understand ! Did ever one hear the like, when I 
 stated the case with singular simplicity in order that you should 
 understand." 
 
 Well, well," responded the woman, " hut let Mr. Castor 
 speak for himself. He don t say much, and I reckon it ll be 
 the easier for me to understand him. I was saying, sir," here 
 she addressed herself to Vernon, " I was saying, Mr. Castor 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! ha !" was the ecstatic roar of Horsey, who made 
 no attempt to correct the error. 
 
 " Vernon is my name," said his companion gravely. The old 
 woman gave Horsey a single look of reproof, then turning to 
 Vernon, proceeded to repeat what she had already said touch 
 ing the propriety of his riding to the next tavern, which was at 
 the lower ferry, and only ten miles off, for his night s lodging. 
 Her reason for so singular a suggestion arose from the alleged 
 poverty of her accommodations. 
 
 ; There is something strange in all this ; there is something 
 secret here," was the unexpressed thought of Vernon, and he 
 drew his conclusion as much from the earnest yet bewildered 
 countenance of the woman, as from her words. His self-com 
 munion went farther : " I am on the borders of the Chittaloosa, 
 and my labors should now properly begin. Every mystery may 
 have mine in its keeping, and I must search it if I can.. This 
 woman, it is evident, would send me off rather than Horsey. I 
 will stay." 
 
 He spoke this determination aloud. 
 
 " Mr. Horsey has spoken for both of us, Mrs. Yarbers, and we 
 must stay with you to-night. Forty miles is rather more of a 
 journey than a horse should be made to bear who is going to a 
 swamp country, and I am almost as anxious for sleep as sup 
 per." 
 
 " Well, if you will," said the old woman ungraciously, as she 
 ushered them into the hall, and summoned a negro-girl to take 
 the horses to the stable. The saddle-bags, valise, and saddles, 
 were carried into the house. The travellers drew chairs, rough, 
 country-made, high-backed, and seated with untanned deer-skins 
 stretched across and tacked beneath ; while the old lady, open 
 ing a wooden cupboard of plain pine that was fastened by pegs 
 o the rear wall, drew forth a couple of common iunk bottles. 
 
114 BORDER EKAGLES. 
 
 one of which, as she said, contained Monongahela, and the other 
 honey, as a sweetener. 
 
 " A dram will comfort you after your ride, Tom, though if 
 you drink whiskey as freely as you used to drink the sassafras, 
 you ll have an enemy in your head that ll be sure soon to trip 
 your heels." 
 
 " I am commanded to love mine enemies, Bess, but I try to 
 weaken them a little, so that our wrestle shall be even ; there s 
 no water here ?" 
 
 " Mary s gone for some to the spring, Tom ; my darter Mary , 
 she ll be here in a shake." 
 
 "You ve a daughter, too, eh? What sort of a girl is she, 
 Bess ? A good, smart, active, little creature, I suppose, a 
 
 The door opened, and the sudden appearance of the daugh 
 ter in question, silenced the speech, and utterly confounded the 
 speaker for an instant, as he found himself confronted by as tall 
 and pretty an adversary in the shape of a damsel, as ever met 
 the eyes yet of an enthusiastic and self-assured young man. 
 He started to his feet, caught the vessel, which she bore, from 
 ^er hands, a little clean white piggin with a gourd hanging 
 apon the handle;, and setting it down upon the shelf which was 
 placed for it, exclaimed, all in a breath 
 
 "This your daughter, Bess? this your Mary? by the 
 Oapulets, but she is the very Juliet of the host. I must have 
 a kiss, Mrs. Yarbers for auld lang syne, Bess by all the 
 damask roses that ever tried to look like those cheeks, and 
 faded out of envy. I must, Mary why, Mary, I am your 
 mother s old friend I m your great uncle, Mary, an innocent 
 old man you need not fear me, I must there s no use I 
 must." 
 
 The girl, who was probably not more than sixteen, perhaps 
 not that, retreated with no less dignity than modesty, while, 
 between jest and earnest, her mother expostulated with the 
 bashaw ; but it is probable that neither the reluctance and pos 
 sible flight of the damsel, nor the expostulations of the mother, 
 would have availed to protect her from the parental tenderness 
 of the venerable man, but for the sudden interposition of another 
 party, whose mode of proceeding was of a more summary and 
 imposing character. The door opened while th e strife was at 
 
THE COTTAGE HEKOINE. 11 6 
 
 fhe warmest, and the husband of the dame entered, followed by 
 a sturdy youth of about twenty years of age. Horsey \vas too 
 much interested by the game in hand to look behind him, and 
 it was only when the youth, without a word, passed in front, 
 and placed himself between him and the maiden, that he be- 
 *.ame conscious of the unexpected interruption of his desirea. 
 The intruder s presence seemed almost as much annoying to 
 Mary as to the enamored actor. She shrunk back with quite 
 as much promptness from her champion as from her assailant, 
 and this movement probably encouraged Horsey with the idea 
 that his chances were even better now than before. 
 
 "My worthy rustic," said he, "give me but a moment; an 
 other time I will acknowledge your presence, but just at this 
 time nay, stand aside, I pray you, that I may do grace to the 
 lips of that little Juliet there a moment but a moment." 
 
 Suiting thi action to the word, Horsey put forth his hand, 
 intending, Avith the utmost gentleness, to put him aside from his 
 path ; but his hand had scarcely touched the shoulder of the 
 other, when, putting forth all his strength, he planted a blow 
 between the eyes of the actor, that gave him a very comical 
 vision of two crossed rainbows, the ends of which were most 
 singularly tied together. Down he fell like a bullock in the 
 same instant, and his prompt enemy jumped upon him, and 
 twining his little finger in the locks of the fallen man, prepared 
 to thrust his thumb into his eyes. 
 
 " Touch my eyes, man, and I put you to death as sure as a 
 catastrophe," exclaimed Horsey, characteristically, as the effort 
 of the other had brought him to all his consciousness. The 
 fellow would scarce have heeded his threats, but by this time 
 the vigorous arm of Verridn had grasped him about the middle, 
 and flung him to the other end of the room. We have omitted 
 the screams of the women, which were as loud as usual, and as 
 rightly timed. Nor have we deemed it necessary to say that 
 old Yarbers a fellow almost overcome with fat offered sun 
 dry expostulations to the course of his companion, which, how- 
 ever, as he never hurried to enforce them, were as little heeded 
 by the fierce young rustic as were the screams aforesaid. 
 
 The effect <>f Vornon s movement was more obvious, The 
 youth glared now upon him and now upon Horsey, who had 
 
116 
 
 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 taken advantage of the interval to recover his feet, as if doubt 
 ful which to attack. His hesitation resulted from no want oi 
 hostile feeling, but simply from the consciousness that there 
 were tsvo to contend with now; and one of them, however easy 
 he found it to trip the heels of the other, had convinced him that 
 the play in his case could never be all of one side. While he 
 stood glowering and glaring, Vernon, like a man satisfied that 
 he had done all that was required, resumed his seat, and with 
 the assistance of the woman of the house, made such an ac 
 quaintance with its master, as suited the relation of guest and 
 landlord. The good humor of Horsey did something to restore 
 the quiet of the rest. 
 
 " Young un," said he, " you ve bloodied my nose, and done 
 it tolerably well, with some skill, but scarcely with sufficient 
 firmness. That up and down blow, though it would fell an o* 
 if hit squarely between the eyes, is a monstrous dangerous one 
 if the enemy is watchful. It leaves your whole side exposed, 
 all your ribs, not to speak of your diaphragm, a blow in 
 which would make a fat man uncomfortable for life. You, 
 sir," turning to Yarbers, " you would find a blow .in your dia 
 phragm a singular inconvenience." 
 
 "Ay, sir, or anywhere else," said the person addressed, with 
 a good-humored laugh, and scarcely knowing how to understand 
 the strange creature who confronted him. 
 
 " And now, Mary," continued the actor, stopping the blood 
 with his handkerchief, as it still continued to issue from his 
 nose, " you were the cause, though the innocent cause, of this 
 young rustic s incivility. You must help me to some water, 
 that I may remove this filthy witness from my hands and 
 nose. * This is a sorry sight, Harry. By the way, I must not 
 forget to thank you, Harry, for taking that fellow s fingers from 
 rny eyes." 
 
 "If you don t mind how you talk, stranger, I ll put em there 
 again," said the other, his wrath duly increasing with the tim 
 ing composure and good humor of Horsey. 
 
 " I hope not," replied the latter, " as well for your sake as 
 mine. Had you succeeded, my good fellow, in your first at 
 tempt, you d have been, by this time, on the longest journey 
 that von hnve ever taken in vour life, and (|oubtful whether 
 
THE COTTAGE HEROINE. 117 
 
 you d have found easy ferriage across the liver, unless your pocket is 
 lined with more picayunes than I think it holds at present. What, 
 my lovely Juliet, you have the water, have .you ? v 
 
 "There s the piggin, Mr. Horsey, and here s the towel, sir," said 
 the damsel, whose sympathies for the hurts which he bore so good- 
 humoredly, seemed to have made her less shy of him than she had 
 shown herself at first. 
 
 "So you know my name already, Chuck a good name, Juliet- - 
 and your mother knew it many days before you, though I must have 
 known you once. There there s a spot still, my Juliet ! " he ex 
 claimed, as, having wiped his face, he placed the towel upon her 
 hand, and before she could be conscious of his design, throw his 
 arm about her waist and inflicted upon "her cheek as unequivocal 
 a smack as ever came from the hasty application of lip to lip. 
 The young gallant was again in anus, but Horsey was ready for 
 him ; and the father, probably dreading that the latter would use 
 some weapon in the strife, as he had already intimated, inter 
 posed his authority with sufficient promptitude to prevent the en 
 counter. 
 
 "If we don t get angry, Mr. Mabry, I wonder why should you? 
 Besides, this gentleman s an old friend of Bess, and Mary s but a 
 child to him." 
 
 "Not so fast not so fast, old gentleman!" cried Horsey, 
 who was considerably nettled at this imperfect sort of chroni 
 cling; "a child, indeed a woman, a fine, lovely, ripe, bewitch 
 ing damsel, this same Mary of yours. She s no more a child 
 than I m a grandfather. Now I come to think of it, there can t 
 be much difference between us in age not so much as to 
 make a difference in any material respect. Let me see, she s 
 about sixteen, and egad, Mrs. Yarbers, it can t be more than 
 fifteen years since I bought cakes from you at Hoglcr s, and I 
 going to Hugh Feters s school. I was only ten then sixteen 
 and ten why do you talk of her being but a child to me? 
 Count for yourself sixteen and ten are twenty-six all the world 
 over, except Connecticut, where, .they say, it -counts more 
 and I ll take Bible oath I m not a syllable older. What say you 
 to that, sir? There s no young woman of sixteen in Missis 
 sippi, who, if she has any sense, will find fault .with a man of 
 twenty-six." 
 
118 BORDER BEAi*LS&. 
 
 Verne n was amused at the pains which the actor took b 
 vindicate his youth; and the result of his calculations seemed 
 still farther to increase the annoyance of his rusnc rival, who > 
 after a little while spent in a condition of fever-heat, got up and 
 left the room. He was followed out by old Yarbers. Mean 
 while, Horsey continued a playful chat with the mother and 
 daughter his philosophy under his bruises seemii.g to com 
 mend him to additional favor, and both listening to him with 
 pleased attention. But, catching the eye of Veri.on, in the 
 midst of one his random speeches, he made him a sign, then 
 rising, declared his intention to see what sort eft night it was, 
 and left the house. Vernon soon followed. 
 
 OF # 
 
 ^ 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CLOSING UP PEEPERS ACCORDING TO "THE SCIENCE" HOW 
 TO SQUARE OFF WITH A BULLY BOY. 
 
 Lycus. That spark jealousy falling into his dry melancholy brain, ha 
 well near set the whole house on fire. 
 
 TItarsalio. No matter, let it work ; I did but pay him iu s own coin.- 
 GEO. CHAPMAN. 
 
 " I AM decidedly one of the best-natured mortals in exist 
 ence," said Horsey, when Vernon joined him in the little area 
 in front of the cottage, " but there is something, Harry, in be 
 ing knocked over, that would turn the sweet milk sour in fl *e 
 best of bosoms. I bore with this thing as patiently as possible 
 while in the presence of the women folk, but my gall has iorn 
 rising for the last half hour, and I can stomach it no longer. It 
 must out, and nothing will help me, Harry, but a clip or two at 
 the muzzle of this same Master Mabry. You must stand by 
 and see fair play while I give him quits. Doubt not that I can 
 do it, Harry. I have the back trick simply as strong as any 
 man in Illyria. " 
 
 " Tt will make matters worse, Horsey. You were \mmg in 
 
CLOSING UP PEEPERS. 
 
 pressing upon t!u> girl t lirst. She is somotliinj- movp than* 
 child, and the customs of our country " 
 
 "A know all that, Harry, and had I riot been a sort of chicken 
 under the wyigs, at one time, of the good old clucking hen, her 
 mother, 1 had, perhaps, never thought of kissing the girl; 
 though, by the divinity of Rosalind, there s justification enough 
 in the lips themselves for the rashness of my pursuit. The 
 guilt is equal between the tempter and the tempted. She who 
 pouts a pretty mouth under one s nose can no more blame a 
 body for snatching a civil kiss from the offender, than you can 
 blame a hawk for stooping down upon a plump partridge that 
 runs too freely from under the briers, and tempts the appetite it 
 is yet unwilling to satisfy." 
 
 " You are supported in this notion," said Vernon, with a 
 smile, " by an authority no less moral than that of Dr. Johnson, 
 who says that if you tempt a man you do him an injury, and if 
 you overcome him you share his guilt. His view is also sus 
 tained by the decision of an English justice, who once com 
 mitted the master to prison for laying money in the servant s 
 way, and at the same time discharged the servant who stole it." 
 
 " Gad, Harry, thost were wise fellows. If I had known so 
 much could be said in my favor, I had not stopped short at a 
 single kiss. That man, Johnson, didn t he once write a play ?" 
 
 "Yes a tragedy " 
 
 " I ll read it a devilish clever sort of fellow. A fellow that 
 knows so well how to justify a kiss, must have made a very 
 amorous piece of business of it. Wasn t it so, Harry I" 
 
 " Nay quite the contrary, I believe. The play was rather 
 cold performance- the author was a phlegmatic, It does not 
 follow, you know, that a good judge is a good performer ; and 
 to kiss a pretty woman is a movement of one s blood rathei 
 than his thought an instinct, not a reflection. But to return 
 to our subject. You can gain but a paltry satisfaction, Mr. 
 Horsey, by punishing this young man ; and I should say, judg 
 ing from mere appearances, that he is too stout for you. He 
 has more brawn and muscle, and though not so tali is a much 
 heavier man." 
 
 "You shall see, Harry. I have what he has not. I have 
 the trick of fence, and I have played long enough with muffles 
 
120 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 D venture a little uprm the hare mutt on. The stage if- 1 no bad 
 s houl for acquiring agility of motion in foot and list a keen 
 eye and sudden thrust makes me more than a match for this pud- 
 ILig-headed fellow, as I shall convince him no less than yourself, 
 \vhrn i have laid eyes on him for awhile. Here is the path 
 which I suppose will lead ns on their route, part of which I 
 naw through the window. They made for yonder thicket, 
 where, I reckon, AVC shall find them." 
 
 " I will stand by you," said Vernon, with recovered gravity, 
 " and see you through with this business, but while we keep 
 together, Mr. Horsey, I trust, for my sake, you will provoke no 
 more difficulties. I have some right to expostulate with you, I 
 think, as you have constituted yourself my companion, not 
 merely without my desire, but against my wish. My objects 
 in this country are such as might suffer material detriment from 
 any collision with the people." 
 
 " Pshaw, Harry, my dear boy, still harping on my daughter/ 
 still at thy old humors; " replied the unthinking fellow 
 " It won t do, I tell you. Our objects are the same, though the 
 range of character may be somewhat different ; as I confess 
 myself to be somewhat erratic, and a jump from Romeo to 
 Dogberry has been a folly of mine more than once already. 
 When you see me resolved, head and heels, to go on with you 
 to the last gasp with truth and loyalty, why, what the devil s 
 the use of shamming any longer? You can t get rid of me, do 
 what you will, unless, as I told you before, you put a bullet 
 through rny brains, and that were only to scatter them worse 
 than ever, without doing me or yourself any great service. Be 
 generous, man do as I have done, make a clean bosom of it, 
 confess and we will down upon little Tilton with a concerted 
 plan of operations which shall make the rascal stare. We can do 
 as we please then with all the arrangements get our own 
 terms, declare our own casts, and 
 
 " All furnish d, all in arms, 
 
 All plumed like estridges, that with the wind 
 Bated like eagles having lately bathed: 
 Glittering in golden coats " 
 
 By the way, Harry, you have not seen my dress in Hal. Yon 
 t^ial l see it to-morrow you shall see me in it rise from the 
 
CLOSING UP PEEPERS. 
 
 ground like feathered Mercury made a d d ugly hole in 
 dad s crop to pay for that dress, I tell you. What would the 
 old fellow say, were I to count up to him the cost of stars and 
 spangles, beaver, crosses, images and plumes, in cotton bags. 
 Ha ha ! I think I see him now, his game leg in air, his sound 
 one thundering on the floor, his eyes shooting out from their 
 spheres, red and fiery, and his voice hoarse and choking, still 
 resolute to roar the anathema, which sticks in his throat, at last, 
 more rigidly than a better sentiment in that of Macbeth. Oh, 
 Harry, what a scene ! But hold ! Here s our enemy." 
 
 A bright rnoon helped the progress of the several parties. 
 Yarbers and young Mabry stood in a small open space among a 
 clump of pines apparently in earnest conversation, as the two 
 approached them. Mabry held his horse by the bridle, one 
 foot already in the stirrup, as if the important matters of 
 which they spoke being fairly discussed he lingered only for 
 a parting word. That they were seriously engaged was likely 
 enough, since they neither saw nor heard the approach of the 
 two strangers, till they had already passed into the same open 
 ing with themselves. It was then that Mabry, as if apprehend 
 ing the object of his enemy, or, as was more probable, desiring 
 an opportunity to renew a conflict in which his success had been 
 so unequivocal already, withdrew his foot from the stirrup, and 
 once more threw the bridle from his steed s neck over the 
 stunted sapling which had before confined him. This done, he 
 kept his place where the eyes of the two had first encountered 
 him, while Yarbers, with some agitation of manner, advanced 
 and addressed them 
 
 " A fine evening, gentlemen fine for a walk, and "" 
 
 "Ay, or for any other purpose which needs a cool tempera 
 ture and a clear sky," was the ready answer of Horsey, who, 
 at the same time passing by Yarbers, continued his speech to 
 his companion " I am glad this clear moon has helped me to 
 find you, young un, since I should not have slept so comfortably 
 with the thought of being your involuntary debtor. I bear, 
 sir, some tokens of your favor on my cheek. I am not willing 
 that you should go unrequited. Do you understand me, sir ?" 
 
 This apostrophe did not seem at all ungrateful to the rustic, 
 who had rather wished than expected so early an opportunity 
 
122 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 to renew his punishment of an ofi mco which he had shown 
 himself so unwilling to tolerate, and which had been repeated 
 so audaciously before his eyes. That he could punish th-i 
 impudent stranger, he had no sort of doubt. His own physical 
 prowess had been generally acknowledged among the young 
 Spartans of the neighborhood, and the sudden and easy over 
 throw of Horsey by his single blow, but a little while before, 
 and the good-natured forbearance of the latter immediately 
 after, had given him but a mean idea as well of the courage as 
 of the strength of his opponent. That Horsey should, with 
 open eyes and cool deliberation, come once more within his 
 clutches, was no less satisfactory than surprising ; and boldly 
 confronting him, he answered his salutation in language that 
 left little possibility of a reconciliation being effected by either 
 of the bystanders, both of whom attempted a consummation 
 which was so proper and desirable. Yarbers strove with 
 Mabry, and Vernon, though to a far more moderate extent, 
 with Horsey. He knew that the popular sentiment made the 
 jourse of Horsey one of retributive justice only, and his first 
 )ve.rtures being unsuccessful, he forebore renewing them, and 
 patiently waited in silence the progress of events. Yarbers, 
 ilso, after a while, gave up, as useless, the effort to mollify the 
 hampion on his side of the hill, and the parties at length stood 
 fitted, both ready and anxious, to " feed fat the ancient grudge." 
 f Nothing surely could have been more curious than the dif 
 ference of mood which the two exhibited while in this position. 
 IVfabry, at first, like a young bull simply bent on mischief, ap 
 proached his enemy with slow steps, his rising temper indicated 
 only by occasional sudden jerks of the head, and a slight fitful 
 stamping of the feet A muttered growl escaped his lips at 
 intervals, and his fists were clenched and opened alternately 
 his long fingers, the nails of which were quite as threatening as 
 any other premonitory symptom of danger, being sometimes 
 thrust upward, as if, of themselves, anxious to rend from their 
 sockets the eyes of all who beheld them with hostility. 
 
 Vemon regarded this threat as so unequivocal that he intei 
 posed, and insisted upon " an up-and-down, straight fight, fist 
 head, and feet, but no gouging no rough-and-tumble ;" bat thiti 
 was to deprive the enemy of one n.f Ms most favorite weapon*. 
 
CLOSING UP PEEPERS. 123 
 
 and that which he meditated to use with more malignant effi 
 ciency in this strife than any other. 
 
 t "I fight as I please according to my own fashion and let 
 him do the same," replied Mabry. " If he s afraid of my fingers 
 let him say so, and I ll let him off." 
 
 "Afraid of your fingers, you catamount!" exclaimed the 
 actor with contemptuous scorn, and a coolness that was really 
 edifying ; " use tooth and nail, my good fellow, if you please, 
 or if you can. Don t trouble yourself, Harry, about me egad 
 I ll swallow him, claws and all, though his scales were as rough 
 and large as those of the biggest alligator that ever picked his 
 teeth with a cypress on the banks of Pontchartrain." 
 
 " You will, will you 1" cried the other, the foam gathering 
 about his mouth, his teeth gnashing with rage, and his whole 
 body in motion, like that of the bull, whose gradually accumu 
 lating fury, moves it from petty mischief to a destroying mad- 
 p ness. He bounded from the earth, ran round his enemy, slap 
 ping his thighs with his hands the while, in the most savage 
 fashion, and at length, with a whooping shriek, imitated from 
 that of some wild beast of the forest, he threw a summerset, 
 his feet aiming to strike the breast of the actor, who followed 
 all his movements with eyes and hands in constant readiness. 
 , The preliminaries of Mabry had warned Horsey of the 
 mode in which his attack was likely to begin, and for which he 
 prepared himself. It must not be forgotten that Horsey was 
 Yorkshire too that is to say, he was quite as well accom 
 plished in the arts of the forest-fighter as was his opponent 
 with the additional advantage of knowing other arts which 
 were even of more avail in such warfare as the present. The 
 heels of Mabray were no sooner in the air, than the actor, 
 sinking on his knees, removed the mark which they were 
 meant to strike; but, rising the moment after, he sprang to the 
 spot where the other had alighted, and dedt him a blow between 
 the eyes which gave him an apparition of the four moons of 
 Jupiter, with a very fine display of cross-fires playing in the 
 centre, such as never yet blessed the vision of Herschel 01 
 Dick. This tumbled him over for an instant; but, nothing 
 daunted, though confounded, he renewed his attack in a different 
 form, and with a caution which had been more a 
 
124 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 exercised in the first instance. The actor, no ways elated, but 
 seeming to regard the proceeding, so far, as one which had 
 been the result of the plainest calculation, calmly approached 
 Lis enemy, speaking as he did so, apologetically, as it were, to 
 the two spectators for continuing the fight. 
 
 " Blow for blow is quite enough in all ordinary cases ; but 
 this fellow tumbled me unawares, and in the presence of the 
 women, and, by the valor of Orlando, he shall have anothei 
 fall, ere oar accounts balance. This I have sworn to, Harry 
 as firm an oath as if I had pressed my lips on the pocket Shak- 
 spere. I will give the lad a lesson which he will remembci 
 whenever he has occasion to take his measure by that of mothei 
 varth. Are you ready, young un ?" 
 
 Once more they stood before each other the language of 
 superiority which Horsey employed, goading his rustic oppo 
 nent to a degree of ferocity which made him forget his hurts ; 
 and conscious of his superior strength, he rushed in upon the 
 actor, employing no art, and only seeking to come to the close 
 hug the grapple of sinews in which lay his chief and only 
 hope. But Horsey had no disposition to gratify him in this de 
 sire. He well knew the danger to him of such an issue. Once 
 closed in with, his " cunning of fence" would avail him nothing ; 
 and once down, his eyes had no farther security against the long 
 claws which had already been stretched out to pluck them forth. 
 
 It was fortunate, perhaps, that the rage of his enemy deprived 
 him of his deliberation. His blind attack was not dangerous. 
 His approach was met with cool, keen-eyed determination a 
 characteristic in which Vernou never could have conceived his 
 companion to have been so strong. Talking all the while, and 
 quoting as much Shakspere as ever, he parried the blows of 
 the rustic, for a while utterly forbearing to put in any of his own. 
 At length, as if he had yielded a sufficiently fair time to his 
 opponent s play, he exclaimed 
 
 " Now, sir, is my turn. I will close up your eyes, without 
 [jutting you to sleep ; though, let me tell you, it would be very 
 A asy for me to do that too." 
 
 I don t fear you, d n you I ll down you yet!" roared 
 the other in a rage of fury that, inci eased with every failure of 
 h3s own efforts. 
 
CLOSING UP PEEPERS. 125 
 
 " Your right eye first !" said the actor, answering this ebulli 
 tion at the same moment with word and blow ; " and now your 
 left!" 
 
 Both blows took effect, in spite of the desperate efforts of the 
 victim to defend himself, and he lay at the feet of his foe al 
 most without motion. Yarbers assisted him to rise, but he wag 
 in no condition for farther conflict. Blinded and staggering he 
 stood, and still his lips breathed nothing but defiance. 
 
 " The fellow s game," said Horsey. The voice, the words, 
 roused the instinct of hate anew in the vanquished man, and 
 he struggled in the arms of Yarbers to rush once more upon his 
 foe. Restrained in this, his hand suddenly plucked a spring- 
 knife from his bosom, the blade of which was instantly shot 
 out, and, but for the timely grasp of Vernon, he had sheathed 
 it in the body of the man who held him. The weapon, spite 
 of his struggles, was taken from him, and a stupor which fol 
 lowed, Hcemed to possess his mind and body with equal apathy. 
 He murmured incoherently while it lasted, his words consisting 
 mostly of bitter denunciation, which, to the surprise of the two 
 travellers, seemed chiefly to fall upon Yarbers. 
 
 " You re a villain, John Yarbers you would shut my mouth 
 up wouldn t have me tell what I know and have made your 
 villains do this. But I will speak I ll write it down I ll 
 declare your roguery to all Madison. They shall know who " 
 
 " He raves !" exclaimed Y arbers in no little agitation ; " you ve 
 beat all the sense out of him, Mr. Horsey, and he don t know 
 what he says. But don t you mind him. Go home at once. 
 Bess is waiting supper for you by this time, and there s no need 
 that you should wait. I ll tend to him, and see him carried 
 home." 
 
 " I m truly sorry I had to thump him so hard, Harry," said 
 Horsey apologetically to his companion, as they took their way 
 back to the cottage, " but I had sworn it, you know, and couldn t 
 so well get off. Besides, it s absolutely necessary now and 
 then to make an example of these fellows. They rely on supe 
 rior strength to be insolent, and nothing would have pleased this 
 *.Lap so much as carrying home my eyes as a trophy. Year* 
 r ionce he would have a history for Dick Jenkins, and Jim Br-lv 
 and Peter Pinchback nnd a dozer others, of the dan.jv 
 
126 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 fr-jm below that he met at Yarbers house, and how hecotch d " 
 v imitating the patois of the country, " how he cotch d the chap 
 mighty soptious with the gal, and how he gin him the cross- 
 buttock, and, before he could say Jack Robinson, had a finger 
 in his shock and a thumb in his eye, and sent him off with the 
 blind-staggers and two holes in his forehead that could make 
 no use of specks, though he was mighty glad to wear them ; 
 and then, to prove the truth of what he said, he would bring 
 forth a bottle of eyes preserved in whiskey my eyes with 
 fifty others, the Tom s, Dick s, and Harry s, the Ned s, Ben s, 
 and Peter s, the Billy s and Timothy s, that have been the 
 heroes of the barbecue and gin-shop from time immemorial all 
 in attestation of the superior excellence of the claws that plucked 
 them out. The eyes of Tom Horsey preserved in whiskey ! 
 Whew ! The thought makes me shudder again. Eyes, Harry 
 Vernon, are absolutely necessary to an actor." 
 
 " Keep yours about you as a traveller. You have made 
 an enemy of this youth, who will not forget you. We travel 
 in a wild region, and the securities are few for life and limb. 
 A man may be tumbled in these swamps, by the shot of the un 
 seen assassin, and the wildcat alone will find out his hiding- 
 place. You, who have no sort of reason to be in this neighbor 
 hood, can not too soon take yourself out of it. ;> 
 
 "To-morrow, Harry you would not have me set off to 
 night V 
 
 " No to-morrow will be time enough. Return to Raymond, 
 set yourself in safety and your father s mind at rest." 
 
 " Ha ! ha, boy ! Say st thou so ? Art thou there, true 
 penny? Now hear me, Harry Percy, I look on it that you 
 fear me I hold thee jealous of my attributes, my attitudes, 
 rny carriage, my certain something, which, being peculiar to 
 the individual man, is vulgarly called genius. I will outshine 
 f.iice before Jim Tilton outdo thee take the rag off the bush 
 in Benton ; and leave thee the mere lees to brag of. You 
 give me counsel but no confidence w 1 y should I keep terms 
 with thee 1 Urge me again upon this matter, and I declare 
 against thee. Thou shalt know me as a rival rather than an 
 aBy ; and I will foil all thy best points with my own. Look 
 r,o it, Harry the gall rises within me." 
 
CIJSINO UP PEEPERS. 127 
 
 Vernon regarded the speaker with mixed feelings of pity and 
 vexation. But the monomania was too strong to b overcome 
 by argument, or resisted by anythnu. short of violence a 
 measure to whi"*, as there was no prernt necessity to* rid him 
 self of his companion, there was no occasion to resort. Sup 
 pressing, therefore, some stern expressions which had risen to 
 his lips, he suffered the other to chuckle in the prospect of his 
 theatrical superiority, inly consoling himself with the idea that 
 before the close of another day he should be rid of his thought 
 less but well-intentioned tormentor; and he, disabused of the 
 unhappy error which had probably, more than anything beside, 
 seduced him from the home to which he had only just returned. 
 
 When they reached the house, the actor resumed his random 
 and rhapsodical chit-chat with all around him, as if nothing had 
 happened either within or without to discompose him for an in 
 stant. The hostess he reminded of old times, and of a thousand 
 practical jokes which he- had played, of which she herself had 
 been more than once the victim. With a fresh memory he 
 accompanied the vital requisites of narration, lively comment, 
 and felicitous gesture ; and, speaking with all the frank exube 
 rance of boyhood, which his playhouse habits had been rather 
 calculated fo increase than diminish, he had the satisfaction of 
 seeing the blushing Mary watching and listening with an atten- 
 tiveness scarcely less sweet and anxious than that of " the gen 
 tle lady wedded to the Moor" her white neck stretched for 
 ward her head bent toward him her lips slightly parted, 
 and in her eyes that glistening eagerness of gaze which betrays 
 mingled pleasure and curiosity. It is more than probable that 
 the likeness between his own situation and that of Othello, 
 forced itself upon him when he made this discovery. for a 
 moment after, without any preface, he began, half aloud, to 
 oiuttcr the fine description of the scene 
 
 " Th^se things to hear 
 "Would Desdemona seriously incline," Ac. 
 
 The summons to supper, twice, thrice repeated by the hostess 
 herself, scarcely succeeded in diverting him from this theme and 
 stopping him in the full swell and torrent of his declamation. 
 But the old ladv was already handling the coffee-pot, and ther 
 
128 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 was no time to finish the quotation; yet, as if to revenue him 
 self for the interruption, he seized the hands of the damsel, who 
 still sat, almost as inattentive to ordinary matters as himself 
 and geotly pressing them the while, he conducted her to thf 
 ^acant seat heside his own at the table. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 \ 
 
 TREACHERY IN CAMP POLITICIANS AMONG THF OUTLAWS. 
 
 Vol. You ttand here, my lord, unseen, and hear all ; 
 Do I deal now like a right friend with you I 
 
 An*. Like a most faithful. SECOXD MUD S TB*GEDT. 
 
 VER?:ON retired early to his couch, which stood, with that of 
 Horsey, in an adjoining shed-room. He was pleased to find 
 clean white homespun sheets allotted him ; and, looking around 
 the apartment, involuntarily congratulated himself that so tidy 
 a damsel as Mary Clayton made up the beds and aired the 
 Chambers. Clear water in a clean white gohlet stood on a 
 chair for there was no other washstand on the back of 
 which hung a couple of towels of coarse homespun, bleached bj 
 long use and good washing to a whiteness like that of the sheets 
 These little matters attested some larger degree of civilization 
 than the externals of the mansion had prepared him to expect 
 and were the fruits, most probably, of better days and associa 
 tions, which Mrs. Yarbers had brought with her from the lower 
 country. Certainly they were only becoming features in one 
 who had traded so long in cakes and beer to the common sati* 
 faction. Yarbers himself appeared to be a slovenly, coans* 
 creature, to whom the neatness of a household was not likely to 
 be a subject of much consideration. 
 
 It was fully an hour after Yernon had retired bef v 
 followed his example. He sat up talking with the bostcss, to 
 whom his sudden reappearance after so long an interval had 
 brought back as many associations as her ancient features had 
 Awakened in him ; and the ball of conversation, so busied were 
 
TKSACHKKY IN CAMP. L29 
 
 they mutually in asking and answering juestioiib, v,as seldom 
 suffered to fall for more than a single moment in all tliat space 
 of time. 
 
 It would be difficult to say whether the old lady took any 
 special pleasure in the chat of the individual in question. It 
 is more than probable she would have found the same in th.- 1 
 of any other young person who had presented himself at th. 
 close of day, and bfffgfd a shelter for the night. Age likes to 
 enliven itself with the fires of youth, as the venerable monarch 
 of Israel became conscious of a living warmth Irorn the embraces 
 of the young maidens who were placed beside hii/j for that pur 
 pose. It seems like the pouring of new mountain-streams into 
 exhausted channels, and impelling into consciousness and mo 
 tion the choked and stagnant fountains of life. The heart grows 
 young in the Contemplation of youth, and a momentary forget.- 
 fulness of its own decay is the consequence <>f that revivifica 
 tion of memory which confounds the past with the present-; or 
 rather sends the mind back from the bleak eminence of 
 which it has reached, and where it stands stiff and fro/c 
 the green and flowery valleys below, from which it has risen at 
 first, but to which, save by the aid of memory, it can never, 
 never more return. 
 
 There may have been, indeed, some little occult policy ir 
 the gracious demeanor of Mrs. Yarbers to the dashing and 
 good-natured actor. She was not without that bocbJ instinct 
 which Is called cunning, and did not fail to recollect that Ton. 
 Horsey s father was one of the stanchest proprietors in ; ! 
 Hinrles county. It had not escaped her eye that her old en 
 tomer for cakes and beer was really very much taken with the 
 Appearance of her lovely daughter, and here, to use the pbri 
 of the sea-logician, was a " concatenation accordingly. 
 
 Perhaps, were it 0111 cue to prosecute this inquiry ; ,till far 
 ther at this moment, it we -4, iiot difficult to find st: 
 for the suspicion which is here presented to the mind of the 
 reader ; but this might be anticipating other passages. Kn,u^h 
 to say, that Mrs. Yarbers was not. pleased with her husband, 
 with his relations, and her own pos.tion ; arid, as a mother, re- 
 garded the existing influences of tb/ latter as highly detrit, 
 tal to the fortunes of a child w i. ^i she loved, naturally and 
 
130 BOKDEB BEAGLES. 
 
 necessarily, as a mother should ; but to whom she gave addi 
 tional regard, as, contemplating her through the medium of her 
 pride, she saw in her beauty a possession which lifted her 
 heart, and warmed her vanity, and made it a sorrow in her 
 mind when she reflected that such charms were destined to 
 ripen in the shade, and, like the fruits of the untrodden forest, 
 to ripen unprofitably, without eye to admire or lip to taste. 
 
 This was a subject upon which her mind was apt to brood, 
 and it need not occasion our wonder to be told that the instincts 
 of one brooding thus, would not be unlikely to result in practices 
 not very dissimilar to those of the professedly managing mother 
 in communities of more artifice and fashion. From the first 
 moment when Horsey declared himself and renewed his old 
 acquaintance with her, the fancy had floated in her mind that 
 his coming was a special providence; and this fancy, fixed 
 firmly at last, she resolved to lend all her powers to the con 
 summation of the thing sh^ wished. 
 
 With this resolution, Mary was suffered to sit up long beyond 
 the usual hour, listening to a conversation which, enlivened by 
 playful remarks and pleasant anecdotes on the part of the actor, 
 was very agreeable to a young creature who had as yet seen 
 nothing of the world ; and the mother even assumed the per 
 formance of many of those tasks which, in ordinary periods, 
 were commonly allotted to her daughter, that there might be no 
 obstacle offered to the formation of an intimacy between the 
 two which promised to realize her desires, and which, so far, 
 had advanced with tolerable rapidity. The absence of her hus 
 band was favorable to her plans ; and, it may be, that some im 
 pulse was derived for their provocation, from the fact that these 
 were calculated to interfere with his. He, too, had purposes in 
 view for the damsel though not his daughter which were 
 something less than agreeable to the mother ; and the open 
 avowal of his preference in behalf of young Mabry had been 
 the signal for her declared hostility to his pretensions. Thus 
 matters stood at the period of which we write. 
 
 When Horsey retired from the hall, which he had not thought 
 to do until Mary disappeared, and certain admonitory yawns 
 from the mother denoted that condition of declining conscious 
 ness which could not long do full justice to his good stories and 
 
1KEACHERY IN CAMP. 181 
 
 choice quotations, Yarbers had not returned. But Horsey had 
 been but few minutes in his chambers before the outer door of 
 the dwelling was heard to unclose and his heavy tread sounded 
 along the floor. Horsey had challenged his companion s atten 
 tion the moment he entered the room, but the latter had discour 
 aged him, by declaring a very carnal desire for sleep an ex 
 cuse which, at that moment, the buoyant actor was unwilling to 
 regard as worthy a single consideration ; and he rattled on with 
 out intermission for a while, until, undressed and buried in the 
 sheets, the animal obtained the ascendency, and his tongue, 
 taking advantage of the circumstance, assigned the task of de 
 claring his whereabouts to that distinguished member his nose, 
 the extraordinary industry and capacity of which was soon a 
 matter of general notoriety. 
 
 To this moment Vernon had not closed his eyes. His mind 
 was just in that condition of quickening cogitation when, yet 
 unpossessed of its definite purpose, it compares plans, analyzes 
 its resources and dependencies, and from pregnant and critical 
 doubts conceives and gathers hopes and resolutions. 
 
 There was mufth in the position of Vernon to keep him 
 watchful, and the smallest unusual event was calculated to 
 make his blood bound, and his fancy spring into activity. 
 Thus, .after Yarbers return to the cottage, and while he medi 
 tated a thousand different courses of conduct for the better 
 prosecution of his leading object, his ear, quickened by 
 thought, under the influence of an imagination warmed and 
 strengthened by the drowsy midnight horn that sounded 
 throughout the world of silence, caught the sudden baying of 
 a beagle, and a crowd of suspicious fancies thronged upon him 
 
 Once, twice, thrice, the loud, deep, prolonged note sounded 
 faintly through the apartment, and then the footstep of Yarbers 
 was again heard, slowly crossing the floor from the rear to the 
 entrance of the house. The lifting of the latch followed, the 
 door was opened, and again closed. Silence succeeded for a 
 moment ; then arose a stunning bay from the hound, almost at 
 the threshhold of the dwelling, a prolonged note like that 
 which had awakened the attention of Vernon a few moment* 
 before. 
 
 This was singular enough. There were evidently no dogs 
 
132 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 r>f any kind about the premises at the first coming of the trav 
 ellers, and though they might afterward have come home with 
 the master of the house, yet it was highly improbable that such 
 had been the case, else wherefore had they heard nothing of 
 them when they sallied forth to the meeting already described 
 of Horsey with Mabry ? Besides, it was scarcely possible thai 
 a farmer on the outskirts of the then Mississippi border, should 
 so carefully exclude his dogs from the same apartment wit 
 himself. 
 
 Vernon was in the rnood to conjecture a thousand strong 
 matters, and to convert into causes of suspicion many things 
 that might be innocent enough. To one in his situation, and 
 with his objects, this was sufficiently proper; and the occasion 
 for his excitation in the present instance was well founded. 
 The beagles that were in the wood then, run not on four legs ; 
 and the last sound that reached his ears, issuing from the lungs 
 of Yarbers, was an annunciation to a companion that the coast 
 was clear. Under the shade of a spreading oak, a hundred 
 yards from his dwelling, he was joined by no less a person than 
 our old acquaintance, Saxon. 
 
 " You have lodgers, Jack ?" demanded the outlaw m the first 
 moment of their meeting. 
 
 "Two chaps from below one a quiet, sober, silent sort of 
 person; the other a fellow all tongue. His name s Horsey 
 ne s " 
 
 " No matter. I know them both. As for Horsey, it s a mis 
 fortune he s along. He may be in the way. Hawkins put 
 some nonsense in that fellow s head, and I fear has only thrust 
 him in our path. The other must be seen co." 
 
 Ha ! What is he ?" 
 
 " A spy, I reckon. Such is our suspicion He s in with the 
 governor, and they have had some talk about an ugly business 
 which concerns us. The only good feature in the thing is, that 
 they do not know exactly which way to turn themselves, or who 
 to trust. What they know leads them to apprehend a great 
 deal of which they know nothing, and much more than is the 
 truth. What this youth knows is our question. We must 
 touch his wallet. You must manage that to-night " 
 
 "Has he money, think you ?" 
 
POLITICIANS AMUN(J TIIiT OUTLAWS. 
 
 Nay, that is no object now ; besides, I doubt he has little, 
 He is a poor young lawyer that the governor has tempted with 
 promises of a great reward for every beagle that he can collar. 
 Our object" is to get hold of his papers, and see what names he 
 has down. We know that certain papers of Mat Webber fell 
 into their hands at that ugly business on the Black Warrior ; 
 and the confessions of that traitor, Eberly, if he made any, 
 might give them clues enough to our most secret operations. 
 That this fellow, Vernon, is employed by the state, I have no 
 sort of doubt; but there s no telling to what extent what are 
 the powers given him, or what is the object he aims at. These 
 we must learn. His papers we must handle, and you must con 
 trive it if you can to-night, or the work will be more trouble 
 some to-morrow. Have you found out what course he takes ?" 
 
 " To Beatie s Bluff, if he himself is to be believed ; but the 
 other lark told Betsy a different story, and said that they were 
 both for the lower ford, on the route to Benton." 
 
 "And how s Bess now? has she got over her humors? 
 Does she still continue to suspect you ?" 
 
 " Worse than ever ; and Mabry is also very troublesome." 
 
 "But have you not given him your daughter will not that 
 stop his mouth ?" 
 
 " It would, I make no doubt, could my giving be his having. 
 But the old woman s stubborn as a mule, the girl herself dislikes 
 him, and this evening there was a strange blow-out, that has 
 made the chap furious as a wild beast all tongue and wrath 
 and no reason." 
 
 " Ha ! what was the matter ?" 
 
 " Well, you see, it so happened, that the old woman know d 
 this young man, Horsey, when he was only a little bit of a boy, 
 somewhere down on Pearl river. Well, when they struck up 
 the acquaintance between em, what should the fellow do, but, 
 to make it fast, he ups and goes for kissing Mary, and for any 
 thing I know, the old woman too. Just at the time when he 
 was about it, and pushing Mary, who was frightened enough, 
 1 warrant, all round the room, we came in, Mabry and myself; 
 and before we could put in or say a word, Mabry jumps for 
 ward, and clips the stranger side of his head and tumbles him 
 aver like a log. There was a great to-dc after that. Tho nln 
 
134 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 v/oinaii set all the water in the house a-boiling, and it got quite 
 too hot for Ned. He started off and I followed him, and while 
 we were talking together under the trees, who should come up 
 but these two fellows. Horsey followed to get satisfaction for 
 the blow, which, it was surprising to me, he took so lightly at 
 first. He thought better of it afterward, however, and did bet 
 ter ; for, I tell you, he handled poor Ned in two minutes in a 
 way that s a caution. He downed him, a fair stupid down 
 Ned rolled about like a drunken bullock, and got mighty sick 
 with both eyes shut up, and a great retching at his btomach. I 
 had tight work to keep him steady on his nag and get him safe 
 ly home. Since then, when he recovered, he s been in a mighty 
 crooked humor. He swears that I don t want be should have 
 the girl that I m only playing possnm, and half believes that 
 I set this fellow, Horsey, on to beat him, though nobody could 
 have been more willing for the fight, at first, than Mabry him- 
 self." 
 
 " Does ne threaten ?" 
 
 4 A little squinting that way, though he don t speak out 
 plainly. But he d threaten and tell too, if so be he thought I 
 was only shamming in the business with Mary." 
 
 " You must run it through then, as fast as possible. He will 
 scarcely speak anything to your discredit, if he was once mar 
 ried to your daughter." 
 
 " No ! But that s the worry. The old woman s hot ag in 
 him. She thinks Mary meat for his master ; and I do really 
 believe she fancies to marry her to a colonel or some great law 
 yer, or maybe to a member of Congress. She always rides a 
 high horse when she talks about Mary 
 
 "But the girl herself?" 
 
 " Likes him no better than Bess. He stands but little chance 
 with either of them." 
 
 " But if Bess approved, would not that help his chance with 
 Mary T 
 
 "Why, yes; but that s the swamp worse than the Big 
 Black which I can t manage to cross nohow." 
 
 " Why not make Mabry a colonel 1 The thing might very 
 easily be done. You can beat up and bring in stray voio.t- 
 enough to turn t.b*. election, if Hi,-- fellow could do anything ioi 
 
POLITICIANS AMON<; TIIK OUTLAWS. lOO 
 
 himself. We must manage this matter hereafter. For this 
 other fellow, now " 
 
 " Vernoii ?" 
 
 Yes of course, you know which bed he sleeps in. Did 
 you give an eye to his portmanteau 7" 
 
 "It s in the room with him I put it myself by the chim 
 ney. You don t mean to " 
 
 Yarbers paused, and looked vacantly in the other s fa-e 
 leaving the sentence unfinished. Saxon smiled after a mo 
 ment s hesitation, and replied 
 
 " You are afraid to have more work on your hands than 
 was stipulated for. Be under no concern. We shall avoid 
 blood-spilling and violence, as a general good policy, which v 
 the more important to observe now when we are under partial 
 suspicion already. All that we ask of you is to find out what 
 he carries. You must get his papers ; and this you can do, 1 
 trust, without difficulty. You have the old trap in the floor by 
 which to enter, and this key will open any portmanteau-lock 
 that was ever sold in Mississippi. As for his life, that is the 
 least consideration so long as we know his game. There is 
 more chance of Mabry growing troublesome than he, and you 
 may yet find it necessary to work with cold steel upon him. 
 Make him a colonel, and if that doesn t bring Brown Bess to 
 favor him, we must bribe him to good breeding in another way 
 
 " It ll be hard work. I never seed a fellow that set such 
 store on a ga l in all my life. He can t bear to see anothei 
 man look upon her, and he talks of nothing else." 
 
 " Unless it be of you ; but his case needs no immediate atten 
 tion. This of Vernon does. Did you note whether his saddle 
 had pockets 1" 
 
 " It has. I searched them already, but found nothing worth 
 telling of. There was a newspaper, and some old accounts, 
 take it they looked like bills and calculation." 
 
 " You cared not what they looked like, Yarbers, when you 
 found that they did not look like money. But I must see those 
 papers. Where is the saddle ?" 
 
 " In the stable. Shall I lead your horse round the old fie/d J 
 They may hear his footsteps if we take the path." 
 
 "Right do so. I ll await pou at the stall." 
 
136 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 Tarbers had put a tolerably fair estimate upon the papers 
 found in the saddle-pouches. An examination of them by 
 *orehlight resulted in no discovery such as Saxon sought for, 
 ind the attempt to arrive at farther knowledge was devolved 
 for the present upon the ad/oit and prying industry of Yarben* 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 HAPS AND TOGO THE RULING PASSION STRONG N SLEKf 
 
 A STAGE SITUATION. 
 
 > .A in mine authority to command 
 
 i*he keys of all the posterns : please your highness 
 
 To take the urgent here : come, sir, away." 
 
 Winter * Tale. 
 
 BEFORE this long conference was ended, sleep had overcome 
 the senses of Harry Vernon. The imagination which had so 
 long kept him wakeful in spite of the day s fatigue, now busied 
 itself only in his dreams, which were all of a 1i ; nd natural to 
 the young beginner on the weary paths of life. With a heart, 
 as yet unfettered, and a fancy free as that of the bird for the 
 first time winging its way from the forests to the ocean, he was 
 conscious only of that void and vacant region in his bosom, 
 which is intended to be filled by love. The germ was there of 
 the great empire over which the imperial master was yet to 
 rear his wand, but the especial divinity had not bestowed a 
 glance on the territory she was destined to inhabit. Warm 
 and waiting for the advent, the heart of Harry Vernon did not 
 yet repine in inconclusive fancies, hoping and sighing, and sur 
 rendering itself to imbecility. He suffered himself but little 
 time to brood over the vague desires which he felt, but sum 
 moning to his side the thoughts which attend on duty, he ad- 
 aressed himself with ardor to the actual demands of existence, 
 without yielding up more mind than was necessary to such as 
 were eventual and prospective. It was only while he slept 
 that his fancy gave itself up to the desires of his heart ; and alJ 
 
TRAPS AND TOGGERY. 187 
 
 the struggles before Ins pathway were thrust from sight, and all 
 his duties and dangers forgotten, to give place to as lovely a 
 vision as youthful bard ever conceived and young imagination 
 ever desired. 
 
 A maiden conjured up in realms of faery, rose before his 
 dreaming eye just such a form as met and realized the ideal 
 which his united taste and reason might have been disposed to 
 create at a moment of particular inspiration. She was tall and 
 graceful ; her skin pure as marble and smooth as ivory ; her 
 eyes black and streaming with a melting light ; her lips soft as 
 the leaf and richer than the rose ; her cheeks pale but radiant, 
 almost transparent with a light like that which glistened from 
 her eyes ; and her forehead lofty, spiritually narrow, and shaded 
 by the voluminous masses of silk-like hair, darker than that 
 which shines on the "shoulders of the raven. 
 
 She stood beside him such was his dreaming fancy in a 
 vision of his sleep. He had sunk for shelter beneath the 
 shadows of a group of mighty oaks that surmounted the brow 
 of a hill, and was surrounded by a dense and untrodden forest. 
 His horse drank the while and cropped the herbage upon the 
 banks of a little stream that wandered down the hillside, and 
 lost itself in the deep groves of a thicket which hid from sight 
 the dark and gloomy recesses of an inland swamp. The mid 
 day sun shone above him in melting fervor, but the dense fo 
 liage shielded him from the oppressive heat, and but a few 
 straying straggling gleams, trembling and retreating as if con 
 scious of intrusion, stole in at intervals between the branches, 
 as they slowly yielded to the capricious wind. A dark shadow, 
 as if from an overhanging cloud, suddenly overspread the scene 
 the moment ere she entered upon it, but at her approach the 
 cloud disappeared, a glory like that of the moon enveloped him 
 with its soft, fleecy edges, and his very soul seemed to melt 
 within him as the entrancing vision drew nigh to his side. 
 
 Other forms followed and crowded upon the scene strange 
 events and mingling action disturbed its quiet, and his eye toiled 
 in the survey of a thousand features, each changing at his 
 glance and distracting his attention. But the lovely form 
 which had fixed his eye and fastened upon his soul at first, wag 
 still to be seen amidst the crowd now here, now there., nigb 
 
138 BORDER BEACLR8. 
 
 and then remote, but still present, hallowing the scene to soft 
 ness, mollifying the strife, stilling the clamor, and subduing the 
 turbulence, until such was the strange fancy the sudden 
 obtrusion of Horsey, and his fierce declamation, affrighted the 
 delicate and ethereal beauty from the spot ; and he started from 
 his sleep with a harsher mood in his bosom toward his self-ap 
 pointed companion than any which he had ever entertained 
 before. It will be seen how far the random actor was answer 
 able for the dispersion of his happy fancies. 
 
 Horsey was not without his visions also ; but they were of a 
 very different character. When he first fell asleep, ^\s nose 
 performed such vigorous airs that Vernon was apprehensive 
 lest they might greatly interfere with his own desired rest. 
 But the mastery of this solemn member was disputed at frequent 
 periods by his tongue ; which, as if never needing rest, contin 
 ued at intervals to pour forth choice fragments from his favorite 
 Shakspere, growling at one moment in all the ernphajtic terrors 
 of the tragic muse ; at another softening down to the most dulcet 
 parts of love, the sweet significant nothings with which every 
 hero regales his " Amaryllis in the shade." 
 
 These were long or short as the occasion seemed to require 
 them ; and the prompt and well-versed memory of the actor ap 
 peared never to want the auxiliary help of a quotation. Some 
 times, the sentences would be broken, sometimes complete ; at 
 first, they were usually short, consisting of two or three con 
 secutive words of a single phrase ; but Vernon, who listened to 
 him for a while with smiling curiosity, observed, as the night 
 advanced, that he rose from fragments to entire passages, and 
 when he himself was sinking into that sleep which yielded him 
 a vision so entrancing, he was conscious that the actor was gli 
 ding into the dialogue in which he personated the love-sick 
 Montague, and wooed the fair Capulet beneath the window 
 Something Vernon caught ere he himself slept, of 
 
 " strides the lazy pacing clouds 
 
 And sails upon the bosom of the air," 
 
 followed by an intense ebullition of the nostrils which probably 
 answered all the purposes of a reply from Juliet ; when he him 
 self, surrendering to the oppressive sleep, lost all farther appre 
 hension of the dialogue. 
 
TRAPS AND TOGGERY. 139 
 
 But it was continued, nevertl unless, by the actor, though so 
 large a portion of his audience slept ; and, perhaps, the inter 
 ruptions from his nose allowed for, he never went through the 
 part with more honest unction in his life. That he might have 
 done better, or at least toiled for it, is unquestionable, if he 
 could only have been told that at this moment his audience 
 was increased. 
 
 So it was. Saxon, the outlaw, and his adjunct Yarbers* 
 stood without the dwelling and beside the chimney of the shed- 
 room in which slept the travellers. Their ears took in with 
 readiness the earnest and pleading devotions of the amorous 
 Romeo, and so greatly did the affair tend to the amusement of 
 the former, that he could with difficulty restrain himself from 
 taking the opposite part of the dialogue, and thus stimulating 
 the enthusiastic actor to increased efforts. But the more timid 
 Yarbers was opposed to this, and, speaking in whispers, scarcely 
 audible to his immediate companion, dwelt earnestly on the 
 danger of discovery. 
 
 "Pshaw, John Yarbers, the man sleeps soundly too no 
 man sleeps more soundly than him who dreams of what he 
 loves." 
 
 " But the other fellow Vernon !" 
 
 "Ay you have need of caution there; but I reckon he 
 sleeps too. You must lift the trap cautiously and listen, before 
 you do anything." 
 
 This trap was simply a square hole in the floor, made by 
 sawing two of the flooring-boards across, fastening them together 
 by a cross-piece below, and securing them with common hooks 
 to the joist beneath. While, therefore, their ends rested upon 
 the joists, they resisted any pressure from above, and it was 
 easy for one under the house, by undoing the hooks, to raise 
 the trap and make his way into it. The fabric stood upon 
 raised blocks, from three to four feet from the ground, and, 
 obeying the direction of the outlaw, Yarbers fell upon his knees, 
 and soon disappeared beneath it. 
 
 It was easy to undo the hooks which secured the door, but 
 the continued declamation of Horsey, in spite of all the assu 
 rances of Saxon that he slept, disturbed the nerves of the 
 intruder, and he once more returned to the entrance to assure 
 
140 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 his Companion that it was certainly Vernon who snored and 
 Horsey who spoke ; and that the speaking had none of the ob 
 structions or hesitation of a sleeping man, and came most cer 
 tainly from the throat of one as perfectly conscious as he ever 
 was in daylight. The impatient outlaw answered him with an 
 oath. 
 
 "Yarbers, you are but a dry bone after all. Stand aside, 
 and let me do it." 
 
 "Stay, sir don t you hear steps? Don t you think he s 
 walking ?" 
 
 " Pshaw, man ! It s your own heart. It thumps hard enough 
 to scare you, I doubt not. Where does the portmanteau stand ?" 
 
 " Right side of the chimney from the hall-door ; and the sad 
 die-bags on the left." 
 
 " But which is Vernon s 1" 
 
 " Fegs ! I don t know. I warn t home when they come, and 
 I s pose they took em off the creatures themselves and brought 
 em in. There s no telling which is which." 
 
 " That s unfortunate. We must then examine both," said 
 Saxon, as he crawled under the house and made his way to the 
 still unopened trap-door. This he raised with sufficient care, 
 though not without some little noise the hard, heavy pine, of 
 which the boards were made, requiring that degree of effort in 
 raising them which had been otherwise necessary to keep them 
 in equilibrium and prevent the edges from grazing against the 
 surrounding floor, to which they were made to correspond with 
 tolerable nicety. Once lifted, the intruder, still grasping the 
 door in his hand, raised himself and stood up within the open 
 ing, his head and shoulders being now within the apartment. 
 The door he laid down gently upon the floor beside the trap, so 
 that it might be drawn into its place on the first alarm. 
 
 To his confusion, however, while thus engaged, he discovered 
 that the conjecture of Yarbers was not unfounded. Horsey was 
 certainly out of bed, and striding the floor of the apartment. 
 His ruling passion had grown utterly ungovernable in his sleep, 
 and the somnambulist was now fairly in the highest realm of 
 hallucination. His movements were, however, slow enough at 
 this period ; and Saxon succeeded, without noise or interrup 
 tion, in stretching forth his hand to the fireplace and securing 
 
THE RULING PASSION STRONG IN SLEEP. 141 
 
 the saddle-bags, which were the first that came within his 
 reach. These he handed through the aperture to his comrade 
 below, who proceeded to examine them in the moonlight with 
 out. His whispered words, as he looked at the contents, de 
 clared his own wonder, while they satisfied Saxon that he had 
 fallen upon the wrong chattels. 
 
 " Jackets and breeches all covered with gold and spangles." 
 
 " Stuff em back," said Saxon, stooping down, and whisper 
 ing ; " stuff em back and hand me the bags. They are the 
 actor s baggage. We must grope for the other s." 
 
 While this was doing, and at the moment when Saxon had 
 received them in his hands, and was about raising them through 
 the hole in which he stood, in order to replace them, the parox 
 ysm came upon Borneo stronger and less controllable than ever. 
 A rush of inspiration filled his veins, and to the great annoy 
 ance of the outlaw, he heard him growling and advancing. 
 The play had made rapid progress in the sleep of the actor. 
 He had reached the fifth act he had got his poison from the 
 apothecary he had resolved upon his own death, and was 
 hurrying on to give County Paris his. 
 
 " Give me that mattock !" he cried in low, hoarse accents to 
 the supposed Balthazar beside him. His voice then subsided 
 into a throng of pressing whispers, as if forced to speak, yet not 
 desiring to be heard. This brought him within a few paces of 
 the outlaw, who began seriously to feel the inconvenience of 
 his situation. A few strides more would bring the actor upon 
 his shoulders, and into the pit. To withdraw and let down the 
 door at that moment, might be to arouse the sleeper, and defeat 
 the object which he had in view ; and no possible effort which 
 he could make, short of rushing into the room itself, would en 
 able him this he discovered to reach the opposite end of 
 the fireplace where the valise of Vernon had been placed. 
 
 While he stood in a state of incertitude, which prevented him 
 from doing anything, the passion of the actor had taken a new 
 direction from the approach of Paris. He had gone through 
 the paroxysms which made him beat down the gate of the 
 monument ; and here Saxon observed^with some surprise, that 
 he now spoke the part of Paris as well as his own, to which, 
 hitherto, he had entirely confined himself. The inference of 
 
142 BORDER BEAGLEb 
 
 the outlaw from this fact, was, that the pressure of sleep was 
 passing off, the influence of imagination lessened, and that the 
 actor s ear needed the absolute reality of sound, to continue any 
 longer in his self-deception. 
 
 This added somewhat to the apprehensions of the intruder, 
 who was not suffered very long to speculate upon the matter. 
 The language of Paris was threatening that of Romeo had 
 assumed a tone of mildness, which, in reality, only disguised 
 the laboring volcano in his bosom : 
 
 " I beseech fhee, youth, 
 Pull not another sin upon my head, 
 By urging me to fury. " 
 
 Still he approaches, and his arm rises as if balancing the sword 
 "Live," he says, in most soliciting tones 
 
 " Live, and hereafter say, 
 A madman s mercy bade thee run away. " 
 
 Here he availed himself of one of his own readings of the 
 thousand unimportant distinctions in such matters, of which 
 stage-struck citizens are so apt to make a fuss. Pausing at the 
 word " run," which he had spoken along with the whole pas 
 sage in the gentlest accents, he now made a tremendous transi 
 tion, and the final word, " away," was thundered forth in tones 
 to waken up the dead. This was a " point" upon which, in his 
 waking moments, he was very apt to pride himself. The an 
 swer of Paris, which he also spoke, fell something short of this, 
 but was still loud ; and he had scarcely given himself time to 
 finish it, before, reaching the acme of his paroxysm in the part 
 of Romeo, he gave the torrent free vent, and leaped upon the 
 shoulders of Saxon, while he cried aloud 
 
 "Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee, boy! " 
 
 The situation was awkward in the last degree, and the strug 
 gles of Romeo were such as to convince the outlaw that he was 
 rapidly coming to his senses. Exerting his whole strength, 
 therefore, he seized the half-prostrate actor by his shoulders, 
 and flung him from him as far as he might while in the place 
 in which he stood, not giving much heed whether the poor fel 
 low was brought up by flint or feathers. Then, suddenly sink 
 
RULING PASSION STiiG-N G IN SLEEP. 148 
 
 ing down with equal promptness and composure, he drew the 
 trap into its place with a degree of ease which added but little . 
 to the bustle which the previous incident had occasioned. 
 
 The direction given to Horsey by the arms of Saxon, carried 
 him upon the couch of Vernon, whom the struggling actor, now 
 emerging into actual bodily consciousness, grappled with as he 
 was rising up in alarm, and continued to contend with as if 
 County Paris still remained to be slain. 
 
 But he met with no better treatment at the hands of Vernon 
 than from those of Saxon, being tumbled, by a very unscrupu 
 lous movement, backward upon the floor, where he lay, for a 
 moment, actually at a loss to determine where he was and what 
 was his condition. 
 
 Vernon had been as roughly awakened from a pleasant 
 dream as the actor, and, still in doubt as to whence the annoy 
 ance arose, he was soon out of bed and standing above Romeo, 
 the moment he had flung him from him. What might havo 
 been his farther act had not Horsey spoken, though doubtful in 
 character, would have been certainly decisive. The tongue of 
 the latter, never for any length of time idle, happily resumed 
 its offices in time to prevent more mischief. 
 
 " Why, Harry, my dear boy, is that you ? Why, what the 
 devil s the matter ?" 
 
 " Matter, Mr. Horsey. That s the very question to be asked 
 of you. How came you on my bed 1" 
 
 "Your bed! Was that your bed, Harry? By all that s 
 sacred in stage-lights, I took it for the tomb of Juliet; and 
 Paris you were Paris, my dear fellow." 
 
 " Do you walk in your sleep, Mr. Horsey ?" asked Vernonv 
 now beginning to conjecture the whole affair. 
 
 " Egad, it may be. I don t know, but, certainly, I have had 
 a strangely exciting dream. It was our first night at Bent on, 
 Harry. I was Romeo, and that dear little Mary made her de 
 but in Juliet, under my instructions. If I ever play so well in 
 reality, as I fancied I played this night as I must have played 
 in my sleep I shall ask for nothing better. But," rising from 
 the floor as he spoke, " my shin is cursedly bruised the fikin e 
 off; I can hardly get up. I had some notion that I had got 
 into a hole, but " 
 
144 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 The voice of Mrs. Yarbers at the chamber-door, demanding 
 to know if anybody was sick, and asking the cause of the up 
 roar, silenced the actor. After satisfying her, he was very 
 glad to slink back into bed, as he found Vernon unwilling any 
 longer to listen to his description of the scene, and the detail of 
 points newly-made, which had broken in upon fancies of his 
 own no less dear and exciting, though, possibly it was his 
 own reflection not more real and stable than those of his com 
 panion. 
 
 Saxon was no less annoyed, and, perhaps, with more serious 
 cause for annoyance, than those within. He waited long with 
 out the house, and near his place of secret ingress, in the hope 
 of hearing those sounds from the sleepers which should assure 
 him of an uninterrupted entrance. But he waited in vain. 
 
 Whether it was that the rough handling which Horsey had 
 received had utterly expelled the nightmare, or whether he had 
 become conscious of the unreasonableness of making any more 
 disturbance in the house, and was willing to compensate for his 
 excesses at one moment by an unusual degree of forbearance at 
 another, he certainly did not snore again that night. Vernon s 
 was a well-bred nose, that seldom violated the rules of decorum ; 
 and hopeless of the plan, the progress of which had been so for 
 cibly interrupted in the first instance, the outlaw concluded to 
 defer to another opportunity his intended purpose. 
 
 " We must do it on the roadside ; and it may be necessary 
 that we should even lay hands on him. These papers being of 
 value he would most probably conceal them about his person 
 It is barely possible that they should be in the valise, and we 
 should take no such risks as this on the strength of a bare pos 
 sibility. We must keep your house in the reputation of being 
 an honest one, Yarbers, as well to serve our purposes as to 
 please your wife. Let her not know that I have been here 
 to-night. I will go farther up, and be ready for our man at the 
 fork." 
 
 " She ll guess fast enough though I don t tell her. She s 
 mighty cute, and knows the bay of the beagle is not for noth 
 ing in these parts." 
 
 " So long as she can t see the beagle, and don t know whose 
 name s on the cdlar, she knows nothing. But help me to my 
 
A STAGE SITUATION. 145 
 
 horse, while I ride. Jones will be here by daylight, I suppose. 
 You can send him after me when he comes." 
 
 " And Mabry ?" 
 
 " If he blab, be must be silenced. If the mouth won t be 
 sugared, it must be stopped. You will see him to-morrow when 
 he is a little cooled off" from the drubbing of this actor, and per 
 suade him that you have nothing to do in the business. Tins 
 he will be the more apt to believe when he finds his enemy 
 gone ; and, perhaps, it might be just as well that you should 
 see him at an early hour on the subject. Should nothing an 
 swer should he grow troublesome I will send a decoy- 
 beagle, who will get him into Cane Castle, where he ll leave 
 all his secrets before he comes forth." 
 
 "There was one here for you to-day from Cane Castle- 
 Stillyards." 
 
 " The hunchback ! well, what said he ?" 
 
 " He came from Monna." 
 
 " Ah ! she s impatient ; but she must wait. She would fetter 
 me, Yarbers, as Brown Bess fetters you, but that my blood is 
 quite as quick and impatient as her own. Yet, she s a woman 
 more to be feared than Bess She can t scold so well nay, she 
 seldom scolds; but she thinks and broods over her thoughts, 
 which are sometimes fearful enough, and one day she may seek 
 to act them She s secret, Yarbers ; and there she is unlike 
 Bess, who would blab everything she knew to your hurt, if you 
 once put her into a passion. Monna, if sometimes fearful as 
 the grave, is at all times as secret. It would be twenty times 
 our good, Yarbers, were your wife half as secret. But you 
 took her for better or worse, and so must we. If you are sat 
 isfied with your bargain," speaking with a malicious sin i ID 
 " your friends have no reason to complain." 
 
HORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE RENTS IN "ROMEO" BURNING ONE S FINGERS SPLENDID 
 ANTICIPATIONS. 
 
 "The confidence of youth our only art, 
 And Hope gay pilot of the bold design, 
 
 We saw the living landscapes 
 
 Reach after reach salute us and depart" 
 
 WORDSWORTH. 
 
 THE travellers prepared to set forth at an early hour on the 
 ensuing morning. The adventures of the night had tended 
 somewhat to sour the usually sweet temper of the actor. His 
 legs, which he displayed to the wonder and commiseration of 
 his companion, were skinned from knee to ankle, in a way per 
 fectly mysterious to the sufferer, who could not conceive how 
 such an affliction could have arisen simply from his playing 
 Romeo to empty boxes. 
 
 " And yet it seemed to me, among other things, that it wasn t 
 Romeo, neither, but Hamlet. I was in the grave, grappling 
 I ll be sworn upon it with Laertes, with whom I fought a 
 long hour by Shrewsbury clock. It must have been in the 
 grave that I got these bruises." 
 
 That imperfect state of mind which, in dreams, so happily 
 unites the fanciful with the actual, had, in fact, produced a rapid 
 transition in his thoughts from the one play to the other, while 
 his involuntary struggle in the hole with the outlaw suggested 
 a similitude of circumstances so favorable for a change of scene ; 
 and the dawning of his right reason, which the struggle neces 
 sarily occasioned, forced upon him the partial conviction that 
 some other man, of considerable brawn and muscle, had, like 
 himself, been dreaming a part also, which had given the per 
 formance a termination so perfectly tragical. His inspection 
 of liis saddle-bags contributed in some little degree to his con 
 fusion. The contents were in strange disorder. 
 
THE RENTS IN * l UOMEO." 1 H 
 
 " Could I have been so d d stupid as to have dressed my 
 self in costume ? I don t recollect putting it back, and if I did, 
 I must have shown a singular indifference to Romeo s wardrobe 
 to have put it up without folding. Look here, Harry Vernon, 
 what a bunch I ve made of it in my sleep ; a bag from a beg 
 gar s press and the garment perfectly new a splendid gar 
 ment, for which that skunk of a tailor amerced me in a greater 
 inn uber of dad s dollars than I should be altogether willing to 
 count up in his hearing. You shall see me put it on. You 
 shall you shall form an idea of the sort of chap that Caldwell 
 quarrelled with ; you shall see the figure, at least, of a Romeo 
 not to be met with every day." 
 
 This scene was going on in the chamber prior to their ap 
 pearance before the family in the hall. They had been already 
 summoned to an early breakfast, which Vernon, before retiring 
 for the night, had especially solicited. He now ventured to 
 remind the actor that the family and breakfast waited upon 
 them. 
 
 " Only a moment !" exclaimed the actor hurriedly, as he pro 
 ceeded to envelope himself in the glittering garment of the 
 amorous Montague " only for a moment ! It s worth a glance 
 from a veteran stager. Ha ! what s this? a hole ! a rent !" 
 
 The exclamation of the actor, distinguished by tones expres 
 sive not merely of surprise, but consternation and horror, drew 
 the attention of Vernon to the dress, in which an envious nail 
 probably while old Yarbers was inspecting the glittering 
 sack beneath the house had torn a ringer s breadth. 
 
 " What the d 1 shall I do ? what a misfortune !" exclaimed 
 the actor, with a degree of concern infinitely greater than any 
 that his bruised shins had occasioned. 
 
 " It s but a small hole ; it s easily mended," said Vernon. 
 
 " Small !" exclaimed the actor, with some indignation. " Ay, 
 ay, not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door, but tis 
 enough to call for the instant succor of a darning needle. Juliet, 
 that is to say, my little Mary, here, shall take it up off hand 
 She s a nice, handy body, that ; would make, with training, au 
 admirable Juliet gad, twould be a charity to give her lessons, 
 and I ll think of it. But to the Rorneo she shall tak<* up the 
 rent in the twinkling of an eye." 
 
148 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 " Surely, Mr Horsey, you will not delay us for so sra**l a 
 
 matter." 
 
 " Small a matter, indeed ! By St. David s best buckles, 
 Harry, you have a strangely irreverent way about you ! Such 
 a rent in Romeo s body is no small matter. Let the audience 
 see a hole in a hero s breeches, and d me if it don t turn all 
 his tragedy into farce. I once saw a chap named Barnes play 
 ing Lear, with his shirt an ugly corner of it, I mean de 
 pending, for all the world like a streamer, fully a quarter of a 
 yard from his inexpressibles. The audience roared with ad 
 miration, which Barnes took for applause. Never did a fellow 
 play so furiously fine with so much earnestness and enthu 
 siasm. But the more fire he put into his acting, the more it 
 filled them with laughter ; all of which he mistook, like an ass 
 as he was, for pleasure at his performance. On a sudden, how 
 ever, he happened to fling his left hand behind him in order to 
 adjust his sword, and he grasped along with it the obtrusive 
 garment. You never saw a fellow s comb cut so short off. He 
 lost his voice in an instant his head dropped, and when he 
 came round to the wing, the sweat stood upon his brow like 
 treacle. No, no ! I am clear that no man should make his bow 
 to the public with a hole in his breeches." 
 
 Vernon expostulated against the delay, but in vain. A new 
 measure suggested itself to his companion. 
 
 " While her hand s in at one thing, she can do the other, or 
 I ll do it myself. I ll get Mary to heat me an iron, and I ll 
 smooth it before I start. It s ruined for ever if I put it back 
 in this condition." 
 
 Vernon saw that expostulation and entreaty were alike vain. 
 Horsey made a point of healing Romeo s hurts the ruling 
 passion rendering him equally obstinate to argument and en 
 treaty ; and with a complacency as enviable in the eye of a 
 traveller as it is desirable in that of an actor, he sallied from 
 his chamber with the fractured garment in his hand, and pro 
 ceeded instantly and without circumlocution, to declare his 
 requisitions to mother and daughter. 
 
 " Get your needle, my little Juliet, and show me what sort 
 of a workman you are ; but first put me an iron to warm ; I 
 must take out these wrinkles." 
 
THE RENTS IN KOMEO." 14U 
 
 The girl willingly assumed the performance of task set hei, 
 and Horsey sat down the while to breakfast, but his eyes were 
 upon her as she sewed, and more than once he started up to 
 look at her progress. 
 
 " Well enough done, Mary. You are the girl after my own 
 heart. Egad, if my wardrobe suffers much more injury in this 
 fashion, I shall not be able to do without you. I shall have to 
 come and steal you from mamma. A stitch or two more just 
 there, Mary, if you please ; and now that I look at it, just be 
 neath the arm I see that a thread has dropped. The garment 
 is rather tight over the shoulders, and it is only a timely pre 
 caution that would guard against the strain of any great action 
 in that quarter. A man s blood gets up wondrously, Harry 
 when he s in the fury of a fifth act when he s warmed by op 
 position, and, more than all, by his own rising consciousness of 
 what is called for by the character. At such a time his action 
 increases accordingly, and it would be the most awkward thing 
 in the world, if, extending his arm to convey the idea of com 
 mand, to order Buckingham s head off, or any matter of equal 
 tragic signification, he should discover to the inquisitive audience 
 a rent under the arm, and a glimmer of a white cotton shirt be 
 neath his buckram. It s the easiest thing in the world to upset 
 the gravity of an audience in the deepest scenes. One fool makes 
 many, and the first booby that laughs out, without any fear of 
 shame, finds a hundred followers. I ve seen it a thousand times, 
 and know there is nothing so tragic as will frighten farce. Farce 
 follows tragedy as naturally as the sparks fly upward. She stands 
 beside her, ready to grin at the first opening ; and let dignity 
 forget herself for an instant, she claps her hands, and darts in, 
 without any regard to decency, before all the spectators." 
 
 Thus rambling on, the actor ate his breakfast, and watched 
 the progress of Mary with her needle. The bright eyes of the 
 girl laughed the while, and her cheeks blushed, when he hung 
 over her; his glances being equally shared between the semp- 
 tress and the garment. The breakfast over, Vernon, with some 
 consternation, beheld him proceeding to assist tLa mother and 
 daughter in removing the plates sir.u dishes, in order to convert 
 the t*kU ^ A ?> - tailors board, on which he could perform the 
 
 *oi-neeled office of smoothing out the rumpled Romeo. Old 
 
150 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 Yarbers looked on with a scarcely-suppressed smile, which was 
 not lessened as the actor confessed to having disordered his 
 wardrobe in his night-errant habits. He could have told a 
 truer story, and have accounted more truly, if not more ration 
 ally, for the condition of the saddle-bags. But he was prudent 
 enough to conceal his knowledge, and suppress, though with 
 difficulty, his laughter. 
 
 The actor had made a clean breast, and declared the true 
 cause of the uproar of last night to the family. There was 
 nothing retentive in his nature, unless it might be in the one 
 purpose of his mood; and, prattling ever, like the downward 
 running fountain, his streams, the deeps and shallows alike, 
 were equally open to the sunlight. 
 
 Harry Vernon, meanwhile, became impatient to the last de 
 gree. Not that he had any reason to wait for Horsey, beyond 
 that of mere civility. He well knew that, before the day was 
 out, they would reach the spot where diverging roads should 
 prove convincingly to the actor that his course was other than 
 that which he had so precipitately and erroneously assumed to 
 be the same with his own. To hurry off before his companion 
 was ready, in order that he might anticipate this truth, would 
 at least seem rude, if it were not so in reality ; and then the 
 utter simplicity and good nature of the actor pleaded in his be 
 half, and made Vernon, who was generously and nobly consti 
 tuted, reluctant to do anything which might inflict unnecessary 
 pain, even though he well knew that a nature so mercurial as 
 that of Horsey would not feel it long. Resolved, therefore, to 
 await the actor s pleasure, he sat resigned to his fate, and be 
 held him removing the hominy, the remnants of the bacon and 
 eggs the mother, father, and daughter, equally, and in vain, 
 striving to prevent him from performing duties so seemingly in 
 consistent with the dignity of a gentleman and the position of a 
 guest. But his activity set their exertions at defiance. Plate 
 followed plate, and dish dish, and cup cup, without stop or stay, 
 until, striving to sweep up in one common effort the remaining 
 odds and ends, he grappled them quite too unceremoniously to 
 gether, and, to his own horror, and the great reddening of the 
 hostess s cheeks, they came in undistiiiguishable ruin to the 
 ground. 
 
151 
 
 "Bless my soul, Mrs. Yarbeis, but what have 1 done? 1 
 have broken all your cups and saucers." 
 
 No ! never mind, Mr. Horsey," stammered the old lady, 
 half-angry with her old favorite, yet doing her utmost to con 
 ceal her annoyance. 
 
 " It s very unfortunate. I certainly had em fast, my dear 
 madam. I could carry twice as many. I ll show you now, I ll 
 bring back, in two turns, all that I have carried to the shelf;" 
 and he actually proceeded to restore the plates and dishes to 
 the table " and if I break so much as a teacup, I ll give my 
 head for a football. It was certainly the strangest misfortune." 
 
 Vernon interposed 
 
 " Certainly it was, Mr. Horsey a sort of fatality which can 
 no more be accounted for than helped. All that you can do is 
 to send Mrs. Yarbers a fine set from Vicksburg or Natchez, and 
 take care to meddle with no more cups and saucers. The table 
 is ready for you now why not smooth the garment?" 
 
 " True, true, my cousin of Vernon, that is a good thought ; 
 and Bess hold me your debtor for a set of china, the best 
 that money can get in Natchez. Nay, nay, I will have no re 
 fusal it must be so. You shall have the cups and saucers \ I 
 swear it by my Romeo, which stands waiting for smoothing. 
 Let me have the iron, Mary nay, don t burn your pretty fingers 
 with it let me have it." 
 
 " It s hot, Mr. Horsey. Better take it up with the towel, 
 sir," said the girl. But the rapid actor had already grasped 
 the iron at the fire, with a rapidity only exceeded by the haste 
 with which he dropped it again ; and he now stood blowing 
 his fingers, his face red as a lobster s with the sudden pain, and 
 his mouth puffing and speaking alternately. 
 
 " Hot as phew! phew! the skin s off fingers as well as 
 legs. Phew ! Harry, my dear fellow, what an accident ! Ay, 
 do, Mary, that s a dear girl do you iron it for me. Let your 
 iron lie smoothly, Mary, my dear, and take care that it doesn t 
 scorch Romeo as it has scorched me. That blue is very perish 
 able phew ! the misfortune of all things that are very beau 
 tiful. There, there I think that will do. It must do. I won t 
 worry you to work for me any longer, my sweet Juliet. Mrs. Yar 
 bers, why didn t yon call your daughter Juliet, instead of Mary ?" 
 
152 BOUDKIl BKAGLES. 
 
 " As well might Mrs. Yurbers ask why yen were not called 
 Romeo, instead of Tom, Mr. Horsey. The one question might 
 be answered just as readily as the other. But time presses on 
 me, if not on you ; and if you are disposed to stop until you 
 have revised all the Christian names in the county, there is 
 certainly no good reason why I should linger to assist you." 
 
 " Right, Harry ; there s right and reason m what you say. 
 Mrs. Yarbers, the best friends must part you shall hear of me 
 soon, and see me again when I have got through my business 
 above. Mary, my dear, you shall be my Juliet nay, don t 
 look down ; I tell you it shall be so. There shall go an oath to 
 it that shall bind one of us, at least; and unless Mr. Mabry steps 
 between us both ha ! so you turn away you do not like that 
 well, I like you the better that you do not; and so good-by. 
 1 It is a grief to part so brief with thee. Come, Harry Vernon, 
 I am ready now." 
 
 The actor had prolonged the parting words and moments tc 
 the last possible limits, and somewhat to the surprise of Vernon, 
 he saw, or fancied he saw, an expression of seriousness and in 
 terest, rather beyond that of his ordinary manner, conspicuous 
 in what he said and looked to the lovely forest damsel. Nor, 
 on the other hand, did it seem to Vernon that the girl was en 
 tirely without some consciousness of the interest which she oc 
 casioned, and that which she felt, for her little rosy lips quiv 
 ered as she spoke to them at parting, and the "good-by 
 trembled in imperfect expression upon her scarcely-opened 
 mouth. Mrs. Yarbers was pleased to assure both the travellers 
 that nothing would gladden her more than to see them often ; a 
 compliment which she then repeated to Horsey in particular ; 
 and one, in approbation of which, her lord and master growled 
 out certain confirmatory, but scarcely intelligible sentences. 
 
 For a brief space after their departure from the hovel, the 
 spirits of Horsey seemed considerably depressed. He said but 
 little, and that little with the air of a man who speaks rather to 
 avoid the imputation of sullenness, than with any desire to 
 please. When he did speak more freely, and with the gradual 
 assumption of his former mood, his expressions revealed the 
 true source of his solemnity. 
 
 14 There is something monstrous uncomfortable at parting 
 
PARTING. 158 
 
 Harry, even with acquaintances of yesterday. I don t get 
 over it for an hour or two. It seems to me like rooting me up, 
 and tearing off some of my leaves and branches, when I am 
 compelled to grapple hands only to cast them loose again. It s 
 true it don t make me sick for that matter, I shouldn t go to 
 bed, I believe, or lose stomach for a dinner, if I was to be sep 
 arated for ever from the best friends in the world. I should 
 only, if that were the case, take a pine torch in my fingers, and 
 go about looking after others ; and a newer set might soon con 
 sole me for the lost. But it seems to weigh me down ; my limbs 
 grow weakish, and I lose all desire to make any exertions and 
 scarcely care to say or hear anything, though the best passage 
 offered itself for quotation jump to the moment, from Billy 
 Shakspere, that high treasurer of all manner of spoken 
 jewels. Now I feel just so in leaving these good people. It s 
 true Brown Bess is an old crony. I know nothing about her 
 husband, who seems but a curmudgeon ; but that dear little 
 creature that Mary don t you think her devilish handsome, 
 Harry ? What a forehead she has ! what lips, eyes, hair ! A 
 very collection of beauties ! Celia, Rosalind, and Helen, melt- 
 jd into one ; and yet, Harry, she did not speak twenty words 
 to me the whole time she was present." 
 
 " How could she who can, Mr. Horsey?" replied Vernon, 
 laughing, "you out-talked the whole family." 
 
 " The lawyer, also. By my faith, Harry, but that I heard 
 you made a long and good speech at Raymond, I should be in 
 clined to say you had taken up the wrong profession. Now I 
 should have been the lawyer." 
 
 " You mistake. You would soon ruin yourself as a lawyer. 
 You would soon talk yourself aAvay. A lawyer s words are the 
 materials he works with you would soon dull them, or wear 
 them out. Your talking lawyer i& a profligate who cheapens 
 his own wares by making them common. To talk in the right 
 place is his art, no less than to talk to the purpose. The where, 
 and the when, and the how much, are the three grand requisites 
 of public speaking." 
 
 " Egad, if that be the case, Harry, I should be soon swal 
 lowed up ; for, as to stopping to think when I should speak and 
 what I should say, that would seem to be the most idle, as it would 
 
lf>4 BORDKI: LJKAKLKS 
 
 certainly be, in my case, the na-ot impracticable tiling in the world 
 For that matter, I don t know half the time that I m talking, 
 even when my tongue is most busy beating all the chimes of 
 Westminster. I catch myself, every now and then, speechifying 
 jf my own head, or giving a reading from Shakspere to pine trees 
 and gray mosses, wasting myself, as the rose does its sweetness, 
 jpon the desert air, when I can get no better audience. Such, 
 1 trust, will not be our fate at Benton, however, if Tilton lias 
 any skill in management, and the Yazooians any taste. By the 
 splinters, you shall see how I shall drive ; nay, there s no good 
 reason why I should not give you a sample now. Here s a 
 t[iiiet spot looks for all the world as if it was meant for such 
 a purpose. There is a space on the brow of the hill which 
 would accommodate a thousand people, and the pines rise, and 
 the oaks spread above and around it, and the vines link them 
 together and fill up the space between ; so that the amphitheatre 
 of the Romans was never, so compact, and not half so well cov 
 ered. And, in the woods, with green leaves around me, my 
 voice seems to have a volume and a clearness that I can not al 
 ways command in a building. Ride up with me for a minute 
 and you shall see as good an imitation of Forrest did you 
 over meet with Forrest, Harry ? A splendid, half-savage-look 
 ing fellow a sort of Mark Antony before dinner who, by the 
 way, would make a figure in Dryden s Antony, perhaps supe 
 rior to any who has yet tried it. But I will show you Forrest 
 in Damon you shall have the strangling scene I ll choke a 
 pine sapling for Lucullus I ll " 
 
 He commenced riding up the hill as he spoke, but Vernon 
 stopped him. 
 
 " I ride on, Mr. Horsey. I would not now stop to see For 
 rest himself." 
 
 " The d 1 you wouldn t." 
 
 " No, on my soul I wouldn t." 
 
 The actor stared. 
 
 " Harry Vernon, you are a bundle of mysteries. How can 
 it be that you love the stage? nay, how can you yourself 
 play with any hope of success unless you are willing to behold 
 the best models T 
 
 " Your remark reminds mo of the error undnr which you hav 
 
PARTING. 
 
 labored so long and under \vliicli yon still labor :" was tlio, reply 
 of Vernon expressed in boks equally grave with his language. 
 " I will not ask, Mr. Horsey, by what means, or by whom, you 
 became possessed of the idea that I entertained a passion for 
 the stage and had resolved to go upon it. It is enough that 
 such is your delusion, entertained in spite of my earnest and 
 repeated assurances that such was not my intention that I 
 had no such passion, and that I was already earnestly and irre 
 vocably bound to the pursuit of another profession one of the 
 most jealous as the most absorbing which will suffer neither 
 rival nor interruption. With a most unbecoming resoluteness 
 you refused credence to my own assurances to this effect, and 
 have appointed yourself my travelling companion, without 
 knowing how far I desired company, or whether your presence 
 might not somewhat interfere with the object of my pursuit. 
 It has not been through your forbearance, Mr. Horsey, that it 
 has not done so, arid I trust you will believe me when I tell 
 you that it has been with me a serious fear that such might be 
 its effect. Finding you possessed with this strange notion, and 
 having exhausted all my forms of speech in seeking to convince 
 you that I was no actor, and did not intend to become one, I 
 forebore in consideration of your parents, who have treated 
 me so kindly, and with some reference to yourself, for I am not 
 blind to your good qualities and natural parts farther expos 
 tulation and complaint, and was contented that you should re 
 main in your error for a while, satisfied that it would not be 
 very long before you would be disabused of it. That time is 
 now at hand ; a few miles farther will bring us to the forks, 
 and you will then find that I will certainly take the upper road 
 for Beattie s BlufF, while you, if your aim be Benton, will as 
 certainly take that which crosses the river below. It only re 
 mains that I should again assure you, with all the solemnity of 
 an oath, though I make none, that I am by profession a lawyer, 
 that I have never dreamed of any other, and do not know, and 
 have never thought to inquire, whether I have the most partial 
 qualification for the stage. I admire good acting, am not defi 
 cient in a knowledge of the best dramatists, can quote Shak- 
 spere almost as frequently, if not so felicitously as yourself, 
 and. nt auJther time than this with less care upon my mind 
 
BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 and less business upon my linmls I should be particularly 
 pleased to hear you in any, and all, of your favorite parts. 
 Believe me, Mr. Horsey, from what I have already seen, I 
 urn prepared to believe that it is in your power, with study, 
 wdustry, and humility, to rise to considerable distinction in 
 our art." 
 
 " Say you so, Harry ? Then I forgive you all the rest. I 
 forgive you all that d d dignity that makes me feel all over 
 as if Carter himself had caught me playing tricks with my 
 neighbors sign-boards, and was scoring me hip and thigh with 
 a most thorny morality. But, Harry, do you really think from 
 what you have seen that I should become a proper actor 1 ?" 
 
 " I do, really, Mr. Horsey." 
 
 " That is to say with study and industry. But what do you 
 mean by humility? I don t see any necessity for humility. 
 Indeed, that s the last matter that a modern actor esteems ?.s a 
 requisite." 
 
 " The most necessary of all ; for without humility one learns 
 nothing. He will neither see in what he is himself defective, 
 nor in what consists his rival s superiority. He can learn noth 
 ing who believes there is little left him to learn, and he alone 
 learns all that man can teach, who is humble enough to doubt 
 his own possessions, and hopeful enough to labor for their in 
 crease. I should have high hopes of you, Mr. Horsey, could 
 you bring yourself to this conviction." 
 
 " God bless you, my dear fellow, these are devilish kind 
 words of yours. Devilish kind ! I m d nably unused to 
 them. I ve heard nothing all my life but censure ; sneer and 
 censure. Managers, and actors, and audience no, d me, I 
 won t say anything about the audience they have always 
 treated me well enough whenever I had fair play before them 
 but, by my soul, I can t say the same for my brother actors, 
 and still less favorably can I speak of managers. Had I be 
 lieved them, I should have cut my throat, or turned in as a 
 wagoner, or taken to some other villanous handicraft which 
 only suffers a man to know that he is alive at meal-time. They 
 have denied all my hopes and decried all my talents ; and then 
 came doubts to my mind doubts, dark, dirty, earth-whelming, 
 miserable doubts, Mr. Vernon that made mv soul sick, and 
 
EXPLANATIONS. 157 
 
 made mo feel as if I could steal away into some dark corner of 
 the woods and die ; satisfied, if out of human sight, that they 
 spoke nothing but the truth that I had deceived myself 
 that, in short, I had none of that genius, the fires of which 1 
 fancied to be blazing away proudly and inextinguishably in 
 soul and brain. Oh, Harry Vernon, these were killing, crush 
 ing doubts ; and when they came to me, as they always did 
 when I was out of money, and the d d tailors and tavern- 
 keepers at my heels, I felt all over as the meanest of all possi 
 ble beings. But you cheer me ; your words for I believe 
 you, Harry, to be a d d smart fellow your words reassure 
 me. I feel my courage rise ; I feel the fire blazing up within 
 me, and by all that s resolute in man, it shall blaze out, ere 
 many days, to the satisfaction of others. But, though you give 
 me life, Harry, curse me but you crush me again when you tell 
 me you are not one of us. I can hardly believe you even now. 
 I heard it so solemnly asserted, and, indeed, lost and paid a bet 
 on the matter." 
 
 " Something strange, at least, in all this business," said Ver 
 non, curiously. " Pray where did you hear this story ?" 
 
 " In Raymond, while you were talking in the courthouse." 
 
 " My talking in the courthouse, alone, should have sufficed to 
 prove my profession." 
 
 "Yes, it would; and it did, at first; but there was a d d 
 plausible story told me about the matter, which made me throw 
 it all up as so much gammon." 
 
 " And who took so much interest in me, and so much pains to 
 lead you astray in this matter, Mr. Horsey ? Can you remem 
 ber?" 
 
 The actor, without hesitation, gave full details of the confe 
 rence with Hawkins and Saxon in the village of Raymond, nar 
 rated such portions of the dialogue as had special reference to 
 theatricals and his companion s probable connection with them, 
 and from the succinctness of his statements, and the clearness 
 with which he repeated the several parts taken by the two, he 
 soon convinced Vernon that there must have been a sinister 
 purpose in the minds of the men who made such seemingly 
 gratuitous misstatements. The name of Hawkins strengthened 
 this conviction 
 
158 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 " Hawkins ! Hawkins ! That was the name of the man 
 whom the governor arrested." 
 
 " The same," replied Horsey. " He s a strange sort of sus 
 picious chap. Everybody thinks there s something wrong 
 about him; but they can t tell what. He gambles, they al] 
 know ; but he s so cunning, they can find nothing worse 
 against him ; though I ve no doubt they re right in thinking 
 him a great rascal." 
 
 " Indeed ! and can it be that you value your character so 
 little as to consort with a fellow whom you think a rascal ?" 
 
 " Ah, Harry, there you have me. But, truth to speak, a 
 poor devil like myself whom one set snarls at, and the other 
 laughs at, is devilish well satisfied to get a companion who will 
 do neither, without being particularly anxious to know whether 
 he s as good a man as he should be, or even as he appears. Be 
 sides, let me tell you, Hawkins is a smart fellow. He has Shak- 
 spere at his fingers ends, and I ve seen him throw that into his 
 face, while he s been going through a part of lago, which would 
 send a shiver through pit and gallery at a glance." 
 
 " Enough ; these men have lied to you, Mr. Horsey, at least 
 so far as I have been concerned. They have, I gather from 
 your account of it, used you as a spy upon me." 
 
 " The devil you say ?" 
 
 " Think over the matter yourself, my friend, and you can 
 not escape this conviction. They have flattered your ruling 
 passion, and have gleaned from you all the knowledge of me 
 and my movements which might have been in your possession. 
 Fortunately, you knew nothing, and could reveal nothing, noth 
 ing at least of very serious importance. Whether anything 
 worse will grow out of it than this wild-goose chase upon which 
 they have sent you, it is impossible now to say. It will be im 
 portant, however, tnat we should both be cautious in our future 
 progress." 
 
 " Spoken like a book, Harry. But why the d 1 should these 
 fellows want to know your movements heh? So you Tiavt 
 secrets, Harry there is a mystery there " 
 
 " Professional and personal, purely, Mr. Horsey, and when I 
 tell you this much, I trust, I secure myself against further in 
 quiry. To convince you, however, that I regard you with h> 
 
TIMELY COUNSEL. I5 ( J 
 
 lerest and favor, 1 make free to counsel you to return to your 
 friends and family. I do not believe this story of theatrical 
 establishments at Benton and other places. The country is 
 unfit for, and unable to support them. A circus, now, would 
 be more reasonable ; a place for ground and lofty tumbling ; 
 but, seriously, I look upon the dramatic art as utterly foreign 
 to such regions as the Yazoo. There is. as yet no settled pop 
 uhition. The country is uncleared, and thoroughly wild ; set 
 tled by squatters chiefly without means, tastes, education, or 
 sensibility ; rude, rough people ; a people peculiarly fitted foi 
 the conquest of savages and savage lands, but utterly incapable 
 / of appreciating an art so exquisite and intellectual as that of 
 the legitimate drama. Go back, and if it be your resolute de 
 termination to seek for fame in the prosecution of your present 
 purpose which I would not counsel seek -it, then, where 
 only it is to be found. Go to the large cities go to the largest. 
 Where the ability exists to pay best, there will always the best 
 talent assemble there will the true standards of critical judg 
 ment be formed and rival powers will soon reduce each other to 
 their just level, until which there can be no certain reputation." 
 There is something very puny in the judgment of small commu 
 nities; and something very contemptible in being a little lion 
 in a little plain. Go to the ring where all the challengers 
 assemble, and strike the shield of the most insolent and 
 bold. When you have done this, you will find your level, and 
 what is of more importance to you still, you will have justly 
 arrived at a knowledge of your own strength. Till then, you 
 walk in vapor, and the stars which shine above you are far or 
 near, according to the wind and the weather, your own caprice 
 of mood, or the caprice of feeling and judgment of those with 
 whom you mingle. Understand me, Mr. Horsey, I do not 
 counsel you by what I have said, to pursue the stage. Far 
 from it. I believe the glories of the profession to be very un 
 certain, and its golden rewards, half the time, to be visionary ; 
 besides, it is attended by a thousand defeats and humiliations 
 which are gall and wormwood to the independent spirit. On 
 this head, you know best what you will do, and to your calm, 
 common sense reflection, I am willing to leave it. But if you 
 are esolved to be an actor, then it is my advice that you break 
 
BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 ground where the audience is large, and where the competitors 
 are many ; where you will be compelled to take pains to pre 
 serve rank and respectability, and where no petty management 
 or petty clique can prevent your efforts, or do injustice to your 
 performance. Gro to the great city, if you must act, and t hrow 
 yourself upon the waters. Remember the noble chorus in youi 
 own favorite play : 
 
 " A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, 
 
 And monarchs to behold the swelling scene, 
 Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, 
 Assume the port of Mars 
 
 It is only, you perceive, where the field is large commensurate 
 to the greatness of the actor that he can be like himself that 
 lie can do justice to himself, or feel that ambitious spurring of 
 the soul which is conscious always of her true occasions." 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 RIFLE PRACTICE WRONG CUSTOMER ADDITION TO THE 
 
 DRAMATIS PERSONS. , 
 
 "You see this chase is hotly followed, friends." KINO HENRY V. 
 
