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The time of the interview related in the close of
the preceding chapter, was in the early watches of
the night. It now becomes our duty to transport the
reader to another, that had place several hours later,
and after day had dawned on the industrious burghers
of Manhattan.

There stood, near one of the wooden wharves
which lined the arm of the sea on which the city is
so happily placed, a dwelling around which there
was every sign that its owner was engaged in a retail
commerce, that was active and thriving, for that age
and country. Notwithstanding the earliness of the
hour, the windows of this house were open; and an
individual, of a busy-looking face, thrust his head so
often from one of the casements, as to show that he
already expected the appearance of a second party,
in the affair that had probably called him from
his bed, even sooner than common. A tremendous
rap at the door relieved his visible uneasiness; and,
hastening to open it, he received his visiter, with
much parade of ceremony, and many protestations
of respect, in person.

“This is an honor, my lord, that does not often
befall men of my humble condition,” said the master
of the house, in the flippant utterance of a vulgar
cockney; “but I thought it would be more agreeable
to your lordship, to receive the a—a—here, than
in the place where your lordship, just at this moment,
resides. Will your lordship please to rest
yourself, after your lordship's walk?”

“I thank you, Carnaby,” returned the other,

[figure description] Page 123.[end figure description]

taking the offered seat, with an air of easy superiority.
“You judge with your usual discretion, as respects
the place, though I doubt the prudence of seeing him
at all. Has the man come?”

“Doubtless, my lord; he would hardly presume to
keep your lordship waiting, and much less would I
countenance him in so gross a disrespect. He will
be most happy to wait on you, my lord, whenever
your lordship shall please.”

“Let him wait: there is no necessity for haste. He
has probably communicated some of the objects of
this extraordinary call on my time, Carnaby; and
you can break them, in the intervening moments.”

“I am sorry to say, my lord, that the fellow is as
obstinate as a mule. I felt the impropriety of introducing
him, personally, to your lordship; but as he
insisted he had affairs that would deeply interest you,
my lord, I could not take upon me to say, what
would be agreeable to your lordship, or what not;
and so I was bold enough to write the note.”

“And a very properly expressed note it was,
Master Carnaby. I have not received a better
worded communication, since my arrival in this colony.”

“I am sure the approbation of your lordship might
justly make any man proud! It is the ambition of my
life, my lord, to do the duties of my station in a proper
manner, and to treat all above me with a suitable
respect, my lord, and all below me as in reason
bound. If I might presume to think in such a matter,
my lord, I should say, that these colonists are no
great judges of propriety, in their correspondence, or
indeed in any thing else.”

The noble visiter shrugged his shoulder, and threw
an expression into his look, that encouraged the retailer
to proceed.

“It is just what I think myself, my lord,” he continued,
simpering; “but then,” he added, with a

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condoling and patronizing air, “how should they know
any better? England is but an island, after all; and
the whole world cannot be born and educated on
the same bit of earth.”

“'Twould be inconvenient, Carnaby, if it led to no
other unpleasant consequence.”

“Almost, word for word, what I said to Mrs. Carnaby
myself, no later than yesterday, my lord, only
vastly better expressed. 'Twould be inconvenient,
said I, Mrs. Carnaby, to take in the other lodger, for
every body cannot live in the same house; which
covers, as it were, the ground taken in your lordship's
sentiment. I ought to add, in behalf of the
poor woman, that she expressed, on the same occasion,
strong regrets that it is reported your lordship
will be likely to quit us soon, on your return to old
England.”

“That is really a subject on which there is more
cause to rejoice than to weep. This imprisoning, or
placing within limits, so near a relative of the crown,
is an affair that must have unpleasant consequences,
and which offends sadly against all propriety.”

“It is awful, my lord! If it be not sacrilege by the
law, the greater the shame of the opposition in Parliament,
who defeat so many other wholesome regulations,
intended for the good of the subject.”

“Faith, I am not sure I may not be driven to join
them myself, bad as they are, Carnaby; for this neglect
of ministers, not to call it by a worse name,
might goad a man to even a more heinous measure.”

