Nathaniel Hawthorne/Nathaniel Hawthorne.iso/pc/articles/a1/t0029

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                                 My Kinsman, Major Molineux

AFTER the kings of Great Britain had assumed the right of appointing the
colonial governors, the measures of the latter seldom met with the ready
and general approbation, which had been paid to those of their
predecessors, under the original charters. The people looked with most
jealous scrutiny to the exercise of power, which did not emanate from
themselves, and they usually rewarded the rulers with slender gratitude,
for the compliances, by which, in softening their instructions from beyond
the sea, they had incurred the reprehension of those who gave them. The
annals of Massachusetts Bay will inform us, that of six governors, in the
space of about forty years from the surrender of the old charter, under
 James II., two were imprisoned by a popular insurrection; a third, as
 Hutchinson inclines to believe, was driven from the province by the
whizzing of a musket ball; a fourth, in the opinion of the same historian,
was hastened to his grave by continual bickerings with the House of
Representatives; and the remaining two, as well as their successors, till the
Revolution, were favored with few and brief intervals of peaceful sway.
The inferior members of the court party, in times of high political
excitement, led scarcely a more desirable life. These remarks may serve as
preface to the following adventures, which chanced upon a summer night,
not far from a hundred years ago. The reader, in order to avoid a long and
dry detail of colonial affairs, is requested to dispense with an account of
the train of circumstances, that had caused much temporary inflammation
of the popular mind.
     It was near nine o'clock of a moonlight evening, when a boat crossed
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                              2

the ferry with a single passenger, who had obtained his conveyance, at that
unusual hour, by the promise of an extra fare. While he stood on the
landing-place, searching in either pocket for the means of fulfilling his
agreement, the ferryman lifted a lantern, by the aid of which, and the
newly risen moon, he took a very accurate survey of the stranger's figure.
He was a youth of barely eighteen years, evidently country-bred, and now,
as it should seem, upon his first visit to town. He was clad in a coarse grey
coat, well worn, but in excellent repair; his under garments were durably
constructed of leather, and sat tight to a pair of serviceable and well-
shaped limbs; his stockings of blue yarn, were the incontrovertible
handiwork of a mother or a sister; and on his head was a three-cornered
hat, which in its better days had perhaps sheltered the graver brow of the
lad's father. Under his left arm was a heavy cudgel, formed of an oak
sapling, and retaining a part of the hardened root; and his equipment was
completed by a  wallet, not so abundantly stocked as to incommode the
vigorous shoulders on which it hung. Brown, curly hair, well-shaped
features, and bright, cheerful eyes, were nature's gifts, and worth all that
art could have done for his adornment.
     The youth, one of whose names was Robin, finally drew from his
pocket the half of a little  province-bill of five shillings, which, in the
depreciation of that sort of currency, did but satisfy the ferryman's
demand, with the surplus of a sex-angular piece of parchment valued at
three pence. He then walked forward into the town, with as light a step, as
if his day's journey had not already exceeded thirty miles, and with as
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                              3

eager an eye, as if he were entering London city, instead of the little
metropolis of a New England colony. Before Robin had proceeded far,
however, it occurred to him, that he knew not whither to direct his steps;
so he paused, and looked up and down the narrow street, scrutinizing the
small and mean wooden buildings, that were scattered on either side.
     'This low hovel cannot be my kinsman's dwelling,' thought he, 'nor
yonder old house, where the moonlight enters at the broken casement; and
truly I see none hereabouts that might be worthy of him. It would have
been wise to inquire my way of the ferryman, and doubtless he would
have gone with me, and earned a shilling from the Major for his pains. But
the next man I meet will do as well.'
     He resumed his walk, and was glad to perceive that the street now
became wider, and the houses more respectable in their appearance. He
soon discerned a figure moving on moderately in advance, and hastened
his steps to overtake it. As Robin drew nigh, he saw that the passenger was
a man in years, with a full periwig of grey hair, a wide-skirted coat of dark
cloth, and silk stockings rolled about his knees. He carried a long and
polished cane, which he struck down perpendicularly before him, at every
step; and at regular intervals he uttered two successive hems, of a
peculiarly solemn and sepulchral intonation. Having made these
observations, Robin laid hold of the skirt of the old man's coat, just when
the light from the open door and windows of a barber's shop, fell upon
both their figures.
    'Good evening to you, honored Sir,' said he, making a low bow, and still
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                              4