 WE arrest the further dialogue which took place between the 
 two before their separation. Horsey was gratified at the inter 
 est which Vernon seemed to take in his fortunes, for the simple 
 but dignified manners of tRe young lawyer had impressed him 
 with a respectful deference, which had the effect, not unfre- 
 quently, of restraining his exuberance of character, and compel 
 ling him to meditate awhile before speaking ; a practice exceed 
 ingly novel to him, and one which kept him from sundry 
 outbreaks of folly while they were in company together. He 
 listened with unaccustomed patience to the exhortations of 
 Vernon, and though he had not the courage to forbear the small 
 game which he was even then pecking at, he acknowledged the 
 
PARTING. 
 
 generally beneficial tenor of the advice given him. He was not 
 willing to believe that the forest world in which he was about 
 to penetrate was unsusceptible of present dramatic improve 
 ment, and still less was he willing .to tolerate the suspicion, 
 which his companion threw out, that the story of Tilton s theat 
 rical establishment at Benton was a falsehood a hoax invented 
 for the simple purpose of securing him as an instrument in the 
 prosecution of some ulterior purpose as yet unaccountable to 
 either party. His heart was set upon obtaining the plaudits of 
 the Bentonians, and his ears already rang prospectively with 
 their clapping and huzzas. These, he thought, would not be 
 amiss, even though at some future period, he struck at the high 
 er game of the great metropolis. Small triumphs are the fore 
 runners of great ones ; and he was one of those who thought it 
 just as well to accept the wreath of myrtle, if the more enduring 
 laurel could not be so easily procured. With this philosophy 
 he was the more readily reconciled to a separation from the 
 companion, in conjunction with whom, until the present hour, 
 he fancied he was about to enter the green and verdurous fields 
 of an actor s immortality. He had many regretful quotations 
 to utter; many protestations of fidelity and friendship. 
 
 " And should you want help, Harry," he cried out as they 
 rode asunder, " should you get into any spree and w r ant a backer 
 to see you safe, give me a sign, a signal let me have the cue 
 and by the ghost of Garrick, I will need no prompter to tell 
 me what my part should be in the business. I will be at your 
 side in the twinkling of an eye, and they shall be Turks and 
 Trojans of heavy metal, indeed Syracusans of stamp and 
 substance who will hold their ground long before us twain 
 my Pythias and myself." 
 
 Long and heartily did the adhesive actor wring the hand of 
 hi.s companion, to whom, though not an ascetic, the scenic ex 
 uberance of his friend had become almost an annoyance ; and 
 he found it a relief to escape from that excruciating degree of 
 affection to which he felt unable to make more than a very par 
 tial return. His escape was at length effected, though Horsey, 
 like Prior s thief: 
 
 "Now fitted the halter, now traversed the cart, 
 And often took leave, but seemed loath to depart" 
 
162 BORDEtt BEAGLES. 
 
 It will somewhat confirm the truth of the assurances of sorrow 
 which he expressed at parting with his friend, to say, that, for 
 full twenty minutes after leaving him, he uttered no single quo 
 tation, unless we may except the fragment of a speech made to 
 his horse, the renewal of whose irregular motion had revived 
 all the peculiar sensibility of old sores made the day previous. 
 
 " Ah, Bowline, Bowline ! Shakspere almost gave me warning 
 against thee in particular ; certainly I have the rubbers, though 
 I did not expect them. If you go on at this rate, you limping 
 d 1, Romeo s quarters will be in no condition to climb balco 
 nies, or do the necessary action of a lover. I am parche-d and 
 peeled, hip and thigh, literally scalded, as tender as a steamed 
 potato, and as raw as a thoroughly done one. Well, well, it is 
 to be expected. One should not complain where the end prom 
 ises so much. These, I suppose, are the first pains which a 
 man is expected to take in getting on in the world the pains 
 of immortality, the condition of greatness a suffering in the 
 flesh for the ambitious workings of the spirit, which should 
 teach a man, among other lessons, to value the glory, when 
 won, which he purchases at so much cost. Well, it is but a 
 skin-deep suffering, after all, and there is some consolation in 
 knowing, you limping rascal, that I can make you share it. My 
 spurring shall equal your scalding, or there never yet went two 
 words to a bargain." 
 
 While the actor communed after this manner with his uneasy 
 steed, Harry Vernon, better mounted, was making his forward 
 way with a speed rather greater than his wont, as it was his 
 object to make up for the time lost in waiting upon Horsey s 
 operations at the hut of Yarbers, and, subsequently, in that 
 which had been consumed in their parting. He had ridden 
 probably an hour after that event, and the motion of his horse 
 had been suffered to relax into that ordinary walking trot to 
 which most horses on long travel naturally incline. The 
 thoughts of the rider, busied with other subjects, were now ab 
 stracted from the movements of his steed, and he was gradua/v 
 becoming indifferent to, and unobservant of, surrounding objects, 
 when he was brought to his senses by the sudden and fast tramp 
 ling of a horse s feet behind him. 
 
 Looking round, what was his surprise to behold Edward 
 
RIFLE PRACTICE. 101 
 
 Mabry, the lover of Mary Stinson, in the person of his pursnei 
 Vernon drew up and awaited him -readily guessing the pur 
 pose of his pursuit, and really glad that Horsey had taken an 
 other course, and got so greatly the start of one whose desper 
 ate hostility was apparent in eveiy glance of his eye, and in 
 every motion of his malignant and now wretched countenance. 
 
 The tokens of the combat of the preceding night were promi 
 nently offensive. His eyes were so swollen that the orbs were 
 barely perceptible, and the sight must have been barely suffi 
 cient to enable him to ride. This condition of his face made 
 the rage which appeared its leading expression look monstrous 
 and fiendish. His lips were tremulous though closed, the veins 
 upon his forehead tensely corded ; and the skin around, affected 
 by the injuries done to his eyes, had assumed in spots, a dark, 
 dirty green color, which added to the general hideousness of 
 his present aspect. He was armed with a riile, which, perhaps, 
 in the present situation of his eyes, would be found far less for 
 midable than usual. 
 
 Glaring upon Vernon with an expression of hostility which 
 almost left it doubtful in our hero s mind if he himself were not 
 also the object of his pursuit, he demanded to know what had 
 become of his companion. His words were few and passionate, 
 and the disrespectful manner in which he spoke, and the brutal 
 epithets which he applied at the same time to the person for 
 whom he inquired, had the effect of producing a certain degree 
 of irritation in the mind of Vernon, which kept his answer in 
 suspense. The youth repeated his demand in a style of inso 
 lence more offensive than before. 
 
 " I have no desire to quarrel with you," said Vernon, " but 
 still less am I disposed to satisfy the demands of any one who 
 makes them disrespectfully. I will not answer your question. 
 I will tell you nothing about Mr. Horsey or his movements." 
 
 " Ha ! then you take his place. You shall answer for him 
 yourself," cried the other, dropping his reins and grasping his 
 rifle in both hands. The instinctive and natural movement of 
 Vernon was to close with him at once, and thus defeat the con 
 templated employment of the deadly weapon with which he 
 threatened him. He wheeled his horse instantly beside that of 
 the assailant, and his left hand grasped the weapon also. 
 
164 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 " What mean you, madman ? What would you do ? de 
 manded Vernon, sternly. " But that I pity you, your move 
 ment this instant would have prompted me to shoot you dowc 
 like a dog. If you are angry with Mr. Horsey, that is no busi 
 ness of mine. I am not answerable for his conduct nor his ab 
 sence." 
 
 " Then tell me where he is," replied the other hoarsely, " OT 
 stand in his shoes." 
 
 " Neither, sir. I will give you no assistance in your folly." 
 
 A scuffle followed this reply. Mabry strove to back his horse 
 in order that he might employ his rifle. Such at least seemed 
 his object to Vernon,. whose efforts were directed to defeat this 
 purpose ; and suffering the other to recede, he addressed all his 
 strength to obtaining possession of the weapon, which Mabry. 
 in the sudden backward movement of his horse, was compelled 
 to yield up, or suffer himself to be drawn with it between the 
 two animals. Furious at this disadvantage he leaped to the 
 ground and drawing a bowie knife, rushed forward. But a few 
 paces divided them, and the rapidity of his assailant s movement 
 was such that Vernon felt he could neither take aim, nor prepare 
 the weapon in time to anticipate his attack. With f his convic 
 tion he put spurs to his horse and drew him up only after he 
 had put a space of fifty yards between them. 
 
 " Advance upon me a second time, young man, and I shoot 
 you without scruple. You are a madman to act in this manner 
 What have I done to you ? Of what do you complain ? Do 
 you think I will answer your questions, or the questions of any 
 body, who does not speak respectfully? Do you suppose I will 
 assist in guiding you to the commission of murder? You are 
 mistaken in me no less than in yourself. In a fair struggle, 
 were I so disposed, I should put you down as effectually as 
 you were put down last night ; and were it not that I should 
 derive but little satisfaction from such a j victory, your insolent 
 language might have provoked me to have done so before this. 
 Think a little before you move farther in this business. 13y 
 this time the person you seek is far beyond your reach ; and as 
 for me, you gain nothing, I assure you, by annoying me. I will 
 return you your rifle if you will promise me that you will not 
 use it." 
 
THE WRONG CUSTOMER. 166 
 
 " I will make no promise," replied the other, leaping again 
 upon his steed, " \ve shall soon be at closer quarters." 
 
 And with these words, with a fury even more blind than l\h 
 hurt vision, the madman was preparing to urge his horse for 
 ward upon the speaker, heedless of warning, and in utter defi 
 ance of the lifted rifle. 
 
 " 1 warn you again once, twice, thrice, I warn you," were 
 the slow, deliberate tones of VeriiOn s voice, as, dropping the 
 rifle in his left hand, he lifted the ranging sights before his eye, 
 " approach me, Mr. Mabry, with bared weapon, and I will cer 
 tainly shoot you." 
 
 " I defy you, I dare you. Shoot, and be d d ! I fear yen 
 
 not," said the fellow, as he put spurs to his horse. 
 
 " Hold !" cried the voice of one who darted before his path, 
 emerging into the main road from a little Indian trail that 
 crossed it at nearly equal distances between the contending 
 parties. The interruption was seasonable enough. Vcrnon 
 had already cocked the rifle, and the approach, by ten steps 
 more, of his furious assailant, would have had the effect of 
 drawing his fire. The entrance of the third personage relieved 
 him from a dreadful necessity. 
 
 "Hold, you, Ned Mabry, you meal-headed fellow! What 
 the deuce is it you re a-doing?" 
 
 The abrupt salutation arrested the rash onset of the youth, 
 and probably saved his life. The stranger was a tall back 
 woodsman, fully six feet in height, and solid and massive like 
 a tower. He rode a coal-black horse of proportions and strength 
 of corresponding greatness with his own a keen, fire-eyed 
 animal, broad-chested, strongly quartered, slim in fetlock, small 
 in hoof, long-necked, narrow-headed, and with a mane, which, 
 though plaited and divided on either side, seemed scarcely less 
 copious than that in the full possession of the one. The per 
 son of his rider was no less symmetrical and erect than it was 
 large and powerful. His cheeks were of a fine sanguine hue, 
 his eyes bright, blue, and lively, denoting good-nature, with an 
 arch, lurking humor, that perhaps indicated a fondness for his 
 jest in defiance of the broken bones which are sometimes apt 
 to follow it. His nose was finely Roman, and his forehead 
 though neither broad nor high, was yet full, suitably large, and 
 
166 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 contributed to that general expression of character, rather tliarj 
 talents, which belonged to his other features. He looked earn 
 estly for a few minutes upon Vernon while addressing Mabry, 
 to whom he spoke in the familiar language of an old acquaint 
 ance. 
 
 "Well, now you re a pretty lark to serve me in this way, 
 Ned Mabry. Didn t you promise me you wouldn t do anything 
 more with this business. Didn t you say you d let the stranger 
 get off, and say no more about it; and here, only two hom> 
 after, I find you, like a cursed maw-month that grows blind 
 when he sees a worm wriggle, here you re mad after the bait 
 though there s a hook in it. Don t you see the rifle you a n t 
 bullet-proof, I reckon ?" 
 
 "It s my own rifle, Walter," said the assailant, sullenly. 
 
 " The d 1 it is !" cried the other with a laugh ; " then it s a 
 sign I haven t come a minute too soon. You ve got another 
 warning of the truth I told you. Look you, stranger," turning 
 to Vernon, to whom the sudden arrival of a third person, who 
 seemed an associate of his enemy, only cautioned to greater 
 watchfulness ; " look you, stranger, you mustn t take it hard 
 that this mad fellow set upon you, seeing you ve took his sweet 
 heart from him, and put his two eyes in double-mourning. It s 
 mighty hard to lose one s gal and get a beating all in the same 
 night, and I reckon there s a mighty few of us that wouldn t 
 be just as mad as Ned Mabry after it." 
 
 " But I ve done neither," said Vernon ; " I ve neither beaten 
 him, nor taken his sweetheart from him. I have done him no 
 sort of injury, intentional or otherwise ; and he has no more 
 excuse to assail me than he has to assail the man in the moon." 
 
 " How ! how the d 1 s this, Ned ? Didn t you tell me ?" 
 
 " Not this one the other the man that was travelling witk 
 him," 
 
 " The splinters ! and so you set upon the wrong man. Well, 
 I say, that s being owl-blind, stone-blind, horse-blind ; blind of 
 three eyes, without even a smeller to go by. What the devil 
 made you trouble him ?" 
 
 This question was soon answered, and the cause of difference 
 explained. The good-natured stranger proceeded to patch up 
 the affair, and, if possible, reconcile the parties. On Vernon f 
 
ADDITION TO THE DRAMATIS PERSONS. 
 
 Side this was no great difficulty. The other, foiled on every 
 hand, baffled so far in the pursuit of one who had humbled him 
 BO successfully, and suffering from his bruises of body no less 
 than those of mind, was just in that state of stupid doggedness 
 when conciliation was almost as much thrown away upon him 
 as argument and explanation. More was done by the sheer in 
 fluence of the stranger s wish, than by his reasoning. The 
 rustic lover seemed to recognise in Wat or Walter Hawlins 
 for such was the name of the last-comer a superior, before 
 whom he stood irresolute and dependent. He confirmed the 
 promise made in his behalf, by the latter, to Vernon, that he 
 would offer him no farther injury or insult; and, at his solicita 
 tion, he returned the rifle to Mabry, though not until he had 
 pushed the flint from the teeth of the cock, thus depriving him 
 of the power of doing any immediate harm with the instrument, 
 unless he went better provided than usual. He had performed 
 this movement with so little effort, and so much adroitness, 
 while the lock of the gun lay beneath his right hand, and on the 
 opposite side of his horse to that where the other parties stood, 
 that he had escaped observation ; and, satisfied with the posses 
 sion of his weapon, Mabry gave no glance to the condition in 
 which it was returned to him. 
 
 " And now, Ned Mabry, go you home, and be quiet," said his 
 companion. " You promised me before to do nothing in this 
 business, and it s a dead weight on your credit now that you 
 didn t keep your word. You ain t in any condition now to look 
 up your enemies. With them eyes you could not see to hit a 
 squirrel, though he sat on a bare stump grinning at you with all 
 his grinders ; and how should you look, going after a fellow 
 who s got his own peepers wide awake. Go back, I say, and 
 keep quiet till you see me again. As for this business of Yar- 
 bers, himself," continued the pacificator, drawing his companion 
 away to some little distance from the place where Vernon stood, 
 and lowering his voice to a whisper " say nothing till you see 
 me. There s something strange about it, and we ve got some 
 mighty strange neighbors. Don t whisper it to saint or sinner 
 till we ?an tell whether it s a safe person that s to hear it, and 
 this there s no telling jist at this time, when the whole country 
 is in a real topsy-turvy, and strange men come aboit us hearing 
 
168 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 what they can, ami telling nothing in return. There s nothing 
 to do but to keep quiet, as I tell you, and out of harm s way. 
 I won t be gone longer than a week ; in the meantime, get your 
 eyes open if you can, and keep em so. I ll keep on a while 
 with this stranger, and see what I can worm out of him. He 
 don t look and behave like a man who was one of Yarbers s 
 kidney, and I ve a sort o notion you re quite wrong in your 
 guess that they re in one and the same business. I ll worm it 
 out of him in no time, I reckon. If he s got the cunning of a 
 rogue, I ve got cunning enough to see how deep it goes; and, 
 if he ain t a rogue, why, then, there will be one more honest 
 i.ian found to help the rest." 
 
 Much more was said ere they separated, though the conference 
 occupied but little time. Vernon, meanwhile, bade them a cour- 
 xeous " good-day," and was about to set forward, when the voice 
 of llawlins arrested him. 
 
 " Stay a bit, stranger, if so be you like company. I m driv 
 ing on in the same track with you for a few miles farther, at 
 least ; and, if you re like myself, you ll agree that it s no bad 
 thing to have somebody at your elbow, if it s only to answer 
 questions. When a man s by himself, he s apt to think strange 
 things; and the devil s more apt to be on the lookout for a sin 
 gle traveller than when they go in pairs to strengthen each other. 
 I am a ra al joker when the humor suits, and I can sing, too, 
 when the weather ain t against it, and the frogs don t rise in the 
 throat. So you see " 
 
 " Say no more," said Vernon ; " it will please me to have 
 your company." 
 
 " Spoken like a man, and I ll be with you after a word more 
 with this unbroken colt. Now, Ned Mabry, you promise me to 
 give over the chase of this fellow ?" 
 
 Such was the promise which Rawlins exacted from his com 
 panion, ere they separated a promise reluctantly given, and 
 badly kept ; since he had scarce reached the cross-roads in re 
 turning, ere his rage resumed full sway over him, and he struck 
 into the path which Horsey had taken, giving full rein to his 
 horse, in the hope to make up for that loss of time in the pur 
 suit which had been occasioned by the events of the previous 
 hour. Vernon was joined by Uawlins, and in a few momentB, 
 
ADDITION TO THE DRAMATIS PERSONS. IG J 
 
 on the place which they had just occiipied, stood the outlaw 
 Saxon, who emerged from the woods on one hand, and was im 
 mediately after joined by a comrade namad Jones, who came t 
 the spot from an opposite quarter. 
 
 " I would give something to know what Mabry and Rawlins 
 had to talk about so long in secret," said Saxon. " Could you 
 make out nothing ?" 
 
 " Not a syllable," said Jones. " His coming was untimely." 
 " Yes ; but for that we should have lost one who may become 
 an enemy. Yarbers, certainly, would have been the gainer ; 
 and we should have had good reason for tying the arms of this 
 fellow Vevnon behind him. This, however, we must do before 
 long." 
 
 " We must use Judge Nawls for that business, I reckon." 
 " Ay, none better," said Saxon ; " but do you go ahead, and 
 keep on the haunches of these fellows. Hawlins, I suppose, is 
 on his way to the old methodist quarter. He and Vernon 
 know each other for the first time, and they will probably sop 
 !*ri*.e at Brother Badger s turn-out. Do not lose him from sight 
 T will join you before midnight." 
 
 8 
 
BORDER REAOT.TBrt. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 f!3 BEAGLES IN FULL CRY PISTOL-PRACTICE AN ADVEM 
 TURK - A RESCUE, AND BLOODSHED. 
 
 X 
 
 Tlie noyse thereof cald forth that straunger knight, 
 To weet what dreadfull thing was there in hond ; 
 Where whenas two brave knights in bloody fight, 
 With deadly rancour he enraunged fond, 
 His sunbroad shield about his wrest he bond, 
 And shining blade unsheathed." SPENSER. 
 
 TN rode on with his new companion, Rawlins whom 
 won discovered to be quite a sociable, good-humored fellow 
 with a speed which was intended to make up for lost time. 
 was his desire to reach and cross the ferry over the Chitta- 
 Loosa before sunset, in order that he ring-lit find lodgings on tl 
 opposite side at a conveniently early hour. But this purpose, 
 when expressed, was discouraged by his companion. 
 
 " It will be quite dark before you can get across the ferry - 
 which is more a ferry and a half than a ferry ; mighty bad 
 ".rossing, and a strange up and down, in and out. turning t 
 twistin- contrivance as ever ,you did see and then, when 
 you re across, it s a chance if you find any place to stay at, that 
 can be called a place at all, under seven or eight miles. 
 you ll -o with me to old Billy Badger s to-night he s only 
 two miles from the ferry you can take an early start in the 
 morning, and have a whole day before you. Billy Badger s a 
 crumpy, stiff sort of a person -a raal, true-believing methodis 
 that preaches himself, when the parson don t come, and, tc 
 v,-ay of thinking, makes a deuced sight the best prayer of 
 among them. He s rather strange in his ways, to be sure, h 
 you ll be heartily welcome. He ll give you a good supper, hi 
 you must swallow the long grace that jjoos before it : and, if 
 
NT FULL CRY. 171 
 
 one happens to be in.ijj.tv liju^-ry. ii s n grc^t trvinir o! i!;o 
 patience. I ve been a-bothered by it more than once before, 
 but it s no use. Nothing can stop him when he once begins ; 
 and I do think if the house was a-fire, he d sooner let it burn 
 awhile than cut the prayer off in the middle. Now, I m used 
 to it myself, and don t mind it so much ; but I think it only 
 right, when I ax a man to another s house, that I should tell 
 him what he s to look for." 
 
 " A good rule," said Vernon ; " and without saying whether 
 1 will go with you or not, let me know whether Mr. Badger is 
 in the habit of receiving company." 
 
 " Sure he is ; he has em at all times and of all characters. 
 Why, his house is something of a thoroughfare, you see ; being 
 so near the ferry, and folks a-tra veiling jist like you, and com 
 ing up late in the day, are mighty apt to go to old Billy s to 
 spend the night." 
 
 " But that must give him a great deal of trouble, if he keeps 
 no public house." 
 
 "Not a bit, or if it does, he don t mind it in consideration of 
 the good company, and somebody to talk to. Though he s a 
 gruff and grumpy sort of person, he s mighty fond of a confabu 
 lation, and so long as you ll listen, and even if you wont listen, 
 he ll still talk on, exhorting, as it were, and mighty airnest. 
 When he once gits hold of the flesh and the devil, there s no 
 telling how long he ll hold on. It s no trifle that ll make him 
 let go ; and you ll see the blood git up into his face, and the 
 veins grow big on his forehead, and the foam will come out and 
 stand in his mouth-corners long before he ll think you ve had 
 enough. He never asks how you like the thing, for he always 
 concludes that he knows best what s good for everybody ; and 
 as for disagreeing with him, when once you set eyes on him, 
 you ll see for yourself that that s out of the question. I tell 
 you, sir, Mr. Vernon, he looks like all the Laws and the Proph 
 ets ; and he speaks as if he stood on a high place, and we 
 were all put below to listen to him." 
 
 " A stern old man a very judge in Israel from your de 
 scription." 
 
 " The very thing, Mr. Vernon ; but then he s really kind as 
 any man alive, though, for that matter, he hain t the knack of 
 
172 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 showing it kindly. TTo. ll he.lp you up fj-nm the road with the 
 look of the same fellow that knocked you down ; and bind up 
 your wounds with as sour a face all the while, as if his own 
 bowie-knife had made them. He ll talk to you as if he thought 
 you a rogue, just at the very time when he s lending you a cool 
 hundred ; and when he s helping you to the best on his tablet 
 he ll be grumbling something about the indulgences of the flesh, 
 and the profligacies of appetite, and all that sort of thing ; so, 
 unless you set out to find a bundle of contradictions in every 
 thing he does and says, there s no telling how to take him." 
 
 " I ve met with such a character before," said Vernon ; " it 
 is neither unusual nor unnatural, and only indicates a predomi 
 nating self-esteem, that asserts its superiority by eccentricities 
 of thought and manner. The eccentricities of men arise, mostly, 
 from an undue estimate of their own importance, which flatters 
 itself by the surprises it continually effects, by means of novelty 
 and strangeness, in the minds of the observers. So long as 
 these eccentricities hurt nobody, people are content to laugh or 
 wonder at them ; when they exceed this limit, the owner ceases 
 to be a fool, and is locked up as a madman. Has this old gentle 
 man a family. 
 
 " He has a son who is nothing like him a sly, cautious fel 
 low, that I don t know whether to like or dislike he s neither 
 one thing nor t other, and, to speak a truth, one reason against 
 my liking him may be that he don t seem to like me." 
 
 " A good and sufficient reason. There are some love-verses 
 which maintain this philosophy in strong and proper language : 
 
 44 "What care I how fair she be. 
 If she be not fair for me. 
 
 Has the old gentleman no other family t" 
 
 "Yes," replied the other with a hesitating tone. " He s got 
 a niece a mighty fine girl, named Rachel, out of the Scrip 
 tures ; the young man his son is named out of the Scriptures, 
 too they call him Gideon though, I m thinking that his 
 name is all that he ever got out of the Holy Book, or ever will 
 get. There s something wrong about him, I reckon." 
 
 "But Rachel, there nothing wrong about her you don t 
 dislike Rachel, do you, Mr. Rawlins? for, if you do, I shall 
 begin to wonder why it is you visit the family." 
 
THE BEAGLES IN FULL CRY. 178 
 
 " Ah, Mr. Vernon, you re a keen one. You must be a lawyer, 
 I m thinking. But you say right, there s nothing wrong aboul 
 Rachel, and if the truth is to be told, I may as well tell it at once 
 I do like Rachel. I think though I don t count her so pretty 
 as some that I ve seen and could mention I think she is about 
 the finest and best. She s so sweet-tempered, and so modest 
 and good ; and then, she has a great deal more sense, and a 
 power of Parning, more than I ever expect to cram into this 
 bigger noddle of mine. I confess to you, Mr. Vernon, I do like 
 Rachel." 
 
 The frankness of the rustic lover, had already placed the 
 parties on the most friendly footing. His confession increased 
 the respect which the lawyer had begun to entertain for him. 
 fie replied playfully : 
 
 " And reasoning, Mr. Rawlins, from what you have said of 
 Gideon, I presume, one of your best arguments for liking Rachel 
 is found in her liking you. Is it not so ? you love each other." 
 
 There is, perhaps, nothing so likely to win the heart of a 
 young lover, as to seek his confidence on the subject nearest to 
 liis affections. The interest Ave betray in his passion saves him 
 from the fear of ridicule an always prevalent fear with the 
 tribe of passionates; and that sinking fullness of heart which 
 distinguishes the lover, must find some friendly bosom intc 
 which to pour its hopes, its fears, its tumultuous and joyous ex 
 pectancies. 
 
 The words of Vernon unsealed the fountain, and took the 
 rtone from its lips. After that, Rawlins had no further con 
 cealments. He grasped the hand of his companion, and, warn 
 ing him the while to secrecy a caution which was rather in 
 sisted upon by the respect which he had for the maiden, than 
 because of any desire on his own part to maintain, as a secret, 
 a fact Avhich was so full to him of triumph as well as joy he 
 told him that he had bee*i successful in persuading Rachel to 
 regard him as the properest man in the country. His court 
 ship, from the beginning, underwent development in all its 
 details, with a more circumstantial distinctness than even that 
 of Othello, though it did not appear that the affections of Rachel 
 were secured for her lover through a like medium. The judg 
 ment of Rawlins deferred to that of the maiden of his heart. 
 
174 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 He studiously insisted upon her mental superiority, and spoke 
 in the becoming language of that humility which acknowledges 
 the favor of fortune in his conquests, and assumes no share of 
 the merit to himself. 
 
 * I will go with you to-night, Mr. Rawlins, and see this lady." 
 
 "Do, that s a friend, Mr. Vernon ; it does me good when a 
 man of sense and education talks with Rachel. She s mighty 
 sweet-spoken and smart ; has a whole closet-full of books ; and 
 sends to Natchy for more whenever she can get a chance. Now, 
 other men would much rather have a wife to work and mend for 
 them, and would count it mighty idle to see em poking over 
 books; but I m not that sort of man. I d want my wife to talk 
 respectably, jist the same as if she lived in a big city like Or 
 leans ; for if a man s poor as Job s turkey to-day, it s no reason 
 he should be poor to-morrow. In this country, a man may git 
 rich in double quick time, if he s only constant and sober to his 
 business; and if the Lord spares me, Mr. Vernon. I m bent on 
 making my children men of substance and education. If I had 
 no Taming myself and, like most of our people, seven months 
 time would cover every hour of schooling I ever had, I know 
 the good of Taming, and my children will have enough to do 
 them good, whether I live or die, if so be their mother s able to 
 give it them ; and I d sooner have my wife teaching her chil 
 dren to read and write, than darning stockings, or mending 
 breeches, or doing any of that sort of business, which a nigger 
 girl can do that never had any education at all." 
 
 It amused Vernon to hear his companion counting his chickens 
 with so much complacency, and making his arrangements how 
 to train them, even before they were hatched. He smiled with 
 an expression of that humor upon his countenance which formed 
 no small portion of his character. 
 
 " Of course, Mr. Rawlins, you have consulted with Rachel on 
 this subject ; you have told her your plans at length." 
 
 " To be sure I have Do you think I d keep such a matter 
 from her ? No, no, sir, as God s my judge there ain t anything 
 in my bosom that I ve kept from her ears, since that moment 
 when she said yes to my asking. It was only last week I 
 go to see her about once a-week, Mr. Vernon it was only last 
 week I tried to get her to say, if she had a son, which she 
 
THE BEAGLES IN FULL CRY. 176 
 
 irould like best to have him, a lawyer or a doctor ; and it was 
 a great worry to me to get her to talk about the matter at all, 
 and what she did say was as much as to say, Have your own 
 way about it, for it came to as little. Now, Mr. Vernon, I 
 know that there s nothing so troublesome in families as a differ 
 ence between man and wife about these things, and I wanted 
 to put the matter out of all danger of dispute. It was strange 
 to me that Rachel, who can talk so well about most matters, 
 and give me so much good advice when I want it, shouldn t be 
 willing to tell me her real notions." 
 
 Perhaps she thought there was time enough a year or two 
 hence for the consideration of the subject. You, on the other 
 hand, I perceive, are for taking time by the forelock. You 
 prefer being quick to being slow. She, too, might have been 
 thinking of girl-children, only ; who, of course, can neither be 
 doctors nor lawyers." 
 
 "Well, that s true, there may be something in that, Mr. 
 Vernon, but then, again, you know it s an even chance that we 
 should have boys as well as girls. I was going to tell her that, 
 but she broke off suddenly, because she thought she heard the 
 old man calling her from the house." 
 
 The unsophisticated lover impressed Vernon favorably as 
 regarded both himself and mistress, by the naturalness with 
 which he detailed his own secret thoughts and desires, and the 
 manners of the damsel. That Rachel was more thoughtful 
 than her lover, and quite as good a tactician, he had no sort of 
 doubt from the chapter of developments which had been made 
 by the former. How long Rawlins would have gone on in a 
 narrative which was too pleasing to his heart and fancies to 
 suffer the obtrusion of other thoughts and objects on his mind, 
 it would be difficult to say. He was checked by an abrupt in 
 quiry of Vernon, and brought back to the more earthly objects 
 of humanity, with some slowness and a little reluctance. 
 
 "Hear you those dogs? there are several beagles do you 
 hunt much in this neighborhood, Mr. Rawlins ?" 
 
 " Beagles ! I don t hear any, Mr. Vernon." 
 
 " I have heard them for the last twenty minutes ; but the 
 truth is, Mr. Rawlins, when a mail s in love he hears nothing 
 and sees little that does not concern his mistress. This ii 
 
176 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 your condition. For the last half hour we have talked of noih 
 ing else, and you have heard nothing that did not call for an 
 answer about her. Now I have heard the baying of these bea 
 gles beside and before us, as if scattered, and crossing on false 
 scents. Who keeps a pack about here ?" 
 
 "A pack of beagles! I don t think there s such a thing in 
 the county, Mr. Vernon. There s one or two here and there in 
 different places there s some two or three I know of, but no 
 more. John Herne he s something of a hunter, and has sev 
 eral dogs, but only one hound, and that s but a poor affair. 
 Macartney, the Scotchman, that lives on the edge of Atala, he 
 has one, but he don t hunt. Ned Mabry, the chap that would 
 have mauled you this morning, if you had let him, he has two, 
 and both of them fine pups, but he s not the man to think of 
 deer-hunting to-day. Besides him, I can t call to mind anothei 
 man in our neighborhood that keeps a beagle." 
 
 " That is strange, for I have certainly heard several at dif 
 ferent points of the compass within this hour. Hark ! Hear 
 you not now ?" 
 
 " Yes, that s a beagle, but it sounds mighty faint, and may 
 be, after all, from a tongue that you never hear close, and the 
 ciog that own s it ain t so easy to be seen. You know there s a 
 story in these parts of a ghost-dog that haunts the woods about 
 the Big Black ; they call him the white dog of Chitta-Loosa, 
 and old folks tell strange things about him ; how he let his mas- 
 tei be murdered, and now has nothing to do but to run through 
 the woods constantly looking after him. He is said to keep in 
 the swamp of the Big Black, and you hear him always just as 
 evening is coming on, as if he was calling to his master, and 
 was making moan that another night was near at hand, and lie 
 hadn t yet found him. There s a-many sounds in these woods, 
 and sights too, I ve heard them tell of, that you ll hear v ithout 
 knowing where they come from, or who they belong to. l \ - 
 pie about here don t mind them much now, since they ve got a 
 little used to them ; but when I first came on the Big Black, it 
 made my heart beat mighty quick, I tell you, and made me 
 clap long spurs to my horse, to hear them , and even now, I 
 catch myself saying my prayers, without knowing when I be 
 gin, to find myself belated on the edge of the swamp, nobodj 
 
THE BEAGLES IN FULL CRY. 177 
 
 with me, and on a sudden hear a whisper close at my eibow ; 
 and may be a laugh and a clapping of the hands behind me." 
 
 " But why should you think this anything more than ordi 
 nary ? This whispering, and laughing, and clapping nay, 
 this baying of dogs may all be the work of men." 
 
 "No men, no men, Mr. Vernon ! I m a man myself, and can 
 answer that. I m a stout man, sound in wind and limb, six 
 feet in stocking foot, and able to swing a cotton bag, and that s 
 a-much for anybody to do. Besides, I m not afraid of any fel 
 low that ever I saw yet, that had no better help than flesh and 
 blood, broad shoulders, and solid muscle, can give him ; and 
 when I ve turned and challenged them that made these noises, 
 and put into the swamps after them and I ve a keen nose, 
 and a quick eye among the bushes, Mr. Vernon and after all 
 could find nothing to lay a finger on, why, then it was time to 
 think of saying one s prayers, and using one s spurs. Now, 
 don t you go to think from what I m saying that I m easily 
 frightened with ghosts and images. I m frightened at nothing 
 I can see and feel ; but when a body can neither see nor feel 
 when eyes and hands fail, what s to be done? Am I to 
 stand then, waiting what s to come ? No, no, I m clear for 
 clean heels without waiting for orders. I asked Rachel if it 
 was right for me to run in such cases, and she clearly agreed it 
 was. Well, when our counts come to the same ending, there s 
 nothing more to be said about it, and run s the word for me. 
 A ghost that I can see, or a man that I can feel, will never 
 make me stir my ankles faster than I choose ; but I don t think 
 it s any shame to use one s trotters when he can make no use 
 of his other limbs." 
 
 " Give your horse a light spur now, Mr. Rawlins," said Ver 
 non, gravely, " and let us ride on a little faster. These beagles 
 seem to increase in number, and I can distinguish the baying 
 of no less than three from several quarters. If there be so few 
 in the county as you assert, then are these noises the more mys 
 terious, and they must have some object Now, as I am one of 
 those who will not easily believe in your white dog of the 
 Chitta-Loosa, or in the ghost of a dog at all, I am persuaded 
 that what we hear are the voices of real flesh and blood beings, 
 
 8* 
 
178 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 whether of hounds or men. If they are the voices of men, thej 
 imitate well, and must have some leading object for acquiring 
 the practice ; if they are those of beagles, then may we get a 
 glimpse of a close chase, and, perhaps, join in a pursuit, which 
 I am very fond of. A pistol-bullet may bring down a deer at 
 a small distance, and I have known a man get a shot near 
 enough to enable him to do business with a pistol. I will have 
 mine in readiness." 
 
 " I will not fail you, Mr. Vernon," said the other, in sup 
 pressed accents, and bringing his horse more closely to the side 
 of his companion. " It s jist as well to have your pistols ready 
 if we are to seek for these hounds you speak of, for, to tell you 
 a truth, it has been for a long time my notion that there were 
 men at the bottom of some of these noises of dogs ; not that there 
 are not other noises of the woods that could never have been 
 made by any man that I ll swear for and if you know d 
 half as much of our country and the swamps as I do, you d be 
 for thinking like myself. I could tell you of the strangest 
 things " 
 
 "Not now ! not now!" exclaimed Vernon, impatiently, "but 
 get your pistols out, my good fellow ; it may be a word and a 
 blow with us. I hear one sound responding to another, and the 
 last did not seem more than a short hundred yards distant, in 
 that thick branch. Let us ride apart; a rifle s sight could cover 
 us both." 
 
 Speaking thus, Vernon spurred his horse forward in a smart 
 canter, while Rawlins, obeying his suggestion, prepared his 
 weapons, and followed him at a horse s length behind. They had 
 scarcely increased their motion, when a. sudden clamor reached 
 their ears in front ; a hoarse summons, the voice of a man in 
 anger, mingled with lower tones, as if in expostulation. These 
 were followed by a shriek a repeated shriek, and the accents 
 of a woman of woman in distress! This put a life into the 
 limbs, and a fire into the hearts of the two young men, which 
 gave them no time for reflection, and left them in no doubt as 
 to the course which they should take, and the duty which lay 
 before them. 
 
 "Lord God!" was the somewhat irreverent exclamation of 
 Rawlins, Lord God ! Mr. Vernon, if it should be Rachel I" 
 
PISTOL PRACTICE AN ADVENTURE. 179 
 
 " It is a woman, Mr. Rawlins ! follow me close if you be a 
 man. This is no time to loiter." 
 
 " You won t find me backward, by the powers ! I m at you, 
 and after you. There s no scare in Wat Rawlins at the push. 
 Lord help us ! I m afeard it s Rachel. She loves to walk in the 
 woods so, every afternoon. Git up, you lazy b h, or I ll knife 
 your quarters !" 
 
 The last speech, warm from the blood, and breaking out in 
 defiance of all restraint, was addressed to his horse, which, in 
 his anger, it will be seen that he made feminine. The animal, 
 though fleet, and now doing his best, yet lacked the speed of 
 Vernon s, and the distance, small at first, was increasing fast 
 between them. The fear that another should do for the safety 
 of his sweetheart that which he alone aimed to accomplish, was 
 wormwood to his spirit ; and his apostrophe to his steed was 
 coupled with the driving and constant application of the spur, 
 until the flanks of the generous animal soon grew red undei 
 the infliction. The shrieks were renewed fast, sharp, implor 
 ing terminating, at length, in a long, piercing scream, which 
 grew feeble, at last, as if from exhaustion ; and when it closed, 
 the thrilling words of Vernon, as he looked behind, and cried to 
 Rawlins to follow, sent a creeping chill of terror to the heart 
 of the rustic. 
 
 " Push, push, or we shall be too late !" 
 
 " I m here I m close ! This d d beast ! I hope it ain t 
 
 Rachel ! Get on, you brute ! Everything stands in the way ; 
 the trees, and bushes, and I never saw the creature so dull 
 before. Get up, you clodhopping beast, or I ll kill you, by all 
 that s certain ! I ve always told Rachel about walking out so 
 far, but she wouldn t mind me, and said there was no danger ; 
 but I knew there was danger, and I said so. But these women 
 they won t mind anything they re so ohstinate if they re 
 a little smart; and so d n the b h, she ll stop full short 
 before long, and want to take a roll in the road." 
 
 There was no good reason to justify this last apprehension 
 of the excited woodman. The animal was covering ground 
 with a rapidity which might have done some credit to Turpin s 
 n: ivo. But a few seconds had passed since the first alarm, and 
 nothing but the impatience and the special apprehensions which 
 
180 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 had seized him on a sudden, in regard to the woman who was 
 dearest to his heart, could have so utterly confounded his con 
 sciousness and judgment on all other subjects. 
 
 To be passed and left behind by the young lawyer 
 the citizen one of a class for whom the forest-born of our 
 country are very apt to entertain a very wholesome contempt 
 as respects the exercise of all those qualities which require 
 personal strength and agility, and more especially, in the man 
 agement of a horse also added to his affliction; which, how 
 ever, was not destined to endure long. 
 
 Vernon had already entered upon the scene of action. The 
 roads crossed a large area was formed by the contact of the 
 two paths and here the strife was in progress, and hence the 
 clamor. 
 
 A single glance at the objects before him. gave Vernon a 
 correct notion of the affair. A travelling carriage crossed the 
 road, the horses being checked and held by a man whose muf 
 fled face, cap drawn over his eyes, coarse garments, rude man 
 ner, not to speak of the pistol in his grasp, at once declared 
 L him to be a ruffian and an assailant. An old man, the proprie 
 tor of the vehicle, whose white locks and bald head were un 
 covered and exposed, lay on the ground beneath the knee of 
 another ruffian, while a third was busied in rifling the carriage 
 of its contents. T\vo females, one a tall maiden of seventeen 
 or thereabouts, the other a child of twelve, were on their knees 
 to the villain who held the old man down, imploring, seemingly, 
 for mercy ; the younger of the two, clinging to the arm of the 
 assailant, seeking with a childish pertinacity, and in utter 
 ignorance of any danger to herself, to push him from his posi 
 tion. 
 
 The screams which had alarmed the travellers arose from 
 these ; and they were continued by the younger of the damsels 
 long after the elder had deemed it the first alarm being over 
 an idle mode of remedying the misfortune, for the cure of 
 v, hich she probably meditated other means. Perhaps there 
 were other apprehensions of womanhood more dreadful to the 
 pure, heart, which made her fearful to offend the insolence of 
 those to whom neither herself nor parent for such was the 
 old man beneath the grasp of the ruffian could oppose any 
 
PISTOL PRACTICE AN ADVENTURE. 181 
 
 powers of defence. Her efforts were those of prayer, expostu 
 lation and entreaty, until the approach of Vernon, whom sh* 
 first beheld, suggested new hopes of rescue ; and then her 
 screams were joined to those of her younger sister, and gave a 
 new impulse to the movements of our hero and his companion 
 who followed close upon his heels. 
 
 There was but little time for reflection none for hesitation, 
 and the mood and character of Vernon were such as to require 
 neither. To assail the assailants, to rescue the victims, was an 
 instinct that sent him the nearest way to work ; and coming, as 
 he did, somewhat suddenly upon the robbers, he was able to 
 effect that which, in a state of greater preparation on their 
 part, it would have been fatal for him even to attempt. 
 
 Their own interest in the prize, and the clamors of the } oung 
 women, had kept them from hearing the tread of the approach 
 ing horsemen ; and as they came into the cross-roads from the 
 opposite track, they were totally unseen until within thirty 
 yards of the party. It was then too late to take any of those 
 precautions by which nothing would have been more easy than 
 to have shot them down at their approach, without risking an 
 exchange of bullets. 
 
 As it was, a single bay of the beagle their accustomed 
 signal was the only warning which the more busy robbers 
 received from the companion who held the horses, and who 
 occupied, with them and the carriage, the upper part of the road. 
 The ruffian who bestrid the prostrate gentleman turned about 
 at the signal, only to receive the bullet of Vernon, unerringly 
 aimed at his head. He fell prostrate upon the body of the old 
 man, and his blood and brains covered his face and garments. 
 In the next moment, the robber in possession of the carriage 
 fired at Vernon, and was about to leap with a second pistol 
 upon him, when the appearance of Rawlins, who made his 
 entree with a shout which might have done credit to the lungs 
 of Stentor, determined the assailant to trust his heels rather 
 than his weapon ; and without giving a look to his comrade, he 
 darted into the opposite woods, leaving the carriage between 
 himself and his foes. He who held the horses, kept his ground 
 until Rawlins had approached him within a few paces, when, 
 lifting his weapon with as deliberate an aim as the circum- 
 
182 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 stances of his position would allow, ho fired, but ineffectually 
 at the sturdy woodman. 
 
 Could the latter have seen the bitter, nay, venomous expres 
 sion of face which the fellow gave him ere he shot, he would 
 have congratulated himself, indeed, that it was not Rachel who 
 had fallen into his hands. 
 
 Vernon was the first to pursue the escaping ruffians, but he 
 had scarcely entered the wood ere he felt himself growing 
 sick and faint; and then, for the first time, he found himself 
 wounded in the thigh. He returned to the scene of action, and 
 with difficulty alighted from his horse. The old man and his 
 daughters, whom he had rescued, came about him to acknowl 
 edge and thank him for his services ; but exhaustion, from loss 
 of blood, now overcame him, and he sunk to the ground with a 
 dim consciousness while he was falling, that the old man was 
 the very person whom he sought the very William Maitland 
 who had defrauded the bank and involved Carter, to the loss 
 of so many thousands. 
 
 But this impression soon gave place to another, and it seemed 
 to the swooning youth that the features of the man were at 
 once absorbed in those of a lovely virgin such a vision as 
 had filled his dreaming fancy the night he slept at the hovel of 
 Mrs. Yarbers; a form of chiselled symmetry, and a face, of 
 the exquisite beauty of which, the soul, alone, could feel the 
 perfection and the charm, in those vague and spiritual imagin 
 ings which come to the youthful heart when it first dreams oi 
 love which come to it but once, and is believed by it for ever 
 
THE FUGITIVE FATHER THK DAUGHTER 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE FUGITIVE FATHER THE DAUGHTER EVENTS GRADtAJLl i 
 
 DEVELOP GLIMPSES BEYOND 
 
 "Why do you strive so whither would you fly 
 You can not wrest yourself away from care, 
 You may from counsel ; you may shift your place, 
 But not your person; and another clime 
 Makes you no other" FLETCHER. 
 
 THE woodman who had continued the pursuit of the ruffians 
 without being at all apprized of the malicious aim of one of 
 them upon him, from which he had been so fortunate as to 
 escape, soon found his efforts unavailing to overtake them. 
 They had made their way into a canebrake immediately con 
 tiguous, in whose thick, fostering glooms and secret abodes, 
 they could easily defy and baffle the search of any hundred 
 men. Ignorant of the hurt of Vernon, whom he had seen 
 enter the forest in pursuit, like himself, he shook his hand in 
 anger at the sheltering recesses in which the robbers were lost 
 from sight, and returned toward the scene of action, with a 
 degree of composure, which seemed to regard the fatigue of his 
 horse as superior to all other considerations. 
 
 His astonishment and concern, when he discovered the insen 
 sible condition of his companion, was worthy of a much longer 
 acquaintance, and a more social and equal relationship than 
 had existed between them. A few moments sufficed to con 
 vince him that his friend was not dead, nor, perhaps, badly 
 injured ; and a few more enabled him to kick the dead robber 
 with a quiet conviction that he could do no more hurt. The 
 features -\f the ruffian he inspected carefully ; but if he had 
 any knowledge of them before, he kept the matter to himself, 
 *nd having emptied the pockets of all that they contained of 
 
184 BORDER IJKAGLK3. 
 
 value, and possessed himself of tlie pistols with which the fel 
 low had been armed, but which the true and prompt shot of 
 Vernon had prevented him from using, he left the carcass in 
 the highway, with probably some such motive as that of tlie 
 woodman when he kills a snake namely, the start and mo 
 mentary terror which such a spectacle will provoke in the 
 spectator. 
 
 This business was the work of a few moments only ; and he 
 now addressed himself seriously to the task of assisting his 
 wounded companion, and directing the further movements of the 
 party, all the members of which were laboring under more or 
 less excitement and apprehension. The whole scene was over 
 in a few minutes, but the full pressure of its terrors and dangers 
 had not passed entirely away. The old- gentleman, who had 
 been rescued, was even then busy in cleansing his face and 
 bosom, as well as he might, from the blood and brains of the 
 slain robber which had spurted over them. He was a fine- 
 looking man, of very venerable aspect ; but there was an incer 
 titude in his looks, and a tremulousness of limb in his move 
 ments, which seemed to the mind of the woodman strangely in 
 consistent with the fine, manly mould in which nature had cast 
 his frame. It was also apparent to our forester that there was 
 a fidgety uneasiness in his manner, which denoted apprehen 
 sions no less active at the moment of his rescue and seeming 
 safety, than when he lay under the weapon of the robber. He 
 spoke confusedly, yet not with rapidity ; checked and inter 
 rupted himself repeatedly ; caught up his speech before he had 
 completed his sentences ; corrected, or strove to correct his ex 
 pression ; and increased his confusion, as folks are very apt tc 
 do, by anticipating it. His determination on little matters 
 seemed to undergo alteration quite as often as his speech ; and 
 in all that he said and did, he exhibited to the countryman, 
 who was not entirely obtuse, that purposeless, imbecile charac 
 ter, which is conscious of much to be done, yet is capable of 
 nothing, and despairs even while it undertakes, and falters be 
 fore fatigue. 
 
 Yet, so far as the ordinary circumstances are involved, which 
 produce fear in the minds of men, the stranger had shown him 
 self hardy enough. It is true, he did not offer resistance to the 
 
THE FUGITIVE PATHEIl THE DAUGHTER. 185 
 
 robbers, though armed ; but this arose as well from the manner 
 in which he had been surprised by them, as from a proper con- 
 viction that he could not hope to resist them with any chance 
 of success ; and might, by doing so, have provoked their ill- 
 treatment of his daughters, for whose safety he had shown all 
 the solicitude of a father. He had not betrayed so much alarm 
 for his own safety, while actually beneath the body of his 
 assailant, as he did now, speaking of the event to the sturdy 
 woodman, by whose assistance, in part, his rescue had been 
 achieved. Indeed, his timidity, uneasiness, and downcast looks 
 while he spoke, surprised the latter quite as much as they vexed 
 him ; and his words were spoken with the view to reassuring 
 the courage which he could not but think and this too with 
 some feelings of contempt had been quite too much cast 
 down by the strife through which it had just gone. 
 
 " There s no sort of danger now, old gentleman, while we re 
 so strong around you. It won t be any two robbers of the 
 Chitta-Loosa that ll venture to lay thumb and fingers on the 
 nose of Wat Rawlins, and he with his eyes open. So, since 
 you re safe now, and don t seem to have lost anything, take 
 your seat in your wagon, while I help Vernon into the bottom 
 of it. You must make some room for him*, young lady, and 
 don t be frightened at a little blood. It is good blood, and spilt 
 in your own behalf, so you may look on it with a sort of pleas 
 ure, if you ain t too faint-hearted which I don t think so much 
 your case as that of the old gentleman. He s mighty uneasy 
 now, though for what there s no telling. Why don t you mount, 
 old gentleman, and put yourself in readiness?" 
 
 In some agitation, the stranger turned to his daughter, and a 
 brief conversation was carried on between the two in whispers. 
 The woodman remarked that the fine eye of the maiden was 
 kindled, her cheek flushed, and he could hear her distinctly ex 
 claim, at the conclusion of a long and very earnest sentence : 
 "Do not do not think of such a thing, dear father; common 
 humanity, alone, were there no other reasons, should require 
 this; now, it is the due gratitude " 
 
 The rest of the words were lost to the listener, who, at the 
 same time, busied himself in binding a handkerchief around the 
 thigh of the youth, in the hope to arrest the bleeding. 
 
186 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 While thus engaged, the traveller approached him, and asked 
 how far they might be at that moment from the first ferry. 
 
 The question surprised the woodman, who looked up at the 
 speaker with increased surprise. With a mind so utterly un 
 sophisticated as his own, he could conceive of no condition of 
 things justifying the reluctance of the traveller to lend himself 
 to the work of succoring one to whom he owed so great a ser 
 vice. His wonder, however, did not extend to the conduct of 
 the elder maiden. She had stooped to assist him in his rude 
 surgery, and had yielded the mantle from her shoulder to help 
 in binding up the hurts of his patient. But his eye spoke to 
 her father a different language from that which his lips ad 
 dressed to her. To him, he looked the surprise he felt, and 
 something more. Scorn was mingled with his wonder, and 
 anger rose no less upon his lips than upon his countenance. 
 
 " The ferry !" he exclaimed " the ferry ! Why, what the 
 diccans can you be after? Ain t there time enough for that 
 question to-morrow, or the next day, or the day after, or any 
 day for the next six months to come ? We can give you house- 
 room, stranger, as I told you before, and keep you in the dry, 
 though it rains rivers. There s old Billy Badger, that ll give 
 you something more than a supper a sermon with it and be 
 glad that you eat heartily, if you can hear well. Come, old 
 man, give us a lift, while we set the lad in your wagon. He 
 won t oncommode the ladies much, and, if so be he does, it was 
 all their own fault and yours, to git into difficulties, and he s 
 hurt in gitting you out of them. Give us a lift, and look bet 
 ter pleased, and, by gimini ! I ll forget how little minded you 
 seem to holp the man that helped you." 
 
 " Do my father no injustice," interposed the elder maiden ; 
 "he is not indifferent to the fate of your friend of our friend 
 and will do what you require, and all that he can, for his 
 succor and relief. Do not suppose, even had you not been nigh 
 to urge it, that we should have needed any persuasion to move 
 us to so necessary an act of duty. No, sir, believe me, had 
 there been no better strength than that of my own feeble frame, 
 that should have been given for the service of this gentleman ; 
 and, though I sank beneath the burden. I should, at least, have 
 
THE FUGITIVE FATHER THE DAUGHTER. 187 
 
 lone mv utmost to find succor for one who has been of the 
 greatest succor to us." 
 
 " I believe you, my dear young lady, I believe you ; there s 
 no mistake in your face, by the powers ! I believe you jist as 
 much as if your words had come from the lips of Rachel her- 
 gelf ; but the old gentleman why don t he spunk up, and lend 
 a hand ?" 
 
 The keen eye of the woodman was fixed upon the traveller 
 as he spoke these words. The latter became still more con 
 fused at the apostrophe ; his glance sank to the ground, and 
 he faltered out some only half-intelligible accents, about the 
 necessity he was under of pursuing his journey, and the incon 
 veniences which would arise to him, of any unexpected delay ; 
 and here he turned to his daughter, and proceeded to repeat 
 what he had said to the woodman, touching the exigencies of 
 his situation. The blunt language of Rawlins anticipated the 
 maiden, and prevented her replying to a speech, which, though 
 partially intelligible only, seemed greatly to distress her. 
 
 " By the powers ! old gentleman, to my thinking you have 
 been saying anything but the right thing. What are you talk 
 ing about your journey for, at this time, when here s the man 
 that saved your throats, and your money, and may be, God 
 only knows ! saved this handsome young lady, that s your own 
 daughter, from something worse than all. Here he is, I say, 
 lying on the ground, knocked over in helping you out of the 
 hobble, and wanting help himself now to get him to a soft bed, 
 and a quiet place to get well in. If it hadn t a-been for him, 
 who knows what might have happened ? It s true I was close 
 behind, but my nag s not the creature that he rides. I d ha 
 done as much for you as I could ; but then he did it, and made 
 no promises ; so fall to, and give me a shoulder here, while I 
 lift the lad into your wagon. The ladies can sit on one side, 
 and we can lay him in the bottom ; he s only swooned, and 
 won t know anything about it, and it s only two miles we ve 
 got to go." 
 
 " Two miles !" exclaimed the traveller ; is it only two miles 
 to the ferry ?" 
 
 " Ferry ! Why, what do you want with the ferry ?" de 
 manded Rawlins. 
 
188 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 " I must cross the ferry to-night," returner! the other, 
 
 "You can t you shan t! by all the powers, you shan t! 
 You shall carry the lad in your wagon to Billy Badger s, which 
 is only two miles off, and it will be quite dark by the time we 
 git there, for you ll have to go slow on account of the lad s hurts. 
 After that, if you are so cursed hard-hearted, old gentleman, as 
 to set off without waiting to know how the man is that resked 
 his life to save yours and your. daughter s, not to say nothing 
 about your cash, which must be pretty considerable, to bring 
 these robbers about you " 
 
 "You mistake you mistake, my friend !" was the hasty in 
 terruption of the traveller, " I have but little money with me 
 precious little nothing to speak of." 
 
 "Tell that to the chickens the old fowls won t believe 
 you. But that s neither here nor there. As for your crossing 
 the ferry this night, that s impossible. Where would you have 
 been or what, let me ask you, would you have had to cross 
 with, if the lad hadn t put in to save you ? If you don t choose 
 to do the thing willingly, by the powers, I ll do it for you ! 
 I ll take possession of your carry-all, and fix the thing to my 
 own liking." 
 
 "Oh! my father, why will you resist why oppose any 
 longer?" was the pleading inquiry of the elder maiden, whose 
 own solicitations, though before chiefly whispered, as if in def 
 erence to her father s years and feelings, were as warm in ex 
 pression, and as humane in their purport, as were those of the 
 more abrupt and sturdy woodman. " The gentleman says 
 rightly," continued the maiden ; " we have all been saved by 
 the valor of his companion, and we must see him carried safely 
 to his dwelling. Nay, more, we can not leave him till he is 
 out of clanger." 
 
 " Virginia, my child, what is it that you say ? You know not 
 my reasons my necessity," was the bewildered response of 
 the father. 
 
 "Nothing, my father, but absolute danger can justify inhu 
 manity." She laid down this just principle with due solemnity. 
 
 "I am in danger," whispered the father in her ear "foes 
 seek evils beset dangers follow me." 
 
 "God forbid! say not so! your life- how? from what) 
 
THE FUGITIVE FATHER THE DAUGHTER. 189 
 
 from whom ? speak to me, dear father ! Tell me all now, 
 now. Let me know wherefore this journey why have you 
 left your home our dear home in this strange and sudden 
 manner ?" 
 
 The anxiety of the maiden almost overturned her caution. 
 Her whispers became full and perfect sounds at the close, and 
 were silenced in much agitation by the father, who pointed to 
 Rawlins, now approaching with the body of Vcrnon, which he 
 had lifted upon his massive shoulders, and was bearing to the 
 carriage. The groan of the father was insuppressible. 
 
 " Not now, my child, not now. We must submit to this. 
 Take your seat; Ellen will sit on the front with me. The 
 stranger speaks truly. It might have been, but for the youth s 
 coming, that we had lost that which is of more value than life," 
 The parties were soon seated, and the cushions of the vehicle 
 .vere made to support, in tolerable ease, the form of the wounded 
 nan, from whom, an occasional escaping groan announced the 
 lingering presence of life within him. Having effected all the 
 arrangements, to his own satisfaction at least, Rawlins took 
 charge of Vernon s horse, which he led; and congratulating the 
 old man upon his" slowly-recovered humanity, he proceeded to 
 guide them to the dwelling which he had assigned for their 
 temporary lodging-house, leaving the dead robber to the possible 
 care of his comrades. 
 
 " By the powers ! old gentleman," said he, with an air ot 
 great toleration, as he rode up beside the vehicle, and looked 
 in upon the face of his companion, " it was only because of the 
 young ladies that I let you off so easily. When you wanted to 
 back out, and leave the lad in his 1 blood, when he had just done 
 getting you out of a mighty ugly scrape, I had it in my mind 
 to make you walk your own trotters, and take the wagon to 
 myself altogether ; for, you see, it would have been mighty 
 shameful in you to go off in safety, not asking and not caring 
 what became of him that helped you. If you had seen him ride 
 as I did, when he heard the screams of the ladies, and seen his 
 face when he spoke, and heard his words when he cried to me 
 that was riding close behind him, A woman s voice, Rawlins ! 
 Rawlins is my name, sir you would say to yourself, By 
 the. powers! this is the very sort of man to wrap up in your 
 
|90 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 heart, anfl to love, and I love him, stranger, by the powers! 
 1 love the lad for what I ve seen him do to-day, jist the same as 
 if 1 know d him for a hundred years, though I never set eyes 
 on him afore to-day." 
 
 " He is a stranger, then, in this neighborhood I was the 
 inquiry of the old gentleman. 
 
 A traveller, like yourself; he comes from below -I reckon 
 from some of the old states, for he s got a sight of 1 arning, 
 knows everything, and talks jist like a book." 
 
 The eyes of the elder maiden were fixed for awhile with in 
 creasing interest upon the pale countenance of the wounded 
 man, and she now remarked the finely-formed and expressive 
 features expressive even while overspread by a pallor such 
 as that of death the softness and fineness of his skin, the 
 small, sweet mouth, and the flowing locks of hair, which escaped 
 in small, single ringlets from the confining cap which he wore, 
 but which had been displaced by the motion of the carriage. 
 
 The instincts of women are no less busy and prompt than 
 those of men ; else why should the maiden blush when she be 
 held the eyes of the woodman suddenly cast upon her, as she 
 scanned the features of his unconscious companion? She ha-d, 
 with equal suddenness, arrived at the conviction that the face 
 of the stranger youth was one of the most noble she had ever 
 seen, and distinguished by that delicacy of feature and expres 
 sion which are conjectured to denote equally aristocratic birth 
 and natural genius. This conviction was, perhaps, strengthened 
 by the few words which Rawlins had spoken, and which repre- 
 ecnted the youth as a traveller like themselves. Imagination 
 soon busied itself to discover his objects, his pursuits, family, 
 and mental resources ; and even when the searching glance of 
 the woodman compelled her to avert her eyes to the opposite 
 r.ide of the carriage from the wounded man, the subject was too 
 interesting to suffer her to forego its consideration, which em 
 ployed her young thoughts and virgin fancies in a manner 
 which did not please the less because they lacked all means for 
 arriving at any conclusion. 
 
 The carriage at length reached Zion s Hill the name which 
 the strongly-assured methodist had conferred upon his habita 
 tionand yet Virginia Wilson for Wilson was the name 
 
THE RIGHTEOUS ELDER. 
 
 given by her father, as his own, in reply to the demand of 
 Rawlins with a tenacity which is probably rational enough 
 among young ladies in all such cases, had not yet exhausted 
 her subject. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE RIGHTEOUS ELDER THE UNRIGHTEOUS SON THE HEAGLE? 
 IX SWAMP. 
 
 Wohey. Sir, 
 
 For holy offices I have a time; a time 
 To think upon the part of business which 
 I bear i the state. King Henry VIII. 
 
 THE party was received very cordially, though with great 
 solemnity, by the sober methodist. He descend-ed from his 
 steps to the carriage; freely welcomed the proprietor; com 
 manded all care for the wounded man ; bade his servants in 
 attendance; had refreshments served, and though, in these re 
 spects, exhibiting the essentials of a most solid and earnest hos 
 pitality, he never yet unbent a muscle of his hard countenance, 
 nor modulated to softness the harsh accents of a voice, stern, 
 cold, slow, emphatic, and measuredly monotonous. He listened 
 to the unuwial narrative of their escape, with the same com 
 posure as he would have heard the complaints of his niece, 
 Rachel, who had pricked her finger with a needle; and his 
 congratulations of the party on ^heir escape, were uttered with 
 very much like the manner which he employed when saying 
 .grace before the morning meal. A matter-of-fact face received 
 every circumstance, and requited all the wonders which he 
 hrard; mid nothing in the world could be more mortifying to 
 the enthusiastic temperament, than the repulsive and chilling 
 expression of a countenance that seemed to be set on high, as a 
 sort of moral scarecrow, to rebuke the intrusive passions, the 
 fervid temperament, the glowing and impatient zeal, that burns, 
 and swells, and bounds, and is never so angry as when t ea 
 
192 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 counters the high fences which prudence sets up to restrain its 
 roving and incursive propensities. 
 
 William Badger had no sympathy with the enthusiasm that 
 dilates readily at every impulse. His enthusiasm was all re 
 ligious ; his zeal, deep, earnest, and perpetually glowing, was 
 restrained by that decorum alone, which is the fruit of intense 
 veneration. To speak fast, seemed to his mind to indulge in 
 levity; to utter promptly his feelings, might be to do injustice 
 to his own judgment, to the governing providence of God, or 
 to the rights and interests of others. It may be added, that, 
 with a temperament sanguine in the extreme ; a mind free, full, 
 and active ; an intense self-esteem, and that disposition to sway 
 which is, perhaps, a natural attribute of such a character, his 
 impetuosity of disposition was simply methodized and more 
 completely systematized and made equal from the external re 
 straints put upon it. 
 
 . " I have seen him in a roaring passion," said Rawlins to his 
 companion, " when he didn t know what he said or did, arid swore 
 like a Mississippi boatman ; and yet one word came out after 
 another jist as slowly as if he was making his morning prayer. 
 He s a most strange man, that same Billy Badger ; but he means 
 always to do right, even when he s most wrong ; and if you ll 
 let him alone, when he s most wrong, he ll come right after a 
 season ; but I do think he d not suffer the angel Gabriel to set 
 him right, or show him that he was wrong, one minute before 
 he was willing to see it for himself." 
 
 The first care of all parties was to see into the condition and 
 render assistance to the wounded man. He was conveyed into 
 a quiet chamber, and Badger himself attended chiefly to his 
 hurts. An inspection of them showed him to have been wounded 
 by two balls, both of which had fortunately struck fleshy parts 
 of the thigh, and the swooning had been occasionc-d by the loss 
 of blood, and not in consequence of any serious causes of ex 
 haustion. 
 
 When the venerable elder had satisfied himself of these facts, 
 he made very light, in his solemn manner, of the danger, and 
 assured the anxious Rawlins that the youth would scarcely feel 
 his hurts in a day or two. The balls not having lodged, but 
 having cut the flesh in two parallel spots, some two inches apart 
 
THE RIGHTEOUS ELDER. 198 
 
 it was easy to dress the wounds, which had already ceased to 
 pour forth those free streams which, at first, had threatened to 
 exhaust the fountains of life within him, and might have done 
 so, but for the timely bandaging that Bawling had made both 
 below and above the places which were hurt. 
 
 Badger, who asked no counsel of those around him, adminis 
 tered a sleeping draught to the patient, which silenced the 
 groans, at moments escaping feebly from his lips, and set him 
 to sleep so soundly that there was but little prospect accord 
 ing to the woodman of his hearing any of the long sermon 
 that night. 
 
 To do Mr. Wilson all manner of justice, we may say, that he 
 showed no lack of interest in the situation of the young man 
 He watched beside him until Badger had declared his perfect 
 conviction of his safety, and then left him only to quiet the be 
 coming anxiety of another, whose solicitude in his fate, which 
 might have seemed improper under other circumstances, found 
 its sufficient justification in her gratitude. 
 
 Virginia Wilson felt a strange beating at her heart, and 
 trembled with a new sentiment of pleasure, as she listened to 
 these tidings. Was there anything singular in the fact that 
 she retired that instant to the chamber which had been assigned 
 herself and younger sister, and shed in secret those tears which 
 it might have puzzled her to explain why she shed at all. Yet 
 such was the case, and those tears, it may be added, were no 
 less sweetly strange to her own heart, than they would have 
 been surprising to any other not perfectly conscious of their 
 source. 
 
 Meanwhile, Mr. Wilson and our friend Bawlins were com 
 pelled to undergo the protracted examination of the methodist, 
 on the subject of the late adventure; the circumstances of 
 which seemed to awaken in him no less curiosity than concern. 
 
 "Evil is abroad in the world," he said, beginning to sermon 
 ize at the conclusion of his examination ; " there is no place 
 altogether secure from the dominion of Satan ; but that here, 
 so nigh unto Zion, where I have, for the space of two blessed 
 years, striven to uphold the work and the worship of our heav 
 enly Father that sin should so boldly demean herself, seems tc 
 be as passing strange, as it is sad. But, marvel ye not. Waltc? 
 
194 BOEDER BEAGLES. 
 
 Rawlins, at what I am about to say to you; and regard it not 
 as unbecoming in one who preaches peace on earth and good 
 will to all men, if I declare to you that we must all arise and 
 put on the armor of strife, yea, the very armor of man, and gird 
 upon our thighs the carnal weapons of human wrath. The 
 traveller must notbestrickendownuponthe highway without 
 summons of eternity, without warning to prepare for death in 
 season. We must go forth in seeking for these bloody men; 
 we must put them to defiance ; and as they have not hearkened 
 to our words of prayer and peace, neither have they given heed 
 to the forebearance of our own example, then must we use- 
 against them the same weapons which they are so ready to use 
 against the wayfaring man, and we must smite them hip and 
 thigh to their utter undoing. If they will not hearken to the 
 imploring angel; if they will not heed the promise of the for 
 giving angel; nor incline their hearts to the prayers of the 
 righteous, God will commission the destroying angel, even as 
 hehascommissionedhimagainstthe Amalekiteand the Assyr 
 ian of old, until there be none left to tell the story of their un 
 deserving, and their heaped-up bones alone shall remain to 
 declare their sudden punishment, in warning to the other 
 tribes of evildoers which shall follow them. Truly, it grieves 
 me, that here, within sight of the Hill of Zion, which I had 
 thought to set apart as a spot where evil should not have 
 foothold or countenance, such deeds should be done as shall 
 make the traveller tremble to approach, even when he comes 
 on the sabbath, seeking crumbs of comfort from the Lord. My 
 heart is full of shame within me, that I should have fought the 
 good fight with so feeble an arm, and should have gone into 
 battle with a spirit waxing faint in the hour when there is 
 most need of performance. Here, Mr. Wilson, with the Lord s 
 favor, did I pitch my tent, at a time when the land around me 
 was in possession of the heathen, though even then decreed for 
 the heritage of the believing. Well may I declare it was like 
 unto a desert, where the dews of heavenly bountynever f ell,or 
 if they fell, which were drunk up without profit to earth or 
 heaven by the thirsty, but unimproving sands. Since that 
 time, the heath en hath sunk away fromthebroad possession of 
 the land, and hath given place to a people which, if they be not 
 
IIGHTKOUS ELDEit. 
 
 yet holy, ware yet better favored of God with the true lights 
 of righteousness. Many, I am glad to declare, have had the 
 fountains of life to spring up within their hearts, with a stream 
 ing which shall never fail; but as thou seest, there are many 
 si ill who grope in the way of darkness, and fight under the 
 banners of the mighty sinner who first made all to sin. These 
 r./ubers who have assailed, with design perchance to slay " 
 
 The harangue which, temperately begun, promised to be of 
 interminable dimensions, was here cut short by the interruption 
 of one who had entered without being seen by the elder. This 
 was his only son, Gideon, a youth of twenty years or there 
 abouts, whom Rawlins had already described as a "sly fellow, 
 having something wrong about him," and one whom he did not 
 like. The youth was a proper-looking youth enough ; but his 
 keen, quick eye, the lively play of temper about his mouth, the 
 sudden transition of expression in his glance, his studious meth- 
 odism in garb and accent, so much at variance with the natural 
 characteristics of his countenance and manner, would have im 
 pressed a close spectator with a conviction of the perfect feli 
 city of Rawlins s brief, but comprehensive description. He sat 
 demurely in the seat which he had taken at entrance, immedi 
 ately behind his father ; his hands were clasped upon his knees, 
 his legs drawn up, and half inclined beneath his chair, his eyes 
 cast down upon the floor even while he spoke. His interrup 
 tion arose quite as much, if the truth was known, from his im 
 patience at a sort of exhortation, in which, whatever might be 
 the case with the traveller, his experienced ears found little of 
 novelty : and though, in what he said, he fancied he should 
 gratify the amour projsre of the veteran religionist, his aim was, 
 perhaps simply to suppress a discourse, of which the reader has 
 probably had quite as much as himself, and may thank him for 
 the interruption. 
 
 " It may be, sir, that you are doing some injustice to your 
 own labors, and to the character of the goodly neighborhood in 
 which we live. I am of the opinion, sir, that these robbers 
 must be strangers in these parts, the outcasts from other states 
 and cities, men of desperate hope and fortune, who rove the 
 country like raging lions seeking whom they shall devour, and 
 none of whom have ever hearkened to your voice, or to the 
 
196 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 wholesome preaching of any of God s servants. I can not think 
 that any of those whom we are accustomed to behold at Zion s 
 Hill, hearkening- to the word, will ever be found in the evil 
 ways of these wretched robbers." 
 
 The lurking tribute to the old man s vanity which was con 
 tained in this speech, did not do away with the impertinence 
 of the interruption. The father, slowly and without a word, 
 when he first heard the voice of the son, wheeled his chair 
 about so that he might face the speaker. He heard him 
 patiently to the end, and then answered him in grave, steru 
 accents. 
 
 " And what know you, Gideon Badger, of the hearts of men, 
 even though they be neighbors unto Zion s Hill ? And what 
 know you of these robbers, of whom you speak so readily, that 
 you should venture to hope ay, sir, I say to hope tin., all 
 or even any of those who hearken to God s word in this place, 
 are free from the damnable leprosy of sin ? There is a great 
 presumption in thy thoughts, Gideon Badger, which should be 
 chastened by prayer, by the prayer of an anguished spirit, that 
 knows its own presumption, and can find no check to chasten it 
 but that which is the free gift of God himself. When thou 
 speakest so freely of the goodness of thy neighbors, I greatly 
 fenr thou speakest a vain thing. There are many among them 
 whom I fear lack overmuch the becoming humility of God s 
 servants, and need the visitation of the Savior in their secret 
 places, before they will hold up clean hands and pure hearts in 
 the sight of their heavenly Maker. Nay, more, Gideon Badger, 
 it is thy practice to seek and commune with some of those of 
 whom but little that is good may be spoken. There is that idle 
 man who lives by taking the innocent fish that swim to and fro 
 in the Chitta-Loosa, which, though it bears a name of the hea 
 then, is yet no less a river of the Lord he whom they call 
 Weston, whose blacksmith craft were of great profit to him 
 would he pursue it, is another of whom it were well if thou 
 hadst less knowledge " 
 
 Here the old man experienced another interruption, but this 
 time from no less a person than our friend Rawlins. 
 
 "He will have no more knowledge of Weston," said the 
 woodman, "than he has already, *ud that I can give you now, 
 
THE RIGHTEOUS ELDER. 197\ 
 
 since Weston was the very man who was shot down by Mr. " 
 Vernon : he sat on top of the old gentleman, there, Mr. Wil 
 son, with pistol out, and another loaded in his breast, when 
 Vernon tumbled him. Here are the pistols which I took from 
 him, here s his knife, and these knick-knacks also came out of his 
 pocket. His carcass lies in the cross-roads at this moment, 
 where anybody who wants, can have it for the carriage." 
 
 JThis revelation startled the methoclist out of something of 
 his equanimity. He half rose from his seat while Rawlins 
 spoke, but instantly resuming it, as if conscious of improper 
 precipitancy of movement, he sat quietly, without further mo 
 tion, until the tale was finished ; his eyes meanwhile wandering, 
 with obvious anxiety in their glance, from the speaker to his 
 son, and from him again to the speaker. When the latter had 
 finished his statement, and thrown down upon a table the arms 
 and other articles which he had taken from the slain robber, 
 the old man spoke, but his voice and manner had resumed all 
 their deliberateness. 
 
 " Walter Rawlins, this is a dreadful tale which thou tellest, 
 and I tremble to hear it, as I can not doubt that thou tellest me 
 the truth." 
 
 " True as gospel, Mr. Badger, if eyes don t cheat one in the 
 business." 
 
 "Make no. irreverent comparisons, young man, between such 
 truth which thou tellest, on the authority of thy mortal sight, 
 and that wondrous truth of the gospel which comes of the sight 
 of God. Thy truth hath its use and its value, and I question 
 it not, but the truth of eternity is another thing from the truth 
 of time, and God strengthen the poor eyes that see but the 
 one, that they be not blinded with the outer brightness and 
 perfection of the other. Truly, I make no doubt" that thou 
 hast seen this wretched man, Weston, in the condition which 
 thou describest, though it is a sinful scorn of God s best work 
 on earth to leave the frame even of the wicked man to rot 
 above the earth, a prey to the carrion birds and beasts who 
 prowl by night for food. His burial must be seen to, his proper 
 burial ; and we shall commit him to his final resting-place, with 
 a prayer for mercy, though cut off in the very acting of his 
 miserable crime. Gideon Badger. Gideon Badger, my son. 
 
BORDER BEAGLES 
 
 give tkanks to God this night that my timely warning to the 
 against this man severed the association between ye, else it 
 might have ripened into an intimacy with the same sins on 
 thy part, and may have been followed by a death to thee no 
 less sudden than it has been to him a death wi^out repent 
 ance and without hope. Truly, thy tidings, Walter Rawlins, 
 are full of terror. This is an awful visitation. In the midst 
 of life we are in death. We know not the hour, yet we must 
 obey the summons, however sudden. This miserable creature 
 well that he hath no parent to sorrow for his sudden smiting, 
 and his unatoned sins ; he hath no hope of sympathy and sor 
 row from us the law of God and the law of man command us 
 otherwise. We are called upon to exult in the death of the 
 evildoer, to rejoice in the downfall of sin but we must put 
 the dead out of our sight. Earth to earth, dust to dust ; and it 
 differs not though the earth be that of the sinner. We are all 
 sinners, even when we are best ; redeemed through grace and 
 mercy, and not because of our own righteousness. Let us go 
 forth and put our brother in sin into the grave, with a prayer 
 for mercy to him and to ourselves. Order you the hands to 
 gether, Gideon Badger, and bid them provide themselves with 
 torches. Let Timothy and Ephraim bring pick and spade, that 
 we may not waste precious time." 
 
 Gideon Badger went slowly to the performance of this duty, 
 and some time elapsed before the party was in readiness. 
 Leaving his guests in charge of his niece, Rachel, of whom the 
 garrulous Walter Rawlins has permitted us to know something 
 already, Mr. Badger mounted his steed, a heavy, English-built 
 animal, sturdy, and slow, and solemn, like himself, and set forth 
 with all the phlegmatic deliberation of manner which distin 
 guished the ancient puritan going forth to battle. There were 
 not wanting other matters to strengthen this similitude. He 
 carried a pair of wide-mouthed iron horse-pistols at his saddle 
 bow, a pair which he had borne with him into battle when, in 
 his younger days, he followed the banner of Andrew Jackson. 
 among the mounted men of Coffee s brigade, and went down 
 from Tennessee to the fierce and close combats on the Talla- 
 poosa. Nor did he fbrget to take with him on this occasion the 
 knotted hickory, a massive clul). Almost of the thickness of 1m 
 
THE RIGHTEOUS ELDER. 19$ 
 
 wrist, which, as the supposed characteristic of a hero whom <ie 
 regarded with a large degree of veneration, he had made his 
 own inseparable companion, not simply in times of danger, but 
 on all occasions. 
 
 "And danger," said the old rnethodist, defending the pro 
 priety of this practice, " is even like sin, a thing of all occa 
 sions. The man of wisdom borrows his lessons from the 
 Christian, and goes armed and ready at all times for the enemy 
 There is no telling at what moment we may meet with him, 
 nor iii what shape ; whether he shall appear as the wild beast 
 of the wilderness, or as the wretched robber, seeking for your 
 substance. Therefore, I say to you, be ye always ready." 
 
 He was attended by his son Gideon, and Walter Rawlins, 
 both equally well-armed with himself, and followed by some 
 six or eight negro men, his entire force of males, some of them 
 bearing ligktwood torches, and the rest, the necessary imple 
 ments for breaking the mould, and preparing the place of inter 
 ment. They traversed the path in silence and without inter 
 ruption, but, to the astonishment of all, the dead robber was no 
 where to be found. The traces of the conflict were numerous 
 the blood lay in clotted masses on the sand and leaves; but 
 neither on the spot where he had been described as having 
 fallen, nor in the immediately contiguous bushes of the forest 
 could they find traces of his mode of disappearance. 
 
 " How know you that his wounds were death-wounds, Wai 
 ter Rawlins ?" demanded the methodist. " May it not be tha 
 he hath feigned death while ye were present, having no seriou? 
 hurt, and hath stolen away from the place of battle, the moinenv 
 ye had all gone from sight ?" 
 
 " If he did," replied Rawlins with a hearty laugh, " he wat 
 able to do with less brains than any man I ever heard tell of 
 before. But there s no danger of that ; his skull was crunched 
 by the bullet, and a piece of it was wanting clean blown off 
 as large as a table-spoon. Besides, I felt at his heart more 
 than once, while I was searching his pockets, for I didn t want 
 that a dead man even should open his eyes and catch me strip 
 ping him. The beat was all gone out of his breast, be.fore 1 
 come up from chasing his brother rascals." 
 
 " Verily, Walter, thou couldst not have chased them to a 
 
200 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 great distance, for they have surely returner! to his assistance, 
 arid it is by their help that he hath been taken away." 
 
 " Like enough, sir ; but I did give em a chase, and a mighty 
 close one for the time I took about it. I wasn t going to run 
 em fifty miles, when dark was coming on, and my company 
 was waiting for me in the open road. Besides, there was little 
 chance, if I didn t tree em at the first jump, that I should find 
 em, me one only, in a close thicket like that. That canebrako 
 would hide a hundred rascals from the most honest nose among 
 us all." 
 
 " It needs not that we should speak longer in this idle fash 
 ion : thou hast too great a vanity of thy speech, Walter Raw- 
 lins. It is a sin in youth to multiply words, having neither ex 
 perience nor thinking to make them stable and of fitting effect. 
 Thou shouldst better prefer to hear the language of wisdom, in 
 the counsels of age. Years must pass over thee, and thou must 
 clothe thyself in holiest meditation, even as with a shrouding 
 garment, which shall wrap thee in from all worldly shows and 
 affinities, before it will be thy right, or in any wise becoming in 
 thee, to speak freely in the presence of men, or confidently 
 among their counsels. I will speak more to thee of this sub 
 ject on the way homeward. Turn thy horse, therefore, which 
 improperly crosseth the path, so that I may advance before 
 thee. It is, perhaps, well that we are not required to perform 
 this awful ceremony of committing dust to dust. Let the dead 
 bury the dead ; these are the written words, which truly signify 
 that the wicked should take upon themselves the task of put 
 ting their fellow-sinners from sight. Yet, young men, the cere 
 mony of human burial is not an unfitting spectacle for the 
 young and erring like yourselves; and had these wretched peo 
 ple left us the task of committing their slain comrade to the 
 earth, I should have striven to fill your minds with the goodly 
 workings of religious truth. Ye should have had ample premo 
 nition of the fate of wickedness, so that your hearts might have 
 been touched in season, and your souls warned with a righteous 
 fear, which should have moved you in all haste to fly from the 
 wrath which is to come. Nay, there is yet time for this, and, 
 God willing, joung men, this shall be the subject of our evening 
 exhortation, ere we seek our rest this night." 
 
THE RIGHTEOUS ELDER. 201 
 
 An audible groan burst from tbe lips of Gideon Badger, 
 which the father ascribed naturally enough to the solemn and 
 sad course of meditation which his words had inspired in the 
 breast of the youth. The less rigid mind of Walter Rawlins 
 referred it to a more simple, and perhaps equally natural cause 
 the terror which such a threat as that of the father was 
 always calculated to awaken in his own bosom, seemed quite 
 sufficient to justify the audibly-expressed tribulation of Gideon. 
 If he suspected the latter of a little hypocrisy, he gave him 
 credit, at least, for a certain degree of sympathy with himself 
 in the unfavorable estimate which he had made of the elder s 
 solemn outpourings the chief objection to which, in his mind, 
 consisted in the fact that they occupied time which could be 
 much more pleasantly disposed of, in communion with one 
 whose discourse, if less saintly, was far more sweet, and whose 
 periods were uttered with less elaborate lips, and closed some 
 times with far more pleasant emphasis. 
 
 " But if the disappearance of this slain robber relieves us of 
 one duty, Walter Rawlins," continued the old man in a differ 
 ent strain of thought, " it seems to impress upon us the necessity 
 of other duties, no less painful, and, perhaps, more full of 
 trouble and danger. It is clear that the companions of this 
 robber bear the name of legion they are many, since they 
 attack the traveller in troops and squadrons they are bold, 
 since they attack him in the broad daylight, and near unto the 
 very foot of Zion s Hill nor doth their boldness appear less 
 remarkable from the fact that they have scarcely been driven 
 from their prey, with the loss of one slain from their number, 
 before they return to the spot and carry him away in safety. 
 This conduct betokeneth the insolence of numbers. Doubtless, 
 they came hither after your departure, with a force increased 
 sufficiently to enable them to avenge their loss. The madness of 
 wickedness would not stop even at the wanton and useless repeti 
 tion of their crime. All this calleth loudly for exertion among 
 the true peacemakers, the righteous, and well-wishing among 
 mankind ; and for the suppression of these evil-doers, the neigh- 
 bDrs must be stirred up into activity and wrath. Rumors have 
 reached me before this, of a gathering of evil men along this 
 heathen river ; and now, when it cometh so nearly to our own 
 
 9* 
 
- 202 KORDKIJ BEACLES. 
 
 doors, it behooveth me as a magistrate under an earthly ruler 
 no less than as one commissioned by the Most High, to sear^-li 
 into this sin, with keen eyes and a sleepless spirit.- Of this \ve 
 must have speech and counsel to-morrow, giving our prayerful 
 application to the Lord Jesus ere we lie down to-night, that the 
 right wisdom may fill our understandings, so that we fall upon 
 the fitting purpose, and take our way along the only path. Bid 
 the hands follow, Gideon Badger they loiter idly with their 
 torches, and their voices swell into unruly sounds that are 
 scarcely seemly in this solemn hour." 
 
 They had scarcely gone from sight, when three men, well 
 armed, emerged from the edge of the swamp thicket 
 
 " By the Dog Shadow of Loosa-Chitta," said one whose voice 
 announced no other person than our old acquaintance, Saxon, 
 " Badger deals in no small shot ; he s a hundred pound parson, 
 and I shall owe him large acknowledgments when next I find 
 it needful to become ghostly and unctuous. That Gideon is a 
 precious rascal ; he groaned most piteously, as if no river could 
 wash the salt savor and the true leaven out of him. Yet you 
 tell me he scampered off rather fast, Burritt ?" 
 
 " Ay, as fast as two slender shanks could carry a small body 
 and a frightened heart. We put him at the easiest business 
 only to hold the horses while Weston grappled the old man, 
 and I looked for the cash. With the first sound of the enemy, 
 he was off." 
 
 "And had this old man any cash ?" 
 
 " I m afraid not, or he hid it too snugly for us to find it in a 
 hurry. The watch was all I brought off, and that I pulled from 
 the daughter s side almost without her knowing it." 
 
 " Well, say nothing reproachfully of Gideon ; coward or not, 
 he is of too much use to us, while his father lives, to suffer us 
 to complain of his little deficiencies. The old man is no cow 
 ard, that is clear, and would go as heartily into a fight as he 
 goes into a sermon. He would fight like a bull-dog. The 
 young man who gave Weston his quietus you are sure you 
 shot him ?" 
 
 " If aim was ever good, mine was upon his breast-button." 
 
 " Well, it is, perhaps, quite as well that it is all over. If he s 
 dead it s one out of the way that I suspect would have been 
 
CONFERENCE BETWEEN WHITE AND BLACK. 203 
 
 very troublesome to us ; if not, as old Badger would tell you, 
 you have not the heavier sin to answer for. But, dead or alive, 
 it is still important that we should see what papers he carries ; 
 we must see what beagles are down in the governor s catalogue 
 Gideon may get these papers without much risk ; and when 
 there s no danger, there need be little fear. We must summon 
 him to-night." 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 A GENUINE WOMAN AFTER A NATURAL FASHION THE CON 
 FERENCE BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE. 
 
 " A fair, young, modest damsel I did meet ; 
 She seemed to all a dove, when I passed by, 
 And I to all a raven. * THOMAS Di 
 
 THAT night, Gideon Badger encountered Rachel Morrison, 
 his cousin, as she wandered forth into the shady grove of forest- 
 trees, which were allowed to remain at the clearing, and con 
 ducted from the house into the garden. The youth had evi 
 dently placed himself in waiting, as he sprang from the deep 
 shadow of an oak at her approach, and presented himself before 
 her. She started at sight of him, with a feeling of mixed indig 
 nation and surprise. Her form, rather inclining to be tall and 
 masculine, seemed to rise in majesty beyond its wont, the mo 
 ment she recovered from her partial surprise ; and the tones of 
 her voice, and the words she used, at once indicated a condition 
 of quasi warfare between them. 
 
 " Why will you still pursue, still oppress me in this manner, 
 Gideon Badger ?" 
 
 "Why will you still seek to avoid me in this manner, Rachel 
 Morrison ?" was his reply. 
 
 " If it be true that I seek to avoid you, you, as a man, should 
 acorn to pursue me. Your own pride should preserve me from 
 your persecution, even if your sense of generosity failed you, 
 Will you not suffer me to pass ?" 
 
204 BORDEL BEAGLES. 
 
 "No! not yet not for a while! I would speak furthei 
 with you, Rachel, and you must bear with my persecutions t 
 little longer, for a very good reason." 
 
 " Let me know the reason, Gideon Badger ; and if it be a 
 good one, rest assured that I will remain and hear you without 
 reluctance. Until then, you must forgive me if I say I hear 
 you with little pleasure." 
 
 " I doubt not that, Rachel," returned the young man gloomily, 
 " there is another whose speech and presence have ever given 
 you more pleasure than mine. It is reason enough why you 
 should remain, that you can not so easily escape, and that I am 
 resolved that you shall hear me ; and yet, I would that you 
 were more yielding to other reasons, which are enough, not 
 only to persuade you to stay and hear, but to do so with pleas 
 ure and content." 
 
 "I know not these, Gideon I would that I did! Heaven 
 knows how willingly I should incline my ears to the words of 
 one so dear to my uncle as yourself ! But you well know what 
 better reasons I have for distrusting your speech and avoiding 
 your company." 
 
 " By heavens, Rachel, but you do me wrong ! Because of 
 one error one crime, if it please you so to call it am I to 
 forfeit all your regard, all indulgence, all hope? You know 
 that I have broken off from all intimacy with the man Furst. 
 From that moment when you discovered our connection, and 
 the offence of which we were guilty, I promised you, and my 
 promise has been kept rigidly." 
 
 " And yet, Gideon, the fate of another of your intimates 
 alarms me this unhappy man, Weston !" 
 
 " Rachel, Rachel ! can it be that you would couple me with 
 that robber ? Can you suppose me lost to all reason, as well as 
 to all religion ? Can it be that you hold me a confederate of 
 this unhappy wretch, when you know that I have not been 
 seen with him for months ?" 
 
 "You have!" was her stern and startling reply, to the warm 
 and earnest asseverations of the youth, given with all tLe seem 
 ing unaffectedness of truth. " You have been seen with him, 
 Gideon, within three weeks." 
 
 " Ha ! who says it ? how know you ?" 
 
CONFERENCE BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE. 206 
 
 " Mother Kerrison saw you with him at the ferry, three weeks 
 ago." 
 
 " Pshaw ! Rachel, how anxious must you be to find out fault? 
 in me, when you fall upon such idle tales as these. For that 
 matter, I have seen the man almost weekly every month in the 
 past year, but we have had no intimacy, no communion ogether 
 we have been in no wise associated." 
 
 " Gideon, there again I must oppose the testimony of a third 
 person to your own. Who caught those fish which you brought 
 home with you last Saturday was a week ?" 
 
 A bitter scowl passed over the countenance of the youth as 
 he replied : 
 
 44 Truly, Rachel, you are in no lack of spies upon my actions. 
 I suppose it will be in vain to deny that they were caught by 
 Weston." 
 
 " It will, indeed, be vain to deny it, Gideon, and my good 
 reasons for seeking to avoid you, arise from your having done 
 so already. Your father was under the persuasion that you 
 caught them by your own hands." 
 
 " I never told him so," said the young man hastily. 
 
 " No ; but your words justified his belief that such was the 
 case, and he spoke of your success in fishing to your own ears, 
 and you did not seek to set him right." 
 
 " And I am successful in fishing, Rachel, and his compliments 
 were just enough ; as for my statement misleading him, I can 
 only say that I never intended it should. But you know, I see, 
 that the fish were bought from Weston." 
 
 " I know that you got them from him, but I heard that they 
 were given to you." 
 
 " Now, in the name of all that is precious in a spy, what old 
 woman could have told you this 7 Mother Kerrison, again?" 
 
 " It was, indeed, no other." 
 
 " That old hag ought to be carted through a cane-brake, and 
 drawn through the bog. The fish were bought with money, 
 Bachel Morrison, and I trust there s no more harm in buying 
 fish from a man that turns out to be a rogue, than in buying 
 them from the best citizen in the county. That you hate me, 
 Rachel, is sufficiently clear from the collection of authorities 
 and arguments which you have got together against me." 
 
206 BORDER BEAGLbb. 
 
 " Gideon, God knows, and you ought to know, that I have 
 had, in the kindness of your father to the poor orphan of his 
 brother s wife, every reason to m.ike me try to love and to 
 esteem you ; and I know, however little you may be disposed 
 to believe it, how much I have tried to love you. But you 
 have not suffered me to do this. Your own wilfulness, your 
 harshness shall I say your cold, calculating artfulness of con 
 duct in relation to your father, myself, and others but your 
 father chiefly have baffled the desires of my heart. I can 
 not love, I can not honor you nay, I can not look on you 
 without shrinking and shuddering when I know how prone 
 you have shown yourself to speak the thing which is not, and 
 to do the thing which you are commanded by God and man 
 not to do. But, if these reasons were not wanting, Gideon, to 
 make me desirous to shun you, there were others, sufficient for 
 my justification, in your caprice and violence of temper. You 
 have striven to use me as your plaything ; you have tried to 
 abuse my ignorance to take advantage of me as a child; and 
 when you hav^ failed in this, you have railed at me in ruffian 
 ly terms, as if I, too, were a ruffian. It were conclusive against 
 your claim to manliness, that you have pursued this course of 
 conduct, even while I have been in your father s house, pro 
 tected by his favor, and almost dependent on his bounty. Be 
 assured, Gideon Badger, that it was in my necessity, only, that 
 I have remained and endured this treatment in silence. I could 
 not have done so, had the dwelling of any other relative been 
 open to my entrance, where I might have escaped such perse 
 cution." 
 
 " Ay, ay ! Rachel Morrison, this is all very strong, and very 
 emphatic," said the youth, with mocking bitterness ; " it is, as 
 the old man, my venerable father, would call it, a searching 
 and soul-harrowing discourse; but it may be that you have 
 still left unspoken some of the grounds which induced your 
 hatred of Gideon Badger. " 
 
 " I hate you not, Gideon," said the maiden, mournfully. 
 " Alas ! it is my great sorrow that you will not suffer me to 
 love you." 
 
 " Nay, nay, Rachel ! these sounds do not delude me. As I 
 was saying, some of your reasons for rating me so humbly io 
 
CONFEKENCE BETWEEN - LACK AND WHITE. 207 
 
 scornfully, should be the word were unexpressed. You love 
 another, Rachel Morrison ; you love this swaggering fellow, 
 Rawlins ; deny it, if you can." 
 
 " I seek not to deny it, Gideon." 
 
 "It were inlfein to do so. I have seen you together; your 
 heads and hands mingling; your forms linked ay, you may 
 well shrink and blush while I say it, Rachel Morrison your 
 mutual lips glued to each other, as if they were never more des 
 tined to undergo separation." 
 
 The maiden did blush at the description of those scenes of 
 secret tenderness which she had fancied utterly unseen by any 
 eyes but those of Heaven, and which, in the purity of her heart 
 and its emotions, she had neither shame nor scruple that Heaven 
 should behold; but when her accuser spoke of her blushes, and 
 counselled her to shame, her lofty spirit rose in majesty, her 
 heart swelled with the pride of innocence, her form dilated in 
 towering beauty, and she retorted the insolence of the speaker 
 with well-deserved scorn. 
 
 " And if I blush, Gideon Badger, at these scenes, it is not 
 because they have been witnessed, but that such as you should 
 have witnessed them. You, without sympathy for truth or 
 virtue, would only mock the sincere heart by your jest, or 
 offend it by your presence. A noble witness had gone from the 
 spot in silence, and in his secret soul had locked up the remem 
 brance of what his eyes had beheld unwittingly. Certainly, lie 
 would never have labored as you have done, to make a woman 
 regret that she had yielded herself to those feelings which, 
 while they are pure in the sight of God, should be held no less 
 sacred in the sight of man. To Walter Rawlins I am pledged 
 betrothed it needs but the sanction of religion to make us 
 one. We are already one in spirit and in truth with God s 
 blessing we shall soon be one in law." 
 
 "Never, never!" cried the youth impetuously, with choking 
 accents, and the fierce gesticulation of one threatening an enemy. 
 " Hear me, Rachel Morrison, you shall never wed this man. 
 One or both of us shall first perish. I hate him now, as I have 
 ever hated him, but with a hatred that will no longer brood and 
 slumber over baffled hopes, and ineffectual purposes. If you 
 resolve as you declare, then shall my equal resolution follow 
 
208 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 hard upon your declaration. Be sure that no peace which i 
 can disturb shall dwell with you no hope that I can banish 
 shall warm your dwelling no happiness follow your marriage 
 with this man. Nay, there shall be no security. I will pursue 
 you to the uttermost ends of the earth, but I*frill wrest you 
 from his grasp ; I will pursue him to the uttermost ends of the 
 earth, but I will paralyze his embrace ; and, if I can not triumph 
 in love, at least I will do so in the exercise of the most despotic 
 hate. You know what I can do you know my powers and my 
 passions. Beware how you drive me to desperation beware 
 how you compel me to hate, when you know how heartily I 
 can love." 
 
 " And know me also," replied the woman with tremuloas but 
 measured and subdued accents, " know, Gideon Badger, tha* 
 you can no more terrify Rachel Morrison than yoU can terrify 
 the man who is pledged to be her husband. In God is my 
 trust, and with a proper confidence in his power to save, I biu, 
 defiance to all your powers to wrong and to destroy. He Lath 
 strengthened me to bear with many afflictions, with poverty, 
 with evil tongues even with dangers that might have stricken 
 and destroyed he will sustain me in flight, he will defend me 
 against the pursuer, even if earthly powers should not avail for 
 my protection. Yet, let me warn you, Gideon Badger, against 
 this evil resolution. A word from me to Walter Rawlins, nr-d 
 his foot were upon your neck the instant after it was spoken." 
 
