Richard Carvel | Page 9

was not ill pleased with the feat, or with Mr.
Marmaduke's way of taking it. For afterwards I overheard him telling
the story to Colonel Lloyd, and both gentlemen laughing over Mr.
Manners's discomfiture.
CHAPTER III
CAUGHT BY THE TIDE
It is a nigh impossible task on the memory to trace those influences by
which a lad is led to form his life's opinions, and for my part I hold that
such things are bred into the bone, and that events only serve to
strengthen them. In this way only can I account for my bitterness, at a
very early age, against that King whom my seeming environment
should have made me love. For my grandfather was as stanch a royalist
as ever held a cup to majesty's health. And children are most apt before
they can reason for themselves to take the note from those of their
elders who surround them. It is true that many of Mr. Carvel's guests
were of the opposite persuasion from him: Mr. Chase and Mr. Carroll,
Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Bordley, and many others, including our friend
Captain Clapsaddle. And these gentlemen were frequently in argument,
but political discussion is Greek to a lad.
Mr. Carvel, as I have said, was most of his life a member of the
Council, a man from whom both Governor Sharpe and Governor Eden
were glad to take advice because of his temperate judgment and deep
knowledge of the people of the province. At times, when his Council
was scattered, Governor Sharpe would consult Mr. Carvel alone, and
often have I known my grandfather to embark in haste from the Hall in

response to a call from his Excellency.
'Twas in the latter part of August, in the year 1765, made memorable
by the Stamp Act, that I first came in touch with the deep-set feelings
of the times then beginning, and I count from that year the awakening
of the sympathy which determined my career. One sultry day I was
wading in the shallows after crabs, when the Governor's messenger
came drifting in, all impatience at the lack of wind. He ran to the house
to seek Mr. Carvel, and I after him, with all a boy's curiosity, as fast as
my small legs would carry me. My grandfather hurried out to order his
barge to be got ready at once, so that I knew something important was
at hand. At first he refused me permission to go, but afterwards relented,
and about eleven in the morning we pulled away strongly, the ten
blacks bending to the oars as if their lives were at stake.
A wind arose before we sighted Greensbury Point, and I saw a bark
sailing in, but thought nothing of this until Mr. Carvel, who had been
silent and preoccupied, called for his glass and swept her decks. She
soon shortened sail, and went so leisurely that presently our light barge
drew alongside, and I perceived Mr. Zachariah Hood, a merchant of the
town, returning from London, hanging over her rail. Mr. Hood was
very pale in spite of his sea-voyage; he flung up his cap at our boat, but
Mr. Carvel's salute in return was colder than he looked for. As we came
in view of the dock, a fine rain was setting in, and to my astonishment I
beheld such a mass of people assembled as I had never seen, and scarce
standing-room on the wharves. We were to have gone to the Governor's
wharf in the Severn, but my grandfather changed his intention at once.
Many of the crowd greeted him as we drew near them, and, having
landed, respectfully made room for him to pass through. I followed him
a-tremble with excitement and delight over such an unwonted
experience. We had barely gone ten paces, however, before Mr. Carvel
stopped abreast of Mr. Claude, mine host of the Coffee House, who
cried:
"Hast seen his Majesty's newest representative, Mr. Carvel?"
"Mr. Hood is on board the bark, sir," replied my grandfather. "I take it
you mean Mr. Hood."

"Ay, that I do; Mr. Zachariah Hood, come to lick stamps for his
brother- colonists."
"After licking his Majesty's boots," says a wag near by, which brings a
laugh from those about us. I remembered that I had heard some talk as
to how Mr. Hood had sought and obtained from King George the office
of Stamp Distributor for the province. Now, my grandfather, God rest
him! was as doughty an old gentleman as might well be, and would not
listen without protest to remarks which bordered sedition. He had little
fear of things below, and none of a mob.
"My masters," he shouted, with a flourish of his stick, so stoutly that
people fell back from him, "know that ye are