Some writers make all ladies purloined,
And knights pursuing like a whirlwind;
But those, that write in rhyme, still make
The one verse for the other's sake.
HUDIBRAS.
Morton and his companions had left the prison a few minutes past ten
o'clock. It was nearly one when an officer, who was up and passing
through the plaza for certain good reasons best known to himself,
noticed, as he approached the guard-house, that there was an unusual
degree of stillness about it; no sentry challenged as he drew near, and
indeed there seemed to be none on post. Surprised at this, he entered
the porch, or as it is called in New England, the "_pye_-azza," where he
found the sentry seated, as before described, and snoring most lustily.
Him he attempted to awaken by a very summary process; namely, by
tumbling him from his seat upon the ground; but so stupified was the
fellow with the drugged wine that he had drank, that after uttering
certain unintelligible growlings, he again slept and snored. Passing
into the interior, the officer found the corporal and his "brave
compeers" as sound asleep and as motionless as the enchanted
inhabitants of a fairy castle. After bestowing upon them several sound
and hearty kicks, without producing any vivifying effects, he perceived
that the door of the inner room, or prison, was wide open, and the room
itself as empty as--an author's pockets. On further examination he found
a basket, the remains of food, three or four empty bottles and
drinking-cups, one or two full bottles, and a phial containing a small
quantity of dark-colored liquid, with the qualities of which he did not
think it prudent to make himself acquainted by experiment upon his own
person; not possessing a particle of the philosophical courage and zeal
of Sir Humphrey Davy, who gulped down poisonous gases till it became a
matter of astonishment and mystery to his friends, as well as himself,
how he contrived to find his way back into this world, after having
strolled so far beyond its limits. The phial, however ignorant he was of
the nature of its contents, explained, in connection with the empty
bottles, the cause of the death-like sleep of the guard.
After deliberating for an extremely short space of time (for when a man
has nobody near to bother him with advice, he makes up his mind with
incredible despatch), he concluded that there would be no danger in
leaving the guard-house just as he found it, for sundry reasons; in the
first place, the present circumstances had probably existed some hours;
secondly, as there was nothing there for the guard to watch over but
the empty bottles, &c. said guard might as well sleep as be awake;
thirdly--but by this time he was almost at his excellency's door, and it
was hardly worth while to follow any farther a line of reasons that
threatened to stretch out to the crack of day, if not of doom. After
abundance of vociferating and thumping, he succeeded in rousing the
governor from his slumbers, and bringing him to the window, night-capped
and night-gowned "proper," as the heralds say. His excellency was
thunderstruck at the intelligence, and in a few minutes his household
was in motion.
His two daughters had no sooner learned that the prisoners had escaped,
than they hastened to the chamber of their cousin, Isabella, to
communicate the joyful intelligence. To their surprise and consternation
no cousin Isabella was to be found; the chamber was in its usual state,
but it was immediately obvious that the bed had not been pressed that
night by its lovely occupant; one or two of the drawers of a bureau, in
which she had formerly kept sundry articles of clothing, were open and
empty; nor was this all; the doors of a little book-case, that stood
upon a table in one corner of the room, and that formerly contained
thirty or forty volumes, were also open, and every volume was gone.
This circumstance, which at once convinced the two young ladies that
their cousin was decidedly deranged in mind, should have been mentioned
and explained in its proper place. A fortnight previous to Morton's
capture, Isabella consented to put herself under his protection, and
having so done, retired to her chamber to deliberate upon the how and
the what she should take with her. Her jewels, that had been left her by
her mother, or given her by her uncle and other relatives, were
numerous, costly, and easily portable; but jewels, though they ornament
beauty, do not keep it warm. Her drawers were next opened, and sundry
indispensable articles of dress were selected and set aside; but while
she hesitated between certain elegant and valuable dresses and others
more ordinary, that her natural good sense told her were more
appropriate, her eyes rested upon a volume of Milton opened at the
title-page, on which was written her mother's name by that beloved
parent's hand: "My dear mother's books! how could I think of leaving
them behind, or any thing that was ever hers!" She closed her drawers
after having carelessly thrown aside, for "sea-service," the first
dresses that came to hand--her whole thoughts occupied in devising means
to save what, just at that moment, seemed of vastly superior
consequence. The books, by Morton's advice, were subsequently carried,
two or three at a time, to Juanita's house, and thence by him conveyed
carefully on board the Albatross, and safely deposited in his chest.
Having settled this affair so much to her satisfaction, she used the
same means to transport the greater part of her most valuable clothes to
the same place, till the unfortunate capture of her lover made it
necessary to encumber herself and attendant with the remainder, upon the
night of her elopement and their escape.
I pride myself not a little in being particular in an affair of such
delicacy. Some writers wake their heroines at dead of night, drag them,
half drest, out of a third story chamber window, lead them through a
thousand perils by flood, fire, and field, till the mere matter-of-fact,
common sense reader is convinced that the poor girls had neither a dry
thread nor a clean one upon their persons; and no "change of raiment" so
much as hinted at. I scorn so ungallant an action as to compel _my_
heroine to make a voyage nearly round the world, or within thirty
degrees of longitude of it, in such a draggle-tailed and sluttish
condition; so that you see, madam, I have made this digression for the
sole purpose of setting your mind at ease on the score of Isabella's
gowns, frocks, hose, and those other articles of the "inner temple"
whose names I dare not even think of, or whose existence it would be
impolite and indelicate to hint at.
The alarming fact of his niece's absence the governor fortunately did
not learn till morning, or rather till late in the forenoon, he having
gone towards the guard-house before his daughters visited their cousin's
chamber. When arrived there, Don Gaspar was convinced, by examination of
the phial, that the soldiers were under the influence of a most
powerful opiate; and, furthermore, that the prisoners had obtained that
opiate and the wine that it was administered in, from some person out of
the prison who had access to them; and he immediately vowed vengeance
the most signal and summary against the traitor, offering, at the same
time, a large reward for his, her, or their apprehension. Alas, poor
man! he did not know that the traitor was of his own kith and kin, his
own beloved niece.
His next movement was to send an officer at full gallop to the Venganza,
or rather to the landing place, commanding her captain to despatch boats
to the American ship in the outer harbor, and search for the fugitives.
Don Diego Pinto, the commander of the Venganza, who had obtained a spare
fore-yard from the dock-yard, rigged and swayed it aloft the night that
he came in, instantly concluded that the escape had been effected by the
American captain, and that the Albatross had immediately sailed.
Impressed with this idea, he weighed anchor forthwith, and, favored by a
fresh breeze from the land, was convinced by eight o'clock that morning
that his conjecture was right.
How the governor bore the news of his niece's elopement we have never
been able precisely to discover, but have understood vaguely that he
displayed infinitely more warm and tender feelings than he had
heretofore had credit for.