Now, Emma, now the last reflection make,
What thou wouldst follow, what thou must forsake
By our ill-omen'd stars and adverse Heaven,
No middle object to thy choice is given.
_Henry and Emma._
The sun was high in heaven; the boats were busily fetching off from the
shore the promised supply of provisions and water, which, as many
fishing skiffs were employed in the service, were got on board with
unexpected speed, and stowed away by the crew of the sloop, with equal
dispatch. All worked with good will; for all, save Cleveland himself,
were weary of a coast, where every moment increased their danger, and
where, which they esteemed a worse misfortune, there was no booty to be
won. Bunce and Derrick took the immediate direction of this duty, while
Cleveland, walking the deck alone, and in silence, only interfered from
time to time, to give some order which circumstances required, and then
relapsed into his own sad reflections.
There are two sorts of men whom situations of guilt, terror, and
commotion, bring forward as prominent agents. The first are spirits so
naturally moulded and fitted for deeds of horror, that they stalk forth
from their lurking-places like actual demons, to work in their native
element, as the hideous apparition of the Bearded Man came forth at
Versailles, on the memorable 5th October, 1789, the delighted
executioner of the victims delivered up to him by a bloodthirsty rabble.
But Cleveland belonged to the second class of these unfortunate beings,
who are involved in evil rather by the concurrence of external
circumstances than by natural inclination, being, indeed, one in whom
his first engaging in this lawless mode of life, as the follower of his
father, nay, perhaps, even his pursuing it as his father's avenger,
carried with it something of mitigation and apology;--one also who often
considered his guilty situation with horror, and had made repeated,
though ineffectual efforts, to escape from it.
Such thoughts of remorse were now rolling in his mind, and he may be
forgiven, if recollections of Minna mingled with and aided them. He
looked around, too, on his mates, and, profligate and hardened as he
knew them to be, he could not think of their paying the penalty of his
obstinacy. "We shall be ready to sail with the ebb tide," he said to
himself--"why should I endanger these men, by detaining them till the
hour of danger, predicted by that singular woman, shall arrive? Her
intelligence, howsoever acquired, has been always strangely accurate;
and her warning was as solemn as if a mother were to apprize an erring
son of his crimes, and of his approaching punishment. Besides, what
chance is there that I can again see Minna? She is at Kirkwall,
doubtless, and to hold my course thither would be to steer right upon
the rocks. No, I will not endanger these poor fellows--I will sail with
the ebb tide. On the desolate Hebrides, or on the north-west coast of
Ireland, I will leave the vessel, and return hither in some
disguise--yet why should I return, since it will perhaps be only to see
Minna the bride of Mordaunt? No--let the vessel sail with this ebb tide
without me. I will abide and take my fate."
His meditations were here interrupted by Jack Bunce, who, hailing him
noble Captain, said they were ready to sail when he pleased.
"When _you_ please, Bunce; for I shall leave the command with you, and
go ashore at Stromness," said Cleveland.
"You shall do no such matter, by Heaven!" answered Bunce. "The command
with me, truly! and how the devil am I to get the crew to obey _me_?
Why, even Dick Fletcher rides rusty on me now and then. You know well
enough that, without you, we shall be all at each other's throats in
half an hour; and, if you desert us, what a rope's end does it signify
whether we are destroyed by the king's cruisers, or by each other? Come,
come, noble Captain, there are black-eyed girls enough in the world, but
where will you find so tight a sea-boat as the little Favourite here,
manned as she is with a set of tearing lads,
'Fit to disturb the peace of all the world,
And rule it when 'tis wildest?'"
"You are a precious fool, Jack Bunce," said Cleveland, half angry, and,
in despite of himself, half diverted, by the false tones and exaggerated
gesture of the stage-struck pirate.
"It may be so, noble Captain," answered Bunce, "and it may be that I
have my comrades in my folly. Here are you, now, going to play All for
Love, and the World well Lost, and yet you cannot bear a harmless
bounce in blank verse--Well, I can talk prose for the matter, for I have
news enough to tell--and strange news, too--ay, and stirring news to
boot."
