The Pilot (19 page)

Katherine heeded not his speech, but sat eying the prisoners with a
confused and wavering expression of countenance, while Colonel Howard
renewed the discourse, by exclaiming:

"Come, come, Borroughcliffe, let us give the lads no tales for a
recruit, but good, plain, honest English—God bless the language, and
the land for which it was first made, too! There is no necessity to tell
these men, if they are, what they seem to be, practical seamen, that a
cutter of ten guns contains all the room and accommodation of a palace."

"Do you allow nothing for English oak and English comfort, mine host?"
said the immovable captain; "do you think, good sir, that I measure
fitness and propriety by square and compass, as if I were planning
Solomon's temple anew? All I mean to say is, that the Alacrity is a
vessel of singular compactness and magical arrangement of room. Like the
tent of that handsome brother of the fairy, in the Arabian Nights, she
is big or she is little, as occasion needeth; and now, hang me, if I
don't think I have uttered more in her favor than her commander would
say to help me to a recruit, though no lad in the three kingdoms should
appear willing to try how a scarlet coat would suit his boorish figure."

"That time has not yet arrived, and God forbid that it ever should,
while the monarch needs a soldier in the field to protect his rights.
But what say ye, my men? you have heard the recommendation that Captain
Borroughcliffe has given of the Alacrity, which is altogether true—
after making some allowances for language. Will ye serve? shall I order
you a cheering glass a man, and lay by the gold, till I hear from the
cutter that you are enrolled under the banners of the best of kings?"

Katherine Plowden, who hardly seemed to breathe, so close and intent was
the interest with which she regarded the seamen, fancied she observed
lurking smiles on their faces; but if her conjectures were true, their
disposition to be merry went no further, and the one who had spoken
hitherto replied, in the same calm manner as before:

"You will excuse us if we decline shipping in the cutter, sir; we are
used to distant voyages and large vessels, whereas the Alacrity is kept
at coast duty, and is not of a size to lay herself alongside of a Don or
a Frenchman with a double row of teeth."

"If you prefer that sort of sport, you must to the right about for
Yarmouth; there you will find ships that will meet anything that swims,"
said the colonel.

"Perhaps the gentlemen would prefer abandoning the cares and dangers of
the ocean for a life of ease and gayety," said the captain. "The hand
that has long dallied with a marlinspike may be easily made to feel a
trigger, as gracefully as a lady touches the keys of her piano. In
short, there is and there is not a great resemblance between the life of
a sailor and that of a soldier. There are no gales of wind, nor short
allowances, nor reefing topsails, nor shipwrecks, among soldiers; and,
at the same time, there is just as much, or even more, grog-drinking,
jollifying, care-killing fun around a canteen and an open knapsack, than
there is on the end of a mess-chest, with a full can and a Saturday-
night's breeze. I have crossed the ocean several times, and I must own
that a ship, in good weather, is very much the same as a camp or
comfortable barracks; mind, I say only in very good weather."

"We have no doubt that all you say is true, sir," observed the spokesman
of the three; "but what to you may seem a hardship, to us is pleasure.
We have faced too many a gale to mind a capful of wind, and should think
ourselves always in the calm latitudes in one of your barracks, where
there is nothing to do but to eat our grub and to march a little fore
and aft a small piece of green earth. We hardly know one end of a musket
from the other."

"No!" said Borroughcliffe, musing; and then advancing with a quick step
toward them, he cried, in a spirited manner: "Attention! right! dress!"

The speaker, and the seaman next him, gazed at the captain in silent
wonder; but the third individual of the party, who had drawn himself a
little aside, as if willing to be unnoticed, or perhaps pondering on his
condition, involuntarily started at this unexpected order, and erecting
himself, threw his head to the right as promptly as if he had been on a
parade-ground.

"Oho! ye are apt scholars, gentlemen, and ye can learn, I see,"
continued Borroughcliffe. "I feel it to be proper that I detain these
men till to-morrow morning, Colonel Howard; and yet I would give them
better quarters than the hard benches of the guard-room."

