The Pirate
youth called Mordaunt Mertoun."
"You married her!" said Norna, in a tone of deep reproach.
"I did, Ulla," answered Mertoun; "but you were avenged. She proved
faithless, and her infidelity left me in doubts whether the child she
bore had a right to call me father--But I also was avenged."
"You murdered her!" said Norna, with a dreadful shriek.
"I did that," said Mertoun, without a more direct reply, "which made an
instant flight from Hispaniola necessary. Your son I carried with me to
Tortuga, where we had a small settlement. Mordaunt Vaughan, my son by
marriage, about three or four years younger, was residing in
Port-Royal, for the advantages of an English education. I resolved never
to see him again, but I continued to support him. Our settlement was
plundered by the Spaniards, when Clement was but fifteen--Want came to
aid despair and a troubled conscience. I became a corsair, and involved
Clement in the same desperate trade. His skill and bravery, though then
a mere boy, gained him a separate command; and after a lapse of two or
three years, while we were on different cruises, my crew rose on me, and
left me for dead on the beach of one of the Bermudas. I recovered,
however, and my first enquiries, after a tedious illness, were after
Clement. He, I heard, had been also marooned by a rebellious crew, and
put ashore on a desert islet, to perish with want--I believed he had so
perished."
"And what assures you that he did not?" said Ulla; "or how comes this
Cleveland to be identified with Vaughan?"
"To change a name is common with such adventurers," answered Mertoun,
"and Clement had apparently found that of Vaughan had become too
notorious--and this change, in his case, prevented me from hearing any
tidings of him. It was then that remorse seized me, and that, detesting
all nature, but especially the sex to which Louisa belonged, I resolved
to do penance in the wild islands of Zetland for the rest of my life. To
subject myself to fasts and to the scourge, was the advice of the holy
Catholic priests, whom I consulted. But I devised a nobler penance--I
determined to bring with me the unhappy boy Mordaunt, and to keep always
before me the living memorial of my misery and my guilt. I have done so,
and I have thought over both, till reason has often trembled on her
throne. And now, to drive me to utter madness, my Clement--my own, my
undoubted son, revives from the dead to be consigned to an infamous
death, by the machinations of his own mother!"
"Away, away!" said Norna, with a laugh, when she had heard the story to
an end, "this is a legend framed by the old corsair, to interest my aid
in favour of a guilty comrade. How could I mistake Mordaunt for my son,
their ages being so different?"
"The dark complexion and manly stature may have done much," said Basil
Mertoun; "strong imagination must have done the rest."
"But, give me proofs--give me proofs that this Cleveland is my son, and,
believe me, this sun shall sooner sink in the east, than they shall have
power to harm a hair of his head."
"These papers, these journals," said Mertoun, offering the pocket-book.
"I cannot read them," she said, after an effort, "my brain is dizzy."
"Clement has also tokens which you may remember, but they must have
become the booty of his captors. He had a silver box with a Runic
inscription, with which in far other days you presented me--a golden
chaplet."
"A box!" said Norna, hastily; "Cleveland gave me one but a day since--I
have never looked at it till now."
Eagerly she pulled it out--eagerly examined the legend around the lid,
and as eagerly exclaimed--"They may now indeed call me Reimkennar, for
by this rhyme I know myself murderess of my son, as well as of my
father!"
The conviction of the strong delusion under which she had laboured, was
so overwhelming, that she sunk down at the foot of one of the
pillars--Mertoun shouted for help, though in despair of receiving any;
the sexton, however, entered, and, hopeless of all assistance from
Norna, the distracted father rushed out, to learn, if possible, the fate
of his son.
CHAPTER XXII.
Go, some of you cry a reprieve!
_Beggar's Opera._
Captain Weatherport had, before this time, reached Kirkwall in person,
and was received with great joy and thankfulness by the Magistrates, who
had assembled in council for the purpose. The Provost, in particular,
expressed himself delighted with the providential arrival of the
Halcyon, at the very conjuncture when the Pirate could not escape her.
The Captain looked a little surprised, and said--"For that, sir, you may
thank the information you yourself supplied."
"That I supplied?" said the Provost, somewhat astonished.
"Yes, sir," answered Captain Weatherport, "I understand you to be George
Torfe, Chief Magistrate of Kirkwall, who subscribes this letter."
The astonished Provost took the letter addressed to Captain Weatherport
of the Halcyon, stating the arrival, force, &c., of the pirates' vessel;
but adding, that they had heard of the Halcyon being on the coast, and
that they were on their guard and ready to baffle her, by going among
the shoals, and through the islands, and holms, where the frigate could
not easily follow; and at the worst, they were desperate enough to
propose running the sloop ashore and blowing her up, by which much booty
and treasure would be lost to the captors. The letter, therefore,
suggested, that the Halcyon should cruise betwixt Duncansbay Head and
Cape Wrath, for two or three days, to relieve the pirates of the alarm
her neighbourhood occasioned, and lull them into security, the more
especially as the letter-writer knew it to be their intention, if the
frigate left the coast, to go into Stromness Bay, and there put their
guns ashore for some necessary repairs, or even for careening their
vessel, if they could find means. The letter concluded by assuring
Captain Weatherport, that, if he could bring his frigate into Stromness
Bay on the morning of the 24th of August, he would have a good bargain
of the pirates--if sooner, he was not unlikely to miss them.
