The Haunted Homestead Part 6

"Very well; listen, then," said Mathilde, settling herself comfortably in her chair, and commencing the narrative.

"The Van Der Vaughans, as you may perceive by their name, are of Teutonic origin, though by frequent intermarriage with other races, they have no doubt lost, or modified, many of their national traits. Their residence, in this part of the country, dates back to the time of the first settlement of New York by the Dutch.

"Why this particular family should have wandered down to the backwoods and mountains of Virginia remains a mystery, unless they were of a patriotic and poetical turn, and found in her wild hills and boundless woods something to remind them of the Hartz Mountains and the Black Forest. However that may be, they came, took up a great tract of land, built themselves a dwelling place (the old house adjoining this), and settled down permanently.

"For a time they were prosperous, as others were, and then, by bad agriculture, they grew poor, as others in this neighborhood did. If we may believe tradition the poorer this family grew the prouder they became, until at last, pride and poverty united, culminated in the character and the circ.u.mstances of the last heiress of the elder branch of the family, Madeleine Van Der Vaughan.

"At the age of twenty-five Madeleine Van Der Vaughan was left, by the death of her father (her mother died long before), sole heiress of a worn-out plantation and dilapidated house.

"Madeleine is reported to have possessed great and singular beauty--a tall and imperial form, a fine head, with strongly marked and perfectly regular features, a deep, rich complexion, and hair, eyes and eyebrows all black as Erebus. Gifted and accomplished was she also, and, as I stated, proud as Lucifer. It is said that this overweening pride prevented her taking a husband from among her numerous visitors, none of whom, though of the best families in the State, she deemed worthy of her own "high alliance.""

"Until at last her relative, Ernest Wolfgang Van Der Vaughan, made his appearance in her train and claimed her hand; a claim that was indorsed by her acceptance.

"It is said that family pride had to do with this marriage much more than love. However that might be, no sooner was the knot securely tied, than Mr. Van Der Vaughan began to importune his wife to sell her land and homestead that they might emigrate to the West. But in vain; for Mrs. Van Der Vaughan would not, for an instant, entertain the idea of alienating her patrimony.

"On the contrary, she had one ambition concerning her inheritance--an ambition that reached the height of a ruling pa.s.sion--and that was, to resuciate the dead soil of the plantation and to rebuild the mansion house.

"All Ernest Van Der Vaughan's property consisted in bank stock. All Madeleine's estate was in worthless land and negroes. But she offered him, as she would not have offered any other than a Van Der Vaughan, the fee simple of her plantation, if he would only devote his money to the restoring of the worn-out fields and the rebuilding of the homestead.

"Ernest did not like the plan, and he told her so. He explained to her how, at one-tenth the outlay that he should have to make for manures and for labor to resusciate this effete soil, he could go to Iowa and purchase a large farm of the richest land and build a comfortable dwelling-house and all needful offices around it.

"But it was in vain that he argued with her. She was a strong-minded, self-willed woman, with one idea--one monomania--love for 'Old Virginia,' and especially for her own portion of the soil. She absolutely rejected the plan of emigration, and told Ernest, in the most decided manner, that, go where he might, she never would desert her birthplace.

"She was the stronger of the two, and she prevailed. Ernest embarked nearly all his means in the doubtful enterprise of restoring the old, worn-out fields and rebuilding the mansion, or rather, I should say, repairing it, and building a new house beside it.

"Madeleine, on her part, kept her word. She executed a deed conveying the whole property to her husband. And after he, in a fit of generous abandonment, tore that deed and threw it in the fire, she made a second one, caused it to be recorded, and thus rendered it irrevocable, before she told him anything about it.

"She went even further than this, and aided him in every possible way in his work of restoration. To retrench expenses, so that every spare dollar should go to that enterprise, she discharged her housekeeper, reduced her establishment of servants, and took upon her own shoulders the additional burdens lately borne by those whom she had discharged from her service. She worked hard and constantly. No one knew how severely she toiled--not even her husband, until her labors seriously affected her health. Then Ernest Van Der Vaughan remonstrated. But she smiled and pointed to the growing fields and to the rising mansion.

"Yet the restoration of the lands and the elevation of the house was a work of years. Often progress was arrested by the want of funds, and then, though it cost the mistress many severe heart pangs, one after another of the old family servants were sold to raise the necessary amount, and their places in the field had to be supplied by fresh drafts upon the small household establishment, until at last the mistress was reduced to one maid-of-all-work about her person.

"I do not think your citizens, Agnes, dream of how much labor devolves upon the mistress of a large plantation in circ.u.mstances such as these.

Even when a.s.sisted by an efficient housekeeper, and many well-trained servants, the duties are onerous, sometimes oppressive, Madeleine Van Der Vaughan had deprived herself of nearly all help; but most willingly she bore her self-a.s.sumed burden, only showing distress when some financial exigency compelled her to wound humanity. She gave her heart, her life, to one object of her ambition. Yes--literally, this was so; for it was observable that as the carefully tended land recovered, she lost vitality, and as the mansion arose, she sank.

