The Pilot (13 page)

"Away there, you Tigers, away!"

A smart roll of the drum followed, and the marines paraded, while the
six seamen who belonged to the cutter that owned so fierce a name made
their preparations for lowering their little bark from the quarter of
the frigate into the troubled sea. Everything was conducted in the most
exact order, and with a coolness and skill that bade defiance to the
turbulence of the angry elements. The marines were safely transported
from the ship to the schooner, under the favoring shelter of the former,
though the boat appeared, at times, to be seeking the cavities of the
ocean, and again to be riding in the clouds, as she passed from one
vessel to the other.

At length it was announced that the cutter was ready to receive the
officers of the party. The pilot walked aside and held private
discourse, for a few moments, with the commander, who listened to his
sentences with marked and singular attention. When their conference was
ended, the veteran bared his gray head to the blasts, and offered his
hand to the other, with a seaman's frankness, mingled with the deference
of an inferior. The compliment was courteously returned by the stranger,
who turned quickly on his heel, and directed the attention of those who
awaited his movements, by a significant gesture, to the gangway.

"Come, gentlemen, let us go," said Griffith, starting from a reverie,
and bowing his hasty compliments to his brethren in arms.

When it appeared that his superiors were ready to enter the boat, the
boy, who, by nautical courtesy, was styled Mr. Merry, and who had been
ordered to be in readiness, sprang over the side of the frigate, and
glided into the cutter, with the activity of a squirrel. But the captain
of marines paused, and cast a meaning glance at the pilot, whose place
it was to precede him. The stranger, as he lingered on the deck, was
examining the aspect of the heavens, and seemed unconscious of the
expectations of the soldier, who gave vent to his impatience, after a
moment's detention, by saying:

"We wait for you, Mr. Gray."

Aroused by the sound of his name, the pilot glanced his quick eye on the
speaker, but instead of advancing, he gently bent his body, as he again
signed toward the gangway with his hand. To the astonishment not only of
the soldier, but of all who witnessed this breach of naval etiquette,
Griffith bowed low, and entered the boat with the same promptitude as if
he were preceding an admiral. Whether the stranger became conscious of
his want of courtesy, or was too indifferent to surrounding objects to
note occurrences, he immediately followed himself, leaving to the marine
the post of honor. The latter, who was distinguished for his skill in
all matters of naval or military etiquette, thought proper to apologize,
at a fitting time, to the first lieutenant for suffering his senior
officer to precede him into a boat, but never failed to show a becoming
exultation, when he recounted the circumstance, by dwelling on the
manner in which he had brought down the pride of the haughty pilot.

Barnstable had been several hours on board his little vessel, which was
every way prepared for their reception; and as soon as the heavy cutter
of the frigate was hoisted on her deck, he announced that the schooner
was ready to sail. It has been already intimated that the Ariel belonged
to the smallest class of sea-vessels; and as the symmetry of her
construction reduced even that size in appearance, she was peculiarly
well adapted to the sort of service in which she was about to be
employed. Notwithstanding her lightness rendered her nearly as buoyant
as a cork, and at times she actually seemed to ride on the foam, her low
decks were perpetually washed by the heavy seas that dashed against her
frail sides, and she tossed and rolled in the hollows of the waves, In a
manner that compelled even the practised seamen who trod her decks to
move with guarded steps. Still she was trimmed and cleared with an air
of nautical neatness and attention that afforded the utmost possible
room for her dimensions; and, though in miniature, she wore the
trappings of war as proudly as if the metal she bore was of a more fatal
and dangerous character. The murderous gun, which, since the period of
which we are writing, has been universally adopted in all vessels of
inferior size, was then in the infancy of its invention, and was known
to the American mariner only by reputation, under the appalling name of
a "smasher." Of a vast calibre, though short and easily managed, its
advantages were even in that early day beginning to be appreciated, and
the largest ships were thought to be unusually well provided with the
means of offence, when they carried two or three cannon of this
formidable invention among their armament. At a later day, this weapon
has been improved and altered, until its use has become general in
vessels of a certain size, taking its appellation from the Carron, on
the banks of which river it was first moulded. In place of these
carronades, six light brass cannon were firmly lashed to the bulwarks of
the Ariel, their brazen throats blackened by the sea-water, which so
often broke harmlessly over these engines of destruction. In the centre
of the vessel, between her two masts, a gun of the same metal, but of
nearly twice the length of the other, was mounted on a carriage of a new
and singular construction, which admitted of its being turned in any
direction, so as to be of service in most of the emergencies that occur
in naval warfare.

