The Pirate
When he is out of the bilboes, as please Heaven he shall soon be, I
reckon to see you come on board of us, and reign the queen of every sea
we sail over.--You have got the little guardian; I suppose you know how
to use it? If Fletcher behaves ill to you, you need only draw up this
piece of iron with your thumb, so--and if he persists, it is but
crooking your pretty forefinger thus, and I shall lose the most dutiful
messmate that ever man had--though, d----n the dog, he will deserve his
death if he disobeys my orders. And now, into the boat--but stay, one
kiss for Cleveland's sake."
Brenda, in deadly terror, endured his courtesy, but Minna, stepping back
with disdain, offered her hand. Bunce laughed, but kissed, with a
theatrical air, the fair hand which she extended as a ransom for her
lips, and at length the sisters and Halcro were placed in the boat,
which rowed off under Fletcher's command.
Bunce stood on the quarter-deck, soliloquizing after the manner of his
original profession. "Were this told at Port-Royal now, or at the isle
of Providence, or in the Petits Guaves, I wonder what they would say of
me! Why, that I was a good-natured milksop--a Jack-a-lent--an
ass.--Well, let them. I have done enough of bad to think about it; it is
worth while doing one good action, if it were but for the rarity of the
thing, and to put one in good humour with oneself." Then turning to
Magnus Troil, he proceeded--"By ---- these are bona-robas, these
daughters of yours! The eldest would make her fortune on the London
boards. What a dashing attitude the wench had with her, as she seized
the pistol!--d----n me, that touch would have brought the house down!
What a Roxalana the jade would have made!" (for, in his oratory, Bunce,
like Sancho's gossip, Thomas Cecial, was apt to use the most energetic
word which came to hand, without accurately considering its propriety.)
"I would give my share of the next prize but to hear her spout--
'Away, begone, and give a whirlwind room,
Or I will blow you up like dust.--Avaunt!
Madness but meanly represents my rage.'
And then, again, that little, soft, shy, tearful trembler, for Statira,
to hear her recite--
'He speaks the kindest words, and looks such things,
Vows with such passion, swears with so much grace,
That 'tis a kind of heaven to be deluded by him.'
What a play we might have run up!--I was a beast not to think of it
before I sent them off--I to be Alexander--Claud Halcro,
Lysimachus--this old gentleman might have made a Clytus, for a pinch. I
was an idiot not to think of it!"
There was much in this effusion which might have displeased the Udaller;
but, to speak truth, he paid no attention to it. His eye, and, finally,
his spy-glass, were employed in watching the return of his daughters to
the shore. He saw them land on the beach, and, accompanied by Halcro,
and another man, (Fletcher, doubtless,) he saw them ascend the
acclivity, and proceed upon the road to Kirkwall; and he could even
distinguish that Minna, as if considering herself as the guardian of the
party, walked a little aloof from the rest, on the watch, as it seemed,
against surprise, and ready to act as occasion should require. At
length, as the Udaller was just about to lose sight of them, he had the
exquisite satisfaction to see the party halt, and the pirate leave them,
after a space just long enough for a civil farewell, and proceed slowly
back, on his return to the beach. Blessing the Great Being who had thus
relieved him from the most agonizing fears which a father can feel, the
worthy Udaller, from that instant, stood resigned to his own fate,
whatever that might be.
FOOTNOTES:
[38] Liquor brewed for a Christmas treat.
CHAPTER XVII.
Over the mountains and under the waves,
Over the fountains and under the graves,
Over floods that are deepest,
Which Neptune obey,
Over rocks that are steepest,
Love will find out the way.
_Old Song._
The parting of Fletcher from Claud Halcro and the sisters of
Burgh-Westra, on the spot where it took place, was partly occasioned by
a small party of armed men being seen at a distance in the act of
advancing from Kirkwall, an apparition hidden from the Udaller's
spy-glass by the swell of the ground, but quite visible to the pirate,
whom it determined to consult his own safety by a speedy return to his
boat. He was just turning away, when Minna occasioned the short delay
which her father had observed.
"Stop," she said; "I command you!--Tell your leader from me, that
whatever the answer may be from Kirkwall, he shall carry his vessel,
nevertheless, round to Stromness; and, being anchored there, let him
send a boat ashore for Captain Cleveland when he shall see a smoke on
the Bridge of Broisgar."
Fletcher had thought, like his messmate Bunce of asking a kiss, at
least, for the trouble of escorting these beautiful young women; and
perhaps, neither the terror of the approaching Kirkwall men, nor of
Minna's weapon, might have prevented his being insolent. But the name of
his Captain, and, still more, the unappalled, dignified, and commanding
manner of Minna Troil, overawed him. He made a sea bow,--promised to
keep a sharp look-out, and, returning to his boat, went on board with
his message.
As Halcro and the sisters advanced towards the party whom they saw on
the Kirkwall road, and who, on their part, had halted as if to observe
them, Brenda, relieved from the fears of Fletcher's presence, which had
hitherto kept her silent, exclaimed, "Merciful Heaven!--Minna, in what
hands have we left our dear father?"
"In the hands of brave men," said Minna, steadily--"I fear not for him."
