 | CHAPTER IV. The Red Rover |  |
4. CHAPTER IV.
—“Come, and get thee a sword, though made of a lath:
They have been up these two days.”
—King Henry VI.
While the little by-play that we have just related
was enacting on the fore-yard-arm of the Rover,
scenes, that partook equally of the nature of tragedy
and farce, were in the process of exhibition elsewhere.
The contest between the possessors of the deck and
those active tenants of the top, so often named, was
far from having reached its termination. Blows had,
in more than one instance, succeeded to angry words;
and, as the former was a part of the sports in which
their more ingenious tormentors, the war was beginning
to be waged with some appearances of a very
doubtful success. Nightingale, however, was always
ready to recall the combatants to their sense of
propriety, with his well-known wind of the call, and
his murmuring voice. A long, shrill whistle, with
the words, “Good humour, ahoy!” had hitherto served
to keep down the rising tempers of the different
parties, when the joke bore too hard on the high-spirited
soldier, or the revengeful, though perhaps less
mettlesome, member of the after-guard. But an oversight,
on the part of him who in common kept so
vigilant an eye on the movements of all beneath his
orders, had nearly led to results of a far more serious
nature.
No sooner had the crew commenced the different
rough sports we have just related, than the vein
which had induced the Rover to loosen the reins of
discipline, for the moment, seemed suddenly to subside.
The gay and cheerful air that he had maintained
in his dialogue with his female guests (or prisoners,
whichever he might be disposed to consider
them) had disappeared, in a thoughtful and clouded
brow. His eye no longer lighted with those glimmerings
of wayward and sarcastic humour in which
he much loved to indulge, but its expression became
painfully settled and austere. It was evident that
his mind had relapsed into one of those brooding
reveries that so often obscured his playful and vivacious
mien, as a shadow darkens the golden tints of
the field of ripe and waving corn.
While most of those who were not actors in the
noisy and humorous achievements of the crew steadily
regarded the same, some with wonder, others with
distrust, and all with more or less of the humour of
the hour, the Rover, to all appearance, was quite
unconscious of all that was going on before his face.
It is true, that at times he raised his eyes to the active
beings who clung like squirrels to the ropes, or suffered
them to fall on the duller movements of the
men below; but it was always with a vacancy which
proved that the image they carried to the brain was
dim and illusory. The looks he cast, from time to
time, on Mrs Wyllys and her fair and deeply interested
pupil, betrayed the workings of the temper of
the inward man. It was only in these brief but
comprehensive glances that the feelings by which he
was governed might have been, in any manner, traced
to their origin. Still would the nicest observer
have been puzzled, if not baffled, in endeavouring to
pronounce on the entire character of the emotions
uppermost in his mind. At instants, it might have
been fancied that some unholy and licentious passion
was getting the ascendancy; and then, as his eye
ran rapidly over the chaste and matronly, though
still attractive, countenance of the governess, no imagination
was necessary to read the look of doubt,
as well as respect, with which he gazed.
It was while thus occupied that the sports proceeded,
sometimes humorous, and forcing smiles
even from the lips of the half-terrified Gertrude, but
always tending to that violence, and outbreaking of
anger, which might, at any moment, set at naught the
discipline of a vessel in which no other means to enforce
authority existed, than such as its officers could,
on the instant, command. Water had been so lavishly
expended, that the decks were running with the
fluid, even more than one flight of spray having invaded
the privileged precincts of the poop. Every
ordinary device of similar scenes had been resorted
to, by the men aloft, to annoy their less advantageously
posted shipmates beneath; and such means of
retaliation had been adopted as use or facility rendered
obvious. Here, a hog and a waister were seen
swinging against each other, pendant beneath a top;
suffer the manipulation of a pet monkey, which,
drilled to the duty, and armed with a comb, was
posted on his shoulder, with an air as grave, and an
eye as observant, as though he had been regularly
educated in the art of the perruquier; and, every
where, some coarse and practical joke proclaimed
the licentious liberty which had been momentarily
accorded to a set of beings who were, in common,
kept in that restraint which comfort, no less than
safety, requires for the well-ordering of an armed
ship.
