“As I am an honest man, he looks pale: Art thou sick, or angry?”
_Much ado about Nothing._
The approach of the strange sail was becoming rapidly more and more
visible to the naked eye. The little speck of white, which had first
been seen on the margin of the sea, resembling some gull floating on
the summit of a wave, had gradually arisen during the last half hour,
until a tall pyramid of canvas was reared on the water. As Wilder bent
his look again on this growing object, the Rover put a glass into his
hands, with an expression of feature which the other understood to say,
“You may perceive that the carelessness of your dependant has already
betrayed us!” Still the look was one rather of regret than of reproach;
nor did a single syllable of the tongue confirm the meaning language of
the eye. On the contrary, it would seem that his Commander was anxious
to preserve their recent amicable compact inviolate; for, when the
young mariner attempted an awkward explanation of the probable causes
of the blunder of Fid, he was met by a quiet gesture, which said, in a
sufficiently intelligible language, that the offence was already
pardoned.
“Our neighbour keeps a good look-out, as you may see,” observed the
other. “He has tacked, and is laying boldly up across our fore-foot.
Well, let him come on; we shall soon get a look at his battery, and
then may we come to our conclusion as to the nature of the intercourse
we are to hold.”
“If you permit the stranger to near us, it might be difficult to throw
him off the chase, should we be glad to get rid of him.”
“It must be a fast-going vessel to which the ‘Dolphin’ cannot spare a
top-gallant-sail.”
“I know not, sir. The sail in sight is swift on the wind, and it is to
be believed that she is no duller off. I have rarely known a vessel
rise so rapidly as she has done since first we made her.”
The youth spoke with such earnestness, as to draw the attention of his
companion from the object he was studying to the countenance of the
speaker.
“Mr Wilder,” he said quickly, and with an air of decision, “you know
the ship?”
“I’ll not deny it. If my opinion be true, she will be found too heavy
for the ‘Dolphin,’ and a vessel that offers little inducement for us to
attempt to carry.”
“Her size?”
“You heard it from the black.”
“Your followers know her also?”
“It would be difficult to deceive a topman in the cut and trim of sails
among which he has passed months, nay years.”
“I understand the ‘new cloths’ in her top-gallant-royal! Mr Wilder,
your departure from that vessel has been recent?”
“As my arrival in this.”
The Rover continued silent for several minutes communing with his own
thoughts. His companion made no offer to disturb his meditations;
though the furtive glances, he often cast in the direction of the
other’s musing eye, betrayed some little anxiety to learn the result of
his self-communication.
“And her guns?” at length his Commander abruptly demanded.
“She numbers four more than the ‘Dolphin.’”
“The metal?”
“Is still heavier. In every particular is she a ship a size above your
own.”
“Doubtless she is the property of the King?”
“She is.”
“Then shall she change her masters. By heaven she shall be mine!”
Wilder shook his head, answering only with an incredulous smile.
“You doubt it,” resumed the Rover. “Come hither, and look upon that
deck. Can he whom you so lately quitted muster fellows like these, to
do his biddings?”
The crew of the ‘Dolphin’ had been chosen, by one who thoroughly
understood the character of a seaman, from among all the different
people of the Christian world. There was not a maritime nation in
Europe which had not its representative among; that band of turbulent
and desperate spirits. Even the descendant of the aboriginal possessors
of America had been made to abandon the habits and opinions of his
progenitors, to become a wanderer on that element which had laved the
shores of his native land for ages, without exciting a wish to
penetrate its mysteries in the bosoms of his simple-minded ancestry.
All had been suited, by lives of wild adventure, on the two elements,
for their present lawless pursuits and, directed by the mind which had
known how to obtain and to continue its despotic ascendancy over their
efforts, they truly formed a most dangerous and (considering their
numbers) resistless crew. Their Commander smiled in exultation, as he
watched the evident reflection with which his companion contemplated
the indifference, or fierce joy, which different individuals among them
exhibited at the appearance of an approaching conflict. Even the rawest
of their numbers, the luckless waisters and after-guard, were
apparently as confident of victory as those whose audacity might plead
the apology of uniform and often repeated success.
