 | CHAPTER X. The Red Rover |  |
10. CHAPTER X.
“As I am an honest man, he looks pale: Art thou sick, or angry?”
Much ado about Nothing.
The approach of the strange sail was becoming
rapidly more and more visible to the naked eye. The
little speck of white, which had first been seen on
the margin of the sea, resembling some gull floating
on the summit of a wave, had gradually arisen during
the last half hour, until a tall pyramid of canvas
was reared on the water. As Wilder bent his look
again on this growing object, the Rover put a glass
into his hands, with an expression of feature which
the other understood to say, “You may perceive that
us!” Still the look was one rather of regret
than of reproach; nor did a single syllable of the
tongue confirm the meaning language of the eye. On
the contrary, it would seem that his Commander was
anxious to preserve their recent amicable compact
inviolate; for, when the young mariner attempted an
awkward explanation of the probable causes of the
blunder of Fid, he was met by a quiet gesture, which
said, in a sufficiently intelligible language, that the
offence was already pardoned.
“Our neighbour keeps a good look-out, as you may
see,” observed the other. “He has tacked, and is
laying boldly up across our fore-foot. Well, let him
come on; we shall soon get a look at his battery, and
then may we come to our conclusion as to the nature
of the intercourse we are to hold.”
“If you permit the stranger to near us, it might be
difficult to throw him off the chase, should we be
glad to get rid of him.”
“It must be a fast-going vessel to which the `Dolphin'
cannot spare a top-gallant-sail.”
“I know not, sir. The sail in sight is swift on the
wind, and it is to be believed that she is no duller off.
I have rarely known a vessel rise so rapidly as she
has done since first we made her.”
The youth spoke with such earnestness, as to draw
the attention of his companion from the object he
was studying to the countenance of the speaker.
“Mr Wilder,” he said quickly, and with an air of
decision, “you know the ship?”
“I'll not deny it. If my opinion be true, she will
be found too heavy for the `Dolphin,' and a vessel
that offers little inducement for us to attempt to carry.”
“Her size?”
“You heard it from the black.”
“Your followers know her also?”
“It would be difficult to deceive a topman in the
months, nay years.”
“I understand the `new cloths' in her top-gallant-royal!
Mr Wilder, your departure from that vessel
has been recent?”
“As my arrival in this.”
The Rover continued silent for several minutes,
communing with his own thoughts. His companion
made no offer to disturb his meditations; though the
furtive glances, he often cast in the direction of the
other's musing eye, betrayed some little anxiety to
learn the result of his self-communication.
“And her guns?” at length his Commander abruptly
demanded.
“She numbers four more than the `Dolphin.”'
“The metal?”
“Is still heavier. In every particular is she a ship
a size above your own.”
“Doubtless she is the property of the King?”
“She is.”
“Then shall she change her masters. By heaven,
she shall be mine!”
Wilder shook his head, answering only with an incredulous
smile.
“You doubt it,” resumed the Rover. “Come
hither, and look upon that deck. Can he whom you
so lately quitted muster fellows like these, to do his
biddings?”
The crew of the `Dolphin' had been chosen, by
one who thoroughly understood the character of a
seaman, from among all the different people of the
Christian world. There was not a maritime nation
in Europe which had not its representative among
that band of turbulent and desperate spirits. Even
the descendant of the aboriginal possessors of America
had been made to abandon the habits and opinions of
his progenitors, to become a wanderer on that element
which had laved the shores of his native land
in the bosoms of his simple-minded ancestry.
All had been suited, by lives of wild adventure, on
the two elements, for their present lawless pursuits;
and, directed by the mind which had known how to
obtain and to continue its despotic ascendancy over
their efforts, they truly formed a most dangerous and
(considering their numbers) resistless crew. Their
Commander smiled in exultation, as he watched the
evident reflection with which his companion contemplated
the indifference, or fierce joy, which different
individuals among them exhibited at the appearance
of an approaching conflict. Even the rawest of their
numbers, the luckless waisters and after-guard, were
apparently as confident of victory as those whose audacity
might plead the apology of uniform and often
repeated success.
“Count you these for nothing?” asked the Rover,
at the elbow of his lieutenant, after allowing him time
to embrace the whole of the grim band with his eye.
“See! here is a Dane, ponderous and steady as the
gun at which I shall shortly place him. You may
cut him limb from limb, and yet will he stand like a
tower, until the last stone of the foundation has been
sapped. And, here, we have his neighbours, the Swede
and the Russ, fit companions for managing the same
piece; which, I'll answer, shall not be silent, while a
man of them all is left to apply a match, or handle
a spunge. Yonder is a square-built athletic mariner,
from one of the Free Towns. He prefers our liberty
to that of his native city; and you shall find that the
venerable Hanseatic institutions shall give way sooner
than he be known to quit the spot I give him to defend.