In the midst of the noise and turbulence, a voice
was heard, apparently issuing from the ocean, hailing
the vessel by name, with the aid of a speaking-trumpet,
that had been applied to the outer circumference
of a hawse hole.
“Who speaks the `Dolphin?' ” demanded Wilder,
in reply, when he perceived that the summons
had fallen on the dull ears of his Commander, without
recalling him to the recollection of what was in
action.
“Father Neptune is under your fore-foot.”
“What wills the God?”
“He has heard that certain strangers have come
into his dominions, and he wishes leave to come
aboard the saucy `Dolphin,' to inquire into their
errands, and to overhaul the log-book of their characters.”
“He is welcome. Show the old man aboard
through the head; he is too experienced a sailor to
wish to come in by the cabin windows.”
Here the parlance ceased; for Wilder turned upon
his heel, as though he were already disgusted with
his part of the mummery.
An athletic seaman soon appeared, seemingly issuing
from the element whose deity he aspired to personate.
Mops, dripping with brine, supplied the
were floating within a league of the ship, composed
a sort of negligent mantle; and in his hand he bore
a trident made of three marlingspikes properly arranged,
and borne on the staff of a half-pike. Thus
accoutred, the God of the Ocean, who was no less
a personage than the captain of the forecastle, advanced,
with a suitable air of dignity, along the deck,
attended by a train of bearded water-nymphs and
naiades, in a costume no less grotesque than his own.
Arrived on the quarter-deck, in front of the position
occupied by the officers, the principal personage saluted
the groupe with a wave of his sceptre, and resumed
the discourse as follows; Wilder, from the
continued abstraction of his Commander, finding
himself under the necessity of maintaining one portion
of the dialogue.
“A wholesome and prettily-rigged boat have you
come out in this time, my son; and one well filled
with a noble set of my children. How long might
it be since you left the land?”
“Some eight days ago.”
“Hardly time enough to give the green ones the
use of their sea legs. I shall be able to find them, by
the manner in which they hold on in a calm.” [Here
the General, who was standing with a scornful and
averted eye, let go his hold of a mizzen-shroud,
which he had grasped for no other visible reason
than to render his person utterly immoveable; Neptune
smiled, and continued.] “I sha'n't ask concerning
the port you are last from, seeing that the
Newport soundings are still hanging about the flukes
of your anchors. I hope you haven't brought out
many fresh hands with you, for I smell the stock-fish
aboard a Baltic-man, who is coming down with the
trades, and who can't be more than a hundred leagues
from this; I shall therefore have but little time to
papers.”
“You see them all before you. So skilful a mariner
as Neptune needs no advice when or how to
tell a seaman.”
“I shall then begin with this gentleman,” continued
the waggish head of the forecastle, turning towards
the still motionless chief of the marines.
“There is a strong look of the land about him; and
I should like to know how many hours it is since he
first floated over blue water.”
“I believe he has made many voyages; and I dare
say has long since paid the proper tribute to your
Majesty.”
“Well, well; the thing is like enough, tho'f I will
say I have known scholars make better use of their
time, if he has been so long on the water as you
pretend. How is it with these ladies?”
“Both have been at sea before, and have a right
to pass without a question,” resumed Wilder, a little
hastily.
“The youngest is comely enough to have been
born in my dominions,” said the gallant Sovereign
of the Sea; “but no one can refuse to answer a
hail that comes straight from the mouth of Old Neptune;
so, if it makes no great difference in your
Honour's reckoning, I will just beg the young woman
to do her own talking.” Then, without paying
the least attention to the angry glance that shot from
the eye of Wilder, the sturdy representative of the
God addressed himself directly to Gertrude. “If,
as report goes of you, my pretty damsel, you have
seen blue water before this passage, you may be
able to recollect the name of the vessel, and some
other small particulars of the run?”
The face of our heroine changed its colour from
red to pale, as rapidly, and as glowingly, as the evening
but she kept down her feelings sufficiently to
answer, with an air of entire self-possession,—
“Were I to enter into all these little particulars,
it would detain you from more worthy subjects.
Perhaps this certificate will convince you that I am
no novice on the sea.” As she spoke, a guinea fell
from her white hand into the broad and extended
palm of her interrogator.
