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THE WAYS OF THE HOUR
“Most clearly gained, as every man at the bar will confirm
by his opinion.”
“That has been my own way of thinking; and I am glad to
hear it corroborated by such competent judges. I confess the
prosecution does not seem to me to show the strength it really
possesses. This Jane Pope made a miserable blunder about the
piece of coin.”
“She has done the other side no great good, certainly.”
“How stands the jury, Mr. Timms?”
Although this question was put so directly, Timms heard it
with uneasiness. Nor did he like the expression of Mary Monson’s eyes, which seemed to regard him with a keenness that
might possibly imply distrust. But it was necessary to answer;
though he did so with caution, and with a due regard to his
own safety.
“It is pretty well,” he said, “though not quite as much opposed to capital punishment as I had hoped for. We challenged
off one of the sharpest chaps in the county, and have got in his
place a man who is pretty much under my thumb.”
“And the stories the reports have they been well circulated?”
“A little too well, I’m afraid. That concerning your having
married a Frenchman, and having run away from him, has
gone through all the lower towns of Duke’s like wild – fire. It
has even reached the ears of ‘Squire Dunscomb, and will be in
the York papers to – morrow.”
A little start betrayed the surprise of the prisoner; and a
look accompanied it, which would seem to denote dissatisfaction that a tale put in circulation by herself, as it would now
appear, had gone quite so far.
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
“Mr. Dunscomb!” she repeated, musingly. “Anna Updyke’s
uncle Tom; and one whom such a story may very well set thinking. I wish it had not reached him, of all men, Mr. Timms.”
“If I may judge of his opinions by some little acts and expressions that have escaped him, I am inclined to think he believes the story to be, in the main, true.”
Mary Monson smiled; and, as was much her wont when
thinking intensely, her lips moved; even a low muttering became audible to a person as near as her companion then was.
“It is now time, Mr. Timms, to set the other story in motion,” she said, quickly. “Let one account follow the other; that
will distract people’s belief. We must be active in this matter.”
“There is less necessity for our moving in the affair, as Williams has got a clue to it, by some means or other; and his men will
spread it far and near, long before the cause goes to the jury.”
“That is fortunate!” exclaimed the prisoner, actually clapping her pretty gloved hands together in delight. “A story
as terrible as that must react powerfully, when its falsehood
comes to be shown. I regard that tale as the cleverest of all our
schemes, Mr. Timms.”
“Why yes that is I think, Miss Mary, it may be set down as
the boldest.”
“And this saucy Williams, as you call him, has got hold of it
already, and believes it true!” “It is not surprising; there are so
many small and probable facts accompanying it.”
“I suppose you know what Shakspeare calls such an invention, Mr. Timms?” said Mary Monson, smiling.
“I am not particularly acquainted with that author, ma’am.
I know there was such a writer, and that he was thought a
good deal of, in his day; but I can’t say I have ever read him.”
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THE WAYS OF THE HOUR
The beautiful prisoner turned her large expressive blue
eyes on her companion with a gaze of wonder; but her breeding prevented her from uttering what she certainly thought
and felt.
“Shakspeare is a writer very generally esteemed,” she answered, after one moment of muttering, and one moment to
control herself; “I believe he is commonly placed at the head
of our English literature, if not at the head of that of all times
and nations Homer, perhaps, excepted.”
“What! higher, do you think, Miss Mary, than Blackstone
and Kent!”
“Those are authors of whom I know nothing, Mr. Timms;
but now, sir, I will listen to your errand here to – night.” “It is
the old matter. Williams has been talking to me again, touching the five thousand dollars.”
“Mr. Williams has my answer. If five thousand cents would
buy him off, he should not receive them from me.”
This was said with a frown; and then it was that the observer had an opportunity of tracing in a face otherwise so
lovely, the lines that indicate self – will, and a spirit not easily controlled. Alas! that women should ever so mistake their
natural means to influence and guide, as to have recourse to
the exercise of agents that they rarely wield with effect; and
ever with a sacrifice of womanly character and womanly grace.
The person who would draw the sex from the quiet scenes that
they so much embellish, to mingle in the strifes of the world;
who would place them in stations that nature has obviously
intended men should occupy, is not their real friend, any more
than the weak adviser who resorts to reputed specifics when
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
the knife alone can effect a cure. The Creator intended woman
for a “help – meet,” and not for the head of the family circle;
and most fatally ill – judging are the laws that would fain disturb the order of a domestic government which is directly derived from divine wisdom as from divine benevolence.
