“How pleasant and how sad the turning tide
Of human life, when side by side
The child and youth begin to glide
Along the vale of years:
The pure twin-being for a little space,
With lightsome heart, and yet a graver face.
Too young for woe, though not for tears.”
ALLSTON.
With what interest and deference most Americans of any education
regarded England, her history, laws and institutions, in 1799! There
were a few exceptions--warm political partisans, and here and there
an individual whose feelings had become embittered by some particular
incident of the revolution--but surprisingly few, when it is recollected
that the country was only fifteen years from the peace. I question if
there ever existed another instance of as strong provincial admiration
for the capital, as independent America manifested for the mother
country, in spite of a thousand just grievances, down to the period
of the war of 1812. I was no exception to the rule, nor was Talcott.
Neither of us had ever seen England before we made the Lizard on
this voyage, except through our minds' eyes; and these had presented
quantities of beauties and excellencies that certainly vanished on a
nearer approach. By this I merely mean that we had painted in too high
colours, as is apt to be the case when the imagination holds the pencil;
not that there was any unusual absence of things worthy to be commended.
On the contrary, even at this late, hour, I consider England as a
model for a thousand advantages, even to our own inappreciable selves.
Nevertheless, much delusion was blended with our admiration.
English history was virtually American history; and everything on the
land, as we made our way towards town, which the pilot could point out,
was a source of amusement and delight. We had to tide it up to London,
and had plenty of leisure to see all there was to be seen. The Thames is
neither a handsome, nor a very magnificent river; but it was amazing to
witness the number of vessels that then ascended or descended it.
There was scarce a sort of craft known to Christendom, a few of the
Mediterranean excepted, that was not to be seen there; and as for the
colliers, we drifted through a forest of them that seemed large enough
to keep the town a twelvemonth in fire-wood, by simply burning their
spars. The manner in which the pilot handled our brig, too, among the
thousand ships that lay in tiers on each side of the narrow passage we
had to thread, was perfectly surprising to me; resembling the management
of a coachman in a crowded thoroughfare, more than the ordinary working
of a ship. I can safely say I learned more in the Thames, in the way of
keeping a vessel in command, and in doing what I pleased with her,
than in the whole of my voyage to Canton and back again. As for Neb,
he rolled his dark eyes about in wonder, and took an occasion to say to
me--“He'll make her talk, Masser Miles, afore he have done.” I make
no doubt the navigation from the Forelands to the bridges, as it was
conducted thirty years since, had a great influence on the seamanship of
the English. Steamers are doing away with much of this practice, though
the colliers still have to rely on themselves. Coals will scarcely pay
for tugging.
I had been directed by Captain Williams to deliver the brig to her
original consignee, an American merchant established in the modern
Babylon, reserving the usual claim for salvage. This I did, and that
gentleman sent hands on board to take charge of the vessel, relieving me
entirely from all farther responsibility. As the captain in his letter
had, inadvertently I trust, mentioned that he had put “Mr. Wallingford,
his _third_ mate,” in charge, I got no invitation to dinner from the
consignee; though the affair of the capture under Dungeness found its
way into the papers, _viâ_ Deal, I have always thought, with the
usual caption of “Yankee Trick.” Yankee trick! This phrase, so often
carelessly used, has probably done a great deal of harm in this country.
The young and ambitious--there are all sorts of ambition, and, among
others, that of being a rogue; as a proof of which, one daily hears
people call envy, jealousy, covetousness, avarice, and half of the
meaner vices, ambition--the young and _ambitious_, then, of this
country, too often think to do a _good_ thing, that shall have some of
the peculiar merit of a certain other good thing that they have heard
laughed at and applauded, under this designation. I can account in no
other manner for the great and increasing number of “Yankee tricks” that
are of daily occurrence among us. Among other improvements in taste,
not to say in morals, that might be introduced into the American press,
would be the omission of the histories of these rare inventions. As
two-thirds of the editors of the whole country, however, are Yankees,
I suppose they must be permitted to go on exulting in the cleverness
of their race. We are indebted to the Puritan stock for most of our
instructors--editors and school-masters--and when one coolly regards the
prodigious progress of the people in morals, public and private virtue,
honesty, and other estimable qualities, he must indeed rejoice in the
fact that our masters so early discovered “a church without a bishop.”
