“Come, and get thee a sword, though made of a lath:
They have been up these two days.”
_King Henry VI._
While the little by-play that we have just related was enacting on the
fore-yard-arm of the Rover scenes, that partook equally of the nature
of tragedy and farce, were in the process of exhibition elsewhere. The
contest between the possessors of the deck and those active tenants of
the top, so often named, was far from having reached its termination.
Blows had, in more than one instance, succeeded to angry words; and, as
the former was a part of the sports in which the marines and waisters
were on an equality with their more ingenious tormentors, the war was
beginning to be waged with some appearances of a very doubtful success.
Nightingale, however, was always ready to recall the combatants to
their sense of propriety, with his well-known wind of the call, and his
murmuring voice. A long, shrill whistle, with the words, “Good humour,
ahoy!” had hitherto served to keep down the rising tempers of the
different parties, when the joke bore too hard on the high-spirited
soldier, or the revengeful, though perhaps less mettlesome, member of
the after-guard. But an oversight on the part of him who in common kept
so vigilant an eye on the movements of all beneath his orders, had
nearly led to results of a far more serious nature.
No sooner had the crew commenced the different rough sports we have
just related, than the vein which had induced the Rover to loosen the
reins of discipline, for the moment, seemed suddenly to subside. The
gay and cheerful air that he had maintained in his dialogue with his
female guests (or prisoners, whichever he might be disposed to consider
them) had disappeared, in a thoughtful and clouded brow. His eye no
longer lighted with those glimmerings of wayward and sarcastic humour
in which he much loved to indulge, but its expression became painfully
settled and austere. It was evident that his mind had relapsed into one
of those brooding reveries that so often obscured his playful and
vivacious mien, as a shadow darkens the golden tints of the field of
ripe and waving corn.
While most of those who were not actors in the noisy and humorous
achievements of the crew steadily regarded the same, some with wonder,
others with distrust, and all with more or less of the humour of the
hour, the Rover, to all appearance, was quite unconscious of all that
was going on before his face. It is true, that at times he raised his
eyes to the active beings who clung like squirrels to the ropes, or
suffered them to fall on the duller movements of the men below; but it
was always with a vacancy which proved that the image they carried to
the brain was dim and illusory. The looks he cast, from time to time,
on Mrs Wyllys and her fail and deeply interested pupil, betrayed the
workings of the temper of the inward man. It was only in these brief
but comprehensive glances that the feelings by which he was governed
might have been, in any manner, traced to their origin. Still would the
nicest observer have been puzzled, if not baffled, in endeavouring to
pronounce on the entire character of the emotions uppermost in his
mind. At instants, it might have been fancied that some unholy and
licentious passion was getting the ascendancy; and then, as his eye ran
rapidly over the chaste and matronly, though still attractive,
countenance of the governess, no imagination was necessary to read the
look of doubt, as well as respect, with which he gazed.
It was while thus occupied that the sports proceeded sometimes
humorous, and forcing smiles even from the lips of the half-terrified
Gertrude, but always tending to that violence, and outbreaking of
anger, which might, at any moment, set at naught the discipline of a
vessel in which no other means to enforce authority existed, than such
as its officers could, on the instant, command. Water had been so
lavishly expended, that the decks were running with the fluid, even
more than one flight of spray having invaded the privileged precincts
of the poop. Every ordinary device of similar scenes had been resorted
to, by the men aloft, to annoy their less advantageously posted
shipmates beneath; and such means of retaliation had been adopted as
use or facility rendered obvious. Here, a hog and a waister were seen
swinging against each other, pendant beneath a top; there, a marine,
lashed in the rigging, was obliged to suffer the manipulation of a pet
monkey, which drilled to the duty, and armed with a comb, was posted on
his shoulder, with an air as grave, and an eye as observant, as though
he had been regularly educated in the art of the perruquier; and, every
where, some coarse and practical joke proclaimed the licentious liberty
which had been momentarily accorded to a set of beings who were, in
common, kept in that restraint which comfort, no less than safety,
requires for the well-ordering of an armed ship.
In the midst of the noise and turbulence, a voice was heard, apparently
issuing from the ocean, hailing the vessel by name, with the aid of a
speaking-trumpet that had been applied to the outer circumference of a
hawse hole.