 " What ! would you so soon threaten me with your bully, 
 Rachel Morrison? But I fear him not " 
 
 " Enough !" she exclaimed, interrupting the further cuurse of 
 his insolent speech "let us part, Gideon. You can say noth 
 ing more that can move me now." 
 
 "Nay, Rachel you madden me. Why provoke me thus 
 when you know my passions?" 
 
 " Your passions shall never be my tyrants, Gideon Badger ; 
 and you, who know so well how to conceal them in the presence 
 of your father, exhibit but a poor sort of manliness when you 
 refuse to restrain them in the presence of a woman. Let us 
 separate, since it seems impossible for you to forbear language 
 which it gives me pain to hear. Let us separate, but not in 
 anger. I forgive you, Gideon : and if there be one thing more 
 
CONFERENCE BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE. 208 
 
 productive than another of sorrow in my heart, it is that you 
 should so sinfully and perversely cast your good mind and better 
 nature beneath the trampling foot of passions which first de 
 grade and afterward destroy. Why, Gideon, why son of my 
 second father why will you profligately cast away the noblest 
 gift of God, the noble reason, and madden thus in a hopeless 
 pursuit of that which it is beyond your power to procure ?" 
 
 " Be not certain of that ! It is not beyond my power, Rachel 
 Morrison once more I tell you, you shall never wed this man." 
 
 " What mean you ? Twice, Gideon, have you spoken in this 
 strange, wild manner. Do you threaten his life or mine ? Can 
 it be that you mean to murder us ?" 
 
 " Murder, indeed !" he responded with a hollow laugh. " Who 
 said that? Not I, Rachel, not I your fancy is at work, and 
 upon this slender stock you will get up a pretty tale before 
 morning. No ! no ! I have no design to murder I have no 
 idea of shedding blood ; but ha !" 
 
 The bay of the beagle arose faintly from the forest, swelled 
 over the garden, and tremblingly fell upon their ears through 
 the umbrageous tree-tops that sheltered them in their conference. 
 A pause ensued, broken by neither for an instant. He then 
 continued : 
 
 "Enough for warning, Rachel enough. You will think 
 upon it and be wise. You know it is the wish of my father that 
 you should be my wife, and my own love should move you to 
 yield willingly to his wishes." 
 
 " Your love, Gideon Badger ! Speak of the love of the storm 
 for the flower which it rends in its rude embrace; speak of 
 the love of the ocean for the poor bark which it swallows up ; 
 speak of anything which makes a sport, a victim, of the ob 
 ject which it destroys, and you then speak of your love for me. 
 Your passions, not your love, are busy in all this. It is they 
 who would be my master, as they are your own. But they never 
 shall. I will convince you, Gideon, though I weep for you with 
 a sad sickness of heart all the while, that when you are most 
 ungovernable in your rage, I can be calm and unmoved by your 
 fury j when you are most angry, I shall be least moved ; and 
 when, to others and to yourself, you seem most fearful, then 
 hall you behold the orphan of your father s bounty most fear- 
 
210 
 
 .Lhs>. 
 
 less and secure. I praise God that he has given me a strength 
 of soul, which enables me, whatever may be the terror and the 
 danger, to keep in the way which my heart tells me is right. 
 With this consciousness, you can not affright me, you can no 
 more drive me from my resolution, than you can persuade me 
 from the truth." 
 
 " You speak boldly, but you know me not. The time will 
 come when you shall know more. But not yet not now. 
 Hark ! I hear the whistle of your lover he is summoning you 
 to your old place of meeting. Make the most of your time, 
 Rachel Morrison, for, by the dim lights that look down upon 
 your endearments, they are destined not to last." 
 
 In another instant the maiden, stunned and oppressed with 
 painful emotions and troubling fears, found herself utterly alone. 
 Slowly she made her way to the garden, where, in a little time, 
 she was joined by her lover. Gideon Badger, meanwhile, leap 
 ing the little worm-fence that ran along the lower limits of the 
 enclosure, was lost from view in the forest, where his own voice, 
 a moment after the woods had enshrouded him, might have been 
 heard in responsive echoes to those mysterious bay ings of the 
 beagle which had summoned him to a meeting of his confederates. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE BIGID MAGISTRATE HOW TO BADGER BEAGLES AND 
 SNARE POXES. 
 
 "Gentlemen have you provided me here half-a-dozen sufficient menf" 
 
 SHAKSPERK. 
 
 WITH the dawn of the day following, the traveller, Wilson, 
 with his two daughters, prepared to resume their journey. The 
 impatience of this gentleman seemed to grow with egch moment 
 of delay, and the protracted exhortations of the hospitable 
 rnethodist, who proved no less liberal of his counsel than he had 
 shown himself of his meat, contributed to heat his impatience 
 into fever. Still, though perhaps rather from the promptings 
 of his eldest daughter than the instigations of his own heart, he 
 
THE RIGID MAGISTRATE. 211 
 
 took somo pains to assure himself of the favorable condition of 
 the young man who had been wounded in succoring him ; and 
 did not resolve upon his journey, or, at least, did not commence 
 his visible preparations for it, until he learned from the sober 
 report of Badger, and the no less credible but less solemn state 
 ments of Rawlins, that Verrion s hurts were not such as could 
 detain him more than a day in his chamber. This ascertained, 
 he bade adieu to Zion s Hill and his friendly entertainers, and 
 by the time the sun had fairly purpled the green tops of the 
 forest, he was speeding fast along the by-road which conducted 
 to Badger s, and which he had taken the night before with so 
 much unwillingness, and so little grace. 
 
 It was some hours after his departure, before Vernon awa 
 kened from the deep sleep into which he had been thrown by 
 the opiate which had been given him the night before. Nor 
 could he be said to have awakened to perfect consciousness 
 because he awakened to the light. The stupifying effect of thfi 
 laudanum benumbed his energies, and seemed to confuse hia 
 faculties of thought and observation. A sort of dreamy con 
 sciousness of what had taken place, in which all things floated 
 incoherently and indistinctly before his mental vision, disturbed 
 the certainty of his conceptions ; and it was only by the aid of 
 Rawlins, who sat beside his couch when his eyes opened, that 
 he recovered the knowledge of the events which had taken 
 place the afternoon before. The stiffness of his wounded limb, 
 and a trembling and slightly sore sensation about the spote 
 which were hurt, confirmed so much of the particulars as related 
 to his own interest in the conflict ; and, gradually he was re 
 minded of other circumstances, which it seemed to him no less 
 important that he should know. 
 
 He had an indistinct recollection of a bright vision of beauty 
 which had hung for a few moments above his eyes a vision 
 such as had been vouchsafed him more than once before, in a 
 dream no less sweet and inspiriting, though scarcely so distinct 
 as that which had been more recent. Then came the passing 
 consciousness that had possessed him in the moment when he 
 swooned away, of his having found the person of the escaping 
 criminal whom he sought on the part of his benefactor. With 
 this returning conviction, his faculties grew more assured and 
 
212 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 industrious, and, cautiously concealing his great interest in th6 
 issue of his inquiry, he proceeded to examine his companion 
 on the subject of the party rescued. 
 
 This examination tended somewhat to confirm the impression 
 which he had received the evening before, that William Mait- 
 land actually stood before him, in the person of the man whom 
 he had rescued ; the description of his person, as given him by 
 Bawlins, strengthened this belief. The mere difference of 
 name was a small and trivial obstacle, and one readily over 
 come by a reference to the ease with which a name might be 
 changed, where the party was unknown ; and the obvious policy 
 of one flying from justice, to effect this change in order to 
 avoid detection. The greater objection to his conviction lay in 
 the two daughters, by whom Wilson was accompanied. The 
 elder was already a woman grown the other, nearly in her 
 teens, and the description of Carter had led him to expect mere 
 children in the daughters of Maitland. 
 
 This difficulty, however, upon reflection, seemed, to the san 
 guine mind of Vernon, scarcely less trivial than that of the 
 name. Carter spoke of the children as he had known them, 
 and probably with some reference to his own greater age ; and 
 as Vernon threw back his thoughts to the period when Maitland 
 practised his treachery upon his friend, and married Ellen 
 Taylor, the probabilities gained strength, as he found that, 
 allowing them to have had children within a reasonable space 
 of time after marriage, those children might very well be six 
 teen or seventeen, the apparent age of the eldest daughter of 
 the traveller. But if this conclusion gave him pleasure in one 
 respect, as it satisfied him that the means of retrieving the 
 fortunes and the credit of his patron were almost in his grasp, 
 he, singularly enough, felt some reluctance to pursue them, 
 when he thought of the misery and disgrace which exposure 
 of the father would bring upon the lovely woman, his daughter 
 whose first glance had so impressed itself upon his fancy. 
 
 The matter would have seemed easy enough to provide for the 
 children, as such, who, at the tender years of childhood, could 
 not well have been conscious of the shame which would neces 
 sarily follow the detection of the father. But the case became 
 wonderfully different and diilicuit when the child was a woman 
 
THE RIGID MAGISTRATE. 
 
 --and such a woman having, without doabt sensibilities 
 /ceen and quickening, such as are proper to her sex ; and a 
 consciousness of shame corresponding with that intelligence, 
 which, without any other knowledge than lay in his own en 
 dowing fancy, he assumed must belong to such lovely and 
 speaking features, as those which looked down upon him in his 
 moments of lapsing consciousness. How could he pursue, with 
 out relenting, the father of such a woman ? how could he, as 
 the stern minister of justice in fact, the sheriff s agent, with a 
 special power to place fetters upon his limbs how could he 
 drag that old man, felon though he was, from the presence of 
 that daughter? He felt that she would rise between him and 
 his victim the rebuking, the imploring, the preserving angel; 
 that her tears would be his reproach ; her -sorrows, his sentence 
 of condemnation ; and he felt, even then, that her hate to the 
 oppressor of her father, would be a something beyond his best 
 ability to bear. But when, on the other hand, he thought of 
 Carter his patron, his only father the sterner commands of 
 duty the earnest voice of soliciting gratitude spoke another 
 language to his better judgment. 
 
 " I must do my duty," he murmured to himself as he strove 
 feebly to rise from the couch ; " it must be done. Rawfins, my 
 good fellow, help me to put myself in trim, for I feel very stiff 
 and stupid. I must get up : I must see this gentleman." 
 
 " What gentleman ?" said Rawlins 
 
 " Mr. Wilson ; the gentleman we helped yesterday. Did 
 you not tell me that he came with us that he brought me 
 here I" 
 
 " Ay, but he cleared out by sunrise this morning. He was 
 in a monstrous hurry to be off, and would have gone before 
 daylight, if t wasn t for that angel creature, his daughter. She 
 told him mighty plain that twouldn t do for them to go till the) 
 know d that you were safe." 
 
 " Ha ! Did she say that ?" 
 
 " I heard her with my own ears, though she didn t know I 
 was nigh. I was coming in at the entry-door leading to the 
 shed, and her back was to me all the time. She said a good 
 deal more which I couldn t make cut, but I understood enough 
 v x> see that she was blaming him for his hard-hearted way nf 
 
214 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 making thanks for the help he got from us not to speak of 
 my help in the business, for it was mostly yours. Yet she didn t 
 leave me out, she spoke to me herself about it, and told me 
 how her father owed everything to us, and how I must tell you 
 this when you got better. Well, they waited, as she said they 
 must, till Billy Badger felt your pulse, and looked at your face 
 and he looked long enough and felt long enough to have an 
 swered for all the sick men in Massissippi. When he told them 
 that you d do well enough without any more doctoring, I never 
 saw a girl more relieved. She didn t say anything then, but tied 
 the bonnet on her sister, and went jist as the old gentleman told 
 her ; but I saw a big drop in her eyes as she was going, and her 
 last words were to me, remembering me to tell you what she said, 
 and how sorry she. was that her father s business made him 
 hurry away, so that he couldn t say for himself how much they 
 thanked you. She s a most notable fine girl, I m thinking, as 
 ever I looked upon." 
 
 Vernon derived a greater degree of gratification from this de 
 tail of his companion, than the long, rambling sentences of Raw- 
 lins were usually apt to afford him. But though he lingered 
 over the narrative with a silent pleasure, he did not forego his 
 purpose of rising from his couch of inactivity, and of pursuing 
 the task which he had too deliberately and resolutely underta 
 ken to forego without shame. The rapid haste of Wilson tended 
 to confirm him in the belief that it was Maitland that he pur 
 sued ; and when he recollected the liberal and large extent of 
 the commission which had been entrusted to his hands, the dis 
 cretion which it empowered him to exercise in the case of the 
 absconding criminal, and the ease with which, under its indul 
 gent privileges, he might obtain his object without any public 
 exposure of the victim nay, even without a revelation of the 
 crime to the innocent daughter of the criminal he found him 
 self strengthened for the duty, and eager once more for its re 
 sumption. But he rose with some increase of pain. The limb 
 which, in his quiescent state, was tolerably easy, now throbbed 
 painfully with the weight and pressure of his frame upon it; 
 and having, with the assistance of his friend Ruwlins, reached 
 the hall where the family were assembled, he found himself com 
 pelled to appropriate the calico-covered sofa to its whole extent, 
 
THE RIGID MAGISTRATE 215 
 
 in the hope to regain that position of quiet which he nad found 
 before in his couch. 
 
 In this effort, and while enjoying the returning ease which it 
 brought him, he was no doubt greatly strengthened and assisted 
 by the consoling review of his situation, and the circumstances 
 attending it, which his ghostly landlord, in his own measured 
 manner, presented to his mind. According to this venerable 
 eider, his hurt was a subject of self-congratulation, which should 
 not be suffered to escape his own commentary. He was one of 
 those who, regarding evils as masked benefits, looked upon Ver- 
 non as particularly fortunate in the favor of Providence, and 
 rated the extent of his good by the degree of dissatisfaction and 
 impatience which the victim displayed beneath it. Having ex 
 hausted all the proverbial forms of biblical and mere moral 
 expression on the subject, he proceeded to a display of his own 
 ixperience ; and, if his judgment might have been regarded as 
 squally valuable with his ftfith, it would have appeared con 
 vincing enough to his hearers that lie had never yet suffered an 
 affliction which had not in its ultimate consequences been a real 
 Messing, infinitely beyond any other which, in its absence, might 
 have fallen to his lot. 
 
 His voluminous history, fortunately for Vernon, had its own 
 interest, apart from the savory Christian deductions which the 
 narrator never failed to make from all its leading details ; and 
 if the youth was not greatly enlightened and strengthened in 
 moral respects by what he heard, he was certainly edified, 
 amused, and sometimes excited, by adventures on "field and 
 flood," in forest and prairie, in which, like one half of the set 
 tlers of Mississippi, William Badger had proved the possession 
 of a manly soul and strength, contending with savage beasts 
 and forests, and not unfrequently with more savage men. But 
 for these details, which gave action and vitality to the old man s 
 prosing, Vernon might have made his retreat in utter despera 
 tion ; but he bore it with becoming fortitude, until relieved by 
 more exciting details, which put a stop to those of the metho 
 dic, and sent all parties to new subjects of cogitation and remark. 
 
 The dinner hour had arrived, and the family had already 
 taken their places around the table ; Rachel presiding, opposite 
 to the uncle; on one hand, Rawlins, on the other, Gideon 
 
216 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 Badger, as demure, while in the presence of the fattier, as the 
 most worthy of the congregation. Vernon was indulged with a 
 small table beside the sofa on which he lay, upon which was 
 placed some thin soup and a few well-boiled fragments of chick 
 en, such being thought the least hurtful diet for an invalid. Wil 
 liam Badger had already commenced that interminable grace 
 before meat, which Rawlins, after the fashion of his own wit, 
 had styled "the dinner cooler," when a bustle was heard at the 
 door, as of one about to enter, and the tones of a voice which 
 Rawlins immediately recognised as that of Edward Mabry, the 
 youth whose fight with, and pursuit of, young Horsey, ha* 
 already been recorded. 
 
 " It s Edward Mabry," said Rawlins, looking up from his 
 plate as he perceived from the pause which William Badger 
 made in his grace, that the interruption had reached his ears. 
 But, as if resolved that no intrusion ought to put a stop to the 
 wholesome preliminary services in* which he was engaged, with 
 a devotedness which most persons of good appetite would have 
 preferred paying to the dinner itself, he resumed his prayer 
 just where it had been arrested : 
 
 " Thy divine countenance, Lord Jesus Christ, and sanctify 
 to us the food which is now before us " and so he proceeded 
 to the end, without further notice of the events going on around 
 him, though, in the meanwhile, Edward Mabry, with more 
 haste than was consistent, either with the solemn visage, rigid 
 habits, or grave ceremony of the host, rushed into the apartment. 
 
 His audacity did not venture to go farther when he found in 
 what manner the venerable elder was engaged ; and standing 
 apart, with hat in hand, he waited, breathless and impatient, 
 until the grace, which seemed to expand even beyond its ordi 
 nary limits, was brought to the conclusion. The " amen" was 
 scarcely uttered before the torrent burst its barriers. 
 
 "Mr. Badger, Mr. Badger," said the young man, "I come for 
 a warrant take up a villain enough to hang him shall do 
 it. Must grant a warrant, and send Harvey out this very even 
 ing. Only sorry I didn t come to you before. But it s not too 
 late never too late to hang a rascal, and a warrant this even 
 ing will answer a warrant to Harvey. I m ready to sweat 
 ag in him any moment." 
 
THE RIGID MAGISTRATE. 217 
 
 "A warrant, Ned!" exclaimed Rawlins. 
 
 "A warrant !" echoed Gideon Badger, with rather more ner 
 rousness than the occasion seemed to call for; and even the 
 usually-composed maiden, Rachel Morrison, could not forbear 
 the like exclamation. 
 
 "A warrant !" 
 
 "Ay, a warrant! a warrant against John Yarbers, Mr 
 Badger he s a villain, a thief he s the man that helped to 
 run Joe Watson s horse, and I can prove that he put him in the 
 hands of Bill Munson, the fellow that got off last month from 
 Deputy Nichols. I m ready to take my affidavy to it." 
 
 The methodical lips of William Badger at length parted. 
 His face put on new terrors, his words were stern, and the tone 
 threatening. 
 
 " Young man," he said, regarding the disfigured visage of the 
 intruder rather than the tale which he told, " young man, you 
 have been fighting." 
 
 The youth muttered some hasty words, in which "honor" 
 "impudent fellow" "had to fight," were strangely jumbled 
 up with other less significant syllables, but the ascetic elder cut 
 short the worthless pretext in a fashion of his own. 
 
 " Edward Mabry, have I not repeatedly counselled you against 
 this brutal and blackguard practice 1 Have I not repeatedly 
 told you that I care not to see you in my dwelling so long as 
 yo i can not forbear the rending and gouging of your neighbors." 
 
 " I come about business, Mr. Badger," said the other, sulki 
 ly ; " I come about business ; I come to you as a justice, I don t 
 come as a visiter." 
 
 " And I speak to you as a justice ; and had I caught you, 
 sir, in the brutal act, I should, as a justice, have had you taken 
 and punished; though, to be sure, you seem to have had some 
 thing more than your usual share of punishment already. God has 
 seen fit to send you a foe who could imprint on you those marks 
 which you are but too apt to put upon the faces of others ; upon 
 faces, Edward Mabry, made after God s own blessed image. It 
 is his image that you tear, and bruise, and gouge, with a most 
 miserable propensity to sin. But sit you down why stanc 1 
 you in waiting when the meat is sanctified and ready ? Sit you 
 down and partake with us. young man, though it grieves and 
 
 1C 
 
218 BORDER HEACJLKS. 
 
 sickons UK- t hdiohl you in this coiulition. Rachel, set a 
 plate." 
 
 44 I m not hungry," replied the youth, with no abatement of 
 his "sullenness ; for the reference which Badger had made to the 
 superiority of his enemy, had irritated an old sore "I m not 
 hungry, 1 thank God ! Mr. Badger ; since if I \va?, I could not 
 sit down at a man s table when he don t wish to see me in his 
 house." 
 
 " There is hope of you," was the cool reply of the methodist, 
 "so ^ong as you have the grace to thank God for anything. 
 Sit you down, I say, whether hungry or not, and wait on those 
 \\ho are. As a magistrate, I will hear your statement, and take 
 your oath, if need be, when you have dined ; but I warn you 
 Edward Mabry, that an oath is a serious and solemn invoca 
 tion ; the Lord is spiritually present when it is taken ; it is an 
 awful and soul-binding, and soul-responsible assurance. Be 
 ware, then, that you swear not against your neighbor, unless 
 with a perfect certainty, so far as the blindness of human sense 
 and judgment may admit -of certainty, that what you say is the 
 truth. But sit you down and eat. Gideon Badger, help Ed 
 ward Mabry to some of the chicken which is before you. Eat, 
 r- Walter Rawlins. And so, Edward Mabry, you are certain that 
 it was Yarbers who run the horse ?" 
 
 " Caught him a-doing it, sir. But that ain t all ; there s an 
 other business more serious. I have a strong notion that I 
 can prove he s been talking insurrection stuff among the nig 
 gers." 
 
 " That is a dreadful crime, Edward Mabry, and I could wish 
 that you spoke not such suspicions aloud, until you have strong 
 proof of their truth. If I remember rightly, it is now near a 
 month since Joseph Watson recovered the horse which had 
 been stolen." 
 
 "Yes, sir ; about a month." 
 
 " Ah ! and you knew the fact at the time. You knew when 
 the robbery was committed 1" 
 
 " Twas I caught Yarbers with the animal, making tracks foi 
 Vicksburg." 
 
 " And wherefore have you kept this thing hidden so long, 
 Edward Mabry 1 Why have you forborne to bring this evil- 
 
THE uu;i,> ,;.:,,;.-, ;; . ri;; 219 
 
 doer to punishment before tins? And why is it, tliat. having 
 suppressed the truth so long, you now declare it in the unbe 
 coming language of human passion ? Answer me these ques 
 tions, Edward Mabry. for something of my conduct will depend 
 upon the explanation which you may now give of yours." 
 
 These were home questions, and the effort to answer them 
 only involved the speaker in all the meshes of a seemingly in 
 extricable confusion. It was only by piecemeal, and after the 
 most Socratic examination, that the keen, searching, old meth 
 od ist obtained all the facts, and came to the conclusion, that, 
 but for a quarrel between the parties, the horse-stealing, and 
 other offences of John Yarbcrs, might have been buried in utter 
 oblivion, so far as the testimony" of Edward Mabry was con 
 cerned. In brief, the party was soon apprized that Mabry, 
 whose attachment to Mary Clayton was, like most attachments 
 of country-lovers, known to all the neighborhood, had, after 
 fruitlessly pursuing the actor to the river without overtaking 
 him, returned with a double feeling of wrath and mortification 
 to his own home. From thence he had gone, early the next 
 morning, to the house of Yarbers, and there had pressed his 
 claim, in the absence of the latter, to the hand of his daughter- 
 in-law. He had done this quite as much in anger as in love, 
 being resolved to bring tjie matter to a close, as he found him 
 self unable to bear the continual anxiety and passionate strifes 
 to which his position exposed him ; and he did not, in fact, be 
 lieve that he was entirely wanting in attraction to the eyes of 
 the damsel. 
 
 But he made his application at the worst possible moment. 
 The calculating mother and uncalculating daughter had but 
 too recently parted with the gay and attractive actor, and he 
 met with a flat rejection from both, the terms of which, on the 
 part of Mrs. Yarbers, were uttered in a manner nowise compli 
 mentary to the pride and vanity of the suitor. 
 
 Burning with indignation, he rushed from the house, only to 
 encounter John Yarbers at the entrance. To him he breathed, 
 without stint or limit, the indignation which he felt ; and his 
 rage was complete when the husband simply and civilly con 
 fessed that he had no power to alter the decision of his wife. 
 Yarbers was rather nonchaJant in his treatment of Mabry, for 
 
220 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 he had just before had the assurance- of the master-spirit, Saxon, 
 that the thing should be settled in such a manner as to save 
 him harmless; but he begged Mabry to wait awhile longer, 
 and concluded having a reference to some crude and half- 
 digested plan of Saxon by recommending that Mabry should 
 contrive to get himself made colonel ; a vacancy then existing 
 in the regiment by the death of the late celebrated Colonel 
 Quill inan. To the raging Mabry, this seemed little less than 
 downright mockery ; and, without further exchange of words, 
 he put spurs to his horse, and took the road to the house of the 
 justice of Zion s Hill. The progress of the visiter in this quar 
 ter has so far been narrated. Taking the magistrate apart, 
 Walter Eawlins ventured to excuse Mabry s suppression of the 
 facts so long, by taking upon himself a portion of the blame. 
 
 "As the thing s out, now, Mr. Badger, though to my think 
 ing it had been better in for a while longer, even though John 
 Yarbers got quite off, why, I may as well up and tell you, sir, 
 that I advised Ned Mabry to keep the matter quiet." 
 
 "And, pray, what may have been your reasons, Walter 
 Rawlins, for thus seeking to screen the criminal from the hands 
 of justice ?" 
 
 " Only that the hands of justice might get a good gripe when 
 she tried for it," was the prompt reply of the woodman. Then, 
 proceeding with some rapidity, as he saw that his further treat 
 ment of the figure was regarded with a grave countenance by 
 the methodist, he went on to give certain reasons and facts for 
 the policy which he had pursued. 
 
 " You must know, Mr. Badger, that there are more persons 
 than John Yarbers concerned in this trade of horse-stealing, 
 and it isn t the one mare of Joe Watson that s been cleared 
 out by em in my time. We happen to know of many horses 
 that s been lost to their owners, that John Yarbers found a 
 claim in; and we sort o* concluded me, and Tom Coleman, 
 Jack Andrews, and Ned Mabry, here that, as we knew all 
 that any did know, and as that wasn t enough to clinch any but 
 John Yarbers, that we d say nothing for a while, and only keep 
 a sharp look-out, and be in readiness to find out the rest. We 
 all considered Yarbers to be a poor shoat, that only did as others 
 told him. We had suspicions of three other men that took the 
 
THE RIGID MAGISTRATE. 221 
 
 horses, after Yarbers had run em to the river, and carried em 
 on from hand to hand, till they got em where they could sell 
 em without danger of being known ; and we thought, by keep 
 ing quiet about Yarbers, and watching him close, that we might 
 get on a trail that would lead us to the other rascals. Yarbcrs 
 don t dream, to this day, that anybody but Ned Mabry knows 
 about his rascality. Ned caught him with the horse hobbled ; 
 and his liking for Yarbers wife s daughter made him very 
 willing to say nothing, till now, about the dad. He told me 
 only because we were so friendly, and he knew I could keep a 
 close mouth over any secret " 
 
 "You have done wrong; you should have brought this man 
 to justice. The law is the terror to evil-doers, and they should 
 be made to feel it ! And who, Walter Rawlins, are the men of 
 whom you have suspicions ?" 
 
 " Well, squire, I can t tell you that, seeing that I ve made a 
 promise not to do so until there s a good chance to clinch em, 
 and we get good witnesses. I m sort of dubious it ll be a mighty 
 tough business whenever the time comes." 
 
 " And what, Walter Rawlins, may be the reason of this fear?" 
 said the magistrate, with increasing severity of tone and solem 
 nity of look, his self-esteem being grievously disturbed by the 
 refusal of the woodman to confide to him the extent of his 
 knowledge. 
 
 " Because, squire, we ve good reasons for thinking these ras 
 cals are backed by a great number that pass for honest men and 
 good Christians ; and up to this time, squire, we re at a loss to 
 say which is which among our acquaintance and those that put 
 on religion, and talk very good things at meeting. Every now 
 and then there s a robbery, now on this, and now on the other 
 side of the Big Black, but at all times too mighty nigh us not 
 to make it very strange of the sort of folks that live about. 
 There was Dick Goby robbed of his watch and all he had, com 
 ing from Benton a week ago, by two men in disguise; and there 
 was the beating that Harvey got up by Doak s stand, about the 
 same time, by other men in disguise, while he was on his way 
 to sarve your warrant; then, again, this attack on the old gen 
 tleman, Mr. Wilson, here, as I may say, in sight of Zion s Hill 
 why, squire, you can t shut your eyes to the thing. It s clear 
 
222 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 as noonday that there s a gang of rascals that stand by eacr 
 other, and ain t afraid of the worst that can be done to them. 
 Besides, I m somehow thinking, squire, that there s nothing you 
 rcan do, or any magistrate, that they won t get wind of, in a 
 mighty short time after you do it." 
 
 Rawlins did not confine himself to this brief array of circum 
 stances to establish the probability of the faith that was in him. 
 He proceeded to the detail of other events, some of which were 
 known to the magistrate and others new ; but the accumulation 
 of facts had the effect of convincing and startling the methodist, 
 when, one by one, as they occurred, they would have made 
 little impression, and that of little duration, upon his mind. 
 
 " Verily, Walter Rawlins, thou hast shown me these things 
 in stronger lights than they have come to me before. It is a 
 shame and a discredit to me, as a magistrate under the appoint 
 ment of man, and no less as an humble follower of Christ Jesus, 
 that these things should be suffered to go on around me. It 
 were well to get the young men together, and bestir ourselves 
 in the examination of this swamp which is beside us ; for that, 
 according to my thought no less than thine, must be the place 
 in which these villains harbor. How many young men canst 
 thou muster at blowing of the horn ?" 
 
 " Well, squire, I reckon there may be ten or thereabouts," 
 icturned the woodman, muttering their names over to himself, 
 and counting upon his fingers as he spoke. 
 
 Ten ! ten only ! Why, Walter, either I lose my arithme 
 tic, or you have never yet found yours. By what rule can you 
 count] Instead of ten, there may be twenty, nay, thirty, 
 mustered by the horn blowing." 
 
 " Yes, squire, but it ain t by horn-blowing that I would bring 
 together the men for such a business as this. Some of the men 
 that would come at horn-blowing would be more likely to help 
 the rascals than to hurt them ; and if I could tell you some of 
 the suspicionable names that I know on, you d look green 
 again." 
 
 " I can not say, Walter Rawlins, that I altogether understand 
 you when you speak of my looking green again; but, at all 
 events, I will look farther and immediately into this business. 
 I will confer with this young man, Vernon, who speaks sensibly 
 
THE FOXKS IN COUNCIL. li-G 
 
 on most subjects, and he hath shown himself bold enough to be 
 a leader in any strife that may follow, and is surely not to be 
 suspected of any connection with these outlaws of whom you 
 speak. If he will go forth with us, it were something ; for thou 
 and thy ten men would go but a little way to compass all the 
 points of the swamp, and beleaguer those who harbor therein. 
 The canebrake were, alone, a sufficient protection. But let us 
 seek these other youths. We havo already five in this dwel 
 ling, counting myself and Gideon Badger with the rest, and I 
 trust in God that when the hour of evil strife shall come, there 
 will be fifty rather than ten willing to gather together for the 
 good of the covenant." 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE FOXES IN COUNCIL TERRIBLE DISCOVERY A WOMAN S 
 STRENGTH. 
 
 " We are not grown so proud 
 As to disdain familiar conference." MASSINGER 
 
 BAWLINS was not altogether satisfied that the method ist 
 should take the business so completely out of his hands, but he 
 well knew that there was no hope of successful resistance 
 against the usurpation. The self-esteem of William Badger* 
 was well-sustained by the firm rigidity of his character, and the 
 perfect unconsciousness of anything like presumption in the 
 ( ead which he was resolved to take. The woodman shrugged 
 iis shoulders, therefore, and said nothing ; congratulating him 
 self that he had kept the suspected names to himself, and inly 
 determining to continue his own plans, which, though less dig 
 nified and imposing that those of the senior, yet promised to 
 be, for that very reason, far more effective. He followed the 
 squire into the saUe a manger, where the young men had been 
 left, and where he found them busily engaged in the discussion 
 of sundry subjects, all of which were necessarily made to give 
 way to that wMch was always the most important to William 
 
224 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 Badger that, namely, which most interested himself. The 
 tatter proceeded, as if from his own knowledge and thought 
 for he made no sort of reference to Rawlins in the progress of 
 his narrative to give the substance of what he had heard, to 
 describe the evil condition of the neighborhood, and to expa 
 tiate upon the necessity of gathering the young men together 
 for the purpose of routing the evildoers. 
 
 Vernon heard him with a degree of pleasure and interest 
 which he found it not so easy to suppress ; but he regarded the 
 young Badger with eyes of too much keenness and suspicion 
 to suffer his real sentiments to be known. Without hesitation, 
 he joined issue with the venerable elder, as well on the pro 
 priety as the necessity of the course he proposed to pursue ; 
 deliberately questioning the correctness of the assumption, that 
 there was any number of men engaged in the outlawry which 
 had troubled the neighborhood ; and insisting upon the strong 
 probability of all the detailed offences having been committed 
 by the same two or three individuals who had been conspicuous 
 in each. Much of his argument was founded upon the broad, 
 patriotic text, that in a country like ours, where the means of 
 life are so readily and universally to be obtained, it was morally 
 impossible that any numerous set of men could be found, wil 
 fully disregarding the laws and making themselves liable to 
 their penalties. 
 
 His views were supported at large, and with much more 
 earnestness, by Gideon Badger, who took especial care to wind 
 up his notions of the subject, by an elaborate eulogy upon the 
 moral and religious influences which had been exercised over 
 the neighborhood by the burning and shining light fixed upon 
 Zion s Hill. 
 
 But neither the well-tempered courtesy with which Vernon 
 had spoken, nor the closing and rather bald flattery of Gideon s 
 speech, saved them from the charge of vaingloriousness arid 
 presumption from the venerable elder, who was never more full 
 of Christian texts than when he was following his own mind, 
 and resolved upon making others do so likewise. 
 
 Having adopted the notions of Rawlins as his own, he was 
 as rigid in their maintenance as he ever could have been in 
 that of a favorite text. He went into a history of all the rpb- 
 
THE FOXES IN COUNCIL. 225 
 
 oeries and murders in the county and in the neighboring coun 
 ties for the ten previous years; connected them together by a 
 suppositilious train of circumstances, ascribed them all to the 
 same set of men, and concluded by declaring, that " the time 
 was at length come for the punishment of the offenders ; that 
 the vengeance of God was at length ripe ; that the sword wat 
 unsheathed to smite, and sharpened for destruction, and tha 
 he" though this was rather left to the implication of tin 
 hearers " was the appointed messenger of wrath, who was at 
 once to denounce the judgment and carry it into execution/ 
 His resolution to obey the commission which had been given 
 him, was followed by a direct demand on Vernon s services, to 
 assist in carrying out his purposes, which he resolved to begin 
 forthwith. 
 
 "Impossible, Mr. Badger, impossible!" was the reply of 
 Vernon. " I am not the master of rny own time, and can delay 
 no longer than is absolutely necessary. I must pursue my 
 journey to-morrow, and should have resumed it to-day, but that 
 my thigh felt too sore and stiff to justify the attempt to ride so 
 soon after my hurts." 
 
 "Young man, would you fly from your duty ?" demanded the 
 other with solemnity. 
 
 " No, sir, it is in the performance of my duties that I would 
 fly so soon from your hospitable dwelling. I have occasions 
 which command my haste and attention elsewhere ; and 1 pro 
 pose to leave you, at the rise of to-morrow s dawn, with the 
 view to their performance." 
 
 The elder was not to be gainsayed, and he showed himself 
 as tenacious on the present, as upon most other occasions. 
 
 " There can be no call so urgent, young man, as that of our 
 country ; no duty so clearly necessary as the detection and pun 
 ishment of crime." 
 
 " You forget, Mr. Badger," replied Vernon, availing himscll 
 of his own expressed opinions rather than those which he really 
 felt; "you forget, Mr. Badger, that 1 take a different view of 
 these facts from yourself; that I see not the same dangers, and 
 do not recognise the same necessity ; but, even were it other 
 wise, I see not how I could assist you materially, and acknow 
 ledge the presence of other, and as you m.iv think them, selfish 
 
 10* 
 
BOUDEK BEAGLES. 
 
 obligations, which compel me elsewhere. Should it occur thai 
 I may do anything to promote your wishes, I believe that I may 
 safely assure you that you should not find me wanting." 
 
 " We must even try to carry on the good work without you," 
 icplied the other stiffly ; and with this the further conference 
 between the two ended. But the reluctance of Vernon rather 
 stimulated than discouraged the methodist, who was always 
 strengthened in purpose and performance by the increase of his 
 own personal responsibilities. Having despatched a servant to 
 summon his constable, Harvey, to his presence, he proceeded to 
 concoct his plans for taking the outlaws, or, at least, breaking 
 up their nest in the Loosa-Cliitta swamp, with more earnestness 
 than secresy. The arrival of Harvey enabled him to issue the 
 warrant against Yarbers for horse-stealing, based upon the oath 
 of Edward JVIabry. 
 
 " This knocks up your affair with Mary Clayton for evc-i. 
 Ned," was the consolatory remark whispered in the ears of the 
 lover by his friend Rawlins, as the warrant was given to the 
 constable. 
 
 " Well, I know it I don t care a d n ; I ll make him sweat 
 for his impudence, though it makes me lose everything." 
 
 Harvey, who was a stout fellow, of a bold heart and well- 
 tried honesty, was made a party to the further deliberations on 
 the subject of the outlaws of the neighborhood, and so inn Ji 
 time was consumed in the discussions of projects and difficulties, 
 that night came on ere he was permitted to depart for the pur 
 pose of arresting Yarbers. This duty was therefore deferred to 
 the ensuing morning; but that very night, a trusty messenger 
 conveyed the tidings of his danger to the horse-thief, who left a 
 warm nest but nothing in it, to reward the industry of the con 
 stable, who returned to the magistrate with another proof added 
 to the many commented on by Rawlins, that there was some 
 secret and sinister influence continually busy to find out his de 
 signs, and defeat his warrants. Yarbers, who was neither worse 
 nor better than a squatter, before daylight the next morning, 
 was speeding on with bag and baggage, wife and daughter, to 
 a place of hiding well known to all the beagles in the swamp. 
 
 But Vernon, though lie retrained from yielding himself to the 
 importunities of Badger, had no such indifference to his project 
 
THI; FOXES ix COUNCIL. : ~i 
 
 nor did fie entertain those doubts of tlic necessity of proceeding 
 against the outlaws which he yet professed. In his chambei 
 that night, alone with Rawlins, he declared himself more fully. 
 
 " I agree with you, Rawlins, in my doubts of the integrity of 
 this youth, Gideon Badger, and I have as little faith in the 
 judgment of his father. The one would wilfully and dishonestly 
 betray the other would commit the same fault through the 
 mere love of display and authority. I am pleased at the re 
 serve which you have shown, and will requite it by a degree of 
 confidence which must move you to increased reserve. "What 
 I do and say to you, must, of all things, be most studiously kept 
 from this old man and his son ; and, indeed, whatever you pro 
 pose to do in the case of these robbers, must be also withheld, 
 if you hope to be successful in your projects. Your passionate 
 friend, Mabry, too, should have none of your confidence in such 
 matters, for, though honest enough, he lacks all discretion, awl 
 would blow us in the first gust of .phrensy that happened to 
 seize upon him. See to that door I heard footsteps I speak 
 for your ears only." 
 
 This done, and assured that there was none to hear but Raw- 
 lins, Vernon proceeded to inform the astounded woodman of 
 those facts in the history of the mystic brotherhood, and the 
 flight of Clem Foster from Alabama, and his probable presence 
 in the neighborhood, all of which had been gathered by him in 
 his interview with the governor of Mississippi. We forbear 
 the long detail, so unnecessary to us, and avoid repetition of the 
 still longer conversation which ensued between the two in ref 
 erence to the subject, and the proper course to be pursued by 
 Rawlins in the management of the game before him. Vernon 
 studiously counselled the other to forbear taking any active 
 part in the affair, until events had more completely developed 
 the persons, the aims, and the particular whereabouts of the 
 .utlaws. In all circumstances he especially counselled the 
 sturdy woodman who already regarded him as an oracle 
 while using the influence of William Badger, on no account to 
 admit his privity to any plan which he might deem it advisable 
 to pursue. 
 
 " It may be that I shall be able to assist you in person before 
 many days My present hope is to accomplish the urgent busi 
 
228 BORDER BKAGLKS 
 
 ness upon which I shall set forth to-morrow, in time to fulfil the 
 partial promise which I made, on leaving Raymond, to the 
 governor. But, at all events, I will provide you with authority 
 for your own action, which will strengthen your power, and 
 confirm your influence over your neighbors. Here is a com 
 mission, with his excellency s signature, which makes you \ 
 captain over such a body of men as you may gather together 
 willing to obey your command. Here, further, is a small li.vt 
 of suspected persons. To none of these should you extend your 
 trust. Some of the persons, perhaps, may be among your ac 
 quaintance, and it would be advisable, however well you may 
 esteem them, to maintain toward them the utmost reserve re 
 specting all your plans. I will write to his excellency to-night, 
 under an assumed name, and leave the letter with you, to despatch 
 from the nearest postoffice. The address will be one already 
 agreed upon between us, and he will give you further instruc 
 tions perhaps send to ygu a special messenger as George 
 Jenkinson. You will answer to the name for a time, since it 
 would be unsafe to address you by your own. I will also give 
 you another letter to a friend, which you will oblige me by 
 despatching by the same post as that which takes my letter to 
 the governor. There are other matters upon which I will re 
 flect before sleeping to-night, which will, perhaps, enable us to 
 correspond while apart, and play this difficult game with some 
 good prospects of success. For the present, let us separate, that 
 there may be no suspicions of the confidence between us." 
 
 That night Vernon prepared his letters for the governor, and 
 his friend and patron, Carter. To the former he detailed such 
 a portion of his adventures, and his brief experience at Zi-on s 
 Hill, as would enable him to form an idea of the material ne 
 had to depend upon in the issue which, it was obvious enough, 
 was approaching fast between the outlaws and the government. 
 The merits of Walter Rawlins were set forth in proper language, 
 and a list of names, which had been furnished by the worthy 
 woodman, of persons to be relied on, was included in the letter. 
 To Carter he wrote a more comprehensive epistle, in which his 
 fortunes from the moment of their separation were described at 
 largo,, lie did nut fail to apprize hi^i f tho discovery, which 
 he thought himself to have ir.aiii 1 . of Mnitiaml in the person o^ 
 
TTTE FOXES IN COUNCIL. 229 
 
 the traveller whom he had rescued from the robbers, iris hurt, 
 slight as it was, was spoken of even more slightingly than it de 
 served ; and he declared his ability and intention to renew his 
 pursuit on the morning following. His language was full of 
 hope and light-heartedness, his tone being studiously assumed 
 to encourage his friend and patron. But it might have been 
 remarked that though Vernon spoke freely and fully of all other 
 matters, he yet found, on finishing the letter, that he had said 
 not a word on the subject of the two daughters or, rather, the 
 one daughter of Maitland who accompanied him. He was re 
 minded, on reperusing the epistle, to say something to supply 
 this omission in the form of a postscript, but finding that he had 
 not room to say much, he adopted the satisfactory determination 
 to say nothing ; and so his labors closed for the night. 
 
 While the conference was going on between Vernon and 
 llawlins, Gideon Badger was making his way to the woods, 
 where he found Saxon, Jones, and another of the confederates. 
 To them he narrated the discussion which had taken place, 
 under his father s lead, between the assembled company at 
 Zion s Hill. 
 
 "This fellow, Mabry," said Saxon, "will not sleep soundly 
 until he s knocked on the head. We must send Yarbers off, 
 For it won t do to kick up a bobbery on his account. Mack," lie 
 continued, addressing the confederate hitherto unnamed, " take 
 horse instantly for Yarbers tell him what s going on, and say 
 from me, that we can do nothing for him just now. Let him 
 make tracks for Bear Garden before day peeps." 
 
 To hear was to obey. The fellow was off in the twinkling of 
 an eye, and Saxon continued thus : 
 
 "What the devil shall we do to quiet your father, Gideon? 
 I am puzzled what to do with him." 
 
 "Knock him on the head, too," was the answer of Jones, "if 
 it s only to help Gideon to a little that he ought to have, and 
 rescue him from the strait jacket of rnethodism. Lord! Saxon, 
 it s the most funny thing in the world, to see the pompous old 
 parson, his round, red face looking forth from his white neck 
 cloth, and half fenced in by his high shoulders and black cape, 
 like a terrapin on a wet log, meditating the ways and means for 
 a Sunday dinner and Gideon, meek as a mouse ia the cornti 
 
230 &KN r.K.-UILES. 
 
 ol a trap th;:t has haliied all liis efforts at escape, patiently re 
 signed to what is coming- -an evening prayer and sermon three 
 hours long, church measure cursing in his heart, all the while, 
 that sort of heavenly unction which keeps him in a stew worse 
 than any ever known in hell. I have peeped in once when I 
 went to look after Gideon, and once was enough. After that I 
 never went nigher than the garden fence, and there I gave llu 
 signal. That sermon was quite enough to keep off any beagle 
 of any stomach, and sure am I. that the old man had better 
 begin to hunt us with a full mouth, such as he had that day, 
 than with a six-pounder. We could dodge the shot, but that 
 sermon would be sure to reach us wherever we might skulk. 
 For my part, let me be safe hidden in a hollow, and put Billy 
 Badger near by, well wound up for a long run, he d be sure to 
 drive me out. I must stop my ears, or let my heels go, for 
 stand him ten minutes I neither could nor would, for all that 
 head or heels might be worth. I m clear, the shortest and best 
 way for all parties is to knock him on the head with Mabry. 
 We have good reason for thinking that Gideon would never 
 take up preaching as a trade, certainly he can not give us such 
 prayers as his father ; and so the sooner the old man is gathered, 
 the better for the goodly seed which he leaves behind him." 
 
 Gideon who was one of those goodly rogues that like to keep 
 up appearances even in situations where hypocrisy seems to 
 be the last thing necessary, growled out something in reply to 
 this, of an angry savor; but Jones knew his man and an 
 swered : 
 
 "Tut, tut, Gideon, you waste breath. You know as well as 
 I, that were the Lord in his mercy to use the goodly phrase 
 ology of-Zion s Hill to summon to his keeping the blessed 
 head thereof, it would be a call more grateful to his devout and 
 affectionate son Gideon, than any his ears ever heard." 
 
 "Enough, Jones," said the more considerate Saxon, "this 
 talk, which Gideon may suppose you to utter earnestly, brings 
 as no nigher to our object. Of course you should never think 
 of doing hurt or harm to any of the family of one who belongs 
 to, and acts with us, unless it became absolutely necessary to 
 his and to our interests. The only course which seems cleai lo 
 OKV if the old man gets up his squad, which he will find it hard 
 
THE FOXES IX COUNCIL. 231 
 
 work to do, is that we must skulk ai.fl run for it. That lie i-.-m 
 neither find nor trouble us, is sufficiently certain. Gideon, 
 alone, as one of his band, will give us all intelligence; and 
 there is Cotton, Saundcra, Furst, Mason, Wilkes, and others, 
 whom he will no doubt muster with him, and who will tell us 
 just when and where the cat will jump, so that we may leave 
 the nest empty. We must leave you, Jones, to receive notice 
 from Gideon, whom you can see nightly, of anything that may 
 be determined on, and this intelligence you must send by the 
 quickest beagle you can call up, so that we may know at Cane 
 Castle and Bear Garden what to look for and when. What you 
 tell me of this young fellow, Vernon, is the most surprising of 
 all. Can it be that I am mistaken in the man ? Is it possible 
 that he is only going for private business ? But what business ? 
 It may be the location of Yazoo lands ; he may be another of 
 the mad fools who dream nothing but pre-emptions, and fancy 
 they are playing the great game to themselves, while all the 
 rest of the world is gaping and looking on. You say you 
 searched his baggage and found no papers ?" 
 
 "None. I emptied his portmanteau while he slept on the 
 sofa in the hall, and found nothing but a few changes of linen, 
 a vest, some handkerchiefs, and half a dozen stockings. There 
 was neither letter nor writing." 
 " Did you open the stockings ?" 
 " No ! I didn t think of that." 
 
 "Ah! that was half doing the business only. But you say 
 that he not only objected to going with your father, but doubted 
 the truth of his conjectures." 
 
 "Made light of it nay, laughed at it; and concluded by 
 declaring his intention to resume his own journey upward by 
 to-morrow s sun." 
 
 " I must meet with him. I must look into him myself," said 
 Saxon. "I will join him on the road, to-morrow, and he will 
 be a keen lawyer, indeed, if I do not probe his depth, and find 
 out his secrets. It may be that I am deceived, yet the circum 
 stances are all strong and strange. He may have laughed at 
 the governor s fears as he laughed at Badger s; and yet, after 
 all, it may have been a private speculation only. Would I 
 could have heard that conversation ; but regret is useless. Wo 
 
232 BORDER BE.UJLES 
 
 must make up in skill the deficiencies of fnrtui.c, and make in 
 genuity do that which necessity requires to be done. If I dc 
 not sound him thoroughly to-morrow we must call Justice 
 Nawls to our assistance." 
 
 Much of this was spoken soliloquizingly ; and was, possiMy. 
 beyond the immediate comprehension of his comrades. At its 
 close, Gideon Badger asked : 
 
 "Did you suffer the old man, Wilson, to get off?" 
 
 Yes: your blundering the day before, and the de:th of 
 Weston, persuaded me that it was proper for us to do so, t 1 ast 
 in this neighborhood. I set a hound on his track, however, so 
 that we may know where he earths, and what course he takes. 
 If he has anything, we can easily cover him before he touches 
 the Tennessee line. But enough with you to-night, Gideon. 
 A dog will bark at the foot of the garden at noon to-m;<rrcw 
 let him know what the old man has done, or is abort to do. 
 Good night." 
 
 The confederates separated; Saxon and his companion, Jones, 
 sinking into the deep woods beyond the garden, and Gideon 
 Badger leaping the fence, and faking a shorter way to the house. 
 
 They had fully gone from sight and hearing ten minuses 
 had been allowed to elapse after their absence when Rachel 
 Morrison emerged from the cowering attitude in which she had 
 crouched and found concealment in a thick body of young plum 
 saplings, brier, and shrub shoots, that skirted the spot where 
 che conspirators had carried on their conference, and in which 
 she .had heard every syllable that had been uttered. Her 
 cheeks were pale, very pale, when she came forth from her 
 place of concealment ; her form trembled with the crowding and 
 conflicting emotions of her soul ; but her resolution, which had 
 brought her to the spot, and had kept her firm, and above any 
 of those apprehensions which afflict most women, vas still as 
 strong and unyielding as at first. Sick at heart, and sad, with 
 a bitter sadness, she was yet glad that she had so far conquered 
 her womanly fears the scruples of a nice, and in ordinary 
 necessities, a proper delicacy and had listened to that cold 
 calculating conference of villany, in which the fate of those to 
 whom she was linked by innumerable ties, was so intimate!} 
 interested. 
 
TERIiJBLE DISCO VEiiY A WOMAN S STRENGTH. 233 
 
 "It is, tluMi, true, all tnie," she exclain.ed, " even ;;s Mtlier 
 Kerrison assured me, and as my o\vu ic;u> \\v\v n.ost ready to 
 believe. Gideon Badger is lost lost for ever ; and my poor old 
 uncle so proud in himself so confident of all around him 
 with such hope in his only son j what will he the pang at his 
 heart what the crushing and humbling misery of his soul, 
 when he shall hear of this ! And hear of it lie must. Even if 
 my lips remain closed upon the subject, the truth will reach his 
 ears at last. There must come the hour of discovery, when all 
 will be known ; and lie God strengthen and sustain him in 
 that dreadful hour ! For me, for me, what is left now ? Shall 
 I speak of what I have seen and heard 1 Shall my lips declare 
 these dreadful tidings, and my hands offer him the bitter cup of 
 desolation ? No ! no ! I may not I must not. I have not the 
 strength not the/heart for this. I must contrive other means 
 to prevent the utter ruin of the one, and the heart-wasting deso 
 lation of the other. God of heaven eternal and preserving 
 Father, be with me this blessed night, and counsel me in the 
 fitting course, which shall defeat the danger, and disarm the 
 sting of tin s threatening sorrow. To thy grace and saving 
 mercy, Lord Jesus, I commend myself, in this moment of doubt 
 and difficulty." 
 
 Never was prayer more humble and devout, and offered witt 
 a more becoming sense and spirit, than that of Rachel Morrison 
 kneeling among the withered leaves, in the silence of the night 
 OD the edge of that deep, dim, and mournfully-sighing forest 
 
BORDER BEAGLES*. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 BKEN ENCOUNTER OF WITS THE ROGUES ARREST THE TRHI 
 
 MAN BATTLE OF RIVAL RACES. 
 
 "I. walking in the place where men s law-suits 
 Are heard and pleaded, not so much as dreaming 
 Of any such encounter; steps me forth 
 Their valiant foreman, with the words, I rest you. 
 I made no more ado, but laid these paws 
 Close on his shoulders, tumbling him to earth." 
 
 GEORGE CHAPMAN. 
 
 THE hour was late when the Ftrong-minded maiden, Rachel 
 Morrison, reached her apartments. The family, guests and all, 
 had retired to their several chambers for the night ; and in the 
 silent review which she made of the scene she had just wit 
 nessed, a most annoying conviction arose in her mind of the 
 probable danger awaiting the young traveller, Vernon, who, 
 she knew, had appointed to resume his journey on the morrow. 
 She recollected the promise of one of the robbers (Saxon) to 
 join him on the road ; and this promise she naturally construed 
 into a resolution to assail him. 
 
 To warn him of his danger was her first impulse, but how 
 was this to be done? It was impossible that she should seek 
 him then ; it was scarcely proper, indeed, that she should seek 
 him at any time; and to communicate her warning to Walter 
 llawlins the most easy and natural mode was to prompt 
 his inquiries into other particulars within her knowledge, 
 which she was not yet prepared to unfold. She dreaded the 
 prying mind of her lover, and doubted her own strength to re 
 fuse him that information which was effectually to blast and 
 destroy the son of her protector. The conflict in her mind kept 
 her wakeful, and at the dawn of day she was dressed, and 
 anxiously on the watch for that stir in the household which 
 
rxro i:\7Kii OF WITS. 
 
 might denote the 
 
 joy she heard footsteps in the adjoining passage, which she 
 
 knew to be those of Rawlins. She went forth and joined him. 
 
 " Walter," she said, " your friend Mr. Vernon must be 
 on his guard while he rides. There is danger awaiting him 
 let him see to his arms, and be heedful of the company he 
 meets." 
 
 " Ha ! Rachel but is this all ? know you nothing more ?" 
 
 " Nothing that is of any service to him, and nothing more of 
 his danger. The robbers are near us ; they will be on the look 
 out for him. Counsel him to be well prepared; perhaps you 
 may counsel him to defer his departure." 
 
 " I have tried that already, but he is bent, on a push to-day. 
 He s very restless to get off, though his thigh s mighty stiff and 
 sore. But tell me, Rachel, how do you know all this?" 
 
 "Another time I will tell you all, not now Gideon is stir 
 ring. Beware of him." 
 
 " Ha ! Gideon say, Rachel, what of Gideon 1" 
 
 The person named, at this moment appeared in the passage 
 way, and the maiden was gone from sight in the next. The 
 woodman instantly returned to the chamber of Vernon, and 
 apprized him of what he had heard. The latter listened to him 
 without emotion. 
 
 He looked to his pistols, felt the charge, renewed the priming, 
 and this done, continued his preparations for departure as coolly 
 as before. An early breakfast had been prepared, after which, 
 and the unusually long grace which preceded it, Vernon bade 
 adieu to his rigid, but hospitable host, and joined by Rawlins, 
 rode forth upon his way. The latter escorted him to the river, 
 .md on their way to this point, Vernon suggested to him all 
 those plans and precautions, by which the woodman was to 
 conduct the contemplated operations against the robbers. The 
 reasons for the exclusion of the old methodist and his son were 
 necessarily increased by the significant warning of Rachel 
 Morrison ; and, counselled as well as he might be under the 
 existing circumstances, Rawlins returned to Zion s Hill, leaving 
 our hero to pursue his farther journey alone. The narrow, but 
 deep and rapid stream was soon crossed, and now let us also 
 leave him, for a brief space, while lie struggles through the 
 
236 BORDER BEAGLES, 
 
 rank ooze, and interminable ponds ami sluices tliat skirt, nt fre 
 quent intervals, and for continued miles on either side, the dead 
 level borders and drowned lands of the Loosa-Chitta. 
 
 The sun was slowly ascending through the branches of the 
 towering cottonwood and pine-trees, that seemed to throw them 
 selves forward as barriers in opposition to his progress, along 
 the eastern elevation, when a small party of men, three in num 
 ber, might have been seen in close consultation beneath their 
 concealing umbrage. One of these was no other than our old 
 acquaintance, Saxon. Their horses were in hand, as if made 
 ready for a journey ; and that air of quickness, keenness, and 
 anxiety which mingled in their manner, and contrasted strongly 
 with the low, suppressed tones of their voices, plainly denoted 
 some new expedition. The robbers were evidently preparing 
 for business. 
 
 " Go you forward," said Saxon to his two companions as he 
 leaped to the saddle, " and let Nawls get the papers in readiness 
 Meanwhile, I will take the road from the Benton turn-out, as 
 soon as I am sure that our man has passed it. I know his 
 course now, and can readily overtake him. Remember you are 
 to act as law officers, and you must do your duty with becom 
 ing gravity. None of your swaggering and swearing, Binks ; 
 and do you, Davis, keep a dry throat. Be sure you cast no 
 discredit on the venerable authority you are supposed to rep 
 resent. It is an honor no less imposing than new, that you 
 should be made officers of the law you have so often offended. " 
 
 " Not the less worthy officers for all that," said one of the 
 fellows. " Set a a thief to catch a thief, is a maxim which will 
 always give a thief employment." 
 
 "Ay, but you are to catch an honest man as usual, rascals; 
 po that you are only pursuing an old trade. But ride on ; you 
 have no time to waste. In another hour our man will be within 
 reach, and you shall meet us ere we get to Lucchesa. Nawls is 
 better at running a horse than filling out a warrant, and you 
 will need to spur him to the task. Let him waste no minutep 
 that you can save you, Binks, can fill up the blank and the 
 judge can sign it. That will shorten the business to his hand, 
 and by all calculations you should be able to tap your prisonei 
 on his shoulder ere we gain sight of the village. Away." 
 
KEEN ENCOUNTER OF WITS. 237 
 
 " it is done," said Biuks, putting spurn to his horse and fol 
 lowed closely by his companion. Saxon, meanwhile, crossing 
 the main road, sank into the opposite forests, and put himself 
 in watcli for the coming of his prey. He was not long in wait 
 ing. His calculations, the result of long experience of horse s 
 speed and the road, were nearly correct. Before, the hour was 
 ended, the trampling of a steed was heard, and Vernon went 
 by. Suffering some moments to elapse, the better to deceive 
 the traveller as to his late proximity, Saxon at length followed 
 and joined him a few hundred yards above. 
 
 With the first sound of approaching footsteps, Vernon pre 
 pared himself for an enemy, but the sight of the stranger some 
 what disarmed his apprehensions. Saxon was seemingly with 
 out arms of any kind, and there was that in the frank and 
 manly expression of his face, in the free, hearty salutation 
 which he used, and the quiet and simple manner of his address, 
 that Vernon, as a mere physiognomist had he annexed any 
 importance to this comparatively idle study no study is wholly 
 idle would have been disposed rather to confide in the new 
 comer, than to regard him with distrust. He answered the 
 salutation of the stranger with equal frankness, and it was 
 agreed, as they both aimed for Lucehesa, that they should ride 
 on their way together. This is not a matter of difficult ar 
 rangement in a country of such lonesome distances and long 
 miles as ours ; and where the parties are young, and where 
 they have already had any experience in travelling, there is a 
 very general flexibility of temper, which prompts them to great 
 social compliances when upon the road. But, with the present 
 parties, a mutual policy would alone have brought them togeth 
 er ; and each aiming at concealment, the frank game was the 
 only one to be played by those who had any occult objects ii> 
 reserve. Something, too, in the really excellent capacities and 
 good education of the two, may have contributed to bring them 
 more readily together ; and each perceiving in the other a nearer 
 approximation to those standards of taste which were most 
 agreeable to himself, and which were something above those 
 presented by the ordinary intellects of forest life, the dialogue 
 grew lively after a brief space of time, and soon became un 
 flagging. 
 
238 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 | 
 
 "A few years more, sir," said Saxon, in reply to a remark of 
 Vernon, touching the sparse settlements along the Yazoo ; " a 
 few years more, and this country must become exceedingly 
 populous. Its resources must be found out. as they are so 
 greatly desirable to the poor settler everywhere. The wild- 
 ness of the region will keep back the cold, the slow, the timid, 
 and the wealthy. They will shrink from a too closejrleighbor- 
 hood with the Indians, and, perhaps, be equally apprehensive 
 of that wild class, the squatters, who, rude, rash, violent and 
 reckless as they are, are yet the necessary men in all new 
 countries. These will continue to be wild, until they have 
 made some valuable acquisitions. It is the possession of some 
 thing to lose, that makes your social and best citizen, and the 
 \ robber himself, when his accumulations become valuable, will, 
 \ I doubt not, settle down into the sober citizen, and grow grave 
 and great among the first moralists of the land." 
 
 " If a more sudden elevation does not anticipate such slow 
 results," said Vernon with a smile; "but," he continued,"! 
 have no faith in half the monstrous robber-tales which are told 
 of every new country. When you reach the scene of the story, 
 the terrible and frequently bloody event is placed in a region 
 yet farther off. The border is always beyond you ; the country 
 of the monsters the anthropophagi 
 
 " Gorgon?, and hydras, and chimeras dire 
 
 ,, is still the country of the unknown. You approach, and the 
 cloud disperses, and that which, afar off seen/ was terrible, not 
 only becomes harmless when at hand, but lovely and inviting, 
 perhaps, beyond all other prospects. A certain <Hstancft lends 
 enchantment to the view, while an uncertain distance clothes 
 it \vith evil aspects, fills it with 
 
 " All prodigious things, 
 
 Abominable, unutterable and worse 
 
 Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived. 
 
 Ill short, ignorance makes as many monsters as fear, nay, it 
 makes fear; and mankind for ages have shrunk from the 
 possession of the garden spots of earth, through dread of lhoe 
 multiplied terrors which have been made to guard them, simply 
 through the mlnistrv of their own imaginations." 
 
KEEN ENCOL XTEU OF WITS. 239 
 
 Saxon concurred with Vernon in his brief and natural view 
 of the subject, and the conversation proceeded with a mutually 
 increasing interest on both sides. The former spoke with flu 
 ency, and a considerable knowledge of the plain, the positive, 
 and practical. Like qualities of mind wore observable in his 
 Companion, but warmed and elevated by a quick and vigorous 
 imagination, which heightened the color of his fancy, gave life 
 to his delineations, and kindled his enthusiasm. This warmth 
 suffered a check, and he himself received a warning, however, 
 as he found the conversation, on the part of Saxon, gradually 
 rising into a strain of complimentary remark, as the latter either 
 felt, or affected to feel, the eloquence and wisdom of his* com 
 panion s sentiments. The quick, sensitive mind of Vernon. 
 which, like that of most ambitious men, had an instinctive dread 
 of ridicule, was at once checked in its familiarity, and sunk 
 back upon its caution and self-esteem for defence and protec 
 tion. A cold, merely respectful and civil tone and form of ex 
 pression, succeeded to the glow and energy of his previous 
 manner; and Saxon, with that, keen eye which belongs to the 
 tactician, beheld the change, and readily comprehended it- 
 origin. 
 
 His own manner was also changed accordingly; his speec 
 more qualified and cautious ; and though he took care that i\ 
 what he said the easy deference of his opinions should couve^ 
 a no less flattering testimony to his companion s merits, he ye 
 forbore any of those more open expressions of approval whic l> 
 hf had imprudently administered ad nauseam. 
 
 But the nhe sense of moral delicacy once startled, it was not 
 so easy for him to overcome the reluctance of Vernon to engage 
 in any new freedom of dialogue. Not that the conversation 
 flagged between them ; the frankness alone was gone ; tlu 
 playful indifference of expression had passed away ; and thougi 
 speech was no less ready than before, yet caution watched tin 
 utterance, and truth was content to show herself only at tli- 
 staid and squared portals of opinion. 
 
 With some dexterity, Saxon contrived to reopen the topi - 
 which had suggested itself to them at their first meeting-- that, 
 namely, which arose naturally from the wild and equivocal 
 character of the country, and its evil influence over the sup* 
 
240 BORDEP. BEAGLES. 
 
 posed physical resources of tlie soil. It was an easy transition, 
 which the outlaw did not feel at all scrupulous to make, to the 
 frequent robberies and misdemeanors in the neighborhood. lie 
 spoke of them, as all spoke of them, as frequent, a.rid sometimes 
 coupled with greater crimes; but, at the same time, seizing 
 upon an expressed opinion of Vernon, he declared them to be 
 infamously exaggerated, and deplored the evils to the country 
 of such an unhappy notoriety as belonged to it. 
 
 It is, in fact, in the absence of citizens that these things 
 happen. Our population is guiltless, I am sure, of any partici 
 pation in them ; and these crimes are committed by those only 
 who make our territory a stage for their villanous performances. 
 Had we a community sufficiently dense to act with anything 
 like unanimity indeed, had we any one or two men, caleula- 
 *ed by ability and energy to take a lead, and bring our men 
 together, nothing, I am sure, would be more easy than to put a 
 stop to these excesses. We might soon, by lynching a few, 
 keep the rest in order, and in good time the want of means and 
 money would compel labor, which is all that is wanting to good 
 morals in any country." 
 
 This was all very fairly and frankly said ; the truth of the 
 latter opinion could not well be denied ; but Vernon, though 
 suppressing everything like apparent suspicion, was yet suspi 
 cious ; and once startled, he was one of those keen, restless 
 minds, that can not be quieted short of utter confirmation on 
 one side or the other. The mistimed complimentary speeches 
 of Saxon still occupied his thoughts, and were productive in 
 him of some such musings as filled the mind of the Prince of 
 Denmark under not dissimilar circumstances. The theatrical 
 reference which his companion employed in one part of his 
 speech, reminded him at the same moment of his quamlam 
 friend Horsey, and the phlegmatic and indecisive Dane. Why 
 should he flatter so poor a man as Hamlet? Such applauses to 
 one s beard were not in ordinary use in that time and country ; 
 and however grateful to such a man as Horsey, were scarcely 
 pleasing to him, unless it were that his companion regarded him 
 also as one of the players just "come hither." 
 
 At all events, the effect upon Vernon was to counsel him to 
 more caution, but to no reserve ; and with this policy in view 
 
KEEN ENCOUNTER OF WITS. 241 
 
 he expressed himself very freely in accordance with the opin 
 ions of Saxon, which, indeed, happened to be precisely such as 
 he had uttered at the council-board of old Badger if that 
 might be called a place of council where the chairman as 
 very often happens to venerable chairmen was pretty nmch 
 resolved from the beginning to have his own way. It occurred 
 very naturally that he should relate his recent adventures on 
 the other side of the river so much, at least, as related to the 
 attack of the robbers, and his own slight hurt in defence of the 
 traveller. 
 
 "I then," he concluded, "in a conversation with a very wor 
 thy and respectable old gentleman a Mr. Badger, with whom 
 I remained a brief space, in consequence of my hurt came to 
 this very conclusion, though in direct opposition to himself. He 
 was for turning out the trainbands at once, and searching the 
 swamp a labor which, I fear, will be utterly fruitless. The 
 same scoundrels that assailed Mr. Wilson are, I doubt not, full 
 fifty miles off before this time." 
 
 The keen eye of Saxon surveyed the speaker with a glance 
 which seemed intended to penetrate his soul ; but the calm, in* 
 different countenance of Vernon baffled the inquiry. 
 
 "This fellow," thought the outlaw, "is either a most admira 
 ble tactician, or I have taken a very unnecessary labor. But, 
 let the game be played out. We are now, sir," speaking aloud, 
 "we are now within sight of one of the prettiest little villages 
 in this country. They call it Lucchesa after some Italian 
 city, I believe. We are all monstrous fond of going to Europe 
 for names, which would be found more appropriate and quite as 
 smooth and musical at home. But call Lucchesa by what name 
 you will, you will admit when you see it that it is one of the 
 /sweetest spots that could be found anywhere for a village. It 
 lies among gentle risings, which here may be called hills ; and 
 which so completely surround, as to leave it but a single open 
 ing for entrance, and that seems only to be scooped out for the 
 purpose a work not of nature but of art. The woods, you 
 see, are thick the old forests are barely trimmed to let in the 
 daylight, as it were, and give room for the cottages. These are 
 better built and more neatly decorated than is often the case in 
 our country villages ; washed with lime, which answers the 
 
 11 
 
212 BIKIDER UKAULEss. 
 
 purpose of the best white lead for a season or n.ore ; and. 
 peeping through the green openings here and there, they seem 
 to be the pleasantest little temples that were ever jet raised by 
 humility to happiness. 1 think I could spend my days in this 
 little village, without ever desiring to look down on the outer 
 side of the hills which surround it." 
 
 "You live here, then ?" was the natural question of Vernon. 
 
 "Yes, I may say so," was the somewhat evasive answer; " [ 
 live here when not elsewhere. But it is not permitted us to 
 choose our habitations any more than to choose our graves. 
 No man can say, death shall seek me here, however much he 
 might pray for it." 
 
 Saxon was on the verge of Badgerism, as the two entered 
 the little arid lovely, but scattered village of Lucchesa. It 
 seemed a settlement of some fifteen or twenty families the 
 cottages gleaming in a broken circle from among the trees,, 
 planted without much reference to each other, but amply gain 
 ing in picturesque-ness what they might have lacked in regular 
 ity. Some of these were girdled and guarded by little low 
 white palings, that followed the hill-slopes on which they stood; 
 some were fenced by hedges of the wild rose or the box, and 
 among the small trees and bushes, and the bush myrtles or 
 spreading cedars that filled up the space between, the multiflora 
 and the perpetual rose leaped and twined even around the top 
 most branches. A few pale sycamores rose up majestically 
 amid the dwarf foliage that filled the valley, and ran down the 
 slopes, giving a staid and solemn air to a scene that otherwise 
 presented no other aspect than one of unqualified sweetness. 
 But one object more than all gratified the eye of the observer, 
 in the little stream that came stealing and whispering out from 
 the hollow in which the village stood, by the only portal that 
 led into it, with the sly, smiling glance of the truant boy, avail 
 ing himself of the opportunity and open door, to steal away 
 from the guarded circuit, and lose himself for a while among 
 the thick groves that had beguiled him from a distance so often 
 and so sweetly before. 
 
 While Vernon looked round admiringly upon a scene that 
 seemed ,,rangely placed oh the very confines of savage life, he 
 suddenly found himself confronted by two persons, who, witb 
 
THE ROGUES ARREST THE TRUE MAN. 
 
 tlie air of men having a perfect right to his attention, demanded 
 to know his name. 
 
 " My name, gentlemen ! my name is Vernon ; but your de 
 mand is something singular. You will oblige me with your 
 reason." 
 
 " Oh, yes, that s all fair enough ; Harry, or Henry Vernon 
 that s right, a n t it, sir?" said one of the men, drawing forth a 
 paper. 
 
 " It is, sir," was the reply of Vernon, with increasing sur 
 prise, and a slight increase of color in the cheek, and that dila 
 tion of the nostril which denotes the swelling choler. Saxon, 
 meanwhile, looked on with well-affected astonishment. 
 
 " Then, sir, if you re the man, we are commanded to arrest 
 you, in the name of the state, for murder." 
 
 "Murder!" 
 
 " Yes, murder ! the murder of one Thomas Horsey, a young 
 gentleman from below that you travelled with a few days 
 past." 
 
 " Horsey dead ! Can it be possible ? This is the strangest 
 matter, sir, and but show me your warrant." 
 
 " Let us go into the tavern, Mr. Vernon," said Saxon, sym- 
 pathizingly, " and you can there look more calmly into this 
 business." 
 
 Upon this hint the party went forward, Doe and Roe taking 
 care to environ our hero in such a manner that escape, were he 
 disposed to try it, would have been impossible. Here, with feel 
 ings of no enviable character, Vernon examined the instrument 
 which had been issued for his taking. He found it to be a 
 criminal warrant, proper in its forms, and issued by one Wil 
 liam Nawls, a regularly-acting magistrate. Had an enemy con 
 fronted our hero with intent to kill, the absolute danger would 
 have produced less disquiet and annoyance in his mind than 
 did the simple instrument which he perused and reperused, ab 
 solutely bewildered and confounded for the moment. That 
 Horsey should have been murdered, however sudden and unex 
 pected this event, was certainly far from being improbable in a 
 neighborhood where he himself, but a few days before, had a 
 fo^t*te of a similar fate awaiting him. But that he should be 
 made liable for the actor s fate, and arrested for his murder 
 
-- BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 was one of those contingencies which, a moment before, he 
 would have regarded as too remote and ridiculous a possibility 
 to occasion any other feeling than merriment in his mind. 
 
 "Gentlemen," he said to the constables,"! can scarce re 
 cover from my surprise at this strange accusation. Pray, on 
 whose oath was this warrant issued ? What testimony fur 
 nished the grounds for this charge?" 
 
 "Well, I read the oath, too," said one of the officers, "but if 
 I was to be shot, I couldn t say if the man s name was Walker 
 or Wilkins. It was one or t other, I. could safely swear, but 
 which, there s no telling. Hows ever, I don t reckon it makes 
 much difference now you can see all about it when you ge* 
 before the judge." 
 
 "True, true Justice Nawls!" Turning to the landlord 
 and showing the signature of the warrant " Ts this name tha 
 of a gentleman acting as a magistrate here, sir ?" 
 
 " Not here, sir, but a few miles off, on the Georgeville road," 
 was the reply of the landlord. 
 
 "A mighty good man is Judge Na wls," said one of the by 
 standers. " It was only last week he prayed s archingly at 
 Green Brier meeting*, and the sperit worked in him so, that the 
 sweat stood round his eyes jist the same as he d been a-plough- 
 inor." 
 
 " Twan t the sperit, Dill, twas only the flesh that worked 
 so mightily," said another of the bystanders. " Twas because 
 he had none of the sperit that the Mesh had to do so much; and 
 I m mighty sure Bill Nawls never found harder work at tht 
 plough in all his life, than he did at that ar very sarmon." 
 
 "Well, and worn t it a good one, John Richards?" 
 
 "A good one ! Well, I can t say what you may think it, but 
 for myself I can say, such a sermon will never carry me very 
 far along the narrow track. There s no getting to heaven by 
 a preaching where there s no getting steam up ; and it s a mat 
 ter of small wonder that so many take the other road, and go 
 down to the big pit, when it depends upon the sweating of Bill 
 Nawls s flesh to keep em from it. But that s not to say, strap- 
 ger, that Nawls ain t a good judge. He s a most onbecoming 
 person, that ll see all sides of your case, and do you justice 
 enough though, to be sure, he s mighiy slow, and takes a par 
 
THE 110CJUES AIl-iEST THE TRUE MAN. 24^> 
 
 ticular long time to get through any writing. I ve seen him 
 take jist as long a time, now, to get round the body of an 0, or 
 an e, as I would to put on the tiro of a great wagon-wheel, 
 drive the nails, and swing it on the body." 
 
 The merits of Judge or Justice Nawls as a man and preacher, 
 thus made the subject of popular disputation around him, was 
 very little edifying to our hero ; and just at this point of the 
 dispute his eye caught, on a sudden, the glimpse of an object 
 which, for the moment, almost caused an entire forge tf illness of 
 the predicament in which he stood. This was no other than 
 the carriage of Wilson otherwise Maitbmd which he be 
 held, denuded of its trunks and the other paraphernalia of the 
 travellers, yet evidently occupied, as if for an evening ride, by 
 its proprietor and his family. A mere glimpse was afforded 
 him of this vehicle, as it rapidly passed along the common high 
 way, and a feeling of exulting satisfaction, which had its source 
 in mingled emotions, sprang up in his bosom. Once more the 
 object of his pursuit seemed to be within his grasp ; he did 
 not, it may be added, fail to perceive that the daughter of Mait- 
 land was with him still, though it never entered his thoughts, 
 at this early stage of their acquaintance, tlftit she, too, had be 
 come an object of his pursuit. The desire to see the latter, 
 had, without his own consciousness, quite as much influence 
 over him, as the feeling of duty which prompted him to secure 
 the former; and with these desires in his mind, uttering an ex 
 clamation, he was about to rush to the entrance of the tavern, 
 when his arm was forcibly grappled by the officers. , 
 
 " Not so fast, my lark. That cock won t fight, I can tell 
 you," exclaimed one of the constables, while a brutal burst of 
 laughter from both, reminded him of his predicament, which 
 the sight of the carriage of Maitland had mov,ed him momen 
 tarily to forget. 
 
 " Unhand me, fellows, for an instant. I would see and speak 
 to the gentleman in that carriage;" and he almost shook him 
 self free as he spoke, while his efforts were such as to render 
 necessary all of theirs to secure him. 
 
 "Be quiet, man, before I put a spur into you," cried one o{ 
 the fellows, taking him at the same time by the collar, and put 
 ting on a threatening and insolent look, that goaded Verin/n to 
 
246 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 a decree of forgetfulness and fury, to \\hich the sudden arrest 
 of his previous movement had already greatly moved him. 
 
 " Dog !" he exclaimed, striking down the arm that grasped 
 his collar, and driving his clenched fist into the fellow s face in 
 the instant with a force that sent him to the floor, " do you 
 think I will suffer this ?" 
 
 "Help! help !" cried the second officer, " an escape! Citi 
 zens, I command you, help, help ! stop the murderer !" 
 
 "Cease howling, fool !" exclaimed Vernon, " I seek not to 
 escape. I would speak but a moment with the owner of yon 
 carriage." 
 
 His words were disregarded ; the constable clung to him with 
 the tenacity of a bull-dog, that clings still though it may not 
 conquer, and Vernon had already dragged him almost to the 
 entrance, when a short, stout Irishman, who lay upon a bench 
 in the room, and who, to this moment, had looked on the fray 
 with the most placid indifference, now sprang to his feet, and 
 lifting a bludgeon that had lain concealed behind him, felled 
 Vernon to the ground with a single blow. He would have re 
 peated the stroke, when a stranger interposed a young Ala- 
 bamian who had also just arrived in the village and catching 
 the lifted arm with a grasp that fixed it in its position, ex 
 claimed : 
 
 " Stick down, iny lad ! There go two hands to this bargain. 
 What the devil sort of soul do you think you have, d n you, 
 to strike a man that is speechless ?" 
 
 " T under and turf, my honey ! do you mane to make me your 
 inimy ?" cried the Hibernian. " Would ye be after resaving a 
 tap on yer own pate, my honey ?" 
 
 " Devil-may-care if I do, but you can t give it me, nor any 
 lad of your inches," cried the Alabamian, who in the same 
 moment lifted the astonished Irishman to his full height in the 
 air, in defiance of all his struggles, and then dropped him clown 
 with as little reluctance as if he had been one of the most in 
 sensible " p raties" of his fatherland. 
 
 "There, Patrick, what do you say to that, and be d d to 
 you ?" 
 
 A battle to the death was nearly the consequence of this dis 
 play of prowess on the part of the Alabamian, who. no\vi;<p 
 
BATTLE OF RIVAL RACES. 247 
 
 loath, prepared fur it with the utmost *% /W,7. am! answered 
 the threats of Patrick with a swaggering and cool defiance, 
 which denoted the most perfect confidence in himself. But it 
 was not the policy of Saxon, who recognised a follower in 
 Dennis O Dougherty, to suffer it. He interposed to keep the 
 peace, and used all the usual and effective arguments common 
 to cases^of such urgent necessity. The bar supplies the means 
 of bringing about a pacification, quite as often as it promotes 
 the strifes and vexations which lead to war, and the Alabamian 
 expressed himself as clearly of opinion that the fun was quite 
 as great to drink, as to fight, with a stout fellow. 
 "As for Patrick, here " 
 
 " Dennis, if you plase Dennis O Dougherty, of the O Dough- 
 ertys of Ballyshannon by the pit of Ballany a family of the 
 (Mildestthere s no telling, indade, when the O Doughertys 
 were not a family of the ouldest." 
 
 " That accounts for your loss of strength, Mr. O Dougherty," 
 said the Alabamian ; " if you hadn t come from so old a family, 
 r I should not have tumbled you so easily. Your great-grand 
 father must have been rather a stout chap in his time, and it 
 might have given me more trouble to spring him to the ceiling. 
 But the blood gets mighty thin going through three, or five, or 
 seven generations, unless the breed is crossed mighty often. 
 Now, don t you see the advantage of being of a new family ? 
 In my state, all the men are of new families, and we ve got the 
 strength in us. Perhaps, the time, will come that our children 
 will grow weak and feeble like you, Dennis, and some chap, 
 away from the Red River, or the Sabine some new fellow 
 from Texas or thereabouts will swing the grandson of Dick 
 - Jamison just as -easily as he can swing you, Dennis." 
 
 "Asily, do you say, Misther Dick" Jeemison !" exclaimed 
 Dennis; " not so asy, my honey, if the thing is to be thried 
 agin. You had the back of me, Mr. Dick Jeemison, an that s 
 a rason why you should come to the front. But, shall it be foi 
 a quart, that we shall take a friendly gripe at the ribs, or will 
 it be the shillelah, my honey ? " 
 
 "Stick, fist, or hug, Dennis O Dougherty, it s all the same to 
 Dick Jamison. You re of too old a family, Dennis, to stand ui- 
 with a young man from Alabam ; the stuffs net in you. mi 
 
248 BOUDEtt BEAGLS. 
 
 lad, and 1 should swallow you at a mouthful and never ask aftei 
 the salt " 
 
 " Now, don t, ye be after desaving yersclf, my honey/ replied 
 the Irishman, somewhat astounded at the cool impudence of the 
 Alahamian, not merely in disparaging his hitherto acknowledged 
 powers, but in the still more remarkable disparagement of the 
 greater merits of an old family, which, to the great horror and 
 surprise of Dennis, were now made to give way to the claims of 
 a young one. The almost contemptuous terms which the mem 
 ber of the new house employed in determining the proper prece 
 dence of the latter, uttered with so much complacency, tended 
 still more to embitter the idea. 
 
 " Now, don t ye be after desaving yerself, Mr. Dick Jeemison, 
 saing it was behind my back that ye overkim Dennis O Dough- 
 erty ; and don t ye be after thinking that ye can overkim him 
 agin behind his back, when his face is turned upon ye. There s 
 a difference, my honey, between a jontleman sfae and his back, 
 that ye ll be after belaving when ye ve sane them together as 
 I will show you mine, with a shillelah in aitch hand, and a 
 pistol in the other, and the spirit of universal liberty in the 
 sowl which will make a involution in your idces, Mr. Dick 
 Jeemison, and taclie you a leetle abolition of doctrine, that ye 
 may take back with ye to Alabama." 
 
 " Abolition !" exclaimed one of the inmates of the bar. 
 
 "Abolition!" echoed another and another, and a dozen faces 
 were peering into the face of the Hibernian at the inauspicious 
 word. 
 
 " Who s talking abolition here ?" said one. 
 
 "What Hasted emissary of Arthur Tappan is it?" 
 
 " It s his own self, I do think," said a third ; and the mur 
 nmrs began to close with the ominous inquiry after that vener 
 able border magistrate, Judge Lynch. 
 
 " Jontlemen!" exclaimed the Hibernian, who began to feel 
 some misgivings that his position might be made a very awk 
 ward one, if the Alabamian should happen to take the lead 
 against him. " Jontlemen !" said he, turning from one to the other, 
 with an air of mingled apology and defiance, " don t be after de- 
 saving yourselves, and misconsaving Dennis O Dougherty. I m 
 a jontleman by my mother s side she was an O Flaherty " 
 
BATTLE OF RIVAL RACES. 249 
 
 " To be sure ; don t you suppose, Dennis, that we know all 
 that?" said the Alabamian ; "look you, friends and fellow-citi 
 zens, we all know what Dennis means by abolition, but being an 
 Irishman born, and of an old family that s nearly worn out, 
 how should he be able to speak good English. He is a gentle 
 man, as he says, by the mother s side his mother being an 
 O Flaherty ; and a lady by his father s side, the old gentleman 
 being an O Dougherty ; and therefore he asks you all to join 
 with him here in a sup of whiskey regular Monongahela 
 that we may have a revolution of ideas and an abolition of dis 
 tinctions. That s what Dennis means by abolition, only the 
 poor fellow hasn t been long enough in America to speak good 
 English. And, look you, my friends, it s not a bad notion now, 
 I tell you, for a man whose family s almost worn out, to wish 
 to abolish distinctions where our families are only just begin 
 ning. He d be mighty willing to let that matter drop, and so 
 you see he s forgiving us a drop all round ; so come Kitty, fill 
 your quart and set out the sugar, and look you, friends, we ll 
 drink to the health of Mr. Dennis O Dougherty, who is a gen 
 tleman by his mother s side, and a lady by his father s; and 
 may he soon recover his strength by getting into a new family." 
 
 This speech was received with loud huzzas. The explanation 
 of the Alabamian, as it was only understood in part, was per 
 fectly satisfactory to all parties ; the countrymen around were 
 satisfied with it, as its result was one easily swallowed and per 
 fectly habitual ; and the Hibernian, though there was much in 
 the speech to confound his better judgment, and stagger his 
 conception of the English he already knew, was also content to 
 receive it without scruple as explanatory of his own ideas, 
 simply as he found it so successful with all around, and as it 
 relieved him from a predicament, which some recent examples 
 had already convinced him, might have become an awkward, if 
 not a dangerous one. 
 
 A more general diffusion of the peace principle was evident 
 soon after the quart flagon was placed upon the counter of the 
 publican, and the Alabamian, who was something of a wag, and 
 no little of a democrat, was soon busy in laboring to convince 
 Dennis that there was no greater misfortune on earth than to 
 be the descendant of ;\ \ <M y old family ; as he proceeded to 
 
250 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 show by every analogous case, drawn from the history of bird, 
 beast, and reptile, that the breed must degenerate, with every 
 successive advance after the third generation ; and the only 
 hope of an old nation was to merge itself, as soon as possible 
 after that period, in the body and bosom of a new. The final 
 speech of Mr. Jamison, at the moment when we propose to 
 leave the company, may be put on record as containing a prop : 
 osition of quite as much political truth as theory. 
 
 " It s in America here, Dennis, my boy, that we will pre 
 serve the English, and the Irish, and the Scotch, when, in your 
 own country, you ll all be worked down to a mere stump of 
 what you were. It s here, I tell you, that the English people 
 will get a new growth, a height and a depth, a breadth and a 
 bottom, when the old families wouldn t have one fellow among 
 em fit to carry guts to a bear. This is the country, after all, 
 to make men out of your sticks, jist the same as taking a plant 
 from one place where it s been growing so long that it s come 
 to nothing, and putting it into a new field where it never was 
 before. See the difference ! how it shoots up how it spreads, 
 and what a fine crop you get from it for the first five years 
 may be seven but after that you must carry it farther off 
 to some new opening, and begin again. If I was to do any- 
 thing for you, Dennis, I d marry you off at once to Polly 
 Whitesides you all know Polly Whitesides, my boys!" A 
 general laugh attested the success of the reference. "I d 
 marry you off to Polly Whitesides, of Beattie s Bluff, and make 
 a new family out of an old one." 
 
 " It s a lady you spake of, Mr. Dick Jeemison ?" 
 
 "Ay, to be sure, a lady what else? She s six feet in her 
 stockings, with cheeks red as a gobbler s gills, and an arm, 
 Dennis, that would put your thigh out of countenance !" 
 
 " J s ! and she s a lady, Mr. Jeemison T 
 
 " And the very gal to make a new and rising family out of 
 an old one on its last legs," was the reply. 
 
 Let us change the scene, and follow Vernon into the af art- 
 ment into which he was carried at the moment when the blow 
 from the shillelah of Dennis O Dougherty had laid him sense 
 less ou the floor. 
 
PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY A SNARL. 261 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY A SNARL. 
 
 "Now we have argument 
 Of justice, and our very breath is law, 
 % To speak thee dead at once." 
 
 SHIRLET. 
 
 WHILE the uproarious controversy Avas in progress between 
 the Alabamian and his Irish opponent in the tavern-hall, Ver- 
 non, through the considerateness and care of Saxon, was con 
 veyed to an inner apartment in a state of insensibility. The 
 outlaw had his unexpressed objects in this disposition of the 
 youth, and his connection with the constables readily enabled 
 him to make such arrangements as left him in his sole custody. 
 A public assurance which he gave them in the bar-room, that 
 he would be answerable for the forthcoming of the prisoner 
 whenever they might demand him, not only satisfied the worthy 
 emissaries of the law, but won golden opinions for the outlaw 
 from the unreflecting spectators. They did not, with a single 
 exception, remark the strangeness of such a proceeding; nor 
 wonder, as well they might, how it was that a stranger s assu 
 rance, and one who appeared to have been the companion ol 
 the traveller, should be taken as good security for the tem 
 porary release of the same person charged with a crime so 
 heinous. 
 
 The more acute Alabamian saw this matter in its true light, 
 and was not the less curious though he said nothing on 1 lie- 
 subject. As for the constables, the reader, who knows already 
 what they are, will not be surprised at the ready complaisance 
 which they yielded to the will of the outlaw. They were very 
 well satisfied to exchange the tedious watch over the prisoner 
 for the livelier bustle of the tavern-hall. There they soou 
 joined the revellers, and gave themselves up to that perfect 
 
252 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 recklessness of good order and morality, which, in no little de 
 grce, tended to confirm the growing suspicion in the mind of 
 the Alabamian that there was something wrong in their pro 
 ceedings. 
 
 A sudden regard for Vernon had been the fruit of the first 
 moment of their meeting ; as he saw, or fancied he saw, even 
 through the reserve which is usually the accompaniment of su 
 perior endowments and education, a frankness of manner and 
 character in the youth, which, while resembling, was grateful to 
 his own. 
 
 These first loves., or favorable impressions, are very common 
 to a forest country such as ours, where no long time is allowecl 
 for the formation of intimacies, and where the instincts of blood 
 are always more active than the slow and cautious approaches 
 of reason and philosophy. 
 
 He assisted, we may state, to carry the insensible form of the 
 youth into the chamber, and having ascertained that Lucchesa 
 was not without its physician, he despatched one of the urchins 
 that figured at the tavern-door, to require his assistance ; a task 
 which the boy readily undertook with the tempting reward of a 
 fip-penny piece before him. This done, Jamison returned to 
 his controversy with the Irishman, which he made subservient 
 to the occult purposes of inquiry which lay at the bottom of his 
 mind. Ho plied the whiskey-flagon with an industry which 
 he took pains to make appear as a consequence of his own love 
 for the living beverage; and he soon had occasion to congratu 
 late himself on the discovery of one or two facts which, though 
 subordinate in importance, were yet of a character to confirm 
 him in his suspicions. 
 
 lie soon discovered, in the first place, that his Irish adver 
 sary, in one or two unwitting speeches, was an old acquaintance 
 of the constables ; and, from the modes of speech and the sort 
 of anecdote in which the latter freely dealt, he was easily led to 
 infer that, however honest they might be at this writing, they 
 had certainly, at some past period not so very remote, been 
 very exemplary picaroons. That their morals were not such as 
 should entitle them to the selection of a devout magistrate such 
 as Judge Nawls had been described to be, was sufficiently clear 
 from the facility with which they threw aside that starched sem- 
 
PROGRESS OP DISCOVERY A SNARL. 253 
 
 bianco of decency which they had just before put on in the as 
 sumption of a character, and in the performance of duties, far 
 other than those to which they had been sworn. They soon 
 forgot the commands of their leader, who was too busy else 
 where to heed their behavior, and hear their riotous uproar, as, 
 in the person of Dennis O Dougherty they recognised a well- 
 known Jack Pudding of their gang; and the renewal of sundry 
 old jokes at his expense, did more than anything besides to 
 convey to the mind of the acute and unsuspected Alabamian, 
 the extent and sort of intimacy which had before subsisted be 
 tween them. 
 
 Their presence brought no little increase of merriment to 
 the carousing party. The fun had been about to decline till 
 their appearance. A renewal of mirth was the necessary con 
 sequence of the arrival of such old proficients, and the replen 
 ishing of the flagon furnished an equal supply of the pabulum 
 so necessary for the fervor of village wit, and the otherwise cos 
 tive humor of a country population. 
 
 Our friend Jamison, speaking from his soul, cried, "D n the 
 expense," at every hearty summons to the company to refill 
 a summons not less grateful than imperative, and one never to 
 be disputed among men no less social in character than docile 
 in obedience to the lawful authority. Leaving these good com 
 panions for a while, let us seek the chamber to which Vernoi 
 had been carried. 
 
 This was a little low shed-room containing two beds, a single 
 chair, a broken mirror, and a couple of rude colored pictures, 
 such as good taste was willing to take, without scruple, during 
 the war of 1815, at the hands of patriotism. Never did native 
 genius effect a more rascally portraiture of humanity. One of 
 the pictures represented the battle of New Orleans; the other 
 a scalping-scene at the massacre of Firt Mimms, on the Tensaw. 
 In the former, Pakenham might have been seen going through 
 the air like one of his own congreves, as blazing red, certainly, 
 and describing pretty much the same sort of curve when at the 
 moment of declension. His head nearly touched his heels, and 
 the grapeshot might have been seen just about to bury their 
 hissing hot bodies in the gaping wounds, from which the blood 
 was already streaming, in pretty much the same volume as 
 
254 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 would issue from the sudden opening of a water-plug in the 
 streets of Philadelphia. A complete display of pyrotechnics 
 a shower of fire encircled him, and formed the only light, 
 lurid and sulphurous still, which the artist permitted on the 
 British side of the business. In this he strove hard to accom 
 plish, the clair obscur with the utmost practical nicety. The 
 rest of the battle was a chaos of heads, legs, and arms ; horses 
 kicking without bodies ; men running without feet ; and wheel 
 ing cannon just as busy advancing and receding, though never 
 a man v^as left standing at the drag-ropes. Here Imagination 
 had dovie much toward the achievement of that desideratum in 
 all her works, the vague, twilight, picturesque, and imperfect 
 dimness, which denotes everything that is not beheld, and 
 makes equivocal whatever is distinct. 
 
 But the amor patrise was predominant in the display of the 
 American lines there all was clear, effulgent, and imposing. 
 Still and stern, the Kentuckians and Tennesseans stood upon 
 the terraces. Never were attitudes more perfect. Even those 
 who knelt for the purpose of better aim, were drawn with won 
 derful exactitude and majesty. Here was truth. The eyt^ 
 ranged the tube with a mathematical exactness. Had you 
 taken the instruments in hand, and separated the lines between 
 the eyes, the drop, and the British, you would have seen in an 
 instant how certain was their defeat. Every muzzle covered 
 its man every bullet had its special commission; and our 
 artist had made it a matter sufficiently clear, without reference 
 to any dull history, that the American victory arose from no 
 other cause than the excellent aim of the riflemen. The whole 
 story was told at a glance ; and when you recollect that the 
 artillery was managed with similar nicety, you have no sort of 
 difficulty in accounting for all the havoc of that bloody field. 
 But the whole powers of the artist were concentrated around 
 the form of the hero of that day. General Jackson was sur 
 rounded with a thousand natural glories. The sun rose over 
 his left shoulder, and his epaulet, reflecting his light upon sur 
 rounding objects, was almost as bright, and quite as large, as 
 himself. " Bombs bursting in air surrounded him with halos 
 of falling stars that became tributary, in like manner, to the 
 awful distinctness of his face and figure. There he stood, 
 
PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY A SNARL. i> 
 
 "Fierce as ten furies, terriblo n< lu-11." 
 
 His portrait was true, as all the portraits of very great men 
 mast be true, even when most imperfect. There were the same 
 thin pale cheeks, the raised cheek-bones, thin compressed lips, 
 keen eyes, high narrow forehead, and raised hair the head, 
 for the greater perfection of the portrait, having been left un 
 covered, in defiance of smoke and flame, bombs and rockets, 
 crackers and carcasses. 
 
 But the terrors of expression in his face were the wonders of 
 the performance. Even had the riflemen been utterly wanting 
 to the battle, you would have seen that these were enough for 
 the victory. There was not a wrinkle in the old warrior s 
 brow that did not look like a two-edged sword. His mouth 
 was pursed up to seem a seam the lines forming to a common 
 centre, the appearance of which led you to expect a sudden 
 expansion, no less great than the undue contraction, from which 
 triple hail and thunder were to issue. His beard, too for the 
 general, if the artist may be considered good authority ip a par 
 ticular so perfectly domestic, had not shaved for seven days 
 his very beard, too, like that of old Giaffar, " curled in ire," as 
 he waved a sword twice his own length, and pointing to Paken- 
 ham s whizzing and whirling carcass, seemed disposed to thrust 
 it very unnecessarily, it would seem into the aperture made 
 so voluminously large already by the grapeshot aforesaid. 
 
 Language fails to do justice to this terrific picture go to 
 Lucchesa, reader, and see for yourself. We forbear that of the 
 massacre at Fort Mimms, in order that nothing may be antici 
 pated. Like that of the battle, it is a painting sui generis. 
 Never were scalps taken from skulls with more terrible felicity 
 of execution than in this picture. At Raymond court-house 
 fou will see another, by the same artist, in which a muse 
 <nore moral than she of history has been invoked; Justice 
 ff iih her scales very properly presides over the hall of justice. 
 Lt is rather awkward, indeed, that one scale should be lower 
 <han the other, but this difference simply suggests a play of the 
 tancy, and can not subject the painter to the imputation of any 
 serious want of discrimination. Certainly, we shall venture to 
 incur no risk, in this brief passage, of indulging iu false and 
 superficial analysis. 
 
256 
 
 BORDER BKACLES. 
 
 Strange to say, the merits of these pictures entirely escaped 
 the notice of Saxon. Whether he had seen them before, or, as 
 is quite probable, entertained no taste for the fine arts a defi 
 ciency quite too general in our country, and quite too common 
 among all people whose habits are wandering, to make it likely 
 that any rebuke will be of service for a hundred years to come 
 one thing is certain, that he never gave so much as a glance 
 to the panels in which these gorgeous performances had been 
 set on high. His eye and thought were upon the young man 
 alone, who lay insensible upon the couch ; and, under the pre 
 tence of restoring him to consciousness, the outlaw, so soon as 
 all other persons had retired from the chamber, very coolly 
 proceeded to unbutton the vest and bosom of his patient, and 
 explore the contents of a thin gauze-like handkerchief wliich 
 encircled his waist, and which he untied with the dexterity of 
 an old proficient in all such practices, without disturbing the 
 position of, or removing the handkerchief from, the body. A 
 few mo^nents sufficed to enable him to disengage from the folds 
 of the handkerchief a small packet which lay on the right side 
 of the youth. This he transferred with all speed to his own 
 bosom ; and, folding a newspaper in like bulk and form, he de 
 posited it in place of the papers appropriated, retied the hand 
 kerchief, rebuttoned the shirt arid vest; and all this without 
 disturbing the wounded man, and before the arrival of the phy 
 sician; an event, however, which occurred a moment after. 
 
