. 
 
 , 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
THE 
 
 DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 A TALE. 
 
 JAMES K. PATILDING. 
 
 SOMEWHERE ABOUT THE TIME OP THE OLD FRENCH WAR." 
 
 EDITED BY WILLIAM I. PAULDING. 
 
 * 
 
 IN ONE VOLUME. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER AND COMPANY. 
 
 1868. 
 1 
 
 Library 
 
 7 
 
 r 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 
 
 WILLIAM I. PAULDING, 
 
 In the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
 District of New York. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 
 STEKEOTTPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON. 
 
EDITOB S PEEFACE. 
 
 THE most successful of Mr. Paulding s works, and 
 the most deserving of success, was " The Dutchman s 
 Fireside," published in 1831. This he prefaced, him 
 self, only with the following modest 
 
 "ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The idea of the following tale was conceived on reading, 
 many years ago, The Memoirs of an American Lady, by 
 Mrs. Grant, of Laggan, and the work partly finished about 
 that time. The reader acquainted with the book referred to 
 will, perhaps, wonder at the indiscretion of the author of The 
 Dutchman s Fireside in thus, as it were, provoking a compar 
 ison with one of the finest sketches of early American man 
 ners ever drawn. 
 
 April, 1831." 
 
 This novel was, no doubt, notwithstanding what 
 is said above, written heedlessly, as the rest of 
 Mr. Paulding s works were. His references to Sir 
 William Johnson and to the military operations in 
 which he was engaged are far from accurate, and in 
 other particulars connected with that personage he is 
 in error; while a singular discrepancy in point of 
 
 I 
 
viii EDITOR S PREFACE. 
 
 time, (arising perhaps from the intermission of labor 
 on the book which is alluded to in the " Advertise 
 ment "), is noticeable, where Sybrant Westbrook, leav 
 ing Johnstown near the Mohawk river in what we 
 must suppose to have been the fall of the year, and 
 travelling direct to the vicinity of Albany, arrives 
 there in June. 
 
 These things, however, in no way affect the charm 
 of the work, which lies in its unaffected simplicity, its 
 intimate relations with Nature, its truth to human 
 character. 
 
 But it is not for me to pass judgment on this 
 production. I stand too much in the position of a 
 pleader no, that is not true, nor even of an advo 
 cate but in the position of one who displays wares 
 for people to buy if they think they get their money s- 
 worth in return. Yet this will I observe : one 
 would think that it should be evermore a favorite 
 with all the many thousands who, every year, aban 
 don the homesteads and the rural hearth-stones of the 
 land, to fight the battle of fortune in our cities and 
 our towns. For it ought to bring back to them, if 
 they have not become wholly the servitors of brick 
 and mortar, all earlier and purer recollections. Like 
 the dying Falstaff, it babbles " of green fields", and it 
 is instinct with the very freshness and fulness of June. 
 I can only say for myself, that, as I have sat over 
 these pages in the weary toil of examining proofs, 
 with a brain intent upon commas and spelling, some 
 times as it were the damp breath of the mould would 
 
EDITOR S PREFACE. ix 
 
 rise upon the air about me, and presently there would 
 come a whiff of the mysterious and transporting per 
 fume of the wild grape of our woods, which thrills for 
 a moment on the breeze, and then, in a moment 
 again, is gone. 
 
 Whatever may be my opinion as to the merit of 
 the book, one thing is certain. Its success, on its first 
 publication, was immediate and marked, and indica 
 tions of a permanent hold upon the public mind have 
 not since been lacking. In England it met with ap 
 preciative criticism; and it was translated into two 
 foreign languages. 
 
 These circumstances gratified no less the author s 
 national than his personal pride, as we may readily 
 believe. At least, it was in no spirit of mere conceit 
 that he wrote, some years later, on the 7th of 
 March, 1834 to " Mr. Thomas W. White, Booksel 
 ler", of Richmond, Virginia, who was then, or at one 
 time, interested in The Southern Literary Messenger. 
 
 " It has always been one of my first objects, to which a 
 great portion of my life has been devoted, to incite and en 
 courage the genius of this country, and, most especially, to 
 draw its attention and its efforts toward our own history, tra 
 ditions, scenery, and manners, instead of foraging in the bar 
 ren and exhausted fields of the Old World. I have lived to 
 see this object in a great measure accomplished, and one of 
 the most gratifying of all my reflexions is, that possibly I 
 may have had some little agency in bringing it about." 
 
 Fairly might he write thus. The terrible genius of 
 Hawthorne, indeed, had not yet, through the medium 
 
x EDITOR S PREFACE. 
 
 of that limpid English of his, cast those weird and 
 dark-lantern flashes of light upon what had been sup 
 posed to be only bare and dingy annals, but which 
 he has shown to be susceptible of the effects of 
 Rembrandt himself; but "The Legend of Sleepy 
 Hollow " had been given to the world ; Cooper had 
 already painted his most vivid pictures of the wild 
 woods and the sea; and Mr. Paulding himself had 
 done something. Yes, there \vas now a germ of an 
 American literature ; distinct ; on its own root ; grow 
 ing ; vigorous ; and not to be pooh-poohd, or tram 
 pled under foot, or easily done to death, any more. 
 
 Assuredly, the time will arrive when the AMERICANS, 
 as a people, will take pride in a literature of their 
 own, and realize that a National Literature is a 
 National Power. With the dawn of that day, me- 
 thinks the reputation of James K. Paulding will begin 
 to mount and spread among Americans, for then will 
 they look back in gratitude on those that led in the 
 mighty round: and, when I consider of the many 
 thousand millions that are yet to bear that continen 
 tal and imperial name, I say to myself that those 
 interested in his fame may well take heart unto them 
 selves, albeit mayhap they see it grow but slowly at 
 the first. 
 
 That American Literature has done all, or the no 
 blest, that it has been appointed for it to do that 
 the names, however great, which have already made 
 it illustrious, are to be the greatest in its history 
 that it is henceforth and forever to degenerate into 
 
XI 
 
 sensation, burlesque, and dish-water is not, for one 
 moment, to be admitted. A people with prospects so 
 magnificent and such a fund of energy must, sooner 
 or later, develop a corresponding literature as vigor 
 ous and varied, and yet not all the same, as that of 
 the Mother Country, and worthy to demand a place 
 by the side of the grand old literature of England at 
 its bravest and its best. 
 
 Doubtless, the universal and ever-living men are 
 yet to come. They will come. But, among the pre 
 cursors of those giants that are to cast their lengthen- 
 
 o o 
 
 ing, broadening shadows far adown the centuries, it 
 seems to me that JAMES K. PAULDING should always 
 hold a prominent position and name ; while, with re 
 gard to THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE, as an artistic study 
 of a condition of society almost peculiar to his native 
 State in the colonial time, I must be permitted to dis 
 believe that it can ever be superseded. 
 
 W. I. P. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 PART I. 
 
Library* 
 
 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 RURAL SCENES AND RURAL, MANNERS. 
 
 " SOMEWHERE about the time of the old French 
 war," there resided on the rich border that skirts the 
 Hudson, not a hundred miles from the good city of 
 Albany, a family of some distinction, which we shall 
 call Vancour, / consisting of three brothers, whose 
 names- were Egbert, Dennis, and Ariel, or Auriel as 
 it was pronounced by the Dutch of that day. They 
 were the sons of one of the earliest as well as most 
 respectable of the emigrants from Holland, and hon 
 ourably sustained the dignity of their ancestry, by 
 sturdy integrity, liberal hospitality, and a generous 
 public spirit. 
 
 On the death of the patriarch, who departed this 
 life almost a century old, according to the custom 
 of those early times the estate was amicably divided 
 among his three sons ; the portion of the eldest being 
 distinguished from that of the others only by compris 
 ing the mansion-house. This was the sole compli 
 ment paid to the right of primogeniture, which in 
 almost every other Christian country swallows up the 
 
4 
 
 inheritance of the younger offspring, and enables one 
 man to wallow in overgrown luxury, at the expense 
 of all the rest of his blood and name. It was rather a 
 voluntary acknowledgment than a concession claimed. 
 At this early period it was not the general custom in 
 the State for people that had children to make their 
 wills ; and, however singular it may seem, there were 
 fewer lawsuits concerning the division of property 
 among heirs, than there are now, when such particu 
 lar care is taken in the devising of estates, that it gen 
 erally takes three or four courts, six or eight lawyers, 
 and the like number of years, to interpret the oracle. 
 And how can it be otherwise ? since I once heard a 
 great pleader affirm, that there never were three words 
 put together, in any language, that would not admit 
 of three different interpretations. Here, however, 
 there was no necessity for the interference of stran 
 gers ; the children knew the wishes of their parents, 
 and, for the most part, complied without a murmur. 
 
 The settlement of Mr. Vancour s affairs was actu 
 ally made without consulting a lawyer ; partly, per 
 haps, for the reason that there was no person of that 
 description within less than one hundred and sixty 
 miles, at New York. According to Pliny, Rome sub 
 sisted five hundred years without a physician ; which 
 fact, however incredible it may appear, is equalled by 
 the miracle of the city of Albany and the surrounding 
 country having flourished for the best part of a cen 
 tury without the aid of a single jurist. People can 
 no more go to law without lawyers than to war with 
 out arms. Deprive them of both, and there would be 
 no more occasion for peace societies. 
 
 But to return. Among the many good old fashions 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 5 
 
 that prevailed in the days of ignorance and simplicity 
 among our forefathers, was that of paying their debts 
 themselves, instead of leaving the burden to their pos 
 terity. They knew little or nothing of the virtues of 
 the post obit ; nor, I believe, did it ever occur to them, 
 that it was a capital speculation to revel in luxuries 
 and support a splendid establishment during life, leav 
 ing the penalty to be paid by their offspring. When 
 old Mr. Vancour died, he paid the only debt he owed 
 the debt of nature. 
 
 In the division of the estate, Egbert, the eldest 
 brother, received the third part, which occupied the 
 centre, with the old mansion ; Dennis, that on the 
 right hand, and Ariel, that on the left. Each of these 
 included the space between a range of hills and the 
 banks of the Hudson, on which they bordered about 
 two miles, equally. With a view to this arrangement, 
 Mr. Vancour had erected, at different times, a com 
 fortable house on each of the wings of his domain ; 
 so that the two younger brothers were saved the ex 
 pense of building. 
 
 At the period in which our history commences, the 
 old gentleman had been dead many years, and Ariel, 
 the youngest of the three brothers, was fast sliding 
 towards that stage of life in which a man runs im 
 minent risk of being set down as an old-bachelor by 
 the young ladies. Dennis, the second brother, was a 
 widower, without issue ; and Egbert was blessed with 
 a most notable wife, the mother of an only daughter 
 just verging on womanhood and finishing her educa 
 tion at a boarding-school in New York. The house 
 occupied by Mr. Vancour was built when it was cus 
 tomary for men to anticipate the possibility of their 
 
6 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 descendants , (some one of them at least), inheriting 
 and dwelling in their old nestling-places. It was a 
 large foursquare mansion of two low stories, built of 
 little yellow Dutch bricks, imported from Holland, as 
 much from veneration for the " Faderland," as from 
 a certain unconsciousness of the capacity to do any 
 thing out of the ordinary way, that long beset and 
 still in some degree besets the occupants of this wes 
 tern world. Right through the centre ran a wide and 
 stately hall, wainscoted with oak ; from the farther 
 end of which a broad staircase rose in an easy ascent. 
 This staircase was defended on the outer side by a 
 row of chubby mahogany balusters, ranged so as al 
 most to touch each other, and presenting in their 
 plump solidity fit models for the legs of all the gal 
 lant burghers of the country round. We know not 
 whether it was in sympathy with these classical pat 
 terns, or from some other more occult influence, but, 
 certain it is, there hath not, since the fashion of them 
 changed, been seen so goodly a set of legs, not even 
 in the picture of the Declaration of our Independence, 
 as was exhibited every Sunday in the little stone church 
 of the Flats, at the time of which we are treating. 
 
 The furniture of the mansion corresponded with its 
 Doric dignity arid simplicity. There was nothing too 
 fine for use, or which was not used whenever occasion 
 required ; although, we are willing to confess, there 
 was one hallowed room, dignified with the title of THE 
 SPARE ROOM, which was difficult of access, and into 
 which no one intruded except on very particular occa 
 sions. This was the sacred depository of ancestral 
 heirlooms chairs with high and haughty backs and 
 worked satin bottoms, from the old country ; a Bras- 
 
sels carpet ; two vast china jars, nearly five feet high, 
 one on either side of the chimney ; and the treasure 
 of all treasures, a Dutch cabinet, exactly such a one 
 as is now to be seen at Hampton Court, left there 
 by King William, so exuberantly and yet so tastefully 
 and richly ornamented with brass hinges and a lock 
 covering almost half its front, that, when properly 
 rubbed, as it was every day, it was dazzling to behold. 
 The brass had a silvery whiteness, a delicate lustre, 
 such as is never exhibited by the bastard imitation of 
 these degenerate days. But the most valued and val 
 uable part of the embellishments consisted in a num 
 ber of fine pictures of the Flemish school, which the 
 elder Mr. Vancour had brought with him from Hol 
 land, and which have since been lost by the burning 
 of the mansion of one of his later descendants. 
 
 The house stood about a quarter of a mile from the 
 river, in the midst of a rich meadow, dotted here and 
 there with a vast primeval elm, standing like a wide 
 umbrella, under which the lazy herds lay ruminating, 
 protected from the mid-day sun. Four of these elms 
 surrounded and almost hid the mansion, all but its 
 front, and furnished retreats for a host of twittering 
 birds. Within a hundred yards, on one side, ran a 
 brook, which descended from the hills about a mile in 
 the rear, and which in the course of ages had made a 
 deep ravine, skirted on either side with a wilderness 
 of various trees, and shrubs, and briers, and wild flow 
 ers, and vines of every sort, whence went up, in the 
 genial season, a perpetual concert of nature s never- 
 tiring and never-tired songsters. This copse was wide 
 enough to shelter an invisible road, the only passage 
 to and from the house ; so that all around it was 
 
8 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 nothing but one fair carpet of delicious green, unbro 
 ken by road or pathway. 
 
 The river in front slept between its verdant banks, 
 for its course was so slow, so quiet, so almost imper 
 ceptible, that it seemed to partake in that repose which 
 it diffused all around. Besides the elms and syca 
 mores which the rich alluvion fostered into majestic 
 growth, its borders were fringed at intervals with 
 silvery willows drinking its pure moisture, and other 
 dwarfish fry, from whose branches hung grape-vines 
 and vines of various other names, forming canopies, 
 through which the pattering shower could scarcely 
 win its way. The stream was about a quarter of a 
 mile wide, so that every rural sight and rural sound 
 could be clearly distinguished from side to side ; and, 
 at the termination of the rich meadows on the oppo 
 site shore, there rose a bold precipice of gray rock, 
 enamelled with light green mosses, and bearing on its 
 summit a crown of towering pines of everlasting ver 
 dure. 
 
 There is certainly in the majesty of nature, its hoary 
 rocks, its silent shadowy glens, foaming torrents, and 
 lofty mountains, something that awakens the soul to 
 high contemplation and rouses its slumbering ener 
 gies. But there is in her gentler beauties, her rich 
 \and laughing meadows decked with flowers and joy 
 ous with sprightly birds, her waving fields of grain, 
 her noiseless glassy streams, a charm not less delight 
 ful, and far more lasting than the high-wrought en 
 thusiasm induced by the other. Both have, without 
 doubt, their influence on the human character. He 
 who lives in the rude regions of the mountain solitude 
 will generally prefer dangerous and fatiguing enter- 
 
 ; 
 
9 
 
 prise to easy and wholesome labours. He would 
 rather risk his safety for a meal, or go without it 
 entirely, than earn it by the sweat of his brow in the 
 cultivation of the earth. But the inhabitant of the 
 rich plain, that yields from its generous bosom an 
 ample reward for every hour of labour he bestows, is 
 enamoured of security; he hates all changes but 
 those of the revolving seasons ; is seldom buffeted by 
 extremes of passion, never elevated to enthusiasm, or 
 depressed to despair. If let alone, his life will proba 
 bly glide away as noiselessly, if not as pure, as the 
 gentle stream that winds its way unheard through his 
 lowland domain. It has been said, a thousand times, 
 that the inhabitants of mountains are more attached 
 to their homes than those of the lowlands; but I 
 doubt the truth of the observation. Take any man 
 away from his home and his accustomed routine of 
 life, and he will sigh to return to them, the native of 
 the plain, as well as the dweller among the hills. The 
 former we doubt would be as wretched among the 
 rocks and torrents, the wild beasts, and hunters equal 
 ly wild, as the latter in the laborious quiet of the fruit 
 ful valleys. 
 
 However this may be, the brothers to whom the 
 reader has just been introduced partook in a great de 
 gree of the character of the scene which was at once 
 their birthplace and their inheritance, but modified in 
 some particulars by certain peculiarities in their situa 
 tion. Peaceful as was the abode they inhabited and 
 the aspect of all around them, they were not always 
 reposing in the lap of security. Within thirty or 
 forty miles, in almost every direction, roamed various 
 tribes of Indians, whose fierce, unsteady, and revenge- 
 
10 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 ful nature made their friendship as precarious as their 
 enmity was terrible. True, they were now at peace, 
 or rather they had begun to submit to their inevitable 
 destiny; yet their friendship could not be relied on, 
 and they not unfrequently approached the neighbour 
 ing settlements in the dead of the night, where they 
 committed the most horrible atrocities. This state of 
 things contributed to keep up a warlike spirit and 
 habits of dangerous enterprise among the early set 
 tlers, and they partook of the opposite characters of 
 husbandman and soldier, in a degree which has sel 
 dom been known in the inhabitants of the rest of the 
 world. The Vancours and their neighbours all found 
 it necessary to mingle the arts of peace and war to 
 gether ; all had their arms at hand, and all knew how 
 to use them. 
 
 The Vancours were people of fashion, as well as 
 fortune. The elder more especially, from inhabiting 
 the family mansion, and having a regularly established 
 household, saw a great deal of company at times, from 
 Albany, New York, and elsewhere. His house, indeed, 
 was open to all respectable visitors, and was seldom 
 without the presence of some stranger, friend, or rela 
 tive from a distance. They were received and treated 
 with that plain, unostentatious, quiet hospitality which 
 always bespeaks a welcome. Madam Vancour, as 
 she was called by way of eminence, was a New York 
 lady bom and bred, partaking almost equally in the 
 blood of the genuine Hollander, the Englishman, and 
 the Huguenot. New York, being at that time the 
 residence of the English governor, was, of course, the 
 focus of fashion. The governor affected somewhat 
 of the kingly state ; and, there being always a consid- 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 11 
 
 erable number of troops in garrison, the place swarmed 
 with redcoats, as some of our eating-cellars now do 
 with boiled lobsters. These ruddy sons of Mars were 
 the prime objects of the ambition of our city belles, 
 and happy was the damsel and proud the mother that 
 could unite their fate and family with the lieutenant 
 of a company of British grenadiers. His excellency, 
 like most other excellencies, had plenty of aides-de 
 camp to keep up his state, write his invitations, pick 
 up news, and carve at his table. These important 
 functions, of course, entitled them to great distinction 
 among our provincial belles, and it is on record in the 
 traditions of those times, that the good matrons of the 
 capital could never sleep quietly the night before a 
 ball at the government-house, for thinking whether 
 their daughters would dance with an aide-de-camp. 
 Occasionally one of these would demean himself by 
 marrying an indigenous heiress, and many of the lar 
 gest estates in the province, with a blooming damsel 
 at the back of them, were exchanged for a red coat 
 and a pair of gorgeous epaulettes, to the infinite con 
 tentment of the mothers, who partook largely in the 
 dignity of the connexion. I cannot affirm that the 
 fathers and brothers shared in these triumphs ; for, 
 already, the fine airs of the pompous intruders, and 
 their undisguised assumption of superiority, had 
 awakened in the bosoms of these homely provincials 
 a feeling, which, in after-times mingling with others 
 equally powerful, produced a revolution, of which 
 the world yet feels, and will long feel, the influence. 
 The Vancours had many connexions in New York, 
 among the most wealthy and fashionable of the in 
 habitants, and seldom missed paying them a visit of 
 
12 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 a few weeks in the course of every autumn. They 
 were always well received, and, as the governor never 
 came to Albany without partaking in their hospitali 
 ties, he thought himself bound to repay them when 
 they visited the place of his residence. This inter 
 course with the gay world kept up certain feelings 
 and ways, which seldom fail to accompany it; still, 
 in the main, their characters partook largely of the 
 simplicity of the country where they dwelt. In man 
 ners they might not be particularly distinguished 
 from the polite and well-bred people of the world; 
 but in habits and modes of thinking they were essen 
 tially different. There was a certain hale simplicity 
 in their mode of life, which has long since passed 
 away, leaving behind what I sometimes feel inclined 
 to doubt is but an inadequate compensation for its 
 loss. 
 
 Dennis and Ariel, the two younger brothers, being, 
 the one a lonely widower the other an equally lonely 
 bachelor, spent a good deal of their time at the old 
 mansion, where they were as much at home as at 
 their own houses. The two elder brothers were 
 greatly attached to each other, and fond of being to 
 gether in their own quiet way. They sometimes 
 passed a whole morning without exchanging half a 
 dozen words. They had a way of communicating 
 their thoughts by certain little expressive inarticulate 
 sounds and unobtrusive gestures, which each one un 
 derstood as well as he did his mother tongue. Ariel, 
 on the contrary, was ungovernably impatient of idle 
 ness, and never could sit still fifteen minutes at a 
 time without falling into a doze. He was a great 
 hand at grafting and inoculating fruit-trees; an in- 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 13 
 
 dustrious seeker after mushrooms ; and mighty in all 
 undertakings which had for their object the further 
 ance of good eating. In truth, he was one of those 
 persons who are seldom without a project for the ben 
 efit of their neighbours, and who, though they never 
 by any chance succeed in their own enterprises, can 
 always tell to a nicety what will be most for the ad 
 vantage of others. Dennis, on the contrary, had a 
 horror of all innovation and improvement in rural 
 economy ; he despised labour-saving machines from 
 the bottom of his soul, and held it as incontrovertible, 
 that the human hand was the most perfect instrument 
 ever invented. Ariel one year spent the proceeds of 
 a whole crop in devising contrivances for exterminat 
 ing field mice ; while Egbert secured half of his by 
 labour and attention. Somehow, so it was, one grew 
 richer every year, and the other was always in want 
 of money. 
 
 " They won t be here to-day," said Dennis, one 
 morning, after his elder brother and himself had been 
 sitting with their heads inclined towards each other 
 about two hours, without exchanging a word. 
 
 " They won t be here to-day," echoed Egbert, and 
 there ended the conversation, for an hour at least. 
 
 " I think it will clear up before noon," quoth Dennis, 
 eyeing the clouds as they separated above, disclosing 
 a little piece of clear blue sky. 
 
 " I think it will," responded Egbert, and the matter 
 was settled. 
 
 The expected arrivals were Colonel Vancour s wife 
 and daughter, the latter of whom, having finished her 
 education at the boarding-school, was now on her way 
 home from New York with her mother. The reader 
 
! 
 
 14 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 will be pleased to recollect that this was long before 
 the invention of steam-boats, and when a genuine 
 Albany packet never dreamed of sailing but with a 
 fair wind, nor scarcely ever passed the Overslaugh 
 without paying it the compliment of running high and 
 dry aground. We ourselves well remember, in times 
 long-subsequent, having once lain there seven days 
 within seven miles of Albany ; yet such appeared the 
 immeasurable distance, that no one on board ever 
 dreamed of leaving the vessel and going to the city by 
 land. All waited patiently for an easterly wind or a 
 heavy rain, to float them off again ; and spent the time 
 pleasantly in eating and smoking. In truth, there is 
 no greater help to patience than a pipe of Blaise 
 Moore s tobacco. But, the fact is, neither were people 
 so much in a hurry in those days, nor was their time 
 half so precious as it is now. Then a man was all his 
 life in making a fortune ; at present he cannot spare 
 so much time, because he has not only to make, but to 
 spend, a fortune before he dies. It would have been 
 wellnigh impossible to persuade a man to risk a quick 
 passage to the other world, for the sake of shortening 
 his journey in this. 
 
 The daughter, accompanied by her mother and 
 Tjerck, an old black servant, had been expected more 
 than a week, on every day of which precisely the same 
 colloquy as that we have just recorded passed between 
 the two brothers. We ought to mention, that Mr. Eg 
 bert Vancour was prevented attending the ladies home 
 by having been appointed a commissioner to hold a 
 treaty with the Five Nations at Schenectady. The past 
 week had been one of almost continual rain, and the 
 three brothers began to manifest impatience, each in his 
 
15 
 
 own way the two elder, by frequent emigrations from 
 the chimney-corner to the window ; and the younger, 
 by marching out every five minutes, in the intervals 
 between his naps, squaring himself with his thick 
 short legs wide apart, and reconnoitring the weather 
 cock, which, by the way, was an iron shad, through 
 whose sides were cut the letters D. V., in honour of 
 the family. 
 
 At length, towards evening, the yellow sun broke 
 through the opening western clouds, most gorgeously 
 gilding the weeping landscape, and turning the cold 
 drops of rain which had collected on the grass and 
 waving branches of the trees to sparkling diamonds 
 bright. A brisk yet mellow south wind sprung up, 
 and a fleet of sloops with snow-white sails appeared 
 below, ploughing their way merrily up the river. All 
 turned out to see if they could distinguish the " Pa- 
 troon," the vessel in which the ladies had taken pas 
 sage. The indefatigable Ariel was down at the 
 wharf, in front of the mansion-house, making a prodi 
 gious noise, and calling out to every vessel that passed, 
 to know if the Patroon was coming, every now and 
 then clearing his throat, as was his custom, with an 
 " a-hem ! " that at length startled a flock of black 
 ducks, which had maintained its station in a little 
 neighbouring cove for several days past. Sloop after 
 sloop passed on, without stopping, until Ariel got out 
 of all patience, and stamped about from one side of 
 the wharf to the other, muttering that the Patroon 
 was the worst of all vessels, and the captain the most 
 lazy, slow-motioned, stupid of all blockheads. 
 
 " I knew it; damn him, I knew it. I ll bet my life, 
 he is high and dry on the Overslaugh. No ! hey ! 
 
16 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 no : damn it, there she comes there she is at last ; " 
 and he darted across the wharf towards her, with such 
 enthusiasm that he broke his shins against a post; 
 whereat he gave the Patroon and her captain another 
 broadside, not forgetting the post. 
 
 Ariel was not mistaken : it was the Patroon, and, 
 in a few minutes, Madam Vancour and her daughter 
 Catalina were welcomed once more at the fireside of 
 their best friends, with a quiet speechless warmth 
 which nature dictated and nature understood. All 
 but Ariel spoke through their eyes ; but it was the 
 characteristic of that worthy bachelor, to make a 
 noise on all occasions of merriment or sadness ; the 
 more he felt, the more noise he made, and this pro 
 pensity followed him even in his sleep; he being 
 a most sonorous and irrepressible practitioner of 
 snoring, in all its varieties. He paraded round the 
 young woman, crying, " A-hem ! bless me, how you 
 have grown ; a-hem ! zounds, I shouldn t have known 
 you; why, ahem! damn it, you re almost as tall as 
 I am ! " And then he measured his square stumpy 
 figure with that of the tall graceful girl. Finally, 
 having exhausted all his waking noises, he placed 
 himself in an arm-chair and fell into a sleep, from 
 which he was only roused by the music of setting the 
 supper-table, which, above all others, was most agree 
 able to his ear. " Hey ! damn it, what have you 
 got for supper hey ! ", and he marched round, taking 
 special cognizance of the ample board. 
 
 " But where is Sybrandt ? " asked Madam Van 
 cour : " I expected, to be sure, he would be here to 
 welcome us home." 
 
 " Oh, that s true, Dennis," said Egbert ; " what has 
 become of the boy ? " 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 17 
 
 I can t tell." 
 
 Ariel broke into one of his inspiring laughs : " I 
 can," said he ; " the poor fellow sneaked away home, 
 as soon as he knew the Patroon was in sight." 
 
 Egbert shrugged his shoulders; Dennis twisted a 
 piece of celery with such a petulant jerk that he over 
 turned the whole arrangement of the dish, the pride 
 of Dame Nauntje, presiding goddess of the kitchen ; 
 Ariel cried, " A-hem ! ", like a stentor ; and Madam 
 and her daughter exchanged significant looks, and 
 smiled. Sybrandt appeared not, that night, and no 
 thing more was said on the subject. 
 
 As this young gentleman is destined to make some 
 figure in our story, we will take this opportunity to 
 introduce him more particularly to the reader s notice. 
 
18 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO A BASHFUL YOUNG GENTLEMAN. 
 
 SYBRANDT WESTBROOK was the only son of a dis 
 tant female kinswoman of the Vancour family ; once, 
 it was supposed, a great favourite of Mr. Dennis, who 
 had been suspected of something more than a mere 
 liking for the lady. She was a beauty and an heiress, 
 and married a British officer at New York, who dissi 
 pated her property, and finally went home and never 
 returned. She left an only son, without fortune, or a 
 protector to his infancy. But he found one in Mr. 
 Dennis Vancour, who, after the death of his wife, took 
 the boy home, adopted him as his son, and superin 
 tended his education. Dennis was a worthy man, 
 with many peculiarities. He cherished the primitive 
 Dutch manners, and, above all, the primitive Dutch 
 language, the only one he could now ever be brought 
 to speak, although master of English. He had a 
 great distaste for New- York names, modes, and fol 
 lies ; and, ever since he was cut out by a redcoat, 
 nursed a mortal antipathy to every man who wore 
 that livery. He disliked the new system of education 
 daily gaining ground in the province, and the thou 
 sand innovations which its change of masters had 
 introduced. The fashionable young men were cox 
 combs, and the fashionable young women only fit to 
 dance, flirt, and make fools of themselves with the 
 redcoats. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 19 
 
 For these and divers other substantial reasons, he 
 determined that his adopted son should receive a do 
 mestic education, under the care of the good Dominie 
 Stettinius, pastor of the congregation. The dominie 
 was a stanch pillar of the Reformed Dutch church, a 
 profound scholar, and a man of great piety as well as 
 simplicity of character. He was bred at the famous 
 university of Leyden, that renowned seminary, where 
 Grotius and a thousand other illustrious scholars were 
 educated ; and where Scaliger, Salmasius, and a hun 
 dred famous masters presided from time to time. It 
 was at Leyden, in the United REPUBLICS of Holland, 
 that scholars sought refuge from monkish bigotry, that 
 the liberty of thought, speech, and writing, maintained 
 itself against the persecutions of church and state; 
 and it was there that the greatest, the most indefatiga 
 ble, and the most useful scholars that perhaps the 
 world ever knew were protected, as well as rewarded 
 for their labours in the cause of learning and liberal 
 opinions. The rival nations, France, Italy, and Eng 
 land, have sought to monopolize the glories of scholar 
 ship, science, and philosophy; but, if we resort to 
 history and fact, we shall find that the civilized world 
 is at least equally indebted to the FREE STATES OF 
 HOLLAND, and that, at one period, comprising a cen 
 tury or more, had they not found a refuge there, they 
 would in all probability have been persecuted into 
 silence, if not unto death. 
 
 .Dominie Stettinius had been a laborious student, 
 and was now a ripe scholar. This was some distinc 
 tion in those days, when it required the labour of years 
 to gather that knowledge which was then dispersed 
 among thousands of bulky volumes, but is now col- 
 
20 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 lected and condensed in encyclopaedias, dictionaries, 
 and compendiums of various kinds. But tliajdominie 
 was only a scholar and a pious divine ; he possessed 
 no one accomplishment except learning, nor had he a 
 respect for any other ; his manners were simple, almost 
 uncouth ; and such was the sobriety of his notions, 
 that, though a kind-hearted being as ever existed, he 
 could hardly tolerate the smiles, the gayety, and the 
 gambols of happy childhood. 
 
 This worthy theologian, by desire of Mr. Dennis 
 Vancour, took the entire charge of Sybrandt at the 
 age of seven years, and made a great scholar of him 
 at nineteen. The good divine was so zealous in plying 
 him with books that he forgot men, and, what was 
 worse, women, who are as necessary to the formation 
 of mind and manners as they are to the existence of 
 man himself. The consequence was, that the youth 
 grew up a shy, awkward, reserved, abstract being, 
 without the vivacity of his age, and ignorant as a 
 child of that knowledge of the world which, like small 
 change, is essential to the every day transactions of 
 life. There was nothing on the face of the earth he 
 was so much afraid of as a woman, particularly a 
 young woman, whose very presence seemed to turn 
 him into stone, and lock up the springs of thought as 
 well as action. But, notwithstanding all this, woman 
 was the divinity of his soul, worshipped in secret in 
 his rural walks and solitary contemplations. Some 
 ideal mistress of his own creation was ever present 
 to his imagination, and the propensity to love, which 
 is the universal characteristic of youth, only became 
 the more intense from his entire abstraction from the 
 will and the means for its gratification. Thus, while, 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 21 
 
 from a consciousness of his awkwardness and em 
 barrassment, he shunned all personal communion with 
 woman, his whole heart was filled and animated by a 
 latent, smothered fire, a sleeping Cupid, which, when 
 once roused into action by opportunity and an object, 
 was destined to become the ruling influence of his 
 life. 
 
 The person and aspect of Sybrandt were eminently 
 handsome ; but his carriage and address deplorably 
 rustic and ungainly. When spoken to abruptly, his 
 confusion had the appearance of dulness ; and such 
 were his habits of wool-gathering that he often gave 
 the most silly answers imaginable. Thus he grew up 
 with little to recommend him to the respect or affec 
 tion of his fellow-creatures around but a sort of harm 
 less stupidity, which the good dominie chose to call 
 the gravity of wisdom. His vivacity, if nature had 
 ever given him any, was entirely repressed by want -t* 
 of company and relaxation, reinforced by the stern 
 discipline of the worthy Stettinius, who plied him 
 with tasks day and night. His shoulders had become 
 rounded like those of advancing decrepitude, and he 
 had acquired a habit of stooping which destroyed the 
 manliness and dignity of his figure. 
 
 With him, the happy days of childhood had been 
 the season of perpetual toil. While he saw from the 
 window of his prison the urchins of the neighbour 
 hood sporting in the meadows, or by the margin of 
 the river, and heard their shrill shouts of unchecked 
 hilarity, Nature would yearn in his heart to partake 
 in the frolic which she herself had provided for the 
 little sons and daughters of men. But every glance 
 away from the everlasting book was watched and 
 
22 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 checked by the -giXKLdonrinie, who had long outlived 
 the recollection of his youthful feelings, and buried 
 every impulse of nature under the mighty mass of scho 
 lastic rubbish which the incessant labours of threescore 
 years had concentrated in his memory. Assuredly 
 learning is a thing of almost inestimable value ; still, 
 I doubt it may be bought too dearly. Why should 
 the season of childhood, which God has ordained to 
 be a period of freedom from cares and toils, be con 
 verted into one of labour and anxiety, for the sake of 
 a little premature knowledge, which the tender intel 
 lect is unable to comprehend, or the comprehension 
 of which requires an effort of the mind which stints 
 its growth for ever afterward ? When I see an urchin, 
 who ought to be enjoying holiday and strengthening 
 his constitution by wholesome exercise to bear the 
 vicissitudes of the world in after-times, kidnapped and 
 sent to school, to sit on a bench for four or five hours 
 together, employed in learning by rote what he is un 
 able to comprehend, I cannot help contemplating him 
 as the slave and the victim of the vanity of the parent 
 and the folly of the teacher. Such a system is calcu 
 lated to lay a foundation for disease and decrepitude, 
 to stint the physical and intellectual growth, and to 
 produce a premature old age of body and mind. 
 
 Sybrandt had seen but little of Catalina, his cousin, 
 (for so they used to style each other), previous to 
 her being sent to the boarding-school ; and less of her 
 from that time. True, the young lady spent her vaca 
 tions at home, but Sybrandt was either too hard at 
 his studies, or too bashful, to be much in her com 
 pany. When this happened, he was pretty certain to 
 be more than commonly stupid and embarrassed, so 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 23 
 
 that Catalina had long set him down as little better 
 than a sleepy country bumpkin of the first preten 
 sions. The youth had anticipated her arrival and 
 establishment at her father s mansion, as an event of 
 great interest to him. True, he felt convinced in his 
 own mind that he should never dare to look her full 
 in the face, or enjoy either ease or pleasure in her 
 society. Still, her residence so near him would furnish 
 a new and charming object for his abstract devoirs 
 and solitary contemplations. _She would become the 
 ideal companion of his rambles, the bright seraph of 
 his imagination; and give a zest to his existence in 
 that visionary world which furnished almost all the 
 materials of his happiness. He was excessively anx 
 ious to see her, and punctual in his attendance at the 
 mansion-house while the storm lasted and there was 
 no immediate prospect of the young lady s arrival; 
 but the moment the " Patroon " came in sight his 
 heart failed him, and he retreated into the fields, there 
 to enjoy a fancied meeting which he dared not en 
 counter in reality. He embraced his cousin; kissed 
 her cheek ; made the most gallant, eloquent speeches ; 
 gazed in her face with eager eyes of admiration ; and, 
 in short, enjoyed in imagination an interview totally 
 different from that which would in fact have occurred. 
 ( Gifted is the man who can thus create a paradise 
 around him, and spin his enjoyments, as it were, from 
 his own cocoon. (This is a species of domestic man 
 ufacture) that certainly ought to be encouraged by the 
 government. 
 
 Mr. Dennis Vancour was somewhat indignant at 
 the ignominious retreat of Sybrandt, to whom he de 
 livered a weighty Dutch lecture that very night on his 
 
24 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 sheepishness. The good man took especial care not 
 to recollect that it was, in a great measure, owing to 
 the system of education inflicted upon him by the 
 dominie, with his entire approbation. He insisted on 
 his accompanying him, the next morning, to pay his 
 duty to the young lady ; and, accordingly, an interview 
 took place between them. On the part of Sybrandt 
 it was shy and constrained, a mixture of pride and 
 timidity; on that of Catalina, sprightly and good- 
 humoured, with a subtle expression of slighting 
 superiority, which was calculated to increase the em 
 barrassment of one of his quick feelings, and make 
 him appear still more awkward and stupid. The 
 noisy, but well-meaning Ariel, made matters still 
 worse, by occasionally urging the young man to " buck 
 up," as he expressed it, to the young lady, and show his 
 breeding. Poor Sybrandt wished himself a thousand 
 miles away. By the time dinner was served, his head 
 felt like a great bag of wool, and his heart ached with 
 an oppressive load of imaginary contempt and ridi 
 cule, which he thought he saw in the eyes of every 
 one, more especially those ,of Catalina. Ariel, who sat 
 next him, was perpetually jogging him in the side, to 
 offer some civility to the young lady, and at length 
 wrought him up to the hardihood of asking her to 
 take a glass of wine, which he did in a voice so low 
 that nobody heard him. 
 
 " Try again," whispered Ariel; "zounds! man, you 
 could not hear yourself, I am sure." 
 
 Sybrandt tried again, but his voice died away in 
 murmurs. Ariel was out of patience. " A-hem ! " 
 roared he, in a voice that made his unwilling client 
 quake. " Ahem ! Catalina, your cousin asks you 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 25 
 
 to drink wine with him." The glasses were filled, but, 
 unfortunately, Ariel, who was none of the smallest, 
 sat directly between the young people, and intercepted 
 Sybrandt s view of his cousin. When Sybrandt 
 leaned forward to catch the lady s eye, Ariel did the 
 like, from an inherent sympathy with motion, origin 
 ating in his inveterate antipathy to sitting still ; and 
 thus they continued bobbing backwards and forwards, 
 till Catalina could restrain herself no longer, and 
 laughed outright. People with habits and dispositions 
 like those of Sybrandt never fail to take the laugh 
 all to themselves in a case like this, even when they 
 are not the only parties concerned. The young man 
 actually perspired with agony, and, when at length 
 he gained an opportunity of bowing to the lady, his 
 nerves were in such a state of agitation that he was 
 incapable of swallowing. The wine took the wrong 
 way, and nearly suffocated the luckless lad, who was 
 only relieved by an ungovernable fit of coughing, 
 during which he precipitated his draught in the face 
 of honest Ariel. 
 
 " Blitzen ! " exclaimed Dennis, but in an under tone ; 
 for he was extremely anxious that his adopted son 
 should do credit to his education. 
 
 " A-hem ! zounds ! " cried Ariel, wiping his eyes, 
 "why, Sybrandt, one would think you mistook it for 
 a dose of physic." The young lady exchanged a sig 
 nificant smile with her mother, and the good Egbert, 
 according to his custom, said nothing. 
 
 The dinner passed off without any other catas 
 trophe, though Sybrandt trembled to his very heart 
 strings, and shuddered when he put any thing into 
 his mouth, lest it might go the wrong way. He 
 
26 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 escaped as soon as possible, and sought his usual 
 communion with his friend and counsellor, solitude. 
 Here his imagination expatiated amid tortures of its 
 own creation, and painted in the most exaggerated 
 colours the scenes that had just occurred. Under the 
 roughness and simplicity of his appearance arid man 
 ners, this young man concealed a proud sensibility, 
 that winced under the sense of ridicule and contempt. 
 The thought, the shadow of a thought, that he had 
 been the object of either, stung him with a feeling 
 of self-abasement. Such a temper aggravates the 
 slightest matters intcTthbrns and nettles, and, with a 
 morbid solicitude, lies in wait for poisons to nourish 
 its own infirmity. In five minutes after Sybrandt s 
 departure from the mansion-house, every circumstance 
 connected with his mortifications was entirely for 
 gotten by all but himself. But the recollection con 
 tinued to rankle in his mind for a long while after 
 ward, rendering him, if possible, a thousand times 
 more shy, distrustful, and sensitive than before. He 
 never entered the old mansion, that the scene of the 
 dinner-table did not present itself with accumulated 
 circumstances of humiliation, paralyzing his spirits, 
 oppressing his understanding, and giving to his actions 
 a degree of restraint that made his company painful 
 as well as irksome to Catalina. It was indeed but 
 seldom that he could be induced to seek her society, 
 though she was ever the companion of his solitude, 
 and the theme of a thousand airy visions of the future, 
 which he indulged without the remotest idea, or even 
 desire, of realizing. He lived upon his own imagin 
 ings, of which, though self was always the centre, the 
 circumference comprehended the universe. The in- 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 27 
 
 fluence of solitude on the selfish principle is almost 
 omnipotent. He who lives to himself, and by him 
 self, becomes, as it were, the object of his own idola 
 try. Having little to draw off attention from his 
 peculiar interests, the claims, the actions, the wishes 
 of his fellow-creatures, never intrude ; or, if they in 
 trude at all, it is as mere auxiliaries, or obstacles, to 
 his supreme dominion. JJpon him /the social feeling, 
 which is the source of a thousand virtues, never 
 operates, except perhaps in some revery that calls up^ 
 a momentary impulse of kindness or humanity, which 
 dies away without ever being embodied in action. 
 He has his being, his enjoyment, his regrets, his dis 
 appointments, concentrated in himself. 
 
 Sybrandt was an example of these truths. His 
 principles were all good, and he practised no vices. 
 Yet neither his talents nor his virtues were ever 
 brought into exercise in a communion with his felloW^ 
 beings, because his pride, timidity, and sensitiveness 
 drove him continually from society, and kept him per 
 petually pondering on the derision which was ever 
 present to his fancy. Thus all his acquirements and 
 all his good qualities lay dormant. It remained to be 
 seen what such a being might or would become when 
 placed in conflict with his fellows, under the incite 
 ments and temptations of the world. 
 
28 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 
 A YOUNG LADY WHO WOULD HAVE BEEN ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD 
 HAD SHE LIVED LONG ENOUGH. 
 
 QAT J AIJNA_YANCOUR was a very pretty, and, in the 
 main, a very good, girl, although she had been bred at 
 a boarding-school at New York, and danced with an 
 aide-de-camp. She had lost much of the Doric, but 
 had acquired a corresponding portion of the Corin 
 thian. She often sighed for the more piquant and 
 gorgeous amusements of the capital, and more 
 especially for the society of the gay gallants in scarlet 
 uniform. Still, she had not quite lost the rural feel 
 ing, nor entirely thrown off the witching influence 
 which nature s various beauties exercise over the 
 hearts of those who, though they have sat at the 
 world s great banquet, still preserve a relish for more 
 homely fare. She sometimes, in the gayety of her 
 heart, sported with the feelings of poor Sybrandt, and 
 rallied his shyness, unconscious of the pangs she in 
 flicted upon his apprehensive self-love, and without 
 noticing the dew of agony that gathered upon his 
 forehead, as she playfully reproached him with being 
 afraid of the young ladies. 
 
 The intercourse of young people in those times was 
 very different from what it is at present. I pretend 
 not, that one age is, upon the whole, wiser or better 
 than another; or to sit in judgment upon my con 
 temporaries. But I often catch myself contemplating, 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 29 
 
 with something like sober regret, those days of artless- 
 ness, of easy, unaffected intercourse, and manly inde 
 pendence. Who is there, indeed, that hath gathered 
 from history and tradition a picture of the manners, 
 usages, and morals of the ancient patriarchs of Albany 
 and its neighbourhood, but will be inclined to con 
 trast them dolefully with those of the present times ? 
 Who but will sigh to behold their places usurped by 
 gilded butterflies, ostentatious beggary, empty pre 
 tence, and paltry affectation ? In the room of men 
 above the smiles and frowns of bankers or bankrupts, 
 he will find speculators glittering in their borrowed 
 plumage for an hour or two, then passing away, leav 
 ing nothing behind them but the wrecks of their 
 unprincipled career. Where once sat the simple ma 
 gistrates, administering the few simple laws necessary 
 to regulate the orderly community over which they 
 presided, is now collected a body of garrulous, igno 
 rant, visionary, or corrupt legislators, pampering their 
 own private interests at the expense of the public 
 good, and sacrificing the prosperity of one portion of 
 the State to the grasping avidity of another. In the 
 room of prosperous yeomanry and thriving mechanics, 
 we behold crowds of hungry expectants, neglecting 
 the sure and only means of competency, and begging, 
 in the abjectness of a debased spirit, permission to 
 sacrifice their independence for a wretched pittance, 
 held under the wretched tenure of a man who has no 
 will of his own. > The once quiet city, where the 
 name and the idea of political corruption were un 
 known, is now a whirlpool of intrigue, where empty 
 bubbles are generated and kept alive by the agitation 
 of the waters, and boiling and conflicting eddies 
 
30 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 gather into one focus all the straws, and chaff, and 
 feathers, and worthless nothings, that float upon the 
 surface of the stormy puddle. 
 
 An age of simplicity is an age of morality ; and 
 hence it is that the wisest writers of antiquity have 
 made simplicity of manners essential to the preserva 
 tion of that liberty which cannot be sustained by a 
 luxurious and corrupt people. That our own high- 
 toned feelings of independence are rapidly fleeing 
 away before the advancing steps of ostentation and 
 luxury, and that the love of wealth, as the means of 
 attaining to these gratifications, is becoming the ruling 
 passion, must be obvious to all observers. But enough 
 of this ; the subject belongs to graver heads than ours. 
 
 One smiling morning in June, when nature, to use 
 the fashionable phrase, sent out her cards of invitation 
 to all the living imps of earth, from those of two legs 
 to those of a thousand, to come and revel at her ban 
 quet of flowers, zephyrs, and woodland harmonies 
 not forgetting the strawberries and cream Catalina, 
 according to the fashion of the times, had made a 
 party with some of the lads and lasses of Albany to 
 visit a little island lying lengthwise along the river, a 
 mile or two below the mansion-house. Here, on the 
 soft bosom of tranquil nature, the young people ram 
 bled about till they were tired, and then sat down on 
 the green sward under the protecting shade of some 
 little copse of half-grown trees canopied by grape 
 vines, forming a vast awning over their heads. Here, 
 at a proper time, they brought out their stores ; and 
 a collation, to which health, exercise, and cheerful 
 innocent hearts gave zest, succeeded. Many a sober 
 youth and red-ripe damsel were first awakened to a 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 31 
 
 gentle preference in these smiling solitudes : and many 
 a long uncertain beauty was here brought, at last, to 
 know her own mind, and acknowledge it to the chosen 
 swain. 
 
 Catalina was resolved that Sybrandt should accom 
 pany the party; not that she admired her shy and 
 awkward cousin, or valued his society : but, I know 
 not how it is, there is a wayward wilfulness in woman 
 which, being common to all past times, is probably 
 a gift of nature. We allude to the propensity to 
 carrying a point, whether a favourite one or not ; to 
 overcoming opposition ; to having full swing in every 
 thing. Had Sybrandt sought her society, or discovered 
 a disposition to be attentive, Catalina would have 
 probably been tired to death of him in a little tvhile, 
 and affronted the youth downright. But he kept at a 
 distance ; he avoided her whenever he could ; he some 
 times excited her curiosity and sometimes her anger, 
 by his lonely habits, and total neglect in short, he 
 was not to be had at all times, or at any time, and 
 was, therefore, in spite of herself, an object of conse 
 quence to his cousin. But the difficulty was to catch 
 this perverse monster, and Ariel was deputed for that 
 purpose. There was nothing he loved like being em 
 ployed upon the affairs of other people ; and Catalina 
 had gained his whole heart by sending him to Albany 
 every day, to purchase a paper of pins, a skein of 
 thread, or a pennyworth of some kind or other. 
 
 Ariel, who knew some of the haunts of Sybrandt, 
 took his gun, and went, as he said, to hunt this 
 strange animal. Among the rugged hills that formed 
 the inland boundary of these rich flats, was a deep 
 romantic glen, through which a fine stream tumbled 
 
32 
 
 in foaming volumes from rock to rock. It was over 
 shadowed by huge pines and cedars, which threw their 
 gloomy arms and locked their fingers half-way across 
 the abyss. Here was a perpetual twilight, through 
 out all times of the day and every season of the year. 
 In the hottest days of summer there was a refreshing 
 coolness diffused around, that came with exquisite 
 zest to the lazy and relaxed frame, and keyed the 
 spirit up to vigorous thought. Every rock, and stump, 
 and half-decayed branch of a mouldering tree, was 
 coated with velvet moss ; and, all along the margin of 
 the brook, the green fringe kissed the foamy waters as 
 they glanced away. It was here that Sybrandt was 
 often found, deep in the reveries of a wandering rnind, 
 that seeks some steady rational object of pursuit, and 
 floats clumsily about without purpose, like a bark 
 away from its anchor. His mind was a perfect chaos, 
 wanting the powerful stimulus of some master-pas 
 sion, some great pursuit, to arrange its intellectual 
 forces, and marshal them to usefulness, if not to deeds 
 of noble daring. 
 
 Ariel was an astonishing man for killing two birds 
 with one stone. He always had two irons in the fire 
 at once; and nothing was more common with him 
 than to forget them both in pursuit of a third. It is 
 related of him, that, being one day waiting with his 
 horse to cross the ferry at Albany, he was so taken up 
 with the " damned stupid blundering " of the ferry-man 
 in bringing his boat to the stairs, that he let go the 
 bridle of his horse, who forthwith trotted gallantly 
 away. His master pursued, and finally came up with 
 him. But, just as he seized the bridle and turned 
 round, he saw the ferry-boat leaving the stairs. 
 
33 
 
 Whereupon he let go the bridle, and ran as fast as his 
 little short drumsticks would permit towards the boat, 
 hallooing to the " damned stupid blockhead " to stop. 
 The man, being now in the current of the stream, 
 could not or would not put back. Then did Ariel, 
 in a great passion, bethink him of his horse ; but the 
 horse was gone too, past all recovery, having this time 
 mended his pace to a gallop, and made straightway 
 for home. So Ariel missed both ferry-boat and steed, 
 by not attending to one at a time. 
 
 As he was proceeding in the execution of his com 
 mission for Catalina, unluckily for the wishes of that 
 young lady, Ariel espied at some distance a noble 
 flock of pigeons perched on a dead tree. The last 
 object was always sure to carry all before it with 
 Ariel. He forgot every thing else, and trudged away 
 with his best speed towards this new and powerful 
 attraction. He got a copse between him and the 
 birds ; he advanced cautiously under cover ; he gained 
 a station within gunshot, while the unconscious victims 
 sat perfectly quiet; he cocked his piece, raised it to 
 his shoulder, and was just taking aim, when his irre 
 sistible propensity to clearing his throat came across 
 him, and he essayed such a stout, magnificent, 
 " ahem ! ", that the birds took the alarm and flew 
 away. " Damn it," quoth Ariel, and scampered after, 
 following them with his eye, till he unfortunately 
 plumped into a ditch, where he got most gloriously 
 garnished with a coat of mud, and was fain to make 
 the best of his way home, leaving the pigeons to their 
 fate and Sybrandt to his solitude. 
 
 " Well, uncle," said Catalina, when she saw him, 
 " did you see the white savage ? " 
 
 3 
 
34 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 " No, zounds ! they all flew away ", replied Ariel, 
 thinking of the pigeons. 
 
 " Flew away ! What are you talking about, uncle ? " 
 
 " Why, zounds! I tell you, just as I was going to 
 let fly at them, they flew away, and I fell into a ditch, 
 trying to follow." 
 
 " Follow whom," said the young woman, who began 
 to suspect honest Ariel had lost his wits. 
 
 " Why, the pigeons." 
 
 " Pigeons ! I though you went in search of Sy- 
 brandt?" 
 
 " Bless my soul ! a-hem ! bless my soul, so I did. 
 But the truth is, Catty, I took my gun with me, by 
 way of company, and met a flock of pigeons that led 
 me plump into a ditch, and I forgot all about it. 5 
 
 The young lady was half -diverted, half -vexed, 
 though well acquainted with her uncle s inveterate 
 habit of running after anything that seized his atten 
 tion for the moment. He once lost an excellent 
 opportunity of getting married, by stopping on the 
 way to show some boys how to catch minnows. 
 
 " I ll go this minute and look for him," added Ariel, 
 after a moment s hesitation. 
 
 " Do, uncle ; but don t take your gun with you." 
 
 " No, no." 
 
 " And don t run after the pigeons." 
 
 O, no." 
 
 " And take care you don t fall into the ditch." 
 
 " O, never fear," and away went the good-natured 
 Ariel, with a sonorous, " a-hem ! " 
 
 On his way to the house of his brother Dennis, he 
 saw a number of little peach-trees, just fit for inocu 
 lating, which tempted him sorely. But, luckily for the 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 35 
 
 consummation of his errand, he had left his knife at 
 home, and there was an end of the matter. He went 
 on, therefore, and found Sybrandt at home. That 
 young gentleman had been considering all the morn 
 ing whether he should go over and see his pretty 
 cousin, and had just wrought himself up to the feat, 
 when Ariel arrived with his message, which threw 
 him into great perplexity. In going to see her of his 
 own accord, and alone, he had privately come to an 
 understanding with himself, that if his heart failed 
 him by the way he could turn back again, and nobody 
 would be the wiser. But here was a different predica 
 ment, a message and a companion, and he felt greatly 
 inclined to demur. 
 
 " Come, come ! Zounds, man, why don t you stir 
 yourself? When I was of your age, if a pretty girl 
 sent for me, I was off like a shot." 
 
 " Yes, but you never hit the mark, uncle," said Sy 
 brandt, smiling. 
 
 " A-hem," quoth Ariel ; " but, zounds ! come along, 
 will you ? I ve got fifty things to do this morning. 
 Let me see I promised to show the dominie how to 
 ring his pigs noses after that, I must go and tell 
 the widow Van Amburgh how her geese ought to be 
 yoked then to squire Vervalen s to teach them how 
 to give a bolus to a horse then to Riper s, to see 
 how his sugar-pears get on -and but come along; 
 damn it, I shall never get through half my business 
 this morning." Accordingly he seized the youth by 
 the arm and dragged him along, half- willing, half- 
 reluctant. A man is sometimes pleased with a little 
 violence, which saves him the trouble of making up 
 his mind when he don t know exactly what he would 
 
36 
 
 be at ; and so is a woman, unless great lies have been 
 told. 
 
 "Well, here he is I ve caught him at last," 
 shouted Ariel, as he entered the hall where Catalina 
 sat enjoying the sweet south breeze that gathered 
 coolness as it sailed up the river. 
 
 "What, uncle the pigeons?" And the young 
 lady smiled at the recollection of the morning s disas 
 ter. 
 
 " No ; the goose," replied Ariel, bursting into a 
 great laugh at his own happy rejoinder. 
 
 Reader, art thou a modest, bashful, or what is still 
 more deplorable, a sheepish young person, as proud as 
 Lucifer, and with feelings more wakeful and skittish 
 than a wild partridge ? and hast thou ever been made 
 the object of laughter? If so, thou wilt be able to 
 enter into the agonies of Sybrandt, as he stood smart 
 ing under the consciousness that he cut rather a ridic 
 ulous figure. No one can ever know what a man 
 suffers in such a situation, except persons of the tem 
 perament I have described. Else, the most ill-natured, 
 malignant being that was ever created would be care 
 ful not to play rudely upon an instrument so easily 
 disposed to tormenting discords. There are thou 
 sands of young persons, all of the higher order of in 
 tellect, who, in the days of their probation, before their 
 hearts are seared in the fires of indulgence, or dead 
 ened by disappointments, suffer more from the care 
 less disregard to their feelings, and the thoughtless 
 ridicule indulged in by the domestic circle in which 
 they move, than from all other causes combined. 
 
 It was thus with Sybrandt. His apprehensive pride 
 whispered in his suspicious ear, that his cousin had 
 
THI: DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 37 
 
 sent for him to make sport with his infirmity. His 
 mind lost its poise, and his faculties became sus 
 pended, as he stood, the image of stupid insensibility, 
 at the moment his heart and brain were pregnant with 
 feelings which, (could he have rallied the confidence 
 to utter them), would have astounded his uncle, and 
 waked in the kind bosom of Catalina respect and com 
 miseration. As it was, she considered him a conceited 
 bookworm, whose neglect of her society and marked 
 avoidance arose from indifference to her person and 
 contempt for her understanding. From the moment 
 she entertained this conviction, he became an object 
 of consequence in her eyes, and she resolved either to 
 overcome this dislike or insensibility, or revenge the 
 injured dignity of womanhood, by worrying his self- 
 esteem and laughing at his airs of superiority. 
 
 Sybrandt stood twirling his hat, immersed in a 
 chaos of conflicting feelings that took away all pres 
 ence of mind, when Ariel slapped him on the shoulder, 
 in his good-humoured boisterous way, and roared out, 
 in a voice that caused the young man to drop his hat 
 on the floor, 
 
 " Zounds! man, can t you speak? Why don t you 
 ask your cousin what she wants. Hey a-hem ! If 
 I was a young fellow like you, I d have got it all out 
 of her in less than no time. But I suppose I d better 
 leave the young couple together a-hem!" And, 
 with a most significant look, he departed to teach the 
 dominie how to ring his pigs noses. 
 
 This allusion to the " young couple " affronted Cat 
 alina, and made poor Sybrandt feel more silly than 
 ever. At length the young lady, assuming an air of 
 taunting distance, masked under affected humility, 
 said 
 
88 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 " Mr. Westbrook, I am afraid, is offended at the 
 liberty I have taken in sending for him." 
 
 " Indeed I I could not imagine I was sur 
 prised I " and here his tongue cleaved to the 
 roof of his mouth. 
 
 " I beg pardon for the liberty ; but I thought it 
 might be agreeable to Mr. Westbrook to go with a 
 little party to-morrow to the island, if the day is fair. 
 But, I suppose I see you can t leave your books. 
 These little rural pastimes are unworthy a philoso 
 pher : " and she concocted her rosy lips and ivory 
 teeth into a pretty sneer, as she uttered this truly 
 female oration. 
 
 " I would I will I should like much to go 
 with you but " and here the demon of sheepish- 
 ness conjured up a hundred reasons for not going. 
 
 " O, very well I suppose Mr. Westbrook thinks 
 the diversions of common folks, especially young 
 women who don t understand Greek, beneath his no 
 tice." 
 
 Sybrandt was a little nettled at this, and anger soon 
 overcomes timidity. 
 
 " Miss Vancour is inclined to be satirical, I will not 
 say ill-natured, to-day." 
 
 " Wonderful ! Why, he has found his voice. Mr. 
 Westbrook condescends to speak to a poor damsel. 
 Surely he mistakes her for one of the seven wise men 
 of Greece. How could you let down your dignity 
 so ! " and the lady made him a low obeisance. 
 
 Sybrandt s face and heart grew hot with a sense of 
 insult. 
 
 " Miss Vancour does not do me justice if she thinks 
 me proud. She cannot know my feelings, nor enter 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 39 
 
 into the mortifications I suffer daily, from the con 
 sciousness that I that I " and here his proud shy 
 spirit shrunk from revealing the mysteries of his de 
 portment. He remained silent and embarrassed ; yet 
 his face glowed with an expression, and his eye kin 
 dled with a fire, Catalina had never seen lighted there 
 before. She was delighted to discover that he had 
 feelings which it was in her power to awaken. It 
 was a proof that he did not think her altogether be 
 neath his notice. 
 
 " What is it, then," said she, " that keeps you from 
 my father s house, where you are always welcome ; 
 from the society of the young men who would be 
 proud of your company; and from all share in the 
 amusements of the girls, my friends ? If it is not 
 pride, what is it ? " 
 
 At one moment Sybrandt determined to give his 
 cousin an analysis of his emotions ; the next he re 
 coiled from the disclosure ; and the conflict of oppos 
 ing impulses threw his mind into such a confusion, 
 that for the soul of him he could not utter a con 
 nected sentence. 
 
 " Well, well, Mr. Westbrook," said Catalina, after 
 waiting the event of this struggle, " I don t wish to in 
 quire into your secrets, nor to persuade you to go any 
 where against your will. You had better ask the 
 dominie s permission. I won t keep you any longer 
 from your studies." And the young lady left the 
 room, saying within herself, " He is not such a sense 
 less block, after all, as I thought him. A man that 
 can blush must have a heart, certainly." 
 
 Sybrandt could have knocked his head against a 
 stone wall. He buried himself in the woody solitudes, 
 
40 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 where he dwelt, with exaggerated agony, on the pre 
 posterous figure he had made in this interview, the 
 laugh of Ariel, and the mockery of his cousin. He 
 called himself fool, oaf, idiot, in his very heart, and it 
 be may fairly questioned whether any pang he after 
 ward experienced, arising from actual suffering or 
 misfortune, ever came up to the intensity of this his 
 present feeling of mortified pride and insulted sensi 
 bility, combined with the consciousness that he had 
 made himself ridiculous. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 41 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE MORNING S SMILES, THE EVENING S TEARS. 
 
 THE next morning, Ariel, who was to be comman- 
 der-in-chief of the party to the island, came over, and 
 found Sybrandt half-willing, half-afraid to accompany 
 them. Never man was so busy, so important, and 
 so delighted as the good Ariel, at having something 
 to do for a whole day. Blessed indeed, yea, thrice 
 blessed is he whom trifles can make happy. It is this 
 which forms the bliss of childhood and the consola 
 tion of old age, each of which finds its appropriate 
 enjoyments in an exemption from the serious labours 
 and oppressive anxieties of the world s great busi 
 ness. 
 
 It was a cheerful and inspiring morning as ever 
 shone upon the rich plains of the happy Hudson 
 happy in being the chosen river on whose bosom floats 
 the tide of fashion to and fro, and on whose delicious 
 borders dwell in rustic competency thousands of con 
 tented human beings, finding the reward of their la 
 bours in the fruitions of a blameless life and a quiet 
 spirit. The day was such a one as I myself prefer to 
 all others ; when the sun diffuses his influence through 
 a gauzy veil of semi-transparent clouds, which temper 
 his rays into a mild genial warmth, that, while it takes, 
 perhaps, from the vigour of the body, communicates 
 to the mind a delicious and luxurious aptitude for the 
 indulgence of the gentler emotions. In such days, 
 
42 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 and through such a medium, the beauties of nature 
 exhibit only their loveliest features, and display their 
 greatest varieties of shade and colouring; the winds 
 are hushed, the waters, smooth and glassy ; the fo 
 liage wears a fleecy softness ; the hills appear more 
 beautiful ; the mountains, magnified in the misty 
 vagueness of distance, seem blended with the skies ; 
 the differing tints of green that deck the bosom of the 
 earth become more distinct yet more harmonious than 
 when basking in the glare of the sun ; and every 
 sound that meets the ear, like every object that at 
 tracts the eye, partakes in the gentle harmony that 
 reigns all around. It is in the remembrance of such 
 scenes in after-life, and amid the struggles, hopes, and 
 disappointments which checker the course of man 
 hood, that we are apt to contrast our present cares 
 with our former enjoyments, exaggerating both, and 
 : making a false estimate of the different periods of an 
 existence, which, if we fairly hold the balance, will be 
 found pretty much the same in all its various changes, 
 from the cradle to the grave. 
 
 Our party consisted of Master-commandant Ariel, 
 chief manager, factotum, &c., (as busy as a bee, as 
 noisy as a katy-did, and as merry as a cricket), Cata- 
 lina, Sybrandt, and some half a score of the beaux 
 and belles of Albany, who had come to the mansion- 
 house bright and early in the morning, all dressed in 
 neat and simple attire, befitting a ramble among the 
 wild roses and clambering vines of the favoured isle. 
 This little paradise, to speak in learned phrase, was 
 an alluvial formation of times long past, composed of 
 the rich spoils of the surrounding lands, deposited by 
 the river. It was as level as the surface of the stream 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 43 
 
 in which it was embosomed, and covered with a car 
 pet of rich, luxuriant verdure, which, when it was not 
 pastured, gave to the scythe a glorious harvest three 
 times a year. On every side and all around, the 
 banks were fringed with the light silvery foliage of 
 the water-willows, mingled with tufts of sweetbrier, 
 and growths of nameless wild flowers of every hue 
 and various odour ; and canopied here and there with 
 vines, whose long tendrils sometimes bent down and 
 waved to and fro on the gliding waters as they passed 
 slowly by. Within this leafy barrier was nothing but 
 a green sward, shaded at irregular intervals by the 
 vast giants of the alluvial growth elms and syca 
 mores, of such towering majesty that they overlooked 
 the gentle eminences which bounded the flats on either 
 side. The witching murmurs of the waters, as they 
 glided along under the willow branches and nodding 
 vines, mingled with the chorus of a thousand birds, 
 who remained all summer in undisturbed possession ; 
 and though the pipe of the shepherd was never heard 
 in these pleasant abodes, it was aptly supplied by the 
 music of harmonious nature, the rippling waves, and 
 the warblers of the woodland. 
 
