The Pirate
mounting together the hill, which, ascending from the land side in a
long, steep, and grassy slope, sinks at once from the summit to the sea
in an abrupt and tremendous precipice.
The day was delightful; there was just so much motion in the air as to
disturb the little fleecy clouds which were scattered on the horizon,
and by floating them occasionally over the sun, to chequer the landscape
with that variety of light and shade which often gives to a bare and
unenclosed scene, for the time at least, a species of charm approaching
to the varieties of a cultivated and planted country. A thousand
flitting hues of light and shade played over the expanse of wild moor,
rocks, and inlets, which, as they climbed higher and higher, spread in
wide and wider circuit around them.
The elder Mertoun often paused and looked round upon the scene, and for
some time his son supposed that he halted to enjoy its beauties; but as
they ascended still higher up the hill, he remarked his shortened breath
and his uncertain and toilsome step, and became assured, with some
feelings of alarm, that his father's strength was, for the moment,
exhausted, and that he found the ascent more toilsome and fatiguing than
usual. To draw close to his side, and offer him in silence the
assistance of his arm, was an act of youthful deference to advanced age,
as well as of filial reverence; and Mertoun seemed at first so to
receive it, for he took in silence the advantage of the aid thus
afforded him.
It was but for two or three minutes, however, that the father availed
himself of his son's support. They had not ascended fifty yards farther,
ere he pushed Mordaunt suddenly, if not rudely, from him; and, as if
stung into exertion by some sudden recollection, began to mount the
acclivity with such long and quick steps, that Mordaunt, in his turn,
was obliged to exert himself to keep pace with him. He knew his father's
peculiarity of disposition; he was aware from many slight circumstances,
that he loved him not even while he took much pains with his education,
and while he seemed to be the sole object of his care upon earth. But
the conviction had never been more strongly or more powerfully forced
upon him than by the hasty churlishness with which Mertoun rejected from
a son that assistance, which most elderly men are willing to receive
from youths with whom they are but slightly connected, as a tribute
which it is alike graceful to yield and pleasing to receive. Mertoun,
however, did not seem to perceive the effect which his unkindness had
produced upon his son's feelings. He paused upon a sort of level terrace
which they had now attained, and addressed his son with an indifferent
tone, which seemed in some degree affected.
"Since you have so few inducements, Mordaunt, to remain in these wild
islands, I suppose you sometimes wish to look a little more abroad into
the world?"
"By my word, sir," replied Mordaunt, "I cannot say I ever have a thought
on such a subject."
"And why not, young man?" demanded his father; "it were but natural, I
think, at your age. At your age, the fair and varied breadth of Britain
could not gratify me, much less the compass of a sea-girdled peat-moss."
"I have never thought of leaving Zetland, sir," replied the son. "I am
happy here, and have friends. You yourself, sir, would miss me, unless
indeed"----
"Why, thou wouldst not persuade me," said his father, somewhat hastily,
"that you stay here, or desire to stay here, for the love of me?"
"Why should I not, sir?" answered Mordaunt, mildly; "it is my duty, and
I hope I have hitherto performed it."
"O ay," repeated Mertoun, in the same tone--"your duty--your duty. So it
is the duty of the dog to follow the groom that feeds him."
"And does he not do so, sir?" said Mordaunt.
"Ay," said his father, turning his head aside: "but he fawns only on
those who caress him."
"I hope, sir," replied Mordaunt, "I have not been found deficient?"
"Say no more on't--say no more on't," said Mertoun, abruptly, "we have
both done enough by each other--we must soon part--Let that be our
comfort--if our separation should require comfort."
"I shall be ready to obey your wishes," said Mordaunt, not altogether
displeased at what promised him an opportunity of looking farther abroad
into the world. "I presume it will be your pleasure that I commence my
travels with a season at the whale-fishing."
"Whale-fishing!" replied Mertoun; "that were a mode indeed of seeing the
world! but thou speakest but as thou hast learned. Enough of this for
the present. Tell me where you had shelter from the storm yesterday?"
"At Stourburgh, the house of the new factor from Scotland."
"A pedantic, fantastic, visionary schemer," said Mertoun--"and whom saw
you there?"
"His sister, sir," replied Mordaunt, "and old Norna of the Fitful-head."
"What! the mistress of the potent spell," answered Mertoun, with a
sneer--"she who can change the wind by pulling her curch on one side, as
King Erick used to do by turning his cap? The dame journeys far from
home--how fares she? Does she get rich by selling favourable winds to
those who are port-bound?"[30]
"I really do not know, sir," said Mordaunt, whom certain recollections
prevented from freely entering into his father's humour.
"You think the matter too serious to be jested with, or perhaps esteem
her merchandise too light to be cared after," continued Mertoun, in the
same sarcastic tone, which was the nearest approach he ever made to
cheerfulness; "but consider it more deeply. Every thing in the universe
is bought and sold, and why not wind, if the merchant can find
purchasers? The earth is rented, from its surface down to its most
central mines;--the fire, and the means of feeding it, are currently
bought and sold;--the wretches that sweep the boisterous ocean with
their nets, pay ransom for the privilege of being drowned in it. What
title has the air to be exempted from the universal course of traffic?
