The Pilot (50 page)

"I bear no commission from any quarter," returned the Pilot; "I rank
only an humble follower of the friends of America; and having led these
gentlemen into danger, I have thought it my duty to see them extricated.
They are now safe; and the right to command all that hear me rests with
Mr. Griffith, who is commissioned by the Continental Congress for such
service."

When he had spoken, he fell back from the position he occupied in the
centre of the room, to one of its sides, where, leaning his body against
the wainscot, he stood a silent observer of what followed.

"It appears, then, that it is to you, degenerate son of a most worthy
father, that I must repeat my demand," continued the veteran. "By what
right is my dwelling thus rudely assailed? and why is my quiet and the
peace of those I protect so daringly violated?"

"I might answer you, Colonel Howard, by saying that it is according to
the laws of arms, or rather in retaliation for the thousand evils that
your English troops have inflicted between Maine and Georgia; but I wish
not to increase the unpleasant character of this scene, and I therefore
will tell you that our advantage shall be used with moderation. The
instant that our men can be collected, and our prisoners properly
secured, your dwelling shall be restored to your authority. We are no
freebooters, sir; and you will find it so after our departure. Captain
Manual, draw off your guard into the grounds, and make your dispositions
for a return march to our boats—let the boarders fall back, there! out
with ye! out with ye—tumble out, you boarders!"

The amicable order of the young lieutenant, which was delivered after
the stern, quick fashion of his profession, operated on the cluster of
dark figures that were grouped around the door like a charm; and as the
men whom Barnstable had led followed their shipmates into the courtyard,
the room was now left to such only as might be termed the gentlemen of
the invading party, and the family of Colonel Howard.

Barnstable had continued silent since his senior officer had assumed the
command, listening most attentively to each syllable that fell from
either side; but now that so few remained, and the time pressed, he
spoke again:

"If we are to take boat so soon, Mr. Griffith, it would be seemly that
due preparations should be made to receive the ladies, who are to honor
us with their presence; shall I take that duty on myself?"

The abrupt proposal produced a universal surprise in his hearers; though
the abashed and conscious expression of Katherine Plowden's features
sufficiently indicated that to her, at least, it was not altogether
unexpected. The long silence that succeeded the question was interrupted
by Colonel Howard.

"Ye are masters, gentlemen; help yourselves to whatever best suits your
inclinations. My dwelling, my goods, and my wards, are alike at your
disposal—or, perhaps Miss Alice here, good and kind Miss Alice
Dunscombe, may suit the taste of some among ye! Ah! Edward Griffith!
Edward Griffith! little did I ever—"

"Breathe not that name in levity again, thou scoffer, or even your years
may prove a feeble protection!" said a stern, startling voice from
behind. All eyes turned involuntarily at the unexpected sounds, and the
muscular form of the Pilot was seen resuming its attitude of repose
against the wall, though every fibre of his frame was working with
suppressed passion.

When the astonished looks of Griffith ceased to dwell on this
extraordinary exhibition of interest in his companion, they were turned
imploringly towards the fair cousins, who still occupied the distant
corner, whither fear had impelled them.

"I have said that we are not midnight marauders, Colonel Howard," he
replied: "but if any there be here, who will deign to commit themselves
to our keeping, I trust it will not be necessary to say, at this hour,
what will be their reception."

"We have not time for unnecessary compliments," cried the impatient
Barnstable; "here is Merry, who, by years and blood, is a suitable
assistant for them, in arranging their little baggage—what say you,
urchin, can you play the lady's maid on emergency?"

"Ay, sir, and better than I acted the peddler boy," cried the gay
youngster; "to have my merry cousin Kate and my good cousin Cicely for
shipmates, I could play our common grandmother! Come, coz, let us be
moving; you will have to allow a little leeway in time, for my
awkwardness."

