Ingraham, J. H. (Joseph Holt), 1809-1860 [1845], Norman, or, The privateersman's bride: a sequel to 'Freemantle' (published at the 'Yankee' Office, Boston) [word count] [eaf188].
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CHAPTER I. THE TWO MAIDENS.
The readers of the nautical romance entitled `Freemantle, or the
Privateersman,' to which the present story is a sequel, will remember
that the narrative closed with the landing of Freemantle and the passengers
of the Indiaman at the villa of Colonel Hood, while the Indiaman
stood on towards the port of Boston. The disabled and defeated
corvette at the same time, it will be remembered, was making the best
of her way towards Halifax, closely followed off soundings by the Privateer,
which then had orders to put back into port.
The meeting between Colonel Hood and his old and long-absent
friend, Mr. Forrest, the India-merchant, was warm and ardent as became
the re-union of such tried friends. The meeting of the two maidens
for the first time was attended with a little natural embarrassment;
but the sincerity and frank hospitality of Mary Hood in five minutes
quite won the heart of the handsome Indian belle, and a union like that
of sisterly hearts was at once established between them. Being both
nearly of an age, and from the long friendship existing between their
parents, they had been, as it were, well known to one another from
childhood. They had sent messages of love one to the other, in their
father's letters far over the sea; and presents had been interchanged.
Yet till now they had never met; and the meeting was to both of the
deepest interest.
While the two old gentlemen sat together upon the portico after the
first interchange of courtesies and affections had passed, talking of the
past, as old friends will when they meet after a long absence, the blue-eyed
Mary Hood, and her new dark-eyed friend were standing by a
window gazing into each other's eyes and studying fondly the features
which each had a hundred times dreamed of.
`I was sure your eyes were hazel, dear Clara,' said Mary smiling into
them through her own.
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`I knew yours were blue, and that your hair was a soft brown, and
that your face was very fair, but I did not expect to find you so lovely
as you are,' said Clara admiring, the gentle beauty of the blooming
northern maiden.
`How did you know so much, Clara?' said Mary blushing at this deserved
compliment to her loveliness; `If you are such a flatterer I shall
begin! Your glorious beauty I did not even dream of, noble Clara!—
Such magnificent eyes, and your complexion so soft, like the most delicate
olive, and with such a bright ruby glow to your lips!'
`Your figure too, so superb and yet so gracefully child-like in all its
motions. And —'
`You shall be silent, fair prattler,' cried the East Indian maiden, her
rich cheek coloring high with these glowing descriptions of her person;
`you asked me how I knew you had blue eyes and fair hair and then
did not wait for me to reply.'
`How then did you hear, for I am sure father did not write so much,
for if he was asked he would scarcely be able to tell whether my eyes
were blue or brown; so long as he knows they beam affection upon him
he scarce heeds their hue.'
`It was not your father, Mary,' answered Clara with emphasis.
`Who then could it be?' demanded Miss Hood, looking her friend in
the face with curiosity.
The young East Indian made no reply in words; but directing her
eyes with a quick glance to the piazza where Freemantle and Henry
Hood were standing each with a glass at his eye, watching the receding
vessels, she smiled and looked very significant.
The gaze of Miss Hood followed the glance and rested upon the
slight, but elegant and manly figure of the youthful privateersman.
`It could not have been this brave officer?' ventured Mary, believing
she interpreted aright Miss Forrest's looks.
`Do you remember that he has ever seen you before to-day?'
`No!'
`Have you any recollection of having met him?'
`No!'
`Then how could it be he?'
`You have puzzled me!'
`No. It was he. I heard it from him, Mary,' she added in a low
tone, `that you had fair brown hair and soft blue eyes. I could not believe
him, for I had never seen a blue-eyed maiden! In India all eyes
are lustrously black!
`Where did he see me? Where and when did he tell you this,
Clara?' asked Mary, her eyes resting with scarcely conscious interest
upon the form of the young man.
`You ask me three questions in a breath,' said Miss Forrest laughing:
`but I will try and gratify your curiosity. Where did he tell it
me? It was in India. When did he tell it me? It was last year!'
`Then you have seen him in India! I thought you only met the
first time to day!'
`Oh no; but do not speak so loudly. I would rather this were a
secret between us. All friends have secrets, and we must have them.
Let this be one!'
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`I will not breathe it!' Now where did he see me?'
`What a truant memory you have, dear Mary! Do you remember
visiting a ship of war a year or a year and a half ago it may be?'
`In Boston Harbor?'
`Yes. I dare say it was!'
`Yes!'
`As you left the ship some accident occurred by which the boat filled
with water, and left you with others floating upon the surface. Was
it not so?'
`Oh, yes,' answered the young girl with emotion. `I shall never forget
that moment. I sank beneath the surface. I remember how I felt
as my eyes rested for the last time, as I believed, upon the green and
beautiful earth and pleasant blue sky!
`Yet you were rescued!'
`Yes, by one of the midshipmen who sprung over to save me!'
`Did you see his face?'
`No. When I came to myself he was not near me. I was only told
that I had been saved by a youth. I would have called him to thank
him but my father hurried me on shore!'
`Did you hear his name?'
`It was Freeman, I think my father said. I have always felt grateful
to this unknown youth and should be happy to meet and thank him.'
`It was not Freeman, but Freemantle! There is your preserver now
conversing so cheerfully with your pale, intellectual-looking brother.'
`Is it possible?' exclaimed the maiden.
`Why do you turn so pale!'
`It is with surprise and grateful emotion.
`Do not fly to thank him, there will be time enough by and by,' said
Clara laughing. `You now know who told me you had blue eyes as
well as who saved you from drowning.'
`I wonder he should recollect seeing me but once, and under such
circumstances.'
`Norman is very observing. Besides your beauty made an impression
upon him! Doubtless you would have had him at your feet, Mary,
if I had not managed to steal his true love.'
`And are you lover's?'
`Dont breathe it to the winds!'
`How mysterious you are, Clara! Is there a secret?'
`Yes. I will tell you by and by!'
`What, when you first saw him, and how he happened to fall in love
with you?'
`Yes!'
`And the mystery? Will you unfold that?'
`All to you, but to no other ear!'
`I can keep it secret! How very noble and brave he is, Clara,'
said the young girl, gazing admiringly upon the profile of the young
man, as he stood upon the piazza conversing with Henry. `Is his
name Norman?'
`Yes; Norman Freemantle!'
`Is he a New England young man?'
`Yes, but connected with a noble English family!'
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`How happy you must be to have so handsome and brave a lover,'
sighed Mary, as she contrasted the young privateersman with Herbert
Vincent whom she loved without esteeming him.
`You sigh, Mary! You must not fall in love with Norman now! It
is too late! We must not be rivals!'
`I rival you, Clara!'
`Why, do you take me in earnest, child! I fear not Norman, however
I might fear your beauty. I know, too, you would not let your
heart be interested where you knew to love would be to love unrequited!
Have you no lover, Mary?' asked the beautiful East Indian,
archly.
The deep blush that mantled the cheek and the brow of the lovely
blonde, betrayed all that her friend sought.
`Who is it, Mary?'
`My cousin, Herbert!'
`The young man who has gone up to the city in the merchant-ship?'
`Yes!'
`I noticed him! He it was that first told my father that this was
Colonel Hood's villa. So he is to be your husband some day!'
`I do not know,' laughed and sighed Mary, both at the same time.
`As we are to be friends I will make you my confidant,' said the young
girl who had never had a confidant in her life, and whose heart was
now ready to pour itself forth with all its riches into the bosom of her
friend.
`I will be a trusty confidant, Mary. What is this love tale?'
`Herbert is my cousin, and we have loved each other from childhood.
The sisterly love of our younger days ripened into a deeper feeling and
we betrothed ourselves. Then Herbert was all that was honorable and
upright. I loved and esteemed him! Nay, I almost worshipped him.
He was a junior officer in the naval service of his country. He there
yielded to evil habits, and truth and principle, and all that makes man
noble and loved by woman departed from him. He was degraded from
the navy. He came to me and to my father and brother! They turned
away from him. I did so too though my heart was breaking!'
`Poor child!' said the East Indian, in tones of sweet sympathy, while
starry tears danced in her large dark eyes.
`They forbade him to visit us unless he formally withdrew his pretensions
to my hand, which my father and brother had once recognized.
He promised to do so, and was once more received as a visiter;
but on those colder terms which the change in his character seemed to
demand at their hands.'
`And you, Mary?'
`I also, tried to imitiate their coldness, but my heart was still warm
with that affection which had its root in the innocence of childhood.—
He discovered the true state of my heart, and availing himself of it privately
reserved his vows of love and I listened with joy!'
`Had his character changed any then for the better?'
`I know not—I asked not! I knew he was not all I would have
him! I knew he had forfeited the esteem of my brother and of my
father, and had been publicly degraded. Still I loved him!'
`And did you also feel proud of him as you once did?'
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`Oh, no, I condemned my attachment while I gave myself up to it!—
Yesterday he proposed to me to elope with him?'
`And what was your answer?'
`I have yet given him none!'
`Alas, Mary, I pity you! You must not throw yourself away upon
one unworthy of you. You must give him a firm denial. I will try to
see if I cant cure you of this dangerous poison! Oh, that this Herbert
were the mirror of truth and honor, like yonder noble youth!'
`I would he were, indeed,' responded the maiden, with a deep sigh,
as Henry and Freemantle entered the parlor and approached them.
`My story you shall have this evening,' said Clara, as she met for an
instant the down cast glance of the maiden; and as she spoke she dropped
the shaded lids of her own dark, oriental eyes before the ardent gaze
of the young privateersman.
CHAPTER II. THE LOVER.
There could not be presented a stronger contrast than that exhibited
by the two young men who now entered from the piazza. The bold,
frank air of Freemantle, his fiery eye and look of decision, marked him
as a man of an active and daring life. The calm, quiet, intellectual
appearance of Henry Hood, the almost feminine softness of his manners,
though his character was firm and his courage unquestioned,
stamped him as a recluse; as a man who shrinks from the world and
who lives with books rather than with men. The dark cloth of his
coat contrasted strikingly with the picturesque and armed costume of
the young seaman. Although so opposite in habits and pursuits, a
a mutual regard seemed, all at once, to have sprung up between the
two young men, and they entered the room laughing and talking on
terms of the most cordial intimacy.
The eye of Freemantle sought that of the fair East Indian, with a
speaking glance that was eloquent with passionate love. Clara's eyes
dropped beneath the gaze, while her bosom throbbed with emotions of
sweet joy. Long had been the separation between her and Norman;
and that day they had met again under circumstances calculated to increase,
if possible, her strong attachment to him. They had not been
together alone for a moment since they had met on board the Indiaman,
and both were anxious for an opportunity to arrive when they might,
unobserved, interchange their hearts deep feelings.
`Your presence here, Miss Forrest,' said Henry, taking her hand
with a blush of embarrassment, `will make quite a revolution in our
quiet household! Mary will grow wild with joy, and I dare say we
shall all sympathise in her happiness, in having with her one she has
so long been taught to regard as a sister.' This was spoken with emotion,
and in a tone that was tremulous with some deep feeling.
`I am sure we feel like sisters,' said Clara, resting her large eyes,
as she spoke, full upon the handsome and intelligent countenance of
the student, whose own gaze fell confused before their brilliant fire.
He had never before known the power of woman's eyes, nor gazed
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upon a style of beauty like hers! His embarrassment was visible to
his sister as well as to Miss Forrest, who smiled, and then added gravely,
`and I trust you will acknowledge me as a sister.'
This was spoken with slight emphasis. The beautiful girl had seen
the impression her beauty had made upon him. She had observed his
start of deep emotion when he was first presented to her by her father,
an hour before, when they reached the villa from the ship. His manner
now confirmed her in the conviction that the retiring student had
received an impression that it became her at once to efface. Woman
is never blind to the impressions her beauty makes. The effect produced
may be slight, impercepticle to others; but she discovers and
understands its character as if by instinct. No man ever looked upon
a woman with a glance of love, however timid and irresolved, without
betraying himself to the object of it. The glance of mere admiration,
the look of surprise at beholding unusual beauty, the gaze of idle homage,
the marked attention of the refined amateur are never mistaken
by her for the expression, hesitating eloquence of the eye, through
which the heart steals, and betrays tremblingly its secret.
`You will, I trust, acknowledge me as a sister,' therefore said the
beautiful girl to him, with just emphasis sufficient for him to understand,
if, perchance, he had indulged a thought of love towards one
who had no heart to return for his, and who respected him too much to
desire to allure him, to conquer and destroy.
`As a sister,' he answered in a low tone. His voice trembled. It
seemed as if he had much difficulty in articulating even the three
words of his reply. He had felt the full force of her reply. It had
pierced his soul. He understood her meaning. He felt that the
sweet dream of love which had began to evolve from the shadows of
his soul was dissipated in sudden darkness and gloom. He had indeed
loved the beautiful East-Indian from the moment he beheld her. Yes,
the quiet student who had never mixed in the society of females, who
had scarcely ever spoken with any save his sister, he had all at once
upon a brief interview with a perfect stranger, a child of a foreign
clime, surrendered his being to her power. But this love had not its
birth then. From early boyhood Clara Forrest had been the subject
of his hours of imagination and her image such as his romantic fancy
painted it, mingled in his dreams. The correspondence that was constantly
kept up between. Colonel Hood and the wealthy Indian merchant
had, as we have said, made the children of both intimate though
they had never seen each other. In one of Mr. Forrest's letters, written
when Clara was nine years old, was a glowing description of her
beauty with paternal anticipations of what the future promised. Henry
was then a romantic, studious boy of twelve years. This description
he read and it took a firm hold upon his imagination. He wrote sonnets
and addressed them to her; he loved to imagine her a beautiful
lady captive and himself an armed knight rescuing her and making her
his bride, Sometimes he would conceive her to be an Indian Princess
and he the warrior of her hand by his valor in arms.' As the boy grew
to manhood the image of the unknown East Indian beauty was divested
of much of its romance with which he had associated it; but his
imagination only resigned its office to the heart. Here, in the secret
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chambers of his being his thoughts dwelt upon the ideal image of her
to whom he had there erected an altar. The student loved the unknown
being his strange passion had created. Clara Forrest indeed
was a real person; but the creation of his love was as ideal as if she
had never lived! He knew not that a face of glorious beauty which
always came up from the fountain of his soul when he would think of
her, was like her. It was as if he loved an imaginary being; and yet
in truth he loved one who had existence.
