"This is the place," said the guide as he took a key from his pocket; then, politely desiring the lady to follow him, he ascended the steps, unlocked the front door, and they entered the house. The rooms were of course entirely empty, yet they were clean and in excellent condition.--The parlors, chambers and other apartments were admirably arranged and Mrs. Belmont, after going all over the house, expressed her perfect satisfaction with it, and signified her wish to remove into it the next day. The terms were soon agreed upon; and Mr. Hedge (for that was the name of the landlord,) after delivering the key into her hands, waited upon her to the door of her boarding-house, and then took his leave.
The next morning, at an early hour, Mrs. Belmont began making preparations to occupy her new abode. From an extensive dealer she hired elegant furniture sufficient to furnish every apartment in the house; and, by noon that day, the rooms which had lately appeared so bare and desolate, presented an aspect of luxury and comfort. The naked walls were covered with fine paintings, in handsome frames; rich curtains were hung in the windows, and upon the floors were laid beautiful carpets.--The mirrors, sofas, chairs and cabinets were of the costliest kind; a magnificent piano was placed in the parlor, and the lady took care that the chamber which she intended to occupy was fitted up with all possible elegance and taste. A voluptuous bed, in which Venus might have revelled, was not the least attractive feature of that luxurious sleeping apartment. Every arrangement being completed, and as it was still early in the afternoon, Mrs. Belmont resolved to carry out a plan which she had formed some days previously--a plan by which she could enjoy an interview with Nero the black. The reader is already aware that she disguised herself in boys" clothes, and accomplished her object without much difficulty.
That evening, Mrs. Belmont was seated in the comfortable parlor of her new abode, before a fine fire which glowed in the ample grate, and diffused a genial warmth throughout the apartment. She had just partaken of a luxurious supper; and the materials of the repast being removed, she was indulging in reflections which were far more pleasing at that moment, than any which had employed her mind since her separation from her husband.
She was attired with tasteful simplicity; for although she expected no company that evening, she had taken her usual pains to dress herself becomingly and well, being a lady who never neglected her toilet, under any circ.u.mstances--a trait of refinement which we cannot help admiring, even in one so depraved and abandoned as she was.
As she lounged indolently upon the sofa, complacently regarding her delicate foot, which, encased in a satin slipper, reposed upon the rich hearth-rug, her thoughts ran somewhat in the following channel--:
"Well--I am now not only mistress of my own actions, but also mistress of a splendidly furnished house. Ah, "twas a fortunate day for me when I separated from that man I once called husband! Yet with what cool contempt he treated me on the night when he commanded me to leave his house forever! How bitterly I hate that man--how I long to be revenged upon him. Not that he has ever injured me--oh, no--"tis I that have injured him; therefore do I hate him, and thirst for revenge! And poor Nero, whom I visited this afternoon in his dungeon--how emaciated and feeble has he become by close confinement in that gloomy place! His liberation must be effected, at all hazards; for strange as it is, I love the African pa.s.sionately. Now, as regards my own position and affairs: I am young, beautiful, and accomplished--skilled in human nature and intrigue. Two distinct paths lie before me, which are equally desirable: as a virtuous widow lady, I can win the love and secure the hand of some rich and credulous gentleman, who, satisfied with having obtained a pretty wife, will not be too inquisitive with reference to my past history. In case of marriage, I will remove to Boston with my new husband: for not being divorced from Sydney, (how I hate that name!) I should be rendered liable to the charge of bigamy, if the fact of my second marriage should transpire.--On the other hand, leaving marriage entirely out of the question: As a young and lovely woman, residing alone, and not under the protection of male relatives, I shall attract the attention of wealthy libertines, who will almost throw their fortunes at my feet to enjoy my favors. Selecting the richest of these men, it will be my aim to infatuate him by my arts, to make him my slave, and then to deny him the pleasure for which he pants, until he gives me a large sum of money; this being done, I can either surrender myself to him, or still refuse to afford him the gratification he seeks, as suits my whim. When he becomes wearied of my perverseness and extortion, I will dismiss him, and seek another victim. Those with whom I shall thus have to deal, will be what the world calls respectable men--husbands, fathers--perhaps professedly pious men and clergymen--who would make any sacrifice sooner than have their amours exposed to their wives, families, and society generally. Once having committed themselves with me, I shall have a hold upon them, which they never can shake off;--a hold which will enable me to draw money from their well-filled coffers, whenever my necessities or extravagances require it. I may practice whatever imposition or extortion on them I choose, with perfect impunity; they will never dare to use threats or violence towards me, for the appalling threat of _exposure_ will curb their tempers and render them tamely submissive to all my exactions and caprices. Thus will I reap a rich harvest from those wealthy votaries of carnal pleasure whom I may allure to my arms, while at the same time I can for my own gratification unrestrainedly enjoy the embraces of any lover whom I may happen to fancy. Ah, I am delightfully situated at present, and have before me a glorious and happy career!"
