Chapter XL.

by James Fenimore Cooper

　　"I am dumb.Were you the doctor, and I knew you not?"-Shakespeare.

　　During the five or six minutes that elapsed before the youth and Majorreappeared. Judge Temple and the sheriff together with most of thevolunteers, ascended to the terrace, where the latter began to expresstheir conjectures of the result, and to recount their individualservices in the conflict. But the sight of the peace-makers ascendingthe ravine shut every mouth.

　　On a rude chair, covered with undressed deer-skins, they supported ahuman being, whom they seated carefully and respectfully in the midstof the assembly. His head was covered by long, smooth locks of thecolor of snow. His dress, which was studiously neat and clean, wascomposed of such fabrics as none but the wealthiest classes wear, butwas threadbare and patched ; and on his feet were placed a pair ofmoccasins, ornamented in the best manner of Indian ingenuity. Theoutlines of his face were grave and dignified, though his vacant eye,which opened and turned slowly to the faces of those around him inunmeaning looks, too surely announced that the period had arrivedwhen age brings the mental imbecility of childhood.

　　Natty had followed the supporters of this unexpected object to the topof the cave, and took his station at a little distance behind him,leaning no his rifle, in the midst of his pursuers, with afearlessness that showed that heavier interests than those whichaffected himself were to be decided. Major Hartmann placed himselfbeside the aged man, uncovered, with his whole soul beaming throughthose eyes which so commonly danced with frolic and humor. Edwardsrested with one hand familiarly but affectionately on the chair,though his heart was swelling with emotions that denied him utterance.

　　All eyes were gazing intently, but each tongue continued mute. Atlength the decrepit stranger, turning his vacant looks from face toface, made a feeble attempt to rise, while a faint smile crossed hiswasted face, like an habitual effort at courtesy, as he said, in ahollow, tremulous voice:

　　"Be pleased to be seated, gentlemen. The council will openimmediately. Each one who loves a good and virtuous king will wish tosee these colonies continue loyal. Be seated--I pray you, be seated,gentlemen. The troops shall halt for the night."

　　"This is the wandering of insanity!" said Marmaduke: "who will explainthis scene."

　　"No, sir," said Edwards firmly, "tis only the decay of nature; who isanswerable for its pitiful condition, remains to be shown."

　　"Will the gentlemen dine with us, my son?" said the old stranger,turning to a voice that he both knew and loved. "Order a repastsuitable for his Majestys officers. You know we have the best ofgame always at command,"

　　"Who is this man?" asked Marmaduke, in a hurried voice, in which thedawnings of conjecture united with interest to put the question.

　　"This man," returned Edwards calmly, his voice, how ever, graduallyrising as he proceeded; "this man, sir, whom you behold hid incaverns, and deprived of every-thing that can make life desirable, wasonce the companion and counsellor of those who ruled your country.This man, whom you see helpless and feeble, was once a warrior, sobrave and fearless, that even the intrepid natives gave him the nameof the Fire-eater. This man, whom you now see destitute of even theordinary comfort of a cabin, in which to shelter his head, was oncethe owner of great riches--and, Judge Temple, he was the rightfulproprietor of this very soil on which we stand. This man was thefather of------"

　　"This, then," cried Marmaduke, with a powerful emotion, "this, then,is the lost Major Effingham!"

　　"Lost indeed," said the youth, fixing a piercing eye on the other.

　　"And you! and you!" continued the Judge, articulating with difficulty.

　　"I am his grandson."

　　A minute passed in profound silence. All eyes were fixed on thespeakers, and even the old German appeared to wait the issue in deepanxiety. But the moment of agitation soon passed. Marmaduke raisedhis head from his bosom, where it had sunk, not in shame, but indevout mental thanksgivings, and, as large tears fell over his fine,manly face, he grasped the hand of the youth warmly, and said:

　　"Oliver, I forgive all thy harshness--all thy suspicions. I now see itall. I forgive thee everything, but suffering this aged man to dwellin such a place, when not only my habitation, but my fortune, were athis and thy command."

　　"Hes true as ter steel!" shouted Major Hartmann; " titnt I tell you,lat, dat Marmatuke Temple vas a friend dat woult never fail in terdime as of neet?"

　　"It is true, Judge Temple, that my opinions of your conduct have beenstaggered by what this worthy gentle man has told me. When I found itimpossible to convey my grandfather back whence the enduring love ofthis old man brought him, without detection and exposure, I went tothe Mohawk in quest of one of his former comrades, in whose justice Ihad dependence. He is your friend, Judge Temple, but, if what he saysbe true, both my father and myself may have judged you harshly."

