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I. The Old Pyncheon Family |
I.La antigua familia Pyncheon HALFWAY down a by-street of one of our
New England towns stands a rusty wooden
house, with seven acutely peaked gables,
facing towards various points of the compass,
and a huge, clustered chimney in the midst.
The street is Pyncheon Street; the house is the
old Pyncheon House; and an elm-tree, of
wide circumference, rooted before the door, is
familiar to every town-born child by the title
of the Pyncheon Elm. On my occasional visits
to the town aforesaid, I seldom failed to turn
down Pyncheon Street, for the sake of passing
through the shadow of these two antiquities,--the great elm-tree and the weather-beaten
edifice.
| EN mitad de una callejuela de una ciudad de
Nueva Inglaterra14, se alza una casa de madera,
mohosa y carcomida, con siete puntiagudos,
tejados15, de cara a los diyersos puntos de la
rosa de los vientos, y, en el centro, una enorme
chimenea. En mis visitas a dicha ciudad, rara vez
dejo de recorrer la calle Pyncheon, para pasar
junto a la sombra de estos .dos restos antiguos:
el olmo gigantesco y el edificio vetusto y
maltratado por las inclemencias del tiempo. | The aspect of the venerable mansion has
always affected me like a human
countenance, bearing the traces not merely of
outward storm and sunshine, but expressive
also, of the long lapse of mortal life, and
accompanying vicissitudes that have passed
within. Were these to be worthily recounted,
they would form a narrative of no small
interest and instruction, and possessing,
moreover, a certain remarkable unity, which
might almost seem the result of artistic
arrangement. But the story would include a
chain of events extending over the better part
of two centuries, and, written out with
reasonable amplitude, would fill a bigger
folio volume, or a longer series of
duodecimos, than could prudently be
appropriated to the annals of all New England
during a similar period. It consequently
becomes imperative to make short work with
most of the traditionary lore of which the old
Pyncheon House, otherwise known as the
House of the Seven Gables, has been the
theme.
| With a brief sketch, therefore, of the circumstances amid which the foundation of the house was laid, and a rapid glimpse at its quaint exterior, as it grew black in the prevalent east wind,--pointing, too, here and there, at some spot of more verdant mossiness on its roof and walls,--we shall commence the real action of our tale at an epoch not very remote from the present day. Still, there will be a connection with the long past--a reference to forgotten events and personages, and to manners, feelings, and opinions, almost or wholly obsolete--which, if adequately translated to the reader, would serve to illustrate how much of old material goes to make up the freshest novelty of human life. Hence, too, might be drawn a weighty lesson from the little-regarded truth, that the act of the passing generation is the germ which may and must produce good or evil fruit in a far-distant time; that, together with the seed of the merely temporary crop, which mortals term expediency, they inevitably sow the acorns of a more enduring growth, which may darkly overshadow their posterity. El aspecto de la venerable mansión siempre me
ha afectado como si fuera un rostro humano:
ostenta huellas, no sólo de las tempestades, del
clima y del sol, sino también, y muy expresivas,
del transcurso de la vida mortal y de las
consiguientes vicisitudes ocurridas en su
interior. Un relato de tales vicisitudes no
carecería de interés ni sería poco instructivo;
poseería, además, cierta unidad notable, que
hasta pudiera parecer resultado de un « arreglo »
artístico. Pero semejante historia habría de
incluir una serie de acontecimientos
desarrollados a lo largo de los siglos; y escrita
con razonable amplitud, formaría un infolio
mayor, o una serie de volúmenes en dozavo, más
largos de lo que sería prudente añadir a los
anales de Nueva Inglaterra.
| En consecuencia, es imperativo prescindir de la mayoría de las tradiciones relativas a la mansión de los Pyncheon, conocida, además, por el nombre de La Casa de los Siete Tejados. Tras un breve bosquejo de las circunstancias de su fundación y una rápida ojeada a su singular aspecto, a medida que se ensombrecía por los vientos del este -señalando, acá y acullá, algunos sitios de musgos más verdoso en los muros y el tejado-, iniciaremos nuestra historia en una época no muy alejada de la actual. Sin embargo, perdurará una relación con el remoto pasado-una referencia a contecimientos y personajes ya olvidados, y a opiniones casi o totalmente anticuadas que, transmitidas adecuadamente al lector, servirán para explicar cómo muchas cosas antiguas contribuyen a formar las más flamantes novedades de la vida humana. De aquí, también, podría sacarse una lección del hecho cierto y poco considerado de que la obra de la generación que pasa es el germen de fruto bueno o malo, en un futuro lejano; y que, con la semilla de la cosecha meramente temporal, que los mortales llaman utilidad o conveniencia, siembran algo más perdurable, que puede ensombrecer a su posteridad. The House of the Seven Gables, antique as it
now looks, was not the first habitation erected
by civilized man on precisely the same spot
of ground. Pyncheon Street formerly bore the
humbler appellation of Maule's Lane, from
the name of the original occupant of the soil,
before whose cottage-door it was a cow-path.
A natural spring of soft and pleasant water--a
rare treasure on the sea-girt peninsula where
the Puritan settlement was made--had early
induced Matthew Maule to build a hut,
shaggy with thatch, at this point, although
somewhat too remote from what was then the
centre of the village. In the growth of the
town, however, after some thirty or forty
years, the site covered by this rude hovel had
become exceedingly desirable in the eyes of a
prominent and powerful personage, who
asserted plausible claims to the proprietorship
of this and a large adjacent tract of land, on
the strength of a grant from the legislature.
Colonel Pyncheon, the claimant, as we gather
from whatever traits of him are preserved,
was characterized by an iron energy of
purpose.
| Matthew Maule, on the other hand, though an obscure man, was stubborn in the defence of what he considered his right; and, for several years, he succeeded in protecting the acre or two of earth which, with his own toil, he had hewn out of the primeval forest, to be his garden ground and homestead. No written record of this dispute is known to be in existence. Our acquaintance with the whole subject is derived chiefly from tradition. It would be bold, therefore, and possibly unjust, to venture a decisive opinion as to its merits; although it appears to have been at least a matter of doubt, whether Colonel Pyncheon's claim were not unduly stretched, in order to make it cover the small metes and bounds of Matthew Maule. What greatly strengthens such a suspicion is the fact that this controversy between two ill-matched antagonists--at a period, moreover, laud it as we may, when personal influence had far more weight than now--remained for years undecided, and came to a close only with the death of the party occupying the disputed soil. The mode of his death, too, affects the mind differently, in our day, from what it did a century and a half ago. It was a death that blasted with strange horror the humble name of the dweller in the cottage, and made it seem almost a religious act to drive the plough over the little area of his habitation, and obliterate his place and memory from among men. La Casa de los Siete Tejados, a pesar de su
aspecto antiguo, no fue el primer edificio
levantado por el hombre civilizado en el terreno
que actualmente ocupa. La calle Pyncheon
llevaba antaño el humilde nombre de Maule,
apellido del primer ocupante del terreno, y
delante de la puerta de la cabaña era una simple
vereda para el ganado. Una fuente de agua
mansa y deliciosa -raro tesoro en aquella
diminuta península donde se establecieron por
vez primera los puritanos16- indujo a Matthew
Maule a construir una cabaña de troncos de
árbol, en aquel paraje demasiado alejado de lo
que a la sazón constituiría el centro de la aldea
aquella. Con el crecimiento del caserío, al cabo
de unos treinta o cuarenta años, el lugar ocupado
por la cabaña despertó la codicia de un
prominente y poderoso personaje que reclamó la
propiedad de este terreno y otro adyacente,
basándose en la concesión otorgada por los
legisladores provinciales. El coronel Pyncheon -así se llamaba el reclamante- se caracterizaba
por una energía férrea, a juzgar por lo que de su
recuerdo se conserva.
| Matthew Maule, por otra parte, aunque humilde, era terco en la defensa de lo que consideraba su derecho; y, durante varios años, logró conservar el acre o dos de tierra que, con el sudor de su frente, arrancara a la selva virgen, para convertirla en su hogar y huerto. No se conserva ningún testimonio escrito de este pleito; sólo sabemos de él, por la tradición. Sería, por lo tanto, muy audaz y probablemente injusto, aventurar una opinión acerca de sus méritos. De todas formas, se dudó de los derechos del coronel Pyncheon y hubo quien afirmó que fueron indebidamente exagerados con el propósito de que alcanzaran al pequeño terreno de Matthew Maule. Refuerza esta sospecha el hecho de que este pleito entre dos litigantes desiguales -entablado en una época en que se daba a la influencia personal mayor importancia que en la actualidad- quedó sin decidir hasta el día en que murió el ocupante del terreno en litigio. Las características de su muerte afectan al espíritu de nuestro tiempo de forma muy distinta de como lo hicieron hace siglo y medio. Fue una muerte que cubrió de horror el nombre del humilde habitante de la cabaña y que hizo aparecer casi como un acto religioso el pasar el arado sobre el pequeño terreno en que se asentaba su vivienda y borrar para siempre su lugar y su recuerdo de entre los hombres. Old Matthew Maule, in a word, was executed
for the crime of witchcraft. He was one of the
martyrs to that terrible delusion, which should
teach us, among its other morals, that the
influential classes, and those who take upon
themselves to be leaders of the people, are
fully liable to all the passionate error that has
ever characterized the maddest mob.
Clergymen, judges, statesmen,--the wisest,
calmest, holiest persons of their day stood in
the inner circle round about the gallows,
loudest to applaud the work of blood, latest to
confess themselves miserably deceived.
| If any one part of their proceedings can be said to deserve less blame than another, it was the singular indiscrimination with which they persecuted, not merely the poor and aged, as in former judicial massacres, but people of all ranks; their own equals, brethren, and wives. Amid the disorder of such various ruin, it is not strange that a man of inconsiderable note, like Maule, should have trodden the martyr's path to the hill of execution almost unremarked in the throng of his fellow sufferers. But, in after days, when the frenzy of that hideous epoch had subsided, it was remembered how loudly Colonel Pyncheon had joined in the general cry, to purge the land from witchcraft; nor did it fail to be whispered, that there was an invidious acrimony in the zeal with which he had sought the condemnation of Matthew Maule. It was well known that the victim had recognized the bitterness of personal enmity in his persecutor's conduct towards him, and that he declared himself hunted to death for his spoil. At the moment of execution--with the halter about his neck, and while Colonel Pyncheon sat on horseback, grimly gazing at the scene Maule had addressed him from the scaffold, and uttered a prophecy, of which history, as well as fireside tradition, has preserved the very words. "God," said the dying man, pointing his finger, with a ghastly look, at the undismayed countenance of his enemy,-- "God will give him blood to drink !" After the reputed wizard's death, his humble homestead had fallen an easy spoil into Colonel Pyncheon's grasp. When it was understood, however, that the Colonel intended to erect a family mansion-spacious, ponderously framed of oaken timber, and calculated to endure for many generations of his posterity over the spot first covered by the log-built hut of Matthew Maule, there was much shaking of the head among the village gossips. Without absolutely expressing a doubt whether the stalwart Puritan had acted as a man of conscience and integrity throughout the proceedings which have been sketched, they, nevertheless, hinted that he was about to build his house over an unquiet grave. His home would include the home of the dead and buried wizard, and would thus afford the ghost of the latter a kind of privilege to haunt its new apartments, and the chambers into which future bridegrooms were to lead their brides, and where children of the Pyncheon blood were to be born. The terror and ugliness of Maule's crime, and the wretchedness of his punishment, would darken the freshly plastered walls, and infect them early with the scent of an old and melancholy house. Why, then,--while so much of the soil around him was bestrewn with the virgin forest leaves,--why should Colonel Pyncheon prefer a site that had already been accurst ? El viejo Matthew Maule, en una palabra, fue
ejecutado por el delito de brujería. Fue uno de
los mártires que nos demuestran, entre otras
cosas, que las clases influyentes y los dirigentes
de los pueblos están expuestos a todos los
errores característicos de la plebe mas
enloquecida.
| Clérigos, jueces, estadistas -los hombres más sabios, prudentes, serenos y santos de la época formaron círculo en torno al patíbulo para aplaudir aquel acto sangriento y para confesar ulteriormente que se habían engañado miserablemente. Si algún aspecto de su conducta merece menos censura que el resto es la singular falta de discriminación con que persiguieron no solamente a los pobres y a los ancianos, como en anteriores matanzas judiciales, sino a gentes de todos los rangos, a sus iguales, hasta a sus hermanos y a sus esposas. En aquella época de espantoso desorden, nada tiene de particular que un hombre de tan poca importancia como Matthew Maule siguiera la senda del martirio, sin que nadie se fijase en él, entre la multitud de sus compañeros de sufrimiento. Mas, posteriormente, cuando se hubo calmado la locura de aquella época odiosa, se recordó con cuánto empeño el coronel Pyncheon se había unido al coro general que reclamaba que se limpiara el país de brujos y brujas; y hasta se murmuró que había algo de envidia en el celo con que reclamaba la condena de Matthew Maule. Era sabido que la víctima había declarado que el coronel le perseguía encarnizadamente para despojarle de su terreno. En el momento de la ejecución -con la soga al cuello y el coronel Pyncheon montado en su caballo, contemplando ceñudo la escena- Matthew Maule, desde el cadalso, se encaró con él y pronunció una profecía de la cual la historia y las tradiciones relatadas al amor de la lumbre han conservado las palabras. Señalando con un dedo y con aire sepulcral hacia el rostro impasible de su enemigo, el coronel, dijo el condenado: -¡Dios, Dios le dará a beber sangre ! Después de la muerte del supuesto brujo, su humilde hogar y su terreno cayeron fácilmente en las garras del coronel Pyncheon. No obstante, cuando se corrió la voz de que el coronel se proponía construir una mansión familiar espaciosa, con sólidas vigas de roble y destinada a albergar a muchas generaciones- sobre el lugar donde estaba la cabaña de Matthew Maule, menearon la cabeza los chismosos del pueblo. Sin manifestar la menor duda sobre si el acérrimo puritano había obrado como hombre íntegro y recto, insinuaban, sin embargo, que iba a construir una casa sobre una tumba. Su casa incluiría entre sus paredes la cabaña del brujo muerto y enterrado, dando a su espíritu como una especie de derecho a rondar por las habitaciones en que los futuros novios conducirían a sus desposadas y donde nacerían los hijos de la sangre de los Pyncheon. El terror y la fealdad del crimen de Matthew Maule y la infamia y desventura de su castigo ensombrecerían las paredes recién pintadas dándoles pronto el aroma de una casa vetusta y melancólica. ¿Por qué, pues -habiendo tanto terreno a su alrededor, en los bosques aún vírgenes-, por qué el coronel Pyncheon prefería un terreno ya maldito ? But the Puritan soldier and magistrate was not
a man to be turned aside from his well-considered scheme, either by dread of the
wizard's ghost, or by flimsy sentimentalities
of any kind, however specious. Had he been
told of a bad air, it might have moved him
somewhat; but he was ready to encounter an
evil spirit on his own ground. Endowed with
commonsense, as massive and hard as blocks
of granite, fastened together by stern rigidity
of purpose, as with iron clamps, he followed
out his original design, probably without so
much as imagining an objection to it. On the
score of delicacy, or any scrupulousness
which a finer sensibility might have taught
him, the Colonel, like most of his breed and
generation, was impenetrable.
| He therefore dug his cellar, and laid the deep foundations of his mansion, on the square of earth whence Matthew Maule, forty years before, had first swept away the fallen leaves. It was a curious, and, as some people thought, an ominous fact, that, very soon after the workmen began their operations, the spring of water, above mentioned, entirely lost the deliciousness of its pristine quality. Whether its sources were disturbed by the depth of the new cellar, or whatever subtler cause might lurk at the bottom, it is certain that the water of Maule's Well, as it continued to be called, grew hard and brackish. Even such we find it now; and any old woman of the neighborhood will certify that it is productive of intestinal mischief to those who quench their thirst there. Pero el puritano militar y magistrado no era
hombre a quien se podía apartar de la realización
de sus planes, ni por el miedo al fantasma del
brujo ni por insubstanciales sentimentalismos. Si
le hubieran dicho que el aire era malo, tal vez le
hubieran convencido; pero estaba dispuesto a
enfrentarse con un fantasma en su propia
guarida. Dotado de sentido común, macizo y
duro cual bloque de granito, y de una energía
inflexible, siguió adelante con su plan,
probablemente sin imaginar siquiera que se
pudiera objetar algo contra él. El coronel, como
otras muchas personas de su clase y de su
generación, era impermeable a las delicadezas o
a los escrúpulos que únicamente una sensibilidad
más fina que la suya podía conocer.
| Hizo construir, pues, los cimientos de su bodega y de su casa en el recuadro de tierra que Matthew Maule cuarenta años atrás había desbrozado de mato jos y de hierbas. Fue un hecho extraño y, como algunas gentes pensaron, ominoso, el que, al comenzar las obras, la fuente cercana, ya mencionada, perdiera la frescura y limpidez de su agua. Fuese que las tierras removidas enturbiasen el manantial, fuese por causa más sutil, lo cierto es que el agua de la fuente de Maule, como siguieron llamándola, se volvió áspera y salobre. Así la encontramos hoy; y las viejas de la vecindad aseguran que produce trastornos intestinales a los que en ella apagan su sed. The reader may deem it singular that the head
carpenter of the new edifice was no other than
the son of the very man from whose dead
gripe the property of the soil had been
wrested. Not improbably he was the best
workman of his time; or, perhaps, the Colonel
thought it expedient, or was impelled by some
better feeling, thus openly to cast aside all
animosity against the race of his fallen
antagonist. Nor was it out of keeping with the
general coarseness and matter-of-fact
character of the age, that the son should be
willing to earn an honest penny, or, rather, a
weighty amount of sterling pounds, from the
purse of his father's deadly enemy. At all
events, Thomas Maule became the architect
of the House of the Seven Gables, and
performed his duty so faithfully that the
timber framework fastened by his hands still
holds together.
| No es improbable que fuese el mejor obrero en
su oficio; quizá el coronel lo juzgó conveniente;
quizá, animado por algún buen sentimiento,
quiso borrar de este modo toda animosidad
contra la familia de su vencido enemigo.
Tampoco puede descartarse -teniendo en cuenta
la rudeza de la época- la posibilidad de que el
hijo quisiera ganarse honradamente unos
peniques o, mejor dicho, un buen puñado de
libras de las que contenía la bolsa del enemigo
mortal de su padre. El hecho es que Thomas
Maule fue el arquitecto de La Casa de los Siete
Tejados, y que realizó su trabajo tan a
conciencia que el armazón, ajustado por sus
manos, todavía se mantiene unido y sólido. | Thus the great house was built. Familiar as it
stands in the writer's recollection,--for it has
been an object of curiosity with him from
boyhood, both as a specimen of the best and
stateliest architecture of a longpast epoch, and
as the scene of events more full of human
interest, perhaps, than those of a gray feudal
castle,--familiar as it stands, in its rusty old
age, it is therefore only the more difficult to
imagine the bright novelty with which it first
caught the sunshine. The impression of its
actual state, at this distance of a hundred and
sixty years, darkens inevitably through the
picture which we would fain give of its
appearance on the morning when the Puritan
magnate bade all the town to be his guests. A
ceremony of consecration, festive as well as
religious, was now to be performed. A prayer
and discourse from the Rev. Mr. Higginson,
and the outpouring of a psalm from the
general throat of the community, was to be
made acceptable to the grosser sense by ale,
cider, wine, and brandy, in copious effusion,
and, as some authorities aver, by an ox,
roasted whole, or at least, by the weight and
substance of an ox, in more manageable joints
and sirloins. The carcass of a deer, shot
within twenty miles, had supplied material for
the vast circumference of a pasty. A codfish
of sixty pounds, caught in the bay, had been
dissolved into the rich liquid of a chowder.
The chimney of the new house, in short,
belching forth its kitchen smoke, impregnated
the whole air with the scent of meats, fowls,
and fishes, spicily concocted with odoriferous
herbs, and onions in abundance. The mere
smell of such festivity, making its way to
everybody's nostrils, was at once an invitation
and an appetite.
| Así se construyó la espaciosa casa, cuyo
recuerdo es familiar al autor, por haber sido
objeto de su curiosidad desde la infancia, como
ejemplo de sólida arquitectura de madera y
como escenario de sucesos más llenos de interés
humano, quizá, que los de un castillo feudal,
aunque, en su estado de decadencia, resulta tanto
más difícil de imaginar qué aspecto tenía
cuando, por vez primera, brilló el sol sobre el
edificio concluido. Su aspecto actual da escasa
idea de cómo debió ser hace ciento sesenta años,
la mañana en que el magnate puritano invitó a
toda la ciudad a la ceremonia de consagración,
en la cual había tanto de fiesta como de acto
religioso. Las plegarias y el sermón del
reverendo míster Higginson21 y el salmo
entonado por las gargantas de la comunidad
entera fueron soportados con alegría gracias a la
abundancia de cerveza, sidra, vino y brandy y,
según afirman autoridades en la materia, a un
buey asado entero o, por lo menos, a la
substancia y el peso de un buey servido en forma
de cuartos y solomillos. Un ciervo cazado a
veinte millas de la ciudad, suministró suficiente
material para la vasta circunferencia de un pastel
de carne. Un bacalao de sesenta libras, pescado
en la bahía, se disolvió en un fastuoso estofado.
