The Pilot (18 page)

This unprovoked attack on their unresisting and unoffending guest
brought the rich blood to the very temples of Miss Howard, who rose, and
addressed herself to her kinsman, with a manner that could not easily be
mistaken any more than it could be condemned:

"If Mr. Dillon will comply with the wishes of Colonel Howard, as my
cousin has expressed them, we shall not, at least, have to accuse
ourselves of unnecessarily detaining men who probably are more
unfortunate than guilty."

When she concluded, Cecilia walked across the apartment and took a seat
by the side of Alice Dunscombe, with whom she began to converse, in a
low, soothing tone of voice. Mr. Dillon bowed with a deprecating
humility, and having ascertained that Colonel Howard chose to give an
audience, where he sat, to the prisoners, he withdrew to execute his
mission, secretly exulting at any change that promised to lead to a
renewal of an intercourse that might terminate more to his advantage,
than the lofty beauty whose favor he courted was, at present, disposed
to concede.

"Christopher is a worthy, serviceable, good fellow," said the colonel,
when the door closed, "and I hope to live yet to see him clad in ermine.
I would not be understood literally, but figuratively; for furs would
but ill comport with the climate of the Carolinas. I trust I am to be
consulted by his majesty's ministers when the new appointments shall be
made for the subdued colonies, and he may safely rely on my good word
being spoken in his favor. Would he not make an excellent and
independent ornament of the bench, Miss Plowden?"

Katherine compressed her lips a little as she replied.

"I must profit by his own discreet rules, and see testimony to that
effect, before I decide, sir. But listen!" The young lady's color
changed rapidly, and her eyes became fixed in a sort of feverish gaze on
the door. "He has at least been active; I hear the heavy tread of men
already approaching."

"Ah! it is he certainly; justice ought always to be prompt as well as
certain, to make it perfect; like a drumhead court-martial, which, by
the way, is as summary a sort of government as heart could wish to live
under. If his majesty's ministers could be persuaded to introduce into
the revolted colonies—"

"Listen!" interrupted Katherine, in a voice which bespoke her deep
anxiety; "they draw near!"

The sound of footsteps was in fact now so audible as to induce the
colonel to suspend the delivery of his plan for governing the recovered
provinces. The long, low gallery, which was paved with a stone flagging,
soon brought the footsteps of the approaching party more distinctly to
their ears, and presently a low tap at the door announced their arrival.
Colonel Howard arose, with the air of one who was to sustain the
principal character in the ensuing interview, and bade them enter.
Cecilia and Alice Dunscombe merely cast careless looks at the opening
door, indifferent to the scene; but the quick eye of Katherine embraced,
at a glance, every figure in the group. Drawing a long, quivering
breath, she fell back on the couch, and her eyes again lighted with
their playful expression, as she hummed a low rapid air, with a voice in
which even the suppressed tones were liquid melody.

Dillon entered, preceding the soldier, whose gait had become more
steady, and in whose rigid eye a thoughtful expression had taken the
place of its former vacant gaze. In short, something had manifestly
restored to him a more complete command of his mental powers, although
he might not have been absolutely sobered. The rest of the party
continued in the gallery, while Mr. Dillon presented the renovated
captain to the colonel, when the latter did him the same kind office
with the ladies.

"Miss Plowden," said the veteran, for she offered first in the circle,
"this is my friend, Captain Borroughcliffe: he has long been ambitious
of this honor, and I have no doubt his reception will be such as to
leave him no cause to repent he has been at last successful."

Katherine smiled, and answered with ambiguous emphasis:

"I know not how to thank him sufficiently for the care he has bestowed
on our poor persons."

The soldier looked steadily at her for a moment, with an eye that seemed
to threaten a retaliation in kind, ere he replied:

"One of those smiles, madam, would be an ample compensation for services
that are more real than such as exist only in intention."

Katherine bowed with more complacency than she usually bestowed on those
who wore the British uniform; and they proceeded to the next.

"This is Miss Alice Dunscombe, Captain Borroughcliffe, daughter of a
very worthy clergyman who was formerly the curate of this parish, and a
lady who does us the pleasure of giving us a good deal of her society,
though far less than we all wish for."

