 | CHAPTER III.
The Forget-me-Not. Herman de Ruyter |  |
3. CHAPTER III.
The Forget-me-Not.
Before explaining the scene that met the
eyes of Herman and the others upon entering
the tap-room, we will first take the reader to
the tenement occupied by Mrs. de Ruyter and
her young friend, the lovely cigar vender.
This abode was situated upon a narrow street,
or rather alley, not far distant from the `Saracen's
Head,' and in a quarter where the poor
congregated on account of the lowness
of the rents, though such places as
they inhabited scarcely were decent enough
to bring any rent at all to their avaricious
landlords. Upon the second floor of an old
black wooden house, Mrs. de Ruyter had
hired a room for herself and her protege. It
was furnished in the humblest manner, and
one bed in the room served for her and the
maiden. In spite of the poverty which manifested
itself in the chamber, there was an air
of neatness that pervaded the whole. Maria
had been then a few weeks in the cigar store,
and her little wages had been cheerfully contributed
towards the comfort of her fostermother;
and the appearance of things was
now quite genteel, though indigent still, compared
with what they had been before the
young girl obtained this uncertain situation.
There was a small mirror over a table covered
with neat white dimity, and a white coverlid
to the bed, and clean curtains to the two low
windows; all of which were presents from
Maria, made out of the avails of her weekly
wages.
It was a little after nine o'clock in the evening,
and about the time that Herman had
entered the tap of the Saracen's Head, that
Mrs. de Ruyter was seated at table sewing by
a small lamp. Upon a seat a little lower and
close by her side sat the lovely girl, whom we
have chosen as the heroine of our tale. The
rays of the lamp fell softly upon her pure
forehead, on either side of which the fair
brown hair was modestly parted, and put behind
the ears, fell in two or three natural curls
upon her neck. She was reading a letter
aloud; and, as at intervals, she would lift up
her eyelids from the paper, and fixed her deep
blue eyes upon the face of her maternal friend,
to listen to some remark she made upon the
contents of the epistle, the expression was
heavenly from its innocence and purity. As
she read, a sweet ever-dwelling smile played
about her mouth. She was very beautiful; but
it was the beauty of the retiring daisy, rather
than of the glowing rose. She was attired
with great simplicity in a muslin dress, with
a pink flower in it, and in her bosom was
stuck a sprig of myrtle and forget-me-not. As
she read, she rested her arm upon the lap of
Mrs. de Ruyter, and seemed to nestle by her,
as if she were her mother indeed. Her voice
as she read was sweetly toned, and, at times,
was slightly tremulous; for she was reading
over again, at Mrs. de Ruyter's request, the
last letter received many months before from
Herman, dated at Valparaiso, and there
were passages in it breathing the most passionate
tenderness towards her.
`Nay, read that passage over again, dear,'
said Mrs. de Ruyter, laying down her work
upon her knee, and fixing her eyes upon the
letter, `read it again, my child!'
`Never forget, my dear mother,' obeyed the
maiden, and blushing as she obeyed, `that
Maria must be regarded by you as your own
child, as you promised me when I parted from
you. She is very, very dear to me! I love
her as a sister, as more than a sister; and it
is only the hope, that one day I may be united
to her by a bond still tenderer than that of
brotherly love, that leads me onward in my
career of usefulness! But for her I feel I
should, forover, have cast myself away on
learning my father's crime. But I feel differently
when I think of Maria. Her image—'
`Why do you stop, my child? These
words are very sweet to my heart, and I know
you will rejoice to be so loved by my boy!
See what you have done, my dear, by your
gentle and silent influence! Herman confesses
he owes his safety from the gulf of
crime to you! If any thing could make me
love you more than I do, my child, it is this
reflection!' And the grateful mother of the
wandering boy, placed both her hands upon
the head of the sweet maiden, and raising her
eyes to Heaven, called fervently for its blessing
upon her!
Maria sat pale and silent. She looked distressed
and said hurriedly,
`I will not read any more to-night, dear
mother, if you will excuse me. The light is
dim and I do not feel quite well.'
`Then fold up the dear boy's letter. I
know you have to work hard all day and stay
until eight o'clock and sometimes later in the
evening. I don't wonder your head aches. The
smell of so much tobacco would make mine
ache constantly. Besides you have'nt been
home long enough to get rested. There, the
lamp is going out! I forgot to get any oil to
day, and I must have this gown finished to
night for Mrs. Gillin's little girl to put on in
the morning. Will you remain here, alone
dear, while I go to the store on the corner
over against the Saracen's Head.'
