CHAPTER XXII
"Ay marry, let me have him to sit under; He's like to be a cold soldier." _Falstaff_.
Barnstable lingered on the sands for a few minutes, until the footstepsof Dillon and the cockswain were no longer audible, when he orderedhis men to launch their boat once more into the surf. While the seamenpulled leisurely towards the place he had designated as the pointwhere he would await the return of Tom, the lieutenant first beganto entertain serious apprehensions concerning the good faith of hisprisoner. Now that Dillon was beyond his control, his imaginationpresented, in very vivid colors, several little circumstances in theother's conduct, which might readily excuse some doubts of his goodfaith; and, by the time they had reached the place of rendezvous,and had cast a light grapnel into the sea, his fears had rendered himexcessively uncomfortable. Leaving the lieutenant to his reflectionson this unpleasant subject, we shall follow Dillon and his fearless andunsuspecting companion in their progress towards St. Ruth.
The mists to which Tom had alluded in his discussion with his commanderon the state of the weather appeared to be settling nearer to the earth,and assuming more decidedly the appearance of a fog, hanging above themin sluggish volumes, but little agitated by the air. The consequentobscurity added deeply to the gloom of the night, and it would havebeen difficult for one less acquainted than Dillon with the surroundinglocalities to find the path which led to the dwelling of Colonel Howard.After some little search, this desirable object was effected; and thecivilian led the way, with rapid strides, towards the abbey.
"Ay, ay!" said Tom, who followed his steps, and equaled his paces,without any apparent effort, "you shore people have an easy way to findyour course and distance, when you get into the track. I was once leftby the craft I belonged to, in Boston, to find my way to Plymouth, whichis a matter of fifteen leagues, or thereaway; and so, finding nothingwas bound up the bay, after lying-by for a week, I concluded to haulaboard my land tacks. I spent the better part of another week in asearch for some hooker, on board which I might work my passage acrossthe country, for money was as scarce then with old Tom Coffin as it isnow, and is likely to be, unless the fisheries get a good luff soon;but it seems that nothing but your horse-flesh, and horned cattle,and jackasses, are privileged to do the pulling and hauling in yourshore-hookers; and I was forced to pay a week's wages for a berth,besides keeping a banyan on a mouthful of bread and cheese, from thetime we hove up in Boston, till we came to in Plymouth town."
"It was certainly an unreasonable exaction on the part of the wagoners,from a man in your situation," said Dillon, in a friendly, soothing toneof voice, that denoted a willingness to pursue the conversation.
"My situation was that of a cabin passenger," returned thecockswain; "for there was but one hand forward, besides the cattle Imentioned--that was he who steered--and an easy berth he had of it; forthere his course lay atween walls of stone and fences: and, as for hisreckoning, why, they had stuck up bits of stone on an end, with hisday's work footed up, ready to his hand, every half league or so.Besides, the landmarks were so plenty, that a man with half an eye mightsteer her, and no fear of getting to leeward."
"You must have found yourself as it were in a new world," observedDillon.
"Why, to me it was pretty much the same as if I had been set afloat ina strange country, though I may be said to be a native of those parts,being born on the coast. I had often heard shoremen say, that there wasas much 'arth as water in the world, which I always set down as a ranklie, for I've sailed with a flowing sheet months an-end without fallingin with as much land or rock as would answer a gull to lay its eggs on;but I will own, that atween Boston and Plymouth, we were out of sight ofwater for as much as two full watches!"
Dillon pursued this interesting subject with great diligence; and bythe time they reached the wall, which enclosed the large paddock thatsurrounded the abbey, the cockswain was deeply involved in a discussionof the comparative magnitude of the Atlantic Ocean and the continent ofAmerica.
Avoiding the principal entrance to the building, through the great gateswhich communicated with the court in front, Dillon followed the windingsof the wall until it led them to a wicket, which he knew was seldomclosed for the night until the hour for general rest had arrived. Theirway now lay in the rear of the principal edifice, and soon conductedthem to the confused pile which contained the offices. The cockswainfollowed his companion with a confiding reliance on his knowledge andgood faith, that was somewhat increased by the freedom of communicationthat had been maintained during their walk from the cliffs. He did notperceive anything extraordinary in the other's stopping at the room,which had been provided as a sort of barracks for the soldiers ofCaptain Borroughcliffe. A conference which took place between Dillon andthe sergeant was soon ended, when the former beckoned to the cockswainto follow, and taking a circuit round the whole of the offices, theyentered the abbey together, by the door through which the ladieshad issued when in quest of the three prisoners, as has been alreadyrelated.--After a turn or two among the narrow passages of that part ofthe edifice, Tom, whose faith in the facilities of land navigation beganto be a little shaken, found himself following his guide through a long,dark gallery, that was terminated at the end toward which they wereapproaching, by a half-open door, that admitted a glimpse into awell-lighted and comfortable apartment. To this door Dillon hastilyadvanced, and, throwing it open, the cockswain enjoyed a full view ofthe very scene that we described in introducing Colonel Howard to theacquaintance of the reader, and under circumstances of great similitude.The cheerful fire of coal, the strong and glaring lights, the tablesof polished mahogany, and the blushing fluids, were still the same inappearance, while the only perceptible change was in the number of thosewho partook of the cheer. The master of the mansion and Borroughcliffewere seated opposite to each other, employed in discussing the events ofthe day, and diligently pushing to and fro the glittering vessel, thatcontained a portion of the generous liquor they both loved so well; atask which each moment rendered lighter.
