Dominie Freglinghansen

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Chapter I

Fagikg up and down a little grass-plot at the back of a quaint bouse in Albany (U.S.) one afternoon more than a hundred years ago, was a young girl, whose real age was barely sixteen years, but who^e fair, large, well-developed beauty gave her the appearance of being at least twelve months older. She was a native of the state of New York ; but, belonging to a Dutch colony which adhered faithfully to the traditions it had brought with it from Holland, . her dress was that of a Dutchwoman of the period ; and the plain stuff bodice and kirtle, striped petticoat, and black ribbon passed through the flaxen hair, seemed almost too prim and sombre apparel to harmonize with the rich character of her loveliness. She had a book in her hand, and was learning something by heart — studying it with childish intentness, and now and then

^ Mrs. Grant's spelling has been followed with regard to this name, but probably it would be more correct if spelt "Frelinghuysen. "

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2 ^amixat J'wgliitg^ansen.

repeating the words aloud, as if hoping so to impress them more distinctly on her memory.

Presently she sat down in a stiff green arbour, which was placed with its back to the house, looking over a strip of very unpicturesque vegetable beds towards the broad waters of the Hudson, which swept along at the end of the garden ; and then for a moment her hold on the book relaxed, and her mind wandered off into reverie.

" Your lessons grow harder and harder. Dominie ! " she said mentally ; " and my time for learning seems to grow less and less. Mother will be wanting me for the cake-making soon, but I must get this perfect first. It will never do to miss another class day, nor to go to the class with my lesson half learnt. How angry you were with Anna Gerritse, when she had not that table of references perfect ! "

She leant her head back against the green wall of the arbour, and her lips unclosed in a smile — such a happy smile ! assuredly not because Anna Gerritse had been scolded, but because on thQ same occasion somebody else had been praised, or rather tacitly approved of, after the fashion of the stem, reserved Dominie, from whom actual words of praise came but rarely.

It was a great surprise, when her eyes came down from their happy musings, to see standing before her the very person whom she had been so lately apostrophizing. He had come across the grass at the back of the arbour, unseen therefore by her, and now appeared suddenly at the entrance, its arched opening framing him round as in a picture, but scarcely leaving sufficient margin at the top to give full effect to the striking, almost colossal figure, so full of dignity and grandeur that it seemed to need the worthier setting of some lofty Gothic doorway.

He was of middle age, with regular features, a powerful

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brow, and a face altogether far more noble and intellectual than the ordinary Dutch type ; his expre8si<)n was very fine — sternly thoughtful, yet tempered by benevolence, and with a certain visionary outlook in the eyes which often made his simple congregation wonder of what their pastor could be thinking. It was not a calm face, how-, ever — only one that struggled after calmness ; and though he spoke slowly and distinctly, with deliberation and decision, it was not a calm voice either, but one subdued by a strong will into this mechanical composure. Self-mastery seemed his prevailing characteristic; he looked like one who was always doing battle with himself and always conquering, and who would have small mercy on those who were either too indolent to attempt such an encounter, or too weak to come off victorious.

" What ! giving way to idleness, Child ? " he said ; " with your book in your lap, and your mouth open, and your eyes I know not where. I shall not have a perfect lesson to-day, I see."

At the sound of his voice she started up, curtseying in confusion. " Indeed, I believe I know it fairly well, Sir," she said, blushing ; " but I did not expect it to be heard till next class-day."

" No ? I thought, as I was coming here to speak with your mother, I would hear this, and set you another lesson for next time — the same that your companions have ; but 1 fear you have little zeal for learning."

. Her blue eyes ranged along the garden beds as if seeking an excuse, and then came timidly back to his face. " I have so much to do. Dominie," she said.

'^ So much, that in the golden hours of the day you can sit idle here, with your thoughts I know not where," he replied sarcastically.

Ah ! if he had but seen her diligence as she walked to

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and fro, conning her lesson ! thought she ; hut she only said, " Will -you sit down, Dominie, and let me try to say it ? "

He sat down, and took the hook — a sort of lengthy catechism, with illustrative quotations from standard Dutch divines ; and she stood in front of him, repeating her task in a cadence too monotonous and measured for the mind to have had full share in the performance, hut still with almost perfect accuracy as far as the words went.

As she stood there, just outside the arhour, in the full light of day, so exceeding fair, so unconscious of her fairness, the Dominie must have heen hlind indeed if he had not noted into what a heautiful woman this child of his teaching was ripening. He did note it, hut with a certain regret, springing from a source of which she knew nothing.

