V
HOW THE DEVIL WAS CAST OUT OF THE MEETING-HOUSE
The news that the Honorable Frederick Dunburne, second son of the Earl
of Clandennie, was to marry Miss Belinda Belford, the daughter and only
child of Colonel William Belford, of New Hope, was of a sort to arouse
the keenest and most lively interest in all those parts of the Northern
Colonies of America.
The day had been fixed, and all the circumstances arranged with such
particularity that an invitation was regarded as the highest honor that
could befall the fortunate recipient. There were to be present on this
interesting occasion two Colonial governors and their ladies, an
English general, the captain of the flag-ship _Achilles_, and above a
score of Colonial magnates and ladies of distinction.
Captain Obadiah had not been bidden to either the ceremony or the
breakfast. This rebuff he had accepted with prodigious amusement,
which, not limiting itself to the immediate occasion, broke forth at
intervals for above two weeks. Now it might express itself in chuckles
of the most delicious entertainment, vented as our Captain walked up
and down the hall of his great house, smoking his pipe and cracking the
knuckles of his fingers; at other times he would burst forth into
incontrollable fits of laughter at the extravagant deceit which he
believed himself to be imposing upon his brother, Colonel Belford.
At length came the wedding-day, with such circumstances of pomp and
display as the exceeding wealth and Colonial dignity of Colonel Belford
could surround it. For the wedding-breakfast the great folding-doors
between the drawing-room and the dining-room of Colonel Belford's house
were flung wide open, and a table extending the whole length of the two
apartments was set with the most sumptuous and exquisite display of
plate and china. Around the board were collected the distinguished
company, and the occasion was remarkable not less for the richness of
its display than for the exquisite nature of the repast intended to
celebrate so auspicious an occasion.
At the head of the board sat the young couple, radiant with an
engrossing happiness that took no thought of what the future might have
in store for it, but was contented with the triumphant ecstasy of the
moment.
These elegant festivities were at their height, when there suddenly
arose a considerable disputation in the hallway beyond, and before any
one could inquire as to what was occurring, Captain Obadiah Belford
came stumping into the room, swinging his ivory-headed cane, and with
an expression of the most malicious triumph impressed upon his
countenance. Directing his address to the bridegroom, and paying no
attention to any other one of the company, he cried out: "Though not
bidden to this entertainment, I have come to pay you a debt I owe. Here
is twenty pounds I promised to pay you for marrying my niece."
Therewith he drew a silk purse full of gold pieces from his pocket,
which he hung over the ferrule of his cane and reached across the table
to the bridegroom. That gentleman, upon his part (having expected some
such episode as this), arose, and with a most polite and elaborate bow
accepted the same and thrust it into his pocket.
"And now, my young gentleman," cried Captain Obadiah, folding his arms
and tucking his cane under his armpit, looking the while from under his
brows upon the company with a most malevolent and extravagant grin--
"and now, my young gentleman, perhaps you will favor the ladies and
gentlemen here present with an account of what services they are I thus
pay for."
"To be sure I will," cried out our hero, "and that with the utmost
willingness in the world."
During all this while the elegant company had sat as with suspended
animation, overwhelmed with wonder at the singular address of the
intruder. Even the servants stood still with the dishes in their hands
the better to hear the outcome of the affair. The bride, overwhelmed by
a sudden and inexplicable anxiety, felt the color quit her face, and
reaching out, seized her lover's hand, who took hers very readily,
holding it tight within his grasp. As for Colonel and Madam Belford,
not knowing what this remarkable address portended, they sat as though
turned to stone, the one gone as white as ashes, and the other as red
in the face as a cherry. Our young gentleman, however, maintained the
utmost coolness and composure of demeanor. Pointing his finger towards
the intruder, he exclaimed: "In Captain Obadiah Belford, ladies and
gentlemen, you behold the most unmitigated villain that ever I met in
all of my life. With an incredible spite and vindictiveness he not only
pursued my honored father-in-law, Colonel Belford, but has sought to
wreak an unwarranted revenge upon the innocent and virtuous young lady
whom I have now the honor to call my wife. But how has he overreached
himself in his machinations! How has he entangled his feet in the net
which he himself has spread! I will tell you my history, as he bids me
to do, and you may then judge for yourselves!"
At this unexpected address Captain Obadiah's face fell from its
expression of malicious triumph, growing longer and longer, until at
last it was overclouded with so much doubt and anxiety that, had he
been threatened by the loss of a thousand pounds, he could not have
assumed a greater appearance of mortification and dejection. Meantime,
regarding him with a mischievous smile, our young gentleman began the
history of all those adventures that had befallen him from the time he
embarked upon the memorable expedition with his two companions in
dissipation from York Stairs. As his account proceeded Captain
Obadiah's face altered by degrees from its natural brown to a sickly
yellow, and then to so leaden a hue that it could not have assumed a
more ghastly appearance were he about to swoon dead away. Great beads
of sweat gathered upon his forehead and trickled down his cheeks. At
last he could endure no more, but with a great and strident voice, such
as might burst forth from a devil tormented, he cried out: "'Tis a lie!
'Tis all a monstrous lie! He is a beggarly runaway servant whom I took
in out of the rain and fed and housed--to have him turn thus against me
and strike the hand that has benefited him!"
"Sir," replied our young gentleman, with a moderate and easy voice,
"what I tell you is no lie, but the truth. If any here misdoubts my
veracity, see, here is a letter received by the last packet from my
honored father. You, Colonel Belford, know his handwriting perfectly
well. Look at this and tell me if I am deceiving you."
At these words Colonel Belford took the letter with a hand that
trembled as though with palsy. He cast his eyes over it, but it is to
be doubted whether he read a single word therein contained.
