The Pirate Read online

  CHAPTER XXII.

  Go, some of you cry a reprieve!

  _Beggar's Opera._

  Captain Weatherport had, before this time, reached Kirkwall in person,and was received with great joy and thankfulness by the Magistrates, whohad assembled in council for the purpose. The Provost, in particular,expressed himself delighted with the providential arrival of theHalcyon, at the very conjuncture when the Pirate could not escape her.The Captain looked a little surprised, and said--"For that, sir, you maythank the information you yourself supplied."

  "That I supplied?" said the Provost, somewhat astonished.

  "Yes, sir," answered Captain Weatherport, "I understand you to be GeorgeTorfe, Chief Magistrate of Kirkwall, who subscribes this letter."

  The astonished Provost took the letter addressed to Captain Weatherportof the Halcyon, stating the arrival, force, &c., of the pirates' vessel;but adding, that they had heard of the Halcyon being on the coast, andthat they were on their guard and ready to baffle her, by going amongthe shoals, and through the islands, and holms, where the frigate couldnot easily follow; and at the worst, they were desperate enough topropose running the sloop ashore and blowing her up, by which much bootyand treasure would be lost to the captors. The letter, therefore,suggested, that the Halcyon should cruise betwixt Duncansbay Head andCape Wrath, for two or three days, to relieve the pirates of the alarmher neighbourhood occasioned, and lull them into security, the moreespecially as the letter-writer knew it to be their intention, if thefrigate left the coast, to go into Stromness Bay, and there put theirguns ashore for some necessary repairs, or even for careening theirvessel, if they could find means. The letter concluded by assuringCaptain Weatherport, that, if he could bring his frigate into StromnessBay on the morning of the 24th of August, he would have a good bargainof the pirates--if sooner, he was not unlikely to miss them.

  "This letter is not of my writing or subscribing, Captain Weatherport,"said the Provost; "nor would I have ventured to advise any delay in yourcoming hither."

  The Captain was surprised in his turn. "All I know is, that it reachedme when I was in the bay of Thurso, and that I gave the boat's crew thatbrought it five dollars for crossing the Pentland Frith in very roughweather. They had a dumb dwarf as cockswain, the ugliest urchin my eyesever opened upon. I give you much credit for the accuracy of yourintelligence, Mr. Provost."

  "It is lucky as it is," said the Provost; "yet I question whether thewriter of this letter would not rather that you had found the nest coldand the bird flown."

  So saying, he handed the letter to Magnus Troil, who returned it with asmile, but without any observation, aware, doubtless, with the sagaciousreader, that Norna had her own reasons for calculating with accuracy onthe date of the Halcyon's arrival.

  Without puzzling himself farther concerning a circumstance which seemedinexplicable, the Captain requested that the examinations might proceed;and Cleveland and Altamont, as he chose to be called, were brought upthe first of the pirate crew, on the charge of having acted as Captainand Lieutenant. They had just commenced the examination, when, aftersome expostulation with the officers who kept the door, Basil Mertounburst into the apartment and exclaimed, "Take the old victim for theyoung one!--I am Basil Vaughan, too well known on the windwardstation--take my life, and spare my son's!"

  All were astonished, and none more than Magnus Troil, who hastilyexplained to the Magistrates and Captain Weatherport, that thisgentleman had been living peaceably and honestly on the Mainland ofZetland for many years.

  "In that case," said the Captain, "I wash my hands of the poor man, forhe is safe, under two proclamations of mercy; and, by my soul, when Isee them, the father and his offspring, hanging on each other's neck, Iwish I could say as much for the son."

  "But how is it--how can it be?" said the Provost; "we always called theold man Mertoun, and the young, Cleveland, and now it seems they areboth named Vaughan."

  "Vaughan," answered Magnus, "is a name which I have some reason toremember; and, from what I have lately heard from my cousin Norna, thatold man has a right to bear it."