 Under the skilful guidance of the active and viva 
 cious Ariel, the little party arrived at the scene of 
 their anticipated pleasures, all gay and happy, save 
 our friend Sybrandt, who, from the moment he joined 
 the group, felt the spell of the demon besetting him 
 sorely. The other young men were, indeed, quite as 
 awkward, and without his knowledge and acquire 
 ments; but they made an excellent figure, notwith 
 standing, and performed their parts with a gay, gallant 
 frankness, such as woman in every situation loves. 
 
44 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 They had lived in the world at Albany, mixed in its 
 business, and dissipated their self-love in the pursuit 
 of various objects, while poor Sybrandt had passed 
 his youth in nursing the offspring of solitude sensi 
 bility, pride, and selfishness. It is social intercourse 
 alone that, by calling him off from self-contemplation, 
 and making it necessary to remember and to adminis 
 ter to the wants or the enjoyment of others, can make 
 man happy himself, and an instrument of happiness 
 to his fellows. 
 
 When they came to the riverside, where lay the 
 little boat which was to take them to the island, Sy 
 brandt had sworn to himself that he would offer his 
 hand to Catalina to assist her in embarking. But it 
 was so long before he could screw himself up to the 
 direful feat, that one of the Albany lads, more valiant 
 as well as alert, was beforehand with him. A bashful 
 man is like a tiger ; he makes one effort, and, if that 
 fails, slinks away to his jungle, and essays not another. 
 I myself have my own experience to vouch for this ; 
 having, in the far-off days of my gallantry, full many 
 a time and oft, in dining out, gathered myself together 
 with a chivalrous ferocity to ask the lady of the feast 
 for the honour of a glass of wine with her. But, 
 alas! if perad venture the lady listened not to my first 
 demonstration, I was prone to relapse into an utter 
 and incurable incapacity to repeat the mighty effort. 
 The sound of my voice died suddenly, and word spake 
 I nevermore. So was it with master Sybrandt, who, 
 having expended his powder in a flash of the pan, 
 sunk only the lower for the exertion he had made. 
 
 The party landed, and pursued their recreation in 
 separate groups, or couples, as chance or inclination 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 45 
 
 prompted. In those days of innocence and simplicity 
 and, thanks to Heaven, it is so still in our happy 
 country young people of different sexes could share 
 the enjoyments of a rural ramble, in parties or in 
 pairs, without the remotest idea of impropriety, and 
 without waking a single breath of scandal. If there 
 be any thing in the harmony, the repose, the fascinat 
 ing and quiet beauties of nature that excites to love, 
 it is gentle and virtuous love, an awakening impulse, 
 rather than an ungovernable passion ; and if perchance 
 it works to final mischief, it is rather from accident 
 than purpose nature than depravity. It is not here 
 that the sensual passions acquire their overpowering 
 energies ; but at midnight revels, where dazzling lights, 
 artificial splendours, seducing music, high-seasoned 
 viands, and luxurious wines, pamper the senses, and 
 swell the imagination to exaggerated conceptions of 
 pleasure, which carry us away we know not and we 
 care not whither. Long may it be before it is the 
 fashion to abridge the freedom of virgins, and extend 
 that of wives, in our country. 
 
 Catalina having carried her point in making Sy- 
 brandt one of the party, was in a rather better humour 
 with him than usual. She plagued him now and 
 then in various sly ways, and sometimes raised a 
 laugh at his expense. The first fine edge of the feel 
 ings, fortunately for mankind, both in pleasure and 
 pain, is worn off by the first enjoyment and the first 
 suffering. Were it not so but I am insensibly be 
 coming a moralist, when I only aspire to story-telling. 
 Sybrandt already felt, like a musical instrument, in 
 better tune for being played upon, and two or three 
 times caught himself actually enjoying the scene and 
 
46 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 the festivity of his companions. The ridicule of 
 women sometimes makes bold men only more confi 
 dent; and I have known a very pattern of modesty 
 made downright saucy by the freedoms of others. 
 Indeed, there is not in the world so impudent a being 
 as a shy man forced out of his shyness. The impulse 
 carries him to the opposite extreme. The bent of 
 Sybrandt s mind had, however, been too continuous 
 and too rigid to be relaxed all at once. 
 
 I pity the most exalted of created beings who can 
 not feel the inspiration of the balmy air, the melody, 
 and the smiles of nature; for he can have neither 
 sensibility nor imagination. It was not so with Sy- 
 brandt. Though apparently a most unpromising pupil 
 for the school of romance, there were, if I mistake 
 not, certain springs of action and certain latent fires 
 hidden and buried in his head and heart, which only 
 required to be touched or lighted to make him a far 
 other being than he seemed just now. As the morn 
 ing passed, he insensibly began to feel less awkward, 
 and his shyness gradually wore away. He ventured 
 to speak to some of the damsels, and finally had the 
 unparalleled intrepidity to attach himself to the side 
 of his cousin in a stroll under the vines and willows 
 that skirted the shores of the little island. 
 
 By degrees the affections which nature had implant 
 ed in him opened and expanded, lrke~ttKT seeds which 
 lie dormant in the deep shades of the-forest for years, 
 until, the trees being cut down, the sunbeams waken 
 them to life and vegetation. The emotions of his 
 heart for a while overpowered his long-cherished diffi 
 dence, and lent to his tongue an eloquence that pleased, 
 while it surprised, Catalina. The stores of imagery 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 47 
 
 reading and contemplation had gathered 
 iu his mind came to light, without study or effort, in 
 striking observations, tender associations, and sparkles 
 of a rich and glowing fancy. Catalina listened with 
 astonishment to the animated statue ; and, as she 
 looked him in the face while pouring out the treasures 
 of his mind, and saw the divinity that flashed in his 
 eyes, she once or twice detected herself in thinking 
 Sybrandt almost as handsome as an aide-de-camp. 
 He, too, felt elevated in his own estimation ; for the 
 first time in his life he had listened to his own voice 
 without feeling his heart beat with apprehension, and 
 for the first time he could look back upon an hour 
 spent in the society of a woman, without a pang of 
 the keenest mortification. 
 
 " Sybrandt," at length said Catalina, " why don t 
 you talk so every day ? " 
 
 " Because every day is not like to-day ; nor are you, 
 my cousin, always what you are now." 
 
 A silence ensued, from which they were roused by 
 the cheerful, joy-inspiring shouts of Ariel, who had 
 prepared his collation, and was summoning all the 
 rambling lads and lasses to come and partake of 
 the blessings of his prudent forethought. To him, 
 eating was an affair of the first consequence; he 
 never joined a party, either of business or pleasure, 
 without first reducing it to a certainty that there 
 would be no starvation attending it ; and it was 
 almost as affecting as a last dying speech to hear him 
 relate the melancholy story of the ruin of a brace of 
 the finest wood-ducks he ever saw, by the " damned 
 stupid folly " of his cook, who boiled them in a pot. 
 The good Ariel had spread his stores on a snow-white 
 
48 
 
 table-cloth of ample dimensions, laid upon the rich 
 greensward, beneath a canopy of vines that clambered 
 over the tops of a clump of sassafras, whose aromatic 
 buds sent forth a grateful fragrance. Here he mar 
 shalled his forces with great discretion, placing the 
 lads and lasses alternately around the rural repast, 
 and enjoining upon each of the former the strictest 
 attention to his nearest neighbour. As to himself, 
 he never could sit still where there was room for 
 action. He curvetted around the little circle like a 
 frolic spaniel; cracked his jokes, and laughed only the 
 louder when nobody joined him ; helped himself, and 
 ate, and talked, all at the same time, with a zest, an 
 hilarity, and an honest frankness, that communicated 
 themselves to all about him, infecting them with a 
 contagious merriment. The birds chirped over their 
 heads, the flowers grew beneath their feet, the mild 
 summer breezes played upon their cheeks, hope 
 glowed in their hearts, and youth and health were 
 their handmaids ; why then should they not laugh 
 and be merry? 
 
 But a plague on Nature ! She is a female, after all, 
 and there is no trusting her. As thus they sat, un 
 heeding all but themselves and the present moment, 
 she had been at work unnoticed by the joyous crew, 
 gathering into one great mass a pack of dark rolling 
 clouds along the western horizon. The banks of the 
 islet were, as we said before, fringed with trees and 
 shrubbery and tangled vines, that quite hid the op 
 posite shores, making it a little world within itself. 
 The tempest gathering in the West had therefore 
 escaped the notice of the party, until the moment 
 when a burst of merriment was interrupted by a flash 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 49 
 
 of lightning, and a quick, sharp crash of thunder. 
 When the Creator speaks, all nature is silent ; and if, 
 as some suppose, the leaping lightning is the quick 
 glancing of his angry eye, the thunder the threatening 
 of his voice, no wonder if every sound is hushed when 
 they break forth from the pitchy darkness of the 
 heavens. The laugh ceased ; the birds became silent 
 in their leafy bowers ; the trees stilled their sweet whis 
 perings ; the insects chirped no longer, and the river 
 murmured no more. There was a dead pause in the 
 air, the earth, and the waters, save_when the Creator of 
 them all spoke from the depths of his vast obscurity. 
 
 The merrymakers glanced at each other in silence, 
 and in silence sat, until Ariel ventured to clear his 
 voice with an, " a-hem ! ", which, to say the truth, 
 lacked much of its wonted energy and clearness. 
 Sybrandt gained a position whence he could look 
 abroad, and came back, running, to announce that a 
 thunder-storm was coming on, rapidly so rapidly 
 that it would be impossible to cross the river and gain 
 the nearest house in time to escape its fury. The 
 damsels looked at the young men, and the young men 
 looked at the damsels. One had on her best hat, 
 another a new shawl, a third her holiday chintz gown, 
 and each and all wore some favourite piece of finery, 
 which, though peradventure Dolly the cook and Betty 
 the chambermaid would scorn to wear, even on week 
 days, in this age of unparalleled improvement, was 
 still dear to their unsophisticated hearts. The boys 
 too, as they were called, and still are called among 
 the old lords of the land, had on their Sunday gear, 
 which, as they never ran in debt to the tailor, it be 
 hooved them to nurse with special care. What was 
 
 4 
 
50 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 to be done in this sore dilemma ? for now the quick, 
 keen flashes, the equally sharp crashes that came with 
 them, and the dead, dull calm that intervened, an 
 nounced that the rain and the tempest were nigh. 
 
 Ariel was as busy as an assistant-alderman at a 
 fire, and about as useful. Being a man who was 
 always in a hurry when there was no occasion for 
 haste, it may be naturally supposed that, when there 
 was occasion, he would be in such a great hurry that 
 his resolves would tread upon one another s heels, 
 or impede their operations by running athwart each 
 other and breaking their heads. And so, indeed, it 
 turned out ; he was ten times more busy than when 
 he had nothing to do ; swore at the lads for not doing 
 something ; suggested a hundred impracticable things ; 
 and concluded, good man ! , by wishing with all his 
 soul they were safely housed in the old mansion. 
 
 Catalina had been brought up at boarding-school 
 in the fear of thunder. The school-mistress, indeed, 
 always encouraged the young ladies, by precept, not 
 to be frightened ; but she never failed to disappear in 
 a thunder-storm, and was one time discovered between 
 two feather-beds, almost smothered to death. It is 
 to be regretted that this natural and proper feeling 
 of awe which accompanies the sublime phenomena 
 of nature should degenerate into fright or irrational 
 superstition. Divested of these, the approach of a 
 thunder-storm is calculated to waken the mind to the 
 most lofty associations with the great Being who 
 charges and discharges this grand artillery, and to exalt 
 the imagination into the regions of loftiest contempla 
 tion. But fear is a grovelling sentiment, which mo 
 nopolizes the mind, debases the physical man, and 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 51 
 
 shuts out every feeling allied to genuine piety and 
 Taith_._ 
 
 Suddenly an idea struck Sybrandt, which was in 
 stantly adopted and put into execution. The boat, a 
 broad, flat skiff, was drawn up the bank, and placed 
 bottom upwards, with one side supported by sticks, 
 and the other reclining on the ground towards the 
 West, so that the rain might run off in that direction. 
 The few minutes which intervened between this opera 
 tion and the bursting of the torrent of rain were em 
 ployed by the young men in covering the open spaces 
 about the sides of the boat with grass and branches, 
 as well as the time would admit. There was only 
 space enough under this shelter for the young women, 
 though Ariel managed to find himself a place among 
 them. He was in the main a good-natured, kind- 
 hearted man, but he did not like being out in a storm, 
 any more than his neighbours. The young men 
 stood cowering under a canopy of thick vines, which 
 shaded the boat and a little space besides. It was 
 observed that Sybrandt placed himself nearest that 
 end of the boat under which Catalina was sheltered, 
 and that he was particular in the disposition of the 
 grass and branches in that quarter. 
 
 A few, a very few minutes of dead silence on the 
 part of our little group intervened before the tempest 
 sent forth its hoards of wind and rain, smiting the 
 groaning trees, and deluging the thirsty earth, till it 
 could drink no more, but voided the surplus into the 
 swelling stream, that began anon to rise and roar in 
 angry violence. This storm was for a long time 
 traditionary, for its terrible violence ; and for more 
 than half a century people talked of the incessant 
 
52 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 flashes of the lightning, the stunning and harsh vio 
 lence of the thunder, the deluge of rain, the hurricane 
 which accompanied it, the lofty trees that were either 
 split with bolts or prostrated by the wind, and the 
 damage done by the sudden swelling of the river on 
 that memorable day. 
 
 Those under the boat fared indifferently well ; but 
 the others were in a few moments wet to the skin. 
 The flexible willows bent down, to let the storm pass 
 over them ; but the sturdy elms and sycamores stood 
 stiff to the blast, that wrung their arms from their 
 bodies, and scattered them in the air like straws and 
 feathers. The rushing winds and the roaring of the 
 troubled waters were mingled with incessant flashes 
 of lightning, accompanied by those quick, sharp ex 
 plosions of thunder that proclaim the near approach 
 of the electric power. At length the party was roused 
 by a peal that seemed to have rent the vault of heaven, 
 and beheld with terror a huge sycamore, not a hun 
 dred yards off, directly in front of them, shivered from 
 top to bottom like a reed. The explosion for a mo 
 ment stilled the tempest of rain, during which interval 
 the cloven trunk stood trembling and nodding, like 
 one suddenly struck by the hand of death. Another 
 moment, and the winds resumed their empire, the 
 stout monarch of the isle fell to the ground with a 
 crash, and the force of Omnipotence was demonstrated 
 in the instantaneous destruction of a work which long 
 ages had brought to maturity. 
 
 The young women screamed, and thejpuths shud 
 dered, as they beheld this giant of nature yielding in 
 an instant to Divinity. But soon they were drawn 
 off to the consideration of a new danger. It is well 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 53 
 
 known how sudden, nay, almost instantaneous, is the 
 swelling of our rivers, especially near their sources, 
 and where they traverse a hilly or mountainous region. 
 The little isle in which our scene is laid was but a 
 few feet above the ordinary level of the stream, which 
 now began to dash its waves beyond the usual barrier, 
 until at length the situation of the party became ex 
 tremely critical. The land had become less safe than 
 the water, and immediate measures were taken to 
 prepare for the inundation, by turning the boat upon 
 her bottom again. The party was arranged on the 
 benches to the best advantage, and the young men 
 prepared to ply the oars the moment the boat was 
 floated off. Soon the tremendous torrent rolled over 
 the surface of the whole island in one mighty and 
 turbid volume, speckled with white foam; and the 
 boat was borne off by the surge with the swiftness of 
 an arrow. The difficulty was to escape the trees and 
 bushes, which still reared their heads above the flood, 
 since it was obvious that nothing could preserve the 
 skiff but her being kept from the slightest interruption 
 in her course. The great object, therefore, was to 
 avoid every obstacle, and to keep her head directly 
 down the stream, till they met with some little nook 
 or cove, where the current was less violent. 
 
 In times of jeopardy the master-spirit instinctively 
 takes the lead, and the meaner ones instinctively yield 
 obedience. Ever since the coming of the storm, Sy- 
 brandt had seemed a new being, animated by a newly- 
 awakened soul. The excitement of the scene had by 
 degrees caused him to forget his shyness ; and now 
 the presence of danger and the necessity of exertion 
 roused into action those qualities which neither him- 
 
54 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 self nor others had been aware that he possessed. He 
 who had trembled at the idea of being introduced 
 into a drawing-room, and shrunk from the encounter 
 of a woman s smiling eye, now stood erect in the 
 composure of unawed manhood, with a firm hand 
 and a steady eye, guiding the little skiff through con 
 flicting currents, almost as skilfully as a veteran Mis 
 sissippi boatman. The rest sat still in the numbness 
 of irrepressible apprehension. Even the busy Ariel 
 was motionless in his seat, and his active tongue silent 
 as the grave. But neither human skill nor human 
 courage could prevail for any length of time over the 
 fury of the waters, every moment aggravated by new 
 accessions. In turning a point, round which the 
 current whirled with increased impetuosity, the boat 
 struck the edge of an old stump of a tree just beneath 
 the surface, and was upset in an instant. Fortunately 
 for some, though, alas ! not for all, the stream made a 
 sudden inflexion immediately below the point, form 
 ing a cove, where it subsided into comparative repose. 
 It was in making for this harbour that the boat un 
 fortunately encountered the stump, which, as before 
 stated, was not visible above the water. The accident 
 was fatal to two of the innocent girls and one of the 
 young men, who sat in the bow of the boat, which, 
 unfortunately, as she overturned, sheered out into the 
 stream, and launched them into the main force of 
 the freshet. Their bodies were found a day or two 
 afterward, many miles below. The others, with the 
 exception of Catalina, were shot directly, and in an 
 instant, by the sudden eddy made by the current, into 
 the quiet cove, where they were all preserved. Catalina 
 fared worse, at first. Less strong, and less inured to 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 55 
 
 the sports and perils of rural life, she became insen 
 sible the moment the accident occurred, and would 
 have quickly perished, had not Sybrandt swum to the 
 edge of the turbulent whirlpool where she was float 
 ing, and brought her safely to the land. 
 
 Sadly the remnant of our little party returned to 
 their respective homes without their lost companions, 
 and sadly they contrasted the beauty of the quiet 
 genial morning, and the happy anticipations that 
 beckoned them forward to sportful revelry, with the 
 uproar of nature, and the gloomy shadows of the eve 
 ning, which closed in darkness, sorrow, and death. 
 The remembrance of this scene, and of the conduct 
 of Sybrandt, not only before but during the storm, 
 and in the hour of her extreme peril, was often after 
 ward called to mind by Catalina, and not unfrequently 
 checked her inclination, sometimes to laugh at, some 
 times to be downright angry with, her shamefaced, 
 awkward cousin. 
 
 I need not dwell upon the anxiety of the father and 
 mother of our heroine, nor on that of the good Dennis, 
 who, in the midst of his fears, could not help crying 
 out against and sparing not this newfangled custom 
 of making parties for the island, though both tradi 
 tion and history avouch that these sports were coeval 
 with the commencement of our happy era of honest 
 simplicity. Suffice it to say, that the good parents 
 received their only child as one a second time bestowed 
 upon them by the bounty of Heaven, and that they 
 were full of gratitude to Sybrandt, whose inspira 
 tion seemed now to have departed from him. Instead 
 of expressing his joy at having been instrumental in 
 preserving Catalina, and showing his sensibility to 
 
56 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 the gratitude of her parents, he became disconcerted, 
 silent, stultified and finally vanished away, no one 
 knew whither. We must not .omit to record that 
 from this time forward the worthy Ariel attended the 
 Dominie s sermons regularly twice every Sunday, 
 which was a custom he had never followed before, 
 inasmuch as he had a most sovereign propensity to 
 falling asleep and disturbing the congregation by 
 snoring. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 57 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 AN IRRUPTION OF BOILED LOBSTERS. 
 
 IT was many days before Catalina again saw Master 
 Sybrandt, who, sooth to say, shrunk from the usual 
 consequences of a good deed, as skittishly as some 
 worthies do from those of a bad one. Catalina said 
 to the woman within her, " He is giving himself airs 
 he thinks I will send for him again but he ll be very 
 much mistaken this time I hate such proud, stupid 
 people ! " And she looked in the glass, and was right 
 well-pleased at what she saw there. When Sybrandt 
 at last overcame his old enemy, and ventured into 
 what to him was worse than the jaws of a hungry 
 lion, Catalina, affronted at his long absence under 
 these particular circumstances, which seemed to indi 
 cate that he considered the saving of her life a matter 
 of no sort of consequence, treated him with consid 
 erable disdain. Sybrandt, (who could digest twenty 
 folios of metaphysics more readily than he could com- 
 prehend the mind of a woman^and who never dreamed 
 that his absence or presence was noticed by any hu 
 man being in the shape of a young lady, became only 
 the more shy and embarrassed at this reception. He 
 thought, to a certainty, his cousin despised him, and 
 he was one of those that never court favour where 
 they expect contempt. Thus they continued to mis 
 understand each other, and thus, it was probable, 
 would they continue to the end of their lives. 
 
58 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 Not long after the adventure of the island, an inci 
 dent occurred which occasioned a great sensation, not 
 only in the city of Albany, but for many miles around. 
 This was the arrival of a regiment of British troops 
 from New York, in consequence of expected hostilities 
 between France and England, whose wretched rivalry 
 generally involved the four quarters of the globe in 
 war and bloodshed. A large portion of the officers 
 of this regiment were gay young men without fami 
 lies, and the belles and mothers of the belles in and 
 about Albany saw, in the new-comers, subjects on 
 which to exercise the influence of the charms of the 
 one and the arts of the other. One of the most mor 
 tifying results of the colonial state is, that it invariably 
 generates on the part of the colonists a habit of giving 
 way, if not a feeling of inferiority, and on the part of 
 natives of the parent state an arrogant disregard of 
 propriety and decorum when among them. The men 
 of the United Colonies, with the exception, perhaps, of 
 those of Virginia and South Carolina, did not, in the 
 days of which we are speaking, assert that equality 
 which they are now authorized to maintain whereso 
 ever they go ; and the women, especially those who 
 aspired to the bon-ton with sorrow and mortification 
 we record it by the eagerness with which they sought, 
 and the unconcealed vanity with which they received, 
 the attentions of gentlemen from the old country, 
 contributed most materially to the depression of their 
 own countrymen as well as to the exaltation of foreign 
 adventurers. Nothing indeed so affects the relative 
 dignity and virtue of the two sexes, as the estimation 
 in which they hold each other. Where women are 
 neglected by their countrymen, or where men are neg- 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 59 
 
 lected by their countrywomen, in their admiration for 
 strangers, the result will probably be the degradation 
 of both in the eyes of each other and in the estima 
 tion of those whose attentions they court. This silly 
 habit of admiring foreign fashions, foreign countries, 
 and foreigners, became so deeply implanted in the 
 minds of the good provincials of the " Old Thirteen," 
 that it still retains its influence in some degree, as 
 may be perceived in the docility with which we are 
 accustomed to give the preference to moderate talent 
 in a stranger, over shining merit in a native; and to 
 bow to the decisions of ignorant pretenders, the sole 
 weight of whose opinions is derived from their pas 
 sage across the ocean. Like wine which has made a 
 voyage to China, opinions are held to be improved 
 by a similar adventure ; and folly becomes venerable, 
 when we can trace it to the reverend errors of de 
 clining age across the water. Hospitality ennobles a 
 nation, but only when it springs from higher motives 
 than the silly vanity of entertaining people of more 
 consequence than ourselves. 
 
 The colonel of the newly-arrived regiment had at 
 tained that period of life when vanity and ambition 
 take the place of love. He was gallant and well 
 born ; he tacked "honourable" to his name, and that 
 alone was sufficient to consecrate him in the eyes of 
 the provincial ladies. He belonged to that race of 
 beaux which has long been extinct as a species, al 
 though we now and then see some vestiges in the 
 wreck of an old soldier, whose wit and vivacity have 
 survived his very self, and still sparkle from the mere 
 force of long habit. His name was Sydenham; he 
 was somewhat of a coxcomb; and his exterior was 
 
60 
 
 prepossessing, especially in a red coat and epaulettes. 
 His courage was undoubted ; his principles not at all 
 doubtful, for he held the point of honour to consist in 
 meeting the consequences of his actions, good or bad, 
 without flinching. He did not want for a reasonable 
 degree of scholarship, and was not ignorant of books ; 
 but his greatest acquisition consisted in a consummate 
 knowledge of the world, a manner which enabled him 
 to be particularly pleasing whenever he chose, and a 
 pliability of principles which made it singularly easy 
 for him to choose the path most agreeable for the time 
 being. The rest of the officers were nearly all alike, 
 as much so as so many boiled lobsters. They all 
 wore red coats, and all thought themselves of a 
 different species from the honest burghers, whose 
 wine they condescended to drink, and whose wives 
 and daughters they favoured with their attentions, in 
 proportion as the liquor was good and the ladies 
 handsome. 
 
 The mansion-house of the Vancours had ever been 
 open to the footsteps of all respectable strangers, and 
 especially to the military men, who frequently so 
 journed there on their passage from New York to the 
 frontier posts and back again. They came and went 
 as they pleased, and were received and entertained 
 with an easy liberality, of which we see some remains 
 still lingering in the Southern States, and making 
 head against the silent inroads of heartless and selfish 
 ostentation. Independently of the hospitality of the 
 house, the situation of the elder Vancour as a public 
 man, together with his extensive acquaintance with 
 the interests of the colony, and his singular influence 
 over the Indians, naturally made his house the resort 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 61 
 
 of the principal officers of the government, with whom 
 his opinions always had great weight. 
 
 Accordingly, we soon find the magnate and his satel 
 lites as it were domesticated at the* mansion-house, 
 riding the colonel s horses, feasting on his excellent 
 fare, drinking his old wine, pronouncing him a decent 
 sort of an old customer, and never quizzing the good 
 gentleman but at their messes. Colonel Sydenham 
 singled out Catalina, as the object of his devoirs ; and 
 the others found rural goddesses among the daugh 
 ters of the Van Amburghs, the Van Outerstoups, the 
 Volckmaars, and the Vervalens of the neighborhood, 
 who could talk English with their eyes, if not with 
 their tongues. It was not then the fashion to pay any 
 other than the most respectful attentions to married 
 women ; and, if it had been, there was something in 
 the appearance, manners, and character of the good 
 Madam Vancour, a staid and sober dignity and quiet 
 self-possession, that gained the respect even of folly 
 and impudence combined. One of the young officers 
 of the regiment was complaining one day that he 
 could not find any body to fall in love with. " Why 
 don t you make love to Madam Vancour ? " said an 
 other, jestingly. " Madam Vancour! " replied he ; "I 
 should as soon think of throwing a glass of wine in 
 the face of the king." 
 
 The arrival and sojourning of these gay sparks cre 
 ated a mighty stir in that part of the country, and 
 soon produced great innovations in the simple habits 
 of the people. Independently of the general laxity of 
 morals which is so often the consequence of the roving, 
 uncertain life of a soldier, and his freedom from the 
 restraints of home, there is always attached to every 
 
62 
 
 considerable body of troops a train of vicious and 
 worthless people of both sexes. Corruption follows 
 in the path of Mars ; and it is pretty certain that noth 
 ing makes more fearful inroads upon the virtues of a 
 people than continued association with men whose 
 only business is fighting. One would suppose that the 
 proverbial uncertainty of a soldier s life would gen 
 erate habits of sobriety, reflection, and decorum ; but, 
 so far from this, it is sufficiently evident that it pro 
 duces a quite contrary effect. There is no occasion 
 on which we see such careless, high-wrought, and 
 high-seasoned conviviality, as in an army the night 
 preceding a battle, in which every man is to peril his 
 life to the uttermost. 
 
 The pastoral and sylvan deities of the shades, and 
 the lazy river-gods, who slept in quiet in their crystal 
 basins, save when the breaking up of the ice in spring 
 or the swelling of the river in the pelting storm dis 
 turbed their repose, were anon astounded at the frolic 
 some racket of these new-comers. Heretofore not a 
 dog dared bark after eight o clock in their quiet re 
 treats, except as a signal that the wild man or the 
 wild beast was coming. But now, " Preserve us ! " 
 as the good Dominie Stettinius exclaimed with lifted 
 hands, " half the night is spent yea, even to 
 nine and ten o clock in dancings and junketings." 
 The cows stood lowing in the sober twilight, in expec 
 tation of the dilatory milkmaid, who was peradven- 
 ture adorning herself, as the victim was erst dressed in 
 flowers to be sacrificed to some gross heathen divinity. 
 The sober Dutch lads, who whilom considered the 
 dissipation of a Christinas sleigh -ride the summit of 
 delight, now were wont to steal at midnight from the 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 63 
 
 dormitory where the watchful cares of the good father 
 had seen them " quietly inurned," to waste their time 
 and health, and spend their money, in revels that the 
 sun saw and blushed at when he rose above the gold 
 en tops of the eastern hills. The stout intrenchments 
 behind which our Dutch ancestors in other quarter^ 
 so strongly and obstinately maintained their manners! 
 and habits, almost down to the present time, were 
 gradually sapped or stormed, and the good Dominie 
 Stettinius stood aghast to behold the backsliding pro 
 pensities of the youths and maidens of his hitherto 
 docile flock. 
 
 He forthwith took arms to oppose this disastrous 
 invasion of his hitherto peaceful domain I mean 
 such arms alone as comported with his age, his habits, 
 and his sacred function. Casting aside the chastened 
 zeal with which he had hitherto maintained and en 
 forced obedience among his tranquil rustic hearers, he 
 arrayed himself in the mighty words of reprehension, 
 threatening, and denunciation. Learned, eloquent, 
 and virtuous, he poured forth the stores of his intellect 
 and the enthusiasm of his soul in strains of rich and 
 affecting simplicity, that would have done honour to 
 the primitive reformers. But, alas! what can the 
 tongues of angels do, when example, temptation, and 
 opportunity, knock at the threshold of the human 
 heart, peep in at the windows, and whisper their se 
 ductions through the very key-holes ? Some, doubtless, 
 and especially the more aged people, whose pas 
 sions reposed upon the memory of the past, were 
 checked in their downhill career by the pious eloquence 
 of the good dominie ; but, for the young, the thought 
 less, and the madcap boys and girls many, very 
 
64 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 many of them long lived to rue the day that saw the 
 regiment of redcoats pitch its white, innocent-looking 
 tents among the rich meadows of the matchless Hud 
 son. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 65 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A BEAU OF THE OLD REGIME. 
 
 COLONEL SYDENHAM was a veteran beau of the old 
 school, which, after all, I think was not a little supe 
 rior to the present standard of dandyism. There was 
 a courtesy, a polish, a lofty deference to the ladies, 
 which, whether originating in vanity or a nobler feel 
 ing, was still the source of many attractive qualifica 
 tions, and formed a charming ingredient in social 
 intercourse. The little stiffnesses and formalities 
 which accompanied this style of manners were, cer 
 tainly, preferable to the careless and abrupt familiarity, 
 or boorish neglect, which a preposterous deference to 
 fashion has since consecrated as high-breeding and 
 gentlemanly ease. The colonel had served in India, 
 which was a fortunate circumstance, as it enabled 
 him to ascribe his gray hairs, and the evident debility 
 of his person, to the effects of a climate which, as 
 he frequently observed, seldom failed to produce an 
 appearance of premature old age. " I was gray at 
 twenty," said the colonel, who never would use spec 
 tacles or carry a walking stick on any occasion, 
 though never man stood in greater need of both these 
 useful auxiliaries. He was always deeply smitten 
 with some youthful belle or other, whose attentions 
 he delighted to monopolize, more from the gratifica 
 tion of an habitual vanity, than from a warmer or 
 nobler sentiment. On the whole, however, he was a 
 
 5 
 
66 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 i 
 
 singularly agreeable man ; and, in spite of his age, al 
 ways made a figure, and was welcomed in the society 
 of both sexes. He was soon in special favour with 
 high and low, rich and poor, young and old, with the 
 single exception of the staid Dominie Stettinius, who 
 penetrated his easiness of principles, and was not 
 inclined to consider good manners an equivalent for 
 good morals. 
 
 / The colonel early made choice of Catalina as the 
 i recipient of his attentions. She was the fairest lady 
 vpf the land in which he sojourned ; she was unques 
 tionably at the head of the beau-monde ; and she was, 
 prospectively, a great heiress, for she was the only 
 child of a man who owned land enough to entitle him 
 to vote at a German Diet. " If it should happen in 
 the chapter of accidents," thought the colonel, " that 
 this wood-dove were to be softened by my cooing, 
 she will be worth marrying if not, there will be no 
 harm done. I am too much of a traveller to pine at 
 the wilful vagaries of a woman s heart." Accordingly 
 he entered the field as Catalina s devoted servant; 
 and, as the strict rules of military etiquette forbade all 
 interference with the commanding officer, the dapper 
 majors, captains, lieutenants, and ensigns, always kept 
 aloof while the colonel was making the agreeable to 
 the young lady. 
 
 That she was not pleased and flattered with the 
 distinction of being the belle of the first military man 
 in the neighbourhood, who wore a red coat, and figured 
 on the roll of heraldry, is what we will not say, for 
 it might not be true. It would have been out of 
 nature to be insensible to such honours honours to 
 which the gentle sex are prone to bow down, because 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 67 
 
 they are restricted from gaining any other laurels than 
 those which they pluck from the brow of man. Their 
 vanity and ambition can only be gratified, by leading 
 in chains the conquerors of others; by associating 
 their name and their destinies with the master-spirits 
 who wield the powers of the earth, or with those who 
 inherit distinction, as a fox does instinct, from a long 
 line of ancestors. The colonel and Catalina were on 
 the best possible terms, and, in no long time, the good 
 people of the neighbourhood, who knew nothing of 
 the attentions and courtesies authorized in the in 
 tercourse of the world, all agreed that it would be a 
 match. 
 
 Among those who watched the progress of this 
 intimacy, and with bitterness of heart, was Sybrandt 
 Westbrook. The selfishness engendered by solitude 
 and abstraction inclined him naturally to jealousy of 
 a most perverse and ridiculous kind. He persuaded 
 himself that he neither had, nor could ever have, any 
 pretensions to Catalina ; nay, he would have shrunk 
 with shivering horror at the idea that she even sus 
 pected that his solitary hours and silent reveries were 
 full of her, and only her. Yet he could not endure the 
 remotest apprehension, much less the sight, of any, the 
 slightest marks of preference for another. When in 
 her society, he kept aloof, and left her entirely to the 
 attentions of other men ; yet her reception of these 
 very courtesies cut him to the soul, and the recollec 
 tion of them poisoned his solitary days and sleepless 
 nights. 
 
 I do not wonder, as some have done, that women 
 like your gay and enterprising admirers, who never 
 put their timid delicacy to the task of making ad- 
 
68 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 vances, or offering undue encouragement to their 
 sheepishness. The province of the sex is to act al 
 ways on the defensive in the strife of love, and noth 
 ing, I should imagine, is more provoking to their pride, 
 or painful to their sensibility, than to be obliged to 
 open their gates unsummoned, or even to step out 
 of their intrenchments, in order to humour the coward 
 bashfulness, or stubborn pride, of one who displays 
 his affection by keeping at a distance, and makes him 
 self agreeable by utter neglect. 
 
 Catalina, notwithstanding the cross-grained behav 
 iour of Sybrandt, had a sort of intuitive perception, 
 which is common to women and stands them in 
 the stead of wisdom and philosophy, that he had a 
 curious sort of abstract preference for her. This 
 notion gave him an interest in her eyes, which caused 
 her to watch him narrowly, at those times when she 
 was receiving the gallant attentions of Colonel Sy den- 
 ham with encouraging smiles. On these occasions 
 she often fancied she could detect the boiling eddies 
 through the apparently unruffled surface of stupid 
 indifference. Sometimes her vanity, nay, her heart, 
 was pleased with the discovery, for she remembered 
 that she owed her life to him, and, with all his strange 
 and wayward neglect and awkwardness, there were 
 at long and rare intervals sparks of intellect and 
 spirit, which indicated the hidden treasures overlaid 
 by his rustic training. Sometimes, she resolved to 
 try and bring him forward in the society of the new 
 comers, by kindness and attention; and again, she 
 felt provoked to make him the subject of derision 5 
 while, more than once, without a thought of malignity 
 or ill-nature, she put him on the rack. O ridicule ! 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 69 
 
 how often does it in its thoughtless gambols shed 
 drops of vitriol, that blister where they light ! There 
 are souls in this world, incrusted with an outward 
 shell of roughness or deformity, so keen, so sensitive, 
 that the pointing of the ringer is torture the touch 
 of scorn, madness. They sweat with inward agonies, 
 at the moment when pride and timidity so closely 
 veil their feelings, that, while their very hearts are 
 bursting, they exhibit to the careless eye nothing but 
 dull insensibility, or insufferable conceit. Such was 
 this unhappy young man at this period. It was 
 doubtful whether he would ever be known and prop 
 erly appreciated, even by the friend of his heart, or 
 the wife of his bosom ; for he seemed destined never 
 to be blessed with either. 
 
 Though he kept as much as possible away from the 
 mansion-house, there were times when his wayward 
 temper carried him there almost in spite of himself, or 
 when the blustering, peremptory gayety of Ariel would 
 force him from his moody solitudes into the pleasant 
 social circle that was almost always to be found at 
 Mr. Vancour s. One night a little gathering had met 
 there, consisting of the gallant Colonel Sydenham, 
 two or three of his officers, the noisy Ariel, and the 
 daughters of half a score of the most substantial 
 burghers of Albany. A furious thunder-storm had 
 come on in the early part of the evening, and it was 
 settled that the whole company should remain all 
 night where they were, to the great delight of Uncle 
 Ariel, whose soul expanded with indescribable satis 
 faction at the thought of a merry party and a social 
 supper. These, or something like them, were the 
 only stimulants that could keep the good soul awake 
 
70 
 
 after the fowls had gone to roost. The colonel hap 
 pened to be describing a dish of boiled fowl and rice 
 common in the East Indies, which struck Ariel s fancy 
 wonderfully. He disappeared shortly afterward, and 
 continued to pass in and out of the room occasionally, 
 without being particularly noticed by any body, for he 
 never could be quiet when any thing was going for 
 ward about the house. 
 
 " Sybrandt," said Madam Vancour, with the good- 
 natured intention of rousing him from the chaos of 
 stupidity in which he had remained bewildered for a 
 longtime, "Sybrandt, pray come and assist us in 
 finding out what this means." They had gathered 
 about the table, on which lay sundry books, into 
 which some were looking, while others were talking 
 about various matters. 
 " Tis Greek," said one. 
 " Tis Hebrew," said another. 
 " Tis High-Dutch," said a third. 
 " Tis Mohawk," said a- fourth. 
 
 " Let me see," cried Ariel, who just at the moment 
 entered with a face as red as fire. He pulled out his 
 specs, rubbed them carefully, placed them across 
 his little snub of a nose, and, planting himself in his 
 usual determined position, with his short, sturdy 
 drumsticks extended almost at right angles, began to 
 pore over the mystery. He could make nothing 
 of it. 
 
 " Colonel," cried he to Sydenham, who had rather 
 affected to be deeply engaged with Catalina, - 
 " Colonel, here, damn it, you understand Hindoo, and 
 all that ; interpret for us." 
 
 The rest joined in the entreaty, and, the book being 
 
71 
 
 handed to the colonel, he proceeded with great gravity 
 to study it, upsidedown. 
 
 " Why, damn it, Colonel," shouted Ariel, " you re 
 holding the book upsidedown. Here, take my spec 
 tacles ; I see your eyes begin to fail you, as well as 
 mine." 
 
 The colonel would rather have marched up to a 
 loaded cannon than have used spectacles in the pres 
 ence of any living soul but his valet, in whose dis 
 cretion he placed unbounded reliance. In his solici 
 tude to remedy the blunder so unceremoniously 
 proclaimed by Ariel, he unluckily placed the cover of 
 the book towards him, while he rejected the spectacles 
 with a smile and a bow, both indicating that he had 
 no occasion for them. 
 
 " Why, damn it. Colonel," shouted Ariel again, 
 while breaking into an explosion of laughter ; " why, 
 zounds, you ve got the book with the back side 
 towards you this time. I insist on your taking my 
 spectacles I m sure they will suit you exactly you 
 and I are just about of an age." And he continued 
 to press the colonel to accept of them, till the unlucky 
 gentleman could hardly command his faithful auxili 
 aries, the smile and the bow. It was, however, a 
 maxim with him, from which he had never swerved 
 for more than a score of years, never to show either 
 anger or mortification in company. He contented 
 himself with quietly handing the book to Sybrandt, 
 saying he must acknowledge his inability to explain 
 the passage which, by the way, he had not been 
 able to distinguish, from the failure of his eyes. But 
 this was a secret he kept to himself, preferring rather 
 to be thought ignorant than blind. All present gave 
 
72 
 
 him credit for affecting to be unable to see, merely to 
 disguise his not being able to interpret the enigma, 
 which, as Sybrandt announced, was nothing more 
 than an English proverb, printed in Greek characters, 
 as we have seen practised, in the way of a grave quiz, 
 in some of the old specimens of printing. There 
 were few or no blue-stockings in the days we are now 
 dealing with ; but in no age of the world, and among 
 no class of mankind, was it ever the case that learn 
 ing and knowledge did not attract respect. They are 
 independent of the changing fashions of place and 
 time, so intrinsically useful and respectable as to 
 maintain their dignity at all periods, and with people 
 of every degree ; since it is impossible for the mind 
 not to feel the obligation of being made wiser than it 
 was before. This little incident raised Sybrandt in 
 the scale of comparison with the colonel, especially 
 in the estimation of Catalina, who inherited from her 
 mother that decent respect for useful acquirements 
 which is one of the best evidences of good-sense. 
 
 The colonel s spirits seemed to flag not a little after 
 the adventure of the book, while those of poor Sy 
 brandt gained a corresponding elevation ; for it is the 
 characteristic of such sensitive beings as he, to be 
 about as unreasonably inflated as they are unreason 
 ably mortified, by trifles which to others seem perfectly 
 insignificant. Nevertheless, there was rather a dull 
 ness coming over the party, which, however, was soon 
 diverted ; for a pause in the storm without and the 
 conversation within was interrupted by the loud sound 
 of voices in the direction of the kitchen, a detached 
 building about fifty yards in the rear of the house, 
 with which it was connected by a covered way. The 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 73 
 
 voices seemed to be engaged in hot contention ; and 
 presently Ariel came bouncing into the room his 
 face in a blaze exclaiming, " The old woolly-headed 
 fool ! she knows no more about cooking than a Mo 
 hawk Indian." The whole company expressed anxiety 
 to know the cause of this violent irruption ; and Ariel 
 accordingly proceeded to explain. 
 
74 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER VH. 
 
 AN INVASION OF STATE EIGHTS. 
 
 THERE reigned in the kitchen of Mr. Vancour an 
 African queen, whose authority, by virtue of long and 
 vigorous assertion, was paramount to that of the mis 
 tress of the establishment and all other persons. Her 
 complexion was perfect, according to the standard of 
 Guinea ; for nothing in the apprehension of man, not 
 even the personification of Madam Night, was so irre 
 sistibly black as the skin of Aunt Nauntje, as she was 
 called by the family, young and old. She was the 
 mother of three generations of blacks I beg pardon 
 of people of colour who all appertained to the 
 establishment. The boys at the time of their birth 
 were given to some one of the young white members 
 of the family, to whom they continued especially 
 attached all their lives ; and the girls were in like man 
 ner considered the property of the young ladies, who 
 attended strictly to their conduct, and taught them to 
 be useful, as well as virtuous. They were all treated 
 kindly, and as a part of the family ; and there was 
 something in the connexion of mutual services, mutual 
 good-will, and mutual protection, thus established, 
 that made the relation of master and slave, in those 
 simple, honest times, one of the most endearing and 
 respectable of all those which subsist between man 
 and man. The slaves did not study metaphysics, nor 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 75 
 
 stultify themselves with dissertations on the relative 
 claims of the two rival colours of the present day; 
 but they were far more happy and moral, as well as 
 better members of society, than the wretched victims 
 of a rash and miscalculating philanthropy we see 
 every day at the Police- Court. Their labours were 
 not more heavy than those of the owners of them 
 selves and of the soil which they cultivated ; they 
 worked in the same fields, or at the same employ 
 ments ; and, when they had given to their master the 
 fruits of their youth and manhood, they found at his 
 kitchen fireside a refuge for the evening of their days. 
 They spent it neither in the poor-house nor the peni 
 tentiary. 
 
 It was gratifying in those days to see the interest 
 which these old and faithful retainers took in the 
 affairs of their master, and the manner in which they 
 as it were identified their own characters and conse 
 quence with his. The master and mistress were not 
 afraid to go a journey, and leave the house in charge 
 of one of these ; for they knew it would be even more 
 carefully attended to than if they were at home. As 
 for the poor people themselves, the idea of a separa 
 tion of interests between them and their owners never 
 entered their heads ; and if it had, their hearts would 
 have rejected the suggestion. 
 
 But to return to our narrative. Aunt Nauntje was 
 despotic in that region which among the enlightened 
 of the present day is considered as the terrestrial para 
 dise, seeing that it pours forth the choicest of the 
 blessings of this life. Need I say that I mean the 
 kitchen? Where she acquired her art I know not, 
 but tradition declares that the dishes she concocted 
 
76 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 had a rich and triumphant relish, a rare/e ne sais quoi, 
 which tickled the palate mightily, and seduced the 
 worthy Ariel into occasional imprudent feats of the 
 trencher. Nay, we record on the same venerable 
 authority, that William Burnet, his Britannic majesty s 
 governor, captain-general, and locum tenens in the 
 province of New York, being on a visit to the man- 
 sioft-house, did incontinently luxuriate so lustily in the 
 delights of a certain nondescript dish, the art of mak 
 ing which is lost in these degenerate days, that he fell 
 asleep before the dessert. 
 
 The active Ariel, among his other accomplishments, 
 such as grafting apple-trees, bleeding horses, and 
 ringing pigs noses, was an amateur in the noble 
 art of cookery. He never could keep ouf of the 
 kitchen when there was a feast in preparation ; and 
 many is the time Aunt Nauntje did violently expel 
 him, by dint of flourishing the gridiron, the toasting- 
 fork, or some such formidable weapon. Indeed, 
 something like a feud raged between them, ever since 
 Ariel had denounced her publicly, as " a stupid old 
 fool of a Guinea nigger," for having committed 
 the enormity of roasting wild pigeons without any 
 stuffing. 
 
 When Ariel heard Colonel Sydenham describe the 
 famous East India dish of boiled chickens and rice, 
 which he did with a commendable minuteness, he 
 pricked up his ears, and thought to himself he would 
 go and make interest with Aunt Nauntje to surprise 
 all present with a fac-simile. Accordingly, as I have 
 before noted, he disappeared as soon as the colonel 
 had finished his detail, and sallied forth for the empire 
 of queen Nauntje, who was busily engaged in cook- 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 77 
 
 ing a jolly, old-fashioned meal, for a company of 
 healthy, hearty folks, wtyo had dined at one o clock, 
 and could therefore afford to eat supper. The inroad 
 was by no means agreeable to her majesty, but re 
 spect for the brother of her master always kept her 
 within bounds, except on the spur of some immediate 
 cause of irritation. 
 
 " Aunt Nauntje, my good soul," said Ariel, " I want 
 you to try your hand at a famous dish I have just 
 heard of from Colonel Sydenham." 
 
 " Ah," said Nauntje, " Massa Auriel always some 
 crinkum-crankum in he head, bout new dishes. Well, 
 what is he ? " 
 
 " Why, a dish of boiled fowl and rice, dressed with 
 curry. You know the colonel gave you a bottle the 
 other day." 
 
 Nauntje began to spit. " Curry eh ! stuff just 
 fit for a hog or an Indian." 
 
 " Well, but you know, Nauntje," said Ariel, coax- 
 ingly " You know, damn it, you are not obliged to 
 eat it. Now do, my dear soul, try, for the sake of the 
 colonel, will you ? " 
 
 " Colonel, ah ! wish him a hundred miles off, wid 
 all he crew of redcoats ; eat massa out of house an 
 hum, bum-by." 
 
 " Well, but your mistress will be pleased with it 
 come now, you clever old soul, and, the next time I 
 go to Albany, I ll bring you a new pipe, a paper of 
 tobacco, and a row of pins." 
 
 To please her mistress, and get the reward promised 
 by Ariel, Aunt Nauntje at length consented to try her 
 skill at the outlandish dish, and Ariel was delighted 
 beyond measure. He was in and out of the kitchen 
 
T8 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 every five minutes, giving directions and finding fault, 
 until it was with great difficulty she refrained from 
 having resort to violent measures. As it was, she 
 almost broiled with indignation at this attempt to 
 overrule and insult her in her own proper dominion. 
 At length the great attempt was nearly brought to a 
 crisis, and Ariel solicited and obtained permission to 
 taste the eminent concoction. But what pen can 
 depict his indignation when he discovered that, in 
 spite of all his cautions and injunctions, Aunt Nauntje, 
 who had a passion for onions, had poisoned the whole 
 affair by a predominating infusion of that ungenteel 
 vegetable ! Ariel was confounded, thunderstruck, and 
 indignant. He ejected the villainous compound into 
 the fire, exclaiming 
 
 " I ll be shot if the stupid old fool hasn t put onions 
 in it ! " 
 
 Whereupon Aunt Nauntje forgot the new pipe, the 
 paper of tobacco, and the row of pins. She seized 
 the mortal gridiron, pursued Ariel with a speed which 
 seemed almost supernatural when contrasted with her 
 appearance of extreme old age, and drove him, as we 
 have before related, triumphantly before her into the 
 parlour ; at the door of which she stopped for a 
 moment, brandishing her weapon, and then retired 
 grumbling to her stronghold again. It is due to the 
 reputation and the memory of Aunt Nauntje to state, 
 that the dish was brought up with the rest of the sup 
 per, and pronounced by the colonel to be equal to any 
 thing of the kind he had ever tasted in India; by 
 which righteous decision he for ever established him 
 self in the good graces of that high-seasoned and 
 high-seasoning divinity. The supper went off gayly, 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 79 
 
 in spite of the discomfiture of uncle Ariel, who soon 
 recovered his good-humour; for he was not one of 
 those impracticable churls who quarrel with the good 
 things of this life and retain their anger at the same 
 time they are gratifying their appetites. He threw 
 out broad hints concerning the colonel and Catalina, 
 every now and then favouring that young lady with 
 a significant wink, or, " a-hem ! " worried poor Sy 
 brandt out of the little self-possession he had been 
 able to get together, by recollecting every thing the 
 youth wished to be forgotten ; shouted, laughed, and 
 finally talked himself fast asleep in the old high-backed, 
 well-stuffed chair, which had been an heirloom, with 
 its fellows, in the family for almost a century. The 
 worthy Dominie Stettinius was heart-struck the next 
 day, when he learned that the party had prolonged its 
 sober revels until the clock actually struck the half-, 
 hour between eleven and the very witching time of 
 midnight. 
 
 A little incident, apparently of no consequence, 
 which occurred this evening, had a material, nay, a 
 controlling, influence on the future life of Sybrandt 
 Westbrook. As the party separated for the night, the 
 gallant colonel besought Catalina to bestow on him a 
 little bunch of violets she wore in her bosom. In the 
 gayety of the moment, or perhaps influenced by that 
 mischievous imp who is for ever found nestling in 
 woman s heart, she bestowed the flowers on Syden- 
 ham, with a most gracious and seducing smile, wish 
 ing him at the same time " pleasant dreams." The 
 gift, the smile, and the wish, were each one a dagger 
 of ice planted in the bosom of Sybrandt, agonizing 
 
80 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 his feelings and murdering his rest. The wakeful 
 tortures of that livelong night gave birth to a fixed 
 purpose, which he carried into execution without 
 delay. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 OUR HERO, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE, COMES TO A DETERMINA 
 TION. 
 
 THE life of jealousy and mortification he had led 
 almost ever since the return of Catalina from the board 
 ing-school gradually undermined the natural strength 
 of Sybrandt s intellect, and produced that alternation 
 of pride, anger, and self-reproach, which is the parent of 
 a thousand inconsistencies. No permanent resolve 
 can ever result from such a condition of mind. Tossed 
 about in the tempest of conflicting passions, the un 
 happy man resembles a vessel without rudder or pilot, 
 until finally some one acquires the mastery, and a de 
 cision is indicated by a sudden air of quiet and repose. 
 
 It was thus with Sybrandt. The bestowal of the 
 violets put an end to the struggle which he had sus 
 tained for some months past, and his resolution was 
 irrevocably taken. In the days of which we are speak 
 ing, the young men bordering on the frontiers were 
 accustomed, almost universally, to commence the 
 business of this world with a trading voyage among 
 the savages of the borders. Previous to assuming the 
 port and character of manhood, it was considered 
 an almost indispensable obligation to undertake and 
 complete some enterprise of this kind, full of privation 
 and danger. The youth went out a boy, and returned 
 a man, qualified to take his place among men, and to 
 aspire to the possession of the object of his early 
 
82 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 love. It was in this way that the character of the 
 patriarchs of this country was formed ; and in conse 
 quence of such training that it exhibited a union of 
 homely simplicity, manly frankness, and daring vigour, 
 which at length found their reward in the achievement 
 and possession of liberty. 
 
 Without consulting any human being, the morning 
 after the supper we have just recorded, he abruptly 
 requested of Mr. Dennis Vancour the permission and 
 the means to make an adventure among the Indians 
 of the north-west. Mr. Dennis was not astonished, 
 for he was a genuine Dutchman ; but he was much 
 surprised at this application. 
 
 " Why, hang it, boy," said the good man, " what 
 is the use of it? You know you will have enough 
 when I am gone and while I live you can want 
 nothing. You had better stay at home, and study with 
 the Dominie." 
 
 " But I cannot study now I" and here Sybrandt 
 faltered and was silent. 
 
 " What, you are tired boy, hey ? Well, I don t 
 much wonder at it. I always had a great respect for 
 learning, but, somehow, I could never get over the 
 awe with which it inspired me; I always kept at a 
 distance from it. But are you determined ? won t you 
 flinch, boy, when it comes to the point? " 
 
 " Never fear me, uncle," and he clenched his fin 
 gers involuntarily, " never fear me ! " 
 
 " Well, then, you shall have what you ask of me. 
 I like your spirit, boy. It was so I began life, and so 
 shall you. Forty years ago, I took a canoe and fifty 
 dollars worth of goods, and old Tjerck, then but a 
 lad ; and away I went right into the woods, where at 
 
83 
 
 that time, I believe, no white man had ever been be 
 fore me, and returned alive. The Indians were not 
 such good hands at making bargains as they are now, 
 and I returned with five hundred dollars worth of 
 furs. I repeated the like every year, increasing my 
 capital each voyage, until I grew rich, for the time?. 
 I might have been happy, too, perhaps," continued 
 the old man, " but I must needs go to New York, 
 where I fell in company with the king s officers, and, 
 what was worse, fell in love with your mother spent 
 my fortune ruined my hopes was first fool and 
 then misanthrope returned to my father s house, 
 a disappointed prodigal inherited a portion of my 
 father s estate, and finally found in the son an object 
 for that love which the mother had rejected." 
 
 Mr. Dennis Vancour had never been equally com 
 municative with Sybrandt. Perhaps the idea of 
 parting with the boy of his adoption had opened his 
 heart, and for a moment overcome his long habit of 
 silence. 
 
 " But who shall go with you t " resumed the good 
 man, after a pause, which each had employed in call 
 ing up recollections of the same dear object. " I have 
 it old Tjerck is the very man." 
 
 " I am afraid he is too old, sir." 
 
 " Not he not he, boy he is as tough as hickory 
 he ll tire you out, and starve you out, any time, I 
 warrant you. Besides, he speaks the Mohawk lan 
 guage." So it was settled tkat old Tjerck should be 
 the squire of our new knight-errant of the woods and 
 wilds. 
 
 A few days sufficed to prepare for this toilsome 
 and perilous voyage and journey. As many Indian 
 
84 
 
 goods as could be conveniently stowed in a light bark 
 canoe, a small quantity of provisions, two rifles, or 
 perhaps muskets, with the necessary ammunition, and 
 two stout hearts, constituted the outfit for this way 
 faring in the wilderness. My readers, if they belong 
 to the "better sort," will think this but a peddling 
 affair for the hero of a story ; but let them recollect 
 that it was a dangerous enterprise, and that courage 
 and daring ennoble every honest undertaking. 
 
 From the moment Sybrandt formed the resolution 
 and commenced the preparations aforesaid, he seemed 
 to be a new man. He had something to do, and some 
 thing to suffer, worthy of a man. He had action and 
 excitement, to call his attention from his own selfish 
 and petty vexations, and now he walked erect with 
 spirit in his step, determination in his eye. In short, 
 he presented an illustration of the intimate union be 
 tween the man and his purposes. The one is fashioned 
 by the other ; and nothing is more certain than the 
 enfeebling effect of eternal trifling. All this time he 
 went not near Catalina ; and it was only when think 
 ing of her which he did pretty often that he re 
 lapsed into his old habitual inconsistencies, and felt 
 himself, as it were, becalmed between two conflicting 
 objects. He certainly had a great curiosity to know 
 what she said or thought of his going away ; won 
 dered whether she would not regret his absence ; 
 and secretly tried to persuade himself that she would 
 understand (what he had taken all possible pains 
 to keep from her) his motives for acting as he did. 
 He thought to himself, that if she would only pine 
 away a little in his absence, he would forgive her on 
 his return. At one time he decided to depart without 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 85 
 
 seeing her ; at another, to take leave of her with the 
 most sovereign coolness ; and, finally, came to no 
 decision at all. In this state he was found by Ariel, 
 who was highly out of humour at having had nothing 
 to do in the equipment of Sybrandt. It was the first 
 pie that had been made in the neighbourhood for 
 many a year, in which he had not had a finger. 
 
 " Devil take it," quoth he, " why didn t you ask my 
 advice ? Why, I would have shown you how to paddle 
 your canoe to cook venison without salt sleep \ 
 with your mouth shut, to keep out the gnats and * 
 mosquitoes and shoot an Indian. But it s too late \ 
 now; I ve a great mind to go with you on purpose, 
 only I ve promised the officers to show them how to 
 ring pigs noses." So saying, he dragged him away, 
 half-willing, half- reluctant, to the mansion-house. 
 
 When Catalina heard of the contemplated adven 
 ture of our hero, she mused in silence on the subject 
 for hours, without being able to make up her mind 
 whether to be angry or sorry. She never dreamed 
 that her own conduct had influenced his course, and 
 therefore ascribed his omission to apprise her of what 
 was going forward to neglect and indifference. Under 
 this impression she determined to treat him accord 
 ingly, and to meet him, if he came at all, without any 
 appearance of surprise or regret at his sudden resolu 
 tion. She received him without expressing either, or 
 betraying a single spark of curiosity or solicitude about 
 the length of his stay or the course of his voyage. 
 She even jested on the subject, begging him to exer 
 cise his scholarship in teaching the Indians Greek and 
 Latin ; and stung him to the very soul, by observing, 
 with as pretty a sneer as ever enthroned itself on the 
 
86 
 
 lip of beauty, that his sojourning among the savages 
 could not fail of having " the most favourable influence 
 on their manners." 
 
 The interview became exceedingly painful to Sy- 
 brandt. He would have given the world to be out of 
 the room, yet was riveted to the spot by that myste 
 rious fascination which awkwardness and sensibility 
 exercise over the power of motion. He sat chained 
 to his chair by mortified pride and despised affection. 
 At last, however, with a desperate effort, he arose and 
 muttered his farewell. At that moment Catalina re 
 membered that she owed her life to him, and that he 
 was going to a region whence he might never return. 
 " Sybrandt," said she, in a voice which these recol 
 lections had softened into kindness, "what shall I give 
 you to remember me by in the woods ? " After a 
 moment s pause, she drew from her pocket, we beg 
 
 your fashionable readers to bear in mind that this was 
 almost a hundred years ago, she drew from her 
 pocket a golden coin we believe it was a Dutch 
 .^clucat and continued, with a tone and look of sad- 
 i dened vivacity, " Take this : you can make a hole in 
 it, and tie it round your neck as a talisman against 
 Indian witchcraft. Good-by, cousin Sybrandt, and 
 remember that that Dominie Stettinius will regret 
 your absence." Sybrandt took the piece of gold, but 
 he could not say, " Good-by," for the soul of him. He 
 thanked her, however, with a look so full of meaning 
 and tenderness, that she remembered and wondered 
 at it a long time afterward. Sybrandt made a hole in 
 the ducat, and, tying it with a riband, wore it from 
 that moment next his heart. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 87 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 EARLY next morning, ere the tints of the bright 
 morning reddened the eastern sky or the birds had 
 left their perches among the clustering foliage, all 
 things being ready, Sybrandt launched his light canoe 
 on the smooth mirror of the Hudson, and, assisted by 
 the dusky Charon, old Tjerck, paddled away upward, 
 towards the sources of that majestic river. The first 
 day, they occasionally saw, along its low, luxuriant 
 borders, some scattered indications of the footsteps 
 of the white man, and heard, amid the high, towering 
 forests at a distance in the uplands, the axe of the 
 first settler, the crash of the falling tree, the bark 
 ing of the deep-mouthed hound, and the report of a 
 solitary, distant gun, repeated over and over by the 
 echoes, never perhaps awakened thus before. A rude 
 hut, the first essay towards improvement upon the 
 Indian wigwam, appeared here and there at long in 
 tervals along the shores, the image of desertion and 
 desolation, but teeming with life. As they passed 
 along, the little, half-clothed, white-haired urchins 
 poured forth, gazing and shouting at the passing 
 strangers. Gradually these evidences of the progress 
 of that roving, adventurous race, which is sending 
 forth its travellers, its merchants, its scholars, its war 
 riors, and its missionaries, armed with the sword and 
 the Bible, into every region of the peopled earth, 
 
88 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 ceased altogether. Nature displayed herself naked 
 before them, and the innocent earth exhibited her 
 beauties in all the careless, unstudied simplicity 6f 
 our first parents, ere the sense of guilt taught them 
 to blush and be ashamed. There was silence on 
 the earth, on the waters, and in the air, saYErwhen the 
 Creator s voice spoke in the whirlwind, ,he thunder, 
 and the raging of the river when the full-charged 
 clouds poured their deluge into its placid bosom. 
 
 Night, which in the crowded haunts of men is the 
 season of silence and repose, was here far more noisy 
 than the day. It was then that the prowling free 
 booters of the woods issued from their recesses to 
 seek their prey and hymn their shrill or growling ves 
 pers to the changeful moon or the everlasting stars, 
 those silent witnesses of what mortals wish to hide. 
 As they toiled upward in the moonlight evenings 
 against the current, which every day became more 
 rapid in approaching towards the falls, they were 
 hailed from the shore at intervals by the howl of the 
 wolves, the growling of the bears, and the cold, cheer 
 less quaverings of the solitary screech-owl. When, 
 tired with the labours of the day, they drew their ca 
 noe to the shore and lay by for the night, their only 
 safety was in lighting a fire and keeping it burning 
 all the time. This simple expedient furnishes the sole 
 security against the ferocious hunger of these midnight 
 marauders, who stay their approach at a certain dis 
 tance, where they stand and utter their cry, and glare 
 with their eyes, a mark for the woodsman, who takes 
 his aim directly between these two balls of living fire. 
 
 But the labours of our hero s voyage were far 
 greater than the dangers. He and his trusty squire 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 89 
 
 had to breast the swift waters from morning until 
 night, and win every foot of their way by skill and 
 exertion combined. Sometimes the current swept 
 through a long, narrow reach, between ledges of rocks 
 that crowded it into increasing depth and velocity, 
 at others it wound its devious way by sudden, abrupt 
 turnings, bristling on every side with sharp projections 
 either just above or just below the surface ; and at 
 others they were obliged to unload their little bark, 
 and carry its freight round some impassable obstruc 
 tion. In this manner they proceeded, with an atten 
 tion, an anxiety, never to be relaxed for a moment 
 without the danger, nay, the certainty, of the ship 
 wreck of their frail canoe, the loss of their cargo, and 
 the disgrace of an unsuccessful voyage. This last was 
 what every young man feared beyond all the toils 
 and perils of his enterprise. It was a death-blow to 
 his reputation, as well as to his future prospects ; for 
 riot a rural damsel would condescend to waste a smile 
 upon a youthful admirer who had failed in his first 
 adventure. The two qualities most valued among 
 these good people were courage and prudence ; and 
 it argued a want of both of these, when one lost his 
 boat and his wares, or stopped short of a profitable 
 market among the men of the woods. 
 
 At length, after enduring what would demolish a 
 regiment of well-dressed dandies in these degenerate 
 times, on the fourth day, towards evening, they were 
 warned, by a distant, dull, monotonous, heavy sound, 
 of their approach to the falls of Fort Edward, as they 
 were then called at that time a frontier post. 
 
 " Hark! massa Sybrandt," said Tjerck, as he paused 
 from plying his paddle : " hark ! I hear him." 
 
90 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 Hear what? " replied the other. 
 
 " The falls, massa. Maybe we find some Indians 
 dare to trade wid." 
 
 Sybrandt listened, and could plainly distinguish the 
 leaden plunge of the river, gradually becoming more 
 noticeable as they worked their way up the stream, 
 which now began to eddy about in little whirlpools, 
 each with its handful of snow-white foam. Turning 
 a projecting point, they met the full force of the cur 
 rent; which, in spite of all their efforts, jerked the bow 
 of the light canoe completely round, and shot her, like 
 an arrow from a bow, out into the middle of the river. 
 Finding it impossible to proceed any farther in this 
 way, they landed, and commenced the laborious task 
 of unlading and carrying their merchandise and canoe 
 round the falls to meet the placid current above. 
 While thus occupied, they encountered a party of 
 Mohawks, who had come thither to fish, headed by a 
 chief called Paskingoe, or the one-eyed. He was an 
 athletic savage, six feet high, of a ferocious appearance 
 and an indifferent character. He had lost an eye in 
 some drunken brawl ; and, having mixed a good deal 
 with the white men, exhibited the usual effects of such 
 an intercourse, in a combination of the vices of both 
 races. Cunning, avaricious, and revengeful, he still 
 had sufficient mastery over his feelings to disguise 
 them when occasion required; unless indeed he was 
 under the horrid dominion of drink. Then his bad 
 passions became ungovernable, and his rage without 
 discrimination or control. It was said he had killed 
 his own son in one of these paroxysms, under pretence 
 that he was undermining his influence with the tribe. 
 He was sitting, with his party of four Indians, under 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 91 
 
 the shade of a clump of pines that nodded over the 
 foaming torrent, when Sybrandt and Tjerck, suddenly, 
 and unexpectedly to themselves, came full upon them. 
 The Indians had seen them coming up the river afar 
 off, with a keenness of vision which they possess per 
 haps beyond even the animals of the forest. 
 
