The Pilot (26 page)

"Buy another plaster," said Borroughcliffe, slipping a shilling into his
hand; "observe, you know nothing but your duty."

"Which is, your honor—"

"To mind me, and be silent. But here comes the sergeant with his guard:
he will relieve you."

The rest of the party stopped at the other end of the gallery, to allow
the few files of soldiers who were led by the orderly to pass them, when
they all moved towards the prison in a body. The sentinel was relieved
in due military style; when Dillon placed his hand on one of the doors,
and said, with a malicious sneer:

"Open here first, Mr. Sergeant; this cage holds the man we most want."

"Softly, softly, my Lord Chief Justice, and most puissant Cacique," said
the captain; "the hour has not yet come to empanel a jury of fat yeomen,
and no man must interfere with my boys but myself."

"The rebuke is harsh, I must observe, Captain Borroughcliffe," said the
colonel, "but I pardon it because it is military. No, no, Kit these nice
points must be left to martial usages. Be not impatient, my cousin; I
doubt not the hour will come, when you shall hold the scales of justice
and satisfy your loyal longings on many a traitor. Zounds! I could
almost turn executioner myself in such a cause!"

"I can curb my impatience, sir," returned Dillon, with hypocritical
meekness, and great self-command, though his eyes were gleaming with
savage exultation. "I beg pardon of Captain Borroughcliffe, if, in my
desire to render the civil authority superior to the military, I have
trespassed on your customs."

"You see, Borroughcliffe!" exclaimed the colonel, exultingly, "the lad
is ruled by an instinct in all matters of law and justice. I hold it to
be impossible that a man thus endowed can ever become a disloyal
subject. But our breakfast waits, and Mr. Fitzgerald has breathed his
horse this cool morning; let us proceed at once to the examination."

Borroughcliffe motioned to the sergeant to open the door, when the whole
party entered the vacant room.

"Your prisoner has escaped!" cried the cornet, after a single moment
employed in making sure of the fact.

"Never! it must not, shall not be!" cried Dillon, quivering with rage,
as he glanced his eyes furiously around the apartment; "here has been
treachery! and foul treason to the king!"

"By whom committed, Mr. Christopher Dillon?" said Borroughcliffe,
knitting his brow, and speaking in a suppressed tone: "dare you, or any
man living, charge treason to the —th!"

A very different feeling from rage appeared now to increase the
shivering propensities of the future judge, who at once perceived it was
necessary to moderate his passion; and he returned, as it were by magic,
to his former plausible and insinuating manner, as he replied:

"Colonel Howard will understand the cause of my warm feelings, when I
tell him that this very room contained, last night, that disgrace to his
name and country, as well as traitor to his king, Edward Griffith, of
the rebel navy."

"What!" exclaimed the colonel, starting, "has that recreant youth dared
to pollute the threshold of St. Ruth with his footstep? but you dream,
Kit; there would be too much hardihood in the act."

"It appears not, sir," returned the other; "for though in this very
apartment he most certainly was, he is here no longer. And yet from this
window, though open, escape would seem to be impossible, even with much
assistance."

"If I thought that the contumelious boy had dared to be guilty of such
an act of gross impudence," cried the colonel, "I should be tempted to
resume my arms, in my old age, to punish his effrontery. What! is it not
enough that he entered my dwelling in the colony, availing himself of
the distraction of the times, with an intent to rob me of my choicest
jewel—ay! gentlemen, even of my brother Harry's daughter—but that he
must also invade this hallowed island with a like purpose, thus
thrusting his treason, as it were, into the presence of his abused
prince! No, no, Kit, thy loyalty misleads thee; he has never dared to do
the deed!"

"Listen, sir, and you shall be convinced," returned the pliant
Christopher, "I do not wonder at your unbelief; but as a good testimony
is the soul of justice, I cannot resist its influence. You know, that
two vessels, corresponding in appearance to the two rebel cruisers that
annoyed us so much in the Carolinas, have been seen on the coast for
several days, which induced us to beg the protection of Captain
Borroughcliffe. Three men are found, the day succeeding that on which we
hear that these vessels came within the shoals, stealing through the
grounds of St. Ruth, in sailors' attire. They are arrested, and in the
voice of one of them, sir, I immediately detected that of the traitor
Griffith. He was disguised, it is true, and cunningly so; but when a man
has devoted his whole life to the business of investigating truth," he
added, with an air of much modesty, "it is difficult to palm any
disguise on his senses,"

Colonel Howard was strongly impressed with the probability of these
conjectures, and the closing appeal confirmed him immediately in his
kinsman's opinion, while Borroughcliffe listened with deep interest to
the speakers, and more than once bit his lip with vexation. When Dillon
concluded, the soldier exclaimed:

"I'll swear there was a man among them who has been used to the drill."

