The Pirate
touched his ear. The Jagger started back, and the truth, or that which
he desired should be considered as such, bolted from him without more
circumlocution; as a cork, after much unnecessary buzzing and fizzing,
springs forth from a bottle of spruce beer.
"In brief, what the deil mair would you have of it?--the woman sold me
the kist of clothes--they are mine by purchase, and that is what I will
live and die upon."
"In other words," said Cleveland, "this greedy old hag had the impudence
to sell what was none of hers; and you, honest Bryce Snailsfoot, had the
assurance to be the purchaser?"
"Ou dear, Captain," said the conscientious pedlar, "what wad ye hae had
twa poor folk to do? There was yoursell gane that aught the things, and
Maister Mordaunt was gane that had them in keeping, and the things were
but damply put up, where they were rotting with moth and mould, and"----
"And so this old thief sold them, and you bought them, I suppose, just
to keep them from spoiling?" said Cleveland.
"Weel then," said the merchant, "I'm thinking, noble Captain, that wad
be just the gate of it."
"Well then, hark ye, you impudent scoundrel," said the Captain. "I do
not wish to dirty my fingers with you, or to make any disturbance in
this place"----
"Good reason for that, Captain--aha!" said the Jagger, slyly.
"I will break your bones if you speak another word," replied Cleveland.
"Take notice--I offer you fair terms--give me back the black leathern
pocket-book with the lock upon it, and the purse with the doubloons,
with some few of the clothes I want, and keep the rest in the devil's
name!"
"Doubloons!!!"--exclaimed the Jagger, with an exaltation of voice
intended to indicate the utmost extremity of surprise,--"What do I ken
of doubloons? my dealing was for doublets, and not for doubloons--If
there were doubloons in the kist, doubtless Swertha will have them in
safe keeping for your honour--the damp wouldna harm the gold, ye ken."
"Give me back my pocket-book and my goods, you rascally thief," said
Cleveland, "or without a word more I will beat your brains out!"
The wily Jagger, casting eye around him, saw that succour was near, in
the shape of a party of officers, six in number; for several rencontres
with the crew of the pirate had taught the magistrates of Kirkwall to
strengthen their police parties when these strangers were in question.
"Ye had better keep the _thief_ to suit yoursell, honoured Captain,"
said the Jagger, emboldened by the approach of the civil power; "for wha
kens how a' these fine goods and bonny-dies were come by?"
This was uttered with such provoking slyness of look and tone, that
Cleveland made no further delay, but, seizing upon the Jagger by the
collar, dragged him over his temporary counter, which was, with all the
goods displayed thereon, overset in the scuffle; and, holding him with
one hand, inflicted on him with the other a severe beating with his
cane. All this was done so suddenly and with such energy, that Bryce
Snailsfoot, though rather a stout man, was totally surprised by the
vivacity of the attack, and made scarce any other effort at extricating
himself than by roaring for assistance like a bull-calf. The "loitering
aid" having at length come up, the officers made an effort to seize on
Cleveland, and by their united exertions succeeded in compelling him to
quit hold of the pedlar, in order to defend himself from their assault.
This he did with infinite strength, resolution, and dexterity, being at
the same time well seconded by his friend Jack Bunce, who had seen with
glee the drubbing sustained by the pedlar, and now combated tightly to
save his companion from the consequences. But, as there had been for
some time a growing feud between the townspeople and the crew of the
Rover, the former, provoked by the insolent deportment of the seamen,
had resolved to stand by each other, and to aid the civil power upon
such occasions of riot as should occur in future; and so many assistants
came up to the rescue of the constables, that Cleveland, after fighting
most manfully, was at length brought to the ground and made prisoner.
His more fortunate companion had escaped by speed of foot, as soon as he
saw that the day must needs be determined against them.
The proud heart of Cleveland, which, even in its perversion, had in its
feelings something of original nobleness, was like to burst, when he
felt himself borne down in this unworthy brawl--dragged into the town as
a prisoner, and hurried through the streets towards the Council-house,
where the magistrates of the burgh were then seated in council. The
probability of imprisonment, with all its consequences, rushed also upon
his mind, and he cursed an hundred times the folly which had not rather
submitted to the pedlar's knavery, than involved him in so perilous an
embarrassment.
But just as they approached the door of the Council-house, which is
situated in the middle of the little town, the face of matters was
suddenly changed by a new and unexpected incident.
Bunce, who had designed, by his precipitate retreat, to serve as well
his friend as himself, had hied him to the haven, where the boat of the
Rover was then lying, and called the cockswain and boat's crew to the
assistance of Cleveland. They now appeared on the scene--fierce
desperadoes, as became their calling, with features bronzed by the
tropical sun under which they had pursued it. They rushed at once
amongst the crowd, laying about them with their stretchers; and, forcing
their way up to Cleveland, speedily delivered him from the hands of the
officers, who were totally unprepared to resist an attack so furious and
so sudden, and carried him off in triumph towards the quay,--two or
three of their number facing about from time to time to keep back the
crowd, whose efforts to recover the prisoner were the less violent, that
most of the seamen were armed with pistols and cutlasses, as well as
with the less lethal weapons which alone they had as yet made use of.
