The Pilot (62 page)

When the necessary orders had been given, and the vessels were fully
prepared, they were once more brought up to the wind, and their heads
pointed in the direction of the coast of Holland. The wind, which
freshened towards the decline of the day, hauled round with the sun; and
when that luminary retreated from the eye, so rapid had been the
progress of the mariners, it seemed to sink in the bosom of the ocean,
the land having long before settled into its watery bed. All night the
frigate continued to dash through the seas with a sort of sullen
silence, that was soothing to the melancholy of Cecilia and Katherine,
neither of whom closed an eye during that gloomy period. In addition to
the scene they had witnessed, their feelings were harrowed by the
knowledge that, in conformity to the necessary plans of Griffith, and in
compliance with the new duties he had assumed, they were to separate in
the morning for an indefinite period, and possibly forever.

With the appearance of light, the boatswain sent his rough summons
through the vessel, and the crew were collected in solemn silence in her
gangways to "bury the dead." The bodies of Boltrope, of one or two of
her inferior officers, and of several common men who had died of their
wounds in the night, were, with the usual formalities, committed to the
deep; when the yards of the ship were again braced by the wind, and she
glided along the trackless waste, leaving no memorial, in the midst of
the ever-rolling waters, to mark the place of their sepulture.

When the sun had gained the meridian, the vessels were once more hove-
to, and the preparations were made for a final separation. The body of
Colonel Howard was transferred to the Alacrity, whither it was followed
by Griffith and his cheerless bride, while Katherine hung fondly from
the window of the ship, suffering her own scalding tears to mingle with
the brine of the ocean. After everything was arranged, Griffith waved
his hand to Barnstable, who had now succeeded to the command of the
frigate, and the yards of the latter were braced sharp to the wind, when
she proceeded to the dangerous experiment of forcing her way to the
shores of America, by attempting the pass of the Straits of Dover, and
running the gauntlet through the English ships that crowded their own
Channel; an undertaking, however, for which she had the successful
example of the Alliance frigate, which had borne the stars of America
along the same hazardous path but a few months previously.

In the mean while the Alacrity, steering more to the west drew in
swiftly towards the shores of Holland; and about an hour before the
setting of the sun had approached so nigh as to be once more hove into
the wind, in obedience to the mandate of Griffith. A small, light boat
was lowered into the sea, when the young sailor, and the Pilot, who had
found his way into the cutter unheeded, and almost unseen, ascended from
the small cabin together. The stranger glanced his eyes along the range
of coast, as if he would ascertain the exact position of the vessel, and
then turned them on the sea and the western horizon to scan the weather.
Finding nothing in the appearance of the latter to induce him to change
his determination, he offered his hand frankly to Griffith, and said:

"Here we part. As our acquaintance has not led to all we wished, let it
be your task, sir, to forget we ever met."

Griffith bowed respectfully, but in silence, when the other continued,
shaking his hand contemptuously towards the land:

"Had I but a moiety of the navy of that degenerate republic, the
proudest among those haughty islanders should tremble in his castle, and
be made to feel there is no security against a foe that trusts his own
strength and knows the weakness of his enemy! But," he muttered in a
lower and more hurried voice, "this has been like Liverpool, and—
Whitehaven—and Edinburgh, and fifty more! It is past, sir; let it be
forgotten."

Without heeding the wondering crew, who were collected as curious
spectators of his departure, the stranger bowed hastily to Griffith,
and, springing into the boat, he spread her light sails with the
readiness of one who had nothing to learn even in the smallest matters
of his daring profession. Once more, as the boat moved briskly away from
the cutter, he waved his hand in adieu; and Griffith fancied that even
through the distance he could trace a smile of bitter resignation
lighting his calm features with a momentary gleam. For a long time the
young man stood an abstracted gazer at his solitary progress, watching
the small boat as it glided towards the open ocean, nor did he remember
to order the head-sheets of the Alacrity drawn, in order to put the
vessel again in motion, until the dark speck was lost in the strong
glare that fell obliquely across the water from the setting sun.

