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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Richard Carvel, Volume 3, by Winston Churchill
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Richard Carvel, Volume 3
+
+Author: Winston Churchill
+
+Release Date: October 18, 2004 [EBook #5367]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD CARVEL, VOLUME 3 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+RICHARD CARVEL
+
+By Winston Churchill
+
+Volume 3.
+
+
+XIII.  Mr. Allen shows his Hand
+XIV.   The Volte Coupe
+XV.    Of which the Rector has the Worst
+XVI.   In which Some Things are made Clear
+XVII.  South River
+XVIII. The Black Moll
+XIX.   A Man of Destiny
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+MR. ALLEN SHOWS HIS HAND
+
+So Dorothy's beauty had taken London by storm, even as it had conquered
+Annapolis! However, 'twas small consolation to me to hear his Grace of
+Chartersea called a pig and a profligate while better men danced her
+attendance in Mayfair. Nor, in spite of what his Lordship had said, was
+I quite easy on the score of the duke. It was in truth no small honour
+to become a duchess. If Mr. Marmaduke had aught to say, there was an end
+to hope. She would have her coronet. But in that hour of darkness I
+counted upon my lady's spirit.
+
+Dr. Courtenay came to the assembly very late, with a new fashion
+of pinchbeck buckles on his pumps and a new manner of taking snuff.
+(I caught Fotheringay practising this by the stairs shortly after.)
+Always an important man, the doctor's prominence had been increased that
+day by the letter he had received. He was too thorough a courtier to
+profess any grief over Miss Manners's match, and went about avowing that
+he had always predicted a duke for Miss Dorothy. And he drew a deal of
+pleasure from the curiosity of those who begged but one look at the
+letter. Show it, indeed! For no consideration. A private communication
+from one gentleman to another must be respected. Will Fotheringay swore
+the doctor was a sly dog, and had his own reasons for keeping it to
+himself.
+
+The doctor paid his compliment to the captain of the Thunderer, and to
+his Lordship; hoped that he would see them at the meet on the morrow,
+tho' his gout forbade his riding to hounds. He saluted me in the most
+friendly way, for I played billiards with him at the Coffee House now,
+and he won my money. He had pronounced my phaeton to be as well
+appointed as any equipage in town, and had done me the honour to
+drive out with me on several occasions. It was Betty that brought
+him humiliation that evening.
+
+"What do you think of the soar our Pandora hath taken, Miss Betty?"
+says he. "From a Maryland manor to a ducal palace. 'Tis a fable, egad!
+No less!"
+
+"Indeed, I think it is," retorted Betty. "Mark me, doctor, Dorothy will
+not put up an instant with a roue and a brute."
+
+"A roue!" cries he, "and a brute! What the plague, Miss Tayloe!
+I vow I do not understand you."
+
+"Then ask my Lord Comyn, who knows your Duke of Chartersea," said Betty.
+
+Dr. Courtenay's expression was worth a pistole.
+
+"Comyn know him!" he repeated.
+
+"That he does," replied Betty, laughing. "His Lordship says Chartersea
+is a pig and a profligate, and I remember not what else. And that Dolly
+will not look at him. And so little Mr. Marmaduke may go a-hunting for
+another title."
+
+No wonder I had little desire for dancing that night! I wandered out of
+the assembly-room and through the silent corridors of the Stadt House,
+turning over and over again what I had heard, and picturing Dorothy
+reigning over the macaronies of St. James's Street. She had said nothing
+of this in her letter to Betty, and had asked me to write to her. But
+now, with a duke to refuse or accept, could she care to hear from her old
+playmate? I took no thought of the time, until suddenly my conscience
+told me I had neglected Patty.
+
+As I entered the hall I saw her at the far end of it talking to Mr.
+Allen. This I thought strange, for I knew she disliked him. Lord Comyn
+and Mr. Carroll, the barrister, and Singleton, were standing by,
+listening. By the time I was halfway across to them the rector turned
+away. I remember thinking afterwards that he changed colour when he
+said: "Your servant, Mr. Richard." But I thought nothing of it at the
+time, and went on to Patty.
+
+"I have come for a country dance, before we go, Patty," I said.
+
+Then something in her mien struck me. Her eyes expressed a pain I had
+remarked in them before only when she spoke to me of Tom, and her lips
+were closed tightly. She flushed, and paled, and looked from Singleton
+to Mr. Carroll. They and his Lordship remained silent.
+
+"I--I cannot, Richard. I am going home," she said, in a low voice.
+
+"I will see if the chariot is here," I answered, surprised, but thinking
+of Tom.
+
+She stopped me.
+
+"I am going with Mr. Carroll," she said.
+
+I hope a Carvel never has to be rebuffed twice, nor to be humbled by
+craving an explanation before a company. I was confounded that Patty
+should treat me thus, when I had done nothing to deserve it. As I made
+for the door, burning and indignant, I felt as tho' every eye in the room
+was upon me.' Young Harvey drove me that night.
+
+"Marlboro' Street, Mr. Richard?" said he.
+
+"Coffee House," replied I, that place coming first into my head.
+
+Young Harvey seldom took liberties; but he looked down from the box.
+
+"Better home, sir; your pardon, sir."
+
+"D--n it!" I cried, "drive where I bid you!"
+
+I pulled down the fore-glass, though the night was cold, and began to
+cast about for the cause of Patty's action. And then it was the rector
+came to my mind. Yes, he had been with her just before I came up, and I
+made sure on the instant that my worthy instructor was responsible for
+the trouble. I remembered that I had quarrelled with him the morning
+before I had gone to Bentley Manor, and threatened to confess his villany
+and my deceit to Mr. Carvel. He had answered me with a sneer and a dare.
+I knew than Patty put honour and honesty before all else in the world,
+and that she would not have suffered my friendship for a day had she
+believed me to lack either. But she, who knew me so well, was not likely
+to believe anything he might say without giving me the chance to clear
+myself. And what could he have told her?
+
+I felt my anger growing big within me, until I grew afraid of what I
+would do if I were tempted. I had a long score and a heavy score against
+this rector of St. Anne's,--a score that had been gathering these years.
+And I felt that my uncle was somewhere behind him; that the two of them
+were plotters against me, even as Harvey had declared; albeit my Uncle
+Grafton was little seen in his company now. And finally, in a sinister
+flash of revelation, came the thought that Grafton himself was at the
+back of this deception of my grandfather, as to my principles. Fool that
+I was, it had never occurred to me before. But how was he to gain by it?
+Did he hope that Mr. Carvel, in a fit of anger, would disinherit me when
+he found I had deceived him? Yes. And so had left the matter in
+abeyance near these two years, that the shock might be the greater when
+it came. I recalled now, with a shudder, that never since the spring of
+my grandfather's illness had my uncle questioned me upon my politics.
+I was seized with a fit of fury. I suspected that Mr. Allen would be
+at the Coffee House after the assembly. And I determined to seize the
+chance at once and have it out with him then and there.
+
+The inn was ablaze, but as yet deserted; Mr. Claude expectant. He bowed
+me from my chariot door, and would know what took me from the ball. I
+threw him some short answer, bade Harvey go home, saying that I would
+have some fellow light me to Marlboro' Street when I thought proper. And
+coming into the long room I flung aside my greatcoat and commanded a
+flask of Mr. Stephen Bordley's old sherry, some of which Mr. Claude had
+obtained at that bachelor's demise.
+
+The wine was scarce opened before I heard some sort of stir at the front,
+and two servants in a riding livery of scarlet and white hurried in to
+seek Mr. Claude. The sight of them sufficed mine host, for he went out
+as fast as his legs would go, giving the bell a sharp pull as he passed
+the door; and presently I heard him complimenting two gentlemen into
+the house. The voice of one I knew,--being no other than Captain
+Clapsaddle's; and him I had not seen for the past six months. I was
+just risen to my feet when they came in at the door beside me.
+
+"Richard!" cried the captain, and grasped my hand in both his own.
+I returned his pressure, too much pleased to speak. Then his eye was
+caught by my finery.
+
+"So ho!" says he, shaking his head at me for a sad rogue. "Wine and
+women and fine clothes, and not nineteen, or I mistake me. It was so
+with Captain Jack, who blossomed in a week; and few could vie with him,
+I warrant you, after he made his decision. But bless me!" he went on,
+drawing back, "the lad looks mature, and a fair two inches broader than
+last spring. But why are you not at the assembly, Richard?"
+
+"I have but now come from there, sir," I replied, not caring in the
+presence of a stranger to enter into reasons.
+
+At my answer the captain turned from me to the gentleman behind him, who
+had been regarding us both as we talked. There are some few men in the
+world, I thank God for it, who bear their value on their countenance; who
+stand unmistakably for qualities which command respect and admiration and
+love! We seem to recognize such men, and to wonder where we have seen
+them before. In reality we recognize the virtues they represent. So it
+was with him I saw in front of me, and by his air and carriage I marked
+him then and there as a man born to great things. You all know his face,
+my dears, and I pray God it may live in the sight of those who come after
+you, for generation upon generation!
+
+"Colonel Washington," said the captain, "this is Mr. Richard Carvel, the
+son of Captain Carvel."
+
+Mr. Washington did not speak at once. He stood regarding me a full
+minute, his eye seeming to penetrate the secrets of my life. And I take
+pride in saying it was an eye I could meet without flinching.
+
+"Your father was a brave man, sir," he said soberly, "and it seems you
+favour him. I am happy in knowing the son."
+
+For a moment he stood debating whether he would go to the house of one of
+his many friends in Annapolis, knowing that they would be offended when
+they learned he had stopped at the inn. He often came to town, indeed,
+but seldom tarried long; and it had never been my fortune to see him.
+Being arrived unexpectedly, and obliged to be away early on the morrow,
+he decided to order rooms of Mr. Claude, sat down with me at the table,
+and commenced supper. They had ridden from Alexandria. I gathered from
+their conversation that they were on their way to Philadelphia upon
+some private business, the nature of which, knowing Captain Daniel's
+sentiments and those of Colonel Washington, I went not far to guess.
+The country was in a stir about the Townshend duties; and there being
+some rumour that all these were to be discharged save only that on tea,
+anxiety prevailed in our middle colonies that the merchants of New York
+would abandon the association formed and begin importation. It was of
+some mission to these merchants that I suspected them.
+
+As I sat beside Colonel Washington, I found myself growing calmer, and
+ashamed of my lack of self-control. Unconsciously, when we come in
+contact with the great of character, we mould our minds to their
+qualities. His very person seemed to exhale, not sanctity, but virility.
+I felt that this man could command himself and others. In his presence
+self-command came to me, as a virtue gone out of him. 'Twas not his
+speech, I would have you know, that took hold of me. He was by no means
+a brilliant talker, and I had the good fortune to see him at his ease,
+since he and the captain were old friends. As they argued upon the
+questions of the day, the colonel did not seek to impress by words,
+or to fascinate by manner. His opinions were calm and moderate,
+and appeared to me so just as to admit of no appeal. He scrupled not
+to use a forceful word when occasion demanded. And yet, now and then,
+he had a lively way about him with all his dignity. When he had finished
+his supper he bade Mr. Claude bring another bottle of Mr. Bordley's
+sherry, having tested mine, and addressed himself to me.
+
+He would know what my pursuits had been; for my father's sake, what were
+my ambitions? He questioned me about Mr. Carvel's plantation, of which
+he had heard, and appeared pleased with the answers I gave as to its
+management and methods. Captain Daniel was no less so. Mr. Washington
+had agriculture at his finger ends, and gave me some advice which he had
+found serviceable at Mount Vernon.
+
+"'Tis a pity, Richard," said he, smiling thoughtfully at the captain,
+"'tis a pity we have no service afield open to our young men. One of
+your spirit and bearing should be of that profession. Captain Jack was
+as brave and dashing an officer as I ever laid eyes on."
+
+I hesitated, the tingling at the compliment.
+
+"I begin to think I was born for the sea, sir," I answered, at length.
+
+"What!" cried the captain; "what news is this, Richard? 'Slife! how has
+this come about?"
+
+My anger subdued by Mr. Washington's presence, a curious mood had taken
+its place. A foolish mood, I thought it, but one of feeling things to
+come.
+
+"I believe I shall one day take part in a great sea-fight," I said.
+And, tho' ashamed to speak of it, I told him of Stanwix's prophecy
+that I should pace the decks of a man-o'-war.
+
+"A pox on Stanwix!" said the captain, "an artful old seadog! I never
+yet knew one who did not think the sun rises and sets from poop to
+forecastle, who did not wheedle with all the young blood to get them
+to follow a bow-legged profession."
+
+Colonel Washington laughed.
+
+"Judge not, Clapsaddle," said he; "here are two of us trying to get the
+lad for our own bow-legged profession. We are as hot as Methodists to
+convert."
+
+"Small conversion he needed when I was here to watch him, colonel. And
+he rides with any trooper I ever laid eyes on. Why, sir, I myself threw
+him on a saddle before he could well-nigh walk, and 'twere a waste of
+material to put him in the navy."
+
+"But what this old man said of a flag not yet seen in heaven or earth
+interests me," said Colonel Washington. "Tell me," he added with a
+penetration we both remarked, "tell me, does your Captain Stanwix follow
+the times? Is he a man to read his prints and pamphlets? In other
+words, is he a man who might predict out of his own heated imagination?"
+
+"Nay, sir," I answered, "he nods over his tobacco the day long. And I
+will make bold to swear, he has never heard of the Stamp Act."
+
+"'Tis strange," said the colonel, musing; "I have heard of this second
+sight--have seen it among my own negroes. But I heartily pray that this
+may be but the childish fancy of an old mariner. How do you interpret
+it, sir?" he added, addressing himself to me.
+
+"If a prophecy, I can interpret it in but one way," I began, and there I
+stopped.
+
+"To be sure," said Mr. Washington. He studied me awhile as though
+weighing my judgment, and went on: "Needless to say, Richard, that such a
+service, if it comes, will not be that of his Majesty."
+
+"And it were, colonel, I would not embark in it a step," I cried.
+
+He laughed.
+
+"The lad has his father's impulse," he said to Captain Daniel.
+"But I thought old Mr. Carvel to be one of the warmest loyalists
+in the colonies."
+
+I bit my lip; for, since that unhappy deception of Mr. Carvel, I had not
+meant to be drawn into an avowal of my sentiments. But I had, alas,
+inherited a hasty tongue.
+
+"Mr. Washington," said the captain, "old Mr. Carvel has ever been a good
+friend to me. And, though I could not but perceive which way the lad was
+tending, I had held it but a poor return for friendship had I sought by
+word or deed to bring him to my way of thinking. Nor have I ever
+suffered his views in my presence."
+
+"My dear sir, I honour you for it," put in the colonel, warmly.
+
+"It is naught to my credit," returned the captain. "I would not, for the
+sake of my party and beliefs, embitter what remains of my old friend's
+life."
+
+I drew a long breath and drained the full glass before me.
+
+"Captain Daniel!" I cried, "you must hear me now. I have been waiting
+your coming these months. And if Colonel Washington gives me leave,
+I will speak before him."
+
+The colonel bade me proceed, avowing that Captain Carvel's son should
+have his best assistance.
+
+With that I told them the whole story of Mr. Allen's villany. How I had
+been sent to him because of my Whig sentiments, and for thrashing a Tory
+schoolmaster and his flock. This made the gentlemen laugh, tho' Captain
+Daniel had heard it before. I went on to explain how Mr. Carvel had
+fallen ill, and was like to die; and how Mr. Allen, taking advantage of
+his weakness when he rose from his bed, had gone to him with the lie of
+having converted me. But when I told of the scene between my grandfather
+and me at Carvel Hall, of the tears of joy that the old gentleman shed,
+and of how he had given me Firefly as a reward, the captain rose from his
+chair and looked out of the window into the blackness, and swore a great
+oath all to himself. And the expression I saw come into the colonel's
+eyes I shall never forget.
+
+"And you feared the consequences upon your grandfather's health?" he
+asked gravely.
+
+"So help me God!" I answered, "I truly believe that to have undeceived
+him would have proved fatal."
+
+"And so, for the sake of the sum he receives for teaching you," cried the
+captain, with another oath, "this scoundrelly clergyman has betrayed you
+into a lie. A scheme, by God's life! worthy of a Machiavelli!"
+
+"I have seen too many of his type in our parishes," said Mr. Washington;
+"and yet the bishop of London seems powerless. And so used have we
+become in these Southern colonies to tippling and gaming parsons,
+that I warrant his people accept him as nothing out of the common."
+
+"He is more discreet than the run of them, sir. His parishioners dislike
+him, not because of his irregularities, but because he is attempting to
+obtain All Saints from his Lordship, in addition to St. Anne's. He is
+thought too greedy."
+
+He was silent, his brow a little furrowed, and drummed with his fingers
+upon the table.
+
+"But this I cannot reconcile," said he, presently, "that the reward is
+out of all proportion to the risk. Such a clever rascal must play for
+higher stakes."
+
+I was amazed at his insight. And for the moment was impelled to make
+a clean breast of my suspicions,--nay, of my convictions of the whole
+devil's plot. But I had no proofs. I remembered that to the colonel
+my uncle was a gentleman of respectability and of wealth, and a member
+of his Excellency's Council. That to accuse him of scheming for my
+inheritance would gain me nothing in Mr. Washington's esteem. And I
+caught myself before I had said aught of Mr. Allen's conduct that
+evening.
+
+"Have you confronted this rector with his perfidy, Richard?" he asked.
+
+"I have, colonel, at my first opportunity." And I related how Mr. Allen
+had come to the Hall, and what I had said to him, and how he had behaved.
+And finally told of the picquet we now had during lessons, not caring to
+shield myself. Both listened intently, until the captain broke out.
+Mr. Washington's indignation was the stronger for being repressed.
+
+"I will call him out!" cried Captain Daniel, fingering his sword, as was
+his wont when angered; "I will call him out despite his gown, or else
+horse him publicly!"
+
+"No, my dear sir, you will do nothing of the kind," said the colonel.
+"You would gain nothing by it for the lad, and lose much. Such rascals
+walk in water, and are not to be tracked. He cannot be approached save
+through Mr. Lionel Carvel himself, and that channel, for Mr. Carvel's
+sake, must be closed."
+
+"But he must be shown up!" cried the captain.
+
+"What good will you accomplish?" said Mr. Washington; "Lord Baltimore is
+notorious, and will not remove him. Nay, sir, you must find a way to get
+the lad from his influence." And he asked me how was my grandfather's
+health at present.
+
+I said that he had mended beyond my hopes.
+
+"And does he seem to rejoice that you are of the King's party?"
+
+"Nay, sir. Concerning politics he seems strangely apathetic, which makes
+me fear he is not so well as he appears. All his life he has felt
+strongly."
+
+"Then I beg you, Richard, take pains to keep neutral. Nor let any
+passing event, however great, move you to speech or action."
+
+The captain shook his head doubtfully, as tho' questioning the ability of
+one of my temper to do this.
+
+"I do not trust myself, sir," I answered.
+
+He rose, declaring it was past his hour for bed, and added some kind
+things which I shall cherish in my memory. As he was leaving he laid his
+hand on my shoulder.
+
+"One word of advice, my lad," he said. "If by any chance your
+convictions are to come to your grandfather's ears, let him have them
+from your own lips." And he bade me good night.
+
+The captain tarried but a moment longer.
+
+"I have a notion who is to blame for this, Richard," he said. "When I
+come back from New York, we shall see what we shall see."
+
+"I fear he is too slippery for a soldier to catch," I answered.
+
+He went away to bed, telling me to be prudent, and mind the colonel's
+counsel until he returned from the North.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE VOLTE COUPE
+
+I was of a serious mind to take the advice. To prove this I called for
+my wrap-rascal and cane, and for a fellow with a flambeau to light me.
+But just then the party arrived from the assembly. I was tempted, and
+I sat down again in a corner of the room, resolved to keep a check upon
+myself, but to stay awhile.
+
+The rector was the first in, humming a song, and spied me.
+
+"Ho!" he cried, "will you drink, Richard? Or do I drink with you?"
+
+He was already purple with wine.
+
+"God save me from you and your kind!" I replied.
+
+"'Sblood! what a devil's nest of fireworks!" he exclaimed, as he went
+off down the room, still humming, to where the rest were gathered. And
+they were soon between bottle and stopper, and quips a-coursing. There
+was the captain of the Thunderer, Collinson by name, Lord Comyn and two
+brother officers, Will Fotheringay, my cousin Philip, openly pleased to
+be found in such a company, and some dozen other toadeaters who had
+followed my Lord a-chair and a-foot from the ball, and would have tracked
+him to perdition had he chosen to go; and lastly Tom Swain, leering and
+hiccoughing at the jokes, in such a beastly state of drunkenness as I had
+rarely seen him. His Lordship recognized me and smiled, and was pushing
+his chair back, when something Collinson said seemed to restrain him.
+
+I believe I was the butt of more than one jest for my aloofness, though I
+could not hear distinctly for the noise they made. I commanded some
+French cognac, and kept my eye on the rector, and the sight of him was
+making me dangerous.
+
+I forgot the advice I had received, and remembered only the months he had
+goaded me. And I was even beginning to speculate how I could best pick a
+quarrel with him on any issue but politics, when an unexpected incident
+diverted me. Of a sudden the tall, ungainly form of Percy Singleton
+filled the doorway, wrapped in a greatcoat. He swept the room at a
+glance, and then strode rapidly toward the corner where I sat.
+
+"I had thought to find you here," he said, and dropped into a chair
+beside me. I offered him wine, but he refused.
+
+"Now," he went on, "what has Patty done?"
+
+"What have I done that I should be publicly insulted?" I cried.
+
+"Insulted!" says he, "and did she insult you? She said nothing of that."
+
+"What brings you here, then?" I demanded.
+
+"Not to talk, Richard," he said quietly, "'tis no time tonight. I came
+to fetch you home. Patty sent me."
+
+Patty sent him! Why had Patty sent him? But this I did not ask, for I
+felt the devil within me.