This passion was a secret between himself and his own soul. Not
even his own sister dreamed that he loved beyond his books. She
knew not that, at will, he could call up on every page an image of
beauty before which his soul bowed in adoration.
Was the image of his imagination like the reality? Did he recognize
in the beautiful stranger when he first beheld her, the features and
form of the ideal creature before which he had so long worshipped in
secret?
It was this recognition that had nearly overpowered him when he first
beheld her. He was standing at a window watching a party approaching
from the beach. He had seen them land and knew they were from
the merchantman. The sight of a female among them led both Mary
and Colonel Hood to exclaim that it might possibly be Mr. Forrest and
his daughter. With this idea they hastened to meet them, at any rate
welcome them if they should prove to be strangers. This idea at first
caused Henry to move eagerly on a few steps; but the next moment he
cheeked himself and with very strong emotion expressed in his features
and manner he returned to the window and watched them.
`I will see them when they meet!' he said; `if they embrace I shall
know it is Clara! Shall I then hasten to meet them also! How shall
I address one whom I have only addressed in the voiceless language of
the soul! If it is she shall I recognise in her the ideal of my hearts'
worship! Heaven grant me this happiness!
He beheld the parties' meet, and the next moment embrace. He
lingered a moment and then, irresolute, fled to his study to gather resolution.
His pulse throbbed wildly. To calm his thoughts he took
down Euclid and began to demonstrate one of the most close and difficult problems. This mental discipline was successful. In a little
while he rose from his table composed. He heard the voice of his sister
in the hall calling his name. He went forth and was met by her;
`They have come, brother! This is Clara! Clara this is my brother
Henry!'
He looked at the maiden. Their eyes met. He beheld before him
the reality of his ideal! His soul was in his gaze. The expression
startled her and betrayed to her the sweet of his life.
Overwhelmed with astonishment and wonder he felt if he lingered he
should fall before her and worship as he had done upon the altar of his
heart. With a strong intellectual effort he mastered his emotions, and
took the hand she had extended towards him. He said a few words of
welcome. But he seemed to himself to be dreaming. He felt bewildered
with a strange joy. He was oppressed with deep amazement.—
His soul was melted with sweet gratitud.
Mr. Forrest and Freemantle being then presented he had time to
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recover his self-possession; and being drawn by the latter to the piazza
where the three vessels could be seen moving on their courses, he was
soon engaged in conversation and time was given him to control the
emotion which the extraordinary events just transpired had awakened.
The emotion of the student as he replied to Miss Forrest was not unobserved
by Freemantle. He made no remark nor seemed to notice
it. It was plam to him that his quiet friend was deeply moved by
the power of the beauty which had made him captive. He saw too by
her impressive reply, that Clara had discovered his awakening passion
and was warning him to subdue it.
The parties remained some minutes together in conversation, and
then Henry excused himself to Freemantle, left the parlor and hastened
to his study. In a moment or two his sister followed him leaving the
young Privateersman and the fair East Indian alone.
Freemantle met her eyes with a smile of joy and then going to the open
window to see that the two old gentlemen were at the farther end of
the piazza, he returned to her and folded her to his heart.
`My wife! My sweet wife!'
`Noble Norman! Dearest husband!'
`This meeting is indeed as unhoped for as it is most happy,' he said
as he again and again pressed her to his heart with the most tender demonstration
of affection.
`God be thanked, Norman, that we meet once more and under such
circumstances! What a sad, sad parting was our last!'
`Do not think of the past, dearest Clara! The present is ours!—
The past should never cast its shadow across it!'
`I speak of it only to be more grateful for the present happiness.
`We shall part no more!' said the young husband!'
`But my father?'
`He shall know all!'
`Hark! a foot-step approaches! Let the length of the room separate
us!'
`Ah, Captain Freemantle, you are here, hey?' said Colonel Hood!
Bravery and beauty should always be in each other's company. Come,
sir, Mr Forrest and I are going in to take a glass of wine, and I have
sought you to join us!'
`I will look at Mary's flowers the meanwhile,' said the lovely East
Indian turning as if to examine some plants, but to conceal the blushing
joy that she feared would too plainly betray her happiness.
CHAPTER III. THE AFRICAN.
Captain Freemantle accompanied his host along the gallery to its
extremity and entered with him through one of those long Venetian
windows which serve as doors, into a small apartment, curiously furnished
with swords crossed upon the wall; chapaux and plumes hanging
above them; military coats and buff waistcoats garnishing one side
of the mantle-piece, and maps of fortifications with a spy-glass or two,
suspended upon the other. Battle-pieces also adorned the room, and
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in one corner was a small book-case, filled with works on military tactics.
One window looked upon the woods and lawns to the north of
the villa, and the other commanded a bold prospect of the bay, upon
the waters of which the scenes described in the novel preceding this,
were enacted.
There was in the room a side-board ancient and nearly black with
age, on which stood decanters sparkling with wines. Near the side-board,
with his elbow leaning upon it, stood, as they entered, Mr. Forrest
gazing upon a fine painting, representing a battle field.
`This is what I call my marquee, Captain Freemantle,' said Colonel
Hood, as he ushered his guest into the room. `You see it looks quite
war-like! I suppose your cabin has something of the same air, only
more nautical! A fine picture, my dear Forrest,' continued the
Colonel observing how his friend was engaged. `It was painted for me
by a very deserving young artist who was in the battle.'
`What battle does it represent?' asked Freemantle.
`Plattsburg.'
`Where you lost your arm?' remarked Mr. Forrest, turning round
and regarding his friend with a look of mingled sorrow and pride.
`Yes, I left part of myself there, but many a brave fellow left his
whole body upon the field.'
`I beard of the battle in India. Captain Freemantle, I am glad you
have re-joined us,' he said, taking the hand of the young privateersman
and pressing it warmly. `I have not yet been able to begin to express
to you my deep thankfulness for your gallant services to me and mine.'
`Do not express them, my dear sir, and you will most gratify me! I
do not relish thanks! I have but done my duty.'
`You are a noble young fellow, Captain,' cried Colonel Hood with
animation. `I like your spirit. No truly generous man wishes to be
thanked. To wish for or to expect and wait for gratitude is a mean
sentiment. A man who accuses me of being ungrateful because I am
not always thanking him for a service he has done me, is destitute of
true nobility of soul. He expects that the one he has benefited must
always be the slave to his vanity. But this is moralizing, and we don't
allow that in the army, and I am sure they won't in the navy. So gentlemen
let us take seats by the table before the open window. Here
is black Juba who will serve us with wine, and let us take a bumper to
our meeting, and discuss the times as we quaff the grape! Juba,' called
the Colonel as the gentlemen seated themselves at the table.
`Massa!' answered a tall gentlemanly looking black who entered
the room at the call. He was dressed in a sort of military livery of
green cloth laced with silver, and his wooley locks profusely powdered.
By some process, inconceivable, he had prolonged his hair behind and
shaped it into a quene or pig-tail, that stuck out as stiff and strait
as the Colonel's. And what was a singular concidence, he had but
one arm like his master. In his air and general bearing, he was his
ludicrous imitator.
`Get glasses, and set on both Madeira and Port.'
`Yes, massa,' answered the black with a polite military bow.
`Why how happens it, my dear Colonel, that your man has lost an
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arm,' said Mr. Forrest. `He looks for all the world like your fulllength
done in lamp-black.'
`Why the truth is, Juba is myself in his own opinion,' said the
Colonel laughing and glancing at his servant, who with a grave aspect
and with great ceremony placed the wine upon the green cloth between
them.
`How came he to lose an arm also? Not in battle surely?' asked
Mr. Forrest.
`Not exactly in the battle. You must know that Juba is very closely
attached to me! Is it not so, Juba?'
`Yes, massa! But please, massa, if you please Juba go out if massa
colonel talk about Juba!'
`See the honest fellow's modesty!' said the colonel. `Go, Juba, and
wait outside till I call you!'
`Massa Colonel werry kind,' answered the negro; and bowing with
a military stiffness to each person present, he quitted the room.
`There goes a fellow, black as his skin is, who has a heart of pure
gold!' said the colonel. `I will tell you how he happens to be without
an arm! But first let us fill our glasses round and drink to our country,
and the success of its arms.'
This toast being duly drank in the usual form, Colonel Hood turned
to Mr. Forrest; and said,
`You have not forgotten the black boy who used to live in Governor
Hancock's family!'
`No I have reason to remember him,' answered Mr. Forrest. `He
saved me from drowning when my boat was upset by a squall in the
Back-cove, by springing in after me!'
`That boy and Juba are the same!'
`But his name was not Juba!'
`No. It was Sam; he has only had the name of Juba since he has
been in the army. It was given him by the soldiers! He has been in
my employ for the past eighteen years. He has no equal. If I were
a sculptor, and were called upon to model a statue to represent Fidelity
I would make Juba sit for it. He loves me better than he ever did
his own father and mother! The rogne loves me better than he loves
himself, as I will show you! When I lost my arm you would have
thought the poor fellow would have died of grief. His love grew seven
inches longer; his eyes sunk deep into his head and his bones wore
through his clothes which hung on him as they would have hung upon
a skeleton. He watched by me with the tenderness of a mother over a
child! He would sigh heavily, till I thought the poor fellow would die
of grief. He was constantly lamenting, that while he had two good
arms I should have but one. One afternoon as I lay thinking about
the poor fellow, and deliberating with myself what I should do with him
to keep him from pining away from pure sympathy for me, he entered
the room. I had not seen him for five hours, and was really beginning
to feel alarmed lest his melancholy should have driven him to suicide,
when he entered, as I have said, such a change you never beheld! His
face was covered with smiles—absolutely shown with grins. He seemed
ready to laugh with some secret sense of happiness. His
countenance struck me, nevertheless, as being unusually pale (for
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negroes can look pale, gentlemen!) and his step less firm—tottering as it
were! At first I thought he was tipsy; but as I never knew him to
take too much unless I had been taking too much myself, in which case
he was sure to get tipsy, I looked closely to see what could be the cause
of this extravagant joy. As I did so my eyes rested with horror and astonishment
upon the naked and empty sleeve of his left arm!'
`Juba, what in Heaven's name have you done?' I cried scarcely believing
my eyes.
`Hab my arm cut off, massa,' answered the faithful foolish fellow
with an air of the most perfect self-satisfaction.
`Had your arm cut off?' I exclaimed.
`Yes, massa! Juba nebber lib and hab two arms when Massa hab only
one! now Juba like massa once more and Juba happy.'
On questioning the noble fellow I got from him that he had first
broken his arm above the elbow by placing it in a crevice and wrenching
it; and then went with it dangling to a surgeon who amputated it.
I saw the surgeon afterwards who said the fracture was a confoundedly
ugly one, and Juba bore the amputation without a word or a flinch!—
The poor fellow had to take his bed, however, with all his courage as
it was a month before he got to his feet again! `Juba!'
`Massa!'
`You've been listening, you rascal or you would'nt, have popped in
here so quickly,' said the Colonel laughing and speaking in the kindliest
manner while tears glistened in his eyes.
`Nebber hear one word, massa!'
`Juba here is your health!' said Colonel Hood with an air of respect.
`Mr. Forrest and Captain Freemantle I know will join me!'
`I shall drink to Juba most readily,' said the young privateersman
regarding the negro with interest.
`And I shall not refuse, be assured,' answered Mr. Forrest. `Juba
you do not recollect me?'
`Yes, I does, massa Forrest!'
`You do, hey! Then you know I owe you a debt! Here is a diamond
ring, wear it for my sake.'
`No, Massa! God pay Juba, such debt as you owe him. He no
want no pay in dis world.'
`You see Juba is a good Christian,' said the Colonel; we might all,
perhaps, take lessons from him in faith! But Juba here is your health!
God bless you, and in Heaven may he give you wings of gold in place
of the arm you have sacrificed here for your love of me!'
Never was `a health' drank more sincerely than Juba's. He placed
his hand upon his breast and bowed with grateful acknowledgement.
For the moment each gentleman, as he gazed upon the black
man felt a sentiment of involuntary respect for him.
`Now, Captain Freemantle,' said Colonel Hood as he set down his
empty glass, `will you be so kind as to promise to remain a week with
me! as to your departure in the morning I shant listen to it! I mean
to keep my recovered friend Forrest as long as he lives. I will invite the
neighboring gentleman and some few friends from the city to a dinner party.
I want them to see you and thank you, too, for the service you have
done the whole country. Many too will join a ball and you will be a
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lion amongst the belies! Miss Forrest too has attractions enough to
keep half a dozen gallant fellows like you chained to her car for a
month. No, no! you can't leave us!'
`I have duties, colonel that render my return to Boston on the morrow
imperative!' answered Freemantle, who presrved the expression
of his countenance with admirable self-possession as he alluded to his
lovely wife. I will, however, soon return to share your hospitality.'