Many wild and extraordinary conjectures were tittered among the crew of
the cutter, as she slowly drew in towards her friendly haven, on the
appearance of the mysterious Pilot, during their late hazardous visit to
the coast of Britain, and on his still more extraordinary disappearance,
as it were, amid the stormy wastes of the North Sea. Griffith himself
was not observed to smile, nor to manifest any evidence of his being a
listener to their rude discourse, until it was loudly announced that a
small boat was pressing for their own harbor, across the forefoot of the
cutter, under a single lug-sail. Then, indeed, the sudden and cheerful
lighting of his troubled eye betrayed the vast relief that was imparted
to his feelings by the interesting discovery.

"Come, all you kindred chieftains of the deep,
In mighty phalanx round your brother bend;
Hush every murmur that invades his sleep—
And guard the laurels that o'ershade your friend."
Lines on Tripp
.

Here, perhaps, it would be wise to suffer the curtain of our imperfect
drama to fall before the reader, trusting that the imagination of every
individual can readily supply the due proportions of health, wealth, and
happiness, that the rigid rules of poetic justice would award to the
different characters of the legend. But as we are not disposed to part
so coldly from those with whom we have long held amicable intercourse,
and as there is no portion of that in reservation which is not quite as
true as all that has been already related, we see no unanswerable reason
for dismissing the dramatis personae so abruptly. We shall, therefore,
proceed to state briefly the outlines of that which befell them in
after-life, regretting, at the same time, that the legitimate limits of
a modern tale will not admit of such dilatation of many a merry or
striking scene as might create the pleasing hope of beholding hereafter
some more of our rude sketches quickened into life by the spirited
pencil of Dunlap.

Following the course of the frigate, then, towards those shores from
which, perhaps, we should never have suffered our truant pen to have
wandered, we shall commence the brief task with Barnstable, and his
laughing, weeping, gay, but affectionate bride—the black-eyed
Katherine. The ship fought her way gallantly, through swarms of the
enemy's cruisers, to the port of Boston, where Barnstable was rewarded
for his services by promotion, and a more regular authority to command
his vessel.

During the remainder of the war, he continued to fill that station with
ability and zeal; nor did he return to the dwelling of his fathers,
which he soon inherited by regular descent, until after peace had
established not only the independence of his country, but his own
reputation as a brave and successful sea-officer. When the Federal
Government laid the foundation of its present navy, Captain Barnstable
was once more tempted by the offer of a new commission to desert his
home; and for many years he was employed among that band of gallant
seamen who served their country so faithfully in times of trial and high
daring. Happily, however, he was enabled to accomplish a great deal of
the more peaceful part of his service accompanied by Katherine, who,
having no children, eagerly profited by his consent to share his
privations and hardships on the ocean. In this manner they passed
merrily, and we trust happily down the vale of life together, Katherine
entirely discrediting the ironical prediction of her former guardian, by
making, everything considered, a very obedient, and certainly, so far as
attachment was concerned, a most devoted wife.

The boy Merry, who in due time became a man, clung to Barnstable and
Katherine, so long as it was necessary to hold him in leading-strings;
and when he received his regular promotion, his first command was under
the shadow of his kinsman's broad pennant. He proved to be in his
meridian, what his youth had so strongly indicated, a fearless, active,
and reckless sailor; and his years might have extended to this hour, had
he not fallen untimely in a duel with a foreign officer.

