Chapter 28

The owlet loves the gloom of night,
The lark salutes the day,
The timid dove will coo at hand--
But falcons soar away.
--_Song in Duo_.

In a country settled, like these states, by a people who fled their
native land and much-loved firesides, victims of consciences and
religious zeal, none of the decencies and solemnities of a Christian
death are dispensed with, when circumstances will admit of their
exercise. The good woman of the house was a strict adherent to the forms
of the church to which she belonged; and having herself been awakened to
a sense of her depravity, by the ministry of the divine who harangued
the people of the adjoining parish, she thought it was from his
exhortations only that salvation could be meted out to the short-lived
hopes of Henry Wharton. Not that the kind-hearted matron was so ignorant
of the doctrines of the religion which she professed, as to depend,
theoretically, on mortal aid for protection; but she had, to use her own
phrase, "sat so long under the preaching of good Mr.----," that she had
unconsciously imbibed a practical reliance on his assistance, for that
which her faith should have taught her could come from the Deity alone.
With her, the consideration of death was at all times awful, and the
instant that the sentence of the prisoner was promulgated, she
dispatched Caesar, mounted on one of her husband's best horses, in quest
of her clerical monitor. This step had been taken without consulting
either Henry or his friends; and it was only when the services of Caesar
were required on some domestic emergency, that she explained the nature
of his absence. The youth heard her, at first, with an unconquerable
reluctance to admit of such a spiritual guide; but as our view of the
things of this life becomes less vivid, our prejudices and habits cease
to retain their influence; and a civil bow of thanks was finally given,
in requital for the considerate care of the well-meaning woman.

The black returned early from his expedition, and, as well as could be
gathered from his somewhat incoherent narrative, a minister of God might
be expected to arrive in the course of the day. The interruption that we
mentioned in our preceding chapter was occasioned by the entrance of the
landlady. At the intercession of Dunwoodie, orders had been given to the
sentinel who guarded the door of Henry's room, that the members of the
prisoner's family should, at all times, have free access to his
apartment. Caesar was included in this arrangement, as a matter of
convenience, by the officer in command; but strict inquiry and
examination was made into the errand of every other applicant for
admission. The major had, however, included himself among the relatives
of the