To songs: BEELZEBUB * SISTER'S RING * CAN'T BE SO *

DENIED

SCENE 55 - Sunset, FRANCES's room

(With guests waiting for the wedding to begin, of SARAH and Col. WELLMEYER, Aunt JEANETTE finds her youngest niece in her room in tears. She affectionately entwines her arm in that of her niece.)

Aunt JEANETTE: Come, my love, the ceremony waits but for us. Endeavor to compose yourself, that proper honor may be done to the choice of your sister.

FRANCES: Is he - can he be worthy of her?

Aunt JEANETTE: Can he be otherwise? Is he not a gentleman? - a gallant soldier, though an unfortunate one? - and certainly, my love, one who appears every way qualified to make any woman happy.

(FRANCES has given vent to her feelings, and with an effort, she collects sufficient resolution to venture to join the party below.)

SCENE 56 - Sunset - inside the WHARTON drawing-room

(To relieve the embarrassment of this delay, the clergyman has put sundry questions to the bridegroom; one of which is by no means answered to his satisfaction. WELLMEYER is compelled to acknowledge that he is unprovided with a ring; and to perform the marriage ceremony without one, the divine pronounces to be canonically impossible. His appeal to Mr. WHARTON, for the propriety of this decision, is answered affirmatively.)

(The owner of the LOCUSTS has lost the little energy he possessed, by the blow recently received through his son's capture, and his assent to the reverend was as easily obtained as the premature proposals of WELLMEYER. In this state of dilemma, Miss PEYTON and FRANCES appear. The surgeon of the dragoons approaches the former, and as he hands her to a chair, observes - )

Dr. SITGREAVES: It appears, madam, that untoward circumstances have prevented Col. WELLMEYER from providing all the decorations of the custom, antiquity, and the canons of the church have prescribed as indispensable to enter into the honorable state of wedlock.

(Miss PEYTON glances at the uneasy bridegroom, then turns her look on the speaker as if to demand an explanation.)

SITGREAVES: The fourth finger of the left hand is thought to contain a virtue that belongs to no other branch of that digited member; and it is ordinarily encircled, during the solemnization of wedlock, with a cincture or ring, as if to chain that affection to the marriage state, which is secured by the graces of the female character.

(While speaking, he lays his hand on his heart and bows nearly to the floor, -)

Aunt JEANETTE: I know not, sir, that I rightly understand your meaning.

SITGREAVES: A ring, madam, - a ring is wanting for the ceremony.

(The instant the surgeon speaks explicitly, the awkwardness of the situation is understood. She glances her eyes at her nieces, and in the younger she reads a secret exultation that displeases her; but the countenance of SARAH suffers with a shame that the considerate aunt well understood. Not for the world would she violate any of the observances of female etiquette.)

(It suggests to all the females present at the same moment, that the wedding-ring of the late mother and sister is lying peacefully amid the rest of her jewelry, in a secret receptacle to secure valuables against the predatory inroads of the marauders who roam through the county. There into this hidden vault the ring has long lain, forgotten until this moment.)

(But it is the business of the bridegroom, from time immemorial, to furnish this indispensable to wedlock, and on no account would Miss PEYTON do any thing that transcends the usual reserve of the sex on this solemn occasion. This material fact, therefore, is not disclosed by either; the aunt consulting female propriety; the bride yielding to shame; and FRANCES rejoicing that an embarrassment, proceeding from almost any cause, should delay her sister's vow.)

Dr. SITGREAVES (interrupting this awkward silence): If, madam, a plain ring, that once belonged to a sister of my own - - If, madam, a ring of that description might be admitted to this honor, I have one that could be easily produced from my quarters at Four Corners, and I doubt not that it would fit the finger for which it is desired.

(A glance at Col. WELLMEYER recalls him to a sense of duty, and springing from his chair, he assures the surgeon, that in no way could he confer a greater obligation on himself than by sending for that very ring. Dr. SITGREAVES bows a little haughtily, and withdraws to fulfill his promise, by dispatching a messenger on the errand.)

(The gracious aunt, not wishing to admit a stranger into the privacy of their domestic arrangements, induces the surgeon into tendering the services of CAESAR, instead of those of Dr. SITGREAVES's man. KATY HAYNES is directed to summon the black to the vacant parlor and thither Miss PEYTON and the surgeon go to give their several instructions for obtaining the ring.)