 " Welcome, brother," said the chief to Sybrandt. 
 
 " Ah! Paskingoe, how you do ? " said Tjerck, who 
 had known him before. " I no tink to see you here. 
 
 And I no glad, nudder," added he to himself. 
 There was little ceremony practised in these inter 
 views between the traders and the Indians. Sybrandt 
 inquired for furs, and the chief asked what he had 
 to exchange for them. Finding that he had brought 
 with him two or three kegs of that poison which has 
 swept away the race of the red men, and seems al 
 most on the eve of doing the same by the whites, 
 Paskingoe became very earnest with him to go to the 
 junction of the Hudson with the Sacandaga, repre 
 senting that he had plenty of people there who would 
 barter commodities. 
 
 Tjerck shook his head, and Sybrandt paused. 
 
 " What, is my brother afraid ? " said Paskingoe. 
 " Is not the Mohawk the friend of the white man ? 
 Men that are afraid should stay at home with their 
 wives," added he contemptuously. 
 
 " I am not afraid ; but " 
 
 " Huh ! " said Paskingoe ; " when I go to the fort, I 
 will tell them I met a white man who dared not go to 
 the Sacandaga, because he heard an old owl screech ;" 
 
 alluding to the shrugs and motions of Tjerck. " My 
 brother will get no beavers, unless he ventures further. A / 
 He will go home as he came, and the young women 
 will laugh at him." 
 
92 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 Sybrandt thought of Catalina, and determined to 
 accompany the chief. The Indians assisted him at 
 the portages of Fort Edward and Glen s Falls ; and, 
 though they cast many a longing look at the kegs of 
 rum, throwing out sundry shrewd hints at the same 
 time, they took none of it, either by theft or by vio 
 lence. At length, after a toilsome stretch, they reached 
 the junction of the two rivers, where neither was a 
 hundred yards wide. The mighty Hudson was here 
 an unimportant stream, giving no promise of his 
 majestic after-course, or of the riches he was destined 
 to bear in future times upon his broad bosom. Near 
 the place of their union there were extensive tracts of 
 low and wild meadows without trees, coursed by the 
 meandering branches of the Sacandaga, which at that 
 time abounded with the finest trout. It was a soli 
 tary region, entirely out of the usual route of travel 
 lers, who either followed the course of the Mohawk 
 river, or left the Hudson at Fort Edward, and struck 
 across the high hills to the end of Lake George on 
 their way to Canada. The nearest settlement was at 
 Johnstown, to the South, where Sir William Johnson 
 resided, and whence he exercised that sway over the 
 tribes of Indians far and near, which still remains, 
 and will remain for ever, a subject of admiration and 
 wonder. 
 
 There were neither Indians nor beaver skins at the 
 station, as promised by Paskingoe, who, by closely 
 examining the grass, ascertained, as he said, that the 
 party had gone away a day or two before, towards 
 the fishing-house. This was a small lodge built on a 
 little rocky elevation, just on the edge of the meadows 
 and at the head of one of the branches of the Sacan- 
 
93 
 
 daga, by Sir William Johnson, who sometimes came 
 there from Johnstown, to hunt and fish. Paskingoe 
 assured Sybrandt he would find them not far from 
 the lodge, in which, (being unoccupied for a great 
 part of the time), the Indians occasionally slept, when 
 the weather was bad. If any idea of danger crossed 
 the mind of Sybrandt, it was coupled with the con 
 viction that, if Paskingoe had any bad designs, they 
 could be executed just as well where he was as at the 
 place where the chief wished him to go. He there 
 fore consented to proceed, notwithstanding all the 
 eloquence of old Tjerck, who, by signs and looks, at 
 tempted to dissuade him. Accordingly, early the next 
 morning, they embarked on the sluggish Sacandaga, 
 the Indians in their canoe, and Sybrandt with his 
 trusty squire in his, and paddled their way along the 
 devious windings of the lazy, lonely stream, that 
 seemed an enormous serpent asleep in the high grass 
 that skirted its banks. After proceeding some miles 
 they became, as it were, lost in the pathless monotony 
 of the vast meadows, which presented in the hazy 
 obscurity of an overcast day no distinct outline or 
 boundary. The silence all around them was as the 
 silence of a winter s night, when the wind is hushed to 
 a freezing calm, save that the dipping of the paddles, 
 at measured intervals, was heard, and scarcely heard, 
 like the clicking of the death-watch when all else is 
 still. Sometimes, though but seldom, a solitary heron 
 would raise his long neck above the coarse growth by 
 the water, and make a strange discordant noise, which 
 was echoed by the Indians in mockery : but otherwise 
 it was a dead pause of nature ; the world of sound 
 was still, and the world of sight presented nothing 
 
94 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 but a landscape of drear melancholy sameness, a sky 
 of one dim unvarying shade of motionless clouds. 
 
 Sybrandt felt his dismal situation, which became 
 gradually more disagreeable from his seeing, or imag 
 ining he saw, certain looks of equivocal meaning pass 
 between Paskingoe and his Indians. Once, turning 
 suddenly round, he observed the one-eyed chief shake 
 his head in answer to an inquiring look of one of his 
 companions, and point in the direction where, peering 
 above the dead level of the lowland, stood the rustic 
 fishing-house. Towards evening they approached the 
 head of navigation on the stream, close by which stood 
 the building. For some time before, the dull flashes of 
 the lightning, sluggishly followed at intervals by the 
 distant thunders, grumbling and muttering, had indi 
 cated the advance of a storm. Gradually the Indians 
 plied their paddles more and more rapidly, and so did 
 Sybrandt and the negro, in order to keep pace with 
 them. At length, just as they arrived at a rude landing- 
 place, where Sir William Johnson launched his canoe 
 when going on a fishing-match, the waving of the pine 
 woods, which here bordered in majestic gloom and 
 grandeur on the margin of the wide meadow, and the 
 pattering drops of rain, announced that the crisis was 
 approaching rapidly. There was only time for Sy 
 brandt to cover his merchandise carefully, ere it came 
 in torrents, on the wings of a wind that laid flat the 
 rank high grass, and made the forest groan. The en 
 tire party, Sybrandt, Tjerck, and the Indians, hurried 
 to the fishing-house, the door of which was opened 
 without ceremony, there being no one in it, and no 
 furniture requiring a guard. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 95 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A NIGHT-SCENE. 
 
 FOR some time there was a dead silence among the 
 group. Paskingoe was moody, and Sybrandt, seeing 
 no traces of the Indians he expected to meet at this 
 spot, from time to time eyed him with looks of sus 
 picion. He could not help believing his designs were 
 at least questionable, nor disguise from himself that 
 he was entirely at the mercy of the Indians. 
 
 " My brother thinks I have two tongues and two 
 faces," said the one-eyed chief at last, in a sarcastic 
 tone. 
 
 Sybrandt made no answer. 
 
 " The white man," continued Paskingoe, raising his 
 voice, " does not know what to say ; he is afraid to 
 speak out. If I tell him the Indians and the beavers 
 will come to-morrow, he will not believe me. Why 
 should I lie to him ? Is he not a musk-rat caught in 
 a trap ? " 
 
 Sybrandt felt it was true ; he was completely in the 
 power of the Indian. Hardly knowing what to say, 
 he continued silent. The evening was now setting in, 
 and the storm continued. The wind roared among 
 the pines, the lightning flashed almost incessantly 
 through the windows, accompanied by loud, angry 
 peals of thunder : and now and then the crash of a 
 falling tree gave token of a triumph of the angry ele 
 ments. The uproar without was strongly contrasted 
 
96 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 with the stillness within. Paskingoe sat in grim si 
 lence, smoking his pipe ; Sybrandt was occupied in 
 no very pleasing reflections on his awkward situation; 
 and old Tjerck, from long experience of the Indian 
 character, saw that mischief was at work in the breast 
 of the chief. 
 
 " Is not the white man, and the black-white man, 
 hungry ? " at length he said. " Has he any thing good 
 in his canoe ? Let him send for it, and we will eat 
 together." 
 
 Sybrandt had no disinclination to this proposal, and 
 Tjerck was despatched, with one of the Indians, to 
 bring in some provisions from the canoe. While they 
 were gone, the one-eye ordered his people to kindle a 
 fire, which they did with some difficulty, and the room 
 at length became illuminated with the red glare of 
 the pine knots that hissed in the chimney. In a little 
 while Tjerck and the Indian returned, bringing the 
 provisions which our voyagers had laid in, together 
 with two guns which had been left in the canoe. The 
 eye of Paskingoe flashed. 
 
 " Is the white man afraid of the bears and wolves, 
 to-night?" 
 
 " I brought em for fear he get wet," said old Tjerck. 
 As the one-eye turned his blind side towards them, 
 Tjerck dexterously handed Sybrandt a knife which he 
 had concealed under his homespun linen frock, and 
 the young man as dexterously hid it in his bosom. 
 The meal being now prepared, they sat down to 
 partake of it. After finishing, the one-eye asked Sy 
 brandt 
 
 " Has the white man any fire-water in his canoe ? " 
 
 " I have," replied Sybrandt. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 97 
 
 After a pause of some minutes, the chief asked 
 
 " Is it good ? " 
 
 " It is." 
 
 Another pause ensued, which was again interrupted 
 by the chief. 
 
 " Has it never been to the spring ? Our people have 
 been poisoned by the white man mixing too much 
 cold water with the fire-water." 
 
 " It is very good," answered Sybrandt : and another 
 pause ensued. 
 
 " When the white man comes among us," said the 
 chief, " we offer the best we have. We don t hide 
 away our corn, and give him the husk. That is what 
 you white men call nigger." 
 
 " No more nigger dan yourself ! " muttered old 
 Tjerck. 
 
 " Some drink would be very good," said One-eye. 
 I am dry." 
 
 Tjerck politely handed him a horn-cup of water, 
 which he dashed on the floor, while his countenance 
 began to exhibit keen anger and impatience. 
 
 " If the white man won t give, will he sell ? The 
 Great Manitou has promised me some fire-water to 
 night. I dreamed so last night." 
 
 " You dream almost equal to Sir William John 
 son," replied Sybrandt, smiling. Paskingoe shook his 
 head. 
 
 " No, no," said he, " Sir William out-dreams me. 
 He dreamed away my best hunting-grounds; but I 
 only dreamed away his red coat. But, will the white 
 man trade for some fire-water ? " 
 
 Sybrandt felt the peculiar delicacy of his situation, 
 thus buried in the wild solitudes of the Sacandaga. He 
 
 7 
 
98 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 knew the danger of declining, as well as of complying 
 with the wishes of Paskingoe. To refuse entirely 
 would be to provoke his violence ; to give him a 
 moderate portion of spirits would, probably, but ren 
 der him more eager for more ; and to afford the means 
 of intoxication would be only the prelude to violence 
 and murder. While he was considering, the displeasure 
 of the whole party became so evident, that he at length 
 determined, as the best course, to gratify them with a 
 small quantity, in the remote hope that they would 
 be satisfied. He accordingly sent Tjerck for a bottle 
 which he had laid aside to treat the old man from, 
 now and then. Tjerck shook his head, and obeyed 
 with manifest unwillingness. 
 
 " It is good," said One-eye, as he took a deep 
 draught, and handed it to the savage next him. " It 
 is good, but the water is very shallow; the Indian 
 sees the bottom too easily." And indeed, by the time 
 it had gone round the bottle was empty. Sufficient 
 had, however, been swallowed to waken the sleeping 
 demon that liquor invariably conjures up in the heart 
 of an Indian. As it mounted into their brains they 
 became clamorous for more, and Sybrandt saw that 
 his life would fall a sacrifice to refusing any longer. 
 Accordingly, a small keg was brought from the canoe, 
 and the Indians set in for a complete savage debauch. 
 In a little time their howlings and shoutings almost 
 overpowered the uproar of the elements, and their 
 uncontrolled and uncontrollable animal spirits found 
 vent in grimaces, boastings, and antics of mingled 
 ferocity and buffoonery. Their eyeballs glared, they 
 danced, and sung, and flourished their tomahawks 
 and scalping-knives over the head of Sybrandt, who 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 99 
 
 stood in a corner, his right hand in his bosom grasp 
 ing his knife, in momentary expectation that that deep 
 and never-dying hatred which the Indian cherishes for 
 the white man w r ould precipitate them into some act 
 of violence against him. He kept his eye steadily and 
 fearlessly upon Paskingoe, who was now half-mad, 
 enumerating, with violent gesticulations, and tones of 
 crack-brained, barbarous exultation, the white men he 
 had slain, whose wives and children he had scalped, 
 whose homes he had burned. He told how he had gone, 
 alone, to a town of the Hurons, which he entered at 
 midnight, and murdered every soul in one of the wig 
 wams, after which he retired, without leaving any 
 traces, into the woods, and secreted himself. The next 
 night he came again, and murdered the people of an 
 other wigwam, retiring, as before, into the woods with 
 out being seen. The third night he was watched, and 
 pursued before he could achieve his last piece of butch 
 ery. But he related, amid the triumphant yells of his 
 companions, how he escaped from his enemies, and 
 brought home with him twenty-seven of their scalps. 
 " What white man could do this ? " cried he, dart 
 ing a malignant glance upon Sybrandt ; " What white 
 man would dare do this, even if his limbs were not 
 like those of a woman ? The white man is a coward 
 and a liar ; he cheats us of our lands, and builds forts 
 upon them, from behind which he shoots us down 
 like dogs. He thinks he is our master, and that we 
 are his black niggers, who have nothing we can call 
 our own." Then, brandishing his tomahawk, and 
 dancing, and whirling himself round, yelling at the 
 same time in concert with his companions, he went 
 on : " The white man cannot stand before the In- 
 
100 
 
 dian, unless two to one. I know it I, Paskingoe 
 I know it. At Cataraqui I buried this tomahawk in 
 the sculls of two of the cowards who were running 
 away like deer. At Hochelaga I drank the blood of 
 three bragging deer; it was pale and cold, like that 
 of a fish. At the great water of Ontario I tore out 
 their hearts, and every where I go, I drag their scalps, 
 dripping, from their skulls. They could never look 
 me in the face, and so the cowards tried to escape the 
 fire of my eyes by putting them out. But they shall 
 know me better with one eye than they did with two. 
 Ten scalps have paid for one of my eyes, and ten 
 more shall be paid before I sleep with my fathers." 
 
 Gradually, excited by the liquor and the stories of 
 these bloody exploits, the Indians and their chief be 
 came raving mad. They quarrelled and struck at 
 each other with their knives, and thirsted for blood 
 with the instinct of beasts of prey maddened by lust or 
 hunger. At length One-eye shouted 
 
 " Are we fools ? Blood must be shed to-night, but 
 not the blood of the Indian. The Great Spirit has 
 sent the white man here to atone for the wrongs of his 
 people. Let him die ! " 
 
 " Let us drink his blood ! " " Let us tear out his 
 heart!" echoed the rest, as they brandished their wea 
 pons and came furiously towards Sybrandt. At this 
 moment the soul of the young man bowed to the su 
 premacy of these accumulating horrors ; but it sunk 
 only for a moment, and then regained its level. There 
 was no chance of retreat, and the very hopelessness 
 of escape nerved him to a resolute exertion of his 
 means of defence. He grasped his secret knife, and 
 looked round for his trusty Tjerck, whose dusky form 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 101 
 
 he saw at the moment vanishing out of one of the 
 windows on the opposite side of the room. Thus 
 left alone, he braced himself for what might follow. 
 The Indians, with all their hardihood and daring, are \ 
 chary of their lives ; although, when it comes to the 
 inevitable, no people of the earth die so coolly. But 
 the point of honour is to achieve their object with as 
 little loss as possible. They therefore advanced wa 
 rily upon Sybrandt, who stood as warily on the de 
 fence. They approached their hands were raised 
 to strike, and he was just about to spring upon the 
 one-eyed chief, when a loud, long war-whoop was 
 heard, apparently close under the window, quavering 
 amid the pauses of the storm. 
 
 "Hush! tis the war-cry of the Adirondacks," said 
 Paskingoe. 
 
 The Indians suspended their purpose, and listened 
 with breathless anxiety. Nothing was heard but the 
 falling rain, the roaring of the forest, and the rattling 
 thunder. 
 
 " The Adirondacks dare not come here ; they are 
 women," declared One-eye, contemptuously. They 
 resumed their bloody intent, and again the shrill war- 
 whoop sounded amid the din without, and checked 
 them for a moment. Sybrandt thought of retreating ; 
 but the single door was barred by the Indians, who 
 stood for a few minutes expecting an attack from 
 without. 
 
 " Let us die like warriors," said Paskingoe, and 
 took another drink. His example was followed by 
 the others, and the renewed draught added fury to 
 their passions. 
 
 " The white man is a traitor," they cried. " He has 
 
102 
 
 brought the Adirondacks upon us ; " and then One-eye 
 aimed a blow with his tomahawk, that Sybrandt 
 could not parry. He warded it from his head, but it 
 fell on his left arm, and disabled it entirely. In deal 
 ing this blow, however, Paskingoe, being somewhat 
 unsteady with the liquor- he had drunk, stumbled 
 forward heavily, and full upon the knife of Sybrandt, 
 which entered his heart. He fell upon the floor, and 
 the rage of his party became still more intense. They 
 yelled, horribly ; and, notwithstanding the cool deter 
 mination of our hero, a few moments must have 
 decided his fate, when, just at the instant that death 
 hovered over him at the very crisis when their toma 
 hawks and knives were about to let out his life-blood 
 the door of the fishing-house was violently burst 
 open, and a tall, majestic white man in a hunting 
 dress rushed into the room, followed by half a dozen 
 people. The arms of the Indians, the moment they 
 saw him, were arrested, and their weapons remained 
 lifted above their heads. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 103 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A WOODSMAN. 
 
 THE stranger addressed a few words in the Mo 
 hawk language to the statue-like warriors, with an air 
 of indescribable authority. They lowered their weap 
 ons, and retired to the other extremity of the room, 
 to which he had waved them with his hand. He then 
 advanced towards Sybrandt, now become weak with 
 the loss of blood, arid courteously asked an explana 
 tion of the scene, which the young man briefly gave. 
 The stranger shook his head, and exclaimed, in a de 
 sponding tone, 
 
 " Rum rum rum ! the shame of the white man ; 
 the ruin of the red. What can I do with these 
 wretched people, when my own do all they can to 
 undo what I have devoted my life to accomplish ! " 
 
 Then, observing that Sybrandt leaned wearily 
 against the wall, he asked, anxiously, 
 
 " Are you hurt, sir ? " 
 
 " I believe I am, sir. I feel no pain, but my left arm 
 seems useless ; " and, overcome by weakness, he sunk 
 upon the dead body of Paskingoe. 
 
 " Who is that ? " asked the stranger, pointing to 
 the corpse. 
 
 "Paskingoe," muttered one of his party; "the 
 chief who gave you his lands, and whom you called 
 brother. Revenge him." 
 
 The stranger made no answer, but proceeded to 
 
104 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 examine into the situation of Sybrandt, who had 
 fainted, from loss of blood. He gave a key to one of 
 his attendants, who descended into the cellar, in the 
 wall of which was a secret recess where were kept a 
 variety of the articles most useful amid the privations 
 and accidents incident to travelling or sojourning far 
 from the haunts of men and the conveniences of civil 
 ized life. The stranger applied what was proper of 
 these to the case of Sybrandt, who in a short time 
 recovered from his swoon and was accommodated 
 with a sort of mattress from the receptacle above 
 mentioned. Having seen to all this, the stranger 
 turned to the Indians of Paskingoe s party, who were 
 standing in sullen silence, and demanded the occasion 
 of this fray. 
 
 " The white man can tell you. He will make a 
 good story out of it. Ask him," said one of them. 
 
 " Very well," replied the stranger : " Take the body 
 of your chief away to his people, that they may bury 
 him. The storm is over. Go ; and when you have 
 done this, come to me. I will see justice done. Go, 
 now, and take care what you do. Take care ! " 
 
 The Mohawks raised the body of their chief, and 
 departed with mournful steps, chanting the monoto 
 nous death-song, which gradually died away in the 
 distance till it was heard no more. The stranger 
 then, having ascertained that Sybrandt was in a deep, 
 exhausted sleep, directed all to be kept quiet, and, 
 carelessly throwing himself upon the floor, with his 
 cheek supported on his hand, soon fell into a quiet 
 repose, which was shared by all his companions, with 
 the exception of one, who was directed to watch the 
 slumbers of Sybrandt. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 105 
 
 The morning dawned bright, clear, and refreshing, 
 finding all safe and well but our hero, whose ailment, 
 however, was nothing but weakness. He would have 
 risen with the rest, but his head grew dizzy, and he 
 obeyed the injunctions of the stranger, to remain quiet 
 for that day at least. 
 
 " We will pursue the amusement of hunting, the 
 object which in fact brought us here so opportunely, 
 and it will go hard but you shall have some venison 
 for dinner. I would promise you trout, too, but the 
 streams are too much swelled for fishing. Remain 
 quiet with your old servant, whom I have instructed 
 what to do, and to-morrow my people shall carry you 
 to my home on a litter of green boughs, which is 
 better than all the sedan-chairs." So saying, he 
 shook hands with Sybrandt, and departed, observing, 
 " You have no fever, I see." 
 
 When they were left alone, Tjerck expressed an 
 honest, heartfelt pleasure at the miraculous escape 
 of his young master. " I did all I could for young 
 massa," said he. 
 
 " Yes, you ran away," said Sybrandt, who felt not 
 a little indignant at his desertion. 
 
 " Aha ! massa," said Tjerck, " who you tink make 
 dat great war-whoop dat stop de rascal One-eye, two, 
 tree minute, and save your life, hey ? " 
 
 " I don t know ; the Adirondacks, I suppose." 
 
 "Old nigger!" cried Tjerck, with immeasurable 
 self-complacency, and laughing with all his might; 
 " old nigger make it." 
 
 Sybrandt took in the whole plan, and thanked 
 Tjerck for the prompt diversion made in his favour, 
 which, by giving time for the coming of the stranger, 
 
106 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 undoubtedly saved his life. He then gradually died 
 away into the slumber of weakness, while his black 
 guardian angel sat and watched him with the stillness 
 of a dead calm in the wilderness. 
 
 His repose was long and deep, and he awoke re 
 freshed and hungry. The stranger and his party 
 returned from their hunt, with plenty of game, and 
 Sybrandt was allowed to partake sparingly of the 
 meal which was prepared. He now had leisure to 
 contemplate the person to whom he owed his rescue 
 from the drunken ferocity of One-eye and his gang. 
 He was, to all appearance, about forty years of age, 
 with a form of the largest and most lofty proportions, 
 a deep ruddy, yet bronzed complexion, and a counte 
 nance of a singular combination of attributes. It 
 united those indescribable yet indelible traits which 
 seem inseparable from a cultivated intellect, with the 
 careless, fearless daring of one whose life had been 
 passed in the midst of dangers and in the enjoyment 
 of unlimited sway. His deportment, while it was 
 easy and courteous to all, betrayed a careless superi 
 ority, which both the Indians and white men seemed 
 tacitly to acknowledge, obeying implicitly every word 
 he uttered, every motion of his hand, and every glance 
 of his eye. His manner and mode of expressing him 
 self sufficiently indicated that he had sat at good 
 men s feasts and been where bells had tolled to church, 
 at the same time that they were totally distinct from 
 those of the gentlemen Sybrandt had seen at the 
 house of his uncle. His motions exhibited the ease, 
 facility, and unembarrassed vigour of an Indian, and 
 there was a peculiar force, brevity, and richness in his 
 phraseology that smacked of the Indian manner of 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 10T 
 
 expression. He wore a hunting dress equally partak 
 ing in the modes of savage and civilized man, and, 
 indeed, altogether, exhibited a strange confusion of the 
 characteristics of the two races. His deportment to 
 wards Sybrandt was kind, at the same time that his 
 attentions were rather indifferent than very particular. 
 He took upon himself the direction of our hero, his 
 merchandise, and his affairs, without consulting, or 
 seeming to think it worth while to consult, him. 
 
 " To-morrow, at sunrise," said he, " we shall set out 
 for home. My people will carry you and your bag 
 gage. The canoe must be left where it is." Then, 
 turning to his people, " Rest, and be ready by break 
 of day." 
 
 In a few minutes all was quiet, though, with the 
 exception of Sybrandt, the floor was their bed, and 
 their pillow a knapsack, a log, or perchance a stone. 
 In the dawn of the morning they set forth in a direc 
 tion nearly South- West, through an evergreen forest, 
 gigantic and grave, such as nature produces but 
 once on the same soil, by the exertion of her unim 
 paired youthful energies. The solemn pines, straight 
 as an arrow, and without a single limb below a height 
 of a hundred feet, seeming already shaped for the 
 masts of some mighty man-of-war, stood side by side, 
 at distances which left sufficient space unencumbered 
 by underwood for the travellers to pass without diffi 
 culty. But when, as it sometimes happened, their 
 course lay through a rich, juicy bottom-land, a new 
 creation sprung up before them, of beeches, maples, 
 and majestic sycamores, spreading and interlocking 
 their arms, and forming an impenetrable shade, only 
 to be visited by the bright rays of the winter sun 
 
108 
 
 when the leaves fall and the branches are bare. In 
 the damp and gloom of their shelter flourished a lesser 
 race of nature s progeny, consisting of shrubs, and 
 vines, and plants of every various name, mingling 
 and matting together, and forming a succession of 
 obstacles which only the strength, skill, and persever 
 ance of a woodsman might overcome. 
 
 The litter of boughs in which Sybrandt was placed 
 was carried in turn by the followers of the stranger, 
 and certainly a more easy mode of conveyance was 
 never devised for an invalid. Rude, and silent, and 
 monotonous as was the forest through which their 
 journey lay, it was not devoid of gayety or incident. 
 Sometimes the keen eye of one of the party would 
 detect a black squirrel, looking down from the topmost 
 branches of one of these towering pines, and barking, 
 as it were in derision. The leader would then pro 
 pose some trifling prize for bringing it down with a 
 single bullet, and without drawing blood. A halt 
 would forthwith be made, for the competition. None 
 but a woodsman could even distinguish these little 
 animals among the dark foliage of the lofty pines, 
 clinging close to the limb, and almost incorporating 
 themselves with their asylum. Each took his turn, 
 and the object was to put a ball on the bark of the 
 tree directly where it came in contact with the body 
 of the squirrel, by which he would be stunned, and 
 fall to the ground without any external wound. Few 
 were capable of this feat on the first essay, and loud 
 were the shouts that echoed through the forest at the 
 abortive attempts. When each one had tried without 
 success, the leader would utter some epithet of con 
 tempt, bid them stand aside, and never fail to bring 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 109 
 
 the creature down without breaking his skin. So, if 
 they met with any difficulties in their march which 
 the strength, skill, or intrepidity of the others could 
 not surmount, he took the lead and labouring oar, and 
 conquered every obstacle of nature by superior force, 
 management, or daring. It was by frequent instances 
 of this sort that the mystery of his unbounded sway 
 over his people was explained to Sybrandt. The hu 
 man character can only be consummated and perfect 
 ed by the union of knowledge and strength, directed 
 and animated by a courage that dares all dangers, 
 defies all obstacles. 
 
 At mid-day they halted in an open space for the 
 purpose of rest and refreshment. " On this spot," 
 said the stranger, carelessly, " on this spot, about 
 fifteen years ago, was fought a bloody battle between 
 the Hurons and the Mohawks. We were taken by 
 surprise, and suffered dreadfully; but " and his eye 
 kindled in triumph, " we, I and my Indians, made 
 the cowards flee at last, and shot them down like 
 deer. The name and the nation was extinguished on 
 this spot at a single blow. History says nothing of 
 this ; but, if a bedrid king or superannuated queen 
 had died that day, it would have been carefully re 
 corded. The causes which change the destinies of 
 men and the face of the earth lie unseen and unno 
 ticed, while little things and little men are carefully 
 handed down to future times, as mighty agents in the 
 vast business of the universe. Such is history, and, 
 in fact, tradition is no better. One conceals or over 
 looks the truth ; the other tattles falsehoods." And 
 he mused for a short while, as if applying these obser 
 vations to his own experience. 
 
110 
 
 CHAPTER XH. 
 
 THE WOODSMAN S HOME. 
 
 ON the evening of the second day, they arrived at 
 the residence of the stranger, a few miles from the 
 banks of the Mohawk river. It was an embryo settle 
 ment, composed of log-cabins, the first remove from 
 the bark-huts of the Indians. " This is the capital of 
 my kingdom," said the stranger; "it is a wide do 
 main, not very populous; but, never mind, the time 
 will come." He welcomed Sybrandt to his house, 
 (which was a large square edifice of hewn pines, hav 
 ing the interstices filled with mortar), with that frank, 
 careless hospitality characteristic of every thing he 
 ,said or did, and presented him to his wife and chil 
 dren the former an Indian woman, the latter an 
 evident mixture of wild and tame, and the perfect 
 patterns of Nature in their symmetry. 
 
 Sybrandt remained at the house of the stranger 
 some weeks, ere he entirely recovered from the effects 
 of his wound ; and, after his recovery, in truth, he was 
 in no haste to go away. It was evident, too, that the 
 stranger did not wish to part with him. " It is long," 
 said he, " since I have had a companion who could 
 talk with me on subjects connected with rny early 
 habits and associations." 
 
 Our hero could not refrain from expressing his 
 surprise at seeing a person of his education and ac 
 complishments thus voluntarily become an exile from 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. Ill 
 
 civilized society, to mix with beings so different from 
 himself. 
 
 " Why, I don t know," replied he, smiling ; " I was 
 tired of the labour of doing nothing. In my own 
 country I was a gentleman, but a gentleman without 
 fortune ; and such a one, you know, cannot stoop to 
 be active and useful, except in certain professions. I 
 was physically incapacitated for any sedentary employ 
 ment, for there is about me an impatience of being 
 still, a sort of instinctive longing for exercise, fresh air, 
 and freedom of action, that makes me a fitter compan 
 ion for wild beasts and wild men than for lords and 
 ladies. They might have made a soldier of me ; but 
 my family was Jacobite, and neither would we ask, 
 nor the government grant me, a commission. I might 
 have gone into a foreign service ; but, the truth is, I 
 had some qualms about one day or other perhaps 
 being obliged, either to fight against my own country, 
 or desert the standard under which I had voluntarily 
 enlisted. It happened that an intimate friend of mine 
 was appointed governor of this province, and the 
 thought struck me that I should have plenty of elbow- 
 room in the new world, and plenty of exercise for my 
 ungovernable propensity to activity, in hunting deer, 
 wrestling with bears, skirmishing with the Indians, 
 and other rural amusements. I proposed to accom 
 pany him, and he accepted me as a companion, under 
 the character of his private secretary. On landing in 
 New York, he desired me to sit down and write to 
 the colonial secretary an account of our voyage and 
 safe arrival. Before I had got half through there was 
 an alarm in the house that a bear had made his ap 
 pearance in one of the markets, or, perhaps, as I be- 
 
112 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 lieve was the fact, in the only market in the city, 
 which I suppose has grown very much since. I threw 
 down my pen, sallied forth in the crowd, and, after 
 a smart skirmish with Sir Bruin, actually killed him 
 with my own hand. 
 
 " I was excessively proud of this exploit. I sup 
 pose you expect to be knighted, said his Excellency, 
 smiling. Then, shaking his head, he added, I see 
 you won t do, my good friend. You are cut out for 
 a mighty hunter before the Lord, like honest Nimrod, 
 and not for a secretary. Have you an inclination to 
 go as resident-minister among the Mohawks, and be 
 come the bear-leader, or, in more classic phrase, the 
 Lycurgus of these wild Spartan warriors ? 
 
 " He then explained to me, that the government 
 had .directed him to establish, if possible, an agency 
 somewhere on the banks of the Mohawk, for the 
 purpose of acquiring an influence over these warlike 
 tribes, for whose good graces the governors of Canada 
 and New York had been for a long while contending. 
 
 " What say you, my friend ? said he : I think 
 you are the very man. You are about half Indian, 
 already ; and if you can only make them half white 
 men, you cannot but agree admirably. 
 
 " The idea caught my fancy, wonderfully ; and I 
 accepted the offer without hesitation. You, who have 
 lived so near the confines of the dominion of Nature, 
 and mixed with her sons, need not be told the particu 
 lars of my coming here, the privations and dangers I 
 encountered, and the obstacles I met and overcame. 
 We shall talk over these, some other day. I have 
 already sat still here longer, I believe, than I have done 
 at one time these ten years. So come, Westbrook, 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 113 
 
 tis a fine day for a hunt ; and you are well enough to 
 join in it." 
 
 He then whistled his dogs, who came, wagging their 
 tails, as much delighted as their master furnished 
 Sybrandt with a gun, and his eldest son, a boy about 
 ten years old, with another, and, after making all 
 necessary preparations, called his wife, an agreeable- 
 looking Indian woman, with a voice as soft as a flute, 
 and an eye like that of an antelope. 
 
 "Sakia! (She is an Algonquin," said he to Sy 
 brandt, " and her name translated into English is 
 love. ) Sakia, we shall return before night. See 
 that you have something good ready for us." Sakia 
 went her way, smiling and good-humoured as a child. 
 
 " She is my wife my good and lawful wife and 
 the mother of my children. I never had any other, 
 and I never wish to have. You look as if you wanted 
 to express your wonder that I have not brought a 
 civilized European lady to share my solitude. But, in 
 truth, what would such a one have done here but fret 
 away her soul, and pine herself to death, and hang, a 
 dead weight, upon me and my purposes. Not one in 
 a million of the fine ladies I formerly associated with 
 would have consented to accompany me in the wil 
 derness ; and if one had, in all human probability 
 she would have made herself as wretched as she 
 would have made me. She could not join me in 
 hunting; and her lonely hours would have been imbit- 
 tered by perpetual ennui or perpetual fears. Still less 
 would an ignorant, vulgar white woman have suited 
 me as a companion. The ignorance of the Indian is 
 neither troublesome nor offensive, like that of civilized 
 life ; nor is it accompanied by the grossness of man- 
 
 8 
 
114 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 ner and clumsy carriage characteristic of hard labour. 
 An Indian woman is always graceful ; and the sweet 
 ness of her voice makes amends for all that is want 
 ing in sentiment and expression or, rather, it is 
 both sentiment and expression combined. No, no, 
 young man if you ever come to live in the woods, 
 marry a wood-nymph. You might as well bring a 
 dancing-master here as a fine lady. But come ; we 
 are wasting time. Take care you don t mistake me 
 for a wild animal, when we get into the woods, and 
 shoot me. Here, Will, do you go ahead, my boy ; 
 and, if old Snacks don t behave herself, take a whip to 
 her. I give my boys the lead," said he, addressing 
 Sybrandt, " whenever it can be done with safety. It 
 makes them brave and manly." 
 
 Our party soon plunged into the pathless woods, 
 and kept on till they struck the banks of a little lake, 
 whose waters were of crystal, and in whose bosom 
 the surrounding verdant banks were reflected with a 
 thousand new and nameless beauties, just as the ima 
 gination heightens and adorns the realities of nature. 
 
 " Let us sit down here, awhile," said the stranger. 
 " You seem tired. Or, if you like, you can stay here 
 and fish, w T hile Will and I skirt round the pond with 
 our guns. I have brought fishing-tackle with me." 
 
 Sybrandt chose this alternative, being somewhat 
 fatigued ; and the stranger and his boy departed with 
 the dogs, to make the tour of the lake, which seemed 
 some half a dozen miles in circumference. " Lay 
 your gun where you can reach it, in case a deer or a 
 bear comes by," hallooed he from a distance, just as 
 they vanished in the forest. 
 
 Influenced by the scene before him, which shed a 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 115 
 
 charming quiet and repose over his whole soul, Sy- 
 brandt, instead of engaging in the sport of fishing, 
 continued to contemplate the unadorned, unsullied 
 beauties of nature in this, her wild, secluded paradise. 
 The limpid waters lay sleeping within their curtained 
 banks, and not a sound, an echo, or a motion dis 
 turbed the death-like quiet of the landscape. The 
 world, as it presented itself at that moment to his eye, 
 was composed of the sky above, the lakelet and its 
 green border beneath ; all beyond was shut out from 
 his view. The axe had never opened a vein in the 
 primeval forest, that giant progeny which exhibited 
 the product of the first energies of mother earth ; nor 
 had her bosom ever, in this lonely region, been seared 
 by the hand of man. Life itself seemed extinct, ex 
 cept in the beating of Sybrandt s heart, and in the 
 myriads of little fish, that sported in the transparent 
 water, and turned their silvery sides ever and anon to 
 the bright beams of the god of day. Sybrandt little 
 dreamed, at that moment, that scarcely a single gener 
 ation would pass away, before this region of the dead, 
 or rather of those who never had an existence, would 
 spring, as if by magic, into life and animation ; that 
 its silence would pass away before the babbling 
 tongues of all ages, and almost all countries; that 
 languages and men that never met before in any spot 
 of all the earth would congregate within these now 
 melancholy woods ; and that the Promethean touch 
 of courage, enterprise, activity, energy, and persever 
 ance, would here perform, in almost less than no time, 
 the far-famed ancient miracle of animating the lifeless 
 clod into motion and intelligence. 
 
 So thought not Sybrandt. That selfish loneliness 
 
116 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 which was the bane of his character here came over 
 him with renewed force. He thought of the past and 
 of the future, but only as they concerned himself and 
 his own affairs, recollections, anticipations, hopes, 
 fears, sufferings, and enjoyments. With these Cata- 
 lina was so intimately associated, that he never 
 thought of himself without thinking of her. The 
 scene and the silence developed a more than ordinary 
 depression and sadness ; for solitude is ever the nurse 
 of melancholy musings, imaginary woes, and fore 
 boding apprehensions. In connexion with Catalina, 
 he recollected little from which he could derive any 
 gratification, or on which memory could exercise its 
 powers of exaggeration to any other purpose than to 
 increase and give energy to his bitter impressions. 
 
 n the contrary, every smile of ridicule, every real or 
 fancied indication of her indifference, dislike, or con- 
 . tempt, arose one after another before him, like malig 
 nant spectres, grinning in supernatural scorn. His 
 face became flushed, his pulse varied, as he recurred to 
 the long list of imaginary neglects or insults he had 
 endured ; and again he voluntarily inflicted upon him 
 self the mortifications they occasioned. 
 
 As he sat thus, as it were devouring his own soul, 
 his fishing implements remained unnoticed at his side, 
 and he heard neither the loud music of the hounds, 
 nor the report of the answering gun, from time to time 
 echoing through the woods. His reveries were at 
 length interrupted by the voice of the stranger, sound 
 ing cheerfully in his ear, and awakening him to a 
 perception of reality. He came laden with a variety 
 of game, and exclaimed, as he advanced, 
 
 " Come, let us away home. I have plenty of game, 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 117 
 
 and you, I dare say, plenty of fish. We shall have a 
 famous supper, and raging appetites. Let us see what 
 you have caught." 
 
 " Nothing," said Sybrandt, colouring a little. 
 
 " Nothing! O, thou idle or unskilful piscator, what 
 hast thou been doing?" 
 
 " Thinking," said the youth, with a sigh. 
 
 " Thinking! What has a man to do with thought 
 among the Indians and wild beasts ? Action, boy, 
 action is the word here in my empire of shade. Were 
 T to spend my time in thinking, I and my little ones 
 would starve. I have half a mind to give you no 
 supper to-day." 
 
 " I have thought away my appetite already," said 
 the other, somewhat sadly. The stranger eyed him 
 with a glance of keen inquiry. 
 
 " Young man," said he, seriously, " you are a scholar; 
 I have found out that, already. But your education, I 
 doubt, is not quite finished.. I shall put you through 
 an entire new course, arid make a man of you, as well 
 as a scholar. In a few weeks, there will be a meeting 
 of the Mohawks at my court. Until then you will 
 have no opportunity to dispose of your merchandise 
 to advantage ; and I know well that an unsuccessful 
 Indian trader can never rise among the frontier men, 
 because he is supposed to want courage, conduct, and 
 perseverance. You must therefore stay with me till 
 after my grand council, and I shall have time to turn 
 over a new leaf with you. You want action, and you 
 shall have it. What say you ? " 
 
 " My friends will be uneasy at my long absence." 
 
 " O, if that is all, I shall send a messenger to Albany 
 in a few days, and he will carry a letter for you. So 
 that objection is got over." 
 
118 
 
 Nobody cares about seeing me, thought Sybrandt. 
 
 " What say you ; is it a bargain ? " said the stranger. 
 
 " It is," said the other ; and the matter was decided. 
 
 " And now for home. O how gloriously hungry I 
 am ! " And they hied them homeward with long and 
 hasty strides. 
 
 The day was far spent when they arrived at the door 
 of the stranger, and found every thing prepared for 
 them as he had directed. His Indian wife received 
 him with a smile of gladness, and the children nocked 
 round to welcome him, and admire his game. There 
 was little appearance of sentiment, but much good- 
 humoured frankness in the meeting. 
 
 " Will you have a book to occupy the evening ? " 
 said the stranger, when the night had set in. " I have 
 books, but, in truth, I seldom read them now. They 
 make one lazy, and unfitJbr-aetion". But I have no 
 objection to your reading." 
 
 " I had rather hear you talk," said Sybrandt. Look 
 ing round, and perceiving that the Indian wife was 
 absent on her domestic duties, he added, " May I in 
 quire if you don t find your time hang heavy on your 
 hands sometimes, for want of the society you have 
 been accustomed to ? " 
 
 " Why, no," replied the other; " I cannot say I do. 
 I am never idle in body or mind. As a matter both 
 of necessity and amusement, I hunt almost every day, 
 which gives me appetite, occupation, and rest when I 
 lie down at night. Besides this," added he, smiling, 
 " I exercise dominion over men ; I influence at least, 
 if not direct, the affairs of an invisible people, as it 
 were, hid in these woods; and this gives sufficient 
 employment to my mind. There is no study more 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 119 
 
 interesting than man, and, of all mankind, the savage 
 affords to me a subject of the greatest novelty and 
 interest. It is curious to see how different, yet how 
 much alike, are the civilized and savage types of men.T ; 
 One is a bear-skin in its rough natural state, the other 
 the same skin decked on the edges with red cloth and 
 porcupine quills. The animal it covered is still noth-j \ 
 ing but a bear." 
 
 " You are no admirer of the animal, it seems, in 
 either of his forms," replied Sybrandt. 
 
 " You are mistaken ; I think him a decent sort of 
 biped enough, and have no quarrel with my fellow- 
 creatures, though I came hither to live in the woods 
 that I might enjoy perpetual exercise without actual 
 hard work, and never-ceasing excitement without 
 ruining myself at the gaming-table, or blasting others 
 for the purpose of keeping myself awake all day." 
 
 " Yet I should suppose you would sometimes feel 
 lost for want of the ordinary intercourse of social 
 life the interchange of thought ri&y, the conflict 
 of opinions and interests, which keeps the world from 
 stagnating." 
 
 " I am not always alone ; the Indians sometimes 
 visit me : but, to be sure, they are no great talkers, 
 except when they make a set speech, when, I assure 
 you, they cut a most respectable figure as orators. I 
 But there is never any want of conflicting opinions 
 and interests when the Indian and the white man 
 come in contact. I fear they never will agree. I some 
 times almost despair of being able to consummate the 
 plan which has gradually opened itself to my mind 
 during my residence here, and which is now become 
 the leading object of my life." 
 

 120 
 
 " May I ask what it is ? " said Sybrandt. 
 
 " To bring the Indians into the circle of civilized 
 life. I cannot but see, that, if they remain as they 
 are, always a source of disturbance in that great frame 
 of social life which is now enlarging itself in every 
 direction, and will one day, I believe, comprehend 
 the whole of this vast continent, they must perish. 
 Nothing can save them but conforming to the laws, 
 and customs, and occupations, of the whites. I have 
 endeavoured to prepare them gradually for this, and 
 for that purpose have endeavoured to gain their con 
 fidence and establish an influence over them. I have 
 succeeded to admiration, and beyond all other white 
 men, with the exception, perhaps, of some of the Cath 
 olic missionaries. Yet the truth forces itself on me 
 every moment of my life, and I cannot shut my eyes 
 to it this influence is founded not on my superiority 
 in the qualifications of a civilized man, but on my 
 capacity to excel even the Indians in war, in hunting, 
 in bearing fatigue and privations, and in endurance 
 of every kind. This is the secret of my power. In 
 proportion as I become a savage, the savages respect 
 me no more." 
 
 The stranger then proceeded to relate a variety of 
 anecdotes illustrative of Indian habits and modes 
 of thinking, all calculated to establish this opinion, 
 and indicating that instinctive, insurmountable wild- 
 ness of character which rendered, and yet renders, the 
 labour of winning this race into the fold of civiliza 
 tion an almost hopeless task, which even the ardour 
 of faith and the zeal of philanthropy are sometimes 
 tempted to abandon. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 121 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE KINGS OF THE WOODS. 
 
 THE preceding conversation was interrupted by a 
 slight tap at the door, which was straightway opened, 
 and, to the no small dismay of Sybrandt, the party of 
 Indians whose chief had fallen on his knife and died 
 at the fishing-house, headed by a new chief, silently 
 entered the room in which they were sitting. The 
 stranger received them with courtesy, and motioned 
 them to sit down. They obeyed, and remained with 
 out speaking, while they eyed Sybrandt with glances 
 of malignant meaning. 
 
 " My children come as friends ? " said the stranger. 
 
 " The red children still love their father/ replied the 
 chief; "but they come to tell him he has a snake in 
 his wigwam, which they must kill, and take out his 
 teeth." 
 
 The stranger started, and turning aside to Sybrandt, 
 said in an undertone, " How unthinking I have been! 
 I should not have detained you a moment here, after 
 you were able to travel : but fear not ; I am your se 
 curity that not a hair of your head shall be touched 
 while I carry mine on my shoulders." Then, turning 
 to the chief, he replied to him as follows : 
 
 " I understand thy meaning." 
 
 " Tis well," said the other. 
 
 " To-morrow I shall inquire into this affair." 
 
 " The serpent must go with us to-night. I have 
 
122 
 
 promised the wife and mother of Paskingoe that they 
 shall sing the song of joy to-morrow, at the rising of 
 the sun. The Indian does not lie." 
 
 " He is my friend ; he is under my protection." 
 
 " He cannot be the friend of our white father, and 
 the enemy of his red children." 
 
 " He killed Paskingoe in his own defence. Paskin 
 goe and his people were mad." 
 
 " Who made them so ? The young serpent and his 
 poison. He must go with us we want him." 
 
 " He shall not go. I cannot give him up." 
 
 " Then you are no longer our father," replied the 
 chief. " You have told us you were our friend, but it 
 is only the white man s talk. He is never the red 
 man s friend when the white man is a party." 
 
 " Stay till the morning," said the stranger, appar 
 ently greatly perplexed ; " stay till the morning, and 
 I promise that you shall go away satisfied." 
 
 "It is good," said the chief: "we will stay. But 
 will the young serpent stay, too ? " 
 
 " He will ; he will not run away like a deer." 
 
 " It is good," said the Indian ; and they lighted their 
 pipes and continued to smoke for some time in silence. 
 
 This colloquy was carried on in the Mohawk 
 tongue, but Sybrandt easily comprehended its object, 
 and, as may be supposed, his feelings were by no 
 means enviable. He remained perfectly passive, how 
 ever, justly conceiving that his interference would only 
 produce additional irritation in the minds of the In 
 dians. 
 
 At length they finished their pipes, and the chief 
 said to the stranger, " Can we remain in our father s 
 wigwam to-night?" 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 123 
 
 " Will the young white man be safe till to-mor 
 row?" 
 
 " He will, unless he tries to run away." 
 
 The stranger made no reply, but led the way to an 
 upper room, where the Indians laid themselves down 
 on the floor, and soon slumbered in that profound 
 quiet characteristic of their race. 
 
 An interesting discussion ensued between Sybrandt 
 and the stranger, in which the latter proposed to aid 
 his escape that night, by furnishing him with a guide 
 and a horse, and detaining the Indians in the room 
 where they were sleeping till he was far enough off 
 not to be overtaken. 
 
 "And what will be the consequence?" said Sy 
 brandt : " the savages will never forgive you. They 
 will become your enemies, and, if they do not murder 
 you, your wife, and children, you will lose your influ 
 ence over them from this time. No, sir: the great 
 plan you hope to accomplish shall not be ruined for 
 my sake. I am determined to remain and meet what 
 may come." 
 
 "Faith, you are a fine fellow something more 
 than a scholar, I see. Be it so. But, I here pledge 
 you my honour, no harm shall come to you but what 
 I will share. Let us to bed ; you are safe for to-night. 
 The Indians never violate hospitality." 
 
 It may be supposed Sybrandt did not sleep very 
 sweetly that night, though he apprehended no danger 
 to his slumbers. It was the morrow that he feared : 
 and, when the morrow came, he rose early, and de 
 scended into the room they had occupied the night 
 before. The stranger and the Indians were already 
 there, the former dressed in a superb suit of British 
 
124 
 
 uniform, with glittering epaulettes on either shoulder. 
 Round the room were displayed various articles, the 
 most engaging to the Indian fancy, and which they 
 eyed with looks of eager longing, interrupted only for 
 a moment by a glance of far different character at 
 Sybrandt as he entered. After a pause of some min 
 utes, the chief addressed the stranger, as follows : 
 
 " My father, your son had a dream, last night." 
 
 " Ay ? " said the stranger smiling ; " what was it, 
 my son ? " 
 
 " Your son," replied the chief, with great gravity, 
 " your son dreamed that the Great Spirit appeared to 
 him, and told him his good father had made him a 
 present of his fine suit, and given each of his people 
 six new blankets. Did the Great Spirit speak the 
 truth ? or will my father make him a liar ? " 
 
 The stranger paused a moment. " The Great 
 Spirit said true ; the suit and the blankets shall be 
 given. But, my son, I also had a dream last night. 
 The Great White Spirit came to my bedside, and said 
 in a whisper, Thy son, the chief of the Beaver tribe, 
 has forgiven the young trader by whose hand Paskin- 
 goe fell. He has given him to thee to do with him 
 what thou wilt. Did the Great White Spirit speak 
 true ? " 
 
 The chief looked at his companions, and they at 
 him, in doubt and perplexity. 
 
 " I had forgotten," resumed the stranger ; " the 
 Great White Spirit said also, The mother of Paskin- 
 goe has dried up her tears, and his wife ceased her 
 groans, ever since you gave them the beautiful beads 
 and the necklaces of pinchbeck. Did he say true, or 
 did the Great White Spirit lie ? " 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 125 
 
 Again the Indians exchanged significant glances, 
 and then uttered that guttural sound by which they 
 are accustomed to signify their approbation. 
 
 " My father," at length said the chief, " you dream 
 too hard for your son. But you have not made our 
 Great Spirit lie, neither will I make yours. The 
 young serpent is free ; but let him take care how he 
 comes among us again. Even my father shall not 
 dream him out of the fire." 
 
 The bargain was consummated ; the Indians de 
 parted with their finery, and Sybrandt was free. As 
 they disappeared in the forest, old Tjerck, who had 
 watched the result of the embassy with deep solici 
 tude, quavered the war-whoop of the Adirondacks in 
 triumph. An arrow from some unseen bow at the 
 instant whizzed past his ear, and put a stop to his 
 exultation. He, however, preserved the arrow all his 
 life afterward, making it the text of a most excellent 
 tale, which was as little like that we have just related 
 as the description of most landscapes is to the original. 
 
 The stranger explained to Sybrandt the preceding 
 colloquy, which had passed in the Mohawk language ; 
 and our hero insisted upon repaying him the price of 
 his liberty. But this he would by no means consent 
 to, saying the loss was not his, as the government 
 supplied the means of conciliating the Indians by 
 such presents as might be necessary. 
 
126 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE STRANGER UNDERTAKES THE REFORMATION OF OUR HERO. 
 
 SYBRANDT remained with the stranger, whose char 
 acter and mode of life he admired more and more 
 every day. Of the thousand trammels of civilized 
 life, which, like the invisible ropes and pegs of the 
 Lilliputians, keep the mighty Gulliver, man, bound 
 to the earth, or, at least, chained within a certain pre 
 scriptive routine, none but the least irritating were 
 found in this unconventional establishment. There 
 was every thing necessary to the gratification of a 
 wholesome appetite, sound sleep, and rural exercise. 
 There were none of those fretting and factitious wants 
 which, under the disguise of domestic comforts or em 
 bellishments, make human beings, that call themselves 
 enlightened, the slaves of that wealth they acquire by 
 the sacrifice of health, pleasure, and liberty. An air 
 of happy freedom reigned every where around ; and, 
 though every thing seemed to arrange itself into an 
 easy regularity, it was without effort, without noise, 
 and without the slightest appearance of coercion or 
 authority. The Indian wife always had a smile on 
 her face ; the children, freed from eternal nursing and 
 surveillance, gambolled about, the happiest of all God s 
 creatures, and spent those days which Nature has al 
 lotted as the period when her offspring shall be free 
 from chains, in all the luxury of playful hilarity. In 
 short, Sybrandt could not help observing, that, while 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 127 
 
 there appeared to be no fastidiousness, there was, at 
 the same time, a perfect decorum and an unstudied 
 decency. 
 
 Every day when the weather permitted, and, indeed, 
 often when a dandy sportsman would have shrunk 
 from the war of the elements, they pursued the manly, 
 exciting sport of hunting. The image of war, espe 
 cially in this empire of savages and beasts of prey 
 this course of life gradually awakened the energies 
 of Sybrandt s nature, that had been so long dozing 
 under the influence of the good Dominie Stettinius. 
 He acquired an active vigour of body, together with 
 a quickness of perception and keen attention to what 
 was passing before him, that by degrees encroached 
 deeply on his habit of indolent abstraction. He 
 caught from the stranger something of his fearless, / 
 independent carriage, lofty bearing, and impatience of 
 idleness or inaction. In shortj he gained a confidence 
 in himself, a self-possession and self-respect, such as 
 he had never felt before, and which freed him from 
 that awkward restraint which had hitherto been the 
 bane of his life. Nevertheless, the cure was not com-j 
 plete; the disease had been deep-seated, and occasional 
 relapses indicated pretty clearly that a return to old 
 scenes and modes of life would assuredly produce a 
 return of the old infirmity. 
 
 One stormy day, when the wind blew such a gale 
 as made it dangerous to pursue their daily sport, the 
 stranger found Sybrandt buried in what is known 
 among the simple ones as a brown study, but which 
 among the better sort is dignified with the more lofty 
 title of, abstraction. 
 
 " Westbrook," said he, with his usual brief frank- 
 
128 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 ness, " the time we have spent together, and the cir 
 cumstances under which we met, ought to have made 
 us friends by this time. It seems to me that you are 
 getting homesick. If so, say so. You can leave me 
 here as factor for your merchandise, and I pledge my 
 self to render you a true account of the proceeds, the 
 first good opportunity that occurs. How say you, am 
 I right?" 
 
 Sybrandt was actually thinking of home, but not 
 with that strange, inexplicable feeling which sickens 
 us of a paradise, and makes us turn with tears of 
 bitter longing to the barren sands or arid mountains 
 consecrated to memory under that cherished name. 
 He had but few, very few pleasurable recollections 
 stored there, and these were buried under a thousand 
 self-inflicted pangs of mortification. He replied to 
 the stranger, in a tone of bitter depression : 
 
 " I was, indeed, thinking of home ; but I have no 
 wish to go there, just now." 
 
 " Were you not happy ? " 
 
 " Not very." 
 
 Whose fault was that ? " 
 
 Sybrandt paused, and a few moments of rapid 
 retrospection convinced him how difficult it was to 
 answer this simple question. 
 
 " I don t know," at length he said ; " sometimes I 
 think it was my own, sometimes that of others." 
 
 " Westbrook," said the stranger, kindly, " did you 
 ever hear the story of the king who was playing at 
 tennis in the midst of his courtiers ? " 
 
 " I don t recollect," replied he, somewhat surprised. 
 
 " Well, I will tell it you. A dispute arose about 
 some point of the game the king was playing, on 
 
129 
 
 which a large stake depended. The king appealed 
 to his courtiers. They were silent. At length one of 
 his gray-headed ministers came into the tennis-court, 
 and, on hearing these doubts, * Sire, said he, you are 
 wrong. What !, said the king, do you pronounce 
 me in the wrong without knowing any thing of the 
 matter ? Pardon me, sire, said the other : if you 
 had been right, these gentlemen (turning to the cour 
 tiers) would riot have doubted. This story will apply 
 to all the actions of man. His self-love and his pas 
 sions are his courtiers, and whenever they are doubtful 
 or silent as to the question of who is to blame, you 
 may depend upon it he is." 
 
 Strange as it may appear, Sybrandt had never 
 viewed the matter in this light before, nor asked 
 himself the question of who was answerable for the 
 anguish of rnind which, in truth, he had wilfully in 
 flicted on himself. Dominie Stettinius was a good 
 and a learned man, but no philosopher. He had never 
 yet arrived at the conclusion, that learning and wis 
 dom, although actually man and wife, are a thorough 
 fashionable couple, and not always seen together. 
 
 " Come," said the stranger, after permitting him to 
 cogitate a reasonable time on his legend " Come, I 
 have a curiosity, no idle one, to know something more 
 of a young man who (I cannot but see) is capable of 
 acting, yet seems to be prone to think to no purpose. 
 I have long since told you my story, now tell me 
 yours. I see your mind is unhealthy. Let me know 
 the nature of the disease, and, my life on it, I cure 
 you." 
 
 " I believe I have nothing to tell. My narrative 
 would have no incident ; and without incident even 
 
130 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 an epic poem is dull," replied the youth, forcing a 
 melancholy smile to his aid. 
 
 " Never mind ; I entreat you to tell it. I think I 
 comprehend the case from the very acknowledgment 
 you have just made. Your history, as I suspect, 
 wants action." 
 
 Thus solicited, Sybrandt at length overcame his 
 shyness, and gave the detail of his causeless miseries. 
 As he went on, the stranger sometimes smiled, and 
 then again, shook his head. " Strange," said he, at 
 length, when the young man had concluded his singu 
 lar confession, " strange that a man should pass his 
 whole life in coining distresses, which have no being 
 except in his wayward imagination ! Young man, I 
 feel an interest in you. There is that about you 
 which I love and respect, let me find it where I will. 
 I have seen you twice placed in circumstances to try 
 the nerves of the stoutest, looking at danger without 
 winking an eye, and suffering pain without changing 
 a muscle. Such men I acknowledge for my fellow- 
 creatures my equals. And yet," added he, smiling, 
 after a momentary pause, " and yet you, who stood 
 before a band of drunken savages, with their toma 
 hawks and scalping-knives raised to take your life, 
 you, who did not even so much as change counte 
 nance during a discussion which was to decide 
 whether you were to be given up to be tortured at the 
 stake ; why, you cannot face a woman with whom 
 you have associated, with little intermission, from 
 childhood ! You tremble at the idea of entering the 
 parlour of an honest country gentleman, and that gen 
 tleman your uncle! You can front death in all its 
 forms of horror, but you cannot stand up before a 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 131 
 
 laugh, or even endure the mere abstract idea of a 
 laugh conjured up by your own diseased fancy ! " 
 
 The face and forehead of Sybrandt gradually kin 
 dled with alternate flushes of pride and shame, as the 
 stranger proceeded. There was certainly more honey 
 than gall in his speech, but our youth had long been 
 in the habit of turning from the sweet to banquet on 
 the bitter ; and the old horror of being derided re 
 curring in full force, caused his heart to swell and 
 his temples to moisten with feeling. He remained 
 tongue-tied, and, if his life had depended upon it, 
 could not have uttered one word. 
 
 " Did you ever," continued the stranger, in a tone 
 of banter " did you ever, in all your classic study, 
 come across a hero, or even a person of tolerable rep 
 utation, ashamed or afraid to encounter his equals, 
 setting aside his superiors ? The modesty we read of 
 there, as an object of imitation to youth and age, is 
 nothing more than that dignified confidence of merit 
 which never claims honours or rewards, but leaves the 
 world to mete them out according to its own sense of 
 obligation. The antique poets never thought of prais 
 ing, or of holding up for imitation, that boyish and 
 unmanly infirmity miscalled modesty, which bespeaks 
 an internal sense of weakness or degradation, which 
 makes men for ever ridiculous in their own eyes even 
 when not so in the eyes of others, and which is the 
 eternal, insurmountable obstacle to great actions. 
 There is a glorious effrontery about genius, which 
 causes it to undertake enterprises and accomplish 
 results, that, to bashful cowards, appear beyond the 
 reach of human power." 
 
 The word " coward " grated harshly on Sybrandt 
 
132 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 ear, and was appropriated at once to himself by that 
 mental process through which he was accustomed to 
 distil every thing into gall. The stranger noted the 
 workings of his mind, and went on : 
 
 " Nor is the folly of such timid shrinking girlishness 
 in man less contemptible than its cowardice. It is 
 right, therefore, that he should be laughed at for the 
 one, and despised for the other." 
 
 Sybrandt could stand it no longer. He started 
 from his seat, without the slightest awkwardness or 
 diffidence. 
 
 " Is this language intended for me, sir ? Because, if 
 so, it cancels all obligation on my part. If I am not 
 a man with women, you will find me so with men. 
 No man shall say, or insinuate, that I am a fool or a 
 coward. Did you or did you not apply these epithets 
 tome?" 
 
 " As much as falls to your share in your own hon 
 est consciousness ; no more : " replied the other, with a 
 most provoking indifference. Sybrandt surveyed him 
 leisurely from top to toe, with an air of unflinching 
 defiance. 
 
 " Farewell, sir, for the present. I am your guest, 
 and you are my benefactor. I would have been 
 grateful to the end of my life for your hospitality, and 
 the favour of your example ; but you have left me 
 nothing now but regrets that I ever accepted the one, 
 or benefited by the other. Farewell, sir. Judge of 
 the extent of my gratitude by my forgiveness of the 
 insult you have just passed upon me. So far the debt 
 is cancelled. Take care, I entreat you, how you run 
 up a new score." 
 
 He was proceeding to quit the house immediately, 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 133 
 
 when he was arrested by a hearty laugh from the 
 stranger. 
 
 " Bravo ! good ! I honour you, Mr. Westbrook. 
 You have spoken like a high-spirited, honourable 
 gentleman. From my soul I reverence a man of 
 pluck. It is not without reason that courage is held 
 the basis of all the virtues, since without it we may 
 be driven from our best resolves by apprehension of 
 the consequences. Without the courage to despise 
 threats, dangers, death, no man can depend on his 
 other virtues for a single moment. And yet it seems 
 to me that all education tends to pave the way for 
 making cowards of us. The nurse begins by fright 
 ening children with stories of ghosts and hobgoblins, 
 and making them afraid to stir in the dark ; and the 
 priest ends by frightening the man with horrible pic 
 tures of the agonies of death and the torments of 
 futurity. By heaven ! it is a matter of surprise to me 
 that all civilized men are not arrant poltroons ! But 
 why," added he, after a pause, " why not act and 
 speak at all times, and everywhere, with the same/ 
 manly, free spirit you have just displayed ? With 
 such a face, such a figure, such a heart and mind, 
 who is it that breathes or ever breathed the breath of 
 life, whether man or woman, you need be afraid or 
 ashamed to look full in the eye? Forgive me for 
 thus trying you, or rather for affording you an oppor 
 tunity of proving to yourself what you really are. No 
 one that has seen you as I have, in situations to test 
 the resolution of any man, would ever drearn of your 
 being less than consummately brave ; and no one that 
 has conversed with you as I have done, and heard 
 you, day after day, uttering the language of learning 
 
134 
 
 and good-sense, would suspect you of folly, except he 
 were himself a fool. On my soul, what I said was 
 but to aid you to know thyself the most useful 
 of all lessons to man. Hereafter, when you feel your 
 self shrinking from the encounter of a lady s eye, or 
 a puppy s glance of ridicule, recollect that you have 
 bearded the lion, called William Johnson, in his den, 
 and never fear the face of man or woman from hence 
 forward. Are we friends again?" 
 
 Sybrandt grasped the hand of Sir William in 
 silence, and the incidents of that day exercised an 
 influence over his future fortunes, greater, perhaps, 
 than all the precepts of the worthy Dominie Stettinius 
 or the illustrious examples of classic lore. The force 
 of habit being once mastered, his deportment became 
 every day more free and manly, his conversation more 
 frank and racy. In short, he seemed about to verify 
 the great truth, that, as by yielding to one temptation 
 we prepare the way for submission to another, so an 
 obstacle once surmounted is ever afterward more 
 easily overcome. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 OUR HERO TAKES HIS DEPARTURE. 
 
 THERE was an openness about Sir William that 
 invited confidence and inspired imitation. Add to 
 this, he contrived every day to draw Sybrandt out, to 
 make him aware of his own resources of intellect and 
 knowledge, and to animate his consciousness by giv 
 ing him the post of honour, that is to say, fatigue and 
 danger, in all their forest adventures. He saw that 
 his future happiness, as well as future fortunes, de 
 pended on his mind being forced out of its perverted 
 course by excitement, action, and applause. He tried 
 hard to make a man of him, for he judged that 
 Sybrandt was likely to repay the trouble of the lessons 
 he received. 
 
