So the twelve of fame gave up their arms, and
were forthwith marched off to the town of Pensacola,
from which we were only twenty or thirty miles distant,
and which we reached early in the afternoon
of the following day, being treated very well on the
road, and sumptuously feasted.

p019-403 CHAPTER XVIII. The Bloody Volunteers are carried to Pensacola, where Robin Day receives an agreeable surprise.

[figure description] Page 142.[end figure description]

As soon as we arrived, Captain Dicky's eleven
followers were carried to a fortress near the town,
where they were confined; while the young hero
and myself—I being invited to officiate as interpreter—
were conducted to the house of the Intendente,
or military governor of the town, the Señor Coronel
Aubrey, or de Aubrey;—for such Captain Valdez, our
captor, told us was his name; and upon my remarking
that the name appeared to me rather English than Spanish,
he admitted with a shrug that seemed to be full of
meaning, though I could not divine what the meaning
was, that his Excelencia the Coronel was but a half
Castilian after all, nay, that he was a North American
by birth, who had left the Carolinas at the period of the
American Revolution, and entered the Spanish colonial
service, in which he had remained ever since.
And Valdez added, with another shrug, as profoundly
significative and as incomprehensible as the first,
that Colonel Aubrey had acquired wealth as well as
power, while many pure-blooded Castilians might
be found in the service of his sovereign, who, caramba!
were no richer than he was.

A few moments saw us ushered into the presence
of this dignitary, a fine, and, indeed, noble

[figure description] Page 143.[end figure description]

looking man of fifty or fifty-five years; in whom,
notwithstanding the difference of years, I was struck
with a resemblance to the portrait of the Spanish
gentleman which I had so much admired in the
drawing room of Mr. Bloodmoney. And to prove
that he could be no other than the original of that
picture, I saw hanging upon the wall of the apartment
in which he received us, a copy, the very
counter-part of that portrait. Allowing for the difference
of years, there was but one characteristic in
which the Intendant differed from his effigy. The
countenance of the latter expressed a deep and settled
melancholy; whereas Colonel Aubrey's was in
the main a cheerful one, or at most sedately cheerful.
“But,” thought I to myself, “a man is not in
sorrow all his life.”

He received us—or rather, I should say, he received
Captain Dicky, whose regimentals, though
greatly the worse for his forest campaign, distinguished
him as my superior—with courtesy, but seemed
very much surprised at his juvenile appearance; indeed
he turned to our captor, and asked him with
some sharpness—fortunately for the pride of Captain
Dicky, the question was in Spanish—whether he
had not made a mistake, and brought him the drummer,
instead of the leader, of the American party?

“Upon my soul,” replied the officer, “the little
fellow is commander in chief of the whole party.
And,” he added, casting his eye upon me, “if we
are to believe what the young gentleman, his friend
and follower, says of him and his feats, it is time
the American government had made him a general
of division.”

The Intendant here gave me a scrutinizing look,
which ended in a smile, and he addressed himself
to the business in hand by asking a great many

[figure description] Page 144.[end figure description]

questions in regard to the Bloody Volunteers, their
objects in thus invading the territories of his Catholic
Majesty—whether they were acting under the
orders of General Jackson, or any other American
commander—and a multitude of other inquiries,
such as were, doubtless, proper to the occasion; and
to all which Captain Dicky, as soon as I had rendered
them into English, returned the most appropriate
and dignified answers.

He assured the governor upon his honour as a
soldier, that neither his government nor commanding
general had the least idea of violating the territory of
their Spanish friends; that the invasion was an affair
of accident, attributable solely to him, and to him
only on account of his ignorance of the Spanish
boundaries. In short, he answered every thing, and
said every thing necessary to allay the suspicions
that might be entertained by the Governor as to any
sinister movements of the American army, in progress
or designed, against his little Intendancy.

So far all went very well; but a difficulty unexpectedly
arose when his Excellency, politely assuring
Captain Dicky that his explanations were quite satisfactory,
begged to be permitted to look over his
papers—that is to say, his commission, and the orders
of his brigadier, in the attempted execution of which
he had been driven so very far from head-quarters.
The difficulty was that Captain Dicky had no papers:
the irregularity of his election, and the hurry of
affairs, had prevented his receiving, before marching
to the theatre of war, a formal commission from the
executive of Tennessee; and as for orders, he had
never yet been distinguished by any but verbal ones
from his general.

To remove the difficulty, Captain Dare entered
into a laboured explanation of the circumstances,

[figure description] Page 145.[end figure description]

from the period of his election up to his surrender to
the arms of his majesty of Spain, including the whole
of his adventures during the flight through the Indian
country—an exploit that can be compared only to the
memorable Anabasis of the Ten Thousand; in which
Colonel Aubrey seemed much interested, and I am
sorry to say, diverted; for he laughed once or twice
very heartily. He then asked me if I could as a
gentleman (for, upon his demanding what my rank
was in the company, I took the opportunity, which
the ragged appearance of my outer man rendered desirable,
to tell him I was a gentleman volunteer, a
soldier of fortune serving in the ranks,) endorse all
the statements of my friend Captain Dicky; and
upon my hinting in reply, that my captivity among
the Indians, and long separation from the company,
rendered me an incompetent authority as to a portion
of the statements, though I had no doubt of their
truth, he became very anxious for the recital of my
adventures also; which I gave him, that is to say, my
adventures in the Indian nation with Captain Brown;
whom, however, for my own sake I took care to represent
as a mere fellow in misfortune, without saying
any thing of his rascalities and piratical character;
and it seemed to me, that while equally diverted, he
was still more interested by them than he had even
been with the exploits of Captain Dare.

These representations satisfied him that Captain
Dare's statements were to be relied on; or, at least,
he said as much: upon which, Captain Dicky assumed,
in his turn, the character of questioner, and demanded
to know of his Excellency his intentions in regard
to himself and his Bloody Volunteers; whether they
were to be detained as prisoners of war, (in which
case, he begged the Intendant to observe, he protested
against the detention, as an act unfriendly and

[figure description] Page 146.[end figure description]

injurious to the United States, the ally of Spain,) or
whether they were to be treated as friendly visitants,
and allowed to depart immediately to their own
country; in which latter event, Dicky declared that,
having now found out how the land lay, he had no
doubt he could conduct his command to the American
lines at Mobile.

To these interrogatories the Governor replied, with
a smile, that the affair being a very extraordinary
one, he did not feel himself at liberty to decide upon
the course necessary to be pursued, until he had deliberated
further on the subject; but, for the present,
he said, he would consider Captain Dare only in the
light of a guest; and immediately requested the honour
of his company to dinner; an invitation which,
on the faith of my being a gentleman volunteer, as
he said, with some emphasis on the phrase, he extended
also to me.

But here another difficulty arose, founded on the
condition of our habiliments; in which we were the
more loath to appear at a gentleman's table, as Captain
Valdez had hinted the Governor had a very charming
daughter, who would, doubtless, preside on the occasion;
and I was obliged to confess on Dicky's
account, that, Captain as he was, he had not a shirt
to his back, having torn it into bandages for his
wounded volunteers; while I lamented, on my own
behalf, the ferocity of the Indians and the fury of the
briers, which had quite destroyed the beauty of a
handsome hunting frock I had bought at the beginning
of the campaign. Colonel Aubrey laughed, and
said he was happy to have it in his power to relieve
us from so serious a dilemma; and with that, he conducted
us into a chamber, where we were left in
charge of a negro servant, who supplied us with
linen from his master's wardrobe, and the means of

[figure description] Page 147.[end figure description]

making a very gentlemanly and luxurious toilet.
And by and by another slave made his appearance,
bearing for my use a handsome military frock; which,
as it very nearly fitted me, I fancied the Governor
had obtained from some juvenile officer, to serve my
purpose, until I could fit myself out in a manner becoming
a gentleman volunteer.

Having completed our toilet very much to the satisfaction
of both, and rejoined the courteous Intendant,
we were immediately conducted by him into a
sumptuous saloon, where we found a table already
spread, with many black servants around it; besides
whom, there where three other persons in the room,
one an old man in a clergyman's dress, his excellency's
chaplain; the second a stiff and starched matron,
whom I took for a duenna, but who proved to
be merely the caséra, or housekeeper; and the third
a young lady, the fair daughter, as I could well
believe, of the Intendant. But, heaven and earth!
what was my amazement and confusion, when, looking
bashfully up into the face of the señorita, who
received the two strangers with graceful courtesies,
I beheld the beautiful somnambulist, the Spanish
girl, to whose gratitude or humanity I had owed
my escape from Mr. Bloodmoney's house, on the
memorable night of the burglary! She recognised
me at the same moment, and her confusion was
almost as great as my own; though, with me, to surprise
was added the fear and anticipated shame of
exposure: “in a moment,” thought I to myself, with
such thrills of dismay and anguish as I had never
before felt, `I become, instead of a gentleman volunteer,
a rascally housebreaker, angrily and ignominiously
expelled from the Intendant's house, perhaps
consigned to a Spanish prison.”