“I can only account for my not remembering your
Ladyship, by the great extent and heavy nature of
my business,” returned the audacious freebooter,
bowing with an air of rude politeness as he pocketed
the offering. “Had I looked into my books before
I came aboard this here ship, I should have seen
through the mistake at once; for I now remember
that I ordered one of my limners to take your pretty
face, in order that I might show it to my wife at
home. The fellow did it well enough, in the shell
of an East-India oyster; I will have a copy set in
coral, and sent to your husband, whenever you may
see fit to choose one.”
Then, repeating his bow, with a scrape of the
foot, he turned to the governess, in order to continue
his examination.
“And you, Madam,” he said, “is this the first
time you have ever come into my dominions, or
not?”
“Neither the first, nor the twentieth; I have often
seen your Majesty before.”
“An old acquaintance! In what latitude might it
be that we first fell in with each other?”
“I believe I first enjoyed that honour, quite thirty
years since, under the Equator.”
“Ay, ay, I'm often there, looking out for Indiamen
and your homeward-bound Brazil traders. I
boarded a particularly great number that very season,
but can't say I remember your countenance.”
“I fear that thirty years have made some changes
in it,” returned the governess, with a smile, which,
though mournful, was far too dignified in its melancholy,
to induce the suspicion that she regretted a
loss so vain as that of her personal charms. “I was
in a vessel of the King, and one that was a little remarkable
by its size, since it was of three decks.”
The God received the guinea, which was now secretly
offered, but it would seem that success had
quickened his covetousness; for, instead of returning
thanks, he rather appeared to manifest a disposition
to increase the amount of the bribe.
“All this may be just as your Ladyship says,” he
rejoined; “but the interest of my kingdom, and a
large family at home, make it necessary that I should
look sharp to my rights. Was there a flag in the
vessel?”
“There was.”
“Then, it is likely they hoisted it, as usual, at the
end of the jib-boom?”
“It was hoisted, as is usual with a Vice-Admiral,
at the fore.”
“Well answered, for petticoats!” muttered the
Deity, a little baffled in his artifice. “It is d—d
queer, saving your Ladyship's presence, that I should
have forgotten such a ship: Was there any thing of
the extraordinary sort, that one would be likely to
remember?”
The features of the governess had already lost
their forced pleasantry, in a shade of grave reflection,
and her eye was evidently fastened on vacancy,
as she answered, to all appearance like one who
thought, aloud.—
“I can, at this moment, see the arch and roguish
manner with which that wayward boy, who then
had but eight years, over-reached the cunning of the
mimic Neptune, and retaliated for his devices, by
turning the laugh of all on board on his own head?”
“Was he but eight?” demanded a deep voice at
her elbow.
“Eight in years, but maturer in artifice,” returned
Mrs Wyllys, seeming to awake from a trance, as she
turned her eyes full upon the face of the Rover.
“Well, well,” interrupted the captain of the forecastle,
who cared not to continue an inquiry in which
his dreaded Commander saw fit to take a part, “I
dare say it is all right. I will look into my journal;
if I find it so, well—if not, why, it's only giving the
ship a head-wind, until I've overhauled the Dane,
and then it will be all in good time to receive the
balance of the fee.”
So saying, the God hurried past the officers, and
turned his attention to the marine guard, who had
grouped themselves in a body, secretly aware of the
necessity each man might be under of receiving support
from his fellows, in so searching a scrutiny.
Perfectly familiar with the career each individual
among them had run, in his present lawless profession,
and secretly apprehensive that his authority
might be forced suddenly from him, the chief of the
forecastle selected a raw landsman from among them,
bidding his attendants to drag the victim forward,
where he believed they might act the cruel revels he
contemplated with less danger of interruption. Already
irritated by the laughs which had been created
at their expense, and resolute to defend their comrade,
the marines resisted. A long, clamorous, and
angry dispute succeeded, during which each party
maintained its right to pursue the course it had
adopted. From words the disputants were not long
in passing to the signs of hostilities. It was while
the peace of the ship hung, as it were, suspended by
a hair, that the General saw fit to express the disgust
of such an outrage upon discipline, which had,
throughout the whole scene, possessed his mind.