 The time now arrived when the meeting of the 
 Mohawk chiefs, to hold long talks and receive pres 
 ents, was to take place. The relation in which Sir 
 William stood to the Indians was peculiar to these 
 early settlements ; when the savages, being numerous 
 and warlike, were able to turn the scale between the 
 mighty French governors of Canada and the puissant 
 governors of New York. It was therefore necessary 
 to conciliate them in the first place by presents, and to 
 fortify that influence by working indirectly on their 
 secret consciousness of the superior power or superior 
 wisdom of the white people. Perhaps the gentleman 
 
136 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 of whom we are now speaking exercised, in his day, 
 over these wild and wayward sons of the forest a 
 greater personal influence than any other white man 
 that ever existed. It was not only as the representa 
 tive of the great king over the water that they re 
 spected and obeyed him : still more, his frankness, 
 integrity, and truth ; his courage, his vigour, and his 
 superiority in hunting, in war, in action and endu 
 rance, in every thing which constitutes the pride and 
 glory of savages ; made these people look up to him 
 with unqualified respect and admiration. He stood 
 alone among them, beyond the protection of the laws 
 of civilization and far from the reach of succour ; yet 
 he never suffered wrong or violence from these wild 
 warriors, who might enter his house at midnight, 
 without knocking, and without creating either fear or 
 suspicion. It has often occurred to me that such a 
 man, if any man or any means are adequate to the 
 purpose, might, by voluntarily settling among our 
 Indians, do much to wean them by degrees from their 
 present mode of life. I do not mean that he should 
 go there to receive the emoluments of office, or the 
 profits of trade, or, least of all, as a means of living 
 on the charitable contributions of others ; but that he 
 should identify himself with them become one of 
 their hunters, warriors, sages, and mingle by degrees 
 with their ancient modes of living those feelings and 
 habits of civilized life not incompatible with their 
 present situation. It might be a question, whether 
 the white man would become more of an Indian, or 
 the Indian more of a white man ; yet all history indi 
 cates to us, that the ancient world was retrieved from 
 barbarism by the agency of a few men of superior 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 137 
 
 genius, or who had enjoyed superior opportunities of 
 acquiring that knowledge and those habits necessary 
 to civilization. But, enough of this. 
 
 Sybrandt wondered to see the majestic grace and 
 self-possession, mingled with respectful courtesy, ex 
 hibited by these untutored savages. They presented 
 an example of manly independence in demeanour 
 and language, from which he derived a lesson for his 
 own future conduct. It was curious to see how near 
 they came to the standard of high-breeding, now es 
 tablished as the criterion of refinement. They neither 
 stared at objects to which they were unaccustomed, 
 nor did they for a moment betray either surprise, 
 curiosity, or inferiority. Careless in the glances they 
 cast around, easy in their carriage, unembarrassed 
 in their actions, there was about them an indifference 
 approaching almost to contempt, far more imposing 
 than that assumed to be the characteristic of superior 
 rank in the circles of the great. 
 
 Our hero learned some lessons in relation to man 
 ner and deportment from the Kings of the woods, 
 that he could hardly have acquired even from a first- 
 rate dancing-master. 
 
 It is not my purpose to record the acts and negotia 
 tions of Sir William and the council of chiefs. Still 
 less shall I attempt a sketch of their respective ora 
 tions, which, though they were not so lengthy as some 
 we have heard, were very much to the purpose. 
 
 The departure of the chiefs was speedily .followed 
 by that of Sybrandt, who accompanied a courier 
 despatched by Sir William to New York on the 
 breaking up of the great council. 
 
 " I am sorry to lose your society," said Sir William ; 
 
138 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 " I shall miss it much this winter. But action action 
 action, as the great orator said ; action is the life 
 of life the vivifying spirit of all nature. When I 
 find myself getting low I shall dash Into the woods, 
 and the sight of a deer shall console me for the loss 
 of my friend. Farewell. I hope we shall meet 
 again." 
 
 " Do not doubt it," said Sybrandt : " if you do not 
 come to me, I will one day, if I live, come to you. 
 But you will some time or other visit Albany, and 
 then you shall see " 
 
 " Catalina ? " said the other, archly. " Well, a fair 
 lady is worth a far visit, and I think I will come to 
 your wedding, if you will give me due notice; that 
 is to say, if you ever muster courage to look that 
 young lady in the face, who is, I dare say, ten times 
 more ugly I beg pardon more formidable, than 
 the one-eyed Paskingoe." 
 
 Sybrandt coloured, and felt some of his old feelings 
 crawling over him ; but he repressed them by a great 
 effort, and replied with assumed ease : 
 
 "I promise to ask you to my wedding, but my 
 funeral will probably come first, and I will bid you to 
 that." 
 
 " What ! a relapse ! I thought I had performed a 
 radical cure." Then, assuming an earnest solemnity, 
 he went on, " Westbrook, now that you are going 
 among old scenes and associations, guard against a 
 return of old feelings, weaknesses, and self-delusions. 
 When we are distant from each other, remember what 
 I now say ; and rely upon it, that, if Catalina is worth 
 the winning, you will win her if you dare. Deference 
 is what is due to every woman, and what every 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 189 
 
 woman likes ; but, if I know the sex, they are such 
 admirers of courage, that they can never be brought 
 to love a man that fears even them. Now God be 
 with you, Sybrandt, and so, farewell ! " 
 
140 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 SHOWING THAT OLD SCENES REVIVE OLD HABITS. 
 
 THEY parted, with mutual regret, and, as Sybrandt 
 proceeded on his journey, he tried to persuade himself 
 he was all, or might be all, Sir William wished him 
 to be. But certain misgivings and sinkings of the 
 soul, as he turned his thoughts towards home and 
 began to anticipate his reception from his friends, 
 warned him that he must look well to himself and 
 nerve his heart, or he might again sink into what 
 honest Bunyan calls the " slough of Despond," and 
 never rise again. 
 
 The little party, consisting of Sybrandt.old Tjerck 
 and the courier, proceeded to the banks of the Mo 
 hawk river, where they embarked in a canoe for Sche- 
 nectady, then the frontier town of all the western 
 settlements of this goodly State, of which it now 
 constitutes one of the antiquities. Not a house, not 
 a vestige of cultivated life, adorned the banks of the 
 ^stream. Yet all was beautiful: for what is more 
 ( lovely than the union of crystal waters, verdant mea- 
 \ dows, waving forests, and azure skies ? the combi- 
 \ nation and the master- work of the great Creator! 
 There were men alive, not many years ago, who still 
 rememberM what the whole country then was, and 
 whose eyes, though dimmed with age, yet saw what 
 it had since become. The land itself, and the owners 
 of the land, are changed ; every animate and inani- 
 
141 
 
 
 
 mate object every thing living, and every thing 
 dead all changed ! The red man is gone, and the 
 white man is in his place. Such are the mutations of 
 the world ! Shall we lament them ? No. It is the 
 will and the work of Him that made all, governs all, 
 disposes all; and it is all for the best, or chance is 
 Providence, and Providence is chance. 
 
 They arrived without accident at Schenectady, 
 which, though partly rebuilt, still exhibited deep and 
 melancholy traces of the deplorable massacre and 
 conflagration of 1689, when the French and Indians 
 surprised the inhabitants in their beds, and set fire to 
 their dwellings. 
 
 As Sybrandt approached home, he began to feel 
 sundry decided symptoms of his old disease. He 
 caught himself studying how he should act, and what 
 he should say to his cousin, instead of relying on the 
 circumstances of the moment to direct his conduct. 
 He worked himself up into a worry of doubt, embar 
 rassment, and apprehension ; he again suffered the 
 tortures of the sly laughing eye of Catalina, and 
 actually shuddered at the thought of how awkwardly 
 he should behave himself. In short, by the time they 
 came to Albany he had forgot the manly remonstran 
 ces of Sir William, and, instead of the joys of a 
 speedy reunion with his friends, felt only the fears of 
 their anticipated ridicule. 
 
 He arrived at Albany to dinner, and lingered some 
 time afterward in that strange irresolution which is 
 characteristic of his state of mind. At length old 
 Tjerck got out of all patience, and by his ill-humour 
 brought his young master to a decision. As they 
 approached the sober and venerable mansion-house, 
 
142 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 and saw at a distance its old gray walls, half-hid by 
 towering elms, with chimneys pointing to the skies, 
 Sybrandt actually trembled with conflicting emotions. 
 Had it been possible, he would have gone on to the 
 abode of his benefactor without stopping. But his 
 only road lay directly before the mansion-house, and 
 to pass it would be both absurd and disrespectful. 
 
 It was now just after sunset, and honest Ariel was 
 walking with his niece on the long piazza, which 
 looked towards the river. The scene was lovely and 
 quiet beyond description, and something had carried 
 the thoughts of Catalina to the absence of Sybrandt. 
 I think it happened to be the anniversary of the day 
 on which he had saved her life. 
 
 " I wonder," said she, at length, " what has become 
 of cousin Sybrandt? Is it not time that he should be 
 home ? and is it not strange no one has heard of him, 
 uncle?" 
 
 " Poor fellow ! " said the good-natured Ariel, " to be 
 sure it is. I don t wonder at not hearing from him, 
 for you know the mail don t travel in the wilderness. 
 But he ought to have been home, a long time ago. 
 I am sadly afraid something has happened to him. 
 He was such an awkward fellow : he never could do 
 any thing handy or clever. I never could teach him 
 to ring a pig s nose, for the life of me." 
 
 " Yet he was brave as a lion," said the other, mus 
 ing. " What day of the month is this, uncle ? " 
 
 The fifth of June." 
 
 " True, the very day." And again she mused. 
 
 " I should not be surprised," said Ariel, after a 
 pause, " if he was, either murdered, or a prisoner to 
 the Indians." 
 
143 
 
 " God forbid ! " exclaimed Catalina, lifting up her 
 hands, and clasping them together; " God forbid my 
 dear cousin Sybrandt should come to any harm ! " 
 
 " Aha ! " quoth Ariel, " what would the colonel say 
 if he heard this ? dear cousin Sybrandt ! 
 
 " He has no right to say any thing, and if he did I 
 would not care. But who is that coming yonder ? " 
 
 " Where ? " said little Ariel, standing on tiptoe. 
 
 " Yonder, on the Albany road two persons on 
 horseback." 
 
 " It must be the colonel and his man. He has been 
 to Albany to-day." 
 
 " No, it is not the colonel," said Catalina ; and she 
 looked still more intently on the travellers, whose 
 figures were rendered somewhat indistinct in the twi 
 light now gathering round. They approached the 
 gate which led into the shady avenue winding up to 
 the mansion, and one of them dismounted to open it. 
 
 " Who can it be ? " cried Catalina, while a gentle 
 heaving of her bosom and a little shortness of breath 
 marked a more than ordinary interest in the question. 
 
 In a few minutes, the persons on horseback emerged 
 from the wooded ravine which had originally deter 
 mined the course of the road, and, being now not far 
 off, came into clearer view. 
 
 " One of them seems to have a black face," observed 
 Ariel. 
 
 " If it should be old Tjerck ! " exclaimed the maiden, 
 eagerly. 
 
 " No, no," replied the other, despondingly ; " I fear 
 we shall never see either him or his young master 
 again;" and his good heart overflowed to his eyes. 
 By this time the horsemen had dismounted in the 
 dusky eventide. 
 
144 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 " Who can it be ? " thought Catalina, while a pre 
 sentiment fluttered about her heart. Sybrandt had 
 distinguished a female figure as he neared the house, 
 and a thrill of mingled pleasure and apprehension 
 came over him. He had ridden at such a lingering 
 pace, that old Tjerck muttered to himself, " Icod, if 
 young massa been hunting a bear, he make more 
 hurry dan to see Miss Catalina!" 
 
 Ariel received the young man with shouts of joy 
 and innumerable honest shakes of the hand ; but Cata 
 lina, remembering with what leisure and deliberation 
 he had approached to receive her welcome, repressed 
 the warm, generous impulses of her heart, and gave 
 him a reception so affectedly flippant and careless 
 that he felt it in his innermost soul. His pride and 
 his feelings were equally wounded, and the moment 
 of meeting between these two young people was the 
 prelude to a thousand after mistakes and misappre 
 hensions. Sybrandt, after receiving, with all his old 
 awkwardness and constraint, the kind congratula 
 tions of the rest of the family, made some miserable 
 mumbling attempts at an excuse for going to see his 
 benefactor, and departed with a disappointed heart, 
 and a mind wounded by the consciousness of weak 
 ness and inconsistency. 
 
 " You don t seem glad to get home again," said the 
 good Dennis, observing that Sybrandt was silent and 
 abstracted ; " but I suppose you are tired and sleepy. 
 Well, repose to-night, and to-morrow you shall tell 
 your story." 
 
 Sybrandt retired to bed, but not to that balmy rest 
 which a tired body and a quiet mind bring with them 
 evermore. He lay awake, thinking over the past, and 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 145 
 
 blaming his own wayward follies. He recalled to 
 mind the lessons and the example of Sir William, 
 and, a little before daylight, solemnly resolved that he 
 would cast off the chains of the foul fiend that seemed 
 waiting to seize on him at the moment of his return, 
 and be what he was everywhere but in the presence 
 of the woman he most wished to please. Before he 
 was up in the morning, he heard the cheerful voice 
 of Ariel calling upon him to come forth and eat his 
 breakfast, and tell his story, and go over to the mansion- 
 house, and see him hive the bees, which he pronounced 
 to be on the eve of emigrating, from the commotion 
 he observed among them the day before. 
 
 Accordingly, after breakfast, they rode over to the 
 mansion-house, where Sybrandt behaved himself bet 
 ter, and was received more to his liking, than the night 
 before ; for Catalina had schooled herself, and softened 
 herself too, by recollecting that she had treated him 
 thus coldly on the anniversary of the day he had saved 
 her from drowning. She inquired the cause of his 
 long absence, and even condescended to say she felt 
 great uneasiness lest he should have been murdered, 
 or taken captive by the hostile Indians and carried 
 into Canada. This sentiment, kindly and unaffectedly 
 uttered, warmed the heart of Sybrandt into a degree 
 of confidence, and he related the history of his trading 
 voyage with a graphic simplicity which gave it ad 
 ditional interest. There is nothing throws greater 
 dignity about a man, and more contributes to make 
 him an object of interest, than encountering and over 
 coming dangers and sufferings. The tenderness, the 
 love of glory, and the admiration for courage, which 
 are inherent in the female heart, are ever excited and 
 
 10 
 
146 
 
 called forth by the recital of perils or the narrative 
 
 of enterprising hardihood. Every woman is in this 
 
 respect a De^tteffltma, and Catalina was certainly a 
 
 woman, for she was now eighteen. The moment she 
 
 heard the history of the adventure of the fishing-house, 
 
 and the escape from the deputation of the Mohawk 
 
 chiefs, Sybrandt gained a new interest in her eyes, by 
 
 being thus associated with danger and death. Under 
 
 the influence of these feelings, she treated him with a 
 
 gentle and frank attention, which placed him on good 
 
 terms with himself, and gave an ease and freedom to 
 
 I his deportment that made Catalina one day observe, 
 
 I with a smile, that he had " certainly met with a dancing- 
 
 1 master in the woods." 
 
 " But what has become of your admirer, Colonel 
 Sydenham ? " asked Sybrandt, with no small trepida 
 tion, after finishing the detail of his adventures. 
 
 " O, he is gone," said she, slightly blushing. " His 
 regiment was ordered to Fort George, on the lake, not 
 long after you left us." 
 
 Sybrandt was pleased with the information, but did 
 not like the blush. His old enemies played about him 
 for a moment, but he whipped them away, and com 
 pelled himself to ask other questions, which by degrees 
 led to a relation of what had happened in his absence. 
 During this period, which was only a few months, a 
 great revolution had taken place, which I shall proceed 
 to record with all due fidelity. 
 
147 
 
 CHAPTER XVH. 
 
 AN IRRUPTION OF WANDERING ARABS, AND A SWARMING OF BEES. 
 
 I HAVE before noticed the inroads made upon the 
 virtuous simplicity of the rural populace among whom 
 is laid the scene of this history. Not content with a 
 variety of innovations, the officers at length commit 
 ted the enormity of introducing rjrivate_ theatricals. 
 They corrupted an honest Dutchman of the neigh 
 bourhood to hire them his barn, and fitted it up as a 
 theatre, in which they performed plays three times 
 a week, to the utter dismay of the good Dominie 
 Stettinius, who justly saw in this pestilent novelty the 
 seeds of mischief to his hitherto simple and innocent 
 flock. The young people were attracted by these out 
 landish shows; and late hours, family feuds, nightly 
 elopements, and sometimes something w T orse, were the 
 consequences. The good and pious dominie sighed 
 and fretted at these melancholy symptoms of approach 
 ing depravation of manners, and raised his voice from 
 the pulpit every Sunday against the theatre and its 
 consequences to his beloved people, over whom he had 
 watched for almost half a century. But the torrent 
 was too strong for the good man to put back or turn 
 from its course ; for such is the sad weakness of hu 
 man nature, that the best security for its innocence 
 is to keep it ignorant of the very existence of guilt. 
 Both manners and morals seem everywhere at the 
 
148 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 mercy of strangers and innovators of fashions rather 
 than opinions. 
 
 But, as if this were not enough, about the period 
 in which the_ seductions of the barn-theatre began to 
 infect the morals and habits of the young people, and 
 -, their consequences to appear in the indications I have 
 Hk /just recited, a famous new-light preacher made his 
 appearance among them, and roused the very echoes 
 with a strain of fervid and impassioned eloquence, 
 which made converts to a sect that seems destined 
 to extend itself to every climate and every country of 
 the habitable world. The sober, practical, and rational 
 doctrines and exhortations of the good dominie, though 
 j/ clothed in the language and embellished with the elo 
 quence and grace of a scholar, faded into nothing, 
 compared with the trumpet voice, violent gesture, and 
 furious declamation of the new apostle. His fold, 
 especially the precious young lambs that had grown 
 up under his eye, and whom he loved, began to stray 
 away ; his flock every Sunday showed the absence of 
 some one that was never absent before; and many 
 an empty seat gave token of the backsliding of some 
 inexperienced soul, lured away from the gentle lustre 
 of his pure lamp of truth by the flaring, fiery tail of 
 this erratic meteor. 
 
 And still another evil came to beset and confound 
 the good man. A member of the wandering tribe 
 of American Arabs came along, and seduced the 
 wayward affections of the daughter and heiress of 
 his ancient and nearest neighbour, honest Yof Van- 
 dervelden. After a while, the short and the long of 
 it was, that worthy Dutchman found himself under 
 the necessity of making a sacrifice of his dislike, to the 
 
149 
 
 honour of the family. He soon afterwards died, and 
 Ananias Gookin, as the wandering Arab was called, 
 took possession of the estate in right of his wife. Then 
 were th$ honest Dutchmen astonished, confounded, 
 and dismayed at the innovations and improvements 
 of Ananias. He altered his house, he altered his barn, 
 he altered his fences, and he altered every thing. When 
 he had done altering, and exhausted all his ingenuity, 
 he began to pull down, and, finally, one day abducted 
 the old Dutch weathercock, which was brought from 
 Holland, and had pointed due North upon the top of 
 the mansion of the Vanderveldens as far back as the 
 memory of man could reach. 
 
 The dominie groaned in spirit, and his firmness for 
 sook him, especially when, a day or two afterward, a 
 whole wagon-load of Squire Gookin s cousins came 
 over to pass a week with him. Before that week 
 expired, they had so confounded the good man with 
 guessing and asking questions, that one night, after 
 being penned in a corner of one of his own fields for 
 upwards of three hours by a couple of these terrible 
 guessers, who pointed out a hundred improvements 
 in his modest, comfortable glebe, and expressed an 
 intention of opening a school to teach all the children 
 English, he left his flock to be devoured by the wolves, 
 and never returned. He had heard of the arrival of a 
 Dutch ship at New York, whither he wended his way, 
 sorrowing, and whence he embarked for his native 
 Holland, to return no more. He left a letter with his 
 blessing and advice to Sybrandt, accompanied by a 
 fine folio copy of the works of Hugo Grotius, in token 
 of his affectionate remembrance. Honest soul! the 
 simplicity of religion and manners which he taught 
 
150 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 and exemplified during his whole life has, we doubt, 
 been un profitably exchanged for the cant of enthu 
 siasm in the one, and boasted refinements in the 
 other. 
 
 Catalina and Sybrandt became quite interested in 
 the discussion of some of these matters ; but were at 
 length interrupted by a confused and triumphant 
 medley of sounds and voices that startled them both. 
 They ran into the garden, whence the noise proceeded, 
 to see what was the matter, where they found Ariel 
 at the head of all the household troops, man, woman, 
 and child, black, white, and gray. He was furiously 
 pommeling a frying-pan, accompanied by all the 
 others, each of whom had contrived to reinforce his 
 music by some rare contrivance of his or her own. 
 Here stood aunt Nauntje, the cook, jingling a great 
 bunch of keys ; and there our old friend Tjerck, who 
 had been summoned by Ariel for the occasion, beat 
 ing a tin kettle with an old rusty ramrod, while the 
 little imps of the kitchen exaggerated the terrible con 
 cert by mustering a truly singular variety of incon 
 gruous discords. Over all was heard the eager voice 
 of Ariel, scolding, directing, restraining, and aggra 
 vating his familiars, as occasion seemed to require. 
 
 A little condensed black cloud appeared hovering 
 over their heads, and sailing about in different direc 
 tions, to which all their attention seemed to be de 
 voted. As it inclined to approach or recede, the 
 concert became weaker or louder, while keen anxiety 
 and expectation sat on the faces of all. More than 
 once Ariel denounced the imperial Nauntje as an " old 
 fool," for jingling her keys too loud ; and as often did 
 Nauntje retort, by declaring that " Massa Auriel " 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 151 
 
 would scare the creatures into the woods, by the vehe 
 mence with which he cudgelled his instrument. At 
 length the wayward community, after enjoying a while 
 their emancipation from the authority of the mother- 
 hive, all at once darted down and settled themselves 
 upon the broad-brimmed hat of honest Ariel; being 
 thereunto incited either by one of the female whims of 
 the queen-bee, or by a fine carnation pink stuck in the 
 hat-band. 
 
 Consternation and dismay followed this unaccount 
 able manoeuvre ; the music ceased, and Ariel stood still 
 for once in his life, with a whole nation quartered on 
 his beaver. It was impossible to resist an inclination 
 to laugh at the oddity of the adventure, but in truth 
 it was no laughing matter. Of all the populace of 
 this world, the bees are the most capricious. There 
 are some people they will permit to handle them with 
 impunity, while they will dart at others with inde 
 scribable fury the moment they approach them. 1 
 have seen a swarm of young bees taken up by hand- 
 fuls and put into the hive, without any symptoms of 
 hostility, by a person who either possessed some se 
 cret power, or to whom they were attracted by some 
 unaccountable affinity. Such a man was old Tjerck, 
 who now came cautiously forward with a new straw 
 hive, which he held directly over the head of Ariel, 
 desiring him at the same time to stand still for his 
 life. Poor Ariel was the last man in the world to 
 stand still, or to hold his tongue ; but on this occasion 
 he played the statue to a miracle. There never was 
 a finer figure than Ariel with the great beehive for a 
 hat, except a fine lady of the year 1831 in a fashion 
 able Parisian bonnet. While the bees were consult- 
 
152 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 ing in mysterious hummings about the expediency of 
 removing, and some of them were reconnoitring about 
 his ears, apparently with an intent to make a lodge 
 ment there, the little man stood fidgetting, first lifting 
 one leg then the other, hitching his shoulders, and 
 making divers other gestures indicative of dire impa 
 tience. At length he could stand it no longer, and 
 roared out 
 
 " You bloody old fool, do you think I am going to 
 stand still here all day ? " And thereupon the whole 
 swarm took flight and disappeared across the river, 
 whether alarmed at the noise, or from some sudden 
 freak of her majesty, the queen-bee. 
 
 "Dere dere he go; now massa Auriel got him," 
 exclaimed Tjerck, in the bitterness of his heart. " I 
 glad of it." 
 
 " And so am I," said Ariel ; " they may go to the 
 devil for me. I wouldn t have kept still three minutes 
 longer for as many beehives as could stand between 
 here and Jericho." 
 
 " No," grumbled Tjerck, in an undertone ; " massa 
 Auriel nebber tand till, sept when he sleeping in 
 church." 
 
 " Huh ! " said old Nauntje ; " massa Auriel don 
 know no more about bees dan a chipmonk." 
 
 Ariel swore there was not a man in the province 
 understood hiving bees better; but they all gave it 
 against him, and declared with one voice that the loss 
 of the young swarm was entirely owing to his not 
 standing still and holding his tongue. Upon this he 
 denounced them as " a pack of fools," and departed 
 in wrath, determined not to stay to dinner. In pass 
 ing the kitchen, however, his natural instinct prompted 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 153 
 
 him to look in, and the sight of a fine roasting pig, 
 with a skin as white as that of a fashionable belle 
 after a winter s campaign, disarmed him in a moment. 
 He hovered round the hallowed precincts of that hearth 
 until the return of queen Nauntje, to whom he gave 
 sundry directions about roasting the pig, concluding 
 with a solemn injunction to put plenty of summer 
 savoury in the stuffing. 
 
 Dinner passed off pleasantly, and Sybrandt was 
 delighted to find that he drank wine with Catalina 
 without its going down the wrong way; nay, that he 
 could actually cut up a pig when everybody was look 
 ing at him, without falling into an agony. In the 
 evening they strolled out upon the lawn, and stood on 
 the low green banks of the gliding river, watching the 
 passing vessels as they slipped along; listening to the 
 melodies of lowing herds, tinkling bells, loud rural 
 laughs, and all the combination of sweet peaceful 
 sounds, wafted across the water in the delicious quiet 
 of a long summer twilight. Sybrandt gradually be 
 came inspired by the scene and the occasion ; and, 
 warming as he spoke, delighted, instructed, and al 
 most astonished Catalina with the scintillations of his 
 newly-fired intellect. 
 
 While thus engaged, they saw one of the little 
 black boys come running towards them in great 
 haste, as if something was the matter at home. When 
 he came up, all he could say was to beg Sybrandt to 
 speed to the house, for Hans Pipe, the Indian, was 
 there, very drunk. Accordingly, Sybrandt hastened 
 away as fast as possible, leaving Catalina to return 
 at leisure. 
 
154 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER XVm. 
 
 A CIVILIZED SAVAGE. 
 
 HANS PIPE, as he was called by the country people 
 around, was an Indian of the Algonquin nation, 
 which had been almost exterminated by the Mohawks 
 in a war that happened many years before the period 
 at which we are now arrived. A large portion of 
 their warriors was cut off, and the remnant of the 
 nation obliged to emigrate into Canada, where they 
 were received and protected by the governor-general. 
 Hans, whose Indian name was Minikoue, or, I drink, 
 justified this appellation, for he even exceeded his 
 fellows in the Indian devotion to fire-water. He had 
 been taken prisoner by the Mohawks, and rescued 
 from torture by the influence of Colonel Vancour, who 
 endeavoured to teach him the habits and manners of 
 civilized life, and to attach him to his family by kind 
 ness and protection. But the usual melancholy con 
 sequences resulted from these kind and benevolent 
 intentions. The Indian, in proportion as he lost the 
 habits of the savage, acquired the vices of the civilized 
 man, intensified by the wild vigour of barbarism, and 
 mastering him the more readily from the early absence 
 of the habit of self-restraint. His natural cunning 
 was quickened by the acquirement of some of the 
 practices of the white man ; and his natural passions, 
 such as revenge, and the love of drinking, were 
 strengthened, the former by an infinite series of 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 155 
 
 mortifications, insults, perhaps injuries, received from 
 the white people among whom he sojourned, the latter 
 by facility in the means of gratification. 
 
 There are certain plants and fruits and flowers that 
 grow wild in the forest, which improve by being 
 transplanted to the garden and cultivated with care ; 
 there are others that shoot forth in the rank and worth 
 less luxuriance of weeds ; and there are others that 
 perish under the fostering hand of the most skilful 
 gardener. There are birds and quadrupeds that may 
 be tamed ; and others which retain deep traces of 
 their native wildness to the last. So does it seem to 
 be with the race of man. As the Indian orator once 
 said to President Monroe, " The white man is born 
 for the sunshine, the red man for the shade." The 
 white man, the black man, and the man of every 
 colour but the red, may be tamed, and improve by 
 taming. He alone seems, indeed, born for the woods ; 
 it is there only that the virtues he possesses can be 
 exercised to the benefit of himself and his tribe. 
 Place him in the sunshine, in the haunts of social and 
 civilized life, sad is the experience, and woful the 
 truth he becomes, ninety-nine times in a hundred, 
 the worst, the most mischievous of mongrels ; a com 
 pound of the ferocity of the savage, and the cunning, 
 deceit, and sensuality of the civilized scoundrel. 
 
 So it fell out with Hans Pipe. He became a 
 drunkard and a vagabond ; and was finally turned 
 away from Colonel Vancour s house, for having drawn 
 his knife upon one of the black children, who refused 
 to bring him another mug of cider. He was too lazy 
 to work, except at trifling jobs, for which he asked 
 nothing but liquor, and to which nothing else could 
 
156 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 incite him. His days were spent in drunkenness, and 
 his nights consumed in prowling about, thieving, or 
 in barns or outhouses, sleeping away the effects of his 
 daily debauch. Sometimes, but very rarely, he would 
 come to the mansion-house, when he was sober, and 
 beg for food or clothing, which was never refused him. 
 Perhaps a more worthless, dangerous and revengeful 
 being never crawled upon the earth, than was this 
 wretched outcast of the savage and civilized world. 
 His appearance was horrible and appalling. His long, 
 lank, raven hair hung about his shoulders, and almost 
 covered his low forehead ; his high cheek-bones, flat 
 tened nose, wide nostrils, and still wider mouth, to 
 gether with his miserable garments and dirty habits, 
 made the heart shudder to look upon him. But it 
 was his eye his malignant, bloodshot eye, circled 
 with the flaming ring of habitual intemperance, that 
 gave the most unequivocal indications of the fiend 
 which kept the citadel of his heart. It discoursed of 
 murder, public or hidden, at midnight or mid-day; 
 of a vengeance which a moment might light up, and 
 which years would not extinguish; of secret plots, 
 and open daring. 
 
 It happened that there was no man about the 
 house, or within call, when Hans Pipe came into the 
 kitchen, brutally intoxicated, and, as usual in that 
 condition, insolent and ungovernable. Colonel Van- 
 cour had ridden out after dinner, on a visit of busi 
 ness; the labourers had not yet returned from the 
 fields ; and Ariel had sallied forth to expatiate on the 
 delights of the roasted pig to his neighbour, Mynheer 
 Frelinghuysen. Sybrandt found the miserable, de 
 graded being brandishing his club, and clamoring for 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 157 
 
 more liquor. He was enraged into that sort of half- 
 wilful madness which drunkenness often produces, 
 and which is not so much the absence of reason, as 
 of a disposition to obey its dictates. The little black 
 boys were cowering in corners, afraid to run away, 
 and even the redoubtable Aunt Nauntje shrunk from 
 asserting her authority in her own peculiar dominion. 
 Sybrandt at first tried to soothe Captain Pipe, as 
 he called himself, into something like good-humour, 
 in hopes he would go away peaceably. But the cap 
 tain had lost all control of himself, or did not choose 
 to exert it, and answered our hero with brutal threats 
 against the whole household unless his wishes were 
 complied with. As the discussion went on he grew 
 so indecently abusive, that Madam Vancour and 
 Catalina, whose apprehensions had called them to the 
 spot, were glad to retire out of hearing. Sybrandt 
 became angry, and, at length, as the captain was pro 
 ceeding to force open a cupboard where he expected 
 to find liquor, seized him by the shoulders and jerked 
 him back with such force as to send him reeling 
 to the other extremity of the kitchen. The fury of 
 the madman redoubled. He seemed all at once to 
 become steady, and, advancing quickly towards Sy 
 brandt, who had no weapon in his hand, dealt him a 
 blow with his heavy walking-stick, which, had it not 
 failed of full effect, would have incapacitated him for 
 further effort at once. Fortunately, Sybrandt, though 
 taken by surprise, preserved his head by a quick 
 motion on one side; but the stroke fell on his left 
 shoulder, with a force that made him reel. The little 
 black boys cried out with all their might ; old Nauntje 
 sallied forth as fast as her limbs could carry her, to 
 
158 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 call for help, and Catalina, uttering a piercing shriek, 
 flew into the house for the colonel s sword, with 
 which she returned in a minute. 
 
 But the contest was over before she arrived. Cap 
 tain Pipe, seeing his antagonist partly disabled by the 
 blow he had given, and having become infuriated 
 with rage, was now a perfect savage, reckless of every 
 thing but vengeance, and panting for blood. He drew 
 the long knife which he always wore about him since 
 he was cast off by the colonel, and, flourishing it in 
 the air with a shrill demoniac shout, he made a mortal 
 lunge at the heart of our hero, whose only defence 
 was in his right arm and the keenness with which he 
 watched the motions of the enemy. The blow was 
 well aimed, but the activity and coolness of Sybrandt 
 enabled him to escape it by darting on one side. The 
 knife passed through his clothes, just under the left 
 arm, and at the instant the young man seized the 
 miscreant, holding him so tightly that he could not 
 readily extricate his weapon. A momentary yet des 
 perate struggle ensued, which ended in Sybrandt s 
 tripping up the heels of his adversary, and at the same 
 moment throwing him backwards with such force that 
 he fell upon one of the great andirons in the fireplace, 
 and lay senseless. The knife remained clenched in 
 his hand; but his eyes were closed, and the blood 
 flowed freely from the back of his head. 
 
 At this moment Catalina returned with the sword, 
 which she implored Sybrandt to accept. " The wretch 
 is not dead," said she ; " I see the motion of his breath 
 ing. He is only practising one of his savage arts upon 
 you. Dear Sybrandt, take the sword; and and 
 do not kill him, but stand on your defence." The 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 159 
 
 youth long remembered the, " dear Sybrandt," and so 
 did the Indian, who, as Catalina had shrewdly sus- 
 spected, was only playing possum, as the phrase is in 
 rare old Virginia ; that is, only making believe he was 
 insensible. He intended to watch his opportunity, the 
 moment he recovered a little, to jump up and accom 
 plish the destruction of his victim. But the gift of 
 the sword and the caution of Catalina defeated his 
 intention, and engendered in his heart a feeling of 
 determined vengeance, that afterward more than once 
 put the life of that young lady in imminent peril. 
 
 The adventure ended in the arrival of some of the 
 neighbours, whom the cries of Aunt Nauntje had 
 brought to her aid, and the depositing of Captain Pipe 
 in prison, where he expiated his violence by a confine 
 ment of several weeks. Here he had full leisure to 
 brood over his revenge, and lay his plans for its grati 
 fication. When the period of his imprisonment ex 
 pired, he adopted an entirely new mode of life. He 
 became perfectly temperate, docile, and industrious. 
 By degrees, he gained the pity and good-will of the 
 neighbourhood, got plenty of work, and saved every 
 penny of his wages. Colonel Vancour and his family 
 forgave, and encouraged him, not only by employment, 
 but by various little presents of money and clothes. 
 Among the rest, Catalina, although she always shud 
 dered at his approach, presented him with a Bible, 
 which he was constantly found poring over in his 
 hours of leisure ; for he had been taught to read while 
 under the patronage of Colonel Vancour. He con 
 stantly attended church, and became a communicant, 
 to the great delight of many pious, well-meaning peo 
 ple, who viewed him as a brand rescued from the fire. 
 
160 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 But old Tjerck, who had been a prisoner in his youth 
 among the Indians, shook his wise gray head, and 
 often said, " He no good Christian not he. I see 
 de debbil Indian in he eye yet. When Indian most 
 good, den he going to be most worst. I know him ; 
 he like de painter he most quiet when he jist going 
 to jump." But a white prophet has little honour in 
 his own country, much less a black one. 
 
161 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 ADDITIONAL TRAITS OF THE CIVILIZED SAVAGE. 
 
 WHEN Captain Pipe had saved money enough for 
 the purpose, he one day went to Albany, and bought 
 him a handsome musket, to shoot ducks with, as he said. 
 From this date his industry flagged not a little, and 
 he passed much of his time in the woods along the 
 river ; and sometimes nobody knew where he was 
 gone or what was his object. His object, his sole 
 object, was revenge. He hated Colonel Vancour, be 
 cause his protection had been forfeited by base ingrat 
 itude ; he hated Sybrandt, for having wounded and 
 conquered him ; and, above all, he hated Catalina, for 
 having robbed him of one of the sweetest moments of 
 revenge, by cautioning Sybrandt against his wiles, 
 and furnishing him with a weapon to defeat them. 
 Finally, he knew that he could consummate his re 
 venge on all three, by taking the life of Catalina. 
 This he intended to do on the first safe opportunity, 
 and then flee into Canada to the remnant of his tribe. 
 With this intent, the moment he had got the musket, 
 which (by enabling him to commit the crime unseen) 
 was safer than his knife, he set about his design with 
 the patience, and cunning, and perseverance, which 
 savages are known to exercise in the prosecution of 
 their vindictive schemes. Still, whatever may be the 
 intensity of the Indian s desire for vengeance, it is in 
 some measure a point of honour to achieve it at the 
 
 11 
 
162 
 
 least possible risk to himself. In all their undertakings, 
 the savages never wantonly or unnecessarily trifle with 
 their own safety. They die bravely, but they seldom 
 seek death. 
 
 Wherever Catalina went he kept her in his eye, 
 hovering and lounging at a distance, apparently taking 
 no notice of her, but intent on his game. In the day 
 time he was prowling about the deep glen we have 
 described as once a favourite resort of Sybrandt, in 
 hopes the young lady might chance to pay it a visit; 
 and at night he haunted the vicinity of the mansion- 
 house, like a hungry wolf thirsting for the blood of 
 his victim. The barking of the dogs often excited the 
 notice of the household, who believed it was occasioned 
 by the maraudings of wild beasts, which at that time 
 were no uncommon visitors. On one or two occasions 
 a watch was set ; but nothing was discovered, for the 
 enemy was too wary. 
 
 One dark, cloudy night, in the sultry month of 
 August, Catalina was sitting at her window, which 
 opened towards a copse of bushes and vines that had 
 been suffered to grow up in wild luxuriance, for the 
 purpose of sheltering a hundred little birds, that sung, 
 and built their nests, and reared their young in safety 
 among the tangled branches. It had rained early in 
 the evening, leaving a heavy sky, loaded with vapours, 
 and a sweltering heat in the air, that disposed both 
 mind and body to indolent relaxation. Swarms of 
 little fire-flies flitted gayly among the grass and foliage, 
 illuminating the obscurity; and, afar, the lazy light 
 nings flashed dimly at intervals upon the bosom of 
 the dun, motionless clouds. Finding that the light in 
 her room attracted a variety of the wandering insects 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 163 
 
 of the night, Catalina removed it into a little closet 
 adjoining, and, seating herself again at the window, 
 indulged a long glance at the past, a long and anxious 
 look into the future. 
 
 For some time now, the hearts of Sybrandt and 
 Catalina had been quietly and imperceptibly drawing 
 nearer to each other. As they were more together, 
 the former gradually overcame his shy awkwardness, 
 and that propensity to create mortifications to himself 
 which had been the curse of his early life. Having no 
 one to excite jealousy, and no fear of ridicule before 
 his eyes, his heart and his intellect gradually budded, 
 blossomed, and expanded into full maturity ; he gained 
 in polish from association with a sprightly, cultivated 
 woman ; and the good-humour and spirit which had 
 been repressed by his great talents for self-torment day 
 by day more fearlessly asserted themselves. He was 
 fast becoming what nature had intended, an object 
 of interest and consideration to all around him ; and 
 the star of woman was gradually leading him to the 
 haven of happiness as well as distinction. 
 
 " How much my cousin Sybrandt improves every 
 day," thought Catalina, as she sat at the open window, 
 and sighed to the silence of night and darkness. The 
 family, all but herself, had long retired to repose, when 
 suddenly a loud growling of the dogs awoke her from 
 her revery. At the same instant she thought she dis 
 tinguished something or somebody crouching about 
 the little copse-wood. In another instant she distinctly 
 heard something like the shutting of a penknife, and 
 saw a number of sparks of fire flash in the obscurity 
 whence the sound seemed to proceed. The young 
 lady started, and was reflecting for a moment upon 
 
164 
 
 what this could mean, when the same clicking and 
 the same flashing of sparks of fire occurred, followed 
 by a sort of hissing, and a blue flame rising apparently 
 out of the earth. The dogs now began to bark most 
 furiously, and Catalina, shutting her window, went to 
 bed. She pondered for a while on the odd things she 
 had witnessed ; but soon the vision of a tall, dark-eyed 
 
 / youth, with teeth whiter than her own fair bosom or 
 all Afric s ivory, flitted before her half-sleeping, half 
 waking fancy, and, closing her bright blue eye with 
 
 \ gentle pressure, prompted her innocent sleep with a 
 thousand glowing visions of future happiness. 
 
 Some little discussion took place at breakfast con 
 cerning the uproar among the dogs, and Catalina 
 mentioned what she had seen. The general opinion 
 was, that the noise was imaginary or accidental; the 
 sparks, nothing more than fire-flies; and the blue 
 flame, a will-o -the-wisp. In a little while the whole 
 was forgotten, nor would it ever have been recalled to 
 their recollection but for a circumstance which took 
 place not long afterward. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 165 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 A HIT AND A MISS. 
 
 CATALINA, a few days, or rather, as I believe, the 
 very next day after the appearance of the will-o -the- 
 wisp, went to Albany on a visit of a week to one of 
 her friends. It was customary at that time to make 
 little journeys as well as great ones on horseback, and 
 Catalina was fond of an exercise in which she ex 
 celled. In returning from this visit she was caught in 
 a heavy shower, which obliged her to change her 
 dress, and the rnaid had placed the wet garments on 
 an old-fashioned high-backed chair, just before her 
 chamber window, for the purpose of drying them. 
 
 " What, you here ! " cried Ariel, who had just en 
 tered through the garden, as usual, that he might 
 have a chance of reconnoitring the kitchen ; " you 
 here ! why, I ll swear I saw either you or your 
 ghost sitting at the window as I came in." 
 
 Catalina smiled, and explained the cause of his 
 mistake. 
 
 " By Jove ! " cried Ariel, " I must get your woman 
 to dress me up a scarecrow for my cornfield, for I 
 never saw any thing more natural. 
 
 About ten in the evening of that day, as the whole 
 family, together with Sybrandt and Ariel the latter, 
 as usual, fast asleep in his chair were sitting around 
 the supper-table, they were startled by the report of a 
 gun close to the rear of the house, as it seemed, fol- 
 
166 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 lowed by a loud barking of the dogs. Sybrandt and 
 Ariel ran out of the back door to see what was the 
 matter, and found the whole population of the kitchen 
 in great commotion, talking all together, each one 
 telling what was known or imagined. One declared 
 that the gun was fired from the little copse-wood, 
 another from behind the raspberry bushes, a third 
 from behind the garden-gate ; and a fourth was sure 
 he saw a man jump over the fence immediately after 
 the report of the gun. As usual in such cases, it was 
 impossible to come at the truth, and, as no harm 
 seemed to have been done, most people came to the 
 conclusion that none was intended. On returning to 
 her room, Catalina found the chair on which her wet 
 garments had been placed to dry, lying on the floor. 
 It was one of those tall, top-heavy affairs common of 
 old, with a framed seat and back which respectively 
 included stuffed portions, in this case covered with 
 damask. It seemed to have been violently over 
 turned, but her maid solemnly declared that she had 
 not been in the room since her mistress left it, and the 
 whole household declared the same. The mystery, 
 therefore, remained unexplained. 
 
 The next morning, however, when the maid came 
 to fold up the dress, as she had been told to do, she 
 was astonished to find it perforated with round holes 
 in two places. 
 
 " Lord, young missee! " exclaimed she, " what have 
 you done to your riding-habit ? It s all full of holes, I 
 declare ! " Catalina was puzzled to death. She tried 
 to recollect where and how it was possible they could 
 have come there, but could think of nothing to ac 
 count for them. In examining the old chair to see if 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 167 
 
 there was any thing there that might throw light on 
 the matter, Catalina at length observed a small hole 
 in the damask, about the size of those in her riding- 
 habit, into which she ran her taper finger, and, feeling 
 something hard, with some little difficulty drew forth 
 a leaden bullet. The maid shrieked, and the young 
 lady turned pale at the association of circumstances 
 that instantly presented themselves to her mind, ac 
 companied by the recollection of the strange appear 
 ances she had witnessed a few nights before. 
 
 The girl was eagerly running to exhibit the bullet 
 to Madam Vancour and the colonel, when Catalina 
 interposed, and directed her to remain where she was. 
 The young lady then sat down and reflected on the 
 course it was proper to pursue. She knew the unea 
 siness, nay, misery, she would inflict, (on her mother 
 especially), by communicating circumstances which 
 seemed sufficiently to indicate that she had some 
 secret enemy who sought her life ; and she doubted 
 whether any measures that might be adopted to 
 secure the assassin or defend her in future from his 
 designs would be effectual. At length Sybrandt 
 occurred to her, as one who might most secretly in 
 vestigate this affair, and afford her in the mean time 
 protection as well as advice. Accordingly she re 
 solved to communicate the whole affair to him on the 
 earliest occasion. She then enjoined her attendant to 
 silence, under penalty of her highest displeasure. The 
 little maid was sadly mortified at losing the oppor 
 tunity of telling such a wonderful story, but, being 
 greatly attached to her young mistress, to whom she 
 had been given at the moment of her birth, she reluc 
 tantly obeyed. 
 
168 
 
 Sybrandt came over soon after, to inquire if any 
 new discoveries had been made, for he could not help 
 cherishing certain vague suspicions that there must 
 be something more than chance or fancy in the dis 
 charge of the gun, and the phenomena heretofore de 
 scribed. Catalina invited him to walk in the garden, 
 and there disclosed all the particulars recorded in the 
 preceding pages, up to the discovery of the bullet, 
 which she exhibited. The young man shuddered, 
 while at the same time his eye flashed fire. He could 
 scarcely restrain himself from catching Catalina in his 
 arms, and pressing her to his bosom, as mothers em 
 brace their babes when they apprehend the approach 
 of danger. He gazed on her for some moments with 
 intense interest, and then exclaimed : 
 
 " Dear Catalina ! I will protect and defend you with 
 my life, and all my life ! " 
 
 " I know you will, Sybrandt," replied she, with a full 
 look of more than gratitude. " I know you will, for 
 you have risked it once already for me. But perhaps, 
 after all, it may be accident, the firing of this gun." 
 
 Sybrandt shook his head. " I would not needlessly 
 alarm you ; but it is plain to me that there was mur 
 der meant. The appearances you saw that night in 
 the copse- wood are now clearly explained to my mind. 
 The click you heard and described as resembling the 
 opening or shutting of a penknife was, I have no doubt, 
 the cocking of a gun ; the sparks were those of the 
 flint ; and the flame, the flashing of the pan. I recol 
 lect it was a damp, wet evening, which accounts for 
 the gun missing fire." 
 
 The explanation was clear ; Catalina felt a faintness 
 come over her, and leaned heavily on his arm. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 169 
 
 " Go on," said she, gasping for breath : " go on ; let 
 me know the worst I am to expect." 
 
 " I will ; for it is necessary to your future safety. 
 No doubt the villain, whoever he is, mistook the clothes 
 on the back of the chair, which you say was standing 
 directly before the window, for you, and and " 
 Here the increasing weight of Catalina arrested his 
 attention, and, looking in her face, he saw her pale as 
 death. In a moment after, her strength forsook her, 
 and she sank in his arms, overpowered by the sense 
 of past as well as future probable dangers. Sybrandt 
 placed her softly upon a little grass terrace, hid from 
 view by a wilderness of flowering shrubs, and, sup 
 porting her head on his bosom, in wild perturbation 
 awaited her recovery. In a little while she opened her 
 eyes, blushed, and raised herself from his arms. 
 
 At length she said, with a languid smile, " You must 
 forgive me, I am but a woman." 
 
 "^And I am but a man," said Sybrandt warmly; 
 " yet here I swear never to rest till I have dragged 
 this hidden wretch to light and punishment. And if 
 you, my dear cousin, will allow me, I here solemnly 
 devote myself to your safety from this time forward. 
 When I am not by your side, I will be hovering around 
 you unseen, watching every being that approaches 
 you, or searching every corner where an enemy might 
 conceal himself. Do you do you value me suffi 
 ciently to trust me with the precious charge ? " 
 
 The soft and swelling bosom of Catalina heaved, 
 as she looked in his face with glistening eyes and an 
 swered, 
 
 " I do value you sufficiently, and I will trust my 
 cousin. Whom else can I trust ? I dare not tell the 
 
170 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 story of this bullet to my father and mother ; for it 
 would plant thorns in their pillow, and destroy their 
 happiness. I must trust you," added she ; " and if 
 I were not obliged to do it, still I believe I should trust 
 you." 
 
 " Dear Catalina ! But you know me that is 
 enough." 
 
 " Yes, we know each other," replied she, with a 
 look of unbounded reliance and affection. Sybrandt 
 did not take advantage of this moment to tell a tale 
 of love. There was something too awful and affect 
 ing in the circumstances that gave rise to this inter 
 view. The idea of the death that seemed hovering 
 over her; of the secret midnight murderer who was 
 besetting her steps wherever she went, and watching 
 her sleeping and waking, communicated to her an 
 air of sanctity, and gave to her glowing beauty, her 
 confiding words and loving looks, a holy innocence, 
 which, while it melted the soul in unutterable tender 
 ness, repressed every selfish wish and every sensual 
 desire. It was settled, ere they separated, that Cata 
 lina should refrain from going out in future, alone, or 
 in the dusk of the evening, and should never show 
 herself at the window, after dark, until Sybrandt had 
 taken every measure to investigate this mysterious 
 affair, and detect the would-be assassin. To this ob 
 ject he was now about to devote his exclusive atten 
 tion, animated by his love, as well as by the hope that, 
 guided as he should be by a latent suspicion which 
 had risen up in his mind, he might succeed in the 
 attempt. 
 
 " What the devil have you two been doing all this 
 while in the garden?" cried Ariel, who had arrived 
 
171 
 
 during their absence. And he looked very knowing 
 as he asked the question. 
 
 " Picking flowers," answered Catalina, blushing, 
 and then turning pale. 
 
 " Picking a quarrel, I should rather suppose, by 
 your looks " ; and then he began to banter them a 
 little : but, seeing the pain it gave them both, he was 
 too good-natured to pursue the amusement. Honest 
 Ariel never uttered a maxim in his life, but he acted 
 upon a very good one, to wit, never to carry jesting 
 to the verge of malignity, as many people do. When 
 he saw he gave pain, he desisted in a moment. Per 
 haps he might have been a little influenced in his 
 self-denial on this occasion by a sly retort of Catalina, 
 who, in reply to an assertion that he overheard their 
 whisperings, observed, with some of her wonted arch 
 significance, that " it was only the humming of the 
 bees." 
 
 Sybrandt soon after took his leave, declining an in 
 vitation from Ariel to go and see the great ox, which 
 the gourmand visited every day, and on whose fat 
 sirloin he banqueted in delicious foretaste. The 
 young man pursued his way homeward in deep medi 
 tation, of a mingled tone of pleasure and pain. The 
 delight of having, as he could not but fancy, gained 
 an interest in the heart of Catalina thrilled through 
 his frame. Yet the cup was dashed with black and 
 bitter ingredients. The treasure which he longed one 
 day to make his own was in danger of being torn 
 from him by some unseen and unknown hand, against 
 which it behooved him to guard with sleepless vigil 
 ance. The dark idea of death mingled with bright 
 visions of future felicity. His anticipations seemed 
 
Ill 
 
 172 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 like flowers blooming on the verge of the grave, and 
 the grim spectre of mortality stalked hand in hand 
 with the smiling cherubs, Love and Hope. Out of 
 these conflicting feelings arose, however, a fixed deter 
 mination to devote his time, his talents, and his life, 
 if necessary, to the great purpose which now took 
 possession of his whole soul. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 173 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 A TRIAL OF SKILL. 
 
 IN casting about among the population of the 
 vicinage, there was but one person on whom Sybrandt 
 could fasten the slightest suspicion, and that was 
 Captain Pipe. He knew the persevering spirit of 
 revenge which animates the sons of the forest, and 
 the patience with which they watch and wait the 
 moment of attaining their object. He remembered 
 the bitter resentment he had expressed at being dis 
 carded by Colonel Vancour, and recalled to mind the 
 look of malignity he had cast on Catalina, as they 
 were carrying him to prison on the day of the quarrel 
 at the mansion-house. He knew that an Indian never 
 forgives. His sudden change after his release from 
 durance his apparent piety, industry, and sobriety, 
 and the circumstance of the purchase of the gun 
 all arose in succession to the recollection of Sybrandt, 
 and seemed to indicate some plan in the mind of the 
 Indian. There was no one else he could suspect ; for 
 the character of the neighbourhood was that of sober, 
 quiet simplicity, and no strangers had been known to 
 visit it for a long time past. The result of these 
 reflections was a determination to watch the motions 
 of Captain Pipe from that time forward, and, if pos 
 sible, to do so without exciting his mistrust. 
 
 His first step was to tempt him to remain under his 
 observation, by offering him high wages in the employ 
 
174 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 of Mr. Dennis Vancour. Accordingly, he sought him 
 out for the purpose, and the Indian acceded to his 
 proposal without any apparent suspicion of his real 
 object. He came the next day ; and that day, and 
 every other day, Sybrandt, under various pretences, 
 took care to have him perpetually under his eye, 
 avoiding every appearance of design. The Indian 
 had his eye on him, also, and though he discovered no 
 indications of being aware of this perpetual super 
 vision, his own conscious heart whispered a criminal 
 ity that redoubled his watchful self-command. 
 
 " What have you done with your musket, captain ? " 
 said Sybrandt, one day, suddenly ; and he fancied he 
 could detect a slight start, as the Indian caught the 
 question. It was, however, so almost imperceptible 
 that it might have been mere fancy. 
 
 " I left it at home," said he. 
 
 " Why so ? There is plenty of game about this 
 house, as well as at Colonel Vancour s." 
 
 " I never heard there was much game about the 
 colonel s." 
 
 " O, plenty ! Fine shooting, especially in the night. 
 The birds sometimes sit in the windows to be 
 shot at." 
 
 The Indian, who was at that moment stooping, 
 turned an upward glance of scorn at Sybrandt. 
 
 " I am no fool the Indian s game does not sit in 
 the windows." 
 
 " Why not ? Suppose you were to see a beautiful 
 deer, standing looking out of a window at night, 
 would you not be tempted to shoot it?" 
 
 " Maybe I might," said the captain, gruffly. 
 
 " But if your gun were to miss fire on account of 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 175 
 
 the damp, or the deer was to turn out only a sham, 
 what would you do then, captain ? " said Sybrandt, 
 affect ing to be in jest. 
 
 " I d look sharper another time." 
 
 Sybrandt fancied he was probing the Indian with 
 out his perceiving it, but he understood the allegory 
 perfectly, and only wrapped himself up the more 
 closely in the impenetrable folds of savage hypocrisy. 
 He never went out of sight of the house during the 
 day, and, though Sybrandt took every means for the 
 purpose, he could never ascertain that he was absent 
 at night. On one occasion he rode out, taking care 
 to say, in the hearing of the captain, that he was 
 going to Albany, and should not return till the mor 
 row. He then actually went to the city, from whence 
 he returned after midnight, leaving his horse in a 
 field at a considerable distance. He found that the 
 captain had not left the house, nor did he leave it that 
 night. 
 
 By degrees he appeared to relax his watchfulness, 
 for the purpose of throwing the captain off his guard. 
 He left him frequently, but it was only to visit Cata- 
 lina, who always received him with a gentle melan 
 choly welcome, that moved him almost to tears. " You 
 come so seldom now; but I know the reason, and 
 thank you," would she say. It was evident that she 
 laboured under an unconquerable depression. There 
 was no longer any elasticity of spirits, and the roses 
 of her cheek gradually changed to lilies. Sybrandt s 
 heart would swell with sorrowful tenderness when he 
 saw how she suffered, under the consciousness that 
 the arrow of death was pointed at her bosom, she 
 knew not when or by whom, and that every moment 
 

 .- 
 
 176 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 might be her last. An inexpressible tenderness, a 
 solemn sympathy, a union of feelings partaking of 
 time and eternity, grew up between them ; and their 
 affections became almost as pure as those of the 
 fabled spirits with which imagination has peopled the 
 region of the skies. 
 
 But the caution of the savage never slept for a 
 moment ; and, so far as any one knew, he never 
 availed himself of the absence of Sybrandt to neglect 
 his employment, and leave the house, except for a few 
 moments at a time. Still, suspicion lingered in the 
 mind of Sybrandt, and when, finally, the captain had 
 finished his work, and there was no longer any pretext 
 for retaining him, he relaxed not his vigilance, but 
 , continued to keep a wary eye upon him wherever he 
 jwent. There are no people in the world, perhaps, so 
 cunning and distrustful, so expert in surprising and 
 so difficult to be surprised, as the sons of the forest. 
 Continually at war, either with their neighbours or 
 with the wild beasts, they are for ever under the 
 necessity of perpetual circumspection. A thousand 
 appearances and indications that escape the notice of 
 civilized men, convey lessons of caution and experi 
 ence to the savage : like the tracks in the forest, which 
 the white man cannot see, they are visible to the 
 Indian, and serve either as guides to pursue or warn 
 ings to avoid an enemy. Thus, notwithstanding 
 all the care Sybrandt took to disguise his system of 
 espionage, the instinct of Captain Pipe very soon 
 taught him that he was suspected and watched. 
 
 One day, not many days after the period of quit 
 ting his employment at Mr. Dennis Vancour s, he 
 came over to the mansion-house, and announced his 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 177 
 
 intention of quitting that part of the country, and 
 spending the rest of his days among the remnant of 
 his countrymen in Canada. " You prevented my 
 being burned by the Mohawks," said he to Colonel 
 Vancour ; " you saved my life, but you turned me out 
 of doors. The Indian never forgets." The colonel 
 gave him a variety of little presents that would be 
 useful among his countrymen, telling him, at the same 
 time, to remember what he owed to the white men, 
 and to be their friend whenever it was in his power. 
 
 " The Indian never forgets nor forgives," replied 
 the captain, pronouncing the latter part of the sen 
 tence to himself, and grating his teeth. Colonel Van 
 cour was not deceived. He said in his heart, " That 
 fellow is the enemy of me and mine ; thank Heaven, 
 he is going away for ever." 
 
 12 
 
178 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 OUR HERO LOSES HIS CHARACTER FOR MORALS AND GALLANTRY. 
 
 NEXT day, the miserable cabin which the captain 
 had built for himself was found shut up and deserted. 
 The Indian had been seen at daylight, with his gun 
 and his pack, wending his course Northward, on his 
 way to Canada, as was supposed. His departure 
 freed Catalina from the load of cares, fears, and anx 
 ieties which had oppressed her for months past. This 
 dejection, and the total cessation of her rural rides 
 and rambles, had affected the health of that young 
 lady, and attracted the notice of her parents. They 
 frequently questioned her on the cause, but she either 
 denied the effect, or passed the subject off with eva 
 sions, which only excited increased anxiety as well as 
 curiosity. They had, in vain, urged her to resume 
 her usual amusements and exercises : but now, freed 
 in a great measure from her apprehensions of Captain 
 Pipe, she soon gathered courage and spirits to smile 
 and be happy again. 
 
 It was not so with Sybrandt. He could not con 
 quer his suspicions that the captain was lurking 
 somewhere in the woods, not far off. He had traced 
 him about three miles on the road towards the North, 
 and there lost sight of him ; nor could he find, by the 
 most minute inquiries, that he had been seen on any 
 other. But he thought it would be cruel to mention 
 these misgivings to Catalina. He contented hiroseM 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 179 
 
 with being with her wherever she went, and mount 
 ing guard about the mansion-house the better part of 
 every night. Honest Dennis took him to task, more 
 than once, for the nightly dissipations in which it was 
 suspected he now indulged, and Sybrandt had the 
 painful mortification of seeing that he was daily of 
 fending his benefactor almost past forgiveness. The 
 news of his having become such a rake soon spread 
 abroad ; for what secret was ever kept in a country 
 neighbourhood? It reached the mansion-house, with 
 divers handsome additions, such as that of gambling, 
 drinking, and seduction. The colonel and Madam 
 Vancour began to behave coolly towards him : Cata- 
 lina reproached him only with her looks and increas 
 ing paleness. She withdrew herself gradually from 
 his society, and seldom came into the room when he 
 happened to be on a visit. 
 
 Sybrandt was half-distracted with perplexing an 
 guish. He asked of himself whether he should poison 
 the happiness of Catalina and her parents, by telling 
 them the cause of his nocturnal rambles ; or leave the 
 poor girl in ignorance, and unprotected; or sacrifice 
 himself, his character, and his happiness. " It is better 
 that she should believe me a sot and a profligate," 
 thought he, " than wither and fade, as she did before, 
 in the constant apprehension of being murdered. If 
 there must be a victim, it shall be myself." He con 
 tinued his course of watchfulness, and by degrees the 
 supposed irregularities of his conduct banished him 
 from the society of her he most loved on earth. Cata 
 lina refused any longer to see him, and now seldom 
 went abroad, except once in a great while to Albany 
 with her mother. 
 
180 
 
 Observing the paleness and growing melancholy of 
 their daughter, the colonel and Madam Vancour, after 
 consulting together, and comparing various circum 
 stances, finally agreed in the supposition that Catalina 
 was attached to her cousin, whose ill-conduct had oc 
 casioned her unhappiness. In that case each agreed 
 it was best to separate the young people for some 
 time ; and accordingly it was resolved to accept an 
 invitation for Catalina, from a near relative, to come 
 and spend the winter with her in New York. " The 
 sooner the better," said the colonel : " it is now late 
 in autumn, and I will take her to town immediately." 
 
 The daughter offered no objections, and the prep 
 arations were soon made. It was not customary to 
 travel with so many trunks and bandboxes as young 
 ladies must carry along in these days. The next time 
 Sybrandt called at the mansion-house with a message 
 from his benefactor, Catalina said to herself she would 
 see him once, only once, before she went away for so 
 many months. " I owe him for a life which he has 
 rendered of little worth ; but I will see him once 
 more," said she to herself. 
 
 She went down stairs, where she found Sybrandt 
 alone. The old people had gone out to pay a morn 
 ing visit. Sybrandt started at the alteration a few 
 weeks had produced in the poor girl, and she shrunk 
 at his hollow cheeks and sunken eyes. " It is remorse 
 and dissipation," thought she. Rallying the pride and 
 dignity of virtuous woman, she, however, addressed 
 him with an unreserved kindness that affected him 
 deeply. 
 
 " I am going," said she, " to spend the winter in 
 New York. We set out the day after to-morrow." 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 181 
 
 Thank God ! thank God ! " cried Sybrandt, with 
 clasped hands. 
 
 Indignation swelled the heart of the young lady at 
 this ungallant, nay, insulting exclamation. A sudden 
 paleness was instantly succeeded by a flush of rosy 
 red, and a flash of her bright blue eye. This too 
 passed away, and a paleness still more deadly suc 
 ceeded. 
 
 At length she rallied. " So, you are glad I am go 
 ing," she said, with a languid smile. 
 
 " O, yes, rejoiced beyond measure." 
 
 " Indeed ! " said she, and tears gathered in her eyes. 
 "Indeed you you but I cannot help admiring 
 your frankness. I see you are no hypocrite, now at 
 least." 
 
 Sybrandt all at once recollected himself, and col 
 oured at the sudden perception of the apparent rude 
 ness of his conduct. 
 
 " Forgive me, dear Catalina. I did not know what 
 I was saying, or rather I was not conscious at the 
 moment of the strange appearance my words would 
 have. Forgive me." 
 
 "I do; but,"- added she, with a mingling of 
 wounded pride and affection " But, may I ask, cousin 
 Sybrandt, if you really meant what you said ? " 
 
 "I did; but"- 
 
 " Enough. Good-by. Since you are so happy, it 
 is needless for me to wish your happiness. But I do 
 wish it with all my soul. It will be long before we 
 meet again. Good-by." 
 
 " Stay, dear cousin, dear Catalina." 
 
 " Dear Catalina! ", repeated she, with bitter scorn. 
 " Do we thank God when we part with those who 
 
182 
 
 are dear to us ? Spare your hypocrisy, sir, and take 
 my last farewell." 
 
 " Catalina, before you go, I will account for my 
 conduct. Permit me to see you to-morrow ; then all 
 shall be explained." 
 
 " All is explained, already. I am now satisfied, 
 quite satisfied ; " and she moved slowly towards the 
 door. 
 
 " You will one day be sorry for this. O, hear me, 
 I beseech you, now, since I am not to see you again;" 
 and he sought to intercept her. 
 
 " Let me pass, sir," cried she, passionately. " I say 
 again, I want no explanations. Your words and ac 
 tions have both been sufficiently expressive of late. 
 Let me pass." 
 
 He obeyed her, bowing lowly and sorrowfully. At 
 the door she turned full upon him, and, clasping her 
 hands, exclaimed with fervour, " Thank God, I am 
 going!" 
 
183 
 
 CHAPTER XXm. 
 
 THE PIPE IS BROKEN AT LAST. 
 
 SYBRANDT went away in bitterness of heart, but 
 with a determination, if possible, to see Catalina once 
 again before she departed, and give her a full expla 
 nation of his late conduct. In the mean time he did 
 not, for a moment, relax in his vigilance. The night 
 turned out dark and blustering ; the frost-bitten leaves 
 fell thick before the damp, piercing, north-east wind, 
 whose shrill meanings mingled with the dashing of 
 the waves along the shores of the river. The young 
 man was on his watch, as usual when the night set 
 in, and, as usual, nothing occurred to excite suspicion, 
 until about ten o clock, when he saw the window of 
 Catalina s room raised, and the little black waiting- 
 maid standing with a light before it, calling to some 
 one in the kitchen. Immediately after, he fancied he 
 heard a more than usual stir in the copse-wood, close 
 by where he stood, and that he could distinguish in 
 the pauses of the wind the suppressed breathing of 
 some one near. The darkness was now intense, and 
 no object could be distinctly seen save those imme 
 diately in the range of the light from the window. 
 A shadow passing to and fro within the room showed 
 that some one beside the dusky attendant was there, 
 and his heart beat thick with agony while it whis 
 pered it must be Catalina. The low breathing still 
 continued, and became quicker and quicker. Shall I 
 
184 
 
 call out to Catalina to beware ? thought he. No : that 
 would only bring her to the window to see what was 
 the matter. Shall I go and alarm the house ? No : in 
 the interim her life may be taken. Quick as thought 
 these ideas crossed his mind, and quick as thought he 
 darted into the thicket, as he beheld Catalina approach 
 the window to speak to some one below, and heard a 
 clicking sound like the cocking of a gun. As he did 
 so he distinguished a single low exclamation of sur 
 prise, and, immediately, some one seemed making his 
 way violently through the branches. Sybrandt fol 
 lowed the sound as fast as possible, and once or twice 
 fancied he saw something moving a little way before 
 him. But, whatever it was, it evaded all his exertions, 
 and, favoured by the darkness of the night, escaped 
 his pursuit. On his return, he found the shutters of 
 Catalina s room closed, and, believing her safe for the 
 night, determined not to alarm the family. 
 