The eye of the pilot examined this armament closely and then turned to
the well-ordered decks, the neat and compact rigging, and the hardy
faces of the fine young crew, with manifest satisfaction. Contrary to
what had been his practice during the short time he had been with them,
he uttered his gratification freely and aloud.

"You have a tight boat, Mr. Barnstable," he said, "and a gallant-looking
crew. You promise good service, sir, in time of need, and that hour may
not be far distant."

"The sooner the better," returned the reckless sailor; "I have not had
an opportunity of scaling my guns since we quitted Brest, though we
passed several of the enemy's cutters coming up channel, with whom our
bulldogs longed for a conversation. Mr. Griffith will tell you, pilot,
that my little sixes can speak, on occasion, with a voice nearly as loud
as the frigate's eighteens."

"But not to as much purpose," observed Griffith; "'vox et praeterea
nihil,' as we said at school."

"I know nothing of your Greek and Latin, Mr. Griffith," retorted the
commander of the Ariel; "but if you mean that those seven brass
playthings won't throw a round-shot as far as any gun of their size and
height above the water, or won't scatter grape and canister with any
blunderbuss in your ship, you may possibly find an opportunity that will
convince you to the contrary, before we part company."

"They promise well," said the pilot, who was evidently, ignorant of the
good understanding that existed between the two officers, and wished to
conciliate all under his directions; "and I doubt not they will argue
the leading points of a combat with good discretion. I see that you have
christened them—I suppose for their respective merits. They are indeed
expressive names!"

"'Tis the freak of an idle moment," said Barnstable, laughing, as he
glanced his eye to the cannon, above which were painted the several
quaint names of "boxer," "plumper," "grinder," "scatterer,"
"exterminator" and nail-driver."

"Why have you thrown the midship gun without the pale of your baptism?"
asked the pilot; "or do you know it by the usual title of the 'old
woman'?"

"No, no, I have no such petticoat terms on board me," cried the other;
"but move more to starboard, and you will see its style painted on the
cheeks of the carriage; it's a name that need not cause them to blush
either."

"'Tis a singular epithet, though not without some meaning!"

"It has more than you, perhaps, dream of, sir. That worthy seaman whom
you see leaning against the foremast, and who would serve, on occasion,
for a spare spar himself, is the captain of that gun, and more than once
has decided some warm disputes with John Bull, by the manner in which he
has wielded it. No marine can trail his musket more easily than my
cockswain can train his nine-pounder on an object; and thus from their
connection, and some resemblance there is between them in length, it has
got the name which you perceive it carries—that of 'long Tom.'"

The pilot smiled as he listened, but turning away from the speaker, the
deep reflection that crossed his brow but too plainly showed that he
trifled only from momentary indulgence; and Griffith intimated to
Barnstable, that as the gale was sensibly abating they would pursue the
object of their destination.