　　"You name your father!" said Marmaduke tenderly-- "was he, indeed, lostin the packet?"

　　"He was. He had left me, after several years of fruit lessapplication and comparative poverty, in Nova Scotia, to obtain thecompensation for his losses which the British commissioners had atlength awarded. After spending a year in England, he was returning toHalifax, on his way to a government to which he had been appointed, inthe West Indies, intending to go to the place where my grand fatherhad sojourned during and since the war, and take him with us."

　　"But thou!" said Marmaduke, with powerful interest; "I had thoughtthat thou hadst perished with him."

　　A flush passed over the cheeks of the young man, who gazed about himat the wondering faces of the volunteers, and continued silent.Marmaduke turned to the veteran captain, who just then rejoined hiscommand, and said:

　　"March thy soldiers back again, and dismiss them, the zeal of thesheriff has much mistaken his duty.--Dr. Todd, I will thank you toattend to the injury which Hiram Doolittle has received in thisuntoward affair,--Richard, you will oblige me by sending up thecarriage to the top of the hill.--Benjamin, return to your duty in myfamily."

　　Unwelcome as these orders were to most of the auditors, the suspicionthat they had somewhat exceeded the whole some restraints of the law,and the habitual respect with which all the commands of the Judge werereceived, induced a prompt compliance.

　　When they were gone, and the rock was left to the parties mostinterested in an explanation, Marmaduke, pointing to the aged MajorEffingham, said to his grand son:

　　"Had we not better remove thy parent from this open place until mycarriage can arrive?"

　　"Pardon me, sir, the air does him good, and he has taken it wheneverthere was no dread of a discovery. I know not how to act, JudgeTemple; ought I, can I suffer Major Effingham to become an inmate ofyour family?"

　　"Thou shalt he thyself the judge," said Marmaduke. Thy father was myearly friend, He intrusted his fortune to my care. When we separatedhe had such confidence in me that he wished on security, no evidenceof the trust, even had there been time or convenience for exacting it.This thou hast heard?"

　　"Most truly, sir," said Edwards, or rather Effingham as we must nowcall him.

　　"We differed in politics. If the cause of this country wassuccessful, the trust was sacred with me, for none knew of thyfathers interest, if the crown still held its sway, it would he easyto restore the property of so loyal a subject as Colonel Effingham.Is not this plain?"

　　"The premises are good, sir," continued the youth, with the sameincredulous look as before.

　　"Listen--listen, poy," said the German, "Dere is not a hair as of terrogue in ter het of Herr Tchooge."

　　"We all know the issue of the struggle," continued Marmaduke,disregarding both. "Thy grandfather was left in Connecticut,regularly supplied by thy father with the means of such a subsistenceas suited his wants. This I well knew, though I never had intercoursewith him, even in our happiest days. Thy father retired with thetroops to prosecute his claims on England. At all events, his lossesmust be great, for his real estates were sold, and I became the lawfulpurchaser. It was not unnatural to wish that he might have no bar toits just recovery."

　　"There was none, but the difficulty of providing for so manyclaimants."

　　"But there would have been one, and an insuperable one, and Iannounced to the world that I held these estates, multiplied by thetimes and my industry, a hundredfold in value, only as his trustee.Thou knowest that I supplied him with considerable sums immediatelyafter the war."

　　"You did, until--"

　　"My letters were returned unopened. Thy father had much of thy ownspirit, Oliver; he was sometimes hasty and rash." The Judge continued,in a self-condemning manner; " Perhaps my fault lies the other way: Imay possibly look too far ahead, and calculate too deeply. Itcertainly was a severe trial to allow the man whom I most loved, tothink ill of me for seven years, in order that he might honestly applyfor his just remunerations. But, had he opened my last letters, thouwouldst have learned the whole truth. Those I sent him to England, bywhat my agent writes me, he did read. He died, Oliver, knowing all,he died my friend, and I thought thou hadst died with him"

　　"Our poverty would not permit us to pay for two passages," said theyouth, with the extraordinary emotion with which he ever alluded tothe degraded state of his family ; " I was left in the Province towait for his return, and, when the sad news of his loss reached me, Iwas nearly penniless."

　　"And what didst thou, boy?" asked Marmaduke in a faltering voice.

　　"I took my passage here in search of my grandfather; for I well knewthat his resources were gone, with the half pay of my father. Onreaching his abode, I learned that he had left it in secret; thoughthe reluctant hireling, who had deserted him in his poverty, owned tomy urgent en treaties, that he believed he had been carried away by an-old man who had formerly been his servant. I knew atonce it was Natty, for my father often--"

　　"Was Natty a servant of thy grandfather?" exclaimed the Judge.

