The Clansman
BOOK III
THE REIGN OF TERROR
CHAPTER VII
BY THE LIGHT OF A TORCH
ON the night of the election, Mrs. Lenoir gave a ball at the hotel
in honour of Marion's entrance into society. She was only in her
sixteenth year, yet older than her mother when mistress of her own
household. The only ambition the mother cherished was that she might
win the love of an honest man and build for herself a beautiful home on
the site of the cottage covered with trailing roses. In this home-dream
for Marion she found a great sustaining joy to which nothing in the
life of man answers.
The ball had its political significance which the military martinet
who commanded the post understood. It was the way the people of
Piedmont expressed to him and the world their contempt for the farce of
an election he had conducted, and their indifference as to the result
he would celebrate with many guns before midnight.
The young people of the town were out in force. Marion was a
universal favourite. The grace, charm, and tender beauty of the
Southern girl of sixteen were combined in her with a gentle and
unselfish disposition. Amid poverty that was pitiful, unconscious of
its limitations, her thoughts were always of others, and she was the
one human being everybody had agreed to love. In the village in which
she lived, wealth counted for naught. She belonged to the aristocracy
of poetry, beauty, and intrinsic worth, and her people knew no other.
As she stood in the long dining-room, dressed in her first ball
costume of white organdy and lace, the little plump shoulders peeping
through its meshes, she was the picture of happiness. A half-dozen boys
hung on every word as the utterance of an oracle. She waved gently an
old ivory fan with white down on its edges in a way the charm of which
is the secret birthright of every Southern girl.
Now and then she glanced at the door for some one who had not yet
appeared.
Phil paid his tribute to her with genuine feeling, and Marion repaid
him by whispering:
“Margaret's dressed to kill—all in soft azure blue- her rosy
cheeks, black hair, and eyes never shone as they do to-night. She
doesn't dance on account of her Sunday-school-it's all for you.”
Phil blushed and smiled.
“The preacher won't be here?”
“Our rector will.”
“He's a nice old gentleman. I'm fond of him. Miss Marion, your
mother is a genius. I hope she can plan these little affairs oftener.”
It was half-past ten o'clock when Ben Cameron entered the room with
Elsie a little ruffled at his delay over imaginary business at his
office. Ben answered her criticisms with a strange elation. She had
felt a secret between them and resented it.
At Mrs. Lenoir's special request, he had put on his full uniform of
a Confederate Colonel in honour of Marion and the poem her father had
written of one of his gallant charges. He had not worn it since he fell
that day in Phil's arms.
No one in the room had ever seen him in this Colonel's uniform. Its
yellow sash with the gold fringe and tassels was faded and there were
two bullet holes in the coat. A murmur of applause from the boys, sighs
and exclamations from the girls swept the room as he took Marion's
hand, bowed and kissed it. Her blue eyes danced and smiled on him with
frank admiration.
“Ben, you're the handsomest thing I've ever seen!” she said, softly.
“Thanks. I thought you had a mirror. I'll send you one,” he
answered, slipping his arm around her and gliding away to the strains
of a waltz. The girl's hand trembled as she placed it on his shoulder,
her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes had a wistful dreamy look in
their depths.
When Ben rejoined Elsie and they strolled on the lawn, the military
commandant suddenly confronted them with a squad of soldiers.
“I'll trouble you for those buttons and shoulder-straps,” said the
Captain.
Elsie's amber eyes began to spit fire. Ben stood still and smiled.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“That I will not be insulted by the wearing of this uniform to-day.”
“I dare you to touch it, coward, poltroon!” cried the girl, her
plump little figure bristling in front of her lover.
Ben laid his hand on her arm and gently drew her back to his side:
“He has the power to do this. It is a technical violation of law to
wear them. I have surrendered. I am a gentleman and I have been a
soldier. He can have his tribute. I've promised my father to offer no
violence to the military authority of the United States.”
He stepped forward, and the officer cut the buttons from his coat
and ripped the straps from his shoulders.
While the performance was going on, Ben quietly said:
“General Grant at Appomattox, with the instincts of a great soldier,
gave our men his spare horses and ordered that Confederate officers
retain their side-arms. The General is evidently not in touch with this
force.”
“No; I'm in command in this county,” said the Captain.
“Evidently.”
When he had gone, Elsie's eyes were dim. They strolled under the
shadow of the great oak and stood in silence, listening to the music
within and the distant murmur of the falls.
“Why is it, sweetheart, that a girl will persist in admiring brass
buttons?” Ben asked, softly.
She raised her lips to his for a kiss and answered:
“Because a soldier's business is to die for his country.”
As Ben led her back into the ball-room and surrendered her to a
friend for a dance, the first gun pealed its note of victory from the
square in the celebration of the triumph of the African slave over his
white master.
Ben strolled out in the street to hear the news.
The Constitution had been ratified by an enormous majority, and a
Legislature elected composed of 101 negroes and 23 white men. Silas
Lynch had been elected Lieutenant-Governor, a negro Secretary of State,
a negro Treasurer, and a negro Justice of the Supreme Court.
When Bizzel, the wizzen-faced agent of the Freedman's Bureau, made
this announcement from the court house steps, pandemonium broke loose.
An incessant rattle of musketry began in which ball cartridges were
used, the missles whistling over the town in every direction. Yet
within half an hour the square was deserted and a strange quiet
followed the storm.
Old Aleck staggered by the hotel, his drunkenness having reached the
religious stage.