 Dr. Saunders was rather a clever young man, who had re 
 ceived a license to practise but a few months before, and was 
 no less modest than well-informed. He examined the hurt of 
 Vernon, with the assistance of the Alabamian, who, on the arri 
 val of the physician, left the company without, and with the 
 anxiety of an old friend, awaited the result. Vernon had over 
 tasked himself. The wound in his thigh wliich had bled so 
 copiously was irritated by the hard riding of the dny. He had 
 ridden rapidly in order to overtake the carriage of Wilson, and 
 had overcome a distance of more than forty miles. The ex 
 citement following previous events, and the anticipation of 
 those before him had also contributed to the irritation of his 
 system; and, when arrested for so heinous an offence as that 
 of murder, and the murder, too, of his late companion, it 
 
PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY A SNARL. 257 
 
 IB not improbable that fever would have followed his men 
 tal suffering, even without the additional injury which he 
 received from the unmeasured blow of the Irishman. The 
 patient s consciousness returned while the examination of the 
 physician was going on. He started, and with an instinctive 
 movement which betrayed the deep interest which he had at 
 stake, he threw off the intrusive hands about him, and his own 
 were thrust into his bosom and not withdrawn until he assured 
 himself of the safety of the secret deposite which he had bound 
 around his body. With anxiety and agitation heightened by 
 fever, he turned to the two attendants, and demanded what was 
 meant by their familiarities. The matter was soon explained, 
 the doctor announced himself, and coming slowly to a recollec 
 tion of what had taken place in the tavern, Vernon quietly sub 
 mitted himself to his hands. 
 
 Meanwhile, in the possession of his prize and anxious for its 
 examination, Saxon availed himself of the coming of the physi 
 cian to retire to another apartment. There, in secret, he un 
 folded the packet, the contents of which had the instant effect 
 of clouding his brow with anger, and sending the blood into his 
 cheeks. 
 
 "It is then true it is as I thought and feared ! This is, 
 then, only another Hurdis another spy, self-appointed, for our 
 destruction. He has played his game admirably, but not per 
 fectly. Not well enough for success, but so well as to make it 
 necessary that we should silence him for ever. It is needful 
 for our own safety that we do this we can spare no longer 
 his doom is written." 
 
 He conned the papers closely; one of which, a blank com 
 mission with the signature of Governor Runnels, he tore into 
 fragments and flung into the fireplace. The others comprised 
 a brief narration of his own doings as Clem Foster in Alabama ; 
 copies of affidavits sworn to in that state, and a list of names 
 a copy of which had been given to Rawlins by Vernon the. 
 night before of suspected persons in Mississippi. These called 
 for the more serious attention of the outlaw. 
 
 "These must fly," he muttered, as he looked over, and pen 
 cilled off, a portion of the list ; " the neighborhood is closely 
 settled and will soon be too hot to hold them ; but they 
 
BORDEIl BEAGLES. 
 
 stave off danger here on the Big Black for a year or two more 
 Still it will be as well to warn off some of the more black and 
 crooked fellows who can not even look honest, may well run 
 in advance of the danger. But Cane Castle will hide all their 
 vices, and that is as far as they need go for the present. This 
 agent of his excellency would he had come himself once 
 fairly salted, and we shall have no trouble for some time to 
 come. There are few in Mississippi prepared to take his place, 
 and manage his cards so cunningly as almost to blind so old a 
 stagei as myself. His game s up and there s an end of it. 
 Nawls will send him to Vicksburg, and the beagles will take 
 him by the way. Then follows his execution, in tcrrorem, for 
 the benefit of our own doubtful and soft -hearted fellows in the 
 swamp. He will die by our laws he has assumed the toils 
 of the spy he incurs its dangers; and our own require that 
 we should show no mercy. And now for a little more hypoc 
 risy. I would know why he seeks this traveller, Wilson and 
 the hurry of Wilson to leave old Badger s is no less curious. T 
 must sound him on these subjects." 
 
 With exemplary composure he proceeded to the apartment 
 of Vernon, which was still occupied by the physician and the 
 Alabamian, and placing himself on one side of the patient, con 
 gratulated him on his improved looks and restoration. The 
 compliment was a very suspicious one, for, by this time, our 
 hero felt himself seriously ill he could not mistake the heat 
 of his frame; the bounding quickness of his pulse; the parch 
 ing thirst which assailed him ; the soreness of his head; and 
 the painful throbbing of his wounded thigh. These were evi 
 dences, even if the physician had been absent, sufficient to 
 make him aware of his true condition. 
 
 I thank you," he said, "but I am not better. I feel ill 
 seriously ill ; and this painful accusation, this troublesome ai 
 rest! So strange, so sudden and startling: I trust, gentle 
 men" looking round as he spoke "I trust that you believe 
 me guiltless of this crime nay, it must be so the officers are 
 gone they have been convinced of their mistake, I suppose." 
 
 "Mistake!" said Saxon, with an incredulous expression, 
 what mistake, Mr. Vernon ?" 
 
 " Why, sir, mistake of facts or of person. Did they not 
 
PROGRKriS Oi 1 DISCOVERY A SNARL. 25 
 
 arrest me for murder the murder of Horsey, poor fel 
 low r 
 
 "Yes, sir; but if be a mistake, it is one of those mistakes 
 tli at they continue obstinately to persist in. They are in the 
 adjoining hall. It was on my pledge that you should be forth 
 coming that they consented to leave you in privacy until you 
 might be recovered from your injuries." 
 
 " I thank you, sir, again I thank you," replied Vernon ; " it 
 is due to the kindness of your interposition, and to the attention 
 of these gentlemen, that I should assure you that 1 am wholly 
 guiltless of the crime which is charged against me that, so far 
 from seeking to harm the unfortunate young man, whose fate I 
 have heard of for the first time from this proceeding, I should 
 feel myself bound by every duty and feeling to succor and to 
 save him. He is a wild, hairbrained, but worthy youth, whose 
 family is good, and whose old father lias treated me with kind 
 ness. That I may be suspected is, perhaps, not so strange: 
 we travelled together, and separated suddenly he taking the 
 lower road for Benton at the forks, and I the upper, which, with 
 some delays and interruptions, has led me here. That he may 
 have fallen a victim to some wanton assassin is, perhaps, little 
 surprising in a neighborhood in which crime is said to be so 
 frequent; but that I should be seriously held to answer for his 
 death, is a matter too idle to annoy me much or make me ap 
 prehensive of its consequences. I have no sort of doubt, gen 
 tlemen, that an examination before the magistrate will result in 
 my immediate discharge from arrest." 
 
 The company unanimously expressed the hope that such 
 might be the result ; and Jamison loudly declared his convic 
 tion of it. 
 
 "The truth s in your face, Mr. Vernon I saw it from the 
 first, and that made me so willing to give Paddy O Raffeuty or 
 O Dougherty, or whatever it may be, an ugly hoist, for the 
 fiberty he took with you, bringing you soon to an acquaintance, 
 all on one side, between your head and his shillelah. He ll not 
 do it again, I m thinking, not while Dick Jamison is bystand- 
 ing. I know well enough you ll get out of this scrape, so cheer 
 up, Mr. Vernon. I ll see you out of the mire while I ve got 
 any footing to stand on, and when I ha n t, why I ll walk the 
 
260 
 
 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 bog with you. D e, but I like your face, and there s no 
 
 telling what I ll do and say for a fellow I like. I ll run, ride, 
 talk, and fight for my friend ; and when he s a stranger like 
 myself in a new place, that s the very time that I can t desert 
 him. So count upon Dick Jamison while the breath s in him." 
 The expressive eye of Vernon made an acknowledgment to 
 the hearty volunteer, which his lips did not articulate; and his 
 hand freely returned the pressure which the latter gave him as 
 he concluded his characteristic speech. The sympathies of the 
 stranger, however rudely expressed, were grateful to the youth 
 in the feeling of discontent and depression which was natural 
 to his condition ; and the unstudied frankness of his utterance 
 was only an additional proof that his sentiments came from the 
 fellow s heart. The reflections of Vernon s mind were nowise 
 cheering at this moment. His course, upon which he had en 
 tered with so much confidence arid hope, had been attended 
 with disasters from the beginning, produced, not through his 
 own measures or management, but by influences entirely for 
 eign. Pursued by Horsey and annoyed by his prying curiosity 
 -scarcely freed from him, before suffering in an encounter 
 into which he was forced by a sense of duty which no honora 
 ble mind could shrink from ; and now, arrested and suffering 
 for the alleged murder of the man whose presence was so per 
 fectly unsought and so undesirable: -these continuous events 
 seemed to hold forth auguries the most inauspicious to that 
 adventure which had been undertaken with so much hope. 
 The voice of kindness came to him, therefore, at the moment 
 of his despondency, with an influence to be remembered ; and 
 he felt that he was not altogether desolate while the sturdy 
 Alabamian was beside his couch. The truth, which was de 
 clared by his frank utterance, and denoted in the manly and 
 not-to-be-mistaken expression of his features, won instant confi 
 deuce from our hero; and remembering one of his leading ob 
 jficts, he thought to himself, "Here is another nlly here i 
 another to join with me in the sHfes that may follow any pur 
 suit of this banditti." 
 
 The wounds upon Vernon s thigh were re-dressed -the irra- 
 tation of the part soothed by the application of external dres 
 sings; his head, which had suffered a severe contusion, was 
 
PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY A SNAIIL. 201 
 
 properly bandaged, a nostrum given intended to lessen the 
 fever, in the attainment of which object, a vein was also opened. 
 This done, Doctor Saunders proceeded to silence the worthy 
 Alabamian, whose tongue was one of those habitually restless 
 ones, which, suspended in the roof of his mouth, rather than the 
 gap of his throat, are for ever wagging from side to side in the 
 fruitless hope of finding a place of rest. 
 
 "We must leave our patient in quiet, gentlemen his fever 
 is high his mind is not at ease, and the necessity of the case 
 must be my apology for insisting upon his being left to himself." 
 
 " I will but say to the officers that I yield him to their 
 custody," said Saxon, leading the way to the bar-room. 
 
 " They can not remove him," said the physician. 
 
 " That is for them to determine," was the reply of the out 
 law. 
 
 " It will be an unnecessary and wanton cruelty if they do. 
 The young man can not escape if he would. He is really too 
 feeble. They may watch him, and be at hand, but must not 
 intrude upon him." 
 
 " I ll be d d if they do V 1 was the asseveration of the Ala- 
 
 bamian, glad of an opportunity to use the instrument upon 
 which, the interdict of the physic an, while in the chamber of 
 the patient, sat with a very unpleasant weight. The keen eye 
 of Saxon surveyed him for an instant with no very pleasant 
 expression, but he said nothing ; while the otker proceeded to 
 declare that, law or no law, he would see that none but himself 
 should approach the sick man s chamber, and " As for taking 
 him out," he continued, " until he s willing to go himself, let me 
 see any one try it, and if he don t bear a hickory, his mother 
 never bore a fool." 
 
 The arrival of another party suggested, however, a new plan 
 of arrangements. This was no other than the traveller whom 
 Vernon had pursued certainly, with no sort of apprehension 
 on the part of the former, that such had been the case. Old 
 Wilson entered with timid, trembling footsteps a cautious 
 tread, as if walking upon eggs and a furtive glance thrown from 
 side to side as the different groups of the bar-room met. his eyes, 
 which denoted either a very suspicious temper, or one strangely 
 unused to the devil-may-care freedoms of a public tavern. As 
 
BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 he advanced lie encountered the three persons who had just 
 emerged from the passage-way into the public hall, and whose 
 more respectable appearance, in garb and manner, than that of 
 the persons generally by whom the tavern was filled, naturally 
 prompted the visiter to address his inquiry to them. 
 
 "Gentlemen, I would like to know sorry to stop you 
 but is there not a young gentleman here by the name of 
 Vernon?" 
 
 " There is," answered Jamison, who already assumed the 
 entire representation of his new friend. 
 
 " Can I be suffered to see and speak with him 1" inquired 
 Wilson. 
 
 " I ain afraid not," replied the physician. " Mr. Verr.on has 
 suffered some serious hurts which have brought on fever. Even 
 the noise of this bar-room is unfavorable to him in his present 
 situation. His mind is very much excited, and inclines to 
 wander. I would prefer that he should not be disturbed." 
 
 There was some eagerness in the expression of Wilson s face, 
 and in his manner, as he replied : 
 
 " I have heard of his hurts, sir, and as I partly know him, 
 and believe him to be a worthy young man, I came to propose 
 that he might be taken to my house, while his illness lasted. 
 It will be more quiet than he can possibly find it here, and " 
 
 " You, perhaps, have not heard of the accusation against 
 him ?" was the re/nark of Saxon. 
 
 " And what the d 1 has that to do with the gentleman s 
 offer, I d like to know ?" was the fierce demand of the Ala- 
 baniian. " I m sure nobody who knows Vernon would think him 
 guilty of the thing after his own lips had told em he hadn t done 
 it." 
 
 Jamison spoke for his new friend as sturdily as if they had 
 been intimate a thousand years. His manner startled and 
 somewhat aroused the outlaw. This might be seen in the kind 
 ling and flashing of his eye, and in the sudden glow that flushed 
 his cheek ; but however much he might have been moved to 
 resent it, there were other considerations, much more strong, 
 that counselled forbearance; and the reply of Mr. Wilson to 
 his inquiry, interposed, as it were, between himself and the 
 man who had shown himself so susceptible of provocation. 
 
PROGRESS OP DISCOVERY A SNARL. 
 
 "I have heard of the charge to which you allude, and which, 
 T think with the gentleman here, must be quite groundless. It 
 was the rumor which reached me of his arrest, and of his illness, 
 but a little time ago, by which I was informed that he was in 
 ray neighborhood ; and the thought that he might be removed 
 with advantage to my dwelling " 
 
 " This is an offer not to be disregarded," said the physician 
 interrupting him ; " and if the officers would permit his re 
 moval " 
 
 "Permit it they must, and be d d to them. Look you, 
 
 men, this here prisoner of yours he s in a d d bad way, and 
 
 will be worse, unless you let us carry him to the old gentleman s 
 house. See you, I ll be bail for his coming whenever he s able 
 to see the justice ; or you can stay here and keep on the lookout 
 for him, and for me too if you choose, for I won t budge till the 
 lad gets better. What do you say, you man-catching rascals, to 
 being civil for awhile it ll be nothing out of your pockets, I 
 can tell you, while Dick Jamison has anything in his." 
 
 The constables, at whose approach Mr. Wilson might have 
 been seen to shrink with some trepidation, were not disposed to 
 consent so readily. They hemmed and hawed awhile mut 
 tered together as if in consultation spoke aloud of their duties 
 and the great risk and responsibility, and, from their delay and 
 reluctance, were rousing up the choler of the irritable Ala 
 bamian to a new outbreak of ferocious friendship, when Saxon, 
 to whom they looked entirely for their cue, quietly remarked : 
 
 " It appears to me that the officers can not refuse so reasona 
 ble an arrangement. They can keep as close a watch over the 
 prisoner at the house of Mr. Wilson as at the tavern, and the 
 doctor s opinion that the young man can not fly in his present 
 situation, and should be free from noise, ought to satisfy them 
 without any other security ; though, if they need any other, 
 I m ready to become bound in bail along with this gentleman/ 
 
 " Will you ?" said Jamison ; " well, d me, you re a better 
 fellow than I thought you, after all so give s a shake of your 
 paw r and let there be peace between us. Well, what do you 
 sav > vou sharks in fresh water, have you got your senses yet ?" 
 
 " Faith, we must let the jontleman off the hook, since ye all 
 says it," began the Irishman, when interrupted, no less by 
 
264 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 the stern expressive looks of Saxon, than by the sudden burst 
 of his former opponent. 
 
 " Hillo ! Dennis ! and what the d 1 have you got to do in 
 the business, my lad ? Shut up, you little old fellow you 
 have no right to speak at all until you are fairly married into 
 a new family. Get you gone to Polly Whitesides, and let her 
 give you a brush up before you dip your oar into another s 
 navigation." 
 
 And, with these words, the now good-humored rowdy clapped 
 his open hand as an effectual stopper on the widely-distended 
 jaws of the only half-sober son of St. Patrick, whose brain was 
 just in that condition of fermentation when lie could understand 
 that he had blundered, though in what respect he did not hope 
 to divine, until he had taken an additional supply of the 
 " crather," or utterly freed himself from the control of tht 4 
 which he had already swallowed. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 \BB FOREST REFUGE GRIEFS OF GUILT FEMININE EREAM8 
 BUDIANG FANCIES. 
 
 High-climbing rock low sunless dale 
 Sea desert what do these avail f 
 Oh, take her anguish arid her fears, 
 Into a deep recess of years." WORDSWORTII 
 
 THE arrangement thus effected needed but the consent of the 
 principal party to its immediate operation; and Mr, Wilson 
 was ushered into Vernon s chamber by the ready aid of Dick 
 Jamison. Our hero, though confused by his application as 
 much as by certain medicines which had been administered by 
 Doctor Saunders, was yet not insensible to the advantages in 
 sundry respects which the contemplated removal might afford 
 him. As an invalid, with the possible prospect before him 
 of a protracted illness, it promised that repose and quiet 
 wh ; ch he felt would be grateful, if not necessary to his coudi 
 
THE FOREST REFUGE. 265 
 
 tion ; and when lie reflected on the probability of his being 
 able to secure the main object of his journey, in a quiet pacific 
 manner, and by degrees which would neither startle nor offend, 
 he could not mistake the course which he should at once adopt. 
 But still he hesitated, nay refused ; thanked the old gentle 
 man for his hospitality and consideration made light of his 
 own services previously rendered, and, though in faltering ac 
 cents, declared himself utterly unwilling to transfer the cares 
 of a sick bed, and that too of a stranger, to the household of 
 his friendly visiter, and to the great interruption of its domestic 
 privacy and quiet. 
 
 The nice and jealous sensibility of Harry Vernon was busy 
 to produce this determination ; and feelings which he did not 
 then seek to analyze which he might not at that moment 
 have perceived influenced his declared resolution when all 
 the obvious reasons of his rnind fought against it. He remem 
 bered the lovely daughter of the defaulter; and when he re 
 flected that it might become necessary to expose the crime of 
 the father, he was unwilling to incur the reproaches the prob 
 able and perhaps well-founded hostility of one whose favora 
 ble opinion already grew in his mind the imbodied standard of 
 a becoming excellence. ^ 
 
 But the reluctance of our hero warmed the manner of the old 
 man to something like persuasiveness he urged many good 
 reasons why the patient should consent denied the inconveni 
 ence and annoyance spoke of his own little household com 
 forts and, to sum up all in brief, assured him that his consent 
 alone would make easy the minds of himself and family, since 
 the necessity under which they labored of attending to some 
 pressing interests had compelled them to leave their preserver 
 on a previous occasion, with a seeming indifference to his con 
 dition which might well expose them to the charge of coldness 
 and ingratitude. 
 
 The objections of Vernon gradually vanished when he heard 
 from the lips of the father that such was the argument of his 
 daughter by which he had been moved to the offer; and it 
 needed but the reasseveration of Dr. Saunders that the removal 
 was full of promised benefit and might promote his more speedy 
 restoration, to induce his full consent to the arrangement. 
 
 12 
 
266 BORDKU 
 
 Behold our hero then, faiily admitted as a guest in the dwfi 
 ling of the man whom lie, pursued as a fugitive. 
 
 Two days only had passed since Mr. Wilson find his family 
 had become occupants of the same household. They had pur 
 sued their way to this secluded and lovely spot, with direct 
 steps, from the moment when they left the hospitable dwelling 
 of the rigid methodist. They had reached it late in the even 
 ing of the same day, and the night was too far advanced to en 
 able them to behold the beauties of the locality. But the cot 
 tage, though small, Avas neat, and furnished with a larger atten 
 tion to those things which are classed under the ordinary term 
 " comforts," than was commonly the case in a region so remote 
 from the demands of fashionable society. Virginia Wilson be 
 held on all sides those little items in the shape, of carpet, chim 
 ney ornament, piano and guitar, which, if they do not of them 
 selves secure the happiness of life, at least contribute somewhat to 
 its good humor and content. But the circumstance which chiefly 
 satisfied her on the night of their arrival, was the improved 
 temper and cheerfulness of her father. While on the road, he 
 had exhibited a degree of querulousness and impatience which 
 she had never perceived in him before the commencement of 
 their present journey ; and jjiis temper Avas coupled Avith an 
 air of precipitance and apprehension a seeming distrust of all 
 he met a shrinking that looked like fear from all he encoun 
 tered which filled her OAVH mind with apprehension, and made 
 ner at moments doubtful whether there \vas not something like 
 mental alienation in him a suggestion of her fear which alone 
 seemed sufficient to account for a course of conduct and manner 
 such as he had never shown to her before. 
 
 These had worn away in great degree from the first moment 
 after they had set their feet on their neAA r threshold. The natu 
 ral cheerfulness of the father seemed restored, lie spoke sooth 
 ingly and tenderly, as if desirous to compensate his children for 
 v/hat they had been made to suffer in their journey ; and the 
 fond, pliant hearts of both responded to his cares, and grew 
 glad in the return of those smiles of the parent, which are the 
 sweetest sunshine to the devoted and dutiful child. 
 
 "Virginia, Louisa, my dear children," he exclaimed, folding 
 them in his arms as soon as the first en res and excitements of 
 
THE FOREST REFUGE. 267 
 
 their arrival were over, and when they remained alone together 
 in their little parlor, "we have reached our resting-place at last 
 henceforth, my dear children, this is to he your home. Luc- 
 chesa is one of the loveliest spots on the Mississippi, and I have 
 chosen one of the sweetest spots that surround Lucchesa. Here, 
 Virginia, your rambles will be unimpeded and always beautiful ; 
 the woods are thick and various, and filled with the sweetest 
 flowers ; and you may now pursue your study of botany with 
 more perfect self-approbsttion, since you will find abundant vari 
 eties of subjects to justify your love. And you, Louisa what 
 will you say to these little hills when you shall see them ? 
 They will seem to your eyes, which have never seen any but 
 the dead flats of the low country, to be little less than mountains 
 Your feet will tire to ascend them at first, but after a little 
 while you will grow wild as a kid in your rambles there will 
 be no keeping you in." 
 
 " But, father," said the child, drawing closer to the old man, 
 " the woods are so wild and strange they frighten me there s 
 a strange noise among the big pines, and when I walk among 
 them I hear sounds that seem like the voices of spirits." 
 
 " It is the wind, my child, that shakes the trees, and mur 
 murs when it presses against them as if vexed at being arrested. 
 You will grow used to that, until you learn to like it, as I doubt 
 not your sister does already. What say you, Virginia ?" 
 
 A melancholy, spiritual smile, which passed over the lips and 
 lightened in the eyes of the elder maiden for an instant, was his 
 sufficient answer*, and the father proceeded. 
 
 " Our cottage is not one of the best in Lucchesa, but it was 
 the best that I could buy. We will improve it as we can. You 
 will see in the daylight that it lies on the side of a little- depres 
 sion that we low-country people may almost call a valley. It 
 is so low that you can only see it from the top of the hills ; and 
 the houses of Lucchesa can scarcely be seen at all from the top 
 of ours. We have a little garden, Louisa, and you shall tend 
 the flowers, while I raise the squashes and the potatoes and the 
 cucumbers. Our gallery [piazza] runs round three sides of the 
 house, the north only excepted ; and though we lie in the val 
 ley, we have a sweet and extended prospect of hill-slopes on 
 every side. The woods seem naturally to open into vistas, and 
 
268 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 these 1 will improve, until the cottage sliall ue the centre from 
 which a hundred avenues of sight shall diverge, and into which 
 they shall gather from every point of the compass. But enough 
 of plans for to-night. Louisa, your eyes grow heavy in spite 
 of all I can tell you. Kiss me, my child, and then find out your 
 chamber." 
 
 The child, drowsy, but still striving to be attentive, did as 
 she was bidden. The elder sister was left alone with her 
 father, whose mood grew less cheerful with the absence of the 
 child, and whose manner became far less easy. For a few mo 
 ments a silence that was painful to both succeeded her depart 
 ure. Mr. Wilson rose from his seat and paced the room with 
 emotions that were evidently oppressive. Twice, thrice, did 
 his step falter and seem about to pause as he passed before his 
 daughter, who, with head leaning upon her palm, seemed op 
 pressed with emotions also, which, if not so exciting, were, per 
 haps, scarcely less oppressive than his. At length, as if over 
 coming a strong reluctance, the father stopped beside her, drew 
 a chair, and taking her hand in his, addressed her as follows : 
 
 " Virginia, my dear child, you have said nothing." 
 
 "Father, what should I say what would you have me say?" 
 replied the daughter, the cloudy sadness deepening on her lovely 
 countenance. 
 
 "That you repine not that you are satisfied that you are 
 happy. See you not, my child, that the same paternal love 
 which has striven so much to make you happy before, lias 
 spared nothing here within the compass of the country s re 
 sources to supply what you may have left behind ?" 
 
 "But wherefore are they left behind, my father ? Where 
 fore have we left the home where the same pleasures, if you 
 call them such, were already ours? Was there nothing in the 
 old home to endear us to it was it not endeared to us by the 
 happy life we had led in it was it not endeared to us by the 
 very death of her that beloved mother who made so much 
 of the happiness we have lost whose loss made so much 
 dearer the little we had left ?" 
 
 "And was it not good reason that we should fly, my daugh 
 ter, from a dwelling where we had known that loss ?" 
 
 "Alas^my father, it could not have been for that reason that 
 
THE FOREST REFUGE. 269 
 
 you left our home our home which death itself had seemed to 
 sanctify. Years have passed since that cruel hour of parting, 
 and the pang had passed away in the bitter memory of joys felt 
 without a pang, and the assuring hope which was so cheering to 
 us all, that she who suffered was now sainted beyond suffering. 
 Oh, no ! dearest father, my heart will not hear this reason 
 my mini can not receive it. There must be another cause, and 
 that cause, my father, is one which it doubly grieves me to 
 believe, has made whiter than ever the hair upon your foie- 
 head " 
 
 " Virginia, my child, why will you press me thus ?" cried the 
 father, striding hastily along the floor, with his hands clasped 
 above his eyes, as if to shut from sight the mournful and in 
 quiring expression of her countenance. 
 
 " Because I am a child no longer," was her reply, as, darting 
 from her seat, she rushed toward him, and, catching one of his 
 hands in both of hers, sunk upon her knees with a passionate 
 manner which well accompanied the earnest and emphatic lan 
 guage which she employed, and which, while clinging to him, 
 she continued to pour forth. 
 
 " Because I am a child no longer I am a grown woman 
 I can both think and feel. I can surely understand the sor 
 rows that I still must share, and if I understand, my father, may 
 I not help to relieve them ? Were my dear mother living, I 
 should look to her for the truth when sorrow troubled and dan 
 ger followed your footsteps ; but in her absence I must take her 
 place, and I implore, nay, I claim it as my right, my father 
 to know what grief, what threatening danger, has driven us to 
 this wilderness, where the forests are yet almost as wild as at 
 their birth ; where we have no society, and where we see no 
 friends." 
 
 "And can it be for the absence of society nay, can it be 
 even for the loss of friends, Avhen her father and her sister are 
 still left her that I hear these questions that I witness this 
 affliction of my daughter?" was the answer an answer, the 
 burden of which did not represent the real conviction in the 
 father s mind, but which enabled him to evade the more search 
 ing inquiries which the first portion of her speech had eon- 
 veyed. 
 
270 HUUDEU 
 
 "No!" she exclaimed, rising to her feet, "as Heaven is my 
 help and hope, dear father, I answer No ! It is not the little 
 circle which I have left, nor the few friends for whom I haul 
 sympathy and attachment, that gives me cause of sorrow, how 
 ever their loss may at moments occasion feelings of regret ; 
 nor is the wilderness into which we have wandered so uncon 
 genial to my tastes and habits as to provoke inquietude and an 
 noyance. I think not of these in the conviction that you are 
 unhappy that a secret cause of dread and danger hangs about 
 you which makes you so often heedless of my love and indif 
 ferent to my endearments. Nay, shake not your head, my 
 father that smile does not deceive me. You require me to be 
 happy, to be at ease, and find satisfaction arid pleasure in the 
 dwelling which you have found in Lucchesa, and the comforts 
 which your customary care has gathered about us. I answer 
 you that I will, so soon afc I find that you derive pleasure and 
 content from the same sources. Let me see you at ease, and 
 you shall find me so ; but while your brow is clouded while 
 your air and movements denote a secret apprehension of evil, I 
 can not but share the cloud" upon your brow, and my apprehen 
 sions grow only the greater because I can neither see nor 
 guard against the coming of the danger which you fear. Let me 
 know all, my father. Give me the knowledge of this mystery 
 for there is mystery and rely upon me to soothe your sor 
 rows, though I may not avert their cause. Rely upon me to 
 share those griefs with satisfaction which now bring me nothing 
 but terror and despondency." 
 
 "You know not what you ask, my child!" cried the father, 
 hoarsely. " What if I should answer ? What if, foolishly 
 persuaded by your entreaties, I should reveal the cause of my 
 sorrows nay, to silence you at once, what if my revelations 
 brought you shame along with sorrow ? Ha ! do you shrink 
 do you tremble? Would you still hear Virginia, would you 
 still listen to a narration of guilt, which would make your sor 
 row less endurable ? Speak ! shall I now relate what you have 
 been so curious to hear 1" 
 
 "Guilt!" exclaimed the daughter, with feeble accents and a 
 shrinking, sinking pain. "No! no! It can not be there is 
 no guilt there can be no shame. These are cruel words, my 
 
THE FOilEbT ilLFUGK. 271 
 
 father; do not again speak tliem, I implore yon forgive me,, 
 forgive me but you were so serious just now, when you spoke, 
 that I almost believed you. Tell me your afflictions, but tell 
 me not that there is guilt and shame, which, indeed, I well 
 know there can not be. 
 
 " Enough ! Press me not further, Virginia," continued the 
 father, recovering his calmness in some degree, and, with some 
 effort, smoothing the excited expression of those features, which, 
 almost convulsed a moment before, had nearly convinced his 
 daughter of the truth of the general confession he had made. 
 " I trust that you will never know that guilt or shame could be 
 coupled with your father s memory and image -" 
 
 "And yet, my father, this change of name." 
 
 She spoke with tremulous accents, and a renewal of that look 
 of shrinking apprehensiveness which denoted the bewildered 
 state of her judgment, warring with her feelings and desires; 
 unwilling to believe aught that could degrade or lessen the 
 worth of one whom she was no less bound to venerate than 
 willing to love, and yet the mystery of whose conduct left her 
 utterly doubtful in which direction to incline her faith. 
 
 " Policy, my daughter, need have no association with either 
 guilt or shame," replied the father, evasively, and by a general 
 remark, to which there could be no exception as such. " When 
 I tell you," he continued, " that the assumption of another 
 name is necessary to my present interests, you are not to imply 
 anything dishonorable or unworthy in the change. There are 
 motives which justify there are reasons which make it neces 
 sary." 
 
 " Ah, my father, but there are no reasons which should make 
 you deny your confidence to your daughter," was the prompt 
 reply. She, at once, seized upon the true and only point at 
 issue between them, which she urged with as great a degree of 
 earnestness as became the relationship between them. 
 
 " I believe you that there are motives which require you to 
 do this ; but, surely, my dear father, you can neither deny my 
 interest in a knowledge of these motives, nor my prudence in 
 reserving them from exposure as carefully as yourself. Give to 
 my love, dear father, that reliance which it has evermore given 
 to you," 
 
272 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 "You ask too much, Virginia ; you are yet but a child to me 
 There are many things which are neither becoming nor neces 
 sary for a woman to know which, indeed, she could not know 
 
 could not understand. It is enough that this is one of there 
 
 let me hear no more of this." 
 "Father!" 
 
 "Nay, my child, I mean not to be stern I would not be 
 angry biit this is a point upon which you are too earnest - 
 too much disposed to insist of which you speak too fre 
 quently." 
 
 "It is only because it is a constant thought, my father a 
 painful thought a doubt a fear." 
 
 " Let it be so no longer, my child. Do you not see that I 
 have grown cheerful since I have reached Lucchesa ? You 
 do not see me apprehensive now that we are in a place of 
 safety." 
 
 " Safety !" was the natural exclamation. " And was the 
 danger then so near us ?" 
 
 " Nay, how can you ask, Virginia, when but three days ago 
 we all lay at the mercy of a gang of robbers ?" 
 
 A deep sigh escaped from the lips of the serious maiden, but 
 she said nothing. She saw that her father strove to deceive 
 her, and she forbore any further reference to a topic which he 
 was so anxious to exclude, even at the expense of truth. He 
 saw her conjecture and sickened as he did so ; but he could say 
 little or nothing to remove it ; and conscious of his feebleness 
 in this respect, and of the inadequacy of any art or argument, 
 short of a frank confession, to do away with her apprehensions, 
 he resorted to the humbler policy of seeking to divert her mind 
 by reference to other objects. With a general knowledge of 
 the feminine nature, in certain minor respects, such as their love 
 for petty pleasures, he strove to engage her mind in such mat 
 ters as might amuse rather than employ it. But in this, he 
 soon perceived, from the quiet indifference of her answers, that 
 he must fail ; and tired of his task, and dissatisfied with him 
 self, he forbore all further effort, and the lateness of the hour 
 oon furnished a sufficient reason for their separation for the 
 evening. 
 
 Virginia Wilson retired tn ]jo-v couch, but sleep was slow tt 
 
THE FOREST REFUGE. 273 
 
 visit her that night. Her heart was too much filled with the 
 mysterious circumstances which hung around her father her 
 mind too much troubled with the apprehensions which had 
 harassed him for several preceding weeks to suffer the velvet- 
 footed deity to approach her without warning, and to obtain 
 facile possession, at an early hour, of his accustomed dominion. 
 The night waned slowly, while a thousand thoughts and con 
 jectures, chasing each other with as much rapidity, if not with 
 as many startling transitions, as the images that flit over the 
 magic glass of the wizard, made her mind a populous world, 
 where all was commotion and much was strife. She thought, 
 with unspeakable anguish, of the reserve of her father on those 
 circumstances, evidently momentous, which had troubled him, 
 and still troubled him, though, under their terrors, he had sought 
 safety in a region still wild, and still the abode of so much that 
 was barbarous. 
 
 What were those circumstances 1 and had he indeed found 
 the safety which he admitted had been the object of his aim? 
 These were questions that did not cease to afflict her, because 
 she lacked all means for their solution. She could only hope 
 and pray she could only resolve to assume a cheerfulness 
 which she could not feel, and to drive from her mind, by the 
 acquisition of an early interest in the strange world to which 
 she had been brought, that more grateful region to which she 
 had been accustomed. This was, perhaps, the least of the 
 mental difficulties in the way of Virginia Wilson. Hers was 
 one of those commanding intellects that depend little upon the 
 mere externals of society for their comforts and enjoyments 
 that make place and fortune subordinate considerations in an 
 estimate of life s resources and rewards ; and require peace of 
 mind and confidence of heart in their own, and the purity of 
 those with whom their lot is cast, rather than the praise of man 
 or the plenty and profusion, which, to so large a portion of man 
 kind, constitute the " be all" and the " end all" of existence. 
 The wilderness had no terrors, but many charms ; and to one 
 who has seen quite as much of the superficial worthlessness and 
 empty vanity of society, as of its harmony and grace, it was no 
 difficult matter to find a charm in solitude which more than 
 atoned for the fleeting pleasures sue had lost. Under the c&~~ 
 
 JJT 
 
274 
 
 liUKDEK 
 
 of such a mind as hers, and surveyed through the medium of 
 such sweet affections as ministered around the altars of her un 
 selfish heart, the wilderness could soon be made to blossom as 
 the rose. But the dread of that nameless danger which fol 
 lowed the footsteps of her only living parent, haunted her 
 thoughts with a continual presence. She estimated the powers 
 of this danger from the terrors which had possessed her father 
 mind, and the very failure of conjecture to answer the doubts 
 of her constant inquiry, was of itself a source of wo, which 
 made her misery the greater. 
 
 Still, it had never possessed her mind until the evening of her 
 arrival in Lucchesa, and until the occurrence of that conversa 
 tion with her father, a portion of which is briefly reported above, 
 that there could be any shame or disgrace in connection with 
 the necessity which had driven him from his home. It u ill be 
 remembered with what earnestness and pleading anguish she 
 had exclaimed against the brief and passing suggestion of her 
 father, that guilt and shame were coupled with his sorrows. 
 This hint though afterward evaded and denied by Mr. Wil 
 son, when he beheld the effects upon his child, to whom he did 
 not dare communicate the truth yet took possession of her 
 mind, when the silence and secrecy of her chamber left her at 
 liberty to re-examine the subject; and when she recurred to 
 the secret and precautionary measures which her father had 
 taker, for his flight from Orleans the indirectness of his course 
 the change of name the constant apprehensions which 
 harassed him, making him as imbecile in resolution as they 
 made him acute in observation her fears, faint and shadowy at 
 first, grew into distinctness, and acquired new bulk and body 
 with every additional moment of reflection. 
 
 She could now, and for the first time, readily conceive the 
 motive for flight and fear, for that startling terror which at mo. 
 ments enfeebled his limbs and covered him with tremors 
 which made his voice .sound hollow in hia throat which made 
 his eye shrink to encounter even the fond and affectionate gaze of 
 hers ; and which, in the dialogue already briey given, had moved 
 him to those few but incoheu>m expressions, convulsively ut 
 tered, which could only have found their way to the lips of one 
 laboring under insanity or guilt. That he was not insane she 
 
Tilt; l-OKi->.l 11LFUGK. -." 
 
 knew tli.it In; \vns guilty, the fear was rapidly growing into a 
 
 faith within her. But of what was lie guilty ? Strange to say, 
 the difficulty became as great as ever when she reached this 
 stage of conjecture, or conviction ; and, after a vain effort, by a 
 reconsideration of all the subjects attending his movements 
 from Orleans, to arrive at such hypotheses of the particular 
 crime for which he fled, as would seem reasonable to her 
 thought, she gave up the effort in sheer exhaustion, not without 
 a lurking dread that, in a moment of passion, he might have 
 stricken some enemy to the ground, and forfeited his own life 
 in atonement for that of his fellow. Not for a single instant 
 did she fancy that he had been faithless to his public trust 
 that he had incurred the scorn of all good men through a misera 
 ble appetite for gold. 
 
 Still, though dismissing, as well as she might, the distresses 
 of her father s situation from her thoughts, she found it difficult 
 to win the slumbers that she wooed. Her mind had been too 
 much excited by events and scenes which were new to the even 
 and unbroken currents of her ordinary existence, to sink into 
 quiet and leave her to repose ; and the new world in which she 
 found herself, and the circumstances, some of them exciting and 
 startling enough, which had occurred on their journey, called 
 for brief review. Some of these were like a dream the flitting 
 shadow of a disordered image, such as gathers before the eye 
 of a drowsy fancy, and fills the mind with conflicting impres 
 sions. Yet there was one image that lay at the bottom of all 
 others which rose last to her survey, and lingered long after 
 all the rest had departed which was neither indistinct nor 
 imperfect which stood proudly and nobly before the eye of 
 her imagination, and on the pure tablets of her memory alone, 
 unmixed with any other form or fancy a controlling, com 
 manding, imperial presence. This was the image of Vernon. 
 She saw him once more as, bounding from the wood, he rushed 
 forward without fear to the rescue of her father. She heard 
 the clear, silvery accents of his voice, sweet, though stern, ac 
 he shouted to his companion to follow, and to the robbers as he 
 pursued. She beheld the grace of all his movements, as, bend 
 ing in the saddle, he passed the carriage at full spp,ed in ehise 
 of the assailants, though already wounded ; ana a sudaen 
 
276 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 tremor was renewed at her heart, as she remembered his faint 
 accents when he returned, and when, sinking down before her 
 in the road, he lay unconscious until they reached the dwel 
 ling of the methodist a noble specimen of manly grace and 
 beauty. Not a single feature that her eye scanned at that 
 moment, but rose to her memory with the distinctness of life ; 
 and, with a sentiment of fluttering pleasure at her heart, 
 strangely mingled up with that sadness which is ever the com 
 panion of devoted love, she continued to muse upon the events 
 connected with his presence, until thought subsided into sleep, 
 and her dreams renewed, under various aspects of pain and 
 pleasure, the images and events which she had been last re 
 viewing. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 AN INTERESTING QUEST A LONG LETTER OUR HERO 
 
 WARMS TO NEW ADVENTURES. 
 
 "More particulars must justify my knowledge." Cymbeline. 
 
 VIRGINIA rose the next morning with better spirits. Her 
 " bosom s lord" sat somewhat lightlier upon its throne. Sleep 
 had refreshed and strengthened her, and those dreams, those 
 sweet, vague, twilight fancies that came so commended to her 
 heart by their association with its own, as yet unexpressed de 
 sires, had given a warmer glow to her cheek than it wore on 
 the preceding evening. How soon youth relieves itself from 
 the pressure and weight of most afflictions with what elas 
 ticity it springs from the earth, and shakes off the dew and the 
 despondency, and laughs aloud in the consciousness of a new 
 birth, as it prepares, like the swif arising sun, to set forth on 
 the glorious race of life. Sorrow to the young is only one of 
 those shadows that momentarily cloud the skies. Wait but the 
 morrow nay, wait but a single hour and the cloud has 
 passed away, the sun resumes his empire of light and laughter 
 an<J universal ^tom si io;*. : the star* }:?; out. a fresher sou** >f 
 
AN INTERESTING GUEST. 27? 
 
 rejoicing at tlie coining of the moon-browed night; and i!; 
 recollection of storm passes away from the reviving spirit with 
 the succeeding glories of every changing moment. True though 
 it be, that memory may preserve the pain nay, the pain it 
 self may still lurk within the heart and yet, it is as a memory 
 only there is no venom in the wound. The pure of heart 
 sooner than any other, relieve themselves from the heavier pres 
 sure of their burdens. Like Christian in Bunyan, every additional 
 step, advancing up the hills of virtue, diminishes the weight of 
 that bundle which the best of us are still compelled to carry. 
 
 The cheerfulness of the maiden was increased as she found 
 an improvement in her father s mood and bearing. He had 
 resumed the old smiles which he was accustomed to wear in 
 those more palmy days of the heart to all parties, when fortune 
 smiled upon his household, and indiscretion had not as yet pre 
 pared the way for guilt. The gloomy humors, which had made 
 contact with him for the last few weeks unpleasant, even to a 
 daughter so dutiful as Virginia, were seemingly all dissipated ; 
 and before breakfast was well over, the redumption of old as 
 pects in the little family, gradually had the effect of softening 
 what was strange, and providing what was deficient, in their 
 place of forest retreat. 
 
 The cares of the new household the work of order occu 
 pied the morning, and employment is a choice morality, as it 
 promotes content. The furniture was to be arranged ; the pic 
 tures to be hung; the curtains raised; the carpets laid, and a 
 thousand little matters to be attended to, which employed all 
 parties, and prevented that brooding gnawing thought, which is 
 quite as frequently the growth of the body s idleness as of the 
 mind s activity. Then, there was the little garden to be looked 
 at, and plans were to be hit upon for disposing of its solid 
 squares, and cutting into angles, crescents, stars and circles, i!& 
 dead and uniform levels. To survey the little farm in its whole 
 extent, was the business of an hour, and dinner-time approached 
 with a rapidity which was unaccountable to all. After dinner 
 the carriage was prepared for a drive about the environs of 
 Lucchesa; and in a better mood for appreciating the beauty of 
 rural objects than she had been for weeks before, Virginia took 
 her seat in the airy vehicle, from which the travelling top had 
 
278 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 IKM-U removed, and prepared, with the more easily delighted 
 Louisa, to see all the charms of scenery of which her father s 
 taste anid previous knowledge of the region, made him a very 
 able cicerone. 
 
 We have already afforded to the reader a brief and passing 
 glimpse of Lucchesa, on the approach of Vernon to that lovely 
 village. It will not surely be supposed necessary that we 
 should endeavor to dilate upon this portion of our labors ; since, 
 with a few small and partial exceptions, most country-villages 
 linve the same general outlines. Yet, as we have sakl before, 
 Lucchesa was a village among a thousand, and st<.od almost 
 alone in many respects among most of the little villages of 
 Mississippi. 
 
 The general aspects of a social settlement in countries purely 
 agricultural, are seldom very pleasing. The proprietors of the 
 land are better pleased to centre around themselves, on their 
 own plantations, their resources and attractions. These persons 
 seldom dwell in communities, and villages are, accordingly, 
 with few exceptions, given up to such only as ply the arts of 
 trade, and subserve, in some central spot, the wants and wishes 
 of a populous surrounding country. As this surrounding country 
 is thickly or sparsely settled as it is rich or poor will be the 
 moral and social characteristics of the village which looks to it 
 for support. The occupants are usually such as need has 
 driven. They are not often natives of the neighborhood for 
 which they toil ; and until very lately, but few tradesmen were 
 known in the southern country, who did not " hail from" New 
 England or New York. The exceptions to this general rule 
 were, perhaps, the blacksmith or the wheelwright. The Yankee 
 adventurer is seldom a laborer. He is a trader, a tavernkeeper, 
 a tailor, a pedler he will do anything that will enable him to 
 avoid those heavier toils that call for great muscular activity 
 and power. He is a jobber, a contriver, a calculator, an inven 
 tor one of that cunning class, which, like the fox, takes good 
 care always to employ another s fingers to draw his nuts out 
 of the five. 
 
 It demanded brief time for our party .to see the whole extent 
 of the little settlement; and this done, as the afternoon was 
 only half spent, the ride was prolonged by a short ramble in 
 
AN INTERESTING CUKST, 270 
 
 the neighboring- country. They had but ;i little while returm-.*] 
 from this ride before they were apprized by a talkative African, 
 who was employed as a sort of gardener, of the events which 
 had taken place at the tavern the arrest of Vernon his sup 
 posed attempt to escape, and the injuries which he receive* 1 
 from the officers in consequence. 
 
 The tale did not lose in the usual exaggerations, nor was it 
 quite so briefly narrated as it appears in this passage. It 
 might be easy for us to let Cudjo speak for himself, as ?t is so 
 favorite a custom with so many of our authors to make the 
 negro a conspicuous actor in their scenes; and we see no good 
 reason why a negro who speaks better English, and wears 
 breeches, should not be quite as decent a personage in a mod. 
 ern novel, as a naked Highlander. Besides, Cudjo was an 
 actor, and his animated gestures and fitting action might be a 
 very good lesson to many of more pretension and a less impo 
 sing color, who have greater rights, and make more use of them 
 to the great annoyance of deliberative assemblies. He com 
 menced his story with a serious bluster; something like the 
 manner of a northwester in its first approaches. The restraints, 
 self-imposed upon his manner at first, were only intended to 
 heighten the Kean-like outbreaks toward the close. He was, 
 according to the prevailing rules among the stage-stricken 
 heroes, simply reserving his powers for the fifth act and 
 when he reached the part where he proceeded to show the con 
 flict between Vernon and the officers when he described their 
 joint rush upon him, and the descending blow of the Iris].- 
 man s shillelah he did it with such terrific truth, that Vir 
 ginia screamed aloud, and Mr. Wilson, grasping the arm of the 
 negro, demanded to know if the y-outh was killed. 
 ^ But to this question he could obtain no satisfactory answer. 
 Ottdjo knew, indeed, well enough, but like a prudent narrator, 
 he drew the curtain over the scene at that point when the doubt 
 was most oppressive. He knew no more he would tell no 
 more but confined himself, when more particularly examined, 
 to simple reiterations of the part into which he had studiously 
 thrown his greatest powers; and the renewal of which no per 
 suasion could move him to forego. He knew his -strong ground, 
 ana was resolved to make the most of it; the more particularly 
 
280 
 
 UOUDKit 
 
 when lie found that he l.atl acquired, as well from the burden 
 of his story as from his manner of telling it, a fearful interest 
 in the eyes of his young mistress. 
 
 The agitation and alarm of Virginia Wilson were great, but 
 natural enough ; and while her father stood looking with equal 
 surprise and indecision upon the reiterated gestures of the 
 slave, which were made to supply those breaks in his story 
 where his language was imperfect or incomprehensible, she 
 clasped her father s arm, motioned his dismissal of the negro, 
 and proceeded, though trembling witli emotions of no ordinary 
 character, to remind him of the duties which lay before him. 
 
 " You must seek this gentleman, my father. He has saved 
 us in a moment of great danger, at the peril of his own life. 
 You can only atone for the seeming indifference with which 
 you left him, sick and wounded, at Mr. Badger s, by attending 
 to him now." 
 
 " How attending to him, Virginia ? I am no doctor." 
 
 "Oh, sir! Oh, my father!" 
 
 "Yes I don t see, Virginia, what we are to do." 
 
 "Oh, sir, but you can not help seeing. He is at this tavern 
 you know not in what condition. If he be seriously hurt, 
 you must provide the physician, and bring him to your 
 house." 
 
 " What ! here, my child ?" 
 
 " Yes, sir, here. What can the sick man expect of comfort 
 in a public tavern in one where he can have no attendance?" 
 
 "And what attendance can he have here, Virginia, more than 
 from a physician ?" 
 
 "Your attendance mine Louisa s the attendance of a 
 private family having more comforts at command, and acknowl 
 edging a debt of gratitude to this youth, whose weakness, and 
 sickness, and injuries may all arise from the very part which he 
 took in our rescue. He is charged with murder and what mur 
 der can it be but that of the man whom he killed in preserving 
 us? It is your duty to preserve, and to succor, and to defend 
 him. Your evidence, alone, may save him from the punishment 
 of that deed, for the justification of which no one can offer bet 
 ter proof than yourself. Go to him, my father, bring him to 
 your own house, and see to his injuries. Our utmost paina 
 
AN INTERESTING GUEST. 281 
 
 will scarcely acquit us of llic deep debt of gratitude we o\\ o> him 
 and for which we could not even before bestow our thanks." 
 
 We have seen the result of this interview between the reluc 
 tant father, and the resolute and well-minded daughter. She 
 gained her object, though not without finding considerable 
 difficulty in the coldness and the fears of the conscious criminal. 
 The very name of a sheriff s officer distressed him ; the idea of 
 absolute personal contact with them filled him with apprehen 
 sions ; and, when Virginia suggested the probable importance 
 of his testimony in the youth s defence, the image of the keen- 
 eyed magistrate, looking into his own secret soul, reawakened 
 the terrors which beset him on his flight. 
 
 But the maiden s mind was too firmly impressed with the 
 conviction of what was due by her father for himself and his 
 children to the daring stranger, and she was too happy, even 
 in. spite of the youth s sufferings, that the chance was afforded 
 them to remove the impression from his mind, that they per 
 haps, if the truth were properly written, it would read she 
 had been ungrateful, in so speedily flying from one who had 
 done them such good service, without speaking their acknowl 
 edgments nay, without ministering to those hurts which he 
 had suffered in their defence. 
 
 And yet, when her father had departed on his mission of 
 humanity, her heart began to tremble with some new misgiv 
 ings. Had she not been too urgent in this business had she 
 not overstepped the nice boundaries of maidenly modesty in 
 pressing for the admission of this young man into her father s 
 dwelling ? Might not the tavern be as good as any other place 
 for his recovery as full of aids and comforts? And, again, 
 what if he were not a gentleman ? A man might be brave and 
 generous enough to risk his own life- for the succor of a stran 
 ger, yet lack all those more estimable points of character, which 
 would entitle him to the freedom of a family to an ent. ee into 
 its sacred retreats to a seat beside its hearth to the minis 
 tering cares of its daughters. 
 
 But such was not the case with Vernon. Her convictions 
 fought earnestly against this suggestion. Her arguments were 
 such as, naturally enough, rise uppermost in the mind of the 
 young, the beautiful, the .-iiniable. and true. He was himself 
 
i 
 
 -<S j BORDER JJKACLKs. 
 
 young, and his faro, distinguished by the clear Rkin and featurea 
 of a nice symmetry, wore an expression too unequivocally noble 
 and manly, even while his eyes were closed in the swooning 
 fit which had overcome him during their brief ride to the hmisp 
 of Badger, to suffer her to suppose him wanting in those advan 
 tages of birth, education, and a proper taste and character, with 
 which her hoping fancy had already endowed him. He, too, 
 rnnst be true and amiable; and with this satisfactory conclusion 
 to her thoughts and doubts, it was still surprising to herself 
 why her heart should so flutter and beat, when she listened to 
 her father s narrative after his return, and when she knew that 
 the youth was already an inmate of the house. 
 
 But the agitation of her heart passed away when she was in 
 formed of his condition when she learned that his hurt ren 
 dered it necessary that he should be kept in a state of the 
 utmost quiet, lest the delirium which had already shown itself 
 partially in his words and actions, should be increased to an 
 extent which might baffle the powers of medicine. It was then 
 that she became the woman that she threw off the enfeebling 
 apprehensions and fancies of the girl, and, following her father 
 to the chamber of the patient, prepared to assist in the labors 
 of the nurse. 
 
 The position in which Virginia found herself was an intoxi 
 cating one. The strong man, whose gallantry had saved her 
 father and herself, lay before her, an unconscious dependent. 
 To her feeble strength and whispered will, he could oppose 
 neither strength nor will. She could look upon his pale face, 
 and the subdued and silent features, without challenging a re 
 turning glance. She could hear the feeble moan and incoherent 
 sentence that fell from his lips, and without being startled by a 
 single consciousness of the exquisite delicacy of her own posi 
 tion. While he lay helpless and delirious, her emotions were 
 all of that serene order which belong to the undisturbed per 
 formance of a single duty. There was nothing to alarm her 
 sensibilities nothing to make her look too narrowly into the 
 propriety of her position, or the seeming tenderness of that re 
 gard which, she persuaded herself, was the due of gratitude 
 of humanity anything, in short, but the ministrations of love. 
 
 The affections of women are usually unselfish. They love 
 
AN TXTERKSTIXr. CUTEST. 288 
 
 the more profoundly, the move they scrv<>. Their love grows 
 with their labors with their toil tor the beloved and, the 
 idea of all injustice or oppression excluded, their passion is pro 
 portionately increase! 1 by their cares. To be allowed to serve 
 is, with them, to love the object of their devotion. It is for 
 man to show himself grateful for the service; this, perhaps, in 
 the warmth of their devoted homage, is the utmost that they 
 ask. Yet, even when this acknowledgment is withheld, the 
 greater number of them will still continue the service. The 
 service itself, to the dependent spirit, is a joy; and they will 
 ask little more than the vine that only prays the privilege to 
 be suffered to cling around the tree. Perhaps, ihe heart of the 
 woman who has once loved, will only cease to love when it is 
 denied to cling and to entwine itself. Even when there is no 
 returning caress, the sufferance of love will still be a sweet 
 privilege to the very dependent spirit. How many are there 
 who enjoy no more than this how many more are there who 
 merit, much more than man, that unceasing homage which wo 
 men are suffered only to bestow ! 
 
 It might have been that Virginia Wilson would have soon 
 forgotten Vernon, had they not a second time encountered. 
 Love is not a thing of first sight, though first impressions, con 
 firmed by a subsequent favorable knowledge of the object, will 
 very commonly ripen into love. However favorable had been 
 the impressions made upon Virginia by the appearance of the 
 handsome stranger, changing scenes, objects, and circumstances, 
 must soon have erased them, or subdued the vivid colors in 
 which they were first made. But the cares of tendance upon 
 the sick-bed of the youth the deep and difficult respiration of 
 his breast, laboring under the fever which assailed him his 
 languid but incoherent utterance the occasional moan and 
 whisper which escaped his lips, and those broken words which 
 had a meaning she would have given worlds to understand 
 these were all circumstances which, as they denoted his depend 
 ence upon her, increased her interest in him ; and no hours 
 were more sweet, during the time of his illness, than those in 
 which she was suffered to watch beside his couch. 
 
 Sut the crisis was soon over a few days effected a favora 
 ble change the retur: .ing consciousness of the patient, in free- 
 
284 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 ing her from her attendance-, deprived Lor of the sweet privi 
 lege which his situation had afforded ; and the languid eyes of 
 Vernon looked round him vainly and impatiently for that love 
 ly countenance of which he had some sweet and partial glimpses 
 in the intervals of his disease. 
 
 In place of these, he encountered no forms more interesting 
 than those of Mr. Wilson, or the little Louisa, or the sturdy 
 Alabamian, or the more wily Saxon, the outlaw both of these 
 last being necessarily admitted to visit at the house of Wilson, 
 us friends of the invalid. 
 
 As Vernon grew better, his anxieties at his situation were 
 renewed. He felt the difficulties increase of declaring his true 
 character, as the agent of justice, to his hospitable entertainer; 
 and the annoying character of this feeling was not a little height 
 ened as he looked upon the bewitching grace, and encountered 
 the timid glances of his lovely daughter. There was another 
 circumstance that also afflicted him. He could not mistake the 
 interest with which the keen eyes of Saxon followed the move 
 ments of Virginia Wilson ; nor suppress the involuntary pang 
 with which he listened to the language of the outlaw, subdued, 
 jonciliatory, yet free ana graceful, which he held with her. 
 Saxon, too, sometimes enjoyed a privilege, which, in Vernon s 
 eeble state, was necessarily denied to him. He could attend 
 > er in those afternoon walks, when the sun, sinking behind the 
 forests, left only a few glimmering tokens of his light to soften 
 the scene, and beguile the musing and melancholy spirit into 
 groves, which, shady, sweet and solitary, seemed, more than all 
 other scenes beside, to harmonize kindred spirits, and bring 
 them into a more near communion with each other. Vernon, 
 he knew not why himself, felt uneasy at these rambles. Not 
 that they were frequent. Had he been a just as well as a close 
 observer, he would have discovered that, on those evenings when 
 Saxon returned with the maiden from her walk, she always came 
 back at a much earlier hour, and her reserve was no less obvious 
 than the obtrusive attention of her companion. Could he have 
 been permitted a glance at them in their rambles, he would 
 have been as much struck with the cold courtesy of her tones 
 in replying to her companion, and the evident unwillingness 
 wlich she displayed to receive those thousand little attentions 
 
AN INTERESTING GUEST. 285 
 
 ivhich are so apt, where the parties incline to each other, to 
 sweeten the dull ramble, and shorten the prolonged paths of the 
 forest. 
 
 But Vemon already watched all things with eyes readily 
 disposed to see them through a false medium, and a spirit that 
 conjectured the worst of all things which it is not permitted t< 
 see. His inability to share in the rambles of the maiden neccs 
 sarily increased his apprehensions of the more fortunate persoi! 
 who happened to be her companion; and his distrust of the 
 outlaw, which had been a sort of instinct, making him reluctant 
 to assimilate with that person from the first, was now height 
 ened to a feeling of positive dislike, as he contemplated the 
 superior advantages which he possessed, and dreaded the 
 events which might spring out of them. 
 
 Assuming that the attentions of Saxon were as grateful to 
 Virginia as they seemed imposing in his own eyes, he suffered 
 his annoyance to show itself, sometimes, in a cold glance and 
 colder speech to the maiden herself, at moments when the jeal 
 ous fit was particularly active in his bosom; and it was only 
 by a strong and resolute exercise of that manly sense, which 
 was the prevailing characteristic of his mind, that he could see, 
 and seek to repair, by an immediate change of deportment, the 
 brutality of which he felt himself guilty. On such occasions 
 her eyes would sink to the floor her voice, which had urged 
 its inquiry in a tremulous tone, that might have conveyed a 
 grateful meaning to the heart of any lover, not blinded and 
 made obtuse by other and perverse feelings, would become 
 silent ; and she would seize an early opportunity to retire from 
 the eyes of all, and in the solitude of her chamber pore over 
 those mysterious emotions which oppressed her, without rem 
 edy ; and wonder at the excitement in her heart, for which S!M 
 felt unable to account. Why had the words of Vernon sn -L 
 power over her ? Why did she shrink from his gentler glance; 
 why did she suffer at his cold ones? Why was it such a 
 pleasure to hear that voice, the sounds of which yet made her 
 tremble? It was not long before circumstances provided hei 
 with a reply. 
 
 Meanwhile, Vernon improved hourly, and the attendance of 
 the physician ceased to be necessary. The hour was a- 
 
BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 proaching when the officers of the law would claim their pris 
 oner, though this conviction was productive of more disquietude 
 in his mind because of the pleasant communion which it was 
 destined to disturb, than because of any danger in which his 
 arrest promised to involve him. That he should be seriously 
 made to answer for the death of Horsey, he did not suffer him 
 self to tli ink for an instant; yet, he did not, because of his con 
 fidence in himself, neglect those duties, the performance of 
 which arose out of his present situation. He prepared letters 
 to his friend and patron, Carter, giving a succinct detail of his 
 wanderings and adventures, up to the very moment of his wri 
 ting, omitting no event which might be held worthy of commu 
 nication, excepting such details as belonged to the conferences 
 which he had had with Badger and Rawlinfr ^n the subject of 
 the banded robbers of the country. On this head he deemed it 
 prudent to forbear all remark in a letter which was to be in 
 trusted to the ordinary post ; particularly, indeed, as Carter 
 was not greatly interested in any such matters. With respect 
 to the fate of Horsey, he related all that had reached him and 
 all that he knew detailed the chief particulars of their dia 
 logues where they threw any light upon the purposes or course 
 of that erratic youth, described the circumstances under which 
 they parted, and, after relating the affair of young Mabry, and 
 the assault of the latter upon himself, suggested a surmise 
 which he would yet have willingly forborne that this young 
 man himself might have been the murderer ; for the probabili 
 ties strongly inclined to this opinion. 
 
 "I know," he continued "I know, my dear sir, that you 
 will not need my solemn assurance which I yet make that 
 my hands are utterly guiltless of this young man s death. I 
 trust to make this appear in my examination before the justice, 
 and I am scarcely less anxious that you should do your best to 
 convince his worthy old parents to the same effect. Next to 
 the pain of this most humiliating situation in which I find my 
 self, is the deep sorrow which I should ever feel at incurring, 
 however unjustly, the suspicions of the good people whose 
 kindness to me was not the less grateful to my heart, because 
 *t was comparatively unimportant to my interests. I must pray 
 V " then to spare no effort, by an array of all the favorable 
 
AN INTERESTING GUEST. -87 
 
 facts which you possess, and a careful display of those argu 
 ments which you understand as well as myself, and which con 
 clusively establish the folly and impolicy of such a deed, to 
 acquit me, in their eyes, of the cruel imputation. I write," he 
 continued, " from the house of William Maitland, himself, with 
 whose family I have been an inmate for the last five days. I 
 am in part indebted to his hospitable care for my improved 
 health and recovery from my hurts. As yet he knows nothing 
 of me, of my connection with you, or of my objects. My de 
 velopment of the latter, in such a manner as to effect your gen 
 erous intentions toward his children both of whom are females 
 -and to escape the reproach of requiting good with evil, shall 
 be my study between this and the period, when, in compliance 
 with the demands of the officers of justice, I shall be compelled 
 to leave him. My position is one of considerable delicacy, and 
 my course, therefore, must be the result of a calm and serious 
 consideration." 
 
 Such was a portion of the elaborate letter which Vernon. pre 
 pared for the perusal of his guardian. Could it be imputed as 
 insincerity, or an improper suppression of necessary particulars, 
 that the writer said not a word more on the subject of those 
 children of Ellen Taylor, in whom Carter had such a prevailing 
 interest, and to whom he was disposed to exhibit a degree of 
 generosity no less novel than extreme ? Vernon s own coiir 
 science smote him for the suppression of particulars which he 
 knew must interest his patron to know ; but he strove in vain 
 to overcome a reluctance, the sources of which he was unwilling 
 to examine. 
 
 He was yet writing, when he heard the fall of a light foot 
 step passing through the gallery. He knew the step; and he 
 hurried to the window with a movement, which, in his feeble 
 state, it required some effort to make. His eyes followed the 
 slowly moving form the form of perfect symmetry the 
 movement of perfect grace. Her course lay through the gar 1 - 
 den to the shrouding woods beyond it. This was her accus 
 tomed walk. He forgot himself while he gazed his thoughts 
 were steeped in the dews of a most Elysian fancy his wor- 
 aiiip was oblivious of all other objects than the one of its adora 
 tion. 0~ sudden she looked behind her she looked upward 
 
288 iiOJIDEit BEAGLES. 
 
 their eyes encountered, and then she fled fled even as the 
 young fawn, that, wandering forth from the forest for a single 
 instant, and, for the first time, in that single instant, encounter*! 
 the glance of the hunter. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 LOVE-PASSAGES UNDER AN EVIL EYE ASSAULT CUSTODY 
 
 A RIDE TO PRISON. 
 
 
 
 "Well, perform it, 
 The law is satisfied: they can but die." 
 
 THE OLD LAW 
 
 A NEW spirit rose in his bosom as he beheld this movement. 
 Why should I not pursue?" was the involuntary self-inquiry 
 of his mind. He grew stronger as he proposed it. The stiff 
 ness of his wounded limb seemed to lessen, and grasping the 
 staff with which he had been wont to hobble across his cham 
 ber in the last two days, he moved forward with a degree of 
 rapidity that was scarcely justified by prudence. Unseen, he 
 passed through the gallery, descended the steps, followed the 
 lightly-beaten foot-path which he had seen her take around the 
 garden, and was soon hidden in the same forests which yet con 
 cealed her from his sight. A new thought entered his mind at 
 this moment. A keen pang of jealousy thrilled through his 
 heart. 
 
 " What if I intrude upon a sacred privacy ? Goes she not to 
 meet this smiling fellow this Saxon this pleasing word- 
 monger 1 Walk they not together daily 1 Wherefore should 
 1 approach them ?" 
 
 Had the question been answered by his reason merely, he 
 would most probably have returned to the dwelling without far 
 ther search. But he remembered the backward glance which 
 she gave him her sudden flight and that memory, which 
 answered nothing and told nothing, had yet a s-ignitication of 
 more effect upon his heart than all the arguments of his i&iud 
 
LOVE-PASSAGES UNDER AN EVIL EYE. 289 
 
 to his understanding. He went forward, and she had neither 
 fled so far nor so fast, but that he was able to overtake her. 
 She sat upon a fallen pine one that the hurricane had but 
 lately wrested from its foundation, the foliage yet green upon 
 its branches. The long leaves hung around, and half-shrouded 
 her from his sight. Him she saw not, but remained in her sit 
 ting posture, unconscious of his approach, until he was within a 
 few paces of her. 
 
 Then she started to her feet then he beheld that face 
 those eyes once more turned upon him, and he fancied they had 
 been glistening with tears. But this might have been a fancy 
 only what need had she to weep? He saw no tears, and dis 
 missed the suspicion from his mind ; but he could not doubt 
 that her cheeks were more pale than usual, and the languid 
 brightness of her eyes their dewy softness could not be 
 mistaken. 
 
 There were certainly some keen sensibilities at work within 
 her bosom. He was moved instinctively by this conviction 
 he felt that there were some weaknesses in his own, but he 
 strove to silence and put down that ever-ready consciousness 
 which is so apt, in every young man s bosom, to convert into 
 his special divinity the first passable damsel whom he sees. 
 Vernon was a youth of calm, good sense, and he was deter 
 mined to keep his emotions of blood and fancy from having 
 their own way. He assumed a lightness and gayety of tone 
 when he addressed her, which called for an effort. He took 
 her hand, reconducted her to her seat, and placed himself be 
 side her while he spoke. 
 
 " Give me joy, Miss Wilson, that I am at last able to find out 
 your favorite walks. I caught a glimpse of you from the win 
 dow, and grew strong to pursue, as I beheld the ease of your 
 flight. I have long envied you these walks let me make you 
 my acknowledgments, since it is, perhaps, owing to your friendly 
 cares that I am so soon able to enjoy them." 
 
 "Not to mine not to mine," was her hasty reply.. "I ha\ 
 done but little, Mr. Vernon ; I am very happy that anything 
 that we could do should have been agreeable to one to whom 
 we owe so much. You " 
 
 * Ah! you would remind me of a happy moment but you 
 
 13 
 
BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 need not; I am too proud of having served you, howevei 
 slightly, to forget my own good deeds. I may not boast of 
 there., but I need no help to persuade me to remember them ; 
 they will always form a part of that pleasant chronicle, Miss 
 Wilson, which the heart makes of its fortunate events. I shall 
 get them all down together with the five days enjoyed in you , 
 cottage." 
 
 "Enjoyed, Mr. Vernon ?" was the smiling question. "En 
 dured, you mean." 
 
 "No, enjoyed," was the answer. "The pain of the illness is 
 soon forgotten in the cares of the nurse ; and the kindness 
 which has soothed is always a pleasure to be remembered, even 
 when the pain is forgotten. Let me say, then, how sweet to 
 me is the obligation of gratitude which I feel to you and yours, 
 for the pleasant cares which have ministered to my feebleness 
 and need." 
 
 " Do not speak of it, Mr. Vernon. My father has only done 
 his duty. But for you, we know not what might have hap 
 pened to us. You saved us at the hazard of your life, and what 
 we have done called for no hazard." 
 
 "But much trouble much annoyance " 
 
 "No, no! Mr. Vernon it was a pleasure, sir to " 
 
 She paused the jealousy of a nice maiden delicacy became 
 apprehensive that her gratitude might express itself too warmly. 
 Gratitude she knew was justified, but that had its own lan 
 guage, and the caution was only a proper one, lest she might 
 employ for its expression the language of a warmer sentiment. 
 Perhaps Vernon detected something of this consciousness, for 
 he put his hand upon hers with a gentle effort to detain it in 
 his grasp, as he said, hurriedly : 
 
 " Speak, Miss Wilson go on." 
 
 She withdrew her hand the flush was renewed upon her 
 face, but she said nothing. A moment followed of awkward 
 silence to them both, which was only broken by a strong and 
 decided effort on the part of Vernon. His lively manner had 
 utterly departed in the first few moments of their interview, and 
 it was with a gravity, natural on many accounts to his situa 
 tion, that he renewed the conversation. .. 
 
 Next," he said, "to my acknowledgments for your hospital 
 
LOVE- PASSAGES b XDEU AX EVIL EYE. 2 J1 
 
 ity and kindness, Miss Wilson, is the desire which I feel to 
 place myself in a right point of view before you. I would seek 
 to assure and convince you that your kindness has not been be 
 stowed upon a criminal, though I have no proof beyond my own 
 asseveration, by which to convince you that I am utterly guilt 
 less of this murder which is laid to my charge." 
 
 "Oh, think not, Mr. Vernon, that we believe that we can 
 believe this foolish charge I am sure I know that it is 
 groundless." 
 
 " On my honor, you do me only justice. The shedding of 
 blood the taking of life is an offence against humanity from 
 which my soul would shrink, unless in a case of absolute neces 
 sity. The only deed of the kind of which I have ever been 
 guilty is one that took place almost in your sight, and was 
 strictly justifiable from the ckcumstances preceding it." 
 
 Yes yes !" faltered the maiden, with a shudder. 
 
 "The young man for whose death I have been summoned to 
 answer, was one of whom I knew but little nothing unfavora 
 ble but on the contrary, much which commanded my indul 
 gence and regard. I had neither quarrel to maintain against 
 him, nor interest to pursue ; and my own objects, Miss Wilson, 
 were of a nature which made me particularly desirous to avoid 
 all strife and difficulty with any and everybody. That I have 
 not been able to avoid them, is due rather to my evil fortune 
 than my desire. I know nothing of the grounds upon whicl 
 this charge has been made against me, or of the parties making 
 it, but I trust soon, Miss Wilson, to satisfy the judge of that in 
 nocence which you have so kindly declared yourself willing to 
 believe." 
 
 " Oh, sir, we know we hope it will be so. I am sure there 
 can be no doubt of it. My father says he is certain you will 
 be released, and Mr. Jamison told me but yesterday that you no 
 more committed the crime than he did, and he will soon enough 
 convince the justice to that effect. He is very friendly to you, 
 sir, that Mr. Jamison." 
 
 "A good fellow a strange fellow whom I never saw be 
 fore the evening of my arrival at Lucchesa; but, like the frank 
 men of our western forests generally, he carries his heart in one 
 hand and his weapon in the other, always and equally readv 
 
292 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 whether for friend or foe. I hope he may not be too sanguim 
 in this matter I rely rather on my own consciousness of inno 
 cence than upon any knowledge of the facts with which I am 
 acquainted. I know nothing of the circumstances upon which 
 the accusation is based." 
 
 " Nor does he, I imagine ; at least, he could tell father noth 
 ing, who was very anxious to know. His convictions in yom 
 favor seemed to arise from his prepossessions ; you are fortu 
 nate, Mr. Vernon, in finding friends so readily perhaps that 
 fact alone may be considered a presumption in your defence." 
 
 " I am afraid it would go but a little way toward my acquit 
 tal ; but then it can be nothing but a presumption against me, 
 and a presumption, unsupported by strong circumstances, can do 
 me little harm. And yet, Miss Wilson, there is something in 
 your opinion which carries to my mind a hope scarce less grate 
 ful than would be the assurance of my easy escape from this 
 cruel imputation." 
 
 " What is that, sir ?" she asked, innocently. The question 
 would have been left unspoken had she looked up in his face 
 when she replied, and beheld the increasing brightness and 
 piercing regard embodied in his glance. 
 
 "That you found nothing strange or wonderful nothing 
 unnatural or unexpected in the supposed facility with which 
 I have secured the favoring prepossessions of others. May I 
 hope that he who has won the friendship of the rude country 
 man, will not be thought too presuming if he fancies that he has 
 also not vainly striven for that of the city maiden? Your 
 friendship, Miss Wilson, would be that of beauty, and youth, 
 and education taste without artifice opinion without rude 
 ness, and intellectual strength mingled with grace and senti 
 ment. May I hope for these may I dream, in the vanity of \ 
 too sanguine spirit, that in finding these qualities in you, and 
 estimating them at their true value when found, I have not 
 prayed in vain for the acquisition of your regards. Your friend 
 ship " 
 
 He paused the sentence remained unfinished, though its 
 purport was no less clear to her mind than it was in the mind 
 v f him who yet withheld its utterance. It may be added, that 
 *Ue felt, how much more grateful it was, left i .n>ni>keh. than jf 
 
LOVE-PASSAGES UNDER AN EVIL EYE. 293 
 
 it had been concluded. Vernon himself felt that it could not be 
 concluded as it then stood. It was too cold a projected termi- 
 yation to matter that was naturally rising into warmth, and a 
 manner already warm and beginning to be impassioned. He 
 wisely stopped short short where he was and she breathed 
 less freely under the pressure of a sentiment which was strangely 
 sweet, though almost suffocating. 
 
 And he the glow upon his cheek made itself felt the 
 tremors at his heart grew almost to a murmur like the swift 
 dropping of distant falling rain. Was it, indeed, friendship that 
 he solicited from the favoring estimate of Virginia Wilson? 
 At that moment neither of them thought of friendship, they 
 thought of anything besides. The sympathy was of a stronger- 
 sort which was stirring in the bosom of the two, and it found its 
 proper utterance at last. 
 
 But let us abridge the scene. Love passages are rarely of 
 interest to third parties ; and either glide into the bright fan- 
 tastics, such as glow in the ethereal world and season of a 
 Romeo, or become, in the measured economy of the modern 
 calculator, a question of portion, pin-money and proper establish 
 ment. In either case, the reader or speculator yawns in weari 
 ness or disgust, and is satisfied with those results which tend to 
 a final dismissal of all the parties. We might hope we cer 
 tainly should pray for a better interest with these. Vernon 
 was no lovesick fantastic, though warmed by a temperament 
 never subdued, not always measured, and sometimes endowed 
 with no limited tongue for utterance ; but his passions were per 
 haps more governable than those of most young men, and he 
 had gone through a long course of severe self-study, by which 
 they had not only been regulated to a certain movement, but 
 his reason had also been advanced to a certain supremacy. 
 This self-acquired power kept his utterance within the bounds 
 of good taste and propriety his love was that of the man and 
 the gentleman his passions were those of civilization. lie 
 had learned to know that blood frequently presumes in the lan 
 guage of affection, and becomes obtrusive because of a selfish 
 ness which it disguises by another name, he also knew thai 
 the first lesson which true love has ever taught, is one of hu 
 mility but that humility which is always allied to hope. 
 
2 ( J4 HORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 Love is the ivli^ioii <>f the passions, nrd its zeal, tliougL 
 warm and fiery, is still that of one officiating at high altars, 
 where the first sign of the advent of the God is shown by the 
 submission of the worshipper. By gradual transitions by the 
 one mystic key-note the look, the word, which, here and 
 there, suggests the stages by which two hearts, having the same 
 journey to take, are gradually brought together an interest 
 grew up in the breast of each, leading to a just comprehension 
 of the other; and ere the one spoke, the other felt. Vernon 
 to his own surprise, discovered that he had won a heart long 
 before he ever dreamed of looking for one ; and Virginia Wil 
 son certainly, until she met with our hero, she had never 
 thought it worth while to take any care of that, which she 
 now discovered it to be so seriously sweet a business to sur 
 render. 
 
 Though we have denied ourselves the pleasure of beholding 
 the love scene and hearkening to the love dialogue between the 
 parties, there was another who, " squat like a toad" in the 
 cover of the neighboring foliage, had no such scruples as re 
 strain us. He heard and witnessed all. This was the outlaw 
 Saxon. He had followed their footsteps, and had penetrated to 
 a spot, which would enable him to arrive at a knowledge as vex 
 ing to his spirit as was the manner degrading by which it was 
 obtained. He heard, with ill-suppressed fury, the whispered 
 word, half doubt, half tenderness he saw the smile which 
 trembled in the eye it lightened the gentle meeting of those 
 mingling hands, which, under Love s slightest pressure, become 
 instincts themselves and of the most sensitive character ; -*- and 
 no less new than bitter was the pang that went through his own 
 breast, as he beheld the happiness he envied. He had only of 
 late grown conscious of a passion such as he had never felt be 
 fore. He had sought Virginia Wilson daily from the first hour 
 that her presence had shone upon his sight; and under the 
 pretence of an interest in his wounded fellow-traveller, he had 
 obtained access to her dwelling with the purpose of pressing 
 those attentions by which he hoped to secure an interest in her 
 yieart. He had joined her in her daily walks was not 
 vithout that easy dialogue and graceful manner which are 
 *f all things most essential to success with woman; and 
 
LOVE-PASSAGES UNDER AN EVIL EYE. 295 
 
 had striven with his best powers to commend himself to" hei 
 regards. 
 
 Yet she had shrunk from his pursuit ; had discouraged the 
 intimacy at which he aimed had responded coldly to his con 
 versation, and shown herself more than commonly obtuse when 
 ever he had striven to be more than commonly intelligible. 
 Yet, here was one, who, almost without his own consciousness 
 -certainly, without design had succeeded in that which had 
 .asked his utmost ability, even under the guidance of a settled 
 purpose and a deliberate scheme. The mortification of his 
 pride increased the pang of hip disappointment, and the vindic- 
 vc purpose, with which he had before regarded Vernon, now 
 assumed a deeper character in his mind. 
 
 " It is well," was his thought, as he surveyed the pair " but 
 the hour of vengeance is at hand. You would bind the outlaw, 
 Harry Vernon ! We shall see. Artful, and strong, and saga 
 cious, as you think yourself, you are in the toils. Deceived by 
 one traitor, Clement Foster will scarcely suffer himself, hand 
 and foot, to be manacled by another. Pliant once, he is now 
 unyielding; and by all that is sacred in the love of the saint 
 and the fear of the sinner, you: shall pay the penalty of your 
 presumption by your life. You would hunt the bear in his native 
 brake, beware of his embrace." 
 
 He left the place of his concealment with a stealthy step, 
 and without disturbing the lovers, who were now but too much 
 absorbed with one another to have senses for the rustling 
 branches, or the slight motion of a gliding form among the 
 leaves. He proceeded to the tavern with all the impatience of 
 hate, and summoned his confederates who played the part of 
 the officers of justice. To them he issued his commands, and 
 described the place in which the lovers were still to be found. 
 
 " Seek him there," said the vindictive outlaw ; " and seize on 
 him at once. Give him no indulgence drag him away, though 
 you find him in her arms. Hear none of his promises hearken 
 to none of her entreaties. The scoundrel is a spy upon us 
 another Huidis; and he deserves no mercy at our hands. 
 Away ! you know the place." 
 
 He saw them depart in the same instant, and waited with 
 malicious impatience, the result of liis furious mandate. Th 
 
296 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 lovors meanwhile had prepared to return to t!i<? cottage. 
 were alrofldy on their way the hand of the maiden in that of 
 Vernon s ; her eyes cast upon the ground as she listened to 
 those accents so dear to the young heart those idle woids and 
 whispers, which, though they sound sillily enough in the ears of 
 third persons, seem to the initiate more precious than manna in 
 the wilderness. At this moment they were encountered by the 
 ruffians who stood suddenly in the path before them. Virginia 
 shrunk back in alarm, while a faint scream issued from her 
 lips. 
 
 " How now, fellows ! What mean you ?" demanded Vernon, 
 who did not at first recognise them. 
 
 "Fellows! indeed!" said one. "We ll see who s the better 
 fellow when Judge Nawls sets eyes upon us. That s for being 
 civil to you, I suppose, and letting you off when we had you 
 But there s an end to that. You must go along with us." 
 
 " Along with you ! Who are you ?" 
 
 "Oh, you ve no memory of us! I shouldn t be surprised if 
 you ve forgotten yourself too. You re not Mr. Harry Vernon, 
 that killed one Thomas Horsey, and we ain t the men that 
 Squire Nawls sent to catch you ! Come, come, young un, 
 that s not doing the thing handsomely that s not keeping to 
 your promise. You must go along with us at once, so drop the 
 young lady s arm, and here s our n. It ain t quite so soft a one, 
 it s true, but, by the hokey, it s better able to help you; and 
 then you know, need must when the devil drives so no grum 
 bling." 
 
 The action of the ruffian corresponded with his words. His 
 hand was already extended toward the collar of Vernon s coat, 
 when, stepping back a pace, the indignant youth lifted his staff 
 with a promptness and determination which drove the fellow 
 back much faster than he had advanced. Tn another instant, 
 however, a calmer mood filled the mind of Vernon. 
 
 "This is all idle. .1 certainly do not mean to resist these 
 men I have no reason to fear the magistrate." Such were 
 his thoughts as he turned to Virginia. 
 
 "Miss Wilson, forgive me. I am giving a needless alarm. 
 These are the officers of justice, and seeing me well enough to 
 travel, they naturally enough seek lo perform their duty Will 
 
ASSAULT CUSTODY -A RIDE TO PRISON. 20? 
 
 you proceed to the house? I will follow you. I would speak 
 with them a while." 
 
 He led her forward until they had passed the officers, then 
 left her to proceed alone while he returned to them. 
 
 "Gentlemen, I will be ready to go with you in an hour; 1 
 will but return to the dwelling of Mr. Wilson, and at the end 
 of that time I will meet you at the tavern." 
 
 " Twon t do, my boy," was the answer, " you re too ready 
 with your stick to be trusted. You must go with us now. We 
 can t trust you out of our sight." 
 
 The youth would have expostulated, but while he spoke, 
 one of the ruffians threw himself upon him, bore him to the 
 earth, and, in spite of all his assurances that he would quietly 
 accompany them, proceeded to bind his arms with a cord which 
 the providence of Saxon had procured for the purpose, and 
 which the assistance of his companion enabled him to use in 
 spite of the angry but feeble resistance of the prisoner. When 
 bound, they lifted him to his feet, and placing themselves, one 
 on each hand, commanded him to move forward in the direction 
 of the tavern. 
 
 He did so with as much quietness of temper as he could com 
 mand under the reasonable anger which naturally followed the 
 provocation. He tried to convince himself that they were do 
 ing nothing more than their duty that they had yielded him 
 all reasonable indulgence and were bound, as soon as they 
 discovered his ability to travel, to secure his person against the 
 chances of escape. But the sedative effect of his own reason 
 ings was very partial. He still could not resist the wish that 
 his arms were once more free, and his staff once more in his 
 .hands. " My staff should make ye skip," thought he, in the 
 language of the "Ancient Mariner." But he overcame a de 
 sire which he felt to be no less idle than hopeless, and tried to 
 obtain his remedy in another way. 
 
 "A civil answer turneth away wrath," and he had long 
 known that a civil tongue will carry a man unscotched through 
 the whole western country. Assuming the men beside him to 
 be no other than what they professed to be, he determined to 
 *eason with them as persons who could have no motive for re 
 
29S BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 fusing any ii diilgpii cr to ;i prisoner \\ hidi was not inconsisteni 
 with the security of their trust. 
 
 " You are unnecessarily hard with me, men, * lie said, quietly. 
 " lou can have no reason for thinking I would run away, since, 
 if such had been my desire, I could have been off at daylight, 
 and none had been the wiser. Why then would you make an 
 enemy of a man who can be your friend who is willing to re 
 ward you ? Suffer me to go back to the dwelling of Mr. Wil 
 son for an hour only. You, in the meantime, can watch the 
 dwelling on all sides. My horse is at the tavern you can se 
 cure him and without a horse I can not fly very far. I wish 
 but to make my acknowledgments to the family which has 
 treated me with so much kindness." 
 
 "You ought t have done all that before, my lark there s 
 no time for you now. So set forward. I tell you there s no 
 trusting you. You clipped me over my noddle already, the 
 first day I set hands on you, and my jaw isn t quite smooth yet ; 
 and you forget, just a bit ago you d have tried it again with 
 that stout hickory that helped you forward. Twice warned is 
 enough for me I don t risk a third scuffle with any man if I 
 can help it. So, look you, give but a single flirt again, and 
 here s into you." 
 
 The fellow showed a monstrous bowie-knife as he spoke 
 these words, and by his reckless expression of countenance, 
 suited to his bold and unfeeling language, Vernon readily be 
 lieved that his better policy was to obey quietly. He went 
 forward, and encountered the hardy Alabamian, Jamison, who 
 was just about setting out for Wilson s on his customary after 
 noon visit to his friend. Saxon was nowhere to be seen. 
 
 Nothing could exceed the rage of the Alabamian, as he wit 
 nessed the degrading situation in which his friend stood. He 
 was at once for fighting the officers, and nothing but the most 
 earnest appeals from Vernon kept him from violence. One 
 thing, however, he was resolved to do, and in this particular our 
 hero was satisfied he should have his own way that was to 
 cut the cords which bound the arms of the prisoner. He drew 
 his knife for the purpose, and was advancing, when the consta 
 bles both opposed him with like weapons. But he was not to 
 be intimidated by this show of valor. 
 
ASSAULT CUSTODY A RIDE TO PRISON. 29 
 
 "There s two ol you," !h i s.-iiii. " !MI! 1 fount myself good for 
 three, at least, such slender chaps as you; so here goes at your 
 kidneys, and one drive of my six-pounder will let more sins out 
 of your carcasses than all the saints could ever put in virtues." 
 
 With an earnestness which left nothing to conjecture, the 
 stout-heart Alabamian, wielding his knife in air a huge, bright 
 instrument, with a back-bone like that of a butcher s cleaver, so 
 heavy that its own weight, if falling, must have made its wounds 
 deadly prepared to rush forward upon the constables. But 
 these worthies were not willing to wait for such an encounter 
 Receding from their posts, they clamored to the bystanders for 
 protection, crying out a "rescue" a "rescue." Without heed 
 ing their clamor, or suffering anything to divert him from his 
 purpose until it was finished, Jamison cut the cords of the pris 
 oner, and seizing the moment when the officers were most noisy 
 and most remote, he whispered in his ear : 
 
 "Be off now, Harry Vernon there s my own horse hitched 
 close beside you, and I ll keep off the rascals while you re 
 mounting. Show ern clean heels, and I ll be after you with 
 your own nag, and will join you at Buzzard s Roost in two 
 hours. They re afraid of me, the niggers, and you see I ain t 
 afraid of them. D n em, I don t mind half a. dozen of them, 
 fair front and no dodging. So go ahead, my boy, and leave the 
 scatteration to me. You re too weak to fight now, so there s 
 DO reason or right to expect it of you." 
 
 The Alabamian was astounded when Vernon thanked him, 
 but declared he had no purpose of the kind. 
 
 " I am innocent of the charge, Mr. Jamison, and do not feai 
 to meet it." 
 
 " Oh, well ! That s right enough ; but guilty or innocent, 
 you see, Harry, when they re for putting ropes on a freeman, 
 that s a time to be off, or to fight with tiger s tusk. I m 
 all grinders after that, and a ridge-saw that works along the 
 middle." 
 
 Meanwhile the clamors of the constables were gathering a 
 crowd about them. 
 
 "He has cut the prisoner loose the man that murdered 
 Tom Horsey help ! seize ! catch the murderer," &c. 
 
 "Shut up, you yelping pugnosc !" cried the indignant Aln 
 
800 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 bamian ; "none of your <{ d lies about a business you can t 
 
 understand. Look you, men, they had the gentleman corded 
 up as if he had been a panther of the wilderness roped his 
 hands behind him and he just out of a sick-bed, and making 
 no resistance, and telling them all the while he was ready to go 
 along with em. It s only they re sich blasted cowards, afraid 
 of a sick man afraid of any man. Dang my buttons, I m 
 almost ashamed I didn t borrow a pen-knife to do the business. 
 This bowie-blade is a most too big for such etarnal small souls 
 as they ve got/ 
 
 " You hear him confess he drew his knife upon us ?" said one 
 of the officers to the crowd. 
 
 "Ay," said Jamison, "and how it scared the niggers white 
 when they saw it." 
 
 " He rescued the prisoner from us." 
 
 "A lie, nigger he s at your service he says it himself 
 so bring out his horse; and I ll tell you another thing I m 
 at ^y our service too. I ll ride along with you and see fair play, 
 and if you ve got anything to say agin Dick Jamison, let it out 
 as loud as you please when yon stand before the judge." 
 
 The scene ended with the quiet departure of Vernon, accom 
 panied by his friend Jamison, under the enforced escort of the 
 officer*. 
 
THE STAGE-HERO AND THE INCUBUS. 301 
 
 \ 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 fHE STAGE-HERO AND THE INCUBUS ROMEO APPROACHES 
 THE FOOTLIGHTS UNDER A FAMOUS MANAGER. 
 
 Caliban. Lo, how lie mocks me! wilt thou let him, my lord? 
 Trinculo. Lord! quoth he, that a monster should be such a natural! 
 
 The Tempest. 
 
 HAVING now fairly lodged Vernon for the murder of Horsey, 
 it is high time that we should retrace our steps and look into 
 the progress of the latter important personage. Though some 
 what baffled in his hope of having a companion, in a kindred 
 spirit, to the end of his journey, the stage-struck hero was not 
 without hi? consolation in the moment of the parting from his 
 friend. He was on his way to the scene of action ; another day 
 would bring him to the place where the wandering tribe was to 
 be found, for whoso communion he panted even as the hart 
 panteth after the water-brooks ; and visions of theatrical glory 
 began to gather on his eyes. With that restlessness of ima 
 gination .which betrayed itself in everything which he said and 
 did, he was already fancying himself in the midst of such diffi 
 culties, arising from bad management and the labored rivalry 
 of inferior persons, as were really grateful to a man of his tem 
 perament. His cogitations, which broke forth at moments into 
 rabid soliloquy, were most generally of this description. Now 
 he laughed at the idea of Jim Tilton and Hugh Peters, and the 
 ridiculous figures which they must cut as Brutus and Julius 
 Caesar; at the next moment, he was soliciting their applause 
 for some new reading with which he contemplated to astound 
 the natives and improve Shakspere. Anon he went back to 
 the cottage of Yarbers, and his visions, then, were of Mary 
 Clayton, as iie most perfect Juliet that over stimulated tbe 
 
802 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 best capacities of a Montague ; and as that fancy worked in hii 
 mind, his voice grew more emphatic, and a spectator in the 
 bushes might have been no less surprised than amused to have 
 heard and seen him as he rode, declaiming at the full pitch of 
 his lungs to Juliet in the balcony; and, at moments, in tire 
 earnestness of his action, almost flinging himself from the un 
 gainly and venerable steed of his sire, whose neck he sometimes 
 embraced, by a very natural error of his imagination which con 
 founded it with the.form of Juliet, or Mary Clayton rather, who 
 in such moments, seemed brought immediately within his reach 
 
 In this manner, with a mind far away, in a province utterly 
 foreign to that through which his only half-conscious person 
 travelled, he went forward without interruption, and was only 
 brought back to the actual condition of things around him when 
 he reached the river, and the grim Charon of that Stygian 
 stream, leading his horse through bog and sluice, contrived, 
 with some difficulty, and after no little delay, to place the two 
 fairly in his boat. Some time was consumed in conveying 
 him across; for the river swamp, in the day of which we vu-ite, 
 was one of the most interminable intricacies that ever distressed 
 a good steed or vexed an impatient traveller. But the delay 
 did not so much affect the actor. He soon made a companion 
 of the boatman, a simple, stupid fellow, who scarcely compre 
 hended five of all the words that were said to him, and an 
 swered none. 
 
 But Horsey needed no answer his only object was an audi 
 tor, and he was sufficiently satisfied, if suffered to talk on with 
 out stint or limit, though tiie hearer made no response to any 
 of the questions whic 1 " ne asked. These were neither few no? 
 unimportant ; but as tne actor did not wait for an answer, wlr 
 should we ? He was soon, comparatively speaking, set acros 
 the river; but the thousand hollows of the swamp, filled wit 
 the waters of a recent freshet, were around his path, leaving 
 at moments doubtful in what direction he should pursue In 
 way. 
 
 But Tom Horsey was not the man to suffer himself to be be 
 wildered long. His mind soon ran off in the. direction of his 
 desires, and, looking rather to the end of his journey than to his 
 course, he gave himself not much concern about the way which 
 
THE STAGE-HERO AND Tli INCUBUS. 308 
 
 led to it. After a few moments of reluctant attention, in which 
 it seemed to his eyes that all his efforts only led his hobbling 
 horse from one sluice into another, he soon forgot everything 
 but the one subject most at his heart; and if his allegiance 
 wavered for an instant, it was, perhaps, in regard to an excep 
 tion which might be considered, indeed, only as an <mxiliar to 
 the other namely, the person of Mary Clayton, and she as 
 Juliet. 
 
 With a mind thus directed, he had no attention to bestow 
 upon the external world around him, and did not seem to heed, 
 or be conscious of the fact, that the day was approaching to its 
 close and that, so far from nearing the cottage where he pro 
 posed to spend the night, he had, in fact, utterly departed from 
 everything like a road, his horse slowly toiling forward through 
 Indian footpaths that deepened occasionally into the cart or 
 wagon-width, but only at places where the presence of bog or 
 creek suggested the best of reasons why they should do so, and 
 not because they had ever been employed by any such vehicle.*. 
 But, utterly absorbed in his own speculations, none of these 
 signs were perceptible to the actor, and night would have come 
 upon and caught him in the swamp before he would have been 
 conscious of his predicament, but for the sudden appearance, 
 upon his path of one, whose wild and uncouth exterior and 
 abrupt entree were of too startling a character to pass without 
 regard. 
 
 The stranger was a chunky little imp, not more than four 
 feet high, wearing a bunch upon his shoulder, which at first 
 glance, suggested to Horsey the idea of a native-born Richard. 
 His arms were long like those of an ape ; his ears of corre 
 sponding dimensions ; his lips, pursed into a point like two bits 
 cf shrivelled coonskin, were covered with a thick furze, not un 
 like that of the hair upon the same animal; and with a short, 
 pug-like nose, and little, quick, staring gray eyes, that peeped 
 out from under a shagg} tvhite pent-house of hair ; he pre 
 sented altogether the most comical appearance that could be 
 imagined, and one that would have made the fortune of a cun 
 ning showman in any of the Atlantic cities. His legs, though 
 short, were strangely bowed indeed, the extreme curve which 
 they described was one cause of their shortness. He might have 
 
804 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 risen to five fair feet, could they have been smoothed out sym 
 metrically. As he went forward, which he did with a readiness 
 that occasioned surprise in the spectator, the bow of the ad 
 vanced leg would completely overlap the other, so that he 
 would seem, to the passing glance, in possession of one only. 
 
 His garb contributed something to his comical appearance. 
 He wore tights, as pantaloons, which showed to a nicety the 
 attenuated size of the crooked limbs on which he depended for 
 support. He seemed almost entirely without flesh. The lower 
 limbs were not merely short and deformed, but slender to a de 
 gree, which made the spectator apprehensive that they might 
 snap as readily as pipe-stems under the swollen and dropsical 
 bulk of body which they carried. But this show was decep 
 tive. The urchin had an elasticity of muscle, a capacity of 
 stretch and endurance in his sinews, and a share of positive 
 strength in his excessive breadth of shoulders, which made 
 him little inferior in conflict to most ordinary men, and in 
 speed he could have outwinded the best. 
 
 A little jacket of green bombasin, made on a plan quite a? 
 narrow and contracted as the breeches, rendered the hump sin 
 gularly conspicuous upon his shoulders ; and by contracting 
 these somewhat too closely, served to throw the long and apish 
 arms out from the body in such a manner as greatly to increase 
 the similitude between the owner and the ungainly animal to 
 which we have likened him. A coonskin cap, set rather jauntily 
 on his cocoanut-shaped head, and tied under his chin with a 
 green riband, completed this parody on man, who, leaping sud- 
 lenly out of a green bush in the middle of a mud puddle, that 
 Jay beside the path, proved a more startling object of terror to 
 the horse of the actor, than of surprise to himself. 
 
