University of Virginia Library

2. CHAPTER II.

Twelfth Night.

The strangers were three in number; for strangers
the good-man Homespun, who knew not only
the names but most of the private history of every
man and woman within ten miles of his own residence,
immediately proclaimed them to be, in a
whisper to his companion; and strangers, too, of a
mysterious and threatening aspect. In order that
others may have an opportunity of judging of the
probability of the latter conjecture, it becomes necessary
that a more minute account should be given
of the respective appearances of these individuals,
who, unhappily for their reputations, had the misfortune
to be unknown to the gossipping tailor of
Newport.

The one, by far the most imposing in his general
mien, was a youth who had apparently seen some
six or seven-and-twenty seasons. That those seasons
had not been entirely made of sunny days, and
nights of repose, was betrayed by the tinges of brown
which had been laid on his features, layer after layer,
in such constant succession, as to have changed,
to a deep olive, a complexion which had once been
fair, and through which the rich blood was still mantling
with the finest glow of vigorous health. His
features were rather noble and manly, than distinguished

for their exactness and symmetry; his nose
being far more bold and prominent than regular in
its form, with his brows projecting, and sufficiently
marked to give to the whole of the superior parts of
his face that decided intellectual expression which
is already becoming so common to American physiognomy.
The mouth was firm and manly; and,
while he muttered to himself, with a meaning smile,
as the curious tailor drew slowly nigher, it discovered
a set of glittering teeth, that shone the brighter from
being cased in so dark a setting. The hair was a jet
black, in thick and confused ringlets; the eyes were
very little larger than common, gray, and, though
evidently of a changing expression, rather leaning to
mildness than severity. The form of this young man
was of that happy size which so singularly unites
activity with strength. It seemed to be well knit,
while it was justly proportioned, and strikingly
graceful. Though these several personal qualifications
were exhibited under the disadvantages of the
perfectly simple, though neat and rather tastefully
disposed, attire of a common mariner, they were
sufficiently imposing to cause the suspicious dealer
in buckram to hesitate before he would venture to
address the stranger, whose eye appeared riveted,
by a species of fascination, on the reputed slaver in
the outer harbour. A curl of the upper lip, and another
strange smile, in which scorn was mingled
with his mutterings, decided the vacillating mind of
the good-man. Without venturing to disturb a reverie
that seemed so profound, he left the youth leaning
against the head of the pile where he had long
been standing, perfectly unconscious of the presence
of any intruder, and turned a little hastily to examine
the rest of the party.

One of the remaining two was a white man, and
the other a negro. Both had passed the middle age;
and both, in their appearances, furnished the strongest

proofs of long exposure to the severity of climate,
and to numberless tempests. They were dressed in
the plain, weather-soiled, and tarred habiliments of
common seamen, and bore about their several persons
all the other unerring evidences of their peculiar
profession. The former was of a short, thickset,
powerful frame, in which, by a happy ordering
of nature, a little confirmed perhaps by long habit,
the strength was principally seated about the broad
and brawny shoulders, and strong sinewy arms, as if,
in the construction of the man, the inferior members
had been considered of little other use than to transfer
the superior to the different situations in which
the former were to display their energies. His head
was in proportion to the more immediate members;
the forehead low, and nearly covered with hair; the
eyes small, obstinate, sometimes fierce, and often
dull; the nose snub, coarse, and vulgar; the mouth
large and voracious; the teeth short, clean, and perfectly
sound; and the chin broad, manly, and even
expressive. This singularly constructed personage
had taken his seat on an empty barrel, and, with
folded arms, he sat examining the often-mentioned
slaver, occasionally favouring his companion, the
black, with such remarks as were suggested by his
observation and great experience.

The negro occupied a more humble post; one
better suited to his subdued habits and inclinations.
In stature, and the peculiar division of animal force,
there was a great resemblance between the two, with
the exception that the latter enjoyed the advantage
in height, and even in proportions. While nature
had stamped on his lineaments those distinguishing
marks which characterize the race from which he
sprung, she had not done it to that revolting degree
to which her displeasure against that stricken people
is often carried. His features were more elevated
than common; his eye was mild, easily excited to

joy, and, like that of his companion, sometimes humorous.
His head was beginning to be sprinkled
with gray, his skin had lost the shining jet colour
which had distinguished it in his youth, and all his
limbs and movements bespoke a man whose frame
had been equally indurated and stiffened by unremitted
toil. He sat on a low stone, and seemed intently
employed in tossing pebbles into the air, and
shewing his dexterity by catching them in the hand
from which they had just been cast; an amusement
which betrayed alike the natural tendency of his mind
to seek pleasure in trifles, and the absence of those
more elevating feelings which are the fruits of education.
The process, however, furnished a striking
exhibition of the physical force of the negro. In
order to conduct this trivial pursuit without incumbrance,
he had rolled the sleeve of his light canvas
jacket to the elbow, and laid bare an arm that might
have served as a model for the limb of Hercules.