“Count you these for nothing?” asked the Rover, at the elbow of his
lieutenant, after allowing him time to embrace the whole of the grim
band with his eye. “See! here is a Dane, ponderous and steady as the
gun at which I shall shortly place him. You may cut him limb from limb,
and yet will he stand like a tower, until the last stone of the
foundation has been sapped. And, here, we have his neighbours, the,
Swede and the Russ, fit companions for managing the same piece; which,
I’ll answer, shall not be silent, while a man of them all is left to
apply a match, or handle a sponge. Yonder is a square-built athletic
mariner, from one of the Free Towns. He prefers our liberty to that of
his native city; and you shall find that the venerable Hanseatic
institutions shall give way sooner than he be known to quit the spot I
give him to defend. Here, you see a brace of Englishmen; and, though
they come from the island that I love so little, better men at need
will not be often found. Feed them, and flog them, and I pledge myself
to their swaggering, and their courage. D’ye see that
thoughtful-looking, bony miscreant, that has a look of godliness in the
midst of all his villany? That fellow fish’d for herring till he got a
taste of beef, when his stomach revolted at its ancient fare; and then
the ambition of becoming rich got uppermost. He is a Scot, from one of
the lochs of the North.”
“Will he fight?”
“For money—the honour of the Macs—and his religion. He is a reasoning
fellow, after all: and I like to have him on my own side in a quarrel.
Ah! yonder is the boy for a charge. I once told him to cut a rope in a
hurry, and he severed it above his head, instead of beneath his feet,
taking a flight from a lower yard into the sea, as a reward for the
exploit. But, then, he always extols his presence of mind in not
drowning! Now are his ideas in a hot ferment; and, if the truth could
be known, I would wager a handsome venture, that the sail in sight is,
by some mysterious process, magnified to six in his fertile fancy.”
“He must be thinking, then, of escape.”
“Far from it; he is rather plotting the means of surrounding them with
the ‘Dolphin.’ To your true Hibernian, escape is the last idea that
gives him an uneasy moment. You see the pensive-looking, sallow mortal,
at his elbow. That is a man who will fight with a sort of sentiment.
There is a touch of chivalry in him, which might be worked into heroism
if one had but the opportunity and the inclination. As it is, he will
not fail to show a spark of the true Castilian. His companion has come
from the Rock of Lisbon; I should trust him unwillingly, did I not know
that little opportunity of taking pay from the enemy is given here. Ah!
here is a lad for a dance of a Sunday. You see him, at this moment,
with foot and tongue going together. That is a creature of
contradictions. He wants for neither wit nor good-nature, but still he
might cut your throat on an occasion. There is a strange medley of
ferocity and bonhommie about the animal. I shall put him among the
boarders; for we shall not be at blows a minute before his impatience
will be for carrying every thing by a coup-de-main.”
“And who is the seaman at his elbow, that apparently is occupied in
divesting his person of some superfluous garments?” demanded Wilder,
irresistibly attracted, by the manner of the Rover, to pursue the
subject.
“An economical Dutchman. He calculates that it is just as wise to be
killed in an old jacket as in a new one; and has probably said as much
to his Gascon neighbour, who is, however, resolved to die decently, if
die he must. The former has happily commenced his preparations for the
combat in good season, or the enemy might defeat us before he would be
in readiness. Did it rest between these two worthies to decide this
quarrel, the mercurial Frenchman would defeat his neighbour of Holland,
before the latter believed the battle had commenced; but, should he let
the happy moment pass, rely on it, the Dutchman would give him trouble.
Forget you, Wilder, that the day has been when the countrymen of that
slow-moving and heavy-moulded fellow swept the narrow seas with a broom
at their mast-heads?”
The Rover smiled wildly as he spoke, and what he said he uttered with
bitter emphasis. To his companion however, there appeared no such
grounds of unnatural exultation, in recalling the success of a foreign
enemy, and he was content to assent to the truth of the historical fact
with a simple inclination of his head. As if he even found pain in this
confession, and would gladly be rid of the mortifying reflection
altogether, he rejoined, in some apparent haste,—
“You have overlooked the two tall seamen, who are making out the rig of
the stranger with so much gravity of observation.”
“Ay, those are men that came from a land in which we both feel some
interest. The sea is not more unstable than are those rogues in their
knavery. Their minds are but half made up to piracy.—’Tis a coarse
word, Mr Wilder, but I fear we earn it. But these rascals make a
reservation of grace in the midst of all their villainy.”
“They regard the stranger as if they saw reason to distrust the wisdom
of letting him approach so near.”
“Ah! they are renowned calculators. I fear they have detected the four
supernumerary guns you mentioned; for their vision seems supernatural
in affairs which touch their interests. But you see there is brawn and
sinew in the fellows; and, what is better, there are heads which teach
them to turn those advantages to account.”
“You think they fail in spirit?”