"Nothing more probable, my worthy friend," said Dillon; "for as the
landing was never made without some evil purpose, rely on it, he came
not unguarded or unprotected. I dare say, the three were all officers,
and one of them might have been of the marines. That they had assistance
is certain, and it was because I felt assured they had a force secreted
at hand, that I went in quest of the reinforcement."

There was so much plausibility, and, in fact, so much truth in all this,
that conviction was unwillingly admitted by Borroughcliffe, who walked
aside a moment to conceal the confusion which, in spite of his ordinary
inflexibility of countenance, he felt was manifesting itself in his
rubric visage, while he muttered:

"The amphibious dog! he was a soldier, but a traitor and an enemy. No
doubt he will have a marvelous satisfaction in delighting the rebellious
ears of his messmates, by rehearsing the manner in which he poured cold
water down the back of one Borroughcliffe, of the —th, who was amusing
him, at the same time, by pouring good, rich, south-side Madeira down
his own rebellious throat. I have a good mind to exchange my scarlet
coat for a blue jacket, on purpose to meet the sly rascal on the other
element, where we can discuss the matter over again. Well, sergeant, do
you find the other two?"

"They are gone together, your honor," returned the orderly, who just
then re-entered from an examination of the other apartments; "and unless
the evil one helped them off, it's a mysterious business to me."

"Colonel Howard," said Borroughcliffe, gravely, "your precious south-
side cordial must be banished from the board, regularly with the cloth,
until I have my revenge; for satisfaction of this insult is mine to
claim, and I seek it this instant Go, Drill; detail a guard for the
protection of the house, and feed the rest of your command, then beat
the general, and we will take the field. Ay! my worthy veteran host, for
the first time since the days of the unlucky Charles Stuart, there shall
be a campaign in the heart of England."

"Ah! rebellion, rebellion! accursed, unnatural, unholy rebellion, caused
the calamity then and now!" exclaimed the colonel.

"Had I not better take a hasty refreshment for my men and their horses?"
asked the cornet; "and then make a sweep for a few miles along the
coast?" It may be my luck to encounter the fugitives, or some part of
their force."

"You have anticipated my very thoughts," returned Borroughcliffe. "The
Cacique of Pedee may close the gates of St. Ruth, and, by barring the
windows, and arming the servants, he can make a very good defence
against an attack, should they think proper to assail our fortress;
after he has repulsed them, leave it to me to cut off their retreat."

Dillon but little relished this proposal; for he thought an attempt to
storm the abbey would be the most probable course adopted by Griffith,
in order to rescue his mistress; and the jurist had none of the spirit
of a soldier in his composition. In truth, it was this deficiency that
had induced him to depart in person, the preceding night, in quest of
the reinforcement, instead of sending an express on the errand, But the
necessity of devising an excuse for a change in this dangerous
arrangement was obviated by Colonel Howard, who exclaimed, as soon as
Borroughcliffe concluded his plan:

"To me, Captain Borroughcliffe, belongs, of right, the duty of defending
St. Ruth, and it shall be no boy's play to force my works; but Kit would
rather try his chance in the open field, I know, Come, let us to our
breakfast, and then he shall mount, and act as a guide to the horse,
along the difficult passes of the seashore."

"To breakfast then let it be," cried the captain; "I distrust not my new
commander of the fortress; and in the field the Cacique forever! We
follow you, my worthy host."