“I am sure nobody could blame your lordship,
were your lordship to join any body, or any thing,
but the French! I have often told Mrs. Carnaby as
much as that, in our frequent conversations concerning
the unpleasant situation in which your lordship
is just now placed.”

“I had not thought the awkward transaction

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attracted so much notice,” observed the other, evidently
wincing under the allusion.

“It attracts it only in a proper and respectful way,
my lord. Neither Mrs. Carnaby, nor myself, ever
indulges in any of these remarks, but in the most
proper and truly English manner.”

“The reservation might palliate a greater error.
That word proper is a prudent term, and expresses
all one could wish. I had not thought you so intelligent
and shrewd a man, Master Carnaby: clever in
the way of business, I always knew you to be; but so
apt in reason, and so matured in principle, is what I
will confess I had not expected. Can you form no
conjecture of the business of this man?”

“Not in the least, my lord. I pressed the impropriety
of a personal interview; for, though he alluded
to some business or other, I scarcely know what,
with which he appeared to think your lordship had
some connexion, I did not understand him, and we
had like to have parted without an explanation.”

“I will not see the fellow.”

“Just as your lordship pleases—I am sure that,
after so many little affairs have passed through my
hands, I might be safely trusted with this; and I said
as much,—but as he positively refused to make me
an agent, and he insisted that it was so much to your
lordship's interests—why, I thought, my lord, that
perhaps—just now—”

“Show him in.”

Carnaby bowed low and submissively, and after
busying himself in placing the chairs aside, and adjusting
the table more conveniently for the elbow of
his guest, he left the room.

“Where is the man I bid you keep in the shop?”
demanded the retailer, in a coarse, authoritative
voice, when without; addressing a meek and humble-looking
lad, who did the duty of clerk. “I warrant
me, he is left in the kitchen, and you have been

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idling about on the walk! A more heedless and
inattentive lad than yourself is not to be found in
America, and the sun never rises but I repent having
signed your indentures. You shall pay for this,
you—”

The appearance of the person he sought, cut short
the denunciations of the obsequious grocer and the
domestic tyrant. He opened the door, and, having
again closed it, left his two visiters together.

Though the degenerate descendant of the great
Clarendon had not hesitated to lend his office to
cloak the irregular and unlawful trade that was then
so prevalent in the American seas, he had paid the
sickly but customary deference to virtue, of refusing,
on all occasions, to treat personally with its agents.
Sheltered behind his official and personal rank, he
had soothed his feelings, by tacitly believing that cupidity
is less venal when its avenues are hidden, and
that in protecting his station from an immediate
contact with its ministers, he had discharged an important,
and, for one in his situation, an imperative,
duty. Unequal to the exercise of virtue itself, he
thought he had done enough in preserving some of
its seemliness. Though far from paying even this
slight homage to decency, in his more ordinary
habits, his pride of rank had, on the subject of so
coarse a failing, induced him to maintain an appearance
which his pride of character would not have
suggested. Carnaby was much the most degraded
and the lowest of those with whom he ever condescended
to communicate directly; and even with
him there might have been some scruple, had not his
necessities caused him to stoop so far as to accept
pecuniary assistance from one he both despised and
detested.

When the door opened, therefore, the lord Cornbury
rose, and, determined to bring the interview to
a speedy issue, he turned to face the individual who

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entered, with a mien, into which he threw all the
distance and hauteur that he thought necessary for
such an object. But he encountered, in the mariner
of the India-shawl, a very different man from the
flattering and obsequious grocer who had just quitted
him. Eye met eye; his gaze of authority receiving
a look as steady, if not as curious, as his own. It was
evident, by the composure of the fine manly frame
he saw, that its owner rested his claims on the aristocracy
of nature. The noble forgot his acting under
the influence of surprise, and his voice expressed
as much of admiration as command when he said—

“This, then, is the Skimmer of the Seas!”

“Men call me thus: if a life passed on oceans
gives a claim to the title, it has been fairly earned.”

“Your character—I may say that some portions
of your history, are not unknown to me. Poor Carnaby,
who is a worthy and an industrious man, with
a growing family dependent on his exertions, has
entreated me to receive you, or there might be less
apology for this step than I could wish. Men of a
certain rank, Master Skimmer, owe so much to their
station, that I rely on your discretion.”