We have devoted considerable s.p.a.ce to the above reflections of this unprincipled woman, because they will serve to show her views in reference to her present position, and her plans for the future.
The agreeable current of her meditations was interrupted by the entrance of her maid Susan.
"Well, ma"am," said the abigail, "I have obeyed all your orders; I have locked all the doors, and fastened all the shutters, so that if the ghost _should_ pay us a visit, it will have to get in through the keyhole. But oh! my gracious! how terrible it is for you and I, ma"am, two poor weak women, as a body might say, to be all alone together in a house that is haunted!"
"Sit down, Susan," said Mrs. Belmont, who was herself not altogether devoid of superst.i.tious fears. "Are you so foolish as to believe in _ghosts_? Do you think that the spirits of dead people are allowed to re-visit the earth, to frighten us out of our wits? No, no--we have reason to fear the _living_, but not those who are dead and buried."
"But, if you please, ma"am," rejoined Susan, in a solemn tone, "I once seed a ghost with my own eyes, and not only seed it, but _felt_ it, too."
"Indeed--and pray how did that happen?" inquired her mistress.
"I"ll tell you all about it, ma"am," replied Susan, who, by the way, was rather a pretty young woman, though she was, like all ladies" maids, a prodigious talker. "You see, ma"am, I once went to live in the family of a minister, and a very excellent man he was, as prayed night and morning, and said grace afore meals. Oh, he was a dreadful clever gentleman, "cause he always used to kiss me when he catch"d me alone, and chuck me under the chin, and tell me I was handsome. Well, Sat.u.r.day the minister"s wife and family went to pay a visit to some relations in New Jersey, and was to stay for two or three days; but the minister himself didn"t go with them, "cause he was obliged to stay and preach on Sunday.--Now comes the dreadful part of my story, ma"am, and it is true as gospel.--That Sat.u.r.day night, about twelve o"clock, I was awoke by hearing the door of my little attic bed-room softly open; and by the light of the moon I seed a human figger, all dressed in white, come into the room, shut the door, and then walk towards my bed. Oh, I was dreadfully frightened, to be sure; and just as I was going to scream out, the ghost puts his hand upon me and says--"_hush!_" which skeer"d me so that I almost fainted away. Well, ma"am, what does the ghost do next but take ondecent liberties with me, and I was too much frightened to say, "have done, now!" And then the awful critter did what no ghost ever did before to me, nor man neither.--Oh, I actually fainted away two or three times; I did indeed. After a while it went away, but I was in such a flutter that I couldn"t sleep no more that night. The next morning I up and told the minister how I had seed a ghost, and how it had treated me; and the minister he smiled, and said he guessed I"d get over it, and gave me some money, telling me not to say anything more about it, "cause it might frighten the folks. Now, ma"am, after that, you needn"t wonder that I believe in ghosts."
Mrs. Belmont was highly amused by this narration of her maid"s experience in supernatural visitation; and the hearty laughter in which she indulged at the close of the story, dispelled in a great measure those unpleasant feelings which had begun to gain the ascendancy over her. While under the influence of those feelings, she had intended to request Susan to sleep with her in her chamber; but as such an arrangement would betray _fear_ on her part, while she was most anxious to appear bold and courageous, she concluded to occupy her sleeping apartment alone. Susan herself would have been very glad to share the room of her mistress; but as a suggestion to that effect, coming from her, might have seemed presumptuous and impertinent, she said nothing about it. Accordingly, when the hour for retiring arrived, Mrs. Belmont retired to her chamber, where she dismissed her maid, saying that she should not want her services any more that night; and poor Susan was obliged to ascend to her solitary apartment, which she did with many fearful misgivings, and the most dreadful apprehensions in regard to ghosts, coupled with much painful reflection relative to the unpleasantness of sleeping _alone_--in a haunted house.
Mrs. Belmont disrobed herself, yet ere she retired to her couch, she paused before a large mirror to admire her own naked and voluptuous beauty. While she was surveying herself, she gave utterance to her thoughts in words:--
"Ah, these charms of mine will procure me friends and fortune. What man could resist the intoxicating influence of such glorious loveliness of face and person as I possess!"
Scarcely had she uttered these words, when her ear was greeted by a low sound, which bore some resemblance to a laugh. Terrified and trembling, she cast a rapid glance around the room, but could see n.o.body; she then examined a small closet which adjoined the chamber and looked under the bed, not knowing but that some person might be concealed there--but she could uncover nothing to account for the noise which she had heard. It then occurred to her to open the door of her chamber; but as she was about to do so, an appalling thought flashed thro" her mind.