 The animal sunk back on its haunches with a snort of terror ; 
 and, with a greater show of muscle and spirit than he had 
 deigned to vouchsafe since he had begun the journey from Ray 
 mond, he was for wheeling about in good earnest, and making 
 fleeter back tracks than he had ever made before. But that 
 Horsey was a born rider, like every other western man, he had 
 been soused for a season in any one of the hundred miry hab 
 itations of frog, hog, and alligator, which so thickly garnished 
 the low territory around him 
 
THE STAGE-HERO AND THE INCUBUS. 305 
 
 Meanwhile tlie little urchin stood upright, or as nearly up 
 right as he could, in the narrow pathway, never making the 
 slightest movement to budge or assist the rider, but grinning 
 with a smile of satisfaction at every wheel and flirt of the still 
 frightened animal, which promised to fling his rider into the 
 ditch. The unassisted efforts of Horsey, however, managed to 
 evade these attempts, and, at length, finally succeeded in subdu 
 ing the spirit no difficult task even if he did not so soon 
 quiet the terrors of " Old-dot-and-go-one." Shaking his finger 
 at the dwarf as he forced the horse forward, the actor exclaimed, 
 with a degree -of good nature which probably arose from the 
 consciousness that his good horsemanship had not been without 
 a spectator and which, had he not been the conqueror in the 
 strife, would not have been so apparent : 
 
 "Ah, you comical little fellow ! how you scared my horse !" 
 
 "And you too, if the truth was known, I reckon!" was the 
 unhesitating reply of the urchin. " I m a man mighty apt to 
 scare people that s not used to me." 
 
 " Gad ! there s reason in what you say !" exclaimed the actor. 
 " But look you, my pretty little Jack of Clubs, suppose I had 
 been a sour-tempered fellow instead of what I am, what would 
 I be doing at this time, and what sort of speech would you be 
 making ? Wouldn t I be using a hickory upon your shoulders, 
 my lad, for scaring my horse, and " 
 
 "His rider!" The urchin finished the sentence after his 
 own fashion. "Ha! ha! ha!" The woods rang with his yel- 
 iing laughter a peal more strange and unnatural than any 
 thing in his shape. "Ha! ha! ha! Mr. Traveller more easy 
 said than done. If the thing were tried, it might be your 
 shoulders and my hickory ; and if you think otherwise, why, 
 you can only begin the business as soon as you please." 
 
 " Say you so, you little apology for a man you little cock- 
 a-doodle-doo ! I m almost tempted to try odds with you for 
 the fun of it, for riding by one s self makes one rather dull, and 
 the fun that turns up by the roadside is always apt to be the 
 funniest. Wait a bit, then, till I can cut a hickory." 
 
 ,And the actor made a show of dismounting as he spoke. 
 
 "Boo! boo!" cried the little urchin with a yell, as, leaping 
 from the path, he ran along a fallen tree, slippery with 
 
BORDER 
 
 that rose out of the ooze of the swamp and stretched away into 
 a canebrake, in the midst of whose tops the dwarf squatted 
 himself down, and grinned, and laughed, and pointed with his 
 finger at the assailant, confident that he could not so easily he 
 approached hy an unpractised footman, and secure of a second 
 means of flight in the branches of a tupola hanging above him 
 into which a customary leap would easily carry him. 
 
 "Ah! ha!" exclaimed Horsey, "there you are; and you 
 think yourself safe, do you, but what do you think of that, my 
 little mannikin, eh ?" 
 
 He pointed a pistol upward as he spoke, but the derisive 
 laugh of the dwarf mocked this exhibition, as he in turn pro 
 duced from his breast a like weapon, the dimensions of which 
 would have swallowed up those of his assailant. 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! and what do you think of that ?" said the urchin. 
 " It s snout for snout and the advantage is all o my side as 
 
 yet." 
 
 " How do you make that out, you pretty little deformity ?" 
 demanded the actor, in good-natured accents, amused rather 
 than annoyed by the readiness of the urchin. 
 
 " Well, it s easy enough, and you might see for yoim jlf," re 
 plied the other; "I m rather the littlest man of the s tvo, but 
 I have the biggest pistol you re the biggest man v .th the 
 littlest pistol. Ain t my chance the best to hit, you big fellow 
 ain t it now ? Suppose we try that s the best way > come 
 * at it you may bang away first, for all the good it s g> ing to 
 do you." 
 
 "Come down, you small specimen of humanity you young 
 est son of the little old gentleman in black," said the actor, 
 with a hearty good humor that satisfied the dwarf there was 
 nothing more to fear. " Come down, you queer little cox 
 comb, and let s hear all about you. You are certainly the 
 strangest sniggering little scamp that I ve seen in all my 
 travels. You d make a most superb fellow on tLe 8-age 
 a witch in Macbeth no ! Gad, maybe you re cue of us 
 already !" 
 
 " Maybe I am, maybe I m not !" said the dwarf, witli i grin. 
 as he descended. " Who are you can you bite V 
 
 Bite I" 
 
THE STAGE-HEKU AND THE INCUKUS. 307 
 
 " YUJ, bite; have you got teeth to bite, or are yon nothing 
 but a barking dog ?" 
 
 " Teeth to bite barking dog ! why, you talk as queerly as 
 you look, my little Richard." 
 
 " Richard ! Why, who told you my name ?" 
 " What ! your name is Richard, then ?" 
 
 "Yes, with a pair of scales to the end of it you couldn t 
 guess that, I reckon !" 
 
 " No ! I don t know what you mean." 
 
 "I ll tell you my name is Richard Stillyards, or Dick 
 Stillyards sometimes they call me Dick Still, and sometimes 
 Dkk Yards, and then it s only when I m in the humor that I 
 answer them. I always answer gentlemen when they call me 
 by my right name." 
 
 This was said with a manner which filled Horsey with mer- 
 riment, and would have filled a wiser man with sadness. The 
 swagger, the solemn strut with which it was accompanied, and 
 the air of superiority with which the narrow and protrusive 
 chin was perked forward, had in it so much of a rotund self- 
 conceit, that never was that foible of humanity so completely 
 be-mocked and be-devilled. 
 
 " Why, what is there to laugh at, I wonder," said the dwarf, 
 in tones and with a manner of more real dignity, though with 
 an equally-ludicrous effort. 
 
 "Hark ye, Stillyards, my dear fellow," cried the good-natured 
 
 Horsey, " let us shake hands. You re a d d comical little 
 
 fellow, Stillyards, and we must jog on together. I ll make your 
 fortune, Stillyards; by the powers, you shall grow famous 
 you sliall. Don t you grin, my boy, I m telling you nothing 
 but the truth. You shall grow famous and make your fortune. 
 You shall be one of us and I ll undertake your tuition. By 
 the ghost of David, Stillyards, I ll find you a dozen characters 
 in Shakspere alone which could not be done by anybody half 
 so well as yourself. You have read Shakspere, Stillyards, have 
 you not 1" 
 
 "Read !" said the dwarf, with something like a sinking of his 
 dignity. " Well, stranger, to say the truth, reading ain t my 
 I)-- -OPSS, though, 1 suppose, I could laru just as soon as anybody 
 else. There s a nigger of J oe Smith s, named Peter his young 
 
308 
 
 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 missis taught him to read in a short six months only, and he 
 can now read write-hand most as good as print. I m sure if I 
 hal any chance, I could larn as quick as Peter." 
 
 :< Devil a doubt, Dicky, that you might, but who s to learn 
 ycu, unless you could persuade the same young lady that taught 
 Peter to give you a few lessons ?" 
 
 " Why, didn t you say you d larn me . " said Richard Still 
 yards, with a grin of satisfaction that caused a considerable en- 
 croachment of his mouth upon the territory usually conceded to 
 cheeks and ears. 
 
 " To speak and act, you terrapin, and not to read," was the 
 reply. 
 
 " Look you, stranger, if it s the length of my teeth you Want, 
 to know, call me out of my name," replied the urchin, with a 
 grave air of offended dignity. " You re not the first man that s 
 lost flesh between my jaws for making too free; so it s jist as 
 well you should know it beforehand. I know I m a little 
 smaller than you, and maybe not quite so good looking, but 
 that s neither here nor there, and I don t mind the difference of 
 size no more, when I feel wolfish, no more than I d mind a 
 dog-bark in a seedy night. I axed you a question jist now, 
 and didn t get an Answer." 
 
 " What was that, Mr. Richard Stillyards ?" demanded Hor 
 sey, with an air of respectful deference, exceedingly delighted 
 with the strange monster he had encountered, and disposed, 
 with a true actor s fondness for fun, to humor the weakness 
 which betrayed itself so ludicrously. 
 
 "What was it, Mr. Richard ? speak again, and don t im 
 agine for an instant that I am at all desirous to fill your jaws 
 with my flesh, as I can not say with certainty that I have any 
 to spare certamiy none to spare unless you are willing to take 
 it just where I give you leave. I could give you a bite in one 
 place or in another, and not miss it, perhaps, but it s likely 
 you d be choosing for yourself. Eh ?" 
 
 The literal manner in which Horsey had chosen to accept 
 the coarse figurative language which the urchin had employed 
 was, in western parlance, " a huckleberry above his persim 
 mon," and Mr. Richard Stillyards began to regard his com 
 panion as an animal no less strange to him than he appeared to 
 
THE STAGE-HERO AND THE INCUBUS. oU9 
 
 Horsey. After a brief space, \\iiich he devoted in silence to a 
 jealous survey of those features which, by this time, the actop 
 had schooled into inflexibility, he replied, as if satisfied with 
 his examination : : 
 
 "I was a-thinking- at first, stranger, that you was a-finming 
 with me, but I believe it s only because you don t know no bet 
 ter. I m a country gentleman in these parts, and have com 
 pany camping out in the woods, here away, down by the corner 
 of Little Bend in the Cane Prairie every fellow s a man 
 among em, all barking dogs and so I axed you about your 
 teeth." 
 
 " My teeth ?" 
 
 "Yes, your teeth," replied the deformed curiosity; "ain t 
 you got teeth ? Can t you bite ?" 
 
 The actor surveyed him with intentness, and the result of his 
 examination, as he beheld the bonajldc earnestness in the fel 
 low s face, was to convince him that Richard Stilly ards was nn 
 idiot a conclusion which, no doubt, has been already reached 
 by the reader. But let him not be mistaken. Dick was no 
 diot, but a cunning owl that hoots with a greater drawl of mel 
 ancholy when most meditating mischief. He had his purposes 
 in the question that seemed so excessively simple to his com 
 panion, and was answered satisfactorily when he received no 
 answer. 
 
 "Dick, my lad, you re a strange fellow. To ask a man 
 whose teeth have been opening upon you every moment sinco, 
 we have met, if he has any !" 
 
 "Oh, no harm, mister I don t mean any harm to be sure, 
 I see you have got teeth, and I oughtn t to ask, but it s a. way 
 I ve got ; but you re a-travelling only V and here the urchin 
 gave a keen, quick glance to the corpulent saddle-bags, filled 
 to the brim with knight, prince, warrior, and tyrant, which hung 
 across the saddle of the actor. In a second instant his eye was 
 averted, as he beheld that of the traveller fixed upon him. 
 
 " Dick, my boy," said Horsey, " you re a nut for the devil to 
 crack; d me if I can. To be sure I m a traveller, just as cer 
 tainly as I ve got teeth ; and now that you remind me, I d like 
 to know where I m travelling, arid how far I may be from a 
 place of lodging ?" 
 
BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 " Wliy, don t you know ?" 
 
 "Devil a bit!" 
 
 " What J you don t know where you re a-travelliiig ? J 
 reckon you knew when you begun ?" 
 
 " Why, yes ! that I did ; but look you- many a man sets out 
 for the horse and finds the halter. I started for Benton." 
 
 " Benton ?" 
 
 "Yes, Benton. How far am I from the house of one Jenk 
 Glover r 
 
 " Jenks Glover! Why, he s on the lower road a matter 
 of sixteen miles to the left of you. You ve got on the wrong 
 track." , 
 
 "The devil you say!" 
 
 " No ! I say the wrong track ; it s you that said the devil, 
 three times, or maybe more, and it s no wonder you lost the 
 road. You must have lost it after the first jump of the ferry." 
 
 "And it s how far to Benton ?" 
 
 " Mush ! I can t tell you it s on the other road, and a smart 
 roundabout chance to get to it." 
 
 This news confounded our traveller. He shrugged his 
 shoulders, and looked round him upon the dismal, dark, and 
 seemingly impenetrable swamp, the pale cypresses of which 
 shot up sparingly, with the tupola and the ash, to gigant?c 
 heights, interlaced between with a complete wau of matted 
 canes, briers, and wild thorny vines, that promised to defy even 
 the rude pressure of the grisly bear, or his more good-natured 
 sable brother. The prospect made the actor shudder. 
 
 Dick, my boy," he said, " whose is the nearest house, and 
 how far ?" 
 
 " There ain t no house on this road, that I knows of, and no 
 body." 
 
 " If that thy speech be sooth ! " the actor began, after the 
 nature within him ; but the dogged stare of the dwarf warned 
 him that his companion suffered nothing equivocal, and he re 
 sumed in plain English: "No house, Richard no house, my 
 dear fellow? Why, what am I to do where am I to sleep 
 to-night 1" 
 
 A grin diffused itself from ear to ear upon the fellow s coun 
 tenance, as he listened to the words and beheld the visible COD 
 
THK STAdFMiritO AND THE INCUBUS. 311 
 
 stcrnation of the ;u-t<m He sensual di-p<wn to amuse himself 
 at the expense of the traveller. 
 
 " I reckon you ain t used to sleeping out of the dry. You 
 were born, maybe, in a nice house, with a close roof to it ?" 
 
 "Ay, to be sure, and in a devilish comfortable bed too, 1 
 reckon; but what then, Dicky, my -darling ?" 
 
 "It s a bad chance you ll have for a dry house here in Big 
 Black Swamp ; there s no better house than Cane Castle, and 
 it s so large you can t see the walls, and it s so high you can t 
 see the roof; and if you ain t used to the stars for candles, you ll 
 have to go to bed in the dark. There s no house near by, and 
 only one under ten miles, and that s Squire Nawls - and he s 
 a judge, and don t take in travellers." 
 
 " But he lives on the Benton road." 
 
 "No he don t. I reckon he s on the upper road, a smart 
 distance from it. As for road you re in no road at all here 
 you re in Big Black Swamp, and if your nose was long enough, 
 you could smell the river at a short mile off, on your right. If 
 you was used to the smell, you could smell it here without go 
 ing much farther. 1 can, easy enough," snuffing, while he 
 spoke, with consummate complaisance "and a mighty sweet 
 smell it has, too, just after the sun s gone down." 
 
 " You re an amateur, Mr. Richard." 
 
 No, d d if I am, and I tell you agin, stranger, twont dt 
 
 to call me by any nickname. I m Mr. Richard Stillyards, 01 
 Dick Stillyards, and I won t go by any other, so I warn you 
 before danger." 
 
 "Well, Dick, my dear fellow, I ll be civil the fact is, I m in 
 no humor for making enemies. But tell me where I am to sleep 
 to-night where shall I get a bed?" 
 
 " I licked Ike Laidler only a month ago, cause he called me 
 a little sarcuinstance," continued the deformed. 
 
 "And sufficient provocation too," said the actor ; " but, Mr 
 Stillyards, the bed the bed the house to sleep in." 
 
 " Well, now, stranger, you re mighty pushing. Ha n t I told 
 you there s no house under ten miles " 
 
 " Then you told a whopper, Dick Toady," cried a third per 
 son, suddenly emerging from the bushes on the left, and inter 
 rupting the dwarf without any of that scrupulous consideration 
 
312 BOUDER BKAGLRS. 
 
 upon which lie was so iiM-vli disposed to insist in his con 
 v cisation with Horsey. The stranger was a small man, with a 
 narrow sunburnt face, a hook nose, and lively twinkling; gray 
 eyes, that seemed to cover a world of cunning. His voice was 
 good-humored, and at the first sound of it the dwarf started 
 with an air of dissatisfaction, which did not seem to justify 
 the free and familiar manner with which the new-comer had 
 addressed him. 
 
 " How should you tell the gentleman, Toady, that there s no 
 house nearer than Judge Nawls 1" 
 
 " Well, where s any ?" 
 
 " Why, here, you blue-bottle, here in Cane Castle, hard by, 
 within a Choctaw s mile. When the stranger asks for a house, 
 what does he mean but a place where he can take his snooze 
 out without danger and disturbance. He don t mean wall of 
 clay and clapboards he means nothing more than a good sup 
 per and an easy sleep. Am I right, stranger ?" 
 
 Horsey, somewhat relieved of the annoying conviction that 
 he must sleep in a canebrake with the soft ooze of a rank 
 swamp in place of a mattress, was yet not utterly satisfied that 
 this description of his desire was altogether a correct one. 
 Still, there seemed little choice, and the free and easy manner 
 of the stranger was too much after his own heart not to rec 
 oncile him to things even more disagreeable than those he 
 feared. He was consoled to find that if he must sleep in the 
 swamp, he was to have a good bedfellow a conviction which 
 had not soothed him for an instant during his whole protracted 
 conversation with Mr. Richard Stillyards. He expressed hie 
 assent to the suggestion of the speaker, though in a qualified 
 measure, but this the other did not seem to perceive. He pro 
 ceeded in his speech in a manner still more agreeable to the 
 traveller. 
 
 " We are a few of us, stranger, almost playing gipsy in the 
 swamp to save expense. There s some six or eight of us, 
 Toady here not being counted, though he may be thrown in as 
 a sort of make-weight. We sleep pretty much in a huddle, 
 under pole and bush tents, and there s room for an odd one 
 when the river s foul and the swamp rises. We are players 
 play-actors perhaps you don t quite know what a player igt 
 
THE STAGE-HERO AND THE INCUBUS. 313 
 
 the people in these parts look on us with as much wonder 
 as pleasure we play plays speak speeches show tricks, 
 dance and sing, for the public gratification and our own. We 
 shall soon set out for Benton, Lexington, Lucchesa, and other 
 villages soon as the rest of the boys come in and if you ll 
 keep in the neighborhood till then, you ll see rare sport, I tell 
 you " 
 
 The effect of this speech upon Horsey may readily be con 
 jectured. His ejaculations of pleasure interrupted the speaker 
 a dozen times before he had finished, and then he grasped his 
 hand with a hearty tug that threatened to shake his arm off. 
 He forgot his cares of bed and lodging and supper all cares 
 
 all doubts all apprehensions in the one predominant 
 pleasure that filled his soul ; and a hundred questions and ejac 
 ulations followed each other too rapidly for correction or reply, 
 as he gave free vent to those emotions which he had so long and 
 so unwillingly restrained. 
 
 " And you belong to little Jim Tilton s company ? And 
 whore s Jim ? I knew the little fellow in New Orleans, when he 
 was a-hem !" He was about to say candle-snuffer, but a little 
 prudence came to his aid at the moment, and put an estopel on 
 his tongue. 
 
 "Jim Tilton," said the other, "is no go. He s but a poor 
 drab, and the less we say of him the better. He s not with us 
 now, and I seriously doubt whether he ll ever show his face 
 among us. It ll be a dark day for him when he does." 
 
 " Ha ! how so ? how so ?" 
 
 "Well, he s a rogue that s the long and short of it. We 
 played at Manchester to a good smart chance of a house, and 
 before the play was over, Jim was missing, and the treasury 
 with him. We heard of him going down to the river to Vicks- 
 burg, and that s the last. He won t come back, unless he brings 
 a double chance of picayunes to make up hush-money." 
 
 " The skunk ! But it s like him," said Horsey. " He 
 was a poor shote of a fellow at Orleans, a mere candle- 
 snuffer for Caldwell, when I was playing second-rates at the 
 American." 
 
 " You playing you ! Why, who are you ?" said the new 
 comer, with a very natural cxpie&sion of surprise. 
 
 14 
 
314 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 4 My name is Horsey," replied our traveller, with a modest 
 dropping of the voice. 
 
 " Horsey ! Not the famous actor at Ludlow s in Mobile ? It 
 can t be possible. Tell me, stranger ?" 
 
 The gusto with which this was spoken the voluminous odor 
 which it bore up into the mental nostrils of Horsey, was as 
 good as a year s growth a prize in the lottery or a crown 
 ing benefit. His blood tingled in his veins from head to foot, 
 yet never did mortal face struggle more hard to subdue the 
 exulting smile to assume and wear the pursed-up aspect of 
 humility. 
 
 ." I was at Ludlow s," he replied, modestly, " and I don t 
 know that there was any actor there but myself of my name ; 
 but I was not famous no, no ! I did some good things I 
 think I did but they passed without notice. I do not think I 
 got much reputation in Mobile." 
 
 "My dear sir, you do the Mobilians injustice great in 
 justice. I have heard of you a thousand times in Mobile, and 
 from the best authorities. Eea thought you a first-rate. Res. 
 was an excellent judge in theatricals my particular friend a 
 noble fellow, and there was what s his name? the editor of 
 the Commercial ah? devil take it, I have such a memory. 
 But it matters not. I tell you, Horsey, never did dramatic 
 reputation stand higher in Mobile than did yours. You were 
 off for New Orleans when I reached the city, but everybody 
 was asking after you, and on one occasion it was reported you 
 had arrived but had no engagement, and then there was a hue 
 and cry after the manager. It was asked in all the papers 
 why you were not engaged, and he was compelled to assure the 
 audience, under the terrors of an uproar, that you should be en 
 gaged as soon as your arrival was made known to him. I was 
 present at the time, and know the stir it made." 
 
 " Is it possible? I wonder I never heard of it before." 
 
 "I reckon you didn t read the newspapers. It was all there 
 all put down as large as life. Nay, if you were in Orleans, 
 you must have heard of it." 
 
 "No, indeed I didn t. I never read the newspapers. I 
 took a dislike to editors. I thought them all humbugs they 
 spoke very disrespectfully of inc. nt my first beginning, and 1 
 
THE STAdE-HERO A>, D M1E INCUBUS. 815 
 
 *-a resolved never to read their stuff. But T was wrong, I 
 suspect " 
 
 " Wrong ! Yes, that you were ! You have shut your ears 
 against some pleasant truths. If they treated you ill at first, 
 they made you ample amends afterward, as I think I can show 
 you. I have, I think, some of the Mobile Patriot of that time 
 that ll open your eyes. Newspapers and editors, Mr. Horsey, 
 should not be looked down upon with too much contempt. They 
 are useful in their way. They may be made so at least; and, 
 between us, it s best to treat the humblest profession with 
 charity, since, if our managers continue this trick of running 
 away with the strong box, there s no telling to what, condition 
 we may be reduced. * 
 
 " Very true ! But what could be expected of such a fellow 
 as Tilton. I was astonished when I heard that he had presumed 
 to set up for a manager." 
 
 " What ! you heard of us then ?" 
 
 "Yes I heard of you down in Raymond, and my purpose 
 was to join you." 
 
 "Join us ! God bless you, Mr. Horsey. It ll be the making 
 of us," said the stranger, grasping Horsey s hand and naming 
 out with the opening in Richard 
 
 "Now is the winter of our discontent 
 
 Made glorious summer by the son of York. " 
 
 "That was well spoken, Mr. ah, pardon me ! but oblige 
 me with your name." 
 
 "Jones! an humble one, sir, utterly unknown to fame!" re 
 plied the other with a great show of modesty. 
 
 "It may be, Mr. Jones," replied Horsey, warmly; "but 
 those two lines which you have just now spoken were really 
 well said very prettily said excellently well said. I shall 
 [( ok for good things from you. Indeed, I shall." 
 
 The flatteries of the stranger had seduced the judgment of 
 Horsey into a corresponding flexibility, and, in a few moments, 
 the apprehensions of the traveller were all forgotten in the ex 
 ultations and resuscitated hopes of the actor. The anxieties 
 natural to his situation, and which, but a moment before, had 
 grown almost painful, were dismissed entirely from his mind, 
 
316 BOHDKR BEAGLES. 
 
 and in a moment he bad resumed all the characteristics of man 
 ner and feeling, which he had shown to our readers on his first 
 introduction. He now spoke, ad libitum, of plays and playing 
 only. Every third word was a quotation ; and it was only 
 when the new-comer, who had kept up the ball with no little 
 show of practice and ability, found his corresponding store 1 of 
 quotation utterly exhausted, that he was brought brick to the 
 more immediate necessities of his situation. It was now the 
 turn of Jones to remind him of his lodgings for the night. But 
 it was not so easy now to direct the attention of our actor, who, 
 once aroused on his favorite theme, would wag a tongue in its 
 honor so long as the member itself had a single working hinge 
 to depend upon. 
 
 " But we forget, Mr. Horsey," said Jones, in prosecuting his 
 often-baffled purpose "we actors, who so love our profession, 
 are very apt to forget other matters. Here we are, wasting 
 car readings upon the desert air, when we should be thinking 
 upon other matters. Supper now and a place to sleep in 1 
 must crave your pardon for keeping you from these things so 
 long." 
 
 " Nay, these are small matters. The toast and tankard can 
 be got at any moment, but for the rest what of my old prince 
 of Hickories ? What of Hugh Peters, and how are his timbers ? 
 He to make a Julius Caesar? Ha ! ha ! ha ! The thing s ridi 
 culous, Jones; and he must be got rid of as well as Tilton 
 birds of a feather no game fellows that will disgrace us 
 only. Crows, crows !" 
 
 " Very true, sir I agree with you fully, but " 
 
 " Oh, to be sure, I know there will be a difficulty about it ; 
 it will be unkind to drive. the fellow off and hurt his feelings; 
 though, d n his impudence, he deserves no better for presu 
 ming on such a vocation. Why, Jones, I remember even now 
 the comical figure the old fool used to cut in giving us lessons 
 in reading. Even then, when I was a mere brat of a boy, and 
 knew little or nothing, I could scarce keep my face to see him 
 mouthing out the golden verses of the great master. He d get 
 upon a box for a stage his bow legs at a straddle, as if a ditch 
 lay between em, for the better support of his bag-of-cotton 
 body; and then he rl turn his little turnippy pugnose, fairly 
 
THE STAGE-HERO AND THE INCUBUS. 317 
 
 affronting the heavens, and his lips sinking deep at every sen 
 tence that he spoke, in the hollows where his teeth were 
 knocked out just in front he got it done one dark night as he 
 fell over a wash-tub, and composed himself among the stumps 
 of a new clearing. The hole was large enough for my finger 
 
 and he to be an actor ! Ha ! ha, ! ha ! It s ridiculous we 
 must get rid of him; though, to be sure, as you say, we must 
 do it in such a way as not to hurt the poor devil s feelings 
 By the ghost of David, though I should remember Little Bow- 
 legs only by his hickories, yet I m for doing it tenderly. We 
 must smooth the track for him, so that lie may walk off freely. 
 But go he must, if we hope to do anything. He d be only in 
 the way he can do nothing." 
 
 " Yes, to be sure you re perfectly right, Mr. Horsey, and 
 the management might very well be put into your hands. I m 
 sure we might make our monster Dick here do everything that 
 Peters might do ; but, as I was saying 
 
 " What, Stillyards !" exclaimed Horsey, turning upon the 
 attentive dwarf, who stood, all the vhile the dialogue pro 
 ceeded, wondering, with owlet eyes and broad-distended mouth, 
 swallowing the incomprehensible stuff that he never could di 
 gest. 
 
 "Look you, Jones, that fellow s a host himself. I wouldn t 
 give my friend Dick here for all the Peters under the sun. 
 He s the most comical fellow! What a Caliban he d make 
 a natural-born Caliban ! Egad ! we had a scene between us 
 just before you came up a scene for a melodrama it was 
 worth a picayune to see it. He ran up that f /ee like an orang- 
 otang; drew out his barker, squatted on his haunches, with 
 the felicity and grace of a black b.ear at a honey-gum, and chal 
 lenged me to a regular exchange of shots. The comical fellow 
 
 he s worth a company himself; and in New York look ye, 
 Jones, after all, New York s the place on the Bowery, that 
 fellow, as Caliban, would be a sure card, and we must play him 
 when we play ourselves." 
 
 " We must talk of this to-morrow," exclaimed Jones, des 
 perately ; and seizing upon the only pause which Horsey had 
 made for an inconceivably long time "I will send Dick for 
 ward to get things in readiness for us supper and a bed. Ho 
 
318 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 Dick ! let the boys know that the great actor, Mr. Hoisey, ii 
 coming with me. Away, by the gulleys, while we ride round 
 We ll be with them in a half-hour." 
 
 The urchin prepared to obey. 
 
 " But why not go along with Caliban ?" demanded Horsey. 
 
 " For the best of reasons. He can go where our horses can 
 not. On a line we are but a poor quarter of a mile ftom our 
 camp-ground; it will be a good half hour s ride to reach it the 
 way we must travel, and night Avill swallow up the track before 
 we are done. We must ride, therefore, to make up lost time. 
 I was so pleasantly occupied, Mr. Horsey, in listening, for the 
 last half-hour, that I never saw that the sun had left us. You 
 must give our boys some lessons to-night as soon as supper s 
 over." 
 
 "Ah, Jones, you flatter," said our friend, modestly ; " I am 
 no such man as you think me. You can do the thing quite as 
 well as myself." 
 
 "No, no!" replied the other, with something of a mournful 
 tone, as he rode forward "No, no! that is not to be hoped 
 for. Would to Heaven it were !" 
 
 Horsey followed with a new feeling of delight within his 
 bosom. The tone of the cunning Jones, the words he em 
 ployed, not to speak of the prospects and promises of ultimate 
 and unqualified triumph before him, were all so much heavenly 
 manna to the still hungering vanity of his heart ; and never 
 before, in all his career, when the possession of money, lavish 
 ly squandered, secured him the clamoring applauses of the 
 profligate associates who misled him, had he received a rnm-o 
 grateful tribute to his ruling desire than that afforded by an 
 adroit outlaw of the Mississippi border. He followed his guide 
 without suspicion, and was soofi SAvallowed up from sight, in tlif 
 darkness that now environed the dense swamps of the J.oosa 
 Chitta. 
 
KAiV Iri-jfii iio AN AWKWAUI) SOUAD 
 
 CHAPTER XX VI I. 
 
 - .T RECRUITS AN AWKWARD SUUAD MORE MYSTI 
 FICATION. 
 
 (hrb. I know thee honest. 
 J/o./* O. You do lie, sir. VOLPONE. 
 
 IT was quite dark before Horsey and his companion came to 
 a halt; and when this was done, the former looked round him 
 with astonishment, as he could not well divine at first the rea 
 son for doing so. There was no more sign of habitation or 
 human comfort then, than had been seen at the moment when 
 he encountered the dwarf. Indeed, if possible, the locale looked 
 decidedly worse than ever. The very spot on which they 
 stopped was a perfect quagmire, to which the rising waters of 
 the contiguous river had access at every freshet ; and, beheld 
 in the uncertain starlight, our actor could see that there were 
 ponds all around him, and little crossing brooklets that seemed 
 to struggle slowly through the thickening ooze, as if seeking to 
 regain the parent-stream, by whose subsiding torrents they had 
 been left. A dense wall of canes spread itself over the path in 
 trout, and Horsey was about to give utterance to the doubt and 
 bewilderment which he felt, when his companion, who seemed 
 HI nowise disconcerted, uttered a shrill whistle, which was in>- 
 iru diately answered by the deep bay of a beagle at a little dis- 
 Uace ahead. 
 
 " They will find ns now in a twinkling," said Jones ; " that 
 dog will soon tell them where to look, even if that crooked 
 scamp, Stillyards, should prove a sluggard by the way. You 
 will be relieved of your nag in a few moments, Mr. Horsey, and 
 we will coon a log for the rest of our journey. So much foi 
 
320 BORDER HK,U;U:S. 
 
 living in a swaipp. These are difficulties which would scarcely 
 trouble us in Natchez or New Orleans." 
 
 " Well, but why do you incur them ? Why live in the 
 swamp?" demanded Horsey, to whom the leasing difficul 
 ties and perplexities of the last twenty minutes of circuitous 
 navigation had begun to suggest certain doubts of the policy ~f 
 choosing places of abode for which there seemed no ius if vlnfr 
 necessity. 
 
 " Ha !" said the other, with a laugh, " there are troublei* in 
 the city which we have not here, and which we count a great 
 deal worse. Here we should laugh at a sheriff s officer there 
 we should pull hat and bend knee to him in respectful deference ; 
 and if you ever blarneyed a tailor or bullied a landlord " 
 
 " Say no more," said Horsey, to whom the references of Jones 
 seemed to have almost a personal direction, and were therefore 
 sufficiently conclusive " say no more I see the w.bdom of 
 your arrangements, and were I as near New Orleans as you are 
 to Vicksburg and Benton, I should most probably have needed 
 no explanation." 
 
 Some merry references to the artifices and annoyances of duns 
 and dunnees followed this sally, in the relation of which the ex 
 perience of the two seemed to be by no means unequal. If 
 Jones had his story of sharps and flats in Vicksburg, Nate;: x, 
 Manchester, and Benton, Horsey could tell tales quite as lively 
 of Mobile and Orleans ; and could these stories have been heard 
 by the city sufferers, the consolation would have been of a sort 
 to have induced a large addition to the sum total on the oil side 
 of the profit and loss account. Certainly, the most patient of 
 all fashionable costumers would have cursed such customers. 
 
 Their merriment had not subsided, when the figure of a man 
 plunging from a fallen tree that lay half covered and quite con 
 cealed in the dark by the canes which grew luxuriantly around 
 it, presented himself in front, and immediately took charge of 
 tneir horses. A word between Jones and the new-comer fur 
 nished sufficient explanation ; and the former, telling Horsey to 
 follow him closely, put aside the canes which concealed the fal 
 len tree, and was, an instant after, hidden from sight. Horsey 
 followed promptly, and found himself on a sort of natural bridge 
 which carried him safe.ly ,vm- .1 creek, of whose existence. 
 
RAW RECRUITS AX AWKWARD SQUAD. 321 
 
 though but ten feet from where he had been standing:, he had 
 not till that moment been aware. Though deep, and pursuing 
 a direct course to the Loosa-Chitta, it kept so quiet a travel all 
 the while that its murmurs were barely heard among the canes 
 that grew out of it, even when Horsey stood directly above its 
 bed ; and the assurance of his companion only then certified 
 him of its existence. 
 
 " Steady now, Mr. Horsey. The creek- below you has a 
 depth of ten feet, and a sudden souse at this moment would 
 startle more alligators than a man could ride for a half-mi/p, 
 around us. There is some soft clay on the log that makes it 
 slippery, and if you find it ticklish, you had better squat in time 
 and coon it." 
 
 But Horsey was too good a Mississippian to need such can 
 tious counsel, and he boldly followed his conductor after his own 
 fashion, and in perfect safety. A few moments brought them 
 to the end of the tree, when, leaping to the earth, after the ex 
 ample of his companion, our traveller once more, after a lonj* 
 interval, found himself upon terra firma. 
 
 " Here we are," exclaimed Jones, " in the immediate neigh 
 borhood of Cane Castle. Our way is clear enough, though it 
 still seems thick to your eyes. We are in an Indian trail, 
 which the Choctaws have used, I reckon, for a thousand years. 
 I knew it was ready made to our hands our feet, rather 
 and very good use we ve made of it so far. Congratulate your 
 self, Mr. Horsey, that there s no hope for a sheriff here ! We 
 have security in the bog and liberty in the brake, for which T 
 know one poor devil that would pray in vain were he in tlu j 
 swamp at Natchy. Here you may laugh as loud as you pleas*, 
 and sing as perverse, and no one to remind you of laws and 
 judges no one to say Shut up you shall neither sing IH-I 
 smoke. There s no law here against tobacco." 
 
 These assurances, which promised so great a degree of liboriy 
 to the habitual swearer, singer, and smoker, and which, in brief! 
 summed up the amount total of what arc usually defined as t he- 
 blessings of civil and religious liberty, did not, however, see^n 
 to awaken that degree of satisfaction in the mind of the actor. 
 which was justified by the importance of the promised benefits, 
 A word about the cast of characters, or the selection of pieces, 
 
 H? 
 
BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 or anything, however immaterial, in the business of staging; 
 would have called for infinitely more of his regards. Receiving 
 no answer to what he had spoken, Jones, with practised cun 
 ning, readily changed the subject to one more grateful ; and 
 mustering all that he could remember of the plays he had ever 
 read and seen acted, he contrived, by some imperfect quotations, 
 to divert the attention of Horsey from such subjects of specula 
 tion as would most probably have occurred to almost every 
 ordinary traveller in his present situation. Naturally frank and 
 unsuspicious, it was by no means difficult to deceive a person 
 whose mind was so completely surrendered up to the one en 
 grossing passion ; and though exceedingly acute in his judg 
 ments, and active in his inquiries, on all subjects not actually 
 swallowed up in the maelstrom of that mania which, at an in 
 stant, absorbed everything that came within its whirling vortex, 
 yet nothing was more easy than to lead him off from the minor 
 pursuit, by the suggestion of the smallest gleam from that greater 
 object which was the all in all of his desires. But, on this head, 
 the reader wants no new lights at this late moment. He, per 
 haps, unlike the deluded traveller of whom we write, is not so 
 sure of the Thespian character of those performers whom the 
 worthy Horsey is about to encounter in the swamp. He is not 
 Haw to be told that but why should we anticipate? 
 
 A few moments sufficed, following the little Indian footpath 
 and his companion, to bring the actor into something like an 
 opening in the forest, which consisted of mingled pines, cypres 
 ses, and ash -trees, closely set, and still more closely united 
 save in the opening mentioned by the matted canes, which 
 seemed to fill up all the intervals between them, and, in fact, 
 formed a dense margin to every one of the hundred beds of 
 watery ooze which skirted the river, the rank and festering do- 
 posit e of a thousand years. Here the actor was encountered by 
 gay gleams of firelight at u little distance, by the imperfect 
 blaze of which, he discovered himself to be on the verge of a 
 little area, or amphitheatre, in the swamp, high and dry, a sort 
 of island, the circuit of which was probably a meagre quarter 
 of a mile in extent. This, following his conductor, he rapidly 
 overpassed, until they reached a sort of nook whence the fire 
 met their eyes. 
 
RAW RECRUITS A.\ AWKWARD S^UAO. 823 
 
 Here they found as merry a set of scamps at their revels as 
 ever blessed the sight of a wayfarer on the edge of a gipsy en 
 campment. There were about seven or eight persons, squat 
 upon their haunches, and busily engaged in the adventurous 
 business of vingt-un ; a sight that warmed the heart of our trav 
 eller even more than a smoking supper might have done, since, 
 though not absolutely dramatic in itself, it suggested to his mind 
 one of those leading associations of theatrical life, which brought 
 back his fading memories with fresh colors, and greatly increased 
 their vitality. 
 
 But if their present employment seemed natural enough to 
 the heyday recklessness of the ordinary actor s life, there was 
 little besides, in their air and appearance, to justify, in the mind 
 of Horsey, their adoption of the business. He looked in vair, 
 for that happy ease, sometimes, in "mouths of wisest censure," 
 esteemed impudence, which distinguishes so greatly the actor 
 by profession. The dashing effrontery, the devil-may-care de 
 portment of the sect, was lacking. There was none of the grace 
 ful swagger of the genteel comedian none of the soleirn 
 emphasis of him who wears the image of fate, and looks habitual 
 tragedy upon his brow a Prometheus-like gloom and defiance 
 which would have realized the ideal of an ^Eschylus, and filled 
 the eyes of the poet with the figures that else had only had ex 
 istence in his mind; and as for the comedy of stare, and iiii. 
 and clatter the broad fun, and ridiculous, reckless farce 
 never was pleasant company so utterly without its enlivening 
 and mirth-compelling attributes. The very soul of every ir.K-.-.l 
 in the group seemed set only upon the sixpences before him. 
 Mammon, not Momus, was the god of the entertainment, and 
 our traveller s anticipations were taken half aback, as he beheld. 
 an expression of care and intensity in every face, so utterly un 
 like that good-humored indifference to fate and fortune, which 
 hitherto had been to him one of the chief attractions among his 
 intimates of the lobby and the green-room. 
 
 " These chaps have greatly mistaken their profession," was 
 the unexpressed thought of the idealist. " There is not a scamp 
 among em who will ever do more than snuff a candle or shout 
 at a pageant. They will give me no support they will bungle 
 most damnably. Then came oAch actor on his ass. Gad! 
 
324 BORDER BKAGLES. 
 
 the ass will be uppermost here. But these are supernumeraries 
 only. There must be others. I must wait. At least, I am 
 sure of good foils, if I have no rivals ; and if they can make 
 play at all, they will give me all the chance I want. But they 
 are mere Turks and Muscoghees a sort of savages that will 
 never stop till they scalp what they have murdered. Their 
 parts are all in danger of a bloody death. But buz ! buz !" 
 
 The introduction of the stranger was rapidly gone through 
 with too rapidly to enable our traveller to witness any of 
 those beauties of deportment which he still fancied might make 
 their appearance in that nice performance the reception of a 
 guest for the first time which so eminently calls for a pleasing 
 and prompt gracefulness, without which reception is more prop 
 erly repulsion, and an invitation to make oneself at home, looks 
 very like a suggestion to depart. Jones seemed to conjecture 
 what was passing in Horsey s mind, and took an opportunity, a 
 few minutes after, to say to him, in a whisper, that the giants 
 were yet to arrive these were the pasteboard personages 
 that class of creatures which we use from necessity, and keep 
 out of sight when we can. 
 
 " But they will improve, Mr. Horsey, under your tuition 
 under your example I mean. They have had no opportuni 
 ties have seen no shining lights, and are shy, sir, very shy 
 much can not be expected from them as yet; but when you 
 have given us some readings, Mr. Horsey then, &c." 
 
 It was not surprising after this appeal, that our vain actor 
 beheld his companions with a look of greater indulgence and 
 more charitable thoughts. The wily Jones knew all his 
 poundings, and the tragedian was little more than a puppet in 
 his hands. 
 
 Meanwhile, new fires were built, new combinations formed, 
 and Horsey found himself as busy about the blaze as the rest, 
 and, though with a less intense feeling than the rest, receiving 
 his cards, and " planking" his shillings. His friend Jones sat 
 beside him and assisted him as a partner to lose his money in 
 the game. As the stakes" disappeared, the good humor of 
 the group seemed to increase, and the contagious mirth soon 
 made Horsey as indulgent in his criticism as unmindful of his 
 losses. He thought the scamps susceptible of improvement. 
 
RAW RECRUITS-- AN AWKWARb SQUAD. 25 
 
 and, stimulated by the suggestions and applauses of Jones, Ins 
 quotations became recitations ; and his own language was at 
 length limited to a few occasional comments which served to 
 introduce and link together the choicest declamatory passages 
 of Shakspere. The Toms, Dicks, and Harries, around him 
 looked as grave and seemed as attentive as possible ; but it 
 might have been perceived by one more watchful than our am 
 ateur, that none of them forgot the game in the delight which 
 ho felt or affected to feel, and the stakes were always lifted as 
 soon as won. They were men" who had long since learned to 
 combine the severest cares of business with the utmost relaxa 
 tions of pleasure. 
 
 " That was superbly said, Mr. Horsey," remarked the attentive 
 and respectful Jones, as the actor concluded the fame as soliloquy 
 in Hamlet, "to be," &c., "I can say with confidence that I have 
 never heard that passage delivered before never though I 
 have heard it a hundred times from other lips. You make us feel 
 the poet, sir, and tremble at the philosophy. Ah, sir, how these 
 reflections come to us, poor outcasts of fortune, like so many dread 
 ful experiences. Who has not asked himself whether it was not 
 better and nobler to make his own quietus with a bare bodkin, 
 than to suffer the thousand cruel and crushing evils, such as the 
 rest of the passage has described ? Not that it is all evil, Mr. 
 Horsey. I am disposed to think, so far as my experience goes, that 
 that part of it about the law s delay might very well be left out. 
 The law s delay, sir, is one of the most agreeable features which 
 the law ever shows to a poor debtor like myself, and as I have 
 said before, but for the law s delay, and that of the deputy, 
 many s the poor devil who would have lain at the mercy of 
 tailor and tapster, without hope or redress, to the detriment of 
 his genius, and to the great loss of the majority of mankind. 
 I m thinking, Mr. Horsey, that that half line might very Avell 
 be left out of the passage." 
 
 " Impossible, Mr. Jones there would be an ugly hiatus-- 
 the music of the line would be lost utterly lost." 
 
 "But the passage might be altered something might be 
 supplied in its place. Supposing we were to read the play s 
 delay now that would be such an improvement as would be 
 grateful to every ambitious actor." 
 
326 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 This suggestion grated on the pars of our amateur. He was 
 one of those profound devotees of the great literary outlaw, who 
 venerates his very faults, even as the antiquarian treasure up 
 the rust and canker of the relic. To remove anything, in liiy 
 eyes, would be to impair the value and take from the propriety 
 of what remained ; and his reply was uttered in tones more en 
 ergetic than he had hitherto employed. 
 
 " Sacrilege ! sacrilege, Mr. Jones how can you think of it ! 
 No, sir, the passage must stand as it is neither too little nor 
 too much nothing can be added, nothing taken away. It s 
 true, as you say, the law s delay is a very agreeable thing to 
 the debtor. Gad, sir, I have been indebted to it quite as often 
 as yourself; but our notions would be greatly altered if MC 
 stood in the creditor s shoes ; we should then hold the passage to 
 be perfect as it is ; as, indeed, I hold it now, having no debtors, 
 and being still over shoes on the books of other men. No, no ! 
 sir no liberties with Shakspere remember the admirable 
 counsel to this effect which he gives to our profession in partic 
 ular on this very head to speak no more than is set down for 
 them I can forgive a fellow when he is out and the audience 
 waiting, and the prompter asleep, if he fills out from his own 
 head ; but when he does it out of presumption, seeking to im- 
 prcve the work of the mighty master, that s villanous, and 
 shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that does it." 
 
 " I don t know but you re right, sir." 
 
 " I am ! I am right, Mr. Jones I am positive in this matter. 
 The more you think of it, sir, the more you ll have occasion to 
 agree with me; and in the beginning of our campaign, sir, the 
 thing can not be too much insisted upon for the benefit of the 
 whole company." 
 
 " I was thinking, sir," said Jones, with some hesitation of 
 manner, and a bow and look of particular deference aliiM st 
 amounting to veneration, "I was thinking, sir, that it might l-o 
 of great service to our boys if you d be so good as to give r> 
 your reading of that very part." 
 
 " What ! the advice to the players ?" 
 
 " Yes, sir ; I m sure there s not one present that would not 
 be delighted to hear it from your lips. What say you, boys 
 what Ricks, Mason, Baker, Bui 1 , ? 
 
RAW RECRUITS AS AWKWARD SQUAD. 327 
 
 "Ay, ay ! let s have it!" was the lively cry from all, in tones 
 far less full of solicitous deference, and a great deal more indif 
 ferent than those of Jones. Meanwhile, however, the cards 
 were shuffled, the stakes set down and lifted, and the game un 
 derwent no cessation, though, in the excitement of his declama 
 tion, our friend Horsey s cards remained upon the turf, from 
 which, however, his stakes were always considerately with 
 drawn by the banker, as soon as laid before him. 
 
 " But it will interrupt the game," was the considerate sugges 
 tion of the actor. " Our friends would rather play than listen 
 to those dull recitations, of which they hear so much profession 
 ally." 
 
 "Devil a bit!" was the warm reply of Jones to the modest 
 apprehension of Horsey. " Devil a bit ! Dull recitations, in 
 deed ! By ! such luxuries are more than they are used to 
 
 more, perhaps, than they deserve. Put up your hands, men, 
 while Mr. Horsey gives us these passages ; down with your pic 
 tures, take up your picayunes, and let us surrender our souls for 
 a while to the scene. By the way, Mr. Horsey, if you have no 
 objection, the thing might be made more complete the illusion 
 rendered more striking and fascinating in short, sir, if you 
 would consent " 
 
 He paused and looked in the actor s face with doubt and en 
 treaty, equally mingled with respectful deference; but he 
 spoke not. 
 
 "What, Mr. Jones?" was the demand of Horsey, who was at 
 that moment too well pleased to have refused the speaker any 
 thing in his power to bestow, and who felt assured, from the 
 manner of Jones, that he was only about to solicit some further 
 extension of that courtesy, the concession of which was, per 
 haps, far more gratifying to him than it could be to the hearers. 
 The reply of Jones was uttered in the hesitating accents of one 
 who still scrupled to give offence. 
 
 "If I remember I think, Mr. Horsey nay, you did tell 
 me, that you had brought with you a portion of your ward 
 robe." 
 
 "You are right, sir I have with me a Hamlet and a Romeo, 
 Bolla, a Turk, and two field-officers, in my bags, but " 
 
 "The very thing, my dear sir !" cried Jones, with an air of 
 
328 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 inexpressible delight; "and now, sir," lie continued, " if you 
 would only crown your favors and give us your readings in cos 
 tume give us the favorite passages in Hamlet, which, I should 
 think, from what you have suffered us to see, your best perform 
 nnce, you would bind us to you eternally. It would make us 
 so happy it would help us so greatly we should all be so 
 much pleased, not to speak of the immense benefit that 
 that" 
 
 Here the cunning dog stopped very judiciously, leaving un 
 expressed the superb climax which the imagination of the 
 hearer was better able to provide, than the flattery of the eulo 
 gist. Soothed, seduced, perfectly overcome, in the weakness 
 of his heart, by the adroit management of the wily Jones, the 
 reluctance of the actor was very feeble. He said something 
 about Ms horse and saddle-bags not having come, and murmured 
 a fear that he might be tiresome. But these objections were 
 soon met and overruled by the other. 
 
 " Your horse is here in our stables. The bags you can get at 
 in a moment; and if you will go with me, we can put you at 
 once into a chamber where you can make all your changes with 
 out disturbance." 
 
 There was no resisting the pleasant importunities of his com 
 panion; and, following his guidance, Horsey was led through a 
 contiguous thicket into another smaller area, where he found 
 several huts of bushes and bark, in one of which his horse was 
 fastened, along with that of Jones; while the fellow who had 
 taken charge of them- lay fast asleep before the door, using the 
 saddle-bags of the actor for his pillow. He was soon aroused, 
 and made to carry them into another of the huts, where Jones, 
 having studiously repeated his flatteries, left the delighted actor 
 to prepare his toilet prior to his first rehearsal before his new 
 companions. 
 
 These, meanwhile, had their own thoughts on the subject of 
 the new-comer. 
 
 " Now, what the devil can Jones be after," was the muttered 
 speech of one surly fellow of the circle, " in bringing this con 
 ceited ass among us ? He seems to have precious little money, 
 and he s not worth robbing; he s a fool and can t be trusted ; 
 and why we are to pretend to be actors, and all that nonsense. 
 
RAW RECRUITS AN AWKWARD SQUAD. 329 
 
 and listen to his stuff, is more than I can reckon up at a single 
 tuning. What do you say, Baker do you understand it?" 
 
 "No better than yourself, but I s pose there s something in 
 it, since Jones says thai he s ordered by Saxon. Saxon s after 
 some strange business, I reckon, and I s pose he s got his rea 
 sons. What they are, I don t care to know, so long as the fel 
 low has a Mexican to lose, and don t know when he loses." 
 
 "Nor when he wins, for that matter," said another. "Bull 
 gathered up his stakes and winnings together, the first time in 
 his life that ever his losses filled his pockets." 
 
 "The fellow s well enough," said Bull, with a growling 
 chuckle " so say no more. I m for his playing cards, or any 
 thing he pleases, so long as the playing is profitable to us. 
 But here s Jones coming back ; let us know all about it from 
 him." 
 
 " How now, growlers?" said this last-named person, as he re 
 turned among the group. " Can t you be satisfied with your 
 gettings, when they come with so little trouble? This fellow s 
 your pigeon, pluck him as you please; but look you that he 
 does not guess what you re about. Take your counsel from me, 
 and humor him awhile it will give us quite as much sport as 
 profit." 
 
 "But what s the upshot of the business are we to stop his 
 wind, or is he to be one of the family ? He ll never make a 
 beagle, so long as his head s full of play-stuff." 
 
 " Let that give you no trouble. It s enough that Saxon plans 
 it. This fellow s nothing in himself, but we use him against 
 another. There s one thing, let me tell you, before you go fur 
 ther. Weston is dead shot through the head by a young law 
 yer going up to Lucchesa, on t other side of the river by Big 
 Ben s. There s a start below against us; and the old method- 
 ist, Badger, is beginning to growl aloud. So, lie close there s 
 no fear of the dad, while the son is a beagle. He ll give tongue 
 enough when the hunt s a-foot. As for this chap, all that you 
 have to do is to wink, look wise, talk what player nonsense you 
 ean, and praise him for his acting, whenever he asks questions 
 khat you can t answer. That will stop his tongue, and turn his 
 thoughts, and that s all that you ve to do. I ll manage all the 
 rest of the business. Put up your cards now, and get the grog 
 
330 BORDER BEACLKR. 
 
 in readiness, ami lot Girhan get <ur supper, while I m gone foi 
 the actor. You ll see him in Ins glory when lie comes hark, 
 but no grinning nothing to frighten him. Hear linn with 
 open mouths, and if you can throw in a bit of blarney, let it be 
 clone. But do it neatly nothing slippery nothing stupid. 
 The fellow s no fool when he ain t flattered it s soft soap only 
 that turns his head. Enough you have the trail." 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 SWAMP THEATRICALS NO FUN IN TRAGEDY A BULLDOG 
 
 AMONG THE BEAGLES THE STAR L .VDKK A CLOUD 
 STRIFE IN THE SIGN OF TAURUS. 
 
 Serv. My lord, you no<l ; von do not mind the play. 
 
 Sly. Yes, by Snint. Anne, I do. A good matter, surely. Comes there 
 any more of itf Taming of the Shrew. 
 
 WHEN Jones returned to his comrades, accompanied by 
 Horsey in character, the scene had undergone a change. The 
 cards hafl disappeared fires were lighted anew a rude plank 
 table, wirh rude block seats, had risen in the midst, garnished 
 with sundry black bottles of strong waters, and everything 
 looked fair for a promising carouse. The men, too, had under 
 gone some little change. The exhortations of Jones had not 
 been lost upon them, and, taking it for granted that their ac 
 count lay, as it had always done before, in securing the desires 
 of their leaders, they were prepared to yield themselves, heart 
 and hand, to the game that was before them. A warm cheer, 
 thrice renewed, received the actor, who stalked before them in 
 all the mournful and philosophical dignity of the youthful Dar.o. 
 A buzz, a murmur of approbation, followed this outbreak, and. 
 whether sincere or affected, the result was everything thnt 
 might be desired. For the first time in his life, Horsey fou--..! 
 himself in the presence of actors who were not rivals candi 
 dates for popular favor, who had no jealousy of their neighbors 
 and professors of an art that lives on popular applause, who 
 were yet no less prompt in bestowing it. Our traveller was the 
 
SWAMP THEATRICALS. 331 
 
 last man i the world to mortify himself with any unnecessary 
 doubts of that sincerity which spoke in the language of enco 
 mium. And yet, to do his understanding all justice, it must be 
 added that Jones took infinite pains to avoid arousing his sus 
 picions. His own applauses were all well-timed, judiciously 
 expressed, and had the appearance of being urged with great 
 hesitation and forbearance. A respectful deference distin 
 guished even his solicitude ; and his chief argument to Horsey, 
 and one which he had insisted on in frequent whispers, was the 
 necessity of a good model for his wretched creatures. 
 
 " These fellows have never played before, my dear Mr. Hor 
 sey. They have been picked up from all parts of the country. 
 Some of them have never even looked upon a play, and none of 
 them have any just idea of what a performance should be. I 
 know the trouble it will give you to tutor them, but it is so im 
 portant that we should make a good figure at first, and if, as I 
 believe, you regard the drama as so important to the civiliza 
 tion of the people to the improvement of popular taste, and 
 and" 
 
 All this kind of stuff was very convincing to our stage-struck 
 hero. His eye brightened while he looked around him, and sur 
 veyed the mute watchfulness and vague curiosity of stare that 
 met his glance on every side. 
 
 " Something can be made of them, Jones," he said paternally, 
 in a confidential whisper, " and, considering the great impor 
 tance of the thing, I am not unwilling to undertake their tui 
 tion. You are right in regarding it as all-important that they 
 should know something before they begin ; though, really, it is 
 surprising very surprising that they should have ever thought 
 of the stage. It seems to me that any other vocation " 
 
 The comment was answered by a conclusive Avhisper. 
 
 " Beggars, you know, Mr. Horsey, can not be choosers. We 
 must make the most of them till a better bargain offers, and then 
 I m clear that we get rid of them. On this head we must con 
 fer together hereafter. We must take the management into 
 our own hands, since Tilton s off, and there s no knowing wher* 
 to set hands on Peters. It is a happy chance that sent you IP 
 our neighborhood. I was beginning to think matters desperate 
 and had almost given up in despair, and gone off. Now, the ^V 
 
332 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 no danger. You will set us on our feet again. But ijiere s time 
 enough to talk of this hereafter. Now, the lads are waiting 
 Gentlemen, Mr. Horsey is ready pray give your attention." 
 
 " Ay, ay," exclaimed the surly fellow, Bull, " and so are we 
 We ve been ready this half-hour to hear him ; but, Jones, s pose % 
 if it s not disagreeable to Mr. Horsey, let s take a swig all round 
 to better acquaintance. It sort-o makes a body easy to lister, 
 when the liquor s afloat; and sort-o softens the ear and opcii 
 the understanding. I always feels a great deal easier to judge, 
 when I m in sperrits." 
 
 "Vulgar fellow !" mutterod Horsey to himself, annoyed at an 
 interruption at the very moment when, throwing himself into 
 posture, he was about to begin. He concealed his chagrin as 
 well as he could, while the vigilant Jones, calling to order, en 
 deavored to keep down the moral scum winch promised to riso 
 up with quite as much pertinacity as ever, with the very next 
 agitation of the atmosphere. 
 
 " A good idea of Bull s, that, Mr. Horsey," said the politician. 
 " A glass to better acquaintance is not amiss ; though I m not 
 so sure it makes one judge the better in intellectual matters and 
 things of art. What have you there, gentlemen ?" 
 
 " Monongahela, fresh from Beattie s Bluff," was the reply of 
 Bull. " There s a piggin of peach in the bushes, the last of the 
 barrel ^r^haps, the gentleman will take his pull from that ?" 
 
 " JVehaps ! Take his pull!" Horsey could scarce suppress 
 his astonishment, and forbear repeating the offensive vulgarities 
 aloud. 
 
 "Our Jack Pudding! our fellow for broad grin and buf 
 foonery !" whispered Jones in the ear of the amateur. " A 
 very comical fellow when he s in the humor, Mr. Horsey 
 never saw so comical a dog as he can make himself. All this 
 is put on it s in character only. He is only disposed to let 
 you see that there are other actors beside yourself." 
 
 Indeed ! Is that it ? But he looks very serious for a funny 
 fellow." 
 
 "That s the beauty of it, sir that s the wonder that s 
 what makes him inimitable in his way. You ll hear liiirt speak 
 the dialect of the most ignorant backwoodsman, as if he was 
 born to it and look for all the world as if he never could hav 
 
SWAMP THEATRICALS. 333 
 
 spoken any other. But, I can, tell you, so far from that being 
 the case, he s well educated speaks Greek like a native, and 
 is profound in mathematics, besides having an excellent taste 
 in poetry." 
 
 " Is it possible !" 
 
 " True as Holy Writ; but he has his humors, sir and one 
 of them is to disparage himself. He will even lie, sir lie like 
 a Trojan in order to make himself little. Ask him now about 
 Greek; and if he happens to be in the humor for running his 
 cross-rigs upon you, he ll swear he knows nothing of what you 
 say, and will probably answer you in the coarsest lingo of 
 Catahoula and the swamp." 
 
 " A strange perversity, indeed." 
 
 "It s the way with all geniuses, I believe; but here he 
 comes. Don t mind his extravagances. You ll see the fun of 
 them, now that you know something of the fellow." 
 
 By this time Bull returned, bearing in his hands the piggin 
 of peach-brandy, for which he had gone to the bushes where it 
 had been concealed. His salutation as he placed the vessel on 
 the table, was calculated to justify in some sort the description 
 which had been just given of his eccentricities. 
 
 "Here, you b lies," he cried aloud "here s stuff enough, 
 and sorts enough, if your stomach s not too swingy proud for 
 an honest liquor. This peach is a beauty, and the whiskey s 
 as lovely as a sinner alongside of it. If you don t like one, take 
 the other, and if you don t like neither, mix em and swig both, 
 and see which end ll come uppermost. Blast my buttons 
 what do you wait for, you " 
 
 We omit the more decided expressions of blackguardism. 
 
 " You see," whispered Jones to the actor, " he s as full of 
 Aristophanes as an egg s full of meat. Fond of all the old 
 comic writers, and don t stand at calling things by plain names. 
 You ll know more of him directly." 
 
 Horsey drew a long breath as he replied 
 
 " Gad ! he is the strangest fellow " 
 
 His speech and woi ilr were briefly cut short by the upr-ari- 
 ous challenge of the eccentric Bull, who, having filled a tin 
 mug of more than usual dimensions with one of the two potent 
 beverages so highly eulogized, extended his gracious permission. 
 
iiOUDKil UKA(JLi-:.S. 
 
 after a fashion of liis own, to all others who might be disposed 
 to follow his example. 
 
 "I m a man that has a notion that all sperrits loses that 
 stands too long open to the air. You must pour it down or cork 
 it up, one or t other, and so, fellows, I drinks to you, and my 
 sentiments is here s to the tongue that never sticks in the 
 way of the swallow meaning no harm to them that stands off 
 talking, when they might be doing a better business." 
 
 And with these words, and a scornful leer at the actor and 
 his companion Jones, the Grecian humorist, turned the bottom 
 of the can to the north star, while the mouth of it clung for an 
 Instant to his own with a sympathetic tenacity. 
 
 " Well said ! Well hit !" exclaimed the ready Jones, with a 
 wink, to Horsey. " We certainly deserve the censure of all 
 good spirits, when we leave such good spirits untasted. Hor 
 sey, my dear fellow, shall I pour you out from the jug or the 
 piggin ? I can answer for this peach it s as good as any of 
 Crumbaugh s." 
 
 " The peach, I thank you," was the answer of Horsey, in 
 somewhat subdued accents. The fact is, his genius was con 
 founded in the presence of that of Mr. Aristophanes Bull, of 
 whom, as yet, he could not exactly succeed in reconciling what 
 he saw with what he heard. A little time after, and he grew 
 more flexible ; but let us not anticipate. His glass was filled, 
 and with the kindest condescension in the world, he bowed to 
 the company ere he drank, and uttered some commonplace 
 compliment, which was lost, like many better wishes, in the un 
 heeding air. 
 
 "And now, gentlemen, give attention now for the part of 
 Hamlet by Mr. Horsey, of whom you all have heard, and by 
 whose counsel and example, I trust we shall all improve. Mr. 
 Horsey, perhaps that part about actors and acting I mean the 
 advice to the players might be the best to begin with; un 
 less, indeed, you should prefer to give us some more tragic parts. 
 I know that your forte lies in tragedy." 
 
 Such was the conciliatory preludium of the adroit Jones, and 
 its effect promised to be exceedingly happy upon the person to 
 whom it was addressed. A smile rose upon his lips, his eyes 
 sparkled, as he felt the convincing deference of the speaker, 
 
XO FUH IN TilAGEDY. 335 
 
 and a ray of self -complaisance, such as the sun sheds over the western 
 heavens, after he has done a good day s work of illumination, gave to 
 our actor s face an inexpressible benignity of beam, which was most 
 unhappily overcast, in another instant, by the intrusive comments of 
 the eccentric genius, Bull . 
 
 "Tragedy be d d," said he, striking his hand down upon 
 
 the table, to which, in the next moment, he elevated his foot ; 
 
 "tragedy be d d that s all in my eye and Betty Martin. 
 
 There s no fun in that, no more than in thunder and hoxy-doxy. 
 Who want s to see a fellow get up and blow out his cheeks, and roll 
 up his eyes, and growl and roar and choke, and shake all over as if 
 he had an agy ? None of your tragedy for me. There s no 
 sense in it. Tain t raal. I was once down in Mobile when 
 I saw them making tragedies, and, darken my peepers, but the 
 bloody b lies made me mad enough to swallow em, they were so 
 cussed rediculous." 
 
 " But, my dear Bull," was the beginning, thrice begun, of our 
 friend Jones, in the endeavor to stop the torrent of the humorist. In 
 vain Bull kept his ground and shook off the intruder with as much 
 case as a three-year-old colt would shake off a Connecticut cavalry 
 officer. 
 
 "Oh, be d d," said he, "don t I know? There was a 
 
 tragedian that came in looking after his enemy. He had his 
 sword out, and he made a show as if he was mighty angry, but, 
 between you and me, he didn t want to find him, no how. The 
 other fellow was hiding behind a tree, and this chap looked for 
 him everywhere but there. So, as I wanted to see how they d 
 fight, I up and told him where to look for him says I, bung 
 up my peepers if you don t find him agin that rock, squat, jist 
 hiding behind that tree. It was a scrub oak, or something like 
 it I never seed sich a tree before. Well, instead of thanking 
 me, he dropped his jaws and his sword, looked at me as if he d 
 seed a ghost, mumbled something in his throat, nobody could 
 tell what, and then there was a spree among the people, and 
 some of the larks below cried out as if they were gwine to lick 
 
 me. Lick and be d d, says I, Mick if you can. Where s 
 
 the first man ? let me look on him. So up I stands, and 
 devil the bit of a nigger among em to say another word. Well 
 that was all bloody foolish. If the chap was in a rnest, it was 
 
336 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 the easiest thing to find the other. He had only to say I m 
 ready, clap his hips and crow like a chicken, and if they was 
 ser ous, what more ? But tragedies ain t ser ous things. It s 
 all make-b lieve. They know there s nobody to be hurt, no 
 body s in a rnest ; for they ll stand and talk for a long quarter, 
 though the enemy s at the door, with bullet and bowie-knife; 
 and they pretending to be mighty scared all the time. Then 
 they hide where its so easy to find em. Grim ! only let a 
 nigger hide from me in Loosa-Chitta as them fellows hide from one 
 another in tragedies, and how soon I d ride through his rig lets. I d 
 be into em, and on ern ; over em, and through em ; round em, and 
 about em ; front em, and a-back em ; in the twinkle of a musquito 
 race lightning never could go quicker. No ! no ! None of your 
 tragedies for me." 
 
 "But, Bull, my dear fellow!" expostulated Jones, with some 
 thing more of anxiety in his accents and manner, as he saw the 
 almost pallid expression of discomfiture in the blank visage of 
 Horsey " why should you go on so ? Though you don t like 
 tragedy, that s no reason why other people should not, and we who 
 labor for thejpublic, or propose to do so, must do that which will best 
 please the public. Now there s no doubt that most people prefer 
 tradgedy " 
 
 "The more fools they!" stoutly replied the obdurate Bull, 
 They re not of my kidney, then, by hocus ; and I recon there s 
 none of the boys here that wouldn t prefer a sup of whiskey 
 at any time, and a frolic at Mother Surgick s, to all the tragedy 
 stuff." 
 
 "But, Bull, my dear fellow " Jones resumed his expostula 
 tions, but in vain. Bull had been supping whiskey for a good hour 
 before Horsey had reached the camp, and had grown too inflexible 
 to engage with readiness in any scheme so intricate as the one pro 
 posed. 
 
 "Butt Bull," he retorted, using the language of Jones, with a 
 grin, as if a good joke lay at the bottom " Butt Bull, and get the 
 worst of it. See whose head s the hardest, you b h, and be off with 
 your mug broken . Its a bad chance to butt any of my breed. No, 
 blast my buttons ! hide and horns, head and tail, are all too much for 
 such as you, Jones ; so no rearing, unless you want to come down on 
 your haunches." 
 
A BULLDOG AMONG THE BEAGLES. 337 
 
 "A wit, you see," said Jones, in a whisper to the waiting 
 Hamlet "a fellow of infinite humor; and as he s a little 
 drunk he begins to show it. The true nature always comes up 
 permost with a man in liquor. A fellow of contradictions 
 we must bear with him a while longer." 
 
 There was little or no consolation in all this for the actor. 
 He began to suspect that the organization of such an unruly 
 gang would task the best manager in the worst fashion. He 
 saw treason, uproar, and utter discomfiture in all the proceedings 
 of the green-room. But he said nothing in reply to Jones, and 
 before the latter could say more, the sarcastic Bull had re 
 sumed the subject of which he seemed as tenacious as the 
 grave. 
 
 " Now," he said, " if you re for acting at all, give me them 
 funny things, where they make all sorts of faces, and play 
 tricks, and tumble one another about, and jump on shoulders 
 and ride like monkeys, and run up the chimney, and hide be 
 hind the door. Give me the comedies and farces, and them 
 sort of things that make a fellow laugh to split. I m for the 
 frolicking plays, and I reckon we re all for them. Ain t you, 
 Baker?" 
 
 Ay, deuce take me, if I don t vote with Bull," was the 
 response of Mr. Baker. 
 
 "And I too," said another. 
 
 " And I," said a third. 
 
 And the majority sent up an assenting voice which put a 
 stop for an instant to all the expostulations of the indefatigable 
 Jones. Bull looked round him with an air of triumph and com 
 placency, as much as to say, there, you have our decision, so 
 let your tragedy be comedy your fate, fun ! He filled up 
 his can, as the difficult question was thus determined to his own 
 satisfaction ; and, as if to reconcile the minority to a decision 
 which is always disagreeable to a minority, he proposed a bum 
 per all round. 
 
 " Come Jones, come Doughty," so he named Horsey, " my 
 dogs, we ll begin the fun by a full swallow. I m always for a 
 frolic when there s good stuff to go upon ; and a comedy, says 
 I, because a comedy s always ser ous a rnest, and it s all my 
 when they makes tragedies. Tragedies is mighty foolish 
 
BUilDEK 
 
 f and ridiculous tilings. They ain t ser ous. The killing am t 
 ger ous. I don t reckon a man was ever yet killed in a tragedy. 
 Now, I m for killing in a rnest when 1 set about it. I don t 
 leave off when I begin, and if I once put knife into a fellow t 
 ribs to make small meat of him, wouldn t I be a blasted fool to 
 go off, before I made sure that the thing was done in ri-ht 
 a rnest. ? I d git on him astraddle arid feel at his kidneys ; Tnd 
 if there was only the littlest shaking of the flesh, d me but 
 I d give him another dig or two to make sure and put him out 
 ^of his misery. I would, d me." 
 
 There was something exceedingly literal in the latter part of 
 Bull s speech, which our friend Horsey found it v-ry difficult to 
 account for. It seemed to him that the witty felkx was con 
 founding real events with theatrical illusion ; and the idea of 
 his bestraddling his slain opponent, and giving him a thrust 
 extra seemed rather Choctaw-like and savage. Besides, he 
 could not understand how such a proceeding should ever be 
 tolerated by an audience. On this head he thought it important 
 to express his doubts. This he did, however, with less than his 
 usual fecund flow of language, and with a hesitancy of rnannei 
 which showed how greatly the eccentric genius of Bull had 
 cowed himself, no less than the rest of his companions. 
 
 " I am afraid, Mr. Bull, the spectators would not permit such 
 an unnecessary proceeding. The moment the man lies, appa 
 rently dead, the end of the performance is obtained. There IH 
 surely no sort of necessity to repeat the blow ; and I am afraid 
 that the dignity of tragedy would be utterly overthrown by be 
 straddling the slain man. I am also disposed to think "" 
 
 " Look you, Doughty, my boy," cried Bull, with an air oi 
 most paternal superiority, clapping his open hand as he spoke 
 over the mouth of the tragedian " you re but a young hand 
 at the hatchet, I see. Do you think," with an air of greal 
 seeming circumspection, as he bent his mouth to the ear of the 
 hearer, and spoke in a half-whisper " you talk of spectators, 
 but do you think I d be such a blasted b- h of a fool as to let 
 anybody see me at the business ?" 
 
 " How ! how ! the audience not see you ?" 
 The actor was bewildered. Jones, with some consterna 
 tion interposed. The game at cross-purposes, which he ha 
 
1HE blAit UADl.it A CLuUl;. </>U 
 
 so cunningly introduced, was on the verge of a sudden termi 
 nation. 
 
 "Ha, ha! A good joke an excellent joke !" he exclaimed 
 aloud, laughing immoderately as he spoke "Bull, you re a 
 born devil of a joker. He s trying to quiz you, Mr. Horsey 
 I warned you how twould be a very Momus, sir all fun, 
 all mirth, all deviltry." 
 
 "Quiz me!" exclaimed the actor, with a genuine expression 
 of tragedy a sublime indignation in his countenance as he 
 spoke, which, in an instant after, changed to one of haughty de 
 fiance, as his eyes turned from Jones to the person of him to 
 whom had been ascribed the impertinent effort which promised 
 to be so offensive. 
 
 " Nay, take no offence, Mr. Horsey, don t you see the man s 
 drunk," said Jones, in a whisper. " But I ll mend his manners 
 I ll lead him off for a while, and coo^l him. I ll say that 
 which will bring him to his senses." 
 
 "Tell him you ll discharge him!" said Horsey, with all the 
 terrors of a managerial countenance, as he whispered this severe 
 counsel in the ears of the other. " By the body of Polonius, it 
 would be impossible to keep such a fellow in order all his 
 merits, were they twice what they are, could never reconcile 
 me to tolerate such presumption." 
 
 " You are right, perfectly right, sir, and I ll make him hear 
 to reason," said Jones "meanwhile, sir, when I take him off, 
 do you occupy the rest. They are very anxious to hear you 
 very good fellows, sir a little tainted with Bull only. They 
 will keep order." 
 
 While this brief dialogue proceeded between the two in whis 
 pers, the eccentric Bull had glided, by a very natural transition, 
 from the proscenium into the orchestra, and was leading off, in 
 a dithyrambic, famous among the beagles of the borders, to the 
 air of the " Raccoon skinned" a melody which only needs the 
 lyrical genius of General Morris, who quelled the rioters of New 
 York in 1834, to marry to universal song, and embalm, with 
 other " refrains/ in the cedar oil of immortality. We shall 
 copy it out, when more at leisure, for the special benefit of that 
 gentleman ; at present, a single verse must suffice, as well foi 
 him, as for our amateur. 
 
 /^o, T?; 
 
 (( UNIVERSITY J 
 
840 BOEDER BEAGLEE 
 
 M Bish war ben it dan i nee 
 
 Blit nel de mor , 
 So ma nol, it cal a f, 
 
 Chi, cha, ohf , chow, 
 Tra la chin, et car .t lee, 
 
 Chi, cha, cUo, chow, 
 Blit nel de me:;" etc. 
 
 t 
 
 " Bull, a word with you," said Jones, abruptly, as the up 
 
 roarious ditty was ended. 
 
 " Well, out with it, and be d d to you. If it s only one, 
 
 the pain s soon over." 
 
 " Come with me." 
 
 " Why can t you out with it here 1 D n my sixes ! There s 
 no use to get up while one s able, and there s any stuff left. See 
 here." 
 
 " Let it rest ! It ll wait till you come back." 
 
 " I don t know that," retorted the humorist "and though it 
 might, these d d fellows won t they swallow like a sand 
 hill after a long drought in August. I m almost afraid to leave 
 it. If I go now, it s like parting with a friend for ever." 
 
 "Pshaw, Bull what nonsense. There s business, I tell 
 you." 
 
 These words, coupled with a particular and significant move 
 ment of the hands which escaped Horsey s observation, at once 
 had an effect upon the person addressed. He rose, grumbling 
 all the while, and followed his companion, leaving the field to 
 our actor, who, like long-pent-up torrents, glad of the moment 
 of liberation, soon burst with all his thunders upon the remain 
 ing assembly, and strove to make up for lost time by redoubled 
 efforts. He was beginning to forget his previous annoyances 
 in the evident attention of his audience, when Jones and the 
 refractory Bull reappeared. 
 
 The latter was somewhat sullen, but he remained silent for 
 awhile, contenting himself with refilling his glass, and resuming 
 his seat as before. He stuck his legs boldly upon the table, 
 crossed his arms as if in contemplation, and, not deigning a glance 
 at our actor, fixed his eyes upon the heavens, tracing Bootes, 
 Orontes, and the rest, with a face of particular and philosophi 
 cal speculation, ami, possibly, discoursing in fancy with thai 
 
STRIFE IV THE SIGN OF TAURUS. *iJ 
 
 venerable old gentleman of nursery authority, the ancient ;;i.;i 
 ever to be remembered man in the moon his dog and his bush. 
 Thus he sat for some time in dogged silence, while our actor, 
 who needed but little encouragement to rouse every echo known 
 to the tragic muse, having already gone through several pas 
 sages, proceeded to Macbeth. 
 
 The soliloquy in the dagger-scene, being one upon which 
 every witling labors to expend himself, was that which tasked 
 all his powers; and whether he did well or ill, or whether it 
 was because of some affinities in the passage which came home 
 to the bosom and the business of Bull, it is certain that our ac 
 tor s declamation in this part was honored with a greater share 
 of his attention than he had condescended to bestow previously. 
 This did not escape the notice of Horsey > and he was beginning 
 to congratulate himself that the eccentricities of the genius were, 
 about to pass away, leaving his lights their accustomed brilliance, 
 when the grateful anticipation Avas suddenly defeated by the 
 latter s starting to his feet, and thrusting his mug, well filled 
 with the generous potation, full in the face of the actor, exclaim 
 ing, while he did so, and cutting off entirely the closing lines of 
 the part 
 
 " Oh, d n it, Thompson, take a drink and shut up. This 
 tragedy stuff is too dry and dull let s have no more of it. 
 Here, drink, and let your tongue have a bit of a holyday." 
 
 The indignant actor could no longer restrain himself. His 
 hand, which had been extended to grasp the imaginary dagger, 
 was swept round in the twinkling of an eye, and the next mo 
 ment the vessel was seen flying in the air, liberally bestowing 
 its contents in its flight, upon the face and bosom of the circle, 
 aniOEg which the portion of Mr. Bull was in no manner stinted. 
 This proceeding was the signal for an uproar, and Bull s hand 
 was already laid upon the collar of Macbeth, whose blood was 
 still rising, when the sudden appearance of another personage 
 upon the scene, produced an instantaneous change in its circum 
 stances. 
 
BORDER BEAULEfc. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 7HE &IDDONS OF THE SWAMP PASSION AND CUNNING AT ODDS 
 
 "Ay, answer that, 
 The questioner hath need where went he then I" 
 
 TJie Royal Fugitive. 
 
 THE effect upon the group of the sudden appearance of a sin 
 gle person was no less strange than instantaneous. And this 
 person was a woman. She emerged from the edge of the little 
 nook, near which the revel had been carried on, and stood, with 
 out speaking a syllable, for several seconds, looking upon the 
 circle with an expression of high-raised scorn in her countenance, 
 which, though beheld only by the ruddy blaze of firelight, 
 seemed to the eyes of our actor to be haughtily beautiful. Her 
 complexion was dark, but richly lustrous. Her hair black as 
 midnight, and glossy almost as its stars. Her eyes were large, 
 quick, and dazzling, of the same deep raven hue with her tress 
 es, which hung down upon her shoulders, streaming from be 
 neath a sable network, which, covering her head, partially con 
 cealed her forehead also. Her person was rather masculine 
 her carriage majestic and the involuntary notion which rose 
 in th.e mind of Horsey, as he beheld her, was that she would 
 make a most magnificent Lady Macbeth. 
 
 Somewhat ashamed of being caught by a lady in a hand-to- 
 hand scuffle with a genius like Benjamin Bull, our actor drew 
 off from his opponent, who, to his surprise, exhibited an equal 
 degree of willingness with himself to bring the contest to a sud 
 den conclusion. He slunk away, and, with an evolution no less 
 prompt than unlooked for, actually took shelter behind Horsey, 
 surveying the intruder with eyes of cat-like cunning, mingled 
 with some little apprehension, from over the shoulder of the ac 
 tor. The effect upon the rest of tlu> revellers was very nearly 
 
THE SIDOOX.S ()! THE SWAMP. 843 
 
 the same. In a moment they hud left the board ; and oiur 01 
 two, who were nearest to the woods, might have been seen 
 stealing out of sight into the shadow of the contiguous trees. 
 Tones was the only one of* all the assembly who maintained his 
 nbrmer place, and exhibited neither apprehension nor confusion. 
 He met the gaze of the lady with respectful firmness, and, as 
 he passed our actor in approaching the spot where she stood, 
 whispered in his ears : 
 
 "Our prima donna our heroine a star of the first magni 
 tude. But mum!" 
 
 His finger touched his nose, and his air and gesture were 
 that of one whose words, had they been supplied, would have 
 been : 
 
 " But a Tartar of the first degree." 
 
 Horsey fancied such to be the meaning of the other s ges 
 tures, and was half confirmed in this opinion, when the first ac 
 cents fell from the lips of the intruder. 
 
 " Mr. Jones, I would speak with you a moment." 
 
 "Certainly, ma am I will but give some directions to the 
 gentlemen, and follow you." 
 
 " Gentlemen !" was the half-subdued utterance of the lady, in 
 tones of scornful irony. " Gentlemen, indeed !" 
 
 The words came faintly to the ears of Horsey, who stood, 
 with Jones, somewhat in advance of the rest ; and, however 
 little complimentary to himself arid his companions, he could 
 forgive the sneer which they expressed, in consideration of the 
 intense superiority of manner which accompanied their utter 
 ance, and which assured him that the company was not entirely 
 without a redeeming measure of that talent for theatricals, the 
 want of which had hitherto appeared painfully conspicuous in 
 nis eyes, in spite of the obvious genius of Mr. Benjamin Bull 
 and the flattering judgment of Mr. Jones. The lady turned on 
 her heel, without further word or look, disappearing in the 
 recess of the woods, as suddenly as she came. 
 
 " So, Bull," said Jones, reproachfully, when she had gone, 
 " it s just as I told you. Mark me you haven t heard the end 
 of it. I warned you, but you must be drinking ; and all that I 
 said by way of counsel has been wasted upon you. She s heard 
 all the uproar, and seen it too*, and she will toll him every syl 
 
- liUliDKU iilCAG 
 
 ittUc when lie. conies. She will forget nothing You kno* 
 that." 
 
 "Ay, ay blast it she has the memory of a devil s darn 
 Well, there s no help now I must grin and and bear it," said 
 the genius, sullenly. 
 
 "At least, it will be wise only to do no more mischief for the 
 night. Away, all of you, to your nests ; and no more uproar 
 There s no telling how soon he will be here, and if he finds 
 you" 
 
 The speech was finished in a whisper to the parties immedi 
 ately interested, and lost accordingly to our amateur. He had 
 heard enough, however, to perceive that there was some mys 
 tery connected with his companions, some matter of domestic 
 history, which was yet withheld from him. Who was "he" of 
 whom Jones had spoken so emphatically, yet left unnamed ; 
 and why should a woman, however great might be her merits 
 taS a player, maintain an influence over the company, of such 
 e-eemingly tyrannical extent a tyranny which, from their 
 spontaneous recognition of its sway, would seem to have been 
 uf habitual and undisputed exercise? The approach of Jones 
 wrested his cogitations. 
 
 " This path, Mr. Horsey, will lead you to your place of 
 sleeping for the night. You will there find fire-light, and a boy 
 waiting you. I will join you before you sleep." 
 
 " But, Mr. Jones the lady who is she ?" 
 
 " Our great gun our princess a most royal heroine. You 
 see what a magnificent carriage she has? she is tremendously 
 popular wins applauses wherever she goes our trump-card 
 which always secures the game. But she knows it, sir that s 
 the misfortune. She knows her popularity too well, and she is 
 capricious in consequence. We have to humor her, sir, in all 
 her fancies, and some of them are strange enough. You have 
 no idea how extravagant she can be at times. Exercises the 
 most tyrannous authority, and we dare not offend her." 
 
 " I d like to know her. Suppose I go with you ? You can 
 introduce me, and, by the ghost of Garrick, Mr. Jones, to have 
 a chat with such a woman will only be a proper compensation 
 
 for the annoyances I have had to undergo from that d d 
 
 comedian that fellow Bull, of whom you think so highly." 
 
THE SIDDONS OF THE SWAMP. 345 
 
 "Not now not for the Avorld to-night. She s in her fit to 
 night, and would fly at you like a tigress. To-morrow, or the 
 next day, Mr. Horsey, as soon as the fit passes off. I ll tdl you 
 when she s in the humor to be seen." 
 
 "Do, do I long to know her. She looks as if she d make 
 a first-rate woman. But of whom did you speak when you 
 threatened Bull with the anger of some person whom you did 
 not name ?" 
 
 " Oh, that was her husband our chief musician. A bloody 
 fellow, by the way, of whom Bull has a monstrous terror. He 
 carne nigh cutting Ben s throat once already, for some liberties 
 he took with his wife, and since then we know how to keep 
 him in order. We have only to say he is coming meaning 
 the husband and the fellow s tail s down in an instant. He 
 loses all his wit and humor, and skulks off, as he did to-night, 
 out of sight arid hearing, a most thorough-paced coward, as 
 ever you saw. But I must leave you. Our princess is as jeal 
 ous as her husband ; and as I am acting manager at present, 
 I must be careful how I offend her. Your path lies there. 
 I will look in upon you as soon as I am dismissed from her 
 presence." 
 
 Horsey, somewhat bewildered, followed the path which had 
 been pointed out to him, while Jones proceeded to join the em 
 press whose dictatorial summons he really did not dare to diso 
 bey. The spot in which she received him was not far distant 
 from that which the revellers had occupied. It was more 
 thickly garnished with trees and shrubbery more closely en 
 circled by the swamp-thicket, and, in place of a rude tent of 
 bushes, such as served the rest of the company, a log-house was 
 provided for her ladyship, rude and clumsy, it is true, but com 
 paratively full of comforts, and not without its attractions. 
 Deference, if not affection, seemed to have striven to gratify 
 her pride, and commend itself to her consideration. A little ar 
 bor was raised before her door upon which the wild grape clam- 
 bered; and rose-bushes had been planted along the path, which 
 was neatly shorn of weeds and made free of all obstructions. 
 Within the cottage the same care might have shown itself, in a 
 hundred little particulars, ait we need not waste our attention 
 
 upon details. 
 
 id* 
 
346 BORDER UEAOLKS. 
 
 The lady met Jones at the eutitmce, and, without a word, led 
 the way into the dwelling. Her manner betrayed no little im 
 patience. 
 
 " You have been slow, Mr. Jones. I heard of your arrival 
 some hours ago, and have been expecting your presence ever 
 since." 
 
 " I had a particular charge ma am, which kept me busy. AVe 
 had a stranger to manage, and " 
 
 "Ay, ay some other hopeful scheme but I care not lo 
 listen to the small details of some new villany. My desire is to 
 know where you left Saxon. That you have seen him, I know 
 that you must have seen him within a day, I am convinced. 
 What I desire to know is, where you saw him last, and when I 
 am to expect him here." 
 
 "Really, ma am, it would be very difficult nay, almost im 
 possible for me to answer all these inquiries. You know, 
 quite as well as I do, the danger that our captain incurs at this 
 moment nay, at every moment, and " 
 
 " Pshaw, Mr. Jones you speak as if you thought me a fool, 
 or doubted my prudence and fidelity. Is it likely, do you 
 think, that I shall prove a traitor to Edward Saxon ? or is there 
 any probability that I shall deal in the small tittle-tattle of my 
 sex, and, with its usual vanity, reveal, with unconscious stupid 
 ity, what I know, to those who might do him hurt ? You know 
 me better you would evade my inquiries-" 
 
 " On my honor, ma am " 
 
 "None of that none of that. Leave off your long pream 
 bles, and answer my question. When did you see your cap 
 tain last, and where 1 I repeat, I know that you have seen 
 him within the last two days where was it, and what was the 
 precise time ?" 
 
 " Perhaps, ma am, you have more knowledge at this moment 
 of the captain s movements than myself. He has not confided 
 to me any particulars but those which had connection with the 
 tasks upon which he has set me, and which I was endeavoring 
 to execute at the very moment when you came out upon the 
 bayou." 
 
 The woman looked upon the speaker with a degree of in 
 tense earnestness in her o-lance which savored of a rising anger 
 
347 
 
 Her dark eyes rlo?nti>d with the tires <>f ;i ^-.-u lieriug 1 thunder- 
 storm, while a smile of ineffable scorn, that seemed like its 
 softer lightnings, passed over her thin and ruddy lips. 
 
 "Mr. Jones, yon Jnnk upon me as upon a child, with whom 
 you may trifle at pleasure. Why do you talk to me of your 
 duties, and of your efforts to execute them! I do not doult 
 your diligence, nor am I a miserable spy to* watch your per 
 formance of them. I ask a simple answer in reference to the 
 movements of another your captain, sir!" 
 
 " Yes, ma am, but you know my oath. I am forbidden 
 
 " What ! to communicate with me ? Has he then forbidden 
 you? Ah! has it come to that does he fear that I should 
 know ? Are his doings of such a character ? An outlaw to so 
 ciety, is he faithless also to me? and you you, sir, know, 
 and are forbidden to declare. It is well, sir very well it is 
 exactly what I thought exactly. You may go, sir go! 1 
 ask you not to betray your leader, sir keep his secrets con 
 ceal his perjuries cloak his excesses you are both worthily 
 employed both. Fear not, I shall do you justice to your cap 
 tain. You may go now. I have done with you. I have no 
 more questions." 
 
 This speech was spoken with an impetuosity which defied all 
 interruption. The torrent of passion convulsed the frame of 
 the speaker fired her eyes made her checks glow with the 
 tempestuous blood that coursed through her veins with the fierce 
 rush of a stream that no longer knows its limits but offered 
 no interruption to her accents, while her feet traversed the little 
 floor of the cabin, with every sentence which she uttered, arrested 
 only at the close of each when she stopped to confront the hearer 
 with her flashing eyes. 
 
 Madam," said Jones, when her pause suggested to him an 
 opportunity for reply, " what will you have me say or do ? I 
 am commanded to obey you." 
 
 " Yet forbidden to answer my questions." 
 
 " No, madam ; only on such subjects as concern the movements 
 of the beagles." 
 
 " Ay, that is the pretence. You know that I care to kno:w 
 nothing of your movements, or of any movements which merely 
 affect your schemes of plunder, an-1 when I would ask of kiin. 
 
348 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 I am answered by a reference to yonr oatli What has your 
 oath to do with his movements ?" 
 
 "He is one of us his movements are those of the beagles. 
 
 " You will not answer me, Mr. Jones ?" 
 
 " Madam, are you not already in possession of all the infor 
 mation which I can give you ?" said Jones, significantly. 
 
 " What mean you, sir ?" 
 
 11 The dwarf r Stillyards." 
 
 " What of him ? Has he returned ?" 
 
 " He has, madam. He stood near the captain last night 
 so near that, had he been discovered, his life had been but little 
 worth. Saxon would have put a bullet through his head had 
 he known of his presence, and dreamed that he had been sent 
 as a spy upon his actions." 
 
 " Ha ! what mean you by calling him a spy who sent him 
 as a spy ?" 
 
 " You, madam, should need no answer to that question. 
 Enough, that I know that he was present that he was pres 
 ent as a spy and may reveal to you those matters which I 
 dare not. Stillyards is already here, if you have not seen him ; 
 and has, probably, been so far successful that he is able to an 
 swer all your questions ; as he has no such scruples as myself, 
 he probably will do so. But, let me counsel you, madam, for 
 your own sake, no less than that of our leader, that you employ 
 that crooked scoundrel no farther in such matters. If discov 
 ered, Saxon will kill him, and, if not, he may pick up some 
 secret of the leader, upon which his own life and the lives of 
 all of us might depend. You do not know the evil which may 
 follow this evil practice, for which, if you will permit me to de 
 clare, there can be no sort of necessity. Saxon, let me assure 
 you, is as faithful to you as he is to us ; and if ever mortal man 
 loved woman, it is certain that he loves you." 
 
 " Ah, Mr, Jones," responded the woman in milder accents, 
 " could I be sure of this ; but the feeling of my own unworthi- 
 ness, is one that always produces a doubt of his fidelity; and, 
 if he loves me, as you say, why is it that I am now so constant 
 ly deserted ?" 
 
 "Believe me, madam, it could not well be otherwise." 
 
 44 Would I could believe you, Jones; would I could but 
 
PASSION AND CUNNING AT ODDS. 349 
 
 but no matter. You will keep my secret, Jones, you will 
 say nothing of what you know ?" 
 
 "Why should I, madam? it were of no use, unless it be 
 came necessary to prevent a repetition of a practice which en 
 dangers the lives of all. Stillyards must not be again employed 
 in this business." 
 
 " How, sir, do you command me ?" 
 
 " No, madam, far be it from me to do so. But I take leave 
 to counsel you ; and to add, that my own knife should silence 
 the dwarf for ever, should I again detect him in the position in 
 which I encountered him last night." 
 
 " Enough, sir," replied the lady, proudly, " I shall take care 
 that the lad encounters no such risks at your hands in future, 
 and warn you, therefore, that I shall avenge any injury which 
 your suspicions or your malice may prompt you to inflict upon 
 him." 
 
 " Malice, madam ! it would be malice were I to declare to 
 our captain what has passed between us. But you mistake me, 
 madam ; I have no malice against you, if for no other reason, 
 because I sincerely love our leader." 
 
 " Mr. Jones," said the lady, " I requested you to say nothing 
 to Saxon of what you know. I now amend my request, simply 
 to beg that you will merely give me an opportunity of antici 
 pating your communication to him of every particular relating 
 to the spy, as you have been pleased to call the dwarf, in my 
 employ. It shall never be said that Florence Marbois, what 
 ever may be her errors and her vices, dreaded to speak the 
 truth herself in the ears of the man she loved. I may have 
 wronged him by my suspicions but I will not wrong him so 
 greatly as to yield to an underling any confidence, however un 
 important, which I yet withheld from him. You may leave me 
 now, sir." 
 
 A faint smile passed over the features of Jones, as he left the 
 apartment. 
 
 " Now, were I the malignant she has called me," he uttered in 
 low soliloquy as he entered the woods, " I should not forgive 
 certainly never forget this bitter and foolish speech. It were 
 no difficult matter to ruin her with Saxon for ever. But what 
 use 1 A woman, in all her pride and glory, is something like a 
 
350 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 soap-bubble after all. She glitters and floats in air for a while, 
 is decked with all the colors of the rainbow, but you see through 
 her all the time, and she bursts at last. I pity Florence she 
 has many excellent qualities, and, but for the convulsive jeal 
 ousy of her temper, would be as amiable as she is lovely. She 
 will break some day, and cover us with lather. It will be our 
 care to see that she does not blind our eyes with the soap." 
 
 With this effort at small philosophy and smaller wit, the out 
 law proceeded to the hut of the wandering actor. His place 
 was supplied, in the presence of the lady, by the dwarf, Still- 
 yards, who made his appearance the moment after the departure 
 of the other. He had evidently continued his occupation of the 
 spy, and had listened to the whole conference between them. 
 With a grin, which had in it as much malice as delight, he pre 
 faced his revelations to the lady by some natural remarks upon 
 what he had heard ; but was surprised at receiving a rebuke 
 for his ill-timed impertinence. 
 
 "To your business, Stilly ard s ! you saw the captain he 
 was well ?" 
 
 This question answered to her satisfaction, she dismissed him 
 without further inquiry, betraying, in the novel forbearance 
 which she manifested, the influence had upon her mind by the 
 serious caution which Jones had given her. The importance 
 of the dwarf was in no small degree lessened by this course of 
 proceeding. 
 
 " A fool s journey, indeed," he muttered to himself as he 
 went, " if I m not to use what I went for. But I ll pick a hole 
 in both their coats when they re least a-thinking. I ve a word 
 to open madam s ears whenever I choose it, and I ll speak it 
 too, sooner than lose my best business. The only good shares 
 I gits comes from my lady, and if she stops hearing, she ll stop 
 paying. Well, it ll cost em both a great deal more in the end ; 
 and if I don t git nothing by it, I ll git satisfaction. I ll show 
 em that the broken back that makes em laugh, can make em 
 cry too ; and if I only gits my laugh for my pains well, that s 
 something. 
 
TEKiUBLE 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 TERRIBLE EVENTS HAMLET BECOMES COMMON WEAR TUB 
 
 OUTLAW THE HEROINE. 
 
 "And he had learned to love I know not why, 
 For this, in such as him, seems strange of mood !" 
 * * * * * * 
 
 "And there was one soft breast, as hath been said. 
 Which unto his was bound in stronger ties 
 Than the church binds withal." Ckilde Harold. 
 
 JONES, when he returned to the woodland cover which had 
 been assigned to Horsey as his sleeping apartment, discovered 
 the worthy actor half undressed, squat upon the turf, and look 
 ing around him with a countenance in which consternation might 
 be said to be the prevailing expression. 
 
 " Why, what s the matter, Mr. Horsey ?" demanded the 
 outlaw. 
 
 " Matter, sir," returned the other, " matter enough." 
 
 " How ! you seem alarmed you seem angry." 
 
 "Not alarmed, but cursedly astounded, and, as you say, a 
 little angry. Mr. Jones, I m cursedly af. aid that this company 
 of yours will not exactly answer." 
 
 " How, sir ?" 
 
 " They lack moral, sir," was the reply of Horsey, in lower 
 tones, and something more of caution in his manner. 
 
 " Indeed," said the other, " what leads you to this conclu 
 sion i" 
 
 "Nay, let me not do injustice to all, when the offence may 
 be that of one only. Would you believe it sir ? my clothes 
 we stolen !" 
 
 " Can it be possible 1" 
 
 " Not only possible, but true. They are gone, sir a toler 
 ably new coat blue cloth, gilt buttons, with velvet collar, and 
 
352 BOHDKU BEAGLES. 
 
 silk lining two shirts pants, a sort of pepper-and-salt, very 
 fine though, with figured braid front and broad edging vest, 
 fine satin, a little frayed at the right pocket, double buckles in 
 the back, no strings, and my name, written in India-ink on the 
 lining, Thomas Horsey, American Theatre, New Orleans, all 
 in full. In the vest, a silver pencil-case, ever-pointed, without 
 leads ; in the pants, a penknife, toothpick, and comb ; in the 
 coat, a handkerchief and pocket Shaksperc, fine miniature, 
 Cadell s edition, London, much used, and with pencil-marks 101 
 reading, under emphasized passages. I would not take twenty 
 dollars for the Shakspere alone, to say nothing of the clothes." 
 