There was certainly nothing sufficiently imposing
about the persons of either of these individuals to
repel the investigations of one as much influenced
by curiosity as our tailor. Instead, however, of yielding
directly to the strong impulse, the honest shaper
of cloth chose to conduct his advance in a manner
that should afford to the bumpkin a striking proof
of his boasted sagacity. After making a sign of caution
and intelligence to the latter, he approached
slowly from behind, with a light step, that might
give him an opportunity of overhearing any secret
that should unwittingly fall from either of the seamen.
His forethought was followed by no very important
results, though it served to supply his suspicions
with all the additional testimony of the treachery
of their characters that could be furnished by
evidence so simple as the mere sound of their voices.
As to the words themselves, though the good-man
believed they might well contain treason, he was

compelled to acknowledge to himself that it was so
artfully concealed as to escape even his acute capacity.
We leave the reader himself to judge of the
correctness of both opinions.

“This is a pretty bight of a basin, Guinea,” observed
the white, rolling his tobacco in his mouth,
and turning his eyes, for the first time in many minutes,
from the vessel; “and a spot is it that a man,
who lay on a lee-shore without sticks, might be glad
to see his craft in. Now do I call myself something
of a seaman, and yet I cannot weather upon the
philosophy of that fellow, in keeping his ship in the
outer harbour, when he might warp her into this
mill-pond in half an hour. It gives his boats hard
duty, dusky S'ip; and that I call making foul weather
of fair!”

The negro had been christened Scipio Africanus,
by a species of witticism which was much more
common to the Provinces than it is to the States of
America, and which filled so many of the meaner
employments of the country, in name at least, with
the counterparts of the philosophers, heroes, poets,
and princes of Rome. To him it was a matter of
small moment, whether the vessel lay in the offing
or in the port; and, without discontinuing his childish
amusement, he manifested the same, by replying,
with great indifference of manner,—

“I s'pose he t'ink all the water inside lie on a
top.”

“I tell you, Guinea,” returned the other, in a
harsh, positive tone, “the fellow is a know-nothing
Would any man, who understands the behaviour of
a ship, keep his craft in a roadstead, when he might
tie her, head and stern, in a basin like this?”

“What he call roadstead?” interrupted the negro,
seizing at once, with the avidity of ignorance, on the
little oversight of his adversary, in confounding the
outer harbour of Newport with the wilder anchorage

below, and with the usual indifference of all similar
people to the more material matter of whether the
objection was at all germain to the point in controversy;
“I never hear 'em call anchoring ground, with
land around it, roadstead afore!”

“Hark ye, mister Gold-coast,” muttered the white,
bending his head aside in a threatening manner,
though he still disdained to turn his eyes on his humble
adversary, “if you've no wish to wear your shins
parcelled for the next month, gather in the slack of
your wit, and have an eye to the manner in which
you let it run again. Just tell me this; isn't a port
a port? and isn't an offing an offing?”

As these were two propositions to which even
the ingenuity of Scipio could raise no objection, he
wisely declined touching on either, contenting himself
with shaking his head in great self-complacency,
and laughing as heartily, at his imaginary triumph
over his companion, as though he had never known
care, nor been the subject of wrong and humiliation,
so long and so patiently endured.

“Ay, ay,” grumbled the white, re-adjusting his
person in its former composed attitude, and again
crossing the arms, which had been a little separated,
to give force to the menace against the tender member
of the black, “now you are piping the wind out
of your throat like a flock of long-shore crows, you
think you've got the best of the matter. The Lord
made a nigger an unrational animal; and an experienced
seaman, who has doubled both Capes, and
made all the head-lands atween Fundy and Horn, has
no right to waste his breath in teaching any of the
breed! I tell you, Scipio, since Scipio is your name
on the ship's books, though I'll wager a month's pay
against a wooden boat-hook that your father was
known at home as Quashee, and your mother as
Quasheeba—therefore do I tell you, Scipio Africa—
which is a name for all your colour, I believe—that

