CHAPTER XIX. The Strange Sail.
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The maiden stood amazed with grief
and anger. She felt that there was no
safety now for the ship, but in the interposing
providence of God.
`You have no right, sir, to take advantage
of my brother's love for me, to
make him do this great crime.'
`I will answer you in your own words.
Did you not take advantage of George
Hunnewell's love for you, to make him
pilot that ship in?'
`Father, you speak of George,' she
said, suddenly. `Where is he? I heard
the negro say that he had not been at
home since last evening. He said that
he had hid to escape going pilot in the
frigate.'
`I don't know what has become of
him,' answered William Northrop, without
looking her in the face. `Doubtless
he is hid at some of the Indian camps.'
`If he did not wish to pilot the ship,
there was no body to compel him. It
can't be for this he has absented himself.—
I fear that some evil has happened to
him!'
`There goes the frigate's gun, the signal
for sailing,' exclaimed her father, as
if not wishing to reply to her question.—
`See how the convass unfolds itself like
great white wings, and spreads its volumes
upon the air. The wind is a strong
eight knotter, and will give her a firm
headway for Tom's purpose.'
`Oh, horrible. Father, save them.'
`It is too late were I so inclined. But
I would never stretch out a hand to save
all the English in England from perishing.
Ha! there is a sail in the west.—
Square-rigged and large. Now this is
my man for a hundred.'
`What man?'
`An American frigate. Three days
ago I dispatched Natanah to Portland to
give immediate information of the situation
of the ship in the bay here; and
letting the authorities know what an easy
prize she would be. That vessel is the
ready response.'
The strange sail had also been discovered
from the ship, and the preparations
for getting under weigh were hastened.
In a few minutes the frigate
moved slowly from her anchorage, and
with the sun shining brightly upon her
blood-red flag, moved down the bay.
`That is an American frigate,' said the
fisherman. `I can't be mistaken now.
She comes on at a slapping pace. I begin
to feel sorry that I ordered Tom to
wreck her. I should like to have seen
an action between them. But the American
will only come up to find her enemy
going to pieces on the rocks.'
`Oh, horrible!' cried May, with deep
emotion.
`See! The English vessel hauls the
wind. What is this manœuvre. She is
tacking and running back to her moorings.
What can this mean? I see now.
She is satisfied that she cannot help coming
to action if she runs out, (for by this
time they can make out with their glass
what the stranger is,) and so seeks shelter
in the bay, trusting to its difficult entrance.
She would rather be blockaded
than risk a fight with her imperfect repairs.
That is it, depend on it.'
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`Then I am rejoiced. Tom cannot
have an opportunity of wrecking her.'
`No; but the American, if he has a
pilot, will come closely in and attack
her, whenever she can lay her aboard.—
See how gallantly the Yankee frigate
marches on.'
The interest of the scene was naturally
increasing. The American frigate
was about four miles off, when she displayed
her colours, and fired a gun to
leeward. The Englishman took no notice
of it, but running up the bay came
to anchor with springs on her cables,
farther in shore than she had been anchored
before, and close under the cliff,
leaving a shoal between her position and
any direct approach abeam. Here, full
in sight of Northrop, May and the Indian,
who had joined them, they prepared for
action and desperate resistance. The
American came abreast of the harbour,
and signalized, as Northrop supposed,
for a pilot.
`I will answer that,' cried Northrop.
`Stay, father. There goes another
signal, and a gun is fired. It may not
be for a pilot, for she is again standing
in!'
`You are right. It was a challenge
for the Englishman to come out. John
Bull remains doggedly silent. Now, my
girl, we shall look down upon the first
fight ever our eyes beheld.'
`Not mine. I could not bear to see
men slay each other. Oh, that peace
would reign here this day, instead of
war!'
`That American ship has a pilot, May,
and one who knows the channel as well
as he does the way to his mouth. See
how he hugs the bold rock, and now luffs
to pass the little Egg shoal, which has
not a buoy to mark it, and can only be
known by the best pilots. Look at that
sudden keeping away as she turns the
head-land. The channel there is hardly
broader than the frigate's beam, and she
keeps it as if it was fenced out for her.
I would lay you a wager that the man
who is at that helm, was born and raised
about this bay. I know of but one person
who could take a ship in so, as this
one is walking in.'
`And he—'
`Is old Hunnewell, the uncle of young
George. But he is blind now, and good
for nothing. Now watch her double the
Porpus ledge. That was done just as I
should have done it!'
`In the same way George brought the
English frigate in!'
`It was a bad way for him as he will
find ere he grows older. If I did not
know better I should say he was in that
Yankee frigate, with his hand upon her
helm. But it can't be?'
`Can't be? You speak as if you knew
where George is?'
`I don't know.'
`Then why may it not be he? We
know not where he is.'
`He couldn't very well have gone to
Boston and now come down in her since
yesterday afternoon, when they say, he
was at home. He did not know the ship
was coming to hunt up the Englishman.
I did not trust him with the secret, lest
he should blab!'
`He should never have breathed it,
sir. This is a difficult matter, father.—
George would sacredly have kept the
secret. To have betrayed the knowledge
of it to the English captain and given him
an opportunity te escape, that would have
been treason. George is incapable of
any such treachery. To save, an enemy's
ship from wreck in a storm is one
thing, and to warn her of an enemy's approach
is another. You wronged him,
sir. I helieve if George had known that
this frigate was coming, he would have
gladly gone on to Boston, and came
down in her to pilot her in.'