`I shall hold you to that promise.'
`I will redeem it.'
`Captain Freemantle,' said Mr. Forrest whose eyes had for some
seconds been resting on the face of the young privateersman, `I have
been struck with the resemblance of your features to those of a young
Indian Prince I saw in the East.'
In spite of the commanding self-possession of the young man, the
quick blood leaped to his brow at these words. He bent his face over
his wine for a moment and then replied, calmly,
`I am happy to remind you of any of your friends, sir! We will
drink to his health!' This was spoken with admirable firmness. The
toast was drank and after a little farther conversation they retired to
smoke their cigars upon the verandah.
CHAPTER IV. THE ENGLISHMAN.
Leaving the party in the verandah to enjoy their cigars, we will
now follow the individual whom we have choson as the principal personage
of this sequel; we mean Herbert Vincent the young Privateersman's
mate.
It will be remembered that he was left on board the Indiaman on his
way into port to attach himself to the Privateer as soon as she arrived.—
He had suffered himself to be left behind by Freemantle with manifest
reluctance; but as he hoped by complying with his request to keep on
in the merchantman he might effect a plan of his own he had conceived,
he yielded and suffered the party to proceed to the villa alone. The
motive which influenced him to comply must have been a very powerful
one; for he was naturally of an imperious temper and little relished
submission. But by submission now, however, he felt could he alone
render himself powerful hereafter. He was of a jealous temper also;
and the address and courage and fine face of Freemantle rendered him
uneasy lest an impression unfavorable, by contrast, to himself, should
be made by him upon the mind of Mary Hood. For these reasons he
would rather have accompanied him; but a deeper motive led him to
proceed on his way in the ship.
The Indiaman reached the harbor the next morning and dropped anchor
off India wharf, then the principal pier of the port. As Vincent
had nothing to do with this vessel he landed immediately in a shortboat.
As he stepped upon the wharf he looked anxiously seaward in
hopes that he should descry the privateer standing in. She was not
yet in sight. To enable him to obtain a wider view of the harbor
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outside he ascended Fort Hill which towered close at hand. It was not
then so closely surrounded by edifices as at the present day, and the
scope of the view seaward was uninterrupted. There was a man dressed
as a seaman also upon the hill standing near the flag-staff with a glass
at his eye and scanning the offing. Vincent directed his eyes upon
him a moment, and then advanced towards him, laid his hand upon his
arm, ere the man who was looking through the glass with one eye shut
was aware of his presence.
`Davieson!'
`What! Mr. Vincent!' exclaimed the stranger with a look of recognition.
`Yes, Davieson. What do you here?'
`I am watching a suspicious craft in the offing,' said the seaman,
who was a bluff, strong-built man about forty years old, with a face seabrowned
and rough from exposure to storm and sun.
`Is this all you have to do? Where is your ship?'
`I left her,' answered the man doggedly.
`For what?'
`I dont choose to tell!'
`You are in ill-humor, Davieson! Come let us go into the tavern
under the pitch of the hill here, and take a glass for old ship-mates'
sake!'
`Well that is something like! I never refuses a good offer, Mr. Vincent!
You are a gentleman, if you are no longer an officer!'
`I will first borow your glass!' said Vincent coloring; `What were
you looking for?'
`A privateer I want to ship in! She slipped and went from her
moorings below the castle there yesterday all of a sudden; and I and
four other boys as was in a boat pulling down to her were left to pull
back. But as she only slipped her cable, she'll be likely to be in again
soon! We heard firing to windward south away, and perhaps she went
out to see what was going on!'
`She prevented an English Corvette from capturing that Indiaman
that just came to anchor! She kept the Englishman off at long shot,
and even disabled him; while the merchantman kept safe to port!'
`That is what I call doing the haudsome thing!'
`How is it you have quit the service, Boatswain?'
`Why you see, I dont like to take every thing. A middy was saucy
and I struck him. So to save trouble and expense to the service I gave
it a wide berth, and just now I am adrift. I lodge down in the tavern
there, but as I'm hove short for cash, I and four other good men resolved
as I told you to try Freemantle we've heard so much off. As soon as
he gets back to port, I mean to ship with him! They say every man
that sails with him gets rich!'
`Who are these men with you?'
`Two of them left the frigate with me, and they were both fore-topmen.
Ned and Jack Breeze!'
`I remember them. They are daring fellows!'
`Yes. They don't fear much of anything. The other is a long
shore craft we picked up. His name is Lot Lunt, a fresh water sailor,
but he knows enough by natur' and is as brave as a lion! He says he's
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been a schoolmaster, but how that is I don't know. I only know he
can drink grog like a purser's pig!'
Vincent appeared not to give his words attention; but he was listening
with the keenest interest, though his spy-glass was all the while at
his eye. Not a word escaped him, and his active mind was busily revolving
his description of these men, and deepening some plan he had
previously conceived.
`The privateer is in sight,' he suddenly cried. She is standing in
on a bowline! She has been concealed by the shoulder of the outer
island.'
`Then I'm aboard of her afore her anchor fairly touches the mud!
If Freemantle wants five good men we'll tell him he needn't go far for
them! We shall have hard knocks sailing with him, but hard dollars,
too! There I see her with my naked eye. What a mainsail she sets.
It looks like a boy with his grandfather's coat on! It covers her all
over! What a topsail! It is square as a sloop's! Not one breadth of
canvass less in it, I'll make oath, than in our mizzen-top-sail! Well,
let her come! The sooner the better! They say the war will soon
end and then there'll be an end to prizes! Freemantle must strike fast
and while he can; or his commissions will run out! I'll take the glass
down, Mr. Vincent. It belongs to the Commodore as keeps the Fore-Top-Tavern
there! He's mighty pertikkelar about it, and only lends
it to pertikkelar friends!'
Thus speaking, the seaman who had been boatswain's mate on board
the frigate in which Vincent had sailed, received the spy-glass from his
former officer and together they descended the steep path that led to
the tavern on the lower street.
It was about dusk on the evening of the day in which this interview
took place between Vincent and Davidson, that the former landed from
a six oared barge in a retired spot at the foot of an obscure street, and
landing alone took his way rapidly up the street. He traversed it to
its extremity and then turning to the left came near a long brick wall,
enclosing a huge stone edifice which had once been used as a distillery,
but was now appropriated to the safe custody of such prisoners of war
as had been brought into port in captured vessels of the enemy. The
number of prisoners confined here was now about three hundred. Among
them was a captain and his crew who had been taken by an
American brig of war under circumstances that led to the belief that
although he was cruising under English colors, he was a freebooter;
one of those lawless men who take advantage of wars and prey alike
indiscriminately upon the defenceless of both parties. While the rest
of the prisoners were detained waiting for exchange, or release by the
termination of the war, which was daily expected to be brought to a
close, this man and about thirty-five men with him was held in durance
awaiting his trial for piracy, so soon as intelligence could be obtained
from England denying his claim to English protection.
There was a heavy wooden gate in the wall of this prison enclosure,
and within the gate a small tenement not unlike a watchman's stall but
larger in which the porter stood watch; while suitable sentries did guard
duty day and night.
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Coming to this gate, Vincent tapped lightly against a small wicket
which opened upon a level with his face.
`Smith!' he said in a low tone as the wicket opened.
`Well,' demanded a gruff voice within, in a strong Yankee twang.
`I am Vincent!' answered the young man in an under tone.
`Softly! Don't speak loud!' said Smith. `Have you the money
you promised me to day to bring with you?'
`Yes!'
`The cool hundred?'
`Yes. Here is fifty in this purse! You shall have fifty more when
you let me out!'
`Good! wait till I count it! It is a great risk I'm running! But a
hundred dollars ain't got by whistling for it! Wait till I count it!'
`Confound the cautious fellow,' muttered Vincent as the man closed
the wicket upon him. `If he deceives me now and keeps the money!
But I know him too well! His avarice must have the remaining fifty!'
`All right, Mr. Vincent! Now you must not do any thing to bring
the devil on me! As I open the gate steal in like a shadow! The
prisoners are all in the big room, shut up for the night!' he said as Vincent
entered through the cautious opening. `Take this old jacket and
old hat and pass yourself off as one of them. In this way you can
speak with who you please!'
`Where shall I find the Englishman, Keith?'
`It ain't him you want to see?'
`It is he, and no other!'
`It can't be. He is locked up in his room. They keep him close
at night I tell you! You know they 'spect he's a bloody pirate.'
`I must see him! You must bring me to conversation with him!'
said Herbert peremptorily.
`It is a hard matter. I've risked my neck now! But a hundred
dollars is worth its weight in New England. If they know'd what I
was doin' I'd be shot dead as a hammer! Won't it do to see some of
the rest on 'em? I can let you into the big room where they are playin'
cards, and drinkin', and boxin' and makin' noise enough to scare a
wood full o' bears! Don't you hear 'em?'
`I must see Keith!'
`You must!'
`Yes!'
`Don't I touch the other fifty?'
`Not unless I see the Englishman.'
`Wall, fifty dollars ain't to be got by honest means in these here wartimes!
So I'll see what I can do! There's a sojer there by that door
who keeps guard. Now he drinks like a fish when he can get it for
nothing! Now if you can stand a treat and give me the money to send
out a black nigger as goes the errands here for some ardent, I think we
might get the soger to try it! Get him blue and then you can go and
see this Pirate for yourself, and as long as you want to if you don't stay
till the relief comes round at twelve o'clock!'
Vincent drew from his pocket a flask and placed it in the hand of
Job Smith.
`I brought two of these with me to drink with the Englishman. He
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[figure description] Page 016.[end figure description]
can do with one. Now call your friend with the musket this way.'
`I'll have him here without coaxing when he sees this! Come here,
squire with the gun! Here's a prisoner and me what are going to spree
it on a small scale! Suppose you help us, coz three al'ays makes even
number. The sentinel advanced with alacrity.
`What! Brandy hey?' said the soldier after he had smelt of it!—
`This is a treat!'
`It's a present from my aunt Keziah-Ann. Let us drink her health
the first thing!'
The liquor was potent. The soldier was willing. His brains were
few. His draughts were many; and in twenty minutes Herbert had his
way clear to the apartment in which the prisoner he had come to visit,
was confined.
CHAPTER V. THE PROPOSAL.
The room in which the Englishman was confined had, been under
the former uses of the building a store-house. It was closed by a
strong door across, on which were placed two iron bars instead of locks.
When the prisoners were to be let out to walk in the yard the bars
were merely removed, and the door swung open; when they were
shut in again the bars were simply replaced and the safety of the prisoners
as well secured as if locks had been upon the door.
The way having been opened to Vincent by the intoxication of the
sentry, there was no obstacle to prevent him from having free access to
the individual whom he came to visit. He gained the door uninterrupted,
and softly removing the iron bars from their sockets, he entered
the apartment. A solitary tallow candle burning in the neck of a
bottle and placed upon the head of a barrel, gave an obscure view of
the interior of the gloomy place.
Around the room crouched upon the floor and wrapped in blankets
he discovered through the obscurity the dim outlines of numerous human
forms; some lying in the deep repose of sleep, others with the
headlifted or half-raised upon the elbow gazing upon the intruder. On
one side, gathered around an old door placed upon two casks were
grouped four or five savage, half-naked men, playing at cards by the
faint light shed by the candle. On seeing him enter they arrested their
game, and with their cards held in their hands and their lowering eyes
turned upon him, regarded him with curiosity and suspicion. One or
two of the prisoners with arms folded upon the chest, were pacing up
and down the apartment, and against a brick pillar which supported the
roof leaned another, smoking a cigar. There were about thirty men
in the room, and most of them wearing the garb of seamen. They
seemed to be of all nations, though the English physiognomy predominated
upon their hard, and crime engraved visages.
Hebert looked around him for a moment as if in search of some one,
and was then advancing towards the man who leaned against the pillar,
when he heard Smith's voice behind him:
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`I must bar the door, capting, or the pirates will make a rush.—
When you want to come out just knock and I'll hear you!'
Herbert made no reply; though he would rather not have been fastened
in with such a desperate set of men as he knew were around him.—
He was, however, as brave as he was destitute of principle. Advancing
towards the man who fixed his eyes keenly upon him, as he approached,
he said,
`I would see you, captain?'
`Are you one of the new jailers on guard?' asked the man, sullenly.
`No. I am merely a visiter. I have business with your commander.'
`He is in his room,' answered the man with an inclination of his
head to the opposite side of the apartment.
`What is it! Who is he, Brent?' called a deep voice from that
quarter.
`A strange sail wants to speak you, captain!' answered the man,
who was a good specimen of an English sailor in his appearance, save
that his countenance wore an expression of villany, very strongly contrasting
the frank, ingenuous air of the honest tar.
`Let him come here?' responded the voice.
`That is the captain. Bear away for him!' said the man.
`Vincent crossed the room and came in front of a door, which had
out in the upper part of it a small window. This door was both locked
and barred, and a chain was passed across it for additional security.—
It led into an arched brick vault which perverted from its original use,
now served as a place of close confinement by night for the English
captain.
`What would you say to me?' he demanded, as Herbert came close
up before the door. Vincent could only faintly see the shoulders and
features of a large man, who was gazing upon him from the small window.
The face seemed bold and manly, as the voice had been which
fell upon his ear.
`Are you Captain Keith?'
`Yes,' was the abrupt answer. `Do you not know me? They kennel
me at night like a dog, lest I should break away! What news
bring you? Have they heard yet from England, that I sailed under
colors that dont belong to me?'
`I have heard nothing!'
`Who are you?'
