initial commit of ebook 11409HEADmain

1 files changed, 18156 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/11409-0.txt b/11409-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e71f79e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/11409-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,18156 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11409 ***
+
+The Red Rover
+
+A Tale.
+
+by James Fenimore Cooper
+
+“Ye speak like honest men: pray God ye prove so”
+
+Complete in One Volume
+
+1855
+
+Contents
+
+ Preface.
+ Chapter I.
+ Chapter II.
+ Chapter III.
+ Chapter IV.
+ Chapter V.
+ Chapter VI.
+ Chapter VII.
+ Chapter VIII.
+ Chapter IX.
+ Chapter X.
+ Chapter XI.
+ Chapter XII.
+ Chapter XIII.
+ Chapter XIV.
+ Chapter XV.
+ Chapter XVI.
+ Chapter XVII.
+ Chapter XVIII.
+ Chapter XIX.
+ Chapter XX.
+ Chapter XXI.
+ Chapter XXII.
+ Chapter XXIII.
+ Chapter XXIV.
+ Chapter XXV.
+ Chapter XXVI.
+ Chapter XXVII.
+ Chapter XXVIII.
+ Chapter XXIX.
+ Chapter XXX.
+ Chapter XXXI.
+ Chapter XXXII.
+
+
+
+
+Preface.
+
+
+The Writer felt it necessary, on a former occasion, to state, that, in
+sketching his marine life, he did not deem himself obliged to adhere,
+very closely, to the chronological order of nautical improvements. It
+is believed that no very great violation of dates will be found in the
+following pages. If any keen-eyed critic of the ocean, however, should
+happen to detect a rope rove through the wrong leading-block, or a term
+spelt in such a manner as to destroy its true sound, he is admonished
+of the duty of ascribing the circumstances, in charity, to any thing
+but ignorance on the part of a brother. It must be remembered that
+there is an undue proportion of landsmen employed in the mechanical as
+well as the more spiritual part of book-making; a fact which, in
+itself, accounts for the numberless imperfections that still embarrass
+the respective departments of the occupation. In due time, no doubt, a
+remedy will be found for this crying evil; and then the world may hope
+to see the several branches of the trade a little better ordered. The
+true Augustan age of literature can never exist until works shall be as
+accurate, in their typography, as a “log book,” and as sententious, in
+their matter, as a “watch-bill.”
+
+On the less important point of the materials, which are very possibly
+used to so little advantage in his present effort, the Writer does not
+intend to be very communicative, if their truth be not apparent, by the
+manner in which he has set forth the events in the tale itself, he must
+be content to lie under the imputation of having disfigured it, by his
+own clumsiness. All testimony must, in the nature of things, resolve
+itself into three great classes—the positive, the negative, and the
+circumstantial. The first and the last are universally admitted to be
+entitled to the most consideration, since the third can only be
+resorted to in the absence of the two others. Of the positive evidence
+of the verity of its contents, the book itself is a striking proof. It
+is hoped, also, that there is no want of circumstance to support this
+desirable character. If these two opening points be admitted those who
+may be still disposed to cavil are left to the full enjoyment of their
+negation, with which the Writer wishes them just as much success as the
+question may merit.
+
+To W. B. Shubrick, Esquire, U. S. Navy.
+
+
+In submitting this hastily-composed and imperfect picture of a few
+scenes, peculiar to the profession, to your notice, dear Shubrick, I
+trust much more to your kind feelings than to any merit in the
+execution. Such as it may be, however, the book is offered as another
+tribute to the constant esteem and friendship of
+
+The Author.
+
+
+
+
+The Red Rover.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I.
+
+Par. “Mars dote on you for his novices.”
+
+_All’s Well that ends Well._
+
+
+No one, who is familiar with the bustle and activity of an American
+commercial town, would recognize, in the repose which now reigns in the
+ancient mart of Rhode Island, a place that, in its day, has been ranked
+amongst the most important ports along the whole line of our extended
+coast. It would seem, at the first glance, that nature had expressly
+fashioned the spot to anticipate the wants and to realize the wishes of
+the mariner. Enjoying the four great requisites of a safe and
+commodious haven, a placid basin, an outer harbour, and a convenient
+roadstead, with a clear offing, Newport appeared, to the eyes of our
+European ancestors, designed to shelter fleets and to nurse a race of
+hardy and expert seamen. Though the latter anticipation has not been
+entirely disappointed, how little has reality answered to expectation
+in respect to the former. A successful rival has arisen, even in the
+immediate vicinity of this seeming favourite of nature, to defeat all
+the calculations of mercantile sagacity, and to add another to the
+thousand existing evidences “that the wisdom of man is foolishness.”
+
+There are few towns of any magnitude, within our broad territories, in
+which so little change has been effected in half a century as in
+Newport. Until the vast resources of the interior were developed the
+beautiful island on which it stands was a chosen retreat of the
+affluent planters of the south, from the heats and diseases of their
+burning climate. Here they resorted in crowds, to breathe the
+invigorating breezes of the sea. Subjects of the same government, the
+inhabitants of the Carolinas and of Jamaica met here, in amity, to
+compare their respective habits and policies, and to strengthen each
+other in a common delusion, which the descendants of both, in the third
+generation, are beginning to perceive and to regret.
+
+The communion left, on the simple and unpractised offspring of the
+Puritans, its impression both of good and evil. The inhabitants of the
+country, while they derived, from the intercourse, a portion of that
+bland and graceful courtesy for which the gentry of the southern
+British colonies were so distinguished did not fail to imbibe some of
+those peculiar notions, concerning the distinctions in the races of
+men, for which they are no less remarkable Rhode Island was the
+foremost among the New England provinces to recede from the manners and
+opinions of their simple ancestors. The first shock was given, through
+her, to that rigid and ungracious deportment which was once believed a
+necessary concomitant of true religion, a sort of outward pledge of the
+healthful condition of the inward man; and it was also through her that
+the first palpable departure was made from those purifying principles
+which might serve as an apology for even far more repulsive exteriors.
+By a singular combination of circumstances and qualities, which is,
+however, no less true than perplexing, the merchants of Newport were
+becoming, at the same time, both slave-dealers and gentlemen.
+
+Whatever might have been the moral condition of its proprietors at the
+precise period of 1759, the island itself was never more enticing and
+lovely. Its swelling crests were still crowned with the wood of
+centuries; its little vales were then covered with the living verdure
+of the north; and its unpretending but neat and comfortable villas lay
+sheltered in groves, and embedded in flowers. The beauty and fertility
+of the place gained for it a name which, probably, expressed far more
+than was, at that early day, properly understood. The inhabitants of
+the country styled their possessions the “Garden of America.” Neither
+were their guests, from the scorching plains of the south, reluctant to
+concede so imposing a title to distinction. The appellation descended
+even to our own time; nor was it entirely abandoned, until the
+traveller had the means of contemplating the thousand broad and lovely
+vallies which, fifty years ago, lay buried in the dense shadows of the
+forest.
+
+The date we have just named was a period fraught with the deepest
+interest to the British possessions on this Continent. A bloody and
+vindictive war, which had been commenced in defeat and disgrace, was
+about to end in triumph. France was deprived of the last of her
+possessions on the main, while the immense region which lay between the
+bay of Hudson and the territories of Spain submitted to the power of
+England. The colonists had shared largely in contributing to the
+success of the mother country. Losses and contumely, that had been
+incurred by the besotting prejudices of European commanders were
+beginning to be forgotten in the pride of success. The blunders of
+Braddock, the indolence of Loudon, and the impotency of Abercrombie,
+were repaired by the vigour of Amherst, and the genius of Wolfe. In
+every quarter of the globe the arms of Britain were triumphant. The
+loyal provincials were among the loudest in their exultations and
+rejoicings; wilfully shutting their eyes to the scanty meed of applause
+that a powerful people ever reluctantly bestows on its dependants, as
+though love of glory, like avarice, increases by its means of
+indulgence.
+
+The system of oppression and misrule, which hastened a separation that
+sooner or later must have occurred, had not yet commenced. The mother
+country, if not just, was still complaisant. Like all old and great
+nations, she was indulging in the pleasing, but dangerous, enjoyment of
+self-contemplation. The qualities and services of a race, who were
+believed to be inferior, were, however, soon forgotten; or, if
+remembered, it was in order to be misrepresented and vituperated. As
+this feeling increased with the discontent of the civil dissensions, it
+led to still more striking injustice, and greater folly. Men who, from
+their observations, should have known better, were not ashamed to
+proclaim, even in the highest council of the nation, their ignorance of
+the character of a people with whom they had mingled their blood.
+Self-esteem gave value to the opinions of fools. It was under this
+soothing infatuation that veterans were heard to disgrace their noble
+profession, by boastings that should have been hushed in the mouth of a
+soldier of the carpet; it was under this infatuation that Burgoyne
+gave, in the Commons of England, that memorable promise of marching
+from Quebec to Boston, with a force he saw fit to name—a pledge that he
+afterwards redeemed by going over the same ground, with twice the
+number of followers, as captives; and it was under this infatuation
+that England subsequently threw away her hundred thousand lives, and
+lavished her hundred millions of treasure.
+
+The history of that memorable struggle is familiar to every American.
+Content with the knowledge that his country triumphed, he is willing to
+let the glorious result take its proper place in the pages of history.
+He sees that her empire rests on a broad and natural foundation, which
+needs no support from venal pens; and, happily for his peace of mind,
+no less than for his character, he feels that the prosperity of the
+Republic is not to be sought in the degradation of surrounding nations.
+
+Our present purpose leads us back to the period of calm which preceded
+the storm of the Revolution. In the early days of the month of October
+1759, Newport, like every other town in America, was filled with the
+mingled sentiment of grief and joy. The inhabitants mourned the fall of
+Wolfe while they triumphed in his victory. Quebec, the strong-hold of
+the Canadas, and the last place of any importance held by a people whom
+they had been educated to believe were their natural enemies, had just
+changed its masters. That loyalty to the Crown of England, which
+endured so much before the strange principle became extinct, was then
+at its height; and probably the colonist was not to be found who did
+not, in some measure, identify his own honour with the fancied glory of
+the head of the house of Brunswick. The day on which the action of our
+tale commences had been expressly set apart to manifest the sympathy of
+the good people of the town, and its vicinity, in the success of the
+royal arms. It had opened, as thousands of days have opened since, with
+the ringing of bells and the firing of cannon; and the population had,
+at an early hour, poured into the streets of the place, with that
+determined zeal in the cause of merriment, which ordinarily makes
+preconcerted joy so dull an amusement. The chosen orator of the day had
+exhibited his eloquence, in a sort of prosaic monody in praise of the
+dead hero, and had sufficiently manifested his loyalty, by laying the
+glory, not only of that sacrifice, but all that had been reaped by so
+many thousands of his brave companions also, most humbly at the foot of
+the throne.
+
+Content with these demonstrations of their allegiance the inhabitants
+began to retire to their dwellings as the sun settled towards those
+immense regions which then lay an endless and unexplored wilderness but
+which now are teeming with the fruits and enjoyments of civilized life.
+The countrymen from the environs, and even from the adjoining main were
+beginning to turn their faces towards their distant homes, with that
+frugal care which still distinguishes the inhabitants of the country
+even in the midst of their greatest abandonment to pleasures, in order
+that the approaching evening might not lead them into expenditures
+which were not deemed germain to the proper feelings of the occasion.
+In short, the excess of the hour was past, and each individual was
+returning into the sober channels of his ordinary avocations, with an
+earnestness and discretion which proved he was not altogether unmindful
+of the time that had been squandered in the display of a spirit that he
+already appeared half disposed to consider a little supererogatory.
+
+The sounds of the hammer, the axe, and the saw were again heard in the
+place; the windows of more than one shop were half opened, as if its
+owner had made a sort of compromise between his interests and his
+conscience; and the masters of the only three inns in the town were to
+be seen standing before their doors, regarding the retiring countrymen
+with eyes that plainly betrayed they were seeking customers among a
+people who were always much more ready to sell than to buy. A few noisy
+and thoughtless seamen, belonging to the vessels in the haven, together
+with some half dozen notorious tavern-hunters were, however, the sole
+fruits of all their nods of recognition, inquiries into the welfare of
+wives and children, and, in some instances, of open invitations to
+alight and drink.
+
+Worldly care, with a constant, though sometimes an oblique, look at the
+future state, formed the great characteristic of all that people who
+then dwelt in what were called the provinces of New-England. The
+business of the day, however, was not forgotten though it was deemed
+unnecessary to digest its proceedings in idleness, or over the bottle.
+The travellers along the different roads that led into the interior of
+the island formed themselves into little knots, in which the policy of
+the great national events they had just been commemorating, and the
+manner they had been treated by the different individuals selected to
+take the lead in the offices of the day, were freely handled, though
+still with great deference to the established reputations of the
+distinguished parties most concerned. It was every where conceded that
+the prayers, which had been in truth a little conversational and
+historical, were faultless and searching exercises; and, on the whole,
+(though to this opinion there were some clients of an advocate adverse
+to the orator, who were moderate dissenters) it was established, that a
+more eloquent oration had never issued from the mouth of man, than had
+that day been delivered in their presence. Precisely in the same temper
+was the subject discussed by the workmen on a ship, which was then
+building in the harbour, and which, in the same spirit of provincial
+admiration that has since immortalized so many edifices, bridges, and
+even individuals, within their several precincts, was confidently
+affirmed to be the rarest specimen then extant of the nice proportions
+of naval architecture!
+
+Of the orator himself it may be necessary to say a word, in order that
+so remarkable an intellectual prodigy should fill his proper place in
+our frail and short-lived catalogue of the worthies of that day. He was
+the usual oracle of his neighbourhood, when a condensation of its ideas
+on any great event, like the one just mentioned, became necessary. His
+learning was justly computed, by comparison, to be of the most profound
+and erudite character; and it was very truly affirmed to have
+astonished more than one European scholar, who had been tempted, by a
+fame which, like heat, was only the more intense from its being so
+confined, to grapple with him on the arena of ancient literature. He
+was a man who knew how to improve these high gifts to his exclusive
+advantage. In but one instance had he ever been thrown enough off his
+guard to commit an act that had a tendency to depress the reputation he
+had gained in this manner; and that was, in permitting one of his
+laboured flights of eloquence to be printed; or, as his more witty
+though less successful rival, the only other lawyer in the place,
+expressed it, in suffering one of his _fugitive_ essays to be _caught._
+But even this experiment, whatever might have been its effects abroad,
+served to confirm his renown at home. He now stood before his admirers
+in all the dignity of types; and it was in vain for that miserable
+tribe of “animalculæ, who live by feeding on the body of genius,” to
+attempt to undermine a reputation that was embalmed in the faith of so
+many parishes. The brochure was diligently scattered through the
+provinces, lauded around the tea-pot, openly extolled in the prints—by
+some kindred spirit, as was manifest in the striking similarity of
+style—and by one believer, more zealous or perhaps more interested than
+the rest, actually put on board the next ship which sailed for “home,”
+as England was then affectionately termed, enclosed in an envelope
+which bore an address no less imposing than the Majesty of Britain. Its
+effect on the straight-going mind of the dogmatic German, who then
+filled the throne of the Conqueror, was never known, though they, who
+were in the secret of the transmission, long looked, in vain, for the
+signal reward that was to follow so striking an exhibition of human
+intellect.
+
+Notwithstanding these high and beneficent gifts, their possessor was
+now as unconsciously engaged in that portion of his professional
+labours which bore the strongest resemblance to the occupation of a
+scrivener, as though nature, in bestowing such rare endowments had
+denied him the phrenological quality of self-esteem. A critical
+observer might, however, have seen, or fancied that he saw, in the
+forced humility of his countenance, certain gleamings of a triumph that
+should not properly be traced to the fall of Quebec. The habit of
+appearing meek had, however, united with a frugal regard for the
+precious and irreclaimable minutes, in producing this extraordinary
+diligence in a pursuit of a character that was so humble, when compared
+with his recent mental efforts.
+
+Leaving this gifted favourite of fortune and nature, we shall pass to
+an entirely different individual, and to another quarter of the place.
+The spot, to which we wish now to transport the reader, was neither
+more nor less than the shop of a tailor, who did not disdain to perform
+the most minute offices of his vocation in his own heedful person. The
+humble edifice stood at no great distance from the water, in the skirts
+of the town, and in such a situation as to enable its occupant to look
+out upon the loveliness of the inner basin, and, through a vista cut by
+the element between islands, even upon the lake-like scenery of the
+outer harbour. A small, though little frequented wharf lay before his
+door, while a certain air of negligence, and the absence of bustle,
+sufficiently manifested that the place itself was not the immediate
+site of the much-boasted commercial prosperity of the port.
+
+The afternoon was like a morning in spring, the breeze which
+occasionally rippled the basin possessing that peculiarly bland
+influence which is so often felt in the American autumn; and the worthy
+mechanic laboured at his calling, seated on his shop board, at an open
+window, far better satisfied with himself than many of those whose
+fortune it is to be placed in state, beneath canopies of velvet and
+gold. On the outer side of the little building, a tall, awkward, but
+vigorous and well-formed countryman was lounging, with one shoulder
+placed against the side of the shop, as if his legs found the task of
+supporting his heavy frame too grievous to be endured with out
+assistance, seemingly in waiting for the completion of the garment at
+which the other toiled, and with which he intended to adorn the graces
+of his person, in an adjoining parish, on the succeeding sabbath.
+
+In order to render the minutes shorter, and, possibly in indulgence to
+a powerful propensity to talk, of which he who wielded the needle was
+somewhat the subject, but few of the passing moments were suffered to
+escape without a word from one or the other of the parties. As the
+subject of their discourse had a direct reference to the principal
+matter of our tale, we shall take leave to give such portions of it to
+the reader as we deem most relevant to a clear exposition of that which
+is to follow. The latter will always bear in mind, that he who worked
+was a man drawing into the wane of life; that he bore about him the
+appearance of one who, either from incompetency or from some fatality
+of fortune, had been doomed to struggle through the world, keeping
+poverty from his residence only by the aid of great industry and rigid
+frugality; and that the idler was a youth of an age and condition that
+the acquisition of an entire set of habiliments formed to him a sort of
+era in his adventures.
+
+“Yes.” exclaimed the indefatigable shaper of cloth, with a species of
+sigh which might have been equally construed into an evidence of the
+fulness of his mental enjoyment, or of the excess of his bodily
+labours; “yes, smarter sayings have seldom fallen from the lips of man,
+than such as the squire pour’d out this very day. When he spoke of the
+plains of father Abraham, and of the smoke and thunder of the battle,
+Pardon, it stirred up such stomachy feelings in my bosom, that I verily
+believe I could have had the heart to throw aside the thimble, and go
+forth myself, to seek glory in battling in the cause of the King.”
+
+The youth, whose Christian or ‘given’ name, as it is even now generally
+termed in New-England, had been intended, by his pious sponsors, humbly
+to express his future hopes, turned his head towards the heroic tailor,
+with an expression of drollery about the eye, that proved nature had
+not been niggardly in the gift of humour, however the quality was
+suppressed by the restraints of a very peculiar manner, and no less
+peculiar education.
+
+“There’s an opening now, neighbour Homespun, for an ambitious man,” he
+said, “sin’ his Majesty has lost his stoutest general.”
+
+“Yes, yes,” returned the individual who, either in his youth or in his
+age, had made so capital a blunder in the choice of a profession, “a
+fine and promising chance it is for one who counts but five-and-twenty;
+most of my day has gone by, and I must spend the rest of it here, where
+you see me, between buckram and osnaburghs—who put the dye into your
+cloth, Pardy? it is the best laid-in bark I’ve fingered this fall.”
+
+“Let the old woman alone for giving the lasting colour to her web; I’ll
+engage, neighbour Homespun, provided you furnish the proper fit,
+there’ll not be a better dress’d lad on the island than my own mother’s
+son! But, sin’ you cannot be a general good-man, you’ll have the
+comfort of knowing there’ll be no more fighting without you. Every body
+agrees the French won’t hold out much longer, and then we must have a
+peace for want of enemies.”
+
+“So best, so best, boy; for one, who has seen so much of the horrors of
+war as I, knows how to put a rational value on the blessings of
+tranquillity!”
+
+“Then you ar’n’t altogether unacquainted, good-man, with the new trade
+you thought of setting up?”
+
+“I! I have been through five long and bloody wars, and I’ve reason to
+thank God that I’ve gone through them all without a scratch so big as
+this needle would make. Five long and bloody, ay, and I may say
+glorious wars, have I liv’d through in safety!”
+
+“A perilous time it must have been for you, neighbour. But I don’t
+remember to have heard of more than two quarrels with the Frenchmen in
+my day.”
+“You are but a boy, compared to one who has seen the end of his third
+score of years. Here is this war that is now so likely to be soon
+ended—Heaven, which rules all things in wisdom, be praised for the
+same! Then there was the business of ’45, when the bold Warren sailed
+up and down our coasts; a scourge to his Majesty’s enemies, and a
+safeguard to all the loyal subjects. Then, there was a business in
+Garmany, concerning which we had awful accounts of battles fou’t, in
+which men were mowed down like grass falling before the scythe of a
+strong arm. That makes three. The fourth was the rebellion of ’15, of
+which I pretend not to have seen much, being but a youth at the time;
+and the fifth was a dreadful rumour, that was spread through the
+provinces, of a general rising among the blacks and Indians, which was
+to sweep all us Christians into eternity at a minute’s warning!”
+
+“Well, I had always reckoned you for a home-staying and a peaceable
+man, neighbour;” returned the admiring countryman; “nor did I ever
+dream that you had seen such serious movings.”
+
+“I have not boasted, Pardon, or I might have added other heavy matters
+to the list. There was a great struggle in the East, no longer than the
+year ’32, for the Persian throne. You have read of the laws of the
+Medes and the Persians: Well, for the very throne that gave forth those
+unalterable laws was there a frightful struggle, in which blood ran
+like water; but, as it was not in Christendom, I do not account it
+among my own experiences; though I might have spoken of the Porteous
+mob with great reason, as it took place in another portion of the very
+kingdom in which I lived.”
+
+“You must have journeyed much, and been stirring late and early,
+good-man, to have seen all these things, and to have got no harm.”
+
+“Yes, yes, I’ve been something of a traveller too, Pardy. Twice have I
+been over land to Boston, and once have I sailed through the Great
+Sound of Long Island, down to the town of York. It is an awful
+undertaking the latter, as it respects the distance, and more
+especially because it is needful to pass a place that is likened, by
+its name, to the entrance of Tophet.”
+
+“I have often heard the spot call’d ‘Hell Gate’ spoken of, and I may
+say, too, that I know a man _well_ who has been through it twice; once
+in going to York, and once in coming homeward.”
+
+“He had enough of it, as I’ll engage! Did he tell you of the pot which
+tosses and roars as if the biggest of Beelzebub’s fires was burning
+beneath, and of the hog’s-back over which the water pitches, as it may
+tumble over the Great Falls of the West! Owing to reasonable skill in
+our seamen, and uncommon resolution in the passengers, we happily made
+a good time of it, through ourselves; though I care not who knows it, I
+will own it is a severe trial to the courage to enter that same
+dreadful Strait. We cast out our anchors at certain islands, which lie
+a few furlongs this side the place, and sent the pinnace, with the
+captain and two stout seamen, to reconnoitre the spot, in order to see
+if it were in a peaceful state or not. The report being favourable, the
+passengers were landed, and the vessel was got through, by the blessing
+of Heaven, in safety. We had all reason to rejoice that the prayers of
+the congregation were asked before we departed from the peace and
+security of our homes!”
+
+“You journeyed round the ‘Gate’ on foot?”—demanded the attentive boor.
+
+“Certain! It would have been a sinful and a blasphemous tempting of
+Providence to have done otherwise, seeing that our duty called us to no
+such sacrifice. But all that danger is gone by, and so I trust will
+that of this bloody war, in which we have both been actors; and then I
+humbly hope his sacred Majesty will have leisure to turn his royal mind
+to the pirates who infest the coast, and to order some of his stout
+naval captains to mete out to the rogues the treatment they are so fond
+of giving unto others. It would be a joyful sight to my old eyes to see
+the famous and long-hunted Red Rover brought into this very port,
+towing at the poop of a King’s cruiser.”
+
+“And is it a desperate villain, he of whom you now make mention?”
+
+“He! There are many he’s in that one, lawless ship, and bloody-minded
+and nefarious thieves are they, to the smallest boy. It is
+heart-searching and grievous, Pardy, to hear of their evil-doings on
+the high seas of the King!”
+
+“I have often heard mention made of the Rover,” returned the
+countryman; “but never to enter into any of the intricate particulars
+of his knavery.”
+
+“How should you, boy, who live up in the country, know so much of what
+is passing on the great deep, as we who dwell in a port that is so much
+resorted to by mariners! I am fearful you’ll be making it late home,
+Pardon,” he added, glancing his eye at certain lines drawn on his
+shop-board, by the aid of which he was enabled to note the progress of
+the setting sun. “It is drawing towards the hour of five, and you have
+twice that number of miles to go, before you can, by any manner of
+means, reach the nearest boundary of your father’s farm.”
+
+“The road is plain, and the people honest,” returned the countryman,
+who cared not if it were midnight, provided he could be the bearer of
+tidings of some dreadful sea robbery to the ears of those whom he well
+knew would throng around him, at his return, to hear the tidings from
+the port. “And is he, in truth, so much feared and sought for, as
+people say?”
+
+“Is he sought for! Is Tophet sought by a praying Christian? Few there
+are on the mighty deep, let them even be as stout for, battle as was
+Joshua the great Jewish captain, that would not rather behold the land
+than see the top-gallants of that wicked pirate! Men fight for glory,
+Pardon, as I may say I have seen, after living through so many wars,
+but none love to meet an enemy who hoists a bloody flag at the first
+blow, and who is ready to cast both parties into the air, when he finds
+the hand of Satan has no longer power to help him.”
+
+“If the rogue is so desperate,” returned the youth straightening his
+powerful limbs, with a look of rising pride, “why do not the Island and
+the Plantations fit out a coaster in order to bring him in, that he
+might get a sight of a wholesome gibbet? Let the drum beat on such a
+message through our neighbourhood and I’ll engage that it don’t leave
+it without one volunteer at least.”
+
+“So much for not having seen war! Of what use would flails and
+pitch-forks prove against men who have sold themselves to the devil?
+Often has the Rover been seen at night, or just as the sun has been
+going down, by the King’s cruisers, who, having fairly surrounded the
+thieves, had good reason to believe that they had them already in the
+bilboes; but, when the morning has come, the prize was vanished, by
+fair means or by foul!”
+
+“And are the villains so bloody-minded that they are called ‘Red?’”
+
+“Such is the title of their leader,” returned the worthy tailor, who by
+this time was swelling with the importance of possessing so interesting
+a legend to communicate; “and such is also the name they give to his
+vessel; because no man, who has put foot on board her, has ever come
+back to say that she has a better or a worse; that is, no honest
+mariner or lucky voyager. The ship is of the size of a King’s sloop,
+they say, and of like equipments and form; but she has miraculously
+escaped from the hands of many a gallant frigate; and once, it is
+whispered for no loyal subject would like to say such a scandalous
+thing openly, Pardon, that she lay under the guns of a fifty for an
+hour, and seemingly, to all eyes, she sunk like hammered lead to the
+bottom. But, just as every body was shaking hands, and wishing his
+neighbour joy at so happy a punishment coming over the knaves, a
+West-Indiaman came into port, that had been robbed by the Rover on the
+morning after the night in which it was thought they had all gone into
+eternity together. And what makes the matter worse, boy, while the
+King’s ship was careening with her keel out, to stop the holes of
+cannon balls, the pirate was sailing up and down the coast, as sound as
+the day that the wrights first turned her from their hands!”
+
+“Well, this is unheard of!” returned the countryman, on whom the tale
+was beginning to make a sensible impression: “Is she a well-turned and
+comely ship to the eye? or is it by any means certain that she is an
+actual living vessel at all?”
+
+“Opinions differ. Some say, yes; some say, no. But I am well acquainted
+with a man who travelled a week in company with a mariner, who passed
+within a hundred feet of her, in a gale of wind. Lucky it was for them,
+that the hand of the Lord was felt so powerfully on the deep, and that
+the Rover had enough to do to keep his own ship from foundering. The
+acquaintance of my friend had a good view of both vessel and captain,
+therefore, in perfect safety. He said, that the pirate was a man maybe
+half as big again as the tall preacher over on the main, with hair of
+the colour of the sun in a fog, and eyes that no man would like to look
+upon a second time. He saw him as plainly as I see you; for the knave
+stood in the rigging of his ship, beckoning, with a hand as big as a
+coat-flap, for the honest trader to keep off, in order that the two
+vessels might not do one another damage by coming foul.”
+
+“He was a bold mariner, that trader, to go so nigh such a merciless
+rogue.”
+
+“I warrant you, Pardon, it was desperately against his will! But it was
+on a night so dark—”
+
+“Dark!” interrupted the other; by what contrivance then did he manage
+to see so well?”
+
+“No man can say!” answered the tailor, “but see he did, just in the
+manner, and the very things I have named to you. More than that, he
+took good note of the vessel, that he might know her, if chance, or
+Providence, should ever happen to throw her again into his way. She was
+a long, black ship, lying low in the water, like a snake in the grass,
+with a desperate wicked look, and altogether of dishonest dimensions.
+Then, every body says that she appears to sail faster than the clouds
+above, seeming to care little which way the wind blows, and that no one
+is a jot safer from her speed than her honesty. According to all that I
+have heard, she is something such a craft as yonder slaver, that has
+been lying the week past, the Lord knows why, in our outer harbour.”
+
+As the gossipping tailor had necessarily lost many precious moments, in
+relating the preceding history he now set about redeeming them with the
+utmost diligence, keeping time to the rapid movement of his
+needle-hand, by corresponding jerks of his head and shoulders. In the
+meanwhile, the bumpkin, whose wondering mind was by this time charged
+nearly to bursting with what he had heard, turned his look towards the
+vessel the other had pointed out, in order to get the only image that
+was now required, to enable him to do fitting credit to so moving a
+tale, suitably engraved on his imagination. There was necessarily a
+pause, while the respective parties were thus severally occupied. It
+was suddenly broken by the tailor, who clipped the thread with which he
+had just finished the garment, cast every thing from his hands, threw
+his spectacles upon his forehead, and, leaning his arms on his knees in
+such a manner as to form a perfect labyrinth with the limbs, he
+stretched his body forward so far as to lean out of the window,
+riveting his eyes also on the ship, which still attracted the gaze of
+his companion.
+
+“Do you know, Pardy,” he said, “that strange thoughts and cruel
+misgivings have come over me concerning that very vessel? They say she
+is a slaver come in for wood and water, and there she has been a week,
+and not a stick bigger than an oar has gone up her side, and I’ll
+engage that ten drops from Jamaica have gone on board her, to one from
+the spring. Then you may see she is anchored in such a way that but one
+of the guns from the battery can touch her; whereas, had she been a
+real timid trader, she would naturally have got into a place where, if
+a straggling picaroon should come into the port, he would have found
+her in the very hottest of the fire.”
+
+“You have an ingenious turn with you, good-man,” returned the wondering
+countryman; “now a ship might have lain on the battery island itself,
+and I would have hardly noticed the thing.”
+
+“’Tis use and experience, Pardon, that makes men of us all. I should
+know something of batteries, having seen so many wars, and I served a
+campaign of a week, in that very fort, when the rumour came that the
+French were sending cruisers from Louisburg down the coast. For that
+matter, my duty was to stand sentinel over that very cannon; and, if I
+have done the thing once, I have twenty times squinted along the piece,
+to see in what quarter it would send its shot, provided such a calamity
+should arrive as that it might become necessary to fire it loaded with
+real warlike balls.”
+
+“And who are these?” demanded Pardon, with that species of sluggish
+curiosity which had been awakened by the wonders related by the other:
+“Are these mariners of the slaver, or are they idle Newporters?”
+
+“Them!” exclaimed the tailor; “sure enough, they are new-comers, and it
+may be well to have a closer look at them in these troublesome times!
+Here, Nab, take the garment, and press down the seams, you idle hussy;
+for neighbour Hopkins is straitened for time, while your tongue is
+going like a young lawyer’s in a justice court. Don’t be sparing of
+your elbow, girl; for it’s no India muslin that you’ll have under the
+iron, but cloth that would do to side a house with. Ah! your mother’s
+loom, Pardy, robs the seamster of many an honest job.”
+
+Having thus transferred the remainder of the job from his own hands to
+those of an awkward, pouting girl, who was compelled to abandon her
+gossip with a neighbour, she went to obey his injunctions, he quickly
+removed his own person, notwithstanding a miserable limp with which he
+had come into the world, from the shop-board to the open air. As more
+important characters are, however, about to be introduced to the
+reader, we shall defer the ceremony to the opening of another chapter.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II.
+
+Sir Toby. “Excellent! I smell a device.”
+
+_Twelfth Night._
+
+
+The strangers were three in number; for strangers the good-man
+Homespun, who knew not only the names but most of the private history
+of every man and woman within ten miles of his own residence
+immediately proclaimed them to be, in a whisper to his companion; and
+strangers, too, of a mysterious and threatening aspect. In order that
+others may have an opportunity of judging of the probability of the
+latter conjecture, it becomes necessary that a more minute account
+should be given of the respective appearances of these individuals,
+who, unhappily for their reputations, had the misfortune to be unknown
+to the gossipping tailor of Newport.
+
+The one, by far the most imposing in his general mien, was a youth who
+had apparently seen some six or seven-and-twenty seasons. That those
+seasons had not been entirely made of sunny days, and nights of repose,
+was betrayed by the tinges of brown which had been laid on his
+features, layer after layer in such constant succession, as to have
+changed, to a deep olive, a complexion which had once been fair, and
+through which the rich blood was still mantling with the finest glow of
+vigorous health. His features were rather noble and manly, than
+distinguished for their exactness and symmetry; his nose being far more
+bold and prominent than regular in its form, with his brows projecting,
+and sufficiently marked to give to the whole of the superior parts of
+his face that decided intellectual expression which is already becoming
+so common to American physiognomy. The mouth was firm and manly; and,
+while he muttered to himself, with a meaning smile, as the curious
+tailor drew slowly nigher, it discovered a set of glittering teeth,
+that shone the brighter from being cased in so dark a setting. The hair
+was a jet black, in thick and confused ringlets; the eyes were very
+little larger than common, gray, and, though evidently of a changing
+expression, rather leaning to mildness than severity. The form of this
+young man was of that happy size which so singularly unites activity
+with strength. It seemed to be well knit, while it was justly
+proportioned, and strikingly graceful. Though these several personal
+qualifications were exhibited under the disadvantages of the perfectly
+simple, though neat and rather tastefully disposed, attire of a common
+mariner, they were sufficiently imposing to cause the suspicious dealer
+in buckram to hesitate before he would venture to address the stranger,
+whose eye appeared riveted, by a species of fascination, on the reputed
+slaver in the outer harbour. A curl of the upper lip, and another
+strange smile, in which scorn was mingled with his mutterings, decided
+the vacillating mind of the good-man. Without venturing to disturb a
+reverie that seemed so profound, he left the youth leaning against the
+head of the pile where he had long been standing, perfectly unconscious
+of the presence of any intruder, and turned a little hastily to examine
+the rest of the party.
+
+One of the remaining two was a white man, and the other a negro. Both
+had passed the middle age, and both in their appearances, furnished the
+strongest proofs of long exposure to the severity of climate, and to
+numberless tempests. They were dressed in the plain, weather-soiled,
+and tarred habiliments of common seamen, and bore about their several
+persons all the other unerring evidences of their peculiar profession.
+The former was of a short, thick-set powerful frame, in which, by a
+happy ordering of nature, a little confirmed perhaps by long habit, the
+strength was principally seated about the broad and brawny shoulders,
+and strong sinewy arms, as if, in the construction of the man, the
+inferior members had been considered of little other use than to
+transfer the superior to the different situations in which the former
+were to display their energies. His head was in proportion to the more
+immediate members; the forehead low, and nearly covered with hair; the
+eyes small, obstinate, sometimes fierce, and often dull; the nose snub,
+coarse, and vulgar; the mouth large and voracious; the teeth short,
+clean, and perfectly sound; and the chin broad, manly, and even
+expressive. This singularly constructed personage had taken his seat on
+an empty barrel, and, with folded arms, he sat examining the
+often-mentioned slaver, occasionally favouring his companion, the
+black, with such remarks as were suggested by his observation and great
+experience.
+
+The negro occupied a more humble post; one better suited to his subdued
+habits and inclinations. In stature, and the peculiar division of
+animal force, there was a great resemblance between the two, with the
+exception that the latter enjoyed the advantage in height, and even in
+proportions. While nature had stamped on his lineaments those
+distinguishing marks which characterize the race from which he sprung,
+she had not done it to that revolting degree to which her displeasure
+against that stricken people is often carried. His features were more
+elevated than common; his eye was mild, easily excited to joy, and,
+like that of his companion, sometimes humorous. His head was beginning
+to be sprinkled with gray, his skin had lost the shining jet colour
+which had distinguished it in his youth, and all his limbs and
+movements bespoke a man whose frame had been equally indurated and
+stiffened by unremitted toil. He sat on a low stone, and seemed
+intently employed in tossing pebbles into the air, and shewing his
+dexterity by catching them in the hand from which they had just been
+cast; an amusement which betrayed alike the natural tendency of his
+mind to seek pleasure in trifles, and the absence of those more
+elevating feelings which are the fruits of education. The process,
+however, furnished a striking exhibition of the physical force of the
+negro. In order to conduct this trivial pursuit without incumbrance, he
+had rolled the sleeve of his light canvas jacket to the elbow, and laid
+bare an arm that might have served as a model for the limb of Hercules.
+
+There was certainly nothing sufficiently imposing about the persons of
+either of these individuals to repel the investigations of one as much
+influenced by curiosity as our tailor. Instead, however, of yielding
+directly to the strong impulse, the honest shaper of cloth chose to
+conduct his advance in a manner that should afford to the bumpkin a
+striking proof of his boasted sagacity. After making a sign of caution
+and intelligence to the latter, he approached slowly from behind, with
+a light step, that might give him an opportunity of overhearing any
+secret that should unwittingly fall from either of the seamen. His
+forethought was followed by no very important results, though it served
+to supply his suspicions with all the additional testimony of the
+treachery of their characters that could be furnished by evidence so
+simple as the mere sound of their voices. As to the words themselves,
+though the good-man they might well contain treason, he was compelled
+to acknowledge to himself that it was so artfully concealed as to
+escape even his acute capacity We leave the reader himself to judge of
+the correctness of both opinions.
+
+“This is a pretty bight of a basin, Guinea,” observed the white,
+rolling his tobacco in his mouth and turning his eyes, for the first
+time in many minutes, from the vessel; “and a spot is it that a man,
+who lay on a lee-shore without sticks, might be glad to see his craft
+in. Now do I call myself something of a seaman, and yet I cannot
+weather upon the philosophy of that fellow, in keeping his ship in the
+outer harbour, when he might warp her into this mill-pond in half an
+hour. It gives his boats hard duty, dusky S’ip; and that I call making
+foul weather of fair!”
+
+The negro had been christened Scipio Africanus, by a species of
+witticism which was much more common to the Provinces than it is to the
+States of America, and which filled so many of the meaner employments
+of the country, in name at least, with the counterparts of the
+philosophers, heroes, poets, and princes of Rome. To him it was a
+matter of small moment, whether the vessel lay in the offing or in the
+port; and, without discontinuing his childish amusement, he manifested
+the same, by replying, with great indifference of manner,—
+
+“I s’pose he t’ink all the water inside lie on a top.”
+
+“I tell you, Guinea,” returned the other, in a harsh, positive tone,
+“the fellow is a know-nothing! Would any man, who understands the
+behaviour of a ship, keep his craft in a roadstead, when he might tie
+her, head and stern, in a basin like this?”
+
+“What he call roadstead?” interrupted the negro, seizing at once, with
+the avidity of ignorance, on the little oversight of his adversary, in
+confounding the outer harbour of Newport with the wilder anchorage
+below, and with the usual indifference of all similar people to the
+more material matter of whether the objection was at all germain to the
+point in controversy; “I never hear ’em call anchoring ground, with
+land around it, roadstead afore!”
+
+“Hark ye, mister Gold-coast,” muttered the white, bending his head
+aside in a threatening manner, though he still disdained to turn his
+eyes on his humble adversary, “if you’ve no wish to wear your shins
+parcelled for the next month, gather in the slack of your wit, and have
+an eye to the manner in which you let it run again. Just tell me this;
+isn’t a port a port? and isn’t an offing an offing?”
+
+As these were two propositions to which even the ingenuity of Scipio
+could raise no objection, he wisely declined touching on either,
+contenting himself with shaking his head in great self-complacency, and
+laughing as heartily, at his imaginary triumph over his companion, as
+though he had never known care, nor been the subject of wrong and
+humiliation, so long and so patiently endured.
+
+“Ay, ay,” grumbled the white, re-adjusting his person in its former
+composed attitude, and again crossing the arms, which had been a little
+separated, to give force to the menace against the tender member of the
+black, “now you are piping the wind out of your throat like a flock of
+long-shore crows, you think you’ve got the best of the matter. The Lord
+made a nigger an unrational animal; and an experienced seaman, who has
+doubled both Capes, and made all the head-lands atween Fundy and Horn,
+has no right to waste his breath in teaching any of the breed! I tell
+you, Scipio, since Scipio is your name on the ship’s books, though I’ll
+wager a month’s pay against a wooden boat-hook that your father was
+known at home as Quashee, and your mother as Quasheeba—therefore do I
+tell you, Scipio Africa—which is a name for all your colour, I
+believe—that yonder chap, in the outer harbour of this here sea-port is
+no judge of an anchorage, or he would drop a kedge mayhap hereaway, in
+a line with the southern end of that there small matter of an island,
+and hauling his ship up to it, fasten her to the spot with good hempen
+cables and iron mud-hooks. Now, look you here, S’ip, at the reason of
+the matter,” he continued, in a manner which shewed that the little
+skirmish that had just passed was like one of those sudden squalls of
+which they had both seen so many, and which were usually so soon
+succeeded by corresponding seasons of calm; “look you at the whole
+rationality of what I say. He has come into this anchorage either for
+something or for nothing. I suppose you are ready to admit that. If for
+nothing, he might have found that much outside, and I’ll say no more
+about it; but if for something, he could get it off easier, provided
+the ship lay hereaway, just where I told you, boy, not a fathom ahead
+or astern, than where she is now riding, though the article was no
+heavier than a fresh handful of feathers for the captain’s pillow. Now,
+if you have any thing to gainsay the reason of this, why, I’m ready to
+hear it as a reasonable man, and one who has not forgotten his manners
+in learning his philosophy.”
+
+“S’pose a wind come out fresh here, at nor-west,” answered the other,
+stretching his brawny arm towards the point of the compass he named,
+“and a vessel want to get to sea in a hurry, how you t’ink he get her
+far enough up to lay through the weather reach? Ha! you answer me dat;
+you great scholar, misser Dick, but you never see ship go in wind’s
+teeth, or hear a monkey talk.”
+
+“The black is right!” exclaimed the youth, who, it would seem, had
+overheard the dispute, while he appeared otherwise engaged; “the slaver
+has left his vessel in the outer harbour, knowing that the wind holds
+so much to the westward at this season of the year; and then you see he
+keeps his light spars aloft, although it is plain enough, by the manner
+in which his sails are furled, that he is strong-handed. Can you make
+out, boys, whether he has an anchor under foot, or is he merely riding
+by a single cable?”
+
+“The man must be a driveller, to lie in such a tides-way, without
+dropping his stream, or at least a kedge, to steady the ship,” returned
+the white, with out appearing to think any thing more than the received
+practice of seamen necessary to decide the point. “That he is no great
+judge of an anchorage, I am ready to allow; but no man, who can keep
+things so snug aloft, would think of fastening his ship, for any length
+of time, by a single cable, to sheer starboard and port, like that
+kicking colt, tied to the tree by a long halter, that we fell in with,
+in our passage over land from Boston.”
+
+“’Em got a stream down, and all a rest of he anchors stowed,” said the
+black, whose dark eye was glancing understandingly at the vessel, while
+he still continued to east his pebbles into the air: “S’pose he jam a
+helm hard a-port, misser Harry, and take a tide on he larboard bow,
+what you t’ink make him kick and gallop about! Golly! I like to see
+Dick, without a foot-rope, ride a colt tied to tree!”
+
+Again the negro enjoyed his humour, by shaking his head, as if his
+whole soul was amused by the whimsical image his rude fancy had
+conjured, and indulged in a hearty laugh; and again his white companion
+muttered certain exceedingly heavy and sententious denunciations. The
+young man, who seemed to enter very little into the quarrels and
+witticisms of his singular associates, still kept his gaze intently
+fastened on the vessel, which to him appeared for the moment, to be the
+subject of some extraordinary interest. Shaking his own head, though in
+a far graver manner, as if his doubts were drawing to a close, he
+added, as the boisterous merriment or the negro ceased,—
+
+“Yes, Scipio, you are right: he rides altogether by his stream, and he
+keeps every thing in readiness for a sudden move. In ten minutes he
+would carry his ship beyond the fire of the battery, provided he had
+but a capful of wind.”
+
+“You appear to be a judge in these matters,” said an unknown voice
+behind him.
+
+The youth turned suddenly on his heel, and then for the first time, was
+he apprised of the presence of any intruders. The surprise, however,
+was not confined to himself; for, as there was another newcomer to be
+added to the company, the gossipping tailor was quite as much, or even
+more, the subject of astonishment, than any of that party, whom he had
+been so intently watching as to have prevented him from observing the
+approach of still another utter stranger.
+
+The third individual was a man between thirty and forty, and of a mien
+and attire not a little adapted to quicken the already active curiosity
+of the good-man Homespun. His person was slight, but afforded the
+promise of exceeding agility, and even of vigour, especially when
+contrasted with his stature which was scarcely equal to the medium
+height of man. His skin had been dazzling as that of woman though a
+deep red, which had taken possession of the lower lineaments of his
+face, and which was particularly conspicuous on the outline of a fine
+aquiline nose, served to destroy all appearance of effeminacy. His hair
+was like his complexion, fair and fell about his temples in rich,
+glossy, and exuberant curls; His mouth and chin were beautiful in their
+formation; but the former was a little scornful and the two together
+bore a decided character of voluptuousness. The eye was blue, full
+without being prominent, and, though in common placid and even soft,
+there were moments when it seemed a little unsettled and wild. He wore
+a high conical hat, placed a little on one side, so as to give a
+slightly rakish expression to his physiognomy, a riding frock of light
+green, breeches of buck-skin, high boots, and spurs. In one of his
+hands he carried a small whip, with which, when first seen, he was
+cutting the air with an appearance of the utmost indifference to the
+surprise occasioned by his sudden interruption.
+
+“I say, sir, you seem to be a judge in these matters,” he repeated,
+when he had endured the frowning examination of the young seaman quite
+as long as comported with his own patience; “you speak like a man who
+feels he has a right to give an opinion!”
+
+“Do you find it remarkable that one should not be ignorant of a
+profession that he has diligently pursued for a whole life?”
+
+“Hum! I find it a little remarkable, that one, whose business is that
+of a handicraft, should dignify his trade with such a sounding name as
+_profession,_ We of the learned science of the law, and who enjoy the
+particular smiles of the learned universities, can say no more!”
+
+“Then call it trade; for nothing in common with gentlemen of your craft
+is acceptable to a seaman,” retorted the young mariner, turning away
+from the intruder with a disgust that he did not affect to conceal.
+
+“A lad of some metal!” muttered the other, with a rapid utterance and a
+meaning smile. “Let not such a trifle as a word part us, friend. I
+confess my ignorance of all maritime matters, and would gladly learn a
+little from one as skilful as yourself in the noble—_profession_. I
+think you said something concerning the manner in which yonder ship has
+an chored, and of the condition in which they keep things alow and
+aloft?”
+
+“_Alow_ and aloft!” exclaimed the young sailor, facing his interrogator
+with a stare that was quite as expressive as his recent disgust.
+
+“Alow and aloft!” calmly repeated the other.
+
+“I spoke of her neatness aloft, but do not affect to judge of things
+below at this distance.”
+
+“Then it was my error; but you will have pity on the ignorance of one
+who is so new to the _profession_. As I have intimated, I am no more
+than an unworthy barrister, in the service of his Majesty, expressly
+sent from home on a particular errand. It it were not a pitiful pun, I
+might add, I am not yet—judge.”
+
+“No doubt you will soon arrive at that distinction,” returned the
+other, “if his Majesty’s ministers have any just conceptions of modest
+merit; unless, indeed you should happen to be prematurely”——
+
+The youth bit his lip, made a haughty inclination of the head, and
+walked leisurely up the wharf, followed with the same appearance of
+deliberation, by the two seamen who had accompanied him in his visit to
+the place. The stranger in green watched the whole movement with a calm
+and apparently an amused eye, tapping his boot with his whip, and
+seeming to reflect like one who would willingly find means to continue
+the discourse.
+
+“Hanged!” he at length uttered, as if to complete the sentence the
+other had left unfinished. “It is droll enough that such a fellow
+should dare to foretel so elevated a fate for _me_!”
+
+He was evidently preparing to follow the retiring party, when he felt a
+hand laid a little unceremoniously on his arm, and his step was
+arrested.
+
+“One word in your ear, sir,” said the attentive tailor, making a
+significant sign that he had matters of importance to communicate: “A
+single word, sir, since you are in the particular service of his
+Majesty. Neighbour Pardon,” he continued, with a dignified and
+patronising air, “the sun is getting low, and you will make it late
+home, I fear. The girl will give you the garment, and—God speed you!
+Say nothing of what you have heard and seen, until you have word from
+me to that effect; for it is seemly that two men, who have had so much
+experience in a war like this, should not lack in discretion. Fare ye
+well, lad!—pass the good word to the worthy farmer, your father, not
+forgetting a refreshing hint of friendship to the thrifty housewife,
+your mother. Fare ye well, honest youth; fare ye well!”
+
+Homespun, having thus disposed of his admiring companion, waited, with
+much elevation of mien, until the gaping bumpkin had left the wharf,
+before he again turned his look on the stranger in green. The latter
+had continued standing in his tracks, with an air of undisturbed
+composure, until he was once more addressed by the tailor, whose
+character and dimensions he seemed to have taken in, at a single glance
+of his rapid eye.
+
+“You say, sir, you are a servant of his Majesty?” demanded the latter,
+determined to solve all doubts as to the other’s claims on his
+confidence, before he committed himself by any precipitate disclosure.
+
+“I may say more;—his familiar confident!”
+
+“It is an honour to converse with such a man, that I feel in every bone
+in my body,” returned the cripple, smoothing his scanty hairs, and
+bowing nearly to the earth; “a high and loyal honour do I feel this
+gracious privilege to be.”
+
+“Such as it is, my friend, I take on myself in his Majesty’s name, to
+bid you welcome.”
+
+“Such munificent condescension would open my whole heart, though
+treason, and all other unrighteousness was locked up in it. I am happy,
+honoured and I doubt not, honourable sir, to have this opportunity of
+proving my zeal to the King, before one who will not fail to report my
+humble efforts to his royal ears.”
+
+“Speak freely,” interrupted the stranger in green, with an air of
+princely condescension; though one, less simple and less occupied with
+his own budding honours than the tailor, might have easily discovered
+that he began to grow weary of the other’s prolix loyalty: “Speak
+without reserve, friend; it is what we always do at court.” Then,
+switching his boot with his riding whip, he muttered to himself, as he
+swung his light frame on his heel, with an indolent, indifferent air,
+“If the fellow swallows that, he is as stupid as his own goose!”
+
+“I shall, sir, I shall; and a great proof of charity is it in one like
+your noble self to listen. You see yonder tall ship, sir, in the outer
+harbour of this loyal sea-port?”
+
+“I do; she seems to be an object of general attention among the worthy
+lieges of the place.”
+
+“Therein I conceive, sir, you have over-rated the sagacity of my
+townsmen. She has been lying where you now see her for many days, and
+not a syllable have I heard whispered against her character from mortal
+man, except myself.”
+
+“Indeed!” muttered the stranger, biting the handle of his whip, and
+fastening his glittering eyes intently on the features of the good-man,
+which were literally swelling with the importance of his discovery;
+“and what may be the nature of _your_ suspicions?”
+
+“Why, sir, I maybe wrong—and God forgive me if I am—but this is no more
+nor less than what has arisen in my mind on the subject. Yonder ship,
+and her crew, bear the reputation of being innocent and harmless
+slavers, among the good people of Newport and as such are they received
+and welcomed in the place, the one to a safe and easy anchorage, and
+the others among the taverners and shop-dealers. I would not have you
+imagine that a single garment has ever gone from my fingers for one of
+all her crew; no, let it be for ever remembered that the whole of their
+dealings have been with the young tradesman named Tape, who entices
+customers to barter, by backbiting and otherwise defiling the fair
+names of his betters in the business: not a garment has been made by my
+hands for even the smallest boy.”
+
+“You are lucky,” returned the stranger in green, “in being so well quit
+of the knaves! and yet have you forgotten to name the particular
+offence with which I am to charge them before the face of the King.”
+
+“I am coming as fast as possible to the weighty matter. You must know,
+worthy and commendable sir, that I am a man that has seen much, and
+suffered much, in his Majesty’s service. Five bloody and cruel wars
+have I gone through, besides other adventures and experiences, such as
+becomes a humble subject to suffer meekly and in silence.”
+
+“All of which shall be directly communicated to the royal ear. And now,
+worthy friend, relieve your mind, by a frank communication of your
+suspicions.”
+
+“Thanks, honourable sir; your goodness in my behalf cannot be
+forgotten, though it shall never be said that any impatience to seek
+the relief you mention hurried me into a light and improper manner of
+unburthening my mind. You must know, honoured gentleman, that
+yesterday, as I sat alone, at this very hour, on my board, reflecting
+in my thoughts—for the plain reason that my envious neighbour had
+enticed all the newly arrived customers to his own shop—well, sir, the
+head will be busy when the hands are idle; there I sat, as I have
+briefly told you, reflecting in my thoughts, like any other accountable
+being, on the calamities of life, and on the great experiences that I
+have had in the wars. For you must know, valiant gentleman, besides the
+affair in the land of the Medes and Persians, and the Porteous mob in
+Edinbro’, five cruel and bloody”——
+
+“There is that in your air which sufficiently proclaims the soldier,”
+interrupted his listener, who evidently struggled to keep down his
+rising impatience; “but, as my time is so precious, I would now more
+especially hear what you have to say concerning yonder ship.”
+
+“Yes, sir, one gets a military look after seeing numberless wars; and
+so, happily for the need of both, I have now come to the part of my
+secret which touches more particularly on the character of that vessel.
+There sat I, reflecting on the manner in which the strange seamen had
+been deluded by my tonguey neighbour—for, as you should know, sir, a
+desperate talker is that Tape, and a younker who has seen but one war
+at the utmost—therefore, was I thinking of the manner in which he had
+enticed my lawful customers from my shop, when, as one thought is the
+father of another, the following concluding reasoning, as our pious
+priest has it weekly in his reviving and searching discourses, came
+uppermost in my mind: If these mariners were honest and conscientious
+slavers, would they overlook a labouring man with a large family, to
+pour their well-earned gold into the lap of a common babbler? I
+proclaimed to myself at once, sir, that they would not. I was bold to
+say the same in my own mind, and, thereupon, I openly put the question
+to all in hearing, If they are not slavers, what are they? A question
+which the King himself would, in his royal wisdom, allow to be a
+question easier asked than answered; upon which I replied, If the
+vessel be no fair-trading slaver, nor a common cruiser of his Majesty,
+it is as tangible as the best man’s reasoning, that she may be neither
+more nor less than the ship of that nefarious pirate the Red Rover.”
+
+“The Red Rover!” exclaimed the stranger in green, with a start so
+natural as to evidence that his dying interest in the tailor’s
+narrative was suddenly and powerfully revived. “That indeed would be a
+secret worth having!—but why do you suppose the same?”
+
+“For sundry reasons, which I am now about to name, in their respective
+order. In the first place, she is an armed ship, sir. In the second,
+she is no lawful cruiser, or the same would be publicly known, and by
+no one sooner than myself, inasmuch as it is seldom that I do not
+finger a penny from the King’s ships. In the third place, the
+burglarious and unfeeling conduct of the few seamen who have landed
+from her go to prove it; and, lastly, what is well proved may be
+considered as substantially established These are what, sir, I should
+call the opening premises of my inferences, all of which I hope you
+will properly lay before the royal mind of his Majesty.”
+
+The barrister in green listened to the somewhat wire-drawn deductions
+of Homespun with great attention notwithstanding the confused and
+obscure manner in which they were delivered by the aspiring tradesman.
+His keen eye rolled quickly, and often, from the vessel to the
+countenance of his companion; but several moments elapsed before he saw
+fit to make any reply. The reckless gayety with which he had introduced
+himself, and which he had hitherto maintained in the discourse, was
+entirely superseded by a musing and abstracted air, which sufficiently
+proved, that, whatever levity he might betray in common, he was far
+from being a stranger to deep and absorbing thought. Suddenly throwing
+off his air of gravity, however, he assumed one in which irony and
+sincerity were singularly blended and, laying his hand familiarly on
+the shoulder of the expecting tailor, he replied—
+
+“You have communicated such matter as becometh a faithful and loyal
+servant of the King. It is well known that a heavy price is set on the
+head of the meanest follower of the Rover, and that a rich, ay, a
+splendid reward will be the fortune of him who is the instrument of
+delivering the whole knot of miscreants into the hands of the
+executioner. Indeed I know not but some marked evidence of the royal
+pleasure might follow such a service. There was Phipps, a man of humble
+origin, who received knighthood—”
+
+“Knighthood!” echoed the tailor, in awful admiration.
+
+“Knighthood,” coolly repeated the stranger; “honourable and chivalric
+knighthood. What may have been the appellation you received from your
+sponsors in baptism?”
+
+“My given name, gracious and grateful sir, is Hector.”
+
+“And the house itself?—the distinctive appellation of the family?”
+
+“We have _always_ been called Homespun.”
+
+“Sir Hector Homespun will sound as well as another! But to secure these
+rewards, my friend, it is necessary to be discreet. I admire your
+ingenuity, and am a convert to your logic. You have so entirely
+demonstrated the truth of your suspicions, that I have no more doubt of
+yonder vessel being the pirate, than I have of your wearing spurs, and
+being called sir Hector. The two things are equally established in my
+mind: but it is needful that we proceed in the matter with caution. I
+understand you to say, that no one else has been enlightened by your
+erudition in this affair?”
+
+“Not a soul. Tape himself is ready to swear that the crew are
+conscientious slavers.”
+
+“So best. We must first render conclusions certain; then to our reward.
+Meet me at the hour of eleven this night, at yonder low point, where
+the land juts into the outer harbour. From that stand will we make our
+observations; and, having removed every doubt, let the morning produce
+a discovery that shall ring from the Colony of the Bay to the
+settlements of Oglethorpe. Until then we part; for it is not wise that
+we be longer seen in conference. Remember silence, punctuality, and the
+favour of the King. These are our watch-words.”
+
+“Adieu, honourable gentlemen,” said his companion making a reverence
+nearly to the earth, as the other slightly touched his hat in passing.
+
+“Adieu, sir Hector,” returned the stranger in green, with an affable
+smile and a gracious wave of the hand. He then walked slowly up the
+wharf, and disappeared behind the mansion of the Homespuns; leaving the
+head of that ancient family, like many a predecessor and many a
+successor, so rapt in the admiration of his own good fortune, and so
+blinded by his folly, that, while physically he saw to the right and to
+the left as well as ever, his mental vision was completely obscured in
+the clouds of ambition.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III.
+
+Alonzo. “Good boatswain, have care.”
+
+_Tempest._
+
+
+The instant the stranger had separated from the credulous tailor, he
+lost his assumed air in one far more natural and sedate. Still it would
+seem that thought was an unwonted, or an unwelcome tenant of his mind;
+for, switching his boot with his little riding whip, he entered the
+principal street of the place with a light step and a wandering eye.
+Though his look was unsettled, few of the individuals, whom he passed,
+escaped his quick glances; and it was quite apparent, from the hurried
+manner in which he began to regard objects, that his mind was not less
+active than his body. A stranger thus accoutred, and one bearing about
+his person so many evidences of his recent acquaintance with the road,
+did not fail to attract the attention of the provident publicans we
+have had occasion to mention in our opening chapter. Declining the
+civilities of the most favoured of the inn-keepers, he suffered his
+steps to be, oddly enough, arrested by the one whose house was the
+usual haunt of the hangers-on of the port.
+
+On entering the bar-room of this tavern, as it was called, but which in
+the mother country would probably have aspired to be termed no more
+than a pot-house he found the hospitable apartment thronged with its
+customary revellers. A slight interruption was produced by the
+appearance of a guest who was altogether superior, in mien and attire,
+to the ordinary customers of the house, but it ceased the moment the
+stranger had thrown himself on a bench, and intimated to the host the
+nature of his wants. As the latter furnished the required draught, he
+made a sort of apology, which was intended for the ears of all his
+customers nigh the stranger, for the manner in which an individual, in
+the further end of the long narrow room, not only monopolized the
+discourse, but appeared to extort the attention of all within hearing
+to some portentous legend he was recounting.
+
+“It is the boatswain of the slaver in the outer harbour, squire,” the
+worthy disciple of Bacchus concluded; “a man who has followed the water
+many a day, and who has seen sights and prodigies enough to fill a
+smart volume. Old Bor’us the people call him, though his lawful name is
+Jack Nightingale. Is the toddy to the squire’s relish?”
+
+The stranger assented to the latter query, by smacking his lips, and
+bowing, as he put down the nearly untouched draught. He then turned his
+head, to examine the individual who might, by the manner in which he
+declaimed, have been termed, in the language of the country, the second
+“orator of the day.”
+
+A stature which greatly exceeded six feet; enormous whiskers, that
+quite concealed a moiety of his grim countenance; a scar, which was the
+memorial of a badly healed gash, that had once threatened to divide
+that moiety in quarters; limbs in proportion; the whole rendered
+striking by the dress of a sea man; a long, tarnished silver chain, and
+a little whistle of the same metal, served to render the individual in
+question sufficiently remarkable. Without appearing to be in the
+smallest decree aware of the entrance of one altogether so superior to
+the class of his usual auditors, this son of the Ocean continued his
+narrative as follows, and in a voice that seemed given to him by nature
+as if in very mockery of his musical name; indeed, so very near did his
+tones approach to the low murmurings of a bull, that some little
+practice was necessary to accustom the ear to the strangely uttered
+words.
+
+“Well!” he continued, thrusting his brawny arm forth, with the fist
+clenched, indicating the necessary point of the compass by the thumb;
+“the coast of Guinea might have lain hereaway, and the wind you see,
+was dead off shore, blowing in squalls, as a cat spits, all the same as
+if the old fellow, who keeps it bagged for the use of us seamen,
+sometimes let the stopper slip through his fingers, and was sometimes
+fetching it up again with a double turn round the end of his sack.—You
+know what a sack is, brother?”
+
+This abrupt question was put to the gaping bumpkin, already known to
+the reader, who, with the nether garment just received from the tailor
+under his arm, had lingered, to add the incidents of the present legend
+to the stock of lore that he had already obtained for the ears of his
+kinsfolk in the country. A general laugh, at the expense of the
+admiring Pardon succeeded. Nightingale bestowed a knowing wink on one
+or two of his familiars, and, profiting by the occasion, “to freshen
+his nip,” as he quaintly styled swallowing a pint of rum and water, he
+continued his narrative by saying, in a sort of admonitory tone,—
+
+“And the time may come when you will know what a round-turn is, too, if
+you let go your hold of honesty. A man’s neck was made, brother, to
+keep his head above water, and not to be stretched out of shape like a
+pair of badly fitted dead-eyes. Therefore have your reckoning worked up
+in season, and the lead of conscience going, when you find yourself
+drifting on the shoals of temptation.” Then, rolling his tobacco in his
+mouth, he looked boldly about him, like one who had acquitted himself
+of a moral obligation, and continued: “Well, there lay the land, and,
+as I was saying, the wind was here, at east-and-by-south or mayhap at
+east-and-by-south-half-south, sometimes blowing like a fin-back in a
+hurry, and sometimes leaving all the canvas chafing ag’in the rigging
+and spars, as if a bolt of duck cost no more nor a rich man’s blessing.
+I didn’t like the looks of the weather, seeing that there was
+altogether too much unsartainty for a quiet watch, so I walked aft, in
+order to put myself in the way of giving an opinion if-so-be such a
+thing should be asked. You must know, brothers, that, according to my
+notions of religion and behaviour, a man is not good for much, unless
+he has a full share of manners; therefore I am never known to put my
+spoon into the captain’s mess, unless I am invited, for the plain
+reason, that my berth is for’ard, and his’n aft. I do not say in which
+end of a ship the better man is to be found; that is a matter
+concerning which men have different opinions, though most judges in the
+business are agreed. But aft I walked, to put myself in the way of
+giving an opinion, if one should be asked; nor was it long before the
+thing came to pass just as I had foreseen. ‘Mister Nightingale,’ says
+he; for our Captain is a gentleman, and never forgets his behaviour on
+deck, or when any of the ship’s company are at hand, ‘_Mister_
+Nightingale,’ says he, ‘what do you think of that rag of a cloud,
+hereaway at the north-west?’ says he. ‘Why, sir,’ says I, boldly, for
+I’m never backward in speaking, when properly spoken to, so, ‘why,
+sir,’ says I, ‘saving your Honour’s better judgment,’—which was all a
+flam, for he was but a chicken to me in years and experience, but then
+I never throw hot ashes to windward, or any thing else that is warm—so,
+‘sir,’ says I, ‘it is my advice to hand the three topsails and to stow
+the jib. We are in no hurry; for the plain reason, that Guinea will be
+to-morrow just where Guinea is to-night. As for keeping the ship steady
+in these matters of squalls, we have the mainsail on her—’”
+
+“You should have furl’d your mainsail too,” exclaimed a voice from
+behind, that was quite as dogmatical, though a little less grum, than
+that of the loquacious boatswain.
+
+“What know-nothing says that?” demanded Nightingale fiercely, as if all
+his latent ire was excited by so rude and daring an interruption.
+
+“A man who has run Africa down, from Bon to Good-Hope, more than once,
+and who knows a white squall from a rainbow,” returned Dick Fid, edging
+his short person stoutly towards his furious adversary, making his way
+through the crowd by which the important personage of the boatswain was
+environed by dint of his massive shoulders; “ay, brother, and a man,
+know-much or know-nothing, who would never advise his officer to keep
+so much after-sail on a ship, when there was the likelihood of the wind
+taking her aback.”
+
+To this bold vindication of an opinion which all present deemed to be
+so audacious, there succeeded a general and loud murmur. Encouraged by
+this evidence of his superior popularity, Nightingale was not slow, nor
+very meek, with his retort; and then followed a clamorous concert, in
+which the voices of the company in general served for the higher and
+shriller notes, through which the bold and vigorous assertions,
+contradictions, and opinions of the two principal disputants were heard
+running a thorough-bass.
+
+For some time, no part of the discussion was very distinct, so great
+was the confusion of tongues; and there were certain symptoms of an
+intention, on the part of Fid and the boatswain, to settle their
+controversy by the last appeal. During this moment of suspense, the
+former had squared his firm-built frame in front of his gigantic
+opponent, and there were very vehement passings and counter-passings,
+in the way of gestures from four athletic arms, each of which was
+knobbed, like a fashionable rattan, with a lump of bones, knuckles, and
+sinews, that threatened annihilation to any thing that should oppose
+them. As the general clamour, however, gradually abated, the chief
+reasoners began to be heard; and, as if content to rely on their
+respective powers of eloquence, each gradually relinquished his hostile
+attitude, and appeared disposed to maintain his ground by a member
+scarcely less terrible than his brawny arm.
+
+“You are a bold seaman, brother,” said Nightingale resuming his seat,
+“and, if saying was doing, no doubt you would make a ship talk. But I,
+who have seen fleets of two and three deckers—and that of all nations,
+except your Mohawks, mayhap, whose cruisers I will confess never to
+have fallen in with—lying as snug as so many white gulls, under reefed
+mainsails, know how to take the strain off a ship, and to keep my
+bulkheads in their places.”
+
+“I deny the judgment of heaving-to a boat under her after
+square-sails,” retorted Dick. “Give her the stay-sails, if you will,
+and no harm done; but a true seaman will never get a bagful of wind
+between his mainmast and his lee-swifter, if-so-be he knows his
+business. But words are like thunder, which rumbles aloft, without
+coming down a spar, as I have yet seen; let us therefore put the
+question to some one who has been on the water, and knows a little of
+life and of ships.”
+
+“If the oldest admiral in his Majesty’s fleet was here, he wouldn’t be
+backward in saying who is right and who is wrong. I say, brothers, if
+there is a man among you all who has had the advantage of a sea
+education, let him speak, in order that the truth of this matter may
+not be hid, like a marling-spike jammed between a brace-block and a
+blackened yard.”
+
+“Here, then, is the man,” returned Fid; and, stretching out his arm, he
+seized Scipio by the collar, and drew him, without ceremony, into the
+centre of the circle, that had opened around the two disputants “There
+is a man for you, who has made one more voyage between this and Africa
+than myself, for the reason that he was born there. Now, answer as if
+you were hallooing from a lee-earing, S’ip, under what sail would you
+heave-to a ship, on the coast of your native country, with the danger
+of a white squall at hand?”
+
+“I no heave-’em-to,” said the black, “I make ’em scud.”
+
+“Ay, boy; but, to be in readiness for the puff, would you jam her up
+under a mainsail, or let her lie a little off under a fore course?”
+
+“Any fool know dat,” returned Scipio, grumly and evidently tired
+already of being thus catechised.
+
+“If you want ’em fall off, how you’m expect, in reason, he do it under
+a main course? You answer me dat, misser Dick.”
+
+“Gentlemen,” said Nightingale, looking about him with an air of great
+gravity, “I put it to your Honours, is it genteel behaviour to bring a
+nigger, in this out-of-the-way fashion, to give an opinion in the teeth
+of a white man?”
+
+This appeal to the wounded dignity of the company was answered by a
+common murmur. Scipio, who was prepared to maintain, and would have
+maintained, his professional opinion, after his positive and peculiar
+manner, against any disputant, had not the heart to resist so general
+an evidence of the impropriety of his presence. Without uttering a word
+in vindication or apology, he folded his arms, and walked out of the
+house, with the submission and meekness of one who had been too long
+trained in humility to rebel. This desertion on the part of his
+companion was not, however, so quietly acquiesced in by Fid, who found
+himself thus unexpectedly deprived of the testimony of the black. He
+loudly remonstrated against his retreat; but, finding it in vain, he
+crammed the end of several inches of tobacco into his mouth, swearing,
+as he followed the African, and keeping his eye, at the same time,
+firmly fastened on his adversary, that, in his opinion, “the lad, if he
+was fairly skinned, would be found to be the whiter man of the two.”
+
+The triumph of the boatswain was now complete; nor was he at all
+sparing of his exultation.
+
+“Gentlemen,” he said, addressing himself, with an air of increased
+confidence, to the motley audience who surrounded him, “you see that
+reason is like a ship bearing down with studding-sails on both sides,
+leaving a straight wake and no favours. Now, I scorn boasting, nor do I
+know who the fellow is who has just sheered off, in time to save his
+character, but this I will say, that the man is not to be found,
+between Boston and the West Indies, who knows better than myself how to
+make a ship walk, or how to make her stand still, provided I”—
+
+The deep voice of Nightingale became suddenly hushed, and his eye was
+riveted, by a sort of enchantment on the keen glance of the stranger in
+green, whose countenance was now seen blended among the more vulgar
+faces of the crowd.
+
+“Mayhap,” continued the boatswain, swallowing his words, in the
+surprise of seeing himself so unexpectedly confronted by so imposing an
+eye, “mayhap this gentleman has some knowledge of the sea, and can
+decide the matter in dispute.”
+
+“We do not study naval tactics at the universities,” returned the other
+briskly, “though I will confess, from the little I have heard, I am
+altogether in favour of _scudding._”
+
+He pronounced the latter word with an emphasis which rendered it
+questionable if he did not mean to pun; the more especially as he threw
+down his reckoning and instantly left the field to the quiet possession
+of Nightingale. The latter, after a short pause, resumed his narrative,
+though, either from weariness or some other cause, it was observed that
+his voice was far less positive than before, and that his tale was cut
+prematurely short. After completing his narrative and his grog, he
+staggered to the beach, whither a boat was shortly after despatched to
+convey him on board the ship, which, during all this time, had not
+ceased to be the constant subject of the suspicious examination of the
+good-man Homespun.
+
+In the mean while, the stranger in green had pursued his walk along the
+main street of the town. Fid had given chase to the disconcerted
+Scipio, grumbling as he went, and uttering no very delicate remarks on
+the knowledge and seamanship of the boatswain. They soon joined company
+again, the former changing his attack to the negro, whom he liberally
+abused, for abandoning a point which he maintained was as simple, and
+as true, as “that yonder bit of a schooner would make more way, going
+wing-and-wing, than jammed up on a wind.”
+
+Probably diverted with the touches of peculiar character he had
+detected in this singular pair of confederates, or possibly led by his
+own wayward humour, the stranger followed their footsteps. After
+turning from the water, they mounted a hill, the latter a little in the
+rear of his pilots, until he lost sight of them in a bend of the
+street, or rather road; for by this time, they were past even the
+little suburbs of the town. Quickening his steps, the barrister, as he
+had announced himself to be, was glad to catch a glimpse of the two
+worthies, seated under a fence several minutes after he had believed
+them lost. They were making a frugal meal, off the contents of a little
+bag which the white had borne under his arm and from which he now
+dispensed liberally to his companion, who had taken his post
+sufficiently nigh to proclaim that perfect amity was restored, though
+still a little in the back ground, in deference to the superior
+condition which the other enjoyed through favour of his colour.
+Approaching the spot, the stranger observed,—
+
+“If you make so free with the bag, my lads, your third man may have to
+go supperless to bed.”
+
+“Who hails?” said Dick, looking up from his bone, with an expression
+much like that of a mastiff when engaged at a similar employment.
+
+“I merely wished to remind you that you had another messmate,”
+cavalierly returned the other.
+
+“Will you take a cut, brother?” said the seaman, offering the bag, with
+the liberality of a sailor, the moment he fancied there was an indirect
+demand made on its contents.
+
+“You still mistake my meaning; on the wharf you had another companion.”
+
+“Ay, ay; he is in the offing there, overhauling that bit of a
+light-house, which is badly enough moored unless they mean it to shew
+the channel to your ox-teams and inland traders; hereaway, gentlemen,
+where you see that pile of stones which seems likely to be coming down
+shortly by-the-run.”
+
+The stranger looked in the direction indicated by the other, and saw
+the young mariner, to whom he had alluded, standing at the foot of a
+ruined tower, which was crumbling under the slow operations of time, at
+no great distance from the place where he stood. Throwing a handful of
+small change to the seamen, he wished them a better meal, and crossed
+the fence, with an apparent intention of examining the ruin also.
+
+“The lad is free with his coppers,” said Dick, suspending the movements
+of his teeth, to give the stranger another and a better look; “but, as
+they will not grow where he has planted them, S’ip, you may turn them
+over to my pocket. An off-handed and a free-handed chap that, Africa;
+but then these law-dealers get all their pence of the devil, and they
+are sure of more, when the shot begins to run low in the locker.”
+
+Leaving the negro to collect the money, and to transfer it, as in duty
+bound, to the hands of him who, if not his master, was at all times
+ready and willing to exercise the authority of one, we shall follow the
+stranger in his walk toward, the tottering edifice. There was little
+about the ruin itself to attract the attention of one who, from his
+assertions, had probably often enjoyed the opportunities of examining
+far more imposing remains of former ages, on the other side of the
+Atlantic. It was a small circular tower, which stood on rude pillars,
+connected by arches, and might have been constructed, in the infancy of
+the country, as a place of defence, though it is far more probable that
+it was a work of a less warlike nature. More than half a century after
+the period of which we are writing, this little edifice, peculiar in
+its form, its ruinous condition, and its materials, has suddenly become
+the study and the theme of that very learned sort of individual the
+American antiquarian. It is not surprising that a ruin thus honoured
+should have become the object of many a hot and erudite discussion.
+While the chivalrous in the arts and in the antiquities of the country
+have been gallantly breaking their lances around the mouldering walls,
+the less instructed and the less zealous have regarded the combatants
+with the same species of wonder as they would have manifested had they
+been present when the renowned knight of La Mancha tilted against those
+other wind-mills so ingeniously described by the immortal Cervantes.
+
+On reaching the place, the stranger in green gave his boot a smart blow
+with the riding whip, as if to attract the attention of the abstracted
+young sailor, and freely remarked,—
+
+“A very pretty object this would be, if covered with ivy, to be seen
+peeping through an opening in a wood. But I beg pardon; gentlemen of
+your _profession_ have little to do with woods and crumbling stones.
+Yonder is the tower,” pointing to the tail masts of the ship in the
+outer harbour, “you love to look on; and your only ruin is a wreck!”
+
+“You seem familiar with our tastes, sir,” coldly returned the other.
+
+“It is by instinct, then; for it is certain I have had but little
+opportunity of acquiring my knowledge by actual communion with any of
+the—cloth; nor do I perceive that I am likely to be more fortunate at
+present. Let us be frank, my friend, and talk in amity: What do you see
+about this pile of stones, that can keep you so long from your study of
+yonder noble and gallant ship?”
+
+“Did it then surprise you that a seaman out of employment should
+examine a vessel that he finds to his mind, perhaps with an intention
+to ask for service?”
+
+“Her commander must be a dull fellow, if he refuse it to so proper a
+lad! But you seem to be too well instructed for any of the meaner
+births.”
+
+“Births!” repeated the other, again fastening his eyes, with a singular
+expression, on the stranger in green.
+
+“Births! It is your nautical word for ‘situation, or; station;’ is it
+not? We know but little of the marine vocabulary, we barristers; but I
+think I may venture on that as the true Doric. Am I justified by your
+authority?”
+
+“The word is certainly not yet obsolete; and, by a figure, it is as
+certainly correct in the sense you used it.”
+
+“Obsolete!” repeated the stranger in green, returning the meaning look
+he had just received: “Is that the name of any part of a ship? Perhaps,
+by _figure_, you mean figure-head; and, by _obsolete_, the long-boat!”
+
+The young seaman laughed; and, as if this sally had broken through the
+barrier of his reserve, his manner lost much of its cold restraint
+during the remainder of their conference.
+
+“It is just as plain,” he said, “that you have been at sea, as it is
+that I have been at school. Since we have both been so fortunate, we
+may afford to be generous and cease speaking in parables. For instance,
+what think you has been the object and use of this ruin, when it was in
+good condition?”
+
+“In order to judge of that,” returned the stranger in green, “it may be
+necessary to examine it more closely. Let us ascend.”
+
+As he spoke, the barrister mounted, by a crazy ladder, to the floor
+which lay just above the crown of the arches, through which he passed
+by an open trapdoor His companion hesitated to follow; but, observing
+that the other expected him at the summit of the ladder, and that he
+very kindly pointed out a defective round, he sprang forward, and went
+up the ascent with the agility and steadiness peculiar to his calling.
+
+“Here we are!” exclaimed the stranger in green, looking about at the
+naked walls, which were formed of such small and irregular stones as to
+give the building the appearance of dangerous frailty, “with good oaken
+plank for our deck, as you would say, and the sky for our roof, as we
+call the upper part of a house at the universities. Now let us speak of
+things on the lower world. A—a—; I forget what you said was your usual
+appellation—”
+
+“That might depend on circumstances. I have been known by different
+names in different situations However, if you call me Wilder, I shall
+not fail to answer.”
+
+“Wilder!” a good name; though, I dare say, it would have been as true
+were it Wildone. You young ship-boys have the character of being a
+little erratic in your humours at times. How many tender hearts have
+you left to sigh for your errors, amid shady bowers, while you have
+been ploughing—that is the word, I believe—ploughing the salt-sea
+ocean?”
+
+“Few sigh for me,” returned Wilder, thoughtfully, though he evidently
+began to chafe a little under this free sort of catechism. “Let us now
+return to our study of the tower. What think you has been its object?”
+
+“Its present use is plain, and its former use can be no great mystery.
+It holds at this moment two light hearts; and, if I am not mistaken, as
+many light heads, not overstocked with the stores of wisdom. Formerly
+it had its granaries of corn, at least, and, I doubt not, certain
+little quadrupeds, who were quite as light of fingers as we are of head
+and heart. In plain English, it has been a mill”
+
+“There are those who think it had been a fortress.”
+
+“Hum! The place might do, at need,” returned he in green, casting a
+rapid and peculiar glance around him. “But mill it has been,
+notwithstanding one might wish it a nobler origin. The windy situation
+the pillars to keep off the invading vermin, the shape, the air, the
+very complexion, prove it. Whir-r-r, whir-r-r; there has been clatter
+enough here in time past, I warrant you. Hist! It is not done yet!”
+
+Stepping lightly to one of the little perforations which had once
+served as windows to the tower, he cautiously thrust his head through
+the opening; and, after gazing there half a minute, he withdrew it
+again, making a gesture to the attentive Wilder to be silent. The
+latter complied; nor was it long before the nature of the interruption
+was sufficiently explained.
+
+The silvery voice of woman was first heard at a little distance; and
+then, as the speakers drew nigher the sounds arose directly from
+beneath, within the very shadow of the tower. By a sort of tacit
+consent, Wilder and the barrister chose spots favourable to the
+execution of such a purpose; and each continued, during the time the
+visiters remained near the ruin, examining their persons, unseen
+themselves, and we are sorry we must do so much violence to the
+breeding of two such important characters in our legend, amused and
+attentive listeners also to their conversation.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV.
+
+“They fool me to the top of my bent.”
+
+_Hamlet._
+
+
+The party below consisted of four individuals all of whom were females.
+One was a lady in the decline of her years; another was past the middle
+age the third was on the very threshold of what is called “life,” as it
+is applied to intercourse with the world; and the fourth was a negress,
+who might have seen some five-and-twenty revolutions of the seasons.
+The latter, at that time, and in that country, of course appeared only
+in the character of a humble, though perhaps favoured domestic.
+
+“And now, my child, that I have given you all the advice which
+circumstances and your own excellent heart need,” said the elderly
+lady, among the first words that were distinctly intelligible to the
+listeners, “I will change the ungracious office to one more agreeable.
+You will tell your father of my continued affection, and of the promise
+he has given, that you are to return once again, before we separate for
+the last time.”
+
+This speech was addressed to the younger female, and was apparently
+received with as much tenderness and sincerity as it was uttered. The
+one who was addressed raised her eyes, which were glittering with tears
+she evidently struggled to conceal, and answered in a voice that
+sounded in the ears of the two youthful listeners like the notes of the
+Syren, so very sweet and musical were its tones.
+
+“It is useless to remind me of a promise, my beloved aunt, which I have
+so much interest in remembering,” she said. “I hope for even more than
+you have perhaps dared to wish; if my father does not return with me in
+the spring, it shall not be for want of urging on my part.”
+
+“Our good Wyllys will lend her aid,” returned the aunt, smiling and
+bowing to the third female, with that mixture of suavity and form which
+was peculiar to the stately manners of the time, and which was rarely
+neglected, when a superior addressed an inferior. “She is entitled to
+command some interest with General Grayson, from her fidelity and
+services.”
+
+“She is entitled to everything that love and heart can give!” exclaimed
+the niece, with a haste and earnestness that proclaimed how willingly
+she would temper the formal politeness of the other by the warmth of
+her own affectionate manner; “my father will scarcely refuse _her_ any
+thing.”
+
+“And have we the assurance of Miss Wyllys that she will be in our
+interests?” demanded the aunt, without permitting her own sense of
+propriety to be overcome by the stronger feelings of her niece; “with
+so powerful an ally, our league will be invincible.”
+
+“I am so entirely of opinion, that the salubrious air of this healthful
+island is of great importance to my young charge, Madam, that, were all
+other considerations wanting, the little I can do to aid your wishes
+shall be sure to be done.”
+
+Wyllys spoke with dignity, and perhaps with some portion of that
+reserve which distinguished all the communications between the wealthy
+and high-born aunt and the salaried and dependent governess of her
+brother’s heiress. Still her manner was gentle, and the voice, like
+that of her pupil, soft and strikingly feminine.
+
+“We may then consider the victory as achieved, as my late husband the
+Rear-Admiral was accustomed to say. Admiral de Lacey, my dear Mrs
+Wyllys, adopted it in early life as a maxim, by which all his future
+conduct was governed, and by adhering to which he acquired no small
+share of his professional reputation, that, in order to be successful,
+it was only necessary to be determined one would be so;—a noble and
+inspiriting rule, and one that could not fail to lead to those signal
+results which, as we all know them, I need not mention.”
+
+Wyllys bowed her head, in acknowledgment of the truth of the opinion,
+and in testimony of the renown of the deceased Admiral; but did not
+think it necessary to make any reply. Instead of allowing the subject
+to occupy her mind any longer, she turned to her young pupil, and
+observed, speaking in a voice and with a manner from which every
+appearance of restraint was banished,—
+
+“Gertrude, my love, you will have pleasure in returning to this
+charming island, and to these cheering sea breezes.”
+
+“And to my aunt!” exclaimed Gertrude. “I wish my father could be
+persuaded to dispose of his estates in Carolina, and come northward, to
+reside the whole year.”
+
+“It is not quite as easy for an affluent proprietor to remove as you
+may imagine, my child,” returned Mrs de Lacey. “Much as I wish that
+some such plan could be adopted, I never press my brother on the
+subject. Besides, I am not certain, that, if we were ever to make
+another change in the family, it would not be to return _home_
+altogether. It is now more than a century, Mrs Wyllys, since the
+Graysons came into the colonies, in a moment of dissatisfaction with
+the government in England. My great-grandfather sir Everard, was
+displeased with his second son, and the dissension led my grandfather
+to the province of Carolina. But, as the breach has long since been
+healed, I often think my brother and myself may yet return to the halls
+of our ancestors. Much will, however, depend on the manner in which we
+dispose of our treasure on this side of the Atlantic.”
+
+As the really well-meaning, though, perhaps, a little too much
+self-satisfied lady concluded her remark, she glanced her eye at the
+perfectly unconscious subject of the close of her speech. Gertrude had,
+as usual, when her aunt chose to favour her governess with any of her
+family reminiscences, turned her head aside, and was now offering her
+cheek, burning with health, and perhaps a little with shame, to the
+cooling influence of the evening breeze. The instant the voice of Mrs
+de Lacey had ceased, she turned hastily to her companions; and,
+pointing to a noble-looking ship, whose masts, as it lay in the inner
+harbour, were seen rising above the roofs of the town, she exclaimed,
+as if glad to change the subject in any manner,—
+
+“And yonder gloomy prison is to be our home, dear Mrs Wyllys, for the
+next month!”
+
+“I hope your dislike to the sea has magnified the time,” mildly
+returned her governess; “the passage between this place and Carolina
+has been often made in a shorter period.”
+
+“That it has been so done, I can testify,” resumed the Admiral’s widow,
+adhering a little pertinaciously to a train of thoughts, which, once
+thoroughly awakened in her bosom, was not easily diverted into another
+channel, “since my late estimable and (I feel certain all who hear me
+will acquiesce when I add) gallant husband once conducted a squadron of
+his Royal Master, from one extremity of his Majesty’s American
+dominions to the other, in a time less than that named by my niece: It
+may have made some difference in his speed that he was in pursuit of
+the enemies of his King and country, but still the fact proves that the
+voyage can be made within the month.”
+
+“There is that dreadful Henlopen, with its sandy shoals and shipwrecks
+on one hand, and that stream they call the Gulf on the other!”
+exclaimed Gertrude, with a shudder, and a burst of natural female
+terror, which makes timidity sometimes attractive, when exhibited in
+the person of youth and beauty. “If it were not for Henlopen, and its
+gales, and its shoals, and its gulfs, I could think only of the
+pleasure of meeting my father.”
+
+Mrs Wyllys, who never encouraged her pupil in those, natural
+weaknesses, however pretty and be coming they might appear to other
+eyes, turned with a steady mien to the young lady, as she remarked,
+with a brevity and decision that were intended to put the question of
+fear at rest for ever,—
+
+“If all the dangers you appear to apprehend existed in reality, the
+passage would not be made daily or even hourly, in safety. You have
+often, Madam, come from the Carolinas by sea, in company with Admiral
+de Lacey?”
+
+“Never,” the widow promptly and a little drily remarked. “The water has
+not agreed with my constitution, and I have never neglected to journey
+by land. But then you know, Wyllys, as the consort and relict of a
+flag-officer, it was not seemly that I should be ignorant of naval
+science. I believe there are few ladies in the British empire who are
+more familiar with ships, either singly or in squadron particularly the
+latter, than myself. This in formation I have naturally acquired, as
+the companion of an officer, whose fortune it was to lead fleets. I
+presume these are matters of which you are profoundly ignorant.”
+
+The calm, dignified countenance of Wyllys, on which it would seem as if
+long cherished and painful recollections had left a settled, but mild
+expression of sorrow, that rather tempered than destroyed the traces of
+character which were still remarkable in her firm collected eye, became
+clouded, for a moment, with a deeper shade of melancholy. After
+hesitating, as if willing to change the subject, she replied,—
+
+“I have not been altogether a stranger to the sea. It has been my lot
+to have made many long, and some perilous voyages.”
+
+“As a mere passenger. But we wives of sailors only, among our sex, can
+lay claim to any real knowledge of the noble profession! What natural
+object is there, or can there be,” exclaimed the nautical dowager, in a
+burst of professional enthusiasm, “finer than a stately ship breasting
+the billows, as I have heard the Admiral say a thousand times, its
+taffrail ploughing the main, and its cut-water gliding after, like a
+sinuous serpent pursuing its shining wake, as a living creature
+choosing its path on the land, and leaving the bone under its
+fore-foot, a beacon for those that follow? I know not, my dear Wyllys,
+if I make myself intelligible to you, but, to my instructed eye, this
+charming description conveys a picture of all that is grand and
+beautiful!”
+
+The latent smile, on the countenance of the governess might have
+betrayed that she was imagining the deceased Admiral had not been
+altogether devoid of the waggery of his vocation, had not a slight
+noise, which sounded like the rustling of the wind, but which in truth
+was suppressed laughter, proceeded from the upper room of the tower.
+The words, “It is lovely!” were still on the lips of the youthful
+Gertrude, who saw all the beauty of the picture her aunt had essayed to
+describe, without descending to the humble employment of verbal
+criticism. But her voice became hushed, and her attitude that of
+startled attention:—
+
+“Did you hear nothing?” she said.
+
+“The rats have not yet altogether deserted the mill,” was the calm
+reply of Wyllys.
+
+“Mill! my dear Mrs Wyllys, will you persist in calling this picturesque
+ruin _a mill_?”
+
+“However fatal it may be to its charms, in the eyes of eighteen, I must
+call it _a mill_.”
+
+“Ruins are not so plenty in this country, my dear governess,” returned
+her pupil, laughing, while the ardour of her eye denoted how serious
+she was in defending her favourite opinion, “as to justify us in
+robbing them of any little claims to interest they may happen to
+possess.”
+
+“Then, happier is the country! Ruins in a land are, like most of the
+signs of decay in the human form, sad evidences of abuses and passions,
+which have hastened the inroads of time. These provinces are like
+yourself, my Gertrude, in their freshness and their youth, and,
+comparatively, in their innocence also. Let us hope for both a long, an
+useful, and a happy existence.”
+
+“Thank you for myself, and for my country; but still I can never admit
+this picturesque ruin has been _a mill_.”
+
+“Whatever it may have been, it has long occupied its present place, and
+has the appearance of continuing where it is much longer, which is more
+than can be said of our prison, as you call yonder stately ship, in
+which we are so soon to embark. Unless my eyes deceive me, Madam, those
+masts are moving slowly past the chimnies of the town.”
+
+“You are very right, Wyllys. The seamen are towing the vessel into the
+outer harbour, where they will warp her fast to the anchors, and thus
+secure her, until they shall be ready to unmake their sails, in order
+to put to sea in the morning. This is a manoeuvre often performed, and
+one which the Admiral has so clearly explained, that I should find
+little difficulty in superintending it in my own person, were it
+suitable to my sex and station.”
+
+“This is, then, a hint that all our own preparations are not completed.
+However lovely this spot may seem, Gertrude, we must now leave it, for
+some months at least.”
+
+“Yes,” continued Mrs de Lacey, slowly following the footsteps of the
+governess, who had already moved from beneath the ruin; “whole fleets
+have often been towed to their anchors, and there warped, waiting for
+wind and tide to serve. None of our sex know the dangers of the Ocean,
+but we who have been bound in the closest of all ties to officers of
+rank and great service; and none others can ever truly enjoy the real
+grandeur of the ennobling profession. A charming object is a vessel
+cutting the waves with her taffrail, and chasing her wake on the
+trackless waters, like a courser that ever keeps in his path, though
+dashing madly on at the very top of his speed!—”
+
+The reply of Mrs Wyllys was not audible to the covert listeners.
+Gertrude had followed her companions; but, when at some little distance
+from the tower, she paused, to take a parting look at its mouldering
+walls. A profound stillness succeeded for more than a minute.
+
+“There is something in that pile of stones, Cassandra,” she said to the
+jet-black maiden at her elbow, “that could make me wish it had been
+something more than a mill.”
+
+“There rat in ’em,” returned the literal and simple-minded black; “you
+hear what Misse Wyllys say?”
+
+Gertrude turned, laughed, patted the dark cheek of her attendant with
+fingers that looked like snow by the contrast, as if to chide her for
+wishing to destroy the pleasing illusion she would so gladly harbour
+and then bounded down the hill after her aunt and governess, like a
+joyous and youthful Atalanta.
+
+The two singularly consorted listeners in the tower stood gazing, at
+their respective look-outs, so long as the smallest glimpse of the
+flowing robe of her light form was to be seen and then they turned to
+each other, and stood confronted, the eyes of each endeavouring to read
+the expression of his neighbour’s countenance.
+
+“I am ready to make an affidavit before my Lord High Chancellor,”
+suddenly exclaimed the barrister, “that this has never been a mill!”
+
+“Your opinion has undergone a sudden change!”
+
+“I am open to conviction, as I hope to be a judge. The case has been
+argued by a powerful advocate, and I have lived to see my error.”
+
+“And yet there are rats in the place.”
+
+“Land rats, or water rats?” quickly demanded the other, giving his
+companion one of those startling and searching glances, which his keen
+eye had so freely at command.
+
+“Both, I believe,” was the dry and caustic reply; “certainly the
+former, or the gentlemen of the long robe are much injured by report.”
+
+The barrister laughed; nor did his temper appear in the slightest
+degree ruffled at so free an allusion at his learned and honourable
+profession.
+
+“You gentlemen of the Ocean have such an honest and amusing frankness
+about you,” he said, “that I vow to God you are overwhelming. I am a
+downright admirer of your noble calling, and something skilled in its
+terms. What spectacle, for instance, can be finer than a noble ship
+‘stemming the waves with her taffrail,’ and chasing her wake, like a
+racer on the course!”
+
+“Leaving the ‘bone in her mouth’ under her stern, as a light-house for
+all that come after!”
+
+Then, as if they found singular satisfaction in dwelling on these
+images of the worthy relict of the gallant Admiral, they broke out
+simultaneously into a fit of clamorous merriment, that caused the old
+ruin to ring, as in its best days of windy power. The barrister was the
+first to regain his self-command, for the mirth of the young mariner
+was joyous, and without the least restraint.
+
+“But this is dangerous ground for any but a seaman’s widow to touch,”
+the former observed, as suddenly causing his laughter to cease as he
+had admitted of its indulgence. “The younger, she who is no lover of a
+mill, is a rare and lovely creature! it would seem that she is the
+niece of the nautical critic.”
+
+The young manner ceased laughing in his turn, as though he were
+suddenly convinced of the glaring impropriety of making so near a
+relative of the fair vision he had seen the subject of his merriment.
+Whatever might have been his secret thoughts, he was content with
+replying,—
+
+“She so declared herself.”
+
+“Tell me,” said the barrister, walking close to the other, like one who
+communicated an important secret in the question, “was there not
+something remarkable searching, extraordinary, heart-touching, in the
+voice of her they called Wyllys?”
+
+“Did you note it?”
+
+“It sounded to me like the tones of an oracle—the whisperings of
+fancy—the very words of truth! It was a strange and persuasive voice!”
+
+“I confess I felt its influence, and in a way for which I cannot
+account!”
+
+“It amounts to infatuation!” returned the barrister pacing up and down
+the little apartment, every trace of humour and irony having
+disappeared in a look of settled and abstracted care. His companion
+appeared little disposed to interrupt his meditations, but stood
+leaning against the naked walls, himself the subject of deep and
+sorrowful reflection. At length the former shook off his air of
+thought, with that startling quickness which seemed common to his
+manner; he approached a window, and, directing the attention of Wilder
+to the ship in the outer harbour, abruptly demanded,—
+
+“Has all your interest in yon vessel ceased?”
+
+“Far from it; it is just such a boat as a seaman’s eye most loves to
+study!”
+
+“Will you venture to board her?”
+
+“At this hour? alone? I know not her commander, or her people.”
+
+“There are other hours beside this, and a sailor is certain of a frank
+reception from his messmates.”
+
+“These slavers are not always willing to be boarded; they carry arms,
+and know how to keep strangers at a distance.”
+
+“Are there no watch-words, in the masonry of your trade, by which a
+brother is known? Such terms as ‘stemming the waves with the taffrail,’
+for instance, or some of those knowing phrases we have lately heard?”
+
+Wilder kept his own keen look on the countenance of the other, as he
+thus questioned him, and seemed to ponder long before he ventured on a
+reply.
+
+“Why do you demand all this of me?” he coldly asked.
+
+“Because, as I believe that ‘faint heart never won fair lady,’ so do I
+believe that indecision never won a ship. You wish a situation, you
+say; and, if I were an Admiral, I would make you my flag-captain. At
+the assizes, when we wish a brief, we have our manner of letting the
+thing be known. But perhaps I am talking too much at random for an
+utter stranger. You will however remember, that, though it is the
+advice of a lawyer, it is given gratuitously.”
+
+“And is it the more to be relied on for such extraordinary liberality?”
+
+“Of that you must judge for yourself,” said the stranger in green, very
+deliberately putting his foot on the ladder, and descending, until no
+part of his person but his head was seen. “Here I go, literally cutting
+the waves with my taffrail,” he added, as he descended backwards, and
+seeming to take great pleasure in laying particular emphasis on the
+words. “Adieu, my friend; if we do not meet again, I enjoin you never
+to forget the rats in the Newport ruin.”
+
+He disappeared as he concluded, and in another instant his light form
+was on the ground. Turning with the most admirable coolness, he gave
+the bottom of the ladder a trip with one of his feet, and laid the only
+means of descent prostrate on the earth. Then, looking up at the
+wondering Wilder, he nodded his head familiarly, repeated his adieu,
+and passed with a swift step from beneath the arches.
+
+“This is extraordinary conduct,” muttered Wilder who was by the process
+left a prisoner in the ruin. After ascertaining that a fall from the
+trap might endanger his legs, the young sailor ran to one of the
+windows of the place, in order to reproach his treacherous comrade, or
+indeed to assure himself that he was serious in thus deserting him. The
+barrister was already out of hailing distance, and, before Wilder had
+time to decide on what course to take, his active footsteps had led him
+into the skirts of the town, among the buildings of which his person
+became immediately lost to the eye.
+
+During all the time occupied by the foregoing scenes and dialogue, Fid
+and the negro had been diligently discussing the contents of the bag,
+under the fence where they were last seen. As the appetite of the
+former became appeased, his didactic disposition returned, and, at the
+precise moment when Wilder was left alone in the tower, he was intently
+engaged in admonishing the black on the delicate subject, of behaviour
+in mixed society.
+
+“And so you see, Guinea,” he concluded, “in or der to keep a
+weather-helm in company, you are never to throw all aback, and go stern
+foremost out of a dispute, as you have this day seen fit to do
+According to my l’arning, that Master Nightingale is better in a
+bar-room than in a squall; and if you had just luffed-up on his
+quarter, when you saw me laying myself athwart his hawse in the
+argument, you see we should have given him a regular jam in the
+discourse, and then the fellow would have been shamed in the eyes of
+all the by-standers. Who hails? what cook is sticking his neighbour’s
+pig now?”
+
+“Lor’! Misser Fid,” cried the black, “here masser Harry, wid a head out
+of port-hole, up dereaway in a light-house, singing-out like a marine
+in a boat wid a plug out!”
+
+“Ay, ay, let him alone for hailing a top-gallant yard, or a
+flying-jib-boom! The lad has a voice like a French horn, when he has a
+mind to tune it! And what the devil is he manning the guns of that
+weather-beaten wreck for? At all events, if he has to fight his craft
+alone, there is no one to blame but himself, since he has gone to
+quarters without beat of drum, or without, in any other manner, seeing
+fit to muster his people.”
+
+As Dick and the negro had both been making the best of their way
+towards the ruin, from the moment they discovered the situation of
+their friend, by this time they were within speaking distance of the
+spot itself. Wilder, in those brief, pithy tones that distinguish the
+manner in which a sea officer issues his orders, directed them to raise
+the ladder. When he was liberated, he demanded, with a sufficiently
+significant air, if they had observed the direction in which the
+stranger in green had made his retreat?