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`Nay, sir, he would not have hesitated,
after he had got the English ship
into port in safety, and so done his duty
in that point, to have been the messenger
to bring the American ship down upon
her to capture her.'
`If he had done so, he might have
saved himself from the fate that is likely
to be his.'
`Sir, you know something of him.
You speak mysteriously. What meaning
lies beneath that dreadful look?'
`I know nothing about him; at least,
I can't talk now. I am too busy watching
these ships. We shall have a fair
fight of it. See how the English make
ready on their deck! They mean to
make a desperate resistance. The American
is her equal in guns and men. See
how gallantly she comes into the bay,
with royals aloft and topsails on the caps.
She is taking in sail, and means to take
the matter coolly. There goes up her
fighting flag; and see the flash! She fires
a gun to leeward in defiance. Hark!
the shot has struck the cliff directly above
the frigate's stern. There will be warm
work soon down there, Natanah!'
`Hoogh! Yes. White man make
blood plenty now. Big fight by'm bye.
Me bring dat ship.'
`Oh, what a dreadful stillness! it is
awful to see that noble ship come on so
charged with death,' said May. `I cannot
look longer.'
`Courage, girl,' said William Northrop,
his face beaming with warlike animation.
`I would give all I am worth
to be in the melee. Look on and see
now. They will soon come to the muzzle.
But I would like to know who is at
the helm of that ship!'
The American was now within half a
mile of the English frigate, and as she
was advancing she was clewing up and
getting ready for action. She stood on
past the Englishman's beam, and then
tacked just where she should to avoid
and pass inside of the shoal, beyond
which the Cœur de Lion had anchored.
`Now the man that is at the helm of
that frigate is either George Hunnewelt
or the devil in his shape.'
`It is George! I know him even at
this distance!' almost shrieked May
Fawn.
`I do believe it is he and no one else,'
answered Northrop with a look of amazement,
which, as his opinion became confirmed
by a closer survey, changed into
displeasure. `They have deceived me,
the villains!' he uttered. `Here, when I
supposed he was safe in the Bath jail, I
find him piloting the American frigate
in and bringing her up in line of battle
with the very English frigate for saving
which I had hoped to have had him
hanged.'
May waved her hand and her scarf to
the frigate, and saw with tears of joy that
her signal was seen and answered by
George.
It was indeed her lover, and by his
side was also recognised the Indian lad,
`White Teeth.'
We will now show the reader, as in
duty bound, how they both came there.
William Northrop's hostility to him
has already been seen. He had never
spoken kindly to him since he first saw
that he came to the cottage to visit his
daughter. He opposed his suit for her
hand and treated him rudely. He forbade
him to visit the bay or speak to May in
any place.
The maiden had always liked George,
and felt pleased whenever he came to
see her. But still she did not return his
passion with that warmth which he looked
for. Indeed, she disguised her real
feelings, which were kindly, under an
air of pretty coquettry. She did not wish
to be too proud and too happy all at once.
But the storm and the danger of the
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English frigate, as we have seen, created
a revolution in her feelings; and the price
of her love became the safety of the endangered
ship.
When Northrop, after his rescue, saw
how rapidly affairs had ripened, his bitterness
against the young man was increased.
It made but little difference with
William Northrop whether George Hunnewell
had piloted an English or a Dutch
ship into the bay and saved her, though
he would gladly the Englishman should
have perished. But he saw that by taking
advantage of this act of the young
man's, he could have him arrested as a
traitor, and so for ever removed from the
presence of May.
There was no particular reason why
he should dislike George more than any
others of the smart young fishermen who
had set their caps for May; only that he
was the most successful one, The truth
was, William Northrop was so jealous of
his daughter's love, that he feared to
have her affections turned upon any one
save himself. She was all he loved on
earth; and he was resolved that he should
be all that she loved.
This was the secret of his hatred to
George.
The day after the escape of the frigate
in so masterly a manner, William Northrop
walked over to the cabin where
George lived. He found him reposing
after the great fatigues he had passed
through. He had a short interview with
him, in which he urged him to pilot the
frigate out again and wreck her; and by
this means undo what he had done. The
wily old sherman, in this, hoped that
either George's life would be lost in the
wreck, or that he would be shot by the
English Captain as soon as the ship
struck. But George refused, fearing to
be a party to such a base proceeding
and William Northrop left him in a great
rage and with many menaces.
From the cabin he went secretly to
Bath, a few miles distant, and laid before
the authorities the facts of the assistance
afforded the English ship. The authorities
at once saw in the young man an
enemy to his country and a friend to the
English; and by Northrop's advice measures
were secretly taken for his arrest.
The next afternoon William Northrop
called again on George and asked him if
he had repented.
`No, sir,' answered George firmly.
`I have come to say I will consent to
your union with May if you will consent
to wreck this frigate in piloting her out.'
`It is an inducement that nothing but
a crime would suffer me to pass by unimproved,
sir. Much as I love May, I
will not make myself unworthy of her by
such a deed of murder. No, sir, I cannot
do it. She would not ask me to do it:
she would scorn me if I did so base a
thing for her pure love.'
`Well, then, let the matter drop now.
Come, walk with me homeward, and let
us see and talk with May.'
Unsuspicious of treachery, George accompanied
him; but he had gone with
him but a quarter of a mile from the door
when, as they were passing a thicket,
three men sprung upon the young pilot
and secured him as a prisoner `in,' as
they said, `the name of the State.'
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Ingraham, J. H. (Joseph Holt), 1809-1860 [1847], The surf skiff, or, The heroine of Kennebec (Williams Brothers, New York) [word count] [eaf210].
