“Nay, answer me: stand and unfold yourself.”
_Hamlet_.
During the time occupied by the incidents that occurred after the Pilot
had made his descent on the land, the Alacrity, now under the orders of
Mr. Boltrope, the master of the frigate, lay off and on, in readiness
to receive the successful mariners. The direction of the wind had been
gradually changing from the northeast to the south, during the close of
the day; and long before the middle watches of the night, the wary old
seaman, who, it may be remembered, had expressed, in the council of war,
such a determined reluctance to trust his person within the realm of
Britain, ordered the man who steered the cutter to stand in boldly for
the land. Whenever the lead told them that it was prudent to tack,
the course of the vessel was changed: and in this manner the seamen
continued to employ the hours in patient attendance on the adventurers.
The sailing-master, who had spent the early years of his life as the
commander of divers vessels employed in trading, was apt, like many men
of his vocation and origin, to mistake the absence of refinement for
the surest evidence of seamanship; and, consequently, he held the little
courtesies and punctilios of a man-of-war in high disdain. His peculiar
duties of superintending the expenditure of the ship's stores, in their
several departments; of keeping the frigate's log-book; and of making
his daily examinations into the state of her sails and rigging--brought
him so little in collision with the gay, laughing, reckless young
lieutenants, who superintended the ordinary management of the vessel,
that he might be said to have formed a distinct species of the animal,
though certainly of the same genus with his more polished messmates.
Whenever circumstances, however, required that he should depart from
the dull routine of his duty, he made it a rule, as far as possible, to
associate himself with such of the crew as possessed habits and opinions
the least at variance with his own.
By a singular fatality, the chaplain of the frigate was, as respects
associates, in a condition nearly assimilated to that of this veteran
tar.
An earnest desire to ameliorate the situation of those who were
doomed to meet death on the great deep had induced an experienced and
simple-hearted divine to accept this station, in the fond hope that he
might be made the favored instrument of salvation to many, who were then
existing in a state of the most abandoned self-forgetfulness. Neither
our limits, nor our present object, will permit the relation of the many
causes that led, not only to an entire frustration of all his visionary
expectations, but to an issue which rendered the struggle of the good
divine with himself both arduous and ominous, in order to maintain
his own claims to the merited distinctions of his sacred office. The
consciousness of his backsliding had so far lessened the earthly, if
not the spiritual, pride of the chaplain, as to induce him to relish the
society of the rude master, whose years had brought him, at times, to
take certain views of futurity that were singularly affected by the
peculiar character of the individual. It might have been that both found
themselves out of their places--but it was owing to some such secret
sympathy, let its origin be what it would, that the two came to be fond
of each other's company. On the night in question, Mr. Boltrope had
invited the chaplain to accompany him in the Alacrity; adding, in his
broad, rough language, that as there was to be fighting on shore, “his
hand might come in play with some poor fellow or other.” This singular
invitation had been accepted, as well from a desire to relieve the
monotony of a sea-life by any change, as perhaps with a secret yearning
in the breast of the troubled divine to get as nigh to terra firma as
possible. Accordingly, after the Pilot had landed with his boisterous
party, the sailing-master and the chaplain, together with a boatswain's
mate and some ten or twelve seamen, were left in quiet possession of the
cutter. The first few hours of this peaceable intercourse had been spent
by the worthy messmates, in the little cabin of the vessel, over a
can of grog; the savory relish of which was much increased by a
characteristic disquisition on polemical subjects, which our readers
have great reason to regret it is not our present humor to record.
When, however, the winds invited the near approach to the hostile shores
already mentioned, the prudent sailing-master adjourned the discussion
to another and more suitable time, removing himself and the can, by the
same operation, to the quarter-deck.
“There,” cried the honest tar, placing the wooden vessel, with great
self-contentment, by his side on the deck, “this is ship's comfort!
