CHAPTER XI.

"By this hand, thou think'st me as far in the devil's

book as thou and Falstaff, for obduracy and persistency.

Let the end try the man.... Albeit I could tell to thee,

(as to one it pleases me, for fault of a better, to

call my friend,) I could be sad, and sad indeed too."

_Henry IV., Part 2d._

We must now change the scene from Zetland to Orkney, and request our

readers to accompany us to the ruins of an elegant, though ancient

structure, called the Earl's Palace. These remains, though much

dilapidated, still exist in the neighbourhood of the massive and

venerable pile, which Norwegian devotion dedicated to Saint Magnus the

Martyr, and, being contiguous to the Bishop's Palace, which is also

ruinous, the place is impressive, as exhibiting vestiges of the

mutations both in Church and State which have affected Orkney, as well

as countries more exposed to such convulsions. Several parts of these

ruinous buildings might be selected (under suitable modifications) as

the model of a Gothic mansion, provided architects would be contented

rather to imitate what is really beautiful in that species of building,

than to make a medley of the caprices of the order, confounding the

military, ecclesiastical, and domestic styles of all ages at random,

with additional fantasies and combinations of their own device, "all

formed out of the builder's brain."

The Earl's Palace forms three sides of an oblong square, and has, even

in its ruins, the air of an elegant yet massive structure, uniting, as

was usual in the residence of feudal princes, the character of a palace

and of a castle. A great banqueting-hall, communicating with several

large rounds, or projecting turret-rooms, and having at either end an

immense chimney, testifies the ancient Northern hospitality of the Earls

of Orkney, and communicates, almost in the modern fashion, with a

gallery, or withdrawing-room, of corresponding dimensions, and having,

like the hall, its projecting turrets. The lordly hall itself is lighted

by a fine Gothic window of shafted stone at one end, and is entered by a

spacious and elegant staircase, consisting of three flights of stone

steps. The exterior ornaments and proportions of the ancient building

are also very handsome; but, being totally unprotected, this remnant of

the pomp and grandeur of Earls, who assumed the license as well as the

dignity of petty sovereigns, is now fast crumbling to decay, and has

suffered considerably since the date of our story.

With folded arms and downcast looks the pirate Cleveland was pacing

slowly the ruined hall which we have just described; a place of

retirement which he had probably chosen because it was distant from

public resort. His dress was considerably altered from that which he

usually wore in Zetland, and seemed a sort of uniform, richly laced, and

exhibiting no small quantity of embroidery: a hat with a plume, and a

small sword very handsomely mounted, then the constant companion of

every one who assumed the rank of a gentleman, showed his pretensions to

that character. But if his exterior was so far improved, it seemed to be

otherwise with his health and spirits. He was pale, and had lost both

the fire of his eye and the vivacity of his step, and his whole

appearance indicated melancholy of mind, or suffering of body, or a

combination of both evils.

As Cleveland thus paced these ancient ruins, a young man, of a light and

slender form, whose showy dress seemed to have been studied with care,

yet exhibited more extravagance than judgment or taste, whose manner was

a janty affectation of the free and easy rake of the period, and the

expression of whose countenance was lively, with a cast of effrontery,

tripped up the staircase, entered the hall, and presented himself to

Cleveland, who merely nodded to him, and pulling his hat deeper over his

brows, resumed his solitary and discontented promenade.

The stranger adjusted his own hat, nodded in return, took snuff, with

the air of a _petit maitre_, from a richly chased gold box, offered it

to Cleveland as he passed, and being repulsed rather coldly, replaced

the box in his pocket, folded his arms in his turn, and stood looking

with fixed attention on his motions whose solitude he had interrupted.

At length Cleveland stopped short, as if impatient of being longer the

subject of his observation, and said abruptly, "Why can I not be left

alone for half an hour, and what the devil is it that you want?"

"I am glad you spoke first," answered the stranger, carelessly; "I was

determined to know whether you were Clement Cleveland, or Cleveland's

ghost, and they say ghosts never take the first word, so I now set it

down for yourself in life and limb; and here is a fine old hurly-house

you have found out for an owl to hide himself in at mid-day, or a ghost

to revisit the pale glimpses of the moon, as the divine Shakspeare

says."

