CHAPTER XVI.

Clap on more sail, pursue, up with your fights,

Give fire--she is my prize, or ocean whelm them all!

SHAKSPEARE.

A very handsome brig, which, with several other vessels, was the

property of Magnus Troil, the great Zetland Udaller, had received on

board that Magnate himself, his two lovely daughters, and the facetious

Claud Halcro, who, for friendship's sake chiefly, and the love of beauty

proper to his poetical calling, attended them on their journey from

Zetland to the capital of Orkney, to which Norna had referred them, as

the place where her mystical oracles should at length receive a

satisfactory explanation.

They passed, at a distance, the tremendous cliffs of the lonely spot of

earth called the Fair Isle, which, at an equal distance from either

archipelago, lies in the sea which divides Orkney from Zetland; and at

length, after some baffling winds, made the Start of Sanda. Off the

headland so named, they became involved in a strong current, well known,

by those who frequent these seas, as the Roost of the Start, which

carried them considerably out of their course, and, joined to an adverse

wind, forced them to keep on the east side of the island of Stronsa,

and, finally compelled them to lie by for the night in Papa Sound, since

the navigation in dark or thick weather, amongst so many low islands, is

neither pleasant nor safe.

On the ensuing morning they resumed their voyage under more favourable

auspices; and, coasting along the island of Stronsa, whose flat,

verdant, and comparatively fertile shores, formed a strong contrast to

the dun hills and dark cliffs of their own islands, they doubled the

cape called the Lambhead, and stood away for Kirkwall.

They had scarce opened the beautiful bay betwixt Pomona and Shapinsha,

and the sisters were admiring the massive church of Saint Magnus, as it

was first seen to rise from amongst the inferior buildings of Kirkwall,

when the eyes of Magnus, and of Claud Halcro, were attracted by an

object which they thought more interesting. This was an armed sloop,

with her sails set, which had just left the anchorage in the bay, and

was running before the wind by which the brig of the Udaller was beating

in.

"A tight thing that, by my ancestors' bones!" said the old Udaller; "but

I cannot make out of what country, as she shows no colours. Spanish

built, I should think her."

"Ay, ay," said Claud Halcro, "she has all the look of it. She runs

before the wind that we must battle with, which is the wonted way of the

world. As glorious John says,--

'With roomy deck, and guns of mighty strength

Whose low-laid mouths each mounting billow laves,

Deep in her draught, and warlike in her length,

She seems a sea-wasp flying on the waves.'"

Brenda could not help telling Halcro, when he had spouted this stanza

with great enthusiasm, "that though the description was more like a

first-rate than a sloop, yet the simile of the sea-wasp served but

indifferently for either."

"A sea-wasp?" said Magnus, looking with some surprise, as the sloop,

shifting her course, suddenly bore down on them: "Egad, I wish she may

not show us presently that she has a sting!"

What the Udaller said in jest, was fulfilled in earnest; for, without

hoisting colours, or hailing, two shots were discharged from the sloop,

one of which ran dipping and dancing upon the water, just ahead of the

Zetlander's bows, while the other went through his main-sail.

Magnus caught up a speaking-trumpet, and hailed the sloop, to demand

what she was, and what was the meaning of this unprovoked aggression. He

was only answered by the stern command,--"Down top-sails instantly, and

lay your main-sail to the mast--you shall see who we are presently."

There were no means within the reach of possibility by which obedience

could be evaded, where it would instantly have been enforced by a

broadside; and, with much fear on the part of the sisters and Claud

Halcro, mixed with anger and astonishment on that of the Udaller, the

brig lay-to to await the commands of the captors.

The sloop immediately lowered a boat, with six armed hands, commanded by

Jack Bunce, which rowed directly for their prize. As they approached

her, Claud Halcro whispered to the Udaller,--"If what we hear of

buccaniers be true, these men, with their silk scarfs and vests, have

the very cut of them."

"My daughters! my daughters!" muttered Magnus to himself, with such an

agony as only a father could feel,--"Go down below, and hide yourselves,

girls, while I"----

He threw down his speaking-trumpet, and seized on a handspike, while his

daughters, more afraid of the consequences of his fiery temper to

himself than of any thing else, hung round him, and begged him to make

no resistance. Claud Halcro united his entreaties, adding, "It were best

pacify the fellows with fair words. They might," he said, "be

Dunkirkers, or insolent man-of-war's men on a frolic."

"No, no," answered Magnus, "it is the sloop which the Jagger told us of.

But I will take your advice--I will have patience for these girls'

sakes; yet"----

He had no time to conclude the sentence, for Bunce jumped on board with

his party, and drawing his cutlass, struck it upon the companion-ladder,

and declared the ship was theirs.

"By what warrant or authority do you stop us on the high seas?" said

Magnus.

"Here are half a dozen of warrants," said Bunce, showing the pistols

which were hung round him, according to a pirate-fashion already

mentioned, "choose which you like, old gentleman, and you shall have the

perusal of it presently."

"That is to say, you intend to rob us?" said Magnus.--"So be it--we have

no means to help it--only be civil to the women, and take what you

please from the vessel. There is not much, but I will and can make it

worth more, if you use us well."

"Civil to the women!" said Fletcher, who had also come on board with the

gang--"when were we else than civil to them? ay, and kind to boot?--Look

here, Jack Bunce!--what a trim-going little thing here is!--By G--, she

shall make a cruize with us, come of old Squaretoes what will!"

He seized upon the terrified Brenda with one hand, and insolently

pulled back with the other the hood of the mantle in which she had

muffled herself.

"Help, father!--help, Minna!" exclaimed the affrighted girl;

unconscious, at the moment, that they were unable to render her

assistance.

Magnus again uplifted the handspike, but Bunce stopped his

hand.--"Avast, father!" he said, "or you will make a bad voyage of it

presently--And you, Fletcher, let go the girl!"

"And, d----n me! why should I let her go?" said Fletcher.

"Because I command you, Dick," said the other, "and because I'll make it

a quarrel else.--And now let me know, beauties, is there one of you

bears that queer heathen name of Minna, for which I have a certain sort

of regard?"

"Gallant sir!" said Halcro, "unquestionably it is because you have some

poetry in your heart."

"I have had enough of it in my mouth in my time," answered Bunce; "but

that day is by, old gentleman--however, I shall soon find out which of

these girls is Minna.--Throw back your mufflings from your faces, and

don't be afraid, my Lindamiras; no one here shall meddle with you to do

you wrong. On my soul, two pretty wenches!--I wish I were at sea in an

egg-shell, and a rock under my lee-bow, if I would wish a better

leaguer-lass than the worst of them!--Hark you, my girls; which of you

would like to swing in a rover's hammock?--you should have gold for the

gathering!"

The terrified maidens clung close together, and grew pale at the bold

and familiar language of the desperate libertine.

"Nay, don't be frightened," said he; "no one shall serve under the

noble Altamont but by her own free choice--there is no pressing amongst

gentlemen of fortune. And do not look so shy upon me neither, as if I

spoke of what you never thought of before. One of you, at least, has

heard of Captain Cleveland, the Rover."

Brenda grew still paler, but the blood mounted at once in Minna's

cheeks, on hearing the name of her lover thus unexpectedly introduced;

for the scene was in itself so confounding, that the idea of the

vessel's being the consort of which Cleveland had spoken at

Burgh-Westra, had occurred to no one save the Udaller.

"I see how it is," said Bunce, with a familiar nod, "and I will hold my

course accordingly.--You need not be afraid of any injury, father," he

added, addressing Magnus familiarly; "and though I have made many a

pretty girl pay tribute in my time, yet yours shall go ashore without

either wrong or ransom."

"If you will assure me of that," said Magnus; "you are as welcome to the

brig and cargo, as ever I made man welcome to a can of punch."

"And it is no bad thing that same can of punch," said Bunce, "if we had

any one here that could mix it well."

"I will do it," said Claud Halcro, "with any man that ever squeezed

lemon--Eric Scambester, the punch-maker of Burgh-Westra, being alone

excepted."

"And you are within a grapnel's length of him, too," said the

Udaller.--"Go down below, my girls," he added, "and send up the rare old

man, and the punch-bowl."

"The punch-bowl!" said Fletcher; "I say, the bucket, d----n me!--Talk

of bowls in the cabin of a paltry merchantman, but not to

gentlemen-strollers--rovers, I would say," correcting himself, as he

observed that Bunce looked sour at the mistake.

