III
_FAREWELL TO FINCASTLE_
General Clark had had a busy summer, travelling up and down the river,assisting the Governor at St. Louis in reducing his tumultuous domainto order, treating with Indians, conferring with Governor Harrison inhis brick palace at Old Vincennes, consulting with his brothers,General Jonathan and General George Rogers Clark at the Point of Rock.Now, in mid-autumn, he was again on his way to Fincastle.
Never through the tropic summer had Julia been absent from histhoughts. A little house in St. Louis had been selected that shouldshelter his bride; and now, as fast as hoof and horse could speed him,he was hastening back to fix the day for his wedding.
October shed glory on the burnished forests. Here and there along theway shone primitive farmhouses, the homes of people. The explorer'sheart beat high. He had come to that time in his life when he, too,should have a home. Those old Virginia farmhouses, steep of roof andsloping at the eaves, four rooms below and two in the attic, withgreat chimneys smoking at either end, seemed to speak of other fondand happy hearts.
The valley of Virginia extends from the Potomac to the Carolina line.The Blue Ridge bounds it on one side, the Kittatinnys on the other,and in the trough-like valley between flows the historic Shenandoah.
From the north, by Winchester, scene of many a border fray anddestined for action more heroic yet, Clark sped on his way toFincastle. Some changes had taken place since that eventful morningwhen Governor Spotswood looked over the Blue Ridge. A dozen miles fromWinchester stood Lord Fairfax's Greenway Court, overshadowed byancient locusts, slowly mouldering to its fall. Here George Washingtoncame in his boyhood, surveying for the gaunt, raw-boned, near-sightedold nobleman who led him hard chases at the fox hunt.
From the head spring of the Rappahannock to the head spring of thePotomac, twenty-one counties of old Virginia once belonged to theFairfax manor, now broken and subdivided into a thousand homes. Hitherhad come tides of Quakers, and Scotch-Presbyterians, penetratingfarther and farther its green recesses, cutting up the fruitful acresinto colonial plantations.
"The Shenandoah, it is the very centre of the United States," said theemigrants.
The valley was said to be greener than any other, its waters were moretransparent, its soil more fruitful. At any rate German-Pennsylvanianspushed up here, rearing barns as big as fortresses, flanked round withhaystacks and granaries. Now and then Clark met them, in loose leathergalligaskins and pointed hats, sunning in wide porches, smoking pipesthree feet long, while their stout little children tumbled among thewhite clover.
Here and there negroes were whistling with notes as clear as a fife,and huge Conestoga waggons loaded with produce rumbled along toPhiladelphia, Baltimore, Richmond. Every year thousands of waggonswent to market, camping at night and making the morning ring withRobin Hood songs and jingling bells.
Yonder lived Patrick Henry in his last years, at picturesque Red Hillon the Staunton. Here in his old age he might have been seen under thetrees in his lawn, buried in revery, or on the floor, withgrandchildren clambering over him or dancing to his violin.
But Clark was not thinking of Patrick Henry, or Fairfax,--in fact hescarcely remembered their existence, so intent was his thought on hismaid of the mountains, Julia Hancock.
The leaves were falling from elm and maple, strewing the path withgold and crimson. The pines grew taller in the twilight, until hecould scarcely see the bypaths chipped and blazed by settlers'tomahawks.
Sunset was gilding the Peaks of Otter as Clark drew rein at the littletavern near Fincastle.
"I was rented to the King of England by my Prince of Hesse Cassel,"the Hessian proprietor was saying. "I was rented out to cut thethroats of people who had never done me any harm. Four pence threefarthings a day I got, and one penny farthing went to His RoyalHighness, the Prince. I fought you, then I fell in love with you, andwhen the war was over I stayed in America."
Clark listened. It was a voice out of the Revolution.
After a hurried luncheon the tireless traveller was again in hissaddle; and late that night in the moonlight he opened the gate atColonel Hancock's.
York had followed silently through all the journey,--York, no longer aslave, for in consideration of his services on the expedition theGeneral had given him his freedom. But as a voluntary body-guard hewould not be parted from his master.
"For sho'! who cud tek cah o' Mars Clahk so well as old Yawk?"
"What if love-lorn swains from a dozen plantations have tried to wooand win my pretty cousin! The bronzed face of Lochinvar is bleaching,"said the teasing Harriet when she heard that the wedding date wasreally set. "One day, who knows, his skin may be white as yours."