"Well, well," answered Cleveland, abruptly, "your jest is made, and now

let us have your earnest."

"In earnest, then, Captain Cleveland," replied his companion, "I think

you know me for your friend."

"I am content to suppose so," said Cleveland.

"It is more than supposition," replied the young man; "I have proved

it--proved it both here and elsewhere."

"Well, well," answered Cleveland, "I admit you have been always a

friendly fellow--and what then?"

"Well, well--and what then?" replied the other; "this is but a brief way

of thanking folk. Look you, Captain, here is Benson, Barlowe, Dick

Fletcher, and a few others of us who wished you well, have kept your old

comrade Captain Goffe in these seas upon the look-out for you, when he

and Hawkins, and the greater part of the ship's company, would fain have

been down on the Spanish Main, and at the old trade."

"And I wish to God that you had all gone about your business," said

Cleveland, "and left me to my fate."

"Which would have been to be informed against and hanged, Captain, the

first time that any of these Dutch or English rascals, whom you have

lightened of their cargoes, came to set their eyes upon you; and no

place more likely to meet with seafaring men, than in these Islands. And

here, to screen you from such a risk, we have been wasting our precious

time, till folk are grown very peery; and when we have no more goods or

money to spend amongst them, the fellows will be for grabbing the ship."

"Well, then, why do you not sail off without me?" said Cleveland--"there

has been fair partition, and all have had their share--let all do as

they like. I have lost my ship, and having been once a Captain, I will

not go to sea under command of Goffe or any other man. Besides, you know

well enough that both Hawkins and he bear me ill-will for keeping them

from sinking the Spanish brig, with the poor devils of negroes on

board."

"Why, what the foul fiend is the matter with thee?" said his companion;

"are you Clement Cleveland, our own old true-hearted Clem of the Cleugh,

and do you talk of being afraid of Hawkins and Goffe, and a score of

such fellows, when you have myself, and Barlowe, and Dick Fletcher at

your back? When was it we deserted you, either in council or in fight,

that you should be afraid of our flinching now? And as for serving under

Goffe, I hope it is no new thing for gentlemen of fortune who are going

on the account, to change a Captain now and then? Let us alone for

that,--Captain you shall be; for death rock me asleep if I serve under

that fellow Goffe, who is as very a bloodhound as ever sucked

bitch!--No, no, I thank you--my Captain must have a little of the

gentleman about him, howsoever. Besides, you know, it was you who first

dipped my hands in the dirty water, and turned me from a stroller by

land, to a rover by sea."

"Alas, poor Bunce!" said Cleveland, "you owe me little thanks for that

service."

"That is as you take it," replied Bunce; "for my part, I see no harm in

levying contributions on the public either one way or t'other. But I

wish you would forget that name of Bunce, and call me Altamont, as I

have often desired you to do. I hope a gentleman of the roving trade has

as good a right to have an alias as a stroller, and I never stepped on

the boards but what I was Altamont at the least."

"Well, then, Jack Altamont," replied Cleveland, "since Altamont is the

word"----

"Yes, but, Captain, _Jack_ is not the word, though Altamont be so. Jack

Altamont?--why, 'tis a velvet coat with paper lace--Let it be Frederick,

Captain; Frederick Altamont is all of a piece."

"Frederick be it, then, with all my heart," said Cleveland; "and pray

tell me, which of your names will sound best at the head of the Last

Speech, Confession, and Dying Words of John Bunce, _alias_ Frederick

Altamont, who was this morning hanged at Execution-dock, for the crime

of Piracy upon the High Seas?"

"Faith, I cannot answer that question, without another can of grog,

Captain; so if you will go down with me to Bet Haldane's on the quay, I

will bestow some thought on the matter, with the help of a right pipe of

Trinidado. We will have the gallon bowl filled with the best stuff you

ever tasted, and I know some smart wenches who will help us to drain it.