Nevertheless, he saw enough to satisfy his doubts, and he could have
wept, so great was the relief from the miserable and overwhelming
anxiety that had taken possession of him since the beginning of his
brother's discourse.
Meantime our young gentleman, turning to Captain Obadiah, cried out,
"Sir, I am indeed an instrument of Providence sent hither to call your
wickedness to account," and this he spoke with so virtuous an air as to
command the admiration of all who heard him. "I have," he continued,
"lived with you now for nearly three odious months, and I know every
particular of your habits and such circumstances of your life as you
are aware of. I now proclaim how you have wickedly and sacrilegiously
turned the Old Free Grace Meeting-House into a slave-pen, whence for
above a year you have conducted a nefarious and most inhuman commerce
with the West Indies."
At these words Captain Obadiah, being thrown so suddenly upon his
defence, forced himself to give forth a huge and boisterous laugh.
"What then?" he cried. "What wickedness is there in that? What if I
have provided a few sugar plantations with negro slaves? Are there not
those here present who would do no better if the opportunity offered?
The place is mine, and I break no law by a bit of quiet slave-trading."
"I marvel," cried our young gentleman, still in the same virtuous
strain--"I marvel that you can pass over so wicked a thing thus easily.
I myself have counted above fifty graves of your victims on Pig and Sow
Point. Repent, sir, while there is yet time."
But to this adjuration Captain Obadiah returned no other reply than to
burst into a most wicked, impudent laugh.
"Is it so?" cried our young gentleman. "Do you dare me to further
exposures? Then I have here another evidence to confront you that may
move you to a more serious consideration." With these words he drew
forth from his pocket a packet wrapped in soft white paper. This he
unfolded, holding up to the gaze of all a bright and shining object.
"This," he exclaimed, "I found in Captain Obadiah's writing-desk while
I was hunting for some wax with which to seal a letter." It was the
gold snuffbox of the late Collector Goodhouse. "What," he cried, "have
you, sir, to offer in explanation of the manner in which this came into
your possession? See, here engraved upon the lid is the owner's name
and the circumstance of his having saved my own poor life. It was that
first called my attention to it, for I well recollect how my father
compelled me to present it to my savior. How came it into your
possession, and why have you hidden it away so carefully for all this
while? Sir, in the death of Lieutenant Goodhouse I suspect you of a
more sinister fault than that of converting yonder poor sanctuary into
a slave-pen. So soon as Captain Morris of your slave-ship returns from
Jamaica I shall have him arrested, and shall compel him to explain what
he knows of the circumstances of the Lieutenant's unfortunate murder."
At the sight of so unexpected an object in the young gentleman's hand
Captain Obadiah's jaw fell, and his cavernous mouth gaped as though he
had suddenly been stricken with a palsy. He lifted a trembling hand and
slowly and mechanically passed it along that cheek which was so
discolored with gunpowder stain. Then, suddenly gathering himself
together and regaining those powers that appeared for a moment to have
fled from him, he cried out, aloud: "I swear to God 'twas all an
accident! I pushed him down the steps, and he fell and broke his neck!"
Our young gentleman regarded him with a cold and collected smile.
"That, sir," said he, "you shall have the opportunity to explain to the
proper authorities--unless," he added, "you choose to take yourself
away from these parts, and to escape the just resentment of those laws
to which you may be responsible for your misdemeanors."
"I shall," roared Captain Obadiah, "stand my trial in spite of you all!
I shall live to see you in torments yet! I shall--" He gaped and
stuttered, but could find no further words with which to convey his
infinite rage and disappointed spite. Then turning, and with a furious
gesture, he rushed forth and out of the house, thrusting those aside
who stood in his way, and leaving behind him a string of curses fit to
set the whole world into a blaze.
He had destroyed all the gaiety of the wedding-breakfast, but the
relief from the prodigious doubts and anxieties that had at first
overwhelmed those whom he had intended to ruin was of so great a nature
that they thought nothing of so inconsiderable a circumstance.
As for our young gentleman, he had come forth from the adventure with
such dignity of deportment and with so exalted an air of generous
rectitude that those present could not sufficiently admire at the
continent discretion of one so young. The young lady whom he had
married, if she had before regarded him as a Paris and an Achilles
incorporated into one person, now added the wisdom of a Nestor to the
category of his accomplishments.
Captain Obadiah, in spite of the defiance he had fulminated against his
enemies, and in spite of the determination he had expressed to remain
and to stand his trial, was within a few days known to have suddenly
and mysteriously departed from New Hope. Whether or not he misdoubted
his own rectitude too greatly to put it to the test of a trial, or
whether the mortification incident upon the failure of his plot was too
great for him to support, it was clearly his purpose never to return
again. For within a month the more valuable of his belongings were
removed from his great house upon Pig and Sow Point and were loaded
upon a bark that came into the harbor for that purpose. Thence they
were transported no one knew whither, for Captain Obadiah was never
afterwards observed in those parts.
Nor was the old meeting-house ever again disturbed by such
manifestations as had terrified the community for so long a time.
Nevertheless, though the Devil was thus exorcised from his
abiding-place, the old church never lost its evil reputation, until it was
finally destroyed by fire about ten years after the incidents herein
narrated.
In conclusion it is only necessary to say that when the Honorable
Frederick Dunburne presented his wife to his noble family at home, he
was easily forgiven his _mésalliance_ in view of her extreme beauty and
vivacity. Within a year or two Lord Carrickford, his elder brother,
died of excessive dissipation in Florence, where he was then attached
to the English Embassy, so that our young gentleman thus became the
heir-apparent to his father's title, and so both branches of the family
were united into one.
THE END