+
+“Do you mean the chap in boots, who was for shoving his oar into
+another man’s rullock, a bit ago, on the small matter of wharf,
+hereaway, in a range, over yonder house, bringing the north-east
+chimney to hear in a line, with the mizen-top-gallant-mast-head of that
+ship they are warping into the stream?”
+
+“The very same.”
+
+“He made a slant on the wind until he had weathered yonder bit of a
+barn, and then he tacked and stretched away off here to the
+east-and-by-south, going large, and with studding sails alow and aloft,
+as I think, for he made a devil of a head-way.”
+
+“Follow,” cried Wilder, starting forward in the direction indicated by
+Fid, without waiting to hear any more of the other’s characteristic
+explanations.
+
+The search, however, was vain. Although they continued their inquiries
+until long after the sun had set, no one could give them the smallest
+tidings of what had become of the stranger in green. Some had seen him,
+and marvelled at his singular costume, and bold and wandering look;
+but, by all accounts, he had disappeared from the town as strangely and
+mysteriously as he had entered it.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter V.
+
+“Are you so brave! I’ll have you talked with anon.”
+
+_Coriolanus._
+
+
+The good people of the town of Newport sought their rest at an early
+hour. They were remarkable for that temperance and discretion which,
+even to this day, distinguish the manners of the inhabitants of
+New-England. By ten, the door of every house in the place was closed
+for the night; and it is quite probable, that, before another hour had
+passed, scarcely an eye was open, among all those which, throughout the
+day, had been sufficiently alert, not only to superintend the interests
+of their proper-owners, but to spare some wholesome glances at the
+concerns of the rest of the neighbourhood.
+
+The landlord of the “Foul Anchor,” as the inn, where Fid and
+Nightingale had so nearly come to blows, was called, scrupulously
+closed his doors at eight; a sort of expiation, by which he endeavoured
+to atone, while he slept, for any moral peccadillos that he might have
+committed during the day. Indeed it was to be observed as a rule, that
+those who had the most difficulty in maintaining their good name, on
+the score of temperance and moderation, were the most rigid in
+withdrawing, in season, from the daily cares of the world. The
+Admiral’s widow had given no little scandal, in her time, because
+lights were so often seen burning in her house long after the hour
+prescribed by custom for their extinction. Indeed, there were several
+other little particulars in which this good lady had rendered herself
+obnoxious to the whispered remarks of some of her female visitants. An
+Episcopalian herself, she was always observed to be employed with her
+needle on the evenings of Saturdays, though by no means distinguished
+for her ordinary industry. It was, however, a sort of manner the good
+lady had of exhibiting her adherence to the belief that the night of
+Sunday was the orthodox evening of the Sabbath. On this subject there
+was, in truth, a species of silent warfare between herself and the wife
+of the principal clergyman of the town. It resulted, happily, in no
+very striking marks of hostility. The latter was content to retaliate
+by bringing her work, on the evenings of Sundays to the house of the
+dowager, and occasionally interrupting their discourse, by a diligent
+application of the needle for some five or six minutes at a time.
+Against this contamination Mrs de Lacey took no other precaution than
+to play with the leaves of a prayer book, precisely on the principle
+that one uses holy water to keep the devil at that distance which the
+Church has considered safest for its proselytes.
+
+Let these matters be as they would, by ten o’clock on the night of the
+day our tale commences, the town of Newport was as still as though it
+did not contain a living soul. Watchmen there were none; for roguery
+had not yet begun to thrive openly in the provinces. When, therefore,
+Wilder and his two companions issued, at that hour, from their place of
+retirement into the empty streets, they found them as still as if man
+had never trod there. Not a candle was to be seen, nor the smallest
+evidence of human life to be heard. It would seem our adventurers knew
+their errand well; for, instead of knocking up any of the drowsy
+publicans to demand admission, they held their way steadily to the
+water’s side; Wilder leading, Fid coming next, and Scipio, in
+conformity to all usage, bringing up the rear, in his ordinary, quiet,
+submissive manner.
+
+At the margin of the water they found several small boats, moored under
+the shelter of a neighbouring wharf. Wilder gave his companions their
+directions, and walked to a place convenient for embarking. After
+waiting the necessary time, the bows of two boats came to the land at
+the same moment, one of which was governed by the hands of the negro,
+and the other by those of Fid.
+
+“How’s this?” demanded Wilder; “Is not one enough? There is some
+mistake between you.”
+
+“No mistake at all,” responded Dick, suffering his oar to float on its
+blade, and running his fingers into his hair, as if he was content with
+his achievement “no more mistake than there is in taking the sun on a
+clear day and in smooth water. Guinea is in the boat you hired; but a
+bad bargain you made of it, as I thought at the time; and so, as
+‘better late than never’ is my rule, I have just been casting an eye
+over all the craft; if this is not the tightest and fastest rowing
+clipper of them all, then am I no judge; and yet the parish priest
+would tell you, if he were here, that my father was a boat-builder, ay,
+and swear it too; that is to say, if you paid him well for the same.”
+
+“Fellow,” returned Wilder, angrily, “you will one day induce me to turn
+you adrift. Return the boat to the place where you found it, and see it
+secured in the same manner as before.”
+
+“Turn me adrift!” deliberately repeated Fid, “that would be cutting all
+your weather lanyards at one blow, master Harry. Little good would come
+of Scipio Africa and you, after I should part company. Have you ever
+fairly logg’d the time we have sailed together?”
+
+“Ay, have I; but it is possible to break even a friendship of twenty
+years.”
+
+“Saving your presence, master Harry, I’ll be d——d if I believe any such
+thing. Here is Guinea, who is no better than a nigger, and therein far
+from being a fitting messmate to a white man; but, being used to look
+at his black face for four-and-twenty years, d’ye see, the colour has
+got into my eye, and now it suits as well as another. Then, at sea, in
+a dark night, it is not so easy a matter to tell the difference. No,
+no, I am not tired of you yet, master Harry; and it is no trifle that
+shall part us.”
+
+“Then, abandon your habit of making free with the property of others.”
+
+“I abandon nothing. No man can say he ever knowed me to quit a deck
+while a plank stuck to the beams; and shall I abandon, as you call it,
+my rights? What is the mighty matter, that all hands must be called to
+see an old sailor punished? You gave a lubberly fisherman, a fellow who
+has never been in deeper water than his own line will sound you gave
+him, I say, a glittering Spaniard, just for the use of a bit of a skiff
+for the night, or, mayhap, for a small reach into the morning. Well,
+what does Dick do? He says to himself—for d——e if he’s any blab to run
+round a ship grumbling at his officer—so he just says to himself,
+‘That’s too much;’ and he looks about, to find the worth of it in some
+of the fisherman’s neighbours. Money can be eaten; and, what is better,
+it may be drunk; therefore, it is not to be pitched overboard with the
+cook’s ashes. I’ll warrant me, if the truth could be fairly come by, it
+would be found that, as to the owners of this here yawl, and that there
+skiff, their mothers are cousins, and that the dollar will go in snuff
+and strong drink among the whole family—so, no great harm done, after
+all.”
+
+Wilder made an impatient gesture to the other to obey, and walked up
+the bank, while he had time to comply. Fid never disputed a positive
+and distinct order, though he often took so much discretionary latitude
+in executing those which were less precise. He did not hesitate,
+therefore, to return the boat; but he did not carry his subordination
+so far as to do it without complaint. When this act of justice was
+performed, Wilder entered the skiff; and, seeing that his companions
+were seated at their oars, he bade them to pull down the harbour,
+admonishing them, at the same time, to make as little noise as
+possible.
+
+“The night I rowed you into Louisbourg, a-reconnoitring,” said Fid,
+thrusting his left hand into his bosom, while, with his right, he
+applied sufficient force to the light oar to make the skiff glide
+swiftly over the water—“that night we muffled every thing even to our
+tongues. When there is occasion to put stoppers on the mouths of a
+boat’s crew, why, I’m not the man to gainsay it; but, as I am one of
+them that thinks tongues were just as much made to talk with, as the
+sea was made to live on, I uphold rational conversation in sober
+society. S’ip, you Guinea where are you shoving the skiff to? hereaway
+lies the island, and you are for going into yonder bit of a church.”
+
+“Lay on your oars,” interrupted Wilder; “let the boat drift by this
+vessel.”
+
+They were now in the act of passing the ship, which had been warping
+from the wharfs to an anchorage and in which the young sailor had so
+clandestinely heard that Mrs Wyllys and the fascinating Gertrude were
+to embark, on the following morning, for the distant province of
+Carolina. As the skiff floated past, Wilder examined the vessel, by the
+dim light of the stars, with a seaman’s eye. No part of her hull, her
+spars, or her rigging, escaped his notice, and, when the whole became
+confounded, by the distance, in one dark mass of shapeless matter, he
+leaned his head over the side of his little bark, and mused long and
+deeply with himself. To this abstraction Fid presumed to offer no
+interruption. It had the appearance of professional duty; a subject
+that, in his eyes, was endowed with a species of character that might
+be called sacred. Scipio was habitually silent. After losing many
+minutes in the manner, Wilder suddenly regained his recollection and
+abruptly observed,—
+
+“It is a tall ship, and one that should make a long chase!”
+
+“That’s as may be,” returned the ready Fid. “Should that fellow get a
+free wind, and his canvas all abroad, it might worry a King’s cruiser
+to get nigh enough to throw the iron on his decks; but jamm’d up close
+hauled, why, I’d engage to lay on his weather quarter, with the saucy
+He—”
+
+“Boys,” interrupted Wilder, “it is now proper that you dhould know
+something of my future movements. We have been shipmates, I might
+almost say messmates, for more than twenty years. I was better than an
+infant, Fid, when you brought me to the commander of your ship, and not
+only was instrumental in saving my life, but in putting me into a
+situation to make an officer.”
+
+“Ay, ay, you were no great matter, master Harry as to bulk; and a short
+hammock served your turn as well as the captain’s birth.”
+
+“I owe you a heavy debt, Fid, for that one generous act, and something,
+I may add, for your steady adherence to me since.”
+
+“Why, yes, I’ve been pretty steady in my conduct master Harry, in this
+here business, more particularly seeing that I have never let go my
+grapplings, though you’ve so often sworn to turn me adrift. As for
+Guinea, here, the chap makes fair weather with you, blow high or blow
+low, whereas it is no hard matter to get up a squall between us, as
+might be seen in that small affair about the boat;”—
+
+“Say no more of it,” interrupted Wilder, whose feelings appeared
+sensibly touched, as his recollections ran over long-past and
+bitterly-remembered scenes: “You know that little else than death can
+part us, unless indeed you choose to quit me now. It is right that you
+should know that I am engaged in a desperate pursuit, and one that may
+easily end in ruin to myself and all who accompany me. I feel reluctant
+to separate from you, my friends, for it may be a final parting, but,
+at the same time, you should know all the danger.”
+
+“Is there much more travelling by land?” bluntly demanded Fid.
+
+“No; the duty, such as it is, will be done entirely in the water.”
+
+“Then bring forth your ship’s books, and find room for such a mark as a
+pair of crossed anchors, which stand for all the same as so many
+letters reading ‘Richard Fid.’”
+
+“But perhaps, when you know”——
+
+“I want to know nothing about it, master Harry Haven’t I sailed with
+you often enough under sealed orders, to trust my old body once more in
+your company without forgetting my duty? What say you Guinea? will you
+ship? or shall we land you at once, on yonder bit of a low point, and
+leave you to scrape acquaintance with the clams?”
+
+“’Em berry well off, here,” muttered the perfectly contented negro.
+
+“Ay, ay, Guinea is like the launch of one of the coasters, always
+towing in your wake, master Harry; whereas I am often luffing athwart
+your hawse, or getting foul, in some fashion or other, on one of your
+quarters. Howsomever, we are both shipped, as you see, in this here
+cruise, with the particulars of which we are both well satisfied. So
+pass the word among us, what is to be done next, and no more parley.”
+
+“Remember the cautions you have already received returned Wilder, who
+saw that the devotion of his followers was too infinite to need
+quickening, and who knew, from long and perilous experience, how
+implicitly he might rely on their fidelity, notwithstanding certain
+failings, that were perhaps peculiar to their condition; remember what
+I have already given in charge; and now pull directly for yon ship in
+the outer harbour.”
+
+Fid and the black promptly complied; and the boat was soon skimming the
+water between the little island and what might, by comparison, be
+called the main. As they approached the vessel, the strokes of the oars
+were moderated, and finally abandoned altogether, Wilder preferring to
+let the skiff drop down with the tide upon the object he wished well to
+examine before venturing to board.
+
+“Has not that ship her nettings triced to the rigging?” he demanded, in
+a voice that was lowered to the tones necessary to escape observation,
+and which betrayed, at the same time, the interest he took in the
+reply.
+
+“According to my sight, she has,” returned Fid; “your slavers are a
+little pricked by conscience, and are never over-bold, unless when they
+are chasing a young nigger on the coast of Congo. Now, there is about
+as much danger of a Frenchman’s looking in here to-night, with this
+land breeze and clear sky, as there is of my being made Lord High
+Admiral of England; a thing not likely to come to pass soon, seeing
+that the King don’t know a great deal of my merit.”
+
+“They are, to a certainty, ready to give a warm reception to any
+boarders!” continued Wilder, who rarely paid much attention to the
+amplifications with which Fid so often saw fit to embellish the
+discourse. “It would be no easy matter to carry a ship thus prepared,
+if her people were true to themselves.”
+
+“I warrant ye there is a full quarter-watch at least sleeping among her
+guns, at this very moment, with a bright look-out from her cat-heads
+and taffrail. I was once on the weather fore-yard-arm of the Hebe, when
+I made, hereaway to the south-west, a sail coming large upon us,”—
+
+“Hist! they are stirring on her decks!”
+
+“To be sure they are. The cook is splitting a log; the captain has sung
+out for his night-cap.”
+
+The voice of Fid was lost in a summons from the ship, that sounded like
+the roaring of some sea monster which had unexpectedly raised its head
+above the water. The practised ears of our adventurers instantly
+comprehended it to be, what it truly was, the manner in which it was
+not unusual to hail a boat. Without taking time to ascertain that the
+plashing of oars was to be heard in the distance. Wilder raised his
+form in the skiff, and answered.
+
+“How now?” exclaimed the same strange voice; “there is no one
+victualled aboard here that speaks thus. Whereaway are you, he that
+answers?”
+
+“A little on your larboard bow; here, in the shadow of the ship.”
+
+“And what are ye about, within the sweep of my hawse?”
+
+“Cutting the waves with my taffrail,” returned Wilder, after a moment’s
+hesitation.
+
+“What fool has broke adrift here!” muttered his interrogator. “Pass a
+blunderbuss forward, and let us see if a civil answer can’t be drawn
+from the fellow.”
+
+“Hold!” said a calm but authoritative voice from the most distant part
+of the ship; “it is as it should be, let them approach.”
+
+The man in the bows of the vessel bade them come along side, and then
+the conversation ceased. Wilder had now an opportunity to discover,
+that, as the hail had been intended for another boat, which was still
+at a distance, he had answered prematurely. But, perceiving that it was
+too late to retreat with safety, or perhaps only acting in conformity
+to his original determination, he directed his companions to obey.
+
+“‘Cutting the waves with the taffrail,’ is not the civillest answer a
+man can give to a hail,” muttered Fid, as he dropped the blade of his
+oar into the water; “nor is it a matter to be logged in a man’s memory,
+that they have taken offence at the same. Howsomever, master Harry, if
+they are so minded as to make a quarrel about the thing, give them as
+good as they send, and count on manly backers.”
+
+No reply was made to this encouraging assurance for, by this time, the
+skiff was within a few feet of the ship. Wilder ascended the side of
+the vessel amid a deep, and, as he felt it to be, an ominous silence.
+The night was dark, though enough light fell from the stars, that were
+here and there visible, to render objects sufficiently distinct to the
+practised eyes of a seaman. When our young adventurer touched the deck,
+he cast a hurried and scrutinizing look about him, as if doubts and
+impressions, which had long been harboured, were all to be resolved by
+that first view.
+
+An ignorant landsman would have been struck with the order and symmetry
+with which the tall spars rose towards the heavens, from the black mass
+of the hull, and with the rigging that hung in the air, one dark line
+crossing another, until all design seemed confounded in the confusion
+and intricacy of the studied maze. But to Wilder these familiar objects
+furnished no immediate attraction. His first rapid glance had, like
+that of all seamen, it is true, been thrown upward, but it was
+instantly succeeded by the brief, though keen, examination to which we
+have just alluded. With the exception of one who, though his form was
+muffled in a large sea-cloak, seemed to be an officer, not a living
+creature was to be seen on the decks. On either side there was a dark,
+frowning battery, arranged in the beautiful and imposing order of
+marine architecture; but nowhere could he find a trace of the crowd of
+human beings which usually throng the deck of an armed ship, or that
+was necessary to render the engines effective. It might be that her
+people were in their hammocks, as usual at that hour, but still it was
+customary to leave a sufficient number on the watch, to look to the
+safety of the vessel. Finding himself so unexpectedly confronted with a
+single individual, our adventurer began to be sensible of the
+awkwardness of his situation, and of the necessity of some explanation.
+
+“You are no doubt surprised, sir,” he said, “at the lateness of the
+hour that I have chosen for my visit.”
+
+“You were certainly expected earlier,” was the laconic answer.
+
+“Expected!”
+
+“Ay, expected. Have I not seen you, and your two companions who are in
+the boat, reconnoitring us half the day, from the wharfs of the town,
+and even from the old tower on the hill? What did all this curiosity
+foretel, but an intention to come on board?”
+
+“This is odd, I will acknowledge!” exclaimed Wilder, in some secret
+alarm. “And, then, you had notice of my intentions?”
+
+“Hark ye, friend,” interrupted the other, indulging in a short, low
+laugh; “from your outfit and appearance I think I am right in calling
+you a seaman: Do you imagine that glasses were forgotten in the
+inventory of this ship? or, do you fancy that we don’t know how to use
+them?”
+
+“You must have strong reasons for looking so deeply into the movements
+of strangers on the land.”
+
+“Hum! Perhaps we expect our cargo from the country. But I suppose you
+have not come so far in the dark to look at our manifest. You would see
+the Captain?”
+
+“Do I not see him?”
+
+“Where?” demanded the other, with a start that manifested he stood in a
+salutary awe of his superior.
+
+“In yourself.”
+
+“I! I have not got so high in the books, though my time may come yet,
+some fair day. Hark ye, friend; you passed under the stern of yonder
+ship, which has been hauling into the stream, in coming out to us?”
+
+“Certainly; she lies, as you see, directly in my course.”
+
+“A wholesome-looking craft that! and one well found, I warrant you. She
+is quite ready to be off they tell me.”
+
+“It would so seem: her sails are bent, and she floats like a ship that
+is full.”
+
+“Of what?” abruptly demanded the other.
+
+“Of articles mentioned in her manifest, no doubt. But you seem light
+yourself: if you are to load at this port, it will be some days before
+you put to sea.”
+
+“Hum! I don’t think we shall be long after our neighbour,” the other
+remarked, a little drily. Then, as if he might have said too much, he
+added hastily, “We slavers carry little else, you know, than our
+shackles and a few extra tierces of rice; the rest of our ballast is
+made up of these guns, and the stuff to put into them.”
+
+“And is it usual for ships in the trade to carry so heavy an armament?”
+
+“Perhaps it is, perhaps not. To own the truth, there is not much law on
+the coast, and the strong arm often does as much as the right. Our
+owners, therefore, I believe, think it quite as well there should be no
+lack of guns and ammunition on board.”
+
+“They should also give you people to work them.”
+
+“They have forgotten that part of their wisdom, certainly.”
+
+His words were nearly drowned by the same gruff voice that had
+brought-to the skiff of Wilder, which sent another hoarse summons
+across the water, rolling out sounds that were intended to say,—
+
+“Boat, ahoy!”
+
+The answer was quick, short, and nautical; but it was rendered in a low
+and cautious tone. The individual, with whom Wilder had been holding
+such equivocating parlance, seemed embarrassed by the sudden
+interruption, and a little at a loss to know how to conduct himself. He
+had already made a motion towards leading his visiter to the cabin,
+when the sounds of oars were heard clattering in a boat along side of
+the ship, announcing that he was too late. Bidding the other remain
+where he was, he sprang to the gangway, in order to receive those who
+had just arrived.
+
+By this sudden desertion, Wilder found himself in entire possession of
+that part of the vessel where he stood. It gave him a better
+opportunity to renew his examination, and to cast a scrutinizing eye
+also over the new comers.
+
+Some five or six athletic-looking seamen ascended from the boat, in
+profound silence. A short and whispered conference took place between
+them and their officer, who appeared both to receive a report, and to
+communicate an order. When these preliminary matters were ended, a line
+was lowered, from a whip on the main-yard, the end evidently dropping
+into the newly-arrived boat. In a moment, the burthen it was intended
+to transfer to the ship was seen swinging in the air, midway between
+the water and the spar. It then slowly descended, inclining inboard
+until it was safely, and somewhat carefully, landed on the decks of the
+vessel.
+
+During the whole of this process, which in itself had nothing
+extraordinary or out of the daily practice of large vessels in port,
+Wilder had strained his eyes, until they appeared nearly ready to start
+from their sockets. The black mass, which had been lifted from the
+boat, seemed, while it lay against the background of sky, to possess
+the proportions of the human form. The seamen gathered about this
+object After much bustle, and a good deal of low conversation, the
+burthen or body, whichever it might be called, was raised by the men,
+and the whole disappeared together, behind the masts, boats, and guns
+which crowded the forward part of the vessel.
+
+The whole event was of a character to attract the attention of Wilder.
+His eye was not, however, so intently riveted on the groupe in the
+gangway, as to prevent his detecting a dozen black objects, that were
+suddenly thrust forward, from behind the spars and other dark masses of
+the vessel. They might be blocks swinging in the air, but they bore
+also a wonderful resemblance to human heads. The simultaneous manner in
+which they both appeared and disappeared, served to confirm this
+impression; nor, to confess the truth, had our adventurer any doubt
+that curiosity had drawn so many inquiring countenances from their
+respective places of concealment. He had not much leisure, however, to
+reflect on all these little accompaniments of his situation, before he
+was rejoined by his former companion, who, to all appearance, was again
+left, with himself, to the entire possession of the deck.
+
+“You know the trouble of getting off the people from the shore,” the
+officer observed, “when a ship is ready to sail.”
+
+“You seem to have a summary method of hoisting them in,” returned
+Wilder.
+
+“Ah! you speak of the fellow on the whip? Your eyes are good, friend,
+to tell a jack-knife from a marling-spike, at this distance. But the
+lad was mutinous; that is, not absolutely mutinous—but, drunk. As
+mutinous as a man can well be, who can neither speak, sit, nor stand.”
+
+Then, as if as well content with his humour as with this simple
+explanation, the other laughed and chuckled, in a manner that showed he
+was in perfect good humour with himself.
+
+“But all this time you are left on deck,” he quickly added, “and the
+Captain is waiting your appearance in the cabin: Follow; I will be your
+pilot.”
+
+“Hold,” said Wilder; “will it not be as well to announce my visit?”
+
+“He knows it already: Little takes place aboard, here, that does not
+reach his ears before it gets into the log-book.”
+
+Wilder made no further objection, but indicated his readiness to
+proceed. The other led the way to the bulkhead which separated the
+principal cabin from the quarter-deck of the ship; and, pointing to a
+door, he rather whispered than said aloud,—
+
+“Tap twice; if he answer, go in.”
+
+Wilder did as he was directed. His first summons was either unheard or
+disregarded. On repeating it, he was bid to enter. The young seaman
+opened the door, with a crowd of sensations, that will find their
+solution in the succeeding parts of our narrative and instantly stood,
+under the light of a powerful lamp, in the presence of the stranger in
+green.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VI.
+
+“The good old plan,
+That they should get, who have the power,
+And they should keep, who can.”
+
+_Wordsworth._
+
+
+The apartment, in which our adventurer now found himself, afforded no
+bad illustration of the character of its occupant. In its form, and
+proportions it was a cabin of the usual size and arrangements; but, in
+its furniture and equipments, it exhibited a singular admixture of
+luxury and martial preparation. The lamp, which swung from the upper
+deck, was of solid silver; and, though adapted to its present situation
+by mechanical ingenuity, there was that, in its shape and ornaments,
+which betrayed it had once been used before some shrine of a far more
+sacred character. Massive candlesticks of the same precious metal, and
+which partook of the same ecclesiastical formation, were on a venerable
+table, whose mahogany was glittering with the polish of half a century,
+and whose gilded claws, and carved supporters, bespoke an original
+destination very different from the ordinary service of a ship. A
+couch, covered with cut velvet, stood along the transom; while a divan,
+of blue silk, lay against the bulkhead opposite, manifesting, by its
+fashion, its materials, and its piles of pillows, that even Asia had
+been made to contribute to the ease of its luxurious owner. In addition
+to these prominent articles, there were cut glass, mirrors, plate, and
+even hangings; each of which, by something peculiar in its fashion or
+materials, bespoke an origin different from that of its neighbour. In
+short, splendour and elegance seemed to have been much more consulted
+than propriety, or conformity in taste, in the selection of most of
+those articles, which had been, oddly enough, made to contribute to the
+caprice or to the comfort of their singular possessor.
+
+In the midst of this medley of wealth and luxury, appeared the frowning
+appendages of war. The cabin included four of those dark cannon whose
+weight and number had been first to catch the attention of Wilder.
+Notwithstanding they were placed in such close proximity to the
+articles of ease just enumerated, it only needed a seaman’s eye to
+perceive that they stood ready for instant service, and that five
+minutes of preparation would strip the place of all its tinsel, and
+leave it a warm and well protected battery. Pistols, sabres,
+half-pikes, boarding-axes and all the minor implements of marine
+warfare, were arranged about the cabin in such a manner as to aid in
+giving it an appearance of wild embellishment, while, at the same time,
+each was convenient to the hand.
+
+Around the mast was placed a stand of muskets, and strong wooden bars,
+that were evidently made to fit in brackets on either side of the door,
+sufficiently showed that the bulkhead might easily be converted into a
+barrier. The entire arrangement proclaimed that the cabin was
+considered the citadel of the ship. In support of this latter opinion,
+appeared a hatch, which evidently communicated with the apartments of
+the inferior officers, and which also opened a direct passage into the
+magazine. These dispositions, a little different from what he had been
+accustomed to see, instantly struck the eye of Wilder, though leisure
+was not then given to reflect on their uses and objects.
+
+There was a latent expression of satisfaction, something modified,
+perhaps, by irony, on the countenance of the stranger in green, (for he
+was still clad as when first introduced to the reader,) as he arose, on
+the entrance of his visiter. The two stood several moments without
+speaking, when the pretended barrister saw fit to break the awkward
+silence.
+
+“To what happy circumstance is this ship indebted for the honour of
+such a visit?” he demanded.
+
+“I believe I may answer, To the invitation of her Captain,” Wilder
+answered, with a steadiness and calmness equal to that displayed by the
+other.
+
+“Did he show you his commission, in assuming that office? They say, at
+sea, I believe, that no cruiser should be found without a commission.”
+
+“And what say they at the universities on this material point?”
+
+“I see I may as well lay aside my gown, and own the marling-spike!”
+returned the other, smiling, “There is something about the
+trade—_profession_, though, I believe, is your favourite word—there is
+something about the profession, which betrays us to each other. Yes, Mr
+Wilder,” he added with dignity motioning to his guest to imitate his
+example, and take a seat, “I am, like yourself, a seaman bred and happy
+am I to add, the Commander of this gallant vessel.”
+
+“Then, must you admit that I have not intruded without a sufficient
+warrant.”
+
+“I confess the same. My ship has filled your eye agreeably; nor shall I
+be slow to acknowledge, that I have seen enough about your air, and
+person, to make me wish to be an older acquaintance. You want service?”
+
+“One should be ashamed of idleness in these stirring times.”
+
+“It is well. This is an oddly-constructed world in which we live, Mr
+Wilder! Some think themselves in danger, with a foundation beneath them
+no less solid than _terra firma_, while others are content to trust
+their fortunes on the sea. So, again, some there are who believe
+praying is the business of man; and then come others who are sparing of
+their breath, and take those favours for themselves which they have not
+always the leisure or the inclination to ask for. No doubt you thought
+it prudent to inquire into the nature of our trade, before you came
+hither in quest of employment?”
+
+“You are said to be a slaver, among the townsmen of Newport.”
+
+“They are never wrong, your village gossips! If witchcraft ever truly
+existed on earth, the first of the cunning tribe has been a village
+innkeeper; the second, its doctor; and the third, its priest. The right
+to the fourth honour may be disputed between the barber and the
+tailor.—Roderick!”
+
+The Captain accompanied the word by which he so unceremoniously
+interrupted himself, by striking a light blow on a Chinese gong, which,
+among other curiosities, was suspended from one of the beams of the
+upper deck, within reach of his hand.
+
+“I say, Roderick, do you sleep?”
+
+A light and active boy darted out of one of the two little state-rooms
+which were constructed on the quarters of the ship, and answered to the
+summons by announcing his presence.
+
+“Has the boat returned?”
+
+The reply was in the affirmative.
+
+“And has she been successful?”
+
+“The General is in his room, sir, and can give you an answer better
+than I.”
+
+“Then, let the General appear, and report the result of his campaign.”
+
+Wilder was by far too deeply interested, to break the sudden reverie
+into which his companion had now evidently fallen, even by breathing as
+loud as usual. The boy descended through the hatch like a serpent
+gliding into his hole, or, rather, a fox darting into his burrow, and
+then a profound stillness reigned in the cabin. The Commander of the
+ship leaned his head on his hand, appearing utterly unconscious of the
+presence of any stranger. The silence might have been of much longer
+duration, had it not been interrupted by the appearance of a third
+person. A straight, rigid form slowly elevated itself through the
+little hatchway, very much in the manner that theatrical spectres are
+seen to make their appearance on the stage, until about half of the
+person was visible, when it ceased to rise, and turned its disciplined
+countenance on the Captain.
+
+“I wait for orders,” said a mumbling voice, which issued from lips that
+were hardly perceived to move.
+
+Wilder started as this unexpected individual appeared; nor was the
+stranger wanting in an aspect sufficiently remarkable to produce
+surprise in any spectator. The face was that of a man of fifty, with
+the lineaments rather indurated than faded by time. Its colour was an
+uniform red, with the exception of one of those expressive little
+fibrous tell-tales on each cheek, which bear so striking a resemblance
+to the mazes of the vine, and which would seem to be the true origin of
+the proverb which says that “good wine needs no bush.” The head was
+bald on its crown; but around either ear was a mass of grizzled hair,
+pomatumed and combed into formal military bristles. The neck was long,
+and supported by a black stock; the shoulders, arms, and body were
+those of a man of tall stature; and the whole were enveloped in an
+over-coat, which, though it had something methodical in its fashion,
+was evidently intended as a sort of domino. The Captain raised his head
+as the other spoke, exclaiming,—
+
+“Ah! General, are you at your post? Did you find the land?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“And the point?—and the man?”
+
+“Both.”
+
+“And what did you?”
+
+“Obey orders.”
+
+“That was right.—You are a jewel for an executive officer, General;
+and, as such, I wear you near my heart. Did the fellow complain?”
+
+“He was gagged.”
+
+“A summary method of closing remonstrance. It is as it should be,
+General; as usual, you have merited my approbation.”
+
+“Then reward me for it.”
+
+“In what manner? You are already as high in rank as I can elevate you.
+The next step must be knighthood.”
+
+“Pshaw! my men are no better than militia. They want coats.”
+
+“They shall have them. His Majesty’s guards shall not be half so well
+equipt. General, I wish you a good night.”
+
+The figure descended, in the same rigid, spectral manner as it had
+risen on the sight, leaving Wilder again alone with the Captain of the
+ship. The latter seemed suddenly struck with the fact that this odd
+interview had occurred in the presence of one who was nearly a
+stranger, and that, in his eyes at least, it might appear to require
+some explanation.
+
+“My friend,” he said, with an air something explanatory while it was at
+the same time not a little naughty, “commands what, in a more regular
+cruiser, would be called the ‘marine guard.’ He has gradually risen, by
+service, from the rank of a subaltern, to the high station which he now
+fills. You perceive he smells of the camp?”
+
+“More than of the ship. Is it usual for slavers to be so well provided
+with military equipments? I find you armed at all points.”
+
+“You would know more of us, before we proceed to drive our bargain?”
+the Captain answered, with a smile. He then opened a little casket that
+stood on the table, and drew from it a parchment, which he coolly
+handed to Wilder, saying, as he did so, with one of the quick,
+searching glances of his restless eye, “You will see, by that, we have
+‘letters of marque,’ and are duly authorized to fight the battles of
+the King, while we are conducting our own more peaceable affairs.”
+
+“This is the commission of a brig!”
+
+“True, true. I have given you the wrong paper. I believe you will find
+this more accurate.”
+
+“This is truly a commission for the ‘good ship Seven Sisters;’ but you
+surely carry more than ten guns, and, then, these in your cabin throw
+nine instead of four pound shot!”
+
+“Ah! you are as precise as though you had been the barrister, and I the
+blundering seaman. I dare say you have heard of such a thing as
+stretching a commission,” continued the Captain drily, as he carelessly
+threw the parchment back among a pile of similar documents. Then,
+rising from his seat, he began to pace the cabin with quick steps, as
+he continued, “I need not tell you, Mr Wilder, that ours is a hazardous
+pursuit. Some call it lawless. But, as I am little addicted to
+theological disputes, we will wave the question. You have not come here
+without knowing your errand.”
+
+“I am in search of a birth.”
+
+“Doubtless you have reflected well on the matter and know your own mind
+as to the trade in which you would sail. In order that no time may be
+wasted and that our dealings may be frank, as becomes two honest
+seamen, I will confess to you, at once, that I have need of you. A
+brave and skilful man, one older, though, I dare say, not better than
+yourself occupied that larboard state-room, within the month; but, poor
+fellow, he is food for fishes ere this.”
+
+“He was drowned?”
+
+“Not he! He died in open battle with a King’s ship!”
+
+“A King’s ship! Have you then stretched your commission so far as to
+find a warranty for giving battle to his Majesty’s cruisers?”
+
+“Is there no King but George the Second! Perhaps she bore the white
+flag, perhaps a Dane. But he was truly a gallant fellow; and there lies
+his birth, as empty as the day he was carried from it, to be cast into
+the sea. He was a man fit to succeed to the command, should an evil
+star shine on my fate, I think I could die easier, were I to know this
+noble vessel was to be transmitted to one who would make such use of
+her as should be.”
+
+“Doubtless your owners would provide a successor in the event of such a
+calamity.”
+
+“My owners are very reasonable,” returned the other, with a meaning
+smile, while he cast another searching glance at his guest, which
+compelled Wilder to lower his own eyes to the cabin floor; “they seldom
+trouble me with importunities, or orders.”
+
+“They are indulgent! I see that flags were not forgotten in your
+inventory: Do they also give you permission to wear any one of all
+those ensigns, as you may please?”
+
+As this question was put, the expressive and understanding looks of the
+two seamen met. The Captain drew a flag from the half-open locker,
+where it had caught the attention of his visiter, and, letting the roll
+unfold itself on the deck, he answered,—
+
+“This is the Lily of France, you see. No bad emblem of your stainless
+Frenchman. An escutcheon of pretence without spot, but, nevertheless, a
+little soiled by too much use. Here, you have the calculating Dutchman;
+plain, substantial, and cheap. It is a flag I little like. If the ship
+be of value, her owners are not often willing to dispose of her without
+a price. This is your swaggering Hamburgher. He is rich in the
+possession of one town, and makes his boast of it, in these towers. Of
+the rest of his mighty possessions he wisely says nothing in his
+allegory These are the Crescents of Turkey; a moon-struck nation, that
+believe themselves the inheritors of heaven. Let them enjoy their
+birthright in peace; it is seldom they are found looking for its
+blessings on the high seas—and these, the little satellites that play
+about the mighty moon; your Barbarians of Africa. I hold but little
+communion with these wide-trowsered gentry, for they seldom deal in
+gainful traffic. And yet,” he added, glancing his eye at the silken
+divan before which Wilder was seated, “I have met the rascals; nor have
+we parted entirely without communication! Ah! here comes the man I
+like; your golden, gorgeous Spaniard! This field of yellow reminds one
+of the riches of her mines; and this Crown! one might fancy it of
+beaten gold, and stretch forth a hand to grasp the treasure What a
+blazonry is this for a galleon! Here is the humbler Portuguese; and yet
+is he not without a wealthy look. I have often fancied there were true
+Brazilian diamonds in this kingly bauble. Yonder crucifix, which you
+see hanging in pious proximity to my state-room door, is a specimen of
+the sort I mean.” Wilder turned his head, to throw a look on the
+valuable emblem, that was really suspended from the bulkhead, within a
+few inches of the spot the other named. After satisfying his curiosity
+he was in the act of giving his attention again to the flags, when he
+detected another of those penetrating, but stolen glances with which
+his companion so often read the countenance of his associates. It might
+have been that the Captain was endeavouring to discover the effect his
+profuse display of wealth had produced on the mind of his visiter. Let
+that be as it would, Wilder smiled; for, at that moment, the idea first
+occurred that the ornaments of the cabin had been thus studiously
+arranged with an expectation of his arrival, and with the wish that
+their richness might strike his senses favourably. The other caught the
+expression of his eye; and perhaps he mistook its meaning, when he
+suffered his construction of what it said to animate him to pursue his
+whimsical analysis of the flags, with an air still more cheerful and
+vivacious than before.
+
+“These double-headed monsters are land birds and seldom risk a flight
+over deep waters. They are not for me. Your hardy, valiant Dane; your
+sturdy Swede; a nest of smaller fry,” he continued, passing his hand
+rapidly over a dozen little rolls as they lay, each in its own
+repository, “who spread their bunting like larger states; and your
+luxurious Neapolitan. Ah! here come the Keys of Heaven! This is a flag
+to die under! I lay yard-arm and yard-arm, once, under that very bit of
+bunting, with a heavy corsair from Algiers”—
+
+“What! Did you choose to fight under the banners of the Church?”
+
+“In mere devotion. I pictured to myself the surprise that would
+overcome the barbarian, when he should find that we did not go to
+prayers. We gave him but a round or two, before he swore that Allah had
+decreed he might surrender. There was a moment while I luffed-up on his
+weather-quarter, I believe, that the Mussulman thought the whole of the
+holy Conclave was afloat, and that the downfall of Mahomet and his
+offspring was ordained. I provoked the conflict, I will confess, in
+showing him these peaceful Keys, which he is dull enough to think open
+half the strong boxes of Christendom.”
+
+“When he had confessed his error, you let him go?”
+
+“Hum!—with my blessing. There was some interchange of commodities
+between us, and then we parted. I left him smoking his pipe, in a heavy
+sea with his fore-topmast over the side, his mizzenmast under his
+counter, and some six or seven holes in his bottom, that let in the
+water just as fast as the pumps discharged it. You see he was in a fair
+way to acquire his portion of the inheritance. But Heaven had ordained
+it all, and he was satisfied!”
+
+“And what flags are these which you have passed? They seem rich, and
+many.”
+
+“These are England; like herself, aristocratic, party-coloured, and a
+good deal touched by humour. Here is bunting to note all ranks and
+conditions, as if men were not made of the same flesh, and the people
+of one kingdom might not all sail honestly under the same emblems. Here
+is my Lord High Admiral; your St. George; your field of red, and of
+blue, as chance may give you a leader, or the humour of the moment
+prevail; the stripes of mother India, and the Royal Standard itself!”
+
+“The Royal Standard!”
+
+“Why not? A commander is termed a ‘monarch in his ship.’ Ay; this is
+the Standard of the King and, what is more, it has been worn in
+presence of an Admiral!”
+
+“This needs explanation!” exclaimed his listener who seemed to feel
+much that sort of horror that a churchman would discover at the
+detection of sacrilege. “To wear the Royal Standard in presence of a
+flag! We all know how difficult, and even dangerous, it becomes, to
+sport a simple pennant, with the eyes of a King’s cruiser on us—”
+
+“I love to flaunt the rascals!” interrupted the other, with a
+smothered, but bitter laugh. “There is pleasure in the thing!—In order
+to punish, they must possess the power; an experiment often made, but
+never yet successful. You understand balancing accounts with the law,
+by showing a broad sheet of canvas! I need say no more.”
+
+“And which of all these flags do you most use?” demanded Wilder, after
+a moment of intense thought.
+
+“As to mere sailing, I am as whimsical as a girl in her teens in the
+choice of her ribbons. I will often show you a dozen in a day. Many is
+the worthy trader who has gone into port with his veritable account of
+this Dutchman, or that Dane, with whom he has spoken in the offing. As
+to fighting, though I have been known to indulge a humour, too, in that
+particular, still is there one which I most affect.”
+
+“And that is?——”
+
+The Captain kept his hand, for a moment, on the roll he had touched,
+and seemed to read the very soul of his visiter, so intent and keen was
+his look the while. Then, suffering the bunting to fall, a deep,
+blood-red field, without relief or ornament of any sort, unfolded
+itself, as he answered, with emphasis,—
+
+“This.”
+
+“That is the colour of a Rover!”
+
+“Ay, it is _red_! I like it better than your gloomy fields of black,
+with death’s heads, and other childish scare-crows. It threatens
+nothing; but merely says, ‘Such is the price at which I am to be
+bought.’ Mr Wilder,” he added, losing the mixture of irony and
+pleasantry with which he had supported the previous dialogue, in an air
+of authority, “We understand each other. It is time that each should
+sail under his proper colours. I need not tell you who I am.”
+
+“I believe it is unnecessary,” said Wilder. “If I can comprehend these
+palpable signs, I stand in presence of—of—”
+
+“The Red Rover,” continued the other, observing that he hesitated to
+pronounce the appalling name. “It is true; and I hope this interview is
+the commencement of a durable and firm friendship. I know not the
+secret cause, but, from the moment of our meeting, a strong and
+indefinable interest has drawn me towards you. Perhaps I felt the void
+which my situation has drawn about me;—be that as it may, I receive you
+with a longing heart and open arms.”
+
+Though it must be very evident, from what-preceded this open avowal,
+that Wilder was not ignorant of the character of the ship on board of
+which he had just ventured, yet did he not receive the acknowledgment
+without embarrassment. The reputation of this renowned freebooter, his
+daring, his acts of liberality and licentiousness so frequently
+blended, and his desperate disregard of life on all occasions, were
+probably crowding together in the recollection of our more youthful
+adventurer, and caused him to feel that species of responsible
+hesitation to which we are all more or less subject on the occurrence
+of important events, be they ever so much expected.
+
+“You have not mistaken my purpose, or my suspicions,” he at length
+answered, “for I own have come in search of this very ship. I accept
+the service; and, from this moment, you will rate me in whatever
+station you may think me best able to discharge my duty with credit.”
+
+“You are next to myself. In the morning, the same shall be proclaimed
+on the quarter-deck; and, in the event of my death, unless I am
+deceived in my man, you will prove my successor. This may strike you as
+sudden confidence. It is so, in part, I must acknowledge; but our
+shipping lists cannot be opened, like those of the King, by beat of
+drum in the streets of the metropolis; and, then, am I no judge of the
+human heart, if my frank reliance on your faith does not, in itself,
+strengthen your good feelings in my favour.”
+
+“It does!” exclaimed Wilder, with sudden and deep emphasis.
+
+The Rover smiled calmly, as he continued,—
+
+“Young gentlemen of your years are apt to carry no small portion of
+their hearts in their hands. But, notwithstanding this seeming
+sympathy, in order that you may have sufficient respect for the
+discretion of your leader, it is necessary that I should say we have
+met before. I was apprised of your intention to seek me out, and to
+offer to join me.”
+
+“It is impossible!” cried Wilder, “No human being—”
+
+“Can ever be certain his secrets are safe,” interrupted the other,
+“when he carries a face as ingenuous as your own. It is but
+four-and-twenty hours since you were in the good town of Boston.”
+
+“I admit that much; but—”
+
+“You will soon admit the rest. You were too curious in your inquiries
+of the dolt who declares he was robbed by us of his provisions and
+sails. The false-tongued villain! It may be well for him to keep from
+my path, or he may get a lesson that shall prick his honesty. Does he
+think such pitiful game as he would induce me to spread a single inch
+of canvas, or even to lower a boat into the sea!”
+
+“Is not his statement, then, true?” demanded Wilder, in a surprise he
+took no pains to conceal.
+
+“True! Am I what report has made me? Look keenly at the monster, that
+nothing may escape you,” returned the Rover, with a hollow laugh, in
+which scorn struggled to keep down the feelings of wounded pride.
+“Where are the horns, and the cloven foot? Snuff the air: Is it not
+tainted with sulphur? But enough of this. I knew of your inquiries, and
+liked your mien. In short, you were my study; and, though my approaches
+were made with some caution they were sufficiently nigh to effect the
+object. You pleased me, Wilder; and I hope the satisfaction may be
+mutual.”
+
+The newly engaged buccanier bowed to the compliment of his superior,
+and appeared at some little loss for a reply: As if to get rid of the
+subject at once, he hurriedly observed,—
+
+“As we now understand each other, I will intrude no longer, but leave
+you for the night, and return to my duty in the morning.”
+
+“Leave me!” returned the Rover, stopping short on his walk, and
+fastening his eye keenly on the other. “It is not usual for my officers
+to leave me at this hour. A sailor should love his ship, and never
+sleep out of her, unless on compulsion.”
+
+“We may as well understand each other,” said Wilder, quickly. “If it is
+to be a slave, and, like one of the bolts, a fixture in the vessel,
+that you need me, our bargain is at an end.”
+
+“Hum! I admire your spirit, sir, much more than your discretion. You
+will find me an attached friend and one who little likes a separation,
+however short Is there not enough to content you here? I will not speak
+of such low considerations as those which administer to the ordinary
+appetites. But, you have been taught the value of reason; here are
+books—you have taste; here is elegance—you are poor, here is wealth.”
+
+“They amount to nothing, without liberty,” coldly returned the other.
+
+“And what is this liberty you ask? I hope, young man, you would not so
+soon betray the confidence you have just received! Our acquaintance is
+but short, and I may have been too hasty in my faith.”
+
+“I must return to the land,” Wilder added, firmly, “if it be only to
+know that I am intrusted, and am not a prisoner.”
+
+“There is generous sentiment, or deep villany, in all this,” resumed
+the Rover, after a minute of deep thought. “I will believe the former.
+Declare to me, that, while in the town of Newport, you will inform no
+soul of the true character of this ship.”
+
+“I will swear it,” eagerly interrupted Wilder.
+
+“On this cross,” rejoined the Rover, with a sarcastic laugh; “on this
+diamond-mounted cross! No, sir,” he added, with a proud curl of the
+lip, as he cast the jewel contemptuously aside, “oaths are made for men
+who need laws to keep them to their promises; I need no more than the
+clear and unequivocal affirmation of a gentleman.”
+
+“Then, plainly and unequivocally do I declare, that, while in Newport,
+I will discover the character of this ship to no one, without your
+wish, or order so to do. Nay more”—
+
+“No more. It is wise to be sparing of our pledges, and to say no more
+than the occasion requires. The time may come when you might do good to
+yourself, without harming me, by being unfettered by a promise. In an
+hour, you shall land; that time will be needed to make you acquainted
+with the terms of your enlistment, and to grace my rolls with your
+name.—Roderick,” he added, again touching the gong, “you are wanted,
+boy.”
+
+The same active lad, that had made his appearance at the first summons,
+ran up the steps from the cabin beneath, and announced his presence
+again by his voice.
+
+“Roderick,” continued the Rover, “this is my future lieutenant, and, of
+course, your officer, and my friend. Will you take refreshment, sir?
+there is little, that man needs, which Roderick cannot supply.”
+
+“I thank you; I have need of none.”
+
+“Then, have the goodness to follow the boy. He will show you into the
+dining apartment beneath, and give you the written regulations. In an
+hour, you will have digested the code, and by that time I shall be with
+you. Throw the light more upon the ladder, boy; you can descend
+_without_ a ladder though, it would seem, or I should not, at this
+moment, have the pleasure of your company.”
+
+The intelligent smile of the Rover was unanswered by any corresponding
+evidence from the subject of his joke, that he found satisfaction in
+the remembrance of the awkward situation in which he had been left in
+the tower. The former caught the displeased expression of the other’s
+countenance, as he gravely prepared to follow the boy, who already
+stood in the hatchway with a light. Advancing a step with the grace and
+tones of sensitive breeding, he said quickly,—
+
+“Mr Wilder, I owe you an apology for my seeming rudeness at parting on
+the hill. Though I believed you mine, I was not sure of my acquisition.
+You will readily see how necessary it might be, to one in my situation,
+to throw off a companion at such a moment.”
+
+Wilder turned, with a countenance from which every shade of displeasure
+had vanished, and motioned to him to say no more.
+
+“It was awkward enough, certainly, to find one’s self in such a prison;
+but I feel the justice of what you say. I might have done the very
+thing myself, if the same presence of mind were at hand to help me.”
+
+“The good man, who grinds in the Newport ruin, must be in a sad way,
+since all the rats are leaving his mill,” cried the Rover gaily, as his
+companion descended after the boy. Wilder now freely returned his open,
+cordial laugh, and then, as he descended, the cabin was left to him
+who, a few minutes before, had been found in its quiet possession.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VII.
+
+“The world affords no law to make thee rich;
+Then be not poor, but break it, and take this.”
+_Apoth._ “My poverty, but not my will, consents.”
+
+_Romeo and Juliet._
+
+
+The Rover arrested his step, as the other disappeared and stood for
+more than a minute in an attitude of high and self-gratulating triumph.
+It was quite apparent he was exulting in his success. But, though his
+intelligent face betrayed the satisfaction of the inward man, it was
+illumined by no expression of vulgar joy. It was the countenance of one
+who was suddenly relieved from intense care, rather than that of a man
+who was greedy of profiting by the services of others. Indeed, it would
+not have been difficult, for a close and practised observer, to have
+detected a shade of regret in the lightings of his seductive smile, or
+in the momentary flashes of his changeful eye. The feeling, however,
+quickly passed away, and his whole figure and countenance resumed the
+ordinary easy mien in which he most indulged in his hours of
+retirement.
+
+After allowing sufficient time for the boy to conduct Wilder to the
+necessary cabin, and to put him in possession of the regulations for
+the police of the ship, the Captain again touched the gong, and once
+more summoned the former to his presence. The lad had however, to
+approach the elbow of his master, and to speak thrice, before the other
+was conscious that he had answered his call.
+
+“Roderick,” said the Rover, after a long pause, “are you there?”
+
+“I am here,” returned a low, and seemingly a mournful voice.
+
+“Ah! you gave him the regulations?”
+
+“I did.”
+
+“And he reads?”
+
+“He reads.”
+
+“It is well. I would speak to the General. Roderick, you must have need
+of rest; good night; let the General be summoned to a council, and—Good
+night, Roderick.”
+
+The boy made an assenting reply; but, instead of springing, with his
+former alacrity, to execute the order he lingered a moment nigh his
+master’s chair. Failing, however, in his wish to catch his eye, he
+slowly and reluctantly descended the stairs which led into the lower
+cabins, and was seen no more.
+
+It is needless to describe the manner in which the General made his
+second appearance. It differed in no particular from his former entrée,
+except that, on this occasion, the whole of his person was developed.
+He appeared a tall, upright form, that was far from being destitute of
+natural grace and proportions, but which had been so exquisitely
+drilled into simultaneous movement, that the several members had so far
+lost the power of volition, as to render it impossible for one to stir,
+without producing some thing like a correspondent demonstration in all
+its fellows. This rigid and well-regulated personage, after making a
+formal military bow to his superior, helped himself to a chair, in
+which, after some little time lost in preparation, he seated himself in
+silence. The Rover seemed conscious of his presence; for he
+acknowledged his salute by a gentle inclination of his own head; though
+he did not appear to think it necessary to suspend his ruminations the
+more on that account. At length, however, he turned short upon his
+companion, and said abruptly,—
+
+“General, the campaign is not finished.”
+
+“What remains? the field is won, and the enemy is a prisoner.”
+
+“Ay, your part of the adventure is well achieved, but much of mine
+remains to be done. You saw the youth in the lower cabin?”
+
+“I did.”
+
+“And how find you his appearance?”
+
+“Maritime.”
+
+“That is as much as to say, you like him not.”
+
+“I like discipline.”
+
+“I am much mistaken if you do not find him to your taste on the
+quarter-deck. Let that be as it may, I have still a favour to ask of
+you!”
+
+“A favour!—it is getting late.”
+
+“Did I say ‘a favour?’ there is duty to be yet done.”
+
+“I wait your orders.”
+
+“It is necessary that we use great precaution for, as you know”——
+
+“I wait your orders,” laconically repeated the other.
+
+The Rover compressed his mouth, and a scornful smile struggled about
+the nether lip; but it changed into a look half bland, half
+authoritative, as he continued,—
+
+“You will find two seamen, in a skiff, alongside the ship; the one is
+white, and the other is black. These men you will have conducted into
+the vessel—into one of the forward state-rooms—and you will have them
+both thoroughly intoxicated.”
+
+“It shall be done,” returned he who was called the General, rising, and
+marching with long strides towards the door of the cabin.
+
+“Pause a moment,” exclaimed the Rover; “what agent will you use?”
+
+“Nightingale has the strongest head but one in the ship.”
+
+“He is too far gone already. I sent him ashore, to look about for any
+straggling seamen who might like our service; and I found him in a
+tavern, with all the fastenings off his tongue, declaiming like a
+lawyer who had taken a fee from both parties Besides, he had a quarrel
+with one of these very men, and it is probable they would get to blows
+in their cups.”
+
+“I will do it myself. My night-cap is waiting for me; and it is only to
+lace it a little tighter than common.”
+
+The Rover seemed content with this assurance; for he expressed his
+satisfaction with a familiar nod of the head. The soldier was now about
+to depart, when he was again interrupted.
+
+“One thing more, General; there is your captive.”—
+
+“Shall I make him drunk too?”
+
+“By no means. Let him be conducted hither.”
+
+The General made an ejaculation of assent, and left the cabin. “It were
+weak,” thought the Rover as he resumed his walk up and down the
+apartment, “to trust too much to an ingenuous face and youthful
+enthusiasm. I am deceived if the boy has not had reason to think
+himself disgusted with the world, and ready to embark in any romantic
+enterprise but, still, to be deceived might be fatal therefore will I
+be prudent, even to excess of caution. He is tied in an extraordinary
+manner to these two seamen I would I knew his history. But all that
+will come in proper time. The men must remain as hostages for his own
+return, and for his faith. If he prove false, why, they are seamen;—and
+many men are expended in this wild service of ours! It is well
+arranged; and no suspicion of any plot on our part will wound the
+sensitive pride of the boy, if he be, as I would gladly think, a true
+man.”
+
+Such was, in a great manner, the train of thought in which the Rover
+indulged, for many minutes, after his military companion had left him.
+His lips moved; smiles, and dark shades of thought, in turn, chased
+each other from his speaking countenance, which betrayed all the sudden
+and violent changes that denote the workings of a busy spirit within.
+While thus engrossed in mind, his step became more rapid, and, at
+times, he gesticulated a little extravagantly when he found himself, in
+a sudden turn, unexpectedly confronted by a form that seemed to rise on
+his sight like a vision.
+
+While most engaged in his own humours, two powerful seamen had,
+unheeded, entered the cabin; and, after silently depositing a human
+figure in a seat, they withdrew without speaking. It was before this
+personage that the Rover now found himself. The gaze was mutual, long,
+and uninterrupted by a syllable from either party. Surprise and
+indecision held the Rover mute, while wonder and alarm appeared to have
+literally frozen the faculties of the other. At length the former,
+suffering a quaint and peculiar smile to gleam for a moment across his
+countenance, said abruptly,—
+
+“I welcome sir Hector Homespun!”
+
+The eyes of the confounded tailor—for it was no other than that
+garrulous acquaintance of the reader who had fallen into the toils of
+the Rover—the eyes of the good-man rolled from right to left,
+embracing, in their wanderings, the medley of elegance and warlike
+preparation that they every where met never failing to return, from
+each greedy look, to devour the figure that stood before him.
+
+“I say, Welcome, sir Hector Homespun!” repeated the Rover.
+
+“The Lord will be lenient to the sins of a miserable father of seven
+small children!” ejaculated the tailor. “It is but little, valiant
+Pirate, that can be gotten from a hard-working, upright tradesman, who
+sits from the rising to the setting sun, bent over his labour.”
+
+“These are debasing terms for chivalry, sir Hector,” interrupted the
+Rover, laying his hand on the little riding whip, which had been thrown
+carelessly on the cabin table, and, tapping the shoulder of the tailor
+with the same, as though he were a sorcerer, and would disenchant the
+other with the touch: “Cheer up, honest and loyal subject: Fortune has
+at length ceased to frown: it is but a few hours since you complained
+that no custom came to your shop from this vessel, and now are you in a
+fair way to do the business of the whole ship.”
+
+“Ah! honourable and magnanimous Rover,” rejoined Homespun, whose
+fluency returned with his senses, “I am an impoverished and undone man.
+My life has been one of weary and probationary hardships. Five bloody
+and cruel wars”——
+
+“Enough. I have said that Fortune was just beginning to smile. Clothes
+are as necessary to gentlemen of our profession as to the parish
+priest. You shall not baste a seam without your reward. Behold!” he
+added, touching the spring of a secret drawer, which flew open, and
+discovered a confused pile of gold, in which the coins of nearly every
+Christian people were blended, “we are not without the means of paying
+those who serve us faithfully.”
+
+The sudden exhibition of a horde of wealth, which not only greatly
+exceeded any thing of the kind he had ever before witnessed, but which
+actually surpassed his limited imaginative powers, was not without its
+effect on the sensitive feelings of the good-man After feasting on the
+sight, for the few moments that his companion left the treasure exposed
+to view, he turned to the envied possessor of so much gold, and
+demanded,—the tones of increased confidence gradually stealing into his
+voice, as the inward man felt additional motives of encouragement,—
+
+“And what am I expected to perform, mighty Seaman, for my portion of
+this wealth?”
+
+“That which you daily perform on the land—to cut, to fashion, and to
+sew. Perhaps, too, your talent at a masquerade dress may be taxed, from
+time to time.”
+
+“Ah! they are lawless and irreligious devices of the enemy, to lead men
+into sin and worldly abominations But, worthy Mariner, there is my
+disconsolate consort, Desire; though stricken in years, and given to
+wordy strife, yet is she the lawful partner of my bosom, and the mother
+of a numerous offspring.”
+
+“She shall not want. This is an asylum for distressed husbands. Your
+men, who have not force enough to command at home, come to my ship as
+to a city of refuge. You will make the seventh who has found peace by
+fleeing to this sanctuary. Their families are supported by ways best
+known to ourselves, and all parties are content. This is not the least
+of my benevolent acts.”
+
+“It is praiseworthy and just, honourable Captain and I hope that Desire
+and her offspring may not be forgotten. The labourer is surely worthy
+of his hire and if, peradventure, I should toil in your behalf through
+stress of compulsion, I hope the good and her young, may fatten on your
+liberality.”
+
+“You have my word; they shall not be neglected.”
+
+“Perhaps, just Gentleman, if an allotment should be made in advance
+from that stock of gold, the mind of my consort would be relieved, her
+inquiries after my fate not so searching, and her spirit less troubled.
+I have reason to understand the temper of Desire; and am well
+identified, that, while the prospect of want is before her eyes, there
+will be a clamour in Newport. Now that the Lord has graciously given me
+the hopes of a respite, there can be no sin in wishing to enjoy it in
+peace.”
+
+Although the Rover was far from believing, with his captive, that the
+tongue of Desire could disturb the harmony of his ship, he was in the
+humour to be indulgent. Touching the spring again, he took a handful of
+the gold, and, extending it towards Homespun demanded,—
+
+“Will you take the bounty, and the oath? The money will then be your
+own.”
+
+“The Lord defend us from the evil one, and deliver us all from
+temptation!” ejaculated the tailor: “Heroic Rover, I have a dread of
+the law. Should any evil overcome you, in the shape of a King’s
+cruiser, or a tempest cast you on the land, there might be danger in
+being contaminated too closely with your crew. Any little services
+which I may render, on compulsion, will be overlooked, I humbly hope
+and I trust to your magnanimity, honest and honourable Commander, that
+the same will not be forgotten in the division of your upright
+earnings.”
+
+“This is but the spirit of cabbaging, a little distorted muttered the
+Rover, as he turned lightly on his heel, and tapped the gong, with an
+impatience that sent the startling sound through every cranny of the
+ship. Four or five heads were thrust in at the different doors of the
+cabin, and the voice of one was heard, desiring to know the wishes of
+their leader.
+
+“Take him to his hammock,” was the quick, sudden order.
+
+The good-man Homespun, who, from fright or policy, appeared to be
+utterly unable to move, was quickly lifted from his seat, and conveyed
+to the door which communicated with the quarter-deck.
+
+“Pause,” he exclaimed to his unceremonious bearers, as they were about
+to transport him to the place designated by their Captain; “I have one
+word yet to say. Honest and loyal Rebel, though I do not accept your
+service, neither do I refuse it in an unseemly and irreverent manner.
+It is a sore temptation, and I feel it at my fingers’ ends. But a
+covenant may be made between us, by which neither party shall be a
+loser, and in which the law shall find no grounds of displeasure. I
+would wish, mighty Commodore, to carry an honest name to my grave, and
+I would also wish to live out the number of my days; for, after having
+passed with so much credit, and unharmed, through five bloody and cruel
+wars”——
+
+“Away with him!” was the stern and startling interruption.
+
+Homespun vanished, as though magic had been employed in transporting
+him, and the Rover was again left to himself. His meditations were not
+interrupted, for a long time, by human footstep or voice. That
+breathing stillness, which unbending and stern discipline can alone
+impart, pervaded the ship. A landsman, seated in the cabin, might have
+fancied himself, although surrounded by a crew of lawless and violent
+men, in the solitude of a deserted church, so suppressed, and deadened,
+were even those sounds that were absolutely necessary. There were heard
+at times, it is true, the high and harsh notes of some reveller who
+appeared to break forth in the strains of a sea song, which, as they
+issued from the depths of the vessel, and were not very musical in
+themselves, broke on the silence like the first discordant strains of a
+new practitioner on a bugle. But even these interruptions gradually
+grew less frequent, and finally became inaudible. At length the Rover
+heard a hand fumbling about the handle of the cabin door, and then his
+military friend once more made his appearance.
+
+There was that in the step, the countenance, and the whole air of the
+General, which proclaimed that his recent service, if successful, had
+not been achieved entirely without personal hazard. The Rover, who had
+started from his seat the moment he saw who had entered, instantly
+demanded his report.
+
+“The white is so drunk, that he cannot lie down without holding on to
+the mast; but the negro is either a cheat, or his head is made of
+flint.”
+
+“I hope you have not too easily abandoned the design.”
+
+“I would as soon batter a mountain! my retreat was not made a minute
+too soon.”
+
+The Rover fastened his eyes on the General, for a moment, in order to
+assure himself of the precise condition of his subaltern, ere he
+replied,—
+
+“It is well. We will now retire for the night.”
+
+The other carefully dressed his tall person, and brought his face in
+the direction of the little hatchway so often named. Then, by a sort of
+desperate effort, he essayed to march to the spot, with his customary
+upright mien and military step. As one or two erratic movements, and
+crossings of the legs, were not commented on by his Captain, the worthy
+martinet descended the stairs, as he believed, with sufficient dignity;
+the moral man not being in the precise state which is the best adapted
+to discover any little blunders that might be made by his physical
+coadjutor. The Rover looked at his watch; and after allowing sufficient
+time for the deliberate retreat of the General, he stepped lightly on
+the stairs, and descended also.
+
+The lower apartments of the vessel, though less striking in their
+equipments than the upper cabin were arranged with great attention to
+neatness and comfort. A few offices for the servants occupied the
+extreme after-part of the ship, communicating by doors with the dining
+apartment of the secondary officers; or, as it was called in technical
+language, the “ward-room.” On either side of this, again, were the
+state-rooms, an imposing name, by which the dormitories of those who
+are entitled to the honours of the quarter-deck are ever called.
+Forward of the ward-room, came the apartments of the minor officers;
+and, immediately in front of them, the corps of the individual who was
+called the General was lodged, forming, by their discipline, a barrier
+between the more lawless seamen and their superiors.
+
+There was little departure, in this disposition of the accommodations,
+from the ordinary arrangements of vessels of war of the same
+description and force as the “Rover;” but Wilder had not failed to
+remark that the bulkheads which separated the cabins from the
+birth-deck, or the part occupied by the crew, were far stouter than
+common, and that a small howitzer was at hand, to be used, as a
+physician might say, internally, should occasion require. The doors
+were of extraordinary strength, and the means of barricadoing them
+resembled more a preparation for battle, than the usual securities
+against petty encroachments on private property. Muskets,
+blunderbusses, pistols, sabres, half-pikes, &c., were fixed to the
+beams and carlings, or were made to serve as ornaments against the
+different bulkheads, in a profusion that plainly told they were there
+as much for use as for show. In short, to the eye of a seaman, the
+whole betrayed a state of things, in which the superiors felt that
+their whole security, against the violence and insubordination of their
+inferiors, depended on their influence and their ability to resist,
+united; and that the former had not deemed it prudent to neglect any of
+the precautions which might aid their comparatively less powerful
+physical force.
+
+In the principal of the lower apartments, or the ward-room, the Rover
+found his newly enlisted lieutenant apparently busy in studying the
+regulations of the service in which he had just embarked. Approaching
+the corner in which the latter had seated himself, the former said, in
+a frank, encouraging, and even confidential manner,——
+
+“I hope you find our laws sufficiently firm, Mr Wilder.”
+
+“Want of firmness is not their fault; if the same quality can always be
+observed in administering them, it is well,” returned the other, rising
+to salute his superior. “I have never found such rigid rules, even
+in”——
+
+“Even in what, sir?” demanded the Rover, perceiving that his companion
+hesitated.
+
+“I was about to say, ‘Even in his Majesty’s service,’” returned Wilder,
+slightly colouring. “I know not whether it may be a fault, or a
+recommendation, to have served in a King’s ship.”
+
+“It is the latter; at least I, for one, should think it so, since I
+learned my trade in the same service.”
+
+“In what ship?” eagerly interrupted Wilder.
+
+“In many,” was the cold reply. “But, speaking of rigid rules, you will
+soon perceive, that, in a service where there are no courts on shore to
+protect us, nor any sister-cruisers to look after each other’s welfare,
+no small portion of power is necessarily vested in the Commander. You
+find my authority a good deal extended.”
+
+“A little unlimited,” said Wilder, with a smile that might have passed
+for ironical.
+
+“I hope you will have no occasion to say that it is arbitrarily
+executed,” returned the Rover, without observing, or perhaps without
+letting it appear that he observed, the expression of his companion’s
+countenance. “But your hour is come, and you are now at liberty to
+land.”
+
+The young man thanked him, with a courteous inclination of the head,
+and expressed his readiness to go. As they ascended the ladder into the
+upper cabin, the Captain expressed his regret that the hour, and the
+necessity of preserving the incognito of his ship, would not permit him
+to send an officer of his rank ashore in the manner he could wish.
+
+“But then there is the skiff, in which you came off, still alongside,
+and your own two stout fellows will soon twitch you to yon point. A
+propos of those two men, are they included in our arrangements?”
+
+“They have never quitted me since my childhood, and would not wish to
+do it now.”
+
+“It is a singular tie that unites two men, so oddly constituted, to one
+so different, by habits and education, from themselves,” returned the
+Rover, glancing his eye keenly at the other, and withdrawing it the
+instant he perceived his interest in the answer was observed.
+
+“It is,” Wilder calmly replied; “but, as we are all seamen, the
+difference is not so great as one would at first imagine. I will now
+join them, and take an opportunity to let them, know that they are to
+serve in future under your orders.”
+
+The Rover suffered him to leave the cabin, following to the
+quarter-deck, with a careless step, as if he had come abroad to breathe
+the open air of the night.
+
+The weather had not changed, but it still continued dark, though mild.
+The same stillness as before reigned on the decks of the ship; and
+nowhere, with a solitary exception, was a human form to be seen, amid
+the collection of dark objects that rose on the sight, all of which
+Wilder well understood to be necessary fixtures in the vessel. The
+exception was the same individual who had first received our
+adventurer, and who still paced the quarter-deck, wrapped, as before,
+in a watch-coat. To this personage the youth now addressed himself,
+announcing his intention temporarily to quit the vessel. His
+communication was received with a respect that satisfied him his new
+rank was already known, although, as it would seem, it was to be made
+to succumb to the superior authority of the Rover.
+
+“You know, sir, that no one, of whatever station, can leave the ship at
+this hour, without an order from the Captain,” was the calm, but steady
+reply.
+
+“So I presume; but I have the order, and transmit it to you. I shall
+land in my own boat.”
+
+The other, seeing a figure within hearing, which he well knew to be
+that of his Commander, waited an instant, to ascertain if what he heard
+was true. Finding that no objection was made, nor any sign given, to
+the contrary, he merely indicated the place where the other would find
+his boat.
+
+“The men have left it!” exclaimed Wilder, stepping back in surprise, as
+he was about to descend the vessel’s side.
+
+“Have the rascals run?”
+
+“Sir, they have not run; neither are they rascals They are in this
+ship, and must be found.”
+
+The other waited, to witness the effect of these authoritative words,
+too, on the individual, who still lingered in the shadow of a mast. As
+no answer was, however, given from that quarter, he saw the necessity
+of obedience. Intimating his intention to seek the men, he passed into
+the forward parts of the vessel, leaving Wilder, as he thought, in the
+sole possession of the quarter-deck. The latter was, however, soon
+undeceived. The Rover, advancing carelessly to his side, made an
+allusion to the condition of his vessel, in order to divert the
+thoughts of his new lieutenant, who, by his hurried manner of pacing
+the deck, he saw, was beginning to indulge in uneasy meditations.
+
+“A charming sea-boat, Mr Wilder,” he continued, “and one that never
+throws a drop of spray abaft her mainmast. She is just the craft a
+seaman loves; easy on her rigging, and lively in a sea. I call her the
+‘Dolphin,’ from the manner in which she cuts the water; and, perhaps,
+because she has as many colours as that fish, you will say—Jack must
+have a name for his ship, you know, and I dislike your cut-throat
+appellations, your ‘Spit-fires’ and ‘Bloody-murders.’”
+
+“You were fortunate in finding such a vessel. Was she built to your
+orders?”
+
+“Few ships, under six hundred tons, sail from these colonies, that are
+not built to serve my purposes,” returned the Rover, with a smile; as
+if he would cheer his companion, by displaying the mine of wealth that
+was opening to him, through the new connexion he had made. “This vessel
+was originally built for his Most Faithful Majesty; and, I believe, was
+either intended as a present or a scourge to the Algerines; but—but she
+has changed owners, as you see, and her fortune is a little altered;
+though how, or why, is a trifle with which we will not, just now divert
+ourselves. I have had her in port; she has undergone some improvements,
+and is now altogether suited to a running trade.”
+
+“You then venture, sometimes, inside the forts?”
+
+“When you have leisure, my private journal may afford some interest,”
+the other evasively replied. “I hope, Mr Wilder, you find this vessel
+in such a state that a seaman need not blush for her?”
+
+“Her beauty and neatness first caught my eye, and induced me to make
+closer inquiries into her character.”
+
+“You were quick in seeing that she was kept at a single anchor!”
+returned the other, laughing. “But I never risk any thing without a
+reason; not even the loss of my ground tackle. It would be no great
+achievement, for so warm a battery as this I carry, to silence yonder
+apology for a fort; but, in doing it, we might receive an unfortunate
+hit, and therefore do I keep ready for an instant departure.”
+
+“It must be a little awkward, to fight in a war where one cannot lower
+his flag in any emergency!” said Wilder; more like one who mused, than
+one who intended to express the opinion aloud.
+
+“The bottom is always beneath us,” was the laconic answer. “But to you
+I may say, that I am, on principle, tender on my spars. They are
+examined daily, like the heels of a racer; for it often happens that
+our valour must be well-tempered by discretion.”
+
+“And how, and where, do you refit, when damaged in a gale, or in a
+fight?”
+
+“Hum! We contrive to refit, sir, and to take the sea in tolerable
+condition.”
+
+He stopped; and Wilder, perceiving that he was not yet deemed entitled
+to entire confidence, continued silent. In this pause, the officer
+returned, followed by the black alone. A few words served to explain
+the condition of Fid. It was very apparent that the young man was not
+only disappointed, but that he was deeply mortified. The frank and
+ingenuous air, however, with which he turned to the Rover, to apologize
+for the dereliction of his follower, satisfied the latter that he was
+far from suspecting any improper agency in bringing about his awkward
+condition.
+
+“You know the character of seamen too well, sir,” he said, “to impute
+this oversight to my poor fellow as a heinous fault. A better sailor
+never lay on a yard, or stretched a ratlin, than Dick Fid; but I must
+allow he has the quality of good fellowship to excess.”
+
+“You are fortunate in having one man left you to pull the boat ashore,”
+carelessly returned the other.
+
+“I am more than equal to that little exertion myself nor do I like to
+separate the men. With your permission, the black shall be birthed,
+too, in the ship to-night.”
+
+“As you please. Empty hammocks are not scarce among us, since the last
+brush.”
+
+Wilder then directed the negro to return to his messmate, and to watch
+over him so long as he should be unable to look after himself. The
+black, who was far from being as clear-headed as common, willingly
+complied. The young man then took leave of his companions, and
+descended into the skiff. As he pulled, with vigorous arms, away from
+the dark ship, his eyes were cast upward, with a seaman’s pleasure, on
+the-order and neatness of her gear, and thence they fell on the
+frowning mass of the hull. A light-built, compact form was seen
+standing on the heel of the bowsprit, apparently watching his
+movements; and, notwithstanding the gloom of the clouded star-light, he
+was enabled to detect, in the individual who took so much apparent
+interest in his proceedings, the person of the Rover.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII.
+
+“What is yon gentleman?”
+Nurse. “The son and heir of old Tiberio.”
+Juliet. “What’s he that follows there, that would not dance?”
+Nurse. “Marry, I know not.”
+
+_Romeo and Juliet._
+
+
+The sun was just heaving up, out of the field of waters in which the
+blue islands of Massachusetts lie, when the inhabitants of Newport were
+seen opening their doors and windows, and preparing for the different
+employments of the day, with the freshness and alacrity of people who
+had wisely adhered to the natural allotments of time in seeking their
+rests, or in pursuing their pleasures. The morning salutations passed
+cheerfully from one to another, as each undid the slight fastenings of
+his shop; and many a kind inquiry was made, and returned, after the
+condition of a daughter’s fever, or the rheumatism of some aged
+grandam. As the landlord of the “Foul Anchor” was so wary in protecting
+the character of his house from any unjust imputations of unseemly
+revelling, so was he among the foremost in opening his doors, to catch
+any transient customer, who might feel the necessity of washing away
+the damps of the past night, in some invigorating stomachic This
+cordial was very generally taken in the British provinces, under the
+various names of “bitters,” “juleps,” “morning-drams,” “fogmatics,”
+&c., according as the situation of each district appeared to require
+some particular preventive. The custom is getting a little into disuse,
+it is true; but still it retains much of that sacred character which it
+would seem is the concomitant of antiquity. It is not a little
+extraordinary that this venerable and laudable practice, of washing
+away the unwholesome impurities engendered in the human system, at a
+time, when as it is entirely without any moral protector, it is left
+exposed to the attacks of all the evils to which flesh is heir, should
+subject the American to the witticisms of his European brother. We are
+not among the least grateful to those foreign philanthropists who take
+so deep an interest in our welfare as seldom to let any republican
+foible pass, without applying to it, as it merits, the caustic
+application of their purifying pens. We are, perhaps, the more sensible
+of this generosity, because we have had so much occasion to witness,
+that, so great is their zeal in behalf of our infant States, (robust,
+and a little unmanageable perhaps, but still infant) they are wont, in
+the warmth of their ardour, to reform Cis-atlantic sins, to overlook
+not a few backslidings of their own. Numberless are the moral
+missionaries that the mother country, for instance, has sent among us,
+on these pious and benevolent errands. We can only regret that their
+efforts have been crowned with so little success. It was our fortune to
+be familiarly acquainted with one of these worthies, who never lost an
+opportunity of declaiming, above all, against the infamy of the
+particular practice to which we have just alluded. Indeed, so broad was
+the ground he took, that he held it to be not only immoral, but, what
+was far worse, ungenteel, to swallow any thing stronger than small
+beer, before the hour allotted to dinner. After that important period,
+it was not only permitted to assuage the previous mortifications of the
+flesh, but, so liberal did he show himself in the orthodox indulgence,
+that he was regularly carried to his bed at midnight, from which he as
+regularly issued, in the course of the following morning, to discourse
+again on the thousand deformities of premature drink. And here we would
+take occasion to say, that, as to our own insignificant person, we
+eschew the abomination altogether; and only regret that those of the
+two nations, who find pleasure in the practice, could not come to some
+amicable understanding as to the precise period, of the twenty-four
+hours, when it is permitted to such Christian gentlemen as talk English
+to get drunk. That the negotiators who framed the last treaty of amity
+should have overlooked this important moral topic, is another evidence
+that both parties were so tired of an unprofitable war as to patch up a
+peace in a hurry. It is not too late to name a commission for this
+purpose; and, in order that the question may be fairly treated on its
+merits, we presume to suggest to the Executive the propriety of
+nominating, as our commissioner, some confirmed advocate of the system
+of “juleps.” It is believed our worthy and indulgent Mother can have no
+difficulty in selecting a suitable opponent from the ranks of her
+numerous and well-trained diplomatic corps.
+
+With this manifestation of our personal liberality, united to so much
+interest in the proper, and we hope final, disposition of this
+important question, we may be permitted to resume the narrative,
+without being set down as advocates for morning stimulants, or evening
+intoxication; which is a very just division of the whole subject, as we
+believe, from no very limited observation.
+
+The landlord of the “Foul Anchor,” then, was early a-foot, to gain an
+honest penny from any of the supporters of the former system who might
+chance to select his bar for their morning sacrifices to Bacchus, in
+preference to that of his neighbour, he who endeavoured to entice the
+lieges, by exhibiting a red-faced man, in a scarlet coat, that was
+called the “Head of George the Second.” It would seem that the
+commendable activity of the alert publican was not to go without its
+reward. The tide of custom set strongly, for the first half-hour,
+towards the haven of his hospitable bar; nor did he appear entirely to
+abandon the hopes of a further influx, even after the usual period of
+such arrivals began to pass away. Finding, however, that his customers
+were beginning to depart, on their several pursuits, he left his
+station, and appeared at the outer door, with a hand in each pocket, as
+though he found a secret pleasure in the merry jingling of their new
+tenants. A stranger, who had not entered with the others, and who, of
+course, had not partaken of the customary libations, was standing at a
+little distance, with a hand thrust into the bosom of his vest, as if
+he were chiefly occupied with his own reflections. This figure caught
+the understanding eye of the publican who instantly conceived that no
+man, who had had recourse to the proper morning stimulants, could wear
+so meditative a face at that early period in the cares of the day, and
+that consequently something was yet to be gained, by opening the path
+of direct communication between them.
+
+“A clean air this, friend, to brush away the damps of the night,” he
+said, snuffing the really delicious and invigorating breathings of a
+fine October morning. “It is such purifiers as this, that gives our
+island its character, and makes it perhaps the very healthest as it is
+universally admitted to be the beautifullest spot in creation.—A
+stranger here, ’tis likely?”
+
+“But quite lately arrived, sir,” was the reply.
+
+“A sea-faring man, by your dress? and one in search of a ship, as I am
+ready to qualify to;” continued the publican, chuckling, perhaps, at
+his own penetration. “We have many such that passes hereaway; but
+people mustn’t think, because Newport is so flourishing a town, that
+births can always be had for asking. Have you tried your luck yet in
+the Capital of the Bay Province?”
+
+“I left Boston no later than the day before yesterday.”
+
+“What, couldn’t the proud townsfolk find you a ship! Ay, they are a
+mighty people at talking, and it isn’t often that they put their candle
+under the bushel; and yet there are what I call good judges, who think
+Narraganset Bay is in a fair way, shortly, to count as many sail as
+Massachusetts. There, yonder, is a wholesome brig, that is going,
+within the week, to turn her horses into rum and sugar; and here is a
+ship that hauled into the stream no longer ago than yesterday sun-down.
+That is a noble vessel and has cabins fit for a prince! She’ll be off
+with the change of the wind; and I dare say a good hand wouldn’t go
+a-begging aboard her just now. Then yonder is a slaver, off the fort,
+if you like a cargo of wool-heads for your money.”
+
+“And is it thought the ship in the inner harbour will sail with the
+first wind?” demanded the stranger.
+
+“It is downright. My wife is a full cousin to the wife of the
+Collector’s clerk; and I have it straight that the papers are ready,
+and that nothing but the wind detains them. I keep some short scores,
+you know, friend, with the blue-jackets, and it behoves an honest man
+to look to his interests in these hard times. Yes, there she lies; a
+well-known ship, the ‘Royal Caroline.’ She makes a regular v’yage once
+a year between the Provinces and Bristol, touching here, out and home,
+to give us certain supplies, and to wood and water; and then she goes
+home, or to the Carolinas, as the case may be.”
+
+“Pray, sir, has she much of an armament?” continued the stranger, who
+began to lose his thoughtful air, in the more evident interest he was
+beginning to lake in the discourse.
+
+“Yes, yes; she is not without a few bull-dogs, to bark in defence of
+her own rights, and to say a word in support of his Majesty’s honour,
+too; God bless him! Judy! you Jude!” he shouted, at the top of his
+voice, to a negro girl, who was gathering kindling-wood among the chips
+of a ship-yard, “scamper over to neighbour Homespun’s, and rattle away
+at his bed-room windows: the man has overslept himself it is not common
+to hear seven o’clock strike, and the thirsty tailor not appear for his
+bitters.”
+
+A short cessation took place in the dialogue, while the wench was
+executing her master’s orders. The summons produced no other effect
+than to draw a shrill reply from Desire, whose voice penetrated,
+through the thin board coverings of the little dwelling as readily as
+sound would be conveyed through a sieve. In another moment a window was
+opened, and the worthy housewife thrust her disturbed visage into the
+fresh air of the morning.
+
+“What next! what next!” demanded the offended and, as she was fain to
+believe, neglected wife, under the impression that it was her truant
+husband, making his tardy return to his domestic allegiance, who had
+thus presumed to disturb her slumbers. “Is it not enough that you have
+eloped from my bed and board, for a long night, but you must dare to
+break in on the natural rest of a whole family, seven blessed children,
+without counting their mother! O Hector! Hector! an example are you
+getting to be to the young and giddy, and a warning will you yet prove
+to the unthoughtful!”
+
+“Bring hither the black book,” said the publican to his wife, who had
+been drawn to a window by the lamentations of Desire; “I think the
+woman said something about starting on a journey between two days; and,
+if such has been the philosophy of the good-man, it behoves all honest
+people to look into their accounts. Ay, as I live, Keziah, you have let
+the limping beggar get seventeen and sixpence into arrears, and that
+for such trifles as morning-drams and night-caps!”
+
+“You are wrathy, friend, without reason; the man has made a garment for
+the boy at school, and found the”—
+
+“Hush, good woman,” interrupted her husband returning the book, and
+making a sign for her to retire; “I dare say it will all come round in
+proper Time, and the less noise we make about the backslidings of a
+neighbour, the less will be said of our own transgressions. A worthy
+and hard-working mechanic, sir,” he continued, addressing the stranger
+“but a man who could never get the sun to shine in at his windows,
+though, Heaven knows, the glass is none too thick for such a blessing.”
+
+“And do you imagine on evidence as slight as this we have seen, that
+such a man has actually absconded?”
+
+“Why, it is a calamity that has befallen his betters!” returned the
+publican, interlocking his fingers across the rotundity of his person,
+with an air of grave consideration. “We inn-keepers—who live, as it
+were, in plain sight of every man’s secrets; for it is after a visit to
+us that one is apt truly to open his heart—should know something of the
+affairs of a neighbourhood. If the good-man Homespun could smooth down
+the temper of his companion as easily as he lays a seam into its place,
+the thing might not occur, but——Do you drink this morning, sir?”
+
+“A drop of your best.”
+
+“As I was saying,” continued the other, while he furnished his
+customer, according to his desire, “if a tailor’s goose would take the
+wrinkles out of the ruffled temper of a woman, as it does out of the
+cloth; and then, if, after it had done this task, a man might eat it,
+as he would yonder bird hanging behind my bar—Perhaps you will have
+occasion to make your dinner with us, too, sir?”
+
+“I cannot say I shall not,” returned the stranger, paying for the dram
+he had barely tasted; “it greatly depends on the result of my inquiries
+concerning the different vessels in the port.”
+
+“Then would I, though perfectly disinterested, as you know, sir,
+recommend you to make this house your home, while you sojourn in the
+town. It is the resort of most of the sea-faring men; and I may say
+this much of myself, without conceit—No man can tell you more of what
+you want to know, than the landlord of the ‘Foul Anchor.’”
+
+“You advise an application to the Commander of this vessel, in the
+stream, for a birth: Will she sail so soon as you have named?”
+
+“With the first wind. I know the whole history of the ship, from the
+day they laid the blocks for her keel to the minute when she let her
+anchor go where you now see her. The great Southern Heiress, General
+Grayson’s fine daughter, is to be a passenger she, and her overlooker,
+Government-lady, I believe they call her—a Mrs Wyllys—are waiting for
+the signal, up here, at the residence of Madam de Lacey; she that is
+the relict of the Rear-Admiral of that name, who is full-sister to the
+General; and, therefore, an aunt to the young lady, according to my
+reckoning. Many people think the two fortunes will go together; in
+which case, he will be not only a lucky man, but a rich one, who gets
+Miss Getty Gray son for a wife.”
+
+The stranger, who had maintained rather an indifferent manner during
+the close of the foregoing dialogue appeared now disposed to enter into
+it, with a degree of interest suited to the sex and condition of the
+present subject of their discourse. After waiting to catch the last
+syllable that the publican chose to expend his breath on, he demanded,
+a little abruptly,—
+
+“And you say the house near us, on the rising ground, is the residence
+of Mrs de Lacey?”
+
+“If I did, I know nothing of the matter. By ‘up here,’ I mean half a
+mile off. It is a place fit for a lady of her quality, and none of your
+elbowy dwellings like these crowded about us. One may easily tell the
+house, by its pretty blinds and its shades. I’ll engage there are no
+such shades, in all Europe, as them very trees that stand before the
+door of Madam de Lacey.”
+
+“It is very probable,” muttered the stranger, who, not appearing quite
+as sensitive in his provincial admiration as the publican, had already
+relapsed into his former musing air. Instead of pushing the discourse,
+he suddenly turned the subject, by making some common-place remark; and
+then, repeating the probability of his being obliged to return, he
+walked deliberately away, taking the direction of the residence of Mrs
+de Lacey. The observing publican would, probably, have found sufficient
+matter for observation, in this abrupt termination of the interview,
+had not Desire, at that precise moment, broken out of her habitation,
+and diverted his attention, by the peculiarly piquant manner in which
+she delineated the character of her delinquent husband.
+
+The reader has probably, ere this, suspected that the individual who
+had conferred with the publican, as a stranger, was not unknown to
+himself. It was, in truth, no other than Wilder. But, in the completion
+of his own secret purposes, the young mariner left the wordy war in his
+rear; and, turning up the gentle ascent, against the side of which the
+town is built, he proceeded towards the suburbs.
+
+It was not difficult to distinguish the house he sought, among a dozen
+other similar retreats, by its “shades,” as the innkeeper, in
+conformity to a provincial use of the word, had termed a few really
+noble elms that grew in the little court before its door. In order,
+however, to assure himself that he was right, he confirmed his surmises
+by actual inquiry and then continued thoughtfully on his path. The
+morning had, by this time, fairly opened with every appearance of
+another of those fine bland, autumnal days for which the climate is, or
+ought to be, so distinguished. The little air there was, came from the
+south, fanning the face of our adventurer as he occasionally paused, in
+his ascent, to gaze at the different vessels in the harbour, like a
+mild breeze in June. In short, it was just such a time as one, who is
+fond of strolling in the fields, is apt to seize on with rapture, and
+which a seaman sets down as a day lost in his reckoning.
+
+Wilder was first drawn from his musings by the sound of a dialogue that
+came from persons who were evidently approaching. There was one voice,
+in particular, that caused his blood to thrill, he knew not why, and
+which appeared unaccountably, even to himself, to set in motion every
+latent faculty of his system. Profiting, by the formation of the
+ground, he sprang, unseen, up a little bank, and, approaching an angle
+in a low wall, he found himself in the immediate proximity of the
+speakers.
+
+The wall enclosed the garden and pleasure-grounds of a mansion, that he
+now perceived was the residence of Mrs de Lacey. A rustic summer-house
+which, in the proper season, had been nearly buried in leaves and
+flowers, stood at no great distance from the road. By its elevation and
+position, it commanded a view of the town, the harbour, the isles of
+Massachusetts to the east, those of the Providence Plantations to the
+west, and, to the south, an illimitable expanse of ocean. As it had now
+lost its leafy covering, there was no difficulty in looking directly
+into its centre, through the rude pillars which supported its little
+dome. Here Wilder discovered precisely the very party to whose
+conversation he had been a listener the previous day, while caged, with
+the Rover, in the loft of the ruin. Though the Admiral’s widow and Mrs
+Wyllys were most in advance, evidently addressing some one who was,
+like himself, in the public road, the quick eye of the young sailor
+soon detected the more enticing person of the blooming Gertrude, in the
+background. His observations were, however, interrupted by a reply from
+the individual who as yet was unseen. Directed by the voice, Wilder was
+next enabled to perceive the person of a man in a green old age, who,
+seated on a stone by the way side, appeared to be resting his weary
+limbs, while he answered to some interrogations from the summer-house.
+Though his head was white, and the hand, which grasped a long
+walking-staff, sometimes trembled, as its owner sought additional
+support from its assistance, there was that in the costume, the manner,
+and the voice of the speaker, which furnished sufficient evidence of
+his having once been a veteran of the sea.
+
+“Lord! your Ladyship, Ma’am,” he said, in tones that were getting
+tremulous, even while they retained the deep characteristic intonations
+of his profession, “we old sea-dogs never stop to look into an almanac,
+to see which way the wind will come after the next thaw, before we put
+to sea. It is enough for us, that the sailing orders are aboard, and
+that the Captain has taken leave of his Lady.”
+
+“Ah! the very words of the poor lamented Admiral!” exclaimed Mrs de
+Lacey, who evidently found great satisfaction in pursuing the discourse
+with this superannuated mariner. “And then you are of opinion, honest
+friend, that, when a ship is ready, she should sail, whether the wind
+is”——
+
+“Here is another follower of the sea, opportunely come to lend us his
+advice,” interrupted Gertrude, with a hurried air, as if to divert the
+attention of her aunt from something very like a dogmatical termination
+of an argument that had just occurred between her and Mrs Wyllys;
+“perhaps to serve as an umpire.”
+
+“True,” said the latter. “Pray, what think you of the weather to-day,
+sir? would it be profitable to sail in such a time, or not?”
+
+The young mariner reluctantly withdrew his eyes from the blushing
+Gertrude, who, in her eagerness to point him out, had advanced to the
+front, and was now shrinking back, timidly, to the centre of the
+building again, like one who already repented of her temerity. He then
+fastened his look on her who put the question; and so long and riveted
+was his gaze, that she saw fit to repeat it, believing that what she
+had first said was not properly understood.
+
+“There is little faith to be put in the weather, Madam,” was the
+dilatory reply. “A man has followed the sea to but little purpose who
+is tardy in making that discovery.”
+
+There was something so sweet and gentle, at the same time that it was
+manly, in the voice of Wilder, that the ladies, by a common impulse,
+seemed struck with its peculiarities. The neatness of his attire,
+which, while it was strictly professional, was worn with an air of
+smartness, and even of gentility, that rendered it difficult to suppose
+that he was not entitled to lay claim to a higher station in society
+than that in which he actually appeared, added to this impression.
+Bending her head, with a manner that was intended to be polite, a
+little more perhaps in self-respect than out of consideration to the
+other, as if in deference to the equivocal character of his appearance,
+Mrs de Lacey resumed the discourse.
+
+“These ladies,” she said, “are about to embark in yonder ship, for the
+province of Carolina, and we were consulting concerning the quarter in
+which the wind will probably blow next. But, in such a vessel, it
+cannot matter much, I should think, sir, whether the wind were fair or
+foul.”
+
+“I think not,” was the reply. “She looks to me like a ship that will
+not do much, let the wind be as it may.”
+
+“She has the reputation of being a very fast sailer.—Reputation! we
+know she is such, having come from home to the Colonies in the
+incredibly short passage of seven weeks! But seamen have their
+favourites and prejudices, I believe, like us poor mortals ashore. You
+will therefore excuse me, if I ask this honest veteran for an opinion
+on this particular point also. What do you imagine, friend, to be the
+sailing qualities of yonder ship—she with the peculiarly high
+top-gallant-booms, and such conspicuous round-tops?”
+
+The lip of Wilder curled, and a smile struggled with the gravity of his
+countenance; but he continued silent. On the other hand, the old
+mariner arose, and appeared to examine the ship, like one who perfectly
+comprehended the technical language of the Admiral’s widow.
+
+“The ship in the inner harbour, your Ladyship,” he answered, when his
+examination was finished, “which is, I suppose, the vessel that Madam
+means, is just such a ship as does a sailor’s eye good to look on. A
+gallant and a safe boat she is, as I will swear; and as to sailing,
+though she may not be altogether a witch, yet is she a fast craft, or
+I’m no judge of blue water, or of those that live on it.”
+
+“Here is at once a difference of opinion!” exclaimed Mrs de Lacey. “I
+am glad, however, you pronounce her safe; for, although seamen love a
+fast-sailing vessel, these ladies will not like her the less for the
+security. I presume, sir, you will not dispute her being _safe_.”
+
+“The very quality I should most deny,” was the laconic answer of
+Wilder.
+
+“It is remarkable! This is a veteran seaman, sir, and he appears to
+think differently.”
+
+“He may have seen more, in his time, than myself Madam; but I doubt
+whether he can, just now see as well. This is something of a distance
+to discover the merits or demerits of a ship: I have been higher.”
+
+“Then you really think there is danger to be apprehended sir?” demanded
+the soft voice of Gertrude whose fears had gotten the better of her
+diffidence.
+
+“I do. Had I mother, or sister,” touching his hat, and bowing to his
+fair interrogator, as he uttered the latter word with much emphasis, “I
+would hesitate to let her embark in that ship. On my honour Ladies, I
+do assure you, that I think this very vessel in more danger than any
+ship which has left, or probably will leave, a port in the Provinces
+this autumn.”
+
+“This is extraordinary!” observed Mrs Wyllys. “It is not the character
+we have received of the vessel, which has been greatly exaggerated, or
+she is entitled to be considered as uncommonly convenient and safe. May
+I ask, sir, on what circumstances you have founded this opinion?”
+
+“They are sufficiently plain. She is too lean in the harping, and too
+full in the counter, to steer. Then, she in as wall-sided as a church,
+and stows too much above the water-line. Besides this, she carries no
+head-sail, but all the press upon her will be aft, which will jam her
+into the wind, and, more than likely, throw her aback. The day will
+come when that ship will go down stern foremost.”
+
+His auditors listened to this opinion, which Wilder delivered in an
+oracular and very decided manner, with that sort of secret faith, and
+humble dependence, which the uninstructed are so apt to lend to the
+initiated in the mysteries of any imposing profession. Neither of them
+had certainly a very clear perception of his meaning; but there were,
+apparently, danger and death in his very words Mrs de Lacey felt it
+incumbent on her peculiar advantages, however, to manifest how well she
+comprehended the subject.
+
+“These are certainly very serious evils!” she exclaimed. “It is quite
+unaccountable that my agent should have neglected to mention them. Is
+there any other particular quality, sir, that strikes your eye at this
+distance, and which you deem alarming?”
+
+“Too many. You observe that her top-gallant masts are fidded abaft;
+none of her lofty sails set flying; and then, Madam, she has depended
+on bobstays and gammonings for the security of that very important part
+of a vessel, the bowsprit.”
+
+“Too true! too true!” said Mrs de Lacey, in a sort of professional
+horror. “These things had escaped me; but I see them all, now they are
+mentioned. Such neglect is highly culpable; more especially to rely on
+bobstays and gammonings for the security of a bowsprit! Really, Mrs
+Wyllys, I can never consent that my niece should embark in such a
+vessel.”
+
+The calm, penetrating eye of Wyllys had been riveted on the countenance
+of Wilder while he was speaking, and she now turned it, with
+undisturbed serenity, on the Admiral’s widow, to reply.
+
+“Perhaps the danger has been a little magnified,” she observed. “Let us
+inquire of this other seaman what he thinks on these several
+points.—And do you see all these serious dangers to be apprehended,
+friend, in trusting ourselves, at this season of the year, in a passage
+to the Carolinas, aboard of yonder ship?”
+
+“Lord, Madam!” said the gray-headed mariner, with a chuckling laugh,
+“these are new-fashioned faults and difficulties, if they be faults and
+difficulties at all! In my time, such matters were never heard of; and
+I confess I am so stupid as not to understand the half the young
+gentleman has been saying.”
+
+“It is some time, I fancy, old man, since you were last at sea,” Wilder
+coolly observed.
+
+“Some five or six years since the last time, and fifty since the
+first,” was the answer.
+
+“Then you do not see the same causes for apprehension?” Mrs Wyllys once
+more demanded.
+
+“Old and worn out as I am, Lady, if her Captain will give me a birth
+aboard her, I will thank him for the same as a favour.”
+
+“Misery seeks any relief,” said Mrs de Lacey, in an under tone, and
+bestowing on her companions a significant glance. “I incline to the
+opinion of the younger seaman; for he supports it with substantial,
+professional reasons.”
+
+Mrs Wyllys suspended her questions, just as long as complaisance to the
+last speaker seemed to require and then she resumed them as follows,
+addressing her next inquiry to Wilder.
+
+“And how do you explain this difference in judgment, between two men
+who ought both to be so well qualified to decide right?”
+
+“I believe there is a well-known proverb which will answer that
+question,” returned the young man, smiling: “But some allowance must be
+made for the improvements in ships; and, perhaps, some little deference
+to the stations we have respectively filled on board them.”
+
+“Both very true. Still, one would think the changes of half a dozen
+years cannot be so very considerable, in a profession that is so
+exceedingly ancient.”
+
+“Your pardon, Madam. They require constant practice to know them. Now,
+I dare say that yonder worthy old tar is ignorant of the manner in
+which a ship, when pressed by her canvas, is made to ‘cut the waves
+with her taffrail.’”
+
+“Impossible!” cried the Admiral’s widow; “the youngest and the meanest
+mariner must have been struck with the beauty of such a spectacle.”
+
+“Yes, yes,” returned the old tar, who wore the air of an offended man,
+and who, probably, had he been ignorant of any part of his art, was not
+just then in the temper to confess it; “many is the proud ship that I
+have seen doing the very same; and, as the lady says, a grand and
+comely sight it is!”
+
+Wilder appeared confounded. He bit his lip, like one who was
+over-reached either by excessive ignorance or exceeding cunning; but
+the self-complacency of Mrs de Lacey spared him the necessity of an
+immediate reply.
+
+“It would have been an extraordinary circumstance truly,” she said,
+“that a man should have grown white-headed on the seas, and never have
+been struck with so noble a spectacle. But then, my honest tar, you
+appear to be wrong in overlooking the striking faults in yonder ship,
+which this, a—a—this gentleman has just, and so properly, named.”
+
+“I do not call them faults, your Ladyship. Such is the way my late
+brave and excellent Commander always had his own ship rigged; and I am
+bold to say that a better seaman, or a more honest man, never served in
+his Majesty’s fleet.”
+
+“And you have served the King! How was your beloved Commander named?”
+
+“How should he be! By us, who knew him well, he was called
+Fair-weather: for it was always smooth water, and prosperous times,
+under his orders; though, on shore, he was known as the gallant and
+victorious Rear-Admiral de Lacey.”
+
+“And did my late revered and skilful husband cause his ships to be
+rigged in this manner?” said the widow, with a tremour in her voice,
+that bespoke how much, and how truly, she was overcome by surprise and
+gratified pride.
+
+The aged tar lifted his bending frame from the stone, and bowed low, as
+he answered,—“If I have the honour of seeing my Admiral’s Lady, it will
+prove a joyful sight to my old eyes. Sixteen years did I serve in his
+own ship, and five more in the same squadron. I dare say your Ladyship
+may have heard him speak of the captain of his main-top, Bob Bunt.”
+
+“I dare say—I dare say—He loved to talk of those who served him
+faithfully.”
+
+“Ay, God bless him, and make his memory glorious! He was a kind
+officer, and one that never forgot a friend, let it be that his duty
+kept him on a yard or in the cabin. He was the sailor’s friend, that
+very same Admiral!”
+
+“This is a grateful man,” said Mrs de Lacey, wiping her eyes, “and I
+dare say a competent judge of a vessel. And are you quite sure, worthy
+friend, that my late revered husband had all his ships arranged like
+the one of which we have been talking?”
+
+“Very sure, Madam; for, with my own hands, did I assist to rig them.”
+
+“Even to the bobstays?”
+
+“And the gammonings, my Lady. Were the Admiral alive, and here, he
+would call yon ‘a safe and well-fitted ship,’ as I am ready to swear.”
+
+Mrs de Lacey turned, with an air of great dignity and entire decision,
+to Wilder, as she continued,—“I have, then, made a small mistake in
+memory which is not surprising, when one recollects, that he who taught
+me so much of the profession is no longer here to continue his lessons.
