The Pilot (55 page)

"It would have been far pleasanter, sir, if I had met an opportunity of
returning to Captain Borroughcliffe some of the favors that I have
received at his hands."

"Nay, then, dear sir, you weigh my modesty to the earth! Surely you
forget the manner in which my hospitality has already been requited—by
some two hours mouthing of my sword-hilt; with a very unceremonious
ricochet into a corner; together with a love-tap received over the
shoulders of one of my men, by so gentle an instrument as the butt of a
musket! Damme, sir, but I think an ungrateful man only a better sort of
beast!"

"Had the love-tap been given to the officer instead of the man,"
returned Manual, with all commendable coolness, "it would have been
better justice; and the ramrod might have answered as well as the butt,
to floor a gentleman who carried the allowance of four thirsty fiddlers
under one man's jacket."

"Now, that is rank ingratitude to your own cordial of the south side,
and a most biting insult! I really see but one way of terminating this
wordy war, which, if not discreetly ended, may lead us far into the
morning."

"Elect your own manner of determining the dispute, sir; I hope, however,
it will not be by your innate knowledge of mankind, which has already
mistaken a captain of marines in the service of Congress, for a runaway
lover, bound to some green place or other."

"You might just as well tweak my nose, sir!" said Borroughcliffe.
"Indeed, I think it would be the milder reproach of the two! will you
make your selection of these, sir? They were loaded for a very different
sort of service, but I doubt not will answer on occasion."

"I am provided with a pair, that are charged for any service," returned
Manual, drawing a pistol from his own belt, and stepping backward a few
paces.

"You are destined for America, I know," said Borroughcliffe, who stood
his ground with consummate coolness; "but it would be more convenient
for me, sir, if you could delay your march for a single moment."

"Fire and defend yourself!" exclaimed Manual, furiously, retracing his
steps towards his enemy.

The sounds of the two pistols were blended in one report, and the
soldiers of Borroughcliffe and the marines all rushed to the place on
the sudden alarm. Had the former been provided with arms, it is probable
that a bloody fray would have been the consequence of the sight that
both parties be held on arriving at the spot, which they did
simultaneously. Manual lay on his back, without any signs of life, and
Borroughcliffe had changed his cool, haughty, upright attitude for a
recumbent posture, which was somewhat between lying and sitting.

"Is the poor fellow actually expended?" said the Englishman, in
something like the tones of regret; "well, he had a soldier's mettle in
him, and was nearly as great a fool as myself!"

The marines had, luckily for the soldiers and their captain, by this
time discovered the signs of life in their own commander, who had been
only slightly stunned by the bullet, which had grazed his crown, and
who, being assisted on his feet, stood a minute or two rubbing his head,
as if awaking from a dream. As Manual came gradually to his senses, he
recollected the business in which he had just been engaged, and, in his
turn, inquired after the fate of his antagonist.

"I am here, my worthy incognito," cried the other, with the voice of
perfect good nature; "lying in the lap of mother earth, and all the
better for opening a vein or two in my right leg;—though I do think that
the same effect might have been produced without treating the bone so
roughly!—But I opine that I saw you also reclining on the bosom of our
common ancestor."

"I was down for a few minutes, I do believe," returned Manual; "there is
the path of a bullet across my scalp."

"Humph! on the head!" said Borroughcliffe, dryly; "the hurt is not
likely to be mortal, I see.—Well, I shall offer to raffle with the
first poor devil I can find that has but one good leg, for who shall
have both; and that will just set up a beggar and a gentleman!—Manual,
give me your hand; we have drunk together, and we have fought; surely
there is nothing now to prevent our being sworn friends."

"Why," returned Manual, continuing to rub his head, "I see no
irremovable objections—but you will want a surgeon? Can I order
anything to be done? There go the signals again to embark—march the
fellows down at quick time, sergeant; my own man may remain with me, or,
I can do altogether without assistance."

