"--Be patient, for the prize I'll bring thee to,
Shall hoodwink this mischance--."
Tempest.
The air, audacity, and language of the unknown mariner, had produced a
marked sensation among the passengers of the periagua. It was plain, by
the playfulness that lurked about the coal-black eye of la belle Barbérie,
that she had been amused by his sarcasms, though the boldness of his
manner had caused her to maintain the reserve which she believed necessary
to her sex and condition. The Patroon studied the countenance of his
mistress, and, though half offended by the freedom of the intruder, he had
believed it wisest to tolerate his liberties, as the natural excesses of a
spirit that had been lately released from the monotony of a sea-life. The
repose which usually reigned in the countenance of the Alderman had been a
little troubled; but he succeeded in concealing his discontent from any
impertinent observation. When the chief actor in the foregoing scene,
therefore, saw fit to withdraw, the usual tranquillity was restored, and
his presence appeared to be forgotten.
An ebbing tide and a freshening breeze quickly carried the periagua past
the smaller islands of the bay and brought the cruiser called the Coquette
more distinctly into view. This vessel, a ship of twenty guns, lay abreast
of the hamlet on the shores of Staten Island, which was the destination of
the ferry-boat. Here was the usual anchorage of outward-bound ships, which
awaited a change of wind; and it was here, that vessels then, as in our
times, were subject to those examinations and delays which are imposed for
the safety of the inhabitants of the city. The Coquette was alone,
however; for the arrival of a trader, from a distant port, was an event of
unfrequent occurrence, at the commencement of the eighteenth century.
The course of the periagua brought her within fifty feet of the
sloop-of-war. As the former approached, a movement of curiosity and
interest occurred among those she contained.
"Take more room for your milk-maid," grumbled the Alderman, observing that
the schipper was willing to gratify his passengers, by running as near as
possible to the dark sides of the cruiser. "Seas and oceans! is not
York-bay wide enough, that you must brush the dust out of the muzzles of
the guns of yon lazy ship? If the Queen knew how her money was eaten and
drunk, by the idle knaves aboard her, she would send them all to hunt for
freebooters among the islands. Look at the land, Alida, child, and you'll
think no more of the fright the gaping dunce is giving thee; he only
wishes to show his skill in steering."
But the niece manifested none of the terror that the uncle was willing to
ascribe to her fears. Instead of turning pale, the color deepened on her
cheeks, as the periagua came dancing along, under the lee of the cruiser;
and if her respiration became quicker than usual, it was scarcely produced
by the agitation of alarm. The near sight of the tall masts, and of the
maze of cordage that hung nearly above their heads, however, prevented the
change from being noted. A hundred curious eyes were already peeping at
them, through the ports, or over the bulwarks of the ship, when suddenly,
an officer, who wore the undress of a naval captain of that day, sprang
into the main rigging of the cruiser, and saluted the party in the
periagua, by waving his hat, hurriedly, like one who was agreeably taken
by surprise.
"A fair sky and gentle breezes to each and all!" he cried with the hearty
manner of a seaman. "I kiss my hand to the fair Alida; and the Alderman
will take a sailor's good wishes; Mr. Van Staats, I salute you."
"Ay," muttered the burgher, "your idlers have nothing better to do, than
to make words answer for deeds. A lazy war and a distant enemy make you
seamen the lords of the land, Captain Ludlow."
Alida blushed still deeper, hesitated, and then, by a movement that was
half involuntary, she waved her handkerchief. The young Patroon arose, and
answered the salutation by a courteous bow. By this time the ferry-boat
was nearly past the ship, and the scowl was quitting the face of the
Alderman, when the mariner of the India-shawl sprang to his feet, and, in
a moment, he stood again in the centre of their party.
"A pretty sea-boat, and a neat show aloft!" he said, as his understanding
eye scanned the rigging of the royal cruiser, taking the tiller at the
same time, with all his former indifference, from the hands of the
schipper. "Her Majesty should have good service from such a racer, and no
doubt the youth in her rigging is a man to get most out of his craft.
We'll take another observation. Draw away your head-sheet, boy."
The stranger had put the helm a-lee, while speaking, and by the time the
order he had given was uttered, the quick-working boat was about, and
nearly filled on the other tack. In another minute, she was again brushing
along the side of the sloop-of-war. A common complaint against this hardy
interference with the regular duty of the boat, was about to break out of
the lips of the Alderman and the schipper, when he of the India-shawl
lifted his cap, and addressed the officer in the rigging, with all the
self-possession he had manifested in the intercourse with those nearer his
person.
