The Pirate
it, was the very word she used,) and it was a thing that couldna be
denied by man at this very moment."
"But, Swertha," said Mordaunt, as soon as her clamorous defence gave him
time to speak in reply, "how came you, that should have been busy with
your housewifery and your spinning, to be out this morning at Erick's
Steps, in order to take all this unnecessary care of my father and
me?--And what is in that bundle, Swertha? for I fear, Swertha, you have
been transgressing the law, and have been out upon the wrecking system."
"Fair fa' your sonsy face, and the blessing of Saint Ronald upon you!"
said Swertha, in a tone betwixt coaxing and jesting; "would you keep a
puir body frae mending hersell, and sae muckle gear lying on the loose
sand for the lifting?--Hout, Maister Mordaunt, a ship ashore is a sight
to wile the minister out of his very pu'pit in the middle of his
preaching, muckle mair a puir auld ignorant wife frae her rock and her
tow. And little did I get for my day's wark--just some rags o' cambric
things, and a bit or twa of coorse claith, and sic like--the strong and
the hearty get a' thing in this warld."
"Yes, Swertha," replied Mordaunt, "and that is rather hard, as you must
have your share of punishment in this world and the next, for robbing
the poor mariners."
"Hout, callant, wha wad punish an auld wife like me for a wheen
duds?--Folk speak muckle black ill of Earl Patrick; but he was a freend
to the shore, and made wise laws against ony body helping vessels that
were like to gang on the breakers.[33]--And the mariners, I have heard
Bryce Jagger say, lose their right frae the time keel touches sand; and,
moreover, they are dead and gane, poor souls--dead and gane, and care
little about warld's wealth now--Nay, nae mair than the great Jarls and
Sea-kings, in the Norse days, did about the treasures that they buried
in the tombs and sepulchres auld langsyne. Did I ever tell you the sang,
Maister Mordaunt, how Olaf Tryguarson garr'd hide five gold crowns in
the same grave with him?"
"No, Swertha," said Mordaunt, who took pleasure in tormenting the
cunning old plunderer--"you never told me that; but I tell you, that the
stranger whom Norna has taken down to the town, will be well enough
to-morrow, to ask where you have hidden the goods that you have stolen
from the wreck."
"But wha will tell him a word about it, hinnie?" said Swertha, looking
slyly up in her young master's face--"The mair by token, since I maun
tell ye, that I have a bonny remnant of silk amang the lave, that will
make a dainty waistcoat to yoursell, the first merry-making ye gang to."
Mordaunt could no longer forbear laughing at the cunning with which the
old dame proposed to bribe off his evidence by imparting a portion of
her plunder; and, desiring her to get ready what provision she had made
for dinner, he returned to his father, whom he found still sitting in
the same place, and nearly in the same posture, in which he had left
him.
When their hasty and frugal meal was finished, Mordaunt announced to his
father his purpose of going down to the town, or hamlet, to look after
the shipwrecked sailor.
The elder Mertoun assented with a nod.
"He must be ill accommodated there, sir," added his son,--a hint which
only produced another nod of assent. "He seemed, from his appearance,"
pursued Mordaunt, "to be of very good rank--and admitting these poor
people do their best to receive him, in his present weak state, yet"----
"I know what you would say," said his father, interrupting him; "we, you
think, ought to do something towards assisting him. Go to him, then--if
he lacks money, let him name the sum, and he shall have it; but, for
lodging the stranger here, and holding intercourse with him, I neither
can, nor will do so. I have retired to this farthest extremity of the
British isles, to avoid new friends, and new faces, and none such shall
intrude on me either their happiness or their misery. When you have
known the world half a score of years longer, your early friends will
have given you reason to remember them, and to avoid new ones for the
rest of your life. Go then--why do you stop?--rid the country of the
man--let me see no one about me but those vulgar countenances, the
extent and character of whose petty knavery I know, and can submit to,
as to an evil too trifling to cause irritation." He then threw his purse
to his son, and signed to him to depart with all speed.
Mordaunt was not long before he reached the village. In the dark abode
of Neil Ronaldson, the Ranzelman, he found the stranger seated by the
peat-fire, upon the very chest which had excited the cupidity of the
devout Bryce Snailsfoot, the pedlar. The Ranzelman himself was absent,
dividing, with all due impartiality, the spoils of the wrecked vessel
amongst the natives of the community; listening to and redressing their
complaints of inequality; and (if the matter in hand had not been, from
beginning to end, utterly unjust and indefensible) discharging the part
of a wise and prudent magistrate, in all the details. For at this time,
and probably until a much later period, the lower orders of the
islanders entertained an opinion, common to barbarians also in the same
situation, that whatever was cast on their shores, became their
indisputable property.
Margery Bimbister, the worthy spouse of the Ranzelman, was in the charge
of the house, and introduced Mordaunt to her guest, saying, with no
great ceremony, "This is the young tacksman--You will maybe tell him
your name, though you will not tell it to us. If it had not been for
his four quarters, it's but little you would have said to any body, sae
lang as life lasted."
The stranger arose, and shook Mordaunt by the hand; observing, he
understood that he had been the means of saving his life and his chest.
"The rest of the property," he said, "is, I see, walking the plank; for
they are as busy as the devil in a gale of wind."