yonder chap, in the outer harbour of this here sea-port,
is no judge of an anchorage, or he would drop
a kedge mayhap hereaway, in a line with the southern
end of that there small matter of an island, and,
hauling his ship up to it, fasten her to the spot with
good hempen cables and iron mud-hooks. Now, look
you here, S'ip, at the reason of the matter,” he continued,
in a manner which shewed that the little skirmish
that had just passed was like one of those sudden
squalls of which they had both seen so many, and
which were usually so soon succeeded by corresponding
seasons of calm; “look you at the whole rationality
of what I say. He has come into this anchorage
either for something or for nothing. I suppose you
are ready to admit that. If for nothing, he might
have found that much outside, and I'll say no more
about it; but if for something, he could get it off
easier, provided the ship lay hereaway, just where
I told you, boy, not a fathom ahead or astern, than
where she is now riding, though the article was no
heavier than a fresh handful of feathers for the captain's
pillow. Now, if you have any thing to gainsay
the reason of this, why, I'm ready to hear it as a
reasonable man, and one who has not forgotten his
manners in learning his philosophy.”

“S'pose a wind come out fresh here, at nor-west,”
answered the other, stretching his brawny arm towards
the point of the compass he named, “and a
vessel want to get to sea in a hurry, how you t'ink
he get her far enough up to lay through the weather
reach? Ha! you answer me dat; you great scholar,
misser Dick, but you never see ship go in wind's
teeth, or hear a monkey talk.”

“The black is right!” exclaimed the youth, who,
it would seem, had overheard the dispute, while he
appeared otherwise engaged; “the slaver has left
his vessel in the outer harbour, knowing that the
wind holds so much to the westward at this season

of the year; and then you see he keeps his light
spars aloft, although it is plain enough, by the manner
in which his sails are furled, that he is strong-handed.
Can you make out, boys, whether he has
an anchor under foot, or is he merely riding by a
single cable?”

“The man must be a driveller, to lie in such a
tides-way, without dropping his stream, or at least a
kedge, to steady the ship,” returned the white, without
appearing to think any thing more than the received
practice of seamen necessary to decide the
point. “That he is no great judge of an anchorage, I
am ready to allow; but no man, who can keep things
so snug aloft, would think of fastening his ship, for
any length of time, by a single cable, to sheer starboard
and port, like that kicking colt, tied to the tree
by a long halter, that we fell in with, in our passage
over land from Boston.”

“'Em got a stream down, and all a rest of he
anchors stowed,” said the black, whose dark eye
was glancing understandingly at the vessel, while he
still continued to cast his pebbles into the air:
“S'pose he jam a helm hard a-port, misser Harry,
and take a tide on he larboard bow, what you t'ink
make him kick and gallop about! Golly! I like to
see Dick, without a foot-rope, ride a colt tied to
tree!”

Again the negro enjoyed his humour, by shaking
his head, as if his whole soul was amused by the
whimsical image his rude fancy had conjured, and
indulged in a hearty laugh; and again his white
companion muttered certain exceedingly heavy and
sententious denunciations. The young man, who
seemed to enter very little into the quarrels and witticisms
of his singular associates, still kept his gaze
intently fastened on the vessel, which to him appeared,
for the moment, to be the subject of some extraordinary
interest. Shaking his own head, though in

a far graver manner, as if his doubts were drawing
to a close, he added, as the boisterous merriment of
the negro ceased,—

“Yes, Scipio, you are right: he rides altogether
by his stream, and he keeps every thing in readiness
for a sudden move. In ten minutes he would carry
his ship beyond the fire of the battery, provided he
had but a capful of wind.”

“You appear to be a judge in these matters,”
said an unknown voice behind him.

The youth turned suddenly on his heel, and then,
for the first time, was he apprised of the presence
of any intruders. The surprise, however, was not
confined to himself; for, as there was another newcomer
to be added to the company, the gossipping
tailor was quite as much, or even more, the subject
of astonishment, than any of that party, whom he
had been so intently watching as to have prevented
him from observing the approach of still another
utter stranger.