“I protest against this riotous and unmilitary procedure,”
and thoughtful superior. “I have taught my
men, I trust, the proper spirit of soldiers, and there
is no greater disgrace can happen to one of them
than to lay hands on him, except it be in the regular
and wholesome way of a cat.—I give open warning
to all, that, if a finger is put upon one of my bullies,
unless, as I have said, in the way of discipline, it
will be answered with a blow.”
As the General had not essayed to smother his
voice, it was heard by his followers, and produced
the effect which might have been expected. A vigorous
thrust from the fist of the sergeant drew mortal
blood from the visage of the God of the Sea, and at
once established his terrestrial origin. Thus compelled
to support his manhood, in more senses than
one, the stout seaman returned the salutation, with
such additional embellishments as the exigencies of
the moment seemed to require. Such an interchange
of civilities, between two so prominent personages,
was the signal of general hostilities among their respective
followers. The uproar that attended the
onset had caught the attention of Fid, who, the instant
he saw the nature of the sports below, abandoned
his companion on the yard, and slid downwards
to the deck by the aid of a backstay, with
about as much facility as that caricature of man, the
monkey, could have performed the same manœuvre.
His example was followed by all the topmen; and,
in less than a minute, there was every appearance
that the audacious marines would be borne down
by the sheer force of numbers. But, stout in their
resolution, and bitter in their hostility, these drilled
and resentful warriors, instead of seeking refuge in
flight, fell back upon each other, for support. Bayonets
were seen gleaming in the sun; while some of
the seamen, in the exterior of the crowd, were already
a warlike ornament to the foot of the mast.
“Hold! stand back, every man of you!” cried
Wilder, dashing into the centre of the throng, and
forcing them aside, with a haste that was possibly
quickened by the recollection of the increased danger
that would surround the unprotected females,
should the bands of subordination be once fairly
broken among so lawless and desperate a crew.
“On your lives, fall back, and obey. And you, sir,
who claim to be so good a soldier, I call on you to
bid your men refrain.”
The General, however disgusted he might have
been by the previous scene, had too many important
interests involved in the interior peace of the vessel,
not to exert himself at this appeal. He was
seconded by all the inferior officers, who well knew
that their lives, as well as their comfort, depended
on staying the torrent that had so unexpectedly
broken loose. But they only proved how hard it
is to uphold an authority that is not established on
the foundation of legitimate power. Neptune had
cast aside his masquerade; and, backed by all his
stout forecastle-men, was evidently preparing for a
conflict that might speedily give him greater pretensions
to immortal nature than those he had just
rejected. Until now, the officers, partly by threats
and partly by remonstrances, had so far controlled
the outbreaking, that the time had been passed rather
in preparations than in violence. But the marines
had seized their arms; while two crowded masses
of the mariners were forming on either side of the
mainmast, abundantly provided with pikes, and such
other weapons as the bars and handspikes of the
vessel afforded. One or two of the cooler heads
among the latter had even proceeded so far as to
clear away a gun, which they were pointing inboard,
of the quarter-deck. In short, the broil had just
reached that pass when another blow, struck from
either side, must have given up the vessel to plunder
and massacre. The danger of such a crisis was
heightened by the bitter taunts that broke forth from
fifty profane lips, which were only opened to lavish
the coarsest revilings on the persons and characters
of their respective enemies.
During the five minutes that might have flown by
in such sinister and threatening symptoms of insubordination,
the individual who was chiefly interested
in the maintenance of discipline had manifested the
most extraordinary indifference, or rather unconsciousness,
to all that was passing so near him. With
his arms folded on his breast, and his eyes fastened
on the placid sea, he stood motionless as the mast
near which he had placed his person. Long accustomed
to the noise of scenes similar to the one he
had himself provoked, he heard, in the confused
sounds which rose unheeded on his ear, no more than
the commotion which ordinarily attended the license
of the hour.
His subordinates in command, however, were far
more active. Wilder had already beaten back the
boldest of the seamen, and a space was cleared between
the hostile parties, into which his assistants
threw themselves, with the haste of men who knew
how much was required at their hands. This momentary
success might have been pushed too far;
for, believing that the spirit of mutiny was subdued,
our adventurer was proceeding to improve his advantage,
by seizing the most audacious of the offenders,
when his prisoner was immediately torn from
his grasp by twenty of his confederates.