But you shake your head--you're not i' the vein?--Well, then, I will

stay with you; for by this hand, Clem, you shift me not off. Only I will

ferret you out of this burrow of old stones, and carry you into sunshine

and fair air.--Where shall we go?"

"Where you will," said Cleveland, "so that you keep out of the way of

our own rascals, and all others."

"Why, then," replied Bunce, "you and I will go up to the Hill of

Whitford, which overlooks the town, and walk together as gravely and

honestly as a pair of well-employed attorneys."

As they proceeded to leave the ruinous castle, Bunce, turning back to

look at it, thus addressed his companion:

"Hark ye, Captain, dost thou know who last inhabited this old cockloft?"

"An Earl of the Orkneys, they say," replied Cleveland.

"And are you avised what death he died of?" said Bunce; "for I have

heard that it was of a tight neck-collar--a hempen fever, or the like."

"The people here do say," replied Cleveland, "that his Lordship, some

hundred years ago, had the mishap to become acquainted with the nature

of a loop and a leap in the air."

"Why, la ye there now!" said Bunce; "there was some credit in being

hanged in those days, and in such worshipful company. And what might his

lordship have done to deserve such promotion?"

"Plundered the liege subjects, they say," replied Cleveland; "slain and

wounded them, fired upon his Majesty's flag, and so forth."

"Near akin to a gentleman rover, then," said Bunce, making a theatrical

bow towards the old building; "and, therefore, my most potent, grave,

and reverend Signior Earl, I crave leave to call you my loving cousin,

and bid you most heartily adieu. I leave you in the good company of rats

and mice, and so forth, and I carry with me an honest gentleman, who,

having of late had no more heart than a mouse, is now desirous to run

away from his profession and friends like a rat, and would therefore be

a most fitting denizen of your Earlship's palace."

"I would advise you not to speak so loud, my good friend Frederick

Altamont, or John Bunce," said Cleveland; "when you were on the stage,

you might safely rant as loud as you listed; but, in your present

profession, of which you are so fond, every man speaks under correction

of the yard-arm, and a running noose."

The comrades left the little town of Kirkwall in silence, and ascended

the Hill of Whitford, which raises its brow of dark heath, uninterrupted

by enclosures or cultivation of any kind, to the northward of the

ancient Burgh of Saint Magnus. The plain at the foot of the hill was

already occupied by numbers of persons who were engaged in making

preparations for the Fair of Saint Olla, to be held upon the ensuing

day, and which forms a general rendezvous to all the neighbouring

islands of Orkney, and is even frequented by many persons from the more

distant archipelago of Zetland. It is, in the words of the Proclamation,

"a free Mercat and Fair, holden at the good Burgh of Kirkwall on the

third of August, being Saint Olla's day," and continuing for an

indefinite space thereafter, extending from three days to a week, and

upwards. The fair is of great antiquity, and derives its name from

Olaus, Olave, Ollaw, the celebrated Monarch of Norway, who, rather by

the edge of his sword than any milder argument, introduced Christianity

into those isles, and was respected as the patron of Kirkwall some time

before he shared that honour with Saint Magnus the Martyr.

It was no part of Cleveland's purpose to mingle in the busy scene which

was here going on; and, turning their route to the left, they soon

ascended into undisturbed solitude, save where the grouse, more

plentiful in Orkney, perhaps, than in any other part of the British

dominions, rose in covey, and went off before them.[29] Having continued

to ascend till they had wellnigh reached the summit of the conical

hill, both turned round, as with one consent, to look at and admire the

prospect beneath.

The lively bustle which extended between the foot of the hill and the

town, gave life and variety to that part of the scene; then was seen the

town itself, out of which arose, like a great mass, superior in

proportion as it seemed to the whole burgh, the ancient Cathedral of

Saint Magnus, of the heaviest order of Gothic architecture, but grand,

solemn, and stately, the work of a distant age, and of a powerful hand.

