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Файл:Satanstoe; or, The Littlepage Manuscripts
.pdf
SATANSTOE; OR, THE LITTLEPAGE MANUSCRIPTS
no great distance from the fort; or about half-way up the ac-
clivity, which forms the barrier to the inner country, on that
211
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
side of the river. Both these buildings were of stone, of course,
shingle tenements being of very rare occurrence in the colony of New York, though common enough further east.
I will own that not one of our party liked the idea of crossing the Hudson, in a loaded sleigh, on the ice, and that in
the month of March. There were no streams about us to be
crossed in this mode, nor was the cold exactly suffi cient to render such a transit safe, and we felt as the inexperienced would
be apt to feel in circumstances so unpleasant. I must do Jason
the credit to admit that he showed more plain, practical, good
sense than any of us, determining our course in the end by his
view of the matter. As for Mr. Worden, however, nothing could
18
In nothing was the difference of character between the people of New England, and those of the middle colonies, more apparent than in the nature of the dwellings. In New York, for instance,
men worth thousands dwelt in humble, low, (usually one story)
dwellings of stone, having window-shutters, frequently within as
well as without, and the other appliances of comfort; whereas the
farmer farther east, was seldom satisfi ed, though his means were
limited, unless he lived in a house as good as his neighbour’s; and
the strife dotted the whole of their colonies with wooden buildings, of great pretension for the age, that rarely had even exterior
shutters, and which frequently stood for generations unfi nished.
The difference was not of Dutch origin, for it was just as apparent
in New Jersey or Pennsylvania as in New York, and I think it may
be attributed to a very obvious consequence of a general equality
of condition, a state of society in which no one is content to wear
even the semblance of poverty, but those who cannot by any means
prevent it; but, in which all strive to get as high as possible, in appearances at least. – EDITOR.
18
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SATANSTOE; OR, THE LITTLEPAGE MANUSCRIPTS
induce him to venture on the ice in a sleigh, or near a sleigh,
though Jason remonstrated in the following terms
«Now, look here, Rev. Mr. Worden» – Jason seldom omitted
anybody’s title –» you’ve only to turn your eyes on the river to
see it is dotted with sleighs, far and near. There are highways
north and south, and if that be the place, where the crossing
is at the town, it is more like a thoroughfare than a spot that
is risky. In my judgment, these people who live hereabouts
ought to know whether there is any danger or not».
Obvious as was this truth, ‘Rev. Mr. Worden’ made us
stop on terra fi rma, and permit him to quit the sleigh, that
he might cross the river on foot. Jason ventured a hint or two
about faith and its virtues, as he stripped himself to the peagreen, in order to enter the town in proper guise, throwing
aside everything that concealed his fi nery. As for Dirck and
myself, we kept our seats manfully, and trotted on the river at
the point where we saw sleighs and foot-passengers going and
coming in some numbers. The Rev. Mr. Worden, however, was
not content to take the beaten path, for he knew there was
no more security in being out on the ice, near a sleigh, than
there was in being in it, so he diverged from the road, which
crossed at the ferry, striking diagonally atwhart the river towards the wharves of the place.
It seemed to me to be a sort of a holiday among the young
and idle, one sleigh passing us after another, fi lled with
young men and maidens, all sparkling with the excitement of
the moment, and gay with youth and spirits. We passed no less
than four of these sleighs on the river, the jingling of the bells,
the quick movement, the laughter and gaiety, and the anima-
213
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
tion of the whole scene, far exceeding anything of the sort
I had ever before witnessed. We were nearly across the river,
when a sleigh more handsomely equipped than any we had
yet seen, dashed down the bank, and came whirling past us
like a comet. It was full of ladies, with the exception of one
gentleman, who stood erect in front, driving. I recognised Bulstrode, in furs like all of us, capped and tailed, if not plumed,
while among the half-dozen pairs of brilliant eyes that were
turned with their owner’s smiling faces on us, I saw one which
never could be forgotten by me, that belonged to Anneke
Mordaunt. I question if we were recognised, for the passage was
like that of a meteor; but I could not avoid turning to gaze after
the gay party. This change of position enabled me to be a witness of a very amusing consequence of Mr. Worden’s experiment. A sleigh was coming in our direction, and the party in it
seeing one who was known for a clergyman, walking on the ice,
turned aside and approached him on a gallop, in order to offer
the courtesy of a seat to a man of his sacred profession. Our divine heard the bells, and fearful of having a sleigh so near him,
he commenced a downright fl ight, pursued by the people in
the sleigh, as fast as their horses could follow. Everybody on
the ice pulled up to gaze in wonder at this strange spectacle,
until the whole party reached the shore, the Rev. Mr. Worden
pretty well blown, as the reader may suppose.