“Who's this, that sets himself up for a Commodore
aboard the `Dolphin!' ” exclaimed a voice in the
crowd, at a most unhappy moment for the authority
come aboard us? or, in what service did he learn
his trade?”
“Ay, ay,” continued another sinister voice, “where
is the Bristol trader he was to lead into our net, and
for which we lost so many of the best days in the
season, at a lazy anchor?”
Then broke forth a general and simultaneous murmur,
which, had such testimony been wanting, would
in itself have manifested that the unknown officer
was scarcely more fortunate in his present than in
his recent service. Both parties united in condemning
his interference; and from both sides were heard
scornful opinions of his origin, mingled with certain
fierce denunciations against his person. Nothing
daunted by such palpable evidences of the danger
of his situation, our adventurer answered to their
taunts with the most scornful smiles, challenging a
single individual of them all to dare to step forth,
and maintain his words by suitable actions.
“Hear him!” exclaimed his auditors.—“He
speaks like a King's officer in chase of a smuggler!”
cried one.—“Ay, he's a bold'un in a calm,” said a
second.—“He's a Jonah, that has slipp'd into the
cabin windows!” cried a third; “and, while he
stays in the `Dolphin,' luck will keep upon our weather-beam.”—“Into
the sea with him! overboard
with the upstart! into the sea with him! where
he'll find that a bolder and a better man has gone before
him!” shouted a dozen at once; some of whom
immediately gave very unequivocal demonstrations
of an intention to put their threat in execution. But
two forms instantly sprang from the crowd, and
threw themselves, like angry lions, between Wilder
and his foes. The one, who was foremost in the
rescue, faced short upon the advancing seamen, and,
with a blow from an arm that was irresistible, levelled
the representative of Neptune to his feet, as
The other was not slow to imitate his example; and,
as the throng receded before this secession from its
own numbers, the latter, who was Fid, flourished a
fist that was as big as the head of a sizeable infant,
while he loudly vociferated,—
“Away with ye, ye lubbers! away with ye!
Would you run foul of a single man, and he an officer,
and such an officer as ye never set eyes on before,
except, mayhap, in the fashion that a cat looks
upon a king? I should like to see the man, among
ye all, who can handle a heavy ship, in a narrow
channel, as I have seen master Harry here handle
the saucy”—
“Stand back,” cried Wilder, forcing himself between
his defenders and his foes. “Stand back,
I say, and leave me alone to meet the audacious villains.”
“Overboard with him! overboard with them all!”
cried the seamen, “he and his knaves together!”
“Will you remain silent, and see murder done before
your eyes?” exclaimed Mrs Wyllys, rushing
from her place of retreat, and laying a hand eagerly
on the arm of the Rover.
He started like one who was awakened suddenly
from a light sleep, looking her full and intently in
the eye.
“See!” she added, pointing to the violent throng
below, where every sign of an increased commotion
was exhibiting itself. “See, they kill your officer,
and there is none to help him!”
The look of faded marble, which had so long been
seated on his features, vanished, as his eye passed
quickly over the scene. The organs took in the
whole nature of the action at the glance; and, with
the intelligence, the blood came rushing into every
vein and fibre of his indignant face. Seizing a
rope, which hung from the yard above his head, he
the very centre of the crowd. Both parties fell
back, while a sudden and breathing silence succeeded
to a clamour that a moment before would have
drowned the roar of a cataract. Making a haughty
and repelling motion with his arm, he spoke, and in
a voice that, if any change could be noted, was even
pitched on a key less high and threatening than common.
But the lowest and the deepest of its intonations
reached the most distant ear, and no one who
heard was left to doubt its meaning.
“Mutiny!” he said, in a tone that strangely balanced
between irony and scorn; “open, violent, and
blood-seeking mutiny! Are ye tired of your lives,
my men? Is there one, among ye all, who is willing
to make himself an example for the good of the
rest? If there be, let him lift a hand, a finger, a
hair: Let him speak, look me in the eye, or dare to
show that life is in him, by sign, breath, or motion!”
He paused; and so general and absorbing was the
spell produced by his presence and his mien, that,
in all that crowd of fierce and excited spirits, there
was not one so bold as to presume to brave his anger.