retaining his hold of the skirt. 'I pray you to tell me whereabouts is the
dwelling of my kinsman, Major Molineux?'
     The youth's question was uttered very loudly; and one of the barbers,
whose razor was descending on a well-soaped chin, and another who was
dressing a  Ramillies  wig, left their occupations, and came to the door.
The citizen, in the meantime, turned a long favored countenance upon
Robin, and answered him in a tone of excessive anger and annoyance. His
two sepulchral hems, however, broke into the very centre of his rebuke,
with most singular effect, like a thought of the cold grave obtruding
among wrathful passions.
     'Let go my garment, fellow! I tell you, I know not the man you speak
of. What! I have authority, I have--hem, hem--authority; and if this be the
respect you show your betters, your feet shall be brought acquainted with
the stocks, by daylight, tomorrow morning!'
     Robin released the old man's skirt, and hastened away, pursued by an
ill-mannered roar of laughter from the barber's shop. He was at first
considerably surprised by the result of his question, but, being a shrewd
youth, soon thought himself able to account for the mystery.
     'This is some country representative,' was his conclusion, 'who has
never seen the inside of my kinsman's door, and lacks the breeding to
answer a stranger civilly. The man is old, or verily--I might be tempted to
turn back and smite him on the nose. Ah, Robin, Robin! even the barber's
boys laugh at you, for choosing such a guide! You will be wiser in time,
friend Robin.'
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                              5

     He now became entangled in a succession of crooked and narrow
streets, which crossed each other, and meandered at no great distance from
the water-side. The smell of tar was obvious to his nostrils, the masts of
vessels pierced the moonlight above the tops of the buildings, and the
numerous signs, which Robin paused to read, informed him that he was
near the centre of business. But the streets were empty, the shops were
closed, and lights were visible only in the second stories of a few
dwelling-houses. At length, on the corner of a narrow lane, through which
he was passing, he beheld the broad countenance of a British hero
swinging before the door of an inn, whence proceeded the voices of many
guests. The casement of one of the lower windows was thrown back, and a
very thin curtain permitted Robin to distinguish a party at supper, round a
well-furnished table. The fragrance of the good cheer steamed forth into
the outer air, and the youth could not fail to recollect, that the last remnant
of his travelling stock of provision had yielded to his morning appetite,
and that noon had found, and left him, dinnerless.
     'Oh, that a parchment three-penny might give me a right to sit down at
yonder table,' said Robin, with a sigh. 'But the Major will make me
welcome to the best of his victuals; so I will even step boldly in, and
inquire my way to his dwelling.'
     He entered the tavern, and was guided by the murmur of voices, and
fumes of tobacco, to the public room. It was a long and low apartment,
with oaken walls, grown dark in the continual smoke, and a floor, which
was thickly sanded, but of no immaculate purity. A number of persons, the
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                              6

larger part of whom appeared to be mariners, or in some way connected
with the sea, occupied the wooden benches, or leather-bottomed chairs,
conversing on various matters, and occasionally lending their attention to
some topic of general interest. Three or four little groups were draining as
many bowls of punch, which the great West India trade had long since
made a familiar drink in the colony. Others, who had the aspect of men
who lived by regular and laborious handicraft, preferred the insulated bliss
of an unshared potation, and became more taciturn under its influence.
Nearly all, in short, evinced a predilection for the Good Creature in
some of its various shapes, for this is a vice, to which, as the Fast-day
sermons of a hundred years ago will testify, we have a long hereditary
claim. The only guests to whom Robin's sympathies inclined him, were
two or three sheepish countrymen, who were using the inn somewhat after
the fashion of a Turkish Caravansary; they had gotten themselves into the
darkest corner of the room, and, heedless of the Nicotian atmosphere,
were supping on the bread of their own ovens, and the bacon cured in their
own chimney-smoke. But though Robin felt a sort of brotherhood with
these strangers, his eyes were attracted from them, to a person who stood
near the door, holding whispered conversation with a group of ill-dressed
associates. His features were separately striking almost to grotesqueness,
and the whole face left a deep impression in the memory. The forehead
bulged out into a double prominence, with a vale between; the nose came
boldly forth in an irregular curve, and its bridge was of more than a
finger's breadth; the eyebrows were deep and shaggy, and the eyes glowed
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                              7

beneath them like fire in a cave.
     While Robin deliberated of whom to inquire respecting his kinsman's
dwelling, he was accosted by the innkeeper, a little man in a stained white
apron, who had come to pay his professional welcome to the stranger.
Being in the second generation from a French Protestant, he seemed to
have inherited the courtesy of his parent nation; but no variety of
circumstance was ever known to change his voice from the one shrill note
in which he now addressed Robin.
     'From the country, I presume, Sir?' said he, with a profound bow. 'Beg
to congratulate you on your arrival, and trust you intend a long stay with
us. Fine town here, Sir, beautiful buildings, and much that may interest a
stranger. May I hope for the honor of your commands in respect to
supper?'
     'The man sees a family likeness! the rogue has guessed that I am related
to the Major!' thought Robin, who had hitherto experienced little
superfluous civility.
     All eyes were now turned on the country lad, standing at the door, in
his worn three-cornered hat, grey coat, leather breeches, and blue yarn
stockings, leaning on an oaken cudgel, and bearing a wallet on his back.
     Robin replied to the courteous innkeeper, with such an assumption of
consequence, as befitted the Major's relative.
     'My honest friend,' he said, 'I shall make it a point to patronize your
house on some occasion, when--' here he could not help lowering his
voice--'I may have more than a parchment three-pence in my pocket. My
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                              8

present business,' continued he, speaking with lofty confidence, 'is merely
to inquire the way to the dwelling of my kinsman, Major Molineux.'
     There was a sudden and general movement in the room, which Robin
interpreted as expressing the eagerness of each individual to become his
guide. But the innkeeper turned his eyes to a written paper on the wall,
which he read, or seemed to read, with occasional recurrences to the young
man's figure.
     'What have we here?' said he, breaking his speech into little dry
fragments. "'Left the house of the subscriber,  bounden  servant,
Hezekiah Mudge--had on, when he went away, grey coat, leather breeches,
master's third best hat. One pound currency reward to whoever shall lodge
him in any jail in the province." Better trudge, boy, better trudge!'
     Robin had begun to draw his hand towards the lighter end of the oak
cudgel, but a strange hostility in every countenance, induced him to
relinquish his purpose of breaking the courteous innkeeper's head. As he
turned to leave the room, he encountered a sneering glance from the bold-
featured personage whom he had before noticed; and no sooner was he
beyond the door, than he heard a general laugh, in which the innkeeper's
voice might be distinguished, like the dropping of small stones into a
kettle.
     'Now is it not strange,' thought Robin, with his usual shrewdness, 'is it
not strange, that the confession of an empty pocket, should outweigh the
name of my kinsman, Major Molineux? Oh, if I had one of these grinning
rascals in the woods, where I and my oak sapling grew up together, I
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                              9

would teach him that my arm is heavy, though my purse be light!'
     On turning the corner of the narrow lane, Robin found himself in a
spacious street, with an unbroken line of lofty houses on each side, and a
steepled building at the upper end, whence the ringing of a bell announced
the hour of nine. The light of the moon, and the lamps from numerous
shop windows, discovered people promenading on the pavement, and
amongst them, Robin hoped to recognize his hitherto inscrutable relative.
The result of his former inquiries made him unwilling to hazard another, in
a scene of such publicity, and he determined to walk slowly and silently
up the street, thrusting his face close to that of every elderly gentleman, in
search of the Major's lineaments. In his progress, Robin encountered many
gay and gallant figures. Embroidered garments, of showy colors,
enormous periwigs, gold-laced hats, and silver hilted swords, glided past
him and dazzled his optics. Travelled youths, imitators of the European
fine gentlemen of the period, trod jauntily along, half-dancing to the
fashionable tunes which they hummed, and making poor Robin ashamed
of his quiet and natural gait. At length, after many pauses to examine the
gorgeous display of goods in the shop windows, and after suffering some
rebukes for the impertinence of his scrutiny into people's faces, the Major's
kinsman found himself near the steepled building, still unsuccessful in his
search. As yet, however, he had seen only one side of the thronged street;
so Robin crossed, and continued the same sort of inquisition down the
opposite pavement, with stronger hopes than the philosopher seeking an
honest man, but with no better fortune. He had arrived about midway
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                            10

towards the lower end, from which his course began, when he overheard
the approach of some one, who struck down a cane on the flag-stones at
every step, uttering, at regular intervals, two sepulchral hems.
     'Mercy on us!' quoth Robin, recognizing the sound.
     Turning a corner, which chanced to be close at his right hand, he
hastened to pursue his researches, in some other part of the town. His
patience was now wearing low, and he seemed to feel more fatigue from
his rambles since he crossed the ferry, than from his journey of several
days on the other side. Hunger also pleaded loudly within him, and Robin
began to balance the propriety of demanding, violently and with lifted
cudgel, the necessary guidance from the first solitary passenger, whom he
should meet. While a resolution to this effect was gaining strength, he
entered a street of mean appearance, on either side of which, a row of ill-
built houses was straggling towards the harbor. The moonlight fell upon
no passenger along the whole extent, but in the third domicile which
Robin passed, there was a half-opened door, and his keen glance detected
a woman's garment within.
     'My luck may be better here,' said he to himself. Accordingly, he
approached the door, and beheld it shut closer as he did so; yet an open
space remained, sufficing for the fair occupant to observe the stranger,
without a corresponding display on her part. All that Robin could discern
was a strip of scarlet petticoat, and the occasional sparkle of an eye, as if
the moonbeams were trembling on some bright thing.
     'Pretty mistress,'--for I may call her so with a good conscience, thought
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                            11

