Melting and mingling into one
Two kindred souls.
_Anon_.
And so his life was gently exhaled in peace.
_Anon_.
Hail, wedded love!
_Paradise Lost_.
That's the very moral on't.
_Nym_.
The gale continued blowing all that night, all the next day, and for two
or three days following. The injured condition of the ship made it
unsafe for her to contend against the force of so strong a wind; and she
was, therefore, kept directly before it. While the _Duchess_ was thus
running before the wind, two of the wounded pirates and three of the
wounded of the ship's crew died, and were committed to the deep. The
man whose arm had been broken by Ada's pistol-shot, and the other two of
the wounded men belonging to the ship's company, recovered before the
arrival of the vessel in port.
A consultation was held in Mr Durocher's state-room, on the day after
the fight, between Mr Durocher himself, Captain Johnson, and John Coe,
to which Billy Bowsprit was also admitted, and in which it was
determined that as soon as the gale should abate, the ship should be
steered for the nearest port in the United States. This determination
was formed, that the ship might receive the necessary repairs, and that
the captured pirates might be surrendered to the Government whose
citizens they were.
On the fourth day after the fight the wind from the west had so abated
that the course of the ship was changed, and she was headed towards the
west. On the fifth day a fresh wind from the north arose; and, impelled
by it, the _Duchess_ made good progress for the American coast.
Meanwhile, the gallant young Marylander had become intimately acquainted
with Mr Durocher and his daughter. He told to them the singular
history of his connection with the pirates, of which Ada had already
given them some particulars. The warm-hearted old French gentleman
became much attached to the brave fellow, upon whom he could not look,
he said, without remembering the awful horror from which he had
delivered his daughter and himself. Besides, he esteemed him as an
impersonation of courage and genius, because, in circumstances in which,
according to ordinary apprehension, it seemed impossible to avoid being
forced to the commission of crime, he had not only overcome his enemies,
saving the penitent, and destroying the hopelessly guilty, but had also
escaped from all the difficulties which had surrounded him, with his own
hands unstained by human blood.
The fair and gentle Louise, too, was not insensible to the merits of her
deliverer; her fervid feelings recognised in him a personification of
the knights of old; and, with the spirit of self-sacrifice which greatly
influences the tender and amiable of her sex, she longed to devote the
services of her life to him in requital for her salvation from a
horrible doom.
It must be confessed that "the deliverer" was not unimpressible nor
unimpressed. Fixed for ever in his memory was the image of that young
and loving girl, as he first beheld her when she lay pale, senseless,
and perfectly helpless in the power of the pirate. And when he saw her
afterwards, fully awakened to life, and her intelligent and enthusiastic
mind and kind and loving heart expressing themselves in every glance of
her soft blue eyes, in every flush that tinged her fair cheeks, in every
expression of her beautiful lips, and in every musical sentence that
issued from between them, he could scarcely realise that the bright
form, clad in white robes, expressive of purity, and the shining face,
surrounded by a halo of golden hair, belonged not to an angelic
presence.
Indeed, these two young hearts required but an uttered word to cause the
fountain of mutual love, like the waters of Horeb brought forth by the
touch of the prophet's wand, to pour out for each other its treasures of
tenderness. And that word was at length spoken, with the entire
approbation of Mr Durocher, whose friendship and fatherly regard for
the young man was almost as great as his daughter's love.
The merchant's health, already weak, had received a terrible shock from
the agony which his heart experienced on the evening of the assault of
the pirates, a shock from the effects of which he never recovered, and
when the _Duchess_ entered Charleston Harbour, three weeks after that
dreadful evening, he had to be carried on a bed from the boat to the
rooms engaged for his party at the hotel. To this house, Ada Marston
and John Coe accompanied him.
Immediately on arriving at Charleston, John wrote to his parents,
informing them of all the remarkable adventures which had befallen him,
and mentioning the state of affairs between Louise and himself. In due
course he received letters from his father and mother, stating the great
happiness of all the family at hearing of his safety, and expressing the
full and joyous consent of Mr and Mrs Coe to the engagement of their
son with Miss Durocher.
These letters gave great satisfaction to Mr Durocher. He learned from
them that his child was about to enter a family by whom she would be
received and cherished as indeed a daughter and sister. As his health
was rapidly failing, and he felt that death was near at hand, he
expressed an earnest desire that the marriage ceremony between John and
Louise should not be postponed; he wished, before his departure, to see
his daughter in the lawful care of a protector in whose honourable
character and sincere love for her he himself had perfect faith. His
will was law under the circumstances; and, on the second day after the
receipt of the letters from Millmont, John Alvan Coe and Louise Durocher
were united for life, at the bedside of the bride's dying father, by a
minister of the church to which all the parties belonged.
Mr Durocher survived his daughter's marriage but two weeks. His
sick-bed was waited on by two attentive and affectionate children, and
his last days were soothed by the knowledge that he had done all that
could be done to secure for his beloved child a happy life.
A few days after the death of Mr Durocher, John Coe and his wife left
Charleston, and arrived in due course of time at the young husband's old
home at Millmont--but a little more than two months after he had
disappeared from the latter place in a manner apparently so mysterious.
In less than a year John realised the amount of his wife's fortune, with
a part of which a large estate was purchased in one of the upper
counties of Maryland. Upon this estate a handsome building was erected,
to which he removed his family in the second year of his marriage. His
descendants, distinguished, like their ancestors, for intellect and
energy, still occupy that mansion.
A few words must be allowed with regard to our other characters.
Afton and the four pirates taken prisoners with him, were tried, a few
months after their capture, before one of the United States Courts, in
Baltimore, to which port their vessel had belonged. They were all found
guilty and sentenced to be hanged. Two of them died in prison before
the day appointed for their execution, the other three--of whom the
ruffian Afton was one--suffered the extreme penalty of the law.
John Coe kept his promise to Billy Bowsprit and the five repentant
pirates. His father's influence, and that of all his father's friends,
was used to obtain their pardon; and when it was made clearly apparent
that but for their help the result of the fight between the _Duchess_
and the _Falcon_ would have been entirely different, that pardon was
readily granted.
Perhaps the reader has some desire to know what was the future fortune
of Ada.
She accompanied Coe and his wife from Charleston to Maryland. Here a
fresh grief awaited her. Her father, in alarm at hearing of the safety
and early return of young Coe, and in dread of the consequences of the
exposure which must ensue, had hastily and rashly taken his own life.
By the death of her father without a will, she became heir to one half
of his wealth, there being but one other child of Mr Ashleigh, a grown
son, to divide his property with her. She thus became an heiress; and
several young gentlemen in the neighbourhood of Drum Point and elsewhere
were quite willing, on account of her riches and her great beauty, to
forget that she was the daughter of a receiver of smuggled goods and the
widow of a pirate, and made her a tender of their hands. Ada, however,
politely declined all these disinterested offers. About a year and a
half after the death of her first husband she was married to Billy
Bowsprit. Billy had been the only person on board the brig who had
invariably treated her with kindness and respect; he had been her
champion on all occasions, and she knew that he was devoted to her.
Moreover, he could not upbraid her for having been the wife of a pirate.
Mr and Mrs Brown (to give them their right title) wished to be away
from the neighbourhood of those who were acquainted with their
antecedents. The lady's portion of her father's estate was, therefore,
soon after her marriage, converted into funds, with which a large
plantation was purchased in Mississippi. To this they removed, where
they prospered, and some of their descendants still flourish in that
State.