(The consent to this sudden union of SARAH and Col. WELLMEYER, especially at a time when the life of a member of the family is in such imminent jeopardy, is given from a conviction, that the unsettled state of the country would probably prevent another opportunity of the lovers meeting, and a secret dread of Mr. WHARTON, that the death of his son might, by hastening his own, leave his remaining children without a protector.)

SCENE 57 - Night in WHARTON dining room

(Notwithstanding, Miss PEYTON has complied with her brother-in-law's wish to profit by the accidental visit of a divine; she had not thought it necessary to blazon the intended nuptials of her niece to the neighborhood, had even time allowed.)

(She thinks, therefore, that she is now communicating a profound secret to the black servant, CAESAR, and her housekeeper, KATY.)

Aunt JEANETTE: CAESAR, you are now to learn that your young mistress, Miss SARAH, is to be united to Col. WELLMEYER this evening.

CAESAR (chuckling) I tink I see him afore; old black can tell when a young lady make up her mind.

Aunt JEANETTE: Really, CAESAR? I find I have never given you credit for half the observation that you deserve; but as you already know on what emergency your services are required, listen to the directions of this gentleman, and take care to observe them strictly.

(CAESAR turns in quiet submission to the surgeon -)

Dr. SITGREAVES: CAESAR, your mistress has already acquainted you with the important event about to be solemnized within this house; but a ring is wanting to encircle the finger of the bride; a custom derived from the ancients, and which has been continued in marriage forms of several branches of the Christian church, and which is even, by a species of typical wedlock, used in the installation of prelates, as you doubtless understand.

CAESAR: Pr'aps massa doctor will say him over ag'in, I tink I get him by heart dis time.

Dr. SITGREAVES: It is impossible to gather honey from a rock, CAESAR, and therefore I will abridge the little I have to say. Ride to Four Corners, and present this note to Sergeant HOLLISTER or Mrs. BETTY FLANAGAN, either of whom will furnish the necessary pledge of connubial affection; and return forthwith.

The letter which the surgeon puts into the hand of his messenger reads:

====If the fever has left Kinder, give him nourishment. Take three ounces more of blood from Watson. Have a search made that the woman FLANAGAN has left none of her jugs of alcohol in the hospital. Renew the dressings of Johnson, and dismiss Smith to duty. Send to me the ring, which is pendant from the chain of the watch, that I left with you to time the doses, by the bearer of this message.

ARCHIBALD SITGREAVES, M.D., Surgeon of Dragoons====

(When she is alone with CAESAR, KATY cautions -)

KATY: CAESAR, put the ring, when you get it, in your left pocket, for that is nearest your heart; and by no means endeavor to try it on your finger, for it is unlucky.

CAESAR: Try it on he finger? You tink Miss SARAH's ring go on old CAESAR's finger?

KATY: 'Tis not consequential whether it goes on or not, but it is an evil omen to place a marriage-ring on the finger of another after wedlock, and of course it may be dangerous before.

CAESAR: I tell you, KATY, I neber tink to put um on a finger.

KATY: Go then, CAESAR, and do not forget the left pocket; be careful to take off your hat as you pass the grave-yard, and be expeditious; for nothing, I am certain, can be more trying to the patience, than thus to be waiting for the ceremony, when a body has fully made up her mind to marry.

SCENE 58 - Night, on the road to the INN

(With this injunction, CAESAR exits the house and is soon firmly fixed in the saddle. From his youth, the black, like all of his race, had been a hard rider; but, bending under the weight of sixty winters, his African blood had lost some of its native heat. The night is dark, and the wind whistles through the vale with the dreariness of November.)

(As CAESAR passes the graveyard, he uncovers his grizzled head with superstitious awe, and throws around him many a fearsome glance, in momentary expectation of seeing something superhuman. There is sufficient light to discern a being of earthly mold stealing from among the graves, apparently with a design to enter the highway.)

(It is in vain that philosophy and reason contend with early impressions, and poor CAESAR is even without the support of either of these frail allies. He is, however, well mounted on a coach horse of Mr. WHARTON's, and, clinging to the back of the animal with instinctive skill, he abandons the rein to the beast.)