+
+"We must first finish this bottle," said I, offhand, "and then I have a
+little something to be done which I have set my heart upon. After that I
+will go with you."
+
+"Richard, Richard, will you never learn prudence? What is it you speak
+of?"
+
+I drew my sword and laid it upon the table.
+
+"I mean to spit that eel of a rector," said I, "or he will bear a slap
+in the face. And you must see fair play."
+
+Singleton seized my coat, at the same time grasping the hilt of my sword
+with the other hand. But neither my words nor my action had gone
+unnoticed by the other end of the room. The company there fell silent
+awhile, and then we heard Captain Collinson talking in even, drawling
+tones.
+
+"'Tis strange," said he, "what hot sparks a man meets in these colonies.
+They should be stamped out. His Majesty pampers these d--d Americans,
+is too lenient by far. Gentlemen, this is how I would indulge them!"
+He raised a closed fist and brought it down on the board.
+
+He spoke to Tories, but he forgot that Tories were Americans. In those
+days only the meanest of the King's party would listen to such without
+protest from an Englishman. But some of the meaner sort were there:
+Philip and Tom laughed, and Mr. Allen, and my Lord's sycophants.
+Fotheringay and some others of sense shook their heads one to another,
+comprehending that Captain Collinson was somewhat gone in wine.
+For, indeed, he had not strayed far from the sideboard at the assembly.
+Comyn made a motion to rise.
+
+"It is already past three bells, sir, and a hunt to-morrow," he said.
+
+"From bottle to saddle, and from saddle to bottle, my Lord. We must have
+our pleasure ashore, and sleep at sea," and the captain tipped his flask
+with a leer. He turned his eye uncertainly first on me, then on my Lord.
+"We are lately from Boston, gentlemen, that charnel-house of treason,
+and before we leave, my Lord, I must tell them how Mr. Robinson of the
+customs served that dog Otis, in the British Coffee House. God's word,
+'twas as good as a play."
+
+I know not how many got to their feet at that, for the story of the
+cowardly beating of Mr. Otis by Robinson and the army officers had swept
+over the colonies, burning like a flame all true-hearted men, Tory and
+Whig alike. I wrested my sword from Singleton's hold, and in a trice I
+had reached the captain over chairs and table, tearing myself from
+Fotheringay on the way. I struck a blow that measured a man on the
+floor. Then I drew back, amazed.
+
+I had hit Lord Comyn instead! The captain stood a yard beyond me.
+
+The thing had been so deftly done by the rector of St. Anne's--Comyn
+jostled at the proper moment between me and Collinson--that none save me
+guessed beyond an accident; least of all my Lord Comyn himself. He was
+up again directly and his sword drawn, addressing me.
+
+"Bear witness, my Lord, that I have no desire to fight with you," said I,
+with what coolness I could muster. "But there is one here I would give
+much for a chance to run through."
+
+And I made a step toward Mr. Allen with such a purpose in my face and
+movements that he could not mistake. I saw the blood go from his face;
+yet he was no coward to physical violence. But he (or I?) was saved by
+the Satan's luck that followed him, for my Lord stepped in between us
+with a bow, his cheek red where I had struck him.
+
+"It is my quarrel now, Mr. Carvel," he cried.
+
+"As you please, my Lord," said I.
+
+"It boots not who crosses with him," Captain Collinson put in. "His
+Lordship uses the sword better than any here. But it boots not so that
+he is opposed by a loyal servant of the King."
+
+I wheeled on him for this.
+
+"I would have you know that loyalty does not consist in outrage and
+murder, sir," I answered, "nor in the ridiculing of them. And brutes
+cannot be loyal save through interest."
+
+He was angered, as I had desired. I had hopes then of shouldering the
+quarrel on to him, for I had near as soon drawn against my own brother as
+against Comyn. I protest I loved him then as one with whom I had been
+reared.
+
+"Let me deal with this young gamecock, Comyn," cried the captain, with an
+oath. "He seems to think his importance sufficient."
+
+But Comyn would brook no interference. He swore that no man should
+strike him with impunity, and in this I could not but allow he was right.
+
+"You shall hear from me, Mr. Carvel," he said.
+
+"Nay," I answered, "and fighting is to be done, sir, let us be through
+with it at once. A large room upstairs is at our disposal; and there is
+a hunt to-morrow which one of us may like to attend."
+
+There was a laugh at this, in which his Lordship joined.
+
+"I would to God, Mr. Carvel," he said, "that I had no quarrel with you!"
+
+"Amen to that, my Lord," I replied; "there are others here I would rather
+fight." And I gave a meaning look at Mr. Allen. I was of two minds to
+announce the scurvy trick he had played, but saw that I would lose rather
+than gain by the attempt. Up to that time the wretch had not spoken a
+word; now he pushed himself forward, though well clear of me.
+
+"I think it my duty as Mr. Carvel's tutor, gentlemen, to protest against
+this matter proceeding," he said, a sneer creeping into his voice. "Nor
+can I be present at it. Mr. Carvel is young and, besides, is not himself
+with liquor. And, in the choice of politics, he knows not which leg he
+stands upon. My Lord and gentlemen, your most humble and devoted."
+
+He made a bow and, before the retort on my lips could be spoken, left the
+tavern. My cousin Philip left with him. Tom Swain had fallen asleep in
+his chair.
+
+Captain Collinson and Mr. Furness, of the Thunderer, offered to serve his
+Lordship, which made me bethink that I, too, would have need of some one.
+'Twas then I remembered Singleton, who had passed from my mind.
+
+He was standing close behind me, and nodded simply when I asked him. And
+Will Fotheringay came forward.
+
+"I will act, Richard, if you allow me," he said. "I would have you know
+I am in no wise hostile to you, my Lord, and I am of the King's party.
+But I admire Mr. Carvel, and I may say I am not wholly out of sympathy
+with that which prompted his act."
+
+It was a noble speech, and changed Will in my eyes; and I thanked him
+with warmth. He of all that company had the courage to oppose his
+Lordship!
+
+Mr. Claude was called in and, as is the custom in such cases, was told
+that some of us would play awhile above. He was asked for his private
+room. The good man had his suspicions, but could not refuse a party of
+such distinction, and sent a drawer thither with wine and cards.
+Presently we followed, leaving the pack of toadies in sad disappointment
+below.
+
+We gathered about the table and made shift at loo until the fellow had
+retired, when the seconds proceeded to clear the room of furniture, and
+Lord Comyn and I stripped off our coats and waistcoats. I had lost my
+anger, but felt no fear, only a kind of pity that blood should be shed
+between two so united in spirit as we. Yes, my dears, I thought of
+Dorothy. If I died, she would hear that it was like a man--like a
+Carvel. But the thought of my old grandfather tightened my heart. Then
+the clock on the inn stairs struck two, and the noise of harsh laughter
+floated up to us from below.
+
+And Comyn,--of what was he thinking? Of some fair home set upon the
+downs across the sea, of some heroic English mother who had kept her
+tears until he was gone? Her image rose in dumb entreaty, invoked by the
+lad before me. What a picture was he in his spotless shirt with the
+ruffles, his handsome boyish face all that was good and honest!
+
+I had scarce felt his Lordship's wrist than I knew I had to deal with a
+pupil of Angelo. At first his attacks were all simple, without feint or
+trickery, as were mine. Collinson cursed and cried out that it was
+buffoonery, and called on my Lord not to let me off so easily; swore that
+I fenced like a mercer, that he could have stuck me like a pin-cushion
+twenty and twenty times. Often have I seen two animals thrust into a pit
+with nothing but good-will between them, and those without force them
+into anger and a deadly battle. And so it was, unconsciously, between
+Comyn and me. I forgot presently that I was not dealing with Captain
+Collinson, and my feelings went into my sword. Comyn began to press me,
+nor did I give back. And then, before it came over me that we had to do
+with life and death, he was upon me with a volte coupe, feinting in high
+carte and thrusting in low tierce, his point passing through a fold in my
+shirt. And I were not alive to write these words had I not leaped out of
+his measure.
+
+"Bravo, Richard!" cried Fotheringay.
+
+"Well made, gads life!" from Mr. Furness.
+
+We engaged again, our faces hot. Now I knew that if I did not carry the
+matter against him I should be killed out of hand, and Heaven knows I was
+not used to play a passive part. I began to go carefully, but fiercely;
+tried one attack after another that my grandfather and Captain Daniel had
+taught me,--flanconnades, beats, and lunges. Comyn held me even, and in
+truth I had much to do to defend myself. Once I thought I had him in the
+sword-arm, after a circular parry, but he was too quick for me. We were
+sweating freely by now, and by reason of the buzzing in my ears I could
+scarce hear the applause of the seconds.
+
+What unlucky chance it was I know not that impelled Comyn to essay again
+the trick by which he had come so near to spitting me; but try it he did,
+this time in prime and seconde. I had come by nature to that intuition
+which a true swordsman must have, gleaned from the eyes of his adversary.
+Long ago Captain Daniel had taught me the remedy for this coupe. I
+parried, circled, and straightened, my body in swift motion and my point
+at Comyn's heart, when Heaven brought me recollection in the space of a
+second. My sword rang clattering on the floor.
+
+His Lordship understood, but too late. Despairing his life, he made one
+wild lunge at me that had never gone home had I held to my hilt. But the
+rattle of the blade had scarce reached my ears when there came a sharp
+pain at my throat, and the room faded before me. I heard the clock
+striking the half-hour.
+
+I was blessed with a sturdy health such as few men enjoy, and came to
+myself sooner than had been looked for, with a dash of cold water. And
+the first face I beheld was that of Colonel Washington. I heard him
+speaking in a voice that was calm, yet urgent and commanding.
+
+"I pray you, gentlemen, give back. He is coming to, and must have air.
+Fetch some linen!"
+
+"Now God be praised!" I heard Captain Daniel cry.
+
+With that his Lordship began to tear his own shirt into strips, and the
+captain bringing a bowl and napkin, the colonel himself washed the wound
+and bound it deftly, Singleton and Captain Daniel assisting. When Mr.
+Washington had finished, he turned to Comyn, who stood, anxious and
+dishevelled, at my feet.
+
+"You may be thankful that you missed the artery, my Lord," he said.
+
+"With all my heart, Colonel Washington!" cried his Lordship. "I owe my
+life to his generosity."
+
+"What's that, sir?"
+
+Mr. Carvel dropped his sword, rather than run me through."
+
+"I'll warrant!" Captain Daniel put in; "'Od's heart! The lad has skill
+to point the eye of a button. I taught him myself."
+
+Colonel Washington stood up and laid his hand on the captain's arm.
+
+"He is Jack Carvel over again," I heard him say, in a low voice.
+
+I tried to struggle to my feet, to speak, but he restrained me. And
+sending for his servants, he ordered them to have his baggage removed
+from the Roebuck, which was the best bed in the house. At this moment
+the door opened, and Mr. Swain came in hurriedly.
+
+"I pray you, gentlemen," he cried, "and he is fit to be moved, you will
+let me take him to Marlboro' Street. I have a chariot at the door."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+OF WHICH THE RECTOR HAS THE WORST
+
+'Twas late when I awoke the next day with something of a dull ache in my
+neck, and a prodigious stiffness, studying the pleatings of the bed
+canopy over my head. And I know not how long I lay idly thus when I
+perceived Mrs. Willis moving quietly about, and my grandfather sitting
+in the armchair by the window, looking into Freshwater Lane. As my eyes
+fell upon him my memory came surging back,--first of the duel, then of
+its cause. And finally, like a leaden weight, the thought of the
+deception I had practised upon him, of which he must have learned
+ere this. Nay, I was sure from the troubled look of his face that
+he knew of it.
+
+"Mr. Carvel," I said.
+
+At the sound of my voice he got hastily from his chair and hurried to my
+side.
+
+"Richard," he answered, taking my hand, "Richard!"
+
+I opened my mouth to speak, to confess. But he prevented me, the tears
+filling the wrinkles around his eyes.
+
+"Nay, lad, nay. We will not talk of it. I know all."
+
+"Mr. Allen has been here--" I began.
+
+"And be d--d to him! Be d--d to him for a wolf in sheep's clothing!"
+shouted my grandfather, his manner shifting so suddenly to anger that I
+was taken back. "So help me God I will never set foot in St. Anne's
+while he is rector. Nor shall he come to this house!"
+
+And he took three or four disorderly turns about the room.
+
+"Ah!" he continued more quietly, with something of a sigh, "I might have
+known how stubborn your mind should be. That you was never one to blow
+from the north one day and from the south the next. I deny not that
+there be good men and able of your way of thinking: Colonel Washington,
+for one, whom I admire and honour; and our friend Captain Daniel. They
+have been here to-day, Richard, and I promise you were good advocates."
+
+Then I knew that I was forgiven. And I could have thrown myself at Mr.
+Carvel's feet for happiness.
+
+"Has Colonel Washington spoken in my favour, sir?"
+
+"That he has. He is upon some urgent business for the North, I believe,
+which he delayed for your sake. Both he and the captain were in my
+dressing-room before I was up, ahead of that scurrilous clergyman, who
+was for pushing his way to my bed-curtains. Ay, the two of them were
+here at nigh dawn this morning, and Mr. Allen close after them. And I
+own that Captain Daniel can swear with such a consuming violence as to
+put any rogue out of countenance. 'Twas all Mr. Washington could do to
+restrain Clapsaddle from booting his Reverence over the balustrade and
+down two runs of the stairs, the captain declaring he would do for every
+cur's son of the whelps. 'Diomedes,' says I, waking up, 'what's this
+damnable racket on the landing? Is Mr. Richard home?' For I had some
+notion it was you, sir, after an over-night brawl. And I profess I would
+have caned you soundly. The fellow answered that Captain Clapsaddle's
+honour was killing Mr. Allen, and went out; and came back presently to
+say that some tall gentleman had the captain by the neck, and that Mr.
+Allen was picking his way down the ice on the steps outside. With that
+I went in to them in my dressing-gown.
+
+"'What's all this to-do, gentlemen?' said I.
+
+"'I'd have finished that son of a dog,' says the captain, 'and Colonel
+Washington had let me.'
+
+"'What, what!' said I. 'How now? What! Drive a clergyman from my
+house gentlemen?'
+
+"'What's Richard been at now?'
+
+"Mr. Washington asked me to dress, saying that they had something very
+particular to speak about; that they would stay to breakfast with me,
+tho' they were in haste to be gone to New York. I made my compliments to
+the colonel and had them shown to the library fire, and hurried down
+after them. Then they told me of this affair last night, and they
+cleared you, sir. 'Faith,' cried I, 'and I would have fought, too. The
+lad was in the right of it, though I would have him a little less hasty.'
+D--n me if I don't wish you had knocked that sea captain's teeth into his
+throat, and his brains with them. I like your spirit, sir. A pox on
+such men as he, who disgrace his Majesty's name and set better men
+against him."
+
+"And they told you nothing else, sir?" I asked, with misgiving.
+
+"That they did. Mr. Washington repeated the confession you made to them,
+sir, in a manner that did you credit. He made me compliments on you,
+--said that you were a man, sir, though a trifle hasty: in the which I
+agreed. Yes, d--n me, a trifle hasty like your father. I rejoice that
+you did not kill his Lordship, my son."
+
+The twilight was beginning; and the old gentleman going back to his chair
+was set amusing, gazing out across the bare trees and gables falling gray
+after the sunset.
+
+What amazed me was that he did not seem to be shocked by the revelation
+near as much as I had feared. So this matter had brought me happiness
+where I looked for nothing but sorrow.
+
+"And the gentlemen are gone north, sir?" said I, after a while.
+
+"Yes, Richard, these four hours. I commanded an early dinner for them,
+since the colonel was pleased to tarry long enough for a little politics
+and to spin a glass. And I profess, was I to live neighbours with such a
+man, I might come to his way of thinking, despite myself. Though I say
+it that shouldn't, some of his Majesty's ministers are d--d rascals."
+
+I laughed. As I live, I never hoped to hear such words from my
+grandfather's lips.
+
+"He did not seek to convince, like so many of your hotheaded
+know-it-alls," said Mr. Carvel; "he leaves a man to convince himself. He
+has great parts, Richard, and few can stand before him." He paused. And
+then his smooth-shaven face became creased in a roguish smile which I had
+often seen upon it. "What baggage is this I hear of that you quarrelled
+over at the assembly? Ah, Sir, I fear you are become but a sad rake!"
+says he.
+
+But by great good fortune Dr. Leiden was shown in at this instant. And
+the candles being lighted, he examined my neck, haranguing the while in
+his vile English against the practice of duelling. He bade me keep my
+bed for two days, thereby giving me no great pleasure.
+
+"As I hope to live," said Mr. Carvel when the doctor was gone, "one would
+have thought his Excellency himself had been pinked instead of a whip of
+a lad, for the people who have been here. His Lordship and Dr. Courtenay
+came before the hunt, and young Mr. Fotheringay, and half a score of
+others. Mr. Swain is but now left to go to Baltimore on some barrister's
+business."
+
+I was burning to learn what the rector had said to Patty, but it was
+plain Mr. Carvel knew nothing of this part of the story. He had not
+mentioned Grafton among the callers. I wondered what course my uncle
+would now pursue, that his plans to alienate me from my grandfather had
+failed. And I began debating whether or not to lay the whole plot before
+Mr. Carvel. Prudence bade me wait, since Grafton had not consorted with
+the rector openly, at least--for more than a year. And yet I spoke.
+
+"Mr. Carvel!"
+
+He stirred in his chair.
+
+"Yes, my son."
+
+He had to repeat, and still I held my tongue. Even as I hesitated there
+came a knock at the door, and Scipio entered, bearing candles.
+
+"Massa Grafton, suh," he said.
+
+My uncle was close at his heels. He was soberly dressed in dark brown
+silk, and his face wore that expression of sorrow and concern he knew how
+to assume at will. After greeting his father with his usual ceremony, he
+came to my bedside and asked gravely how I did.
+
+"How now, Grafton!" cried Mr. Carvel; "this is no funeral. The lad has
+only a scratch, thank God!"
+
+My uncle looked at me and forced a smile.
+
+"Indeed I am rejoiced to find you are not worried over this matter,
+father," said he. "I am but just back from Kent to learn of it, and
+looked to find you in bed."
+
+"Why, no, sir, I am not worried. I fought a duel in my own day,--over a
+lass, it was."
+
+This time Grafton's smile was not forced.
+
+"Over a lass, was it?" he asked, and added in a tone of relief, "and how
+do you, nephew?"
+
+Mr. Carvel saved me from replying.
+
+"'Od's life!" he cried; "no, I did not say this was over a lass. I have
+heard the whole matter; how Captain Collinson, who is a disgrace to the
+service, brought shame upon his Majesty's supporters, and how Richard
+felled the young lord instead. I'll be sworn, and I had been there, I
+myself would have run the brute through."
+
+My uncle did not ask for further particulars, but took a chair, and a
+dish of tea from Scipio. His smug look told me plainer than words that
+he thought my grandfather still ignorant of my Whig sentiments.
+
+"I often wish that this deplorable practice of duelling might be
+legislated against," he remarked. "Was there no one at the Coffee House
+with character enough to stop the lads?"
+
+Here was my chance.
+
+"Mr. Allen was there," I said.
+
+"A devil's plague upon him!" shouted my grandfather, beating the floor
+with his stick. "And the lying hypocrite ever crosses my path, by gad's
+life! I'll tear his gown from his back!"
+
+I watched Grafton narrowly. Such as he never turn pale, but he set down
+his tea so hastily as to spill the most of it on the dresser.
+
+"Why, you astound me, my dear father!" he faltered; "Mr. Allen a lying
+hypocrite? What can he have done?"
+
+"Done!" cried my grandfather, sputtering and red as a cherry with
+indignation. "He is as rotten within as a pricked pear, I tell you, sir!
+For the sake of retaining the lad in his tuition he came to me and lied,
+sir, just after I had escaped death, and said that by his influence
+Richard had become loyal, and set dependence upon Richard's fear of the
+shock 'twould give me if he confessed--Richard, who never told me a
+falsehood in his life! And instead of teaching him, he has gamed with
+the lad at the rectory. I dare make oath he has treated your son to a
+like instruction. 'Slife, sir, and he had his deserts, he would hang
+from a gibbet at the Town Gate."
+
+I raised up in bed to see the effect of this on my uncle. But however
+the wind veered, Grafton could steer a course. He got up and began
+pacing the room, and his agitation my grandfather took for indignation
+such as his own.
+
+"The dog!" he cried fiercely. "The villain! Philip shall leave him
+to-morrow. And to think that it was I who moved you to put Richard to
+him!"
+
+His distress seemed so real that Mr. Carvel replied:
+
+"No, Grafton, 'twas not your fault. You were deceived as much as I. You
+have put your own son to him. But if I live another twelve hours I shall
+write his Lordship to remove him. What! You shake your head, sir!"
+
+"It will not do," said my uncle. "Lord Baltimore has had his reasons for
+sending such a scoundrel--he knew what he was, you may be sure, father.
+His Lordship, sir, is the most abandoned rake in London, and that
+unmentionable crime of his but lately in the magazines--"
+
+"Yes, yes," my grandfather interrupted; "I have seen it. But I will
+publish him in Annapolis."
+
+My uncle's answer startled me, so like was it to the argument Colonel
+Washington himself had used.
+
+"What would you publish, sir? Mr. Allen will reply that what he did
+was for the lad's good, and your own. He may swear that since Richard
+mentioned politics no more he had taken his conversion for granted."
+
+My grandfather groaned, and did not speak, and I saw the futility of
+attempting to bring Grafton to earth for a while yet.
+
+My uncle had recovered his confidence. He had hoped, so he said, that
+I had become a good loyalist: perchance as I grew older I would see the
+folly of those who called themselves Patriots. But my grandfather cried
+out to him not to bother me then. And when at last he was gone, of my
+own volition I proposed to promise Mr. Carvel that, while he lived, I
+would take no active part in any troubles that might come. He stopped me
+with some vehemence.