`Come nigher! I cant see your face! Ho, lads there bring the candle
one of you! Let us look at this craft's signals!'
`Let the light remain where it is, captain. I will tell you who I am.
Do you remember Kingston, and the last day of carnival there?'
The Englishman started, and a deep oath of surprise escaped his
lips. He thrust his shaggy head as far from the wicket as he could to
scrutinize his features.
`You then know me, if no one else does! Who are you?'
`As I said before, a friend.'
`Bring the light. A traitor among us.'
`No. I am Herbert Vincent. I am the midshipman who interposed
with my boat's crew to free you from the hands of the authorities. I
did not know your character then or why you was pursued so hotly;
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but afterwards you came to me and swore to serve me for the service I
did for you.' The light now shone full on Herbert's face.
`It is true! Give me your hand. Stand back boys. He is a friend
and brother.'
The men who had hastened with the light, and came cursing and
growling savage revenge upon the supposed traitor now returned to
their game.
Herbert, though unprincipled was proud. He did not relish the fraternal
term applied to him: but as he intended to make the Englishmen
an instrument of his own purposes he made no remark; but giving
him his hand through the wicket returned the pressure.
`I am here to see you on matters of deep moment to you, Keith.
`Let me hear them. But first, how did you know I was here?'
I saw you the other day in the prison yard as I passed by the gate,
and recognized you at once.'
`And you have then for some days been aware what I am, and have
not betrayed me to the authorities.'
`Yes.'
`Then I can trust you. You probably are the only man in America
that knows me to be a buccaneer. And I have been of late making my
plans so that before the authorities can get the information from England
to convict me, I shall be free.'
`Have you friends?'
`No, only my lads here. We have been secretly at work and in
three days more we shall be ready to slip cable and be off.'
`What place of security have you outside of the prison?'
`We must trust to fortune after we once get free. I did think if we
could reach the harbor, of capturing bodily some coasting craft, hoisting
sail and running out of the harbor.'
`This would be difficult. It would have to be at night and the wind
would have to favor you; and you would after all probably run upon
one of the islands! I have come here to propose to you a course safer
and more profitable to you.'
`Let me hear it? My plan of escape will be sure. You see where
that blanket covers the floor. Under it loose boards lay over a cavity
the men have dug into the earth. They have already executed an underground
passage beneath the walls and are within six feet of the surface
ten feet beyound the outer-wall. As soon as it is opened all we
have to do is to pass through like going down into the main hatch and
coming out of the fore.'
`You could not well have accompanied them, being in close confinement
here.'
`It would take but a few minutes for them to get me out. Thirty
men would make quick work with my doors and bars. But let me hear
what you have to propose.'
`It is not to your men, but to you, Captain Keith,' said Vincent in
a low voice. I am no longer in the navy, having left it in some illfavor
with my commanding officers. I have to day been chosen the
mate of the fastest privateer that sails the sea.'
`Who is her commander?'
`The famous Freemantle.'
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`I have seen him and his craft once too much. He chased me on
the coast of Africa, where I had just loaded with slaves, overhauled me,
boarded me, and compelled me to land them every one again. He was
two men to my one, and I was crowded with negroes. I could neither
work my vessel nor fight her. I have an account with him I would
like to adjust.'
`You shall then have your opportunity. I did not look for so trusty
a foe of Freemantle in you.'
`Then you are his enemy.'
`I have nothing particularly against him, but still I hate him as I do
the devil. He has appointed me his first officer. I have to day been
aboard of the craft and taken command. She now lies at anchor off
the north pier. Freemantle himself has not yet returned from a villa
a few leagues down the bay where she left him yesterday. He will be
on board to-morrow, and we shall sail shortly on a cruise, unless we
get news of the ratification of peace. In this case my vocation is gone.'
`What would you with me?'
`I will tell you. On board the schooner are many men who have no
inclination to return to pacific pursuits when the war ends. They have
become familiar with a life that is in a manner lawless. They could
be easily won over to keep in the privateer and cruise under a private
flag. You understand me.
`I think I do. But how does this concern me?'
`Knowing you were in prison, it occurred to me that by your aid
the schooner could be taken and this object secured. My proposition
is that you ship on board of her, and appear as a stranger to me. You
will then as a hand before the mast talk with the men and sound them
all. You will report to me your success and then we will choose an
opportunity for taking the vessel out of Freemantle's hand. If you
would consent to this, I had determined to effect your release.'
`I consent to it, on condition of having the second command.'
`This I mean to give you.'
`But my thirty men here?'
`You must leave them behind! You must make a crew out of that
of the privateer! I want you alone! The men must take their chance
here.'
`Well, I will agree to co-operate with you! How shall I escape?'
`To-morrow when you are in the yard, the Porter will invite you to
his lodge, and provide you with a disguise. At twelve to-morrow noon
you will find me at the Seaman's Inn, under Fort Hill.'
`I will be there if I get off in safety.'
Vincent then took his leave of him and shortly after passed out of
the street gate and took his way to his boat.
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CHAPTER VI. THE DEPARTURE.
[figure description] Page 020.[end figure description]
We now return to the villa. The hour had arrived when Freemantle
was to take his departure for town. A horse had been offered him
by Colonel Hood and Henry proposed to accompany him a few miles
across the country till they should enter the turnpike. The leave taking
between the young privateersman and his hospitable host was frank
and cordial, and on the part of Mr. Forrest marked by strong expressions
of gratitude for the services that had been rendered to him and his
daughter.
`You will certainly be back in two days, my brave friend said Colonel
Hood warmly.
`Yes to remain for a day or two only.'
`In hurry to get to sea again hey? well you will have to be active
for there is no doubt but that within a week we shall have intelligence
of peace being ratified.'
`I hope we shall see you again, before you go to sea, Captain Freemantle,
' said Mary speaking with a slightly embarrassed air.
`I cannot resist so many inducements as are held out to me return,
Miss Hood,' he said with an air at once frank and friendly.
`But you are not going without taking leave of Miss Forrest,' said
Colonel Hood as the young man passed out from the room upon the
piazza in front of which a groom was in waiting with the two saddle
horses.
`She is in the library,' said Mary readily. `If you will follow me,
Captain Freemantle I will conduct you to her.'
These words were suggested by the secret art of woman—an amiable
woman who loves to promote the happiness of others. Mary had
discovered with the penetration of her sex that between the two there
was a sympathy of feeling which instinct taught her was love. She
knew that they would like to meet alone as he was about to depart, and
therefore she had previously told Clara in an arch way, to remain in
the library and she would bring the young seaman there, `for,' she
added smiling, `I know you would like to see him for a moment without
prying eyes upon you.'
Freemantle half guessed Mary's motive from something in her looks
and tone as she spoke, and returning her a grateful glance he followed
her to the library.
`You need not come, father,' she said as the Colonel was accompanying
him. `I wont run away with him and I will see that Clara
does not.'
The fair East Indian was standing in the room near the window in
an attitude eager and expecting.
`Clara, dear, Captain Freemantle has come to say good bye,' said
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Mary; and then passing into the room she crossed it and returning
Clara's look of thank with a smile she passed out of the farther door.
`Once more we are alone my dearest life,' said the young privateersman
clasping her to his heart.
`Do you leave at once, Norman? why so soon?'
`I must be in town to night. My schooner is already there, and I
have much to do, for I must proceed to sea again in a few days.'
`Are we then to be separated again?'
`No I shall have my sweet bride with me.'
`You do not mean to ask me to leave my father and go with you to
sea?'
`No, dearest Clara! As soon as I make arrangements for sailing, I
intend to return here and see your father and explain all to him.'
`This will place a barrier between us no time can remove, dear
Norman.'
No. I have confidence that I can prevail with him to recognize
our union.'
`I fear the worst.'
`I am sure that all will be sunshine yet! within two or three days
you will see me.'
`But if news of peace comes?'
`Then I shall dispose of my vessel and with my wealth and you, as my
bride, go to England. The time is near at hand when I should present
myself in the hall of my father.'
`You will return within two days?'
`Yes, whatever be the issue of this rumor of coming peace. I shall
be able to see you oftener and alone.'
`I cling to you Norman, almost with a feeling of despair! To recover
you again only to part with you the next moment.'
`When I see you again, dearest Clara, it shall be to part no more.—
If your father refuses his sanction—'
`Then my heart will fly where it best loves.'
`And that is —?'
`In thine own bosom, my noble husband.'
`Faithful and true Clara! But we cannot prolong the interview
without exciting suspicion. I hear an approaching foot-step! Farewell,
and look for me ere three days elapse. Thank for me the sweet
girl who has kindly contrived this interview! can she suspect our relation
to each other?'
`Oh, no? She only has discovered in some way that we love.'
With one more hurried embrace the young husband left his beautiful
bride and hastened to rejoin the gentleman upon the gallery. In a
moment afterwards he was galloping with Harry by his side along the
avenue in the direction of the main road.
Clara stood at the window watching his departure with tears sparkling
in her eyes and her bosom heaving with emotion. A light hand
was laid upon hers and an arm of affection gently passed around her
waist. She turned and beheld the lovely eyes of Mary Hood softly
looking up into her own. The expression of sympathy in them she
could not mistake. She hastily brushed the tears from her cheek and
smiled.
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`Don't try dear Clara to disguise your feelings. Relieve your heart
by tears! I know all. I did not mean to loiter, but I heard as I closed
the door his voice and the endearing term he applied to you.'
`What term, dear cousin said Eliza deeply blushing, her voice trembling
with alarm.
`That of `wife!' But do not look so full of fear! I am true of
heart! I will not betray your secret!'
`I know you will not, dearest girl,' responded the youthful bride, `I
can confide in you, and I meant to do so when I promised to relate to
you how I first met this noble youth! Do not breathe what you have
discovered to any ear, I entreat you. My father is ignorant of the
step I have taken and his anger would overwhelm me if he should by
any means accidentally discover it! I know you will feel differently
towards me now that you know I am a wife—but—'
`No, I love you as fondly as before. I know too, that you must have
good reasons for keeping the secret! Will you let me hear your story,
dear Clara, and all about how you happened to meet him and be married
to him and then be separated and you to meet again so strangely as
you have done to-day on board the ship!'
`Yes, you shall know all, dear Clara. Can we be uninterupted?'
`Yes, in the grounds! Come with me to the summer house upon the
hill in the garden. There we shall be retired and be able to see if any
one approaches. You dont know how vastly my curiosity is aroused to
be let into this mystery concerning you and this noble young sailor!—
And your meeting so singularly! And then for my dear Clara after all
to be a wife!'
`I will gratify your curiosity, my dear Mary,' said the fair East Indian
as she suffered her young friend to conduct her from the room into
the garden and so along the shrubbery paths up a winding way to the
top of a green mound which rose from the lawn and upon which was a
summer-house covered with vines.
Upon reaching it they seated themselves upon a rude but commodious
settee made of oak which was placed fronting the entrance and
from which there was a wide spread prospect. Beneath them were
the grounds and highly cultivated gardens encircling the villa, the villa
itself with its cupola and verandah, the silvery line of the beach stretching
away for a league, the headland at the north, the green islands in
the bay, and the illimitable sea blending with the blue sky itself of as
deep an azure. Here and there far from the land a white sail was visible,
motionless like a rock of shining marble, and near the shore the
minute-appearing skiff of the fisherman rocked lightly on the undulating
bosom of the bay.
The snowy wings of the gulls flashed in the light of the declining
sun as they wheeled in wild airy circles above his head, ever and anon
darting downward like an arrow to catch the fragments of bait cast by
him upon the water.
The low roll of the lazy surf upon the smooth beach and its angry
dash against the isolated rocks that lay upon it, reached their ears with
a soothing and agreeable effect. On either hand in the green meadows
the farmer was visible raking his hay, beguiling his toil by whistling
shrilly and not unmusically some popular air, and along the narrow
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lanes between the farms that were visible around the villa, slowly moved
homeward the heavy wagon, or field-ward the light one, the loud cry
of the youthful driver echoed from the woodlands. A cloud of dust a
mile distant marked the course of the evening mail from the city, the
sharp crack of the coachman's lash ever reaching their ears amid the
stillness of the summery air. The green hill sides inland were dotted
with brown cows either grazing or lying down beneath the shade of a
tree, or wending their slow way towards a brook to lave their heated
bodies in its cool flood. In a meadow below the hill several horses
were pastured, who taking fire from the rapid motion of those harnessed
to the coach, coursed around their broad enclosure with streaming tails
and flying manes proudly mocking the trammelled speed of those they
would rival.
The sky above was soft and hazy without being obscure. An island
like cloud white as a bank of the purest snow lay anchored in the west
under the sun, which was an hour high.
`Now, dear Clara, let me hear your tale,' said Miss Hood after they
had for a few moments gazed on this varied scene, and received its
beauty and power into their souls.
The fair East Indian then began to relate the romance in the next
chapter.
-- 024 --
CHAPTER VII. THE CAPTURE.
[figure description] Page 024.[end figure description]
`The manners and customs of the East must be familiar to you,
dearest cousin,' said the beautiful East Indian commencing her narrative
of the events which led to the secret union with Freemantle; `and
especially the domestic habits from my letters to you, as well as those of
my father to yours!'
`Yes, I know that all that Eastern world is a land of novelty and
mystery. It is to me a world of romance. To think of it kindles my
imagination.'
`There is, indeed much romance there. The land is very beautiful.
It is a land of flowers and birds, of beautiful trees and luxurious fruits,
of pleasant skies and gorgeous landscapes. The people, too, are in
keeping with their scenery. They ore picturesque in their costumes,
simple in their modes of life, and very imaginative. Their language
is poetry itself. The warmth of the climate causes them to live altogether
out of doors, and their gardens and verendah's answer to the
parlor and drawing-rooms, and even sleeping-rooms of your houses
here. Thus they ever have the heavens and glorious nature around
them, and in such scenes the heart expands and the more graceful attributes
of the intellect find exercise.
The dwellings are very beautiful. They are elegant and tasteful in
a degree you cannot conceive of, comparing them with the houses of
this climate. They are open night and day, windows and doors, and
the cool wind circulates freely through all parts. They are surrounded
by latticed galleries thickly shaded by running plants that emit the
most delightful fragrance. In these galleries we eat, sit and even sleep
when the nights are hotest.
The house my father dwelt in, was a little out of the town and surrounded
by the most charming gardens. The grounds sloped gently
to the harbor, and we had a view of the sea. I am speaking now of
Macao where we dwelt permanently, though my father's place of business
was at Canton up the river. If you have ever seen a gilded French
gold finches' cage with wings and galleries, you can form some notion
of our villa; especially if you imagine the gilded cage placed down in
the midst of a bed of flowers, or made the centre of a lilliputian garden.
The walls of the interior were covered with the most beautiful
paintinsg and the ceilings richly ornamented with frescos in the most
exquisite taste. The columns of the verandah was painted a pure sky-blue,
and the capitals gilded. The floors were tesselated with marbles,
and three fountains in the gardens and courts cooled the air. The
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branches of the ever-green fruit trees were brilliant with their ever-renewed
fruits, and musical with the ceaseless song of birds of the most
gorgeous plumage. Slaves in flowing costumes and turbans of white
muslin with gold and silver bands intervened among the folds, were every
where in waiting to obey the slightest expression of a desire. If
the air was oppressive, still they would kneel before you and agitate
it with fans made of the feathers of the Bird of Paradise. When you
wished to go abroad they stood ready to carry you in gilded palanquins
covered with silken canopies. All was luxury, repose and elegant
indolence!'
`Alll this seems a description of some fabled land! I cannot realize
that such scenes are upon this earth! And you have been reared
among such! I can't help regarding you as a sort of Oriential Princess!
How can you be happy in this region of the north! How strange
it must seem to you to be here!'
`It is; but I have long been familiar with this land, my father's native
clime, from his own lips. And I have had as much curiosity to
see it as you have to see India! You will now see from what I have
said, dear Mary, something of the mode of life peculiar to the East.—
I have been thus particular in my description that you may the better
understand what is to follow.'
`You know my mother has been dead some years. After her death
my father devoted himself to me; but as his business rendered it necessary
that he should be much of his time at Canton, I was under the
necessity of being left at home. The wife of an English clergyman
who had died there became my governess, and so far as affection and
a sincere interest in me could go, she supplied my mother's place, who
was, you are aware, also an Englishwoman!'
`But why did not your father take you to Canton with him?'
`The Chinese you know, Mary, from some queer prejudice, forbid
by law any foreign female entering their dominions!'
`I recollect it now!'
`And it was in compliance with this regulation that my father kept
me at Macao, the place where the families of all the Canton merchants
reside!'
`But would it have been dangerous if your father had taken you to
Canton?'
`You shall hear by and by,' answered Clara with a significant smile.
`Two years ago, nearly; no, it is but a year and a half, my father left
home as usual at the beginning of the business season to go up to Canton.
I was then in my sixteeth year, and that in India is quite an advanced
period of life, I assure you; for I have had young friends marry
at fourteen!'
`At fourteen!'
`Yes. But young ladies at fourteen and fifteen in India have managed
somehow to grow as fast in that time as young ladies of a northern
clime in twenty years. They are truly as much matured in mind
and body as those here nineteen or twenty years of age! The climate
of course produces this precocity; though it is odd that the same causes
that effect the vegetable kingdom should operate upon human
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beings. Young gentlemen too, at eighteen and nineteen are tall and
manly and bearded like the pard!'
`What a strange idea!'
`Well, you must know now that I was at the time I speak of quite a
young lady! I had already several admirers. Before I was fifteen I
had two offers (but this is a secret!) from English officers!'
`Can it be possible?' exclaimed the young American girl regarding
her beautiful East Indian friend with a sort of awe and curious surprise.
`Don't look quite so astonished, my dear child,' said Miss Forest
smiling. `You are quite satisfied I hope that I was quite old enough
to take care of my own heart!'
`Yes, after what you have told me! If you were not a wife you
would be quite an old maid by this time,' answered Mary playfully. `I
must be one past redemption!'
`Your beauty must ensnare some one if it has not already, Mary.'
The maiden blushed, and to conceal her embarrassment, said quickly,
`Proceed with your story, Clara. It has in its beginning all the
charm, to me, of a romance.'
`The morning but one after my father had left for Canton, I was
seated upon a shady terrace in the garden, when my attention was directed
to one of these Hindostanee proas, which occasionally came to
Macao; a vessel of a very picturesque description, with sails like wings,
and a very high stern, and a prow carved and gilded and adorned with
gay flags. She entered the harbor and taking in her sails anchored
not far from the beach at the foot of the gardens. I could see then
that she was an armed vessel and that there were a great many men on
board of her. My curiosity, in absence of other objects, led me closely
to observe what transpired on board. I could discover, by'the spy-glass
which I sent for, that there were European faces among the dark
faces on her deck; and that in the forward part of the boat there were
a great number of the Hindostance people secured as prisoners. In a
little while after the vessel came to anchor, a boat put off from her containing
an officer and rowed partly by Lascars and partly by Europeans.
The boat pulled for the pier and was soon lost to me among the other
boats that thronged it.
`In about a quarter of an hour afterwards, I saw several barges quit
the pier containing soldiers. They went on board the proa, and then
I beheld at least sixty of the Hindostanee's, that I saw bound forward,
driven into the boats and taken to the pier. In a little while the vessel
was cleared of all save the young officer I had seen first go on shore and
about twenty seamen! While I was wondering at all I had discovered,
my Indian maid came to me and seemed full of news.
`What have you heard?' I asked.
`Do you see that proa, Missis! It was that of the Hindostanee
Pirate Lef!'
`Is he taken?' I asked with surprise.
`Yes, Misses! Jebel was down at the pier and heard it all!'
`Who was this pirate Lef?' asked Mary Hood with deep earnestness.
`A noted sea-robber who had a long while infested the waters of the
East, and who commanded a fleet of a score of armed proas. Several
vessels or war had been from time to time sent after him; but he escaped
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by running up the rivers where they could not follow him. Vessels of his
fleet had been destroyed frequently, but he had hitherto escaped to refit
his squadron and once more defy the cruisers sent against him. He
was a man of large stature and a terrible countenance, and possessed
wonderful power over the wills of his people. The governor-general
of India had offered a reward of ten thousand pounds for his head.'
`You must have been pleased to have known that he was taken, and
also all the people at Macao!'
`Yes. The intelligence roused my curiosity, and I felt desirous of
seeing the formidable prisoner; and that I might learn all the particulars,
I despatched a slave to the port to an elderly gentleman, an intimate
friend of my father, connected with the government, to ask him
to get the facts and let me hear them when he called in the afternoon;
for his daily practice was to drink sherbet and smoke a hookah at our
house when my father was at home, and at my request he kept up his
custom during his absence; for from him I always got all the news
going, while at the same time he acted, in some sort, as my adviser and
protector.
`The slave had not been gone long ere he returned with my kind,
good natured friend, whom he met hastening to give me the first intelligence
of the capture of the proa! From him I learned that the proa
had been captured by a young American Privateersman—'
`Freemantle?' asked Mary quickly.
`You shall learn soon, dear couzin! He said that the American
had fallen in with the proa commanded by Lef, and six others. That
the pirate's whole force had attacked him, but the American sunk three
of his vessels and disabled two others; and then laid along side of
another proa for the purpose of boarding it. He succeeded in doing
so and driving the pirates over the side; but while he was doing this
Lef's proa bore down upon the other side of the American schooner
and the pirate chief leaped on board, sword in hand followed by half
his crew and took possession of her. The American then called his
men together to recover his schooner, which he succeeded in doing,
driving Lef and his horde back to his own deck. Excited by his success,
the young Privateers-man followed it up and boarded the proa.
After an obstinate struggle he got possession of it and with his own
hand wounded and made Lef prisoner. While this was transacting,
the pirates from the other proa had mastered his own vessel and cut it
adrift. Thus was he left in possession of the chief proa and with the
pirate his prisoner; but with the mortifying sight before him of his
own beautiful vessel flying away before the wind in possession of his
foes.'
`I am all curiosity to know if this young American is Freemantle?'
said Mary with interest.
`Be patient, sweet couzin, and you shall hear,' responded the beautiful
East Indian, with a smile that confirmed the suspicion that had
arisen in the mind of the young American maiden.
-- 028 --
CHAPTER VIII. THE LOVERS.
[figure description] Page 028.[end figure description]
`The young American' continued Clara Forrest, `finding he could
not recover his vessel then, and being not many leaguas from Macaeo
resolved to put into port, get rid of his prisoners, and refitting the proa
go in pursuit of his lost schooner and try to acchieve her re-capture.—
He was gladly aided by the aathorities in getting the proa ready for
sea, who immediately sent persons on board to put her in a complete
condition!'
`But what became of the terrible pirate Lef, and also of the young
American,' asked her inquisitive auditor.
`When my elderly friend had given me all the information he had
obtained upon the subject of the capture, he began to speak to me in
high terms of the courage and gallantry shown by the young Captain of
the Privateer, whom he represented as a mere youth and very handsome!
'
`It was Freemantle, I am sure,' said Mary Hood with great emphasis.
Miss Forrest made no reply but smiling archly resumed her narration;
`When I heard this I told my good friend that he must oblige me
with two things; first that I must see the redoubtable Lef; and second
I must see his no less redoubtable captor.
`As to Lef.' said my friend, `he is now in prison and in chains, and
tomorrow will be brought forth for trial if his wounds are not too severe.
You shall see him this evening, if you will take your palanquin to the
prison and be satisfied to see him through the grate!'
`How could you wish to gaze upon the horrid creature?' said Mary
with an expression and tone of mingled fear and distaste.
`I did not see him, Mary; for when I learned he was wounded and
in chains, I cared not to. I had hoped to have seen a tall, fiercd
commanding looking savage, casting glances of defiance upon all
who gazed upon him! But lying wounded and in chains he would
have excited my pity rather than my admiration, so I told my good friend
I would give up seeing the capture if I could behold the captor.
`This I pledge myself you shall do,' said he. `I will with your
leave bring him here this very afternoon.'
`No, said I, that will not do. You forgot I am not the proper person
to entertain a young gentleman! I merely wish to see him by accident
as it were!'
`Then you see him now by accident as it were,' he said to me with
a look of surprise, as his eye turned upon two persons whom, at the
same instant, I saw advancing along one of the avenues of the garden
leading from the town-side, preceded by one of my slaves. One of
them I recognised as an American merchant, the other was a stranger;
but my friend's words led me to suspect who it might be.
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They advanced towards me. I was taken by surprise and I know
must have looked very much confused.
`Miss Forrest,' said the merchant, `allow me to present to you,
Captain Norman who has just brought into the harbor the noted free-footer
Lef a captive in his own vessel! I was going with him to the
house of the English Consul and on my way I have taken the liberty to
present him to one who may call herself his countrywomen!'
`I am most happy to see Captain Normon,' I said, but very greatly
embarrassed; for from the moment my eyes had met those of the young
stranger my regard was returned with a look so full of surprise, admiration
and deference that I dared not a second time raise my glance to
his face.'
`Was it love at first sight, Clara?' asked Miss Hood smiling.
`I may as well confess at once. I was interested instantly in him,
and experienced from his gaze emotions hitherto entirely new to me.
He must have partaken of similar sensations, for he replied in a tone
that was slightly tremulous.'
`What did he say?'
`I have no recollections, I heard only his voice, but was too much
embarrassed to heed his words!'
`But was it not Freemantle, Clara?'
`Yes!'
`I thought so! I was sure of it! but why did he call himself Capain
Norman?'
`Because he knew that there was in port a British Frigate which
had once chased him as Freemantle in the British Cannel; and which
he had escaped from by shooting away his fore-top-mast. He, therefore,
on entering the harbor concealed his true name, assuming only
his first one. And to this day he is only spoken off there as Norman,
the Privateersman. No one knows him as Freemantle! At that
period there were American privateer-schooners cruising in the Indies!
'
`But did he not fear being taken by the English frigate as it was?'
`No. He knew that his services as the captor of Lef would protect
him from any such danger. Besides he did not come in in his own vessel
and under his own flag. But, nevertheless in going out again, he
feared if he should be known to be Freemantle, the frigate might sail
after him, while an unknown American by the name of Norman they
would suffer to pass unmolested in consideration of his services!'
`I understand it now!'
`The interview between Norman and myself lasted but five minutes
when the merchant departed with him. But if was a five minutes in
which was condensed the happiness of a life. I had invited him to return
to tea with the merchant and my elderly friend, and he promised
to do so.
He came. The moments were winged in his presence. We promenaded
the verandah leaving the two gentlemen over their sherbet and
hookahs. He talked to me of America. He discoursed to me of the
sea and his love! He recounted the dangers he had passed through,
by storm and battle. We wandered into the gardens. The starry sky
was over us, and the pleasant evening breeze was fragrant with the
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breath of flowers. We loitered on till we forgot there was any other
world than that of love. He told me the history of his life! He ended
by opening to me that of his heart. How eloqueutly did he discourse
of love. Not a word he breathed into my charmed ear that found not
an answering chord in my heart, You have seen him, Mary! You
have heard him speak!'