"It was in glorious autumn, when the richest wheat harvest that had ever been reaped in the State was gathered into the barns of Wolfbrake, and the finest corn crop that had ever grown in the valley, stood ripe in the fields, that the house was finished.

"So much money had been spent and so many debts remained to be paid, that there was but little to expend upon furniture, and Mrs. Van Der Vaughan could not appoint her house in a style so gorgeous as would have satisfied her ambition. However, it was furnished in the manner that you now see, which, after all, is much handsomer than anything that was known to the grand old Van Der Vaughans in their grandest days of, no doubt, fabulous grandeur.

"It was about the first of November that the last of the Van Der Vaughans removed into this house.

"The plastering of the sleeping-rooms was not so well dried as had been supposed. This was soon ascertained by Mr. Van Der Vaughan, who advised and entreated his wife to delay the removal.

"But when had Madeleine Van Der Vaughan yielded to any will but her own?

With the impatience and fever of a long desire, she hastened to take possession of her new residence.

"Although the weather had continued fine, with westerly or southerly winds, up to the day of removal, yet then the wind s.h.i.+fted to the east, blowing up ma.s.ses of dark clouds and cold mists, followed by rain and even sleet.

"Alas! worn out by self-a.s.sumed, unnecessary burdens, Madeleine Van Der Vaughan was in no condition successfully to meet a change of weather and other circ.u.mstances. Moreover, she, so earnest in her ambition, so zealous for ostentation, was fatally careless in regard to her own personal comforts. There was no grate or stove in her chamber, or in any other room in the house; all depended upon open fireplaces, which, however handsome, cheerful and poetic they may look, are not always just the very best things for damp houses in severe weather.

"Mrs. Van Der Vaughan's chamber could not be properly dried and heated.

The consequence was that she took a severe cold, which fell upon her lungs, and from which she, in her enfeebled state, had not power to recover. She dropped into a rapid consumption, and in six weeks from her triumphant _entree_ into her new house, she was borne thence to the family burial-ground, that you may see from your windows."

"Poor lady! What room did she occupy?"

"Yours."

"And--she died there?"

"Yes; she died there, a victim, I am sure, of her own impatient, feverish ambition."

"Do not judge her harshly."

"I do not. This is the reputation she has left behind her."

"Yet it may not have been her true character. Reputation is one thing, character is another," said I, falling into thought, and then reflecting that much yet must remain to be told, to give me a sure clew to the household mystery.

"Well, what else?" I inquired.

"What else, my dear? Why, nothing else. I have told you all her story to her death," said Mathilde, uneasily.

"But, after all," said I, "one of the most interesting things in the connection, is your father's purchase of this fine property."

"Ah, true! Well, after the death of his lady, Ernest Van Der Vaughan removed back into the old house, and closed up the new one. In the course of a few weeks he advertised the property for sale, but months pa.s.sed, and no purchaser appeared willing to give him the price set upon the estate.

"A year went by, and Mr. Van Der Vaughan made the acquaintance of a young lady, Alice Brightwell, who was, it is said, as strong a contrast as possible to his late wife; for Alice was young, and fair and gay, loved music, dancing and company, and had not a regret, a care, or an ambition in the world.

"It must have been the attraction of antagonism that united the hearts of this dark and sombre man of thirty, and this laughing, careless girl of nineteen, for it is said that they were greatly attached to each other.

"At all events, after a brief courts.h.i.+p, and a briefer engagement they were married; and when Mr. Van Der Vaughan proposed to her, as he had to his first wife, that they should emigrate to the West, she, in her gay, adventurous love of novelty, eagerly a.s.sented, notwithstanding that to go with him thither, she must leave her parents, brothers and sisters.

"Once more the property came into the market, and my father, seeing the advertis.e.m.e.nt, and desiring to remove to Virginia, opened a correspondence with the proprietor, then made a visit of inspection, and finally became the purchaser of the estates.

"When the transfer was about to be made, my father, pointing to the family graveyard, inquired of Mr. Van Der Vaughan whether he did not feel an unwillingness to sell that piece of ground, and told him that he might readily make an exception of that plot, and retain it in his own right.

"But Mr. Van Der Vaughan replied that he did not really care to own a foot of ground on the estate.

"My father then told him that if he would like to retain the graveyard it should make no difference in the price of the whole already agreed upon--for my father, you see, Alice, felt a sort of hesitation in buying the place without exempting the bones of the old family from the purchase.

"But Mr. Van Der Vaughan had no scruples of the sort.

"'No,' he said, 'Mr. Legare, if I were to retain possession of the graveyard, I and my heirs after me, would own an acre of ground in the very midst of your estate, which, as it stands now, might make no difference, as I shall never return to claim it, and could make no use of it if I did; but which might embarra.s.s you very much should you ever wish to sell the property.'

"That was good reasoning enough, I suppose, and, at all events, the sale was completed without the exception.

"We moved into the house, and Mr. Van Der Vaughan and his bride departed for Kansas."

"And he really, when he might just as easily have avoided it, sold the bones of his wife and her ancestors to a stranger!"

"Even so, my dear Agnes, and believe me, that we all felt as much shocked as you look."