+We are much obliged to you, sir, for your opinion; but we must think
+that you have over-rated the danger.”
+
+“On my honour, Madam,” interrupted Wilder laying his hand on his heart,
+and speaking with singular emphasis, “I am sincere in what I say. I do
+affirm, that I believe there will be great danger in embarking in
+yonder ship; and I call Heaven to witness, that, in so saying, I am
+actuated by no malice to her Commander, her owners, nor any connected
+with her.”
+
+“We dare say, sir, you are very sincere: We only think you a little in
+error,” returned the Admiral’s widow, with a commiserating, and what
+she intended for a condescending, smile. “We are your debtors for your
+good intentions, at least. Come, worthy veteran, we must not part here.
+You will gain admission by knocking at my door; and we shall talk
+further of these matters.”
+
+Then, bowing to Wilder, she led the way up the garden, followed by all
+her companions. The step of Mrs de Lacey was proud, like the tread of
+one conscious of all her advantages; while that of Wyllys was slow, as
+if she were buried in thought. Gertrude kept close to the side of the
+latter, with her face hid beneath the shade of a gipsy hat. Wilder
+fancied that he could discover the stolen and anxious glance that she
+threw back towards one who had excited a decided emotion in her
+sensitive bosom though it was a feeling no more attractive than alarm.
+He lingered until they were lost amid the shrubbery. Then, turning to
+pour out his disappointment on his brother tar, he found that the old
+man had made such good use of his time, as to be entering the gate,
+most probably felicitating himself on the prospect of reaping the
+reward of his recent adulation.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IX.
+
+“He ran this way, and leap’d this orchard wall.”
+
+_Shakespeare._
+
+
+Wilder retired from the field like a defeated man. Accident, or, as he
+was willing to term it, the sycophancy of the old mariner, had
+counteracted his own little artifice; and he was now left without the
+remotest chance of being again favoured with such another opportunity
+of effecting his purpose. We shall not, at this period of the
+narrative, enter into a detail of the feelings and policy which induced
+our adventurer to plot against the apparent interests of those with
+whom he had so recently associated himself; it is enough, for our
+present object, that the facts themselves should be distinctly set
+before the reader.
+
+The return of the disappointed young sailor, towards the town, was
+moody and slow. More than once he stopped short in the descent, and
+fastened his eyes, for minutes together, on the different vessels in
+the harbour. But, in these frequent-halts, no evidence of the
+particular interest he took in any one of the ships escaped him.
+Perhaps his gaze at the Southern trader was longer, and more earnest,
+than at any other; though his eye, at times, wandered curiously, and
+even anxiously, over every craft that lay within the shelter of the
+haven.
+
+The customary hour for exertion had now arrived, and the sounds of
+labour were beginning to be heard, issuing from every quarter of the
+place. The songs of the mariners were rising on the calm of the morning
+with their peculiar, long-drawn intonations. The ship in the inner
+harbour was among the first to furnish this proof of the industry of
+her people, and of her approaching departure. It was only as these
+movements caught his eye, that Wilder seemed to be thoroughly awakened
+from his abstraction, and to pursue his observations with an undivided
+mind. He saw the seamen ascend the rigging, in that lazy manner which
+is so strongly contrasted by their activity in moments of need; and
+here and there a human form was showing itself on the black and
+ponderous yards. In a few moments, the fore-topsail fell, from its
+compact compass on the yard, into graceful and careless festoons. This,
+the attentive Wilder well knew, was, among all trading vessels, the
+signal of sailing. In a few more minutes, the lower angles of this
+important sail were drawn to the, extremities of the corresponding spar
+beneath; and then the heavy yard was seen slowly ascending the mast,
+dragging after it the opening folds of the sail, until the latter was
+tightened at all its edges, and displayed itself in one broad,
+snow-white sheet of canvas. Against this wide surface the light
+currents of air fell, and as often receded; the sail bellying and
+collapsing in a manner to show that, as yet, they were powerless. At
+this point the preparations appeared suspended, as if the mariners,
+having thus invited the breeze, were awaiting to see if their
+invocation was likely to be attended with success.
+
+It was perhaps but a natural transition for him, who so closely
+observed these indications of departure in the ship so often named, to
+turn his eyes on the vessel which lay without the fort, in order to
+witness the effect so manifest a signal had produced in her, also. But
+the closest and the keenest scrutiny could have detected no sign of any
+bond of interest between the two. While the firmer was making the
+movements just described, the latter lay at her anchors without the
+smallest proof that man existed within the mass of her black and
+inanimate hull. So quiet and motionless did she seem, that one, who had
+never been instructed in the matter, might readily have believed her a
+fixture in the sea, some symmetrical and enormous excrescence thrown up
+by the waves, with its mazes of lines and pointed fingers, or one of
+those fantastic monsters that are believed to exist in the bottom of
+the ocean, darkened by the fogs and tempests of ages. But, to the
+understanding eye of Wilder, she exhibited a very different spectacle.
+He easily saw, through all this apparently drowsy quietude, those signs
+of readiness which a seaman only might discover. The cable, instead of
+stretching in a long declining line towards the water was “short,” or
+nearly “up and down,” as it is equally termed in technical language,
+just “scope” enough being allowed out-board to resist the power of the
+lively tide, which acted on the deep keel of the vessel. All her boats
+were in the water, and so disposed and prepared, as to convince him
+they were in a state to be employed in towing, in the shortest possible
+time. Not a sail, nor a yard, was out of its place, undergoing those
+repairs and examinations which the mariner is wont to make so often,
+when lying within the security of a suitable haven, nor was there a
+single rope wanting, amid the hundreds which interlaced the blue sky
+that formed the background of the picture, that might be necessary, in
+bringing every art of facilitating motion into instant use. In short,
+the vessel, while seeming least prepared, was most in a condition to
+move, or, if necessary, to resort to her means of offence and defence.
+The boarding-nettings, it is true, were triced to the rigging, as on
+the previous day; but a sufficient apology was to be found for this act
+of extreme caution, in the war, which exposed her to attacks from the
+light French cruisers, that so often ranged, from the islands of the
+West-Indies, along the whole coast of the Continent, and in the
+position the ship had taken, without the ordinary defences of the
+harbour. In this state, the vessel, to one who knew her real character,
+appeared like some beast of prey, or venomous reptile, that lay in an
+assumed lethargy, to delude the unconscious victim within the limits of
+its leap, or nigh enough to receive the deadly blow of its fangs.
+
+Wilder shook his head, in a manner which said plainly enough how well
+he understood this treacherous tranquillity, and continued his walk
+towards the town, with the same deliberate step as before. He had
+whiled away many minutes unconsciously, and would probably have lost
+the reckoning of as many more, had not his attention been suddenly
+diverted by a slight touch on the shoulder. Starting at this unexpected
+diversion, he turned, and saw, that, in his dilatory progress, he had
+been overtaken by the seaman whom he had last seen in that very society
+in which he would have given so much to have been included himself.
+
+“Your young limbs should carry you ahead, Master,” said the latter,
+when he had succeeded in attracting the attention of Wilder, “like a
+‘Mudian going with a clean full, and yet I have fore-reached upon you
+with my old legs, in such a manner as to bring us again within hail.”
+
+“Perhaps you enjoy the extraordinary advantage of ‘cutting the waves
+with your taffrail,’” returned Wilder, with a sneer. “There can be no
+accounting for the head-way one makes, when sailing in that remarkable
+manner.”
+
+“I see, brother, you are offended that I followed your motions, though,
+in so doing, I did no more than obey a signal of your own setting. Did
+you expect an old sea-dog like me, who has stood his watch so long in a
+flag-ship, to confess ignorance in any matter that of right belongs to
+blue water? How the devil was I to know that there is not some sort of
+craft, among the thousands that are getting into fashion, which sails
+best stern foremost? They say a ship is modelled from a fish; and, if
+such be the case, it is only to make one after the fashion of a crab,
+or an oyster, to have the very thing you named.”
+
+“It is well, old man. You have had your reward, I suppose, in a
+handsome present from the Admiral’s widow, and you may now lie-by for a
+season, without caring much as to the manner in which they build their
+ships in future. Pray, do you intend to shape your course much further
+down this hill?”
+
+“Until I get to the bottom.”
+
+“I am glad of it, friend, for it is my especial intention to go up it
+again. As we say at sea, when our conversation is ended, ‘A good time
+to you!’”
+
+The old seaman laughed, in his chuckling manner, when he saw the young
+man turn abruptly on his heel, and begin to retrace the very ground
+along which he had just before descended.
+
+“Ah! you have never sailed with a Rear-Admiral,” he said, as he
+continued his own course in the former direction, picking his way with
+a care suited to his age and infirmities. “No, there is no getting the
+finish, even at sea, without a cruise or two under a flag, and that at
+the mizzen, too!”
+
+“Intolerable old hypocrite!” muttered Wilder between his teeth. “The
+rascal has seen better days, and is now perverting his knowledge to
+juggle a foolish woman, to his profit. I am well quit of the knave,
+who, I dare say, has adopted lying for his trade, now labour is
+unproductive. I will go back The coast is quite clear, and who can say
+what may happen next?”
+
+Most of the foregoing paragraph was actually uttered in the suppressed
+manner already described, while the rest was merely meditated, which,
+considering the fact that our adventurer had no auditor, was quite as
+well as if he had spoken it through a trumpet. The expectation thus
+vaguely expressed, however, was not likely to be soon realized. Wilder
+sauntered up the hill, endeavouring to assume the unconcerned air of an
+idler, if by chance his return should excite attention; but, though he
+lingered long in open view of the windows of Mrs de Lacey’s villa, he
+was not able to catch another glimpse of its tenants. There were very
+evident symptoms of the approaching journey, in the trunks and packages
+that left the building for the town, and in the hurried and busy manner
+of the few servants that he occasionally saw; but it would seem that
+the principal personages of the establishment had withdrawn into the
+secret recesses of the building, probably for the very natural purpose
+of confidential communion and affectionate leave-taking. He was
+turning, vexed and disappointed, from his anxious and fruitless watch,
+when he once more heard female voices on the inner side of the low wall
+against which he had been leaning. The sounds approached; nor was it
+long before his quick ears again recognized the musical voice of
+Gertrude.
+
+“It is tormenting ourselves, without sufficient reason, my dear Madam,”
+she said, as the speakers drew sufficiently nigh to be distinctly
+overheard, “to allow any thing that may have fallen from such a—such an
+individual, to make the slightest impression.”
+
+“I feel the justice of what you say, my love,” returned the mournful
+voice of her governess, “and yet am I so weak as to be unable entirely
+to shake off a sort of superstitious feeling on this subject. Gertrude,
+would you not wish to see that youth again?”
+
+“Me, Ma’am!” exclaimed her élève, in a sort of alarm. “Why should you,
+or I, wish to see an utter stranger again? and one so low—not low
+perhaps—but one who is surely not altogether a very suitable companion
+for”—
+
+“Well-born ladies, you would say. And why do you imagine the young man
+to be so much our inferior?”
+
+Wilder thought there was a melody in the intonations of the youthful
+voice of the maiden, which in some measure excused the personality, as
+she answered.
+
+“I am certainly not so fastidious in my notions of birth and station as
+aunt de Lacey,” she said, laughing; “but I should forget some of your
+own instructions, dear Mrs Wyllys, did I not feel that education and
+manners make a sensible difference in the opinions and characters of
+all us poor mortals.”
+
+“Very true, my child. But I confess I saw or heard nothing that induces
+me to believe the young man, of whom we are speaking, either uneducated
+or vulgar. On the contrary, his language and pronunciation were those
+of a gentleman, and his air was quite suited to his utterance. He had
+the frank and simple manner of his profession; but you are not now to
+learn that youths of the first families in the provinces, or even in
+the kingdom, are often placed in the service of the marine.”
+
+“But they are officers, dear Madam: this—this individual wore the dress
+of a common mariner.”
+
+“Not altogether. It was finer in its quality, and more tasteful in its
+fashion, than is customary. I have known Admirals do the same in their
+moments of relaxation. Sailors of condition often love to carry about
+them the testimonials of their profession, without any of the trappings
+of their rank.”
+
+“You then think he was an officer—perhaps in the King’s service?”
+
+“He might well have been so, though the fact, that there is no cruiser
+in the port, would seem to contradict it. But it was not so trifling a
+circumstance that awakened the unaccountable interest that I feel.
+Gertrude, my love, it was my fortune to have been much with seamen in
+early life. I seldom see one of that age, and of that spirited and
+manly mien, without feeling emotion. But I tire you; let us talk of
+other things.”
+
+“Not in the least, dear Madam,” Gertrude hurriedly interrupted. “Since
+you think the stranger a gentleman, there can be no harm—that is, it is
+not quite so improper, I believe—to speak of him. Can there then be the
+danger he would make us think in trusting ourselves in a ship of which
+we have so good a report?”
+
+“There was a strange, I had almost said wild, admixture of irony and
+concern in his manner, that is inexplicable! He certainly uttered
+nonsense part of the time: but, then, he did not appear to do it
+without a serious object. Gertrude, you are not as familiar with
+nautical expressions as myself: and perhaps you are ignorant that your
+good aunt, in her admiration of a profession that she has certainly a
+right to love, sometimes makes”——
+
+“I know it—I know it; at least I often think so,” the other
+interrupted, in a manner which plainly manifested that she found no
+pleasure in dwelling on the disagreeable subject. “It was exceedingly
+presuming Madam, in a stranger, however, to amuse himself, if he did
+it, with so amiable and so trivial a weakness, if indeed weakness it
+be.”
+
+“It was,” Mrs Wyllys steadily continued—she having, very evidently,
+such other matter in her thoughts as to be a little inattentive to the
+sensitive feelings of her companion;—“and yet he did not appear to me
+like one of those empty minds that find a pleasure in exposing the
+follies of others. You may remember, Gertrude, that yesterday, while at
+the ruin, Mrs de Lacey made some remarks expressive of her admiration
+of a ship under sail.”
+
+“Yes, yes, I remember them,” said the niece, a little impatiently.
+
+“One of her terms was particularly incorrect, as I happened to know
+from my own familiarity with the language of sailors.”
+
+“I thought as much, by the expression of your eye,” returned Gertrude;
+“but”—
+
+“Listen, my love. It certainly was not remarkable that a lady should
+make a trifling error in the use of so peculiar a language, but it is
+singular that a seaman himself should commit the same fault in
+precisely the same words. This did the youth of whom we are speaking;
+and, what is no less surprising the old man assented to the same, just
+as if they had been correctly uttered.”
+
+“Perhaps,” said Gertrude, in a low tone, “they may have heard, that
+attachment to this description of conversation is a foible of Mrs de
+Lacey. I am sure, after this, dear Madam, you cannot any longer
+consider the stranger a gentleman!”
+
+“I should think no more about it, love, were it not for a feeling I can
+neither account for nor define. I would I could again see him!”
+
+A slight exclamation from her companion interrupted her words; and, the
+next instant, the subject of her thoughts leaped the wall, apparently
+in quest of the rattan that had fallen at the feet of Gertrude, and
+occasioned her alarm. After apologizing for his intrusion on the
+private grounds of Mrs de Lacey, and recovering his lost property,
+Wilder was slowly preparing to retire, as if nothing had happened.
+There was a softness and delicacy in his manner during the first moment
+of his appearance, which was probably intended to convince the younger
+of the ladies that he was not entirely without some claims to the title
+she had so recently denied him, and which was certainly not without its
+effect. The countenance of Mrs Wyllys was pale, and her lip quivered,
+though the steadiness of her voice proved it was not with alarm, as she
+hastily said,—“Remain a moment, sir, if need does not require your
+presence elsewhere. There is something so remarkable in this meeting,
+that I could wish to improve it.”
+
+Wilder bowed, and again faced the ladies, whom he had just been about
+to quit, like one who felt he had no right to intrude a moment longer
+than had been necessary to recover that which had been lost by his
+pretended awkwardness. When Mrs Wyllys found that her wish was so
+unexpectedly realized, she hesitated as to the manner in which she
+should next proceed.
+
+“I have been thus bold, sir,” she said, in some embarrassment, “on
+account of the opinion you so lately expressed concerning the vessel
+which now lies ready to put to sea, the instant, she is favoured with a
+wind.”
+
+“‘The Royal Caroline?’” Wilder carelessly replied.
+
+“That is her name, I believe.”
+
+“I hope, Madam, that nothing which I have said,” he hastily continued,
+“will have an effect to prejudice you against the ship. I will pledge
+myself that she is made of excellent materials, and then I have not the
+least doubt but she is very ably commanded.”
+
+“And yet have you not hesitated to say, that you consider a passage in
+this very vessel more dangerous than one in any other ship that will
+probably leave a port of the Provinces in many months to come.”
+
+“I did,” answered Wilder, with a manner not to be mistaken.
+
+“Will you explain your reasons for this opinion?”
+
+“If I remember rightly, I gave them to the lady whom I had the honour
+to see an hour ago.”
+
+“That individual, sir, is no longer here,” was the grave reply of
+Wyllys; “neither is she to trust her person in the vessel. This young
+lady and myself, with our attendants, will be the only passengers.”
+
+“I understood it so,” returned Wilder, keeping his thoughtful gaze
+riveted on the speaking countenance of the deeply interested Gertrude.
+
+“And, now that there is no apprehension of any mistake, may I ask you
+to repeat the reasons why you think there will be danger in embarking
+in the ‘Royal Caroline?’”
+
+Wilder started, and even had the grace to colour, as he met the calm
+and attentive look of Mrs Wyllys’s searching, but placid eye.
+
+“You would not have me repeat, Madam,” he stammered, “what I have
+already said on the subject?”
+
+“I would not, sir; once will suffice for such an explanation; still am
+I persuaded you have other reasons for your words.”
+
+“It is exceedingly difficult for a seaman to speak of ships in any
+other than technical language, which must be the next thing to being
+unintelligible to one of your sex and condition. You have never been at
+sea, Madam?”
+
+“Very often, sir.”
+
+“Then may I hope, possibly, to make myself understood. You must be
+conscious, Madam, that no small part of the safety of a ship depends on
+the very material point of keeping her right side uppermost sailors
+call it ‘making her stand up.’ Now I need not say, I am quite sure, to
+a lady of your intelligence, that, if the ‘Caroline’ fall on her beam
+there will be imminent hazard to all on board.”
+
+“Nothing can be clearer; but would not the same risk be incurred in any
+other vessel?”
+
+“Without doubt, if any other vessel should trip. But I have pursued my
+profession for many years, without meeting with such a misfortune, but
+once. Then, the fastenings of the bowsprit”—
+
+“Are good as ever came from the hand of rigger,” said a voice behind
+them.
+
+The whole party turned; and beheld, at a little distance, the old
+seaman already introduced, mounted on some object on the other side of
+the wall, against which he was very coolly leaning, and whence he
+overlooked the whole of the interior of the grounds.
+
+“I have been at the water side to look at the boat, at the wish of
+Madam de Lacey, the widow of my late noble Commander and Admiral; and,
+let other men think as they may, I am ready to swear that the ‘Royal
+Caroline’ has as well secured a bowsprit as any ship that carries the
+British flag! Ay, nor is that all I will say in her favour; she is
+throughout neatly and lightly sparred, and has no more of a wall-side
+than the walls of yonder church tumble-home. I am an old man, and my
+reckoning has got to the last leaf of the log-book; therefore it is
+little interest that I have, or can have, in this brig or that
+schooner, but this much will I say, which is, that it is just as
+wicked, and as little likely to be forgiven, to speak scandal of a
+wholesome and stout ship, as it is to talk amiss of mortal Christian.”
+
+The old man spoke with energy, and a great show of honest indignation,
+which did not fail to make an impression on the ladies, at the same
+time that it brought certain ungrateful admonitions to the conscience
+of the understanding Wilder.
+
+“You perceive, sir,” said Mrs Wyllys, after waiting in vain for the
+reply of the young seaman, “that it is very possible for two men, of
+equal advantages, to disagree on a professional point. Which am I to
+believe?”
+
+“Whichever your own excellent sense should tell you is most likely to
+be correct. I repeat, and in a sincerity to whose truth I call Heaven
+to witness, that no mother or sister of mine should, with my consent,
+embark in the ‘Caroline.’”
+
+“This is incomprehensible!” said Mrs Wyllys, turning to Gertrude, and
+speaking only for her ear. “My reason tells me we have been trifled
+with by this young man; and yet are his protestations so earnest, and
+apparently so sincere, that I cannot shake off the impression they have
+made. To which of the two, my love, do you feel most inclined to yield
+your credence?”
+
+“You know how very ignorant I am, dear Madam, of all these things,”
+said Gertrude, dropping her eyes to the faded sprig she was plucking;
+“but, to me, that old wretch has a very presuming and vicious look.”
+
+“You then think the younger most entitled to our belief?”
+
+“Why not; since you, also, think he is a gentleman?”
+
+“I know not that his superior situation in life entitles him to greater
+credit. Men often obtain such advantages only to abuse them.—I am
+afraid, sir,” continued Mrs Wyllys, turning to the expecting Wilder,
+“that unless you see fit to be more frank, we shall be compelled to
+refuse you our faith, and still persevere in our intention to profit,
+by the opportunity of the ‘Royal Caroline,’ to get to the Carolinas.”
+
+“From the bottom of my heart, Madam, do I regret the determination.”
+
+“It may still be in your power to change it, by being explicit.”
+
+Wilder appeared to muse, and once or twice his lips moved, as if he
+were about to speak. Mrs Wyllys and Gertrude awaited his intentions
+with intense interest; but, after a long and seemingly hesitating
+pause, he disappointed both, by saying,—
+
+“I am sorry that I have not the ability to make myself better
+understood. It can only be the fault of my dullness; for I again affirm
+that the danger is as apparent to my eyes as the sun at noon day.”
+
+“Then we must continue blind, sir,” returned Mrs Wyllys, with a cold
+salute. “I thank you for your good and kind intentions, but you cannot
+blame us for not consenting to follow advice which is buried in so much
+obscurity. Although in our own grounds, we shall be pardoned the
+rudeness of leaving you. The hour appointed for our departure has now
+arrived.”
+
+Wilder returned the grave bow of Mrs Wyllys with one quite as formal as
+her own; though he bent with greater grace, and with more cordiality,
+to the deep but hurried curtesy of Gertrude Grayson. He remained in the
+precise spot, however, in which they left him, until he saw them enter
+the villa; and he even fancied he could catch the anxious expression of
+another timid glance which the latter threw in his direction, as her
+light form appeared to float from before his sight. Placing one hand on
+the wall, the young sailor then leaped into the highway. As his feet
+struck the ground, the slight shock seemed to awake him from his
+abstraction, and he became conscious that he stood within six feet of
+the old mariner, who had now twice stepped so rudely between him and
+the object he had so much at heart, The latter did not allow him time
+to give utterance to his disappointment; for he was the first himself
+to speak.
+
+“Come, brother,” he said, in friendly, confidential tones, and shaking
+his head, like one who wished to show to his companion that he was
+aware of the deception he had attempted to practise; “come, brother,
+you have stood far enough on this tack, and it is time to try another.
+Ay, I’ve been young myself in my time, and I know what a hard matter it
+is to give the devil a wide birth, when there is fun to be found in
+sailing in his company: But old age brings us to our reckonings; and,
+when the life is getting on short allowance with a poor fellow, he
+begins to think of being sparing of his tricks, just as water is saved
+in a ship, when the calms set in, after it has been spilt about decks
+like rain, for weeks and months on end. Thought comes with gray hairs,
+and no one is the worse for providing a little of it among his other
+small stores.”
+
+“I had hoped, when I gave you the bottom of the hill, and took the top
+myself,” returned Wilder, without even deigning to look at his
+disagreeable companion, “that we had parted company for ever. As you
+seem, however, to prefer the high ground, I leave you to enjoy it at
+your leisure; I shall descend into the town.”
+
+The old man shuffled after him, with a gait that rendered it difficult
+for Wilder, who was by this time in a fast walk, to outstrip him,
+without resorting to the undignified expedient of an actual flight.
+Vexed alike with himself and his tormentor, he was tempted to offer
+some violence to the latter; and then, recalled to his reccollection by
+the dangerous impulse he moderated his pace, and continued his route
+with a calm determination to be superior to any emotions that such a
+pitiful object could excite.
+
+“You were going under such a press of sail, young Master,” said the
+stubborn old mariner, who still kept a pace or two in his rear, “that I
+had to set every thing to hold way with you; but you now seem to be
+getting reasonable, and we may as well lighten the passage by a little
+profitable talk. You had nearly made the oldish lady believe the good
+ship ‘Royal Caroline’ was the flying Dutchman!”
+
+“And why did you see fit to undeceive her?” bluntly demanded Wilder.
+
+“Would you have a man, who has followed blue water fifty years,
+scandalize wood and iron after so wild a manner? The character of a
+ship is as dear to an old sea-dog, as the character of his wife or his
+sweetheart.”
+
+“Hark ye, friend; you live, I suppose, like other people, by eating and
+drinking?”
+
+“A little of the first, and a good deal of the last,” returned the
+other, with a chuckle.
+
+“And you get both, like most seaman, by hard work, great risk, and the
+severest exposure?”
+
+“Hum! ‘Making our money like horses, and spending it like asses!’—that
+is said to be the way with us all.”
+
+“Now, then, have you an opportunity of making some with less labour;
+you may spend it to suit your own fancy. Will you engage in my service
+for a few hours, with this for your bounty, and as much more for wages,
+provided you deal honestly?”
+
+The old man stretched out a hand, and took the guinea which Wilder had
+showed over his shoulder, without appearing to deem it at all necessary
+to face his recruit.
+
+“It’s no sham!” said the latter, stopping to ring the metal on a stone.
+
+“’Tis gold, as pure as ever came from the Mint.”
+
+The other very coolly pocketed the coin; and then, with a certain
+hardened and decided way, as if he were now ready for any thing, he
+demanded,—
+
+“What hen-roost am I to rob for this?”
+
+“You are to do no such pitiful act; you have only to perform a little
+of that which, I fancy, you are no stranger to: Can you keep a false
+log?”
+
+“Ay; and swear to it, on occasion. I understand you. You are tired of
+twisting the truth like a new laid rope, and you wish to turn the job
+over to me.”
+
+“Something so. You must unsay all you have said concerning yonder ship;
+and, as you have had running enough to get on the weather-side of Mrs
+de Lacey, you must improve your advantage, by making matters a little
+worse than I have represented them to be. Tell me, that I may judge of
+your qualifications, did you in truth, ever sail with the worthy
+Rear-Admiral?”
+
+“As I am an honest and religious Christian, I never heard of the honest
+old man before yesterday. Oh! you may trust me in these matters! I am
+no likely to spoil a history for want of facts.”
+
+“I think you will do. Now listen to my plan.”—
+
+“Stop, worthy messmate,” interrupted the other: “‘Stones can hear,’
+they say on shore: we sailors know that the pumps have ears on board a
+ship; have you ever seen such a place as the ‘Foul Anchor’ tavern, in
+this town?”
+
+“I have been there.”
+
+“I hope you like it well enough to go again. Here we will part. You
+shall haul on the wind, being the lightest sailer, and make a stretch
+or two among these houses, until you are well to windward of yonder
+church. You will then have plain sailing down upon hearty Joe Joram’s,
+where is to be found as snug an anchorage, for an honest trader, as at
+any inn in the Colonies. I will keep away down this hill, and,
+considering the difference in our rate of sailing, we shall not be long
+after one another in port.”
+
+“And what is to be gained by so much manoeuvring? Can you listen to
+nothing which is not steeped in rum?”
+
+“You offend me by the word. You shall see what it is to send a sober
+messenger on your errands, when the time comes. But, suppose we are
+seen speaking to each other on the highway—why, as you are in such low
+repute just now, I shall lose my character with the ladies altogether.”
+
+“There may be reason in that. Hasten, then to meet me; for, as they
+spoke of embarking soon, there is not a minute to lose.”
+
+“No fear of their breaking ground so suddenly,” returned the old man,
+holding the palm of his hand above his head to catch the wind. “There
+is not yet air enough to cool the burning cheeks of that young beauty;
+and, depend on it, the signal will not be given to them until the sea
+breeze is fairly come in.”
+
+Wilder waved his hand, and stepped lightly along the road the other had
+indicated to him, ruminating on the figure which the fresh and youthful
+charms of Gertrude had extorted from one even as old and as coarse as
+his new ally. His companion followed his person for a moment, with an
+amused look, and an ironical cast of the eye; and then he also
+quickened his pace, in order to reach the place of rendezvous in
+sufficient season.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter X.
+
+“Forewarn him, that he use no scurrilous words.”
+
+_Winter’s Tale._
+
+
+As Wilder approached the “Foul Anchor,” he beheld every symptom of some
+powerful excitement existing within the bosom of the hitherto peaceful
+town. More than half the women, and perhaps one fourth of all the men,
+within a reasonable proximity to that well known inn, were assembled
+before its door, listening to one of the former sex, who declaimed in
+tones so shrill and penetrating as not to leave the proprietors of the
+curious and attentive countenances, in the outer circle of the crowd,
+the smallest rational ground of complaint on the score of impartiality.
+Our adventurer hesitated, with the sudden consciousness of one but
+newly embarked in such enterprises as that in which he had so recently
+enlisted, when he first saw these signs of commotion; nor did he
+determine to proceed until he caught a glimpse of his aged confederate,
+elbowing his way through the mass of bodies, with a perseverance and
+energy that promised to bring him right speedily into the very presence
+of her who uttered such loud and piercing plaints. Encouraged by this
+example, the young man advanced, but was content to take his position,
+for a moment, in a situation that left him entire command of his limbs
+and, consequently, in a condition to make a timely retreat, should the
+latter measure prove at all expedient.
+
+“I call on you, Earthly Potter, and you, Preserved Green, and you,
+Faithful Wanton,” cried Desire, as he came within hearing, pausing to
+catch a morsel of breath, before she proceeded in her affecting appeal
+to the neighbourhood; “and you too, Upright Crook, and you too, Relent
+Flint, and you, Wealthy Poor, to be witnesses and testimonials in my
+behalf. You, and all and each of you, can qualify if need should be,
+that I have ever been a slaving and loving consort of this man who has
+deserted me in my age, leaving so many of his own children on my hands,
+to feed and to rear, besides”—
+
+“What certainty is it,” interrupted the landlord of the “Foul Anchor”
+most inopportunely, “that the good-man has absconded? It was a merry
+day the one that is just gone, and it is quite in reason to believe
+your husband was, like some others I can name—a thing I shall not be so
+unwise as to do—a little of what I call how-come-ye-so, and that his
+nap holds on longer than common. I’ll engage we shall all see the
+honest tailor creeping out of some of the barns shortly, as fresh and
+as ready for his bitters as if he had not wet his throat with cold
+water since the last time of general rej’icing.”
+
+A low but pretty general laugh followed this effort of tavern wit,
+though it failed in exciting even a smile on the disturbed visage of
+Desire, which, by its doleful outline, appeared to have taken leave of
+all its risible properties for ever.
+
+“Not he, not he,” exclaimed the disconsolate consort of the good-man;
+“he has not the heart to get himself courageous, in loyal drinking, on
+such an occasion as a merry-making on account of his Majesty’s glory;
+he was a man altogether for work; and it is chiefly for his hard labour
+that I have reason to complain. After being so long used to rely on his
+toil, it is a sore cross to a dependant woman to be thrown suddenly and
+altogether on herself for support. But I’ll be revenged on him, if
+there’s law to be found in Rhode Island, or in the Providence
+Plantations! Let him dare to keep his pitiful image out of my sight the
+lawful time, and then, when he returns, he shall find himself, as many
+a vagabond has been before him, without wife, as he will be without
+house to lay his graceless head in.”[1] Then, catching a glimpse of the
+inquiring face of the old seaman, who by this time had worked his way
+to her very side, she abruptly added, “Here is a stranger in the place,
+and one who has lately arrived! Did you meet a straggling runaway,
+friend, in your journey hither?”
+
+ [1] It would seem, from this declaration, that certain legal
+ antiquarians, who have contended that the community is indebted to
+ Desire for the unceremonious manner of clipping the nuptial knot,
+ which is so well known to exist, even to this hour, in the community
+ of which she was a member, are entirely in the wrong. It evidently did
+ not take its rise in her example, since she clearly alludes to it, as
+ a means before resorted to by me injured innocents of her own sex.
+
+
+“I had too much trouble in navigating my old hulk on dry land, to log
+the name and rate of every craft I fell in with,” returned the other,
+with infinite composure; “and yet, now you speak of such a thing, I do
+remember to have come within hail of a poor fellow, just about the
+beginning of the morning-watch somewhere hereaway, up in the bushes
+between this town and the bit of a ferry that carries one on to the
+main.”
+
+“What sort of a man was he?” demanded five or six anxious voices, in a
+breath; among which the tones of Desire, however, maintained their
+supremacy rising above those of all the others, like the strains of a
+first-rate artist flourishing a quaver above the more modest thrills of
+the rest of the troupe.
+
+“What sort of a man! Why a fellow with his arms rigged athwart ship,
+and his legs stepped like those of all other Christians, to be sure:
+but, now you speak of it, I remember that he had a bit of a sheep-shank
+in one of his legs, and rolled a good deal as he went ahead.”
+
+“It was he!” added the same chorus of voices. Five or six of the
+speakers instantly stole slyly out of the throng, with the commendable
+intention of hurrying after the delinquent, in order to secure the
+payment of certain small balances of account, in which the unhappy and
+much traduced good-man stood indebted to the several parties. Had we
+leisure to record the manner in which these praiseworthy efforts, to
+save an honest penny, were conducted the reader might find much subject
+of amusement in the secret diligence with which each worthy tradesman
+endeavoured to outwit his neighbour, on the occasion, as well as in the
+cunning subterfuges which were adopted to veil their real designs, when
+all met at the ferry, deceived and disappointed in their object As
+Desire, however, had neither legal demand on, nor hope of favour from,
+her truant husband, she was content to pursue, on the spot, such
+further inquiries in behalf of the fugitive as she saw fit to make. It
+is possible the pleasures of freedom, in the shape of the contemplated
+divorce, were already floating before her active mind, with the
+soothing perspective of second nuptials, backed by the influence of
+such another picture as might be drawn from the recollections of her
+first love; the whole having a manifest tendency to pacify her awakened
+spirit, and to give a certain portion of directness and energy to her
+subsequent interrogatories.
+
+“Had he a thieving look?” she demanded, without attending to the manner
+in which she was so suddenly deserted by all those who had just
+expressed the strongest sympathy in her loss. “Was he a man that had
+the air of a sneaking runaway?”
+
+“As for his head-piece, I will not engage to give very true account,”
+returned the old mariner though he had the look of one who had been
+kept a good deal of his time, in the lee scuppers. If should give an
+opinion, the poor devil has had too much”—
+
+“Idle time, you would say; yes, yes; it has been his misfortune to be
+out of work a good deal latterly and wickedness has got into his head,
+for want of something better to think of. Too much”—
+
+“Wife,” interrupted the old man, emphatically. Another general, and far
+less equivocal laugh, at the expense of Desire, succeeded this blunt
+declaration Nothing intimidated by such a manifest assent to the
+opinion of the hardy seaman, the undaunted virago resumed,—
+
+“Ah! you little know the suffering and forbearance I have endured with
+the man in so many long years. Had the fellow you met the look of one
+who had left an injured woman behind him?”
+
+“I can’t say there was any thing about him which said, in so many
+words, that the woman he had left at her moorings was more or less
+injured;” returned the tar, with commendable discrimination, “but there
+was enough about him to show, that, however and wherever he may have
+stowed his wife, if wife she was, he had not seen fit to leave all her
+outfit at home. The man had plenty of female toggery around his neck; I
+suppose he found it more agreeable than her arms.”
+
+“What!” exclaimed Desire, looking aghast; “has he dared to rob me! What
+had he of mine? not the gold beads!”
+
+“I’ll not swear they were no sham.”
+
+“The villain!” continued the enraged termagant, catching her breath
+like a person that had just been submerged in water longer than is
+agreeable to human nature, and forcing her way through the crowd, with
+such vigour as soon to be in a situation to fly to her secret hordes,
+in order to ascertain the extent of her misfortune; “the sacrilegious
+villain! to rob the wife of his bosom, the mother of his own children,
+and”—
+
+“Well, well,” again interrupted the landlord of the ‘Foul Anchor,’ with
+his unseasonable voice, “I never before heard the good-man suspected of
+roguery, though the neighbourhood was ever backward in calling him
+chicken-hearted.”
+
+The old seaman looked the publican full in the face, with much meaning
+in his eye, as he answered,—
+
+“If the honest tailor never robbed any but that virago, there would be
+no great thieving sin to be laid to his account; for every bead he had
+about him wouldn’t serve to pay his ferryage. I could carry all the
+gold on his neck in my eye, and see none the worse for its company. But
+it is a shame to stop the entrance into a licensed tavern, with such a
+mob, as if it were an embargoed port; and so I have sent the woman
+after her valuables, and all the idlers, as you see, in her wake.”
+
+Joe Joram gazed on the speaker like a man enthralled by some mysterious
+charm; neither answering nor altering the direction of his eye, for
+near a minute. Then, suddenly breaking out in a deep and powerful
+laugh, as if he were not backward in enjoying the artifice, which
+certainly had produced the effect of removing the crowd from his own
+door to that of the absent tailor, he flourished his arm in the way of
+greeting, and exclaimed,—“Welcome, tarry Bob; welcome, old boy,
+welcome! From what cloud have you fallen? and before what wind have you
+been running, that Newport is again your harbour?”
+
+“Too many questions to be answered in an open roadstead, friend Joram;
+and altogether too dry a subject for a husky conversation. When I am
+birthed in one of your inner cabins, with a mug of flip and a kid of
+good Rhode Island beef within grappling distance, why, as many
+questions as you choose, and as many answers, you know, as suits my
+appetite.”
+
+“And who’s to pay the piper, honest Bob? whose ship’s purser will pay
+your check now?” continued the publican, showing the old sailor in,
+however, with a readiness that seemed to contradict the doubt,
+expressed by his words, of any reward for such extraordinary civility.
+
+“Who?” interrupted the other, displaying the money so lately received
+from Wilder, in such a manner that it might be seen by the few
+by-standers who remained, as though he would himself furnish a
+sufficient apology for the distinguished manner in which he was
+received; “who but this gentleman? I can boast of being backed by the
+countenance of his Sacred Majesty himself, God bless him!”
+
+“God bless him!” echoed several of the loyal lieges; and that too in a
+place which has since heard such very different cries, and where the
+words would now excite nearly as much surprise, though far less alarm,
+than an earthquake.
+
+“God bless him!” repeated Joram, opening the door of an inner room, and
+pointing the way to his customer, “and all that are favored with his
+countenance! Walk in, old Bob, and you shall soon grapple with half an
+ox.”
+
+Wilder, who had approached the outer door of the tavern as the mob
+receded, witnessed the retreat of the two worthies into the recesses of
+the house, and immediately entered the bar-room himself. While
+deliberating on the manner in which he should arrive at a communication
+with his new confederate, without attracting too much attention to so
+odd an association, the landlord returned in person to relieve him.
+After casting a hasty glance around the apartment, his look settled on
+our adventurer, whom he approached in a manner half-doubting,
+half-decided.
+
+“What success, sir, in looking for a ship?” he demanded now
+recognizing, for the first time, the stranger with whom he had before
+held converse that morning. “More hands than places to employ them?”
+
+“I am not sure it will so prove. In my walk on the hill, I met an old
+seaman, who”—
+
+“Hum!” interrupted the publican, with an intelligible though stolen,
+sign to follow. “You will find it more convenient, sir, to take your
+breakfast in another room.” Wilder followed his conductor, who left the
+public apartment by a different door from that by which he had led his
+other guest into the interior of the house, wondering at the air of
+mystery that the innkeeper saw fit to assume on the occasion. After
+leading him by a circuitous passage. The latter showed Wilder, in
+profound silence, up a private stair-way, into the very attic of the
+building. Here he rapped lightly at a door, and was bid to enter, by a
+voice that caused our adventurer to start by its deepness and severity.
+On finding him self, however, in a low and confined room, he saw no
+other occupant than the seaman who had just been greeted by the
+publican as an old acquaintance and by a name to which he might, by his
+attire, well lay claim to be entitled—that of tarry Bob. While Wilder
+was staring about him, a good deal surprised at the situation in which
+he was placed, the landlord retired, and he found himself alone with
+his confederate. The latter was already engaged in discussing the
+fragment of the ox, just mentioned, and in quaffing of some liquid that
+seemed equally adapted to his taste, although sufficient time had not
+certainly been allowed to prepare the beverage he had seen fit to
+order. Without allowing his visiter leisure for much further
+reflection, the old mariner made a motion to him to take the only
+vacant chair in the room, while he continued his employment on the
+surloin with as much assiduity as though no interruption had taken
+place.
+
+“Honest Joe Joram always makes a friend of his butcher,” he said, after
+ending a draught that threatened to drain the mug to the bottom. “There
+is such a flavour about his beef, that one might mistake it for the fin
+of a halibut. You have been in foreign parts, shipmate, or I may call
+you ‘messmate,’ since we are both anchored nigh the same kid—but you
+have doubtless been in foreign countries?”
+
+“Often; I should else be but a miserable seaman.”
+
+“Then, tell me frankly, have you ever been in the kingdom that can
+furnish such rations—fish, flesh, fowl, and fruits—as this very noble
+land of America, in which we are now both moored? and in which I
+suppose we both of us were born?”
+
+“It would be carrying the love of home a little too far, to believe in
+such universal superiority,” returned Wilder, willing to divert the
+conversation from his real object, until he had time to arrange his
+ideas, and assure himself he had no other auditor but his visible
+companion. “It is generally admitted that England excels us in all
+these articles.”
+
+“By whom? by your know-nothings and bold talkers. But I, a man who has
+seen the four quarters of the earth, and no small part of the water
+besides, give the lie to such empty boasters. We are colonies, friend,
+we are colonies; and it is as bold in a colony to tell the mother that
+it has the advantage, in this or that particular, as it would be in a
+foremast Jack to tell his officer he was wrong, though he knew it to be
+true. I am but a poor man, Mr—By what name may I call your Honour?”
+
+“Me! my name?—Harris.”
+
+“I am but a poor man, Mr Harris; but I have had charge of a watch in my
+time, old and rusty as I seem, nor have I spent so many long nights on
+deck without keeping thoughts at work, though I may not have overhaul’d
+as much philosophy, in so doing, as a paid parish priest, or a fee’d
+lawyer. Let me tell you, it is a disheartening thing to be nothing but
+a dweller in a colony. It keeps down the pride and spirit of a man, and
+lends a hand in making him what his masters would be glad to have him.
+I shall say nothing of fruits, and meats, and other eatables, that come
+from the land of which both you and I have heard and know too much,
+unless it be to point to yonder sun, and then to ask the question,
+whether you think King George has the power to make it shine on the bit
+of an island where he lives, as it shines here in his broad provinces
+of America?”
+
+“Certainly not: and yet you know that every one allows that the
+productions of England are so much superior”—
+
+“Ay, ay; a colony always sails under the lee of its mother. Talk does
+it all, friend Harris. Talk, talk, talk; a man can talk himself into a
+fever, or set a ship’s company by the ears. He can talk a cherry into a
+peach, or a flounder into a whale. Now here is the whole of this long
+coast of America, and all her rivers, and lakes, and brooks, swarming
+with such treasures as any man might fatten on, and yet his Majesty’s
+servants, who come among us, talk of their turbots, and their sole, and
+their carp, as if the Lord had only made such fish, and the devil had
+let the others slip through his fingers, without asking leave.”
+
+Wilder turned, and fastened a look of surprise on the old man, who
+continued to eat, however, as if he had uttered nothing but what might
+be considered as a matter of course opinion.
+
+“You are more attached to your birth-place than loyal, friend,” said
+the young mariner, a little austerely.
+
+“I am not fish-loyal at least. What the Lord made, one may speak of, I
+hope, without offence. As to the Government, that is a rope twisted by
+the hands of man, and”—
+
+“And what?” demanded Wilder, perceiving that the other hesitated.
+
+“Hum! Why, I fancy man will undo his own work, when he can find nothing
+better to busy himself in. No harm in saying that either, I hope?”
+
+“So much, that I must call your attention to the business that has
+brought us together. You have not go soon forgotten the earnest-money
+you received?”
+
+The old sailor shoved the dish from before him, and, folding his arms,
+he looked his companion full in the eye, as he calmly answered,—
+
+“When I am fairly enlisted in a service, I am a man to be counted on. I
+hope you sail under the same colors, friend Harris?”
+
+“It would be dishonest to be otherwise. There is one thing you will
+excuse, before I proceed to detail my plans and wishes: I must take
+occasion to examine this closet, in order to be sure that we are
+actually alone.”
+
+“You will find little there except the toggery of some of honest Joe’s
+female gender. As the door is not fastened with any extraordinary care,
+you have only to look for yourself, since seeing is believing.”
+
+Wilder did not seem disposed to wait for this permission; he opened the
+door, even while the other was speaking, and, finding that the closet
+actually contained little else than the articles named by his
+companion, he turned away, like a man who was disappointed.
+
+“Were you alone when I entered?” he demanded, after a thoughtful pause
+of a moment.
+
+“Honest Joram, and yourself.”
+
+“But no one else?”
+
+“None that I saw,” returned the other, with a manner that betrayed a
+slight uneasiness; “if you think otherwise, let us overhaul the room.
+Should my hand fall on a listener, the salute will not be light.”
+
+“Hold—answer me one question; who bade me enter?”
+
+Tarry Bob, who had arisen with a good deal of alacrity, now reflected
+in his turn for an instant, and then he closed his musing, by indulging
+in a low laugh.
+
+“Ah! I see that you have got your ideas a little jammed. A man cannot
+talk the same, with a small portion of ox in his mouth, as though his
+tongue had as much sea-room as a ship four-and-twenty hours out.”
+
+“Then, you spoke?”
+
+“I’ll swear to that much,” returned Bob, resuming his seat like one who
+had settled the whole affair to his entire satisfaction; “and now,
+friend Harris, if you are ready to lay bare your mind, I’m just as
+ready to look at it.”
+
+Wilder did not appear to be quite as well content with the explanation
+as his companion, but he drew a chair, and prepared to open his
+subject.
+
+“I am not to tell you, friend, after what you have heard and seen, that
+I have no very strong desire that the lady with whom we have both
+spoken this morning, and her companion, should, sail in the ‘Royal
+Caroline.’ I suppose it is enough for our purposes that you should know
+the fact; the reason why I prefer they should remain where they are,
+can be of no moment as to the duty you are to undertake.”
+
+“You need not tell an old seaman how to gather in the slack of a
+running idea!” cried Bob, chuckling and winking at his companion in a
+way that displeased the latter by its familiarity; “I have not lived
+fifty years on blue water, to mistake it for the skies.”
+
+“You then fancy, sir, that my motive is no secret to you?”
+
+“It needs no spy-glass to see, that, while the old people say, ‘Go,’
+the young people would like to stay where they are.”
+
+“You do both of the young people much injustice then; for, until
+yesterday, I never laid eyes on the person you mean.”
+
+“Ah! I see how it is; the owners of the ‘Caroline’ have not been so
+civil as they ought, and you are paying them a small debt of thanks!”
+
+“That is possibly a means of retaliation that might suit your taste,”
+said Wilder, gravely; “but which is not much in accordance with mine.
+The whole of the parties are utter strangers to me.”
+
+“Hum! Then I suppose you belong to the vessel in the outer harbour;
+and, though you don’t hate your enemies, you love your friends. We must
+contrive the means to coax the ladies to take passage in the slaver.”
+
+“God forbid!”
+
+“God forbid! Now I think, friend Harris, you set up the backstays of
+your conscience a little too taught. Though I cannot, and do not, agree
+with you in all you have said concerning the ‘Royal Caroline,’ I see no
+reason to doubt but we shall have but one mind about the other vessel.
+I call her a wholesome looking and well proportioned craft, and one
+that a King might sail in with comfort.”
+
+“I deny it not; still I like her not.”
+
+“Well, I am glad of that; and, since the matter is fairly before us,
+master Harris, I have a word or two to say concerning that very ship. I
+am an old sea-dog, and one not easily blinded in matters of the trade.
+Do you not find something, that is not in character for an honest
+trader, in the manner in which they have laid that vessel at her
+anchors, without the fort, and the sleepy look she bears, at the same
+time that any one may see she is not built to catch oysters, or to
+carry cattle to the islands?”
+
+“As you have said, I think her a wholesome and a tight-built ship. Of
+what evil practice, however, do you suspect her?—perhaps she robs the
+revenue?”
+
+“Hum! I am not sure it would be pleasant to smuggle in such a vessel,
+though your contraband is a merry trade, after all. She has a pretty
+battery, as well as one can see from this distance.”
+
+“I dare say her owners are not tired of her yet and would gladly keep
+her from falling into the hands of the French.”
+
+“Well, well, I may be wrong; but, unless sight is going with my years,
+all is not as it would be on board that slaver, provided her papers
+were true, and she had the lawful name to her letters of marque. What
+think you, honest Joe, in this matter?”
+
+Wilder turned, impatiently, and found that the landlord had entered the
+room, with a step so as to have escaped his attention, which had been
+drawn to his companion with a force that the reader will readily
+comprehend. The air of surprise, with which Joram regarded the speaker,
+was certainly not affected; for the question was repeated, and in still
+more definite terms, before he saw fit to reply.
+
+“I ask you, honest Joe, if you think the slaver, in the outer harbour
+of this port, a true man?”
+
+“You come across one, Bob, in your bold way, with such startling
+questions,” returned the publican, casting his eyes obliquely around
+him, as if he would fain make sure of the character of the audience to
+which he spoke, “such stirring opinions, that really I am often
+non-plushed to know how to get the ideas together, to make a saving
+answer.”
+
+“It is droll enough, truly, to see the landlord of the ‘Foul Anchor’
+dumb-foundered,” returned the old man, with perfect composure in mien
+and eye. “I ask you, if you do not suspect something wrong about that
+slaver?”
+
+“Wrong! Good heavens, mister Robert, recollect what you are saying. I
+would not, for the custom of his Majesty’s Lord High Admiral, have any
+discouraging words be uttered in my house against the reputation of any
+virtuous and fair-dealing slavers! The Lord protect me from blacking
+the character of any honest subject of the King!”
+
+“Do you see nothing wrong, worthy and tender Joram, about the ship in
+the outer harbour?” repeated mister Robert, without moving eye, limb,
+or muscle.
+
+“Well, since you press me so hard for an opinion and seeing that you
+are a customer who pays freely for what he orders, I will say, that, if
+there is any thing unreasonable, or even illegal, in the deportment of
+the gentlemen”—
+
+“You sail so nigh the wind, friend Joram,” coolly interrupted the old
+man, “as to keep every thing shaking. Just bethink you of a plain
+answer: Have you seen any thing wrong about the slaver?”
+
+“Nothing, on my conscience, then,” said the publican, puffing not
+unlike a cetaceous fish that had come to the surface to breathe; “as I
+am an unworthy sinner, sitting under the preaching of good and faithful
+Dr Dogma, nothing—nothing”
+
+“No! Then are you a duller man than I had rated you at! Do you
+_suspect_ nothing?”
+
+“Heaven protect me from suspicions! The devil besets all our minds with
+doubts; but weak, and evil inclined, is he who submits to them. The
+officers and crew of that ship are free drinkers, and as generous as
+princes: Moreover, as they never forget to clear the score before they
+leave the house, I call them—honest!”
+
+“And I call them—pirates!”
+
+“Pirates!” echoed Joram, fastening his eye, with marked distrust, on
+the countenance of the attentive Wilder. “‘Pirate’ is a harsh word,
+mister Robert, and should not be thrown in any gentleman’s face without
+testimony enough to clear one in an action of defamation, should such a
+thing get fairly before twelve sworn and conscientious men. But I
+suppose you know what you say, and before whom you say it.”
+
+“I do; and now, as it seems that your opinion in this matter amounts to
+just nothing at all, you will please”
+
+“To do any thing you order,” cried Joram, very evidently delighted to
+change the subject.
+
+“To go and ask the customers below if they are dry,” continued the
+other, beckoning for the publican to retire by the way he entered, with
+the air of one who felt certain of being obeyed. As soon as the door
+was closed on the retiring landlord, he turned to his remaining
+companion, and continued, “You seem as much struck aback as unbelieving
+Joe himself, at what you have just heard.”
+
+“It is a harsh suspicion, and should be well supported, old man, before
+you venture to repeat it. What pirate has lately been heard of on this
+coast?”
+
+“There is the well-known Red Rover,” returned the other, dropping his
+voice, and casting a furtive look around him, as if even he thought
+extraordinary caution was necessary in uttering the formidable name.
+
+“But he is said to keep chiefly in the Caribbean Sea.”
+
+“He is a man to be any where, and every where. The King would pay him
+well who put the rogue into the hands of the law.”
+
+“A thing easier planned than executed,” Wilder thoughtfully answered.
+
+“That is as it may be. I am an old fellow, and fitter to point out the
+way than to go ahead. But you are like a newly fitted ship, with all
+your rigging tight, and your spars without a warp in them. What say you
+to make your fortune by selling the knaves to the King? It is only
+giving the devil his own a few months sooner or later.”
+
+Wilder started, and turned away from his companion like one who was
+little pleased by the manner in which he expressed himself. Perceiving
+the necessity of a reply, however, he demanded,—
+
+“And what reason have you for believing your suspicions true? or what
+means have you for effecting your object, if true, in the absence of
+the royal cruisers?”
+
+“I cannot swear that I am right; but, if sailing on the wrong tack, we
+can only go about, when we find out the mistake. As to means, I confess
+they are easier named than mustered.”
+
+“Go, go; this is idle talk; a mere whim of your old brain,” said
+Wilder, coldly; “and the less said the soonest mended. All this time we
+are forgetting our proper business. I am half inclined to think, mister
+Robert, you are holding out false lights, in order to get rid of the
+duty for which you are already half paid.”
+
+There was a look of satisfaction in the countenance of the old tar,
+while Wilder was speaking, that might have struck his companion, had
+not the young man risen, while speaking, to pace the narrow room, with
+a thoughtful and hurried step.
+
+“Well, well,” the former rejoined, endeavouring to disguise his evident
+contentment, in his customary selfish, but shrewd expression, “I am an
+old dreamer, and often have I thought myself swimming in the sea when I
+have been safe moored on dry land! I believe there must soon be a
+reckoning with the devil, in order that each may take his share of my
+poor carcass, and I be left the Captain of my own ship. Now for your
+Honour’s orders.”
+
+Wilder returned to his seat, and disposed himself to give the necessary
+instructions to his confederate, in order that he might counteract all
+he had already said in favour of the outward-bound vessel.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XI.
+
+“The man is, notwithstanding, sufficient;—three thousand, ducats;—I
+think I may take his bond.”
+
+_Merchant of Venice._
+
+
+As the day advanced, the appearances of a fresh sea breeze setting in
+gradually grew stronger; and, with the increase of the wind, were to be
+seen all the symptoms of an intention to leave the harbour on the part
+of the Bristol trader. The sailing of a large ship was an event of much
+more importance in an American port, sixty years ago, than at the
+present hour, when a score is frequently seen to arrive and depart from
+one haven in a single day. Although claiming to be inhabitants of one
+of the principal towns of the colony, the good people of Newport did
+not witness the movements on board the “Caroline” with that species of
+indolent regard which is the fruit of satiety in sights as well as in
+graver things, and with which, in the course of time, the evolutions of
+even a fleet come to be contemplated On the contrary, the wharves were
+crowded with boys, and indeed with idlers of every growth. Even many of
+the more considerate and industrious of the citizens were seen
+loosening the close grasp they usually kept on the precious minutes,
+and allowing them to escape uncounted, though not entirely unheeded, as
+they yielded to the ascendency of curiosity over interest, and strayed
+from their shops, and their work-yards, to gaze upon the noble
+spectacle of a moving ship.
+
+The tardy manner in which the crew of the “Caroline” made their
+preparations, however, exhausted the patience of more than one
+time-saving citizen. Quite as many of the better sort of the spectators
+had left the wharves as still remained, and yet the vessel spread to
+the breeze but the solitary sheet of canvas which has been already
+named. Instead of answering the wishes of hundreds of weary eyes, the
+noble ship was seen sheering about her anchor, inclining from the
+passing wind, as her bows were alternately turned to the right and to
+the left, like a restless courser restrained by the grasp of the groom,
+chafing his bit, and with difficulty keeping those limbs upon the earth
+with which he is shortly to bound around the ring. After more than an
+hour of unaccountable delay, a rumour was spread among the crowd that
+an accident had occurred, by which some important individual, belonging
+to the complement of the vessel, was severely injured. But this rumour
+passed away also, and was nearly forgotten, when a sheet of flame was
+seen issuing from a bow-port of the “Caroline,” driving before it a
+cloud of curling and mounting smoke, and which was succeeded by the
+instant roar of a discharge of artillery. A bustle, like that which
+usually precedes the immediate announcement of any long attended event,
+took place among the weary expectants on the land, and every one now
+felt certain, that, what ever might have occurred, it was settled that
+the ship should proceed.
+
+Of all this delay, the several movements on board, the subsequent
+signal of sailing, and of the impatience in the crowd, Wilder had been
+a grave and close observer. Posted with his back against the upright
+fluke of a condemned anchor, on a wharf a little apart from that
+occupied by most of the other spectators, he had remained an hour in
+the same position scarcely bending his look to his right hand or to his
+left. When the gun was fired he started, not with the nervous impulse
+which had made a hundred others do precisely the same thing, but to
+turn an anxious and rapid glance along the streets that came within the
+range of his eye. From this hasty and uneasy examination, he soon
+returned into his former reclining posture, though the wandering of his
+glances and the whole expression of his meaning countenance would have
+told an observer that some event, to which the young manner looked
+forward with excessive interest, was on the eve of its consummation As
+minute after minute, however, rolled by, his composure was gradually
+restored, and a smile of satisfaction lighted his features, while his
+lips moved like those of a man who expressed his pleasure in a
+soliloquy. It was in the midst of these agreeable meditations, that the
+sound of many voices met his ears; and, turning, he saw a large party
+within a few yards of where he stood. He was not slow to detect among
+them the forms of Mrs Wyllys and Gertrude, attired in such a manner as
+to leave no doubt that they were at length on the eve of embarking.
+
+A cloud, driving before the sun, does not produce a greater change in
+the aspect of the earth, than was wrought in the expression of Wilder’s
+countenance by this unexpected sight. He was just implicitly relying on
+the success of an artifice, which though sufficiently shallow, he
+flattered himself was deep enough to act on the timidity and credulity
+of woman; and, now, was he suddenly awoke from his self-gratulation, to
+prove the utter disappointment of his hopes. Muttering a suppressed but
+deep execration against the perfidy of his confederate, he shrunk as
+much as possible behind the fluke of the anchor, and fastened his eyes
+sullenly on the ship.
+
+The party which accompanied the travellers to the water side was, like
+all other parties made to take leave of valued friends, taciturn and
+restless. Those who spoke, did so with a rapid and impatient utterance,
+as though they wished to hurry the very separation they regretted; and
+the features of those who said nothing looked full of meaning. Wilder
+heard several affectionate and warm-hearted wishes given, and promises
+extorted, from youthful voices, all of which were answered in the soft
+and mournful tones of Gertrude, and yet he obstinately refused to bend
+even a stolen look in the direction of the speakers.
+
+At length, a footstep, within a few feet of him, induced a hasty glance
+aside. His eye met that of Mrs Wyllys. The lady started, as well as our
+young mariner, at the sudden recognition; but, recovering her
+self-possession, she observed, with admirable coolness,—
+
+“You perceive, sir, that we are not to be deterred from an enterprise
+once undertaken, by ordinary dangers.”
+
+“I hope you may not have reason, Madam, to repent your courage.”
+
+A short, but painfully thoughtful pause succeeded, on the part of Mrs
+Wyllys. Casting a look behind her, in order to ascertain that she was
+not overheard, she drew a step nigher to the youth, and said, in a
+voice even lower than before,—
+
+“It is not yet too late: Give me but the shadow of a reason for what
+you have said, and I will wait for another ship. My feelings are
+foolishly inclined to believe you, young man, though my judgment tells
+me there is but too much probability that you trifle with our womanish
+fears.”
+
+“Trifle! On such a matter I would trifle with none of your sex; and
+least of all with you!”
+
+“This is extraordinary! For a stranger it is inexplicable Have you a
+fact, or a reason, which I can plead to the friends of my young
+charge?”
+
+“You know them already.”
+
+“Then, sir, am I compelled, against my will, to believe your motive is
+one that you have some powerful considerations for wishing to conceal,”
+coolly returned the disappointed and even mortified governess “For your
+own sake, I hope it is not unworthy I thank you for all that is well
+intended; if you have spoken aught which is otherwise, I forgive it.”
+
+They parted, with the restraint of people who feel that distrust exists
+between them. Wilder again shrunk behind his cover, maintaining a proud
+position and a countenance that was grave to austerity. His situation,
+however, compelled him to become an auditor of most of what was now
+said.
+
+The principal speaker, as was meet on such an occasion was Mrs de
+Lacey, whose voice was often raised in sage admonitions and
+professional opinions blended in a manner that all would admire, though
+none of her sex, but they who had enjoyed the singular good fortune of
+sharing in the intimate confidence of a flag-officer, might ever hope
+to imitate.
+
+“And now, my dearest niece,” concluded the relict of the Rear-Admiral,
+after exhausting her breath, and her store of wisdom, in numberless
+exhortations to be careful of her health, to write often to repeat the
+actual words of her private message to her brother the General, to keep
+below in gales of wind, to be particular in the account of any
+extraordinary sight she might have the good fortune to behold in the
+passage, and, in short, in all other matters likely to grow out of such
+a leave-taking “and now, my dearest niece, I commit you to the mighty
+deep, and One far mightier—to Him who made it. Banish from your
+thoughts all recollections of any thing you may have heard concerning
+the imperfections of the ‘Royal Caroline;’ for the opinion of the aged
+seaman, who sailed with the lamented Admiral, assures me they are all
+founded in mistake.” [“The treacherous villain!” muttered Wilder.] “Who
+spoke?” said Mrs de Lacey; but, receiving no reply, she continued; “His
+opinion is also exactly in accordance with my own, on more mature
+reflection. To be sure, it is a culpable neglect to depend on bobstays
+and gammonings for the security of the bowsprit, but still even this is
+an oversight which, as my old friend has just told me, may be remedied
+by ‘preventers and lashings.’ I have written a note to the
+Master,—Gertrude, my dear, be careful ever to call the Master of the
+ship _Mister_ Nichols; for none, but such as bear his Majesty’s
+commission, are entitled to be termed _Captains;_ it is an honourable
+station, and should always be treated with reverence, it being, in
+fact, next in rank to a flag-officer,—I have written a note to the
+Master on the subject, and he will see the neglect repaired and so, my
+love, God bless you; take the best possible care of yourself; write me
+by even opportunity; remember my kindest love to your father and be
+very minute in your description of the whales.”
+
+The eyes of the worthy and kind-hearted widow were filled with tears as
+she ended; and there was a touch of nature, in the tremour of her
+voice, that produced a sympathetic feeling in all who heard her words.
+The final parting took place under the impression of these kind
+emotions; and, before another minute, the oars of the boat, which bore
+the travellers to the ship, were heard in the water.
+
+Wilder listened to the well-known sounds with a feverish interest, that
+he possibly might have found it difficult to explain even to himself. A
+light touch on the elbow first drew his attention from the disagreeable
+subject. Surprised at the circumstance, he faced the intruder, who
+appeared to be a lad of apparently some fifteen years. A second look
+was necessary to tell the abstracted young mariner that he again saw
+the attendant of the Rover; he who has already been introduced in our
+pages under the name of Roderick.
+
+“Your pleasure?” he demanded, when his amazement at being thus
+interrupted in his meditations, had a little subsided.
+
+“I am directed to put these orders into your own hands,” was the
+answer.
+
+“Orders!” repeated the young man, with a curling lip. “The authority
+should be respected which issues its mandates through such a
+messenger.”
+
+“The authority is one that it has ever proved dangerous to disobey,”
+gravely returned the boy.
+
+“Indeed! Then will I look into the contents with out delay, lest I fall
+into some fatal negligence. Are you bid to wait an answer?”
+
+On raising his eyes from the note the other had given him, after
+breaking its seal, the young man found that the messenger had already
+vanished. Perceiving how useless it would be to pursue so light a form,
+amid the mazes of lumber that loaded the wharf, and most of the
+adjacent shore, he opened the letter and read as follows:—
+
+“An accident has disabled the Master of the outward-bound ship called
+the ‘Royal Caroline!’ Her consignee is reluctant to intrust her to the
+officer next in rank; but sail she must. I find she has credit for her
+speed. If you have any credentials of _character_ and _competency_,
+profit by the occasion, and earn the station you are finally destined
+to fill. You have been named to some who are interested, and you have
+been sought diligently. If this reach you in season, be on the alert,
+and be decided. Show no surprise at any co-operation you may
+unexpectedly meet. My agents are more numerous than you had believed.
+The reason is obvious; gold is yellow, though I am
+
+
+“RED.”
+
+
+The signature, the matter, and the style of this letter, left Wilder in
+no doubt as to its author. Casting a glance around him, he sprang into
+a skiff; and, before the boat of the travellers had reached the ship,
+that of Wilder had skimmed the water over half the distance between her
+and the land. As he plied his skulls with vigorous and skilful arms, he
+soon stood upon her decks. Forcing his way among the crowd of
+attendants from the shore, that are apt to cumber a departing ship, he
+reached the part of the vessel where a circle of busy and anxious faces
+told him he should find those most concerned in her fate. Until now, he
+had hardly breathed clearly, much less reflected on the character of
+his sudden enterprise. It was too late, however, to retreat, had he
+been so disposed, or to abandon his purpose, without incurring the
+hazard of exciting dangerous suspicions A single instant served to
+recal his thoughts, ere he demanded,—
+
+“Do I see the owner of the ‘Caroline?’”
+
+“The ship is consigned to our house,” returned a sedate, deliberate,
+and shrewd-looking individual, in the attire of a wealthy, but also of
+a thrifty, trader.
+
+“I have heard that you have need of an experienced officer.”
+
+“Experienced officers are comfortable things to an owner in a vessel of
+value,” returned the merchant. “I hope the ‘Caroline’ is not without
+her portion.”
+
+“But I had heard, one to supply her Commander’s place, for a time, was
+greatly needed?”
+
+“If her Commander were incapable of doing his duty, such a thing might
+certainly come to pass. Are you seeking a birth?”
+
+“I have come to apply for the vacancy.”
+
+“It would have been wiser, had you first ascertained there existed a
+vacancy to fill. But you have not come to ask authority, in such a ship
+as this, without sufficient testimony of your ability and fitness?”
+
+“I hope these documents may prove satisfactory,” said Wilder, placing
+in his hands a couple of unsealed letters.
+
+During the time the other was reading the certificates for such they
+proved to be, his shrewd eye was looking over his spectacles at the
+subject of their contents, and returning to the paper, in alternate
+glances, in such a way as to render it very evident that he was
+endeavouring to assure himself of the fidelity of the words he read, by
+actual observation.
+
+“Hum! This is certainly very excellent testimony in your favour, young
+gentleman; and—coming, as it does, from two so respectable and affluent
+houses as Spriggs, Boggs and Tweed, and Hammer and Hacket—entitled to
+great credit. A richer and broader bottomed firm than the former, is
+not to be found in all his Majesty’s colonies; and I have great respect
+for the latter, though envious people do say that they over-trade a
+little.”
+
+“Since, then, you esteem them so highly, I shall not be considered
+hasty in presuming on their friendship.”
+
+“Not at all, not at all, Mr a—a”—glancing his eye again into one of the
+letters; “ay—Mr Wilder; there is never any presumption in a fair offer,
+in a matter of business. Without offers to sell and offers to buy, our
+property would never change hands, sir, ha! ha! ha! never change to a
+profit, you know, young gentleman.”
+
+“I am aware of the truth of what you say, and therefore I beg leave to
+repeat my offer.”
+
+“All perfectly fair and perfectly reasonable. But you cannot expect us,
+Mr Wilder, to make a vacancy expressly for you to fill, though it must
+be admitted that your papers are excellent—as good as the note of
+Spriggs, Boggs and Tweed themselves—not to make a vacancy expressly”
+
+“I had supposed the Master of the ship so seriously injured”—
+
+“Injured, but not seriously,” interrupted the wary consignee, glancing
+his eye around at sundry shippers, and one or two spectators, who were
+within ear-shot; “injured certainly, but not so much as to quit the
+vessel. No, no, gentlemen; the good ship ‘Royal Caroline’ proceeds on
+her voyage, as usual, under the care of that old and well-tried
+mariner, Nicholas Nichols.”
+
+“Then, sir, am I sorry to have intruded on your time at so busy a
+moment,” said Wilder, bowing with a disappointed air, and falling back
+a step, as if about to withdraw.
+
+“Not so hasty—not so hasty; bargains are not to be concluded, young
+man, as you let a sail fall from the yard. It is possible that your
+services may be of use, though not perhaps in the responsible situation
+of Master. At what rate do you value the title of ‘Captain?’”
+
+“I care little for the name, provided the trust and the authority are
+mine.”
+
+“A very sensible youth!” muttered the discreet merchant; “and one who
+knows how to distinguish between the shadow and the substance! A
+gentleman of your good sense and character must know, however, that the
+reward is always proportioned to the nominal dignity. If I were acting
+for myself, in this business, the case would be materially changed,
+but, as an agent, it is a duty to consult the interest of my
+principal.”
+
+“The reward is of no account,” said Wilder, with an eagerness that
+might have over-reached itself, had not the individual with whom he was
+bargaining fastened his thoughts on the means of cheapening the other’s
+services, with a steadiness from which they rarely swerved, when bent
+on so commendable an object as saving: “I seek for service.”
+
+“Then service you shall have; nor will you find us niggardly in the
+operation. You cannot expect an advance, for a run of no more than a
+month; nor any perquisites in the way of stowage, since the ship is now
+full to her hatches; nor, indeed, any great price in the shape of
+wages, since we take you chiefly to accommodate so worthy a youth, and
+to honour the recommendations of so respectable a house as Spriggs,
+Boggs and Tweed; but you will find us liberal, excessive liberal.
+Stay—how know we that you are the person named in the invoi—I should
+say, recommendation?”
+
+“Does not the fact of possessing the letters establish my character?”
+
+“It might in peaceable times; when the realm was not scourged by war. A
+description of the person should have accompanied the documents, like a
+letter of advice with the bill. As we take you at some risk in this
+matter, you are not to be surprised that the price will be affected by
+the circumstance. We are liberal; I believe no house in the colonies
+pays more liberally; but then we have a character for prudence to
+lose.”
+
+“I have already said, sir, that the price shall not interrupt our
+bargain.”
+
+“Good: There is pleasure in transacting business on such liberal and
+honourable views! And yet I wish a notarial seal, or a description of
+the person, had accompanied the letters. This is the signature of
+Robert Tweed; I know it well, and would be glad to see it at the bottom
+of a promissory note for ten thousand pounds; that is, with a
+responsible endorser; but the uncertainty is much against your
+pecuniary interest, young man, since we become, as it were,
+underwriters that you are the individual named.”
+
+“In order that your mind may be at ease on the subject, Mr Bale,” said
+a voice from among the little circle that was listening, with
+characteristic interest, to the progress of the bargain, “I can
+testify, or, should it be necessary, qualify to the person of the
+gentleman.”
+
+Wilder turned in some haste, and in no little astonishment, to discover
+the acquaintance whom chance had thrown in so extraordinary, and
+possibly in so disagreeable a manner, across his path; and that, too,
+in a portion of the country where he wished to believe himself an
+entire stranger. To his utter amazement, he found that the new speaker
+was no other than the landlord of the “Foul Anchor.”—Honest Joe stood
+with a perfectly composed look, and with a face that might readily have
+been trusted to confront a far more imposing tribunal, awaiting the
+result of his testimony on the seemingly wavering mind of the
+consignee.
+
+“Ah! you have lodged the gentleman for a time and you can testify that
+he is a punctual paymaster and a civil inmate. But I want documents fit
+to be filed with the correspondence of the owners _at home_”.
+
+“I know not what sort of testimony you think fit for such good
+company,” returned the unmoved publican holding up his hand with an air
+of admirable innocence; “but, if the sworn declaration of a housekeeper
+is of the sort you need, you are a magistrate and may begin to say over
+the words at once.”
+
+“Not I, not I, man. Though a magistrate, the oath is informal, and
+would not be binding in law. But what do you know of the person in
+question?”
+
+“That he is as good a seaman, for his years, as any in the colonies.
+There may be some of more practice and greater experience; I dare say
+such are to be found; but as to activity, watchfulness, and prudence,
+it would be hard to find his equal—especially for prudence.”
+
+“You then are quite certain that this person is the individual named in
+these papers?”
+
+Joram received the certificates with the same admirable coolness he had
+maintained from the commencement and prepared to read them with the
+most scrupulous care. In order to effect this necessary operation, he
+had to put on his spectacles, (for the landlord of the “Foul Anchor”
+was in the wane of life), and Wilder fancied that he stood, during the
+process, a notable example of how respectable depravity may become, in
+appearance, when supported by a reverend air.
+
+“This is all very true, Mr Bale,” continued the publican, removing his
+glasses, and returning the papers. “They have forgotten to say any
+thing of the manner in which he saved the ‘Lively Nancy,’ off Hatteras,
+and how he run the ‘Peggy and Dolly’ over the Savannah bar, without a
+pilot, blowing great guns from the northward and eastward at the time;
+but I, who followed the water, as you know, in my younger days, have
+often heard both circumstances mentioned among sea-faring men, and I am
+a judge of the difficulty. I have an interest in this ship, neighbour
+Bale, (for though a rich man, and I a poor one, we are nevertheless
+neighbours)—I say I have an interest in this ship; since she is a
+vessel that seldom quits Newport without leaving something to jingle in
+my pocket, or I should not be here to-day, to see her lift her anchor.”
+
+As the publican concluded, he gave audible evidence that his visit had
+not gone unrewarded, by raising a music that was no less agreeable to
+the ears of the thrifty merchant than to his own. The two worthies
+laughed in an understanding way, and like two men who had found a
+particular profit in their intercourse with the “Royal Caroline.” The
+latter then beckoned Wilder apart, and, after a little further
+preliminary discourse, the terms of the young mariner’s engagement were
+finally settled. The true Master of the ship was to remain on board,
+both as a security for the insurance, and in order to preserve her
+reputation; but it was frankly admitted that his hurt, which was no
+less than a broken leg, and which the surgeons were then setting, would
+probably keep him below for a month to come. During the time he was
+kept from his duty, his functions were to be filled, in effect, by our
+adventurer. These arrangements occupied another hour of time, and then
+the consignee left the vessel, perfectly satisfied with the prudent and
+frugal manner in which he had discharged his duty towards his
+principal. Before stepping into the boat, however, with a view to be
+equally careful of his own interests, he took an opportunity to request
+the publican to make a proper and legal affidavit of all that he knew,
+“of his own knowledge,” concerning the officer just engaged Honest
+Joram was liberal of his promises; but, as he saw no motive, now that
+all was so happily effected, for incurring useless risks, he contrived
+to evade their fulfilment, finding, no doubt, his apology for this
+breach of faith in the absolute poverty of his information, when the
+subject came to be duly considered, and construed literally by the
+terms required.
+
+It is unnecessary to relate the bustle, the reparation of
+half-forgotten, and consequently neglected business, the duns, good
+wishes, injunctions to execute commissions in some distant port, and
+all the confused, and seemingly interminable, duties that crowd
+themselves into the last ten minutes that precede the sailing of a
+merchant vessel, more especially if she is fortunate, or rather
+unfortunate enough to have passengers. A certain class of men quit a
+vessel, in such a situation, with the reluctance that they would part
+with any other well established means of profit, creeping down her
+sides as lazily as the leech, filled to repletion, rolls from his
+bloody repast. The common seaman, with an attention divided by the
+orders of the pilot and the adieus of acquaintances, runs in every
+direction but the right one, and, perhaps at the only time in his life,
+seems ignorant of the uses of the ropes he has so long been accustomed
+to handle. Notwithstanding all these vexatious delays, and customary
+incumbrances, the “Royal Caroline” finally got rid of all her visitors
+but one, and Wilder was enabled to indulge in a pleasure that a seaman
+alone can appreciate—that clear decks and an orderly ship’s company.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XII.
+
+“Good: Speak to the mariners: Fall to’t yarely, or we run ourselves
+aground.”
+
+_Tempest._
+
+
+A good deal of the day had been wasted during the time occupied by the
+scenes just related. The breeze had come in steady, but far from fresh.
+So soon, however, as Wilder found himself left without the molestation
+of idlers from the shore, and the busy interposition of the consignee,
+he cast his eyes about him, with the intention of immediately
+submitting the ship to its power. Sending for the pilot, he
+communicated his determination, and withdrew himself to a part of the
+deck whence he might take a proper survey of the materials of his new
+command, and where he might reflect on the unexpected and extraordinary
+situation in which he found himself.
+
+The “Royal Caroline” was not entirely without pretensions to the lofty
+name she bore. She was a vessel of that happy size in which comfort and
+convenience had been equally consulted. The letter of the Rover
+affirmed she had a reputation for her speed; and her young and
+intelligent Commander saw, with great inward satisfaction, that she was
+not destitute of the means of enabling him to exhibit all her finest
+properties. A healthy, active, and skilful crew, justly proportioned
+spars, little top-hamper, and an excellent trim, with a superabundance
+of light sails, offered all the advantages his experience could
+suggest. His eye lighted, as it glanced rapidly over these several
+particulars of his command, and his lips moved like those of a man who
+uttered an inward self-gratulation, or who indulged in some vaunt, that
+propriety suggested should go no farther than his own thoughts.
+
+By this time, the crew, under the orders of the pilot, were assembled
+at the windlass, and had commenced heaving-in upon the cable. The
+labour was of a nature to exhibit their individual powers, as well as
+their collective force, to the greatest advantage. Their motion was
+simultaneous, quick, and full of muscle. The cry was clear and
+cheerful. As if to feel his influence, our adventurer lifted his own
+voice, amid the song of the mariners, in one of those sudden and
+inspiriting calls with which a sea officer is wont to encourage his
+people. His utterance was deep, animated, and full of authority. The
+seamen started like mettled coursers when they first hear the signal,
+each man casting a glance behind him, as though he would scan the
+qualities of his new superior Wilder smiled, like one satisfied with
+his success; and, turning to pace the quarter-deck, he found himself
+once more confronted by the calm, considerate but certainly astonished
+eye of Mrs Wyllys.
+
+“After the opinions you were pleased to express of this vessel,” said
+the lady, in a manner of the coldest irony, “I did not expect to find
+you filling a place of such responsibility here.”
+
+“You probably knew, Madam,” returned the young mariner, “that a sad
+accident had happened to her Master?”
+
+“I did; and I had heard that another officer had been found,
+temporarily, to supply his place. Still, I should presume, that, on
+reflection, you will not think it remarkable I am amazed in finding who
+this person is.”
+
+“Perhaps, Madam, you may have conceived, from our conversations, an
+unfavourable opinion of my professional skill. But I hope that on this
+head you will place your mind at ease; for”——
+
+“You are doubtless a master of the art! it would seem, at least, that
+no trifling danger can deter you from seeking proper opportunities to
+display this knowledge. Are we to have the pleasure of your company
+during the whole passage, or do you leave us at the mouth of the port?”
+
+“I am engaged to conduct the ship to the end of her voyage.”
+
+“We may then hope that the danger you either saw or imagined is
+lessened in your judgment, otherwise you would not be so ready to
+encounter it in our company.”
+
+“You do me injustice, Madam,” returned Wilder, with warmth, glancing
+his eye unconsciously towards the grave, but deeply attentive Gertrude,
+as he spoke; “there is no danger that I would not cheerfully encounter,
+to save you, or this young lady, from harm.”
+
+“Even this young lady must be sensible of your chivalry!” Then, losing
+the constrained manner with which, until now, she had maintained the
+discourse in one more natural, and one far more in consonance with her
+usually mild and thoughtful mien, Mrs. Wyllys continued, “You have a
+powerful advocate, young man, in the unaccountable interest which I
+feel in your truth; an interest that my reason would fain condemn. As
+the ship must need your services, I will no longer detain you.
+Opportunities cannot be wanting to enable us to judge both of your
+inclination and ability to serve us. Gertrude, my love, females are
+usually considered as incumbrances in a vessel; more particularly when
+there is any delicate duty to perform, like this before us.”
+
+Gertrude started, blushed, and proceeded, after her governess, to the
+opposite side of the quarter-deck followed by an expressive look from
+our adventurer which seemed to say, he considered her presence any
+thing else but an incumbrance. As the ladies immediately took a
+position apart from every body, and one where they were least in the
+way of working the ship, at the same time that they could command an
+entire view of all her manoeuvres the disappointed sailor was obliged
+to cut short a communication which he would gladly have continued until
+compelled to take the charge of the vessel from the hands of the pilot.
+By this time, however, the anchor was a-weigh, and the seamen were
+already actively engaged in the process of making sail. Wilder lent
+himself, with feverish excitement, to the duty; and, taking the words
+from the officer who was issuing the necessary orders, he assumed the
+immediate superintendence in person.
+
+As sheet after sheet of canvas fell from the yards, and was distended
+by the complicated mechanism, the interest that a seaman ever takes in
+his vessel began to gain the ascendancy over all other feelings By the
+time every thing was set, from the royals down, and the ship was cast
+with her head towards the harbour’s mouth, our adventurer had probably
+forgotten (for the moment only, it is true) that he was a stranger
+among those he was in so extraordinary a manner selected to command,
+and how precious a stake was intrusted to his firmness and decision.
+After every thing was set to advantage, alow and aloft, and the ship
+was brought close upon the wind, his eye scanned every yard and sail,
+from the truck to the hull, and concluded by casting a glance along the
+outer side of the vessel, in order to see that not even the smallest
+rope was in the water to impede her progress. A small skiff, occupied
+by a boy, was towing under the lee, and, as the mass of the vessel
+began to move, it was skipping along the surface of the water, light
+and buoyant as a feather. Perceiving that it was a boat belonging to
+the shore, Wilder walked forward, and demanded its owner. A mate
+pointed to Joram, who at that moment ascended from the interior of the
+vessel, where he had been settling the balance due from a delinquent,
+or, what was in his eyes the same thing, a departing debtor.
+
+The sight of this man recalled Wilder to a recollection of all that had
+occurred that morning, and of the whole delicacy of the task he had
+undertaken to perform. But the publican, whose ideas appeared always
+concentrated when occupied on the subject of gain, seemed troubled by
+no particular emotions at the interview. He approached the young
+mariner and, saluting him by the title of “Captain,” bade him a good
+voyage, with those customary wish es which seamen express, when about
+to separate on such an occasion.
+
+“A lucky trip you have made of it, Captain Wilder,” he concluded, “and
+I hope your passage will be short. You’ll not be without a breeze this
+afternoon; and, by stretching well over towards Montauck you’ll be able
+to make such an offing, on the other tack, as to run the coast down in
+the morning. If I am any judge of the weather, the wind will have more
+easting in it, than you may happen to find to your fancy.”
+
+“And how long do you think my voyage is likely to last?” demanded
+Wilder, dropping his voice so low as to reach no ears but those of the
+publican.
+
+Joram cast a furtive glance aside; and, perceiving that they were
+alone, he suffered an expression of hardened cunning to take possession
+of a countenance that ordinarily seemed set in dull, physical
+contentment, as he replied, laying a finger on his nose while
+speaking,—
+
+“Didn’t I tender the consignee a beautiful oath, master Wilder?”
+
+“You certainly exceeded my expectations with your promptitude, and”—
+
+“Information!” added the landlord of the ‘Foul Anchor,’ perceiving the
+other a little at a loss for a word; “yes, I have always been
+remarkable for the activity of my mind in these small matters; but,
+when a man once knows a thing thoroughly, it is a great folly to spend
+his breath in too many words.”
+
+“It is certainly a great advantage to be so well instructed. I suppose
+you improve your knowledge to a good account.”
+
+“Ah! bless me, master Wilder, what would become of us all, in these
+difficult times, if we did not turn an honest penny in every way that
+offers? I have brought up several fine children in credit, and it
+sha’n’t be my fault if I don’t leave them something too, besides my
+good name. Well, well; they say, ‘A nimble sixpence is as good as a
+lazy shilling;’ but give me the man who don’t stand shilly-shally when
+a friend has need of his good word, or a lift from his hand. You always
+know where to find such a man; as our politicians say, after they have
+gone through thick and thin in the cause, be it right or be it wrong.”
+
+“Very commendable principles! and such as will surely be the means of
+exalting you in the world sooner or later! But you forget to answer my
+question: Will the passage be long, or short?”
+
+“Heaven bless you, master Wilder! Is it for a poor publican, like me,
+to tell the Master of this noble ship which way the wind will blow
+next? There is the worthy and notable Commander Nichols, lying in his
+state-room below, he could do any thing with the vessel; and why am I
+to expect that a gentleman so well recommended as yourself will do
+less? I expect to hear that you have made a famous run, and have done
+credit to the good word I have had occasion to say in your favour.”
+
+Wilder execrated, in his heart, the wary cunning of the rogue with whom
+he was compelled, for the moment, to be in league; for he saw plainly
+that a determination not to commit himself a tittle further than he
+might conceive to be absolutely necessary, was likely to render Joram
+too circumspect, to answer his own immediate wishes. After hesitating a
+moment, in order to reflect, he continued hastily,—
+
+“You see that the ship is gathering way too fast to admit of trifling.
+You know of the letter I received this morning?”
+
+“Bless me, Captain Wilder! Do you take me for a postmaster? How should
+I know what letters arrive at Newport, and what stop on the main?”
+
+“As timid a villain as he is thorough!” muttered the young mariner.
+“But this much you may surely say, Am I to be followed immediately? or
+is it expected that I should detain the ship in the offing, under any
+pretence that I can devise?”
+
+“Heaven keep you, young gentleman! These are strange questions, to come
+from one who is fresh off the sea, to a man that has done no more than
+look at it from the land, these five-and-twenty years. According to my
+memory, sir, you will keep the ship about south until you are clear of
+the islands; and then you must make your calculations according to the
+wind, in order not to get into the Gulf, where, you know, the stream
+will be setting you one way, while your orders say, ‘Go another.’”
+
+“Luff! mind your luff, sir!” cried the pilot, in a stern voice, to the
+man at the helm; “luff you can; on no account go to leeward of the
+slaver!”
+
+Both Wilder and the publican started, as if they found something
+alarming in the name of the vessel just alluded to; and the former
+pointed to the skiff, as he said,—
+
+“Unless you wish to go to sea with us, Mr Joram, it is time your boat
+held its master.”
+
+“Ay, ay, I see you are fairly under way, and I must leave you, however
+much I like your company,” returned the landlord of the ‘Foul Anchor,’
+bustling over the side, and getting into his skiff in the best manner
+he could. “Well, boys, a good time to ye; a plenty of wind, and of the
+right sort; a safe passage out, and a quick return. Cast off.”
+
+His order was obeyed; the light skiff, no longer impelled by the ship,
+immediately deviated from its course; and, after making a little
+circuit, it became stationary, while the mass of the vessel passed on,
+with the steadiness of an elephant from whose back a butterfly had just
+taken its flight. Wilder followed the boat with his eyes, for a moment;
+but his thoughts were recalled by the voice of the pilot, who again
+called, from the forward part of the ship,—
+
+“Let the light sails lift a little, boy; let her lift keep every inch
+you can, or you’ll not weather the slaver. Luff, I say, sir; luff.”
+
+“The slaver!” muttered our adventurer, hastening to a part of the ship
+whence he could command a view of that important, and to him doubly
+interesting ship; “ay, the slaver! it may be difficult, indeed to
+weather upon the slaver!”
+
+He had unconsciously placed himself near Mrs Wyllys and Gertrude; the
+latter of whom was leaning on the rail of the quarter-deck, regarding
+the strange vessel at anchor, with a pleasure far from unnatural to her
+years and sex.
+
+“You may laugh at me, and call me fickle, and perhaps credulous, dear
+Mrs Wyllys,” the unsuspecting girl cried, just as Wilder had taken the
+foregoing position, “but I wish we were well out of this ‘Royal
+Caroline,’ and that our passage was to be made in yonder beautiful
+ship!”
+
+“It is indeed a beautiful ship!” returned Wyllys; “but I know not that
+it would be safer, or more comfortable, than the one we are in.”
+
+“With what symmetry and order the ropes are arranged! and how like a
+bird it floats upon the water!”
+
+“Had you particularized the duck, the comparison would have been
+exactly nautical,” said the governess, smiling mournfully; “you show
+capabilities my love, to be one day a seaman’s wife.”
+
+Gertrude blushed a little; and, turning back her head to answer in the
+playful vein of her governess, her eye met the riveted look of Wilder,
+fastened on herself. The colour on her cheek deepened to a carnation,
+and she was mute; the large gipsy hat she wore serving to conceal both
+her face and the confusion which so deeply suffused it.
+
+“You make no answer, child, as if you reflected seriously on the
+chances,” continued Mrs Wyllys, whose thoughtful and abstracted mien,
+however, sufficiently proved she scarcely knew what she uttered.
+
+“The sea is too unstable an element for my taste,” Gertrude coldly
+answered. “Pray tell me, Mrs Wyllys, is the vessel we are approaching a
+King’s ship? She has a warlike, not to say a threatening exterior.”
+
+“The pilot has twice called her a slaver.”
+
+“A slaver! How deceitful then is all her beauty and symmetry! I will
+never trust to appearances again, since so lovely an object can be
+devoted to so vile a purpose.”
+
+“Deceitful indeed!” exclaimed Wilder aloud, under an impulse that he
+found as irresistible as it was involuntary. “I will take upon myself
+to say, that a more treacherous vessel does not float the ocean than
+yonder finely proportioned and admirably equipped”——
+
+“Slaver,” added Mrs Wyllys, who had time to turn, and to look all her
+astonishment, before the young man appeared disposed to finish his own
+sentence.
+
+“Slaver;” he said with emphasis, bowing at the same time, as if he
+would thank her for the word.
+
+After this interruption, a profound silence occurred Mrs Wyllys studied
+the disturbed features of the young man, for a moment, with a
+countenance that denoted a singular, though a complicated, interest;
+and then she gravely bent her eyes on the water, deeply occupied with
+intense, if not painful reflection The light symmetrical form of
+Gertrude continued leaning on the rail, it is true, but Wilder was
+unable to catch another glimpse of her averted and shadowed lineaments.
+In the mean while, events, that were of a character to withdraw his
+attention entirely from even so pleasing a study, were hastening to
+their accomplishment.
+
+The ship had, by this time, passed between the little island and the
+point whence Homespun had embarked, and might now be said to have
+fairly left the inner harbour. The slaver lay directly in her track,
+and every man in the vessel was gazing with deep interest, in order to
+see whether they might yet hope to pass on her weather-beam. The
+measure was desirable; because a seaman has a pride in keeping on the
+honourable side of every thing he encounters but chiefly because, from
+the position of the stranger, it would be the means of preventing the
+necessity of tacking before the “Caroline” should reach a point more
+advantageous for such a manoeuvre. The reader will, however, readily
+understand that the interest of hear new Commander took its rise in far
+different feelings from those of professional pride, or momentary
+convenience.
+
+Wilder felt, in every nerve, the probability that a crisis was at hand.
+It will be remembered that he was profoundly ignorant of the immediate
+intentions of the Rover. As the fort was not in a state for present
+service, it would not be difficult for the latter to seize upon his
+prey in open view of the townsmen and bear it off, in contempt of their
+feeble means of defence. The position of the two ships was favourable
+to such an enterprise. Unprepared, find unsuspecting, the “Caroline,”
+at no time a natch for her powerful adversary, must fall an easy
+victim; nor would there be much reason to apprehend that a single shot
+from the battery could reach them, before the captor, and his prize,
+would be at such a distance as to render the blow next to impotent if
+not utterly innocuous. The wild and audacious character of such an
+enterprise was in full accordance with the reputation of the desperate
+freebooter on whose caprice, alone, the act now seemed solely to
+depend.
+
+Under these impressions, and with the prospect of such a speedy
+termination to his new-born authority it is not to be considered
+wonderful that our adventurer awaited the result with an interest far
+exceeding that of any of those by whom he was surrounded He walked into
+the waist of the ship, and endeavoured to read the plan of his secret
+confederates by some of those indications that are familiar to a
+seaman. Not the smallest sign of any intention to depart, or in any
+manner to change her position, was, however, discoverable in the
+pretended slaver. She lay in the same deep, beautiful, but treacherous
+quiet, as that in which she had reposed throughout the whole of the
+eventful morning. But a solitary individual could be seen amid the
+mazes of her rigging, or along the wide reach of all her spars. It was
+a seaman seated on the extremity of a lower yard, where he appeared to
+busy himself with one of those repairs that are so constantly required
+in the gear of a large ship. As the man was placed on the weather side
+of his own vessel, Wilder instantly conceived the idea that he was thus
+stationed to cast a grapnel into the rigging of the “Caroline,” should
+such a measure become necessary, in order to bring the two ships foul
+of each other. With a view to prevent so rude an encounter, he
+instantly determined to defeat the plan. Calling to the pilot, he told
+him the attempt to pass to windward was of very doubtful success, and
+reminded him that the safer way would be to go to leeward.
+
+“No fear, no fear, Captain,” returned the stubborn conductor of the
+ship, who, as his authority was so brief, was only the more jealous of
+its unrestrained exercise, and who, like an usurper of the throne, felt
+a jealousy of the more legitimate power which he had temporarily
+dispossessed; “no fear of me, Captain. I have trolled over this ground
+oftener than you have crossed the ocean, and I know the name of every
+rock on the bottom, as well as the town-crier knows the streets of
+Newport. Let her luff, boy; luff her into the very eye of the wind;
+luff, you can”——
+
+“You have the ship shivering as it is, sir,” said Wilder, sternly:
+“Should you get us foul of the slaver who is to pay the cost?”
+
+“I am a general underwriter,” returned the opinionated pilot; “my wife
+shall mend every hole I make in your sails, with a needle no bigger
+than a hair, and with such a palm as a fairy’s thimble!”
+
+“This is fine talking, sir, but you are already losing the ship’s way;
+and, before you have ended your boasts, she will be as fast in irons as
+a condemned thief. Keep the sails full, boy; keep them a rap full,
+sir.”
+
+“Ay, ay, keep her a good full,” echoed the pilot, who, as the
+difficulty of passing to windward became at each instant more obvious,
+evidently began to waver in his resolution. “Keep her full-and-by,—I
+have always told you full-and-by,—I don’t know, Captain, seeing that
+the wind has hauled a little, but we shall have to pass to leeward yet;
+but you will acknowledge, that, in such case, we shall be obliged to go
+about.”
+
+Now, in point of fact, the wind, though a little lighter than it had
+been, was, if anything, a trifle more favourable; nor had Wilder ever,
+in any manner, denied that the ship would not have to tack, some twenty
+minutes sooner, by going to leeward of the other vessel, than if she
+had succeeded in her delicate experiment of passing on the more
+honourable side; but, as the vulgarest minds are always the most
+reluctant to confess their blunders, the discomfited pilot was disposed
+to qualify the concession he found himself compelled to make, by some
+salvo of the sort, that he might not lessen his reputation for
+foresight, among his auditors.
+
+“Keep her away at once,” cried Wilder, who was beginning to change the
+tones of remonstrance for those of command; “keep the ship away, sir,
+while you have room to do it, or, by the”——
+
+His lips became motionless; for his eye happened to fall on the pale,
+speaking, and anxious countenance of Gertrude.
+
+“I believe it must be done, seeing that the wind is hauling. Hard up,
+boy, and run her under the stern of the ship at anchor. Hold! keep your
+luff again; eat into the wind to the bone, boy; lift again; let the
+light sails lift. The slaver has run a warp directly across our track.
+If there’s law in the Plantations, I’ll have her Captain before the
+Courts for this!”
+
+“What means the fellow?” demanded Wilder, jumping hastily on a gun, in
+order to get a better view.
+
+His mate pointed to the lee-quarter of the other vessel, where, sure
+enough, a large rope was seen whipping the water, as though in the very
+process of being extended. The truth instantly flashed on the mind of
+our young mariner. The Rover lay secret-moored with a spring, with a
+view to bring; his guns more readily to bear upon the battery, should
+his defence become necessary, and he now profited, by the circumstance,
+in order to prevent the trader from passing to leeward. The whole
+arrangement excited a good deal of surprise, and not a few execrations
+among the officers of the “Caroline;” though none but her Commander had
+the smallest twinkling of the real reason why the kedge had thus been
+laid, and why a warp was so awkwardly stretched across their path. Of
+the whole number, the pilot alone saw cause to rejoice in the
+circumstance. He had, in fact, got the ship in such a situation, as to
+render it nearly as difficult to proceed in one way as in the other;
+and he was now furnished with a sufficient justification, should any
+accident occur, in the course of the exceedingly critical manoeuvre,
+from whose execution there was now no retreat.
+
+“This is an extraordinary liberty to take in the mouth of a harbour,”
+muttered Wilder, when his eyes put him in possession of the fact just
+related. “You must shove her by to windward, pilot; there is no
+remedy.”
+
+“I wash my hands of the consequences, as I call all on board to
+witness,” returned the other, with the air of a deeply offended man,
+though secretly glad of the appearance of being driven to the very
+measure he was a minute before so obstinately bent on executing, “Law
+must be called in here, if sticks are snapped, or rigging parted. Luff
+to a hair, boy; luff her short into the wind, and try a half-board.”
+
+The man at the helm obeyed the order. Releasing his hold of its spokes,
+the wheel made a quick evolution; and the ship, feeling a fresh impulse
+of the wind, turned her head heavily towards the quarter whence it
+came, the canvas fluttering with a noise like that produced by a flock
+of water-fowl just taking wing. But, met by the helm again, she soon
+fell off as before, powerless from having lost her way, and settling
+bodily down toward the fancied slaver, impelled by the air, which
+seemed, however, to have lost much of its force, at the critical
+instant it was most needed.
+
+The situation of the “Caroline” was one which a seaman will readily
+understand. She had forged so far ahead as to lie directly on the
+weather-beam of the stranger, but too near to enable her to fall-off in
+the least, without imminent danger that the vessels would come foul.
+The wind was inconstant, sometimes blowing in puffs, while at moments
+there was a perfect lull. As the ship felt the former, her tall masts
+bent gracefully towards the slaver, as if to make the parting salute;
+but, relieved from the momentary pressure of the inconstant air, she as
+often rolled heavily to windward, without advancing a foot. The effect
+of each change, however, was to bring her still nigher to her dangerous
+neighbour, until it became evident, to the judgment of the youngest
+seaman in the vessel, that nothing but a sudden shift of wind could
+enable her to pass ahead, the more especially as the tide was on the
+change.
+
+As the inferior officers of the “Caroline” were not delicate in their
+commentaries on the dulness which had brought them into so awkward and
+so mortifying a position, the pilot endeavoured to conceal his own
+vexation, by the number and vociferousness of his orders. From
+blustering, he soon passed into confusion, until the men themselves
+stood idle, not knowing which of the uncertain and contradictory
+mandates they received ought to be first obeyed. In the mean time,
+Wilder had folded his arms with an appearance of entire composure, and
+taken his station near his female passengers. Mrs Wyllys closely
+studied his eye, with the wish of ascertaining, by its expression, the
+nature and extent of their danger, if danger there might be, in the
+approaching collision of two ships in water that was perfectly smooth,
+and where one was stationary and the motion of the other scarcely
+perceptible. The stern, determined look she saw settling about the brow
+of the young man excited an uneasiness that she would not otherwise
+have felt, perhaps, under circumstances that, in themselves, bore no
+very vivid appearance of hazard.
+
+“Have we aught to apprehend, sir?” demanded the governess, endeavouring
+to conceal from her charge the nature of her own disquietude.
+
+“I told you, Madam, the ‘Caroline’ would prove an unlucky ship.”
+
+Both females regarded the peculiarly bitter smile with which Wilder
+made this reply as an evil omen, and Gertrude clung to her companion as
+to one on whom she had long been accustomed to lean.
+
+“Why do not the mariners of the slaver appear, to assist us—to keep us
+from coming too nigh?” anxiously exclaimed the latter.
+
+“Why do they not, indeed! but we shall see them, I think, ere long.”
+
+“You speak and look, young man, as if you thought there would be danger
+in the interview!”
+
+“Keep near to me,” returned Wilder, in tones that were nearly smothered
+by the manner in which he compressed his lips. “In every event, keep as
+nigh my person as possible.”
+
+“Haul the spanker-boom to windward,” shouted the pilot; “lower away the
+boats, and tow the ship’s head round—clear away the stream anchor—aft
+gib-sheet—board main tack, again.”
+
+The astonished men stood like statues, not knowing whither to turn,
+some calling to the rest to do this or that, and some as loudly
+countermanding the order; when an authoritative voice was heard calmly
+to say,—
+
+“Silence in the ship.”