" Fairly weU learnt," he remarked, when she had finished ; " but I wish you had given your mind more to the repetition. What have you been thinking of all this time ? "

She played with her apron-string, and made no answer.

" Tell me," he added authoritatively.

For a moment she averted her face shyly, but a reaction of courage followed ; with a smile that was quite brilliant in the bravery of its innocence, her blue eyes glanced up at him with the honest answer, '* I was wondering if you would be pleased with me, and would see that I need not be chidden for idleness.''

"Child, you live too much for praise," he said, with rather melancholy gravity.

" But it is just what I do not get. Dominie," she answered quaintly and demurely.

He smiled in spite of himself for an instant, but rejoined very gravely, "Better if you do not; what can man*s praise do for us, but lift us up and feed our self-conceit 1 He who toils for man's ' well done/ will never attain to GocPs.*' His voice dropped low in the last sentence, as if he were speaking to himself almost more than to her ; and for a few seconds he seemed lost in thought. Then he roused himself, and said drily, " You will do well to get by heart the contents of the next two pages — see, from here to here," — indicating the place with his finger.

She came to his side, and stooped down to look at the hook, her fresh peach-like cheek quite dose to him, the sun glinting on her long dark eyelashes and making them as radiant as her hair. It was as if a bright sun-ray had come between "^m and the printed lines : he was dazzled just for a moment ; then he remembered that this beautiful creature was no pagan goddess to inspire a mistaken worship, she was just " one of the flock," one of his own young people, to be instructed, warned, comforted, or lectured, just as seemed to him best.

^'Assuredly she is very beautiful ! '' he said to himself; " but better for her, perhaps, if she were not."

" My child," he said aloud, ^* you have heard, no doubt, that the orderly peacefulness of our town is to be broken to-day by the arrival of an English regiment It need, I trust, make no material difference in our quiet lives ; but there will be the more need that we should all walk steadily in the good ways which strangers in their folly are apt to sneer at, and that the maidens of the flock in particular should keep the veil of a perfect modesty and discretion around themselves and their comings and goings, so as to give no sort of occasion for them to be lightly spoken of."

^' The soldiers will make the town look gay," she said musingly, with innocent lack of comprehension of the Dominie's exordium.

^* A small benefit that ! " he rejoined scornfully. *^ I

trust I shall not see our lads and lasses gaping after them, as I have seen in other places before now. You, in particular, Franzje — .since I must speak plainly, it seems — I would wish you not to go abroad for the future, save under your father*s or mother's protection ; it will not be fitting for you to walk alone."

''I may go to Cornelia's, may I not? " she asked, her eyes dilating with the utmost wonder and dismay.

" Not unless accompanied by one of your parents, or at any rate by one of your brothers — the elder ones, Evert or Jan."

'^ Then I shall scarcely ever go at all," she said sorrowfully ; * for my father and mother have too much to do to go visiting often, and in this fine weather the boys are off to the woods all day long."

'^ I cannot help it ; the adjutant of this regiment is to be billeted on the Bankers, and it will not be well fur you to go in and out there, as you have done hitherto."

^* Cornelia will think I do not care for her ; she is always vexed if I stay away a single day," she said in a low voice.

" Cornelia will find consolations," he replied, with rather sarcastic emphasis ; then, more gently, he added, '* I have good reasons for giving you this prohibition; you may trust me, Franzje."

*^ Oh, I do ! " she said readily, with such dutiful reliance as was particularly welcome to him at that moment ; and though the sweet serenity of her face was still a little troubled, she made no further objection, but followed him into the house — for he had risen to go while she was speaking — without another word.

He had not particularly desired her attendance, for he had wished to say a few private words to her mother, a hardrfeatured yet not uncomely dame, whom they found in the handsome wainscoted parlour, turning out the contents of an oaken press which stood at one comer of the fire-place. There was no need, however, of scheming to secare a titecttite ; neither the Dutch pastor nor the estimable matron had the least idea of treating the beautiful young lady whom they both addressed as " Child," with any degree of ceremony.

*' I was wishing to say a few words to you, Madame Eyckman," began the pastor at once.

"To be sure, Dominie. — Dear child, go up to your room, and put your drawers to rights. I have been looking at them, and they are not quite in such fair order as should be."

Franzje, thus dismissed, went straight to her room as bidden, and without pausing to take that look in the glass which is supposed to be the primary business of every pretty girl on entering her bed-chamber, advanced to the. tall chest-of-drawers which stood between the windows, and addressed herself to the task of rearranging its contents.

It was rather a gravely pleasant place — this room of hers — scrupulously clean, primly in order, with the chairs in rows against the wall, and the carved wood- work of the old four-poster shining with extremest polish, and the Dutch-tiled fire-place, on which was represented the story of Tobit, as white and bright as could be, and the carpetless floor looking redolent of bees' wax and frequent rubbings.

There was nothing straggling or out of place, but a rich spray of some creeping plant, which had made bold to look in at the open window, and even to stretch itself across the sill with a sort of defiant grace ; and there was nothing to suggest the idea that the occupant of the room was young and light-hearted, till Franzje pulled open a drawer in which was a motley collection of coloured

8 ^ominit J'nsltng^mtsni.

breast-knots, embroidered aprons, quaint high combs, queer-shaped pincushions, half-finished knitting, and scraps of ribbon — all the little belongings which girls love to accumulate, and which are apt to get into dire confusion from a few vigorous routings of the young fingers when in eager search of some lost article.

There was a certain ''order in disorder'' observable even here, however ; there was nothing sordid or slovenly in the possessions thus exposed to view — nothing which was out of harmony with the fresh, bright, wholesome look of the owner. The Eyckmans were thriving people, and Franzje was one of the best-dressed, neatest, most^refined, of the maidens of the little colony, and was thought to have the best dowry. She had a number of brothers, certainly — one older, five younger; but Baas^ Byckman, as his dependants called him, had made a good deal of money in his earlier days by trading with the Indians, and had also inherited some property from his father, one of the original band of colonists who had settled in Albany in the previous century ; so that he would be able to put his sons out into the world, and yet to portion his daughter comfortably too. Her mother was already beginning to get together a store of household linen for her ; and it was considered quite a settled thing that she should marry in a few years' time, though at present she was a child, whose duty was to think of home tasks, and not of suitors. The education she had received had been rather of a desultory description, but compared with most of her companions of her own sex she was a marvel of intellectual prowess ; for few of them could do more than just read and write, or had a notion of any language except Dutch and English, both of which they leaned almost insensibly as soon as they could speak.

' A Dutch term, signifying master.

Eranzje had had the advantage of stray lessons from the two most accomplished people in Albany, namely, the Dominie — who was not a native of America, but had come from Holland, and from a brilliant university career, to take the charge of this expatriated flock — and Madame Schuyler, a clever, cultivated, elderly woman, the wife of a Colonel Schuyler, who lived at the " Flats," a country place a mile or two from the town ; and with their help she had acquired some knowledge of history and geography and French, and some acquaintance with general literature. In theology she was perhaps better versed than most girls of her age in our own day ; but it must be confessed that it was more for the sake of pleasing the Dominie than for any innate preference for the study, that she plodded so diligently through the laborious commentaries of Dutch divines with which he abundantly supplied her, and took such pains in preparing for the weekly catechisings, which she stiU was considered young enough to attend, l^oi that she was an irreligious girl — far from it ; but the hard dogmatic teaching which she received from books, side by side with the tender, practical teaching of simple home life, seemed to her something inseparably distinct : it was like the difference between a science and a handicraft ; and she had not yet learned to see that the latter might be founded on the former, that " theology " was in any way to help her in loving God, and being dutiful to her parents, and patient with her younger brothers, and reverential towards the Dominie.

Baas Eyckman was one of the elders of the Dutch church, and being a thoroughly good man, and somewhat better educated than most of his colleagues, had been singled out for special friendship by the pastor, who was on more intimate terms with him and his family than with

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almost any other people in the place except the Schuylers. Franzje and Evert Eyckman, an orphan lad by name Killian Barentse, and two or three young Schuylers and Cuylers, nephews and nieces of the worthy owners of the " Flats/' wore supposed to be the Dominie's special favourites among the younger members of his congregation ; and though he would totally have disclaimed the charge of favouritism, it was certainly on them that he had placed his brightest hopes, and to them that he looked to give a tone to the others.

Perhaps the privilege — like most privileges — was not quite without its drawbacks : Franzje, as she sorted her laces and ribbons, wondered to herself whether the Dominie had cut short all the other girls' independent promenades in the same way as hers ; and having a shrewd suspicion that he had not, could not quite bring herself to be grateful for his special care of her. It was all right, of course; '^the Dominie had said it," and so it must be ; but it was something new and inexplicable to the simple-minded, unconscious girl, and she W£U9 j.ust a little inclined to be dolorous over it.