 " Truly a very serious loss, if they be list," was the reply of 
 Jones ; " but I m in hopes, Mr. Horsey, that they are only mis 
 laid. Our profession, as you well know, calls for persons of 
 nice honor in particular, and I should prefer believing any mis 
 chance sooner than the dishonesty of any of our men. Have 
 you looked where you left them ?" 
 
 " Everywhere." 
 
 " Let us look again. It is too much to lose without some 
 effort, and you may have overlooked them in the darkness of 
 the night. Where did you lay them ?" 
 
 " Here, on this very pole, and beneath these two trees ; I 
 changed my dress behind them. My saddlebags, you see, are 
 safe, and that is fortunate, for my favorite costume, and the most 
 costly, is within them. I have a Romeo there, sir, a Richard, 
 two field-officers, a Mustapha, and other uncertain characters. 
 My Hamlet, you see, I have on, and, egad, motley s my only 
 wear now, unless I can recover the missing matters. The only 
 citizen s dress I had, is gone, and I should make a comical fig 
 ure by daylight, in this dress of Denmark." 
 
 "A noble figure you mean, sir you never looked hall so 
 well in any dress in your life, Mr. Horsey, as in that," was the 
 reply, full of tones of admiration, which the outlaw made. It 
 went consolingly to our actor s heart, through the medium of his 
 vanity ; and the importance of his loss became a little lessened 
 in his eyes. 
 
 * Upon my soul, continued the outlaw, with a successful grav 
 ity of countenance, while he affected to look for the missing ar 
 ticles, " were 1 you, Mr. Horsey, I should never desire any 
 
HAMLET BECOMES COMMON WEAR. 353 
 
 other dress than that which you wore to-night. Your figurc- 
 and general air, sir, suit admirably the costume of Hamlet." 
 
 " Do you really think so, Jones ?" 
 
 "Indeed I do; your carriage was particularly fine the 
 union of royal dignity and profound human thought, which you 
 contrived I know not how to throw into the countenance 
 of the melancholy prince, was inimitable. The habitual sense 
 of royalty was there present always to the sight; and yet 
 every movement of the lips, every turn of the body, every glance 
 of the eye, subdued while graceful, and full of signification while 
 most easy, seemed to say, with the preacher, Vanity of vani 
 ties, all is vanity. Your Hamlet, sir, seemed to denote, what 
 he must have felt always, that he was the victim of the dcsti- 
 iiies." 
 
 "That is a good idea, Mr. Jones a devilish good idea a 
 correct notion of the character. I must confess I never thought 
 that before, though, certainly, I must have felt it, if my person 
 ation was correct. I must read the play more, closely I must 
 renew my studies. D n the fellow for stealing the book 
 the breeches he may have can t you make it known without 
 offending the company, Mr. Jones ? Say that the thief may 
 have vest and breeches, returning me my Shakspere and the 
 coat V 
 
 The result of the search, in spite of the liberal offer which 
 Horsey had made, was unsatisfactory. The worthy actor was 
 compelled to wear his professional costume in common, and the 
 merriment which his appearance by daylight occasioned among 
 the outlaws, whom he was still persuaded to regard as brethren 
 fellows of the sock and buskin may be more easily conjec 
 tured than described. Not that he himself was suffered to be 
 come conscious of the fun which he inspired. Jones had his 
 object in preserving order, and was successful in curbing the 
 open expression of that mirth which was felt on every side as 
 the actor strutted among them perhaps not so much dissatis 
 fied with his losses, as pleased with the opportunity of appear 
 ing so often in character, to a person who, like Jones, seemed 
 to behold his display with so much unction, and with such a laud 
 able desire to profit by his exhibitions. It would have been 
 easy to have kept the actor some tiino Conger in so pleasant a 
 
354 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 captivity, had it been the object of the outlaws to have done so 
 It was only necessary on the part of their leader to hint a de 
 sire that the phlegmatic, yet fanciful Hamlet a Jacques under 
 different aspects of fortune should become the proud and pas 
 sionate Moor for a season ; and Horsey, whatever might have 
 been his rising suspicions of his companions, would have dis 
 missed them on the instant that he put on the habit of Othello. 
 Vanity is one of the most unsuspicious of all moral objects. The 
 ear that is open only to praise seems to acquire its intense eager 
 ness at the expense of the other perceptive faculties. The eye 
 is closed to the sneer that lurks about the lips of irony and a 
 general obtuseness of the judgment, in all but the leading de 
 sire of the mind, distinguishes that moral gourmand, for whom 
 toiling Flattery a creature that is base in proportion to the 
 folly which it feeds ministers its spurious sweets, that, per 
 haps, only do not satiate, because they are so utterly unsubstan 
 tial. But let us not anticipate. It will not be necessary here 
 to say how long Horsey remained in the neighborhood of Cane 
 Castle, or what were the events that subsequently befell him. 
 Let us finish with the night in .which he lost his inexpressibles, 
 and in which we have still something more to do, and some 
 other parties to produce. 
 
 After devoting considerable time, and a reasonable degree of 
 effort, for the recovery of the lost wardrobe, Jones left the actor 
 to his sylvan couch, while he returned to his own a shelter of 
 twigs, bark, and bushes, some fifty yards distant. The actor 
 soon slept, to dream of parts and persons, in the assumption of 
 which the loss of his own garments could not have been seriously 
 felt. Sleep soon overcame the outlaw also ; and it was only 
 after several shakes of the shoulder that the latter was awa 
 kened from his slumbers by a stranger at his side. 
 
 "Ha! captain you!" he exclaimed, when fully aroused, 
 and starting to his feet as he distinguished the face and form of 
 his visiter in the dim starlight. 
 
 "Yes," was the answer in the tones of Saxon. / Have you 
 found your man?" 
 
 " He is here we have played the game so far with tolerable 
 success." 
 
 " You have the clothes then ?" 
 
THE OUTLAW THE HEItOINL. 
 
 Yes coat, vest, and oreeches." 
 
 " That is well. Let them be well blooded ; put a knife and 
 oullet hole in the breast and body, and send them off with the 
 first peep of morning to Nawls. Keep up the game with this 
 silly fellow a few days longer, and I will then give you orders 
 what to do with him. He is unsuspicious of the truth ?" 
 " Quite." 
 
 "That is well keep him so but do not suffer yourself to 
 be deceived. He may play in characters more troublesome to 
 a good beagle than Othello or Macbeth. You were careful to 
 take him along the cross paths to the swamp ?" 
 
 " Ay, sir it would puzzle him to find his way out again 
 without help ; but he will not seek to do so while we hold to 
 our theatrical purposes, and this we can safely do for a reason 
 able space longer. Do you leave the castle to-morrow ?" 
 
 " To-night. I will but see Florence first, and excuse myself 
 for another flight." 
 
 " That is only a proper caution, sir. She needs it," 
 " How ! Have you seen her ?" demanded Saxon with some 
 anxiety. 
 
 " She came out upon us while we were drenching the boys 
 in the very height of our play with the actor." 
 
 "Ha! well! The old passion, I suppose?" inquired the 
 outlaw, with some disquiet in his tones. "Would she were 
 safely in Orleans again. W hat did she come for ?" 
 
 "To summon me to the castle to make inquiries after you 
 your whereabouts your objects the cause of your delay." 
 "Jealous, suspicious woman ! I must cure her of this; but 
 the task is not so easy. She has a furnace in her veins that 
 maddens her. Her brain is all fire and suspicion, and her heart 
 but I must forgive her all, since her madness grows out of a 
 love, which is as little qualified and doubtful as her jealousy. 
 And yet, Heaven keep me from such a passion as hers to b<~ 
 its object even is a terror. It would consume while it worships 
 and still enslaves by the intensity of its regards. There is. 
 no tyranny like that which never suffers you from under its 
 eye." 
 
 The conference between the two outlaws was continued for a 
 brief space longer, but as it involved matters which have no 
 
BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 connection with our narrative, it needs no record here. WLen 
 they separated, Jones resumed his couch, while Saxon, passing 
 through the narrow pathway already traversed by the reader, 
 entered upon that densely-encircled area, on the edge of which 
 stood the little cottage of his leman. 
 
 Florence Marbois the young, the beautiful, the devoted 
 was a Creole of Louisiana, whose parents were French, and 
 who, dying of yellow fever in Orleans when she was yet a child, 
 left her to the doubtful care of indifferent relatives, whose re 
 sponsibility, however lightly it may have been felt, had been 
 abruptly terminated by her clandestine flight to the arms of an 
 other guardian, from whose affection she had better hopes of 
 those regards and that tenderness, which were so dear to one so 
 adhesive as herself, and of which she had heretofore known so 
 little. Edward Saxon of whom she then knew nothing, but 
 that he was noble in form, handsome in features, proud in spirit 
 and intelligent in mind, far beyond the average of those intel 
 lects to which she had been accustomed became her protector 
 
 her protector in that sense of the word which excludes her 
 from all social consideration ; and though it may most frequently 
 have its origin in love, more certainly finds its termination in 
 disgrace. She fled to his arms, and in the intoxication of a first 
 dream of passion realized, she felt no rebukings of conscience 
 
 no compunctious visitings no misgivings that the love which 
 had prevailed over virtue would fail to survive its loss. But 
 the heart which craved the affection which it has not often found, 
 is of all others the most suspiciously watchful of that brief por 
 tion which fate allows it ; and when, in process of time, the 
 various employments of her lover, took him from her side, and 
 kept him absent for days, and weeks, and sometimes months, 
 Jealousy, that twin-passion of love, which, perhaps, must always 
 be as active as its elder sister, particularly where the rights of 
 the latter have been left unestablished by the legitimate author 
 ities, grew no less violent than the flame of which it may be 
 called the black and veiling smoke ; and she who could dote, at 
 one moment, with devotion, on the bosom of her seducer, soon 
 showed him that she was not without the spirit to rise, at an 
 other, into rebellion and hostility. Her fits of passion ;innoycd 
 mid sometimes confounded him ; -;uid the first iii.-jiulses having 
 
THE OUTLAW THE HEROINE. 357 
 
 dubsided, which had led him, as fiercely fond as herself, to as 
 sume the charge of one so wild and violent, he sighed with 
 something of regret as he looked back to a condition of 
 freedom, which he now craved, but which he found himself ut 
 terly unable to restore. Though outlawed, he was not utterly 
 abandoned, and his soul shrunk from the suggestions, which 
 had never been self-prompted before, to rid himself, by a single 
 act of brutality, from ties which, however sweet at first, had 
 now become an encumbrance. Now, for the first time, how 
 ever, dark resolves were self-offered to his mind ; and ere he 
 emerged from the wood which separated the encampment of the 
 robbers from the arena in which the cottage of his mistress stood, 
 he paused under their influence, and his lips parted in murmured 
 soliloquy : 
 
 " And why should it be borne longer ?" he exclaimed " why 
 should I be the victim of eternal jealousies a suspicion that 
 haunts my footsteps that watches my actions that hangs 
 like an incubus upon my heart ? Can there be any wisdom in 
 such patience 1 Shall it be that I, who have shaken off the fear 
 with the love of man who have bidden defiance to his power 
 no less than to that of God that I should, yield up life and 
 freedom the enjoyment of other society which might in part 
 console me for the loss of those which the outlaw must ever for 
 feit, in a base homage to one for whom I have no love for 
 whose claims, even lust now fails to offer any argument 1 Beau 
 tiful once beautiful still loving me as I believe thou liast 
 done Florence Marbois, thou art yet nothing in my sight. 
 Thy love is persecution ; and it is pity pity only which has 
 made me, at great effort, wear a face, when I approached thee, 
 of regard which I can no longer feel. I remember what thou 
 wast when I first saw thee when I first took thee in my arms 
 that fatal night, when, in a boat which might have been a coffin 
 to us both, the winds bore us over the Pontchartrain together 
 I remember what thou wast, and Avhat I promised to thee then, 
 and the memory of that night rises up to save thee and to soften 
 me. But, can I always spare can I always endure the tyran 
 ny which thy vain jealousies inflict ? Is there reason why it 
 should be borne nay, is there not good reason now, why it 
 ihould cease soon and for ever. It must it shall ! There is 
 
J58 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 a bound beyond whit h passion must not go a limit where 
 endurance stops, and forbearance becomes a shame as it has 
 long before become a weariness. That bound is reached that 
 limit is overpassed ; and the heart which now flows with all its 
 streams to another, must soon be freed from thee. But for this 
 I. had borne with thee still longer I had borne with thce in 
 pity for thy youth for that love even, which thou still bearest 
 to one to whom it has been an annoyance for weary months, 
 and to whom, unless checked in season, it must become a curse !" 
 He paused and looked around him, as if struck by approach 
 ing footsteps, but no one approached him. As if reassured, his 
 words again broke forth in soliloquy such soliloquy as denoted 
 the doubts and indecision of a spirit, for the first time approach 
 ing a purpose of excessive guilt and danger. What he said 
 tended to show that the woman whom his arts had betrayed, 
 was about to be cast from his least regards ; and nothing seemed 
 to be wanting to the more fell and cruel resolution which would 
 thrust her from his path, but that frequent contemplation of the 
 subject, which reconciles the corrupted heart, step by step, to the 
 last degree of crime. That this stage of wickedness had not yet 
 been reached by the outlaw, was clear enough, by the frequent 
 recurrence, in what he said, to that period in the history of their 
 mutual fortunes, when the intercourse between them had been 
 productive of equal pleasure to them both. So long as the 
 memory may still look back with tenderness to the green gar 
 den-spots of youth, the heart is not utterly corrupt there is 
 still a part not yet ossified a narrow, isolated spot, from which 
 the springs of relieving pity may well up and soften, though 
 they ma^ not often heal, the rest 
 
THE DEATH OF 1 ASSION 869 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 DEATH OF PASSION NEW PASSION FROM ITS ASHKP 
 
 "Die all my fears, 
 
 And waking jealousies, which have so long 
 Been my tormentors; there s now no suspicion." MAS.SINGER. 
 
 IT was midnight, but Florence Marbois did not sleep. She 
 at beside the window, looking forth upon the various shadows 
 of the night and forest. The scene was unspeakably sweet and 
 soft, but it was also sad and mysterious. A faint murmur, like 
 the distant meanings of a spirit at watch over the desolate 
 abodes of youth and happiness, came to her ears through the 
 subdued silence hanging over the scene. The shadows drooped, 
 as if in kindred affliction, beneath the grave and brooding star 
 light. The gray cypresses rose up like spectres amidst the 
 green foliage that grew thickly along the edges of the swamp, 
 and looming forward in the dewy haze of midnight, seemed to 
 harmonize with the melancholy aspects of the region. Nor was 
 the voice of the water, as it rose from a brooklet that gurgled 
 under the upbulging roots of a tree which it had partially de 
 tached from its foothold, without a fitting tone of sadness for 
 the scene. 
 
 The heart of Florence felt the mysterious sympathies accord 
 ed by the unintelligent nature at her feet. Her head rested 
 upon her palms as she looked forth and listened her eyes, as 
 if satisfied, strove not to pierce the dense maze of forest all 
 around her ; and while her lips murmured a complaint of soli 
 tude, such as seemed to be the burden of all voices, her cheeks 
 were glistening with those holy dews which such beauty as hers 
 had she been still alive to social vanities should not have 
 regretted, since they served to crown beauty with the more pre 
 vailing charm of sweetness, and to consecrate to love the very 
 sorrows " in which their origin is found. 
 
860 BORDER BEAGLES 
 
 Tlio heart of Florence \v;is softened, but not at ease. Tears 
 had brought relief a brief respite from the gnawing discontent 
 which preyed upon her heart but not a cure not a remedy. 
 If -she felt more at ease, it was the ease of one who has just 
 drank the soothing draught, and can only find relief while under 
 its influence. Fancies, which are sometimes hopes in disguise, 
 the ephemeras of the soul, had been with her in momentary vis 
 itation; and, though vague, unstable, and illusive, they had at 
 least diverted the grief which might else have overborne. 
 True, they fly at last, but so do the angels ; and who would re 
 fuse the blessing of the visit, in which the very air blossoms, 
 through which they come, because of the conviction that they 
 must fly with the morning ? The heart that has been full of 
 sorrow, should be the last to speculate unnecessarily upon the 
 always unprofitable future. 
 
 Unfortunately, the hopes of Florence had not been wise 
 hopes, for they had not been good ones. She loved unworthily 
 she had sinned she lacked the securities of virtue, and had 
 no confidence in that of others. Her hopes, based upon the 
 probable truth of her lover, were idly founded. They were 
 made to rest upon his tastes, his passions, her own powers of 
 pleasing, her frail and fading charms, and her undisguised at 
 tachment for him. They had not been placed where, to be se 
 cure, all affections must be placed upon her own just claims 
 to respect, and upon the inflexible principles of truth in the man 
 to whom her affections had been given. 
 
 Her lover so she once held him had raised his hand in 
 defiance to society, in the rigid exercise of whose laws the only 
 security of woman may be found ; and her appeal for justice 
 now lay to his passions and caprices alone to passions which 
 constant provocation made active and imperious to caprices 
 that fluctuated with an appetite more peevish with every in 
 dulgence, and more recklessly resolved with every denial. 
 
 But Florence Marbois was a creature of impulses, not of 
 thought; and, if there were moments in which she estimated 
 correctly her miserable condition of dependence, such thoughts 
 wove soon driven away as intruders, by the gentle accent, the 
 kindly solicitude not often shown in the latter days of her 
 heart s history which the pity of her betrayer vouchsafed to 
 
THE DEATH OF 1 .- \SSluX. 
 
 bestow, hi return for that SncrcaMii^ Ititfiingu and dtivolcul 1<>\ t 
 
 shown even in its most jealous i ienii .cs v, inch she ha( 
 never ceased to feel for him from the first hour of their ill 
 appointed union. 
 
 And, sitting beside the window of that rude hovel, alone, in 
 the deep mazes of an uncultivated foiest the savage almost at 
 her side a band of outlaws at her feet midnight gathering, 
 vague, wild, indistinct, and mysterious around her: the play 
 mates of youth the friends of maturity the social and kind 
 ly world in which she had lived all banished from her sight 
 
 all lost, and, probably, lost for ever: still, she thought of 
 no privation she knew of no loss she dreamed of no evil 
 no no danger nothing to make her doubt nothing to make 
 her dread she thought only of him ! Where was he ? When 
 would he come? Was he still true? Did he still love her as 
 before ? 
 
 Could she have found a grateful answer to these questions, 
 her heart might have been pacified. She would have asked 
 no other questions no other fortune from the hands of Fate. 
 
 Such is love that thing of greatest dependence of great 
 est strength and weakness. Strong above all powers for endu 
 rance weak beyond all moral supports, when it knows not 
 where to confide, and can not command the sympathy which it 
 ever seeks, and without which it is little better than a flower 
 cast upon the unreturning waters, and borne with feeble strug 
 gles to the wide ocean, where it is swallowed up. Stroffg, vig 
 orous, climbing, triumphant, and beautiful, like the vine, when 
 the gigantic tree suffers its embraces ; but wretched, sinking, 
 and perishing, prostrate upon the earth, when, throwing out its 
 tendril-arms for the support to which it was destined, and with 
 out which it can not live, it grasps only the unsubstantial air, 
 and perishes at last in feeble despondency upon the damp and 
 noisome ground, from which it has ever sought to rise. 
 
 In the cold world how many affections spread forth their arms, 
 seeking, but in vain, to clasp themselves around the rugged na 
 ture which they would adorn and beautify failing in this, that 
 perish upon the spot which gave them birth but denied them 
 sustenance putting forth no fruits, bearing no flowers, yet 
 beautiful while they lived so beMiitiful in promise, that the 
 
 16 
 
BORDER HEAdT.T ,-. 
 
 heart can not liclp but weep, for its own sake, tliat they were 
 denied all fruition. 
 
 The tears were yet on the cheeks of Florence, when Saxon 
 entered Ihe apartment. He entered it unobserved. Her face 
 was yet turned upon the forest; her thoughts were far distant; 
 and in the absence of her thoughts, her present senses iiad be 
 come obtuse, or heedless of their duty. He strode firmly, but 
 not heavily, over the room, but she heard him not. He stood 
 almost immediately behind her, and-still she, turned not. 
 
 He stood awhile surveying her in silence. Many and chan 
 ging thoughts seemed passing through his mind. His brow 
 darkened for an instant his hand was lifted in the same time, 
 and seemed searching in his bosom, while a glance of savage 
 ferocity lightened in his eye. At that moment, a dee]) sigh 
 escaped from her lips, and the expression passed from his face, 
 his hand was withdrawn from his bosom, and, placing it upon 
 her shoulder, he pronounced her name. She turned, almost 
 with a scream an exclamation, which had in it as much de 
 light as surprise and, rising from her seat, threw herself into 
 his arms with fill the abandonment of joy. 
 
 "Oh, Edward! dear Edward! it is you you are come 
 you are come at last, and I am so happy ! But you have been 
 gone so long so very long, Edward that I feared you had 
 forgotten me that you had deserted me for ever; and my 
 heart sank within me, and I have been so miserable, that I 
 wishe(T*myself dead a thousand times indeed. I did; for it 
 seemed to. me far better to be dead, and cease. t<> feel, than to 
 have such miserable feelings as have filled my heart. But you 
 are come now you will now stay with me a long time, and I 
 shall be so happy." 
 
 While the poor heart-dependant hung upon the bosom of the 
 outlaw, and poured forth these words in a stream that lacked 
 emphasis as it lacked obstruction for the sentences whicb she 
 so rapidly uttered were spoken without the cessation of the 
 smallest pauses his looks were cold, his eye was aimless, his 
 whole air and manner were those of a man who could no longer 
 be moved by anything that she might say. His head was 
 thrown back to avoid the flowing tresses of her hair which 
 brushed his face, and bis arms made a slight moven.ent to put 
 
run !>! AT;i OF PASSION. 803 
 
 her from him. This she felt tins she resisted, and clung ta 
 him with a firmer hold than before. 
 
 "Do not push me from you, Edward not yet not awhile 
 
 let me cling to you only a little longer. I have thought 
 upon this dear embrace, and wept and prayed for it so long, 
 that you must vot deny it to me now. Yet I will not worry 
 and vex you with it. I know you have grown colder and 
 harsher than you were that you are not so fond as you used 
 to be when we first came to the woods. I feel that I know 
 it; forgive me that I press it upon you but remember 1 am 
 a woman, and believe me that 1 love you, Edward, as 
 warmly as ever, in spite of all the changes which I can not 
 but see in you." 
 
 "It may be so, Florence it may be so," replied the other 
 coldly. 
 
 "It may be so, Edward may be so! Can you doubt it 
 can you think otherwise for a single moment 1 Have vou not 
 seen it in all my looks have you not felt it in all my actions 
 
 from the first to the last from that sweet perhaps, most 
 unhappy hour, when I believed all your assurances of love, and 
 gave you, oh, how entirely! all of mine even to this, when 
 you speak as if you believed me not, and look, as if you are 
 indifferent whether it is truth or not which 1 speak ? Do not 
 force me to think this, dear Edward do not, I implore you 
 unless you seek to discard me to crush me quite to trample 
 me for ever in the dust! I can bear the world s scorn nay, 
 
 I do not soe I do not feel it! I can bear anything all 
 things denial, privation, banishment from friends and family 
 burial in these swamps anything, but the conviction that 
 ho, for whose sake I am thus desolate thus dependent now 
 makes light of the sacrifice, and takes from me, all at once, that 
 love which 1 found more than a recompense for every loss. 
 Turn not from me, Edward speak not look not so again 
 upon me; for, in truth, I am very, very Wretched I know 
 not well why, unless it is that I see so little of you. And, un 
 less you smile upon me unless you are willing to let me love 
 you when you come to me I would rather far that T were 
 dead T would rather far that you would kill me with a sud 
 den blow and end all my sufferings at once The pang of the 
 
864 BORDKIi BEAGLES. 
 
 blow, even from your luunK given in y> nr anger, would not be 
 half so great a pang as that which I should suffer, without miti 
 gation and without cure, could I feel that you were indifferent 
 to my love." 
 
 The imploring solicitude of this speech the tender accents 
 all failed to move the now cold heart of !h outlaw. He 
 suffered her hand to rest upon his arm but his eyes turned 
 away from the large, tear-filled orbs, that implored more elo 
 quently for his love, than any of her accents. He had nut yet 
 attained that recklessness of spirit and of conscience which 
 could enable him to meet without shrinking, the glance of her 
 whom he was not unwilling to destroy. 
 
 " Florence," he replied " either I have, or I have not to go 
 elsewhere, and be absent from you long. If such be the neces 
 sity, you have no reason to complain of n\e ; and, if there be no 
 such necessity, then there is no policy in your complaint. In 
 deed, you will only drive me away from you by such complain 
 ings. I hate such scenes." 
 
 "Edward," returned the other, reproachfully. 
 
 He proceeded with an air of dogged determination, to push 
 his new-formed resolution to the utmost. 
 
 " The best regards in the world may become oppressive. 
 There is a season for love as for other things. When a man 
 has reached the age of thirty, life lias other businesses besides 
 love. It is surprising that you have not discovered this truth 
 before that you should need now to be informed, that, even 
 with the most pliable men, there are certain moods and dispo 
 sitions of the mind when love is an intruder, and the embrace 
 of the most lovely woman, an annoyance. I do not profess to 
 be of more tender stuff than other people, and I confess to you 
 that I hate very much to be continually excruciated !" 
 
 And this was the end of passion! of a passion that had 
 seemed more like frenzy than feeling more like the outpour 
 ings of a heart convulsed by its emotions into madness, than 
 the ebullitions of human hopes, fears, and fancies! And this 
 was the man who had persuaded Florence Marbois to give 
 up a ll hope, honor, society friends and family, and fly 
 with him into the wilderness to share with him his shame 
 &nd guilt, his exposure and isolation. Verily, there is no sting 
 
THE DEATH OF PASSION. 365 
 
 no sorrow greater than the wrong of the beloved one 
 the desertion of him in whom we had jmt our bosom s trust! 
 
 This was the first time that the unhappy Florence had ever 
 been compelled to listen to language so unequivocal from the 
 lips of her betrayer. It has been said already that, up to the 
 present moment, a sense of pity, rather than of justice, had pre 
 vented the outlaw from showing the indifference which he felt. 
 Hitherto, he had made an effort to exhibit a fondness which he 
 had long since ceased to feel. A new passion foi another, 
 made him anxious to cast off a connection which had become 
 an encumbrance ; and the desire, which had almost moved him 
 to the commission of a more brutal, if not a worse crime than 
 that of his first wrong to the unhappy woman if insufficient 
 as yet to reconcile him to her murder was quite active enough 
 to render him unscrupulous about the open declaration of those 
 real feelings which he had only successfully disguised, because 
 of her unwillingness to behold and to believe them. 
 
 His tones and language now, no longer to be mistaken, were 
 instantaneous in their effects. She started from his side her 
 hand shrunk from the arm which it had grasped, as if there 
 had been danger in the conjtact, and she retreated for a few 
 paces, then stood with arms drooping at her side, and her head 
 slightly bent toward him. 
 
 Her eyes, no longer suffused, became, on a sudden, keen, arid, 
 and burning. They shot forth an intense glare an expression 
 of mingled consternation and inquiry ; and, when the} encoun 
 tered only the cold, inflexible gaze of one frun whom all motives 
 to further deception were removed who now, perhaps, rather 
 sought an occasion to declare the indifference which a better 
 feeling had once made him studious to conceal it was then 
 that they became fixed, as it were, with a death-like distension 
 of orb, such as betokens the first bound to madness of an op 
 pressed brain and overpowered reason. A brief space of time 
 elapsed, in which she preserved this posture without speaking 
 Her intensity of stare was painful to the outlaw, even if he no 
 longer felt it to be reproachful; and he advanced, speaking as 
 he did so, toward his unhappy victim. 
 
 " Come, come, Florence, i must not suffer this. These arts 
 must no longer be practised upon me. Let us understand each 
 
3(J6 iiuuDKU IJKA;L! > 
 
 ether. Let us put an end to these follies. V\ e have both of us 
 -ived too long in the world, not to feel the wear ami tear of such 
 passions as these; and the impolicy of indulging them should 
 be known to all who have discovered, as I have long since 
 done, that our affections and sympathies, to be grateful and 
 worth preserving, must not he suffered to become tyrannies. 
 Do you understand me, Florence?" 
 
 He approached her as he spoke he made a show of taking 
 her hand, but she retreated, drawing her anus behind her a^ 
 she did so, but preserving, at the same time, the same searching 
 scrutiny of gaze which he had found so painfully oppressive. 
 
 "No ! no ! no !" she exclaimed, mutteringly, a moment after. 
 " It can not be. It was a dream. I could have heard no such 
 accents from his lips. It can not be that I am reserved for so 
 dreadful a punishment. I know that I have done wrong that 
 I am guilty before man guilty in the sight of LLeaven but 
 oh ! not to him ! He can not have spoken thus i will net 
 dare not- --believe it !" 
 
 She Biased, her eye still .followed his, and, unwilling to en 
 dure its expression, he turned away to the window she had left. 
 
 A new resolve entered her minjj she darted rapidly toward 
 him caught his wrist with a nervous grasp, and spoke in clear, 
 soft, uutremulous accents 
 
 "Edward Edward Saxon what was it that you said to 
 me but now not a minute since? Speak! Speak aloud 
 let me hear your words again, for I feel that I have not clearly 
 understood them I hear badly, Edward, of late, and, unless 
 the words are spoken very distinctly, I am very apt to misun 
 derstand them." 
 
 " Florence, why do you annoy ine in this way when 1 c OKH- 
 to see yon ? You know that I hate these wild passions these 
 tumults that produce no good, and are without any necess .tv. 
 They trouble they oppress me nay, more, I confess ti;e 
 truth to you they make me exceedingly reluctant to approach 
 you." 
 
 "It is true ! It is all true ! my ears did not deceive me 
 I heard it all all!" she exclaimed, breathing deeply, after 
 several protracted mmiU tilH in which her bosom seemed not to 
 heave her lips gave forth not the slightest respiration. Her 
 
THE DKA.ni UK 
 
 eyes were fixed upon him with a gaze of mingled horror and 
 surprise, and, more than once, as she gazed, her hands 
 were passed over her brows, as if striving to put aside some 
 obscuring tresses, which were yet not in the way. Well might 
 she doubt her sight, when she could no longer withstand the 
 evidence of her other senses. The now desolate and abandoned 
 woman abandoned by the man for whom she had lono- since 
 abandoned virtue had still a hope that there might be some 
 smile on the lips of the speaker some expression in his eyes, 
 softening, subduing, qualifying, disarming the deadly accents 
 which had reached her from his lips. 
 
 But no! In his cold, calm features, she beheld most truly 
 the hopelessness of her heart. She saw that she was for ever 
 banished from those affections, in which she deemed herself 
 secure. The veil, with which pity had striven for awhile to 
 hide from the eyes of passion the fatal truth, that love had for 
 ever gone from the shrine where he had been worshipped, was 
 ruthlessly torn away ; and the mocking spectre alone remained, 
 to grin over the devotee, who had for so long a season bent 
 before its unholy and delusive features. The sin which had 
 assumed the aspects of a power the most commanding of all 
 others in the heart of woman, having secured its victim, beyond 
 recall or recovery, no longer cared to preserve even its disguises, 
 and she stood alone in the presence of the tempter, his veil 
 uplighted, his scorn openly declared. 
 
 Florence Marbois, weak though she had been at first, and 
 easy, like all her sex, to be overcome where she loved, and 
 believed herself to be beloved, had yet her strength ; and the 
 strength of woman, defrauded of her hope, and despised in her 
 affections, is no less immeasurable than fearful." The cold com 
 posure of the outlaw s glance moved her indignation, and a bit 
 tor smile of equal scorn flushed the face that a moment before 
 had been of a deadly whiteness. 
 
 " I thank you, Edward Saxon I thank you. Cruel as the 
 truth is which you have at last spoken, it is some consolation 
 that it is the truth. You have deceived me for a long time ; 
 and in this practice my own blind attachment has made the toil 
 of artifice an easy one. But your looks tell me more than your 
 language; and there are other truths, yet unspoken, which I 
 
368 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 need not that you should declare. Edward Saxon, you love 
 another ! 
 
 "I know it I feel it else why should you now foiego the 
 deception, so long continued, and which you found so easy ? 
 Why should you teach me with such effort so plainly thai 
 you had ceased to love me, when it cost so little effort to per 
 suade me that you did, and when such a faith was so grateful 
 
 so essential to the poor heart that loved you? You are 
 not naturally cruel, why then be guilty of so great a cruelty ! 
 why open my dreaming eyes to the loss of all for which 1 had 
 lived 1 
 
 11 There could be but one reason but a single motive. From 
 the moment that you fixed your eyes upon another, the task 
 had become irksome of continuing those shows of love to rne 
 on which I have fed so long. There was no absolute need to 
 wear a mask any longer you had nothing to hope, and, in the 
 excess of your power, you, perhaps, felt assured that there was 
 nothing which you had to fear. 
 
 " Perhaps not ! Edward Saxon, you are free. You shall hear 
 no further reproaches from Florence Marbois. Devote yourself 
 to the hapless woman whom you have selected to fill my place. 
 You may never discard her she may never suffer -my wrongs 
 
 and yet, if she is unlike me, perhaps she may avenge them. 
 Enough you are free to seek her. Though my heart with 
 ered, and my hope died, yet, I tell you, Edward Saxon, they 
 should do so, sooner than I would implore you for the delay of 
 a single instant ere you cast yourself into her arms ; or for a 
 single accent of reluctant love, from lips which have been so 
 dishonored as yours." 
 
 " Florence, this is a sort of madness to which your constant 
 jealousies have long made you liable. They have annoyed me 
 long enough they shall annoy me no longer and since you 
 so boldly declare yourself now learn from me, that your con 
 jecture is true. There is another a woman, loveliest among 
 the lovely you shall see her she shall even dwell with you 
 here for a season though I say not that she shall take your 
 place." 
 
 " Wherefore not say it ? Think not you will offend me 
 further, Edward Saxon think not you offend me at all. I 
 
NEW PASSION FROM TUK ASlli:s. 3t)9 
 
 tell you, my heart lias survived the possibility of offence at 
 your hands. You have wronged me too deeply to offend me. 
 T sec not your scorn I hear not your accents of coldness and 
 cruelty they are lost in the overwhelming conviction of the 
 injury which you have done me. You are a bold man, Edward 
 Saxon a bold, brave, bad man. I am but a woman a frail, 
 feeble, desolate, abandoned woman " 
 
 She paused. 
 
 " There is something more, Florence. Why do you stop ? 
 Surely the comparison demands an inference a conclusion 
 a point. Shall it be a sting?" 
 
 She looked on the speaker, whose contemptuous smile showed 
 how little he valued the feelings which he had so deeply out 
 raged, with a grave countenance, expressing a singular degree 
 i)f composure, which, but for the feelings that it really served to 
 hide, must have been unnatural; and replied briefly 
 
 "It may be so bold, bad, reckless as you are, Edward 
 Saxon worthless as am I, and feeble God will raise me up 
 an avenger. I may be guilty in his sight, but it can not be 
 that you, to whom I owe it all, should be suffered this double 
 triumph over me. There will be an hour of retribution. 
 There must be pangs for the betrayer as well as for the be 
 trayed ; and I will only pray that I may live long enough to 
 know that you feel them." 
 
 " The prayer of the wicked, you know," was the sneering 
 reply of the outlaw. " 1 could preach you a sermon from that 
 text, Florence, were I in the mood, which w\mld be unctuous 
 enough for the orthodox in any congregation in Mississippi; 
 but I spare you that, and my further presence. I must leave 
 you for a while. I trust to find you in a better humor when I 
 bring you a companion." 
 
 "Now, may 1 have strength for my vengeance against that 
 day!" was the exclamation of the discarded woman, as the 
 outlaw left her ; and a wild, cruel resolution rose up in her 
 mind, as, brooding without sleep through the remainder of that 
 weary night, she thought only and ever of the woman who 
 was destined to take her place in the embraces of unlawful 
 love as of a victim! the last sacrifice upon that altar of 
 passion, on which her own virtue had been the first. 
 
 16* 
 
370 
 
 BORDF.R Hi: 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 BXCUSK FOR GEX1US HAMLKT DISCOVERS THAT THERE 1* 
 EVIL IN THE WORLD THE HEROIXK AM) DWARF. 
 
 "I ll no more tender him, 
 
 Than had a wolf stoPn to my teat in (he nieht, 
 And robbed me of my milk." JOHN WEBSTER. 
 
 SAXON knew, in fact, but little of the nature of woman. 
 Her heart was a fountain shut up, and a book sealed to him. 
 He had the arts which could win these, perhaps, are few and 
 not difficult of attainment. They may be acquired by almost 
 every youth of tolerable deportment and moderate common 
 sense. But those finer arts which may secure the possession, 
 and make the conquest permanent, he did not seem to possess, 
 and, indeed, did not seem to value. Men who are rapid in their 
 conquests, are not apt to value them. " Easy won, easy lost," 
 is something of a proverb, which holds no less good in the 
 affairs of the heart than in those of the purse. Had Saxon 
 been a more thorough examiner of that various province the 
 heart of a woman who loves ; could he have looked deeply into 
 its hopes and fears its tumultuous passions, and capricious 
 fancies its suspicions, which grow naturally out of a just 
 feeling of its dependence upon that arbitrary lord whom it is 
 born to serve and must suspect and which make it a thing all 
 watchfulness and jealousy ; he would have known that there 
 was no object in nature so sensitive no object so perfectly 
 fearful when touclied rudely by reproach, or mocked by indif 
 ference and scorn. Perhaps, had he not grown too indifferent 
 to the possession, he would have been more considerate of the 
 claims of that affection which he once sought with avidity, and 
 which was never more truly and devotedly his than at the very 
 
EXCUSE FUU GEXIUS. Oil 
 
 moment when lie encountered it with a contumely as reckless 
 a?, it was undeserved. 
 
 He little knew the fierce and uncontrollable spirit which he 
 roused in the bosom of Florence Marbois during the brief inter 
 view which has been just recorded. She might have forgiven 
 the neglect which was only suspected she might have forgot 
 ten the partial inattention of his regards, so long as he still re 
 turned, and while his lips still yielded, however unfaithfully, 
 some vague assurances of his attachment. But when he boldly 
 declared his defection when the vain beauty was taught to 
 know that there was a more highly esteemed beauty, set up as 
 her rival ; when the devoted heart was rudely thrust from the 
 altar, where its tendrils were still resolute to cling when love 
 could no longer doubt its desertion it was then that another 
 and a wilder nature, rose up, gloomy and terrible, within her 
 soul. 
 
 Some glimpses of this nature had been shown the outlaw a 
 moment ere their parting, but he had not seen them. These 
 had been the outbreaking of a spirit which could not altogether 
 be suppressed ; but its language was beyond his comprehension. 
 He had heard so many upbraidings from the lips of the neglect 
 ed woman that his ear had grown obtuse to their true significa 
 tion. He confounded the vindictive muttenngs of a passion 
 which was scorned, with the tender reproaches of a heart which 
 was still allowed to hope. Having denied hope, having tram 
 pled upon love, having cast faith and feeling from his consider 
 tion he should have known that Hate would be the deit> 
 most likely to be raised upon their ruins, by the spirit which. lit 
 had so rudely driven from all communion with his own. 
 
 There is quite as little wisdom as virtue in injustice. Per 
 haps it may be affirmed, with equal truth and certainty, that h 
 , is also without cunning. The wholesomest moral prudence if 
 truth and good faith. Good faith in all human relations. Had 
 Saxon not been blinded by his resolution to do wrong, he musl 
 have seen, in the keen yet composed glance of the woman iis 
 her deliberate accents in her slow, cold, resolved manner 
 that a sudden and singular change. had come over all her feel- 
 ip<?R in the moment when he made his open avowal of injustice. 
 
 iiei temper, passionate and deep, earnest and gushing 
 
872 HORDE II BKAf.LES. 
 
 overflowing in its fullness, and always warm in its expression in 
 all ordinary cases of excitement was now, when the occasion 
 became one, perhaps, of the greatest and most painful provoca 
 tion suddenly subdued almost frigid an embodiment, in mar 
 ble, of lofty elevation and dignified indifference. The change 
 in character should have occasioned surprise ; and reflection 
 should have taught the outlaw, that the woman he had wronged 
 had become an object of apprehension. But he had none. He 
 was too glad of an occasion to shake off bonds which had be 
 come irksome, to see that, in doing so, he had incurred the re 
 sentment of a heart which could be as dangerous as it had been 
 devoted. This sudden obtusencss of intellect may be accounted 
 an essential part of that blindness and madness to which the 
 gods deliver over those whom they have previously determined 
 to destroy. 
 
 Florence Marbois watched at her window while the night 
 faded away ; yet she seemed utterly unconscious of its passing 
 hours. She was unconscious of all things around her. Her 
 heart was changed within her, and bitter thoughts and enven 
 omed resolutions were growing up, and taking the place of those 
 which, but a short time before, had been only those of tender 
 ness and love. The cruel iron of desertion, and the sharp steel 
 of scorn, had entered deeply into her soul, and left nothing but 
 rankling irritation where they went. Desolation she had en 
 dured for him but desertion by him was unendurable; and 
 wild, vague, changing, but always hostile measures presented 
 themselves to her mind, as she brooded, in the darkness and 
 stillness of the night, over her wrongs, and the bitter-sweet hope 
 which she indulged of redressing them. 
 
 " There are means," she murmured at intervals, " there must 
 be means everywhere provided to humble the oppressor to re 
 vcnge the injured. I am weak I am woman but God has 
 not left me utterly helpless, if he has made me destitute. I 
 know that I can have my revenge I know that I can strike 
 that I can triumph ; and here here in the darkness of this 
 liour, and in the presence of such spirits of evil or of good 1 
 care not which as travel the eternal realms of space, I sweai 
 tlia , sleeping or waking, my prayer, my dream, my desire 
 my >nly study, as it is u.y only Lope --shall be in what way 
 
EXCUSE FOR GENIUS, 873 
 
 to ievcngc my wrong; -to bring this proud, insolent man to tho 
 flu.it to deprive him of those joys of which he has for ever 
 deprived me !" 
 
 By what means she hoped to effect her object, may not even 
 be conjectured in this early stage of her resolution ; but no one 
 could have hearkened to the tone of her accents, or beheld tho 
 fixed expression of decision in her eyes, and reject the comic- 
 tion that she was as solemnly sworn to her revenge, ;n> if the 
 demons of the air whom she invoked as witnesses, had received 
 and registered the oath. They did so ; and it may be that, 
 ministers of justice, no less than of evil, they wrought in behalf 
 of the deserted leman of the outlaw, when the ordinary powers 
 of society would have failed, and the laws would still have been, 
 as they had ever been before, objects of scorn and mockeiy to 
 the reckless spirit who had so long held them in deiiance. Hut 
 let us not anticipate. 
 
 In leaving her that night, Saxon also left the encampment to 
 which had been given the ambitious title of Cane Castle. An 
 other brief conference with his coadjutor, Jones that dexterous 
 agent, who had so successfully entrapped and deceived the un 
 wary actor by which he was provided with final instructions 
 for the future disposition of that unconscious worthy; and then 
 the outlaw sped off io those other performances, which have 
 been already narrated, and which ended in the arrest of Harry 
 Vernon. 
 
 The next day rose upon Horsey, still as Hamlet. The grave 
 habit of the prince of Denmark -was that which, in all his ward 
 robe, came nearest to the guise of a simple citizen ; and half 
 reconciled to the costume in character, from a pleasant convic 
 tion which the flatteries of Jones encouraged, that he looked a 
 marvellous proper man in it, the worthy actor renewed the search 
 after his ordinary garments with something more of equanimity 
 than he had shown on the preceding night. Still, he did not 
 hesitate to speak of the robbery in proper terms. 
 
 "The mere loss of the clothes is nothing, Jones," said he 
 " but that we have thieves in the company is most shocking. 
 There must be a stir about it the rogue must be found rut, 
 fcnd. we must purge ourselves of the connection as soon as possi- 
 
374 r.ORDKR RF.AOI.FS. 
 
 bio. Our profession is OTIC quite too noble for any such com 
 mnnion." 
 
 Jones fully agreed with him that it was shocking indeed ; hut 
 suggested the difficulty of finding out the thief, and the awk 
 wardness of any direct inquiries. It was agreed upon, that 
 their conduct was to be governed by circumstances; and, mean 
 while, a sharp look-out was to be maintained upon the move 
 ments of all suspicious persons; Jones confessing that there 
 were some two or three of the company whom he really believed 
 to be no better than they should be. 
 
 " Now, that bull-headed fellow, Bull, I take to be one of these 
 suspicious persons," said the actor, remembering the annoyances 
 of the previous night ; " a fellow that gets drunk and makes a 
 beast of himself, will be very apt to steal. Don t you think so, 
 Jones?" 
 
 " I do," replied the other, very courteously. " As a general 
 rule, Mr. Horsey, a drunkard is bad enough to be a thief; but 
 there are exceptions to all general rules, and Bull is one of them 
 He s a genius, Mr. Horsey, as I said before an immense genius 
 You may see nothing of it for some days; but he ll break out 
 at last, and overwhelm you. He s the very impersonation of 
 fun, farce, and frolic." 
 
 "But the heroine, Jones sha n t I have a talk with her to 
 day 1 It s strange that all your first-rates should be so eccen 
 tric." 
 
 "Natural enough they all know their value. You would 
 not think it strange, when you know them as I do, and know 
 the extent of their popularity." 
 
 "And what do you call her what s her name?" 
 
 "Her name? oh, yes her name s Clifford Mrs. Clifford 
 
 Mrs. Ellen Clifford she s married, you know I told you, 
 and another reason why you should be cautious in approach 
 ing her, and why she should be devilish shy of all third persons 
 
 her husband s worse than a Turk for jealousy. He flame* 
 up, like a rocket, on the smallest occasions. Nay, it is said lie 
 gave a poor fellow three inches of his bowie-knife in Natciiy, 
 for praising her beauty off the stage. You see she s very 
 beautiful." 
 
 "What a d d fool. E^ad, I d like no better fun than in.-n 
 
EXCUSE FOR GENIUS. 375 
 
 to plague such a fellow ; am! if you had no other reason thai) 
 his jealousy to keep me from looking her up, I d be at her in 
 twenty minutes. Can t you get me a chance to talk with her. 
 I d like to see what sort of stuff she s made of." 
 
 " Time enough to-morrow. Let us go now and see after the 
 boys. We have a boat here on the bayou a little dug-out 
 and, if you say so, we ll take our fishing tackle, and get some 
 fish. Fishing here is our most profitable idleness, as, indeed, it 
 is everywhere else ; and, if you like it half so much as I do, 
 you will not think much of the manager s absence." 
 
 " But my Hamlet !" exclaimed the actor, looking at the costly 
 garment. " Such a dress as this, Jones, won t do for every day. 
 
 The d d strange-looking green and yellow mud of tin s river 
 
 the water, if I m splashed will pla-y the very d 1 with my 
 Hamlet." 
 
 " Won t splash you," said Jones, hurrying along. " I m like 
 a bird in a boat can t be said to dip a wing, even when I take 
 my fish. I handle a dugout, Mr. Horsey not to compare low 
 things to high with almost as much grace as you do the foils 
 in Hamlet. But come on fear nothing, and if we get no fish, 
 why, you can give us the grave scene, which shall make our 
 time pass with less gravity." 
 
 The last suggestion was the finishing stroke, and Horsey fol 
 lowed without further opposition, though not without sundry 
 misgivings that his sables might suffer some hurts much too se 
 rious for any smoothing or stitching, even from hands so white 
 and dextrous as those of Mary Clayton. Many a compunctious 
 glance did he give to his inexpressibles as he went forward, fol 
 lowing his cunning confederate through bog, bush, and brier, 
 uctil they reached the muddy mouth of the narrow creek where 
 lay the egg-like skiff which was to bear the twain to the main 
 trunk of the Chitta-Loosa. 
 
 Here they embarked in the trembling fabric,. the heart of 
 Horsey rising to his throat, with every roll and reel of the frail 
 vessel; while his eyes, drawn by a natural attraction to the 
 banks, surveyed, with momently increasing disquiet, the yellow 
 ish slime upon their surface ; the soft nwry ooze of which seemed 
 for all the world as if it were intended to receive with cios? 
 embrace and a most yielding compliamM 1 , the pressure of any 
 
876 BORDER BEAGLES, , 
 
 dfMT-Iict i.vdy. tlic \\-Mif or tribute of the slow and turbid rivel 
 which had left it where it lay. 
 
 But that which disturbed the composure of the actor had no 
 effect upon his companion. His muscular arms sent the little 
 dug-out through the narrow passage with a dexterity no less 
 prompt than fearless, and Horsey had not drawn a second 
 breath before the boat quivered upon its centre, and hung sus 
 pended for a moment in its course, as, leaving the sluggish ca 
 nal through which it had emerged, it felt the downward rush of 
 the main current, in its restless passage to the Mississippi. 
 
 Florence Marbois, as soon as she discovered that Jones had 
 left the island a knowledge obtained without difficulty by one 
 who was so well served as the lady in question immediately 
 went forth from her little habitation to a spot, the path to which 
 seemed familiar, where she found the dwarf Stillyards busy 
 mending his nets. He stood up as he beheld her, with an air 
 of deference in his manner which he was not wont to show to 
 all other persons. 
 
 " Richard," she said, " I have need of you again : are you 
 ready ?" 
 
 "Soon will be, ma am have nothing to do but tie a feM 
 threads, and lay a draw-cord through the end-loops of the net. 
 This hole here would let a dozen jacks through ; and there s 
 not a suckfish in Big Black that wouldn t laugh at this for 
 gill-tackle." 
 
 "Richard," continued the lady, in tones at once of command 
 and entreaty, " put by your net for the present, I would speak 
 with you." 
 
 The foot of the dwarf turned the net over a low bush ; his 
 hands would have done it more effectually, but his vanity was 
 unwilling tliat he should stoop, in the sight of a lady, to a 
 performance in which his physical deformities became only the 
 more conspicuous. His manner the while was that of the most 
 respectful deference. He declared himself ready at that instant 
 to obey her commands, and made some rude assurances of his 
 great willingness at all times to do her service. 
 
 " I know it, Richard * I know that you have always served 
 me faithfully and believe that you will continue to do so in 
 this, probably the last task which 1 shall ever give you again." 
 
THE HEROINI-: AND DW.MJF. 377 
 
 "Ma am ! Hcli what ?" 
 
 She did not seem to hoed the interruption or the exclaina 
 tion but proceeded : 
 
 " You have kept my secrets, Richard, and always made, I 
 have good reason to believe, a faithful report of what you saw. 
 Here is some money for you. It is more than I promised you, 
 but not more than you deserve, and not near so much as you 
 shall have when you have done for me another service, and, as 
 I said, most probably the last." 
 
 " The last, ma am ?" 
 
 " Yes, Richard, my fears will soon be at an end," replied the 
 lady ; " she should surely cease to fear who has at length 
 ceased to hope." 
 
 The dwarf looked up, wondering more at the looks and 
 accents of the speaker, than at the words she littered. She 
 continued : 
 
 " Did you knoAV that Saxon M r as here last night ?" 
 
 He nodded assent. 
 
 "He went before daylight," continued the lady. "He went 
 from me for ever. We are no longer one we are parted 
 parted for ever." 
 
 The dwarf grinned, but not with any pleasure. The expres 
 sion of his face was that of good-natured incredulity. 
 
 "You smile you believe me not, Richard." 
 
 "Ah, Ma am Florence, how can I believe you? you know 
 how often you ve said the same thing every time you ve sent 
 me to look after him." 
 
 A faint smile passed over the lady s lips as she listened. 
 
 " You are only right to doubt, Richard. I have, indeed, too 
 often spoken only, when I should have performed. I will not 
 seek now, by any new assurances, to make you believe my pres 
 ent resolution. Whether you believe or not whether Ac be 
 lieves is of little importance to either of us now. But there s 
 some difference of circumstances, Richard, of which you may 
 have no knowledge. Hitherto, I may have done him wrong 
 by my suspicions now I can do him none. Last night he 
 told me that he loved another." 
 
 "He!" 
 
 "Ay, he! Edward Saxon, for \\hoin I gave up all friends. 
 
378 BORDER RKAGLKS. 
 
 family, good life, good name hope, truth, and innocence! He 
 has forgotten the sacrifice, which, indeed, I too had forgotten 
 so long as he loved me. But that is over, and I am now lost to 
 him as I have been so long lost to all. I have nothing now 
 left me but to die." 
 
 " Nothing, Ma am Florence, nothing ! Sure " 
 
 "Ay, there is something, Richard there is something moro. 
 It is a woman s feeling Richard, to desire some knowledge of 
 her rival to desire to see her, to know if she is beautiful, to 
 hear her speak, and hearken if her accents be sweet ; and, per 
 haps but I need not say more of this to you, Richard." 
 
 " Oh, yes, Ma am Florence I beg you do." 
 
 " No, no !". was the rather stern reply. " It needs not. It 
 was only of another feeling they call it a woman s feeling too 
 that I would have spoken that I would gratify. But here 
 it shall remain secret from you secret from all doubly 
 sweet to myself that it is so secret! untill the blessed day 
 which shall enable me to realize my last hope the hope of " 
 
 The word was unspoken, but the vindictive gleaming of the 
 the eye, and the convulsive quiver of her lips while she shut 
 them together, as if to prevent utterance, were sufficiently con 
 clusive that " revenge" was the only word which could have 
 properly finished the sentence. Her heart heaved with the 
 suppressed secret her hand was clenched, and for a moment 
 she stood gazing on the dwarf with an expression of face which 
 almost startled him with a feeling of personal apprehension. 
 
 " Richard, you must follow Saxon once more you must fol 
 low him. Find out where he goes whom he seeks. Look 
 not on her so that you may not be won by her beauty also to 
 betray the poor Florence then come to me come back and 
 get your reward. You shall have money and jewels all the 
 jewels and money that I have, Richard they will almost 
 make you rich ; but you must be sure to tell me where he hides 
 her, when he brings her here and how soon I may look upon 
 the woman whose feet have trodden upon my heart. Go ! let 
 me hear your horse s tread immediately. Away, Richard ! 
 Sleep not as you go God be with me and strengthen me, for 
 well I know I shall never sleep till you return even if J sleep 
 then. Away !" 
 
THE APE CHAFKS THE TIGER. 370 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 THE APE CHAFES THE TIGER A SNARE AM) A Sf 
 
 "I do pronounce him in that very shape 
 He shall appear in proof." Henry VIII. 
 
 THE dwarf listened to the commands of Ins mistress, and 
 prepared to obey them. He had been accustomed t<> do so; 
 indeed, it may as well be stated in this place, that Richard 
 Stillyards, as he was called, was rather an attendant of Flor 
 ence Marbois, than of the outlaw by whom she was betrayed. 
 What were the particular circumstances by which he became 
 bound to her service, may not here be known ; but it has been 
 seen that there were events and performances by which she 
 had deserved his gratitude; and his devotion to her service 
 showed that he was not unwilling to give it. He had been 
 faithful to her for a long period ; obeying her slightest and 
 her strangest behest; ministering, perhaps harmfully t times, 
 to her jealousies of the outlaw, though without seeking to 
 encourage them ; for Stillyards, so far, had been able to 
 discover no single instance of a departure from his pledged 
 faith to his leman on the part of Edward Saxon ; and he 
 now regarded the bitter rather than the angry mood of his 
 mistress, by which she declared her renewed suspicions, as be 
 ing equally without foundation with all which she had enter 
 tained before. 
 
 But though he assured her of this conviction, his assurances 
 were made in vain ; and he was sagacious enough to perceive 
 that her present disquiet was of a character which she had not 
 before exhibited. Hitherto, she had shown a vague jealousy 
 a general but uncertain suspicion of the truth of one upon 
 whom she felt she had none of those. Isolds >vhich can alone be 
 
ROTIDER REAr.LES. 
 
 found in n compliance with the est.-iblishc-d b>,ws of virtue ajul 
 Bociety. There was liostility now, and bate, mingled with her 
 suspicions ; and the very calmness which overspread her fea 
 tures, and which regulated and made deliberate the tremulous 
 accents of her voice as she spoke, convinced him that, whether 
 she had or had not occasion for her anger, it was yet of a kind 
 to prove dangerous. 
 
 Stilly ards was not so bound to Florence Marbois, as to lend 
 himself to all her purposes; as to become the mere tool and 
 agent of a rash and improvident vengeance; and while ic 
 prepared, without scruple, to set forth in obedience to her com 
 mands, he half-resolved that Saxon should have warning tlua 
 his mistress was no longer to be trifled with. Still, with r. 
 partial curiosity, he resolved first to disc-over, if he could, 
 whether the outlaw was really unfaithful to his vows an ass">- 
 tion made with so much solemnity now, by the deserted woman 
 as to impress itself upon his mind with some force, in spite <>f 
 liis constant conviction heretofore, that she had but little reason 
 for complaint. His purpose was to counsel the outlaw, if sui-h 
 were the case, to greater prudence in his declarations and pro 
 ceedings ; and, tickling his own vanity with the patronizing idea 
 of being an adviser to the master beagle of the band, he saw 
 but little harm in practising a like unfaithfulness with his master 
 toward the mistress whom he served. 
 
 These resolutions passed through his mind as he proceeded 
 upon his mission. He soon got upon the track of the outlaw, 
 and followed him to Lucchesa, where he arrived in time to 
 become privy to the position of Vcrnon in the houpe of Mr. 
 Wilson, and that of Saxon in reference to his daughter. He 
 was soon convinced that the story of Florence was not without 
 foundation. For the first time, he beheld the reckless outlaw 
 ii! the character of a devoted, if not a. sighing lover. He saw 
 that the affair was rapidly advancing to a close, and on the 
 afternoon of the day when Vernon was hurried from his mistress 
 by the self-created officers of justice, he availed himself of an 
 opportunity to emerge from his cover and present himself boldly 
 before the outlaw. 
 
 The place chosen for this revelation, was a thick copse in 
 the very wood in which the final scene had taken place between 
 
THE APE CHAFES THE TIGER. 381 
 
 Vernon and the maiden. To this copse Saxon had retired after 
 he had witnessed the successful termination of one portion of 
 his projects. Stillyards had been equally fortunate in behold 
 ing the* events which we have already described, and he was, 
 therefore, very well able to speak home upon the subject. 
 While Saxon, seated upon a fallen poplar, was busy chewing 
 the cud of various thought thought no less perplexing in some 
 respects than it was exulting in others; and while his eyes, 
 fixed upon the ground, saw no image but that drawn by his 
 amorous fancy upon the warm glass of his affections, lie was 
 suddenly and unpleasantly startled into a new splicrc of exist 
 ence by the abrupt appearance of the dwarf at his side. 
 
 " How now, sirrah ! What make you here ?" lie demanded 
 in harshest accents, as he beheld the intruder. With a grin of 
 equal consequence and humility the dwarf replied : 
 
 " She sent me she s heard it, sir heard it all knows all 
 about it, sir, and it s only right, sir, you should know it won t 
 do to vex her; she s angry as a tiger-cat looks as if she 
 could bite and do a great deal of mischief; and though she 
 don t say, yet I can see, and I thought it only right to let you 
 know, and to warn you, sir there s danger danger in her 
 eye " 
 
 "What the devil do you mean, fool?" demanded the outlaw, 
 with an impatience momently increasing, as he beheld the air* 
 of self-esteem which now distinguished the manner of the 
 speaker. 
 
 " Fool !" cried the other, with a vexatious diminution of his 
 importance ; " fool ! Not so great a fool neither, if you knew 
 all." 
 
 "All! what all? What is it that your sagacious head car 
 ries, that it is fitting I should know ? Speak out, booby, and 
 leave off your damnable faces." 
 
 This startling, and most humiliating reception, . effectual]) 
 turned the sweet milk of the dwarfs disposition, and a burning 
 sentiment of indignation in his bosom, made him wish he had 
 left things to themselves, confined himself to the old system of 
 espionage, and suffered the revengeful mood of his mistress to 
 work its own way, without offering any obstructions to its 
 progress. It was necessary, however, that he should now 
 
speak, and to sonic purpose, in order to account for that obtru 
 sion of his ungainly person, upon the secrecy of one who 
 seemed in such excellent temper to resent it. It may readily 
 be conjectured that wliat he did say, in the momentary con 
 fusion of his thoughts from such a reception, was scarcely satis 
 factory. 
 
 "You don t know, perhaps, sir* that she sent me. * 
 
 "Pshaw! you are a spy upon my actions you have long 
 been so, booby. Do you think me ignorant of that ? Her folly 
 and your stupidity have taught me this long ago ; and, but that 
 you could do me no harm, and that I care as little for your 
 cunning as for her jealousy, I had stretched yon out straightcr 
 with a bullet than you have ever been able to stretch yourself. 
 Begone, fool she is no less a fool that sends you. Cross my 
 path lurk about my footsteps let me but catch a glance of 
 your monkey visage again where it should not. be, and I silence 
 you for ever. Begone ! But remember !" 
 
 With these words the outlaw rose, and seizing the dwarf by 
 the ears, sunk his finger-nail into the flesh until the blood oozed 
 out from the wound, then flung him from him with a force tl iit 
 needed not the additional impetus given by his foot, which v> as 
 yet applied with no qualified energy. 
 
 The violence of the effort flung the deformed upon the 
 ground, from which he sprang to his feet with the agility of a 
 tiger. He turned upon his assailant his eyes glared with the 
 vindictive and unreflecting rage of the same animal and his 
 unarmed fingers were extend* 1, as if endued with an instinct 
 )f their own, to grapple with the foe. 
 
 But the eye of the outlaw quelled the inferior, and a pistol 
 which he drew from his bosom, effectually counselled him to 
 increase the distance between them. Slowly he sank from 
 sight into the neighboring woods, from which, however, he did 
 not then depart. The watch which he had hitherto kept over 
 the movements of the outlaw, on account of his mistress, v, as 
 now maintained on his own account. The malice vhich is the 
 fruit of outraged self-esteem, is that which is the last to forgive 
 its victim; and when Stilly ards crept into the woods, it was 
 with the stealthy mood of the wild beast to which we have 
 already likened him the appetite which never knows repose 
 
THK APE CHAFES T1JK ilCKll. 383 
 
 until it gorges the full feast from the very lifeblood of its 
 prey. 
 
 Saxon had some lurking doubts that he had provoked an 
 evil spirit irrto activity, and though his apprehensions were kept 
 down by that scorn of the feeble and deformed whicli the strong 
 and proud are very apt to feel, yet a momentary conviction of 
 the necessity of curbing or crushing such a spirit in the begin 
 ning, persuaded him, the moment that Stillyards had disap 
 peared from sight, to pursue him. 
 
 This he did, but without effect. His search was fruitier. 
 A creature so active as the dwarf, who could crouch with so 
 little effort, and conceal himself in places into which other men 
 could not penetrate, could not well be discovered, unless with 
 his own consent ; and hopeless of a search which was no less 
 tiresome than fruitless, he left his unprofitable quest in the 
 prosecution of others far more attractive. 
 
 That evening, Saxon, who had sundry agents at work, suc 
 ceeded in getting Mr. Wilson to the hotel, and safely seating 
 him, with three others, at a game of whist. Without knowing 
 the history of this unfortunate gentleman, which would have 
 given the outlaw a very desirable power over him, the latter 
 had yet been able to discover that leading passion of the other, 
 which had led him from folly to excess, and from excess, by a 
 very common transition, to crime. He saw, in the eager anxiety 
 of the stranger when engaged at cards, in his flushed cheek, 
 fitful eye, and tremulous impatience, the peculiar material out 
 of which the devoted gamester is made. That passion for 
 small risks that pleasure in a hope of gain that rises up into 
 a feverish sentiment in spite of every defeat, and goes on 
 renewing itself day after day, till the very dregs of moral life 
 are reached, and the carcass becomes a thing of spasmodic and 
 convulsive action, without stability or strength was there, 
 preying upon and predominant in the soul of Wilson, and re 
 newing those bonds of slavishness and sin, under the coercive 
 trammels of which he had sunk, first into the debtor, and next 
 into the felon from deep to deep until but one more gulf 
 the closing covering gulf of all remained yielding him refuse 
 and utter ruin at the same moment in its unrelaxing jaws. 
 
 It was not long before Wilson surrendered himself up to the 
 
BOKDEK BEAGLES. 
 
 game; and when his tens, twenties, and hundreds lay, upon thf 
 board, and when his hands touched the cards with a tremulous- 
 ness that betrayed all the reviving passions of his feeble nature, 
 leaving him no thought of other objects or relations, Saxon 
 stole away from the company, unseen by any but the lynx-eyed 
 dwarf, who, himself unobserved, was now a far more devoted 
 spy upon the actions of his master than he had ever shown 
 himself before. His own bitter hostility was now his prompter 
 in addition to the jealousy of his mistress; and, he half forgot, 
 in pursuing his own malice, that he had pledged himself ,< any 
 other service. He followed the outlaw from the threshold, and 
 was the master of all his movements. 
 
 But a brief space had elapsed after the departure of Saxon, 
 when a billet was put into the hands of Virginia Wilson. She 
 was sitting, sad and sleepless, keeping a watch doubly lonesome 
 and apprehensive in the absence of her father, to whose errors 
 she could not be altogether blind, in the stillness and silp.nce of 
 her chamber. The younger sister already slept in the couch 
 beside which she sat, and her own loneliness grew more oppres 
 sive to her heart as she listened to the sweet, equal respiration 
 from her lips the breathing of that undisturbed sleep of inno 
 cence and youth, ere care has deemed it worthy of a blow, or 
 defeated hope, and anxious affection, brought restlessness and 
 wakefulness to its hours of repose. 
 
 How she envied the child that sleep. How she wihhed she 
 could forget that she could close her mind as easily as she 
 could close her eyes, to the apprehensions which beset her soul 
 in reference to the fortunes of him, who already occupied so 
 large a place in its interests and being. The billet which was 
 brought her, came from him. That assurance aroused her. 
 She seized it with trembling hands and breathless anxiety 
 She carried it to the light and read : 
 
 "I am free, dearest Virginia but a fugitive. I dare not 
 show myself at your dwelling. I dare not, at this moment, 
 show myself to any but to you. Will you come to me though 
 tor an instant only. Come to me, if you love me if you have 
 faith in my love if you believe in my innocence if you 
 would make me happy at a time when I am inost miserable 
 
A SXAIIK AND L SUIUMUSK. 3Sj 
 
 meet me by the fallen pine under those old gro\cs in the 
 clear sweet walks which have been already consecrated to our 
 hearts by moments which were too blissful to have been so brief. 
 I wait for you, dearest Virginia my heart trembles with im 
 patient hope. " VERNON." 
 
 Vernon would not have written such a letter ; but Virginia 
 Wilson was no critic. Her own feelings were too quick, too 
 azuve, too excited, to suffer her judgment to examine the c oi.o 
 calmly. Her heart beat with new emotions. What could be 
 his present danger ? Why should he be a fugitive ? Was he, 
 in truth, a murderer could he have slain his friend by acci 
 dent ? She had his OAvn assurances that he had not done so, 
 and she believed them. But there was still a mystery, and 
 doubts, to the heart that loves, are agonies. 
 
 There was but one mode to escape them ; and though not in 
 sensible to the awkwardness of a situation which in ordinary 
 cases would seem to be an impropriety, she determined on giv 
 ing him the meeting which he craved. Leaving or entering her 
 chamber, she had been accustomed to kiss her sister. 
 
 The custom was a sweet one. They had been almost the 
 all in all, and the only, to each other. Nevertheless, there were 
 circumstances and causes, which, in spite of the real tenderness 
 of the father, made Virginia not unfrequently feel that they 
 were almost fatherless also ; and now, when bending over the 
 sleeping girl, and pressing her lips gently upon her cheek, the 
 tears, few but big, fell from her eyes, and trembled upon the 
 forehead of the sleeper, like dew-drops, in a summer moonlight 
 beading the soft crimson of the half-opening flower. 
 
 But tears, though not unseemly on the cheeks of so fair a 
 blossom, yet appeared to the mind of Virginia as of evil on: en. 
 She kissed them off with the haste of a maternal anxiety, \\\\t\ 
 hurried from the chamber. There was none to obstruct he/ 
 departure, for the indulgence of her father had left her the roin- 
 plcte mistress of his household. She hurried by the garden 
 pale, the forest groves were soon reached the well kis;nvii 
 shadows of old trees surrounded her, and now the fallen pine 
 tree appears, and she stands in the presence of Edward 
 Saxon ! 
 
30BDE11 BEAGLES. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 TH< BEAGLE CARRIES OFF THE DOVE HAMLET TIRES >F 
 
 YOUICK FLIGHT THE SMILE AND DAGGER. 
 
 "The innocency lost, 
 The bating of affection soon will follow." BEN JONSON. 
 
 THOUGH the shadows were thick around her, and the evening 
 light of the moon imperfect, the keen eyes of love soon discov 
 ered the difference between the man she met and him whom 
 she expected. She recoiled with a natural emotion of surprise, 
 but did not feel any suspicions that the appearance of Saxon in 
 that spot was the result of any sinister design. He might be 
 the trusted friend of Vernon on this occasion, as he had always 
 appeared hitherto but where was Vernon. She looked round 
 anxiously, but without a single doubt of his near neighborhood, 
 until the outlaw approached and addressed her : 
 
 "You look for Mr. Vernon, Miss Wilson but I come from 
 him. He has told me all I am his friend he has sent me 
 to bring you to him." 
 
 " But where is he, sir ? He should have met me here heie 
 it was so written in the note." 
 
 " Did not the note also tell you, Miss Wilson, that he is a 
 fugitive 1 He has need, let me assure you, of every precaution 
 He is in danger he dare not show himself." 
 
 "You alarm me, sir. What may this mean what IB bis 
 danger ?" 
 
 "He has escaped from the officers they are even now m 
 pursuit of him !" 
 
 "Escaped! Can it be? But why should he escape, if in 
 nocent ? Why ? But he is here ! Here ! At hand within 
 hearing. You are his friend and I ! What can he fear from 
 me ? Why should he riot come forward? My voice shall re- 
 
TflK liKAuLK CAUUli^S OL-T 1HK DUVK. 
 
 assure him when he hears me, he will know that there is no 
 danger here. Vernon ! Vernon !" 
 
 Twice she called aloud, and waited for the answering sounds 
 that she desired. But her summons was made in vain. A faint 
 echo of her own accents alone reached her ears. The outlaw 
 stood patiently and smiled, but did not speak until her eyes 
 were turned inquiringly upon him again. 
 
 " He does not hear you, Miss Wilson lie can not hear you 
 at this distance ; yet il is not far where he hides. I can guide 
 you to the spot in a few minutes." 
 
 " And why should lie not come here, Mr. Saxon ? Who, he- 
 side ourselves, know that he is near us? But, perhaps, yon 
 can tell me more, but you will not. He has been pursued he 
 is hurt wounded in escaping ! Speak, sir speak fear not 
 my strength I can listen I can bear it all." 
 
 " You have guessed rightly, Miss Wilson, though 1 feared to 
 tell you," replied the outlaw, promptly availing himself of the 
 suggestion which her fears had made ; " he is hurt, but not se 
 riously he awaits you at a little distance, and I am ready to 
 guide you to him." 
 
 There was a moment s hesitation about the maiden ; not that 
 she doubted as to what should be her duty not that she had 
 any doubt of the truth of Saxon s narrative ; but the requisi 
 tion had been so sudden, the event so unexpected, which re 
 quired her presence, that her sense of propriety had been 
 startled her thoughts were all in confusion. The wily out 
 law conjectured the true state of her feelings. 
 
 " Am I to think you indifferent to his fate, Miss Wilson 1 His 
 hurts require " 
 
 "Indifferent! Oh, no ! no! no! but these woods look so 
 wild and you, Mr. Saxon, are a stranger." 
 
 " But if he confides, Miss Wilson." 
 
 " It should be it is enough for me. I will confide also 1 
 will go with you. Lead me to him, Mr. Saxon, I have no scru 
 ples now." 
 
 He took her arm within his own, and led her along a little 
 Indian foot-trail, which carried them over the hill, and still 
 deeper into the shadows of the forest. The heart of Virginia 
 Wilson beat with momently rising, but unexpressed emotions 
 
A J!M)K BKAfJLES. 
 
 as the \vay I ccair.e more intricate, and as she perceived (hat 
 every slop can led her still farther from the cottage. Still she 
 went on, anxiously expecting to hear the sounds of that voice 
 which :alone could reassure her. But the woods were silent, 
 and the only murmur which reached her cars, was that of 8 
 melancholy pilgrim, the wind, pursuing his sleepless way among 
 the branches. At length they emerged into a little opening 
 r.id Saxon paused, as if to listen. 
 
 " Is he not here, Mr. Saxon ? We are far from the cottage." 
 
 "Not here a few steps farther;" and he would have ad 
 vanced, as he spoke, to a dark and dense grove in front of them, 
 hut the maiden hung hack. There was something in the re 
 serve of Saxon something in his manner which made her re 
 luctant *. commit herself longer to his charge, and inclined her to 
 regret that she had already trusted him. Besides, the reflection 
 was so natural to a mind conscious of its own good faith, why 
 had he deceived her, when she had declared her willingness to 
 go with him ? They had now been walking full fifteen minutesi 
 yet saw no signs of the person who had been described as im 
 mediately at hand. 
 
 "I will go no farther, sir I dare not. If Mr. Vcrnon be 
 not within hearing now, I can advance no farther. I am afraid 
 I have already erred in leaving home." 
 
 " It is too late now to think of this, Virginia, too late to re 
 tieat," exclaimed the outlaw, throwing off his disguises, and 
 grasping her wrist firmly as he spoke " you must go with me." 
 
 "Ha, sir ! will you dare ?" 
 
 " Ay, much, everything, where I love, where there is a prize 
 to be won so lovely as yourself. You must go with me you 
 must be mine, Virginia." 
 
 As he spoke, his arms encircled her waist, and she felt hei 
 * elf lifted from the ground. 
 
 "Monster villain release me!" screamed the maiden, 
 with a voice of equal indignation and terror " Vernon ! Ver- 
 non ! come to me ! Save me !" 
 
 "You scream in vain, Virginia. I have deceived you. Ver 
 non is not near not within hearing the billet which brought 
 you to my arms was a forged one. But be not angry. You 
 have foand a lover A\!IO will be no k-ss true no less devoted 
 
TITR TU:ACH.K CAIJIM:-:- OFF tut: ;-n-. 
 
 than himself one who is no less willing, and far ir.ore 
 serve you with his love. The life of Vcrnon is forfeit t, ) the 
 laws/ 5 
 
 " God help me ! God help him ! Villain ! I believe you 
 not. He will soon be here. He will follow he will save me 
 Beware of his anger and his vengeance !" 
 
 " Ah ! Virginia, if you but knew how little I regard thesv- 
 thro. itenings, and of how little value they really are, yon would 
 surely forbear them. Why should you thus afflict yourself and 
 me. I suffer only as I see you give yourself fatigue and pain. 
 Your screams are idle. In these pathless forests, there is none 
 to hear you, unless it be the wild cat, who, if the humor suits, 
 will give you scream for scream." 
 
 "Yes, villain there are others nigh to save me. Men are 
 nigh. I hear the tread of a horse I hear the voices of men. 
 They come they come! It is \einon it is my father. 
 They come to save me. They will avenge this insult. Set 
 me down, and fly ! Do this ! Release me on the instant, and 
 I will tell them nothing of the outrage." 
 
 The outlaw laughed aloud as he listened to this language. 
 
 "The men you hear are those whom I have commanded here 
 to assist me. The horses they bring will help to bear us away 
 together. They will carry us, sweet Virginia, to a place of 
 retreat which neither father nor lover can find out. Do you 
 hear that sound? it is that of the beagle; when I have an 
 swered it in like manner, they will be here. Hark !" 
 
 And, as he finished, the outlaw replied to the signal in a 
 clear, ringing note, which rose triumphant even above the pier 
 cing shriek of despair and terror with which she accompanied 
 it. In a few moments after, the agents of the outlaw, guided 
 i>y his answer, approached the spot where the maiden, stii! 
 struggling and shrieking, was held by the firm grasp of the rav- 
 isher. His assistants were three in number. One was mounted 
 the other two on foot. 
 
 " Where is the jersey ?" demanded the outlaw. 
 
 "On the edge of the wood we couldn t get it through the 
 brush," was the answer. 
 
 "Enough lead the way." 
 
 " Shall I help you, captain ?" 
 
390 BORDER BEAGUJS 
 
 "No, ,io ! Clear the way only !" replied tlse powerful mffian. 
 lifting the maiden, while he spoke, as if she were a child, and 
 bearing her forward, indifferent alike to screams and struggles, 
 threats and entreaties, until he reached the spot where the ve 
 hicle had been left. Into this she was placed, with all tender 
 ness, but no little difficulty, and leaping in beside her, Saxon 
 secured -her within bis arms, while one of his emissaries, occu 
 pying the front seat, assumed the office of Jehu on the occasion, 
 and drove off with as reckless and rapid a speed as ever did 
 that renowned whip of ancient days. 
 
 Their course was for Cane Castle, in the swamp of Chitta- 
 Loosa. They drove round Lucchesa, avoiding the thoroughfare 
 with some caution at the first. After a little while they turned 
 into it, and before midnight the carriage came to a halt with the 
 thickening ooze of the swamp plashing clammily about its 
 wheels. Before this time, exhaustion had come to the relief of 
 the unhappy maiden, and when she was lifted from the vehicle 
 ohe was in a state of utter unconsciousness and stupor. Jones, 
 the wary coadjutor of the outlaw, was at hand ready to receive 
 him. 
 
 " Well, Jones, we are here in safety, and all is as we could 
 wish it. What of Florence ? We must have her help here." 
 
 "Can you think of it, sir?" demanded the other, with some 
 astonishment. " Can you hope for such a thing from her?" 
 
 " Ay, this or anything, as I please, my good fellow. I com 
 mand her she is mine my slave, as thoroughly bound to 
 my service as if the bond were written with her blood. Tier 
 love for me the very passion which works her jealousy to 
 madness is my best security for her devoticr and her service. 
 Think nothing of her grumbling, Jones I have heard it too 
 often to hearken to it now. A kind word a soothing entreaty 
 and all s over. She will forgive the rival, when she can 
 share the conquest." 
 
 " I hardly think it, sir, with Florence. There s something I 
 don t like in her eyes, and the way she speaks. She s changed 
 very much these three days." 
 
 "Jones, you re a fool. Yon know nothing of women, my 
 good fellow, or you d not give yourself such troublesome no 
 tions* certainly you would not aTiiicf me with them. Florence 
 
TT?F RFACI.F fr.viUir.FS OFF THE DOVR. U 
 
 is not different from nil the vest. She will 1m vo her own \v;iv 
 if she can, and when she finds that impossible, she will content 
 herself with all that you are willing to allow her." 
 
 "But the two in the same house !" said Jones, in a tone of 
 further expostulation. 
 
 "And with one man between em!" continued the outlaw, 
 with a laugh. " But let this not trouble you, Jones. They 
 shall be kept apart. There s the squatter s cabin by the Little 
 Bend to that I will carry Virginia. Florence shall see her 
 there she will need some assistance." 
 
 " Better keep them entirely apart. If the young lady needs 
 help female help there s Brown Bess, you know.* 
 
 " What, is she here and Yarbers? How s this?" 
 
 " Your orders, I hear. There s a warrant out against John 
 Yarbers from old Badger. Ned Mabry s sworn against him 
 about that horse business." 
 
 " True, true I had forgotten that. Bess is the very person 
 to be with her. Let us have help now, Jones, so that we may 
 carry her safely through the swamp. The river s rising is it 
 not?" 
 
 "Considerably there must have been a heavy fell of rain 
 among the V.ls above." 
 
 "And wh* did Yarbers arrive ?" 
 
 " It s been tour days now, and better. He got in on Monday." 
 
 " Not pursued ?" 
 
 " Not that he told me." 
 
 "Cane Castle must look a little livelier than ever; and 
 how does your Shaksperean reconcile himself to his bondage ? 
 What of the actor-fellow have you been able to keep up the 
 ball 1" 
 
 There was some hesitation in the reply of Jones, and his ac 
 cents were those of a man conscious, perhaps of some fault of 
 commission or neglect. 
 
 " I m sorry to say, sir he s off." 
 
 " Off! How off! You don t mean to say escaped, liehf 
 
 "Fact, sir and how, there s no saying at present. I had 
 him well watched, as I thought." 
 
 The tidings had the effect of making the outlaw instantly 
 grave. His accents became stern. 
 
392 BORDER BEAULKS. 
 
 "Tins is M bad business, .Tones. C. ui HUMT !.c traitors among 
 us? Another Hurdis affair ! This must be seen to, man. We 
 
 are not secure an instant if we can not see our prisoner. But 
 you pursued you have beagles on the track? What have 
 you done? how was it? Speak! By heavens, you arc a dul 
 ler fellow than I counted you." 
 
 "I can really say nothing, sir, as to the manner of the 
 escape. The chap was safe enough so late as this morning." 
 
 " The d 1, and so he got off in broad daylight ?" 
 
 Jones gave a mortified assent, and was compelled to submit 
 in silence to the severe upbraidings of his principal, whose re 
 proaches did not lack sarcasm to heighten their severity. 
 
 " By heavens, Jones, but I thought you more of a man than 
 this speaks for. With five active fellows in the swamp all 
 at your summons with nothing to do but this you suffer 
 yourself to sleep in your watch, and neglect everything. Did 
 the fellow go off on foot?" 
 
 Here Jones was compelled to make another confession, which 
 completed the story of his inefficient watch. Horsey had con 
 trived to resume possession of old Bowline his worthy father s 
 venerable " Dot-and-go-onc." 
 
 "Worse and worse !" exclaimed the other. " . ; ore s treach 
 ery somewhere. We must sift the matter ch - .y. Yarbers, 
 you say, is here his wife and daughter. Ha ! Jones that 
 woman that wife of his Brown Bess is at the bottom of it 
 all. She is shameless enough to be more honest than her hus 
 band, and will no doubt think it a moral duty to hang us all if 
 she can, and him, for distinction sake, at the head of the string. 
 Well we must use her now. Away, and let Yarbers bring 
 her to Little Bend at once. I will meet you at Cane Castle in 
 half an hour. Say nothing to Florence of my arrival nay, do 
 you avoid seeing her. I will tell her all myself. Away !" 
 
 But Florence had not been left uninformed on any of these 
 subjects. She had, as we have seen, her own emissaries at 
 work, and the dwarf had not only beheld the transfer of the 
 captive maiden from the wagon to the squatter s house at Little 
 Bend, but he had listened to every word of the dialogue be 
 tween the outlaw and his agent, which had accompanied and 
 followed her removal, and which we have endeavored, in the 
 
THE BEAGLE CARRIES OFF THE DOVE. 393 
 
 preceding passages, to abridge to Y)i3r limits. He delivered his 
 information to his jealous mistress some time before Saxon made 
 his appearance. 
 
 " She s here," said he to Florence, as he stood suddenly be 
 fore her where she sat in the gloom and silence of that lonely 
 chamber, looking out upon the solemn swamp. It was in the 
 same chamber that we found her first, when far other thoughts 
 filled her mind, and far other feelings dwelt in her bosom, than 
 those which rule over them now making the one wild and the 
 other wretched. She started as she heard his accents she 
 rose from her chair and approached him. 
 
 " You do not say it, Richard !" she said, with a solemn treni- 
 ulousness of accent. " You do not tell me that she is indeed 
 here that he has dared !" 
 
 The dwarf nodded his head ere he spoke, then answered 
 tier : 
 
 "At the squatter s old cabin, by the Little Bend." 
 
 "So near!" was the exclamation of the unhappy Florence, 
 as she walked to the window and looked out though, through 
 the dense woods, her eyes could distinguish nothing in the 
 direction of the designated hovel. She turned again, after lin 
 gering a moment, and approached the emissary. 
 
 "Richard you have served me faithfully, and one of the 
 last acts of my life shall be to reward yon. But tell me have 
 you seen her ? Is she so very beautiful ?" 
 
 " Very beautiful, they say though I don t care much to see 
 beautiful people, and didn t look much at her." 
 
 " But you saw her ?" 
 
 "Couldn t help it saw her a most everyday since I left 
 you. I always followed him, and he went to her every day, 
 and they walked out sometimes in the woods." 
 
 "Ha! ha! They walked out in the woods, did they? and 
 she is very fond of him, I suppose ? They are well matched 
 very well matched a loving couple, Richard? Did you 
 not think them so? But, do not answer me now. Go, Rich 
 ard leave me now I would rather be alone." 
 
 "Look you, ma am there s one thing," said the dwarf, lin 
 gering, " if you think this strange gal s fond of Saxon, you re 
 altogether out. Sho ain t fond of him, no how. She don t like 
 
 17* 
 
394 BORDER 
 
 iiim. lie pr.t her in the jar.M y l<v main force, and she sc 
 and made a mighty fuss." 
 
 " TTa ! Is this true?" demanded Florence, with considerably 
 interest. 
 
 " P int-blank truth. I saw her fighting him, and you might 
 hear her screech for more than a mile that you might afoic 
 she fainted." 
 
 " What ! she fainted ?" 
 
 " Died off , like twas all over with her, and didn t move agin 
 t ll they lifted her to carry her to the squatter s house." 
 
 "Richard, are you sure of this? Speak nothing but the 
 truth you know not how much depends on this!" said Flor 
 ence, with solemnity. 
 
 " I ll take hihle-oath to it, ma am ! I ll kiss the book to it. 
 There s no mistake in me this time, I tell you." 
 
 "Enough!" she said, waving him, with her hand, to depart. 
 "Enough! I thank you, Richard I will reward you in the 
 morning. Leave me now." 
 
 When he had gone, she returned to the window. 
 
 "This makes a difference," she said, musingly "a great 
 difference. If true, she is already a wretched victim, and no 
 hlow of mine would do her harm. Yet, even if she be a willing 
 creature of his lust if lie find in her, what he found in me 
 ;\ weak heart, a yielding nature, a confiding faith that loved 
 blindly and weakly, and was lost, before it became conscious 
 that there was anything to lose still, why should she be the 
 victim even then? She knows not that she wrongs another 
 she does not but he he who knows all who wilfully 
 wrongs, and scornfully defies, he but he is here it is he 
 \vlio should feel the blow. It is his heart, and his only, which 
 my hand should strike. And it shall strike ! I am sworn to 
 this! Lost! an outcast from all hope, all life, all love 1 
 am not so base, so worthless, or so weak, that I can not strike 
 for vengeance ! No ! Edward Saxon, you have dared to scorn 
 the heart which you once implored to insult that womauK 
 pride which you once solicited! and yet, it lives it live:* 
 to strengthen my arm and resolution it lives, and will not 
 cease to live, until you are humbled in the dust ! For this tri- 
 imph, and in this Isope. I live only ! Besides this, what is there 
 
THE OUTLAW AND HIS VICTIM. o 
 
 ID life to live for now ; and when he tails, there is nofliitg 
 then that I shall even care to hate ! God of heaven, how 
 strange it is to me now, that I once should have loved this man 
 and so loved him he, who stood over me but a few clays 
 ago, and mocked me with the story of his devotion to another, 
 and bade me do her bidding, and commanded me not as a slave 
 only, but as a slave whom he despised ! Ha! it is his foot 
 step he comes he comes to renew his mockery! I should 
 not meet him unprepared !" 
 
 She went, as she spoke, to a little dressing-case, and, lifting 
 the upper compartment, drew from beneath it a small silver- 
 hiked dagger, which she concealed in her bosom, then, turning 
 to the entrance of the chamber, encountered her betrayer with 
 a smile. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 THE OUTLAW AND HIS VICTIM A TRAGEDY SCENE A BLOW 
 
 A DISAPPOINTMENT. 
 
 " Observe this creature- here, my honored lords, 
 A woman of a most prodigious spirit" JOHN WEBSTKR. 
 
 HE also smiled as he appeared in sight, but smiled in such a 
 .sort as to add fervor to her resolution. There was a reckless 
 ness in the scorn which he now betrayed to the woman he had 
 once loved, which was certainly as impolitic as ungenerous ; but 
 having discarded his mask, Saxon seemed anxious to show how 
 ill-favored had been the aspect he had concealed beneath it. He 
 was obtuse enough not to see that the feelings he had trampled 
 had risen up in indignation. He was blind enough to mistake 
 the smile upon her lips for a return of her former feelings of 
 levotion. So it is, that the wisest of men will err at those mo 
 ments when they need all their wisdom. Sagacious beyond 
 most men of his sphere and neighborhood particularly con 
 versant, according to his own notion, with women he was yet 
 deceived without effort, by one with whom his communion had 
 
396 BORDER BEACJLliS. 
 
 begun by his own successful deceptions. She had been won in 
 a moment by a word! how idle to think that there were 
 depths in her mind which lie could not sound that there were 
 feelings written in her features which he could not read. 
 
 Such was the case. The cunning man was at fault. The re 
 was that in the bosom of Florence Marbois, which he could 
 neither sound nor see; but it was written that he should be 
 blind in this, as in other matters. She had been the victim <;: 
 her blindness it was just, for the sake of retribution, that he 
 should have his moment of blindness also. 
 
 "Perhaps, you believed me not, Florence, when I spoke l-j 
 you last; but I spoke nothing but the truth. She is here 
 here in the swamp, beside you the woman whom I now love 
 your rival your successor." 
 
 It was thus he spoke, in the language of mockery. Her eyes 
 met his glance unshrinkingly. Her cheeks were pale very 
 pale for a single instant. In the next moment they were 
 flushed with a redness which did not depart throughout the 
 whole of their conference. Her reply was uttered in tones of 
 calmness which surprised her seducer. He knew not where 
 she got the strength for such equability he knew not tho 
 deep, dark sources of her present consolation. 
 
 " You mistake, Edward Saxon. I believed you. If I were 
 a vain woman, it might be some gratification to me to know 
 that my frequent and previous jealousies idle as they were in 
 some respects were yet not unfounded. I rightjy judged 
 your character. My passions have, not been whollv blind-- 
 they were always capable of the task perhaps, not a diflieuit 
 one of estimating yours. I know you now, in that matter, t> 
 1)0 what J then believed you. If I erred in my conjectures 1 
 have already borne my punishment. The time fur error and 
 regret, so far as you are interested, is for ever past with me." 
 
 "I am glad of it, upon my soul very glad of it. Y -u 
 speak now like a reasonable woman, Florence, and I think the 
 better of you. Now that I find you so calm and sensible, 1 arn 
 free to speak to you with more confidence. Y<u must hav> 
 discovered by this time, as I have done, that these early notions 
 of love, that so mislead the dreaming girl and the desiring boy, 
 are only so many masks of passion masks under which the 
 
THE OUTLAW AND HIS VICTIM. 397 
 
 considerate nature Disguises those tumultuous frenzies which 
 might terrify the young from the patlis of pleasure and true en 
 joyment, much more frequently than they could ever entice or 
 gratify. As the experience grows, the mask ceases to be neces 
 sary or even useful. It is then that we cast it aside as an en 
 cumbrance which, in fact, impedes possession and. qualifies de 
 light. I m sure, Florence, we shall enjoy ourselves much more 
 by understanding these things correctly." 
 
 A faint smile covered her lips as she answered : 
 
 "At least, it is quite as well that we should think so that 
 I should think so. With the conviction that all is lost, a resig 
 nation to one s poverty is no less becoming than necessary. But 
 do you only come to tell me this, Edward Saxon? Have you 
 not some other purpose? I knew all this before." 
 
 11 To say truth, Florence, I came to try you. To see if you 
 had got over that madness that used to possess you in your 
 days of jealousy " 
 
 " And which it gave you pleasure to see ?" 
 
 "Not so. It vexed it worried me to bear with your com 
 plaints to listen to your harsh reproaches to hear your un 
 founded suspicions." 
 
 " But they were not unfounded." 
 
 " Till now they were. If I was ever true to woman, Flor 
 ence, I have been true to you till now. Never had I thought 
 to wander from you, till I met with her." 
 
 "And she she has a name!" exclaimed Florence, with 
 something more of curiosity and interest in her looks and lan 
 guage. " If I am to yield my place to another if I am to be 
 deprived of that for which I have been so well content hitherto 
 to live, at least let me know something of her who rises on 
 my ruin? She is beautiful that I know that you have told 
 me but her name ? Who is she what is her family where 
 did you find her ?" 
 
 " All in good time* Florence ; but you do me wrong, and your 
 self wrong. She takes no place of yours she only shares it. 
 and now that you show so calm a temper on the subject, let me 
 tell you that you have risen greatly in my favor. This is the 
 condition of mind to which I w(.iild have brought you years ago, 
 if I could. It is the only condition of mind which would make 
 
3U6 BORDKK HKAtJLi-o. 
 
 either of us happy. I am one of those men who are always apt 
 to resent and fly from an effort to restrain my liberty. My heart 
 must share the freedom of my limbs, and that sort of exacting 
 love, which suffers no exercise to my eyes, my thoughts, my ac 
 tions, is, of all others, so tyrannous a bondage, that, to confess 
 a truth to you, Florence, you became hateful to me when y3u 
 began to exercise it." 
 
 "Ha! hateful!" 
 
 " It is true too true. But do not understand me, Florence, 
 as applying to you any such epithet, now. This resignation on 
 your part to my will, places you in a very favorable position ; 
 and, if you keep in this mood, there can be no good reason, 
 why we should not be to each other as before. Let it be un 
 derstood that I am to do as I please, and feel as 1 please, and 
 
 go where I please, without having that d d hunchback at 
 
 my heels, and without being compelled to hearken to the per 
 petual growlings of suspicion and complaint and nobody could 
 love you better than myself; and, if you will only promise me 
 to yield to my wishes to haunt me no more with your jeal 
 ousy, and pursue me no more with irksome reproaches " 
 
 " Be sure, Edward Saxon, I never will," said the unhappy 
 woman, with solemnity. " Jealousy of you will never more 
 fill the heart of Florence Marbois reproaches will never 
 reach your ears from her lips. I have seen the folly of such 
 conduct." 
 
 " Why, Florence, this is wisdom. We shall do well after this ; 
 and you can bear now to behold me in the arms of Virginia." 
 
 " Virginia ! is that her name ?" asked Florence, with a con 
 tinued effort at calmness, which, had the outlaw been studiously 
 observant, would never have concealed the tremulous curiosity 
 that fill the heart of the speaker. 
 
 " It is a sweet name, Florence, but not so sweet as herself. 
 But you shall see her with your own eyes. You shall behold 
 her charms, if you are willing and can keep down your jeal 
 ousy if you can still continue unmoved if you will not hate 
 her." 
 
 " Hate her ! I hate her ? Why should I hate her, Edward 
 Saxoil ? In what has she wronged me ? No ! no ! I will not 
 hate her I can not." 
 
THE UliTLAvV AAD .,Jo ViLilil. 399 
 
 " Well, this is the right temper. 1>\ heavens, Florence, but 
 you are woridrously changed lor the better \vithin a week. 
 But will you love her, Florence ? You should she is so beau 
 tiful, so gentle, and will make you so excellent a companion." 
 
 " I can not promise that until I know " 
 
 The speaker stopped abruptly. 
 
 " Know what, Florence ?" 
 
 " Does she love you ?" 
 
 The more obvious signification of this question was grateful 
 to the outlaw s vanity. He laughed aloud, as he replied 
 
 " Ah, traitor ! what would you have ? Suppose I tell you, 
 that she does not love me." 
 
 " You jest with me." 
 
 " Gad, I know not that, Florence. I don t know whether I 
 can say with safety, that she does love me." 
 
 " How then came she here 1 ?" 
 
 "Hum ! 1 brought her; and, to tell you the truth, not alto 
 gether with her own consent. But I doubt if her opposition 
 was earnest, Florence. Like most women like yourself, 
 Florence she probably hides the real sentiment under the 
 disguise of one which she does not truly feel. There was no 
 small portion of this sort of trickery in yourself, Florence, 
 when we first met when we used to meet by the late the 
 little lake" 
 
 " Remind me not, I pray you," said the outcast woman, with 
 a sternness of accent that caused the outlaw to gaze at her in 
 suspicious silence for several seconds. With a countenance 
 only half assured, he proceeded : 
 
 " Florence, I half suspect you now. I doubt you are only 
 striving at composure. Your jealousies are returning, and the 
 old reproaches will be renewed " 
 
 "Never! Edward Saxon, never! Before heaven 1 swear 
 that I can never reproach you again ; and as for jealousy " 
 
 " Enough ! I am too willing to believe you to insist upon too 
 many assurances." 
 
 The outlaw did not see the contemptuous scorn upon the lips 
 which concluded fitly the unspoken sentence. 
 
 "I can be happy with you, Florence nay, I could have 
 been happy and contented with you all along, but that you* 
 
tOO BORDER BKAULES. 
 
 nnwise suspicions and goading jealousies drove? ir.e from \>.\\\- 
 side, and made me not only indifferent to your society but anx 
 ious to escape it. Now that you have grown wiser, I trust that 
 no such necessity will again prevail to make cither of us less 
 happy, than we should and may be. With Virginia and your 
 self" 
 
 "But, if she loves you not?" said Florence, coldly 
 "I have not said it, Florence; nay I am not willing i 
 say, and still less to believe it. True, I brought her with less 
 willingness on her part than I could have desired to see ; but 
 now that she is here in my power- at n:y mercy she will 
 see her own common sense" 
 
 "Edward Saxon! you surely mean no violence to the girl ?" 
 "Why, Florence!" exclaimed the outlaw, as he read the. 
 horror in her countenance, which was not wanting to the accents 
 of her voice. " Do you think it so hard to persuade the maiden, 
 that I am as proper a man as she could find among a thousand ? 
 She, I doubt not, will be as flexible as yourself, when the 
 season comes. Nay, have I not told you already, that I louk 
 upon her reluctance as nothing more than that disguise which 
 women naturally put on to hide their real sentiments. She will 
 love me quite as well as another, when she has paid those due 
 sacrifices to false delicacy which form a part of the social re 
 ligion of the sex. You are all alike, Florence all alike. 
 Virginia, like yourself, will go through the various stages of 
 passion first, a pretty fear, that woos you to pursue while it 
 only affects to fly ; then a yielding gust of tenderness, that is 
 all tears for a season then a glow of greater delight the 
 intoxication of new passion, which is all smiles and burning 
 blushes then comes the deliberate devotion then, the jeal 
 ousy, Florence the jealousy which is as certain as the 
 upward progress of the sparks ; and, until this stage is over, no 
 peace for either party. Then, as in your case again, and as I 
 rejoice to behold it now, the quiet calm of love, which is re 
 solved to take it on the easiest terms to suppose it nothing 
 but what it should be, and believe, A ith the poet, in love, as in 
 the case of higher destinies, that whatever is, is right. Yov 
 can t conceive, my dear Florence, how much I am rejoiced by 
 the change in you." 
 
