The pilot a tale of the sea |
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| 11. | CHAPTER XI. |
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 | CHAPTER XI. The pilot |  |
11. CHAPTER XI.
“Poithee, Kate, let's stand aside, and see the end of this controversy.”
Shakspeare.
During the warm discussions of the preceding
chapter, Miss Howard had bowed her pale face
to the arm of the couch, and sate an unwilling and
distressed listener to the controversy; but now that
another, and one whom she thought an unauthorized
intruder on her privacy, was announced, she
asserted the dignity of her sex as proudly, though
with something more of discretion, than her cousin
could possibly have done. Rising from her
seat, she inquired, with cool but delicate reserve—
“To what are we indebted for so unexpected a
visit from Mr. Dillon? Surely he must know
that we are prohibited going to the part of the
dwelling where he resides, and I trust Colonel
Howard will tell him that common justice requires
we should be permitted to be private.”
The gentleman replied, in a manner in which
malignant anger was sufficiently mingled with
calculating humility—
“Miss Howard will think better of my intrusion,
importance to her uncle.”
“Ah! that may alter the case, Kit; but the ladies
must have the respect that is due to their sex.
I forgot, somehow, to have myself announced;
but that Borroughcliffe leads me deeper into my
Madeira than I have been accustomed to go,
since the time when my poor brother Harry,
with his worthy friend, Hugh Griffith—the devil
seize Hugh Griffith, and all his race—your pardon,
Miss Alice. What is your business with
me, Mr. Dillon?”
“I bear a message from Captain Borroughcliffe.
You may remember that, according to
your suggestions, the sentinels were to be changed
every night, sir.”
“Ay! ay! we practised that in our campaign
against Montcalm; 'twas necessary to avoid the
murders of their Indians, who were sure, Miss
Alice, to shoot down a man at his post, if he
were placed two nights running in the same
place.”
“Well, sir, your prudent precautions have not
been thrown away,” continued Dillon, moving
farther into the apartment, as if he felt himself
becoming a more welcome guest as he proceeded;
“the consequences are, that we have already
made three prisoners.”
“Truly it has been a most politic scheme!”
exclaimed Katherine Plowden, with infinite contempt.
“I suppose, as Mr. Christopher Dillon
applauds it so highly, that it has some communion
with the law! and that the redoubtable garrison
of St. Ruth are about to reap the high
glory of being most successful thief-takers!”
The sallow face of Dillon actually became
livid as he replied, and his whole frame shook with
the rage that he vainly endeavoured to suppress.
“There may be a closer communion with the
law, and its ministers, perhaps, than Miss Plowden
can desire,” he said; “for rebellion seldom
finds favour in any Christian code.”
“Rebellion!” exclaimed the colonel; “and
what has this detention of three vagabonds to do
with rebellion, Kit? Has the damnable poison
found its way across the Atlantic?—your pardon,
Miss Alice—but this is a subject on which you can
feel with me; I have heard your sentiments on the
allegiance due to our anointed sovereign. Speak,
Mr. Dillon, are we surrounded by another set of
demons! if so, we must give ourselves to the
work, and rally round our prince; for this island
is the main pillar of his throne.”
“I cannot say that there is any appearance, at
present, of an intention to rise in this island,”
said Dillon, with demure gravity; “though the
riots in London warrant any precautionary measures
on the part of his majesty's ministers, even
to a suspension of the habeas corpus. But you
have had your suspicions concerning two certain
vessels that have been threatening the coast, for
several days past, in a most piratical manner?”