  "And, I trust, the young man also," said the Captain, who had beenlooking over a memorandum. "Listen to me a moment," added he, addressingthe younger Vaughan, whom we have hitherto called Cleveland. "Hark you,sir, your name is said to be Clement Vaughan--are you the same, who,then a mere boy, commanded a party of rovers, who, about eight or nineyears ago, pillaged a Spanish village called Quempoa, on the SpanishMain, with the purpose of seizing some treasure?"

  "It will avail me nothing to deny it," answered the prisoner.

  "No," said Captain Weatherport, "but it may do you service to admitit.--Well, the muleteers escaped with the treasure, while you wereengaged in protecting, at the hazard of your own life, the honour of twoSpanish ladies against the brutality of your followers. Do you rememberany thing of this?"

  "I am sure _I_ do," said Jack Bunce; "for our Captain here was maroonedfor his gallantry, and I narrowly escaped flogging and pickling forhaving taken his part."

  "When these points are established," said Captain Weatherport,"Vaughan's life is safe--the women he saved were persons of quality,daughters to the governor of the province, and application was longsince made, by the grateful Spaniard, to our government, for favour tobe shown to their preserver. I had special orders about Clement Vaughan,when I had a commission for cruizing upon the pirates, in the WestIndies, six or seven years since. But Vaughan was gone then as a nameamongst them; and I heard enough of Cleveland in his room. However,Captain, be you Cleveland or Vaughan, I think that, as the Quempoa hero,I can assure you a free pardon when you arrive in London."

  Cleveland bowed, and the blood mounted to his face. Mertoun fell on hisknees, and exhausted himself in thanksgiving to Heaven. They wereremoved, amidst the sympathizing sobs of the spectators.

  "And now, good Master Lieutenant, what have you got to say foryourself?" said Captain Weatherport to the ci-devant Roscius.

  "Why, little or nothing, please your honour; only that I wish yourhonour could find my name in that book of mercy you have in your hand;for I stood by Captain Clement Vaughan in that Quempoa business."

  "You call yourself Frederick Altamont?" said Captain Weatherport. "I cansee no such name here; one John Bounce, or Bunce, the lady put on hertablets."

  "Why, that is me--that is I myself, Captain--I can prove it; and I amdetermined, though the sound be something plebeian, rather to live JackBunce, than to hang as Frederick Altamont."

  "In that case," said the Captain, "I can give you some hopes as JohnBunce."

  "Thank your noble worship!" shouted Bunce; then changing his tone, hesaid, "Ah, since an alias has such virtue, poor Dick Fletcher might havecome off as Timothy Tugmutton but howsomdever, d'ye see, to use his ownphrase"----

  "Away with the Lieutenant," said the Captain, "and bring forward Goffeand the other fellows; there will be ropes reeved for some of them, Ithink." And this prediction promised to be amply fulfilled, so strongwas the proof which was brought against them.

  The Halcyon was accordingly ordered round to carry the whole prisonersto London, for which she set sail in the course of two days.

  During the time that the unfortunate Cleveland remained at Kirkwall, hewas treated with civility by the Captain of the Halcyon and thekindness of his old acquaintance, Magnus Troil, who knew in secret howclosely he was allied to his blood, pressed on him accommodations ofevery kind, more than he could be prevailed on to accept.

  Norna, whose interest in the unhappy prisoner was still more deep, wasat this time unable to express it. The sexton had found her lying on thepavement in a swoon, and when she recovered, her mind for the time hadtotally lost its equipoise, and it became necessary to place her underthe restraint of watchful attendants.

  Of the sisters of Burgh-Westra, Cleveland only heard that they remainedill, in consequence of the fright to which they had been subjected,until the evening before the Halcyon sailed, when
he received, by aprivate conveyance, the following billet:

  --"Farewell, Cleveland--we part for ever, and it is right that we should--Be virtuous and be happy. The delusions which a solitary education and limited acquaintance with the modern world had spread around me, are gone and dissipated for ever. But in you, I am sure, I have been thus far free from error--that you are one to whom good is naturally more attractive than evil, and whom only necessity, example, and habit, have forced into your late course of life. Think of me as one who no longer exists, unless you should become as much the object of general praise, as now of general reproach; and then think of me as one who will rejoice in your reviving fame, though she must never see you more!"--

  The note was signed M. T.; and Cleveland, with a deep emotion, which hetestified even by tears, read it an hundred times over, and thenclasped it to his bosom.