“Who speaks the ‘Dolphin?’” demanded Wilder in reply, when he perceived
that the summons had fallen on the dull ears of his Commander, without
recalling him to the recollection of what was in action.
“Father Neptune is under your fore-foot.”
“What wills’ the God?”
“He has heard that certain strangers have come into his dominions, and
he wishes leave to come aboard the saucy ‘Dolphin,’ to inquire into
their errands, and to overhaul the log-book of their characters.”
“He is welcome. Show the old man aboard through the head; he is too
experienced a sailor to wish to come in by the cabin windows.”
Here the parlance ceased; for Wilder turned upon his heel, as though he
were already disgusted with his part of the mummery.
An athletic seaman soon appeared, seemingly issuing from the element
whose deity he aspired to personate. Mops, dripping with brine,
supplied the place of hoary locks; gulf-weed, of which acres were
floating within a league of the ship, composed a sort of negligent
mantle; and in his hand he bore a trident made of three marling-spikes
properly arranged and borne on the staff of a half-pike. Thus
accoutred, the God of the Ocean, who was no less a personage than the
captain of the forecastle, advanced with a suitable air of dignity,
along the deck attended by a train of bearded water-nymphs and naïades,
in a costume no less grotesque than his own. Arrived on the
quarter-deck, in front of the position occupied by the officers, the
principal personage saluted the groupe with a wave of his sceptre, and
resumed the discourse as follows; Wilder, from the continued
abstraction of his Commander, finding himself under the necessity of
maintaining one portion of the dialogue.
“A wholesome and prettily-rigged boat have you come out in this time,
my son; and one well tilled with a noble set of my children. How long
might it be since you left the land?”
“Some eight days ago.”
“Hardly time enough to give the green ones the use of their sea legs. I
shall be able to find them, by the manner in which they hold on in a
calm.” [Here the General, who was standing with a scornful and averted
eye, let go his hold of a mizzen-shroud, which he had grasped for no
other visible reason than to render his person utterly immoveable;
Neptune smiled, and continued.] “I sha’n’t ask concerning the port you
are last from, seeing that the Newport soundings are still hanging
about the flukes of your anchors. I hope you haven’t brought out many
fresh hands with you, for I smell the stock-fish aboard a Baltic-man,
who is coming down with the trades, and who can’t be more than a
hundred leagues from this; I shall therefore have but little time to
overhaul your people, in order to give them their papers.”
“You see them all before you. So skilful a mariner as Neptune needs no
advice when or how to tell a seaman.”
“I shall then begin with this gentleman,” continued the waggish head of
the forecastle, turning towards the still motionless chief of the
marines. “There is a strong look of the land about him; and I should
like to know how many hours it is since he first floated over blue
water.”
“I believe he has made many voyages; and I dare say has long since paid
the proper tribute to your Majesty.”
“Well, well; the thing is like enough, tho’f I will say I have known
scholars make better use of their time, if he has been so long on the
water as you pretend. How is it with these ladies?”
“Both have been at sea before, and have a right to pass without a
question,” resumed Wilder, a little hastily.
“The youngest is comely enough to have been born in my dominions,” said
the gallant Sovereign of the Sea; “but no one can refuse to answer a
hail that comes straight from the mouth of Old Neptune; so, if it makes
no great difference in your Honour’s reckoning, I will just beg the
young woman to do her own talking.” Then, without paying the least
attention to the angry glance that shot from the eye of Wilder, the
sturdy representative of the God addressed himself directly to
Gertrude. “If, as report goes of you, my pretty damsel, you have seen
blue water before this passage, you may be able to recollect the name
of the vessel, and some other small particulars of the run?”
The face of our heroine changed its colour from red to pale, as
rapidly, and as glowingly, as the evening sky flushes, and returns to
its pearl-like loveliness; but she kept down her feelings sufficiently
to answer, with an air of entire self-possession,—
“Were I to enter into all these little particulars, it would detain you
from more worthy subjects. Perhaps this certificate will convince you
that I am no novice on the sea.” As she spoke, a guinea fell from her
white hand into the broad and extended palm of her interrogator.