 The next day, Catalina, unconscious of the danger 
 that hovered around her, took a fancy to stroll to the 
 little rocky dell we have heretofore described as a 
 favourite resort of Sybrandt, where he was once accus 
 tomed to retire to conjure up spectres of misery and 
 mortification. In happier times they had been used 
 to visit it together, and it was associated in the mind 
 of Catalina with many hours of innocent enjoyment. 
 She wished to see it once more before she left the 
 country ; led by that attractive sympathy which for 
 ever draws the heart towards scenes of past felicity. 
 The morning was one of the favourite progeny of 
 Autumn. The indications of the storm the night be 
 fore had passed away, and were succeeded by a still, 
 clear and yet hazy, sky, a pure elastic air, that never 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 185 
 
 fail to waken pleasant feelings in the heart where 
 they are not asleep for ever. As she passed onward, 
 the blue-bird chirped his plaintive notes of farewell 
 ere he went to seek the summer in some more genial 
 climate ; the grasshoppers, awakened from the torpor 
 of the chilly night, were sporting as gayly as ever, for 
 getful of the past, and happily careless of the future ; 
 the grass under her feet began to show a pale and 
 sickly yellowness ; and, every instant, some portion of 
 the party-coloured robes of the forest fell whispering 
 to the ground, again to mingle with the dust which 
 gave it life and supported it to maturity. All was 
 calm, and beautiful, and touching. It was beauty 
 smiling in the consciousness of being still lovely, yet 
 sighing in the certainty that youth is past, that she 
 has already gained the summit-hill of life, and is now 
 descending into the vale; and sensible that, though 
 her prospect is still fair to look upon, it is every day 
 contracting towards a single point, beyond which is 
 eternity. The white columns of smoke ascended 
 straight upwards, undisturbed by a breath of wind, 
 and presenting to the contemplative mind images, 
 and symbols, of rural happiness here, of pure and 
 spiritual bliss hereafter. But the feelings of Catalina 
 were not in a state to enjoy the charms of the scene, 
 or the associations it naturally inspired. She walked 
 along in painful musings until she carne to the quiet 
 nook she sought, and, seating herself, soon became 
 lost in the labyrinth of her own perplexities and sor 
 rows. 
 
 The residence of Mr. Dennis Vancour was on a 
 rising ground, which overlooked the extensive mead 
 ows spreading along the river, and commanded from 
 
186 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 its porch a view of the mansion-house. Sybrandt saw 
 Catalina depart ; and the course she pursued, as well 
 as the sympathetic feeling of his own heart, told him 
 whither she was going. He turned pale and trem 
 bled, when he called to mind the circumstances of the 
 preceding night; and, taking an opposite direction, 
 hastened to the glen, determined to hide himself and 
 watch over her safety. He arrived at the spot before 
 her, and, concealing himself in the hollow of an im 
 mense oak that nodded on the brink of a precipice 
 over which the waters plunged, waited what might 
 follow. In a few moments Catalina made her appear 
 ance, and seated herself, as we have before described, 
 in a recess among the rocks and trees, just where the 
 bubbling basin at the foot of the cascade laved the 
 mossy stones at her feet. There was something touch 
 ing and sorrowful in her attitude and look, as she 
 leaned on her hand, and watched the foaming torrent 
 tumbling down the steep. Now is the time to tell 
 her all, thought Sybrandt, and he forgot for a moment 
 his great purpose in coming thither. Another moment 
 brought it back to his remembrance. Here he re 
 mained quiet for somewhat more than half an hour, 
 when he fancied he saw a pair of eyes glaring from 
 the evergreens that skirted the crest of the cliff. He 
 shrunk closer in his covert, and presently saw a head 
 cautiously protruded beyond the thicket. It was that 
 of Captain Pipe. He saw him look cautiously round 
 in every direction ; he saw" him lay himself down and 
 crawl on his belly, dragging his gun after him towards 
 the edge of the precipice, that he might gain a full 
 view of his victim below, and he followed him 
 noiselessly, creeping like a shadow rather than a sub- 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 187 
 
 stance. At length the Indian raised himself on his 
 knee, cocked his unerring musket, and carried it to 
 his cheek. In an instant it was snatched from his 
 grasp, and in an instant more the Indian had grappled 
 it again. It went off in the struggle, and Catalina, 
 looking up, saw a sight that recalled all her tender 
 ness and all her fears. 
 
 Almost on the verge of the precipice stood Sybrandt 
 and the active, powerful, Indian, struggling for life, 
 each straining every sinew to force the other off. 
 Now one, now the other, seemed to have the advan 
 tage ; now the back of one and anon of the other was 
 towards her; and then both seemed to be quivering 
 on the brink of eternity. In vain she attempted to 
 cry out her voice was lost in the agony of her fears. 
 In vain she attempted to climb the steep her limbs 
 refused their office. Still, the deadly struggle con 
 tinued, and she saw their quick pantings from the 
 depth below. The gun had been thrown away in the 
 contest, and now they wrestled limb to limb, heart to 
 heart. More than once the Indian attempted to draw 
 his knife, but Sybrandt gave him such full employ 
 ment for both his hands, that he as often failed in 
 his purpose. But the vigour of the youth was now 
 waning fast, for he had of late become weakened by I 
 watching and anxiety. The Indian felt the trembling 
 of his limbs, and heard with savage delight the short 
 ness of his breathing. He redoubled his exertions; 
 he grasped him tight in his arms, lifted him off his 
 feet, and hurried him towards the verge of the cliff. 
 Sybrandt made a desperate effort ; he got one foot on 
 the rock, and with a quick motion of the other tripped 
 up the heels of the Indian. Both fell, with their 
 
188 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 heads from the precipice, and their feet actually pro 
 jecting over its edge. Sybrandt was uppermost, but 
 this was rather a disadvantage, for the Indian, being 
 determined to perish with him rather than fail in his 
 purpose, was enabled by violent exertions to work 
 himself on by degrees, until both were poised on the 
 very brink. Another moment and all had been over, 
 when fortunately Sybrandt perceived a small ever 
 green growing out of the rock, within his reach. He 
 seized hold of it, and found it firmly rooted. With 
 one hand he held it fast, with the other he suddenly 
 pushed the Indian from under him, and he slipped 
 over the precipice, still grasping the legs of the young 
 man, who now clung to the shrub with both hands, 
 making efforts to shake the Indian from his hold. 
 But for some moments his exertions were vain, and 
 only served to exhaust his remaining strength. Feel 
 ing himself gradually relaxing his gripe, and every 
 instant growing fainter and fainter, he gathered him 
 self to a last effort. Extricating one leg from the 
 grasp of the Indian, he dashed his foot in his face with 
 such convulsive violence, that he loosed his clutch, 
 and fell among the pointed rocks which projected out 
 of the pool below. Catalina heard the splashing of 
 his body in the water, and not knowing who it was 
 that had fallen, became insensible. Sybrandt raised 
 himself slowly and with difficulty, and descended as 
 fast as possible towards her. She waked in his arms, 
 and by degrees came to a comprehension of all that 
 had passed. 
 
 " Again ! " at length said she, looking up tenderly, 
 "Again! Yet you thanked God I was going away." 
 
 " Cannot you comprehend the reason now, dearest 
 
189 
 
 Catalina ? and will you not listen to what you refused 
 to hear, yesterday ? " 
 
 She glanced with horror at the pool : "I thought 
 I heard a groan. Perhaps the poor creature yet lives, 
 and may be saved." 
 
 " Let him perish ! " said the youth, indignantly. 
 " O, if you only knew the days and nights of anxious 
 misery he has occasioned me ! " 
 
 " And me : yet I pity him." 
 
 " And wish he were alive ? " 
 
 " If I were sure if I could be made quite sure 
 neither of us could possibly ever see him again. Go, 
 cousin, and see if he is yet alive ; but, take care ! " 
 
 Sybrandt went, and dragged the body from the 
 pool. It was dreadfully mangled, and apparently life 
 less. Catalina shuddered as she cast one look at it. 
 
 " Let us go home," said she. 
 
 " Will you not listen to my explanation, now ? 
 You are going away from me to-morrow, and we 
 may never meet again." 
 
 " No, dearest Sybrandt. I now see it all. You 
 knew this wretched being had not left the country." 
 
 " I did ; at least I suspected so from various cir 
 cumstances." 
 
 " And you were every night on the watch, guarding 
 me me who was accusing you of spending them 
 in gaming, riot, and seduction for such was the 
 story I heard. O, blessed Heaven ! what short-sighted 
 creatures we are ! " And she raised her tearful eye to 
 his, as if to ask forgiveness. " Was it not so ? " 
 
 " I confess it was." 
 
 " But why did you not tell me you feared the 
 Indian was still lurking about the neighbourhood ? " 
 
190 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 " What ! and poison all your moments of returning 
 ease and happiness ! No : I thought I could guard 
 you from the danger, without making you wretched 
 by knowing it." 
 
 " And you left me to endure suspicions a thousand 
 times more painful." 
 
 " Recollect, dear Catalina, I could not anticipate 
 your suspicions." 
 
 " True ; and your apprehensions for my safety 
 prompted that ungallant wish," said she, smiling lan 
 guidly, " Thank God, you are going. " 
 
 " What else could have prompted it, dear love ? 
 And yet, much as I feared for you, I did not know 
 half the danger." He then related to her the incidents 
 of the preceding night. She turned deadly pale, and 
 remained silent for a few moments. 
 
 " I recollect I stood at the window more than four 
 or five minutes, wondering what was the matter with 
 the dogs. Once twice thrice : it is a heavy debt, 
 and how can I repay it ? " 
 
 " By never doubting me again, till I deceive you." 
 
 " That can never be ! " exclaimed she, fervently. 
 
 " And will you, can you love me, and trust me with 
 your happiness, dearest Catalina ? " 
 
 " I can I will," said she, solemnly ; " and here, 
 before the body of that dead wretch, who has expiated 
 his intended crimes at your hands ; in the presence ol 
 that good Being who has preserved me from his ven 
 geance ; by the life and all the hopes here and here 
 after of the life you have three times, perhaps thrice 
 three times, preserved, I promise to be yours, and to 
 devote myself to your happiness whenever you shall 
 ask it of me. I give myself to you by this kiss, such 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 191 
 
 as no man ever before received from me, and no other 
 ever will again. I give myself away for ever ! " And 
 she kissed his forehead with her balmy lips. 
 
 " Blessed, for ever blessed, be this day and this 
 hour ! " cried Sybrandt, as he folded her in his arms. 
 " I cannot thank you, dearest, but I am happy ! " And 
 he leaned his head on her shoulder, overpowered by 
 the varying emotions and exertions of the past and 
 present. 
 
 " You are hurt ! " screamed Catalina. 
 
 "I am only faint with joy;" and his head de 
 clined on her throbbing bosom. A dreadful shriek 
 from Catalina roused him, and he saw the ghastly 
 Indian close upon him, covered with blood, with arm 
 raised, and knife in hand. Before he could move to 
 defend himself the stroke was made. The knife en 
 tered his breast, and he staggered backwards, but did 
 not fall. In a moment he rallied himself, and, evad 
 ing a second stab, closed with the now exhausted and 
 dying wretch, whom he dashed to the ground with 
 furious indignation. The agony of death came upon 
 the savage, but did not quench his ruling passion of 
 revenge. With convulsive fury he repeatedly buried 
 his knife up to the hilt in the earth, and his last breath 
 expired in a blow. 
 
 Poor Catalina, whose mind and body had given 
 way under the terrible vicissitudes of the day, during 
 this momentary struggle sat wringing her hands, 
 almost unconsciously repeating, " Once twice 
 thrice four times and theij his own! What a 
 dear, dear purchase for a poor girl ! " 
 
 Sybrandt went to her and said, " Fear nothing, he 
 is dead." 
 
192 THE DUTCHMAN S FIEESIDE. 
 
 What ? Sybrandt ! Well, no matter. I shall be 
 dead too, soon. The Indian will kill me now my pre 
 server is gone." 
 
 " Revive, dear love ; it is the Indian that is dead : 
 he will never trouble you again." 
 
 " I cannot believe it," said she, recovering a little ; 
 " I saw the knife enter your bosom, yet you do not 
 bleed. I am sure you must be wounded. Is there no 
 blood ? " 
 
 Sybrandt opened his clothes to assure her, and then, 
 for the first time, comprehended the cause of his es 
 caping unhurt. The point of the Indian s knife had 
 left its print in the centre of the ducat which Catalina 
 had given him when he went on his trading voyage, 
 and a piece of it remained sticking there. 
 
 " See, Catalina," said he, " you have saved my life, 
 and we are now even. Do you take back the gift 
 you just now made me?" 
 
 " Twas Heaven s own doing," she replied; then, 
 casting her eyes on the body of the Indian, she asked, 
 with a shudder : " Is he dead ; are you certain he is 
 dead?" 
 
 Sybrandt answered in the affirmative, and Catalina 
 continued : 
 
 " Then, let us quit this miserable being, and, I was 
 going to say, miserable place, though I shall love it as 
 long as I live, and and you love me," whispered 
 she, soft as the zephyr among the leaves. 
 
 " That will be for ever ! " cried Sybrandt, and they 
 bent their way towards the mansion-house. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 193 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 A SEPARATION INSTEAD OF A UNION. 
 
 THE effect of the story which Catalina had to tell, 
 in explanation of her long absence, may easily be im 
 agined. Thanks and blessings were poured out from 
 the lips of the good parents. The old gentleman 
 called the daughter and the nephew into his presence, 
 and, placing her hand in his, solemnly and affection 
 ately blessed them both as his dear children. " You 
 have thrice saved her life ; may she prove a blessing 
 to yours." 
 
 " Damn it," said little Ariel " damn it, Sybrandt, 
 who would have thought it ! But come, I want you 
 to go look at old Frelinghuysen s ox. He is grown as 
 big as an elephant." 
 
 " It was not for nothing," thought the silent Dennis 
 " it was not for nothing he studied those old Greeks 
 and Romans. I wish Dominie Stettinius were here 
 to be told of this : " and the worthy man felt proud of 
 his adopted son. 
 
 And now it became necessary to settle the question 
 whether the visit to New York should be paid or not 
 paid. All things were prepared, the vessel was ready, 
 and the lady-cousin in the capital apprized of her 
 invitation having been accepted. The colonel thought 
 they had better send an apology, and get off as well 
 as they could. Catalina I confess it with the can 
 dour becoming my profession Catalina fluttered 
 
 13 
 
194 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 between her love and her desire of novelty. What 
 woman could ever yet resist the temptations of travel 
 ling and seeing the world ? She, however, dutifully 
 left the decision to her parents. Madam Vancour was 
 a woman, a very excellent woman yet she was a 
 woman. She did not exactly oppose the union of the 
 cousins, but her heart was not in it. Ambition was 
 too strong for gratitude. Like almost all the Ameri 
 can women of that and indeed every succeeding age, 
 she had imbibed, from her earliest years, a silly ad 
 miration of every thing foreign foreign horses, 
 foreign dogs, foreign men, and, especially, foreign 
 officers. Every thing provincial, as it was called, she 
 considered as bearing the brand of inferiority in its 
 forehead. She had, moreover, long cherished a latent 
 ambition to see Catalina wedded to one of his majes 
 ty s little officials, who assumed vast consequence at 
 that time if possible, to somebody who tacked hon 
 ourable to his name, and bore the arms of some one 
 of the illustrious houses who figured in the court- 
 calendar, in the midst of griffins, sphinxes, lions, uni 
 corns, vultures, and naked savages with clubs fit 
 emblems of the rude plunderers who first adopted 
 these apt distinctions. The good lady, hardly uncon 
 scious of her motives, almost hoped that Catalina 
 would forget her rustic swain in the gay scenes and 
 various sights of the metropolis, and conquer and be 
 conquered by some brilliant aide-de-camp, perhaps a 
 baronet, with bloody hand for his crest. Accordingly, 
 it was settled the start should take place the next day, 
 as was originally contemplated. 
 
 Sybrandt yielded with an aching heart and a bad 
 grace to what he could not prevent. The busy fiends 
 
195 
 
 and phantoms that beset his earlier days rose up to 
 his imagination, and flapped their wings, and whis 
 pered gloomy anticipations. She would have gay 
 admirers, for she was an heiress and a beauty. She 
 would be distant from her parents, her home, her fire 
 side, and from all those early associations with objects 
 of nature, which serve as anchors by which the heart 
 rides steadily in all the vicissitudes of wind and tide, 
 and calm and tempest. " And then, the cursed red 
 coats," whispered one malignant demon, with a dia 
 bolical grin; "if she resists them, and the fashion, 
 and the example of every female, young and old, 
 married and single, she must be more than woman." 
 Such gloomy, irritating, peevish thoughts crowded on 
 his heart the next day, as he accompanied Catalina to 
 the vessel which was to bear her away ; but his pride 
 buried them deep in his bosom. 
 
 " I shall return with the birds, in the Spring," said 
 she, observing his dead silence. " You must be happy, 
 but you must not forget me." And she placed her 
 snowy hand in his. Sybrandt could scarcely feel it, 
 twas so soft. 
 
 " Those who are left behind at home never forget," 
 said the youth. " All that I see, and all that I hear, 
 is the same to-day, to-morrow, and the next, and the 
 next day. How can I change ? " 
 
 " You think, then, there is more danger that /should 
 change," said Catalina, with a tender smile. 
 
 " Such miracles have come to pass," replied he, an 
 swering her smile with one of melancholy. 
 
 " Sybrandt," said she, with solemn emphasis, "look : 
 the river out of which you dragged me when I was 
 drowning rolls by the city whither I am now going. 
 
196 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 I shall see it every day from my window. The sun 
 shines there by day, that yesterday saw you preserve 
 me from the murderer ; and the stars that witnessed 
 your nightly watchings for my safety stand in the 
 firmament there as well as here. The same air, the 
 same light, the same nature, and the same God, the 
 same memory, the same heart, will be with me wher 
 ever I go. Be just to me, dear Sybrandt ; I cannot, 
 if I would, forget you ! " 
 
 Jealousy fled before this appeal, and Sybrandt 
 became re-assured. A silent pressure of hands con 
 veyed their last farewell tenderness, and in a few 
 minutes he was seen standing alone on a green pro 
 jecting point of the river, watching the vessel as it 
 glided swiftly out of sight. When it was no longer 
 visible, he turned himself towards home, and the 
 world seemed to him suddenly changed into a void. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 PART II. 
 
ihrary. 
 
 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 A LONG VOYAGE! 
 
 MUCH has been sung and written of the charms of 
 the glorious Hudson its smiling villages, its noble 
 cities, its magnificent banks, and its majestic waters. 
 The inimitable Knrekerbooker, the graphic Cooper, l\ 
 and a thousand less celebrated writers ancTTourists 
 have delighted to luxuriate in descriptions of its rich 
 fields, its flowery meadows, whispering groves, and 
 cloud-capped mountains, until its name is become 
 synonymous with all the beautiful and sublime of 
 nature. Associated as are these beauties with our 
 earliest recollections, and nearest, dearest friends 
 entwined as they inseparably are with memorials of 
 the past and anticipations of the future, we too would 
 offer our humble tribute. But the theme has been 
 exhausted by hands that snatched the pencil from 
 Nature herself, and nothing is left for us but to ex 
 pend our emotions in silent musings. 
 
 Catalina, accompanied by her father, embarked on 
 board of the good sloop Watervliet, whereof was 
 commander Captain Baltus Van Slingerland, a most 
 
200 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 experienced, deliberative, and circumspective skipper. 
 This vessel was noted for making quick passages, 
 wherein she excelled the much-vaunted Liverpool 
 packets; seldom being more than three weeks in 
 going from Albany to New York, unless when she 
 chanced to run on the flats, for which, like her worthy 
 owners, she seemed to have an instinctive preference. 
 Captain Baltus was a navigator of great sagacity 
 and courage, having been the first man that ever 
 undertook the dangerous voyage between the two 
 cities without asking the prayers of the church and 
 making his will. Moreover, he was so cautious in all 
 his proceedings that he took nothing for granted, and 
 would never be convinced that his vessel was near 
 a shoal or a sand-bank until she was high and dry 
 aground. When properly certified by ocular demon 
 stration, he became perfectly satisfied, and set himself 
 to smoking till it pleased the waters to rise and float 
 him off again. His patience under an accident of 
 this kind was exemplary ; his pipe was his consolation 
 more effectual than all the precepts of philosophy. 
 
 It was a fine autumnal morning, calm, still, clear, 
 and beautiful. The forests, as they nodded or slept 
 quietly on the borders of the pure river, reflected 
 upon its bosom a varied carpet, adorned with every 
 shade of every colour. The bright yellow poplar, the 
 still brighter scarlet maple, the dark-brown oak, and 
 the yet more sombre evergreen pine and hemlock, 
 together with a thousand various trees and shrubs, 
 of a thousand varied tints, all mingled in one rich, 
 inexpressibly rich garment, with which nature seemed 
 desirous of hiding her faded beauties and approach 
 ing decay. The vessel glided slowly with the current, 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 201 
 
 now and then assisted by a little breeze, that for 
 a moment rippled the surface and filled the sails, 
 and then died away again. In this manner they 
 approached the Overslaugh, a place infamous in all 
 past time for its narrow, crooked channel, and the 
 sand-banks with which it is infested. The vigilant 
 Van Slingerland, in view of possible contingencies, 
 replenished his pipe and inserted it in the button 
 holes of his Dutch pea-jacket, to be ready on an 
 emergency. 
 
 " Boss," said the ebony Palinurus, who presided over 
 the destinies of the good sloop Watervliet "boss, 
 don t you tink I d better put about ; I tink we re close 
 to the Overslaugh, now." 
 
 Captain Baltus very leisurely walked to the bow of 
 the vessel, and, after looking about a little, replied, 
 " A leetle furder, a leetle furder, Brom ; no occasion to 
 pe in zuch a hurry pefore you are zure of a ting." 
 
 Brom kept on his course, grumbling a little in an 
 undertone, until the sloop came to a sudden stop. The 
 captain then bestirred himself to let go the anchor. 
 
 " No fear, boss, she won t run away." 
 
 " Very well," quoth Captain Baltus, " I m zatisfied 
 now, berfectly zatisfied. We are certainly on de Over 
 slaugh." 
 
 " As clear as mud," answered Brom. The captain 
 then proceeded to light his pipe, and Brom followed 
 his example. Every quarter of an hour a sloop would 
 glide past in perfect safety, warned of the precise situ 
 ation of the bar by the position of the Watervliet, and 
 adding to the vexation of our travellers at being thus 
 left behind. But Captain Baltus smoked away, now 
 and then ejaculating, " Ay, ay, de more hashte de 
 lesch shpeed ; we shall see py and py." 
 
202 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 As the tide ebbed, the vessel, which had grounded 
 on the extremity of the sand-bank, gradually heeled on 
 one side, until it was difficult to keep the deck, and 
 Colonel Vancour suggested the propriety of going on 
 shore until she righted again. 
 
 " Why, where s de uze, den," replied Captain Baltus, 
 " of daking all tis drouble, boss ? We shall pe off in 
 dwo or dree tays at most. It will pe vull-moon tay 
 after do-morrow." 
 
 " Two or three days ! " exclaimed the colonel. " If 
 I thought so, I would go home and wait for you." 
 
 " Why, where s de uze den of daking zo much 
 drouble, golonel? You d only have to gome pack 
 again." 
 
 . " But, why don t you lighten your vessel, or carry 
 out an anchor? She seems just on the edge of the 
 bank, almost ready to slide into the deep water." 
 
 " Why, where s de uze of daking zo much drouble, 
 den ? She ll get off herzelf one of deze days, golonel. 
 You are well off here ; notting to do, and de young 
 woman dare can knid you a bair of stogings to bass 
 de dime." 
 
 " But she can t knit stockings," said the colonel, 
 smiling. 
 
 "Not knid stogings! Py main zoul den what is 
 zhe goot vor ? Den zhe must zrnoke a bipe ; dat is de 
 next pest way of bassing de dime." 
 
 " But she don t smoke either, captain." 
 
 " Not zmoke, nor knid stogings? Christus! where 
 was zhe prought ub den ? I would n t have her vor 
 my wife iv zhe had a whole zloop vor her vortune. 
 I don t know what zhe gan do to bass de dime dill 
 next vull-moon, put go to zleep ; dat is de next pest 
 ding to knidding and zmoking." 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 203 
 
 Catalina was highly amused at Captain Baltus s 
 enumeration of the sum-total of her resources for pass 
 ing the time. Fortunately, however, the next rising 
 of the tide floated them off, and the vessel proceeded 
 gallantly on her way, with a fine north-west breeze, 
 which carried her on with almost the speed of a 
 steam-boat. In the course of a few miles they overtook 
 and passed several sloops that had left the Watervliet 
 aground on the Overslaugh. 
 
 " You zee, golonel," said Captain Baltus, compla 
 cently " you zee where s de uze of peing in a 
 hurry, den ? Dey have peen at anghor, and we have 
 peen on a zand-pank. What s de difference, den, 
 golonel?" 
 
 " But it is easier to get up an anchor, captain, than 
 to get off a sand-bank." 
 
 " Well, zubbose it is ; if a man is not in a hurry, 
 what den ? " replied Captain Baltus. 
 
 At the period of which we are writing, a large por 
 tion of the banks of the river, now gemmed with white 
 villages and delightful retreats, was still in a state of 
 nature. The little settlements were " few and far be 
 tween," and some scattered Indians yet lingered in 
 those abodes which were soon to pass away from 
 them and their posterity for ever. The river alone 
 was in the entire occupation of the white man; the 
 shores were still, in many places, inhabited by rem 
 nants of the Indian tribes. But they were not the \ 
 savages of the free wild woods; they had in some 
 degree lost their habits of war and hunting, and sel 
 dom committed hostilities upon the whites, from an 
 instinctive perception that they were now at their 
 mercy. 
 
204 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 Still, though the banks of the river were for the 
 most part wild, they were not the less grand and 
 beautiful ; and Catalina, as she sat on the deck in the 
 evening, when the landscape, bronzed with twilight, 
 presented one unvaried appearance of lonely pomp 
 and majestic repose, could not resist its holy influ 
 ence. On the evening of the sixth day the vessel was 
 becalmed in the heart of the Highlands, just opposite 
 where West Point now rears its gray stone seminaries, 
 / consecrated to science, to patriotism, and glory. It 
 was then a solitary rock, where the eagle made his 
 abode, and from which a lonely Indian sometimes 
 looked down on the vessels gliding past far below, 
 and cursed them as the usurpers of his ancient do 
 main. 
 
 The tide ran neither up nor down the river, and 
 there was not a breath of air stirring. The dusky 
 pilot proposed to Captain Baltus to let go the anchor, 
 but the captain saw " no use in being in such a hurry." 
 So the vessel lay still as a sleeping halcyon upon the 
 unmoving mirror of the waters. Baltus drew forth 
 his trusty pipe, and the negro pilot selected a soft 
 plank on the forecastle, on which he, in a few minutes, 
 found that blessed repose which is the prize of labour, 
 and which a thousand times outweighs the suicide 
 luxuries of the lazy glutton, whose sleep is the strug 
 gle, not the relaxation, of nature. 
 
 As the golden_sun_ sunk behind the high mountains 
 of the west, that other lesser glory of the heavens 
 rose in full, round, silyez xadiance from out the fleecy 
 foliage of the forest which crowned them on the east 
 "TSank of the river. The vessel seemed embosomed in 
 a little world of its own, with nothing visible but the 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 205 
 
 shimmering water, the half-seen twofold range of un- \ 
 dulating mountains, one side all gloom, the other \ 
 shining bright, and the blue heavens sparkling with j 
 ten thousand ever-during glories over head. Catalina ; 
 wrapped herself in her cloak, and sat on the quarter- / 
 deck alone and abstracted, conscious of the scene and 
 its enchantments only as they awakened those mys 
 terious associations of thought and of feeling that 
 establish the indissoluble union between the Creator 
 and his works. Imagination, and memory, and hope, 
 mingled in her bosom, alternately the sphere of heav 
 enly aspirations and gentle worldly wishes, such as 
 pure virgins who have given away their hearts may 
 entertain without soiling the white ermine of their 
 innocent affections. Gradually her thoughts concen 
 trated themselves upon Sybrandt Westbrook ; she re 
 called to mind those past incidents of her life which 
 seemed intended by heaven to entwine their hearts in 
 one being, and gradually worked herself up to the 
 conviction, that they neither would nor could be sepa 
 rated. A flood of tenderness, hallowed by this infusion 
 of a holy and mysterious sanction, rushed into her 
 soul ; she wished he were present at this apotheosis 
 of all that was beautiful in nature, all that was sus 
 ceptible in a woman s heart, that she might recline in 
 his circling arms, lay her head on his bosom, murmur 
 her passionate affection in his ear, and exchange her 
 love for his, in one long kiss of melting rapture. 
 
 At this moment a wild shrill shriek or howl broke 
 from the shore, echoed among the silent recesses of 
 the mountains, and roused Catalina from her delicious 
 .reyery. In about a minute it was repeated and a 
 third time, after a similar interval. 
 
206 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 " Dat is de olt woman," said Captain Baltus, who 
 was sitting on the hatchway smoking his pipe, some 
 thing between sleeping and waking. 
 
 " What old woman?" asked Catalina. 
 
 " Why, de olt Inchan woman, what keeps apout de 
 rock yust ashore dare don t you zee it glose under 
 dat bine dree, dare ? " 
 
 " What Indian woman? and what does she do there, 
 shrieking ? " said the young lady. 
 
 " What ! tid you never hear dat zdory ? and ton t you 
 know it s no olt woman after all put a ghost ? " 
 
 "A ghost!" 
 
 " Ay yes a spook. I saw it one night when 1 
 cot ashore on de vlats yust apove de rog; ant you 
 may tepent I was in a great hurry den for once in my 
 life, I gan dell you. It looked like de very old Tuyvel, 
 ztanting on de rog, and whetting a great jack-knife, 
 as dey zay." 
 
 " Who say ? " asked Catalina. 
 
 " Why, my fader ant grandfader who are bote 
 teat, for dat matter ; but dey tolt me de zdory pefore 
 dey tiet. We zhall have zixteen rainy Zuntays, one 
 after de oder, and den it will glear up wid a gread 
 znow-zdorm." 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 " Yez ; as zure as you zid dare. It always habbens 
 after dat olt woman zhows herself, and sgreams zo, 
 like de very Tuyvel." 
 
 " Do you know the story? " asked Colonel Vancour, 
 whose attention had been arrested by the conversa 
 tion. 
 
 " Know it? Why, to be zure I to, golonel. I have 
 heart it a hundred dimes from my fader and grand- 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 207 
 
 fader. He was de firzt man dat zailed in a zloop all 
 de way from Albany to New York." 
 
 " We can t have higher authority. Come, captain 
 I see your pipe is just filled tell us the story, and 
 then I will go to sleep." 
 
 The worthy skipper said he was no great hand 
 at telling a story; but he would try, if they would 
 promise not to hurry him ; and accordingly began : 
 
 " Onze tere was an olt woman Tuyvel! dare zhe 
 is again ! " exclaimed Baltus, as a long quaver echoed 
 from the shore. 
 
 " Well, well never mind her ; go on." 
 
 " Onze tere was an olt woman " Here another 
 quaver, apparently from the mast-head, stopped Baltus 
 again, and made Catalina start. 
 
 " Tuyvel ! " cried Baltus ; put if I ton t pelieve 
 zhe is goming apoard of us ! " 
 
 " Well never mind," said the colonel again ; " she 
 wants to hear whether you do her full justice, I sup 
 pose. Go on, captain." 
 
 "Onze tere was an olt woman," he began, almost in 
 a whisper; when he was again interrupted by the 
 black pilot, who came aft with the light, and asked 
 Baltus whether it would not be better to haul down 
 the sails, as he saw some appearance of wind towards 
 the north-east, where the clouds had now obscured the 
 moon entirely. " Ton t pe in zuch a hurry, Brom," 
 quoth the skipper ; " dime enough when de wind 
 gomes." 
 
 " Onze tere was an olt woman " At that mo 
 ment Brom s light was suddenly extinguished, and 
 Baltus received a blow in the face that laid him 
 sprawling on the quarter-deck, at the same instant 
 
208 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 that a tremendous scream broke forth from some 
 invisible being that seemed close at their ears. Bal- 
 tus roared manfully, and Catalina was not a little 
 frightened at these incomprehensible manoeuvres of 
 the old woman. The colonel, however, insisted that 
 he should go on bidding him get up and tell his 
 story. 
 
 " Onze tere was an olt woman " But the legend 
 of honest Baltus, like Corporal Trim s story of " a cer 
 tain king of Bohemia," seemed destined never to get 
 beyond the first sentence. He was again interrupted 
 by a strange mysterious scratching and fluttering, 
 accompanied by a mighty cackling and confusion, in 
 the chicken-coop, which the provident captain had 
 stored with poultry for the benefit of the colonel and 
 his daughter. 
 
 "Tuyvel! what s dat?" cried Captain Baltus, in 
 great consternation. 
 
 " O, it s only the old woman robbing your hen-roost," 
 replied the colonel. 
 
 " Den I must loog to it," said Baltus, and, muster 
 ing the courage of desperation, went to see what was 
 the matter. In a few moments he returned, bringing 
 with him a large owl, which had, from some freak or 
 other, or perhaps attracted by the charms of Baltus s 
 poultry, first lighted on the mast, and then, either 
 seduced or confused by Brom s light, darted from 
 thence into the capacious platter-face of the worthy 
 skipper, as before stated. 
 
 " Here is de tuyvel ! " exclaimed Baltus. 
 
 " And the old woman," said the colonel, laughing ; 
 " But come, captain, I am more anxious than ever 
 to hear the rest of the story." 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 209 
 
 " Onze tere was an olt woman " a hollow mur 
 mur among the mountains again suddenly interrupted 
 him. " There is the old woman again," said the colo 
 nel. " Tis de olt Tuyvel!" said Baltus, starting up 
 and calling all hands to let go the halyards. But, be 
 fore this could be accomplished, one of those sudden 
 squalls, so common in the highlands in autumn, struck 
 the vessel and threw her almost on her beam ends. The 
 violence of the motion carried Colonel Vancour and 
 Catalina with it, and had they not been arrested by 
 the railings of the quarter-deck, they must inevitably 
 have gone overboard. The Watervliet was, however, 
 an honest Dutch vessel, of a most convenient breadth 
 of beam, and it was no easy matter to capsize her 
 entirely. For a minute or two she lay quivering and 
 struggling with the fury of the squall that roared among 
 the mountains and whistled through the shrouds, until, 
 acquiring a little headway, she slowly luffed up in the 
 wind, righted, and flapped her sails in defiance. The 
 next minute all was calm again. The cloud passed 
 over, the moon shone bright, and the waters slept as 
 if they had never been disturbed. Whereupon Cap 
 tain Baltus, like a prudent skipper as he was, ordered 
 all sail to be lowered, and the anchor to be let go, 
 sagely observing, that it was " high time to look out 
 for squalls." 
 
 " Such an accident at sea would have been rather 
 serious," observed the colonel. 
 
 "I ton t know what you dink, golonel," said Baltus, 
 "put, in my obinion, id ton t make much odts wedder 
 a man is trownet in te zea or in a river." The colonel 
 could not well gainsay this, and soon after retired 
 with his daughter to the cabin. 
 
 14 
 
210 
 
 Bright and early the next morning, Captain Baltus, 
 having looked round in every direction, east, west, 
 north, and south, to see if there were any squalls 
 brewing, and perceiving not a cloud in the sky, cau 
 tiously ordered half the jib and main-sail to be hoisted, 
 to catch the little land-breeze that just rippled the 
 surface of the river. In a few hours they emerged 
 from the pass at the foot of the great Donderberg, and 
 slowly opened upon that beautiful amphitheatre into 
 which nature has thrown all her treasures and all her 
 beauties. Nothing material occurred during the rest 
 of the passage. True it is that Skipper Baltus ran 
 the good sloop Watervliet two or three times upon 
 the oyster-banks of the since renowned Tappan Bay ; 
 but this was so common a circumstance, that it 
 scarcely deserved commemoration, nor would I have 
 recorded it here but for the apprehension that its 
 omission might at a future period, perad venture, se 
 duce some industrious scribe to write an entirely new 
 history of these adventures, solely to rescue such an 
 important matter from oblivion. Suffice it to say, 
 that at the expiration of ten days from the com 
 mencement of the voyage, the good sloop Watervliet 
 arrived safe at Coenties Slip, where all the Albany 
 sloops congregated at that time. This extraordinary 
 passage was much talked of in both cities, and finally 
 found its way into The Weekly News-Letter, then 
 the only paper published in the whole new world, as 
 may be seen by a copy now, or lately, in the posses 
 sion of the worthy Mr. Dustan, of the Narrows. It 
 is further recorded, that some- of the vessels which 
 passed the Watervliet as she lay aground on the 
 Overslaugh, did not arrive till nearly a fortnight after 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 211 
 
 her ; owing, as Captain Baltus observed, " to der 
 peing in zuch a hurry." After so famous an exploit 
 the Watervliet had always a full freight, and as many 
 passengers as she could accommodate; so that, in 
 good time, this adventurous navigator gave up fol 
 lowing the water, and built himself a fine brick house, 
 with the gable end to the street, and the edges of the 
 roof projecting like the teeth of a saw, where he sat 
 on his stoop and smoked his pipe, time out of mind. 
 
212 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WHICH MAY BE SKIPPED OVER BY THE GENTLE READER, AS IT CON 
 TAINS NOT A SINGLE BLOODY ADVENTURE. 
 
 CATALINA was received with a welcome kindness 
 by Mrs. Aubineau, the lady with whom she had been 
 invited to spend the winter, and who appeared struck 
 with the improvement in her person since she left 
 boarding-school some eighteen months before. Our 
 heroine was glad to see Mrs. Aubineau again, having 
 a vivid recollection of her pleasing manners and mat 
 ronly kindness. 
 
 The husband of this lady was* a son of one of the 
 Huguenots driven by the bigotry or policy of Louis 
 the Fourteenth to this land of liberty liberty of ac 
 tion, of speech, and of conscience. These emigrants 
 constituted a portion of the best-educated, most en 
 lightened, polite, and wealthy of the early inhabitants 
 of New York. They laid the foundation of families 
 which still exist in good reputation, and from some of 
 them have descended men who are for ever associated 
 with the history of our country. The father of Mr. 
 Aubineau. had occupied a dignified situation under 
 the Dutch government while it held possession of 
 New York; but lost it when the province was as 
 signed to the Duke of York, whose hungry retainers 
 were portioned off in the new world, there not being 
 loaves and fishes enough in the old to satisfy them all. 
 Both father and son cherished some little resentment 
 
213 
 
 on this score ; and, when a legislative body was es 
 tablished, one or other being generally a member, 
 they never failed to be found voting and acting with 
 the popular side, in opposition to the governor. They 
 joined the old Dutch party in all their measures, 
 which were generally favourable to the rights of the 
 colony, and attained to great consideration and re 
 spect among them. 
 
 Notwithstanding his politics, Mr. Aubineau the 
 younger married a handsome English woman ; not a 
 descendant merely of English parents, but a real na 
 tive, born and educated in London. Her father came 
 over with an appointment, being a younger brother, 
 with a younger brother s portion, which generally con 
 sists in the family influence employed on all occasions 
 in quartering the junior branches upon the public. 
 The great use of colonies is to provide for these cases. 
 What this appointment was I do not recollect ; but, 
 whatever it was, it enabled Mr. Majoribanks to live 
 in style, and carry his head high above the unlucky 
 beings who furnished the means, and .whose destiny 
 it had been to be born on the wrong side of the At 
 lantic Ocean, where it is well known that every thing, 
 from men down to dandies, degenerates. To be born 
 at home, as the phrase then was, operated as a sort of 
 patent of nobility, and desperate was the ambition of 
 the rich young citizens, and still more desperate that 
 of the city heiresses and their mothers, to unite their 
 fate and fortunes with a genuine exotic. Many a sol 
 dier of fortune, " who spent half a crown out of six 
 pence a day," was thus provided for ; and not a few 
 female adventurers gained excellent establishments, 
 over which they were noted for exercising absolute 
 
214 
 
 dominion. For a provincial husband to contradict a 
 wife from the mother country was held equivalent to 
 the enormity of a provincial legislature s refusing its 
 assent to a rescript of his majesty s puissant governor. 
 It smacked of flat rebellion. 
 
 Mr. Aubineau was, however, tolerably fortunate in 
 his choice. His wife always contradicted him aside 
 when in public, and issued her commands in a whis 
 per. She never got angry with him, and only laughed 
 and took her own way whenever he found fault ; or, 
 what was still more discreet, took no notice of his ill- 
 humour, and did just as she pleased. She was fond 
 of gayety, dress, and equipage, and particularly fond 
 of flirting with the officers attached to the governor s 
 family and establishment. These gentlemen, having 
 nothing to do, and no inclination to marry, except 
 they were well paid for it, naturally selected the mar 
 ried ladies as objects for their devoirs ; very properly 
 concluding, that, whatever might be the case with 
 the ladies, there could be no breach of promise of 
 marriage on their part, and, consequently, no dishon 
 our being as particular as the lady pleased. As 
 to the provincial husbands, they were out of the ques 
 tion. 
 
 Among the most prominent of the foibles of Mrs. 
 Aubineau was an idea at that time very prevalent 
 among both English and American women. This 
 was an undisguised and confirmed conviction, that 
 the whole universe was a nest of barbarians, com 
 pared with Old England, and that there was as much 
 moral and physical difference between being born 
 there and here, as there was space between the two 
 countries. Though not much of the blue-stocking, 
 
215 
 
 that sisterhood not having made its appearance as 
 a distinct class in those days, like all good English 
 folks she could ring the changes on Shakspeare and 
 Milton, and Bacon and Locke, those four great 
 names on which English poetry, philosophy, and met 
 aphysics, seem entirely to depend for their renown ; 
 and which form a standard to which every blockhead 
 more or less pretends to have assimilated his mind, as 
 if the reflected rays of their glory had illuminated in 
 some degree the midnight darkness of his own intel 
 lect. Thisjtruly John Bull notion she considered so 
 settled and established beyond all reasonable question, 
 that she always spoke of it with an amusing simpli 
 city, arising from a perfect confidence in an undisputed 
 point, upon which all mankind, except her husband, 
 agreed with as much unanimity as that the sun shone 
 in a clear day. In regard to the solitary exception 
 aforesaid, Mrs. Aubineau settled that in her mind, by 
 referring it to that indefinable matrimonial sympathy 
 which impels so many men to agree with every other 
 woman when she is wrong, and oppose their wives 
 whenever they are right. The connexion between 
 this lady and our heroine originated in a marriage 
 between the elder Aubineau and a sister of Colonel 
 Vancour. Into the hands of Mrs. Aubineau the 
 colonel consigned his daughter for the winter, at the 
 same time communicating her engagement with Sy- 
 braiidt Westbrook, at which she laughed not a little 
 in her sleeve. She had already a plan in her head for 
 establishing her rich and beautiful guest in a far more 
 splendid sphere, as she was pleased to imagine. At 
 the end of eight or ten days, Colonel Vancour took 
 his departure for home in the good sloop Watervliet, 
 
216 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 which had made vast despatch in unlading and lad 
 ing, on account of the lateness of the season. 
 
 Catalina was connected in different ways with 
 almost all the really respectable and wealthy inhab 
 itants of New York and its vicinity; such as, the 
 Philipses, the Stuyvesants, the Van Cortlandts, the 
 Beekmans, Bayards, Delanceys, Gouverneurs, Van 
 Homes, Rapalyes, Rutgers, Waltons, and a score of 
 others. Of course she could be in no want of visitors 
 or invitations, and there was every prospect of a gay 
 winter. But all these good folks were only secondary 
 in the estimation of Mrs. Aubineau, when compared 
 with not his majesty s governor and his family, for 
 they were out of the range of mortal comparison 
 but with the families of his majesty s chief-justice, his 
 majesty s attorney-general and solicitor-general, his 
 majesty s collector of the customs, and, indeed, with 
 the families of any of his majesty s petty officers, 
 however insignificant. These formed the focus of 
 high life in the ancient city of New York, and noth 
 ing upon the face of the earth was more ridiculous in 
 the eyes of a discreet observer than the pretensions of 
 this little knot of dependants over the truly dignified 
 independence of the great body of the wealthy inhab 
 itants, except, perhaps, the docility with which these 
 latter submitted to the usurpation. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 217 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 A KNIGHT AND AN HONOURABLE. THE READER IS DESIRED TO MAKE 
 HIS BEST BOW. 
 
 THE morning after Catalina s arrival, she received 
 the visits of several officers, two of whom had the 
 honour of being aides to his Excellency the Governor 
 and Commander-in-chief. They therefore merit a 
 particular introduction. " Gentle Reader, this is Sir 
 Thicknesse Throgmorton ; and this is the Honourable 
 Barry Gilfillan, of an ancient and noble Irish family, 
 somewhat poor, but very honest, having suffered 
 divers forfeitures for its loyalty to the Stuarts, that 
 worthless race, whose persevering efforts to regain a 
 crown they had justly forfeited by their tyranny drew 
 after them the ruin of thousands of generous and 
 devoted victims. Sir Thicknesse and Colonel Gil 
 fillan, this is the Gentle Reader, a beautiful, accom 
 plished lady, of great taste, as all our female readers 
 are, thank Heaven ! " 
 
 Sir Thicknesse Throgmorton was what is now 
 generally styled a " real John Bull," a being combin 
 ing more of the elements of the ludicrous than 
 perhaps any other extant. Stiff as buckram, and 
 awkward as an ill-contrived automaton ; silent, stupid, 
 and ill-mannered, yet at the same time full of pre 
 tensions to a certain deference, due from others only 
 in exchange for courtesy and good-breeding. Igno 
 rant of his own country from incapacity to learn, and 
 
218 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 of the rest of the world from a certain contemptuous 
 stolidity, he exalted the one and depreciated the other 
 without knowing exactly why, except that that it 
 certainly was so, and there was an end to the matter. 
 His bow was an outrage upon both nature and incli 
 nation, except when he bent to the lady of the gover 
 nor, or the governor himself; and his dancing, the 
 essence of solemn stupidity, aiming at a stately non 
 chalance. Nothing called forth his lofty indignation 
 more than being spoken to by an inferior in rank, 
 dress, or station. This indignation was manifested 
 by a most laughable jumble of insurmountable clum 
 siness with affected dignity and would-be aristocratic 
 breeding. There was nothing he so much valued 
 himself upon as the air noble. Independently of the 
 indifference to his personal, hereditary, and official 
 dignity, evinced in an abrupt address from an inferior, 
 Sir Thicknesse had another special cause for disliking 
 to be spoken to by strangers. The fact is, he was 
 so long in collecting the materials of an answer to 
 the most common observation, that he seldom forgave 
 a person for putting him to the trouble. He had a 
 most rare, and, at that time, original, style of making 
 the agreeable, which is now however pretty general 
 among high-bred persons. He placed himself directly 
 opposite the lady, straddling like a gigantic pair of 
 brass tongs, to collect his ideas into one great explo 
 sion such, for instance, as," Don t you find it rather 
 warm, Mawm ? " Perfectly satisfied with this mighty 
 effort, the knight would strut off in triumph, to repose 
 himself for the rest of the evening under the shade 
 of his laurels. Added to this, he was a grumbling, 
 ill-tempered, dissatisfied being, full of assumption on 
 
219 
 
 the score of his personal accomplishments and the 
 interest of his connections. There is nothing in fact 
 so grand in the view of " a real John Bull " as possess 
 ing a family influence, whlclT fSTtders personal merit 
 and services quite superfluous. 
 
 With regard to the person of .Sir Thicknesse, it 
 was admirably contrived to set off his exemplary 
 awkwardness to the best advantage. It was a perfect 
 caricature of dignified clumsiness. His limbs struck 
 you as being too large for his body, until you studied 
 the latter, when it seemed perfectly clear that the body 
 was too large for the limbs. Taken by itself, every 
 feature of his face was unsymmetrical ; but examine 
 them in connexion as a whole, and there was an har 
 monious combination of unfinished magnitude, that 
 constituted a true and just proportion of dispropor 
 tions. His eyes sent forth a leaden lustre; his nose 
 was equally compounded of the pug and the bottle ; 
 his lips would have been too large for his mouth, had 
 not his mouth been large enough to harmonize with 
 them ; and his cheeks expanded into sufficient ampli 
 tude to accommodate the rest of his face without any 
 of the features being crowded two in a room, which 
 every body knows is the abomination of every " real 
 John Bull" in existence. Sir Thicknesse was of 
 ancient and honourable family, distinguished in the 
 annals of England. One of his ancestors had com 
 mitted an assassination in the very precincts of the 
 court, and, being obliged to fly in the disguise of a 
 peasant in order the more effectually to escape detec 
 tion, was overtaken by the king s poursuivant, while 
 sawing wood with one of his companions in a forest. 
 His attendant faltering on the appearance of the 
 
220 
 
 officer, for a moment stopped sawing, when the other 
 exclaimed significantly, " Thorough" or, " Through" 
 tradition is doubtful which. The attendant took 
 the hint, continued his work, and the poursuivant 
 passed them without suspicion. In memory of this 
 great exploit, the illustrious fugitive from justice 
 adopted this phrase as the motto of his coat of arms ; 
 and it descended to his posterity. Another of his 
 illustrious ancestors was distinguished in the wars of 
 York and Lancaster for his inflexible loyalty, being 
 always a most stanch supporter of the king de facto^ 
 and holding kings dejure in great contempt. A third, 
 and the greatest of all the family of Sir Thicknesse, 
 was an illegitimate descendant of a theatrical strum 
 pet and a scoundrel king, who demonstrated the force 
 of blood by afterward marrying an actress of precisely 
 the same stamp as her from whom he sprung. No 
 wonder Sir Thicknesse was proud of his family. 
 
 But, great as his progenitors were, they could not 
 hold a candle to those of Colonel Barry Fitzgerald 
 Macartney Gilfillan, a genuine Milesian, whose an 
 cestors had been kings of Connaught, princes of 
 Breffny, and lords of Ballyshannon, Ballynarnora, 
 Ballynahinch, Bailygruddrey, Ballyknockamora, and 
 several lordships besides. Gilfillan was an Irish Bull, 
 a perfect contrast to an English Bull. Pie was all 
 life, love, gallantry, whim, wit, humour, and hyperbole. 
 His animal spirits were to him as the wings of a bird, 
 on which he mounted into the regions of imagina 
 tion and folly. They flew away with him ten times 
 an hour. He learned every thing so fast that he knew 
 nothing perfectly ; and such was the impetuosity of 
 his conceptions, that half the time they came forth 
 
221 
 
 wrong end foremost. His ignorance of a subject 
 never for a moment prevented him from dashing right 
 into it, or stopped the torrent of his words, which 
 resembled a stream swelled by the rains, being ex 
 cessively noisy and not very clear. His ideas, in truth, 
 seemed always turning somersets over the heads of 
 each other, and for the most part presented that pre 
 cise rhetorical arrangement which is indicated by the 
 phrase, " putting the cart before the horse." He 
 never pleaded guilty to ignorance of any thing, nor 
 was ever known to stop a moment to get hold 
 of the right end of an idea, maintaining with a 
 humorous obstinacy, that, as he always came to the 
 right end at last, it was of no consequence where he 
 began. 
 
 Nature had given to Colonel Gilfillan a more than 
 usual share of the truly Irish propensity to falling in 
 love extempore. His heart was quite as hot as his 
 head, and between the two there was a perfect volcano. 
 He was always under high steam pressure. He once 
 acknowledged, or rather boasted for he never con 
 fessed any thing that he had fallen in love at the 
 Curragh of Kildare with six ladies in one day, and 
 was refused by them all in less than twenty-four hours 
 afterward. " But, faith ! " added he, " I killed two 
 horses riding about the country after them ; and that 
 was some comfort." " Comfort ! " said a friend: " how 
 do you make that out, Gilfillan ? " " Why, wasn t it 
 a proof I didn t stand shilly-shally, waiting my own 
 consent any more than that of the ladies, my dear?" 
 It is scarcely necessary to add, that he was generous, 
 uncalculating, brave, and a man of his word, except 
 in love affairs, and sometimes in affairs of business, 
 
222 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 when he occasionally lost at play the money he had 
 promised to a tradesman. His person exhibited a rich 
 redundance of manly beauty, glorious with youth, 
 health, and vigour ; he sang charmingly ; played the 
 fiddle so as to bring tears into your eyes; danced, 
 laughed, chatted, blundered, gallanted, flattered, and 
 made love, with a graceful confidence and fearless 
 audacity that caused him to be a great favourite with 
 and rather a dangerous companion for women of warm 
 imaginations and mere ordinary refinement of man 
 ners and feelings. Like most men of his profession, 
 his ideas on certain subjects were of the latitudinarian 
 order. Gilfillan swore he was a man of as much 
 honour as ever wore a uniform. He would not pick 
 a pocket; but, as for picking a lady s white bosom 
 of a sweet little heart let him alone for that. A fair 
 exchange was no robbery, all the world over ; and he 
 always left his own with them, if there were twenty. 
 When his brother officers laughed at him for having 
 so many hearts, " Och, my dears! "would he reply, 
 " do you talk about having but one heart ? A man with 
 only one heart in his body is like a poor divil with only 
 a shilling in his pocket he is afraid to part with it, 
 and so starves himself just for fear of starving." 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 223 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A REIGNING BELLE. 
 
 THIS combustible gentleman fell in love with Cata- 
 lina, instanter and never man had a better excuse; 
 for she was now in the prime of womanhood, and 
 lovely as the fairest creations of painting and poetry. 
 Her eyes, her lips, her cheeks, her nose, her forehead, 
 and her chin, were all cast in the happy mould of 
 symmetry ; and the combination produced an expres 
 sion of sensibility, intellect, and virtue, that struck 
 every one at first sight. Her fair white neck; her 
 harmonious, graceful shoulders; the confines of that 
 region on which the eye and the imagination delight 
 to linger as the chosen spot where grace and beauty 
 revel as on a bed of down ; the little, finished, tell 
 tale foot; and the graceful lines that gave the con 
 tour of her full, round figure; all and each of them 
 bore silent testimony to the perfection sacred to one 
 alone. 
 
 That Colonel Gilfillan should fall headlong in love 
 at the first sight of such an object, was just as natural, 
 not to say inevitable, as the explosion of a barrel of 
 gunpowder on the application of a firebrand. I will 
 not affirm that there was a spark of interest mingled 
 with his fires, but it may be safely laid down as a 
 maxim founded in human nature, that the most dis 
 interested lover has no very great objection to a com 
 petent estate in connexion with his mistress. Gilfillan 
 
224 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 made downright love to Catalina the tenth time he 
 saw her ; and at the eleventh interview offered her his 
 hand and fortune, at the same time laying his sword 
 at her feet, in which he confessed the latter entirely 
 consisted. He did this, however, in a style so wild 
 and overstrained, and with so odd a mixture of pa 
 thos and levity, jest and earnest, that the young 
 lady laughed at it as rodomontade. She gradually 
 became accustomed to his extravagance, and amused 
 with his good-humoured eccentricities. In the mean 
 time she mixed continually in the winter gayeties, and 
 became the toast of the season. 
 
 f Now it was that the spirit moved Sir-TMaknesse 
 Throgmaitoi to gather himself together and honour 
 Catalina with his notice. It will ever be found that 
 the dullest fellows are seen hovering about the most 
 brilliant objects, just as the bugs and rnoths, and other 
 imps of the night, hie them to bask in the splendours 
 of the lighted candle. Besides this general propen 
 sity, Sir Thicknesse was impelled by another and more 
 particular incitement. He was especially envious of 
 Gilfillan, who was perpetually throwing his accom 
 plishments into the shade, and whose spirit, brilliancy, 
 and good-nature made the dullness and stultified pride 
 of the other appear still more ungracious. 
 
 The first demonstration of his devotion to our he 
 roine which Sir Thicknesse indulged in was one night 
 actually stooping to pick up her fan, at a party at 
 his puissant excellency the governor s. Whereupon 
 Madam Van Borsum, Madam Van Dam, Madam 
 Twentyman, and twenty other madams, who had 
 marriageable daughters, were thrown into a trepida 
 tion. What rendered this act of condescension the 
 
225 
 
 more conspicuous, such was the rigidity of Sir Thick- 
 nesse s habits and costume, that he was obliged to go 
 down on one knee in order to its performance. The 
 young ladies tittered behind their fans, and Gilfillan 
 swore it put him in rnind of a wooden god offering 
 incense to a beautiful young priestess, which sounded 
 somewhat like a bull. When Sir Thicknesse had 
 performed this successful feat of gallantry, he strutted 
 away, and passed the rest of the evening in a corner, 
 in stately isolation, justly conceiving that he had done 
 enough for one night. 
 
 There was a certain feeling of self-complacency 
 which was vastly conciliated by having his name con 
 nected with that of the reigning belle of the day, in 
 the whispers of the young ladies and the tittle-tattle 
 of their mothers. With all his absurd affectation of 
 proud indifference, his vanity was highly excited by 
 the association. He was always pretending the most 
 sovereign contempt for the world and its opinions, 
 while at the same time his very soul smarted under 
 its censure or neglect. Of all the affectations of vanity, 
 that of insensibility to the opinions of the world is 
 the most irreconcilable with the feelings and actions 
 of men, and the most easily detected by its inconsist 
 encies. Sir Thicknesse followed up his first overt act 
 of picking up the fan by other movements still more 
 significant, until it came to pass that Madam Van 
 Borsum, Madam Van Dam, Madam Twentyman, and 
 the rest, came to a unanimous decision that it was all 
 over with their daughters, and that Catalina would 
 certainly, in good time, become Lady Throgmorton. 
 Not one of them conceived it possible she could be so 
 mad as to refuse a baronet, a governor s aide-de-camp, 
 
 15 
 
226 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 and a man actually bom in Old England. It is un 
 necessary to say that these worthy madams from this 
 time took a decided distaste to our heroine, and treated 
 her with extraordinary marks of attention. 
 
 Mrs. Aubineau soon, with the quick instinct of a 
 chaperon having a young lady to establish, perceived 
 the important conquests Catalina had achieved in so 
 short a time. She accordingly forthwith fell to bal 
 ancing accounts between the two suitors, for, as to 
 poor Sybrandt, she looked upon that affair as a mere 
 country arrangement, made to be broken on the first 
 convenient opportunity. Engagements made in the 
 country are never considered binding in town, all the 
 world over. If Catalina, quoth Madam Aubineau 
 in her secret cogitations, marries Gilfillan, she will be 
 a countess in time, but then it s only an Irish title, 
 and there is no estate to it I know. If she marries 
 Sir Thicknesse, she will be a lady at once, wife to an 
 English baronet and lady is lady all the world over. 
 Besides, he has an estate, and, though it is out at the 
 elbows, a little of Catalina s fortune will make it whole 
 again. The inevitable conclusion of Madam Aubineau 
 was, to encourage Sir Thicknesse, and discountenance 
 his rival. 
 
 But Gilfillan was an Irishman, and, as he affirmed, 
 he could always tell the difference between the false and 
 true Milesian, by the latter never being discouraged. 
 " By my soul," would he say, " there s no such word 
 in the old Irish tongue its an English importation." 
 To check such a man was out of the question. If 
 Madam Aubineau looked coolly upon him, or failed 
 in any of the customary attentions, he rallied her with 
 such a triumphant good-humour, or received her slights 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 227 
 
 with such imperturbable negligence, that she found 
 herself obliged to laugh herself friends with him, or 
 to sit down in despair at the perfect impotence of her 
 scheme of repression. 
 
228 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MANCEUVRING. 
 
 THE busiest and at the same time the most injudi 
 cious of all schemers is a good lady over-anxious to 
 make a match for a daughter, or a young spinster 
 under her protection. Madam Aubineau did nothing 
 but give parties at night, and her worthy husband had 
 no rest until he gave parties by day, at which Sir 
 Thicknesse was always seated next to Catalina at 
 dinner, where he never neglected to observe upon the 
 weather, and drink a glass of wine with her. There 
 is no telling what these seductive attentions might 
 have achieved in time, had not the genius of Gilfillan 
 crossed the path of Sir Thicknesse. That enterprising 
 Milesian, with singular skill and intrepidity, never 
 omitted to gain a seat on the other side of our hero 
 ine, where his humour, vivacity, and gallantry seldom 
 failed to obscure his rival, and throw him into utter 
 oblivion. It was observed at these merry-makings, 
 that Sir Thicknesse ate himself into still greater stu 
 pidity, while Gilfillan drank himself into such an ef 
 fervescence of spirits, that Catalina became actually 
 afraid of him. The prompt and sagacious matron 
 very soon came to the conclusion that dinner-parties 
 are the worst places in the world for match-making, at 
 least with Englishmen and Irishmen. 
 
 Madam Aubineau accordingly essayed to circum 
 vent Sir Thicknesse, by ensnaring him amid the allure- 
 
229 
 
 ments of evening-parties. Catalina had a fine voice, 
 and all the skill which could be attained in those mis 
 erable days, when all or nearly all the music of our 
 western world was carolled in woods and fields, when 
 not a single lady in all the land had a harp whereon 
 to commit murder, and when there were but three old 
 phthisicky spinets within the bills of mortality. Un 
 fortunately for our heroine one of these appertained 
 to Madam Aubineau s mansion, and night after night 
 was poor Catalina condemned to torture this imprac 
 ticable machine into something like groans and shrieks 
 of harmony. Catalina was tired to death; and so 
 was all the company. But everybody said " charm 
 ing," and cried, " what a pretty tune," at the end of 
 every execution. Sir Thicknesse beat time out of 
 time, till he fell into a brown study or a nap, no one 
 could tell which. Still worse than this ; here too the 
 star of Sir Thicknesse paled before the star of Gilfil- 
 lan. The voice of the latter was so touching and pa 
 thetic, that it is said he could bring tears into your eyes 
 by merely whimpering an Irish howl ; and when he 
 threw his whole ardent soul into an old Irish melody, 
 such as Aileen Aroon, it is recorded that the hardest 
 hearts were softened, and even tea-parties became si 
 lent. He taught Catalina some of these fine old airs, 
 and, as they warbled them together, their very beings 
 seemed for the time blended in one rich harmony ; 
 and then did the fortunes of Sir Thicknesse kick the 
 beam higher than ever. 
 
 Madam Aubineau saw that the gods of eating and 
 of music were both equally adverse to her desires. 
 She therefore varied her plan once more, and intro 
 duced dancing at her parties. She summoned the 
 
230 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 Orpheus and Amphion of the day, to wit 
 Dick, and Will, alias Ticklepitcher ; than whom two 
 greater fiddlers never drew bow in this western hem 
 isphere. Not Billy, the fiddler of immortal memory, 
 nor Bennett, nor any of those who now preside over 
 the midnight, or rather morning, revels of the youthful 
 fair of our city, who so many of them thus dance 
 themselves into the other world not one of these, 
 nor all together, could match the matchless skill of 
 the two above-mentioned. They lived in harmony, 
 and died in harmony as I verily believe ; never hav 
 ing heard any thing to the contrary. 
 
 But alack and alas for Madam Aubineau! Here 
 too the fates were hostile, and the genius of Old Ire 
 land triumphed over that of Old England. Gilfillan 
 danced like the feathered Mercury, and Sir Thicknesse 
 like a bear. His face was of lead and his body of 
 something still heavier. As to his legs, no one could 
 ever invent a comparison, or suggest a material, ade 
 quate to giving a just idea of their specific gravity. 
 Gilfillan came the nearest, when he affirmed they put 
 him in mind, " of two old rusty twenty-four-pounders, 
 planted half-way in the ground at the opposite corners 
 of a street." Besides, Sir Thicknesse was so long in 
 gathering himself together and crossing the room to 
 ask Catalina to dance, that Gilfillan, who delighted 
 to thwart his rival, always was beforehand with him, 
 and danced with her twice as often, to the complete 
 discomfiture of Madam Aubineau. 
 
 The good lady then resorted to morning visits. 
 She invited Sir Thicknesse, under various pretences, 
 to call, and managed to leave Catalina alone with 
 him. This was worse than all. Sir Thicknesse was 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 281 
 
 too stupid for a tete-^-tete conversation. People as 
 cribed his silence to pride, but, take my word for it, it 
 was sheer dulness the want of something to say. 
 This is what makes so many people affect pride. He 
 would sit on the sofa, rapping his military boot with 
 a rattan, and looking Catalina full in the face, till 
 she was both annoyed and tired out of all patience. 
 Once, we must do him the justice to say once, he 
 asked the young lady if she had been at the review. 
 She answered in the negative, at which Sir Thicknesse, 
 who had figured on the occasion in a newly-imported 
 suit of regimentals, was so grievously affronted, that 
 he pouted all the rest of the morning, and would not 
 condescend to stare her out of countenance. 
 
 These gratifying visits were also frequently broken 
 in upon by Gilfillan, who did not mind any of the 
 usual polite denials which shrewdly indicate that one s 
 company is not quite welcome. The truth is, he sel 
 dom gave himself the trouble to inquire who was at 
 home, but whistled or hummed himself into the parlour 
 without ceremony. If he found any one there, it was 
 well; if not, he staid till- some one came, or, if he 
 grew tired, whistled himself out again. His company 
 was always a relief to our heroine from the deadly 
 monotony of Sir Thicknesse s silence, and of course 
 she received him with smiles, which almost went to 
 the imperturbable heart of his rival, who always 
 slapped his boot the harder, and looked, if possible, 
 still more grim on these occasions. 
 