"If Kit would but return," exclaimed the veteran, whose back was to theopening door, "bringing with, him his honest brows encircled, as theywill be or ought to be, with laurel, I should be the happiest old fool,Borroughcliffe, in his majesty's realm of Great Britain!"
The captain, who felt the necessity for the unnatural restraint hehad imposed on his thirst to be removed by the capture of his enemies,pointed towards the door with one hand, while he grasped the sparklingreservoir of the "south side" with the other, and answered:
"Lo! the Cacique himself! his brow inviting the diadem--ha! who have wein his highness' train? By the Lord, sir Cacique, if you travel witha body-guard of such grenadiers, old Frederick of Prussia himself willhave occasion to envy you the corps! a clear six-footer in nature'sstockings! and the arms as unique as the armed!"
The colonel did not, however, attend to half of his companion'sexclamations, but turning, he beheld the individual he had somuch desired, and received him with a delight proportioned to theunexpectedness of the pleasure. For several minutes, Dillon wascompelled to listen to the rapid questions of his venerable relative,to all of which he answered with a prudent reserve, that might, in somemeasure, have been governed by the presence of the cockswain. Tom stoodwith infinite composure, leaning on his harpoon, and surveying, witha countenance where wonder was singularly blended with contempt, thefurniture and arrangements of an apartment that was far more splendidthan any he had before seen. In the mean time, Borroughcliffe entirelydisregarded the private communications that passed between his host andDillon, which gradually became more deeply interesting, and finallydrew them to a distant corner of the apartment, but taking a most undueadvantage of the absence of the gentleman, who had so lately been hisboon companion, he swallowed one potation after another, as if adouble duty had devolved on him, in consequence of the desertion of theveteran. Whenever his eye did wander from the ruby tints of hisglass, it was to survey with unrepressed admiration the inches of thecockswain,
about whose stature and frame there were numberless excellentpoints to attract the gaze of a recruiting officer. From this doublepleasure, the captain was, however, at last summoned, to participate inthe councils of his friends.
Dillon was spared the disagreeable duty of repeating the artful talehe had found it necessary to palm on the colonel, by the ardor of theveteran himself, who executed the task in a manner that gave to thetreachery of his kinsman every appearance of a justifiable artifice andof unshaken zeal in the cause of his prince. In substance, Tom was tobe detained as a prisoner, and the party of Barnstable were to beentrapped, and of course to share a similar fate. The sunken eye ofDillon cowered before the steady gaze which Borroughcliffe fastened onhim, as the latter listened to the plaudits the colonel lavished on hiscousin's ingenuity; but the hesitation that lingered in the soldier'smanner vanished when he turned to examine their unsuspecting prisoner,who was continuing his survey of the apartment, while he innocentlyimagined the consultations he witnessed were merely the proper andpreparatory steps to his admission into the presence of Mr. Griffith.
"Drill," said Borroughcliffe, aloud, "advance, and receive your orders."The cockswain turned quickly at this sudden mandate, and, for thefirst time, perceived that he had been followed into the gallery bythe orderly and two files of the recruits, armed. "Take this man to theguard-room, and feed him, and see that he dies not of thirst."
There was nothing alarming in this order; and Tom was following thesoldiers, in obedience to a gesture from their captain, when their stepswere arrested in the gallery, by the cry of "Halt!"
"On recollection, Drill," said Borroughcliffe, in a tone from which alldictatorial sounds were banished, "show the gentleman into my own room,and see him properly supplied."
The orderly gave such an intimation of his comprehending the meaningof his officer, as the latter was accustomed to receive, whenBorroughcliffe returned to his bottle, and the cockswain followed hisguide, with an alacrity and good will that were not a little increasedby the repeated mention of the cheer that awaited him.