+
+The tones-were of that sort which, while they denote the
+self-possession of the speaker, never fail to inspire the inferior with
+a portion of the confidence of him who commands. Every face was turned
+towards the quarter of the vessel whence the sound proceeded, as if
+each ear was ready to catch the smallest additional mandate. Wilder was
+standing on the head of the capstan, where he could command a full view
+on every side of him. With a quiet and understanding glance, he had
+made himself a perfect master of the situation of his ship. His eye was
+at the instant fixed anxiously on the slaver, as if it would pierce the
+treacherous calm which still reigned on all about her, in order to know
+how far his exertions might be permitted to be useful. But it appeared
+as if the stranger lay like some enchanted vessel on the water, not a
+human form even appearing about all her complicated machinery, except
+the seaman already named, who still continued his employment, as though
+the “Caroline” was not within a hundred miles of the place where he
+sat. The lips of Wilder moved: it might be in bitterness; it might be
+in satisfaction; for, a smile of the most equivocal nature lighted his
+features, as he continued, in the same deep, commanding voice as
+before,—
+
+“Throw all aback—lay every thing flat to the masts, forward and aft.”
+
+“Ay!” echoed the pilot, “lay every thing flat to the masts.”
+
+“Is there a shove-boat alongside the ship?” demanded our adventurer.
+
+The answer, from a dozen voices, was in the affirmative.
+
+“Show that pilot into her.”
+
+“This is an unlawful order,” exclaimed the other, “and I forbid any
+voice but mine to be obeyed.”
+
+“_Throw_ him in,” sternly repeated Wilder.
+
+Amid the bustle and exertion of bracing round the yards, the resistance
+of the pilot produced little or no sensation. He was soon raised on the
+extended arms of the two mates; and, after exhibiting his limbs in
+sundry contortions in the air, he was dropped into the boat, with as
+little ceremony as though he had been a billet of wood. The end of the
+painter was cast after him; and then the discomfited guide was left,
+with singular indifference, to his own meditations.
+
+In the mean time, the order of Wilder had been executed. Those vast
+sheets of canvas which, a moment before, had been either fluttering in
+the air, or were bellying inward or outward, as they touched or filled,
+as it is technically called, were now all pressing against their
+respective masts, impelling the vessel to retrace her mistaken path.
+The manoeuvre required the utmost attention, and the nicest delicacy in
+its direction. But her young Commander proved himself, in every
+particular, competent to his task. Here, a sail was lifted; there,
+another was brought with a flatter surface to the air; now, the lighter
+canvas was spread; and now it disappeared, like thin vapour suddenly
+dispelled by the sun. The voice of Wilder, throughout, though calm, was
+breathing with authority. The ship itself seemed, like an animated
+being, conscious that her destinies were reposed in different, and more
+intelligent, hands than before. Obedient to the new impulse they had
+received the immense cloud of canvas, with all its tall forest of spars
+and rigging, rolled to and fro; and then, having overcome the state of
+comparative rest in which it had been lying, the vessel heavily yielded
+to the pressure, and began to recede.
+
+Throughout the whole of the time necessary to extricate the “Caroline,”
+the attention of Wilder was divided between his own ship and his
+inexplicable neighbour. Not a sound was heard to issue from the
+imposing and death-like stillness of the latter. Not a single anxious
+countenance, not even one lurking eye, was to be detected, at any of
+the numerous outlets by which the inmates of an armed vessel can look
+abroad upon the deep. The seaman on the yard continued his labour, like
+a man unconscious of any thing but his own existence. There however, a
+slow, though nearly imperceptible, motion in the ship itself, which was
+apparently made, like the lazy movement of a slumbering whale, more by
+listless volition, than through any agency of human hands.
+
+Not the smallest of these changes escaped the keen and understanding
+examination of Wilder. He saw that, as his own ship retired, the side
+of the slaver was gradually exposed to the “Caroline.” The muzzles of
+the threatening guns gaped constantly on his vessel, as the eye of the
+crouching tiger follows the movement of its prey; and at no time, while
+nearest, did there exist a single instant that the decks of the latter
+ship could not have been swept, by a general discharge from the battery
+of the former. At each successive order issued from his own lips, our
+adventurer turned his eye, with increasng interest, to ascertain
+whether he would be permitted to execute it; and never did he feel
+certain that he was left to the sole management of the “Caroline” until
+he found that she had backed from her dangerous proximity to the other;
+and that, obedient to a new disposition of her sails, she was falling
+off, before the light air, in a place where he could hold her entirely
+at command.
+
+Finding that the tide was getting unfavourable and the wind too light
+to stem it, the sails were then drawn to her yards in festoons, and an
+anchor was dropped to the bottom.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIII.
+
+“What have here? A man, or a fish?”
+
+_The Tempest._
+
+
+The “Caroline” now lay within a cable’s length of the supposed slaver.
+In dismissing the pilot, Wilder had assumed a responsibility from which
+a seaman usually shrinks, since, in the case of any untoward accident
+in leaving the port, it would involve a loss of insurance, and his own
+probable punishment. How far he had been influenced, in taking so
+decided a step, by a knowledge of his being beyond or above, the reach
+of the law, will probably be made manifest in the course of the
+narrative; the only immediate effect of the measure, was, to draw the
+whole of his attention, which had before been so much divided between
+his passengers and the ship, to the care of the latter. But, so soon as
+his vessel was secured, for a time at least, and his mind was no longer
+excited by the expectation of a scene of immediate violence, our
+adventurer found leisure to return to his former, though (to so
+thorough a seaman) scarcely more agreeable occupation. The success of
+his delicate manoeuvre had imparted to his countenance a glow of
+something very like triumph; and his step, as he advanced towards Mrs.
+Wyllys and Gertrude, was that of a man who enjoyed the consciousness of
+having acquitted himself dexterously, in circumstances that required no
+small exhibition of professional skill. At least, such was the
+construction the former lady put upon his kindling eye and exulting
+air; though the latter might, possibly be disposed to judge of his
+motives with greater indulgence. Perhaps both were ignorant of the
+secret reasons of his self-felicitation; and it is possible that a
+sentiment, of a far more generous nature than either of them could
+imagine, had a full share of its influence in his present feelings.
+
+Be this as it might, Wilder no sooner saw that the “Caroline” was
+swinging to her anchor, and that his services were of no further
+immediate use, than he sought an opportunity to renew a conversation
+which had hitherto been so vague, and so often interrupted. Mrs Wyllys
+had long been viewing the neighbouring vessel with a steady look; nor
+did she now turn her gaze from the motionless and silent object, until
+the young mariner was near her person. She was then the first to speak.
+
+“Yonder vessel must possess an extraordinary, not to say an insensible,
+crew!” exclaimed the governess in a tone bordering on astonishment. “If
+such things were, it would not be difficult to fancy her a
+spectre-ship.”
+
+“She is truly an admirably proportioned and a beautifully equipped
+trader!”
+
+“Did my apprehensions deceive me? or were we in actual danger of
+getting the two vessels entangled?”
+
+“There was certainly some reason for apprehension; but you see we are
+safe.”
+
+“For which we have to thank your skill. The manner in which you have
+just extricated us from the late danger, has a direct tendency to
+contradict all that you were pleased to foretel of that which is to
+come.”
+
+“I well know, Madam, that my conduct may bear an unfavourable
+construction, but”—
+
+“You thought it no harm to laugh at the weakness of three credulous
+females,” continued Mrs Wyllys, smiling. “Well, you have had your
+amusement; and now. I hope, you will be more disposed to pity what is
+said to be a natural infirmity of woman’s mind.”
+
+As the governess concluded, she glanced her eye at Gertrude, with an
+expression that seemed to say it would be cruel, now, to trifle further
+with the apprehensions of one so innocent and so young. The look of
+Wilder followed her own; and when he answered it was with a sincerity
+that was well calculated to carry conviction in its tones.
+
+“On the faith which a gentleman owes to all your sex, Madam, what I
+have already told you I still continue to believe.”
+
+“The gammonings and the top-gallant-masts!”
+
+“No, no,” interrupted the young mariner, slightly laughing, and at the
+same time colouring a good deal; “perhaps not all of that. But neither
+mother, wife, nor sister of mine, should make this passage in the
+‘Royal Caroline.’”
+
+“Your look, your voice, and your air of good faith, make a strange
+contradiction to your words, young man; for, while the former almost
+tempt me to believe you honest, the latter have not a shade of reason
+to support them. Perhaps I ought to be ashamed of such a weakness, and
+yet I will acknowledge that the mysterious quiet, which seems to have
+settled for ever on yonder ship, has excited an inexplicable
+uneasiness, that may in some way be connected with her character.—She
+is certainly a slaver?”
+
+“She is certainly beautiful!” exclaimed Gertrude.
+
+“Very beautiful!” Wilder gravely rejoined.
+
+“There is a man still seated on one of her yards who appears to be
+entranced in his occupation,” continued Mrs Wyllys, leaning her chin
+thoughtfully on her hand, as she gazed at the object of which she was
+speaking. “Not once, during the time we were in so much danger of
+getting the ships entangled, did that seaman bestow so much as a stolen
+glance towards us. He resembles the solitary individual in the city of
+the transformed; for not another mortal is there to keep him company,
+so far as we may discover.”
+
+“Perhaps his comrades sleep,” said Gertrude.
+
+“Sleep! Mariners do not sleep in an hour and a day like this! Tell me,
+Mr Wilder, (you that are a seaman should know), is it usual for the
+crew to sleep when a strange vessel is so nigh—near even to touching, I
+might almost say?”
+
+“It is not.”
+
+“I thought as much; for I am not an entire novice in matters of your
+daring, your hardy, your _noble_ profession!” returned the governess,
+with deep emphasis “And, had we gone foul of the slaver, do you think
+her crew would have maintained their apathy?”
+
+“I think not, Madam.”
+
+“There is something, in all this assumed tranquillity, which might
+induce one to suspect the worst of her character. Is it known that any
+of her crew have had communication with the town, since her arrival?”
+
+“It is.”
+
+“I have heard that false colours have been seen on the coast, and that
+ships have been plundered, and their people and passengers maltreated,
+during the past summer. It is even thought that the famous Rover has
+tired of his excesses on the Spanish Main, and that a vessel was not
+long since seen in the Caribbean sea, which was thought to be the
+cruiser of that desperate pirate!”
+
+Wilder made no reply. His eyes, which had been fastened steadily,
+though respectfully, on those of the speaker, fell to the deck, and he
+appeared to await whatever her further pleasure might choose to utter.
+The governess mused a moment; and then, with a change in the expression
+of her countenance which proved that her suspicion of the truth was too
+light to continue without further and better confirmation, she added,—
+
+“After all, the occupation of a slaver is bad enough, and unhappily by
+far too probable, to render it necessary to attribute any worse
+character to the stranger. I would I knew the motive of your singular
+assertions, Mr Wilder?”
+
+“I cannot better explain them, Madam: unless my manner produces its
+effect, I fail altogether in my intentions, which at least are
+sincere.”
+
+“Is not the risk lessened by your presence?”
+
+“Lessened, but not removed.”
+
+Until now, Gertrude had rather listened, as if unavoidably, than seemed
+to make one of the party. But here she turned quickly, and perhaps a
+little impatiently, to Wilder, and, while her cheeks glowed she
+demanded, with a smile that might have brought even a more obdurate man
+to his confession,—
+
+“Is it forbidden to be more explicit?”
+
+The young Commander hesitated, perhaps as much to dwell upon the
+ingenuous features of the speaker, as to decide upon his answer. The
+colour mounted into his own embrowned cheek, and his eye lighted with a
+gleam of open pleasure; then, as though suddenly reminded that he was
+delaying to reply, he said,—
+
+“I am certain, that, in relying on your discretion, I shall be safe.”
+
+“Doubt it not,” returned Mrs Wyllys. “In no event shall you ever be
+betrayed.”
+
+“Betrayed! For myself, Madam, I have little fear. If you suspect me of
+personal apprehension you do me great injustice.”
+
+“We suspect you of nothing unworthy,” said Gertrude hastily, “but—we
+are very anxious for ourselves.”
+
+“Then will I relieve your uneasiness, though at the expense of”——
+
+A call, from one of the mates to the other, arrested his words for the
+moment, and drew his attention to the neighbouring ship.
+
+“The slaver’s people have just found out that their ship is not made to
+put in a glass case, to be looked at by women and children,” cried the
+speaker in tones loud enough to send his words into the fore-top, where
+the messmate he addressed was attending to some especial duty.
+
+“Ay, ay,” was the answer; “seeing us in motion, has put him in mind of
+his next voyage. They keep watch aboard the fellow, like the sun in
+Greenland six months on deck, and six months below!”
+
+The witticism produced, as usual, a laugh among the seamen, who
+continued their remarks in a similar vein, but in tones more suited to
+the deference due to their superiors.
+
+The eyes, however, of Wilder had fastened themselves on the other ship.
+The man so long seated on the end of the main-yard had disappeared, and
+another sailor was deliberately walking along the opposite quarter of
+the same spar, steadying himself by the boom, and holding in one hand
+the end of a rope, which he was apparently about to reeve in the place
+where it properly belonged. The first glance told Wilder that the
+latter was Fid, who was so far recovered from his debauch as to tread
+the giddy height with as much, if not greater, steadiness than he would
+have rolled along the ground, had his duty called him to terra firma.
+The countenance of the young man, which, an instant before, had been
+flushed with excitement, and which was beaming with the pleasure of an
+opening confidence, changed directly to a look of gloom and reserve.
+Mrs Wyllys who had lost no shade of the varying expression of his face,
+resumed the discourse, with some earnestness, where he had seen fit so
+abruptly to break it off.
+
+“You would relieve us,” she said, “at the expense of”——
+
+“Life, Madam; but not of honour.”
+
+“Gertrude, we can now retire to our cabin,” observed Mrs Wyllys, with
+an air of cold displeasure, in which disappointment was a good deal
+mingled with resentment at the trifling of which she believed herself
+the subject. The eye of Gertrude was no less averted and distant than
+that of her governess, while the tint that gave lustre to its beam was
+brighter, if not quite so resentful. As the two moved past the silent
+Wilder, each dropped a distant salute, and then our adventurer found
+himself the sole occupant of the quarter-deck. While his crew were
+busied in coiling ropes, and clearing the decks, their young Commander
+leaned his head on the taffrail, (that part of the vessel which the
+good relict of the Rear-Admiral had so strangely confounded with a very
+different object in the other end of the ship), remaining for many
+minutes in an attitude of deep abstraction. From this reverie he was at
+length aroused, by a sound like that produced by the lifting and
+falling of a light oar into the water. Believing himself about to be
+annoyed by visiters from the land, he raised his head, and cast a
+dissatisfied glance over the vessel’s side, to see who was approaching.
+
+A light skiff, such as is commonly used by fishermen in the bays and
+shallow waters of America, was lying within ten feet of the ship, and
+in a position where it was necessary to take some little pains in order
+to observe it. It was occupied by a single man, whose back was towards
+the vessel, and who was apparently abroad on the ordinary business of
+the owner of such a boat.
+
+“Are you in search of rudder-fish, my friend, that you hang so closely
+under my counter?” demanded Wilder. “The bay is said to be full of
+delicious bass, and other scaly gentlemen, that would far better repay
+your trouble.”
+
+“He is well paid who gets the bite he baits for,” returned the other,
+turning his head, and exhibiting the cunning eye and chuckling
+countenance of old Bob Bunt, as Wilder’s recent and treacherous
+confederate had announced his name to be.
+
+“How now! Dare you trust yourself with me, in five-fathom water, after
+the villanous trick you have seen fit”—
+
+“Hist! noble Captain, hist!” interrupted Bob, holding up a finger, to
+repress the other’s animation, and intimating, by a sign, that their
+conference must be held in lower tones; “there is no need to call all
+hands to help us through a little chat. In what way have I fallen to
+leeward of your favour, Captain?”
+
+“In what way, sirrah! Did you not receive money, to give such a
+character of this ship to the ladies as (you said yourself) would make
+them sooner pass the night in a churchyard, than trust foot on board
+her?”
+
+“Something of the sort passed between us, Captain; but you forgot one
+half of the conditions, and I overlooked the other; and I need not tell
+so expert a navigator, that two halves make a whole. No wonder,
+therefore, that the affair dropt through between us.”
+
+“How! Do you add falsehood to perfidy? What part of my engagement did I
+neglect?”
+
+“What part!” returned the pretended fisherman, leisurely drawing in a
+line, which the quick eye of Wilder saw, though abundantly provided
+with lead at the end, was destitute of the equally material
+implement—the hook; “What part, Captain! No less a particular than the
+second guinea.”
+
+“It was to have been the reward of a service done, and not an earnest,
+like its fellow, to induce you to undertake the duty.”
+
+“Ah! you have helped me to the very word I wanted. I fancied it was not
+in earnest, like the one I got, and so I left the job half finished.”
+
+“Half finished, scoundrel! you never commenced what you swore so
+stoutly to perform.”
+
+“Now are you on as wrong a course, my Master, as if you steered due
+east to get to the Pole. I religiously performed one half my
+undertaking; and, you will acknowledge, I was only half paid.”
+
+“You would find it difficult to prove that you even did that little.”
+
+“Let us look into the log. I enlisted to walk up the hill as far as the
+dwelling of the good Admiral’s widow, and there to make certain
+alterations in my sentiments, which it is not necessary to speak of
+between us.”
+
+“Which you did not make; but, on the contrary, which you thwarted, by
+telling an exactly contradictory tale.”
+
+“True.”
+
+“True! knave?—Were justice done you, an acquaintance with a rope’s end
+would be a merited reward.”
+
+“A squall of words!—If your ship steer as wild as your ideas, Captain,
+you will make a crooked passage to the south. Do you not think it an
+easier matter, for an old man like me, to tell a few lies than to climb
+yonder long and heavy hill? In strict justice, more than half my duty
+was done when I got into the presence of the believing widow; and when
+I concluded to refuse the half of the reward that was unpaid, and to
+take bounty from t’other side.”
+
+“Villain!” exclaimed Wilder, a little blinded by resentment, “even your
+years shall no longer protect you from punishment. Forward, there! send
+a crew into the jolly boat, sir, and bring me this old fellow in the
+skiff on board the ship. Pay no attention to his outcries; I have an
+account to settle with him, that cannot be balanced without a little
+noise.”
+
+The mate, to whom this order was addressed, and who had answered the
+hail, jumped on the rail, where he got sight of the craft he was
+commanded to chase. In less than a minute he was in the boat, with four
+men, and pulling round the bows of the ship, in order to get on the
+side necessary to effect his object. The self-styled Bob Bunt gave one
+or two strokes with his skulls, and sent, the skiff some twenty or
+thirty fathoms off, where he lay, chuckling like a man who saw only the
+success of his cunning, without any apparent apprehensions of the
+consequences. But, the moment the boat appeared in view, he laid
+himself to the work with vigorous arms, and soon convinced the
+spectators that his capture was not to be achieved without abundant
+difficulty.
+
+For some little time, it was doubtful what course the fugitive meant to
+take; for he kept whirling and turning in swift and sudden circles,
+completely confusing and baffling his pursuers, by his skilful and
+light evolutions. But, soon tiring of this taunting amusement, or
+perhaps apprehensive of exhausting his own strength, which was
+powerfully and most dexterously exerted, it was not long before he
+darted off in a perfectly straight line, taking the direction of the
+“Rover.”
+
+The chase now grew hot and earnest, exciting the clamour and applause
+of most of the nautical spectators The result, for a time, seemed
+doubtful; but, if any thing, the jolly boat, though some distance
+astern, began to gain, as it gradually overcame the resistance of the
+water. In a very few minutes, however, the skiff shot under the stern
+of the other ship, and disappeared, bringing the hull of the vessel in
+a line with the “Caroline” and its course. The pursuers were not long
+in taking the same direction and then the seamen of the latter ship
+began, laughingly to climb the rigging, in order to command a further
+view, over the intervening object.
+
+Nothing, however, was to be seen beyond but water, and the still more
+distant island, with its little fort. In a few minutes, the crew of the
+jolly boat were observed pulling back in their path, returning slowly,
+like men who were disappointed. All crowded to the side of the ship, in
+order to hear the termination of the adventure; the noisy assemblage
+even drawing the two passengers from the cabin to the deck. Instead,
+however, of meeting the questions of their shipmates with the usual
+wordy narrative of men of their condition, the crew of the boat wore
+startled and bewildered looks. Their officer sprang to the deck without
+speaking, and immediately sought his Commander.
+
+“The skiff was too light for you, Mr Nighthead,” Wilder calmly
+observed, as the other approached, having never moved, himself, from
+the place where he had been standing during the whole proceeding.
+
+“Too light, sir! Are you acquainted with the man who pulled it?”
+
+“Not particularly well: I only know him for a knave.”
+
+“He should be one, since he is of the family of the devil!”
+
+“I will not take on myself to say he is as bad as you appear to think,
+though I have little reason to believe he has any honesty to cast into
+the sea. What has become of him?”
+
+“A question easily asked, but hard to answer. In the first place,
+though an old and a gray-headed fellow, he twitched his skiff along as
+if it floated in air. We were not a minute, or two at the most, behind
+him; but, when we got on the other side of the slaver, boat and man had
+vanished!”
+
+“He doubled her bows while you were crossing the stern.”
+
+“Did you see him, then?”
+
+“I confess we did not.”
+
+“It could not be, sir; since we pulled far enough ahead to examine on
+both sides at once; besides, the people of the slaver knew nothing of
+him.”
+
+“You saw the slaver’s people?”
+
+“I should have said her man; for there is seemingly but one hand on
+board her.”
+
+“And how was he employed?”
+
+“He was seated in the chains, and seem’d to have been asleep. It is a
+lazy ship, sir; and one that takes more money from her owners, I fancy,
+than it ever returns!”
+
+“It may be so. Well, let the rogue escape. There is the prospect of a
+breeze coming in from the sea, Mr Earing; we will get our topsails to
+the mast-heads again, and be in readiness for it. I could like yet to
+see the sun set in the water.”
+
+The mates and the crew went cheerfully to their task, though many a
+curious question was asked, by the wondering seamen, of their shipmates
+who had been in the boat, and many a solemn answer was given, while
+they were again spreading the canvas, to invite the breeze. Wilder
+turned, in the mean time, to Mrs Wyllys, who had been an auditor of his
+short conversation with the mate.
+
+“You perceive, Madam,” he said, “that our voyage does not commence
+without its omens.”
+
+“When you tell me, inexplicable young man, with the air of singular
+sincerity you sometimes possess, that we are unwise in trusting to the
+ocean, I am half inclined to put faith in what you say; but when you
+attempt to enforce your advice with the machinery of witchcraft, you
+only induce me to proceed.”
+
+“Man the windlass!” cried Wilder, with a look that seemed to tell his
+companions, If you are so stout of heart, the opportunity to show your
+resolution shall not be wanting. “Man the windlass there! We will try
+the breeze again, and work the ship into the offing while there is
+light.”
+
+The clattering of handspikes preceded the mariners song. Then the heavy
+labour, by which the ponderous iron was lifted from the bottom, was
+again resumed, and, in a few more minutes, the ship was once more
+released from her hold upon the land.
+
+The wind soon came fresh off the ocean, charged with the saline
+dampness of the element. As the air fell upon the distended and
+balanced sails, the ship bowed to the welcome guest; and then, rising
+gracefully from its low inclination, the breeze was heard singing,
+through the maze of rigging, the music that is ever grateful to a
+seaman’s ear. The welcome sounds, and the freshness of the peculiar air
+gave additional energy to the movements of the men. The anchor was
+stowed, the ship cast, the lighter sails set, the courses had fallen,
+and the bows of the “Caroline” were throwing the spray before her, ere
+another ten minutes had gone by.
+
+Wilder had now undertaken himself the task of running his vessel
+between the islands of Connannicut and Rhode. Fortunately for the heavy
+responsibility he had assumed, the channel was not difficult and the
+wind had veered so far to the east as to give him a favourable
+opportunity, after making a short stretch to windward, of laying
+through in a single reach. But this stretch would bring him under the
+necessity of passing very near the “Rover,” or of losing no small
+portion of his ’vantage ground. He did not hesitate. When the vessel
+was as nigh the weather shore as his busy lead told him was prudent the
+ship was tacked, and her head laid directly towards the still
+motionless and seemingly unobservant slaver.
+
+The approach of the “Caroline” was far more propitious than before. The
+wind was steady, and her crew held her in hand, as a skilful rider
+governs the action of a fiery and mettled steed. Still the passage was
+not made without exciting a breathless interest in every soul in the
+Bristol trader. Each individual had his own secret cause of curiosity.
+To the seamen, the strange ship began to be the subject of wonder; the
+governess, and her ward, scarce knew the reasons of their emotions;
+while Wilder was but too well instructed in the nature of the hazard
+that all but himself were running. As before the man at the wheel was
+about to indulge his nautical pride, by going to windward; but,
+although the experiment would now have been attended with but little
+hazard, he was commanded to proceed differently.
+
+“Pass the slaver’s lee-beam, sir,” said Wilder to him, with a gesture
+of authority; and then the young Captain went himself to lean on the
+weather-rail, like every other idler on board, to examine the object
+they were so fast approaching. As the “Caroline” came boldly up,
+seeming to bear the breeze before her, the sighing of the wind, as it
+murmured through the rigging of the stranger, was the only sound that
+issued from her. Not a single human face, not even a secret and curious
+eye, was any where to be seen. The passage was of course rapid, and, as
+the two vessels, for an instant, lay with heads and sterns nearly
+equal, Wilder thought it was to be made without the slightest notice
+from the imaginary slaver. But he was mistaken. A light, active form,
+in the undress attire of a naval officer, sprang upon the taffrail, and
+waved a sea-cap in salute. The instant the fair hair was blowing about
+the countenance of this individual, Wilder recognized the quick, keen
+eye and features of the Rover.
+
+“Think you the wind will hold here, sir?” shouted the latter, at the
+top of his voice.
+
+“It has come in fresh enough to be steady,” was the answer.
+
+“A wise mariner would get all his easting in time to me, there is a
+smack of West-Indies about it.”
+
+“You believe we shall have it more at south?”
+
+“I do: But a taught bow-line, for the night, will carry you clear.”
+
+By this time the “Caroline” had swept by, and she was now luffing,
+across the slaver’s bows, into her course again. The figure on the
+taffrail waved high the sea-cap in adieu, and disappeared.
+
+“Is it possible that such a man can traffic in human beings!” exclaimed
+Gertrude, when the sounds of both voices had ceased.
+
+Receiving no reply, she turned quickly, to regard her companion. The
+governess was standing like a being entranced, with her eyes looking on
+vacancy for they had not changed their direction since the motion of
+the vessel had carried her beyond the countenance of the stranger. As
+Gertrude took her hand, and repeated the question, the recollection of
+Mrs Wyllys returned. Passing her own hand over her brow, with a
+bewildered air, she forced a smile as she said,—
+
+“The meeting of vessels, or the renewal of any maritime experience,
+never fails to revive my earliest recollections, love. But surely that
+was an extraordinary being, who has at length shown himself in the
+slaver!”
+
+“For a slaver, most extraordinary!”
+
+Wyllys leaned her head on her hand for an instant, and then turned to
+seek the person of Wilder. The young mariner was standing near,
+studying the expression of her countenance, with an interest scarcely
+less remarkable than her own air of thought.
+
+“Tell me, young man, is yonder individual the Commander of the slaver?”
+
+“He is.”
+
+“You know him?”
+
+“We have met.”
+
+“And he is called——”
+
+“The Master of yon ship. I know no other name.”
+
+“Gertrude, we will seek our cabin. When the land is leaving us, Mr
+Wilder will have the goodness to let us know.”
+
+The latter bowed his assent, and the ladies then left the deck. The
+“Caroline” had now the prospect of getting speedily to sea. In order to
+effect this object, Wilder had every thing, that would draw, set to the
+utmost advantage. One hundred times, at least, however, did he turn his
+head, to steal a look at the vessel he had left behind. She ever lay as
+when they passed—a regular, beautiful but motionless object, in the
+bay. From each of these furtive examinations, our adventurer invariably
+cast an excited and impatient glance at the sails of his own ship;
+ordering this to be drawn tighter to the spar beneath, or that to be
+more distended along its mast.
+
+The effect of so much solicitude, united with so much skill, was to
+urge the Bristol trader through her element at a rate she had rarely,
+if ever, surpassed It was not long before the land ceased to be seen on
+her two beams, and then it was only to be traced in the blue islands in
+their rear, or in a long, dim horizon, to the north and west, where the
+limits of the vast Continent stretches for countless leagues. The
+passengers were now summoned to take their parting look at the land,
+and the officers were seen noting their departures. Just before the day
+shut in, and ere the islands were entirely sunk into the waves, Wilder
+ascended to an upper yard bearing in his hand a glass. His gaze,
+towards the haven he had left, was long, anxious, and abstracted. But
+his descent was distinguished by a more quiet eye, and a calmer mien. A
+smile, like that of success played about his lips; and he gave his
+orders clearly, in a cheerful, encouraging voice. They were obeyed as
+briskly. The elder mariners pointed to the seas, as they cut through
+them, and affirmed that never had the “Caroline” made such progress.
+The mates cast the log, and nodded their approbation as one announced
+to the other the unwonted speed of the ship. In short, content and
+hilarity reigned on board; for it was deemed that their passage was
+commenced under such auspices as would lead it to a speedy and a
+prosperous termination. In the midst of these encouraging omens, the
+sun dipped into the sea, illuming, as it fell, a wide reach of the
+chill and gloomy element. Then the shades of the hour began to gather
+over the vast surface of the illimitable waste.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIV.
+
+“So foul and fair a day I have not seen.”
+
+_Macbeth._
+
+
+The first watch of the night was marked by no change. Wilder had joined
+his passengers, cheerful, and with that air of enjoyment which every
+officer of the sea is more or less wont to exhibit, when he has
+disengaged his vessel from the dangers of the land, and has fairly
+launched her on the trackless and fathomless abyss of the ocean. He no
+longer alluded to the hazards of the passage, but strove, by the
+thousand nameless assiduities which his station enabled him to man
+fest, to expel all recollection of had passed from their minds. Mrs
+Wyllys lent herself to his evident efforts to remove their
+apprehensions and one, ignorant of what had occurred between them,
+would have thought the little party, around the evening’s repast, was a
+contented and unsuspecting group of travellers, who had commenced their
+enterprise under the happiest auguries.
+
+Still there was that, in the thoughtful eye and clouded brow of the
+governess, as at times she turned her bewildered look on our
+adventurer, which denoted a mind far from being at ease. She listened
+to the gay and peculiar, because professional, sallies of the young
+mariner, with smiles that were indulgent while they were melancholy, as
+though his youthful spirits, exhibited as they were by touches of a
+humour that was thoroughly and quaintly nautical recalled familiar, but
+sad, images to her fancy Gertrude had less alloy in her pleasure. Home,
+with a beloved and indulgent father, were before her; and she felt,
+while the ship yielded to each fresh impulse of the wind, as if another
+of those weary miles which had so long separated them, was already
+conquered.
+
+During these short but pleasant hours, the adventurer who had been so
+oddly called into the command of the Bristol trader, appeared in a new
+character. Though his conversation was characterized by the frank
+manliness of a seaman, it was, nevertheless tempered by the delicacy of
+perfect breeding. The beautiful mouth of Gertrude often struggled to
+conceal the smiles which played around her lips and dimpled her cheeks,
+like a soft air ruffling the surface of some limpid spring; and once or
+twice, when the humour of Wilder came unexpectedly across her youthful
+fancy, she was compelled to yield to the impulses of an irresistible
+merriment.
+
+One hour of the free intercourse of a ship can do more towards
+softening the cold exterior in which the world encrusts the best of
+human feelings, than weeks of the unmeaning ceremonies of the land. He
+who has not felt this truth, would do well to distrust his own
+companionable qualities. It would seem that man, when he finds himself
+in the solitude of the ocean, feels the deepest how great is his
+dependancy on others for happiness. Then it is that he yields to
+sentiments with which he trifled, in the wantonness of abundance, and
+is glad to seek relief in the sympathies of his kind. A community of
+hazard makes a community of interest, whether person or property
+composes the stake. Perhaps a meta-physical and a too literal, reasoner
+might add, that, as in such situations each one is conscious the
+condition and fortunes of his neighbour are the mere indexes of his
+own, they acquire value in his eyes from their affinity to himself. If
+this conclusion be true, Providence has happily so constituted the best
+of the species, that the sordid feeling is too latent to be discovered;
+and least of all was any one of the three, who passed the first hours
+of the night around the cabin table of the “Royal Caroline,” to be
+included in so selfish a class. The nature of the intercourse, which
+had rendered the first hours of their acquaintance so singularly
+equivocal, appeared to be forgotten in the freedom of the moment; or,
+if it were remembered at all, it merely served to give the young seaman
+additional interest in the eyes of the females, as much by the mystery
+of the circumstances as by the evident concern he had manifested in
+their behalf.
+
+The bell had struck eight; and the hoarse long-drawn call, which
+summoned the sleepers to the deck, was heard, before either of the
+party seemed aware of the lateness of the hour.
+
+“It is the middle watch,” said Wilder, smiling at he observed that
+Gertrude started at the strange sounds, and sat listening, like a timid
+doe that catches the note of the hunter’s horn. “We seamen are not
+always musical, as you may judge by the strains of the spokesman on
+this occasion. There are, however, ears in the ship to whom his notes
+are even more discordant than to your own.”
+
+“You mean the sleepers?” said Mrs Wyllys.
+
+“I mean the watch below. There is nothing so sweet to the foremast
+mariner as his sleep; for it is the most precarious of all his
+enjoyments: on the other hand, perhaps, it is the most treacherous
+companion the Commander knows.”
+
+“And why is the rest of the superior so much less grateful than that of
+the common man?”
+
+“Because he pillows his head on responsibility.”
+
+“You are young, Mr Wilder, for a trust like this you bear.”
+
+“It is a service which makes us all prematurely old.”
+
+“Then, why not quit it?” said Gertrude, a little hastily.
+
+“Quit it!” he replied, gazing at her intently, for an instant, while he
+suspended his reply. “It would be to me like quitting the air we
+breathe.”
+
+“Have you so long been devoted to your profession?” resumed Mrs Wyllys,
+bending her thoughtful eye, from the ingenuous countenance of her
+pupil, once more towards the features of him she addressed.
+
+“I have reason to think I was born on the sea.”
+
+“Think! You surely know your birth-place.”
+
+“We are all of us dependant on the testimony of others,” said Wilder,
+smiling, “for the account of that important event. My earliest
+recollections are blended with the sight of the ocean, and I can hardly
+say that I am a creature of the land at all.”
+
+“You have, at least, been fortunate in those who have had the charge to
+watch over your education and your younger days.”
+
+“I have!” he answered, with strong emphasis. Then, after shading his
+face an instant with his hands, he arose, and added, with a melancholy
+smile: “And now to my last duty for the twenty four hours. Have you a
+disposition to look at the night? So skilful and so stout a sailor
+should not seek her birth, without passing an opinion on the weather.”
+
+The governess took his offered arm, and, with his aid, ascended the
+stairs of the cabin in silence, each seemingly finding sufficient
+employment in meditation. She was followed by the more youthful, and
+therefore more active Gertrude, who joined them as they stood together,
+on the weather side of the quarter-deck.
+
+The night was rather misty than dark. A full and bright moon had
+arisen; but it pursued its path, through the heavens, behind a body of
+dusky clouds, that was much too dense for any borrowed rays to
+penetrate. Here and there, a straggling gleam appeared to find its way
+through a covering of vapour less dense than the rest, and fell upon
+the water like the dim illumination of a distant taper. As the wind was
+fresh and easterly, the sea seemed to throw upward from its agitated
+surface, more light, than it received; long lines of white, glittering
+foam following each other, and lending, at moments, a distinctness to
+the surface of the waters, that the heavens themselves wanted. The ship
+was bowed low on its side; and, as it entered each rolling swell of the
+ocean, a wide crescent of foam was driven ahead, as if the element
+gambolled along its path. But, though the time was propitious, the wind
+not absolutely adverse, and the heavens rather gloomy than threatening,
+an uncertain (and, to a landsman, it might seem an unnatural) light
+gave to the view a character of the wildest loneliness.
+
+Gertrude shuddered, on reaching the deck, while she murmured an
+expression of strange delight. Even Mrs Wyllys gazed upon the dark
+waves, that were heaving and setting in the horizon, around which was
+shed most of that radiance that seemed so supernatural, with a deep
+conviction that she was now entirely in the hands of the Being who had
+created the waters and the land. But Wilder looked upon the scene as
+one fastens his gaze on a placid sky. To him the view possessed neither
+novelty, nor dread, nor charm. Not so, however, with his more youthful
+and slightly enthusiastic companion. After the first sensations of awe
+had a little subsided, she exclaimed, in the fullest ardour of
+admiration,—
+
+“One such sight would repay a month of imprisonment in a ship! You must
+find deep enjoyment in these scenes, Mr Wilder; you, who have them
+always at command.”
+
+“Yes, yes; there is pleasure to be found in them, without doubt, I
+would that the wind had veer’d a point or two! I like not that sky, nor
+yonder misty horizon, nor this breeze hanging so dead at east.”
+
+“The vessel makes great progress,” returned Mrs Wyllys, calmly,
+observing that the young man spoke without consciousness, and fearing
+the effect of his words on the mind of her pupil. “If we are going on
+our course, there is the appearance of a quick and prosperous passage.”
+
+“True!” exclaimed Wilder, as though he had just become conscious of her
+presence. “Quite probable and very true. Mr Earing, the air is getting
+too heavy for that duck. Hand all your top-gallant sails, and haul the
+ship up closer. Should the wind hang here at east-with-southing, we may
+want what offing we can get.”
+
+The mate replied in the prompt and obedient manner which seamen use to
+their superiors; and; lifter scanning the signs of the weather for a
+moment, he promptly proceeded to see the order executed. While the men
+were on the yards furling the light canvas, the females walked apart,
+leaving the young Commander to the uninterrupted discharge of his duty.
+But Wilder, so far from deeming it necessary to lend his attention to
+so ordinary a service, the moment after he had spoken, seemed perfectly
+unconscious that the mandate had issued from his mouth. He stood on the
+precise spot where the view of the ocean and the heavens had first
+caught his eye, and his gaze still continued fastened on the aspect of
+the two elements. His look was always in the direction of the wind,
+which, though far from a gale, often fell upon the sails of the ship in
+heavy and sullen puffs. After a long and anxious examination, the young
+mariner muttered his thoughts to himself, and commenced pacing the deck
+with rapid footsteps. Still he would make sudden and short pauses, and
+again rivet his gaze on the point of the compass whence the blasts came
+sweeping across the waste of waters; as though he distrusted the
+weather, and would fain cause his keen glance to penetrate the gloom of
+night, in order to relieve some painful doubts. At length his step
+became arrested, in one of those quick turns that he made at each end
+of his narrow walk. Mrs Wyllys and Gertrude stood nigh, and were
+enabled to read something of the anxious character of his countenance,
+as his eye became suddenly fastened on a distant point of the ocean,
+though in a quarter exactly opposite to that whither his former looks
+had been directed.
+
+“Do you so much distrust the weather?” asked the governess, when she
+thought his examination had endured long enough to become ominous of
+evil.
+
+“One looks not to leeward for the signs of the weather, in a breeze
+like this,” was the answer.
+
+“What see you, then, to fasten your eye on thus intently?”
+
+Wilder slowly raised his arm, and was about to point with his finger,
+when the limb suddenly fell again.
+
+“It was delusion!” he muttered, turning quickly on his heel, and pacing
+the deck still more rapidly than ever.
+
+His companions watched the extraordinary, and apparently unconscious,
+movements of the young Commander, with amazement, and not without a
+little secret dismay. Their own looks wandered over the expanse of
+troubled water to leeward, but nowhere could they see more than the
+tossing element, capped with those ridges of garish foam which served
+only to make the chilling waste more dreary and imposing.
+
+“We see nothing,” said Gertrude, when Wilder again stopped in his walk,
+and once more gazed, as before, on the seeming void.
+
+“Look!” he answered, directing their eyes with his finger: “Is there
+nothing there?”
+
+“Nothing.”
+
+“You look into the sea. Here, just where the heavens and the waters
+meet; along that streak of misty light, into which the waves are
+tossing themselves, like little hillocks on the land. There; now ’tis
+smooth again, and my eyes did not deceive me. By heavens, it is a
+ship!”
+
+“Sail, ho!” shouted a voice, from out atop, which sounded in the ears
+of our adventurer like the croaking of some sinister spirit, sweeping
+across the deep.
+
+“Whereaway?” was the stern demand.
+
+“Here on our lee-quarter, sir,” returned the seaman at the top of his
+voice. “I make her out a ship close-hauled; but, for an hour past, she
+has looked more like mist than a vessel.”
+
+“Ay, he is right,” muttered Wilder; “and yet ’tis a strange thing that
+a ship should be just there.”
+
+“And why stranger than that we are here?”
+
+“Why!” said the young man, regarding Mrs Wyllys, who had put this
+question, with a perfectly unconscious eye. “I say, ’tis strange she
+should be there. I would she were steering northward.”
+
+“But you give no reason. Are we always to have warnings from you,” she
+continued, with a smile, “without reasons? Do you deem us so utterly
+unworthy of a reason? or do you think us incapable of thought on a
+subject connected with the sea? You have failed to make the essay, and
+are too quick to decide. Try us this once. We may possibly deceive your
+expectations.”
+
+Wilder laughed faintly, and bowed, as if he recollected himself. Still
+he entered into no explanation; but again turned his gaze on the
+quarter of the ocean where the strange sail was said to be. The females
+followed his example, but ever with the same want of success. As
+Gertrude expressed her disappointment aloud, the soft tones of the
+complainant found their way to the ears of our adventurer.
+
+“You see the streak of dim light,” he said, again pointing across the
+waste. “The clouds have lifted a little there, but the spray of the sea
+is floating between us and the opening. Her spars look like the
+delicate work of a spider, against the sky, and yet you see there are
+all the proportions, with the three masts, of a noble ship.”
+
+Aided by these minute directions, Gertrude at length caught a glimpse
+of the faint object, and soon succeeded in giving the true direction to
+the look of her governess also. Nothing was visible but the dim
+outline, not unaptly described by Wilder himself assembling a spider’s
+web.
+
+“It must be a ship!” said Mrs Wyllys; “but at a vast distance.”
+
+“Hum! Would it were farther. I could wish that vessel any where but
+there.”
+
+“And why not there? Have you reason to dread an enemy has been waiting
+for us in this particular spot?”
+
+“No: Still I like not her position. Would to God she were going north!”
+
+“It is some vessel from the port of New York steering to his Majesty’s
+islands in the Caribbean sea.”
+
+“Not so,” said Wilder, shaking his head; “no vessel, from under the
+heights of Never-sink, could gain that offing with a wind like this!”
+
+“It is then some ship going into the same place, or perhaps bound for
+one of the bays of the Middle Colonies!”
+
+“Her road would be too plain to be mistaken. See; the stranger is close
+upon a wind.”
+
+“It may be a trader, or a cruiser coming _from_ one of the places I
+have named.”
+
+“Neither. The wind has had too much northing, the last two days, for
+that.”
+
+“It is a vessel that we have overtaken, and which has come out of the
+waters of Long Island Sound.”
+
+“That, indeed, may we yet hope,” muttered Wilder in a smothered voice.
+
+The governess, who had put the foregoing questions in order to extract
+from the Commander of the “Caroline” the information he so
+pertinaciously withheld, had now exhausted all her own knowledge on the
+subject, and was compelled to await his further pleasure in the matter,
+or resort to the less equivocal means of direct interrogation. But the
+busy state of Wilder’s thoughts left her no immediate opportunity to
+pursue the subject. He soon summoned the officer of the watch to his
+councils, and they consulted together, apart, for many minutes. The
+hardy, but far from quick witted, seaman who tilled the second station
+in the ship saw nothing so remarkable in the appearance of a strange
+sail, in the precise spot where the dim and nearly aerial image of the
+unknown vessel was still visible; nor did he hesitate to pronounce her
+some honest trader bent, like themselves, on her purpose of lawful
+commerce. It would seem that his Commander thought otherwise, as will
+appear by the short dialogue that passed between them.
+
+“Is it not extraordinary that she should be just there?” demanded
+Wilder, after they had, each in turn, made a closer examination of the
+faint object, by the aid of an excellent night-glass.
+
+“She would be better off, here,” returned the literal seaman, who only
+had an eye for the nautical situation of the stranger; “and we should
+be none the worse for being a dozen leagues more to the eastward,
+ourselves. If the wind holds here at east-by-south-half-south we shall
+have need of all that offing. I got jammed once between Hatteras and
+the Gulf”—
+
+“But, do you not perceive that she is where no vessel could or ought to
+be, unless she has run exactly the same course with ourselves?”
+interrupted Wilder. “Nothing, from any harbour south of New York, could
+have such northing, as the wind has been; while nothing, from the
+Colony of York would stand on this tack, if bound east; or would be
+here, if going southward.”
+
+The plain-going ideas of the honest mate were open to a reasoning which
+the reader may find a little obscure: for his mind contained a sort of
+chart of the ocean, to which he could at any time refer, with a proper
+discrimination between the various winds, and all the different points
+of the compass. When properly directed, he was not slow to see, as a
+mariner, the probable justice of his young Commander’s inferences; and
+then wonder, in its turn began to take possession of his more obtuse
+faculties.
+
+“It is downright unnatural, truly, that the fellow should be there!” he
+replied, shaking his head, but meaning no more than that it was
+entirely out of the order of nautical propriety; “I see the philosophy
+of what you say, Captain Wilder; and little do I know how to explain
+it. It is a ship, to a mortal certainty!”
+
+“Of that there is no doubt. But a ship most strangely placed!”
+
+“I doubled the Good-Hope in the year ’46,” continued the other, “and
+saw a vessel lying, as it might be, here, on our weather-bow—which is
+just opposite to this fellow, since he is on our lee-quarter—but there
+I saw a ship standing for an hour across our fore-foot, and yet, though
+we set the azimuth, not a degree did he budge, starboard or larboard,
+during all that time, which, as it was heavy weather, was, to say the
+least, something out of the common order.”
+
+“It was remarkable!” returned Wilder, with an air so vacant, as to
+prove that he rather communed with himself than attended to his
+companion.
+
+“There are mariners who say that the flying Dutchman cruises off that
+Cape, and that he often gets on the weather side of a stranger, and
+bears down upon him, like a ship about to lay him aboard. Many is the
+King’s cruiser, as they say, that has turned her hands up from a sweet
+sleep, when the look-outs have seen a double decker coming down in the
+night, with ports up, and batteries lighted but then this can’t be any
+such craft as the Dutchman, since she is, at the most, no more than a
+large sloop of war, if a cruiser at all.”
+
+“No, no,” said Wilder, “this can never be the Dutchman.”
+
+“Yon vessel shows no lights; and, for that matter, she has such a misty
+look, that one might well question its being a ship at all. Then,
+again, the Dutchman is always seen to windward, and the strange sail we
+have here lies broad upon our lee-quarter!”
+
+“It is no Dutchman,” said Wilder, drawing a long breath, like a man
+awaking from a trance. “Main topmast-cross-trees, there!”
+
+The man who was stationed aloft answered to this hail in the customary
+manner, the short conversation that succeeded being necessarily
+maintained in shouts, rather than in speeches.
+
+“How long have you seen the stranger?” was the first demand of Wilder.
+
+“I have just come aloft, sir; but the man I relieved tells me more than
+an hour.”
+
+“And has the man you relieved come down? or what is that I see sitting
+on the lee side of the mast-head?”
+
+“’Tis Bob Brace, sir; who says he cannot sleep, and so he stays upon
+the yard to keep me company.”
+
+“Send the man down. I would speak to him.”
+
+While the wakeful seaman was descending the rigging, the two officers
+continued silent, each seeming to find sufficient occupation in musing
+on what had already passed.
+
+“And why are you not in your hammock?” said Wilder, a little sternly,
+to the man who, in obedience to his order, had descended to the
+quarter-deck.
+
+“I am not sleep-bound, your Honour, and therefore I had the mind to
+pass another hour aloft.”
+
+“And why are you, who have two night-watches to keep already, so
+willing to enlist in a third?”
+
+“To own the truth, sir, my mind has been a little misgiving about this
+passage, since the moment we lifted our anchor.”
+
+Mrs Wyllys and Gertrude, who were auditors, insensibly drew nigher, to
+listen, with a species of interest which betrayed itself by the
+thrilling of nerves, and an accelerated movement of the pulse.
+
+“And you have your doubts, sir!” exclaimed the Captain, in a tone of
+slight contempt. “Pray, may I ask what you have seen, on board here, to
+make you distrust the ship.”
+
+“No harm in asking, your Honour,” returned the seaman, crushing the hat
+he held between two hands that had a gripe like a couple of vices, “and
+so I hope there is none in answering. I pulled an oar in the boat after
+the old man this morning, and I cannot say I like the manner in which
+he got from the chase. Then, there is something in the ship to leeward
+that comes athwart my fancy like a drag, and I confess, your Honour,
+that I should make but little head-way in a nap, though I should try
+the swing of a hammock.”
+
+“How long is it since you made the ship to leeward?” gravely demanded
+Wilder.
+
+“I will not swear that a real living ship has been made out at all,
+sir. Something I did see, just before the bell struck seven, and there
+it is, just as clear and just as dim, to be seen now by them that have
+good eyes.”
+
+“And how did she bear when you first saw her?”
+
+“Two or three points more toward the beam than it is now.”
+
+“Then we are passing her!” exclaimed Wilder, with a pleasure too
+evident to be concealed.
+
+“No, your Honour, no. You forget, sir, the ship has come closer to the
+wind since the middle watch was set.”
+
+“True,” returned his young Commander, in a tone of disappointment;
+“true, very true. And her bearing has not changed since you first made
+her?”
+
+“Not by compass, sir. It is a quick boat that, or would never hold such
+way with the ‘Royal Caroline,’ and that too upon a stiffened bow-line,
+which every body knows is the real play of this ship.”
+
+“Go, get you to your hammock. In the morning we may have a better look
+at the fellow.”
+
+“And—you hear me, sir,” added the attentive mate, “do not keep the
+men’s eyes open below, with a tale as long as the short cable, but take
+your own natural rest, and leave all others, that have clear
+consciences, to do the same.”
+
+“Mr Earing,” said Wilder, as the seaman reluctantly proceeded towards
+his place of rest, “we will bring the ship upon the other tack, and get
+more easting, while the land is so far from us. This course will be
+setting us upon Hatteras. Besides”——
+
+“Yes, sir,” the mate replied, observing his superior to hesitate, “as
+you were saying,—besides, no one can foretel the length of a gale, nor
+the real quarter it may come from.”
+
+“Precisely. No one can answer for the weather. The men are scarcely in
+their hammocks; turn them up at once, sir, before their eyes are heavy,
+and we will bring the ship’s head the other way.”
+
+The mate instantly sounded the well-known cry, which summoned the watch
+below to the assistance of their shipmates on the deck. Little delay
+occurred, and not a word was uttered, but the short, authoritative
+mandates which Wilder saw fit to deliver from his own lips. No longer
+pressed up against the wind, the ship, obedient to her helm, gracefully
+began to incline her head from the waves, and to bring the wind abeam.
+Then, instead of breasting and mounting the endless hillocks, like a
+being that toiled heavily along its path, she fell into the trough of
+the sea, from which she issued like a courser, who, have conquered an
+ascent, shoots along the track with redoubled velocity. For an instant
+the wind appeared to have lulled, though the wide ridge of foam which
+rolled along on each side the vessel’s bows, sufficiently proclaimed
+that she was skimming lightly before it. In another moment, the tall
+spars began to incline again to the west, and the vessel came swooping
+up to the wind, until her plunges and shocks against the seas were
+renewed as violently as before. When every yard and sheet were properly
+trimmed to meet the new position of the vessel, Wilder turned anxiously
+to get a glimpse of the stranger. A minute was lost in ascertaining the
+precise spot where he ought to appear; for, in such a chaos of water,
+and with no guide but the judgment, the eye was apt to deceive itself,
+by referring to the nearer and more familiar objects by which the
+spectator was surrounded.
+
+“The stranger has vanished!” said Earing, with a voice in whose tones
+mental relief and distrust were both, at the same moment, oddly
+manifesting themselves.
+
+“He should be on this quarter; but I confess I see him not!”
+
+“Ay, ay, sir; this is the way that the midnight cruiser off the Hope is
+said to come and go. There are men who have seen that vessel shut in by
+a fog, in as fine a star-light night as was ever met in a southern
+latitude. But then this cannot be the Dutchman, since it is so many
+long leagues from the pitch of the Cape to the coast of North-America.
+
+“Here he lies; and, by heaven! he has already gone about!” cried
+Wilder.
+
+The truth of what our young adventurer had just affirmed was indeed now
+sufficiently evident to the eye of any seaman. The same diminutive and
+misty tracery, as before, was to be seen on the light background of the
+threatening horizon, looking not unlike the faintest shadows cast upon
+some brighter surface by the deception of the phantasmagoria. But to
+the mariners, who so well knew how to distinguish between the different
+lines of her masts, it was very evident that her course had been
+suddenly and dexterously changed, and that she was now steering no
+longer to the south and west, but, like themselves, holding her way
+towards the north-east. The fact appeared to make a sensible impression
+on them all; though probably, had their reasons been sifted, they would
+have been found to be entirely different.
+
+“That ship has truly tacked!” Earing exclaimed, after a long,
+meditative pause, and with a voice in which distrust, or rather awe,
+was beginning to get the ascendancy. “Long as I have followed the sea,
+have I never before seen a vessel tack against such a head-beating sea.
+He must have been all shaking in the wind, when we gave him the last
+look, or we should not have lost sight of him.”
+
+“A lively and quick-working vessel might do it,” said Wilder;
+“especially if strong handed.”
+
+“Ay, the hand of Beelzebub is always strong; and a light job would he
+make of it, in forcing even a dull craft to sail.”
+
+“Mr Earing,” interrupted Wilder, “we will pack upon the ‘Caroline,’ and
+try our sailing with this taunting stranger. Get the main tack aboard,
+and set the top-gallant-sail.”
+
+The slow-minded mate would have remonstrated against the order, had he
+dared; but there was that, in the calm, subdued, but deep tones of his
+young Commander, which admonished him of the hazard. He was not wrong,
+however, in considering the duty he was now to perform as one not
+without some risk. The ship was already moving under quite as much
+canvas as he deemed it prudent to show at such an hour, and with so
+many threatening symptoms of heavier weather hanging about the horizon.
+The necessary orders were, however, repeated as promptly as they had
+been given. The seamen had already begun to consider the stranger, and
+to converse among themselves concerning his appearance and situation;
+and they obeyed with an alacrity that might perhaps have been traced to
+a secret but common wish to escape from his vicinity. The sails were
+successively and speedily set; and then each man folded his arms, and
+stood gazing steadily and intently at the shadowy object to leeward, in
+order to witness the effect of the change.
+
+The “Royal Caroline” seemed, like her crew, sensible of the necessity
+of increasing her speed. As she felt the pressure of the broad sheets
+of canvas that had just been distended, the ship bowed lower, and
+appeared to recline on the bed of water which rose under her lee nearly
+to the scuppers. On the other side, the dark planks, and polished
+copper, lay bare for many feet, though often washed by the waves that
+came sweeping along her length, green and angrily, still capped, as
+usual, with crests of lucid foam. The shocks, as the vessel tilted
+against the billows, were becoming every moment more severe; and, from
+each encounter, a bright cloud of spray arose, which either fell
+glittering on the deck, or drove, in brilliant mist, across the rolling
+water, far to leeward.
+
+Wilder long watched the ship, with an excited mien, but with all the
+intelligence of a seaman. Once or twice, when she trembled, and
+appeared to stop, in her violent encounter with a wave, as suddenly as
+though she had struck a rock, his lips severed, and he was about to
+give the order to reduce the sail; but a glance at the misty looking
+image on the western horizon seemed ever to cause his mind to change
+its purpose. Like a desperate adventurer, who had cast his fortunes on
+some hazardous experiment, he appeared to await the issue with a
+resolution that was as haughty as it was unconquerable.
+
+“That topmast is bending like a whip,” muttered the careful Earing, at
+his elbow.
+
+“Let it go; we have spare spars to put in its place,” was the answer.
+
+“I have always found the ‘Caroline’ leaky after she has been strained
+by driving her against the sea.”
+
+“We have our pumps.”
+
+“True, sir; but, in my poor judgment, it is idle to think of outsailing
+a craft that the devil commands if he does not altogether handle it.”
+
+“One will never know that, Mr Earing, till he tries.”
+
+“We gave the Dutchman a chance of that sort; and, I must say, we not
+only had the most canvas spread, but much the best of the wind: And
+what good did it all do? there he lay, under his three topsails driver,
+and jib; and we, with studding sails alow and aloft, couldn’t alter his
+bearing a foot.”
+
+“The Dutchman is never seen in a northern latitude.”
+
+“Well, I cannot say he is,” returned Earing, in a sort of compelled
+resignation; “but he who has put that flyer off the Cape may have found
+the cruise so profitable, as to wish to send another ship into these
+seas.”
+
+Wilder made no reply. He had either humoured the superstitious
+apprehension of his mate enough, or his mind was too intent on its
+principal object, to dwell longer on a foreign subject.
+
+Notwithstanding the seas that met her advance, in such quick succession
+as greatly to retard her progress the Bristol trader had soon toiled
+her way through a league of the troubled element. At every plunge she
+took, the bow divided a mass of water, that appeared, at each instant,
+to become more vast and more violent in its rushing; and more than once
+the struggling hull was nearly buried forward, in some wave which it
+had equal difficulty in mounting or penetrating.
+
+The mariners narrowly watched the smallest movements of their vessel.
+Not a man left her deck, for hours. The superstitious awe, which had
+taken such deep hold of the untutored faculties of the chief mate, had
+not been slow to extend its influence to the meanest of her crew. Even
+the accident which had befallen their former Commander, and the sudden
+and mysterious manner in which the young officer, who now trod the
+quarter-deck, so singularly firm and calm, under circumstances deemed
+so imposing, had their influence in heightening the wild impression The
+impunity with which the “Caroline” bore such a press of canvas, under
+the circumstances in which she was placed, added to their kindling
+admiration; and, ere Wilder had determined, in his own mind, on the
+powers of his ship, in comparison with those of the vessel that so
+strangely hung in the horizon, he was himself becoming the subject of
+unnatural and revolting suspicions to his own crew.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XV.
+
+“I’ the name of truth,
+Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
+Which outwardly ye show?”
+
+_Macbeth._
+
+
+The division of employment that is found in Europe, and which brings,
+in its train, a peculiar and corresponding limitation of ideas, has
+never yet existed in our country. If our artisans have, in consequence
+been less perfect in their several handicrafts, they have ever been
+remarkable for intelligence of a more general character. Superstition
+is however, a quality that seems indigenous to the ocean. Few common
+mariners are exempt from its influence, in a greater or less degree;
+though it is found to exist, among the seamen of different people, in
+forms that are tempered by their respective national habits and
+peculiar opinions. The sailor of the Baltic has his secret rites, and
+his manner of propitiating the gods of the wind; the Mediterranean
+mariner tears his hair, and kneels before the shrine of some impotent
+saint, when his own hand might better do the service he implores; while
+the more skilful Englishman sees the spirits of the dead in the storm,
+and hears the cries of a lost messmate in the gusts that sweep the
+waste he navigates. Even the better instructed and still more reasoning
+American has not been able to shake entirely off the secret influence
+of a sentiment that seems the concomitant of his condition.
+
+There is a majesty, in the might of the great deep that has a tendency
+to keep open the avenues of that dependant credulity which more or less
+besets the mind of every man, however he may have fortified his
+intellect by thought. With the firmament above him, and wandering on an
+interminable waste of water, the less gifted seaman is tempted, at
+every step of his pilgrimage, to seek the relief of some propitious
+omen. The few which are supported by scientific causes give support to
+the many that have their origin only in his own excited and doubting
+temperament. The gambols of the dolphin, the earnest and busy passage
+of the porpoise, the ponderous sporting of the unwieldy whale, and the
+screams of the marine birds, have all, like the signs of the ancient
+soothsayers, their attendant consequences of good or evil. The
+confusion between things which are explicable, and things which are
+not, gradually brings the mind of the mariner to a state in which any
+exciting and unnatural sentiment is welcome, if it be or no other
+reason than that, like the vast element on which he passes his life, it
+bears the impression of what is thought a supernatural, because it is
+an incomprehensible, power.
+
+The crew of the “Royal Caroline” had not even the advantage of being
+natives of a land where necessity and habit have united to bring every
+man’s faculties into exercise, to a certain extent at least. They were
+all from that distant island that has been, and still continues to be,
+the hive of nations, which are probably fated to carry her name to a
+time when the sight of her fallen power shall be sought as a curiosity,
+like the remains of a city in a desert.
+
+The whole events of that day of which we are now writing had a tendency
+to arouse the latent superstition of these men. It has already been
+said, that the calamity which had befallen their former Commander, and
+the manner in which a stranger had succeeded to his authority, had
+their influence in increasing their disposition to doubt. The sail to
+leeward appeared most inopportunely for the character of our
+adventurer, who had not yet enjoyed a fitting opportunity to secure the
+confidence of his inferiors, before such untoward circumstances
+occurred as threatened to deprive him of it for ever.
+
+There has existed but one occasion for introducing to the reader the
+mate who filled the station in the ship next to that of Earing. He was
+called Nighthead; a name that was, in some measure, indicative of a
+certain misty obscurity that beset his superior member. The qualities
+of his mind may be appreciated by the few reflections he saw fit to
+make on the escape of the old mariner whom Wilder had intended to visit
+with a portion of his indignation. This individual, as he was but one
+degree removed from the common men in situation, so was he every way
+qualified to maintain that association with the crew which was, in some
+measure, necessary between them. His influence among them was
+commensurate to his opportunities of intercourse, and his sentiments
+were very generally received with a portion of that deference which is
+thought to be due to the opinions of an oracle.
+
+After the ship had been worn, and during the time that Wilder, with a
+view to lose sight of his unwelcome neighbour, was endeavouring to urge
+her through the seas in the manner already described, this stubborn and
+mystified tar remained in the waist of the vessel, surrounded by a few
+of the older and more experienced seamen, holding converse on the
+remarkable appearance of the phantom to leeward, and of the
+extraordinary manner in which their unknown officer saw fit to attest
+the enduring qualities of their own vessel. We shall commence our
+relation of the dialogue at a point where Nighthead saw fit to
+discontinue his distant inuendos, in order to deal more directly with
+the subject he had under discussion.
+
+“I have heard it said, by older sea-faring men than any in this ship,”
+he continued, “that the devil has been known to send one of his mates
+aboard a lawful trader, to lead her astray among shoals and quicksands,
+in order that he might make a wreck, and get his share of the salvage,
+among the souls of the people. What man can say who gets into the
+cabin, when an unknown name stands first in the shipping list of a
+vessel?”
+
+“The stranger is shut in by a cloud!” exclaimed one of the mariners,
+who, while he listened to the philosophy of his officer, still kept an
+eye riveted on the mysterious object to leeward.
+
+“Ay, ay; it would occasion no surprise to see that craft steering into
+the moon! Luck is like a fly-block and its yard: when one goes up, the
+other comes down. They say the red-coats ashore have had their turn of
+fortune, and it is time we honest seamen look out for our squalls. I
+have doubled the Horn, brothers, in a King’s ship, and I have seen the
+bright cloud that never sets, and have held a living corposant in my
+own hand: But these are things which any man may look on, who will go
+upon a yard in a gale, or ship aboard a Southseaman: Still, I pronounce
+it uncommon for a vessel to see her shadow in the haze, as we have ours
+at this moment for there it comes again!—hereaway, between the
+after-shroud and the backstay—or for a trader to carry sail in a
+fashion that would make every knee in a bomb-ketch work like a
+tooth-brush fiddling across a passenger’s mouth, after he had had a
+smart bout with the sea sickness.”
+
+“And yet the lad holds the ship in hand,” said the oldest of all the
+seamen, who kept his gaze fastened on the proceedings of Wilder; “he is
+driving her through it in a mad manner, I will allow; but yet, so far,
+he has not parted a yarn.”
+
+“Yarns!” repeated the mate, in a tone of strong contempt; “what signify
+yarns, when the whole cable is to snap, and in such a fashion as to
+leave no hope for the anchor, except in a buoy rope? Hark ye, old Bill;
+the devil never finishes his jobs by halves: What is to happen will
+happen bodily; and no easing-off, as if you were lowering the Captain’s
+lady into a boat, and he on deck to see fair play.”
+
+“Mr Nighthead knows how to keep a ship’s reckoning in all weathers!”
+said another, whose manner sufficiently announced the dependance he
+himself placed on the capacity of the second mate.
+
+“And no credit to me for the same. I have seen all services, and
+handled every rig, from a lugger to a double-decker! Few men can say
+more in their own favour than myself; for the little I know has been
+got by much hardship, and small schooling. But what matters
+information, or even seamanship against witchcraft, or the workings of
+one whom I don’t choose to name, seeing that there is no use in
+offending any gentleman unnecessarily? I say, brothers that this ship
+is packed upon in a fashion that no prudent seaman ought to, or would,
+allow.”
+
+A general murmur announced that most, if not all, of his hearers
+accorded in his opinion.
+
+“Let us examine calmly and reasonably, and in a manner becoming
+enlightened Englishmen, into the whole state of the case,” the mate
+continued, casting an eye obliquely over his shoulder, perhaps to make
+sure that the individual, of whose displeasure he stood in such
+salutary awe, was not actually at his elbow. “We are all of us, to a
+man, native-born islanders, without a drop of foreign blood among us;
+not so much as a Scotchman or an Irishman in the ship. Let us therefore
+look into the philosophy of this affair, with that sort of judgment
+which becomes our breeding. In the first place, here is honest Nicholas
+Nichols slips from this here water-cask, and breaks me a leg! Now,
+brothers, I’ve known men to fall from tops and yards, and lighter
+damage done. But what matters it, to a certain person, how far he
+throws his man, since he has only to lift a finger to get us all
+hanged? Then, comes me aboard here a stranger, with a look of the
+colonies about him, and none of your plain-dealing, out-and-out, smooth
+English faces, such as a man can cover with the flat of his hand.”—
+
+“The lad is well enough to the eye,” interrupted the old mariner.
+
+“Ay, therein lies the whole deviltry of this matter! He is
+good-looking, I grant ye; but it is not such good-looking as an
+Englishman loves. There is a meaning about him that I don’t like; for I
+never likes too much meaning in a man’s countenance, seeing that it is
+not always easy to understand what he would be doing. Then, this
+stranger gets to be Master of the ship, or, what is the same thing,
+next to Master; while he who should be on deck giving his orders, in a
+time like this, is lying in his birth unable to tack himself, much less
+to put the vessel about; and yet no man can say how the thing came to
+pass.”
+
+“He drove a bargain with the consignee for the station, and right glad
+did the cunning merchant seem to get so tight a youth to take charge of
+the ‘Caroline.’”
+
+“Ah! a merchant is, like the rest of us, made of nothing better than
+clay; and, what is worse, it is seldom that, in putting him together,
+he is dampened with salt water. Many is the trader that has douzed his
+spectacles, and shut his account-books, to step aside to over-reach his
+neighbour, and then come back to find that he has over-reached himself.
+Mr Bale, no doubt, thought he was doing the clever thing for the
+owners, when he shipped this Mr Wilder; but then, perhaps, he did not
+know that the vessel was sold to ——— It becomes a plain-going seaman to
+have a respect for all he sails under; so I will not, unnecessarily,
+name the person who, I believe, has got, whether he came by it in a
+fair purchase or not, no small right in this vessel.”
+
+“I have never seen a ship got out of irons more handsomely than he
+handled the ‘Caroline’ this very morning.”
+
+Nighthead now indulged in a low, but what to his listeners appeared to
+be an exceedingly meaning, laugh.
+
+“When a ship has a certain sort of Captain, one is not to be surprised
+at any thing,” he answered the instant his significant merriment had
+ceased. “For my own part, I shipped to go from Bristol to the Carolinas
+and Jamaica, touching at Newport out and home; and I will say, boldly,
+I have no wish to go any where else. As to backing the ‘Caroline’ from
+her awkward birth alongside the slaver, why it was well done; most too
+well for so young a manner. Had I done the thing myself, it could not
+have been much better. But what think you, brothers of the old man in
+the skiff? There was a chase, and an escape, such as few old sea-dogs
+have the fortune to behold! I have heard of a smuggler that was chased
+a hundred times by his Majesty’s cutters, in the chops of the Channel,
+and which always had a fog handy to run into, but out of which no man
+could truly say he ever saw her come again! This skiff may have plied
+between the land and that Guernseyman, for any thing I know to the
+contrary; but it is not a boat I wish to pull a scull in.”
+
+“That _was_ a remarkable flight!” exclaimed the elder seaman, whose
+faith in the character of our adventurer began to give way gradually,
+before such an accumulation of testimony.
+
+“I call it so; though other men may possibly know better than I, who
+have only followed the water five-and-thirty years. Then, here is the
+sea getting up, in an unaccountable manner! and look at these rags of
+clouds, which darken the heavens! and yet there is light enough, coming
+from the ocean, for a good scholar to read by!”
+
+“I’ve often seen the weather as it is now.”
+
+“Ay, who has not? It is seldom that any man, let him come from what
+part he will, makes his first voyage as Captain. Let who will be out
+to-night upon the water, I’ll engage he has been there before. I have
+seen worse looking skies, and even worse looking water, than this; but
+I never knew any good come of either. The night I was wreck’d in the
+bay of”——
+
+“In the waist there!” cried the calm, authoritative tones of Wilder.
+
+Had a warning voice arisen from the turbulent and rushing ocean itself,
+it would not have sounded more alarming, in the startled ears of the
+conscious seamen, than this sudden hail. Their young Commander found it
+necessary to repeat it, before even Nighthead, the proper and official
+spokesman, could muster resolution to answer.
+
+“Get the fore-top-gallant-sail on the ship, sir,” continued Wilder,
+when the customary reply let him know that he had been heard.
+
+The mate and his companions regarded each other, for a moment, in dull
+admiration; and many a melancholy shake of the head was exchanged,
+before one of the party threw himself into the weather-rigging, and
+proceeded aloft, with a doubting mind, in order to loosen the sail in
+question.
+
+There was certainly enough, in the desperate manner with which Wilder
+pressed the canvas on the vessel, to excite distrust, either of his
+intentions or judgment, in the opinions of men less influenced by
+superstition than those it was now his lot to command. It had long been
+apparent to Earing, and his more ignorant, and consequently more
+obstinate, brother officer, that their young superior had the same
+desire to escape from the spectral-looking ship, which so strangely
+followed their movements, as they had themselves. They only differed in
+the mode; but this difference was so very material, that the two mates
+consulted together apart, and then Earing, something stimulated by the
+hardy opinions of his coadjutor, approached his Commander, with the
+determination of delivering the results of their united judgments, with
+that sort of directness which he thought the occasion now demanded. But
+there was that in the steady eye and imposing mien of Wilder, that
+caused him to touch on the dangerous subject with a discretion and
+circumlocution that were a little remarkable for the individual. He
+stood watching the effect of the sail recently spread for several
+minutes, before he even presumed to open his mouth. But a terrible
+encounter, between the vessel and a wave that lifted its angry crest
+apparently some dozen feet above the approaching bows, gave him courage
+to proceed, by admonishing him afresh of the danger of continuing
+silent.
+
+“I do not see that we drop the stranger, though the ship is wallowing
+through the water so heavily,” he commenced, determined to be as
+circumspect as possible in his advances.
+
+Wilder bent another of his frequent glances on the misty object in the
+horizon, and then turned his frowning eye towards the point whence the
+wind proceeded, as if he would defy its heaviest blasts; he, however,
+made no answer.
+
+“We have ever found the crew discontented at the pumps, sir,” resumed
+the other, after a pause sufficient for the reply he in vain expected;
+“I need not tell an officer, who knows his duty so well, that seamen
+rarely love their pumps.”
+
+“Whatever I may find necessary to order, Mr Earing, this ship’s company
+will find it necessary to execute.”
+
+There was a deep settled air of authority, in the manner with which
+this tardy answer was given, that did not fail of its impression.
+Earing recoiled a step, with a submissive manner, and affected to be
+lost in consulting the driving masses of the clouds; then, summoning
+his resolution, he attempted to renew the attack in a different
+quarter.
+
+“Is it your deliberate opinion, Captain Wilder,” he said, using the
+title to which the claim of our adventurer might well be questioned,
+with a view to propitiate him; “is it then your deliberate opinion that
+the ‘Royal Caroline’ can, by any human means, be made to drop yonder
+vessel?”
+
+“I fear not,” returned the young man, drawing a breath so long, that
+all his secret concern seemed struggling in his breast for utterance.
+
+“And, sir, with proper submission to your better education and
+authority in this ship, I _know_ not. I have often seen these matches
+tried in my time; and well do I know that nothing is gained by
+straining a vessel, with the hope of getting to windward of one of
+these flyers!”
+
+“Take you the glass, Earing, and tell me under what canvas the stranger
+holds his way, and what may be his distance,” said Wilder,
+thoughtfully, and without appearing to advert at all to what the other
+had just observed.
+
+The honest and well-meaning mate deposed his hat on the quarter-deck,
+and, with an air of great respect, did as he was desired. Nor did he
+deem it necessary to give a precipitate answer to either of the
+interrogatories. When, however, his look had been long, grave, and
+deeply absorbed, he closed the glass with the palm of his broad hand,
+and replied, with the manner of one whose opinion was sufficiently
+matured.
+
+“If yonder sail had been built and fitted like other mortal craft,” he
+said, “I should not be backward in pronouncing her a full-rigged ship,
+under three single-reefed topsails, courses, spanker, and jib.”
+
+“Has she no more?”
+
+“To that I would qualify, provided an opportunity were given me to make
+sure that she is, in all respects, as other vessels are.”
+
+“And yet, Earing, with all this press of canvas, by the compass we have
+not left her a foot.”
+
+“Lord, sir,” returned the mate, shaking his head, like one who was well
+convinced of the folly of such efforts, “if you should split every
+cloth in the main-course, by carrying on the ship you will never alter
+the bearings of that craft an inch, till the sun rises! Then, indeed,
+such as have eyes, that are good enough, might perhaps see her sailing
+about among the clouds; though it has never been my fortune be it bad
+or be it good, to fall in with one of these cruisers after the day has
+fairly dawned.”
+
+“And the distance?” said Wilder; “you have not yet spoken of her
+distance.”
+
+“That is much as people choose to measure. She may be here, nigh enough
+to toss a biscuit into our tops; or she may be there, where she seems
+to be, hull down in the horizon.”
+
+“But, if where she seems to be?”
+
+“Why, she _seems_ to be a vessel of about six hundred tons; and,
+judging from appearances only, a man might be tempted to say she was a
+couple of leagues, more or less, under our lee.”
+
+“I put her at the same! Six miles to windward is not a little
+advantage, in a hard chase. By heavens, Earing, I’ll drive the
+‘Caroline’ out of water but I’ll leave him!”
+
+“That might be done, if the ship had wings like a curlew, or a
+sea-gull; but, as it is, I think we are more likely to drive her
+under.”
+
+“She bears her canvas well, so far. You know not what the boat can do,
+when urged.”
+
+“I have seen her sailed in all weathers, Captain Wilder, but”——
+
+His mouth was suddenly closed. A vast black wave reared itself between
+the ship and the eastern horizon, and came rolling onward, seeming to
+threaten to ingulf all before it. Even Wilder watched the shock with
+breathless anxiety, conscious, for the moment that he had exceeded the
+bounds of sound discretion in urging his ship so powerfully against
+such a mass of water. The sea broke a few fathoms from the bows of the
+“Caroline,” and sent its surge in a flood of foam upon her decks. For
+half a minute the forward part of the vessel disappeared, as though,
+unable to mount the swell, it were striving to go through it, and then
+she heavily emerged, gemmed with a million of the scintillating insects
+of the ocean. The ship had stopped, trembling in every joint,
+throughout her massive and powerful frame, like some affrighted
+courser; and, when she resumed her course, it was with a moderation
+that appeared to warn those who governed her movements of their
+indiscretion.
+
+Earing faced his Commander in silence, perfectly conscious that nothing
+he could utter contained an argument like this. The seamen no longer
+hesitated to mutter their disapprobation aloud, and many a prophetic
+opinion was ventured concerning the consequences of such reckless
+risks. To all this Wilder turned a deaf or an insensible ear. Firm in
+his own secret purpose, he would have braved a greater hazard to
+accomplish his object. But a distinct though smothered shriek, from the
+stern of the vessel, reminded him of the fears of others. Turning
+quickly on his heel, he approached the still trembling Gertrude and her
+governess, who had both been, throughout the whole of those long and
+tedious hours, inobtrusive but deeply interested, observers of his
+smallest movements.
+
+“The vessel bore that shock so well, I have great reliance on her
+powers,” he said in a soothing voice, but with words that were intended
+to lull her into a blind security. “With a firm ship, a thorough seaman
+is never at a loss!”
+
+“Mr Wilder,” returned the governess, “I have seen much of this terrible
+element on which you live. It is therefore vain to think of deceiving
+me I know that you are urging the ship beyond what is usual. Have you
+sufficient motive for this hardihood?”
+
+“Madam,—I have!”
+
+“And is it, like so many of your motives, to continue locked for ever
+in your own breast? or may we, who are equal participators in its
+consequences, claim to share equally in the reason?”
+
+“Since you know so much of the profession,” returned the young man,
+slightly laughing, but in tones that were rendered perhaps more
+alarming by the sounds produced in the unnatural effort, “you need not
+be told, that, in order to get a ship to windward, it is necessary to
+spread her canvas.”
+
+“You can, at least, answer one of my questions more directly: Is this
+wind sufficiently favourable to pass the dangerous shoals of the
+Hatteras?”
+
+“I doubt it.”
+
+“Then, why not go to the place whence we came?”
+
+“Will you consent to return?” demanded the youth, with the swiftness of
+thought.
+
+“I would go to my father,” said Gertrude, with a rapidity so nearly
+resembling his own, that the ardent girl appeared to want breath to
+utter the little she said.
+
+“And I am willing, Mr Wilder, to abandon the ship entirely,” calmly
+resumed the governess. “I require no explanation of all your mysterious
+warnings; restore us to our friends in Newport, and no further
+questions shall ever be asked.”
+
+“It might be done!” muttered our adventurer; “it might be done!—A few
+busy hours would do it, with this wind.—Mr Earing!”—
+
+The mate was instantly at his elbow. Wilder pointed to the dim object
+to leeward; and, handing him the glass, desired that he would take
+another view. Each looked, in his turn, long and closely.
+
+“He shows no more sail!” said the Commander impatiently, when his own
+prolonged gaze was ended.
+
+“Not a cloth, sir. But what matters it, to such a craft, how much
+canvas is spread, or how the wind blows?”
+
+“Earing, I think there is too much southing in this breeze; and there
+is more brewing in yonder streak of dusky clouds on our beam. Let the
+ship fall off a couple of points, or more, and take the strain off the
+spars, by a pull upon the weather braces.”
+
+The simple-minded mate heard the order with an astonishment he did not
+care to conceal. There needed no explanation, to teach his experienced
+faculties that the effect would be to go over the same track they had
+just passed, and that it was, in substance abandoning the objects of
+the voyage. He presumed to defer his compliance, in order to
+remonstrate.
+
+“I hope there is no offence for an elderly seaman, like myself, Captain
+Wilder, in venturing an opinion on the weather,” he said. “When the
+pocket of the owner is interested, my judgment approves of going about,
+for I have no taste for land that the wind blows on, instead of off.
+But, by easing the ship with a reef or two, she would be jogging sea
+ward; and all we gain would be clear gain; because it is so much off
+the Hatteras. Besides, who can say that to-morrow, or the next day, we
+sha’n’t have, a puff out of America, here at north-west?”
+
+“A couple of points fall off, and a pull upon your weather braces,”
+said Wilder, with startling quickness.
+
+It would have exceeded the peaceful and submissive temperament of the
+honest Earing, to have delayed any longer. The orders were given to the
+inferiors; and, as a matter of course, they were obeyed—though
+ill-suppressed and portentous sounds of discontent at the undetermined,
+and seemingly unreasonable changes in their officer’s mind might been
+heard issuing from the mouths of Nighthead, and other veterans of the
+crew.
+
+But to all these symptoms of disaffection Wilder remained, as before,
+utterly indifferent. If he heard them at all, he either disdained to
+yield them any notice, or, guided by a temporizing policy, he chose to
+appear unconscious of their import. In the mean time, the vessel, like
+a bird whose wing had wearied with struggling against the tempest, and
+which inclines from the gale to dart along an easier course, glided
+swiftly away, quartering the crests of the waves, or sinking gracefully
+into their troughs, as she yielded to the force of a wind that was now
+made to be favourable. The sea rolled on, in a direction that was no
+longer adverse to her course; and, as she receded from the breeze, the
+quantity of sail she had spread was no longer found trying to her
+powers of endurance. Still she had, in the opinion of all her crew,
+quite enough canvas exposed to a night of such a portentous aspect. But
+not so, in the judgment of the stranger who was charged with the
+guidance of her destinies. In a voice that still admonished his
+inferiors of the danger of disobedience he commanded several broad
+sheets of studding-sails to be set, in quick succession. Urged by these
+new impulses, the ship went careering over the waves; leaving a train
+of foam, in her track, that rivalled, in its volume and brightness, the
+tumbling summit of the largest swell.
+
+When sail after sail had been set, until even Wilder was obliged to
+confess to himself that the “Royal Caroline,” staunch as she was, would
+bear no more, our adventurer began to pace the deck again, and to cast
+his eyes about him, in order to watch the fruits of his new experiment.
+The change in the course of the Bristol trader had made a corresponding
+change in the apparent direction of the stranger who yet floated in the
+horizon like a diminutive and misty shadow. Still the unerring compass
+told the watchful mariner, that she continued to maintain the same
+relative position as when first seen. No effort, on the part of Wilder,
+could apparently alter her bearing an inch. Another hour soon passed
+away, during which, as the log told him, the “Caroline” had rolled
+through more than three leagues of water, and still there lay the
+stranger in the west, as though it were merely a lessened shadow of
+herself, cast by the “Caroline” upon the distant and dusky clouds. An
+alteration in his course exposed a broader surface of his canvas to the
+eyes of the spectators, but in nothing else was there any visible
+change. If his sails had been materially increased, the distance and
+the obscurity prevented even the understanding Earing from detecting
+it. Perhaps the excited mind of the worthy mate was too much disposed
+to believe in the miraculous powers possessed by his unaccountable
+neighbour, to admit of the full exercise of his experienced faculties
+on the occasion; but even Wilder, who vexed his sight, in
+often-repeated examinations, was obliged to confess to himself, that
+the stranger seemed to glide, across the waste of waters, more like a
+body floating in the air, than a ship resorting to the ordinary
+expedients of mariners.
+
+Mrs Wyllys and her charge had, by this time, retired to their cabin;
+the former secretly felicitating herself on the prospect of soon
+quitting a vessel that had commenced its voyage under such sinister
+circumstances as to have deranged the equilibrium of even her
+well-governed and highly-disciplined mind. Gertrude was left in
+ignorance of the change. To her uninstructed eye, all appeared the same
+on the wilderness of the ocean; Wilder having it in his power to alter
+the direction of his vessel as often as he pleased, without his fairer
+and more youthful passenger being any the wiser for the same.
+
+Not so, however, with the intelligent Commander of the “Caroline”
+himself. To him there was neither obscurity nor doubt, in the midst of
+his midnight path. His eye had long been familiar with every star that
+rose from out the waving bed of the sea, to set in another dark and
+ragged outline of the element; nor was there a blast, that swept across
+the ocean, that his burning cheek could not tell from what quarter of
+the heavens it poured out its power. He knew, and understood, each
+inclination made by the bows of his ship; his mind kept even pace with
+her windings and turnings, in all her trackless wanderings; and he had
+little need to consult any of the accessories of his art, to tell him
+what course to steer, or in what manner to guide the movements of the
+nice machine he governed. Still was he unable to explain the
+extraordinary evolutions of the stranger. His smallest change seemed
+rather anticipated than followed; and his hopes of eluding a vigilance,
+that proved so watchful, was baffled by a facility of manoeuvring, and
+a superiority of sailing, that really began to assume, even to his
+intelligent eyes, the appearance of some unaccountable agency.
+
+While our adventurer was engaged in the gloomy musings that such
+impressions were not ill adapted to excite, the heavens and the sea
+began to exhibit another aspect. The bright streak which had so long
+hung along the eastern horizon, as though the curtain of the firmament
+had been slightly opened to admit a passage for the winds, was now
+suddenly closed; and heavy masses of black clouds began to gather in
+that quarter, until vast volumes of the vapour were piled upon the
+water, blending the two elements in one. On the other hand, the dark
+canopy lifted in the west, and a long belt of lurid light was shed over
+the view. In this flood of bright and portentous mist the stranger
+still floated, though there were moments when his faint and fanciful
+outlines seemed to be melting into thin air.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVI.
+
+“Yet again? What do you here? Shal we give o’er, an drown? Have you a
+mind to sink?”
+
+_Tempest._
+
+
+Our watchful adventurer was not blind to these well-known and sinister
+omens. No sooner did the peculiar atmosphere, by which the mysterious
+image that he so often examined was suddenly surrounded, catch his eye,
+than his voice was heard in the clear, powerful, and exciting notes of
+warning.
+
+“Stand by,” he called aloud, “to in all studding sails! Down with
+them!” he added, scarcely giving his former words time to reach the
+ears of his subordinates. “Down with every rag of them, fore and aft
+the ship! Man the top-gallant clew-lines, Mr Earing. Clew up, and clew
+down! In with every thing, cheerily, men! In!”
+
+This was a language to which the crew of the “Caroline” were no
+strangers, and one which was doubly welcome; since the meanest seaman
+of them all had long thought that his unknown Commander had been
+heedlessly trifling with the safety of the vessel, by the hardy manner
+in which he disregarded the wild symptoms of the weather. But they
+undervalued the keen-eyed vigilance of Wilder. He had certainly driven
+the Bristol trader through the water at a rate she had never been known
+to have gone before; but, thus far, the facts themselves attested in
+his favour, since no injury was the consequence of what they deemed his
+temerity. At the quick, sudden order just given, however, the whole
+ship was instantly in an uproar. A dozen seamen called to each other,
+from different parts of the vessel each striving to lift his voice
+above the roaring ocean; and there was every appearance of a general
+and inextricable confusion; but the same authority which had aroused
+them, thus unexpectedly, into activity, produced order, from their
+ill-directed though vigorous efforts.
+
+Wilder had spoken, to awaken the drowsy, and to excite the torpid. The
+instant he found each man on the alert, he resumed his orders, with a
+calmness that gave a direction to the powers of all, but still with an
+energy that he well knew was called for by the occasion. The enormous
+sheets of duck, which had looked like so many light clouds in the murky
+and threatening heavens, were soon seen fluttering wildly, as they
+descended from their high places; and, in a few minutes, the ship was
+reduced to the action of her more secure and heavier canvas. To effect
+this object, every man in the ship had exerted his powers to the
+utmost, under the guidance of the steady but rapid mandates of their
+Commander. Then followed a short and apprehensive breathing pause.
+Every eye was turned towards the quarter where the ominous signs had
+been discovered; and each individual endeavoured to read their import,
+with an intelligence correspondent to the degree of skill he might have
+acquired, during his particular period of service, on that treacherous
+element which was now his home.
+
+The dim tracery of the stranger’s form had been swallowed by the flood
+of misty light, which, by this time, rolled along the sea like drifting
+vapour, semi-pellucid, preternatural, and seemingly tangible. The ocean
+itself appeared admonished that a quick and violent change was nigh.
+The waves had ceased to break in their former foaming and brilliant
+crests, but black masses of the water were seen lifting their surly
+summits against the eastern horizon, no longer relieved by their
+scintillating brightness, or shedding their own peculiar and lucid
+atmosphere around them. The breeze which had been so fresh, and which
+had even blown, at times, with a force that nearly amounted to a little
+gale, was lulling and becoming uncertain, as though awed by the more
+violent power that was gathering along the borders of the sea, in the
+direction of the neighbouring continent. Each moment, the eastern puffs
+of air lost their strength, and became more and more feeble, until, in
+an incredibly short period, the heavy sails were heard flapping against
+the masts—a frightful and ominous calm succeeding. At this instant, a
+glancing, flashing gleam lighted the fearful obscurity of the ocean;
+and a roar, like that of a sudden burst of thunder, bellowed along the
+waters. The seamen turned their startled looks on each other, and stood
+stupid, as though a warning had been given, from the heavens
+themselves, of what was to follow. But their calm and more sagacious
+Commander put a different construction on the signal. His lip curled,
+in high professional pride, and his mouth moved rapidly while he
+muttered to himself, with a species of scorn,—
+
+“Does he think we sleep? Ay, he has got it himself and would open our
+eyes to what is coming! What does he imagine we have been about, since
+the middle watch was set?”
+
+Then, Wilder made a swift turn or two on the quarter-deck, never
+ceasing to bend his quick glances from one quarter of the heavens to
+another; from the black and lulling water on which his vessel was
+rolling, to the sails; and from his silent and profoundly expectant
+crew, to the dim lines of spars that were waving above his head, like
+so many pencils tracing their curvilinear and wanton images over the
+murky volumes of the superincumbent clouds.
+
+“Lay the after-yards square!” he said, in a voice which was heard by
+every man on deck, though his words were apparently spoken but little
+above his breath. Even the creaking of the blocks, as the spars came
+slowly and heavily round to the indicated position, contributed to the
+imposing character of the moment, and sounded, in the ears of all the
+instructed listeners, like notes of fearful preparation.
+
+“Haul up the courses!” resumed Wilder, after a thoughtful, brief
+interval, with the same eloquent calmness of manner. Then, taking
+another glance at the threatening horizon, he added, with emphasis,
+“Furl them—furl them both: Away aloft, and hand your courses,” he
+continued, in a shout; “roll them up, cheerily; in with them, boys,
+cheerily; in!”
+
+The conscious seamen took their impulses from the tones of their
+Commander. In a moment, twenty dark forms were seen leaping up the
+rigging, with the alacrity of so many quadrupeds; and, in another
+minute, the vast and powerful sheets of canvas were effectually
+rendered harmless, by securing them in tight rolls to their respective
+spars. The men descended as swiftly as they had mounted to the yards;
+and then succeeded another short and breathing pause. At this moment, a
+candle would have sent its flame perpendicularly towards the heavens.
+The ship, missing the steadying power of the wind, rolled heavily in
+the troughs of the seas, which, however began to be more diminutive, at
+each instant, as though the startled element was recalling, into the
+security of its own vast bosom, that portion of its particles which
+had, just before, been permitted to gambol so madly over its surface.
+The water washed sullenly along the side of the ship, or, as she
+labouring rose from one of her frequent falls into the hollows of the
+waves, it shot back into the ocean from her decks, in numberless little
+glittering cascades. Every hue of the heavens, every sound of the
+element, and each dusky and anxious countenance that was visible,
+helped to proclaim the intense interest of the moment. It was in this
+brief interval of expectation, and inactivity, that the mates again
+approached their Commander.
+
+“It is an awful night, Captain Wilder!” said Earing presuming on his
+rank to be the first of the two to speak.
+
+“I have known far less notice given of a shift of wind,” was the steady
+answer.
+
+“We have had time to gather in our kites, ’tis true, sir; but there are
+signs and warnings, that come with this change, at which the oldest
+seaman has reason to take heed!”
+
+“Yes,” continued Nighthead, in a voice that sounded hoarse and
+powerful, even amid the fearful accessories of that scene; “yes, it is
+no trifling commission that can call people, that I shall not name, out
+upon the water in such a night as this. It was in just such weather
+that I saw the ‘Vesuvius’ ketch go to a place so deep, that her own
+mortar would not have been able to have sent a bomb into the open air,
+had hands and fire been there fit to let it off!”
+
+“Ay; and it was in such a time that the Greenlandman was cast upon the
+Orkneys, in as flat a calm as ever lay on the sea.”
+
+“Gentlemen,” said Wilder, with a peculiar and perhaps an ironical
+emphasis on the word, “what is it you would have? There is not a breath
+of air stirring, and the ship is naked to her topsails!”
+
+It would have been difficult for either of the two malcontents to have
+given a very satisfactory answer to this question. Both were secretly
+goaded by mysterious and superstitious apprehensions, that were
+powerfully aided by the more real and intelligible aspect of the night;
+but neither had so far for gotten his manhood, and his professional
+pride, as to lay bare the full extent of his own weakness, at a moment
+when he was liable to be called upon for the exhibition of qualities of
+a far more positive and determined character. Still, the feeling that
+was uppermost betrayed itself in the reply of Earing, though in an
+indirect and covert manner.
+
+“Yes, the vessel is snug enough now,” he said, “though eye-sight has
+shown us all it is no easy matter to drive a freighted ship though the
+water as fast as one of your flying craft can go, aboard of which no
+man can say, who stands at the helm, by what compass she steers, or
+what is her draught!”
+
+“Ay,” resumed Nighthead, “I call the ‘Caroline’ fast for an honest
+trader, and few square-rigged boats are there, who do not wear the
+pennants of the King, that can eat her out of the wind, or bring her
+into their wake, with studding-sails abroad. But this is a time, and an
+hour, to make a seaman think. Look at yon hazy light, here, in with the
+land, that is coming so fast down upon us, and then tell me whether it
+comes from the coast of America, or whether it comes from out of the
+stranger who has been so long running under our lee, but who has got,
+or is fast getting, the wind of us at last, and yet none here can say
+how, or why. I have just this much, and no more, to say: Give me for
+consort a craft whose Captain I know, or give me none!”
+
+“Such is your taste, Mr Nighthead,” said Wilder, coldly; “mine may, by
+some accident, be very different.”
+
+“Yes, yes,” observed the more cautious and prudent Earing, “in time of
+war, and with letters of marque aboard, a man may honestly hope the
+sail he sees should have a stranger for her master; or otherwise he
+would never fall in with an enemy. But though an Englishman born
+myself, I should rather give the ship in that mist a clear sea, seeing
+that I neither know her nation nor her cruise. Ah, Captain Wilder,
+yonder is an awful sight for the morning watch! Often, and often, have
+I seen the sun rise ill the east, and no harm done; but little good can
+come of a day when the light first breaks in the west. Cheerfully would
+I give the owners the last month’s pay, hard as I have earned it with
+my toil, did I but know under what flag yonder stranger sails.”
+
+“Frenchman, Don, or Devil, yonder he comes!” cried Wilder. Then,
+turning towards the silent an attentive crew, he shouted, in a voice
+that was appalling by its vehemence and warning, “Let run the after
+halyards! round with the fore-yard! round with it, men, with a will!”
+
+These were cries that the startled crew perfectly understood. Every
+nerve and muscle were exerted to execute the orders, in time to be in
+readiness for the approaching tempest. No man spoke; but each expended
+the utmost of his power and skill in direct and manly efforts. Nor was
+there, in verity, a moment to lose, or a particle of human strength
+expended here, without a sufficient object.
+
+The lucid and fearful-looking mist, which, for the last quarter of an
+hour, had been gathering in the north-west, was now driving down upon
+them with the speed of a race-horse. The air had already lost the damp
+and peculiar feeling of an easterly breeze; and little eddies were
+beginning to flutter among the masts—precursors of the coming squall.
+Then, a rushing, roaring sound was heard moaning along the ocean, whose
+surface was first dimpled, next ruffled, and finally covered, with one
+sheet of clear, white, and spotless foam. At the next moment the power
+of the wind fell full upon the inert and labouring Bristol trader.
+
+As the gust approached, Wilder had seized the slight opportunity,
+afforded by the changeful puffs of air, to get the ship as much as
+possible before the wind; but the sluggish movement of the vessel met
+neither the wishes of his own impatience nor the exigencies of the
+moment. Her bows had slowly and heavily fallen off from the north,
+leaving her precisely in a situation to receive the first shock on her
+broadside. Happy it was, for all who had life at risk in that
+defenceless vessel, that she was not fated to receive the whole weight
+of the tempest at a blow. The sails fluttered and trembled on their
+massive yards, bellying and collapsing alternately for a minute, and
+then the rushing wind swept over them in a hurricane.
+
+The “Caroline” received the blast like a stout and buoyant ship,
+yielding readily to its impulse, until her side lay nearly incumbent on
+the element in which she floated; and then, as if the fearful fabric
+were conscious of its jeopardy, it seemed to lift its reclining masts
+again, struggling to work its way heavily through the water.
+
+“Keep the helm a-weather! Jam it a-weather, for your life!” shouted
+Wilder, amid the roar of the gust.
+
+The veteran seaman at the wheel obeyed the order with steadiness, but
+in vain he kept his eyes riveted on the margin of his head sail, in
+order to watch the manner the ship would obey its power. Twice more, in
+as many moments, the tall masts fell towards the horizon, waving as
+often gracefully upward and then they yielded to the mighty pressure of
+the wind, until the whole machine lay prostrate on the water.
+
+“Reflect!” said Wilder, seizing the bewildered Earing by the arm, as
+the latter rushed madly up the steep of the deck; “it is our duty to be
+calm: Bring hither an axe.”
+
+Quick as the thought which gave the order, the admonished mate
+complied, jumping into the mizzen-channels of the ship, to execute,
+with his own hands, the mandate that he well knew must follow.
+
+“Shall I cut?” he demanded, with uplifted arms, and in a voice that
+atoned for his momentary confusion, by its steadiness and force.
+
+“Hold! Does the ship mind her helm at all?”
+
+“Not an inch, sir.”
+
+“Then cut,” Wilder clearly and calmly added.
+
+A single blow sufficed for the discharge of the momentary act. Extended
+to the utmost powers of endurance, by the vast weight it upheld, the
+lanyard struck by Earing no sooner parted, than each of its fellows
+snapped in succession, leaving the mast dependant on itself alone for
+the support of all its ponderous and complicated hamper. The cracking
+of the wood came next; and then the rigging fell, like a tree that had
+been sapped at its foundation, the little distance that still existed
+between it and the sea.
+
+“Does she fall off?” instantly called Wilder to the observant seaman at
+the wheel.
+
+“She yielded a little, sir; but this new squall is bringing her up
+again.”
+
+“Shall I cut?” shouted Earing from the main rigging whither he had
+leaped, like a tiger who had bounded on his prey.
+
+“Cut!” was the answer.
+
+A loud and imposing crash soon succeeded this order, though not before
+several heavy blows had been struck into the massive mast itself. As
+before, the seas received the tumbling maze of spars, rigging and
+sails; the vessel surging, at the same instant from its recumbent
+position, and rolling far and heavily to windward.
+
+“She rights! she rights!” exclaimed twenty voices which had been
+hitherto mute, in a suspense that involved life and death.
+
+“Keep her dead away!” added the still calm but deeply authoritative
+voice of the young Commander “Stand by to furl the fore-topsail—let it
+hang a moment to drag the ship clear of the wreck—cut cut—cheerily,
+men—hatchets and knives—cut _with_ all, and cut _off_ all!”
+
+As the men now worked with the freshened vigour of revived hope, the
+ropes that still confined the fallen spars to the vessel were quickly
+severed; and the “Caroline,” by this time dead before the gale,
+appeared barely to touch the foam that covered the sea, like a bird
+that was swift upon the wing skimming the waters. The wind came over
+the waste in gusts that rumbled like distant thunder, and with a power
+that seemed to threaten to lift the ship and its contents from its
+proper element, to deliver it to one still more variable and
+treacherous. As a prudent and sagacious seaman had let fly the halyards
+of the solitary sail that remained, at the moment when the squall
+approached, the loosened but lowered topsail was now distended in a
+manner that threatened to drag after it the only mast which still
+stood. Wilder instantly saw the necessity of getting rid of this sail,
+and he also saw the utter impossibility of securing it. Calling Earing
+to his side, he pointed out the danger, and gave the necessary order.
+
+“Yon spar cannot stand such shocks much longer,” he concluded; “and,
+should it go over the bows, some fatal blow might be given to the ship
+at the rate she is moving. A man or two must be sent aloft to cut the
+sail from the yards.”
+
+“The stick is bending like a willow whip,” returned the mate, “and the
+lower mast itself is sprung. There would be great danger in trusting a
+life in that top, while such wild squalls as these are breathing around
+us.”
+
+“You may be right,” returned Wilder, with a sudden conviction of the
+truth of what the other had said: “Stay you then here; and, if any
+thing befal me, try to get the vessel into port as far north as the
+Capes of Virginia, at least;—on no account attempt Hatteras, in the
+present condition of”——
+
+“What would you do, Captain Wilder?” interrupted the mate laying his
+hand powerfully on the shoulder of his Commander, who, he observed, had
+already thrown his sea-cap on the deck, and was preparing to divest
+himself of some of his outer garments.
+
+“I go aloft, to ease the mast of that topsail, without which we lose
+the spar, and possibly the ship.”
+
+“Ay, ay, I see that plain enough; but, shall it be said, Another did
+the duty of Edward Earing? It is your business to carry the vessel into
+the Capes of Virginia, and mine to cut the topsail adrift. If harm
+comes to me, why, put it in the log, with a word or two about the
+manner in which I played my part: That is always the best and most
+proper epitaph for a sailor.”
+
+Wilder made no resistance, but resumed his watchful and reflecting
+attitude, with the simplicity of one who had been too long trained to
+the discharge of certain obligations himself, to manifest surprise that
+another should acknowledge their imperative character. In the mean
+time, Earing proceeded steadily to perform what he had just promised.
+Passing into the waist of the ship, he provided himself with a suitable
+hatchet, and then, without speaking a syllable to any of the mute but
+attentive seamen, he sprang into the fore-rigging, every strand and
+rope-yarn of which was tightened by the strain nearly to snapping. The
+understanding eyes of his observers comprehended his intention; and,
+with precisely the same pride of station as had urged him to the
+dangerous undertaking, four or five of the older mariners jumped upon
+the ratlings, to mount with him into an air that apparently teemed with
+a hundred hurricanes.