The little foot of Katherine played rapidly on
the splendid carpet, but she contented herself
with bestowing a glance of the most sovereign
contempt on the speaker, as if she disdained any
further reply. With the colonel, however, this was
touching a theme that lay nearest his heart, and
he answered, in a manner worthy of the importance
of the subject—
“You speak like a sensible man, and a loyal
subject, Mr. Dillon. The habeas corpus, Miss
Alice, was obtained in the reign of King John,
along with magna charta, for the security of the
throne, by his majesty's barons; some of my own
blood were of the number, which alone would
properly consulted. As to our piratical countrymen,
Christopher, there is much reason to
think that the vengeance of an offended Providence
has already reached them. Those who
know the coast well, tell me that without a better
pilot than an enemy would be likely to procure,
it would be impossible for any vessels to escape
the shoals among which they entered, on a dark
night, and with an adverse gale; the morning
has arrived, and they are not to be seen!”
“But be they friends or be they enemies, sir,”
continued Dillon, respectfully, “there is much
reason to think that we have now in the Abbey
those who can tell us something of their true character;
for the men we have detained carry with
them the appearance of having just landed, and
wear not only the dress but the air of seamen.”
“Of seamen!” echoed Katherine, a deadly
paleness chasing from her cheeks the bloom
which indignation had heightened.
“Of seamen, Miss Plowden,” repeated Dillon,
with malignant satisfaction, but concealing it under
an air of submissive respect.
“I thank you, sir, for so gentle a term,” replied
the young lady, recollecting herself, and
recovering her presence of mind in the same instant;
“the imagination of Mr. Dillon is so apt
to conjure the worst, that he is entitled to our
praise for so far humouring our weaknesses, as
not to alarm us with the apprehensions of their
being pirates.”
“Nay, madam, they may yet deserve that
name,” returned the other, coolly; “but my
education has instructed me to hear the testimony
before I pronounce sentence.”
“Ah! that the boy has found in his Coke upon
Littleton,” cried the colonel; “the law is a salutary
and, among other things, it teaches patience to a
hasty temperament. But for this cursed, unnatural
rebellion, madam, the young man would, at
this moment, have been diffusing its blessings
from a judicial chair, in one of the colonies, ay!
and I pledge myself, to all alike, black and white,
red and yellow, with such proper distinctions as
nature has made between the officer and the private.
Keep a good heart, kinsman; we shall
yet find a time! the royal arms have many hands,
and things look better at the last advices. But,
come, we will proceed to the guard-room, and
put these stragglers to the question; runaways,
I'll venture to predict, from one of his majesty's
cruisers, or, perhaps, honest subjects engaged in
supplying the service with men. Come, Kit,
come, let us go, and—”
“Are we, then, to lose the company of Colonel
Howard so soon?” said Katherine, advancing
to her guardian, with an air of blandishment and
pleasantry. “I know that he too soon forgets
the hasty language of our little disputes, to part
in anger, if, indeed, he will even quit us till he
has tasted of our coffee.”
The veteran turned to the speaker of this unexpected
address, and listened with profound attention.
When she had done, he replied, with a
good deal of courtesy, if not of softness in his
tones—
“Ah! provoking one! you know me too well
to doubt my forgiveness; but duty must be attended
to, though even a young lady's smiles
tempt me to remain. Yes, yes, child, you, too,
are the daughter of a very brave and worthy
seaman; but you carry your attachment to that
profession too far, Miss Plowden—you do, indeed
you do.”
Katherine might have faintly blushed, but the
slight smile which mingled with the expression of
her shame gave to her countenance a look of additional
archness, and she laid her hand lightly
on the sleeve of her guardian, to detain him, as
she replied—
“Yet why leave us, Colonel Howard? It is
long since we have seen you in the cloisters, and
you know you come as a father; tarry, and you
may yet add confessor to the title.”
“I know thy sins already, girl,” said the worthy
colonel, unconsciously yielding to her gentle
efforts to lead him back to his seat; “they are,
deadly rebellion in your heart to your prince,
a most inveterate propensity to salt-water, and a
great disrespect to the advice and wishes of an
old fellow whom your father's will and the laws
have made the guardian of your person and fortune.”
“Nay, say not the last, dear sir,” cried Katherine;
“for there is not a syllable you have ever
said to me, on that foolish subject, that I have
forgotten. Will you resume your seat again?