Luckily for the impatience of Tom, the quarters of the captain wereat hand, and the promised entertainment by no means slow in makingits appearance. The former was an apartment that opened from alesser gallery, which communicated with the principal passage alreadymentioned; and the latter was a bountiful but ungarnished supply of thatstaple of the British Isles, called roast beef; of which the kitchenof Colonel Howard was never without a due and loyal provision,--Thesergeant, who certainly understood one of the signs of his captain toimply an attack on the citadel of the cockswain's brain, mingled, withhis own hands, a potation that he styled a rummer of grog, and which hethought would have felled the animal itself that Tom was so diligentlymasticating, had it been alive and in its vigor. Every calculationthat was made on the infirmity of the cockswain's intellect, under thestimulus of Jamaica, was, however, futile. He swallowed glass afterglass, with prodigious relish, but, at the same time, with immovablesteadiness; and the eyes of the sergeant, who felt it incumbent todo honor to his own cheer, were already glistening in his head, when,happily for the credit of his heart, a tap at the door announced thepresence of his captain, and relieved him from the impending disgrace ofbeing drunk blind by a recruit.
As Borroughcliffe entered the apartment, he commanded his orderly toretire, adding:
"Mr. Dillon will give you instructions, which you are implicitly toobey."
Drill, who had sense enough remaining to apprehend the displeasure ofhis officer, should the latter discover his condition, quickened hisdeparture, and the cockswain soon found himself alone with the captain.The vigor of Tom's attacks on the remnant of the sirloin was now muchabated, leaving in its stead that placid quiet which is apt to lingerabout the palate long after the cravings of the appetite have beenappeased. He had seated himself on one of the trunks of Borroughcliffe,utterly disdaining the use of a chair; and, with the trencher in hislap, was using his own jack-knife on the dilapidated fragment of the ox,with something of that nicety with which the female ghoul of the ArabianTales might be supposed to pick her rice with the point of her bodkin.The captain drew a seat nigh the cockswain; and, with a familiarity andkindness infinitely condescending, when the difference in their severalconditions is considered, he commenced the following dialogue:
"I hope you have found your entertainment to your liking, Mr. a-a-I mustown my ignorance of your name."
"Tom," said the cockswain, keeping his eyes roaming over the contents ofthe trencher; "commonly called long Tom, by my shipmates."
"You have sailed with discreet men, and able navigators, it will seem,as they understood longitude so well," rejoined the captain; "but youhave a patronymic--I would say another name?"
"Coffin," returned the cockswain; "I'm called Tom, when there is anyhurry, such as letting go the haulyards, or a sheet; long Tom, when theywant to get to windward of an old seaman, by fair weather; and long TomCoffin, when they wish to hail me, so that none of my cousins of thesame name, about the islands, shall answer; for I believe the bestman among them can't measure much over a fathom, taking him from hisheadworks to his heel."
"You are a most deserving fellow," cried Borroughcliffe, "and itis painful to think to what a fate the treachery of Mr. Dillon hasconsigned you."
The suspicions of Tom, if he ever entertained any, were lulled to resttoo effectually by the kindness he had received, to be awakened by thisequivocal lament; he therefore, after renewing his intimacy with therummer, contented himself by saying, with a satisfied simplicity:
"I am consigned to no one, carrying no cargo but this Mr. Dillon, who isto give me Mr. Griffith in exchange, or go back to the Ariel himself, asmy prisoner."
"Ah! my good friend, I fear you will find, when the time comes to makethis exchange, that he will refuse to do either."
"But, I'll be d----d if he don't do one of them! My orders are to seeit done, and back he goes; or Mr. Griffith, who is as good a seaman,for his years, as ever trod a deck, slips his cable from this hereanchorage."
Borroughcliffe affected to eye his companion with great commiseration;an exhibition of compassion that was, however, completely lost on thecockswain, whose nerves were strung to their happiest tension by hisrepeated libations, while his wit was, if anything, quickened by thesame cause, though his own want of guile rendered him slow to comprehendits existence in others. Perceiving it necessary to speak plainly, thecaptain renewed the attack in a more direct manner:
"I am sorry to say that you will not be permitted to return to theAriel; and that your commander, Mr. Barnstable, will be a prisonerwithin the hour; and, in fact, that your schooner will be taken beforethe morning breaks."
"Who'll take her?" asked the cockswain with a grim smile, on whosefeelings, however, this combination of threatened calamities wasbeginning to make some impression.
"You must remember that she lies immediately under the heavy guns of abattery that can sink her in a few minutes; an express has alreadybeen sent to acquaint the commander of the work with the Ariel's truecharacter; and as the wind has already begun to blow from the ocean, herescape is impossible."