+
+“Lie down out of that fore-rigging,” shouted Wilder, through a
+deck-trumpet; “lie down; all, but the mate, lie down!” His words were
+borne past the inattentive ears of the excited and mortified followers
+of Earing, but they failed of their effect. Each man was too much bent
+on his own earnest purpose to listen to the sounds of recall. In less
+than a minute, the whole were scattered along the yards, prepared to
+obey the signal of their officer. The mate cast a look about him; and,
+perceiving that the time was comparatively favourable, he struck a blow
+upon the large rope that confined one of the angles of the distended
+and bursting sail to the lower yard. The effect was much the same as
+would be produced by knocking away the key-stone of an ill-cemented
+arch. The canvas broke from all its fastenings with a loud explosion,
+and, for an instant, was seen sailing in the air ahead of the ship, as
+though sustained on the wings of an eagle. The vessel rose on a
+sluggish wave—the lingering remains of the former breeze—and then
+settled heavily over the rolling surge, borne down alike by its own
+weight and the renewed violence of the gusts. At this critical instant
+while the seamen aloft were still gazing in the direction in which the
+little cloud of canvas had disappeared, a lanyard of the lower rigging
+parted with a crack that even reached the ears of Wilder.
+
+“Lie down!” he shouted fearfully through his trumpet; “down by the
+backstays; down for your lives; every man of you, down!”
+
+A solitary individual, of them all, profited by the warning, and was
+seen gliding towards the deck with the velocity of the wind. But rope
+parted after rope, and the fatal snapping of the wood instantly
+followed. For a moment, the towering maze tottered, and seemed to wave
+towards every quarter of the heavens; and then, yielding to the
+movements of the hull, the whole fell, with a heavy crash, into the
+sea. Each cord, lanyard, or stay snapped, when it received the strain
+of its new position, as though it had been made of thread, leaving the
+naked and despoiled hull of the “Caroline” to drive onward before the
+tempest, as if nothing had occurred to impede its progress.
+
+A mute and eloquent pause succeeded this disaster It appeared as if the
+elements themselves were appeased by their work, and something like a
+momentary lull in the awful rushing of the winds might have been
+fancied. Wilder sprang to the side of the vessel, and distinctly beheld
+the victims, who still clung to their frail support. He even saw Earing
+waving his hand, in adieu, with a seaman’s heart, and like a man who
+not only felt how desperate was his situation, but one who knew how to
+meet his fate with resignation. Then the wreck of spars, with all who
+clung to it, was swallowed up in the body of the frightful,
+preternatural-looking mist which extended on every side of them, from
+the ocean to the clouds.
+
+“Stand by, to clear away a boat!” shouted Wilder, without pausing to
+think of the impossibility of one’s swimming, or of effecting the least
+good, in so violent a tornado.
+
+But the amazed and confounded seamen who remained needed not
+instruction in this matter. No man moved, nor was the smallest symptom
+of obedience given. The mariners looked wildly around them, each
+endeavouring to trace, in the dusky countenance of the other, his
+opinion of the extent of the evil; but not a mouth was opened among
+them all.
+
+“It is too late—it is too late!” murmured Wilder to himself; “human
+skill and human efforts could not save them!”
+
+“Sail, ho!” Nighthead muttered at his elbow, in a voice that teemed
+with a species of superstitious awe.
+
+“Let him come on,” returned his young Commander bitterly; “the mischief
+is ready finished to his hands!”
+
+“Should yon be a mortal ship, it is our duty to the owners and the
+passengers to speak her, if a man can make his voice heard in this
+tempest,” the second mate continued, pointing, through the haze at the
+dim object that was certainly at hand.
+
+“Speak her!—passengers!” muttered Wilder, involuntarily repeating his
+words. “No; any thing is better than speaking her. Do you see the
+vessel that is driving down upon us so fast?” he sternly demanded of
+the watchful seaman who still clung to the wheel of the “Caroline.”
+
+“Ay, ay, sir,” was the brief, professional reply.
+
+“Give her a birth—sheer away hard to port—perhaps he may pass us in the
+gloom, now we are no higher than our decks. Give the ship a broad
+sheer, I say, sir.”
+
+The same laconic answer as before was given and, for a few moments, the
+Bristol trader was seen diverging a little from the line in which the
+other approached; but a second glance assured Wilder that the attempt
+was useless. The strange ship (and every man on board felt certain it
+was the same that had so long been seen hanging in the north-western
+horizon) came on, through the mist, with a swiftness that nearly
+equalled the velocity of the tempestuous winds themselves. Not a thread
+of canvas was seen on board her. Each line of spars, even to the
+tapering and delicate top-gallant-masts, was in its place, preserving
+the beauty and symmetry of the whole fabric; but nowhere was the
+smallest fragment of a sail opened to the gale. Under her bows rolled a
+volume of foam, that was even discernible amid the universal agitation
+of the ocean; and, as she came within sound, the sullen roar of the
+water might have been likened to the noise of a cascade. At first, the
+spectators on the decks of the “Caroline” believed they were not seen,
+and some of the men called madly for lights, in order that the
+disasters of the night might not terminate in the dreaded encounter.
+
+“No!” exclaimed Wilder; “too many see us there already!”
+
+“No, no,” muttered Nighthead; “no fear but we are seen; and by such
+eyes, too, as never yet looked out of mortal head!”
+
+The seamen paused. In another instant, the long-seen and mysterious
+ship was within a hundred feet of them. The very power of that wind,
+which was wont usually to raise the billows, now pressed the element,
+with the weight of mountains, into its bed. The sea was every where a
+sheet of froth, but no water swelled above the level of the surface.
+The instant a wave lifted itself from the security of the vast depths,
+the fluid was borne away before the tornado in driving, glittering
+spray. Along this frothy but comparatively motionless surface, then,
+the stranger came booming, with the steadiness and grandeur with which
+a dark cloud is seen to sail before the hurricane. No sign of life was
+any where discovered about her. If men looked out, from their secret
+places, upon the straitened and discomfited wreck of the Bristol
+trader, it was covertly, and as darkly as the tempest before which they
+drove. Wilder held his breath, for the moment the stranger drew
+nighest, in the very excess of suspense; but, as he saw no signal of
+recognition, no human form, nor any intention to arrest, if possible,
+the furious career of the other, a smile of exultation gleamed across
+his countenance, and his lips moved rapidly, as though he found
+pleasure in being abandoned to his distress. The stranger drove by,
+like a dark vision and, ere another minute, her form was beginning to
+grow less distinct, in a thickening body of the spray to leeward.
+
+“She is going out of sight in the mist!” exclaimed Wilder, when he drew
+his breath, after the fearful suspense of the few last moments.
+
+“Ay, in mist, or clouds,” responded Nighthead, who now kept obstinately
+at his elbow, watching with the most jealous distrust, the smallest
+movement of his unknown Commander.
+
+“In the heavens, or in the sea, I care not, provided she be gone.”
+“Most seamen would rejoice to see a strange sail, from the hull of a
+vessel shaved to the deck like this.”
+
+“Men often court their destruction, from ignorance of their own
+interests. Let him drive on, say I, and pray I! He goes four feet to
+our one; and now I ask no better favour than that this hurricane may
+blow until the sun shall rise.”
+
+Nighthead started, and cast an oblique glance which resembled
+denunciation, at his companion. To his blunted faculties, and
+superstitious mind, there was profanity in thus invoking the tempest,
+at a moment when the winds seemed already to be pouring out their
+utmost wrath.
+
+“This is a heavy squall, I will allow,” he said, “and such an one as
+many mariners pass whole lives without seeing; but he knows little of
+the sea who thinks there is not more wind where this comes from.”
+
+“Let it blow!” cried the other, striking his hands together a little
+wildly; “I pray only for wind!”
+
+All the doubts of Nighthead, as to the character of the young stranger
+who had so unaccountably got possession of the office of Nicholas
+Nichols, if, indeed, any remained, were now removed. He walked forward
+among the silent and thoughtful crew with the air of a man whose
+opinion was settled. Wilder, however, paid no attention to the
+movements of his subordinate, but continued pacing the deck for hours;
+now casting his eyes at the heavens or now sending frequent and anxious
+glances around the limited horizon, while the “Royal Caroline” still
+continued drifting before the wind, a shorn and naked wreck.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVII.
+
+“Sit still, and hear the last of our sea sorrow.”
+
+_Shakespeare_
+
+
+The weight of the tempest had been felt at that hapless moment when
+Earing and his unfortunate companions were precipitated from their
+giddy elevation into the sea. Though the wind continued to blow long
+after this fatal event, it was with a constantly diminishing power. As
+the gale decreased the sea began to rise, and the vessel to labour in
+proportion. Then followed two hours of anxious watchfulness on the part
+of Wilder, during which the whole of his professional knowledge was
+needed in order to keep the despoiled hull of the Bristol trader from
+becoming a prey to the greedy waters. His consummate skill, however,
+proved equal to the task that was required at his hands; and, just as
+the symptoms of day were becoming visible along the east, both wind and
+waves were rapidly subsiding together. During the whole of this
+doubtful period our adventurer did not receive the smallest assistance
+from any of the crew, with the exception of two experienced seamen whom
+he had previously stationed at the wheel. But to this neglect he was
+indifferent; since little more was required than his own judgment,
+seconded, as it faithfully was, by the exertions of the manners more
+immediately under his eye.
+
+The day dawned on a scene entirely different from that which had marked
+the tempestuous deformity of the night. The whole fury of the winds
+appeared to have been expended in their precocious effort. From the
+moderate gale, to which they had fallen by the end of the middle watch,
+they further altered to a vacillating breeze; and, ere the sun had
+risen, the changeful air had subsided into a flat calm. The sea went
+down as suddenly as the power which had raised, it vanished; and, by
+the time the broad golden light of the sun was shed fairly and fully
+upon the unstable element, it lay unruffled and polished, though still
+gently heaving in swells so long and heavy as to resemble the placid
+respiration of a sleeping infant.
+
+The hour was still early, and the serene appearance of the sky and the
+ocean gave every promise of a day which might be passed in devising the
+expedients necessary to bring the ship again, in some measure, under
+the command of her people.
+
+“Sound the pumps,” said Wilder, observing that the crew were appearing
+from the different places in which they had bestowed their cares and
+their persons together, during the later hours of the night.
+
+“Do you hear me, sir?” he added sternly, observing that no one moved to
+obey his order. “Let the pumps be sounded, and the ship cleared of
+every inch of water.”
+
+Nighthead, to whom Wilder had now addressed himself, regarded his
+Commander with an oblique ind sullen eye, and then exchanged singularly
+intelligent glances with his comrades, before he saw fit to make the
+smallest motion towards compliance. But there was that, in the
+authoritative mien of his superior, which finally induced him to
+comply. The dilatory manner in which the seamen performed the duty was
+quickened, however, as the rod ascended, and the well-known signs of a
+formidable leak met their eyes. The experiment was repeated with
+greater activity, and with far more precision.
+
+“If witchcraft can clear the hold of a ship that is already half full
+of water,” said Nighthead, casting another sullen glance towards the
+attentive Wilder “the sooner it is done the better; for the whole
+cunning of something more than a bungler in the same will be needed, in
+order to make the pumps of the ‘Royal Caroline’ suck!”
+
+“Does the ship leak?” demanded his superior with a quickness of
+utterance which sufficiently proclaimed how important he deemed the
+intelligence.
+
+“Yesterday, I would have boldly put my name to the articles of any
+craft that floats the ocean; and had the Captain asked me if I
+understood her nature and character, as certain as that my name is
+Francis Nighthead, I should have told him, yes. But I find that the
+oldest seaman may still learn something of the water; though it should
+be got in crossing a ferry in a flat.”
+
+“What mean you, sir?” demanded Wilder, who, for the first time, began
+to note the mutinous looks assumed by his mate, no less than the
+threatening manner in which he was seconded by the crew. “Have the
+pumps rigged without delay, and clear the ship of the water.”
+
+Nighthead slowly complied with the former part of this order; and, in a
+few moments, every thing was arranged to commence the necessary, and,
+as it would seem, urgent duty of pumping. But no man lifted his hand to
+the laborious employment. The quick eye of Wilder, who had now taken
+the alarm, was not slow in detecting this reluctance; and he repeated
+the order more sternly, calling to two of the seamen, by name, to set
+the example of obedience. The men hesitated, giving an opportunity to
+the mate to confirm them, by his voice, in their mutinous intentions.
+
+“What need of hands to work a pump in a vessel like this?” he said,
+with a coarse laugh, but in which secret terror struggled strangely
+with open malice. “After what we have all seen this night, none here
+will be amazed, should the vessel begin to spout out the brine like a
+breathing whale.”
+
+“What am I to understand by this hesitation, and by this language?”
+said Wilder, approaching Nighthead with a firm step, and an eye too
+proud to quail before the plainest symptoms of insubordination. “Is it
+you, sir, who should be foremost in exertion at a moment like this, who
+dare to set an example of disobedience?”
+
+The mate recoiled a pace, and his lips moved, still he uttered no
+audible reply. Wilder once more bade him, in a calm and authoritative
+tone, lay his own hands to the brake. Nighthead then found his voice,
+in time to make a flat refusal; and, at the next moment, he was felled
+to the feet of his indignant Commander, by a blow he had neither the
+address nor the power to resist. This act of decision was succeeded by
+one single moment of breathless, wavering silence among the crew; and
+then the common cry, and the general rush of every man upon our
+defenceless and solitary adventurer, were the signals that open
+hostility had commenced. A shriek from the quarter-deck arrested their
+efforts; just as a dozen hands were laid violently upon the person of
+Wilder, and, for the moment, occasioned a truce. It was the fearful cry
+of Gertrude, which possessed even the influence to still the savage
+intentions of a set of beings so rude and so unnurtured as those whose
+passions had just been awakened into fierce activity. Wilder was
+released; and all eyes turned, by a common impulse, in the direction of
+the sound.
+
+During the more momentous hours of the past night, the very existence
+of the passengers below had been forgotten by most of those whose duty
+kept them to the deck. If they had been recalled at all to the
+recollection of any, it was at those fleeting moments when the mind of
+the young mariner, who directed the movements of the ship, found
+leisure to catch stolen glimpses of softer scenes than the wild warring
+of the elements that was so actively raging before his eyes. Nighthead
+had named them, as he would have made allusion to a part of the cargo,
+but their fate had little influence on his hardened nature. Mrs Wyllys
+and her charge had therefore remained below during the whole period,
+perfectly unapprised of the disasters of the intervening time. Buried
+in the recesses of their births, they had heard the roaring of the
+winds, and the incessant washing of the waters; but these usual
+accompaniments of a storm had served to conceal the crashing of masts,
+and the hoarse cries of the mariners. For the moments of terrible
+suspense while the Bristol trader lay on her side, the better informed
+governess had, indeed, some fearful glimmerings of the truth; but,
+conscious of her uselessness and unwilling to alarm her less instructed
+companion she had sufficient self-command to be mute. The subsequent
+silence, and comparative calm, induced her to believe that she had been
+mistaken in her apprehensions; and, long ere morning dawned, both she
+and Gertrude had sunk into sweet and refreshing slumbers. They had
+risen and mounted to the deck together, and were still in the first
+burst of their wonder at the desolation which met their gaze, when the
+long-meditated attack on Wilder was made.
+
+“What means this awful change?” demanded Mrs Wyllys, with a lip that
+quivered, and a cheek which, notwithstanding the extraordinary power
+she possessed over her feelings, was blanched to the colour of death.
+
+The eye of Wilder was glowing, and his brow dark as those heavens from
+which they had just so happily escaped, as he answered, menacing his
+assailants with an arm,—
+
+“It means mutiny, Madam; rascally, cowardly mutiny!”
+
+“Could mutiny strip a vessel of her masts, and leave her a helpless log
+upon the sea?”
+
+“Hark ye, Madam!” roughly interrupted the mate ‘to you I will speak
+freely; for it is well known who you are, and that you came on board
+the ‘Caroline’ a paying passenger. This night have I seen the heavens
+and the ocean behave as I have never seen them behave before. Ships
+have been running afore the wind, light and buoyant as corks, with all
+their spars stepped and steady, when other ships have been shaved of
+every mast as close as the razor sweeps the chin. Cruisers have been
+fallen in with, sailing without living hands to work them; and, all
+together, no man here has ever before passed a middle watch like the
+one gone by.”
+
+“And what has this to do with the violence I have just witnessed? Is
+the vessel fated to endure every evil!—Can _you_ explain this, Mr
+Wilder?”
+
+“You cannot say, at least, you had no warning of danger,” returned
+Wilder, smiling bitterly.
+
+“Ay, the devil is obliged to be honest on compulsion,” resumed the
+mate. “Each of his imps sails with his orders; and, thank Heaven!
+however he may be minded to overlook the same, he has neither courage
+nor power to do it. Otherwise, a peaceful voyage would be such a
+rarity, in these unsettled times, that few men would be found hardy
+enough to venture on the water for a livelihood.—A warning! Ay, we will
+own you gave us open and frequent warning. It was a notice, that the
+consignee should not have overlooked, when Nicholas Nichols met with
+the hurt, as the anchor was leaving the bottom I never knew an accident
+happen at such a time and no evil come of it. Then, had we a warning
+with the old man in the boat; besides the never-failing ill luck of
+sending the pilot violently out of the ship. As if all this wasn’t
+enough, instead of taking a hint, and lying peaceably at our anchors,
+we got the ship under way, and left a safe and friendly harbour of a
+Friday, of all the days in a week![2] So far from being surprised at
+what has happened, I only wonder at finding myself still a living man;
+the reason of which is simply this, that I have given my faith where
+faith only is due, and not to unknown mariners and strange Commanders.
+Had Edward Earing done the same, he might still have had a plank
+between him and the bottom; but, though half inclined to believe in the
+truth, he had, after all, too much leaning to superstition and
+credulity.”
+
+ [2] The superstition, that Friday is an evil day, was not peculiar to
+ Nighthead; it prevails, more or less, among seamen to this hour. An
+ intelligent merchant of Connecticut had a desire to do his part in
+ eradicating an impression that is sometimes inconvenient. He caused
+ the keel of a vessel to be laid on a Friday; she was launched on a
+ Friday; named the “Friday;” and sailed on her first voyage on a
+ Friday. Unfortunately for the success of this well-intentioned
+ experiment, neither vessel nor crew were ever again heard of!
+
+
+This laboured and characteristic profession of faith in the mate,
+though sufficiently intelligible to Wilder, was still a perfect enigma
+to his female listeners. But Nighthead had not formed his resolution by
+halves, neither had he gone thus far, with any intention to stop short
+of the completion of his whole design. In a very few summary words, he
+explained to Mrs Wyllys the desolate condition of the ship, and the
+utter improbability that she could continue to float many hours; since
+actual observation had told him that her lower hold was already half
+full of water.
+
+“And what is then to be done?” demanded the governess, casting a glance
+of bitter distress towards the pallid and attentive Gertrude. “Is there
+no sail in sight, to take us from the wreck? or must we perish in our
+helplessness!”
+
+“God-protect us from anymore strange sails!” exclaimed the surly
+Nighthead. “There we have the pinnace hanging at the stern, and here
+must be land at some forty leagues to the north-west. Water and food
+are plenty, and twelve, stout hands can soon pull a boat to the
+continent of America; that is, always provided, America is left where
+it was seen no later than at the sun-set of yesterday.”
+
+“You then propose to abandon the vessel?”
+
+“I do. The interest of the owners is dear to all good seamen, but life
+is sweeter than gold.”
+
+“The will of heaven be done! But surely you meditate no violence
+against this gentleman, who, I am quite certain, has governed the
+vessel, in very critical circumstances, with a discretion far beyond
+his years!”
+
+Nighthead muttered his intentions, whatever they might be, to himself;
+and then he walked apart, apparently to confer with the men, who
+already seemed but too well disposed to second any of his views,
+however mistaken or lawless. During the few moments of suspense that
+succeeded, Wilder stood silent and composed, a smile of something like
+scorn struggling about his lip, and maintaining the air rather of one
+who had power to decide on the fortunes of others, than of a man whose
+own fate was most probably at that very moment in discussion. When the
+dull minds of the seamen had arrived at their conclusion, the mate
+advanced to proclaim the result. Indeed, words were unnecessary, in
+order to make known a very material part of their decision; for a party
+of the men proceeded instantly to lower the stern-boat into the water,
+while others set about supplying it with the necessary means of
+subsistence.
+
+“There is room for all the Christians in the ship to stow themselves in
+this pinnace,” resumed Nighthead; “and as for those that place their
+dependance on any particular persons, why, let them call for aid where
+they have been used to receive it.”
+
+“From all which I am to infer that it is your intention,” said Wilder,
+calmly, “to abandon the wreck and your duty?”
+
+The half-awed but still resentful mate returned a look in which fear
+and triumph struggled for the mastery, as he answered,—
+
+“You, who know how to sail a ship without a crew, can never want a
+boat! Besides, you shall never say to your friends, whoever they may
+be, that we leave you without the means of reaching the land, if you
+are indeed a land-bird at all. There is the launch.”
+
+“There is the launch! but well do you know, that, without masts, all
+your united strengths could not lift it from the deck; else would it
+not be left.”
+
+“They that took the masts out of the ‘Caroline’ can put them in again,”
+rejoined a grinning seaman; “it will not be an hour after we leave you,
+before a sheer-hulk will come alongside, to step the spars again, and
+then you may go cruise in company.”
+
+Wilder appeared to be superior to any reply. He began to pace the deck,
+thoughtful, it is true, but still composed, and entirely
+self-possessed. In the mean time, as a common desire to quit the wreck
+as soon as possible actuated all the men, their preparations advanced
+with incredible activity. The wondering and alarmed females had hardly
+time to think clearly on the extraordinary situation in which they
+found themselves, before they saw the form of the helpless Master borne
+past them to the boat; and, in another minute, they were summoned to
+take their places at his side.
+
+Thus imperiously called upon to act, they began to feel the necessity
+of decision. Remonstrances, they feared, would be useless; for the
+fierce and malignant looks which were cast, from time to time, at
+Wilder, as the labour proceeded, proclaimed the danger of awakening
+such obstinate and ignorant minds into renewed acts of violence. The
+governess bethought her of an appeal to the wounded man, but the look
+of wild care which he had cast about him, on being lifted to the deck,
+and the expression of bodily and mental pain that gleamed across his
+rugged features, as he buried them in the blankets by which he was
+enveloped, but too plainly announced that little assistance was, in his
+present condition, to be expected from him.
+
+“What remains for us to do?” she at length demanded of the seemingly
+insensible object of her concern.
+
+“I would I knew!” he answered quickly, casting a keen but hurried
+glance around the whole horizon. “It is not improbable that they should
+reach the shore. Four-and-twenty hours of calm will assure it.”
+
+“And if otherwise?”
+
+“A blow at north-west, or from any quarter off the land, will prove
+their ruin.”
+
+“But the ship?”
+
+“If deserted, she must sink.”
+
+“Then will I speak in your favour to these hearts of flint! I know not
+why I feel such interest in your welfare, inexplicable young man, but
+much would I suffer rather than believe that you incurred this peril.”
+
+“Stop, dearest Madam,” said Wilder, respectfully arresting her movement
+with his hand. “I cannot leave the vessel.”
+
+“We know not yet. The most stubborn natures may be subdued; even
+ignorance can be made to open its ears at the voice of entreaty. I may
+prevail.”
+
+“There is one temper to be quelled—one reason to convince—one prejudice
+to conquer, over which you have no power.”
+
+“Whose is that?”
+
+“My own.”
+
+“What mean you, sir? Surely you are not weak enough to suffer
+resentment against such beings to goad you to an act of madness?”
+
+“Do I seem mad?” demanded Wilder. “The feeling by which I am governed
+may be false, but, such as it is, it is grafted on my habits, my
+opinions; I will say, my principles. Honour forbids me to quit a ship
+that I command, while a plank of her is afloat.”
+
+“Of what use can a single arm prove at such a crisis?”.
+
+“None,” he answered, with a melancholy smile. “I must die, in order
+that others, who may be serviceable hereafter, should do their duty.”
+
+Both Mrs Wyllys and Gertrude stood regarding his kindling eye, but
+otherwise placid countenance, with looks whose concern amounted to
+horror. The former read, in the very composure of his mien, the
+unalterable character of his resolution; and the latter shuddering as
+the prospect of the cruel fate which awaited him crowded on her mind,
+felt a glow about her own youthful heart that almost tempted her to
+believe his self-devotion commendable. But the governess saw new
+reasons for apprehension in the determination of Wilder. If she had
+hitherto felt reluctance to trust herself and her ward with a band such
+as that which now possessed the sole authority, it was more than doubly
+increased by the rude and noisy summons she received to hasten and take
+her place among them.
+
+“Would to Heaven I knew in what manner to choose!” she exclaimed.
+“Speak to us, young man, as you would counsel mother and sister.”
+
+“Were I so fortunate as to possess relatives so near and dear,”
+returned the other, with emphasis “nothing should separate us at a time
+like this.”
+
+“Is there hope for those who remain on the wreck?”
+
+“But little.”
+
+“And in the boat?”
+
+It was near a minute before Wilder made any answer. He again turned his
+look around the bright and broad horizon, and he appeared to study the
+heavens, in the direction of the distant Continent, with infinite care.
+No omen that could indicate the probable character of the weather
+escaped his vigilance while his countenance reflected all the various
+emotions by which he was governed, as he gazed.
+
+“As I am a man, Madam,” he answered with fervour “and one who is bound
+not only to counsel but to protect your sex, I distrust the time. I
+think the chance of being seen by some passing sail equal to the
+probability that those who adventure in the pinnace will ever reach the
+land.”
+
+“Then let us remain,” said Gertrude, the blood, for the first time
+since her re-appearance on deck, rushing into her colourless cheeks,
+until they appeared charged to fulness. “I like not the wretches who
+would be our companions in that boat.”
+
+“Away, away!” impatiently shouted Nighthead “Each minute of light is a
+week of life to us all, and every moment of calm, a year. Away, away,
+or we leave you!”
+
+Mrs Wyllys answered not, but she stood the image of doubt and painful
+indecision. Then the plash of oars was heard in the water, and at the
+next moment the pinnace was seen gliding over the element, impelled by
+the strong arms of six powerful rowers.
+
+“Stay!” shrieked the governess, no longer undetermined; “receive my
+child, though you abandon me!”
+
+A wave of the hand, and an indistinct rumbling in the coarse tones of
+the mate, were the only answers given to her appeal. A long, deep, and
+breathing silence followed among the deserted. The grim countenances of
+the seamen in the pinnace soon became confused and indistinct; and then
+the boat itself began to lessen on the eye, until it seemed no more
+than a dark and distant speck, rising and falling with the flow and
+reflux of the blue waters. During all this time, not even a whispered
+word was spoken. Each of the party gazed, until sight grew dim, at the
+receding object; and it was only when his organs refused to convey the
+tiny image to his brain, that Wilder himself shook off the impression
+of the sort of trance into which he had fallen. His look became bent on
+his companions, and he pressed his hand upon his forehead, as though
+his brain were bewildered by the deep responsibility he had assumed in
+advising them to remain. But the sickening apprehension quickly passed
+away, leaving in its place a firmer mind, and a resolution too often
+tried in scenes of doubtful issue, to be long or easily shaken from its
+calmness and self-possession.
+
+“They are gone!” he exclaimed, breathing long and heavily, like one
+whose respiration had been unnaturally suspended.
+
+“They are gone!” echoed the governess, turning an eye, that was
+contracting with the intensity or her care, on the marble-like and
+motionless form of her pupil “There is no longer any hope.”
+
+The look that Wilder bestowed, on the same silent out lovely statue,
+was scarcely less expressive than “he gaze of her who had nurtured the
+infancy of the Southern Heiress, in innocence and love. His brow grew
+thoughtful, and his lips became compressed, while all the resources of
+his fertile imagination and long experience gathered in his mind, in
+engrossing intense reflection.
+
+“Is there hope?” demanded the governess, who was watching the change of
+his working countenance, with an attention that never swerved.
+
+The gloom passed away from his swarthy features, and the smile that
+lighted them was like the radiance of the sun, as it breaks through the
+blackest vapours of the drifting gust.
+
+“There is!” he said with firmness; “our case is far from desperate.”
+
+“Then, may He who rules the ocean and the land receive the praise!”
+cried the grateful governess giving vent to her long-suppressed agony
+in a flood of tears.
+
+Gertrude cast herself upon the neck of Mrs Wyllys, and for a minute
+their unrestrained emotions were mingled.
+
+“And now, my dearest Madam,” said Gertrude, leaving the arms of her
+governess, “let us trust to the skill of Mr Wilder; he has foreseen and
+foretold this danger; equally well may he predict our safety.”
+
+“Foreseen and foretold!” returned the other, in a manner to show that
+her faith in the professional prescience of the stranger was not
+altogether so unbounded as that of her more youthful and ardent
+companion. “No mortal could have foreseen this awful calamity; and
+least of all, foreseeing it, would he have sought to incur its danger!
+Mr Wilder, I will not annoy you with requests for explanations that
+might now be useless, but you will not refuse to communicate your
+grounds of hope.”
+
+Wilder hastened to relieve a curiosity that he well knew must be as
+painful as it was natural. The mutineers had left the largest, and much
+the safest, of the two boats belonging to the wreck, from a desire to
+improve the calm, well knowing that hours of severe labour would be
+necessary to launch it, from the place it occupied between the stumps
+of the two principal masts, into the ocean. This operation, which might
+have been executed in a few minutes with the ordinary purchases of the
+ship, would have required all their strength united, and that, too, to
+be exercised with a discretion and care that would have consumed too
+many of those moments which they rightly deemed to be so precious at
+that wild and unstable season of the year. Into this little ark Wilder
+proposed to convey such articles of comfort and necessity as he might
+hastily collect from the abandoned vessel; and then, entering it with
+his companions, to await the critical instant when the wreck should
+sink from beneath them.
+
+“Call you this hope?” exclaimed Mrs Wyllys, when his short explanation
+was ended, her cheek again blanching with disappointment. “I have heard
+that the gulf, which foundering vessels leave, swallows all lesser
+objects that are floating nigh!”
+
+“It sometimes happens. For worlds I would not deceive you; and I now
+say that I think our chance for escape equal to that of being ingulfed
+with the vessel.”
+
+“This is terrible!” murmured the governess, “but the will of Heaven be
+done! Cannot ingenuity supply the place of strength, and the boat be
+cast from the decks before the fatal moment arrives?”
+
+Wilder shook his head in an unequivocal negative.
+
+“We are not so weak as you may think us,” said Gertrude. “Give a
+direction to our efforts, and let us see what may yet be done. Here is
+Cassandra,” she added—turning to the black girl already introduced to
+the reader, who stood behind her young and ardent mistress, with the
+mantle and shawls of the latter thrown over her arm, as if about to
+attend her on an excursion for the morning—“here is Cassandra who alone
+has nearly the strength of a man.”
+
+“Had she the strength of twenty, I should despair of launching the boat
+without the aid of machinery But we lose time in words; I will go
+below, in order to judge of the probable duration of our doubt and then
+to our preparations. Even you, fair and fragile as you seem, lovely
+being, may aid in the latter.”
+
+He then pointed out such lighter objects as would be necessary to their
+comfort, should they be so fortunate as to get clear of the wreck, and
+advised their being put into the boat without delay. While the three
+females were thus usefully employed, he descended into the hold of the
+ship, in order to note the increase of the water, and make his
+calculations on the time that would elapse before the sinking fabric
+must entirely disappear. The fact proved their case to be more alarming
+than even Wilder had been led to expect. Stripped of her masts, the
+vessel had laboured so heavily as to open many of her seams; and, as
+the upper works began to settle beneath the level of the ocean, the
+influx of the element was increasing with frightful rapidity. As the
+young manner gazed about him with an understanding eye, he cursed, in
+the bitterness of his heart, the ignorance and superstition that had
+caused the desertion of the remainder of the crew. There existed, in
+reality, no evil that exertion and skill could not have remedied; but,
+deprived of all aid, he at once saw the folly of even attempting to
+procrastinate a catastrophe that was now unavoidable. Returning with a
+heavy heart to the deck, he immediately set about those dispositions
+which were necessary to afford them the smallest chance of escape.
+
+While his companions deadened the sense of apprehension by their light
+but equally necessary employment Wilder stepped the two masts of the
+boat, and properly disposed of the sails, and those other implements
+that might be useful in the event of success Thus occupied, a couple of
+hours flew by, as though minutes were compressed into moments. At the
+expiration of that period, his labour had ceased. He then cut the
+gripes that had kept the launch in its place when the ship was in
+motion, leaving it standing upright on its wooden beds, but in no other
+manner connected with the hull, which, by this time, had settled so low
+as to create the apprehension, that, at any moment, it might sink from
+beneath them. After this measure of precaution was taken, the females
+were summoned to the boat, lest the crisis might be nearer than he
+supposed; for he well knew that a foundering ship was, like a tottering
+wall, liable at any moment to yield to the impulse of the downward
+pressure. He then commenced the scarcely less necessary operation of
+selection among the chaos of articles with which the ill-directed zeal
+of his companions had so cumbered the boat, that there was hardly room
+left in which they might dispose of their more precious persons.
+Notwithstanding the often repeated and vociferous remonstrances of the
+negress, boxes, trunks, and packages flew from either side of the
+launch, as though Wilder had no consideration for the comfort and care
+of that fair being in whose behalf Cassandra, unheeded, like her
+ancient namesake of Troy, lifted her voice so often in the tones of
+remonstrance. The boat was soon cleared of what, under their
+circumstances, was literally lumber; leaving, however, far more than
+enough to meet all their wants, and not a few of their comforts, in the
+event that the elements should accord the permission to use them.
+
+Then, and not till then, did Wilder relax in his exertions. He had
+arranged his sails, ready to be hoisted in an instant; he had carefully
+examined that no straggling rope connected the boat to the wreck, to
+draw them under with the foundering mass; and he had assured himself
+that food, water, compass, and the imperfect instruments that were then
+in use to ascertain the position of a ship, were all carefully disposed
+of in their several places, and ready to his hand. When all was in this
+state of preparation, he disposed of himself in the stern of the boat,
+and endeavoured, by the composure of his manner, to inspire his less
+resolute companions with a portion of his own firmness.
+
+The bright sun-shine was sleeping in a thousand places on every side of
+the silent and deserted wreck. The sea had subsided to such a state of
+utter rest, that it was only at long intervals that the huge and
+helpless mass on which the ark of the expectants lay was lifted from
+its dull quietude, to roll heavily, for a moment, in the washing
+waters, and then to settle lower into the greedy and absorbing element.
+Still the disappearance of the hull was slow, and even tedious, to
+those who looked forward with such impatience to its total immersion,
+as to the crisis of their own fortunes.
+
+During these hours of weary and awful suspense, the discourse, between
+the watchers, though conducted in tones of confidence, and often of
+tenderness, was broken by long intervals of deep and musing silence.
+Each forbore to dwell upon the danger of their situation, in
+consideration of the feelings of the rest; but neither could conceal
+the imminent risk they ran, from that jealous watchfulness of love of
+life which was common to them all. In this manner, minutes, hours, and
+the day itself, rolled by, and the darkness was seen stealing along the
+deep, gradually narrowing the boundary of their view towards the east,
+until the whole of the empty scene was limited to a little dusky circle
+around the spot on which they lay. To this change succeeded another
+fearful hour, during which it appeared that death was about to visit
+them, environed by its most revolting horrors. The heavy plunge of the
+wallowing whale, as he cast his huge form upon the surface of the sea,
+was heard, accompanied by the mimic blowings of a hundred imitators,
+that followed in the train of the monarch of the ocean. It appeared to
+the alarmed and feverish imagination of Gertrude, that the brine was
+giving up all its monsters; and, notwithstanding the calm assurances of
+Wilder, that these accustomed sounds were rather the harbingers of
+peace than signs of any new danger, they filled her mind with images of
+the secret recesses over which they seemed suspended by a thread, and
+painted them replete with the disgusting inhabitants of the caverns of
+the great deep. The intelligent seaman himself was startled, when he
+saw, on the surface of the water, the dark fins of the voracious shark
+stealing around the wreck, apprised, by his instinct, that the contents
+of the devoted vessel were shortly to become the prey of his tribe.
+Then came the moon, with its mild and deceptive light, to throw the
+delusion of its glow on the varying but ever frightful scene.
+
+“See,” said Wilder, as the luminary lifted its pale and melancholy orb
+out of the bed of the ocean; “we shall have light for our hazardous
+launch!”
+
+“Is it at hand?” demanded Mrs Wyllys, with all the resolution of manner
+she could assume in so trying a situation.
+
+“It is—the ship has already brought her scuppers to the water.
+Sometimes a vessel will float until saturated with the brine. If ours
+sink at all, it will be soon.”
+
+“If at all! Is there then hope that she can float?”
+
+“None!” said Wilder, pausing to listen to the hollow and threatening
+sounds which issued from the depths of the vessel, as the water broke
+through her divisions, in passing from side to side, and which sounded
+like the groaning of some heavy monster in the last agony of nature.
+“None; she is already losing her level!”
+
+His companions saw the change; but, not for the empire of the world,
+could either of them have uttered a syllable. Another low, threatening,
+rumbling sound was heard, and then the pent air beneath blew up the
+forward part of the deck, with an explosion like that of a gun.
+
+“Now grasp the ropes I have given you!” cried Wilder, breathless with
+his eagerness to speak.
+
+His words were smothered by the rushing and gurgling of waters. The
+vessel made a plunge like a dying whale; and, raising its stern high
+into the air, glided into the depths of the sea, like the leviathan
+seeking his secret places. The motionless boat was lifted with the
+ship, until it stood in an attitude fearfully approaching to the
+perpendicular. As the wreck descended, the bows of the launch met the
+element, burying themselves nearly to filling; but, buoyant and light,
+it rose again, and, struck powerfully on the stern by the settling
+mass, the little ark shot ahead, as though it had been driven by the
+hand of man. Still, as the water rushed into the vortex, every thing
+within its influence yielded to the suction; and, at the next instant,
+the launch was seen darting down the declivity, as if eager to follow
+the vast machine, of which it had so long formed a dependant, through
+the same gaping whirlpool, to the bottom. Then it rose, rocking, to the
+surface; and, for a moment, was tossed and whirled like a bubble
+circling in the eddies of a pool. After which, the ocean moaned, and
+slept again; the moon-beams playing across its treacherous bosom,
+sweetly and calm, as the rays are seen to quiver on a lake that is
+embedded in sheltering mountains.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVIII.
+
+“Every day, some sailor’s wife,
+The masters of some merchant, and the merchant,
+Have just our theme of woe.”
+
+_Tempest._
+
+
+“We are safe!” said Wilder, who had stood, amid the violence of the
+struggle, with his person firmly braced against a mast, steadily
+watching the manner of their escape. “Thus far, at least, are we safe;
+for which may Heaven alone be praised, since no art of mine could avail
+us a feather.”
+
+The females had buried their faces in the folds of the vestments and
+clothes on which they were sitting; nor did even the governess raise
+her countenance until twice assured by her companion that the imminency
+of the risk was past. Another minute went by, during which Mrs Wyllys
+and Gertrude were rendering their thanksgivings, in a manner and in
+words less equivocal than the expression which had just broken from the
+lips of the young seaman. When this grateful duty was performed, they
+stood erect, as if emboldened, by the offering, to look their situation
+more steadily in the face.
+
+On every side lay the seemingly illimitable waste of waters. To them,
+their small and frail tenement was the world. So long as the ship,
+sinking and dangerous as she was, remained beneath them, there had
+appeared to be a barrier between their existence and the ocean. But one
+minute had deprived them of even this failing support, and they now
+found themselves cast upon the sea in a vessel that might be likened to
+one of the bubbles of the element. Gertrude felt, at that instant, as
+though she would have given half her hopes in life for the mere sight
+of that vast and nearly untenanted Continent which stretched for so
+many thousands of miles along the west, and kept the world of waters to
+their limits.
+
+But the rush of emotions that so properly belonged to their forlorn
+condition soon subsided, and their thoughts returned to the study of
+the means necessary to their further safety. Wilder had, however
+anticipated these feelings; and, even before Mrs Wyllys and Gertrude
+had recovered their recollections, he was occupied, aided by the ready
+hands of the terrified but loquacious Cassandra, in arranging the
+contents of the boat in such a manner as would enable her to move
+through the element with the least possible resistance.
+
+“With a well-trimmed ship, and a fair breeze,” cried our adventurer,
+cheerfully, so soon as his little job was ended, “we may yet hope to
+reach the land in one day and another night. I have seen the hour when,
+in this good launch, I would not have hesitated to run the length of
+the American coast, provided”—
+
+“You have forgotten your provided,” said Gertrude observing that he
+hesitated, probably from a reluctance to express any exception to the
+opinion, which might increase the fears of his companions.
+
+“Provided it were two months earlier in the year,” he added, in a tone
+of less confidence.
+
+“The season is, then, against us: It only requires the greater
+resolution in ourselves!”
+
+Wilder turned his head to regard the fair speaker, whose pale and
+placid countenance, as the moon silvered her fine features, expressed
+any thing but the courage to endure the hardships he so well knew she
+was liable to encounter, before they might hope to gain the Continent.
+After musing a moment, he lifted his open hand towards the south-west,
+and held its palm some little time to the air of the night.
+
+“Any thing is better than idleness, for people in our condition,” he
+said. “There are some symptoms of the breeze coming in this quarter; I
+will be ready to meet it.”
+
+He then spread his two lug-sails; and, trimming aft the sheets, placed
+himself at the helm, like one who expected his services there might be
+shortly needed. The result did not disappoint his expectations. Ere
+Long, the light canvas of the boat began to flutter; and then, as he
+brought the bows in the proper direction, the little vessel commenced
+moving slowly along its blind and watery path.
+
+The wind soon came fresher upon the sails, heavily charged with the
+dampness of the hour. Wilder urged the latter reason as a motive for
+the females to seek their rest beneath a little canopy of tarpaulings,
+which his foresight had also provided, and on mattresses he had brought
+from the ship Perceiving that their protector wished to be alone, Mrs
+Wyllys and her pupil did as desired; and, in a few minutes, if not
+asleep, no one could have told that any other than our adventurer had
+possession of the solitary launch.
+
+The middle hour of the night went by, without any material change in
+the prospects of those whose fate so much depended on the precarious
+influence of the weather. The wind had freshened to a smart breeze;
+and, by the calculations of Wilder, he had already moved across many
+leagues of ocean, directly in a line for the eastern end of that long
+and narrow isle that separates the waters which wash the shores of
+Connecticut from those of the open sea. The minutes flew swiftly by;
+for the time was propitious and the thoughts of the young seaman were
+busy with the recollections of a short but adventurous life. At moments
+he leaned forward, as if he would catch the gentle respiration of one
+who slept beneath the dark and rude canopy, and as though he might
+distinguish the soft breathings of her slumbers from those of her
+companions. Then would his form fall back into its seat, and his lip
+curl, or even move, as he gave inward utterance to the wayward fancies
+of his imagination. But at no time, not even in the midst of his
+greatest abandonment to reverie and thought, did he forget the
+constant, and nearly instinctive, duties of his station. A rapid glance
+at the heavens, an oblique look at the compass, and an occasional, but
+more protracted, examination of the pale face of the melancholy moon,
+were the usual directions taken by his practised eyes. The latter was
+still in the zenith; and his brow began again to contract, as he saw
+that she was shining through an atmosphere without a haze. He would
+have liked better to have seen even those portentous and watery circles
+by which she is so often environed and which are thought to foretel the
+tempest, than the hard and dry medium through which her beams fell so
+clear upon the face of the waters. The humidity with which the breeze
+had commenced was also gone; and, in its place, the quick, sensitive
+organs of the seaman detected the often grateful, though at that moment
+unwelcome, taint of the land. All these were signs that the airs from
+the Continent were about to prevail, and (as he dreaded, from certain
+wild-looking, long, narrow clouds, that were gathering over the western
+horizon) to prevail with a power conformable to the turbulent season of
+the year.
+
+If any doubt had existed in the mind of Wilder as to the accuracy of
+his prognostics, it would have been solved about the commencement of
+the morning watch. At that hour the inconstant breeze began again to
+die; and, even before its last breathing was felt upon the flapping
+canvas, it was met by counter currents from the west. Our adventurer
+saw at once that the struggle was now truly to commence, and he made
+his dispositions accordingly. The square sheets of duck, which had so
+long been exposed to the mild airs of the south, were reduced to one
+third their original size, by double reefs; and several of the more
+cumbrous of the remaining articles such as were of doubtful use to
+persons in their situation, were cast, without pausing to hesitate,
+into the sea. Nor was this care without a sufficient object. The air
+soon came sighing heavily over the deep from the north-west, bringing
+with it the chilling asperity of the inhospitable regions of the
+Canadas.
+
+“Ah! well do I know you,” muttered Wilder, as the first puff of this
+unwelcome wind struck his sails, and forced the little boat to bend to
+its power in passing; “well do I know you, with your fresh-water
+flavour and your smell of the land! Would to God you had blown your
+fill upon the lakes, without coming down to drive many a weary seaman
+back upon his wake, and to eke out a voyage, already too long, by your
+bitter colds and steady obstinacy!”
+
+“Do you speak?” said Gertrude, half appearing from beneath her canopy,
+and then shrinking back, shivering, into its cover again, as she felt
+the influence in the change of air.
+
+“Sleep, Lady, sleep,” he answered, as though he liked not, at such a
+moment, to be disturbed by even her soft and silvery voice.
+
+“Is there new danger?” asked the maiden, stepping lightly from the
+mattress, as if she would not disturb the repose of her governess. “You
+need not fear to tell me the worst: I am a soldier’s child!”
+
+He pointed to the signs so well comprehended by himself, but continued
+silent.
+
+“I feel that the wind is colder than it was,” she said, “but I see no
+other change.”
+
+“And do you know whither the boat is going?”
+
+“To the land, I think. You assured us of that, and I do not believe you
+would willingly deceive.”
+
+“You do me justice; and, as a proof of it, I will now tell you that you
+are mistaken. I know that to your eyes all points of the compass, on
+this void, must seem the same; but I cannot thus easily deceive
+myself.”
+
+“And we are not sailing for our homes?”
+
+“So far from it, that, should this course continue we must cross the
+whole Atlantic before your eyes could again see land.”
+
+Gertrude made no reply, but retired, in sorrow, to the side of her
+governess. In the mean time, Wilder again left to himself, began to
+consult his compass and the direction of the wind. Perceiving that he
+might approach nearer to the continent of America by changing the
+position of the boat, he wore round, and brought its head as nigh up to
+the south-west as the wind would permit.
+
+But there was little hope in this trifling change. At each minute, the
+power of the breeze was increasing until it soon freshened to a degree
+that compelled him to furl his after-sail. The slumbering ocean was not
+long in awakening; and, by the time the launch was snug under a
+close-reefed fore-sail, the boat was rising on dark and ever-growing
+waves, or sinking into the momentary calm of deep furrows, whence it
+rose again, to feel the rapidly increasing power of the blasts. The
+dashing of the waters, and the rushing of the wind, which now began to
+sweep heavily across the blue waste, quickly drew the females to the
+side of our adventurer. To their hurried and anxious questions he made
+considerate but brief replies, like a man who felt that the time was
+far better suited to action than to words.
+
+In this manner the last lingering minutes of the night went by, loaded
+with a care that each moment rendered heavier, and which each
+successive freshening of the breeze had a tendency to render doubly
+anxious. The day came, only to bestow more distinctness on the
+cheerless prospect. The waves were looking green and angrily, while,
+here and there, large crests of foam were beginning to break on their
+summits—the certain evidence that a conflict betwixt the elements was
+at hand. Then came the sun over the ragged margin of the eastern
+horizon, climbing slowly into the blue arch above, which lay clear,
+chilling, distinct, and entirely without a cloud.
+
+Wilder noted all these changes of the hour with a closeness that proved
+how critical he deemed their case. He seemed rather to consult the
+signs of the heavens than to regard the tossings and rushings of the
+water, which dashed against the side of his little vessel in a mariner
+that, to the eyes of his companions, often appeared to threaten their
+total destruction. To the latter he was too much accustomed, to
+anticipate the true moment of alarm, though to less instructed senses
+it might already seem so dangerous. It was to him as is the thunder,
+when compared to the lightning, in the mind of the philosopher; or
+rather he knew, that, if harm might come from the one on which he
+floated, its ability to injure must first be called into action by the
+power of the sister element.
+
+“What think you of our case now?” asked Mrs Wyllys, keeping her look
+closely fastened on his countenance, as if she would rather trust its
+expression than even to his words for the answer.
+
+“So long as the wind continues thus, we may yet hope to keep within the
+route of ships to and from the great northern ports; but, if it freshen
+to a gale, and the sea begin to break with violence. I doubt the
+ability of this boat to lie-to.”
+
+“Then our resource must be in endeavouring to run before the gale.”
+
+“Then must we scud.”
+
+“What would be our direction, in such an event?” demanded Gertrude, to
+whose mind, in the agitation of the ocean and the naked view on every
+hand, all idea of places and distances was lost, in the most
+inextricable confusion.
+
+“In such an event,” returned our adventurer, regarding her with a look
+in which commiseration and indefinite concern were so singularly
+mingled, that her own mild gaze was changed into a timid and furtive
+glance, “in such an event, we should be leaving that land it is so
+important to reach.”
+
+“What ’em ’ere?” cried Cassandra, whose large dark eyes were rolling on
+every side of her, with a curiosity that no care or sense of danger
+could extinguish; “’em berry big fish on a water?”
+
+“It is a boat!” cried Wilder, springing upon a thwart, to catch a
+glimpse of a dark object that was driving on the glittering crest of a
+wave, within a hundred feet of the spot where the launch itself was
+struggling through the brine. “What ho!—boat, ahoy!—holloa there!—boat,
+ahoy!”
+
+The deep breathing of the wind swept by them, but no human sound
+responded to his shout. They had already fallen, between two seas, into
+a deep vale of water, where the narrow view extended no farther than
+the dark and rolling barriers on either side.
+
+“Merciful Providence!” exclaimed the governess, “can there be others as
+unhappy as ourselves!”
+
+“It was a boat, or my sight is not true as usual,” returned Wilder,
+still keeping his stand, to watch the moment when he might catch
+another view. His wish was quickly realized. He had trusted the helm,
+for the moment, to the hands of Cassandra, who suffered the launch to
+vary a little from its course. The words were still on his lips, when
+the same black object came sweeping down the wave to windward, and a
+pinnace, bottom upwards, washed past them in the trough. Then followed
+a shriek from the negress, who abandoned the tiller, and, sinking on
+her knees, hid her face in her hands. Wilder instinctively caught the
+helm, as he bent his face in the direction whence the revolting eye of
+Cassandra had been turned. A grim human form was seen, erect, and half
+exposed, advancing in the midst of the broken crest which was still
+covering the dark declivity to windward with foam. For a moment, it
+stood with the brine dripping from the drenched locks, like some being
+that had issued from the deep to turn its frightful features on the
+spectators; and then the lifeless body of a drowned man drove past the
+launch, which, at the next minute, rose to the summit of the wave, to
+sink into another vale where no such terrifying object floated.
+
+Not only Wilder, but Gertrude and Mrs Wyllys. had seen this startling
+spectacle so nigh them as to recognize the countenance of Nighthead,
+rendered still more stern and forbidding than ever, in the impression
+left by death. But neither spoke, nor gave any other evidence of their
+intelligence. Wilder hoped that his companions had at least escaped the
+shock of recognizing the victim; and the females themselves saw, in the
+hapless fortune of the mutineer too much of their own probable though
+more protracted fate, to be able to give vent to the horror each felt
+so deeply, in words. For some time, the elements alone were heard
+sighing a sort of hoarse requiem over the victims of their conflict.
+
+“The pinnace has filled!” Wilder at length observed, when he saw, by
+the pallid features and meaning eyes of his companions, it was in vain
+to affect reserve on the subject any longer. “Their boat was frail, and
+loaded to the water’s edge.”
+
+“Think you all are lost?” observed Mrs Wyllys, in a voice that scarcely
+amounted to a whisper.
+
+“There is no hope for any! Gladly would I part with an arm, for the
+assistance of the poorest of those misguided seamen, who have hurried
+on their evil fortune by their own disobedience and ignorance.”
+
+“And, of all the happy and thoughtless human beings who lately left the
+harbour of Newport, in a vessel that has so long been the boast of
+mariners, we alone remain!”
+
+“There is not another: This boat, and its contents are the sole
+memorials of the ‘Royal Caroline!’”
+
+“It was not within the ken of human Knowledge to foresee this evil,”
+continued the governess, fastening her eye on the countenance of
+Wilder, as though she would ask a question which conscience told her,
+at the same time, betrayed a portion of that very superstition which
+had hastened the fate of the rude being they had so lately passed.
+
+“It was not.”
+
+“And the danger, to which you so often and so inexplicably alluded, had
+no reference to this we have incurred?”
+
+“It had not.”
+
+“It has gone, with the change in our situation?”
+
+“I hope it has.”
+
+“See!” interrupted Gertrude, laying a hand, in her haste, on the arm of
+Wilder. “Heaven be praised! yonder is something at last to relieve the
+view.”
+
+“It is a ship!” exclaimed her governess; but, an envious wave lifting
+its green side between them and the object, they sunk into a trough, as
+though the vision had been placed momentarily before their eyes, merely
+to taunt them with its image. The quick glance of Wilder had caught,
+however, a glimpse of the tracery against the heavens, as they
+descended. When the boat rose again, his look was properly directed,
+and he was enabled to be certain of the reality of the vessel. Wave
+succeeded wave, and moments followed moments, during which the stranger
+was given to their gaze, and as often disappeared, as the launch
+unavoidably fell into the troughs of the seas. These short and hasty
+glimpses sufficed, however, to convey all that was necessary to the eye
+of a man who had been nurtured on that element, where circumstances now
+exacted of him such constant and unequivocal evidences of his skill.
+
+At the distance of a mile, there was in fact a ship to be seen, rolling
+and pitching gracefully, and without any apparent effort, on those
+waves through which the launch was struggling with such difficulty. A
+solitary sail was set, to steady the vessel, and that so reduced, by
+reefs, as to look like a little snowy cloud amid the dark maze of
+rigging and spars. At times, her long and tapering masts appeared
+pointing to the zenith, or even rolling as if inclining against the
+wind; and then, again, with slow and graceful sweeps, they seemed to
+fall towards the ruffled surface of the ocean, as though about to seek
+refuge from their endless motion, in the bosom of the agitated element
+itself. There were moments when the long, low, and black hull was seen
+distinctly resting on the summit of a sea, and glittering in the
+sun-beams, as the water washed from her sides; and then, as boat and
+vessel sunk together, all was lost to the eye, even to the attenuated
+lines of her tallest and most delicate spars.
+
+Both Mrs Wyllys and Gertrude bowed their faces to their knees, when
+assured of the truth of their hopes, and poured out their gratitude in
+silent and secret thanksgivings. The joy of Cassandra was more
+clamorous, and less restrained. The simple negress laughed, shed tears,
+and exulted in the most touching manner, on the prospect that was now
+offered for the escape of her young mistress and herself from a death
+that the recent sight had set before her imagination in the most
+frightful form. But no answering look of congratulation was to be
+traced in the contracting and anxious eye of their companion.
+
+“Now,” said Mrs Wyllys, seizing his hand in both her own, “may we hope
+to be delivered; and then shall we be allowed, brave and excellent
+young man, some opportunity of proving to you how highly we esteem your
+services.”
+
+Wilder permitted the burst of her feelings with a species of bewildered
+care, but he neither spoke, nor in any other manner exhibited the
+smallest sympathy in her joy.
+
+“Surely you are not grieved, Mr Wilder,” added the wondering Gertrude,
+“that the prospect of escape from these awful waves is at length so
+mercifully held forth to us!”
+
+“I would gladly die to shelter you from harm,” returned the young
+sailor; “but”—
+
+“This is not a time for any thing but gratitude and rejoicing,”
+interrupted the governess; “I cannot hearken to any cold exceptions
+now; what mean you with that ‘but?’”
+
+“It may be not so easy as you think to reach yon ship—the gale may
+prevent—in short, many is the vessel that is seen at sea which cannot
+be spoken.”
+
+“Happily, such is not our cruel fortune. I understand considerate and
+generous youth, your wish to dampen hopes that may possibly be yet
+thwarted, but I have too long, and too often, trusted this dangerous
+element, not to know that he who has the wind can speak, or not, as he
+pleases.”
+
+“You are right in saying we are to windward Madam; and, were I in a
+ship, nothing would be easier than to run within hail of the
+stranger.—That ship is certainly lying-to, and yet the gale is not
+fresh enough to bring so stout a vessel to so short canvas.”
+
+“They see us, then, and await our arrival.”
+
+“No, no: Thank God, we are not yet seen! This little rag of ours is
+blended with the spray. They take it for a gull, or a comb of the sea,
+for the moment it is in view.”
+
+“And do you thank Heaven for this!” exclaimed Gertrude, regarding the
+anxious Wilder with a wonder that her more cautious governess had the
+power to restrain.
+
+“Did I thank Heaven for not being seen! I may have mistaken the object
+of my thanks: It is an armed ship!”
+
+“Perhaps a cruiser of the King’s! We are the more likely to meet with a
+welcome reception! Delay not to hoist some signal, lest they increase
+their sail, and leave us.”
+
+“You forget that the enemy is often found upon our coast. This might
+prove a Frenchman!”
+
+“I have no fears of a generous enemy. Even a pirate would give shelter,
+and welcome, to females in such distress.”
+
+A long and profound silence succeeded. Wilder still stood upon the
+thwart, straining his eyes to read each sign that a seaman understands;
+nor did he appear to find much pleasure in the task.
+
+“We will drift ahead,” he said, “and, as the ship is lying on a
+different tack, we may yet gain a position that will leave us masters
+of our future movements.”
+
+To this his companions knew not well how to make any objections. Mrs
+Wyllys was so much struck with the remarkable air of coldness with
+which he met this prospect of refuge against the forlorn condition in
+which he had just before confessed they were placed, that she was much
+more disposed to ponder on the cause, than to trouble him with
+questions which she had the discernment to see would be useless.
+Gertrude wondered, while she was disposed to think he might be right,
+though she knew not why. Cassandra alone was rebellious. She lifted her
+voice in loud objections against a moment’s delay, assuring the
+abstracted and perfectly inattentive young seaman, that, should any
+evil come to her young mistress by his obstinacy, General Grayson would
+be angered; and then she left him to reflect on the results of a
+displeasure that to her simple mind teemed with all the danger that
+could attend the anger of a monarch. Provoked by his contumacious
+disregard of her remonstrances, the negress, forgetting all her
+respect, in blindness in behalf of her whom she not only loved, but had
+been taught to reverence, seized the boat-hook, and, unperceived by
+Wilder, fastened to it, with dexterity, one of the linen cloths that
+had been brought from the wreck, and exposed it, far above the
+diminished sail, for a couple of minutes, ere her device had caught the
+eyes of either of her companions. Then, indeed she lowered the signal,
+in haste, before the dark and frowning look of Wilder. But, short as
+was the triumph of the negress, it was crowned with complete success.
+
+The restrained silence, which is so apt to succeed a sudden burst of
+displeasure, was still reigning in the boat, when a cloud of smoke
+broke out of the side of the ship, as she lay on the summit of a wave;
+and then came the deadened roar of artillery struggling heavily up
+against the wind.
+
+“It is now too late to hesitate,” said Mrs Wyllys; “we are seen, let
+the stranger be friend or enemy.”
+
+Wilder did not answer, but continued to profit, by each opportunity, to
+watch the movements of the stranger. In another moment, the spars were
+seen receding from the breeze, and, in a couple of minutes more, the
+head of the ship was changed to the direction in which they lay. Then
+appeared four or five broader sheets of canvas in different parts of
+the complicated machinery, while the vessel bowed to the gale, as
+though she inclined still lower before its power. At moments, as she
+mounted on a sea, her bows seemed issuing from the element altogether
+and high jets of spray were cast into the air, glittering in the sun,
+as the white particles scattered in the breeze, or fell in gems upon
+the sails and rigging, “It is now too late, indeed;” murmured our
+adventurer bearing up the helm of his own little craft, and letting its
+sheet glide through his hands, until the sail was bagging with the
+breeze nearly to bursting. The boat, which had so long been labouring
+through the water, with a wish to cling as nigh as possible to the
+Continent, flew over the seas, leaving a long trail of foam behind it;
+and, before either of the females had regained their entire
+self-possession, she was floating in the comparative calm that was
+created by the hull of a large vessel. A light active form stood in the
+rigging of the ship, issuing the necessary orders to a hundred seamen;
+and, in the midst of the confusion and alarm that such a scene was
+likely to cause in the bosom of woman, Gertrude and Mrs Wyllys, with
+their two companions, were transferred in safety to the decks of the
+stranger. The moment they and their effects were secured the launch was
+cut adrift, like useless lumber. Twenty mariners were then seen
+climbing among the ropes; and sail after sail was opened still wider,
+until bearing the vast folds of all her canvas spread, the vessel was
+urged along the trackless course, like a swift cloud drifting through
+the thin medium of the upper air.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIX.
+
+“Now let it work: Mischief, thou art afoot,
+Take then what course thou wilt!”
+
+_Shakespeare_
+
+
+When the velocity with which the vessel flew before the wind is
+properly considered, the reader will not be surprised to learn, that,
+with the change of a week in the time from that with which the
+foregoing incidents close, we are enabled to open the scene of the
+present chapter in a very different quarter of the same sea. It is
+unnecessary to follow the “Rover” in the windings of that devious and
+apparently often uncertain course, during which his keel furrowed more
+than a thousand miles of ocean, and during which more than one cruiser
+of the King was skilfully eluded, and sundry less dangerous encounters
+avoided, as much from inclination as any other visible cause. It is
+quite sufficient for our purpose to lift the curtain, which must
+conceal her movements for a time, to expose the gallant vessel in a
+milder climate, and, when the season of the year is considered, in a
+more propitious sea.
+
+Exactly seven days after Gertrude and her governess became the inmates
+of a ship whose character it is no longer necessary to conceal from the
+reader, the sun rose upon her flapping sails, symmetrical spars, and
+dark hull, within sight of a few, low, small and rocky islands. The
+colour of the element would have told a seaman, had no mound of blue
+land been seen issuing out of the world of waters, that the bottom of
+the sea was approaching nigher than common to its surface, and that it
+was necessary to guard against the well-known and dreaded dangers of
+the coast. Wind there was none; for she vacillating and uncertain air
+which, from time to time, distended for an instant the lighter canvas
+of the vessel, deserved to be merely termed the breathings of a
+morning, which was breaking upon the main, soft, mild, and seemingly so
+bland as to impart to the ocean the placid character of a sleeping
+lake.
+
+Everything having life in the ship was already up and stirring. Fifty
+stout and healthy-looking seamen were hanging in different parts of her
+rigging, some laughing, and holding low converse with messmates who lay
+indolently on the neighbouring spars, and others leisurely performing
+the light and trivial duty that was the ostensible employment of the
+moment. More than as many others loitered carelessly about the decks
+below, somewhat similarly engaged; the whole wearing much the
+appearance of men who were set to perform certain immaterial tasks,
+more to escape the imputation of idleness than from any actual
+necessity that the same should be executed. The quarter-deck, the
+hallowed spot of every vessel that may pretend to either discipline or
+its semblance, was differently occupied though by a set of beings who
+could lay no greater claim to activity or interest. In short, the
+vessel partook of the character of the ocean and of the weather, both
+of which seemed reserving their powers to some more suitable occasion
+for their display.
+
+Three or four young (and, considering the nature of their service, far
+from unpleasant-looking) men appeared in a sort of undress nautical
+uniform, in which the fashion of no people in particular was very
+studiously consulted. Notwithstanding the apparent calm that reigned on
+all around them, each of these individuals bore a short straight dirk
+at his girdle; and, as one of them bent over the side of the vessel,
+the handle of a little pistol was discovered through an opening in the
+folds of his professional frock. There were, however, no other
+immediate signs of distrust, whence an observer might infer that this
+armed precaution was more than the usual custom of the vessel. A couple
+of grim and callous looking sentinels, who were attired and accoutred
+like soldiers of the land, and who, contrary to marine usage, were
+posted on the line which separated the resorting place of the officers
+from the forward part of the deck, bespoke additional caution. But,
+still, all these arrangements were regarded by the seamen with
+incurious eyes—a certain proof that use had long rendered them
+familiar.
+
+The individual who has been introduced to the reader under the
+high-sounding title of “General,” stood upright and rigid as one of the
+masts of the ship, studying, with a critical eye, the equipments of his
+two mercenaries, and apparently as regardless of what was passing
+around him as though he literally considered himself a fixture in the
+vessel. One form, however, was to be distinguished from all around it,
+by the dignity of its mien and the air of authority that breathed even
+in the repose of its attitude. It was the Rover, who stood alone, none
+presuming to approach the spot where he had chosen to plant his light
+but graceful and imposing person. There was ever an expression of stern
+investigation in his quick wandering eye, as it roved from object to
+object in the equipment of the vessel; and at moments, as his look
+appeared fastened on some one of the light fleecy clouds that floated
+in the blue vacuum above him, there gathered about his brow a gloom
+like that which is thought to be the shadowing of intense thought.
+Indeed, so dark and threatening did this lowering of the eye become, at
+times, that the fair hair which broke out in ringlets from beneath a
+black velvet sea-cap, from whose top depended a tassel of gold, could
+no longer impart to his countenance the gentleness which it sometimes
+was seen to express. As though he disdained concealment, and wished to
+announce the nature of the power he wielded, he wore his pistols openly
+in a leathern belt, that was made to cross a frock of blue, delicately
+edged with gold, and through which he had thrust, with the same
+disregard of concealment, a light and curved Turkish yattagan, with a
+straight stiletto, which, by the chasings of its handle, had probably
+originally come from the manufactory of some Italian artisan.
+
+On the deck of the poop, overlooking the rest and retired from the
+crowd beneath them, stood Mrs Wyllys and her charge, neither of whom
+announced in the slightest degree, by eye or air, that anxiety which
+might readily be supposed natural to females who found themselves in a
+condition so critical as in the company of lawless freebooters. On the
+contrary, while the former pointed out to the latter the hillock of
+pale blue which rose from the water, like a dark and strongly defined
+cloud in the distance, hope was strongly blended with the ordinarily
+placid expression of her features. She also called to Wilder, in a
+cheerful voice; and the youth, who had long been standing, with a sort
+of jealous watchfulness, at the foot of the ladder which led from the
+quarter-deck, was at her side in an instant.
+
+“I am telling Gertrude,” said the governess, with those tones of
+confidence which had been created by the dangers they had incurred
+together, “that yonder is her home, and that, when the breeze shall be
+felt, we may speedily hope to reach it; but the wilfully timid girl
+insists that she cannot believe her senses, after the frightful risks
+we have run, until, at least, she shall see the dwelling of her
+childhood, and the face of her father. You have often been on this
+coast before, Mr Wilder?”
+
+“Often, Madam.”
+
+“Then, you can tell us what is the distant land we see.”
+
+“Land!” repeated our adventurer, affecting a look of surprise; “is
+there then land in view?”
+
+“Is there land in view! Have not hours gone by since the same was
+proclaimed from the masts?”
+
+“It may be so: We seamen are dull after a night of watching, and often
+hear but little of that which passes.”
+
+There was a quick, suspicious glance from the eye of the governess, as
+if she apprehended, she knew not what, ere she continued,—
+
+“Has the sight of the cheerful, blessed soil of America so soon lost
+its charm in your eye, that you approach it with an air so heedless?
+The infatuation of men of your profession, in favour of so dangerous
+and so treacherous an element, is an enigma I never could explain.”
+
+“Do seamen, then, love their calling with so devoted an affection?”
+demanded Gertrude, in a haste that she might have found embarrassing to
+explain.
+
+“It is a folly of which we are often accused,” rejoined Wilder, turning
+his eye on the speaker, and smiling in a manner that had lost every
+shade of reserve.
+
+“And justly?”
+
+“I fear, justly.”
+
+“Ay!” exclaimed Mrs Wyllys, with an emphasis that was remarkable for
+the tone of soft and yet bitter regret with which it was uttered;
+“often better than their quiet and peaceful homes!”
+
+Gertrude pursued the idea no further; but her line full eye fell upon
+the deck, as though she reflected deeply on a perversity of taste which
+could render man so insensible to domestic pleasures, and incline him
+to court the wild dangers of the ocean.
+
+“I, at least, am free from the latter charge,” exclaimed Wilder: “To me
+a ship has always been a home.”
+
+“And much of my life, too, has been wasted in one,” continued the
+governess, who evidently was pursuing, in the recesses of her own mind,
+some images of a time long past. “Happy and miserable alike, have been
+the hours that I have passed upon the sea! Nor is this the first King’s
+ship in which it has been my fortune to be thrown. And yet the customs
+seem changed since those days I mention, or else memory is beginning to
+lose some of the impressions of an age when memory is apt to be most
+tenacious. Is it usual, Mr Wilder, to admit an utter stranger, like
+yourself, to exercise authority in a vessel of war?”
+
+“Certainly not.”
+
+“And yet have you been acting, as far as my weak judgment teaches, as
+second here, since the moment we entered this vessel, wrecked and
+helpless fugitives from the waves.”
+
+Our adventurer again averted his eye, and evidently searched for words,
+ere he replied,—
+
+“A commission is always respected: Mine procured for me the
+consideration you have witnessed.”
+
+“You are then an officer of the Crown?”
+
+“Would any other authority be respected in a vessel of the Crown? Death
+had left a vacancy in the second station of this—cruiser. Fortunately
+for the wants of the service, perhaps for myself, I was at hand to fill
+it.”
+
+“But, tell me farther,” continued the governess, who appeared disposed
+to profit by the occasion to solve more doubts than one, “is it usual
+for the officers of a vessel of war to appear armed among their crew,
+in the manner I see here?”
+
+“It is the pleasure of our Commander.”
+
+“That Commander is evidently a skilful seaman, but one whose caprices
+and tastes are as extraordinary as I find his mien. I have surely seen
+him before; and, it would seem, but lately.”
+
+Mrs Wyllys then became silent for several minutes. During the whole
+time, her eye never averted its gaze from the form of the calm and
+motionless being, who still maintained his attitude of repose, aloof
+from all that throng whom he had the address to make so entirely
+dependant on his authority. It seemed, for these few minutes, that the
+organs of the governess drunk in the smallest peculiarity of his
+person, and as if they would never tire of their gaze. Then, drawing a
+heavy and relieving breath, she once more remembered that she was not
+alone, and that others were silently, but observantly, awaiting the
+operation of her secret thoughts. Without manifesting any
+embarrassment, however, at an absence of mind that was far too common
+to surprise her pupil, the governess resumed the discourse where she
+had herself dropped it, bending her look again on Wilder.
+
+“Is Captain Heidegger, then, long of your acquaintance?” she demanded.
+
+“We have met before.”
+
+“It should be a name of German origin, by the sound. Certain I am that
+it is new to me. The time has been when few officers, of his rank, in
+the service of the King, were unknown to me, at least in name. Is his
+family of long standing in England?”
+
+“That is a question he may better answer himself,” said Wilder, glad to
+perceive that the subject of their discourse was approaching them, with
+the air of one who felt that none in that vessel might presume to
+dispute his right to mingle in any discourse that should please his
+fancy. “For the moment, Madam, my duty calls me elsewhere.”
+
+Wilder evidently withdrew with reluctance; and, had suspicion been
+active in the breasts of either of his companions, they would not have
+failed to note the glance of distrust with which he watched the manner
+that his Commander assumed in paying the salutations of the morning.
+There was nothing, however, in the air of the Rover that should have
+given ground to such jealous vigilance. On the contrary his manner, for
+the moment, was cold and abstracted he appeared to mingle in their
+discourse, much more from a sense of the obligations of hospitality
+than from any satisfaction that he might have been thought to derive
+from the intercourse. Still, his deportment was kind, and his voice
+bland as the airs that were wafted from the healthful islands in view.
+
+“There is a sight”—he said, pointing towards the low blue ridges of the
+land—“that forms the lands-man’s delight, and the seaman’s terror.”
+
+“Are, then, seamen thus averse to the view of regions where so many
+millions of their fellow creatures find pleasure in dwelling?” demanded
+Gertrude, (to whom he more particularly addressed his words), with a
+frankness that would, in itself, have sufficiently proved no
+glimmerings of his real character had ever dawned on her own spotless
+and unsuspicious mind.
+
+“Miss Grayson included,” he returned, with a slight bow, and a smile,
+in which, perhaps, irony was concealed by playfulness. “After the risk
+you have so lately run, even I, confirmed and obstinate sea-monster as
+I am, have no reason to complain of your distaste for our element. And
+yet, you see, it is not entirely without its charms. No lake, that lies
+within the limits of yon Continent, can be more calm and sweet than is
+this bit of ocean. Were we a few degrees more southward, I would show
+you landscapes of rock and mountain—of bays, and hillsides sprinkled
+with verdure—of tumbling whales, and lazy fishermen, and distant
+cottages, and lagging sails—such as would make a figure even in pages
+that the bright eye of lady might love to read.”
+
+“And yet for most of this would you be indebted to the land. In return
+for your picture, I would take you north, and show you black and
+threatening clouds—a green and angry sea—shipwrecks and
+shoals—cottages, hillsides, and mountains, in the imagination only of
+the drowning man—and sails bleached by waters that contain the
+voracious shark, or the disgusting polypus.”
+
+Gertrude had answered in his own vein; but it was too evident, by her
+pale cheek, and a slight tremour about her full, rich lip, that memory
+was also busy with its frightful images. The quick-searching eye of the
+Rover was not slow to detect the change. As though he would banish
+every recollection that might give her pain, he artfully, but
+delicately, gave a new direction to the discourse.
+
+“There are people who think the sea has no amusements,” he said. “To a
+pining, home-sick, sea-sick miserable, this may well be true; but the
+man who has spirit enough to keep down the qualms of the animal may
+tell a different tale. We have our balls regularly, for instance; and
+there are artists on board this ship, who, though they cannot, perhaps,
+make as accurate a right angle with their legs as the first dancer of a
+leaping ballet, can go through their figures in a gale of wind; which
+is more than can be said of the highest jumper of them all on shore.”
+
+“A ball, without females, would, at least, be thought an unsocial
+amusement, with us uninstructed people of terra firma.”
+
+“Hum! It might be better for a lady or two Then, have we our theatre:
+Farce, comedy, and the buskin, take their turns to help along the time.
+You fellow, that you see lying on the fore-topsail-yard like an
+indolent serpent basking on the branch of a tree, will ‘roar you as
+gently as any sucking dove!’ And here is a votary of Momus, who would
+raise a smile on the lips of a sea-sick friar: I believe I can say no
+more in his commendation.”
+
+“All this is well in the description,” returned Mrs Wyllys; “but
+something is due to the merit of the—poet, or, painter shall I term
+you?”
+
+“Neither, but a grave and veritable chronologer. However, since you
+doubt, and since you are so new to the ocean”—
+
+“Pardon me!” the lady gravely interrupted, “I am, on the contrary, one
+who has seen much of it.”
+
+The Rover, who had rather suffered his unsettled glances to wander over
+the youthful countenance of Gertrude than towards her companion, now
+bent his eyes on the last speaker, where he kept them fastened so long
+as to create some little embarrassment in the subject of his gaze.
+
+“You seem surprised that the time of a female should have been thus
+employed,” she observed, with a view to arouse his attention to the
+impropriety of his observation.
+
+“We were speaking of the sea, if I remember,” he continued, like a man
+that was suddenly awakened from a deep reverie. “Ay, I know it was of
+the sea; for I had grown boastful in my panegyrics: I had told you that
+this ship was faster than”—
+
+“Nothing!” exclaimed Gertrude, laughing at his blunder. “You were
+playing Master of Ceremonies at a nautical ball!”
+
+“Will you figure in a minuet? Shall I honour my boards with the graces
+of your person?”
+
+“Me, sir? and with whom? the gentleman who knows so well the manner of
+keeping his feet in a gale?”
+
+“You were about to relieve any doubts we might have concerning the
+amusements of seamen,” said the governess, reproving the too playful
+spirit of her pupil, by a glance of her own grave eye.
+
+“Ay, it was the humour of the moment, nor will I balk it.”
+
+He then turned towards Wilder, who had posted himself within ear-shot
+of what was passing, and continued,—
+
+“These ladies doubt our gaiety, Mr Wilder. Let the boatswain give the
+magical wind of his call, and pass the word ‘To mischief’ among the
+people.”
+
+Our adventurer bowed his acquiescence, and issued the necessary order.
+In a few moments, the precise individual who has already made
+acquaintance with the reader, in the bar-room of the “Foul Anchor,”
+appeared in the centre of the vessel, near the main hatchway,
+decorated, as before, with his silver chain and whistle, and
+accompanied by two mates who were humbler scholars of the same gruff
+school. Then rose a long, shrill whistle from the instrument of
+Nightingale, who, when the sound had died away on the ear, uttered, in
+his deepest and least sonorous tones,—
+
+“All hands to mischief, ahoy!”
+
+We have before had occasion to liken these sounds to the muttering of a
+bull, nor shall we at present see fit to disturb the comparison, since
+no other similitude so apt, presents itself. The example of the
+boatswain was followed by each of his mates in turn, and then the
+summons was deemed sufficient. However unintelligible and grum the call
+might sound in the musical ears of Gertrude, they produced no
+unpleasant effects on the organs of a majority of those who heard them.
+When the first swelling and protracted note of the call mounted on the
+still air, each idle and extended young seaman, as he lay stretched
+upon a spar, or hung dangling from a ratling lifted his head, to catch
+the words that were to follow, as an obedient spaniel pricks his ears
+to catch the tones of his master. But no sooner had the emphatic word,
+which preceded the long-drawn and customary exclamation with which
+Nightingale closed his summons, been pronounced, than the low murmur of
+voices, which had so long been maintained among the men, broke out in a
+simultaneous and common shout. In an instant, every symptom of lethargy
+disappeared in a general and extraordinary activity. The young and
+nimble topmen bounded like leaping animals, into the rigging of their
+respective masts, and were seen ascending the shaking ladders of ropes
+as so many squirrels would hasten to their holes at the signal of
+alarm. The graver and heavier seamen of the forecastle, the still more
+important quarter-gunners and quarter-masters, the less instructed and
+half-startled waisters, and the raw and actually alarmed after-guard,
+all hurried, by a sort of instinct, to their several points; the more
+practised to plot mischief against their shipmates, and the less
+intelligent to concert their means of defence.
+
+In an instant, the tops and yards were ringing with laughter and
+loudly-uttered jokes, as each exulting mariner aloft proclaimed his
+device to his fellows, or urged his own inventions, at the expense of
+some less ingenious mode of annoyance. On the other hand, the
+distrustful and often repeated glances that were thrown upward, from
+the men who had clustered on the quarter-deck and around the foot of
+the mainmast sufficiently proclaimed the diffidence with which the
+novices on deck were about to enter into the contest of practical wit
+that was about to commence. The steady and more earnest seamen forward,
+however, maintained their places, with a species of stern resolution
+which manifestly proved the reliance they had on their physical force,
+and their long familiarity with all the humours, no less than with the
+dangers, of the ocean.
+
+There was another little cluster of men, who assembled, in the midst of
+the general clamour and confusion, with a haste and steadiness that
+announced, at the same time, both a consciousness of the entire
+necessity of unity on the present occasion, and habit of acting in
+concert. These were the drilled and military dependants of the General,
+between whom, and the less artificial seamen, there existed not only an
+antipathy that might almost be called instinctive, but which, for
+obvious reasons had been so strongly encouraged in the vessel of which
+we write, as often to manifest itself in turbulent and nearly mutinous
+broils. About twenty in number, they collected quickly; and, although
+obliged to dispense with their fire-arms in such an amusement, there
+was a sternness, in the visage of each of the whiskered worthies, that
+showed how readily he could appeal to the bayonet that was suspended
+from his shoulder, should need demand it. Their Commander himself
+withdrew, with the rest of the officers to the poop, in order that no
+incumbrance might be given, by their presence, to the freedom of the
+sports to which they had resigned the rest of the vessel.
+
+A couple of minutes might have been lost in producing the different
+changes we have just related But, so soon as the topmen were sure that
+no unfortunate laggard of their party was within reach of the
+resentment of the different groupes beneath, they commenced complying
+literally with the summons of the boatswain, by plotting mischief.
+
+Sundry buckets, most of which had been provided for the extinction of
+fire, were quickly seen pendant from as many whips on the outer
+extremity of the different yards descending towards the sea. In spite
+of the awkward opposition of the men below, these leathern vessels were
+speedily filled, and in the hands of those who had sent them down. Many
+was the gaping waister, and rigid marine, who now made a more familiar
+acquaintance with the element on which he floated than suited either
+his convenience or his humour. So long as the jokes were confined to
+these semi-initiated individuals, the top men enjoyed their fun with
+impunity; but, the in stant the dignity of a quarter-gunner’s person
+was invaded, the whole gang of petty officers and forecastle-men rose
+in a body to meet the insult, with a readiness and dexterity that
+manifested how much at home the elder mariners were with all that
+belonged to their art. A little engine was transferred to the head, and
+was then brought to bear on the nearest top, like a well-planted
+battery clearing the way for the opening battle. The laughing and
+chattering topmen were soon dispersed: some ascending beyond the power
+of the engine, and others retreating into the neighbouring top, along
+ropes, and across giddy heights, that would have seemed impracticable
+to any animal less agile than a squirrel.
+
+The marines were now summoned, by the successful and malicious
+mariners, forward, to improve their advantage. Thoroughly drenched
+already, and eager to resent their wrongs, a half-dozen of the
+soldiers, led on by a corporal, the coating of whose powdered poll had
+been converted into a sort of paste by too great an intimacy with a
+bucket of water, essayed to mount the rigging; an exploit to them much
+more arduous than to enter a breach. The waggish quarter-gunners and
+quarter-masters, satisfied with their own success, stimulated them to
+the enterprise; and Nightingale and his mates, while they rolled their
+tongues into their cheeks, gave forth, with their whistles, the
+cheering sound of “heave away!” The sight of these adventurers, slowly
+and cautiously mounting the rigging, acted very much, on the scattered
+topmen, in the manner that the appearance of so many flies, in the
+immediate vicinity of a web, is known to act on their concealed and
+rapacious enemies. The sailors aloft saw, by expressive glances from
+them below, that a soldier was considered legal game. No sooner,
+therefore, had the latter fairly entered into the toils, than twenty
+topmen rushed out upon them, in order to make sure of their prizes. In
+an incredibly short time, this important result was achieved. Two or
+three of the aspiring adventurers were lashed where they had been
+found, utterly unable to make any resistance in a spot where instinct
+itself seemed to urge them to devote both hands to the necessary duty
+of holding fast; while the rest were transferred, by the means of
+whips, to different spars, very much as a light sail or a yard would
+have been swayed into its place.
+
+In the midst of the clamorous rejoicings that attended this success,
+one individual made himself conspicuous for the gravity and
+business-like air with which he performed his part of the comedy.
+Seated on the outer end of a lower yard, with as much steadiness as
+though he had been placed on an ottoman, he was intently occupied in
+examining into the condition of a captive, who had been run up at his
+feet, with an order from the waggish captain of the top, “to turn him
+in for a jewel-block;” a name that appears to have been taken from the
+precious stones that are so often seen pendant from the ears of the
+other sex.
+
+“Ay, ay,” muttered this deliberate and grave-looking tar, who was no
+other than Richard Fid “the stropping you’ve sent with the fellow is
+none of the best; and, if he squeaks so now, what will he do when you
+come to reeve a rope through him! By the Lord, masters, you should have
+furnished the lad a better outfit, if you meant to send him into good
+company aloft. Here are more holes in his jacket than there are cabin
+windows to a Chinese junk. Hilloa!—on deck there!—you Guinea, pick me
+up a tailor, and send him aloft, to keep the wind out of this waister’s
+tarpauling.”
+
+The athletic African, who had been posted on the forecastle for his
+vast strength, cast an eye upward, and, with both arms thrust into his
+bosom, he rolled along the deck, with just as serious a mien as though
+he had been sent on a duty of the greatest import. The uproar over his
+head had drawn a most helpless-looking mortal from a retired corner of
+the birth-deck, to the ladder of the forward hatch, where, with a body
+half above the combings, a skein of strong coarse thread around his
+neck, a piece of bees-wax in one hand, and a needle in the other, he
+stood staring about him, with just that sort of bewildered air that a
+Chinese mandarin would manifest, were he to be suddenly initiated in
+the mysteries of the ballet. On this object the eye of Scipio fell.
+Stretching out an arm, he cast him upon his shoulder; and, before the
+startled subject of his attack knew into whose hands he had fallen, a
+hook was passed beneath the waistband of his trowsers, and he was half
+way between the water and the spar, on his way to join the considerate
+Fid.
+
+“Have a care lest you let the man fall into the sea!” cried Wilder
+sternly, from his stand on the distant poop.
+
+“He’m tailor, masser Harry,” returned the black, without altering a
+muscle; “if a clothes no ’trong, he nobody blame but heself.”
+
+During this brief parlance, the good-man Homespun had safely arrived at
+the termination of his lofty flight. Here he was suitably received by
+Fid, who raised him to his side; and, having placed him comfortably
+between the yard and the boom, he proceeded to secure him by a lashing
+that would give the tailor the proper disposition of his hands.
+
+“Bouse a bit on this waister!” called Richard, when he had properly
+secured the good-man; “so; belay all that.”
+
+He then put one foot on the neck of his prisoner, and, seizing his
+lower member as it swung uppermost, he coolly placed it in the lap of
+the awe-struck tailor.
+
+“There, friend,” he said, “handle your needle and palm now, as if you
+were at job-work. Your knowing handicraft always begins with the
+foundation wherein he makes sure that his upper gear will stand.”
+
+“The Lord protect me, and all other sinful mortals, from an untimely
+end!” exclaimed Homespun, gazing at the vacant view from his giddy
+elevation, with a sensation a little resembling that with which the
+aeronaut, in his first experiment, regards the prospect beneath.
+
+“Settle away this waister,” again called Fid; “he interrupts rational
+conversation by his noise; and, as his gear is condemned by this here
+tailor, why, you may turn him over to the purser for a new outfit.”
+
+The real motive, however, for getting rid of his pendant companion was
+a twinkling of humanity, that still glimmered through the rough humour
+of the tar, who well knew that his prisoner must hang where he did, at
+some little expense of bodily ease. As soon as his request was complied
+with, he turned to the good-man, to renew the discourse, with just as
+much composure as though they were both seated on the deck, or as if a
+dozen practical jokes, of the same character, were not in the process
+of enactment, in as many different parts of the vessel.
+
+“What makes you open your eyes, brother, in this port-hole fashion?”
+commenced the topman. “This is all water that you see about you, except
+that hommoc of blue in the eastern board, which is a morsel of upland
+in the Bahamas, d’ye see.”
+
+“A sinful and presuming world is this we live in!” returned the
+good-man; “nor can any one tell at what moment his life is to be taken
+from him. Five bloody and cruel wars have I lived to see in safety and
+yet am I reserved to meet this disgraceful and profane end at last.”
+
+“Well, since you’ve had your luck in the wars, you’ve the less reason
+to grumble at the bit of a surge you may have felt in your garments, as
+they run you up to this here yard-arm. I say, brother, I’ve known
+stouter fellows take the same ride, who never knew when or how they got
+down again.”
+
+Homespun, who did not more than half comprehend the allusion of Fid,
+now regarded him in a way that announced some little desire for an
+explanation, mingled with great admiration of the unconcern with which
+his companion maintained his position, without the smallest aid from
+any thing but his self-balancing powers.
+
+“I say, brother,” resumed Fid, “that many a stout seaman has been whipt
+up to the end of a yard, who has started by the signal of a gun, and
+who has staid there just as long as the president of a court-martial
+was pleased to believe might be necessary to improve his honesty!”
+
+“It would be a fearful and frightful trifling with Providence, in the
+least offending and conscientious mariner, to take such awful
+punishments in vain, by acting them in his sports; but doubly so do I
+pronounce it in the crew of a ship on which no man can say at what hour
+retribution and compunction are to alight. It seems to me unwise to
+tempt Providence by such provocating exhibitions.”
+
+Fid cast a glance of far more than usual significance at the good-man,
+and even postponed his reply, until he had freshened his ideas by an
+ample addition to the morsel of weed which he had kept all along thrust
+into one of his cheeks. Then, casting his eyes about him, in order to
+see that none of his noisy and riotous companions, of the top, were
+within ear-shot, he fastened a still more meaning look on the
+countenance of the tailor, as he responded,—
+
+“Hark ye, brother; whatever may be the other good points of Richard
+Fid, his friends cannot say he is much of a scholar. This being the
+case, he has not seen fit to ask a look at the sailing orders, on
+coming aboard this wholesome vessel. I suppose, howsomever, that they
+can be forthcoming at need, and that no honest man need be ashamed to
+be found cruising under the same.”
+
+“Ah! Heaven protect such unoffending innocents as serve here against
+their will, when the allotted time of the cruiser shall be filled!”
+returned Homespun. “I take it, however, that you, as a sea-faring and
+understanding man, have not entered into this enterprise without
+receiving the bounty, and knowing the whole nature of the service.”
+
+“The devil a bit have I entered at all, either in the ‘Enterprise’ or
+in the ‘Dolphin,’ as they call this same craft. There is master Harry,
+the lad on the poop there, he who hails a yard as soft as a bull-whale
+roars; I follow his signals, d’ye see; and it is seldom that I bother
+him with questions as to what tack he means to lay his boat on next.”
+
+“What! would you sell your soul in this manner to Beelzebub; and that,
+too, without a price?”
+
+“I say, friend, it may be as well to overhaul your ideas, before you
+let them slip, in this no-man’s fashion, from your tongue. I would wish
+to treat a gentleman, who has come aloft to pay me a visit, with such
+civility as may do credit to my top, though the crew be at mischief,
+d’ye see. But an officer like him I follow has a name of his own,
+without stopping to borrow one of the person you’ve just seen fit to
+name. I scorn such a pitiful thing as a threat, but a man of your years
+needn’t be told, that it is just as easy to go down from this here spar
+as it was to come up to it.”
+
+The tailor cast a glance beneath him into the brine, and hastened to do
+away the unfavourable impression which his last unfortunate
+interrogation had so evidently left on the mind of his brawny
+associate.
+
+“Heaven forbid that I should call any one but by their given and family
+names, as the law commands,” he said; “I meant merely to inquire, if
+you would follow the gentleman you serve to so unseemly and pernicious
+a place as a gibbet?”
+
+Fid ruminated some little time, before he saw fit to reply to so
+sweeping a query. During this unusual process, he agitated the weed,
+with which his mouth was nearly gorged, with great industry; and then,
+terminating both processes, by casting a jet of the juice nearly to the
+sprit-sail-yard, he said, in a very decided tone,—
+
+“If I wouldn’t, may I be d—d! After sailing in company for
+four-and-twenty years, I should be no better than a sneak, to part
+company, because such a trifle as a gallows hove in sight.”
+
+“The pay of such a service should be both generous and punctual, and
+the cheer of the most encouraging character,” the good-man observed, in
+a way that manifested he should not be displeased were he to receive a
+reply. Fid was in no disposition to balk his curiosity, but rather
+deemed himself bound, since he had once entered on the subject, to
+leave no part of it in obscurity.
+
+“As for the pay, d’ye see,” he said, “it is seaman’s wages. I should
+despise myself to take less than falls to the share of the best
+foremast-hand in a ship, since it would be all the same as owning that
+I got my deserts. But master Harry has a way of his own in rating men’s
+services; and if his ideas get jamm’d in an affair of this sort, it is
+no marling-spike that I handle which can loosen them. I once just named
+the propriety of getting me a quarter-master’s birth; but devil the bit
+would he be doing the thing, seeing, as he says himself, that I have a
+fashion of getting a little hazy at times, which would only be putting
+me in danger of disgrace; since every body knows that the higher a
+monkey climbs in the rigging of a ship, the easier every body on deck
+can see that he has a tail. Then, as to cheer, it is seaman’s fare;
+sometimes a cut to spare for a friend and sometimes a hungry stomach.”
+
+“But then there are often divisions of the—a—a—the-prize-money, in this
+successful cruiser?” demanded the good-man, averting his face as he
+spoke, perhaps from a consciousness that it might betray an unseemly
+interest in the answer. “I dare say, you receive amends for all your
+sufferings, when the purser gives forth the spoils.”
+
+“Hark ye, brother,” said Fid, again assuming a look of significance,
+“can you tell me where the Admiralty Court sits which condemns her
+prizes?”
+
+The good-man returned the glance, with interest; but an extraordinary
+uproar, in another part of the vessel, cut short the dialogue, just as
+there was a rational probability it might lead to some consolatory
+explanations between the parties.
+
+As the action of the tale is shortly to be set in motion again, we
+shall refer the cause of the commotion to the opening of the succeeding
+chapter.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XX.
+
+“Come, and get thee a sword, though made of a lath:
+They have been up these two days.”
+
+_King Henry VI._
+
+
+While the little by-play that we have just related was enacting on the
+fore-yard-arm of the Rover scenes, that partook equally of the nature
+of tragedy and farce, were in the process of exhibition elsewhere. The
+contest between the possessors of the deck and those active tenants of
+the top, so often named, was far from having reached its termination.
+Blows had, in more than one instance, succeeded to angry words; and, as
+the former was a part of the sports in which the marines and waisters
+were on an equality with their more ingenious tormentors, the war was
+beginning to be waged with some appearances of a very doubtful success.
+Nightingale, however, was always ready to recall the combatants to
+their sense of propriety, with his well-known wind of the call, and his
+murmuring voice. A long, shrill whistle, with the words, “Good humour,
+ahoy!” had hitherto served to keep down the rising tempers of the
+different parties, when the joke bore too hard on the high-spirited
+soldier, or the revengeful, though perhaps less mettlesome, member of
+the after-guard. But an oversight on the part of him who in common kept
+so vigilant an eye on the movements of all beneath his orders, had
+nearly led to results of a far more serious nature.
+
+No sooner had the crew commenced the different rough sports we have
+just related, than the vein which had induced the Rover to loosen the
+reins of discipline, for the moment, seemed suddenly to subside. The
+gay and cheerful air that he had maintained in his dialogue with his
+female guests (or prisoners, whichever he might be disposed to consider
+them) had disappeared, in a thoughtful and clouded brow. His eye no
+longer lighted with those glimmerings of wayward and sarcastic humour
+in which he much loved to indulge, but its expression became painfully
+settled and austere. It was evident that his mind had relapsed into one
+of those brooding reveries that so often obscured his playful and
+vivacious mien, as a shadow darkens the golden tints of the field of
+ripe and waving corn.
+
+While most of those who were not actors in the noisy and humorous
+achievements of the crew steadily regarded the same, some with wonder,
+others with distrust, and all with more or less of the humour of the
+hour, the Rover, to all appearance, was quite unconscious of all that
+was going on before his face. It is true, that at times he raised his
+eyes to the active beings who clung like squirrels to the ropes, or
+suffered them to fall on the duller movements of the men below; but it
+was always with a vacancy which proved that the image they carried to
+the brain was dim and illusory. The looks he cast, from time to time,
+on Mrs Wyllys and her fail and deeply interested pupil, betrayed the
+workings of the temper of the inward man. It was only in these brief
+but comprehensive glances that the feelings by which he was governed
+might have been, in any manner, traced to their origin. Still would the
+nicest observer have been puzzled, if not baffled, in endeavouring to
+pronounce on the entire character of the emotions uppermost in his
+mind. At instants, it might have been fancied that some unholy and
+licentious passion was getting the ascendancy; and then, as his eye ran
+rapidly over the chaste and matronly, though still attractive,
+countenance of the governess, no imagination was necessary to read the
+look of doubt, as well as respect, with which he gazed.
+
+It was while thus occupied that the sports proceeded sometimes
+humorous, and forcing smiles even from the lips of the half-terrified
+Gertrude, but always tending to that violence, and outbreaking of
+anger, which might, at any moment, set at naught the discipline of a
+vessel in which no other means to enforce authority existed, than such
+as its officers could, on the instant, command. Water had been so
+lavishly expended, that the decks were running with the fluid, even
+more than one flight of spray having invaded the privileged precincts
+of the poop. Every ordinary device of similar scenes had been resorted
+to, by the men aloft, to annoy their less advantageously posted
+shipmates beneath; and such means of retaliation had been adopted as
+use or facility rendered obvious. Here, a hog and a waister were seen
+swinging against each other, pendant beneath a top; there, a marine,
+lashed in the rigging, was obliged to suffer the manipulation of a pet
+monkey, which drilled to the duty, and armed with a comb, was posted on
+his shoulder, with an air as grave, and an eye as observant, as though
+he had been regularly educated in the art of the perruquier; and, every
+where, some coarse and practical joke proclaimed the licentious liberty
+which had been momentarily accorded to a set of beings who were, in
+common, kept in that restraint which comfort, no less than safety,
+requires for the well-ordering of an armed ship.
+
+In the midst of the noise and turbulence, a voice was heard, apparently
+issuing from the ocean, hailing the vessel by name, with the aid of a
+speaking-trumpet that had been applied to the outer circumference of a
+hawse hole.
+
+“Who speaks the ‘Dolphin?’” demanded Wilder in reply, when he perceived
+that the summons had fallen on the dull ears of his Commander, without
+recalling him to the recollection of what was in action.
+
+“Father Neptune is under your fore-foot.”
+
+“What wills’ the God?”
+
+“He has heard that certain strangers have come into his dominions, and
+he wishes leave to come aboard the saucy ‘Dolphin,’ to inquire into
+their errands, and to overhaul the log-book of their characters.”
+
+“He is welcome. Show the old man aboard through the head; he is too
+experienced a sailor to wish to come in by the cabin windows.”
+
+Here the parlance ceased; for Wilder turned upon his heel, as though he
+were already disgusted with his part of the mummery.
+
+An athletic seaman soon appeared, seemingly issuing from the element
+whose deity he aspired to personate. Mops, dripping with brine,
+supplied the place of hoary locks; gulf-weed, of which acres were
+floating within a league of the ship, composed a sort of negligent
+mantle; and in his hand he bore a trident made of three marling-spikes
+properly arranged and borne on the staff of a half-pike. Thus
+accoutred, the God of the Ocean, who was no less a personage than the
+captain of the forecastle, advanced with a suitable air of dignity,
+along the deck attended by a train of bearded water-nymphs and naïades,
+in a costume no less grotesque than his own. Arrived on the
+quarter-deck, in front of the position occupied by the officers, the
+principal personage saluted the groupe with a wave of his sceptre, and
+resumed the discourse as follows; Wilder, from the continued
+abstraction of his Commander, finding himself under the necessity of
+maintaining one portion of the dialogue.
+
+“A wholesome and prettily-rigged boat have you come out in this time,
+my son; and one well tilled with a noble set of my children. How long
+might it be since you left the land?”
+
+“Some eight days ago.”
+
+“Hardly time enough to give the green ones the use of their sea legs. I
+shall be able to find them, by the manner in which they hold on in a
+calm.” [Here the General, who was standing with a scornful and averted
+eye, let go his hold of a mizzen-shroud, which he had grasped for no
+other visible reason than to render his person utterly immoveable;
+Neptune smiled, and continued.] “I sha’n’t ask concerning the port you
+are last from, seeing that the Newport soundings are still hanging
+about the flukes of your anchors. I hope you haven’t brought out many
+fresh hands with you, for I smell the stock-fish aboard a Baltic-man,
+who is coming down with the trades, and who can’t be more than a
+hundred leagues from this; I shall therefore have but little time to
+overhaul your people, in order to give them their papers.”
+
+“You see them all before you. So skilful a mariner as Neptune needs no
+advice when or how to tell a seaman.”
+
+“I shall then begin with this gentleman,” continued the waggish head of
+the forecastle, turning towards the still motionless chief of the
+marines. “There is a strong look of the land about him; and I should
+like to know how many hours it is since he first floated over blue
+water.”
+
+“I believe he has made many voyages; and I dare say has long since paid
+the proper tribute to your Majesty.”
+
+“Well, well; the thing is like enough, tho’f I will say I have known
+scholars make better use of their time, if he has been so long on the
+water as you pretend. How is it with these ladies?”
+
+“Both have been at sea before, and have a right to pass without a
+question,” resumed Wilder, a little hastily.
+
+“The youngest is comely enough to have been born in my dominions,” said
+the gallant Sovereign of the Sea; “but no one can refuse to answer a
+hail that comes straight from the mouth of Old Neptune; so, if it makes
+no great difference in your Honour’s reckoning, I will just beg the
+young woman to do her own talking.” Then, without paying the least
+attention to the angry glance that shot from the eye of Wilder, the
+sturdy representative of the God addressed himself directly to
+Gertrude. “If, as report goes of you, my pretty damsel, you have seen
+blue water before this passage, you may be able to recollect the name
+of the vessel, and some other small particulars of the run?”
+
+The face of our heroine changed its colour from red to pale, as
+rapidly, and as glowingly, as the evening sky flushes, and returns to
+its pearl-like loveliness; but she kept down her feelings sufficiently
+to answer, with an air of entire self-possession,—
+
+“Were I to enter into all these little particulars, it would detain you
+from more worthy subjects. Perhaps this certificate will convince you
+that I am no novice on the sea.” As she spoke, a guinea fell from her
+white hand into the broad and extended palm of her interrogator.