“Hum! It might be dangerous to try it on any point they deemed
material. They are no quarrellers about words, and seldom lose sight of
certain musty maxims, which they pretend come from a volume that I fear
you and I do not study too intently. It is not often that they strike a
blow for mere chivalry; and, were they so inclined, the rogues are too
much disposed to logic, to mistake, like your black, the ‘Dolphin’ for
a church. Still, if they see reason, in their puissant judgments, to
engage, mark me, the two guns they command will do better service than
all the rest of the battery. But, should they think otherwise, it would
occasion no surprise were I to receive a proposition to spare the
powder for some more profitable adventure. Honour, forsooth! the
miscreants are too well grounded in polemics to mistake the point of
honour in a pursuit like ours. But we chatter of trifles, when it is
time to think of serious things. Mr Wilder, we will now show our
canvas.”
The manner of the Rover changed as suddenly as his language. Losing the
air of sarcastic levity in which he had been indulging, in a mien
better suited to maintain the authority he wielded, he walked aside,
while his subordinate proceeded to issue the orders necessary to
enforce his commands. Nightingale sounded the usual summons, lifting
his hoarse voice in the cry of “All hands make sail, ahoy!”
Until now, the people of the “Dolphin” had made their observations on
the sail, that was growing so rapidly above the waters, according to
their several humours. Some had exulted in the prospect of a capture;
others, more practised in the ways of their Commander, had deemed the
probability of their coming in collision at all with the stranger a
point far from settled; while a few, more accustomed to reflection,
shook their heads as the stranger drew nigher, as if they believed he
was already within a distance that might be attended with too much
hazard. Still, as they were ignorant alike of those secret sources of
information which the chief had so frequently proved he possessed, to
an extent that often seemed miraculous, the whole were content
patiently to await his decision. But, when the cry above mentioned was
heard, it was answered by an activity so general and so cheerful, as to
prove it was entirely welcome. Order now followed order in quick
succession, from the mouth of Wilder, who, in virtue of his station,
was the proper executive officer for the moment.
As both lieutenant and crew appeared animated by the same spirit, it
was not long before the naked spars of the “Dolphin” were clothed in
vast volumes of spotless snow-white canvas. Sail had fallen after sail,
and yard after yard had been raised to the summit of its mast, until
the vessel bowed before the breeze, rolling to and fro, but still held
stationary by the position of her yards. When all was in readiness to
proceed, on whichever course might be deemed necessary, Wilder ascended
again to the poop, in order to announce the fact to his superior. He
found the Rover attentively considering the stranger, whose hull had by
this time risen out of the sea, and exhibited a long, dotted, yellow
line, which the eye of every man in the ship well knew to contain the
ports whence the guns that marked her particular force were made to
issue. Mrs Wyllys, accompanied by Gertrude, stood nigh, thoughtful, as
usual, but permitting no occurrence of the slightest moment to escape
her vigilance.
“We are ready to gather way on the ship,” said Wilder; “we wait merely
for the course.”
The Rover started, and drew closer to his subordinate before he gave an
answer. Then, looking him full and intently in the eye, he demanded,—
“You are certain that you know yon vessel, Mr Wilder?”
“Certain,” was the calm reply.
“It is a royal cruiser,” said the governess, with the swiftness of
thought.
“It is. I have already pronounced her to be so.”
“Mr Wilder,” resumed the Rover, “we will try her speed. Let the courses
fall, and fill your forward sails.”
The young mariner made an acknowledgment of obedience, and proceeded to
execute the wishes of his Commander. There was an eagerness, and
perhaps a trepidation, in the voice of Wilder, as he issued the
necessary orders, that was in remarkable contrast to the deep-toned
calmness which characterized the utterance of the Rover. The unusual
intonations did not entirely escape the ears of some of the elder
seamen; and looks of peculiar meaning were exchanged among them, as
they paused to catch his words. But obedience followed these unwonted
sounds, as it had been accustomed to succeed the more imposing
utterance of their own long-dreaded chief. The head-yards were swung,
the sails were distended with the breeze, and the mass, which had so
long been inert, began to divide the waters, as it heavily overcame the
state of rest in which it had reposed. The ship soon attained its
velocity; and then the contest between the two rival vessels became one
of deep and engrossing interest.
By this time the stranger was within a half league, directly under the
lee of the “Dolphin.” Closer and more accurate observation had
satisfied every understanding eye in the latter ship of the force and
character of their neighbour. The rays of a bright sun fell clear upon
her broadside, while the shadow of her sails was thrown far across the
waters, in a direction opposite to their own. There were moments when
the eye, aided by the glass, could penetrate through the open ports
into the interior of the hull, catching fleeting and delusory glimpses
of the movements within. A few human forms were distinctly visible in
different parts of her rigging; but, in all other respects, the repose
of high order and perfect discipline was discernible on all about her.
