"Yes; and I believe he is saved."
No one spoke; and the preacher, after a minute"s silence, asked, "Who doubts?"
"A sixfold murderer, you said?"
"Nay, nay, John; are you going to limit the grace of G.o.d? Do you know the height and depth of his mercy? Have you measured the length and breadth of the cross? I brought the cross of Christ to that fiend-haunted bed, and the wretched soul clasped it, clung to it, yes, climbed up by it into heaven!"
"It was peace at last, then?" said Phyllis.
"It was triumph! The devil lost all power to torture him; for, with the sweet a.s.surance of his forgiveness came the peace that pa.s.seth understanding. What is there for great criminals? Only the cross of Christ? O the miracle of love, that found out for us such an escape!"
"And you think that the man really believed himself to be forgiven by G.o.d?"
"I am sure that he knew he was forgiven."
"It is wonderful. Why, then, do not all Christians have this knowledge?"
"It is their privilege to have it; but how few of us have that royal nature which claims all our rights! The cross of Christ! There are still Jewish minds to whom it is a stumbling-block; and still more minds of the Greek type to whom it is foolishness."
"But is not this doctrine specially a Methodist one?"
"If St. Paul was a Methodist, and St. Augustine, and Martin Luther, and the millions of saved men, to whom G.o.d has counted "faith" in his word and mercy "for righteousness," then it is specially Methodist.
What says the Lord? "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with G.o.d, through our Lord Jesus Christ." I do not say but what there are many good men without this a.s.surance; but I do say, that it is the privilege of all who love and believe G.o.d. John Wesley himself did not experience this joy until he heard the Moravian, Peter Bohler, preach. "Before that," he says, "I was a servant of G.o.d, accepted and safe, but now I _knew it_.""
Elizabeth did not again reply. She sat very still, her hand clasped in that of Phyllis, whose head was leaning upon her breast. And very frequently she glanced down at the pale, spiritual face with its luminous dark eyes and sweet mouth. For Phyllis had to perfection that lovely, womanly charm, which puts itself _en rapport_ with every mood, and yet only offers the sympathy of a sensitive silence and an answering face.
As the women sat musing the moon rose, and then up sprang the night breeze, laden with the perfume of bleaching gra.s.s, and all the hot, sweet scents of the south.
"How beautiful is this land!" said Richard, in an enthusiasm. "What a pity the rabble of other lands cannot be kept out of it!"
The preacher lifted his head with a quick belligerent motion: "There is no such thing, as rabble, sir. For the meanest soul Christ paid down his precious blood. What you call "rabble" are the builders of kingdoms and nationalities."
"Yes," said John, "I dare say if we could see the fine fellows who fought at Hastings, and those who afterward forced Magna Charta from King John without the poetic veil of seven hundred years, we should be very apt to call them "rabble" also. Give the founders of Texas the same time, and they may also have a halo round their heads. Was not Rome founded by robbers, and Great Britain by pirates?"
"There is work for every man, and men for every work. These "rabble,"
under proper leaders, were used by the Almighty for a grand purpose--the redemption of this fair land, and his handful of people in it, from the thrall of the priests of Rome. Would such men as the Livingstons, the Carrolls, the Renselaers, or the wealthy citizens of Philadelphia or Washington have come here and fought Indians and Mexicans; and been driven about from pillar to post, living on potatoes and dry corn? Good respectable people suffer a great deal of tyranny ere they put their property in danger. But when Texas, in her desperation, rose, she was glad of the men with a brand on their body and a rope round their neck, and who did not value their lives more than an empty nut-sh.e.l.l. They did good service. Many of them won back fair names and men"s respect and G.o.d"s love. I call no man "rabble." I know that many of these outcasts thanked G.o.d for an opportunity to offer their lives for the general good," and, he added dropping his voice almost to a whisper, "I know of instances where the sacrifice was accepted, and a.s.surance of that acceptance granted."
"The fight for freedom seems to be a never-ending one."
"Because," said the preacher, "Man was created free. Freedom is his birthright, even though he be born in a prison, and in chains. Hence, the n.o.blest men are not satisfied with physical and political freedom; they must also be free men in Christ Jesus; for let me tell you, if men are slaves to sin and the devil, not all the Magna Chartas, nor all the swords in the world, can make them truly free."
And thus they talked until the moon set and the last light was out in the cabins, and the "after midnight" feeling became plainly evident.
Then Phyllis brought out a dish that looked very like walnut sh.e.l.ls, but which all welcomed. They were preserved bears" paws. "Eat," she said, "for though it is the last hour we may meet in this life, we must sleep now."