"And I say, these two pretty girls shall stay on deck, and fill my can,"

said Bunce; "I deserve some attendance, at least, for all my

generosity."

"And they shall fill mine, too," said Fletcher--"they shall fill it to

the brim!--and I will have a kiss for every drop they spill--broil me if

I won't!"

"Why, then, I tell you, you shan't!" said Bunce; "for I'll be d----d if

any one shall kiss Minna but one, and that's neither you nor I; and her

other little bit of a consort shall 'scape for company;--there are

plenty of willing wenches in Orkney.--And so, now I think on it, these

girls shall go down below, and bolt themselves into the cabin; and we

shall have the punch up here on deck, _al fresco_, as the old gentleman

proposes."

"Why, Jack, I wish you knew your own mind," said Fletcher; "I have been

your messmate these two years, and I love you; and yet flay me like a

wild bullock, if you have not as many humours as a monkey!--And what

shall we have to make a little fun of, since you have sent the girls

down below?"

"Why, we will have Master Punch-maker here," answered Bunce, "to give us

toasts, and sing us songs.--And, in the meantime, you there, stand by

sheets and tacks, and get her under way!--and you, steersman, as you

would keep your brains in your skull, keep her under the stern of the

sloop.--If you attempt to play us any trick, I will scuttle your sconce

as if it were an old calabash!"

The vessel was accordingly got under way, and moved slowly on in the

wake of the sloop, which, as had been previously agreed upon, held her

course, not to return to the Bay of Kirkwall, but for an excellent

roadstead called Inganess Bay, formed by a promontory which extends to

the eastward two or three miles from the Orcadian metropolis, and where

the vessels might conveniently lie at anchor, while the rovers

maintained any communication with the Magistrates which the new state of

things seemed to require.

Meantime Claud Halcro had exerted his utmost talents in compounding a

bucketful of punch for the use of the pirates, which they drank out of

large cans; the ordinary seamen, as well as Bunce and Fletcher, who

acted as officers, dipping them into the bucket with very little

ceremony, as they came and went upon their duty. Magnus, who was

particularly apprehensive that liquor might awaken the brutal passions

of these desperadoes, was yet so much astonished at the quantities which

he saw them drink, without producing any visible effect upon their

reason, that he could not help expressing his surprise to Bunce himself,

who, wild as he was, yet appeared by far the most civil and conversable

of his party, and whom he was, perhaps, desirous to conciliate, by a

compliment of which all boon topers know the value.

"Bones of Saint Magnus!" said the Udaller, "I used to think I took off

my can like a gentleman; but to see your men swallow, Captain, one would

think their stomachs were as bottomless as the hole of Laifell in Foula,

which I have sounded myself with a line of an hundred fathoms. By my

soul, the Bicker of Saint Magnus were but a sip to them!"

"In our way of life, sir," answered Bunce, "there is no stint till duty

calls, or the puncheon is drunk out."

"By my word, sir," said Claud Halcro, "I believe there is not one of

your people but could drink out the mickle bicker of Scarpa, which was

always offered to the Bishop of Orkney brimful of the best bummock that

ever was brewed."[38]

"If drinking could make them bishops," said Bunce, "I should have a

reverend crew of them; but as they have no other clerical qualities

about them, I do not propose that they shall get drunk to-day; so we

will cut our drink with a song."

"And I'll sing it, by ----!" said or swore Dick Fletcher, and instantly

struck up the old ditty--

"It was a ship, and a ship of fame,

Launch'd off the stocks, bound for the main,

With an hundred and fifty brisk young men,

All pick'd and chosen every one."

"I would sooner be keel-hauled than hear that song over again," said

Bunce; "and confound your lantern jaws, you can squeeze nothing else out

of them!"

"By ----," said Fletcher, "I will sing my song, whether you like it or

no;" and again he sung, with the doleful tone of a north-easter

whistling through sheet and shrouds,--

"Captain Glen was our captain's name;

A very gallant and brisk young man;

As bold a sailor as e'er went to sea,

And we were bound for High Barbary."

"I tell you again," said Bunce, "we will have none of your screech-owl

music here; and I'll be d----d if you shall sit here and make that

infernal noise!"

"Why, then, I'll tell you what," said Fletcher, getting up, "I'll sing

when I walk about, and I hope there is no harm in that, Jack Bunce." And

so, getting up from his seat, he began to walk up and down the sloop,

croaking out his long and disastrous ballad.

"You see how I manage them," said Bunce, with a smile of

self-applause--"allow that fellow two strides on his own way, and you

make a mutineer of him for life. But I tie him strict up, and he follows

me as kindly as a fowler's spaniel after he has got a good beating.--And

now your toast and your song, sir," addressing Halcro; "or rather your

song without your toast. I have got a toast for myself. Here is success

to all roving blades, and confusion to all honest men!"

"I should be sorry to drink that toast, if I could help it," said Magnus

Troil.

"What! you reckon yourself one of the honest folks, I warrant?" said

Bunce.--"Tell me your trade, and I'll tell you what I think of it. As

for the punch-maker here, I knew him at first glance to be a tailor, who

has, therefore, no more pretensions to be honest, than he has not to be

mangy. But you are some High-Dutch skipper, I warrant me, that tramples

on the cross when he is in Japan, and denies his religion for a day's

gain."

"No," replied the Udaller, "I am a gentleman of Zetland."

"O, what!" retorted the satirical Mr. Bunce, "you are come from the

happy climate where gin is a groat a-bottle, and where there is daylight

for ever?"

"At your service, Captain," said the Udaller, suppressing with much

pain some disposition to resent these jests on his country, although

under every risk, and at all disadvantage.

"At _my_ service!" said Bunce--"Ay, if there was a rope stretched from

the wreck to the beach, you would be at my service to cut the hawser,

make _floatsome_ and _jetsome_ of ship and cargo, and well if you did

not give me a rap on the head with the back of the cutty-axe; and you

call yourself honest? But never mind--here goes the aforesaid toast--and

do you sing me a song, Mr. Fashioner; and look it be as good as your

punch."

Halcro, internally praying for the powers of a new Timotheus, to turn

his strain and check his auditor's pride, as glorious John had it, began

a heart-soothing ditty with the following lines:--

"Maidens fresh as fairest rose,

Listen to this lay of mine."

"I will hear nothing of maidens or roses," said Bunce; "it puts me in

mind what sort of a cargo we have got on board; and, by ----, I will be

true to my messmate and my captain as long as I can!--And now I think

on't, I'll have no more punch either--that last cup made innovation, and

I am not to play Cassio to-night--and if I drink not, nobody else

shall."

So saying, he manfully kicked over the bucket, which, notwithstanding

the repeated applications made to it, was still half full, got up from

his seat, shook himself a little to rights, as he expressed it, cocked

his hat, and, walking the quarter-deck with an air of dignity, gave, by

word and signal, the orders for bringing the ships to anchor, which

were readily obeyed by both, Goffe being then, in all probability, past

any rational state of interference.

The Udaller, in the meantime, condoled with Halcro on their situation.

"It is bad enough," said the tough old Norseman; "for these are rank

rogues--and yet, were it not for the girls, I should not fear them. That

young vapouring fellow, who seems to command, is not such a born devil

as he might have been."

"He has queer humours, though," said Halcro; "and I wish we were loose

from him. To kick down a bucket half full of the best punch ever was

made, and to cut me short in the sweetest song I ever wrote,--I promise

you, I do not know what he may do next--it is next door to madness."

Meanwhile, the ships being brought to anchor, the valiant Lieutenant

Bunce called upon Fletcher, and, resuming his seat by his unwilling

passengers, he told them they should see what message he was about to

send to the wittols of Kirkwall, as they were something concerned in it.

"It shall run in Dick's name," he said, "as well as in mine. I love to

give the poor young fellow a little countenance now and then--don't I,

Dick, you d----d stupid ass?"

"Why, yes, Jack Bunce," said Dick, "I can't say but as you do--only you

are always bullocking one about something or other, too--but,

howsomdever, d'ye see"----

"Enough said--belay your jaw, Dick," said Bunce, and proceeded to write

his epistle, which, being read aloud, proved to be of the following

tenor:

"For the Mayor and Aldermen of Kirkwall--Gentlemen, As, contrary

to your good faith given, you have not sent us on board a hostage

for the safety of our Captain, remaining on shore at your

request, these come to tell you, we are not thus to be trifled

with. We have already in our possession, a brig, with a family of

distinction, its owners and passengers; and as you deal with our

Captain, so will we deal with them in every respect. And as this

is the first, so assure yourselves it shall not be the last damage

which we will do to your town and trade, if you do not send on

board our Captain, and supply us with stores according to treaty.

"Given on board the brig Mergoose of Burgh-Westra, lying in

Inganess Bay. Witness our hands, commanders of the Fortune's

Favourite, and gentlemen adventurers."

He then subscribed himself Frederick Altamont, and handed the letter to

Fletcher, who read the said subscription with much difficulty; and,

admiring the sound of it very much, swore he would have a new name

himself, and the rather that Fletcher was the most crabbed word to spell

and conster, he believed, in the whole dictionary. He subscribed himself

accordingly, Timothy Tugmutton.

"Will you not add a few lines to the coxcombs?" said Bunce, addressing

Magnus.

"Not I," returned the Udaller, stubborn in his ideas of right and wrong,

even in so formidable an emergency. "The Magistrates of Kirkwall know

their duty, and were I they"----But here the recollection that his

daughters were at the mercy of these ruffians, blanked the bold visage

of Magnus Troil, and checked the defiance which was just about to issue

from his lips.

"D----n me," said Bunce, who easily conjectured what was passing in the

mind of his prisoner--"that pause would have told well on the stage--it

would have brought down pit, box, and gallery, egad, as Bayes has it."

"I will hear nothing of Bayes," said Claud Halcro, (himself a little

elevated,) "it is an impudent satire on glorious John; but he tickled

Buckingham off for it--

'In the first rank of these did Zimri stand;

A man so various'"----

"Hold your peace!" said Bunce, drowning the voice of the admirer of

Dryden in louder and more vehement asseveration, "the Rehearsal is the

best farce ever was written--and I'll make him kiss the gunner's

daughter that denies it. D----n me, I was the best Prince Prettyman

ever walked the boards--

'Sometimes a fisher's son, sometimes a prince.'

But let us to business.--Hark ye, old gentleman," (to Magnus,) "you have

a sort of sulkiness about you, for which some of my profession would cut

your ears out of your head, and broil them for your dinner with red

pepper. I have known Goffe do so to a poor devil, for looking sour and

dangerous when he saw his sloop go to Davy Jones's locker with his only

son on board. But I'm a spirit of another sort; and if you or the ladies

are ill used, it shall be the Kirkwall people's fault, and not mine, and

that's fair; and so you had better let them know your condition, and

your circumstances, and so forth,--and that's fair, too."

Magnus, thus exhorted, took up the pen, and attempted to write; but his

high spirit so struggled with his paternal anxiety, that his hand

refused its office. "I cannot help it," he said, after one or two

illegible attempts to write--"I cannot form a letter, if all our lives

depended upon it."

And he could not, with his utmost efforts, so suppress the convulsive

emotions which he experienced, but that they agitated his whole frame.

The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak

which resists it; and so, in great calamities, it sometimes happens,

that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence

of mind sooner than those of a loftier character. In the present case,

Claud Halcro was fortunately able to perform the task which the deeper

feelings of his friend and patron refused. He took the pen, and, in as

few words as possible, explained the situation in which they were

placed, and the cruel risks to which they were exposed, insinuating at

the same time, as delicately as he could express it, that, to the

magistrates of the country, the life and honour of its citizens should

be a dearer object than even the apprehension or punishment of the

guilty; taking care, however, to qualify the last expression as much as

possible, for fear of giving umbrage to the pirates.

Bunce read over the letter, which fortunately met his approbation; and,

on seeing the name of Claud Halcro at the bottom, he exclaimed, in great

surprise, and with more energetic expressions of asseveration than we

choose to record--"Why, you are the little fellow that played the fiddle

to old Manager Gadabout's company, at Hogs Norton, the first season I

came out there! I thought I knew your catchword of glorious John."

At another time this recognition might not have been very grateful to

Halcro's minstrel pride; but, as matters stood with him, the discovery

of a golden mine could not have made him more happy. He instantly

remembered the very hopeful young performer who came out in Don

Sebastian, and judiciously added, that the muse of glorious John had

never received such excellent support during the time that he was first

(he might have added, and only) violin to Mr. Gadabout's company.