THE OUTLAW AND HIS VICTIM. 401 
 
 " I m very glad of it !" was the reply. 
 
 " We shall be as happy in the swamp as if the world was in 
 our grasp. With Virginia ^m one hand, and you, Florence, on 
 the other satisfied as you both should be, that the heart of a 
 man is capacious enough for both I could pass my days, I 
 think without any sentiment but that of contented enjoyment, 
 and my nights with no other dreams than those of security and 
 bliss. You have read, Florence nay, you have heard and seen 
 something of those gay rovers of the gulf that were kings 
 upon its billows, and, fierce in war as fierce as its own storms 
 who were yet as peaceful as its hours of calm, when they 
 surrendered themselves, upon the green palm-covered island, to 
 the embraces of beauty lying beneath the shade of the plan 
 tain and the fig, and, with lip to lip, and heart, melting as it 
 were, into the dissolving sweetness of the mutual heart, they 
 gave up life to the sweet delirium the pleasant repose the 
 happy confidence of love. Shall we not have these joys again, 
 Florence? No storms, no fear, no scolding, no caprices nny, 
 turn not away, my girl forget that there have been words or 
 looks of unkindness between us. Now, that you have come to 
 a right understanding of what should be the condition of our 
 ties, there can be no cause of discontent or strife hereafter. A 
 kiss, a sweet embrace, dear Florence, in token that there is 
 peace between us." 
 
 As these words were spoken, he drew nigh to the woman, 
 whose face had been partially averted while he spoke. A 
 tempest was in her heart the while, and a vexing commotion 
 and a burning heat within her brain. Her hand trembled within 
 her bosom, that trembled also with a degree of emotion which 
 shook her whole frame. Meanwhile, the outlaw, utterly de 
 ceived by her deportment, and, perhaps, quite as much deceived 
 by his own desires on the subject pleased to find her so easily 
 reconciled, and beholding her now, in this alteration of her 
 mood, with something like the renewal of an ancient sentiment 
 intoxicated no less with the warm fancies which he had been 
 breathing in her ears approached her, and, passing his arm 
 suddenly about her waist, drew her toward his bosorn. 
 
 "Yes, dear Florence," he continued, "let this embrace renew 
 the pleasures of the past, and this kiss be the token that aU 
 
BUilDEii iiL.U.U>. 
 
 cinkindness is forgotten, and then- is nothing now but peace 
 between us." 
 
 A shudder passed over her frame.as she felt his arm encircle 
 her for a moment she seemed desirous to shrink from his 
 embrace ; but, in another instant, turning as if to requite it, 
 she suddenly extricated one of her arms, which she threw be 
 hind her as she exclaimed: 
 
 " Ay, Edward Saxon, peace it shall be, but it shall be the 
 peace of death. Take this ! this I Let this be the token of 
 my forgiveness. This for my wrong. This to the heart that 
 could not value the sole, the worshipping, devotion of such a 
 heart as mine." 
 
 She struck, as she spoke, with the little dagger which she 
 had concealed within her bosom. Twice, thrice, she struck, 
 and for a moment the outlaw spoke not moved not. Aston 
 ishment seemed to possess and overcome his faculties. But 
 when she had given the third blow, he threw her from his arms 
 with a violence that sent her against the opposite wall; where 
 she stood, glaring upon him like a tigress, her eyes starting 
 from their orbs with an expression of mingled hate and horror. 
 
 But Saxon fell not he seemed not even to be hurt. He 
 advanced to her without discomposure or irregularity of step, 
 yet every blow had been planted by the hand of the most 
 determined hostility upon his heart. 
 
 " Your arm is feebler than your soul, Florence Marbois, else 
 had your hateful purpose been accomplished. Woman, how 
 have you deceived me !" 
 
 She lifted the dagger again as he approached her, but, as it 
 met her eyes, she flung the worthless weapon from her hand 
 with a scream that denoted the disappointed fury in her bosom. 
 The steel, sniall and slender, having met with the resistance of 
 a button when she struck, had yielded and curled up at the 
 contact, without penetrating more deeply than his outer gar 
 ment. He was utterly unharmed. 
 
 " Florence, you are mad," was the remark of Saxon. This 
 attempt " 
 
 " Ay, man, monster, villain I am mad. But who has mad 
 dened me who has driven me to this? I am doubly mad 
 that I have failed in what i have sought to do. Feeble hand 
 
worthless steel ! But why stand you looking on me, Edward 
 
 Saxon? Will you not kill? Here, i am ready my heart 
 j s p C11 m y bosom is bared to the blow. Strike, and strike 
 quickly it is your only chance for I have sworn, Edward 
 Saxon sworn by heaven and by hell by all powers that 
 may yield me power for revenge that the world shall not 
 contain us both that one of us must die. I am ready now, 
 Edward Saxon! I would not live I hate you too much to 
 breathe with you the same atmosphere of life. Strike ! strike ! 
 You would have given me peace just now it is not too late! 
 I wish no other." 
 
 With a desperate hand she tore open the vest which covered 
 her bosom, and the white realm still so full of beauty and 
 sweetness, if not of innocence and love those heaving hills 
 on which his head had so often rested in other days lay bare 
 before his sight. He turned from them without a word. The 
 picture reminded even his cold and careless bosom too warmly 
 of that past, in which his betrayal of her love had so amply jus 
 tified her present hate. 
 
 "I leave you, Florence I leave you and forgive you." 
 He said no more as he parted from her presence, leaving her 
 where she stood her hair dishevelled, her bosom bare, her 
 eyes wild like those of the maniac, but her ear too dull to heai 
 his last words her thoughts anywhere but where they should 
 be, and her whole brain in the wildest commotion. 
 
BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 THK APE CONSOLES THE HEROINE THE PRICE OF VENGEANCE 
 
 " How s this f Let me look better on t : a contract t 
 A contract sealed and ratified " BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. 
 
 No sooner had Saxon disappeared from the apartment, than 
 it was entered by the emissary, Stillyards. This indefatigable 
 urchin had maintained beneath the eaves his habitual practices, 
 and his keen senses had suffered nothing to escape him of the 
 scene which has been just described. 
 
 Florence beheld not his entrance. Her eyes were open, but, 
 like those of Lady Macbeth, " their sense was shut." He coolly 
 proceeded across the room, and took up the dagger. With a 
 curious grin of equal scorn and merriment, he examined the 
 worthless instrument which had so amusingly failed to serve the 
 purposes of vengeance. While thus engaged, the returning 
 consciousness of the woman apprized her of his presence. She 
 rapidly crossed the intervening boards that separated them. 
 She grasped his arm with one hand, while with the other, she 
 repossessed herself of the ineffective, but handsome weapon. 
 This she hurled from the window, with a laugh of bitterness 
 that seemed a fitting and mocking commentary upon her own 
 unperforming endeavor. 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! ha ! So you have seen it all, Richard ? Weak 
 hand, and worthless steel ! Ha ! ha ! ha ! did it make yon 
 laugh ? No ! and why not ? He laughed ? Did he not ? Did 
 you not see him laugh? He laughs now now! Well! li 
 may laugh ! What a fool am I I that am wronged and ruinec 
 dishonored, scorned, abused, and deserted. What a fool an 
 I to dream of justice to think that there could be vengennc* 
 for the lone and feeble, woman. T.-. iliii k tlint ;; \ve;;k snu lik< 
 mine, should avenge my \veaiur !.>;..." 
 
THE APE CONSOLES THK IIKJIOIXR. 405 
 
 And, as she uttered these wild and passionate words, she e;::.t 
 trie arm which she reproached, heedless of the pain, with fearful 
 violence down upon the jamb of the window, the blood spirting 
 as she did so, from the ivory-white and soft flesh a sight to 
 make even the rude but devoted dwarf slndder, and to awaken 
 i .i him a degree of sympathy which lifted his nature and turned 
 all his better feelings into pity. 
 
 " Twa n t the arm twa n t the arm, Ma am Florence - 
 twas the knife only that wa n t fit for nothing, with all its shine 
 and silver about it. If it had been this now, ma am," displaying 
 his own heavy bowic blade, as he spoke "there s no curl in 
 this ! no mistake !" 
 
 "Give it me!" she cried "this it shall be yet. This feels 
 like vengeance, Richard there is strength enough in my arm, 
 and resolution still in my heart. I can not fail now there is 
 still something for which Florence Marbois may live." 
 
 She seized the weighty instrument as she spoke, turned it 
 beneath her eye, grasped with one hand the massy blade, which 
 she strove in vain to bend; then, as if satisfied that it was now 
 only necessary to strike the blow, was about to hurry from the 
 apartment, as if in pursuit of her victim ; but the cooler dwarf 
 threw himself between her and the door. 
 
 Significantly putting his fingers on his lips as if in token of 
 silence with an audacity which was unusual, and which, at 
 any earlier day, would have found its immediate and unmeas 
 ured rebuke from the lips of the haughty woman he gently 
 grasped her wrist, and led her back into the darker part of the 
 room out of sight and hearing from the window. Once there. 
 IK; counselled her to the delay of a few moments, while he left 
 tin; house, and stealthily examined all its approaches which 
 might conceal a lurking spy. His own practices had necessarily 
 made him properly suspicious of all others, and had endowed 
 him with the skill to provide against all detection. 
 
 Finding that the coast was clear, and having ascertained that 
 Saxon and Jones, whom he most apprehended, were gone to 
 some distance in the encampment, he hastily returned to hig 
 mistress, after the lapse of a few moments. . He forfnd her as 
 much excited as ever, and doubly impatient to proceed in con 
 sequence of the unwonted constraint which had been put upon 
 
406 BORDER BEAGLES, 
 
 lu-r. Tliw reasons for this restraint lie proceeded to declare in 
 liis own rude language : 
 
 " Why, Ma am Florence, it s no use for you to go now 
 Saxon Ml never let you try it again. You can t get nigh enough 
 for a single dig at him ; and if you did, he d be wide awake for 
 you. He d take the knife from you, fore you could say Jack 
 Robinson, and laugh at you more than ever." 
 
 A glance of fire a fierce stare rewarded the speaker 
 There could be no enmity at that moment more decided, in the 
 estimation of her anguished heart, than that which seemed to 
 insist upon the impracticability of its hope of vengeance. 
 
 "What then? Am I to submit? To bear his scorn, his de 
 sertion ? Is he to walk with booted footstep across my heart ? 
 Wherefore do you stop me? Speak, sir, I command you! 
 Tell me other things than this, or be dumb for ever. I will not 
 hear you I will hear nothing that takes from me the last hope 
 of my heart which baffles and denies the only prayer which 
 I am prepared to make in life." 
 
 The dwarf was not unwilling to comply. He had no purpose 
 of baffling her vengeance. A bitter smile passed over his squalid 
 cheeks. His mouth widened into a grin, and at another tima 
 the malignant fires which darted from his eye, might have awa 
 kened in the bosom of his fair companion, a feeling of shudder 
 ing disgust. Her own roused and embittered spirit, jaundiced 
 by the passions which inflamed it, sufficed to blind her to the 
 unconcealed malice of his. She saw not the gloating expres 
 sion of his features she heard only those accents which prom 
 ised her the vengeance she desired. He showed her how vain 
 would be her hope to succeed in any renewal of her late at 
 tempts, to avenge her wrong in person. He admitted, also, the 
 great difficulty in the way of his succeeding, unless with circum 
 stances greatly in his favor, of a conflict with a man so powerful 
 of frame and so practised in his arms as Saxon ; but there was 
 another way, which, while it demanded greater delay, promised 
 to be followed by better results. 
 
 "The regulators are out, and it s how to hide is the talk 
 among tire beagles. There s an old man, a preaching metho- 
 dist, that s all bite, on t other side of the Big Black, at a place 
 called Zion s Hill he s been a mustering more than n week 
 
THE PHK F Op VKXCi; \M ;- 407 
 
 now, and it s duly bcratiM.- i.c doiV-t know \v!.!di \v?ry to set Jut* 
 nose, that lie ain t on trail after the beadles afore tin s. He s 
 got a son that barks with us, and we know from mm how the 
 cat jumps. Then there s a lad, one Wat Rawlins, that s been 
 a contriving again us too. Jones is more afraid of him than 
 t other, cause he don t say much, and Badger always preaches 
 what he s guine to do ; now, it s only to show this here chap, 
 Rnwlins, how to find the track for Cane Castle., and let him 
 n-nke a start on a sudden, and it s all mush with Saxon. There s 
 two dogs that barks between us and Rawlins, arid it s only to 
 send em off sarching for John Cole s mare; then Rawlins f?>:i 
 bring his men into the swamp unbeknowing to all, and it s a 
 better knife than yours or mine, Ma am Florence, that does the 
 business." 
 
 "I see! I see! and you will go to these men, Richard, you 
 will bring the aA^enger into the swamp you will show them 
 where lie sleeps ha!" 
 
 To these eager demands and exclamations the answer of the 
 dwarf was slow. He had his reasons for deliberation he had 
 his own bargain to make ; and, with the policy of a more cnn 
 ning tradesman, his reluctance to answer the requisitions of the 
 superior, grew in proportion to the eagerness of her demand 
 That she might be avenged amply by the means he suggested, 
 and by his means, he proceeded to reiterate. The particular 
 process was all shown his own consent to do the office, which 
 could evidently be done by no one so well as himself, was the 
 only point upon which he hesitated to declare himself. 
 
 "Twill reward you, Richard you shall have all every 
 thing money, jewels everything, I repeat for why," she 
 added mournfully, as if to herself " why should I keep aught ? 
 I shall have little need for gold or jewels when that is done 
 little need, and oh! how much less desire speak, Richard, 
 tell me that I may rely on you for this last service. Be faithful 
 as you have been before, and take what you Avil! ~ take all that 
 1 have to bestow." 
 
 "You say it, Ma am Florence you ll promise rne," demand 
 ed the dwarf with an eagerness equalling her own, while, in his 
 gloating eyes an expression of anxious desire, might have been 
 
408 
 
 e;;.^Jy read by ;u>v o ysei ver less !;li .di-d ;!:.-,ii tlic woman to 
 whom it was addressed. 
 
 " Have I not said ? Surely I promise. Why should you 
 doubt why hesitate? Have I ever failed where I promised, 
 Richard ? Have you not ever had your reward from me ? I 
 repeat, you shall have, when you have done rne this service 
 when you have brought the officers of justice into this den of 
 thieves when the chief villain of the band is a captive, and 
 the hope from his heart, like that from my own, is gone for ever 
 you shall have all the wealth the money and the jewels 
 which I have ! Nothing shall be withheld of value that you 
 may demand. You shall be my heir, Richard you inherit 
 all !" 
 
 " All in your power to bestow !" slowly spoke the dwarf, re 
 peating a portion of her previous words. " Twas that you said, 
 Ma am Florence," 
 
 "Yes again I say it: you shall have all in my power to 
 bestow." 
 
 " It s a promise, Ma am Florence good as Bible oath." 
 
 "As if I had sworn it!" solemnly replied the woman. 
 
 He caught her wrist eagerly in his hand, drew her toward 
 him, and, rising on tip-toe, whispered in her ear. As the com 
 munication, whatever it was, reached her senses, she recoiled 
 from his contact shook herself free from his grasp, and, rece 
 ding a step, regarded him with an expression of countenance in 
 which contempt and scorn were mingled equally. 
 
 The eye of the abashed dwarf sank beneath the fire-flashing 
 glances of hers; his frame faltered, and an effort which, at the 
 same moment, he made to speak, died away in confused and 
 feeble accents, which were utterly unintelligible and almost 
 unheard. 
 
 Meanwhile, various were the thoughts which coursed rapidly 
 through the mind of Florence Marbois. Anger and vexation at 
 first were predominant feelings so strong in the first moment 
 after his communication had been heard, as almost to obliterate, 
 during the same brief space, all memory of the vengeance which 
 she had sworn against her seducer. But very soon these feel 
 ings passed away. 
 
 " I must be proud no more." were the words which at len^tfc 
 
THE PRICE OF VENGEANCE. 409 
 
 Droke from her lips. "I mock myself with those shadows. 
 Richard," she said, advancing as she spoke, and extending her 
 hand, "it shall be as you say. All that is left me to bestow, 
 shall be yours, when you have accomplished my vengeance." 
 
 lie grasped the extended hand, and carrying it to his lips, 
 covered it with such caresses as a she-bear might have lavished 
 upon her last cub in licking it into shape. Florence Marbois 
 had sunk wofully in her own estimation. Her pride was gone, 
 and she had nothing to live for; but she withdrew the hand 
 that suffered from the slaver of the deformed, with a strong ex 
 pression of disgust. 
 
 "Enough, Richard. And now to the prosecution of these 
 plans." 
 
 It will not need that we follow the dialogue in all its details. 
 It is sufficient for us to say, that Stillyards, being familiar, by 
 reason of his espionage, with all the circumstances of the chief 
 robbers in the swamp, and with all those more prominent 
 sources of danger which they feared, was better prepared, than 
 Saxon or Jones could have believed, to devise an effectual plan 
 for their capture. It was not long before he was despatched 
 by his mistress from her presence. 
 
 There were new reasons added to old ones, why she should 
 desire to send him forth as speedily as possible. He was not 
 simply a means of vengeance he had become a creditor; and 
 the miserable debtor, who, though ruined, had still in her soul 
 some glimpses of the better nature from which she had fallen, 
 began to shudder at the humiliating moral bondage which such 
 a condition always seems to imply. The instrument of her ne 
 cessity was an object of her disgust. Hitherto, she had been 
 able to reward him with money ; now, he felt the large increase 
 of his power, and his demands had grown in proportion. He 
 was become ambitious money no longer answered his desires; 
 and he, who by reason of his low birth, vulgar life, and deformed 
 person, had never been able to attach the affections of another, 
 now aimed to secure the highest and finest and sweetest of all 
 human affections, as the reward of his ministry. 
 
 " And wherefore should I scruple at this ?" was the demand 
 which Florence Marbois made of herself, as if in self-justifica 
 tion when she was left alone. " It is at best a word a pledgfl 
 
 b 
 
41U BORDER IJK.UJLKs. 
 
 \\hich is dissolved in the very hour which brings Edward Saxon 
 to his doom. She is a fool, a worse than idiot, who survives 
 life s purposes and I have but one purpose in life. That sat 
 isfied, and 1 may well assure this vain and miserable game-make 
 that all shall then be hit* which is in the power of Florence 
 Marbois to bestow." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 NEW READINGS IN OLD FLAYS CATASTROPHE OF HAMLET 
 NOT IN A.\Y FORMER EDITION. 
 
 "Good sir, softly : you ha done me a charitable office." Winter s Tale. 
 
 LET us now return to our Thespian in the swamp. We left 
 him, with Jones, skimming along in a little dug-out over the 
 turbid waters of the Chitta-Loosa. Jones delighted in fishing, 
 and found sufficient employment in pursuing this occupation. 
 Horsey seemed content to be a spectator; but the wily outlaw 
 very well knew that his content would be of no very long du 
 ration, unless the food on which he better fed than anything 
 besides the oily applause of the audience was brought in, 
 to quiet an appetite that no measure of success could satiate. 
 Accordingly, he suffered not his own vocation so far to occupy 
 his attention, as to make him regardless of his companion s 
 temper. 
 
 From the moment when he cast forth his lines, he began to 
 ply the actor with stage reminiscences, and to challenge his 
 opinions upon all stage matters. These requisitions were ail- 
 important to the perfection of the proposed establishment at 
 Benton. Finding deception easy on all kindred subjects, Jones 
 enlarged his fictions. He suggested a grand scheme of theatri 
 cal organization, which was to extend itself over the whole 
 country, from West Tennessee down to the bay of Biloxi. A 
 company was to be planned, with corporate powers, in several 
 of the southwestern states, which was to build theatres in all 
 eligible places, and divide the year in separate seasons of th.ren 
 
PLAYS. Ill 
 
 months in each of them. The li-anajroMicnt \vas to \-.i* con 
 ferred on Horsey. Never did the innocent Hats of our back 
 woods suffer the delusion of a mammoth bank, or a mammoth 
 railroad, to take such complete hold of their credulous imagina 
 tions. Like the schemes of these great companies, generally, 
 the wily outlaw made it appear, that the plan was not only to 
 be pleasant and profitable, but excessively patriotic. 
 
 " At least," said this experienced stockdealer, " at least, my 
 dear Horsey, we shall make, as salaried officers, though the 
 stockholders lose. The profits, if enough to pay us, are enough 
 for the patriotism of the thing." 
 
 " But it must be profitable to all parties," said Horsey, whose 
 morality was somewhat less discursive than that of his cam- 
 panion. 
 
 " Ay, ay to be sure it must The country will be a great 
 gainer in money and morals, and " 
 
 " Certainly, such a diffusion of fehakspere alone, must have 
 that effect." 
 
 " It will. That alone should be a sufficient consideration to 
 induce the state to subscribe largely; and I have no doubt that 
 she will, when her legislators are made to perceive the patriot 
 ism of the thing. Then, if we can get a charter for a banking- 
 house with a capital of ten millions, our triumph is complete 
 We can establish houses everywhere raise companies issue 
 moneys do anything. Our labors being for the public good, 
 we can appropriate lands and tenements, I am of opinion, with 
 out ever paying for them." 
 
 "Impossible!" exclaimed Horsey, who had evidently less 
 legal learning than his companion. 
 
 " And why impossible ? Ours is a public work. Our char 
 ter, it is true, declares it to be private ; but it is admitted that 
 our labors are likely to be productive of public good, and would 
 it not be monstrous if a single citizen, here and there, should 
 resist a measure that is for the good of the whole." 
 
 " True, there is something in that," said Horsey ; * but is it 
 so clear that we can take private property at pleasure for the 
 public good ?" 
 
 "Certainly the majority declares what is for the public 
 good, and makes the law accordingly." 
 
412 BORDER BKAfJLKS. 
 
 "But the constitution what does the constitution stand 
 for then of what use ?" 
 
 " Nay, I don t know that. For my part I never did see the 
 use of a constitution at all ; and it is clear to me, that it could 
 be of no sort of effect against our company, if we can only get 
 a charter for it. That we can do, if we only pay two or three 
 lawyers handsomely, and secure a few of the most famous ora 
 tors at a fine salary. They ll gull the flats by fine speeches 
 which shall prove to them that they re the most noble, patriotic 
 folks under the sun; and we ll pick their teeth, while their jaws 
 are on the stretch, listening to these fine sayings. Two to 
 one on it, Horsey, that in a year s time, the state will lend us 
 a million to begin with, and take stock in the great Mis 
 sissippi Shaksperean and Thespian company, to three times 
 that amount." 
 
 "I m not so sanguine, Jones," said the other, "but I m sure 
 if it would do so, the stock would be a cursed sight better than 
 that of half of these banks and railroads. As for the banks, it s 
 clear, they ve swamped all the planters; and as for the rail 
 roads, I reckon we shall have to leave them in the swamps, 
 where they ll stick for ever. Your plan, I m afraid, is almost 
 too grand a one. Something on a smaller scale now, would be 
 more likely to be successful. 
 
 " Lord love you, Horsey, my dear fellow, you know nothing 
 about our people when you talk so. It s nothing but grand 
 schemes that go down with them. They can only understand 
 the incomprehensible they can only admire what is beyond 
 their calibre. Tell them of small schemes which are possible 
 and practicable, and which might yield them moderate profits 
 and be of some service, and they will turn up their noses in dis 
 gust. They despise little projects. But get up a grand Reli 
 gious Steam Association ; or a company for connecting Pensacola 
 with San Jacinto by means of chain or floating bridges ; or a 
 line of Balloon Stages to the North Star, or a Patent Process 
 for Converting Bad Planters into Great Merchants propose 
 some such moderate matters to them as these, and they ll take 
 stock directly. They ve lately formed a society in New England 
 for keeping the peace among I lie potentates in Europe, and 
 there s not an old wom.-m in ;iil tl.r villages that don t subscribe 
 
NEW READINGS IN OLD PLAYS. 413 
 
 a shilling weekly to prevent Louis Philippe from kicking the 
 emperor of Austria, and arrest the czar in his indecorous at- 
 r empts to void his quid in the face of Sultan Mahmoud. That s 
 % society now that s likely to be profitable." 
 
 The outlaw was about to pass, by a very natural transition, 
 from the consideration of these grand and patriotic modes for 
 picking the pockets of the people, to a short analysis of the 
 half-exploded and vulgar methods of doing the same thing a? 
 practised in ancient times. He was prepared to show that the 
 old highway custom of bidding a true man " stand and deliver," 
 was altogether, and happily, abrogated by such small legal pro 
 cesses as are more comprehensively described under the general 
 designation of charters. It would have been very easy, indeed, 
 for one so well versed in the inquiry as himself, to show what 
 the reader is already prepared to believe that the "Border 
 Beagles" were, indeed, " chartered libertines" of the same class; 
 yet, as they did not transact business on a scale so magnificent, 
 and as they were rather less ostentatious in their operations, 
 they could not so openly challenge the admiration of mankind. 
 
 It caused the worthy outlaw, indeed, a sigh, when he reflected 
 that all that was necessary to enable the company under whose 
 authority he performed his operations, to become shrined in the 
 admiration and estimation of the people from the Tar river to 
 the Colorado, was a simple instrument under the hands of a 
 state legislature, which a fine orator could readily procure, and 
 a docile representation would delight to grant. A change of 
 name might, indeed, be necessary, and, perhaps, a declaration 
 of objects slightly differing from that which were in reality en 
 tertained. A people, it seems, who are fitted for self-govern 
 ment, must yet have its expenses concealed from their sight, 
 and its penalties disguised under the name of pleasures. " Bor 
 der Beagles" was a good name easily articulated but to get 
 a charter for far more increased operations, it might be neces 
 sary to change it into something of a more imposing, and less 
 vague signification "The Great Southwestern Transportation 
 and Specie Deposite Company," would be a longer and more 
 specific title long and loose enough to obtain charters from 
 *ny six states in the Union 
 
 Jones was full to overflowing with these ideas and their trib 
 
BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 utaries ; but Horsey was something less of a moralist and poli 
 tician than the outlaw ; and his undisguised yawns soon ap 
 prized his companion of the necessity of returning to the ground 
 from which they had episodically departed. Even the estab 
 lishment of great houses for stage-playing, were as nothing to 
 the play itself, in the imagination of the actor ; and when his 
 attention flagged in considering the former it revived with 
 double force and interest when the latter topic was resumed. 
 
 Jones professed himself tired of law and morality, and begged 
 that Horsey would restore the tone of his mind by a specimen. 
 One specimen begat two, two begat three ; specimens produced 
 varieties of readings in favorite passages ; and in twenty min 
 utes, with a patient and applauding auditor, Hamlet was " him 
 self again." Never had he read so well before never had his 
 action been so flexible and felicitous. 
 
 " Cautiously, my dear fellow," said Jones, with a warning 
 voice "cautiously, and trim the boat she dips already, and 
 it won t take much to cover her bends." 
 
 "Yes, yes!" impatiently replied the actor, "I see I ll take 
 care ;" and then he returned to his theme, which had been the 
 discussion of one of the readings of a favorite actor. 
 
 " Now you see, Mr. Jones, in the reading of that passage, 
 Forrest is clearly wrong : 
 
 " Hang out our banners! 
 he says with an exclamatory pause ; then adds, 
 
 " On the outward walls, 
 The cry is still they come. 
 
 Now, why should he depart from the old style of reading, which 
 is thus : 
 
 " Hang out our banners on the outward walls ; 
 The cry is still they come! 
 
 Why should we suppose that the coming of the enemy is only 
 announced on the outward walls ? The cry is everywhere 
 the whole castle hears it. Macbeth himself announces it, he 
 being within the Castle at the time. In this reading the passage 
 is without sense. The truth is, that the intelligence having 
 reached Macbeth that the enemy is still coming a fact, which 
 his previous confidence in the weird sisters has led him to doubi 
 
NEW HEADINGS IN OLD I LAYs. ii5 
 
 he gives those orders which would be given even now by 
 every commander : It is time to hang out our defiance they 
 have come near enough to see it. It will show them that we 
 are prepared for them it will show our own people that we 
 do not fear the foe/ It was not customary to hang out the 
 banners except on occasions of state and danger. In old times, 
 banners were more costly things than they are now. They 
 were covered with gold and blazonry of a very rich and perish 
 able character. Even now, they are never hung out except 
 in cases of ceremony, or in the expectation of actual conflict 
 They are kept carefully within the castle till the approach of 
 the foe, and then, with the soldiers, advanced to the walls. The 
 same scene in which this passage occurs, describes, as stage di 
 rections, the entry of Macbeth, with drums and colors, within 
 the castle, followed by Seyton and the soldiers. They were 
 then about to go forth to the defence of the walls, the sentinels 
 on the watcb having warned them that the time for actual con 
 flict was now at hand, and the hanging the banner on the out 
 ward wall, was the only mode by which the proper defiance of 
 the defenders Avas to be displayed." 
 
 " Clearly you are right," said Jones, whose turn it was new 
 to yawn. 
 
 4< Now for that famous and much-disputed passage 
 
 " She should have died hereafter. " 
 
 " Mind the boat," remonstrated Jones, who felt his little 
 cockleshell becoming momently more and more capricious under 
 the increasing earnestness of the actor. 
 
 " Ay, ay !" said the other, reciting 
 
 " She should have died hereafter ; 
 
 There would have been a time for such a word, 
 To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow "* 
 
 " By Jupiter ! Horsey, we shall be over if you don t be very 
 careful." 
 
 "No fear no fear!" said the actor impatiently, as be hiur 
 ried with the passage 
 
 " And to-morrow, and to-morrow, 
 
 Creeps in this petty pace, from day to day, 
 To the last syllable of recorded time; " 
 
416 BOUDKU liKAliLKS. 
 
 Jones, at this recorded time, was constrained to give all his 
 attention to the trim of his boat. 
 
 " And all our yesterdays, " 
 
 Proceeded the actor with the solemn sententiousness, and 
 gloomy moral reflection of the tyrant at this period, when the 
 last evils of life were accumulating about him, making him 
 "sick at heart." He, florsey, was as thoroughly blind to tho 
 vrigglings of the outlaw, as the outlaw was now become indif 
 ferent to the readings of the actor. 
 
 * By G-d !" muttered the former, we shall have a capsize. 
 
 " And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
 
 The way to dusky death. Out, out, brief candle! " 
 
 Here the action of Horsey verified the apprehensions of the 
 outlaw. " That putting out of the candle did the business," 
 said Jones, afterward. 
 
 " Life s but a Phew !" The water rushing into Horsey s 
 
 ears, nose, and mouth at this moment, put an effectual extin 
 guisher upon the sad, moral reflection of Macbeth, and ended 
 the new reading of the much-disputed passage. The boat went 
 over in spite of all the outlaw s efforts to maintain her equilibri 
 um, and Macbeth ended his speech by a puffing, plunging, and 
 blowing, which might have done honor to the wind-bags of a 
 porpoise. 
 
 "Phew ! Jones what the devil s the matter?" was his cry, 
 as he rushed to the top of the muddy river. 
 
 " Out, out, brief candle! " exclaimed Jones, struggling to 
 the banks. " I warned you, Mr. Horsey I warned you several 
 times." 
 
 " Warned me ! How warned me? warned me of what?" 
 
 " Of tilting the boat." 
 
 " The devil you did I never heard you." 
 
 " Life s but a walking shadow, " said Jones, repeating a 
 fragment of the passage ; " but, however shadowy, you ll find 
 A difficult to walk where you are. While you have life for it, 
 Mr. Horsey, you must strike out the water s at least twenty 
 feet over your head." 
 
 " So I find," replied the actor, striking for the shore. With 
 some difficulty he scrambled up the oozy elevations, borrowing 
 
CATASTROPHE OF HAMLKT. 417 
 
 from the liberal banks as he went, a portion of then capital at 
 
 every step. 
 
 "Good G-d, Jones my Hamlet!" exclaimed the unfor 
 tunate histrion, surveying the ruined garment, which had 
 swallowed up so many goodly bales of his father s cotton 
 "My Hamlet a splendid black silk velvet jacket, fly-trunks, 
 and mantle magnificently bugled cost me, at Stubh s, thu-e 
 hundred and sixty dollars and now utterly ruined. D-- 11 
 the boat that 1 should have trusted myself in such a trap ns 
 that !" 
 
 "Don t be angry, my dear fellow," said Jones, with a grin 
 which conveyed very equivocal consolation. " Once under way, 
 and you will soon be able to replace it, I trust. That scheme 
 of ours the Grand Mississippi Shakspereari and Thespian 
 Company " 
 
 "Look you, Mr. Jones, don t^alk to me of schemes. Let s 
 go back where I can get my bags. I must change. I feel like 
 a drowned rat. I m as slimy as an eel. It ll take me a week s 
 washing to get this d d ooze out of my hair." 
 
 " No, no ! not half so long," said the other, " I was once 
 much longer in the mud, and got clean in three days." 
 
 This was said with great gravity. Horsey looked suspiciously 
 upon the speaker, and for the first time, a Intent notion seemed 
 to waken in his mind that he had been quizzed a little ; but, 
 just at this moment, his eyes were attracted to the opposite 
 banks. 
 
 " Gad, Jones, I must hide there are women yonder. Who 
 are they ? " 
 
 The actor stole behind some stunted bushes, from which he 
 peeped out upon the distant cavalcade. 
 
 " That s Brown Bess Bess Yarbers, as I live and that s 
 my Juliet my pretty Mary Clay ton! Eh! Jones, am I not 
 right 1 What the devil do they want here 1" 
 
 " Hush ! Come to join our company, I suspect," replied 
 Jones, with some anxiety in his voice. 
 
 " Gad, I m glad of it," exclaimed the actor, with a delight 
 which made him quite forget the hurts of his Hamlet. ^ That 
 Mary will make the loveliest Juliet, the sweetest Ophelia, tlie 
 dearest Desdemona that ever was smothered when ;b/ should 
 
BOKUEK 
 
 have been kissed. I told Bess to make an actiess of her- 1 
 knew what she could do. It s a great acquisition, Jones. I ll 
 go and meet em." 
 
 "What! in that trim ?" 
 
 "Ah, d n the boat!" was the bitter exclamation of the 
 enthusiastic actor, as, sinking back into his place of conceal 
 ment, he suffered the new-comers to pass from sight, and impa 
 tiently waited the moment when Jones might deem it proper to 
 permit of their return to the encampment. 
 
 The latter busied himself in recovering the boat, which had 
 drifted a mile below, and was only kept from the embraces of 
 the Mississippi by the branches of a fallen tree, among which 
 it got entangled. By dint of swimming and wading, the out 
 law recovered it, and Horsey was with difficulty persuaded to 
 resume his seat in a fabric, in which he could use no action, and 
 accordingly could not speak. ^*To deny him to suit the action 
 to the word, was to make him dumb ; and equally soaked, silent, 
 and sad, the luckless actor suffered himself to be paddled back 
 to the place whence he set forth, only consoled under his mis 
 fortune by the reflection that he should soon see the lovely 
 little damsel in whose sight, it may be said in this place, he had 
 found quite as much, or even more favor, than she had found 
 in his. 
 
JUSTICE IN THE SWAAli-. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 JUSTICE IN THE SWAMP TALL SWEARING MOLE PRACTICE 
 
 " This subtle world, this world 
 Of plots and close conspiracy." SHIRLEY 
 
 BUT Horsey soon found it was no such easy matter to behold 
 this damsel. The course of true love was not permitted to run 
 smooth in his case, any more than in that of Romeo. It was 
 not the policy of Jones to suffer the actor to come in contact 
 with the Yarbers family. He knew the intimacy which already 
 existed between him and Brown Bess; and, as the reader may 
 have seen, the adherence of John Yarbers to the brotherhood, 
 did not imply any attachment of his wife in the same quarter. 
 Awkward revelations, for which the fraternity were not yet 
 prepared, might have resulted from a meeting of that dame 
 with Horsey ; and Jones made his arrangements accordingly to 
 prevent it. 
 
 But Jones could not be everywhere, however ubiquitous may 
 have been his desires ; and Brown Bess, by some means, found 
 out that Horsey was at Cane Castle. She probably had caught 
 a glimpse of him as he emerged from his oozy bath, in the 
 .vaters of the Chitta-Loosa; or, as is equally probable, John 
 Tarbers was partially in the habit of serving two masters. He 
 nay have shared some of the secrets of the beagles, with his 
 larger, if not his better half. How she arrived at her knowl 
 edge, however, is very unimportant to our narrative. It is 
 enough, that, once possessed of this knowledge, all the strate 
 gics of feminine policy were put in exercise to defeat the un 
 charitable designs of Jones. 
 
 It was not a mere female curiosity which Bess sought to 
 gratify in once more desiring to see the actor. Far from it. 
 Othei and more serious desires filled her mind and the evi- 
 
420 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 dent admiration however strangely shown with which 
 Horsey regarded her daughter, had inspired her with the hope 
 of connecting Mary Clayton with better fortunes, and less 
 doubtful family connections, than those to which she had un 
 happily and to do her justice unwittingly bound herself. 
 
 Horsey was a wild chap that she knew; but his heart wnj- 
 in the right place, and he was the son of one of the most RU!I 
 stantial of the small planters in Mississippi. Old John Horsey 
 had what he possessed of property free from debt, and was, 
 therefore, more independent than most of his class. As lie 
 owed nothing, he ha d no favors to ask of the Brandon bank, 
 and could keep back his cotton till a favorable market. Alas ! 
 for Mississippi nay, for half the southwest that his policy 
 had not been more general among the agriculturists of that re 
 gion. The debtor is everywhere at the mercy of his creditors, 
 and we are all debtors. 
 
 But a truce to this ; and, to sum up in brief, Brown Bess con 
 trived to find a way to the actor. There was a moment when 
 the outlaw, to whom Cane Castle was given in charge, during 
 the absence of the master-beagle of the band, was necessarily 
 withdrawn ; and, seizing upon this moment, the persevering 
 dame sought Horsey with success. At this interview, the pool 
 actor was utterly overwhelmed by the tidings which he heard. 
 At first, indignation seized upon him to think how he had been 
 imposed upon and laughed at ; and he was for seeking the out 
 law, and punishing him in the midst of the encampment. But 
 the cooler woman checked these ebullitions of mortified vanity 
 and impatience. She showed him the danger of this proceed 
 ing, and counselled him to a policy as deep and quiet as that ->f 
 the beagles. Under her direction, arrangements were made fur 
 his escape; and, wisely leaving all these to her, our actor, now 
 considerably sobered on the subject of his grand steam coinpain 
 of theatricals, in which the state was expected to subscribe s< 
 largely, was content to play second fiddle for awhile in lhi> 
 political duet. 
 
 Perhaps, he was the more readily reconciled to this inferior 
 position by the presence of a third person, who had been judi 
 ciously provided to appear ;;t the nick of time by the calculating 
 Mrs. Yarbers. This was Ma TV C lav ton. 
 
JUSTICE JN T11E S\VAMi . 421 
 
 the mot ir might have made what arrangements she pleased. 
 That n-*-hing should be wanting to her schemes, she made 
 a way w +h herself after awhile, leaving the two children to 
 gether --the babes in the wood Horsey being as much a 
 ctreamh 3 boy and as full of heart and enthusiasm, as if he 
 never l-*d known any of the world s experience ; and Mary 
 poor Mvy as simple of soul and innocent of mind, as the ad 
 hesive dependent, and docile daughter of Polonius herself. 
 
 It iras strange with what rapidity the moments flew, when 
 these *>wo were left together. There in that deep and quiet 
 wood thickly shaded by the intricate forests, that had never 
 echo i to the dull cleaving blow of the destroying axe on the 
 edge of that dark, mysterious water, and with no sounds in their 
 ears but those which seemed to invite them to mutual sensi- 
 bilii es sounds of birds and insects that hummed beside and 
 abo-re them, without any regular song, and with efforts that 
 see ned to imply wakefulness and not work life, rather than 
 exertion the hearts of the twain, in which the fire had been 
 famed, if not kindled into flame, before, now warmed with a 
 mutual ardor, and gushed freely with the sweet waters of a 
 mutual affection. 
 
 " It will do," \vas the whisper of the mother of the girl, as 
 t? rough the leaves of a copse on one hand, where she had con- 
 c uiled herself, she saw the ardent amateur impress having 
 r ot the fear of Ned Mabry in his eyes his second kiss upon 
 ( ae lips of the trembling and very much frightened damsel ; 
 t,,nd heard his pledges of love and his promises of marriage. 
 l .rhen the old dame contrived to reappear and separate the 
 parties. 
 
 The very day on which Saxon bore away Virginia Wilson to 
 he recesses of Cane Castle, our amcrous actor might have been 
 ;een on old " dot-and-go-one," his father s steed, with Mary 
 "lay ton perched behind him, going as fast as his passions could 
 Irive, and his decrepit steed would permit, in the hope of find- 
 ng a convenient magistrate willing to officiate for love in a 
 turry, after the fashion of the Gretna blacksmith. 
 
 The policy of Dame Bess might be supposed rather censa- 
 .able by the very staid and starched prudes of a irietropolitau 
 ; but let them not bite their thumbs too inveteratelv. The 
 
itili I -OIIDKU 1IKACLKS. 
 
 o!<l lady wa I*PSH*IJS of Lifttin^ licr lovc-lv daughter out of the 
 swamp, and freeing her from that miserable connection with a 
 clnn of robbers, from which, under existing circumstances, she 
 could not free herself. She was anxious to marry her to a man 
 of family and substance, and she knew that she could trust the 
 honor of Horsey, to transact the business of Hymen, according 
 to the state laws on that subject made and provided. She could 
 have wished, it is true, that the affair might have been conducted 
 with more deliberation, and under her own eyes; but as this 
 could not be the case, she was too wise a woman to suffer such 
 matters to stand in the way of primary objects; and, counsel 
 ling the couple how to keep the narrow road on the swamp, 
 which would lead them, by a short ten miles, to Squire Nawls , 
 she sent them off, with a God-speed, to be happy after a fashion 
 that, however constantly practised for six thousand years, has 
 not yet fallen into disuse. 
 
 One incident, which occurred before the departure of Horsey 
 from Cane Castle, should not be unnoted. While yet utterly 
 undreaming of the revelations subsequently made by Brown 
 Bess, and while still perfectly persuaded that he was member 
 only of a brotherhood of Thespians, who, if ignorant, were yet 
 innocent, the enthusiastic amateur found an opportunity of ma 
 king his way to the presence of Florence Marbois. Regarding 
 her as the prima donna, the great gun, the tragic muse of the 
 company, he could not refrain though counselled to beware 
 of the weapon of her husband, whom Jones described as, 
 "worse than a Turk for jealousy" from contriving an inter 
 view with one from whose great powers he promised himself no 
 small support in the personation of his loftier characters. The 
 play at cross-purposes between them which followed this inter 
 view was as mysterious to both, as it would have been ludicrous 
 to a spectator at all aware of their true history. Horsey ad 
 dressed her as Lady Macbeth, or Portia, or Constance, and she 
 replied to him in Rich language as would have suited well the 
 auditories of a conscious knave. The poor actor was utterly 
 confounded, and did not feel at all satisfied with, however much, 
 as an amateur, he might admire, the lofty scorn which looked 
 out from her eyes, and the contemptuous language which rose 
 upon her lips, in reply to all his high-flown speeches. She 
 
JUSTK K IX THK S\V \ Ml -. *^t. 
 
 sooner comprehended liis tmc ]M:sit;i i: th;r,i lie hers. IVin.-ijiS 
 she had some inkling of the truth before. 
 
 " You are mistaken, sir, in me, if not in yourself. You have 
 been imposed upon, and are in a den of thieves, from which 
 you had best escape as soon as possible. Leave me, sir." 
 
 " But, my dear Mrs. Clifford," was the objurgatory opening 
 of the bewildered actor. 
 
 "Clifford! Begone, sir you are mad. I tell you, you are 
 among knaves and thieves. You are gulled, imposed upon. 
 Go home to your parents." 
 
 " Was ever woman in such humor wooed I " 
 
 was the slowly-spoken sentence of Horsey, as the haughty 
 Florence, after this scornful counsel, withdrew from his presence. 
 
 Two hours after this interview, he was made to comprehend 
 its true meaning and the manner in which he had been played 
 upon, by the more painstaking and common-sense personage 
 whom he was about to select as a mother-in-law. It might not 
 have been so easy for her to subdue the wrath which her reve 
 lations excited in his mind, had it not been for her lovely 
 daughter ; and that movement of the maternal tactician which 
 left the two children to their own cogitations. The result of 
 these cogitations we have seen, in the departure of the happy 
 pair, riding double on " dot-and-go-one," in search of the 
 country squire. 
 
 But one thing qualified the otherwise unmixed joy of the 
 actor in this novel situation. It was the necessity of leaving 
 his saddle-bags behind him, with the best of his theatrical 
 wardrobe. This necessity occasioned some serious fears, but 
 the better baggage which filled its place, soon reconciled him 
 to, if it did not make him absolutely forgetful of, his loss. 
 
 Let us now return to Harry Vernon, whom we left, attended 
 by the faithful Jamison and the two constables, on his way to 
 Mr. Justice Nawls, to undergo his examination for the murder 
 of Thomas Horsey, Esquire/ 
 
 The justice was a plain farmer-looking person, very ignorant 
 of books and refinement, but. with some knowledge of men and 
 things, which, on the borders of every country, is by far the 
 better sort of knowledge. He came out of his iiclds, anJ in the 
 
424 HORDE II II EAGLES 
 
 same condition in \vliicli lie used Ins line, l.e t*;ii down to make 
 his examination. He was in his shirt-sleeves, which wore rolled 
 up to the elbow ; his bosom was bare, and none of the cleanest ; 
 and the perspiration, discolored by the dust through which lie 
 had been, stood in dark dots upon his cheeks and forehead. 
 
 What a lecture on American jurisprudence would have been 
 written by that profound spinster. Harriet Martineau, or that 
 profound sea-attorney, Captain Basil Hall, or that social mar 
 tinet, Colonel Hamilton, could they have been present at this 
 examination. Justice Nawls had no need of books, or statutes, 
 or authorities, and still less occasion did he seem to have for 
 tablets and a clerk. The proceedings were summary enough. 
 There were two sly fellows who swore to several suspicious 
 circumstances against our hero. It was proved that Horsey 
 and Vernon were seen together last that the time of their 
 separation was unknown and that, a short time after, poor 
 Horsey was found in the woods bored through with bullets, 
 dirked in sundry places, his ribs literally riddled and laid bare 
 and his bloody coat and breeches were finally produced in 
 damning confirmation of this tragedy. 
 
 Such was the testimony of Augustus Mortimer and Edward 
 Montmorenci. The alias of a rogue is usually a very ear- 
 taking concatenation of syllables ; and, par parenthese, what an 
 adroit rascal is Davy Hines, the celebrated South Carolina 
 swindler (all rascals are celebrated in North America, while 
 great statesmen, orators, poets, and actors, are simply notorious), 
 in the selection of his temporary iwin Je guerre. He is for the 
 nonce, an Allston, a Hamilton, a Hutledge, a Beikely, a Single 
 ton, or a Livingston. Sometimes he condescends to be a 
 Hayne, or a Benton, and he has even been known, on trending 
 farther east, to contract himself into a Webster or an Adams. 
 
 Colonel Augustus Mortimer swore with singular precision 
 and confidence, and Major Marcus Montmorenci followed him 
 Vernon examined these two worthies with the utmost care and 
 vigilance, but they were as impenetrable as they had shown 
 themselves incorrigible. They just swore to enough to place 
 the offence at his door, without committing themselves by the 
 positive asseveration that they had seen him do it. They were 
 old practitioners, in one form or other, in half the courts of 
 
JUSTICE IN THK SWAMP. 4 2o 
 
 Mississippi ami knew all the quirks of justice, however little 
 they might have really cared about itb piii.dplcs. 
 
 Poor Vcrnoii was in a quandary. He saw that Squire Nawls 
 could do no less than commit him, on the strength of" the testi 
 mony offered ; and though this testimony fell short of convicting 
 him of the offence, he yet could not but feel that the refined 
 rascals whose deposition had been just taken, had wrought 
 him some very troublesome meshes, from which it would not be 
 so easy to extricate himself upon trial. Still the awkwardness, 
 if not the danger, of his own situation troubled him less than 
 his particular arrest at such a moment. There was the affair 
 of Carter, his friend, which he was anxious to bring to a con 
 clusion which might save him as well as the miserable father of 
 the very lovely Virginia. And she just won, and so soon 
 lost. Ah ! reader, if you have a heart at all, and have not 
 forgotten all the love-passages of your boyhood s days, think 
 of the thousand privations involved in that separation. 
 
 If Vernon was annoyed, poor Jamison, his Alabama friend, 
 was utterly confounded at the aspect of his affairs. Unwilling 
 to believe tlie youth guilty, for whom he had taken a liking as 
 extreme as sudden, he was yet staggered by the closeness of the 
 testimony against him the nice linking together of the circum 
 stances as declared by the joint evidence of Messrs. Mortimer 
 and Mortrnorenci, and the grave, deliberate, and very genteel 
 appearance of those worthy witnesses. It was in vain that he 
 added to the cross-examination of Vernon, as many questions 
 as, in his sagacity, he thought might be instrumental in bringing 
 out a difference in their statements. His efforts were more 
 perplexing to himself than to the witnesses, and with a groan 
 that came from the bottom of his heart, and was almost a growl, 
 he gave up all further attempts at examination. So, also, did 
 Vernon himself, and Justice Nawls proceeded to write out and 
 sign the commitment of the prisoner, for further and final trial 
 a manual performance, not so easy to one whose skill in pen 
 manship was of that " d d cramp" sort, which bothered 
 
 Tony Lumpkin. 
 
 The deed was done, however, and the constables were just 
 beginning to bustle about for the resumption of their charge, in 
 conveying Vernon to prison, when a hubbub was heard without 
 
4^0 BORDER iii-;.\;i.i . 
 
 and the accents of a voice which, to the oar of our hero, seemed 
 no less sweet than familiar. 
 
 " Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer," 
 cried one from without. 
 
 " By heavens !" exclaimed Harry Vernon, " that is Mr. Hor 
 sey himself." 
 
 " So it is, Harry, my boy," cried the actor, rushing in and 
 bearing on his arm the shrinking form of the half-affrighted 
 Mary Clayton, whose cheeks, glowing with the deepest tints of 
 the carnation, betrayed the mingled effects of a ten-mile ride 
 with her lover, and the not unpleasant novelty which she felt to 
 exist in such a situation. 
 
 "Who else but Horsey," exclaimed the delighted actor 
 " who but the young Lochinvar," and he concluded by singing 
 a stanza from the popular song of that name, by which he 
 communicated the tenor of his love-adventure, and the reason 
 of his appearance with his fair companion. 
 
 " They ll have fleet steeds that follow, Harry, my boy," he 
 continued, " though, truth to speak, had they started as soon on 
 the chase of old Bowline, as they did after Lochinvar, Tom 
 Plorsey would have won no bride to-day. You recollect my 
 little Juliet, Harry? Mary Clayton? Come forward, Mary 
 don t be shy don t be scary it s Mr. Vernon, that came with 
 me to your house Mr. Harry Vernon; and there s the squire 
 that s to make us man and wife and these gentlemen, why I 
 take it, they re all friends to a frolic and a good fellow, when 
 he s about to go off, like a comedy, in a happy ending." 
 
 " Mr. Horsey, I was never more rejoiced to see any one in 
 my life, than I am to see you," said Vernon. " You ve come 
 at the most providential moment for my safety." 
 
 "Your safety!" 
 
 "Yes I am here before the magistrate charged with mur 
 dering you." 
 
 " The devil you say !" 
 
 "However strange, it is no less than truth. Squire Nawls, 
 let me introduce to you my friend, Mr. Thomas Horsey, of 
 Raymond, the gentleman with whom I travelled, and whom I 
 stand suspected of having killed. You see that as he is alive 
 I can not have murdered him." 
 
JUSTICE IN THE SWAMP. 427 
 
 Squire Nawls looked bewildered, and turned inquisitively to 
 Messrs Mortimer and Montmorenci. An incredulous and sar 
 castic smile sat upon the countenance of the first named of these 
 gentlemen. A brief pause followed. 
 
 " You see, gentlemen," continued Vernon, turning to them 
 also, " that the body which you found and buried was that of 
 some other person, and the clothes which you have shown " 
 
 w Were those of Mr. Thomas Horsey, and no other," said Mr 
 Augustus Mortimer, with the utmost coolness, and a quiet, im 
 perturbable composure, that absolutely shocked the Alabamian, 
 whom the promise of a change in the color of Vernon s fortunes 
 had provoked to a shouting, cheering, and dancing, which, for 
 several moments, utterly banished silence and slat el in ess from 
 the hall of justice. 
 
 " That is not Mr. Thomas Horsey," continued Mr. Mortimer ; 
 " we buried the poor young gentleman with our own hands. 
 Did we not, major ?" 
 
 Major Montmorenci confirmed this statement, by a conclusive 
 nod to Justice Nawls. 
 
 " The devil you did !" exclaimed Horsey, utterly aghast with 
 the reckless hardihood with which the lie was spoken. 
 
 " Yes, poor fellow ! he lies in the wood, a little way beyond 
 the lower fork that leads to the two ferries." 
 
 " The devil he does !" continued the actor, with increasing 
 astonishment, as he listened to the manner in which his body 
 /as disposed of. 
 
 " Yes, we can show you the grave at any moment. We cut 
 i . name, T. IT., with the year, in the bark of a beech that 
 ^auds over the spot." 
 
 " You were very good," said Horsey. 
 
 " No, no, not at all ; it was only common charity !" 
 
 " Pray, my good fellow," said Horsey, dropping the arm of 
 Mary Clinton, and crossing over to where Mr. Augustus Morti 
 mer stood, on the left hand of Justice Nawls, and looking him 
 in the face with as much curiosity as astonishment "pray, 
 my good fellow, who may you be what may be your name] 
 I am, in truth, very anxious to know." 
 
 "Augustus Mortimer, Esq.," was the calm reply, "son of the 
 
428 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 Hon. Bannister Mortimer, judge of the United States district- 
 court, in West Tennessee." 
 
 "You are, are you? and yon, sir" to the other witness 
 "pray, oblige me with your name and connections?" 
 
 The answer was equally prompt and civil. 
 
 " Major Marcus Montmorenci, last from Virginia, a late set 
 tler in the Choctaw purchase." 
 
 " And you are sure, gentlemen, that you buried Thomas 
 Horsey, of Raymond, under a beech-tree on the lower road to 
 the ferry, and it was over his body that you were good enough 
 to mark T. H., with the year perhaps you put a death s-head 
 and cross-bones above the inscription?" 
 
 " No, sir, we put nothing but the initials, and the year ; and 
 we did not cut them as well or deeply as we could have wished, 
 owing to the dullness of our knives," said Mr. Mortimer. 
 
 " And you are sure that it is my body that is, the body of 
 Tom Horsey that you so charitably put from sight in that 
 place ?" 
 
 " Very certain." 
 
 " How do you know that ?" 
 
 " Oh, my dear sir, these questions are very unnecessary and 
 your manner is somewhat offensive. When I tell you, that my 
 poor friend. Tom Horsey, was seldom out of my sight and com 
 pany for a spell of four years at. least, that we lived together, 
 travelled together, and slept together at different and long peri 
 ods, you certainly can t doubt that I ought to know him." 
 
 " And you, sir, have been equally intimate ?" 
 
 "Equally," said the more sententious Montmorenci. 
 
 It would be difficult to describe the expression of Horsey s 
 face, as he hearkened to these cool asseverations, and marked 
 the stolid composure of the two. 
 
 " Really, gentlemen, you must excuse me, if I ask a few more 
 questions. The Horsey, who is dead, and whom you buried 
 did he look anything like me? There is some mistake 
 some deception in this, Squire Justice which I must find 
 out." 
 
 " Nothing," said Mortimer. 
 
 " Nothing," said Montmorenci. 
 
 "And yet," said the former, looking- at Montmorenci, with a 
 
JUSTICE IN THE SWA Mr. 429 
 
 grave inquisitiveness, "don t you think there is something in 
 this gentleman s chin that looks like poor Tom s "I" 
 
 " Why, yes there is a something a 
 
 "A sort of split a " 
 
 " There s no split in my chin, gentlemen," exclaimed Hor 
 sey, stroking the misrepresented member "it s as smooth and 
 round as any chin in company." 
 
 " Oh, sir, we don t mean to say that they re alike but there 
 was a something " 
 
 "Yes, only a something that is, they were both chins," said 
 Horsey; "for that matter, don t you think that we had other 
 features in common ? How about eyes, nose, head, and hair ? 
 pray, gentlemen, oblige me, by answering closely. The 
 question is important, I assure you." 
 
 " Well, now, sir, to speak plainly, you are nothing like our 
 poor friend, Tom Horsey. Tom, though an excellent fellow as 
 ever lived, was monstrous ugly; now, if I were asked my opin 
 ion, I should say you are a very good-looking sort of person." 
 
 " Indeed ! I thank you so Tom Horsey was ugly, was lie ? 
 Squire Nawls, do me the favor to marry me with Mary here, 
 at once, and while I have some remaining confidence in my own 
 identity. If I talk much longer with these rascals, I shall begin 
 to look upon Tom Horsey as a dead man. I suppose, if she 
 takes me as Tom Horsey, you can have no objection to give me 
 that name till the ceremony s over; and, after that, it s just 
 what you please about the trial. Harry Vernon, don t think I 
 am indifferent to your concerns, my boy ; but Mary s here 
 alone with me a sort of runaway match you see, though we 
 have the mother s consent and I sha n t be easy any more 
 than bersdTf, till she has a lawful right to look to me, and I 
 have my lawful rights as well as herself. There may be an 
 other Tom Horsey, but I don t believe it, and I know he can t 
 be Tom of Raymond. Those breeches and that coat are mine, 
 though how they came so bloody and holy is past my telling, 
 They were stolen from me in the Big Black swamp, as the 
 newspapers say, by some scoundrel or scoundrels unknown. 
 I don t say you stole em, Colonel .Vortiiner, or you, Major 
 Montmorenci, but 1 intend to make you show how you got em. 
 if there s any justice in Mississippi. 1 
 
j: : H> BOKOKH I;K.U,L::- 
 
 The answer of those worthies was wad* in high head .and 
 with some show of valor and defiance; but this Horsey, whose 
 regards were chiefly given to Mary Clayton, at this moment, did 
 r.ot seem to heed. 
 
 "All in good time, gentlemen," he said, " after the ceremony s 
 over. I invite you to remain till then ; though, in your ear, 
 let me tell you, I look on you to be as arrant a pair of liars as 
 ever wagged a Munchausen." 
 
 Squire Nawls was better skilled in that department of his 
 business for which Horsey demanded his present aid, than in 
 any other of its requisitions. He saw no reasonable objection 
 to giving the actor a wife as Thomas Horsey, though-, in the 
 next moment, he refused his own evidence as such, to prove 
 himself alive. No assertions that he could make, no proofs that 
 he could offer, could impair the positive and sweeping testimony 
 of the two witnesses, or disturb the settled decision which the 
 justice had made before he came ; and, in equal fury, the actor 
 and the Alabamian listened to the regrets with which he sought 
 to mollify his resolve, to commit the supposed murderer of Tom 
 Horsey to prison. Before Nawls came to this conclusion, how- 
 cver for the dull country-justice had been somewhat con 
 founded by the contretemps of the dead man s reappearance 
 he was compelled to retire in private conference with Mr. 
 Augustus Mortimer, a minute s talk with whom wae quite 
 enough to set him on his legs. 
 
 " Let him be Tom Horsey, or the d 1, it matters nothing to 
 you. You have the evidence of two witnesses that Horsey is 
 dead, and you might go farther and arrest this fellow as an im 
 postor. Though we ve no instruction to do so, yet it might lie 
 good service to the beagles. Your account is easily squared 
 with the state s attorney there s the proof on which you com 
 mitted Vernon to prison, and that s enough. Send him en his 
 way, and let Cane Castle do the rest. I ll engage you novel 
 hear of him again from that quarter." 
 
 The commitment of Vernon was accordingly made out and 
 delivered to the two emissaries of Saxon, in whose custody he 
 had been left before. They had their instructions as well as 
 Nawls, and they knew if ho did not, that the unfortunate youth 
 was reserved for the sacrifice by those whose secret haunts he 
 
JUSTICE l.N 
 
 was supposed to have invaded as a spy, and whose practices of 
 crime he had been commissioned to arrest and punish. 
 
 Meanwhile, the keen, searching mind of Vernon had discovered 
 the true circumstances and secret of those difficulties by which 
 he was involved. While he was under the impression that Hor 
 sey had really been murdered, he had little cause to think him 
 self the object of an organized plan of injustice or detention. 
 But the reappearance of the actor, and the revelations which 
 he made during the random dialogue which took place on the 
 examination, together with the fact that his clothes had been 
 stolen, mutilated, and made bloody, were circumstances of suf 
 ficient strength to open the eyes of the lawyer to the whole 
 hidden truth. 
 
 The conviction that he was singled out as a victim, and that 
 the persons around hfcn were mostly parties to the conspiracy, 
 strongly impressed him with the necessity of being as cautious, 
 yet seeming as little suspicious as possible. A look, and the 
 significant application of his finger to his lips, at a moment 
 when Horsey was about to blurt out in public the whole bur 
 den of his discoveries in the swamp, fortunately served to 
 check the torrent of his speech, and to impose upon him the 
 necessity of a caution like that of Vernon, whose composure 
 had seemed in his eyes very much like the most unmanly tame- 
 ness. When the resolve of the magistrate was made kncnvn, 
 Vernon remarked quietly, without any show af anger or sus 
 picion to the justice : 
 
 "I can not blame you, sir as a lawyer, I should, perhaps, 
 say that you have done nothing but your duty. There is evi 
 dently some mistake in this business; for this I know to be 
 Mr. Thomas Horsey from Raymond, who was the only travel 
 ling companion I had from that place. Still, these gentlemen, 
 who have given their evidence, may know another of the same 
 name, who has unfortunately been murdered as they state. I 
 do not gainsay their assertions I only declare my innocence 
 of the crime. Still, sir, you are not to know that, and could 
 only do as you have done. One privilege, however, I must 
 pray to be allowed that of writing to my friends in Raymond 
 and elsewhere, for the necessary evidence to prove my inno 
 cence and the identity of this gentleman. If you will suffer me 
 
432 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 to have a brief private conference with my t\vo friends here, 
 Mr. Horsey and Mr. Jamison, I will provide them with direc 
 tions for seeing to this business, and procuring all the necessary 
 proofs." 
 
 This small favor could not well be denied to a man in such 
 an emergency. The calm, respectful deportment of the pris 
 oner, his forbearance to hint or even look any of the suspicions 
 which he really felt, deceived the witnesses as well as the jus 
 tice. Looking upon it as certain that any evidence which he 
 might procure from Raymond would come too late to affect a 
 trial which was to take place in Cane Castle, and to be as sum 
 mary as it was certain to be secret Mr. Augustus Mortimer, 
 to whom Squire Nawls was wont to refer privately in all cases 
 of especial doubt, recommended that his prayer be granted. 
 
 " It will be getting these fellows, Jamison and Horsey, out of 
 the way they might be troublesome and before they get 
 back with their witnesses, Cane Castle will have done his busi 
 ness beyond any Horsey s undoing. Let em talk together." 
 
 " And what are we to do for you, Harry Vernon ?" demanded 
 Horsey, the moment they reached the little chamber to which 
 the courtesy of the justice had permitted them to retire. " Say 
 the word, and I m for you, 
 
 " To the last gasp, with truth and loyalty. " 
 
 In less classical style and language the Alabamian made * 
 like offer of his services and sinews. 
 
 " You shall say yourselves what you shall do for me, when I 
 tell you how I stand," said Vernon. " I am in the hands of 
 outlaws the witnesses who swore against me are outlaws, the 
 constables who guard me are outlaws, and the justice who com 
 mits me is their creature." 
 
 After this startling preliminary, Vernon proceeded to classify 
 those details of facts those floating circumstances, which, 
 picked up from sundry quarters, formed the groundwork of the 
 faith that was in him. 
 
 " And knowing this, you took it 30 patiently," was the joint 
 exclamation of Horsey and the Alabamian. 
 
 " Had my passions been suffered to play as freely as yours, 
 Horsey, Squire Nawls would never have permitted me this 
 
JUDICIOUS USE OP PERQUISSIOXS. 433 
 
 interview. B.it, stay, i do not hear their footsteps below 
 they have ceased walking they are watchful. Not a word 
 now above your breath, gentlemen, for it is now doubly import 
 ant that we should be secret as the grave. Now, then, hear me. 
 You are both strong men, and, I am sure, as fearless as you arc 
 strong. I claim your help in a matter, which, were it youi 
 case, should freely command rny own. You must help to rescue 
 me from the clutches of these fellows." 
 
 The hands of the two were instantly clasped in frank arc) 
 manly assurance upon that of the speaker. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 JUDICIOUS USE OF PKRQUISSIONS HOW TO CURRY A SHOPT 
 
 HORSE ECONOMICAL USE OF GREEN MOSS. 
 
 "Come, my good fellow, put thine iron on: 
 If fortune be not ours to-day, it is 
 Because we brave her." SHAKSPER& 
 
 THE reader must not, however, suppose that our three friends 
 concluded their conference with this vague determination 
 Vernon was too good a politician, too keen a lawyer, not to 
 see that, left to their own judgments, Dick Jamison might lose 
 the game by his rashness, and Horsey by his frivolity. Their 
 dialogue, which was somewhat further protracted, was carefully 
 given, on the part of the former, to a consideration of the diffi 
 culties surrounding him ; and to the necessary steps which were 
 to be taken by the two in effecting his rescue. 
 
 It does not need that we should report these directions in this 
 place, but leave to time, which usually ripens all projects, even 
 those which events baffle, to bring about its natural results in 
 this case as in all others. It will suffice to say that the manner 
 in which Vernon carried their minds forward, step by step, with 
 his, confirmed in him that tacit superiority which, from the first, 
 neither of them had seemed willing to dispute. If Jamison 
 regarded him as a fine fellow before, he now looked him as a 
 
j-i- BDi. DEK BI;AGJ,ES. 
 
 " miglity wise one ;" and the importance and dignity of the ne^v 
 offices, put so suddenly on his hands, seemed to elevate the 
 mind of our actor in his own estimation. He had never been 
 much trusted with matters of importance before ; and the idea 
 seemed suddenly, though, perhaps, imperfectly, to open upon 
 him ; that, after all, Mr. Aristophanes Bull was not so great a 
 booby, when he denounced tragedies as not - ser ous things ;" 
 certainly, the new task before him of getting- Veinon out of his 
 present hobbles, seemed the most serious business of any to 
 which he had ever yet set his hand. Not that Horsey had any 
 scruples or apprehensions. There was no better pluck in Mis 
 sissippi than that of our amateur. But he had just entered 
 upon a new and exquisitely-delicate condition. He had just 
 formed a new and responsible relationship in life; and when he 
 heard from Vernon that there was no doubt that he should be 
 hurried off that very evening on his way to prison, and that 
 any attempt to rescue him, to be successful, must be made that 
 very night, he could only exclaim with a tribulation in his 
 accents and countenance, which compelled the smile to the lips 
 of his two companions : 
 
 " But, dear me, Harry Vernon, what the deuse am J td do 
 with Mary ?" 
 
 Vernon had not been inconsiderate on this subject. He had 
 prepared himself to meet this difficulty, and by his counsel, 
 Horsey was persuaded to make application to Squire Nawls for 
 a temporary lodging for his new wife, until he could procure 
 facilities for conveying her home to Raymond. This pretext 
 enabled him to set forth that very evening, and simultaneously 
 with the departure of Vernon under his guard, as if for Luc- 
 chesa, where he proposed to find a horse and side-saddle on 
 sale. 
 
 Nawls, after some moderate objections, was persuaded by a 
 week s board paid in advance, and the honeyed arguments of 
 the young husband, to accede to the proposed arrangement ; 
 and this matter settled, love consented to waive all further 
 objections to the quasi warfare which implored his assistance. 
 
 Vernon communicated to both his companions the knowledge 
 which he had acquired from his intimacy with Walter Rawlmi 
 and the methodist Badger. To the former he recommended 
 
JUDICJUU& U.iL ui- i KKgUlSr-lOXS. -^; 
 
 thorn in the event of their failure to rescue him. As a sanction 
 for their own proceedings, in a business which promised to in 
 volve a great deal that was extra-judicial, he drew from his 
 bosom the envelope which originally contained the blank corn- 
 missions of the governor, intending to fill the blanks with their 
 names, and thus furnish an authority which would not only 
 assist them in commanding means for acting against the outlaws, 
 but sustain them in their use. He now, for the first time, dis 
 covered the robbery that had taken place upon his person a 
 robbery which he could only ascribe to the practised and adroit 
 hands of Saxon, performed while he was insensible. 
 
 A bitter smile passed over the lips of the youth as he made 
 this discovery, and traced, with rapid thought, the connection 
 of event with event, and agent with agent, all co-operating to 
 the same end his entanglement in present intricacies. But 
 the resolution of Vernon, his sanguine temper, and great self- 
 confidence, conspired to make him still -hopeful even against the 
 large odds in favor of the beagle confederacy. Having satisfied 
 himself, to his great relief, that the other packet, which con 
 tained the papers of Carter, remained in its original integrity, 
 he determined still to keep it in his possession ; as it was now 
 fair to assume that the outlaw, convinced that he had obtained 
 all that was hidden, and that he had found a sufficient clue to 
 the progress of Vernon, would never dream of looking ir* the 
 same place for a second deposite. 
 
 With this conviction, he ceased to feel the loss of the one 
 packet as a very serious evil. That packet involved none of 
 his confederates none of his friends. He alone was singled 
 out as the victim, and, bating the loss of the commissions, 
 which might be perverted to evil use by the outlaw, the utmost 
 extent of his misfortune was already known in his own capture, 
 and threatened imprisonment, if not murder. 
 
 Vernon was not insensible to the risk he incurred among the 
 outlaws, as one whose supposed endeavor had been to expose 
 their haunts, detect their doings, and entrap their persons. He 
 felt that, should his two allies fail him at the fortunate moment, 
 his blood would probably be poured out in some lone swamp 
 fatness, while his mangled body would be left uncovered to 
 yield a midnight repast to the gaunt and famished wolves, that 
 
436 
 
 BORDER IJKAGLES. 
 
 traversed, at that period, the savage and uncultivated bills of 
 the Choctaw purchase. 
 
 These were annoying convictions, but Harry Vernon was a 
 man. He spoke none of his apprehensions, and contenting 
 himself with obtaining from Horsey all that he knew, had seen, 
 or beard, while in Cane Castle and with renewing his instruc 
 tions on all matters which he deemed essential to the successful 
 prosecution of their adventure; he presented himself to the 
 officers, and declared his readiness to go with them. He had 
 clone all that it was in the power of man to do at that moment 
 he bad exercised the closest judgment of which his mind 
 was capable, uninfluenced by his own feelings, and the con 
 sciousness of danger, of which he could not entirely divest 
 himself; and with a cheerful manner, and a resolute spirit, he 
 left the rest to the courage and conduct of his friends, under the 
 crowning favor of Providence. 
 
 These did not desert him. Though neither of them very 
 wise men, or solid counsellors, Horsey and Jamison were yet 
 men of great nerve and composure; strong, as we have shown, of 
 limb, and of undoubted energy and spirit. In their plans and 
 schemes, alone, was it likely that they might fail ; and in these 
 respects, the forethought of Vernon had taken every precaution 
 and made every arrangement that might be done by him under 
 existing circumstances. His directions, which contemplated 
 even the particulars of the scuffle, with his robber-guardians, 
 the time, the manner, and the probable place, were ample, if 
 not copious. But little more was needed, than that their objects 
 and course should be unsuspected, that their horses should bring 
 them to the season, and their hearts not fail them in the trying 
 moment, Of course, it was the assumption of all parties at the 
 outset, that the strife was to take place with the two outlaws, 
 and those only, who had served as officers of justice from the 
 beginning. 
 
 One little difficulty, however, started into sight before the) 
 left the presence of the magistrate, and made Vernon tremble, 
 for an instant, in doubt of all his schemes. The sturdy rogues, 
 his captors, having no more to say in respect to himself, were 
 disposed to annoy his friend Jamison, because of his interposi 
 tion at Lncchcsa in cutting the cord* " h ch bound their victim 
 
JUDICIOUS US!-; OF i%lQUUSfOtt, 437 
 
 an act -which they had thru called a rescue. jn>d which they 
 were still disposed to consider so. They had probably consulted 
 with Nawls on the subject, while Vcrrion and his comrades were 
 planning his rescue in fact; and, with the sober confidence of 
 veteran knaves, they were resolved to extort a reasonable 
 amount of hush-money from the sturdy Alabamian, while in 
 presence of the justice. 
 
 But Jamison s blood, which had been with difficulty restrained 
 by the counsels of Vernon, and the obvious necessity of preser 
 ving a large degree of temperance in consideration of his friend s 
 predicament, fired up at. the first motion of the rogues. Know 
 ing them, as he now did, to be the most impudent pretenders to 
 official sanction, it was with no small difficulty that he restrained 
 himself from declaring aloud all that he knew, ami pouring forth 
 all that he felt. With all his attempts at moderation, his speech 
 was certainly of a character to show but a very limited degree 
 of success in attaining that which he sought. 
 
 " Look ye, judge," said he, " these niggers ought to be licked 
 for tying a free white man as they did. I m the man to lick 
 em ; let em give me the littlest eend of an opportunity. I was 
 a-thinking to bring it afore you myself, because I m hopeful 
 there s something in the law-books to make ; em sweat for 
 roping a white man, the same as if he was an in^in 01 a nigger; 
 and, if there ain t, there ought to be, and our rip? can t put it 
 there a bit too soon. I did take out my bowie-knife, list as 
 they say, but twan t to trouble them ; though, Lord bless you ! 
 twouldn t ha been so hard a matter neither, to cut em u|- 
 mighty small as they run ; but, as I don t altogether like to use, 
 a man s weapon upon a chap that shows me nothing but his 
 back, I had no more thought of troubling them with it, than I 
 have of troubling you. I used the knife only to cut Joose the 
 rope; and all that was wrong in that business, was in using ,t 
 weapon that was bigger than was needful, and that made two 
 big men so shameful scary. As for resting me for that, squire, 
 why, all that I can say, twon t do for them to try it, while 1 vo 
 got the same knife yet, and to the back of it a couple of pair i / 
 such bull-mouthed biters as these here pcrqvissions. You ve 
 seen the new perquission-o-uns, squire ? Well, these pistol* are 
 after the same fashion. IJWf. s four of them, and they re a wing 
 
488 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 or two quicker in the shot than any race-lightning. One pail 
 of these pistols, and this here knife, belongs to Mr. Vornon there 
 
 and I ll, take care of them for him till he gets out of jail. 
 I ll drop the rammer down their throats, and you ll see they 
 all have their bellies full of bullets Now, I m a peaceable 
 man, squire, for one that s so well prepared for war ; but, if I 
 was twice as peaceable, and only half so well off in perquission.s 
 if you was to say the word for these chaps to rest me, which 1 
 know you can t do as a gentleman and a righteous justice 
 why, I ve only to turn one of these perquissions round about 
 among the company now here on this one, and now on that 
 
 and as there s no taking aim in such a promisc us business, 
 particularly with these mighty quick perquissions, I m almost 
 afraid to say, squire, how much risk you d run yourself; though 
 I m hopeful the bullet s far off that ll ever trouble you. Twon t 
 he such a death, squire, as I d have you die of. As for these 
 
 look at em, squire, how they dodge look at em, Harry 
 Vernon ! Ha ! ha ! ha ! That s jist the way they were scared 
 at Lucchesa jist the way exactly ; they dodged when there 
 was no sort of call upon em for it. Lord love you ! my lade, if 
 it makes you so squammish when I only p int the thing at you, 
 it would make you deathly sick, when I come in {irnest. 
 Squire, let me go home to my business in a civil manner, and 
 don t listen to these re-diculous fellows. I ve done for Vernor 
 all that I reasonably could ; and, by the hocus, I ll be at court 
 when his trial comes on, and if it s the last picayune in the 
 pocket of Dick Jamison, or the last blood in his heart, it shall 
 go to help him out of his troubles. If I hear you say, I m not 
 to be rested about this business, well, I ll be off at once, 1 before 
 night, for Lucchesa. If I m to be rested for cutting loose a free 
 white man, that was tied up wrongfully, say it as soon, and let s 
 see the eend of it at once. P int your finger now which way 
 you please, and I m ready, any side. If it s civility, well, I nr 
 all civility if it s for a close hug, tooth and timber, win 
 there s not a bear in Loosa-Chitta, that ll come to the scratcl 
 with rougher arms than Dick Jamison." 
 
 This interruption consumed some time ; and long speedier 
 for which the western wanderers are rather famous, were ns fir 
 quent and as fine, after a fashion, as half of those listened to with 
 
JUDICIOUS USE OF PEltgiJLssjo.v-. 439 
 
 go mucli patience by the nation part icu];;ily as they Lave CO 
 pay for them at every session of Congress. Vernon con 
 firmed the simple statement of Jamison, and insisted that all the 
 violence shown on the occasion was no more than was required 
 to separate the bonds of a prisoner, who made no attempt, to 
 escape, and professed his willingness to go freely with the officers. 
 True, this was a rescue in legal acceptation, hut, under the 
 circumstances, not such a one as would render a prosecution 
 necessary ; and Vernon contended for the point the more 
 readily, as he could perceive that the justice desired nothing 
 more than a loophole by which to escape from the necessity of 
 taking steps against a man who had avowed such levelling 
 principles we had almost written pistols. The pistols, in 
 deed, were the principles ; and no effect could have been more 
 ludicrous than that which Jamison produced upon the company, 
 justice and officers, as with a huge pistol in each hand, both of 
 which he cocked, he made their muzzles describe a slow circuit 
 round the apartment, allowing them to rest for a few awkward 
 seconds whenever the line of sight Avas brought up to the face 
 of one of the opposite faction. The constables dodged with 
 little shame or scruple on such occasions; and the very justice, 
 it is painful to add, though he did not allow his limbs to yield 
 to such a discreditable weakness, could not keep his eyes from 
 winking with singular frequency; and his cheeks the Ala- 
 bamian remarked afterward, with a singular show of satisfac 
 tion grew whiter than any clabber that he ever saw or swal 
 lowed. The affair was compromised by the justice bestowing a 
 reproof upon the offender, to which lie submitted with the in 
 difference of one who rightly estimated its value. 
 
 " You ve got to say it, squire," said he, " it s your business, 
 and you can t help it, and that s the reason I let it pass and nav 
 nothing. But, look you, Squire Nawls, if you wa n t a justice, 
 but jist a common man, I d ha been on top of you, and through 
 you, afore you d a half-finished what you ve been saying. If 
 there s any one thing in this woild that I never could like, it s 
 when I m found fault with, jist at a time when I know that I m 
 doing the very thing that s right and then to be spoke to on 
 behalf of such a couple of small-souled sappv-sticks as these-- 
 Griin! it makes me all bristles. I feel wnify in twenty piari-^. 
 
440 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 nnd clang; my buttons, jti tlrc, if the tiling was to be done ovei 
 agin, tvvouldn t be the rope only that my kuii o would slit if 
 I wouldn t cut a juglar or two, there s no snakes in all Alabam." 
 
 It was with a feeling of relief that Nawls and his two emis 
 Garies beheld this sturdy democrat take his departure. ITe set 
 out as if for Lucchesa, accompanied by the amateur, whose part 
 ing with his young wife was equally dramatic and characteristic* 
 thoagh still full of genuine feeling. Resolved on having, in this 
 Border chronicle, as little of the lachrymose mood as possible, 
 we refrain from the tears and tenderness shown on the occasion. 
 Our readers of the gentler sex, will please suppose that the omis 
 sion is ours only ; had they seen the happy couple at the part 
 ing moment had they heard the low but passionate tones and 
 sweet assurances of Horsey, and witnessed the embrace, and 
 seen the face of Mary buried in his bosom, and hearkened to 
 her half-suppressed sobs, which spoke of hope and joy rather 
 than any other emotion they would have seen that there was 
 no love lacking between the two in this early stage of their 
 matrimonial felicity. Love, however domestic love in par 
 ticular is proverbially a thing of short stages; and the sun 
 which is warm and bright to-day, may be under a very ugly 
 cloud to-morrow ; but this is none of our business " sufficient 
 for the day is the evil thereof." 
 
 Vernon saw his friends depart with some anxiety. His own 
 movements, under the guardianship of the tenacious constables, 
 followed soon after. The evening shades were thickening as 
 the party set forth, and grave thoughts become gloomy ones in 
 the twilight hour. Those of our hero were sad ones, at least, 
 and they restrained his natural vivacity of temper, if they did 
 not subdue and dispirit him. He was without arms, without 
 present friends or succor accused of crime, and at the mercy 
 of criminals. The increasing gloom of the forest, as they ad 
 vanced upon their way, served to increase the cheerlessness of 
 his situation, and to give an oppressive weight to those doubts 
 which necessarily came with his very hopes and anxieties. 
 Horsey and Jamison were brave but might they not miss the 
 route taken by the outlaw might they not fail at the proper 
 moment ? Precipitation might be worse than halting appre 
 hension, and the very levity of the former, with the rough and 
 
GOING TO PRISON. 441 
 
 ready boldness of the latter, might serve to defeat the plans of 
 the most deliberate and thoughtful. To a man of mind, there is 
 nothing so productive of annoying doubts, as the dependence 
 upon mere muscle. 
 
 v ernon turned for some sort of relief to his attendants. It 
 was advisable to disarm their watchfulness, and. if possible, t* 
 impress them with the conviction that no kind of doubt of their 
 professed character had as yet risen in his mind. To seem tr 
 rely upon them, as peace-officers of the country, was the most 
 effectual way to assure them, that he was perfectly resigned to 
 their custody, He, whom they well knew, was guilty of no 
 crime, had nothing to apprehend from the awards of justice ; and 
 the mere temporary detention of his person, however troublesome 
 and unpleasant, was not so great an evil as to make it likely 
 that lie would incur those risks to avoid it, which would inevi 
 tably follow any violent attempt to shake it off. It was no 
 hard matter to engage them in easy conversation ; and having 
 paved the way for a familiar chit-chat by some good-natured 
 commonplaces, Vernon proceeded to carry out his design in 
 the way that he calculated would be most likely to effect it. 
 He inquired of them, what they knew of the two men who 
 furnished the evidence against him ; and when as he expected 
 they denied all knowledge of the witnesses, he boldly assured 
 them, that they had sworn to utter falsehoods. 
 
 " There can be no sort of doubt," he said, " that Mr. Horsey 
 is alive ; and that is he, who came in so unexpectedly, when 
 the case was going on. I never knew any other Horsey, save 
 his father, in my life ; and I am now convinced, that these two 
 persons have uttered what they know to be untrue; and if they 
 dare come to the trial, I shall convict them of a base conspiracy 
 against my life. It will be easy enough for my friends to bring 
 proof of what I say, and of my innocence. Indeed, as soon as 
 Horsey and Jamison go where I have sent them, I shall come 
 out under habeas corpus. But these scoundrels shall suffer for 
 their malice, if there s law in Mississippi. 
 
 " I don t know may be so," returned one of the constables; 
 "but what should make two men, whom you never saw before 
 wear ag in the life of another ? and then it seems mighty 
 trange, if so be the man that come to be married was the raaJ 
 
 19* 
 
44- BONDER BEAGLES. 
 
 flursey it seems miglity strange he should pop in jist at that 
 minute." 
 
 "It was no less strange to me than to you," replied Vernon; 
 but the truth is not lessened by the strangeness of the cir 
 cumstance. That he is the real Horsey, I hope to show, as 
 ooon as my frisnls retarn from where I ve sent them. As for 
 the malice of these two witnesses, that I confess to you, is as 
 singular and surprising to me, as it can be to anybody else 
 I never saw them before am sure, I never did them any injury 
 and" 
 
 " But why should you call it a conspiracy?" 
 
 " It evidently is here are two men, whom I know nothing 
 of, coming forward most strangely, to swear a crime against me, 
 which I never did commit." 
 
 " Yes but you see, we are not to know that Squire Nawls 
 ain t to know that." 
 
 "True I don t blame him. He has done nothing more than 
 he was bound to do ; but I am speaking of the two who have 
 sworn to this falsehood why they should for what reason 
 with what hope or object is a wonder of the strangest sort to 
 me." 
 
 " You re sure you never had any quarrel with them before ?" 
 
 " Never saw them in all my life." 
 
 " Well, it is strange, if so be you didn t kill Horsey and you 
 never had a quarrel with these gentlemen, that they should 
 swear ag in you. You ain t made no enemies of anybody 1 
 Beca se these chaps mought be employed by somebody else." 
 
 " Not that I know of. I ve quarrelled with nobody, arid have 
 made no enemies. Stay! there is one thing!" exclaimed 
 Vernou, with sudden earnestness, correcting him self as he spoke; 
 " now that you put the question, I am reminded of a circum 
 stance which may account for it." 
 
 Here he proceeded to relate the event recorded at an earlier 
 stage of our narrative, in which, while rescuing the traveller, 
 Wilson, he shot the outlaw Weston, who was astride his body. 
 
 " This robber might have friends and relatives, who have 
 sought in this manner to avenge him." 
 
 " I don t think that," said the rogues with one breath. "It 
 would be more apt to scare his friends off, and if they was 
 
sKiNAt.S. * 
 
 rogues themselves, t hcyM Ur.r.w Letter than to eou:e be fore a 
 justice. Squire Nawls is a mighty keen man when lie s a judg 
 ing he d see through a rascal as clear as a whistle, and pick 
 the crooks out of his story in the twink of an eye. No. no i I 
 reckon there s another way to account for it. We don t want 
 to git you to confess, Mr. Varnon, for nobody s bound in law to 
 tell ag in themselves, but I reckon you did shoot the poor man, 
 though, I s pose, twas by accident, or else you fou t him fairly, 
 and he got the fling." 
 
 Vernon re-asseverated his innocence, with the solemn earnest 
 ness of one who was really anxious that they should be con 
 vinced so earnestly, indeed, and with such warm simplicity 
 in his manner, that the rogues burst into a good-humored laugh, 
 and one of them, clapped him civilly upon the h.-u-k while he, 
 expressed the hope, that, even if lie did kill the man, he should 
 pass under the tree without sticking fast to the limb;" or, 
 as it is sometimes expressed, that he should "graze the timbers, 
 without becoming dead wood." 
 
 It was just at this moment that a fault whistle reached the 
 ears of our hero. This was the signal agreed upon between 
 himself and his comrades; and circumstances seemed to be 
 particularly favorable to their project. The road was narrow 
 a mere wagon-track through which they were passing; 
 night had set fairly in, and though a bright star-light whitened 
 the wide arch of heaven, but a faint effusion of its rays guided 
 our travellers along the dim and shady paths of the forest. 
 To maintain a more certain power over their prisoner whom, 
 perhaps, because of the disgrace which had followed their 
 first attempts to cord him, they had not bound they rode 
 close beside him, on either hand. In consequence of the 
 narrowness of the road, this mode of riding brought the horses 
 of the three in absolute contact. The opportunity was too grate 
 fully tempting to Vernon and his heart bounded with the anxiety 
 which he felt during the brief interval between the first and 
 second signal of his allies. That second signal was the leagle- 
 note. With a conviction that the robbers who* attacked Wilson s 
 carriage, and those who escorted him belonged to the same 
 gang, Vernon had suggested the employment of this imitation 
 sound, with the hope of misleading his guardians. Tiie whittle 
 
44 noiusri? F.KACLFS. 
 
 which preceded it, was s-hrvly i: m.i to ir.du-f.te to himself the 
 certainty of the RubgequcTit signal being given by his friends, 
 As had been anticipated, an echo from the right hand of the 
 prisoner threw back an answering voice. 
 
 There somebody s dog in the swamp," said one of the rogues 
 carelessly, prefacing with these words, his own excellent imita- 
 no i of the cry. Again more near and more distinct, came the 
 note of Jamison who proved no unworthy beagle whether in 
 voice or limb. As if in sheer idleness of mood, did the same 
 outlaw again respond to it. The third signal from the Alabam- 
 ian, which immediately followed, was delivered from a bush 
 almost beside the party ; and at the same instant, the two consta 
 bles drew up their horses, setting each a hand on the rein of 
 Vernon s, to arrest his forward movement. 
 
 They naturally locked to a meeting with their comrades ; but 
 were surprised in the next moment, as Vernon, yielding his rein 
 entirely, threw" an arm round the waist of each of his attendants, 
 and by a sudden exertion of all his strength, drew them to 
 gether before him upon his steed, until their heads clashed with 
 a stunning concussion Before they could recover from the 
 shock, draw knife or pistol, or make the smallest effort, a stout 
 hand from below had relieved Vernon from his burdens ; and 
 the self-appointed officers of justice found themselves let down 
 with no gentle ministry upon the earth, which, fortunately, 
 being on the skirts of the swamp, and sufficiently pliable, man 
 ifested no stubborn resistance to the reception of their persons. 
 
 The surprise was as successful as it had been sudden : and 
 while a stout man bestrid each of the prisoners with a heavy 
 and bright bowie blade pointing down and sometimes painfully 
 tickling their throats, Vernon, having secured the three horses, 
 proceeded to divest the rogues of all their weapons. This 
 done, under the direction of Jamison, who had taken caie to 
 provide the necessary plough-lines, he bound their arms securely 
 behind them, and thus fastened, they were once more permitted 
 to rise upon a level with their captors. 
 
 " A short horse is mighty soon curried," said Jamison, when 
 the business was finished. " I know d all along, Varnon, that 
 these here chaps hadn t any pcrquission in their guns, and it s 
 now what \ve re to do witb em. That s the question. They re 
 
HOW TO CUIIIIY A SIIOIiT HORSE. 445 
 
 to be lynched I reckon, of course ; but whether to lynch em 
 here where nobody can get any good from seeing it, or to lynch 
 em at Lucchesa where it ll be a warning to all rogues, and 
 gamblers, and abolitionists, that haven t the fear of God in 
 their eyes, and do large business with the devil that s what I 
 ain t yet detarmined about." 
 
 To lynching, altogether, Vernon absolutely objected ; but li? 
 did not content himself with uttering moral objections only. 
 With such a man as Jamison, such scruples might nor \\i\ve 
 been so forcible as those which sprung from mere momentary 
 policy. 
 
 "We have not time for that," said he in a whisper, ami win-L 
 out of hearing of the captives. " Besides, to go to Lurches 
 with these in company, before we have beaten up the whole 
 gang and obtained the proper evidence of their villany, will 
 be only to expose ourselves to discovery, prosecution. and 
 probably punishment by the laws ; not to speak of private 
 assassination from the hands of some of the numerous outlaws 
 with whom the whole country seems to be infested. To carry 
 these fellows with us anywhere, would be to encumber ourselves 
 with a burden that would be troublesome, and may be dangerous. 
 No ! my counsel is that we bind them to trees in the most secret 
 places in the swamp there leave them till we can muster a 
 sufficient force to secure them, and to pursue their comrades. 
 We are now in possession of one of their signs, and if we can 
 keep these fellows from communication with the rest, until we 
 can penetrate their hiding-places, we may capture a good many 
 more. I have already told you of friends on the other side of 
 the river. We must join ourselves to them as soon as possible. 
 You will set off to-night. You know all that I can tell yon 
 about our friend Rawlins. Horsey and myself, meanwhile, will 
 ride to Lucchesa, where I will see to some business which I 
 have with Mr. Wilson, while he procures a horse and saddle 
 for his wife. With him I will join you to-morrow, and will: 
 Rawlins, who, I doubt not, by this time has got a pretty strong 
 party together, we will try what we can to capture the master 
 spirit of the band. If we take him, we need give ourselves but 
 little trouble about the rest. He is the chain that binds them 
 together and without him, they fall apart without stren 
 
success, or object. We will rope these; scoundrels to trees, 
 where they can not see or communicate with each other, and 
 iest they should employ our signals, it will not be amiss to put 
 a handkerchief in their mouths." 
 
 "A handkerchief indeed!" cried Jamison "that would be 
 a mighty foolish waste, when there s so much fine green moss 
 to be had for the picking." 
 
 The economical views of Jamison prevailed, and the mouth? 
 of the struggling prisoners were well wadded with green muss 
 in preference to silk bandanas. They were roped to trees in 
 deep and dark recesses of the swamp ; but it was not without 
 great reluctance, that Jamison was persuaded to turn away, 
 and forbear the use of a certain bunch of hickories, armed with 
 which, he had prepared himself to requite the rogues for the 
 offensive rebuke under which he had been compelled, after a 
 fashion, to submit in the presence of Mr. Justice Nawls. 
 
 Vernon saw that he was dissatiried with the forbearance of his 
 friends toward the criminals, which he thought as little due to 
 their deserts, as to the cause of justice- They all rode from 
 the place together to the high road, but the Alabamian way 
 very taciturn as they went; his mind seemed to be brooding 
 over some yet undigested purposes. Their parting was evi 
 dently hurried on the side of Jamison ; and when his two 
 friends had gone from sight on their way to Lucchesa, the mat 
 ter that troubled him, found expression in words aloud. 
 
 " Grim ! But I d sooner sleep in the swamp myself, than let 
 them chaps off without a lid ing. Tain t every day that a 
 rogue gets what he deserves, and tain t every month that Dick 
 Jamison cuts a bunch of hickories to throw away. It would 
 be a most monstrous wasting of the wood, to cut a dozen hick 
 ories for nothing besides, it s a mighty great resk to leave the 
 it-Hows behind, any how : spose they get away then, where s 
 :,:ie satisfaction? No, no, that s not my notion I must write 
 i name on the backs of the critters, so that I may know V.u 
 Again, when I see em. Then, if they get away, twon t be HO 
 oad ; and one person, that I know of, will be a mighty sight 
 easier in his conscience. I reckon, if I didn t lick em, n:y 
 horse would go mighty rough over the road to-night 1 know 
 i bhouldn t sit well in /.he saddle, and my spirits would be a 
 
.\ 1-TGillVU AiliiKSTKi). 447 
 
 cursed sight heavier than a tat parson s after a bad collection- 
 Sunday." 
 
 This soliloquy was made while the speaker took his way 
 back to the spot which he had just left. We need not add, 
 that he carried out in execution, the sentiments and resolutions 
 which it expressed. The hickories were not wasted ; and, 
 according to the usual ideas of border justice, in all parts of 
 the world, the rascals met with their deserts. Satisfied with 
 his administration of the border law, the Alabamian found the 
 movement of his horse and conscience equally easy while he 
 rode upon his way that night. He sat as well in his saddle as 
 ever, and a heavy load, for the time-being, was taken from his 
 ; -heart. 
 
 CHAPTER XL, 
 
 A FUGITIVE ARRESTED GRAND BEAGLE HUNT IN PREPARATION. 
 
 "Take him to ye, 
 
 And, sirrah, be an honest man ; ye ve reason , 
 I thank ye, worthy brother: Welcome, child, 
 Mine own sweet child." BEAUMONT AND FLETCHKR 
 
 THE impatient Saxon, impatient for his revenge, vainly 
 looked out that night for the coming of his followers, to whom 
 Vernon had been given in charge. His arrangements had been 
 so made as to put his plans, seemingly, beyond the reach 01 
 disappointment ; and, resolved effectually to arrest the furthei 
 efforts of an individual, whose courage and conduct gave him 
 some reason for apprehension, he had prepared himself and his 
 accessories in the swamp, for the summary and terrible punish 
 ment of one, whom they considered a spy, and had destined to 
 those ciuel severities which, under their laws, had been decreed 
 for such an offender. The evils which had followed the success 
 ful attempt of Richard Hurdis, had mortified the vanity of Saxon 
 or Clement Foster and rendered him unforgiving. From 
 the moment when he became convinced that Vernon was ac 
 
448 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 enemy, he had solemnly sworn to destroy him. His plot foi 
 this purpose was a good one his officers were true the jus 
 tice was his willing creature ; and, Mr. Augustus Mortimer and 
 Major Marcus Montmorenci, were, he well knew, the most 
 trustworthy witnesses that were ever yet suhorned to carry a 
 crooked character straight through the sessions. How then 
 should he account for the delay of his agents in bringing their 
 prisoner to punishment ? 
 
 "Should it he that d d actor, Jones should he have 
 
 spoiled the matter ? Would you had put your knife and bullet 
 through his carcass as well as through his clothes. I fear lie 
 will work us evil." 
 
 Such were his muttered doubts, at midnight, to his wily com 
 panion, who could say little to relieve them. 
 
 "And this proud girl! She, too! but it can not be very 
 long. She shall submit, if it be only to save the life of her 
 lover. I shall obtain my conquest over her, though, as a con 
 dition, I am compelled to forego my vengeance upon him." 
 
 " But his life is forfeit to the law !" said Jones. 
 
 " I am the law !" returned the other, haughtily. Then, soft 
 ening his tones, he added "but, I am too feverish, Jones, to 
 be just or reasonable now. Forgive me if I speak hastily or 
 harshly. Go you now, and see if there be any tidings of these 
 fellows." 
 
 Meanwhile, Richard Stillyards, the dwarf, was already o: 
 his way to the upper ferry, as fast as he could go ; and Vernon 
 had reached Lucchesa in safety. His purpose in returning to 
 Lucchesa was to declare himself in private to William Mait- 
 land ; to reveal his whole connection with Carter ; to unfold the 
 favorable terms which he was commissioned to grant, and, 
 finally, to crown the work of peace and good-will, by offering 
 himself in marriage to Virginia, whose own consent, it has been 
 already seen, he was happy to secure at an early period. But 
 the misery of the father at the loss of his child, and the deep 
 feeling of interest which he too had in the matter \\liich 
 seemed almost to deprive the former of his reason, struck the 
 lover dumb : 
 
 "O*e tupid moment motionless he 
 
A FUGITIVE ARRESTED. 440 
 
 And then his resolution returned to him as he witnessed the old 
 man s despair. 
 
