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166 pages

English

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pubOne.info thank you for your continued support and wish to present you this new edition. Deep in the primeval forest of St. Mary's, lying between the Patuxent and the Wicomico Rivers, stands the ancient manor house of Luckenough.

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	23 octobre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819911043
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0100€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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CHAPTER I.
LUCKENOUGH.
Deep in the primeval forest of St. Mary's, lyingbetween the Patuxent and the Wicomico Rivers, stands the ancientmanor house of Luckenough.
The traditions of the neighborhood assert the originof the manor and its quaint, happy and not unmusical name to havebeen – briefly this:
That the founder of Luckenough was AlexanderKalouga, a Polish soldier of fortune, some time in the service ofCecilius Calvert, Baron of Baltimore, first Lord Proprietary ofMaryland. This man had, previous to his final emigration to the NewWorld, passed through a life of the most wonderful vicissitudes –wonderful even for those days of romance and adventure. It was saidthat he was born in one quarter of the globe, educated in another,initiated into warfare in the third and buried in the fourth. Inhis boyhood he was the friend and pupil of Guy Fawkes; he engagedin the Gunpowder Plot, and after witnessing the terrible fate ofhis master, he escaped to Spanish America, where he led for years asort of buccaneer life. He afterwards returned to Europe, and thenfollowed years of military service wherever his hireling sword wasneeded. But the soldier of fortune was ill-paid by his mistress.His misfortunes were as proverbial as his bravery, or as hisenergetic complaints of "ill luck" could make them. He had drawnhis sword in almost every quarrel of his time, on every battlefieldin Europe, to find himself, at the end of his military career, noricher than he was at its beginning – save in wounds and scars,honor and glory, and a wife and son. It was at this point of hislife that he met with Leonard Calvert, and embarked with him forMaryland, where he afterwards received from the Lord Proprietarythe grant of the manor "aforesaid." It is stated that when the oldsoldier went with some companions to take a look at his newpossessions, he was so pleased with the beauty, grandeur, richnessand promise of the place that a glad smile broke over his dark,storm-beaten, battle-scarred face, and he remained still "smilingas in delighted visions," until one of his friends spoke and said:"Well, comrade! Is this luck enough?" "Yaw, mine frient!" answeredthe new lord of the manor in his broken English, cordially graspingthe hand of his companion, "dish ish loke enough!"
Different constructions have been put upon thissimple answer – first, that Lukkinnuf was the original Indian nameof the tract; secondly, that Alexander Kalouga christened his manorin honor of Loekenoff, the native village of his wife, the heroicMarie Zelenski, the companion of all his campaigns and voyages, andthe first lady of his manor; thirdly, that the grateful and happysoldier had only meant to express his perfect satisfaction with hisfortune, and to say: "Yes, this is luck enough! luck enough torepay me for all the past!" Be it as it may, from time immemorialthe place has been "Luckenough."
The owner in 1814 was Commodore Nickolas Waugh, whoinherited the property in right of his mother, the only child andheiress of Peter Kalouga.
This man had the constitution and character, not ofhis mother's, but of his father's family – a hardy, rigorous,energetic Montgomery race, full of fire, spirit and enterprise. Atthe age of twelve Nickolas lost his father.
At fifteen he began to weary of the tedium ofLuckenough, varied only by the restraint of the academy duringterm. And at sixteen he rebelled against the rule of his indolentlymphatic mamma, broke through the reins of domestic government,escaped to Baltimore and shipped as cabin boy in a merchantman.
Nickolas Waugh went through many adventures, servedon board merchantmen, privateers and haply pirates, too, sailed toevery part of the known world, and led a wild, reckless and sinfullife, until the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, when he tookservice with Paul Jones, the American Sea King, and turned thebrighter part of his character up to the light. He performedmiracles of valor – achieved for himself a name and apost-captain's rank in the infant navy and finally was permitted toretire with a bullet lodged under his shoulder blade, a piece ofsilver trepanned in the top of his skull, a deep sword-cut acrosshis face from the right temple over his nose to the left cheek –and with the honorary title of commodore.
He was a perfect beauty about this time, no doubt,but that did not prevent him from receiving the hand of his cousinHenrietta Kalouga, who had waited for him many a weary year.
No children blessed his late marriage, and as yearafter year passed, until himself and his wife were well stricken inyears, people, who never lost interest in the great estate, beganto wonder to which among his tribe of impoverished relationsNickolas Waugh would bequeath the manor of Luckenough.