At that very moment of discovery, Colonel

[figure description] Page 148.[end figure description]

Aubrey, who had already presented Captain Dicky
to his daughter, was in the act of commending me,
el Señor Voluntario, as he called me, to her notice.
He smiled at my agitation, as supposing it, perhaps,
the mere bashfulness of a gawky boy; but when he
saw that his daughter shared my confusion, he was
struck with astonishment, which immediately darkened
into suspicion and displeasure.

“How, Isabel!” he cried with a frown: “you
have then seen the young man before?”

“Si, padre mio querido! yes, my dear father,”
cried the lady, with a voice whose faltering tones
cut me to the soul, and I thought I should have sunk
through the floor; for the next word, and all must
be revealed, and the poor housebreaker—Fy! I
thought of Captain Brown and the Indian stakes on
the banks of the Tallapoosa, and I wished the
Creeks had finished their work, and burned us alive—
him for his villany in making me a burglar, and
me, if for no other purpose than to save me the
humiliation of the present moment.

But the humiliation endured only for a moment:
the voice of Isabel ceased to falter, her eye to dwell
upon the floor; and the angelic creature—for such
she now appeared—added, with equal firmness and
address, “I have seen him, my dear father; and I
owe it; perhaps, to the young gentleman that I am
now here alive before you! It was in Mr. Bloodmoney's
house: I wandered in my sleep—Santa
Maria! I shall never wander in sleep again!—a
robber was in the house: he seized me; and—and—
Yes, mi padre!” she cried with animation, “this
young man saved me from his murderous clutches!”

At this dreadful story, for dreadful it seemed to all.
Colonel Aubrey turned as pale as a ghost, the ecclesiastic
crossed himself, the caséra fetched a half

[figure description] Page 149.[end figure description]

shriek, the negroes rolled their eyes, and Dicky
Dare, giving me a nudge on the ribs, whispered
eagerly—“I say, by Julius Cæsar, what's all this
the girl's talking about?”

“Seized by a robber!” at last ejaculated the Intendant;
“your life endangered!—in Mr. Bloodmoney's
house too? and I not told a word of it!”

“Alas!” cried Isabel; “the Señor Bloodmoney
was so much affected that such a thing should happen
to me in his house, and the Señora his wife so
deeply afflicted, so much afraid of your anger, that,
at her entreaty, I promised, before we sailed, you
should not know of it; and, though loath to conceal
any thing from my dear father, I should not have
told you what may be of disadvantage to the Señor
Bloodmoney to be known, (though, indeed, it was
not his fault, but the audacious villany of the robber,)—
had it not been for my surprise at so suddenly
seeing the young gentleman who rescued
me.”

What an amazing transition in my position, as
well as feelings! From a burglar, I was, as by a
touch of magic, converted into a hero; and from
emotions of terror and disgrace I passed into sensations
of the most rapturous delight and exultation.
My original feelings towards the lovely Isabel were,
as I have long since confessed, of a highly romantic
and tender character; and such was the nature of
those which now seized me, that I felt an almost
irresistible impulse to catch her in my arms, as the
scoundrel Brown had done, and profess I know not
how much of love and gratitude. And perhaps I
might, in the fervour of the moment, have committed
myself by some such demonstrations of affection,
had not Colonel Aubrey been prompted by a similar
impulse in favour of myself; whom he immediately

[figure description] Page 150.[end figure description]

caught in his arms, calling me the preserver of his
child, his friend, his benefactor, and I know not
what beside.

But I do know that I had at that moment some
idea of what might be the feelings of a modest young
woman in a man's arms, by experiencing those of a
modest young man in a similar predicament. I was,
in a word, very anxious to get out of them, notwithstanding
all the Intendant's obliging expressions;
and perhaps I blushed the harder, after the embrace
was over, for Dicky Dare, whose curiosity was waxing
hot to penetrate the mysteries of my good fortune,
giving me a second nudge and whisper,—“I
say, by Julius Cæsar, what was the old gentleman
hugging you for? And why the dense don't we sit
down to dinner, before it spoils by standing?”

p019-412 CHAPTER XIX. In which Robin Day makes a rapid progress in the regards of the fair Isabel.

[figure description] Page 151.[end figure description]

It seemed as if Colonel Aubrey divined the meaning
of Captain Dicky's questions, or, at least, the
latter one; for banishing his fervour with a smile, he
bade us “sit down;” adding, “that from all I had
told him of my forest feats, he did not doubt I would
prefer a good dinner to all the fine words he could
utter, or the warm embraces he could give me.”
But as soon as the reverend padre had delivered a
benediction on the meal, and we had taken our seats,
he renewed the subject, and requested that his daughter
would now inform him of the particulars of the
adventure in which I had played a part so interesting
and questionable,

But Isabel looked again embarrassed, and gave
me a quick uneasy glance, while she replied:

“Indeed, my father,” she said, “I have told you
nearly all I know. As to the robber, he was a vile
fellow, a sailor Mr. Bloodmoney informed me,
who had applied to him to have the command of
the vessel, which it was supposed Mr. Bloodmoney
was equipping as a privateer; and the wretch, to
convince Mr. Bloodmoney he was the best man for
his purpose, assured him he had passed his life in an
employment, which is doubtless the best school for

[figure description] Page 152.[end figure description]

privateersmen,—piracy;—nay, that he was a famous
villain too, called Tiger-cat, or Hell-cat, or some
such name of renown —”

“Hah!” said Colonel Aubrey, “there was some
such fellow in the gulf here, that I have heard
of; El Gato I think they call him, and sometimes
El Infernal. But they said he was marooned or
murdered by his own men, because too bloody-mided
a villain even for a pirate. And this fellow
would have commanded the brig then? What said
Bloodmoney to that?”

“Oh,” replied the damsel, “he would have none
of him, and threatened, besides, to hand him over
to the police. But Mr. Bloodmoney did not, in
reality, believe he was the rogue he so freely professed
to be, thinking that that was a mere braggadocio,
crack-brained piece of bantering; and he
threatened him with the police only to get rid of
him. But, however this might be, the man broke
into the house that very night, collecting with unexampled
audacity all the plate and other valuables;
with which he would undoubtedly have got off undisturbed,
had it not been for my misfortune in
walking in my sleep, and so stumbling upon him in
the midst of his operations. He was seized and
overpowered, yet made his escape, after dangerously
stabbing a watchman, who had been called in from
the street to take charge of him. And this, my dear
father,” added the maiden, giving me another uneasy
glance, “is all I know of the man; for the brig sailed
away from Philadelphia with me a few days after.”

“All this is very well,” quoth the Intendant;
“but you say nothing of my young friend here;
who, I presume, is a friend or connection of Mr.
Bloodmoney's?”

“Yes, sir—I believe so,” said the young lady,

[figure description] Page 153.[end figure description]

giving me a third, and very piteous look. But as I
had never seen him before, and sailed away immediately
after —”

“Never seen him before!” said Colonel Aubrey
with surprise; upon which, I, feeling that it was
necessary to prevent his astonishment going any
further, and perceiving that the fair Isabel was no
longer able to help me, hastened to explain that I
was, in reality, neither friend nor kinsman of Mr.
Bloodmoney, and that I had never been in his house
before the eventful night; but that I was on my way
to him with letters of recommendation and credit
from a gentleman, Dr. Howard, who was his connection,
and my friend.

“Yes,” cried Isabel, here eagerly interrupting
me: “Dr. Howard came himself, soon afterwards;
and Mr. Bloodmoney told me he was his kinsman,
and a man of great wealth and respectability.”

Encouraged by this interruption of the young
lady, who, I could not but see, was as anxious as
myself to make the most of every favourable circumstance,
and to avoid all unfavourable ones, I proceeded
to assure the Intendant, that “a strange accident,”
(and so it was a strange accident,) “together
with my ignorance of the city, and other circumstances,
had prevented my reaching Mr. Bloodmoney's
house until a late hour—in fact, when all
were asleep; but that I should never regret the
irregularity of a visit which had enabled me to be
of service to the young lady, his daughter.”

“Nor I neither, by my faith,” said Colonel
Aubrey, warmly. “But I wonder Bloodmoney did
not inform me of the affair, were it only to afford
me an opportunity to show what kind of gratitude
was due to the preserver of my Isabel.”

He then asked me what was my relationship to

[figure description] Page 154.[end figure description]

Dr. Howard; to which I—being seized with a devil
of mendacity and deception, for I was ashamed to
confess my humble origin in the presence of the fair
Isabel—replied that it was a very distant one; but
added (what I was not ashamed to confess,) that I
owed every thing, my education and even my subsistence,
to his benevolence. And I would have
added more in his praise, had not Colonel Aubrey,
with great delicacy, immediately shifted the subject,
by asking jocularly, “whether I had gone to
Mr. Bloodmoney for the purpose of turning privateersman,
like honest Captain Hellcat?”