the shrewd youth, since I know nothing to the contrary--'my sweet pretty
mistress, will you be kind enough to tell me whereabouts I must seek the
dwelling of my kinsman, Major Molineux?'
     Robin's voice was plaintive and winning, and the female, seeing
nothing to be shunned in the handsome country youth, thrust open the
door, and came forth into the moonlight. She was a dainty little figure,
with a white neck, round arms, and a slender waist, at the extremity of
which her scarlet petticoat jutted out over a hoop, as if she were standing
in a balloon. Moreover, her face was oval and pretty, her hair dark beneath
the little cap, and her bright eyes possessed a sly freedom, which
triumphed over those of Robin.
     'Major Molineux dwells here,' said this fair woman.
     Now her voice was the sweetest Robin had heard that night, the airy
counterpart of a stream of melted silver; yet he could not help doubting
whether that sweet voice spoke Gospel truth. He looked up and down the
mean street, and then surveyed the house before which they stood. It was a
small, dark edifice of two stories, the second of which projected over the
lower floor; and the front apartment had the aspect of a shop for petty
commodities.
     'Now truly I am in luck,' replied Robin, cunningly, 'and so indeed is
my kinsman, the Major, in having so pretty a housekeeper. But I prithee
trouble him to step to the door; I will deliver him a message from his
friends in the country, and then go back to my lodgings at the inn.'
     'Nay, the Major has been a-bed this hour or more,' said the lady of the
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                            12

scarlet petticoat; 'and it would be to little purpose to disturb him to-night,
seeing his evening draught was of the strongest. But he is a kind-hearted
man, and it would be as much as my life's worth, to let a kinsman of his
turn away from the door. You are the good old gentleman's very picture,
and I could swear that was his rainy-weather hat. Also, he has garments
very much resembling those leather--But come in, I pray, for I bid you
hearty welcome in his name.'
     So saying, the fair and hospitable dame took our hero by the hand; and
though the touch was light, and the force was gentleness, and though
Robin read in her eyes what he did not hear in her words, yet the slender
waisted woman, in the scarlet petticoat, proved stronger than the athletic
country youth. She had drawn his half-willing footsteps nearly to the
threshold, when the opening of a door in the neighborhood, startled the
Major's housekeeper, and, leaving the Major's kinsman, she vanished
speedily into her own domicile. A heavy yawn preceded the appearance of
a man, who, like the  Moonshine  of  Pyramus  and  Thisbe, carried a
lantern, needlessly aiding his sister luminary in the heavens. As he walked
sleepily up the street, he turned his broad, dull face on Robin, and
displayed a long staff, spiked at the end.
     'Home, vagabond, home!' said the watchman, in accents that seemed to
fall asleep as soon as they were uttered. 'Home, or we'll set you in the
stocks by peep of day!'
     'This is the second hint of the kind,' thought Robin. 'I wish they would
end my difficulties, by setting me there tonight.'
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                            13

     Nevertheless, the youth felt an instinctive antipathy towards the
guardian of midnight order, which at first prevented him from asking his
usual question. But just when the man was about to vanish behind the
corner, Robin resolved not to lose the opportunity, and shouted lustily
after him--
     'I say, friend! will you guide me to the house of my kinsman, Major
Molineux?'
     The watchman made no reply, but turned the corner and was gone; yet
Robin seemed to hear the sound of drowsy laughter stealing along the
solitary street. At that moment, also, a pleasant titter saluted him from the
open window above his head; he looked up, and caught the sparkle of a
saucy eye; a round arm beckoned to him, and next he heard light footsteps
descending the staircase within. But Robin, being of the household of a
New England clergyman, was a good youth, as well as a shrewd one; so he
resisted temptation, and fled away.
     He now roamed desperately, and at random, through the town, almost
ready to believe that a spell was on him, like that, by which a wizard of his
country, had once kept three pursuers wandering, a whole winter night,
within twenty paces of the cottage which they sought. The streets lay
before him, strange and desolate, and the lights were extinguished in
almost every house. Twice, however, little parties of men, among whom
Robin distinguished individuals in outlandish attire, came hurrying along,
but though on both occasions they paused to address him, such intercourse
did not at all enlighten his perplexity. They did but utter a few words in
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                            14