 All this time Catalina had no idea of any serious 
 attentions on the part of the two gentlemen. She did 
 not feel sufficiently interested in either to make her 
 very clear-sighted on the occasion ; and, indeed, the 
 
232 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 stupidity of the one, and the wild rodomontade of the 
 other, made their intentions very obscure as well as 
 questionable. But young ladies are sure to be let into 
 these secrets by the kind interest which every-body 
 takes in affairs with which they have no concern. I 
 will not deny that she flirted a little with one of her 
 admirers, and what was still more suspicious, laughed 
 at the other ; but, certain it is, she had not troubled 
 her head in the business until she began to be con 
 gratulated on all hands upon the important conquests 
 she had made. Nay, some of the old ladies affected 
 to ask her, very significantly, when it was to be 
 whether the old folks had given their consent, and, 
 especially, how master Sybrandt Westbrook was, and 
 whether he did not mean to spend part of the winter 
 in town. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 233 
 
 - 
 
 _, v 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 . fi-ft* 
 
 IN WHICH THE READER WILL, BE PUZZLED TO DISCOVER WHETHER THE 
 GRAY MARE IS THE BETTER HORSE OR NOT. 
 
 OUR heroine was somewhat startled at these inqui 
 ries. TJiojighb^utifoil -as, an angel, still she was 
 mortal. The dissipations of a city life, the novelty 
 of every thing around her, and more especially the" 
 incense every where administered to the sly lurking 
 vanity which nestles somewhere in every human heart, 
 had, by degrees, somewhat obscured the remembrance 
 of Sybrandt. She frequently thought of him with 
 affectionate gratitude, but this thought was so often 
 interrupted by visitors, entertainments, and all the 
 attractions of a life of pleasure, that by degrees it 
 ceased to be the governing principle of her actions ; 
 and various little coquetries marked the effect of 
 absence as well as the growth of worldly passions. 
 During the winter season there was little intercourse 
 between New York and Albany, and consequently 
 the letters that were interchanged between her and 
 Sybrandt were few and far between. It must be con 
 fessed too, that when opportunities did occur, Catalina 
 sometimes had so much on her hands that she did not 
 always avail herself of them. 
 
 " My dear," said Mr. Aubineau to his wife, one day 
 that he had been asked by Mrs. Twentyman when 
 Catalina was to be married, " my dear, have you 
 forgot that your friend Miss Vancour is engaged to be 
 married to her cousin ? " 
 
234 
 
 " No, my dear," replied she ; " I ve not forgot it. 
 I ve not lost my memory yet, thank heaven." 
 
 " Well then, my dear, do you wish to make a fool 
 of Sir Thicknesse Throgmorton ? " 
 
 " No, my dear, I don t wish to make a fool of Sir 
 Thicknesse Throgmorton." 
 
 " Then, perhaps you wish to make a fool of Cata- 
 lina?" 
 
 " I don t understand you, my dear." 
 
 " Why, my dear, it seems to me that, knowing as 
 you do the engagement of this young lady, the en 
 couragement you give Sir Thicknesse in his attentions 
 to her, when it is obvious they must be vain, is very 
 well calculated to make a fool of him, in the common 
 acceptation of the term." 
 
 "Pooh, Mr. Aubineau; what is an engagement 
 between two people without experience in the world, 
 who fall in love in the country because they don t 
 know what to do with themselves ? " 
 
 " Why, Mrs. Aubineau, I should think an engage 
 ment made in the country exactly as binding as if it 
 were made in the city." 
 
 " Pshaw ! Mr. Aubineau, you talk nonsense. To 
 miss such an establishment, and a title to boot ! What 
 do you say to that ? " 
 
 " Why, I say that neither a title nor an establish 
 ment furnishes sufficient apology for acting dishon 
 ourably." 
 
 " Lord ! Mr. Aubineau, how you talk ! " 
 
 " This young lady is placed under our guardianship 
 by her parents, who have sanctioned her engagement 
 with her cousin ; and we are, in some measure, respon 
 sible for her conduct. What will her father say? " 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 235 
 
 " Pooh ! what signifies what he says ! " 
 
 " And her mother ? " 
 
 " Why, she ll say we have done right to break off 
 this foolish country engagement, and thank us for 
 making her the mother of a lady." 
 
 " I doubt it." 
 
 " If she don t, she is a most unnatural mother. 
 Why, Madam Van Borsum, and Madam Van Dam, 
 and Madam Twentyman, and all the other madams 
 that have marriageable daughters, are ready to die of 
 envy." 
 
 Well, let them die, if they will." 
 
 " Let them die? why, you inhuman man, are you 
 not ashamed of yourself? the poor souls!" 
 
 " But this is nothing to the purpose. It is not what 
 others may think or say, but what we ought to do, 
 that I wish to consult you about." 
 
 " Well, my dear, I am willing to be consulted as 
 much as you please ; but, I tell you beforehand, all 
 you can say will not alter my opinions or my conduct, 
 my dear." 
 
 " Oh, if that is the case, madam, I shall take my 
 own course. I shall to-day write to invite Sybrandt 
 Westbrook to come down and spend the rest of the 
 winter with us. Let him take care of his own inter 
 ests, since you won t." 
 
 " If you do, I tell you once for all, my dear, I won t 
 be civil to him." 
 
 " Then I shall be particularly civil." 
 
 "You will?" 
 
 Yes." 
 
 A monosyllable is always significant of cool deter 
 mination ; and this made Mrs. Aubineau start. 
 
236 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 " There s no room for him in the house," said she, 
 after a pause of consideration as to whether it was 
 time to be angry. 
 
 " I shall have a bed made for him in my library." 
 
 " There s no room for a bed without removing the 
 bookcases." 
 
 " Then I shall remove the bookcases." 
 
 "You will?" 
 
 Yes." 
 
 Another diabolical monosyllable ! What woman in 
 the shape of a wife could bear it ? 
 
 " I ll tell you what, my dear " 
 
 " You need not tell me any thing, my dear. I recol 
 lect you were pleased to observe just now that nothing 
 I could say would alter your opinions or your conduct. 
 I am just in the same humour. There is a govern 
 ment-messenger going to Albany to-morrow ; I shall 
 write by him." So saying, Mr. Aubineau took his 
 hat, and walked very deliberately to the Perpetual 
 Club, an ancient and honourable institution which 
 flourished at that time in the good city of New York, 
 one of the fundamental principles of which was that 
 there should always be a quorum of members present, 
 day and night. 
 
 " What an obstinate mule ! " exclaimed Mrs. Aubi 
 neau, when he was out of hearing. " A man that 
 won t listen to reason is as bad as bad " as a 
 woman that won t listen to reason, whispered con 
 science. Mrs. Aubineau was, upon the whole, a rea 
 sonable woman, and listened to her monitor until she 
 thought better of the matter. She determined to be 
 uncommonly civil to Sybrandt if he came, and to 
 make herself amends by counteracting his interests 
 
237 
 
 to the utmost of her power. That evening Mr. Au- 
 bineau informed Catalina he had written to invite 
 Sybrandt. The news caused a rush of blood from 
 her heart to her face; but whether it was a flush 
 of pleasure, surprise, or apprehension, I cannot say. 
 Whatever were her feelings, she uttered not a word, 
 and the secret remained buried in her bosom. 
 
288 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER VH. 
 
 THE EAPE OF THE PICTURE. 
 
 IN due time Sybrandt received the letter of Mr. 
 Aubineau, and obtained from Mr. Dennis Vancour a 
 slow unwilling assent to his acceptance of the invi 
 tation. Colonel Vancour also gave his approbation, 
 and Madam did not oppose, though she had a great 
 inclination to do so. She was a wife of the old regime 
 that is to say, an antediluvian wife, for I have 
 heard of none since the flood who, like her, acted on 
 the principle that in matters where men s business 
 was particularly concerned men should be left to judge 
 for themselves. But she did not like the arrangement. 
 I don t much approve disclosing the secrets of ladies, 
 but, the truth was, there had been a sly correspond 
 ence going on for some time between her and Mrs. 
 Aubineau, in which the project of making Madam the 
 mother of a titled lady was communicated, and re 
 ceived with singular complacency. Probably there 
 was not a mother in the whole wide circumference of 
 this new world who could have resisted the tempta 
 tion. The apple of Eve was nothing to it. The good 
 Dame Vancour thought of little else by day and by 
 night, nay, she dreamed, three nights running, that 
 she saw Catalina with a coronet, instead of a night 
 cap. However, she made no opposition to the visit 
 of Sybrandt, trusting to the assurances contained in a 
 letter from Mrs. Aubineau, (which came by the rnes- 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 239 
 
 senger who brought the invitation), that she would 
 take care nothing should grow out of Mr. Aubineau s 
 impertinent interference. 
 
 The worthy Dennis was resolved that his adopted 
 son should not disgrace him at the little court of the 
 little puissant governor of New York. He got him 
 two full suits, constructed by his own tailor, whom he 
 considered the greatest hand at inexpressibles in the 
 universe. Certain it is he took the greatest quantity 
 of broadcloth, though he was never in his life sus 
 pected of cabbaging. The favourite colours of Dennis 
 were snuff and drab, and accordingly these were 
 ordered. The tailor was enjoined to be very partic 
 ular in not making them too tight, as people were 
 very apt to grow fat as they grew old ; and Ariel had 
 a glorious time of it He went to Albany four times 
 a week, to superintend the construction of Sybrandt s 
 wardrobe, and hasten the completion of this arduous 
 business. Thus stimulated, the tailor, who was called 
 Master Goosee Ten Broeck, bestirred himself with 
 such consummate diligence, that at the end of three 
 weeks he triumphantly brought home the whole 
 twelfth labour of Hercules. Sybrandt was out of all 
 patience in the mean while ; but was amply rewarded 
 for the delay, by the perfection of Master Goosee s 
 work; which Uncle Dennis affirmed fitted just like 
 wax, though heaven knows why. It certainly did 
 not stick to him like wax, but hung around his body 
 and limbs at a most respectful distance. All things 
 being in readiness, Dennis gave Sybrandt his blessing, 
 together with abundance of advice, backed by a purse 
 of guineas, the music of which far transcended that 
 of the spheres, which the poets make such harangues 
 
240 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 about. If they were a little accustomed to the chink 
 ing of guineas, they would find there was no com 
 parison between the two. " Damn it, Sybrandt," 
 exclaimed little Ariel, " damn it, I should like to go 
 with you ; but, now I think of it, I can t, neither. I ve 
 promised old Ten Broeck to graft some pear-trees for 
 him, as soon as the spring comes on." 
 
 " Good-by, massa Sybrandt," said Tjerck, now al 
 most bent double with age and rheumatism " Good- 
 by, massa Sybrandt neber see ole nigger again." 
 Sybrandt was touched with this homely address, and 
 the tears came into his eyes. He shook hands with 
 the partner of his first adventures when he put on the 
 toga and commenced man, and parted from him with 
 sorrow. His speech to his young master was pro 
 phetic they never met again. The old man died of 
 a rheumatism, about a fortnight afterward. Peace to 
 his soul! I honour his memory, for he was one of 
 those faithful servants the race of which has long 
 become extinct, amid the pious endeavours of pains 
 taking folks who have nothing to do but better the 
 condition of mankind, and meddle with other people s 
 concerns. 
 
 While these things were going on in the country, 
 our heroine was in what is called in homely phrase 
 I like homely phrases in a sort of a quandary. 
 Sometimes she was glad that her cousin was coming, 
 and sometimes she was sorry. At one time she was 
 very angry he was so long in coming, and at another 
 she found it in her heart to wish he would not corne 
 at all; for mighty were her fears that the fashionable 
 people of New York, and more especially the aides- 
 de-camp, would laugh at his country manners and 
 rustic apparel. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 241 
 
 Sir Thicknesse and Gilfillan still continued their 
 attentions. The former gentleman gathered himself 
 together in consequence of being incited thereto by 
 Mrs. Aubineau, and achieved a most triumphant piece 
 of courtship. He actually spoke to our heroine three 
 times in one morning. As to the tinder I don t 
 mean tender hearted Milesian, he swore at least six 
 dozen times a day that she was an angel, and that he 
 was dying by barleycorns for the love of her sweet 
 soul. He certainly was deeply smitten, after the 
 fashion of a soldier and an Irishman, for, notwith 
 standing he was dying for love, he was the healthiest, 
 merriest fellow in the world, and laughed, sang, 
 danced, drank, gamed, and gallanted, just as if noth 
 ing was the matter with him. 
 
 Catalina had much ado to keep him in order and 
 subjection to the rules of feminine delicacy, for your 
 true Milesian is ever daringly enterprising. Even love 
 cannot make a coward of him. Our heroine was 
 always obliged to act on the defensive, when alone 
 with him, and more than once had occasion to be 
 seriously angry. One day he came in, humming his 
 favourite Aileen Aroon, and, finding a miniature of 
 Catalina which had just been taken by an eminent 
 hand, (and which is still extant in the Vancour 
 family), my gentleman was seized with the gallant 
 whim of possessing himself of it, at least pro tern. 
 Our heroine expostulated Gilfillan laughed; she 
 was angry Gilfillan laughed still louder; she stated 
 to him seriously the indelicacy of such a procedure, 
 and the consequences of the picture being seen in his 
 possession all would not do: he replied in ranting 
 and extravagant professions, swore he did not mean 
 
 16 
 
242 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 to keep it, that he only wanted to worship her image 
 in secret for one night, when he would return it, pro 
 vided it was not demolished with kisses ; and, finally, 
 turned the whole into a joke, and set our heroine 
 laughing in spite of her vexation. In short, he carried 
 off the bawble, with a solemn lover s assurance of 
 returning it the next day. But, the next day, and 
 the next, he made some such odd, extravagant, or 
 humorous excuse for retaining it one day longer, that 
 Catalina yielded to his irresistible absurdity, and was 
 actually ashamed to be angry. In about a week, how 
 ever, he returned the picture, affirming at the same 
 time that nothing but its being the actual representa 
 tion of a divinity had miraculously preserved it from 
 destruction by the intensity of his devotion. In a 
 short time the whole affair was forgiven and forgotten 
 by Catalina. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 243 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A HERO IN SNUFF-COLOURED BREECHES. 
 
 A FEW days afterward, Sybrandt arrived in his snuff- 
 coloured suit, which of itself was enough to ruin the 
 brightest prospects of the most thriving wooer. Think 
 what a contrast to the glories of an aide-de-camp 
 the scarlet, gold-laced coat, the bright spurs, and the 
 gorgeous epaulettes! Poor Sybrandt! What supe 
 riority of the inside could weigh against this outside 
 gear? Catalina received him, I cannot tell exactly 
 how. She did not know, herself, and how should I ? 
 It was an odd, incomprehensible, indescribable com 
 pound of affected indifference and affected welcome, 
 due to fear of showing too little feeling, and horror of 
 exhibiting too much. In short, it was an awkward 
 business, and Sybrandt made it still more so, by being 
 suddenly seized with an acute fit of his old malady 
 of shyness and embarrassment. Such a meeting has 
 often been the prelude to an eternal separation. 
 
 The very next evening after his arrival, Sybrandt 
 made his debut in the snuff-coloured suit, at a grand 
 party given by his Excellency the Governor, in honour 
 of his Majesly s birthday. All the aristocracy of the 
 city were collected on this occasion, and, in order to 
 give additional dignity to the ceremony, several peo 
 ple of the first consequence delayed making their 
 appearance till almost seven o clock. The hoops and 
 heads were prodigious ; and it is recorded of more 
 
244 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 than one lady, that she went to this celebrated enter 
 tainment with her head sticking out of one of the 
 coach windows, and her hoop out at the other. Their 
 sleeves it is true were not quite so exuberant as those 
 of the present graceful mode ; nor was it possible to 
 mistake a lady s arm for her body, as is sometimes 
 done in these degenerate days by near-sighted dan 
 dies, one of whom, I am credibly informed, actually 
 put his arm round the sleeve instead of the waist, in 
 dancing the waltz last winter with a young belle just 
 from Paris. Many a little sharp-toed, high-heeled 
 satin shoe, sparkling in diamond-paste buckles, did 
 execution that night ; and one old lady in particular 
 displayed, with all the pride of conscious superiority, 
 a pair of gloves her mother had worn at court in the 
 reign of the gallant Charles the Second, who came 
 very near asking her to dance, and publicly declared 
 her to be quite as elegant as Nell Gwyn, and almost 
 as beautiful as the Dutchess of Cleveland. These 
 consecrated relics descended in a direct line from gen 
 eration to generation in this illustrious family, being 
 considered the most valuable of its possessions, until 
 they were sacrilegiously purloined by a gentleman of 
 colour belonging to the house, and afterward exhib 
 ited during several seasons at the African balls. " To 
 what base uses we may return, Horatio ! " 
 
 All the dignitaries of the province were present at 
 this celebration, for absence would have been looked 
 upon as a proof of disloyalty. Here were the illus 
 trious members of the governor s council, who repre 
 sented his majesty in the second degree. Next came 
 the chief-justice, and the puisne justices, all in those 
 magnificent wigs which, as Captain Basil Hall as- 
 
245 
 
 serfs, give such superiority to the decisions of the 
 judges of England, seeing that, when the man s 
 head is so full of law that it can hold no more, a vast 
 superfluity of knowledge may be accommodated in 
 the curls of the wig. Here too figured his majesty s 
 attorney-general and his majesty s solicitor-general, 
 who also wore wigs, but not so large as those of 
 the judges, for that would have been considered a 
 shrewd indication that they thought themselves 
 equally learned in the law with their betters. Next 
 came the rabble of little vermin that are quartered 
 upon colonies in all ages and nations, to fatten on the 
 spoils of industry, and tread upon the people who 
 give them bread. Custom and excise officers, com 
 missioners and paymasters, and every creeping thing 
 which had the honour of serving and cheating his 
 majesty in the most contemptible station, here took 
 precedence of the ancient and present lords of the 
 soil, and looked down upon them as inferior beings. 
 His Majesty was the fountain of honour and glory ; 
 and his Excellency the Governor being his direct and 
 immediate representative, all claims to distinction 
 were settled by propinquity to that exalted functionary. 
 Whoever was nearest to him in dignity of office was 
 the next greatest man ; and whatever lady could get 
 nearest the governor s lady at a party was indubitably 
 ennobled for that night, and became an object of envy 
 ever afterward. Previous to the late Revolution, more 
 than one of our aristocratic families derived their prin 
 cipal distinction from their grandmothers having once 
 dined with the governor, and sat at the right hand of 
 his lady at table. 
 
 If Sybrandt, the humble and obscure Sybrandt, 
 
246 
 
 who had nothing to recommend him but talents, 
 learning, and intrepidity of soul if he was awed by 
 the majesty of this illustrious assemblage of mag 
 nates, almost all of whom were capped with some sort 
 of title, who can blame him? And if, as he con 
 trasted his snuff-coloured dress with the gorgeous 
 military costumes, he felt, in spite of himself, a con 
 sciousness of inferiority, who can wonder? And if, 
 as he gazed on the big wigs of the judges, and on the 
 vast circumference of those hoops in which the beau 
 ties of New York moved and revolved as in a uni 
 verse of their own, he trembled to his inmost heart, 
 who shall dare to question his courage? 
 
 To the weight of this feeling which pressed upon 
 the modesty of his nature, and, as it were, enveloped 
 his intellects in a fog, were added various other causes 
 of vexation. When it was whispered about that he 
 was the country beau, the accepted one of the belle 
 of New York, the scrutiny he underwent would have 
 shaken the heart of a roaring lion. The young ladies, 
 who envied Catalina the conquest of the two aides, 
 revenged themselves by tittering at her beau behind 
 their fans. 
 
 " Lord," whispered Miss Van Dam to Miss Twen- 
 tyman, " did you ever see such an old-fashioned crea 
 ture ? I declare, he looks frightened out of his wits." 
 
 " And then his snuff-coloured breeches ! " said the 
 other. " He is handsome, too : but what is a man 
 without a red coat and epaulettes ! " 
 
 My readers will excuse the insertion of a certain 
 obnoxious word in the reply of the young lady, when 
 they understand it was uttered in a whisper. I am 
 the last man in the world to commit an outrage upon 
 
247 
 
 female decorum, and am not so ignorant of what is 
 due to the delicacy of the sex as not to know that 
 though it is considered allowable for young ladies 
 nowadays to expose their persons in the streets and 
 at parties in the most generous manner, as well as to 
 permit strangers to take them round the waist in a 
 waltz, it would be indelicate in the highest degree to 
 mention such matters in plain English. In fashion 
 able ethics, indelicacy consists not so much in the 
 thing itself as in the words used in describing it. 
 
 While the young ladies were criticising the merits 
 of our hero s costume, the mothers were discussing 
 his other attributes. 
 
 " They say he will be immensely rich," quoth Mrs. 
 Van Dam. 
 
 " You don t say so ! " cried Mrs. Van Borsum. 
 
 " Yes, he has two old bachelor uncles, as rich as 
 Crcesus." 
 
 " Crcesus ? who is he ? I don t know him." 
 
 " A rich merchant in London, I believe." 
 
 " Well, but is it certain he will have the fortunes 
 of both the old bachelors ? " 
 
 " O, certain. One of them has adopted him, and 
 the other made his will and left him all he has." 
 
 " What a pity he should marry such a flirt as that 
 Miss Vancour ! " 
 
 " O, a very great pity. Really, I am sorry for the 
 young fellow; he deserves a better wife." And she 
 thought of her daughter. 
 
 " Indeed he does," echoed the other lady; and she 
 thought of her daughter. They both began to despair 
 of the aides, and the military and the civil dignitaries ; 
 and the next object of their ambition was a rich pro 
 vincial. 
 
248 
 
 It was not many hours after this conversation be 
 fore our friend Sybrandt was, at their particular in 
 stance, introduced to these good ladies, and by them 
 to their daughters. 
 
 " Is he rich enough to take me home ? " whispered 
 Miss Van Borsum to her mother home being the 
 phrase for Old England at that time, when it was 
 considered vulgar to belong to a colony. " Is he rich 
 enough to take me home ? " 
 
 " As rich as Croesus, the great London merchant." 
 
 " Then I am determined to set my cap at him in 
 spite of his snuff-col cured suit," thought Miss Van 
 Borsum. By one of those inexplicable manoeuvres 
 with which experienced dames contrive arrangements 
 of this sort, Sybrandt was actually forced into dancing 
 a minuet with Miss Van Borsum, although he would 
 almost have preferred dancing a jig upon nothing. 
 The young lady nearly equalled Catalina in this the 
 most graceful and ladylike of all dances ; and having 
 a beautiful little foot et ccetera, many were the keen 
 darts she launched from her pointed satin shoes and 
 diamond buckles at the hearts of the beholders. The 
 dancing of our hero was not altogether despicable ; 
 but the snuff-coloured breeches! they did his busi 
 ness for that night with all the young ladies and their 
 mothers who did not know he was the heir of two 
 rich old bachelors. 
 
249 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OF THE NOBLE REVENGE OF SIR THICKNESSE THROGMORTON. 
 THE AUTHOR LAUDS THE LADIES. 
 
 GILFILLAN, who was speedily advertised by several 
 communicative and amiable elderly ladies, who could 
 not bear to see him made a fool of, that Sybrandt 
 was the really formidable man after all eyed him 
 with an air of taunting ridicule. Sybrandt was on 
 the lookout too, and returned these demonstrations 
 with interest, But Gilfillan was a generous, good- 
 natured, fellow, and, ere long, that kind feeling with 
 which every genuine Irishman looks at a stranger 
 overcame the hostility of rivalship. 
 
 " By the galligaskins of my great ancestor, the Prince 
 of Breffny," quoth he, " there can be no danger in 
 such a pair as that " and he immediately introduced 
 himself to our hero, with a frank cordiality that was 
 irresistible. Sybrandt felt himself drawn towards him, 
 in spite of his being a rival. " But, how did he know 
 Gilfillan was his rival?" Pshaw! gentle reader, if 
 you can t comprehend that, you had better go and 
 study metaphysics. Do you suppose it possible for 
 him to converse with Madam Van Borsum and dance 
 with her daughter, without knowing all about it? 
 You must think women had no tongues in the days 
 of your great-grandmother. 
 
 The behaviour of Sir Thicknesse Throgmorton was 
 a perfect contrast to that of Colonel Gilfillan. He 
 
250 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 affected to take not the least notice of Sybrandt, and 
 pouted majestically with Catalina. He pretended not 
 to hear when she addressed him neglected to ask 
 her to dance came very near flirting with Miss Van 
 Dam, only he did not know how retired into a corner, 
 where he stood two hours, sometimes resting on one 
 leg, then on the other, like unto a goose ; and finally 
 refused to cut up a boiled turkey at supper, when 
 requested by the Governor s lady : at which piece of 
 unheard-of audacity the entire company threw down 
 their knives and forks in astonishment. That very 
 night he consulted his pillow, and determined to jilt 
 Catalina, not having at that time the fear of the law 
 before him, which hath since remunerated so, many 
 broken-hearted young ladies for the loss of one hus 
 band by enabling them to purchase a second suitor 
 with the spoils of the first. He resolved, therefore, to 
 desert our heroine, and break her heart. It never en 
 tered the head of this solid gentleman that she was 
 very happy to be rid of him. But, to mortify her still 
 more, he determined to pay his devoirs to another. 
 For this purpose he selected the spouse of an honest 
 burgher residing in Broad street, to whom he addressed 
 a flaming love-letter in English. The good woman 
 not being able to read it, one language being at that 
 time considered quite enough for an honest woman, 
 like a dutiful wife carried it to her husband to inter 
 pret for her. The worthy burgher was in the same 
 predicament with his wife, and put it into the hands 
 of Gilfillan, (who happened to be an old customer), 
 for translation. After this he went forthwith to Sir 
 Thicknesse to expostulate with him, and know what 
 " de duyvel " he meant. " You can t marry mine 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 251 
 
 j cause she s cot one huspand alreaty ; " said he, 
 with great appearance of reason. Gilfillan made a 
 capital story out of this, and the dignified baronet 
 was so quizzed wherever he went, that he soon asked 
 leave of absence, and returned to England, where it 
 is said he found plenty of proud blockheads who mis 
 took awkwardness for dignity, and clumsiness for the 
 air noble, to keep him in countenance. The reader 
 will be pleased to recollect that I am speaking of days 
 of yore, and that the English beaux have since been 
 greatly improved in grace and politeness by frequent 
 association with our sprightly belles. But I am an 
 ticipating my story. 
 
 Be this as it may, it is with pain I confess that the 
 snuff-coloured garments heretofore commemorated, 
 the tittering of the young ladies, the criticisms of their 
 mothers, the ill-natured side-speeches of Mrs. Aubi- 
 neau, and, above all, the sly remarks of the officers, 
 together with a certain secret consciousness on the 
 part of our heroine that our hero made but an indiffer 
 ent figure at this illustrious gala, operated somewhat 
 unfavourably to the interests of Sybrandt. Women 
 in general, (I mean before they are married), can 
 scarcely be said to have any opinions of their own. 
 They are entirely under the dominion of fashion. They 
 will not do a thing which is perfectly innocent, be 
 cause it is not the fashion ; and they will frequently 
 do things unbecoming the delicacy of the sex, because 
 it is the fashion. Nay, their very virtues occasionally 
 appear to be the sport of this power, which is nothing 
 but the result of the whims and caprices of nobody 
 knows whom an emanation from nobody knows 
 where sometimes the eccentricity of a lady of ton 
 
252 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 sometimes the offspring of the vanity of an opera 
 dancer and often the invention of a fantastic mil 
 liner. A dress may be elegant and becoming, yet if 
 it is no longer of the mode a lady who aspires to the 
 least consideration will scarcely dare to be seen in 
 it. Her very manners and morals, too, are more or 
 less under the sway of this invisible despot ; and ladies 
 who resist every other species of tyranny submit to 
 this with the resignation of martyrs. An unfashion 
 able dress is death to a fashionable young lady, and 
 an unfashionable lover, purgatory. When a man once 
 comes to be laughed at in this world of butterflies his 
 time is come; whatever may be his merits, it is all 
 over with him. Yet, notwithstanding these little foibles 
 of women, none but a morose disappointed old bach 
 elor will deny that they are delightful ingredients in 
 the sour cup of life. In infancy, in manhood, and 
 in old age in our sports, enjoyments, and relaxa 
 tions they are our choicest companions ; in the cares, 
 troubles, and disappointments of this world, they are 
 our best solace, our most faithful friends ; and in the 
 last hours of weakness, yea, on the bed of death, they 
 are the ministering spirits to smooth our pillow, alle 
 viate our sufferings, and finally close our eyes and 
 wrap us in the winding-sheet, the last clothing of hu 
 manity. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 Library* 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 
 
 How oft from colour of men s clothes 
 Is born a frightful train of woes ! 
 
 OUR heroine was a delightful specimen of the sex ; 
 born, too, before the commencement of the brilliant 
 era of public improvement and the progress of mind. 
 I could nev&r learn that she spoke either French or 
 Italian, though she certainly did English and Dutch, 
 and that with a voice of such persuasive music, such 
 low, irresistible pathos, that Gilfillan often declared 
 there was no occasion to understand what she said to 
 be drawn into any thing. But in truth she was mar 
 vellously behind the present age of development. She 
 had never in her life attended a lecture on chemistry 
 though she certainly understood the ingredients of 
 a pudding; and was entirely ignorant of the happy 
 art of murdering time in strolling up and down 
 Broadway all the morning, brought to such exquisite 
 perfection by the ladies of this precocious generation. 
 Indeed, she was too kind-hearted to murder any thing 
 but beaux, and that she did unwittingly. Still, she 
 was a woman, and could not altogether resist the 
 contagion of the ridicule lavished on poor Sybrandt s 
 snuff-coloured inexpressibles. Little did she expect 
 the time would one day come when this would be the 
 fashionable colour for pantaloons, in which modern 
 Corinthians would figure at balls and assemblies, to 
 the delight of all beholders. 
 
254 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESI: 
 
 Being a woman, then, she did not pause to inquire 
 whether snuff-colour was not in the abstract ju- - 
 respectable as blue or red, or even imperial purple. 
 She tried it by the laws of fashion, and it was found 
 wanting. Now, there is an inherent relation between 
 a man and his apparel. As dress receives a grace 
 sometimes from the person that wears it, so does it 
 confer a similar benefit. They cannot be separated 
 they constitute one being : and hence some modern 
 metaphysicians have been exceedingly puzzled to de 
 fine the precise line of distinction between a dandy 
 and his costume. It was through this mysterious 
 blending of ideas that the fortunes of our hero came 
 nigh to being utterly shipwrecked. Catalina con 
 founded the obnoxious habiliments with the wearer 
 thereof; and he too, for the few hours that the party 
 lasted and the young lady remained under the in 
 fluence of fashion, became ridiculous by the associa 
 tion. 
 
 By degrees she found herself growing ashamed of 
 her old admirer, whose attentions she received with a 
 certain embarrassment and disdain, which he saw and 
 felt immediately : for Sybrandt was no fool, although 
 he did wear a suit made by a Dutch tailor. Neither 
 did he lack one spark of the spirit becoming a man 
 conscious of his innate superiority over the gilded 
 swarm around him. The moment he saw the - 
 of Catalina s feelings, he met her more than half--, 
 and intrenched himself behind his old defences of 
 silent neglect and proud humility. He spoke to her 
 no more that evening. Though Catalina was con 
 scious in her heart that she merited this treatment, 
 this was a very different thing from being satisfied 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIIM-SFDE. 
 
 with it. Gilfillan would not have behaved so, thought 
 she, while she remembered how the worse she used 
 him the more lowly and attentive he became. Sin- 
 mistook this submission to her whims or indifference 
 for a proof of superior love, and therein fell into an 
 error whieh has been fatal to the happiness of many 
 a woman, and will be fatal to that of many more, in 
 spile of ;ill I can say on the subject. The error I 
 would warn them against is that of confounding sub- I 
 serviency with affection. They know little of the ; 
 hearts of men, if they are ignorant that the man who 
 loves as he ought, and whose; views are disinterested, 
 will no more forget, what is due to himself than what 
 is due to his mistress. He will sink into the slave of 
 no woman, whom he does not intend to make a slave 
 in return. It is only your fortune-hunters that be 
 come the willing victims of caprice, and submit to 
 every species of mortification the ingenuity of way 
 ward vanity can invent, in the hope that this degrad 
 ing vassalage may be at length repaid, not by the pos 
 session of the lady, but by her money. It must be 
 confessed, that the event too often justifies the expec 
 tation. Be this as it may, before the conclusion of 
 this important evening the company perceived evident 
 signs of a coolness between the lovers; and Gilfillan, 
 who watched them with the keen sagacity of a man 
 of the world, redoubled his attentions. It is hardly 
 ncees.-ary to say that our heroine received them with 
 corresponding complacency for, as I observed be 
 fore, she was a woman ; and what woman ever failed 
 to repay the neglect of her lover, even though occa 
 sioned by a fault of her own, with ample interest ? 
 u If she thinks to make me jealous, she is very much 
 
256 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 mistaken," thought Sybrandt, while he fretted in an 
 agony of vexation. 
 
 The next morning Sybrandt breakfasted at home, 
 saying little, and thinking a great deal the true 
 secret of being stupid. Mrs. Aubineau asked him 
 fifty questions about the ball, and especially about 
 Miss Van Borsum. But she could get nothing out 
 of him, except that he admired that young lady ex 
 ceedingly. This was a bouncer, but, " at lovers 
 perjuries " the quotation is somewhat musty. Ca- 
 talina immediately launched out in praise of Gilfil- 
 lan, and made the same declaration in reference to 
 him. This was another bouncer. He amused her 
 and administered to her vanity; but, the truth is, she 
 neither admired nor respected him. Still, the atten 
 tions of an aide-de-camp were what no mortal young 
 lady of that age could bring herself voluntarily to 
 relinquish, at least in New York. Our hero, though 
 he had his mouth full of muffin at the moment Cata- 
 lina expressed her approbation of Gilfillan, rose from 
 the table abruptly, and, seizing his hat, sallied forth 
 into the street, though Mrs. Aubineau called after to 
 say she had made an engagement for him that morn 
 ing. 
 
 " Catalina," said Mrs. Aubineau, " do you mean to 
 marry that stupid man in the snuff-coloured clothes?" 
 " He has a great many good qualities." 
 " But he wears snuff-coloured breeches." 
 " He is brave, kind-hearted, generous, and possesses 
 knowledge and talents." 
 
 " Well, but then he wears snuff-coloured breeches." 
 " He has rny father s approbation, and " 
 " And yours ? " 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 257 
 
 " He had, when I gave it." 
 
 " But you repent it, now ? " said Mrs. Aubineau, 
 looking inquiringly into her face. 
 
 " He saved my life," replied Catalina. 
 
 " Well, that calls for gratitude, not love." 
 
 " He saved it twice." 
 
 " Well, then, you can be twice as grateful ; that 
 will balance the account." 
 
 " But he saved it four times." 
 
 " Well, double and quits again." 
 
 "But, rny dear madam, I I believe nay, I am 
 sure that I love my cousin in my heart." 
 
 " What! in his snuff-coloured suit?" 
 
 " Why, I am not quite sure of that, at least here in 
 New York among the fine red coats and bright epau 
 lettes ; but I am quite sure I could love him in the 
 country." 
 
 " In his snuff-colours ? " 
 
 " In any colours, I believe. To tell you the truth, 
 cousin, I am ashamed of the manner in which I re 
 ceived him after an absence of months, and of my 
 treatment at the ball last night. I believe the evil 
 spirit beset me." 
 
 " It was only the spirit of woman, my dear, whis 
 pering you to woo the bright prospect that beckons 
 you. Do you know you can be a countess in pro 
 spective whenever you please ? " 
 
 " Perhaps I might ; but I d rather be a happy wife 
 than a titled lady." 
 
 " You would ! " exclaimed her cousin, lifting up her 
 eyes and hands in astonishment. 
 " Indeed I would." 
 
 17 
 
258 
 
 " Then you must be more or less than woman," 
 cried the other, panting for breath. 
 
 " Listen to me, my dear cousin. I know you meant 
 it all for my happiness in giving encouragement to 
 Sir Thicknesse and Colonel Gilfillan. But the truth 
 is, I don t like either of them, and I do like my cou 
 sin Sybrandt. Sir Thicknesse is a proud, stupid dolt, 
 without heart or understanding ; and Colonel Gilfil 
 lan, with a thousand good qualities, or rather im 
 pulses for he is governed by them entirely is not, 
 I fear, nay, I know, a man of integrity or honour." 
 
 " Not a man of honour ! " exclaimed Mrs. Aubineau 
 again, with uplifted eyes and hands, " Why, he has 
 fought six duels ! " 
 
 " But he neither pays his debts nor keeps his prom 
 ises." 
 
 " He d fight a fiery dragon." 
 
 " Yes, but there are men, and very peaceable men, 
 too, whom he is rather afraid of," said Catalina, smil 
 ing " his tradesmen. The other day I was walking 
 with him, and was very much surprised at his insisting 
 we should turn down a dirty, narrow lane. Just as 
 he had done so he changed his mind, and was equally 
 importunate with me to turn into another. I did not 
 think it necessary to comply with his wishes, and we 
 soon met a tradesman who respectfully requested to 
 speak with my colonel. Go to the devil, for an im 
 pudent scoundrel ! cried he, in a great passion, and 
 lugged me almost rudely along, muttering, an impu 
 dent rascal, to be dunning a gentleman in the street! 
 
 " Well ? " 
 
 " Well I know enough of these tradesmen to be 
 satisfied that they would not venture to dun an officer 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 259 
 
 in the street, if they could meet with him elsewhere. 
 The example of my dear father has taught me that 
 one of the first of our duties is a compliance with the 
 obligations of justice." 
 
 " Well, Catalina, I must say people get very odd 
 notions in the country. What do you mean to do 
 with your admirers ? " 
 
 " Why, from the behaviour of Sir Thicknesse last 
 night, I hope I shall be troubled with him no more. 
 If Colonel Gilfillan calls this morning, I shall take 
 the opportunity of explaining to him frankly and ex 
 plicitly the state of my obligations and affections. I 
 will appeal to his sense of decorum and propriety for 
 the discontinuance of his attentions ; and, if he still 
 persists, take special care to keep out of his way, 
 until the state of the river will admit of my going 
 home." 
 
 " And I," thought Mrs. Aubineau, " shall take 
 special care to prevent all this." " But what do you 
 mean to do with the man in the snuff-coloured suit?" 
 
 " Treat him as he merits. I have been much more 
 to blame than he it is but just, therefore, that I 
 should make the first advances to a reconciliation. 
 I shall seize the earliest occasion of doing so, for his 
 sake as well as my own ; for my feelings since our 
 first meeting here convince me I cannot treat him 
 with neglect or indifference without sharing in the 
 consequences." 
 
 "Well, you are above my comprehension, Catalina; 
 but I can t help loving you. I can have no wish but 
 for your happiness." 
 
 " Of that," said Catalina, good-humouredly, " I am 
 perhaps old enough to judge for myself." 
 
260 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 " I don t know that, my dear. Women can hardly 
 tell what is for their happiness, until they have been 
 married a twelvemonth. But what do you mean to 
 do with yourself to-day ? " 
 
 " I mean to stay at home and wait the return of my 
 cousin. The sooner we come to an understanding 
 the better." 
 
 " And I shall go visiting, as I have no misappre 
 hensions to settle with Mr. Aubineau. Good morn 
 ing by the time I come back I suppose it will be 
 all arranged. But, my dear Catalina," added she, 
 suddenly turning back, and addressing her with great 
 earnestness " my dear friend, do try and persuade 
 him to discard his snuff-coloured suit, will you ? " 
 
 " I shall leave that to you, cousin ; for my part, I 
 mean to endure it as a punishment for my bad beha 
 viour to the owner." But Catalina never had an 
 opportunity of acting up to her heroic determination. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 261 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A GOOD RESOLUTION SOMETIMES COMES A DAY AFTER THE FAIR. 
 
 SYBRANDT had proceeded directly from Mr. Aubi- 
 neau s to the quarters of Colonel Gilfillan, with a design 
 of explaining his own claims on Catalina, and de 
 manding a cessation of his attentions. He was told 
 the colonel had stepped out for a few minutes, and 
 requested to wait his return. During the interval, he 
 happened to take up a music-book which lay on the 
 table. It opened of itself, and a miniature fell from 
 it on the floor. Sybrandt took this up with the in 
 tention of replacing it, when, to his dismay and 
 horror, he discovered a likeness of Catalina, which 
 Gilfillan, with an inexcusable want of delicacy and 
 propriety, had procured to be copied from the original 
 painting while in his possession. The blood of Sy 
 brandt rushed to his heart, and thence to his face and 
 fingers ends, where it tingled and burnt like liquid 
 fire. He stood pierced with rage and anguish, the 
 picture in his hand, when Gilfillan entered, and was 
 beginning in his gayest tones, with 
 
 " My dear Mr. Westbrook, by my soul you re wel 
 come " when Sybrandt interrupted him without 
 ceremony " Colonel Gilfillan, when I inform you I 
 have a deep interest in the question, I hope you will 
 answer it frankly May I ask where you got this 
 picture ? " 
 
262 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 Gilfillan felt himself in the predicament of one who 
 has been detected in doing what he cannot justify ; 
 he therefore sheltered himself under an air of haughty 
 indifference : added to this, our hero s snuff-coloured 
 garb did him another ill-turn here. It impressed upon 
 the mind of Gilfillan that he had to do with a clod 
 hopper of the first magnitude, whom he might banter, 
 or bully, or quiz, at pleasure. Never man was more 
 mistaken than Colonel Gilfillan. He little suspected 
 this homely suit covered a man that would not turn 
 out of the path he had chosen for any thing in human 
 shape. He accordingly replied, with a careless if not 
 contemptuous hauteur, 
 
 " Certainly, Mister a a Mister Westbrook, 
 you are at perfect liberty to ask any question of me 
 - but, allow me to observe, it depends upon myself 
 whether I choose to answer." 
 
 " But, sir, you will permit me to say you must do 
 me the favour to answer this question." 
 
 " Must! You don t say so, sir! " 
 
 " Look ye, Colonel Gilfillan, this is no time for 
 trifling ; nor will I permit it. Is it known to you that 
 an engagement, sanctioned by her parents, subsists 
 between the original of this picture and myself?" 
 
 " By my soul, Mr. Westbrook, it is a matter of 
 perfect indifference to me whether there does or not. 
 If a lady makes an engagement, I suppose she has a 
 right to break an engagement when she is tired of 
 it ; and, by the glory of the stars !, I am the man that 
 will assist her any time in such a praiseworthy under 
 taking." 
 
 " Very well then, I am to presume you were ac 
 quainted with the circumstance." 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 263 
 
 " You may presume what you please, Mr. West- 
 brook it s all one to me." 
 
 " You will not gratify my inquiries, then, though I 
 have, I trust, justified the interest I take in the affairs 
 of this young lady ? " 
 
 " Faith, will not I," replied the colonel, negligently. 
 
 "Then let me tell you, sir " Sybrandt s voice 
 rung, his colour heightened, and his eye flashed. 
 
 " Hold there, young gentleman," interrupted the 
 colonel. " From your look and so forth, I gather you 
 are going to say something disagreeable; take care 
 what you do say." 
 
 " I say to your caution what you were pleased to 
 say to my information that it is a matter of per 
 fect indifference to me. And I say besides, Colonel 
 Gilfillan, that I do not recognise in your preceding or 
 your present conduct any thing that entitles you to 
 particular respect." 
 
 " Before you go any further, my friend, let me ask 
 you a civil question, will you fight ? For it must 
 come to that if you say the thousandth part of such 
 another word." 
 
 Sybrandt went to the table, and in an instant pre 
 sented a paper to the colonel, on which were the fol 
 lowing words : 
 
 " Meet me at six to-morrow morning, at Hoboken, 
 and I ll answer your question." 
 
 The colonel was somewhat startled at this prompt 
 dealing. He was not frightened nothing on earth 
 could frighten him, except a dun, but he was seized 
 with an involuntary respect for the snuff-coloured gen 
 tleman, that made him almost regret having treated 
 him so cavalierly. He changed his tone, instantly. 
 Keeping his eye on the paper, he asked : 
 
264 
 
 " At six, to-morrow ? " 
 
 " At six. 1 
 
 " With pistols, did you say ? " 
 
 " With pistols, if you please, or " 
 
 " O, it s all the same to me. Mr. Westbrook, let 
 me ask you one more question do you mean to 
 make your will beforehand ? because, if you do, I 
 wish you d leave me that picture after your death, as 
 you don t seem inclined to give it me, while alive." 
 
 Sybrandt had all this while held the miniature in 
 his clenched hand, almost unconsciously. But now, 
 on being thus reminded of it, he threw it contemptu 
 ously on the table. 
 
 " That is treating the original discourteously," said 
 the colonel, taking it up ; " and, upon my soul, if you 
 had not been beforehand with me I should have picked 
 a quarrel with you for it. Faith, a charming lady, 
 and I ll wear her image next my heart, to-morrow." 
 
 So saying, he coolly deposited the picture in his 
 bosom, and Sybrandt inwardly vowed to himself that 
 he would aim right at the resemblance of the faithless 
 one. 
 
 " We understand each other now, Colonel Gilfil- 
 lan?" 
 
 " O, faith, there can be no misunderstanding in such 
 plain English." 
 
 " Good morning then, colonel." 
 
 " Good morning, Mr. Westbrook," answered the 
 other. " Now, who the devil would have taken 
 that fellow for a lad of such mettle ? I am deter 
 mined to be friends with him the very next minute 
 after I ve blown his brains out." 
 
 The colonel was here suddenly interrupted by a 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 265 
 
 message from his excellency, requiring his immediate 
 attendance. He accordingly hurried off to the gov 
 ernment-house, while Sybrandt slowly turned towards 
 the mansion of Mr. Aubineau, where Catalina was 
 anxiously waiting to put her good resolutions in prac 
 tice. A storm of contending passions agitated his 
 mind, and when he came in sight of the house he 
 turned away, heart-sick, and wandered for hours in the 
 fields that skirted the city. Sometimes he determined 
 to depart without seeing Catalina, and at other times 
 resolved to see her once more, to reproach her with 
 having trifled with his happiness, and then to bid fare 
 well for ever. 
 
266 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 GILFILLAN AND SYBKANDT SET OUT ON A LONG JOURNEY. 
 
 GILFILLAN, in the mean time, had an interview with 
 the governor, who informed him that a packet had 
 just arrived from England, with despatches apprising 
 him that war had been declared between Great Brit 
 ain and France, and directing him to make immediate 
 preparations to defend the frontier against the inroads 
 of the French and Indians. 
 
 " It is necessary to notify the commanding officer 
 at Ticonderoga with the least possible delay, and that 
 the bearer of the message be acquainted with my views 
 on the subject. I have selected you for that purpose. 
 When can you be ready, colonel ? " 
 
 " To-morrow morning, at eight o clock." 
 
 " That won t do ; you must be ready to-day ; a ves 
 sel is waiting for you." 
 
 " Impossible, sir," exclaimed Gilfillan, abruptly, re 
 membering his engagement with Sybrandt. 
 
 " How ? impossible ! why, what can prevent you ? 
 You are a single man, and a soldier should be ready 
 at a moment s warning." 
 
 " But, your excellency, I have an engagement which 
 I cannot violate." 
 
 "With a lady?" 
 
 " No, with a gentleman." 
 
 " Well, I will make your excuses ; so, be ready in 
 three hours." 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 267 
 
 " Impossible," cried Gilfillan again. 
 
 His excellency looked offended. 
 
 " Colonel Gilfillan," said he, " I cannot conceive any 
 engagement which can excuse a soldier from the per 
 formance of his duty to his country." 
 
 " An affair of honour, sir ? " 
 
 " No, not even an affair of honour, colonel. Your 
 first duty is to your country; she has bought your 
 services by bestowing honours on you, and you have 
 no right to throw away a life which belongs to her. 
 To whom are you pledged ? " 
 
 " To Mr. Westbrook, sir." 
 
 " Whew!" ejaculated his excellency; " I understand 
 the business, now. But you shall place your honour 
 in my hands, and I pledge you mine to make such 
 explanations as shall save you harmless. Go, and be 
 ready." 
 
 Gilfillan still lingered. Colonel Gilfillan," said the 
 governor, " either obey my orders or deliver me your 
 sword. My business is pressing; yours may be de 
 ferred to another day ; and I again pledge myself that 
 your honour shall suffer no stain." 
 
 Gilfillan reflected a moment, and coldly replied, " I 
 will be ready in two hours." 
 
 " Go, then, and make what preparations you can, 
 and be here within that time. I will finish your de 
 spatches." 
 
 Gilfillan returned to his lodgings, and the first thing 
 he did was to send the following note. 
 
 TO SYBRANDT WESTBROOK, ESQ. 
 
 SIR, You will soon hear that war is declared be 
 tween the cock and the lion ; and this is to inform you, 
 
268 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 that his excellency has ordered me with despatches to 
 the frontier. I must depart on the spur, consequently 
 the settlement of our little private affair must lie over 
 for the present. But there is a time for all things, 
 and we must wait with patience. When you can 
 wait no longer, you will find me, probably, somewhere 
 about Lake George or Ticonderoga. You know the 
 motto of my family is, " Ready, aye ready." Adieu, 
 for the present. 
 
 B. F. M. GlLFILLAN. 
 
 His next step was to stride away to the mansion 
 of Mr. Aubineau, for the purpose of taking leave of 
 Catalina, whom he surprised in a deep revery, await 
 ing the return of Sybrandt. 
 
 " Colonel Gilfillan," said she, haughtily, and in dis 
 pleasure at being thus disturbed, " I neither wished 
 nor expected this visit." 
 
 " Do not be angry, madam ; I come to say good- 
 by. The calumet is buried, the tomahawk is dug up, 
 and the two old bruisers are going to have another 
 set-to." 
 
 " Explain yourself, colonel." 
 
 " War, bloody war, madam. I set out in one hour 
 for the frontier, and Heaven only knows whether you 
 will see poor Gilfillan again. Give him some hope ; 
 something to live upon when he is starving in the 
 wilderness ; some little remembrance to cheer him if 
 he lives, or to hug to his heart when dying." 
 
 " I cannot hear such language, Colonel Gilfillan. 
 Listen to me seriously, for I am going to speak seri 
 ously. I have been vain, silly, and unreflecting, in 
 suffering, as I have done, your attentions, flighty and 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 269 
 
 half-jesting as they seemed. I never thought you in 
 earnest." 
 
 " Not in earnest ? Heavenly Powers ! Have riot 
 my eyes, my tongue, my actions, a thousand times 
 proved the sincerity of my passion ? I loved you the 
 first minute I saw you, and I shall love you the last 
 moment I see the light of day." 
 
 " I am sorry for it." 
 
 " Sorry for it ! sorry that a warm-hearted, and, 
 I will add, a generous, honourable soldier, casts his 
 heart at your feet, lives in your smiles, and holds his 
 life at a pin s fee, when he dreams he can lay it down 
 in your service ? I can t, for the soul of me, madam, 
 see any ground for sorrow in that." 
 
 " I would not be the cause of misery to any human 
 being." 
 
 " Ah ! that s just what I love to hear you say. 
 Then you will you will be the cause of happiness 
 to your poor servant ? " 
 
 " I cannot, in the way you wish." 
 
 " No ! and why not, jewel of the world ? " 
 
 " I cannot return your affections." 
 
 " Faith, madam, and that is the last thing I wish. 
 I don t want you to return my affections, only just to 
 give me your own in exchange." 
 
 " My affections are not in my power." 
 
 " You puzzle me, angel of obscurity. Upon my 
 soul, if we haven t power over our affections, I don t 
 know what else we can command. I should as soon 
 doubt my power to command a corporal s guard as 
 my own heart." 
 
 " In one word, Colonel Gilfillan, I am engaged to 
 another." 
 
270 
 
 " O, that s only your hand." 
 
 " My heart went with it, sir." 
 
 "Yes, but you took it back again?" 
 
 " No, sir, I gave it to Mr. Westbrook, and for ever." 
 
 " The man with the snu Jesus, what is this 
 world coming to!" thought Colonel Gilfillan. Then, 
 overpowered by the genuine ardour of a brave and 
 enterprising Milesian, he poured forth a flood of pas 
 sionate eloquence. He besought her to love him, to 
 marry him, to run away with him, to pity him, and, 
 finally, to kill him on the spot. He fell on his knees, 
 and there remained in spite of all her entreaties and 
 commands. She was offended what woman would 
 not have been? She pitied him what woman 
 would not have done so ? He seized her hands, and 
 kissed them from right to left in a transport of im 
 petuosity, and was gradually working himself up 
 into a forgetfulness of all created things,except himself 
 and his mistress, when he was awakened by the ap 
 pearance of a figure just within the door. He started 
 on his feet, choke-full of murder and love. 
 
 "I beg pardon," exclaimed the snuff-coloured ap 
 parition. " I beg pardon for my accidental intrusion. 
 Don t let me interrupt you, colonel," and straight 
 way it disappeared. 
 
 Catalina started to her feet. " Leave me, sir", cried 
 she, with angry vehemence. " Leave me this very 
 instant, sir. You have destroyed my happiness for 
 ever ; " and she burst into a passion of tears. 
 
 The susceptible heart of Gilfillan was moved with 
 this appearance of agony. " If," thought he, " she 
 really loves this rustic, I am the last person to disturb 
 a mutual affection. Faith, I see it s all over with me ; 
 
271 
 
 and now for the tomahawk and scalping knife. By 
 my soul, I feel just at present as if I could drink the 
 blood of a Christian ; as to your copper-coloured Pa 
 gans, by the glory of my ancestors, I ll pepper them." 
 
 On conclusion of these wise reflections, he ad 
 vanced towards Catalina, who retired with evident 
 symptoms of fear and aversion. 
 
 " Miss Vancour," said Gilfillan, with solemnity, " do 
 you really love this gentleman ? " 
 
 "I do I have reason to love him ; he twice saved 
 my life." 
 
 " Then, madam, I am sorry for what I have done, 
 and ask your pardon." 
 
 He was proceeding to repeat the petition on his 
 knees, when Catalina exclaimed with precipitation, 
 "O! for Heaven s sake, no more of that!" 
 
 " Well then, madam, be assured that all that man 
 can do to undo the harm I have done I will do and 
 so, farewell may you be ten thousand times happier 
 than I should have been had you preferred me, and 
 that s altogether impossible." So saying, he bowed 
 himself out, leaving Catalina in that state of misery 
 which combines the pangs of the heart with the feeling 
 of self-condemnation. " Had not my vanity tempted 
 me to encourage this man," thought she, " I should 
 have been spared the mortification of this present mo 
 ment, the wretchedness I see in the future. The fault 
 is all my own would that the punishment might be 
 so, too ; but I have wounded two generous, noble 
 hearts." 
 
 On the departure of Gilfillan, Sybrandt in a mood 
 of desperation forced himself into the presence of our 
 heroine, with a magnanimous resolution of relinquish- 
 
272 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 ing his claims, and declaring her free to marry whom 
 she pleased. She received him with an humbled spirit 
 whence all the pride of woman was banished. She 
 attempted a faltering explanation. 
 
 " Sybrandt " said she " Sybrandt I I have 
 something to say to you I " 
 
 " It is unnecessary : I know all," replied he, inter 
 rupting her. " Farewell, Catalina you are free." 
 
 A few hours after, he was on his way up the river. 
 Gilfillan s note had apprised him of the necessary 
 postponement of their meeting, and he hoped to over 
 take him at Albany, and there frankly renounce all 
 pretension to Catalina. It was a hard struggle be 
 tween revenge and a nobler feeling. Colonel Gilfil- 
 lan, however, kept the start of him, and some time 
 elapsed before they met again. Sybrandt returned 
 home, and buried his secret in his own bosom. When 
 questioned by Colonel or Madam Vancour on the 
 subject of Catalina, he answered, sometimes with 
 embarrassment, sometimes with negligence. They 
 suspected something disagreeable had occurred, yet 
 could not tell what. But public events soon came 
 about which occupied, almost exclusively, the atten 
 tion of Colonel Vancour and his family. Rumours 
 of wars, of burnings and massacres on the frontier, 
 coming nearer and nearer every day, brought the sense 
 of danger home to the very bosoms of the people ~f 
 Albany and of the Flats. Rural quiet was banished 
 from the firesides of the peaceful Dutchmen ; rural 
 labour ceased in the fields ; and Ceres and Cupid, and 
 all their train of harvests, flowers, fruits, sighs, smiles, 
 hopes, wishes, promises, and deceits, gave place to 
 images of fire and blood. Even little Ariel lost his 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 273 
 
 vivacity at times, and no longer talked of ringing the 
 pigs noses. He took down his rusty musket, and 
 polished it as bright as silver. He employed himself 
 in running bullets, and in other warlike preparations, 
 and even meditated joining the army at Ticonderoga. 
 " Damn it, Sybrandt," would he say, " suppose you 
 and I make a campaign, hey ? " 
 
 18 
 
274 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ADIEU FOE A WHILE TO THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 SYBRANDT not only meditated, but had determined 
 on, such a course. About this time his old friend and 
 host, Sir William Johnson, paid a visit to Colonel 
 Vancour, to arrange with him a plan for subsisting 
 the army in the uncultivated regions about Lake 
 George and Lake Champlain. Sybrandt took the 
 opportunity to offer his services, and Sir William 
 gladly accepted them. " I want a volunteer aide," 
 said he, " and you are the very man. When can you 
 be ready?" 
 
 " In five minutes." 
 
 " Good ; I like short answers : they are the signs of 
 prompt actions. I will give you till the day after to 
 morrow." 
 
 Sybrandt went immediately to the good Dennis to 
 announce his intention, and ask his consent to be 
 a soldier. There was at that time a latent spark of 
 warlike spirit alive in the bosom of the peaceful cul 
 tivators of the field. Every where the proximity of 
 the Indians made a residence near the frontier, or 
 indeed far from the cities and military stations, one 
 of danger and alarm, and kept up a feeling of manly 
 preparation. 
 
 " Right, my boy. I am too old now to go myself, 
 and thou shalt be my substitute. Thou shalt take 
 the best horse from my stable, the truest servant of 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 2< D 
 
 my household, and the warmest blessing of my heart, 
 and go forth." 
 
 Sybrandt set about his preparations, and tried to 
 banish every thing else from his recollection. The 
 morning after his conversation with Sir William, he 
 went over to Colonel Vancour s to tell him he was 
 ready. The colonel and Madam looked inquisitively 
 in his face, and wondered if he would leave any mes 
 sage or letter for Catalina. But he never mentioned 
 her name. " I must have my daughter home," thought 
 the good colonel. " I am glad this foolish engage 
 ment is broken off," thought his good wife ; and her 
 silk gown rustled with sympathetic pride as she 
 dreamed of still living to be the mother of a real 
 titled lady. That evening Sybrandt visited some of 
 his old haunts. " I will see them before I go ; per 
 haps I may never see them again." So he rambled 
 out alone, in the mild twilight of an early spring day. 
 The sacred calm of the country, so different from 
 the racket of the town, disposed his soul to the ten- 
 derest melancholy. Past scenes and early recollections 
 thronged on his memory, while he wandered along 
 his accustomed paths, where every object reminded 
 him of the woman who had trifled with his affections. 
 By degrees, the thought of her ill-treatment roused a 
 salutary feeling of indignation, and outraged pride 
 came to the relief of his morbid sensibility. He 
 shook the incumbent weight of sickly lassitude from 
 his spirit, wiped the starting tear from his eye, and 
 returned home with a manly resolution to meet his 
 future fortunes, whatever these might be, with forti 
 tude and resignation. 
 
 " Sybrandt," said Colonel Vancour, on taking leave 
 
276 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 after supper, " Sybrandt, have you written to Cata- 
 lina?" 
 
 " No, sir." 
 
 "Have you received any letters from her, since 
 your return?" 
 
 " None, sir." 
 
 " And what does all this mean, young man?" 
 
 " It means, sir," replied Sybrandt, almost choking, 
 "it means that she will one day tell you what it 
 means I cannot." 
 
 The next day, Colonel Vancour wrote to his daugh 
 ter, to return home, under the protection of the wife 
 of an officer he knew was on the eve of joining the 
 army on the frontier. 
 
 By daylight Sir William and his aide joined a 
 detachment on its march to Ticonderoga under the 
 temporary command of the former. They rode for 
 some distance, now and then encountering a solitary 
 habitation ; but on leaving Glen s Falls all traces of 
 civilized man were lost in the vast uncultivated em 
 pire of nature. The troops which our hero accom 
 panied formed part of a crack regiment, distinguished 
 for its technical discipline, exquisite neatness, and 
 veteran service in the wars of Europe. The soldiers 
 were proud of their perfect equipment, and the officers 
 valued themselves on the splendour of their embroi 
 dery and epaulettes, which only furnished a mark for 
 the savages, and cost many a gallant warrior his life. 
 The first thing Sir William did was to attempt initi 
 ating them into some of the modes of Indian war 
 fare. He set the officers the example of doffing their 
 rich accoutrements, and substituting a common sol 
 dier s coat, with the skirts cut off. He denounced all 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 277 
 
 displays of glittering finery, which answered no other 
 purpose here than enabling the savages to descry the 
 march of an enemy at a distance. The gun-barrels 
 were blackened for the same reason ; and for boots 
 and spatterdashes he substituted Indian leggins of 
 strong coarse cloth. But what mortified the vanity 
 of these military heroes more than all was his 
 peremptory order to crop their powdered hair, which 
 at that time was looked upon as the most valued 
 ornament of a soldier. The detachment had more 
 over been provided with a mighty kitchen apparatus 
 of chairs, tables, cooking utensils, and other luggage, 
 which, however convenient in European wars, was 
 here in the wilderness a useless, nay, a dangerous en 
 cumbrance. It rendered their march through the 
 tangled woods and untrodden paths more slow and 
 difficult, and embarrassed them in the day of battle. 
 Sir William, on the first halt they made for refresh 
 ment, invited the officers to dine with him in his tent. 
 Instead of chairs and tables, they found only bear 
 skins spread on the ground, and their host seated on 
 a log of wood, ready to receive them. When the 
 dinner was brought in, which consisted of a large 
 dish of pork and pease, Sir William coolly took out 
 of his pocket a leathern case, and, drawing forth a 
 knife and fork, deliberately and with great gravity 
 divided the meat, helping each to a portion. The 
 gentlemen looked round for implements with which 
 to eat their allowance, but, finding none, remained in 
 indignant embarrassment. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said he, at length, "is it possible that 
 soldiers destined for a service like ours have come 
 without the necessary instruments of this kind ? Did 
 
278 
 
 you expect to find in the wilderness of America the 
 means or the opportunity of enjoying the luxuries 
 and conveniences afforded in the heart of Europe ? 
 But you must not lose your dinner," added he, smiling, 
 and directing the servant to furnish each of the guests 
 with a knife and fork similar to his own, which he 
 desired them to preserve with care. " It will be diffi 
 cult, where we are going, to supply their loss," said he. 
 
 The officers, who were proud of their experience in 
 the splendid wars of Europe, where the theatre was 
 a continent, and the spectators the people of a con 
 tinent, received these lessons of practical wisdom 
 as little less than insults. To be lectured by a PRO 
 VINCIAL OFFICER! it was not to be borne! What 
 could he know about the science of war, or the disci 
 pline of great armies, who never saw ten thousand 
 regular troops together in his life ? They grumbled, 
 and put on the air of enforced submission. But Sir 
 William Johnson was not a man to be turned from 
 his purpose by murmurs or opposition. He had been 
 accustomed to be his own master and the master of 
 others in the wilderness. He had, by the exercise of 
 courage, talents, energy, and perseverance, conquered 
 the stubborn minds of the proudest, the most daring 
 and impracticable race that ever trod the earth, either 
 in the Old or the New World. In short, among 
 savage and civilized men he exercised the only divine 
 right ever conferred on man the right of command 
 ing, on the ground of superior physical and mental 
 energies. 
 
 Sybrandt admired and studied the character of this 
 singular personage, who combined as much power of 
 mind and body as was ever, perhaps, concentrated in 
 
279 
 
 one individual. But our hero continued, notwith 
 standing his resolution to shake off the depression of 
 his spirits, to labour under the nightmare of indolent, 
 gloomy lassitude. He spoke only when spoken to, 
 and displayed little alacrity in performing those mili 
 tary duties which Sir William committed to him, 
 principally with a view to rouse his dormant energies 
 into action. One day, as they were slowly ascending 
 the mountain which bounds the southern extremity 
 of Lake George, Sybrandt was more silent and ab 
 stracted than usual. 
 
 " Young man," abruptly exclaimed Sir William, 
 " young man, are you in love, yet ? " 
 
 Sybrandt was startled ; and the red consciousness 
 shone in his face. 
 
 " I am answered," said Sir William. " But look ! 
 we are at the summit of the mountain. The water you 
 see, studded with green islands, and bounded by those 
 mountains tipped with gold, is Lake George. At the 
 extremity of Lake George is Ticonderoga ; at Ticon- 
 deroga is glory, and danger. Resolve this instant to 
 be a man ; to devote yourself to the present and the 
 future ; to forget the past, at least so far as it inter 
 feres with the great duties a soldier owes to his coun 
 try ; or return home this instant. Young man, I did 
 not bring you here to ruminate, but to act." 
 
 Sybrandt rode close up to him, and exclaimed, in a 
 low, suppressed tone 
 
 " Sir William Johnson, show me an enemy, and I 
 will show myself a man." 
 
 " Good ! " cried Sir William, slapping him on the 
 shoulder, " good ! I see you only want action ; and I 
 will take care you shall have enough of it." They 
 
280 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 descended the mountain, and were accommodated 
 that night in Fort George, close on the margin of the 
 lake, that beautiful lake, to which neither poetry 
 nor painting can do justice, and which unites within 
 itself every element of loveliness and of majesty. It 
 was then the mirror of a wilderness ; now it reflects 
 in its bosom all the charms of cultivation. Hither, in 
 the summer season, when tired of the desperate mo 
 notony of Ballston and Saratoga, the wandering devo 
 tees of fashion, who seek pleasure everywhere except 
 where it is to be found, resort, to become wearied with 
 the beauties of nature, as they have been with the 
 allurements of art. It is indeed a delightsome nest for 
 love, music, poetry, and inspiration ; in which to in 
 dulge luxurious reveries, to recall past times, medi 
 tate on future prospects, or gaze enraptured on the 
 sublime and beautiful scene, and perchance recall 
 
 " Some ditty of the ancient day, 
 When the heart was in the lay." 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 281 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A WHITE SAVAGE. 
 