Upon my replying that, in fact, I had, he looked
surprised, and laughed very heartily, and informed
me that the vessel was no privateer after all; that he
had bought her, through Mr. Bloodmoney, and
fitted her out for his own purposes; that she lay
then in the port, though under another name; for he
had called her La Querida, because she brought
back to him his querida, or beloved Isabel, after
two years of absence; which the young lady had
passed in Philadelphia, completing her education.

He then alarmed me by a question, which was,
doubtless, very natural and appropriate to the occasion—
what, since I had set out to go to sea, had
turned me from my purpose, and converted me
into a soldier? But I got over the difficulty by
hinting that my friend and schoolmate Dicky Dare
had persuaded me to follow him to the wars—and,
truly, had he not?—an explanation that perfectly satisfied
the Intendant. And from that moment, giving
over his questions, he addressed himself to the
business of the table, bestowing a due share of his
attentions upon Captain Dicky, who had been previously
rescued from neglect by the fair Isabel addressing
him in English, and thus giving him an

[figure description] Page 155.[end figure description]

opportunity to enter into conversation without the
intervention of an interpreter.

At the dessert, in which we were feasted with the
delicious fruits of the tropics, fresh brought from
the neighbouring island of Cuba, the reverend padre
left the table to attend, I presumed, to some clerical
duty: and, presently after, the servants were
discharged; and we were left a little party of four
persons, who were enjoying ourselves very agreeably
in conversation; when a messenger came running
post haste from the fort, with an account that
the Bloody Volunteers, for some reasons best known
to themselves, suspicious perhaps, from the long
absence of their captain, that some foul play was
intended them had burst into a mutiny, which it was
feared would terminate in bloodshed. Upon this,
the Intendant got up in haste, with Captain Dicky,
whom he invited to go with him and appease the
tumult; committing me, who, he said, might remain
to entertain his daughter, to her sole charge
and keeping.

The moment the two had left the room, Isabel,
starting up and advancing a step or two towards me,
exclaimed, in low and hurried, but earnest tones, and
in English—“Señor! lay no misconstruction upon
what I have said and done. If I have deceived my
father—if I have descended to evasion, and almost
to falsehood, know that I was paying a debt of gratitude,
which makes me forget things my father
could not have judged but with harshness. I lament
that one so young, so warmly befriended, so seemingly
full of promise, should have fallen into evil
hands and practices; but fear not exposure from me,
who neither can nor will betray you.”

I was confounded by the words and manner of
the beautiful girl, who, it was apparent, thought me

[figure description] Page 156.[end figure description]

a rogue in earnest. A moment before, I fancied I
required nothing but an opportunity to speak to her
in private, to retrieve my character in her eyes, and
convince her I was no robber. But on a sudden I
felt it might be no such easy matter.

“Alas,” I cried, in extremity, “have you seen
Dr. Howard—was he at Mr. Bloodmoney's house—
and can you still think me a burglar? Did he
think me one?”

“What otherwise could he think?” replied Isabel,
firmly; “what ought he to have thought, after what
had preceded? After a beginning in murder—
Ah! you perceive, he told us all! And, though he
softened the circumstances, and the poor man did
not actually die —”

“M'Goggin did not die? Thank Heaven for
that!” cried I; “for that was the only thing which
to myself seemed like crime. And yet that was no
murder, had the wretch died twenty times over:
and, if you know the circumstances of that unfortunate
affair, you must be aware it was a mere silly
schoolboy scheme of vengeance, in which a serious
injury to the pedagogue was neither desired nor intended.”

“But,” said Isabel, “there was still more they
spoke of: that—but it seemed to me, even then, too
extraordinary for belief:—there were people who
charged you and your companion with a highway
robbery upon a poor sailor, on the road to Philadelphia!”

“Oh, the confounded wagoners! it all arose from
them, I have no doubt.” And with that, I told the
whole story to the young lady; who, listening at
first with eager interest, at last, when I came to
describe the audacious trick of Brown, by which,
the inconveniences of the crime were transferred

[figure description] Page 157.[end figure description]

from the robber to the robbed, suddenly burst into
a most unromantic fit of laughter.

“And this impudent sailor, then,” she cried,
“was the same man, the fellow with the horrid
name, from whom you—But gratitude makes me
too readily take sides with you! How, señor,” she
demanded, more seriously—“how comes it that
you are the next moment found in company with
this man, whom you already knew to be a robber,
in Mr. Bloodmoney's house—or, indeed any
where?”

Upon this, I told her how, having changed his
clothes and removed his hideous beard, he had made
me believe he was Mr. Bloodmoney himself, robbed
me of my letter of introduction and money, carried
me into Mr. Bloodmoney's house; in short, I told
her the whole of that unlucky adventure, which
moved her to as much risibility as before; though
she soon reproved her mirth by the expression,—
“Alas, señor! it is not well to laugh at an adventure,
which, however ridiculous, was the cause, and perhaps
is yet, of pain to your friends, and of injury to
your good name. And it is still less proper for me
to laugh,” she added, “since it brought me relief
at a moment of need and terror.”

I told her, with much fervour, I cared not how
much she laughed at my folly, provided she was
satisfied of my innocence. Upon which, she said my
story was too ridiculous not to be true; that it explained
all the circumstances of my case very perfectly;
and that she believed it. “And, indeed,” said
she, with charming frankness, “I always thought
there must be some delusion in the matter, and that
you could not be a robber in reality; because you
did not look like one, and because, you know, you
told me so.”

p019-419 CHAPTER XX. Robin Day is surprised by the appearance of Skipper Duck and other old friends.

[figure description] Page 158.[end figure description]

I thought at that moment, I had never seen so
celestial a creature, and felt prompted to say I know
not what silly things, and perhaps should have said
them, had not the maiden requested me, with an
enchanting smile, to inform her what other extraordinary
adventures, (“for truly,” said she, “you seem
to have been born for extraordinary adventures,”)
had followed my flight from Mr. Bloodmoney's.

I took up the tale accordingly, and had proceeded
as far as my unlucky mistake with the British sailors,
and the discovery of it, while marching into
battle with them against my own countrymen, an
incident which recalled the mirth of the beautiful
hearer; when Colonel Aubrey suddenly returned,
and being surprised at his daughter's merriment,
requested to know the cause of it. “Oh,” quoth
she, “the Señor Day has been entertaining me with
the history of his surprising adventures, which I
hope, some time,” (and here I thought she gave me
a significant look, besides emphasizing the word some
time) “he will also relate to my dear father.”

“I shall be happy to hear all that the Señor Day
may think proper to relate,” said the Intendant;
“but, in the meanwhile, I must beg of him the

[figure description] Page 159.[end figure description]

favour to attend me to the audience chamber,
where—” Here Isabel looked pale, and I, thinking
the summons must have some reference to the
Bloody Volunteers, interrupted him by hoping that
nothing unpleasant had resulted from their quarrelsome
outbreak.

“Nothing at all,” said he: “they had, some how,
got into their heads a ridiculous idea that they were
to be sent off to South America, to be condemned
to the mines. But all is now quiet; and Captain
Dare, who chooses to remain with them awhile,
will presently return to favour us with his agreeable
society.” He added, that the business at which
he begged my assistance, was the examination of
several men, the crew of a small vessel, which had
that day entered the port under suspicious circumstances,
but who claimed to be good and honest
American citizens; in which case it would, doubtless,
be advantageous, as well as agreeable, to them to
have a gentleman, their own countryman, present
as an interpreter. The suspicious circumstances
were chiefly the want of sufficient papers, and of
cargo; the disproportion between the crew and vessel,
the latter being a mere coasting shallop, while the
former comprised eighteen or twenty men, of whom
nearly two thirds were negroes; and, what was more
suspicious still, a great piratical looking long-tom,
stowed away with a quantity of small arms and ammunition,
in her hold. In short, Colonel Aubrey
suspected the vessel to be a pirate, a stray member
perhaps of the fraternity then known to exist under
Lafitte at Barrataria Bay; though the master, or chief
man among them, insisted he was an honest negro-trader
from the Carolinas, come to try his luck, with
a small cargo of slaves, among the Spaniards of the
Gulf.

[figure description] Page 160.[end figure description]

Having given me this explanation, the Intendant
led me, all loath to leave the charming Isabel, into
the audience chamber; where among a number of
soldiers, who kept guard over them, were six or
seven men in sailor's clothes, whose appearance
startled me a little out of my propriety; because some
of them I immediately recognised as my quondam
friends of the Jumping Jenny, the followers of honest
Tom Gunner; and another look showed me, standing
foremost among them, and looking excessively dogged,
yet discomposed, the detestable Skipper Duck;
whom, of all the men in the world, I least expected
to stumble upon in this remote quarter. When I
first caught sight of the fellow, he was stealing a
glance at the Intendant that expressed perhaps more
than a rogue's usual fear of the face of Justice; but
when, rolling his eyes askant from Colonel Aubrey,
they fell upon me, I was myself astonished at the
actual dismay into which his uneasiness was immediately
converted.