 The natural and nobler feelings of old Maitland s heart re 
 covered all their strength at this moment of his greatest priva 
 tion. Virginia was the apple of his eye the solace of his 
 bitter cup the very light that relieved the otherwise groping 
 darkness which had environed his affections. Bitterly did he 
 now accuse himself of neglect, of cruelty, of crime of all 
 things, and all thoughts evil while, as the anguished words 
 poured from his lips, the big, burning tears rolled down his 
 cheeks, on which, the consciousness of evil thoughts and deeds 
 had placed many a premature line and wrinkle. The younger 
 daughter, wild and frightened rather than grieved, as she be 
 held these ebullitions of a nature which had never shown itself 
 to her under such an aspect before, stood beside the old man, 
 with one hand round his neck, and one resting on his head. 
 He himself sat upon the floor in a state of utter abandonment. 
 
 " Cheer up and rouse yourself, sir," exclaimed Vernon, as lie 
 looked upon the melancholy spectacle, with a sentiment of pity 
 that became painful "rouse up, sir, I will give her back to 
 you though I perish !" 
 
 "Will you oh ! will you, Mr. Vernon ? God bless you if 
 you will ! but I fear I fear you can not ! She s gone I ve 
 looked for her everywhere ! It was I that left her for that ac 
 cursed tavern, and those thrice accursed cards. I am not wor 
 thy of my child my poor child ! Oh ! where can she be now 
 in what danger from what villains! Oh! God, keep me 
 from that thought God in mercy keep her from that danger !" 
 
 And the miserable father threw himself forward upon the 
 floor the blood gushing from his nostrils, while his hands tore 
 the scattered white hairs from his venerable head and strewed 
 them around him. The screams of the trembling child mingled 
 with his moans, making a discord which, while it filled the ears 
 of Vernon, did not now so much annoy him. There were some 
 evident fears, not so evidently expressed in the last speech of 
 the father, which made the blood recede from the heart of Ver 
 non, leaving a painful coldness and vacancy behind it. 
 
 In what danger was Virginia now ? What villain held her 
 in his embraces scorning her prayers, her tears, her trembling 
 
450 BOEDER BEAGLES. 
 
 entreaties her wild but feeble efforts at release? What brutal 
 violence, sickening to chaste ears, assailed her gasping innocence 
 and none nigh to save by equal violence from that worse violence 
 that defied the imploring service of every sweet, and soothing, and 
 pure human affection? " 
 
 Vernon felt, as these dreadful doubts and apprehensions rushed 
 through his mind, that he, too, could throw himself in utter aban 
 donment upon the ground, and mingle his groans also with those of 
 the miserable father. But other feelings, strengthened by the blood- 
 giving energies of youth, came to his aid. A fiercer power rose up 
 in his heart, and with accents of recovered might, he repeated his 
 assurance to the the old man, that he would rescue and restore his 
 daughter at the peril of his life. While he made this assurance, the 
 pitiable prostration of the father struck him as not less discreditable 
 to manhood, than it w r as grateful to his paternal love. 
 
 Maitland was still a vigorous man not too old for exertion 
 not too feeble at such a time, to seek for his child, and strike 
 a desperate blow in her behalf. Besides, men were wanting now to 
 prosecute the enterprise against the robbers in the Chitta-Loosa, 
 with whom Vernon could not fail to connect the outlaw by whom 
 Virginia had been torn away from her dwelling. Circumstances 
 had sufficiently shown the father that her absence arose from an 
 abduction, which the whole tenor of Virginia s life and virtuous 
 deportment conclusively convinced all parties, must have been 
 forcible. 
 
 A sudden resolution filled the mind of Vernon. He saw that 
 no better mode remained of arousing the father to his duty, than by 
 awakening other fears in his bosom. This was, indeed, the 
 fitting moment to declare to him the full extent and powers of 
 his own commission. To ordinary minds it might have seemed 
 cruel, while the father so keenly suffered, to vex his spirit with 
 Ihe terrors of discovery and punishment; but the more correct 
 philosophy of Vernon convinced him that the prostration and 
 infirmity of Maitland could receive provocation and stimulous from 
 no other source. 
 
 "Mr. Wilson," said he, "risesend your daughter to her 
 chamber for awhile, while I unfold to you some business of 
 great importance. I am the bearer of other evil tidings which 
 
A FUGITIVE ARRESTED. 451 
 
 you have not heard, but which sooner or later, must reach your ears. 
 There can be no better season than the present." 
 
 The solemnity of these preliminaries had the effect of command 
 ing the attention of the criminal. The daughter was sent from 
 their presence, and the father rose slowly to his chair, with eyes full 
 of a most painful anxiety. Vernon did not delay his communication 
 with any idle formulae humanity forbade all such. It will be 
 understood, however, that he omitted nothing which might soften 
 the natural severity of truth, and maintain for himself the 
 proper deportment of a gentleman, and one, too, so closely al 
 lied by the tenderest promises to the daughter of the person he 
 addressed. 
 
 "You are known ,to me, sir you are William Maitland, late 
 cashier of the bank." 
 
 The miserable old man shrieked in insuppressible terror at the 
 words, while his hands clasped and covered his face, His daughter s 
 fate was in an instant forgotten in his own. The selfishness of his 
 nature preponderated in an instant. 
 
 "Spare me, spare me, Mr. Vernon! for God s sake for my 
 children s sake spare me!- I am a miserable old man spare my 
 grey hairs; and I will bless you forever they will bless you! Spare 
 me!" 
 
 Vernon took his hand kindly. 
 
 "Be not alarmed, Mr. Maitland though I come commissioned to 
 recover this money from you, I yet come as your friend, and from 
 one who has ever been your friend." 
 
 "\Yho? who?" exclaimed the wretched man, with as much 
 eagerness of hope in his face as it had lately expressed of fear. But 
 when the lips of Vernon uttered the name of " Carter," his counte 
 nance fell he sunk back in his chair with a deep groan, and again 
 covered his face with his hands. 
 
 "Do not doubt the friendship which has ever served you, even 
 when the noble person whom I have mentioned has been suffer 
 ing most from your injustice. I know your story, and I know 
 his. I know how much you owe to his friendship, and I know 
 how ill you have repaid it. But I am not sent to reproach you, 
 and well I know, were lie himself present, his own reproaches 
 would be spared at such a moment as this. My mission brings 
 you safety, Mr. Maitland, though I come as the messenger of 
 
452 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 justice. Hear me with patience, then, while I communicate to 
 you the benevolent designs of my friend your friend, still, Mr. 
 Maitland in behalf of yourself and children." 
 
 This communication was soon delivered. The reader is already 
 familiar with its purport. We need not repeat it here. As little 
 necessary would it seem to say, that it was listened to by the unde 
 serving criminal with some such feelings as those of the culprit 
 under judicial sentence, suddenly relieved by an unlooked-for 
 respite from the supreme authority while standing on the very prec 
 ipice of death . 
 
 Vernon did not stop here, though the frequent groans and ejacula 
 tions of Maitland, now of remorse and self-reproach, and now of 
 gratitude and exultation, subjected him to frequent interruptions. 
 He at once unveiled to the old man the relation in which he stood 
 to his lovely but lost daughter. 
 
 Alas! for the long-diseased heart, and the pampered and pre 
 vailing sin which possessed it! Even in that hour of his greatest 
 privations, and pain, and humiliation that hour of his partial 
 relief from the fear of punishment an hour distinguished alike by 
 the keen sorrows of the father at the loss of the beloved child, and 
 the abased feelings of the felon who suddenly finds himself con 
 victed before man, without escape, and with his mouth choked with 
 the bitter dust of his own degradations in that very hour, the shape 
 of his old sin once more stood up triumphant and audacious as 
 
 ever. 
 
 The latter part of Vernon s communication, which declared 
 the nature of the tie which now united his feelings and interests 
 with those of Virginia Maitland, suggested to the miserable old 
 man a new resource for his crime; and he eagerly insinuated 
 proposals to Vernon that, instead of restoring the vast amount 
 of moneys which he had purloined, and which he admitted 
 himself still to have, in great part, in his own possession, to the 
 rightful owners, they should retain it among themselves, and 
 by a timely and fair retreat, secure themselves and it from the 
 grasp of all pursuers. The infatuated gambler, whose moral 
 sense, by a tendency as certain as death, had gone down, step 
 by step, with rapid but self-unnoted transitions, to the lowest 
 sink of depravation, vainly imagined that, to a lover, and one 
 so young, the charms of a mistress, and the splendid bribe 
 
4 FUGITIVE ARriKSTi p. 
 
 which formed her dowry, must prove irresistible temptatiri.s 
 Vernon shrank back with an apparent shudder from the grasp 
 which the eager fingers of Maitland had taken upon his arm; 
 while his eye regarded the stolid criminal with an expression 
 quite as full of sorrow as of scorn. 
 
 " Mr. Maitland, for your daughter s sake, I implore you to 
 suffer ne to respect her father if I can. Let me hear no more 
 on this subject. I will strive, for my own sake, to forget this 
 most humiliating offer an offer no less insulting to me than it 
 is degrading to yourself. You have heard me state what were 
 Mr. Carter s propositions. You perceive that he is willing to 
 provide that he pledges himself to provide amply for your 
 children, on the restoration of the sums in your possession. Cir 
 cumstances have favored you, and have spared me the necessity 
 of proceeding harshly. I count myself as singularly fortunate 
 as yourself in being the messenger of such benevolent intentions 
 on the part of one upon whom you have no claims of kindness 
 Carter, indeed, is a ruined man. Having carried out his designs, 
 and secured your children in the sums specified, he will have 
 no more left him than will barely suffice to make his friend 
 Gamage secure against all losses. Let me know at once what 
 is your resolution ; for we have little time to lose. The safety 
 of one who is now no less dear to me than to you, requires our 
 instant pursuit." 
 
 Doubly humbled, though, perhaps, not yet contrite, Maitland 
 acceded to all the requisitions of the youth, and, with a hurried 
 consent, he would have dismissed the subject, while he pro 
 ceeded to bustle forward to command the horses. But Vernon 
 was one of those men who do their work thoroughly. 
 
 "Mr. Maitland," said he, "this matter must be settled to- 
 nght, and the money delivered. I have my credentials ready, 
 and will prepare your guarantee, while you are getting thingn 
 in readiness. If you are resolved to go with me in pursuit of 
 Virginia, it will be your better course to order your barouche, 
 And take Julia with us. The night is pleasant, and she can be 
 wrapped up carefully. It will be better than to leave her here, 
 <n the care of servants only, and in a place which has already 
 proved itself to be so very insecure. You can have no reason 
 to dread returning now, and at Mr. Badger s she will be in per- 
 
454 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 jfVct safety, while we traverse tlio swjjmp in search of her sister 
 I know no better course either for safety or propriety." 
 
 Briefly, Yernon had his own way in all respects, His firm 
 ness, mingled with that becoming deference of manner which 
 youth always owes to age, even when it is criminal and debased, 
 cowed the spirit, and commanded the respect of Maitland. The 
 money was restored, arid in one hour more the cottage was 
 deserted The poor Julia, trembling and wondering, confused 
 at all tilings, and almost totally in apprehensive of any, was 
 wrapped away in the barouche, with her father beside her, sad, 
 ashamed, and silent ; while Vernon, mounted on horseback, and 
 once more armed, after a long interval, with the weapons of 
 which the sturdy Alabamian had taken such excellent charge 
 during his arrest and sickness with spirits unconsciously 
 heightened by the sense of liberty and strength rode along 
 side, and strove to cheer the miserable father, and the innocent 
 and unconscious child. Though his anxieties and apprehensions 
 were in no respects lessened in regard to the lost Virginia, yet 
 the conviction that he was now able to strike in her behalf, 
 made him sanguine with hope, and rendered him elastic in 
 movement. He suffered no unnecessary delays to restrain his 
 progress, aftd by his voice and example, he urged the driver 
 of the vehicle to a corresponding action with his own sinewy 
 steed. 
 
 The reader, if he be not more dull 
 
 " than the fat weed 
 That hugs itself at ease at Lethe s wharf," 
 
 will be pleased to spare us some unnecessary narration, and rea 
 ily imagine a few things in our story which are quite as eas 
 to conceive as to write. He will take it for granted that tin, 
 progress of our night travellers was uninterrupted and that n 
 union was safely effected the next morning, at a tolerably early 
 hour, between themselves and their friends Jamison and Horsey. 
 He will further learn that, shortly after the meeting of thr-M- 
 with Vernon, they were joined by Walter Rawlins and Master 
 Edward Mabry. The eyes of the latter, which the adroit list;- 
 of Horsey had sealed up for a season, were now in tolerably 
 good condition they wore less of the plethoric form and rai. 
 
GRAND BEAGLE HUNT IX I ll!-:! \UAilON. 4 
 
 bow aspect, tli an they did a week past; Imt, tliringli rostored, 
 they did not seem to regard the actor with any more favor than 
 before. Some mutual efforts were made by Rawlins and Ver- 
 nou to bring the parties to frievfdly offices ; but they were partly 
 ineffectual. Still, there was no open show of hostility between 
 Aiem. Horsey, certainly, preserved none. He was a generous 
 fellow at heart ; and would have scorned to have fostered any 
 feeling of malice at an enemy. Besides, he had been success 
 ful, and as those always laugh who win, his good humor was in 
 nowise diminished, because the hand which he offered with frank 
 ness to his foe was taken with reluctance. He disarmed the 
 active rancor of Mabry, by making some concessions with 
 out which it might have been that the operations of the party 
 would have been exposed to conflicting feelings and divided 
 counsels which he was neither bound by courtesy, nor ex 
 pected by his opponent to make. 
 
 As for Rawlins, his delight at seeing Vernon was excruciating. 
 He hugged him to his breast with what seemed to the lattb. 
 quite a superfluous degree of affection, and in the same breath, 
 though in a whisper, told him that Rachel had at length yielded 
 to his persuasions, and had consented to name the day. 
 
 Another matter of far more gratifying import to Vernon &t 
 this moment, was the information which he received of a new 
 ally in the person of Stillyards, the dwarf. That elegant 
 young person, elated with the boon with which Florence Mar- 
 bois had consented to reward his industry in promoting her 
 purposes or" vengearie, lad made his appearance at the door 
 of Rawlins, a little after daylight that very morning; and his 
 communications had quickened the preparations of the latter for 
 the pursuit of that enterprise to which the counsels of Vernon 
 had before impelled him. 
 
 He had not been idle, it may be said here, during the interval 
 which had passed. He had secured the co-operation of nearly 
 twenty men all stout fellows? good men and true whom 
 the blast of a horn would bring together in half an hour, from 
 a circuit of five miles. 
 
 The revelations of Stillyards had much more effect upon 
 Vernon than they could possibly have had upon Rawlins. The 
 of Virginia Maitland was now known with certainty : 
 
456 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 and it was with r.o less certainty that l;c know \\lierc she wa* 
 hidden by Saxon. It was no small addition to his desire for 
 immediate enterprise, when he found that her abductor, and 
 the consummate chief of the Beagles of the Border, were one 
 end the same person. These discoveries he kept from the 
 father. He had come to the conclusion that William Maitland 
 could be of little service in the adventure and he counselled 
 him to proceed at once with Julia to the security of Zion s 
 Hill. He particularly cautioned him against suffering his own 
 near neighborhood to be known to the venerable and dogmatical 
 head of the establishment; still less to suffer it to be suspected 
 that any enterprise was on foot, by which to rout the outlaws. 
 To render the old man more cautious in this and every other 
 respect, the doubtful character of young Badger was revealed 
 to him, and the danger fully shown of any premature develop 
 ment of a project which could only be successful through per 
 fect secrecy. Having sent the unhappy and criminal father 
 upon his way, Vernon proceeded to the examination of ^5ti]l- 
 jrards, whom Rawlins hsd kept under close watch in tiis neigh 
 boring 
 
CAMPAIGN BEGINS. 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 CAMPAIGN BEGINS THK PIOUS ELDER THE PICAROCK 
 
 THE PEERLESS MAIDEN. 
 
 44 She scorn d us strangely, 
 All we could do, or durst do; threatened us 
 With such a noble anger, and so governed 
 With such a fiery spirit." BONDUCA. 
 
 Tuot UH naturally impatient to commence the war against his 
 enemies and rescue the fair Virginia from her abductors, Vcrnou 
 was too thoughtful and deliberate of character to defeat his 
 own objects by any premature or precipitate attempts. He 
 retired as soon as possible into the cover of the forests, and 
 from sight of any but his own comrades, after sending Maitland 
 on his way to Zion s Hill. Here he closely examined the 
 dwarf Stillyards; and this done, he despatched Jamison with 
 two others for the purpose of bringing in, and more effectually 
 securing the persons of the two rogues, whom we left fas^iud 
 in the swamp the night before. There were two other rogues 
 to be secured, of whose neighborhood he was now first informed 
 by the dwarf. 
 
 These were fellows, who, in the " Beagle" dialect, went 
 by the significant name of " smellers. They were, in fact, 
 advanced sentinels, the keepers of outposts, watching the high 
 ways leadii.g to the swamp fastnesses, and conveying the ear 
 liest tidings of the approach of any uncongenial or hostile 
 influences. To divert these watchers from their posts, Still 
 yprds, whom they knew, was immediately sent forward, as if 
 with instructions from their captain. Being in possession of all 
 the first signs of the band, there could be little or no difficulty 
 in deceiving them by means of his agency ; and not altogethei 
 prepared to rely wholly upon a rogue, even in the hour of InV 
 
 20 
 
H ,;^i;^EB BtiAttLZS. 
 
 Hrs! c .inversion, Yenion MM.I Ua\\ liiis, M-eietly, with two <;ti;rrt 
 nil excellent woodmen to follow the dwarf, and mrrecT hi> 
 treachery, should he happen to prove faithless to his trust. 
 
 But his precautions, though proper, proved unnecessary 
 Stillyards was now the sworn enemy of the outlaw chief on his 
 own account, even if he were not bound as the agent of Flor 
 ence Marbois. The humiliating indignity to which his ears hart 
 been subjected by the fingei s of Saxon had turned all tbeaocl 
 "nlk of his nature into gall and bitterness; and he was nov 
 prepared, without fee or reward, to prove to his superior the 
 extent of that malignity, which, in the base spirit, never for 
 gives a wrong, and in the weakly, vain heart never forgets a 
 slight. The wish to prove his capacitv for vengeance, to him 
 who was to be the object of it, had kept the deformed abso 
 lutely sleepless ; and it was with the keenest and most sus 
 picious impatience that he heard the resolution of Vernon to 
 make no movement, until night, against the outlaws of Cane 
 Castle. 
 
 This resolution was productive of surprise to other minds 
 r han his. Rawlins himself wondered, that, with a body of 
 stout, fearless men, which, at mid-day, exceeded in numbers 
 the entire force of the beagles known to be then within their 
 ",y.inp, he should forbear instantly proceeding toward their prev. 
 i-ui the determination of the leader was a judicious one; and 
 w hca explained to the few comrades whom he trusted with his 
 ;. Ir.ii, its evident policy overcame all their scruples and disarmed 
 the)-, doubts. 
 
 It wac not till the evening shadows had fallen that their 
 n> .vo:/isnfct5 were begun. Before this time, however, the party 
 tvhic.L had been despatched for the two prisoners had returned 
 v-jth their charge; while, with equal success, the dwarf Still 
 yards, had beguiled the " Smellers" from their station into th< 
 very bai\ds of tho attacking party. Before they knew wher > 
 hey were, they encountered a dozen armed men in front, whii 
 vlie three who had been despatched to follow Stillyards, season 
 ttbly arriving behind, cut off all chance of retreat. 
 
 the four were despatched under an equal party towrtrd Zion : 
 Rill, in time to reach it a few hours after dark. The} conveyed 
 i request from Vernon to the venerable elder of that establish 
 
CAMPAIGN BEGINS. 459 
 
 ment, that they might he suffered to reisi.-siii under guard at his 
 retreat, until the return of the party next day. Having several 
 miles the start of the methodist, it was no longer a cause or" 
 fear that their plans might be defeated either by the perverse 
 self-esteem and dogmatism of the father, or the treachery of tha 
 son ; of whom, by the way, Rawlins had meanwhile gatborea 
 such knowledge from Rachel Morrison, as confirmed all his pr-- 
 vious suspicions. 
 
 These minor matters attended to, Vernon set his party in 
 motion as soon as the darkness was sufficient to conceal their 
 movements, But instead of taking his way down, he advanced 
 up the river, and in a course directly opposite to that where 
 Cane Castle lay. Two miles above the place where he bad 
 been concealed through the day, was the ferry which he had 
 that morning crossed, and, while crossing, had scanned curious 
 ly, yet in silence, the place where the boat was fastened, and 
 as much of the scene and circumstances around him as he 
 deemed effectual to his purposes. 
 
 Having reached the neighborhood, he ordered his party to 
 halt in the woods, while, alighting from their horses, Rawlins, 
 Jamison, and himself, went forward to reconnoitre. Finding 
 the coast glear, they loosened the ferry-boat from its fasts. 
 This boat a huge flat, suited to the transportation of wagons of 
 the largest dimensions across the river soon received the 
 party without their horses. These were sent to await them, 
 under the charge of a couple of the troop, to a spot on the same 
 side of the river seven miles below, which was described to be 
 directly opposite to that where the outlaws held their abode. 
 Under the guidance of Rawlins, who knew the river, and Still- 
 yards, to whom the upper shore was sufficiently familiar, the 
 flat was suffered noiselessly to fall down with the current ; the 
 only toil of the party being to push her off when she touched 
 the shore, and keep her free from the snags and sawyers a 
 task not so easy to execute in the imperfect starlight, which 
 guided them in their progress. 
 
 But they experienced fewer difficulties than Vernon had an- 
 ticipated, and arrived at the spot already known to the reader 
 by the fishing adventure of Horsey, in perfect secrecy and 
 silence. The flat was now run up, and suffered to rest upon 
 
BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 p ane wich 
 
 Oane Castle ; and, through this bog, the most toilsome an ] un- 
 oleasant part, of their journey, the little troop were compelled 
 to scramble the silence imposed upon Horsey, at this juncture, 
 being the worst portion of the business to that worthy amateur. 
 The restraint he found excessively irksome, at a moment and 
 in a place, which reminded him of some of his strangest experi 
 ence, and of events which had been sufficiently exciting to him 
 self to make him sure of the dramatic effect which they must 
 produce in the minds and estimation of all others. It did not 
 alter the case very materially that he had discoursed over his 
 experience to several of his present comrades more than once 
 already. All day he had exercised his tongue in the reminis 
 cences, always pleasant when past, of peril and annoyance : 
 still, some had not heard and then, the minutiae! 
 
 " It is in the little touches, my dear fellow," he said to Ver- 
 non, in a whisper "the nice and seemingly unimportant fea 
 tures of a subject, that the whole character speaks out. A look, 
 a nod, a wink, or the slightest gesture in the proper place, makes 
 all the difference in the world makes eloquent the commonest 
 passages of the poet, which the ordinary reader would slur over 
 in impatience." * 
 
 " Be a man now, not an actor, Horsey. Everything in sea 
 son," was the stern response of Vernon, in a like whisper. 4< He 
 is neither man nor actor who can not keep his tongue, when the 
 part actually calls for silence." 
 
 "You re right in that, by the ghost of Solomon, Harry Mi.n- 
 mouth ;" and, as the actor contented himself with this reply, he 
 sunk back, murmuring from one of his favorites : 
 
 " This is no world 
 
 To play with imimmets, and to tilt with lips: 
 We must have bloody noses, and cracked orovns. 
 And pass them current, too: " 
 
 A reflection, we may add, that only distressed him as he Thought 
 how awkward he should Ipok, appearing a second time with a 
 bloody nose before Mary Clayton, otherwise Mrs. Horpey. 
 
 He was beguiled from his ai noyances, however, by finding 
 hat the next person at his side >\ .is Master Edward Mabry. his 
 
CAMPAIGN i;;:<;;x>. 161 
 
 late rival. This discovery led liim to .some vague musings 
 about coincidences, from which he was only aroused by tire 
 summons, which sent him forward with three others, for the 
 capture of his quondam companion, Jones ; a. summons which 
 enlivened and gratified him greatly, as it seemed to imply some 
 retributive agency in Providence, which thus left open the door 
 to an atonement for all the indignities of Mr. Aristophanes Bull, 
 and the ruin of his Hamlet. 
 
 He followed Rawlins, to whom Stillyards had given particu 
 lar directions for finding the sleeping-place of that sturdy out 
 law, while five others, equally well instructed, were commissioned 
 f or the capture of the rest of the gang. Vernon, reserving to 
 himself the dwarf Stillyards only, took his way with a cautious 
 step, but a bounding heart, toward the squatter s hovel, where 
 he had been told by his companion that the maiden was im 
 prisoned. His command to the rest of his party was, that the 
 followers of Saxon should be surprised and captured ; a more 
 sudden, if not more severe doom he purposed for the outlaw 
 himseif. For him the sudden shot or stroke was designed, as 
 from him was anticipated the most reckless and resolute resist 
 ance. 
 
 Meanwhile, the commotion at Zion s Hill, inspired by the 
 astounding intelligence brought by those who escorted the cap 
 tured outlaws, was such as might have been expected from the 
 vexed self-esteem of the venerable veteran. The attempt of 
 Vernon and Rawlins to effect so important a business without 
 his agency, was a source of equal surprise and indignation 
 That Rawlins should be so presumptuous, was monstrous in the 
 extreme ; and what made it seem more so, was the fact, that, ifj 
 all his schemes and counsels, submitted from time to time to til s 
 latter, after the departure of Vernon, it seemed to the dictatori 
 al elder, that the woodman was uncommonly obtuse and wretch 
 edly deficient in honorable enterprise. His son, Gideon, on the 
 contrary, by the boldness of his expressions, and the warmth of 
 valor which he displayed whenever the capture of the "Beagles" 
 was the subject, had greatly commended himself to the old man s 
 heart. He even began to think, after making due comparisons 
 between the two on this subject, that it would be only a legiti 
 mate right which he had, as tbe guardian of Rachel Morrison. 
 
10- bORDEH BEAULKfe. 
 
 and a becoming exercise of his wisdom, to urge his wishes upoL 
 her that she should marry a youth of so much more promise 
 and discard one of whom so few expectations could be formed 
 He had forborne any attempt hitherto, to bias her affections ; 
 out to one who assumed to himself so large a portion of the 
 allotted sagacity of mankind, it began to seem perfectly proper 
 and praiseworthy to employ it in his own way, for the ure of 
 one, who still toiled in a sort of moral darkness and among the 
 shadows of ignorance. His first attempts at this sort of juris 
 diction, were, however, moderate enough. He began by re 
 proaches of Rawlins for his indirection and infirmity of purpose 
 and a recommendation, only implied, however, of the worthy 
 and valiant Gideon. 
 
 " What Walter RaAvlins can mean," he remarked to RacheL 
 one morning shortly after the woodman had taken hib depart 
 ure, " by keeping his hands from the good work, I do not un 
 derstand. Surely he lacks not heart he hath courage for 
 strife. There hath been no shrinking, hitherto, on his part, ID 
 the hour of danger." 
 
 " He has courage, believe me," was the reply of Rachel, with 
 the natural and unrestrained warmth of one who loves without 
 doubt or qualification. " There is no man of more courage on 
 the river." 
 
 "It would please me to think so, Rachel nay, I have 
 thought so, but a short while since ; yet, to say truth, I have 
 my misgivings. Why is he backward to stir up the people 
 when I bid him? Why, when the occasion is so pressing 
 when evil men gather with deadly weapons in their hands, and 
 deadly malice in their hearts, as I may say it, around the holy 
 places of the Lord ; and the innocent traveller is waylaid for 
 his spoil; and they fear not to smite the unoffending, and the 
 unprepared, and the innocent why doth he keep himself 
 aloof at such a time how may he justify himself for such 
 slackness of spirit 1 ? Were he feeble of limb, and slight of per 
 son, it were, perhaps, to be forgiven him that he is backward ; 
 but he hath strength beyond that of ordinal y men, and with a 
 fitting strength of heart, there would seem to be no justification 
 for this hike warmn ess. Truly, Rachel, it htimbleth m 
 this falling off in our friend " 
 
CAMPAIGN iii A..lNS. 4(53 
 
 There is no falling off, dear uncle, believe me. I will an- 
 for Walter, that, when the fitting time shall arrive, he will 
 be :.5ady, and among the first." 
 
 When the fitting time shall ariive !" was the exclamation 
 f the elder. " Have I not said to thee and to him, already, 
 that now is the time and the season ? Now ! now ! Can there 
 be a better hour than the first for the good performances of a 
 man, and those which are so needful for human safety? He 
 hath heard my thought more than once already, in behalf of 
 this necessity." 
 
 "But, if he thinks otherwise," was the imprudent reply of 
 the maiden her anxiety for the justification of her lover, ma 
 king her forgetful of the mortal stab which such a suggestion 
 must give to the old gentleman s conceit of heart. His hands 
 and eyes were uplifted in unmitigated astonishment. 
 
 "Ha! it is so, then, even as I expected. He hath better 
 assurances of wisdom and the truth than older men nay, than 
 all men around ! for al 1 men seem to hold it needful that the 
 outlaw should be arrested, out of hand, in his deeds of evil. He 
 thinks otherwise, doth ho? He will tell us when it is the fit 
 ting season, will he? He is p-)od and wise, but it is unfortu 
 nate that we must do without him. We must contciK ourselves 
 with the strength we have, aud only pray to the Lori that r 
 -nay be equal to the work before us that we may go forward 
 without faintness of heart or slackness of spirit, and that success 
 may be vouchsafed to us, not because of the strength which we 
 have, but the will for the performance !" 
 
 "Oh, my uncle, speak not thus harshly think not thus un 
 kindiy of Walter ;" responded the maiden, now fully awake to e 
 her indiscretion as she listened to this outpouring of tne morbid 
 vanity of age. "You do Walter injustice; I m sure you do ; 
 and he ll be ready to go with the rest, as soon as ever they re 
 ready. He may think it too soon, but I m sure, when you once 
 set the example, and name the day, he ll be among the first to 
 turn out at your summons." 
 
 A reply no less bitter than the former answered this addi 
 tional speech of Rachel ; and was followed up by a sneering 
 comment of Master Gideon Badger, who made his appearance 
 while the controversy was in progress. He muttered borne 
 
464 BORDP:R BEAGLKS. 
 
 general remark about the not (infrequent hiejcTpetency of the 
 soul to the frame which enclosed it; and concluded with asc .i 
 ring his father that mere bulk or even numbers were not so 
 necessary as spirit and resolution for the adventure which *bey 
 had in view. 
 
 "And the sanction of God, my son," said the now approvi;,- 
 father. 
 
 The eye of Rachel Morrison turned upon the hypoorip!-* 
 Gideon, with an expression of fiery scorn which he shrunk u 
 encounter. Her heart swelled within her with a feeling of 
 indignant resistance as she replied, addressing herself only to 
 the son : 
 
 " 1 can answer equally for the spirit and frame of \Valtei 
 Rawlins, Gideon Badger, and will warn you in season how yoc 
 provoke either." 
 
 "Rachel Morrison!" exclaimed the old man sternly " would 
 you threaten Gideon with the violence of a stranger?" 
 
 "A stranger, uncle Walter Rawlins a stranger! Has it 
 then come to this? But if he is a stranger to you, sir, as, in 
 deed, he seems to be, from the manner in which you speak and 
 think of him, he is yet no stranger to me. I can answer 
 equally for his strength and courage. As for threatening 
 Gideon with them, I had no such thought but I though*, it 
 prudent to warn him against offending either. Walter is patient 
 enough, but he is young, and he is human ; and when human 
 passions are treated with scorn, they are very apt to rise in 
 resentment. I respect the courage of Walter sufficiently to 
 make me think it would not be safe for Gideon to do u>i it m 
 nis hearing." 
 
 " In a good cause, and with God s blessing," said th? de; GUI 
 young man, " I have little fear of him or of any other person." 
 
 " And with such principles, Gideon, my son, you need have 
 no fear. The gates of hell shall not prevail against him v/ho 
 goes forth armed by God s favor, and in the prosecution of the 
 just war of truth. It is even such a war as this, which Walter 
 Rawlins thinks it not yet a seasonable time to begin ; but, as 
 you have already said, we need not numbers in a righteous 
 cause. God will provide God will strengthen God will see 
 that numbers even shall not be wanting, in the hour when tht 
 
THE PIOUS ELDER THE PICAROON SOX. 405 
 
 Danner is to be raised and the blows are to be struck ; and if I 
 have a sorrow because of the absence of Walter Rawlins from 
 this conflict, it is because of his own great loss therefrom." 
 
 " lie will not be absent!" exclaimed Rachel Morrison i 
 know he will go in search of these robbers, when the tima 
 comes, so far ahead of some others, that even their eyes wiJ 
 not dare to follow him." 
 
 This sarcasm was felt by Gideon, but passed the old man 
 without attracting his notice ; an escape which no doubt saved 
 the damsel a lecture on presumption of heart, and pride of 
 opinion, and some dozen more of the vital sins of ignorance and 
 youth. 
 
 The arrival of the captured outlaws, and the message from 
 Rawlins events which took place only two days after this 
 dialogue while they completely justified the warm confidence 
 of the maiden in the manhood of her lover, as completely con 
 founded the stern old methodist, and baffled all his estimates of 
 character. Not that he thought any better of Walter Rawlins 
 than before. If forced to believe him brave and ready now, he 
 was at least thoroughly vexed with the audacity that dared to 
 undertake a business so important without his co-operation. 
 Nay Tiot only without his co-operation, but actually, with a 
 studious reservation from him of a task in which, his own 
 threatjQ id performances were to be the most conspicuous of all 
 human adventures. His self-complacency did not permit him 
 to imagine, for a single instant, the true reason why he should 
 be kept from the knowledge of a scheme, the object of which 
 he had as sincerely and notoriously at heart, as anybody else f 
 and it would have been very difficult to persuade him the fnct 
 is not eady of belief that a dogmatical old man is of all others 
 the greatest obstacle to the progress of any business, where 
 young men are to be the performers. That Badger would have 
 "ejected every plan but his own, for the capture of the robbers, 
 and spoiled any that might be undertaken, the shrewd sense of 
 Vernon perceived in the first hour of their acquaintance ; and 
 the doubts which were entertained of the fidelity of the son 
 naturally combined to strengthen his objections to any partici 
 pation of the father in the business. His views of the subject 
 L&ve been already given to the reader. 
 
 20* 
 
The exultation of Rachel Morrison may !K I .niaginc.l. 
 these proofs of the courage of her Walter were produced- a. 
 exultation which spoke in tearful eyes, and a trembling an ! 
 I -mding heart. Old Badger, as one of the quorum, and one 
 Karned in the law in all laws clothed in official authority, 
 ir id no less delighted with, than conscious of, the power which 
 it conferred, was however angry with the captors not un 
 willing to take into custody the captive outlaws. He secured 
 them urider good locks and keys, having first taken the preeau 
 tion, with the assistance of the detachment under whose guar<l 
 they came, of roping them to some very heavy articles of fm 
 niture. The two soi-disant constables were bound, with up 
 ward-looking eyes, on the flats of their backs, tete-a-tci , to a 
 dresser of prolonged dimensions, but not so long, as, whon \\><\ 
 rogues were stretched upon it, to admit of a support to tlic.] 
 legs, which were, in consequence, suffered to dangle fvcm ! 
 only in partial possession of their wonted liberty. They c^iiil 
 kick the wall or each other, at either end of the board, b it f.o 
 these limited exercises they were unequivocally restrained 
 If the other two were not equally well-cared for, it v/an th v ir 
 misfortune they were certainly equally well-fasten-?.:?. It 
 needs not that we should describe the particular privileged of 
 their situation. Two of the guard were reserved to keep watch 
 over them until the proper officers of the law could be p^oi in 
 requisition, while the other two were dismissed, at tbi: .~ cwn 
 request, that they might rejoin the attacking party ths. m ^hv. 
 and before the descent was made upon the camp of the ut *r.vi> 
 
 After dismissing them, which he did in no very cerw-inio is 
 or friendly manner, old Badger was suddenly seized /it u r .a 
 conviction that he should have gone himself. His a?n&~r few. 
 was interested to lead in an expedition for which his oast, a-, 
 quaintance with the wars, and his present connection v/ith .. 
 peace," seemed equally to constitute a peculiar justification ! 
 his claim. Besides, had he not been beating up recruits for r.hin 
 very expedition ? Were not some of them in the neighborhood 
 could they not be easily mustered 1 ? There was Gideon i.J 
 himself Joe Tompkins, the hired ploughboy , Nicodemun Uoot, 
 the schoolmaster, who, though a Yankee, was able to ride and 
 shoot, and had done execution more than once at pigeon-di*- 
 
THE P4UU5J LLDiAl i KK nCAi. i;i;:\ --.-- *" 
 
 tance. A timely use of the six or seven hours remaining be 
 tween that and daylight, would enable him easily to muster up 
 dome half a score ; and M itli these the veteran was not unwilling, 
 in a fair day, and after due preliminaries of prayer and fasting, 
 to face all the outlaws between the Alabama and Arkansas. 
 From the guard that brought in the prisoners, he had been led 
 to believe that the party of Vernon would not commence the 
 march before dawn ; and as he had no thought of the use which 
 might.be made of the ferry-boat in such an expedition, he took 
 it for granted that hard riding would bring him to the post of 
 danger in season for all its honors. This new course of thought 
 lod to instant preparations, which need to be adverted to only. 
 They do not affect our expedition at this moment. 
 
 But when his plans had to be carried out, the venerable elder 
 discovered that one of his chief agents was reported missing. 
 This was his own son, the worthy Gideon, who was no less con 
 founded than his father at the developments of the night. If 
 the old man was vexed and mortified, Gideon was terrified. 
 The danger was at his very door. The rascals who were taken 
 knew him as a confederate, and in the very presence of the old 
 man exhibited those secret signs of intelligence which made the 
 profligate youth s heart quake within him, though he sufficiently 
 preserved his equilibrium to return them. The keen eyes of 
 Rachel Morrison beheld his consternation, and her piercing and 
 suspicious glance did not fail to perceive that there was some 
 communion even then going on between the parties. 
 
 Grideon, with every additional moment of reflection, fancied 
 th.^ danger to be increasing. He knew that the outlaws looked 
 to him for assistance; nay, looked to him to liberate them; 
 -ud also remembered some of the painful conditions which were 
 .oupled with his association with the beagles. He was sworn 
 ;o convey the tiding^ of danger to his comrades in the swamp. 
 Their arrest almost necessarily led to his own. The discovery 
 of their secrets involved his safety ; and what security could 
 he have against the revelations of frightened rogues at the foot 
 of the gallows? He was divided between conflicting fears and 
 desires. It was important to rescue the outlaws already in cus 
 tody it was equally, if not more important, to counsel thoe* 
 in (.he swamp of their approaching danger. 
 
168 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 A few moments reflection determined him to address himself 
 exclusively to the latter object. The danger of the prisoners 
 was not immediate. They were yet to be committed for trial, 
 and a considerable stretch of time lay between the present and 
 the period assigned for the county court sessions. If the boa 
 gles in the swamp continued free, it would be no very difficult 
 matter to rescue the prisoners at some more favorable moment . 
 and the only evil would be their temporary detention in con 
 finement. He was well assured that such hardy rogues would 
 never make their confessions a moment sooner than was 
 necessary. 
 
 That the beagles in the swamp were prepared for their ene 
 mies was very probable, and yet a promptness, spirit, and vigi 
 lance, such as had already been shown by the assailing party, 
 rendered important every measure of precaution, and demanded 
 the instant activity of every member of the fraternity. Vernon 
 and Rawlins were obviously men to be feared, and tli3 reader 
 has already seen that Gideon Badger was one of thoae men who 
 are soonest to " despair their charm." He wanted " th^ natu 
 ral hue of courage," and his fears on the present occasion, sveu 
 exaggerated the danger, pressing as it really was. To give a 
 sign to the outlaws in custody, significant of his resolution to 
 serve them, and to slip from the apartment unobserved, evya 
 before his father had yet dismissed the two men of RawimD % 9 
 party who had brought in the prisoners, were the first step.; :-i 
 Gideon after he had concluded upon his course. The venera 
 ble rnethodist, with eyes shut and hands uplifted, was too busy 
 delivering a searching sermon to the prisoners and their captors 
 alike, to observe the movements of the son. But they vvcrr. 
 seen by the keen eyes of the damsel, who already knew ei-.o igh 
 of the truth to comprehend the condition of Gideon s mind, a-.;: 
 to anticipate his probable course. She followed him siieniJ 
 from the apartment, and traced his steps to the foot of the g;x 
 den. She came up with him as he was about to cross the fe r - 
 and called him instantly by name. 
 
 "Gideon! Gideon Badger!" 
 
 How shrunk his heart in terror at the sound the sound ,,i 
 his own name uttered by the lips of a woman! But at i..^ 
 moment he knew not whose lips nitcu d it, {siul it v/.-i* ,-, s 
 
THE PICAROON SON THE PEERLESS MAIDEN. 
 
 of (error. His apprehensions liacl rendered his ccr.sen i.i.il ?o 
 discriminate, however acute in the appreciation of all sights 
 and accents. The summons seemed full of terror, and it was 
 not till she approached, and he turned full upon her, that he 
 felt relieved. 
 
 "Gideon," she said, "go not if you would he safe. 1 warn 
 yiu, stay where you are yon are in danger if you leave 
 Zion s Hill." 
 
 "In danger, Rachel! in danger, my pretty cousin!" he 
 replied, with some show of recovered impudence, if not courage, 
 in his manner "why, what should be the danger that I nuisr 
 apprehend, unless it be that to which I have been so long ex 
 posed 1 My danger is from you, Rachel you only !" 
 
 He would have taken her hand as he spoke, with an air <>f 
 excessive familiarity, but she repulsed him and drew back at 
 his approach, with a manner, the evident aversion of which 
 brought a burning flush upon his cheek 
 
 "This is no time," she said coldly, "for these follies ; and 
 least of all is it a season for you to indulge in them. Hear n:e, 
 Gideon; I am in possession of your secrets I can guess 
 where, even now, you would bend your steps. You go to warn 
 the robbers in the swamp of the danger that awaits them." 
 
 " Ha !" It Avas all he spoke, and his teeth almost chattered 
 in the utterance. 
 
 "Yes it is known to me the dreadful tie that binds you 
 to these miserable men. I have heard you in speech with their 
 lender, :-ind others of the band. They are in danger you can 
 r>t rhow them this, without involving yourself in their danger, 
 vul it is beyond your power to save them. Stay where you 
 rc or, if you leave Zion s Hill, let me counsel you to take a 
 course far different from that .you intend to-night. Fly to the 
 eastward; I will keep your secret, and do my best to get the 
 means for you from my uncle." 
 
 " Rachel, you must really care for me. This friendly rev 
 elation this pursuit of me this interest in my fortunes -- 
 this care for my safety, sufficiently prove it. Be mine, dear 
 Rachel, and I will do as you counsel I will fly from *.ii.a < T> 
 federac.y I will go with you where you please." 
 
470 BORDER BEAGLES 
 
 v> This is only trifling, Gideon you should know me better 
 I have already told you that I am pledged to another," 
 
 "But you do not love him you can not nay can I doubt 
 your feeling of preference for me after this proof? It is mid 
 night the darkness of the night and forest are around us- 
 yet you seek me to counsel me against danger you " 
 
 " God help you to wiser thoughts, Gideon. Is it not enough 
 that you are the only child of that uncle who has been a father 
 to me ? Is this not sufficient reason why I should seek to beo)> 
 you from danger, and him from misery?" 
 
 "I must believe there is yet another and a better rear;.- , 
 am sure, Rachel, that we can be happy together." 
 
 "Never ! never !" she exclaimed, with impetuous energy, *.&. 
 provoked by the insolent self-complaisance of his tone and man 
 ner, she wrested from him the hand which he had partifJIy 
 taken in his grasp. " Flatter yourself with no such idle fai, 
 Gideon Badger. Happiness with you is impossible. o 
 shall the heavy sod lie upon my bosom, and I not feel :, ihx.:. 
 I yield myself up to the hope, or to the chance of finding \ 
 piness in any closer connection with you than now ! Ever. *i 
 I pain to look upon you as I must daily, and see yo:. E: 1 ,?-.- 
 and know you as you are !" 
 
 " Rachel Morrison, you have determined your own fe :3 T-. * 
 know too much for your safety and for mine. My 
 henceforward must be in securing you. You have been *u 
 some pains to pry into my secrets to follow me l.er-j i. . t 
 there, and become a party to those concerns in which yc i 
 required to take no part. This proves that you have sunder ,* 
 interest in my fortunes to justify me in forcing a portion of t^.e-T. 
 upon yo ;. You are right: I am about to join the beagles :ii 
 the wamp. It is useless now to deny to you that I am one of 
 them. You must go with me. You must be mine from this in 
 stant ! Your own lips have sealed your doom ! Your man, 
 Rawiins, is not here to save you now !" 
 
 He advanced upon her as he spoke. She retreated a pace 
 *nd r>poke with tones of coolness and deliberation tones \vhich 
 trembled only from the aroused energies of her spirit. 
 
 "You are mistaken, Gideon Badger. I am prepared for this. 
 It is you that have sealed your doom, or will seal it, if you ad 
 
THK WOLF AT B,\ V, * 
 
 vance another step toward me! If tl:c mini, Walter fi.ii\\lhi> 
 
 he is a man, Gideon Badger ! if lie be not here, to save me. 
 
 he has left me that with which I shall save myself! One of 
 his pistols is now in my hand loaded by him, and left at, my 
 request with a fearful conviction that it might be necessary 
 at some such moment AS the present ! Your threats have thus 
 prepared me; I have learned the use of the weapon ; and, as ] 
 hope still to maintain the whiteness of my soul to the last, I air, 
 resolved to use it against yourself, sooner than sufl er you to 
 Bully the purity of mine. You know me well enough, Gideon 
 Parser, to know irat T will as solemnly execute the resolution 
 which I have so solemnly made ! Now, approach me with vio 
 lence, if you dare !" 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 r* V WOLF AT BAY THK APK ON THE SHOrj.DERS OF THE 
 
 T1ER A COUP-DK-THEATRK, A LA S1DDONS. 
 
 " Such a life, 
 
 Methinks, had m<-tal in it to survive 
 An age of men." GEORGE CHAPMAN. 
 
 THE solemn accents, the deliberate, resolved tone of the 
 maiden, not less than the energetic language which she used, 
 v T ould have impressed a much bolder person than Gideon Bad 
 ger with the danger of trifling with such a spirit. It was evi 
 dent that all was serious and composed earnestness in he/ mind ; 
 :ini her words derived no emphasis, or very little, from the ex 
 hibition of the pistol, and the click of the lock as it distinctly 
 Bounded under her fingers. To the dastard soul of Gideon Bad 
 ger it simck a sentiment of fear, which at once disarmed him 
 of his insolence and arrested his approach. But a moment be 
 fore he had persuaded himself that lie should be able to carry 
 her in safety to the swamp. He had no sort of doubt that the 
 beagles would escape the pursuit of Rnwlins s party, even if 
 they remained uncounselled by himself; for, well apprized >* 
 
j i - liUi Li.ii UK,\i>- 
 
 liic numbe.) Cs. 1 ra mi fit. /t ions ; nd resunivr.-: ci ihc fraternity, ht 
 aid not fcai bin they would be advised of the approach of thfi 
 enemy by at kast a dozen out-sentries. How easy to find 
 shelter w\th them for Rachel Morrison; and there, secure from 
 p irsuit, a^d having her entirely in his power and at his mercy, 
 what should hinder the consummation of cviiv* even of his worst 
 purposes ? 
 
 Such was the precious scheme which his mind conceived 
 fiom the fLst moment that .night when Rachel appeared upon 
 the scene. Such was the scheme which her masculine resolu 
 tion c.jd her foresight so easily defcatec. Gideon Badger V,;L- 
 not calculated to be a magnificent villain. Ho was a petty ra 
 cal vx/ily. In a city like New York he would have aif.de au 
 excellent auction-dealer one of those cunning gentry that sell 
 baubles by the lot, and bluster when you refuse to keep your 
 hasty purchases. Still, base as was his nature, lie felt liio 
 meanness of his present position Incapable of pressing li .v 
 villaiiv to the utmost, he would have ascribed his abortive at 
 tempt to merriment only. With a laugh, which did not nU ^ 
 get her disguise the tremulous tone of his voice, he said : 
 
 " Why, Rachel, you seem to think that I was serious 1 at 
 least, you are grown serious yourself. And so you actually go 
 armed ? That, of all things, is the strangest ! Why should 
 you go armed ? What would you do with a loaded pistol, J 
 should like to know ?" 
 
 " Use it for my protection, Gideon, if I found any one -- i- 
 ously bent to assail me," was the cool reply. 
 
 "But you could not have supposed that I would <lc eiu- .. ^ 
 thing, Rachel?" 
 
 " I do ! indeed, I know that you would, if you dared! it 
 is well for both of us, Gideon, that you are not quite so valiiU.r 
 as you are wicked !" 
 
 " You speak plainly, RacheJ, was the hoarse repty. 
 
 "It is best," answered the maiden; "it is for yo ..r ^n,:.-".~ 7 
 that I have spoken thus plainly. Hear me, Gideon. \vh : l - .i 
 speak more plainly yet. To save you from a great perl ! ; 
 have ventured into these woods at this hcAir of the nigi;:, i 
 spite of the fears ar-d scrunl-3 8 -vhich are so miturC io --P.; 
 sex " 
 
THE WOLF AT BAY. 473 
 
 "And of which your own share soc.ins umiceountnUy small," 
 ^as the sneering interruption of her companion. 
 
 " That is as you think," was the composed reply. " Small 
 or great, they were sufficient to have kept me back from this 
 interview, but that. -v I was resolved to add one more effort to 
 those I have already made, to save you from the dangers intc 
 whicb you are yet resolved to fall." 
 
 "You are very kind very benignant." 
 
 She did not heed the impertinence of this speech, or its 
 equally impertinent manner, as she proceeded : 
 
 " Yet, not because I had care or interest in you, Gideon Bad 
 ger, did I take these pains, or incur a risk, which your own con 
 duct has just assured me was no small one but for that good 
 old man, your father, who has been more than a father to me, 
 and whose gray hairs would go down to the grave in wretched 
 ness, did any mishap or dishonor reach his son. I do not seek 
 to cave you from the danger so much as I seek to spare him 
 the sorrow and the shame. You have shown yourself too little 
 careful of my feelings, Gideon, during our long acquaintance, to 
 deserve much at my hands, of either respect or kindness. On 
 the contrary, sin. 3 we have reached maturity, I have known you 
 by your persecutions by your ungenerous persecutions 
 rather than by any more commendable qualities or conduct. 
 Still, I would save you from your comrades, from yourself, 
 from the laws which you have outraged, and which you are now 
 about to outrage. I have kept your secret from your father, 
 from Rawlins, from all I have restrained, though with greai 
 difficulty, another from declaring it. I now tell you, Gideon, 
 solemnly here and seriously, that if you go this night into the 
 swamp, you go into unnecessary danger. I have a presentiment, 
 Gideon, that you go never to return." 
 
 He would have ridiculed her counsels and her fears. He 
 made an attempt to laugh at her solemnity, but the effort degen 
 erated into a lugubrious chuckle, that died away in a hoarse 
 whisper in his throat. 
 
 " Tell me what you know" he at length exclaimed, in a tone 
 of bii.phatic utterance which sufficiently declared his apprch % .M 
 eious "speak not to me of your presentiments, and all that 
 sort of superstitious nonsei.se, but tell rne what you hav. Heard 
 
475 HOK DKll IJEAGLKS. 
 
 U.-/UU mat /.>"( . Come you have it all fmm your man, 
 Rawlnis ; if you really desire to serve my father, and TO save 
 me, his dutiful son, to Ins embraces, let me know what the plan 
 is for tln. catching of the beagj,"- A word, Rachel Morrison, a 
 single word of positive assurance will do more than all your 
 conjectures, superstitions, and fancies. Speak that word and I 
 remain at Ziou s Hill I remain with you." 
 
 "With me! But no! I will speak no bitterness, Gideon, in 
 this moment, when your life and my hope may equally lest 
 upon the verge of a dreadful precipice." 
 
 " Your hope and my life ! What mean you 1 1 do not under 
 stand the connection." 
 
 "Nor will I explain it, Gideon. The only warning which I 
 am willing that you shall understand is one that I am willing to 
 repeat. Your insolent words, tone, and manner, shall not make 
 me less desirous of your safety ; since nothing that you can say or 
 do, can make me lose sight of what I owe to your venerable 
 father." 
 
 " Oh this is all talk, Rachel. Can you or will you tell n e 
 nothing of these handsome fellows that are so valiantly resolved 
 to pursue my comrades into the swamp ? You see, I admit 
 them to be comrades. You have proved yourself so close a 
 keeper of the secret heretofore, that I can not hesitate in confi 
 ding to you my admission of the truth. I tell you, therefore, 
 that I am sworn to go to the swamp to-night sworn to myself 
 and them to convey the intelligence of the danger which is 
 supposed to threaten them. 1 am bound to them for this. My 
 safety my very life depends upon it. If I fail them, they 
 have their laws and penalties, to which those of society are hut 
 t0 y S _ the merest trifles that ever yet assumed the features of 
 danger to the eyes of man. Now, Rachel, let me but clearly see 
 that there is an occasion for your caution, and I will not go. 
 will have an excuse which shall secure me from the penalties of 
 any violated oath." 
 
 " Father in heaven ! and can it be, Gideon Badger, thai y\: 
 are so fearfully related to these men ?" 
 
 " Pshaw! Rachel you waste time with these interjection.-, 
 replied the youth with tones of dogged impatience. 
 point to the point. Is there present danger to me, ami wUi 
 
THE WOLF AT BAY. 475 
 
 is its form whence comes it from whom where? To that to 
 that, Rachel. Speak to that." 
 
 Have I not said have you not heard? Surely you do not 
 despise the attempts which Walter Rawlins and Mr. Vernon are now 
 making? You have heard the men that brought in the 
 prisoners? " 
 
 "Surely I know all this, Rachel Merrison, but I thought you knew 
 more. Knowing this, I yet resolve to go. As for the danger, set 
 your heart easy on that subject. By the dawn, wJ|en your gallant is 
 in motion for the swamp, I shall be at Zion s Hill again, or so near it as 
 to smell the breakfast; and the beagles will be so far on their way from 
 the place of danger that their nests will be cold enough when the 
 hunters arrive. So, Rachel, if you will not think better of it, and go 
 with me I renew my offer the best counsel I can give you is, to 
 get to bed as soon as you may, and dream of more evil for Gideon 
 Badger. It will be easy to dream of that which we sincerely 
 wish . " 
 
 " I wish you nothing but good, Gideon, and once more warn you 
 not to go into the swamp to-night. There is blood upon the path. 
 Something tells me it will be fatal to you if you go. " 
 
 " Unless you go with me, Rachel. Nay, why will you be so stub 
 born? You know not what you lose, Rachel! Joys of which you 
 never dreamed, and " 
 
 "Go! evil son of a worthy father go!" was the stern interruption 
 of the maiden, as she turned from the reprobate. You obey a written 
 destiny. God will not suffer you to be saved by so feeble an instru 
 ment as I." 
 
 The solemnity of these tones sounded like a trumpet in the 
 ears of the dissolute youth, and the feeling of awful conviction 
 which lay at the heart of Rachel Morrison, and which impressed 
 her with the faith that no further effort could help him who had 
 been delivered over to his doom by the fiat of Heaven, for a 
 moment impressed itself also upon the soul of the person whom 
 it chiefly interested. But this feeling was not suffered to obtain 
 more than a moment s ascendency. The coward is frequently 
 rash through a consciousness of his own cowardice, and the con 
 viction that he really trembles, leads him to resolve upon a 
 course which shall convince the spectator that he was never 
 
476 BORDER BTvUf! >. 
 
 more courageous in his life, lie Ir.i .: ;<;" ;:t ti.r <ii:cns which 
 made him shudder, and mocked at the warning which terrified 
 him. He strove to shroud his apprehensions in his ribaldry, 
 and his last words to the maiden consisted in a renewal of his 
 proposition to share with him the licentious life of the swamp 
 the freedom from all restraint, which, to his mind, seemed th;. 
 very acme of human freedom and felicity. She answered his 
 proposition by a prayer contained in a single sentence which in 
 creased the awe ^at dwelt within his heart : " Cut him not off 
 in his sins. Oh, G d! smite him nnt suddenly in thy anger." 
 
 He disappeared in that instant. He had not the spirit to 
 respond to this. 
 
 Meanwhile, the reader must not suppose that the business in 
 the swamp remained at a stand. On the contrary, never were 
 men more alert to do execution in an enemy s country, than the 
 worthy fellows under their several leaders, Rawlins, Jamison 
 and the amateur. The latter, however, resolute as any of the 
 rest, when he reached the spot where he had lost his every-day 
 habiliments, could not resist the temptation of giving to his lit 
 tle band, a brief narrative of those afflicting events and the 
 other circumstances that followed his arrival in the swamp, and 
 his connection with that \rch-beagle, Jones. 
 
 At another moment it migl i: jrnuse the reader, vvLo is already 
 familiar with these circumstances, to hear Horsey relate them 
 His story would seem a very different one from ours. Nay, thr. 
 two would scarce seem identical in any one respect, RO complete 
 ly did he suppress those proofs of mental flexibility not U 
 say gullibility on his part, which rendered it so easy a mat 
 ter for the cunning outlaw to persuade him that the nioon was 
 a green cheese, and he the* best man to cut it. As ho told the 
 tale, it seemed to his hearers, that he had traced the outlaws to 
 their haunts designedly that he had cheated the dull dogs into 
 the belief that he was a simple citizen, ambitious of no for 
 tune more lofty than that of bringing the house clown in applau 
 ses of his superior merits as an actor beyond Komble arid 
 Forrest, Kean and Cooper. How he had concealed his real 
 purposes, and fathomed theirs; how he. had traversed their ha n -its. 
 traced their secrets, learned their signs, and read all their inyo- 
 teries, is a history to itself which might deserve its owu vc..ut.,< 
 
THE WOLF AT BAY. 4i I 
 
 Yet. such was the fellow s ingenuity, he toll no Re ---no actual 
 lie and certainly meant none. His was one of those active 
 and tiexihle imaginations that grow ductile, at the slightest pres 
 sure and catch the slightest change of color from the- moP T 
 casual cloud. His bricks soon became marble, and his Nnc^ 
 never went without its wings. 
 
 On the present occasion it almost involved him in a \\uti,e 
 difficulty than he had ever been in before. While lie reiMs- i 
 his experience among the beagles, who should he encounter but 
 his old acquaintance, Mr. Bull Aristophanes Bull whose 
 headstrong opposition had already been a source of such infinite 
 discomfiture to him ; and who, if time had been given him, might 
 very soon have corrected the little mistakes so naturally made 
 in Horsey s narration. Fortunately, Bull had been at his usual 
 potations, and our actor was no less prompt in action than iu 
 speech. When Bull struggled forward, with a skin full, thorough 
 ly soaked, and only half conscious of the globe s motion asking 
 in hoarse tones, and with a hiccough : " What the li-ll s the 
 matter here, boys?" he received in reply, a blow over t lio 
 skull from Horsey s pistol in such downright good earnest that, 
 it would have tasked the powers of all the Bull breed to have 
 kept him well-balanced under it. Down he went, with a thump 
 that fully assured the actor of his intention to await him there. 
 
 This occurrence took place not twenty steps from the sleeping- 
 place of Jones; and Horsey little prudent as he was began 
 to entertain some misgivings that this cunning outlaw might be 
 alarmed by the noise, and would give him trouble. A clump of 
 shrub trees and one sturdy pine, stood between them and their 
 victim ; and here he commanded his men to pause until he should 
 survey the ground alone. 
 
 He advanced cautiously, keeping himself under cover of the 
 shrubbery as he went forward, and soon had the satisfaction to 
 find that all was quiet in the sylvan wigwam. He then motiunca 
 his fellows to advance , and two at the entrance, and three other* 
 conveniently stationed to yield assistance to the active assailants, 
 entirely cut off the outlaw s hope of escape. 
 
 Still he miglit give the alarm, and this it was important to pre 
 vent. Handkerchiefs were brought forward and^got in readiness, 
 while Horsey led the way and boldly penetrated tjio tent of poleb 
 
IT.* BORDER BEAGLKS. 
 
 and bashes under which the enemy slept. A stout rl iimv follow, 
 ed and seconded him, and the deep breathing of the outlaw 
 p-uided them to the particular place of his repose. 
 
 Still they could see nothing. They had to be guided entirely 
 by the sense of feeling and the ear. At length, after mucb 
 cautious management and some delay, they placed themselves 
 0:1 each side of his head. This ascertained, a whisper gave the 
 signal, and while the stout companion of Horsey threw himself 
 on the outlaw, the latter adroitly passed a slip-noose around 
 his neck, and awakened the sleeper to consciousness by a pres 
 sure of no moderate force. The arms and feet of their captive 
 were meanwhile secured by the rest of their comrades, and the 
 power of further harm was taken from him with a promptness 
 and completeness, that would have been creditable to greater 
 proficients. 
 
 Still, with all their precautions, they could not altogether 
 prevent hid giving some alarm. With the readiness of a veteran 
 the outlaw, at the first consciousness which he had of the danger 
 endeavored to shout the signal of the band a whoop, borrowed 
 from the Indians, which, with better lungs, they had learned to 
 endow with a somewhat more terrific energy but the unre 
 lenting fingers of Horsey were as prompt as the beagle s tongue, 
 and the pressure of the ligature around the jugular, suddenly 
 cut short the sounds before they had acquired sufficient vigor to 
 pass beyond the gorge of his throat. A guard was set over him, 
 with orders to shoot him at the first movement or show of rescue, 
 while the rest of the captors proceeded in search of other foes. 
 
 It will not need that we follow them. It may be necessary, 
 however, to note one adventure of the party under Jamison. 
 The worthy Alabamian was a second time fortunate in meeting 
 with his quondam friend, the Irishman, Dennis O Dougherty. 
 His knee was upon the fellow s chest in the dark, when the 
 brogue of the struggling prisoner declared who he was. 
 
 " Ha ! Dennis, my boy is it you ?" 
 
 "By J-BUS, honey, but you re a bit mistaken in the parson. 
 I m a very different jontleman, to your liking." 
 
 An effort to rise succeeded this speech, which the Alabamian 
 effectually arrested by tickling the throat of his prisoner with 
 the point of his bowis. 
 
THE WOLF AT u.\\ -tf? 
 
 4 He asy now, will you! and don t be afther giving your- 
 elf any more thVoubie. Don t you think I understand plain 
 spaking, my honey ?" 
 
 " You re no fool, Dennis," said the Alabamian, as he found 
 ni-3 Irishman lying quiet. "Had you twisted the^t^st inch 
 f your animal, Dennis, after the hint I gave y.u, T u h .. been 
 through you with more steel than Dick Smlrh vr owJl.wed. 
 I will but run a ploughline under your ;-,rj;i3, D^inia, t. keep 
 you comfortable, and you may tharv. :~ie iliat I <Li. c put it 
 i bout your gullet. Is it easy to your V^QW. Dennis *," 
 
 11 Asy J-sus, Mr. Jamison, &ro you a joutleman ? 
 
 Well, anything to make you comfortable; and to I ll let 
 out a little; but, look you, Dermie, be quiet. I m going from 
 you a bit, and if you re not quiet, tlio man that watches you 
 won t leave the skin to your teeth. He s a raal Ingiu at sculp 
 ing, and your head will b< t his skirts, .vhile your tongue s 
 chattering about it." 
 
 But the smaller villains are not our oLject, and it will suffix 
 to say, that it was not a difficult task, so complete had bo-Mi tin. 
 surprise, to capture nearly all the inmates of the SWP.TJJII. The 
 number at Cane Castle was usually small the great bvdy of 
 the fraternity, as detailed in our former work, being dig-age-.! in 
 active operations while traversing the country. Voi iion knew 
 til? , everything depended on the capture or death of tiie chief 
 - the master-spirit who had conceived a plan of opeiatious so 
 xtensive, so bold, so well detailed, and so sternly carried out. 
 To this labor, as we have seen, he devoted himself. A livelier 
 interest served to stimulate his zeal, and to make bin; no less 
 anxious and eager than resolute for the conflict. He knew that 
 if he found Saxon awake, the struggle that would probably 
 ensue, must be mortal. For this issue his energies of mind ayj 
 body were braced to the utmost, and the image of Virgin! 
 Maitland, in the power of the ruffian and suffering from his vie 
 lence, gave a terrible earnestness to his resolve, from the firs., 
 moment when he embarked upon ihe adventure. He did mid 
 the outlaw awake, and under cii* ;::mstances to keep alive the in 
 dignation and resolution of his heart. Conducted by the dwarf 
 Stillyarrls, to the wigwam, known among the beagles as the 
 equatter ri cabin at LitUe Bend, he beheld at a single glance, th> 
 
480 
 
 object of his affections, and the object of lily hate. Virginia Mail 
 land was before him, and before her was Saxon. The circumstan 
 ces under which they stood, made the blood boil within the veim 
 of the inflamed beholder, and he found it difficult, so to restrain 
 his pastil!, as to look around him with deliberation, and deter 
 mine calmly wlat course to pursue. The house in which the} 
 were, was a common fabric of logs such as is universal in the 
 new countries of tlio southwest. It stood upon pine blocks, 
 about four feet from the ground. It consisted of two rooms, 
 separated from each other by a thin partition, the door of which 
 opened iu the centre. Eaoli room had an entrance from with 
 out, independent of the othor, and a single window in each suf 
 ficed to give it light. On the present occasion the doors and 
 windows were closed, and the observation of Vernon was made 
 through crevices between ihe logs of the building, of which the 
 number was sufficient for all the purposes of espionage. Con 
 ducted by the dwarf, Stilly ards, to one of these crevices, which 
 the urchin seemed to find very readily, the objects that met the 
 eyes of Vernon increased his emotions. Virginia Maitland was 
 seated on a rude chair, at the door-way between the two rooms, 
 her back to the one, which happened to be the sleeping apart 
 ment, and her face to Saxon, who strode the room before her. 
 tier hands were clasped and resting upon her knees. Her 
 neck and head were bent forward, while her eyes, with a tear 
 less anxiety, watched every movement of the outlaw, as keenly 
 as one would watch the form of the panther crouching in the 
 tree above him, and in the attitude to spring. It was evident 
 that as yet no outrage, other than that of her abduction, had 
 been attempted by the ruffian ; but her looks amply testified 
 her fears, while his as clearly manifested his desires. That the 
 outlaw had been striving to persuade her to his purposes was 
 Hvident enough, and that his persuasions only awakened her 
 apprehensions, might be inferred from her attitude of mixed 
 prayer, watchfulness, and terror. 
 
 Such was the picture that first met the eye of Vernon. The 
 w-iids of Saxon a moment after, that met his ears, confirmed 
 :11 the first impressions which it made, upon his mind ; and he 
 placed the muzzle of his pistol, which was already cocked and 
 n his h?ind, at the opening, which was sufficiently large to 
 
THE WOLF AT BAY. 481 
 
 idmit of his certain aim at the ruffian. Bui his check glowed 
 a moment after with a feeling akin to shame. Vemon was not 
 familiar with the shedding of blood, and no man who is not 
 unless he be equally cowardly and malignant can possibly 
 take life, except in the whirl and excitement of actual conflict. 
 He felt that there was something base, from his place of con 
 cealment, to shoot down the unconscious man, however deser 
 ving he might be of his doom. To fling down from its erect 
 place and posture an image so noble, made after the form of 
 God, and filled with such godlike attributes and endowments 
 is, at best, and under its most justifiable circumstances, a mel 
 ancholy performance ; and with something of a romantic reso 
 lution, such as makes the wisest of men rash at seasons, he de 
 termined upon the bolder and more generous measure of giving 
 the outlaw the benefit of an equal struggle. Such a prixe as 
 Virginia Maitland, seemed to justify every hazard, and Vernou 
 resolved upon the very last. 
 
 lie rose from his recumbent position, and was about to pro 
 ceed toward the doorway, when he felt a hand laid lightly upon 
 his shoulder. Stillyards, meanwhile, had disappeared. lie 
 turned at the interruption fancying another enemy at his 
 elbow and met the eyes of a woman one so youthful and 
 so beautiful as to strike him with wonder at seeing her in so 
 wild a place. She met his gaze seemingly without emotion. 
 There was a calm solemnity in her aspect, seen by the serious 
 starlight, which riveted his attention, commanded his respect, 
 and would have subdued, even in a far less raverent mind than 
 his, any ribald thoughts or suspicions. 
 
 " Stay ! but a single instant," she whispered, and her up 
 lifted finger gave him like warning. Before he could answer 
 her, or imagine the object of her intrusion, she was gone from 
 sight literally vanished behind an angle of the building. 
 
 But her warning was forgotten with her disappearance. Ver- 
 non was too much aroused for unnecessary delay, particularly. 
 too, as he saw not the reason of the woman s injunctions ; and. 
 just then, the pleading tones of Virginia s voice reached hi 
 ears in supplication and alarm. Breathless, he darted upon the 
 steps of massive pine that led to the door of the building, and 
 with a single blow of his heel, sent it from its hinges. Another 
 
482 BOIiDKit BKAGLKS. 
 
 moment found hiir. within the apartment, and face to face with 
 the outlaw. 
 
 The proceeding was the work of an instant, but it found the 
 outlaw prepared. He seized his pistols, which lay on a table 
 near him, and instantly presented them. 
 
 Vernon had not seen them before ; and had he but waited, 
 as he had been counselled by Florence Marbois, this danger 
 would have been spared him. In the same moment when Saxon 
 grasped the weapons, the hand of Florence was stretched out 
 from the inner apartment to which she had penetrated with 
 noiseless footsteps, for the purpose of securing thein. 
 
 But, though Saxon grasped and cocked the pistols at hi 
 enemy, he did not dare to use them. With the first appearance 
 of Vernon, Virginia had started to her feet, and at the sight of 
 his danger, she rushed between the parties, alternately turning 
 an imploring face and an uplifted hand to each. She no longer 
 exhibited the passive attitude of fear. All apprehension for 
 herself departed when she feared for her lover; and that living 
 grace of form and movement, which speaks out when the 
 mother-mood prevails, riveted, at the same moment, witb a 
 sense of equal admiration, the souls of Vernon and the outlaw. 
 
 And there, on each side of her, the hostile parties stood 
 she, the angel between them, preventing strife, if not securing 
 peace. Her words, wild, incoherent, impetuous, addressed the 
 one and then the other; but failed of much eftect upon either. 
 Her position alone controlled the warfare which her presence- 
 was yet calculated to inspire. 
 
 Suddenly, the arms of Saxon were grasped by Florence from 
 behind ; a deep imprecation burst from the outlaw s lips as he 
 distinguished her. Vainly did he strive to shake her off; and 
 the moment lost in this effort enabled Vernon to grapple with 
 him at advantage. While they struggled, the dwarf, Stillyards, 
 dropped upon the shoulders of the outlaw from the scantling 
 above ; and before he could be shaken off or removed, he had 
 dug with his nails which had been suffered to grow to an in 
 ordinate length -7- entirely into the ears of his late leader. This 
 was one of the forms of retribution which consoled him for the 
 similar indignity to which Saxon had subjected himself. B) 
 his time the house was rilled; and the outlaw chief, who l.ac 
 
A COUr-DE-TllEATUE, A LA SlU^u;^. -lOo 
 
 struggled manfully while any hope remained to him, now 
 yielded quietly to numbers. 
 
 " This, then, is your work, Florence," he murmured, as the 
 woman he had wronged confronted him. 
 
 " Ay, mine ! I glory in it I rejoice, too, that you feel it to 
 be mine! You could scorn my love! perhaps, that was not 
 so great an error as to scorn my power ! It glads me to the soul 
 to think that you can feel it and acknowledge it at last !" 
 
 " If that will give you pleasure, Florence, he happy. If it 
 can atone for the wrongs which I have done you, to know 
 that you have compassed my doom, you have ample vengeance. 
 I owe my death to your hands." 
 
 " Your death atone, Edward Saxon, for my misery ! for the 
 wrong done to my honor to my hope to my pride to my 
 affections to all things, and thoughts, and feelings, which are 
 dear to woman which ennoble her to herself and endear her 
 to society! Monstrous vanity! Your death, Edward Saxon, 
 were you thrice to die, could never atone for the wrongs YOU 
 have inflicted on the frail, fond, foolish heart of Florence Mnr- 
 bois ! You have taken from her all that made life precious 
 and the life which seems so desirable to you, is her scorn ! 
 Look, and see what is her value of life r Edward Saxon; and, if 
 you be not utterly base, you will yet learn from her example 
 how to baffle the hangman. She to whom you ascribe your 
 f ate, will show you how completely indifferent you have made 
 her to her own." 
 
 She advanced closely as she spoke to her betrayer. Her 
 majestic form seemed to tower far above its usual height; and 
 no language could describe the bitter s^orn which looked from 
 all her features, as she mocked him with that love of life which 
 bhe professed to feel no longer. While yet the last words trem 
 bled on her lips, she drove a dagger, which till then was con 
 cealed within her garments, deep down into her breast. The 
 deed was done before eye could see or hand interpose to pre 
 vent it. She was caught, while falling, by Vernon. Her last 
 words, clear and emphatic, though broken, were addressed to 
 die outlaw : 
 
 "Live, Edward Saxon if life be so precious to you live 
 
484 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 It has nothing precious now for me ! To you I owe it, at least, 
 that death is also without pain ! Live ! live !" 
 
 Her eyes followed him even in death. He strove, but vainly, 
 to avert his own. He could not he dared riot. She had con 
 quered, and the spell of her power was upon him in her dyi-m 
 moments. Unconsciously, the long breath escaped from hir-. 
 like a convulsive groan, when the thick glaze passing ovor !<:; 
 eyes, rescued him from the fascinating intensity of their gh .nv. 
 Big drops suddenly started out upon his brow, as if he undri-- 
 went a fearful agony ; and his limbs tottered like one feel!<- 
 with a long sickness, as they led him from the apartment under 
 guard. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 FINALE TWO-FOLD RINGING OF THE BELLS, FOR FATE AND 
 
 FELICITY FUNERAL AND BRIDAL. 
 
 "Last scene of all, 
 That ends this strange, eventful history." SHAKSPERK. 
 
 VERNON bore Virginia Haiti find, swooning, from this terrible 
 scene, the actual performance of which had occupied far less 
 time than our description of it. It had passed before the 
 maiden s eyes, more like some dreadful phantasmagoria of the 
 magician, than an event of actual life. He bore her into the 
 fresh air, which partly revived her ; and, under the direction 
 and with the assistance of Horsey Avho affected a better 
 knowledge of Cane Castle than he really had succeeded in 
 rinding and conveying her to the little cottage, the mLtresn m 
 which had put so fearful a finish to a life of feverish pain an-! 
 most unhappy excitement. The last sacrifice was paid to tin- 
 lingering sentiment of that love which still survived jealousy 
 and anger, and which nothing but death could utterly extin 
 guish. She had obtained the vengeance which she sought ; HIM! 
 the thirsi i or which, in the first moment of her misery, had over 
 born.e the, more native feeling of her heart. That done, tjbu* 
 
FINALE. 485 
 
 original passion resumed some portion of its activity, hut onlv 
 to Tujike, her feel still more acutely the undesirable and worth 
 less character of all that remained to life; and the resolution tc 
 and it taken at a moment when her vengeance was yet doubt 
 ful seemed more than ever proper to her abased and erring 
 spirit, when its claims were all satisfied. Is it sinful to hope 
 that her crime was softened by her sufferings 1 There was so 
 much that was bright and noble in her soul amid all its sinoko 
 and impurities, that humanity may well be suffered to presume 
 upon the indulgence of mercy, in behalf of one, in whose soul, 
 amid all the cloud, the smoke, and the impurity, there was so 
 much that was really noble in sentiment, and bright and beau 
 ciful in thought. Florence Marbois, under other auspices, had 
 been one of those lovely lights of society, that guide the hearts 
 which they warm, and hallow the affections which they inspire 
 and requite. 
 
 Pass we to the living, no less lovely, and purer woman to 
 the fair Virginia, who, in the arms of Vernon, was soon re 
 stored, not less to the consciousness of life, than of those dear 
 emotions that sanctify and sometimes make it heaven ! If the 
 past scene of terror, and strife, and death, through which she 
 had been hurried, was not forgotten, its sting at least was taken 
 away by the conviction that all who were dear to her had gone 
 through it in safety, and that all danger to herself and others 
 was past. She could now breathe in unrestraint, and yield her 
 self for a space to that freedom of soul which delights in inakhip 
 its acknowledgments to the beloved one. If ever maiden were 
 justified in speaking freely her happiness to her lover, it is ehe 
 who has just been rescued by \m gallantry from the most evil 
 forms of danger. 
 
 Virginia, in the hour of her deliverance, had no reserve. She 
 hung upon the bosom of Vernon, happy in the weakness, whicii, 
 while it made his valor dear to her, furnished her with the bust 
 apology to cling to his embrace. 
 
 A moment was given to these raptures a brief moment ; and 
 the lover was recalled by one of his subordinates to a recollec 
 tion of his further duties. The night was fleeting fast, and it 
 was the counsel of Rawlins, Jamison, and such other of his 
 men, as had a claim to advise in the proceedings, that they 
 
* BOIIDKR HKAdLKS. 
 
 y ; !;!|!l ins{;;:: ; !v LTosb llif ri\vr. ;i il, \vith their prisoners, re 
 trace tlieir steps toward Zion s Hill. But Vcrnon thought 
 otherwise, lie knew the difficulty of travelling by night 
 through unaccustomed swamps along with a daring set of men, 
 who, though bound, might yet prove troublesome ; and who- 
 indeed, might readily find succor from passing bands of their 
 companions. There was yet another reason which led Vernon 
 t<> defer the movement of his paity until morning. 
 
 Doubtless," he said, "there are individuals of this gang 
 going from and coming into the swamp at all hours of the night, 
 i y preserving the utmost silence where we are, placing a guard 
 in each of tlieir places of watch, and answering after their own 
 fashion, any signals that we may hear from without, we shall 
 be able to gather into our fold a few more of these scoundrels. 
 I would not like to do the work by halves; still less am 1 wil 
 ling to risk what has been gained by any precipitation of move 
 ment to-night Our task now is easy ; we have only to secure 
 thoroughly the prisoners." 
 
 " That is already done," said Rawlins, interrupting him. 
 
 "Then our we rk is easy. It lacks but three hours to the 
 dawn. We must keep our eyes open for that space of time, 
 and our weapons ready, and with the first gleam of light we 
 can safely cross the river with all our captives. To move now 
 would be to risk their loss, and, perhaps, our own. It is nc 
 easy matter to keep track in a strange region, and at night, 
 with prisoners whom we may have to drive befove us, and who 
 might drop us in the darkness without greatly suffering from 
 our pistols. Have the horses come? have you heard the sig 
 nal from the other bank ?" 
 
 " They are there. Pollard crossed over to them by my ordci 
 a bit ago," was the reply. 
 
 " It is well ! Everything favors us> men. We have lost nc 
 life, but little blood, and have so far succeeded in all our objects 
 Let us lose nothing by rashness. Coolness now and carefulness 
 can alone secure our conquests. To you, Rawlins, as you knew 
 the swamp best of all of us, I must assign the task of placing 
 guards over the best positions and hark ! do you hear rrtb 
 ing ? That surely was a signal." 
 
 u A beag .e, by the pOAvers ! Here s fish for our net!" *- 
 
FINALE. 487 
 
 claimed Rawlins, as lie started from the thicket where this conference 
 had taken place. Jamison was about to follow, as also Horsey, but 
 Vernon arrested them. 
 
 " Rawlins is enough, and you might confuse him. He is equal 
 to any robber of the gang, and will do the business more effectually 
 if let alone. Hark! already he answers. His bay is quite as good as 
 any of the beagles." 
 
 Vernon s judgment was correct. The sturdy woodman hur 
 ried in the direction of the sound, which still continued to reach 
 his ears at intervals, becoming more and more clear and distinct 
 as the party drew nigh. He stationed himself under cover at a point 
 where he had surprised one of the robbers, and, responding to the 
 signal as he did so, coolly awaited the approach of the intruder. 
 As the latter, emerged on horseback from the woods above, he 
 addressed the counterfeit presentment with all the familiarity of an 
 old acquaintance: 
 
 "Ha! that you, Baker, or Chambers, which!" 
 
 Rawlins grunted forth a sound which might pass for an 
 affirmative. He feared to trust his own voice till he had the 
 robber in his power ; and it was fortunate that the latter had 
 too much himself to say to regret the taciturnity of his com 
 panion. As he spoke a chill went through the bones of Raw 
 lins. A few sentences soon assured him that it was Gideon 
 Badger who addressed him. That profligate son of a man 
 whose purism assured him with a chuckle, that he was not like 
 the miserable Pharisees around him, having demanded of the 
 sentinel to lead him to the place where the chief of the outlaws 
 slept, proceeded to develop his great discoveries to his com 
 panion, in anticipation of that revelation which he proposed to 
 make to Saxon, and by which, with all the mean spirit of an 
 inferior s servility, he calculated to commend himself to new 
 favor in his sight. Rawlins could only make his responses in a 
 groan. 
 
 " What do you groan for, Baker? " demanded the other. 
 "There s no danger now that we know all about it. We ve 
 time enough to scud and run to-night, and to-morrow we can 
 turn upon that bullhead Rawlins, and dog his heels back to 
 Zion s Hill. Nay, with a little increase of force, we should be 
 able to lather him at his own weapons and at any weapons 
 
IBS BOEDER BEATLES. 
 
 Fi-r my pr.rt, I d intlicr it should b so. Nothing would 
 me half so much ple-asure as to try the chance of a little 
 with that fellow. If T didn t" 
 
 " Gideon Badger," said Rawlins, in his natural tone of voir.o, 
 " you have your wish. I am Wat Rawlins, and we re face to face. 
 Now, show your manhood all your manhood, Gideon for y ;u 
 fight, let me tell yon, for something moi-e than Rachel Morrison 
 you fight for life You fight with a rope round your neck." 
 
 "Wat Rawlins i" gasped the cor. founded youth, as he hearJ 
 the words and recognised the voice cf one whom ia his secret 
 soirl he feared " can it be i" 
 
 " A/e you vendy ?" demanded the woodman. "Be quick, 
 Gideon; I know I m not doing right when I give you this 
 chance for your life; I at I want to save your o-kl father from 
 the shame of having son of his hung up by the necK. If I kill 
 you, which will be all the better for you, I ll keep the secret, 
 and bury you in the swamp with my own hands, so that nobod} 
 ghall ever know that we met you here to-night. Come !" 
 
 " I will not fight with you," was the hoarse but trerair u* 
 espouse of the youth. 
 
 "I m sorry for you, Gideon Badger," said Rawlins, with i:- - 
 ixpression of pity in his accents, not unmingled with flisg*,:\ 
 [ wo-dd have saved yo" from something worse than dea .:. 
 j m sorry you re not . biave as your father. I can do u- 
 more. You must go with _-e you re my prisoner." 
 
 He grasped the imbecile around his body as lie spoke, \vith * 
 grasp that would have defied his upmost powers. But these the 
 unhappy youth did not offer to exe. "^e His heart seemed l: 
 have turned to water with the first conviction of 1... mind tin! 
 W. ilror Rawlins really stood before him. LI is nerves failed 
 hi, i.. His muscles shrunk and seemed t> :* p u-linscar 
 rjjd him inU .^.-citce of \ C rnon o...* cv.e, if.sr with as nitt.- 
 
 ti.-iuble as if he had been an infai?t. 
 
 The victors, having secured their new captive, had no fnrlhtv- 
 interruption in the swamp that night. With the first glimmer 
 iag of dawn, Vernon made his preparations for crossing t>e 
 river to the place where the horses of the party had beer, p.sr- 
 ried. This was a tusk more tedious than difficult. Seine of -.h*-. 
 iri^n M-,re compelled to wim the river with a rope vl.icb > 
 
FINALE. 489 
 
 been previously fastened to the flat, and which, was absolutely 
 necessary in conveying across the river Virginia Maitland, Mrs. 
 Yarbers who had been an active coadjutor of the assailing 
 party the prisoners and the inanimate form of Florence Mar- 
 bois, which the gentler heart of Virginia would not suffer to be 
 buried in the still and gloomy recesses of that swamp forest in 
 which she had dwelt so long. Rawlins ventured to promise that 
 the cemetery at Zion s Hill should yield her a more consecrated 
 place of repose. Her body, stretched out in the bottom of the 
 boat, and completely enveloped in a cloak, was a subject of 
 fearful interest to Saxon, who was compelled from the smalliiess 
 of the vessel and the number of its passengers, to remain un 
 willingly contiguous to it. More than once was he seen to shudder 
 as he looked upon the unmeaning and almost shapeless outline, 
 through the thick envelope of which, however, his keen-eyed and 
 conscious spirit, beheld the reproachful expression of that face, 
 and all those glances of love, and those features of beauty, which 
 had once yielded him so much delight, and which his own capricious 
 and unjust passions had obliterated and destroyed. His present sit 
 uation, mostly to be ascribed to his own injustice to the one who 
 most loved him, gave emphasis to those rebukes of conscience which 
 now, for the first time, were acutely active in the contemplation of 
 her corse. At this moment a persuasion of sentimental softness 
 almost seized his mind he felt that love would have still preserved 
 him had he still been true to love. Unhappily for him and her, love 
 and conscience equally spoke too late . A desperate resolution suc 
 ceeded in his mind, and he turned his eyes upon the dark and 
 turbid waters over which he was passing with an expression of anxious 
 desire. 
 
 Could he gain the side of the boat, a single plunge would 
 baffle his captors, and defeat all the terrors of a public doom. 
 His hands were bound, but his feet were free. He gave a single 
 glance to the inanimate form of Florence, and made a move 
 ment to the opposite side of the flat. Already his foot touched 
 the low gunwale, when the firm grasp of the watchful Vernon 
 upon his shoulder, showed him that his object was discovered, 
 he was led back into the center of the boat and surrounded by 
 those who noted all his movements, with eyes too jealous to 
 
 21* 
 
490 BOEUEil BEAGLES. 
 
 leave him any present hope of baffling their observation. Bit 
 ter,- indeed, was the glance he cast upon Vernon, as the latter with 
 drew his hand from the shoulder of the felon. 
 
 "There was a time, Mr. Vernon, when you were less willing 
 to approach me with so little scruple ; that, however, was 
 when I was better able to approach you. Times change, and 
 he who would have trembled to hear the lion s growl in the 
 desert, takes him boldly by the mane when in the menagerie. 
 Well! courage seems to depend very much upon the season. 
 A bright or dark day makes a wonderful difference, in the 
 hearts of men. You are in season no\v, sir, much more so, I 
 think, than when I met you at Lucchesa. Your hand is more ready 
 now " 
 
 "It is my good fortune to improve then, sir," replied Vernon, 
 mildly and with a smile. "As for your notion of my courage, 
 let that be as you choose. If you can really persuade yourself 
 that it is not of the proper kind, and the persuasion pleases you, 
 indulge it. My courage is of a sort that will remain perfectly 
 unaffected, whatever course your opinion may take upon it. 
 Another quality of it will be to take every precaution against 
 the exercise of yours. In my custody you are safe enough. I 
 would not forget myself, sir, by using the language of exulta 
 tion over a prisoner, however small may be the forbearance which he 
 merits at my hands." 
 
 "Oh, you are too indulgent!" was the almost fierce reply of the 
 outlaw "too indulgent! Would I could thank you as I could wish 
 as you deserve." 
 
 A moment after, and Saxon felt the feeble fury of his manner 
 and stopped suddenly, while a burning flush passed over his 
 cheeks. Vernon turned away. They had now reached the opposite 
 bank. 
 
 An hour after this and the cavalcade encountered a motley 
 party of ten or a dozen men, headed by old William Badger 
 himself. He was dressed up partially in some of the remnants 
 of the ancient uniform which he wore when he followed Andrew 
 Jackson down from Tennessee to his Indian battles in the south 
 west. The old and ragged cap which covered his grisly locks, 
 the pistol in his holsters, the belt about liis waist, and the long 
 
FINALE. 491 
 
 rifle in his grasp were all the same ; and here, it may be added that, 
 though he wore it not on this occasion, he yet, before sallying forth 
 that morning, gave a long and curious examination to the ancient 
 and motley blue wrapper, known in its day as a hunting-shirt which 
 had been too intimately associated in all the deeds and doings of his 
 prime to be discarded altogether even when the period of its useful 
 ness was past. 
 
 The ancient leader, however, made a far less ludicrous appearance 
 than his men, with whom, in the sudden emergency that called them 
 forth, motley seemed indeed to be "the only wear." At another 
 time, the appearance of this regiment would have moved Vernon and 
 all his followers to unrestrained merriment ; but there was a strong 
 feeling in their hearts at this moment which effectually restrained all 
 lighter moods. The thought that the venerable old man was march 
 ing forward to behold his own and only son, bound as an outlaw, 
 and destined to all the penalties of such a life, filled them all with a 
 sorrow that was not less deep because it was speechless. The very 
 unconsciousness of the old man as he drew nigh the rigid and 
 pompous erection of his carriage, and the swelling dignity of his 
 manner contributed to increase the solemnity of their feelings. 
 Who should convey the truth to the father ? It tasked the boldest 
 heart and the best mind of the troop. 
 
 Vernon rode forward as he approached, and giving instructions 
 with Rawlins to keep his prisoners out of sight as long as possible, 
 undertook the painful task of revealing the truth to the venerable 
 elder. The task was rendered more difficult by the self-esteem of 
 Badger. Assuming himself to have been ill-treated, over-looked, 
 slighted, and in fact thrust aside from the performance of his proper 
 duties, by beardless boys, still in the gristle, inspired more by pre 
 sumption than patriotism, he scarcely gave Vernon a civil recog 
 nition. 
 
 But the latter, at such a time, and to one so much his elder, would 
 have been ashamed to entertain any boyish resentments; and he 
 bore patiently with the captiousness of the father, and by gradual 
 degrees, brought him step by step to a consciousness of the gulf that 
 was so suddenly to open before him. When the truth was fully 
 shown when the tale was fully told there was no more visible 
 emotion in the face of the hearer, beyond a slight quiver of the lips, 
 
492 BORDER BEAGLES. 
 
 than if he had listened to the most ordinary intelligence. His keen 
 eyes, from under their shaggy brows, narrowly scanned the counte 
 nance of the speaker, and there, reading nothing but sincerity and 
 distirjctness, dropped quietly upon the ground. His lips opened but 
 to exclaim : 
 
 "Son of mine! son of mine! Oh, God! thou hast indeed 
 stricken me with thy wrath. Verily, thou ha.st terribly rebuked the 
 pride that was shooting upward like a rank weed within my 
 heart." 
 
 The exclamation denoted that self-esteem, still strong, still 
 luxuriant, and still w r ell cultivated in a favorite field, which was 
 the predominant characteristic of his mind. That Gideon should 
 be a bad fellow, was an unfortunate thing for Gideon ; but it 
 was something monstrous exceedingly, that Gideon, the son of 
 William, should become so. "After this" such was the still 
 self -complaisant reflection of the elder "who will believe in 
 education ? " 
 
 The stern habits of the soldier, and the pride of the patriotic mag 
 istrate, came to the succor of the old man. 
 
 "These wretched people must be committed for trial, Mr. 
 Vernon, and though you have heretofore found yourself sufficient 
 to do without my help, as a man, it is probable that you will 
 require my assistance as a magistrate. Let them be brought before 
 me, sir, as soon as you please, that I may examine them for 
 commitment." 
 
 " All, sir ? "said Yernon. 
 
 "Ay, sir, all! God will sustain me, I trust, as he hath ever 
 done, so that I shall be able to perform the trusts which have 
 been confided to me, without fear or favor. I trust in his mercy to 
 have no feeling with one more than another of these unhappy 
 wretches." 
 
 The reader need not ask to know- how such a man went through 
 such a trial. William Badger s proceedings on the present occasion, 
 would have gained for him, in Roman ages, a column of enduring 
 fame. 
 
 Our story is nearly ended. That very day Horsey was made 
 a special deputy, with two others, to arrest Mr. Justice Nawls ; 
 but the bird had flown. He had received from some secret 
 quarter a warning of his danger, and had disappeared on a fleet 
 
FINALE. 493 
 
 horse an hour before the appearance of the party sent to arrest. 
 The return to the magistrate was one which is said to have as 
 sumed the official dignity in some of the states G. T. T. 
 which, rendered into the vernacular, signifies "Gone to Texas." 
 There is a report current at this time on the Big Black, that 
 Nawls has become a great patriot in Texas, and has distin 
 guished himself by several military achievements of no common 
 order. He is not the first citizen who has lived a scoundrel to 
 die a patriot. It was fortunate for the amateur that he did 
 not take Mrs. Horsey with him to texas, and make her a patriot 
 too. Perhaps he would have done so, had time been allowed 
 him. How many good deeds are defeated through a want of 
 time. 
 
 When the roving husband and his lovely wife returned to 
 Zion s Hill, who should they encounter there but the venerable 
 sire of the former, limping as much as ever, quite as rash and 
 boisterous, and full of storms and cataracts at the sight of the 
 fugitive. He had come, in obedience to Vernon s letters, along 
 with Ben Carter, and was confounded to meet a living son, 
 where he thought it might be difficult to "find even a dead one. 
 His very joy such was the force of habit took the features, 
 and indulged in the language of anger and abuse. 
 
 " You ungrateful spendthrift you 
 
 He was silenced by a very summary proceeding. He little knew 
 the sort of answer his son had in store for him. 
 
 "Make you acquainted with Mrs. Tom Horsey, dad," said 
 he, with a swagger admirably theatrical, as he strutted full up 
 to the old man, with the shrinking Mary hanging on his arm. 
 
 "Mrs. Tom Horsey! Why, Tom, it cant t be possible. I 
 expected to find you dead, and here you re only married. But are 
 you married, Tom?" 
 
 " Ay, dad, if the ceremony performed by such a scoundrel as 
 Squire Nawls is worth a fig." 
 
 "Well, God bless you, Tom you re born to be an actor after 
 all. And you, my gal who are you what s your name? And, 
 since you are Tom s wife, give s a smack. Another! another! Well, 
 Tom, to a young man, marrying s not so bad after all. But where s 
 Ben Carter? " 
 
 This is a question which we may also ask. In another apart- 
 
494 BORDER BEAGLES 
 
 rnent, to themselves, Carter and his unfaithful friend, Maitland 
 communed for a lengthened hour. They came forth reconciled. 
 Maitland frankly confessed his offences equally against friend 
 ship and good morals; and in making every atonement which 
 had been left, he found Carter as he had ever found him, an in 
 dulgent benefactor. 
 
 The relation in which Vernon stood to Virginia contributed 
 greatly to this end. They also, to themselves, had their own 
 explanations to make, and their several adventures to relate; 
 the day promised fair, amid all the clouds that overcast the ho 
 rizon at the beginning, to terminate in equal calm and brightness. 
 To the three happy sets, whom we have conducted with perse 
 vering industry through the groves to the temple from love 
 to marriage such, indeed, was its termination; but there was 
 one storm that passed through the forest about this time which 
 filled even their hearts with solemn shudderings, and for a long 
 season after maintained a heavy weight upon their memories. 
 1 , Rawlins, who, with a select party, had the charge of the prison 
 ers, returned at midnight, alone, to Zion s Hill, and brought 
 with him a terrible narrative of outrage and bloodshed. The 
 mob had risen upon his little party, and rescued the prisoners 
 from his hands. But they did not rescue them to save. Goaded 
 to madness by the long-repeated crimes of the outlaws, they 
 had resolved not to wait the tardy proceedings of justice; and 
 in equal defiance of the entreaties and the efforts of the little 
 guard, the unhappy criminals were dragged to death from their 
 custody and protection. Another moment precipitated their 
 doom. They w r ere drawn up by the ropes which bound them, 
 to the swinging branches over head, and hurried into eternity 
 without a moment s grace their prayers drowned their con 
 vulsions mocked in the frantic joy and the exulting shouts of the 
 populace. 
 
 The unlawfulness of their punishment suggests the only oc 
 casion for sympathy in their behalf. They died on a spot 
 which they themselves had deprived of all the securities of law, 
 and had shadowed with every sort of crime. They perished 
 by a reckless rage, for which a partial sanction may be found 
 in the wantonness and brutality of their own deeds in their 
 unscrupulous robberies, their frequent cruelties, and most unfeel- 
 
FINALS, 
 
 U mCTiHre. Saxon died as lie had lived, a brave, 
 nan. Perhaps, the compunctious writliings which troubled Lim 
 at the death of Florence Marbois, had made him better prepared 
 to die. In his death perished the spirit, the energy, and the 
 capacity of the Border Beagles He had made them T/hat the? 
 were issolute, compact --one and indivisible. Scattered at 
 his death, they lost the faculties which Vacl air., them power 
 ful, and have generally given up th , m-^+* daring professioa 
 tor others of a like but les*- dangerous character. Some, Yik? 
 Nawls, have gonf t* TV **&&, rilled with a sudden desire of be 
 coming pdlriots Outeis have taken to shaving, speculating, 
 and banKiiig; and a few, it is reported, have formed a new cor, 
 federacy which bears the innocent, if not unmeaning title of 
 " The Hypothecators." What is the particular occupation 
 which, under this head, they intend pursuing, is only COIIJK- VI- 
 ral. The more knowing seem to think that their purpose ^ 
 nothing worse than the invention of fancy stocks; the di-si^La 
 /i v/hich they will dispose of to the numberless associations of 
 humbug, which cover this scheming nation as with an eirrV* 
 plague. The locusts of the Egyptian never diminished h* 
 crops v;ith half the success with which our locusts, the present 
 of that fruitful Scotchman, John Law, have devastated the fie^i- 
 of A .iosissippi. The Border Beagles were nothhr; to tbcis 
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