“Come on, Nerissa; I
have work in hand,
That you, yet, know not of, ”
Merchant of Venice.
Notwithstanding the active movements
which had taken place in and around the buildings
of the Lust in Rust, during the night which ended with
our last chapter, none but the initiated were in the
smallest degree aware of their existence. Oloff
Van Staats was early afoot; and when he appeared on
the lawn, to scent the morning air, there was nothing
visible, to give rise to a suspicion that aught extraordinary
had occurred during his slumbers. La Cour
des Fees was still closed, but the person
of the faithful Francois was seen, near the abode
of his young mistress, busied in some of those pretty
little offices, that can easily be imagined would
be agreeable to a maiden of her years and station.
Van Staats of Kinderhook had as little of romance
in his composition, as could well be in a youth of
five-and-twenty, who was commonly thought to be enamoured,
and who was not altogether ignorant of the conventional
sympathies of the passion. The man was mortal,
and as the personal attractions of la belle Barberie
were sufficiently obvious, he had not entirely escaped
the fate, which seems nearly inseparable from young
fancy, when excited by beauty. He drew nigh to
the pavilion, and, by a guarded but decisive manoeuvre,
he managed to come so close to the valet, as to render
a verbal communication not only natural, but nearly
unavoidable.
“A fair morning and a healthful
air, Monsieur Francois;” commenced the young
Patroon, acknowledging the low salute of the domestic,
by gravely lifting his own beaver. “This
is a comfortable abode for the warm months, and one
it might be well to visit oftener.”
“When Monsieur lé
Patteron shall be de lor’ of ce manoir,
aussi, he shall come when he shall have la
volonté,” returned Francois, who knew that
a pleasantry of his ought not to be construed into
an engagement on the part of her he served, while
it could not fail to be agreeable to him who heard
it. “Monsieur de Van Staats, est grand
propriétaire sur la rivière, and one day,
peut-être, he shall be propriétaire sur la
mer!”
“I have thought of imitating
the example of the Alderman, honest Francis, and of
building a villa on the coast; but there will be time
for that, when I shall find myself more established
in life! Your young mistress is not yet moving,
Francis?”
“Ma foi, non Mam’selle
Alide sleep! ’tis good symptôme,
Monsieur Patteron, pour les jeunes
personnes, to très bien sleep.
Monsieur, et toute la famille
de Barberie sleep a merveille! Oui,
c’est toujours une famille
remarquable, poui lé sommeil!”
“Yet one would wish to breathe
this fresh and invigorating air, which comes from
off the sea, like a balm, in the early hours of the
day.”
“Sans doute, Monsieur.
C’est un miracle, how Mam’selle
love de air! Personne do
not love air more, as Mam’selle Alide.
Bah! It was grand plaisir to see how
Monsieur de Barberie love de air!”
“Perhaps, Mr. Francis, your
young lady is ignorant of the hour. It might
be well to knock at the door, or perhaps at the window.
I confess, I should much admire to see her bright
face, smiling from that window, on this soft morning
scene.”
It is not probable that the imagination
of the Patroon of Kinderhook ever before took so high
a flight; and there was reason to suspect, by the
wavering and alarmed glance that he cast around him
after so unequivocal an expression of weakness, that
he already repented his temerity. Francois, who
would not willingly disoblige a man that was known
to possess a hundred thousand acres of land, with
manorial rights, besides personals of no mean amount,
felt embarrassed by the request; but was enabled to
recollect in time, that the heiress was known to possess
a decision of character that might choose to control
her own pleasures.
“Well, I shall be too happy
to knock; maïs, Monsieur saïs, dat sleep
est si agréable, pour les
jeunes personnes! On n’a jamais
knock, dans la famille de Monsieur
de Barberie, and je suis sur, que
Mam’selle Alide, do not love to hear de
knock pourtant, si Monsieur
lé Patteron lé veut, I shall consult ses Voila!
Monsieur Bevre, qui vient sans knock a la
fenêtre. J’ai l’honneur de
vous laisser avec Monsieur Al’erman.”
And so the complaisant but still considerate
valet bowed himself out of a dilemma, that he found,
as he muttered to himself, while retiring, ’tant
soit peu ennuyant.’