The first act of Captain Manual, after landing once more on his native
soil, was to make interest to be again restored to the line of the army.
He encountered but little difficulty in this attempt, and was soon in
possession of the complete enjoyment of that which his soul had so long
pined after, "a steady drill." He was in time to share in all the
splendid successes which terminated the war, and also to participate in
his due proportion of the misery of the army. His merits were not
forgotten, however, in the re-organization of the forces, and he
followed both St. Clair and his more fortunate successor, Wayne, in the
western campaigns. About the close of the century, when the British made
their tardy relinquishment of the line of posts along the frontiers,
Captain Manual was ordered to take charge, with his company, of a small
stockade on our side of one of those mighty rivers that sets bounds to
the territories of the Republic in the north. The British flag was
waving over the ramparts of a more regular fortress, that had been
recently built, directly opposite, within the new lines of the Canadas.
Manual was not a man to neglect the observances of military etiquette;
and understanding that the neighboring fort was commanded by a field-
officer, he did not fail to wait on that gentleman, in proper time, with
a view to cultivate the sort of acquaintance that their mutual
situations would render not only agreeable, but highly convenient. The
American martinet, in ascertaining the rank of the other, had not deemed
it at all necessary to ask his name; but when the red-faced, comical-
looking officer with one leg, who met him, was introduced as Major
Borroughcliffe, he had not the least difficulty in recalling to
recollection his quondam acquaintance of St. Ruth. The intercourse
between these worthies was renewed with remarkable gusto, and at length
arrived to so regular a pass that a log cabin was erected on one of the
islands in the river, as a sort of neutral territory, where their
feastings and revels might be held without any scandal to the discipline
of their respective garrisons. Here the qualities of many a saddle of
savory venison were discussed, together with those of sundry pleasant
fowls, as well as of divers strange beasts that inhabit those western
wilds, while, at the same time, the secret places of the broad river
were vexed, that nothing might be wanting that could contribute to the
pleasures of their banquets. A most equitable levy was regularly made on
their respective pockets, to sustain the foreign expenses of this
amicable warfare; and a suitable division of labor was also imposed on
the two commandants, in order to procure such articles of comfort as
were only to be obtained from those portions of the globe where the art
of man had made a nearer approach to the bounties of nature than in the
vicinity of their fortifications. All liquids in which malt formed an
ingredient, as well as the deep-colored wines of Oporto, were suffered
to enter the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and were made to find their way,
under the superintendence of Borroughcliffe, to their destined goal; but
Manual was solely entrusted with the more important duty of providing
the generous liquor of Madeira, without any other restriction on his
judgment than an occasional injunction from his coadjutor that it should
not fail to be the product of the "south side"!

It was not unusual for the young officers of the two garrisons to allude
to the battle in which Major Borroughcliffe had lost his limb—the
English ensign invariably whispering to the American, on such occasions,
that it occurred during the late contest, in a desperate affair on the
north eastern coast of their island, in which the major commanded, in
behalf of his country,—with great credit and signal success; and for
which service he obtained his present rank "without purchase!" A sort of
national courtesy: prevented the two veterans, for by this time both had
earned that honorable title, from participating at all in these delicate
allusions; though whenever, by any accident, they occurred near the
termination of the revels, Borroughcliffe would so far betray his
consciousness of what was passing as to favor his American friend with a
leer of singular significance, which generally produced in the other
that sort of dull recollection which all actors and painters endeavor to
represent by scratching the head. In this manner year after year rolled
by, the most perfect harmony existing between the two posts,
notwithstanding the angry passions that disturbed their respective
countries, when an end was suddenly put to the intercourse by the
unfortunate death of Manual. This rigid observer of discipline never
trusted his person on the neutral island without being accompanied by a
party of his warriors, who were posted as a regular picket, sustaining a
suitable line of sentries; a practice which he also recommended to his
friend, as being highly conducive to discipline, as well as a salutary
caution against a surprise on the part of either garrison. The major,
however, dispensed with the formality in his own behalf, but was
sufficiently good-natured to wink at the want of confidence it betrayed
in his boon companion. On one unhappy occasion, when the discussions o£
a new importation had made a heavy inroad on the morning, Manual left
the hut to make his way towards his picket, in such a state of utter
mental aberration as to forget the countersign when challenged by a
sentinel, when, unhappily, he met his death by a shot from a soldier
whom he drilled to such an exquisite state of insensibility that the man
cared but little whether he killed friend or enemy, so long as he kept
within military usage, and the hallowed limits established by the
articles of war. He lived long enough, however, to commend the fellow
for the deed, and died while delivering an eulogium to Borroughcliffe on
the high state of perfection to which he had brought his command.