Here, you see a brace of Englishmen; and,
though they come from the island that I love so little,
better men at need will not be often found. Feed
them, and flog them, and I pledge myself to their
swaggering, and their courage. D'ye see that thoughtful-looking,
in the midst of all his villany? That fellow fish'd
for herring till he got a taste of beef, when his stomach
revolted at its ancient fare; and then the ambition
of becoming rich got uppermost. He is a Scot.
from one of the lochs of the North.”
“Will he fight?”
“For money—the honour of the Macs—and his
religion. He is a reasoning fellow, after all: and I
like to have him on my own side in a quarrel. Ah!
yonder is the boy for a charge. I once told him to
cut a rope in a hurry, and he severed it above his
head, instead of beneath his feet, taking a flight from
a lower yard into the sea, as a reward for the exploit.
But, then, he always extols his presence of mind in
not drowning! Now are his ideas in a hot ferment;
and, if the truth could be known, I would wager a
handsome venture, that the sail in sight is, by some
mysterious process, magnified to six in his fertile
fancy.”
“He must be thinking, then, of escape.”
“Far from it; he is rather plotting the means of
surrounding them with the `Dolphin.' To your true
Hibernian, escape is the last idea that gives him an
uneasy moment. You see the pensive-looking, sallow
mortal, at his elbow. That is a man who will
fight with a sort of sentiment. There is a touch of
chivalry in him, which might be worked into heroism,
if one had but the opportunity and the inclination.
As it is, he will not fail to show a spark of the
true Castilian. His companion has come from the
Rock of Lisbon; I should trust him unwillingly, did I
not know that little opportunity of taking pay from
the enemy is given here. Ah! here is a lad for a
dance of a Sunday. You see him, at this moment,
with foot and tongue going together. That is a creature
of contradictions. He wants for neither wit nor
good-nature, but still he might cut your throat on an
bonhommie about the animal. I shall put him among
the boarders; for we shall not be at blows a minute
before his impatience will be for carrying every thing
by a coup-de-main.”
“And who is the seaman at his elbow, that apparently
is occupied in divesting his person of some
superfluous garments?” demanded Wilder, irresistibly
attracted, by the manner of the Rover, to pursue the
subject.
“An economical Dutchman. He calculates that
it is just as wise to be killed in an old jacket as in
a new one; and has probably said as much to his
Gascon neighbour, who is, however, resolved to die
decently, if die he must. The former has happily commenced
his preparations for the combat in good season,
or the enemy might defeat us before he would be
in readiness. Did it rest between these two worthies
to decide this quarrel, the mercurial Frenchman
would defeat his neighbour of Holland, before the latter
believed the battle had commenced; but, should
he let the happy moment pass, rely on it, the Dutchman
would give him trouble. Forget you, Wilder,
that the day has been when the countrymen of that
slow-moving and heavy-moulded fellow swept the
narrow seas with a broom at their mast-heads?”
The Rover smiled wildly as he spoke, and what
he said he uttered with bitter emphasis. To his companion,
however, there appeared no such grounds of
unnatural exultation, in recalling the success of a foreign
enemy, and he was content to assent to the truth
of the historical fact with a simple inclination of his
head. As if he even found pain in this confession,
and would gladly be rid of the mortifying reflection
altogether, he rejoined, in some apparent haste,—
“You have overlooked the two tall seamen, who
are making out the rig of the stranger with so much
gravity of observation.”
“Ay, those are men that came from a land in
which we both feel some interest. The sea is not
more unstable than are those rogues in their knavery.
Their minds are but half made up to piracy.—'Tis
a coarse word, Mr Wilder, but I fear we earn it.
But these rascals make a reservation of grace in the
midst of all their villany.”
“They regard the stranger as if they saw reason
to distrust the wisdom of letting him approach so
near.”
“Ah! they are renowned calculators. I fear they
have detected the four supernumerary guns you mentioned;
for their vision seems supernatural in affairs
which touch their interests. But you see there is
brawn and sinew in the fellows; and, what is better,
there are heads which teach them to turn those advantages
to account.”
“You think they fail in spirit?”
“Hum! It might be dangerous to try it on any
point they deemed material. They are no quarrellers
about words, and seldom lose sight of certain
musty maxims, which they pretend come from a
volume that I fear you and I do not study too intently.