La chimenea de la casa nueva, vomitando el
humo de su cocina, impregnó la atmósfera de la
ciudad de los aromas de carnes, aves y pescados,
olorosas hierbas y abundantes cebollas. La
fragancia de la fiesta, que acariciaba el olfato,
era, a la par, invitación y augurio de buen
apetito. | Maule's Lane, or Pyncheon Street, as it were
now more decorous to call it, was thronged, at
the appointed hour, as with a congregation on
its way to church. All, as they approached,
looked upward at the imposing edifice, which
was henceforth to assume its rank among the
habitations of mankind. There it rose, a little
withdrawn from the line of the street, but in
pride, not modesty. Its whole visible exterior
was ornamented with quaint figures,
conceived in the grotesqueness of a Gothic
fancy, and drawn or stamped in the glittering
plaster, composed of lime, pebbles, and bits
of glass, with which the woodwork of the
walls was overspread.
| On every side the seven gables pointed sharply towards the sky, and presented the aspect of a whole sisterhood of edifices, breathing through the spiracles of one great chimney. The many lattices, with their small, diamond-shaped panes, admitted the sunlight into hall and chamber, while, nevertheless, the second story, projecting far over the base, and itself retiring beneath the third, threw a shadowy and thoughtful gloom into the lower rooms. Carved globes of wood were affixed under the jutting stories. Little spiral rods of iron beautified each of the seven peaks. On the triangular portion of the gable, that fronted next the street, was a dial, put up that very morning, and on which the sun was still marking the passage of the first bright hour in a history that was not destined to be all so bright. All around were scattered shavings, chips, shingles, and broken halves of bricks; these, together with the lately turned earth, on which the grass had not begun to grow, contributed to the impression of strangeness and novelty proper to a house that had yet its place to make among men's daily interests. La callejuela de Maule o la calle Pyncheon,
como ahora parecía más decoroso llamarla,
estaba llena de gente a la hora fijada. Todo el
mundo, al acercarse, levantaba la cabeza para
contemplar el imponente edificio que iba a
entrar en la categoría de hogar. Alzábase algo
retirado de la calle, pero no con modestia, sino
con orgullo. Su fachada ostentaba fantásticas
figuras que, por lo grotesco, parecían concebidas
por una imaginación gótica, dibujadas en el
brillante enlucido de cal, guijarros y trocitos de
vidrio.
| Los siete tejados apuntaban hacia el cielo, presentando el aspecto de una verdadera hermandad de edificios que respirasen por una gran chimenea. Las numerosas celosías, con sus cristales romboidales, dejaban penetrar la luz en el vestíbulo y en las estancias; mientras que el segundo piso, saliente con respecto al primero y hundido a su vez respecto al tercero, arrojaba una sombra en los cuartos inferiores. Gruesas bolas de madera parecían sostener los pisos salientes. Espirales de hierro remataban los tejados. En la porción triangular de la torre que daba a la fachada principal había un reloj, colocado aquella misma mañana, y en el que el sol marcaba con sus brillantes rayos el paso de la primera hora de una historia que no estaba destinada a ser tan brillante. Por los aledaños de la casa había esparcidas virutas, ladrillos rotos, cascajos y trozos de tablones, contribuyendo con su presencia y la de la tierra removida a dar una sensación de cosa extraña y flamante, propia de un edificio que va a ingresar en el número de intereses cotidianos de los hombres. The principal entrance, which had almost the
breadth of a church-door, was in the angle
between the two front gables, and was
covered by an open porch, with benches
beneath its shelter. Under this arched
doorway, scraping their feet on the unworn
threshold, now trod the clergymen, the elders,
the magistrates, the deacons, and whatever of
aristocracy there was in town or county.
Thither, too, thronged the plebeian classes as
freely as their betters, and in larger number.
Just within the entrance, however, stood two
serving-men, pointing some of the guests to
the neighborhood of the kitchen and ushering
others into the statelier rooms,--hospitable
alike to all, but still with a scrutinizing regard
to the high or low degree of each. Velvet
garments sombre but rich, stiffly plaited ruffs
and bands, embroidered gloves, venerable
beards, the mien and countenance of
authority, made it easy to distinguish the
gentleman of worship, at that period, from the
tradesman, with his plodding air, or the
laborer, in his leathern jerkin, stealing awe-stricken into the house which he had perhaps
helped to build.
| La puerta principal, casi tan ancha como la de
una iglesia, se hallaba en el ángulo formado por
los dos cuerpos de edificio frontales y la protegía
un porche descubierto, bajo el cual se veían
algunos bancos. Restregándose los pies en el
umbral, virgen de toda huella humana, los
clérigos, los magistrados, los diáconos y la
aristocracia de la ciudad del condado se
apresuraban a entrar. Entre ellos iban plebeyos
en gran número y tan libremente como los
anteriores.
| Junto a la puerta dos criados indicaban a los invitados el camino de la cocina o del salón, según fueran de una u otra clase. Esos criados escudriñaban a todo el mundo con ojos expertos. Trajes de rico terciopelo negro, pelucas lisas y bordados guantes, barbas venerables, el aire autoritario, todo, en conjunto, distinguía a los caballeros de calidad, de los comerciantes que andaban con aire trafagoso y de los jornaleros vestidos con chaquetín de cuero. Muchos de los últimos entraban en la casa que habían aydado a edificar. One inauspicious circumstance there was,
which awakened a hardly concealed
displeasure in the breasts of a few of the more
punctilious visitors. The founder of this
stately mansion--a gentleman noted for the
square and ponderous courtesy of his
demeanor, ought surely to have stood in his
own hall, and to have offered the first
welcome to so many eminent personages as
here presented themselves in honor of his
solemn festival. He was as yet invisible; the
most favored of the guests had not beheld
him. This sluggishness on Colonel
Pyncheon's part became still more
unaccountable, when the second dignitary of
the province made his appearance, and found
no more ceremonious a reception. The
lieutenant-governor, although his visit was
one of the anticipated glories of the day, had
alighted from his horse, and assisted his lady
from her side-saddle, and crossed the
Colonel's threshold, without other greeting
than that of the principal domestic.
| Una circunstancia de mal augurio provocó el
desagrado, difícilmente disimulado, de los
visitantes más puntillosos. El fundador de
aquella lujosa mansión -un caballero que se
hacía notar por la grave cortesía en su porte-
hubiera debido hallarse en el vestíbulo, para dar
la bienvenida a los eminentes personajes que le
honraban con su asistencia a la solemne fiesta y,
sin embargo, no se le veía por ninguna parte. La
tardanza del coronel Pyncheon se hizo más
notoria cuando el segundo dignatario de la
provincia se presentó y no encontró a nadie que
saliera a recibirle. El subgobernador, cuya visita
era una de las glorias de la fiesta, saltó del
caballo, ayudó a su esposa a apearse del suyo y
atravesó el umbral de la casa del coronel sin
recibir otro saludo que el del mayordomo. | This person--a gray-headed man, of quiet and
most respectful deportment--found it
necessary to explain that his master still
remained in his study, or private apartment;
on entering which, an hour before, he had
expressed a wish on no account to be
disturbed.
| Este -un hombre de barbas grises y modales
respetuosos- explicó que el señor seguía aún en
su gabinete privado, al entrar en el cual, una
hora antes, había indicado que no se le molestase
por ningún motivo. | "Do not you see, fellow," said the high-sheriff
of the county, taking the servant aside, "that
this is no less a man than the lieutenant-governor ? Summon Colonel Pyncheon at
once ! I know that he received letters from
England this morning; and, in the perusal and
consideration of them, an hour may have
passed away without his noticing it. But he
will be ill-pleased, I judge, if you suffer him
to neglect the courtesy due to one of our chief
rulers, and who may be said to represent King
William, in the absence of the governor
himself. Call your master instantly."
| -¿No te das cuenta -murmuró el sheriff al oído
del mayordomo- de que se trata nada menos que
del subgobernador ? Llama en seguida al coronel
Pyncheon. Sé que esta mañana ha recibido cartas
de Inglaterra y puede que leyéndolas se le haya
pasado el tiempo sin darse cuenta. Pero se
enojará si no le llamas para recibir al
subgobernador, que es como si dijéramos al
representante del rey Guillermo22. Llama a tu
señor al instante. | "Nay, please your worship," answered the
man, in much perplexity, but with a
backwardness that strikingly indicated the
hard and severe character of Colonel
Pyncheon's domestic rule; "my master's
orders were exceeding strict; and, as your
worship knows, he permits of no discretion in
the obedience of those who owe him service.
Let who list open yonder door; I dare not,
though the governor's own voice should bid
me do it !"
| -¿Cree Vuestra Señoría que debo hacerlo ? -balbuceó el criado perplejo, con un temor que
demostraba el severo carácter de la organización
doméstica del coronel Pyncheon-. Las órdenes
de mi señor fueron rígidas y ya sabe Vuestra
Señoría que no permite ninguna iniciativa en la
servidumbre. ¡Ay del que abra una puerta sin
permiso ! No me atrevería a hacerlo ni que me lo
mandara el propio gobernador.. | "Pooh, pooh, master high sheriff !" cried the
lieutenant-governor, who had overheard the
foregoing discussion, and felt himself high
enough in station to play a little with his
dignity. "I will take the matter into my own
hands. It is time that the good Colonel came
forth to greet his friends; else we shall be apt
to suspect that he has taken a sip too much of
his Canary wine, in his extreme deliberation
which cask it were best to broach in honor of
the day ! But since he is so much behindhand,
I will give him a remembrancer myself !"
