CHAPTER XVII.

Over the mountains and under the waves,

Over the fountains and under the graves,

Over floods that are deepest,

Which Neptune obey,

Over rocks that are steepest,

Love will find out the way.

_Old Song._

The parting of Fletcher from Claud Halcro and the sisters of

Burgh-Westra, on the spot where it took place, was partly occasioned by

a small party of armed men being seen at a distance in the act of

advancing from Kirkwall, an apparition hidden from the Udaller's

spy-glass by the swell of the ground, but quite visible to the pirate,

whom it determined to consult his own safety by a speedy return to his

boat. He was just turning away, when Minna occasioned the short delay

which her father had observed.

"Stop," she said; "I command you!--Tell your leader from me, that

whatever the answer may be from Kirkwall, he shall carry his vessel,

nevertheless, round to Stromness; and, being anchored there, let him

send a boat ashore for Captain Cleveland when he shall see a smoke on

the Bridge of Broisgar."

Fletcher had thought, like his messmate Bunce of asking a kiss, at

least, for the trouble of escorting these beautiful young women; and

perhaps, neither the terror of the approaching Kirkwall men, nor of

Minna's weapon, might have prevented his being insolent. But the name of

his Captain, and, still more, the unappalled, dignified, and commanding

manner of Minna Troil, overawed him. He made a sea bow,--promised to

keep a sharp look-out, and, returning to his boat, went on board with

his message.

As Halcro and the sisters advanced towards the party whom they saw on

the Kirkwall road, and who, on their part, had halted as if to observe

them, Brenda, relieved from the fears of Fletcher's presence, which had

hitherto kept her silent, exclaimed, "Merciful Heaven!--Minna, in what

hands have we left our dear father?"

"In the hands of brave men," said Minna, steadily--"I fear not for him."

"As brave as you please," said Claud Halcro, "but very dangerous rogues

for all that.--I know that fellow Altamont, as he calls himself, though

that is not his right name neither, as deboshed a dog as ever made a

barn ring with blood and blank verse. He began with Barnwell, and every

body thought he would end with the gallows, like the last scene in

Venice Preserved."

"It matters not," said Minna--"the wilder the waves, the more powerful

is the voice that rules them. The name alone of Cleveland ruled the mood

of the fiercest amongst them."

"I am sorry for Cleveland," said Brenda, "if such are his

companions,--but I care little for him in comparison to my father."

"Reserve your compassion for those who need it," said Minna, "and fear

nothing for our father.--God knows, every silver hair on his head is to

me worth the treasure of an unsummed mine; but I know that he is safe

while in yonder vessel, and I know that he will be soon safe on shore."

"I would I could see it," said Claud Halcro; "but I fear the Kirkwall

people, supposing Cleveland to be such as I dread, will not dare to

exchange him against the Udaller. The Scots have very severe laws

against theft-boot, as they call it."

"But who are those on the road before us?" said Brenda; "and why do they

halt there so jealously?"

"They are a patrol of the militia," answered Halcro. "Glorious John

touches them off a little sharply,--but then John was a Jacobite,--(_e_)

'Mouths without hands, maintain'd at vast expense,

In peace a charge, in war a weak defence;

Stout once a-month, they march, a blustering band,

And ever, but in time of need, at hand.'

I fancy they halted just now, taking us, as they saw us on the brow of

the hill, for a party of the sloop's men, and now they can distinguish

that you wear petticoats, they are moving on again."

They came on accordingly, and proved to be, as Claud Halcro had

suggested, a patrol sent out to watch the motions of the pirates, and to

prevent their attempting descents to damage the country.

They heartily congratulated Claud Halcro, who was well known to more

than one of them, upon his escape from captivity; and the commander of

the party, while offering every assistance to the ladies, could not help

condoling with them on the circumstances in which their father stood,

hinting, though in a delicate and doubtful manner, the difficulties

which might be in the way of his liberation.

When they arrived at Kirkwall, and obtained an audience of the Provost,

and one or two of the Magistrates, these difficulties were more plainly

insisted upon.--"The Halcyon frigate is upon the coast," said the

Provost; "she was seen off Duncansbay-head; and, though I have the

deepest respect for Mr. Troil of Burgh-Westra, yet I shall be answerable

to law if I release from prison the Captain of this suspicious vessel,

on account of the safety of any individual who may be unhappily

endangered by his detention. This man is now known to be the heart and

soul of these buccaniers, and am I at liberty to send him aboard, that

he may plunder the country, or perhaps go fight the King's ship?--for he

has impudence enough for any thing."

"_Courage_ enough for any thing, you mean, Mr. Provost," said Minna,

unable to restrain her displeasure.

"Why, you may call it as you please, Miss Troil," said the worthy

Magistrate; "but, in my opinion, that sort of courage which proposes to

fight singly against two, is little better than a kind of practical

impudence."

"But our father?" said Brenda, in a tone of the most earnest

entreaty--"our father--the friend, I may say the father, of his

country--to whom so many look for kindness, and so many for actual

support--whose loss would be the extinction of a beacon in a storm--will

you indeed weigh the risk which he runs, against such a trifling thing

as letting an unfortunate man from prison, to seek his unhappy fate

elsewhere?"

"Miss Brenda is right," said Claud Halcro; "I am for let-a-be for

let-a-be, as the boys say; and never fash about a warrant of

liberation, Provost, but just take a fool's counsel, and let the goodman

of the jail forget to draw his bolt on the wicket, or leave a chink of a

window open, or the like, and we shall be rid of the rover, and have the

one best honest fellow in Orkney or Zetland on the lee-side of a bowl of

punch with us in five hours."

The Provost replied in nearly the same terms as before, that he had the

highest respect for Mr. Magnus Troil of Burgh-Westra, but that he could

not suffer his consideration for any individual, however respectable, to

interfere with the discharge of his duty.

Minna then addressed her sister in a tone of calm and sarcastic

displeasure.--"You forget," she said, "Brenda, that you are talking of

the safety of a poor insignificant Udaller of Zetland, to no less a

person than the Chief Magistrate of the metropolis of Orkney--can you

expect so great a person to condescend to such a trifling subject of

consideration? It will be time enough for the Provost to think of

complying with the terms sent to him--for comply with them at length he

both must and will--when the Church of Saint Magnus is beat down about

his ears."

"You may be angry with me, my pretty young lady," said the good-humoured

Provost Torfe, "but I cannot be offended with you. The Church of Saint

Magnus has stood many a day, and, I think, will outlive both you and me,

much more yonder pack of unhanged dogs. And besides that your father is

half an Orkneyman, and has both estate and friends among us, I would, I

give you my word, do as much for a Zetlander in distress as I would for

any one, excepting one of our own native Kirkwallers, who are doubtless

to be preferred. And if you will take up your lodgings here with my wife

and myself, we will endeavour to show you," continued he, "that you are

as welcome in Kirkwall, as ever you could be in Lerwick or Scalloway."

Minna deigned no reply to this good-humoured invitation, but Brenda

declined it in civil terms, pleading the necessity of taking up their

abode with a wealthy widow of Kirkwall, a relation, who already expected

them.

Halcro made another attempt to move the Provost, but found him

inexorable.--"The Collector of the Customs had already threatened," he

said, "to inform against him for entering into treaty, or, as he called

it, packing and peeling with those strangers, even when it seemed the

only means of preventing a bloody affray in the town; and, should he now

forego the advantage afforded by the imprisonment of Cleveland and the

escape of the Factor, he might incur something worse than censure." The

burden of the whole was, "that he was sorry for the Udaller, he was

sorry even for the lad Cleveland, who had some sparks of honour about

him; but his duty was imperious, and must be obeyed." The Provost then

precluded farther argument, by observing, that another affair from

Zetland called for his immediate attention. A gentleman named Mertoun,

residing at Jarlshof, had made complaint against Snailsfoot the Jagger,

for having assisted a domestic of his in embezzling some valuable

articles which had been deposited in his custody, and he was about to

take examinations on the subject, and cause them to be restored to Mr.

Mertoun, who was accountable for them to the right owner.

In all this information, there was nothing which seemed interesting to

the sisters excepting the word Mertoun, which went like a dagger to the

heart of Minna, when she recollected the circumstances under which

Mordaunt Mertoun had disappeared, and which, with an emotion less

painful, though still of a melancholy nature, called a faint blush into

Brenda's cheek, and a slight degree of moisture into her eye. But it was

soon evident that the Magistrate spoke not of Mordaunt, but of his

father; and the daughters of Magnus, little interested in his detail,

took leave of the Provost to go to their own lodgings.