I had an opportunity, while in London, however, of ascertaining that
the land of our fathers, which by the way has archbishops, contains
something besides an unalloyed virtue in its bosom. At Gravesend we took
on board _two_ customhouse officers, (they always set a rogue to watch
a rogue, in the English revenue system,) and they remained in the
brig until she was discharged. One of these men had been a gentleman's
servant, and he owed his place to his former master's interest. He was a
miracle of custom-house integrity and disinterestedness, as I discovered
in the first hour of our intercourse. Perceiving a lad of eighteen in
charge of the prize, and ignorant that this lad had read a good deal of
Latin and Greek under excellent Mr. Hardinge, besides being the heir
of Clawbonny, I suppose he fancied he would have an easy time with him.
This man's name was Sweeney. Perceiving in me an eager desire to see
everything, the brig was no sooner at her moorings, than he proposed a
cruise ashore. It was Sweeney who showed me the way to the consignee's,
and, that business accomplished, he proposed that we should proceed on
and take a look at St. Paul's, the Monument, and, as he gradually found
my tastes more intellectual than he had at first supposed, the
wonders of the West End. I was nearly a week under the pilotage of the
“Admirable Sweeney.” After showing me the exteriors of all the things of
mark about the town, and the interiors of a few that I was disposed to
pay for, he descended in his tastes, and carried me through Wapping, its
purlieus and its scenes of atrocities. I have always thought Sweeney was
sounding me, and hoping to ascertain my true character, by the course he
took; and that he betrayed his motives in a proposition which he finally
made, and which brought our intimacy to a sudden close. The result,
however, was to let me into secrets I should probably have never learned
in any other manner. Still, I had read and heard too much to be easily
duped; and I kept myself not only out of the power of my tempter, but
out of the power of all that could injure me, remaining simply a curious
observer of what was placed before my eyes. Good Mr. Hardinge's lessons
were not wholly forgotten; I could run away from him, much easier than
from his precepts.
I shall never forget a visit I made to a house called the Black Horse,
in St. Catherine's Lane. This last was a narrow street that ran across
the site of the docks that now bear the same name; and it was the resort
of all the local infamy of Wapping. I say _local_ infamy; for there were
portions of the West End that were even worse than anything which a mere
port could produce. Commerce, that parent of so much that is useful to
man, has its dark side as everything else of earth; and, among its other
evils, it drags after it a long train of low vice; but this train
is neither so long nor so broad as that which is chained to the
chariot-wheels of the great. Appearances excepted, and they are far less
than might be expected, I think the West End could beat Wapping out
and out, in every essential vice; and, if St. Giles be taken into the
account, I know of no salvo in favour of the land over the sea.
Our visit to the Black Horse was paid of a Sunday, that being the
leisure moment of all classes of labourers, and the day when, being
attired in their best, they fancied themselves best prepared to appear
in the world. I will here remark, that I have never been in any portion
of Christendom that keeps the Sabbath precisely as it is kept in
America. In all other countries, even the most rigorously severe in
their practices, it is kept as a day of recreation and rest, as well as
of public devotion. Even in the American towns, the old observances are
giving way before the longings or weaknesses of human nature; and Sunday
is no longer what it was. I have witnessed scenes of brawling, blasphemy
and rude tumult, in the suburbs of New York, on Sundays, within the
last few years, that I have never seen in any other part of the world
on similar occasions; and serious doubts of the expediency of the
high-pressure principle have beset me, whatever may be the just
constructions of doctrine. With the last I pretend not to meddle; but,
in a worldly point of view, it would seem wise, if you cannot make men
all that they ought to be, to aim at such social regulations as shall
make them as little vile as possible. But, to return to the Black Horse
in St. Catherine's Lane--a place whose very name was associated with
vileness.
It is unnecessary to speak of the characters of its female visiters.
Most of them were young, many of them were still blooming and handsome,
but all of them were abandoned. “I need tell you nothing of these
girls,” said Sweeney, who was a bit of a philosopher in his way,
ordering a pot of beer, and motioning me to take a seat at a vacant
table--“but, as for the men you see here, half are house-breakers and
pickpockets, come to pass the day genteelly among you gentlemen-sailors.