The quay, with the shipping, lent additional vivacity to the scene; and

not only the whole beautiful bay, which lies betwixt the promontories of

Inganess and Quanterness, at the bottom of which Kirkwall is situated,

but all the sea, so far as visible, and in particular the whole strait

betwixt the island of Shapinsha and that called Pomona, or the Mainland,

was covered and enlivened by a variety of boats and small vessels,

freighted from distant islands to convey passengers or merchandise to

the Fair of Saint Olla.

Having attained the point by which this fair and busy prospect was most

completely commanded, each of the strangers, in seaman fashion, had

recourse to his spy-glass, to assist the naked eye in considering the

bay of Kirkwall, and the numerous vessels by which it was traversed. But

the attention of the two companions seemed to be arrested by different

objects. That of Bunce, or Altamont, as he chose to call himself, was

riveted to the armed sloop, where, conspicuous by her square rigging and

length of beam, with the English jack and pennon, which they had the

precaution to keep flying, she lay among the merchant vessels, as

distinguished from them by the trim neatness of her appearance, as a

trained soldier amongst a crowd of clowns.

"Yonder she lies," said Bunce; "I wish to God she was in the bay of

Honduras--you Captain, on the quarter-deck, I your lieutenant, and

Fletcher quarter-master, and fifty stout fellows under us--I should not

wish to see these blasted heaths and rocks again for a while!--And

Captain you shall soon be. The old brute Goffe gets drunk as a lord

every day, swaggers, and shoots, and cuts, among the crew; and, besides,

he has quarrelled with the people here so damnably, that they will

scarce let water or provisions go on board of us, and we expect an open

breach every day."

As Bunce received no answer, he turned short round on his companion,

and, perceiving his attention otherwise engaged, exclaimed,--"What the

devil is the matter with you? or what can you see in all that trumpery

small-craft, which is only loaded with stock-fish, and ling, and smoked

geese, and tubs of butter that is worse than tallow?--the cargoes of the

whole lumped together would not be worth the flash of a pistol.--No, no,

give me such a chase as we might see from the mast-head off the island

of Trinidado. Your Don, rolling as deep in the water as a grampus,

deep-loaden with rum, sugar, and bales of tobacco, and all the rest

ingots, moidores, and gold dust; then set all sail, clear the deck,

stand to quarters, up with the Jolly Roger[30]--we near her--we make

her out to be well manned and armed"----

"Twenty guns on her lower deck," said Cleveland.

"Forty, if you will," retorted Bunce, "and we have but ten

mounted--never mind. The Don blazes away--never mind yet, my brave

lads--run her alongside, and on board with you--to work, with your

grenadoes, your cutlasses, pole-axes, and pistols--The Don cries

Misericordia, and we share the cargo without _co licencio, Seignior_!"

"By my faith," said Cleveland, "thou takest so kindly to the trade, that

all the world may see that no honest man was spoiled when you were made

a pirate. But you shall not prevail on me to go farther in the devil's

road with you; for you know yourself that what is got over his back is

spent--you wot how. In a week, or a month at most, the rum and the sugar

are out, the bales of tobacco have become smoke, the moidores, ingots,

and gold dust, have got out of our hands, into those of the quiet,

honest, conscientious folks, who dwell at Port Royal and elsewhere--wink

hard on our trade as long as we have money, but not a jot beyond. Then

we have cold looks, and it may be a hint is given to the Judge Marshal;

for, when our pockets are worth nothing, our honest friends, rather than

want, will make money upon our heads. Then comes a high gallows and a

short halter, and so dies the Gentleman Rover. I tell thee, I will leave

this trade; and, when I turn my glass from one of these barks and boats

to another, there is not the worst of them which I would not row for

life, rather than continue to be what I have been. These poor men make

the sea a means of honest livelihood and friendly communication between

shore and shore, for the mutual benefit of the inhabitants; but we have

made it a road to the ruin of others, and to our own destruction here

and in eternity.--I am determined to turn honest man, and use this life

no longer!"