"Has Her Majesty need of a man in her service who has seen, in his time,
more blue water than hard ground; or is there no empty berth in so gallant
a cruiser, for one who must do a seaman's duty, or starve?"
The descendant of the king-hating Ludlows, as the Lord Cornbury had styled
the race of the commander of the Coquette, was quite as much surprised by
the appearance of him who put this question, as he was by the coolness
with which a mariner of ordinary condition presumed to address an officer
who bore so high a commission as his own. He had, how ever, sufficient
time to recollect in whose presence he stood, ere he replied, for the
stranger had again placed the helm a-lee, and caused the foresail to be
thrown aback;--a change that made the periagua stationary.
"The Queen will always receive a bold mariner in her pay, if he come
prepared to serve with skill and fidelity," he said; "as a proof of which,
let a rope be thrown the periagua; we shall treat more at our ease under
Her Majesty's pennant. I shall be proud to entertain Alderman Van
Beverout, in the mean time: and a cutter will always be at his command,
when he shall have occasion to quit us."
"Your land-loving Aldermen find their way from a Queen's cruiser to the
shore, more easily than a seaman of twenty years' experience;" returned
the other, without giving the burgher time to express his thanks for the
polite offer of the other. "You have gone through the Gibraltar passage,
without doubt, noble captain, being a gentleman that has got so fine a
boat under his orders?"
"Duty has taken me into the Italian seas, more than once," answered
Ludlow, half disposed to resent this familiarity, though too anxious to
keep the periagua near, to quarrel with him who so evidently had produced
the unexpected pleasure.
"Then you know that, though a lady might fan a ship through the straits
eastward, it needs a Levant breeze to bring her out again. Her Majesty's
pennants are long, and when they get foul around the limbs of a
thoroughly-bred sea-dog, it passes all his art to clear the jam. It is
most worthy of remark that the better the seaman, the less his power to
cast loose the knot!"
"If the pennant be so long, it may reach farther than you wish!--But a
bold volunteer has no occasion to dread a press."
"I fear the berth I wish is filled," returned the other, curling his lip:
"let draw the fore-sheet, lad; we will take our departure, leaving the fly
of the pennant well under our lee. Adieu, brave Captain; when you have
need of a thorough rover, and dream of stern-chases and wet sails, think
of him who visited your ship at her lazy moorings."
Ludlow bit his lip, and though his fine face reddened to the temples, he
met the arch glance of Alida, and laughed. But he who had so hardily
braved the resentment of a man, powerful as the commander of a royal
cruiser in a British colony, appeared to understand the hazard of his
situation. The periagua whirled round on her heel, and the next minute it
was bending to the breeze, and dashing through the little waves towards
the shore. Three boats left the cruiser at the same moment. One, which
evidently contained her captain, advanced with the usual dignified
movement of a barge landing an officer of rank, but the others were urged
ahead with all the earnestness of a hot chase.
"Unless disposed to serve the Queen, you have not done well, my friend, to
brave one of her commanders at the muzzles of his guns." observed the
Patroon, so soon as the state of the case became too evident to doubt of
the intentions of the man-of-war's men.
"That Captain Ludlow would gladly take some of us out of this boat, by
fair means or by foul, is a fact clear as a bright star in a cloudless
night; and, well knowing a seaman's duty to his superiors, I shall leave
him to his choice."
"In which case you will shortly eat Her Majesty's bread," pithily returned
the Alderman.
"The food is unpalatable, and I reject it--and yet here is a boat, whose'
crew seem determined to make one swallow worse fare."
The unknown mariner ceased speaking, for the situation of the periagua,
was truly getting to be a little critical. At least so it seemed to the
less-instructed landsmen, who were witnesses of this unexpected rencontre.
As the ferry-boat had drawn in with the island, the wind hauled more
through the pass which communicates with the outer bay, and it became
necessary to heave about, twice, in order to fetch to windward of the
usual landing-place. The first of these manoeuvres had been executed, and
as it necessarily changed their course, the passengers saw that the cutter
to which the stranger alluded was enabled to get within-shore of them; or
nearer to the wharf, where they ought to land, than they were themselves.