"Well, prithee deliver them (to speak thy own cant) like a man of this
world."
"The Stromness fishers will accept nothing for their provisions and
trouble," said Bunce--"there is a wonder for you!"
"And for what reason, I pray?" said Cleveland; "it is the first time I
have ever heard of cash being refused at a seaport."
"True--they commonly lay the charges on as thick as if they were
caulking. But here is the matter. The owner of the brig yonder, the
father of your fair Imoinda, stands paymaster, by way of thanks for the
civility with which we treated his daughters, and that we may not meet
our due, as he calls it, on these shores."
"It is like the frank-hearted old Udaller!" said Cleveland; "but is he
at Stromness? I thought he was to have crossed the island for Kirkwall."
"He did so purpose," said Bunce; "but more folks than King Duncan change
the course of their voyage. He was no sooner ashore than he was met with
by a meddling old witch of these parts, who has her finger in every
man's pie, and by her counsel he changed his purpose of going to
Kirkwall, and lies at anchor for the present in yonder white house, that
you may see with your glass up the lake yonder. I am told the old woman
clubbed also to pay for the sloop's stores. Why she should shell out the
boards I cannot conceive an idea, except that she is said to be a witch,
and may befriend us as so many devils."
"But who told you all this?" said Cleveland, without using his
spy-glass, or seeming so much interested in the news as his comrade had
expected.
"Why," replied Bunce, "I made a trip ashore this morning to the village,
and had a can with an old acquaintance, who had been sent by Master
Troil to look after matters, and I fished it all out of him, and more,
too, than I am desirous of telling you, noble Captain."
"And who is your intelligencer?" said Cleveland; "has he got no name?"
"Why, he is an old, fiddling, foppish acquaintance of mine, called
Halcro, if you must know," said Bunce.
"Halcro!" echoed Cleveland, his eyes sparkling with surprise--"Claud
Halcro?--why, he went ashore at Inganess with Minna and her
sister--Where are they?"
"Why, that is just what I did not want to tell you," replied the
confidant--"yet hang me if I can help it, for I cannot baulk a fine
situation.--That start had a fine effect--O ay, and the spy-glass is
turned on the House of Stennis _now_!--Well, yonder they are, it must be
confessed--indifferently well guarded, too. Some of the old witch's
people are come over from that mountain of an island--Hoy, as they call
it; and the old gentleman has got some fellows under arms himself. But
what of all that, noble Captain!--give you but the word, and we snap up
the wenches to-night--clap them under hatches--man the capstern by
daybreak--up topsails--and sail with the morning tide."
"You sicken me with your villainy," said Cleveland, turning away from
him.
"Umph!--villainy, and sicken you!" said Bunce--"Now, pray, what have I
said but what has been done a thousand times by gentlemen of fortune
like ourselves?"
"Mention it not again," said Cleveland; then took a turn along the deck,
in deep meditation, and, coming back to Bunce, took him by the hand, and
said, "Jack, I will see her once more."
"With all my heart," said Bunce, sullenly.
"Once more will I see her, and it may be to abjure at her feet this
cursed trade, and expiate my offences"----
"At the gallows!" said Bunce, completing the sentence--"With all my
heart!--confess and be hanged is a most reverend proverb."
"Nay--but, dear Jack!" said Cleveland.
"Dear Jack!" answered Bunce, in the same sullen tone--"a dear sight you
have been to dear Jack. But hold your own course--I have done with
caring for you for ever--I should but sicken you with my villainous
counsels."
"Now, must I soothe this silly fellow as if he were a spoiled child,"
said Cleveland, speaking at Bunce, but not to him; "and yet he has sense
enough, and bravery enough, too; and, one would think, kindness enough
to know that men don't pick their words during a gale of wind."
"Why, that's true, Clement," said Bunce, "and there is my hand upon
it--And, now I think upon't, you shall have your last interview, for
it's out of my line to prevent a parting scene; and what signifies a
tide--we can sail by to-morrow's ebb as well as by this."