some language of which Robin knew nothing, and perceiving his inability
to answer, bestowed a curse upon him in plain English, and hastened
away. Finally, the lad determined to knock at the door of every mansion
that might appear worthy to be occupied by his kinsman, trusting that
perseverance would overcome the fatality which had hitherto thwarted
him. Firm in this resolve, he was passing beneath the walls of a church,
which formed the corner of two streets, when, as he turned into the shade
of its steeple, he encountered a bulky stranger, muffled in a cloak. The
man was proceeding with the speed of earnest business, but Robin planted
himself full before him, holding the oak cudgel with both hands across his
body, as a bar to further passage.
     'Halt, honest man, and answer me a question,' said he, very resolutely.
'Tell me, this instant, whereabouts is the dwelling of my kinsman, Major
Molineux?'
     'Keep your tongue between your teeth, fool, and let me pass,' said a
deep, gruff voice, which Robin partly remembered. 'Let me pass, I say, or
I'll strike you to the earth!'
     'No, no, neighbor!' cried Robin, flourishing his cudgel, and then
thrusting its larger end close to the man's muffled face. 'No, no, I'm not the
fool you take me for, nor do you pass, till I have an answer to my question.
Whereabouts is the dwelling of my kinsman, Major Molineux?'
     The stranger, instead of attempting to force his passage, stept back into
the moonlight, unmuffled his own face and stared full into that of Robin.
     'Watch here an hour, and Major Molineux will pass by,' said he.
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                            15

     Robin gazed with dismay and astonishment, on the unprecedented
physiognomy of the speaker. The forehead with its double prominence, the
broad-hooked nose, the shaggy eyebrows, and fiery eyes, were those
which he had noticed at the inn, but the man's complexion had undergone
a singular, or, more properly, a two-fold change. One side of the face
blazed of an intense red, while the other was black as midnight, the
division line being in the broad bridge of the nose; and a mouth, which
seemed to extend from ear to ear, was black or red, in contrast to the color
of the cheek. The effect was as if two individual devils, a fiend of fire and
a fiend of darkness, had united themselves to form this infernal visage.
The stranger grinned in Robin's face, muffled his parti-colored features,
and was out of sight in a moment.
     'Strange things we travellers see!' ejaculated Robin.
     He seated himself, however, upon the steps of the church-door,
resolving to wait the appointed time for his kinsman's appearance. A few
moments were consumed in philosophical speculations, upon the species
of the  genus  homo, who had just left him, but having settled this point
shrewdly, rationally, and satisfactorily, he was compelled to look
elsewhere for amusement. And first he threw his eyes along the street; it
was of more respectable appearance than most of those into which he had
wandered, and the moon, 'creating, like the imaginative power, a beautiful
strangeness in familiar objects,' gave something of romance to a scene,
that might not have possessed it in the light of day. The irregular, and
often quaint architecture of the houses, some of whose roofs were broken
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                            16

into numerous little peaks; while others ascended, steep and narrow, into a
single point; and others again were square; the pure milk-white of some of
their complexions, the aged darkness of others, and the thousand
sparklings, reflected from bright substances in the plastered walls of many;
these matters engaged Robin's attention for awhile, and then began to
grow wearisome. Next he endeavored to define the forms of distant
objects, starting away with almost ghostly indistinctness, just as his eye
appeared to grasp them; and finally he took a minute survey of an edifice,
which stood on the opposite side of the street, directly in front of the
church-door, where he was stationed. It was a large square mansion,
distinguished from its neighbors by a balcony, which rested on tall pillars,
and by an elaborate Gothic window, communicating therewith.
     'Perhaps this is the very house I have been seeking,' thought Robin.
     Then he strove to speed away the time, by listening to a murmur, which
swept continually along the street, yet was scarcely audible, except to an
unaccustomed ear like his; it was a low, dull, dreamy sound, compounded
of many noises, each of which was at too great a distance to be separately
heard. Robin marvelled at this snore of a sleeping town, and marvelled
more, whenever its continuity was broken, by now and then a distant
shout, apparently loud where it originated. But altogether it was a sleep-
inspiring sound, and to shake off its drowsy influence, Robin arose, and
climbed a window-frame, that he might view the interior of the church.
There the moonbeams came trembling in, and fell down upon the deserted
pews, and extended along the quiet aisles. A fainter, yet more awful
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                            17

radiance, was hovering round the pulpit, and one solitary ray had dared to
rest upon the opened page of the great Bible. Had Nature, in that deep
hour, become a worshipper in the house, which man had builded? Or was
that heavenly light the visible sanctity of the place, visible because no
earthly and impure feet were within the walls? The scene made Robin's
heart shiver with a sensation of loneliness, stronger than he had ever felt in
the remotest depths of his native woods; so he turned away, and sat down
again before the door. There were graves around the church, and now an
uneasy thought obtruded into Robin's breast. What if the object of his
search, which had been so often and so strangely thwarted, were all the
time mouldering in his shroud? What if his kinsman should glide through
yonder gate, and nod and smile to him in passing dimly by?
     'Oh, that any breathing thing were here with me!' said Robin.
Recalling his thoughts from this uncomfortable track, he sent them over
forest, hill, and stream, and attempted to imagine how that evening of
ambiguity and weariness, had been spent by his father's household. He
pictured them assembled at the door, beneath the tree, the great old tree,
which had been spared for its huge twisted trunk, and venerable shade,
when a thousand leafy brethren fell. There, at the going down of the
summer sun, it was his father's custom to perform domestic worship, that
the neighbors might come and join with him like brothers of the family,
and that the wayfaring man might pause to drink at that fountain, and keep
his heart pure by freshening the memory of home. Robin distinguished the
seat of every individual of the little audience; he saw the good man in the
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                            18