“What!” cried Colonel Aubrey, “you seem to
know the fellow?”

Before I could reply, one of the sailors, having
caught sight of me, exclaimed, pointing me out to
his messmates, “I'm blasted if that an't our little
fighting-cock, Day, that was with us in the Chesapeake,
and was snatched up by the blasted Yankees
at Norfolk!”

These words covered me with confusion; for I
knew not, in the moment, what unlucky construction
the Intendant might put upon this portion of
my history, unless told him in my own version; and
the embarrassment was increased by his suddenly
giving me a sharp look, and saying, “he thought it
proper to inform me, that, although long years of
disuse had made it a very painful and disagreeable

[figure description] Page 161.[end figure description]

task to him to speak English, it was nevertheless
his mother tongue, and he retained sufficient knowledge
of it to understand every word that was
spoken.” Yet I recovered my courage in a moment,
upon reflecting that neither Skipper Duck
nor any of his men could accuse me of murder, or
highway robbery, or burglary; and immediately replied—
“Señor, I have no objection you should
understand any thing, or all, that these men may
say to me, or I to them. In truth, I do know them;
this fellow,”—pointing to Skipper Duck, who still
looked frightened out of his wits—“in particular,
who is as foul a knave as the sun ever shone
on. The others are, or were, British sailors, with
whom, and with others, their comrades, it was my
misfortune to be compelled to bear arms—or rather
to appear to bear arms, against my own countrymen
on the Chesapeake; an adventure which I was
but this moment engaged relating to the Señorita
Aubrey.”

“Ah!” cried the Intendant; “you told her? And
it was that she was laughing at?” Upon my assenting
to which, he looked pleased, and smiled,
declared he was impatient to hear my whole story,
and then requested I would inform him more particularly
in regard to Duck and his accomplices.

I told him, that if the vessel was, as I supposed,
the Jumping Jenny, Duck was her skipper, and, I
believed, her owner;—that she had been captured
by the British in the Chesapeake, manned, armed,
(whence, doubtless, the long-tom and the ammunition,)
and employed, with other similar vessels, in
their plundering expeditions; and that Duck had
served on board as their pilot; that he had been,
after a time, taken prisoner by the Americans, or

[figure description] Page 162.[end figure description]

made his escape to them; at all events, he must
have told them a good story, as I had seen him, apparently
at liberty, fighting with them against his
late employers, the British; and there ended my
knowledge of him and the Jumping Jenny. How
he got possession of her again, I knew not; but I
suspected he must have returned to her voluntarily;
and then, with the sailors who were now with him,
and who, it could scarce be doubted, were deserters,
had run away with her, at a convenient period,
when the rest of her crew, with their officers, were
ashore upon some adventure. As for the negroes,
I supposed they were slaves whom he had stolen
from their masters; or that they had been picked
up along shore, with other plunder, by his British
associates, and merely carried off by him, to make
his flight more profitable.

In this very reasonable explanation, I, at a future
period, learned I had exactly hit the truth; and, indeed,
upon examining them a little, Colonel Aubrey
was satisfied the sailors were deserters from the
British navy, and Skipper Duck a trader in stolen
goods: for which reason, he directed they should
be confined in the fort, to be surrendered, with the
vessel and slaves, to the first British commander
who should visit Pensacola.

But before he sent them away, I told him the
story of little Tommy, the son, I assured him of my
benefactor, Dr. Howard, the kinsman of his friend
Mr. Bloodmoney; and I immediately taxed Duck
to his face with having stolen him. The villain was
greatly disconcerted, and denied that Tommy was
Dr. Howard's son: but he admitted he was still on
board the vessel, having been, like the negroes,
thought too insignificant to be brought before the

[figure description] Page 163.[end figure description]

Intendant; and Colonel Aubrey, who was much struck
and even affected, by the story, immediately gave
orders to have him brought to the house, declaring
he would find means to have him restored to his
father.

p019-425 CHAPTER XXI. In which Robin Day meets another surprise, and a perilous one; which is succeeded by a story of much interest to the Intendant.

[figure description] Page 164.[end figure description]

I now thought I might return again to the society
of the enchanting Isabel; but Colonel Aubrey informed
me he must beg my assistance in the examination
of yet another American; adding, with a
smile, that he fancied I would meet another surprise,
and a pleasant one: “for,” said he, “some of my
troopers have just brought in from the woods, where
they found him lost and famished, a poor man who
reports that he has just escaped from captivity and
torture among the Creeks; and, as they say he has
the appearance of an old sailor, it would not surprise
me if he should prove the poor fellow, your companion
in flight.”

The poor fellow, my companion in flight! A
pleasant surprise, indeed! I was horrified by the
announcement; for, not to say that the appearance
of Captain Brown had always boded me some new
misfortune, his entrance upon the present scene
could not be otherwise than dangerous to me. I
would gladly have dispensed with the interview,
but perceived I could not do so without awakening
suspicion. My hope was that the stranger should,
after all, prove not to be Brown, but some other
person unknown. But, alas, the hope was almost

[figure description] Page 165.[end figure description]

immediately dispelled by the entrance of the “poor
fellow,” who proved to be Captain Jack Brown
himself, though sorely altered by famine and distress.
His appearance was emaciated and squalid, and even
his spirit seemed broken down by suffering; the
look of fearless self-possession and audacity had deserted
his countenance, which now wore a hangdog
expression of suspicion and fear, enough to convince
any one he was a rogue; and I perceived it had but
an unfavourable effect upon Colonel Aubrey. I
might myself have been astonished at such a change
in the man, who seemed scarce able to look the Intendant
in the face, had I been less occupied with
my own anxieties.”

“Well,” cried the Intendant, “is this the man?”

Brown startled at the words, and looking round
him, caught sight of me, seemed astonished, and
then brightened up in a wonderful manner, as if—
for I thought I could read what was passing in his
mind—satisfied that my presence would be of advantage
to him. “Ah! shiver me, Chowder, my
hearty!” he cried, rushing forward and seizing me
very affectionately by the hand; “and so you've
clear'd them blasted Injun niggurs after all, have
you?—Tell him,” he added in a whisper, which he
sought to conceal from the Intendant, and uttered
with great haste and vehemence—“tell him my name's
John Smith; or d—n me, I'll murder you!—Glad
to see you alive again;”—here he raised his voice,
and shook my hand with terrible ardour; “glad
to see you afloat; for, sink me, I thought the red
rascals had sunk you to Davy Jones long ago.”

With that, letting go his hold of me, he now, as
if quite restored to his courage, raised his eyes to
the Intendant's face, gave him a scrape of his foot;
and hitching up his trowsers, and otherwise putting

[figure description] Page 166.[end figure description]

on the airs of a bluff old sailor, quite ignorant of
the forms and ceremonies of the world, he exclaimed,
“Split my topsails! (axing your honour and
excellency's pardon,) if, so be there's no offence,
I'm an American sailor, sink me; and so I axes to
know what your honour and excellency means, by
making a prisoner of me? because how, I sails under
the stars and stripes, and I knows my rights, and,
split me, I sticks to 'em. But perhaps your honour
and excellency don't understand my lingo? which is
a thing whereof I am sorry, because as how, I don't
know no Spanish.”

His honour and excellency surveyed the speaker
very earnestly, smiled faintly at his eloquence,
passed his hand thoughtfully across his brow, and
then surveyed him again; when, finally, turning to
me, he demanded with abruptness, “Have you
known this man long?”

“Not long, señor,” I replied, not disposed to
speak too much to the point: “but he is the fellowprisoner
I spoke of.”

“To my mind, he has an evil look,” said the
Intendant; “and methinks I have seen him before.
Do you know enough of him to answer for his
honesty?”

Alas! what a question! I knew, perfectly well,
that Brown was a villain deserving the halter; but
the services he had rendered me among the Creeks,
and especially his manful attempt to snatch me from
the stake, even at the risk of his own life, dwelt
upon my memory, and I was loath to say any
thing to his prejudice. But to assume the responsibility
of giving him a good name was entirely too
much for my gratitude.

“I should be sorry, señor,” I replied, “to be
answerable for the honesty of any person, upon so

[figure description] Page 167.[end figure description]

short an acquaintance.”—The answer stuck in my
throat; for I felt that, however evasive, it involved a
substantial falsehood.

“His name,” demanded Colonel Aubrey.

“Really,” said I, “I am not certain I know even
that. He told me once it was Smith: but”—Here
Brown gave me a direful look of warning and
menace, which I disregarded; for I found that one
falsehood in his favour was all my conscience would
permit—“at other times, I understood him it was
Brown.”