"Why, yes," said Bunce, "I believe you are right--I think I might have

shaken the scene as well as Booth or Betterton either. But I was

destined to figure on other boards," (striking his foot upon the deck,)

"and I believe I must stick by them, till I find no board at all to

support me. But now, old acquaintance, I will do something for you--slue

yourself this way a bit--I would have you solus." They leaned over the

taffrail, while Bunce whispered with more seriousness than he usually

showed, "I am sorry for this honest old heart of Norway pine--blight me

if I am not--and for the daughters too--besides, I have my own reasons

for befriending one of them. I can be a wild fellow with a willing lass

of the game; but to such decent and innocent creatures--d----n me, I am

Scipio at Numantia, and Alexander in the tent of Darius. You remember

how I touch off Alexander?" (here he started into heroics.)

"'Thus from the grave I rise to save my love;

All draw your swords, with wings of lightning move.

When I rush on, sure none will dare to stay--

'Tis beauty calls, and glory shows the way.'"

Claud Halcro failed not to bestow the necessary commendations on his

declamation, declaring, that, in his opinion as an honest man, he had

always thought Mr. Altamont's giving that speech far superior in tone

and energy to Betterton.

Bunce, or Altamont, wrung his hand tenderly. "Ah, you flatter me, my

dear friend," he said; "yet, why had not the public some of your

judgment!--I should not then have been at this pass. Heaven knows, my

dear Mr. Halcro--Heaven knows with what pleasure I could keep you on

board with me, just that I might have one friend who loves as much to

hear, as I do to recite, the choicest pieces of our finest dramatic

authors. The most of us are beasts--and, for the Kirkwall hostage

yonder, he uses me, egad, as I use Fletcher, I think, and huffs me the

more, the more I do for him. But how delightful it would be in a tropic

night, when the ship was hanging on the breeze, with a broad and steady

sail, for me to rehearse Alexander, with you for my pit, box, and

gallery! Nay, (for you are a follower of the muses, as I remember,) who

knows but you and I might be the means of inspiring, like Orpheus and

Eurydice, a pure taste into our companions, and softening their manners,

while we excited their better feelings?"

This was spoken with so much unction, that Claud Halcro began to be

afraid he had both made the actual punch over potent, and mixed too many

bewitching ingredients in the cup of flattery which he had administered;

and that, under the influence of both potions, the sentimental pirate

might detain him by force, merely to realize the scenes which his

imagination presented. The conjuncture was, however, too delicate to

admit of any active effort, on Halcro's part, to redeem his blunder, and

therefore he only returned the tender pressure of his friend's hand, and

uttered the interjection "alas!" in as pathetic a tone as he could.

Bunce immediately resumed: "You are right, my friend, these are but

vain visions of felicity, and it remains but for the unhappy Altamont to

serve the friend to whom he is now to bid farewell. I have determined to

put you and the two girls ashore, with Fletcher for your protection; and

so call up the young women, and let them begone before the devil get

aboard of me, or of some one else. You will carry my letter to the

magistrates, and second it with your own eloquence, and assure them,

that if they hurt but one hair of Cleveland's head, there will be the

devil to pay, and no pitch hot."

Relieved at heart by this unexpected termination of Bunce's harangue,

Halcro descended the companion ladder two steps at a time, and knocking

at the cabin door, could scarce find intelligible language enough to say

his errand. The sisters hearing, with unexpected joy, that they were to

be set ashore, muffled themselves in their cloaks, and, when they

learned that the boat was hoisted out, came hastily on deck, where they

were apprized, for the first time, to their great horror, that their

father was still to remain on board of the pirate.

"We will remain with him at every risk," said Minna--"we may be of some

assistance to him, were it but for an instant--we will live and die with

him!"

"We shall aid him more surely," said Brenda, who comprehended the nature

of their situation better than Minna, "by interesting the people of

Kirkwall to grant these gentlemen's demands."

"Spoken like an angel of sense and beauty," said Bunce; "and now away

with you; for, d----n me, if this is not like having a lighted linstock

in the powder-room--if you speak another word more, confound me if I

know how I shall bring myself to part with you!"

"Go, in God's name, my daughters," said Magnus. "I am in God's hand; and

when you are gone I shall care little for myself--and I shall think and

say, as long as I live, that this good gentleman deserves a better

trade.--Go--go--away with you!"--for they yet lingered in reluctance to

leave him.

"Stay not to kiss," said Bunce, "for fear I be tempted to ask my share.