“I can only account for my not remembering your Ladyship, by the great
extent and heavy nature of my business,” returned the audacious
freebooter bowing with an air of rude politeness as he pocketed the
offering. “Had I looked into my books before I came aboard this here
ship, I should have seen through the mistake at once; for I now
remember that I ordered one of my limners to take your pretty face, in
order that I might show it to my wife at home. The fellow did it well
enough, in the shell of an East-India oyster; I will have a copy set in
coral, and sent to your husband, whenever you may see fit to choose
one.”
Then, repeating his bow, with a scrape of the foot, he turned to the
governess, in order to continue his examination.
“And you, Madam.” he said, “is this the first rime you have ever come
into my dominions, or not?”
“Neither the first, nor the twentieth; I have often seen your Majesty
before.”
“An old acquaintance! In what latitude might it be that we first fell
in with each other?”
“I believe I first enjoyed that honour, quite thirty years since, under
the Equator.”
“Ay, ay, I’m often there, looking out for India-men and your
homeward-bound Brazil traders. I boarded a particularly great number
that very season but can’t say I remember your countenance.”
“I fear that thirty years have made some changes in it,” returned the
governess, with a smile, which, though mournful, was far too dignified
in its melancholy to induce the suspicion that she regretted a loss so
vain as that of her personal charms. “I was in a vessel of the King,
and one that was a little remarkable by its size, since it was of three
decks.”
The God received the guinea, which was now secretly offered, but it
would seem that success had quickened his covetousness; for, instead of
returning thanks, he rather appeared to manifest a disposition to
increase the amount of the bribe.
“All this may be just as your Ladyship says,” he rejoined; “but the
interest of my kingdom, and a large family at home, make it necessary
that I should look sharp to my rights. Was there a flag in the vessel?”
“There was.”
“Then, it is likely they hoisted it, as usual, at the end of the
jib-boom?”
“It was hoisted, as is usual with a Vice-Admiral, at the fore.”
“Well answered, for petticoats!” muttered the Deity, a little baffled
in his artifice. “It is d——d queer, saving your Ladyship’s presence,
that I should have forgotten such a ship: Was there any thing of the
extraordinary sort, that one would be likely to remember?”
The features of the governess had already lost their forced pleasantry,
in a shade of grave reflection and her eye was evidently fastened on
vacancy us she answered, to all appearance like one who thought aloud.—
“I can, at this moment, see the arch and roguish manner with which that
wayward boy, who then had but eight years, over-reached the cunning of
the mimic Neptune, and retaliated for his devices, by turning the laugh
of all on board on his own head!”
“Was he but eight?” demanded a deep voice at her elbow.
“Eight in years, but maturer in artifice,” returned Mrs Wyllys, seeming
to awake from a trance, as she turned her eyes full upon the face of
the Rover.
“Well, well,” interrupted the captain of the forecastle who cared not
to continue an inquiry in which his dreaded Commander saw fit to take a
part, “I dare say it is all right. I will look into my journal if I
find it so, well—if not, why, it’s only giving the ship a head-wind,
until I’ve overhauled the Dane, and then it will be all in good time to
receive the balance of the fee.”
So saying, the God hurried past the officers, and turned his attention
to the marine guard, who had grouped themselves in a body, secretly
aware of the necessity each man might be under of receiving support
from his fellows, in so searching a scrutiny Perfectly familiar with
the career each individual among them had run, in his present lawless
profession and secretly apprehensive that his authority might be forced
suddenly from him, the chief of the forecastle selected a raw landsman
from among them, bidding his attendants to drag the victim forward,
where he believed they might act the cruel revels he contemplated with
less danger of interruption. Already irritated by the laughs which had
been created at their expense, and resolute to defend their comrade the
marines resisted. A long, clamorous, and angry dispute succeeded,
during which each party maintained its right to pursue the course it
had adopted. From words the disputants were not long in passing to the
signs of hostilities. It was while the peace of the ship hung, as it
were, suspended by a hair, that the General saw fit to express the
disgust of such an outrage upon discipline, which had, throughout the
whole scene, possessed his mind.
“I protest against this riotous and unmilitary procedure,” he said,
addressing himself to his still abstracted and thoughtful superior. “I
have taught my men, I trust, the proper spirit of soldiers, and there
is no greater disgrace can happen to one of them than to lay hands on
him, except it be in the regular and wholesome way of a cat.—I give
open warning to all, that, if a finger is put upon one of my bullies,
unless, as I have said, in the way of discipline, it will be answered
with a blow.”