There are two or three faces here that I have seen at the Old Bailey,
myself; and how they have remained in the country, is more than I can
tell you. You perceive these fellows are just as much at their ease, and
the landlord who receives and entertains them is just as much at _his_
ease, as if the whole party were merely honest men.”
“How happens it,” I asked, “that such known rogues are allowed to go at
large, or that this inn-keeper dares receive them?”
“Oh! you're a child yet, or you would not ask such a question! You must
know, Master Wallingford, that the law protects rogues as well as honest
men. To convict a pickpocket, you must have witnesses and jurors to
agree, and prosecutors, and a sight of things that are not as plenty
as pocket-handkerchiefs, or even wallets and Bank of England notes.
Besides, these fellows can prove an alibi any day in the week. An alibi,
you must know--”
“I know very well what an alibi means, Mr. Sweeney.”
“The deuce you do!” exclaimed the protector of the king's revenue,
eyeing me a little distrustfully. “And pray how should one as young as
you, and coming from a new country like America, know that?”
“Oh!” said I, laughing, “America is just the country for
_alibis_--everybody is everywhere, and nobody anywhere. The whole nation
is in motion, and there is every imaginable opportunity for _alibis_.”
I believe I owed the development of Sweeney's “ulterior views” to
this careless speech. He had no other idea of the word than its legal
signification; and it must have struck him as a little suspicious that
one of my apparent condition in life, and especially of my years, should
be thus early instructed in the meaning of this very useful professional
term. It was a minute before he spoke again, having been all that time
studying my countenance.
“And pray, Master Wallingford,” he then inquired, “do you happen to know
what _nolle prosequi_ means, too?”
“Certainly; it means to give up the chase. The French lugger under
Dungeness entered a _nolle prosequi_ as respects my brig, when she found
her hands full of the West-Indiaman.”
“So, so; I find I have been keeping company all this time with a knowing
one, and I such a simpleton as to fancy him green! Well, that I should
live to be done by a raw Jonathan!”
“Poh, poh, Mr. Sweeney, I can tell you a story of two of our naval
officers, that took place just before we sailed; and then you will learn
that all hands of us, on the other side of the Big Pond, understand
Latin. One of these officers had been engaged in a duel, and he found it
necessary to lie hid. A friend and shipmate, who was in his secret, came
one day in a great hurry to tell him that the authorities of the State
in which the parties fought had entered a _nolle prosequi”_ against
the offenders. He had a newspaper with the whole thing in it, in print.
“What's a _nolle prosequi_, Jack?” asked Tom. “Why, it's Latin, to be
sure, and it means some infernal thing or other. We must contrive to
find out, for it's half the battle to know who and what you've got to
face.” “Well, you know lots of lawyers, and dare show your face; so,
just step out and ask one.” “I'll trust no lawyer; I might put the
question to some chap who has been fee'd. But we both studied a little
Latin when boys, and between us we'll undermine the meaning.” Tom
assented, and to work they went. Jack had the most Latin; but, do all
he could, he was not able to find a “_nolle_” in any dictionary. After
a great deal of conjecture, the friends agreed it must be the root of
“knowledge,” and that point was settled. As for “_prosequi_” it was
not so difficult, as “sequor” was a familiar word; and, after some
cogitation, Jack announced his discoveries. “If this thing were in
English, now,” he said, “a fellow might understand it. In that case, I
should say that the sheriff's men were in “pursuit of knowledge;” that
is, hunting after _you_; but Latin, you remember, was always an inverted
sort of stuff, and that '_pro_' alters the whole signification. The
paper says they've '_entered_ a _nolle prosequi;_' and the 'entered'
explains the whole. 'Entered a nolle' means, have entered on the
knowledge, got a scent; you see it is law English; 'pro' means 'how,'
and 'sequi,' 'to give chase.' The amount of it all is, Tom, that they
are on your heels, and I must go to work and send you off, at once, two
or three hundred miles into the interior, where you may laugh at them
and their 'nolle prosequis' together.” {*]
{Footnote *: There is said to be foundation for this story.]