The captain returned the civil inclination of Alice, and the colonel
proceeded:

"Miss Howard, allow me to present Captain Borroughcliffe, a gentleman
who, having volunteered to defend St. Ruth in these critical times,
merits all the favor of its mistress."

Cecilia gracefully rose, and received her guest with sweet complacency.
The soldier made no reply to the customary compliments that she uttered,
but stood an instant gazing at her speaking countenance, and then,
laying his hand involuntarily on his breast, bowed nearly to his sword-
hilt.

These formalities duly observed, the colonel declared his readiness to
receive the prisoners. As the door was opened by Dillon, Katherine cast
a cool and steady look at the strangers, and beheld the light glancing
along the arms of the soldiers who guarded them. But the seamen entered
alone; while the rattling of arms, and the heavy dash of the muskets on
the stone pavement, announced that it was thought prudent to retain a
force at hand, to watch these secret intruders on the grounds of the
abbey.

"Food for powder; they'll fill a pit as well as better."
Falstaff
.

The three men who now entered the apartment appeared to be nothing
daunted by the presence into which they were ushered, though clad in the
coarse and weather-beaten vestments of seamen who had been exposed to
recent and severe duty. They silently obeyed the direction of the
soldier's finger, and took their stations in a distant corner of the
room, like men who knew the deference due to rank, at the same time that
the habits of their lives had long accustomed them to encounter the
vicissitudes of the world. With this slight preparation Colonel Howard
began the business of examination.

"I trust ye are all good and loyal subjects," the veteran commenced,
with a considerate respect for innocence, "but the times are such that
even the most worthy characters become liable to suspicion; and,
consequently, if our apprehensions should prove erroneous, you must
overlook the mistake, and attribute it to the awful condition into which
rebellion has plunged this empire. We have much reason to fear that some
project is about to be undertaken on the coast by the enemy, who has
appeared, we know, with a frigate and schooner; and the audacity of the
rebels is only equaled by their shameless and wicked disrespect for the
rights of the sovereign."

While Colonel Howard was uttering his apologetic preamble, the prisoners
fastened their eyes on him with much interest; but when he alluded to
the apprehended attack, the gaze of two of them became more keenly
attentive, and, before he concluded, they exchanged furtive glances of
deep meaning. No reply was made, however, and after a short pause, as if
to allow time for his words to make a proper impression, the veteran
continued:

"We have no evidence, I understand, that you are in the smallest degree
connected with the enemies of this country; but as you have been found
out of the king's highway, or, rather, on a by-path, which I must
confess is frequently used by the people of the neighborhood, but which
is nevertheless nothing but a by-path, it becomes no more than what
self-preservation requires of us, to ask you a few such questions as I
trust will be satisfactorily answered. To use your own nautical phrases,
'From whence came ye, pray?' and 'whither are ye bound?'"

A low, deep voice replied:

"From Sunderland, last, and bound, overland, to Whitehaven."

This simple and direct answer was hardly given, before the attention of
the listeners was called to Alice Dunscombe, who uttered a faint shriek,
and rose from her seat involuntarily, while her eyes seemed to roll
fearfully, and perhaps a little wildly, round the room.

"Are you ill, Miss Alice?" said the sweet, soothing tones of Cecilia
Howard; "you are, indeed you are: lean on me, that I may lead you to
your apartment."

"Did you hear it, or was it only fancy?" she answered, her cheek
blanched to the whiteness of death, and her whole frame shuddering as if
in convulsions; "say, did you hear it, too?"

"I have heard nothing but the voice of my uncle, who is standing near
you, anxious, as we all are, for your recovery from this dreadful
agitation."

Alice still gazed wildly from face to face. Her eye did not rest
satisfied with dwelling on those who surrounded her, but surveyed, with
a sort of frantic eagerness, the figures and appearance of the three
men, who stood in humble patience, the silent and unmoved witnesses of
this extraordinary scene. At length she veiled her eyes with both her
hands, as if to shut out some horrid vision, and then removing them, she
smiled languidly, as she signed for Cecilia to assist her from the room.
To the polite and assiduous offers of the gentlemen, she returned no
other thanks than those conveyed in her looks and gestures; but when the
sentinels who paced the gallery were passed, and the ladies were alone,
she breathed a long, shivering sigh, and found an utterance.