His choice fell at length upon his orphangrandniece, the beautiful Edith Lance, whom he took from theCatholic Orphan Asylum, where she had found refuge since the deathof her parents and placed in one of the best convent schools in theSouth.
At the age of seventeen Edith was brought home fromschool and established at Luckenough as the adopted daughter andacknowledged heiress of her uncle.
Delicate, dreamy and retiring, and tinged with acertain pensiveness, the effect of too much early sorrow andseclusion upon a very sensitive temperament, Edith better loved thesolitude of the grand old forest of St. Mary's or the loneliness ofher own shaded rooms at Luckenough than any society the humdrumneighborhood could offer her. And when at the call of social dutyshe did go into company, she exercised a refining and subduinginfluence, involuntary as it was potent.
Yet in that lovely, fragile form, in that dreaming,poetical soul, lay undeveloped a latent power of heroism soon to bearoused into action. "Darling of all hearts and eyes," Edith hadbeen at home a year when the War of 1812 broke out.
Maryland, as usual, contributed her large proportionof volunteers to the defense of the country. All men capable ofbearing arms rapidly mustered into companies and hastened to putthemselves at the disposal of the government.
The lower counties of Maryland were leftcomparatively unprotected. Old men, women, children and negroeswere all that remained in charge of the farms and plantations. Yetremote from the scenes of conflict and hitherto undisturbed by theconvulsions of the great world, they reposed in fancied safety andnever thought of such unprecedented misfortunes as the evils of thewar penetrating to their quiet homes.
But their rest of security was broken by atremendous shock. The British fleet under Admiral Sir A. Cockburnsuddenly entered the Chesapeake. And the quiet, lonely shores ofthe bay became the scene of a warfare scarcely paralleled inatrocity in ancient or modern times.
If among the marauding band of licensed pirates andassassins there was one name more dreaded, more loathed andaccursed than the rest, it was that of the brutal and ferociousThorg – the frequent leader of foraging parties, the unsparingdestroyer of womanhood, infancy and age, the jackal and purveyor ofAdmiral Cockburn. If anywhere there was a beautiful womanunprotected, or a rich plantation house ill-defended, this jackalwas sure to scent out "the game" for his master, the lion. And manywere the comely maidens and youthful wives seized and carried offby this monster.
The Patuxent and the Wicomico, with the coastbetween them, offered no strong temptation to a rapacious foe, andthe inhabitants reposed in the fancied security of their isolationand unimportance. The business of life went on, faintly andsorrowfully, to be sure, but still went on. The village shops at B– – and C – – were kept open, though tended chiefly by women andboys. The academicians at the little college pursued their studiesor played at forming juvenile military companies. The farms andplantations were cultivated chiefly under the direction of ladieswhose husbands, sons and brothers were absent with the army. No onethought of danger to St. Mary's.
Most terrible was the awakening from this dream ofsafety, when, on the morning of the 17th of August, the divisionunder the command of Admiral Cockburn – the most dreaded andabhorred of all – was seen to enter the mouth of the Patuxent infull sail for Benedict. Nearly all the able-bodied men were absentwith the army at the time when the combined military and navalforces tinder Admiral Cockburn and General Ross landed at thatplace. None remained to guard the homes but aged men, women,infants and negroes. A universal panic seized the neighborhood andnothing occurred to the defenseless people but instant flight.Females and children were hastily put into carriages, the mostvaluable items of plate or money hastily packed up, negroesmustered and the whole caravan put upon a hurried march for PrinceGeorge's, Montgomery or other upper counties of the State. Withvery few exceptions, the farms and plantations were evacuated andleft to the mercy of the invaders.
At sunrise all was noise, bustle and confusion atLuckenough.
The lawn was filled with baggage wagons, horses,mules, cows, oxen, sheep, swine, baskets of poultry, barrels ofprovisions, boxes of property, and men and maid servants hurryingwildly about among them, carrying trunks and parcels, loadingcarts, tackling harness, marshaling cattle and making otherpreparations for a rapid retreat toward Commodore Waugh'spatrimonial estate in Montgomery County.
Edith was placed upon her pony and attended by herold maid Jenny and her old groom Oliver.
Commodore and Mrs. Waugh entered the familycarriage, which they pretty well filled up. Mrs. Waugh's woman satupon the box behind and the Commodore's man drove the coach.
And the whole family party set forward on theirjourney. They went in advance of the caravan so as not to behindered and inconvenienced by its slow and cumbrous movements. Aride of three miles through the old forest brought them to theopen, hilly country. Here the road forked. And here the fami