　　"Of that too were you ignorant?" said the youth in evident surprise.

　　"How should I know it? I never met the Major, nor was the name ofBumppo ever mentioned to me. I knew him only as a man of the woods,and one who lived by hunting. Such men are too common to excitesurprise."

　　"He was reared in the family of my grandfather; served him for manyyears during their campaigns at the West, where he became attached tothe woods; and he was left here as a kind of locum tenens on the landsthat old Mohegan (whose life my grandfather once saved) induced theDelawares to grant to him when they admitted him as an honorary memberof their tribe.

　　"This, then, is thy Indian blood?"

　　"I have no other," said Edwards, smiling--" Major Effingham was adoptedas the son of Mohegan, who at that time was the greatest man in hisnation; and my father, who visited those people when a boy, receivedthe name of the Eagle from them, on account of the shape of his face,as I understand. They have extended his title to me, I have no otherIndian blood or breeding; though I have seen the hour, Judge Temple,when I could wish that such had been my lineage and education."

　　"Proceed with thy tale," said Marmaduke.

　　"I have but little more to say, sir, I followed to the lake where Ihad so often been told that Natty dwelt, and found him maintaining hisold master in secret; for even he could not bear to exhibit to theworld, in his poverty and dotage, a man whom a whole people oncelooked up to with respect."

　　"And what did you?"

　　"What did I? I spent my last money in purchasing a rifle, clad myselfin a coarse garb, and learned to be a hunter by the side of Leather-Stocking. You know the rest, Judge Temple."

　　"Ant vere vas olt Fritz Hartmann?" said the German, reproachfully;"didst never hear a name as of olt Fritz Hartmann from ter mout of terfader, lat?"

　　"I may have been mistaken, gentlemen," returned the youth, but I hadpride, and could not submit to such an exposure as this day even hasreluctantly brought to light. I had plans that might have beenvisionary; but, should my parent survive till autumn, I purposedtaking him with me to the city, where we have distant relatives, whomust have learned to forget the Tory by this time. He decaysrapidly," he continued mournfully, "and must soon lie by the side ofold Mohegan."

　　The air being pure, and the day fine, the party continued conversingon the rock, until the wheels of Judge Temples carriage were heardclattering up the side of the mountain, during which time theconversation was maintained with deep interest, each moment clearingup some doubtful action, and lessening the antipathy of the youth toMarmaduke. He no longer objected to the removal of his grand father,who displayed a childish pleasure when he found himself seated oncemore in a carriage. When placed in the ample hall of the mansion-house, the eyes of the aged veteran turned slowly to the objects inthe apartment, and a look like the dawn of intellect would, formoments flit across his features, when he invariably offered some useless courtesies to those near him, wandering painfully in hissubjects. The exercise and the change soon produced an exhaustionthat caused them to remove him to his bed, where he lay for hours,evidently sensible of the change in his comforts, and exhibiting thatmortifying picture of human nature, which too plainly shows that thepropensities of the animal continue even after the nobler part of thecreature appears to have vanished.

　　Until his parent was placed comfortably in bed, with Natty seated athis side, Effingham did not quit him. He then obeyed a summons to thelibrary of the Judge, where he found the latter, with Major Hartmann,waiting for him.

　　"Read this paper, Oliver," said Marmaduke to him, as he entered, "andthou wilt find that, so far from intending thy family wrong duringlife, it has been my care to see that justice should be done at even alater day."

　　The youth took the paper, which his first glance told him was the willof the Judge. Hurried and agitated as he was, he discovered that thedate corresponded with the time of the unusual depression ofMarmaduke. As he proceeded, his eyes began to moisten, and the handwhich held the instrument shook violently.

　　The will commenced with the usual forms, spun out by the ingenuity ofMr. Van der School: but, after this subject was fairly exhausted, thepen of Marmaduke became plainly visible. In clear, distinct, manly,and even eloquent language, he recounted his obligations to ColonelEffingham, the nature of their connection, and the circumstances inwhich they separated. He then proceeded to relate the motives of hissilence, mentioning, however, large sums that he had forwarded to hisfriend, which had been returned with the letters unopened. Afterthis, he spoke of his search for the grandfather who unaccountablydisappeared, and his fears that the direct heir of the trust wasburied in the ocean with his father.