"'Twas like a voice from the silent grave!" she said, "but it could be
no more than mockery. No, no, 'tis a just punishment for letting the
image of the creature fill the place that should be occupied only with
the Creator. Ah! Miss Howard, Miss Plowden, ye are both young—in the
pride of your beauty and loveliness—but little do ye know, and less do
ye dread, the temptations and errors of a sinful world."

"Her thoughts wander!" whispered Katherine, with anxious tenderness,
"some awful calamity has affected her intellect!"

"Yes, it must be; my sinful thoughts have wandered, and conjured sounds
that it would have been dreadful to hear in truth, and within these
walls," said Alice, more composedly, smiling with a ghastly expression,
as she gazed on the two beautiful, solicitous maidens who supported her
yielding person. "But the moment of weakness is passed, and I am better;
aid me to my room, and return, that you may not interrupt the reviving
harmony between yourselves and Colonel Howard. I am now better—nay, I
am quite restored."

"Say not so, dear Miss Alice," returned Cecilia; "your face denies what
your kindness to us induces you to utter; ill, very ill, you are, nor
shall even your own commands induce me to leave you."

"Remain, then," said Miss Dunscombe, bestowing a look of grateful
affection on her lovely supporter; "and while our Katherine returns to
the drawing-room, to give the gentlemen their coffee, you shall continue
with me, as my gentle nurse."

By this time they had gained the apartment, and Katherine, after
assisting her cousin to place Alice on her bed, returned to do the
honors of the drawing-room.

Colonel Howard ceased his examination of the prisoners, at her entrance,
to inquire, with courtly solicitude, after the invalid; and, when his
questions were answered, he again proceeded, as follows:

"This is what the lads would call plain sailing, Borroughcliffe: they
are out of employment in Sunderland, and have acquaintances and
relatives in Whitehaven, to whom they are going for assistance and
labor. All very probable, and perfectly harmless."

"Nothing more so, my respectable host," returned the jocund soldier;
"but it seemeth a grievous misfortune that a trio of such flesh and
blood should need work wherewithal to exercise their thews and sinews,
while so many of the vessels of his majesty's fleet navigate the ocean
in quest of the enemies of old England."

"There is truth in that; much truth in your remark," cried the colonel.
"What say you, my lads, will you fight the Frenchmen and the Don—ay!
and even my own rebellious and infatuated countrymen? Nay, by heaven, it
is not a trifle that shall prevent his majesty from possessing the
services of three such heroes. Here are five guineas apiece for you the
moment that you put foot on board the Alacrity cutter; and that can
easily be done, as she lies at anchor this very night, only two short
leagues to the south of this, in a small port, where she is riding out
the gale as snugly as if she were in a corner of this room."

One of the men affected to gaze at the money with longing eyes, while he
asked, as if weighing the terms of the engagement:

"Whether the Alacrity was called a good sea-boat, and was thought to
give a comfortable berth to her crew?"

"Comfortable!" echoed Borroughcliffe; "for that matter, she is called
the bravest cutter in the navy. You have seen much of the world, I dare
say; did you ever see such a place as the marine arsenal at Carthagena,
in old Spain?"

"Indeed I have, sir," returned the seaman, in a cool, collected tone.

"Ah! you have! well, did you ever meet with a house in Paris that they
call the Tuileries? because it's a dog-kennel to the Alacrity."

"I have even fallen in with the place you mention, sir," returned the
sailor; "and must own the berth quite good enough for such as I am, if
it tallies with your description."

"The deuce take these blue-jackets," muttered Borroughcliffe, addressing
himself unconsciously to Miss Plowden, near whom he happened to be at
the time; "they run their tarry countenances into all the corners of the
earth, and abridge a man most lamentably in his comparisons. Now, who
the devil would have thought that fellow had ever put his sea-green eyes
on the palace of King Louis?"