This arrangement was hastily executed in all its parts. The gentlemen
swallowed their meal in the manner of men who ate only to sustain
nature, and as a duty; after which the whole house became a scene of
bustling activity. The troops were mustered and paraded; Borroughcliffe,
setting apart a guard for the building, placed himself at the head of
the remainder of his little party, and they moved out of the courtyard
in open order, and at quick time. Dillon joyfully beheld himself mounted
on one of the best of Colonel Howard's hunters, where he knew that he
had the control, in a great measure, of his own destiny; his bosom
throbbing with a powerful desire to destroy Griffith, while he
entertained a lively wish to effect his object without incurring any
personal risk. At his side was the young cornet, seated with practised
grace in his saddle, who, after giving time for the party of foot-
soldiers to clear the premises, glanced his eye along the few files he
led, and then gave the word to move. The little division of horse
wheeled briskly into open column, and the officer touching his cap to
Colonel Howard, they dashed through the gateway together, and pursued
their route towards the seaside at a hand-gallop.

The veteran lingered a few minutes, while the clattering of hoofs was to
be heard, or the gleam of arms was visible, to hear and gaze at sounds
and sights that he still loved; after which, he proceeded, in person,
and not without a secret enjoyment of the excitement, to barricade the
doors and windows, with an undaunted determination of making, in case of
need, a stout defence.

St. Ruth lay but a short two miles from the ocean; to which numerous
roads led, through the grounds of the abbey, which extended to the
shore. Along one of these paths Dillon conducted his party, until, after
a few minutes of hard riding, they approached the cliffs, when, posting
his troopers under cover of a little copse, the cornet rode in advance
with his guide, to the verge of the perpendicular rocks, whose bases
were washed by the foam that still whitened the waters from the surges
of the subsiding sea.

The gale had broken before the escape of the prisoners; and as the power
of the eastern tempest had gradually diminished, a light current from
the south, that blew directly along the land, prevailed; and, though the
ocean still rolled in fearful billows, their surfaces were smooth, and
they were becoming, at each moment, less precipitous and more regular.
The eyes of the horsemen were cast in vain over the immense expanse of
water that was glistening brightly under the rays of the sun, which had
just risen from its bosom, in quest of some object or distant sail that
might confirm their suspicions, or relieve their doubts. But everything
of that description appeared to have avoided the dangerous navigation
during the violence of the late tempest, and Dillon, was withdrawing his
eyes in disappointment from the vacant view, when, as they fell towards
the shore, he beheld that which caused him to exclaim:

"There they go! and, by heaven, they will escape!"

The cornet looked in the direction of the other's finger, when he
beheld, at a short distance from the land, and apparently immediately
under his feet, a little boat that looked like a dark shell upon the
water, rising and sinking amid the waves, as if the men it obviously
contained were resting on their oars in idle expectation.

"'Tis they!" continued Dillon; "or, what is more probable, it is their
boat waiting to convey them to their vessel; no common business would
induce seamen to lie in this careless manner, within such a narrow
distance of the surf."

"And what is to be done? They cannot be made to feel horse where they
are; nor would the muskets of the foot be of any use. A light three-
pounder would do its work handsomely on them!"

The strong desire which Dillon entertained to intercept, or rather to
destroy, the party, rendered him prompt at expedients. After a moment of
musing, he replied:

"The runaways must yet be on the land; and by scouring the coast, and
posting men at proper intervals, their retreat can easily be prevented;
in the mean time I will ride under the spur to—bay, where one of his
majesty's cutters now lies at anchor. It is but half an hour of hard
riding, and I can be on board of her. The wind blows directly in her
favor; and if we can once bring her down behind that headland, we shall
infallibly cut off or sink these midnight depredators."

"Off, then!" cried the cornet, whose young blood was boiling for a
skirmish; "you will at least drive them to the shore, where I can deal
with them."

The words were hardly uttered, before Dillon, after galloping furiously
along the cliffs, and turning short into a thick wood that lay in his
route, was out of sight. The loyalty of this gentleman was altogether of
a calculating nature, and was intimately connected with what he
considered his fealty to himself. He believed that the possession of
Miss Howard's person and fortune were advantages that would much more
than counterbalance any elevation that he was likely to obtain by the
revolution of affairs in his native colony. He considered Griffith as
the only natural obstacle to his success; and he urged his horse forward
with a desperate determination to work the ruin of the young sailor
before another sun had set. When a man labors in an evil cause, with
such feelings, and with such incentives, he seldom slights or neglects
his work; and Mr. Dillon, accordingly, was on board the Alacrity several
minutes short of the time in which he had promised to perform the
distance.