“Brown!” ejaculated the Intendant, starting
wildly from the chair, on which he had taken his
seat, and advancing towards Brown; who immediately
putting a good face on the matter, exclaimed—

“Ay, your honour, there's no gainsaying it;
that's name I sometimes sails under, and, mayhap,
have the best right to, because why, it belongs to
the family.”

“Brown!” again cried Colonel Aubrey, surveying
him with the utmost agitation. “Can it be!
Is it possible? I knew the face. And yet—and
yet”—And here the disorder of his spirits rendered
his expressions for a moment inarticulate; and he
sat down again upon the chair; from which, however,
he immediately afterwards sprang up, exclaiming,
“Fellow, if you be he indeed, you must know
me. Look! My name is Aubrey! Seventeen
years have not yet changed me so far that you can
say you do not remember me?”

“Never saw your honour's excellency before in
all my life,” said Brown, with great apparent
sincerity.

“If you have lost all memory of me,” said the
Intendant, seizing Brown by the arm, and pointing

[figure description] Page 168.[end figure description]

to the portrait, of which I have before spoken,
hanging upon the wall—“If you have lost all
memory of me, him, at least, you cannot have
forgotten!”

I had been greatly struck by this singular turn of
affairs, and was burning with curiosity to know
what fate could have ever connected the affairs of
the Intendant with such a rogue as Brown. And,
it may be supposed, I looked on with a double interest
when the portrait was referred to—that very
picture, or its duplicate, which, when I had pointed
Brown's attention to it, in Mr. Bloodmoney's house,
had discomposed him not a little, and drawn from
him the explanation, that it was “an old friend of
his who had gone to Davy Jones long before.”—
It produced a somewhat similar effect upon him on
the present occasion; and he muttered, “Ay!
I knows him! It looks just like him, when—”
But he interrupted himself. “I knows him,” he
repeated; “poor gentleman. His name was Mowbray—”

“Aubrey! Aubrey!” cried the Intendant, with a
smothered voice.

“Well, it may be,” said Brown, “but I always
thought it was Mowbray; and, sure, his own brother,
the sodger, told us so—the skipper and me—when
he bought us over to the sarvice. It was Aubrey,
or Mowbray; and, poor gentleman, the hellcats
(whereof I mean, the d—d Spanish constables,) were
after him; because how, he was a traitor, or conspirator,
or whatsoever you call it; and so we sent the
boat, and took him off by night, him and the rest of
them and a whole chestful of money; and off went
the Sally Ann a bragging through blue water. Off
she went, and, split me, the blue water soon had the
best of her: she foundered, please your honour's

[figure description] Page 169.[end figure description]

excellency; and the skipper and the passengers, with
poor Mr. Aubrey, if so be that's his name, went
down with her to the bottom.”

“My miserable brother!” cried the Intendant,
covering his face with his hands, and sinking into
a chair. But starting up again, he demanded,
“But how is this? You were saved—others were
saved —”

“None but me and Tim Duck,” said Brown: at
which name Colonel Aubrey eagerly demanded,
turning to me—“What! was not that the name of
the fellow, the captain of the sloop, just before us?”

This question, which I answered in the affirmative,
not without alarm lest Duck should be sent for,
and immediately impeach my honest acquaintance,
had the effect of disturbing the latter likewise; so
that, forgetting his former assurance, that he knew no
Spanish, he hastened to exclaim, “There's more
Ducks than swim on salt water; but this here fellow
can't be Tim Duck, because how, Davy Jones has
got him.”—Fortunately for Brown, the Intendant
was too much excited to notice the inconsistency; and
Brown, to secure his attention to less dangerous subjects,
immediately resumed his story.

“None but me and Tim Duck,” said he, “stood
it out; because how, d'ye see, we took to the boat—
the three men and me, which was the mate, and
was to be skipper next voyage, and the niggur-boy,
which jumped after us; and that was all of us when
we pushed off —”

“What then!” cried Colonel Aubrey, “my poor
brother was abandoned, without an effort to save
him!”

“Why, d'ye see,” quoth Brown, “he would run
below after the younker; and just then, the schooner
took a lurch, and so we pushed off, and down she

[figure description] Page 170.[end figure description]

went with him—and the skipper too; for, blast me,
he was lying sick in his bunk, unable to help himself.
And so we pushed off in the boat, without
bread, water, or compass, and pitch'd about fourteen
days on a stretch; and two of the men, they died;
and says I to Tim Duck, says I, `Tim Duck, we
must draw lots;' and says he to me, `Let's do for
the niggur;' and so he killed the blacky; and we
lived on him six days; and then came the ship, the
Good Hope of Boston, and pick'd us up; and there,
shiver my timbers, your honour and excellency,
there's the end of the story.”

“It is not yet the end of it,” said Colonel Aubrey,
with a stern voice. “It is now seventeen years
since that vessel sailed out of her port, never more
to enter another; and up to this moment, not a word of
her fate was ever breathed to human being; and no
one but believed she had foundered at sea, and that
every soul on board had perished with her. How
comes it that neither you nor the fellow Duck, the survivors
of the wreck, ever gave information of the calamity
to any one—to owners or underwriters?
how could this have happened, if your story be true?
And, by Heaven, your silence throws a suspicious
character over what was before only deemed a natural
accident of the sea. Speak, fellow: though
you pretend to have forgotten me, I remember you
well—and I remember, too, there were persons who
said the mate of the Sally Ann had not always been
in so honest a vessel, and was not the safest man to
entrust with either a rich cargo or the life of a
wealthy passenger!”

“They lied then, d—n their blood,” cried
Brown, with great emphasis; “for the mate of the
Sally Ann was as honest a lad, at her sailing, as ever
rose from the forecastle to the quarter-deck: and if

[figure description] Page 171.[end figure description]

you're the gentleman, poor Mr. Mowbray's brother,
whereof I disremember, who made the bargain with
the skipper and me, and brought him and the
younker, and the young niggur, and the money,
aboard, you must know the old skipper said I was
to have the schooner next voyage, blast her, because
how, he was the owner, and he was old, and he
knew I was a man to be depended on. And as for
this here thing that surprises you,” he added, very
bluffly, “because as how your honour never heard
tell of the sinking of the schooner till now, why
sink me, that's matter soon settled. For, d'ye
see, the ship that pick'd up me and Tim Duck was
the Good Hope of Boston; and she was an Injieman
on her outward voyage; and so says Captain Jones,
her commander, to us, says he, `I'll send you back
to the States by the first return ship we meets, or
I'll drop you at the Cape;' but hang me, there was
no return ship we sees; and when we comes to the
Cape, there was nothing there; and the Good Hope
was short of hands, because she lost four men overboard
in a squall; and says Captain Jones to us, says he,
“If you'll enter for the voyage, my boys, you shall
he well treated, and have pay from the time of picking
up into the bargain.” And so we entered for
the voyage, me and Tim Duck; but it was a blasted
unlucky voyage for all of us, for the ship she was
caught in a Typhoon, and wreck'd on the east coast
of Sumatra; and the Malays fell on us, curse 'em;
and them that wasn't drown'd they kill'd, and them
they didn't kill they captivated, whereof I, John
Brown, was one; but Tim Duck they kill'd. And
I was a slave among 'em twelve years, and they
treated me like a niggur: and a Dutch captain that
was there after pepper, he bought me for a barrel of
rum and two old muskets; but he said it was six

[figure description] Page 172.[end figure description]

hundred dollars: and so when we comes to Batavia,
a Dutch judge there says I must sarve the Dutch
captain four years for the money; and I sarved him.
And when my time was out, I ships in the Dutch
ship call'd the Polly Frow for Amsterdam: and
there I ships in an American brig call'd the George
Washington, which fetches me right straight to
Boston, where I landed on the seventh day of May,
in this here year of Our Lord, after an absence of
seventeen years, or thereabouts. And then I tells
my story, and they logg'd it right away in the newspapers,
with the whole account of the sinking of the
Sally Ann; whereof nobody cared, because how,
the captain he was the owner, and not insured, and
his wife was married to another man. And,” quoth
Brown, to whose relation I listened with mingled
wonder and distrust, having strong reasons of my
own to believe it was a tissue of falsehoods from
beginning to end—“if you axes to know how a
sailor like me comes into the hands of them cursed
Injuns; why here's the case, blast me: for my friends
they makes me up a purse in Boston, because of my
misfortunes, and so I starts off to try my luck a pedlering;
because, d'ye see, I've had enough of the
sea, sink me, and don't want to see no more of it.
And so I turns my back to it, and that fetched me
among the Injuns, and they snapp'd me up, pack
and all; and they fatted me up to make a feast of
me; whereof this young gentleman” (meaning me)
“will bear witness, because he was tied up with me.
And we broke loose, and sailed off in a canoe; and
she was wreck'd on a log; and we swum for it, him
one way, and me another, and so we parted company;
and I navigated the woods alone; and I'll be
hang'd, but I found it a crooked and dangerous navigation.”

p019-434 CHAPTER XXII. A denoucment and catastrophe, and Robin Day loses the favour of the Intendant, and is packed off to a fort for safe-keeping.