“I have stood in nobler presences, my lord, and
found so little change by the honor, that I am not
apt to boast of what I see. Some of princely rank
have found their profit in my acquaintance.”

“I do not deny your usefulness, Sir; it is only the
necessity of prudence, I would urge. There has
been, I believe, some sort of implied contract between
us—at least, so Carnaby explains the transaction, for
I rarely enter into these details, myself—by which
you may perhaps feel some right to include me in
the list of your customers. Men in high places must
respect the laws, and yet it is not always convenient,
or even useful, that they should deny themselves
every indulgence, which policy would prohibit to
the mass. One who has seen as much of life as

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yourself, needs no explanations on this head; and I
cannot doubt, but our present interview will have a
satisfactory termination.”

The Skimmer scarce deemed it necessary to conceal
the contempt that caused his lip to curl, while
the other was endeavoring to mystify his cupidity;
and when the speaker was done, he merely expressed
an assent by a slight inclination of the head. The
ex-governor saw that his attempt was fruitless, and,
by relinquishing his masquerade, and yielding more
to his natural propensities and tastes, he succeeded
better.

“Carnaby has been a faithful agent,” he continued,
“and by his reports, it would seem that our confidence
has not been misplaced. If fame speaks true,
there is not a more dexterous navigator of the narrow
seas than thyself, Master Skimmer. It is to be
supposed that your correspondents on this coast, too,
are as lucrative as I doubt not they are numerous.”

“He who sells cheap can never want a purchaser.
I think your lordship has no reason to complain
of prices.”

“As pointed as his compass! Well, Sir, as I am
no longer master here, may I ask the object of this
interview?”

“I have come to seek your interest in behalf of
one who has fallen into the grasp of the Queen's
officers.”

“Hum—the amount of which is, that the cruiser
in the bay has entrapped some careless smuggler.
We are none of us immortal, and an arrest is but
a legal death to men of your persuasion in commerce.
Interest is a word of many meanings. It is the interest
of one man to lend, and of another to borrow;
of the creditor to receive, and of the debtor to
avoid payment. Then there is interest at court, and
interest in court—in short, you must deal more frankly,
ere I can decide on the purport of your visit.”

[figure description] Page 129.[end figure description]

“I am not ignorant that the Queen has been
pleased to name another governor over this colony,
or that your creditors, my lord, have thought it prudent
to take a pledge for their dues, in your person.
Still, I must think, that one who stands so near the
Queen in blood, and who sooner or later must enjoy
both rank and fortune in the mother country, will
not solicit so slight a boon as that I ask, without success.
This is the reason I prefer to treat with you.”

“As clear an explanation as the shrewdest casuist
could desire! I admire your succinctness, Master
Skimmer, and confess you for the pink of etiquette.
When your fortune shall be made, I recommend the
court circle as your place of retirement. Governors,
creditors, Queen, and imprisonment, all as compactly
placed, in the same sentence, as if it were the creed
written on a thumb-nail! Well, Sir, we will suppose
my interest what you wish it.—Who and what is the
delinquent?”

“One named Seadrift,—a useful and a pleasant
youth, who passes much between me and my customers;
heedless and merry in his humors, but dear
to all in my brigantine, because of tried fidelity and
shrewd wit. We could sacrifice the profits of the
voyage, that he were free. To me he is a necessary
agent, for his skill in the judgment of rich tissues,
and other luxuries that compose my traffic, is exceeding;
and I am better fitted to guide the vessel
to her haven, and to look to her safety amid shoals
and in tempests, than to deal in these trifles of female
vanity.”

“So dexterous a go-between should not have mistaken
a tide-waiter for a customer—how befell the
accident?”

“He met the barge of the Coquette at an unlucky
moment, and as we had so lately been chased off the
coast by the cruiser, there was no choice but to arrest
him.”

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“The dilemma is not without embarrassment.
When once his mind is settled, it is no trifle that will
amuse this Mr. Ludlow. I do not know a more
literal construer of his orders in the fleet;—a man,
Sir, who thinks words have but a single set of meanings,
and who knows as little as can be imagined of
the difference between a sentiment and a practice.”