Sweeney laughed heartily at this story, though he clearly did not take
the joke, which I presume he fancied lay concealed under an American
flash language; and he proposed by way of finishing the day, to carry me
to an entertainment where, he gave me to understand, American officers
were fond of sometimes passing a few minutes. I was led to a Wapping
assembly-room, on entering which I found myself in a party composed of
some forty or fifty cooks and stewards of American vessels, all as black
as their own pots with partners of the usual colour and bloom of English
girls I have as few prejudices of colour as any American well can
have; but I will confess this scene struck me as being painfully out of
keeping. In England, however, nothing seemed to be thought of it; and
I afterwards found that marriages between English women, and men of all
the colours of the rainbow, were very common occurrences.
When he had given me this ball as the climax of his compliments, Sweeney
betrayed the real motive of all his attentions. After drinking a pot of
beer extra, well laced with gin, he offered his services in smuggling
anything ashore that the Amanda might happen to contain, and which I,
as the prize-master, might feel a desire to appropriate to my own
particular purposes. I met the proposal with a little warmth, letting my
tempter understand that I considered his offer so near an insult, that
it must terminate our acquaintance. The man seemed astounded. In the
first place, he evidently thought all goods and chattels were made to be
plundered, and then he was of opinion that plundering was a very
common “Yankee trick.” Had I been an Englishman, he might possibly have
understood my conduct; but, with him, it was so much a habit to fancy
an American a rogue, that, as I afterwards discovered, he was trying
to persuade the leader of a press-gang that I was the half-educated and
illegitimate son of some English merchant, who wished to pass himself
off for an American. I pretend not to account for the contradiction,
though I have often met with the same moral phenomena among his
countrymen; but here was as regular a rogue as ever cheated, who
pretended to think roguery indigenous to certain nations, among whom his
own was not included.
At length I was cheered with the sight of the Crisis, as she came
drifting through the tiers, turning, and twisting, and glancing along,
just as the Amanda had done before her. The pilot carried her to
moorings quite near us; and Talcott, Neb and I were on board her,
before she was fairly secured. My reception was very favourable, Captain
Williams having seen the account of the “Yankee trick” in the papers;
and, understanding the thing just as it had happened, he placed the most
advantageous construction on all I had done. For myself, I confess I
never had any misgivings on the subject.
All hands of us were glad to be back in the Crisis again. Captain
Williams had remained at Falmouth longer than he expected, to make
some repairs that could not be thoroughly completed at sea, which alone
prevented him from getting into the river as soon as I did myself. Now
the ship was in, we no longer felt any apprehension of being impressed,
Sweeney's malignancy having set several of the gang upon the scent after
us. Whether the fellow actually thought I was an English subject or not,
is more than I ever knew; but I felt no disposition myself to let
the point be called in question, before my Lord Chief Justice of a
Rendezvous. The King's Bench was more governed by safe principles, in
its decisions, than the gentlemen who presided in these marine courts of
the British navy.
As I was the only officer in the ship who had ever seen anything of
London, my fortnight's experience made me a notable man in the cabin. It
was actually greater preferment for me than when I was raised from third
to be second-mate. Marble was all curiosity to see the English capital,
and he made me promise to be his pilot, as soon as duty would allow time
for a stroll, and to show him everything I had seen myself. We soon got
out the cargo, and then took in ballast for our North-West voyage; the
articles we intended to traffic with on the coast, being too few and too
light to fill the ship. This kept us busy for a fortnight, after which
we had to look about us to obtain men to supply the places of those
who had been killed, or sent away in _la Dame de Nantes_. Of course
we preferred Americans; and this so much the more, as Englishmen were
liable to be pressed at any moment. Fortunately, a party of men that had
been taken out of an American ship, a twelvemonth before, by an English
cruiser, had obtained their discharges; and they all came to London,
for the double purpose of getting some prize-money, and of obtaining
passages home. These lads were pleased with the Crisis and the voyage,
and, instead of returning to their own country, sailor-like, they
took service to go nearly round the world. These were first-rate
men--Delaware-river seamen--and proved a great accession to our force.