The young girl sighed as she answered, with trembling accents.
`Yes.'
`Do not marvel then that I yielded my spirit up a willing captive to
his eloquence. Ere we had returned to the verandah, he had declared
his deep passion.'
`And could you credit, dear Clara the existence of a true-hearted
love, formed in such a brief space of time?'
`Why should I have doubted when I found in my own heart a passion
that echoed his? I believed because I also loved!'
`Love is so very strange,' remarked the maiden, with a deep sigh.
`It is very strange, Mary, and I dare say you can say it is from your
own experience. But I will not cause you to blush, though you look so
lovely with a little more rose in your cheeks. I will go on with my
own loves. The ensuing morning as I was alone in a room that opened
into the garden singing to my lute, but with my thoughts upon the
young stranger whose name was on every tongue, he suddenly appeared
before me, and apologizing with a smile, for his intrusion, paid me
some compliments upon my singing, and asked me to repeat the song
for him. I did so. He joined in, with his deep, rich voice, and thus
in singing and conversation the hours fled. Thus day after day passed
for a week. Each morning—each evening he was in my presence
breathing vows of love and devotion. At length the hour came for
his departure. He came to take his leave of me. It was then I began
truly to feel how dear he had became. We parted in tears and
vows of constancy. He promised to return so soon as he could re-capture
his schooner, and once more give me his society; but in the interval
he said he should visit Canton if possible to get my father to assent
to our union!'
`And you would have married an unknown stranger, Clara.'
`He was not unknown. He had unfolded to me all his life from
boyhood! I knew him as if I had known him all my life. He opened
to me his heart and I beheld its truth! He unveiled to me the excellencies
of his mind and I saw how noble his intellect was! No, Clara,
he was far from being a stranger to me! Married him do you ask!—
Did I not marry him?'
`How, and where?'
`You shall hear! He departed. I saw him stand upon the deck of
his proa and wave to me his hand in adieu! I answered it, though
blinded with tears I could scarcely distinguish him. I followed the receding
vessel till its white sails faded into the blue mist of the horizon.'
`He had been gone twelve days when intelligence reached me that
my father was lying dangerously ill at Canton. My devotion to my father
was even superior to that of the new love, which during his absence
had been born in my heart. My grief at not being able to be
with him to nurse him almost maddened me. If I could have got any
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[figure description] Page 031.[end figure description]
captain to have taken me up the river it would have been death to have
been discovered there. But no captain would have received me on
board. In doing so he would risk the loss of his vessel. You may conceive
of my distress, dear Mary! My father lying ill but a day or two's
sail distance, and I, his only child, forbidden, by absurd laws, to soothe
his sufferings. The next day an English ship came in from the river
and not only confirmed the report brought by the first, but brought intelligence
that my dear father was much worse; and that the physician
at the Hong being also ill he had only the attendance of the native doctors,
whose treatment of fevers and all diseases is most barbarous. My
anxiety and grief combined with my indignation at the foolish regulations
which kept me away from him, nearly overthrew my reason. One
event alone saved it from wreck.'
`What was this, Clara?'
`The return of Norman! On the evening of the third day after I
got news of my father's situation he came into the harbor in his own
schooner under American colors. There was no English vessels of
war in port then and he knew he could enter with impunity.'
`And he had re-captured his vessel.'
`Yes, after a most severe conflict, and after the performance of
deeds of courage that are unparalelled. To relate to you the events of
the enterprize as he afterwards detailed them to me, Clara, would `fill a
volume' as the novel-writers say. I was first aware of his return by an
exclamation of one of the slaves who uttered his name in a loud tone.
I was at the moment reclining upon my divan in a state of exhaustion
from weeping. I rose with an electric thrill, and beheld him smiling
upon me. Regardless of the presence of the slaves I threw myself into
his arms! With the sight of him rose instantaneously an idea bright
with hope.'
`I told him of my father's situation and my deep grief, and my wish
to be near him.'
`I cannot go, Norman,' I cried, `but you can! Hasten to him!—
Watch over him! Be all to him that I would be.'
`And he went?' earnestly asked her lovely listener.
`You shall hear,' she answered, with an impressive cadence in her
voice, `and be prepared to be surprised, my dear cousin, more than at
any thing you have yet heard me relate.
-- 032 --
CHAPTER IX. THE INDIAN PRINCE.
[figure description] Page 032.[end figure description]
The young American girl bent forward more earnestly than before
to listen to the words of the beautiful East Indian.
`You can go if you will but give your consent,' continued Clara
Forrest, said Norman to me.'
`How?' I asked him with surprise.
`Clara! He answered, taking my hand and speaking in a tone of
passionate earnestness, our hearts are one let our fortunes be one!—
Consent to become my wedded wife and to-morrow with you on board
my schooner will I set sail for Canton.'
`I listened with surprise, but before I could object or utter a word
he continued a follows.'
`Your father is ill at Canton! You are in despair that you cannot
reach him to nurse him! You would send me to him in your stead!
I would gladly go, Clara, but you can go also. As my bride I can
take you without derision to your fair fame!'
`But how shall I be any safer in Canton as your wife,' I asked,
`than as I am, should I consent to go with you as I am? How would
my danger be lessened?'
`My plan is to haye you disguised in male attire and pass as a youth.
Under this disguise you can land with me in security. But that you
may go with me in this manner first become my bride, so that no stain
shall fasten upon your name by and by. You love me! You know
I adore you! We can keep the marriage a secret until a suitable opportunity
offers to make it known to your father and the world!'
`After much persuasion on his part I gave my consent to this step!
My love for him would not suffer me to say no, and my desire to see
my father hastened and confirmed my decision! So that very night we
were privately married by the English chaplain of the Port, who was
enjoined to, and promised secrecy until he was called upon to reveal
the evidence of the marriage. To no other person was it known save
my governess whom I made my confidant and whom I knew I could
trust. To her I unfolded all my motives and seeing that my happiness
was suspended on seeing my father she yielded, and not only witnessed
the ceremony but made all preparations for my instant departure.
She was to say that I had gone for a few days on a visit to the
interior to prevent exciting any curiosity as to my sudden absence.'
`How very strange all this seems to me,' said Mary Hood. `But do
not let my wondering exclamations interrupt you. It is natural as you
were already loved and betrothed to him that you should consent to
marry him under the circumstances you have described. It would
not have been proper for you to have gone disguised in male costume
with him to seek your father, unless you went under the sacred name
of wife!'
`Such were my own reasonings Mary. Had the circumstances been
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[figure description] Page 033.[end figure description]
different I should not have become his wife, dear as he was to me,
without my father's consent. But as I have never yet repented the
step I then took I will not make any effort to palliate it. It was the
result of peculiar circumstances. Without taking it I should be unable
to see my father; but by doing so I had the prospect of being by
his bedside within three days!'
`The next morning I went on board the schooner with my husband!—
`In female costume?'
`No,' answered Ellen slightly coloring and dropping her eyes. `I
had previously assumed that of a young East Indian Secretary, blue
loose trowsers flowing to the feet and a camiset or jacket of green
lawn, over which I wore a white linen scarf in the form of a mantle.
I cut off my hair, long and beautiful as it was, and wore a red cloth cap
with a band of gold lace. I carried at my girdle a box containing my
pen paper and ink and in all points I looked like a very smart young
clerk.'
`Your hair has grown out now! How I should like to have seen
you in that costume! I wonder Captain Freemantle should have consented
that you should part with your hair if it was as beautiful as it
is now!'
`He opposed it at first; but finally consented, as he wished me to
incur no risks! He, as well as I, knew that detection would be death.'
`What danger you were exposing your life to! What courage—
what love for your father you must have had! I look upon you, Clara,
with a sort of awe and admiration! You don't seem to me to be an
ordinary person! You have a spirit above a woman's.'
`No; believe me a woman's spirit and a woman's courage; both are
more elevated than those of the other sex! The courage of man is
aided and supported by a consciousness of physical power: that of
woman is solely dependent on its innate vigor and native energy. If
man possessed the courage of woman in addition to his physical strength,
he would be invincible! What woman lacks in strength of body is to
be found in her soul! But this is not my story!
`No one on board suspected me to be other than what I seemed—a
young Ceylonese secretary. My knowledge of the language aided my
part, and as I dyed my face and hands with the juice of a leaf peculiar
to that country, my disguise was perfect. As I regarded myself in the
glass, there was nothing of my former self I recognized save the expression
in my eyes. It seemed to me as if I was gazing upon a
strange Ceylon youth of sixteen.
`We reached the mouth of the river, and hoisting the Spanish flag
to escape the regard of English cruisers, we ascended towards Canton.
The winds and tides favored us and the third morning we reached
Canton. Norman would not suffer me to go to the American Hong by
myself, but being himself well known to some British officers, whom
he knew to be on shore, he did not know how to escape recognition
unless he disguised himself also. He therefore went in the boat to one
of the floating shops, streets of which stretched away upon the bosom
of the river on all sides of us, and returned with the rich costume of
an Indian Prince, which was the only complete suit that would fit him
-- 034 --
[figure description] Page 034.[end figure description]
that he could purchase. He put this on and with a little aid of art he
stood before me a complete representation of the character he had assumed.
`In the East, there are numerous small governments or clans which
are governed by hereditary chiefs, subject however to the English supremacy.
These chiefs are styled Princes; and their sons, all of them,
are so designated. It is not unusual to see several of these princes on
a visit to the English and American trading stations at the same time.
The appearance, therefore, of Norman on shore in this costume and
character, would not excite such particular attention as you would at
first suppose.
`We landed together, I acting the character of his secretary and
walking a little behind him. I should in a few minutes see my father
or be told that he no longer lived! My anxiety was very great. I did
not think of the danger I was now in on account of sex. I only
thought of my father. I inquired of a sea-captain (using broken
English) the direction to my fathers residence, which was over his
place of business. I approached it with trembling steps. Norman encouraged
me and bade me to hope for the best. He looked anxious
but it was for my safety. He knew that if I was suspected of being a
female, it would be the signal for an uproar among the Chinese, to
whose vengeance I should fall an instant sacrifice.
`I tremble for you, dear Clara, even now,' said Miss Hood shuddering.
`Upon inquiring of a slave at the entrance, I learned with joy that
my father was not only alive, but there were hopes of his recovery.
I asked to see him, but was told no one was permitted to do so. A
Chinese physician came forth and I was about to ask him for leave to
go in, when Norman checked me.'
`Do not speak. Your voice may betray you. Let no Chinese hear
your voice! Write a line in English and get this slave to take it into
him.'
`I wrote on a piece of paper these words:
`My dear father.
I heard of your illness at Macao. I could not remain there while
you where perhaps dying among strangers. I am here without your
door—protected by an unperceptible disguise. I have come to nurse
you. Do not be alarmed for my safety. I am disguised as a Ceylonese
clerk. I pray you send for me to come in that I may be with you.'
`I signed it with the initials of my name and sent it in to him by the
slave. In a few minutes he returned and told me to follow him. Norman
said he would accompany me. I passed along the corridor and
ascending a flight of stairs at its extremity, I found myself all at once
in the presence of my father. He had been lying upon a couch, but
was now raised upon his elbow keenly regarding my entrance with his
pale and emaciated features flushed by excitement. He had previously
sent his attendants from the room; and seeing that he was alone I
rushed forward and threw myself upon my knees before him and clasped
his head to my heart.'
`Clara,' he said in a tone so mournful and so full of reproof as he
returned my embrace; `you have done wrong—very wrong! This
-- 035 --
[figure description] Page 035.[end figure description]
only is wanting to destroy me! You must instantly leave this dangerous
spot. Have you come here that I may behold you torn limb from
limb by the infuriated Chinese!'
He could scarcely speak for debility struggling with emotion. I explained
to him my grief, and how I suffered on hearing of his illness,
and from the reflections that I was denied the happiness of being with
him. I laid before him all that I had endured and imploring his forgiveness,
implored him to suffer me to remain. At length he was softened,
and feeling more confidence in the security of my disguise he
promised that I should remain until he could be taken on board a ship
and conveyed to Macao, which he said would be in two or three days,
as he was anxious to get me out of the country. He at the same time
made me promise that I would not leave the house nor open my lips in
the presence of a Chinese. He then decided that I should remain as
a clerk engaged by him to record his will, and that no one should be
permitted to have access to me until I should be safely got aboard the
ship he intended to embark in, as soon as he could bear the motion of
a palanquin to take him to her.
`My father, now for the first time beheld Norman who had stood
back by the door where he could not be seen by one lying as my father
was. Norman advanced just as my father was asking me to explain
how I had come to Canton. `Who is this?' he asked with surprise.
I hesitated. I did not want to deceive my father! He was not in
a situation to hear without excitement, the truth. I hesitated, not knowing
how to reply, when Norman said, speaking in English, to which he
gave the Indian accent.
`I had a proa in Macao, Mandarin! I saw this youth in tears weeping
much to get to his father! I took him on board my vessel and to-day
we came to Canton!'
`Then he is ignorant of your sex?' inquired my father with a look
of great relief. `He supposes you are my son. Then half the danger
is lessened. You and I are the depositaries of this fatal secret.'
I bowed. I could not speak, for I had not the courage to give my
tongue to a falsehood. Yet for the present, while my father was so
weak, I felt that it was necessary to withold from him all the truth!'
-- 036 --
CHAPTER X. THE DISCOVERY.