`You must not go, mother,' said Maria
rising quickly, and taking the little oil pitcher
from her hand.'
`But you are too tired walking all the way
from the shop in Broadway down here, and
only been in about twenty minutes.'
`No, I can go very well. It is but a step,'
she said cheerfully; and throwing her shawl
over her head was going out when the forget-me-not
fell out of her bosom upon the floor.
She stooped to pick it up when Madam de
Ruyter anticipated her, and as she took it in
her hand before returning it to her, she said,
`This is beautiful, Maria. Where did you
find such a sweet flower? It is a rare sight
for me to see a flower in these days. It reminds
me of my garden at the old place.
Where did you get it?'
`It was given to me,' answered the maiden,
colouring, and rubbing her eyelids.
`I hope you did not receive it from any of
the young gentlemen who frequent your shop.
I cannot caution you too closely, my sweet
child; about the society you are under the necessity
of seeing there. Nay, don't look grieved!
You are a good girl, and know propriety
as well as I do. There it is, dear Maria! If
you don't care to tell how you came by it, I
will not press you,' added Mrs. de Ruyter
kindly. `I know you would not have received
it from any young man, especially after
Herman's letter.'
`I am afraid the lamp will go quite out before
I can get back with the oil,' said Maria,
placing the flower in her bosom beside the
sprig of myrtle; and, without making any
further reply, she left the room and closed
the door. With difficulty she found her way
down a crooked and dilapidated staircase, and
as she reached the street door, she said internally
to herself,
`This is the last night I shall have to go in
and out of this wretched place. The two
pretty rooms in Nassau street I have engaged,
and secretly furnished with my wages, will
be ready tomorrow afternoon; and then how
I shall surprise my dear Mrs. de Ruyter by
taking her there to see them, and then telling
her they are her own! I can almost see her
happy and grateful countenance beaming
upon me with thankfulness and love. Ah,
this flower! I wonder if she suspected truly
the truth! Oh if she knew, she would be
very angry with me! But how could I refuse
him? so noble in looks, so agreeable, so handsome!
and I know he is so generous and good!
And how should I have answered my mother,
when I know not even his name myself?'
With these pleasant thoughts of some one
who is yet a stranger to us, but of whom the
maiden knew more than she was willing to
confide to her, from whom, up to this time, she
had kept no emotion of her heart; she tripped
lightly along the murky side-walk, her delicate
features nearly concealed by the shawl
which she drew closely down over her forehead,
and round her chin; for the walk was
thronged with idlers of all classes who were
lounging about, or coming in and out of the
low lodging-houses and tippling-cellars that
lined the way. She proceeded very rapidly
along on her errand, fearing to be accosted by
some rude person, and was passing the long
row of tenements composing the `Saracen's
Head,' when the door of the tap-room opened,
and a man was coming out, when the glare
falling directly upon the face of Maria as she
tripped past, revealed to him a glimpse of its
beauty.
`Ha, my bright eyes!' he cried with drunken
triumph, as he sprung and seized hold of
her shawl, `let us have a sight of that pretty
face.'
The maiden alarmed uttered a half-cry, and
releasing the shawl to his grasp, fled towards
the grocery. As she was leaving the curbstone
to cross the street to it, another person
who had seen the act of the man, suddenly
placed himself in her way, and with outspread
turned from him, now fairly affrighted, and
was about to escape by turning down the
street, up which a little before Herman had
come from the bookman's stall, when a third
person, seeing her terror, intercepted her
course, and attempted to pass his arm around
her graceful waist. At this instant, when all
hopes of avoiding the rude insults of these
desperadoes seemed gone, the other door of
the tap was thrown open by a woman, who
was coming out with a bottle in her hand. At
the sight of one of her sex, and the open door,
the alarmed girl sprung towards her.
`Protect me, good woman, from these
wretches!' she cried, clinging to her.
`Och, and what is it ye fare from the min'?'
demanded the woman coarsely in a strong
Irish brogue. `Don't be afther claverin' me
wid yer hands!' and thus speaking, she drew
back from her. At the same moment the man
who had first alarmed her came up, and was
laying his hand upon her arm, when she pushed
past the unfeeling Irish woman into the tap,
and sprung down the two steps through the
still open door into the smoky and crowded
room. No sooner did she discover the character
of the place she had sought shelter in, than
she trembled with renewed apprehensions, and
was about to fly through the door again past
the men who were entering after her, when
she was caught by the wrist, and drawn forcibly
back into the room.