There is a good deal of what I call a lubber's fuss, parson, kept up
on board a ship that shall be nameless, but which bears, about three
leagues distant, broad off in the ocean, and which is lying to under a
close-reefed maintopsail, a foretopmast-staysail, and foresail--I
call my hand a true one in mixing a can--take another pull at the
halyards!--'twill make your eye twinkle like a lighthouse, this dark
morning! You won't? well, we must give no offence to the Englishman's
rum.”--After a potent draught had succeeded this considerate
declaration, he added: “You are a little like our first lieutenant,
parson, who drinks, as I call it, nothing but the elements--which is,
water stiffened with air.”
“Mr. Griffith may indeed be said to set a wholesome example to the
crew,” returned the chaplain, perhaps with a slight consciousness that
it had not altogether possessed its due weight with himself.
“Wholesome!” cried Boltrope; “let me tell you, my worthy leaf-turner,
that if you call such a light diet wholesome, you know but little of
salt water and sea-fogs! However, Mr. Griffith is a seaman; and if he
gave his mind less to trifles and gimcracks, he would be, by the time
he got to about our years, a very rational sort of a companion.--But
you see, parson, just now, he thinks too much of small follies; such as
man-of-war discipline.--Now there is rationality in giving a fresh nip
to a rope, or in looking well at your mats, or even in crowning a cable;
but damme, priest, if I see the use--luff, luff, you lubber; don't ye
see, sir, you are steering for Garmany!--If I see the use, as I was
saying, of making a rumpus about the time when a man changes his shirt;
whether it be this week, or next week, or, for that matter, the
week after, provided it be bad weather. I sometimes am mawkish about
attending muster (and I believe I have as little to fear on the score
of behavior as any man), lest it should be found I carried my tobacco in
the wrong cheek!”
“I have indeed thought it somewhat troublesome to myself, at times; and
it is in a striking degree vexatious to the spirit, especially when the
body has been suffering under seasickness.”
“Why, yes, you were a little apt to bend your duds wrong for the first
month or so,” said the master; “I remember you got the marine's scraper
on your head, once, in your hurry to bury a dead man! Then you never
looked as if you belonged to the ship, so long as those cursed
black knee-breeches lasted! For my part, I never saw you come up the
quarter-deck ladder, but I expected to see your shins give way across
the combing of the hatch--a man does look like the devil, priest,
scudding about a ship's decks in that fashion, under bare poles! But now
the tailor has found out the articles ar'n't seaworthy, and we have got
your lower stanchions cased in a pair of purser's slops, I am puzzled
often to tell your heels from those of a maintopman!”
“I have good reason to be thankful for the change,” said the humbled
priest, “if the resemblance you mention existed, while I was clad in the
usual garb of one of my calling.”
“What signifies a calling?” returned Boltrope, catching his breath after
a most persevering draught: “a man's shins are his shins, let his upper
works belong to what sarvice they may. I took an early prejudyce against
knee-breeches, perhaps from a trick I've always had of figuring the
devil as wearing them. You know, parson, we seldom hear much said of
a man, without forming some sort of an idea concerning his rigging and
fashion-pieces--and so, as I had no particular reason to believe that
Satan went naked--keep full, ye lubber; now you are running into the
wind's eye, and be d----d to ye!--But as I was saying, I always took a
conceit that the devil wore knee-breeches and a cock'd hat. There's some
of our young lieutenants, who come to muster on Sundays in cock'd hats,
just like soldier-officers; but, d'ye see, I would sooner show my nose
under a nightcap than under a scraper!”
“I hear the sound of oars!” exclaimed the chaplain, who, finding this
image more distinct than even his own vivid conceptions of the great
father of evil, was quite willing to conceal his inferiority by changing
the discourse. “Is not one of our boats returning?”
“Ay, ay, 'tis likely; if it had been me, I should have been land-sick
before this--ware round, boys, and stand by to heave to on the other
tack.”
The cutter, obedient to her helm, fell off before the wind; and rolling
an instant in the trough of the sea, came up again easily to her oblique
position, with her head towards the cliffs; and gradually losing her
way, as her sails were brought to counteract each other, finally became
stationary. During the performance of this evolution, a boat had hove
up out of the gloom, in the direction of the land; and by the time the
Alacrity was in a state of rest, it had approached so nigh as to admit
of hailing.
“Boat, ahoy!” murmured Boltrope, through a trumpet, which, aided by his
lungs, produced sounds not unlike the roaring of a bull.