+
+“I can only account for my not remembering your Ladyship, by the great
+extent and heavy nature of my business,” returned the audacious
+freebooter bowing with an air of rude politeness as he pocketed the
+offering. “Had I looked into my books before I came aboard this here
+ship, I should have seen through the mistake at once; for I now
+remember that I ordered one of my limners to take your pretty face, in
+order that I might show it to my wife at home. The fellow did it well
+enough, in the shell of an East-India oyster; I will have a copy set in
+coral, and sent to your husband, whenever you may see fit to choose
+one.”
+
+Then, repeating his bow, with a scrape of the foot, he turned to the
+governess, in order to continue his examination.
+
+“And you, Madam.” he said, “is this the first rime you have ever come
+into my dominions, or not?”
+
+“Neither the first, nor the twentieth; I have often seen your Majesty
+before.”
+
+“An old acquaintance! In what latitude might it be that we first fell
+in with each other?”
+
+“I believe I first enjoyed that honour, quite thirty years since, under
+the Equator.”
+
+“Ay, ay, I’m often there, looking out for India-men and your
+homeward-bound Brazil traders. I boarded a particularly great number
+that very season but can’t say I remember your countenance.”
+
+“I fear that thirty years have made some changes in it,” returned the
+governess, with a smile, which, though mournful, was far too dignified
+in its melancholy to induce the suspicion that she regretted a loss so
+vain as that of her personal charms. “I was in a vessel of the King,
+and one that was a little remarkable by its size, since it was of three
+decks.”
+
+The God received the guinea, which was now secretly offered, but it
+would seem that success had quickened his covetousness; for, instead of
+returning thanks, he rather appeared to manifest a disposition to
+increase the amount of the bribe.
+
+“All this may be just as your Ladyship says,” he rejoined; “but the
+interest of my kingdom, and a large family at home, make it necessary
+that I should look sharp to my rights. Was there a flag in the vessel?”
+
+“There was.”
+
+“Then, it is likely they hoisted it, as usual, at the end of the
+jib-boom?”
+
+“It was hoisted, as is usual with a Vice-Admiral, at the fore.”
+
+“Well answered, for petticoats!” muttered the Deity, a little baffled
+in his artifice. “It is d——d queer, saving your Ladyship’s presence,
+that I should have forgotten such a ship: Was there any thing of the
+extraordinary sort, that one would be likely to remember?”
+
+The features of the governess had already lost their forced pleasantry,
+in a shade of grave reflection and her eye was evidently fastened on
+vacancy us she answered, to all appearance like one who thought aloud.—
+
+“I can, at this moment, see the arch and roguish manner with which that
+wayward boy, who then had but eight years, over-reached the cunning of
+the mimic Neptune, and retaliated for his devices, by turning the laugh
+of all on board on his own head!”
+
+“Was he but eight?” demanded a deep voice at her elbow.
+
+“Eight in years, but maturer in artifice,” returned Mrs Wyllys, seeming
+to awake from a trance, as she turned her eyes full upon the face of
+the Rover.
+
+“Well, well,” interrupted the captain of the forecastle who cared not
+to continue an inquiry in which his dreaded Commander saw fit to take a
+part, “I dare say it is all right. I will look into my journal if I
+find it so, well—if not, why, it’s only giving the ship a head-wind,
+until I’ve overhauled the Dane, and then it will be all in good time to
+receive the balance of the fee.”
+
+So saying, the God hurried past the officers, and turned his attention
+to the marine guard, who had grouped themselves in a body, secretly
+aware of the necessity each man might be under of receiving support
+from his fellows, in so searching a scrutiny Perfectly familiar with
+the career each individual among them had run, in his present lawless
+profession and secretly apprehensive that his authority might be forced
+suddenly from him, the chief of the forecastle selected a raw landsman
+from among them, bidding his attendants to drag the victim forward,
+where he believed they might act the cruel revels he contemplated with
+less danger of interruption. Already irritated by the laughs which had
+been created at their expense, and resolute to defend their comrade the
+marines resisted. A long, clamorous, and angry dispute succeeded,
+during which each party maintained its right to pursue the course it
+had adopted. From words the disputants were not long in passing to the
+signs of hostilities. It was while the peace of the ship hung, as it
+were, suspended by a hair, that the General saw fit to express the
+disgust of such an outrage upon discipline, which had, throughout the
+whole scene, possessed his mind.
+
+“I protest against this riotous and unmilitary procedure,” he said,
+addressing himself to his still abstracted and thoughtful superior. “I
+have taught my men, I trust, the proper spirit of soldiers, and there
+is no greater disgrace can happen to one of them than to lay hands on
+him, except it be in the regular and wholesome way of a cat.—I give
+open warning to all, that, if a finger is put upon one of my bullies,
+unless, as I have said, in the way of discipline, it will be answered
+with a blow.”
+
+As the General had not essayed to smother his voice, it was heard by
+his followers, and produced the effect which might have been expected.
+A vigorous thrust from the fist of the sergeant drew mortal blood from
+the visage of the God of the Sea, and at once established his
+terrestrial origin. Thus compelled to support his manhood, in more
+senses than one, the stout seaman returned the salutation, with such
+additional embellishments as the exigencies of the moment seemed to
+require. Such an interchange of civilities, between two so prominent
+personages, was the signal of general hostilities among their
+respective followers. The uproar that attended the onset, had caught
+the attention of Fid, who, the instant he saw the nature of the sports
+below, abandoned his companion on the yard, and slid downwards to the
+deck by the aid of a backstay, with about as much facility as that
+caricature of man, the monkey, could have performed the same manoeuvre.
+His example was followed by all the topmen; and in less than a minute,
+there was every appearance that the audacious marines would be borne
+down by the sheer force of numbers. But, stout in their resolution, and
+bitter in their hostility, these drilled and resentful warriors,
+instead of seeking refuge in flight, fell back upon each other, for
+support. Bayonets were seen gleaming in the sun; while some of the
+seamen, in the exterior of the crowd, were already laying their hands
+on the half-pikes that formed a warlike ornament to the foot of the
+mast.
+
+“Hold! stand back, every man of you!” cried Wilder, dashing into the
+centre of the throng, and forcing them aside, with a haste that was
+possibly quickened by the recollection of the increased danger that
+would surround the unprotected females, should the bands of
+subordination be once fairly broken among so lawless and desperate a
+crew. “On your lives, fall back, and obey. And you, sir, who claim to
+be so good a soldier, I call on you to bid your men refrain.”
+
+The General, however disgusted he might have been by the previous
+scene, had too many important interests involved in the interior peace
+of the vessel not to exert himself at this appeal. He was seconded by
+all the inferior officers, who well knew that their lives, as well as
+their comfort, depended on staying the torrent that had so unexpectedly
+broken loose. But they only proved how hard it is to uphold an
+authority that is not established on the foundation of legitimate
+power. Neptune had cast aside his masquerade; and, backed by all his
+stout forecastle men, was evidently preparing for a conflict that might
+speedily give him greater pretensions to immortal nature than those he
+had just rejected. Until now, the officers, partly by threats and
+partly by remonstrances, had so far controlled the outbreaking, that
+the time had been passed rather in preparations than in violence. But
+the marines had seized their arms; while two crowded masses of the
+mariners were forming on either side of the mainmast, abundantly
+provided with spikes, and such other weapons as the bars and handspikes
+of the vessel afforded. One or two of the cooler heads among the latter
+had even proceeded so far as to clear away a gun, which they were
+pointing inboard in a direction that might have swept a moiety of the
+quarter-deck. In short, the broil had just reached that pass when
+another blow, struck from either side, must have given up the vessel to
+plunder and massacre. The danger of such a crisis was heightened by the
+bitter taunts that broke forth from fifty profane lips, which were only
+opened to lavish the coarsest revilings on the persons and characters
+of their respective enemies.
+
+During the five minutes that might have flown by in such sinister and
+threatening symptoms of insubordination the individual who was chiefly
+interested in the maintenance of discipline had manifested the most
+extraordinary indifference, or rather unconsciousness to all that was
+passing so near him. With his arms folded on his breast, and his eyes
+fastened on the placid sea, he stood motionless as the mast near which
+he had placed his person. Long accustomed to the noise of scenes
+similar to the one he had himself provoked, he heard, in the confused
+sounds which rose unheeded on his ear, no more than the commotion which
+ordinarily attended the license of the hour.
+
+His subordinates in command, however, were far more active. Wilder had
+already beaten back the boldest of the seamen, and a space was cleared
+between the hostile parties, into which his assistants threw
+themselves, with the haste of men who knew how much was required at
+their hands. This momentary success might have been pushed too far;
+for, believing that the spirit of mutiny was subdued, our adventurer
+was proceeding to improve his advantage by seizing the most audacious
+of the offenders when his prisoner was immediately torn from his grasp
+by twenty of his confederates.
+
+“Who’s this, that sets himself up for a Commodore aboard the
+‘Dolphin!’” exclaimed a voice in the crowd, at a most unhappy moment
+for the authority of the new lieutenant. “In what fashion did he come,
+aboard us? or, in what service did he learn his trade?”
+
+“Ay, ay,” continued another sinister voice, “where is the Bristol
+trader he was to lead into our net, and for which we lost so many of
+the best days in the season, at a lazy anchor?”
+
+Then broke forth a general and simultaneous murmur which, had such
+testimony been wanting, would in itself have manifested that the
+unknown officer was scarcely more fortunate in his present than in his
+recent service. Both parties united in condemning his interference; and
+from both sides were heard scornful opinions of his origin, mingled
+with certain fierce denunciations against his person. Nothing daunted
+by such palpable evidences of the danger of his situation, our
+adventurer answered to their taunts with the most scornful smiles,
+challenging a single individual of them all to dare to step forth, and
+maintain his words by suitable actions.
+
+“Hear him!” exclaimed his auditors.—“He speaks like a King’s officer in
+chase of a smuggler!” cried one.—“Ay, he’s a bold’un in a calm,” said a
+second.—“He’s a Jonah, that has slipp’d into the cabin windows!” cried
+a third; “and, while he stays in the ‘Dolphin,’ luck will keep upon our
+weather-beam”—“Into the sea with him! overboard with the upstart! into
+the sea with him! where he’ll find that a bolder and a better man has
+gone before him!” shouted a dozen at once; some of whom immediately
+gave very unequivocal demonstrations of an intention to put their
+threat in execution. But two forms instantly sprang from the crowd, and
+threw themselves, like angry lions, between Wilder and his foes. The
+one, who was foremost in the rescue, faced short upon the advancing
+seamen, and with a blow from an arm that was irresistible, level led
+the representative of Neptune to his feet, as though he had been a mere
+waxen image of a man The other was not slow to imitate his example;
+and, as the throng receded before this secession from its own numbers,
+the latter, who was Fid, flourished a fist that was as big as the head
+of a sizeable infant, while he loudly vociferated,—
+“Away with ye, ye lubbers! away with ye! Would you run foul of a single
+man, and he an officer and such an officer as ye never set eyes on be
+fore, except, mayhap, in the fashion that a cat looks upon a king? I
+should like to see the man, among ye all, who can handle a heavy ship,
+in a narrow channel, as I have seen master Harry here handle the
+saucy”—
+
+“Stand back,” cried Wilder, forcing himself between his defenders and
+his foes. “Stand back, I say, and leave me alone to meet the audacious
+villains.
+
+“Overboard with him! overboard with them all!” cried the seamen, “he
+and his knaves together!”
+
+“Will you remain silent, and see murder done before your eyes?”
+exclaimed Mrs Wyllys, rushing from her place of retreat, and laying a
+hand eagerly on the arm of the Rover.
+
+He started like one who was awakened suddenly from a light sleep,
+looking her full and intently in the eye.
+
+“See!” she added, pointing to the violent throng below, where every
+sign of an increased commotion was exhibiting itself. “See, they kill
+your officer, and there is none to help him!”
+
+The look of faded marble, which had so long been seated on his
+features, vanished, as his eye passed quickly over the scene. The
+organs took in the whole nature of the action at the glance; and, with
+the intelligence, the blood came rushing into every vein and fibre of
+his indignant face. Seizing a rope, which hung from the yard above his
+head, he swung his person off the poop, and fell lightly into the very
+centre of the crowd. Both parties fell back, while a sudden and
+breathing silence succeeded to a clamour that a moment before would
+have drowned the roar of a cataract. Making a haughty and repelling
+motion with his arm, he spoke, and in a voice that, if any change could
+be noted, was even pitched on a key less high and threatening than
+common. But the lowest and the deepest of its intonations reached the
+most distant ear, and no one who heard was left to doubt its meaning.
+
+“Mutiny!” he said, in a tone that strangely balanced between irony and
+scorn; “open, violent, and blood-seeking mutiny! Are ye tired of your
+lives, my men? Is there one, among ye all, who is willing to make
+himself an example for the good of the rest? If there be, let him lift
+a hand, a finger, a hair: Let him speak, look me in the eye, or dare to
+show that life is in him, by sign, breath, or motion!”
+
+He paused; and so general and absorbing was the spell produced by his
+presence and his mien, that, in all that crowd of fierce and excited
+spirits, there was not one so bold as to presume to brave his anger
+Sailors and marines stood alike, passive, humbled and obedient, as
+faulty children, when arraigned before an authority from which they
+feel, in every fibre, that escape is impossible. Perceiving that no
+voice answered, no limb moved, nor even an eye among them all was bold
+enough to meet his own steady but glowing look, he continued, in the
+same deep and commanding tone,—
+
+“It is well: Reason has come of the latest; but, happily for ye all, it
+has returned Fall back, fall back, I say; you taint the
+quarter-deck.”—The men receded a pace or two on every side of him.—“Let
+those arms be stacked; it will be time to use them when I proclaim the
+need. And you, fellows, who have been so bold as to lift a pike without
+an order have a care they do not burn your hands.”—A dozen staves fell
+upon the deck together.—“Is there a drummer in this ship? let him
+appear!”
+
+A terrified and cringing-looking being presented himself, having found
+his instrument by a sort of desperate instinct.
+
+“Now speak aloud, and let me know at once whether I command a crew of
+orderly and obedient men, or a set of miscreants, that require some
+purifying before I trust them.”
+
+The first few taps of the drum sufficed to tell the men they heard the
+“beat to quarters.” Without hesitating a reluctant moment, the crowd
+dissolved, and each of the delinquents stole silently to his station;
+the crew of the gun that had been turned inward managing to thrust it
+through its port again, with a dexterity that might have availed them
+greatly in time of combat. Throughout the whole affair, the Rover had
+manifested neither anger nor impatience. Deep and settled scorn, with a
+high reliance on himself had, indeed, been exhibited in the proud curl
+of his lip, and in the spelling of his form, but not, for an instant,
+did it seem that he had suffered his ire to get the mastery of his
+reason. And, now that he had recalled his crew to their duty, he
+appeared no more elated with his success than he had been daunted by
+the storm which, a minute before, had threatened the utter dissolution
+of his authority. Instead of pursuing his further purpose in haste, he
+awaited the observance of the minutest form which etiquette, as well as
+use, had rendered customary on such occasions.
+
+The officers approached, and reported their several divisions in
+readiness to engage, with exactly the same regularity as if an enemy
+had been in sight. The topmen and sail-trimmers were enumerated, and
+found prepared; shot-plugs and stoppers were handled: the magazine was
+even opened; the arm chests emptied of their contents; and, in short,
+far more than the ordinary preparations of an every day exercise was
+observed.
+
+“Let the yards be slung; the sheets and halyards stoppered,” he said to
+the first lieutenant, who now displayed as intimate an acquaintance
+with the military as he had hitherto discovered with the nautical part
+of his profession; “Give the boarders their pikes and boarding-axes,
+sir; we will now show these fellows that we dare to trust them with
+arms!”
+
+These several orders were obeyed to the letter, and then succeeded that
+deep and grave silence which renders a crew, at quarters, a sight so
+imposing even to those who have witnessed it from their boyhood. In
+this manner, the skilful leader of this band of desperate marauders
+knew how to curb their violence with the fetters of discipline. When he
+believed their minds brought within the proper limits, by the situation
+of restraint in which he had placed them, where they well knew that a
+word, or even a look, of offence would be met by an instant as well as
+an awful punishment, he walked apart with Wilder, of whom he demanded
+an explanation of what had passed.
+
+Whatever might have been the natural tendency of our adventurer to
+mercy, he had not been educated on the sea to look with lenity on the
+crime of mutiny. Had his recent escape from the wreck of the Bristol
+trader been already banished from his mind, the impressions of a whole
+life still remained to teach the necessity of keeping tight those cords
+which experience has so often proved are absolutely necessary to quell
+such turbulent bands, when removed from the pale of society, the
+influence of woman, and when excited by the constant collision of
+tempers rudely provoked, and equally disposed to violence Though he
+“set down naught in malice,” it is certain that he did “nothing;
+extenuate,” in the account he rendered. The whole of the facts were
+laid before the Rover in the direct, unvarnished language of truth.
+
+“One cannot keep these fellows to their duty by preaching,” returned
+the irregular chief, when the other had done. “We have no ‘Execution
+Dock for our delinquents, no ‘yellow flag’ for fleets to gaze at, no
+grave and wise-looking courts to thumb a book or two, and end by
+saying, ‘Hang him.’—The rascals knew my eye was off them. Once before,
+they turned my vessel into a living evidence of that passage in the
+Testament which teaches humility to all, by telling us, ‘that the last
+shall be first, and the first last.’ I found a dozen roundabouts
+drinking and making free with the liquors of the cabin, and all the
+officers prisoners forward—a state of things, as you will allow, a
+little subversive of decency as well as decorum!”
+
+“I am amazed you should have succeeded in restoring discipline!”
+
+“I got among them single-handed, and with no other aid than a boat from
+the shore; but I ask no more than a place for my foot, and room for an
+arm, to keep a thousand such spirits in order. Now they know me, it is
+rare we misunderstand each other.”
+
+“You must have punished severely!”
+
+“There was justice done.—Mr Wilder, I fear you find our service a
+little irregular; but a month of experience will put you on a level
+with us, and remove all danger of such another scene.” As the Rover
+spoke, he faced his recruit, with a countenance that endeavoured to be
+cheerful, but whose gaiety could force itself no further than a
+frightful smile. “Come,” he quickly added, “this time, I set the
+mischief afoot myself; and, as you see we are completely masters, we
+may afford to be lenient. Besides,” he continued, glancing his eyes
+towards the place where Mrs Wyllys and Gertrude still remained in deep
+suspense awaiting his decision, “it may be well to consult the sex of
+our guests at such a moment.”
+
+Then, leaving his subordinate, the Rover advanced to the centre of the
+quarter-deck, whither he immediately summoned the principal offenders.
+The men listened to his rebukes, which were not altogether free from
+admonitory warnings of what might be the consequences of a similar
+transgression, like creatures who stood in presence of a being of a
+nature superior to their own. Though he spoke in his usual quiet tone,
+the lowest of his syllables went into the ears of the most distant of
+the crew; and, when his brief lesson was ended, the men stood before
+him not only like delinquents who had been reproved though pardoned,
+but with the air of criminals who were as much condemned by their own
+consciousness as by the general voice. Among them all was only one
+seaman who, perhaps from past service was emboldened to venture a
+syllable in his own justification.
+
+“As for the matter with the marines,” he said “your Honour knows there
+is little love between us, though certain it is a quarter-deck is no
+place to settle our begrudgings; but, as to the gentleman who has seen
+fit to step into the shoes of”——
+
+“It is my pleasure that he should remain there,” hastily interrupted
+his Commander. “Of his merit I alone can judge.”
+
+“Well, well, since it is your pleasure, sir, why, no man can dispute
+it. But no account has been rendered of the Bristol-man, and great
+expectations were had aboard here from that very ship. Your Honour is a
+reasonable gentleman, and will not be surprised that people, who are on
+the look-out for an outward-bound West-Indiaman, should be unwilling to
+take up with a battered and empty launch, in her stead.”
+
+“Ay, sir, if I will it, you shall take an oar, a tiler a thole, for
+your portion. No more of this You saw the condition of his ship with
+your own eyes; and where is the seaman who has not, on some evil day,
+been compelled to admit that his art is nothing, when the elements are
+against him? Who saved this ship, in the very gust that has robbed us
+of our prize? Was it your skill? or was it that of a man who has often
+done it before, and who may one day leave you to your ignorance to
+manage your own interests? It is enough that I believe him faithful.
+There is no time to convince your dulness of the propriety of all
+that’s done. Away, and send me the two men who so nobly stepped between
+their officer and mutiny.”
+
+Then came Fid, followed by the negro, rolling along the deck, and
+thumbing his hat with one hand, while the other sought an awkward
+retreat in a part of his vestments.
+
+“You have done well, my lad; you and your messmate”——
+
+“No messmate, your Honour, seeing that he is a nigger,” interrupted
+Fid. “The chap messes with the other blacks, but we take a pull at the
+can, now and then, in company.”
+
+“Your friend, then, if you prefer that term.”
+
+“Ay, ay, sir; we are friendly enough at odd times, though a breeze
+often springs up between us. Guinea has a d—d awkward fashion of
+luffing up in his talk; and your Honour knows it isn’t always
+comfortable to a white man to be driven to leeward by a black. I tell
+him it is inconvenient. He is a good enough fellow in the main,
+howsomever, sir; and, as he is just an African bred and born, I hope
+you’ll be good enough to overlook his little failings.”
+
+“Were I otherwise disposed,” returned the Rover, “his steadiness and
+activity to-day would plead in his favour.”
+
+“Yes, yes, sir, he is somewhat steady, which is more than I can always
+say in my own behalf. Then as for seamanship, there are few men who are
+his betters; I wish your Honour would take the trouble to walk forward,
+and look at the heart he turned in the mainstay, no later than the last
+calm; it takes the strain as easy as a small sin sits upon a rich man’s
+conscience.”
+
+“I am satisfied with your description; you call him Guinea?”
+
+“Call him by any thing along that coast; for he is noway particular,
+seeing he was never christened, and knows nothing at all of the
+bearings and distances of religion. His lawful name is S’ip, or Shipio
+Africa, taken, as I suppose, from the circumstance that he was first
+shipp’d from that quarter of the world. But, as respects names, the
+fellow is as meek as a lamb; you may call him any thing, provided you
+don’t call him too late to his grog.”
+
+All this time, the African stood, rolling his large dark eyes in every
+direction except towards the speakers, perfectly content that his
+long-tried shipmate should serve as his interpreter. The spirit which
+had, so recently, been awakened in the Rover seemed already to be
+subsiding; for the haughty frown, which had gathered on his brow, was
+dissipating in a look which bore rather the character of curiosity than
+any fiercer emotion.
+
+“You have sailed long in company, my lads,” he carelessly continued,
+addressing his words to neither of them in particular.
+
+“Full and by, in many a gale, and many a calm, your Honour. ’Tis
+four-and-twenty years the last equinox, Guinea, since master Harry fell
+across our hawse; and, then, we had been together three years in the
+‘Thunderer,’ besides the run we made round the Horn, in the ‘Bay’
+privateer.”
+
+“Ah! you have been four-and-twenty years with Mr Wilder? It is not so
+remarkable that you should set a value on his life.”
+
+“I should as soon think of setting a price on the King’s crown!”
+interrupted the straight-going seaman “I overheard the lads, d’ye see,
+sir, just plotting to throw the three of us overboard, and so we
+thought it time to say something in our own favour and, words not
+always being at hand, the black saw fit to fill up the time with
+something that might answer the turn quite as well. No, no, he is no
+great talker, that Guinea; nor, for that matter, can I say much in my
+own favour in this particular; but, seeing that we clapp’d a stopper on
+their movements, your Honour will allow that we did as well as if we
+had spoken as smartly as a young midshipman fresh from college, who is
+always for hailing a top in Latin, you know, sir, for want of
+understanding the proper language.”
+
+The Rover smiled, and he glanced his eye aside, apparently in quest of
+the form of our adventurer. Not seeing him at hand, he was tempted to
+push his covert inquiries a little further, though too much governed,
+by self-respect, to let the intense curiosity by which he was
+influenced escape him in any direct and manifest interrogation. But an
+instant’s recollection recalled him to himself, and he discarded the
+idea as unworthy of his character.
+
+“Your services shall not be forgotten. Here is gold,” he said, offering
+a handful of the metal to the negro, as the one nearest his own person.
+“You will divide it, like honest shipmates; and you may ever rely on my
+protection.”
+
+Scipio drew back, and, with a motion of his elbow, replied,—
+
+“His Honour will give ’em masser Harry.”
+
+“Your master Harry has it of his own, lad; he has no need of money.”
+
+“A S’ip no need ’em eider.”
+
+“You will please to overlook the fellow’s manners sir,” said Fid, very
+coolly interposing his own hand, and just as deliberately pocketing the
+offering “but I needn’t tell as old a seaman as your Honour, that
+Guinea is no country to scrape down the seams of a man’s behaviour in.
+Howsomever, I can say this much for him, which is, that he thanks your
+Honour just as heartily as if you had given him twice the sum. Make a
+bow to his Honour, boy, and do some credit to the company you have
+kept. And now, since this little difficulty about the money is gotten
+over, by my presence of mind, with your Honour’s leave, I’ll just step
+aloft, and cast loose the lashings of that bit of a tailor on the
+larboard fore-yard-arm. The chap was never made for a topman as you may
+see, sir, by the fashion in which he crosses his lower stanchions. That
+fellow will make a carrick bend with his legs as easily as I could do
+the same with a yarn of white line!”
+
+The Rover signed for him to retire; and, turning where he stood, he
+found himself confronted by Wilder. The eyes of the confederates met;
+and a slight colour bespoke the consciousness of the former Regaining
+his self-possession on the instant, however, he smilingly alluded to
+the character of Fid; and then, with an air of authority, he directed
+his lieutenant to have the “retreat from quarters” beat.
+
+The guns were secured, the stoppers loosened, the magazine closed, the
+ports lashed, and the crew withdrew to their several ordinary duties,
+like men whose violence had been completely subdued by the triumphant
+influence of a master spirit. The Rover then disappeared from the deck,
+which, for a time, was left to the care of an officer of the proper
+station.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXI.
+
+Thief. “’Tis in the malice of mankind, that he thus advises us not to
+have us thrive in our mystery.”
+
+_Timon of Athens._
+
+
+Throughout the whole of that day, no change occurred in the weather.
+The sleeping ocean lay like a waving and glittering mirror, smooth and
+polished on its surface, though, as usual, the long rising and falling
+of a heavy ground-swell announced the commotion that was in action
+within some distant horizon. From the time that he left the deck, until
+the sun laved its burnished orb in the sea, the individual, who so well
+knew how to keep alive his authority among the untamed tempers that he
+governed, was seen no more. Satisfied with his victory, he no longer
+seemed to apprehend that it was possible any should be bold enough to
+dare to plot the overthrow of his power. This apparent confidence in
+himself did not fail to impress his people favourably. As no neglect of
+duty was overlooked, nor any offence left to go unpunished, an eye,
+that was not seen, was believed by the crew to be ever on them, and an
+invisible hand was thought to be at all times uplifted, ready to strike
+or to reward. It was by a similar system of energy in moments of need,
+and of forbearance when authority was irksome, that this extraordinary
+man had so long succeeded, as well in keeping down domestic treason, as
+in eluding the utmost address and industry of his open enemies.
+
+When the watch was set for the night, however, and the ship lay in the
+customary silence of the hour, the form of the Rover was again seen
+walking swiftly to and fro across the poop, of which he was now the
+solitary occupant. The vessel had drifted in the stream of the Gulf so
+far to the northward, that the little mound of blue had long sunk below
+the edge of the ocean; and she was again surrounded, so far as human
+eye might see, by an interminable world of water. As not a breath of
+air was stirring, the sails had been handed, the tall and naked spars
+rearing themselves, in the gloom of the evening, like those of a ship
+which rested at her anchors. In short, it was one of those hours of
+entire repose that the elements occasionally grant to such adventurers
+as trust their fortunes to the capricious government of the treacherous
+and unstable winds.
+
+Even the men, whose duty it was to be on the alert, were emboldened, by
+the general tranquillity, to become careless on their watch, and to
+cast their persons between the guns, or on different portions of the
+vessel, seeking that rest which the forms of discipline and good order
+prohibited them from enjoying in their hammocks. Here and there,
+indeed, the head of a drowsy officer was seen nodding with the lazy
+heaving of the ship, as he leaned against the bulwarks, or rested his
+person on the carriage of some gun that was placed beyond the sacred
+limits of the quarter-deck One form alone stood erect, vigilant, and
+evidently maintaining a watchful eye over the whole This was Wilder,
+whose turn to keep the deck had again arrived, in the regular division
+of the service of the officers.
+
+For two hours, not the slightest communication occurred between the
+Rover and his lieutenant. Both rather avoided than sought the
+intercourse; for each had his own secret sources of serious meditation
+At the end of that period of silence, the former stopped short in his
+walk, and looked long and steadily at the still motionless figure on
+the deck beneath him.
+
+“Mr Wilder,” he at length said, “the air is fresher on this poop, and
+more free from the impurities of the vessel: Will you ascend?”
+
+The other complied; and, for several minutes they walked silently, and
+with even steps, together, as seamen are wont to move in the hours of
+deep night.
+
+“We had a troublesome morning, Wilder,” the Rover resumed,
+unconsciously betraying the subject of his thoughts, and speaking
+always in a voice so guarded, that no ears, but his to whom he
+addressed himself, might embrace the sound: “Were you ever so near that
+pretty precipice, a mutiny, before?”
+
+“The man who is hit is nigher to danger than he who feels the wind of
+the ball.”
+
+“Ah! you have then been bearded in your ship! Give yourself no
+uneasiness on account of the personal animosity which a few of the
+fellows saw fit to manifest against yourself. I am acquainted with
+their most secret thoughts, as you shall shortly know.”
+
+“I confess, that, in your place, I should sleep on a thorny pillow,
+with such evidences of the temper of my men before my mind. A few hours
+of disorder might deliver the vessel, on any day, into the hands of the
+Government, and your own life to”——
+
+“The executioner! And why not yours?” demanded the Rover, so quickly,
+as to give, in a slight degree, an air of distrust to his manner. “But
+the eye that has often seen battles seldom winks. Mine has too often,
+and too steadily, looked danger in the face to be alarmed at the sight
+of a King’s pennant. Besides it is not usual for us to be much on this
+ticklish coast; the islands, and the Spanish Main, are less dangerous
+cruising grounds.”
+
+“And yet have yon ventured here at a time when success against the
+enemy has given the Admiral leisure to employ a powerful force in your
+pursuit.”
+
+“I had a reason for it. It is not always easy to separate the Commander
+from the man. If I have temporarily forgotten the obligations of the
+former in the wishes of the latter, so far, at least, harm has not come
+of it. I may have tired of chasing your indolent Don, and of driving
+guarda costas into port. This life of ours is full of excitement which
+I love to me, there is interest even in a mutiny!”
+
+“I like not treason. In this particular, I confess myself like the boor
+who loses his resolution in the dark. While the enemy is in view, I
+hope you will find me true as other men; but sleeping over a mine is
+not an amusement to my taste.”
+
+“So much for want of practice! Hazard is hazard come in what shape it
+may; and the human mind can as readily be taught to be indifferent to
+secret machinations as to open risk. Hush! Struck the bell six, or
+seven?”
+
+“Seven. You see the men slumber, as before. Instinct would wake them,
+were their hour at hand.”
+
+“’Tis well. I feared the time had passed. Yes, Wilder, I love suspense;
+it keeps the faculties from dying, and throws a man upon the better
+principles of his nature. Perhaps I owe it to a wayward spirit, but, to
+me, there is enjoyment in an adverse wind.’”
+
+“And, in a calm?”
+
+“Calms may have their charms for your quiet spirits; but in them there
+is nothing to be overcome. One cannot stir the elements, though one may
+counteract their workings.”
+
+“You have not entered on this trade of yours “—
+
+“Yours!”
+
+“I might, now, have said ‘of ours,’ since I too have become a Rover.”
+
+“You are still in your noviciate,” resumed the other, whose quick mind
+had already passed the point at which the conversation had arrived;
+“and high enjoyment had I in being the one who shrived you in your
+wishes. You manifested a skill in playing round your subject, without
+touching it, which gives me hopes of an apt scholar.”
+
+“But no penitent, I trust.”
+
+“That as it may be; we are all liable to our moments of weakness, when
+we look on life as book men paint it, and think of being probationers
+where we are put to enjoy. Yes, I angled for you as the fisherman plays
+with the trout. Nor did I overlook the danger of deception. You were
+faithful on the whole; though I protest against your ever again acting
+so much against my interests as to intrigue to keep the game from
+coming to my net.”
+
+“When, and how, have I done this? You have yourself admitted”——
+
+“That the ‘Royal Caroline’ was prettily handled, and wrecked by the
+will of Heaven. I speak of nobler quarries, now, than such as any hawk
+may fly at. Are you a woman-hater, that you would fain have frightened
+the noble-minded woman, and the sweet girl, who are beneath our feet at
+this minute, from enjoying the high privilege of your company?”
+
+“Was it treacherous, to wish to save a woman from a fate like that, for
+instance, which hung over them both this very day? For, while your
+authority exists in this ship, I do not think there can be danger, even
+to her who is so lovely.”
+
+“By heavens, Wilder, you do me no more than justice. Before harm should
+come to that fair innocent with this hand would I put the match into
+the magazine, and send her, all spotless as she is, to the place from
+which she seems to have fallen.”
+
+Our adventurer listened greedily to these words, though he little liked
+the strong language of admiration with which the Rover was pleased to
+clothe his generous sentiment.
+
+“How knew you of my wish to serve them?” he demanded, after a pause,
+which neither seemed in any hurry to break.
+
+“Could I mistake your language? I thought it enough when spoken.”
+
+“Spoken!” exclaimed Wilder, in surprise. “Perhaps part of my confession
+was then made when I least believed it.”
+
+The Rover did not answer; but his companion saw, by the meaning smile
+which played about his lip, that he had been the dupe of an audacious
+and completely successful masquerade. Startled, perhaps at discovering
+how intricate were the toils into which he had rushed, and possibly
+vexed at being so thoroughly over-reached, he made several turns across
+the deck before he again spoke.
+
+“I confess myself deceived,” he at length said, “and henceforth I shall
+submit to you as a master from whom one may learn, but who can never be
+surpassed. The landlord of the ‘Foul Anchor,’ at least, acted in his
+proper person, whoever might have been the aged seaman?”
+
+“Honest Joe Joram! An useful man to a distressed mariner, you must
+allow. How liked you the Newport pilot?”
+
+“Was he an agent too?”
+
+“For the job merely. I trust such knaves no further than their own eyes
+can see. But, hist! Heard you nothing?”
+
+“I thought a rope had fallen in the water.”
+
+“Ay, it is so. Now you shall find how thoroughly I overlook these
+turbulent gentlemen.”
+
+The Rover then cut short the dialogue, which was growing deeply
+interesting to his companion, and moved, with a light step, to the
+stern, over which he hung, for a few moments, by himself, like a man
+who found a pleasure in gazing at the dark surface of the sea. But a
+slight noise, like that produced by agitated ropes, caught the ear of
+his companion, who instantly placed himself at the side of his
+Commander, where he did not wait long without gaining another proof of
+the manner in which he, as well as all the rest of the crew, were
+circumvented by the devices of their leader.
+
+A man was guardedly, and, from his situation, with some difficulty,
+moving round the quarter of the ship by the aid of the ropes and
+mouldings, which afforded him sufficient means to effect his object.
+He, however, soon reached a stern ladder, where he stood suspended, and
+evidently endeavouring to discern which of the two forms, that were
+overlooking his proceedings, was that of the individual he sought.
+
+“Are you there, Davis?” said the Rover, in a voice but little above a
+whisper, first laying his hand lightly on Wilder, as though he would
+tell him to attend. “I fear you have been seen or heard.”
+
+“No fear of that, your Honour. I got out at the port by the cabin
+bulkhead; and the after-guard are all as sound asleep as if they had
+the watch below.”
+
+“It is well. What news bring you from the people?”
+
+“Lord! your Honour may tell them to go to church, and the stoutest
+sea-dog of them all wouldn’t dare to say he had forgotten his prayers.”
+
+“You think them in a better temper than they were?”
+
+“I know it, sir: Not but what the will to work mischief is to be found
+in two or three of the men, but they dare not trust each other. Your
+Honour has such winning ways with you, that one never knows when he is
+on safe grounds in setting up to be master.”
+
+“Ay, this is ever the way with your disorganizers,” muttered the Rover,
+just loud enough to be heard by Wilder. “A little more honesty, than
+they possess, is just wanted, in order that each may enjoy the faith of
+his neighbour. And how did the fellows receive the lenity? Did I well?
+or must the morning bring its punishment?”
+
+“It is better as it stands, sir. The people know whose memory is good,
+and they talk already of the danger of adding another reckoning to this
+they feel certain you have not forgotten. There is the captain of the
+forecastle, who is a little bitter, as usual, and the more so just now,
+on account of the knock-down he got from the list of the black.”
+
+“Ay, he is ever troublesome; a settling day must come at last with the
+rogue.”
+
+“It will be a small matter to expend him in boat-service sir; and the
+ship’s company will be all the better for his absence.”
+
+“Well, well; no more of him,” interrupted the Rover, a little
+impatiently, as if he liked not that his companion should look too
+deeply into the policy of his government, so early in his initiation.
+“I will see to him. If I mistake not, fellow, you over-acted your own
+part to-day, and were a little too forward in leading on the trouble.”
+
+“I hope your Honour will remember that the crew had been piped to
+mischief; besides, there could be no great harm in washing the powder
+off a few marines.”
+
+“Ay, but you pressed the point after your officer had seen fit to
+interfere. Be wary in future, lest you make the acting too true to
+nature, and you get applauded in a manner quite as well performed.”
+
+The fellow promised caution and amendment; and then he was dismissed,
+with his reward in gold, and with an injunction to be secret in his
+return. So soon as the interview was ended, the Rover and Wilder
+resumed their walk; the former having made sure that no evesdropper had
+been at hand to steal into his mysterious connexion with the spy. The
+silence was again long, thoughtful, and deep.
+
+“Good ears” (recommenced the Rover) “are nearly as important, in a ship
+like this, as a stout heart. The rogues forward must not be permitted
+to eat of the fruit of knowledge, lest we, who are in the cabins, die.”
+
+“This is a perilous service in which we are embarked,” observed his
+companion, by a sort of involuntary exposure of his secret thoughts.
+
+The Rover remained silent, making many turns across the deck, before he
+again opened his lips. When he spoke, it was in a voice so bland and
+gentle, that his words sounded more like the admonitory tones of a
+considerate friend, than like the language of a man who had long been
+associated with a set of beings so rude and unprincipled as those with
+whom he was now seen.
+
+“You are still on the threshold of your life, Mr Wilder,” he said, “and
+it is all before you to choose the path on which you will go. As yet,
+you have been present at no violation of what the world calls its laws;
+nor is it too late to say you never will be. I may have been selfish in
+my wish to gain you; but try me; and you will find that self, though
+often active, cannot, nor does not, long hold its dominion over my
+mind. Say but the word, and you are free; it is easy to destroy the
+little evidence which exists of your having made one of my crew. The
+land is not far beyond that streak of fading light; before to-morrow’s
+sun shall set, your foot may tread it.”
+
+“Then, why not both? If this irregular life be evil for me, it is the
+same for you. Could I hope”—
+
+“What would you say?” calmly demanded the Rover, after waiting
+sufficiently long to be sure his companion hesitated to continue.
+“Speak freely; your words are for the ears of a friend.”
+
+“Then, as a friend will I unbosom myself. You say, the land is here in
+the west. It would be easy for you and I, men nurtured on the sea, to
+lower this boat into the water; and, profiting by the darkness, long
+ere our absence could be known, we should be lost to the eye of any who
+might seek us.”
+
+“Whither would you steer?”
+
+“To the shores of America, where shelter and peace might be found in a
+thousand secret places.”
+
+“Would you have a man, who has so long lived a prince among his
+followers, become a beggar in a land of strangers?”
+
+“But you have gold. Are we not masters here? Who is there that might
+dare even to watch our movements, until we were pleased ourselves to
+throw off the authority with which we are clothed? Ere the middle watch
+was set, all might be done.”
+
+“Alone! Would you go alone?”
+
+“No—not entirely—that is—it would scarcely become us, as men, to desert
+the females to the brutal power of those we should leave behind.”
+
+“And would it become us, as men, to desert those who put faith in our
+fidelity? Mr Wilder, your proposal would make me a villain! Lawless, in
+the opinion of the world, have I long been; but a traitor to my faith
+and plighted word, never! The hour may come when the beings whose world
+is in this ship shall part; but the separation must be open, voluntary,
+and manly. You never knew what drew me into the haunts of man, when we
+first met in the town of Boston?”
+
+“Never,” returned Wilder, in a tone of deep disappointment
+
+“Listen, and you shall hear. A sturdy follower had fallen into the
+hands of the minions of the law. It was necessary to save him. He was a
+man I little loved, but he was one who had ever been honest, after his
+opinions. I could not desert the victim; nor could any but I effect his
+escape. Gold and artifice succeeded; and the fellow is now here, to
+sing the praises of his Commander to the crew. Could I forfeit a good
+name, obtained at so much hazard?”
+
+“You would forfeit the good opinions of knaves, to gain a reputation
+among those whose commendations are an honour.”
+
+“I know not. You little understand the nature of man, if you are now to
+learn that he has pride in maintaining a reputation for even vice, when
+he has once purchased notoriety by its exhibition. Besides, I am not
+fitted for the world, as it is found among your dependant colonists.”
+
+“You claim your birth, perhaps, in the mother country?”
+
+“I am no better than a poor provincial, sir; an humble satellite of the
+mighty sun. You have seen my flags, Mr Wilder:—but there was one
+wanting among them all; ay, and one which, had it existed, it would
+have been my pride, my glory, to have upheld with my heart’s best
+blood!”
+
+“I know not what you mean.”
+
+“I need not tell a seaman, like you, how many noble rivers pour their
+waters into the sea along this coast of which we have been speaking—how
+many wide and commodious havens abound there—or how many sails whiten
+the ocean, that are manned by men who first drew breath on that
+spacious and peaceful soil.”
+
+“Surely I know the advantages of the country you mean.”
+
+“I fear not!” quickly returned the Rover. “Were they known, as they
+should be, by you and others like you, the flag I mentioned would soon
+be found in every sea; nor would the natives of our country have to
+succumb to the hirelings of a foreign prince.
+
+“I will not affect to misunderstand your meaning for I have known
+others as visionary as yourself in fancying that such an event may
+arrive.”
+
+“May!—As certain as that star will settle in the ocean, or that day is
+to succeed to night, it _must._ Had that flag been abroad, Mr Wilder,
+no man would have ever heard the name of the Red Rover.”
+
+“The King has a service of his own, and it is open to all his subjects
+alike.”
+
+“I could be a subject of a King; but to be the subject of a subject,
+Wilder, exceeds the bounds of my poor patience. I was educated, I might
+almost have said born, in one of his vessels; and how often have I been
+made to feel, in bitterness, that an ocean separated my birth-place
+from the footstool of his throne! Would you think it, sir? one of his
+Commanders dared to couple the name of my country with an epithet I
+will not wound your ear by repeating!”
+
+“I hope you taught the scoundrel manners.”
+
+The Rover faced his companion, and there was a ghastly smile on his
+speaking features, as he answered—
+
+“He never repeated the offence! ’Twas his blood or mine; and dearly did
+he pay the forfeit of his brutality!”
+
+“You fought like men, and fortune favoured the injured party?”
+
+“We fought, sir.—But I had dared to raise my hand against a native of
+the holy isle!—It is enough, Mr Wilder; the King rendered a faithful
+subject desperate, and he has had reason to repent it. Enough for the
+present; another time I may say more.—Good night.”
+
+Wilder saw the figure of his companion descend the ladder to the
+quarter-deck; and then was he left to pursue the current of his
+thoughts, alone, during the remainder of a watch which to his
+impatience seemed without an end.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXII.
+
+“She made good view of me; indeed so much,
+That sure, methought, her eyes had lost her tongue,
+For she did speak in starts, distractedly.”
+
+_Twelfth Night._
+
+
+Though most of the crew of the “Dolphin” slept, either in their
+hammocks or among the guns, there were bright and anxious eyes still
+open in a different part of the vessel. The Rover had relinquished his
+cabin to Mrs Wyllys and Gertrude, from the moment they entered the
+ship; and we shall shift the scene to that apartment, (already
+sufficiently described to render the reader familiar with the objects
+it contained), resuming the action of the tale at an early part of the
+discourse just related in the preceding chapter.
+
+It will not be necessary to dwell upon the feelings with which the
+female inmates of the vessel had witnessed the disturbances of that
+day; the conjectures and suspicions to which they gave rise may be
+apparent in what is about to follow. A mild, soft light fell from the
+lamp of wrought and massive silver that was suspended from the upper
+deck, obliquely upon the painfully pensive countenance of the
+governess, while a few of its strongest rays lighted the youthful
+bloom, though less expressive because less meditative lineaments, of
+her companion. The background was occupied, like a dark shadow in a
+picture, by the dusky form of the slumbering Cassandra. At the moment
+when we see fit to lift the curtain on this quiet scene of our drama,
+the pupil was speaking, seeking, in the averted eyes of her
+instructress, that answer to her question which the tongue of the
+latter appeared reluctant to accord.
+
+“I repeat, my dearest Madam,” said Gertrude, “that the fashion of these
+ornaments, no less than their materials, is extraordinary in a ship.”
+
+“And what would you infer from the same?”
+
+“I know not. Still I would that we were safe in the house of my
+father.”
+
+“God grant it! It may be imprudent to be longer silent.—Gertrude,
+frightful, horrible suspicions have been engendered in my mind by what
+we have this day witnessed.”
+
+The cheek of the maiden blanched, and the pupil of her soft eye
+contracted, with alarm, while she seemed to demand an explanation with
+every disturbed lineament of her countenance.
+
+“I have long been familiar with the usages of a vessel of war,”
+continued the governess, who had only paused in order to review the
+causes of her suspicions in her own mind; “but never have I seen such
+customs as, each hour, unfold themselves in this vessel.”
+
+“Of what do you suspect her?”
+
+The look of deep, engrossing, maternal anxiety, that the lovely
+interrogator received in reply to this question, might have startled
+one whose mind had been more accustomed to muse on the depravity of
+human nature than the spotless being who received it; but to Gertrude
+it conveyed no more than a general and vague sensation of alarm.
+
+“Why do you thus regard me, my governess—my mother?” she exclaimed,
+bending forward, and laying a hand imploringly on the arm of the other,
+as if she would arouse her from a trance.
+
+“Yes, I will speak: It is safer that you know the worst, than that your
+innocence should be liable to be abused. I distrust the character of
+this ship, and of all that belong to her.”
+
+“All!” repeated her pupil, gazing fearfully, and a little wildly,
+around.
+
+“Yes; of all”
+
+“There may be wicked and evil-intentioned men n his Majesty’s fleet;
+but we are surely safe from them, since fear of punishment, if not fear
+of disgrace will be our protector.”
+
+“I dread lest we find that the lawless spirits, who harbour here,
+submit to no laws except those of their own enacting, nor acknowledge
+any authority but that which exists among themselves.”
+
+“This would make them pirates!”
+
+“And pirates, I fear, we shall find them.”
+
+“Pirates? What! all?”
+
+“Even all. Where one is guilty of such a crime, it is clear that the
+associates cannot be free from suspicion.”
+
+“But, dear Madam, we know that one among them, at least, is innocent;
+since he came with ourselves and under circumstances that will not
+admit of deception.”
+
+“I know not. There are different degrees of turpitude, as there are
+different tempers to commit it! I fear that all who may lay claim to be
+honest, in this vessel, are here assembled.”
+
+The eyes of Gertrude sunk to the floor, and her lips quivered, partly
+in a tremour she could not control and perhaps in part through an
+emotion that she found inexplicable to herself.
+
+“Since we know whence our late companion came,” she said, in an under
+tone, “I think you do him wrong, however right your suspicions may
+prove as to the rest.”
+
+“I may be wrong as to him, but it is important that we know the worst.
+Command yourself, my love; our attendant ascends; some knowledge of the
+truth may be gained from him.”
+
+Mrs Wyllys gave her pupil an expressive sign to compose her features,
+while she herself resumed her usual, pensive air, with a calmness of
+mien that might have deceived one far more practised than the boy, who
+now came slowly into the cabin. Gertrude buried her face in a part of
+her attire, while the former addressed the individual who had just
+entered in a tone equally divided between kindness and concern.
+
+“Roderick, child,” she commenced, “your eyelids are getting heavy. This
+service of a ship must be new to you?”
+
+“It is so old as to keep me from sleeping on my watch,” coldly returned
+the boy.
+
+“A careful mother would be better for one of your years, than the
+school of the boatswain. What is your age, Roderick?”
+
+“I have seen years enough to be both wiser and better,” he answered,
+not without a shade of thought settling on his brow. “Another month
+will make me twenty.”
+
+“Twenty! you trifle with my curiosity, urchin.”
+
+“Did I say twenty, Madam! Fifteen would be nearer to the truth.”
+
+“I believe you well. And how many of those years have you passed upon
+the water?”
+
+“But two, in truth; though I often think them ten; and yet there are
+times when they seem but a day!”
+
+“You are romantic early, boy. And how like you the trade of war?”
+
+“War!”
+
+“Of war. I speak plainly, do I not? Those who serve in a vessel that is
+constructed expressly for battle, follow the trade of war.”
+
+“Oh! yes; war is certainly our trade.”
+
+“And have you yet seen any of its horrors? Has this ship been in combat
+since your service?”
+
+“This ship!”
+
+“Surely this ship: Have you ever sailed in any other?”
+
+“Never.”
+
+“Then, it is of this ship that one must question you. Is prize-money
+plenty among your crew?”
+
+“Abundant; they never want.”
+
+“Then the vessel and Captain are both favourites. The sailor loves the
+ship and Commander that give him an active life.”
+
+“Ay, Madam; our lives are active here. And some there are among us,
+too, who love both ship and Commander.”
+
+“And have you mother, or friend, to profit by your earnings?”
+
+“Have I”—
+
+Struck with the tone of stupor with which the boy responded to her
+queries, the governess turned her head, to read, in a rapid glance, the
+language of his countenance. He stood in a sort of senseless amazement
+looking her full in the face, but with an eye far too vacant to prove
+that he was sensible of the image that filled it.
+
+“Tell me, Roderick,” she continued, careful not to alarm his jealousy
+by any sudden allusion to his manner; “tell me of this life of yours.
+You find it merry?”
+
+“I find it sad.”
+
+“’Tis strange. The young ship-boys are ever among the merriest of
+mortals. Perhaps your officer treats you with severity.”
+
+No answer was given.
+
+“I am then right: Your Captain is a tyrant?”
+
+“You are wrong: Never has he said harsh or unkind word to me.”
+
+“Ah! then he is gentle and kind. You are very happy, Roderick.”
+
+“I—happy, Madam!”
+
+“I speak plainly, and in English—happy.”
+
+“Oh! yes, we are all very happy here.”
+
+“It is well. A discontented ship is no paradise. And you are often in
+port, Roderick, to taste the sweets of the land?”
+
+“I care but little for the land, Madam, could I only have friends in
+the ship that love me.”
+
+“And have you not? Is not Mr Wilder your friend?”
+
+“I know but little of him; I never saw him before”—
+
+“When, Roderick?”
+
+“Before we met in Newport.”
+
+“In Newport?”
+
+“Surely you know we both came from Newport, last.”
+
+“Ah! I comprehend you. Then, your acquaintance with Mr Wilder commenced
+at Newport? It was while your ship was lying off the fort?”
+
+“It was. I carried him the order to take command of the Bristol trader.
+He had only joined us the night before.”
+
+“So lately! It was a young acquaintance indeed. But I suppose your
+Commander knew his merits?”
+
+“It is so hoped among the people. But”—
+
+“You were speaking, Roderick.”
+
+“None here dare question the Captain for his reasons. Even _I_ am
+obliged to be mute.”
+
+“Even _you_!” exclaimed Mrs Wyllys, in a surprise that for the moment
+overcame her self-restraint. But the thought in which the boy was lost
+appeared to prevent his observing the sudden change in her manner.
+Indeed, so little did he know what was passing, that the governess
+touched the hand of Gertrude, and silently pointed out the insensible
+figure of the lad, without the slightest apprehension that the movement
+would be observed.
+
+“What think you, Roderick,” continued his interrogator “would he refuse
+to answer _us_ also?”
+
+The boy started; and, as consciousness shot into his glance, it fell
+upon the soft and speaking countenance of Gertrude.
+
+“Though her beauty be so rare,” he answered with vehemence, “let her
+not prize it too highly. Woman cannot tame his temper!”
+
+“Is he then so hard of heart? Think you that a question from this fair
+one would be denied?”
+
+“Hear me, Lady,” he said, with an earnestness that was no less
+remarkable than the plaintive softness of the tones in which he spoke;
+“I have seen more, in the last two crowded years of my life, than many
+youths would witness between childhood and the age of man. This is no
+place for innocence and beauty. Oh! quit the ship, if you leave it as
+you came, without a deck to lay your head under!”
+
+“It may be too late to follow such advice,” Mrs Wyllys gravely replied,
+glancing her eye at the silent Gertrude as she spoke. “But tell me more
+of this extraordinary vessel. Roderick, you were not born to fill the
+station in which I find you?”
+
+The boy shook his head, but remained with downcast eyes, apparently not
+disposed to answer further on such a subject.
+
+“How is it that I find the ‘Dolphin’ bearing different hues to-day from
+what she did yesterday? and why is it that neither then, nor now, does
+she resemble in her paint, the slaver of Newport harbour?”
+
+“And why is it,” returned the boy, with a smile in which melancholy
+struggled powerfully with bitterness “that none can look into the
+secret heart of him who makes those changes at will? If all remained
+the same, but the paint of the ship, one might still be happy in her!”
+
+“Then, Roderick, you are not happy: Shall I intercede with Captain
+Heidegger for your discharge?”
+
+“I could never wish to serve another.”
+
+“How! Do you complain, and yet embrace your fetters?”
+
+“I complain not.”
+
+The governess eyed him closely; and, after a moment’s pause, she
+continued,—
+
+“Is it usual to see such riotous conduct among the crew as we have this
+day witnessed?”
+
+“It is not. You have little to fear from the people; he who brought
+them under knows how to keep them down.”
+
+“They are enlisted by order of the King?”
+
+“The King! Yes, he is surely a King who has no equal.”
+
+“But they dared to threaten the life of Mr Wilder. Is a seaman, in a
+King’s ship, usually so bold?”
+
+The boy glanced a look at Mrs Wyllys; as if he would say, he understood
+her affected ignorance of the character of the vessel, but again he
+chose to continue silent.
+
+“Think you, Roderick,” continued the governess, who no longer deemed it
+necessary to pursue her covert inquiries on that particular subject;
+“think you, Roderick, that the Rov—that is, that Captain Heidegger will
+suffer us to land at the first port which offers?”
+
+“Many have been passed since you reached the ship.”
+
+“Ay, many that are inconvenient; but, when one shall be gained where
+his pursuits will allow his ship to enter?”
+
+“Such places are not common.”
+
+“But, should it occur, do you not think he will permit us to land? We
+have gold to pay him for his trouble.”
+
+“He cares not for gold. I never ask him for it; that he does not fill
+my hand.”
+
+“You must be happy, then. Plenty of gold will compensate for a cold
+look at times.”
+
+“Never!” returned the boy, with quickness and energy. “Had I the ship
+filled with the dross, I would give it all to bring a look of kindness
+into his eye.”
+
+Mrs Wyllys started, no less at the fervid manner of the lad than at the
+language. Rising from her seat, she approached nigher to him, and in a
+situation where the light of the lamp fell full upon his lineaments.
+She saw the large drop that broke out from beneath a long and silken
+lash, to roll down a cheek which, though embrowned by the sun, was
+deepening with a flush that gradually stole into it, as her own gaze
+became more settled; and then her eyes fell slowly and keenly along the
+person of the lad, until they reached even the delicate feet, that
+seemed barely able to uphold him. The usually pensive and mild
+countenance of the governess changed to a look of cold regard, and her
+whole form appeared to elevate itself, in chaste matronly dignity, as
+she sternly asked,—
+
+“Boy, have you a mother?”
+
+“I know not,” was the answer that came from lips that scarcely severed
+to permit the smothered sounds to escape.
+
+“It is enough; another time I will speak further to you. Cassandra will
+in future do the service of this cabin; when I have need of you, the
+gong shall be touched.”
+
+The head of Roderick fell nearly to his bosom He shrunk from before
+that cold and searching eye which followed his form, until it had
+disappeared through the hatch, and whose look was then bent rapidly,
+and not without a shade of alarm, on the face of the wondering but
+silent Gertrude.
+
+A gentle tap at the door broke in upon the flood of reflection which
+was crowding on the mind of the governess. She gave the customary
+answer; and, before time was allowed for any interchange of ideas
+between her and her pupil, the Rover entered.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXIII.
+
+“I melt, and am not of stronger earth than others.”
+
+_Coriolanus_
+
+
+The females received their visiter with a restraint which will be
+easily understood when the subject of their recent conversation is
+recollected. The sinking of Gertrude’s form was deep and hurried, but
+her governess maintained the coldness of her air with greater
+self-composure. Still, there was a gleaming of powerful anxiety in the
+watchful glance that she threw towards her guest, as though she would
+divine the motive of the visit by the wanderings of his changeful eye,
+even before his lips had parted in the customary salute.
+
+The countenance of the Rover himself was thoughtful to gravity. He
+bowed as he came within the influence of the lamp, and his voice was
+heard muttering some low and hasty syllables, that conveyed no meaning
+to the ears of his listeners. Indeed, so great was the abstraction in
+which he was lost, that he had evidently prepared to throw his person
+on the vacant divan, without explanation or apology, like one who took
+possession of his own; though recollection returned just in time to
+prevent this breach of decorum. Smiling, and repeating his bow, with a
+still deeper inclination, he advanced with perfect self-possession to
+the table, where he expressed his fears that Mrs Wyllys might deem his
+visit unseasonable or perhaps not announced with sufficient ceremony.
+During this short introduction his voice was bland as woman’s, and his
+mien courteous, as though he actually felt himself an intruder in the
+cabin of a vessel in which he was literally a monarch.
+
+“But, unseasonable as is the hour,” he continued, “I should have gone
+to my cott with a consciousness of not having discharged all the duties
+of an attentive and considerate host, had I forgotten to reassure you
+of the tranquillity of the ship, after the scene you have this day
+witnessed. I have pleasure in saying, that the humour of my people is
+already expended, and that lambs, in their nightly folds, are not more
+placid than they are at this minute in their hammocks.”
+
+“The authority that so promptly quelled the disturbance is happily ever
+present to protect us,” returned the cautious governess; “we repose
+entirely on your discretion and generosity.”
+
+“You have not misplaced your confidence. From the danger of mutiny, at
+least, you are exempt.”
+
+“And from all others, I trust.”
+
+“This is a wild and fickle element we dwell on,” he answered, while he
+bowed an acknowledgment for the politeness, and took the seat to which
+the other invited him by a motion of the hand; “but you know its
+character, and need not be told that we seamen are seldom certain of
+any of our movements I loosened the cords of discipline myself to-day,”
+he added, after a moment’s pause, “and in some measure invited the
+broil that followed: But it is passed, like the hurricane and the
+squall; and the ocean is not now smoother than the tempers of my
+knaves.”
+
+“I have often witnessed these rude sports in vessels of the King; but I
+do not remember to have known any more serious result than the
+settlement of some ancient quarrel, or some odd freak of nautical
+humour, which has commonly proved as harmless as it has been quaint.”
+
+“Ay; but the ship which often runs the hazards of the shoals gets
+wrecked at last,” muttered the Rover “I rarely give the quarter-deck up
+to the people, without keeping a vigilant watch on their humours;
+but—to-day”——
+
+“You were speaking of to-day.”
+
+“Neptune, with his coarse devices, is no stranger to you, Madam.”
+
+“I have seen the God in times past.”
+
+“’Twas thus I understood it;—under the line?”
+
+“And elsewhere.”
+
+“Elsewhere!” repeated the other, in a tone of disappointment. “Ay, the
+sturdy despot is to be found in every sea; and hundreds of ships, and
+ships of size too, are to be seen scorching in the calms of the
+equator. It was idle to give the subject a second thought.”
+
+“You have been pleased to observe something that has escaped my ear.”
+
+The Rover started; for he had rather muttered than spoken the preceding
+sentence aloud. Casting a swift and searching glance around him, as it
+might be to assure himself that no impertinent listener had found means
+to pry into the mysteries of a mind he seldom saw fit to lay open to
+the free examination of his associates, he regained his self-possession
+on the instant, and resumed the discourse with a manner as undisturbed
+as if it had received no interruption.
+
+“Yes, I had forgotten that your sex is often as timorous as it is
+fair,” he added, with a smile so insinuating and gentle, that the
+governess cast an involuntary and uneasy glance towards her charge, “or
+I might have been earlier with my assurance of safety.”
+
+“It is welcome even now.”
+
+“And your young and gentle friend,” he continued, bowing openly to
+Gertrude, though he still addressed his words to the governess; “her
+slumbers will not be the heavier for what has passed.”
+
+“The innocent seldom find an uneasy pillow.”
+
+“There is a holy and unsearchable mystery in that truth: The innocent
+pillow their heads in quiet! Would to God the guilty might find some
+refuge, too, against the sting of thought! But we live in a world, and
+a time, when men cannot be sure even of themselves.”
+
+He then paused, and looked about him, with a smile so haggard, that the
+anxious governess unconsciously drew nigher to her pupil, like one who
+sought, and was willing to yield, protection against the uncertain
+designs of a maniac. Her visiter, however, remained in a silence so
+long and deep, that she felt the necessity of removing the awkward
+embarrassment of their situation, by speaking herself.
+
+“Do you find Mr Wilder as much inclined to mercy as yourself?” she
+asked. “There would be merit in his forbearance, since he appeared to
+be the particular object of the anger of the mutineers.”
+
+“And yet you saw he was not without his friends. You witnessed the
+devotion of the men who stood forth in his behalf?”
+
+“I did: and find it remarkable that he should have been able, in so
+short a time, to conquer thus completely two so stubborn natures.”
+
+“Four-and-twenty years make not an acquaintance of a day!”
+
+“And does their friendship bear so old a date?”
+
+“I have heard that time counted between them. It is very certain the
+youth is bound to those uncouth companions of his by some extraordinary
+tie. Perhaps this is not the first of their services.”
+
+Mrs Wyllys looked grieved. Although prepared to believe that Wilder was
+a secret agent of the Rover, she had endeavoured to hope his connexion
+with the freebooters was susceptible of some explanation more
+favourable to his character. However he might be implicated in the
+common guilt of those who pursued the hazards of the reckless fortunes
+of that proscribed ship, it was evident he bore a heart too generous to
+wish to see her, and her young and guileless charge, the victims of the
+licentiousness of his associates. His repeated and mysterious warnings
+no longer needed explanation. Indeed, all that had been dark and
+inexplicable, both in the previous and unaccountable glimmerings of her
+own mind, and in the extraordinary conduct of the inmates of the ship,
+was at each instant becoming capable of solution. She now remembered,
+in the person and countenance of the Rover, the form and features of
+the individual who had spoken the passing Bristol trader, from the
+rigging of the slaver—a form which had unaccountably haunted her
+imagination, during her residence in his ship, like an image recalled
+from some dim and distant period. Then she saw at once the difficulty
+that Wilder might prove in laying open a secret in which not only his
+life was involved, but which, to a mind that was not hardened in vice,
+involved a penalty not less severe—that of the loss of their esteem. In
+short, a good deal of that which the reader has found no difficulty in
+comprehending was also becoming clear to the faculties of the governess
+though much still remained obscured in doubts, that she could neither
+solve nor yet entirely banish from her thoughts. On all these several
+points she had leisure to cast a rapid glance; for her guest, or host,
+whichever he might be called, seemed in nowise disposed to interrupt
+her short and melancholy reverie.
+
+“It is wonderful,” Mrs Wyllys at length resumed, “that beings so
+uncouth should be influenced by the same attachments as those which
+unite the educated and the refined.”
+
+“It is wonderful, as you say,” returned the other like one awakening
+from a dream. “I would give a thousand of the brightest guineas that
+ever came from the mint of George II. to know the private history of
+that youth.”
+
+“Is he then a stranger to you?” demanded Gertrude with the quickness of
+thought.
+
+The Rover turned an eye on her, that was vacant for the moment, but
+into which consciousness and expression began to steal as he gazed,
+until the foot of the governess was visibly trembling with the nervous
+excitement that pervaded her entire frame.
+
+“Who shall pretend to know the heart of man!” he answered, again
+inclining his head as it might be in acknowledgment of her perfect
+right to far deeper homage. “All are strangers, till we can read their
+most secret thoughts.”
+
+“To pry into the mysteries of the human mind, is a privilege which few
+possess,” coldly remarked the governess. “The world must be often
+tried, and thoroughly known, before we may pretend to judge of the
+motives of any around us.”
+
+“And yet it is a pleasant world to those who have the heart to make it
+merry,” cried the Rover, with one of those startling transitions which
+marked his manner. “To him who is stout enough to follow the bent of
+his humour, all is easy. Do you know, that the true secret of the
+philosopher is not in living for ever, but in living while you may. He
+who dies at fifty, after a fill of pleasure, has had more of life than
+he who drags his feet through a century, bearing the burden of the
+world’s caprices, and afraid to speak above his breath, lest, forsooth,
+his neighbour should find that his words were evil.”
+
+“And yet are there some who find their pleasure in pursuing the
+practices of virtue.”
+
+“’Tis lovely in your sex to say it,” he answered with an air that the
+sensitive governess fancied was gleaming with the growing
+licentiousness of a free booter. She would now gladly have, dismissed
+her visiter; but a certain flashing of the eye, and a manner that was
+becoming gay by a species of unnatural effort, admonished her of the
+danger of offending one who acknowledged no law but his own will.
+Assuming a tone and a manner that were kind, while they upheld the
+dignity of her sex, and pointing to sundry instruments of music that
+formed part of the heterogeneous furniture of the cabin, she adroitly
+turned the discourse, by saying,—
+
+“One whose mind can be softened by harmony and whose feelings are so
+evidently alive to the in fluence of sweet sounds, should not decry the
+pleasures of virtue. This flute, and yon guitar, both call you master.”
+
+“And, because of these flimsy evidences about my person, you are
+willing to give me credit for the accomplishments you mention! Here is
+another mistake of miserable mortality! Seeming is the everyday robe of
+honesty. Why not give me credit for kneeling, morning and night, before
+yon glittering bauble?” he added, pointing to the diamond crucifix
+which hung, as usual, near the door of his own apartment.
+
+“I hope, at least, that the Being, whose memory is intended to be
+revived by that image, is not without your homage. In the pride of his
+strength and prosperity, man may think lightly of the consolations that
+can flow from a power superior to humanity: but those who have oftenest
+proved their value feel deepest the reverence which is their due.”
+
+The look of the governess had been averted from her companion; but,
+filled with the profound sentiment she uttered, her mild reflecting eye
+turned to him again, as, in a tone that was subdued, in respect for the
+mighty Being whose attributes filled her mind, she uttered the above
+simple sentiment. The gaze she met was earnest and thoughtful as her
+own. Lifting a finger he laid it on her arm, with a motion so light as
+to be scarcely perceptible, while he asked,—
+
+“Think you we are to blame, if our temperaments incline more to evil
+than power is given to resist?”
+
+“It is only those who attempt to walk the path of life alone that
+stumble. I shall not offend your manhood if I ask, do you never commune
+with your God?”
+
+“It is long since that name has been heard in this vessel, Lady, except
+to aid in that miserable scoffing and profanity which simpler language
+made too dull, But what is He, that unknown Deity, more than what man,
+in his ingenuity, has seen fit to make him?”
+
+“‘The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God,’” she answered, in
+a voice so firm, that it startled even the ears of one so long
+accustomed to the turbulence and grandeur of his wild profession.
+“‘Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and
+answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the
+earth? Declare if thou hast understanding.’”
+
+The Rover gazed long and silently on the flushed countenance of the
+speaker. Bending his face in an unconscious manner aside, he said
+aloud, evidently rather giving utterance to his thoughts than pursuing
+the discourse,—
+
+“Now, is there nothing more in this than what I have often heard, and
+yet does it come over my feelings with the freshness of native air!”
+Then rising, he approached his mild and dignified companion, adding, in
+tones but little above a whisper, “Lady repeat those words; change not
+a syllable, nor vary the slightest intonation of the voice, I pray
+thee.”
+
+Though amazed, and secretly alarmed at the request, Mrs Wyllys
+complied; delivering the holy language of the inspired writers with a
+fervour that found its support in the strength of her own emotions. Her
+auditor listened like a being enthralled. For near a minute, neither
+eye nor attitude was changed, but he stood at the feet of her who had
+so simply and so powerfully asserted the majesty of God, as motionless
+as the mast that rose behind him through the decks of that vessel which
+he had so long devoted to the purposes of his lawless life. It was long
+after her accents had ceased to fall on his ear, that he drew a deep
+respiration, and once again opened his lips to speak.
+
+“This is re-treading the path of life at a stride.” he said, suffering
+his hand to fall upon that of his companion. “I know not why pulses,
+which in common are like iron, beat so wildly and irregularly now.
+Lady, this little and feeble hand might check a temper that has so
+often braved the power of”—
+
+His words suddenly ceased; for, as his eye unconsciously followed his
+hand, it rested on the still delicate, but no longer youthful, member
+of the governess Drawing a sigh, like one who felt himself awakened
+from an agreeable though complete illusion he turned away, leaving his
+sentence unfinished.
+
+“You would have music!” he recklessly exclaimed aloud. “Then music
+shall be heard, though its symphony be rung upon a gong!”
+
+As he spoke, the wayward and vacillating being we have been attempting
+to describe struck the instrument he named three blows, so quick and
+powerfully, as to drown all other sensations in the confusion produced
+by the echoing din. Though deeply mortified that he had so quickly
+escaped from the influence she had partially acquired, and secretly
+displeased at the unceremonious manner in which he had seen fit to
+announce his independence again, the governess was aware of the
+necessity of concealing her sentiments.
+
+“This is certainly not the harmony I invited,” she said, so soon as the
+overwhelming sounds had ceased to fill the ship; “nor do I think it of
+a quality to favour the slumbers of those who seek their rest.”
+
+“Fear nothing for them. The seaman sleeps with his ear near the port
+whence the cannon bellows, and awakes at the call of the boatswain’s
+whistle. He is too deeply schooled in habit, to think he has heard more
+than a note of the flute; stronger and fuller than common, if you will,
+but still a sound that has no interest for him. Another tap would have
+sounded the alarm of fire; but these three touches say no more than
+music. It was the signal for the band. The night is still, and
+favourable for their art, and we will listen to sweet sounds awhile.”
+
+His words were scarcely uttered before the low chords of wind
+instruments were heard without, where the men had probably stationed
+themselves by some previous order of their Captain. The Rover smiled,
+as if he exulted in this prompt proof of the sort of despotic or rather
+magical power he wielded; and, throwing his form on the divan, he sat
+listening to the sounds which followed.
+
+The strains which now rose upon the night, and which spread themselves
+soft and melodiously abroad upon the water, would in truth have done
+credit to far more regular artists. The air was wild and melancholy and
+perhaps it was the more in accordance with the present humour of the
+man for whose ear it was created. Then, losing the former character the
+whole power of the music was concentrated in softer and still gentler
+sounds, as if the genius who had given birth to the melody had been
+pouring out the feelings of his soul in pathos. The temper of the
+Rover’s mind answered to the changing expression of the music; and,
+when the strains were sweetest and most touching, he even bowed his
+head like one who wept.
+
+Though secretly under the influence of the harmony themselves, Mrs
+Wyllys and her pupil could but gaze on the singularly constituted being
+into whose hands their evil fortune had seen fit to cast them. The
+former was filled with admiration at the fearful contrariety of those
+passions which could reveal themselves, in the same individual, under
+so very different and so dangerous forms; while the latter, judging
+with the indulgence and sympathy of her years, was willing to believe
+that a man whose emotions could be thus easily and kindly excited was
+rather the victim of circumstances than the creator of his own luckless
+fortune.
+
+“There is Italy in those strains,” said the Rover, when the last chord
+had died upon his ear; “sweet, indolent, luxurious, forgetful Italy! It
+has never been your chance, Madam, to visit that land, so mighty in its
+recollections, and so impotent in its actual condition?”
+
+The governess made no reply; but, bowing her head, in turn, her
+companions believed she was submitting also to the influence of the
+music. At length, as though impelled by another changeful impulse, the
+Rover advanced towards Gertrude, and, addressing her with a courtesy
+that would have done credit to a very different scene, he said, in the
+laboured language that characterised the politeness of the age,—
+
+“One who in common speaks music should not have neglected the gifts of
+nature. You sing?”
+
+Had Gertrude possessed the power he affected to believe, her voice
+would have denied its services at his call. Bending to his compliment,
+she murmured her apologies in words that were barely audible. He
+listened intently; but, without pressing a point that it was easy to
+see was unwelcome, he turned away, gave the gong a light but startling
+tap.
+
+“Roderick,” he continued, when the gentle foot step of the lad was
+heard upon the stairs that led into the cabin below, “do you sleep?”
+
+The answer was slow and smothered; and, of course, in the negative.
+
+“Apollo was not absent at the birth of Roderick, Madam. The lad can
+raise such sounds as have been known to melt the stubborn feelings of a
+seaman. Go, place yourself by the cabin door, good Roderick, and bid
+the music run a low accompaniment to your words.”
+
+The boy obeyed, stationing his slight form so much in shadow, that the
+expression of his working countenance was not visible to those who sat
+within the stronger light of the lamp. The instruments then commenced a
+gentle symphony, which was soon ended; and twice had they begun the
+air, but still no voice was heard to mingle in the harmony.
+
+“Words, Roderick, words; we are but dull interpreters of the meaning of
+yon flutes.”
+
+Thus admonished of his duty, the boy began to sing in a full, rich
+contralto voice, which betrayed a tremour, however, that evidently
+formed no part of the air. His words, so far as they might be
+distinguished, ran as follows:—
+
+“The land was lying broad and fair
+Behind the western sea;
+And holy solitude was there,
+And sweetest liberty.
+
+The lingering sun, at ev’ning, hung
+A glorious orb, divinely beaming
+On silent lake and tree;
+And ruddy light was o’er all streaming,
+Mark, man! for thee;
+O’er valley, lake, and tree!
+
+And now a thousand maidens stray,
+Or range the echoing groves;
+While, flutt’ring near, on pinions gay,
+Fan twice ten thousand loves,
+In that soft clime, at even time,
+Hope says”——
+
+
+“Enough of this, Roderick,” impatiently interrupted his master. “There
+is too much of the Corydon in that song for the humour of a manner.
+Sing us of the sea and its pleasures, boy; and roll out the strains in
+such a fashion as may suit a sailor’s fancy.”
+
+The lad continued mute, perhaps in disinclination to the task, perhaps
+from utter inability to comply.
+
+“What, Roderick! does the muse desert thee? or is memory getting dull?
+You see the child is wilful in his melody, and must sing of loves and
+sunshine or he fails. Now touch us a stronger chord my men, and put
+life into your cadences, while I troll a sea air for the honour of the
+ship.”
+
+The band took the humour of the moment from their master, (for surely
+he well deserved the name), sounding a powerful and graceful symphony,
+to prepare the listeners for the song of the Rover. Those treacherous
+and beguiling tones which so often stole into his voice when, speaking,
+did not mislead expectation as to its powers. It proved to be at the
+same time rich, full, deep, and melodious. Favoured by these material
+advantages, and aided by an exquisite ear, he rolled out the following
+stanzas in a manner that was singularly divided between that of the
+reveller and the man of sentiment. The words were probably original;
+for they both smacked strongly of his own profession, and were not
+entirely without a touch of the peculiar taste of the individual
+
+All hands, unmoor! unmoor
+Hark to the hoarse, but welcome sound,
+Startling the seaman’s sweetest slumbers.
+The groaning capstan’s labouring round,
+The cheerful fife’s enliv’ning numbers;.
+And ling’ring idlers join the brawl,
+And merry ship-boys swell the call,
+All hands, unmoor! unmoor!
+
+The cry is, “A sail! a sail!”
+Brace high each nerve to dare the fight,
+And boldly steer to seek the foeman;
+One secret prayer to aid the right,
+And many a secret thought to woman
+Now spread the flutt’ring canvas wide,
+And dash the foaming sea aside;
+The cry’s, “A sail! a sail!”
+
+Three cheers for victory!
+Hush’d be each plaint o’er fallen brave;
+Still ev’ry sigh to messmate given;
+The seaman’s tomb is in the wave;
+The hero’s latest hope is heaven!
+High lift the voice in revelry!
+Gay raise the song, the shout, the glee;
+Three cheers for victory!
+
+
+So soon as he had ended this song, and without waiting to listen if any
+words of compliment were to succeed an effort that might lay claim to
+great excellence both in tones and execution, he arose; and, desiring
+his guests to command the services of his band at pleasure, he wished
+them “soft repose and pleasant dreams,” and then coolly descended into
+the lower apartments, apparently for the night. Mrs Wyllys and
+Gertrude, notwithstanding both had been amused, or rather seduced, by
+the interest thrown around a manner that was so wayward, while it was
+never gross, felt a sensation, as he disappeared, like that produced by
+breathing a freer air, after having been too long compelled to respire
+the pent atmosphere of a dungeon. The former regarded her pupil with
+eyes in which open affection struggled with deep inward solicitude; but
+neither spoke, since a slight movement near the door of the cabin
+reminded them they were not alone.
+
+“Would you have further music, Madam?” asked Roderick, in a smothered
+voice, stealing timidly out of the shadow as he spoke; “I will sing you
+to sleep if you will; but I am choaked when he bids me thus be merry
+against my feelings.”
+
+The brow of the governess had already contracted, and she was evidently
+preparing herself to give a stern and repulsive answer; but, as the
+plaintive tones, and shrinking, submissive form of the other, pleaded
+strongly to her heart, the frown passed away, leaving in its place a
+mild reproving look, like that which chastens the frown of maternal
+concern.
+
+“Roderick,” she said, “I thought we should have seen you no more
+to-night!”
+
+“You heard the gong. Although he can be so gay, and can raise such
+thrilling sounds in his pleasanter moments, you have never yet listened
+to him in anger.”
+
+“And is his anger, then, so very fearful?”
+
+“Perhaps to me it is more frightful than to others, but I find nothing
+so terrible as a word of his, when his mind is moody.”
+
+“He is then harsh to you?”
+
+“Never.”
+
+“You contradict yourself, Roderick. He is, and he is not. Have you not
+said how terrible you find his moody language?”
+
+“Yes; for I find it changed. Once he was never thoughtful, or out of
+humour, but latterly he is not himself.”
+
+Mrs Wyllys did not answer. The language of the boy was certainly much
+more intelligible to herself than to her young and attentive, but
+unsuspecting, companion; for, while she motioned to the lad to retire,
+Gertrude manifested a desire to gratify the curious interest she felt
+in the life and manners of the freebooter. The signal, however, was
+authoritatively repeated, and the lad slowly, and quite evidently with
+reluctance, withdrew.
+
+The governess and her pupil then retired into their own state-room;
+and, after devoting many minutes to those nightly offerings and
+petitions which neither ever suffered any circumstances to cause them
+to neglect, they slept in the consciousness of innocence and in the
+hope of an all-powerful protection. Though the bell of the ship
+regularly sounded the hours throughout the watches of the night,
+scarcely another sound arose, during the darkness, to disturb the calm
+which seemed to have settled equally on the ocean and all that floated
+on its bosom.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXIV.
+
+“But, for the miracle,
+I mean our preservation, few in millions
+Can speak like us.”
+
+_Tempest._
+
+
+The “Dolphin” might well have been likened to a slumbering beast of
+prey, during those moments of treacherous calm. But as nature limits
+the period of repose to the creatures of the animal world, so it would
+seem that the inactivity of the freebooters was not doomed to any long
+continuance. With the morning sun a breeze came over the water,
+breathing the flavour of the land, to set the sluggish ship again in
+motion. Throughout all that day, with a wide reach of canvas spreading
+along her booms, her course was held towards the south. Watch succeeded
+watch, and night came after day, and still no change was made in her
+direction. Then the blue islands were seen heaving up, one after
+another, out of the sea. The prisoners of the Rover, for thus the
+females were now constrained to consider themselves, silently watched
+each hillock of green that the vessel glided past, each naked and sandy
+key, or each mountain side, until, by the calculations of the
+governess, they were already steering amid the western Archipelago.
+
+During all this time no question was asked which in the smallest manner
+betrayed to the Rover the consciousness of his guests that he was not
+conducting them towards the promised port of the Continent. Gertrude
+wept over the sorrow her father would feel, when he should believe her
+fate involved in that of the unfortunate Bristol trader; but her tears
+flowed in private, or were freely poured upon the sympathizing bosom of
+her governess. Wilder she avoided, with an intuitive consciousness that
+he was no longer the character she had wished to believe, but to all in
+the ship she struggled to maintain an equal air and a serene eye. In
+this deportment, far safer than any impotent entreaties might have
+proved, she was strongly supported by her governess, whose knowledge of
+mankind had early taught her that virtue was never so imposing, in the
+moments of trial, as when it knew best how to maintain its equanimity.
+On the other hand, both the Commander of the ship and his lieutenant
+sought no other communication with the inmates of the cabin, than
+courtesy appeared absolutely to require.
+
+The former, as though repenting already of having laid so bare the
+capricious humours of his mind, drew gradually into himself, neither
+seeking nor permitting familiarity with any; while the latter appeared
+perfectly conscious of the constrained mien of the governess, and of
+the altered though still pitying eye of her pupil. Little explanation
+was necessary to acquaint Wilder with the reasons of this change.
+Instead of seeking the means to vindicate his character, however, he
+rather imitated their reserve. Little else was wanting to assure his
+former friends of the nature of his pursuits; for even Mrs Wyllys
+admitted to her charge, that he acted like one in whom depravity had
+not yet made such progress as to have destroyed that consciousness
+which is ever the surest test of innocence.
+
+We shall not detain the narrative, to dwell upon the natural regrets in
+which Gertrude indulged, as this sad conviction forced itself upon her
+understanding, nor to relate the gentle wishes in which she did not
+think it wrong to indulge, that one, who certainly was master of so
+many manly and generous qualities, might soon be made to see the error
+of his life, and to return to a course for which even her cold and
+nicely judging governess allowed nature had so eminently endowed him.
+Perhaps the kind emotions that had been awakened in her bosom, by the
+events of the last fortnight, were not content to exhibit themselves in
+wishes alone, and that petitions more personal, and even more fervent
+than common, mingled in her prayers; but this is a veil which it is not
+our province to raise, the heart of one so pure and so ingenuous being
+the best repository for its own gentle feelings.
+
+For several days the ship had been contending with the unvarying winds
+of those regions. Instead of struggling, however, like a cumbered
+trader, to gain some given port, the “Rover” suddenly altered her
+course, and glided through one of the many passages that offered, with
+the ease of a bird that is settling swiftly to its nest. A hundred
+different sails were seen steering among the islands, but all were
+avoided alike; the policy of the freebooters teaching them the
+necessity of moderation, in a sea so crowded with vessels of war. After
+the vessel had shot through one of the straits which divide the chain
+of the Antilles, she issued in safety on the more open sea which
+separates them from the Spanish Main. The moment the passage was
+effected, and a broad and clear horizon was seen stretching on every
+side of them, a manifest alteration occurred in the mien of every
+individual of the crew. The brow of the Rover himself lost its
+contraction; and the look of care, which had wrapped the whole man in a
+mantle of reserve, disappeared, leaving him the reckless wayward being
+we have more than once described. Even the men, whose vigilance had
+needed no quickening in running the gauntlet of the cruisers which were
+known to swarm in the narrower seas, appeared to breathe a freer air,
+and sounds of merriment and thoughtless gaiety were once more heard in
+a place over which the gloom of distrust had been so long and so
+heavily cast.
+
+On the other hand, the governess saw new ground for uneasiness in the
+course the vessel was taking. While the islands were in view, she had
+hoped, and surely not without reason, that their captor only awaited a
+suitable occasion to place them in safety within the influence of the
+laws of some of the colonial governments. Her own observation told her
+there was so much of what was once good, if not noble, mingled with the
+lawlessness of the two principal individuals in the vessel, that she
+saw nothing that was visionary in such an expectation. Even the tales
+of the time, which recounted the desperate acts of the freebooter, with
+not a little of wild and fanciful exaggeration, did not forget to
+include numberless striking instances of marked, and even chivalrous
+generosity. In short, he bore the character of one who, while he
+declared himself the enemy of all, knew how to distinguish between the
+weak and the strong, and who often found as much gratification in
+repairing the wrongs of the former, as in humbling the pride of the
+latter.
+
+But all her agreeable anticipations from this quarter were forgotten
+when the last island of the groupe sunk into the sea behind them, and
+the ship lay alone on an ocean which showed not another object above
+its surface. As if now ready to lay aside the mask the Rover ordered
+the sails to be reduced, and, neglecting the favourable breeze, the
+vessel to be brought to the wind. In a word, as if no object called for
+the immediate attention of her crew, the “Dolphin” came to a stand, in
+the midst of the water her officers and people abandoning themselves to
+their pleasures, or to idleness, as whim or inclination dictated.
+
+“I had hoped that your convenience would have permitted us to land in
+some of his Majesty’s islands,” said Mrs Wyllys, speaking for the first
+time since her suspicions had been awakened on the subject of her
+quitting the ship, and addressing her words to the self-styled Captain
+Heidegger, just after the order to heave-to the vessel had been obeyed.
+“I fear you find it irksome to be so long dispossessed of your cabin.”
+
+“It cannot be better occupied,” he rather evasively replied; though the
+observant and anxious governess fancied his eye was bolder, and his air
+under less restraint, than when she had before dwelt on the same topic.
+“If custom did not require that a ship should wear the colours of some
+people, mine should always sport those of the fair.”
+
+“And, as it is?”——
+
+“As it is, I hoist the emblems that belong to the service I am in.”
+
+“In fifteen days, that you have been troubled with my presence, it has
+never been my good fortune to see those colours set.”
+
+“No!” exclaimed the Rover, glancing his eye at her, as if to penetrate
+her thoughts: “Then shall the uncertainty cease on the sixteenth.—Who’s
+there, abaft?”
+
+“No one better nor worse than Richard Fid,” returned the individual in
+question, lifting his head from out a locker, into which it had been
+thrust, as though its owner searched for some mislaid implement, and
+who added a little quickly, when he ascertained by whom he was
+addressed, “and always at your Honour’s orders.”
+
+“Ah! ’Tis the friend of _our_ friend,” the Rover observed to Mrs
+Wyllys, with an emphasis which the other understood. “He shall be my
+interpreter. Come hither, lad; I have a word to exchange with you.”
+
+“A thousand at your service, sir,” returned Richard unhesitatingly
+complying; “for, though no great talker, I have always something
+uppermost in my mind, which can be laid hold of at need.”
+
+“I hope you find that your hammock swings easily in my ship?”
+
+“I’ll not deny it, your Honour; for an easier craft, especially upon a
+bow-line, might be hard to find.”
+
+“And the cruise?—I hope you also find the cruise such as a seaman
+loves.”
+
+“D’ye see, sir, I was sent from home with little schooling, and so I
+seldom make so free as to pretend to read the Captain’s orders.”
+
+“But still you have your inclinations,” said Mrs. Wyllys, firmly, as
+though determined to push the investigation even further than her
+companion had intended.
+
+“I can’t say that I’m wanting in natural feeling, your Ladyship,”
+returned Fid, endeavouring to manifest his admiration of the sex, by
+the awkward bow he made to the governess as its representative, “tho’f
+crosses and mishaps have come athwart me as well as better men. I
+thought as strong a splice was laid, between me and Kate Whiffle, as
+was ever turned into a sheet-cable; but then came the law, with its
+regulations and shipping articles, luffing short athwart my happiness,
+and making a wreck at once of all the poor girl’s hopes, and a Flemish
+account of my comfort.”
+
+“It was proved that she had another husband?” said the Rover, nodding
+his head, understandingly.
+
+“Four, your Honour. The girl had a love of company, and it grieved her
+to the heart to see an empty house: But then, as it was seldom more
+than one of us could be in port at a time, there was no such need to
+make the noise they did about the trifle. But envy did it all, sir;
+envy, and the greediness of the land-sharks. Had every woman in the
+parish as many husbands as Kate, the devil a bit would they have taken
+up the precious time of judge and jury, in looking into the manner in
+which a wench like her kept a quiet household.”
+
+“And, since that unfortunate repulse, you have kept yourself altogether
+out of the hands of matrimony?”
+
+“Ay, ay; _since_, your Honour,” returned Fid, giving his Commander
+another of those droll looks, in which a peculiar cunning struggled
+with a more direct and straight-going honesty, “_since_, as you say
+rightly, sir; though they talked of a small matter of a bargain that I
+had made with another woman, myself; but, in overhauling the affair,
+they found, that, as the shipping articles with poor Kate wouldn’t hold
+together, why, they could make nothing at all of me; so I was
+white-washed like a queen’s parlour and sent adrift.”
+
+“And all this occurred after your acquaintance with Mr Wilder?”
+
+“Afore, your Honour; afore. I was but a younker in the time of it,
+seeing that it is four-and-twenty years, come May next, since I have
+been towing at the stern of master Harry. But then, as I have had a
+sort of family of my own, since that day, why, the less need, you know,
+to be birthing myself again in any other man’s hammock.”
+
+“You were saying, it is four-and-twenty years,” interrupted Mrs Wyllys,
+“since you made the acquaintance of Mr Wilder?”
+
+“Acquaintance! Lord, my Lady, little did he know of acquaintances at
+that time; though, bless him! the lad has had occasion to remember it
+often enough since.”
+
+“The meeting of two men, of so singular merit, must have been somewhat
+remarkable,” observed the Rover.
+
+“It was, for that matter, remarkable enough, your Honour; though, as to
+the merit, notwithstanding master Harry is often for overhauling that
+part of the account, I’ve set it down for just nothing at all.”
+
+“I confess, that, in a case where two men, both of whom are so well
+qualified to judge, are of different opinions, I feel at a loss to know
+which can have the right. Perhaps, by the aid of the facts, I might
+form a truer judgment.”
+
+“Your Honour forgets the Guinea, who is altogether of my mind in the
+matter, seeing no great merit in the thing either. But, as you are
+saying, sir, reading the log is the only true way to know how fast a
+ship can go; and so, if this Lady and your Honour have a mind to come
+at the truth of the affair why, you have only to say as much, and I
+will put it all before you in creditable language.”
+
+“Ah! there is reason in your proposition,” returned the Rover,
+motioning to his companion to follow to a part of the poop where they
+were less exposed to the observations of inquisitive eyes. “Now, place
+the whole clearly before us; and then you may consider the merits of
+the question disposed of definitively.”
+
+Fid was far from discovering the smallest reluctance to enter on the
+required detail; and, by the time he had cleared his throat, freshened
+his supply of the weed, and otherwise disposed himself to proceed Mrs
+Wyllys had so far conquered her reluctance to pry clandestinely into
+the secrets of others, as to yield to a curiosity which she found
+unconquerable and to take the seat to which her companion invited her
+by a gesture of his hand.
+
+“I was sent early to sea, your Honour, by my father,” commenced Fid,
+after these little preliminaries had been duly observed, “who was, like
+myself, a man that passed more of his time on the water than on dry
+ground; though, as he was nothing more than a fisherman, he generally
+kept the land aboard which is, after all, little better than living on
+it altogether Howsomever, when I went, I made a broad offing at once,
+fetching up on the other side of the Horn, the very first passage I
+made; which was no small journey for a new beginner; but then, as I was
+only eight years old”——
+
+“Eight! you are now speaking of yourself,” interrupted the disappointed
+governess.
+
+“Certain, Madam; and, though genteeler people might be talked of, it
+would be hard to turn the conversation on any man who knows better how
+to rig or how to strip a ship. I was beginning at the right end of my
+story; but, as I fancied your Ladyship might not choose to waste time
+in hearing concerning my father and mother, I cut the matter short, by
+striking in at eight years old, overlooking all about my birth and
+name, and such other matters as are usually logged, in a fashion out of
+all reason, in your everyday sort of narratives.”
+
+“Proceed,” she rejoined, with a species of compelled resignation.
+
+“My mind is pretty much like a ship that is about to slip off its
+ways,” resumed Fid. “If she makes a fair start, and there is neither
+jam nor dry-rub, smack see goes into the water, like a sail let run in
+a calm; but, if she once brings up, a good deal of labour is to be gone
+through to set her in motion again. Now, in order to wedge up my ideas,
+and to get the story slushed, so that I can slip through it with ease,
+it is needful to overrun the part which I have just let go; which is,
+how my father was a fisherman, and how I doubled the Horn—Ah! here I
+have it again, clear of kinks, fake above fake, like a well-coiled
+cable; so that I can pay it out as easily as the boatswain’s yeoman can
+lay his hand on a bit of ratling stuff. Well, I doubled the Horn, as I
+was saying, and might have been the matter of four years cruising about
+among the islands and seas of those parts, which were none of the best
+known then, or for that matter, now. After this, I served in his
+Majesty’s fleet a whole war, and got as much honour as I could stow
+beneath hatches. Well, then, I fell in with the Guinea—the black, my
+Lady, that you see turning in a new clue-garnet-block for the starboard
+clue of the fore-course.”
+
+“Ay; then you fell in with the African,” said the Rover.
+
+“Then we made our acquaintance; and, although his colour is no whiter
+than the back of a whale, I care not who knows it, after master Harry,
+there is no man living who has an honester way with him, or in whose
+company I take greater satisfaction. To be sure, your Honour, the
+fellow is something contradictory and has a great opinion of his
+strength and thinks his equal is not to be found at a weather-earing or
+in the bunt of a topsail; but then he is no better than a black, and
+one is not to be too particular in looking into the faults of such as
+are not actually his fellow creatures.”
+
+“No, no; that would be uncharitable in the extreme.”
+
+“The very words the chaplain used to let fly aboard the ‘Brunswick!’ It
+is a great thing to have schooling, your Honour; since, if it does
+nothing else, it fits a man for a boatswain, and puts him in the track
+of steering the shortest course to heaven. But, as I was saying, there
+was I and Guinea shipmates and in a reasonable way friends, for five
+years more; and then the time arrived when we met with the mishap of
+the wreck in the West-Indies.”
+
+“What wreck?” demanded his officer.
+
+“I beg your Honour’s pardon; I never swing my head-yards till I’m sure
+the ship won’t luff back into the wind; and, before I tell the
+particulars of the wreck, I will overrun my ideas, to see that nothing
+is forgotten that should of right be first mentioned.”
+
+The Rover, who saw, by the uneasy glances that she cast aside, and by
+the expression of her countenance how impatient his companion was
+becoming for a sequel that approached so tardily, and how much she
+dreaded an interruption, made a significant sign to her to permit the
+straight-going tar to take his own course, as the best means of coming
+at the facts they both longed so much to hear. Left to himself, Fid
+soon took the necessary review of the transactions, in his own quaint
+manner; and, having happily found that nothing which he considered as
+germain to the present relation was omitted, he proceeded at once to
+the more material, and what was to his auditors by far the most
+interesting, portion of his narrative.
+
+“Well, as I was telling your Honour,” he continued, “Guinea was then a
+maintopman, and I was stationed in the same place aboard the
+‘Proserpine,’ a quick-going two-and-thirty, when we fell in with a bit
+of a smuggler, between the islands and the Spanish Main; and so the
+Captain made a prize of her, and ordered her into port; for which I
+have always supposed, as he was a sensible man, he had his orders. But
+this is neither here nor there, seeing that the craft had got to the
+end of her rope, and foundered in a heavy hurricane that came over us,
+mayhap a couple of days’ run to leeward of our haven. Well, she was a
+small boat; and, as she took it into her mind to roll over on her side
+before she went to sleep, the master’s mate in charge, and three
+others, slid off her decks to the bottom of the sea, as I have always
+had reason to believe, never having heard any thing to the contrary. It
+was here that Guinea first served me the good turn; for, though we had
+often before shared hunger and thirst together, this was the first time
+he ever jumped overboard to keep me from taking in salt water like a
+fish.”
+
+“He kept you from drowning with the rest?”
+
+“I’ll not say just that much, your Honour; for there is no knowing what
+lucky accident might have done the same good turn for me. Howsomever,
+seeing that I can swim no better nor worse than a double-headed shot, I
+have always been willing to give the black credit for as much, though
+little has ever been said between us on the subject; for no other
+reason, as I can see, than that settling-day has not yet come. Well, we
+contrived to get the boat afloat, and enough into it to keep soul and
+body together, and made the best of our way for the land, seeing that
+the cruise was, to all useful purposes, over in that smuggler. I
+needn’t be particular in telling this lady of the nature of boat-duty,
+as she has lately had some experience in that way herself; but I can
+tell her this much: Had it not been for that boat in which the black
+and myself spent the better part of ten days, she would have fared but
+badly in her own navigation.”
+
+“Explain your meaning.”
+
+“My meaning is plain enough, your Honour, which is, that little else
+than the handy way of master Harry in a boat could have kept the
+Bristol trader’s launch above water, the day we fell in with it.”
+
+“But in what manner was your own shipwreck connected with the safety of
+Mr Wilder?” demanded the governess, unable any longer to await the
+dilatory explanation of the prolix seaman.
+
+“In a very plain and natural fashion, my Lady, as you will say
+yourself, when you come to hear the pitiful part of my tale. Well,
+there were I and Guinea, rowing about in the ocean, on short allowance
+of all things but work, for two nights and a day, heading-in for the
+islands; for, though no great navigators, we could smell the land, and
+so we pulled away lustily, when you consider it was a race in which
+life was the wager, until we made, in the pride of the morning, as it
+might be here, at east-and-by-south a ship under bare poles; if a
+vessel can be called bare that had nothing better than the stumps of
+her three masts standing, and they without rope or rag to tell one her
+rig or nation. Howsomever, as there were three naked sticks left, I
+have always put her down for a full-rigged ship; and, when we got nigh
+enough to take a look at her hull, I made bold to say she was of
+English build.”
+
+“You boarded her,” observed the Rover.
+
+“A small task that, your Honour, since a starved dog was the whole crew
+she could muster to keep us off. It was a solemn sight when we got on
+her decks, and one that bears hard on my manhood,” continued Fid, with
+an air that grew more serious as he proceeded, “whenever I have
+occasion to overhaul the log-book of memory.”
+
+“You found her people suffering of want!”
+
+“We found a noble ship, as helpless as a halibut in a tub. There she
+lay, a craft of some four hundred tons, water-logged, and motionless as
+a church. It always gives me great reflection, sir, when I see a noble
+vessel brought to such a strait; for one may liken her to a man who has
+been docked of his fins, and who is getting to be good for little else
+than to be set upon a cat-head to look out for squalls.”
+
+“The ship was then deserted?”
+
+“Ay, the people had left her, sir, or had been washed away in the gust
+that had laid her over. I never could come at the truth of them
+particulars. The dog had been mischievous, I conclude, about the decks;
+and so he had been lashed to a timber head, the which saved his life,
+since, happily for him he found himself on the weather-side when the
+hull righted a little, after her spars gave way. Well, sir there was
+the dog, and not much else, as we could see, though we spent half a day
+in rummaging round, in order to pick up any small matter that might be
+useful; but then, as the entrance to the hold and cabin was full of
+water, why, we made no great affair of the salvage, after all.”
+
+“And then you left the wreck?”
+
+“Not yet, your Honour. While knocking about among the bits of rigging
+and lumber above board, says Guinea, says he, ‘Mister Dick, I hear some
+one making their plaints below.’ Now, I had heard the same noises
+myself, sir; but had set them down as the spirits of the people moaning
+over their losses, and had said nothing of the same, for fear of
+stirring up the superstition of the black; for the best of them are no
+better than superstitious niggers, my Lady; so I said nothing of what I
+had heard, until he saw fit to broach the subject himself. Then we both
+turned-to to listening with a will; and sure enough the groans began to
+take a human sound. It was a good while, howsomever, before I could
+make up whether it was any thing more than the complaining of the hulk
+itself; for you know, my Lady, that a ship which is about to sink makes
+her lamentations just like any other living thing.”
+
+“I do, I do,” returned the governess, shuddering. “I have heard them,
+and never will my memory lose the recollection of the sounds.”
+
+“Ay, I thought you might know something of the same, and solemn groans
+they are: But, as the hulk kept rolling on the top of the sea, and no
+further signs of her going down, I began to think it best to cut into
+her abaft, in order to make sure that some miserable wretch had not
+been caught in his hammock at the time she went over. Well, good will,
+and an axe, soon let us into the secret of the moans.”
+
+“You found a child?”
+
+“And its mother, my Lady. As good luck would have it, they were in a
+birth on the weather-side and as yet the water had not reached them.
+But pent air and hunger had nearly proved as bad as the brine. The lady
+was in the agony when we got her out; and as to the boy, proud and
+strong as you now see him there on yonder gun, my Lady, he was just so
+miserable, that it was no small matter to make him swallow the drop of
+wine and water that the Lord had left us, in order, as I have often
+thought since, to bring him up to be, as he at this moment is, the
+pride of the ocean!”
+
+“But, the mother?”