We owed the windfall to the reputation the ship had obtained by her
affairs with the letter-of-marque; an account of which, copied from the
log-book and a little embellished by some one on shore, he consignee had
taken care should appear in the journals. The history of the surprise,
in particular, read very well; and the English were in a remarkably good
humour, at that time, to receive an account of any discomfiture of a
Frenchman. At no period since the year 1775, had the American character
stood so high in England as it did just then; the two nations, for a
novelty, fighting on the same side. Not long after we left London,
the underwriters at Lloyd's actually voted a handsome compliment to an
American commander for capturing a French frigate. Stranger things have
happened than to have the day arrive when English and American fleets
may be acting in concert. No one can tell what is in the womb of time;
and I have lived long enough to know that no man can foresee who will
continue to be his friends, or a nation what people may become its
enemies.
The Crisis at length began to take in her bales and boxes for the
North-West Coast, and, as the articles were received slowly, or a few
packages at a time, it gave us leisure for play. Our captain was in
such good humour with us, on account of the success of the outward-bound
passage, that he proved very indulgent. This disposition was probably
increased by the circumstance that a ship arrived in a very short
passage from New York, which spoke our prize; all well, with a smacking
southerly breeze, a clear coast, and a run of only a few hundred miles
to make. This left the almost moral certainty that _la Dame de Nantes_
had arrived safe, no Frenchman being likely to trust herself on that
distant coast, which was now alive with our own cruisers, going to or
returning from the West Indies.
I had a laughable time in showing Marble the sights of London. We began
with the wild beasts in the Tower, as in duty bound; but of these our
mate spoke very disparagingly. He had been too often in the East “to
be taken in by such animals;” and, to own the truth, the cockneys were
easily satisfied on the score of their _menagerie_. We next went to
the Monument; but this did not please him. He had seen a shot-tower in
America--there was but one in that day--that beat it out and out as to
height, and he thought in beauty, too. There was no reasoning against
this. St. Paul's rather confounded him. He frankly admitted there was no
such church at Kennebunk; though he did not know but Trinity, New
York, “might stand up alongside of it.” “Stand up along side of it!” I
repeated, laughing. “Why, Mr. Marble, Trinity, steeple and all, could
stand up in it--_under_ that dome-and then leave more room in
this building than all the other churches in New York contain, put
altogether.”
It was a long time before Marble forgave this speech. He said it was
“unpatriotic;” a word which was less used in 1799 than it is used
to-day, certainly; but which, nevertheless, _was_ used. It often meant
then, as now, a thick and thin pertinacity in believing in provincial
marvels; and, in this, Marble was one of the most patriotic men with
whom I ever met. I got him out of the church, and along Fleet street,
through Temple Bar, and into the Strand, however, in peace; and then we
emerged into the arena of fashion, aristocracy and the court. After a
time, we worked our way into Hyde Park, where we brought up, to make our
observations.
Marble was deeply averse to acknowledging all the admiration he really
felt at the turn-outs of London, as they were exhibited in the Park, of
a fine day, in their season. It is probable the world elsewhere never
saw anything approaching the beauty and magnificence that is here daily
seen, at certain times, so far as beauty and magnificence are connected
with equipages, including carriages, horses and servants. Unable to find
fault with the _tout ensemble_, our mate made a violent attack on the
liveries. He protested it was indecent to put a “hired man”--the word
_help_ never being applied to the male sex, I believe, by the most
fastidious New England purist--in a cocked hat; a decoration that
ought to be exclusively devoted to the uses of ministers of the gospel,
governors of States, and militia officers. I had some notions of the
habits of the great world, through books, and some little learned
by observation and listening; but Marble scouted at most of my
explanations. He put his own construction on everything he saw; and I
have often thought, since, could the publishers of travels have had the
benefit of his blunders, how many would have profited by them. Gentlemen
were just then beginning to drive their own coaches; and I remember,
in a particular instance, an ultra in the new mode had actually put his
coachman in the inside, while he occupied the dickey in person. Such
a gross violation of the proprieties was unusual, even in London; but
there sat Jehu, in all the dignity of cotton-lace, plush, and a cocked
hat. Marble took it into his head that this man was the king, and no
reasoning of mine could persuade him to the contrary. In vain I pointed
out to him a hundred similar dignitaries, in the proper exercise of
their vocation, on the hammer-cloths; he cared not a straw--this was not
showing him one _inside_; and a gentleman inside of a carriage, who wore
so fine a coat, and a cocked hat in the bargain, could be nothing less
than some dignitary of the empire; and why not the king! Absurd as all
this will seem, I have known mistakes, connected with the workings of
our own institutions, almost as great, made by theorists from Europe.
