University of Virginia Library

11. CHAPTER XI.
THE WRECK.

`When I recovered my consciousness,' continued the daughter of
the Indian Merchant, `I found myself in the cabin of the Americanship
—Norman was bending over me! After I was able to listen he told
me that he had gone to his schooner that day for the purpose of resuming
his American costume, for the English officers by whom he did not
wish to be recognised had left the place. He wished to return as an
American and thus presenting himself before my father, claim me as
his bride. On his way back, and when his boat was near the landing,
he witnessed the excitement on shore and recognised me as I flew before
my pursuers. The rest you know Clara!'

`What a fortunate escape! How romantic! and how brave and noble
he is!' said Mary Hood in tones of strong admiration for the hero
of her friend's story; and the fact that that very hero had been in her
presence that day she could scarcely realize. `But how came you on
board the American vessel?'

`Norman proceeded to tell me. He said that after he succeeded in
getting me into his boat and his oarsmen had got some ways out from
the landing, numerous boats crowded with the Chinese also put off and
gave him chase with loud cries. He said that to have reached his own
vessel without being overtaken would have been impossible, and seeing
that he was much nearer the `William Grey' he directed his men to
make for her; and he just succeeded in getting on board with me when
the Chinese boats to the number of a hundred, surrounded the ship.—
The pursuers were, however, prevented from coming on board by the
interposition of a French brig of war lying near, and finding that their
prey had escaped them they reluctantly pulled back towards the city!'

`Your father will be on board soon,' said Norman to me. `He has
already been advised of your safety. As the ship will weigh the instant
he comes along side, I will leave you in charge of your friend here Captain
Ferris and proceed to get my own vessel under sail! I will follow
you' he added in a low tone, for the Captain of the ship that moment
entered the cabin; `and be at Macoa as soon as you are there!
I will then wait on your father and declare to him our union, and
obtain his sanction!'

`But would he have been pleased at your marrying a stranger and a
privateersman!'

`Norman was not a stranger to me! I knew all his history! To be
a privateersman is not dishonorable, else Norman would not be one!—
It is an honorable mode of warfare—though, it is true, men without
honor often command privateers. As to his family he is noble!'

`Noble?'

`Yes. He is descended from a noble Irish family!'

`Is Norman Irish?'

`Why this surprise. You must not judge of the Irish, Mary, from
those you see in this country. The Irish gentleman rarely comes this
side of the sea; though in the southern states some of the most distinguished
families, Norman tells me, are descended from Irish ancestors.
A southerner's idea of an Irishman is very wide from yours as a northerner.
Two very opposite classes settle in each portion of the country.
The south the Irish gentleman seeks as his abode. The north is the
Irish peasants home. Here he can find labor. In the south the slave
takes his place. Believe me, dear Mary, the true Irish gentleman is the
truest nobleman of the earth.'

`I thought it strange if Freemantle was an Englishman that he should
fight against his own country.'

`As an Irishman he is the friend to the free. He recognises no claim
that England has upon his loyalty. He feels that she holds her dominion
over his green island by right of conquest alone; and his heart
throbs in sympathy with the great heart of liberty which gives life to
America.

But I forget my story. My father came on board and embraced me
as if I had been restored to him from the grave. We passed down the
river with a fair wind. I went on deck at sunset and far astern I recognised
my husband's schooner under Spanish colors close following in
our wake.'

`Did not your father know who saved you?'

`He was told by the captain of the ship that it was the commander
of a Spanish schooner; and when he bade me relate to him the circumstances
he said he never should feel right until he had seen and expressed
his grateful acknowledgments to the young stranger.'

`And did you not then tell him?'

`No. I waited till I should reach home and Norman should be with
me to plead, by his presence, his own case. The next day we left the
mouth of the river, the schooner still in sight, and were crossing the
channel with a fair wind when we were met by one of those terrific
Monsoons which at that season sweep the Indian seas. It lasted three
days with terrible violence, driving us eastward. On the fourth morning
we found ourselves at about six hundred miles to the east of Macao
and our ship in a very unsafe condition. The Captain bore up for the
first port and in entering it we struck upon a rock and the ship parted.
We were saved by the boats. The place at which we landed was an
obscure port in Spain; and there we remained five weeks before we
could obtain conveyance from the island. The vessel in which we took
passage was a chinese coaster, and after two weeks beating to windward
we reached Macao.

We found on arriving there that we had been given over as lost; and
a statement to this effect was published in the Gazette.