　　After, in short, recounting in a clear narrative, the events which ourreaders must now he able to connect, he proceeded to make a fair andexact statement of the sums left in his care by Colonel Effingham. Adevise of his whole estate to certain responsible trustees followed;to hold the same for the benefit, in equal moieties, of his daughter,on one part, and of Oliver Effingham, formerly a major in the army ofGreat Britain, and of his son Ed ward Effingham, and of his son EdwardOliver Effingham, or to the survivor of them, and the descendants ofsuch survivor, forever, on the other part. The trust was to endureuntil 1810, when, if no person appeared, or could be found, aftersufficient notice, to claim the moiety so devised, then a certain sum,calculating the principal and interest of his debt to ColonelEffingham, was to be paid to the heirs-at-law of the Effingham family,and the bulk of his estate was to be conveyed in fee to his daughter,or her heirs.

　　The tears fell from the eyes of the young man, as he read thisundeniable testimony of the good faith of Marmaduke, and hisbewildered gaze was still fastened on the paper, when a voice, thatthrilled on every nerve, spoke near him, saying:

　　"Do you yet doubt us, Oliver?"

　　"I have never doubted you!" cried the youth, recovering hisrecollection and his voice, as he sprang to seize the hand ofElizabeth ; "no, not one moment has my faith in you wavered."

　　"And my father--"

　　"God bless him!"

　　"I thank thee, my son," said the Judge, exchanging a warm pressure ofthe hand with the youth ; "but we have both erred: thou hast been toohasty, and I have been too slow. One-half of my estates shall bethine as soon as they can be conveyed to thee; and, if what mysuspicions tell me be true, I suppose the other must follow speedily."He took the hand which he held, and united it with that of hisdaughter, and motioned toward the door to the Major.

　　"I telt yon vat, gal!" said the old German, good-humoredly ; "if I vasas I vas ven I servit mit his grand-fader on ter lakes, ter lazy togshouldnt vin ter prize as for nottin."

　　"Come, come, old Fritz," said the Judge; "you are seventy, notseventeen; Richard waits for you with a bowl of eggnog, in the hall."

　　"Richart! ter duyvel!" exclaimed the other, hastening out of the room;"he makes ter nog as for ter horse. vilt show ter sheriff mit my ownhants! Ter duyvel! I pelieve he sweetens mit ter Yankee melasses!"

　　Marmaduke smiled and nodded affectionately at the young couple, andclosed the door after them. If any of our readers expect that we aregoing to open it again, for their gratification, they are mistaken.

　　The tete-a-tete continued for a very unreasonable time---how long weshall not say; but it was ended by six oclock in the evening, for atthat hour Monsieur Le Quoi made his appearance agreeably to theappointment of the preceding day, and claimed the ear of Miss Temple.He was admitted ; when he made an offer of his hand, with muchsuavity, together with his "amis beeg and leet, his pre, his mereand his sucreboosh." Elizabeth might, possibly, have previouslyentered into some embarrassing and binding engagements with Oliver,for she declined the tender of all, in terms as polite, though perhapsa little more decided, than those in which they were made.

　　The Frenchman soon joined the German and the sheriff in the hall, whocompelled him to take a seat with them at the table, where, by the aidof punch, wine, and egg nog, they soon extracted from the complaisantMonsieur Le Quoi the nature of his visit, it was evident that he hadmade the offer, as a duty which a well- bred man owed to a lady insuch a retired place, before he had left the country, and that hisfeelings were but very little, if at all, interested in the matter.After a few potations, the waggish pair persuaded the exhilaratedFrenchman that there was an inexcusable partiality in offering to onelady, and not extending a similar courtesy to another. Consequently,about nine, Monsieur Le Quoi sallied forth to the rectory, on asimilar mission to Miss Grant, which proved as successful as his firsteffort in love.

　　When he returned to the mansion-house, at ten, Richard and the Majorwere still seated at the table. They at tempted to persuade the Gaul,as the sheriff called him, that he should next try RemarkablePettibone. But, though stimulated by mental excitement and wine, twohours of abstruse logic were thrown away on this subject; for hedeclined their advice, with a pertinacity truly astonishing in sopolite a man.

　　When Benjamin lighted Monsieur Le Quoi from the door, he said, atparting:

　　"If-so-be, Mounsheer, youd run alongside Mistress Pettybones, as theSquire Dickens was bidding ye, tis my notion youd have beengrappled; in which case, dye see, you mought have been troubled inswinging clear agin in a handsome manner; for thof Miss Lizzy and theparsons young un be tidy little vessels, that shoot by a body on awind, Mistress Remarkable is summat of a galliot fashion: when youonce takes em in tow, they doesnt like to be cast off agin."