Soon she was in her father’s arms relating her adventures, and as she received his chidings for mingling in such “unseemly crowds,� and his praise for her championship and protection of the little Phillipse, a kindly hand was laid upon her fair young head, and a voice whose tones she could never forget said: “So may our children be angels of peace, Mr. Duane. Few have suffered more, or deserved better from their country, sir, than you; but the possession of so rare a little daughter is a fairer recompense than aught your country can bestow. Heaven has given me no children, sir; but had I thus been blessed, I could have wished for no gentler or truer-hearted little daughter than this maid of yours.� And with the stately courtesy that marked the time, General Washington bent down and kissed little Dolly as she sat on her father’s knee. Touched by his kindly words, Dolly forgot all her awe of the great man. Flinging two winsome arms about his neck, she kissed him in return, and said softly: “If Mr. Duane were not my father, sir, I would rather it should be you than any one else.�
In all her after-life, though she retained pleasant memories of Sir Guy Carleton, and thought him a grand and gallant gentleman, Dolly Duane held still more firmly to her reverence and affection for General Washington, whom she described as “looking more grand and noble than any human being she had ever seen.�
Next to General Washington, I think she held the fireworks that were set off in the Bowling Green in honor of the Peace to have been the grandest thing she had ever seen. The rockets, and the wheels, and the tourbillions, and the batteries, and the stars were all so wonderful to her, that General Knox said Dolly’s “ohs� and “ahs� were “as good as a play�; and staid Master Clinton and jolly Cousin Ned threatened to send to the Ferry stairs for an anchor to hold her down. Both these young gentlemen grew to be famous Americans in after years, and witnessed many anniversaries of this glorious Evacuation Day. But they never enjoyed any of them quite as much as they did the exciting original, nor could they ever forget, amidst all the throng of memories, how sweet Mistress Dolly Duane championed and protected the lost “little lord of the manor,� and won the distinguished honor of being kissed by both the commanders-in-chief on the same eventful day.
OLD ESTHER DUDLEY[C]
By NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
The Province House in Boston was the home of the Royal Governors of Massachusetts. This is the story of how the stately, spectre-haunted old Housekeeper, even after the departure of the last Royal Governor and the triumph of the Colonies, remained “faithful unto death� to her Sovereign Lord King George.
THE hour had come—the hour of defeat and humiliation—when Sir William Howe was to pass over the threshold of the Province House, and embark, with no such triumphal ceremonies as he once promised himself, on board the British fleet. He bade his servants and military attendants go before him, and lingered a moment in the loneliness of the mansion, to quell the fierce emotions that struggled in his bosom as with a death-throb. Preferable, then, would he have deemed his fate had a warrior’s death left him a claim to the narrow territory of a grave within the soil which the king had given him to defend. With an ominous perception that, as his departing footsteps echoed adown the staircase, the sway of Britain was passing forever from New England, he smote his clinched hand on his brow, and cursed the destiny that had flung the shame of a dismembered empire upon him.
“Would to God,� cried he, hardly repressing his tears of rage, “that the rebels were even now at the doorstep! A bloodstain upon the floor should then bear testimony that the last British ruler was faithful to his trust.�
The tremulous voice of a woman replied to his exclamation.
“Heaven’s cause and the King’s are one,� it said. “Go forth, Sir William Howe, and trust in Heaven to bring back a royal governor in triumph.