`My first inquiries were if a schooner answering the description of
Norman's had been there; and to my great grief and disappointment,
as you may conceive, I learned that it had sailed away only two days
before.

`While I was sympathising with Norman's grief for my supposed

loss, my friend the elderly gentleman, came in and handed me a letter,
saying,

`The brave captor of Lif, who thank heaven has been beheaded, has
been thrice into the harbour in the last two months. He came hoping
to hear from you—so you see you have made an impression. He was
very sad when he had at last to believe that you were dead. He left in
great melancholly two days ago, leaving with me this letter which I
was to give you should you re-appear, (of which he had little hopes,
for his own vessel scarcely outlived the monsoon,) and if not destroy
it.'

`You may judge, dear Mary, with what emotions I seized the letter;
as soon as I could I hastened away to read it where the emotions of my
countenance could not be observed.'

`Have you got the letter, Clara?'

`I have it, and also have it in my memory, You shall know the
purport of it. It informed me that he still had faint hopes of my being
yet alive, and that in that hope he addressed me. He said that he had
been three times into Macao, hoping that intelligence had reached them
from us, but that now he could no longer remain, as his crew insisted
on returning to the United States; and you know that the crew of a
Privateer, are almost as independent as their commander. He said that
he should cruise in the Atlantic after reaching the United States until
he should hear from me, if I were still alive, and that I must address
him at Boston. This was the substance of the letter, Mary.'

You may be assured that I lost no time in informing him of my
safety; and as my father had decided on account of his health to close
his business in India and return to the United States, I was able to
communicate in the same letter this intelligence to him; and desiring
him not to sail again for India to meet me, but await me at Boston. I
at the same time wrote him that he should soon learn from me about
what time we should sail and probably what ship we should take passage
in.'

`And did you write him before you sailed?' asked Mary Hood earnestly.

`Yes.'

`Then he must have suspected that you were on board the Indiaman
and this accounts for his persevering efforts to save her from capture
by the sloop.'

`He has since told me he had a presentiment that I was in the vessel,
though he did not know her to be the one I had written we should
embark in. Now you know, dear Mary, my whole history thus far.'

`It is as interesting as a romance. What a heroine! And he what
a hero! And have you not yet told your father that you are married?'

`No. Norman in his letter left for me, had advised me to keep it secret
until he should have an opportunity of revealing it himself.'

`And will he do so?'

`As soon as he returns from Boston. He will then have an interview
with my father and unfold all.'

`Do you fear the result?'

`No. When my father learns that it is the same stranger who saved
me from the rage of the Chinese, and who saved both himself aud me,

from capture by the British, I do not fear the result. Norman has certainly
won me since I became his bride.'

`He has indeed. Oh, I have the most lively curiosity to know how
it will terminate. I do hope your father will receive the intelligence
kindly,'

`I am sure he will!'

`You are at least married, and this he cannot prevent! He must
consent!'

`Norman will not at first tell him he is married to me! He will
first unfold to him all that has transpired and which you know; and as
I shall be present, I shall corroborate each part of his narrative. Norman
will at last make known to him our union. My father will be very
much surprised, but I have no doubt that he will give it his sanction;
for he lies under too great an obligation to Norman to refuse it. The
sun is already down. Let us return to the house fair couzin!'

`But first tell me the meaning of the device upon the flag of your bold
Privateer?'

`A green mantle flying free in the wind?'

`Yes.'

`It is the emblem of his house! One of the ancestors of his family,
the Founder of it indeed, was besieged in his castle by an army of
Britons. He sallied out of his gates upon them carrying in his hand
his banner. It was struck from his grasp by a knight and the banner
was trampled upon the earth. The warrior instantly took from his
shoulders his mantle and fastening it to a spear waved on his followers.
The spear was wrested from him in the fight and broken, when the
mantle flying loose upon the wind floated in the air above his head and
remained thus, sustained by the wind, until the Irish Chief had fairly
routed his foes and victory declared on his side. This is the legend!
From this miraculous event, a mantle floating free in the air, was adopted
as the insignia of his house. Norman has recently learned that the
present representative of his family, Earl Freemantle, is an usurper,
and that the title vested in his own father who was the first heir, but
who had not only been defrauded out of his lawful rights by this brother,
but by his wicked influence expelled the country on a charge of
being the leader of one of the factions that some years since divided
Ireland. To call this uncle to an account, he will visit Great Britain
as soon as this war is ended.

With one more chapter we bring our romance to a termination.