CHAPTER XX
THE LADY FROM MEXICO
As soon as women are ours, we are no longer theirs. --Montaigne.
After a time my chief reentered the office room and bent over me at mytable. I put before him the draft of the document which he had given mefor clerical care.
"So," he said, "'tis ready--our declaration. I wonder what may come ofthat little paper!"
"Much will come of it with a strong people back of it. The trouble isonly that what Democrat does, Whig condemns. And not even all our partyis with Mr. Tyler and yourself in this, Mr. Calhoun. Look, for instance,at Mr. Polk and his plans." To this venture on my part he made nopresent answer.
"I have no party, that is true," said he at last--"none but you and SamWard!" He smiled with one of his rare, illuminating smiles, differentfrom the cold mirth which often marked him.
"At least, Mr. Calhoun, you do not take on your work for the personalglory of it," said I hotly; "and one day the world will know it!"
"'Twill matter very little to me then," said he bitterly. "But come,now, I want more news about your trip to Montreal. What have you done?"
So now, till far towards dawn of the next day, we sat and talked. I putbefore him full details of my doings across the border. He sat silent,his eye betimes wandering, as though absorbed, again fixed on me, keenand glittering.
"So! So!" he mused at length, when I had finished, "England has starteda land party for Oregon! Can they get across next fall, think you?"
"Hardly possible, sir," said I. "They could not go so swiftly as thespecial fur packets. Winter would catch them this side of the Rockies.It will be a year before they can reach Oregon."
"Time for a new president and a new policy," mused he.
"The grass is just beginning to sprout on the plains, Mr. Calhoun," Ibegan eagerly.
"Yes," he nodded. "God! if I were only young!"
"I am young, Mr. Calhoun," said I. "Send _me!_"
"Would you go?" he asked suddenly.
"I was going in any case."
"Why, how do you mean?" he demanded.
I felt the blood come to my face. "'Tis all over between Miss ElisabethChurchill and myself," said I, as calmly as I might.
"Tut! tut! a child's quarrel," he went on, "a child's quarrel! `Twillall mend in time."
"Not by act of mine, then," said I hotly.
Again abstracted, he seemed not wholly to hear me.
"First," he mused, "the more important things"--riding over my personalaffairs as of little consequence.
"I will tell you, Nicholas," said he at last, wheeling swiftly upon me."Start next week! An army of settlers waits now for a leader along theMissouri. Organize them; lead them out! Give them enthusiasm! Tell themwhat Oregon is! You may serve alike our party and our nation. You cannot measure the consequences of prompt action sometimes, done by a manwho is resolved upon the right. A thousand things may hinge on this. Agreat future may hinge upon it."
It was only later that I was to know the extreme closeness of hisprophecy.
Calhoun began to pace up and down. "Besides her land forces," heresumed, "England is despatching a fleet to the Columbia! I doubt notthat the _Modeste_ has cleared for the Horn. There may be news waitingfor you, my son, when you get across!
"While you have been busy, I have not been idle," he continued. "I havehere another little paper which I have roughly drafted." He handed methe document as he spoke.
"A treaty--with Texas!" I exclaimed.
"The first draft, yes. We have signed the memorandum. We await only oneother signature."
"Of Van Zandt!"
"Yes. Now comes Mr. Nicholas Trist, with word of a certain woman to theeffect that Mr. Van Zandt is playing also with England."
"And that woman also is playing with England."
Calhoun smiled enigmatically.
"But she has gone," said I, "who knows where? She, too, may have sailedfor Oregon, for all we know."
He looked at me as though with a flash of inspiration. "That may be,"said he; "it may very well be! That would cost us our hold overPakenham. Neither would we have any chance left with her."
"How do you mean, Mr. Calhoun?" said I. "I do not understand you."
"Nicholas," said Mr. Calhoun, "that lady was much impressed with you."He regarded me calmly, contemplatively, appraisingly.
"I do not understand you," I reiterated.
"I am glad that you do not and did not. In that case, all would havebeen over at once. You would never have seen her a second time. Yourconstancy was our salvation, and perhaps your own!"
He smiled in a way I liked none too well, but now I began myself toengage in certain reflections. Was it then true that faith couldpurchase faith--and win not failure, but success?
"At least she has flown," went on Calhoun. "But why? What made her go?'Tis all over now, unless, unless--unless--" he added to himself a thirdtime.
"But unless what?"
"Unless that chance word may have had some weight. You say that you andshe talked of _principles?_"
"Yes, we went so far into abstractions."
"So did I with her! I told her about this country; explained to her as Icould the beauties of the idea of a popular government. 'Twas as arevelation to her. She had never known a republican government before,student as she is. Nicholas, your long legs and my long head may havedone some work after all! How did she seem to part with you?"
