Alonzo and Melissa Part 15

"The fortune of war, boy! said Jack--it might have been worse. But my lad, I am heartily glad to see you; how has it fared with you since you left Old England?"--"We will talk of that by and by," said Alonzo.

There were then some American officers of distinction in town, with whom Edgar was acquainted, to whom he applied for the relief of the n.o.ble sailor;----and as there were several other British prisoners in gaol it was agreed that a cartel should be immediately sent to New York to exchange them. Alonzo had, therefore, the satisfaction to see the irons knocked off of his liberal hearted benefactor, and his prison doors opened.

The man they had taken at the mansion, returned him his purse, containing only twenty-five guineas, of which Jack gave him ten. "There, boy, said he, you have been honest, so I will divide with you."

They then repaired to an inn. Jack, whose wound was healed, was put under the hands of a barber, cleaned, furnished with a change of clothes, and soon appeared in a new att.i.tude.

He informed Alonzo, that soon after he left England, his ship was ordered for America: that the price of provisions growing high, it had taken almost all his wages to support his family; that he had sent home his last remittance just before he was taken, reserving only the twenty-five guineas which had been restored him that day.--"But I have never despaired, said he; the great Commodore of life orders all for the best. My tour of duty is to serve my king and country, and provide for my dear Poll and her chicks, which, if I faithfully perform, I shall gain the applause of the Commander."

When the cartel was ready to depart, Alonzo, taking Jack apart from the company, presented him with a draught of five hundred pounds sterling, on a merchant in New York, who privately transacted business with the Americans. "Take this, my friend, said he; you can ensure it by converting it into bills of exchange on London. Though you once saw me naked, I can now conveniently spare this sum, and it may a.s.sist you in buffeting the billows of life."--The generous tar shed tears of grat.i.tude, and Alonzo enjoyed the pleasure of seeing him depart, calling down blessings on the head of his reciprocal benefactor.

The man who came with Alonzo and Edgar from the mansion, then went before the magistrates of the town, and gave his testimony and affidavit, by which it appeared that several eminent characters of Connecticut were concerned in this illicit trade. They then released him, gave him the money they had found in the cellar at the mansion, and he immediately left the town. Precepts were soon after issued for a number of those traders; several were taken, among whom were some of the gang, and others who were only concerned--but most of them absconded, so that the company and their plans were broken up.

When Alonzo and Edgar returned home and related their adventure, they were all surprised at the fort.i.tude of Melissa in being enabled to support her spirits in a solitary mansion, amidst such great, and so many terrors.

It was now that Alonzo turned his attention to future prospects. It was time to select a place for domestic residence. He consulted Melissa, and she expressively mentioned the little secluded village, where

"Ere fate and fortune frown'd severe,"

they projected scenes of connubial bliss, and planned the structure of their family edifice. This intimation accorded with the ardent wishes of Alonzo. The site formerly marked out, with an adjoining farm, was immediately purchased, and suitable buildings erected, to which Alonzo and Melissa removed the ensuing summer.

The clergyman of the village having recently died in a _good old age_, Edgar was called to the pastoral charge of this unsophisticated people.

Here did Melissa and Alonzo repose after the storms of adversity were past. Here did they realize all the happiness which the sublunary hand of time apportions to mortals. The varying seasons diversified their joys, except when Alonzo was called with the militia of his country, wherein he bore an eminent commission, to oppose the enemy; and this was not unfrequent, as in his country's defence he took a very conspicuous part. Then would anxiety, incert.i.tude, and disconsolation possess the bosom of Melissa, until dissipated by his safe return. But the happy termination of the war soon removed all cause of these disquietudes.

Soon after the close of the war, Alonzo received a letter from his friend, Jack Brown, dated at an interior parish in England,--in which, after pouring forth abundance of grat.i.tude, he informed, that on returning to England he procured his discharge from the navy, sold his house, and removed into the country, where he had set up an inn with the sign of _The Grateful American_. "You have made us all happy, said he; my dear Poll blubbered like a fresh water sailor in a hurricane, when I told her of your goodness. My wife, my children, all hands upon deck are yours. We have a good run of business, and are now under full sail, for the land of prosperity."