midst, holding the Scriptures in the golden light that shone from the
western clouds; he beheld him close the book, and all rise up to pray. He
heard the old thanksgivings for daily mercies, the old supplications for
their continuance, to which he had so often listened in weariness, but
which were now among his dear remembrances. He perceived the slight
inequality of his father's voice when he came to speak of the Absent One;
he noted how his mother turned her face to the broad and knotted trunk;
how his elder brother scorned, because the beard was rough upon his
upper lip, to permit his features to be moved; how his younger sister drew
down a low hanging branch before her eyes; and how the little one of all,
whose sports had hitherto broken the decorum of the scene, understood the
prayer for her playmate, and burst into clamorous grief. Then he saw them
go in at the door; and when Robin would have entered also, the latch
tinkled into its place, and he was excluded from his home.
     'Am I here, or there?' cried Robin, starting; for all at once, when his
thoughts had become visible and audible in a dream, the long, wide,
solitary street shone out before him.
     He aroused himself, and endeavored to fix his attention steadily upon
the large edifice which he had surveyed before. But still his mind kept
vibrating between fancy and reality; by turns, the pillars of the balcony
lengthened into the tall, bare stems of pines, dwindled down to human
figures, settled again in their true shape and size, and then commenced a
new succession of changes. For a single moment, when he deemed himself
awake, he could have sworn that a visage, one which he seemed to
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                            19

remember, yet could not absolutely name as his kinsman's, was looking
towards him from the Gothic window. A deeper sleep wrestled with, and
nearly overcame him, but fled at the sound of footsteps along the opposite
pavement. Robin rubbed his eyes, discerned a man passing at the foot of
the balcony, and addressed him in a loud, peevish, and lamentable cry.
     'Halloo, friend! must I wait here all night for my kinsman, Major
Molineux?'
     The sleeping echoes awoke, and answered the voice; and the passenger,
barely able to discern a figure sitting in the oblique shade of the steeple,
traversed the street to obtain a nearer view. He was himself a gentleman in
his prime, of open, intelligent, cheerful, and altogether prepossessing
countenance. Perceiving a country youth, apparently homeless and without
friends, he accosted him in a tone of real kindness, which had become
strange to Robin's ears.
     'Well, my good lad, why are you sitting here?' inquired he. 'Can I be of
service to you in any way?'
     'I am afraid not, Sir,' replied Robin, despondently; 'yet I shall take it
kindly, if you'll answer me a single question. I've been searching half the
night for one Major Molineux; now, Sir, is there really such a person in
these parts, or am I dreaming?'
     'Major Molineux! The name is not altogether strange to me,' said the
gentleman, smiling. 'Have you any objection to telling me the nature of
your business with him?'
     Then Robin briefly related that his father was a clergyman, settled on a
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                            20

small salary, at a long distance back in the country, and that he and Major
Molineux were brothers' children. The Major, having inherited riches, and
acquired civil and military rank, had visited his cousin in great pomp a
year or two before; had manifested much interest in Robin and an elder
brother, and, being childless himself, had thrown out hints respecting the
future establishment of one of them in life. The elder brother was destined
to succeed to the farm, which his father cultivated, in the interval of sacred
duties; it was therefore determined that Robin should profit by his
kinsman's generous intentions, especially as he had seemed to be rather the
favorite, and was thought to possess other necessary endowments.
     'For I have the name of being a shrewd youth,' observed Robin, in this
part of his story.
     'I doubt not you deserve it,' replied his new friend, good naturedly; 'but
pray proceed.'
     'Well, Sir, being nearly eighteen years old, and well-grown, as you
see,' continued Robin, raising himself to his full height, 'I thought it high
time to begin the world. So my mother and sister put me in handsome
trim, and my father gave me half the remnant of his last year's salary, and
five days ago I started for this place, to pay the Major a visit. But would
you believe it, Sir? I crossed the ferry a little after dusk, and have yet
found nobody that would show me the way to his dwelling; only an hour
or two since, I was told to wait here, and Major Molineux would pass by.'
     'Can you describe the man who told you this?' inquired the gentleman.
     'Oh, he was a very ill-favored fellow, Sir,' replied Robin, 'with two
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                            21