+
+"I pray God there may be no troubles, lad," he answered; "but you need
+give me no promise. I would rather see you in the Whig ranks than a
+trimmer, for the Carvels have ever been partisans."
+
+I tried to express my gratitude. But he sighed and wished me good night,
+bidding me get some rest.
+
+I had scarce finished my breakfast the next morning when I heard a loud
+rat-tat-tat upon the street door-surely the footman of some person of
+consequence. And Scipio was in the act of announcing the names when,
+greatly to his disgust, the visitors themselves rushed into my bedroom
+and curtailed the ceremony. They were none other than Dr. Courtenay and
+my Lord Comyn himself. His Lordship had no sooner seen me than he ran to
+the bed, grasped both my hands and asked me how I did, declaring he would
+not have gone to yesterday's hunt had he been permitted to visit me.
+
+"Richard," cried the doctor, "your fame has sprung up like Jonah's gourd.
+The Gazette is but just distributed. Here's for you! 'Twill set the
+wags a-going, I'll warrant."
+
+He drew the newspaper from his pocket and began to read, stopping now and
+anon to laugh:
+
+"Rumour hath it that a Young Gentleman of Quality of this Town, who is
+possessed of more Valour than Discretion, and whose Skill at Fence and in
+the Field is beyond his Years, crossed Swords on Wednesday Night with a
+Young Nobleman from the Thunderer. The Cause of this Deplorable Quarrel,
+which had its Origin at the Ball, is purported to have been a Young Lady
+of Wit and Beauty. (& we doubt it not; for, alas! the Sex hath Much to
+answer for of this Kind.)
+
+"The Gentlemen, with their Seconds, repaired after the Assembly to the
+Coffee House. 'Tis said upon Authority that H-s L-dsh-p owes his Life to
+the Noble Spirit of our Young American, who cast down his Blade rather
+than sheathe it in his Adversary's Body, thereby himself receiving a
+Grievous, the' happily not Mortal, Wound. Our Young Gentleman is become
+the Hero of the Town, and the Subject of Prodigious Anxiety of all the
+Ladies thereof."
+
+"There's for you, my lad!" says he; "Mr. Green has done for you both
+cleverly."
+
+"Upon my soul," I cried, raising up in bed, "he should be put in the
+gatehouse for his impudence! My Lord,--"
+
+"Don't 'My Lord' me," says Comyn; "plain 'Jack' will do."
+
+There was no resisting such a man: and I said as much. And took his hand
+and called him 'Jack,' the doctor posing before the mirror the while,
+stroking his rues. "Out upon you both," says he, "for a brace of
+sentimental fools!"
+
+"Richard," said Comyn, presently, with a roguish glance at the doctor,
+"there were some reason in our fighting had it been over a favour of Miss
+Manners. Eh? Come, doctor," he cried, "you will break your neck looking
+for the reflection of wrinkles. Come, now, we must have little Finery's
+letter. I give you my word Chartersea is as ugly as all three heads of
+Cerberus, and as foul as a ship's barrel of grease. I tell you Miss
+Dorothy would sooner marry you."
+
+"And she might do worse, my Lord," the doctor flung back, with a strut.
+
+"Ay, and better. But I promise you Richard and I are not such fools as
+to think she will marry his Grace. We must have the little coxcomb's
+letter."
+
+"Well, have it you must, I suppose," returns the doctor. And with that
+he draws it from his pocket, where he has it buttoned in. Then he took a
+pinch of Holland and began.
+
+The first two pages had to deal with Miss Dorothy's triumph, to which her
+father made full justice. Mr. Manners world have the doctor (and all the
+province) to know that peers of the realm, soldiers, and statesmen were
+at her feet. Orders were as plentiful in his drawing-room as the
+candles. And he had taken a house in Arlington Street, where Horry
+Walpole lived when not at Strawberry, and their entrance was crowded
+night and day with the footmen and chairmen of the grand monde. Lord
+Comyn broke in more than once upon the reading, crying,--"Hear, hear!"
+and,--"My word, Mr. Manners has not perjured himself thus far. He has
+not done her justice by half." And I smiled at the thought that I had
+aspired to such a beauty!
+
+"'Entre noes, mon cher Courtenay,' Mr. Manners writes, 'entre noes, our
+Dorothy hath had many offers of great advantage since she hath been here.
+And but yesterday comes a chariot with a ducal coronet to our door. His
+Grace of Chartersea, if you please, to request a private talk with me.
+And I rode with him straightway to his house in Hanover Square.'"
+
+"'Egad! And would gladly have ridden straightway to Newgate, in a ducal
+chariot!" cried his Lordship, in a fit of laughter.
+
+"'I rode to Hanover Square,' the doctor continued, 'where we discussed
+the matter over a bottle. His Grace's generosity was such that I could
+not but cry out at it, for he left me to name any settlement I pleased.
+He must have Dorothy at any price, said he. And I give you my honour,
+mon cher Courtenay, that I lost no time in getting back to Arlington
+Street, and called Dorothy down to tell her.'"
+
+"Now may I be flayed," said Comyn, "if ever there was such another ass!"
+
+The doctor took more snuff and fell a-laughing.
+
+"But hark to this," said he, "here's the cream of it all:
+
+"You will scarce believe me when I say that the baggage was near beside
+herself with anger at what I had to tell her. 'Marry that misshapen
+duke!' cries she, 'I would quicker marry Doctor Johnson!' And truly, I
+begin to fear she hath formed an affection for some like, foul-linened
+beggar. That his Grace is misshapen I cannot deny; but I tried reason
+upon her. 'Think of the coronet, my dear, and of the ancient name to
+which it belongs.' She only stamps her foot and cries out:
+
+"'Coronet fiddlesticks! And are you not content with the name you bear,
+sir?" 'Our name is good as any in the three kingdoms,' said I, with
+truth. 'Then you would have me, for the sake of the coronet, joined to a
+wretch who is steeped in debauchery. Yes, debauchery, sir! You might
+then talk, forsooth, to the macaronies of Maryland, of your daughter the
+Duchess.'"
+
+"There's spirit for you, my lad!" Comyn shouted; "I give you Miss
+Dorothy." And he drained a glass of punch Scipio had brought in, Doctor
+Courtenay and I joining him with a will.
+
+"I pray you go on, sir," I said to the doctor.
+
+"A pest on your impatience!" replied he; "I begin to think you are in
+love with her yourself."
+
+"To be sure he is," said Comyn; "he had lost my esteem and he were not."
+
+The doctor gave me an odd look. I was red enough, indeed.
+
+"'I could say naught, my dear Courtenay, to induce her to believe that his
+Grace's indiscretions arose from the wildness of youth. And I pass over
+the injustice she hath unwittingly done me, whose only efforts are for
+her bettering. The end of it all was that I must needs post back to the
+duke, who was stamping with impatience up and down, and drinking
+Burgundy. I am sure I meant him no offence, but told him in as many
+words, that my daughter had refused him. And, will you believe me, sir?
+He took occasion to insult me (I cannot with propriety repeat his
+speech), and he flung a bottle after me as I passed out the door. Was he
+not far gone in wine at the time, I assure you I had called him out for
+it.'"
+
+"And, gentlemen," said the doctor, when our merriment was somewhat spent,
+"I'll lay a pipe of the best Madeira, that our little fool never knows
+the figure he has cut with his Grace."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+IN WHICH SOME THINGS ARE MADE CLEAR
+
+The Thunderer weighed the next day, Saturday, while I was still upon my
+back, and Comyn sailed with her. Not, however, before I had seen him
+again. Our affection was such as comes not often to those who drift
+together to part. And he left me that sword with the jewelled hilt,
+that hangs above my study fire, which he had bought in Toledo. He told
+me that he was heartily sick of the navy; that he had entered only in
+respect for a wish of his father's, the late Admiral Lord Comyn, and that
+the Thunderer was to sail for New York, where he looked for a release
+from his commission, and whence he would return to England. He would
+carry any messages to Miss Manners that I chose to send. But I could
+think of none, save to beg him to remind her that she was constantly in
+my thoughts. He promised me, roguishly enough, that he would have
+thought of a better than that by the time he sighted Cape Clear. And
+were I ever to come to London he would put me up at Brooks's Club, and
+warrant me a better time and more friends than ever had a Caribbee who
+came home on a visit.
+
+My grandfather kept his word in regard to Mr. Allen, and on Sunday
+commanded the coach at eight. We drove over bad roads to the church at
+South River. And he afterwards declined the voluntary aid he hitherto
+had been used to give to St. Anne's. In the meantime, good Mr. Swain had
+called again, bringing some jelly and cake of Patty's own making; and a
+letter writ out of the sincerity of her heart, full of tender concern and
+of penitence. She would never cease to blame herself for the wrong she
+now knew she had done me.
+
+Though still somewhat weak from my wound and confinement, after dinner
+that Sunday I repaired to Gloucester Street. From the window she saw me
+coming, and, bare-headed, ran out in the cold to meet me. Her eyes
+rested first on the linen around my throat, and she seemed all in a fire
+of anxiety.
+
+"I had thought you would come to-day, when I heard you had been to South
+River," she said.
+
+I was struck all of a sudden with her looks. Her face was pale, and I
+saw that she had suffered as much again as I. Troubled, I followed her
+into the little library. The day was fading fast, and the leaping flames
+behind the andirons threw fantastic shadows across the beams of the
+ceiling. We sat together in the deep window.
+
+"And you have forgiven me, Richard?" she asked.
+
+"An hundred times," I replied. "I deserved all I got, and more."
+
+"If I had not wronged and insulted you--"
+
+"You did neither, Patty," I broke in; "I have played a double part for
+the first and last time in my life, and I have been justly punished for
+it."
+
+"'Twas I sent you to the Coffee House," she cried, "where you might have
+been killed. How I despise myself for listening to Mr. Allen's tales!"
+
+"Then it was Mr. Allen!" I exclaimed, fetching a long breath.
+
+"Yes, yes; I will tell you all."
+
+"No," said I, alarmed at her agitation; "another time."
+
+"I must," she answered more calmly; "it has burned me enough. You recall
+that we were at supper together, with Betty Tayloe and Lord Comyn, and
+how merry we were, altho' 'twas nothing but 'Dorothy' with you gentlemen.
+Then you left me. Afterwards, as I was talking with Mr. Singleton, the
+rector came up. I never have liked the man, Richard, but I little knew
+his character. He began by twitting me for a Whig, and presently he
+said: 'But we have gained one convert, Miss Swain, who sees the error of
+his ways. Scarce a year since young Richard Carvel promised to be one of
+those with whom his Majesty will have to reckon. And he is now become,'
+--laughing,--'the King's most loyal and devoted.' I was beside myself.
+'That is no subject for jest, Mr. Allen,' I cried; I will never believe
+it of him!' 'Jest!' said he; I give you my word I was never soberer in
+my life.' Then it all came to me of a sudden that you sat no longer by
+the hour with my father, as you used, and you denounced the King's
+measures and ministers no more. My father had spoken of it. 'Tell me
+why he has changed?' I asked, faltering with doubt of you, which I never
+before had felt. 'Indeed, I know not,' replied the rector, with his most
+cynical smile; unless it is because old Mr. Carvel might disinherit a
+Whig. But I see you doubt my word, Miss Swain. Here is Mr. Carroll,
+and you may ask him.' God forgive me, Richard! I stopped Mr. Carroll,
+who seemed mightily surprised. And he told me yes, that your grandfather
+had said but a few days before, and with joy, that you were now of his
+Majesty's party."
+
+"Alas! I might have foreseen this consequence," I exclaimed. "Nor do I
+blame you, Patty."
+
+"But my father has explained all," Patty continued, brightening. "His
+admiration for you is increased tenfold, Richard. Your grandfather told
+him of the rector's treachery, which he says is sufficient to make him
+turn Methodist or Lutheran. We went to the curate's service to-day. And
+--will you hear more, sir? Or do your ears burn? That patriots and
+loyalists are singing your praises from Town Gate to the dock, and
+regretting that you did not kill that detestable Captain Collinson--but
+I have something else, and of more importance, to tell you, Richard,"
+she continued, lowering her voice.
+
+"What Mr. Carroll had told me stunned me like a blow, such had been my
+faith in you. And when Mr. Allen moved off, I stood talking to Percy
+Singleton and his Lordship without understanding a word of the
+conversation. I could scarce have been in my right mind. It was not
+your going over to the other side that pained me so, for all your people
+are Tories. But I had rather seen you dead than a pretender and a
+hypocrite, selling yourself for an inheritance. Then you came.
+My natural impulse should have been to draw you aside and there accuse
+you. But this was beyond my strength. And when I saw you go away
+without a word I knew that I had been unjust. I could have wept before
+them all. Mr. Carroll went for his coach, and was a full half an hour
+in getting it. But this is what I would tell you in particular, Richard.
+I have not spoken of it to a soul, and it troubles me above all else:
+While Maria was getting my cardinal I heard voices on the other side of
+the dressing-room door. The supper-room is next, you know. I listened,
+and recognized the rector's deep tones: 'He has gone to the Coffee
+House,' he was saying; Collinson declares that his Lordship is our man,
+if we can but contrive it. He is the best foil in the service, and was
+taught by--there! I have forgot the name."
+
+"Angelo!" I cried.
+
+"Yes, yes, Angelo it was. How did you know?" she demanded, rising in
+her excitement.
+
+"Angelo is the great fencing-master of London," I replied.
+
+"When I heard that," she said, "I had no doubt of your innocence. I ran
+out into the assembly room as I was, in my hood, and tried to find Tom.
+But he--" She paused, ashamed.
+
+"Yes, I know," I said hurriedly; "you could not find him."
+
+She glanced at me in gratitude.
+
+"How everybody stared at me! But little I cared! 'Twas that gave rise
+to Mr. Green's report. I thought of Percy Singleton, and stopped him in
+the midst of a dance to bid him run as fast as his legs would carry him
+to the Coffee House, and to see that no harm befell you. 'I shall hold
+you responsible for Richard,' I whispered. 'You must get him away from
+Mr. Claude's, or I shall never speak to you again.' He did not wait to
+ask questions, but went at once, like the good fellow he is. Then I rode
+home with Maria. I would not have Mr. Carroll come with me, though he
+begged hard. Father was in here, writing his brief. But I was all in
+pieces, Richard, and so shaken with sobbing that I could tell him no more
+than that you had gone to the Coffee House, where they meant to draw you
+into a duel. He took me up to my own room, and I heard him going out to
+wake Limbo to harness, and at last heard him driving away in our coach.
+I hope I may never in my life spend such another hour as I passed then."
+
+The light in the sky had gone out. I looked up at the girl before
+me as she stood gazing into the flame, her features in strong relief,
+her lips parted, her hair red-gold, and the rounded outlines of her
+figure softened. I wondered why I had never before known her beauty.
+Perchance it was because, until that night, I had never seen her heart.
+
+I leaped to my feet and seized her hands. For a second she looked at me,
+startled. Then she tore them away and ran behind the dipping chair in
+the corner.
+
+"Richard, Richard!" she exclaimed. "Did Dorothy but know!"
+
+"Dorothy is occupied with titles," I said.
+
+Patty's lip quivered. And I knew, blundering fool that I was, that I had
+hurt her.
+
+"Oh, you wrong her!" she cried; "believe me when I say that she loves
+you, and you only, Richard."
+
+"Loves me!" I retorted bitterly,--brutally, I fear. "No. She may have
+once, long ago. But now her head is turned."
+
+"She loves you now," answered Patty, earnestly; "and I think ever will,
+if you but deserve her."
+
+And with that she went away, leaving me to stare after her in perplexity
+and consternation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+SOUTH RIVER
+
+My grandfather's defection from St. Anne's called forth a deal of comment
+in Annapolis. His Excellency came to remonstrate, but to no avail, and
+Mr. Carvel denounced the rector in such terms that the Governor was glad
+to turn the subject. My Uncle Grafton acted with such quickness and
+force as would have served to lull the sharpest suspicions. He forbid
+the rector his house, attended the curate's service, and took Philip
+from his care. It was decided that both my cousin and I were to go to
+King's College after Christmas. Grafton's conduct greatly pleased my
+grandfather. "He has behaved very loyally in this matter, Richard." he
+said to me. "I grow to reproach myself more every day for the injustice
+I once did him. He is heaping coals of fire upon my old head. But,
+faith! I cannot stomach your Aunt Caroline. You do not seem to like
+your uncle, lad."
+
+I answered that I did not.
+
+"It was ever the Carvel way not to forget," he went on. "Nevertheless,
+Grafton hath your welfare at heart, I think. His affection for you as
+his brother's son is great."
+
+O that I had spoken the words that burned my tongue!
+
+Christmas fell upon Monday of that year, 1769. There was to be a ball at
+Upper Marlboro on the Friday before, to which many of us were invited.
+Though the morning came in with a blinding snowstorm from the north, the
+first of that winter, about ten of the clock we set out from Annapolis an
+exceeding merry party, the ladies in four coaches-and-six, the gentlemen
+and their servants riding at the wheels. We laughed and joked despite
+the storm, and exchanged signals with the fair ones behind the glasses.
+
+But we had scarce got two miles beyond the town gate when a messenger
+overtook us with a note for Mr. Carvel, writ upon an odd slip of paper,
+and with great apparent hurry:
+
+HONOURED SIR,
+
+"I have but just come to Annapolis from New York, with Instructions to
+put into your Hands, & no Others, a Message of the greatest Import.
+Hearing you are but now set out for Upper Marlboro I beg of you to return
+for half an Hour to the Coffee House. By so doing you will be of service
+to a Friend, and confer a Favour upon y'r most ob'd't Humble Servant,
+
+"SILAS RIDGEWAY."
+
+Our cavalcade had halted while I read, the ladies letting down the
+glasses and leaning out in their concern lest some trouble had befallen
+me or my grandfather. I answered them and bade them ride on, vowing that
+I would overtake the coaches before they reached the Patuxent. Then I
+turned Cynthia's head for town, with Hugo at my heels.
+
+Patty, leaning from the window of the last coach, called out to me as I
+passed. I waved my hand in return, and did not remember until long after
+the anxiety in her eyes.
+
+As I rode, and I rode hard, I pondered over the words of this letter. I
+knew not this Mr. Ridgeway from the Lord Mayor of London; but I came to
+the conclusion before I had reprised the gate that his message was from
+Captain Daniel. And I greatly feared that some evil had befallen my good
+friend. So I came to the Coffee House, and throwing my bridle to Hugo, I
+ran in.
+
+I found Mr. Ridgeway neither in the long room nor in the billiard room
+nor the bar. Mr. Claude told me that indeed a man had arrived that
+morning from the North, a spare person with a hooked nose and scant hair,
+in a brown greatcoat with a torn cape. He had gone forth afoot half an
+hour since. His messenger, a negro lad whose face I knew, was in the
+stables with Hugo. He had never seen the stranger till he met him that
+morning in State House Circle inquiring for Mr. Carvel, and had been
+given a shilling to gallop after me. Impatient as I was to be gone, I
+sat me down in the coffee room, thinking every minute the man must
+return, and strongly apprehensive that Captain Daniel must be in some
+grave predicament. That the favour he asked was of such a nature as I,
+and not my grandfather, could best fulfil.
+
+At length, about a quarter after noon, my man comes in with Mr. Claude
+close behind him. I liked his looks less than his description, and the
+moment I clapped eyes on him I knew that Captain Daniel had never chose
+such a messenger.
+
+"This is Mr. Richard Carvel," said Mr. Claude.
+
+The fellow made me a low bow, which I scarcely returned.
+
+"I am sure, 'sir," he began in a whining voice, "that I crave your
+forbearance for this prodigious, stupid mistake I have made."
+
+"Mistake!" I exclaimed hotly; "you mean to say, sir, that you have
+brought me back for nothing?"
+
+The man's eye shifted, and he made me another bow.
+
+"I scarce know what to say, Mr. Carvel," he answered with much humility;
+"to speak truth, 'twas zeal to my employers, and methought to you, that
+caused you to retrace your steps in this pestiferous storm. I travel,"
+he proceeded with some importance, "I travel for Messrs. Rinnell and
+Runn, Barristers of the town of New York, and carry letters to men of
+mark all over these middle and southern colonies. And my instructions,
+sir, were to come to Annapolis with all reasonable speed with this
+double-sealed enclosure for Mr. Carvel: and to deliver it to him, and him
+only, the very moment I arrived. As I came through your town I made
+inquiries, and was told by a black fellow in the Circle that Mr. Carvel
+was but just left for Upper Marlboro with a cavalcade of four
+coaches-and-six and some dozen gentlemen with their servants. I am sure
+my mistake was pardonable, Mr. Carvel," he concluded with a smirk; "this
+gentleman was plainly of the first quality, as was he to whom I was
+directed. And as he was about to leave town for I knew not how long, I
+hope I was in the right in bidding the black ride after him, for I give
+you my word the business was most pressing for him. I crave your
+forgiveness, and the pleasure of drinking your honour's health."
+
+I barely heard the fellow through, and was turning on my heel in disgust,
+when it struck me to ask him what Mr. Carvel he sought, for I feared lest
+my grandfather had got into some lawsuit.
+
+"And it please your honour, Mr. Grafton Carvel," said he; "your uncle, I
+understand. Unfortunately he has gone to his estate in Kent County,
+whither I must now follow him."
+
+I bade Mr. Claude summon my servant, not stopping to question the man
+further, such was my resentment against him. And in ten minutes we were
+out of the town again, galloping between the nearly filled tracks of the
+coaches, now three hours ahead of us. The storm was increasing, and the
+wind cutting, but I dug into Cynthia so that poor Hugo was put to it to
+hold the pace, and, tho' he had a pint of rum in him, was near perished
+with the cold. As my anger cooled somewhat I began to wonder how Mr.