Instead of suffering himself to be led off by a pursuit, that he knew
might easily be rendered useless, the officer who commanded this boat
cheered his men, and pulled swiftly to the point of debarkation. On the
other hand, a second cutter, which had already reached the line of the
periagua's course, lay on its oars, and awaited its approach. The unknown
mariner manifested no intention to avoid the interview. He still held the
tiller, and as effectually commanded the little vessel as if his authority
were of a more regular character. The audacity and decision of his air and
conduct, aided by the consummate mariner in which he worked the boat,
might alone have achieved this momentary usurpation, had not the general
feeling against impressment been so much in his favor.
"The devil's fangs!" grumbled the schipper. If you should keep the
Milk-Maid away, we shall lose a little in distance, though I think the
man-of-war's men will be puzzled to catch her, with a flowing sheet!"
"The Queen has sent a message by the gentleman," the mariner rejoined: "it
would be unmannerly to refuse to hear it."
"Heave-to, the periagua!" shouted the young officer, in the cutter. "In
Her Majesty's name, I command you, obey."
"God bless the royal lady!" returned he of the foul anchors and gay shawl,
while the swift ferry-boat continued to dash ahead. "We owe her duty, and
are glad to see so proper a gentleman employed in her behalf."
By this time the boats were fifty feet asunder. No sooner was there room,
than the periagua once more flew round, and commenced anew its course,
dashing in again towards the shore. It was necessary, however, to venture
within an oar's-length of the cutter, or to keep away,--a loss of ground
to which he who controlled her movements showed no disposition to submit.
The officer arose, and, as the periagua drew near, it was evident his hand
held a pistol, though he seemed reluctant to exhibit the weapon. The
mariner stepped aside, in a manner to offer a full view of all in his
group, as he sarcastically observed--
"Choose your object, Sir; in such a party, a man of sentiment may have a
preference."
The young man colored, as much with shame at, the degrading duty he had
been commissioned to perform, as with vexation at his failure. Recovering
his self-composure, however, he lifted his hat to la belle Barbérie, and
the periagua dashed on, in triumph. Still the leading cutter was near the
shore, where it soon arrived, the crew lying on their oars at the end of
the wharf, in evident expectation of the arrival of the ferry-boat. At
this sight, the schipper shook his head, and looked up in the bold face of
his passenger, in a manner to betray how much his mind misgave the result.
But the tail mariner maintained his coolness, and began to make merry
allusions to the service which he had braved with so much temerity, and
from which no one believed he was yet likely to escape. By the former
manoeuvres, the periagua had gained a position well to windward of the
wharf; and she was now steered close upon the wind, directly for the
shore. Against the consequences of a perseverance in this course, however,
the schipper saw fit to remonstrate.
"Shipwrecks and rocky bottoms!" exclaimed the alarmed waterman. "A Holland
galliot would go to pieces, if you should run her in among those
stepping-stones, with this breeze! No honest boatman loves to see a man
stowed in a cruiser's hold, like a thief caged in his prison; but when it
comes to breaking the nose of the Milk-Maid, it is asking too much of her
owner, to stand by and look on."
"There shall not be a dimple of her lovely countenance deranged," answered
his cool passenger. "Now, lower away your sails, and we'll run along the
shore, down to yon wharf. 'Twould be an ungallant act to treat the
dairy-girl with so little ceremony, gentlemen, after the lively foot and
quick evolutions she has shown in our behalf. The best dancer in the
island could not have better played her part, though jigging under the
music of a three-stringed fiddle!"
By this time the sails were lowered, and the periagua was gliding down
towards the place of landing, running always at the distance of some fifty
feet from the shore.
"Every craft has its allotted time, like a mortal," continued the
inexplicable mariner of the India-shawl. "If she is to die a sudden death,
there is your beam-end and stern-way, which takes her into the grave
without funeral service, or parish prayers; your dropsy is being
water-logged; gout and rheumatism kill like a broken back and loose
joints; indigestion is a shifting cargo, with guns adrift; the gallows is
a bottomry-bond, with lawyers' fees; while fire, drowning, death by
religious melancholy, and suicide, are a careless gunner, sunken rocks,
false lights, and a lubberly captain."
Ere any were apprized of his intention, this singular being then sprang
from the boat on the cap of a little rock, over which the waves were
washing, whence he bounded, from stone to stone, by vigorous efforts, till
he fairly leaped to land. In another minute, he was lost to view, among
the dwellings of the hamlet.
The arrival of the periagua, which immediately after reached the wharf,
the disappointment of the cutter's crew, and the return of both the boats
to their ship, succeeded as matters of course.