Cecilia, Colonel Howard consents to take his
coffee with us.”
“But you forget the three men, honest Kit,
there, and our respectable guest, Captain Borroughcliffe.”
“Let honest Kit stay there, if he please; you
may send a request to Captain Borroughcliffe
to join our party; I have a woman's curiosity to
see the soldier; and as for the three men—” she
paused, and affected to muse a moment, when she
continued, as if stricken by an obvious thought—
“Yes, and the men can be brought in, and examined
here; who knows but they may have been
wrecked in the gale, and need our pity and assistance,
rather than deserve your suspicions.”
“There is a solemn warning in Miss Plowden's
conjecture, that should come home to the
breasts of all who live on this wild coast,” said
Alice Dunscombe; “I have known many a sad
wreck among the hidden shoals, and when the
wind has blown but a gentle gale, compared to
last night's tempest. The wars, and the uncertainties
of the times, together with man's own
wicked passions, have made great havoc with
those who knew well the windings of the channels
among the “Ripples.” Some there were who
could pass, as I have often heard, within a fearful
distance of the “Devil's-Grip,” the darkest night
that ever shadowed England; but all are now
gone, of that daring set, either by the hand of
death, or, what is even as mournful, by unnatural
banishment from the land of their fathers.”
“This war has then probably drawn off most of
them, for your recollections must be quite recent,
Miss Alice,” said the veteran; “as many of them
were engaged in the business of robbing his majesty's
revenue, the country is in some measure
requited for their former depredations, by their
present services, and at the same time it is happily
rid of their presence. Ah! madam, ours is
a glorious constitution, where things are so nicely
balanced, that, as in that of a healthy, vigorous
man, the baser parts are purified in the course
of things, by its own wholesome struggles.”
The pale features of Alice Dunscombe became
slightly tinged with red, as the colonel proceeded,
nor did the faint glow entirely leave her pallid
face, until she had said—
“There might have been some who knew not
how to respect the laws of the land, for such are
never wanting; but there were others, who, however
guilty they might be in many respects, need
not charge themselves with that mean crime, and
common eyes, beneath the rude waves, as well as
you could find the way through the halls and
galleries of the Abbey, with a noonday sun shining
upon its vanes and high chimneys.”
“Is it your pleasure, Colonel Howard, that we
examine the three men, and ascertain whether
they belong to the number of these gifted pilots?”
said Christopher Dillon, who was growing uneasy
at his awkward situation, and who hardly
deemed it necessary to conceal the look of contempt
which he cast at the mild Alice, while he
spoke; “perhaps we may gather information
enough from them, to draw a chart of the coast,
that may gain us credit with my lords of the Admiralty.”
This unprovoked attack on their unresisting
and unoffending guest, brought the rich blood to
the very temples of Miss Howard, who rose, and
addressed herself to her kinsman, with a manner
that could not easily be mistaken, any more than
it could be condemned—
“If Mr. Dillon will comply with the wishes of
Colonel Howard, as my cousin has expressed
them, we shall not, at least, have to accuse ourselves
of unnecessarily detaining men who probably
are more unfortunate than guilty.”
When she concluded, Cecilia walked across
the apartment, and took a seat by the side of
Alice Dunscombe, with whom she began to converse,
in a low, soothing tone of voice. Mr.
Dillon bowed with a deprecating humility, and
having ascertained that Colonel Howard chose to
give an audience, where he sate, to the prisoners,
he withdrew to execute his mission, secretly exulting
at any change that promised to lead to a
renewal of an intercourse that might terminate
whose favour he courted, was, at present, disposed
to concede.
“Christopher is a worthy, serviceable, good
fellow,” said the colonel, when the door closed,
“and I hope to live, yet, to see him clad in ermine;
I would not be understood literally, but
figuratively, for furs would but ill comport with
the climate of the Carolinas. I trust I am to be
consulted by his majesty's ministers when the
new appointments shall be made for the subdued
colonies, and he may safely rely on my good
word being spoken in his favour. Would he not
make an excellent and independent ornament of
the bench, Miss Plowden?”