CHAPTER XI
Bid physicians talk our veins to temper,
And with an argument new-set a pulse,
Then think, my lord, of reasoning unto love.
YOUNG.
As the road from the ferry into the town ran along
the bank of the river, we reached the point where the Rev.
Mr. Worden had landed precisely at the same instant with
his pursuers, who had been obliged to make a little circuit, in
order to get off the ice. I do not know which party regarded the other in the greatest astonishment, – the hunted, or
the hunters. The sleigh had in it two fi ne-looking young fellows, that spoke English with a slight Dutch accent, and three
young women, whose bright coal-black eyes betokened surprise a little mitigated by a desire to laugh. Seeing that we
were all strangers, I suppose, and that we claimed the runaway as belonging to our party, one of the young men raised
his cap very respectfully, and opened the discourse by asking in a very civil tone –
«What ails the reverent gentleman, to make him run
so fast?»
215
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
«Run!» exclaimed Mr. Worden, whose lungs had been
playing like a blacksmith’s bellows –» Run! and who would
not run to save himself from being drowned?»
«Drowned!» repeated the young Dutchman, looking
round at the river, as if to ascertain whether the ice were actually moving –» why does the Dominie suppose there was any
danger of that?»
As Mr. Worden’s bellows were still hard at work, I explained to the young Albanians that we were strangers just
arrived from the vicinity of New York; that we were unaccustomed to frozen rivers, and had never crossed one on the ice
before; that our reverend companion had chosen to walk at
a distance from the road, in order to be in less danger should
any team break in, and that he had naturally run to avoid their
sleigh when he saw it approaching. The Albanians heard this
account in respectful silence, though I could see the two young
men casting sly glances at each other, and that even the ladies had some little diffi culty in altogether suppressing their
smiles. When it was through, the oldest of the Dutchmen –
a fi ne, dare-devil, roystering-looking fellow of four or fi ve-andtwenty, whose dress and mien, however, denoted a person of
the upper class, – begged a thousand pardons for his mistake,
quitting his sleigh and insisting on having the honours of
shaking hands with the whole of us. His name was ‘Ten Eyck,’
he said; ‘Guert Ten Eyck,’ and he asked permission, as we were
strangers, of doing the honour of Albany to us. Everybody in
the place knew him, which, as we afterwards ascertained, was
true enough, for he had just as much reputation for fun and
frolic as at all comported with respectability; keeping along, as
it were, on the very verge of the pale of reputable people, with-
216
SATANSTOE; OR, THE LITTLEPAGE MANUSCRIPTS
out being thrown entirely out of it. The young females with
him were a shade below his own natural position in society,
tolerating his frolics on account of this circumstance, aided
as it was by a singularly manly face and person, a hearty and
ready laugh, a full purse, and possibly by the secret hope of being the happy individual who was designed by Providence to
convert ‘a reformed rake into the best of husbands.’ In a word,
he was always welcome with them, when those a little above
them felt more disposed to frown.
Of course, all this was unknown to us at the time, and we
accepted Guert Ten Eyck’s proffers of civility in the spirit in
which they were offered. He inquired at what tavern we intended to stop, and promised an early call. Then, shaking us
all round by the hand again with great cordiality, he took his
leave. His companion doffed a very dashing, high, wolf-skin
cap to us, and the black-eyed trio, on the hind-seat, smiled
graciously, and away they drove at a furious rate, startling all
the echoes of Albany with their bells. By this time Mr. Worden
was seated, and we followed more moderately, our team having none of the Dutch courage of a pair of horses fresh from
the stable. Such were the circumstances under which we made
our entrance into the ancient city of Albany. We were all in
hopes, the little affair of the chase would soon be forgotten, for
no one likes to be associated with a ridiculous circumstance,
but we counted without our host. Guert Ten Eyck was not of
a temperament to let such an affair sleep, but, as I afterwards
ascertained, he told it with the laughing embellishments that
belonged to his reckless character, until, in turn, the Rev.
Mr. Worden came to be known, throughout all that region, by
the nick-name of the «Loping Dominie».