 AFTER resting one night at Fort George, they pro 
 ceeded down the lake in boats which were waiting 
 for them, and in good time arrived at Ticonderoga. 
 Here Sir William turned over the reinforcement he 
 had brought with him to its proper division, and 
 himself took command of the provincials and Indian 
 allies the latter consisting of the warriors of the 
 Five Nations. The position of Ticonderoga, or Old 
 Ti, as it is familiarly called, commands the best route 
 between Canada and New York, and, consequently, it 
 had always been a bone of contention between the 
 French and English, while the former possessed 
 the Canadas and the latter the United States. At the 
 period of which I am now speaking, here was assem 
 bled the finest army, as to numbers, discipline, and 
 appointments, that had hitherto been collected in one 
 body in the New World. 
 
 The commander was a brave, experienced, and ca 
 pable officer ; but he knew little of the nature of an 
 irregular warfare in the wilderness against savages 
 and woodsmen, and, what was far worse, was too 
 proud to learn. He might have found, in Colonel 
 Vancour and Sir William Johnson, most able and 
 efficient instructors ; but he could not brook the idea 
 of being schooled by provincials, and gloomy were the 
 forebodings of these two experienced gentlemen, dur- 
 
282 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 ing their last conference, that the obstinacy of the 
 commanding general, in applying the tactics of Europe 
 to this campaign of the woods, would be fatal to the 
 expedition, and occasion the defeat, if not the destruc 
 tion, of this fine army. 
 
 Sir William was not a man to be inactive in such 
 stirring times, or, indeed, at any time ; and he deter 
 mined that Sybrandt should have little leisure for 
 devouring his own heart in idleness and disappoint 
 ment. He accordingly detached him on various du 
 ty; sometimes to gain information of the motions 
 of the enemy, who were said to be advancing in 
 force; sometimes with parties up Lake George to 
 the fort of that name, which was a principal depQt 
 of supplies from Albany ; and sometimes to scour 
 the woods in search of vagrant parties of hostile 
 Indians, of whom large numbers were attached to the 
 army of the enemy. In all these services Sybrandt 
 acquitted himself with courage and discretion. 
 " Bravo," would Sir William exclaim ; " you were 
 made for a soldier to command, not to obey to 
 lead men, not to be led by a woman. I see I shall 
 make something of you. To-night I shall put you to 
 the knife, and try your metal to the utmost." 
 
 " I am ready," answered Sybrandt. 
 
 " Listen, then," replied Sir William. " Our general 
 is a good soldier and an able officer, so far as mere 
 bravery and an acquaintance with European tactics 
 go. But he is not fit to command here ; he is not the 
 Moses to lead armies through the wilderness. He is 
 ignorant of his enemy, and undervalues him : bad, 
 both bad. He has not the least conception that a 
 host of savages may be within twenty feet of him 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 283 
 
 and he neither see nor hear them. He cannot divest 
 himself of the absurd notion, that they must have 
 baggage-wagons, and horses for their artillery, and 
 depots of provisions, and all the paraphernalia of a 
 regular army on the plains of Flanders. He does not 
 know that they are neither heard nor seen till they aiv 
 felt, that they travel like the wind, and with as litth- 
 encumbrance as the wind. He will consequently bo 
 taken by surprise and cut to pieces, unless I and my 
 provincials and red-skins make up for his careless folly 
 by our wise vigilance. Now to the point. 
 
 " From various indications, I am fully satisfied that 
 the enemy is in much greater force than he chooses to 
 have us believe ; and this is what I want to be cer 
 tain of before to-morrow morning, because I have 
 been apprised by the general that he considers it dis 
 graceful to his majesty s arms to be cooped up in a 
 fort by an inferior enemy. He means to march out 
 in battle-array to-morrow, with drums beating, colours 
 flying, and every other device to certify the enemy 
 of his motions. If he does, it requires not the spirit 
 of prophecy to predict that he will sacrifice, not only 
 the interests of his country, but the lives of hundreds, 
 perhaps thousands, of brave men. The service is 
 perilous : why should I disguise it ? it is almost cer 
 tain death. But you are no common man; nay, I 
 don t flatter you. I would guarantee your marching 
 up to the cannon s mouth without winking an eye, if 
 it were necessary. I would go myself on this service, 
 but my rank and the command I hold make it impos 
 sible." 
 
 " Name the service, Sir William. Life is of little 
 value to me, and if 
 
284 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 "Pish!" exclaimed the knight, impatiently. "Dis 
 gust for life is an ignoble impulse to heroic actions. I 
 wish you to be animated by the love of your country 
 and the desire of glory. Such motives only are 
 worthy of the man who risks his life in undertakings 
 of extreme peril." 
 
 " Sir William Johnson," replied Sybrandt, " you are 
 my superior in rank, and in merit if you please, but 
 this gives you no right to insult my feelings, nor am I 
 inclined to submit to it. As a soldier, do with me as 
 you please." 
 
 " You are right, young man, and I beg your par 
 don. Well then, let your motive be what it may ; if 
 not ambition, love : they are equally powerful, if not 
 equally noble. If your mistress is true, she will re 
 joice in your success ; if she is false, the most noble 
 revenge you can take will be to make her regret hav 
 ing lost the opportunity of participating in your fame. 
 Give me your hand ; are we friends again ? " 
 
 Sybrandt received the proffered courtesy with 
 grateful and affectionate respect. 
 
 " What escort am I to have ? " asked he. 
 
 " None ; an escort could not fail to betray you. A 
 single man is all I can allow." 
 
 " As you please ; I am satisfied." 
 
 Sir William then proceeded to instruct him in the 
 course he was to pursue. To go on this expedition 
 by land would subject him to inevitable discovery. 
 He was therefore to be furnished with an Indian 
 canoe and a man to paddle it ; and, under cover of 
 the night, which promised to be sufficiently dark, to 
 proceed silently down the strait at the upper end of 
 Lake Champlain, but only so far that he could as- 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 285 
 
 suredly return before daylight. He was enjoined not 
 to neglect this, for the narrowness of this portion of 
 the lake, lined as it was without doubt by parties 
 of skulking Indians, would expose him to certain 
 death, if once seen. 
 
 " Should you discover the position of the enemy," 
 continued Sir William, " you must depend upon your 
 own sagacity, and that of Timothy Weasel, for the 
 direction of your subsequent conduct." 
 
 " Timothy Weasel ! Who is he ? " 
 
 " What ! have you never heard of Timothy Weasel, 
 the Varmounter, as he calls himself?" 
 
 " Never." 
 
 " Well then, I must give you a sketch of his story 
 before I introduce him. He was born in New Hamp 
 shire, as he says, and, in due time, as is customary in 
 those parts, married, and took possession, by right 
 of discovery I suppose, of a tract of land in what 
 was at that time called the New Hampshire grants. 
 Others followed him, and in the course of a few years 
 a little settlement was formed of real cute Yankees, 
 as Timothy calls them, to the aggregate of sixty or 
 seventy, men, women, and children. They were gradu 
 ally growing in wealth and numbers, when, one night, 
 in the dead of winter, they were set upon by a party 
 of Indians from Canada, and every soul of them, ex 
 cept Timothy, was either consumed in the burning 
 houses or massacred in the attempt to escape. I have 
 witnessed in the course of my life many scenes of 
 horror, but nothing like that which he describes, in 
 which his wife and eight children perished. Timothy 
 was left for dead by the savages, who, as is their cus 
 tom, departed at the dawn, for fear the news of this 
 
286 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 inroad might rouse the people of some of the neigh 
 bouring settlements, in time to overtake them before 
 they reached home. When all was silent, Timothy, 
 who, though severely wounded in a dozen places, had, 
 as he says, only been praying possum, raised him 
 self up and looked around him. The smoking ruins, 
 mangled limbs, blood-stained snow, and the whole 
 scene, as he describes it with odd pathos, is enough 
 to make one s blood run cold. He managed, by dint 
 of incredible exertions, to reach the nearest settlement, 
 distant about forty miles. Here he told his story, and 
 then was put to bed, where he lay some weeks. In 
 the mean time the people of the settlement had gone 
 and buried the remains of his unfortunate family and 
 neighbours. When Timothy got well, he visited the 
 spot, and, while viewing the ruins of the houses and 
 musing over the graves of all that were dear to him, 
 solemnly devoted the remainder of his life to revenge. 
 He accordingly buried himself in the woods, and built 
 a cabin about twelve miles hence, in a situation the 
 most favourable to killing the critters, as he calls 
 the savages. From that time until now he has waged a 
 perpetual war against them, and, according to his own 
 account, sacrificed almost a hecatomb to the manes 
 of his wife and children. His intrepidity is wonder 
 ful, and his sagacity in the pursuit of this grand object 
 of his existence beyond all belief. I am half a savage 
 myself, but I have heard this man relate stories of his 
 adventures and escapes which make me feel myself, 
 in the language of the red-skins, a woman in com 
 parison with this strange compound of cunning and 
 simplicity. It is inconceivable with what avidity he 
 will hunt an Indian ; and the keenest sportsman does 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 237 
 
 not feel a hundredth part of the delight in bringing 
 down his game, that Timothy does in witnessing the 
 mortal pangs of one of these critters. It is a hor 
 rible propensity : but, to lose all in one night, and to 
 wake the next morning and see nothing but the man 
 gled remains of wife, children, all that man holds most 
 dear to his inmost heart, is no trifle. If ever man had 
 motive for revenge, it is Timothy. Such as he is, I 
 employ him, and find his services highly useful. He 
 is a compound of the two races, and combines all the 
 qualities essential to the species of warfare in which 
 we are now engaged. I have sent for him, and expect 
 him here, every moment." 
 
 As Sir William concluded, Sybrandt heard a long 
 dry sort of " H-e-e-m-m," ejaculated just outside of 
 the door. " That s he," exclaimed Sir William ; " I 
 know the sound. It is his usual expression of satis 
 faction at the prospect of being employed against his 
 old enemies, the Indians. Come in, Timothy." 
 
 Timothy accordingly made his appearance, forgot 
 his bow, and said nothing. Sybrandt eyed his asso 
 ciate with close attention. He was a tall, wind-dried 
 man, with extremely sharp, angular features, and a 
 complexion deeply bronzed by the exposures to which 
 he had been subjected for so many years. His scanty 
 head of hair was of a sort of sunburnt colour; his 
 beard, of a month s growth at least ; and his eye of 
 sprightly blue never rested a moment in its socket. 
 It glanced from side to side, and up and down, 
 and here and there, with indescribable rapidity, as 
 though in search of some object of interest, or appre 
 hensive of sudden danger. It was a perpe.tual silent 
 alarum. 
 
288 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 " Timothy," said Sir William, " I want to employ 
 you to-night." 
 
 " H-e-m-m," answered Timothy 
 
 " Are you prepared to depart immediately ? " 
 
 "What, right off?" 
 
 " Ay, in less than no time." 
 
 " I guess I am." 
 
 " Very well that means you are certain." 
 
 " I m always sartin of my mark." 
 
 " Have you your gun with you ? " 
 
 " The critter is just outside the door." 
 
 " And plenty of ammunition ? " 
 
 " Why, what under the sun should I do with a gun 
 and no ammunition ? " 
 
 " Can you paddle a canoe so that nobody can hear 
 you ? " 
 
 "Can t I? h-e-e-m-m!" 
 
 " And you are all ready ? " 
 
 " I spect so. I knew you didn t want me for noth 
 ing, and so got every thing to hand." 
 
 " Have you any thing to eat by the way ? " 
 
 " No ; if I only stay out two or three days I sha n t 
 want any thing." 
 
 " But, you are to have a companion." 
 
 Timothy here manufactured a sort of linsey-woolsey 
 grunt, betokening disapprobation. 
 
 " I d rather go alone. 7 
 
 " It is necessary that you should have an associate. 
 This young gentleman will go with you." 
 
 Timothy hereupon subjected Sybrandt to a rigid 
 scrutiny of those busy eyes of his, which seemed to 
 run over him as quick as lightning. 
 
 " I d rather go by myself," said he, again. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 289 
 
 " That is out of the question ; so, say no more about 
 it. Are you ready to go now this minute ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 Sir William then explained the object of the expe 
 dition to Timothy, much in the same manner as pre 
 viously to Sybrandt. 
 
 " But mayn t I shoot one of these tarnil critters if he 
 comes in my way ? " said Timothy, in a tone of great 
 interest. 
 
 " No ; you are not to fire a gun, nor attempt any 
 hostility whatever, unless it is neck or nothing with 
 you." 
 
 " Well, that s what I call hard; but, maybe it will 
 please God to put our lives in danger that s some 
 comfort." 
 
 The knight now produced two Indian dresses, which 
 he directed them to put on, somewhat against the 
 inclinations of friend Timothy, who observed, that if 
 he happened to see his shadow in the water he should 
 certainly mistake it for one of the tarnil critters, and 
 shoot himself. Sir William then with his own hand 
 painted the face of Sybrandt so as to resemble that 
 of an Indian an operation not at all necessary in 
 the case of Timothy. His toilet was already made ; 
 his complexion required no embellishment. This done, 
 the night having now set in, Sir William, motioning 
 silence, led the way cautiously to one of the gates of 
 Ticonderoga, which was opened by the sentinel, and 
 they proceeded swiftly and silently to the high bank 
 which hung over the strait in front of the fort. A 
 little bark canoe lay moored at the foot, in which 
 Sybrandt and Timothy placed themselves, flat on the 
 
 19 
 
290 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 bottom, each with his musket and accoutrements at 
 his side, and a paddle in his hand. 
 
 " Now," said Sir William, almost in a whisper, 
 " now, luck be with you, boys ; remember, you are to 
 return before daylight, without fail." 
 
 " But, Sir William," said Timothy, coaxingly, " now, 
 mayn t I take a pop at one of the tarnil critters, if I 
 meet em ? " 
 
 " I tell you, No!" replied the other; "unless you 
 wish to be popped out of the world when you come 
 back. Away with you, my boys." 
 
 Each plied his paddle ; and the light feather of a 
 boat darted away with the swiftness of a bubble in 
 a whirlpool. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 291 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A NIGHT ADVENTURE. 
 
 " IT S plaguy hard," grumbled Timothy to himself. 
 
 " What ? " quoth Sybrandt. 
 
 " Why, not to have the privilege of shooting one of 
 these varmints." 
 
 " Not another word," whispered Sybrandt ; " we 
 may be overheard from the shore." 
 
 " Does he think I don t know what s what ? " again 
 muttered Timothy, plying his paddle with a celerity 
 and silence that Sybrandt vainly tried to equal. 
 
 The night gradually grew dark as pitch. Earth 
 and air were confounded together in utter obscurity 
 as far as Sybrandt Westbrook was concerned at all 
 events. Not a breath of wind disturbed the foliage 
 of the trees, that hung invisible to all eyes but those 
 of Timothy, who seemed to see best in the deepest 
 gloom ; not an echo, not a whisper disturbed the dead 
 silence of nature, as" they darted along unseen and 
 unseeing, at least our hero was sensible of nothing 
 but darkness. 
 
 " Whisht ! " aspirated Timothy, at length, so low 
 that he could scarcely hear himself; and, after making 
 a few strokes with his paddle so as to shoot the canoe 
 out of her course, cowered to the bottom. Sybrandt 
 did the same, peering just over the side of the boat, 
 to discover if possible the reason of Timothy s man- 
 oauvres. Suddenly he heard, or thought he heard, the 
 
292 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 measured sound of paddles dipping lightly into the 
 water, A few minutes more, and he saw five or six 
 little lights glimmering indistinctly through the obscu 
 rity, apparently at a great distance. Timothy raised 
 himself up suddenly, seized his gun, and pointed it 
 for a moment at one of the lights ; but, recollecting 
 the injunction of Sir William, immediately resumed 
 his former position. In a few minutes the sound of 
 the paddles died away, and the lights disappeared. 
 
 " What was that ? " whispered Sybrandt. 
 
 " The Frenchmen are turning the tables on us, I 
 guess," replied the other. " If that canoe isn t going 
 a-spying jist like ourselves, I m quite out in my cal 
 culation." 
 
 " What ! with lights ? They must be great fools." 
 
 " It was only the fire of their pipes, which the dark 
 ness made look like so many candles. I m thinking 
 what a fine mark those lights would have bin ; and 
 how I could have peppered two or three of them, if 
 Sir William had not bin so plaguy obstinate." 
 
 "Peppered them! Why, they were half-a-dozen 
 miles off." 
 
 " They were within fifty yards the critters ; I 
 could have broken all their pipes as easy as kiss 
 my hand." 
 
 " How do you know they were critters, as you call 
 the Indians?" 
 
 " Why, did you ever hear so many Frenchmen 
 make so little noise?" 
 
 This reply was perfectly convincing ; and, Sybrandt 
 again enjoining silence, they proceeded with the same 
 celerity, and in the same intensity of darkness as 
 before, for more than an hour. This brought them, 
 
293 
 
 at the swift rate they were going, a distance of fifteen 
 miles or more from the place of their departure. 
 
 Turning a sharp angle, at the expiration of the 
 time just specified, Timothy suddenly stopped his 
 paddle as before, and crouched again. Sybrandt had 
 no occasion to inquire the reason of this action ; for, 
 happening to look towards the shore, he could dis 
 cover at a distance innumerable lights glimmering 
 and flashing amid the obscurity, and rendering the 
 darkness beyond the sphere of their influence still 
 more profound. These lights appeared to extend 
 several miles along what he supposed to be the strait 
 or lake, which here and there reflected their glancing 
 rays upon its quiet bosom. 
 
 " There they are, the critters," whispered Timothy, 
 exultingly ; " we ve treed em at last, I swow. Now, 
 mister, let me ask you one question will you obey 
 my orders ? " 
 
 " If I like them," said Sybrandt. 
 
 " Ay, like or no like. I must be captain, for a little 
 time at least." 
 
 " 1 have no objection to benefit by your experi 
 ence." 
 
 " Can you play Ingen when you are put to it? " 
 
 " I have been among them, and know something of 
 their character and manners." 
 
 " Can you talk Ingen ? " 
 
 No." 
 
 " Ah ! Your education has been sadly neglected. 
 But come, there s no time to waste in talking Ingen 
 or English. We must get right in the middle of 
 these critters. Can you creep on all-fours without 
 waking up a cricket?" 
 
294 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Plague on it ! I wonder what Sir William meant 
 by sending you with me. I could have done better 
 by myself. Are you afeard ? " 
 
 " Try me." 
 
 " Well, then, I must make the best of the matter. 
 The critters are camped out I see by their fires 
 by themselves. I can t stop to tell you every thing ; 
 but you must keep close to me, do jist as I do, and 
 say nothing; that s all." 
 
 " I am likely to play a pretty part, I see." 
 
 "Play! You ll find no play here, I guess, mister. 
 Set down close; make no noise; and if you go to 
 sneeze or cough, take right hold of your throat, and 
 let it go downwards." 
 
 Sybrandt obeyed his injunctions; and Timothy 
 proceeded towards the lights, which appeared much 
 farther off in the darkness than they really were, 
 handling his paddle with such lightness and dexterity 
 that Sybrandt could not hear the strokes. In this 
 manner they swiftly approached the encampment, 
 until they could distinguish a confused noise of shout 
 ings and hallooings, which gradually broke on their 
 ears in discordant violence. Timothy ceased paddling, 
 and listened. 
 
 " It is the song of those tarnil critters, the Outa- 
 was. They re in a drunken frolic, as they always are, 
 the night before going to battle. I know the critters, 
 for I ve popped off a few, and can talk and sing their 
 songs pretty considerably, I guess. So, we ll be 
 among em right off. Don t forget what I told you, 
 about doing as I do and holding your tongue." 
 
 Cautiously plying his paddle, he now shot in close 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 295 
 
 to the shore whence the sounds of revelry proceeded, 
 and made the land at some little distance. They then 
 drew up the light canoe into the bushes, which here 
 closely skirted the waters. " Now leave all behind 
 but yourself, and follow me," whispered Timothy, as 
 he carefully felt whether the muskets were well cov 
 ered from the damps of the night ; and then laid him 
 self down on his face, and crawled along under the 
 bushes with the quiet celerity of a snake in the grass. 
 
 " Must we leave our guns behind ? " whispered 
 Sybrandt. 
 
 " Yes, according to orders ; but it s a plaguy hard 
 case. Yet, upon the whole, it s best ; for if I was to 
 get a fair chance at one of these critters, I believe in 
 my heart my gun would go off clean of itself. But, 
 hush ! Shut your mouth as close as a powder-horn." 
 
 After proceeding some distance, Sybrandt getting 
 well-scratched by the briers, and finding infinite diffi 
 culty in keeping up with Timothy, the latter stopped 
 short. 
 
 " Here the critters are," said he, in the lowest whis 
 per. 
 
 " Where ? " replied the other, in the same tone. 
 
 " Look right before you." 
 
 Sybrandt followed the direction, and beheld a 
 group of five or six Indians seated round a fire, the 
 waning lustre of which cast a fitful light upon their 
 dark countenances, whose savage expression was 
 heightened to ferocity by the stimulant of the de 
 bauch in which they were engaged. They sat on the 
 ground, swaying backward and forward, and from 
 side to side, ever and anon passing the canteen from 
 one to the other, and sometimes rudely snatching it 
 
296 
 
 away, when they thought either was drinking more 
 than his share. At intervals they broke out into yell 
 ing and distuneful songs, filled with extravagant 
 boastings of murders, massacres, burnings, and plun- 
 derings, mixed up with threatening* of what they 
 would do to the redcoat Long Knives on the morrow. 
 One of these songs recited the destruction of a vil 
 lage, and bore a striking resemblance to the bloody 
 catastrophe of poor Timothy s wife and children. 
 Sybrandt could not understand it, but he could hear 
 the quick suppressed breathings of his companion, 
 who, when it was done, muttered under his breath 
 and in a tone of smothered vengeance, "If I only 
 had my gun!" 
 
 " Stay here a moment," whispered he, as he crept 
 cautiously towards the noisy group, which all at once 
 became perfectly quiet, and remained in the attitude 
 of listening. 
 
 " Huh ! " growled one, who appeared by his dress 
 to be the principal. 
 
 Timothy responded, in a few Indian words which 
 Sybrandt did not comprehend; and, raising himself 
 from the ground, suddenly appeared in the midst of 
 them. A few words were rapidly interchanged ; and 
 Timothy then brought forward his companion, whom 
 he presented to the Outawa, who greeted him, and 
 handed him the canteen, now almost empty. 
 
 " My brother does not talk," said Timothy. 
 
 " Is he dumb ? " asked the chief of the Outawas. 
 
 " No ; but he has sworn not to open his mouth till 
 he has struck the body of a Long Knife." 
 
 " Good," said the other ; " he is welcome." 
 
 After a pause he went on, at the same time eying 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 297 
 
 Sybrandt with suspicion ; though his faculties were 
 obscured by the fumes of the liquor, which he still 
 continued to drink and hand round at short intervals. 
 
 " I don t remember the young warrior. Is he of 
 our tribe ? " 
 
 " He is ; but he was stolen by the Mohawks many 
 years ago, and only returned lately." 
 
 " How did he escape ? " 
 
 " He killed two chiefs while they were asleep by the 
 fire, and ran away." 
 
 " Good," said the Outawa, and for a few moments 
 sunk into a kind of stupor. From this he suddenly 
 roused himself, grasped his tomahawk, started up, 
 rushed towards Sybrandt, and, raising his deadly 
 weapon, stood over him in the attitude of striking. 
 Sybrandt remained perfectly unmoved, waiting the 
 stroke. 
 
 " Good," said the Outawa again ; " I am satisfied ; 
 the Outawa never shuts his eyes at death. He is 
 worthy to be our brother. He shall go with us to 
 battle to-morrow." 
 
 " We have come just in time," said Timothy. 
 " Does the white chief march against the redcoats to 
 morrow ? " 
 
 " He does." 
 
 " Has he men enough to fight them ? " 
 
 " They are like the leaves on the trees," said the 
 other. 
 
 By degrees, Timothy drew from the Outawa chief 
 the number of Frenchmen, Indians, and coureurs des 
 bois, who composed the army ; the time when they 
 were to commence their march ; the course they were 
 to take, and the outlines of the plan of attack, in case 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 the British either waited for them in the fort or met 
 them in the field. By the time he had finished his 
 examination, the whole party, with the exception of 
 Timothy, Sybrandt, and the chief, were fast asleep. 
 In a few minutes after, the two former affected to be 
 in the same state, arid began to breathe heavily. The 
 Outawa chief nodded to and fro ; then sunk down 
 like a log, and remained insensible to every thing 
 around him, in the sleep of drunkenness. 
 
 Timothy lay without motion for a while, then 
 turned himself over, and rolled about from side to 
 side, managing to strike against each of the party, 
 successively. They remained fast asleep. He then 
 cautiously raised himself, and Sybrandt did the same. 
 In a moment Timothy was down again, and Sybrandt 
 followed his example without knowing why, until he 
 heard some one approach, and distinguished, as they 
 came nigh, two officers, apparently of rank. They 
 halted near the waning fire, and one said to the other 
 in French, in a low tone : 
 
 " The beasts are all asleep; it is time to wake them. 
 Our spies are come back, and we must march." 
 
 " Not yet," replied the other ; " let them sleep an 
 hour longer, and they will wake sober." They then 
 passed on, and, when their footsteps were no longer 
 heard, Timothy again raised himself, signing to our 
 hero to lie still. After ascertaining, by certain tests 
 which experience had taught him, that the Indians 
 still continued in a profound sleep, he proceeded with 
 wonderful dexterity and silence to shake the priming 
 from each of the guns in turn. After this, he took 
 their powder-horns and emptied them; then, seizing 
 the tomahawk of the Outawa chief which had dropped 
 
299 
 
 from his hand, he stood over the Indian for a moment, 
 with an expression of deadly hatred which Sybrandt 
 had never before seen in his or in any other counte 
 nance. The intense desire of killing struggled a few 
 moments with his obligations to obey the orders of 
 Sir William : the latter at length triumphed, and, mo 
 tioning Sybrandt, they crawled away with the silence 
 and celerity with which they came ; launched their 
 light canoe, and plied their paddles with might and 
 main. "The morning breeze is springing up," said 
 Timothy, " and it will soon be daylight. We must 
 be tarnil busy." 
 
 And busy they were, and swiftly did the flimsy bark 
 slide over the wave, leaving scarce a wake behind her. 
 As they turned the angle which hid the encampment 
 from their view, Timothy ventured to speak a little 
 above his breath. 
 
 " It s lucky for us that the boat we passed coming 
 down has returned, for it s growing light apace. I m 
 only sorry for one thing." 
 
 " What s that?" asked Sybrandt. 
 
 That I let that drunken Outawa alone. If I had 
 only bin out on my own bottom, he d have bin stun 
 dead in a twinkling, I guess." 
 
 " And you too, I guess" said Sybrandt, adopting 
 his peculiar phraseology ; " you would have been over 
 taken and killed." 
 
 " Who, I ? I must be a poor critter if I can t dodge 
 half a dozen of these drunken varmints." 
 
 A few hours of sturdy exertion brought them within 
 sight of Ticonderoga, just as the red harbingers oi 
 morning striped the pale green of the skies. Star after 
 star disappeared, as Timothy observed, like candles 
 
300 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 that had been burning all night and gone out of them 
 selves ; and, as they struck the foot of the high bluff 
 whence they had departed, the rays of the sun just 
 tipped the peaks of the high mountains toward the 
 west. Timothy then shook hands with our hero. 
 
 " You re a hearty critter," said he, and I ll tell Sir 
 William how you looked at that tarnil tomahawk as 
 if it had bin an old pipe-stem." 
 
 Without losing a moment, they proceeded to the 
 quarters of Sir William, whom they found waiting for 
 them with extreme anxiety. He extended both hands 
 towards our hero, and eagerly exclaimed 
 
 " What luck, my lads ? I have been up all night, 
 waiting your return." 
 
 " Then you will be quite likely to sleep sound to 
 night," quoth master Timothy, unbending the rigidity 
 of his leathern countenance. " I am of opinion if a 
 man wants to have a real good night s rest, he s only 
 to set up the night before, and he may calculate upon 
 it with sartinty." 
 
 " Hold your tongue, Timothy," said Sir William, 
 good - humouredly, " or else speak to the purpose. 
 Have you been at the enemy s camp ? " 
 
 " Right in their very bowels," said Timothy. 
 
 Sir William proceeded to question, and Sybrandt 
 and Timothy to answer, until he drew from them all 
 the important information of which they had possessed 
 themselves. He then dismissed Timothy with cordial 
 thanks and a purse of yellow boys, which he received 
 with much satisfaction. 
 
 " It s not of any great use to me, to be sure," said 
 he as he departed ; " but, somehow or other, I love to 
 look at the critters." 
 
301 
 
 " As to you, Sybrandt Westbrook, you have fulfilled 
 the expectations I formed of you on our first acquaint 
 ance. You claim a higher reward; for you have 
 acted from higher motives, and with at least equal 
 courage and resolution. His majesty shall hear of 
 this; and, in the mean time, call yourself Major West- 
 brook, for such you are from this moment. Now go 
 with me to the Commander-in-chief, who must know 
 of what you heard and saw." 
 
302 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A BUSH-FIGHT. 
 
 SYBRANDT bowed his thanks. The idea of being 
 named with commendation to the king was sufficient 
 stimulus to a modest provincial volunteer. But a 
 greater pleasure lurked in the thought, that Catalina 
 would hear of his honours, and perhaps regret, as Sir 
 William had hinted, that she could no longer hope 
 to share them. With these inspiring anticipations he 
 accompanied Sir William to the presence of the Com 
 mander-in-chief. They found him surrounded by a 
 number of officers, among whom our hero was startled 
 to see Colonel Gilfillan, who had just returned from 
 a mission to New York, whither he had been de 
 spatched by the general, the very day Sybrandt joined 
 the army at Ticonderoga. They recognized each 
 other with a stately bow and a flush of the cheek. 
 
 When his Excellency had heard the report of Sy 
 brandt, and commended his intrepidity, he announced 
 his intention to sally forth and surprise the enemy, 
 instead of keeping his troops cooped up in their de 
 fences like cowards. 
 
 " Caution is not cowardice," observed Sir William. 
 " It is certain that the enemy exceeds us in numbers. 
 As to surprising them, it is sufficient to say they have 
 two thousand Indians with them. Might I advise, 
 sir, I would respectfully suggest that we remain here 
 and receive the enemy in our intrenchments, where 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 303 
 
 we can keep them at bay until their Indian allies de 
 sert them, as they certainly will after being beaten 
 back a few times. In addition to being thus weak 
 ened, the want of necessary supplies will soon oblige 
 them to abandon the siege. When they retire, then 
 will be the time to come out upon them : a retreating 
 enemy is half conquered." 
 
 His Excellency, the commanding general, did not 
 relish this wise counsel, for at least two very substantial 
 reasons. He disdained to be governed by the advice of 
 a provincial officer, and he had been brought up in the 
 solemn conviction that one Englishman was a match 
 for two Frenchmen by land or by water. The young 
 officers of the line, in scarlet coats and gorgeous epau 
 lettes, were all of the same opinion, with the exception 
 of one, who, had he lived in happier times, and served 
 in a sphere less obscure, would have left behind him a 
 name equally illustrious with those of Wolfe, Mont 
 gomery, and Montcalm that admirable soldier, 
 whose glory even defeat could hardly obscure. It was 
 therefore determined that the army should march 
 out against the enemy, and orders were immediately 
 given for that purpose. As the officers separated to 
 their respective destinations, Sybrandt sought a meet 
 ing with Gilfillan, who favoured his wishes exceed 
 ingly. 
 
 " Colonel Gilfillan," said he, " permit me to remind 
 you of a certain affair which still remains unsettled." 
 The sight of Gilfillan had banished all his former 
 pacific resolutions. 
 
 " Major Westbrook," said the other, " to-day for our 
 country, to-morrow for Catalina." 
 
 " You remind me of a higher duty ; to-morrow be 
 
30-i THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 it : " and he touched his hat, and bowed with a sol 
 dier-like courtesy. 
 
 " To-morrow," replied Gilfillan, touching his hat 
 likewise, and bowing still lower. And thus they 
 parted for the present. 
 
 " Come, Westbrook," said Sir William, " let us go 
 and make our wills. To-morrow, if I am not mis 
 taken, many a poor fellow of us will have a lock of 
 hair the less upon his head. But, never mind, death 
 is certain, and duty imperative. I cannot approve, 
 but to-morrow you shall see Sir William Johnson 
 what he always has been and always will be faith 
 ful to his country, whether his judgment go with her 
 or no." 
 
 The whole of this busy day was spent in preparing 
 for the departure of the army, which took place early 
 the next morning. The shores of Lake Champlain 
 had never before witnessed so gallant an array of 
 martial splendours, nor the solitudes of her hills ever 
 resounded to such a blast of rousing music as now 
 echoed in their deepest recesses, scaring the eagles 
 from their inaccessible eyries, and the wild deer from 
 their impenetrable retreats. The officers of the regu 
 lar army, as the native British troops were called, 
 were all in the highest spirits, anticipating victory 
 and promotion. But the old gray-headed provincials, 
 who were better versed in border warfare, shook their 
 heads and marched forth in gloomy resignation, fore 
 seeing in this careless confidence of the general the 
 certainty of disaster and defeat. The hot-headed 
 redcoats tauntingly ascribed their deportment to cow 
 ardice or disaffection ; but it was nothing more 
 than the fearful augury of experience a prophetic 
 
305 
 
 insight into the future, founded on a knowledge of 
 the past. 
 
 The march was necessarily fatiguing, owing to the 
 obstructions every where opposed to them by the 
 rough inequalities of a country as yet almost in a 
 state of nature. Add to this, they were encumbered 
 with an inconvenient and unnecessary quantity of 
 baggage, which rendered their progress more slow 
 and laborious. In vain did Sir William and some of 
 the elder provincial officers endeavour to impress on 
 the general the necessity of sending out experienced 
 spies in advance, to scour the thick woods into which 
 they were now penetrating; in vain did they urge the 
 halting of the army for repose and refreshment. He 
 was inflated with a stupid and obstinate idea that he 
 was going to take the enemy by surprise, and, as is 
 not uncommon in such cases, in his eagerness to gain 
 his object, neglected the means necessary to guard 
 against a similar disaster. 
 
 It was about the middle of a long sultry afternoon 
 in the beginning of Summer that the army became 
 embarrassed in passing through a tract of wet ground, 
 covered with a forest of those majestic trees which 
 give such sublimity to our primeval woods. The heat 
 was intense, although they were in the midst of im 
 pervious shades ; for the air was dense and stagnant, 
 and the want of a free circulation was more than 
 equivalent to the absence of the sun. The road, if 
 road it might be called, which was little more than a 
 space about thirty yards wide cleared of wood, be 
 came deeper and more difficult as they advanced, and 
 soldiers and horses began to pant, and falter, and 
 stick fast in the mud. At the moment when the 
 
 20 
 
306 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 whole army was thus entangled, and suffering under 
 fatigue, heat, and hunger, a horrible shout, followed 
 by a discharge of guns in front and rear and all 
 around them, rung in their ears, and struck a chill 
 into the stoutest heart. White-skins and red-skins 
 seemed, like the fabled armies we read of, to spring 
 out of the ground ; every trunk of a tree sent forth 
 death and destruction into the beleaguered host, and 
 unseen hands pointed in security their fatal guns. 
 Here was no wheeling to the right or to the left, or 
 forming of columns, or concentrating of battalions, or 
 any of the practised evolutions of European warfare. 
 Each man had his individual foe, and each man 
 fought his own mortal fight. 
 
 The moment the yell echoed through the forest, Sir 
 William exclaimed to Sybrandt, who was marching 
 at his side, weary and disheartened, 
 
 " There they are ! I thought as much. The head 
 long blockhead ! " 
 
 " Your commands, Sir William ! " eagerly returned 
 the other. 
 
 " Commands ! Nobody commands now, but the 
 great Leader of the hosts of heaven. The law of 
 nature is come again, and all are equal here. Every 
 man for himself, and God for us all ! " shouted he, in 
 a voice that echoed through the forest, as he drew a 
 pistol and dashed, as fast as the woods and marshes 
 would permit, in the direction of the wildest turmoil. 
 Sybrandt followed, or rather kept at his side. But 
 there was no enemy to be seen, though every instant 
 the officers, in their red coats and splendid embroid 
 ery, fell dead by invisible hands. 
 
 " We are fighting with shadows," said Sir William, 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 307 
 
 as the balls and tomahawks flew about, barking the 
 trees or entering the flesh of the devoted men falling 
 victims to the folly of their commander. 
 
 By degrees, parties of the Five Nations rallied 
 round their old leader, and Sir William soon saw 
 himself at the head of a considerable number. With 
 these he commenced operations in the regular style of 
 bush-fighting, to which all other modes of warfare are 
 mere children s play. Each man then depends on his 
 own skill, sagacity, and daring; each man concen 
 trates his soul and body in efforts for self-preservation 
 alone, and the impulse of glory is changed to the 
 instinct of love for life. The fight soon became equal 
 between the assailing Indians and Sir William and 
 his valiant Mohawks, who still continued the objects 
 of terror to all the savages from the Atlantic to the 
 shores of Lake Superior. Old King Hendrick, who 
 was with them, retained his courage and vigour, and 
 seconded his friend Sir William with all his might 
 and cunning. Nor was Sybrandt idle. He fought 
 on foot, as all the rest now fought, either from choice 
 or necessity ; and, as the obstructions of the ground 
 prevented acting in concert, he w T as frequently en 
 gaged in personal contests with the enemy. But 
 the Indians never, if they can help it, or unless under 
 circumstances of particular advantage, like to match 
 their physical powers with the white man, either be 
 cause they know their own advantage in the man 
 oeuvres of bush-fighting, or the superiority of the other 
 in vigour and perseverance. 
 
 It so happened, however, that Sybrandt, who had 
 now received two or three flesh-wounds which had 
 somewhat weakened him, in the devious vicissitudes 
 
308 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 of the fight encountered an Indian, who seemed the 
 chief, or one of the principal leaders, of the hostile 
 band. He wore a suit of buckskin fitting close to his 
 body, and a military cap with feathers. He had a 
 tomahawk in his hand, which seemed to be his only 
 weapon. The sole defence of Sybrandt was a loaded 
 pistol, with (what was very rare at that time) a 
 double barrel. It was one of a pair which constituted 
 the only inheritance he received from his father. 
 With guarded malice the Indian and the white man 
 eyed each other; the former keenly scrutinizing the 
 latter to ascertain his means of defence, and Sybrandt 
 evincing equal curiosity. The chief was at length 
 satisfied that Sybrandt was unarmed, he having, at 
 first sight of the savage, concealed the pistol for the 
 purpose of disarming his vigilance. He accordingly 
 approached our hero with tomahawk raised, still 
 however with the characteristic caution of his race, 
 until Sybrandt thought him sufficiently near, when he 
 discharged one barrel, but not with a true aim. The 
 ball just grazed his adversary s shoulder. The chief, 
 supposing him now at his mercy, rushed forward, but 
 was received with a shot from the other barrel. It 
 entered his heart, and he fell dead. 
 
 " Bravo ! " exclaimed Sir William, who just at that 
 moment made his appearance, covered with blood 
 and dirt. " Bravo, major, you have done good service. 
 That is the very head and soul of the hostile Indians. 
 The moment they miss him they will disperse. The 
 feat shall make you a colonel, if we survive this day." 
 
 And it happened as he had predicted. By degrees 
 the Indians remitted their attacks, and, as the news of 
 the death of their great chief was gravely whispered 
 
309 
 
 about, discontinued them entirely, and gradually dis 
 appeared. 
 
 " The battle is over in this quarter," said the knight, 
 and called his Mohawks to follow him towards where 
 the firing still continued. Here they found a scene of 
 confusion and carnage, principally on one side. The 
 British army had been taken at such disadvantage, 
 and knew so little of this mode of warfare, that their 
 efforts were entirely inefficient. The provincials, how 
 ever, made some effectual resistance, and, when re 
 inforced by Sir William and his Mohawks, were at 
 length able to repulse the enemy, who retired in per 
 fect order, and with scarcely any loss. In passing 
 thus from one extremity of the fight to the other, 
 Sybrandt, by reason of the obscurity of the wood, 
 became separated from his companions. While seek 
 ing the direction for joining them again, he heard 
 something like a faint halloo at a little distance. 
 After a moment s reflection he made his way towards 
 the sound with the wariness becoming his situation, 
 until, at length, peering about beneath the branches, 
 he discovered an officer lying at the foot of a tree, 
 with his body partly raised and resting against it. 
 At a little distance was an Indian grasping a knife, 
 cautiously advancing, with an evident intention to 
 practise upon him the bloody rite of savage barbarity. 
 The face of the officer was turned towards Sybrandt, 
 and, pale as it was, he at once recognised Gilfillan. 
 In an instant the history of the past rushed upon his 
 mind, and in an instant he lived over his former 
 anger, regrets, and disappointments. All these were 
 merged the next moment in one generous feeling. 
 He determined to rescue his rival at every risk. Lev- 
 
810 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 elling his pistol with a steady aim, he waited the 
 approach of the savage, who was so intent upon his 
 bloody purpose that he did not perceive him. When 
 about half a dozen paces from his intended victim, 
 Sybrandt fired, and the Indian dropped. In another 
 second he was at the side of Gilfillan, who held out 
 his hand to him, and said, faintly, 
 
 " Major Westbrook, I thank you; not for my life, 
 for that is gone past all recovery, I think ; but you 
 have saved my skin from being ripped from my head ; 
 and, by my soul, I am grateful. I have something to 
 say to you ; and the sooner I can say it the better." 
 
 At this moment Sybrandt perceived a second Indian 
 approaching with uplifted tomahawk. He attempted 
 to rise and meet him, but he had been bleeding im 
 perceptibly for several hours, and his strength was 
 now quite gone. He sunk down again, insensible, at 
 the instant that he heard the report of a gun, and the 
 exclamation, " Take that, you tarnil critter." 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 AN EXPLANATION. 
 
 THIS was a bloody day for England and her colo 
 nies, and its consequences fatal to the success of their 
 combined arms during the remainder of the war. 
 The shattered remnant of the army found its way 
 back to Ticonderoga, weaker by two thousand men 
 than it went out. But, fortunately, the French did 
 not pursue, owing to the defection of their Indian 
 allies ; they being, as usual, discouraged by their losses, 
 which had been great, owing to the bravery and con 
 duct of Sir William Johnson and his Mohawks. 
 They employed themselves in running about the wood 
 where the battle was fought, plundering the slain, and 
 inflicting the last act of barbarity upon those in whom 
 life remained. Many a gallant soldier fell in this 
 forest-fight, who deserved a more illustrious field and 
 a more worthy commemoration than mine. Among 
 these was Lord Howe, of whom the records of the 
 time speak as of one whose high honour, signal 
 courage, and martial qualities gave promise of a life 
 of glory and success. But what are the auguries of 
 hope, even when drawn from such appearances as 
 these, but the heralds of disappointment ? 
 
 For some hours there was a blank in the life of our 
 hero; and that the blank did not last for ever was 
 owing to his trusty companion of the night but one 
 before. Timothy Weasel had joined the army that 
 
312 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 day as a volunteer, or rather amateur, and long after 
 ward boasted that he had sacrificed one of the critters 
 to the shade of each of his murdered family. After 
 rescuing Sybrandt and Gilfillan from the savage, 
 in the manner just related, he came up to the young 
 men, the former of whom he found insensible. He 
 examined his wounds, of which his long experience 
 in the trade of vengeance had made him no indiffer 
 ent judge. 
 
 "Is he dead?" asked Gilfillan, faintly. 
 
 "Only in a swound," replied Timothy; "the blood 
 is almost out of his body, and that s mostly what s 
 the matter with him. It s a pity he should die of 
 nothing, as I may say; for I can tell you he s a 
 decent sort of a critter he isn t afeard of nothin." 
 
 "I know that I owe him my rescue from the 
 scalping-knife, and I would give what remains of life, 
 if it were a thousand times as much, to save him. 
 Can t it be done?" 
 
 Timothy considered a moment, " It s likely it may. 
 Stay here till I come back, and, mind, don t neither of 
 you stir a peg from the place." 
 
 " There s no danger of that," answered Gilfillan, 
 with a melancholy smile, glancing his languid eye 
 from his broken leg to the inanimate body of Sy 
 brandt. 
 
 Timothy hurried away, leaving the two young men 
 to await his return. He staid till the shadows of 
 evening began to fall, and Gilfillan, worn out with 
 pain, anxiety, and weakness, had sunk down by the 
 side of our hero. In this situation they were found 
 by Sir William, who had been apprized by Timothy 
 of their melancholy state. He lost not a moment. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 313 
 
 but came, under the guidance of the Vermonter, with 
 a body of his Mohawks to their relief. In a few 
 minutes they made a litter of boughs, on which they 
 placed the two wounded soldiers, and forthwith bent 
 their way as fast as possible towards Ticonderoga. 
 The motion of the litter put into circulation the little 
 blood that yet lingered in Sybrandt s veins, and 
 brought him by degrees to a consciousness of his situ 
 ation. Gilfillan also came to himself betimes. It was 
 morning before the party arrived at the intrenched 
 camp : the cold dews of the night had operated on 
 the exhausted frames of the young soldiers, and 
 chilled them almost into ice; so that when they 
 arrived it was a moot point whether they were dead 
 or alive. Immediate care was taken to dispose of 
 them as comfortably as possible, and the assistance 
 of surgeons obtained. 
 
 The wounds of Sybrandt were found in no way 
 dangerous of themselves ; but it was feared that loss 
 of blood, and exposure to the night air, might be fol 
 lowed by consequences that would endanger his life. 
 The situation of Gilfillan was still more critical. A 
 ball had struck his knee, and shattered it in a terrible 
 manner. The surgeons at once pronounced the neces 
 sity of amputation the next day, when his strength 
 was a little restored. A groan, such as his previous 
 sufferings had never forced from him, marked the feel 
 ing with which the handsome Gilfillan received this 
 judgment ; but he uttered not a word. They were 
 in the same room together, at the request of Gilfillan, 
 who lay awake that night, restless and feverish. Sy 
 brandt was also so much exhausted that he could 
 scarcely sleep ; and ever and anon he could hear Gil- 
 
314 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 fillan mumbling to himself in tones of feverish indis 
 tinctness, "They sha n t make a sight of me." 
 "What s the use of paying such a price for life?" 
 
 " What will the girls say to my wooden leg? " 
 and such like exclamations. 
 
 About daylight in the morning, he asked Sybrandt 
 if he was awake, and, finding that he was, spoke to 
 him as follows : 
 
 " Westbrook, I have something to say to you ; and 
 perhaps I d better say it now, for, upon my soul, I 
 think, nay, I m sure, it s all over with me." 
 
 " Be of good cheer, Colonel Gilfillan," replied the 
 other ; " after the operation you ll be better." 
 
 " And, by the glory of my ancestors, Westbrook, if 
 I m not better before that happens, I shall never be 
 better. I mean to die with both my legs on." 
 
 " Surely, you are not afraid of an amputation ? " 
 
 " Afraid ! " cried Gilfillan, raising himself in his bed 
 
 "Look you, Major Westbrook, if I had a pair of 
 pistols here just now but what am I talking about? 
 don t I owe my life, at least what s left of it, to you? 
 Now, listen to me, and mind what I say." He then 
 disclosed to him the true history of the picture, and 
 his rejection by Catalina the day he was seen by 
 Sybrandt at the feet of that young lady, kissing her 
 hands. " She loves you," said he, faintly, " and none 
 other. She told me so with her own sweet lips, and 
 the tears in her truth-telling eyes." 
 
 " Is this true, on your soul, Colonel Gilfillan ? " 
 " True, on the word of a dying man. Now let us 
 
 be friends while I live ; and, faith, there will be little 
 
 time for our friendship to wear out." 
 
 When the surgeons visited the young men in the 
 
315 
 
 morning, they found Sybrandt somewhat better, 
 though feverish : but they shook their heads when 
 they examined the wound and felt the pulse of Gil- 
 fillan, declaring that nothing but an immediate ampu 
 tation could save him. 
 
 " Then I am a dead man," said he ; " for my leg 
 shall go with me to the grave. We have kept com 
 pany all our lives, and I won t part with my old friend 
 now, at the last pinch. Any thing else, doctor? " 
 
 " Any thing else will be nothing you will be dead 
 in less than four-and-twenty hours ; and, indeed, it is 
 extremely doubtful whether even that will save you." 
 
 " Then the matter is settled," said Gilfillan. 
 
 " Then you are a dead man," replied the surgeon, 
 bluntly. 
 
 " Be it so," was Gilfillan s reply. 
 
16 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE BURIAL, OF A GALLANT SOLDIER. 
 
 ALL that day, and until the next morning, Gilfillan 
 was at times delirious with pain and fever; but to 
 wards the evening he came to himself, was entirely 
 free from pain, and addressed Sybrandt coherently. 
 
 " You feel better? " said Sybrandt, hopefully. 
 
 " I feel no pain now." 
 
 " Then you must be better." 
 
 " I am better my sufferings are past by sunset 
 I shall be well." 
 
 Sybrandt understood him, and did not reply. After 
 a silence of a few minutes, Gilfillan spoke again. 
 
 " Westbrook," said he, faintly, " can you lift me that 
 little trunk on the table ? " 
 
 " I cannot stand," said the other. 
 
 " Perhaps / can get it ; " and with an effort he raised 
 himself, and managed to reach it, unaided, though he 
 almost sunk under the exertion. The attendant came 
 in at that moment, to expostulate against his talking. 
 
 "Pooh!" said Gilfillan; "go about your business, 
 will you ? But stay ; I want you to bear witness that 
 I charge Major Westbrook with this trunk. As to 
 the rest, I don t care who has it. Now go away." 
 The attendant retired. 
 
 " Westbrook," continued he, after a pause, " there 
 is a picture in this trunk which belongs to you. I 
 procured it like a rogue, and I restore it like an hon- 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 317 
 
 est man, now that it can be of no further use to me. 
 There are some little keepsakes of my sister, who 
 married and died in France. Give them to Catalina ; 
 she need not be afraid of my claiming them when I 
 am dead. My watch you will take the first opportu 
 nity of sending home to my father. I can t write to 
 him but you will do it. Say to him that I blessed 
 his old gray head, and died a true son of my father 
 and of old Ireland. There is a seal attached to it, 
 with my crest the crest of the ancient Conn aught 
 kings ; wear that for my sake, and 
 
 Here his ideas seemed to become indistinct ; at least 
 Sybrandt could not understand what he said, for a 
 minute or two. 
 
 " Westbrook," whispered he, " I am going." 
 
 " Shall I call assistance ? " 
 
 " No ; but I wish I could reach your hand, to give 
 it one shake. No matter we are friends. God bless 
 you my father Catalina Old Ireland ! " 
 
 The last words were almost unheard by Sybrandt, 
 and in a little while another soul was on its way to 
 that country which all visit in turn ; of which none 
 know any thing, but the dead, who " tell no tales." 
 
 Gilfillan was buried with the honours of war, one 
 of the most solemn and affecting ceremonies that can 
 be offered to our contemplation. The scene and the 
 occasion combined to render it peculiarly striking and 
 magnificent. The remnant of the army followed his 
 remains to the grave with arms reversed and muffled 
 drums, while the concentrated bands poured forth the 
 rich and tender music of " Aileen Aroon," the favour 
 ite air of the dead soldier. The minute-guns roared 
 among the recesses of the mountains, and echoed 
 
318 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 along the lake, as the ceremony proceeded ; and three 
 rounds of musketry announced that the body of the 
 gallant Gilfillan was deposited in the bosom of its 
 mother earth. 
 
 "It is over!" exclaimed Sybrandt, who had lain 
 stretched on his bed, listening to the strain of music 
 and the roaring artillery. " He is gone, poor fellow ! 
 Perhaps I shall soon follow." The thought was not 
 pleasant ; for he felt now that he had something to 
 live for. 
 
 The French army had been prevented from imme 
 diately following up its victory for such it was, in 
 fact by the disaffection and insubordination of the 
 Indians, who formed an indispensable ingredient in 
 these border wars. They had suffered severely, gained 
 little plunder, and become tired of the service ; for per 
 severance in war forms no part of their character. It 
 was with difficulty they could be kept together ; and 
 this circumstance afforded a respite to the English 
 force, which, reduced as it now was, took the opportu 
 nity to retreat to the head of Lake George. 
 
 During this period, the situation of Sybrandt con 
 tinued very critical. His wounds were of little conse 
 quence ; but the circumstances attending his removal 
 from the field, together with the subsequent agitation 
 of his mind occasioned by the explanation with Gil 
 fillan, brought on a slow fever, which threatened fatal 
 consequences. Such was his weakness, that, though 
 his friend Sir William paid the kindest attention to 
 his ease and comfort, he scarcely survived his removal 
 by water to Fort George, and was brought there in a 
 state that rendered recovery almost hopeless. 
 
 In the mean time Catalina had returned to the 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 319 
 
 house of her father ; but not the Catalina who had 
 left it the autumn before. After the departure of Sy- 
 brandt, Gilfillan, and Sir Thicknesse Throgmorton, 
 she had nothing to gratify either her affection or her 
 vanity. The resources of dissipation and flirtation, so 
 frequently successful in curing the wounds of the 
 heart, all failed her. Nothing was talked of or thought 
 of but the war ; business and gayety were at a stand ; 
 and the officers, whose presence had given a zest to 
 balls, parties, and general society, were gone to the 
 frontier. She had, therefore, ample leisure for reflec 
 tion and regret. Though she blamed Sybrandt for not 
 entering into the very recesses of her heart, and seeing 
 himself there struggling for mastery with a little troop 
 of vanities and caprices, still she could not in con 
 science deny that he had at least sufficient apparent 
 cause for his desertion ; and thus to the disappoint 
 ment of her hopes was added the sting of self-reproach. 
 Her vivacity departed ; her colour faded ; and the rich 
 fulness of her form, where youth and health had united 
 with a happy consciousness of the present, a san 
 guine anticipation of the future to consummate the 
 face and figure of a Hebe, gave place to lassitude 
 and indifference. To this succeeded a fretful impa 
 tience to go home, which was met by an equal though 
 secret desire on the part of Mrs. Aubineau to be rid of 
 her. That good lady never, to the last day of her life, 
 forgave Catalina her folly in not jumping at the op 
 portunity of becoming a titled lady. 
 
 In this state of things the summons of Colonel 
 Vancour for his daughter to return home was a relief 
 equally welcome to Catalina and her lady entertainer. 
 The guest who is tired of the hostess and the hostess 
 
320 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 tired of her guest are remarkably civil at parting. 
 Nothing could surpass the affectionate farewell of 
 Mrs. Aubineau, except the grateful acknowledgments 
 of Catalina. Let not our stern moral readers (for 
 the sternest moralists now regularly put on their spec 
 tacles to read a new novel) let them not cast the 
 bitterness of their censures upon this elegant simula 
 tion. What would this world be, and who would or 
 could live in it, if every-body blurted out the secret 
 feelings of their hearts in each other s faces ? Neither 
 friendship, nor love, nor the ties of kindred, let them 
 be ever so strongly knit, could stand such a test. They 
 would perish and be rent in twain by the rough appli 
 cation of such a touchstone. Civility to those who 
 have not degraded themselves by base and dishonour 
 able conduct, but whom still we neither respect nor 
 love, when it proceeds from no motive of interest or 
 purpose of deception, is not so much actual hypocrisy 
 as the triumph of reflection and propriety over the 
 impulses of prejudice and ill-nature. 
 
THE DUTCHMANS FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 CATALINA RETURNS HOME. 
 
 CATALINA embarked in one of those Albany packets 
 which then constituted the only vehicles of transpor 
 tation on the noble Hudson, under the protection of 
 the wife of an officer occupying a high station on the 
 frontier. The scene and the season were scarcely 
 more different from those which presented themselves 
 on her journey down the river, than were her feelings 
 and anticipations at the two periods. But the changes, 
 though great, bore no resemblance to each other. 
 They formed a perfect contrast. Then the hopes of 
 Catalina were blossoming in full luxuriance, while the 
 beauties and the flowers of nature were passing into 
 the gay yet melancholy hues of the departing year. 
 Now the young and fresh products of the genial 
 spring, the air, the woods, the birds, the insects, the 
 voices and the face of earth, all breathed, and whis 
 pered, and sung, of joyful, renovated animation. Not 
 so with Catalina. She represented not the smiling, 
 blushing, full luxuriance of spring s rosy-lipped god 
 dess, but the faded, and still fading charms of au 
 tumn s melancholy, musing, silent representative. 
 
 The vessel sped prosperously before the sweet 
 south winds, but, sad to say, was four days on her 
 passage. What a loss of time! especially for peo 
 ple that have nothing to do. Had our heroine fortu 
 nately been bom in this age of development even 
 
 21 
 
322 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 in this behindhand hemisphere she might have been 
 home in twelve hours ! But if she had been still more 
 distinguished by Providence, and had been born, not 
 only in this happy age, but in such a happy country 
 as Old England, she might peradventure have travelled 
 to Albany on a railroad, at the rate of sixty miles an 
 hour ! What a prodigious saving of time ! And, if 
 the business of young ladies consisted in saving time, 
 what a prodigious advantage in this rapid travelling ! 
 I beg pardon, the march of improvement has or 
 dained I should say locomotion she actually might 
 have arrived at home in less than three hours ! 
 
 " Well, sir, and what if she had ? " 
 
 Why, sir, she would have saved such an amazing 
 deal of time! She would have got home three days 
 sooner to her friends. 
 
 " And missed the anticipation of seeing them, all 
 that time." 
 
 Pooh ! what is anticipation compared to the reality ? 
 
 " Ask any old lady or gentleman you meet, and 
 they will tell you." 
 
 My dear sir, then the short and the long of the 
 matter is, you don t think fast travelling an improve 
 ment. 
 
 " Faith, not I. I believe, if the happiness, or the 
 interests, or the superiority of man, had in any way 
 depended on fast travelling, Providence would have 
 made a race-horse of him, or furnished his honour 
 with a pair of eagle s wings." 
 
 My good sir, you are a century behind the spirit of 
 the age. 
 
 " Never mind ; one of these days I shall get into a 
 locomotive engine, and overtake it." 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 323 
 
 So Catalina, poor girl, was upwards of four days 
 in sailing to Albany. Does not the fair reader, who, 
 possibly, at the moment of reading this, sits at a win 
 dow with our book in her hand, looking at the whis 
 kered beaux as they pass up and down Broadway 
 does she not shudder at this dead loss of time ? P< r- 
 haps she is anticipating a visit to the Springs, to Lot;;.- 
 Branch, or Nahant, and grows pale at the very antici 
 pation of a four days passage, involving four days of 
 absence from these happy retreats of people whose 
 time is so precious. Let us see what privations this de 
 lay involves. The loss of at least forty-eight tumblers 
 of Congress water ; of four execrable dinners ; of four 
 restless, uncomfortable nights ; a subscription ball ; 
 three dozen changes of dress ; and three hundred and 
 seventy-five desperate yawns ; at the Springs: of 
 four or five bathings on the beach, followed by four 
 or five shiverings when the sea-breeze comes in ; of 
 the pleasure of seeing the ladies make their transits 
 to and fro from the waves, looking, not like the fabled 
 goddess rising from the ocean, but, with reverence be 
 it spoken, like old-clothes-women when they go in 
 and drowned rats when they come out ; of spending 
 day after day in a delightful variety of eating, drink 
 ing, and sleeping sleeping, eating, and drinking 
 and drinking, eating, and sleeping; of being obliged 
 to devour your dinners quicker than they do in a 
 manufactory or a steam-boat, and discuss crabs and 
 tough mutton against time to sleep before dinner, 
 and after dinner, and between dinner and tea and, 
 finally, to endure the exemplary tyranny of Mrs. Sears, 
 and suffer under the worst of all despotisms, that of a 
 petticoat government; at Long Branch: or, of 
 
324 
 
 the gratification of passing all day watching for the 
 sea-serpent; of magnifying every porpoise into his 
 likeness ; of seeing the ripplings of the waves assume 
 the likeness of his joints; and of exercising the last 
 degree of human credulity in believing in the exist 
 ence of that fabled monster, under the penalty of 
 being frowned on by the young ladies, and denounced 
 by their honoured fathers as freemasons, Jackson 
 men, and unbelievers; at Nahant. To think that a 
 young lady or gentleman of enlightened views and 
 cultivated intellect should lose four days of all or any 
 of these delights for lack of a. steam-boat or locomo 
 tive is enough to discompose the machinery of a one- 
 hundred-and-twenty-horse-power engine. Yet to all 
 this was Catalina subjected, without being a whit the 
 wiser or more miserable on that account. 
 
 However, in spite of the backwardness of the age, 
 she got home at last. Festina lente, said Augustus 
 Caesar, and so say I. Nobody ever did any thing 
 well in a hurry, except running away. She was 
 greeted by her honoured parents with tender welcome, 
 and she received that welcome with tears flowing 
 from a hundred recollections of the past. The first 
 caresses being over, they had leisure to observe her 
 altered appearance, which they did with a silent inter 
 change of anxious looks. They however said noth 
 ing ; they suspected its cause, and this was not the 
 time or the occasion to allude to the subject. But 
 honest Ariel, who was on the high ropes with joy at 
 her return, and never wandered out of the little circle 
 of the present moment, being suddenly struck with 
 her paleness, as suddenly exclaimed, 
 
 "Why, Catalina why, damn it, what s the mat 
 ter ? You look like a ghost ! " 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 325 
 
 " Nothing, uncle," answered she, and burst into 
 tears. 
 
 " Why, damn it now, why, don t cry ; I didn t mean 
 to to " and honest Ariel, whose heart melted like 
 a dish of butter in the sun, fairly wept, to keep her 
 company. 
 
 " She is fatigued with her voyage," said the consid 
 erate mother, " and had better lie down a little while 
 before dinner. Come, my dear : " and Catalina followed 
 her mother to her chamber. 
 
 " I ll be shot if I know what to make of all this," 
 exclaimed Ariel, wiping his eyes. 
 
 " Nor I," thought the colonel ; " but we shall kn^ow 
 in good time. Her mother will get it all out of her 
 before to-morrow." 
 
 And so she did. The fact is, she knew it all before, 
 from her friend, Mrs. Aubineau. But she had no ob 
 jection to hear it again ; for, thought she, a good story 
 never loses by telling. 
 
 " Ah ! Catalina," exclaimed she, shaking her head, 
 " you ll never live to be a titled lady, I m afraid." 
 
 " I shall never live to be any thing, I believe," re 
 plied Catalina, and her tears flowed apace. 
 
 " The Honourable Colonel Gilfillan," said Madam, 
 " is, I believe, on the frontier." 
 
 " I wish," thought Catalina, " he were anywhere, so 
 I might never see his face again." 
 
 " And Sybrandt Westbrook is there, too." 
 
 Catalina did not wish he was where she might never 
 see him again, though the old lady, I believe, did. 
 
 " He is a jealous-pated fool," said Madam. 
 
 " Who, dear mother ? " 
 
 " Sybrandt." 
 
326 
 
 " Indeed, mother, you are mistaken," said she, firmly. 
 
 " Then you gave him cause," said Madam, in a tone 
 rather of exultation. 
 
 " Indeed, I did not that is, if he had known my 
 real feelings he would have been satisfied." 
 
 "Ah!" thought the mother, "it s an old story for 
 girls to behave like little wild-cats to their lovers, and 
 then blame them because they cannot see into their 
 hearts. They might as well try to see into the inside 
 of" she could not find a comparison to suit her, 
 exactly, but I believe a pumpkin came into her head. 
 
 Madam told the old gentleman all about it, and 
 immediately after went to Albany, for a purpose that 
 nobody about her could fathom, though I have a 
 shrewd guess. But I will not betray the secrets of 
 the old lady, though, rest her soul, she is dead long 
 ago, and I am not afraid of ghosts. All I can disclose 
 is, that, some days after this mysterious journey, the 
 affair of Catalina was talked of at several tea-parties, 
 though nobody could ever discover how it leaked 
 out. 
 
 " I shall write to Sybrandt, and set matters right," 
 quoth the straightforward old gentleman, Colonel Van- 
 cour. 
 
 " What ! " screamed Madam " What ! " cried Cat 
 alina ; < ( and tell I am dying for him ! O, father, I d 
 rather be dead ! " 
 
 "I d rather see her married to the Honourable 
 Colonel Gilfillan," thought the old lady. 
 
 " It can be no reproach to the delicacy of a young 
 lady, to relieve her lover from any erroneous impres 
 sions of her conduct. You know he loved you, and 
 that is sufficient." 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 327 
 
 " But, father, he may have fallen in love with some 
 body else, since." 
 
 " O, certainly," exclaimed the colonel, smiling, 
 "with some beautiful squaw." 
 
 " Alas! men have no sensibility," thought Catalina, 
 with a sjgh, " when my father makes a jest of the soul- 
 subduing passion ! " 
 
 People grow wiser as they grow older, my dear little 
 heroine, or at any rate they grow more selfish, and 
 that is often mistaken for wisdom. Times change, 
 and men change with them ; but this does not prove 
 that either change for the better. 
 
 Catalina opposed writing to Sybrandt, and so did her 
 mother, although she could not help feeling anxious 
 about the depressed health and spirits of her daughter. 
 "Nobody ever died of love, though," thought she; and 
 she thought right. It is not a disease in itself, but it 
 often produces complaints that sap the sources of life, 
 and bring on a premature decay. The process is slow, 
 but sure. Be this as it may, the colonel had two to 
 one against him, and they were women. The colonel 
 was but a man so he grumbled, and submitted. 
 What could man do more? 
 
328 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 AN ANTI-CHARITABLE CHAPTER. 
 
 I COULD never yet, to this blessed hour, satisfy my 
 self whether Catalina was more glad or more sorry at 
 thus carrying her point. At any rate it was one of 
 Pyrrhus s victories, and she never wished to gain such 
 another. She was now free to indulge the luxury of 
 grief; but grief, like other passions, when immoder 
 ately gratified, soon loses zest. It is one of the most 
 tiresome- things in the world, for a constancy. It does 
 very well for a burst or a paroxysm ; but for every day, 
 and all day long for every night, and all the live 
 long night human nature cannot stand it, and seeks 
 refuge from the carking, gnawing fiend, in the per 
 formance of its duties to itself and to others. Blessed 
 necessity ! 
 