When they arrived at their relation's, Minna made it her business to

learn, by such enquiries as she could make without exciting suspicion,

what was the situation of the unfortunate Cleveland, which she soon

discovered to be exceedingly precarious. The Provost had not, indeed,

committed him to close custody, as Claud Halcro had anticipated,

recollecting, perhaps, the favourable circumstances under which he had

surrendered himself, and loath, till the moment of the last necessity,

altogether to break faith with him. But although left apparently at

large, he was strictly watched by persons well armed and appointed for

the purpose, who had directions to detain him by force, if he attempted

to pass certain narrow precincts which were allotted to him. He was

quartered in a strong room within what is called the King's Castle, and

at night his chamber door was locked on the outside, and a sufficient

guard mounted to prevent his escape. He therefore enjoyed only the

degree of liberty which the cat, in her cruel sport, is sometimes

pleased to permit to the mouse which she has clutched; and yet, such was

the terror of the resources, the courage, and ferocity of the pirate

Captain, that the Provost was blamed by the Collector, and many other

sage citizens of Kirkwall, for permitting him to be at large upon any

conditions.

It may be well believed, that, under such circumstances, Cleveland had

no desire to seek any place of public resort, conscious that he was the

object of a mixed feeling of curiosity and terror. His favourite place

of exercise, therefore, was the external aisles of the Cathedral of

Saint Magnus, of which the eastern end alone is fitted up for public

worship. This solemn old edifice, having escaped the ravage which

attended the first convulsions of the Reformation, still retains some

appearance of episcopal dignity. This place of worship is separated by a

screen from the nave and western limb of the cross, and the whole is

preserved in a state of cleanliness and decency, which might be well

proposed as an example to the proud piles of Westminster and St. Paul's.

It was in this exterior part of the Cathedral that Cleveland was

permitted to walk, the rather that his guards, by watching the single

open entrance, had the means, with very little inconvenience to

themselves, of preventing any possible attempt at escape. The place

itself was well suited to his melancholy circumstances. The lofty and

vaulted roof rises upon ranges of Saxon pillars, of massive size, four

of which, still larger than the rest, once supported the lofty spire,

which, long since destroyed by accident, has been rebuilt upon a

disproportioned and truncated plan. The light is admitted at the eastern

end through a lofty, well-proportioned, and richly-ornamented Gothic

window; and the pavement is covered with inscriptions, in different

languages, distinguishing the graves of noble Orcadians, who have at

different times been deposited within the sacred precincts.

Here walked Cleveland, musing over the events of a misspent life, which,

it seemed probable, might be brought to a violent and shameful close,

while he was yet in the prime of youth.--"With these dead," he said,

looking on the pavement, "shall I soon be numbered--but no holy man will

speak a blessing; no friendly hand register an inscription; no proud

descendant sculpture armorial bearings over the grave of the pirate

Cleveland. My whitening bones will swing in the gibbet-irons, on some

wild beach or lonely cape, that will be esteemed fatal and accursed for

my sake. The old mariner, as he passes the Sound, will shake his head,

and tell of my name and actions, as a warning to his younger

comrades.--But, Minna! Minna!--what will be thy thoughts when the news

reaches thee?--Would to God the tidings were drowned in the deepest

whirlpool betwixt Kirkwall and Burgh-Westra, ere they came to her

ear!--and O! would to Heaven that we had never met, since we never can

meet again!"

He lifted up his eyes as he spoke, and Minna Troil stood before him. Her

face was pale, and her hair dishevelled; but her look was composed and

firm, with its usual expression of high-minded melancholy. She was still

shrouded in the large mantle which she had assumed on leaving the

vessel. Cleveland's first emotion was astonishment; his next was joy,

not unmixed with awe. He would have exclaimed--he would have thrown

himself at her feet--but she imposed at once silence and composure on

him, by raising her finger, and saying, in a low but commanding

accent,--"Be cautious--we are observed--there are men without--they let

me enter with difficulty. I dare not remain long--they would think--they

might believe--O, Cleveland! I have hazarded every thing to save you!"

"To save me?--Alas! poor Minna!" answered Cleveland, "to save me is

impossible.--Enough that I have seen you once more, were it but to say,

for ever farewell!"

"We must indeed say farewell," said Minna; "for fate, and your guilt,

have divided us for ever.--Cleveland, I have seen your associates--need

I tell you more--need I say, that I know now what a pirate is?"

"You have been in the ruffians' power!" said Cleveland, with a start of

agony--"Did they presume"----

"Cleveland," replied Minna, "they presumed nothing--your name was a

spell over them. By the power of that spell over these ferocious

banditti, and by that alone, I was reminded of the qualities I once

thought my Cleveland's!"

"Yes," said Cleveland, proudly, "my name has and shall have power over

them, when they are at the wildest; and, had they harmed you by one rude

word, they should have found--Yet what do I rave about--I am a

prisoner!"