great bumps on his forehead, a hook nose, fiery eyes, and, what struck me
as the strangest, his face was of two different colors. Do you happen to
know such a man, Sir?'
     'Not intimately,' answered the stranger, 'but I chanced to meet him a
little time previous to your stopping me. I believe you may trust his word,
and that the Major will very shortly pass through this street. In the mean
time, as I have a singular curiosity to witness your meeting, I will sit down
here upon the steps, and bear you company.'
     He seated himself accordingly, and soon engaged his companion in
animated discourse. It was but of brief continuance, however, for a noise
of shouting, which had long been remotely audible, drew so much nearer,
that Robin inquired its cause.
     'What may be the meaning of this uproar?' asked he. 'Truly, if your
town be always as noisy, I shall find little sleep, while I am an inhabitant.'
     'Why, indeed, friend Robin, there do appear to be three or four riotous
fellows abroad to-night,' replied the gentleman. 'You must not expect all
the stillness of your native woods, here in our streets. But the watch will
shortly be at the heels of these lads, and--'
     'Aye, and set them in the stocks by peep of day,' interrupted Robin,
recollecting his own encounter with the drowsy lantern-bearer. 'But, dear
Sir, if I may trust my ears, an army of watchmen would never make head
against such a multitude of rioters. There were at least a thousand voices
went to make up that one shout.'
     'May not one man have several voices, Robin, as well as two
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                            22

complexions?' said his friend.
     'Perhaps a man may; but Heaven forbid that a woman should!'
responded the shrewd youth, thinking of the seductive tones of the Major's
housekeeper.
     The sounds of a trumpet in some neighboring street now became so
evident and continual, that Robin's curiosity was strongly excited. In
addition to the shouts, he heard frequent bursts from many instruments of
discord, and a wild and confused laughter filled up the intervals. Robin
rose from the steps, and looked wistfully towards a point, whither several
people seemed to be hastening.
     'Surely some prodigious merrymaking is going on,' exclaimed he. 'I
have laughed very little since I left home, Sir, and should be sorry to lose
an opportunity. Shall we just step round the corner by that darkish house,
and take our share of the fun?'
     'Sit down again, sit down, good Robin,' replied the gentleman, laying
his hand on the skirt of the grey coat. 'You forget that we must wait here
for your kinsman; and there is reason to believe that he will pass by, in the
course of a very few moments. '
     The near approach of the uproar had now disturbed the neighborhood;
windows flew open on all sides; and many heads, in the attire of the
pillow, and confused by sleep suddenly broken, were protruded to the gaze
of whoever had leisure to observe them. Eager voices hailed each other
from house to house, all demanding the explanation, which not a soul
could give. Half-dressed men hurried towards the unknown commotion,
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                            23

stumbling as they went over the stone steps, that thrust themselves into the
narrow foot-walk. The shouts, the laughter, and the tuneless bray, the
antipodes of music, came onward with increasing din, till scattered
individuals, and then denser bodies, began to appear round a corner, at the
distance of a hundred yards.
     'Will you recognize your kinsman, Robin, if he passes in this crowd?'
inquired the gentleman.
     'Indeed, I can't warrant it, Sir; but I'll take my stand here, and keep a
bright look out,' answered Robin, descending to the outer edge of the
pavement.
     A mighty stream of people now emptied into the street, and came
rolling slowly towards the church. A single horseman wheeled the corner
in the midst of them, and close behind him came a band of fearful wind-
instruments, sending forth a fresher discord, now that no intervening
buildings kept it from the ear. Then a redder light disturbed the
moonbeams, and a dense multitude of torches shone along the street,
concealing by their glare whatever object they illuminated. The single
horseman, clad in a military dress, and bearing a drawn sword, rode
onward as the leader, and, by his fierce and variegated countenance,
appeared like war personified; the red of one cheek was an emblem of fire
and sword; the blackness of the other betokened the mourning which
attends them. In his train, were wild figures in the Indian dress, and many
fantastic shapes without a model, giving the whole march a visionary air,
as if a dream had broken forth from some feverish brain, and were
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                            24