Edgar married to one of the Miss Simpsons, whose father's seat was in the vicinity of the village. The parents of Alonzo and Melissa were their frequent visitors, as were also Vincent and his lady, with many others of their acquaintance, who all rejoiced in their happy situation, after such a diversity of troubles. Alfred was generally once a year their guest, until at length he married and settled in the mercantile business in Charleston, South Carolina.

To our hero and heroine, the rural charms of their secluded village were a source of ever pleasing variety. Spring, with its verdured fields, flowery meads, and vocal groves: its vernal gales, purling rills, and its evening whippoorwill: summer, with its embowering shades, reflected in the gla.s.sy lake, and the long, pensive, yet sprightly notes of the solitary strawberry-bird;[A] its lightning and its thunder; autumn with its mellow fruit, its yellow foliage and decaying verdure; winter, with its hoa.r.s.e, rough blasts, its icy beard and snowy mantle, all tended to thrill with sensations of pleasing transition, the feeling bosoms of _Alonzo and Melissa_.

[Footnote A: A bird which, in the New England states, makes its first appearance about the time strawberries begin to ripen. Its song is lengthy, and consists of a variety of notes, commencing sprightly, but ending plaintive and melancholy.]

Chronology

Based on references to datable external events, the story covers at least ten years. The parts of the book that take place in Connecticut are filled with descriptions of changing seasons. Europe and the southern states have no climate.

"two young gentlemen of Connecticut ... graduated at Yale College"

"Beauman ... came regularly once in two or three months"

"Beauman's visits to Melissa became more frequent"

"[Beauman's] visits became more and more frequent."

"It was summer, and towards evening when [Alonzo] arrived."

To accommodate Beauman's repeated visits, a full year would have to pa.s.s.

"The troubles which gave rise to the disseveration of England from America had already commenced, which broke out the ensuing spring into actual hostilities, by the battle of Lexington, followed soon after by the battle of Bunker Hill."

The battles took place in April and June of 1775; "the ensuing spring"

would mean that the year is 1774.

"Winter came on; it rapidly pa.s.sed away. Spring advanced..."

1774 changes to 1775

"The spring opened ... the colonies, which had now been dissevered from the British empire, by the declaration of independence"

This is the same spring as in the previous quotation, but if the Declaration of Independence (July 1776) is in the past, it would have to be the spring of 1777.

"It was at the latter end of the month of May"

May 1775 or 1777, depending on one's chosen chronology.

"The particulars of this action, in the early stage of the American war, are yet remembered by many."

The "action" may be a conflation of two different episodes involving the _Trumbull_, neither of them early in the war: the first was in June 1780, the second in late August 1781. The _Trumbull_ was towed to New York, not to London.

"who died there about eighteen months ago"

Alonzo took sail shortly after learning of Melissa's death, so we are now in early 1783.

[Melissa's gravestone] "October 26, 1776 / In the 18th year of her age."

Depending on the chronology chosen, Melissa's reported death could have been in 1775, 1777 or 1781. Her 18th year is properly the year _leading up to_ her 18th birthday, but may mean that she was 18 years old.

"to be opened that night only, with the tragedy of _Gustavus_"

_Gustavus_ was written by Henry Brooke in 1739 and immediately banned. Its American premiere was in Baltimore on 14 June 1782.

Quotations

Only a few quotations have been identified. Some of the others may be paraphrases.

"Call round her laughing eyes, in playful turns, The glance that lightens, and the smile that burns."

Erasmus Darwin, 1731-1802, "The Temple of Nature, or, The Origin of Society"

But far beyond the pride of pomp, and power, He lov'd the realms of nature to explore; . . .

Timothy Dwight (president of Yale), 1752-1817, _The Conquest of Canaan_. The _Cambridge History of English and American Literature_ says that the poem was "written by the time he was twenty-two, but published when he was thirty-three and should have known better."

"musing, moping melancholy."

Arthur Murphy, _The Upholsterer or What News_ (1758), I:i: "musing, moping, melancholy lover".

"The breeze's rustling wing was in the tree"

This unidentified line is also quoted in Mitch.e.l.l's _Albert and Eliza_.