"You shall be so no longer," said Minna--"Your safety--the safety of my

dear father--all demand your instant freedom. I have formed a scheme for

your liberty, which, boldly executed, cannot fail. The light is fading

without--muffle yourself in my cloak, and you will easily pass the

guards--I have given them the means of carousing, and they are deeply

engaged. Haste to the Loch of Stennis, and hide yourself till day dawns;

then make a smoke on the point, where the land, stretching into the

lake on each side, divides it nearly in two at the Bridge of Broisgar.

Your vessel, which lies not far distant, will send a boat ashore.--Do

not hesitate an instant!"

"But you, Minna!--Should this wild scheme succeed," said Cleveland,

"what is to become of you?"

"For my share in your escape," answered the maiden, "the honesty of my

own intention will vindicate me in the sight of Heaven; and the safety

of my father, whose fate depends on yours, will be my excuse to man."

In a few words, she gave him the history of their capture, and its

consequences. Cleveland cast up his eyes and raised his hands to Heaven,

in thankfulness for the escape of the sisters from his evil companions,

and then hastily added,--"But you are right, Minna; I must fly at all

rates--for your father's sake I must fly.--Here, then, we part--yet not,

I trust, for ever."

"For ever!" answered a voice, that sounded as from a sepulchral vault.

They started, looked around them, and then gazed on each other. It

seemed as if the echoes of the building had returned Cleveland's last

words, but the pronunciation was too emphatically accented.

"Yes, for ever!" said Norna of the Fitful-head, stepping forward from

behind one of the massive Saxon pillars which support the roof of the

Cathedral. "Here meet the crimson foot and the crimson hand. Well for

both that the wound is healed whence that crimson was derived--well for

both, but best, for him who shed it.--Here, then, you meet--and meet for

the last time!"

"Not so," said Cleveland, as if about to take Minna's hand; "to

separate me from Minna, while I have life, must be the work of herself

alone."

"Away!" said Norna, stepping betwixt them,--"away with such idle

folly!--Nourish no vain dreams of future meetings--you part here, and

you part for ever. The hawk pairs not with the dove; guilt matches not

with innocence.--Minna Troil, you look for the last time on this bold

and criminal man--Cleveland, you behold Minna for the last time!"

"And dream you," said Cleveland, indignantly, "that your mummery imposes

on me, and that I am among the fools who see more than trick in your

pretended art?"

"Forbear, Cleveland, forbear!" said Minna, her hereditary awe of Norna

augmented by the circumstance of her sudden appearance. "O,

forbear!--she is powerful--she is but too powerful.--And do you, O

Norna, remember my father's safety is linked with Cleveland's."

"And it is well for Cleveland that I do remember it," replied the

Pythoness--"and that, for the sake of one, I am here to aid both. You,

with your childish purpose, of passing one of his bulk and stature under

the disguise of a few paltry folds of wadmaal--what would your device

have procured him but instant restraint with bolt and shackle?--I will

save him--I will place him in security on board his bark. But let him

renounce these shores for ever, and carry elsewhere the terrors of his

sable flag, and his yet blacker name; for if the sun rises twice, and

finds him still at anchor, his blood be on his own head.--Ay, look to

each other--look the last look that I permit to frail affection,--and

say, if ye _can_ say it, Farewell for ever!"

"Obey her," stammered Minna; "remonstrate not, but obey her."

Cleveland, grasping her hand, and kissing it ardently, said, but so low

that she only could hear it, "Farewell, Minna, but _not_ for ever."

"And now, maiden, begone," said Norna, "and leave the rest to the

Reimkennar."

"One word more," said Minna, "and I obey you. Tell me but if I have

caught aright your meaning--Is Mordaunt Mertoun safe and recovered?"

"Recovered, and safe," said Norna; "else woe to the hand that shed his

blood!"

Minna slowly sought the door of the Cathedral, and turned back from time

to time to look at the shadowy form of Norna, and the stately and

military figure of Cleveland, as they stood together in the deepening

gloom of the ancient Cathedral. When she looked back a second time they

were in motion, and Cleveland followed the matron, as, with a slow and

solemn step, she glided towards one of the side aisles. When Minna

looked back a third time, their figures were no longer visible. She

collected herself, and walked on to the eastern door by which she had

entered, and listened for an instant to the guard, who talked together

on the outside.

"The Zetland girl stays a long time with this pirate fellow," said one.

"I wish they have not more to speak about than the ransom of her

father."

"Ay, truly," answered another, "the wenches will have more sympathy with

a handsome young pirate, than an old bed-ridden burgher."