sweeping visibly through the midnight streets. A mass of people, inactive,
except as applauding spectators, hemmed the procession in, and several
women ran along the sidewalks, piercing the confusion of heavier sounds,
with their shrill voices of mirth or terror.
     'The double-faced fellow has his eye upon me,' muttered Robin, with an
indefinite but uncomfortable idea, that he was himself to bear a part in the
pageantry.
     The leader turned himself in the saddle, and fixed his glance full upon
the country youth, as the steed went slowly by. When Robin had freed his
eyes from those fiery ones, the musicians were passing before him, and the
torches were close at hand; but the unsteady brightness of the latter formed
a veil which he could not penetrate. The rattling of wheels over the stones
sometimes found its way to his ear, and confused traces of a human form
appeared at intervals, and then melted into the vivid light. A moment
more, and the leader thundered a command to halt; the trumpets vomited a
horrid breath, and held their peace; the shouts and laughter of the people
died away, and there remained only a universal hum, nearly allied to
silence. Right before Robin's eyes was an uncovered cart. There the
torches blazed the brightest, there the moon shone out like day, and there,
in tar-and-feathery dignity, sate his kinsman, Major Molineux!
     He was an elderly man, of large and majestic person, and strong, square
features, betokening a steady soul; but steady as it was, his enemies had
found the means to shake it. His face was pale as death, and far more
ghastly; the broad forehead was contracted in his agony, so that his
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                            25

eyebrows formed one grizzled line; his eyes were red and wild, and the
foam hung white upon his quivering lip. His whole frame was agitated by
a quick, and continual tremor, which his pride strove to quell, even in
those circumstances of overwhelming humiliation. But perhaps the
bitterest pang of all was when his eyes met those of Robin; for he
evidently knew him on the instant, as the youth stood witnessing the foul
disgrace of a head that had grown grey in honor. They stared at each other
in silence, and Robin's knees shook, and his hair bristled, with a mixture of
pity and terror. Soon, however, a bewildering excitement began to seize
upon his mind; the preceding adventures of the night, the unexpected
appearance of the crowd, the torches, the confused din, and the hush that
followed, the spectre of his kinsman reviled by that great multitude, all
this, and more than all, a perception of tremendous ridicule in the whole
scene, affected him with a sort of mental inebriety. At that moment a voice
of sluggish merriment saluted Robin's ears; he turned instinctively, and
just behind the corner of the church stood the lantern-bearer, rubbing his
eyes, and drowsily enjoying the lad's amazement. Then he heard a peal of
laughter like the ringing of silvery bells; a woman twitched his arm, a
saucy eye met his, and he saw the lady of the scarlet petticoat. A sharp,
dry  cachinnation appealed to his memory, and, standing on tiptoe in the
crowd, with his white apron over his head, he beheld the courteous little
innkeeper. And lastly, there sailed over the heads of the multitude a great,
broad laugh, broken in the midst by two sepulchral hems; thus--
     'Haw, haw, haw--hem, hem--haw, haw, haw, haw!'
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                            26

     The sound proceeded from the balcony of the opposite edifice, and
thither Robin turned his eyes. In front of the Gothic window stood the old
citizen, wrapped in a wide gown, his grey periwig exchanged for a
nightcap, which was thrust back from his forehead, and his silk stockings
hanging down about his legs. He supported himself on his polished cane in
a fit of convulsive merriment, which manifested itself on his solemn old
features, like a funny inscription on a tomb-stone. Then Robin seemed to
hear the voices of the barbers; of the guests of the inn; and of all who had
made sport of him that night. The contagion was spreading among the
multitude, when, all at once, it seized upon Robin, and he sent forth a
shout of laughter that echoed through the street; every man shook his
sides, every man emptied his lungs, but Robin's shout was the loudest
there. The cloud-spirits peeped from their silvery islands, as the
congregated mirth went roaring up the sky! The Man in the Moon heard
the far bellow; 'Oho,' quoth he, 'the old Earth is frolicsome to-night!'
     When there was a momentary calm in that tempestuous sea of sound,
the leader gave the sign, the procession resumed its march. On they went,
like fiends that throng in mockery round some dead potentate, mighty no
more, but majestic still in his agony. On they went, in counterfeited pomp,
in senseless uproar, in frenzied merriment, trampling all on an old man's
heart. On swept the tumult, and left a silent street behind.
     'Well, Robin, are you dreaming?' inquired the gentleman, laying his
hand on the youth's shoulder.
     Robin started, and withdrew his arm from the stone post, to which he
                                   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"                            27

had instinctively clung, while the living stream rolled by him. His cheek
was somewhat pale, and his eye not quite so lively as in the earlier part of
the evening.
     'Will you be kind enough to show me the way to the ferry?' said he,
after a moment's pause.
     'You have then adopted a new subject of inquiry?' observed his
companion, with a smile.
     'Why, yes, Sir,' replied Robin, rather dryly. 'Thanks to you, and to my
other friends, I have at last met my kinsman, and he will scarce desire to
see my face again. I begin to grow weary of a town life, Sir. Will you
show me the way to the ferry?'
     'No, my good friend Robin, not to-night, at least,' said the gentleman.
'Some few days hence, if you continue to wish it, I will speed you on your
journey. Or, if you prefer to remain with us, perhaps, as you are a shrewd
youth, you may rise in the world, without the help of your kinsman, Major
Molineux.'