When the Rover heard the sounds of the parted waters, and saw the
little jets of spray that the bows of his own gallant ship cast before
her, he signed to his lieutenant to ascend to the place which he still
occupied on the poop. For many minutes, his eye was on the strange
sail, in close and intelligent contemplation of her powers.
“Mr Wilder,” he at length said, speaking like one whose doubts on some
perplexing point were finally removed, “I have seen that cruiser
before.”
“It is probable; she has roamed over most of the waters of the
Atlantic.”
“Ay, this is not the first of our meetings! a little paint has changed
her exterior, but I think I know the manner in which they have stepped
her masts.”
“They are thought to rake more than is usual.”
“They are thought to do it, with reason. Did you serve long aboard
her?”
“Years.”
“And you left her”——
“To join you.”
“Tell me, Wilder, did they treat you, too, as one of an inferior order?
Ha! was your merit called ‘provincial?’ Did they read America in all
you did?”
“I left her, Captain Heidegger.”
“Ay, they gave you reason. For once they have done me an act of
kindness. But you were in her during the equinox of March?”
Wilder made a slight bow of assent.
“I thought as much. And you fought a stranger in the gale? Winds,
ocean, and man were all at work together.”
“It is true. We knew you, and thought for a time that your hour had
come.”
“I like your frankness. We have sought each other’s lives like men, and
we shall prove the truer friends, now that amity is established between
us. I will not ask you further of that adventure, Wilder; for favour,
in my service, is not to be bought by treachery to that you have
quitted. It is sufficient that you now sail under my flag.”
“What is that flag?” demanded a mild but firm voice, at his elbow.
The Rover turned suddenly, and again met the riveted, calm, and
searching eye of the governess. The gleamings of some strangely
contradictory passions crossed his features, and then his whole
countenance changed to that look of bland courtesy which he most
affected when addressing his captives.
“Here speaks a female, to remind two mariners of their duty!” he
exclaimed. “We have forgotten the civility of showing the stranger our
bunting. Let it be set, Mr Wilder, that we may omit none of the
observances of nautical etiquette.”
“The ship in sight carries a naked gaft.”
“No matter; we shall be foremost in courtesy, Let the colours be
shown.”
Wilder opened the little locker which contained the flags most in use,
but hesitated which to select, out of a dozen that lay in large rolls
within the different compartments.
“I hardly know which of these ensigns it is your pleasure to show,” he
said, in a manner that appeared sufficiently like putting a question.
“Try him with the heavy-moulded Dutchman. The Commander of so noble a
ship should understand all Christian tongues.”
The lieutenant made a sign to the quarter-master on duty; and, in
another minute, the flag of the United Provinces was waving at the peak
of the “Dolphin.” The two officers narrowly watched its effect on the
stranger, who refused, however, to make any answering sign to the false
signal they had just exhibited.
“The stranger sees we have a hull that was never made for the shoals of
Holland. Perhaps he knows us?” said the Rover, glancing at the same
time a look of inquiry at his companion.
“I think not. Paint is too freely used in the ‘Dolphin,’ for even her
friends to be certain of her countenance.”
“She is a coquettish ship, we will allow,” returned the Rover, smiling.
“Try him with the Portuguese: Let us see if Brazil diamonds have favour
in his eyes.”
The colours already set were lowered, and, in their place, the emblem
of the house of Braganza was loosened to the breeze. Still the stranger
pursued his course in sullen inattention, eating closer and closer to
the wind, as it is termed in nautical language, in order to lessen the
distance between him and his chase as much as possible.
“An ally cannot move him,” said the Rover “Now let him see the taunting
drapeau blanc.”
Wilder complied in silence. The flag of Portugal was hauled to the
deck, and the white field of France was given to the air. The ensign
had hardly fluttered in its elevated position, before a broad glossy
blazonry, rose, like some enormous bird taking wing from the deck of
the stranger, and opened its folds in graceful waves at his gaft. The
same instant, a column of smoke issued from his bows, and had sailed
backward through his rigging, ere the report of the gun of defiance
found its way, against the fresh breeze of the trades, to the ears of
the “Dolphin’s” crew.
“So much for national amity!” dryly observed the Rover. “He is mute to
the Dutchman, and to the crown of Braganza; but the very bile is
stirred within him at the sight of a table-cloth! Let him contemplate
the colours he loves so little, Mr Wilder when we are tired of showing
them, our lockers may furnish another.”