| -¡Bah, bah ! ¡Eh, sheriff ! -gritó el subgobernador,
que había escuchado la conversación-. Yo
mismo me ocuparé del caso. Ya es hora de que
el coronel acuda a recibir a sus amigos... de lo
contrario podemos sospechar que ha tomado un
sorbo de más de su vino de Canarias, al escoger
el mejor tonel para este día... Ya que se retrasa,
iré a recordarle la hora que es... | Accordingly, with such a tramp of his
ponderous riding-boots as might of itself have
been audible in the remotest of the seven
gables, he advanced to the door, which the
servant pointed out, and made its new panels
reecho with a loud, free knock. Then, looking
round, with a smile, to the spectators, he
awaited a response. As none came, however,
he knocked again, but with the same
unsatisfactory result as at first. And now,
being a trifle choleric in his temperament, the
lieutenant-governor uplifted the heavy hilt of
his sword, wherewith he so beat and banged
upon the door, that, as some of the bystanders
whispered, the racket might have disturbed
the dead. Be that as it might, it seemed to
produce no awakening effect on Colonel
Pyncheon. When the sound subsided, the
silence through the house was deep, dreary,
and oppressive, notwithstanding that the
tongues of many of the guests had already
been loosened by a surreptitious cup or two of
wine or spirits.
| Dirigióse hacia la puerta que le señaló el criado,
pisando tan recio con sus botas de montar, que
debió oírse el taconeo en el más apartado de los
siete cuerpos del edificio, y llamó fuertemente
en uno de los paneles. Luego, mirando sonriente
a su alrededor, esperó la respuesta. Como no la
obtuvo, volvió a llamar, con idéntico resultado
negativo. Y como era hombre de temperamento
colérico, con el puño de su espada golpeó en la
puerta con tanta fuerza que alguien murmuró
que podía haber despertado a los muertos. Pero
no despertó al coronel Pyncheon Apagado el eco
de los golpes, reinó en toda la casa un hondo
silencio, opresivo y desconcertante, a pesar de
que unas cuantas copas de vino habían desatado
las lenguas de muchos invitados. | "Strange, forsooth !--very strange !" cried the
lieutenant-governor, whose smile was
changed to a frown. "But seeing that our host
sets us the good example of forgetting
ceremony, I shall likewise throw it aside, and
make free to intrude on his privacy."
| -¡Muy extraño, muy extraño ! -comentó el
subgobernador, cuya sonrisa se vio substituida
por un ceño-. En vista de que nuestro anfitrión
nos da el ejemplo de olvidar la etiqueta, yo le
imitaré y entraré en su gabinete sin esperar su
permiso. | He tried the door, which yielded to his hand,
and was flung wide open by a sudden gust of
wind that passed, as with a loud sigh, from
the outermost portal through all the passages
and apartments of the new house. It rustled
the silken garments of the ladies, and waved
the long curls of the gentlemen's wigs, and
shook the window-hangings and the curtains
of the bedchambers; causing everywhere a
singular stir, which yet was more like a hush.
A shadow of awe and half-fearful
anticipation--nobody knew wherefore, nor of
what--had all at once fallen over the
company.
| Empujó la puerta, que cedió bajo su mano y se
abrió de súbito por efecto de una ráfaga de
viento que pasó como un suspiro por todas las
estancias de la casa nueva, haciendo crujir los
vestidos de seda de las damas, temblar los rizos
de las pelucas de los caballeros y ondear los
cortinajes de las ventanas. Todo el mundo se
estremeció y calló, de miedo y de temerosa
anticipación, nadie sabía de qué ni por qué. | They thronged, however, to the now open
door, pressing the lieutenant-governor, in the
eagerness of their curiosity, into the room in
advance of them. At the first glimpse they
beheld nothing extraordinary: a handsomely
furnished room, of moderate size, somewhat
darkened by curtains; books arranged on
shelves; a large map on the wall, and likewise
a portrait of Colonel Pyncheon, beneath
which sat the original Colonel himself, in an
oaken elbow-chair, with a pen in his hand.
Letters, parchments, and blank sheets of
paper were on the table before him. He
appeared to gaze at the curious crowd, in
front of which stood the lieutenant-governor;
and there was a frown on his dark and
massive countenance, as if sternly resentful of
the boldness that had impelled them into his
private retirement.
| En la impaciencia de su curiosidad, se lanzaron
en tropel hacia la puerta abierta, empujando al
subgobernador. A primera vista, el cuarto no
ofrecía nada de particular: era una habitación
bien amueblada, de moderadas dimensiones,
sombreada por espesos cortinajes. Varios
estantes de libros en las paredes, un gran mapa y
el retrato del coronel Pyncheon, debajo del cual
se hallaba el coronel en persona, sentado en un
sillón de roble y sosteniendo una pluma en la
mano. Ante él, encima de la mesa, pergaminos,
cartas y hojas de papel. El coronel parecía mirar
al curioso grupo que se aglomeraba en la entrada
de su despacho. En su frente se veía un ceño
airado, resentimiento quizás, ante la audacia de
los intrusos que iban a molestarle en su retiro. | A little boy--the Colonel's grandchild, and the
only human being that ever dared to be
familiar with him--now made his way among
the guests, and ran towards the seated figure;
then pausing halfway, he began to shriek with
terror. The company, tremulous as the leaves
of a tree, when all are shaking together, drew
nearer, and perceived that there was an
unnatural distortion in the fixedness of
Colonel Pyncheon's stare; that there was
blood on his ruff, and that his hoary beard
was saturated with it. It was too late to give
assistance. The iron-hearted Puritan, the
relentless persecutor, the grasping and strong-willed man was dead ! Dead, in his new
house ! There is a tradition, only worth
alluding to as lending a tinge of superstitious
awe to a scene perhaps gloomy enough
without it, that a voice spoke loudly among
the guests, the tones of which were like those
of old Matthew Maule, the executed wizard,--"God hath given him blood to drink !"
| Un chiquillo -el nieto del coronel, único ser
humano que se atrevía a familiarizar con él-
abrióse paso entre los convidados y corrió hacia
la figura sentada, pero se detuvo a medio camino
y lanzó un chillido de terror. Los invitados,
temblando como las hojas de un árbol, se
acercaron y vieron algo anormal en la fija
mirada del coronel Pyncheon. Su gorguera y su
canosa barba estaban manchadas de sangre. Era
demasiado tarde para prestarle ayuda. El
puritano de corazón férreo, el infatigable
perseguidor, el codicioso y voluntarioso coronel,
estaba muerto. ¡Muerto en su casa nueva ! Una
tradición, que vale la pena de citar, solamente
por el matiz de supersticioso terror que añade a
la escena, ya de por sí bastante tétrica, afirma
que una voz se levantó de entre la gente, una voz
que sonaba como la de Matthew Maule, el brujo
ejecutado. Y que esa voz gritó: -¡Dios le ha
hecho beber sangre ! | Thus early had that one guest,--the only guest
who is certain, at one time or another, to find
his way into every human dwelling,--thus
early had Death stepped across the threshold
of the House of the Seven Gables !
| Así, antes que nadie, el huésped que visita todas
las moradas humanas, la muerte, franqueó el
umbral de La Casa de los Siete Tejados. | Colonel Pyncheon's sudden and mysterious
end made a vast deal of noise in its day. There
were many rumors, some of which have
vaguely drifted down to the present time, how
that appearances indicated violence; that there
were the marks of fingers on his throat, and
the print of a bloody hand on his plaited ruff;
and that his peaked beard was dishevelled, as
if it had been fiercely clutched and pulled. It
was averred, likewise, that the lattice window,
near the Colonel's chair, was open; and that,
only a few minutes before the fatal
occurrence, the figure of a man had been seen
clambering over the garden fence, in the rear
of the house. But it were folly to lay any
stress on stories of this kind, which are sure to
spring up around such an event as that now
related, and which, as in the present case,
sometimes prolong themselves for ages
afterwards, like the toadstools that indicate
where the fallen and buried trunk of a tree has
long since mouldered into the earth. For our
own part, we allow them just as little
credence as to that other fable of the skeleton
hand which the lieutenant-governor was said
to have seen at the Colonel's throat, but which
vanished away, as he advanced farther into
the room. Certain it is, however, that there
was a great consultation and dispute of
doctors over the dead body. One,--John
Swinnerton by name,--who appears to have
been a man of eminence, upheld it, if we have
rightly understood his terms of art, to be a
case of apoplexy. His professional brethren,
each for himself, adopted various hypotheses,
more or less plausible, but all dressed out in a
perplexing mystery of phrase, which, if it do
not show a bewilderment of mind in these
erudite physicians, certainly causes it in the
unlearned peruser of their opinions. The
coroner's jury sat upon the corpse, and, like
sensible men, returned an unassailable verdict
of "Sudden Death !"
| El repentino y misterioso fallecimiento del
coronel Pyncheon causó gran sensación. Se
murmuró -esos rumores han llegado hasta
nuestros días- que en el caso había trazas de
violencia, que en el cuello del coronel se veían
marcas de dedos y la huella de una mano
ensangrentada en la blanca gorguera. La aguda
barba cana aparecía revuelta, como si hubiese
sido mesada y hubiesen tirado de ella
violentamente. Se afirmó que la ventana más
próxima al cadáver del coronel estaba abierta y
que pocos instantes antes del momento fatal se
había visto a un hombre saltando la valla del
jardín.
| Pero sería una locura conceder importancia a historias de esas, que siempre salen a luz alrededor de casos parecidos y se prolongan durante largos años, igual que las setas venenosas señalan el lugar que ocupó un tronco convertido desde entonces en polvo y tierra. Por nuestra parte, les damos tan poco crédito como a esa otra fábula, según la cual, el subgobernador vio el esqueleto de una mano apretando la garganta del coronel, y que se desvaneció al acercarse al cadáver. Lo que puede afirmarse es que hubo una consulta de doctores alrededor del cuerpo muerto. Uno de ellos -llamado John Swinnerton y hombre eminente- opinó que se trataba de un caso de apoplejía. Sus colegas sostuvieron distintas hipótesis, más o menos plausibles, todas expresadas con frases tan misteriosas que si no muestran la perplejidad de los médicos, la provocan en el profano que las escucha. El jurado que acompañaba al Juez, y que estaba formado por hombres difícilmente impresionables, dio un veredicto de « muerte repentina ». It is indeed difficult to imagine that there
could have been a serious suspicion of
murder, or the slightest grounds for
implicating any particular individual as the
perpetrator. The rank, wealth, and eminent
character of the deceased must have insured
the strictest scrutiny into every ambiguous
circumstance. As none such is on record, it is
safe to assume that none existed. Tradition,--which sometimes brings down truth that
history has let slip, but is oftener the wild
babble of the time, such as was formerly
spoken at the fireside and now congeals in
newspapers,--tradition is responsible for all
contrary averments. In Colonel Pyncheon's
funeral sermon, which was printed, and is still
extant, the Rev. Mr. Higginson enumerates,
among the many felicities of his distinguished
parishioner's earthly career, the happy
seasonableness of his death. His duties all
performed,--the highest prosperity attained,--his race and future generations fixed on a
stable basis, and with a stately roof to shelter
them for centuries to come,--what other
upward step remained for this good man to
take, save the final step from earth to the
golden gate of heaven ! The pious clergyman
surely would not have uttered words like
these had he in the least suspected that the
Colonel had been thrust into the other world
with the clutch of violence upon his throat.