It is not often that they strike a blow for mere
chivalry; and, were they so inclined, the rogues are
too much disposed to logic, to mistake, like your
black, the `Dolphin' for a church. Still, if they see
reason, in their puissant judgments, to engage, mark
me, the two guns they command will do better service
than all the rest of the battery. But, should
they think otherwise, it would occasion no surprise
were I to receive a proposition to spare the powder
for some more profitable adventure. Honour, forsooth!
the miscreants are too well grounded in
polemics to mistake the point of honour in a pursuit
like ours. But we chatter of trifles, when it is time
to think of serious things. Mr Wilder, we will now
show our canvas.”
The manner of the Rover changed as suddenly as
his language. Losing the air of sarcastic levity in
which he had been indulging, in a mien better suited
to maintain the authority he wielded, he walked
aside, while his subordinate proceeded to issue the
orders necessary to enforce his commands. Nightingale
sounded the usual summons, lifting his hoarse
voice in the cry of “All hands make sail, ahoy!”
Until now, the people of the “Dolphin” had made
their observations on the sail, that was growing so
rapidly above the waters, according to their several
humours. Some had exulted in the prospect of a
capture; others, more practised in the ways of their
Commander, had deemed the probability of their
coming in collision at all with the stranger a point
far from settled; while a few, more accustomed to
reflection, shook their heads as the stranger drew
nigher, as if they believed he was already within a
distance that might be attended with too much hazard.
Still, as they were ignorant alike of those secret
sources of information which the chief had so
frequently proved he possessed, to an extent that
often seemed miraculous, the whole were content
patiently to await his decision. But, when the cry
above mentioned was heard, it was answered by an
activity so general and so cheerful, as to prove it was
entirely welcome. Order now followed order in
quick succession, from the mouth of Wilder, who,
in virtue of his station, was the proper executive
officer for the moment.
As both lieutenant and crew appeared animated
by the same spirit, it was not long before the naked
spars of the “Dolphin” were clothed in vast volumes
of spotless snow-white canvas. Sail had fallen after
sail, and yard after yard had been raised to the summit
of its mast, until the vessel bowed before the
breeze, rolling to and fro, but still held stationary by
the position of her yards. When all was in readiness
necessary, Wilder ascended again to the poop, in
order to announce the fact to his superior. He found
the Rover attentively considering the stranger, whose
hull had by this time risen out of the sea, and exhibited
a long, dotted, yellow line, which the eye of
every man in the ship well knew to contain the ports
whence the guns that marked her particular force
were made to issue. Mrs Wyllys, accompanied by
Gertrude, stood nigh, thoughtful, as usual, but permitting
no occurrence of the slightest moment to
escape her vigilance.
“We are ready to gather way on the ship,” said
Wilder; “we wait merely for the course.”
The Rover started, and drew closer to his subordinate,
before he gave an answer. Then, looking
him full and intently in the eye, he demanded,—
“You are certain that you know you vessel, Mr
Wilder?”
“Certain,” was the calm reply.
“It is a royal cruiser,” said the governess, with the
swiftness of thought.
“It is. I have already pronounced her to be so.”
“Mr Wilder,” resumed the Rover, “we will try
her speed. Let the courses fall, and fill your forward
sails.”
The young mariner made an acknowledgment of
obedience, and proceeded to execute the wishes of his
Commander. There was an eagerness, and perhaps
a trepidation, in the voice of Wilder, as he issued the
necessary orders, that was in remarkable contrast to
the deep-toned calmness which characterized the utterance
of the Rover. The unusual intonations did
not entirely escape the ears of some of the elder
seamen; and looks of peculiar meaning were exchanged
among them, as they paused to catch his
words. But obedience followed these unwonted
sounds, as it had been accustomed to succeed the
chief. The head-yards were swung, the sails were
distended with the breeze, and the mass, which had
so long been inert, began to divide the waters, as it
heavily overcame the state of rest in which it had
reposed. The ship soon attained its velocity; and
then the contest between the two rival vessels became
one of deep and engrossing interest.
By this time the stranger was within a half league,
directly under the lee of the “Dolphin.” Closer
and more accurate observation had satisfied every
understanding eye in the latter ship of the force and
character of their neighbour. The rays of a bright
sun fell clear upon her broadside, while the shadow
of her sails was thrown far across the waters, in a
direction opposite to their own. There were moments
when the eye, aided by the glass, could penetrate
through the open ports into the interior of the
hull, catching fleeting and delusory glimpses of the
movements within. A few human forms were distinctly
visible in different parts of her rigging; but,
in all other respects, the repose of high order and
perfect discipline was discernible on all about her.