The truth, together with its portentous consequences, now began to glareacross the faculties of the cockswain. He remembered his own prognosticson the weather, and the helpless situation of the schooner, deprivedof more than half her crew, and left to the keeping of a boy, while hercommander himself was on the eve of captivity. The trencher fell fromhis lap to the floor, his head sunk on his knees, his face was concealedbetween his broad palms, and, in spite of every effort the old seamancould make to conceal his emotion, he fairly groaned aloud.
For a moment, the better feelings of Borroughcliffe prevailed, and hepaused as he witnessed this exhibition of suffering in one whose headwas already sprinkled with the marks of time; but his habits, and theimpressions left by many years passed in collecting victims forthe wars, soon resumed their ascendency, and the recruiting officerdiligently addressed himself to an improvement of his a
dvantage.
"I pity from my heart the poor lads whom artifice or mistaken notionsof duty may have led astray, and who will thus be taken in arms againsttheir sovereign; but as they are found in the very island of Britain,they must be made examples to deter others. I fear that, unless they canmake their peace with government, they will all be condemned to death."
"Let them make their peace with God, then; your government can do butlittle to clear the log-account of a man whose watch is up for thisworld."
"But, by making their peace with those who have the power, their livesmay be spared," said the captain, watching, with keen eyes, the effecthis words produced on the cockswain.
"It matters but little, when a man hears the messenger pipe his hammockdown for the last time; he keeps his watch in another world, though hegoes below in this. But to see wood and iron, that has been put togetherafter such moulds as the Ariel's, go into strange hands, is a blowthat a man may remember long after the purser's books have been squaredagainst his name for ever! I would rather that twenty shot should strikemy old carcass, than one should hull the schooner that didn't pass outabove her water-line."
Borroughcliffe replied, somewhat carelessly, "I may be mistaken, afterall; and, instead of putting any of you to death, they may place youall on board the prison-ships, where you may yet have a merry time of itthese ten or fifteen years to come."
"How's that, shipmate!" cried the cockswain, with a start; "aprison-ship, d'ye say? you may tell them they can save the expense ofone man's rations by hanging him, if they please, and that is old TomCoffin."
"There is no answering for their caprice: to-day they may order a dozenof you to be shot for rebels; to-morrow they may choose to consider youas prisoners of war, and send you to the hulks for a dozen years."
"Tell them, brother, that I'm a rebel, will ye? and ye'll tell 'em nolie--one that has fou't them since Manly's time, in Boston Bay, to thishour. I hope the boy will blow her up! it would be the death of poorRichard Barnstable to see her in the hands of the English!"
"I know of one way," said Borroughcliffe, affecting to muse, "and butone, that will certainly avert the prison-ship; for, on second thoughts,they will hardly put you to death."
"Name it, friend," cried the cockswain, rising from his seat in evidentperturbation, "and if it lies in the power of man, it shall be done."
"Nay," said the captain, dropping his hand familiarly on the shoulderof the other, who listened with the most eager attention, "'tis easilydone, and no dreadful thing in itself; you are used to gunpowder, andknow its smell from otto of roses!"
"Ay, ay," cried the impatient old seaman; "I have had it flashing undermy nose by the hour; what then?"
"Why, then, what I have to propose will be nothing to a man likeyou--you found the beef wholesome, and the grog mellow!"
"Ay, ay, all well enough; but what is that to an old sailor?" asked thecockswain, unconsciously grasping the collar of Borroughcliffe's coat,in his agitation; "what then?"
The captain manifested no displeasure at this unexpected familiarity,but with suavity as he unmasked the battery, from behind which he hadhitherto carried on his attacks.
"Why, then, you have only to serve your king as you have before servedthe Congress--and let me be the man to show you your colors."
The cockswain stared at the speaker intently, but it was evident he didnot clearly comprehend the nature of the proposition, and the captainpursued the subject:
"In plain English, enlist in my company, my fine fellow, and your lifeand liberty are both safe."
Tom did not laugh aloud, for that was a burst of feeling in which he wasseldom known to indulge; but every feature of his weatherbeatenvisage contracted into an expression of bitter, ironical contempt.Borroughcliffe felt the iron fingers, that still grasped his collar,gradually tightening about his throat, like a vice; and, as the armslowly contracted, his body was drawn, by a power that it was in vainto resist, close to that of the cockswain, who, when their faces werewithin a foot of each other, gave vent to his emotions in words:
"A messmate, before a shipmate; a shipmate, before a stranger; astranger, before a dog--but a dog before a soldier!"