"This letter is not of my writing or subscribing, Captain Weatherport,"
said the Provost; "nor would I have ventured to advise any delay in your
coming hither."
The Captain was surprised in his turn. "All I know is, that it reached
me when I was in the bay of Thurso, and that I gave the boat's crew that
brought it five dollars for crossing the Pentland Frith in very rough
weather. They had a dumb dwarf as cockswain, the ugliest urchin my eyes
ever opened upon. I give you much credit for the accuracy of your
intelligence, Mr. Provost."
"It is lucky as it is," said the Provost; "yet I question whether the
writer of this letter would not rather that you had found the nest cold
and the bird flown."
So saying, he handed the letter to Magnus Troil, who returned it with a
smile, but without any observation, aware, doubtless, with the sagacious
reader, that Norna had her own reasons for calculating with accuracy on
the date of the Halcyon's arrival.
Without puzzling himself farther concerning a circumstance which seemed
inexplicable, the Captain requested that the examinations might proceed;
and Cleveland and Altamont, as he chose to be called, were brought up
the first of the pirate crew, on the charge of having acted as Captain
and Lieutenant. They had just commenced the examination, when, after
some expostulation with the officers who kept the door, Basil Mertoun
burst into the apartment and exclaimed, "Take the old victim for the
young one!--I am Basil Vaughan, too well known on the windward
station--take my life, and spare my son's!"
All were astonished, and none more than Magnus Troil, who hastily
explained to the Magistrates and Captain Weatherport, that this
gentleman had been living peaceably and honestly on the Mainland of
Zetland for many years.
"In that case," said the Captain, "I wash my hands of the poor man, for
he is safe, under two proclamations of mercy; and, by my soul, when I
see them, the father and his offspring, hanging on each other's neck, I
wish I could say as much for the son."
"But how is it--how can it be?" said the Provost; "we always called the
old man Mertoun, and the young, Cleveland, and now it seems they are
both named Vaughan."
"Vaughan," answered Magnus, "is a name which I have some reason to
remember; and, from what I have lately heard from my cousin Norna, that
old man has a right to bear it."
"And, I trust, the young man also," said the Captain, who had been
looking over a memorandum. "Listen to me a moment," added he, addressing
the younger Vaughan, whom we have hitherto called Cleveland. "Hark you,
sir, your name is said to be Clement Vaughan--are you the same, who,
then a mere boy, commanded a party of rovers, who, about eight or nine
years ago, pillaged a Spanish village called Quempoa, on the Spanish
Main, with the purpose of seizing some treasure?"
"It will avail me nothing to deny it," answered the prisoner.
"No," said Captain Weatherport, "but it may do you service to admit
it.--Well, the muleteers escaped with the treasure, while you were
engaged in protecting, at the hazard of your own life, the honour of two
Spanish ladies against the brutality of your followers. Do you remember
any thing of this?"
"I am sure _I_ do," said Jack Bunce; "for our Captain here was marooned
for his gallantry, and I narrowly escaped flogging and pickling for
having taken his part."
"When these points are established," said Captain Weatherport,
"Vaughan's life is safe--the women he saved were persons of quality,
daughters to the governor of the province, and application was long
since made, by the grateful Spaniard, to our government, for favour to
be shown to their preserver. I had special orders about Clement Vaughan,
when I had a commission for cruizing upon the pirates, in the West
Indies, six or seven years since. But Vaughan was gone then as a name
amongst them; and I heard enough of Cleveland in his room. However,
Captain, be you Cleveland or Vaughan, I think that, as the Quempoa hero,
I can assure you a free pardon when you arrive in London."
Cleveland bowed, and the blood mounted to his face. Mertoun fell on his
knees, and exhausted himself in thanksgiving to Heaven. They were
removed, amidst the sympathizing sobs of the spectators.
"And now, good Master Lieutenant, what have you got to say for
yourself?" said Captain Weatherport to the ci-devant Roscius.
"Why, little or nothing, please your honour; only that I wish your
honour could find my name in that book of mercy you have in your hand;
for I stood by Captain Clement Vaughan in that Quempoa business."
"You call yourself Frederick Altamont?" said Captain Weatherport. "I can
see no such name here; one John Bounce, or Bunce, the lady put on her
tablets."
"Why, that is me--that is I myself, Captain--I can prove it; and I am
determined, though the sound be something plebeian, rather to live Jack
Bunce, than to hang as Frederick Altamont."
"In that case," said the Captain, "I can give you some hopes as John
Bunce."
"Thank your noble worship!" shouted Bunce; then changing his tone, he
said, "Ah, since an alias has such virtue, poor Dick Fletcher might have
come off as Timothy Tugmutton; but howsomdever, d'ye see, to use his own
phrase"----
"Away with the Lieutenant," said the Captain, "and bring forward Goffe
and the other fellows; there will be ropes reeved for some of them, I
think." And this prediction promised to be amply fulfilled, so strong
was the proof which was brought against them.
The Halcyon was accordingly ordered round to carry the whole prisoners
to London, for which she set sail in the course of two days.