Sailors and marines stood alike, passive, humbled,
and obedient, as faulty children, when arraigned
before an authority from which they feel, in every
fibre, that escape is impossible. Perceiving that
no voice answered, no limb moved, nor even an eye
among them all was bold enough to meet his own
steady but glowing look, he continued, in the same
deep and commanding tone,—
“It is well: Reason has come of the latest; but,
happily for ye all, it has returned. Fall back, fall
back, I say; you taint the quarter-deck.”—The men
receded a pace or two on every side of him.—“Let
those arms be stacked; it will be time to use them
when I proclaim the need. And you, fellows, who
have been so bold as to lift a pike without an order,
staves fell upon the deck together.—“Is there a
drummer in this ship? let him appear!”
A terrified and cringing-looking being presented
himself, having found his instrument by a sort of
desperate instinct.
“Now speak aloud, and let me know at once
whether I command a crew of orderly and obedient
men, or a set of miscreants, that require some purifying
before I trust them.”
The first few taps of the drum sufficed to tell the
men they heard the “beat to quarters.” Without hesitating
a reluctant moment, the crowd dissolved, and
each of the delinquents stole silently to his station;
the crew of the gun that had been turned inward
managing to thrust it through its port again, with a
dexterity that might have availed them greatly in
time of combat. Throughout the whole affair, the
Rover had manifested neither anger nor impatience.
Deep and settled scorn, with a high reliance on himself,
had, indeed, been exhibited in the proud curl
of his lip, and in the swelling of his form, but not,
for an instant, did it seem that he had suffered his
ire to get the mastery of his reason. And, now that
he had recalled his crew to their duty, he appeared
no more elated with his success than he had been
daunted by the storm which, a minute before, had
threatened the utter dissolution of his authority. Instead
of pursuing his further purpose in haste, he
awaited the observance of the minutest form which
etiquette, as well as use, had rendered customary on
such occasions.
The officers approached, and reported their several
divisions in readiness to engage, with exactly the
same regularity as if an enemy had been in sight.
The topmen and sail-trimmers were enumerated,
and found prepared; shot-plugs and stoppers were
handled; the magazine was even opened; the armchests
more than the ordinary preparations of an every day
exercise was observed.
“Let the yards be slung; the sheets and halyards
stoppered,” he said to the first lieutenant, who now
displayed as intimate an acquaintance with the military
as he had hitherto discovered with the nautical
part of his profession; “Give the boarders their
pikes and boarding-axes, sir; we will now show these
fellows that we dare to trust them with arms!”
These several orders were obeyed to the letter;
and then succeeded that deep and grave silence
which renders a crew, at quarters, a sight so imposing,
even to those who have witnessed it from their
boyhood. In this manner, the skilful leader of this
band of desperate marauders knew how to curb
their violence with the fetters of discipline. When
he believed their minds brought within the proper
limits, by the situation of restraint in which
he had placed them, where they well knew that a
word, or even a look, of offence would be met by an
instant as well as an awful punishment, he walked
apart with Wilder, of whom he demanded an explanation
of what had passed.
Whatever might have been the natural tendency
of our adventurer to mercy, he had not been educated
on the sea to look with lenity on the crime of
mutiny. Had his recent escape from the wreck of
the Bristol trader been already banished from his
mind, the impressions of a whole life still remained
to teach the necessity of keeping tight those cords
which experience has so often proved are absolutely
necessary to quell such turbulent bands, when removed
from the pale of society, the influence of
woman, and when excited by the constant collision
of tempers rudely provoked, and equally disposed
to violence. Though he “set down naught in
malice,” it is certain that he did “nothing extenuate,”
were laid before the Rover in the direct, unvarnished
language of truth.
“One cannot keep these fellows to their duty by
preaching,” returned the irregular chief, when the
other had done. “We have no `Execution Dock'
for our delinquents, no `yellow flag' for fleets to gaze
at, no grave and wise-looking courts to thumb a book
or two, and end by saying, `Hang him.'—The rascals
knew my eye was off them. Once before, they
turned my vessel into a living evidence of that passage
in the Testament which teaches humility to all,
by telling us, `that the last shall be first, and the first
last.' I found a dozen roundabouts drinking and
making free with the liquors of the cabin, and all
the officers prisoners forward—a state of things, as
you will allow, a little subversive of decency as
well as decorum!”