"As brave as you please," said Claud Halcro, "but very dangerous rogues
for all that.--I know that fellow Altamont, as he calls himself, though
that is not his right name neither, as deboshed a dog as ever made a
barn ring with blood and blank verse. He began with Barnwell, and every
body thought he would end with the gallows, like the last scene in
Venice Preserved."
"It matters not," said Minna--"the wilder the waves, the more powerful
is the voice that rules them. The name alone of Cleveland ruled the mood
of the fiercest amongst them."
"I am sorry for Cleveland," said Brenda, "if such are his
companions,--but I care little for him in comparison to my father."
"Reserve your compassion for those who need it," said Minna, "and fear
nothing for our father.--God knows, every silver hair on his head is to
me worth the treasure of an unsummed mine; but I know that he is safe
while in yonder vessel, and I know that he will be soon safe on shore."
"I would I could see it," said Claud Halcro; "but I fear the Kirkwall
people, supposing Cleveland to be such as I dread, will not dare to
exchange him against the Udaller. The Scots have very severe laws
against theft-boot, as they call it."
"But who are those on the road before us?" said Brenda; "and why do they
halt there so jealously?"
"They are a patrol of the militia," answered Halcro. "Glorious John
touches them off a little sharply,--but then John was a Jacobite,--(_e_)
'Mouths without hands, maintain'd at vast expense,
In peace a charge, in war a weak defence;
Stout once a-month, they march, a blustering band,
And ever, but in time of need, at hand.'
I fancy they halted just now, taking us, as they saw us on the brow of
the hill, for a party of the sloop's men, and now they can distinguish
that you wear petticoats, they are moving on again."
They came on accordingly, and proved to be, as Claud Halcro had
suggested, a patrol sent out to watch the motions of the pirates, and to
prevent their attempting descents to damage the country.
They heartily congratulated Claud Halcro, who was well known to more
than one of them, upon his escape from captivity; and the commander of
the party, while offering every assistance to the ladies, could not help
condoling with them on the circumstances in which their father stood,
hinting, though in a delicate and doubtful manner, the difficulties
which might be in the way of his liberation.
When they arrived at Kirkwall, and obtained an audience of the Provost,
and one or two of the Magistrates, these difficulties were more plainly
insisted upon.--"The Halcyon frigate is upon the coast," said the
Provost; "she was seen off Duncansbay-head; and, though I have the
deepest respect for Mr. Troil of Burgh-Westra, yet I shall be answerable
to law if I release from prison the Captain of this suspicious vessel,
on account of the safety of any individual who may be unhappily
endangered by his detention. This man is now known to be the heart and
soul of these buccaniers, and am I at liberty to send him aboard, that
he may plunder the country, or perhaps go fight the King's ship?--for he
has impudence enough for any thing."
"_Courage_ enough for any thing, you mean, Mr. Provost," said Minna,
unable to restrain her displeasure.
"Why, you may call it as you please, Miss Troil," said the worthy
Magistrate; "but, in my opinion, that sort of courage which proposes to
fight singly against two, is little better than a kind of practical
impudence."
"But our father?" said Brenda, in a tone of the most earnest
entreaty--"our father--the friend, I may say the father, of his
country--to whom so many look for kindness, and so many for actual
support--whose loss would be the extinction of a beacon in a storm--will
you indeed weigh the risk which he runs, against such a trifling thing
as letting an unfortunate man from prison, to seek his unhappy fate
elsewhere?"
"Miss Brenda is right," said Claud Halcro; "I am for let-a-be for
let-a-be, as the boys say; and never fash about a warrant of
liberation, Provost, but just take a fool's counsel, and let the goodman
of the jail forget to draw his bolt on the wicket, or leave a chink of a
window open, or the like, and we shall be rid of the rover, and have the
one best honest fellow in Orkney or Zetland on the lee-side of a bowl of
punch with us in five hours."
The Provost replied in nearly the same terms as before, that he had the
highest respect for Mr. Magnus Troil of Burgh-Westra, but that he could
not suffer his consideration for any individual, however respectable, to
interfere with the discharge of his duty.
Minna then addressed her sister in a tone of calm and sarcastic
displeasure.--"You forget," she said, "Brenda, that you are talking of
the safety of a poor insignificant Udaller of Zetland, to no less a
person than the Chief Magistrate of the metropolis of Orkney--can you
expect so great a person to condescend to such a trifling subject of
consideration? It will be time enough for the Provost to think of
complying with the terms sent to him--for comply with them at length he
both must and will--when the Church of Saint Magnus is beat down about
his ears."
"You may be angry with me, my pretty young lady," said the good-humoured
Provost Torfe, "but I cannot be offended with you. The Church of Saint
Magnus has stood many a day, and, I think, will outlive both you and me,
much more yonder pack of unhanged dogs. And besides that your father is
half an Orkneyman, and has both estate and friends among us, I would, I
give you my word, do as much for a Zetlander in distress as I would for
any one, excepting one of our own native Kirkwallers, who are doubtless
to be preferred. And if you will take up your lodgings here with my wife
and myself, we will endeavour to show you," continued he, "that you are
as welcome in Kirkwall, as ever you could be in Lerwick or Scalloway."
Minna deigned no reply to this good-humoured invitation, but Brenda
declined it in civil terms, pleading the necessity of taking up their