| Es difícil imaginar que haya podido existir una
sospecha de asesinato fundada en algo sólido,
algo que permitiera señalar a alguien como
autor. El rango, la riqueza y la eminencia del
muerto debieran haber disipado toda
circunstancia ambigua. Como no se conserva
memoria de ninguna, cabe suponer que no
existió. La tradición a veces pone de relieve
verdades que pasan inadvertidas a la historia,
que, en general, se limitan a reproducir chismes
de viejas, de las que antes se contaban junto al
hogar y ahora se divulgan en la prensa. En el
entierro del coronel Pyncheon, el sermón corrió
a cargo del reverendo míster Higginson. Este
panegírico, que puede leerse aún, enumera, entre
las muchas dichas que acompañaron la vida del
difunto, la dicha suprema de morir en momento
oportuno: sus deberes cumplidos, conseguida la
mayor prosperidad, su familia establecida sobre
sólidas bases, con un firme techo bajo el cual
guarecerse en los siglos venideros... ¿qué
escalón podía aún subir el noble caballero,
aparte del escalón final que lleva a las doradas
puertas del Paraíso ? No cabe duda de que el
piadoso clérigo no hubiera pronunciado
semejantes palabras de haber sospechado que el
coronel había sido enviado violentamente al otro
mundo. | The family of Colonel Pyncheon, at the epoch
of his death, seemed destined to as fortunate a
permanence as can anywise consist with the
inherent instability of human affairs. It might
fairly be anticipated that the progress of time
would rather increase and ripen their
prosperity, than wear away and destroy it.
For, not only had his son and heir come into
immediate enjoyment of a rich estate, but
there was a claim through an Indian deed,
confirmed by a subsequent grant of the
General Court, to a vast and as yet unexplored
and unmeasured tract of Eastern lands. These
possessions--for as such they might almost
certainly be reckoned--comprised the greater
part of what is now known as Waldo County,
in the state of Maine, and were more
extensive than many a dukedom, or even a
reigning prince's territory, on European soil.
When the pathless forest that still covered this
wild principality should give place--as it
inevitably must, though perhaps not till ages
hence--to the golden fertility of human
culture, it would be the source of incalculable
wealth to the Pyncheon blood. Had the
Colonel survived only a few weeks longer, it
is probable that his great political influence,
and powerful connections at home and
abroad, would have consummated all that was
necessary to render the claim available. But,
in spite of good Mr. Higginson's
congratulatory eloquence, this appeared to be
the one thing which Colonel Pyncheon,
provident and sagacious as he was, had
allowed to go at loose ends. So far as the
prospective territory was concerned, he
unquestionably died too soon. His son lacked
not merely the father's eminent position, but
the talent and force of character to achieve it:
he could, therefore, effect nothing by dint of
political interest; and the bare justice or
legality of the claim was not so apparent,
after the Colonel's decease, as it had been
pronounced in his lifetime. Some connecting
link had slipped out of the evidence, and
could not anywhere be found.
| La familia Pyncheon, en la época de la muerte
del coronel, parecía destinada a disfrutar de
posición tan sólida y permanente como lo
permite la inestabilidad de los asuntos humanos.
Era de prever que el curso del tiempo más
aumentaría que destruiría su prosperidad. El hijo
del coronel entró en posesión de una rica
hacienda, aparte de unos terrenos en litigio y
extensos territorios inexplorados en el este,
donde vivían los indios... Estas posesiones
comprendían la mayor parte de lo que es hoy el
condado de Waldo, en el estado de Maine, más
extenso que muchos ducados y hasta que algún
reino de Europa.
| Cuando la selva no hollada diera paso a la fertilidad del cultivo humano -cosa que sucedería inevitablemente-, sería fuente de incalculable riqueza para la familia Pyncheon. De sobrevivir el coronel unas semanas más, es probable que su gran influencia política y sus poderosas relaciones hubieran conseguido que le fueran concedidos aquellos terrenos. Pero, a pesar de la elocuencia panegírica del buen míster Higginson, el coronel, pese a su sagacidad, dejó muchos cabos por atar en aquel asunto. Murió demasiado pronto. Su hijo carecía no sólo de la eminente posición del padre, sino también de la energía y del talento necesario para llevar a feliz término la reclamación. Le faltaron sus influencias políticas; y la justicia de su causa no resultaba tan clara después de la muerte del coronel como lo fue en su vida. Algún eslabón de la cadena se había roto y no se le encontraba por ninguna parte. Efforts, it is true, were made by the
Pyncheons, not only then, but at various
periods for nearly a hundred years afterwards,
to obtain what they stubbornly persisted in
deeming their right. But, in course of time,
the territory was partly regranted to more
favored individuals, and partly cleared and
occupied by actual settlers. These last, if they
ever heard of the Pyncheon title, would have
laughed at the idea of any man's asserting a
right--on the strength of mouldy parchments,
signed with the faded autographs of
governors and legislators long dead and
forgotten--to the lands which they or their
fathers had wrested from the wild hand of
nature by their own sturdy toil. This
impalpable claim, therefore, resulted in
nothing more solid than to cherish, from
generation to generation, an absurd delusion
of family importance, which all along
characterized the Pyncheons. It caused the
poorest member of the race to feel as if he
inherited a kind of nobility, and might yet
come into the possession of princely wealth to
support it. In the better specimens of the
breed, this peculiarity threw an ideal grace
over the hard material of human life, without
stealing away any truly valuable quality. In
the baser sort, its effect was to increase the
liability to sluggishness and dependence, and
induce the victim of a shadowy hope to remit
all self-effort, while awaiting the realization
of his dreams. Years and years after their
claim had passed out of the public memory,
the Pyncheons were accustomed to consult
the Colonel's ancient map, which had been
projected while Waldo County was still an
unbroken wilderness. Where the old land
surveyor had put down woods, lakes, and
rivers, they marked out the cleared spaces,
and dotted the villages and towns, and
calculated the progressively increasing value
of the territory, as if there were yet a prospect
of its ultimately forming a princedom for
themselves.
| Los Pyncheon hicieron múltiples esfuerzos, a lo
largo de los cien años siguientes, para obtener lo
que ellos se obstinaban en considerar su derecho.
Pero en el curso de aquel tiempo el territorio en
cuestión fue concedido a otras gentes que lo
desbrozaron y cultivaron. Si los actuales
ocupantes oyeran hablar de los derechos de los
Pyncheon, se reirían de que hubiese personas
que, basándose en viejos pergaminos,
reclamaran las tierras que ellos o sus antecesores
arrancaron a la selva. Esta impalpable
reclamación alimentó de generación en
generación un absurda ilusión sobre la
importancia de la familia, que nunca dejó de
caracterizar a los Pyncheon.
| Hasta los miembros más pobres de la estirpe sentían como si heredasen una especie de nobleza y estuvieran a punto de entrar en posesión de fortunas principescas. En los mejores ejemplares de aquella sangre, esa esperanza era como una gracia que les ayudaba a soportar los rigores de la vida humana. En los ejemplares inferiores, aumentaba la tendencia a la indolencia, induciendo a la víctima de aquella esperanza a no esforzarse mientras aguardaba la realización de sus sueños. Muchos años después -ya olvidado el litigio por las gentes- los Pyncheon aún consultaban el antiguo mapa del coronel, trazado cuando el condado de Waldo era aún un terreno inexplorado. Donde el antiguo cartógrafo puso bosques, lagos y ríos, marcaban los espacios cultivados, las aldeas y ciudades que surgían, calculando el aumento progresivo del valor del territorio, con la esperanza de que algún día sería para ellos como una especie de principado. In almost every generation, nevertheless,
there happened to be some one descendant of
the family gifted with a portion of the hard,
keen sense, and practical energy, that had so
remarkably distinguished the original
founder. His character, indeed, might be
traced all the way down, as distinctly as if the
Colonel himself, a little diluted, had been
gifted with a sort of intermittent immortality
on earth. At two or three epochs, when the
fortunes of the family were low, this
representative of hereditary qualities had
made his appearance, and caused the
traditionary gossips of the town to whisper
among themselves, "Here is the old Pyncheon
come again ! Now the Seven Gables will be
new-shingled !" From father to son, they clung
to the ancestral house with singular tenacity
of home attachment. For various reasons,
however, and from impressions often too
vaguely founded to be put on paper, the writer
cherishes the belief that many, if not most, of
the successive proprietors of this estate were
troubled with doubts as to their moral right to
hold it. Of their legal tenure there could be no
question; but old Matthew Maule, it is to be
feared, trode downward from his own age to a
far later one, planting a heavy footstep, all the
way, on the conscience of a Pyncheon. If so,
we are left to dispose of the awful query,
whether each inheritor of the property--conscious of wrong, and failing to rectify it--did not commit anew the great guilt of his
ancestor, and incur all its original
responsibilities. And supposing such to be the
case, would it not be a far truer mode of
expression to say of the Pyncheon family, that
they inherited a great misfortune, than the
reverse ?
| Casi en cada generación había algún
descendiente dotado de la energía, la agudeza y
el sentido práctico que tanto distinguieron al
fundador de la casa. A través de esos miembros
mejor dotados se podía ver, algo diluido, es
cierto, como si el coronel poseyera una
intermitente inmortalidad en este mundo. En dos
o tres épocas, cuando la fortuna de la familia
estaba en decadencia, esas cualidades
hereditarias, representativas de los Pyncheon, se
manifestaron e hicieron decir a los chismosos de
la ciudad:
| -¡He aquí el viejo Pyncheon resucitado ! La Casa de los Siete Tejados volverá a prosperar... De padres a hijos se apegaron a la mansión ancestral con singular tenacidad doméstica. Por varias razones, no obstante, y por impresiones demasiado vagas para ponerlas en el papel, muchos, si no la mayoría de los poseedores de aquella casa, llegaron a dudar de su derecho a detentarla. Sobre el aspecto legal no había problema, pero es de temer que la imagen de Matthew Maule se había hincado profundamente en la conciencia de más de un Pyncheon. Si es así, nos queda la desagradable duda de si cada heredero de la propiedad -consciente de su error y sin atreverse a rectificarlo- no se hizo solidario de la gran culpa de su antecesor e incurrió en las mismas responsabilidades... Y suponiendo que ese fuese el caso, ¿no sería más acertado decir que los Pyncheon heredaron un gran infortunio, en vez de afirmar lo contrario ? We have already hinted that it is not our
purpose to trace down the history of the
Pyncheon family, in its unbroken connection
with the House of the Seven Gables; nor to
show, as in a magic picture, how the rustiness
and infirmity of age gathered over the
venerable house itself. As regards its interior
life, a large, dim looking-glass used to hang
in one of the rooms, and was fabled to contain
within its depths all the shapes that had ever
been reflected there,--the old Colonel himself,
and his many descendants, some in the garb
of antique babyhood, and others in the bloom
of feminine beauty or manly prime, or
saddened with the wrinkles of frosty age. Had
we the secret of that mirror, we would gladly
sit down before it, and transfer its revelations
to our page. But there was a story, for which
it is difficult to conceive any foundation, that
the posterity of Matthew Maule had some
connection with the mystery of the looking-glass, and that, by what appears to have been
a sort of mesmeric process, they could make
its inner region all alive with the departed
Pyncheons; not as they had shown themselves
to the world, nor in their better and happier
hours, but as doing over again some deed of
sin, or in the crisis of life's bitterest sorrow.
The popular imagination, indeed, long kept
itself busy with the affair of the old Puritan
Pyncheon and the wizard Maule; the curse
which the latter flung from his scaffold was
remembered, with the very important
addition, that it had become a part of the
Pyncheon inheritance. If one of the family did
but gurgle in his throat, a bystander would be
likely enough to whisper, between jest and
earnest, "He has Maule's blood to drink !" The
sudden death of a Pyncheon, about a hundred
years ago, with circumstances very similar to
what have been related of the Colonel's exit,
was held as giving additional probability to
the received opinion on this topic. It was
considered, moreover, an ugly and ominous
circumstance, that Colonel Pyncheon's
picture--in obedience, it was said, to a
provision of his will--remained affixed to the
wall of the room in which he died. Those
stern, immitigable features seemed to
symbolize an evil influence, and so darkly to
mingle the shadow of their presence with the
sunshine of the passing hour, that no good
thoughts or purposes could ever spring up and
blossom there. To the thoughtful mind there
will be no tinge of superstition in what we
figuratively express, by affirming that the
ghost of a dead progenitor--perhaps as a
portion of his own punishment--is often
doomed to become the Evil Genius of his
family.
| Ya hemos indicado que no nos proponemos
trazar la historia de la familia Pyncheon en su
nunca interrumpida relación con La Casa de los
Siete Tejados, ni mostrar, como en un cuadro
mágico, la influencia del tiempo en el venerable
edificio. Solía haber en una de las estancias un
ancho y empañado espejo que, según se afirma,
conservaba, en su profundidad, todas las figuras
que reflejó a lo largo de los años: el viejo
coronel y sus numerosos descendientes, unos en
la adolescencia, otros en todo el esplendor de la
belleza femenina, o la virilidad juvenil, y otros,
por último, entristecidos por las arrugas de la
vejez. Si poseyéramos el secreto del espejo, nos
sentaríamos frente a él y luego trasladaríamos
sus revelaciones a estas páginas.
| Existe una leyenda, a la que parece difícil encontrar fundamento, según la cual los sucesores de Matthew Maule tenían alguna relación con el misterio del espejo, que, por lo que parece ser un fenómeno de hechicería, ellos solos podían revivir las imágenes de los Pyncheon alojadas en el fondo del espejo, no como se mostraron al mundo en sus momentos felices, sino cuando cometieron una mala acción o en el momento más amargo de su vida. No se olvidó la leyenda acerca del viejo Pyncheon y del brujo Maule. La maldición lanzada por éste desde el patíbulo era recordada frecuentemente, con la adición de que se había convertido en una parte de la herencia de los Pyncheon. Si uno de la familia carraspeaba, siempre se hallaba alguien para comentar, medio en serio medio en broma: -Se le atraganta la sangre de Maule. La repentina muerte de un Pyncheon, hace un siglo, en circunstancias muy semejantes a las que rodearon el fin del coronel, aumentó los visos de probabilidad de la creencia popular. Fue considerado mal presagio que el retrato del coronel, de acuerdo con lo que éste disponía en su testamento, siguiera colgado de la pared desde que contempló la muerte de su modelo. Aquellas torvas y austeras facciones simbolizaban una influencia maléfica, mezclando la sombra de su mirada con el sol de la ventana e impidiendo que ningún buen pensamiento o propósito pudiera nacer bajo su inspiración. El que reflexione, no nos tildará de supersticiosos si afirmamos que el espíritu de un antecesor -quizás como parte de su propio castigo- se ve frecuentemente condenado a ser el espíritu malo de su familia. The Pyncheons, in brief, lived along, for the
better part of two centuries, with perhaps less
of outward vicissitude than has attended most
other New England families during the same
period of time. Possessing very distinctive
traits of their own, they nevertheless took the
general characteristics of the little community
in which they dwelt; a town noted for its
frugal, discreet, well-ordered, and home-loving inhabitants, as well as for the
somewhat confined scope of its sympathies;
but in which, be it said, there are odder
individuals, and, now and then, stranger
occurrences, than one meets with almost
anywhere else. During the Revolution, the
Pyncheon of that epoch, adopting the royal
side, became a refugee; but repented, and
made his reappearance, just at the point of
time to preserve the House of the Seven
Gables from confiscation. For the last seventy
years the most noted event in the Pyncheon
annals had been likewise the heaviest
calamity that ever befell the race; no less than
the violent death--for so it was adjudged--of
one member of the family by the criminal act
of another. Certain circumstances attending
this fatal occurrence had brought the deed
irresistibly home to a nephew of the deceased
Pyncheon. The young man was tried and
convicted of the crime; but either the
circumstantial nature of the evidence, and
possibly some lurking doubts in the breast of
the executive, or, lastly--an argument of
greater weight in a republic than it could have
been under a monarchy,--the high
respectability and political influence of the
criminal's connections, had availed to
mitigate his doom from death to perpetual
imprisonment. This sad affair had chanced
about thirty years before the action of our
story commences. Latterly, there were rumors
(which few believed, and only one or two felt
greatly interested in) that this long-buried
man was likely, for some reason or other, to
be summoned forth from his living tomb.
| Los Pyncheon, en resumen, sufrieron durante
dos siglos menos vicisitudes que la mayor parte
de las familias de Nueva Inglaterra durante el
mismo lapso de tiempo. Poseían rasgos propios,
muy marcados, sin que por esto dejaran de
adquirir las características de la comunidad en
que vivían; una ciudad notable por la frugalidad,
discreción y orden de sus habitantes, que se
distinguían por su apego al hogar y por el
limitado campo de sus simpatías. En esa ciudad,
sin embargo, existían individualidades fuertes o
excéntricas y a veces ocurrían en ella sucesos
más extraños que en otras partes. Durante la
revolución23, los Pyncheon se mantuvieron
fieles al rey y buscaron refugio en el Canadá;
pero luego, arrepentidos, reaparecieron a tiempo
para evitar que les confiscasen La Casa de los
Siete Tejados.
| En los últimos treinta años, el acontecimiento más notable fue, a la vez, la peor calamidad sufrida por la familia: la muerte violenta de uno de sus miembros a mano de otro del mismo apellido. Ciertas circunstancias que rodearon el hecho señalaron como autor a un sobrino del Pyncheon muerto. El joven fue juzgado y declarado culpable del crimen, pero la naturaleza de las pruebas y alguna duda de los jueces fueron la causa de que se le conmutara la pena de muerte por la de cadena perpetua. También contribuyó a ello la respetabilidad e influencia de los parientes del criminal. El triste suceso ocurrió unos treinta y pico años antes de comenzar la acción de nuestra historia. Más tarde, corrieron rumores -que pocos creyeron y sólo a una o dos personas interesaron- de que aquel hombre enterrado desde hacía tanto tiempo estaba a punto de ser sacado de su tumba viviente. It is essential to say a few words respecting
the victim of this now almost forgotten
murder. He was an old bachelor, and
possessed of great wealth, in addition to the
house and real estate which constituted what
remained of the ancient Pyncheon property.
Being of an eccentric and melancholy turn of
mind, and greatly given to rummaging old
records and hearkening to old traditions, he
had brought himself, it is averred, to the
conclusion that Matthew Maule, the wizard,
had been foully wronged out of his
homestead, if not out of his life. Such being
the case, and he, the old bachelor, in
possession of the ill-gotten spoil,--with the
black stain of blood sunken deep into it, and
still to be scented by conscientious nostrils,--the question occurred, whether it were not
imperative upon him, even at this late hour, to
make restitution to Maule's posterity. To a
man living so much in the past, and so little in
the present, as the secluded and antiquarian
old bachelor, a century and a half seemed not
so vast a period as to obviate the propriety of
substituting right for wrong. It was the belief
of those who knew him best, that he would
positively have taken the very singular step of
giving up the House of the Seven Gables to
the representative of Matthew Maule, but for
the unspeakable tumult which a suspicion of
the old gentleman's project awakened among
his Pyncheon relatives. Their exertions had
the effect of suspending his purpose; but it
was feared that he would perform, after death,
by the operation of his last will, what he had
so hardly been prevented from doing in his
proper lifetime. But there is no one thing
which men so rarely do, whatever the
provocation or inducement, as to bequeath
patrimonial property away from their own
blood. They may love other individuals far
better than their relatives,--they may even
cherish dislike, or positive hatred, to the
latter; but yet, in view of death, the strong
prejudice of propinquity revives, and impels
the testator to send down his estate in the line
marked out by custom so immemorial that it
looks like nature. In all the Pyncheons, this
feeling had the energy of disease. It was too
powerful for the conscientious scruples of the
old bachelor; at whose death, accordingly, the
mansion-house, together with most of his
other riches, passed into the possession of his
next legal representative.
| Es preciso decir algunas cosas referentes a la
víctima de aquel crimen casi olvidado. Era un
viejo solterón, poseedor de considerable fortuna,
aparte de la hacienda de los Pyncheon. De
carácter excéntrico y melancólico, aficionado a
escudriñar viejos recuerdos y a escuchar
leyendas, dedujo que Matthew Maule, el brujo,
había sido despojado de su hogar, si no de su
vida. Siendo así, detentaba el fruto de un
despojo, manchado de sangre. Se le presentó,
pues, la cuestión de si no era deber suyo, aunque
fuese con retraso, restituir sus bienes a los
descendientes de Maule. Para un hombre que
vivía tanto en el pasado y tan poco en el
presente, siglo y medio no le parecía lapso de
tiempo suficiente para relevarle de la obligación
de reparar el mal hecho por sus antecesores.
| Los que le conocian bien creían que habría tomado la singular decisión de dejar La Casa de los Siete Tejados a los sucesores de Matthew Maule, de no ser por la violenta oposición que este proyecto encontró en toda la familia Pyncheon. Suspendió la ejecución de su propósito, pero se temió que llevase a cabo después de muerto, por medio del testamento, lo que no le dejaron hacer en vida. Sin embargo, no hay nada que el hombre haga tan raramente como legar su propiedad a gentes de otra sangre. Se puede apreciar a los amigos más que a los parientes, incluso abrigar contra éstos un odio feroz, pero a la hora de la muerte predomina el fuerte prejuicio del parentesco y el testador deja su fortuna de acuerdo con costumbres tan inmemoriales que llegan a parecer naturales. En los Pyncheon, ese sentimiento tenía la fuerza de una enfermedad. Fue más poderoso que los escrúpulos de conciencia del viejo solterón, a cuya muerte la casa y la mayor parte de la fortuna pasaron a poder de su sucesor legal. This was a nephew, the cousin of the
miserable young man who had been
convicted of the uncle's murder. The new
heir, up to the period of his accession, was
reckoned rather a dissipated youth, but had at
once reformed, and made himself an
exceedingly respectable member of society.