"And where will your honesty take up its abode, if it please you?" said

Bunce.--"You have broken the laws of every nation, and the hand of the

law will detect and crush you wherever you may take refuge.--Cleveland,

I speak to you more seriously than I am wont to do. I have had my

reflections, too; and they have been bad enough, though they lasted but

a few minutes, to spoil me weeks of joviality. But here is the

matter,--what can we do but go on as we have done, unless we have a

direct purpose of adorning the yard-arm?"

"We may claim the benefit of the proclamation to those of our sort who

come in and surrender," said Cleveland.

"Umph!" answered his companion, dryly; "the date of that day of grace

has been for some time over, and they may take the penalty or grant the

pardon at their pleasure. Were I you, I would not put my neck in such a

venture."

"Why, others have been admitted but lately to favour, and why should not

I?" said Cleveland.

"Ay," replied his associate, "Harry Glasby and some others have been

spared; but Glasby did what was called good service, in betraying his

comrades, and retaking the Jolly Fortune; and that I think you would

scorn, even to be revenged of the brute Goffe yonder."

"I would die a thousand times sooner," said Cleveland.

"I will be sworn for it," said Bunce; "and the others were forecastle

fellows--petty larceny rogues, scarce worth the hemp it would have cost

to hang them. But your name has stood too high amongst the gentlemen of

fortune for you to get off so easily. You are the prime buck of the

herd, and will be marked accordingly."

"And why so, I pray you?" said Cleveland; "you know well enough my aim,

Jack."

"Frederick, if you please," said Bunce.

"The devil take your folly!--Prithee keep thy wit, and let us be grave

for a moment."

"For a moment--be it so," said Bunce; "but I feel the spirit of Altamont

coming fast upon me,--I have been a grave man for ten minutes already."

"Be so then for a little longer," said Cleveland; "I know, Jack, that

you really love me; and, since we have come thus far in this talk, I

will trust you entirely. Now tell me, why should I be refused the

benefit of this gracious proclamation? I have borne a rough outside, as

thou knowest; but, in time of need, I can show the numbers of lives

which I have been the means of saving, the property which I have

restored to those who owned it, when, without my intercession, it would

have been wantonly destroyed. In short, Bunce, I can show"----

"That you were as gentle a thief as Robin Hood himself," said Bunce;

"and, for that reason, I, Fletcher, and the better sort among us, love

you, as one who saves the character of us Gentlemen Rovers from utter

reprobation.--Well, suppose your pardon made out, what are you to do

next?--what class in society will receive you?--with whom will you

associate? Old Drake, in Queen Bess's time, could plunder Peru and

Mexico without a line of commission to show for it, and, blessed be her

memory! he was knighted for it on his return. And there was Hal Morgan,

the Welshman, nearer our time, in the days of merry King Charles,

brought all his gettings home, had his estate and his country-house, and

who but he? But that is all ended now--once a pirate, and an outcast for

ever. The poor devil may go and live, shunned and despised by every one,

in some obscure seaport, with such part of his guilty earnings as

courtiers and clerks leave him--for pardons do not pass the seals for

nothing;--and, when he takes his walk along the pier, if a stranger

asks, who is the down-looking, swarthy, melancholy man, for whom all

make way, as if he brought the plague in his person, the answer shall

be, that is such a one, the pardoned pirate!--No honest man will speak

to him, no woman of repute will give him her hand."

"Your picture is too highly coloured, Jack," said Cleveland, suddenly

interrupting his friend; "there are women--there is one at least, that

would be true to her lover, even if he were what you have described."

Bunce was silent for a space, and looked fixedly at his friend. "By my

soul!" he said, at length, "I begin to think myself a conjurer. Unlikely

as it all was, I could not help suspecting from the beginning that there

was a girl in the case. Why, this is worse than Prince Volscius in love,

ha! ha! ha!"

"Laugh as you will," said Cleveland, "it is true;--there is a maiden who

is contented to love me, pirate as I am; and I will fairly own to you,

Jack, that, though I have often at times detested our roving life, and

myself for following it, yet I doubt if I could have found resolution to

make the break which I have now resolved on, but for her sake."