" Franzje ! " called a boy's voice from the stairs, " the soldiers are coming ! I saw them in the far distance as I stood on the roof just now, and I can hear the band. Look out of your window."

The dismal train of her thoughts was interrupted ; she ran to the window, and, leaning forward, could just catch the^ distant strains of military music. Gradually it drew nearer and nearer, and became mingled with the steady tramp of advancing feet ; and as the regiment came in sight, other heads began to appear at other windows ; but still the one charming flaxen head, the one rich, radiant face all aglow with this new excitement, that peeped out from the bower of twining creepera, was the

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loveliest of any, the most attractive siglit for the soldiers marching in — ^at least for those of them that had any taste.

Most of the officers were on foot^^ like the men ; but the colonel and the adjutant were mounted, and of course had a better view in consequence, though the curvetting of their impatient steeds somewhat hindered their attention. As they passed the Eyckmans' house, the adjutant — a young a^d handsome man — ^looked up; and evidently something that he saw there fascinated him, for he checked his horse a little, and his dark face wore its most gallant smile.

At this moment the Dominie, who had finished his conversation, issued irom the doorway, and seeing the direction of the officer's gaze, he too looked up, turning round to do so. Instantly Franzje drew in her head, her fair open countenance — in which there had been no trace of self-consciousness before, only eager childish delight and curiosity — growing crimson all at once with a burning, paioful blush ; for was not this the " gaping after the soldiers *' which the Dominie had so sternly deprecated 1

Yet in that brief moment, the picture that the two men saw had stamped itself in their memory ; the picture that she saw, in hers. Often, very often afterwards, as she stood musing at that window, would she seem to see again the slight, graceful, and yet h^iughty figure of the officer on horseback — the vivid scarlet and gold of his uniform, the handsome, brilliant, aristocratic face under the jaunty little cocked hat; and then from the porch below there would seem to issue, hat in hand, the tall, massive, gloomy form of the pastor ; and she would see the sunlight falling on his gray uncovered head, and feel once more the grave reproach in his deep thoughtful eyes, which had driven her into the shadow of her room, away

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from the soldiers and the music and the bright outside world — from all which had so pleasantly absorbed her but a minute before.

She could not forget the young English officer — his proud, graceful bearing, his smiling glance at her ; and yet she had rather a grudge against him, and all his men, for having been the unconscious means of depriving her of her independence, and more especially of her constant visits to her friend Cornelia.

" It's very tiresome of them to come here," she said to herself, thinking of the soldiers, before she went to sleep that night ; *^ but they didn't look as if they would be rude, and it seems hard that I may not go to Madame Banker's because of tbem. I think it was rather crabbed

of the Dominie " Then she stopped herself. " Oh 1

what am I saying 7 If I were good I should never even think disrespect. He knows best; he told me to trust him ; so I ought, so I will ! "

Her sweet lips parted in oh such a smile 1 the little rosy mouth fixed, as it were, for a moment in a dimpled trance, the tender filial light growing and growing in the large starry eyes. Certainly, if Dominie rj:eylinghausen were the autocrat of the little community, this was one of the most confiding and most loyal of his subjects.

CHAPTER 11.

gilbang.

The first hours of the summer evening were usually the pleasantest time in Albany : it was the custom then for most of the citizens to sit outside their doors in sociable groups, "while young xneuy old bachelors, and visitors to the town sauntered up and down, and joined first one party and then another, as choice or courtesy dictated.

The principal street ran along parallel with the river, to which the gardens at the back of the houses stretched away; and from a small steep hill, crowned by a fort, which rose above the centre of the town, another street, broader but less long, sloped down, and joined the first. In this shorter street were the market-place, the guardhouse, the town-hall, and the English and Dutch churches ; but the dwellings of the citizens were mostly in the longer one; and very comfortable, home-like places thoy were, each with its open portico, over which some stately tree threw a pleasant shade. The trees had been planted in the early days of the settlement, and were of various kinds and growths — some quite majestic in their spreading grandeur, others less remarkable, but all combining to give a pleasant countrified air to the place.

So the English adjutant thought, as he strolled down the street on the evening of the day after his arrival in Albany, accompanied by the son of the rich contractor on whom he had been quartered : but he scanned the groups under the porticos with a critical, half-disdainful eye, making comments almost unintelligible to the homely youth at his side, and not even condescending to pause for more than a minute before what this latter individual considered the most attractive party of all.

