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.When Benjamin lighted Monsieur Le Quoi from the door, he said, at parting –»If-so-be, Mounsheer, you'd run alongside Mistress Pretty-bones, as the Squire Dickens was bidding ye, 'tis my notion you'd have been grappled; in which case, d'ye see, you mought have been troubled in swinging clear again in a handsome manner; for thof Miss 'Lizzy and the parson's young 'un be tidy little vessels, that shoot by a body on a wind, Mistress Remarkable is sum'mat of a galliot fashion; when you once takes 'em in tow, they doesn't like to be cast off again.«Chapter XLI»Yes, sweep ye on! – We will not leave,For them who triumph, those who grieve.With that armada gayBe laughter loud, and jocund shout –– But with that skiffAbides the minstrel tale.«Scott, The Lord of the Isles,I.xvii.1-4, 11-12.The events of our tale carry us through the summer; and, after making nearly the circle of the year, we must conclude our labours in the delightful month of October.Many important incidents had, however, occurred in the intervening period; a few of which it may be necessary to recount.The two principal were, the marriage of Oliver and Elizabeth, and the death of Major Effingham.They both took place early in September; and the former preceded the latter only by a few days.The old man passed away like the last glimmering of a taper; and though his death cast a melancholy over the family, grief could not follow such an end.One of the chief concerns of Marmaduke was to reconcile the even conduct of a magistrate, with the course that his feelings dictated to the criminals.The day succeeding the discovery at the cave, however, Natty and Benjamin re-entered the gaol peaceably, where they continued, well fed and comfortable, until the return of an express to Albany, who brought the Governor's pardon to the Leather-stocking.In the mean time, proper means were employed to satisfy Hiram for the assaults on his person; and on the same day, the two comrades issued together into society again, with their characters not at all affected by the imprisonment.Mr.Doolittle began to discover that neither his architecture, nor his law, was quite suitable to the growing wealth and intelligence of the settlement; and, after exacting the last cent that was attainable in his compromises, to use the language of the country, he ›pulled up stakes,‹ and proceeded further west, scattering his professional science and legal learning through the land; vestiges of both of which are to be discovered there even to the present hour.Poor Jotham, whose life paid the forfeiture of his folly, acknowledged before he died, that his reasons for believing in a mine, were extracted from the lips of a sybil, who, by looking in a magic glass, was enabled to discover the hidden treasures of the earth.Such superstition was frequent in the new settlements; and after the first surprise was over, the better part of the community forgot the subject.But at the same time that it removed from the breast of Richard a lingering suspicion of the acts of the three hunters, it conveyed a mortifying lesson to him, which brought many quiet hours, in future, to his cousin Marmaduke.It may be remembered that the Sheriff confidently pronounced this to be no ›visionary‹ scheme, and that word was enough to shut his lips, at any time within the next ten years.Monsieur Le Quoi, who has been introduced to our readers, because no picture of that country would be faithful without some such character, found the island of Martinique, and his ›sucre-boosh,‹ in possession of the English; but Marmaduke, and his family, were much gratified in soon hearing that he had returned to his bureau, in Paris; where he afterwards issued yearly bulletins of his happiness, and of his gratitude to his friends in America.With this brief explanation we must return to our narrative
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