When the Rover heard the sounds of the parted
waters, and saw the little jets of spray that the bows
of his own gallant ship cast before her, he signed to
his lieutenant to ascend to the place which he still
occupied on the poop. For many minutes, his eye
was on the strange sail, in close and intelligent contemplation
of her powers.
“Mr Wilder,” he at length said, speaking like one
whose doubts on some perplexing point were finally
removed, “I have seen that cruiser before.”
“It is probable; she has roamed over most of the
waters of the Atlantic.”
“Ay, this is not the first of our meetings! a little
paint has changed her exterior, but I think I know
the manner in which they have stepped her masts.”
“They are thought to rake more than is usual.”
“They are thought to do it, with reason. Did you
serve long aboard her?”
“Years.”
“And you left her”—
“To join you.”
“Tell me, Wilder, did they treat you, too, as one
of an inferior order? Ha! was your merit called
`provincial?' Did they read America in all you did?”
“I left her, Captain Heidegger.”
“Ay, they gave you reason. For once they have
done me an act of kindness. But you were in her
during the equinox of March?”
Wilder made a slight bow of assent.
“I thought as much. And you fought a stranger
in the gale? Winds, ocean, and man were all at
work together.”
“It is true. We knew you, and thought for a time
that your hour had come.”
“I like your frankness. We have sought each
other's lives like men, and we shall prove the truer
friends, now that amity is established between us.
I will not ask you further of that adventure, Wilder;
for favour, in my service, is not to be bought by
treachery to that you have quitted. It is sufficient
that you now sail under my flag.”
“What is that flag?” demanded a mild but firm
voice, at his elbow.
The Rover turned suddenly, and again met the
riveted, calm, and searching eye of the governess.
The gleamings of some strangely contradictory passions
crossed his features, and then his whole countenance
changed to that look of bland courtesy
which he most affected when addressing his captives.
“Here speaks a female, to remind two mariners of
their duty!” he exclaimed. “We have forgotten the
civility of showing the stranger our hunting. Let it
observances of nautical etiquette.”
“The ship in sight carries a naked gaft.”
“No matter; we shall be foremost in courtesy.
Let the colours be shown.”
Wilder opened the little locker which contained
the flags most in use, but hesitated which to select,
out of a dozen that lay in large rolls within the different
compartments.
“I hardly know which of these ensigns it is your
pleasure to show,” he said, in a manner that appeared
sufficiently like putting a question.
“Try him with the heavy-moulded Dutchman.
The Commander of so noble a ship should understand
all Christian tongues.”
The lieutenant made a sign to the quarter-master
on duty; and, in another minute, the flag of the
United Provinces was waving at the peak of the
“Dolphin.” The two officers narrowly watched its
effect on the stranger, who refused, however, to make
any answering sign to the false signal they had just
exhibited.
“The stranger sees we have a hull that was never
made for the shoals of Holland. Perhaps he knows
us?” said the Rover, glancing at the same time a
look of inquiry at his companion.
“I think not. Paint is too freely used in the `Dolphin,'
for even her friends to be certain of her countenance.”
“She is a coquettish ship, we will allow,” returned
the Rover, smiling. “Try him with the Portuguese:
Let us see if Brazil diamonds have favour in
his eyes.”
The colours already set were lowered, and, in
their place, the emblem of the house of Braganza
was loosened to the breeze. Still the stranger pursued
his course in sullen inattention, eating closer
and closer to the wind, as it is termed in nautical
him and his chase as much as possible.
“An ally cannot move him,” said the Rover.
“Now let him see the taunting drapeau blanc.”
Wilder complied in silence. The flag of Portugal
was hauled to the deck, and the white field of France
was given to the air. The ensign had hardly fluttered
in its elevated position, before a broad glossy blazonry,
rose, like some enormous bird taking wing,
from the deck of the stranger, and opened its folds in
graceful waves at his gaft. The same instant, a
column of smoke issued from his bows, and had sailed
backward through his rigging, ere the report of
the gun of defiance found its way, against the fresh
breeze of the trades, to the ears of the “Dolphin's”
crew.
“So much for national amity!” dryly observed the
Rover. “He is mute to the Dutchman, and to the
crown of Braganza; but the very bile is stirred
within him at the sight of a table-cloth! Let him
contemplate the colours he loves so little, Mr Wilder;
when we are tired of showing them, our lockers may
furnish another.”