“I told him as much, Miss Mary,” answered Timms; “but he
does not seem disposed to take `no’ for an answer. Williams
has the true scent for a dollar.”
“I am quite certain of an acquittal, Mr. Timms; and having endured so much, and hazarded so much, I do not like to
throw away the triumph of my approaching victory. There is a
powerful excitement in my situation; and I like excitement to
weakness, perhaps. No, no; my success must not be tarnished
by any such covert bargain. I will not listen to the proposal for
an instant!”
“I understand that the raising of the sum required would
form no particular obstacle to the arrangement?” asked Timms,
in a careless sort of way that was intended to conceal the real
interest he took in the reply.
“None at all. The money might be in his hands before the
court sits in the morning; but it never shall be, as coming from
me. Let Mr. Williams know this definitively; and tell him to do
his worst.”
Timms was a little surprised, and a good deal uneasy at this
manifestation of a spirit of defiance, which could produce no
good, and which might be productive of evil. While he was delighted to hear, for the fourth or fifth time, how easy it would
be for his fair client to command a sum as large as that demanded, he secretly determined not to let the man who had
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THE WAYS OF THE HOUR
sent him on his present errand know the temper in which it
had been received Williams was sufficiently dangerous as it
was; and he saw all the hazard of giving him fresh incentives
to increase his exertions.
“And now, as this matter is finally disposed of, Mr. Timms
for I desire that it may not be again mentioned to me”resumed
the accused, “let us say a word more on the subject of our new
report. Your agent has set on foot a story that I belong to a
gang of wretches who are combined to prey on society; and
that, in this character, I came into Duke’s to carry out one of
its nefarious schemes?”
“That is the substance of the rumour we have started at
your own desire; though I could wish it were not quite so
strong, and that there were more time for the reaction.”
“The strength of the rumour is its great merit; and, as for
time, we have abundance for our purposes. Reaction is the
great power of popularity, as I have heard, again and again. It
is always the most effective, too, at the turn of the tide. Let the
public once get possessed with the notion that a rumour so
injurious has been in circulation at the expense of one in my
cruel condition, and the current of feeling will set the other
way in a torrent that nothing can arrest!”
“I take the idea, Miss Mary, which is well enough for certain cases, but a little too hazardous for this. Suppose it should
be ascertained that this report came from us?”
“It never can be, if the caution I directed was observed. You
have not neglected my advice, Mr. Timms?”
The attorney had not; and great had been his surprise at
the ingenuity and finesse manifested by this singular woman,
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
in setting afloat a report that would certainly act to her injury,
unless arrested and disproved at a moment most critical in her
future fate. Nevertheless, in obedience to Mary Monson’s positive commands, this very bold measure had been undertaken;
and Timms was waiting with impatience for the information
by means of which he was to counteract these self – inflicted
injuries, and make them the instruments of good, on the reaction.
If that portion of society which takes delight in gossip
could be made to understand the real characters of those to
whom they commit the control of their opinions, not to say
principles, there would be far more of reserve and self – respect observed in the submission to this social evil, than there
is at present. Malice, the inward impulses of the propagators
of a lie, and cupidity, are at the bottom of half the tales that
reach our ears; and in those cases in which the world in its
ignorance fancies it has some authority for what it says, it as
often happens that some hidden motive is at the bottom of the
exhibition as the one which seems so apparent. There are a set
of vulgar vices that may be termed the “stereotyped,” they lie
so near the surface of human infirmities. They who are most
subject to their influence always drag these vices first into the
arena of talk; and fully one – half of that of this nature which
we hear, has its origin as much in the reflective nature of the
gossip’s own character, as in any facts truly connected with the
acts of the subjects of his or her stories.
But Mary Monson was taking a far higher flight than the
circulation of an injurious rumour. She believed herself to be
putting on foot a master – stroke of policy. In her intercourse
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THE WAYS OF THE HOUR
with Timms, so much was said of the power of opinion, that
she had passed hours, nay days, in the study of the means to
control and counteract it. Whence she obtained her notion of
the virtue of reaction it might not be easy to say; but her theory
was not without its truth; and it is certain that her means of
producing it were of remarkable simplicity and ingenuity.