The third individual was a man between thirty
and forty, and of a mien and attire not a little adapted
to quicken the already active curiosity of the
good-man Homespun. His person was slight, but
afforded the promise of exceeding agility, and even
of vigour, especially when contrasted with his stature,
which was scarcely equal to the medium height
of man. His skin had been dazzling as that of woman,
though a deep red, which had taken possession
of the lower lineaments of his face, and which was
particularly conspicuous on the outline of a fine
aquiline nose, served to destroy all appearance of
effeminacy. His hair was like his complexion, fair,
and fell about his temples in rich, glossy, and exuberant
curls. His mouth and chin were beautiful in
their formation; but the former was a little scornful,
and the two together bore a decided character of
voluptuousness. The eye was blue, full without

being prominent, and, though in common placid and
even soft, there were moments when it seemed a
little unsettled and wild. He wore a high conical
hat, placed a little on one side, so as to give a slightly
rakish expression to his physiognomy, a riding
frock of light green, breeches of buck-skin, high
boots, and spurs. In one of his hands he carried a
small whip, with which, when first seen, he was cutting
the air with an appearance of the utmost indifference
to the surprise occasioned by his sudden interruption.

“I say, sir, you seem to be a judge in these matters,”
he repeated, when he had endured the frowning
examination of the young seaman quite as long
as comported with his own patience; “you speak
like a man who feels he has a right to give an opinion!”

“Do you find it remarkable that one should not
be ignorant of a profession that he has diligently
pursued for a whole life?”

“Hum! I find it a little remarkable, that one,
whose business is that of a handicraft, should dignify
his trade with such a sounding name as profession.
We of the learned science of the law, and who enjoy
the particular smiles of the learned universities,
can say no more!”

“Then call it trade; for nothing in common with
gentlemen of your craft is acceptable to a seaman,”
retorted the young mariner, turning away from the
intruder with a disgust that he did not affect to conceal.

“A lad of some metal!” muttered the other, with
a rapid utterance and a meaning smile. “Let not
such a trifle as a word part us, friend. I confess my
ignorance of all maritime matters, and would gladly
learn a little from one as skilful as yourself in the
noble—profession. I think you said something concerning
the manner in which yonder ship has anchored,

and of the condition in which they keep
things alow and aloft?”

“Alow and aloft!” exclaimed the young sailor,
facing his interrogator with a stare that was quite as
expressive as his recent disgust.

“Alow and aloft!” calmly repeated the other.

“I spoke of her neatness aloft, but do not affect
to judge of things below at this distance.”

“Then it was my error; but you will have pity
on the ignorance of one who is so new to the profession.
As I have intimated, I am no more than
an unworthy barrister, in the service of his Majesty,
expressly sent from home on a particular errand. If
it were not a pitiful pun, I might add, I am not yet—
a judge.”

“No doubt you will soon arrive at that distinction,”
returned the other, “if his Majesty's ministers
have any just conceptions of modest merit; unless,
indeed, you should happen to be prematurely”—

The youth bit his lip, made a haughty inclination
of the head, and walked leisurely up the wharf, followed,
with the same appearance of deliberation,
by the two seamen who had accompanied him in his
visit to the place. The stranger in green watched
the whole movement with a calm and apparently an
amused eye, tapping his boot with his whip, and seeming
to reflect like one who would willingly find means
to continue the discourse.

“Hanged!” he at length uttered, as if to complete
the sentence the other had left unfinished. “It is
droll enough that such a fellow should dare to foretel
so elevated a fate for me!”

He was evidently preparing to follow the retiring
party, when he felt a hand laid a little unceremoniously
on his arm, and his step was arrested.

“One word in your ear, sir,” said the attentive
tailor, making a significant sign that he had matters
of importance to communicate: “A single word,

sir, since you are in the particular service of his
Majesty. Neighbour Pardon,” he continued, with a
dignified and patronising air, “the sun is getting low,
and you will make it late home, I fear. The girl
will give you the garment, and—God speed you!
Say nothing of what you have heard and seen, until
you have word from me to that effect; for it is seemly
that two men, who have had so much experience
in a war like this, should not lack in discretion. Fare
ye well, lad!—pass the good word to the worthy
farmer, your father, not forgetting a refreshing hint
of friendship to the thrifty housewife, your mother.
Fare ye well, honest youth; fare ye well!”

Homespun, having thus disposed of his admiring
companion, waited, with much elevation of mien,
until the gaping bumpkin had left the wharf, before
he again turned his look on the stranger in green.
The latter had continued standing in his tracks, with
an air of undisturbed composure, until he was once
more addressed by the tailor, whose character and
dimensions he seemed to have taken in, at a single
glance of his rapid eye.

“You say, sir, you are a servant of his Majesty?”
demanded the latter, determined to solve all doubts
as to the other's claims on his confidence, before he
committed himself by any precipitate disclosure.

“I may say more;—his familiar confident!”

“It is an honour to converse with such a man,
that I feel in every bone in my body,” returned the
cripple, smoothing his scanty hairs, and bowing nearly
to the earth; “a high and loyal honour do I feel
this gracious privilege to be.”