`Here is a canary bird that has broke loose
from its cage!' cried the fellow who had seized
her. `Don't sing so loud, pretty one, nobody
is deaf here!' But the voice of the terrified
girl rose louder, shriek after shriek, for
three cut-throat looking villains had hold of
her, and knives were already drawn above her
head in fierce rivalry for the possession of
her.
It was the shrieks of the trembling girl that
reached the ears of Herman, the burglar Captain
and Napes in the little back room of the
tavern, and which led them to leave their
glasses, and rush out to ascertain the cause.
The room being illy lighted, and its atmosphere
thick with tobacco smoke, and the inmates
of the tap thronging towards the door
to see what was going on, Herman at first was
unable to discover the cause. But being one
of those ready spirits that are ever foremost in
a quarrel or a scene of excitement, he pressed
his way through the crowd, imperiously saying,
as he did so,
`Stand aside, fellow! Clear the passage
here! Give me room, villains!' And in this
way helping his words with strong arms, he
soon reached the scene. There was a battered
japan lamp hanging just above the door,
and casting its light down upon the spot where
the maiden stood pale as marble, and trembling
with apprehension. Two men now only
had hold of her, one grasping each arm, while
with knives brandished in the air, they stood
eyeing each other with fierce and murderous
hate.
`By Heaven I will kill the girl unless you
let go of her, Plymp!' vociferated one of them,
and he lowered his knife till the point hung
just above her bosom.
`Let go of her yourself, Flash,' cried the
other furiously. `She is mine, for I first saw
her. Let go her, or I will kill you!'
Herman came at this near enough to see the
features of the young girl, over whom this
desperate quarrel was going on; and instantly
all the blood in his heart rushed to his brain.
Could it be possible? The features pale and
alarmed as their expression was, were those
which he had carried with him in `in his
heart of hearts,' during all his wild wanderings.
Changed and far more beautiful they
were, but they were the same as those of the
lovely child who had so generously saved him
from arrest by concealing him in her closet!
the same, but more matured, of the sweet
maid of fifteen whom he had two years before
parted from with tenderness, and in tears.
The situation of any young and lovely female
in such peril, would, under any circumstances,
have called forth the chivalrous interference
of the young sailor. How much more
when he recognised in her the features of the
one he loved best on earth! The recognition
acted upon his brain with the force of a blow
being given upon the temples. He staggered
a step backwards! but instantly recovering
himself as he saw the dreadful situation she
was in, he uttered a loud cry, so loud and terrible
that those around him started aside; and
as a lion leaps upon his prey, he leaped—
bounded upon these men. He had no weapon
in his grasp! He seized a hand of each of
them, heedless of their knives, and bending
upon her shoulders, he hurled them both from
him, one to this side, and the other that, as if
they had been children in his grasp; and with
the same act he threw his arm around the half
lifeless maiden and drew her closely to his
side, and with the other arm presented in
fierce defiance, he cried,
`Stand back, ruffians, both of ye, all of ye!
He who lays a hand upon this young girl is a
dead man!'
The two men recovering themselves, and
seeing him unarmed, sprung at him together
with their gleaming blades, when Wild and
Napes caught their hands and held them, each
securing one of them.
`How is this, Plymp—Flash! Put up your
knives, would you kill the best fellow that
ever worked a clasher?'
`He?' cried Plymp, in a tone of contempt.
`He a clasher?'
`Yes, and one of us, and the girl is his sister!
So quit this game, and be hanged to
you!'
`Just as you say, Wilks,' answered Plymp,
sheathing his weapon, and followed in the act
by Flash, while both closely regarded Herman.
`Who is he, Wild?' asked Flash, a short,
fat young man of five or six and twenty,
dressed in a torn bottle-green coat worse for
wear; a soiled claret-velvet waistcoat, and
buff cassimere pants much too tight for his
legs, and a threadbare greasy blue broadcloth
cap, jauntily worn to one side, with a faded
gold tassel dangling over his left ear.