"Stand back, young man," said Miss Howard, repulsing his familiar
attempt to take her arm; and then advancing, with a maidenly dignity,
nigher to her guardian, she continued, "I cannot know what stipulations
have been agreed to by my cousin Plowden, in the secret treaty she has
made this night with Mr. Barnstable: this for myself, Colonel Howard, I
would have you credit your brother's child when she says, that to her,
the events of the hour have not been more unexpected than to yourself."

The veteran gazed at her, for a moment, with an expression of his eye
that denoted reviving tenderness; but gloomy doubts appeared to cross
his mind again, and he shook his head, as he walked proudly away.

"Nay, then," added Cecilia, her head dropping meekly on her bosom, "I
may be discredited by my uncle, but I cannot be disgraced without some
act of my own."

She slowly raised her mild countenance again, and bending her eyes on
her lover, she continued, while a rich rush of blood passed over her
fine features:

"Edward Griffith, I will not, I cannot say how humiliating it is to
think that you can, for an instant, believe I would again forget myself
so much as to wish to desert him whom God has given me for a protector,
for one chosen by my own erring passions. And you, Andrew Merry! Learn
to respect the child of your mother's sister, if not for her own sake,
at least for that of her who watched your cradle!"

"Here appears to be some mistake." said Barnstable, who participated,
however, in no trifling degree, in the embarrassment of the abashed boy;
"but, like all other mistakes on such subjects, it can be explained
away, I suppose. Mr. Griffith, it remains for you to speak—damn it,
man," he whispered, "you are as dumb as a codfish—I am sure so fine a
woman is worth a little fair-weather talk:—you are muter than a four-
footed beast—even an ass can bray!"

"We will hasten our departure, Mr. Barnstable," said Griffith, sighing
heavily, and rousing himself, as if from a trance. "These rude sights
cannot but appall the ladies. You will please, sir, to direct the order
of our march to the shore. Captain Manual has charge of our prisoners,
who must all be secured, to answer for an equal number of our own
countrymen."

"And our countrywomen!" said Barnstable, "are they to be forgotten, in
the selfish recollection of our own security?"

"With them we have no right to interfere, unless at their request."

"By heaven! Mr. Griffith, this may smack of learning," cried the other,
"and it may plead bookish authority as its precedent; but let me tell
you, sir, it savors but little of a sailor's love."

"Is it unworthy of a seaman, and a gentleman, to permit the woman he
calls his mistress to be so, other than in name?"

"Well, then, Griff, I pity you, from my soul. I would rather have had a
sharp struggle for the happiness that I shall now obtain so easily, than
that you should be thus cruelly disappointed. But you cannot blame me,
my friend, that I avail myself of fortune's favor. Miss Plowden, your
fair hand. Colonel Howard, I return you a thousand thanks for the care
you have taken, hitherto, of this precious charge; and believe me, sir,
that I speak frankly, when I say, that, next to myself, I should choose
to entrust her with you in preference to any man on earth."

The colonel turned to the speaker, and bowed low, while he answered with
grave courtesy:

"Sir, you repay my slight services with too much gratitude. If Miss
Katherine Plowden has not become under my guardianship all that her good
father, Captain John Plowden, of the Royal Navy, could have wished a
daughter of his to be, the fault, unquestionably, is to be attributed to
my inability to instruct, and to no inherent quality in the young lady
herself. I will not say, Take her, sir, since you have her in your
possession already, and it would be out of my power to alter the
arrangement; therefore, I can only wish that you may find her as dutiful
as a wife as she has been, hitherto, as a ward and a subject."

Katherine had yielded her hand, passively, to her lover, and suffered
him to lead her more into the circle than she had before been; but now
she threw off his arm, and shaking aside the dark curls which she had
rather invited to fall in disorder around her brow, she raised her face
and looked proudly up, with an eye that sparkled with the spirit of its
mistress, and a face that grew pale with emotion at each moment, as she
proceeded:

"Gentlemen, the one may be as ready to receive as the other is to
reject; but has the daughter of John Plowden no voice in this cool
disposal of her person? If her guardian tires of her presence, other
habitations may be found, without inflicting so severe a penalty on this
gentleman as to compel him to provide for her accommodation in a vessel
which must be already straitened for room!"