“Such as it is, my friend, I take on myself in his
Majesty's name, to bid you welcome.”

“Such munificent condescension would open my
whole heart, though treason, and all other unright-cousness,
was locked up in it. I am happy, honoured,
and I doubt not, honourable sir, to have this opportunity

of proving my zeal to the King, before one
who will not fail to report my humble efforts to his
royal ears.”

“Speak freely,” interrupted the stranger in green,
with an air of princely condescension; though one,
less simple and less occupied with his own budding
honours than the tailor, might have easily discovered
that he began to grow weary of the other's prolix loyalty:
“Speak without reserve, friend; it is what we
always do at court.” Then, switching his boot with
his riding whip, he muttered to himself, as he swung
his light frame on his heel, with an indolent, indifferent
air, “If the fellow swallows that, he is as stupid
as his own goose!”

“I shall, sir, I shall; and a great proof of charity
is it in one like your noble self to listen. You see
yonder tall ship, sir, in the outer harbour of this loyal
sea-port?”

“I do; she seems to be an object of general attention
among the worthy lieges of the place.”

“Therein I conceive, sir, you have overrated the
sagacity of my townsmen. She has been lying where
you now see her for many days, and not a syllable
have I heard whispered against her character from
mortal man, except myself.”

“Indeed!” muttered the stranger, biting the handle
of his whip, and fastening his glittering eyes intently
on the features of the good-man, which were
literally swelling with the importance of his discovery;
“and what may be the nature of your suspicions?”

“Why, sir, I may be wrong—and God forgive me
if I am—but this is no more nor less than what has
arisen in my mind on the subject. Yonder ship, and
her crew, bear the reputation of being innocent and
harmless slavers, among the good people of Newport;
and as such are they received and welcomed in the
place, the one to a safe and easy anchorage, and the

others among the taverners and shop-dealers. I would
not have you imagine that a single garment has ever
gone from my fingers for one of all her crew; no,
let it be for ever remembered that the whole of their
dealings have been with the young tradesman named
Tape, who entices customers to barter, by backbiting
and otherwise defiling the fair names of his betters in
the business: not a garment has been made by my
hands for even the smallest boy.”

“You are lucky,” returned the stranger in green,
“in being so well quit of the knaves! and yet have
you forgotten to name the particular offence with
which I am to charge them before the face of the
King.”

“I am coming as fast as possible to the weighty
matter. You must know, worthy and commendable
sir, that I am a man that has seen much, and suffered
much, in his Majesty's service. Five bloody
and cruel wars have I gone through, besides other
adventures and experiences, such as becomes a humble
subject to suffer meekly and in silence.”

“All of which shall be directly communicated to
the royal ear. And now, worthy friend, relieve
your mind, by a frank communication of your suspicions.”

“Thanks, honourable sir; your goodness in my
behalf cannot be forgotten, though it shall never be
said that any impatience to seek the relief you mention,
hurried me into a light and improper manner
of unburthening my mind. You must know, honoured
gentleman, that yesterday, as I sat alone, at
this very hour, on my board, reflecting in my thoughts
—for the plain reason that my envious neighbour
had enticed all the newly arrived customers to his
own shop—well, sir, the head will be busy when
the hands are idle; there I sat, as I have briefly told
you, reflecting in my thoughts, like any other accountable

being, on the calamities of life, and on the
great experiences that I have had in the wars. For
you must know, valiant gentleman, besides the affair
in the land of the Medes and Persians, and the Porteous
mob in Edinbro', five cruel and bloody”—

“There is that in your air which sufficiently proclaims
the soldier,” interrupted his listener, who evidently
struggled to keep down his rising impatience;
“but, as my time is so precious, I would now more
especially hear what you have to say concerning
yonder ship.”

“Yes, sir, one gets a military look after seeing
numberless wars; and so, happily for the need of
both, I have now come to the part of my secret
which touches more particularly on the character of
that vessel. There sat I, reflecting on the manner
in which the strange seamen had been deluded by
my tonguey neighbour—for, as you should know,
sir, a desperate talker is that Tape, and a younker
who has seen but one war at the utmost—therefore,
was I thinking of the manner in which he had enticed
my lawful customers from my shop, when, as
one thought is the father of another, the following
concluding reasoning, as our pious priest has it weekly
in his reviving and searching discourses, came uppermost
in my mind: If these mariners were honest
and conscientious slavers, would they overlook a
labouring man with a large family, to pour their
well-earned gold into the lap of a common babbler?
I proclaimed to myself at once, sir, that they would
not. I was bold to say the same in my own mind;
and, thereupon, I openly put the question to all in
hearing, If they are not slavers, what are they? A
question which the King himself would, in his royal
wisdom, allow to be a question easier asked than answered;
upon which I replied, If the vessel be no
fair-trading slaver, nor a common cruiser of his Majesty,

it is as tangible as the best man's reasoning,
that she may be neither more nor less than the ship
of that nefarious pirate the Red Rover.”

