The Land of Bondage: A Romance — Context and Discussion

CHAPTER I. FUNERAL. II. AN UNPEACEFUL PASSING. III. A BEGGAR AND AN OUTCAST. IV. INTO THE LAND OF BONDAGE. V. THE SPRINGE IS SET. VI. THE BIRD DRAWS NEAR. VII. TRAPPED. VIII. AND CAGED. IX. MY MOTHER. X. A NOBLE KINSMAN. XI. IMPRESSED.

THE NARRATIVE OF JOICE BAMPFYLD OF VIRGINIA

XII. A COLONIAL PLANTATION. XIII. THE BOND SLAVE. XIV. A SLAVE'S GRATITUDE! XV. A VISITOR FROM ENGLAND. XVI. ANOTHER VISITOR. XVII. THE RED MAN. XVIII. BESIEGED. XIX. AT BAY. XX. THE GREAT MEDICINE CHIEF. XXI. IN CAPTIVITY. XXII. AMONGST THE SAVAGES. XXIII. DENOUNCED. XXIV. 'TWIXT BEAR AND PANTHER.

THE NARRATIVE OF LORD ST. AMANDE CONTINUED

XXV. THE SHAWNEE TRAIL. XXVI. AS FOEMEN FIGHT. XXVII. A LONG PEACE. XXVIII. THE REWARD OF A TRAITOR.

THE NARRATIVE OF JOICE BAMPFYLD CONTINUED

XXIX. HOMEWARD BOUND. XXX. IN THE LAND WHERE THEIR FATHERS DWELT. XXXI. FACE TO FACE. XXXII. NEMESIS.

THE NARRATIVE CONCLUDED BY GERALD, VISCOUNT ST. AMANDE

"AFTER THESE STORMS AT LAST A CALM"

The groundwork of the following narrative, accompanied by a vast number of papers and documents bearing on the main facts, was related to me by the late Mr. Clement Barclay of Philadelphia, the last descendant of an old Virginian family. On reading over these papers and documents, I was struck by the resemblance which the story bore to the history of another unfortunate young Englishman whose case created much sensation in the English Law Courts at about the same period, _i.e_., that of the reign of King George II. Recognising, however, that the adventures of Lord St. Amande were not only more romantic than those of that other personage, while his character was of a far more noble and interesting nature, I resolved to utilise them for the purpose of romance in the following pages, which are now submitted to the public. Except that in some few cases, and those the principal, the names have been altered, the characters bear the same names as in the documents, private papers, journals and news-letters handed to me by Mr. Barclay.

THE NARRATIVE OF GERALD, VISCOUNT ST. AMANDE

And this was the end of it. To be buried at the public expense!

To be buried at the public expense, although a Viscount in the Peerage of Ireland and the heir to a Marquisate in the Peerage of England.

The pity of it, the pity that it should come to this!

A few years before, viz., in the fourth year of the reign of our late Queen Anne, and the year of Our Lord, 1706, no one who had then known Gerald, Lord Viscount St. Amande, would have ventured to foretell so evil an ending for him, since he and life were well at evens with each other. Ever to have his purse fairly well filled with crowns if not guineas had been his lot in those days, as it had also been to have good credit at the fashioners, to be able to treat his friends to a fine turtle or a turbot at the coffee-houses he used, to take a hand at ombra or at whisk, to play at pass-dice or at billiards, and to be always carefully bedeck't in the best of satins and velvets and laces, and to eat and drink of the best. For to eat and drink well was ever his delight, as it was to frequent port clubs and Locketts or Rummers, to empty his glass as soon as it was filled, to toss down beaker after beaker, while, meantime, he would sing jovial chaunts and songs of none too delicate a nature, fling a handful of loose silver to the servers and waitresses, and ogle each of the latter who was comely or buxom.

Yet now he was being buried at the public expense!

How had it come about? I must set it down so that you shall understand. During this period of wassailing and carousing, of ridottos at St. James's and dances at lower parts of the town, for he affected even the haunts at Rotherhithe in his search for pleasure, as he did those in the common parts of Dublin when he was in that, his native, city--and during the time when he varied his pursuits by sometimes frequenting the playhouses where he would regard fondly the ladies at one moment and amuse himself by kicking a shop-boy or poor clerk, or scrivener, at another, and by sometimes retiring into the country for shooting, or hunting, or fighting a main, his heart had become entendered towards a young and beautiful girl, one Louise Sheffield.