+Silas Ridgeway, whoever he was, could have been such a simpleton as his
+story made him out. Indeed, he looked more the rogue than the ass; nor
+could I conceive how reliable barristers could hire such a one. I wished
+heartily that I had exhausted him further, and a suspicion crossed my
+brain that he might have come to Mr. Allen, who had persuaded him to
+deliver a letter to Grafton intended for me. Some foreboding beset me,
+and I was once close to a full mind for going back, and slacked Cynthia's
+pace to a trot. But the thought of the pleasures at Upper Marlboro' and
+the hope of overtaking the party at Mr. Dorsey's place, over the
+Patuxent, where they looked to dine, decided me in pushing on. And thus
+we came to South River, with the snow so thick that we could scarce see
+ten yards in front of us.
+
+Beyond, the road winds up the hill'around the end of Mr. Wiley's
+plantation and plunges shortly into the woods, gray and cold indeed
+to-day. At their skirt a trail branches off which leads to Mr. Whey's
+warehouses, on the water's edge a mile or so below. And I marked that
+this path was freshly trodden. I recall a small shock of surprise at
+this, for the way was used only in the early autumn to connect with some
+fields beyond the hill. And then I heard a sharp cry from Hugo and
+pulled Cynthia short. He was some ten paces behind me.
+
+"Marse Dick!" he shouted, the whites of his eyes rolled up. "We'se gwine
+to be robbed, Marse Dick." And he pointed to the footprints in the snow;
+"somefin done tole Hugo not come to-day."
+
+"Nonsense!" I cried; "Mr. Wiley is making his lazy beggars cut wood
+against Christmas."
+
+When in this temper the poor fellow had more fear of me than of aught
+else, and he closed up to my horse's flank, glancing apprehensively to
+the right and left, his teeth rattling. We went at a brisk trot. We
+know not, indeed, how to account for many things in this world, for with.
+each beat of Cynthia's feet I found myself repeating the words South
+River and Marlboro, and seeking in my mind a connection to something gone
+before. Then, like a sudden gust of wind, comes to me that strange talk
+between Grafton and the rector, overheard by old Harvey in the stables at
+Carvel Hall. And Cynthia's ears were pointing forward.
+
+With a quick impulse I loosed the lower frogs of my coat, for my sword
+was buckled beneath, and was reaching for one of the brace of pistols in
+my saddle-bags. I had but released them when Hugo cried out: "Gawd,
+Marse Dick, run for yo' life!" and I caught a glimpse of him flying down
+the road. As I turned a shot rang out, Cynthia reared high with a rough
+brute of a fellow clinging to her bridle. I sent my charge full into his
+chest, and as he tumbled in the snow I dug my spurs to the rowels.
+
+What happened then is still a blurred picture in my brain. I know that
+Cynthia was shot from under me before she had taken her leap, and we fell
+heavily together. And I was scarcely up again and my sword drawn, when
+the villains were pressing me from all sides. I remember spitting but
+one, and then I heard a great seafaring oath, the first word out of their
+mouths, and I was felled from behind with a mighty blow.
+
+
+
+
+THE "BLACK MOLL"
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE "BLACK MOLL"
+
+I have no intention, my dears, of dwelling upon that part of my
+adventures which must be as painful to you as to me, the very
+recollection of which, after all these years, suffices to cause the blood
+within me to run cold. In my youth men whose natures shrank not from
+encounter with their enemies lacked not, I warrant you, a checkered
+experience. Those of us who are wound the tightest go the farthest and
+strike the hardest. Nor is it difficult for one, the last of whose life
+is being recorded, to review the outspread roll of it, and trace the
+unerring forces which have drawn for themselves.
+
+Some, indeed, traverse this world weighing, before they partake, pleasure
+and business alike. But I am not sure, my children, that they better
+themselves; or that God, in His all-wise judgment, prefers them to such
+as are guided by the divine impulse with which He has endowed them. Far
+be it from me to advise rashness or imprudence, as such; nor do I believe
+you will take me so. But I say unto you: do that which is right, and let
+God, not man, be your interpreter.
+
+My narrative awaits me.
+
+I came to my wits with an immoderate feeling of faintness and sickness,
+with no more remembrance of things past than has a man bereft of reason.
+And for some time I swung between sense and oblivion before an
+overpowering stench forced itself upon my nostrils, accompanied by a
+creaking, straining sound and sweeping motion. I could see nothing for
+the pitchy blackness. Then I recalled what had befallen me, and cried
+aloud to God in my anguish, for I well knew I had been carried aboard
+ship, and was at sea. I had oftentimes heard of the notorious press-gang
+which supplied the need of the King's navy, and my first thought was that
+I had fallen in their clutches. But I wondered that they had dared
+attack a person of my consequence.
+
+I had no pain. I lay in a bunk that felt gritty and greasy to the touch,
+and my hair was matted behind by a clot of blood. I had been stripped of
+my clothes, and put into some coarse and rough material, the colour and
+condition of which I could not see for want of light. I began to cast
+about me, to examine the size of the bunk, which I found to be narrow,
+and plainly at some distance from the deck, for I laid hold upon one of
+the rough beams above me. By its curvature I knew it to be a knee, and
+thus I came to the caulked sides of the vessel, and for the first time
+heard the rattling thud and swish of water on the far side of it. I had
+no sooner made this discovery, which drew from me an involuntary groan,
+when a ship's lanthorn was of a sudden thrust over me, and I perceived
+behind it a head covered with shaggy hair and beard, and beetling brows.
+Never had I been in such a terrifying presence.
+
+"Damn my blood and bones, life signals at last! Another three bells
+gone, my silks and laces, and we had given you to the sharks."
+
+The man hung his lanthorn to a hook on the beam, and thrust a case-bottle
+of rum toward me, at the same time biting off a great quid of tobacco.
+For all my alarm I saw that his manner was not unkindly, and as I was
+conscious of a consuming thirst I seized and tipped it eagerly.
+
+"'Tis no fine Madeira, my blood," said he, "such as I fancy your palate
+is acquainted with. Yet 'tis as fair a Jamaica as ever Griggs put ashore
+i' the dark."
+
+"Griggs!" I cried, the whole affair coming to me: Griggs, Upper
+Marlboro', South River, Grafton and the rector plotting in the stalls,
+and Mr. Silas Ridgeway the accomplice.
+
+"Ay, Griggs," replied he; "ye may well repeat it, the-------, I'll lay a
+puncheon he'll be hailing you shortly. Guinea Griggs, Gold-Coast Griggs,
+Smuggler Griggs, Skull-and-Bones Griggs. Damn his soul and eyes, he hath
+sent to damnation many a ship's company."
+
+He drained what remained of the bottle, took down the lanthorn, and left
+me sufficiently terrified to reflect upon my situation, which I found
+desperate enough, my dears. I have no words to describe what I went
+through in that vile, foul-smelling place. My tears flowed fast when I
+thought of my grandfather and of the dear friends I had left behind, and
+of Dorothy, whom I never hoped to see again. And then, perchance 'twas
+the rum put heart into me, I vowed I would face the matter show this
+cut-throat of a Griggs a bold front. Had he meant to murder me,
+I reflected, he had done the business long since. Then I fell asleep.
+
+I awoke, I know not how soon, to discover the same shaggy countenance,
+and the lanthorn.
+
+"Canst walk, Mechlin?" says he.
+
+"I can try, at least," I answered.
+
+He seemed pleased at this.
+
+"You have courage a-plenty, and, by G--, you will have need of it all
+with that of a Griggs!" He gave me his bottle again, and assisted me
+down, and I found that my legs, save for the rocking of the ship, were
+steady enough. I followed him out of the hole in which I had lain on to
+a deck, which, in the half light, I saw covered with slush and filth. It
+was small, and but dimly illuminated by a hatchway, up the which I pushed
+after him, and then another. And so we came to the light of day, which
+near blinded me: so that I was fain to clap my hand to mine eyes, and
+stood for a space looking about me like a man dazed. The wind, tho'
+blowing stiff, was mild, and league after league of the green sea danced
+and foamed in the morning sunlight, and I perceived that I was on a large
+schooner under full sail, the crew of which were littered about at
+different occupations. Some gaming and some drinking, while on the
+forecastle two men were settling a dispute at fisticuffs. And they gave
+me no more notice, nor as much, than I had been a baboon thrust among
+them. From this indifference to a captive I augured no good. Then my
+conductor, whom I rightly judged to be the mate of this devil's crew,
+took me roughly by the shoulder and bade me accompany him to the cabin.
+
+As we drew near the topgallant poop there sounded in my ears a noise like
+a tempest, which I soon became aware was a man swearing with a prodigious
+vehemence in a fog-horn of a voice. "Sdeath and wounds! Where is that
+dog-fish of a Cockle? Damn his entrails, and he is not come soon, I'll
+mast-head him naked, by the seven holy spritsails!" And much more and
+worse to the same tune until we passed the door and stood before him,
+when he let out an oath like the death-cry of a monster.
+
+He was a short, lean man with a leathery face and long, black ropy hair,
+and beady black eyes that caught the light like a cat's. His looks,
+indeed, would have scared a timid person into a fit; but I resolved I
+would die rather than show the fear with which he inspired me. He was
+dressed in an old navy uniform with dirty lace. His cabin was bare
+enough, being scattered about with pistols and muskets and cutlasses,
+with a ragged pallet in one corner, and he sat behind an oaken table
+covered with greasy charts and spilled liquor and tobacco.
+
+"So ho, you are risen from the dead, are you, my fine buck?
+Mr. What-do-they-call-you?" cried the captain, with a word as foul as
+any he had yet uttered. "By the Lord, you shall pay for running my bosun
+through!"
+
+"And by the Lord, Captain What's-your-name," I cried back, for the rum I
+had taken had heated me, "you and your fellow-rascals shall pay in blood
+for this villanous injury!"
+
+Griggs got to his feet and seized his hanger, his face like livid marble
+seamed with blue. And from force of habit I made motion for my sword, to
+make the shameful discovery that I was clothed from head to foot in
+linsey-woolsey.
+
+"G-d---my soul," he roared, "if I don't slit you like a herring!
+The devil burn me to a cinder if I don't give your guts to the sharks!"
+And he made at me in such a fury that I would certainly have been cut to
+pieces had I not grasped a cutlass and parried his blow, Cockle looking
+on with his jaw dropped like a peak without haulyards. With a stroke of
+my weapon I disarmed Captain Griggs, his sword flying through the cabin
+window. For I made up my mind I would better die fighting than expire at
+a hideous torture, which I doubted not he would inflict, and so I took up
+a posture of defence, with one eye on the mate; despite the kind offices
+of the latter below I knew not whether he were disposed to befriend me
+before the captain. What was my astonishment, therefore, to behold
+Griggs's truculent manner change.
+
+"Avast, my man-o-war," he cried; "blood and wounds! I had more than an
+eye when they brought thee aboard, else I would have killed thee like a
+sucking-pig under the forecastle, as I have given oath to do. By the
+Ghost, you are worth seven of that Roger Spratt whom you sent to hell in
+his boots."
+
+Wherewith Cockle, who for all his terrible appearance stood in a mighty
+awe of his captain, set up a loud laugh, and vowed that Griggs knew a man
+when he spared me, and was cursed for his pains.
+
+"So you were contracted to murder me, Captain Griggs?" said I.
+
+"Ay," he replied, a devilish gleam coming into his eye, "but I have now
+got you and the money to boot. But harkye, I'll stand by my half of the
+bargain, by G--. If ever you reach Maryland alive, they may hang me to
+the yardarm of a ship-of-the-line."
+
+And I live long enough, my dears, I hope some day to write for you the
+account of all that befell me on this slaver, Black Moll, for so she was
+called. 'Twould but delay my story now. Suffice it to say that we
+sailed for a fortnight or so in the West India seas. From some
+observations that fell from the mouth of Griggs I gathered that he was
+searching for an island which evaded him; and each day added to his
+vexation at not finding it. At times he was drunk for forty hours at a
+stretch, when he would shut himself in his cabin and leave his ship to
+the care of Cockle, who navigated with the sober portion of the crew.
+And such a lousy, brawling lot of convicts I had never clapped eyes upon.
+As for me, I was treated indifferently well, though 'twas in truth
+punishment enough to live in that filthy ship, to eat their shins of beef
+and briny pork and wormy biscuit, to wear rough clothes that chafed my
+skin. I shared Cockle's cabin, in every way as dirty a place as the den
+I had left, but with the advantage of air, for which I fervently thanked
+God.
+
+I think the mate had some little friendship for me, though he was too
+hardened by the life he had led to care a deal what became of me. He
+encouraged me secretly to continue to beard Griggs as I had begun, saying
+that it was my sole chance of a whole skin, and vowing that if he had had
+the courage to pursue the same course his own back had not been checkered
+like a grating. He told me stories of the captain's cruelty which I dare
+not repeat for their very horror, and indeed I lacked not for instances
+to substantiate what he said; men with their backs beaten to a pulp, and
+others with ears cut off, and mouths slit, and toes missing. So that I
+lived in hourly fear lest in some drunken fit Griggs might command me to
+be tortured. But, fortunately, he held small converse with me, and when
+sober busied himself in trying to find the island and in cursing the fate
+by which it eluded him.
+
+So I existed, and prayed daily for deliverance. I plied Cockle with
+questions as to what they purposed doing with me, but he was wont to turn
+sulky, and would answer me not a word. But once, when he was deeper in
+his cups than common, he let me know that Griggs was to sell me to a
+certain planter. You may well believe that this did not serve to liven
+my spirits.
+
+At length, one morning, Captain Griggs came out of his cabin and climbed
+upon the poop, calling all hands aft to the quarterdeck. Whereupon he
+proceeded to make them a speech that for vileness exceeded aught I have
+ever heard before or since. He finished by reminding them that this was
+the anniversary of the scuttling of the sloop Jane, which had made them
+all rich a year before, off the Canaries; the day that he had sent three
+and twenty men over the plank to hell. Wherefore he decreed a holiday,
+as the weather was bright and the trades light, and would serve quadruple
+portions of rum to every man jack aboard; and they set up a cheer that
+started the Mother Careys astern.
+
+I have no language to depict the bestiality of that day; and if I had I
+would think it sin to write of it. The helm was lashed on the port tack,
+the haulyards set taut, and all hands down to the lad who was the cook's
+scullion proceeded to get drunk. I took the precaution to have a hanger
+at my side and to slip one of Cockle's pistols within the band of my
+breeches. I was in an exquisite' agony of indecision as to what manner
+to act and how to defend myself from their drunken brutality, for I well
+knew that if I refused to imbibe with them I should probably be murdered
+for my abstemiousness; and, if I drank, the stuff was so near to alcohol
+that I could not hope to keep my senses. While in this predicament I
+received a polite invitation to partake in the captain's company, which I
+did not see my way clear to refuse, and repaired to the cabin
+accordingly.
+
+There I found Griggs and Cockle seated, and a fair-sized barrel of rum
+between them that the captain had just moved thither. By way of welcome
+he shot at me a volley of curses and bade me to fill up, and through fear
+of offending him I took down my first mug with a fair good grace. Then,
+in his own particular language, he began the account of the capture of
+the Jane, taking care in the pauses to see that my mug was full. But, as
+luck would have it, he got no farther than the boarding by the Black
+Moll's crew, when he fell to squabbling with Cockle as to who had been
+the first man over the side; and while they were settling this difference
+I grasped the opportunity to escape.
+
+The maudlin scene that met my eyes on deck defies description; some were
+fighting, others grinning with a hideous laughter, and still others
+shouting tavern jokes unspeakable. And suddenly, whilst I was observing
+these things from a niche behind the cabin door, I heard the captain cry
+from within, "The ensign, the ensign!" Forgetting his dispute with
+Cockle, he bumped past me and made his way with some trouble to the poop.
+I climbed the ladder after him, and to my horror beheld him in a drunken
+frenzy drag a black flag with a rudely painted skull and cross-bones from
+the signal-chest, and with uncertain fingers toggle it to the ensign
+haulyards and hoist to the peak, where it fluttered grimly in the light
+wind like an evil augur on a fair day. At sight of it the wretches on
+deck fell to shouting and huzzaing, Griggs standing leering up at it.
+Then he gravely pulled off his hat and made it a bow, and turned upon me.
+
+"Salute it, ye lubberly! Ye are no first-rate here," he thundered.
+"Salute the flag!"
+
+Unless fear had kept me sober, 'tis past my understanding why I was not
+as drunk as he. Be that as it may, I was near as quarrelsome, and would
+as soon have worshipped the golden calf as saluted that rag. I flung
+back some reply, and he lugged out and came at me with a spring like a
+wild beast; and his men below, seeing us fall out, made a rush for the
+poop with knives and cutlasses drawn. Betwixt them all I should soon
+have been in slivers had not the main shrouds offered themselves handy.
+And up them I sprung, the captain cutting at my legs as I left the
+sheer-pole, and I stopped not until I reached the schooner's cross-trees,
+where I drew my cutlass. They pranced around the mast and showered me
+with oaths, for all the world like a lot of howling dogs which had treed
+a cat.
+
+I began to feel somewhat easier, and cried aloud that the first of them
+who came up after me would go down again in two pieces. Despite my
+warning a brace essayed to climb the ratlines, as pitiable an attempt as
+ever I witnessed, and fell to the deck again. 'Twas a miracle that they
+missed falling into the sea. And after a while, becoming convinced that
+they could not get at me, and being too far gone to shoot with any
+accuracy, they tumbled off the poop swearing to serve me in a hundred
+horrible ways when they caught me, and fell again to drinking and
+quarrelling amongst themselves. I was indeed in an unenviable plight,
+by no means sure that I would not be slain out of hand when they became
+sufficiently sober to capture me. As I marked the progress of their
+damnable orgy I cast about for some plan to take advantage of their
+condition. I observed that a stupor was already beginning to overcome a
+few of them. Then suddenly an incident happened to drive all else from
+my mind.
+
+Nothing less, my dears, than a white speck of sail gleaming on the
+southern horizon!
+
+For an hour I watched it, now in a shiver of apprehension lest it pass us
+by, now weeping in an ecstasy of joy over a possible deliverance. But it
+grew steadily larger, and when about three miles on our port bow I saw
+that the ship was a brigantine. Though she had long been in sight from
+our deck, 'twas not until now that she was made out by a man on the
+forecastle, who set up a cry that brought about him all who could reel
+thither, Griggs staggering out of his cabin and to the nettings. The
+sight sobered him somewhat, for he immediately shouted orders to cast
+loose the guns, himself tearing the breeching from the nine-pounder next
+him and taking out the tompion. About half the crew were in a liquorish
+stupor from which the trump itself could scarce have aroused them; the
+rest responded with savage oaths, swore that they would boil their
+suppers in the blood of the brigantine's men and give their corpses to
+the sea. They fell to work on the port battery in so ludicrous a manner
+that I was fain to laugh despite the gravity of the situation. But when
+they came to rig the powderhoist and a couple of them descended into the
+magazine with pipes lighted, I was in imminent expectation of being blown
+as high as a kite.
+
+So absorbed had I been in these preparations that I neglected to watch
+the brigantine, which I discovered to be standing on and off in a very
+undecided manner, as though hesitating to attack. My spirits fell again
+at this, for with all my inexperience I knew her to be a better sailer
+than the Black Moll. Her master, as Griggs remarked, "was no d--d
+slouching lubber, and knew a yardarm from a rattan cane."
+
+Finally, about six bells of the watch, the stranger wore ship and bore
+down across our bows, hoisting English colours, at sight of which I could
+scarce forbear a cheer. At this instant, Captain Griggs woke to the fact
+that his helm was still lashed, and bestowing a hearty kick on his
+prostrate quartermaster stuck fast to the pitchy seams of the deck, took
+the wheel himself, and easing off before the wind to bring the vessels
+broadside to broadside, commanded that the guns be shooed to the muzzle,
+an order that was barely executed before the brigantine came within close
+range. Aboard her was all order and readiness; the men at her guns fuse
+in hand, an erect and pompous figure of a man, in a cocked hat, on the
+break of her poop. He raised his hand, two puffs of white smoke darted
+out, and I heard first the shrieking of shot, the broadside came
+crashing round us, one tearing through the mainsail below me, another
+mangling two men in the waist of our schooner, and Griggs gave the order
+to touch off. But two of his guns answered, one of which had been so
+gorged with shot that it burst in a hundred pieces and sent the fellow
+with the swab to perdition, and such a hell of blood and confusion as
+resulted is indescribable. I saw Griggs in a wild fit of rage force the
+helm down, the schooner flying into the wind. And by this time, the
+brigantine having got round and presented her port battery, raked us at a
+bare hundred yards, and I was the first to guess by the tilting forward
+of the mast that our hull was hit between wind and water, and was fast
+settling by the bow.
+
+The schooner was sinking like a gallipot.
+
+That day, with the sea flashing blue and white in the sun, I saw men go
+to death with a curse upon their lips and a fever in their eyes, with
+murder and defiance of God's holy will in their hearts. Overtaken in
+bestiality, like the judgment of Nineveh, five and twenty disappeared
+from beneath me, and I had scarce the time to throw off my cutlass before
+I, too, was engulfed. So expired the Black Moll.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Richard Carvel, Volume 3, by Winston Churchill
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+The Project Gutenberg Ebook Richard Carvel, v3, by Winston Churchill
+WC#30 in our series by Winston Churchill (USA author, not Sir Winston)
+
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+Title: Richard Carvel, Volume 3.
+
+Author: Winston Churchill (USA author, not Sir Winston Churchill)
+
+Release Date: March, 2004  [EBook #5367]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on June 24, 2002]
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD CARVEL, V3, BY CHURCHILL ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+
+
+
+
+RICHARD CARVEL
+
+By Winston Churchill
+
+Volume 3.