(Hillocks, woods, rocks, fences, and houses fly by him with the rapidity of lightning, and the black begins to wonder on what business he is riding at such a headlong speed, when he reaches the place where the roads meet, and FLANAGAN's Inn stands before him in its dilapidated simplicity.)

(The sight of a cheerful fire first tells the negro that he has reached the habitation of man, and with it comes all the dread of the bloody Virginians; - his duty must, however, be done, and dismounting, he fastens the foaming animal to a fence, and approaches the window with cautious steps. He sees before a blazing fire Sergeant HOLLISTER and BETTY FLANAGAN, enjoying themselves over a liberal potation.)

SCENE 59 - Night inside the INN

BETTY: I tell yee, Sargeant, dear, 'tis no rasonable to think it was more than the pidler himself; sure now, where was the smell of sulfur, and the wings, and the tail, and the cloven foot? - besides, Sargeant, it's no dacent to tell a lone famale that she had Beelzebub for a bedfellow.

Sgt. HOLLISTER: It matters little, Mrs. FLANAGAN, provided you escape his talons and fangs, hereafter.

(CAESAR hears enough to convince him that little danger from this pair is to be apprehended. His teeth already begin to chatter, and the cold without and warmth within stimulates him greatly to enter. He makes his approaches with proper caution, and knocks with extreme humility. The appearance of HOLLISTER with a drawn sword, roughly demanding who is without, as CAESAR opens the door, contributes in no degree to the restoration of his facilities; but fear itself lends him power to explain his errand.)

Sgt. HOLLISTER: Advance, advance and deliver your dispatches; have you a countersign?

CAESAR: I don't tink he know what dat be; da massa dat sent me gib me many tings to carry, dat he little understand.

HOLLISTER: Who ordered you on this duty, did you say?

CAESAR: Well, it war he doctor, heself, so he come up on a gallop, as he always do on a doctor's errand.

HOLLISTER: Oh, 'twas Dr. SITGREAVES; he never knows the countersign himself. Now, had it been Capt. LAWTON, he would not have sent you here, close to a sentinel, without the countersign; for you might get a pistol bullet through your head, and that would be cruel to you. Although you be black, I am none of them who thinks blacks have no souls.

BETTY: Sure a black has as much sowl as a white. Come hither, ould man, and warm that shivering carcase of yeers by the blaze of this fire.

(CAESAR obeys in silence, and a young boy, who is sleeping on a bench in the room, is bidden to convey the note of the surgeon to the building where the wounded are quartered.)

BETTY (to CAESAR, offering him a taste of the article that most delights herself): Here, try a drop, 'twill warm the black sowl within your inner body, and be giving yee spirits as yee're going homeward.

HOLLISTER: I tell you, BETTY, that the souls of all are the same; how often have I heard the good Mr. Whitfield say, that there is no distinction of color in heaven.

CAESAR: (whose courage has been revived by tasting the drop of Mrs. FLANAGAN's) Be sure he be.

BETTY: It's a good sowl that the Major is, any way, and a kind sowl - ay, and a brave sowl, too; and yee'll say all that yeerself, Sargeant, I'm thinking.

HOLLISTER: For the matter of that, there is one above even Washington, to judge of souls; but this I will say, that Major DUNWOODIE is a gentleman who never says, "Go, boys;" but always says, "Come, boys;" and if a poor fellow is in want of a spur or a martingale, and the leather-whack is gone, there is never wanting the real silver to make up the loss, and that from his own pocket, too.

A VOICE (with startling abruptness): Why, then, are you here idle when all that he holds most dear are in danger? Mount, mount, and follow your captain; arm and mount, and that instantly, or you will be too late!

(This unexpected interruption produces an instantaneous confusion amongst the tipplers. CAESAR flees instantly onto the fireplace, where he maintains his position in defiance of a heat that would have roasted a white man.)

(Sgt. HOLLISTER turns promptly on his heel, and seizes his saber, the steel glittering from the firelight, in the twinkling of an eye; but perceiving the intruder to be the peddler, who stands near the open door that leads to the lean-to in the rear, he begins to fall back toward the position of CAESAR, with a military intuition that taught him to concentrate his forces.)

(BETTY alone stands her ground, by the side of the temporary table. Replenishing the mug with a large addition of the article known to the soldiery by the name of "choke-dog," she holds it toward the peddler.)