“I am amazed you should have succeeded in restoring
discipline!”
“I got among them single-handed, and with no
other aid than a boat from the shore; but I ask no
more than a place for my foot, and room for an
arm, to keep a thousand such spirits in order. Now
they know me, it is rare we misunderstand each
other.”
“You must have punished severely!”
“There was justice done.—Mr Wilder, I fear you
find our service a little irregular; but a month of experience
will put you on a level with us, and remove
all danger of such another scene.” As the Rover
spoke, he faced his recruit, with a countenance that
endeavoured to be cheerful, but whose gaiety could
force itself no further than a frightful smile. “Come,”
he quickly added, “this time, I set the mischief
afoot myself; and, as you see we are completely
masters, we may afford to be lenient. Besides,” he
continued, glancing his eyes towards the place where
awaiting his decision, “it may be well to consult
the sex of our guests at such a moment.”
Then, leaving his subordinate, the Rover advanceed
to the centre of the quarter-deck, whither he immediately
summoned the principal offenders. The
men listened to his rebukes, which were not altogether
free from admonitory warnings of what might
be the consequences of a similar transgression, like
creatures who stood in presence of a being of a nature
superior to their own. Though he spoke in his
usual quiet tone, the lowest of his syllables went
into the ears of the most distant of the crew; and,
when his brief lesson was ended, the men stood before
him not only like delinquents who had been reproved
though pardoned, but with the air of criminals
who were as much condemned by their own
consciousness as by the general voice. Among them
all was only one seaman who, perhaps from past service,
was emboldened to venture a syllable in his
own justification.
“As for the matter with the marines,” he said,
“your Honour knows there is little love between us,
though certain it is a quarter-deck is no place to settle
our begrudgings; but, as to the gentleman who
has seen fit to step into the shoes of”—
“It is my pleasure that he should remain there,”
hastily interrupted his Commander. “Of his merit
I alone can judge.”
“Well, well, since it is your pleasure, sir, why,
no man can dispute it. But no account has been
rendered of the Bristol-man, and great expectations
were had aboard here from that very ship. Your
Honour is a reasonable gentleman, and will not be
surprised that people, who are on the look-out for
an outward-bound West-Indiaman, should be unwilling
to take up with a battered and empty launch, in
her stead.”
“Ay, sir, if I will it, you shall take an oar, a tiller,
a thole, for your portion. No more of this!
You saw the condition of his ship with your own
eyes; and where is the seaman who has not, on
some evil day, been compelled to admit that his art
is nothing, when the elements are against him? Who
saved this ship, in the very gust that has robbed us
of our prize? Was it your skill? or was it that of a
man who has often done it before, and who may one
day leave you to your ignorance to manage your own
interests? It is enough that I believe him faithful.
There is no time to convince your dulness of the
propriety of all that's done. Away, and send me
the two men who so nobly stepped between their
officer and mutiny.”
Then came Fid, followed by the negro, rolling
along the deck, and thumbing his hat with one hand,
while the other sought an awkward retreat in a part
of his vestments.
“You have done well, my lad; you and your
messmate”—
“No messmate, your Honour, seeing that he is a
nigger,” interrupted Fid. “The chap messes with
the other blacks, but we take a pull at the can, now
and then, in company.”
“Your friend, then, if you prefer that term.”
“Ay, ay, sir; we are friendly enough at odd times,
though a breeze often springs up between us. Guinea
has a d—d awkward fashion of luffing up in his
talk; and your Honour knows it isn't always comfortable
to a white man to be driven to leeward by
a black. I tell him it is inconvenient. He is a good
enough fellow in the main, howsomever, sir; and,
as he is just an African bred and born, I hope you'll
be good enough to overlook his little failings.”
“Were I otherwise disposed,” returned the Rover,
“his steadiness and activity to-day would plead in
his favour.”
“Yes, yes, sir, he is somewhat steady, which is
more than I can always say in my own behalf. Then,
as for seamanship, there are few men who are his
betters; I wish your Honour would take the trouble
to walk forward, and look at the heart he turned in
the mainstay, no later than the last calm; it takes
the strain as easy as a small sin sits upon a rich
man's conscience.”
“I am satisfied with your description; you call
him Guinea?”