 Catalina forced herself to enter upon_Uie_cares of 
 domestic life ; and those who seek employment will 
 soon take an interest in what they are doing. There 
 are a thousand little acts of obligation, or kindness, or 
 attention, which woman, and only woman, can per 
 form, and which interfere neither with the delicacy of 
 a lady nor the acquirement and practice of elegant 
 accomplishments. The union, I confess, is not com 
 mon ; but I have seen women, and thank heaven for 
 it, who united both the will and the power to be useful 
 with the utmost polish of mind and manners and the 
 highest intellectual attainments becoming the sex. I 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 329 
 
 wish I could meet a few more of them. But, if they 
 were common, they would no longer be a rarity ; and, 
 if they were no longer a rarity, nobody would prize 
 them. Doubtless it is best as it is. Let us bow with 
 humble resignation, and thank our stars, as men, that 
 there are so many of the sex who are not all angel; 
 for, if there were more of them quite faultless, where 
 under the sun should we find partners worthy of 
 them? 
 
 Catalina was calculated to be both a blessing and 
 an ornament to her home, a jewel in the bosom of 
 a husband, or she would never have been chosen as 
 our heroine from all the rest of her sex. Though not 
 peffect, she was a perfect woman ; and whoever is 
 v not satisfied with that, let him die the death of a 
 bachelor. There was a library too in the mansion 
 of Colonel Vancour, which, though principally com 
 posed of majestic Latin tomes of the Dutch school, 
 was here and there relieved by works of a lighter 
 nature. There were few novels, but, being scarce, 
 they were the more seducing, and, being right excel- 
 In^, they would bear to be read frequently. They 
 did not depend altogether on the momentary excite 
 ment of the story, but possessed latent beauties which 
 gradually opened themselves, like flowers to the morn 
 ing sun, at every new perusal. Besides these, Catalina 
 had music and friends, and the liberality of her father 
 allowed her the means of procuring every rational en 
 joyment. 
 
 What a shame to be unhappy with so many sources 
 of happiness! Yet our heroine was not happy. There 
 was one thing wanting, and that was a want of the 
 heart. It was the companion of her childhood ; the 
 
330 
 
 choice of her youth ; the preserver of her life. She 
 often visited the spot where the terrible conflict with 
 Captain Pipe took place, and always returned with 
 renewed regrets ; she could not sit at her window and 
 look into the garden without recalling to mind the 
 perils she had encountered, and the life she owed to 
 the watchful tenderness of her lover; nor could she 
 walk in any direction without something or other pre 
 senting itself which brought him to her remembrance 
 clothed with every claim to her tenderness and grat 
 itude. But she had lost him, and that by her own 
 paltry vanity. 
 
 Yet she did not yield to the infirmity of her heart. 
 She tried every resource, and finally that of teaching 
 children to read and write. During her absence in 
 New York, Madam Vancour had been seized with a 
 passion for doing good on a great scale a dangerous 
 propensity in woman, because it is apt to degenerate 
 into the weakness of indiscriminate charity. To re 
 lieve the distresses of mankind without encouraging 
 their vices, their laziness, their extravagance, is a nice 
 and delicate task ; it requires a knowledge of the dark 
 side of the world and a self-denial which women hap 
 pily seldom attain ; and hence it is that the large 
 share they have taken of late in the distribution of 
 public and private charities has without doubt been 
 one of the main causes of that vast increase of idle 
 ness and poverty, and their consequent vices, which 
 cannot but be evident to every observer. 
 
 With the best intentions in the world, mingled, as 
 such so often are, with a little alloy of vanity and 
 self-applause, Madam Vancour resolved to institute 
 a school for the gratuitous education of the children 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 331 
 
 of the neighbouring poor. Not that there were any 
 people in the neighbourhood that really required her 
 assistance in this respect ; for riches and poverty were 
 not at that early period so disproportionately distrib 
 uted as they are at present. Though all were able 
 by industry and economy to afford their children such 
 instruction as was necessary to their modes of life, 
 (and all beyond is not only superfluous, but per 
 nicious), still this new-born desire to do good whis 
 pered Madam Vancour that it would be very humane 
 to relieve these people from the burden of educating 
 their own offspring. Accordingly she set about it with 
 enthusiasm ; and her first step was to convince these 
 worthy folks, who had hitherto managed to get on 
 very well, that it was a great hardship for them to be 
 obliged to deprive themselves of certain of the little 
 luxuries of life, to pay for the schooling of their chil 
 dren. 
 
 "Vat! mine own lawfully-pegotten shildren?" ex 
 claimed old Van Bornbeler, who got his living by 
 making flag-bottomed chairs; "why, who den should 
 pay for dare shchooling, if not me? Ain t I dare 
 fader?" 
 
 But Madam Vancour soon brought him to reason, 
 fry showing how he could buy six quarts of pure 
 Jamaica rum, and as many pounds of sugar, besides 
 a new gown for the yffrouw, with the money it cost 
 him for the schooling of his three children. " Duy vol ! " 
 quoth Van Bombeler ; " why, I never tought of dat 
 before!" So he consented to Madam s desirable pro 
 posal. In this manner the good lady for good she 
 certainly was in the abstract, though I fear not prac 
 tically so in this instance in this rnanner did she 
 
332 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 persuade her neighbours to relinquish the honest, nay, 
 proud gratification of educating their own children by 
 the sweat of their own brows. There was one, and 
 only one, sturdy Dutchman, who rejected her benevo 
 lence, and insisted, nay, swore, that nobody should 
 put their charity upon him. " I ll work my fingers to 
 de bone ; and den, if I can t send dem to shchool, 
 what s de reason, I should like to know, if dey can t 
 pay for dare own shchooling when dey grow pig 
 enough?" But Madam had her revenge she took 
 away his trade of whisk-brooms, by setting up another 
 man in the business ; who, as he lived in one of Col 
 onel Vancour s small houses and paid no rent, ruined 
 the other by underselling him. By this means the 
 obstinate fool was brought to reason ; and, finally, his 
 poverty if not his will consented to have his children 
 educated upon charity. 
 
 But these difficulties in procuring objects for the 
 exercise of her new-born virtue soon vanished. Cus 
 tom by degrees reconciled the people to the degrada 
 tion of depending on alms for what they could procure 
 by their own labour. The numerous examples which 
 in good time presented themselves ; the countenance 
 of Madam, to whom they all looked up with respect 
 ful deference ; and, above all, the means of self-grati* 
 fication which this diversion of the fruits of their 
 labour produced ; all tended to consummate this salu 
 tary revolution of opinion. It was surprising to see, 
 in the course of a little while, how anxious the poor 
 were to get rid of the burden of educating their 
 children ; and with what singular satisfaction Master 
 Van Bombeler boasted that he could now afford to 
 drink twice as much as he did before this blessed 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 333 
 
 invention of charity. In a little time a great improve 
 ment was observed at the Flats : the children all 
 looked up to Madam Vancour instead of their ignorant 
 parents, who, for their part, began to wear clothes of 
 a better fashion ; to spend a little more time abroad 
 and a little less at home; to take a great interest 
 in all matters that did not concern them ; and to 
 elevate their noses much higher in the scale of crea 
 tion now that they began to see into the natural 
 and indefeasible claim which every-body s children 
 had to be educated by any body, just as it pleased 
 God. But the most salutary consequence was, that 
 the fathers and mothers began gradually to take less 
 interest in their offspring, conceiving them to belong 
 altogether to society ; and, by leaving them in a great 
 degree to the care of others, happily relieved them 
 from the contagion of their bad example. 
 
334 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 PLINY THE YOUNGER. 
 
 MADAM VANCOUR was extremely fortunate in pro 
 curing a most efficient auxiliary in the engineering of 
 this her good work, in the person of Master Pliny 
 Coffin (the sixteenth), whilom of Nantucket island. 
 Pliny was the youngest of nine sons and an unac 
 countable number of daughters, born unto Captain 
 Pliny Coffin (the fifteenth). Being called after his 
 uncle, Deacon Pliny Mayhew (the tenth), he was 
 patronised by that worthy " Spermaceti candle of the 
 church," as he was called, and sent to school at an 
 early age, with a view to following in the footsteps 
 of the famous divine. But Pliny the younger had a 
 natural and irresistible vocation to salt water, inso 
 much that, at the age of eighteen months or there 
 abouts, being left to amuse himself under the only 
 tree in Nantucket, which grew in front of Captain 
 Coffin s (the fifteenth) house, he crawled incontinently 
 down to the sea-side, and was found disporting him 
 self in the surf like unto a young gosling. In like 
 manner did Pliny the younger, at a very early age, 
 display a vehement predilection for great whales, to 
 the which he was most probably incited by the stories 
 of his father, Pliny the elder, who had been a mighty 
 harpoon er in his day. When about three years old, 
 one of these monsters of the deep was driven ashore 
 in a storm, at Nantucket, where he perished, to the 
 
335 
 
 great joy of the inhabitants, who flocked from all 
 parts to claim a share of his spoil. On the morning 
 of that memorable day, which is still recorded in the 
 annals of Nantucket, Pliny the younger was missing, 
 and, diligent search being made for him, he was not 
 to be found in the whole island ; to the grief of his 
 mother, who was a very stout woman, and had killed 
 three Indians with her own fair hand. But, look ye, 
 while the people were gathered about the body of 
 the whale, discussing the mysterious disappearance 
 of the child, what was their astonishment to behold 
 him coming forth from the stomach of the huge fish, 
 laughing right merrily at the prank he had played ! 
 
 But the truth must be confessed ; he took his 
 learning after the manner that people, more especially 
 doctors, take physic, with many wry faces and 
 much tribulation of spirit. In fact he never learned 
 a lesson in his whole life, until, on arriving at his fifth 
 year, by good fortune a primer was put into his hand 
 wherein was the picture of a whale, with the which 
 he was so utterly delighted that he mastered the 
 whole distich under it in the course of the day. The 
 teacher aptly took the hint, and, by means of pasting 
 the likeness of a whale at the head of his lessons, 
 carried him famously along in the career of knowl 
 edge. In process of time he came to be of the order 
 of deacons, and was appointed to preach his first 
 sermon, whereby a great calamity befell him, which \ 
 drove him forth a wanderer on the face of the earth. 
 Unfortunately, the meeting-house where he was to 
 make his first essay stood in full view of the sea, 
 which was distinctly visible from the pulpit; and, 
 just as Pliny the younger had divided his text into 
 
336 
 
 sixteen parts, behold ! a mighty ship appeared, with a 
 bone in her teeth, ploughing her way towards the 
 island with clouds of canvas swelling in the wind. 
 Whereupon the conviction came across his mind that 
 this must be the Albatross, returning from a whaling 
 voyage in the great South Sea ; and, sad to relate, 
 his boyish instincts got the better of his better self. 
 Delirious with eager curiosity, he rushed from the 
 pulpit, and ran violently down to the sea-side like 
 one possessed, leaving deacon Mayhew and the rest 
 of the expectant congregation astonied nigh on to 
 dismay. The deacon was wroth, and forthwith dis 
 inherited him. The people said he was possessed of 
 a devil, and talked of putting him to the ordeal; 
 whereupon the unfortunate youth exiled himself from 
 the land of his nativity, and went to seek his fortune 
 among the heathen, who had steeples to their churches, 
 and dealt in the abomination of white sleeves. Of 
 his wanderings, and of the accidents of his pilgrim 
 age, I know nothing, until his stars directed him to 
 the Flats, where there were no salt-water temptations 
 to mislead him. 
 
 As one of the contemplated improvements of Ma 
 dam Vancour was the introduction of the English 
 language among her pupils, instead of the barbarous 
 Dutch dialect, she eagerly caught at the first offer of 
 Pliny, and engaged him forthwith to take charge of 
 her seminary. In this situation he was found by 
 Catalina, who, as we have before stated, in the deso 
 lation of her spirit, resolved to attempt the relief of 
 her depression by entering upon the difficult task of 
 being useful to others. She accordingly occasionally 
 associated herself with Master Pliny in the labours of 
 
337 
 
 his mission, greatly to the consolation of his inward 
 man. He took great pains to initiate her into the 
 mysteries of his new philosophical, practical, elemen 
 tary, and scientific system of education, on which he 
 prided himself exceedingly, and with justice, for it 
 hath been lately revised and administered among us 
 with singular success, by divers ungenerous peda 
 gogues, who have not had the conscience to acknowl 
 edge whence it was derived. 
 
 As Newton took the hint of the theory of gravi 
 tation from seeing an apple fall to the ground, and 
 as the illustrious Marquis of Worcester deduced the 
 first idea of the application of steam from the risings 
 and sinkings of a pot-lid, so did Master Pliny model 
 and graduate his whole system of education from the 
 incident of the whale in the primer. Remembering 
 wuTPwhat eagerness he had himself been attracted 
 towards learning by a picture, he resolved to make 
 similar illustrations the great means of drawing forth 
 what he called the " latent energies of the infant 
 genius, spurring on the march of intellect, and acceler 
 ating the development of mind." But, as woodcuts 
 were scarce articles in those times, he devoted one 
 day in the week to sallying forth with all his scholars, 
 in order to collect materials for their studies ; that is, 
 to gather acorns, pebbles, leaves, briers, bugs, ants, 
 caterpillars, and what not. When he wanted an 
 urchin to spell " Bug," he placed one of these speci 
 mens directly above the word, and great was his 
 exultation at seeing how the child was assisted in 
 cementing B-U-G together, by the presence of the 
 creature itself. In this way he taught every thing by 
 sensible objects, boasting at the same time of the 
 
 22 
 
338 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 originality of his method, little suspecting that he had 
 only got hold of the fag end of Chinese emblems and 
 Egyptian hieroglyphics. But, pride will have a fall. 
 One day, at Catalina s suggestion, master Pliny put 
 his scholars to the test, by setting them to spell with 
 out the aid of sensible objects, and by the mere instru 
 mentality of the letters. They made sad work of it ; 
 hardly one could spell V ant " without the presence of 
 the insect to act as a prompter. They had become so 
 accustomed to the assistance of the thing, that they 
 paid little or no attention to the letters which repre 
 sented it; and Catalina ventured to hint to master 
 Pliny, that the children had learned little or nothing. 
 They knew what an ant was, before, and that seemed 
 to be the extent of their knowledge, now. " Yea," 
 answered he, " but it makes the acquisition of learn 
 ing so easy." 
 
 " To the teacher, certainly," replied the young lady. 
 In fact, when she came to analyze the improvements 
 in master Pliny s system, she found that they all 
 tended to one point, namely, diminishing, not the 
 labour of the scholar in learning, but that of the mas 
 ter in teaching. 
 
 I forbear to touch on all the other various plans of 
 master Pliny for accelerating the march of mind. 
 Suffice it to say, they were all, one after another, 
 abandoned, being found desperately out at the elbows 
 when subjected to the test of wear and tear. Yet 
 have they been revived with wonderful success by 
 divers illustrious and philosophical pedagogues abroad 
 and at home, who have brought the system to such 
 perfection, that they have not the least trouble in 
 teaching, nor the children any thing but downright 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 339 
 
 pleasure in learning. Happy age !, and happy Pliny, 
 had he lived to this day to behold the lamp which he 
 lighted shining over the whole universe. He, how 
 ever, abandoned his system at the instance of a silly 
 girl, and soon after deserted the Flats ; the same cause 
 being at the bottom of both issues a woman. 
 
 The evil spirit which influenced master Pliny to run" 
 out of the pulpit now prompted him to run his head 
 into the fire. Pliny was a rosy-cheeked, curly-headed, 
 fresh-looking man, exceedingly admired by the Dutch 
 damsels thereabout, and still more by a certain per 
 son who shall be nameless. He thought himself an 
 Adonis ; and argued inwardly that no young lady in 
 her senses would turn schoolmistress without some 
 powerful incitement. The said demon whispered that 
 this could be nothing but admiration for his person, 
 and love of his company. Upon this hint he began, 
 first, to ogle the young lady, then to take every oppor 
 tunity to touch her hand or press against her elbow, 
 until she could not but notice the peculiarity of his 
 conduct. Finally, he wrote her a love-epistle, of such 
 transcendent phraseology that it frightened Catalina 
 out of school for ever. She did not wish to injure the 
 simple fellow, and took this method of letting him 
 know his fate. Poor PHny the younger pined in 
 thought, and soon after took his departure for the land 
 of his nativity, where, on arrival, he was kindly for 
 given by his uncle, the deacon, and received into the 
 bosom of the meeting-house. Here he preached pow 
 erfully many years, never ran after whale ships more, 
 and, in good time, by the death of his father, came to 
 be called Pliny the elder. 
 
340 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 LETTERS WITHOUT ANSWERS. 
 
 THUS our unfortunate heroine was destined to lose, 
 one by one, all her admirers. While these matters 
 were passing, a correspondence on public affairs had 
 been carried on between Sir William Johnson and 
 Colonel Vancour, in which the former had taken 
 occasion to mention the conduct of Sybrandt in terms 
 of high approbation. He spoke of him as a youth of 
 uncommon talents and intrepidity, in whose future 
 welfare he took the deepest interest. The officers, too, 
 who occasionally stopped at the mansion-house in 
 their journeys from the frontier to New York, united 
 in bearing testimony to his gallantry and enterprise ; 
 and, to crown all, the despatches of the general to his 
 government at home made honourable mention of our 
 hero. Catalina was not ignorant of these things, nor 
 could she help feeling a proud gratification, that the 
 man to whom she had given her heart was worthy of 
 the gift. "But he is lost to me he is wounded 
 perhaps dying ; and he does not think it worth while 
 to write or send to us." 
 
 But in this she did our hero injustice. He lay a 
 long time fluctuating between life and death ; but at 
 length the vigour of youth, strengthened by his hopes 
 of the future, got the better of the low fever which 
 had succeeded his wounds and exposures, and he 
 began gradually, but slowly, to recover. As soon as 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 341 
 
 his strength would permit, he wrote to Catalina, in 
 forming her of his explanation with Gilfillan ; apolo 
 gizing for his unfounded jealousy and rash departure 
 from New York; and throwing himself on her gener 
 osity for pardon. It happened at this time there was 
 no opportunity to send the letter by a public express, 
 nor had Sybrandt patience to wait for one. In cast 
 ing about for a messenger, he recollected a half-breed, 
 a sort of lounger and hanger-on about the fort, who 
 performed all sorts of menial offices for rum, and was, 
 in the most comprehensive sense of the word, a 
 vagabond. Still, he had the reputation of courage, 
 sagacity, and fidelity in the performance of his en- 
 gagements ; and our hero determined to employ him 
 as the herald of Dan Cupid, who most probably was 
 never served by such a varlet before. He had in 
 times past been accustomed to forage about the Flats, 
 where he was well known, and where Sybrandt be 
 came acquainted with him. 
 
 He accordingly intrusted him with his letter, to 
 gether with two others, one for the good Dennis, the 
 other for Colonel Vancour, the contents of which the 
 reader may imagine for himself if he pleases. He 
 was also imprudent enough to furnish the fellow with 
 money to bear his expenses, instead of giving him a 
 knapsack and provisions ; and thus he despatched 
 him, with many injunctions to proceed without delay, 
 deliver his letters, wait an answer, and then return as 
 soon as possible. This trusty blade, instead of follow 
 ing these directions, took the first opportunity, on his 
 arrival at Albany, to get exceedingly drunk. More 
 over, in that state he continued until all his money 
 was spent. As a matter of necessity, he then became 
 
342 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 sober ; but his letters were gone he had lost or de 
 stroyed them, or they had been taken from him ; he 
 could not tell how or when. 
 
 The worthy courier then deliberated what was 
 proper and safe to be done. To go to the Flats with 
 out his credentials was out of the question ; and to 
 return to Fort George for a new set of instructions 
 would be a vast accession of trouble, without any of 
 pay. Nay, he might possibly get a broken head for 
 his pains. This compendium of the virtues of the 
 red and the white rose had an equal antipathy to 
 having his head broken and to the volunteering of 
 another journey. The result of his cogitations was a 
 resolution to put the best face on the matter, make up 
 a good story, and return forthwith to his employer. 
 He accordingly presented himself before Sybrandt 
 with an intrepidity of face and manner that would 
 have done honour to the most practised diplomatist. 
 
 " Have you brought any letters ? " asked our hero, 
 eagerly, as he raised himself from the bed, where he 
 still spent some hours of every day. 
 
 " No, sir ; I no bring any ting." 
 
 " Did you see the young lady ? " said our hero, 
 faintly. 
 
 " Yes, sir ; I see her, and give her the letter." 
 
 " And did she read it ? " 
 
 " O, yes; she read it, and say, very nice letter 
 and then she laugh." 
 
 " Laugh ! " thought poor Sybrandt ; and his heart 
 sank within him ; " but she gave you something in 
 return ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir ; she gib me a guinea, and tell me go back 
 agin as fast as I came de letter no want answer." 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 343 
 
 "Did she look pale? was she thin?" asked he, 
 after a dead pause of agonized feeling. 
 
 " O no, sir ! Her cheeks red as berries, and she 
 merry as a cricket : she laugh very much when I tell 
 her you sick abed." 
 
 Sybrandt groaned an echo to the laugh of his un 
 feeling mistress. It was some minutes before he 
 could rally his spirits to ask any more questions. 
 
 "Did you see the colonel, and Madam Vancour?" 
 
 " O yes, sir ; colonel very good give me a dram, 
 and say he spose Major Sybran dead by dis time." 
 
 " And he, too, laughed, I suppose ? " said Sybrandt, 
 in bitterness of soul. 
 
 " No, he no laugh out loud like young madam 
 he only smile a leetle so" and the rascal just 
 showed his ivory teeth. 
 
 Sybrandt found himself sicker and sicker at the 
 heart, with every word he heard. 
 
 " And what did Madam Vancour say, when you 
 told her my situation?" resumed he, at length. 
 
 " She tell me no more than Master Sybran de- 
 sarve." 
 
 "Worse and worse!" thought poor Master Sy 
 brandt " the draught becomes sharper : well, let me 
 drink it to the dregs" and he called anger and 
 indignation to be his supporters. 
 
 " And what said my other uncle, Mr. Dennis Van 
 cour?" 
 
 "What old gentleman live on the hill? O, he 
 say he spose Master Sybran be dead fore he letter 
 get at him, and tell me no occasion to write." 
 
 Sybrandt (as soon as he could muster strength and 
 heart to do it) proceeded to question the mischievous 
 
344 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 mongrel closely and strictly as to the truth of his tale, 
 which seemed to be at war with all he knew of his 
 mistress and his uncles. But the fellow was armed 
 at all points, and answered with such consummate 
 cunning, that at length our hero was compelled to be 
 lieve that Catalina had on her return made to the 
 family such a representation of his conduct as had 
 for ever alienated him from their confidence and affec 
 tion. 
 
 " Very well," said he, after going rapidly through 
 these reflections, and arriving at this consoling result 
 " very well there now go " and he gave the 
 rascal money for having performed his duty so speed 
 ily and well. 
 
 " I will trouble her no more ; I will trouble them no 
 more," said he, as he laid himself down on his bed, 
 with a hope that he might never rise from it. There 
 was every appearance that this hope would soon be 
 realized ; for the result of this affair, cooperating with 
 his weak and nervous state of mind and body, seemed 
 now on the point of extinguishing in a few days, 
 perhaps a few hours, the deadened spark of life in 
 his aching heart. 
 
345 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE LAST SLEEP OF A GOOD MAN. 
 
 NOT many days after the events just recorded, a 
 young officer stopped at the hospitable mansion of 
 Colonel Vancour, on his way from Fort George to 
 New York. It was in the dusk of the evening, and 
 he was of course invited to stay all night. The con 
 versation naturally turned on the events of the war, 
 the prospect of peace, and the situation of matters on 
 the frontier. Catalina was sitting at an open window, 
 leaning her white cheek on her still whiter hand, lis 
 tening in breathless silence, to hear perhaps the name 
 of him who occupied so large a portion of her 
 thoughts. 
 
 " Has any thing particular occurred at Fort George ? " 
 asked the colonel. 
 
 "Nothing that I heard of," replied the officer: 
 " I however only stopped there a few minutes, on my 
 way from the foot of the lake, where I had been sta 
 tioned for some time." 
 
 " Did you happen to hear any thing of Colonel 
 Westbrook ? " asked the other, in a low tone ; but his 
 daughter overheard him, and her heart beat quicker 
 in her bosom. 
 
 "Westbrook? Westbrook ? Why, now I think 
 of it I did hear something of that gallant and la 
 mented officer. He died, the day " 
 
 " Hush ! for heaven s sake ! " whispered the colonel. 
 
346 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 Bat the caution came too late. The words had met 
 the ear of Catalina. She did not faint she did not 
 shriek, or scream, or wring her hands but she sat 
 like a statue of pure white marble carved by some 
 famous artist to represent the silence of unutterable 
 grief. Her mother was watching, and came and sat 
 beside her daughter, who leaned on her bosom, and 
 said not one word. In the course of a quarter of an 
 hour she recovered sufficiently to beg Madam Vancour 
 to go up stairs with her, and they left the room to 
 gether. 
 
 After her departure the colonel proceeded with his 
 inquiries. 
 
 " You were saying, sir, that you understood Colonel 
 Westbrook was dead. When I inform you that he is 
 a near relation, and an object of great interest to my 
 family, I hope you will excuse me for requesting you 
 to be particular in relating the circumstances of his 
 death." 
 
 " I am sorry," replied the young man, " that I can 
 not comply with your wishes. As I mentioned before, 
 I stopped but a few minutes at the Fort, to pick up 
 despatches, and, while sitting with the general, who 
 was preparing them, the servant of Colonel Westbrook 
 came running in to say his master had just expired. 
 The general expressed great regret, and I, having 
 received the papers, came away without hearing any 
 thing further on the subject." 
 
 Catalina did not rise with the sun as usual the next 
 day, though it was one of the loveliest of all the lovely 
 progeny of Summer. She attempted it, for she was 
 not one of those who yield the victory to grief or sick 
 ness without a sore struggle. When she saw the 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 847 
 
 beams of the morning sun shining against the wall, 
 and heard the birds calling her at the window, she 
 attempted to get up, but her head became so dizzy 
 she was obliged to let it fall again quietly upon the 
 pillow. The old lady became alarmed ; and all 
 thoughts of being mother to a real titled lady van 
 ished before the fears of maternal tenderness. 
 
 She therefore determined, as people frequently do 
 when it is rather too late, to perform an act of un 
 paralleled magnanimity ; an act which merits being 
 commemorated in brass and marble : in short, she 
 resolved to desert the opposition, and go over to her 
 husband. Accordingly, she went to the colonel, and 
 frankly proposed to write to Sybrandt a full explana 
 tion of Catalina s conduct and present feelings, and 
 invite him home. 
 
 " What ! now that he is dead ! " exclaimed the good 
 man, with tears in his eyes. 
 
 " That s true ; I declare I forgot it," replied the 
 dame ; " what shall we do ? " 
 
 " Submit to the will of Heaven." 
 " Well, but it s very provoking, though." 
 " What!, to submit to the will of Heaven ? " 
 "No, my dear; that he should die just at this 
 time." 
 
 " Such untoward accidents often happen in this 
 world. You and I have lived long enough to see the 
 hopes of youth withered in the blossom, the fruits of 
 manhood s toils and cares mildewed before they were 
 ripe. There is nothing certain in this world but 
 death : why, then, should we be surprised that he died 
 in the prime of his days ? It is not half so strange as 
 that you and I have lived to be old." 
 
348 
 
 This was rather an ungallant speech, since age has 
 ever been considered in polite society a reproach to a 
 lady, and any allusion to it an offence to good-breed 
 ing. But Madam Vancour forgave, or did not notice, 
 it. She was thinking of something nearer her heart 
 than compliments. Was she not a remarkable wo 
 man? 
 
 " But perhaps, after all," said Madam, " the report 
 of his death may be a mistake of the servant." 
 
 " Such reports generally turn out to be true. But 
 I will see if I can gather any further information on 
 the subject." 
 
 He ordered his horse, and rode to Albany, for the 
 purpose of making inquiries. The commanding officer 
 there had received letters by the hands of the young 
 gentleman who had brought the news of Sybrandt s 
 death, at the foot of one of which was this short post 
 script : 
 
 " Colonel Westbrook is just dead." 
 
 The old gentleman returned, with a heavy heart, to 
 the mansion of his fathers, and imparted this corrobo- 
 ration to his wife. They debated whether to disclose 
 the whole at once to their daughter. 
 
 " It is best she should know it all, since she must 
 know it soon," said the colonel; " go thou and tell her 
 I cannot." He walked forth into the fields, still 
 glorious in the apparel of summer. But he viewed 
 them through the spectacles of sorrow, and the sunny 
 landscape seemed all bathed in tears. 
 
 It was now Catalina s turn to be sick. She heard 
 the confirmation of the death of poor Sybrandt; and 
 the loss of her lover was embittered by the conscious 
 ness that she was not free from guilt in the matter. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 349 
 
 She it was that had driven him from his home, to the 
 wars in which he had perished. But for her foolish 
 vanity, her capricious inconsistencies, he might have 
 been still living and living for her. The thought 
 was bitterness itself. But she rallied her pride, her 
 piety, her strength of mind, her duty to her parents, 
 and they conquered at last. Yet the victory was 
 hardly won. Though the mind sustained itself nobly, 
 its associate and fellow-labourer, the body, sunk under 
 the conflict. Months passed away before she could 
 sit up and contemplate the calm and tender aspect of 
 nature, now fast putting on the many-coloured vesture 
 of the waning year. 
 
 Nor was she the only sufferer. The good Dennis 
 the early friend, the father of our hero in all acts of 
 fatherly affection who had smoked his pipe almost 
 threescore years in quiet in the same old arm-chair 
 heard the news of Sybrandt s death without any out 
 ward symptoms of sorrow or despair. He possessed 
 no great store of sensibility, but a slight shock will 
 shake down an old building. He knocked the ashes 
 out of his pipe deliberately against his thumb-nail, 
 and that evening, and the next, and the next morning, 
 noon, and night, when it was brought to him he put 
 it aside without uttering a word. 
 
 " Massa in a terrible bad way," said his old dusky 
 valet, who had been his playmate in youth, his faith 
 ful, humble friend through life ; " massa in a terrible 
 bad way when he no smoke he pipe." 
 
 He was right. There is no surer indication of a 
 wounded spirit or diseased body than the disrelish of a 
 long-cherished habit. It smells of mortality. The quiet 
 resignation with which the old gentleman received the 
 
350 
 
 first shock gave place in a day or two to a degree 
 of restlessness and impatience entirely at war with 
 his usual deportment. It seemed as if his mind was 
 disturbed by conflicting feelings of some kind or other, 
 for he frequently shut himself up in his little private 
 room, where he kept his papers, and where he was 
 sometimes found when called to his meals, with elbows 
 leaning on a table, and documents before him. When 
 thus disturbed, he would appear rather pleased than 
 otherwise, as though he had been relieved from some 
 unpleasant struggle or uncertainty. On the fourth 
 day after receiving the news of Sybrandt s death, 
 he was found sitting in his arm-chair, dead. He 
 had died without pain, for his face had all the placid 
 quiet of a sweet sleep, and he sat upright as when 
 alive. 
 
 " Ah ! poor massa ! " exclaimed the old negro ; " he 
 smoke him last pipe now!" And nature squeezed 
 some honest tears from his dry and withered sym 
 pathies. 
 
 Dennis Vancour was a just man. He never for 
 it was not the fashion at that time he never was 
 secretary, or, what is still better, treasurer to a society 
 for expending the hard gains of honest industry in 
 the encouragement of idleness and unthrift. He never 
 went about begging of others what he was able to 
 bestow, himself; nor did he spend his time in the 
 mischievous occupation of doing good to his fellow- 
 creatures, the poor, by teaching them, as the wise and 
 benevolent Franklin has it, " that there are other means 
 of support besides industry and economy." 
 
 But these sins of omission were more than balanced 
 by rare and valuable virtues. He never belied, or 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 351 
 
 cheated, or overreached a human being ; he never de 
 nied his kind offices or fair report to the deserving, 
 nor inquired, before he bestowed them, whether they 
 were given to a member of his chosen society or his 
 favourite religion. He walked quietly on his way 
 without jostling a living soul with his elbow, or inter 
 fering with his concerns unless desired to do so ; and 
 within the circle where alone ordinary men can be 
 useful in their exertions or thei,r beneficence the 
 circle of his friends and neighbours he diffused all 
 his life a benign yet temperate influence, which caused 
 every one that knew him to love him while living, and 
 cherish his memory after he was gone. When he 
 died, he left what he had received from his father to 
 his nearest natural heirs, nor did he insult Heaven 
 by robbing his kindred to commute for his own trans 
 gressions. 
 
 The day but one after the decease of this righteous 
 man, on whose memory I confess I delight to dwell, 
 the bell of the little octagon stone church at the Flats 
 gave melancholy warning that the body of some heir 
 of immortality was about to be consigned to that 
 narrow house wherein no air can blow. There is 
 to my mind and to my early recollections something 
 exquisitely touching in the tolling of a church-bell 
 amid the silence of the country. It communicates for 
 miles around the message of death. The ploughman 
 stops his horses to listen to the solemn tidings; the 
 housewife remits her domestic occupations, and sits 
 with needle idle in her fingers, to ponder who it is 
 that is going to the long home; and even the little 
 thoughtless children, playing and laughing their way 
 from school, are arrested for a moment in their even- 
 
852 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 ing gambols by these sounds of awful import, and 
 cover their heads when they go to rest. 
 
 In a little while was seen a long procession of vari 
 ous rustic carriages, followed by people on foot and 
 on horseback, of both sexes, and of all ages, slowly 
 emerging from the court of the house whence the soul 
 of the upright man had ascended to its reward, and 
 passing onward to the place appointed for all living. 
 The simple ceremony was soon over. A prayer was 
 uttered, a hymn w T as sung ; many an honest tear mixed 
 with the earth thrown into the grave, as the nearest 
 and dearest hung mournfully over it ; and the remains 
 of Dennis Vancour reposed in peace between the head 
 stones of his honoured parents. 
 
 " HE WAS A GOOD MAN," said an old patriarch of al 
 most a hundred years, and the testimony was vouched 
 by the hearts of all present. Does any one wish a 
 nobler epitaph ? If he does, let him go and take his 
 choice of the legends engraven on the mouldering 
 monuments of human vanity, no part of which is 
 true, perchance, but the veritable Hie jacet. 
 
 Had he lived a little while longer, he would not 
 perhaps have been wiser, but he would have learned 
 something, as the advertisements in the newspapers 
 say, " greatly to his advantage." But who would wish 
 to rob him of an end so quiet, so resigned, so blessed, 
 that he might learn the truth, and endure possibly a 
 few years of infirmity and suffering; live, as some 
 men live, to nurse the waning lamp of life by day and 
 night, anxious and shivering lest every breath of air 
 should blow it out ; live in the perpetual fear of what 
 must soon inevitably come, die without hope, and rot 
 in the polluted atmosphere of a dishonoured name ? 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 3o3 
 
 Who would wish so unkind a wish ? Not I ; for to 
 my mind that man is most to be envied who is beyond 
 the reach of calumny, and debarred by death from 
 perhaps committing suicide on his own fame. 
 
 23 
 
554 
 
 CHAPTER XXTV. 
 A GHOST! 
 
 HOWEVER people may grieve for the decease of a 
 relative, they seldom neglect opening his will, the first 
 decent opportunity. Such is the curiosity of mankind ! 
 This ceremony accordingly took place the day after 
 the funeral of Mr. Dennis Vancour. That worthy 
 gentleman, it would seem, on hearing of the death of 
 his adopted son, had altered the disposition of his 
 property, and substituted Catalina as his sole heiress, 
 in the room of Sybrandt Westbrook. The change 
 occasioned no surprise to the elders of the family, and 
 certainly no pleasure to the young lady. She would 
 have restored it to her cousin with her whole heart, 
 and something else besides, had he not been beyond 
 the reach of her generosity. As it was, the bequest 
 was rather painful than otherwise, for it seemed almost 
 like a robbery of the dead. 
 
 The colonel one day thought he would write to the 
 commanding officer at Fort George, to get from him 
 the particulars of his nephew s death, as well as to 
 inquire into the disposition of his effects. He did so; 
 but it was a considerable time before an opportunity 
 occurred of sending the letter through the wilderness. 
 In the mean time nothing particularly worthy of note 
 took place in the family. Catalina gradually recov 
 ered a degree of composure becoming the dignity and 
 strength of her character, and returned to her usual 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 355 
 
 occupations and amusements. But the worm was in 
 the bud, and the expression of her countenance was 
 neither that of health nor of hilarity. Time passed 
 on slowly and heavily, without bringing with it either 
 present pleasure or inspiring anticipations. 
 
 It was now about the close of the brown and 
 gloomy month of November, when neither is verdure 
 seen in the forest nor music heard in the fields, except 
 that of the howling winds. A man on horseback, 
 followed by a servant with a portmanteau, was seen 
 to ride up to the door of the habitation once tenanted 
 by Dennis Vancour, but since his death intrusted to 
 the care of his servants, consisting of the venerable 
 old negro heretofore noticed, and his wife, equally 
 aged, with some half a dozen of their ebony grand 
 children. It was the dusk of the evening, and they 
 were all gathered round a rousing fire in the kitchen; 
 for, be it known to all who know it not already, that 
 the two animals in the world most devoted to heat 
 and sunshine are the black snake and the gentleman 
 of colour by the which association I mean no sort 
 of disrespect to the latter. 
 
 The horseman dismounted ; so did his servant : and 
 both conducted themselves with as little ceremony as 
 if they were at home, or, at least, in some place 
 where they might expect an equal welcome. Not 
 one of the trusty guardians of the house heard or saw 
 these intruders ; for, as soon as the African race get 
 thoroughly warmed through, the next thing is to fall 
 fast asleep, as a matter of course. The stranger 
 knocked with the but-end of his whip : no one came. 
 He then proceeded to manoeuvre the great gaping 
 brazen lion that guarded this enchanted castle in 
 
356 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 plain English, the knocker which, I am bound to 
 say, had lost none of its brightness. The sound was 
 heard across the river, but it awaked not the family ; 
 they belonged to the lineage of the seven sleepers. 
 The stranger became impatient, nay, anxious, at the 
 air of silence and desertion about the house. He 
 paced the piazza, back and forth some half a dozen 
 times, and then went round the end of the house to 
 the kitchen in the rear, and looked through the win 
 dows, where he saw the slumbering beauties. 
 
 The sight seemed to animate him, for he briskly 
 lifted the latch, and invaded the region sacred to the 
 stomach. No one stirred, and no sound was heard 
 save a sonorous concord of harmony, in which each 
 of the company bore a part. The stranger advanced, 
 and shook the shoulder of the patriarch of the tune 
 ful tribe. He might as well have shaken the body of 
 the good man of the house, who died some months 
 before. The stranger then hallooed in his ear, but 
 that was asleep too. "Blockhead!" quoth the 
 stranger, muttering to himself; and, seizing a bowl 
 of water that stood at hand, he very unceremoniously 
 dashed it into the face of the exemplary sleeper, and 
 spoiled one of the finest naps on record. 
 
 " Bo-o-o-o ! " exclaimed old ebony, as he started up, 
 amazed and indignant at this inundation. He wiped 
 his eyes, probably for the purpose of seeing the 
 clearer, and took a look at the stranger, which look 
 was followed by immediate prostration, accompanied 
 by a yell of such singular originality that I shall not 
 attempt to describe it. The reader may, however, 
 form some judgment of its powers, when I inform him 
 that it actually awakened the rest of the sleepers. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 357 
 
 The moment they laid their eyes upon the stranger, 
 the cry of, " a spook ! a spook ! " was repeated with 
 extraordinary energy, and followed by the flight of 
 the whole tribe, with the exception of the patriarch, 
 who still lay on his face, kicking and roaring man 
 fully. 
 
 Return we now to the mansion-house of Colonel 
 Vancour, in the well-warmed parlour of which was 
 collected the usual family-party. The colonel was 
 reading ; Madam would I could disguise the fact, 
 but a scrupulous regard to accuracy forbids Madam 
 was knitting a pair of stockings for a poor woman 
 who at that precise moment was frolicking at a 
 neighbouring tavern ; Ariel was, as usual at this hour 
 of the evening, fast asleep, and musical as ever. He 
 did not, like Rachel Baker, preach in his naps, but 
 he could drown the voice of a preacher any day. 
 Poor Catalina was at the window ; whence, by the 
 waning light, she could see and sympathize with the 
 desolation of nature. 
 
 At this moment one of the dark ministering spirits 
 of the neighbouring mansion rushed into the room, 
 unannounced, and saluted the good company with 
 the cry of 
 
 " A spook ! a spook ! Massa Sybrandt s spook ! " 
 " Hey ! What s that you say about Sybrandt, you 
 little black sinner ? " exclaimed Ariel, waking up, 
 which he did always exactly as he went to sleep, ex 
 tempore. 
 
 " O, massa Sybrandt s spook come home agin " 
 " I ll spook you, you little black imp of mischief," 
 quoth Ariel, seizing the cushion from his chair, and 
 launching it at his woolly head : " Come here with 
 
358 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 such a cock-and-bull story as that! Get out, you 
 caterpillar." 
 
 But the herald of darkness maintained his station 
 and his story, until the old people did not know what 
 to make of it, and the young lady was in a tumult of 
 conflicting emotions. It was impossible to get any 
 thing more out of the creature than that the spook 
 had appeared in a great shower of rain, and knocked 
 granddaddy flat on his face upon the floor. 
 
 " Let us walk over, and inquire into the business," 
 said the colonel, helping himself to his hat and stick ; 
 " perhaps something is really the matter with the old 
 man." 
 
 " Come on," quoth Ariel, seizing a gun which hung 
 in the hall upon the stately antlers of a deer ; " per 
 haps damn it I don t know what to think of the 
 matter." 
 
 " PERHAPS IT is HE ! " exclaimed Catalina, as a hope 
 darted across her rnind like the flash of a newly- 
 lighted taper. 
 
 The two gentlemen seemed to share in her hopes, 
 and departed in great haste. 
 
 While this was passing, the stranger had, by dint 
 of shaking and reasoning with and reproaching the 
 old negro, at length brought him to a perception of 
 the reality before him. 
 
 " And young massa no dead, after all no spook 
 hey ! " And the good soul almost wept for joy 
 of his young master s return, as well as sorrow for 
 his old master s departure. By degrees he became 
 sufficiently collected to give Sybrandt an account of 
 the events we have heretofore recorded. The death 
 of his kind uncle affected him deeply; far more 
 
359 
 
 deeply than the loss of his estate. He had disin 
 herited him, it was true ; but no doubt he had been 
 convinced of his unworthiness by the representations 
 of Catalina. There was wormwood in this thought ; 
 and, while he was chewing the bitter morsel, the 
 colonel and Ariel entered without ceremony. The 
 reception of Sybrandt, on the colonel s part, was 
 somewhat cool and stately his deportment, when 
 the really joyful surprise of the moment was past, 
 savouring of the recollection of his nephew s neglect 
 of his daughter, of himself, and indeed all his nearest, 
 dearest friends. Ariel on the other hand was all joy, 
 noise, and forgiveness. 
 
 " But, why the plague did you not let us know you 
 were alive ? " said he, at length. 
 
 " I did not know you thought me dead," replied the 
 youth. 
 
 " Thought? we were sure of it. Do you suppose 
 that Dennis would have dis hem! if he had not 
 been certain of your death ? " 
 
 " True," said the colonel ; " the bequest was cer 
 tainly made under that impression alone. It remains 
 for me to remedy the consequences of this mistake." 
 
 " He did right," said Sybrandt ; " he has left his 
 fortune to her who best deserved it." 
 
 " Damn it, boy, you talk like a fool. To leave you 
 a beggar no not a beggar I can prevent that;" 
 quoth Ariel. 
 
 " My dear uncle, I am no beggar ; I have a sword 
 and a commission, a heart and a hand." 
 
 " Spoken like a brave fellow. But I am very much 
 mistaken if you don t have something besides a sword 
 and a commission." 
 
860 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 " I am content." 
 
 " But I am not," said the colonel ; " there cannot be 
 a doubt that my brother Dennis altered his will un 
 der the full conviction (which indeed was common to 
 us all) that you were no more." 
 
 " I cannot conceive how such a report could have 
 originated, or be believed, sir." 
 
 " I saw it in a postscript to a letter of the com- 
 mander-in-chief." 
 
 " Indeed! Then I do not wonder, sir, that you put 
 faith in it." 
 
 " But, to the point," resumed the colonel : " Cata- 
 lina is of age; and she is no daughter of mine if she 
 holds this bequest a moment longer than is necessary 
 to divest herself of it. I pledge you my honour she 
 will." 
 
 " And I pledge you mine, sir," said Sybrandt, some 
 what bitterly, "that I would rather starve than ac 
 cept one single atom of the land, or one penny of the 
 gold." 
 
 " It is justly yours." 
 
 " It never shall be mine." 
 
 "Indeed!" replied the colonel, rather offended; 
 " may I ask, why ? Perhaps the donor is not suffi 
 ciently valued to make the donation welcome ? " 
 
 " Spare me on this subject, sir. I had rather not 
 talk of it; nor is it necessary. To-morrow I shall 
 return to the army. To-night for one night I 
 will trespass on the hospitality of my cousin, and 
 remain here, with her permission." 
 
 " You shall go home with me," said the colonel, 
 with honest warmth, notwithstanding he felt that the 
 language and conduct of our hero was somewhat on 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 361 
 
 the cavalier order ; " you shall go home with me : my 
 daugh my wife, your aunt, will be glad to see 
 you." 
 
 " You shall go home with me," cried Ariel ; " but, 
 now I think of it, I am going to sleep at the colonel s 
 to-night, because I have got to superintend a hundred 
 and fifty things there early in the morning." 
 
 Sybrandt declared his determination to remain 
 where he was. 
 
 " Well, then," said the colonel, advancing, and tak 
 ing his hand, " promise me, on your honour, you will 
 visit your aunt before you go away." 
 
 "Of course, sir certainly it was my intention. 
 I owe too much to her kindness, to forget both my 
 respect and my duty. I hope she is well ? " 
 
 " Quite well." 
 
 " And my cousin ? " Sybrandt forced himself to ask. 
 
 " Why, well at least better than she has been." 
 
 "What! Has she been ill?" 
 
 "Very ill just after we received the news I 
 mean about two months ago. Indeed, she is hardly 
 recovered ; you will be surprised to see her look so 
 pale almost as pale as you are. Bat, good-night 
 I can no longer delay making both mother and 
 daughter happy, with the news that one has recovered 
 a nephew, the other an old friend. You will keep 
 your word, and come to-morrow ? " 
 
 "Assuredly, sir." Make them happy ! thought 
 he, repeating the words of the colonel; make them 
 happy , with the news that I am alive! Pshaw!, they 
 care not for me, none of them, or they would have 
 answered my letters. But" and a sudden idea 
 crossed him " but perhaps, as Sir William suggest- 
 
362 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 ed, they never received them. It is possible; and 
 to-morrow I will so far lower my pride as to put the 
 question. It is but justice to old friends to give them 
 an opportunity of disclaiming neglect or unkindness." 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 363 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE BIRTH AND PARENTAGE OF A RUMOUR. 
 
 IN order to account for some portion of the preced 
 ing details, it will be necessary to go back to the 
 period when the faithful half-breed did not carry the 
 letters of our hero to the Flats, and of course re 
 turned without answers. This disappointment, acting 
 on the low state of our hero s spirits and exhausted 
 frame, produced an almost infantine weakness, and 
 rendered him incapable of any kind of exertion for 
 some time. Having one day, however, made more 
 than ordinary efforts, and fatigued himself greatly, he 
 fell into a fainting fit, which his servant mistook for 
 death, and in his fright announced it as such to the 
 general, in the presence of the young officer, as before 
 related. The general was at that moment closing a 
 letter to the commanding officer at Albany, and wrote 
 the hasty postscript which Colonel Vancour saw. 
 
 That Sybrandt ever awakened from his swoon was, 
 in a great measure, owing to the persevering efforts 
 of his friend Sir William, who happened to be com 
 ing to see him just at the moment, and whose long 
 experience in administering to his subjects, the In 
 dians, had made him no indifferent practitioner. He 
 succeeded in restoring him at last, and the youth 
 again opened his eyes to that world which at the 
 moment he wished to shut out for ever. 
 
364 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 The campaign henceforth lagged ; and, one day, Sir 
 William said to Sybrandt : 
 
 " You must go with me to Johnstown to recruit, 
 before you return home, which I suppose you mean to 
 do, as soon as you are able. There will be nothing 
 done here till the spring." 
 
 " I feel no wish to leave this place. I may as well 
 die here as anywhere." 
 
 " If you stay here you will certainly die of con 
 sumption. I don t like that hollow cough. Come, I 
 will procure you sick-leave, a comfortable conveyance, 
 and an excellent nurse, that is, myself. Nay, no scru 
 ples of love or honour. I say you shall go, or I will 
 put you under arrest, and carry you in fetters. You 
 would cut a pretty figure, going home now to your 
 mistress. She might lawfully break her faith, on the 
 score of your not being the same man." 
 
 " I have neither mistress nor home, now," said the 
 youth, in a voice of the deepest depression. 
 
 " What, again ! at your old tricks again ? " cried 
 Sir William, holding up his finger in a threatening 
 manner. " Are you making mince-meat of your own 
 hopes and happiness, as usual?" 
 
 " No, Sir William ; the fault is not mine now at 
 least, whatever it might have been formerly. I am an 
 alien from my home, and an offcast of my mistress." 
 
 " Indeed! And by your own fault?" 
 
 " No, on my soul. I was deceived, and, the mo 
 ment I discovered my error, hastened to acknowledge 
 and atone for it. But my letters were read with scorn 
 on one hand, and unfeeling apathy on the other. I 
 shall never return home : at all events, not till I have 
 learned to forget and forgive." 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 365 
 
 " Tell me the particulars ; remember you are talk 
 ing to a friend, and that with me that name signifies 
 the service of heart and hand." 
 
 Sybrandt then proceeded to relate what the reader 
 already knows the conduct of Catalina in New 
 York, his anger and jealousy, the story of the picture, 
 the explanation of Gilfillan, and, finally, the mission 
 of the half-breed to the Flats. 
 
 Sir William listened with kind attention, and at the 
 conclusion mused for some time. 
 
 " Strange ! " said he, at length. The conduct of 
 your mistress is unaccountable enough, to begin with. 
 But that Colonel Vancour, a man so kind-hearted 
 and so just as I know him to be ; and, above all, that 
 your good father, Dennis, who, you say, had treated 
 you with such unvaried kindness from your youth up 
 wards that he should have made such an unfeeling 
 speech is out of all reasonable calculation. I cannot 
 make it out; unless, indeed, some one has belied you: 
 and who could it be, except . But that is out of 
 the question. You are grossly deceived, and have 
 deceived me, in ^he character of Miss Vancour, or it 
 cannot possibly be she." 
 
 " I think it alrnosi impossible. But she may have 
 viewed my conduct in a different light from that in 
 which I have represented it to you. The pride of the 
 father may have been wounded, and his feelings may 
 have reached my benefactor, over whom he has great 
 influence." 
 
 Sir William mused again, then suddenly exclaimed, 
 
 " I have it ! I have it. My life on it, that scoun 
 drel half-breed played you a trick. He never delivered 
 your letters. Where is he ? Let him be brought be- 
 
366 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 fore me. I warrant I trip him in crossing his track, 
 as these fellows say." 
 
 " I know not. He wandered away somewhere, not 
 long after I employed him in this business." 
 
 " I dare say, no doubt no doubt the rascal 
 was fearful of being detected. But we shall find out 
 the truth before long. Have you not written, since ? " 
 
 "Why should I?" 
 
 " True : but you shall write instantly ; at least, on 
 the very first opportunity. I am almost sure you have 
 been cheated by that mongrel." 
 
 " I had rather not write again. To Catalina I cer 
 tainly shall not, nor to her father. Were my benefac 
 tor really my parent, I would beg his forgiveness, if I 
 had offended him, until he granted it, or turned me for 
 ever from his door. But it seems to me it would be 
 meanness to crawl on my knees to solicit what? 
 his charity. I cannot do it." 
 
 " You are a proud genius," said Sir William, shak 
 ing his head ; " but I like a little pride ; it often saves 
 man, and woman too, from falling. I shall write my 
 self then, when I get home, and an occasion offers. 
 In the mean time, without an if or an and, you are 
 my prisoner. Be ready to accompany me to-morrow." 
 
 " I obey," said the other. " But nothing about pris 
 oners I go as a volunteer." 
 
 The next morning they were ready to depart, un 
 der the protection of an escort of Sir William s Mo 
 hawks, some of whom by turns carried Sybrandt in 
 a rude litter of boughs. There were no carriage-roads 
 through the wilderness between Fort George and the 
 capital of the knight s dominions, and Sybrandt was 
 still too weak to walk, or ride on horseback any great 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 367 
 
 distance. The Grand Canal was not yet dreamed 
 of; and, as for railroads, if the people of that age of 
 non-improvement had heard that the people of this 
 would risk their necks in riding at the rate of sixty 
 miles an hour, they would have taken it for granted 
 they were riding to whew ! 
 
 The exercise of travelling, cooperating with the 
 new-born hope which the suggestion of his friend Sir 
 William had awakened, proved of great service to our 
 hero, who arrived at the residence of that worthy gen 
 tleman far better than when he set out. He remained 
 with him> occasionally hunting, and invigorating thus 
 both mind and body, until both had in some degree 
 recovered a healthful tone. 
 
 " As you seemed disinclined to write," said Sir 
 William, one day, " I have done it for you. I shall 
 send a person to Albany to-morrow. Here is the let 
 ter read, and tell me how you like it. This is the 
 next best thing I can think of, though my own opin 
 ion is, you had much better go yourself, and see and 
 hear with your own eyes and ears. This is the way 
 I always do, whenever it is practicable. Half the 
 blunders and miseries of this world arise from sending 
 instead of going." 
 
 Sybrandt had been gradually coming to the same 
 conclusion, and frankly answered, 
 
 " Well, Sir William, since you will turn me out of 
 doors, there is no help for it. I will go with your 
 messenger to-morrow; though, on my soul, I had 
 rather encounter another bush-fight." 
 
 " You are an odd fellow," said the other, smiling, 
 " and seem afraid of nothing but a woman." Ac 
 cordingly all things were made ready for the morrow. 
 
368 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 " Westbrook," said the knight, as they were taking 
 leave, " I am no true prophet if you are a bachelor this 
 day twelvemonth. Farewell. I would thou hadst been 
 my son." 
 
 " Farewell. Would to heaven I had such a father!" 
 Our hero proceeded slowly on his journey, passing 
 the first night at Schenectady, the next at Albany, for 
 he was in no haste to get to the end of his journey, 
 where he anticipated but a renewal of his disappoint 
 ments, regrets, and mortifications. He staid all day in. 
 his room at Albany, and was congratulated on being 
 alive, by the few people that saw him. " Some scurvy 
 jest," thought he, and never asked for an explanation. 
 In the evening he left Albany, and arrived at the man 
 sion of his deceased benefactor in the manner we have 
 before described. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 869 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 OUR HERO RECEIVES BACK HIS UNCLE S ESTATE WITH A.N ENCUMBRANCE. 
 
 WHILE the reader has been travelling backwards, 
 the pale and gentle Catalina had been let into the 
 secret of the ghost story by her mother. At first 
 she became paler than ever, and could hardly support 
 herself on her chair. Then she turned red, and a rosy 
 blush of hope and love beamed on her cheek, where, 
 for many a day, it had not beamed before. " I will 
 bestow it all on him again," thought she, and her full 
 heart relieved itself in a shower of silent tears. 
 
 That night a thousand floating dreams of the past 
 and the future flitted before her troubled mind, and, 
 as they reigned in turn, gave birth to different pur 
 poses and determinations. But the prevailing thought 
 was, that her cousin had treated her unjustly and 
 unkindly, and that it became the dignity of her sex to 
 maintain a defensive stateliness, a cold civility, until 
 he had acknowledged his errors and begged forgive 
 ness. She settled the matter by deciding, that, when 
 Sybrandt came the next day to take his leave, she 
 would deliver him a deed for the estate of his uncle, 
 which her father was to have prepared for her, insist 
 on his acceptance, and then bid him adieu for ever 
 without a sigh or a tear. In the morning she begged, 
 that, when Sybrandt came to call on her mother, she 
 might be permitted to see him alone. Her request 
 was acquiesced in, and she waited in trembling anxiety 
 
 24 
 
370 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 his promised visit. He came soon after breakfast, and 
 Madam Vancour was struck with the improvement 
 which a military uniform, in place of a suit of master 
 Ten Broeck s snuff-coloured cloth, produced. After a 
 somewhat painful and awkward interview, Sybrandt 
 forced himself to inquire after Catalina. 
 
 " She has had a long illness," said the mother, " and 
 you will scarcely know her. But she wishes to see 
 you." 
 
 " To see me ? " cried Sybrandt, almost starting out 
 of his skin. 
 
 "Ay you her old playmate, and cousin. Is 
 that so very extraordinary ? " replied Madam, smiling. 
 " She is in the next room : go to her." 
 
 " Go go to her," stammered our hero ; " surely, 
 you cannot mean " 
 
 " I mean just what I say. She is waiting to see 
 you in the next room. I hope you don t mean to 
 keep her waiting much longer." And Madam again 
 smiled. 
 
 " What can this mean ? " thought Sybrandt, while 
 he crept towards the door with about the eager 
 ness that a man feels who is on the point of being 
 hanged. 
 
 " I shall tell Catalina how anxious you were to see 
 her." 
 
 " They must think I have no feeling or they have 
 none themselves ; " and the thought roused his native 
 energies. He strutted into the next room as if he was 
 leading his regiment to battle. 
 
 " Don t look so fierce, or you will frighten my daugh 
 ter," said Madam. 
 
 But Catalina was frightened almost out of her wits, 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 371 
 
 already. She was too much taken up in rallying her 
 own self-possession to observe how Sybrandt looked 
 when he walked. He had indeed been some moments 
 in the room before either could utter a single word. 
 At length their eyes met, and the excessive paleness 
 each observed in the countenance of the other went 
 straight to the hearts of both. 
 
 " Dear cousin," said Sybrandt, " how ill you look." 
 This was rather what is called a left-handed compli 
 ment. But Catalina was even with him, for she an 
 swered in his very words : 
 
 " Dear cousin, how ill you look." 
 
 Pride and affection were now struggling in the 
 bosoms of the two young people. Sybrandt found 
 his courage, like that of Bob Acres, " oozing out at 
 the palms of his hands," in the shape of a cold per 
 spiration ; but the pride of woman supported Catalina, 
 who rallied first, and spoke as follows, at first in a 
 faltering tone, but by degrees with modest firmness : 
 
 " Colonel Westbrook," said she, " I wished to see 
 you on a subject which has occasioned me much 
 pain the bequest of my uncle. I cannot accept it. 
 It was made when we all thought you were no more." 
 She uttered this last part of the sentence with a plain- 
 tiveness that affected him deeply. " She feels for me," 
 thought he ; " but then she would not answer iuy 
 letter." Catalina proceeded : 
 
 " I should hate myself, could I think for a moment 
 of robbing you of what is yours what I am sure 
 my uncle intended should be yours, until he thought 
 you dead." And the same plaintive tones again 
 thrilled through Sybrandt. " But she would not an 
 swer my letter," thought he, again. 
 
372 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 " Sybrandt," continued she, " I sent for you, with 
 the full approbation of rny father and mother, to make 
 over this property to you, to whom it belongs. I am 
 of age ; and here is the conveyance. I beseech you, 
 as you value my peace of mind, to accept it with the 
 frankness with which it is offered." 
 
 " What, rob my cousin ? No, Catalina : never." 
 
 " I feared it," said Catalina, with a sigh ; " you do 
 not respect me enough to accept even of justice at 
 my hands." 
 
 " It would be meanness it would be degradation ; 
 and, since you charge me with a want of respect to 
 you, I must be allowed to say that I am too proud to 
 accept any thing, much less so great a gift as this, 
 from one who did not think the almost death-bed 
 contrition of a man who had discovered his error, 
 and was anxious to atone for it, worthy of her 
 notice." 
 
 "What what do you mean?" exclaimed Cata 
 lina. 
 
 " The letter I sent you," replied he, proudly. " I 
 never meant to complain or remonstrate; but you 
 have forced me to justify myself." 
 
 " In the name of Heaven, what letter?" 
 
 " That which I wrote you the moment I was suf 
 ficiently recovered of my wounds to say that I had 
 had a full explanation with Colonel Gilfillan ; to say 
 that I had done you injustice ; to confess my folly ; to 
 ask forgiveness; and and to offer you every atone 
 ment which love or honour could require." 
 
 " And you wrote me such an one ? " asked Catalina, 
 gasping for breath. 
 
 " I did the messenger returned he had seen 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 373 
 
 you gay and happy ; and he brought a verbal message 
 that my letter required no answer." 
 
 " And is this is this the sole the single cause 
 of your subsequent conduct ? Answer me, Sybrandt, 
 as you are a man of honour is it ? " 
 
 "It is. I cannot you know I never could bear 
 contempt or scorn from man or woman." 
 
 " What would you say, what would you do, if 
 I assured you solemnly I never saw that letter, or 
 dreamed it was ever written ? " 
 
 " I would say, that I believed you as I would the 
 white-robed truth herself; and I would on my knees 
 beg your forgiveness for twice doubting you." 
 
 " Then I do assure you, in the singleness of my 
 heart, that I never saw or knew aught of it." 
 
 " And did did Gilfillan speak the truth?" panted 
 our hero. 
 
 She turned her inspiring eye full upon the youth, 
 and sighed forth in a whisper, " He did," while the 
 crimson current revisited her pale cheek, and made 
 her snow-white bosom blush rosy red. 
 
 " You are mine then, Catalina, at last," faltered 
 Sybrandt, as he released her yielding form from his 
 arms. 
 
 " You will accept my uncle s bequest ? " asked she, 
 with one of her long-absent smiles. 
 
 " Provided you add yourself, dearest girl." 
 
 " You must take it with that encumbrance," said 
 she, and he sealed the instrument of conveyance 
 upon her warm, willing lips. 
 
 " What can they have to talk about, all this time, 
 I wonder ? " cogitated the old lady, while she fidgeted 
 
374 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 about from her chair towards the door, and from the 
 door to her chair. As she could distinguish the in 
 creasing animation of their voices she fidgeted still 
 more ; and there is no knowing what might have 
 been the consequence, if the lovers had not entered 
 the room looking so happy that the old lady thought 
 the very elixir of life was in them both. The mo 
 ment Sybrandt departed, Catalina explained all to her 
 mother. " Alas ! " thought the good woman ; " she 
 will never be a titled lady : yet, who knows but Sy 
 brandt may one day go to England and be knighted ? " 
 This happy thought reconciled her at once to the 
 whole catastrophe, and she embraced her daughter, 
 sincerely wishing her joy at the removal of all her 
 perplexities. 
 
 " Damn it," said Ariel, " if I ever saw a more glori 
 ous wedding-supper in my life!" 
 
 " Do you recollect my last words when we parted, 
 Colonel Westbrook?" said Sir William Johnson, their 
 most honoured guest. 
 
 " I do, Sir William. You are a prophet, as well as 
 a warrior and legislator." 
 
 " What did he say ?," whispered a blushing damsel, 
 dressed all in white, and beautiful as the most beauti 
 ful morning in June, who sat by the side of our hero, 
 "What did he say?" 
 
 " He said, in less than a twelvemonth I should be 
 married to an angel." 
 
 " Take care it does not turn out like dreams, which, 
 you knew, go by contraries," said the aforementioned 
 blushing damsel, whose eye looked exactly like love s 
 firmament. 
 
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 375 
 
 But the knight turned out a true prophet, even ac 
 cording to the gallant turn given to his prediction by 
 
 our hero 
 
 Catalina approved herself an excellent wife, 
 and a pattern of a mother; for she never let her hus-// 
 band find out she was not an angel, nor her children \, 
 that she could be conquered by importunity. I grieve,!.! j 
 however, to say, that the good Madam Vancour never 
 had the happiness to be mother to a real titled lady. 
 One of Sybrandt s cousins however, came over in 
 process of time, a baronet, with bloody hand, and the 
 old lady consoled herself, that, if not the mother, she 
 was a near connexion of a near relation of a man 
 who could make his wife a lady. What was better 
 than all this, the cousin was in a fair way of becom 
 ing an old bachelor, and Sybrandt was his heir-at-law. 
 
 " Who knows," thought Madam Vancour, "who 
 knows but he may die single, and I live to see Cata 
 lina a lady at last." People who have any thing to 
 expect from the death of others always calculate to 
 outlive them. Madam had ten good years the start 
 of the man on whose demise she was speculating. 
 
 But we have been getting on altogether too fast. 
 To return to the marriage-eve : 
 
 " Sybrandt," said Sir William, I shall be obliged 
 to depart to-morrow before you are up. Farewell!, 
 and happiness attend you this night, and always. I 
 have but one word to add action, remember, action 
 alone can secure the happiness of your future life, by 
 making you useful and distinguished." 
 
376 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 
 
 " But where is your moral, my good friend ? " 
 quoth one of my most devoted readers, an elderly 
 lady, secretary, treasurer, directress, &c. &c., of fifty 
 societies. "I can t find out your moral," wiping 
 her specs. 
 
 " My dear madam, can t you see it through one of 
 the glasses of your spectacles? The moral of my 
 story is found in the last words ; just as all the moral 
 of the life of a rogue is gathered from his dying 
 speech." 
 
 " Action pshaw ! Remember, action ! I wouldn t 
 give a fig for such a moral not I." 
 
 " Well then, my dear madam, if you don t like that, 
 I will give you another. The moral of my story is, a 
 warning to all young and desperate lovers, never to 
 go courting in a pair of snuff-coloured smallclothes, 
 perpetrated by Master Goosee Ten Broeck." 
 
 " Pshaw ! I ll never read another book of yours 
 that I am determined on." 
 
 " Then, madam, you ll never be as wjse as your 
 grandmother." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Cambridge : Press of John Wilson & Sen. 
 
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