BETTY: Faith, but yeer wilcome, Mister Pidler, or Mister BIRCH, or Mister Beelzebub, or what's yeer name. Yee're an honest divil any way, and I'm hoping that yee found the pitticoats convanient. Come forward, dear and fale the fire. Sargeant HOLLISTER won't be hurting yee, for fear of an ill turn yee may be doing him thereafter - will yee, Sargeant, dear?

HOLLISTER (edging nearer to CAESAR) Depart, ungodly man! There is none here for thy service, and you seek the woman in vain. There is a tender mercy that will save her from your talons.

(The sergeant ceases to utter aloud, but motion of his lips continues as if in prayer. The brain of the washerwoman is in such a state of confusion that she does not clearly comprehend the meaning of her suitor, but a new idea strikes her imagination, and she breaks forth -)

BETTY: If it's me the man sakes, where's the matter, pray? Am I not a widowed body, and my own property? And you talk of tinderness, Sargeant; but it's little I see of it anyway: who knows but Mr. Beelzebub here is free to spake his mind. I'm sure that it is willing to hear that I am.

BIRCH: Woman, be silent, and you, foolish man, mount - arm and mount, and fly to the rescue of your officer, if you are worthy of the cause in which you serve, and would not disgrace the coat you wear.

(The peddler vanishes from the sight of the bewildered trio, with a rapidity that left them uncertain whither he has fled. On hearing the voice of an old friend, CAESAR emerges from his corner and fearlessly advances to the spot where BETTY had resolutely stood her ground, though in a state of utter confusion.)

CAESAR: I wish HARVEY would stop; if he ride down the road, I should like he company; - I don't tink JOHNNY BIRCH hurt his own son.

HOLLISTER: Poor ignorant wretch! think you that figure was made of flesh and blood?

CAESAR: HARVEY ain't fleshy, but he a berry clebber man.

BETTY: Pooh, Sargeant dear, talk reason for once, and mind what the knowing one tells yee; call out the boys, and ride a bit after Captain JACK.

HOLLISTER: Not at a summons from that foul fiend. Let Capt. LAWTON, or Lt. MASON, or Cornet SKIPWORTH, say the word, and who is quicker in the saddle than I?

BETTY: Well, Sargeant, how often is it yee have boasted to myself that the corps wasn't a bit afeard to face the divil?

HOLLISTER: No more are we, in battle array, and by daylight; but it's foolhardy and irreverent to tempt Satin and on such a night as this: listen how the wind whistles through the trees, and hark, there is the howling of evil spirits abroad.

CAESAR: (opening his eyes wide) I see him.

HOLLISTER: (instinctly laying his hand on his saber.) Where?

CAESAR: I see ole Mista BIRCH come out of he grave - he walk afore he buried.

HOLLISTER: Ah, then he must have led an evil life indeed; the blessed in spirit lie quiet until the general muster, but wickedness disturbs the soul in this life as well as in that which is to come.

HOLLISTER: Nay, BETTY, nay, if there must be riding tonight, let it be by him whose duty it is to call out the men and to set an example. The Lord have mercy, and send us enemies of flesh and blood.

(The boy arriving with the ring, CAESAR places it carefully in the pocket of his waistcoat next to his heart, and set out abruptly.)

(Another glass confirms the veteran soldier in a resolution that is only excited by a dread of his Captain's displeasure and he leaves to summon the dozen men who had been left under his command.)

SCENE 60 - Night outside the INN

(Mounting, CAESAR shuts his eyes, seizes his charger by the mane, continues in a state of comparative insensibility until the animal stops at the door of the warm stable whence he had started.)

(Informing the dragoons and preparing them to move in the order of a march is much slower, for they are made with a watchfulness that is intended to guard against surprise from the evil one himself.)

SCENE 61 - Night inside WHARTON's drawing-room

(The party in Mr. WHARTON' dwelling is sufficiently awkward during the hour of CAESAR's absence, while riding the four miles to the Inn and back, with the astonishing rapidity of his horse and events as recorded in that period of time.)

(Premeditated happiness is certainly the least joyous kind, and the bride and bridegroom are privileged to be dull, but few of their friends seem disposed to dishonor their example. The English Colonel sits by the side of SARAH, who seems to be profiting from the delay to gather fortitude for the solemn ceremony. The doctor has contrived to procure a chair beside Miss PEYTON.)