The air and manner of the Alderman,
as he approached his guest, were, like the character
of the man, hale, hearty and a little occupied with
his own enjoyments and feelings. He hemmed thrice,
ere he was near enough to speak; and each of the strong
expirations seemed to invite the admiration of the
Patroon, for the strength of his lungs, and for the
purity of the atmosphere around a villa which acknowledged
him for its owner.
“Zéphyrs and Spas! but
this is the abode of health, Patroon!” cried
the burgher, as soon as these demonstrations of his
own bodily condition had been sufficiently repeated.
“One sometimes feels in this air equal to holding
a discourse, across the Atlantic, with his friends
at Scheveling, or the Helder. A broad and deep
chest, air like this from the sea, with a clear conscience,
and a lucky hit in the way of trade, cause the lungs
of a man to play as easily and as imperceptibly as
the wings of a humming-bird. Let me see;
there are few four-score men in thy stock. The
last Patroon closed the books at sixty-six; and his
father went but a little beyond seventy. I wonder,
there has never been an intermarriage, among you,
with the Van Courtlandts; that blood is as good as
an insurance to four-score and ten, of itself.”
“I find the air of your villa,
Mr. Van Beverout, a cordial that one could wish to
take often,” returned the other, who had far
less of the brusque manner of the trader, than his
companion. “It is a pity that all who have
the choice, do not profit by their opportunities to
breathe it.”
“You allude to the lazy mariners
in yon vessel! Her Majesty’s servants are
seldom in a hurry; and as for this brigantine in the
Cove, the fellow seems to have gotten in by magic!
I warrant me, now, the rogue is there for no good,
and that the Queen’s Exchequer will be none the
richer for his visit. Harkee, you Brom,”
calling to an aged black, who was working at no great
distance from the dwelling, and who was deep in his
master’s confidence, “hast seen any boats
plying between yonder roguish-looking brigantine and
the land?”
The negro shook his head, like the
earthen image of a mandarin, and laughed loud and
heartily.
“I b’rieve he do all he
mischief among a Yankee, an’ he only come here
to take he breat’,” said the wily slave.
“Well, I wish, wid all a heart, dere would come
free-trader, some time, along our shore Dat gib a chance
to poor black man, to make an honest penny!”
“You see, Patroon, human nature
itself rises against monopoly! That was the voice
of instinct, speaking with the tongue of Brom; and
it is no easy task, for a merchant, to keep his dependants
obedient to laws, which, in themselves, create so
constant a temptation to break them. Well, well;
we will always hope for the best, and endeavor to
act like dutiful subjects. The boat is not amiss,
as to form and rig, let her come from where she will. Dost
think the wind will be off the land this morning?”
“There are signs of a change
in the clouds. One could wish that all should
be out in the air, to taste this pleasant sea-breeze
while it lasts.”
“Come, come,” cried the
Alderman, who had for a moment studied the state of
the heavens with a solicitude, that he feared might
attract his companion’s attention. “We
will taste our breakfast. This is the spot to
show the use of teeth! The negroes have not been
idle during the night, Mr. Van Staats he-e-em I
say, Sir, they have not been idle: and we
shall have a choice among the dainties of the river
and bay. That cloud above the mouth of
the Raritan appears to rise, and we may yet have a
breeze at west!”
“Yonder comes a boat in the
direction of the city,” observed the other,
reluctantly obeying a motion of the Alderman to retire
to the apartment where they were accustomed to break
their fasts. “To me, it seems to approach
with more than ordinary speed.”
“There are stout arms at its
oars! Can it be a messenger for the cruiser?
no it rather steers more for our own landing.
These Jersey-men are often overtaken by the night,
between York and their own doors. And now, Patroon,
we will to our knives and forks, like men who have
taken the best stomachics.”
“And are we to refresh ourselves
alone?” demanded the young man, who ever and
anon cast a sidelong and wistful glance at the closed
and immovable shutters of la Cour des
Fees.
“Thy mother hath spoilt thee,
young Oloff; unless the coffee comes from a pretty
female hand, it loses its savor. I take thy meaning,
and think none the worse of thee; for the weakness
is natural at thy years. Celibacy and independence!