As Tom concluded, his nervous arm was suddenly extended to the utmost,the fingers relinquishing their grasp at the same time; and, whenBorroughcliffe recovered his disordered faculties, he found himself ina distant corner of the apartment, prostrate among a confused pile ofchairs, tables, and wearing-apparel. In endeavoring to rise from thishumble posture, the hand of the captain fell on the hilt of his sword,which had been included in the confused assemblage of articles producedby his overthrow.
"How now, scoundrel!" he cried, baring the glittering weapon, andspringing on his feet; "you must be taught your distance, I perceive."
The cockswain seized the harpoon which leaned against the wall,and dropped its barbed extremity within a foot of the breast of hisassailant, with an expression of the eye that denoted the danger of anearer approach. The captain, however, wanted not for courage, and stungto the quick by the insult he had received, he made a desperate parry,and attempted to pass within the point of the novel weapon of hisadversary. The slight shock was followed by a sweeping whirl of theharpoon, and Borroughchffe found himself without arms, completely atthe mercy of his foe. The bloody intentions of Tom vanished with hissuccess; for, laying aside his weapon, he advanced upon his antagonist,and seized him with an open palm. One more struggle, in which thecaptain discovered his incompetency to make any defence against thestrength of a man who managed him as if he had been a child, decidedthe matter. When the captain was passive in the hands of his foe, thecockswain produced sundry pieces of sennit, marline, and ratlin-stuff,from his pockets, which appeared to contain as great a variety of smallcordage as a boatswain's storeroom, and proceeded to lash the arms ofthe conquered soldier to the posts of his bed, with a coolness that hadnot been disturbed since the commencement of hostilities, a silence thatseemed inflexible, and a dexterity that none but a seaman could equal.When this part of his plan was executed, Tom paused a moment, and gazedaround him as if in quest of something. The naked sword caught hiseye, and, with this weapon in his hand, he deliberately approached hiscaptive, whose alarm prevented his observing that the cockswain hadsnapped the blade asunder from the handle, and that he had alreadyencircled the latter with marline.
"For God's sake," exclaimed Borroughcliffe, "murder me not in coldblood!"
The silver hilt entered his mouth as the words issued from it, andthe captain found, while the line was passed and repassed in repeatedinvolutions across the back of his neck, that he was in a conditionto which he often subjected his own men, when unruly, and which isuniversally called being "gagged." The cockswain now appeared to thinkhimself entitled to all the privileges of a conqueror; for, taking thelight in his hand, he commenced a scrutiny into the nature and qualityof the worldly effects that lay at his mercy. Sundry articles, thatbelonged to the equipments of a soldier, were examined, and cast asidewith great contempt, and divers garments of plainer exterior wererejected as unsuited to the frame of the victor. He, however, soonencountered two articles, of a metal that is universally understood.But uncertainty as to their use appeared greatly to embarrass him. Thecircular prongs of these curiosities were applied to either hand, to thewrists, and even to the nose, and the little wheels at their oppositeextremity were turned and examined with as much curiosity and care as asavage would expend on a watch, until the idea seemed to cross the mindof the honest seaman, that they formed part of the useless trappingsof a military man; and he cast them aside also, as utterly worthless.Borroughcliffe, who watched every movement of his conqueror, with agood-humor that would have restored perfect harmony between them, couldhe but have expressed half what he felt, witnessed the safety of afavorite pair of spurs with much pleasure, though nearly suffocated bythe mirth that was unnaturally repressed. At length, the cockswain founda pair of handsomely mounted pistols, a sort of weapon with which heseemed quite familiar. They were loaded,
and the knowledge of that factappeared to remind Tom of the necessity of departing, by bringing to hisrecollection the danger of his commander and of the Ariel. He thrust theweapons into the canvas belt that encircled his body, and, grasping hisharpoon, approached the bed, where Borroughcliffe was seated in duresse.
"Harkye, friend," said the cockswain, "may the Lord forgive you, as Ido, for wishing to make a soldier of a seafaring man, and one who hasfollowed the waters since he was an hour old, and one who hopes to dieoff soundings, and to be buried in brine. I wish you no harm, friend;but you'll have to keep a stopper on your conversation till such timeas some of your messmates call in this way, which I hope will be as soonafter I get an offing as may be."
With these amicable wishes, the cockswain departed, leavingBorroughcliffe the light, and the undisturbed possession of hisapartment, though not in the most easy or the most enviable situationimaginable. The captain heard the bolt of his lock turn, and the keyrattle as the cockswain withdrew it from the door--two precautionarysteps, which clearly indicated that the vanquisher deemed it prudent tosecure his retreat, by insuring the detention of the vanquished for atleast a time.