[figure description] Page 173.[end figure description]

And so ended the story; which—told with an
appearance of great simplicity and truth—seemed,
notwithstanding my disbelief of it, to carry conviction
to the mind of Colonel Aubrey, and to remove
all the suspicious he had begun to entertain in relation
to the real fate of his unfortunate brother. He
returned immediately to the subject of the wreck,
and asked a multitude of questions, to all which
Brown replied with so much readiness that it was
impossible not to believe that, upon this point of
his history, he was uttering at least some truth.

To the Intendant all his answers seemed as natural
as they were affecting; and having concluded his
melancholy inquisition, he turned to a servant, who
was near him, and bade him go fetch the Señorita
Isabel, “that she might see with her own eyes the
man who”—But what else he said I heard not;
being so horrified at the idea of the young lady being
brought into the room while Brown was in it,
that all my senses deserted me, and I stood such a
picture of consternation, that Colonel Aubrey, starting
from the gloom into which he had fallen, asked
“what ailed me, and if I were sick?” Before I
could stammer out a reply—and, in truth, I know

[figure description] Page 174.[end figure description]

not what I intended to reply—the anticipated catastrophe
had arrived; the young Isabel had entered
the room, and cast her eyes upon Captain Brown;
who, astonished out of his prudence, ripped out a
hasty oath, with an equally profane addition;—
“D—n my blood!” he cried, “we goes to h—ll
now in a hurricane!” As for Isabel, whose recollections
were perhaps stimulated by Brown's voice,
she immediately uttered a shriek and threw herself
into the Intendant's arms, crying, “El Gato! El
Gato!—It is the villain himself!”

Great was the confusion produced by this turn of
events, so unexpected by all but unhappy me. Even
Colonel Aubrey looked petrified for a moment;
though, the next, he ordered the soldiers, who had
brought Brown in, to secure him, which they did,
Brown submitting with a very good grace; but all
the while protesting he was “no more El Gato, as
they call'd him, than he was Davy Jones himself.”

“We shall inquire into that, as well as other
things,” quoth the Intendant, turning from Brown
to me, whom he regarded with a stern countenance.

“So! young man!” he cried: “you concealed
from me your knowledge of this man, of his acts,
and character! pretended not to know in him the
ruffian from whom you had rescued my daughter!”

“Alas, sir,” I cried,” if you will allow me to explain.”

“We will allow you an opportunity to do so at
another moment. At present —”

But he was interrupted by Isabel, who starting
from her terrors, caught him by the hand, exclaiming
eagerly, “Oh, my dear father, the young gentleman
is innocent. If I had only told you all, at
first!—”

“Hah!” cried the Intendant, bending a scowling

[figure description] Page 175.[end figure description]

eye even upon her—“have you, too, united with
him to deceive me?”

The fair Isabel stammered out an excuse—“she
could explain all—she always meant to explain all.”
The Intendant arrested her further speech, by a look
full of the most penetrating inquiry, which he immediately
after extended to me. Then waving
Isabel imperiously to silence, he directed the soldiers
to carry Brown to the fort, and guard him
well. “And you, señor,” he added, addressing
himself to me,” will do me the favour to accompany
them, and lodge to-night with your companions.”

“Appearances, as well as your suspicions, are
against me, señor,” I said, gathering hope from the
assurance that I left a friend behind me in the beautiful
Isabel: “but I trust yet to convince you I am
only the most unlucky person in the world, and
nothing worse.”

And with these words, and a stolen glance at Isabel,
who looked the picture of grief and humiliation,
I stole—or sneaked, which is perhaps the proper
word—out of the room and house, in which, a few
moments before, I had felt so proud and romantic;
and followed, with Brown, (who, instead of expressing
compunction for being the cause of my present,
as of nearly every other, misfortune, indulged sundry
hearty execrations upon what he called my disobedience
of orders in not passing him off for Mr.
John Smith only,) to the fortress, which I justly regarded
as a prison. At its gates, I met my friend and
commander, Captain Dicky, returning to the mansion
whence I had been so ignominiously banished; and
informing him in a few words of my mishap, I authorised,
and indeed begged him, since no other
course now remained to me, to acquaint Colonel

[figure description] Page 176.[end figure description]

Aubrey with the whole history of my connection
with Captain Brown, to convince him I was not in
reality the accomplice, but the victim of that worthy
personage. I had no idea, at the moment, that he
could have any other reason for his severity than the
suspicion of my being a knave and the confederate of
Brown. Had I been a little older and wiser, I might
have seen an additional cause in an equally natural
and more painful apprehension, awakened by the
good understanding that seemed to exist between the
fair Isabel and myself.

It was nearly night when I entered the fort; where
the appearance of Captain Brown excited a good
deal of curiosity among the Spaniards of the garrison,
who crowded around to view a rogue bearing a
name so formidable and renowned as El Gato; but
I thought they expressed greater admiration than
horror at the sight of him. Nor were there any
greater pains taken to secure him from flight or mischief
than to clap a pair of light manacles upon his
wrists; after which, he was suffered to ramble up and
down the fort, conversing with the soldiers of the
garrison, (which was not a numerous or particularly
well disciplined one,) and with the prisoners—Skipper
Duck and his comrades, who were not fettered
at all, and a number of convicts—degraded soldiers—
who idled about, each with a cannon ball chained to
his leg.

My first care, upon entering the fort, was to look
for little Tommy; but the Governor had sent for
him, and he was already gone. I then sought out
and found my companions in arms, the Bloody Volunteers,
who sat retired, like Milton's philosopher
devils, not yet entirely cured of their suspicions and
fears of Spanish faith and South American gold mines.
I did all I could to convince them their apprehensions

[figure description] Page 177.[end figure description]

were groundless, and that they would, in all probability,
be, in a day or two, released and furnished
with guides to conduct them to Mobile: but, by and
by, growing weary of arguing with men who had
made their minds up to their own opinions, and
tiring the sooner, perhaps, that I was in a very melancholy
and contemplative mood, I walked away
from them to a corner, where I could sit by myself,
and build castles in the moon, which was rising over
the bay, and changing a leaden twilight into a night
of silver.

My meditations were soon broken in upon by
Brown, who opened the conversation by assuring me
with sundry oaths, he had a regard for me, and meant
to help me out of my present difficulties. He then
showed me that his manacles were loose; and swearing
he was “not going to stay to be strung up by that
blasted old skurmudgeon, Aubrey, whom he had
help'd to a fortune, curse him,” he informed me that
he designed making his escape from the fort, and,
out of his friendship for me, would restore me to
liberty also.

I was astonished at what seemed the audacity of
such a design, and asked how he could hope to break
from a garrisoned fort, with centries at the gates and
along the walls? He replied, that “the garrison
was nothing—the officers were all dressing for a
ball, which the Intendant was to give them that
evening—” (“Alas!” thought I; “but for this vile
Brown, I might have had the honour of dancing
with the charming Isabel!”)—“half the soldiers
had already slipped away to seek their own diversions;
as for the centries, the lubbers would go to
sleep, as soon as the officers were off;” and finally,
he assured me he had friends in the fort, who would
make escape an easy matter. I asked what was to

[figure description] Page 178.[end figure description]

be done, after escaping? was he to fly back to the
Indians again? or abscond about the town to be discovered
and again imprisoned? Upon which he
invoked a blessing on my brain of mud and molasses,
as he called it, and told me he had struck up a
league with his old friend Duck, “who was Tim
Duck, for all his blasted lies to the governor,” and
that they were to escape together in the Jumping
Jenny, which was lying hard by the fort.

Although I listened to this account not without
interest, I felt my curiosity moved by the reference
to Skipper Duck, as connected with the subject of
the Sally Ann; and I could not help asking him,
“if there was then no truth in what he had told
Colonel Aubrey?” “All a blasted yarn,” said he,
“from beginning to end.” “But you were mate
of the schooner, and must know whether she really
foundered or not—and whether the fate of Colonel
Aubrey's brother was as you represented it.”
“What's that your business?” said he, sharply:
“stick to things that concern you, sink me; and
stand ready for cutting loose from the fort, whenever
I gives the order.”

I told Captain Brown, “I had no objections to
his making his escape, if he could, and that nothing
would give me more satisfaction than to be certain
I should never more see him again in the world;
that as to escaping with him, I had no intentions
that way at all: I was under no fears of being strung
up by Colonel Aubrey, as he professed to be; and
was content to remain where I was.—In short, I
told him I would not fly with him. Upon which,
he called me sundry hard names, swore, with a diabolical
grin, that when I knew him better, I would
find the first thing for a first lieutenant to do was to
obey orders, and then, to my great satisfaction, left

[figure description] Page 179.[end figure description]

me to my meditations, and to my castle-building,
which, as it is always a seductive employment, and
was then the most agreeable one I could engage in,
I continued for an hour longer; at which period my
fancies began to flag, and my head to nod with all
the grace of a Chinese Mandarin's, in the face of her
ladyship the moon.

p019-441 CHAPTER XXIII. Robin Day escapes against his will from the fort, and finds himself a third time on board the Jumping Jenny.