+
+“The mother had given the only morsel of biscuit she had to the child,
+and was dying, in order that the urchin might live. I never could get
+rightly into the meaning of the thing, my Lady, why a woman, who is no
+better than a Lascar in matters of strength, nor any better than a
+booby in respect of courage, should be able to let go her hold of life
+in this quiet fashion, when many a stout mariner would be fighting for
+each mouthful of air the Lord might see fit to give. But there she was,
+white as the sail on which the storm has long beaten, and limber as a
+pennant in a calm, with her poor skinny arm around the lad, holding in
+her hand the very mouthful that might have kept her own soul in the
+body a little longer.”
+
+“What did she, when you brought her to the light?”
+
+“What did she!” repeated Fid, whose voice was getting thick and husky,
+“why, she did a d——d honest thing; she gave the boy the crumb, and
+motioned as well as a dying woman could, that we should have an eye
+over him, till the cruise of life was up.”
+
+“And was that all?”
+
+“I have always thought she prayed; for something passed between her and
+one who was not to be seen, if a man might judge by the fashion in
+which her eyes were turned aloft, and her lips moved. I hope, among
+others, she put in a good word for one Richard Fid; for certain she had
+as little need to be asking for herself as any body. But no man will
+ever know what she said, seeing that her mouth was shut from that time
+for ever after.”
+
+“She died!”
+
+“Sorry am I to say it. But the poor lady was past swallowing when she
+came into our hands, and then it was but little we had to offer her. A
+quart of water, with mayhap a gill of wine, a biscuit, and a handful of
+rice, was no great allowance for two hearty men to pull a boat some
+seventy leagues within the tropics. Howsomever, when we found no more
+was to be got from the wreck, and that, since the air had escaped by
+the hole we had cut, she was settling fast, we thought it best to get
+out of her: and sure enough we were none too soon, seeing that she went
+under just as we had twitched our jolly-boat clear of the suction.”
+
+“And the boy—the poor deserted child!” exclaimed the governess, whose
+eyes had now filled to over-flowing.
+
+“There you are all aback, my Lady. Instead of deserting him, we brought
+him away with us, as we did the only other living creature to be found
+about the wreck. But we had still a long journey before us, and, to
+make the matter worse, we were out of the track of the traders. So I
+put it down as a case for a council of all hands, which was no more
+than I and the black, since the lad was too weak to talk and little
+could he have said otherwise in our situation. So I begun myself,
+saying, says I, ‘Guinea, we must eat either this here dog, or this here
+boy. If we eat the boy, we shall be no better than the people in your
+own country, who, you know, my Lady, are cannibals; but if we eat the
+dog, poor as he is we may make out to keep soul and body together, and
+to give the child the other matters.’—So Guinea, he says, says he,
+‘I’ve no occasion for food at all; give ’em to the boy,’ says he,
+‘seeing that he is little, and has need of strength.’ Howsomever,
+master Harry took no great fancy to the dog, which we soon finished
+between us; for the plain reason that he was so thin. After that, we
+had a hungry time of it ourselves; for, had we not kept up the life in
+the lad, you know, it would have slipt through our fingers.”
+
+“And you fed the child, though fasting yourselves?”
+
+“No, we wer’n’t altogether idle, my Lady, seeing that we kept our teeth
+jogging on the skin of the dog, though I will not say that the food was
+over savoury. And then, as we had no occasion to lose time in eating,
+we kept the oars going so much the livelier. Well, we got in at one of
+the islands after a time, though neither I nor the nigger had much to
+boast of as to strength or weight when we made the first kitchen we
+fell in with.”
+
+“And the child?”
+
+“Oh! he was doing well enough; for, as the doctors afterwards told us,
+the short allowance on which he was put did him no harm.”
+
+“You sought his friends?”
+
+“Why, as for that matter, my Lady, so far as I have been able to
+discover, he was with his best friends already. We had neither chart
+nor bearings by which we knew how to steer in search of his family. His
+name he called master Harry, by which it is clear he was a gentleman
+born, as indeed any one may see by looking at him; but not another word
+could I learn of his relations or country, except that, as he spoke the
+English language, and was found in an English ship, there is a natural
+reason to believe he is of English build himself.”
+
+“Did you not learn the name of the ship?” demanded the attentive Rover,
+in whose countenance the traces of a lively interest were very
+distinctly discernible.
+
+“Why, as to that matter, your Honour, schools were scarce in my part of
+the country; and in Africa, you know, there is no great matter of
+learning; so that, had her name been out of water, which it was not, we
+might have been bothered to read it. Howsomever, there was a
+horse-bucket kicking about her decks, and which, as luck would have it,
+got jammed-in with the pumps in such a fashion that it did not go
+overboard until we took it with us. Well, this bucket had a name
+painted on it; and, after we had leisure for the thing, I got Guinea,
+who has a natural turn at tattooing, to rub it into my arm in
+gunpowder, as the handiest way of logging these small particulars. Your
+Honour shall see what the black has made of it.”
+
+So saying, Fid very coolly doffed his jacket, and laid bare, to the
+elbow, one of his brawny arms, on which the blue impression was still
+very plainly visible Although the letters were rudely imitated, it was
+not difficult to read, in the skin, the words “Ark, of Lynnhaven.”
+
+“Here, then, you had a clue at once to find the relatives of the boy,”
+observed the Rover, after he had deciphered the letters.
+
+“It seems not, your Honour; for we took the child with us aboard the
+‘Proserpine,’ and our worthy Captain carried sail hard after the
+people; but no one could give any tidings of such a craft as the ‘Ark,
+of Lynnhaven;’ and, after a twelvemonth, or more, we were obliged to
+give up the chase.”
+
+“Could the child give no account of his friends?” demanded the
+governess.
+
+“But little, my Lady; for the reason he knew but little about himself.
+So we gave the matter over altogether; I, and Guinea, and the Captain,
+and all of us, turning-to to educate the boy. He got his seamanship of
+the black and myself, and mayhap some little of his manners also; and
+his navigation and Latin of the Captain, who proved his friend till
+such a time as he was able to take care of himself, and, for that
+matter, some years afterwards.”
+
+“And how long did Mr Wilder continue in a King’s ship?” asked the
+Rover, in a careless and apparently indifferent manner.
+
+“Long enough to learn all that is taught there, your Honour,” was the
+evasive reply.
+
+“He came to be an officer, I suppose?”
+
+“If he didn’t, the King had the worst of the bargain.—But what is this
+I see hereaway, atween the backstay and the vang? It looks like a sail;
+or is it only a gull flapping his wings before he rises?”
+
+“Sail, ho!” called the look-out from the mast head. “Sail, ho!” was
+echoed from a top and from the deck; the glittering though distant
+object having struck a dozen vigilant eyes at the same instant. The
+Rover was compelled to lend his attention to a summons so often
+repeated; and Fid profited by the circumstance to quit the poop, with
+the hurry of one who was not sorry for the interruption. Then the
+governess arose too, and, thoughtful and melancholy she sought the
+privacy of her cabin.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXV.
+
+“Their preparation is to-day by sea.”
+
+_Anthony and Cleopatra._
+
+
+“Sail, ho!” in the little frequented sea in which the “Rover” lay, was
+a cry that quickened every dull pulsation in the bosoms of her crew.
+Many weeks had now, according to their method of calculation, been
+entirely lost in the visionary and profitless plans of their chief.
+They were not of a temper to reason on the fatality which had forced
+the Bristol trader from their toils; it was enough, for their rough
+natures, that the rich spoil had escaped them. Without examining for
+the causes of this loss, as has been already seen, they had been but
+too well disposed to visit their disappointment on the head of the
+innocent officer who was charged with the care of a vessel that they
+already considered a prize. Here, then, was at length an opportunity to
+repair their loss. The stranger was about to encounter them in a part
+of the ocean where succour was nearly hopeless, and where time might be
+afforded to profit, to the utmost, by any success that the freebooters
+should obtain. Every man in the ship seemed sensible of these
+advantages; and, as the words sounded from mast to yard, and from yard
+to deck, they were taken up in cheerful echos from fifty mouths, which
+repeated the cry, until it was heard issuing from the inmost recesses
+of the vessel.
+
+The Rover himself manifested more than usual satisfaction at this
+prospect of a capture. He was quite aware of the necessity of some
+brilliant or of some profitable exploit, to curb the rising tempers of
+his men; and long experience had taught him that he could ever draw the
+cords of discipline the tightest in moments that appeared the most to
+require the exercise of his own high courage and consummate skill. He
+walked forward, therefore, among his people, with a countenance that
+was no longer buried in reserve, speaking to several, whom he addressed
+by name, and of whom he did not even disdain to ask opinions concerning
+the character of the distant sail. When a sort of implied assurance
+that their recent offences were overlooked had thus been given, he
+summoned Wilder, the General, and one or two others of the superior
+officers, to the poop, where they all disposed themselves, to make more
+particular and more certain observations, by the aid of a half-dozen
+excellent glasses.
+
+Many minutes were now passed in silent and intense scrutiny. The day
+was cloudless, the wind fresh, without being heavy, the sea long, even,
+and far from high, and, in short, all things combined, as far as is
+ever seen on the restless ocean, not only to aid their examination, but
+to favour those subsequent evolutions which each instant rendered more
+probable would become necessary.
+
+“It is a ship!” exclaimed the Rover, lowering his glass, the first to
+proclaim the result of his long and close inspection.
+
+“It is a ship!” echoed the General, across whose disciplined features a
+ray of something like animated satisfaction was making an effort to
+display itself.
+
+“A full-rigged ship!” continued a third, relieving his eye in turn, and
+answering to the grim smile of the soldier.
+
+“There must be something to hold up all those lofty spars,” resumed
+their Commander. “A hull of price is beneath.—But you say nothing, Mr
+Wilder! You make her out”——
+
+“A ship of size,” returned our adventurer, who, though hitherto silent,
+had been far from the least interested in his investigations. “Does my
+glass deceive me—or”——
+
+“Or what, sir?”
+
+“I see her to the heads of her courses.”
+
+“You see her as I do. It is a tall ship on an easy bow-line, with every
+thing set that will draw. And she is standing hitherward. Her lower
+sails have lifted within five minutes.”
+
+“I thought as much. But”——
+
+“But what, sir? There can be little doubt but she is heading
+north-and-east. Since she is so kind as to spare us the pains of a
+chase, we will not hurry our movements. Let her come on. How like you
+the manner of the stranger’s advance, General?”
+
+“Unmilitary, but enticing! There is a look of the mines about her very
+royals.”
+
+“And you, gentlemen, do you also see the fashion of a galleon in her
+upper sails?”
+
+“’Tis not unreasonable to believe it,” answered one of the inferiors.
+“The Dons are said to run this passage often, in order to escape
+speaking us gentlemen, who sail with roving commissions.”
+
+“Ah! your Don is a prince of the earth! There is charity in lightening
+his golden burden, or the man would sink under it, as did the Roman
+matron under the pressure of the Sabine shields. I think you see no
+such gilded beauty in the stranger, Mr Wilder.”
+
+“It is a heavy ship!”
+
+“The more likely to bear a noble freight. You are new, sir, to this
+merry trade of ours, or you would know that size is a quality we always
+esteem in our visitors. If they carry pennants, we leave them to
+meditate on the many ‘slips which exist between the cup and the lip;’
+and, if stored with metal no more dangerous than that of Potosi, they
+generally sail the faster after passing a few hours in our company.”
+
+“Is not the stranger making signals?” demanded Wilder, thoughtfully.
+
+“Is he so quick to see us! A good look-out must be had, when a vessel,
+that is merely steadied by her stay-sails, can be seen so far.
+Vigilance is a never-failing sign of value!”
+
+A pause succeeded, during which all the glasses, in imitation of that
+of Wilder, were again raised in the direction of the stranger.
+Different opinions were given; some affirming, and some doubting, the
+fact of the signals. The Rover himself was silent, though his
+observation was keen, and long continued.
+
+“We have wearied oar eyes till sight is getting dim,” he said. “I have
+found the use of trying fresh organs when my own have refused to serve
+me. Come hither, lad,” he continued, addressing a man who was executing
+some delicate job in seamanship on the poop, at no great distance from
+the spot where the groupe of officers had placed themselves; “come
+hither: Tell me what you make of the sail in the south-western board.”
+
+The man proved to be Scipio, who had been chosen for his expertness, to
+perform the task in question. Placing his cap on the deck, in a
+reverence even deeper than that which the seaman usually manifests
+toward his superior, he lifted the glass in one hand, while with the
+other he covered the eye that had at the moment no occasion for the use
+of its vision. But no sooner did the wandering instrument fall on the
+distant object, than he dropped it again, and fastened his look, in a
+sort of stupid admiration, on Wilder.
+
+“Did you see the sail?” demanded the Rover.
+
+“Masser can see him wid he naked eye.”
+
+“Ay, but what make you of him by the aid of the glass?”
+
+“He’m ship, sir.”
+
+“True. On what course?”
+
+“He got he starboard tacks aboard, sir.”
+
+“Still true. But has he signals abroad?”
+
+“He’m got t’ree new cloths in he maintop-gallant royal, sir.”
+
+“His vessel is all the better for the repairs. Did you see his flags?”
+
+“He’m show no flag, masser.”
+
+“I thought as much myself. Go forward, lad—stay—one often gets a true
+idea by seeking it where it is not thought to exist. Of what size do
+you take the stranger to be?”
+
+“He’m just seven hundred and fifty tons, masser.”
+
+“How’s this! The tongue of your negro, Mr. Wilder, is as exact as a
+carpenter’s rule. The fellow speaks of the size of a vessel, that is
+hull down, with an air as authoritative as a runner of the King’s
+customs could pronounce on the same, after she had been submitted to
+the office admeasurement.”
+
+“You will have consideration for the ignorance of the black; men of his
+unfortunate state are seldom skilful in answering interrogatories.”
+
+“Ignorance!” repeated the Rover, glancing his eye uneasily, and with a
+rapidity peculiar to himself, from one to the other, and from both to
+the rising object in the horizon: “Skilful! I know not: The man has no
+air of doubt.—You think her tonnage to be precisely that which you have
+said?”
+
+The large dark eyes of Scipio roiled, in turn, from his new Commander
+to his ancient master, while, for a moment, his faculties appeared to
+be lost in inextricable confusion. But the uncertainty continued only
+for a moment. He no sooner read the frown that was gathering deeply
+over the brow of the latter, than the air of confidence with which he
+had pronounced his former opinion vanished in a look of obstinacy so
+settled, that one might well have despaired of ever driving, or
+enticing, him again to seem to think.
+
+“I ask you, if the stranger may not be a dozen tons larger or smaller
+than what you have named?” continued the Rover, when he found his
+former question was not likely to be soon answered.
+
+“He’m just as masser wish ’em,” returned Scipio.
+
+“I wish him a thousand; since he will then prove the richer prize.”
+
+“I s’pose he’m quite a t’ousand, sir.”
+
+“Or a snug ship of three hundred, if lined with gold, might do.”
+
+“He look berry like a t’ree hundred.”
+
+“To me it seems a brig.”
+
+“I t’ink him brig too, masser.”
+
+“Or possibly, after all, the stranger may prove a schooner, with many
+lofty and light sails.”
+
+“A schooner often carry a royal,” returned the black, resolute to
+acquiesce in all the other said.
+
+“Who knows it is a sail at all! Forward there! It may be well to have
+more opinions than one on so weighty a matter. Forward there! send the
+foretop-man that is called Fid upon the poop. Your companions are so
+intelligent and so faithful, Mr. Wilder, that you are not to be
+surprised if I shew an undue desire for their information.”
+
+Wilder compressed his lips, and the rest of the groupe manifested a
+good deal of amazement; but the latter had been too long accustomed to
+the caprice of their Commander, and the former was too wise, to speak
+at a moment when his humour seemed at the highest. The topman, however,
+was not long in making his appearance, and then the chief saw fit again
+to break the silence.
+
+“And you think it questionable whether it be a sail at all?” he
+continued.
+
+“He’m sartain nothing but a fly-away,” returned the obstinate black.
+
+“You hear what your friend the negro says, master Fid; he thinks that
+yonder object, which is lifting so fast to leeward, is not a sail.”
+
+As the topman saw no sufficient reason for concealing his astonishment
+at this wild opinion, it was manifested with all the embellishments
+with which the individual in question usually set forth any of his more
+visible emotions. After casting a short glance in the direction of the
+sail, in order to assure himself there had been no deception, he turned
+his eyes in great disgust on Scipio, as if he would vindicate the
+credit of the association at the expense of some little contempt for
+the ignorance of his companion.
+
+“What the devil do you take it for, Guinea? a church?”
+
+“I t’ink he’m church,” responded the acquiescent black.
+
+“Lord help the dark-skinned fool! Your Honour knows that conscience is
+d——nab-y overlooked in Africa, and will not judge the nigger hardly for
+any little blunder he may make in the account of his religion. But the
+fellow is a thorough seaman, and should know a top-gallant-sail from a
+weathercock. Now, look you, S’ip, for the credit of your friends, if
+you’ve no great pride on your own behalf, just tell his”——
+
+“It is of no account,” interrupted the Rover. “Take you this glass, and
+pass an opinion on the sail in sight yourself.”
+
+Fid scraped his foot, and made a low bow, in acknowledgment of the
+compliment; and then, depositing his little tarpaulin hat on the deck
+of the poop, he very composedly, and, as he flattered himself, very
+understandingly, disposed of his person to take the desired view. The
+gaze of the topman was far longer than had been that of his black
+companion; and it is to be presumed, in consequence, much more
+accurate. Instead, however, of venturing any sudden opinion, when his
+eye was wearied, he lowered the glass, and with it his head, standing
+long in the attitude of one whose thoughts had received some subject of
+deep cogitation. During the process of thinking, the weed was
+diligently rolled over his tongue, and one hand was stuck a-kimbo into
+his side, as if he would brace all his faculties to support some
+extraordinary mental effort.
+
+“I wait your opinion,” resumed his attentive Commander, when he thought
+sufficient time had been allowed to mature the opinion even of Richard
+Fid.
+
+“Will your Honour just tell me what day of the month this here may be,
+and mayhap, at the same time, the day of the week too, if it shouldn’t
+be giving too much trouble?”
+
+His two questions were directly answered.
+
+“We had the wind at east-with-southing, the first day out, and then it
+chopped in the night, and blew great guns at north-west, where it held
+for the matter of a week. After which there was an Irishman’s
+hurricane, right up and down, for a day; then we got into these here
+trades, which have stood as steady as a ship’s chaplain over a punch
+bowl, ever since.”——
+
+Here the topman closed his soliloquy, in order to agitate the tobacco
+again, it being impossible to conduct the process of chewing and
+talking at one and the same time.
+
+“What of the stranger?” demanded the Rover, a little impatiently.
+
+“It’s no church, that’s certain, your Honour,” said Fid, very
+decidedly.
+
+“Has he signals flying?”
+
+“He may be speaking with his flags, but it needs a better scholar than
+Richard Fid to know what he would say. To my eye, there are three new
+cloths in his main-top-gallant-royal, but no bunting abroad.”
+
+“The man is happy in having so good a sail. Mr Wilder, do _you_ too see
+the darker cloths in question?”
+
+“There is certainly something which might be taken for canvas newer
+than the rest. I believe I first mistook the same, as the sun fell
+brightest on the sail, for the signals I named.”
+
+“Then we are not seen, and may lie quiet for a while, though we enjoy
+the advantage of measuring the stranger, foot by foot—even to the new
+cloths in his royal!”
+
+The Rover spoke in a tone that was strangely divided between sarcasm
+and thought. He then made an impatient gesture to the seamen to quit
+the poop. When they were alone, he turned to his silent and respectful
+officers, continuing, in a manner that was grave, while it was
+conciliatory,——
+
+“Gentlemen,” he said, “our idle time is past, and fortune has at length
+brought activity into our track. Whether the ship in sight be of just
+seven hundred and fifty tons, is more than I can pretend to pronounce,
+but something there is which any seaman may know. But the squareness of
+her upper-yards, the symmetry with which they are trimmed, and the
+press of canvass she bears on the wind, I pronounce her to be a vessel
+of war. Do any differ from my opinion? Mr. Wilder, speak.”
+
+“I feel the truth of all your reasons, and think with you.”
+
+A shade of gloomy distrust, which had gathered over the brow of the
+Rover during the foregoing scene, lighted a little as he listened to
+the direct and frank avowal of his lieutenant.
+
+“You believe she bears a pennant? I like this manliness of reply. Then
+comes another question. Shall we fight her?”
+
+To this interrogatory it was not so easy to give a decisive answer.
+Each officer consulted the opinions of his comrades, in their eyes,
+until their leader saw fit to make his application still more personal.
+
+“Now, General, this is a question peculiarly fitted for your wisdom,”
+he resumed: “Shall we give battle to a pennant? or shall we spread our
+wings, and fly?”
+
+“My bullies are not drilled to the retreat. Give them any other work to
+do, and I will answer for their steadiness.”
+
+“But shall we venture, without a reason?”
+
+“The Spaniard often sends his bullion home under cover of a cruiser’s
+guns,” observed one of the inferiors, who rarely found pleasure in any
+risk that did not infer its correspondent benefit. “We may feel the
+stranger; if he carries more than his guns, he will betray it by his
+reluctance to speak, but if poor, we shall find him fierce as a
+half-fed tiger.”
+
+“There is sense in your counsel, Brace, and it shall be regarded. Go
+then, gentlemen, to your several duties. We’ll pass the half hour that
+may be needed, before his hull shall rise, in looking to our gear, and
+overhauling the guns. As it is not decided to fight, let what is done
+be done without display. My people must see no receding from a
+resolution taken.”
+
+The groupe then separated, each man preparing to undertake the task
+that more especially belonged to the situation that he filled in the
+ship. Wilder was about to retire with the rest, but a significant sign
+drew him to the side of his chief, who continued on the poop alone with
+his new confederate.
+
+“The monotony of our lives is now likely to be interrupted, Mr Wilder,”
+commenced the former, first glancing his eye around, to make sure they
+were alone. “I have seen enough of your spirit and steadiness, to be
+sure, that, should accident disable me to conduct the fortunes of these
+people, my authority will fall into firm and able hands.”
+
+“Should such a calamity befall us, I hope it may be found that your
+expectations shall not be deceived.”
+
+“I have confidence, sir; and, where a brave man reposes his confidence,
+he has a right to hope it will not be abused. I speak in reason.”
+
+“I acknowledge the justice of your words.”
+
+“I would, Wilder, that we had known each other earlier. But what
+matters vain regrets! These fellows of yours are keen of sight to note
+those cloths so soon!”
+
+“’Tis just the observation of people of their class. The nicer
+distinctions which marked the cruiser came first from yourself!”
+
+“And then the ‘seven hundred and fifty tons of the black!—It was giving
+an opinion with great decision.”
+
+“It is the quality of ignorance to be positive.”
+
+“You say truly. Cast an eye at the stranger, and tell me how he comes
+on.”
+
+Wilder obeyed, seemingly glad to be relieved from a discourse that he
+might have found embarrassing. Many moments were passed before he
+dropped the glass, during which time not a syllable fell from the lips
+of his companion. When he turned, however, to deliver the result of his
+observations, he met an eye, that seemed to pierce his soul, fastened
+on his countenance. Colouring highly, as if he resented the suspicion
+betrayed by the act, Wilder closed his half-open lips, and continued
+silent.
+
+“And the ship?” deeply demanded the Rover.
+
+“The ship has already raised her courses; in a few more minutes we
+shall see the hull.”
+
+“It is a swift vessel! She is standing directly for us.”
+
+“I think not. Her head is lying more at east.”
+
+“It may be well to make certain of that fact. You are right,” he
+continued, after taking a look himself at the approaching cloud of
+canvas; “you are very right. As yet we are not seen. Forward there!
+haul down that head stay-sail; we will steady the ship by her yards.
+Now let him look with all his eyes; they must be good to see these
+naked spars at such a distance.”
+
+Our adventurer made no reply, assenting to the truth of what the other
+had said by a simple inclination of his head. They then resumed the
+walk to and fro in their narrow limits, neither manifesting, however,
+any anxiety to renew the discourse.
+
+“We are in good condition for the alternative of flight or combat,” the
+Rover at length observed, while he cast a rapid look over the
+preparations which had been unostentatiously in progress from the
+moment when the officers dispersed. “Now will I confess, Wilder, a
+secret pleasure in the belief that yonder audacious fool carries the
+boasted commission of the German who wears the Crown of Britain. Should
+he prove more than man may dare attempt, I will flout him; though
+prudence shall check any further attempts; and, should he prove an
+equal, would it not gladden your eyes to see St. George come drooping
+to the water?”
+
+“I thought that men in our pursuit left honour to silly heads, and that
+we seldom struck a blow that was not intended to ring on a metal more
+precious than iron.”
+
+“’Tis the character the world gives; but I, for one, would rather lower
+the pride of the minions of King George than possess the power of
+unlocking his treasury! Said I well, General?” he added, as the
+individual he named approached; “said I well, in asserting there was
+glorious pleasure in making a pennant trail upon the sea?”
+
+“We fight for victory,” returned the martinet. “I am ready to engage at
+a minute’s notice.”
+
+“Prompt and decided, as a soldier.—Now tell me, General, if Fortune, or
+Chance, or Providence, whichever of the powers you may acknowledge for
+a leader were to give you the option of enjoyments, in what would you
+find your deepest satisfaction?”
+
+The soldier seemed to ruminate, ere he answered,——
+
+“I have often thought, that, were I commander of things on earth, I
+should, backed by a dozen of my stoutest bullies, charge at the door of
+that cave which was entered by the tailor’s boy, him they call
+Aladdin.”
+
+“The genuine aspirations of a freebooter! In such case, the magic trees
+would soon be disburdened of their fruit. Still it might prove an
+inglorious victory, since incantations and charms are the weapons of
+the combatants. Call you honour nothing?”
+
+“Hum! I fought for honour half of a reasonably long life, and found
+myself as light at the close of all my dangers as at the beginning.
+Honour and I have shaken hands, unless it be the honour of coming off
+conqueror. I have a strong disgust of defeat, but am always ready to
+sell the mere honour of the victory cheap.”
+
+“Well, let it pass. The quality of the service is much the same, find
+the motive where you will.—How now! who has dared to let yonder
+top-gallant-sail fly?”
+
+The startling change in the voice of the Rover caused all within
+hearing of his words to tremble. Deep, anxious, and threatening
+displeasure was in all its tones, and each man cast his eyes upwards,
+to see on whose devoted head the weight of the dreaded indignation of
+their chief was about to fall. As there was little but naked spars and
+tightened ropes to obstruct the view, all became, at the same instant,
+apprized of the truth. Fid was standing on the head of that topmast
+which belonged to the particular portion of the vessel where he was
+stationed, and the sail in question was fluttering, with all its gear
+loosened far and high in the wind. His hearing had probably been
+drowned by the heavy flapping of the canvas; for, instead of lending
+his ears to the deep powerful call just mentioned, he rather stood
+contemplating his work, than exhibiting any anxiety as to the effect it
+might produce on the minds of those beneath him. But a second warning
+came in tones too terrible to be any longer disregarded by ears even as
+dull as those of the offender.
+
+“By whose order have you dared to loosen the sail?” demanded the Rover.
+
+“By the order of King Wind, your Honour. The best seaman must give in,
+when a squall gets the upper hand.”
+
+“Furl it! away aloft, and furl it!” shouted the excited leader. “Roll
+it up; and send the fellow down who has been so bold as to own any
+authority but my own in this ship, though it were that of a hurricane.”
+
+A dozen nimble topmen ascended to the assistance of Fid. In another
+minute, the unruly canvas was secured, and Richard himself was on his
+way to the poop. During this brief interval, the brow of the Rover was
+dark and angry as the surface of the element on which he lived, when
+blackened by the tempest. Wilder, who had never before seen his new
+Commander thus excited, began to tremble for the fate of his ancient
+comrade, and drew nigher, as the latter approached, to intercede in his
+favour, should the circumstances seem to require such an interposition.
+
+“And why is this?” the still stern and angry leader demanded of the
+offender. “Why is it that you, whom I have had such recent reason to
+applaud, should dare to let fly a sail, at a moment when it is
+important to keep the ship naked?”
+
+“Your Honour will admit that his rations sometimes slips through the
+best man’s fingers, and why not a bit of canvas?” deliberately returned
+the delinquent “If I took a turn too many of the gasket off the yard,
+it is a fault I am ready to answer for.”
+
+“You say true, and dearly shall you pay the forfeit Take him to the
+gangway, and let him make acquaintance with the cat.”
+
+“No new acquaintance, your Honour, seeing that we have met before, and
+that, too, for matters which I had reason to hide my head for; whereas,
+here, it may be many blows, and little shame.”
+
+“May I intercede in behalf of the offender?” interrupted Wilder, with
+earnestness and haste. “He is often blundering, but rarely would he
+err, had he as much knowledge as good-will.”
+
+“Say nothing about it, master Harry,” returned the topman, with a
+peculiar glance of his eye. “The sail has been flying finely, and it is
+now too late to deny it: and so, I suppose, the fact must be scored on
+the back of Richard Fid, as you would put any other misfortune into the
+log.”
+
+“I would he might be pardoned. I can venture to promise, in his name,
+’twill be the last offence”—
+
+“Let it be forgotten,” returned the Rover, struggling powerfully to
+conquer his passion. “I will not disturb our harmony at such a moment,
+Mr Wilder, by refusing so small a boon: but you need not be told to
+what evil such negligence might lead. Give me the glass again; I will
+see if the fluttering canvas has escaped the eye of the stranger.”
+
+The topman bestowed a stolen but exulting glance on Wilder, and then
+the latter motioned the other hastily away, turning himself to join his
+Commander in the examination.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXVI.
+
+“As I am an honest man, he looks pale: Art thou sick, or angry?”
+
+_Much ado about Nothing._
+
+
+The approach of the strange sail was becoming rapidly more and more
+visible to the naked eye. The little speck of white, which had first
+been seen on the margin of the sea, resembling some gull floating on
+the summit of a wave, had gradually arisen during the last half hour,
+until a tall pyramid of canvas was reared on the water. As Wilder bent
+his look again on this growing object, the Rover put a glass into his
+hands, with an expression of feature which the other understood to say,
+“You may perceive that the carelessness of your dependant has already
+betrayed us!” Still the look was one rather of regret than of reproach;
+nor did a single syllable of the tongue confirm the meaning language of
+the eye. On the contrary, it would seem that his Commander was anxious
+to preserve their recent amicable compact inviolate; for, when the
+young mariner attempted an awkward explanation of the probable causes
+of the blunder of Fid, he was met by a quiet gesture, which said, in a
+sufficiently intelligible language, that the offence was already
+pardoned.
+
+“Our neighbour keeps a good look-out, as you may see,” observed the
+other. “He has tacked, and is laying boldly up across our fore-foot.
+Well, let him come on; we shall soon get a look at his battery, and
+then may we come to our conclusion as to the nature of the intercourse
+we are to hold.”
+
+“If you permit the stranger to near us, it might be difficult to throw
+him off the chase, should we be glad to get rid of him.”
+
+“It must be a fast-going vessel to which the ‘Dolphin’ cannot spare a
+top-gallant-sail.”
+
+“I know not, sir. The sail in sight is swift on the wind, and it is to
+be believed that she is no duller off. I have rarely known a vessel
+rise so rapidly as she has done since first we made her.”
+
+The youth spoke with such earnestness, as to draw the attention of his
+companion from the object he was studying to the countenance of the
+speaker.
+
+“Mr Wilder,” he said quickly, and with an air of decision, “you know
+the ship?”
+
+“I’ll not deny it. If my opinion be true, she will be found too heavy
+for the ‘Dolphin,’ and a vessel that offers little inducement for us to
+attempt to carry.”
+
+“Her size?”
+
+“You heard it from the black.”
+
+“Your followers know her also?”
+
+“It would be difficult to deceive a topman in the cut and trim of sails
+among which he has passed months, nay years.”
+
+“I understand the ‘new cloths’ in her top-gallant-royal! Mr Wilder,
+your departure from that vessel has been recent?”
+
+“As my arrival in this.”
+
+The Rover continued silent for several minutes communing with his own
+thoughts. His companion made no offer to disturb his meditations;
+though the furtive glances, he often cast in the direction of the
+other’s musing eye, betrayed some little anxiety to learn the result of
+his self-communication.
+
+“And her guns?” at length his Commander abruptly demanded.
+
+“She numbers four more than the ‘Dolphin.’”
+
+“The metal?”
+
+“Is still heavier. In every particular is she a ship a size above your
+own.”
+
+“Doubtless she is the property of the King?”
+
+“She is.”
+
+“Then shall she change her masters. By heaven she shall be mine!”
+
+Wilder shook his head, answering only with an incredulous smile.
+
+“You doubt it,” resumed the Rover. “Come hither, and look upon that
+deck. Can he whom you so lately quitted muster fellows like these, to
+do his biddings?”
+
+The crew of the ‘Dolphin’ had been chosen, by one who thoroughly
+understood the character of a seaman, from among all the different
+people of the Christian world. There was not a maritime nation in
+Europe which had not its representative among; that band of turbulent
+and desperate spirits. Even the descendant of the aboriginal possessors
+of America had been made to abandon the habits and opinions of his
+progenitors, to become a wanderer on that element which had laved the
+shores of his native land for ages, without exciting a wish to
+penetrate its mysteries in the bosoms of his simple-minded ancestry.
+All had been suited, by lives of wild adventure, on the two elements,
+for their present lawless pursuits and, directed by the mind which had
+known how to obtain and to continue its despotic ascendancy over their
+efforts, they truly formed a most dangerous and (considering their
+numbers) resistless crew. Their Commander smiled in exultation, as he
+watched the evident reflection with which his companion contemplated
+the indifference, or fierce joy, which different individuals among them
+exhibited at the appearance of an approaching conflict. Even the rawest
+of their numbers, the luckless waisters and after-guard, were
+apparently as confident of victory as those whose audacity might plead
+the apology of uniform and often repeated success.
+
+“Count you these for nothing?” asked the Rover, at the elbow of his
+lieutenant, after allowing him time to embrace the whole of the grim
+band with his eye. “See! here is a Dane, ponderous and steady as the
+gun at which I shall shortly place him. You may cut him limb from limb,
+and yet will he stand like a tower, until the last stone of the
+foundation has been sapped. And, here, we have his neighbours, the,
+Swede and the Russ, fit companions for managing the same piece; which,
+I’ll answer, shall not be silent, while a man of them all is left to
+apply a match, or handle a sponge. Yonder is a square-built athletic
+mariner, from one of the Free Towns. He prefers our liberty to that of
+his native city; and you shall find that the venerable Hanseatic
+institutions shall give way sooner than he be known to quit the spot I
+give him to defend. Here, you see a brace of Englishmen; and, though
+they come from the island that I love so little, better men at need
+will not be often found. Feed them, and flog them, and I pledge myself
+to their swaggering, and their courage. D’ye see that
+thoughtful-looking, bony miscreant, that has a look of godliness in the
+midst of all his villany? That fellow fish’d for herring till he got a
+taste of beef, when his stomach revolted at its ancient fare; and then
+the ambition of becoming rich got uppermost. He is a Scot, from one of
+the lochs of the North.”
+
+“Will he fight?”
+
+“For money—the honour of the Macs—and his religion. He is a reasoning
+fellow, after all: and I like to have him on my own side in a quarrel.
+Ah! yonder is the boy for a charge. I once told him to cut a rope in a
+hurry, and he severed it above his head, instead of beneath his feet,
+taking a flight from a lower yard into the sea, as a reward for the
+exploit. But, then, he always extols his presence of mind in not
+drowning! Now are his ideas in a hot ferment; and, if the truth could
+be known, I would wager a handsome venture, that the sail in sight is,
+by some mysterious process, magnified to six in his fertile fancy.”
+
+“He must be thinking, then, of escape.”
+
+“Far from it; he is rather plotting the means of surrounding them with
+the ‘Dolphin.’ To your true Hibernian, escape is the last idea that
+gives him an uneasy moment. You see the pensive-looking, sallow mortal,
+at his elbow. That is a man who will fight with a sort of sentiment.
+There is a touch of chivalry in him, which might be worked into heroism
+if one had but the opportunity and the inclination. As it is, he will
+not fail to show a spark of the true Castilian. His companion has come
+from the Rock of Lisbon; I should trust him unwillingly, did I not know
+that little opportunity of taking pay from the enemy is given here. Ah!
+here is a lad for a dance of a Sunday. You see him, at this moment,
+with foot and tongue going together. That is a creature of
+contradictions. He wants for neither wit nor good-nature, but still he
+might cut your throat on an occasion. There is a strange medley of
+ferocity and bonhommie about the animal. I shall put him among the
+boarders; for we shall not be at blows a minute before his impatience
+will be for carrying every thing by a coup-de-main.”
+
+“And who is the seaman at his elbow, that apparently is occupied in
+divesting his person of some superfluous garments?” demanded Wilder,
+irresistibly attracted, by the manner of the Rover, to pursue the
+subject.
+
+“An economical Dutchman. He calculates that it is just as wise to be
+killed in an old jacket as in a new one; and has probably said as much
+to his Gascon neighbour, who is, however, resolved to die decently, if
+die he must. The former has happily commenced his preparations for the
+combat in good season, or the enemy might defeat us before he would be
+in readiness. Did it rest between these two worthies to decide this
+quarrel, the mercurial Frenchman would defeat his neighbour of Holland,
+before the latter believed the battle had commenced; but, should he let
+the happy moment pass, rely on it, the Dutchman would give him trouble.
+Forget you, Wilder, that the day has been when the countrymen of that
+slow-moving and heavy-moulded fellow swept the narrow seas with a broom
+at their mast-heads?”
+
+The Rover smiled wildly as he spoke, and what he said he uttered with
+bitter emphasis. To his companion however, there appeared no such
+grounds of unnatural exultation, in recalling the success of a foreign
+enemy, and he was content to assent to the truth of the historical fact
+with a simple inclination of his head. As if he even found pain in this
+confession, and would gladly be rid of the mortifying reflection
+altogether, he rejoined, in some apparent haste,—
+
+“You have overlooked the two tall seamen, who are making out the rig of
+the stranger with so much gravity of observation.”
+
+“Ay, those are men that came from a land in which we both feel some
+interest. The sea is not more unstable than are those rogues in their
+knavery. Their minds are but half made up to piracy.—’Tis a coarse
+word, Mr Wilder, but I fear we earn it. But these rascals make a
+reservation of grace in the midst of all their villainy.”
+
+“They regard the stranger as if they saw reason to distrust the wisdom
+of letting him approach so near.”
+“Ah! they are renowned calculators. I fear they have detected the four
+supernumerary guns you mentioned; for their vision seems supernatural
+in affairs which touch their interests. But you see there is brawn and
+sinew in the fellows; and, what is better, there are heads which teach
+them to turn those advantages to account.”
+
+“You think they fail in spirit?”
+
+“Hum! It might be dangerous to try it on any point they deemed
+material. They are no quarrellers about words, and seldom lose sight of
+certain musty maxims, which they pretend come from a volume that I fear
+you and I do not study too intently. It is not often that they strike a
+blow for mere chivalry; and, were they so inclined, the rogues are too
+much disposed to logic, to mistake, like your black, the ‘Dolphin’ for
+a church. Still, if they see reason, in their puissant judgments, to
+engage, mark me, the two guns they command will do better service than
+all the rest of the battery. But, should they think otherwise, it would
+occasion no surprise were I to receive a proposition to spare the
+powder for some more profitable adventure. Honour, forsooth! the
+miscreants are too well grounded in polemics to mistake the point of
+honour in a pursuit like ours. But we chatter of trifles, when it is
+time to think of serious things. Mr Wilder, we will now show our
+canvas.”
+
+The manner of the Rover changed as suddenly as his language. Losing the
+air of sarcastic levity in which he had been indulging, in a mien
+better suited to maintain the authority he wielded, he walked aside,
+while his subordinate proceeded to issue the orders necessary to
+enforce his commands. Nightingale sounded the usual summons, lifting
+his hoarse voice in the cry of “All hands make sail, ahoy!”
+
+Until now, the people of the “Dolphin” had made their observations on
+the sail, that was growing so rapidly above the waters, according to
+their several humours. Some had exulted in the prospect of a capture;
+others, more practised in the ways of their Commander, had deemed the
+probability of their coming in collision at all with the stranger a
+point far from settled; while a few, more accustomed to reflection,
+shook their heads as the stranger drew nigher, as if they believed he
+was already within a distance that might be attended with too much
+hazard. Still, as they were ignorant alike of those secret sources of
+information which the chief had so frequently proved he possessed, to
+an extent that often seemed miraculous, the whole were content
+patiently to await his decision. But, when the cry above mentioned was
+heard, it was answered by an activity so general and so cheerful, as to
+prove it was entirely welcome. Order now followed order in quick
+succession, from the mouth of Wilder, who, in virtue of his station,
+was the proper executive officer for the moment.
+
+As both lieutenant and crew appeared animated by the same spirit, it
+was not long before the naked spars of the “Dolphin” were clothed in
+vast volumes of spotless snow-white canvas. Sail had fallen after sail,
+and yard after yard had been raised to the summit of its mast, until
+the vessel bowed before the breeze, rolling to and fro, but still held
+stationary by the position of her yards. When all was in readiness to
+proceed, on whichever course might be deemed necessary, Wilder ascended
+again to the poop, in order to announce the fact to his superior. He
+found the Rover attentively considering the stranger, whose hull had by
+this time risen out of the sea, and exhibited a long, dotted, yellow
+line, which the eye of every man in the ship well knew to contain the
+ports whence the guns that marked her particular force were made to
+issue. Mrs Wyllys, accompanied by Gertrude, stood nigh, thoughtful, as
+usual, but permitting no occurrence of the slightest moment to escape
+her vigilance.
+
+“We are ready to gather way on the ship,” said Wilder; “we wait merely
+for the course.”
+
+The Rover started, and drew closer to his subordinate before he gave an
+answer. Then, looking him full and intently in the eye, he demanded,—
+
+“You are certain that you know yon vessel, Mr Wilder?”
+
+“Certain,” was the calm reply.
+
+“It is a royal cruiser,” said the governess, with the swiftness of
+thought.
+
+“It is. I have already pronounced her to be so.”
+
+“Mr Wilder,” resumed the Rover, “we will try her speed. Let the courses
+fall, and fill your forward sails.”
+
+The young mariner made an acknowledgment of obedience, and proceeded to
+execute the wishes of his Commander. There was an eagerness, and
+perhaps a trepidation, in the voice of Wilder, as he issued the
+necessary orders, that was in remarkable contrast to the deep-toned
+calmness which characterized the utterance of the Rover. The unusual
+intonations did not entirely escape the ears of some of the elder
+seamen; and looks of peculiar meaning were exchanged among them, as
+they paused to catch his words. But obedience followed these unwonted
+sounds, as it had been accustomed to succeed the more imposing
+utterance of their own long-dreaded chief. The head-yards were swung,
+the sails were distended with the breeze, and the mass, which had so
+long been inert, began to divide the waters, as it heavily overcame the
+state of rest in which it had reposed. The ship soon attained its
+velocity; and then the contest between the two rival vessels became one
+of deep and engrossing interest.
+
+By this time the stranger was within a half league, directly under the
+lee of the “Dolphin.” Closer and more accurate observation had
+satisfied every understanding eye in the latter ship of the force and
+character of their neighbour. The rays of a bright sun fell clear upon
+her broadside, while the shadow of her sails was thrown far across the
+waters, in a direction opposite to their own. There were moments when
+the eye, aided by the glass, could penetrate through the open ports
+into the interior of the hull, catching fleeting and delusory glimpses
+of the movements within. A few human forms were distinctly visible in
+different parts of her rigging; but, in all other respects, the repose
+of high order and perfect discipline was discernible on all about her.
+
+When the Rover heard the sounds of the parted waters, and saw the
+little jets of spray that the bows of his own gallant ship cast before
+her, he signed to his lieutenant to ascend to the place which he still
+occupied on the poop. For many minutes, his eye was on the strange
+sail, in close and intelligent contemplation of her powers.
+
+“Mr Wilder,” he at length said, speaking like one whose doubts on some
+perplexing point were finally removed, “I have seen that cruiser
+before.”
+
+“It is probable; she has roamed over most of the waters of the
+Atlantic.”
+
+“Ay, this is not the first of our meetings! a little paint has changed
+her exterior, but I think I know the manner in which they have stepped
+her masts.”
+
+“They are thought to rake more than is usual.”
+
+“They are thought to do it, with reason. Did you serve long aboard
+her?”
+
+“Years.”
+
+“And you left her”——
+
+“To join you.”
+
+“Tell me, Wilder, did they treat you, too, as one of an inferior order?
+Ha! was your merit called ‘provincial?’ Did they read America in all
+you did?”
+
+“I left her, Captain Heidegger.”
+
+“Ay, they gave you reason. For once they have done me an act of
+kindness. But you were in her during the equinox of March?”
+
+Wilder made a slight bow of assent.
+
+“I thought as much. And you fought a stranger in the gale? Winds,
+ocean, and man were all at work together.”
+
+“It is true. We knew you, and thought for a time that your hour had
+come.”
+
+“I like your frankness. We have sought each other’s lives like men, and
+we shall prove the truer friends, now that amity is established between
+us. I will not ask you further of that adventure, Wilder; for favour,
+in my service, is not to be bought by treachery to that you have
+quitted. It is sufficient that you now sail under my flag.”
+
+“What is that flag?” demanded a mild but firm voice, at his elbow.
+
+The Rover turned suddenly, and again met the riveted, calm, and
+searching eye of the governess. The gleamings of some strangely
+contradictory passions crossed his features, and then his whole
+countenance changed to that look of bland courtesy which he most
+affected when addressing his captives.
+
+“Here speaks a female, to remind two mariners of their duty!” he
+exclaimed. “We have forgotten the civility of showing the stranger our
+bunting. Let it be set, Mr Wilder, that we may omit none of the
+observances of nautical etiquette.”
+
+“The ship in sight carries a naked gaft.”
+
+“No matter; we shall be foremost in courtesy, Let the colours be
+shown.”
+
+Wilder opened the little locker which contained the flags most in use,
+but hesitated which to select, out of a dozen that lay in large rolls
+within the different compartments.
+“I hardly know which of these ensigns it is your pleasure to show,” he
+said, in a manner that appeared sufficiently like putting a question.
+
+“Try him with the heavy-moulded Dutchman. The Commander of so noble a
+ship should understand all Christian tongues.”
+
+The lieutenant made a sign to the quarter-master on duty; and, in
+another minute, the flag of the United Provinces was waving at the peak
+of the “Dolphin.” The two officers narrowly watched its effect on the
+stranger, who refused, however, to make any answering sign to the false
+signal they had just exhibited.
+
+“The stranger sees we have a hull that was never made for the shoals of
+Holland. Perhaps he knows us?” said the Rover, glancing at the same
+time a look of inquiry at his companion.
+
+“I think not. Paint is too freely used in the ‘Dolphin,’ for even her
+friends to be certain of her countenance.”
+
+“She is a coquettish ship, we will allow,” returned the Rover, smiling.
+“Try him with the Portuguese: Let us see if Brazil diamonds have favour
+in his eyes.”
+
+The colours already set were lowered, and, in their place, the emblem
+of the house of Braganza was loosened to the breeze. Still the stranger
+pursued his course in sullen inattention, eating closer and closer to
+the wind, as it is termed in nautical language, in order to lessen the
+distance between him and his chase as much as possible.
+
+“An ally cannot move him,” said the Rover “Now let him see the taunting
+drapeau blanc.”
+
+Wilder complied in silence. The flag of Portugal was hauled to the
+deck, and the white field of France was given to the air. The ensign
+had hardly fluttered in its elevated position, before a broad glossy
+blazonry, rose, like some enormous bird taking wing from the deck of
+the stranger, and opened its folds in graceful waves at his gaft. The
+same instant, a column of smoke issued from his bows, and had sailed
+backward through his rigging, ere the report of the gun of defiance
+found its way, against the fresh breeze of the trades, to the ears of
+the “Dolphin’s” crew.
+
+“So much for national amity!” dryly observed the Rover. “He is mute to
+the Dutchman, and to the crown of Braganza; but the very bile is
+stirred within him at the sight of a table-cloth! Let him contemplate
+the colours he loves so little, Mr Wilder when we are tired of showing
+them, our lockers may furnish another.”
+
+It would seem, however, that the sight of the flag; which the Rover now
+chose to bear, produced some such effect on his neighbour as the moleta
+of the nimble banderillo is known to excite in the enraged bull. Sundry
+smaller sails, which could do but little good, but which answered the
+purpose of appearing to wish to quicken his speed, were instantly set
+aboard the stranger; and not a brace, or a bow-line, was suffered to
+escape without an additional pull. In short, he wore the air of the
+courser who receives the useless blows of the jockey, when already at
+the top of his speed, and when any further excitement is as fruitless
+as his own additional exertions. Still there seemed but little need of
+such supererogatory efforts. By this time, the two vessels were fairly
+trying there powers of sailing, and with no visible advantage in favour
+of either. Although the “Dolphin” was renowned for her speed, the
+stranger manifested no inferiority that the keenest scrutiny might
+detect. The ship of the freebooter was already bending to the breeze,
+and the jets of spray before her were cast still higher and further in
+advance; but each impulse of the wind was equally felt by the stranger,
+and her movement over the heaving waters seemed to be as rapid and as
+graceful as that of her rival.
+
+“Yon ship parts the water as a swallow cuts the air,” observed the
+chief of the freebooters to the youth, who still kept at his elbow,
+endeavouring to conceal an uneasiness which was increasing at each
+instant. “Has she a name for speed?”
+
+“The curlew is scarcely faster. Are we not already nigh enough, for men
+who cruise with commissions no better than our own pleasure?”
+
+The Rover glanced a look of impatient suspicion at the countenance of
+his companion; but its expression changed to a smile of haughty
+audacity, as he answered,—
+
+“Let him equal the eagle in his highest and swiftest flight, he shall
+find us no laggards on the wing! Why this reluctance to be within a
+mile of a vessel of the Crown?”
+
+“Because I know her force, and the hopeless character of a contest with
+an enemy so superior,” returned Wilder, firmly. “Captain Heidegger, you
+cannot fight yon ship with success; and, unless instant use be made of
+the distance which still exists between us, you cannot escape her.
+Indeed, I know not but it is already too late to attempt the latter.”
+
+“Such, sir, is the opinion of one who overrates the powers of his
+enemy, because use, and much talking, have taught him to reverence it
+as something more than human. Mr Wilder, none are so daring or so
+modest, as those who have long been accustomed to place their
+dependence on their own exertions. I have been nigher to a flag even,
+and yet you see I continue to keep on this mortal coil.”
+
+“Hark! ’Tis a drum. The stranger is going to his guns.”
+
+The Rover listened a moment, and was able to catch the well-known beat
+which calls the people of a vessel of war to quarters. First casting a
+glance upward at his sails, and then throwing a general and critical
+look on all and every thing which came within the influence of his
+command, he calmly answered,—
+
+“We will imitate his example, Mr Wilder. Let the order be given.”
+
+Until now, the crew of the “Dolphin” had either been occupied in such
+necessary duties as had been assigned them, or were engaged in gazing
+with curious eyes at the ship which so eagerly sought to draw as near
+as possible to their own dangerous vessel. The low but continued hum of
+voices, sounds such alone as discipline permitted, had afforded the
+only evidence of the interest they took in the scene; but, the instant
+the first tap on the drum was heard, each groupe severed, and every man
+repaired, with bustling activity, to his well-known station. The stir
+among the crew was but of a moment’s continuance, and it was succeeded
+by the breathing stillness which has already been noticed in our pages
+on a similar occasion. The officers, however, were seen making hasty,
+but strict, inquiries into the conditions of their several commands;
+while the munitions of war, that were quickly drawn from their places
+of deposit, announced a preparation more serious than ordinary. The
+Rover himself had disappeared; but it was not long before he was again
+seen at his elevated look-out accoutred for the conflict that appeared
+to approach, employed, as ever, in studying the properties, the force,
+and the evolutions of his advancing antagonist. Those who knew him
+best, however, said that the question of combat was not yet decided in
+his mind; and hundreds of eager glances were thrown in the direction of
+his contracting eye, as if to penetrate the mystery in which he still
+chose to conceal his purpose. He had thrown aside the sea-cap, and
+stood with the fair hair blowing about a brow that seemed formed to
+give birth to thoughts far nobler than those which apparently had
+occupied his life, while a species of leathern helmet lay at his feet,
+the garniture of which was of a nature to lend an unnatural fierceness
+to the countenance of its wearer. Whenever this boarding-cap was worn,
+all in the ship were given to understand that the moment of serious
+strife was at hand; but, as yet, that never-failing evidence of the
+hostile intention of their leader was unnoticed.
+
+In the mean time, each officer had examined into, and reported, the
+state of his division; and then, by a sort of implied permission on the
+part of their superiors, the death-like calm, which had hitherto
+reigned among the people, was allowed to be broken by suppressed but
+earnest discourse; the calculating chief permitting this departure from
+the usual rules of more regular cruisers, in order to come at the
+temper of the crew, on which so much of the success of his desperate
+enterprises so frequently depended.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXVII.
+
+“For he made me mad,
+To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet,
+And talk so like a waiting gentlewoman.”
+
+_King Henry IV_
+
+
+The moment was now one of high and earnest excitement. Each individual,
+who was charged with a portion of the subordinate authority of the
+ship, had examined into the state of his command, with that engrossing
+care which always deepens as responsibility draws nigher to the proofs
+of its being worthily bestowed. The voice of the harsh master had
+ceased to inquire into the state of those several ropes and chains that
+were deemed vital to the safety of the vessel; each chief of a battery
+had assured and re-assured himself that his artillery was ready for
+instant, and the most effective, service; extra ammunition had already
+issued from its dark and secret repository; and even the hum of
+dialogue had ceased, in the more engrossing and all-absorbing interest
+of the scene. Still the quick and ever-changing glance of the Rover
+could detect no reason to distrust the firmness of his people. They
+were grave, as are ever the bravest and steadiest in the hour of trial;
+but their gravity was mingled with no signs of concern. It seemed
+rather like the effect of desperate and concentrated resolution, such
+as braces the human mind to efforts which exceed the ordinary daring of
+martial enterprise. To this cheering exhibition of the humour of his
+crew the wary and sagacious leader saw but three exceptions; they were
+found in the persons of his lieutenant and his two remarkable
+associates.
+
+It has been seen that the bearing of Wilder was not altogether such as
+became one of his rank in a moment of great trial. The keen, jealous
+glances of the Rover had studied and re-studied his manner, without
+arriving at any satisfactory conclusion as to its real cause. The
+colour was as fresh on the cheeks of the youth, and his limbs were as
+firm as in the hours of entire security; but the unsettled wandering of
+his eye, and an air of doubt and indecision which pervaded a mien that
+ought to display qualities so opposite, gave his Commander cause for
+deep reflection. As if to find an explanation of the enigma in the
+deportment of the associates of Wilder, his look sought the persons of
+Fid and the negro. They were both stationed at the piece nearest to the
+place he himself occupied, the former filling the station of captain of
+the gun.
+
+The ribs of the ship itself were not firmer in their places than was
+the attitude of the topman, as he occasionally squinted along the
+massive iron tube over which he was placed in command; nor was that
+familiar and paternal care, which distinguishes the seaman’s interest
+in his particular trust, wanting in his manner. Still, an air of broad
+and inexplicable surprise had possession of his rugged lineaments; and
+ever, as his look wandered from the countenance of Wilder to their
+adversary, it was not difficult to discover that he marvelled to find
+the two in opposition. He neither commented on, nor complained,
+however, of an occurrence he evidently found so extraordinary, but
+appeared perfectly disposed to pursue the spirit of that well-known
+maxim of the mariner which teaches the obedient tar “to obey orders,
+though he break owners.” Every portion of the athletic form of the
+negro was motionless, except his eyes. These large, jet-black orbs,
+however rolled incessantly, like the more dogmatic organs of the
+topman, from Wilder to the strange sail, seeming to drink in fresh
+draughts of astonishment at each new look.
+
+Struck by these evident manifestations of some extraordinary and yet
+common sentiment between the two, the Rover profited by his own
+position, and the distance of the lieutenant, to address them. Leaning
+over the slight rail that separated the break of the poop from the
+quarter-deck, he said, in that familiar manner which the Commander is
+most wont to use to his inferiors when their services are becoming of
+the greatest importance,—
+
+“I hope, master Fid, they have put you at a gun that knows how to
+speak.”
+
+“There is not a smoother bore, nor a wider mouth, in the ship, your
+Honour, than these of ‘Blazing Billy,’” returned the topman, giving the
+subject of his commendations an affectionate slap. “All I ask is a
+clean spunge and a tight wad. Guinea score a foul anchor, in your own
+fashion, on a half dozen of the shot; and, after the matter is all
+over, they who live through it may go aboard the enemy, and see in what
+manner Richard Fid has planted his seed.”
+
+“You are not new in action, master Fid?”
+
+“Lord bless your Honour! gunpowder is no more than dry tobacco in my
+nostrils! tho’f I will say”
+
+“You were going to add”——
+
+“That sometimes I find myself shifted over, in these here affairs,”
+returned the topman, glancing his eye first at the flag of France, and
+then at the distant emblem of England, “like a jib-boom rigged, abaft,
+for a jury to the spanker. I suppose master Harry has it all in his
+pocket, in black and white; but this much I will say, that, if I must
+throw stones, I should rather see them break a neighbour’s crockery
+than that of my own mother.—I say, Guinea, score a couple more of the
+shot; since, if the play is to be acted, I’ve a mind the ‘Blazing
+Billy’ should do something creditable for the honour of her good name.”
+
+The Rover drew back, thoughtful and silent. He then caught a look from
+Wilder, whom he again beckoned to approach.
+
+“Mr Wilder,” he said, in a tone of kindness, “I comprehend your
+feelings. All have not offended alike in yonder vessel, and you would
+rather your service against that haughty flag should commence with some
+other ship. There is little else but empty honour to be gained in the
+conflict—in tenderness to your feelings, I will avoid it.”
+
+“It is too late,” said Wilder, with a melancholy shake of the head.
+
+“You shall see your error. The experiment may cost us a broadside, but
+it shall succeed. Go, descend with our guests to a place of safety;
+and, by the time you return, the scene shall have undergone a change.”
+
+Wilder eagerly disappeared in the cabin, whither Mrs Wyllys had already
+withdrawn; and, after communicating the intentions of his Commander to
+avoid an action, he conducted them into the depths of the vessel, in
+order that no casualty might arrive to imbitter his recollections of
+the hour. This grateful duty promptly and solicitously performed, our
+adventurer again sought the deck, with the velocity of thought.
+
+Notwithstanding his absence had seemed but of a moment, the scene had
+indeed changed in all its hostile images. In place of the flag of
+France, he found the ensign of England floating at the peak of the
+“Dolphin,” and a quick and intelligible exchange of lesser signals in
+active operation between the two vessels. Of all that cloud of canvas
+which had so lately borne down the vessel of the Rover, her top sails
+alone remained distended to the yards; the remainder was hanging in
+festoons, and fluttering loosely before a favourable breeze. The ship
+itself was running directly for the stranger, who, in turn, was
+sullenly securing his lofty sails, like one who was disappointed in a
+high-prized and expected object.
+
+“Now is yon fellow sorry to believe him a friend whom he had lately
+supposed an enemy,” said the Rover, directing the attention of his
+lieutenant to the confiding manner with which their neighbour suffered
+himself to be deceived by his surreptitiously obtained signals. “It is
+a tempting offer; but I pass it, Wilder for your sake.”
+
+The gaze of the lieutenant seemed bewildered, but he made no reply.
+Indeed, but little time was given for deliberation or discourse. The
+“Dolphin” rolled swiftly along her path, and each moment dissipated the
+mist in which distance had enveloped the lesser objects on board the
+stranger. Guns, blocks, ropes, bolts, men, and even features, became
+plainly visible, in rapid succession, as the water that divided them
+was parted by the bows of the lawless ship. In a few short minutes, the
+stranger, having secured most of his lighter canvas, came sweeping up
+to the wind; and then, as his after-sails, squared for the purpose,
+took the breeze on their outer surface, the mass of his hull became
+stationary.
+
+The people of the “Dolphin” had so far imitated the confiding credulity
+of the deceived cruiser of the Crown, as to furl all their loftiest
+duck, each man employed in the service trusting implicitly to the
+discretion and daring of the singular being whose pleasure it was to
+bring their ship into so hazardous a proximity to a powerful
+enemy—qualities that had been known to avail them in circumstances of
+even greater delicacy than those in which they were now placed. With
+this air of audacious confidence, the dreaded Rover came gliding down
+upon her unsuspecting neighbour, until within a few hundred feet of her
+weather-beam, when she too, with a graceful curve in her course, bore
+up against the breeze, and came to a state of rest. But Wilder, who
+regarded all the movements of his superior in silent amazement, was not
+slow in observing that the head of the “Dolphin” was laid a different
+way from that of the other, and that her progress had been arrested by
+the counteracting position of her head-yards; a circumstance that
+afforded the advantage of a quicker command of the ship, should need
+require a sudden recourse to the guns.
+
+The “Dolphin” was still drifting slowly under the last influence of her
+recent motion, when the customary hoarse and nearly unintelligible
+summons came over the water, demanding her appellation and character.
+The Rover applied his trumpet to his lips, with a meaning glance that
+was directed towards his lieutenant, and returned the name of a ship,
+in the service of the King, that was known to be of the size and force
+of his own vessel.
+
+“Ay, ay,” returned a voice from out of the other ship, “’twas so I made
+out your signals.”
+
+The hail was then reciprocated, and the name of the royal cruiser given
+in return, followed by an invitation from her Commander, to his brother
+in authority to visit his superior.
+
+Thus far, no more had occurred than was usual between seamen in the
+same service; but the affair was rapidly arriving at a point that most
+men would have found too embarrassing for further deception. Still the
+observant eye of Wilder detected no hesitation or doubt in the manner
+of his chief. The beat of the drum was heard from the cruiser,
+announcing the “retreat from quarters;” and, with perfect composure, he
+directed the same signal to be given for his own people to retire from
+their guns. In short, five minutes established every appearance of
+entire confidence and amity between two vessels which would have soon
+been at deadly strife, had the true character of one been known to the
+other. In this state of the doubtful game he played, and with the
+invitation still ringing in the ears of Wilder, the Rover motioned his
+lieutenant to his side.
+
+“You hear that I am desired to visit my senior in the service of his
+Majesty,” he said, with a smile of irony playing about his scornful
+lip. “Is it your pleasure to be of the party?”
+
+The start with which Wilder received this hardy proposal was far too
+natural to proceed from any counterfeited emotion.
+
+“You are not so mad as to run the risk!” he exclaimed when words were
+at command.
+
+“If you fear for yourself, I can go alone.”
+
+“Fear!” echoed the youth, a bright flush giving an additional glow to
+the flashing of his kindling eye. “It is not fear, Captain Heidegger,
+but prudence, that tells me to keep concealed. My presence would betray
+the character of this ship. You forget that I am known to all in yonder
+cruiser.”
+
+“I had indeed forgotten that portion of the plot. Then remain, while I
+go to play upon the credulity of his Majesty’s Captain.”
+
+Without waiting for an answer, the Rover led the way below, signing for
+his companion to follow. A few moments sufficed to arrange the fair
+golden locks that imparted such a look of youth and vivacity to the
+countenance of the former. The undress, fanciful frock he wore in
+common was exchanged for the attire of one of his assumed rank and
+service, which had been made to fit his person with the nicest care,
+and with perhaps a coxcomical attention to the proportions of his
+really fine person; and in all other things was he speedily equipped
+for the disguise he chose to affect. No sooner were these alterations
+in his appearance completed, (and they were effected with a brevity and
+readiness that manifested much practice in similar artifices,) than he
+disposed himself to proceed on the intended experiment.
+
+“Truer and quicker eyes have been deceived,” he coolly observed,
+turning his glance from a mirror to the countenance of his lieutenant,
+as he spoke, “than those which embellish the countenance of Captain
+Bignall.”
+
+“You know him, then?”
+
+“Mr Wilder, my business imposes the necessity of knowing much that
+other men overlook. Now is this adventure, which, by your features, I
+perceive you deem so forlorn in its hopes of success, one of easy
+achievement. I am convinced that not an officer or man on board the
+‘Dart’ has ever seen the ship whose name I have chosen to usurp. She is
+too fresh from the stocks to incur that risk. Then is there little
+probability that I, in my other self, shall be compelled to acknowledge
+acquaintance with any of her officers; for you well know that years
+have passed since your late ship has been in Europe; and, by running
+your eye over these books, you will perceive I am that favoured mortal,
+the son of a Lord, and have not only grown into command, but into
+manhood, since her departure from home.”
+
+“These are certainly favouring circumstances, and such as I had not the
+sagacity to detect.—But why incur the risk at all?”
+
+“Why! Perhaps there is a deep-laid scheme to learn if the prize would
+repay the loss of her capture; perhaps——it is my humour. There is
+fearful excitement in the adventure.”
+
+“And there is fearful danger.”
+
+“I never count the price of these enjoyments.—Wilder,” he added,
+turning to him with a look of frank and courteous confidence, “I place
+life and honour in your keeping; for to me it would be dishonour to
+desert the interests of my crew.”
+
+“The trust shall be respected,” repeated our adventurer in a tone so
+deep and choaked as to be nearly unintelligible.
+
+Regarding the still ingenuous countenance of his companion intently for
+an instant, the Rover smiled as if he approved of the pledge, waved his
+hand in adieu, and, turning, was about to leave the cabin but a third
+form, at that moment, caught his wandering glance. Laying a hand
+lightly on the shoulder of the boy, whose form was placed somewhat
+obtrusively in his way, he demanded, a little sternly.
+
+“Roderick, what means this preparation?”
+
+“To follow my master to the boat.”
+
+“Boy, thy service is not needed.”
+
+“It is rarely wanted of late.”
+
+“Why should I add unnecessarily to the risk of lives, where no good can
+attend the hazard?”
+
+“In risking your own, you risk all to me,” was the answer, given in a
+tone so resigned, and yet so faltering that the tremulous and nearly
+smothered sounds caught no ears but those for whom they were intended.
+
+The Rover for a time replied not. His hand still kept its place on the
+shoulder of the boy, whose working features his riveted eye read, as
+the organ is sometimes wont to endeavour to penetrate the mystery of
+the human heart.
+
+“Roderick,” he at length said, in a milder and a a kinder voice, “your
+lot shall be mine; we go together.”
+
+Then, dashing his hand hastily across his brow the wayward chief
+ascended the ladder, attended by the lad, and followed by the
+individual in whose faith he reposed so great a trust. The step with
+which the Rover trod his deck was firm, and the bearing of his form as
+steady as though he felt no hazard in his undertaking. His look passed,
+with a seaman’s care, from sail to sail; and not a brace, yard, or
+bow-line escaped the quick understanding glances he cast about him,
+before he proceeded to the side, in order to enter a boat which he had
+already ordered to be in waiting. A glimmering of distrust and
+hesitation was now, for the first time, discoverable through the
+haughty and bold decision of his features. For a moment his foot
+lingered on the ladder. “Davis,” he said sternly to the individual
+whom, by his own experience he knew to be so long practised in
+treachery “leave the boat. Send me the gruff captain of the forecastle
+in his place. So bold a talker, in common, should know how to be silent
+at need.”
+
+The exchange was instantly made; for no one, there, was ever known to
+dispute a mandate that was uttered with the air of authority he then
+wore. A deeply intent attitude of thought succeeded, and then every
+shadow of care vanished from that brow, on which a look of high and
+generous confidence was seated, as he added,—
+
+“Wilder, adieu! I leave you Captain of my people and master of my fate:
+Certain I am that both trusts are reposed in worthy hands.”
+
+Without waiting for reply, as if he scorned the vain ceremony of idle
+assurances, he descended swiftly to the boat, which at the next instant
+was pulling boldly towards the King’s cruiser. The brief interval which
+succeeded, between the departure of the adventurers and their arrival
+at the hostile ship, was one of intense and absorbing suspense on the
+part of all whom they had left behind. The individual most interested
+in the event, however, betrayed neither in eye nor movement any of the
+anxiety which so intently beset the minds of his followers. He mounted
+the side of his enemy amid the honours due to his imaginary rank, with
+a self-possession and ease that might readily have been mistaken, by
+those who believe these fancied qualities have a real existence, for
+the grace and dignity of lofty recollections and high birth. His
+reception, by the honest veteran whose long and hard services had
+received but a meager reward in the vessel he commanded, was frank,
+manly, and seaman-like. No sooner had the usual greetings passed, than
+the latter conducted his guest into his own apartments.
+
+“Find such a birth, Captain Howard, as suits your inclination,” said
+the unceremonious old seaman, seating himself as frankly as he invited
+his companion to imitate his example. “A gentleman of your
+extraordinary merit must be reluctant to lose time in useless words,
+though you are so young—young for the pretty command it is your good
+fortune to enjoy!”
+
+“On the contrary, I do assure you I begin to feel myself quite an
+antediluvian,” returned the Rover coolly placing himself at the
+opposite side of the table, where he might, from time to time, look his
+half-disgusted companion full in the eye: “Would you imagine it, sir? I
+shall have reached the age of three-and-twenty, if I live through the
+day.”
+
+“I had given you a few more years, young gentleman; but London can
+ripen the human face as speedily as the Equator.”
+
+“You never said truer words, sir. Of all cruising grounds, Heaven
+defend me from that of St. James’s! I do assure you, Bignall, the
+service is quite sufficient to wear out the strongest constitution.
+There were moments when I really thought I should have died that
+humble, disagreeable mortal—a lieutenant!”
+
+“Your disease would then have been a galloping consumption!” muttered
+the indignant old seaman. “They have sent you out in a pretty boat at
+last, Captain Howard.”
+
+“She’s bearable, Bignall, but frightfully small. I told my father,
+that, if the First Lord didn’t speedily regenerate the service, by
+building more comfortable vessels, the navy would get altogether into
+vulgar hands. Don’t you find the motion excessively annoying in these
+single-deck’d ships, Bignall?”
+
+“When a man has been tossing up and down for five-and-forty years,
+Captain Howard,” returned his host, stroking his gray locks, for want
+of some other manner of suppressing his ire, “he gets to be indifferent
+whether his ship pitches a foot more or a foot less.”
+
+“Ah! that, I dare say, is what one calls philosophical equanimity,
+though little to my humour. But, after this cruise, I am to be posted;
+and then I shall make interest for a guard-ship in the Thames; every
+thing goes by interest now-a-days, you know, Big-nail.”
+
+The honest old tar swallowed his displeasure as well as he could; and,
+as the most effectual means of keeping himself in a condition to do
+credit to his own hospitality, he hastened to change the subject.
+
+“I hope, among other new fashions, Captain Howard,” he said, “the flag
+of Old England continues to fly over the Admiralty. You wore the
+colours of Louis so long this morning, that another half hour might
+have brought us to loggerheads.”
+
+“Oh! that was an excellent military ruse! I shall certainly write the
+particulars of that deception home.”
+
+“Do so; do so, sir; you may get knighthood for the exploit.”
+
+“Horrible, Bignall! my Lady mother would faint at the suggestion.
+Nothing so low has been in the family, I do assure you, since the time
+when chivalry was genteel.”
+
+“Well, well, Captain Howard, it was happy for us both that you got rid
+of your Gallic humour so soon; for a little more time would have drawn
+a broadside from me. By heavens, sir, the guns of this ship would have
+gone off of themselves, in another five minutes!”
+
+“It is quite happy as it is.—What do you find to amuse you (yawning) in
+this dull quarter of the world, Bignall?”
+
+“Why, sir, what between his Majesty’s enemies, the care of my ship, and
+the company of my officers, I find few heavy moments.”
+
+“Ah! your officers: True, you _must_ have officers on board; though, I
+suppose, they are a little oldish to be agreeable to _you_. Will you
+favour me with a sight of the list?”
+
+The Commander of the ‘Dart’ did as he was requested, putting the
+quarter-bill of his ship into the hands of his unknown enemy, with an
+eye that was far too honest to condescend to bestow even a look on a
+being so much despised.
+
+“What a list of thorough mouthers! All Yarmouth, and Plymouth, and
+Portsmouth, and Exmouth names, I do affirm. Here are Smiths enough to
+do the iron-work of the whole ship. Ha! here is a fellow that might do
+good service in a deluge. Who may be this Henry Ark, that I find rated
+as your first lieutenant?”
+
+“A youth who wants but a few drops of your blood, Captain Howard, to be
+one day at the head of his Majesty’s fleet.”
+
+“If he be then so extraordinary for his merit, Captain Bignall, may I
+presume on your politeness to ask him to favour us with his society. I
+always give my lieutenant half an hour of a morning—if he be genteel.”
+
+“Poor boy! God knows where he is to be found at this moment. The noble
+fellow has embarked, of his own accord, on a most dangerous service,
+and I am as ignorant as yourself of his success. Remonstrance and even
+entreaties, were of no avail. The Admiral had great need of a suitable
+agent, and the good of the nation demanded the risk; then, you know,
+men of humble birth must earn their preferment in cruising elsewhere
+than at St. James’s; for the brave lad is indebted to a wreck, in which
+he was found an infant, for the very name you find so singular.”
+
+“He is, however, still borne upon your books as first lieutenant?”
+
+“And I hope ever will be, until he shall get the ship he so well
+merits.—Good Heaven! are you ill Captain Howard? Boy, a tumbler of grog
+here.”
+
+“I thank you, sir,” returned the Rover, smiling calmly, and rejecting
+the offered beverage, as the blood returned into his features, with a
+violence that threatened to break through the ordinary boundaries of
+its currents. “It is no more than an ailing I inherit from my mother.
+We call it, in our family, the ‘de Vere ivory;’ for no other reason,
+that I could ever learn, than that one of my female ancestors was
+particularly startled, in a delicate situation, you know, by an
+elephant’s tooth. I am told it has rather an amiable look, while it
+lasts.”
+
+“It has the look of a man who is fitter for his mother’s nursery than a
+gale of wind. But I am glad it is so soon over.”
+
+“No one wears the same face long now-a-days, Bignall.—And so this Mr
+Ark is not any body, after all.
+
+“I know not what you call ‘any body,’ sir; but, if sterling courage,
+great professional merit, and stern loyalty, count for any thing on
+your late cruising grounds, Captain Howard, Henry Ark will soon be in
+command of a frigate.”
+
+“Perhaps, if one only knew exactly on what to found his claims,”
+continued the Rover, with a smile so kind, and a voice so insinuating,
+that they half counteracted the effect of his assumed manner, “a word
+might be dropped, in a letter home, that should do the youth no harm.”
+
+“I would to Heaven I dare but reveal the nature of the service he is
+on!” eagerly returned the warm-hearted old seaman, who was as quick to
+forget, as he was sudden to feel, disgust. “You may, however, safely
+say, from his general character, that it is honourable, hazardous, and
+has the entire good of his Majesty’s subjects in view. Indeed, an hour
+has scarcely gone by since I thought that, it was completely
+successful.—Do you often set your lofty sails, Captain Howard, while
+the heavier canvas is rolled upon the yards? To me, a ship clothed in
+that style looks something like a man with his coat on, before he has
+cased his legs in the lower garment.”
+
+“You allude to the accident of my maintop-gallant-sail getting loose
+when you first made me?”
+
+“I mean no other. We had caught a glimpse of your spars with the glass;
+but had lost you altogether, when the flying duck met the eye of a
+look-out. To say the least, it, was remarkable, and it might have
+proved an awkward circumstance.”
+
+“Ah! I often do things in that way, in order to be odd. It is a sign of
+cleverness to be odd, you know.—But I, too, am sent into these seas on
+a special errand.”
+
+“Such as what?” bluntly demanded his companion with an uneasiness about
+his frowning eye that he was far too simple-minded to conceal.
+
+“To look for a ship that will certainly give me a famous lift, should I
+have the good luck to fall in with her. For some time, I took you for
+the very gentle man I was in search of; and I do assure you, if your
+signals had not been so very unexceptionable, something serious might
+have happened between us.”
+
+“And pray, sir, for whom did you take me?”
+
+“For no other than that notorious knave the Red Rover.”
+
+“The devil you did! And do yon suppose, Captain Howard, there is a
+pirate afloat who carries such hamper above his head as is to be found
+aboard the Dart?’ Such a set to her sails—such a step to her masts—and
+such a trim to her hull? I hope, for the honour of your vessel, sir,
+that the mistake went no further than the Captain?”
+
+“Until we got within leading distance of the signals, at least a moiety
+of the better opinions in my ship was dead against you, Bignall, I give
+you my declaration. You’ve really been so long from home, that the
+‘Dart’ is getting quite a roving look. You may not be sensible of it,
+but I assure you of the fact merely as a friend.”
+
+“And, perhaps, since you did me the honour to mistake my vessel for a
+freebooter,” returned the old tar, smothering his ire in a look of
+facetious irony, which changed the expression of his mouth to a grim
+grin, “you might have conceited this honest gentleman here to be no
+other than Beelzebub.”
+
+As he spoke, the Commander of the ship, which had borne so odious an
+imputation, directed the eyes of his companion to the form of a third
+individual, who had entered the cabin with the freedom of a privileged
+person, but with a tread so light as to be inaudible. As this
+unexpected form met the quick, impatient glance of the pretended
+officer of the Crown, he arose involuntarily, and, for half a minute,
+that admirable command of muscle and nerve, which had served him so
+well in maintaining his masquerade, appeared entirely to desert him.
+The loss of self-possession, however, was but for a time so short as to
+attract no notice; and he coolly returned the salutations of an aged
+man, of a meek and subdued look, with that air of blandness and
+courtesy which he so well knew how to assume.
+
+“This gentleman is your chaplain, sir, I presume, by his clerical
+attire,” he said, after he had exchanged bows with the stranger.
+“He is, sir—a worthy and honest man, whom I am not ashamed to call my
+friend. After a separation of thirty years, the Admiral has been good
+enough to lend him to me for the cruise; and, though my ship is none of
+the largest, I believe he finds himself as comfortable in her as he
+would aboard the flag.—This gentleman, Doctor, is the _honourable_
+Captain Howard, of his Majesty’s ship ‘Antelope.’ I need not expatiate
+on his remarkable merit, since the command he bears, at his years, is a
+sufficient testimony on that important particular.”
+
+There was a look of bewildered surprise in the gaze of the divine, when
+his glance first fell upon the features of the pretended scion of
+nobility; but it was far less striking than had been that of the
+subject of his gaze, and of much shorter continuance. He again bowed
+meekly, and with that deep reverence which long use begets, even in the
+best-intentioned minds, when brought in contact with the fancied
+superiority of hereditary rank; but he did not appear to consider the
+occasion one that required he should say more than the customary words
+of salutation. The Rover turned calmly to his veteran companion, and
+continued the discourse.
+
+“Captain Bignall,” he said, again wearing that grace of manner which
+became him so well, “it is my duty to follow your motions in this
+interview. I will now return to my ship; and if, as I begin to suspect
+we are in these seas on a similar errand, we can concert at our leisure
+a system of co-operation, which, properly matured by your experience,
+may serve to bring about the common end we have in view.”
+
+Greatly mollified by this concession to his years and to his rank, the
+Commander of the “Dart” pressed his hospitalities warmly on his guest,
+winding up his civilities by an invitation to join in a marine feast at
+an hour somewhat later in the day. All the former offers were politely
+declined, while the latter was accepted; the invited making the
+invitation itself an excuse that he should return to his own vessel in
+order that he might select such of his officers as he should deem most
+worthy of participating in the dainties of the promised banquet. The
+veteran and really meritorious Bignall, notwithstanding the ordinary
+sturdy blustering of his character, had served too long in indigence
+and comparative obscurity not to feel some of the longings of human
+nature for his hard-earned and protracted preferment. He consequently
+kept, in the midst of all his native and manly honesty, a saving-eye on
+the means of accomplishing this material object. It is to occasion no
+surprise, therefore, that his parting from the supposed son of a
+powerful champion at Court was more amicable than had been the meeting.
+The Rover was bowed, from the cabin to the deck, with at least an
+appearance of returning good-will. On reaching the latter, a hurried,
+suspicious, and perhaps an uneasy glance was thrown from his restless
+eyes on all those faces that were grouped around the gangway, by which
+he was about to leave the ship; but their expression instantly became
+calm again, and a little supercilious withal, in order to do no
+discredit to the part in the comedy which it was his present humour to
+enact. Then, shaking the worthy and thoroughly-deceived old seaman
+heartily by the hand, he touched his hat, with an air half-haughty,
+half-condescending to his inferiors. He was in the act of descending
+into the boat, when the chaplain was seen to whisper something, with
+great earnestness, in the ear of his Captain. The Commander hastened to
+recall his departing guest, desiring him, with startling gravity to
+lend him his private attention for another moment Suffering himself to
+be led apart by the two the Rover stood awaiting their pleasure, with a
+coolness of demeanour that, under the peculiar circumstances of his
+case, did signal credit to his nerves.
+
+“Captain Howard,” resumed the warm-hearted Bignall, “have you a
+gentleman of the cloth in your vessel?”
+
+“Two, sir,” was the ready answer.
+
+“Two! It is rare to find a supernumerary priest in a man of war! But, I
+suppose, Court influence could give the fellow a bishop,” muttered the
+other. “You are fortunate in this particular, young gentle man, since I
+am indebted to inclination, rather than to custom, for the society of
+my worthy friend here he has, however, made a point that I should
+include the reverend gentleman—I should say gentle_men_—in the
+invitation.”
+
+“You shall have all the divinity of _my_ ship, Big nail, on my faith.”
+
+“I believe I was particular in naming your first lieutenant.”
+
+“Oh! dead or alive, he shall surely be of your party,” returned the
+Rover, with a suddenness and vehemence of utterance that occasioned
+both his auditors to start with surprise. “You may not find him an ark
+to rest your weary foot on; but, such as he is, he is entirely at your
+service. And now, once more, I salute you.”
+
+Bowing again, he proceeded, with his former deliberate air, over the
+gangway, keeping his eye riveted on the lofty gear of the “Dart,” as he
+descended her side, with much that sort of expression with which a
+petit-maître is apt to regard the fashion of the garments of one newly
+arrived from the provinces. His superior repeated his invitation with
+warmth, and waved his hand in a frank but temporary adieu; thus
+unconsciously suffering the man to escape him whose capture would have
+purchased the long postponed and still distant advantages for whose
+possession he secretly pined, with all the withering longings his hope
+cruelly deferred.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXVIII.
+
+“Let them accuse me by invention; I will answer in mine honour.”
+
+_Coriolanus._
+
+
+“Yes!” muttered the Rover, with bitter irony, as his boat rowed under
+the stern of the cruiser of the Crown; “yes! I, and my officers, will
+taste of your banquet! But the viands shall be such as these hirelings
+of the King shall little relish!—Pull with a will, my men, pull; in an
+hour, you shall rummage the store-rooms of that fool, for your reward!”
+
+The greedy freebooters who manned the oars could scarcely restrain
+their shouts, in order to maintain that air of moderation which policy
+still imposed but they gave vent to their excitement, in redoubled
+efforts in propelling the pinnace. In another minute the adventurers
+were all in safety again under the sheltering guns of the “Dolphin.”
+
+His people gathered, from the haughty gleamings that were flashing from
+the eyes of the Rover, as his foot once more touched the deck of his
+own ship, that the period of some momentous action was at hand. For an
+instant, he lingered on the quarter-deck surveying, with a sort of
+stern joy, the sturdy materials of his lawless command; and then,
+without speaking, he abruptly entered his proper cabin either forgetful
+that he had conceded its use to others or, in the present excited state
+of his mind, utterly indifferent to the change. A sudden and tremendous
+blow on the gong announced to the alarmed females, who had ventured
+from their secret place, under the present amicable appearances between
+the two ships, not only his presence, but his humour.
+
+“Let the first lieutenant be told I await him,” was the stern order
+that followed the appearance of the attendant he had summoned.
+
+During the short period which elapsed before his mandate could be
+obeyed, the Rover seemed struggling with an emotion that choaked him.
+But when the door of the cabin was opened, and Wilder stood before him,
+the most suspicious and closest observer might have sought in vain any
+evidence of the fierce passion which in reality agitated the inward
+man. With the recovery of his self-command, returned a recollection of
+the manner of his intrusion into a place which he had himself ordained
+should be privileged. It was then that he first sought the shrinking
+forms of the females, and hastened to relieve the terror that was too
+plainly to be seen in their countenances, by words of apology and
+explanation.
+
+“In the hurry of an interview with a friend,” he said, “I may have
+forgotten that I am host to even such guests as it is my happiness to
+entertain, though it be done so very indifferently.”
+
+“Spare your civilities, sir,” said Mrs Wyllys, with dignity: “In order
+to make us less sensible of any intrusion, be pleased to act the master
+here.”
+
+The Rover first saw the ladies seated; and then, like one who appeared
+to think the occasion might excuse any little departure from customary
+forms, he signed, with a smile of high courtesy, to his lieutenant to
+imitate their example.
+
+“His Majesty’s artisans have sent worse ships than the ‘Dart’ upon the
+ocean, Wilder,” he commenced, with a significant look, as if he
+intended that the other should supply all the meaning that his words
+did not express; “but his ministers might have selected a more
+observant individual for the command.”
+
+“Captain Bignall has the reputation of a brave and an honest man.”
+
+“Ay! He should deserve it; for, strip him of these qualities, and
+little would remain. He gives me to understand that he is especially
+sent into this latitude in quest of a ship that we have all heard of,
+either in good or in evil report; I speak of the Red Rover!’”
+
+The involuntary start of Mrs Wyllys, and the sudden manner in which
+Gertrude grasped the arm of her governess, were certainly seen by the
+last speaker but in no degree did his manner betray the consciousness
+of such an observation. His self-possession was admirably emulated by
+his male companion, who answered, with a composure that no jealousy
+could have seen was assumed,—
+
+“His cruise will be hazardous, not to say without success.”
+
+“It may prove both. And yet he has lofty expectations of the results.”
+
+“He probably labours under the common error as to the character of the
+man he seeks.”
+
+“In what does he mistake?”
+
+“In supposing that he will encounter an ordinary freebooter—one coarse,
+rapacious, ignorant, and inexorable like others of”——
+
+“Of what, sir?”
+
+“I would have said, of his class; but a mariner like him we speak of
+forms the head of his own order.”
+
+“We will call him, then, by his popular name, Mr Wilder—a rover. But,
+answer me, is it not remarkable that so aged and experienced a seaman
+should come to this little frequented sea in quest of a ship whose
+pursuits should call her into more bustling scenes?”
+
+“He may have traced her through the narrow passages of the islands, and
+followed on the course she has last been seen steering.”
+
+“He may indeed,” returned the Rover, musing intently “Your thorough
+mariner knows how to calculate the chances of winds and currents, as
+the bird finds its way in air. Still a description of the ship should
+be needed for a clue.”
+
+The eyes of Wilder, not withstanding every effort to the contrary, sunk
+before the piercing gaze they encountered, as he answered,—
+
+“Perhaps he is not without that knowledge, too.”
+
+“Perhaps not. Indeed, he gave me reason to believe he has an agent in
+the secrets of his enemy. Nay, he expressly avowed the same, and
+acknowledged that his prospects of success depended on the skill and
+information of that individual, who no doubt has his private means of
+communicating what he learns of the movements of those with whom he
+serves.”
+
+“Did he name him?”
+
+“He did.”
+
+“It was?”——
+
+“Henry—Ark, _alias_ Wilder.”
+
+“It is vain to attempt denial,” said our adventurer rising, with an air
+of pride that he intended should conceal the uneasy sensation that in
+truth beset him; “I find you know me.”
+
+“For a false traitor, sir.”
+
+“Captain Heidegger, you are safe, here, in using these reproachful
+terms.”
+
+The Rover struggled, and struggled successfully, to keep down the
+risings of his temper; but the effort lent to his countenance gleamings
+of fierce and bitter scorn.
+
+“You will communicate that fact also to your superiors,” he said, with
+taunting irony. “The monster of the seas, he who plunders defenceless
+fishermen ravages unprotected coasts, and eludes the flag of King
+George, as other serpents steal into their caves at the footstep of
+man, is safe in speaking his mind, backed by a hundred and fifty
+freebooters, and in the security of his own cabin. Perhaps he knows
+too, that he is breathing in the atmosphere of peaceful and
+peace-making woman.”
+
+But the first surprise of the subject of his scorn had passed, and he
+was neither to be goaded into retort nor terrified into entreaties.
+Folding his arms with calmness, Wilder simply replied,—
+
+“I have incurred this risk, in order to drive a scourge from the ocean,
+which had baffled all other attempts at its extermination. I knew the
+hazard, and shall not shrink from its penalty.”
+
+“You shall not, sir!” returned the Rover, striking the gong again with
+a finger that appeared to carry in its touch the weight of a giant.
+“Let the negro, and the topman his companion, be secured in irons, and,
+on no account, permit them to communicate, by word or signal, with the
+other ship.”—When the agent of his punishments, who had entered at the
+well-known summons, had retired, he again turned to the firm and
+motionless form that stood before him, and continued: “Mr Wilder, there
+is a law which binds this community, into which you have so
+treacherously stolen, together, that would consign you, and your
+miserable confederates, to the yard-arm the instant your true character
+should be known to my people. I have but to open that door, and to
+pronounce the nature of your treason, in order to give you up to the
+tender mercies of the crew.”
+
+“You will not! no, you will not!” cried a voice at his elbow, which
+thrilled on even all his iron nerves. “You have forgotten the ties
+which bind man to his fellows, but cruelty is not natural to your
+heart. By all the recollections of your earliest and happiest days; by
+the tenderness and pity which watched your childhood; by that holy and
+omniscient Being who suffers not a hair of the innocent to go
+unrevenged, I conjure you to pause, before you forget your own awful
+responsibility. No! you will not—cannot—dare not be so merciless!”
+
+“What fate did he contemplate for me and my followers, when he entered
+on this insidious design?” hoarsely demanded the Rover.
+
+“The laws of God and man are with him,” you continued the governess,
+quailing not, as her own contracting eye met the stern gaze which she
+confronted. “’Tis reason that speaks in my voice; ’tis mercy which I
+know is pleading at your heart. The cause, the motive, sanctify his
+acts; while your career can find justification in the laws neither of
+heaven nor earth.”
+
+“This is bold language to sound in the ears of a blood-seeking,
+remorseless pirate!” said the other, looking about him with a smile so
+proud and conscious that it seemed to proclaim how plainly he saw that
+the speaker relied on the very reverse of the qualities he named.
+
+“It is the language of truth; and ears like yours cannot be deaf to the
+sounds. If”——
+
+“Lady, cease,” interrupted the Rover, stretching his arm towards her
+with calmness and dignity. “My resolution was formed on the instant;
+and no remonstrance nor apprehension of the consequence, can change it.
+Mr Wilder, you are free. If you have not served me as faithfully as I
+once expected, you have taught me a lesson in the art of physiognomy,
+which shall leave me a wiser man for tho rest of my days.”
+
+The conscious Wilder stood self-condemned and humbled. The strugglings
+which stirred his inmost soul were easily to be read in the workings of
+a countenance that was no longer masked in artifice, but which was
+deeply charged with shame and sorrow The conflict lasted, however, but
+for a moment.
+
+“Perhaps you know not the extent of my object, Captain Heidegger,” he
+said; “it embraced the forfeit of your life, and the destruction, or
+dispersion, of your crew.”
+
+“According to the established usages of that portion of the world
+which, having the power, oppresses the remainder, it did. Go, sir;
+rejoin your proper ship; I repeat, you are free.”
+
+“I cannot leave you, Captain Heidegger without one word of
+justification.”
+
+“What! can the hunted, denounced, and condemned freebooter command an
+explanation! Is even his good opinion necessary to a virtuous servant
+of the Crown!”
+
+“Use such terms of triumph and reproach as suit your pleasure, sir,”
+returned the other, reddening to the temples as he spoke; “to me your
+language can now convey no offence; still would I not leave you without
+removing part of the odium which you think I merit.”
+
+“Speak freely. Sir, you are my guest.”
+
+Although the most cutting revilings could not have wounded the
+repentant Wilder so deeply as this generous conduct, he so far subdued
+his feelings as to continue,—
+
+“You are not now to learn,” he said, “that vulgar rumour has given a
+colour to your conduct and character which is not of a quality to
+command the esteem of men.”
+
+“You may find leisure to deepen the tints,” hastily interrupted his
+listener, though the emotion which trembled in his voice plainly
+denoted how deeply he felt the wound which was given by a world he
+affected to despise.
+
+“If called upon to speak at all, my words shall be those of truth,
+Captain Heidegger. But is it surprising, that, filled with the ardour
+of a service that you once thought honourable yourself, I should be
+found willing to risk life, and even to play the hypocrite in order to
+achieve an object that would not only have been rewarded, but approved,
+had it been successful? With such sentiments I embarked on the
+enterprise; but, as Heaven is my judge, your manly confidence had half
+disarmed me before my foot had hardly crossed your threshold.”
+
+“And yet you turned not back?”
+
+“There might have been powerful reasons to the contrary,” resumed the
+defendant, unconsciously glancing his eyes at the females as he spoke.
+“I kept my faith at Newport; and, had my two followers then been
+released from your ship, foot of mine should never have entered her
+again,”
+
+“Young man, I am willing to believe you. I think I penetrate your
+motives. You have played a delicate game; and, instead of repining, you
+will one day rejoice that it has been fruitless. Go, sir; a boat shall
+attend you to the ‘Dart’.”
+
+“Deceive not yourself, Captain Heidegger, in believing that any
+generosity of yours can shut my eyes to my proper duty. The instant I
+am seen by the Commander of the ship you name, your character will be
+betrayed.”
+
+“I expect it.”
+
+“Nor will my hand be idle in the struggle that must follow. I may die,
+here, a victim to my mistake if you please; but, the moment I am
+released, I become your enemy.”
+
+“Wilder!” exclaimed the Rover, grasping his hand, with a smile that
+partook of the wild peculiarity of the action, “we should have been
+acquainted earlier! But regret is idle. Go; should my people learn the
+truth, any remonstrances of mine would be like whispers in a
+whirlwind.”
+
+“When last I joined the ‘Dolphin,’ I did not come alone.”
+
+“Is it not enough,” rejoined the Rover, coldly recoiling for a step,
+“that I offer liberty and life?”
+
+“Of what service can a being, fair, helpless, and unfortunate as this,
+be in a ship devoted to pursuits like those of the ‘Dolphin?’”
+
+“Am I to be cut off for ever from communion with the best of my kind!
+Go, sir; leave me the image of virtue, at least, though I may be
+wanting in its substance.”
+“Captain Heidegger, once, in the warmth of your better feelings, you
+pronounced a pledge in favour of these females, which I hope came deep
+from the heart.”
+
+“I understand you, sir. What I then said is not, and shall not, be
+forgotten. But whither would you lead your companions? Is not one
+vessel on the high seas as safe as another? Am I to be deprived of
+every means of making friends unto myself? Leave me sir—go—you may
+linger until my permission to depart cannot avail you.”
+
+“I shall never desert my charge,” said Wilder, firmly.
+
+“Mr. Wilder—or I should rather call you Lieutenant Ark, I
+believe”—returned the Rover, “you may trifle with my good nature till
+the moment of your own security shall be past.”
+
+“Act your will on me: I die at my post, or go accompanied by those with
+whom I came.”
+
+“Sir, the acquaintance of which you boast is not older than my own. How
+know you that they prefer you for their protector? I have deceived
+myself, and done poor justice to my own intentions, if they have found
+cause for complaints, since their happiness or comfort has been in my
+keeping. Speak, fair one; which will you for a protector?”
+
+“Leave me, leave me!” exclaimed Gertrude, veiling her eyes, in terror,
+from the insidious smile with which he approached her, as she would
+have avoided the attractive glance of a basilisk. “Oh! if you have pity
+in your heart, let us quit your ship!”
+
+Notwithstanding the vast self-command which the being she so
+ungovernably and spontaneously repelled had in common over his
+feelings, no effort could repress the look of deep and humiliating
+mortification with which he heard her. A cold and haggard smile gleamed
+over his features, as he murmured, in a voice which he in vain
+endeavoured to smother,—
+
+“I have purchased this disgust from all my species and dearly must the
+penalty be paid!—Lady, you and your lovely ward are the mistresses of
+your own acts. This ship, and this cabin, are at your command; or, if
+you elect to quit both, others will receive you.”
+
+“Safety for our sex is only to be found beneath the fostering
+protection of the laws,” said Mrs Wyllys “Would to God!”——
+
+“Enough!” he interrupted, “you shall accompany your friend. The ship
+will not be emptier than my heart, when all have left me.”
+
+“Did you call?” asked a low voice at his elbow, in tones so plaintive
+and mild, that they could not fail to catch his ear.
+
+“Roderick,” he hurriedly replied, “you will find occupation below.
+Leave us, good Roderick. For a while, leave me.”
+Then, as if anxious to close the scene as speedily as possible, he gave
+another of his signals on the gong. An order was given to convey Fid
+and the black into a boat, whither he also sent the scanty baggage of
+his female guests. So soon as these brief arrangements were completed,
+he handed the governess with studied courtesy, through his wondering
+people, to the side, and saw her safely seated, with her ward and
+Wilder, in the pinnace. The oars were manned by the two seamen, and a
+silent adieu was given by a wave of his hand; after which he
+disappeared from those to whom their present release seemed as
+imaginary and unreal as had appeared their late captivity.
+
+The threat of the interference of the crew of the “Dolphin” was,
+however, still ringing in the ears of Wilder. He made an impatient
+gesture to his attendants to ply their oars, cautiously steering the
+boat on such a course as should soonest lead her from beneath the guns
+of the freebooters. While passing under the stern of the “Dolphin,” a
+hoarse hail was sent across the waters, and the voice of the Rover was
+heard speaking to the Commander of the “Dart.”
+
+“I send you a party of your guests,” he said; “and, among them, all the
+divinity of my ship.”
+
+The passage was short; nor was time given for any of the liberated to
+arrange their thoughts, before it became necessary to ascend the side
+of the cruiser of the Crown.
+
+“Heaven help us!” exclaimed Bignall, catching a glimpse of the sex of
+his visiters through a port “Heaven help us both, Parson! That young
+hair brained fellow has sent us a brace of petticoats aboard; and these
+the profane reprobate calls his divinities! One may easily guess where
+he has picked up such quality; but cheer up, Doctor; one may honestly
+forget the cloth in five fathom water, you know.”
+
+The facetious laugh of the old Commander of the “Dart” betrayed that he
+was more than half disposed to overlook the fancied presumption of his
+audacious inferior; furnishing a sort of pledge, to all who heard it,
+that no undue scruples should defeat the hilarity of the moment. But
+when Gertrude, flushed with the excitement of the scene through which
+she had just passed, and beaming with a loveliness that derived so much
+of its character from its innocence, appeared on his deck, the veteran
+rubbed his-eyes in an amazement which could not have been greatly
+surpassed, had one of that species of beings the Rover had named
+actually fallen at his feet from the skies.
+
+“The heartless scoundrel!” cried the worthy tar, “to lead astray one so
+young and so lovely! Ha! as I live, my own lieutenant! How’s this, Mr
+Ark! have we fallen on the days of miracles?”
+
+An exclamation, which came deep from the heart the governess, and a low
+and mournful echo from the lips of the divine, interrupted the further
+expression of his indignation and his wonder.
+
+“Captain Bignall,” observed the former, pointing to the tottering form
+which was leaning on Wilder for support, “on my life, you are mistaken
+in the character of this lady. It is more than twenty years since we
+last met, but I pledge my own character for the purity and truth of
+hers.”
+
+“Lead me to the cabin,” murmured Mrs Wyllys. “Gertrude, my love, where
+are we? Lead me to some secret place.”
+
+Her request was complied with; the whole group retiring in a body from
+before the sight of the spectators who thronged the deck. Here the
+deeply agitated governess regained a portion of her self-command, and
+then her wandering gaze sought the meek, concerned countenance of the
+chaplain.
+
+“This is a tardy and heart-rending meeting,” she said, pressing the
+hand he gave her to her lips. “Gertrude, in this gentleman you see the
+divine that united me to the man who once formed the pride and
+happiness of my existence.”
+
+“Mourn not his loss,” whispered the reverend priest, bending over her
+chair, with the interest of a parent. “He was taken from you at an
+early hour; but he died as all who loved him might have wished.
+
+“And none was left to bear, in remembrance of his qualities, his proud
+name to posterity! Tell me, good Merton, is not the hand of Providence
+visible in this dispensation? Ought I not to humble myself before it,
+as a just punishment of my disobedience to an affectionate, though too
+obdurate, parent?”
+
+“None may presume to pry into the mysteries of he righteous government
+that orders all things. Enough for us, that we learn to submit to the
+will of Him who rules, without questioning his justice.”
+
+“But,” continued the governess, in tones so husky as to betray how
+powerfully she felt the temptation to forget his admonition, “would not
+one life have sufficed? was I to be deprived of all?”
+
+“Madam, reflect! What has been done was done in wisdom, as I trust it
+was in mercy.”
+
+“You say truly. I will forget all of the sad events, but their
+application to myself And you, worthy and benevolent Merton, where and
+how have been passed your days, since the time of which we speak?”
+
+“I am but a low and humble shepherd of a truant flock,” returned the
+meek chaplain, with a sigh. “Many distant seas have I visited, and many
+strange faces, and stranger natures, has it been my lot to encounter in
+my pilgrimage. I am but lately returned, from the east, into the
+hemisphere where I first drew breath; and, by permission of our
+superiors, I came to pass a month in the vessel of a companion, whose
+friendship bears even an older date than our own.”
+
+“Ay, ay, Madam,” returned the worthy Bignall, whose feelings had been
+not a little disturbed by the previous scene; “it is near half a
+century since the Parson and I were boys together, and we have been
+rubbing up old recollections on the cruise. Happy am I that a lady of
+so commendable qualities has come to make one of our party.”
