University of Virginia Library

5. CHAPTER V.
The Cruise.

On the night of the eighth day, after the scenes described in the
last chapter, the moon shone brightly upon a clipper-built brigantine, as
under full sail she was sailing out of New York harbor. Rapidly the
outline of the city with its glimmering lights faded from view, and the
broad ocean opened wider and wider.

The wind was west by north, and the brig ran nearly square before
it, at the rate of seven knots. The bright moonlight was reflected from
her pyramids of canvass, as from columns of piled snow. Every yard
was in its place, every sail accurately set. All her appointments were
characterized with man-of-war precision. In the height and rake of
her masts, the length and beautiful symmetry of her hull, she presented
a rare model for a true sailor's eye to gaze upon.

The vessel was the Lady of the Gulf. She was bound on a cruise
in the Gulf of Mexico. She carried eight twelve pounders, an eighteen
pounder on a carriage aft, and a thirty-six pounder upon a pivot amidships.
She had a crew of thirty-six men, Marshall intending to complete
her complement in Vera-Cruz by a third more men.

He now stood upon the quarter-deck near the helmsman, watching
the sails, and observing the general sailing qualities of his craft.

`She runs along like a bird, Hastings,' he said to his first officer.
`I verily believe she will pass any thing on the ocean. This is not
more than a five knot breeze, and we are making seven of it full. She,
walks the water like a thing of life. Byron should have been a sailor
for that one line. He loved the sea, as he did every thing grand and
beautiful. But, man, where are your thoughts?'

Hastings was standing near him, leaning over the trisail-boom, and
gazing towards the receding city as if lost in thought. The moon
shone so brightly that his face could be easily seen. It was pale and
thoughtful. He started at the remark of his Captain, and said smiling,

`I was thinking of leaving home!'

`Yes, it is very natural, I dare say. But my home is anywhere in
the world. All places are alike to me now. I should think you
would feel elated to tread a deck once more.'

`I do, I assure you. I will throw off this dullness!'

And he succeeded. For some time he continued to converse with
cheerfulness about the vessel, and with manifest interest in her. As
soon as they passed the light, the watch was set, and the command of
the deck given to Hastings, with the larboard watch. The captain,
however remained' on deck until midnight, too eager and anxious about
his craft to sleep.

`We shall make a fine offing by daylight,' said Marshall to his lieutenant,
who was walking the deck with folded arms and a thoughtful air.

`Yes!'

`Yes! you have n't got over your blues yet, I see! But, a few days
at sea will make a new man of you! I am never worth anything
after being ashore a month, till I have been three days on salt water.
We shall be in the low latitudes in a week, and I dare say shall fall in
with Monsieur, and give you something to do. To be sure, one can't
but feel melancholy, after having such a handsome fortune left him,
to run through it in a little better than a year. I dare say you are as
mad as sad, to think it went to fill the purses of a miserable set of
gambling rogues. There is one comfort; you have no one to suffer by
it but yourself.'

`The loss of my fortune,' said Hastings, `has been the destruction
of my fondest hopes.'

`In love, hey?'

`A few weeks after I came in possession of my money, I passed
some time at Saratoga. There I became acquainted with the beautiful
daughter of a Louisianian planter, and was soon deeply enamoured. As
I was of an unexceptionable family, an officer, or recently such, in the
navy, and possessed of wealth —'

`And a fine person,' interrupted the Captain with a smile, as he
tapped the ashes from a cigar he was smoking.

`As there was nothing to object to,' continued Hastings, `she seemed
willing to receive my attentions, and I really believe loved me!'

`Did n't you ascertain this fact?'

`No. Before I made up my mind to offer her my hand and heart,
she departed with her father for the South!'

`And you followed to lay you heart and fortune at her feet!'

`Such was my intention; but in New York, on my way, I was
tempted to play heavily, and lost a great deal of money. A band of
harpies surrounded me, and lived upon me, flattering me, and making
me feel that their presence and society were absolutely necessary for
my happiness. Every day I resolved to break from them and go South,
but they, aware of my purpose, and fearing to lose me, employed every
artifice to detain me, that they might plunder me and live at my table.
At length, I found myself stripped of half my fortune, and possessed
of habits that would rapidly impoverish me, unless I checked my
career. I felt now ashamed to present myself before Miss Livaudais,
well aware that she must have heard of my dissipation, and knowing
that I could offer her but a fragment of the fortune which I originally
possessed.'

`You should have gone, nevertheless, confessed your fault, and
thrown yourself upon her generosity and love. Women are angels to
forgive the erring!'

`I had not the courage to do this. The reflection that I was no
longer worthy of her, made me reckless of consequences, and so I
plunged headlong into all sorts of dissipation. My course was then
rapid, as you may easily conceive. You witnessed the final crisis, the
night on which, eight days ago, you saw me rushing from the saloon
a desperate man!'

`Thank God I did see you, Hastings,' answered the captain warmly.
`But I would not care now for what is passed. In six months you may
make your fortune with me, and then you can see the fair maiden of
your heart, and lay both at her feet, if you wish. Be sure, if she has
once felt an interest in you, it will not easily perish. If a woman is
flattered by the admiration of any man, how much more deeply must
she be complimented by his love! If it is the loss of the lady which
clouds your brow, cheer up, for I will assist you in getting her!'