+
+
+XIII.     Mr. Allen shows his Hand
+XIV.      The Volte Coupe
+XV.       Of which the Rector has the Worst
+XVI.      In which Some Things are made Clear
+XVII.     South River
+XVIII.    The Black Moll
+XIX.      A Man of Destiny
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+MR. ALLEN SHOWS HIS HAND
+
+So Dorothy's beauty had taken London by storm, even as it had conquered
+Annapolis!  However, 'twas small consolation to me to hear his Grace of
+Chartersea called a pig and a profligate while better men danced her
+attendance in Mayfair.  Nor, in spite of what his Lordship had said, was
+I quite easy on the score of the duke.  It was in truth no small honour
+to become a duchess.  If Mr. Marmaduke had aught to say, there was an end
+to hope.  She would have her coronet.  But in that hour of darkness I
+counted upon my lady's spirit.
+
+Dr. Courtenay came to the assembly very late, with a new fashion
+of pinchbeck buckles on his pumps and a new manner of taking snuff.
+(I caught Fotheringay practising this by the stairs shortly after.)
+Always an important man, the doctor's prominence had been increased that
+day by the letter he had received.  He was too thorough a courtier to
+profess any grief over Miss Manners's match, and went about avowing that
+he had always predicted a duke for Miss Dorothy.  And he drew a deal of
+pleasure from the curiosity of those who begged but one look at the
+letter.  Show it, indeed!  For no consideration.  A private communication
+from one gentleman to another must be respected.  Will Fotheringay swore
+the doctor was a sly dog, and had his own reasons for keeping it to
+himself.
+
+The doctor paid his compliment to the captain of the Thunderer, and to
+his Lordship; hoped that he would see them at the meet on the morrow,
+tho' his gout forbade his riding to hounds.  He saluted me in the most
+friendly way, for I played billiards with him at the Coffee House now,
+and he won my money.  He had pronounced my phaeton to be as well
+appointed as any equipage in town, and had done me the honour to
+drive out with me on several occasions.  It was Betty that brought
+him humiliation that evening.
+
+"What do you think of the soar our Pandora hath taken, Miss Betty?"
+says he.  "From a Maryland manor to a ducal palace.  'Tis a fable, egad!
+No less!"
+
+"Indeed, I think it is," retorted Betty.  "Mark me, doctor, Dorothy will
+not put up an instant with a roue and a brute."
+
+"A roue!"  cries he, "and a brute!  What the plague, Miss Tayloe!
+I vow I do not understand you."
+
+"Then ask my Lord Comyn, who knows your Duke of Chartersea," said Betty.
+
+Dr. Courtenay's expression was worth a pistole.
+
+"Comyn know him!" he repeated.
+
+"That he does," replied Betty, laughing.  "His Lordship says Chartersea
+is a pig and a profligate, and I remember not what else.  And that Dolly
+will not look at him.  And so little Mr. Marmaduke may go a-hunting for
+another title."
+
+No wonder I had little desire for dancing that night!  I wandered out of
+the assembly-room and through the silent corridors of the Stadt House,
+turning over and over again what I had heard, and picturing Dorothy
+reigning over the macaronies of St. James's Street.  She had said nothing
+of this in her letter to Betty, and had asked me to write to her.  But
+now, with a duke to refuse or accept, could she care to hear from her old
+playmate?  I took no thought of the time, until suddenly my conscience
+told me I had neglected Patty.
+
+As I entered the hall I saw her at the far end of it talking to Mr.
+Allen.  This I thought strange, for I knew she disliked him.  Lord Comyn
+and Mr. Carroll, the barrister, and Singleton, were standing by,
+listening.  By the time I was halfway across to them the rector turned
+away.  I remember thinking afterwards that he changed colour when he
+said: "Your servant, Mr. Richard."  But I thought nothing of it at the
+time, and went on to Patty.
+
+"I have come for a country dance, before we go, Patty," I said.
+
+Then something in her mien struck me.  Her eyes expressed a pain I had
+remarked in them before only when she spoke to me of Tom, and her lips
+were closed tightly.  She flushed, and paled, and looked from Singleton
+to Mr. Carroll.  They and his Lordship remained silent.
+
+"I--I cannot, Richard.  I am going home," she said, in a low voice.
+
+"I will see if the chariot is here," I answered, surprised, but thinking
+of Tom.
+
+She stopped me.
+
+"I am going with Mr. Carroll," she said.
+
+I hope a Carvel never has to be rebuffed twice, nor to be humbled by
+craving an explanation before a company.  I was confounded that Patty
+should treat me thus, when I had done nothing to deserve it.  As I made
+for the door, burning and indignant, I felt as tho' every eye in the room
+was upon me.' Young Harvey drove me that night.
+
+"Marlboro' Street, Mr. Richard?" said he.
+
+"Coffee House," replied I, that place coming first into my head.
+
+Young Harvey seldom took liberties; but he looked down from the box.
+
+"Better home, sir; your pardon, sir."
+
+"D--n it!" I cried, "drive where I bid you!"
+
+I pulled down the fore-glass, though the night was cold, and began to
+cast about for the cause of Patty's action.  And then it was the rector
+came to my mind.  Yes, he had been with her just before I came up, and I
+made sure on the instant that my worthy instructor was responsible for
+the trouble.  I remembered that I had quarrelled with him the morning
+before I had gone to Bentley Manor, and threatened to confess his villany
+and my deceit to Mr. Carvel.  He had answered me with a sneer and a dare.
+I knew than Patty put honour and honesty before all else in the world,
+and that she would not have suffered my friendship for a day had she
+believed me to lack either.  But she, who knew me so well, was not likely
+to believe anything he might say without giving me the chance to clear
+myself.  And what could he have told her?
+
+I felt my anger growing big within me, until I grew afraid of what I
+would do if I were tempted.  I had a long score and a heavy score against
+this rector of St. Anne's,--a score that had been gathering these years.
+And I felt that my uncle was somewhere behind him; that the two of them
+were plotters against me, even as Harvey had declared; albeit my Uncle
+Grafton was little seen in his company now.  And finally, in a sinister
+flash of revelation, came the thought that Grafton himself was at the
+back of this deception of my grandfather, as to my principles.  Fool that
+I was, it had never occurred to me before.  But how was he to gain by it?
+Did he hope that Mr. Carvel, in a fit of anger, would disinherit me when
+he found I had deceived him?  Yes.  And so had left the matter in
+abeyance near these two years, that the shock might be the greater when
+it came.  I recalled now, with a shudder, that never since the spring of
+my grandfather's illness had my uncle questioned me upon my politics.
+I was seized with a fit of fury.  I suspected that Mr. Allen would be
+at the Coffee House after the assembly.  And I determined to seize the
+chance at once and have it out with him then and there.
+
+The inn was ablaze, but as yet deserted; Mr. Claude expectant.  He bowed
+me from my chariot door, and would know what took me from the ball.  I
+threw him some short answer, bade Harvey go home, saying that I would
+have some fellow light me to Marlboro' Street when I thought proper.  And
+coming into the long room I flung aside my greatcoat and commanded a
+flask of Mr. Stephen Bordley's old sherry, some of which Mr. Claude had
+obtained at that bachelor's demise.
+
+The wine was scarce opened before I heard some sort of stir at the front,
+and two servants in a riding livery of scarlet and white hurried in to
+seek Mr. Claude.  The sight of them sufficed mine host, for he went out
+as fast as his legs would go, giving the bell a sharp pull as he passed
+the door; and presently I heard him complimenting two gentlemen into
+the house.  The voice of one I knew,--being no other than Captain
+Clapsaddle's; and him I had not seen for the past six months.  I was
+just risen to my feet when they came in at the door beside me.
+
+"Richard!" cried the captain, and grasped my hand in both his own.
+I returned his pressure, too much pleased to speak.  Then his eye was
+caught by my finery.
+
+"So ho!" says he, shaking his head at me for a sad rogue.  "Wine and
+women and fine clothes, and not nineteen, or I mistake me.  It was so
+with Captain Jack, who blossomed in a week; and few could vie with him,
+I warrant you, after he made his decision.  But bless me!" he went on,
+drawing back, "the lad looks mature, and a fair two inches broader than
+last spring.  But why are you not at the assembly, Richard?"
+
+"I have but now come from there, sir," I replied, not caring in the
+presence of a stranger to enter into reasons.
+
+At my answer the captain turned from me to the gentleman behind him, who
+had been regarding us both as we talked.  There are some few men in the
+world, I thank God for it, who bear their value on their countenance; who
+stand unmistakably for qualities which command respect and admiration and
+love!  We seem to recognize such men, and to wonder where we have seen
+them before.  In reality we recognize the virtues they represent.  So it
+was with him I saw in front of me, and by his air and carriage I marked
+him then and there as a man born to great things.  You all know his face,
+my dears, and I pray God it may live in the sight of those who come after
+you, for generation upon generation!
+
+"Colonel Washington," said the captain, "this is Mr. Richard Carvel, the
+son of Captain Carvel."
+
+Mr. Washington did not speak at once.  He stood regarding me a full
+minute, his eye seeming to penetrate the secrets of my life.  And I take
+pride in saying it was an eye I could meet without flinching.
+
+"Your father was a brave man, sir," he said soberly, "and it seems you
+favour him.  I am happy in knowing the son."
+
+For a moment he stood debating whether he would go to the house of one of
+his many friends in Annapolis, knowing that they would be offended when
+they learned he had stopped at the inn.  He often came to town, indeed,
+but seldom tarried long; and it had never been my fortune to see him.
+Being arrived unexpectedly, and obliged to be away early on the morrow,
+he decided to order rooms of Mr. Claude, sat down with me at the table,
+and commenced supper.  They had ridden from Alexandria.  I gathered from
+their conversation that they were on their way to Philadelphia upon
+some private business, the nature of which, knowing Captain Daniel's
+sentiments and those of Colonel Washington, I went not far to guess.
+The country was in a stir about the Townshend duties; and there being
+some rumour that all these were to be discharged save only that on tea,
+anxiety prevailed in our middle colonies that the merchants of New York
+would abandon the association formed and begin importation.  It was of
+some mission to these merchants that I suspected them.
+
+As I sat beside Colonel Washington, I found myself growing calmer, and
+ashamed of my lack of self-control.  Unconsciously, when we come in
+contact with the great of character, we mould our minds to their
+qualities.  His very person seemed to exhale, not sanctity, but virility.
+I felt that this man could command himself and others.  In his presence
+self-command came to me, as a virtue gone out of him.  'Twas not his
+speech, I would have you know, that took hold of me.  He was by no means
+a brilliant talker, and I had the good fortune to see him at his ease,
+since he and the captain were old friends.  As they argued upon the
+questions of the day, the colonel did not seek to impress by words,
+or to fascinate by manner.  His opinions were calm and moderate,
+and appeared to me so just as to admit of no appeal.  He scrupled not
+to use a forceful word when occasion demanded.  And yet, now and then,
+he had a lively way about him with all his dignity.  When he had finished
+his supper he bade Mr. Claude bring another bottle of Mr. Bordley's
+sherry, having tested mine, and addressed himself to me.
+
+He would know what my pursuits had been; for my father's sake, what were
+my ambitions?  He questioned me about Mr. Carvel's plantation, of which
+he had heard, and appeared pleased with the answers I gave as to its
+management and methods.  Captain Daniel was no less so.  Mr. Washington
+had agriculture at his finger ends, and gave me some advice which he had
+found serviceable at Mount Vernon.
+
+"'Tis a pity, Richard," said he, smiling thoughtfully at the captain,
+"'tis a pity we have no service afield open to our young men.  One of
+your spirit and bearing should be of that profession.  Captain Jack was
+as brave and dashing an officer as I ever laid eyes on."
+
+I hesitated, the tingling at the compliment.
+
+"I begin to think I was born for the sea, sir," I answered, at length.
+
+"What!" cried the captain; "what news is this, Richard?  'Slife! how has
+this come about?"
+
+My anger subdued by Mr. Washington's presence, a curious mood had taken
+its place.  A foolish mood, I thought it, but one of feeling things to
+come.
+
+"I believe I shall one day take part in a great sea-fight," I said.
+And, tho' ashamed to speak of it, I told him of Stanwix's prophecy
+that I should pace the decks of a man-o'-war.
+
+"A pox on Stanwix!" said the captain, "an artful old seadog!  I never
+yet knew one who did not think the sun rises and sets from poop to
+forecastle, who did not wheedle with all the young blood to get them
+to follow a bow-legged profession."
+
+Colonel Washington laughed.
+
+"Judge not, Clapsaddle," said he; "here are two of us trying to get the
+lad for our own bow-legged profession.  We are as hot as Methodists to
+convert."
+
+"Small conversion he needed when I was here to watch him, colonel.  And
+he rides with any trooper I ever laid eyes on.  Why, sir, I myself threw
+him on a saddle before he could well-nigh walk, and 'twere a waste of
+material to put him in the navy."
+
+"But what this old man said of a flag not yet seen in heaven or earth
+interests me," said Colonel Washington.  "Tell me," he added with a
+penetration we both remarked, "tell me, does your Captain Stanwix follow
+the times?  Is he a man to read his prints and pamphlets?  In other
+words, is he a man who might predict out of his own heated imagination?"
+
+"Nay, sir," I answered, "he nods over his tobacco the day long.  And I
+will make bold to swear, he has never heard of the Stamp Act."
+
+"'Tis strange," said the colonel, musing; "I have heard of this second
+sight--have seen it among my own negroes.  But I heartily pray that this
+may be but the childish fancy of an old mariner.  How do you interpret
+it, sir?" he added, addressing himself to me.
+
+"If a prophecy, I can interpret it in but one way," I began, and there I
+stopped.
+
+"To be sure," said Mr. Washington.  He studied me awhile as though
+weighing my judgment, and went on: "Needless to say, Richard, that such a
+service, if it comes, will not be that of his Majesty."
+
+"And it were, colonel, I would not embark in it a step," I cried.
+
+He laughed.
+
+"The lad has his father's impulse," he said to Captain Daniel.
+"But I thought old Mr. Carvel to be one of the warmest loyalists
+in the colonies."
+
+I bit my lip; for, since that unhappy deception of Mr. Carvel, I had not
+meant to be drawn into an avowal of my sentiments.  But I had, alas,
+inherited a hasty tongue.
+
+"Mr. Washington," said the captain, "old Mr. Carvel has ever been a good
+friend to me.  And, though I could not but perceive which way the lad was
+tending, I had held it but a poor return for friendship had I sought by
+word or deed to bring him to my way of thinking.  Nor have I ever
+suffered his views in my presence."
+
+"My dear sir, I honour you for it," put in the colonel, warmly.
+
+"It is naught to my credit," returned the captain.  "I would not, for the
+sake of my party and beliefs, embitter what remains of my old friend's
+life."
+
+I drew a long breath and drained the full glass before me.
+
+"Captain Daniel!"  I cried, "you must hear me now.  I have been waiting
+your coming these months.  And if Colonel Washington gives me leave,
+I will speak before him."
+
+The colonel bade me proceed, avowing that Captain Carvel's son should
+have his best assistance.
+
+With that I told them the whole story of Mr. Allen's villany.  How I had
+been sent to him because of my Whig sentiments, and for thrashing a Tory
+schoolmaster and his flock.  This made the gentlemen laugh, tho' Captain
+Daniel had heard it before.  I went on to explain how Mr. Carvel had
+fallen ill, and was like to die; and how Mr. Allen, taking advantage of
+his weakness when he rose from his bed, had gone to him with the lie of
+having converted me.  But when I told of the scene between my grandfather
+and me at Carvel Hall, of the tears of joy that the old gentleman shed,
+and of how he had given me Firefly as a reward, the captain rose from his
+chair and looked out of the window into the blackness, and swore a great
+oath all to himself.  And the expression I saw come into the colonel's
+eyes I shall never forget.
+
+"And you feared the consequences upon your grandfather's health?"  he
+asked gravely.
+
+"So help me God!"  I answered, "I truly believe that to have undeceived
+him would have proved fatal."
+
+"And so, for the sake of the sum he receives for teaching you," cried the
+captain, with another oath, "this scoundrelly clergyman has betrayed you
+into a lie.  A scheme, by God's life!  worthy of a Machiavelli!"
+
+"I have seen too many of his type in our parishes," said Mr. Washington;
+"and yet the bishop of London seems powerless.  And so used have we
+become in these Southern colonies to tippling and gaming parsons,
+that I warrant his people accept him as nothing out of the common."
+
+"He is more discreet than the run of them, sir.  His parishioners dislike
+him, not because of his irregularities, but because he is attempting to
+obtain All Saints from his Lordship, in addition to St. Anne's.  He is
+thought too greedy."
+
+He was silent, his brow a little furrowed, and drummed with his fingers
+upon the table.
+
+"But this I cannot reconcile," said he, presently, "that the reward is
+out of all proportion to the risk.  Such a clever rascal must play for
+higher stakes."
+
+I was amazed at his insight.  And for the moment was impelled to make
+a clean breast of my suspicions,--nay, of my convictions of the whole
+devil's plot.  But I had no proofs.  I remembered that to the colonel
+my uncle was a gentleman of respectability and of wealth, and a member
+of his Excellency's Council.  That to accuse him of scheming for my
+inheritance would gain me nothing in Mr. Washington's esteem.  And I
+caught myself before I had said aught of Mr. Allen's conduct that
+evening.
+
+"Have you confronted this rector with his perfidy, Richard?" he asked.
+
+"I have, colonel, at my first opportunity."  And I related how Mr. Allen
+had come to the Hall, and what I had said to him, and how he had behaved.
+And finally told of the picquet we now had during lessons, not caring to
+shield myself.  Both listened intently, until the captain broke out.
+Mr. Washington's indignation was the stronger for being repressed.
+
+"I will call him out!" cried Captain Daniel, fingering his sword, as was
+his wont when angered; "I will call him out despite his gown, or else
+horse him publicly!"
+
+"No, my dear sir, you will do nothing of the kind," said the colonel.
+"You would gain nothing by it for the lad, and lose much.  Such rascals
+walk in water, and are not to be tracked.  He cannot be approached save
+through Mr. Lionel Carvel himself, and that channel, for Mr. Carvel's
+sake, must be closed."
+
+"But he must be shown up!" cried the captain.
+
+"What good will you accomplish?"  said Mr. Washington; "Lord Baltimore is
+notorious, and will not remove him.  Nay, sir, you must find a way to get
+the lad from his influence."  And he asked me how was my grandfather's
+health at present.
+
+I said that he had mended beyond my hopes.
+
+"And does he seem to rejoice that you are of the King's party?"
+
+"Nay, sir.  Concerning politics he seems strangely apathetic, which makes
+me fear he is not so well as he appears.  All his life he has felt
+strongly."
+
+"Then I beg you, Richard, take pains to keep neutral.  Nor let any
+passing event, however great, move you to speech or action."
+
+The captain shook his head doubtfully, as tho' questioning the ability of
+one of my temper to do this.
+
+"I do not trust myself, sir," I answered.
+
+He rose, declaring it was past his hour for bed, and added some kind
+things which I shall cherish in my memory.  As he was leaving he laid his
+hand on my shoulder.
+
+"One word of advice, my lad," he said.  "If by any chance your
+convictions are to come to your grandfather's ears, let him have them
+from your own lips."  And he bade me good night.
+
+The captain tarried but a moment longer.
+
+"I have a notion who is to blame for this, Richard," he said.  "When I
+come back from New York, we shall see what we shall see."
+
+"I fear he is too slippery for a soldier to catch," I answered.
+
+He went away to bed, telling me to be prudent, and mind the colonel's
+counsel until he returned from the North.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE VOLTE COUPE
+
+I was of a serious mind to take the advice.  To prove this I called for
+my wrap-rascal and cane, and for a fellow with a flambeau to light me.
+But just then the party arrived from the assembly.  I was tempted, and
+I sat down again in a corner of the room, resolved to keep a check upon
+myself, but to stay awhile.
+
+The rector was the first in, humming a song, and spied me.
+
+"Ho!" he cried, "will you drink, Richard?  Or do I drink with you?"
+
+He was already purple with wine.
+
+"God save me from you and your kind!"  I replied.
+
+"'Sblood! what a devil's nest of fireworks!"  he exclaimed, as he went
+off down the room, still humming, to where the rest were gathered.  And
+they were soon between bottle and stopper, and quips a-coursing.  There
+was the captain of the Thunderer, Collinson by name, Lord Comyn and two
+brother officers, Will Fotheringay, my cousin Philip, openly pleased to
+be found in such a company, and some dozen other toadeaters who had
+followed my Lord a-chair and a-foot from the ball, and would have tracked
+him to perdition had he chosen to go; and lastly Tom Swain, leering and
+hiccoughing at the jokes, in such a beastly state of drunkenness as I had
+rarely seen him.  His Lordship recognized me and smiled, and was pushing
+his chair back, when something Collinson said seemed to restrain him.
+
+I believe I was the butt of more than one jest for my aloofness, though I
+could not hear distinctly for the noise they made.  I commanded some
+French cognac, and kept my eye on the rector, and the sight of him was
+making me dangerous.
+
+I forgot the advice I had received, and remembered only the months he had
+goaded me.  And I was even beginning to speculate how I could best pick a
+quarrel with him on any issue but politics, when an unexpected incident
+diverted me.  Of a sudden the tall, ungainly form of Percy Singleton
+filled the doorway, wrapped in a greatcoat.  He swept the room at a
+glance, and then strode rapidly toward the corner where I sat.
+
+"I had thought to find you here," he said, and dropped into a chair
+beside me.  I offered him wine, but he refused.
+
+"Now," he went on, "what has Patty done?"
+
+"What have I done that I should be publicly insulted?" I cried.
+
+"Insulted!" says he, "and did she insult you?  She said nothing of that."
+
+"What brings you here, then?" I demanded.
+
+"Not to talk, Richard," he said quietly, "'tis no time tonight.  I came
+to fetch you home.  Patty sent me."
+
+Patty sent him!  Why had Patty sent him?  But this I did not ask, for I
+felt the devil within me.
+
+"We must first finish this bottle," said I, offhand, "and then I have a
+little something to be done which I have set my heart upon.  After that I
+will go with you."
+
+"Richard, Richard, will you never learn prudence?  What is it you speak
+of?"