+
+“In this lady you see the daughter of the late Captain——, and the
+relict of the son of our ancient Commander, Rear-Admiral de Lacey,”
+hastily resumed the divine, as though he knew the well-meaning honesty
+of his friend was more to be trusted than his discretion.
+
+“I knew them both; and brave men and thorough seamen were the pair! The
+lady was welcome as your friend, Merton; but she is doubly so, as the
+widow and child of the gentlemen you name.”
+
+“De Lacey!” murmured an agitated voice in the ear of the governess.
+
+“The law gives me a title to bear that name,” returned she whom we
+shall still continue to call by her assumed appellation, folding her
+weeping pupil long and affectionately to her bosom. “The veil is
+unexpectedly withdrawn, my love, nor shall concealment be longer
+affected. My father was the Captain of the flag-ship. Necessity
+compelled him to leave me more in the society of your young relative
+than he would have done, could he have foreseen the consequences. But I
+knew both his pride and his poverty too well, to dare to make him
+arbiter of my fate, after the alternative became, to my inexperienced
+imagination worse than even his anger. We were privately united by this
+gentleman, and neither of our parents knew of the connexion. Death”—
+
+The voice of the widow became choaked, and she made a sign to the
+chaplain, as if she would have him continue the tale.
+
+“Mr de Lacey and his father-in-law fell in the same battle, within a
+short month of the ceremony,” add ed the subdued voice of Merton. “Even
+you, dearest Madam, never knew the melancholy particulars of their end.
+I was a solitary witness of their deaths for to me were they both
+consigned, amid the confusion of the battle. Their blood was mingled;
+and your parent, in blessing the young hero, unconsciously blessed his
+son.”
+
+“Oh! I deceived his noble nature, and dearly have I paid the penalty!”
+exclaimed the self-abased widow. “Tell me, Merton, did he ever know of
+my marriage?”
+
+“He did not. Mr de Lacey died first, and upon his bosom, for he loved
+him ever as a child; but other thoughts than useless explanations were
+then uppermost in their minds.”
+
+“Gertrude,” said the governess, in hollow, repentant tones, “there is
+no peace for our feeble sex but in submission; no happiness but in
+obedience.”
+
+“It is over now,” whispered the weeping girl; “all over, and forgotten.
+I am your child—your own Gertrude—the creature of your formation.”
+
+“Harry Ark!” exclaimed Bignall, clearing his throat with a hem so
+vigorous as to carry the sound to the outer deck, seizing the arm of
+his entranced lieutenant, and dragging him from the scene while he
+spoke. “What the devil besets the boy! You forget that, all this time,
+I am as ignorant of your own adventures as is his Majesty’s prime
+minister of navigation Why do I see you, here, a visitor from a royal
+cruiser, when I thought you were playing the mock pirate? and how came
+that harum-scarum twig of nobility in possession of so goodly a
+company, as well as of so brave a ship?”
+
+Wilder drew a long and deep breath, like one that awakes from a
+pleasing dream, reluctantly suffering himself to be forced from a spot
+where he fondly felt that he could have continued, without weariness,
+for ever.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXIX.
+
+“Let them achieve me, and then sell my bones.”
+
+_Henry V._
+
+
+The Commander of the “Dart,” and his bewildered lieutenant, had gained
+the quarter-deck before either spoke again. The direction first taken
+by the eyes of the latter was in quest of the neighbouring ship; nor
+was the look entirely without that unsettled and vague expression which
+seems to announce a momentary aberration of the faculties. But the
+vessel of the Rover was in view, in all the palpable and beautiful
+proportions of her admirable construction Instead of lying in a state
+of rest, as when he left her, her head-yards had been swung, and, as
+the sails filled with the breeze, the stately fabric had he gun to
+Marve gracefully, though with no great velocity along the water. There
+was not the slightest appearance however, of any attempt at escape in
+the evolution. On the contrary, the loftier and lighter sails had all
+been furled, and men were at the moment actively employed in sending to
+the deck those smaller spars which were absolutely requisite in
+spreading the canvas that would be needed in facilitating her flight.
+Wilder turned from the sight with a sickening apprehension; for he well
+knew that these were the preparations that skillful mariners are wont
+to make, when bent on desperate combat.
+
+“Ay, yonder goes your St. James’s seaman, with his three topsails full,
+and his mizzen out, as if he had already forgotten he is to dine with
+me, and that his name is to be found at one end of the list of
+Commanders and mine at the other,” grumbled the displeased Bignall.
+“But we shall have him coming round all in good time, I suppose, when
+his appetite tells him the dinner hour. He might wear his colours in
+presence of a senior, too, and no disgrace to his nobility. By the
+Lord, Harry Ark, he handles those yards beautifully! I warrant you,
+now, some honest man’s son is sent aboard his ship for a dry nurse, in
+the shape of a first lieutenant, and we shall have him vapouring, all
+dinner time, about ‘how my ship does this,’ and ‘I never suffer that.’
+Ha! is it not so, sir? He has a thorough seaman for his First?”
+
+“Few men understand the profession better than does the Captain of
+yonder vessel himself,” returned Wilder.
+
+“The devil he does! You have been talking with him, Mr Ark, about these
+matters, and he has got some of the fashions of the ‘Dart.’ I see into
+a mystery as quick as another!”
+
+“I do assure you, Captain Bignall, there is no safety in confiding in
+the ignorance of yonder extra ordinary man.”
+
+“Ay, ay, I begin to overhaul his character. The young dog is a quiz,
+and has been amusing himself with a sailor of what he calls the old
+school. Am I right, sir? He has seen salt water before this cruise?”
+
+“He is almost a native of the seas; for more than thirty years has he
+passed his time on them.”
+
+“There, Harry Ark, he has done you handsomely. Now, I have his own
+assertion for it, that he will not be three-and-twenty until
+to-morrow.”
+
+“On my word, he has deceived you, sir.”
+
+“I don’t know, Mr Ark; that is a task much easier attempted than
+performed. Threescore and four years add as much weight to a man’s head
+as to his heels! I may have undervalued the skill of the younker but,
+as to his years, there can be no great mistake. But where the devil is
+the fellow steering to? Has he need of a pinafore from his lady mother
+to come on board of a man-of-war for his dinner?”
+
+“See! he is indeed standing from us!” exclaimed Wilder, with a rapidity
+and delight that would have excited the suspicions of one more
+observant than his Commander.
+
+“If I know the stern from the bows of a ship, what you say is truth,”
+returned the other, with some austerity. “Hark ye, Mr Ark, I’ve a mind
+to furnish the coxcomb a lesson in respect for his superiors and give
+him a row to whet his appetite. By the Lord, I will; and he may write
+home an account of this manoeuvre, too, in his next despatches. Fill
+away the after-yards, sir; fill away. Since this _honourable_ youth is
+disposed to amuse himself with a sailing-match, he can take no offence
+that others are in the same humour.”
+
+The lieutenant of the watch, to whom the order was addressed, complied;
+and, in another minute, the “Dart” was also beginning to move a-head,
+though in a direction directly opposite to that taken by the “Dolphin.”
+The old man highly enjoyed his own decision, manifesting his
+self-satisfaction by the infinite glee and deep chuckling of his
+manner. He was too much occupied with the step he had just taken, to
+revert immediately to the subject that had so recently been uppermost
+in his mind; nor did the thought of pursuing the discourse occur to
+him, until the two ships had left a broad field of water between them,
+as each moved, with ease and steadiness, on its proper course.
+
+“Let him note that in his log-book, Mr Ark,” the irritable old seaman
+then resumed, returning to the spot which Wilder had not left during
+the intervening time. “Though my cook has no great relish for a frog,
+they who would taste of his skill must seek him. By the Lord, boy, he
+will have a pull of it, if he undertake to come-to on that tack.—But
+how happens it that you got into his ship? All that part of the cruise
+remains untold.”
+
+“I have been wrecked, sir, since you received my last letter.”
+
+“What! has Davy Jones got possession of the red gentleman at last?”
+
+“The misfortune occurred in a ship from Bristol, aboard which I was
+placed as a sort of prize-master.—He certainly continues to stand
+slowly to the northward!”
+
+“Let the young coxcomb go! he will have all the better appetite for his
+supper. And so you were picked up by his Majesty’s ship the ‘Antelope.’
+Ay, I see into the whole affair. You have only to give an old sea-dog
+his course and compass, and he will find his way to port in the darkest
+night. But how happened it that this Mr Howard affected to be ignorant
+of your name, sir, when he saw it on the list of my officers?”
+
+“Ignorant! Did he seem ignorant? perhaps”—
+
+“Say no more, my brave fellow, say no more,” interrupted Wilder’s
+considerate but choleric Commander. “I nave met with such rebuffs
+myself; but we are above them, sir, far above them and their
+impertinences together. No man need be ashamed of having earned his
+commission, as you and I have done, in fair weather and in foul.
+Zounds, boy, I have fed one of the upstarts for a week, and then had
+him stare at a church across the way, when I have fallen in with him in
+the streets of London, in a fashion that might make a simple man
+believe the puppy knew for what it had been built. Think no more of it,
+Harry; worse things have happened to myself, I do assure you.”
+
+“I went by my assumed name while in yonder ship,” Wilder forced himself
+to add. “Even the ladies who were the companions of my wreck, know me
+by no other.”
+
+“Ah! that was prudent; and, after all, the young sprig was not
+pretending genteel ignorance. How now, master Fid; you are welcome back
+to the Dart.’”
+
+“I’ve taken the liberty to say as much already to myself, your Honour,”
+resumed the topman, who was busying himself, near his two officers, in
+a manner that seemed to invite their attention. “A wholesome craft is
+yonder, and boldly is she commanded, and stoutly is she manned; but,
+for my part, having a character to lose, it is more to my taste to sail
+in a ship that can shew her commission, when properly called on for the
+same.”
+
+The colour on Wilder’s cheeks went and came like the flushings of the
+evening sky, and his eyes were turned in every direction but that which
+would have encountered the astonished gaze of his veteran friend.
+
+“I am not quite sure that I understand the meaning of the lad, Mr Ark.
+Every officer, from the Captain to the boatswain, in the King’s fleet,
+that is, every man of common discretion, carries his authority to act
+as such with him to sea, or he might find himself in a situation as
+awkward as that of a pirate.”
+
+“That is just what I said, sir; but schooling and long use have given
+your Honour a better outfit in words. Guinea and I have often talked
+the matter over together, and serious thoughts has it given to us both,
+more than once, Captain Bignall. ‘Suppose,’ says I to the black,
+‘suppose one of his Majesty’s boats should happen to fall in with this
+here craft, and we should come to loggerheads and matches,’ says I,
+‘what would the like of us two do in such a god-send?’—‘Why,’ says the
+black, ‘we would stand to our guns on the side of master Harry,’ says
+he; nor did I gainsay the same; but, saving his presence and your
+Honour’s, I just took the liberty to add, that, in my poor opinion, it
+would be much more comfortable to be killed in an honest ship than on
+the deck of a buccaneer.”
+
+“A buccaneer!” exclaimed his Commander, with eyes distended, and an
+open mouth.
+
+“Captain Bignall,” said Wilder, “I may have offended past forgiveness,
+in remaining so long silent; but, when you hear my tale, there may be
+found some passages that shall plead my apology. The vessel in sight is
+the ship of the renowned Red Rover—nay listen, I conjure you by all
+that kindness you have so long shewn me, and then censure as you will.”
+
+The words of Wilder, aided as they were by an earnest and manly manner,
+laid a restraint on the mounting indignation of the choleric old
+seaman. He listened gravely and intently to the rapid but clear tale
+which his lieutenant hastened to recount; and, ere the latter had done,
+he had more than half entered into those grateful, and certainly
+generous, feelings which had made the youth so reluctant to betray the
+obnoxious character of a man who had dealt so liberally by himself. A
+few strong, and what might be termed professional, exclamations of
+surprise and admiration, occasionally interrupted the narrative; but,
+on the whole, he curbed his impatience and his feelings, in a manner
+that was sufficiently remarkable, when the temperament of the
+individual is duly considered.
+
+“This is wonderful indeed!” he exclaimed, as the other ended; “and a
+thousand pities is it that so honest a fellow should be so arrant a
+knave. But, Harry, we can never let him go at large after all, our
+loyalty and our religion forbid it. We must tack ship, and stand after
+him; if fair words won’t bring him to reason, I see no other remedy
+than blows.”
+
+“I fear it is no more than our duty, sir,” returned the young man, with
+a deep sigh.
+
+“It is a matter of religion.—And then the prating puppy, that he sent
+on board me, is no Captain, after all! Still it was impossible to
+deceive me as to the air and manner of a gentleman. I warrant me, some
+young reprobate of a good family, or he would never have acted the
+sprig so well. We must try to keep his name a secret, Mr Ark, in order
+that no discredit should fall upon his friends. Our aristocratic
+columns, though they get a little cracked and defaced, are, after all,
+the pillars of the throne, and it does not become us to let vulgar eyes
+look too closely into their unsoundness.”
+
+“The individual who visited the ‘Dart’ was the Rover himself.”
+
+“Ha! the Red Rover in my ship, nay, in my very presence!” exclaimed the
+old tar, in a species of honest horror. “You are now pleased, sir, to
+trifle with my good nature.”
+
+“I should forget a thousand obligations, ere I could be so bold. On my
+solemn asseveration, sir, it was no other.”
+
+“This is unaccountable! extraordinary to a miracle! His disguise was
+very complete, I will confess to deceive one so well skilled in the
+human countenance. I saw nothing, sir, of his shaggy whiskers heard
+nothing of his brutal voice, nor perceived any of those monstrous
+deformities which are universally acknowledged to distinguish the man.”
+
+“All of which are no more than the embellishments of vulgar rumour, I
+fear me, sir, that the boldest and most dangerous of all our vices are
+often found under the most pleasing exteriors.”
+
+“But this is not even a man of inches, sir.”
+
+“His body is not large, but it contains the spirit of a giant.”
+
+“And do you believe yonder ship, Mr Ark, to be the vessel that fought
+us in the equinox of March?”
+
+“I know it to be no other.”
+
+“Hark ye, Harry, for your sake, I will deal generously by the rogue. He
+once escaped me, by the loss of a topmast, and stress of weather; but
+we have here a good working breeze, that a man may safely count on, and
+a fine regular sea. He is therefore mine, so soon as I choose to make
+him so;—for I do not think he has any serious intention to run.”
+
+“I fear not,” returned Wilder, unconsciously betraying his wishes in
+the words.
+
+“Fight he cannot, with any hopes of success; and, as he seems to be
+altogether a different sort of personage from what I had supposed, we
+will try the merits of negotiation. Will you undertake to be the bearer
+of my propositions?—or, perhaps, he might repent of his moderation.”
+
+“I pledge myself for his faith,” eagerly exclaimed Wilder “Let a gun be
+fired to leeward. Mind, sir, all the tokens must be amicable—a flag of
+truce set out at our main, and I will risk every hazard to lead him
+back into the bosom of society.”
+
+“By George, it would at least be acting a Christian part,” returned the
+Commander, after a moment’s thought; “and, though we miss knighthood
+below, lad, for our success, there will be better birth cleared for us
+aloft.”
+
+No sooner had the warm-hearted, and perhaps a little visionary, Captain
+of the “Dart,” and his lieutenant, determined on this measure, than
+they both set eagerly about the means of insuring its success. The helm
+of the ship was put a-lee; and, as her head came sweeping up into the
+wind, a sheet of flame flashed from her leeward bow-port, sending the
+customary amicable intimation across the water, that those who governed
+her movements would communicate with the possessors of the vessel in
+sight. At the same instant, a small flag, with a spotless field was
+seen floating at the topmost elevation of all her spars, whilst the
+flag of England was lowered from the gaff. A half minute of deep
+inquietude succeeded these signals, in the bosoms of those who had
+ordered them to be made. Their suspense was however speedily
+terminated. A cloud of smoke drove before the wind from the vessel of
+the Rover, and then the smothered explosion of the answering gun came
+dull upon their ears. A flag, similar to their own, was seen floating,
+as it might be, like a dove fanning its wings, far above her tops; but
+no emblem of any sort was borne at the spar, where the colours which
+distinguish the national character of a cruiser are usually seen.
+
+“The fellow has the modesty to carry a naked gaff in our presence,”
+said Bignall, pointing out the circumstance to his companion, as an
+augury favourable to their success. “We will stand for him until within
+a reasonable distance, and then you shall take to the boat.”
+
+In conformity with this determination, the “Dart” was brought on the
+other tack, and several sails were set, in order to quicken her speed.
+When at the distance of half cannon shot, Wilder suggested to his
+superior the propriety of arresting their further progress in order to
+avoid the appearance of hostilities. The boat was immediately lowered
+into the sea, and manned; a flag of truce set in her bows: and the
+whole was reported ready to receive the bearer of the message.
+
+“You may hand him this statement of our force, Mr Ark; for, as he is a
+reasonable man, he will see the advantage it gives us,” said the
+Captain, after having exhausted his manifold and often repeated
+instructions. “I think you may promise him indemnity for the past,
+provided he comply with all my conditions; at all events, you will say
+that no influence shall be spared to get a complete whitewashing for
+himself at least. God bless you, boy! Take care to say nothing of the
+damages we received in the affair of March last; for—ay—for the equinox
+was blowing heavy at the time, you know. Adieu! and success attend
+you!”
+
+The boat shoved off from the side of the vessel as he ended, and in a
+few moments the listening Wilder was borne far beyond the sound of any
+further words of advisement. Our adventurer had sufficient time to
+reflect on the extraordinary situation in which he now found himself,
+during the row to the still distant ship. Once or twice, slight and
+uneasy glimmerings of distrust, concerning the prudence of the step he
+was taking, beset his mind; though a recollection of the lofty feeling
+of the man in whom he confided ever presented itself in sufficient
+season to prevent the apprehension from gaining any undue ascendency.
+Notwithstanding the delicacy of his situation, that characteristic
+interest in his profession, which is rarely dormant in the bosom of a
+thorough-bred seaman, was strongly stimulated as he approached the
+vessel of the Rover. The perfect symmetry of her spars the graceful
+heavings and settings of the whole fabric is it rode, like a marine
+bird, on the long, regular swells of the trades, and the graceful
+inclinations of the tapering masts, as they waved across the blue
+canopy, which was interlaced by all the tracery of her complicated
+tackle, was not lost on an eye that knew no less how to prize the order
+of the whole than to admire the beauty of the object itself. There is a
+high and exquisite taste, which the seaman attains in the study of a
+machine that all have united to commend, which may be likened to the
+sensibilities that the artist acquires by close and long contemplation
+of the noblest monuments of antiquity. It teaches him to detect those
+imperfections which would escape any less instructed eye; and it
+heightens the pleasure with which a ship at sea is gazed at, by
+enabling the mind to keep even pace with the enjoyment of the senses.
+It is this powerful (and to a landsman incomprehensible) charm that
+forms the secret tie which binds the mariner so closely to his vessel,
+and which often leads him to prize her qualities as one would esteem
+the virtues of a friend, and almost to be equally enamoured of the fair
+proportions of his ship and of those of his mistress. Other men may
+have their different inanimate subjects of admiration; but none of
+their feelings so thoroughly enter into the composition of the being as
+the affection which the mariner comes, in time, to feel for his vessel.
+It is his home, his theme of constant and frequently of painful
+interest, his tabernacle and often his source of pride and exultation.
+As she gratifies or disappoints his high-wrought expectations in her
+speed or in the fight, mid shoals and hurricanes, a character for good
+or luckless qualities is earned, which are as often in reality due to
+the skill or ignorance of those who guide her, as to any inherent
+properties of the fabric. Still does the ship itself, in the eyes of
+the seaman, bear away the laurel of success, or suffer the ignominy of
+defeat and misfortune; and, when the reverse arrives, the result is
+merely regarded as some extraordinary departure from the ordinary
+character of the vessel, as if the construction possessed the powers of
+entire self-command and perfect volition.
+
+Though not so deeply imbued with that species of superstitious
+credulity, on this subject, as the inferiors of his profession, Wilder
+was keenly awake to most of the sensibilities of a mariner. So
+strongly, indeed, was he alive to this feeling, on the present
+occasion, that for a moment he forgot the critical nature of his
+errand, as he drew within plainer view of a vessel that, with justice,
+might lay claim to be a jewel of the ocean.
+
+“Lay on your oars, lads,” he said, signing to his people to arrest the
+progress of the boat; “lay on your oars! Did you ever see masts more
+beautifully in line than those, master Fid, or sails that had a fairer
+fit?”
+
+The topman, who rowed the stroke-oar of the pinnace cast a look over
+his shoulder, and, stowing into one of his cheeks a lump that resembled
+a wad laid by the side of its gun, he was not slow to answer, on an
+occasion where his opinion was so directly demanded.
+
+“I care not who knows it,” he said, “for, done by honest men or done by
+knaves, I told the people on the forecastle of the; ‘Dart,’ in the
+first five minutes after I got among them again, that they might be at
+Spithead a month, and not see hamper so light, and yet so handy, as is
+seen aboard that flyer. Her lower rigging is harpened-in, like the
+waist of Nell Dale after she has had a fresh pull upon her
+stay-lanyards, and there isn’t a block, among them all, that seems
+bigger in its place than do the eyes of the girl in her own
+good-looking countenance. That bit of a set that you see to her
+fore-brace-block, was given by the hand of one Richard Fid; and the
+heart on her main-stay was turned-in by Guinea, here; and, considering
+he is a nigger, I call it ship-shape.”
+
+“She is beautiful in every part!” said Wilder, drawing a long breath.
+“Give way, my men, give way! Do you think I have come here to take the
+soundings of the ocean?”
+
+The crew started at the hurried tones of their lieutenant and in
+another minute the boat was at the side of the vessel. The stern and
+threatening glances that Wilder encountered, as his foot touched the
+planks, caused him to pause an instant, ere he advanced further amid
+the crew. But the presence of the Rover himself, who stood, with his
+peculiar air of high and imposing authority, on the quarter-deck,
+encouraged him to proceed, after permitting a delay that was too slight
+to attract attention. His lips were in the act of parting, when a sign
+from the other induced him to remain silent, until they were both in
+the privacy of the cabin.
+
+“Suspicion is awake among my people, Mr Ark,” commenced the Rover, when
+they were thus retired, laying a marked and significant emphasis on the
+name he used. “Suspicion is stirring, though, as yet, they hardly know
+what to credit. The manoeuvres of the two ships have not been such as
+they are wont to see, and voices are not wanting to whisper in their
+ears matter that is somewhat injurious to your interests. You have not
+done well, sir, in returning among us.”
+
+“I came by the order of my superior, and under the sanction of a flag.”
+
+“We are small reasoners in the legal distinction of the world, and may
+mistake your rights in so novel a character. But,” he immediately
+added, with dignity, “if you bear a message, I may presume it is
+intended for my ears.”
+
+“And for no other. We are not alone, Captain Heidegger.”
+
+“Heed not the boy; he is deaf at my will.”
+
+“I could wish to communicate to you only the offers that I bear.”
+
+“That mast is not more senseless than Roderick,” said the other calmly,
+but with decision.
+
+“Then must I speak at every hazard.—The Commander of yon ship, who
+bears the commission of our royal master George the Second, has ordered
+me to say thus much for your consideration: On condition that you will
+surrender this vessel, with all her stores, armament, and warlike
+munitions, uninjured he will content himself with taking ten hostages
+from your crew, to be decided by lot, yourself, and one other of your
+officers, and either to receive the remainder into the service of the
+King, or to suffer them to disperse in pursuit of a calling more
+creditable, and, as it would now appear, more safe.”
+
+“This is the liberality of a prince! I should kneel and kiss the deck
+before one whose lips utter such sounds of mercy!”
+
+“I repeat but the words of my superior,” Wilder resumed. “For yourself,
+he further promises, that his interest shall be exerted to procure a
+pardon, on condition that you quit the seas, and renounce the name of
+Englishman for ever.”
+
+“The latter is done to his hands: But may I know the reason that such
+lenity is shewn to one whose name has been so long proscribed of men?”
+
+“Captain Bignall has heard of your generous treatment of his officer,
+and the delicacy that the daughter and widow of two ancient brethren in
+arms have received at your hands. He confesses that rumour has not done
+entire justice to your character.”
+
+A mighty effort kept down the gleam of exultation that flashed across
+the features of the listener, who, however, succeeded in continuing
+utterly calm and immovable.
+
+“He has been deceived, sir”—he coldly resumed, as though he would
+encourage the other to proceed.
+
+“That much is he free to acknowledge. A representation of this common
+error, to the proper authorities, will have weight in procuring the
+promised amnesty for the past, and, as he hopes, brighter prospects for
+the future.”
+
+“And does he urge no other motive than his pleasure why I should make
+this violent change in all my habits, why I should renounce an element
+that has become as necessary to me as the one I breathe and why, in
+particular, I am to disclaim the vaunted privilege of calling myself a
+Briton?”
+
+“He does. This statement of a force, which you may freely examine with
+your own eyes, if so disposed, must convince you of the hopelessness of
+resistance, and will, he thinks, induce you to accept his offers.”
+
+“And what is _your_ opinion?” the other demanded, with a meaning smile
+and peculiar emphasis, as he extended a hand to receive the written
+statement. “But I beg pardon,” he hastily added, taking the look of
+gravity from the countenance of his companion “I trifle, when the
+moment requires all our seriousness.”
+
+The eye of the Rover ran rapidly over the paper, resting itself, once
+or twice, with a slight exhibition of interest, on particular points,
+that seemed most to merit his attention.
+
+“You find the superiority such as I had already given you reason to
+believe?” demanded Wilder, when the look of the other wandered from the
+paper.
+
+“I do.”
+
+“And may I now ask your decision on the offer?”
+
+“First, tell me what does your own heart advise? This is but the
+language of another.”
+
+“Captain Heidegger,” said Wilder, colouring, “I will not attempt to
+conceal, that, had this message depended solely on myself, it might
+have been couched in different terms; but as one, who still deeply
+retains the recollection of your generosity, as a man would not
+willingly induce even an enemy to an act of dishonour, do I urge their
+acceptance. You will excuse me, if I say, that, in my recent
+intercourse I have had reason to believe you already perceive that
+neither the character you could wish to earn, nor the content that all
+men crave, is to be found in your present career.”
+
+“I had not thought I entertained so close a casuist in Mr Henry Wilder.
+Have you more to urge, sir?”
+
+“Nothing,” returned the disappointed and grieved messenger of the
+“Dart.”
+
+“Yes, yes, he has,” said a low but eager voice at the elbow of the
+Rover, which rather seemed to breathe out the syllables than dare to
+utter them aloud; “he has not yet delivered the half of his commission,
+or sadly has he forgotten the sacred trust!”
+
+“The boy is often a dreamer,” interrupted the Rover, smiling, with a
+wild and haggard look. “He sometimes gives form to his unmeaning
+thoughts, by clothing them in words.”
+
+“My thoughts are not unmeaning,” continued Roderick, in a louder and
+far bolder strain. “If his peace or happiness be dear to you, do not
+yet leave him. Tell him of his high and honourable name of his youth;
+of that gentle and virtuous being that he once so fondly loved, and
+whose memory, even now, he worships. Speak to him of these, as you know
+how to speak; and, on my life, his ear will not be deaf, his heart
+cannot be callous to your words.”
+
+“The urchin is mad!”
+
+“I am not mad; or, if maddened, it is by the crimes, the dangers, of
+those I love. Oh! Mr Wilder, do not leave him. Since you have been
+among us, he is nearer to what I know he once was, than formerly. Take
+away that mistaken statement of your force; threats do but harden him:
+As a friend admonish; but hope for nothing as a minister of vengeance.
+You know not the fearful nature of the man, or you would not attempt to
+stop a torrent. Now—now speak to him; for, see, his eye is already
+growing kinder.”
+
+“It is in pity, boy, to witness how thy reason wavers.”
+
+“Had it never swerved more than at this moment Walter, another need not
+be called upon to speak between thee and me! My words would then have
+been regarded, my voice would then have been loud enough to be heard.
+Why are you dumb? a single happy syllable might now save him.”
+
+“Wilder, the child is frightened by this counting of guns and numbering
+of people. He fears the anger of your anointed master. Go; give him
+place in your boat, and recommend him to the mercy of your superior.”
+
+“Away, away!” cried Roderick. “I shall not, will not, cannot leave you.
+Who is there left for me in this world but you?”
+
+“Yes,” continued the Rover, whose forced calmness of expression had
+changed to one of deep and melancholy musing; “it will indeed be better
+thus. See, here is much gold; you will commend him to the care of that
+admirable woman who already watches one scarcely less helpless, though
+possibly less—”
+
+“Guilty! speak the word boldly, Walter. I have earned the epithet, and
+shall not shrink to hear it spoken. Look,” he said, taking the
+ponderous bag which had been extended towards Wilder, and holding it
+high above his head, in scorn, “this can I cast from me; but the tie
+which binds me to you shall never be broken.”
+
+As he spoke, the lad approached an open window of the cabin; a splash
+upon the water was heard, and then a treasure, that might have
+furnished a competence to moderate wishes, was lost for ever to the
+uses of those who had created its value. The lieutenant of the “Dart”
+turned in haste to deprecate the anger of the Rover; but his eye could
+trace, in the features of the lawless chief, no other emotion than a
+pity which was discoverable even through his calm and unmoved smile.
+
+“Roderick would make but a faithless treasurer,” he said. “Still it is
+not too late to restore him to his friends. The loss of the gold can be
+repaired; but, should any serious calamity befall the boy, I might
+never regain a perfect peace of mind.”
+
+“Then keep him near yourself,” murmured the lad, whose vehemence had
+seemingly expended itself. “Go, Mr Wilder, go; your boat is waiting; a
+longer stay will be without an object.”
+
+“I fear it will!” returned our adventurer, who had not ceased, during
+the previous dialogue, to keep his look fastened, in manly
+commiseration, on the countenance of the boy; “I greatly fear it
+will!—Since I have come the messenger of another, Captain Heidegger it
+is your province to supply a fitting answer to my proposition.”
+
+The Rover took him by the arm, and led him to a position whence they
+might look upon the outer scene. Then, pointing upward at his spars,
+and making his companion observe the small quantity of sail he carried,
+he simply said, “Sir, you are a seaman and may judge of my intentions
+by this sight I shall neither seek nor avoid your boasted cruiser of
+King George.”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXX.
+
+“Front to front,
+Bring thou this fiend——
+Within my sword’s length set him; if he ’scape,
+Heaven forgive him too!”
+
+_Macbeth._
+
+
+“You have brought the grateful submission of the pirate to my offers!”
+exclaimed the sanguine Commander of the “Dart” to his messenger, as the
+foot of the latter once more touched his deck.
+
+“I bring nothing but defiance!” was the unexpected reply.
+
+“Did you exhibit my statement? Surely, Mr Ark so material a document
+was not forgotten!”
+
+“Nothing was forgotten that the warmest interest in his safety could
+suggest, Captain Bignall. Still the chief of yonder lawless ship
+refuses to hearken to your conditions.”
+
+“Perhaps, sir, he imagines that the ‘Dart’ is defective in some of her
+spars,” returned the hasty old seaman, compressing his lips, with a
+look of wounded pride; “he may hope to escape by pressing the canvas on
+his own light-heeled ship.”
+
+“Does that look like flight?” demanded Wilder, extending an arm towards
+the nearly naked spars and motionless hull of their neighbour. “The
+utmost I can obtain is an assurance that he will not be the assailant.”
+
+“’Fore George, he is a merciful youth! and one that should be commended
+for his moderation! He will not run his disorderly, picarooning company
+under the guns of a British man-of-war, because he owes a little
+reverence to the flag of his master! Hark ye, Mr Ark, we will remember
+the circumstance when questioned at the Old Bailey. Send the people to
+their guns, sir, and ware the ship round, to put an end at once to this
+foolery, or we shall have him sending a boat aboard to examine our
+commissions.”
+
+“Captain Bignall,” said Wilder, leading his Commander still further
+from the ears of their inferiors, “I may lay some little claim to merit
+for services done under your own eyes, and in obedience to your orders.
+If my former conduct may give me a title to presume to counsel one of
+your great experience, suffer me to urge a short delay.”
+
+“Delay! Does Henry Ark hesitate, when the enemies of his King, nay
+more, the enemies of man, are daring him to his duty!”
+
+“Sir, you mistake me. I hesitate, in order that the flag under which we
+sail may be free from stain, and not with any intent of avoiding the
+combat. Our enemy, _my_ enemy knows that he has nothing now to expect,
+for his past generosity, but kindness, should he become our captive.
+Still, Captain Bignall, I ask for time, to prepare the ‘Dart’ for a
+conflict that will try all her boasted powers, and to insure a victory
+that will not be bought without a price.”
+
+“But should he escape”—
+
+“On my life he will not attempt it. I not only know the man, but how
+formidable are his means of resistance. A short half hour will put us
+in the necessary condition, and do no discredit either to our spirit or
+to our prudence.”
+
+The veteran yielded a reluctant consent, which was not, however,
+accorded without much muttering concerning the disgrace a British
+man-of-war incurred in not running alongside the boldest pirate that
+floated, and blowing him out of water, with a single match. Wilder, who
+was accustomed to the honest professional bravados that often formed a
+peculiar embellishment to the really firm and manly resolution of the
+seamen of that age, permitted him to make his plaints at will, while he
+busied himself in a manner that he knew was now of the last importance
+and in a duty that properly came under his more immediate inspection,
+in consequence of the station he occupied.
+
+The “order for all hands to clear ship for action” was again given, and
+received in the cheerful temper with which mariners are wont to welcome
+any of the more important changes of their exciting profession. Little
+remained, however, to be done; for most of the previous preparations
+had still been left, as at the original meeting of the two vessels.
+Then came the beat to quarters, and the more serious and
+fearful-looking preparations for certain combat. After these several
+arrangements had been completed, the crew at their guns, the
+sail-trimmers at the braces, and the officers in their several
+batteries, the after-yards were swung, and the ship once more put in
+motion.
+
+During this brief interval, the vessel of the Rover lay, at the
+distance of half a mile, in a state of entire rest, without betraying
+the smallest interest in the obvious movements of her hostile
+neighbour. When, however, the “Dart” was seen yielding to the breeze,
+and gradually increasing her velocity, until the water was gathering
+under her fore-foot in a little rolling wave of foam, the bows of the
+other fell off from the direction of the wind, the topsail was filled,
+and, in her turn, the hull was held in command, by giving to it the
+impetus of motion. The “Dart” now set again at her gaff that broad
+field which had been lowered during the conference, and which had
+floated in triumph through the hazards and struggles of a thousand
+combats. No answering emblem, however was exhibited from the peak of
+her adversary.
+
+In this manner the two ships “gathered way,” as it is expressed in
+nautical language, watching each other with eyes as jealous as though
+they had been two rival monsters of the great deep, each endeavouring
+to conceal from his antagonist the evolution contemplated next. The
+earnest, serious manner of Wilder had not failed to produce its
+influence on the straight-minded seaman who commanded the ‘Dart;’ and,
+by this time, he was as much disposed as his lieutenant to approach the
+conflict leisurely, and with proper caution.
+
+The day had hitherto been cloudless, and a vault of purer blue never
+canopied a waste of water, than the arch which had swept for hours
+above the heads of our marine adventurers. But, as if nature frowned on
+their present bloody designs, a dark, threatening mass of vapour was
+blending the ocean with the sky, in a direction opposed to the steady
+currents of the air, These well-known and ominous signs did not escape
+the vigilance of those who manned the hostile vessels, but the danger
+was still deemed too remote to interrupt the higher interests of the
+approaching combat.
+
+“We have a squall brewing in the west,” said the experienced and wary
+Bignall, pointing to the frowning symptoms as he spoke; “but we can
+handle the pirate, and get all snug again, before it works its way up
+against this breeze.”
+
+Wilder assented; for, by this time, high professional pride was
+swelling in his bosom also, and a generous rivalry was getting the
+mastery of feelings that were possibly foreign to his duty, however
+natural they might have been in one as open to kindness as himself.
+
+“The Rover is sending down even his lighter masts!” exclaimed the
+youth; “it would seem that he greatly distrusts the weather.”
+
+“We will not follow his example; for he will wish they were aloft
+again, the moment we get him fairly under the play of our batteries. By
+George our King, but he has a pretty moving boat under him. Let fall
+the main-course, sir; down with it, or we shall have it night before we
+get the rogue a-beam.”
+
+The order was obeyed; and then the “Dart,” feeling the powerful
+impulse, quickened her speed like an animated being, that is freshly
+urged by its apprehensions or its wishes. By this time, she had gained
+a position on the weather-quarter of her adversary who had not
+manifested the smallest desire to prevent her attaining so material an
+advantage. On the contrary, while the “Dolphin” kept the same canvas
+spread, she continued to lighten her top-hamper bringing as much of the
+weight as possible, from the towering height of her tall masts, to the
+greater security of the hull. Still, the distance between them was too
+great, in the opinion of Bignall, to commence the contest, while the
+facility with which his adversary moved a-head threatened to protract
+the important moment to an unreasonable extent, or to reduce him to a
+crowd of sail that might prove embarrassing while enveloped in the
+smoke, and pressed by the urgencies of the combat.
+
+“We will touch his pride, sir, since you think him a man of spirit,”
+said the veteran, to his faithful coadjutor: “Give him a weather-gun,
+and show him another of his Master’s ensigns.”
+
+The roar of the piece, and the display of three more of the fields of
+England, in quick succession, from different parts of the “Dart,”
+failed to produce the slightest evidence, even of observation, aboard
+their seemingly insensible neighbour. The “Dolphin” still kept on her
+way, occasionally swooping up gracefully to touch the wind, and then
+deviating from her course again to leeward, as the porpoise is seen to
+turn aside from his direction to snuff the breeze, while he lazily
+sports along his briny path.
+
+“He will not be moved by any of the devices of lawful and ordinary
+warfare,” said Wilder, when he witnessed the indifference with which
+their challenge had been received.
+
+“Then try him with a shot.”
+
+A gun was now discharged from the side next the still receding
+“Dolphin.” The iron messenger was seen bounding along the surface of
+the sea, skipping lightly from wave to wave, until it cast a little
+cloud of spray upon the very deck of their enemy, as it boomed
+harmlessly past her hull. Another, and yet another, followed, without
+in any manner extracting signal or notice from the Rover.
+
+“How’s this!” exclaimed the disappointed Bignall. “Has he a charm for
+his ship, that all our shot sweep by him in rain! Master Fid, can you
+do nothing for the credit of honest people, and the honour of a
+pennant? Let us hear from your old favourite; in times past she used to
+speak to better purpose.”
+
+“Ay, ay, sir,” returned the accommodating Richard who, in the sudden
+turns of his fortune, found himself in authority over a much-loved and
+long-cherished piece. “I christened the gun after Mistress Whiffle,
+your Honour, for the same reason, that they both can do their own
+talking. Now, stand aside, my lads, and let clattering Kate have a
+whisper in the discourse.”
+
+Richard, who had coolly taken his sight, while speaking, now
+deliberately applied the match with his own hand, and, with a
+philosophy that was sufficiently to be commended in a mercenary, sent
+what he boldly pronounced to be “a thorough straight-goer” across the
+water, in the direction of his recent associates. The usual moments of
+suspense succeeded and then the torn fragments, which were seen
+scattered in the air, announced that the shot had passed through the
+nettings of the “Dolphin.” The effect on the vessel of the Rover was
+instantaneous, and nearly magical. A long stripe of cream-coloured
+canvas, which had been artfully extended, from her stem to her stern,
+in a line with her guns, disappeared as suddenly as a bird would shut
+its wings, leaving in its place a broad blood-red belt, which was
+bristled with the armament of the ship. At the same time, an ensign of
+a similar ominous colour, rose from her poop, and, fluttering darkly
+and fiercely for a moment, it became fixed at the end of the gaff.
+
+“Now I know him for the knave that he is!” cried the excited Bignall;
+“and, see! he has thrown away his false paint, and shows the well-known
+bloody side, from which he gets his name. Stand to your guns, my men!
+the pirate is getting earnest.”
+
+He was still speaking, when a sheet of bright flame glanced from out
+that streak of red which was so well adapted to work upon the
+superstitious awe of the common mariners, and was followed by the
+simultaneous explosion of nearly a dozen wide-mouthed pieces of
+artillery. The startling change, from inattention and indifference, to
+this act of bold and decided hostility, produced a strong effect on the
+boldest heart on board the King’s cruiser. The momentary interval of
+suspense was passed in unchanged attitudes and looks of deep attention;
+and then the rushing of the iron storm was heard hurtling through the
+air, as it came fearfully on. The crash that followed, mingled, as it
+was, with human groans, and succeeded by the tearing of riven plank,
+and the scattering high of splinters, ropes, blocks, and the implements
+of war, proclaimed the fatal accuracy of the broadside. But the
+surprise, and, with it, the brief confusion, endured but for an
+instant. The English shouted, and sent back a return to the deadly
+assault they had just received, recovering manfully and promptly from
+the shock which it had assuredly given.
+
+The ordinary and more regular cannonading of a naval combat succeeded.
+Anxious to precipitate the issue, both ships pressed nigher to each
+other the while, until, in a few moments, the two white canopies of
+smoke, that were wreathing about their respective masts, were blended
+in one, marking a solitary spot of strife, in the midst of a scene of
+broad and bright tranquillity. The discharges of the cannon were hot,
+close, and incessant. While the hostile parties, how ever, closely
+mutated each other in their zeal in dealing out destruction, a peculiar
+difference marked the distinction in character of the two crews. Loud,
+cheering shouts accompanied each discharge from the lawful cruiser,
+while the people of the rover did their murderous work amid the deep
+silence of desperation.
+
+The spirit and uproar of the scene soon quickened that blood, in the
+veins of the veteran Bignall, which had begun to circulate a little
+slowly by time.
+
+“The fellow has not forgotten his art!” he exclaimed as the effects of
+his enemy’s skill were getting but too manifest, in the rent sails,
+shivered spars, and tottering masts of his own ship. “Had he but the
+commission of the King in his pocket, one might call him a hero!”
+
+The emergency was too urgent to throw away the time in words. Wilder
+answered only by cheering his own people to their fierce and laborious
+task. The ships had now fallen off before the wind, and were running
+parallel to each other, emitting sheets of flame, that were incessantly
+glancing through immense volumes of smoke. The spars of the respective
+vessels were alone visible, at brief and uncertain intervals. Many
+minutes had thus passed, seeming to those engaged but a moment of time,
+when the mariners of the “Dart” found that they no longer held their
+vessel in the quick command, so necessary to their situation. The
+important circumstance was instantly conveyed from the master to
+Wilder, and from Wilder to his superior. A hasty consultation on the
+cause and consequences of this unexpected event was the immediate and
+natural result.
+
+“See!” cried Wilder, “the sails are already banging against the masts
+like rags; the explosions of the artillery have stilled the wind.”
+
+“Hark!” answered the more experienced Bignall: “There goes the
+artillery of heaven among our own guns.—The squall is already upon
+us—port the helm, sir, and sheer the ship out of the smoke! Hard a-port
+with the helm, sir, at once!—hard with it a-port I say.”
+
+But the lazy motion of the vessel did not answer to the impatience of
+those who directed her movements nor did it meet the pressing
+exigencies of the moment. In the mean time, while Bignall, and the
+officers whose duties kept them near his person, assisted by the
+sail-trimmers, were thus occupied, the people in the batteries
+continued their murderous employment. The roar of cannon was still
+constant, and nearly overwhelming, though there were instants when the
+deep ominous mutterings of the atmosphere were too distinctly audible
+to be mistaken. Still the eye could lend no assistance to the hearing,
+in determining the judgment of the mariners. Hulls, spars, and sails
+were alike enveloped in the curling wreaths which wrapped heaven, air,
+vessels, and ocean, alike, in one white, obscure, foggy mantle. Even
+the persons of the crew were merely seen at instants, labouring at the
+guns, through brief and varying openings.
+
+“I never knew the smoke pack so heavy on the clerk of a ship before,”
+said Bignall, with a concern that even his caution could not entirely
+repress. “Keep the helm a-port—jam it hard, sir! By Heaven Mr Wilder,
+those knaves well know they are struggling for their lives!”
+
+“The fight is all our own!” shouted the second lieutenant, from among
+the guns, stanching, as he spoke, the blood of a severe splinter-wound
+in the face, and far too intent on his own immediate occupation to have
+noticed the signs of the weather. “He has not answered with a single
+gun, for near a minute.”
+
+“’Fore George, the rogues have enough!” exclaimed the delighted
+Bignall. “Three cheers for vic——”
+
+“Hold, sir!” interrupted Wilder, with sufficient decision to check his
+Commander’s premature exultation; “on my life, our work is not so soon
+ended. I think, indeed, his guns are silent;—but, see! the smoke is
+beginning to lift. In a few more minutes, if our own fire should cease,
+the view will be clear.”
+
+A shout from the men in the batteries interrupted his words; and then
+came a general cry that the pirates were sheering off. The exultation
+at this fancied evidence of their superiority was, however, soon and
+fearfully interrupted. A bright, vivid flash penetrated through the
+dense vapour which still hung about them in a most extraordinary
+manner, and was followed by a crash from the heavens, to which the
+Simultaneous explosion of fifty pieces of artillery would have sounded
+feeble.
+
+“Call the people from their guns!” said Bignall, in those suppressed
+tones that are only more portentous from their forced and unnatural
+calmness: “Call them away at once, sir, and get the canvas in!”
+
+Wilder, startled more at the proximity and apparent weight of the
+squall than at words to which he had been long accustomed, delayed not
+to give an order that was seemingly so urgent. The men left their
+batteries, like athletæ retiring from the arena, some bleeding and
+faint, some still fierce and angry, and all more or less excited by the
+furious scene in which they had just been actors. Many sprung to the
+well-known ropes, while others, as they ascended into the cloud which
+still hung on the vessel became lost to the eye in her rigging.
+
+“Shall I reef, or furl?” demanded Wilder, standing with the trumpet at
+his lips, ready to issue the necessary order.
+
+“Hold, sir; another minute will give us an opening.”
+
+The lieutenant paused; for he was not slow to see that now, indeed, the
+veil was about to be drawn from their real situation. The smoke, which
+had lain upon their very decks, as though pressed down by the
+superincumbent weight of the atmosphere first began to stir; was then
+seen eddying among the masts; and, finally, whirled wildly away before
+a powerful current of air. The view was, indeed, now all before them.
+
+In place of the glorious sun, and that bright, blue canopy which had
+lain above them a short half-hour before, the heavens were clothed in
+one immense black veil. The sea reflected the portentous colour,
+looking dark and angrily. The waves had already lost their regular rise
+and fall, and were tossing to and fro, as if awaiting the power that
+was to give them direction and greater force. The flashes from the
+heavens were not in quick succession; but the few that did break upon
+the gloominess of the scene came in majesty, and with dazzling
+brightness. They were accompanied by the terrific thunder of the
+tropics in which it is scarcely profanation to fancy that the voice of
+One who made the universe is actually speaking to the creatures of his
+hand. On every side, was the appearance of a fierce and dangerous
+struggle in the elements. The vessel of the Rover was running lightly
+before a breeze, which had already come fresh and fitful from the
+cloud, with her sails reduced, and her people coolly, but actively,
+employed in repairing the damages of the fight.
+
+Not a moment was to be lost in imitating the example of the wary
+freebooters. The head of the “Dart” was hastily, and happily, got in a
+direction contrary to the breeze; and, as she began to follow the
+course taken by the “Dolphin,” an attempt was made to gather her torn
+and nearly useless causes to the yards. But precious minutes had been
+lost in the smoky canopy, that might never be regained. The sea changed
+its colour from a dark green to a glittering white; and then the fury
+of the gust was heard rushing along the water with fearful rapidity,
+and with a violence that could not he resisted.
+
+“Be lively, men!” shouted Bignall himself, in the exigency in which his
+vessel was placed; “Roll up the cloth; in with it all—leave not a rag
+to the squall! ’Fore George, Mr Wilder, but this wind is not playing
+with us; cheer up the men to their work; speak to them cheerily, sir!”
+
+“Furl away!” shouted Wilder. “Cut, if too late, work away with knives
+and teeth—down, every man of you, down—down for your lives, all!”
+
+There was that in the voice of the lieutenant which sounded in the ears
+of his people like a supernatural cry. He had so recently witnessed a
+calamity similar to that which again threatened him, that perhaps his
+feelings lent a secret horror to the tones. A score of forms was seen
+descending swiftly, through an atmosphere that appeared sensible to the
+touch. Nor was their escape, which might be likened to the stooping of
+birds that dart into their nest, too earnestly pressed. Stripped of all
+its rigging, and already tottering under numerous wounds, the lofty and
+overloaded spars yielded to the mighty force of the squall, tumbling in
+succession towards the hull, until nothing stood but the three firmer,
+but shorn and nearly useless, lower masts. By far the greater number of
+those aloft reached the deck in time to insure their safety, though
+some there were too stubborn, and still too much under the sullen
+influence of the combat, to hearken to the words of warning. These
+victims of their own obstinacy were seen clinging to the broken
+fragments of the spars, as the “Dart,” in a cloud of foam, drove away
+from the spot where they floated, until their persons and their misery
+were alike swallowed in the distance.
+
+“It is the hand of God!” hoarsely exclaimed the veteran Bignall, while
+his contracting eye drunk in the destruction of the wreck. “Mark me,
+Henry Ark; I will forever testify that the guns of the pirate have not
+brought us to this condition.”
+
+Little disposed to seek the same miserable consolation as his
+Commander, Wilder exerted himself in counteracting, so far as
+circumstances would allow, an injury that he felt, however, at that
+moment to be irreparable. Amid the howling of the gust, and the fearful
+crashing of the thunder, with an atmosphere now lurid with the glare of
+lightning, and now nearly obscured by the dark canopy of vapour, and
+with all the frightful evidences of the fight still reeking and ghastly
+before their eyes, did the crew of the British cruiser prove true to
+themselves and to their ancient reputation. The voices of Bignall and
+his subordinates were heard in the tempest, uttering those mandates
+which long, experience had rendered familiar, or encouraging the people
+to their duty. But the strife of the elements was happily of short
+continuance The squall soon swept over the spot, leaving the currents
+of the trade rushing into their former channels, and a sea that was
+rather stilled, than agitated by the counteracting influence of the
+winds.
+
+But, as one danger passed away from before the eyes of the mariners of
+the “Dart,” another, scarcely less to be apprehended, forced itself
+upon their attention, All recollection of the favours of the past, and
+every feeling of gratitude, was banished from the mind of Wilder, by
+the mountings of powerful professional pride, and that love of glory
+which becomes inherent in the warrior, as he gazed on the untouched and
+beautiful symmetry of the “Dolphin’s” spars, and all the perfect, and
+still underanged, order of her tackle. It seemed as if she bore a
+charmed fate, or that some supernatural agency had been instrumental in
+preserving her unharmed, amid the violence of a second hurricane. But
+cooler thought, and more impartial reflection, compelled the internal
+acknowledgment, that the vigilance and wise precautions of the
+remarkable individual who appeared not only to govern her movements,
+but to control her fortunes, had their proper influence in producing
+the result.
+
+Little leisure, however, was allowed to ruminate on these changes, or
+to deprecate the advantage of their enemy. The vessel of the Rover had
+already opened many broad sheets of canvas; and, as the return of the
+regular breeze gave her the wind, her approach was rapid and
+unavoidable.
+
+“’Fore George, Mr Ark, luck is all on the dishonest side to-day,” said
+the veteran, so soon as he perceived by the direction which the
+“Dolphin” took, that the encounter was likely to be renewed. “Send the
+people to quarters again, and clear away the guns; for we are likely to
+have another bout with the rogues.”
+
+“I would advise a moment’s delay,” Wilder earnestly observed, when he
+heard his Commander issuing an order to his people to prepare to
+deliver their fire, the instant their enemy should come within a
+favourable position. “Let me entreat you to delay; we know not what may
+be his present intentions.”
+
+“None shall put foot on the deck of the ‘Dart,’ without submitting to
+the authority of her royal master,” returned the stern old tar. “Give
+it to him, my men! Scatter the rogues from their guns! and let them
+know the danger of approaching a lion, though he should be crippled!”
+
+Wilder saw that remonstrance was now too late for a fresh broadside was
+hurled from the “Dart,” to defeat any generous intentions that the
+Rover might entertain. The ship of the latter received the iron storm,
+while advancing, and immediately deviated gracefully from her course,
+in such a way as to prevent its repetition. Then she was seen sweeping
+towards the bows of the nearly helpless cruiser of the King, and a
+hoarse summons was heard ordering her ensign to be lowered.
+
+“Come on, ye villains!” shouted the excited Bignall “Come, and perform
+the office with your own hands!”
+
+The graceful ship, as if sensible herself to the taunts of her enemy,
+sprung nigher to the wind, and shot across the fore-foot of the “Dart,”
+delivering her fire, gun after gun, with deliberate and deadly
+accuracy, full into that defenceless portion of her Antagonist. A crush
+like that of meeting bodies followed and then fifty grim visages were
+seen entering the scene of carnage, armed with the deadly weapons of
+personal conflict. The shock of so close and so fatal a discharge had,
+for the moment, paralyzed the efforts of the assailed; but no sooner
+did Bignall, and his lieutenant, see the dark forms that issued from
+the smoke on their own decks, than, with voices that had not even then
+lost their authority each summoned a band of followers, backed by whom,
+they bravely dashed into the opposite gang-ways of their ship, to stay
+the torrent. The first encounter was fierce and fatal, both parties
+receding a little, to wait for succour and recover breath.”
+
+“Come on, ye murderous thieves!” cried the dauntless veteran, who stood
+foremost in his own band, conspicuous by the locks of gray that floated
+around his naked head, “well do ye know that heaven is with the right!”
+
+The grim freebooters in his front recoiled and opened; then came a
+sheet of flame, from the side of the “Dolphin,” through an empty port
+of her adversary bearing in its centre a hundred deadly missiles. The
+sword of Bignall was flourished furiously and wildly above his head,
+and his voice was still heard crying, till the sounds rattled in his
+throat,—
+
+“Come on, ye knaves! come on!—Harry—Harry Ark! O God!—Hurrah!”
+
+He fell like a log, and died the unwitting possessor of that very
+commission for which he had toiled throughout a life of hardship and
+danger. Until now Wilder had made good his quarter of the deck though
+pressed by a band as fierce and daring as his own; but, at this fearful
+crisis in the combat, a voice was heard in the melee, that thrilled on
+all his nerves, and seemed even to carry its fearful influence over the
+minds of his men.
+
+“Make way there, make way!” it said, in tones clear, deep, and
+breathing with authority, “make way, and follow; no hand but mine shall
+lower that vaunting flag!”
+
+“Stand to your faith, my men!” shouted Wilder in reply. Shouts, oaths,
+imprecations, and groans formed a fearful accompaniment of the rude
+encounter, which was, however, far too violent to continue long. Wilder
+saw, with agony, that numbers and impetuosity were sweeping his
+supporters from around him. Again and again he called them to the
+succour with his voice, or stimulated them to daring by his example.
+
+Friend after friend fell at his feet, until he was driven to the utmost
+extremity of the deck. Here he again rallied a little band, against
+which several furious charges were made, in vain.
+
+“Ha!” exclaimed a voice he well knew; “death to all traitors! Spit the
+spy, as you would a dog! Charge through them, my bullies; a halbert to
+the hero who shall reach his heart!”
+
+“Avast, ye lubber!” returned the stern tones of the staunch Richard.
+“Here are a white man and a nigger at your service, if you’ve need of a
+spit.”
+
+“Two more of the gang!” continued the General aiming a blow that
+threatened to immolate the topman as he spoke.
+
+A dark half-naked form was interposed to receive the descending blade,
+which fell on the staff of a half-pike and severed it as though it had
+been a reed. Nothing daunted by the defenceless state in which he found
+himself, Scipio made his way to the front of Wilder, where, with a body
+divested to the waist of every garment, and empty handed, he fought
+with his brawny arms, like one who despised the cuts, thrusts and
+assaults, of which his athletic frame immediately became the helpless
+subject.
+
+“Give it to ’em, right and left, Guinea,” cried Fid: “here is one who
+will come in as a backer, so soon as he has stopped the grog of the
+marine.”
+
+The parries and science of the unfortunate General were at this moment
+set at nought, by a blow from Richard, which broke down all his
+defences, descending through cap and skull to the jaw.
+
+“Hold, murderers!” cried Wilder, who saw the numberless blows that were
+falling on the defenceless body of the still undaunted black. “Strike
+here! and spare an unarmed man!”
+
+The sight of our adventurer became confused, for he saw the negro fall,
+dragging with him to the deck two of his assailants; and then a voice,
+deep as the emotion which such a scene might create, appeared to utter
+in the very portals of his ear,—“Our work is done! He that strikes
+another blow makes an enemy of me.”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXXI.
+
+“Take him hence;
+The whole world shall not save him.”
+
+_Cymbeline_
+
+
+The recent gust had not passed more fearfully and suddenly over the
+ship, than the scene just related. But the smiling aspect of the
+tranquil sky, and bright sun of the Caribbean sea, found no parallel in
+the horrors that succeeded the combat. The momentary confusion which
+accompanied the fall of Scipio soon disappeared, and Wilder was left to
+gaze on the wreck of all the boasted powers of his cruiser, and on that
+waste of human life, which had been the attendants of the struggle. The
+former has already been sufficiently described; but a short account of
+the present state of the actors may serve to elucidate the events that
+are to follow.
+
+Within a few yards of the place he was permitted to occupy himself,
+stood the motionless form of the Rover. A second glance was necessary,
+however, to recognise, in the grim visage to which the boarding-cap
+already mentioned lent a look of artificial ferocity the usually bland
+countenance of the individual. As the eye of Wilder roamed over the
+swelling, erect, and still triumphant figure, it was difficult not to
+fancy that even the stature had been suddenly and unaccountably
+increased. One hand rested on the hilt of a yataghan, which, by the
+crimson drops that flowed along its curved blade, had evidently done
+fatal service in the fray; and one foot was placed, seemingly with
+supernatural weight, on that national emblem which it had been his
+pride to lower. His eye was wandering sternly, but understandingly,
+over the scene, though he spoke not, nor in any other manner betrayed
+the deep interest he felt in the past. At his side, and nearly within
+the circle of his arm stood the cowering form of the boy Roderick,
+unprovided with weapon, his garments sprinkled with blood, his eye
+contracted, wild, and fearful, and his face pallid as those in whom the
+tide of life had just ceased to circulate.
+
+Here and there, were to be seen the wounded captives still sullen and
+unconquered in spirit, while many of their scarcely less fortunate
+enemies lay in their blood, around the deck, with such gleamings of
+ferocity on their countenances as plainly denoted that the current of
+their meditations was still running on vengeance. The uninjured and the
+slightly wounded, of both bands, were already pursuing their different
+objects of plunder or of secretion.
+
+But, so thorough was the discipline established by the leader of the
+freebooters, so absolute his power, that blow had not been struck, nor
+blood drawn, since the moment when his prohibitory mandate was heard.
+There had been enough of destruction, however to have satisfied their
+most gluttonous longings had human life been the sole object of the
+assault. Wilder felt many a pang, as the marble-like features of humble
+friend or faithful servitor came, one after another, under his
+recognition; but the shock was greatest when his eye fell upon the
+rigid, and still frowning, countenance of his veteran Commander.
+
+“Captain Heidegger,” he said, struggling to maintain the fortitude
+which became the moment; “the fortune of the day is yours: I ask mercy
+and kindness in behalf of the survivors.”
+
+“They shall be granted to those who, of right may claim them: I hope it
+may be found that all are included in this promise.”
+
+The voice of the Rover was solemn, and full of meaning; and it appeared
+to convey more than the simple import of the words. Wilder might have
+nursed long and vainly, however, on the equivocal manner in which he
+had been answered, had not the approach of a body of the hostile crew,
+among whom he instantly recognised the most prominent of the late
+mutineers of the “Dolphin,” speedily supplied a clue to the hidden
+meaning of their leader.
+
+“We claim the execution of our ancient laws!” sternly commenced the
+foremost of the gang, addressing his chief with a brevity and an air of
+fierceness which the late combat might well have generated, if not
+excused.
+
+“What would you have?”
+
+“The lives of traitors” was the sullen answer.
+
+“You know the conditions of our service. If any such are in our power,
+let them meet their fate.”
+
+Had any doubt remained in the mind of Wilder, as to the meaning of
+these terrible claimants of justice it would have vanished at the
+sullen, ominous manner with which he and his two companions were
+immediately dragged before the lawless chief. Though the love of life
+was strong and active in his breast, it was not, even in that fearful
+moment, exhibited in any deprecating or unmanly form. Not for an
+instant did his mind waver, or his thoughts wander to any subterfuge,
+that might prove unworthy of his profession or his former character.
+One anxious, inquiring look was fastened on the eye of him whose power
+alone might save him. He witnessed the short, severe struggle of regret
+that softened the rigid muscles of the Rover’s countenance, and then he
+saw the instant, cold, and calm composure which settled on every one of
+its disciplined lineaments. He knew, at once, that the feelings of the
+man were smothered in the duty of the chief, and more was unnecessary
+to teach him the utter hopelessness of his condition. Scorning to
+render his state degrading by useless remonstrances, the youth remained
+where his accusers had seen fit to place him—firm, motionless, and
+silent.
+
+“What would’ve have?” the Rover was at length heard to say, in a voice
+that even his iron nerves scarce rendered deep and full-toned as
+common. “What ask ye?”
+
+“Their lives!”
+
+“I understand you; go; they are at your mercy.”
+
+Notwithstanding the horrors of the scene through which he had just
+passed, and that high and lofty excitement which had sustained him
+through the fight, the deliberate, solemn tones with which his judge
+delivered a sentence that he knew consigned him to a hasty and
+ignominious death, shook the frame of our adventurer nearly to
+insensibility. The blood recoiled backward to his heart, and the
+sickening sensation that beset his brain threatened to up-set his
+reason. But the shock passed, on the instant leaving him erect, and
+seemingly proud and firm as ever, and certainly with no evidence of
+mortal weakness that human eye could discover.
+
+“For myself nothing is demanded,” he said, with admirable steadiness.
+“I know your self-enacted laws condemn me to a miserable fate; but for
+these ignorant, confiding, faithful followers, I claim, nay beg,
+entreat, implore your mercy; they knew not what they did, and”—
+
+“Speak to these!” said the Rover, pointing, with an averted eye, to the
+fierce knot by which he was surrounded: “These are your judges, and the
+sole ministers of mercy.”
+
+Strong and nearly unconquerable disgust was apparent in the manner of
+the youth; but, with a mighty effort, he subdued it, and, turning to
+the crew, continued,—
+
+“Then even to these will I humble myself in petitions. Ye are men, and
+ye are mariners”—
+
+“Away with him!” exclaimed the croaking Nightingale; “he preaches! away
+with him to the yard arm! away!”
+
+The shrill, long-drawn winding of the call which the callous boatswain
+sounded in bitter mockery was answered by an echo from twenty voices,
+in which the accents of nearly as many different people mingled in
+hoarse discordancy, as they shouted,—
+
+“To the yard-arm! away with the three! away!”
+
+Wilder cast a last glance of appeal at the Rover but he met no look, in
+return, from a face that was intentionally averted. Then, with a
+burning brain he felt himself rudely transferred from the quarter deck
+into the centre and less privileged portion of the ship. The violence
+of the passage, the hurried reeving of cords, and all the fearful
+preparations of a nautical execution, appeared but the business of a
+moment, to him who stood so near the verge of time.
+
+“A yellow flag for punishment!” bawled there vengeful captain of the
+forecastle; “let the gentle man sail on his last cruise, under the
+rogue’s ensign!”
+
+“A yellow flag! a yellow flag!” echoed twenty taunting throats. “Down
+with the Rover’s ensign and up with the colours of the prevot-marshal!
+A yellow flag! a yellow flag!”
+
+The hoarse laughter, and mocking merriment, with which this coarse
+device was received, stirred the ire of Fid, who had submitted in
+silence, so far, to the rude treatment he received, for no other reason
+than that he thought his superior was the best qualified to utter the
+little which it might be necessary to say.
+
+“Avast, ye villains!” he hotly exclaimed, prudence and moderation
+losing their influence, under the excitement of scornful anger; “ye
+cut-throat, lubberly villains! That ye are villains, is to be proved,
+in your teeth, by your getting your sailing orders from the devil; and
+that ye are lubbers, any man may see by the fashion in which ye have
+rove this cord about my throat. A fine jam will ye make with a turn in
+your whip! But ye’ll all come to know how a man is to be decently
+hanged, ye rogues, ye will. Ye’ll all come honestly by the knowledge,
+in your day, ye will!”
+
+“Clear the turn, and run him up!” shouted one, two, three voices, in
+rapid succession; “a clear whip, and a swift run to heaven!”
+
+Happily a fresh burst of riotous clamour, from one of the hatchways,
+interrupted the intention; and then was heard the cry of,—
+
+“A priest! a priest! Pipe the rogues to prayers, before they take their
+dance on nothing!”
+
+The ferocious laughter with which the freebooters received this
+sneering proposal, was hushed as suddenly as though One answered to
+their mockery, from that mercy-seat whose power they so sacrilegiously
+braved, when a deep, menacing voice was heard in their midst, saying,—
+
+“By heaven, if touch, or look, be laid too boldly on a prisoner in this
+ship, he who offends had better beg the fate ye give these miserable
+men, than meet my anger. Stand off, I bid you, and let the chaplain
+approach!”
+
+Every bold hand was instantly withdrawn, and each profane lip was
+closed in trembling silence, giving the terrified and horror-stricken
+subject of their liberties room and opportunity to advance to the scene
+of punishment.
+
+“See,” said the Rover, in calmer but still deeply authoritative tones;
+“you are a minister of God, and your office is sacred charity: If you
+have aught to smooth the dying moment to fellow mortal, haste to impart
+it!”
+
+“In what have these offended?” demanded the divine, when power was
+given to speak.
+
+“No matter; it is enough that their hour is near. If you would lift
+your voice in prayer, fear nothing. The unusual sounds shall be welcome
+even here. Ay, and these miscreants, who so boldly surround you, shall
+kneel, and be mute, as beings whose souls are touched by the holy rite.
+Scoffers shall be dumb, and unbelievers respectful, at my beck.—Speak
+freely!”
+
+“Scourge of the seas!” commenced the chaplain, across whose pallid
+features a flash of holy excitement had cast its glow, “remorseless
+violator of the laws of man! audacious contemner of the mandates of
+your God! a fearful retribution shall avenge this crime. Is it not
+enough that you have this day consigned so many to a sudden end, but
+your vengeance must be glutted with more blood? Beware the hour when
+these things shall be visited, in almighty power on your own devoted
+head!”
+
+“Look!” said the Rover, smiling, but with an expression that was
+haggard, in spite of the unnatural exultation that struggled about his
+quivering lip, “here are the evidences of the manner in which Heaven
+protects the right!”
+
+“Though its awful justice be hidden in inscrutable wisdom for a time,
+deceive not thyself; the hour is at hand when it shall be seen and felt
+in majesty!”
+
+The voice of the chaplain became suddenly choaked, for his wandering
+eye had fallen on the frowning countenance of Bignall, which, set in
+death, lay but half concealed beneath that flag which the Rover himself
+had cast upon the body. Then, summoning his energies, he continued, in
+the clear and admonitory strain that befitted his sacred calling: “They
+tell me you are but half lost to feeling for your kind; and, though the
+seeds of better principles, of better days, are smothered in your
+heart, that they still exist and might be quickened into goodly”
+
+“Peace! You speak in vain. To your duty with these men, or be silent.”
+
+“Is their doom sealed?”
+
+“It is.”
+
+“Who says it?” demanded a low voice at the elbow of the Rover, which,
+coming upon his ear at that moment, thrilled upon his most latent
+nerve, chasing the blood from his cheek to the secret recesses of his
+frame. But the weakness had already passed away with the surprise, as
+he calmly, and almost instantly answered,—
+
+“The law.”
+
+“The law!” repeated the governess. “Can they who set all order at
+defiance, who despise each human regulation, talk of law! Say, it is
+heartless, vindictive vengeance, if you will; but call it not by the
+sacred name of law.—I wander from my object! They have told me of this
+frightful scene, and I am come to offer ransom for the offenders. Name
+your price, and let it be worthy of the subject we redeem; a grateful
+parent shall freely give it all for the preserver of his child.”
+
+“If gold will purchase the lives you wish,” the other interrupted, with
+the swiftness of thought, “it is here in hoards, and ready on the
+moment. What say my people! Will they take ransom?”
+
+A short, brooding pause succeeded; and then a low, ominous murmur was
+raised in the throng, announcing their reluctance to dispense with
+vengeance. A scornful glance shot from the glowing eye of the Rover,
+across the fierce countenances by which he was environed; his lips
+moved with vehemence; but, as if he disdained further intercession,
+nothing was uttered for the ear. Turning to the divine, he added, with
+all the former composure of his wonderful manner,—
+
+“Forget not your sacred office—time is leaving us.” He was then moving
+slowly aside, in imitation of the governess, who had already veiled her
+features from the revolting scene, when Wilder addressed him.
+
+“For the service you would have done me, from my soul I thank you,” he
+said. “If you would know that I leave you in peace, give yet one solemn
+assurance before I die.”
+
+“To what?”
+
+“Promise, that they who came with me into your ship shall leave it
+unharmed, and speedily.”
+
+“Promise, Walter,” said a solemn, smothered voice, in the throng.
+
+“I do.”
+
+“I ask no more.—Now, Reverend Minister of God, perform thy holy office,
+near my companions. Then ignorance may profit by your service. If I
+quit this bright and glorious scene, without thought and gratitude to
+that Being who, I humbly trust, has made me an heritor of still greater
+things, I offend wittingly and without hope. But these may find
+consolation in your prayers.”
+
+Amid an awful and breathing silence, the chaplain approached the
+devoted companions of Wilder. Their comparative insignificance had left
+them unobserved during most of the foregoing scene; and material
+changes had occurred, unheeded, in their situation. Fid was seated on
+the deck, his collar unbuttoned, his neck encircled with the fatal
+cord, sustaining the head of the nearly helpless black, which he had
+placed, with singular tenderness and care, in his lap.
+
+“This man, at least, will disappoint the malice of his enemies,” said
+the divine, taking the hard hand of the negro into his own; “the
+termination of his wrongs and his degradation approaches; he will soon
+be far beyond the reach of human injustice.—Friend, by what name is
+your companion known?”
+
+“It is little matter how you hail a dying man,” returned Richard, with
+at melancholy shake of the head. “He has commonly been entered on the
+ship’s books as Scipio Africa, coming, as he did, from the coast of
+Guinea; but, if you call him S’ip, he will not be slow to understand.”
+
+“Has he known baptism? Is he a Christian?”
+
+“If he be not, I don’t know who the devil is!” responded Richard, with
+an asperity that might be deemed a little unseasonable. “A man who
+serves his country, is true to his messmate, and has no skulk about
+him, I call a saint, so far as mere religion goes. I say, Guinea, my
+hearty, give the chaplain a gripe of the fist, if you call yourself a
+Christian. A Spanish windlass wouldn’t give a stronger screw than the
+knuckles of that nigger an hour ago; and, now, you see to what a giant
+may be brought.”
+
+“His latter moment is indeed near. Shall I offer a prayer for the
+health of the departing spirit?”
+
+“I don’t know, I don’t know!” answered Fid, gulping his words, and
+uttering a hem, that was still deep and powerful, as in the brightest
+and happiest of his days. “When there is so little time given to a poor
+fellow to speak his mind in, it may be well to let him have a chance to
+do most of the talking. Something may come uppermost which he would
+like to send to his friends in Africa; in which case, we may as well be
+looking out for a proper messenger. Hah! what is it, boy? You see he is
+already trying to rowse something up out of his ideas.”
+
+“Misser Fid—he’m take a collar,” said the black, struggling for
+utterance.
+
+“Ay, ay,” returned Richard, again clearing his throat, and looking to
+the right and left fiercely, as if he were seeking some object on which
+to wreak his vengeance. “Ay, ay, Guinea; put your mind at ease on that
+point, and for that matter on all others. You shall have a grave as
+deep as the sea, and Christian burial, boy, if this here parson will
+stand by his work. Any small message you may have for your friends
+shall be logg’d, and put in the way of coming to their ears. You have
+had much foul weather in your time, Guinea, and some squalls have
+whistled about your head, that might have been spaced, mayhap, had your
+colour been a shade or two lighter. For that matter, it may be that I
+have rode you down a little too close myself, boy, when over-heated
+with the conceit of skin; for all which may the Lord forgive me as
+freely as I hope you will do the same thing!”
+
+The negro made a fruitless effort to rise, endeavouring to grasp the
+hand of the other, saying, as he did so,—
+
+“Misser Fid beg a pardon of a black man! Masser aloft forget he’m all,
+misser Richard; he t’ink ’em no more.”
+
+“It will be what I call a d——’d generous thing, if he does,” returned
+Richard, whose sorrow and whose conscience had stirred up his uncouth
+feelings to an extraordinary degree. “There’s the affair of slipping
+off the wreck of the smuggler has never been properly settled atween
+us, neither; and many other small services of like nature, for which,
+d’ye see, I’ll just thank you, while there is opportunity; for no one
+can say whether we shall ever be borne again on the same ship’s books.”
+
+A feeble sign from his companion caused the topman to pause, while he
+endeavoured to construe its meaning as well as he was able. With a
+facility, that was in some degree owing to the character of the
+individual his construction of the other’s meaning was favourable to
+himself, as was quite evident by the manner in which he resumed,—
+
+“Well, well, mayhap we may. I suppose they birth the people there in
+some such order as is done here below, in which case we may be put
+within hailing distance, after all. Our sailing orders are both signed;
+though, as you seem likely to slip your cable before these thieves are
+ready to run me up, you will be getting the best of the wind. I shall
+not say much concerning any signals it may be necessary to make, in
+order to make one another out aloft taking it for granted that you will
+not overlook master Harry, on account of the small advantage you may
+have in being the first to shove off, intending myself to keep as close
+as possible in his wake, which will give me the twofold advantage of
+knowing I am on the right tack, and of falling in with you”—
+
+“These are evil words, and fatal alike to your own future peace, and to
+that of your unfortunate friend,” interrupted the divine. “His reliance
+must be placed on One, different in all his attributes from your
+officer, to follow whom, or to consult whose frail conduct, would be
+the height of madness. Place your faith on another”——
+
+“If I do, may I be——”
+
+“Peace,” said Wilder. “The black would speak to me.”
+
+Scipio had turned his looks in the direction of his officer, and was
+making another feeble effort towards extending his hand. As Wilder
+placed the member within the grasp of the dying negro, the latter
+succeeded in laying it on his lips, and then, flourishing with a
+convulsive movement that herculean arm which he had so lately and so
+successfully brandished in defence of his master, the limb stiffened
+and fell, though the eyes still continued their affectionate and
+glaring gaze on that countenance he had so long loved, and which, in
+the midst of all his long-endured wrongs, had never refused to meet his
+look of love in kindness. A low murmur followed this scene, and then
+complaints succeeded, in a louder strain, till more than one voice was
+heard openly muttering its discontent that vengeance should be so long
+delayed.
+
+“Away with them!” shouted an ill-omened voice from the throng. “Into
+the sea with the carcass, and up with the living.”
+
+“Avast!” burst out of the chest of Fid, with an awfulness and depth
+that stayed even the daring; movements of that lawless moment. “Who
+dare to cast a seaman into the brine, with the dying look standing in
+his lights, and his last words still in his messmate’s ears? Ha! would
+ye stopper the fins of a man as ye would pin a lobster’s claw! That for
+your fastenings and your lubberly knots together!” The excited topman
+snapped the lines by which his elbows had been imperfectly secured,
+while speaking and immediately lashed the body of the black to his own,
+though his words received no interruption from a process that was
+executed with all a seaman’s dexterity. “Where was the man in your
+lubberly crew that could lay upon a yard with this here black, or haul
+upon a lee-earing, while he held the weather-line? Could any one of ye
+all give up his rations, in order that a sick messmate might fare the
+better? or work a double tide, to spare the weak arm of a friend? Show
+me one who had as little dodge under fire, as a sound mainmast, and I
+will show you all that is left of his better. And now sway upon your
+whip, and thank God that the honest end goes up, while the rogues are
+suffered to keep their footing for a time.”
+
+“Sway away!” echoed Nightingale, seconding the hoarse sounds of his
+voice by the winding of his call; “away with them to heaven.”
+
+“Hold!” exclaimed the chaplain, happily arresting the cord before it
+had yet done its fatal office. “For His sake, whose mercy may one day
+be needed by the most hardened of ye all, give but another moment of
+time! What mean these words! read I aright? ‘Ark, of Lynnhaven!’”
+
+“Ay, ay,” said Richard, loosening the rope a little, in order to speak
+with greater freedom, and transferring the last morsel of the weed from
+his box to his mouth, as he answered; “seeing you are an apt scholar,
+no wonder you make it out so easily, though written by a hand that was
+always better with a marling-spike than a quill.”
+
+“But whence came the words? and why do you bear those names, thus
+written indelibly in the skin? Patience, men! monsters! demons! Would
+ye deprive the dying man of even a minute of that precious time which
+becomes so dear to all, as life is leaving us?”
+
+“Give yet another minute!” said a deep voice from behind.
+
+“Whence come the words, I ask?” again the chaplain demanded.
+
+“They are neither more nor less than the manner in which a circumstance
+was logged, which is now of no consequence, seeing that the cruise is
+nearly up with all who are chiefly concerned. The black spoke of the
+collar; but, then, he thought I might be staying in port, while he was
+drifting between heaven and earth, in search of his last moorings.”
+
+“Is there aught, here, that I should know?” interrupted the eager,
+tremulous voice of Mrs Wyllys. “O Merton! why these questions? Has my
+yearning been prophetic? Does nature give so mysterious a warning of
+its claim!”
+
+“Hush, dearest Madam! your thoughts wander from probabilities, and my
+faculties become confused.—‘Ark, of Lynnhaven,’ was the name of an
+estate in the islands, belonging to a near and dear friend, and it was
+the place where I received, and whence I sent to the main, the precious
+trust you confided to my care. But”——
+
+“Say on!” exclaimed the lady, rushing madly in front of Wilder, and
+seizing the cord which, a moment before, had been tightened nearly to
+his destruction stripping it from his throat, with a sort of
+supernatural dexterity: “It was not, then, the name of a ship?”
+
+“A ship! surely not. But what mean these hopes?—these fears?”
+
+“The collar? the collar? speak; what of that collar?”
+
+“It means no great things, now, my Lady,” returned Fid, very coolly
+placing himself in the same condition as Wilder, by profiting by the
+liberty of his arms, and loosening his own neck from the halter,
+notwithstanding a movement made by some of the people to prevent it,
+which was, however, staid by a look from their leader’s eyes. “I will
+first cast loose this here rope; seeing that it is neither decent, nor
+safe, for an ignorant man, like me, to enter into such unknown
+navigation, a-head of his officer. The collar was just the necklace of
+the dog, which is here to be seen on the arm of poor Guinea, who was,
+in most respects, a man for whose equal one might long look in vain.”
+
+“Read it,” said the governess, a film passing before her own eyes;
+“read it,” she added, motioning, with a quivering hand, to the divine
+to peruse the inscription, that was distinctly legible on the plate of
+brass.
+
+“Holy Dispenser of good! what is this I see? ‘Neptune, the property of
+Paul de Lacey!’”
+
+A loud cry burst from the lips of the governess; her hands were clasped
+one single instant upward, in that thanksgiving which oppressed her
+soul, and then, as recollection returned, Wilder was pressed fondly,
+frantickly to her bosom, while her voice was neard to say, in the
+piercing tones of all-powerful nature,—
+
+“My child! my child!—You will not—cannot—dare not, rob a long-stricken
+and bereaved mother of her offspring. Give me back my son, my noble
+son! and I will weary Heaven with prayers in your behalf. Ye are brave,
+and cannot be deaf to mercy. Ye are men, who have lived in constant
+view of God’s majesty, and will not refuse to listen to this evidence
+of his pleasure. Give me my child, and I yield all else. He is of a
+race long honoured upon the seas, and no mariner will be deaf to his
+claims. The widow of de Lacey, the daughter of ——— cries for mercy.
+Their united blood is in his veins, and it will not be spilt by you! A
+mother bows herself to the dust before you, to ask mercy for her
+offspring. Oh! give me my child! my child!”
+
+As the words of the petitioner died upon the ear a stillness settled on
+the place, that might have been likened to the holy calm which the
+entrance of better feelings leaves upon the soul of the sinner. The
+grim freebooters regarded each other in doubt; the workings of nature
+manifesting themselves in the gleamings of even their stern and
+hardened visages. Still, the desire for vengeance had got too firm a
+hold of their minds to be dispossessed at a word. The result would vet
+have been doubtful, had not one suddenly re-appeared in their midst who
+never ordered in vain; and who knew how to guide, to quell, or to mount
+and trample on their humours, as his own pleasure dictated. For half a
+minute, he looked around him, his eye still following the circle, which
+receded as he gazed, until even those longest accustomed to yield to
+his will began to wonder at the extraordinary aspect in which it was
+now exhibited. The gaze was wild and bewildered; and the face pallid as
+that of the petitioning mother. Three times did the lips sever, before
+sound issued from the caverns of his chest; then arose, on the
+attentive ears of the breathless and listening crowd, a voice that
+seemed equally charged with inward emotion and high authority. With a
+haughty gesture of the hand, and a manner that was too well understood
+to be mistaken, he said,—
+
+“Disperse! Ye know my justice; but ye know I will be obeyed. My
+pleasure shall be known tomorrow.”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXXII.
+
+“This is he;
+Who hath upon him still that natural stamp:
+It was wise Nature’s end in the donation,
+To be his evidence now.”
+
+_Shakespeare._
+
+
+That morrow came; and, with it, an entire change, in the scene and
+character of our tale. The “Dolphin” and the “Dart” were sailing in
+amity, side by side; the latter again bearing the ensign of England,
+and the former carrying a naked gaff. The injuries of the gust, and the
+combat, had so far been repaired, that, to a common eye, each gallant
+vessel was again prepared, equally to encounter the hazards of the
+ocean or of warfare. A long, blue, hazy streak, to the north,
+proclaimed the proximity of the land; and some three or four light
+coasters of that region, which were sailing nigh, announced how little
+of hostility existed in the present purposes of the freebooters.
+
+What those designs were, however, still remained a secret, buried in
+the bosom of the Rover alone.
+
+Doubt, wonder, and distrust were, each in its turn, to be traced, not
+only in the features of his captives, but in those of his own crew.
+Throughout the whole of the long night, which had succeeded the events
+of the important day just past, he had been seen to pace the poop in
+brooding silence. The little he had uttered was merely to direct the
+movements of the vessel; and when any ventured, with other design, to
+approach his person, a sign, that none there dared to disregard,
+secured him the solitude he wished. Once or twice, indeed, the boy
+Roderick was seen hovering at his elbow, but it was as a guardian
+spirit would be fancied to linger near the object of its care,
+unobtrusively, and, it might almost be added, invisible. When, however,
+the sun came burnished and glorious, out of the waters of the east a
+gun was fired, to bring a coaster to the side of the “Dolphin;” and
+then it seemed that the curtain was to be raised on the closing scene
+of the drama. With his crew assembled on the deck beneath, and the
+principal personages among his captives beside him on the poop, the
+Rover addressed the former.
+
+“Years have united us by a common fortune,” he said: “We have long been
+submissive to the same laws. If I have been prompt to punish, I have
+been ready to obey. You cannot charge me with injustice. But the
+covenant is now ended. I take back my pledge, and I return you your
+faiths. Nay, frown not—hesitate not—murmur not! The compact ceases and
+our laws are ended. Such were the conditions of the service. I give you
+your liberty, and little do I claim in return. That you need have no
+grounds of reproach, I bestow my treasure. See,” he added, raising that
+bloody ensign with which he had so often braved the power of the
+nations, and exhibiting beneath it sacks of that metal which has so
+long governed the world; “see! This was mine; it is now yours. It shall
+be put in yonder coaster: there I leave you, to bestow it, yourselves,
+on those you may deem most worthy. Go; the land is near. Disperse, for
+your own sakes: Nor hesitate; for, without me, well do ye know that
+vessel of the King would be your master. The ship is already mine, of
+all the rest, I claim these prisoners alone for my portion. Farewell!”
+
+Silent amazement succeeded this unlooked-for address. There was,
+indeed, for a moment, some disposition to rebel; but the measures of
+the Rover had been too well taken for resistance. The “Dart” lay on
+their beam, with her people at their guns, matches lighted, and a heavy
+battery. Unprepared, without a leader, and surprised, opposition would
+have been madness. The first astonishment had scarce abated, before
+each freebooter rushed to secure his individual effects, and to
+transfer them to the deck of the coaster. When all but the crew of a
+single boat had left the “Dolphin,” the promised gold was sent, and
+then the loaded craft was seen hastily seeking the shelter of some
+secret creek. During this scene, the Rover had again been silent as
+death. He next turned to Wilder; and, making a mighty but successful
+effort to still his feelings, he added,—
+
+“Now must we, too, part. I commend my wounded to your care. They are
+necessarily with your surgeons. I know the trust I give you will not be
+abused.”
+
+“My word is the pledge of their safety,” returned the young de Lacey.
+
+“I believe you.—Lady,” he added, approaching the elder of the females,
+with an air in which earnestness and hesitation strongly contended, “if
+a proscribed and guilty man may still address you, grant yet a favour.”
+
+“Name it; a mother’s ear can never be deaf to him who has spared her
+child.”
+
+“When you petition Heaven for that child, then forget not there is
+another being who may still profit by your prayers!—No more.—And now,”
+he continued looking about him like one who was determined to be equal
+to the pang of the moment, however difficult it might prove, and
+surveying, with an eye of painful regret, those naked decks which were
+so lately teeming with scenes of life and revelry; “and now—ay—now we
+part! The boat awaits you.”
+
+Wilder had soon seen his mother and Gertrude into the pinnace; but he
+still lingered on the deck himself.
+
+“And you!” he said, “what will become of you?”
+
+“I shall shortly be—forgotten.—Adieu!”
+
+The manner in which the Rover spoke forbade delay. The young man
+hesitated, squeezed his hand, and left him.
+
+When Wilder found himself restored to his proper vessel, of which the
+death of Bignall had left him in command, he immediately issued the
+order to fill her sails, and to steer for the nearest haven of his
+country. So long as sight could read the movements of the man who
+remained on the decks of the “Dolphin” not a look was averted from the
+still motionless object. She lay, with her maintop-sail to the mast,
+stationary as some beautiful fabric placed there by fairy power, still
+lovely in her proportions, and perfect in all her parts. A human form
+was seen swiftly pacing her poop, and, by its side, glided one who
+looked like a lessened shadow of that restless figure. At length
+distance swallowed these indistinct images; and then the eye was
+wearied, in vain, to trace the internal movements of the distant ship
+But doubt was soon ended. Suddenly a streak of flame flashed from her
+decks, springing fiercely from sail to sail. A vast cloud of smoke
+broke out of the hull, and then came the deadened roar of artillery. To
+this succeeded, for a time, the awful, and yet attractive spectacle of
+a burning ship. The whole was terminated by an immense canopy of smoke,
+and an explosion that caused the sails of the distant “Dart” to waver,
+as though the winds of the trades were deserting their eternal
+direction. When the cloud had lifted from the ocean, an empty waste of
+water was seen beneath; and none might mark the spot where so lately
+had floated that beautiful specimen of human ingenuity. Some of those
+who ascended to the upper masts of the cruiser, and were aided by
+glasses, believed, indeed, they could discern a solitary speck upon the
+sea; but whether it was a boat, or some fragment of the wreck, was
+never known.
+
+From that time, the history of the dreaded Red Rover became gradually
+lost, in the fresher incidents of those eventful seas. But the mariner,
+long after was known to shorten the watches of the night, by recounting
+scenes of mad enterprise that were thought to have occurred under his
+auspices. Rumour did not fail to embellish and pervert them, until the
+real character, and even name, of the individual were confounded with
+the actors of other atrocities. Scenes of higher and more ennobling
+interest, too, were occurring on the Western Continent, to efface the
+circumstances of a legend that many deemed wild and improbable. The
+British colonies of North America had revolted against the government
+of the Crown, and a weary war was bringing the contest to a successful
+issue. Newport, the opening scene of this tale, had been successively
+occupied by the arms of the King, and by those of that monarch who had
+sent the chivalry of his nation to aid in stripping his rival of her
+vast possessions.
+
+The beautiful haven had sheltered hostile fleets, and the peaceful
+villas had often rung with the merriment of youthful soldiers. More
+than twenty years, after the events just related, had been added to the
+long record of time, when the island town witnessed the rejoicings of
+another festival. The allied forces had compelled the most enterprising
+leader of the British troops to yield himself and army captives to
+their numbers and skill. The struggle was believed to be over, and the
+worthy townsmen had, as usual, been loud in the manifestations of their
+pleasure. The rejoicings, however, ceased with the day; and as night
+gathered over the place, the little city was resuming its customary
+provincial tranquillity. A gallant frigate, which lay in the very spot
+where the vessel of the Rover has first been seen, had already lowered
+the gay assemblage of friendly ensigns, which had been spread in the
+usual order of a gala day. A flag of intermingled colours, and bearing
+a constellation of bright and rising stars, alone was floating at her
+gaff. Just at this moment, another cruiser, but one of far less
+magnitude, was seen entering the roadstead, bearing also the friendly
+ensign of the new States. Headed by the tide, and deserted by the
+breeze, she soon dropped an anchor, in the pass between Connanicut and
+Rhodes, when a boat was seen making for the inner harbour, impelled by
+the arms of six powerful rowers. As the barge approached a retired and
+lonely wharf, a solitary observer of its movements was enabled to see
+that it contained a curtained litter, and a single female form. Before
+the curiosity which such a sight would be apt to create, in the breast
+of one like the spectator mentioned, had time to exercise itself in
+conjectures, the oars were tossed, the boat had touched the piles, and,
+borne by the seamen, the litter, attended by the woman, stood before
+him.
+
+“Tell me, I pray you,” said a voice, in whose tones grief and
+resignation were singularly combined, “if Captain Henry de Lacey, of
+the continental marine, has a residence in this town of Newport?”
+
+“That has he,” answered the aged man addressed by the female; “that has
+he; or, as one might say, two; since yonder frigate is no less his than
+the dwelling on the hill, just by.”
+
+“Thou art too old to point us out the way; but, if grandchild, or idler
+of any sort, be near, here is silver to reward him.”
+
+“Lord help you, Lady!” returned the other, casting an oblique glance at
+her appearance, as a sort of salvo for the term, and pocketing the
+trifling piece she offered, with singular care; “Lord help you, Madam!
+old though I am, and something worn down by hardships and marvellous
+adventures, both by sea land, yet will I gladly do so small an office
+for one of your condition. Follow, and you shall see that your pilot is
+not altogether unused to the path.”
+
+The old man turned, and was leading the way off the wharf, even before
+he had completed the assurance of his boasted ability. The seamen and
+the female followed; the latter walking sorrowfully and in silence by
+the side of the litter.
+
+“If you have need of refreshment,” said their guide, pointing over his
+shoulder, “yonder is a well known inn, and one much frequented in its
+time by mariners. Neighbour Joram and the ‘Foul Anchor’ have had a
+reputation in their day, as well as the greatest warrior in the land;
+and, though honest Joe is gathered-in for the general harvest, the
+house stands as firm as the day he first entered it. A goodly end he
+made, and profitable is it to the weak-minded sinner to keep such an
+example before his eyes!”
+
+A low, smothered sound issued from the litter but, though the guide
+stopped to listen, it was succeeded by no other evidence of the
+character of its tenant.
+
+“The sick man is in suffering,” he resumed; “but bodily pain, and all
+afflictions which we suffer in the flesh, must have their allotted
+time. I have lived to see seven bloody and cruel wars, of which this,
+which now rages, is, I humbly trust, to be the last. Of the wonders
+which I witnessed, and the bodily dangers which I compassed, in the
+sixth, eye hath never beheld, nor can tongue utter, their equal!”
+
+“Time hath dealt hardly by you, friend,” meekly interrupted the female.
+“This gold may add a few more comfortable days to those that are
+already past.”
+
+The cripple, for their conductor was lame as well as aged, received the
+offering with gratitude, apparently too much occupied in estimating its
+amount, to give any more of his immediate attention to the discourse.
+In the deep silence that succeeded, the party reached the door of the
+villa they sought.
+
+It was now night; the short twilight of the season having disappeared,
+while the bearers of the litter had been ascending the hill. A loud rap
+was given on the door by the guide; and then he was told that his
+services were no longer needed.
+
+“I have seen much and hard service,” he replied, “and well do I know
+that the prudent manner does not dismiss the pilot, until the ship is
+safely moored. Perhaps old Madam de Lacey is abroad, or the Captain
+himself may not”——
+
+“Enough; here is one who will answer all our questions.”
+
+The portal was now, in truth, opened; and a man appeared on its
+threshold, holding a light. The appearance of the porter was not,
+however, of the most encouraging aspect. A certain air, which can
+neither be assumed nor gotten rid of, proclaimed him a son of the
+ocean, while a wooden limb, which served to prop a portion of his still
+square and athletic body, sufficiently proved he was one who had not
+attained the experience of his hardy calling without some bodily risk.
+His countenance, as he held the light above his head, in order to scan
+the persons of the groupe without, was dogmatic, scowling, and a little
+fierce. He was not long, however, in recognizing the cripple, of whom
+he unceremoniously demanded the object of what he was pleased to term
+“such a night squall.”
+
+“Here is a wounded mariner,” returned the female with tones so
+tremulous that they instantly softened the heart of the nautical
+Cerberus, “who is come to claim hospitality of a brother in the
+service; and shelter for the night. We would speak with Captain Henry
+de Lacey.”
+
+“Then you have struck soundings on the right coast, Madam,” returned
+the tar, “as master Paul here, will say in the name of his father, no
+less than in that of the sweet lady his mother; not forgetting old
+madam his grandam, who is no fresh-water fish herself, for that
+matter.”
+
+“That he will,” said a fine, manly youth of some seventeen years, who
+wore the attire of one who was already in training for the seas, and
+who was looking curiously over the shoulder of the elderly seaman. “I
+will acquaint my father of the visit, and, Richard—do you seek out a
+proper birth for our guests, without delay.”
+
+This order, which was given with the air of one who had been accustomed
+to act for himself, and to speak with authority, was instantly obeyed.
+The apartment, selected by Richard, was the ordinary parlour of the
+dwelling. Here, in a few moments, the litter was deposited; the bearers
+were then dismissed and the female only was left, with its tenant and
+the rude attendant, who had not hesitated to give them so frank a
+reception. The latter busied himself in trimming the lights, and in
+replenishing a bright wood fire; taking care, at the same time, that no
+unnecessary vacuum should occur in the discourse, to render the brief
+interval, necessary for the appearance of his superiors, tedious.
+During this state of things an inner door was opened, the youth already
+named leading the way for the three principal personages of the
+mansion.
+
+First came a middle-aged, athletic man, in the naval undress of a
+Captain of the new States. His look was calm, and his step was still
+firm, though time and exposure were beginning to sprinkle his head with
+gray. He wore one arm in a sling, a proof that his service was still
+recent; on the other leaned a lady, in whose matronly mien, but still
+blooming cheek and bright eyes, were to be traced most of the ripened
+beauties of her sex. Behind them followed a third, a female also, whose
+step was less elastic but whose person continued to exhibit the
+evidences of a peaceful evening to the troubled day of life. The three
+courteously saluted the stranger, delicately refraining from making any
+precipitate allusion to the motive of her visit. Their reserve seemed
+necessary; for, by the agitation which shook the shattered frame of one
+who appeared as much sinking with grief as infirmity, it was too
+apparent that the unknown lady needed a little time to collect her
+energies and to arrange her thoughts.
+
+She wept long and bitterly, as though alone; nor did she essay to speak
+until further silence would have become suspicious. Then, drying her
+eyes, and with cheeks on which a bright, hectic spot was seated, her
+voice was heard for the first time by her wondering hosts.
+
+“You may deem this visit an intrusion,” she said; “but one, whose will
+is my law, would be brought hither.”
+
+“Wherefore?” asked the officer, with mildness, observing that her voice
+was already choaked.
+
+“To die!” was the whispered, husky answer.
+
+A common start manifested the surprise of her auditors; and then the
+gentleman arose, and approaching the litter, he gently drew aside a
+curtain, exposing its hitherto unseen tenant to the examination of all
+in the room. There was understanding in the look that met his gaze,
+though death was but too plainly stamped on the pallid lineaments of
+the wounded man. His eye alone seemed still to belong to earth; for,
+while all around it appeared already to be sunk into the helplessness
+of the last stage of human debility that was still bright, intelligent,
+and glowing—might almost have been described as glaring.
+
+“Is there aught in which we can contribute to your comfort, or to your
+wishes?” asked Captain de Lacey, after a long and solemn pause, during
+which all around the litter had mournfully contemplated the sad
+spectacle of sinking mortality.
+
+The smile of the dying man was ghastly, though tenderness and sorrow
+were singularly and fearfully combined in its expression. He answered
+not; but his eyes had wandered from face to face, until they became
+riveted, by a species of charm, on the countenance of the oldest of the
+two females. His gaze was met by a look as settled as his own; and so
+evident was the powerful sympathy which existed between the two, that
+it could not escape the observation of the spectators.
+
+“Mother!” said the officer, with affectionate concern; “my mother! what
+troubles you?”
+
+“Henry—Gertrude,” answered the venerable parent extending her arms to
+her offspring, as if she asked support; “my children, your doors have
+been opened to one who has a claim to enter them. Oh! it is in these
+terrible moments, when passion is asleep and our weakness is most
+apparent, in these moments of debility and disease, that nature so
+strongly manifests its impression! I see it all in that fading
+countenance, in those sunken features, where so little is left but the
+last lingering look of family and kindred!”
+
+“Kindred!” exclaimed Captain de Lacey: “Of what affinity is our guest?”
+
+“A brother!” answered the lady, dropping her head on her bosom, as
+though she had proclaimed a degree of consanguinity which gave pain no
+less than pleasure.
+
+The stranger, too much overcome himself to speak, made a joyful gesture
+of assent, but never averted a gaze that seemed destined to maintain
+its direction so long as life should lend it intelligence.
+
+“A brother!” repeated her son, in unfeigned astonishment. “I knew you
+had a brother: but I had thought him dead a boy.”
+
+“’Twas so I long believed, myself; though frightful glimpses of the
+contrary have often beset me; but now the truth is too plain, in that
+fading visage and those fallen features, to be misunderstood. Poverty
+and misfortune divided us. I suppose we thought each other dead.”
+
+Another feeble gesture proclaimed the assent of the wounded man.
+
+“There is no further mystery. Henry, the stranger is thy uncle—my
+brother—once my pupil!”
+
+“I could wish to see him under happier circumstances,” returned the
+officer, with a seaman’s frankness; “but, as a kinsman, he is welcome.
+Poverty, at least, shall no longer divide you.”
+
+“Look, Henry—Gertrude!” added the mother, veiling her own eyes as she
+spoke, “that face is no stranger to you. See ye not the sad ruins of
+one ye both fear and love?”
+
+Wonder kept her children mute, though both looked until sight became
+confused, so long and intense was their examination. Then a hollow
+sound, which came from the chest of the stranger, caused them both to
+start; and, as his low, but distinct enunciation rose on their ears,
+doubt and perplexity vanished.
+
+“Wilder,” he said, with an effort in which his utmost strength appeared
+exerted, “I have come to ask the last office at your hands.”
+
+“Captain Heidegger!” exclaimed the officer.
+
+“The Red Rover!” murmured the younger Mrs. de Lacey, involuntarily
+recoiling a pace from the litter in alarm.
+
+“The Red Rover!” repeated her son, pressing nigher with ungovernable
+curiosity.
+
+“Laid by the heels at last!” bluntly observed Fid stumping up towards
+the groupe, without relinquishing the tongs, which he had kept in
+constant use, as an apology for remaining in the presence.
+
+“I had long hid my repentance, and my shame, together,” continued the
+dying man, when the momentary surprise had a little abated; “but this
+war drew me from my concealment. Our country needed us both, and both
+has she had! You have served as one who never offended might serve; but
+a cause so holy was not to be tarnished by a name like mine. May the
+little I have done for good be remembered when the world speaks of the
+evil of my hands! Sister—mother—pardon!”
+
+“May that God, who forms his creatures with such fearful natures, look
+mercifully on all our weaknesses!” exclaimed the weeping Mrs de Lacey,
+bowing to her knees, and lifting her hands and eyes to heaven “O
+brother, brother! you have been trained in the holy mystery of your
+redemption, and need not now be told on what Rock to place your hopes
+of pardon!”
+
+“Had I never forgotten those precepts, my name would still be known
+with honour. But, Wilder!” he added with startling energy, “Wilder!—”
+
+All eyes were bent eagerly on the speaker. His hand was holding a roll
+on which he had been reposing as on a pillow. With a supernatural
+effort, his form arose on the litter; and, with both hands elevated
+above his head, he let fall before him that blazonry of intermingled
+stripes, with its blue field of rising stars, a glow of high exultation
+illumining each feature of his face, as in his former day of pride.
+
+“Wilder!” he repeated, laughing hysterically, “we have triumphed!”—Then
+he fell backward, without motion, the exulting lineaments settling in
+the gloom of death, as shadows obscure the smiling brightness of the
+sun.
+
+The End.
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Red Rover, by James Fenimore Cooper
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11409 ***