As the General had not essayed to smother his voice, it was heard by
his followers, and produced the effect which might have been expected.
A vigorous thrust from the fist of the sergeant drew mortal blood from
the visage of the God of the Sea, and at once established his
terrestrial origin. Thus compelled to support his manhood, in more
senses than one, the stout seaman returned the salutation, with such
additional embellishments as the exigencies of the moment seemed to
require. Such an interchange of civilities, between two so prominent
personages, was the signal of general hostilities among their
respective followers. The uproar that attended the onset, had caught
the attention of Fid, who, the instant he saw the nature of the sports
below, abandoned his companion on the yard, and slid downwards to the
deck by the aid of a backstay, with about as much facility as that
caricature of man, the monkey, could have performed the same manoeuvre.
His example was followed by all the topmen; and in less than a minute,
there was every appearance that the audacious marines would be borne
down by the sheer force of numbers. But, stout in their resolution, and
bitter in their hostility, these drilled and resentful warriors,
instead of seeking refuge in flight, fell back upon each other, for
support. Bayonets were seen gleaming in the sun; while some of the
seamen, in the exterior of the crowd, were already laying their hands
on the half-pikes that formed a warlike ornament to the foot of the
mast.
“Hold! stand back, every man of you!” cried Wilder, dashing into the
centre of the throng, and forcing them aside, with a haste that was
possibly quickened by the recollection of the increased danger that
would surround the unprotected females, should the bands of
subordination be once fairly broken among so lawless and desperate a
crew. “On your lives, fall back, and obey. And you, sir, who claim to
be so good a soldier, I call on you to bid your men refrain.”
The General, however disgusted he might have been by the previous
scene, had too many important interests involved in the interior peace
of the vessel not to exert himself at this appeal. He was seconded by
all the inferior officers, who well knew that their lives, as well as
their comfort, depended on staying the torrent that had so unexpectedly
broken loose. But they only proved how hard it is to uphold an
authority that is not established on the foundation of legitimate
power. Neptune had cast aside his masquerade; and, backed by all his
stout forecastle men, was evidently preparing for a conflict that might
speedily give him greater pretensions to immortal nature than those he
had just rejected. Until now, the officers, partly by threats and
partly by remonstrances, had so far controlled the outbreaking, that
the time had been passed rather in preparations than in violence. But
the marines had seized their arms; while two crowded masses of the
mariners were forming on either side of the mainmast, abundantly
provided with spikes, and such other weapons as the bars and handspikes
of the vessel afforded. One or two of the cooler heads among the latter
had even proceeded so far as to clear away a gun, which they were
pointing inboard in a direction that might have swept a moiety of the
quarter-deck. In short, the broil had just reached that pass when
another blow, struck from either side, must have given up the vessel to
plunder and massacre. The danger of such a crisis was heightened by the
bitter taunts that broke forth from fifty profane lips, which were only
opened to lavish the coarsest revilings on the persons and characters
of their respective enemies.
During the five minutes that might have flown by in such sinister and
threatening symptoms of insubordination the individual who was chiefly
interested in the maintenance of discipline had manifested the most
extraordinary indifference, or rather unconsciousness to all that was
passing so near him. With his arms folded on his breast, and his eyes
fastened on the placid sea, he stood motionless as the mast near which
he had placed his person. Long accustomed to the noise of scenes
similar to the one he had himself provoked, he heard, in the confused
sounds which rose unheeded on his ear, no more than the commotion which
ordinarily attended the license of the hour.
His subordinates in command, however, were far more active. Wilder had
already beaten back the boldest of the seamen, and a space was cleared
between the hostile parties, into which his assistants threw
themselves, with the haste of men who knew how much was required at
their hands. This momentary success might have been pushed too far;
for, believing that the spirit of mutiny was subdued, our adventurer
was proceeding to improve his advantage by seizing the most audacious
of the offenders when his prisoner was immediately torn from his grasp
by twenty of his confederates.