"What if some terrible being is now standing at the outside of that door?" and she shrank from opening it. She deeply regretted that she had not requested her maid Susan to sleep with her, as she crept into bed, leaving a candle burning on the table.
For about a quarter of an hour she listened intensely, but the sound which had alarmed her was not repeated; and she began to reason with herself upon the absurdity of her fears. Finally she succeeded in persuading herself that she had in reality heard nothing, but had been deceived by her own imagination. Still, she could not entirely dissipate her fears; she recollected that the house had the reputation of being "haunted"--and, though she was naturally neither timid nor superst.i.tious, a vague and undefinable dread oppressed her, as she lay in that solitary chamber, where reigned a heavy gloom and profound stillness.
It was an hour after midnight when she awoke from an uneasy slumber into which she had fallen; and the first object which met her gaze, was a human figure, enveloped from head to toe in white drapery, standing near her bed!
Yes, there it stood, with the upper part of a ghastly face alone visible, pointing at her with its finger, and freezing her soul with the steady glare of its eyes.
Long, long stood that dreadful apparition; its att.i.tude seemed to be either menacing or warning. The terrified woman, under the influence of a painful fascination, could not avert her gaze from it; and the spectre stood until the candle was entirely consumed, and the room was wrapped in profound darkness. Then the Form glided to the bedside, and laid its cold hand upon her brow. "_Thou shalt see me again!_" it whispered, and then pa.s.sed noiselessly from the room.
Mrs. Belmont gave one loud and piercing scream, and then sank into a state of insensibility.
CHAPTER XIV
_A Glimpse of the Crimes and Miseries of a Great City._
After his narrow escape from an ignominious death, Frank Sydney resumed his nocturnal wanderings thro" the city, in disguise, in order to do deeds of charity and benevolence to those who needed his aid. One night, dressed in the garb of a sailor, and wearing an immense pair of false whiskers, he strolled towards the Five Points, and entered the "crib" of b.l.o.o.d.y Mike. That respectable establishment was filled as usual with a motley collection of gentlemen of undoubted reputation--thieves, vagabonds, homeless wretches, and others of the same stamp, among whom were some of the most miserable looking objects possible to be conceived.
At the moment of Frank"s entrance, Ragged Pete was engaged in relating the particulars of a horrible event which had occurred upon the preceding night on the "Points." The incident is a _true_ one, and we introduce it here to show what awful misery exists in the very midst of all our boasted civilization and benevolence:--
"You see, fellers," said Ragged Pete, leisurely sipping a gill of _blue ruin_, which he held in his hand--"the victim was a woman of the town, as lived upstairs in Pat Mulligan"s crib in this street. She had once been a decent woman, but her husband was a drunken vagabond, as beat and starved her to such an extent, that she was obliged to go on the town to keep herself from dying of actual starvation. Well, the husband he was took up and sent to quod for six months, as a common vagrant; and the wife she lived in Mulligan"s crib, in a room as hadn"t a single article of furniture in it, exceptin" a filthy old bed of straw in one corner. A week ago, the poor cretur was taken ill, and felt herself likely to become a mother, but the brutes in the house wouldn"t pay no attention to her in that situation, but left her all to herself. What she must have suffered during that night and the next day, you can imagine; and towards evening Pat Mulligan goes to her room, and finds her almost dead, with her poor child in her arms, wrapped up in an old blanket.
Well, what does Pat do but ax her for his rent, which she owed him; and because the poor woman had nothing to pay him, the Irish vagabond (axing your pardon, b.l.o.o.d.y Mike,) bundles her neck and crop into the street, weak and sick as she was, with a hinfant scarce a day old, crying in her arms. The weather was precious cold, and it was snowing, and to keep herself and child from freezing to death, as she thought, she crept into a hog-pen which stands in Pat"s yard. And this morning she was found in the hog-pen, stone dead, and the hogs were devouring the dead body of the child, which was already half ate up! I"ll tell you what, fellers,"
exclaimed Ragged Pete, dashing a tear from his eye, and swallowing the remainder of his gin--"I"m a hard case myself, and have seen some hard things in my time, but d----n me if the sight of that poor woman"s corpse and the mutilated body of her child, didn"t set me to thinking that this is a great city, where such a thing takes place in the very midst of it!"
"Three groans for Pat Mulligan!" roared a drunken fellow from beneath the table.
The groans were rendered with due emphasis and effect; and then one of the drunken crowd proposed that they should visit the "crib" of Mr.
Mulligan, and testify their disapprobation of that gentleman"s conduct in a more forcible and striking manner.
This proposal was received with a shout of approbation by the drunken crew, and was warmly seconded by b.l.o.o.d.y Mike himself, who regarded Mr.
Patrick Mulligan as a formidable rival in his line of business, and therefore entertained feelings strongly hostile to his fellow-countryman. Then forth sallied the dingy crowd, headed by Ragged Pete, (who found himself suddenly transformed into a hero,) and followed by Frank Sydney, who was desirous of seeing the issue of this strange affair.