Thus recalled to his duty, the commander of the schooner forgot the
delightful theme of expatiating on the merits of his vessel, and issued
the necessary orders to direct their movements. The little schooner
slowly obeyed the impulse of her helm, and fell off before the wind,
when the folds of her square-sail, though limited by a prudent reef,
were opened to the blasts, and she shot away from her consort, like a
meteor dancing across the waves. The black mass of the frigate's hull
soon sunk in distance; and long before the sun had fallen below the
hills of England, her tall masts were barely distinguishable by the
small cloud of sail that held the vessel to her station. As the ship
disappeared, the land seemed to issue out of the bosom of the deep; and
so rapid was their progress, that the dwellings of the gentry, the
humbler cottages, and even the dim lines of the hedges, became gradually
more distinct to the eyes of the bold mariners, until they were beset
with the gloom of evening, when the whole scene faded from their view in
the darkness of the hour, leaving only the faint outline of the land
visible in the tract before them, and the sullen billows of the ocean
raging with appalling violence in their rear.

Still the little Ariel held on her way, skimming the ocean like a water-
fowl seeking its place of nightly rest, and shooting in towards the land
as fearlessly as if the dangers of the preceding night were already
forgotten. No shoals or rocks appeared to arrest her course, and we must
leave her gliding into the dark streak that was thrown from the high and
rocky cliffs, that lined a basin of bold entrance, where the mariners
often sought and found a refuge from the dangers of the German Ocean.

"Sirrah! how dare you leave your barley-broth
To come in armor thus, against your king?"
Drama
.

The large irregular building inhabited by Colonel Howard well deserved
the name it had received from the pen of Katherine Plowden.
Notwithstanding the confusion in its orders, owing to the different ages
in which its several parts had been erected, the interior was not
wanting in that appearance of comfort which forms the great
characteristic of English domestic life. Its dark and intricate mazes of
halls, galleries, and apartments were all well provided with good and
substantial furniture; and whatever might have been the purposes of
their original construction, they were now peacefully appropriated to
the service of a quiet and well-ordered family.

There were divers portentous traditions of cruel separations and
blighted loves, which always linger, like cobwebs, around the walls of
old houses, to be heard here also, and which, doubtless, in abler hands,
might easily have been wrought up into scenes of high interest and
delectable pathos. But our humbler efforts must be limited by an attempt
to describe man as God has made him, vulgar and unseemly as he may
appear to sublimated faculties, to the possessors of which enviable
qualifications we desire to say, at once, that we are determined to
eschew all things supernaturally refined, as we would the devil. To all
those, then, who are tired of the company of their species we would
bluntly insinuate, that the sooner they throw aside our pages, and seize
upon those of some more highly gifted bard, the sooner will they be in
the way of quitting earth, if not of attaining heaven. Our business is
solely to treat of man, and this fair scene on which he acts, and that
not in his subtleties, and metaphysical contradictions, but in his
palpable nature, that all may understand our meaning as well as
ourselves—whereby we may manifestly reject the prodigious advantage of
being thought a genius, by perhaps foolishly refusing the mighty aid of
incomprehensibility to establish such a character.

Leaving the gloomy shadows of the cliffs, under which the little Ariel
had been seen to steer, and the sullen roaring of the surf along the
margin of the ocean, we shall endeavor to transport the reader to the
dining parlor of St. Ruth's Abbey, taking the evening of the same day as
the time for introducing another collection of those personages, whose
acts and characters it has become our duty to describe.

The room was not of very large dimensions, and every part was glittering
with the collected light of half a dozen Candles, aided by the fierce
rays that glanced from the grate, which held a most cheerful fire of
sea-coal. The mouldings of the dark oak wainscoting threw back upon the
massive table of mahogany streaks of strong light, which played among
the rich fluids that were sparkling on the board in mimic haloes. The
outline of this picture of comfort was formed by damask curtains of a
deep red, and enormous oak chairs with leathern backs and cushioned
seats, as if the apartment were hermetically sealed against the world
and its chilling cares.

Around the table, which still stood in the centre of the floor, were
seated three gentlemen, in the easy enjoyment of their daily repast. The
cloth had been drawn, and the bottle was slowly passing among them, as
if those who partook of its bounty well knew that neither the time nor
the opportunity would be wanting for their deliberate indulgence in its
pleasures.