And the Texan luxury was eaten with many a pleasant word, and then, with kind and solemn "farewells," the little party separated, never in all the years of earth to sit together again; for just at daylight, John and Phyllis stood at their gates, watching the carriage which carried Richard and Elizabeth pa.s.s over the hill, and into the timber, and out of sight.
CHAPTER XI.
"The evening of life brings with it its lamp."--TOUBERT.
"And there arrives a lull in the hot race: And an unwonted calm pervades the breast.
And then he thinks he knows The hills where his life rose, And the sea, where it goes."--ARNOLD
"She has pa.s.sed To where, beyond these voices, there is peace."
It is the greatest folly to think that the only time worth writing about is youth. It is an equal folly to imagine that love is the only pa.s.sion universally interesting. Elizabeth"s years were no less vivid, no less full of feeling and of changes, after her marriage than before it. Indeed, she never quite lost the interests of her maiden life.
Hallam demanded an oversight she did not fail to give it. Three times during the twelve years of its confiscation to Antony"s creditors she visited it. In these visits she was accompanied by Richard, and Harry, and her own children. Then the Whaleys" accounts were carefully gone over, and found always to be perfectly honorable and satisfactory.
And it is needless to say how happy Martha was at such times.
Gradually all ill-feeling pa.s.sed away. The young squire, though educated abroad, had just such a training as made him popular. For he pa.s.sed part of every year in Texas with d.i.c.k Millard, and all that could be known about horses and hunting and woodcraft, Harry Hallam knew. He had also taken on very easily the Texan manner, frank, yet rather proud and phlegmatic: "Evidently a young man who knows what he wants, and will be apt to get it," said Whaley.
"Nine Yorkshire jockeys knocked into one couldn"t blind him on a horse," said young Horton.
"And I"ll lay a guinea he"ll lead in every hunting field."
"And they do say, he"s a first-rate scholar besides."
Such conversations regarding him were indefinitely repeated, and varied.
When he was in his eighteenth year the estate was absolutely free of every claim, and in a condition which reflected the greatest credit upon those in whose care it had been placed. It was at this time that Richard and Elizabeth took the young man into his grandfather"s room, and laid before him the t.i.tle deeds of his patrimony and the schedule of its various incomes. Then, also, they told him, with infinite kindness and forbearance, the story of his father"s efforts and failures, and the manner in which the estate had been handled, so that it might be made over to him free of all debt and stain.
Harry said very little. His adopted parents liked him the better for that. But he was profoundly amazed and grateful. Then he went to Cambridge, and for three years Elizabeth did not see him. It had been arranged, however, that the whole family should meet at Hallam on the anniversary of his majority, and the occurrence was celebrated with every public festivity that had always attended that event in the Hallam family. There was nothing to dim the occasion. Every one, Far and near, took the opportunity to show that ill-thoughts and ill-feelings were forever buried, and Elizabeth and Richard were feted with especial honor.
"Few women would hev done so well by t" land and t" family," admitted even Lord Eltham, "and if I wasn"t so old and feeble, I"d go and tell her so; and to be foreign-born, that Mr. Fontaine has been varry square, that he hes. He shows t" English blood in him."
"Ay, it"s hard to wear Yorkshire out. It bears a deal o" waterin", and is still strong and straight-for"ard," answered Whaley.
"Now he"ll hev to wed and settle down."
"He"ll do that. I"ve seen a deal o" him, and I"ve noticed that he has neither eyes nor ears but for our little la.s.s, a varry bonny la.s.s she is!"
"It"ll be Alice Horton, happen?"
"Nay, it isn"t. It"s his cousin, Bessie Fontaine. She"s but a girl yet, but she"s t" varry image o" her mother, just what Elizabeth Hallam was at sixteen--happen only a bit slighter and more delicate-looking."
"And no wonder, Whaley. To be brought up i" a place like that New Orleans. Why-a! they do say that t" winter weather there is like our haymakin" time! Poor thing! She"ll get a bit o" color here, I"se warrant."
The Yorkshire lawyer had seen even into a love affair, with clear eyes.
Bessie and Harry had already confided their affection to Elizabeth, but she was quite determined that there should be no engagement until after Harry returned from a three-years" travel in Europe and Asia.
"Then, Harry," she said, "you will have seen the women of many lands.
And Bessie will also have seen something of the world, and of the society around her. She must choose you from among all others, and not simply because habit and contiguity and family relations have thrown you together."
Still it pleased her, that from every part of the world came regularly and constantly letters and tokens of Harry"s love for her daughter.