[figure description] Page 036.[end figure description]
`For two days,' continued the fair East Indian bride, `I remained attending
upon my father, and preserving the closest disguise. He improved
rapidly after I came to him, and more than once expressed his
gratitude for my love and care. Nevertheless he remained deeply solicitous
for my safety; and feared each moment when some untoward
circumstance should expose me to the rage of the multitude. For myself
I experienced no fears. I felt secure in my assumed costume, and
the satisfaction of being with my father and witnessing his rapid convalescence
rendered me insensible to any of the consequences by which
I purchased such sweet happiness.
`Where was Norman the meanwhile?'
`He had taken lodgings in a house directly opposite my father's and
there he watched over my safety, but without betraying his interest in
me in such a way as to draw attention. While my father slept in the
heat of the day he would come over and converse with me upon the future.
I told him that my father had determined as soon as he could be
removed to go on board the American ship, `William Grey,' then lying
in the river, and proceed to Macao for the purpose of returning me
there in safety. Norman proposed to offer his own vessel which still
lay below the town under her Spanish colors. To this I objected, and
proposed that he should permit me to return to Macao with my father,
and that he should follow me in the schooner, and visit me at my father's,
and there together we would unfold to him our union, and so explain
the motives as easily to obtain his recognition of it. To this
step Norman gave his consent; and said he would only remain where
he was until he saw me safely on board the American ship, and then
weigh anchor and follow us.
One morning while we were thus conversing earnestly together, Norman
standing in the paved passage of the house, and I leaning out to
him over a latticed window that opened from my father's room into the
passage, I suddenly heard my father call me by name. I looked round
and saw him seated up in his couch and regarding us closely, and with
a look of displeasure. I had supposed him asleep, as he did not usually
awake till an hour later. At a look from me, Norman retired,
while I hastened to my father.
`Clara, I like not this intimacy with this young Prince. Why is he
here and what do you discourse upon in such low tones? Did I not
pay him one hundred dollars for your passage in his vessel? Why
does he come here? Are you interested in him? Is he in you? If
so he knows you are not what you seem!'
`He would inquire after your health, sir,' I answered, not knowing
what to say; and I am confident my face betrayed my embarrassment
-- 037 --
[figure description] Page 037.[end figure description]
For a moment I was deliberating about confessing all to him; when to
my surprise he rose up and stood upon his feet.
`I am well, you see, Clara! Your increasing dangers have inspired
me with health. This very hour you must prepare to go on board with
me! I can bear the fatigue. I am satisfied that young Prince is
aware of your sex. The expression of his eyes as he looked upon you
was not such as men regard those of their own sex with. My confidence
in you is not moved, but I fear the worst from his knowledge of
your sex. If you repulse his attentions, and he sees fit to avenge himself
by exposing your true character, you would fall a victim to your
rashness in coming to see me, kind as was the motive.'
Thus my father spoke to me. I knew that in his present mood I
should gain nothing by revealing who the Prince was, and the dear relation
in which he stood to me; and I resolved to defer it till we should
reach Macao. Towards evening his Chinese physician came in and
expressed his astonishment at his improved appearance, but after feeling
his pulse recommended quiet. My father told him he should the
next morning go on board the ship in his palanquin. The Chinese objected
on the ground of imprudence but my father was positive. As
the Chinese came in I busied myself with my writing materials so that
I might not draw his attention too closely upon myself.
`Your secretary may destroy your will now,' he said, looking at me.
`Yes. I am getting well,' replied my father. `I shall need neither
will nor docters! You may give me your account for services!'
`In one moment it can be drawn up. With your leave I will write
the sun here,' he said, approaching me.
`No—no—not now! To-morrow,' cried my father, earnestly, and
with agitation enough to betray me, had the Chinese previously had the
least suspicion of the truth. I kept my seat and preserved the composure
of my countenance. I gave him my pen and pointed to the paper
before me! I remained perfectly quiet while he wrote. He then returned
me the pen and as he took it I saw his eye rest upon my hand
an instant.'
`What a moment of danger. He was struck with its very small size
and perfect whiteness, I have no doubt,' said Mary Hood.
`From my hand his block head-like eyes glanced at my face, and he
seemed for a moment to be scanning my features.
`Of what nature is your secretary?' he asked, looking at my father.
`Of mixed blood.'
`He has a hand like that of an English woman, whose pulse I once
examined at Macao. I have never seen such a hand since. And what
is more his face is strikingly like hers.'
`What woman?' gasped my father.
`The Chinese named my mother by her maiden name. He said it
was eighteen years before. I thought my father would have fainted —
It was with difficulty I could command my self-possession at so trying a
moment. The Chinese flew to my father and would have applied restoratives;
but seeing my coolness my father rallied. The Chinese doctor
then returned to my desk on which he had left his bill; as he took
it up he eyed me with a close look, so strange and peculiar that it made
me shudder involuntarily. The next moment he left the apartment,
-- 038 --
[figure description] Page 038.[end figure description]
and from the lingering glance of suspicion he gave me as he went ont.
I was convinced that by some means or other he had seen through my
deception.
`Clara,' exclaimed my father, `that man has discovered your sex!
He is a physician, and a man also, singularly observing. He has penetrated
your disguise! He hastens to the authorities. You must fly
this moment. The danger is imminet! Oh, how could you be so rash
as to place yourself in such peril. Fly to the house of the American
Consul this moment. Declare who you are and apply to him to get you
conveyed to the ship without delay. I will order my palanquim and follow
with as much despatch as possible.'
I felt the whole force of my danger. I was however calm and perfectly
self-possessed. I fled to my dear father, hurriedly embraced him
and hastened from the house. On reaching the outer door I looked
earnestly towards the dwelling on the opposite side hoping to see Norman.
I crossed the street and inquired of a slave if he was in. He
said he had been out three or four hours. The secret hope of his aid
took flight at this announcement, and looking round to see that I was
not observed by the Chinese doctor, I went at as quick a pace as I
dared, (for I did not wish, in case the Doctor should see me, to appear
to be fleeing) I proceeded in the direction of the American Consul's
which I knew to be on the opposite side of the square.
I had got about half way across the square when I saw the Chinese
physician approaching followed by six men, whom from their badges
and dress I knew to be officers of the Chinese police.
I knew then that I was discovered and that they were probably going
to my father's to seize me or to ascertain if their suspicions were
correct. The Chinese saw me and shouted! I instantly turned aside
as they were between me and the consul's and tried to gain the quay
where I saw several English and American boat's crews with their
boats waiting to return to their ships. To reach them and cast myself
upon their protection was my only hope of safety. I fled like the wind.
I had all my faculties of self-possession about me. If I had been overcome
by any fear I should have fallen to the ground. The shout of
the Chinese doctor was caught up by the officers with him, and echoed
by the others; and the cry in Chinese of `A woman—an English woman!
' resounded through the square! As I was observed to be flying
as if from pursuit all eyes were directed towards me and a hundred
feet thundered behind me. I had but one object in view—to gain
the boats! Each instant I got nearer and nearer to them, but my pursuers
ran faster than I, while others crossing the square endeavored to
stop me. Behind and around me I heard louder and fiercer the terrible
cry of vengeance! I was within twenty feet of the boats! My
enemies were not half that distance behind me! The seamen had heard
the cry and understood it! They were English and French and about
twenty in all. Seizing oars and other weapons they sprang to the shore
to protect me crying `She is an English girl under false colors! Let
us keep the bloody Chinese off!' Their words sounded like the voice
of Hope! I gathered new confidence and bounded onward. But the
hand of the Chinese doctor was laid on my shoulder and I believed that
my last hour was come! At this instant my eyes fell on the form of
-- 039 --
[figure description] Page 039.[end figure description]
my husband standing up in his boat which was approaching the pier
with astonishing swiftness. He waved his hand to me in token of his
knowledge of my danger and leaping to the shore called on his men to
follow him. I heard his voice above the shouts of rage uttered by the
Chinese! I heard him cheering on the seamen! The Chinese were
dragging me away! I heard pistols fired and saw cutlasses flashing in
the air above the heads of the maddened multitude. Nearer and nearer
sounded the voice of my husband. Steel clashed against steel around
me! My eye-sight became obscured! I felt warm blood upon my
hands. Groans filled my ears. The strong grasp of the Chinese who
held me relaxed, and I retained my consciousness just long enough to
feel that I was clasped to the bosom of my husband, when I became
insensible.'
The young wife of the privateersman paused a moment as if affected
even now by the recollection of peril. Mary Hood expressed her emotions
by tears and exclamations of surprise and sympathy. After a brief
pause, the fair narrator continued her narrative.
-- 040 --
CHAPTER XI. THE WRECK.
[figure description] Page 040.[end figure description]
`When I recovered my consciousness,' continued the daughter of
the Indian Merchant, `I found myself in the cabin of the Americanship—
Norman was bending over me! After I was able to listen he told
me that he had gone to his schooner that day for the purpose of resuming
his American costume, for the English officers by whom he did not
wish to be recognised had left the place. He wished to return as an
American and thus presenting himself before my father, claim me as
his bride. On his way back, and when his boat was near the landing,
he witnessed the excitement on shore and recognised me as I flew before
my pursuers. The rest you know Clara!'
`What a fortunate escape! How romantic! and how brave and noble
he is!' said Mary Hood in tones of strong admiration for the hero
of her friend's story; and the fact that that very hero had been in her
presence that day she could scarcely realize. `But how came you on
board the American vessel?'
`Norman proceeded to tell me. He said that after he succeeded in
getting me into his boat and his oarsmen had got some ways out from
the landing, numerous boats crowded with the Chinese also put off and
gave him chase with loud cries. He said that to have reached his own
vessel without being overtaken would have been impossible, and seeing
that he was much nearer the `William Grey' he directed his men to
make for her; and he just succeeded in getting on board with me when
the Chinese boats to the number of a hundred, surrounded the ship.—
The pursuers were, however, prevented from coming on board by the
interposition of a French brig of war lying near, and finding that their
prey had escaped them they reluctantly pulled back towards the city!'
`Your father will be on board soon,' said Norman to me. `He has
already been advised of your safety. As the ship will weigh the instant
he comes along side, I will leave you in charge of your friend here Captain
Ferris and proceed to get my own vessel under sail! I will follow
you' he added in a low tone, for the Captain of the ship that moment
entered the cabin; `and be at Macoa as soon as you are there!
I will then wait on your father and declare to him our union, and
obtain his sanction!'
`But would he have been pleased at your marrying a stranger and a
privateersman!'
`Norman was not a stranger to me! I knew all his history! To be
a privateersman is not dishonorable, else Norman would not be one!—
It is an honorable mode of warfare—though, it is true, men without
honor often command privateers. As to his family he is noble!'
`Noble?'
-- 041 --
[figure description] Page 041.[end figure description]
`Yes. He is descended from a noble Irish family!'
`Is Norman Irish?'
`Why this surprise. You must not judge of the Irish, Mary, from
those you see in this country. The Irish gentleman rarely comes this
side of the sea; though in the southern states some of the most distinguished
families, Norman tells me, are descended from Irish ancestors.
A southerner's idea of an Irishman is very wide from yours as a northerner.
Two very opposite classes settle in each portion of the country.
The south the Irish gentleman seeks as his abode. The north is the
Irish peasants home. Here he can find labor. In the south the slave
takes his place. Believe me, dear Mary, the true Irish gentleman is the
truest nobleman of the earth.'
`I thought it strange if Freemantle was an Englishman that he should
fight against his own country.'
`As an Irishman he is the friend to the free. He recognises no claim
that England has upon his loyalty. He feels that she holds her dominion
over his green island by right of conquest alone; and his heart
throbs in sympathy with the great heart of liberty which gives life to
America.
But I forget my story. My father came on board and embraced me
as if I had been restored to him from the grave. We passed down the
river with a fair wind. I went on deck at sunset and far astern I recognised
my husband's schooner under Spanish colors close following in
our wake.'
`Did not your father know who saved you?'
`He was told by the captain of the ship that it was the commander
of a Spanish schooner; and when he bade me relate to him the circumstances
he said he never should feel right until he had seen and expressed
his grateful acknowledgments to the young stranger.'
`And did you not then tell him?'
`No. I waited till I should reach home and Norman should be with
me to plead, by his presence, his own case. The next day we left the
mouth of the river, the schooner still in sight, and were crossing the
channel with a fair wind when we were met by one of those terrific
Monsoons which at that season sweep the Indian seas. It lasted three
days with terrible violence, driving us eastward. On the fourth morning
we found ourselves at about six hundred miles to the east of Macao
and our ship in a very unsafe condition. The Captain bore up for the
first port and in entering it we struck upon a rock and the ship parted.
We were saved by the boats. The place at which we landed was an
obscure port in Spain; and there we remained five weeks before we
could obtain conveyance from the island. The vessel in which we took
passage was a chinese coaster, and after two weeks beating to windward
we reached Macao.
We found on arriving there that we had been given over as lost; and
a statement to this effect was published in the Gazette.
`My first inquiries were if a schooner answering the description of
Norman's had been there; and to my great grief and disappointment,
as you may conceive, I learned that it had sailed away only two days
before.
`While I was sympathising with Norman's grief for my supposed
-- 042 --
[figure description] Page 042.[end figure description]
loss, my friend the elderly gentleman, came in and handed me a letter,
saying,
`The brave captor of Lif, who thank heaven has been beheaded, has
been thrice into the harbour in the last two months. He came hoping
to hear from you—so you see you have made an impression. He was
very sad when he had at last to believe that you were dead. He left in
great melancholly two days ago, leaving with me this letter which I
was to give you should you re-appear, (of which he had little hopes,
for his own vessel scarcely outlived the monsoon,) and if not destroy
it.'
`You may judge, dear Mary, with what emotions I seized the letter;
as soon as I could I hastened away to read it where the emotions of my
countenance could not be observed.'
`Have you got the letter, Clara?'