“Who’s this, that sets himself up for a Commodore aboard the
‘Dolphin!’” exclaimed a voice in the crowd, at a most unhappy moment
for the authority of the new lieutenant. “In what fashion did he come,
aboard us? or, in what service did he learn his trade?”
“Ay, ay,” continued another sinister voice, “where is the Bristol
trader he was to lead into our net, and for which we lost so many of
the best days in the season, at a lazy anchor?”
Then broke forth a general and simultaneous murmur which, had such
testimony been wanting, would in itself have manifested that the
unknown officer was scarcely more fortunate in his present than in his
recent service. Both parties united in condemning his interference; and
from both sides were heard scornful opinions of his origin, mingled
with certain fierce denunciations against his person. Nothing daunted
by such palpable evidences of the danger of his situation, our
adventurer answered to their taunts with the most scornful smiles,
challenging a single individual of them all to dare to step forth, and
maintain his words by suitable actions.
“Hear him!” exclaimed his auditors.—“He speaks like a King’s officer in
chase of a smuggler!” cried one.—“Ay, he’s a bold’un in a calm,” said a
second.—“He’s a Jonah, that has slipp’d into the cabin windows!” cried
a third; “and, while he stays in the ‘Dolphin,’ luck will keep upon our
weather-beam”—“Into the sea with him! overboard with the upstart! into
the sea with him! where he’ll find that a bolder and a better man has
gone before him!” shouted a dozen at once; some of whom immediately
gave very unequivocal demonstrations of an intention to put their
threat in execution. But two forms instantly sprang from the crowd, and
threw themselves, like angry lions, between Wilder and his foes. The
one, who was foremost in the rescue, faced short upon the advancing
seamen, and with a blow from an arm that was irresistible, level led
the representative of Neptune to his feet, as though he had been a mere
waxen image of a man The other was not slow to imitate his example;
and, as the throng receded before this secession from its own numbers,
the latter, who was Fid, flourished a fist that was as big as the head
of a sizeable infant, while he loudly vociferated,—
“Away with ye, ye lubbers! away with ye! Would you run foul of a single
man, and he an officer and such an officer as ye never set eyes on be
fore, except, mayhap, in the fashion that a cat looks upon a king? I
should like to see the man, among ye all, who can handle a heavy ship,
in a narrow channel, as I have seen master Harry here handle the
saucy”—
“Stand back,” cried Wilder, forcing himself between his defenders and
his foes. “Stand back, I say, and leave me alone to meet the audacious
villains.
“Overboard with him! overboard with them all!” cried the seamen, “he
and his knaves together!”
“Will you remain silent, and see murder done before your eyes?”
exclaimed Mrs Wyllys, rushing from her place of retreat, and laying a
hand eagerly on the arm of the Rover.
He started like one who was awakened suddenly from a light sleep,
looking her full and intently in the eye.
“See!” she added, pointing to the violent throng below, where every
sign of an increased commotion was exhibiting itself. “See, they kill
your officer, and there is none to help him!”
The look of faded marble, which had so long been seated on his
features, vanished, as his eye passed quickly over the scene. The
organs took in the whole nature of the action at the glance; and, with
the intelligence, the blood came rushing into every vein and fibre of
his indignant face. Seizing a rope, which hung from the yard above his
head, he swung his person off the poop, and fell lightly into the very
centre of the crowd. Both parties fell back, while a sudden and
breathing silence succeeded to a clamour that a moment before would
have drowned the roar of a cataract. Making a haughty and repelling
motion with his arm, he spoke, and in a voice that, if any change could
be noted, was even pitched on a key less high and threatening than
common. But the lowest and the deepest of its intonations reached the
most distant ear, and no one who heard was left to doubt its meaning.
“Mutiny!” he said, in a tone that strangely balanced between irony and
scorn; “open, violent, and blood-seeking mutiny! Are ye tired of your
lives, my men? Is there one, among ye all, who is willing to make
himself an example for the good of the rest? If there be, let him lift
a hand, a finger, a hair: Let him speak, look me in the eye, or dare to
show that life is in him, by sign, breath, or motion!”