“Ay, ay,” was thrown back from a clear voice, that swept across the
water with a fullness that needed no factitious aid to render it
audible.
“Ay, there comes one of the lieutenants, with his ay, ay,” said
Boltrope--“pipe the side, there, you boatswain's mate! But here's
another fellow more on our quarter! Boat ahoy!”
“Alacrity”--returned another voice, in a direction different from the
other.
“Alacrity! There goes my commission of captain of this craft, in a
whiff,” returned the sailing-master. “That is as much as to say, here
comes one who will command when he gets on board. Well, well, it is Mr.
Griffith, and I can't say, notwithstanding his love of knee-buckles and
small wares, but I'm glad he's out of the hands of the English! Ay, here
they all come upon us at once! here is another fellow, that pulls like
the jolly-boat, coming up on our lee-beam, within hail--let us see if he
is asleep--boat ahoy!”
“Flag,” answered a third voice from a small, light-rowing boat, which
had approached very near the cutter, in a direct line from the cliffs,
without being observed.
“Flag!” echoed Boltrope, dropping his trumpet in amazement--“that's a
big word to come out of a jolly-boat! Jack Manly himself could not have
spoken it with a fuller mouth; but I'll know who it is that carries such
a weather helm, with a Yankee man-of-war's prize! Boat ahoy! I say.”
This last call was uttered in those short menacing tones, that are
intended to be understood as intimating that the party hailing is in
earnest; and it caused the men who were rowing, and who were now quite
close to the cutter, to suspend their strokes, simultaneously, as if
they dreaded that the cry would be instantly succeeded by some more
efficient means of ascertaining their character. The figure that
was seated by itself in the stern of the boat started at this second
summons, and then, as if with sudden recollection, a quiet voice
replied:
“No--no.”
“'No--no,' and 'flag,' are very different answers,” grumbled Boltrope;
“what know-nothing have we here?”
He was yet muttering his dissatisfaction at the ignorance of the
individual that was approaching, whoever it might be, when the
jolly-boat came slowly to their side, and the Pilot stepped from her
stern-sheets on the decks of the prize.
“Is it you, Mr. Pilot?” exclaimed the sailing-master, raising a
battle-lantern within a foot of the other's face, and looking with a
sort of stupid wonder at the proud and angry eye he encountered--“Is it
you! Well, I should have rated you for a man of more experience than to
come booming down upon a man-of-war in the dark, with such a big word
in your mouth, when every boy in the two vessels knows that we carry no
swallow-tailed bunting abroad! Flag! Why you might have got a shot, had
there been soldiers.”
The Pilot threw him a still fiercer glance, and turning away with a look
of disgust, he walked along the quarterdeck towards the stern of the
vessel, with an air of haughty silence, as if disdaining to answer.
Boltrope kept his eyes fastened on him for a moment longer, with some
appearance of scorn; but the arrival of the boat first hailed, which
proved to be the barge, immediately drew his attention to other matters.
Barnstable had been rowing about in the ocean for a long time, unable to
find the cutter; and as he had been compelled to suit his own demeanor
to those with whom he was associated, he reached the Alacrity in no very
good-humored mood. Colonel Howard and his niece had maintained during
the whole period the most rigid silence, the former from pride, and
the latter touched with her uncle's evident displeasure; and Katherine,
though secretly elated with the success of all her projects, was
content to emulate their demeanor for a short time, in order to save
appearances. Barnstable had several times addressed himself to the
latter, without receiving any other answer than such as was absolutely
necessary to prevent the lover from taking direct offence, at the same
time that she intimated by her manner her willingness to remain silent.
Accordingly, the lieutenant, after aiding the ladies to enter the
cutter, and offering to perform the same service to Colonel Howard,
which was coldly declined, turned, with that sort of irritation that
is by no means less rare in vessels of war than with poor human nature
generally, and gave vent to his spleen where he dared.
“How's this! Mr. Boltrope!” he cried, “here are boats coming alongside
with ladies in them, and you keep your gaft swayed up till the leach
of the sail is stretched like a fiddle-string--settle away your
peak-halyards, sir, settle away!”