“He is a seaman, my lord, and he reads his instructions
with a seaman's simplicity. I think none
the worse of him, that he cannot be tempted from
his duty; for, let us understand the right as we will,
our service once taken, it becomes us all to do it
faithfully.”

A small red spot came and went on the cheek of
the profligate Cornbury. Ashamed of his weakness,
he affected to laugh at what he had heard, and continued
the discourse.

“Your forbearance and charity might adorn a
churchman, Master Skimmer!” he answered. “Nothing
can be more true, for this is an age of moral
truths, as witness the Protestant succession. Men
are now expected to perform, and not to profess. Is
the fellow of such usefulness that he may not be
abandoned to his fate?”

“Much as I dote on my brigantine, and few men
set their affections on woman with a stronger love, I
would see the beauteous craft degenerate to a cutter
for the Queen's revenue, before I would entertain the
thought! But I will not anticipate a long and painful
imprisonment for the youth, since those who are not
altogether powerless already take a deep and friendly
concern in his safety.”

“You have overcome the Brigadier!” cried the
other, in a burst of exultation, that conquered the
little reserve of manner he had thought it necessary
to maintain; “that immaculate and reforming
representative of my royal cousin has bitten of

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the golden bait, and proves a true colony governor
after all!”

“Lord Viscount, no. What we have to hope or
what we have to fear from your successor, is to me
a secret.”

“Ply him with promises, Master Skimmer—set
golden hopes before his imagination; set gold itself
before his eyes, and you will prosper. I will pledge
my expected earldom that he yields! Sir, these distant
situations are like so many half-authorized mints,
in which money is to be coined; and the only counterfeit
is your mimic representative of Majesty. Ply
him with golden hopes; if mortal, he will yield!”

“And yet, my lord, I have met men who preferred
poverty and their opinions, to gold and the wishes of
others.”

“The dolts were lusus naturæ!” exclaimed the
dissolute Cornbury, losing all his reserve in a manner
that better suited his known and confirmed character.
“You should have caged them, Skimmer, and
profited by their dullness, to lay the curious under
contribution. Don't mistake me, Sir, if I speak a
little in confidence. I hope I know the difference
between a gentleman and a leveller, as well as another;
but trust me, this Mr. Hunter is human, and
he will yield if proper appliances are used;—and
you expect from me—?”

“The exercise of that influence which cannot fail
of success; since there is a courtesy between men
of a certain station, which causes them to overlook
rivalry, in the spirit of their caste. The cousin of
Queen Anne can yet obtain the liberty of one whose
heaviest crime is a free trade, though he may not be
able to keep his own seat in the chair of the government.”

“Thus far, indeed, my poor influence may yet extend,
provided the fellow be not named in any act
of outlawry. I would gladly enough Mr. Skimmer,

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end my deeds in this hemisphere, with some act of
graceful mercy, if—indeed—I saw—the means—”

“They shall not be wanting. I know the law is
like any other article of great price; some think that
Justice holds the balance, in order to weigh her fees.
Though the profits of this hazardous and sleepless
trade of mine be much overrated, I would gladly line
her scales with two hundred broad pieces, to have
that youth again safe in the cabin of the brigantine.”

As the `Skimmer of the Seas' thus spoke, he
drew, with the calmness of a man who saw no use
in circumlocution, a heavy bag of gold from beneath
his frock, and deposited it, without a second look at
the treasure, on the table. When this offering was
made, he turned aside, less by design than by a careless
movement of the body, and, when he faced his
companion again, the bag had vanished.

“Your affection for the lad is touching, Master
Skimmer,” returned the corrupt Cornbury; “it were
a pity such friendship should be wasted. Will there
be proof to insure his condemnation?”

“It may be doubted. His dealings have only been
with the higher class of my customers, and with but
few of them. The care I now take is more in tenderness
to the youth, than with any great doubts of
the result. I shall count you, my lord, among his
protectors, in the event that the affair is noised?”

“I owe it to your frankness—but will Mr. Ludlow
content himself with the possession of an inferior,
when the principal is so near? and shall we not have
a confiscation of the brigantine on our hands?”

