Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History BookOpen Original Text ed in curses, which were even succeeded by
laughter from one or two of the number. There seemed to be a
disposition on the part of some to resist the authority that now
controlled them; and sundry glances were exchanged, which indicated a
purpose to turn upon their captors. The sergeant no sooner perceived
this, than he halted, raised his rifle to his breast, and at the same
instant, gave Andrew Ramsay an order to retire a few paces, and to
fire one of the captured pieces at the first man who opened his lips.
"By my hand," he said, "if I find any trouble in taking you, all five,
safe away from this here house, I will thin your numbers with your own
muskets! And that's as good as if I had sworn to it."
"You have my word, sir," said the Ensign. "Lead on."
"By your leave, my pretty gentlemen, you will lead and I'll follow,"
replied Horse-Shoe. "It may be a new piece of drill to you; but the
custom is to give the prisoners the post of honor."
"As you please, sir," answered the Ensign. "Where do you take us to?"
"You will march back by the road you came," said the sergeant.
Finding the conqueror determined to execute summary martial law upon
the first who should mutiny, the prisoners submitted, and marched in
double file from the hut back towards Ramsay's--Horse-Shoe, with
Captain Peter's bridle dangling over his arm, and his gallant young
auxiliary Andrew, laden with double the burden of Robinson Crusoe
(having all the fire-arms packed upon his shoulders), bringing up the
rear. In this order victors and vanquished returned to David Ramsay's.
"Well, I have brought you your ducks and chickens back, mistress,"
said the sergeant, as he halted the prisoners at the door; "and,
what's more, I have brought home a young sodger that's worth his
weight in gold."
"Heaven bless my child! my brave boy!" cried the mother, seizing the
lad in her arms, and unheeding anything else in the present
perturbation of her feelings. "I feared ill would come of it; but
Heaven has preserved him. Did he behave handsomely, Mr. Robinson? But
I am sure he did."
"A little more venturesome, ma'am, than I wanted him to be," replied
Horse-Shoe; "but he did excellent service. These are his prisoners,
Mistress Ramsay; I should never have got them if it hadn't been for
Andy. In these drumming and fifing times the babies suck in quarrel
with their mother's milk. Show me another boy in America that's made
more prisoners than there was men to fight them with, that's all!"
FOOTNOTE:
[11] By permission of G. P. Putnam's Sons, N. Y.
HUGH SWINTON LEGARÉ.
~1797=1843.~
HUGH SWINTON LEGARÉ (pronounced Le-gr[=e]e´) was born in Charleston,
South Carolina, of Huguenot and Scotch descent. He was educated at
South Carolina College which he entered at the age of fourteen, and
became an excellent scholar, especially in the languages both ancient
and modern. He studied law, and then completed his education in the
good old way by a course of travel and study in Europe. His learning
is said to have been almost phenomenal: he was one of the founders of
the "Southern Review."
On his return from Europe, 1820, he was elected to the State
Legislature: 1830, he was made Attorney-General of the State; from
1832 to 1836 he was _chargé d'affaires_ at Brussels; in 1836 he was
elected to Congress, and in 1841 appointed Attorney-General of the
United States. He died in Boston, whither he had gone to take part in
the Bunker Hill Celebration.
Chief-Justice Story said of him: "His argumentation was marked by the
closest logic; at the same time he had a _presence_ in speaking which
I have never seen excelled." See Life, by Paul Hamilton Hayne.
WORKS.
Essays, Addresses, &c.
Journal at Brussels.
Memoir and Writings, (edited by his sister, Mrs. Bullen).
COMMERCE AND WEALTH VS. WAR.
(_From a speech in the House, 1837._)
A people well clad and well housed will be sure to provide themselves
with all the other comforts of life; and it is the diffusion of these
comforts, and the growing taste for them, among all classes of society
in Europe, it is the desire of riches, as it is commonly called, that
is gradually putting an end to the destructive and bloody game of war,
and reserving all the resources hitherto wasted by it, for enterprises
of industry and commerce, prosecuted with the fiery spirit which once
vented itself in scenes of peril and carnage.
But, sir, the result of all this is that very inequality of wealth,
that accumulation of vast masses of it in a few hands, against which
we have heard so much said lately, as if it were something
inconsistent with the liberties, the happiness, and the moral and
intellectual improvement of mankind. Gigantic fortunes are acquired by
a few years of prosperous commerce--mechanics and manufacturers rival
and surpass the princes of the earth in opulence and splendor. The
face of Europe is changed by this active industry, working with such
mighty instruments, on so great a scale.
I have travelled in parts of the continent which the spirit of gain,
with its usual concomitants, industry and improvement, has invaded
since the peace, at an interval of fifteen years, and been struck with
the revolution that is going on. There is a singularly beautiful,
though rather barren tract of country between Liege and Spa, where, in
1819, my attention had been principally attracted by the striking
features of a mountainous region, with here and there a ruin of the
feudal past, and here and there a hovel of some poor hind,--the very
haunt of the "Wild Boar of Ardennes" in the good old times of the
House of Burgundy.
I returned to it in 1835, and saw it covered with mills and factories,
begrimed with the smoke and soot of steam-engines; its romantic beauty
deformed, its sylvan solitudes disturbed and desecrated by the sounds
of active industry, and the busy hum of men. I asked what had brought
about so great a change, and found that the author of it,--a man
having a more numerous band of retainers and dependents than any
baron bold of the fourteenth century, and in every respect more
important than many of the sovereign princes on the other side of the
Rhine--was an English manufacturer, who had established himself there
some twenty years ago, without much capital, and had effected all this
by his industry and enterprise.
Such, sir, is the spirit of the age; of course, in this young and
wonderfully progressive country, it is more eager and ardent--and
therefore occasionally extravagant--than anywhere else. But it is in
vain to resist it. Nay, I believe it is worse than vain. It is
evidently in the order of nature, and we must take it with all its
good and all its evils together.
DEMOSTHENES' COURAGE.
[_From the Essay on Demosthenes._]
The charge of effeminacy and want of courage in battle seems to be
considered as better founded. Plutarch admits it fully. His foppery is
matter of ridicule to Æschines, who, at the same time, in rather a
remarkable passage in his speech on the Crown, gives us som Previous Next |