that I now begin to doubt the motives and methods of my own side, as well.”
A young woman, newly arrived from Framingham in search, Longfellow suspected, of a husband, came to serve them.
As she approached her skirts swayed gently, and her expression was especially welcoming to the gentlemen. This Charlotte noted briefly, before her attention returned to Edmund's weary face.
“Punch,” Longfellow said abruptly. The young woman retreated. “Recently I've been somewhat lax,” he went on, “in following the news from town. Have things worsened so much?”
“That depends on what you mean. Since August, of course, nearly everyone who's taken a position has cried out against the stamps; Bernard is now governor in name only. I've heard he doubts he could command ten men in the town. I believe he's right.”
“That would depend on what they were wanted for.”
“Well, the militia can't be raised. The man they call ‘Captain’ McIntosh has been released from custody, yet everyone agrees it was he who led the mob that destroyed the lieutenant governor's home this summer—for which Hutchinson has yet to receive a penny! It seems some have decided that if McIntosh is tried, the Liberty Boys must tear down the custom house. At the moment, it contains some six thousand pounds of the King's sterling. That, I'm sure, would never be seen again.”
“Perhaps not. But with Boston ordered closed to shipping for six weeks, it did seem only a matter of time before starvation might—”
“Starvation! It would have been many months before your gouty friends felt a pinch in anything but their waistcoats! Their wallets are another matter. Most cried famine when they saw docking fees for their sitting ships rise, though all they needed to do to clear them was agree to buy the blasted stamps! Don't forget, we in Britain have had to purchase the things ourselves, for a number of years.”
“Yes, but the problem is, we here have not. For good reason—”
“And it is largely a means for financing the troops stationed on your western borders, where the French might still—”
“That is your affair now, since the King has ordered we may no longer settle west of the mountains.”
“Legally, that is correct—but whom does it stop? Hordes continue to go there anyway, against all sense.”
“Bracebridge is close enough to the frontier for my own taste, as well. But let us both be reasonable, Edmund. We hear Mr. Oliver, the Stamp Distributor, has resigned; the stamps are still out in Castle William, and in fact Parliament has yet to send us copies of the Act officially— making this little more than a French farce!”
The serving maid arrived with a flounce and put down her tray, then set out glasses and a hot jug. Longfellow quickly gave her a coin, but no further reason to stay. Dropping the payment beneath her neck scarf, she smiled nonetheless.
“I can't argue with you there,” said Montagu when she'd left them. “Frankly, I've come to believe both sides are equally ridiculous in the way they behave. Every official in Boston seems to fear upsetting his own boat—and so the governor sends the stamp question to his Council, which forwards it to the judges of the Superior Court, who decline to sit and defer to the House of Representatives. These gentlemen consult the townsmen, who speak with their lawyers, who wish the judges first to give advice before they risk their licenses. But the judges will not meet until they are scheduled to do so some time in March— and so it all starts over again! This has been thrown from one hand to another like a hot ingot, while the town hopes someone, anyone, will decide what is or is not legal, or at least what Parliament may accept. A loss of respect for all authority, I'm very sure, will be the consequence. I can tell you it's a thing I've begun to feel myself, with my own home put in jeopardy.”
“Perhaps you take it too much to heart, Edmund,” said Longfellow as he raised his glass. “After all, no one has yet been hanged—except in effigy. There is, after all, a comic side.”
“Oh, yes. The strategy of the Attorney General of Massachusetts, your old friend Trowbridge, is particularly amusing.”
“What has he done now?”
“For weeks he ducked the issue of how, or if, the courts might legally do business, with stamps unavailable for their documents. Finally he had a friend pay a visit to Town House. There it was explained that due to rheumatism of the