It would seem, however, that the sight of the flag; which the Rover now
chose to bear, produced some such effect on his neighbour as the moleta
of the nimble banderillo is known to excite in the enraged bull. Sundry
smaller sails, which could do but little good, but which answered the
purpose of appearing to wish to quicken his speed, were instantly set
aboard the stranger; and not a brace, or a bow-line, was suffered to
escape without an additional pull. In short, he wore the air of the
courser who receives the useless blows of the jockey, when already at
the top of his speed, and when any further excitement is as fruitless
as his own additional exertions. Still there seemed but little need of
such supererogatory efforts. By this time, the two vessels were fairly
trying there powers of sailing, and with no visible advantage in favour
of either. Although the “Dolphin” was renowned for her speed, the
stranger manifested no inferiority that the keenest scrutiny might
detect. The ship of the freebooter was already bending to the breeze,
and the jets of spray before her were cast still higher and further in
advance; but each impulse of the wind was equally felt by the stranger,
and her movement over the heaving waters seemed to be as rapid and as
graceful as that of her rival.
“Yon ship parts the water as a swallow cuts the air,” observed the
chief of the freebooters to the youth, who still kept at his elbow,
endeavouring to conceal an uneasiness which was increasing at each
instant. “Has she a name for speed?”
“The curlew is scarcely faster. Are we not already nigh enough, for men
who cruise with commissions no better than our own pleasure?”
The Rover glanced a look of impatient suspicion at the countenance of
his companion; but its expression changed to a smile of haughty
audacity, as he answered,—
“Let him equal the eagle in his highest and swiftest flight, he shall
find us no laggards on the wing! Why this reluctance to be within a
mile of a vessel of the Crown?”
“Because I know her force, and the hopeless character of a contest with
an enemy so superior,” returned Wilder, firmly. “Captain Heidegger, you
cannot fight yon ship with success; and, unless instant use be made of
the distance which still exists between us, you cannot escape her.
Indeed, I know not but it is already too late to attempt the latter.”
“Such, sir, is the opinion of one who overrates the powers of his
enemy, because use, and much talking, have taught him to reverence it
as something more than human. Mr Wilder, none are so daring or so
modest, as those who have long been accustomed to place their
dependence on their own exertions. I have been nigher to a flag even,
and yet you see I continue to keep on this mortal coil.”
“Hark! ’Tis a drum. The stranger is going to his guns.”
The Rover listened a moment, and was able to catch the well-known beat
which calls the people of a vessel of war to quarters. First casting a
glance upward at his sails, and then throwing a general and critical
look on all and every thing which came within the influence of his
command, he calmly answered,—
“We will imitate his example, Mr Wilder. Let the order be given.”
Until now, the crew of the “Dolphin” had either been occupied in such
necessary duties as had been assigned them, or were engaged in gazing
with curious eyes at the ship which so eagerly sought to draw as near
as possible to their own dangerous vessel. The low but continued hum of
voices, sounds such alone as discipline permitted, had afforded the
only evidence of the interest they took in the scene; but, the instant
the first tap on the drum was heard, each groupe severed, and every man
repaired, with bustling activity, to his well-known station. The stir
among the crew was but of a moment’s continuance, and it was succeeded
by the breathing stillness which has already been noticed in our pages
on a similar occasion. The officers, however, were seen making hasty,
but strict, inquiries into the conditions of their several commands;
while the munitions of war, that were quickly drawn from their places
of deposit, announced a preparation more serious than ordinary. The
Rover himself had disappeared; but it was not long before he was again
seen at his elevated look-out accoutred for the conflict that appeared
to approach, employed, as ever, in studying the properties, the force,
and the evolutions of his advancing antagonist. Those who knew him
best, however, said that the question of combat was not yet decided in
his mind; and hundreds of eager glances were thrown in the direction of
his contracting eye, as if to penetrate the mystery in which he still
chose to conceal his purpose. He had thrown aside the sea-cap, and
stood with the fair hair blowing about a brow that seemed formed to
give birth to thoughts far nobler than those which apparently had
occupied his life, while a species of leathern helmet lay at his feet,
the garniture of which was of a nature to lend an unnatural fierceness
to the countenance of its wearer. Whenever this boarding-cap was worn,
all in the ship were given to understand that the moment of serious
strife was at hand; but, as yet, that never-failing evidence of the
hostile intention of their leader was unnoticed.
In the mean time, each officer had examined into, and reported, the
state of his division; and then, by a sort of implied permission on the
part of their superiors, the death-like calm, which had hitherto
reigned among the people, was allowed to be broken by suppressed but
earnest discourse; the calculating chief permitting this departure from
the usual rules of more regular cruisers, in order to come at the
temper of the crew, on which so much of the success of his desperate
enterprises so frequently depended.