“Call him by any thing along that coast; for he is
noway particular, seeing he was never christened,
and knows nothing at all of the bearings and distances
of religion. His lawful name is S'ip, or Shipio
Africa, taken, as I suppose, from the circumstance
that he was first shipp'd from that quarter of the
world. But, as respects names, the fellow is as meek
as a lamb; you may call him any thing, provided you
don't call him too late to his grog.”
All this time, the African stood, rolling his large
dark eyes in every direction except towards the
speakers, perfectly content that his long-tried shipmate
should serve as his interpreter. The spirit
which had, so recently, been awakened in the Rover
seemed already to be subsiding; for the haughty
frown, which had gathered on his brow, was dissipating
in a look which bore rather the character of
curiosity than any fiercer emotion.
“You have sailed long in company, my lads,” he
carelessly continued, addressing his words to neither
of them in particular.
“Full and by, in many a gale, and many a calm,
your Honour. 'Tis four-and-twenty years the last
equinox, Guinea, since master Harry fell across our
hawse; and, then, we had been together three years
in the `Thunderer,' besides the run we made round
the Horn, in the `Bay' privateer.”
“Ah! you have been four-and-twenty years with
set a value on his life.”
“I should as soon think of setting a price on the
King's crown!” interrupted the straight-going seaman.
“I overheard the lads, d'ye see, sir, just plotting
to throw the three of us overboard, and so we
thought it time to say something in our own favour;
and, words not always being at hand, the black saw
fit to fill up the time with something that might answer
the turn quite as well. No, no, he is no great
talker, that Guinea; nor, for that matter, can I say
much in my own favour in this particular; but, seeing
that we clapp'd a stopper on their movements,
your Honour will allow that we did as well as if we
had spoken as smartly as a young midshipman fresh
from college, who is always for hailing a top in
Latin, you know, sir, for want of understanding the
proper language.”
The Rover smiled, and he glanced his eye aside,
apparently in quest of the form of our adventurer.
Not seeing him at hand, he was tempted to push his
covert inquiries a little further, though too much
governed, by self-respect, to let the intense curiosity
by which he was influenced escape him in any direct
and manifest interrogation. But an instant's recollection
recalled him to himself, and he discarded
the idea as unworthy of his character.
“Your services shall not be forgotten. Here is
gold,” he said, offering a handful of the metal to the
negro, as the one nearest his own person. “You
will divide it, like honest shipmates; and you may
ever rely on my protection.”
Scipio drew back, and, with a motion of his elbow,
replied,—
“His Honour will give 'em masser Harry.”
“Your master Harry has it of his own, lad; he
has no need of money.”
“A S'ip no need 'em eider.”
“You will please to overlook the fellow's manners,
sir,” said Fid, very coolly interposing his own
hand, and just as deliberately pocketing the offering;
“but I needn't tell as old a seaman as your Honour,
that Guinea is no country to scrape down the seams
of a man's behaviour in. Howsomever, I can say
this much for him, which is, that he thanks your
Honour just as heartily as if you had given him twice
the sum. Make a bow to his Honour, boy, and do
some credit to the company you have kept. And
now, since this little difficulty about the money is
gotten over, by my presence of mind, with your
Honour's leave, I'll just step aloft, and cast loose
the lashings of that bit of a tailor on the larboard
fore-yard-arm. The chap was never made for a topman,
as you may see, sir, by the fashion in which he
crosses his lower stanchions. That fellow will make
a carrick bend with his legs as easily as I could do
the same with a yarn of white line!”
The Rover signed for him to retire; and, turning
where he stood, he found himself confronted by
Wilder. The eyes of the confederates met; and a
slight colour bespoke the consciousness of the former.
Regaining his self-possession on the instant,
however, he smilingly alluded to the character of
Fid; and then, with an air of authority, he directed
his lieutenant to have the “retreat from quarters”
beat.
The guns were secured, the stoppers loosened,
the magazine closed, the ports lashed, and the crew
withdrew to their several ordinary duties, like men
whose violence had been completely subdued by the
triumphant influence of a master spirit. The Rover
then disappeared from the deck, which, for a time,
was left to the care of an officer of the proper station.
| CHAPTER IV. The Red Rover | |