"And what was the use of your seamanship, then," said Margery, "that you
couldna keep off the Sumburgh-head? It would have been lang ere
Sumburgh-head had come to you."
"Leave us for a moment, good Margery Bimbister," said Mordaunt; "I wish
to have some private conversation with this gentleman."
"Gentleman!" said Margery, with an emphasis; "not but the man is well
enough to look at," she added, again surveying him, "but I doubt if
there is muckle of the gentleman about him."
Mordaunt looked at the stranger, and was of a different opinion. He was
rather above the middle size, and formed handsomely as well as strongly.
Mordaunt's intercourse with society was not extensive; but he thought
his new acquaintance, to a bold sunburnt handsome countenance, which
seemed to have faced various climates, added the frank and open manners
of a sailor. He answered cheerfully the enquiries which Mordaunt made
after his health; and maintained that one night's rest would relieve him
from all the effects of the disaster he had sustained. But he spoke with
bitterness of the avarice and curiosity of the Ranzelman and his spouse.
"That chattering old woman," said the stranger, "has persecuted me the
whole day for the name of the ship. I think she might be contented with
the share she has had of it. I was the principal owner of the vessel
that was lost yonder, and they have left me nothing but my wearing
apparel. Is there no magistrate, or justice of the peace, in this wild
country, that would lend a hand to help one when he is among the
breakers?"
Mordaunt mentioned Magnus Troil, the principal proprietor, as well as
the Fowd, or provincial judge, of the district, as the person from whom
he was most likely to obtain redress; and regretted that his own youth,
and his father's situation as a retired stranger, should put it out of
their power to afford him the protection he required.
"Nay, for your part, you have done enough," said the sailor; "but if I
had five out of the forty brave fellows that are fishes' food by this
time, the devil a man would I ask to do me the right that I could do for
myself!"
"Forty hands!" said Mordaunt; "you were well manned for the size of the
ship."
"Not so well as we needed to be. We mounted ten guns, besides chasers;
but our cruise on the main had thinned us of men, and lumbered us up
with goods. Six of our guns were in ballast--Hands! if I had had enough
of hands, we would never have miscarried so infernally. The people were
knocked up with working the pumps, and so took to their boats, and left
me with the vessel, to sink or swim. But the dogs had their pay, and I
can afford to pardon them--The boat swamped in the current--all were
lost--and here am I."
"You had come north about then, from the West Indies?" said Mordaunt.
"Ay, ay; the vessel was the Good Hope of Bristol, a letter of marque.
She had fine luck down on the Spanish main, both with commerce and
privateering, but the luck's ended with her now. My name is Clement
Cleveland, captain, and part owner, as I said before--I am a Bristol man
born--my father was well known on the Tollsell--old Clem Cleveland of
the College-green."
Mordaunt had no right to enquire farther, and yet it seemed to him as if
his own mind was but half satisfied. There was an affectation of
bluntness, a sort of defiance, in the manner of the stranger, for which
circumstances afforded no occasion. Captain Cleveland had suffered
injustice from the islanders, but from Mordaunt he had only received
kindness and protection; yet he seemed as if he involved all the
neighbourhood in the wrongs he complained of. Mordaunt looked down and
was silent, doubting whether it would be better to take his leave, or to
proceed farther in his offers of assistance. Cleveland seemed to guess
at his thoughts, for he immediately added, in a conciliating manner,--"I
am a plain man, Master Mertoun, for that I understand is your name; and
I am a ruined man to boot, and that does not mend one's good manners.
But you have done a kind and friendly part by me, and it may be I think
as much of it as if I thanked you more. And so before I leave this
place, I'll give you my fowlingpiece; she will put a hundred swan-shot
through a Dutchman's cap at eighty paces--she will carry ball too--I
have hit a wild bull within a hundred-and-fifty yards--but I have two
pieces that are as good, or better, so you may keep this for my sake."
"That would be to take my share of the wreck," answered Mordaunt,
laughing.
"No such matter," said Cleveland, undoing a case which contained several
guns and pistols,--"you see I have saved my private arm-chest, as well
as my clothes--_that_ the tall old woman in the dark rigging managed for
me. And, between ourselves, it is worth all I have lost; for," he added,
lowering his voice, and looking round, "when I speak of being ruined in
the hearing of these landsharks, I do not mean ruined stock and block.
No, here is something will do more than shoot sea-fowl." So saying, he
pulled out a great ammunition-pouch marked swan-shot, and showed
Mordaunt, hastily, that it was full of Spanish pistoles and Portagues
(as the broad Portugal pieces were then called.) "No, no," he added,
with a smile, "I have ballast enough to trim the vessel again; and now,
will you take the piece?"
"Since you are willing to give it me," said Mordaunt, laughing, "with
all my heart. I was just going to ask you in my father's name," he
added, showing his purse, "whether you wanted any of that same ballast."
"Thanks, but you see I am provided--take my old acquaintance, and may
she serve you as well as she has served me; but you will never make so
good a voyage with her. You can shoot, I suppose?"
"Tolerably well," said Mordaunt, admiring the piece, which was a
beautiful Spanish-barrelled gun, inlaid with gold, small in the bore,