Sudden as a flood in the Roanoke came Julia's tears. Relenting, thelively, light-hearted Harriet covered her cousin's curls with kisses.
"The carriage and horses are at your service. Hunt, fish, lounge asyou please," said Colonel Hancock, "for I must be at the courthouse totry an important case."
With thousands of acres and hundreds of negroes, it was the dream ofColonel Hancock to one day drop these official cares and retirealtogether into the privacy of his plantation. Already, forty milesaway, at the very head spring of the Roanoke river, he was building acountry seat to be called "Fotheringay," after Fotheringay Castle.
Back and forth in the gorgeous October weather rode Clark and Julia,watching the workmen at Fotheringay.
Now and then the carriage stopped at an orchard. Passers were alwaysat liberty to help themselves to the fruit. Peaches so abundant thatthey fed the hogs with them, apples rosy and mellow, grapes for thevintage, were in the first flush of abundance. What a contrast to thatautumn in the Bitter Root Mountains!
Then late in November to Fincastle came Governor Lewis and his brotherReuben, on their way to the west. He, too, had been to Washington onbusiness concerning St. Louis.
"The great success of York among the Mandans has decided Reuben totake Tom along," laughed Lewis, as Reuben's black driver dismountedfrom the carriage--the same family chariot in which Meriwether hadbrought his mother from Georgia, now on the way to become the statecoach of Louisiana.
Black Tom beamed, expansively happy, on York who had been "tuh th'Injun country" where black men were "Great Medicine."
"Ha, Your Excellency," laughed the teasing Harriet, "the beauty ofFincastle dines with us to-night,--Miss Letitia Breckenridge."
"Wait and the Governor will court you," some one whispered to thecharming Letitia.
"I have contemplated accompanying my father to Richmond for sometime," replied Letitia. "If I stay now it will look like a challenge,therefore I determine to go."
Governor Lewis underwent not a little chafing when two days after hisarrival the lovely Letitia was gone,--to become the wife of theSecretary of War in John Quincy Adams's cabinet.
"Miss Breckenridge is a very sweet-looking girl," wrote Reuben to hissister, "and I should like to have her for a sister. General Clark'sintended is a charming woman. When I tell you that she is much like mysweetheart you will believe I think so."
"What are you doing?" Clark asked of Julia, as she sat industriouslystitching beside the hickory fire in the great parlour at Fincastle.
"Working a little screen to keep the fire from burning my face,"answered the maiden, rosy as the glow itself. Much more beautiful thanthe little Sacajawea, stitching moccasins beside the fire at Clatsop,she seemed to Clark; and yet the feminine intuition was the same, tosew, to stitch, to be an artist with the needle.
"The mistletoe hung in Fincastle hall, The holly branch shone on the old oak wall, And the planter's retainers were blithe and gay, A-keeping their Christmas holiday."
There was sleighing at Fincastle when the wedding day came, just afterNew Year's, 1808. The guests came in sleighs from as far away asGreenway Court, for all the country-side knew and loved Judy Hancock.
Weeping, soft-hearted Black Granny tied again the sunny curls andlooped the satin ribbons of her beloved "Miss Judy.
" The slaves viedwith one another, strewing the snow with winter greens that no footmight touch the chill.
The wainscoted and panelled walls glowed with greenery. Holly hungover the carved oaken chimneys, and around the fowling pieces andantlers of the chase that betokened the hunting habits of ColonelHancock. Silver tankards marked with the family arms sparkled on thedamask table cloth, and silver candlesticks and snuffers and silverplate. Myrtleberry wax candles gave out an incense that mingled withthe odour of hickory snapping in the fireplace.
"Exactly as her mother looked," whispered the grandmother when Judycame down,--grandmother, a brisk little white-capped old lady inquilted satin, who remembered very well the mother of Washington.
The stars hung blazing on the rim of the Blue Ridge and the snowglistened, when out of the great house came the sound of music anddancing. There were wedding gifts after the old Virginia fashion, andwhen all had been inspected Clark handed his bride a small jewel casemarked with her name.
The cover flew open, revealing a set of topaz and pearls, "A gift fromthe President."
Out into the snow went these wedding guests of a hundred years ago, toscatter and be forgotten.