[figure description] Page 180.[end figure description]

I was, in a word, on the point of falling asleep,
the night, though a late November one, being,
in that benignant climate, quite warm and agreeable;
and I had just begun to dream I saw my friend Captain
Dare dancing a waltz with the beautiful Isabel,
in the midst of a splendid assemblage of ladies and
gentlemen, who were all saying “what a handsome
couple they were;” when the rage and envy and
jealousy into which the visionary spectacle threw
me, were suddenly dispelled by a couple of men
jerking me up by the elbows, bidding me, in Spanish,
follow them, and then, without waiting for me
to obey, hurrying me away I knew not whither.

My first idea was that they were soldiers of the
fort, conducting me to some lock-up place for the
night; my next, finding they were hastening me to
the gate of the fort, was that they were messengers
despatched by Colonel Aubrey to invite me again
to his presence; a notion extremely agreeable, as it
convinced me the representations of Captain Dicky,
together with those of the Señorita Isabel, had fully
succeeded in restoring me to his favour.

Nor was this flattering assurance dispelled until I
suddenly found myself upon the shore of the bay,

[figure description] Page 181.[end figure description]

where were a number of men crowding into a small
boat, and another, nearly empty, rowing with
muffled oars from a shallop, that lay anchored a little
way from the beach. That shallop, my fears told
me, was the Jumping Jenny, and my two unknown
friends, it was plain, were conducting me to her.

I endeavoured to come to a stop, assuring my
conductors “I was not one of the escaping party,
did not choose to run away, and would go back if
if they pleased, to the fort;” upon which they displayed
a brace of glittering knives, and one of them
said, in Spanish, “I might go to the mire, for all he
cared,” (which is a polite way they have in Spanish
of telling you you may go to a much worse place,)
while the other swore a terrible Castilian oath—“he
would eat my soul, if I gave them any further
trouble.” There was no resisting such an oath, two
Spanish knives, a pair of whiskered visages that
looked uncommonly ferocious in the moonlight;
and I therefore yielded, and, with a heavy heart,
stepped into the boat, which, three minutes afterwards,
I exchanged for the deck of the Jumping
Jenny.

“Are you there, lieutenant, d—n my blood?”
cried Captain Brown, whom I had not before seen,
but who now gave me a grin and a squeeze of the
hand.

“Captain Brown,” said I, intending to remonstrate
with him for thus carrying me off against my
will; but was cut short by his saying, in tones too
diabolically emphatic to be resisted, “Hold your
jaw, you—”(But I omit the epithet,)—or I'll fry
you for supper!” and I saw him no more for several
minutes; during which he was busily engaged
restoring order among a great number of men who
crowded the deck, and getting the Jumping Jenny

[figure description] Page 182.[end figure description]

under way. The latter purpose was effected with
surprising rapidity; and in a moment, as it seemed
to me, the sloop was under full sail, driving with a
favourable wind down the bay.

The moon, which, until this period, was extremely
bright, revealing the objects on shore with
great distinctness, was now suddenly overcast with
clouds—a fortunate circumstance, as it proved; for
presently a great hubbub was heard arising in the
fort, which we were fast leaving behind us; and by
and by several cannons were fired off, the balls of
which came dancing along the water at no great
distance from us, and perhaps would have come still
closer, had the gunners been favoured with a better
light to direct their aim. Rockets were also let off,
and these were presently answered by others that
appeared flying in the air above the fort at the Barrancas,
as it was called; a position a few miles below
Pensacola, and just at the entrance of the bay, which
it was supposed to command.

Upon this, there began to be some confusion and
indications of alarm among my fellow fugitives,
which Captain Brown, who seemed to have assumed
the command of the vessel, attempted to remove
by cursing and swearing; failing in which, he threw
open the hatches, and directed all who were “afraid
of their carcasses,” to descend into the hold; and if
the spirit of his crew was to be determined by the
readiness with which the invitation was accepted, it
was certain three fourths of the company were not
heroes; for just so many of them immediately
vanished from the deck.

My own inclinations, notwithstanding that it
might be supposed my experience in the wars had
robbed me of all faint-heartedness, were also in
favour of a descent into the hold; but a sense of

[figure description] Page 183.[end figure description]

shame withheld me, not to say that I was conscious
there could be, in reality, little protection from
danger in such a place, on board so small a vessel.
Anxiety, moreover, to ascertain the destination of
the sloop, and the designs of Captain Brown, which
I feared might be none of the most virtuous or
lawful, kept me upon the deck; and I watched the
first opportunity to accost him again, demanding
whither we were bound. “To h—ll!” quoth Captain
Brown; ordering me a second time, in the
most ferocious tones, to hold my tongue, which I
did; for I saw he was in no humour for trifling.
Indeed, he seemed to have been suddenly changed
into another man, and was, withal, so grum, and
crusty, and savage, that I thought it was my best
plan to keep out of his way as much as possible for
the remainder of the night.

I accordingly left the quarter-deck, where I had
previously taken my stand, and went to the bow of
the vessel, where was a group of men, some of them,
as I knew by their voices, the comrades of Skipper
Duck, and others Spaniards, who had their eyes
directed towards the Barrancas fort, which we were
fast approaching, though endeavouring, to pass it
at as great a distance as the width of the channel
would permit. As we drew nigh, they began to fire
upon us, but did us no harm, until, by some mischance,
the Jumping Jenny was run upon a shoal,
where she lay nearly an hour, until the rising of the
tide floated her off; and during that time, the gunners
of the fort, having a stationary object to aim at,
and occasional moonlight to direct them, succeeded in
striking us with several balls, one of which knocked
a great hole into the cabin and killed a man who
had taken refuge there; while another, still more

[figure description] Page 184.[end figure description]

unfortunately, as Captain Brown, judging by his
execrations, seemed to regard it, carried away the
bowsprit, by which the Jumping Jenny was very
seriously disabled. The mischief was repaired in
some way or other by the exertions of Brown and
the sailors; so that presently, the tide floating us
clear of the shoal, we were able to make way against
the current, to get out of reach of the fort, and finally
to proceed to sea.

As soon as we were beyond the range of the
Barrancas guns, all hands were called up to assist
in further repairs that were found to be needed;
and I had now an opportunity of making my remarks
upon the crew, whose numbers, for there were
nearly forty of us altogether, had previously filled
me with surprise. I had already distinguished the
voices of Duck's crew of British deserters; I now
saw that Duck himself was among them, and apparently
upon pretty good terms with Captain Brown;
and I had some reason to dread the fury of his revengeful
temper; but he was too busy to notice me.
I was next struck with the appearance of twelve or
thirteen negroes, all very likely fellows, whose
awkwardness with their legs and hands proved they
were too little accustomed to salt water to be pirates,
as Colonel Aubrey had been inclined to suspect
them, while their coarse tow-linen garments, resembling
those in which I had seen the negroes so commonly
dressed in Virginia, convinced me that they
were, as I had suspected, slaves whom Duck had
stolen or seduced away from their masters. Besides
these, there were nine or ten Spaniards, most ferocious-looking
fellows, in whom I fancied I recognised
the ball and-chain prisoners, or felons, of the fort;
and my suspicions were correct, for as it afterwards

[figure description] Page 185.[end figure description]

proved, there was but one honest fellow among them,
if such I may call a soldier who had been an ancient
comrade of Brown, and was easily seduced by him
to desert his post as a sentry at the fort-gate, and
assist in the escape of all the prisoners who were
desirous of deliverance.

Last of all came creeping from the hold, and I
was confounded at the sight of them, my old friends
the Bloody Volunteers; who, as I soon learned from
them, had been imposed upon by Brown, or his
confederates, to believe that the Spanish governor
had ordered them all to be shot at sunrise; that Captain
Dicky sanctioned, or ordered their flight in the
Jumping Jenny; and finally, that the Jumping Jenny
was to carry them round to Mobile; at which American
town, they were assured they would certainly
arrive, at the furthest, in twenty-four hours. I assured
them privately, that two thirds of the story
told them were undoubtedly false; that the governor
could not have ordered them to be shot; nor could
Captain Dicky have sanctioned, or even known of
their escape; and as for the remaining third, I
feared that was as false as the others, and that the
Jumping Jenny was more like to carry us to Barrataria
Bay, among the freebooters, than to an honest
place like Mobile.