A man must get beyond forty, before he is ever sure
of being his own master. Come hither, Master
Francis. It is time my niece had shaken off this
laziness, and shown her bright face to the sun.
We wait for her fair services at the table. I
see nothing of that lazy hussy, Dinah, any more than
of her mistress.”
“Assurément non, Monsieur,”
returned the valet. “Mam’selle
Dinah do not love trop d’activite. Mais,
Monsieur Al’erman, elles sont jeunes,
toutes les deux! Le sommeil
est bien salutaire, pour la
jeunesse.”
“The girl is no longer in her
cradle, Francis, and it is time to rattle at the windows.
As for the black minx, who should have been up and
at her duty this hour, there will be a balance to
settle between us. Come, Patroon: the
appetite will not await the laziness of a wilful girl;
we will to the table. Dost think the wind
will stand at west this morning?”
Thus saying, the Alderman led the
way into the little parlor, where a neat and comfortable
service invited them to break their morning fast.
He was followed by Oloff Van Staats, with a lingering
step for the young man really longed to see the windows
of the pavilion open, and the fair face of Alida smiling
amid the other beautiful objects of the scene.
Francois proceeded to take such measures to arouse
his mistress, as he believed to comport with his duty
to her uncle, and his own ideas of bienséance.
After some little delay, the Alderman and his guest
took their seats at the table; the former loudly protesting
against the necessity of waiting for the idle, and
throwing in an occasional moral concerning the particular
merit of punctuality in domestic economy, as well as
in the affairs of commerce.
“The ancients divided time,”
said the somewhat pertinacious commentator, “into
years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and moments,
as they divided numbers into units, tens, hundreds,
thousands, and tens of thousands; and both with an
object. If we commence at the bottom, and employ
well the moments, Mr. Van Staats, we turn the minutes
into tens, the hours into hundreds, and the weeks
and months into thousands ay! and when
there is a happy state of trade, into tens of thousands!
Missing an hour, therefore, is somewhat like dropping
an important figure in a complex calculation, and
the whole labor may be useless, for want of punctuality
in one, as for want of accuracy in the other.
Your father, the late Patroon, was what may be called
a minute-man. He was as certain to be seen
in his pew, at church, at the stroke of the clock,
as to pay a bill, when its items had been properly
examined. Ah! it was a blessing to hold one of
his notes, though they were far scarcer than broad
pieces, or bullion. I have heard it said, Patroon,
that the manor is backed by plenty of Johannes and
Dutch ducats!”
“The descendant has no reason
to reproach his ancestors with want of foresight.”
“Prudently answered; not
a word too much, not too little a principle
on which all honest men settle their accounts.
By proper management, such a foundation might be made
to uphold an estate that should count thousands with
the best of Holland or England. Growth and majority!
Patroon; but we of the colonies must come to man’s
estate in time, like our cousins on the dykes of the
Low Countries, or our rulers among the smithies of
England. Erasmus, look at that cloud over
the Raritan, and tell me if it rises.”
The negro reported that the vapor
was stationary; and, at the same time, by way of episode,
he told his master that the boat which had been seen
approaching the land had reached the wharf, and that
some of its crew were ascending the hill towards the
Lust in Rust.
“Let them come of all hospitality,”
returned the Alderman, heartily; “I warrant
me, they are honest farmers from the interior, a-hungered
with the toil of the night. Go tell the cook
to feed them with the best, and bid them welcome.
And harkee, boy; if there be among them
any comfortable yeoman, bid the man enter and sit
at our table. This is not a country, Patroon,
to be nice about the quality of the cloth a man has
on his back, or whether he wears a wig or only his
own hair. What is the fellow gaping at?”
Erasmus rubbed his eyes, and then
showing his teeth to the full extent of a double row,
that glittered like pearls, he gave his master to
understand, that the negro, introduced to the reader
under the name of Euclid, and who was certainly his
own brother of the half-blood, or by the mother’s
side, was entering the villa. The intelligence
caused a sudden cessation of the masticating process
in the Alderman, who had not, however, time to express
his wonder ere two doors simultaneously opened, and
Francois presented himself at the one, while the shining
and doubting face of the slave from town darkened
the other. The eyes of Myndert rolled first to
this side and then to that, a certain misgiving of
the heart preventing him from speaking to either;
for he saw, in the disturbed features of each, omens
that bade him prepare himself for unwelcome tidings.
