The man of God kindled in the face. He was a dark-eyed, square-browed,
serious man, with black hair falling below his white band. His mouth had
a sweet benign expression, even when he quizzed me about my dauphinhood.
A New England pastor was a flame that burned for the enlightenment of
the nations. From that hour it was settled that I should be his pupil,
and go with him to Longmeadow to finish my education.
When we landed he helped me to sell my Babylonish clothes, except the
white court dress, to which I clung with tenacity displeasing to him,
and garb myself in more befitting raiment. By Skenedonk's hand I sent
some of the remaining gold coins to my mother Marianne and the chief,
when he rejoined the tribe and went to pass the winter at St. Regis. And
by no means did I forget to tell him to bring me letters from De
Chaumont's manor in the spring, if any arrived there for me.
How near to heaven the New England village seemed, with Mount Tom on the
horizon glorious as Mount Zion, the mighty sweep of meadow land, the
Connecticut river flowing in great peace, the broad street of elms like
some gigantic cathedral nave, and in its very midst a shrine--the
meetinghouse, double-decked with fan-topped windows.
Religion and education were the mainsprings of its life. Pastor Storrs
worked in his study nearly nine hours a day, and spent the remaining
hours in what he called visitation of his flock.
This being lifted out of Paris and plunged into Longmeadow was the
pouring of white hot metal into chill moulds. It cast me. With a
seething and a roar of loosened forces, the boy passed to the man.
Nearly every night during all those years of changing, for even
faithfulness has its tides, I put the snuffbox under my pillow, and
Madame de Ferrier's key spoke to my ear. I would say to myself: "The one
I love gave me this key. Did I ever sit beside her on a ledge of stone
overlooking a sunken garden?--so near that I might have touched her!
Does she ever think of the dauphin Louis? Where is she? Does she know
that Lazarre has become Eleazar Williams?"
The pastor's house was fronted with huge white fluted pillars of wood,
upholding a porch roof which shaded the second floor windows. The doors
in that house had a short-waisted effect with little panels above and
long panels below. I had a chamber so clean and small that I called it
in my mind the Monk's Cell, nearly filled with the high posted bed, the
austere table and chairs. The whitewashed walls were bare of pictures,
except a painted portrait of Stephen Williams, pastor of Longmeadow from
1718 to 1783. Daily his laughing eyes watched me as if he found my
pretensions a great joke. He had a long nose, and a high forehead. His
black hair crinkled, and a merry crease drew its half circle from one
cheek around under his chin to the other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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