`Aye, who is he, Wilks? I'm blowed if I
knows him!' repeated the other gentleman,
shutting up his left eye, and eyeing Herman
inquisitively with the right. This interrogator
was endowed with a bright red complexion,
sandy hair, and two monstrous whiskered
warts on his chin, which otherwise had no
beard. His nose was half gone, a mouthful
having been taken from its extremity by a
bull-dog which had seized him by that member,
as he was entering through a store window
in the way of his profession, which was
that of a burglar. Plymp, for that was the
name of this personage, had also but a part of
an ear, the residue having been left on a post,
to which he was nailed in Virginia for slave-stealing,
and from which durance he escaped
minus the portion of cartilage in question. He
was a savage-looking fellow, tall and ill-jointed,
with a huge red freckled hand, that looked
as if it could fell a horse with a single blow
of it clenched. The attire of this ruffian consisted
of a stout drab box-coat, cut very close
in the skirts, and buttoned to his chin, the
collar standing up above his ears; and a pair
of blue check trowsers, rolled up over the top
of thick-soled boots. A cap not unlike a fireman's,
save that it wanted the capo, was lowered
over his assassin-like eyes, and gave him
at once a revolting and wicked aspect.
`Come to Napes' room both of you, and I
will tell you, boys,' answered Wild in a conciliating
tone, speaking low `Depend upon
it he is one of us, and you will find it for your
interest to be friends with him. You have
seen already he has the courage of an eagle,
and that he would make a dangerous foe!'
`Well, if you say so, Wilks, I am content!
I can't go to Napes' room to-night, as Flash
and I have a little fancy work cut out, and I
was going to look after it when I saw this
pretty wench, who has made such a muss,
tripping by like a kitten going wisitin' of a
Sunday afternoon. If she is his sister, then
I'm sorry. So, comrade, give us your flipper!'
he said, addressing Herman, who had
all this time been soothing and encouraging
his recovered treasure; for she seemed to him
ready each moment to sink to the ground, being
yet ignorant who her timely friend was,
and fearing still that she was in the grasp of
one from whom she had quite as much to fear
as from the others; for, in the confused state
of her faculties, she had been hardly conscious
of what actually passed around her while
Herman was rescuing her.
`Revive, and speak for my sake, dearest
Maria!' he said, with anxiety and deep tenderness,
as he gazed upon her marble and still
features. `It is Herman who speaks to you!
Herman who holds you!'
`I say, friend, give us your fives,' repeated
Plymp, in a louder tone. `No harm meant,
and none done, I hope!'
`Stand back, fellow, and don't friend me!'
cried Herman angrily. `When I cross hands
with thee, it shall be as thy foe, and with a
knife in them; for I mean yet to wipe out the
insult you have put upon this fair girl, by
laying your savage grasp upon her person!
Away, I want nothing with you! Throw
air!'
He was obeyed, and bearing his burden to
the open passage, she felt the night-air upon
her brow and lifted her eyelids. He bore her
in his arms out of the sunken tap, and gained
the side-walk with her. Flash and Plymp
would have rushed after him, but Wild placed
himself against the door which he had shut
the instant Herman had got out.
`This game won't do, master,' cried the
burglar, with a terrific oath. `Give back and
leave the way free, or I will pin you to the
door as I would a beetle!'
Wild fixed his eye steadily upon those of
the burglar, and said with a firm voice,
`Plymp, I do not fear your knife, so put it
up. The young man who has gone out came
in with me, and I will not suffer him to come
to harm. If you want me to serve you again,
or to be friends with me, you had best let this
matter pass in a quiet way. It is true I am
not your Captain as I once was; but you
know that I am preparing to organise again,
and that you are to be my `first.' So be
peaceable. This stranger you will yet say is
a trump!'
`Who is he, then?' asked Plymp, sullenly.
`Aye, who is the chap, Captain?' echoed
Flash, in a swaggering way.
`He is a lad who served his aprenticeship
with me, and has to-night just got back from
a long cruise in other lands. That girl is his
sister,' added Wild, who, however, only
guessed at this conjecture from Herman's
manner towards her. He had seen her features,
and was struck not only with their finished
beauty, but also with a startling resemblance
to somebody or other he had seen before;
a resemblance that greatly perplexed
him, and with which something or other was
associated which he could not clearly and distinctly
recal from the past.
After a few more words interchanged aside
between the two burglars and Wild, the former
left the tap together, as they said, to proceed
on a private burglarious expedition of
their own; while the latter following them
out, said he would go and see how his friend
got home with his sister, and give him a helping
hand if it were needed.
| CHAPTER III.
The Forget-me-Not. Herman de Ruyter | |