The reader will perceive, by the description we shall
give that there was abundant reason for the sagacious
burgher’s alarm.
The visage of the valet, at all times
meagre and long, seemed extended to far more than
its usual dimensions, the under jaw appearing fallen
and trebly attenuated. The light-blue protruding
eyes were open to the utmost, and they expressed a
certain confused wildness, that was none the less
striking, for the painful expression of mental suffering,
with which it was mingled. Both hands were raised,
with the palms outward; while the shoulders of the
poor fellow were elevated so high, as entirely to destroy
the little symmetry that Nature had bestowed on that
particular part of his frame.
On the other hand, the look of the
negro was guilty, dogged, and cunning. His eye
leered askance, seeming to wish to play around the
person of his master, as, it will be seen, his language
endeavored to play around his understanding.
The hands crushed the crown of a woollen hat between
their fingers, and one of his feet described semicircles
with its toe, by performing nervous evolutions on
its heel.
“Well!” ejaculated Myndert,
regarding each in turn. “What news from
the Cañadas? Is the Queen dead, or
has she restored the colony to the United Provinces?”
“Mam’selle Alide!” exclaimed,
or rather groaned, Francois.
“The poor dumb beast! ” muttered
Euclid.
The knives and the forks fell from
the hands of Myndert and his guest, as it were by
a simultaneous paralysis. The latter involuntarily
arose; while the former planted his solid person still
more firmly in its seat, like one who was preparing
to meet some severe and expected shock, with all the
physical resolution he could muster.
“ What of my niece! What
of my geldings? You have called upon Dinah?”
“Sans doute, Monsieur!”
“ And you kept the keys of the stable?”
“I nebber let him go, at all!”
“ And you bade her call her mistress?”
“She no make answair, de tout.”
“ The animals were fed and watered,
as I ordered?”
“’Em nebber take he food, better!”
“ You entered the
chamber of my niece, yourself, to awake her?”
“Monsieur a raison.”
“What the devil has befallen the innocent?”
“He lose he stomach quite, and
I t’ink it great time ’fore it ebber come
back.”
“ Mister Francis,
I desire to know the answer of Monsieur Barberie’s
daughter.”
“Mam’selle no repond, Monsieur;
pas un syllabe!”
“ Drenchers and fleams!
The beauty should have been drenched and blooded ”
“He’m too late for dat, Masser, on honor.”
“ The obstinate hussy!
This comes of her Huguenot breed, a race that would
quit house and lands rather than change its place of
worship!”
“La famille de
Barberie est honorable, Monsieur maïs
lé Grand Monarque fût un pen trop exigeant.
Vraiment, la dragonade était mal
avisée, pour faire des chretiens!”
“Apoplexies and hurry! you should
have sent for the farrier to administer to the sufferer,
thou black hound!”
“’Em go for a butcher,
Masser, to save he skin; for he war’ too soon
dead.”
The word dead produced a sudden pause.
The preceding dialogue had been so rapid, and question
and answer, no less than the ideas of the principal
speaker, had got so confused, that, for a moment, he
was actually at a loss to understand, whether the
last great debt of nature had been paid by la belle
Barberie, or one of the Flemish geldings. Until
now, consternation, as well as the confusion of the
interview, had constrained the Patroon to be silent,
but he profited by the breathing-time to interpose.
“It is evident, Mr. Van Beverout,”
he said, speaking with a tremor in the voice, which
betrayed his own uneasiness, “that some untoward
event has occurred. Perhaps the negro and I had
better retire, that you may question Francis concerning
that which hath befallen Mademoiselle Barberie, more
at your leisure.”
The Alderman was recalled from a profound
stupor, by this gentlemanlike and considerate proposal.
He bowed his acknowledgments, and permitted Mr. Van
Staats to quit the room; but when Euclid would have
followed, he signed to the negro to remain.
