In old Narragansett; romances and realities

								

Gay festivities had these young people in the hospitable great house,
especially when a demure young Quaker cousin was sent to them to live
for awhile in order to break up a romantic love-affair of hers with
a young French officer. Count Rochambeau was a guest at her father’s
house, and too many opportunities for love-making were found when the
young Frenchman came to report to his commanding officer.
Gayest and loveliest of all the beauties throughout Narragansett
was fair Hannah Robinson--Unfortunate Hannah. Much testimony of her
extraordinary beauty has descended to us, one story being of her
meeting with Crazy Harry Babcock, that reckless dare-devil of a soldier
whose feats of valor by land and sea were known all over Europe as
well as in America. This extraordinary man, during a visit to England,
was invited to the palace and introduced to the royal family. When the
queen extended her hand to him to be kissed, he sprang briskly from his
knees, exclaiming: “May it please your majesty, in my country, when we
salute a beautiful woman we kiss her lips, not her hand,” and with the
words he seized the astonished queen by the shoulders and impressed
on her lips a rousing smack. Upon his return to America he went to
Narragansett for the avowed purpose of “seeing the prettiest woman in
Rhode Island.” As he entered the parlor of Rowland Robinson’s house
fair Hannah rose to meet him, and the crazy colonel, as she extended
her hand to greet him, dropped on his knee with a look of intense
admiration, saying, in the stilted words of the times: “Pray permit one
who has kissed unrebuked the lips of the proudest queen on earth to
press for a moment the hand of an angel from heaven!”
The great wealth and luxurious manner of living of the opulent
Narragansett planters was shown in no way more plainly than in the
manner in which they educated their children. They spared no pains nor
expense to obtain the best masters and teachers. Rowland Robinson sent
his daughter to Newport to receive instruction from Madame Osborne,
whose fame as a teacher was known throughout America, and whose
“Memoirs” form the dullest book in the English language. At this school
Hannah met the handsome lover who was to have such an influence over
her life. Pierre Simond, or Peter Simons as was most unromantically
Anglicized his name, was a scion of a French Huguenot family, who
taught music and French in Madame Osborne’s school. From the moment the
young couple met they were lovers. Both knew, however, how hopeless it
was to think of obtaining Mr. Robinson’s consent to a marriage which
would appear to him so unequal; they therefore kept their love a secret.
As the time approached for Hannah’s return to her home in Narragansett,
the lovers were in despair at the thought of separation, for they
knew their unhappiness could not be mitigated even by the exchange
of love-letters. At this juncture the young music-teacher managed to