"As though she hated me; as though she hated herself and all the world.Yet not quite that, either. As though she would have wept--that is thetruth. I do not pretend to understand her. She is a puzzle such as Ihave never known."
"Nor are you apt to know another her like. Look, here she is, the paidspy, the secret agent, of England. Additionally, she is intimatelyconcerned with the private life of Mr. Pakenham. For the love ofadventure, she is engaged in intrigue also with Mexico. Not content withthat, born adventuress, eager devourer of any hazardous and interestingintellectual offering, any puzzle, any study, any intrigue--she comes atmidnight to talk with me, whom she knows to be the representative of yeta third power!"
"And finds you in your red nightcap!" I laughed.
"Did she speak of that?" asked Mr. Calhoun in consternation, raising ahand to his head. "It may be that I forgot--but none the less, she came!
"Yes, as I said, she came, by virtue of your long legs and your readyway, as I must admit; and you were saved from her only, as Ibelieve--Why, God bless Elisabeth Churchill, my boy, that is all! But myfaith, how nicely it all begins to work out!"
"I do not share your enthusiasm, Mr. Calhoun," said I bitterly. "On thecontrary, it seems to me to work out in as bad a fashion as couldpossibly be contrived."
"In due time you will see many things more plainly. Meantime, be sureEngland will be careful. She will make no overt movement, I should say,until she has heard from Oregon; which will not be before my ladybaroness shall have returned and reported to Mr. Pakenham here. All ofwhich means more time for us."
I began to see something of the structure of bold enterprise which thisman deliberately was planning; but no comment offered itself; so thatpresently, he went on, as though in soliloquy.
"The Hudson Bay Company have deceived England splendidly enough. DoctorMcLaughlin, good man that he is, has not suited the Hudson Bay Company.His removal means less courtesy to our settlers in Oregon. Granted aless tactful leader than himself, there will be friction with ourhigh-strung frontiersmen in that country. No man can tell when the thingwill come to an issue. For my own part, I would agree with Polk that weought to own that country to fifty-four forty--but what we _ought_ to doand what we can do are two separate matters. Should we force the issuenow and lose, we would lose for a hundred years. Should we advancefirmly and hold firmly what we gain, in perhaps less than one hundredyears we may win _all_ of that country, as I just said to Mr. Polk, tothe River Saskatchewan--I know not where! In my own soul, I believe noman may set a limit to the
growth of the idea of an honest government bythe people. _And this continent is meant for that honest government!_"
"We have already a Monroe Doctrine, Mr. Calhoun," said I. "What youenunciate now is yet more startling. Shall we call it the CalhounDoctrine?"
He made no answer, but arose and paced up and down, stroking the thinfringe of beard under his chin. Still he seemed to talk with himself.
"We are not rich," he went on. "Our canals and railways are young. Thetrail across our country is of monstrous difficulty. Give us but a fewyears more and Oregon, ripe as a plum, would drop in our lap. To hinderthat is a crime. What Polk proposes is insincerity, and all insinceritymust fail. There is but one result when pretense is pitted againstpreparedness. Ah, if ever we needed wisdom and self-restraint, we needthem now! Yet look at what we face! Look at what we may lose! And thatthrough party--through platform--through _politics_!"
He sighed as he paused in his walk and turned to me. "But now, as Isaid, we have at least time for Texas. And in regard to Texas we needanother woman."
I stared at him.
"You come now to me with proof that my lady baroness traffics withMexico as well as England," he resumed. "That is to say, Yturrio meetsmy lady baroness. What is the inference? At least, jealousy on the partof Yturrio's wife, whether or not she cares for him! Now, jealousybetween the sexes is a deadly weapon if well handled. Repugnant as itis, we must handle it."
I experienced no great enthusiasm at the trend of events, and Mr.Calhoun smiled at me cynically as he went on. "I see you don't care forthis sort of commission. At least, this is no midnight interview. Youshall call in broad daylight on the Senora Yturrio. If you and mydaughter will take my coach and four to-morrow, I think she will gladlyreceive your cards. Perhaps also she will consent to take the air ofWashington with you. In that case, she might drop in here for an ice. Insuch case, to conclude, I may perhaps be favored with an interview withthat lady. I must have Van Zandt's signature to this treaty which yousee here!"
"But these are Mexicans, and Van Zandt is leader of the Texans, theirmost bitter enemies!"
"Precisely. All the less reason why Senora Yturrio should be suspected."
"I am not sure that I grasp all this, Mr. Calhoun."
"Perhaps not You presently will know more. What seems to me plain isthat, since we seem to lose a valuable ally in the Baroness von Ritz, wemust make some offset to that loss. If England has one woman on theColumbia, we must have another on the Rio Grande!"