“Behold, a curiosity, gentlemen,” cried Ben to a group of boys who
had gathered, “a voter is come among us—in fact, he is the people,
the king, our representative elect, the Honourable Alexander Lenoir, of
the county of Ulster!”
“Gemmens, de Lawd's bin good ter me,” said Aleck, weeping copiously.
“They say the rat labels were in a majority in this precinct—how
was that?” asked Ben.
“Yessah—dat what de scornful say-dem dat sets in de seat o'de
scornful, but de Lawd er Hosts He fetch em low. Mistah Bissel de Buro
man count all dem rat votes right, sah-dey couldn't fool him-he know
what dey mean—he count 'em all for me an' de ratification.”
“Sure-pop!” said Ben; “if you can't ratify with a rat, I'd like to
know why?”
“Dat's what I tells 'em, sah.”
“Of course,” said Ben, good-humouredly. “The voice of the people is
the voice of God—rats or no rats—if you know how to count.”
As old Aleck staggered away, the sudden crash of a volley of
musketry echoed in the distance.
“What's that?” asked Ben, listening intently. The sound was
unmistakable to a soldier's ear—that volley from a hundred rifles at
a single word of command. It was followed by a shot on a hill in the
distance, and then by a faint echo, farther still. Ben listened a few
moments and turned into the lawn of the hotel. The music suddenly
stopped, the tramp of feet echoed on the porch, a woman screamed, and
from the rear of the house came the cry:
“Fire! Fire!”
Almost at the same moment an immense sheet of flame shot skyward
from the big barn.
“My God!” groaned Ben. “Jake's in jail, to-night, and they've set
the barn on fire. It's worth more than the house.”
The crowd rushed down the hill to the blazing building, Marion's
fleet figure in its flying white dress leading the crowd.
The lowing of the cows and the wild neighing of the horses rang
above the roar of the flames.
Before Ben could reach the spot Marion had opened every stall. Two
cows leaped out to safety, but not a horse would move from its stall,
and each moment wilder and more pitiful grew their death-cries.
Marion rushed to Ben, her eyes dilated, her face as white as the
dress she wore.
“Oh, Ben, Queen won't come out! What shall I do?”
“You can do nothing, child. A horse won't come out of a burning
stable unless he's blindfolded. They'll all be burned to death.”
“Oh! no!” the girl cried in agony.
“They'd trample you to death if you tried to get them out. It can't
be helped. It's too late.”
As Ben looked back at the gathering crowd, Marion suddenly snatched
a horse-blanket, lying at the door, ran with the speed of a deer to the
pond, plunged in, sprang out, and sped back to the open door of Queen's
stall, through which her shrill cry could be heard above the others.
As the girl ran toward the burning building, her thin white dress
clinging close to her exquisite form, she looked like the marble figure
of a sylph by the hand of some great master into which God had suddenly
breathed the breath of life.
As they saw her purpose, a cry of horror rose from the crowd, her
mother's scream loud above the rest.
Ben rushed to catch her, shouting:
“Marion! Marion! She'll trample you to death!”
He was too late. She leaped into the stall. The crowd held their
breath. There was a moment of awful suspense, and the mare sprang
through the open door with the little white figure clinging to her mane
and holding the blanket over her head.
A cheer rang above the roar of the flames. The girl did not loose
her hold until her beautiful pet was led to a place of safety, while
she clung to her neck and laughed and cried for joy. First her mother,
then Margaret, Mrs. Cameron, and Elsie took her in their arms.
As Ben approached the group, Elsie whispered to him: “Kiss her!”
Ben took her hand, his eyes full of unshed tears, and said:
“The bravest deed a woman ever did—you're a heroine, Marion!”
Before she knew it, he stooped and kissed her.
She was very still for a moment, smiled, trembled from head to foot,
blushed scarlet, took her mother by the hand, and without a word
hurried to the house.
Poor Becky was whining among the excited crowd and sought in vain
for Marion. At last she got Margaret's attention, caught her dress in
her teeth and led her to a corner of the lot, where she had laid side
by side her puppies, smothered to death. She stood and looked at them
with her tail drooping, the picture of despair. Margaret burst into
tears and called Ben.
He bent and put his arm around the setter's neck and stroked her
head with his hand. Looking up at his sister, he said:
“Don't tell Marion of this. She can't stand any more to-night.”
The crowd had all dispersed, and the flames had died down for want
of fuel. The odour of roasting flesh, pungent and acrid, still lingered
a sharp reminder of the tragedy.
Ben stood on the back porch, talking in low tones to his father.
“Will you join us now, sir? We need the name and influence of men of
your standing.”
“My boy, two wrongs never make a right. It's better to endure
awhile. The sober common sense of the Nation will yet save us. We must
appeal to it.”
“Eight more fires were seen from town to-night.”
“You only guess their origin.”
“I know their origin. It was done by the League at a signal as a
celebration of the election and a threat of terror to the county. One
of our men concealed a faithful negro under the floor of the
school-house and heard the plot hatched. We expected it a month ago—
but hoped they had given it up.”
“Even so, my boy, a secret society such as you have planned means a
conspiracy that may bring exile or death. I hate lawlessness and
disorder. We have had enough of it. Your clan means ultimately martial
law. At least we will get rid of these soldiers by this election. They
have done their worst to me, but we may save others by patience.”
“It's the only way, sir. The next step will be a black hand on a
white woman's throat!”
The doctor frowned. “Let us hope for the best. Your clan is the last
act of desperation.”
“But if everything else fail, and this creeping horror becomes a
fact—then what?”
“My boy, we will pray that God may never let us live to see the
day!”