The house occupied by Mulligan was an old, rotten tenement, which would undoubtedly have fallen to the ground, had it not been propped up by the adjoining buildings; and as it was, one end of it had settled down, in consequence of the giving away of the foundation, so that every room in the house was like a steep hill. The lower room was occupied as a groggery and dance-hall, and was several feet below the level of the street.
Into this precious den did the guests of b.l.o.o.d.y Mike march, in single file. It had been previously agreed between them, that Ragged Pete would give the signal for battle, by personally attacking no less a person than Mr. Mulligan himself. Frank also entered, and taking up a secure position in one corner, surveyed the scene with interest.
Seated in the corner, upon an inverted wash-tub, was an old negro, whose wool was white as snow, who was arrayed in a dirty, ragged, military coat which had once been red. This sable genius rejoiced in the lofty t.i.tle of "the General;" he was playing with frantic violence on an old, cracked violin, during which performance he threw his whole body into the strangest contortions, working his head, jaws, legs and arms in the most ludicrous manner. The "music" thus produced was responded to, "on the floor," by about twenty persons, who were indulging in the "mazy dance." The company included old prost.i.tutes, young thieves, negro chimney-sweeps, and many others whom it would be difficult to cla.s.sify.
The room being small and very close, and heated by an immense stove, the stench was intolerable.--Behind the bar was a villainous looking Irishman, whose countenance expressed as much intellect or humanity as that of a hog. This was Pat Mulligan, and he was busily engaged in dealing out the delectable nectar called "blue ruin" at the very moderate rate of one penny per gill.
A _very_ important man, forsooth, was that Irish "landlord," in the estimation of himself and customers.--None dare address him without prefixing a deferential "_Mr._" to his name; and Frank Sydney was both amused and irritated as he observed the brutal insolence with which the low, ignorant ruffian treated the poor miserable wretches, from whose scanty pence he derived his disgraceful livelihood.
"Mr. Mulligan," said a pale, emaciated woman, whose hollow cheek and sunken eye eloquently proclaimed her starving condition--"won"t you trust me for a sixpenny loaf of bread until to-morrow? My little girl, poor thing, is dying, and I have eaten nothing this day." And the poor creature wept.
"Trust ye!" roared the Irishman, glaring ferociously upon her--"faith, it"s not exactly _trust_ I"ll give ye; but I"ll give ye a beating that"ll not leave a whole bone in your skin, if ye are not out of this place in less time than it takes a pig to grunt."
The poor woman turned and left the place, with a heavy heart, and Ragged Pete, deeming this a good opportunity to begin hostilities, advanced to the bar with a swagger, and said to the Irishman,--
"You"re too hard upon that woman, Pat."
"What"s that to you, ye dirty spalpeen?" growled Mulligan, savagely.
"This much," responded Pete, seizing an immense earthen pitcher which stood on the counter, and hurling it with unerring aim at the head of the Irishman. The vessel broke into a hundred pieces, and though it wounded Mulligan dreadfully, he was not disabled; for, grasping an axe which stood within his reach, he rushed from behind the bar, and swinging the formidable weapon aloft, he would have cloven in twain the skull of Ragged Pete, had not that gentleman evaded him with much agility, and closing with him, bore him to the floor, and began to pummel him vigorously.
No sooner did the customers of Pat Mulligan see their dreaded landlord receiving a sound thrashing, then all fear of him vanished; and, as they all hated the Irish bully, and smarted under the remembrance of numerous insults and wrongs sustained at his hands, they with one accord fell upon him, and beat him within an inch of his life. Not content with this mode of retaliation, they tore down the bar, demolished the gla.s.ses and decanters, spilled all the liquor, and in short caused the flourishing establishment of Mr. Pat Mulligan to a.s.sume a very forlorn appearance.
While this work of destruction was going on, the alarm was given that a body of watchmen had a.s.sembled outside the door, and was about to make an advance upon the "crib." To exit the house now became the general intent; and several had already beaten a retreat through the rear of the premises, when the watchman burst into the front door, and made captives of all who were present. Frank Sydney was collared by one of the officials, and although our hero protested that he had not mingled in the row, but was merely a spectator, he was carried to the watch-house along with the others.
When the party arrived at the watch-house, (which is situated in a wing of the "Tombs,") the prisoners were all arrayed in a straight line before the desk of the Captain of the Watch, for that officer"s examination. To give the reader an idea of the way in which justice is sometimes administered in New York, we shall detail several of the individual examinations, and their results:--
"What"s your name?" cried the Captain, addressing the first of the prisoners. "Barney McQuig, an" plaze yer honor," was the reply, in a strong Hibernian accent.