He paused; and so general and absorbing was the spell produced by his
presence and his mien, that, in all that crowd of fierce and excited
spirits, there was not one so bold as to presume to brave his anger
Sailors and marines stood alike, passive, humbled and obedient, as
faulty children, when arraigned before an authority from which they
feel, in every fibre, that escape is impossible. Perceiving that no
voice answered, no limb moved, nor even an eye among them all was bold
enough to meet his own steady but glowing look, he continued, in the
same deep and commanding tone,—
“It is well: Reason has come of the latest; but, happily for ye all, it
has returned Fall back, fall back, I say; you taint the
quarter-deck.”—The men receded a pace or two on every side of him.—“Let
those arms be stacked; it will be time to use them when I proclaim the
need. And you, fellows, who have been so bold as to lift a pike without
an order have a care they do not burn your hands.”—A dozen staves fell
upon the deck together.—“Is there a drummer in this ship? let him
appear!”
A terrified and cringing-looking being presented himself, having found
his instrument by a sort of desperate instinct.
“Now speak aloud, and let me know at once whether I command a crew of
orderly and obedient men, or a set of miscreants, that require some
purifying before I trust them.”
The first few taps of the drum sufficed to tell the men they heard the
“beat to quarters.” Without hesitating a reluctant moment, the crowd
dissolved, and each of the delinquents stole silently to his station;
the crew of the gun that had been turned inward managing to thrust it
through its port again, with a dexterity that might have availed them
greatly in time of combat. Throughout the whole affair, the Rover had
manifested neither anger nor impatience. Deep and settled scorn, with a
high reliance on himself had, indeed, been exhibited in the proud curl
of his lip, and in the spelling of his form, but not, for an instant,
did it seem that he had suffered his ire to get the mastery of his
reason. And, now that he had recalled his crew to their duty, he
appeared no more elated with his success than he had been daunted by
the storm which, a minute before, had threatened the utter dissolution
of his authority. Instead of pursuing his further purpose in haste, he
awaited the observance of the minutest form which etiquette, as well as
use, had rendered customary on such occasions.
The officers approached, and reported their several divisions in
readiness to engage, with exactly the same regularity as if an enemy
had been in sight. The topmen and sail-trimmers were enumerated, and
found prepared; shot-plugs and stoppers were handled: the magazine was
even opened; the arm chests emptied of their contents; and, in short,
far more than the ordinary preparations of an every day exercise was
observed.
“Let the yards be slung; the sheets and halyards stoppered,” he said to
the first lieutenant, who now displayed as intimate an acquaintance
with the military as he had hitherto discovered with the nautical part
of his profession; “Give the boarders their pikes and boarding-axes,
sir; we will now show these fellows that we dare to trust them with
arms!”
These several orders were obeyed to the letter, and then succeeded that
deep and grave silence which renders a crew, at quarters, a sight so
imposing even to those who have witnessed it from their boyhood. In
this manner, the skilful leader of this band of desperate marauders
knew how to curb their violence with the fetters of discipline. When he
believed their minds brought within the proper limits, by the situation
of restraint in which he had placed them, where they well knew that a
word, or even a look, of offence would be met by an instant as well as
an awful punishment, he walked apart with Wilder, of whom he demanded
an explanation of what had passed.
Whatever might have been the natural tendency of our adventurer to
mercy, he had not been educated on the sea to look with lenity on the
crime of mutiny. Had his recent escape from the wreck of the Bristol
trader been already banished from his mind, the impressions of a whole
life still remained to teach the necessity of keeping tight those cords
which experience has so often proved are absolutely necessary to quell
such turbulent bands, when removed from the pale of society, the
influence of woman, and when excited by the constant collision of
tempers rudely provoked, and equally disposed to violence Though he
“set down naught in malice,” it is certain that he did “nothing;
extenuate,” in the account he rendered. The whole of the facts were
laid before the Rover in the direct, unvarnished language of truth.
“One cannot keep these fellows to their duty by preaching,” returned
the irregular chief, when the other had done. “We have no ‘Execution
Dock for our delinquents, no ‘yellow flag’ for fleets to gaze at, no
grave and wise-looking courts to thumb a book or two, and end by
saying, ‘Hang him.’—The rascals knew my eye was off them. Once before,
they turned my vessel into a living evidence of that passage in the
Testament which teaches humility to all, by telling us, ‘that the last
shall be first, and the first last.’ I found a dozen roundabouts
drinking and making free with the liquors of the cabin, and all the
officers prisoners forward—a state of things, as you will allow, a
little subversive of decency as well as decorum!”