`You, Captain?' cried Hastings with sudden animation mingled
with surprise. `No, no! She regards me as a profligate roué. All
the metropolis has rung with my vices. She must have heard all
The rumor that I have fled degraded will soon reach her ears, and seal
my fate in her estimation. I swear to you, Captain Marshall, that the
loss of her esteem pains me more than the loss of all my fortune!'

`I like that sentiment! It shows me you are the fine-spirited man

I believed you to be from the first. Do not despair. We shall soon
cnrich ourselves by captures, for the trade between France, and the
West Indies and New Orleans, is great, and we shall have no trouble
in falling in with rich prizes. In six months you will be a rich man
again. Besides the prizes of merchantmen, which we shall take and
send into Vera Cruz for adjudication, it is a bargain between me and
the Government, that any armed French ship that I capture belongs
wholly to me and my men!'

`If fortune restored to me, could replace me in the position I once
held in her estimation, I should feel happy! But it cannot! She is
rich, and can have no mercenary feeling. If she could be capable of
such, I should never have seen in her that to make me love her! No,
Captain, she would not wed me for riches were she penniless and I to
pour the gold of India in her lap, were gold all I had to bestow upon
her for her love!'

`Well, well, my friend, we wont talk of her now. Wait and see
how fortune turns, and then if you have bold heart and still love her,
you will win her, or I dont know the metal you are made of!'

`Sail ho!' cried the lookout from the bows.

`Where away?' called out Marshall.

`Dead ahead, and close aboard!”

`I see her! a large packet ship bound in, Hastings!'

In a few minutes the two vessels passed each other within cable's
length, the stranger being a large ship, close-hauled, and beating in on
the starboard tack. Neither vessel hailed, and soon they were fading
from each other's view as the distance widened between them.

Seven weeks after this departure of the Lady of the Gulf from the
port of New York, two vessels might have been seen on the south side
of Cuba, slowly approaching each other, though at the distance of several
miles apart. The coast of Cuba was about a league to the north
of them and their course lay parallel with it. It was a pleasant tropical
afternoon, and a light breeze from the south and west just ruffled
the blue surface of the sea. One of the vessels that approaching from
the east, was a large ship and a heavy sailer; for though she had every
sail drawing, she made but little progress. The wind blowing from the
south, a point westerly, was upon her beam as she steered westward.

The other vessel was a small, armed brig, showing four ports to a
side, having a rakish clipper look, and a very fast sailer. She was

standing eastward in a line to meet the advancing ship, and had the
wind two points abaft the beam, so that she carried fore topmast, and
lower studding-sails on her starboard arm. No two vessels could be
more unlike in appearance than these two, thus advancing from opposite
directions towards a central point. One was light, graceful, swift,
and bold looking, like a king-hawk on the wing after his prey. The
other was heavily made, low masted, short in the hull, and very high
out of the water; compared with the other, she might have been a
clumsy vulture slowly flapping on his way with leaden and lazy pinions.

The ship on discerning the brig eight miles distant, hoisted the
French flag at her peak, and bore up a little towards the land, but
not materially to deviate from her previous course. The brig, however,
showed no answering signal, but silently and swiftly kept steadily on
her way.

The brig was the Lady of the Gulf, which had then been seven
weeks at sea, and during that period made five captures, three of
which, after the valuables and crews had been removed, were sunk,
while the other two were sent into Vera Cruz. She had been the last
ten days cruising in the Gulf, to fall in with a large French ship which
was expected at New Orleans, from Havre, and which was known to be
richly laden.

Marshall had gone down the Gulf as far as the Balise of the Mississippi,
and then sailed back in the usual track, hoping to fall in with her.
As he came up with the Tortugases, he spoke an English vessel, from
which he learned that they had sailed some days in company with the
very ship he was waiting for, and that her captain had told them he
should take the south side of Cuba, as he feared he should fall in with
some Mexican cruiser off the Havana.

Upon this fortunate intelligence, the Lady of the Gulf laid her course
round Cape St. Antonio, and steered eastward. On the afternoon of
the same day, she descried from aloft the ship already mentioned
To make sure that she was the prize he was in pursuit of, Marshall
slung the spy-glass across his back and went to the foremast-head.
There he was able to make her out to be a merchant vessel, and as he
believed, French. This doubt, however, was speedily removed by seeing
the ship display the tri-colored flag.

`That is our man, Hastings,' said Marshall, as he descended to the
deck.

`Can you make her out clearly?'

`Yes. She is a large French trader, with the French bunting at her
peak. Take the glass.'

`She must be, without question, the same we are looking for,' answered
Hastings, after surveying her a few moments through the glass.

He was now much changed for the better. His air of gloom was
gone, and he looked cheerful and at ease with himself. He wore the
undress uniform of a Mexican lieutenant, which became him greatly.
His eye had recovered its brilliancy, and his cheek its hue of health;
altogether, he was quite unlike the person who, two months before, Marshall
had seen rushing from the saloon with looks of wild despair.

The two vessels now drew nearer and nearer, until they were within
four miles of each other, when the ship, as if taking the alarm suddenly,
wore round and stood away under all sail in the direction in which
she had come.

`She sees the cloven foot,' said Hastings laughing.

`Yes, and now means to give us a chase of it. But, she 'll find it
will do no good to run away. Before night we will be along side of
her, if she does n't run herself under water. Quarter-master, set the
Mexican flag! They shall not have any doubts about our character.'