Dr. SITGREAVES: Marriage, madam, is pronounced to be honorable in the sight of God and man; and it may be said to be reduced, in the present age, to the laws of nature and reason. The ancients, in sanctioning polygamy, lost sight of the provisions of nature, and condemned thousands to misery; but with the increase of science have grown the wise ordinances of society, which ordain that man should be the husband of but one woman.

(Col. WELLMEYER glances a fierce expression of disgust at the surgeon, that indicates his sense of the tediousness of the other's remarks; while Miss PEYTON, with a slight hesitation, as if fearful of touching on forbidden subjects, - replies:)

Miss PEYTON: I had thought, sir, that we were indebted to the Christian religion for our morals on this subject.

SITGREAVES: True, madam, it is somewhere provided in the prescriptions of the apostles, that the sexes should henceforth be on an equality in this particular. But in what degree could polygamy affect holiness of life? It was probably a wise arrangement of Paul, who was much of a scholar, and probably had frequent conferences, on this important subject, with Luke, whom we all know to have been bred to the practice of medicine -.

(There is no telling how far the fancy of SITGREAVES might have led him on this subject, had he not been interrupted,)

Capt. LAWTON: Pray, Colonel WELLMEYER, in what manner is bigamy punished in England?

(The bridegroom starts, and his lip blanches. Recovering himself, on the instant, he answers with a suavity that became so happy a man -)

Col. WELLMEYER: Death! - as such an offense merits.

SITGREAVES: Death and dissection. It is seldom that the law loses sight of eventual utility in a malefactor. Bigamy in a man is a heinous offense!

LAWTON: More so than celibacy?

SITGREAVES: More so, he who remains in a single state may devote his life to science and the extension of knowledge, if not of his species, but the wretch who profits by the constitutional tendency of the female sex to credulity and tenderness, incurs the wickedness of a positive sin, heightened by the baseness of deception.

LAWTON: Really, sir, the ladies are infinitely obliged to you, for attributing folly to them as part of their nature.

Dr. SITGREAVES: Capt. LAWTON, in man the animal is more nobly formed than in woman. The nerves are endowed with less sensibility; the whole frame is less pliable and yielding; is it, therefore surprising, that a tendency to rely on the faith of her partner is more natural to woman than to the other sex?

(Col. WELLMEYER, as if unable to listen with any degree of patience to so ill-timed a dialogue, springs from his seat and paces the floor in disorder. Pitying his situation, the reverend changes the discourse, and in a few minutes CAESAR arrives. The billet is handed to the doctor, for Miss PEYTON had expressly informed CAESAR not to implicate her, in any manner in the errand on which he was dispatched. The note contains a summary statement and refers him to the black for the ring, which is promptly delivered.)

Dr. SITGREAVES: Poor Anna, gay as innocence and youth could make thee was thy heart, when this cincture was formed to grace they nuptials; but ere the hour had come, God had taken thee to himself. Years have past, my sister, but never have I forgotten the companion of my infancy.

(He advances to SARAH, -)

(SARAH feels a chill at her heart, as this burst of feeling escapes the dungeon; but, Col.WELLMEYER offering his hand, she is led before the divine, and the ceremony begins. The first words of this imposing office produces a dead stillness in the room; and the minister of God proceeds to the solemn exhortation, and witnesses the plighted troth of the parties, when the investiture is to follow.)

(The ring had been left on the finger where Dr. SITGREAVES had placed it - this slight interruption occasioned by the circumstance is over, and the clergyman is about to proceed, when a figure gliding into the midst of the party, at once put a stop to the ceremony. It was the peddler. His look is bitter and ironical, while a finger, raised toward the divine, seems to forbid the ceremony to go any farther.)

(HARVEY leaves quickly as to baffle pursuit, while all there rethink his words in disbelief.)

(SARAH sees in the eyes of her betrothed the most terrible confirmation of what the peddler said.)

(She falls into the arms of her aunt, as every eye is fixed on the colonel.)

(He reaches the entry to leave, when a tap on his shoulder causes him to turn his head; it is Capt. LAWTON, who beckons him to follow. The state of WELLMEYER' mind is such that he would gladly have gone anywhere to avoid the gaze of horror and detestation that glared from every eye he met, as they left.)