The Pirate
Her conduct towards her sister was so variable, yet uniformly so painful
to the kind-hearted Brenda, that it seemed to all around, one of the
strongest features of her malady. Sometimes Minna was impelled to seek
her sister's company, as if by the consciousness that they were common
sufferers by a misfortune of which she herself alone could grasp the
extent; and then suddenly the feeling of the injury which Brenda had
received through the supposed agency of Cleveland, made her unable to
bear her presence, and still less to endure the consolation which her
sister, mistaking the nature of her malady, vainly endeavoured to
administer. Frequently, also, did it happen, that, while Brenda was
imploring her sister to take comfort, she incautiously touched upon some
subject which thrilled to the very centre of her soul; so that, unable
to conceal her agony, Minna would rush hastily from the apartment. All
these different moods, though they too much resembled, to one who knew
not their real source, the caprices of unkind estrangement, Brenda
endured with such prevailing and unruffled gentleness of disposition,
that Minna was frequently moved to shed floods of tears upon her neck;
and, perhaps, the moments in which she did so, though embittered by the
recollection that her fatal secret concerned the destruction of Brenda's
happiness as well as her own, were still, softened as they were by
sisterly affection, the most endurable moments of this most miserable
period of her life.
The effects of the alternations of moping melancholy, fearful agitation,
and bursts of nervous feeling, were soon visible on the poor young
woman's face and person. She became pale and emaciated; her eye lost the
steady quiet look of happiness and innocence, and was alternately dim
and wild, as she was acted upon by a general feeling of her own
distressful condition, or by some quicker and more poignant sense of
agony. Her very features seemed to change, and become sharp and eager,
and her voice, which, in its ordinary tones, was low and placid, now
sometimes sunk in indistinct mutterings, and sometimes was raised beyond
the natural key, in hasty and abrupt exclamations. When in company with
others, she was sullenly silent, and, when she ventured into solitude,
was observed (for it was now thought very proper to watch her on such
occasions) to speak much to herself.
The pharmacy of the islands was in vain resorted to by Minna's anxious
father. Sages of both sexes, who knew the virtues of every herb which
drinks the dew, and augmented those virtues by words of might, used
while they prepared and applied the medicines, were attended with no
benefit; and Magnus, in the utmost anxiety, was at last induced to have
recourse to the advice of his kinswoman, Norna of the Fitful-head,
although, owing to circumstances noticed in the course of the story,
there was at this time some estrangement between them. His first
application was in vain. Norna was then at her usual place of residence,
upon the sea-coast, near the headland from which she usually took her
designation; but, although Eric Scambester himself brought the message,
she refused positively to see him, or to return any answer.
Magnus was angry at the slight put upon his messenger and message, but
his anxiety on Minna's account, as well as the respect which he had for
Norna's real misfortunes and imputed wisdom and power, prevented him
from indulging, on the present occasion, his usual irritability of
disposition. On the contrary, he determined to make an application to
his kinswoman in his own person. He kept his purpose, however, to
himself, and only desired his daughters to be in readiness to attend him
upon a visit to a relation whom he had not seen for some time, and
directed them, at the same time, to carry some provisions along with
them, as the journey was distant, and they might perhaps find their
friend unprovided.
Unaccustomed to ask explanations of his pleasure, and hoping that
exercise and the amusement of such an excursion might be of service to
her sister, Brenda, upon whom all household and family charges now
devolved, caused the necessary preparations to be made for the
expedition; and, on the next morning, they were engaged in tracing the
long and tedious course of beach and of moorland, which, only varied by
occasional patches of oats and barley, where a little ground had been
selected for cultivation, divided Burgh-Westra from the north-western
extremity of the Mainland, (as the principal island is called,) which
terminates in the cape called Fitful-head, as the south-western point
ends in the cape of Sumburgh.
On they went, through wild and over wold, the Udaller bestriding a
strong, square-made, well-barrelled palfrey, of Norwegian breed,
somewhat taller, and yet as stout, as the ordinary ponies of the
country; while Minna and Brenda, famed, amongst other accomplishments,
for their horsemanship, rode two of those hardy animals, which, bred and
reared with more pains than is usually bestowed, showed, both by the
neatness of their form and their activity, that the race, so much and so
carelessly neglected, is capable of being improved into beauty without
losing any thing of its spirit or vigour. They were attended by two
servants on horseback, and two on foot, secure that the last
circumstance would be no delay to their journey, because a great part of
the way was so rugged, or so marshy, that the horses could only move at
a foot pace; and that, whenever they met with any considerable tract of
hard and even ground, they had only to borrow from the nearest herd of
ponies the use of a couple for the accommodation of these pedestrians.