+
+I drew my sword and laid it upon the table.
+
+"I mean to spit that eel of a rector," said I, "or he will bear a slap
+in the face.  And you must see fair play."
+
+Singleton seized my coat, at the same time grasping the hilt of my sword
+with the other hand.  But neither my words nor my action had gone
+unnoticed by the other end of the room.  The company there fell silent
+awhile, and then we heard Captain Collinson talking in even, drawling
+tones.
+
+"'Tis strange," said he, "what hot sparks a man meets in these colonies.
+They should be stamped out.  His Majesty pampers these d--d Americans,
+is too lenient by far.  Gentlemen, this is how I would indulge them!"
+He raised a closed fist and brought it down on the board.
+
+He spoke to Tories, but he forgot that Tories were Americans.  In those
+days only the meanest of the King's party would listen to such without
+protest from an Englishman.  But some of the meaner sort were there:
+Philip and Tom laughed, and Mr. Allen, and my Lord's sycophants.
+Fotheringay and some others of sense shook their heads one to another,
+comprehending that Captain Collinson was somewhat gone in wine.
+For, indeed, he had not strayed far from the sideboard at the assembly.
+Comyn made a motion to rise.
+
+"It is already past three bells, sir, and a hunt to-morrow," he said.
+
+"From bottle to saddle, and from saddle to bottle, my Lord.  We must have
+our pleasure ashore, and sleep at sea," and the captain tipped his flask
+with a leer.  He turned his eye uncertainly first on me, then on my Lord.
+"We are lately from Boston, gentlemen, that charnel-house of treason,
+and before we leave, my Lord, I must tell them how Mr. Robinson of the
+customs served that dog Otis, in the British Coffee House.  God's word,
+'twas as good as a play."
+
+I know not how many got to their feet at that, for the story of the
+cowardly beating of Mr. Otis by Robinson and the army officers had swept
+over the colonies, burning like a flame all true-hearted men, Tory and
+Whig alike.  I wrested my sword from Singleton's hold, and in a trice I
+had reached the captain over chairs and table, tearing myself from
+Fotheringay on the way.  I struck a blow that measured a man on the
+floor.  Then I drew back, amazed.
+
+I had hit Lord Comyn instead!  The captain stood a yard beyond me.
+
+The thing had been so deftly done by the rector of St. Anne's--Comyn
+jostled at the proper moment between me and Collinson--that none save me
+guessed beyond an accident; least of all my Lord Comyn himself.  He was
+up again directly and his sword drawn, addressing me.
+
+"Bear witness, my Lord, that I have no desire to fight with you," said I,
+with what coolness I could muster.  "But there is one here I would give
+much for a chance to run through."
+
+And I made a step toward Mr. Allen with such a purpose in my face and
+movements that he could not mistake.  I saw the blood go from his face;
+yet he was no coward to physical violence.  But he (or I?) was saved by
+the Satan's luck that followed him, for my Lord stepped in between us
+with a bow, his cheek red where I had struck him.
+
+"It is my quarrel now, Mr. Carvel," he cried.
+
+"As you please, my Lord," said I.
+
+"It boots not who crosses with him," Captain Collinson put in.  "His
+Lordship uses the sword better than any here.  But it boots not so that
+he is opposed by a loyal servant of the King."
+
+I wheeled on him for this.
+
+"I would have you know that loyalty does not consist in outrage and
+murder, sir," I answered, "nor in the ridiculing of them.  And brutes
+cannot be loyal save through interest."
+
+He was angered, as I had desired.  I had hopes then of shouldering the
+quarrel on to him, for I had near as soon drawn against my own brother as
+against Comyn.  I protest I loved him then as one with whom I had been
+reared.
+
+"Let me deal with this young gamecock, Comyn," cried the captain, with an
+oath.  "He seems to think his importance sufficient."
+
+But Comyn would brook no interference.  He swore that no man should
+strike him with impunity, and in this I could not but allow he was right.
+
+"You shall hear from me, Mr. Carvel," he said.
+
+"Nay," I answered, "and fighting is to be done, sir, let us be through
+with it at once.  A large room upstairs is at our disposal; and there is
+a hunt to-morrow which one of us may like to attend."
+
+There was a laugh at this, in which his Lordship joined.
+
+"I would to God, Mr. Carvel," he said, "that I had no quarrel with you!"
+
+"Amen to that, my Lord," I replied; "there are others here I would rather
+fight."  And I gave a meaning look at Mr. Allen.  I was of two minds to
+announce the scurvy trick he had played, but saw that I would lose rather
+than gain by the attempt.  Up to that time the wretch had not spoken a
+word; now he pushed himself forward, though well clear of me.
+
+"I think it my duty as Mr. Carvel's tutor, gentlemen, to protest against
+this matter proceeding," he said, a sneer creeping into his voice.  "Nor
+can I be present at it.  Mr. Carvel is young and, besides, is not himself
+with liquor.  And, in the choice of politics, he knows not which leg he
+stands upon.  My Lord and gentlemen, your most humble and devoted."
+
+He made a bow and, before the retort on my lips could be spoken, left the
+tavern.  My cousin Philip left with him.  Tom Swain had fallen asleep in
+his chair.
+
+Captain Collinson and Mr. Furness, of the Thunderer, offered to serve his
+Lordship, which made me bethink that I, too, would have need of some one.
+'Twas then I remembered Singleton, who had passed from my mind.
+
+He was standing close behind me, and nodded simply when I asked him.  And
+Will Fotheringay came forward.
+
+"I will act, Richard, if you allow me," he said.  "I would have you know
+I am in no wise hostile to you, my Lord, and I am of the King's party.
+But I admire Mr. Carvel, and I may say I am not wholly out of sympathy
+with that which prompted his act."
+
+It was a noble speech, and changed Will in my eyes; and I thanked him
+with warmth.  He of all that company had the courage to oppose his
+Lordship!
+
+Mr. Claude was called in and, as is the custom in such cases, was told
+that some of us would play awhile above.  He was asked for his private
+room.  The good man had his suspicions, but could not refuse a party of
+such distinction, and sent a drawer thither with wine and cards.
+Presently we followed, leaving the pack of toadies in sad disappointment
+below.
+
+We gathered about the table and made shift at loo until the fellow had
+retired, when the seconds proceeded to clear the room of furniture, and
+Lord Comyn and I stripped off our coats and waistcoats.  I had lost my
+anger, but felt no fear, only a kind of pity that blood should be shed
+between two so united in spirit as we.  Yes, my dears, I thought of
+Dorothy.  If I died, she would hear that it was like a man--like a
+Carvel.  But the thought of my old grandfather tightened my heart.  Then
+the clock on the inn stairs struck two, and the noise of harsh laughter
+floated up to us from below.
+
+And Comyn,--of what was he thinking?  Of some fair home set upon the
+downs across the sea, of some heroic English mother who had kept her
+tears until he was gone?  Her image rose in dumb entreaty, invoked by the
+lad before me.  What a picture was he in his spotless shirt with the
+ruffles, his handsome boyish face all that was good and honest!
+
+I had scarce felt his Lordship's wrist than I knew I had to deal with a
+pupil of Angelo.  At first his attacks were all simple, without feint or
+trickery, as were mine.  Collinson cursed and cried out that it was
+buffoonery, and called on my Lord not to let me off so easily; swore that
+I fenced like a mercer, that he could have stuck me like a pin-cushion
+twenty and twenty times.  Often have I seen two animals thrust into a pit
+with nothing but good-will between them, and those without force them
+into anger and a deadly battle.  And so it was, unconsciously, between
+Comyn and me.  I forgot presently that I was not dealing with Captain
+Collinson, and my feelings went into my sword.  Comyn began to press me,
+nor did I give back.  And then, before it came over me that we had to do
+with life and death, he was upon me with a volte coupe, feinting in high
+carte and thrusting in low tierce, his point passing through a fold in my
+shirt.  And I were not alive to write these words had I not leaped out of
+his measure.
+
+"Bravo, Richard!" cried Fotheringay.
+
+"Well made, gads life!" from Mr. Furness.
+
+We engaged again, our faces hot.  Now I knew that if I did not carry the
+matter against him I should be killed out of hand, and Heaven knows I was
+not used to play a passive part.  I began to go carefully, but fiercely;
+tried one attack after another that my grandfather and Captain Daniel had
+taught me,--flanconnades, beats, and lunges.  Comyn held me even, and in
+truth I had much to do to defend myself.  Once I thought I had him in the
+sword-arm, after a circular parry, but he was too quick for me.  We were
+sweating freely by now, and by reason of the buzzing in my ears I could
+scarce hear the applause of the seconds.
+
+What unlucky chance it was I know not that impelled Comyn to essay again
+the trick by which he had come so near to spitting me; but try it he did,
+this time in prime and seconde.  I had come by nature to that intuition
+which a true swordsman must have, gleaned from the eyes of his adversary.
+Long ago Captain Daniel had taught me the remedy for this coupe.  I
+parried, circled, and straightened, my body in swift motion and my point
+at Comyn's heart, when Heaven brought me recollection in the space of a
+second.  My sword rang clattering on the floor.
+
+His Lordship understood, but too late.  Despairing his life, he made one
+wild lunge at me that had never gone home had I held to my hilt.  But the
+rattle of the blade had scarce reached my ears when there came a sharp
+pain at my throat, and the room faded before me.  I heard the clock
+striking the half-hour.
+
+I was blessed with a sturdy health such as few men enjoy, and came to
+myself sooner than had been looked for, with a dash of cold water.  And
+the first face I beheld was that of Colonel Washington.  I heard him
+speaking in a voice that was calm, yet urgent and commanding.
+
+"I pray you, gentlemen, give back.  He is coming to, and must have air.
+Fetch some linen!"
+
+"Now God be praised!" I heard Captain Daniel cry.
+
+With that his Lordship began to tear his own shirt into strips, and the
+captain bringing a bowl and napkin, the colonel himself washed the wound
+and bound it deftly, Singleton and Captain Daniel assisting.  When Mr.
+Washington had finished, he turned to Comyn, who stood, anxious and
+dishevelled, at my feet.
+
+"You may be thankful that you missed the artery, my Lord," he said.
+
+"With all my heart, Colonel Washington!" cried his Lordship.  "I owe my
+life to his generosity."
+
+"What's that, sir?"
+
+Mr. Carvel dropped his sword, rather than run me through."
+
+"I'll warrant!" Captain Daniel put in; "'Od's heart!  The lad has skill
+to point the eye of a button.  I taught him myself."
+
+Colonel Washington stood up and laid his hand on the captain's arm.
+
+"He is Jack Carvel over again," I heard him say, in a low voice.
+
+I tried to struggle to my feet, to speak, but he restrained me.  And
+sending for his servants, he ordered them to have his baggage removed
+from the Roebuck, which was the best bed in the house.  At this moment
+the door opened, and Mr. Swain came in hurriedly.
+
+"I pray you, gentlemen," he cried, "and he is fit to be moved, you will
+let me take him to Marlboro' Street.  I have a chariot at the door."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+OF WHICH THE RECTOR HAS THE WORST
+
+'Twas late when I awoke the next day with something of a dull ache in my
+neck, and a prodigious stiffness, studying the pleatings of the bed
+canopy over my head.  And I know not how long I lay idly thus when I
+perceived Mrs. Willis moving quietly about, and my grandfather sitting
+in the armchair by the window, looking into Freshwater Lane.  As my eyes
+fell upon him my memory came surging back,--first of the duel, then of
+its cause.  And finally, like a leaden weight, the thought of the
+deception I had practised upon him, of which he must have learned
+ere this.  Nay, I was sure from the troubled look of his face that
+he knew of it.
+
+"Mr. Carvel," I said.
+
+At the sound of my voice he got hastily from his chair and hurried to my
+side.
+
+"Richard," he answered, taking my hand, "Richard!"
+
+I opened my mouth to speak, to confess.  But he prevented me, the tears
+filling the wrinkles around his eyes.
+
+"Nay, lad, nay.  We will not talk of it.  I know all."
+
+"Mr. Allen has been here--" I began.
+
+"And be d--d to him!  Be d--d to him for a wolf in sheep's clothing!"
+shouted my grandfather, his manner shifting so suddenly to anger that I
+was taken back.  "So help me God I will never set foot in St. Anne's
+while he is rector.  Nor shall he come to this house!"
+
+And he took three or four disorderly turns about the room.
+
+"Ah!" he continued more quietly, with something of a sigh, "I might have
+known how stubborn your mind should be.  That you was never one to blow
+from the north one day and from the south the next.  I deny not that
+there be good men and able of your way of thinking: Colonel Washington,
+for one, whom I admire and honour; and our friend Captain Daniel.  They
+have been here to-day, Richard, and I promise you were good advocates."
+
+Then I knew that I was forgiven.  And I could have thrown myself at Mr.
+Carvel's feet for happiness.
+
+"Has Colonel Washington spoken in my favour, sir?"
+
+"That he has.  He is upon some urgent business for the North, I believe,
+which he delayed for your sake.  Both he and the captain were in my
+dressing-room before I was up, ahead of that scurrilous clergyman, who
+was for pushing his way to my bed-curtains.  Ay, the two of them were
+here at nigh dawn this morning, and Mr. Allen close after them.  And I
+own that Captain Daniel can swear with such a consuming violence as to
+put any rogue out of countenance.  'Twas all Mr. Washington could do to
+restrain Clapsaddle from booting his Reverence over the balustrade and
+down two runs of the stairs, the captain declaring he would do for every
+cur's son of the whelps.  'Diomedes,' says I, waking up, 'what's this
+damnable racket on the landing?  Is Mr. Richard home?' For I had some
+notion it was you, sir, after an over-night brawl.  And I profess I would
+have caned you soundly.  The fellow answered that Captain Clapsaddle's
+honour was killing Mr. Allen, and went out; and came back presently to
+say that some tall gentleman had the captain by the neck, and that Mr.
+Allen was picking his way down the ice on the steps outside.  With that
+I went in to them in my dressing-gown.
+
+"'What's all this to-do, gentlemen?' said I.
+
+"'I'd have finished that son of a dog,' says the captain, 'and Colonel
+Washington had let me.'
+
+"'What, what!' said I.  'How now?  What!  Drive a clergyman from my
+house gentlemen?'
+
+"'What's Richard been at now?'
+
+"Mr. Washington asked me to dress, saying that they had something very
+particular to speak about; that they would stay to breakfast with me,
+tho' they were in haste to be gone to New York.  I made my compliments to
+the colonel and had them shown to the library fire, and hurried down
+after them.  Then they told me of this affair last night, and they
+cleared you, sir.  'Faith,' cried I, 'and I would have fought, too.  The
+lad was in the right of it, though I would have him a little less hasty.'
+D--n me if I don't wish you had knocked that sea captain's teeth into his
+throat, and his brains with them.  I like your spirit, sir.  A pox on
+such men as he, who disgrace his Majesty's name and set better men
+against him."
+
+"And they told you nothing else, sir?" I asked, with misgiving.
+
+"That they did.  Mr. Washington repeated the confession you made to them,
+sir, in a manner that did you credit.  He made me compliments on you,--
+said that you were a man, sir, though a trifle hasty: in the which I
+agreed.  Yes, d--n me, a trifle hasty like your father.  I rejoice that
+you did not kill his Lordship, my son."
+
+The twilight was beginning; and the old gentleman going back to his chair
+was set amusing, gazing out across the bare trees and gables falling gray
+after the sunset.
+
+What amazed me was that he did not seem to be shocked by the revelation
+near as much as I had feared.  So this matter had brought me happiness
+where I looked for nothing but sorrow.
+
+"And the gentlemen are gone north, sir?" said I, after a while.
+
+"Yes, Richard, these four hours.  I commanded an early dinner for them,
+since the colonel was pleased to tarry long enough for a little politics
+and to spin a glass.  And I profess, was I to live neighbours with such a
+man, I might come to his way of thinking, despite myself.  Though I say
+it that shouldn't, some of his Majesty's ministers are d--d rascals."
+
+I laughed.  As I live, I never hoped to hear such words from my
+grandfather's lips.
+
+"He did not seek to convince, like so many of your hotheaded know-it-
+alls," said Mr. Carvel; "he leaves a man to convince himself.  He has
+great parts, Richard, and few can stand before him."  He paused.  And
+then his smooth-shaven face became creased in a roguish smile which I had
+often seen upon it.  "What baggage is this I hear of that you quarrelled
+over at the assembly?  Ah, Sir, I fear you are become but a sad rake!"
+says he.
+
+But by great good fortune Dr. Leiden was shown in at this instant.  And
+the candles being lighted, he examined my neck, haranguing the while in
+his vile English against the practice of duelling.  He bade me keep my
+bed for two days, thereby giving me no great pleasure.
+
+"As I hope to live," said Mr. Carvel when the doctor was gone, "one would
+have thought his Excellency himself had been pinked instead of a whip of
+a lad, for the people who have been here.  His Lordship and Dr. Courtenay
+came before the hunt, and young Mr. Fotheringay, and half a score of
+others.  Mr. Swain is but now left to go to Baltimore on some barrister's
+business."
+
+I was burning to learn what the rector had said to Patty, but it was
+plain Mr. Carvel knew nothing of this part of the story.  He had not
+mentioned Grafton among the callers.  I wondered what course my uncle
+would now pursue, that his plans to alienate me from my grandfather had
+failed.  And I began debating whether or not to lay the whole plot before
+Mr. Carvel.  Prudence bade me wait, since Grafton had not consorted with
+the rector openly, at least--for more than a year.  And yet I spoke.
+
+"Mr. Carvel!"
+
+He stirred in his chair.
+
+"Yes, my son."
+
+He had to repeat, and still I held my tongue.  Even as I hesitated there
+came a knock at the door, and Scipio entered, bearing candles.
+
+"Massa Grafton, suh," he said.
+
+My uncle was close at his heels.  He was soberly dressed in dark brown
+silk, and his face wore that expression of sorrow and concern he knew how
+to assume at will.  After greeting his father with his usual ceremony, he
+came to my bedside and asked gravely how I did.
+
+"How now, Grafton!" cried Mr. Carvel; "this is no funeral.  The lad has
+only a scratch, thank God!"
+
+My uncle looked at me and forced a smile.
+
+"Indeed I am rejoiced to find you are not worried over this matter,
+father," said he.  "I am but just back from Kent to learn of it, and
+looked to find you in bed."
+
+"Why, no, sir, I am not worried.  I fought a duel in my own day,--over a
+lass, it was."
+
+This time Grafton's smile was not forced.
+
+"Over a lass, was it?"  he asked, and added in a tone of relief, "and how
+do you, nephew?"
+
+Mr. Carvel saved me from replying.
+
+"'Od's life!" he cried; "no, I did not say this was over a lass.  I have
+heard the whole matter; how Captain Collinson, who is a disgrace to the
+service, brought shame upon his Majesty's supporters, and how Richard
+felled the young lord instead.  I'll be sworn, and I had been there, I
+myself would have run the brute through."
+
+My uncle did not ask for further particulars, but took a chair, and a
+dish of tea from Scipio.  His smug look told me plainer than words that
+he thought my grandfather still ignorant of my Whig sentiments.
+
+"I often wish that this deplorable practice of duelling might be
+legislated against," he remarked.  "Was there no one at the Coffee House
+with character enough to stop the lads?"
+
+Here was my chance.
+
+"Mr. Allen was there," I said.
+
+"A devil's plague upon him!" shouted my grandfather, beating the floor
+with his stick.  "And the lying hypocrite ever crosses my path, by gad's
+life!  I'll tear his gown from his back!"
+
+I watched Grafton narrowly.  Such as he never turn pale, but he set down
+his tea so hastily as to spill the most of it on the dresser.
+
+"Why, you astound me, my dear father!" he faltered; "Mr. Allen a lying
+hypocrite?  What can he have done?"
+
+"Done!" cried my grandfather, sputtering and red as a cherry with
+indignation.  "He is as rotten within as a pricked pear, I tell you, sir!
+For the sake of retaining the lad in his tuition he came to me and lied,
+sir, just after I had escaped death, and said that by his influence
+Richard had become loyal, and set dependence upon Richard's fear of the
+shock 'twould give me if he confessed--Richard, who never told me a
+falsehood in his life!  And instead of teaching him, he has gamed with
+the lad at the rectory.  I dare make oath he has treated your son to a
+like instruction.  'Slife, sir, and he had his deserts, he would hang
+from a gibbet at the Town Gate."
+
+I raised up in bed to see the effect of this on my uncle.  But however
+the wind veered, Grafton could steer a course.  He got up and began
+pacing the room, and his agitation my grandfather took for indignation
+such as his own.
+
+"The dog!"  he cried fiercely.  "The villain!  Philip shall leave him to-
+morrow.  And to think that it was I who moved you to put Richard to him!"
+
+His distress seemed so real that Mr. Carvel replied:
+
+"No, Grafton, 'twas not your fault.  You were deceived as much as I.  You
+have put your own son to him.  But if I live another twelve hours I shall
+write his Lordship to remove him.  What!  You shake your head, sir!"
+
+"It will not do," said my uncle.  "Lord Baltimore has had his reasons for
+sending such a scoundrel--he knew what he was, you may be sure, father.
+His Lordship, sir, is the most abandoned rake in London, and that
+unmentionable crime of his but lately in the magazines--"
+
+"Yes, yes," my grandfather interrupted; "I have seen it.  But I will
+publish him in Annapolis."
+
+My uncle's answer startled me, so like was it to the argument Colonel
+Washington himself had used.
+
+"What would you publish, sir?  Mr. Allen will reply that what he did
+was for the lad's good, and your own.  He may swear that since Richard
+mentioned politics no more he had taken his conversion for granted."
+
+My grandfather groaned, and did not speak, and I saw the futility of
+attempting to bring Grafton to earth for a while yet.
+
+My uncle had recovered his confidence.  He had hoped, so he said, that
+I had become a good loyalist: perchance as I grew older I would see the
+folly of those who called themselves Patriots.  But my grandfather cried
+out to him not to bother me then.  And when at last he was gone, of my
+own volition I proposed to promise Mr. Carvel that, while he lived, I
+would take no active part in any troubles that might come.  He stopped me
+with some vehemence.
+
+"I pray God there may be no troubles, lad," he answered; "but you need
+give me no promise.  I would rather see you in the Whig ranks than a
+trimmer, for the Carvels have ever been partisans."
+
+I tried to express my gratitude.  But he sighed and wished me good night,
+bidding me get some rest.
+
+I had scarce finished my breakfast the next morning when I heard a loud
+rat-tat-tat upon the street door-surely the footman of some person of
+consequence.  And Scipio was in the act of announcing the names when,
+greatly to his disgust, the visitors themselves rushed into my bedroom
+and curtailed the ceremony.  They were none other than Dr. Courtenay and
+my Lord Comyn himself.  His Lordship had no sooner seen me than he ran to
+the bed, grasped both my hands and asked me how I did, declaring he would
+not have gone to yesterday's hunt had he been permitted to visit me.
+
+"Richard," cried the doctor, "your fame has sprung up like Jonah's gourd.
+The Gazette is but just distributed.  Here's for you!  'Twill set the
+wags a-going, I'll warrant."
+
+He drew the newspaper from his pocket and began to read, stopping now and
+anon to laugh:
+
+"Rumour hath it that a Young Gentleman of Quality of this Town, who is
+possessed of more Valour than Discretion, and whose Skill at Fence and in
+the Field is beyond his Years, crossed Swords on Wednesday Night with a
+Young Nobleman from the Thunderer.  The Cause of this Deplorable Quarrel,
+which had its Origin at the Ball, is purported to have been a Young Lady
+of Wit and Beauty.  (& we doubt it not; for, alas!  the Sex hath Much to
+answer for of this Kind.)
+
+"The Gentlemen, with their Seconds, repaired after the Assembly to the
+Coffee House.  'Tis said upon Authority that H-s L-dsh-p owes his Life to
+the Noble Spirit of our Young American, who cast down his Blade rather
+than sheathe it in his Adversary's Body, thereby himself receiving a
+Grievous, the' happily not Mortal, Wound.  Our Young Gentleman is become
+the Hero of the Town, and the Subject of Prodigious Anxiety of all the
+Ladies thereof."
+
+"There's for you, my lad!" says he; "Mr. Green has done for you both
+cleverly."
+
+"Upon my soul," I cried, raising up in bed, "he should be put in the
+gatehouse for his impudence!  My Lord,--"
+
+"Don't 'My Lord' me," says Comyn; "plain 'Jack' will do."
+
+There was no resisting such a man: and I said as much.  And took his hand
+and called him 'Jack,' the doctor posing before the mirror the while,
+stroking his rues.  "Out upon you both," says he, "for a brace of
+sentimental fools!"
+
+"Richard," said Comyn, presently, with a roguish glance at the doctor,
+"there were some reason in our fighting had it been over a favour of Miss
+Manners.  Eh?  Come, doctor," he cried, "you will break your neck looking
+for the reflection of wrinkles.  Come, now, we must have little Finery's
+letter.  I give you my word Chartersea is as ugly as all three heads of
+Cerberus, and as foul as a ship's barrel of grease.  I tell you Miss
+Dorothy would sooner marry you."
+
+"And she might do worse, my Lord," the doctor flung back, with a strut.
+
+"Ay, and better.  But I promise you Richard and I are not such fools as
+to think she will marry his Grace.  We must have the little coxcomb's
+letter."
+
+"Well, have it you must, I suppose," returns the doctor.  And with that
+he draws it from his pocket, where he has it buttoned in.  Then he took a
+pinch of Holland and began.
+
+The first two pages had to deal with Miss Dorothy's triumph, to which her
+father made full justice.  Mr. Manners world have the doctor (and all the
+province) to know that peers of the realm, soldiers, and statesmen were
+at her feet.  Orders were as plentiful in his drawing-room as the
+candles.  And he had taken a house in Arlington Street, where Horry
+Walpole lived when not at Strawberry, and their entrance was crowded
+night and day with the footmen and chairmen of the grand monde.  Lord
+Comyn broke in more than once upon the reading, crying,--"Hear, hear!"
+and,--"My word, Mr. Manners has not perjured himself thus far.  He has
+not done her justice by half."  And I smiled at the thought that I had
+aspired to such a beauty!
+
+"'Entre noes, mon cher Courtenay,' Mr. Manners writes, 'entre noes, our
+Dorothy hath had many offers of great advantage since she hath been here.
+And but yesterday comes a chariot with a ducal coronet to our door.  His
+Grace of Chartersea, if you please, to request a private talk with me.
+And I rode with him straightway to his house in Hanover Square.'"
+
+"'Egad!  And would gladly have ridden straightway to Newgate, in a ducal
+chariot!" cried his Lordship, in a fit of laughter.
+
+"'I rode to Hanover Square,' the doctor continued, 'where we discussed
+the matter over a bottle.  His Grace's generosity was such that I could
+not but cry out at it, for he left me to name any settlement I pleased.
+He must have Dorothy at any price, said he.  And I give you my honour,
+mon cher Courtenay, that I lost no time in getting back to Arlington
+Street, and called Dorothy down to tell her.'"
+
+"Now may I be flayed," said Comyn, "if ever there was such another ass!"
+
+The doctor took more snuff and fell a-laughing.
+
+"But hark to this," said he, "here's the cream of it all:
+
+"You will scarce believe me when I say that the baggage was near beside
+herself with anger at what I had to tell her.  'Marry that misshapen
+duke!'  cries she, 'I would quicker marry Doctor Johnson!' And truly, I
+begin to fear she hath formed an affection for some like, foul-linened
+beggar.  That his Grace is misshapen I cannot deny; but I tried reason
+upon her.  'Think of the coronet, my dear, and of the ancient name to
+which it belongs.'  She only stamps her foot and cries out:
+
+"'Coronet fiddlesticks!  And are you not content with the name you bear,
+sir?"  'Our name is good as any in the three kingdoms,' said I, with
+truth.  'Then you would have me, for the sake of the coronet, joined to a
+wretch who is steeped in debauchery.  Yes, debauchery, sir!  You might
+then talk, forsooth, to the macaronies of Maryland, of your daughter the
+Duchess.'"
+
+"There's spirit for you, my lad!" Comyn shouted; "I give you Miss
+Dorothy."  And he drained a glass of punch Scipio had brought in, Doctor
+Courtenay and I joining him with a will.
+
+"I pray you go on, sir," I said to the doctor.
+
+"A pest on your impatience!" replied he; "I begin to think you are in
+love with her yourself."
+
+"To be sure he is," said Comyn; "he had lost my esteem and he were not."
+
+The doctor gave me an odd look.  I was red enough, indeed.
+
+"'I could say naught, my dear Courtenay, to induce her to believe that his
+Grace's indiscretions arose from the wildness of youth.  And I pass over
+the injustice she hath unwittingly done me, whose only efforts are for
+her bettering.  The end of it all was that I must needs post back to the
+duke, who was stamping with impatience up and down, and drinking
+Burgundy.  I am sure I meant him no offence, but told him in as many
+words, that my daughter had refused him.  And, will you believe me, sir?
+He took occasion to insult me (I cannot with propriety repeat his
+speech), and he flung a bottle after me as I passed out the door.  Was he
+not far gone in wine at the time, I assure you I had called him out for
+it.'"
+
+"And, gentlemen," said the doctor, when our merriment was somewhat spent,
+"I'll lay a pipe of the best Madeira, that our little fool never knows
+the figure he has cut with his Grace."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+IN WHICH SOME THINGS ARE MADE CLEAR
+
+The Thunderer weighed the next day, Saturday, while I was still upon my
+back, and Comyn sailed with her.  Not, however, before I had seen him
+again.  Our affection was such as comes not often to those who drift
+together to part.  And he left me that sword with the jewelled hilt,
+that hangs above my study fire, which he had bought in Toledo.  He told
+me that he was heartily sick of the navy; that he had entered only in
+respect for a wish of his father's, the late Admiral Lord Comyn, and that
+the Thunderer was to sail for New York, where he looked for a release
+from his commission, and whence he would return to England.  He would
+carry any messages to Miss Manners that I chose to send.  But I could
+think of none, save to beg him to remind her that she was constantly in
+my thoughts.  He promised me, roguishly enough, that he would have
+thought of a better than that by the time he sighted Cape Clear.  And
+were I ever to come to London he would put me up at Brooks's Club, and
+warrant me a better time and more friends than ever had a Caribbee who
+came home on a visit.
+
+My grandfather kept his word in regard to Mr. Allen, and on Sunday
+commanded the coach at eight.  We drove over bad roads to the church at
+South River.  And he afterwards declined the voluntary aid he hitherto
+had been used to give to St. Anne's.  In the meantime, good Mr. Swain had
+called again, bringing some jelly and cake of Patty's own making; and a
+letter writ out of the sincerity of her heart, full of tender concern and
+of penitence.  She would never cease to blame herself for the wrong she
+now knew she had done me.
+
+Though still somewhat weak from my wound and confinement, after dinner
+that Sunday I repaired to Gloucester Street.  From the window she saw me
+coming, and, bare-headed, ran out in the cold to meet me.  Her eyes
+rested first on the linen around my throat, and she seemed all in a fire
+of anxiety.
+
+"I had thought you would come to-day, when I heard you had been to South
+River," she said.
+
+I was struck all of a sudden with her looks.  Her face was pale, and I
+saw that she had suffered as much again as I.  Troubled, I followed her
+into the little library.  The day was fading fast, and the leaping flames
+behind the andirons threw fantastic shadows across the beams of the
+ceiling.  We sat together in the deep window.
+
+"And you have forgiven me, Richard?" she asked.
+
+"An hundred times," I replied.  "I deserved all I got, and more."
+
+"If I had not wronged and insulted you--"
+
+"You did neither, Patty," I broke in; "I have played a double part for
+the first and last time in my life, and I have been justly punished for
+it."
+
+"'Twas I sent you to the Coffee House," she cried, "where you might have
+been killed.  How I despise myself for listening to Mr. Allen's tales!"
+
+"Then it was Mr. Allen!"  I exclaimed, fetching a long breath.
+
+"Yes, yes; I will tell you all."
+
+"No," said I, alarmed at her agitation; "another time."
+
+"I must," she answered more calmly; "it has burned me enough.  You recall
+that we were at supper together, with Betty Tayloe and Lord Comyn, and
+how merry we were, altho' 'twas nothing but 'Dorothy' with you gentlemen.
+Then you left me.  Afterwards, as I was talking with Mr. Singleton, the
+rector came up.  I never have liked the man, Richard, but I little knew
+his character.  He began by twitting me for a Whig, and presently he
+said: 'But we have gained one convert, Miss Swain, who sees the error of
+his ways.  Scarce a year since young Richard Carvel promised to be one of
+those with whom his Majesty will have to reckon.  And he is now become,'
+--laughing,--'the King's most loyal and devoted.'  I was beside myself.
+'That is no subject for jest, Mr. Allen,' I cried; I will never believe
+it of him!'  'Jest!' said he; I give you my word I was never soberer in
+my life.'  Then it all came to me of a sudden that you sat no longer by
+the hour with my father, as you used, and you denounced the King's
+measures and ministers no more.  My father had spoken of it.  'Tell me
+why he has changed?' I asked, faltering with doubt of you, which I never
+before had felt.  'Indeed, I know not,' replied the rector, with his most
+cynical smile; unless it is because old Mr. Carvel might disinherit a
+Whig.  But I see you doubt my word, Miss Swain.  Here is Mr. Carroll,
+and you may ask him.'  God forgive me, Richard!  I stopped Mr. Carroll,
+who seemed mightily surprised.  And he told me yes, that your grandfather
+had said but a few days before, and with joy, that you were now of his
+Majesty's party."
+
+"Alas!  I might have foreseen this consequence," I exclaimed.  "Nor do I
+blame you, Patty."
+
+"But my father has explained all," Patty continued, brightening.  "His
+admiration for you is increased tenfold, Richard.  Your grandfather told
+him of the rector's treachery, which he says is sufficient to make him
+turn Methodist or Lutheran.  We went to the curate's service to-day.  And
+--will you hear more, sir?  Or do your ears burn?  That patriots and
+loyalists are singing your praises from Town Gate to the dock, and
+regretting that you did not kill that detestable Captain Collinson--but
+I have something else, and of more importance, to tell you, Richard,"
+she continued, lowering her voice.
+
+"What Mr. Carroll had told me stunned me like a blow, such had been my
+faith in you.  And when Mr. Allen moved off, I stood talking to Percy
+Singleton and his Lordship without understanding a word of the
+conversation.  I could scarce have been in my right mind.  It was not
+your going over to the other side that pained me so, for all your people
+are Tories.  But I had rather seen you dead than a pretender and a
+hypocrite, selling yourself for an inheritance.  Then you came.
+My natural impulse should have been to draw yon aside and there accuse
+you.  But this was beyond my strength.  And when I saw you go away
+without a word I knew that I had been unjust.  I could have wept before
+them all.  Mr. Carroll went for his coach, and was a full half an hour
+in getting it.  But this is what I would tell you in particular, Richard.
+I have not spoken of it to a soul, and it troubles me above all else:
+While Maria was getting my cardinal I heard voices on the other side of
+the dressing-room door.  The supper-room is next, you know.  I listened,
+and recognized the rector's deep tones: 'He has gone to the Coffee
+House,' he was saying; Collinson declares that his Lordship is our man,
+if we can but contrive it.  He is the best foil in the service, and was
+taught by--there!  I have forgot the name."
+
+"Angelo!"  I cried.
+
+"Yes, yes, Angelo it was.  How did you know?"  she demanded, rising in
+her excitement.
+
+"Angelo is the great fencing-master of London," I replied.
+
+"When I heard that," she said, "I had no doubt of your innocence.  I ran
+out into the assembly room as I was, in my hood, and tried to find Tom.
+But he--"  She paused, ashamed.
+
+"Yes, I know," I said hurriedly; "you could not find him."
+
+She glanced at me in gratitude.
+
+"How everybody stared at me!  But little I cared!  'Twas that gave rise
+to Mr. Green's report.  I thought of Percy Singleton, and stopped him in
+the midst of a dance to bid him run as fast as his legs would carry him
+to the Coffee House, and to see that no harm befell you.  'I shall hold
+you responsible for Richard,' I whispered.  'You must get him away from
+Mr. Claude's, or I shall never speak to you again.'  He did not wait to
+ask questions, but went at once, like the good fellow he is.  Then I rode
+home with Maria.  I would not have Mr. Carroll come with me, though he
+begged hard.  Father was in here, writing his brief.  But I was all in
+pieces, Richard, and so shaken with sobbing that I could tell him no more
+than that you had gone to the Coffee House, where they meant to draw you
+into a duel.  He took me up to my own room, and I heard him going out to
+wake Limbo to harness, and at last heard him driving away in our coach.
+I hope I may never in my life spend such another hour as I passed then."
+
+The light in the sky had gone out.  I looked up at the girl before
+me as she stood gazing into the flame, her features in strong relief,
+her lips parted, her hair red-gold, and the rounded outlines of her
+figure softened.  I wondered why I had never before known her beauty.
+Perchance it was because, until that night, I had never seen her heart.
+
+I leaped to my feet and seized her hands.  For a second she looked at me,
+startled.  Then she tore them away and ran behind the dipping chair in
+the corner.
+
+"Richard, Richard!"  she exclaimed.  "Did Dorothy but know!"
+
+"Dorothy is occupied with titles," I said.
+
+Patty's lip quivered.  And I knew, blundering fool that I was, that I had
+hurt her.
+
+"Oh, you wrong her!"  she cried; "believe me when I say that she loves
+you, and you only, Richard."
+
+"Loves me!" I retorted bitterly,--brutally, I fear.  "No.  She may have
+once, long ago.  But now her head is turned."
+
+"She loves you now," answered Patty, earnestly; "and I think ever will,
+if you but deserve her."
+
+And with that she went away, leaving me to stare after her in perplexity
+and consternation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+SOUTH RIVER
+
+My grandfather's defection from St. Anne's called forth a deal of comment
+in Annapolis.  His Excellency came to remonstrate, but to no avail, and
+Mr. Carvel denounced the rector in such terms that the Governor was glad
+to turn the subject.  My Uncle Grafton acted with such quickness and
+force as would have served to lull the sharpest suspicions.  He forbid
+the rector his house, attended the curate's service, and took Philip
+from his care.  It was decided that both my cousin and I were to go to
+King's College after Christmas.  Grafton's conduct greatly pleased my
+grandfather.  "He has behaved very loyally in this matter, Richard."  he
+said to me.  "I grow to reproach myself more every day for the injustice
+I once did him.  He is heaping coals of fire upon my old head.  But,
+faith!  I cannot stomach your Aunt Caroline.  You do not seem to like
+your uncle, lad."
+
+I answered that I did not.
+
+"It was ever the Carvel way not to forget," he went on.  "Nevertheless,
+Grafton hath your welfare at heart, I think.  His affection for you as
+his brother's son is great."
+
+O that I had spoken the words that burned my tongue!
+
+Christmas fell upon Monday of that year, 1769.  There was to be a ball at
+Upper Marlboro on the Friday before, to which many of us were invited.
+Though the morning came in with a blinding snowstorm from the north, the
+first of that winter, about ten of the clock we set out from Annapolis an
+exceeding merry party, the ladies in four coaches-and-six, the gentlemen
+and their servants riding at the wheels.  We laughed and joked despite
+the storm, and exchanged signals with the fair ones behind the glasses.
+
+But we had scarce got two miles beyond the town gate when a messenger
+overtook us with a note for Mr. Carvel, writ upon an odd slip of paper,
+and with great apparent hurry:
+
+HONOURED SIR,
+
+"I have but just come to Annapolis from New York, with Instructions to
+put into your Hands, & no Others, a Message of the greatest Import.
+Hearing you are but now set out for Upper Marlboro I beg of you to return
+for half an Hour to the Coffee House.  By so doing you will be of service
+to a Friend, and confer a Favour upon y'r most ob'd't Humble Servant,
+
+"SILAS RIDGEWAY."
+
+Our cavalcade had halted while I read, the ladies letting down the
+glasses and leaning out in their concern lest some trouble had befallen
+me or my grandfather.  I answered them and bade them ride on, vowing that
+I would overtake the coaches before they reached the Patuxent.  Then I
+turned Cynthia's head for town, with Hugo at my heels.
+
+Patty, leaning from the window of the last coach, called out to me as I
+passed.  I waved my hand in return, and did not remember until long after
+the anxiety in her eyes.
+
+As I rode, and I rode hard, I pondered over the words of this letter.  I
+knew not this Mr. Ridgeway from the Lord Mayor of London; but I came to
+the conclusion before I had reprised the gate that his message was from
+Captain Daniel.  And I greatly feared that some evil had befallen my good
+friend.  So I came to the Coffee House, and throwing my bridle to Hugo, I
+ran in.
+
+I found Mr. Ridgeway neither in the long room nor in the billiard room
+nor the bar.  Mr. Claude told me that indeed a man had arrived that
+morning from the North, a spare person with a hooked nose and scant hair,
+in a brown greatcoat with a torn cape.  He had gone forth afoot half an
+hour since.  His messenger, a negro lad whose face I knew, was in the
+stables with Hugo.  He had never seen the stranger till he met him that
+morning in State House Circle inquiring for Mr. Carvel, and had been
+given a shilling to gallop after me.  Impatient as I was to be gone, I
+sat me down in the coffee room, thinking every minute the man must
+return, and strongly apprehensive that Captain Daniel must be in some
+grave predicament.  That the favour he asked was of such a nature as I,
+and not my grandfather, could best fulfil.
+
+At length, about a quarter after noon, my man comes in with Mr. Claude
+close behind him.  I liked his looks less than his description, and the
+moment I clapped eyes on him I knew that Captain Daniel had never chose
+such a messenger.
+
+"This is Mr. Richard Carvel," said Mr. Claude.
+
+The fellow made me a low bow, which I scarcely returned.
+
+"I am sure, 'sir," he began in a whining voice, "that I crave your
+forbearance for this prodigious, stupid mistake I have made."
+
+"Mistake!" I exclaimed hotly; "you mean to say, sir, that you have
+brought me back for nothing?"
+
+The man's eye shifted, and he made me another bow.
+
+"I scarce know what to say, Mr. Carvel," he answered with much humility;
+"to speak truth, 'twas zeal to my employers, and methought to you, that
+caused you to retrace your steps in this pestiferous storm.  I travel,"
+he proceeded with some importance, "I travel for Messrs. Rinnell and
+Runn, Barristers of the town of New York, and carry letters to men of
+mark all over these middle and southern colonies.  And my instructions,
+sir, were to come to Annapolis with all reasonable speed with this
+double-sealed enclosure for Mr. Carvel: and to deliver it to him, and him
+only, the very moment I arrived.  As I came through your town I made
+inquiries, and was told by a black fellow in the Circle that Mr. Carvel
+was but just left for Upper Marlboro with a cavalcade of four coaches-
+and-six and some dozen gentlemen with their servants.  I am sure my
+mistake was pardonable, Mr. Carvel," he concluded with a smirk; "this
+gentleman was plainly of the first quality, as was he to whom I was
+directed.  And as he was about to leave town for I knew not how long, I
+hope I was in the right in bidding the black ride after him, for I give
+you my word the business was most pressing for him.  I crave your
+forgiveness, and the pleasure of drinking your honour's health."
+
+I barely heard the fellow through, and was turning on my heel in disgust,
+when it struck me to ask him what Mr. Carvel he sought, for I feared lest
+my grandfather had got into some lawsuit.
+
+"And it please your honour, Mr. Grafton Carvel," said he; "your uncle, I
+understand.  Unfortunately he has gone to his estate in Kent County,
+whither I must now follow him."
+
+I bade Mr. Claude summon my servant, not stopping to question the man
+further, such was my resentment against him.  And in ten minutes we were
+out of the town again, galloping between the nearly filled tracks of the
+coaches, now three hours ahead of us.  The storm was increasing, and the
+wind cutting, but I dug into Cynthia so that poor Hugo was put to it to
+hold the pace, and, tho' he had a pint of rum in him, was near perished
+with the cold.  As my anger cooled somewhat I began to wonder how Mr.
+Silas Ridgeway, whoever he was, could have been such a simpleton as his
+story made him out.  Indeed, he looked more the rogue than the ass; nor
+could I conceive how reliable barristers could hire such a one.  I wished
+heartily that I had exhausted him further, and a suspicion crossed my
+brain that he might have come to Mr. Allen, who had persuaded him to
+deliver a letter to Grafton intended for me.  Some foreboding beset me,
+and I was once close to a full mind for going back, and slacked Cynthia's
+pace to a trot.  But the thought of the pleasures at Upper Marlboro' and
+the hope of overtaking the party at Mr. Dorsey's place, over the
+Patuxent, where they looked to dine, decided me in pushing on.  And thus
+we came to South River, with the snow so thick that we could scarce see
+ten yards in front of us.
+
+Beyond, the road winds up the hill'around the end of Mr. Wiley's
+plantation and plunges shortly into the woods, gray and cold indeed to-
+day.  At their skirt a trail branches off which leads to Mr. Whey's
+warehouses, on the water's edge a mile or so below.  And I marked that
+this path was freshly trodden.  I recall a small shock of surprise at
+this, for the way was used only in the early autumn to connect with some
+fields beyond the hill.  And then I heard a sharp cry from Hugo and
+pulled Cynthia short.  He was some ten paces behind me.
+
+"Marse Dick!" he shouted, the whites of his eyes rolled up.  "We'se gwine
+to be robbed, Marse Dick."  And he pointed to the footprints in the snow;
+"somefin done tole Hugo not come to-day."
+
+"Nonsense!"  I cried; "Mr. Wiley is making his lazy beggars cut wood
+against Christmas."
+
+When in this temper the poor fellow had more fear of me than of aught
+else, and he closed up to my horse's flank, glancing apprehensively to
+the right and left, his teeth rattling.  We went at a brisk trot.  We
+know not, indeed, how to account for many things in this world, for with.
+each beat of Cynthia's feet I found myself repeating the words South
+River and Marlboro, and seeking in my mind a connection to something gone
+before.  Then, like a sudden gust of wind, comes to me that strange talk
+between Grafton and the rector, overheard by old Harvey in the stables at
+Carvel Hall.  And Cynthia's ears were pointing forward.
+
+With a quick impulse I loosed the lower frogs of my coat, for my sword
+was buckled beneath, and was reaching for one of the brace of pistols in
+my saddle-bags.  I had but released them when Hugo cried out: "Gawd,
+Marse Dick, run for yo' life!" and I caught a glimpse of him flying down
+the road.  As I turned a shot rang out, Cynthia reared high with a rough
+brute of a fellow clinging to her bridle.  I sent my charge full into his
+chest, and as he tumbled in the snow I dug my spurs to the rowels.
+
+What happened then is still a blurred picture in my brain.  I know that
+Cynthia was shot from under me before she had taken her leap, and we fell
+heavily together.  And I was scarcely up again and my sword drawn, when
+the villains were pressing me from all sides.  I remember spitting but
+one, and then I heard a great seafaring oath, the first word out of their
+mouths, and I was felled from behind with a mighty blow.
+
+
+
+
+THE "BLACK MOLL"
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE "BLACK MOLL"
+
+I have no intention, my dears, of dwelling upon that part of my
+adventures which must be as painful to you as to me, the very
+recollection of which, after all these years, suffices to cause the blood
+within me to run cold.  In my youth men whose natures shrank not from
+encounter with their enemies lacked not, I warrant you, a checkered
+experience.  Those of us who are wound the tightest go the farthest and
+strike the hardest.  Nor is it difficult for one, the last of whose life
+is being recorded, to review the outspread roll of it, and trace the
+unerring forces which have drawn for themselves.
+
+Some, indeed, traverse this world weighing, before they partake, pleasure
+and business alike.  But I am not sure, my children, that they better
+themselves; or that God, in His all-wise judgment, prefers them to such
+as are guided by the divine impulse with which He has endowed them.  Far
+be it from me to advise rashness or imprudence, as such; nor do I believe
+you will take me so.  But I say unto you: do that which is right, and let
+God, not man, be your interpreter.
+
+My narrative awaits me.
+
+I came to my wits with an immoderate feeling of faintness and sickness,
+with no more remembrance of things past than has a man bereft of reason.
+And for some time I swung between sense and oblivion before an
+overpowering stench forced itself upon my nostrils, accompanied by a
+creaking, straining sound and sweeping motion.  I could see nothing for
+the pitchy blackness.  Then I recalled what had befallen me, and cried
+aloud to God in my anguish, for I well knew I had been carried aboard
+ship, and was at sea.  I had oftentimes heard of the notorious press-gang
+which supplied the need of the King's navy, and my first thought was that
+I had fallen in their clutches.  But I wondered that they had dared
+attack a person of my consequence.
+
+I had no pain.  I lay in a bunk that felt gritty and greasy to the touch,
+and my hair was matted behind by a clot of blood.  I had been stripped of
+my clothes, and put into some coarse and rough material, the colour and
+condition of which I could not see for want of light.  I began to cast
+about me, to examine the size of the bunk, which I found to be narrow,
+and plainly at some distance from the deck, for I laid hold upon one of
+the rough beams above me.  By its curvature I knew it to be a knee, and
+thus I came to the caulked sides of the vessel, and for the first time
+heard the rattling thud and swish of water on the far side of it.  I had
+no sooner made this discovery, which drew from me an involuntary groan,
+when a ship's lanthorn was of a sudden thrust over me, and I perceived
+behind it a head covered with shaggy hair and beard, and beetling brows.
+Never had I been in such a terrifying presence.
+
+"Damn my blood and bones, life signals at last!  Another three bells
+gone, my silks and laces, and we had given you to the sharks."
+
+The man hung his lanthorn to a hook on the beam, and thrust a case-bottle
+of rum toward me, at the same time biting off a great quid of tobacco.
+For all my alarm I saw that his manner was not unkindly, and as I was
+conscious of a consuming thirst I seized and tipped it eagerly.
+
+"'Tis no fine Madeira, my blood," said he, "such as I fancy your palate
+is acquainted with.  Yet 'tis as fair a Jamaica as ever Griggs put ashore
+i' the dark."
+
+"Griggs!" I cried, the whole affair coming to me: Griggs, Upper
+Marlboro', South River, Grafton and the rector plotting in the stalls,
+and Mr. Silas Ridgeway the accomplice.
+
+"Ay, Griggs," replied he; "ye may well repeat it, the -------, I'll lay a
+puncheon he'll be hailing you shortly.  Guinea Griggs, Gold-Coast Griggs,
+Smuggler Griggs, Skull-and-Bones Griggs.  Damn his soul and eyes, he hath
+sent to damnation many a ship's company."
+
+He drained what remained of the bottle, took down the lanthorn, and left
+me sufficiently terrified to reflect upon my situation, which I found
+desperate enough, my dears.  I have no words to describe what I went
+through in that vile, foul-smelling place.  My tears flowed fast when I
+thought of my grandfather and of the dear friends I had left behind, and
+of Dorothy, whom I never hoped to see again.  And then, perchance 'twas
+the rum put heart into me, I vowed I would face the matter show this cut-
+throat of a Griggs a bold front.  Had he meant to murder me, I reflected,
+he had done the business long since.  Then I fell asleep.
+
+I awoke, I know not how soon, to discover the same shaggy countenance,
+and the lanthorn.
+
+"Canst walk, Mechlin?" says he.
+
+"I can try, at least," I answered.
+
+He seemed pleased at this.
+
+"You have courage a-plenty, and, by G--, you will have need of it all
+with that of a Griggs!"  He gave me his bottle again, and assisted me
+down, and I found that my legs, save for the rocking of the ship, were
+steady enough.  I followed him out of the hole in which I had lain on to
+a deck, which, in the half light, I saw covered with slush and filth.  It
+was small, and but dimly illuminated by a hatchway, up the which I pushed
+after him, and then another.  And so we came to the light of day, which
+near blinded me: so that I was fain to clap my hand to mine eyes, and
+stood for a space looking about me like a man dazed.  The wind, tho'
+blowing stiff, was mild, and league after league of the green sea danced
+and foamed in the morning sunlight, and I perceived that I was on a large
+schooner under full sail, the crew of which were littered about at
+different occupations.  Some gaming and some drinking, while on the
+forecastle two men were settling a dispute at fisticuffs.  And they gave
+me no more notice, nor as much, than I had been a baboon thrust among
+them.  From this indifference to a captive I augured no good.  Then my
+conductor, whom I rightly judged to be the mate of this devil's crew,
+took me roughly by the shoulder and bade me accompany him to the cabin.
+
+As we drew near the topgallant poop there sounded in my ears a noise like
+a tempest, which I soon became aware was a man swearing with a prodigious
+vehemence in a fog-horn of a voice.  "Sdeath and wounds!  Where is that
+dog-fish of a Cockle?  Damn his entrails, and he is not come soon, I'll
+mast-head him naked, by the seven holy spritsails!"  And much more and
+worse to the same tune until we passed the door and stood before him,
+when he let out an oath like the death-cry of a monster.
+
+He was a short, lean man with a leathery face and long, black ropy hair,
+and beady black eyes that caught the light like a cat's.  His looks,
+indeed, would have scared a timid person into a fit; but I resolved I
+would die rather than show the fear with which he inspired me.  He was
+dressed in an old navy uniform with dirty lace.  His cabin was bare
+enough, being scattered about with pistols and muskets and cutlasses,
+with a ragged pallet in one corner, and he sat behind an oaken table
+covered with greasy charts and spilled liquor and tobacco.
+
+"So ho, you are risen from the dead, are you, my fine buck?  Mr. What-do-
+they-call-you?"  cried the captain, with a word as foul as any he had yet
+uttered.  "By the Lord, you shall pay for running my bosun through!"
+
+"And by the Lord, Captain What's-your-name," I cried back, for the rum I
+had taken had heated me, "you and your fellow-rascals shall pay in blood
+for this villanous injury!"
+
+Griggs got to his feet and seized his hanger, his face like livid marble
+seamed with blue.  And from force of habit I made motion for my sword, to
+make the shameful discovery that I was clothed from head to foot in
+linsey-woolsey.
+
+"G-d--- my soul," he roared, "if I don't slit you like a herring!
+The devil burn me to a cinder if I don't give your guts to the sharks!
+"And he made at me in such a fury that I would certainly have been cut to
+pieces had I not grasped a cutlass and parried his blow, Cockle looking
+on with his jaw dropped like a peak without haulyards.  With a stroke of
+my weapon I disarmed Captain Griggs, his sword flying through the cabin
+window.  For I made up my mind I would better die fighting than expire at
+a hideous torture, which I doubted not he would inflict, and so I took up
+a posture of defence, with one eye on the mate; despite the kind offices
+of the latter below I knew not whether he were disposed to befriend me
+before the captain.  What was my astonishment, therefore, to behold
+Griggs's truculent manner change.
+
+"Avast, my man-o-war," he cried; "blood and wounds!  I had more than an
+eye when they brought thee aboard, else I would have killed thee like a
+sucking-pig under the forecastle, as I have given oath to do.  By the
+Ghost, you are worth seven of that Roger Spratt whom you sent to hell in
+his boots."
+
+Wherewith Cockle, who for all his terrible appearance stood in a mighty
+awe of his captain, set up a loud laugh, and vowed that Griggs knew a man
+when he spared me, and was cursed for his pains.
+
+"So you were contracted to murder me, Captain Griggs?"  said I.
+
+"Ay," he replied, a devilish gleam coming into his eye, "but I have now
+got you and the money to boot.  But harkye, I'll stand by my half of the
+bargain, by G--.  If ever you reach Maryland alive, they may hang me to
+the yardarm of a ship-of-the-line."
+
+And I live long enough, my dears, I hope some day to write for you the
+account of all that befell me on this slaver, Black Moll, for so she was
+called.  'Twould but delay my story now.  Suffice it to say that we
+sailed for a fortnight or so in the West India seas.  From some
+observations that fell from the mouth of Griggs I gathered that he was
+searching for an island which evaded him; and each day added to his
+vexation at not finding it.  At times he was drunk for forty hours at a
+stretch, when he would shut himself in his cabin and leave his ship to
+the care of Cockle, who navigated with the sober portion of the crew.
+And such a lousy, brawling lot of convicts I had never clapped eyes upon.
+As for me, I was treated indifferently well, though 'twas in truth
+punishment enough to live in that filthy ship, to eat their shins of beef
+and briny pork and wormy biscuit, to wear rough clothes that chafed my
+skin.  I shared Cockle's cabin, in every way as dirty a place as the den
+I had left, but with the advantage of air, for which I fervently thanked
+God.
+
+I think the mate had some little friendship for me, though he was too
+hardened by the life he had led to care a deal what became of me.  He
+encouraged me secretly to continue to beard Griggs as I had begun, saying
+that it was my sole chance of a whole skin, and vowing that if he had had
+the courage to pursue the same course his own back had not been checkered
+like a grating.  He told me stories of the captain's cruelty which I dare
+not repeat for their very horror, and indeed I lacked not for instances
+to substantiate what he said; men with their backs beaten to a pulp, and
+others with ears cut off, and mouths slit, and toes missing.  So that I
+lived in hourly fear lest in some drunken fit Griggs might command me to
+be tortured.  But, fortunately, he held small converse with me, and when
+sober busied himself in trying to find the island and in cursing the fate
+by which it eluded him.
+
+So I existed, and prayed daily for deliverance.  I plied Cockle with
+questions as to what they purposed doing with me, but he was wont to turn
+sulky, and would answer me not a word.  But once, when he was deeper in
+his cups than common, he let me know that Griggs was to sell me to a
+certain planter.  You may well believe that this did not serve to liven
+my spirits.
+
+At length, one morning, Captain Griggs came out of his cabin and climbed
+upon the poop, calling all hands aft to the quarterdeck.  Whereupon he
+proceeded to make them a speech that for vileness exceeded aught I have
+ever heard before or since.  He finished by reminding them that this was
+the anniversary of the scuttling of the sloop Jane, which had made them
+all rich a year before, off the Canaries; the day that he had sent three
+and twenty men over the plank to hell.  Wherefore he decreed a holiday,
+as the weather was bright and the trades light, and would serve quadruple
+portions of rum to every man jack aboard; and they set up a cheer that
+started the Mother Careys astern.
+
+I have no language to depict the bestiality of that day; and if I had I
+would think it sin to write of it.  The helm was lashed on the port tack,
+the haulyards set taut, and all hands down to the lad who was the cook's
+scullion proceeded to get drunk.  I took the precaution to have a hanger
+at my side and to slip one of Cockle's pistols within the band of my
+breeches.  I was in an exquisite' agony of indecision as to what manner
+to act and how to defend myself from their drunken brutality, for I well
+knew that if I refused to imbibe with them I should probably be murdered
+for my abstemiousness; and, if I drank, the stuff was so near to alcohol
+that I could not hope to keep my senses.  While in this predicament I
+received a polite invitation to partake in the captain's company, which I
+did not see my way clear to refuse, and repaired to the cabin
+accordingly.
+
+There I found Griggs and Cockle seated, and a fair-sized barrel of rum
+between them that the captain had just moved thither.  By way of welcome
+he shot at me a volley of curses and bade me to fill up, and through fear
+of offending him I took down my first mug with a fair good grace.  Then,
+in his own particular language, he began the account of the capture of
+the Jane, taking care in the pauses to see that my mug was full.  But, as
+luck would have it, he got no farther than the boarding by the Black
+Moll's crew, when he fell to squabbling with Cockle as to who had been
+the first man over the side; and while they were settling this difference
+I grasped the opportunity to escape.
+
+The maudlin scene that met my eyes on deck defies description; some were
+fighting, others grinning with a hideous laughter, and still others
+shouting tavern jokes unspeakable.  And suddenly, whilst I was observing
+these things from a niche behind the cabin door, I heard the captain cry
+from within, "The ensign, the ensign!"  Forgetting his dispute with
+Cockle, he bumped past me and made his way with some trouble to the poop.
+I climbed the ladder after him, and to my horror beheld him in a drunken
+frenzy drag a black flag with a rudely painted skull and cross-bones from
+the signal-chest, and with uncertain fingers toggle it to the ensign
+haulyards and hoist to the peak, where it fluttered grimly in the light
+wind like an evil augur on a fair day.  At sight of it the wretches on
+deck fell to shouting and huzzaing, Griggs standing leering up at it.
+Then he gravely pulled off his hat and made it a bow, and turned upon me.
+
+"Salute it, ye lubberly!  Ye are no first-rate here," he thundered.
+"Salute the flag!"
+
+Unless fear had kept me sober, 'tis past my understanding why I was not
+as drunk as he.  Be that as it may, I was near as quarrelsome, and would
+as soon have worshipped the golden calf as saluted that rag.  I flung
+back some reply, and he lugged out and came at me with a spring like a
+wild beast; and his men below, seeing us fall out, made a rush for the
+poop with knives and cutlasses drawn.  Betwixt them all I should soon
+have been in slivers had not the main shrouds offered themselves handy.
+And up them I sprung, the captain cutting at my legs as I left the sheer-
+pole, and I stopped not until I reached the schooner's cross-trees, where
+I drew my cutlass.  They pranced around the mast and showered me with
+oaths, for all the world like a lot of howling dogs which had treed a
+cat.
+
+I began to feel somewhat easier, and cried aloud that the first of them
+who came up after me would go down again in two pieces.  Despite my
+warning a brace essayed to climb the ratlines, as pitiable an attempt as
+ever I witnessed, and fell to the deck again.  'Twas a miracle that they
+missed falling into the sea.  And after a while, becoming convinced that
+they could not get at me, and being too far gone to shoot with any
+accuracy, they tumbled off the poop swearing to serve me in a hundred
+horrible ways when they caught me, and fell again to drinking and
+quarrelling amongst themselves.  I was indeed in an unenviable plight,
+by no means sure that I would not be slain out of hand when they became
+sufficiently sober to capture me.  As I marked the progress of their
+damnable orgy I cast about for some plan to take advantage of their
+condition.  I observed that a stupor was already beginning to overcome a
+few of them.  Then suddenly an incident happened to drive all else from
+my mind.
+
+Nothing less, my dears, than a white speck of sail gleaming on the
+southern horizon!
+
+For an hour I watched it, now in a shiver of apprehension lest it pass us
+by, now weeping in an ecstasy of joy over a possible deliverance.  But it
+grew steadily larger, and when about three miles on our port bow I saw
+that the ship was a brigantine.  Though she had long been in sight from
+our deck, 'twas not until now that she was made out by a man on the
+forecastle, who set up a cry that brought about him all who could reel
+thither, Griggs staggering out of his cabin and to the nettings.  The
+sight sobered him somewhat, for he immediately shouted orders to cast
+loose the guns, himself tearing the breeching from the nine-pounder next
+him and taking out the tompion.  About half the crew were in a liquorish
+stupor from which the trump itself could scarce have aroused them; the
+rest responded with savage oaths, swore that they would boil their
+suppers in the blood of the brigantine's men and give their corpses to
+the sea.  They fell to work on the port battery in so ludicrous a manner
+that I was fain to laugh despite the gravity of the situation.  But when
+they came to rig the powderhoist and a couple of them descended into the
+magazine with pipes lighted, I was in imminent expectation of being blown
+as high as a kite.
+
+So absorbed had I been in these preparations that I neglected to watch
+the brigantine, which I discovered to be standing on and off in a very
+undecided manner, as though hesitating to attack.  My spirits fell again
+at this, for with all my inexperience I knew her to be a better sailer
+than the Black Moll.  Her master, as Griggs remarked, "was no d--d
+slouching lubber, and knew a yardarm from a rattan cane."
+
+Finally, about six bells of the watch, the stranger wore ship and bore
+down across our bows, hoisting English colours, at sight of which I could
+scarce forbear a cheer.  At this instant, Captain Griggs woke to the fact
+that his helm was still lashed, and bestowing a hearty kick on his
+prostrate quartermaster stuck fast to the pitchy seams of the deck, took
+the wheel himself, and easing off before the wind to bring the vessels
+broadside to broadside, commanded that the guns be shooed to the muzzle,
+an order that was barely executed before the brigantine came within close
+range.  Aboard her was all order and readiness; the men at her guns fuse
+in hand, an erect and pompous figure of a man, in a cocked hat, on the
+break of her poop.  He raised his hand, two puffs of white smoke darted
+out, and I heard first the shrieking of shot, the broadside came
+crashing round us, one tearing through the mainsail below me, another
+mangling two men in the waist of our schooner, and Griggs gave the order
+to touch off.  But two of his guns answered, one of which had been so
+gorged with shot that it burst in a hundred pieces and sent the fellow
+with the swab to perdition, and such a hell of blood and confusion as
+resulted is indescribable.  I saw Griggs in a wild fit of rage force the
+helm down, the schooner flying into the wind.  And by this time, the
+brigantine having got round and presented her port battery, raked us at a
+bare hundred yards, and I was the first to guess by the tilting forward
+of the mast that our hull was hit between wind and water, and was fast
+settling by the bow.
+
+The schooner was sinking like a gallipot.
+
+That day, with the sea flashing blue and white in the sun, I saw men go
+to death with a curse upon their lips and a fever in their eyes, with
+murder and defiance of God's holy will in their hearts.  Overtaken in
+bestiality, like the judgment of Nineveh, five and twenty disappeared
+from beneath me, and I had scarce the time to throw off my cutlass before
+I, too, was engulfed.  So expired the Black Moll.
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD CARVEL, V3, BY CHURCHILL ***
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