"Ah! you are what I call a well-made man, my dear friend!" exclaimed
Borroughcliffe; "no weak points about your fortress! Such a man is
worthy to be the
head
of a whole corps, instead of a solitary
company.—Gently, Drill, gently; handle me as if I were made of potter's
clay.—I will not detain you longer, my friend Manual, for I hear signal
after signal; they must be in want of some of your astonishing reasoning
faculties to set them afloat."

Manual might have been offended at the palpable allusions that his new
friend made to the firmness of his occiput, had not his perception of
things been a little confused by a humming sound that seemed to abide
near the region of thought. As it was, he reciprocated the good wishes
of the other, whom he shook most cordially by the hand, and once more
renewed his offers of service, after exchanging sundry friendly
speeches.

"I thank you quite as much as if I were not at all indebted to you for
letting blood, thereby saving me a fit of apoplexy; but Drill has
already dispatched a messenger to B— for a leech, and the lad may
bring the whole depot down upon you.—Adieu, once more, and remember
that if you ever visit England again as a friend, you are to let me see
you."

"I shall do it without fail; and I shall keep you to your promise if you
once more put foot in America."

"Trust me for that: I shall stand in need of your excellent head to
guide me safely among those rude foresters. Adieu; cease not to bear me
in your thoughts."

"I shall never cease to remember you, my good friend," returned Manual,
again scratching the member which was snapping in a manner that caused
him to fancy he heard it. Once more these worthies shook each other by
the hand, and again they renewed their promises of future intercourse;
after which they separated like two reluctant lovers—parting in a
manner that would have put to shame the friendship of Orestes and
Pylades.

"Nay, answer me: stand and unfold yourself."
Hamlet
.

During the time occupied by the incidents that occurred after the Pilot
had made his descent on the land, the Alacrity, now under the orders of
Mr. Boltrope, the master of the frigate, lay off and on, in readiness to
receive the successful mariners. The direction of the wind had been
gradually changing from the northeast to the south, during the close of
the day; and long before the middle watches of the night, the wary old
seaman, who, it may be remembered, had expressed, in the council of war,
such a determined reluctance to trust his person within the realm of
Britain, ordered the man who steered the cutter to stand in boldly for
the land. Whenever the lead told them that it was prudent to tack, the
course of the vessel was changed: and in this manner the seamen
continued to employ the hours in patient attendance on the adventurers.
The sailing-master, who had spent the early years of his life as the
commander of divers vessels employed in trading, was apt, like many men
of his vocation and origin, to mistake the absence of refinement for the
surest evidence of seamanship; and, consequently, he held the little
courtesies and punctilios of a man-of-war in high disdain. His peculiar
duties of superintending the expenditure of the ship's stores, in their
several departments; of keeping the frigate's log-book; and of making
his daily examinations into the state of her sails and rigging—brought
him so little in collision with the gay, laughing, reckless young
lieutenants, who superintended the ordinary management of the vessel,
that he might be said to have formed a distinct species of the animal,
though certainly of the same genus with his more polished messmates.
Whenever circumstances, however, required that he should depart from the
dull routine of his duty, he made it a rule, as far as possible, to
associate himself with such of the crew as possessed habits and opinions
the least at variance with his own.

By a singular fatality, the chaplain of the frigate was, as respects
associates, in a condition nearly assimilated to that of this veteran
tar.