“Ay, ay, sir,” grumbled the master; “settle away that peak there; though
the craft wouldn't forge ahead a knot in a month, with all her jibs
hauled over!” He walked sulkily forward among the men, followed by
the meek divine; and added, “I should as soon have expected to see Mr.
Barnstable come off with a live ox in his boat as a petticoat! The Lord
only knows what the ship is coming to next, parson! What between cocked
hats and epaulettes, and other knee-buckle matters, she was a sort of
no-man's land before; and now, what with the women and their bandboxes,
they'll make another Noah's ark of her. I wonder they didn't all come
aboard in a coach and six, or a one-horse shay!”
It was a surprising relief to Barnstable to be able to give utterance
to his humor, for a few moments, by ordering the men to make sundry
alterations in every department of the vessel, in a quick, hurried
voice, that abundantly denoted, not only the importance of his
improvements, but the temper in which they were dictated. In his turn,
however, he was soon compelled to give way, by the arrival of Griffith
in the heavily rowing launch of the frigate, which was crowded with a
larger body of the seamen who had been employed in the expedition. In
this manner, boat after boat speedily arrived, and the whole party were
once more happily embarked in safety under their national flag.
The small cabin of the Alacrity was relinquished to Colonel Howard and
his wards, with their attendants. The boats were dropped astern, each
protected by its own keeper; and Griffith gave forth the mandate to fill
the sails and steer broad off into the ocean. For more than an hour the
cutter held her course in this direction, gliding gracefully through
the glittering waters, rising and settling heavily on the long, smooth
billows, as if conscious of the unusual burden that she was doomed to
carry; but at the end of that period her head was once more brought near
the wind, and she was again held at rest, awaiting the appearance of the
dawn, in order to discover the position of the prouder vessel on which
she was performing the humble duty of a tender. More than a hundred and
fifty living men were crowded within her narrow limits; and her decks
presented, in the gloom, as she moved along, the picture of a mass of
human heads.
As the freedom of a successful expedition was unavoidably permitted,
loud jokes, and louder merriment, broke on the silent waters from the
reckless seamen, while the exhilarating can passed from hand to hand,
strange oaths and dreadful denunciations breaking forth at times from
some of the excited crew against their enemy. At length the bustle of
re-embarking gradually subsided, and many of the crew descended to the
hold of the cutter, in quest of room to stretch their limbs, when a
clear, manly voice was heard rising above the deep in those strains that
a seaman most loves to hear. Air succeeded air, from different voices,
until even the spirit of harmony grew dull with fatigue, and verses
began to be heard where songs were expected, and fleeting lines
succeeded stanzas. The decks were soon covered with prostrate men,
seeking their natural rest under the open heavens, and perhaps dreaming,
as they yielded heavily to the rolling of the vessel, of scenes of
other times in their own hemisphere. The dark glances of Katherine were
concealed beneath her falling lids: and even Cecilia, with her head
bowed on the shoulder of her cousin, slept sweetly in innocence and
peace. Boltrope groped his way into the hold among the seamen, where,
kicking one of the most fortunate of the men from his berth, he
established himself in his place with all that cool indifference to the
other's comfort that had grown with his experience, from the time when
he was treated thus cavalierly in his own person to the present moment.
In this manner head was dropped after head on the planks, the guns, or
on whatever first offered for a pillow, until Griffith and Barnstable,
alone, were left pacing the different sides of the quarter-deck in
haughty silence.