It would seem, however, that the sight of the flag,
which the Rover now chose to bear, produced some
such effect on his neighbour as the moleta of the
nimble banderillo is known to exite in the enraged
bull. Sundry smaller sails, which could do but little
good, but which answered the purpose of appearing
to wish to quicken his speed, were instantly set aboard
the stranger; and not a brace, or a bow-line, was suffered
to escape without an additional pull. In short,
he wore the air of the courser who receives the useless
blows of the jockey, when already at the top of
his speed, and when any further excitement is as fruitless
as his own additional exertions. Still there
seemed but little need of such supererogatory efforts.
By this time, the two vessels were fairly trying their
favour of either. Although the “Dolphin” was renowned
for her speed, the stranger manifested no inferiority
that the keenest scrutiny might detect. The
ship of the freebooter was already bending to the
breeze, and the jets of spray before her were cast
still higher and further in advance; but each impulse
of the wind was equally felt by the stranger, and
her movement over the heaving waters seemed to be
as rapid and as graceful as that of her rival.
“Yon ship parts the water as a swallow cuts the
air,” observed the chief of the freebooters to the
youth, who still kept at his elbow, endeavouring to
conceal an uneasiness which was increasing at each
instant. “Has she a name for speed?”
“The curlew is scarcely faster. Are we not already
nigh enough, for men who cruise with commissions
no better than our own pleasure?”
The Rover glanced a look of impatient suspicion
at the countenance of his companion; but its expression
changed to a smile of haughty audacity, as he
answered,—
“Let him equal the eagle in his highest and swiftest
flight, he shall find us no laggards on the wing! Why
this reluctance to be within a mile of a vessel of the
Crown?”
“Because I know her force, and the hopeless
character of a contest with an enemy so superior,”
returned Wilder, firmly. “Captain Heidegger, you
cannot fight you ship with success; and, unless instant
use be made of the distance which still exists
between us, you cannot escape her. Indeed, I know
not but it is already too late to attempt the latter.”
“Such, sir, is the opinion of one who overrates
the powers of his enemy, because use, and much
talking, have taught him to reverence it as something
more than human. Mr Wilder, none are so daring,
or so modest, as those who have long been accustomed
I have been nigher to a flag even, and yet
you see I continue to keep on this mortal coil.”
“Hark! 'Tis a drum. The stranger is going to
his guns.”
The Rover listened a moment, and was able to
catch the well-known beat which calls the people of
a vessel of war to quarters. First casting a glance
upward at his sails, and then throwing a general and
critical look on all and every thing which came within
the influence of his command, he calmly answered,—
“We will imitate his example, Mr Wilder. Let
the order be given.”
Until now, the crew of the “Dolphin” had either
been occupied in such necessary duties as had been
assigned them, or were engaged in gazing with curious
eyes at the ship which so eagerly sought to draw
as near as possible to their own dangerous vessel.
The low but continued hum of voices, sounds such
alone as discipline permitted, had afforded the only
evidence of the interest they took in the scene; but,
the instant the first tap on the drum was heard, each
groupe severed, and every man repaired, with bustling
activity, to his well-known station. The stir
among the crew was but of a moment's continuance,
and it was succeeded by the breathing stillness which
has already been noticed in our pages on a similar
occasion. The officers, however, were seen making
hasty, but strict, inquiries into the conditions of their
several commands; while the munitions of war, that
were quickly drawn from their places of deposit,
announced a preparation more serious than ordinary.
The Rover himself had disappeared; but it was not
long before he was again seen at his elevated look-out,
accoutred for the conflict that appeared to approach,
and employed, as ever, in studying the properties,
the force, and the evolutions of his advancing antagonist.
that the question of combat was not yet decided in
his mind; and hundreds of eager glances were thrown
in the direction of his contracting eye, as if to penetrate
the mystery in which he still chose to conceal
his purpose. He had thrown aside the sea-cap, and
stood with the fair hair blowing about a brow that
seemed formed to give birth to thoughts far nobler
than those which apparently had occupied his life;
while a species of leathern helmet lay at his feet, the
garniture of which was of a nature to lend an unnatural
fierceness to the countenance of its wearer.
Whenever this boarding-cap was worn, all in the
ship were given to understand that the moment of
serious strife was at hand; but, as yet, that never-failing
evidence of the hostile intention of their leader
was unnoticed.
In the mean time, each officer had examined into,
and reported, the state of his division; and then, by
a sort of implied permission on the part of their
superiors, the death-like calm, which had hitherto
reigned among the people, was allowed to be broken
by suppressed but earnest discourse; the calculating
chief permitting this departure from the usual rules
of more regular cruisers, in order to come at the
temper of the crew, on which so much of the success
of his desperate enterprises so frequently depended.
| CHAPTER X. The Red Rover | |