“I may have occasion to question
thee farther,” he said, in a voice that had
lost most of that compass and depth for which it was
so remarkable. “Stand there, sirrah, and
be in readiness to answer. And now, Mr. Francis,
I desire to know why my niece declines taking the breakfast
with myself and my guest?”
“Mon Dieu, Monsieur, it is not
possible y répondre Les sentiments des
demoiselles are nevair decides!”
“Go then, and say to her, that
my sentiments are decided to curtail certain bequests
and devises, which have consulted her interests more
than strict justice to others of my blood ay,
and even of my name, might dictate.”
“Monsieur y reflechira.
Mam’selle Alide be so young personne!”
“Old or young, my mind is made
up; and so to your Cour des Fees, and
tell the lazy minx as much. Thou hast ridden
that innocent, thou scowling imp of darkness!”
“Mais, pensez-y, je vous
en prie, Monsieur. Mam’selle
shall nevair se sauver encore; jamais,
je vous en repond.”
“What is the fellow jabbering
about?” exclaimed the Alderman, whose mouth
fell nearly to the degree that rendered the countenance
of the valet so singularly expressive of distress.
“Where is my niece, Sir? and what
means this allusion to her absence?”
“La fille de Monsieur de Barberie
n’y est pas!” cried Francois,
whose heart was too full to utter more. The aged
and affectionate domestic laid his hand on his breast,
with an air of acute suffering; and then, remembering
the presence of his superior, he turned, bowed with
a manner of profound condolence, struggled manfully
with his own emotion, and succeeded in getting out
of the room with dignity and steadiness.
It is due to the character of Alderman
Van Beverout, to say, that the blow occasioned by
the sudden death of the Flemish gelding, lost some
of its force, in consequence of so unlooked-for a
report concerning the inexplicable absence of his
niece. Euclid was questioned, menaced, and even
anathematized, more than once, during the next ten
minutes; but the cunning slave succeeded in confounding
himself so effectually with the rest of his connexions
of the half-blood, during the search which instantly
followed the report of Francois, that his crime was
partially forgotten.
On entering la Cour des
Fees, it was, in truth, found to want her whose
beauty and grace had lent its chief attraction.
The outer rooms, which were small, and ordinarily
occupied during the day by Francois and the negress
called Dinah, and in the night by the latter only,
were in the state in which they might be expected
to be seen. The apartment of the attendant furnished
evidence that its occupant had quitted it in haste,
though there was every appearance of her having retired
to rest at the usual hour. Clothes were scattered
carelessly about; and though most of her personal
effects had disappeared enough remained to prove that
her departure had been hurried and unforeseen.
On the other hand, the little saloon,
with the dressing-room and bed-room of la belle Barberie,
were in a state of the most studied arrangement.
Not an article of furniture was displaced, a door
ajar, or a window open. The pavilion had evidently
been quitted by its ordinary passage, and the door
had been closed in the customary manner, without using
the fastenings. The bed had evidently not been
entered, for the linen was smooth and untouched.
In short, so complete was the order of the place, that,
yielding to a powerful natural feeling, the Alderman
called aloud on his truant niece, by name, as if he
expected to see her appear from some place, in which
she had secreted her person, in idle sport. But
this touching expedient was vain. The voice sounded
hollow through the deserted rooms; and though all
waited long to listen, there came no playful or laughing
answer back.
“Alida!” cried the burgher,
for the fourth and last time, “come forth, child;
I forgive thee thy idle sport, and all I have said
of disinheritance was but a jest. Come forth,
my sister’s daughter, and kiss thy old uncle!”
The Patroon turned aside, as he heard
a man so Known for his worldliness yielding to the
power of nature; and the lord of a hundred thousand
acres forgot his own disappointment, in the force
of sympathy.
“Let us retire,” he said,
gently urging the burgher to quit the place. “A
little reflection will enable us to deride what should
be done.”
The Alderman complied. Before
quitting the place, however, its closets and drawers
were examined; and the search left no further doubts
of the step which the young heiress had taken.
Her clothes, books, utensils for drawing, and even
the lighter instruments of music, had disappeared.