Having settled the two preliminaries of the rumour and of
Williams’s proposition, Timms thought the moment favourable to making a demonstration in his own affairs. Love he did
not yet dare to propose openly; though he had now been, for
some time, making covert demonstrations towards the tender
passion. In addition to the motive of cupidity, one of great influence with such a man, Timms’s heart, such as it was, had really yielded to the influence of a beauty, manners, accomplishments, and information, all of a class so much higher than he
had been accustomed to meet with, as to be subjects of wonder
with him, not to say of adoration. This man had his affections
as well as another; and, while John Wilmeter had submitted to a merely passing inclination, as much produced by the
interest he took in an unknown female’s situation as by any
other cause, poor Timms had been hourly falling more and
more in love. It is a tribute to nature, that this passion can be,
and is, felt by all. Although a purifying sentiment, the corrupt
and impure can feel its power, and, in a greater or less degree,
submit to its influence, though their homage may be tainted
by the grosser elements that are so largely mixed up with the
compound of their characters. We may have occasion to show
hereafter how far the uncouth attorney of Mary Monson succeeded in his suit with his fair client.
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CHAPTER XXV
“I challenge envy,
Malice, and all the practices of hell,
To censure all the actions of my past
Unhappy life, and taint me if they can.”
The Orphan.
It is to be presumed that Timms found the means to communicate to Williams the rejection of the latter’s offer, before
the court met next morning. It is certain that the counsel associated with the Attorney – General manifested unusual zeal
in the performance of duties that most men would have found
unpleasant, if not painful, and that he was captious, short, and
ill – natured. Just as Mary Monson came within the bar, a letter was put into the hands of Dunscomb, who quietly broke
the seal, and read it twice, as the observant Timms fancied;
then put it in his pocket, with a mien so undisturbed that no
mere looker – on would have suspected its importance. The
letter was from Millington, and it announced a general want
of success in his mission. The whereabouts of M. de Larocheforte could not be ascertained; and those who knew anything
about his movements, were of opinion that he was travelling
in the West, accompanied by his fair, accomplished, and affluent young consort. None of those who would naturally have
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THE WAYS OF THE HOUR
heard of such an event, had it occurred, could say there had
ever been a separation between the French husband and the
American wife. Millington, himself, had never seen his kinswoman, there being a coolness of long standing between the
two branches of the family, and could give little or no information on the subject. In a word, he could discover nothing
to enable him to carry out the clue obtained in the rumour;
while, on the other hand, he found a certain set, who occupied themselves a good deal with intelligence of that sort, were
greatly disposed to believe the report, set on foot by herself,
that Mary Monson was a stool – pigeon of a gang of marauders, and doubtless guilty of everything of which she had been
accused. Millington would remain in town, however, another
day, and endeavour to push his inquiries to some useful result.
Cool, clear – headed, and totally without romance, Dunscomb
knew that a better agent than his young friend could not be
employed, and was fain to wait patiently for the discoveries
he might eventually succeed in making. In the mean time the
trial proceeded.
“Mr. Clerk,” said his honour, “let the jury be called.”
This was done, and Mary Monson’s lips moved, while a
lurking smile lighted her countenance, as her eyes met the
sympathy that was expressed in the countenances of several
of the grave men who had been drawn as arbiters, in her case,
between life and death. To her it was apparent that her sex,
her youth, perhaps her air and beauty, stood her friends, and
that she might largely count on the compassion of that small
but important body of men. One of her calculations had succeeded to the letter. The tale of her being a stool – pigeon had
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
been very actively circulated, with certain additions and embellishments that it was very easy to disprove; and another set
of agents had been hard at work, all the morning, in brushing
away such of the collateral circumstances as had, at first, been
produced to confirm the main story, and which, in now being
pulled to pieces as of no account, did not fail to cast a shade of
the darkest doubt over the whole rumour. All this Mary Monson probably understood, and understanding, enjoyed; a vein
of wild wilfulness certainly running through her character,
leading in more directions than one.
“I hope there will be no delay on account of witnesses,”
observed the judge. “Time is very precious.”
“We are armed at all points, your honour, and intend to
bring the matter to an early conclusion,” answered Williams,
casting one of those glances at the prisoner which had obtained for him the merited sobriquet of “saucy.” “Crier, call
Samuel Burton.”
Timms fairly started. This was breaking ground in a new
spot, and was producing testimony from a source that he much
dreaded. The Burtons had been the nearest neighbours of the
Goodwins, and were so nearly on a social level with them,
as to live in close and constant communication. These Burtons consisted of the man, his wife, and three maiden sisters.
At one time, the last had conversed much on the subject of
the murders; but, to Timms’ great discontent, they had been
quite dumb of late. This had prevented his putting in practice a method of anticipating testimony, that is much in vogue,
and which he had deliberately attempted with these sometime
voluble females. As the reader may not be fully initiated in the
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