“I charge myself with the care of all else. There
was indeed a lucky escape, only the last night, as we
lay at a light kedge, waiting for the return of him
who has been arrested. Profiting by the possession
of our skiff, the commander of the Coquette, himself,
got within the sweep of my hawse—nay, he was
in the act of cutting the very fastenings, when the

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dangerous design was discovered. 'T would have
been a fate unworthy of the Water-Witch, to be
cast on shore like a drifting log, and to check her
noble career by some such a seizure as that of a
stranded waif!”

“You avoided the mischance?”

“My eyes are seldom shut, lord Viscount, when
danger is nigh. The skiff was seen in time, and
watched; for I knew that one in whom I trusted was
abroad.—When the movement grew suspicious, we
had our means of frightening this Mr. Ludlow from
his enterprise, without recourse to violence.”

“I had not thought him one to be scared from following
up a business like this.”

“You judged him rightly—I may say we judged
him rightly. But when his boats sought us at our anchorage,
the bird had flown.”

“You got the brigantine to sea, in season?” observed
Cornbury, not sorry to believe that the vessel
was already off the coast.

“I had other business. My agent could not be thus
deserted, and there were affairs to finish in the city.
Our course lay up the bay.”

“Ha! Master Skimmer, 't was a bold step, and one
that says little for your discretion!”

“Lord Viscount, there is safety in courage,” calmly
and perhaps ironically returned the other. “While
the Queen's captain closed all the outlets, my little
craft was floating quietly under the hills of Staten.
Before the morning watch was set, she passed these
wharves; and she now awaits her captain, in the
broad basin that lies beyond the bend of yonder
head-land.”

“This is a hardiness to be condemned! A failure
of wind, a change of tide, or any of the mishaps common
to the sea, may throw you on the mercy of the
law, and will greatly embarrass all who feel an interest
in your safety.”

[figure description] Page 134.[end figure description]

“So far as this apprehension is connected with my
welfare, I thank you much, my lord; but, trust me,
many hazards have left me but little to learn in this
particular. We shall run the Hell-Gate, and gain
the open sea by the Connecticut Sound.”

“Truly, Master Skimmer, one has need of nerves
to be your confidant! Faith in a compact constitutes
the beauty of social order; without it, there is
no security for interests, nor any repose for character.
But faith may be implied, as well as expressed;
and when men in certain situations place their dependence
on others who should have motives for
being wary, the first are bound to respect, even to
the details of a most scrupulous construction, the conditions
of the covenant. Sir, I wash my hands of this
transaction, if it be understood that testimony is to
be accumulated against us, by thus putting your
Water-Witch in danger of trial before the Admiralty.”

“I am sorry that this is your decision,” returned
the Skimmer. “What is done, cannot be recalled,
though I still hope it may be remedied. My brigantine
now lies within a league of this, and 't would be
treachery to deny it. Since it is your opinion, my
lord, that our contract is not valid, there is little use
in its seal—the broad pieces may still be serviceable,
in shielding that youth from harm.”

“You are as literal in constructions, Master Skimmer,
as a school-boy's version of his Virgil. There is
an idiom in diplomacy, as well as in language, and
one who treats so sensibly should not be ignorant of
its phrases. Bless me, Sir; an hypothesis is not a conclusion,
any more than a promise is a performance.
That which is advanced by way of supposition, is but
the ornament of reasoning, while your gold has the
more solid character of demonstration. Our bargain
is made.”

The unsophisticated mariner regarded the noble

[figure description] Page 135.[end figure description]

casuist a moment, in doubt whether to acquiesce in
this conclusion, or not; but ere he had decided on
his course, the windows of the room were shaken violently,
and then came the heavy roar of a piece of
ordnance.

“The morning gun!” exclaimed Cornbury, who
started at the explosion, with the sensitiveness of one
unworthily employed.—“No! 'tis an hour past the
rising of the sun!”

The Skimmer showed no yielding of the nerves,
though it was evident, by his attitude of thought and
the momentary fixedness of his eye, that he foresaw
danger was near. Moving to the window, he looked
out on the water, and instantly drew back, like one
who wanted no further evidence.