"Why, then, God-a-mercy!" replied Bunce, "there is no speaking sense to

a madman; and love in one of our trade, Captain, is little better than

lunacy. The girl must be a rare creature, for a wise man to risk hanging

for her. But, harkye, may she not be a little touched, as well as

yourself?--and is it not sympathy that has done it? She cannot be one of

our ordinary cockatrices, but a girl of conduct and character."

"Both are as undoubted as that she is the most beautiful and bewitching

creature whom the eye ever opened upon," answered Cleveland.

"And she loves thee, knowing thee, most noble Captain, to be a commander

among those gentlemen of fortune, whom the vulgar call pirates?"

"Even so--I am assured of it," said Cleveland.

"Why, then," answered Bunce, "she is either mad in good earnest, as I

said before, or she does not know what a pirate is."

"You are right in the last point," replied Cleveland. "She has been bred

in such remote simplicity, and utter ignorance of what is evil, that she

compares our occupation with that of the old Norsemen, who swept sea and

haven with their victorious galleys, established colonies, conquered

countries, and took the name of Sea-Kings."

"And a better one it is than that of pirate, and comes much to the same

purpose, I dare say," said Bunce. "But this must be a mettled

wench!--why did you not bring her aboard? methinks it was pity to baulk

her fancy."

"And do you think," said Cleveland, "that I could so utterly play the

part of a fallen spirit as to avail myself of her enthusiastic error,

and bring an angel of beauty and innocence acquainted with such a hell

as exists on board of yonder infernal ship of ours?--I tell you, my

friend, that, were all my former sins doubled in weight and in dye, such

a villainy would have outglared and outweighed them all."

"Why, then, Captain Cleveland," said his confident, "methinks it was but

a fool's part to come hither at all. The news must one day have gone

abroad, that the celebrated pirate Captain Cleveland, with his good

sloop the Revenge, had been lost on the Mainland of Zetland, and all

hands perished; so you would have remained hid both from friend and

enemy, and might have married your pretty Zetlander, and converted your

sash and scarf into fishing-nets, and your cutlass into a harpoon, and

swept the seas for fish instead of florins."

"And so I had determined," said the Captain; "but a Jagger, as they call

them here, like a meddling, peddling thief as he is, brought down

intelligence to Zetland of your lying here, and I was fain to set off,

to see if you were the consort of whom I had told them, long before I

thought of leaving the roving trade."

"Ay," said Bunce, "and so far you judged well. For, as you had heard of

our being at Kirkwall, so we should have soon learned that you were at

Zetland; and some of us for friendship, some for hatred, and some for

fear of your playing Harry Glasby upon us, would have come down for the

purpose of getting you into our company again."

"I suspected as much," said the Captain, "and therefore was fain to

decline the courteous offer of a friend, who proposed to bring me here

about this time. Besides, Jack, I recollected, that, as you say, my

pardon will not pass the seals without money, my own was waxing low--no

wonder, thou knowest I was never a churl of it--And so"----

"And so you came for your share of the cobs?" replied his friend--"It

was wisely done; and we shared honourably--so far Goffe has acted up to

articles, it must be allowed. But keep your purpose of leaving him close

in your breast, for I dread his playing you some dog's trick or other;

for he certainly thought himself sure of your share, and will hardly

forgive your coming alive to disappoint him."

"I fear him not," said Cleveland, "and he knows that well. I would I

were as well clear of the consequences of having been his comrade, as I

hold myself to be of all those which may attend his ill-will. Another

unhappy job I may be troubled with--I hurt a young fellow, who has been

my plague for some time, in an unhappy brawl that chanced the morning I

left Zetland."

"Is he dead?" asked Bunce: "It is a more serious question here, than it

would be on the Grand Caimains or the Bahama Isles, where a brace or two

of fellows may be shot in a morning, and no more heard of, or asked

about them, than if they were so many wood-pigeons. But here it may be

otherwise; so I hope you have not made your friend immortal."

"I hope not," said the Captain, "though my anger has been fatal to those

who have given me less provocation. To say the truth, I was sorry for

the lad notwithstanding, and especially as I was forced to leave him in

mad keeping."