  Mordaunt Mertoun heard by letter from his father, but in a verydifferent style. Basil bade him farewell for ever, and acquitted himhenceforward of the duties of a son, as one on whom he, notwithstandingthe exertions of many years, had found himself unable to bestow theaffections of a parent. The letter informed him of a recess in the oldhouse of Jarlshof, in which the writer had deposited a considerablequantity of specie and of treasure, which he desired Mordaunt to use ashis own. "You need not fear," the letter bore, "either that you layyourself under obligation to me, or that you are sharing the spoils ofpiracy. What is now given over to you, is almost entirely the propertyof your deceased mother, Louisa Gonzago, and is yours by every right.Let us forgive each other," was the conclusion, "as they who must meetno more."--And they never met more; for the elder Mertoun, against whomno charge was ever preferred, disappeared after the fate of Clevelandwas determined, and was generally believed to have retired into aforeign convent.

  The fate of Cleveland will be most briefly expressed in a letter whichMinna received within two months after the Halcyon left Kirkwall. Thefamily were then assembled at Burgh-Westra, and Mordaunt was a member ofit for the time, the good Udaller thinking he could never sufficientlyrepay the activity which he had shown in the defence of his daughters.Norna, then beginning to recover from her temporary alienation of mind,was a guest in the family, and Minna, who was sedulous in her attentionupon this unfortunate victim of mental delusion, was seated with her,watching each symptom of returning reason, when the letter we allude towas placed in her hands.

  "Minna," it said--"dearest Minna!--farewell, and for ever! Believe me, I never meant you wrong--never. From the moment I came to know you, I resolved to detach myself from my hateful comrades, and had framed a thousand schemes, which have proved as vain as they deserved to be--for why, or how, should the fate of her that is so lovely, pure, and innocent, be involved with that of one so guilty?--Of these dreams I will speak no more. The stern reality of my situation is much milder than I either expected or deserved; and the little good I did has outweighed, in the minds of honourable and merciful judges, much that was evil and criminal. I have not only been exempted from the ignominious death to which several of my compeers are sentenced; but Captain Weatherport, about once more to sail for the Spanish Main, under the apprehension of an immediate war with that country, has generously solicited and obtained permission to employ me, and two or three more of my less guilty associates, in the same service--a measure recommended to himself by his own generous compassion, and to others by our knowledge of the coast, and of local circumstances, which, by whatever means acquired, we now hope to use for the service of our country. Minna, you will hear my name pronounced with honour, or you will never hear it again. If virtue can give happiness, I need not wish it to you, for it is yours already.--Farewell, Minna."

  Minna wept so bitterly over this letter, that it attracted the attentionof the convalescent Norna. She snatched it from the hand of herkinswoman, and read it over at first with the confused air of one towhom it conveyed no intelligence--then with a dawn of recollection--thenwith a burst of mingled joy and grief, in which she dropped it from herhand. Minna snatched it up, and retired with her treasure to her ownapartment.

  From that time Norna appeared to assume a different character. Her dresswas changed to one of a more simple and less imposing appearance. Herdwarf was dismissed, with ample provision for his future comfort. Sheshowed no desire of resuming her erratic life; and directed herobservatory, as it might be called, on Fitful-head, to be dismantled.She refused the name of Norna, and would only be addressed by her realappellation of Ulla Troil. But the most important change remainedbehind. Formerly, from the dreadful dictates of spiritual despair,arising out of the circumstances of her father's death, she seemed tohave considered herself as an outcast from divine grace; besides, that,enveloped in the vain occult sciences which she pretended to practise,her study, like that of Chaucer's physician, had been "but little in theBible." Now, the sacred volume was seldom laid aside; and, to the poorignorant people who came as formerly to invoke her power over theelements, she only replied--"_The winds are in the hollow of Hishand._"--Her conversion was not, perhaps, altogether rational; for this,the state of a mind disordered by such a complication of horridincidents, probably prevented. But it seemed to be sincere, and wascertainly useful. She appeared deeply to repent of her formerpresumptuous attempts to interfere with the course of human events,superintended as they are by far higher powers, and expressed bittercompunction when such her former pretensions were in any mannerrecalled to her memory. She still showed a partiality to Mordaunt,though, perhaps, arising chiefly from habit; nor was it easy to know howmuch or how little she remembered of the complicated events in which shehad been connected. When she died, which was about four years after theevents we have commemorated, it was found that, at the special andearnest request of Minna Troil, she had conveyed her very considerableproperty to Brenda. A clause in her will specially directed, that allthe books, implements of her laboratory, and other things connected withher former studies, should be committed to the flames.

