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yet done its fatal office. "For His sake, whose mercy may one day be
needed by the most hardened of ye all, give but another moment of time!
What mean these words! read I aright? 'Ark, of Lynnhaven!'"
"Ay, ay," said Richard, loosening the rope a little, in order to speak
with greater freedom, and transferring the last morsel of the weed from
his box to his mouth, as he answered; "seeing you are an apt scholar, no
wonder you make it out so easily, though written by a hand that was always
better with a marling-spike than a quill."
"But whence came the words? and why do you bear those names, thus written
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indelibly in the skin? Patience, men! monsters! demons! Would ye deprive
the dying man of even a minute of that precious time which becomes so dear
to all, as life is leaving us?"
"Give yet another minute!" said a deep voice from behind.
"Whence come the words, I ask?" again the chaplain demanded.
"They are neither more nor less than the manner in which a circumstance
was logged, which is now of no consequence, seeing that the cruise is
nearly up with all who are chiefly concerned. The black spoke of the
collar; but, then, he thought I might be staying in port, while he was
drifting between heaven and earth, in search of his last moorings."
"Is there aught, here, that I should know?" interrupted the eager,
tremulous voice of Mrs Wyllys. "O Merton! why these questions? Has my
yearning been prophetic? Does nature give so mysterious a warning of its
claim!"
"Hush, dearest Madam! your thoughts wander from probabilities, and my
faculties become confused.--'Ark, of Lynnhaven,' was the name of an estate
in the islands, belonging to a near and dear friend, and it was the place
where I received, and whence I sent to the main, the precious trust you
confided to my care. But"----
"Say on!" exclaimed the lady, rushing madly in front of Wilder, and
seizing the cord which, a moment before, had been tightened nearly to his
destruction stripping it from his throat, with a sort of supernatural
dexterity: "It was not, then, the name of a ship?"
"A ship! surely not. But what mean these hopes?--these fears?"
"The collar? the collar? speak; what of that collar?"
"It means no great things, now, my Lady," returned Fid, very coolly
placing himself in the same condition as Wilder, by profiting by the
liberty of his arms, and loosening his own neck from the halter,
notwithstanding a movement made by some of the people to prevent it, which
was, however, staid by a look from their leader's eyes. "I will first cast
loose this here rope; seeing that it is neither decent, nor safe, for an
ignorant man, like me, to enter into such unknown navigation, a-head of
his officer. The collar was just the necklace of the dog, which is here to
be seen on the arm of poor Guinea, who was, in most respects, a man for
whose equal one might long look in vain."
"Read it," said the governess, a film passing before her own eyes; "read
it," she added, motioning, with a quivering hand, to the divine to peruse
the inscription, that was distinctly legible on the plate of brass.
"Holy Dispenser of good! what is this I see? 'Neptune, the property of
Paul de Lacey!'"
A loud cry burst from the lips of the governess; her hands were clasped
one single instant upward, in that thanksgiving which oppressed her soul,
and then, as recollection returned, Wilder was pressed fondly, frantickly
to her bosom, while her voice was neard to say, in the piercing tones of
all-powerful nature,--
"My child! my child!--You will not--cannot--dare not, rob a long-stricken
and bereaved mother of her offspring. Give me back my son, my noble son!
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and I will weary Heaven with prayers in your behalf. Ye are brave, and
cannot be deaf to mercy. Ye are men, who have lived in constant view of
God's majesty, and will not refuse to listen to this evidence of his
pleasure. Give me my child, and I yield all else. He is of a race long
honoured upon the seas, and no mariner will be deaf to his claims. The
widow of de Lacey, the daughter of ------ cries for mercy. Their united
blood is in his veins, and it will not be spilt by you! A mother bows
herself to the dust before you, to ask mercy for her offspring. Oh! give
me my child! my child!"
As the words of the petitioner died upon the ear a stillness settled on
the place, that might have been likened to the holy calm which the
entrance of better feelings leaves upon the soul of the sinner. The grim
freebooters regarded each other in doubt; the workings of nature
manifesting themselves in the gleamings of even their stern and hardened
visages. Still, the desire for vengeance had got too firm a hold of their
minds to be dispossessed at a word. The result would vet have been
doubtful, had not one suddenly re-appeared in their midst who never
ordered in vain; and who knew how to guide, to quell, or to mount and
trample on their humours, as his own pleasure dictated. For half a minute,
he looked around him, his eye still following the circle, which receded as
he gazed, until even those longest accustomed to yield to his will began
to wonder at the extraordinary aspect in which it was now exhibited. The
gaze was wild and bewildered; and the face pallid as that of the
petitioning mother. Three times did the lips sever, before sound issued
from the caverns of his chest; then arose, on the attentive ears of the
breathless and listening crowd, a voice that seemed equally charged with
inward emotion and high authority. With a haughty gesture of the hand, and
a manner that was too well understood to be mistaken, he said,--
"Disperse! Ye know my justice; but ye know I will be obeyed. My pleasure
shall be known tomorrow."
Chapter XXXII.
----"This is he;
Who hath upon him still that natural stamp:
It was wise Nature's end in the donation,
To be his evidence now."--_Shakespeare._
That morrow came; and, with it, an entire change, in the scene and
character of our tale. The "Dolphin" and the "Dart" were sailing in amity,
side by side; the latter again bearing the ensign of England, and the
former carrying a naked gaff. The injuries of the gust, and the combat,
had so far been repaired, that, to a common eye, each gallant vessel was
again prepared, equally to encounter the hazards of the ocean or of
warfare. A long, blue, hazy streak, to the north, proclaimed the proximity
of the land; and some three or four light coasters of that region, which
were sailing nigh, announced how little of hostility existed in the
present purposes of the freebooters.
What those designs were, however, still remained a secret, buried in the
bosom of the Rover alone.
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Doubt, wonder, and distrust were, each in its turn, to be traced, not only
in the features of his captives, but in those of his own crew. Throughout
the whole of the long night, which had succeeded the events of the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]