It was a group of young men and maidens, laughing, talking, and singing with a simple, easy familiarity, which never degenerated into rudeness. Some of the girls had fair, comely faces and pleasant voices, though neither their figure nor their attire was remarkable for elegance ; but the young officer included them all in one lofty, supercilious stare, and then with the remark, " Eustic, very

rustic/' sauntered on, careless of the feelings of the lad, who was longing to have a share in the merriment.

" We might as well have stopped and spoken to them," grumbled he. " I know them all : they belong to my Company."

Mr. Yyvian opened his fine dark eyes in amazement. "Pardon me, I scarcely understand your use of that regimental term. May I ask you to explain it, my young friend ] "

" I am called Cornelius," said the boy stoutly, not relishing apparently the linesman's patronizing epithet ; " and I thought everyone knew about the Companies. There are numbers in the town, of one age and another : each contains an equal number of boys and girls — in some they are all children, but in mine they are all nearly grown up, of course. We meet at each other's houses ; and once a year we all go to the hills to gather berries ; and my Company always gathers more than any of the others. We always choose our friends out of our own Company, and generally marry in the Company too. I have settled whom to marry when I come back from my trading voyage."

" You ! " said Mr. Vyvian, looking down at the stripling with not altogether unkindly surprise. ' " Why, it^would be time enougb to talk of matrimony when you come to my age."

"We marry early in Albany," said the lad phlegmatically. " I expect my sister will be married as soon as Jansen Bleeker comes back from his voyage."

" Is he a sailor ? " asked the adjutant, carelessly.

" Oh no : he has gone on a trading voyage towards the frontier of Canada. He has got lots of guns and powder and beads and blankets, in his canoe, and he will exchange them with the Indians for furs and so on ; then of course he will sell those to advantage, and if he makes enough by the affair, he wiU set up housekeeping when he comes back."

**You seem to manage matters easily here," said Mr. Yy vian, laughing. " In the old country marriage is quite an affair of state. We have nothing like your Companies either. Are they old institutions among you ? '*

" I don't know," said Cornelius. " I only know I have belonged to a Company ever since I can remember, and that my younger brothers belong to another. There are better Heads to my Company than to any other in the place."

« Heads ! "

"Yes; we always choose out a boy and girl to be our heads — our leaders, as it were. Killian £arentse is one, but he is quite grown up, and won't be here much longer ; and Franzje Eyckman is the other. She "

" Excuse me," said the polished soldier, interrupting, "but whose house are we opposite now? That group would make a picture. I wish I had an artist on the spot."

They were standing opposite the house from whose windows had dawned upon him such a radiant vision on his entrance into the town. On the benches under the large porch now sat the father ahd mother, and one of the elder sons ; while in the comer was a very old man of picturesque and venerable aspect, clad in a sombre suit of almost monastic cut. On the steps the children of the family were at play with two or three little negroes about their own age. And standing with her back to the lookers-on, apparently soothing some little one that had fallen down and hurt itself, was a young girl of noble figure, and with an abundance of shining flaxen hair.

" Can you tell me who these people are 1 " continued the young man, eagerly.

16 ^omm JfKglmg^austn.

" Of course ; they are the Ryckmans, That is Franzje standing with her back to us. I was just going to tell you so when you interrupted me."

'* Do you know her 1 "

" Why, of course I do," said the young Albanian, exasperated by what he thought the Englishman's obtuseness. " Didn't I tell you she was the Head of my Company ? Shall we go and speak to them ? Xot that we shall have half the fun here that we should have had at the Waldrons, where you wouldn't stop."

'^ Let us speak to them, by all means," said the officer, crossing the street as he spoke. '* You must introduce me."

Cornelius Banker had very primitive notions of an introduction. " Good evening, Franzje ! " he said, as they came up to her. ^' This is Lieutenant Yyvian : he is billeted at our house, you know."

Franzje turned round, still holding the frightened child by one hand, and greeted Mr. Vyvian with a curtsey which was a little too stiif for grace. Her father and mother then came forward, and received him with kindly dignity, but not in the cordial easy, manner with which they would have welcomed one of their own townsmen. " Will you be seated ? " they said courteously, yet not as if very anxious to detain him. — "And you, Cornelius, are you come to tell us when the berry-picking is to be 1 "