They gained their boat in safety, and jumped into it, carrying along
with them Cleveland, to whom circumstances seemed to offer no other
refuge, and pushed off for their vessel, singing in chorus to their oars
an old ditty, of which the natives of Kirkwall could only hear the first
stanza:
"Robin Rover
Said to his crew,
'Up with the black flag,
Down with the blue!--
Fire on the main-top,
Fire on the bow,
Fire on the gun-deck,
Fire down below!'"
The wild chorus of their voices was heard long after the words ceased to
be intelligible.--And thus was the pirate Cleveland again thrown almost
involuntarily amongst those desperate associates, from whom he had so
often resolved to detach himself.
FOOTNOTES:
[31] It was anciently a custom at Saint Olla's Fair at Kirkwall, that
the young people of the lower class, and of either sex, associated in
pairs for the period of the Fair, during which the couple were termed
Lambmas brother and sister. It is easy to conceive that the exclusive
familiarity arising out of this custom was liable to abuse, the rather
that it is said little scandal was attached to the indiscretions which
it occasioned.
CHAPTER XIII.
Parental love, my friend, has power o'er wisdom,
And is the charm, which, like the falconer's lure,
Can bring from heaven the highest soaring spirits.--
So, when famed Prosper doff'd his magic robe,
It was Miranda pluck'd it from his shoulders.
_Old Play._
Our wandering narrative must now return to Mordaunt Mertoun.--We left
him in the perilous condition of one who has received a severe wound,
and we now find him in the condition of a convalescent--pale, indeed,
and feeble from the loss of much blood, and the effects of a fever which
had followed the injury, but so far fortunate, that the weapon, having
glanced on the ribs, had only occasioned a great effusion of blood,
without touching any vital part, and was now wellnigh healed; so
efficacious were the vulnerary plants and salves with which it had been
treated by the sage Norna of Fitful-head.
The matron and her patient now sat together in a dwelling in a remote
island. He had been transported, during his illness, and ere he had
perfect consciousness, first to her singular habitation near
Fitful-head, and thence to her present abode, by one of the
fishing-boats on the station of Burgh-Westra. For such was the command
possessed by Norna over the superstitious character of her countrymen,
that she never failed to find faithful agents to execute her commands,
whatever these happened to be; and, as her orders were generally given
under injunctions of the strictest secrecy, men reciprocally wondered at
occurrences, which had in fact been produced by their own agency, and
that of their neighbours, and in which, had they communicated freely
with each other, no shadow of the marvellous would have remained.
Mordaunt was now seated by the fire, in an apartment indifferently well
furnished, having a book in his hand, which he looked upon from time to
time with signs of ennui and impatience; feelings which at length so far
overcame him, that, flinging the volume on the table, he fixed his eyes
on the fire, and assumed the attitude of one who is engaged in
unpleasant meditation.
Norna, who sat opposite to him, and appeared busy in the composition of
some drug or unguent, anxiously left her seat, and, approaching
Mordaunt, felt his pulse, making at the same time the most affectionate
enquiries whether he felt any sudden pain, and where it was seated. The
manner in which Mordaunt replied to these earnest enquiries, although
worded so as to express gratitude for her kindness, while he disclaimed
any feeling of indisposition, did not seem to give satisfaction to the
Pythoness.
"Ungrateful boy!" she said, "for whom I have done so much; you whom I
have rescued, by my power and skill, from the very gates of death,--are
you already so weary of me, that you cannot refrain from showing how
desirous you are to spend, at a distance from me, the very first
intelligent days of the life which I have restored you?"
"You do me injustice, my kind preserver," replied Mordaunt; "I am not
tired of your society; but I have duties which recall me to ordinary
life."
"Duties!" repeated Norna; "and what duties can or ought to interfere
with the gratitude which you owe to me?--Duties! Your thoughts are on
the use of your gun, or on clambering among the rocks in quest of
sea-fowl. For these exercises your strength doth not yet fit you; and
yet these are the duties to which you are so anxious to return!"
"Not so, my good and kind mistress," said Mordaunt.--"To name one duty,
out of many, which makes me seek to leave you, now that my strength
permits, let me mention that of a son to his father."
"To your father!" said Norna, with a laugh that had something in it
almost frantic. "O! you know not how we can, in these islands, at once
cancel such duties! And, for your father," she added, proceeding more
calmly, "what has he done for you, to deserve the regard and duty you
speak of?--Is he not the same, who, as you have long since told me, left
you for so many years poorly nourished among strangers, without
enquiring whether you were alive or dead, and only sending, from time to
time, supplies in such fashion, as men relieve the leprous wretch to
whom they fling alms from a distance? And, in these later years, when he
had made you the companion of his misery, he has been, by starts your
pedagogue, by starts your tormentor, but never, Mordaunt, never your
father."
"Something of truth there is in what you say," replied Mordaunt: "My
father is not fond; but he is, and has ever been, effectively kind. Men