The journey was a melancholy one, and little conversation passed, except
when the Udaller, pressed by impatience and vexation, urged his pony to
a quick pace, and again, recollecting Minna's weak state of health,
slackened to a walk, and reiterated enquiries how she felt herself, and
whether the fatigue was not too much for her. At noon the party halted,
and partook of some refreshment, for which they had made ample
provision, beside a pleasant spring, the pureness of whose waters,
however, did not suit the Udaller's palate, until qualified by a
liberal addition of right Nantz. After he had a second, yea and a third
time, filled a large silver travelling-cup, embossed with a German Cupid
smoking a pipe, and a German Bacchus emptying his flask down the throat
of a bear, he began to become more talkative than vexation had permitted
him to be during the early part of their journey, and thus addressed his
daughters:--
"Well, children, we are within a league or two of Norna's dwelling, and
we shall soon see how the old spell-mutterer will receive us."
Minna interrupted her father with a faint exclamation, while Brenda,
surprised to a great degree, exclaimed, "Is it then to Norna that we are
to make this visit?--Heaven forbid!"
"And wherefore should Heaven forbid?" said the Udaller, knitting his
brows; "wherefore, I would gladly know, should Heaven forbid me to visit
my kinswoman, whose skill may be of use to your sister, if any woman in
Zetland, or man either, can be of service to her?--You are a fool,
Brenda,--your sister has more sense.--Cheer up, Minna!--thou wert ever
wont to like her songs and stories, and used to hang about her neck,
when little Brenda cried and ran from her like a Spanish merchantman
from a Dutch caper."[15]
"I wish she may not frighten me as much to-day, father," replied Brenda,
desirous of indulging Minna in her taciturnity, and at the same time to
amuse her father by sustaining the conversation; "I have heard so much
of her dwelling, that I am rather alarmed at the thought of going there
uninvited."
"Thou art a fool," said Magnus, "to think that a visit from her
kinsfolks can ever come amiss to a kind, hearty, Hialtland heart, like
my cousin Norna's.--And, now I think on't, I will be sworn that is the
reason why she would not receive Eric Scambester!--It is many a long day
since I have seen her chimney smoke, and I have never carried you
thither--She hath indeed some right to call me unkind. But I will tell
her the truth--and that is, that though such be the fashion, I do not
think it is fair or honest to eat up the substance of lone women-folks,
as we do that of our brother Udallers, when we roll about from house to
house in the winter season, until we gather like a snowball, and eat up
all wherever we come."
"There is no fear of our putting Norna to any distress just now,"
replied Brenda, "for I have ample provision of every thing that we can
possibly need--fish, and bacon, and salted mutton, and dried geese--more
than we could eat in a week, besides enough of liquor for you, father."
"Right, right, my girl!" said the Udaller; "a well-found ship makes a
merry voyage--so we shall only want the kindness of Norna's roof, and a
little bedding for you; for, as to myself, my sea-cloak, and honest dry
boards of Norway deal, suit me better than your eider-down cushions and
mattresses. So that Norna will have the pleasure of seeing us without
having a stiver's worth of trouble."
"I wish she may think it a pleasure, sir," replied Brenda.
"Why, what does the girl mean, in the name of the Martyr?" replied
Magnus Troil; "dost thou think my kinswoman is a heathen, who will not
rejoice to see her own flesh and blood?--I would I were as sure of a
good year's fishing!--No, no! I only fear we may find her from home at
present, for she is often a wanderer, and all with thinking over much on
what can never be helped."
Minna sighed deeply as her father spoke, and the Udaller went on:--
"Dost thou sigh at that, my girl?--why, 'tis the fault of half the
world--let it never be thine own, Minna."
Another suppressed sigh intimated that the caution came too late.
"I believe you are afraid of my cousin as well as Brenda is," said the
Udaller, gazing on her pale countenance; "if so, speak the word, and we
will return back again as if we had the wind on our quarter, and were
running fifteen knots by the line."
"Do, for Heaven's sake, sister, let us return!" said Brenda,
imploringly; "you know--you remember--you must be well aware that Norna
can do nought to help you."
"It is but too true," said Minna, in a subdued voice; "but I know
not--she may answer a question--a question that only the miserable dare
ask of the miserable."
"Nay, my kinswoman is no miser," answered the Udaller, who only heard
the beginning of the word; "a good income she has, both in Orkney and
here, and many a fair lispund of butter is paid to her. But the poor
have the best share of it, and shame fall the Zetlander who begrudges
them; the rest she spends, I wot not how, in her journeys through the
islands. But you will laugh to see her house, and Nick Strumpfer, whom
she calls Pacolet--many folks think Nick is the devil; but he is flesh
and blood, like any of us--his father lived in Græmsay--I shall be glad
to see Nick again."
While the Udaller thus ran on, Brenda, who, in recompense for a less
portion of imagination than her sister, was gifted with sound common
sense, was debating with herself the probable effect of this visit on
her sister's health. She came finally to the resolution of speaking with
her father aside, upon the first occasion which their journey should
afford. To him she determined to communicate the whole particulars of
their nocturnal interview with Norna,--to which, among other agitating
causes, she attributed the depression of Minna's spirits,--and then make
himself the judge whether he ought to persist in his visit to a person
so singular, and expose his daughter to all the shock which her nerves
might possibly receive from the interview.