In fact, he showed more of the Pyncheon
quality, and had won higher eminence in the
world, than any of his race since the time of
the original Puritan. Applying himself in
earlier manhood to the study of the law, and
having a natural tendency towards office, he
had attained, many years ago, to a judicial
situation in some inferior court, which gave
him for life the very desirable and imposing
title of judge. Later, he had engaged in
politics, and served a part of two terms in
Congress, besides making a considerable
figure in both branches of the State
legislature. Judge Pyncheon was
unquestionably an honor to his race. He had
built himself a country-seat within a few
miles of his native town, and there spent such
portions of his time as could be spared from
public service in the display of every grace
and virtue--as a newspaper phrased it, on the
eve of an election--befitting the Christian, the
good citizen, the horticulturist, and the
gentleman.
| Era éste un sobrino, primo del desdichado que
fue condenado por el asesinato de su tío. El
heredero era un joven disipado, pero, al entrar en
posesión de la fortuna familiar, se reformó y
convirtió en un respetable miembro de la
sociedad. De hecho, estaba dotado de las
cualidades características de los Pyncheon y
ocupó puestos más eminentes que cualquiera de
los de su familia desde los tiempos del puritano
coronel. En la adolescencia, decidióse al estudio
de las leyes y, como sentía vocación por la
abogacía, llegó a ocupar ciertos cargos en la
administración de justicia, de cuyo periodo le
quedó el imponente título de juez. Se dedicó
luego a la política, fue diputado y senador. El
juez Pyncheon era un honor para la familia.
Mandó construir una casa de campo a pocas
millas de la ciudad, donde pasaba el tiempo que
no consagraba al bien público, dedicado al
ejercicio de toda clase de virtudes,
comportándose como un buen cristiano, buen
ciudadano, buen horticultor y excelente
caballero. Esto aseguró a sus lectores un diario
de la ciudad en vísperas de elecciones. | There were few of the Pyncheons left to sun
themselves in the glow of the Judge's
prosperity. In respect to natural increase, the
breed had not thriven; it appeared rather to be
dying out. The only members of the family
known to be extant were, first, the Judge
himself, and a single surviving son, who was
now travelling in Europe; next, the thirty
years' prisoner, already alluded to, and a sister
of the latter, who occupied, in an extremely
retired manner, the House of the Seven
Gables, in which she had a life-estate by the
will of the old bachelor. She was understood
to be wretchedly poor, and seemed to make it
her choice to remain so; inasmuch as her
affluent cousin, the Judge, had repeatedly
offered her all the comforts of life, either in
the old mansion or his own modern residence.
The last and youngest Pyncheon was a little
country-girl of seventeen, the daughter of
another of the Judge's cousins, who had
married a young woman of no family or
property, and died early and in poor
circumstances. His widow had recently taken
another husband.
| Quedaban pocos Pyncheon para brillar al
resplandor de la prosperidad del juez. La estirpe
seguía una tendencia natural a extinguirse. Los
únicos miembros de la familia eran: el propio
juez y un hijo suyo que se hallaba viajando por
Europa; el sobrino condenado a treinta años, y su
hermana, que vivía retirada en La Casa de los
Siete Tejados, gracias al usufructo que le dejó el
viejo solterón. Dábase por supuesto que era muy
pobre y que no deseaba salir de su pobreza, pues
su influyente primo, el juez, le había ofrecido
repetidas veces todas las comodidades de la
vida, ya en la vieja mansión, ya en su moderna
residencia campestre. El último y más joven de
los Pyncheon era una muchacha de diecisiete
años, hija de otro primo del juez, casado con una
mujer sin posición ni fortuna. El padre de esta
chica murió joven y la viuda volvió a casarse. | As for Matthew Maule's posterity, it was
supposed now to be extinct. For a very long
period after the witchcraft delusion, however,
the Maules had continued to inhabit the town
where their progenitor had suffered so unjust
a death. To all appearance, they were a quiet,
honest, well-meaning race of people,
cherishing no malice against individuals or
the public for the wrong which had been done
them; or if, at their own fireside, they
transmitted from father to child any hostile
recollection of the wizard's fate and their lost
patrimony, it was never acted upon, nor
openly expressed. Nor would it have been
singular had they ceased to remember that the
House of the Seven Gables was resting its
heavy framework on a foundation that was
rightfully their own. There is something so
massive, stable, and almost irresistibly
imposing in the exterior presentment of
established rank and great possessions, that
their very existence seems to give them a
right to exist; at least, so excellent a
counterfeit of right, that few poor and humble
men have moral force enough to question it,
even in their secret minds. Such is the case
now, after so many ancient prejudices have
been overthrown; and it was far more so in
ante-Revolutionary days, when the
aristocracy could venture to be proud, and the
low were content to be abased. Thus the
Maules, at all events, kept their resentments
within their own breasts. They were generally
poverty-stricken; always plebeian and
obscure; working with unsuccessful diligence
at handicrafts; laboring on the wharves, or
following the sea, as sailors before the mast;
living here and there about the town, in hired
tenements, and coming finally to the
almshouse as the natural home of their old
age. At last, after creeping, as it were, for
such a length of time along the utmost verge
of the opaque puddle of obscurity, they had
taken that downright plunge which, sooner or
later, is the destiny of all families, whether
princely or plebeian. For thirty years past,
neither town-record, nor gravestone, nor the
directory, nor the knowledge or memory of
man, bore any trace of Matthew Maule's
descendants. His blood might possibly exist
elsewhere; here, where its lowly current could
be traced so far back, it had ceased to keep an
onward course.
| En cuanto a la descendencia de Matthew Maule,
se la suponía extinguida. Durante un largo
periodo, los Maule siguieron viviendo en la
ciudad donde su progenitor fue injustamente
ajusticiado. Según todas las apariencias, fueron
gentes honradas y pacíficas, que no sentían el
menor odio contra nadie por el daño que les
habían causado.
| Si en las horas de asueto, junto al fuego, se transmitían algún sentimiento hostil por la suerte del brujo y por la pérdida de su patrimonio, jamás lo demostraron. Nada tendría de particular que hubieran olvidado que los cimientos de La Casa de los Siete Tejados descansaban sobre un terreno que les pertenecía. Hay algo tan estable, macizo e imponente en las apariencias de los rangos establecidos y de las grandes fortunas, que su simple existencia ya parece darles derecho a existir o por lo menos una imitación tan excelente de ese derecho que son pocos los hombres humildes y pobres que poseen fuerza moral suficiente para ponerlos en duda. Los Maule guardaron siempre sus resentimientos en lo más hondo. Eran gente pobre y plebeya. Trabajaban con diligencia como artesanos, como descargadores en los muelles o como marineros. Vivían en casas alquiladas y pasaban los últimos días de su vida en los asilos de los pobres. Finalmente, después de arrastrarse a lo largo de aquel charco oscuro que para ellos fue la vida, se sumergieron en el pasado que es, tarde o temprano, el destino de todas las familias, principescas o plebeyas. Al cabo de treinta años, no se conservaba vestigio alguno de los descendientes de Matthew Maule ni en losas de tumbas ni en el registro, ni en el recuerdo de los hombres. Su sangre podía existir en alguna otra parte, pero aquí, desde donde podemos seguir su mansa corriente hasta el origen, había cesado de manar. So long as any of the race were to be found,
they had been marked out from other men--not strikingly, nor as with a sharp line, but
with an effect that was felt rather than spoken
of--by an hereditary character of reserve.
Their companions, or those who endeavored
to become such, grew conscious of a circle
round about the Maules, within the sanctity or
the spell of which, in spite of an exterior of
sufficient frankness and good-fellowship, it
was impossible for any man to step. It was
this indefinable peculiarity, perhaps, that, by
insulating them from human aid, kept them
always so unfortunate in life. It certainly
operated to prolong in their case, and to
confirm to them as their only inheritance,
those feelings of repugnance and superstitious
terror with which the people of the town, even
after awakening from their frenzy, continued
to regard the memory of the reputed witches.
The mantle, or rather the ragged cloak, of old
Matthew Maule had fallen upon his children.
They were half believed to inherit mysterious
attributes; the family eye was said to possess
strange power. Among other good-for-nothing properties and privileges, one was
especially assigned them,--that of exercising
an influence over people's dreams. The
Pyncheons, if all stories were true, haughtily
as they bore themselves in the noonday streets
of their native town, were no better than
bond-servants to these plebeian Maules, on
entering the topsy-turvy commonwealth of
sleep. Modern psychology, it may be, will
endeavor to reduce these alleged
necromancies within a system, instead of
rejecting them as altogether fabulous.
| Donde se encontraba algún Maule, se destacaba
-no llamativamente, no con señales evidentes,
sino por algo que se sentía aunque no podía
expresarse- por un hereditario carácter de
reserva. Sus compañeros, o los que intentaban
serlo, se daban cuenta de que estaban rodeados
de un círculo de cuya santidad o hechizo, a
despecho de su exterior de franqueza y
sociabilidad, era imposible pisar.