“Our bargain then is made,” he said, hastily approaching
the Viscount, whose hand he seized and
wrung in spite of the other's obvious reluctance to
allow the familiarity; “our bargain then is made.
Deal fairly by the youth, and the deed will be remembered—
deal treacherously, and it shall be revenged!”

For one instant longer, the Skimmer held the
member of the effeminate Cornbury imprisoned; and
then, raising his cap with a courtesy that appeared
more in deference to himself than his companion, he
turned on his heel, and with a firm but quick step
he left the house.

Carnaby, who entered on the instant, found his
guest in a state between resentment, surprise, and
alarm. But habitual levity soon conquered other feelings;
and, finding himself freed from the presence of
a man who had treated him with so little ceremony,
the ex-governor shook his head, like one accustomed
to submit to evils he could not obviate, and assumed
the ease and insolent superiority he was accustomed
to maintain in the presence of the obsequious grocer.

“This may be a coral or a pearl, or any other

[figure description] Page 136.[end figure description]

precious gem of the ocean, Master Carnaby,” he said,
unconscious himself that he was in a manner endeavoring
to cleanse his violated hand from the touch it
had endured, by the use of his handkerchief, “but it
is one on which the salt water hath left its crust.
Truly it is to be hoped that I am never again to be
blockaded by such a monster, or I may better say,
harpooned; for the familiarity of the boatswain is
more painful than any inventions of his brethren of
the deep can prove to their relative the leviathan.
Has the clock told the hour?”

“'Tis not yet six, my lord, and there is abundant
leisure for your lordship to return in season to your
lordship's lodgings. Mrs. Carnaby has dared to flatter
herself, that your lordship will condescend to
honor us so far as to taste a dish of bohea under our
humble roof.”

“What is the meaning of that gun, Master Carnaby?
It gave the alarm to the smuggler, as if it
had been a summons from Execution Dock, or a groan
from the ghost of Kidd.”

“I never presumed to think, my lord. I suppose
it to be some pleasure of Her Majesty's officers in the
fort; and when that is the case, one is quite certain
that all is proper, and very English, my lord.”

“'Fore George, Sir, English or Dutch, it had the
quality to frighten this sea-fowl—this curlew—this
albatross, from his perch!”

“Upon my duty to your lordship, your lordship
has the severest wit of any gentleman in Her Majesty's
kingdom! But all the nobility and gentry are so
witty, that it is quite an honor and an edification to
hear them! If it is your lordship's pleasure, I will
look out of the window, my lord, and see if there be
any thing visible.”

“Do so, Master Carnaby—I confess a little curiosity
to know what has given the alarm to my

[figure description] Page 137.[end figure description]

sealion—ha! do I not see the masts of a ship, moving
above the roofs of yonder line of stores?”

“Well, your lordship has the quickest eye!—and
the happiest way of seeing things, of any nobleman
in England! Now I should have stared a quarter of
an hour, before I thought of looking over the roofs
of those stores, at all; and yet your lordship looks
there at the very first glance.”

“Is it a ship or a brig, Master Carnaby—you have
the advantage of position, for I would not willingly
be seen—speak quickly, dolt;—is it ship, or brig?”

“My lord—'tis a brig—or a ship—really I must
ask your lordship, for I know so little of these
things—”

“Nay, complaisant Master Carnaby—have an
opinion of your own for one moment, if you please—
there is smoke curling upward, behind those
masts—”

Another rattling of windows, and a second report,
removed all doubts on the subject of the firing. At
the next instant, the bows of a vessel of war appeared
at the opening of a ship-yard, and then came
gun after gun in view, until the whole broadside and
frowning battery of the Coquette were visible.

The Viscount sought no further solution of the
reason why the Skimmer had left him so hurriedly.
Fumbling a moment in a pocket, he drew forth a
hand filled with broad pieces of gold. These he appeared
about to lay upon the table; but, as it were
by forgetfulness, he kept the member closed, and
bidding the grocer adieu, he left the house, with as
firm a resolution as was ever made by any man,
conscious of having done both a weak and a wicked
action, of never again putting himself in familiar
contact with so truckling a miscreant.

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