Their discourse was here interrupted by her of whom they were speaking;

and, as if taken in the manner, they pulled off their hats, made their

awkward obeisances, and looked not a little embarrassed and confused.

Minna returned to the house where she lodged, much affected, yet, on the

whole, pleased with the result of her expedition, which seemed to put

her father out of danger, and assured her at once of the escape of

Cleveland, and of the safety of young Mordaunt. She hastened to

communicate both pieces of intelligence to Brenda, who joined her in

thankfulness to Heaven, and was herself wellnigh persuaded to believe in

Norna's supernatural pretensions, so much was she pleased with the

manner in which they had been employed. Some time was spent in

exchanging their mutual congratulations, and mingling tears of hope,

mixed with apprehension; when, at a late hour in the evening, they were

interrupted by Claud Halcro, who, full of a fidgeting sort of

importance, not unmingled with fear, came to acquaint them, that the

prisoner, Cleveland, had disappeared from the Cathedral, in which he had

been permitted to walk, and that the Provost, having been informed that

Minna was accessary to his flight, was coming, in a mighty quandary, to

make enquiry into the circumstances.

When the worthy Magistrate arrived, Minna did not conceal from him her

own wish that Cleveland should make his escape, as the only means which

she saw of redeeming her father from imminent danger. But that she had

any actual accession to his flight, she positively denied; and stated,

"that she had parted from Cleveland in the Cathedral, more than two

hours since, and then left him in company with a third person, whose

name she did not conceive herself obliged to communicate."

"It is not needful, Miss Minna Troil," answered Provost Torfe; "for,

although no person but this Captain Cleveland and yourself was seen to

enter the Kirk of St. Magnus this day, we know well enough that your

cousin, old Ulla Troil, whom you Zetlanders call Norna of Fitful-head,

has been cruising up and down, upon sea and land, and air, for what I

know, in boats and on ponies, and it may be on broomsticks; and here has

been her dumb Drow, too, coming and going, and playing the spy on every

one--and a good spy he is, for he can hear every thing, and tells

nothing again, unless to his mistress. And we know, besides, that she

can enter the Kirk when all the doors are fast, and has been seen there

more than once, God save us from the Evil One!--and so, without farther

questions asked, I conclude it was old Norna whom you left in the Kirk

with this slashing blade--and, if so, they may catch them again that

can.--I cannot but say, however, pretty Mistress Minna, that you Zetland

folks seem to forget both law and gospel, when you use the help of

witchcraft to fetch delinquents out of a legal prison; and the least

that you, or your cousin, or your father, can do, is to use influence

with this wild fellow to go away as soon as possible, without hurting

the town or trade, and then there will be little harm in what has

chanced; for, Heaven knows, I did not seek the poor lad's life, so I

could get my hands free of him without blame; and far less did I wish,

that, through his imprisonment, any harm should come to worthy Magnus

Troil of Burgh-Westra."

"I see where the shoe pinches you, Mr. Provost," said Claud Halcro, "and

I am sure I can answer for my friend Mr. Troil, as well as for myself,

that we will say and do all in our power with this man, Captain

Cleveland, to make him leave the coast directly."

"And I," said Minna, "am so convinced that what you recommend is best

for all parties, that my sister and I will set off early to-morrow

morning to the House of Stennis, if Mr. Halcro will give us his escort,

to receive my father when he comes ashore, that we may acquaint him with

your wish, and to use every influence to induce this unhappy man to

leave the country."

Provost Torfe looked upon her with some surprise. "It is not every young

woman," he said, "would wish to move eight miles nearer to a band of

pirates."

"We run no risk," said Claud Halcro, interfering. "The House of Stennis

is strong; and my cousin, whom it belongs to, has men and arms within

it. The young ladies are as safe there as in Kirkwall; and much good may

arise from an early communication between Magnus Troil and his

daughters. And happy am I to see, that in your case, my good old

friend,--as glorious John says,--

----'After much debate,

The man prevails above the magistrate.'"

The Provost smiled, nodded his head, and indicated, as far as he thought

he could do so with decency, how happy he should be if the Fortune's

Favourite, and her disorderly crew, would leave Orkney without further

interference, or violence on either side. He could not authorize their

being supplied from the shore, he said; but, either for fear or favour,

they were certain to get provisions at Stromness. This pacific

magistrate then took leave of Halcro and the two ladies, who proposed

the next morning, to transfer their residence to the House of Stennis,

situated upon the banks of the salt-water lake of the same name, and

about four miles by water from the Road of Stromness, where the Rover's

vessel was lying.