Quizá esta indefinible característica, al aislarles
de la ayuda humana, les hizo siempre tan
desgraciados. En todo caso, prolongó los
sentimientos de repugnancia y supersticioso
terror con que los habitantes de la ciudad, aun
después de calmado el frenesí de persecución,
seguían mirando cuanto se refería a los brujos.
| El manto, mejor dicho la capa harapienta del viejo Matthew Maule, cayó sobre los hombros de sus hijos. Hubo quien creyó que habían heredado, además, misteriosos atributos y se afirmaba que los ojos de los Maule poseían extraño poder. Entre otras propiedades y privilegios inútiles, les asignaron el de ejercer honda influencia sobre los sueños de las gentes. Si esas leyendas fueron ciertas, los Pyncheon, con toda su altivez, no serían más que siervos de los Maule apenas entraran en el trastocado mundo de los sueños. A descriptive paragraph or two, treating of
the seven-gabled mansion in its more recent
aspect, will bring this preliminary chapter to a
close. The street in which it upreared its
venerable peaks has long ceased to be a
fashionable quarter of the town; so that,
though the old edifice was surrounded by
habitations of modern date, they were mostly
small, built entirely of wood, and typical of
the most plodding uniformity of common life.
Doubtless, however, the whole story of
human existence may be latent in each of
them, but with no picturesqueness, externally,
that can attract the imagination or sympathy
to seek it there. But as for the old structure of
our story, its white-oak frame, and its boards,
shingles, and crumbling plaster, and even the
huge, clustered chimney in the midst, seemed
to constitute only the least and meanest part
of its reality. So much of mankind's varied
experience had passed there,--so much had
been suffered, and something, too, enjoyed,--that the very timbers were oozy, as with the
moisture of a heart. It was itself like a great
human heart, with a life of its own, and full of
rich and sombre reminiscences.
| Dos o tres párrafos descriptivos del aspecto
actual de La Casa de los Siete Tejados podrían
dar fin a este capítulo preliminar. La calle en que
se levanta la venerable mansión ya que no
pertenece al barrio distinguido de la ciudad, está
rodeada de edificios modernos, pero bajos, de
madera y vulgares. En cada uno de ellos, sin
duda, puede latir la historia entera de la
existencia humana, pero sin la apariencia
pintoresca que atrae la imaginación o la
simpatía.
| En cuanto al viejo caserón de nuestra historia, sus andamiajes de roble, sus tablas, su resquebrajado enlucido, su enorme chimenea, constituyen la parte menor y más despreciable de su realidad. Han pasado por él tantas experiencias humanas y tan variadas, se ha sufrido tanto y también disfrutado entre sus paredes, que las mismas maderas de la casa rezuman algo así como la humedad de un corazón. Como un gran corazón humano, con su vida peculiar, llena de ricas y sombrías reminiscencias. The deep projection of the second story gave
the house such a meditative look, that you
could not pass it without the idea that it had
secrets to keep, and an eventful history to
moralize upon. In front, just on the edge of
the unpaved sidewalk, grew the Pyncheon
Elm, which, in reference to such trees as one
usually meets with, might well be termed
gigantic. It had been planted by a great-grandson of the first Pyncheon, and, though
now four-score years of age, or perhaps
nearer a hundred, was still in its strong and
broad maturity, throwing its shadow from
side to side of the street, overtopping the
seven gables, and sweeping the whole black
roof with its pendant foliage. It gave beauty to
the old edifice, and seemed to make it a part
of nature. The street having been widened
about forty years ago, the front gable was
now precisely on a line with it. On either side
extended a ruinous wooden fence of open
lattice-work, through which could be seen a
grassy yard, and, especially in the angles of
the building, an enormous fertility of
burdocks, with leaves, it is hardly an
exaggeration to say, two or three feet long.
Behind the house there appeared to be a
garden, which undoubtedly had once been
extensive, but was now infringed upon by
other enclosures, or shut in by habitations and
outbuildings that stood on another street. It
would be an omission, trifling, indeed, but
unpardonable, were we to forget the green
moss that had long since gathered over the
projections of the windows, and on the slopes
of the roof nor must we fail to direct the
reader's eye to a crop, not of weeds, but
flower-shrubs, which were growing aloft in
the air, not a great way from the chimney, in
the nook between two of the gables. They
were called Alice's Posies. The tradition was,
that a certain Alice Pyncheon had flung up
the seeds, in sport, and that the dust of the
street and the decay of the roof gradually
formed a kind of soil for them, out of which
they grew, when Alice had long been in her
grave. However the flowers might have come
there, it was both sad and sweet to observe
how Nature adopted to herself this desolate,
decaying, gusty, rusty old house of the
Pyncheon family; and how the ever-returning
Summer did her best to gladden it with tender
beauty, and grew melancholy in the effort.
| La sombra proyectada por el saliente del
segundo piso da a la casa una apariencia
meditabunda que hace que no se pueda pasar
frente a ella sin pensar que debe guardar
extraños secretos y una terrible historia. Frente a
la casa, junto a la esquina sin pavimentar, se alza
el gigantesco olmo de los Pyncheon, plantado
por un biznieto del primer Pyncheon y aunque
tiene ochenta años o quizá es centenario, todavía
está fuerte, da sombra a todo lo ancho de la
calle, descuella por encima de los siete tejados y
barre el negro tejado con su follaje. Embellece el
vetusto edificio, pareciendo convertirle en una
parte de la naturaleza. Hace cuarenta años se
ensanchó la calle y la fachada de la casa quedó
al nivel de las demás. Una vieja celosía deja
entrever un patio cubierto de hierba y, en los
ángulos de la casa, bardanas de hojas por lo
menos de dos o tres pies de largo. Detrás de la
casa, un jardín, invadido por vallas y saledizos
de otros edificios contiguos. Sería omisión
trivial, pero imperdonable, no mencionar el
musgo que cubre los tejadillos de las ventanas y
los resquicios del tejado. No hemos de
olvidarnos de llamar la atención del lector sobre
unas matas floridas que cuelgan en el aire, en el
hueco entre los aguilones, cerca de la chimenea.
Las llaman los ramilletes de Alice porque, según
la tradición, una Alice Pyncheon arrojó allí las
semillas, que germinaron en el limo formado por
el polvo y el desgaste de los troncos, y
florecieron cuando ya Alice estaba enterrada.
Vinieran como vinieran aquellas flores, es
agradable observar que la naturaleza adoptó la
desolada y ruinosa casa de los Pyncheon, y que
el verano siempre se esfuerza en alegrarla con la
tierna belleza de las flores y acaba poniéndose
melancólico al ver la inutilidad de su intento. | There is one other feature, very essential to be
noticed, but which, we greatly fear, may
damage any picturesque and romantic
impression which we have been willing to
throw over our sketch of this respectable
edifice. In the front gable, under the
impending brow of the second story, and
contiguous to the street, was a shop-door,
divided horizontally in the midst, and with a
window for its upper segment, such as is
often seen in dwellings of a somewhat ancient
date. This same shop-door had been a subject
of no slight mortification to the present
occupant of the august Pyncheon House, as
well as to some of her predecessors. The
matter is disagreeably delicate to handle; but,
since the reader must needs be let into the
secret, he will please to understand, that,
about a century ago, the head of the
Pyncheons found himself involved in serious
financial difficulties. The fellow (gentleman,
as he styled himself) can hardly have been
other than a spurious interloper; for, instead
of seeking office from the king or the royal
governor, or urging his hereditary claim to
Eastern lands, he bethought himself of no
better avenue to wealth than by cutting a
shop-door through the side of his ancestral
residence. It was the custom of the time,
indeed, for merchants to store their goods and
transact business in their own dwellings. But
there was something pitifully small in this old
Pyncheon's mode of setting about his
commercial operations; it was whispered,
that, with his own hands, all beruffled as they
were, he used to give change for a shilling,
and would turn a half-penny twice over, to
make sure that it was a good one. Beyond all
question, he had the blood of a petty huckster
in his veins, through whatever channel it may
have found its way there.
| Hay otro rasgo esencial, pero tememos que
perjudique la impresión pintoresca y romántica
que hemos querido arrancar del respetable
edificio. Al pie del cuerpo de la fachada, bajo la
protección del saledizo del primer piso y junto a
la calle, en la mitad superior de una puerta de
tienda, partida horizontalmente, se abre un
escaparate cuadrado. Esta puerta de tienda ha
sido causa de no pocas mortificaciones para el
actual ocupante de la augusta casa de los
Pyncheon, igual que para algunos dé sus
predecesores. Asunto desagradable y delicado de
tratar. Pero ya que es preciso poner al lector en
el secreto, diremos que hace cosa de un siglo el
jefe de los Pyncheon se vio envuelto en serias
dificultades financieras. En realidad, aquel tipo -caballero solía llamarse a sí mismo- era un
espurio, y en vez de solicitar algún empleo o
cargo al rey o al gobernador, o de dar prisas para
que se resolviera su reclamación de las tierras
orientales, no encontró más recurso para
procurarse dinero que abrir una puerta de tienda
en la fachada de su residencia ancestral. Era
costumbre que los mercaderes almacenaran sus
mercancías y tratasen de negocios en su propio
hogar. Pero había algo de mezquino y pequeño
en la manera en que aquel Pyncheon quiso
establecerse en el comercio. Se decía que con
sus propias manos daba la vuelta hasta a un
chelín y probaba por dos veces la calidad de los
medios peniques. No había duda de que por sus
venas corría sangre de chalán, aunque se
ignoraba por qué camino llegó a ellas. | Immediately on his death, the shop-door had
been locked, bolted, and barred, and, down to
the period of our story, had probably never
once been opened. The old counter, shelves,
and other fixtures of the little shop remained
just as he had left them. It used to be
affirmed, that the dead shop-keeper, in a
white wig, a faded velvet coat, an apron at his
waist, and his ruffles carefully turned back
from his wrists, might be seen through the
chinks of the shutters, any night of the year,
ransacking his till, or poring over the dingy
pages of his day-book. From the look of
unutterable woe upon his face, it appeared to
be his doom to spend eternity in a vain effort
to make his accounts balance.
| Inmediatamente después de su muerte, la puerta
de la tienda fue cerrada y atrancada y
probablemente no volvió a abrirse hasta el
periodo en que se inicia nuestra historia. El viejo
mostrador y los estantes de la tienda seguían tal
cual los dejó el avariento comerciante.
Murmurábase que el viejo tendero, con peluca
blanca, casaca de mustio terciopelo y mandil en
la cintura, podía ser visto por las hendeduras de
la puerta, cualquier noche del año, hurgando en
la gaveta del dinero o escudriñando las sucias
páginas del libro diario. Por la aflicción de su
rostro se deducía que su destino era pasarse la
eternidad en un vano esfuerzo para hacer
balance. | And now--in a very humble way, as will be
seen--we proceed to open our narrative.
| Y ahora -de una manera muy humilde- vamos a
iniciar nuestro relato. |
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