第83章

America, at the time of which we are writing, was re-markable for its attachment to the German family that then sat on the British throne; for, as is the fact with all provinces, the virtues and qualities that are proclaimed near the centre of power, as incense and policy, get to be a part of political faith with the credulous and ignorant at a distance.This truth is just as apparent to-day, in con-nection with the prodigies of the republic, as it then was in connection with those distant rulers, whose merits it was always safe to applaud, and whose demerits it was treason to reveal.It is a consequence of this mental de-pendence, that public opinion is so much placed at the mercy of the designing; and the world, in the midst of its idle boasts of knowledge and improvement, is left to re-ceive its truths, on all such points as touch the interests of the powerful and managing, through such a medium, and such a medium only, as may serve the particular views of those who pull the wires.Pressed upon by the subjects of France, who were then encircling the British colonies with a belt of forts ind settlements that completely secured the savages for allies, it would have been difficult to say whether the Americans loved the English more than they hated the French; and those who then lived probably would have considered the alliance which took place be-tween the cis-Atlantic subjects and the ancient rivals of the British crown, some twenty years later, as an event entirely without the circle of probabilities.Disaffection was a rare offence; and, most of all, would treason, that should favor France or Frenchmen, have been odious in the eyes of the provincials.The last thing that Mabel would suspect of Jasper was the very crime with which he now stood secretly charged; and if others near her en-dured the pains of distrust, she, at least, was filled with the generous confidence of a woman.As yet no whisper had reached her ear to disturb the feeling of reliance with which she had early regarded the young sailor, and her own mind would have been the last to suggest such a thought of itself.The pictures of the past and of the present, therefore, that exhibited themselves so rapidly to her active imagination, were unclouded with a shade that might affect any in whom she felt an interest; and ere she had mused, in the manner related, a quarter of an hour, the whole scene around her was filled with unalloyed satis-faction.

The season and the night, to represent them truly, were of a nature to stimulate the sensations which youth, health, and happiness are wont to associate with novelty.

The weather was warm, as is not always the case in that region even in summer, while the air that came off the land, in breathing currents, brought with it the coolness and fragrance of the forest.The wind was far from being fresh, though there was enough of it to drive the _Scud_merrily ahead, and, perhaps, to keep attention alive, in the uncertainty that more or less accompanies darkness.

Jasper, however, appeared to regard it with complacency, as was apparent by what he said in a short dialogue that now occurred between him and Mabel.

"At this rate, Eau-douce," -- for so Mabel had already learned to style the young sailor, -- said our heroine, "we cannot be long in reaching our place of destination.""Has your father then told you what that is, Mabel?""He has told me nothing; my father is too much of a soldier, and too little used to have a family around him, to talk of such matters.Is it forbidden to say whither we are bound?""It cannot be far, while we steer in this direction, for sixty or seventy miles will take us into the St.Lawrence, which the French might make too hot for us; and no voyage on this lake can be very long.""So says my uncle Cap; but to me, Jasper, Ontario and the ocean appear very much the same.""You have then been on the ocean; while I, who pre-tend to be a sailor, have never yet seen salt water.You must have a great contempt for such a mariner as myself, in your heart, Mabel Dunham?""Then I have no such thing in my heart, Jasper Eau-douce.What right have I, a girl without experience or knowledge, to despise any, much less one like you, who are trusted by the Major, and who command a vessel like this? I have never been on the ocean, though I have seen it; and, I repeat, I see no difference between this lake and the Atlantic.""Nor in them that sail on both? I was afraid, Mabel, your uncle had said so much against us fresh-water sailors, that you had begun to look upon us as little better than pretenders?""Give yourself no uneasiness on that account, Jasper;for I know my uncle, and he says as many things against those who live ashore, when at York, as he now says against those who sail on fresh water.No, no, neither my father nor myself think anything of such opinions.My uncle Cap, if he spoke openly, would be found to have even a worse notion of a soldier than of a sailor who never saw the sea.""But your father, Mabel, has a better opinion of soldiers than of any one else? he wishes you to be the wife of a soldier?""Jasper Eau-douce! -- I the wife of a soldier! My father wishes it! Why should he wish any such thing? What soldier is there in the garrison that I could marry -- that he could _wish me_ to marry?""One may love a calling so well as to fancy it will cover a thousand imperfections.""But one is not likely to love his own calling so well as to cause him to overlook everything else.You say my father wishes me to marry a soldier; and yet there is no soldier at Oswego that he would be likely to give me to.