“The Red Rover!” exclaimed the stranger in
green, with a start so natural as to evidence that his
dying interest in the tailor's narrative was suddenly
and powerfully revived. “That indeed would be a
secret worth having!—but why do you suppose the
same?”

“For sundry reasons, which I am now about to
name, in their respective order. In the first place,
she is an armed ship, sir. In the second, she is no
lawful cruiser, or the same would be publicly
known, and by no one sooner than myself, inasmuch
as it is seldom that I do not finger a penny from the
King's ships. In the third place, the burglarious and
unfeeling conduct of the few seamen who have landed
from her go to prove it; and, lastly, what is well
proved may be considered as substantially established.
These are what, sir, I should call the opening
premises of my inferences, all of which I hope you
will properly lay before the royal mind of his Majesty.”

The barrister in green listened to the somewhat
wire-drawn deductions of Homespun with great attention,
notwithstanding the confused and obscure
manner in which they were delivered by the aspiring
tradesman. His keen eye rolled quickly, and
often, from the vessel to the countenance of his companion;
but several moments elapsed before he saw
fit to make any reply. The reckless gayety with
which he had introduced himself, and which he had
hitherto maintained in the discourse, was entirely
superseded by a musing and abstracted air, which
sufficiently proved, that, whatever levity he might
betray in common, he was far from being a stranger
to deep and absorbing thought. Suddenly throwing
off his air of gravity, however, he assumed one in

which irony and sincerity were singularly blended,
and, laying his hand familiarly on the shoulder of the
expecting tailor, he replied—

“You have communicated such matter as becometh
a faithful and loyal servant of the King. It is
well known that a heavy price is set on the head of
the meanest follower of the Rover, and that a rich,
ay, a splendid reward will be the fortune of him who
is the instrument of delivering the whole knot of
miscreants into the hands of the executioner. Indeed,
I know not but some marked evidence of the
royal pleasure might follow such a service. There
was Phipps, a man of humble origin, who received
knighthood—”

“Knighthood!” echoed the tailor, in awful admiration.

“Knighthood,” coolly repeated the stranger;
“honourable and chivalric knighthood. What may
have been the appellation you received from your
sponsors in baptism?”

“My given name, gracious and grateful sir, is
Hector.”

“And the house itself?—the distinctive appellation
of the family?”

“We have always been called Homespun.”

“Sir Hector Homespun will sound as well as another!
But to secure these rewards, my friend, it is
necessary to be discreet. I admire your ingenuity,
and am a convert to your logic. You have so entirely
demonstrated the truth of your suspicions, that
I have no more doubt of yonder vessel being the
pirate, than I have of your wearing spurs, and being
called sir Hector. The two things are equally established
in my mind: but it is needful that we proceed
in the matter with caution. I understand you to say,
that no one else has been enlightened by your erudition
in this affair?”

“Not a soul. Tape himself is ready to swear that
the crew are conscientious slavers.”

“So best. We must first render conclusions certain;
then to our reward. Meet me at the hour of
eleven this night, at yonder low point, where the
land juts into the outer harbour. From that stand
will we make our observations; and, having removed
every doubt, let the morning produce a discovery
that shall ring from the Colony of the Bay to the
settlements of Oglethorpe. Until then we part; for
it is not wise that we be longer seen in conference.
Remember silence, punctuality, and the favour of
the King. These are our watch-words.”

“Adieu, honourable gentlemen,” said his companion,
making a reverence nearly to the earth, as the
other slightly touched his hat in passing.

“Adieu, sir Hector,” returned the stranger in
green, with an affable smile and a gracious wave of
the hand. He then walked slowly up the wharf,
and disappeared behind the mansion of the Home-spuns;
leaving the head of that ancient family, like
many a predecessor and many a successor, so rapt
in the admiration of his own good fortune, and so
blinded by his folly, that, while physically he saw to
the right and to the left as well as ever, his mental
vision was completely obscured in the clouds of
ambition.