"In mad keeping?" said Bunce; "why, what means that?"

"You shall hear," replied his friend. "In the first place, you are to

know, this young man came suddenly on me while I was trying to gain

Minna's ear for a private interview before I set sail, that I might

explain my purpose to her. Now, to be broken in on by the accursed

rudeness of this young fellow at such a moment"----

"The interruption deserved death," said Bunce, "by all the laws of love

and honour!"

"A truce with your ends of plays, Jack, and listen one moment.--The

brisk youth thought proper to retort, when I commanded him to be gone. I

am not, thou knowest, very patient, and enforced my commands with a

blow, which he returned as roundly. We struggled, till I became desirous

that we should part at any rate, which I could only effect by a stroke

of my poniard, which, according to old use, I have, thou knowest, always

about me. I had scarce done this when I repented; but there was no time

to think of any thing save escape and concealment, for, if the house

rose on me, I was lost; as the fiery old man, who is head of the family,

would have done justice on me had I been his brother. I took the body

hastily on my shoulders to carry it down to the sea-shore, with the

purpose of throwing it into a _riva_, as they call them, or chasm of

great depth, where it would have been long enough in being discovered.

This done, I intended to jump into the boat which I had lying ready, and

set sail for Kirkwall. But, as I was walking hastily towards the beach

with my burden, the poor young fellow groaned, and so apprized me that

the wound had not been instantly fatal. I was by this time well

concealed amongst the rocks, and, far from desiring to complete my

crime, I laid the young man on the ground, and was doing what I could to

stanch the blood, when suddenly an old woman stood before me. She was a

person whom I had frequently seen while in Zetland, and to whom they

ascribe the character of a sorceress, or, as the negroes say, an Obi

woman. She demanded the wounded man of me, and I was too much pressed

for time to hesitate in complying with her request. More she was about

to say to me, when we heard the voice of a silly old man, belonging to

the family, singing at some distance. She then pressed her finger on her

lip as a sign of secrecy, whistled very low, and a shapeless, deformed

brute of a dwarf coming to her assistance, they carried the wounded man

into one of the caverns with which the place abounds, and I got to my

boat and to sea with all expedition. If that old hag be, as they say,

connected with the King of the Air, she favoured me that morning with a

turn of her calling; for not even the West Indian tornadoes, which we

have weathered together, made a wilder racket than the squall that drove

me so far out of our course, that, without a pocket-compass, which I

chanced to have about me, I should never have recovered the Fair Isle,

for which we run, and where I found a brig which brought me to this

place. But, whether the old woman meant me weal or woe, here we came at

length in safety from the sea, and here I remain in doubts and

difficulties of more kinds than one."

"O, the devil take the Sumburgh-head," said Bunce, "or whatever they

call the rock that you knocked our clever little Revenge against!"

"Do not say _I_ knocked her on the rock," said Cleveland; "have I not

told you fifty times, if the cowards had not taken to their boat, though

I showed them the danger, and told them they would all be swamped, which

happened the instant they cast off the painter, she would have been

afloat at this moment? Had they stood by me and the ship, their lives

would have been saved; had I gone with them, mine would have been lost;

who can say which is for the best?"

"Well," replied his friend, "I know your case now, and can the better

help and advise. I will be true to you, Clement, as the blade to the

hilt; but I cannot think that you should leave us. As the old Scottish

song says, 'Wae's my heart that we should sunder!'--But come, you will

aboard with us to-day, at any rate?"

"I have no other place of refuge," said Cleveland, with a sigh.

He then once more ran his eyes over the bay, directing his spy-glass

upon several of the vessels which traversed its surface, in hopes,

doubtless, of discerning the vessel of Magnus Troil, and then followed

his companion down the hill in silence.

FOOTNOTES:

[29] It is very curious that the grouse, plenty in Orkney as the text

declares, should be totally unknown in the neighbouring archipelago of

Zetland, which is only about sixty miles distance, with the Fair Isle as

a step between.

[30] The pirates gave this name to the black flag, which, with many

horrible devices to enhance its terrors, was their favourite ensign.