217
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
The reader may be assured our eyes were about us, as we
drove through the streets of the second town in the colony. We
were not unaccustomed to houses constructed in the Dutch
style, in New York, though the English mode of building had
been most in vogue there, for half a century. It was not so with
Albany, which remained, essentially, a Dutch town, in 1758.
We heard little beside Dutch, as we passed along. The women
scolded their children in Low Dutch, a use, by the way, for
which the language appears singularly well adapted; the negroes sang Dutch songs; the men called to each other in Dutch,
and Dutch rang in our ears, as we walked our horses through
the streets, towards the tavern. There were many soldiers
about, and other proofs of the presence of a considerable military force were not wanting; still, the place struck me as very
provincial and peculiar, after New York. Nearly all the houses
were built with their gables to the streets, and each had heavy
wooden Dutch stoops, with seats, at its door. A few had small
court-yards in front, and, here and there, was a building of
somewhat more pretension than usual. I do not think, however, there were fi fty houses in the place, that were built with
their gables off the line of the streets.
19
19
The population of Albany could not have reached 4000 in
1758. Its Dutch character remained down to the close of this century, with gradual changes. The writer can remember when quite as
much Dutch as English was heard in the streets of Albany, though
it has now nearly disappeared. The present population must be
near 40,000.
Mr. Littlepage’s description was doubtless correct, at the time
he wrote; but Albany would now be considered a fi rst-class country town, in Europe. It has much better claims to compare with the
218
SATANSTOE; OR, THE LITTLEPAGE MANUSCRIPTS
We were no sooner housed, than Dirck and I sallied
forth to look at the place. Here we were, in one of the oldest
towns of America; a place that could boast of much more than
a century’s existence, and it was natural to feel curious to look
about one. Our inn was in the principal street, – that which
led up the hill towards the fort. This street was a wide avenue,
that quite put Broadway out of countenance, so far as mere
width was concerned. The streets that led out of it, however,
were principally little better than lanes, as if the space that
had been given to two or three of the main streets had been
taken off of the remainder. The High Street, as we English
would call it, was occupied by sleds fi lled with wood for sale;
sleds loaded with geese, turkeys, tame and wild, and poultry of
all sorts; sleds with venison, still in the skin, piled up in heaps,
&c., – all these eatables being collected, in unusual quantities
as we were told, to meet the extraordinary demand created by
the different military messes. Deer were no strangers to us;
for Long Island was full of all sorts of game, as were the upper counties of New Jersey. Even Westchester, old and well
settled as it had become, was not yet altogether clear of deer,
and nothing was easier than to knock over a buck in the highlands. Nevertheless, I had never seen venison, wild turkeys
and sturgeons, in such quantities as they were to be seen that
day in the principal street of Albany.
The crowd collected in this street, the sleighs that were
whirling past, fi lled with young men and maidens, the incessant jingling of bells, the spluttering and jawing in Low
towns of the old world, in this character, than New York has to compare with their capitals. – EDITOR.
219
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
Dutch, the hearty English oaths of serjeants and sutlers’men and cooks of messes, the loud laughs of the blacks, and
the beauty of the cold clear day, altogether produced some
such effect on me, as I had experienced when I went to the theatre. Not the least striking picture of the scene, was Jason, in
the middle of the street, gaping about him, in the cocked-hat,
the pea-green coat, and the striped woollen stockings.
Dirck and myself naturally examined the churches. These
were two, as has been said already, – one for the Dutch, and
the other for the English. The fi rst was the oldest. It stood at
the point where the two principal streets crossed each other,
and in the centre of the street, leaving suffi cient passages all
round it. The building was square, with a high pointed roof,
having a belfry and weathercock on its apex; windows, with
diamond panes and painted glass, and a porch that was well
suited both to the climate and to appearances.
We were examining this structure, when Guert Ten Eyck
accosted us, in his frank, off-hand way
«Your servant, Mr. Littlepage; your servant, Mr. Follock»,
he cried, again shaking each cordially by the hand. «I was on
the way to the tavern to look you up, when I accidentally saw
you here. A few gentlemen of my acquaintance, who are in
the habit of supping together in the winter time, meet for
the last jollifi cation of the season to-night, and they have all
20
20
There were two churches, of this character, built on this spot.
The second, much larger than the fi rst, but of the same form, was
built round the other, in which service was held to the last, when
it was literally thrown out of the windows of its successor. The last
edifi ce disappeared about forty years since. – EDITOR.
220
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