All above the earth, under the earth, and around the earth, has its
price, its sellers, and its purchasers. In many countries the priests
will sell you a portion of heaven--in all countries men are willing to
buy, in exchange for health, wealth, and peace of conscience, a full
allowance of hell. Why should not Norna pursue her traffic?"
"Nay, I know no reason against it," replied Mordaunt; "only I wish she
would part with the commodity in smaller quantities. Yesterday she was a
wholesale dealer--whoever treated with her had too good a pennyworth."
"It is even so," said his father, pausing on the verge of the wild
promontory which they had attained, where the huge precipice sinks
abruptly down on the wide and tempestuous ocean, "and the effects are
still visible."
The face of that lofty cape is composed of the soft and crumbling stone
called sand-flag, which gradually becomes decomposed, and yields to the
action of the atmosphere, and is split into large masses, that hang
loose upon the verge of the precipice, and, detached from it by the
violence of the tempests, often descend with great fury into the vexed
abyss which lashes the foot of the rock. Numbers of these huge fragments
lie strewed beneath the rocks from which they have fallen, and amongst
these the tide foams and rages with a fury peculiar to those latitudes.
At the period when Mertoun and his son looked from the verge of the
precipice, the wide sea still heaved and swelled with the agitation of
yesterday's storm, which had been far too violent in its effects on the
ocean to subside speedily. The tide therefore poured on the headland
with a fury deafening to the ear, and dizzying to the eye, threatening
instant destruction to whatever might be at the time involved in its
current. The sight of Nature, in her magnificence, or in her beauty, or
in her terrors, has at all times an overpowering interest, which even
habit cannot greatly weaken; and both father and son sat themselves down
on the cliff to look out upon that unbounded war of waters, which rolled
in their wrath to the foot of the precipice.
At once Mordaunt, whose eyes were sharper, and probably his attention
more alert, than that of his father, started up, and exclaimed, "God in
Heaven! there is a vessel in the Roost!"
Mertoun looked to the north-westward, and an object was visible amid the
rolling tide. "She shows no sail," he observed; and immediately added,
after looking at the object through his spy-glass, "She is dismasted,
and lies a sheer hulk upon the water."
"And is drifting on the Sumburgh-head," exclaimed Mordaunt, struck with
horror, "without the slightest means of weathering the cape!"
"She makes no effort," answered his father; "she is probably deserted by
her crew."
"And in such a day as yesterday," replied Mordaunt, "when no open boat
could live were she manned with the best men ever handled an oar--all
must have perished."
"It is most probable," said his father, with stern composure; "and one
day, sooner or later, all must have perished. What signifies whether the
fowler, whom nothing escapes, caught them up at one swoop from yonder
shattered deck, or whether he clutched them individually, as chance gave
them to his grasp? What signifies it?--the deck, the battlefield, are
scarce more fatal to us than our table and our bed; and we are saved
from the one, merely to drag out a heartless and wearisome existence,
till we perish at the other. Would the hour were come--that hour which
reason would teach us to wish for, were it not that nature has implanted
the fear of it so strongly within us! You wonder at such a reflection,
because life is yet new to you. Ere you have attained my age, it will be
the familiar companion of your thoughts."
"Surely, sir," replied Mordaunt, "such distaste to life is not the
necessary consequence of advanced age?"
"To all who have sense to estimate that which it is really worth," said
Mertoun. "Those who, like Magnus Troil, possess so much of the animal
impulses about them, as to derive pleasure from sensual gratification,
may perhaps, like the animals, feel pleasure in mere existence."
Mordaunt liked neither the doctrine nor the example. He thought a man
who discharged his duties towards others as well as the good old
Udaller, had a better right to have the sun shine fair on his setting,
than that which he might derive from mere insensibility. But he let the
subject drop; for to dispute with his father, had always the effect of
irritating him; and again he adverted to the condition of the wreck.
The hulk, for it was little better, was now in the very midst of the
current, and drifting at a great rate towards the foot of the precipice,
upon whose verge they were placed. Yet it was a long while ere they had
a distinct view of the object which they had at first seen as a black
speck amongst the waters, and then, at a nearer distance, like a whale,
which now scarce shows its back-fin above the waves, now throws to view
its large black side. Now, however, they could more distinctly observe
the appearance of the ship, for the huge swelling waves which bore her
forward to the shore, heaved her alternately high upon the surface, and
then plunged her into the trough or furrow of the sea. She seemed a
vessel of two or three hundred tons, fitted up for defence, for they
could see her port-holes. She had been dismasted probably in the gale of
the preceding day, and lay water-logged on the waves, a prey to their
violence. It appeared certain, that the crew, finding themselves unable
either to direct the vessel's course, or to relieve her by pumping, had
taken to their boats, and left her to her fate. All apprehensions were
therefore unnecessary, so far as the immediate loss of human lives was