The Bloody Volunteers were indignant at the
idea, and Corporal Pigeon, a corageous young fellow,
the only non-commissioned officer (except the Captain,)
who had survived the Indian war, began to
hint that we were twelve of us, who, if we stood
together, might take the question as what port the
Jumping Jenny should sail to, into our own hands,
and to swear, he, for one, would never go to such a
place as Barrataria Bay; when the vessel, coming

[figure description] Page 186.[end figure description]

into rough water, began to pitch and roll, the Bloody
Volunteers all fell deadly sick, and Corporal Pigeon
declared, with woful qualms, the Jumping Jenny
might carry him to the bottom of the sea—it was
all now indifferent to him.

p019-448 CHAPTER XXIV. The Jumping Jenny hoists the black flag, attacks and captures a superior vessel; and Robin Day finds himself a pirate.

[figure description] Page 187.[end figure description]

With all the repairs that could be given her, the
Jumping Jenny made such slow progress that, by
daylight, we were not more than ten or fifteen
miles distant from the land, with the wind, which
had suddenly chopped about, blowing us right back
to Pensacola. And to add to our uneasiness, we
could perceive a sail standing out from the bay,
which the Spaniards said could be no other than the
Governor's vessel, the Querida, which there was
reason to believe, had been hastily armed and sent
out to retake us. At the same time, another sail
was discovered, which proved to be a schooner,
making in, with a fair wind, for the bay, and approaching
us very fast. Upon this, Captain Brown,
after surveying the latter vessel from the mast-head,
made a speech, as soon as he had descended, or,
rather, two speeches, one in Spanish, the other in
English, in both which tongues he swore with equal
fluency, declaring that we must “take that schooner,
or hang, every soul of us; because how, we must
have a better ship than we sailed in, if we expected
to escape that blasted Querida, whereof he supposed
she was full of men and guns from the fort, and
would blow us into kingdom-come, unless we could

[figure description] Page 188.[end figure description]

give her the slip.” And he hinted that a signal of
distress, with our evident crippled condition, would
bring the schooner near enough to make sure of
her.

His words were so manifestly true, and the idea
of capture so unpalatable to every soul on board,
except myself, who desired nothing so much as to
be out of a vessel commanded by such a desperado,
and, perhaps, the negroes, for whose wishes nobody
inquired or cared, that it was straightway resolved
the schooner should, if possible, be taken and converted
to our uses; even the Bloody Volunteers
raising their disconsolate faces from the sloop's side,
over which they had been for a long time all hanging,
and bobbing, and gulping in a row, to retch
out a folorn assurance that they would fight rather
than surrender, if there was any danger of being
hanged by the captors. The Spaniards and sailors,
in particular, avowed themselves ready for action,
and proposed to raise from the hold, where it was
yet lying, the formidable long-tom, by way of preparation;
but Brown swore he was no such lubber
as to put an eighteen-pound shot through the ship
he was just going to sail in, or to display so formidable
an engine to the eyes of men whom he was inviting
to his assistance. And, that there might be
as little room for suspicion as possible, he directed
all the company, with the exception of six or seven
men, to conceal themselves below, keeping themselves
in readiness, with such arms as they could
find, to rush up, when he should give the command.

This order, I found, was not to extend to myself,
whom he arrested, as I was going below, telling me,
with some appearance of his former devilish humour,
that “the quarter-deck was the place for a lieutenant,

[figure description] Page 189.[end figure description]

and that he expected me to do my duty and fight
like a hell-cat.” I summoned courage, the crisis
being alarming, to assure him that we had very different
ideas of our duties; that I saw no right I had
to attack that schooner or any other, and no right he
had to command me to do so; that I was not his
lieutenant, and would not consent to be so regarded;
and if he was bent upon a desperate course himself,
he might be assured that I was not going to be dragged
into it with him.

To this he vouchsafed to reply, first, that, “as to
the matter of right, I talked like a sucking-pig, and
must hold my jaw for the future, on pain of having it
sliced off with a broadaxe;” secondly, “shiver his
timbers, he loved me, and was willing to make my
fortune; and as for the lieutenancy, sink him, he had
promised I should be his lieutenant, and I should be,
d—n his blood, or else his cook, or his powdermonkey;
for he saw nothing else I was fit for;” and,
finally, as to my assurance I was not going to be
dragged by him into any unlawful act, he told me
“I should be dragg'd through h—ll-fire, if he will'd
it;” and he ended the ferocious reply by warning
me that he was “my captain, and he was Captain
Hellcat, split him, who never had a man say nay to
him; and that upon any grumbling or disobedience
of orders, he would not hesitate to tie me up and
give me a thousand lashes.”

I found, in short, that Captain Brown on land,
and Captain Hellcat at sea, were two very different
persons; and that, however much I might have detested
the one, there remained for me nothing but to
fear the other. My spirit was not heroic enough to
rise in arms against an oppressor, who talked of
broadaxes, and a thousand lashes, not to speak of the
metaphorical fires of doom, as if nothing could be

[figure description] Page 190.[end figure description]

more natural to him than to employ them as instruments
of authority and punishment; and I confess,
with as much shame as is proper to the occasion,
that his savage menaces terrified me into immediate
submission; in which state I remained as long as it
was my miserable fate to continue in his hands.

In the meanwhile, Brown had completed his preparations
for the attack, by arming the men he kept
on deck, who were the Spanish felons, three or four
of the sailors, and Skipper Duck, with pistols and
cutlasses brought from below; which arms were laid
about in places whence the men could snatch them
up in a moment, and where there was no fear they
could be seen by the people in the schooner. He
then hoisted a flag of distress, which was no sooner
seen by the schooner, than she stood directly for us,
and came so near that, by some manœuvre or trick,
which I did not exactly understand, Brown managed
to make her run afoul of his own vessel; which no
sooner happened than he gave a terrible yell, more
like the scream of an Indian than any thing else, and
leaped on board the schooner, followed by the Spaniards
and sailors; while the rest of the company, the
remaining sailors, the negroes, and the Bloody Volunteers,
came tumbling up from the hold, to complete
by their appearance the victory which would
have been just as easily won without them.

There were but five men on board the schooner,
which was but a small one: they had no arms to
resist us, and they were so terrified at this most
unexpected assault from men into whose power they
had been drawn by their humanity, that they yielded
at once and fell upon their knees, piteously begging
for their lives. Nor had I, who, in pursuance of
orders which I feared to disobey, crept, all of a tremble,
into the schooner with the others, the least

[figure description] Page 191.[end figure description]

thought that any harm would be done them; because
it was so needless, and they had not provoked it by
resistance. But, alas, I had not yet attained a full
conception of the character of Brown; who, with a
most murderous spirit, called out to “give the rascals
no quarter,” fired his pistols at them, as he
jumped upon the deck, and then rushed upon them
with his cutlass, followed by the Spaniards; who,
whether the whole thing had been arranged between
them and Brown before, or whether his devilish
example awoke a sudden and equally devilish spirit
of imitation, as is most probable, were as forward
and active as himself; and the poor men were immediately
butchered before my eyes.

The horror with which this brutal and wanton
slaughter filled my whole mind, was shared by
others of the company, and especially by the Bloody
Volunteers and two or three of the English sailors,
as I could see by their countenances, turned upon
one another with looks of fear and inquiry. Like
me, they seemed to wonder what could have urged
Brown to such a massacre; a mystery which was
presently explained by his exclaiming, “There,
d—n my blood! the thing is done, and there is no
backing out of it. Now, my jolly dogs, the sea is
before you and the gallows behind you—the gallows
or the yard-arm, d'ye see, blast me; whereof, on
one or the other there's not a man of you but must
swing, the moment he turns his face backward.
So a free life is the word for all, because, shiver me,
my hearties, you can't help it; a free life and a jolly
one. And here you are with a good vessel under
you; and here am I, d—n my blood, Hellcat by
name, to command you—to show you where gold
grows on the sea, that may be hauled up by bucketsfull,
and where to spend it without fear of law or

[figure description] Page 192.[end figure description]

lawyer. So, say the word, sink me, a gallows on
shore, or a cruise under the sign of the Hellcat!”

It was plain from his own words, that Brown had
murdered the poor wretches for the purpose of
making pirates of us all, whether we would or not;
for after such a deed of blood, which, in the eyes
of the law must dye us all with nearly equal hues,
few felt that any thing remained but to adopt the
outlaw life on which he himself was evidently
bent. Or if any there were, they were like me,
too much overcome by fear of the ruthless desperado
to utter a single word of remonstrance. The
Spaniards received the proposal of a cruise with
cries of approbation, the Englishmen shook hands
and said, “if they were to be hang'd, they must be,
and there was no helping it;” the negroes asked
Massa Hellcat, as they called him, if they were to
be free, provided they turned pirates also, and upon
Brown saying they should be “as free as blackbirds,”
they uttered a huzzah, and said they could cut throats
as well as any body. The Bloody Volunteers said
nothing: horror and sea-sickness together subdued
them to submission.