Never did a morning watch appear so long to the two young sailors, who
were thus deprived, by resentment and pride, of that frank and friendly
communion that had for so many years sweetened the tedious hours of
their long and at times dreary service. To increase the embarrassment of
their situation, Cecilia and Katherine, suffering from the confinement
of the small and crowded cabin, sought the purer air of the deck, about
the time when the deepest sleep had settled on the senses of the wearied
mariners. They stood, leaning against the taffrail, discoursing with
each other in low and broken sentences; but a sort of instinctive
knowledge of the embarrassment which existed between their lovers caused
a guarded control over every look or gesture which might be construed
into an encouragement for one of the young men to advance at the expense
of the other. Twenty times, however, did the impatient Barnstable feel
tempted to throw off the awkward restraint, and approach his mistress;
but in each instance was he checked by the secret consciousness of
error, as well as by that habitual respect for superior rank that forms
a part of the nature of a sea-officer. On the other hand, Griffith
manifested no intention to profit by this silent concession in his
favor, but continued to pace the short quarter-deck, with strides
more hurried than ever; and was seen to throw many an impatient glance
towards that quarter of the heavens where the first signs of the
lingering day might be expected to appear. At length Katherine, with
a ready ingenuity, and perhaps with some secret coquetry, removed the
embarrassment by speaking first, taking care to address the lover of her
cousin:
“How long are we condemned to these limited lodgings, Mr. Griffith?” she
asked; “truly, there is a freedom in your nautical customs, which, to
say the least, is novel to us females, who have been accustomed to the
division of space!”
“The instant that there is light to discover the frigate, Miss Plowden,”
he answered, “you shall be transferred from a vessel of an hundred to
one of twelve hundred tons. If your situation there be less comfortable
than when within the walls of St. Ruth, you will not forget that they
who live on the ocean claim it as a merit to despise the luxuries of the
land.”
“At least, sir,” returned Katherine, with a sweet grace, which she well
knew how to assume on occasion, “what we shall enjoy will be sweetened
by liberty and embellished by a sailor's hospitality. To me, Cicely, the
air of this open sea is as fresh and invigorating as if it were wafted
from our own distant America!”
“If you have not the arm of a patriot, you at least possess a most loyal
imagination, Miss Plowden,” said Griffith, laughing; “this soft breeze
blows in the direction of the fens of Holland, instead of the broad
plains of America.--Thank God, there come the signs of day, at last!
unless the currents have swept the ship far to the north, we shall
surely see her with the light.”
This cheering intelligence drew the eyes of the fair cousins towards the
east, where their delighted looks were long fastened, while they
watched the glories of the sun rising over the water. As the morning had
advanced, a deeper gloom was spread across the ocean, and the stars were
gleaming in the heavens like balls of twinkling fire. But now a streak
of pale light showed itself along the horizon, growing brighter, and
widening at each moment, until long fleecy clouds became visible, where
nothing had been seen before but the dim base of the arch that overhung
the dark waters. This expanding light, which, in appearance, might be
compared to a silvery opening in the heavens, was soon tinged with
a pale flush, which quickened with sudden transitions into glows yet
deeper, until a belt of broad flame bounded the water, diffusing itself
more faintly towards the zenith, where it melted into the pearl-colored
sky, or played on the fantastic volumes of a few light clouds with
inconstant glimmering. While these beautiful transitions were still
before the eyes of the youthful admirers of their beauties, a voice was
heard above them, crying as if from the heavens:
“Sail-ho! The frigate lies broad off to the seaward, sir!”
“Ay, ay; you have been watching with one eye asleep, fellow,” returned
Griffith, “or we should have heard you before! Look a little north of
the place where the glare of the sun is coming, Miss Plowden, and you
will be able to see our gallant vessel.”
An involuntary cry of pleasure burst from the lips of Katherine, as she
followed his directions, and first beheld the frigate through the medium
of the fluctuating colors of the morning. The undulating outline of the
lazy ocean, which rose and fell heavily against the bright boundary
of the heavens, was without any relief to distract the eye as it fed
eagerly on the beauties of the solitary ship. She was riding sluggishly
on the long seas, with only two of her lower and smaller sails spread,
to hold her in command; but her tall masts and heavy yards were painted
against the fiery sky in strong lines of deep black, while even the
smallest cord in the mazes of her rigging might be distinctly traced,
stretching from spar to spar, with the beautiful accuracy of a picture.
At moments, when her huge hull rose on a billow and was lifted against
the background of the sky, its shape and dimensions were brought into
view; but these transient glimpses were soon lost, as it settled into
the trough, leaving the waving spars bowing gracefully towards the
waters, as if about to follow the vessel into the bosom of the deep. As
a clearer light gradually stole on the senses, the delusion of colors
and distance vanished together, and when a flood of day preceded the
immediate appearance of the sun, the ship became plainly visible within
a mile of the cutter, her black hull checkered with ports, and her high,
tapering masts exhibiting their proper proportions and hues.