She turned, and rejoined her cousin with such an air of maidenly
resentment as a young woman would be apt to discover, who found herself
the subject of matrimonial arrangement without her own feelings being at
all consulted. Barnstable, who knew but little of the windings of the
female heart, or how necessary to his mistress, notwithstanding her
previous declarations, the countenance of Cecilia, was to any decided
and open act in his favor, stood in stupid wonder at her declaration. He
could not conceive that a woman who had already ventured so much in
secret in his behalf, and who had so often avowed her weakness, should
shrink to declare it again at such a crisis, though the eyes of a
universe were on her! He looked from one of the party to the other, and
met in every face an expression of delicate reserve, except in those of
the guardian of his mistress, and of Borroughcliffe.

The colonel had given a glance of returning favor at her whom he now
conceived to be his repentant ward, while the countenance of the
entrapped captain exhibited a look of droll surprise, blended with the
expression of bitter ferocity it had manifested since the discovery of
his own mishap.

"Perhaps, sir," said Barnstable, addressing the latter, fiercely, "you
see something amusing about the person of this lady, to divert you thus
unseasonably. We tolerate no such treatment of our women in America!"

"Nor do we quarrel before ours in England," returned the soldier,
throwing back the fierce glance of the sailor with interest; "but I was
thinking of the revolutions that time can produce; nothing more, I do
assure you. It is not half an hour since I thought myself a most happy
fellow; secure in my plans for overreaching the scheme you had laid to
surprise me; and now I am as miserable a dog as wears a single
epaulette, and has no hope of seeing its fellow!"

"And in what manner, sir, can this sudden change apply to me?" asked
Katherine, with all her spirit.

"Certainly not to your perseverance in the project to assist my enemies,
madam," returned the soldier, with affected humility; "nor to your zeal
for their success, or your consummate coolness at the supper-table! But
I find it is time that I should be superannuated—I can no longer serve
my king with credit, and should take to serving my God, like all other
worn-out men of the world! My hearing is surely defective, or a paddock-
wall has a most magical effect in determining sounds!"

Katherine waited not to hear the close of this sentence, but walked to a
distant part of the room to conceal the burning blushes that covered her
countenance. The manner in which the plans of Barnstable had become
known to his foe was no longer a mystery. Her conscience also reproached
her a little with some unnecessary coquetry, as she remembered that
quite one-half of the dialogue between her lover and herself, under the
shadow of that very wall to which Borroughcliffe alluded, had been on a
subject altogether foreign to contention and tumults. As the feelings of
Barnstable were by no means so sensitive as those of his mistress, and
his thoughts much occupied with the means of attaining his object, he
did not so readily comprehend the indirect allusion of the soldier, but
turned abruptly away to Griffith, and observed with a serious air:

"I feel it my duty, Mr. Griffith, to suggest that we have standing
instructions to secure all the enemies of America, wherever they may be
found, and to remind you that the States have not hesitated to make
prisoners of females in many instances."

"Bravo!" cried Borroughcliffe; "if the ladies will not go as your
mistresses, take them as your captives!"

"'Tis well for you, sir, that you are a captive yourself, or you should
be made to answer for this speech," retorted the irritated Barnstable.
"It is a responsible command, Mr. Griffith, and must not be
disregarded."

"To your duty, Mr. Barnstable," said Griffith, again rousing from deep
abstraction; "you have your orders, sir; let them be executed promptly."

"I have also the orders of our common superior, Captain Munson, Mr.
Griffith; and I do assure you, sir, that in making out my instructions
for the Ariel—poor thing! there are no two of her timbers hanging
together—but my instructions were decidedly particular on that head."

"And my orders now supersede them."

"But am I justifiable in obeying a verbal order from an inferior, in
direct opposition to a written instruction?"

Griffith had hitherto manifested in his deportment nothing more than a
cold determination to act, but the blood now flew to every vessel in his
cheeks and forehead, and his dark eyes flashed fire, as he cried
authoritatively: