The Pirate
Dick, you d----d stupid ass?"
"Why, yes, Jack Bunce," said Dick, "I can't say but as you do--only you
are always bullocking one about something or other, too--but,
howsomdever, d'ye see"----
"Enough said--belay your jaw, Dick," said Bunce, and proceeded to write
his epistle, which, being read aloud, proved to be of the following
tenor:
"For the Mayor and Aldermen of Kirkwall--Gentlemen, As, contrary
to your good faith given, you have not sent us on board a hostage
for the safety of our Captain, remaining on shore at your
request, these come to tell you, we are not thus to be trifled
with. We have already in our possession, a brig, with a family of
distinction, its owners and passengers; and as you deal with our
Captain, so will we deal with them in every respect. And as this
is the first, so assure yourselves it shall not be the last damage
which we will do to your town and trade, if you do not send on
board our Captain, and supply us with stores according to treaty.
"Given on board the brig Mergoose of Burgh-Westra, lying in
Inganess Bay. Witness our hands, commanders of the Fortune's
Favourite, and gentlemen adventurers."
He then subscribed himself Frederick Altamont, and handed the letter to
Fletcher, who read the said subscription with much difficulty; and,
admiring the sound of it very much, swore he would have a new name
himself, and the rather that Fletcher was the most crabbed word to spell
and conster, he believed, in the whole dictionary. He subscribed himself
accordingly, Timothy Tugmutton.
"Will you not add a few lines to the coxcombs?" said Bunce, addressing
Magnus.
"Not I," returned the Udaller, stubborn in his ideas of right and wrong,
even in so formidable an emergency. "The Magistrates of Kirkwall know
their duty, and were I they"----But here the recollection that his
daughters were at the mercy of these ruffians, blanked the bold visage
of Magnus Troil, and checked the defiance which was just about to issue
from his lips.
"D----n me," said Bunce, who easily conjectured what was passing in the
mind of his prisoner--"that pause would have told well on the stage--it
would have brought down pit, box, and gallery, egad, as Bayes has it."
"I will hear nothing of Bayes," said Claud Halcro, (himself a little
elevated,) "it is an impudent satire on glorious John; but he tickled
Buckingham off for it--
'In the first rank of these did Zimri stand;
A man so various'"----
"Hold your peace!" said Bunce, drowning the voice of the admirer of
Dryden in louder and more vehement asseveration, "the Rehearsal is the
best farce ever was written--and I'll make him kiss the gunner's
daughter that denies it. D----n me, I was the best Prince Prettyman
ever walked the boards--
'Sometimes a fisher's son, sometimes a prince.'
But let us to business.--Hark ye, old gentleman," (to Magnus,) "you have
a sort of sulkiness about you, for which some of my profession would cut
your ears out of your head, and broil them for your dinner with red
pepper. I have known Goffe do so to a poor devil, for looking sour and
dangerous when he saw his sloop go to Davy Jones's locker with his only
son on board. But I'm a spirit of another sort; and if you or the ladies
are ill used, it shall be the Kirkwall people's fault, and not mine, and
that's fair; and so you had better let them know your condition, and
your circumstances, and so forth,--and that's fair, too."
Magnus, thus exhorted, took up the pen, and attempted to write; but his
high spirit so struggled with his paternal anxiety, that his hand
refused its office. "I cannot help it," he said, after one or two
illegible attempts to write--"I cannot form a letter, if all our lives
depended upon it."
And he could not, with his utmost efforts, so suppress the convulsive
emotions which he experienced, but that they agitated his whole frame.
The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak
which resists it; and so, in great calamities, it sometimes happens,
that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence
of mind sooner than those of a loftier character. In the present case,
Claud Halcro was fortunately able to perform the task which the deeper
feelings of his friend and patron refused. He took the pen, and, in as
few words as possible, explained the situation in which they were
placed, and the cruel risks to which they were exposed, insinuating at
the same time, as delicately as he could express it, that, to the
magistrates of the country, the life and honour of its citizens should
be a dearer object than even the apprehension or punishment of the
guilty; taking care, however, to qualify the last expression as much as
possible, for fear of giving umbrage to the pirates.
Bunce read over the letter, which fortunately met his approbation; and,
on seeing the name of Claud Halcro at the bottom, he exclaimed, in great
surprise, and with more energetic expressions of asseveration than we
choose to record--"Why, you are the little fellow that played the fiddle
to old Manager Gadabout's company, at Hogs Norton, the first season I
came out there! I thought I knew your catchword of glorious John."
At another time this recognition might not have been very grateful to
Halcro's minstrel pride; but, as matters stood with him, the discovery
of a golden mine could not have made him more happy. He instantly
remembered the very hopeful young performer who came out in Don
Sebastian, and judiciously added, that the muse of glorious John had
never received such excellent support during the time that he was first
(he might have added, and only) violin to Mr. Gadabout's company.
"Why, yes," said Bunce, "I believe you are right--I think I might have
shaken the scene as well as Booth or Betterton either. But I was
destined to figure on other boards," (striking his foot upon the deck,)
"and I believe I must stick by them, till I find no board at all to
support me. But now, old acquaintance, I will do something for you--slue
yourself this way a bit--I would have you solus." They leaned over the
taffrail, while Bunce whispered with more seriousness than he usually
showed, "I am sorry for this honest old heart of Norway pine--blight me
if I am not--and for the daughters too--besides, I have my own reasons
for befriending one of them. I can be a wild fellow with a willing lass
of the game; but to such decent and innocent creatures--d----n me, I am
Scipio at Numantia, and Alexander in the tent of Darius. You remember
how I touch off Alexander?" (here he started into heroics.)
"'Thus from the grave I rise to save my love;
All draw your swords, with wings of lightning move.
When I rush on, sure none will dare to stay--
'Tis beauty calls, and glory shows the way.'"
Claud Halcro failed not to bestow the necessary commendations on his
declamation, declaring, that, in his opinion as an honest man, he had
always thought Mr. Altamont's giving that speech far superior in tone
and energy to Betterton.
Bunce, or Altamont, wrung his hand tenderly. "Ah, you flatter me, my
dear friend," he said; "yet, why had not the public some of your
judgment!--I should not then have been at this pass. Heaven knows, my
dear Mr. Halcro--Heaven knows with what pleasure I could keep you on
board with me, just that I might have one friend who loves as much to
hear, as I do to recite, the choicest pieces of our finest dramatic
authors. The most of us are beasts--and, for the Kirkwall hostage
yonder, he uses me, egad, as I use Fletcher, I think, and huffs me the
more, the more I do for him. But how delightful it would be in a tropic
night, when the ship was hanging on the breeze, with a broad and steady
sail, for me to rehearse Alexander, with you for my pit, box, and
gallery! Nay, (for you are a follower of the muses, as I remember,) who
knows but you and I might be the means of inspiring, like Orpheus and
Eurydice, a pure taste into our companions, and softening their manners,
while we excited their better feelings?"
This was spoken with so much unction, that Claud Halcro began to be
afraid he had both made the actual punch over potent, and mixed too many
bewitching ingredients in the cup of flattery which he had administered;
and that, under the influence of both potions, the sentimental pirate
might detain him by force, merely to realize the scenes which his
imagination presented. The conjuncture was, however, too delicate to
admit of any active effort, on Halcro's part, to redeem his blunder, and
therefore he only returned the tender pressure of his friend's hand, and
uttered the interjection "alas!" in as pathetic a tone as he could.
Bunce immediately resumed: "You are right, my friend, these are but
vain visions of felicity, and it remains but for the unhappy Altamont to
serve the friend to whom he is now to bid farewell. I have determined to
put you and the two girls ashore, with Fletcher for your protection; and
so call up the young women, and let them begone before the devil get
aboard of me, or of some one else. You will carry my letter to the
magistrates, and second it with your own eloquence, and assure them,
that if they hurt but one hair of Cleveland's head, there will be the
devil to pay, and no pitch hot."
Relieved at heart by this unexpected termination of Bunce's harangue,
Halcro descended the companion ladder two steps at a time, and knocking
at the cabin door, could scarce find intelligible language enough to say
his errand. The sisters hearing, with unexpected joy, that they were to
be set ashore, muffled themselves in their cloaks, and, when they
learned that the boat was hoisted out, came hastily on deck, where they
were apprized, for the first time, to their great horror, that their
father was still to remain on board of the pirate.
"We will remain with him at every risk," said Minna--"we may be of some
assistance to him, were it but for an instant--we will live and die with
him!"
"We shall aid him more surely," said Brenda, who comprehended the nature
of their situation better than Minna, "by interesting the people of
Kirkwall to grant these gentlemen's demands."
"Spoken like an angel of sense and beauty," said Bunce; "and now away
with you; for, d----n me, if this is not like having a lighted linstock
in the powder-room--if you speak another word more, confound me if I
know how I shall bring myself to part with you!"
"Go, in God's name, my daughters," said Magnus. "I am in God's hand; and
when you are gone I shall care little for myself--and I shall think and
say, as long as I live, that this good gentleman deserves a better
trade.--Go--go--away with you!"--for they yet lingered in reluctance to
leave him.
"Stay not to kiss," said Bunce, "for fear I be tempted to ask my share.
Into the boat with you--yet stop an instant." He drew the three captives
apart--"Fletcher," said he, "will answer for the rest of the fellows,
and will see you safe off the sea-beach. But how to answer for Fletcher,
I know not, except by trusting Mr. Halcro with this little guarantee."
He offered the minstrel a small double-barrelled pistol, which, he said,
was loaded with a brace of balls. Minna observed Halcro's hand tremble
as he stretched it out to take the weapon. "Give it to me, sir," she
said, taking it from the outlaw; "and trust to me for defending my
sister and myself."
"Bravo, bravo!" shouted Bunce. "There spoke a wench worthy of Cleveland,
the King of Rovers!"
"Cleveland!" repeated Minna, "do you then know that Cleveland, whom you
have twice named?"
"Know him! Is there a man alive," said Bunce, "that knows better than I
do the best and stoutest fellow ever stepped betwixt stem and stern?