Into the boat with you--yet stop an instant." He drew the three captives

apart--"Fletcher," said he, "will answer for the rest of the fellows,

and will see you safe off the sea-beach. But how to answer for Fletcher,

I know not, except by trusting Mr. Halcro with this little guarantee."

[Illustration]

He offered the minstrel a small double-barrelled pistol, which, he said,

was loaded with a brace of balls. Minna observed Halcro's hand tremble

as he stretched it out to take the weapon. "Give it to me, sir," she

said, taking it from the outlaw; "and trust to me for defending my

sister and myself."

"Bravo, bravo!" shouted Bunce. "There spoke a wench worthy of Cleveland,

the King of Rovers!"

"Cleveland!" repeated Minna, "do you then know that Cleveland, whom you

have twice named?"

"Know him! Is there a man alive," said Bunce, "that knows better than I

do the best and stoutest fellow ever stepped betwixt stem and stern?

When he is out of the bilboes, as please Heaven he shall soon be, I

reckon to see you come on board of us, and reign the queen of every sea

we sail over.--You have got the little guardian; I suppose you know how

to use it? If Fletcher behaves ill to you, you need only draw up this

piece of iron with your thumb, so--and if he persists, it is but

crooking your pretty forefinger thus, and I shall lose the most dutiful

messmate that ever man had--though, d----n the dog, he will deserve his

death if he disobeys my orders. And now, into the boat--but stay, one

kiss for Cleveland's sake."

Brenda, in deadly terror, endured his courtesy, but Minna, stepping back

with disdain, offered her hand. Bunce laughed, but kissed, with a

theatrical air, the fair hand which she extended as a ransom for her

lips, and at length the sisters and Halcro were placed in the boat,

which rowed off under Fletcher's command.

Bunce stood on the quarter-deck, soliloquizing after the manner of his

original profession. "Were this told at Port-Royal now, or at the isle

of Providence, or in the Petits Guaves, I wonder what they would say of

me! Why, that I was a good-natured milksop--a Jack-a-lent--an

ass.--Well, let them. I have done enough of bad to think about it; it is

worth while doing one good action, if it were but for the rarity of the

thing, and to put one in good humour with oneself." Then turning to

Magnus Troil, he proceeded--"By ---- these are bona-robas, these

daughters of yours! The eldest would make her fortune on the London

boards. What a dashing attitude the wench had with her, as she seized

the pistol!--d----n me, that touch would have brought the house down!

What a Roxalana the jade would have made!" (for, in his oratory, Bunce,

like Sancho's gossip, Thomas Cecial, was apt to use the most energetic

word which came to hand, without accurately considering its propriety.)

"I would give my share of the next prize but to hear her spout--

'Away, begone, and give a whirlwind room,

Or I will blow you up like dust.--Avaunt!

Madness but meanly represents my rage.'

And then, again, that little, soft, shy, tearful trembler, for Statira,

to hear her recite--

'He speaks the kindest words, and looks such things,

Vows with such passion, swears with so much grace,

That 'tis a kind of heaven to be deluded by him.'

What a play we might have run up!--I was a beast not to think of it

before I sent them off--I to be Alexander--Claud Halcro,

Lysimachus--this old gentleman might have made a Clytus, for a pinch. I

was an idiot not to think of it!"

There was much in this effusion which might have displeased the Udaller;

but, to speak truth, he paid no attention to it. His eye, and, finally,

his spy-glass, were employed in watching the return of his daughters to

the shore. He saw them land on the beach, and, accompanied by Halcro,

and another man, (Fletcher, doubtless,) he saw them ascend the

acclivity, and proceed upon the road to Kirkwall; and he could even

distinguish that Minna, as if considering herself as the guardian of the

party, walked a little aloof from the rest, on the watch, as it seemed,

against surprise, and ready to act as occasion should require. At

length, as the Udaller was just about to lose sight of them, he had the

exquisite satisfaction to see the party halt, and the pirate leave them,

after a space just long enough for a civil farewell, and proceed slowly

back, on his return to the beach. Blessing the Great Being who had thus

relieved him from the most agonizing fears which a father can feel, the

worthy Udaller, from that instant, stood resigned to his own fate,

whatever that might be.

FOOTNOTES:

[38] Liquor brewed for a Christmas treat.