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Page 54
Mr. Mummychog, aware before he left Miramichi, that a number of his
compeers in that region, who had been in the habit of coming to the
Grove to hear Mr. Norton discourse, were just now at Fredericton, on
lumbering business, had been beating up these as recruits for the
occasion, and now brought forward quite an overpowering weight of
evidence in favor of the defendant. These men testified that he had
preached to them the importance of fulfilling their duties as
citizens, telling them, that unless they were good subjects to the
civil government, they could not be good subjects in Christ's kingdom.
They testified, also, that they had frequently heard him pray in
public, for the health, happiness, and prosperity of His Majesty, and
for blessings on the Lord Lieutenant-Governor.
After a few minutes of conversation, the Jury dismissed the charge.
The party retired, much gratified at the favorable conclusion of what
might, under other circumstances, have proved to the missionary an
annoying affair. Mr. Norton warmly expressed his gratitude to Mr.
Dubois, as having been the main instrument, in securing this result.
He also cordially thanked Micah and his friends, for their prompt
efforts in his behalf.
"Twant much of a chore, any heow", said Micah. "I never could stan' by
and see any critter put upon by another he'd done no harm to, and I
never will".
As they returned to the hotel, Mr. Dubois remarked that this journey
to the Capital, after all, might not be without good results.
"You made", he said to Mr. Norton, "an extremely favorable impression
on the minds of several gentlemen, who wield power in the province,
and should you be subjected to future persecutions, you will probably
be able to secure their protection".
"Possibly--possibly. I am grateful, if I have in any way secured the
good will of those gentlemen. I was particularly impressed by their
dignity, affability, and readiness to oblige yourself. But, my dear
sir, it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in
princes".
CHAPTER XX.
MR. LANSDOWNE SUBMITS TO THE INEVITABLE.
In the meanwhile, a change had come upon John Lansdowne. Only a few
weeks ago, he was a careless youth, of keen and vigorous intellectual
powers, satiated with books and tired of college walls, with the boy
spirit in the ascendant within him. His eye was wide open and
observant, and his ringing laugh was so merry, that it brought an
involuntary smile upon any one who might chance to hear its rich
peals. His talk was rapid, gay, and brilliant, with but the slightest
dash of sentiment, and his manner frank and fearless.
But now his bearing had become quiet and dignified; his conversation
was more thoughtful and deep-flowing, less dashing and free; he spoke
in a lower key; his laugh was less loud but far sweeter and more
thrilling; his eyes had grown larger, darker, deeper, and sometimes
they were shadowed with a soft and tender mist, not wont to overspread
them before. The angel of Love had touched him, and opened a new and
living spring in his heart. Boiling and bubbling in its hidden recess,
an ethereal vapor mounted up and mantled those blazing orbs in a dim
and dreamy veil. A charmed wand had touched every sense, every power
of his being, and held him fast in a rapturous thrall, from which he
did not wish to be released. Under the spell of this enchantment, the
careless boy had passed into the reflective man.
Stories are told of knights errant, in the times of Merlin and the
good King Arthur, who, while ranging the world in quest of adventures,
were bewitched by lovely wood fairies or were lulled into delicious
slumber by some syren's song, or were shut up in pleasant durance in
enchanted castles. Accounts of similar character are found, even in
the pages of grave chroniclers of modern date, to say nothing of what
books of fiction tell, and what we observe with our own eyes, in the
actual world. The truth is, Love smites his victims, just when and
where he finds them. Mr. Lansdowne's case then, is not an
unprecedented one. The keen Damascus blade, used to pierce our hero
and bring him to the pitiful condition of the conquered, had been
placed in the hand of Ad�le. Whether Love intended to employ that
young lady in healing the cruel wound she had made, remains to be
seen.
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