day or two afterwards, both our
body-servants, that is to say, Jacob the black and Hubert the German,
were on their way to England. My uncle let his apartment again, for he
always maintained I should wish to bring my bride to pass a winter in
it; and we proceeded to Havre in a sort of incognito. There was little
danger of our being known on board the packet, and we had previously
ascertained that there was not an acquaintance of either in the ship.
There was a strong family resemblance between my uncle and myself, and
we passed for father and son in the ship, as old Mr. Davidson and young
Mr. Davidson, of Maryland--or Myr-r-land, as it is Doric to call that
state. We had no concern in this part of the deception, unless
abstaining from calling my supposed father "uncle," as one would
naturally do in strange society, can be so considered.
The passage itself--by the way, I wish all landsmen would be as accurate
as I am here, and understand that a "voyage" means "out" and "home," or
"thence" and "back again," while a "passage" means from place to
place--but our passage was pregnant with no events worth recording. We
had the usual amount of good and bad weather, the usual amount of eating
and drinking, and the usual amount of ennui. The latter circumstance,
perhaps, contributed to the digesting of a further scheme of my uncle's,
which it is now necessary to state.
A re-perusal of his letters and papers had induced him to think the
anti-rent movement a thing of more gravity, even than he had first
supposed. The combination on the part of the tenants, we learned also
from an intelligent New Yorker who was a fellow-passenger, extended much
further than our accounts had given us reason to believe; and it was
deemed decidedly dangerous for landlords, in many cases, to be seen on
their own estates. Insult, personal degradation, or injury, and even
death, it was thought, might be the consequences, in many cases. The
blood actually spilled had had the effect to check the more violent
demonstrations, it is true; but the latent determination to achieve
their purposes was easily to be traced among the tenants, in the face of
all their tardy professions of moderation, and a desire for nothing but
what was right. In this case, what was right was the letter and spirit
of the contracts; and nothing was plainer than the fact that these were
not what was wanted.
Professions pass for nothing, with the experienced, when connected with
a
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