While Marble and I were wrangling on this very point, a little
incident occurred, which led to important consequences in the end.
Hackney-coaches, or any other public conveyance, short of post-chaises
and post-horses, are not admitted into the English parks. But
glass-coaches are; meaning by this term, which is never used in America,
hired carriages that do not go on the stands. We encountered one of
these glass-coaches in a very serious difficulty. The horses had
got frightened by means of a wheelbarrow, aided probably by some bad
management of the driver, and had actually backed the hind-wheels of the
vehicle into the water of the canal. They would have soon had the whole
carriage submerged, and have followed it themselves, had it not been
for the chief-mate and myself. I thrust the wheelbarrow under one of
the forward-wheels, just in time to prevent the final catastrophe; while
Marble grasped the spoke with his iron gripe, and, together, he and the
wheelbarrow made a resistance that counterbalanced the backward tendency
of the team. There was no footman; and, springing to the door, I aided a
sickly-looking, elderly man--a female who might very well have been his
wife, and another that I took for his daughter--to escape. By my agency
all three were put on the dry land, without even wetting their feet,
though I fared worse myself. No sooner were they safe, than Marble,
who was up to his shoulders in the water, and who had made prodigious
efforts to maintain the balance of power, released his hold, the
wheelbarrow gave way at the same moment, and the whole affair, coach and
horses, had their will, and went, stern foremost, overboard. One of the
horses was saved, I believe, and the other drowned; but, a crowd
soon collecting, I paid little attention to what was going on in the
carriage, as soon as its cargo was discharged.
The gentleman we had saved, pressed my hand with fervour, and Marble's,
too; saying that we must not quit him--that we must go home with him. To
this we consented, readily enough, thinking we might still be of use. As
we all walked towards one of the more private entrances of the Park, I
had an opportunity of observing the people we had served. They were very
respectable in appearance; but I knew enough of the world to see that
they belonged to what is called the middle class in England. I thought
the man might be a soldier; while the two females had an air of great
respectability, though not in the least of fashion. The girl appeared to
be nearly as old as myself, and was decidedly pretty. Here, then, was an
adventure! I had saved the life of a damsel of seventeen, and had only
to fall in love, to become the hero of a romance.
At the gate, the gentleman stopped a hackney-coach, put the females in,
and desired us to follow. But to this we would not consent, both being
wet, and Marble particularly so. After a short parley, he gave us an
address in Norfolk Street, Strand; and we promised to stop there on our
way back to the ship. Instead of following the carriage, however, we
made our way on foot into the Strand, where we found an eating-house,
turned in and eat a hearty dinner each, the chief-mate resorting to some
brandy in order to prevent his taking cold. On what principle this is
done, I cannot explain, though I know it is often practised, and in all
quarters of the world.
As soon as we had dined and dried ourselves, we went into Norfolk
street. We had been told to ask for Major Merton, and this we did. The
house was one of those plain lodging-houses, of which most of that part
of the town is composed: and we found the Major and his family in the
occupation of the first floor, a mark of gentility on which some stress
is laid in England. It was plain enough, however, to see that these
people were not rolling in that splendour, of which we had just seen so
much in the Park.
“I can trace the readiness and gallantry of the English tar in your
conduct,” observed the Major, after he had given us both quite as warm
a reception as circumstances required, at the same time taking out his
pocket-book, and turning over some bank-notes. “I wish, for your sakes,
I was better able than I am to reward you for what you have done; but
twenty pounds is all I can now offer. At some other time, circumstances
may place it in my power to give further and better proofs of my
gratitude.”
As this was said, the Major held two ten-pound notes towards Marble,
doubtless intending that I should receive one of them, as a fair
division of the spoils. Now, according to all theory, and the
established opinion of the Christian world, America is _the_ avaricious
country; the land, of all others, in which men are the most greedy of
gain; in which human beings respect gold more, and themselves less, than
in any other portion of this globe. I never dispute anything that is
settled by the common consent of my fellow-creatures, for the simple
reason that I know the decision must be against me; so I will concede
that money _is_ the great end of American life--that there is little
else to live for, in the great model republic. Politics have fallen into
such hands, that office will not even give social station; the people
are omnipotent, it is true; but, though they can make a governor, they
cannot make gentlemen and ladies; even kings are sometimes puzzled to do
that; literature, arms, arts, and fame of all sorts, are unattainable in
their rewards, among us as in other nations, leaving the puissant dollar
in its undisturbed ascendency; still, as a rule, twenty Europeans can
be bought with two ten-pound Bank of England notes, much easier than two
Americans. I leave others to explain the phenomenon; I only speak of the
_fact_.
Marble listened to the Major's speech with great attention and respect,
fumbling in his pocket for his tobacco-box, the whole time. The box was
opened just as the Major ended, and even I began to be afraid that
the well-known cupidity of Kennebunk was about to give way before the
temptation, and the notes were to be stowed alongside of the tobacco but
I was mistaken. Deliberately helping himself to a quid, the chief-mate
shut the box again, and then he made his reply.
“Quite ginerous in you, Major,” he said, “and all ship-shape and right.
I like to see things done just in that way. Put up the money; we thank
you as much as if we could take it, and that squares all accounts. I
would just mention, however, to prevent mistakes, as the other idee
might get us impressed, that this young man and I are both born
Americans--he from up the Hudson somewhere, and I from York city,
itself, though edicated down east.”
“Americans!” resumed the Major, drawing himself up a little stiffly;
“then _you_, young man,” turning to me, and holding out the notes, of
which he now seemed as anxious to be rid, as I had previously fancied
he was sorry to see go--“_you_ will do me the favour to accept of this
small token of my gratitude.”
“It is quite impossible, sir,” I answered, respectfully. “We are not
exactly what we seem, and you are probably deceived by our roundabouts;
but we are the first and second officers of a letter-of-marque.”
At the word “officers,” the Major drew back his hand, and hastily
apologised. He did not understand us even then, I could plainly see;
but he had sufficient sagacity to understand that his money would not be
accepted. We were invited to sit down, and the conversation continued.
“Master Miles, there,” resumed Marble, “has an estate, a place called
Clawbonny, somewhere up the Hudson; and he has no business to be sailing
about the world in jacket and trowsers, when he ought to be studying
law, or trying his hand at college. But as the old cock crows, the young
'un l'arns; his father was a sailor before him, and I suppose that's the
reason on't.”
This announcement of my position ashore did me no harm, and I could see
a change in the deportment of the whole family--not that it had ever
treated me haughtily, or even coldly; but it now regarded me as more
on a level with itself. We remained an hour with the Mertons, and I
promised to repeat the call before we sailed. This I did a dozen times,
at least; and the Major, finding, I suppose, that he had a tolerably
well-educated youth to deal with, was of great service in putting me in
a better way of seeing London. I went to both theatres with the family,
taking care to appear in a well-made suit of London clothes, in which I
made quite as respectable a figure as most of the young men I saw in the
streets. Even Emily smiled when she first saw me in my long-togs, and I
thought she blushed. She was a pretty creature; gentle and mild in her
ordinary deportment, but full of fire and spirit at the bottom, as
I could see by her light, blue, English eye. Then she had been
well-educated; and, in my young ignorance of life, I fancied she knew
more than any girl of seventeen I had ever met with. Grace and Lucy were
both clever, and had been carefully taught by Mr. Hardinge; but the
good divine could not give two girls, in the provincial retirement of
America, the cultivation and accomplishments that were within the reach
of even moderate means in England. To me, Emily Merton seemed a marvel
in the way of attainments; and I often felt ashamed of myself, as I
sat at her side, listening to the natural and easy manner in which she
alluded to things, of which I then heard for the first time.