An earnest desire to ameliorate the situation of those who were doomed
to meet death on the great deep had induced an experienced and simple-
hearted divine to accept this station, in the fond hope that he might be
made the favored instrument of salvation to many, who were then existing
in a state of the most abandoned self-forgetfulness. Neither our limits,
nor our present object, will permit the relation of the many causes that
led, not only to an entire frustration of all his visionary
expectations, but to an issue which rendered the struggle of the good
divine with himself both arduous and ominous, in order to maintain his
own claims to the merited distinctions of his sacred office. The
consciousness of his backsliding had so far lessened the earthly, if not
the spiritual, pride of the chaplain, as to induce him to relish the
society of the rude master, whose years had brought him, at times, to
take certain views of futurity that were singularly affected by the
peculiar character of the individual. It might have been that both found
themselves out of their places—but it was owing to some such secret
sympathy, let its origin be what it would, that the two came to be fond
of each other's company. On the night in question, Mr. Boltrope had
invited the chaplain to accompany him in the Alacrity; adding, in his
broad, rough language, that as there was to be fighting on shore, "his
hand might come in play with some poor fellow or other." This singular
invitation had been accepted, as well from a desire to relieve the
monotony of a sea-life by any change, as perhaps with a secret yearning
in the breast of the troubled divine to get as nigh to terra firma as
possible. Accordingly, after the Pilot had landed with his boisterous
party, the sailing-master and the chaplain, together with a boatswain's
mate and some ten or twelve seamen, were left in quiet possession of the
cutter. The first few hours of this peaceable intercourse had been spent
by the worthy messmates, in the little cabin of the vessel, over a can
of grog; the savory relish of which was much increased by a
characteristic disquisition on polemical subjects, which our readers
have great reason to regret it is not our present humor to record. When,
however, the winds invited the near approach to the hostile shores
already mentioned, the prudent sailing-master adjourned the discussion
to another and more suitable time, removing himself and the can, by the
same operation, to the quarter-deck.

"There," cried the honest tar, placing the wooden vessel, with great
self-contentment, by his side on the deck, "this is ship's comfort!
There is a good deal of what I call a lubber's fuss, parson, kept up on
board a ship that shall be nameless, but which bears, about three
leagues distant, broad off in the ocean, and which is lying to under a
close-reefed maintopsail, a foretopmast-staysail, and foresail—I call
my hand a true one in mixing a can—take another pull at the halyards!—
'twill make your eye twinkle like a lighthouse, this dark morning! You
won't? well, we must give no offence to the Englishman's rum."—After a
potent draught had succeeded this considerate declaration, he added:
"You are a little like our first lieutenant, parson, who drinks, as I
call it, nothing but the elements—which is, water stiffened with air."

"Mr. Griffith may indeed be said to set a wholesome example to the
crew," returned the chaplain, perhaps with a slight consciousness that
it had not altogether possessed its due weight with himself.

"Wholesome!" cried Boltrope; "let me tell you, my worthy leaf-turner,
that if you call such a light diet wholesome, you know but little of
salt water and sea-fogs! However, Mr. Griffith is a seaman; and if he
gave his mind less to trifles and gimcracks, he would be, by the time he
got to about our years, a very rational sort of a companion.—But you
see, parson, just now, he thinks too much of small follies; such as man-
of-war discipline.—Now there is rationality in giving a fresh nip to a
rope, or in looking well at your mats, or even in crowning a cable; but
damme, priest, if I see the use—luff, luff, you lubber; don't ye see,
sir, you are steering for Garmany!—If I see the use, as I was saying,
of making a rumpus about the time when a man changes his shirt; whether
it be this week, or next week, or, for that matter, the week after,
provided it be bad weather. I sometimes am mawkish about attending
muster (and I believe I have as little to fear on the score of behavior
as any man), lest it should be found I carried my tobacco in the wrong
cheek!"

"I have indeed thought it somewhat troublesome to myself, at times; and
it is in a striking degree vexatious to the spirit, especially when the
body has been suffering under seasickness."

"Why, yes, you were a little apt to bend your duds wrong for the first
month or so," said the master; "I remember you got the marine's scraper
on your head, once, in your hurry to bury a dead man! Then you never
looked as if you belonged to the ship, so long as those cursed black
knee-breeches lasted! For my part, I never saw you come up the quarter-
deck ladder, but I expected to see your shins give way across the
combing of the hatch—a man does look like the devil, priest, scudding
about a ship's decks in that fashion, under bare poles! But now the
tailor has found out the articles ar'n't seaworthy, and we have got your
lower stanchions cased in a pair of purser's slops, I am puzzled often
to tell your heels from those of a maintopman!"