Cleveland sighed, for Norna's prediction rushed on his mind; but the
opportunity of a last meeting with Minna was too tempting to be
resigned either for presentiment or prediction.
"I will go presently ashore to the place where they all are," said
Bunce; "and the payment of these stores shall serve me for a pretext;
and I will carry any letters or message from you to Minna with the
dexterity of a valet de chambre."
"But they have armed men--you may be in danger," said Cleveland.
"Not a whit--not a whit," replied Bunce. "I protected the wenches when
they were in my power; I warrant their father will neither wrong me, nor
see me wronged."
"You say true," said Cleveland, "it is not in his nature. I will
instantly write a note to Minna." And he ran down to the cabin for that
purpose, where he wasted much paper, ere, with a trembling hand, and
throbbing heart, he achieved such a letter as he hoped might prevail on
Minna to permit him a farewell meeting on the succeeding morning.
His adherent, Bunce, in the meanwhile, sought out Fletcher, of whose
support to second any motion whatever, he accounted himself perfectly
sure; and, followed by this trusty satellite, he intruded himself on the
awful presence of Hawkins the boatswain, and Derrick the quarter-master,
who were regaling themselves with a can of rumbo, after the fatiguing
duty of the day.
"Here comes he can tell us," said Derrick.--"So, Master Lieutenant, for
so we must call you now, I think, let us have a peep into your
counsels--When will the anchor be a-trip?"
"When it pleases heaven, Master Quarter-master," answered Bunce, "for I
know no more than the stern-post."
"Why, d----n my buttons," said Derrick, "do we not weigh this tide?"
"Or to-morrow's tide, at farthest?" said the Boatswain--"Why, what have
we been slaving the whole company for, to get all these stores aboard?"
"Gentlemen," said Bunce, "you are to know that Cupid has laid our
Captain on board, carried the vessel, and nailed down his wits under
hatches."
"What sort of play-stuff is all this?" said the Boatswain, gruffly. "If
you have any thing to tell us, say it in a word, like a man."
"Howsomdever," said Fletcher, "I always think Jack Bunce speaks like a
man, and acts like a man too--and so, d'ye see"----
"Hold your peace, dear Dick, best of bullybacks, be silent," said
Bunce--"Gentlemen, in one word, the Captain is in love."
"Why, now, only think of that!" said the Boatswain; "not but that I have
been in love as often as any man, when the ship was laid up."
"Well, but," continued Bunce, "Captain Cleveland is in love--Yes--Prince
Volscius is in love; and, though that's the cue for laughing on the
stage, it is no laughing matter here. He expects to meet the girl
to-morrow, for the last time; and that, we all know, leads to another
meeting, and another, and so on till the Halcyon is down on us, and then
we may look for more kicks than halfpence."
"By --," said the Boatswain, with a sounding oath, "we'll have a mutiny,
and not allow him to go ashore,--eh, Derrick?"
"And the best way, too," said Derrick.
"What d'ye think of it, Jack Bunce?" said Fletcher, in whose ears this
counsel sounded very sagely, but who still bent a wistful look upon his
companion.
"Why, look ye, gentlemen," said Bunce, "I will mutiny none, and stap my
vitals if any of you shall!"
"Why, then I won't, for one," said Fletcher; "but what are we to do,
since howsomdever"----
"Stopper your jaw, Dick, will you?" said Bunce.--"Now, Boatswain, I am
partly of your mind, that the Captain must be brought to reason by a
little wholesome force. But you all know he has the spirit of a lion,
and will do nothing unless he is allowed to hold on his own course.
Well, I'll go ashore and make this appointment. The girl comes to the
rendezvous in the morning, and the Captain goes ashore--we take a good
boat's crew with us, to row against tide and current, and we will be
ready at the signal, to jump ashore and bring off the Captain and the
girl, whether they will or no. The pet-child will not quarrel with us,
since we bring off his whirligig along with him; and if he is still
fractious, why, we will weigh anchor without his orders, and let him
come to his senses at leisure, and know his friends another time."
"Why, this has a face with it, Master Derrick," said Hawkins.
"Jack Bunce is always right," said Fletcher; "howsomdever, the Captain
will shoot some of us, that is certain."
"Hold your jaw, Dick," said Bunce; "pray, who the devil cares, do you
think, whether you are shot or hanged?"
"Why, it don't much argufy for the matter of that," replied Dick;
"howsomdever"----
"Be quiet, I tell you," said his inexorable patron, "and hear me
out.--We will take him at unawares, so that he shall neither have time
to use cutlass nor pops; and I myself, for the dear love I bear him,
will be the first to lay him on his back. There is a nice tight-going
bit of a pinnace, that is a consort of this chase of the Captain's,--if
I have an opportunity, I'll snap her up on my own account."
"Yes, yes," said Derrick, "let you alone for keeping on the look-out for
your own comforts."
"Faith, nay," said Bunce, "I only snatch at them when they come fairly
in my way, or are purchased by dint of my own wit; and none of you could
have fallen on such a plan as this. We shall have the Captain with us,
head, hand, and heart and all, besides making a scene fit to finish a
comedy. So I will go ashore to make the appointment, and do you possess
some of the gentlemen who are still sober, and fit to be trusted, with
the knowledge of our intentions."
Bunce, with his friend Fletcher, departed accordingly, and the two
veteran pirates remained looking at each other in silence, until the
Boatswain spoke at last. "Blow me, Derrick, if I like these two
daffadandilly young fellows; they are not the true breed. Why, they are
no more like the rovers I have known, than this sloop is to a
first-rate. Why, there was old Sharpe that read prayers to his ship's
company every Sunday, what would he have said to have heard it proposed
to bring two wenches on board?"
"And what would tough old Black Beard have said," answered his
companion, "if they had expected to keep them to themselves? They
deserve to be made to walk the plank for their impudence; or to be tied
back to back and set a-diving, and I care not how soon."
"Ay, but who is to command the ship, then?" said Hawkins.
"Why, what ails you at old Goffe?" answered Derrick.
"Why, he has sucked the monkey so long and so often," said the
Boatswain, "that the best of him is buffed. He is little better than an
old woman when he is sober, and he is roaring mad when he is drunk--we
have had enough of Goffe."
"Why, then, what d'ye say to yourself, or to me, Boatswain?" demanded
the Quarter-master. "I am content to toss up for it."
"Rot it, no," answered the Boatswain, after a moment's consideration;
"if we were within reach of the trade-winds, we might either of us make
a shift; but it will take all Cleveland's navigation to get us there;
and so, I think, there is nothing like Bunce's project for the present.
Hark, he calls for the boat--I must go on deck and have her lowered for
his honour, d----n his eyes."
The boat was lowered accordingly, made its voyage up the lake with
safety, and landed Bunce within a few hundred yards of the old
mansion-house of Stennis. Upon arriving in front of the house, he found
that hasty measures had been taken to put it in a state of defence, the
lower windows being barricaded, with places left for use of musketry,
and a ship-gun being placed so as to command the entrance, which was
besides guarded by two sentinels. Bunce demanded admission at the gate,
which was briefly and unceremoniously refused, with an exhortation to
him, at the same time, to be gone about his business before worse came
of it. As he continued, however, importunately to insist on seeing some
one of the family, and stated his business to be of the most urgent
nature, Claud Halcro at length appeared, and, with more peevishness than
belonged to his usual manner, that admirer of glorious John expostulated
with his old acquaintance upon his pertinacious folly.
"You are," he said, "like foolish moths fluttering about a candle, which
is sure at last to consume you."
"And you," said Bunce, "are a set of stingless drones, whom we can smoke
out of your defences at our pleasure, with half-a-dozen of
hand-grenades."
"Smoke a fool's head!" said Halcro; "take my advice, and mind your own
matters, or there will be those upon you will smoke you to purpose.