At the first cry of “A sail!” the crew of the Alacrity had been aroused
from their slumbers by the shrill whistle of the boatswain, and long
before the admiring looks of the two cousins had ceased to dwell on
the fascinating sight of morning chasing night from the hemisphere, the
cutter was again in motion to join her consort. It seemed but a moment
before their little vessel was in, what the timid females thought, a
dangerous proximity to the frigate, under whose lee she slowly passed,
in order to admit of the following dialogue between Griffith and his
aged commander:
“I rejoice to see you, Mr. Griffith!” cried the captain, who stood in
the channel of his ship, waving his hat in the way of cordial greeting.
“You are welcome back, Captain Manual, welcome, welcome, all of you,
my boys! as welcome as a breeze in the calm latitudes.” As his eye,
however, passed along the deck of the Alacrity, it encountered the
shrinking figures of Cecilia and Katherine; and a dark shade of
displeasure crossed his decent features, while he added: “How's this,
gentlemen? The frigate of Congress is neither a ballroom nor a church,
that is to be thronged with women!”
“Ay, ay,” muttered Boltrope to his friend the chaplain, “now the old man
has hauled out his mizzen, you'll see him carry a weather-helm! He wakes
up about as often as the trades shift their points, and that's once in
six months. But when there has been a neap-tide in his temper for any
time, you're sure to find it followed by a flood with a vengeance. Let
us hear what the first lieutenant can say in favor of his petticoat
quality!”
The blushing sky had not exhibited a more fiery glow than gleamed in the
fine face of Griffith for a moment; but, struggling with his disgust, he
answered with bitter emphasis:
“'Twas the pleasure of Mr. Gray, sir, to bring off the prisoners.”
“Of Mr. Gray!” repeated the captain, instantly losing every trace of
displeasure in an air of acquiescence. “Come-to, sir, on the same tack
with the ship, and I will hasten to order the accommodation-ladder
rigged, to receive our guests!”
Boltrope listened to this sudden alteration in the language of his
commander with sufficient wonder; nor was it until he had shaken
his head repeatedly, with the manner of one who saw deeper than his
neighbors into a mystery, that he found leisure to observe:
“Now, parson, I suppose if you held an almanac in your fist, you'd think
you could tell which way we shall have the wind to-morrow! but damn
me, priest, if better calculators than you haven't failed! Because
a lubberly--no, he's a thorough seaman, I'll say that for the
fellow!--because a pilot chooses to say, 'Bring me off these here
women,' the ship is to be so cluttered with she-cattle, that a man will
be obligated to spend half his time in making his manners! Now mind what
I tell you, priest, this very frolic will cost Congress the price of
a year's wages for an able-bodied seaman in bunting and canvas for
screens; besides the wear and tear of running-gear in shortening sail,
in order that the women need not be 'stericky in squalls!”
The presence of Mr. Boltrope being required to take charge of the
cutter, the divine was denied an opportunity of dissenting from the
opinions of his rough companion; for the loveliness of their novel
shipmates had not failed to plead loudly in their favor with every
man in the cutter whose habits and ideas had not become rigidly set in
obstinacy.
By the time the Alacrity was hove-to, with her head towards the frigate,
the long line of boats that she had been towing during the latter part
of the night were brought to her side, and filled with men. A wild
scene of unbridled merriment and gayety succeeded, while the seamen were
exchanging the confinement of the prize for their accustomed lodgings
in the ship, during which the reins of discipline were slightly relaxed.
Loud laughter was echoed from boat to boat, as they glided by each
other; and rude jests, interlarded with quaint humors and strange
oaths, were freely bandied from mouth to mouth. The noise, however,
soon ceased, and the passage of Colonel Howard and his wards was then
effected with less precipitancy and due decorum. Captain Munson, who had
been holding a secret dialogue with Griffith and the Pilot, received his
unexpected guests with plain hospitality, but with an evident desire
to be civil. He politely yielded to their service his two convenient
staterooms, and invited them to partake, in common with himself, of the
comforts of the great cabin.