Katherine compressed her lips a little, as she
replied—
“I must profit by his own discreet rules, and
see testimony to that effect, before I decide, sir.
But listen!” The young lady's colour changed
rapidly, and her eyes became fixed in a sort of
feverish gaze on the door. “He has at least
been active; I hear the heavy tread of men already
approaching.”
“Ah! it is he certainly; justice ought always
to be prompt as well as certain, to make it perfect;
like a drum-head court-martial, which, by the
way, is as summary a sort of government as
heart could wish to live under. If his majesty's
ministers could be persuaded to introduce into the
revolted colonies—”
“Listen!” interrupted Katherine, in a voice
which bespoke her deep anxiety; “they draw
near!”
The sound of footsteps was in fact now so
audible as to induce the colonel to suspend the
delivery of his plan for governing the recovered
provinces. The long, low gallery, which was
footsteps of the approaching party more distinctly
to their ears, and a low tap at the door presently
announced their arrival. Colonel Howard arose,
with the air of one who was to sustain the principal
character in the ensuing interview, and bade
them enter. Cecilia and Alice Dunscombe merely
cast careless looks at the opening door, indifferent
to the scene; but the quick eye of Katherine
embraced, at a glance, every figure in the
group. Drawing a long, quivering breath, she
fell back on the couch, and her eyes again
lighted with their playful expression, as she hummed
a low, rapid air, with a voice in which
even the suppressed tones were liquid melody.
Dillon entered, preceding the soldier, whose
gait had become more steady, and in whose rigid
eye a thoughtful expression had taken the place
of its former vacant gaze. In short, something
had manifestly restored to him a more complete
command of his mental powers, although he might
not have been absolutely sobered. The rest of
the party continued in the gallery, while Mr. Dillon
presented the renovated captain to the colonel,
when the latter did him the same kind office
with the ladies.
“Miss Plowden,” said the veteran, for she offered
first in the circle, “this is my friend, Captain
Borroughcliffe; he has long been ambitious
of this honour, and I have no doubt his reception
will be such as to leave him no cause to repent
he has been at last successful.”
Katherine smiled, and answered, with ambiguous
emphasis—
“I know not how to thank him, sufficiently, for
the care he has bestowed on our poor persons.”
The soldier looked steadily at her, for a moment,
in kind, ere he replied—
“One of those smiles, madam, would be an
ample compensation for services that are more
real than such as exist only in intention.”
Katherine bowed with more complacency than
she usually bestowed on those who wore his dress,
and they proceeded to the next.
“This is Miss Alice Dunscombe, Captain Borroughcliffe,
daughter of a very worthy clergyman
who was formerly the curate of this parish,
and a lady who does us the pleasure of giving us
a good deal of her society, though far less than
we all wish for.”
The captain returned the civil inclination of
Alice, and the colonel proceeded.
“Miss Howard, allow me to present Captain
Borroughcliffe, a gentleman who, having volunteered
to defend St. Ruth in these critical times,
merits all the favour of its mistress.”
Cecilia gracefully rose, and received her guest
with sweet complacency. The soldier made no
reply to the customary compliments that she uttered,
but stood an instant gazing at her speaking
countenance, and then, laying his hand involuntarily
on his breast, bowed nearly to his sword-hilt.
These formalities duly observed, the colonel
declared his readiness to receive the prisoners.
As the door was opened by Dillon, Katherine cast
a cool and steady look at the strangers, and beheld
the light glancing along the arms of the soldiers
who guarded them. But the seamen entered
alone; while the rattling of arms, and the
heavy dash of the muskets on the stone pavement,
announced that it was thought prudent to retain a
force at hand, to watch these secret intruders on
the grounds of the abbey.
| CHAPTER XI. The pilot | |