Either begone, or tell me in two words what you want; for you are like
to receive no welcome here save from a blunderbuss. We are men enough of
ourselves; and here is young Mordaunt Mertoun come from Hoy, whom your
Captain so nearly murdered."
"Tush, man," said Bunce, "he did but let out a little malapert blood."
"We want no such phlebotomy here," said Claud Halcro; "and, besides,
your patient turns out to be nearer allied to us than either you or we
thought of; so you may think how little welcome the Captain or any of
his crew are like to be here."
"Well; but what if I bring money for the stores sent on board?"
"Keep it till it is asked of you," said Halcro. "There are two bad
paymasters--he that pays too soon, and he that does not pay at all."
"Well, then, let me at least give our thanks to the donor," said Bunce.
"Keep them, too, till they are asked for," answered the poet.
"So this is all the welcome I have of you for old acquaintance' sake?"
said Bunce.
"Why, what can I do for you, Master Altamont?" said Halcro, somewhat
moved.--"If young Mordaunt had had his own will, he would have welcomed
you with 'the red Burgundy, Number a thousand.' For God's sake begone,
else the stage direction will be, Enter guard, and seize Altamont."
"I will not give you the trouble," said Bunce, "but will make my exit
instantly.--Stay a moment--I had almost forgot that I have a slip of
paper for the tallest of your girls there--Minna, ay, Minna is her name.
It is a farewell from Captain Cleveland--you cannot refuse to give it
her?"
"Ah, poor fellow!" said Halcro--"I comprehend--I comprehend--Farewell,
fair Armida--
''Mid pikes and 'mid bullets, 'mid tempests and fire,
The danger is less than in hopeless desire!'
Tell me but this--is there poetry in it?"
"Chokeful to the seal, with song, sonnet, and elegy," answered Bunce;
"but let her have it cautiously and secretly."
"Tush, man!--teach me to deliver a billet-doux!--me, who have been in
the Wits' Coffee-house, and have seen all the toasts of the Kit-Cat
Club!--Minna shall have it, then, for old acquaintance' sake, Mr.
Altamont, and for your Captain's sake, too, who has less of the core of
devil about him than his trade requires. There can be no harm in a
farewell letter."
"Farewell, then, old boy, for ever and a day!" said Bunce; and seizing
the poet's hand, gave it so hearty a gripe, that he left him roaring,
and shaking his fist, like a dog when a hot cinder has fallen on his
foot.
Leaving the rover to return on board the vessel, we remain with the
family of Magnus Troil, assembled at their kinsman's mansion of Stennis,
where they maintained a constant and careful watch against surprise.
Mordaunt Mertoun had been received with much kindness by Magnus Troil,
when he came to his assistance, with a small party of Norna's
dependants, placed by her under his command. The Udaller was easily
satisfied that the reports instilled into his ears by the Jagger,
zealous to augment his favour towards his more profitable customer
Cleveland, by diminishing that of Mertoun, were without foundation. They
had, indeed, been confirmed by the good Lady Glowrowrum, and by common
fame, both of whom were pleased to represent Mordaunt Mertoun as an
arrogant pretender to the favour of the sisters of Burgh-Westra, who
only hesitated, sultan-like, on whom he should bestow the handkerchief.
But common fame, Magnus considered, was a common liar, and he was
sometimes disposed (where scandal was concerned) to regard the good Lady
Glowrowrum as rather an uncommon specimen of the same genus. He
therefore received Mordaunt once more into full favour, listened with
much surprise to the claim which Norna laid to the young man's duty, and
with no less interest to her intention of surrendering to him the
considerable property which she had inherited from her father. Nay, it
is even probable that, though he gave no immediate answer to her hints
concerning an union betwixt his eldest daughter and her heir, he might
think such an alliance recommended, as well by the young man's personal
merits, as by the chance it gave of reuniting the very large estate
which had been divided betwixt his own father and that of Norna. At all
events, the Udaller received his young friend with much kindness, and he
and the proprietor of the mansion joined in intrusting to him, as the
youngest and most active of the party, the charge of commanding the
night-watch, and relieving the sentinels around the House of Stennis.