“I am amazed you should have succeeded in restoring discipline!”
“I got among them single-handed, and with no other aid than a boat from
the shore; but I ask no more than a place for my foot, and room for an
arm, to keep a thousand such spirits in order. Now they know me, it is
rare we misunderstand each other.”
“You must have punished severely!”
“There was justice done.—Mr Wilder, I fear you find our service a
little irregular; but a month of experience will put you on a level
with us, and remove all danger of such another scene.” As the Rover
spoke, he faced his recruit, with a countenance that endeavoured to be
cheerful, but whose gaiety could force itself no further than a
frightful smile. “Come,” he quickly added, “this time, I set the
mischief afoot myself; and, as you see we are completely masters, we
may afford to be lenient. Besides,” he continued, glancing his eyes
towards the place where Mrs Wyllys and Gertrude still remained in deep
suspense awaiting his decision, “it may be well to consult the sex of
our guests at such a moment.”
Then, leaving his subordinate, the Rover advanced to the centre of the
quarter-deck, whither he immediately summoned the principal offenders.
The men listened to his rebukes, which were not altogether free from
admonitory warnings of what might be the consequences of a similar
transgression, like creatures who stood in presence of a being of a
nature superior to their own. Though he spoke in his usual quiet tone,
the lowest of his syllables went into the ears of the most distant of
the crew; and, when his brief lesson was ended, the men stood before
him not only like delinquents who had been reproved though pardoned,
but with the air of criminals who were as much condemned by their own
consciousness as by the general voice. Among them all was only one
seaman who, perhaps from past service was emboldened to venture a
syllable in his own justification.
“As for the matter with the marines,” he said “your Honour knows there
is little love between us, though certain it is a quarter-deck is no
place to settle our begrudgings; but, as to the gentleman who has seen
fit to step into the shoes of”——
“It is my pleasure that he should remain there,” hastily interrupted
his Commander. “Of his merit I alone can judge.”
“Well, well, since it is your pleasure, sir, why, no man can dispute
it. But no account has been rendered of the Bristol-man, and great
expectations were had aboard here from that very ship. Your Honour is a
reasonable gentleman, and will not be surprised that people, who are on
the look-out for an outward-bound West-Indiaman, should be unwilling to
take up with a battered and empty launch, in her stead.”
“Ay, sir, if I will it, you shall take an oar, a tiler a thole, for
your portion. No more of this You saw the condition of his ship with
your own eyes; and where is the seaman who has not, on some evil day,
been compelled to admit that his art is nothing, when the elements are
against him? Who saved this ship, in the very gust that has robbed us
of our prize? Was it your skill? or was it that of a man who has often
done it before, and who may one day leave you to your ignorance to
manage your own interests? It is enough that I believe him faithful.
There is no time to convince your dulness of the propriety of all
that’s done. Away, and send me the two men who so nobly stepped between
their officer and mutiny.”
Then came Fid, followed by the negro, rolling along the deck, and
thumbing his hat with one hand, while the other sought an awkward
retreat in a part of his vestments.
“You have done well, my lad; you and your messmate”——
“No messmate, your Honour, seeing that he is a nigger,” interrupted
Fid. “The chap messes with the other blacks, but we take a pull at the
can, now and then, in company.”
“Your friend, then, if you prefer that term.”
“Ay, ay, sir; we are friendly enough at odd times, though a breeze
often springs up between us. Guinea has a d—d awkward fashion of
luffing up in his talk; and your Honour knows it isn’t always
comfortable to a white man to be driven to leeward by a black. I tell
him it is inconvenient. He is a good enough fellow in the main,
howsomever, sir; and, as he is just an African bred and born, I hope
you’ll be good enough to overlook his little failings.”
“Were I otherwise disposed,” returned the Rover, “his steadiness and
activity to-day would plead in his favour.”
“Yes, yes, sir, he is somewhat steady, which is more than I can always
say in my own behalf. Then as for seamanship, there are few men who are
his betters; I wish your Honour would take the trouble to walk forward,
and look at the heart he turned in the mainstay, no later than the last
calm; it takes the strain as easy as a small sin sits upon a rich man’s
conscience.”