`I have it, and also have it in my memory, You shall know the
purport of it. It informed me that he still had faint hopes of my being
yet alive, and that in that hope he addressed me. He said that he had
been three times into Macao, hoping that intelligence had reached them
from us, but that now he could no longer remain, as his crew insisted
on returning to the United States; and you know that the crew of a
Privateer, are almost as independent as their commander. He said that
he should cruise in the Atlantic after reaching the United States until
he should hear from me, if I were still alive, and that I must address
him at Boston. This was the substance of the letter, Mary.'
You may be assured that I lost no time in informing him of my
safety; and as my father had decided on account of his health to close
his business in India and return to the United States, I was able to
communicate in the same letter this intelligence to him; and desiring
him not to sail again for India to meet me, but await me at Boston. I
at the same time wrote him that he should soon learn from me about
what time we should sail and probably what ship we should take passage
in.'
`And did you write him before you sailed?' asked Mary Hood earnestly.
`Yes.'
`Then he must have suspected that you were on board the Indiaman
and this accounts for his persevering efforts to save her from capture
by the sloop.'
`He has since told me he had a presentiment that I was in the vessel,
though he did not know her to be the one I had written we should
embark in. Now you know, dear Mary, my whole history thus far.'
`It is as interesting as a romance. What a heroine! And he what
a hero! And have you not yet told your father that you are married?'
`No. Norman in his letter left for me, had advised me to keep it secret
until he should have an opportunity of revealing it himself.'
`And will he do so?'
`As soon as he returns from Boston. He will then have an interview
with my father and unfold all.'
`Do you fear the result?'
`No. When my father learns that it is the same stranger who saved
me from the rage of the Chinese, and who saved both himself aud me,
-- 043 --
[figure description] Page 043.[end figure description]
from capture by the British, I do not fear the result. Norman has certainly
won me since I became his bride.'
`He has indeed. Oh, I have the most lively curiosity to know how
it will terminate. I do hope your father will receive the intelligence
kindly,'
`I am sure he will!'
`You are at least married, and this he cannot prevent! He must
consent!'
`Norman will not at first tell him he is married to me! He will
first unfold to him all that has transpired and which you know; and as
I shall be present, I shall corroborate each part of his narrative. Norman
will at last make known to him our union. My father will be very
much surprised, but I have no doubt that he will give it his sanction;
for he lies under too great an obligation to Norman to refuse it. The
sun is already down. Let us return to the house fair couzin!'
`But first tell me the meaning of the device upon the flag of your bold
Privateer?'
`A green mantle flying free in the wind?'
`Yes.'
`It is the emblem of his house! One of the ancestors of his family,
the Founder of it indeed, was besieged in his castle by an army of
Britons. He sallied out of his gates upon them carrying in his hand
his banner. It was struck from his grasp by a knight and the banner
was trampled upon the earth. The warrior instantly took from his
shoulders his mantle and fastening it to a spear waved on his followers.
The spear was wrested from him in the fight and broken, when the
mantle flying loose upon the wind floated in the air above his head and
remained thus, sustained by the wind, until the Irish Chief had fairly
routed his foes and victory declared on his side. This is the legend!
From this miraculous event, a mantle floating free in the air, was adopted
as the insignia of his house. Norman has recently learned that the
present representative of his family, Earl Freemantle, is an usurper,
and that the title vested in his own father who was the first heir, but
who had not only been defrauded out of his lawful rights by this brother,
but by his wicked influence expelled the country on a charge of
being the leader of one of the factions that some years since divided
Ireland. To call this uncle to an account, he will visit Great Britain
as soon as this war is ended.
With one more chapter we bring our romance to a termination.
-- 044 --
CHAPTER XII. CONCLUSION.
[figure description] Page 044.[end figure description]
The morning after Herbert Vincent's visit to the prison in which
Keith was confirmed, he was pacing the deck of the privateer as she
lay at anchor off the north pier. He was revolving in his mind a plan,
which he had conceived from the first moment of his interview with
Freemantle, of taking the command of the privateer into his own
hands even at the expeuse of blood. There was in the character of
this young man a feeling of reckless desperation, engendered by the
circumstances in which his conduct as an officer in the Navy had
placed him. He felt that he had forfeited his portion in society, and
that upright men regarded him with distrust and withheld their confidence.
But more than by these considerations was he annoyed, by
the withdrawal of the confidence of Col. Hood and of Henry. He was
fully aware that they would never give their consent to his union with
Mary; and that if he wished to make her, who he believed was still attached
to him, his wife, it must be done by stratagem. He, however,
was too well acquainted with the pure morality and high sense of filial
obedience of the young girl to hope that she would yield her consent to
a clandestine union with him, however strong might be her attachment
to him.
He had, therefore, conceived the idea of getting possession of Freemantle's
vessel, and anchoring her off the villa endeavor to get her into
his possession and so compel her to a union with him. His subsequent
course he had not clearly decided upon; his first movement would be
to get possession of the schooner; his second to get Mary Hood into
his power. The future he left to be decided by circumstances. If
the war continued he resolved to pursue a course of privateering adventure;
and should it terminate he knew that there was upon the wide
sea a field for the most daring enterprize.
As he paced up and down the deck he occasionally looked shore-ward
with an earnest scrutiny, as if in search of some object. At
length he saw a small boat put off from an inlet point near the customhouse
dock and approach the schooner. As it came near he recognised
the tall figure of Keith, though disguised in a truckman's frock.
`So you have escaped without giving alarm,' he said to the
-- 045 --
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Englishman as he came upon deck; and addressing him in a tone that his men
could not overhear.
`Yes; I am here. I met with no difficulty. My disguise was faithful
to me. My men will be free to night by their underground passage.'
`Your men I don't want! I will take you on board. Captain, on the
terms agreed on.'
`I have come alone as you see! I agree to the conditions. You
have a fine craft here!'
`Yes. With your aid in twenty-four hours I will be master of her
and you second in command! I have full authority now on board. The
mate whose place I have taken left yesterday. I wait only for Freemantle.
He is in the city and sent me word he should be on board at
ten. My boat is on shore waiting for him! Remove your frock, Captain
Keith, and go forward and comport yourself as one of the crew.
You will sound each man.'
`I know my duty,' answered the Englishman in a tone somewhat
imperious. Nevertheless he moved slowly forward and mingled with
the men. The privateer's boat was now visible, approaching from the
pier. As she came near, Herbert saw that Freemantle was on board.'
`So, sir, you are at your post,' he said as he stepped on deck, addressing
Vincent in a tone friendly but with the air of a superior.
`It is so great an honor to hold command under you, Captain Freemantle,
that I have not let any delay intervene between my appointment
and the assumption of my duties.'
`I saw my mate on shore! He told me he had resigned his place to
you. If you please, I will take the ring by virtue of which you were
enabled to assume command. Now I have news to communicate to
you. Intelligence has just reached the city that a treaty of peace has
been concluded.'
`Concluded?' repeated Vincent with surprise.
`Yes. Henceforth my vocation as a Privateersman is at an end.'
`And mine also, I suppose,' responded Herbert, not making any effort
to disguise his mortification.
`Yes, as my second in command! But as I know you desire to be at
sea, and might not love so soon to resign and stay on shore, (though
for the present I am not sorry to cast anchor on the land awhile,) I am
willing you should take the command of the vessel, if you will accept
it, and run her to the West Indies as a trader! You can make
money in this way, and I am content with a fair share of the proceeds
of your adventures!'
Herbert was silent for a moment or two. This proposition with the
news of peace and of Freemantle's intention to remain on shore, gave
a new aspect to affairs. He did not regret that an opportunity for possessing
himself of the schooner without bloodshed, was thus thrust into
his hands by the retirement of her late commander. He saw that by
complying with his proposal the schooner was virtually his; for the idea
of ever returning with her to Boston, was not in his mind.
`I will take the schooner as you propose, Captain Freemantle,' he
replied. `You honor me with such confidence in me.'
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`If I had not confidence in you, Mr. Vincent, as a gentleman and
sailor, I certainly should not make this proposal to you,' answered
Freemantle, who had no suspicion of the true character of the unprincipled
young man. He knew he had been an officer in the navy
and that he had been cashiered; but Mary Hood, with whom he had
conversed about Vincent, had explained the circumstances to him so
as to exculpate him in his mind from any act dishonorable to his reputation.
He knew also that he was a young man of good family, and
in the possession of no inconsiderable property. He, therefore, gave
him his confidence.
After remaining on board an hour with Vincent, Freemantle took
his leave, and Herbert followed his retiring boat with looks of exultation.
`Now am I master here, thanks to the credulity of one who has
more courage than caution in his make. A trader to the Havana! We
shall see when we get outside! The wide sea is all before me where
to choose. But I must first sound my men! I must see who will go
with me! I would Keith were now safely back in prison, for I have
more fear of him than need of him now, that Freemantle has given up
the vessel of his own accord. I must get rid of him! Then I must
get possession of my sweet bride elect, and then circumstances shall
govern my future movements.'
Herbert now called Keith aft and informed him of what had occurred,
and told him in a very positive manner that he wished him no
longer to remain on board! The Englishman at first refused to go on
shore; but Vincent threatened to give him up to the authorities, when
he suffered himself to be set on shore after night-fall. Vincent then
made an address to the crew: informed them of the Peace, and gave
them their choice to go on shore or follow his adventures. Thirty
men, only forty in number, consented to go with him. The rest chose
to go ashore.
`Now am I indeed master here!' said Hebert, as the last boat left
with those who did not wish to follow the fortunes of the new captain;
though he had merely said he was going on a trading voyage to the West
Indies. `I have men enough for my present purposes. To-morrow,
Freemantle says he will be on board to give me the proper papers and
conclude the arrangements for my assuming the command and settling
with the men. I shall not wait for him.'
Thus deciding, he gave orders to his men to weigh anchor in silence.
Keith, the Englishman, after being landed, remained upon the pierhead
gazing back upon the schooner dimly seen through the gloom of
the night. His breast was fired with rage. He paced up and down
the wharf planning some scheme of vengeance. While thus engaged
he saw the schooner's boats come ashore with the men. He questioned
them and learned that they had declined remaining in the vessel now
peace was declared.
`If I only had my own men free with me,' he said as he walked
aside alone, after the privateer's crew had gone up the wharf, `I would
try and take her at anchor. I will go back and spy about round the
prison to see if there is any prospect of the men getting out.'
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He was about to move up the wharf when three men passed him hurriedly.
He recognized one of them by his height and walk.
`Crossel!' he called in an under tone.
`Ah, Captain, is it you?'
`When did you escape?'
`Just now! Not ten minutes ago! The rest are coming in parties
of two's and three's so as not to draw attention. Our plan was to reach
the North Pier and by means of shore boats, board some vessel, take
her and make sail. But how came you to desert us! We are afraid to
trust you.'
`I only escaped first to lay my plans and have already! Come under
this boat house; and as your comrades come down call them in here!
There is an armed schooner with only thirty men on board, lying
abreast the pier,' he said addressing all the men when they at length
arrived at their rendesvouz; `you can just see her outline. That vessel
must be ours! Let us remain here concealed for an hour or two,
till all is quiet, and then we will possess ourselves of these shore boats
tied at the stairs and pull out for the schooner.'
The proposal was received by all with a murmur of deep satisfaction.
Every man provided himself with oaken staves from a pile near them,
and just as the old North tolled eleven they filled three boats and pulled
swiftly and noiseless towards the schooner.
The crew were at the windlass or aloft loosing sails; and the Englishman
and his men were upon the deck and upon them ere they were
aware of his approach along side. They were struck down by the oaken
weapons of the boarders and overpowered. The deck of the privateer
was in less than two minutes in the hands of Keith, and Herbert
Vincent a prisoner in his own cabin.
There was no delay in weighing the anchor. The English crew
took the place of the discomfitted privateersmen at the windless. In
an hour afterwards the Privateer was bowling along past Boston light
before a strong norwester, and at day-light she was invisible beyond
the horizon. Three weeks afterwards an armed schooner was wrecked
in a tornado upon the Double Headed shot keys. Two bodies only
were washed on shore. One of these was Keith the Englishman; the
other that of Herbert Vincent, bound in chains.
We now return to Freemantle and the villa. He returned the next
day to the residence of Colonel Hood and mentioned the unaccountable
disappearance of Herbert with the schooner in the night; and from
Colonel Hood he received so clear and plain a history of Herbert's character,
that he was satisfied he had gone with the vessel upon some lawless
expedition.
The young privateersman now sought an interview with Mr. Forrest.
The result was that Freemantle and his bride knelt side by side before
him and received his blessing. We shall not attempt to describe the
surprise of all on learning that they were bridegroom and bride. Colonel
Hood made Clara relate the whole story of their loves and adventures.
The effect of this intelligence upon the sensitive mind of
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Henry Hood was painful in the extreme. He withdrew from society and
gave himself up to melancholy, and at the expiration of a year he
buried his disappointment in the repose of the grave.
When certain information reached the Villa that Herbert Vincent
was no more, the grief of Mary Hood was lessened and mitigated by
the reflection that if he had lived and pursued his career he might
have blackened his life by crime and ended it with ignominy. She
eventually recovered from her misplaced passion, and subsequently
married a nephew of `the elderly gentleman,' whom Clara had left in
India, whither she at length repaired to reside and realize all the charms
of a land which in her imagination had hitherto been one of fable and
fiction.
Freemantle, shortly after the recognition of his marriage by Mr.
Forrest, visited Ireland, and ultimately succeeded in establishing his
claim to the heriditary seat of his noble ancestry, of whose courage
and virtues he was a noble and faithful representation.
THE END.
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