"Act your pleasure. Captain Borroughcliffe," returned the host, "so you
do but your duty to our royal master. They shall not want for cheer, and
they can have a room over the servants' offices in the south side of the
abbey."

"Three rooms, my colonel, three rooms must be provided, though I give up
my own."

"There are several-small empty apartments there, where blankets might be
taken, and the men placed for safe-keeping, if you deem it necessary;
though, to me, they seem like good, loyal tars, whose greatest glory it
would be to serve their prince, and whose chief pleasure would consist
in getting alongside of a Don or a Monsieur."

"We shall discuss these matters anon," said Borroughcliffe, dryly. "I
see Miss Plowden begins to look grave at our abusing her patience so
long, and I know that cold coffee is, like withered love, but a
tasteless sort of a beverage. Come, gentlemen,
en avant!
you have
seen the Tuileries, and must have heard a little French. Mr. Christopher
Dillon, know you where these three small apartments are 'situate, lying,
and being,' as your parchments read?"

"I do, sir," said the complying lawyer, "and shall take much pleasure in
guiding you to them. I think your decision that of a prudent and
sagacious officer, and much doubt whether Durham Castle, or some other
fortress, will be thought too big to hold them, ere long."

As this speech was uttered while the men were passing from the room, its
effect on them was unnoticed; but Katherine Plowden, who was left for a
few moments by herself, sat and pondered over what she had seen and
heard, with a thoughtfulness of manner that was not usual to her gay and
buoyant spirits. The sounds of the retiring footsteps, however,
gradually grew fainter, and the return of her guardian alone recalled
the recollection of the young lady to the duties of her situation.

While engaged in the little offices of the tea-table, Katherine threw
many furtive glances at the veteran; but, although he seemed to be
musing, there was nothing austere or suspicious in his frank, open
countenance, "There is much useless trouble taken with these wandering
seamen, sir," said Katherine, at length; "it seems to be the particular
province of Mr. Christopher Dillon to make all that come in contact with
him excessively uncomfortable."

"And what has Kit to do with the detention of the men?"

"What! why, has he not undertaken to stand godfather to their prisons?—
by a woman's patience, I think, Colonel Howard, this business will gain
a pretty addition to the names of St. Ruth. It is already called a
house, an abbey, a place, and by some a castle; let Mr. Dillon have his
way for a month, and it will add jail to the number."

"Kit is not so happy as to possess the favor of Miss Plowden; but still
Kit is a worthy fellow, and a good fellow, and a sensible fellow; ay!
and what is of more value than all these put together, Miss Katherine,
Mr. Christopher Dillon is a faithful and loyal subject to his prince.
His mother was my cousin-german, madam, and I cannot say how soon I may
call him my nephew. The Dillons are of good Irish extraction, and I
believe that even Miss Plowden will admit that the Howards have some
pretensions to a name."

"Ah! it is those very things called names that I most allude to," said
Katherine, quickly, "But an hour since you were indignant, my dear
guardian, because you suspected that I insinuated you ought to write
jailer behind the name of Howard, and even now you submit to have the
office palmed upon you."

"You forget, Miss Katherine Plowden, that it is the pleasure of one of
his majesty's officers to detain these men."

"But I thought that the glorious British constitution, which you so
often mention," interrupted the young lady, spiritedly, "gives liberty
to all who touch these blessed shores; you know, sir, that out of twenty
blacks that you brought with you, how few remain; the rest having fled
on the wings of the spirit of British liberty!"

This was touching a festering sore in the colonel's feelings, and his
provoking ward well knew the effects her observation was likely to
produce. Her guardian did not break forth in a violent burst of rage, or
furnish those manifestations of his ire that he was wont to do on less
important subjects; but he arose, with all his dignity concentred in a
look, and, after making a violent effort to restrain his feelings within
the bounds necessary to preserve the decorum of his exit, he ventured a
reply:

"That the British constitution is glorious, madam, is most true. That
this island is the sole refuge where liberty has been able to find a
home, is also true. The tyranny and oppression of the Congress, which
are grinding down the colonies to the powder of desolation and poverty,
are not worthy the sacred name. Rebellion pollutes all that it touches,
madam. Although it often commences under the sanction of holy liberty,
it ever terminates in despotism. The annals of the world, from the time
of the Greeks and Romans down to the present day, abundantly prove it.
There was that Julius Caesar—he was one of your people's men, and he
ended a tyrant. Oliver Cromwell was another—a rebel, a demagogue, and a
tyrant. The gradations, madam, are as inevitable as from childhood to
youth, and from youth to age. As for the little affair that you have
been pleased to mention, of the—of the—of my private concerns, I can
only say that the affairs of nations are not to be judged of by domestic
incidents, any more than domestic occurrences are to be judged of by
national politics." The colonel, like many a better logician, mistook
his antithesis for argument, and paused a moment to admire his own
eloquence; but the current of his thoughts, which always flowed in
torrents on this subject, swept him along in its course, and he
continued: "Yes, madam, here, and here alone, is true liberty to be
found. With this solemn asseveration, which is not lightly made, but
which is the result of sixty years' experience, I leave you. Miss
Plowden; let it be a subject of deep reflection with you, for I too well
understand your treacherous feelings not to know that your political
errors encourage your personal foibles; reflect, for your own sake, if
you love not only your own happiness, but your respectability and
standing in the world. As for the black hounds that you spoke of, they
are a set of rebellious, mutinous, ungrateful rascals; and if ever I
meet one of the damned—"

The colonel had so far controlled his feelings, as to leave the presence
of the lady before he broke out into the bitter invectives we have
recorded, and Katherine stood a minute, pressing her forefinger on her
lips, listening to his voice as it grumbled along the gallery, until the
sounds were finally excluded by the closing of a distant door. The
willful girl then shook her dark locks, and a smile of arch mischief
blended with an expression of regret in her countenance, as she spoke to
herself, while with hurried hands she threw her tea equipage aside in a
confused pile:

"It was perhaps a cruel experiment, but it has succeeded. Though
prisoners ourselves, we are at least left free for the remainder of this
night. These mysterious sailors must be examined more closely. If the
proud eye of Edward Griffith was not glaring under the black wig of one
of them, I am no judge of features; and where has Master Barnstable
concealed his charming visage? for neither of the others could be he.
But now for Cecilia."

Her light form glided from the room, while she was yet speaking; and
flitting along the dimly lighted passages, it disappeared in one of
those turnings that led to the more secret apartments of the abbey.

"How! Lucia, wouldst them have me sink away
In pleasing dreams, and lose myself in love?"
Cato
.

The reader must not imagine that the world stood still during the
occurrence of the scenes we have related. By the time the three seamen
were placed in as many different rooms, and a sentinel was stationed in
the gallery common to them all, in such a manner as to keep an eye on
his whole charge at once, the hour had run deep into the night. Captain
Borroughcliffe obeyed a summons from the colonel, who made him an
evasive apology for the change in their evening's amusement, and
challenged his guest to a renewal of the attack on the Madeira. This was
too grateful a theme to be lightly discussed by the captain; and the
abbey clock had given forth as many of its mournful remonstrances as the
division of the hours would permit, before they separated. In the mean
time, Mr. Dillon became invisible; though a servant, when questioned by
the host on the subject, announced that "he believed Mr. Christopher had
chosen to ride over to—, to be in readiness to join the hunt, on the
morning, with the dawn." While the gentlemen were thus indulging
themselves in the dining-parlor, and laughing over the tales of other
times and hard campaigns, two very different scenes occurred in other
parts of the building.

When the quiet of the abbey was only interrupted by the howling of the
wind, or by the loud and prolonged laughs which echoed through the
passages from the joyous pair, who were thus comfortably established by
the side of the bottle, a door was gently opened on one of the galleries
of the "cloisters," and Katherine Plowden issued from it, wrapped in a
close mantle, and holding in her hand a chamber-lamp, which threw its
dim light faintly along the gloomy walls in front, leaving all behind
her obscured in darkness. She was, however, soon followed by two other
female figures, clad in the same manner, and provided with similar
lights. When all were in the gallery, Katherine drew the door softly to,
and proceeded in front to lead the way.