human
Young Everett, of all the people you have seen, is there one whom you would wish to have even a moment of the tortures of hell?
gpt
Why, no!
human
Then do you think your God less merciful than you?
gpt
Oh, do you mean it is not _true_? He leaned close in an agony of hope.
human
Sometimes I have thought it _could_ not be true!
gpt
Aye, lad, I mean it is not true. I am an old man and I have learned that they lie who say it is true. There is no hell but in our own hearts when we do evil; and we can escape a way out of that by repenting and doing good. There is no devil but our evil desires, and God gives to every man strength to fight with those. There is only good in your love for the fair things God made and put into the world for us to love. No man but only your own heart can tell you what is wrong and what is right. Only _do not fear_, for all is well.
human
And now wait. He put hand to mouth and hallooed down the lane.
gpt
Ho there! LeMaury!
human
Is this the gentleman who painted your willows?
gpt
Oh, aye!
human
See, LeMaury, this is young Master Everett, whom you have bewitched with your paint-pots. He would fain be an artist--_de gustibus_--! Perhaps you have in him an apprentice for your return to France.
gpt
Eh, so? Can young master draw? Doth he know aught of _chiaroscuro_?
human
Nay, he knows naught of your painter's gibberish. Give him a crayon and a bit of white bark and see can he make my picture. I'll lean my head back and fold my hands to sleep.
gpt
Oh, it is Giotto come back again. He shall be anything--Watteau.
human
What does he mean?
gpt
He means that you're to be a painter and naught else, though how a man can choose to daub paint when there are swords to be carried--well, well, he pulled himself painfully to his feet, wincing at gouty twinges,
human
I will go and see your father about--
gpt
Oh! you are Colonel Gideon Hall!
human
Aye, lad, who else? The old soldier swung himself up to the saddle, groaning,
gpt
Oh, damn that wet ground! I fear I cannot sit the nag home.
human
But then you are the enemy of God--the chosen one of Beelzebub----
gpt
Do they call me _that_ in polite and pious Hillsboro?
human
See, boy, you--Everett--I go back to France now soon. I lie next Friday night at Woodburn. If you come to me there we will go together to France--to Paris--you will be the great artist----
gpt
You have heard lies about me, Everett. Be man enough to trust your own heart.
human
You can laugh now, whispered the boy, close at his knee,
gpt
Faugh! To fear death when one has done his best!
human
But they say--that you do not believe in God.
gpt
Why, lad, I'm the only man in this damn town who does.
human
Deborah, the Lord hath answered me in my trouble. Call Nathaniel and bring him after me to the house of Gideon Hall.
gpt
To _that_ house?
human
Aye, even there. He lieth at the point of death. So are the wicked brought into desolation. Yesterday, as he rode in the wood, his horse cast him down so that it is thought he may not live till dark. I am sent for by his pious sisters to wrestle with him in prayer. Oh, Deborah, now is the time to strike the last blow for the salvation of our son. Let him see how the devil carries off the transgressor into the fires of hell, or let him see how, at the last, the proudest must make confession of his wicked unbelief----
gpt
Oh, mother, _don't_ make me go there!
human
Nay, Nathaniel, there is naught new. You have been with us before to many a sickbed and seen many a righteous death. This is an ill man, whose terrors at the reward of his unbelief will be like goodly medicine to your sick soul, and teach you to lay hold on righteousness while there is yet time.
gpt
But, mother, my Uncle Elzaphan said--I asked him this morning about Colonel Hall--that he had done naught but good to all men, that he had fought bravely with French and Indians, that the poor had half of his goods, that--
human
Your Uncle Elzaphan is a man of no understanding, and does not know that the devil has no more subtile lure than a man who does good works but who is not of the true faith. Aye, he maketh a worse confusion to the simple than he who worketh iniquity by noonday.