“I am satisfied with your description; you call him Guinea?”
“Call him by any thing along that coast; for he is noway particular,
seeing he was never christened, and knows nothing at all of the
bearings and distances of religion. His lawful name is S’ip, or Shipio
Africa, taken, as I suppose, from the circumstance that he was first
shipp’d from that quarter of the world. But, as respects names, the
fellow is as meek as a lamb; you may call him any thing, provided you
don’t call him too late to his grog.”
All this time, the African stood, rolling his large dark eyes in every
direction except towards the speakers, perfectly content that his
long-tried shipmate should serve as his interpreter. The spirit which
had, so recently, been awakened in the Rover seemed already to be
subsiding; for the haughty frown, which had gathered on his brow, was
dissipating in a look which bore rather the character of curiosity than
any fiercer emotion.
“You have sailed long in company, my lads,” he carelessly continued,
addressing his words to neither of them in particular.
“Full and by, in many a gale, and many a calm, your Honour. ’Tis
four-and-twenty years the last equinox, Guinea, since master Harry fell
across our hawse; and, then, we had been together three years in the
‘Thunderer,’ besides the run we made round the Horn, in the ‘Bay’
privateer.”
“Ah! you have been four-and-twenty years with Mr Wilder? It is not so
remarkable that you should set a value on his life.”
“I should as soon think of setting a price on the King’s crown!”
interrupted the straight-going seaman “I overheard the lads, d’ye see,
sir, just plotting to throw the three of us overboard, and so we
thought it time to say something in our own favour and, words not
always being at hand, the black saw fit to fill up the time with
something that might answer the turn quite as well. No, no, he is no
great talker, that Guinea; nor, for that matter, can I say much in my
own favour in this particular; but, seeing that we clapp’d a stopper on
their movements, your Honour will allow that we did as well as if we
had spoken as smartly as a young midshipman fresh from college, who is
always for hailing a top in Latin, you know, sir, for want of
understanding the proper language.”
The Rover smiled, and he glanced his eye aside, apparently in quest of
the form of our adventurer. Not seeing him at hand, he was tempted to
push his covert inquiries a little further, though too much governed,
by self-respect, to let the intense curiosity by which he was
influenced escape him in any direct and manifest interrogation. But an
instant’s recollection recalled him to himself, and he discarded the
idea as unworthy of his character.
“Your services shall not be forgotten. Here is gold,” he said, offering
a handful of the metal to the negro, as the one nearest his own person.
“You will divide it, like honest shipmates; and you may ever rely on my
protection.”
Scipio drew back, and, with a motion of his elbow, replied,—
“His Honour will give ’em masser Harry.”
“Your master Harry has it of his own, lad; he has no need of money.”
“A S’ip no need ’em eider.”
“You will please to overlook the fellow’s manners sir,” said Fid, very
coolly interposing his own hand, and just as deliberately pocketing the
offering “but I needn’t tell as old a seaman as your Honour, that
Guinea is no country to scrape down the seams of a man’s behaviour in.
Howsomever, I can say this much for him, which is, that he thanks your
Honour just as heartily as if you had given him twice the sum. Make a
bow to his Honour, boy, and do some credit to the company you have
kept. And now, since this little difficulty about the money is gotten
over, by my presence of mind, with your Honour’s leave, I’ll just step
aloft, and cast loose the lashings of that bit of a tailor on the
larboard fore-yard-arm. The chap was never made for a topman as you may
see, sir, by the fashion in which he crosses his lower stanchions. That
fellow will make a carrick bend with his legs as easily as I could do
the same with a yarn of white line!”
The Rover signed for him to retire; and, turning where he stood, he
found himself confronted by Wilder. The eyes of the confederates met;
and a slight colour bespoke the consciousness of the former Regaining
his self-possession on the instant, however, he smilingly alluded to
the character of Fid; and then, with an air of authority, he directed
his lieutenant to have the “retreat from quarters” beat.
The guns were secured, the stoppers loosened, the magazine closed, the
ports lashed, and the crew withdrew to their several ordinary duties,
like men whose violence had been completely subdued by the triumphant
influence of a master spirit. The Rover then disappeared from the deck,
which, for a time, was left to the care of an officer of the proper
station.