  About two years before Norna's death, Brenda was wedded to MordauntMertoun. It was some time before old Magnus Troil, with all hisaffection for his daughter, and all his partiality for Mordaunt, wasable frankly to reconcile himself to this match. But Mordaunt'saccomplishments were peculiarly to the Udaller's taste, and the old manfelt the impossibility of supplying his place in his family soabsolutely, that at length his Norse blood gave way to the naturalfeeling of the heart, and he comforted his pride while he looked aroundhim, and saw what he considered as the encroachments of the Scottishgentry upon THE COUNTRY, (so Zetland is fondly termed by itsinhabitants,) that as well "his daughter married the son of an Englishpirate, as of a Scottish thief," in scornful allusion to the Highlandand Border families, to whom Zetland owes many respectable landholders;but whose ancestors were generally esteemed more renowned for ancientfamily and high courage, than for accurately regarding the triflingdistinctions of _meum_ and _tuum_. The jovial old man lived to theextremity of human life, with the happy prospect of a numeroussuccession in the family of his younger daughter; and having his boardcheered alternately by the minstrelsy of Claud Halcro, and enlightenedby the lucubrations of Mr. Triptolemus Yellowley, who, laying aside hishigh pretensions, was, when he became better acquainted with the mannersof the islanders, and remembered the various misadventures which hadattended his premature attempts at reformation, an honest and usefulrepresentative of his principal, and never so happy as when he couldescape from the spare commons of his sister Barbara, to the genial tableof the Udaller. Barbara's temper also was much softened by theunexpected restoration of the horn of silver coins, (the property ofNorna,) which she had concealed in the mansion of old Stourburgh, forachieving some of her mysterious plans, but which she now restored tothose by whom it had been accidentally discovered, with an intimation,however, that it would again disappear unless a reasonable portion wasexpended on the sustenance of the family, a precaution to which Tro
ndaDronsdaughter (probably an agent of Norna's) owed her escape from a slowand wasting death by inanition.

  Mordaunt and Brenda were as happy as our mortal condition permits us tobe. They admired and loved each other--enjoyed easy circumstances--hadduties to discharge which they did not neglect; and, clear in conscienceas light of heart, laughed, sung, danced, daffed the world aside, andbid it pass.

  But Minna--the high-minded and imaginative Minna--she, gifted with suchdepth of feeling and enthusiasm, yet doomed to see both blighted inearly youth, because, with the inexperience of a disposition equallyromantic and ignorant, she had built the fabric of her happiness on aquicksand instead of a rock,--was she, could she be happy? Reader, she_was_ happy, for, whatever may be alleged to the contrary by the scepticand the scorner, to each duty performed there is assigned a degree ofmental peace and high consciousness of honourable exertion,corresponding to the difficulty of the task accomplished. That rest ofthe body which succeeds to hard and industrious toil, is not to becompared to the repose which the spirit enjoys under similarcircumstances. Her resignation, however, and the constant attentionwhich she paid to her father, her sister, the afflicted Norna, and toall who had claims on her, were neither Minna's sole nor her mostprecious source of comfort. Like Norna, but under a more regulatedjudgment, she learned to exchange the visions of wild enthusiasm whichhad exerted and misled her imagination, for a truer and purer connexionwith the world beyond us, than could be learned from the sagas ofheathen bards, or the visions of later rhymers. To this she owed thesupport by which she was enabled, after various accounts of thehonourable and gallant conduct of Cleveland, to read with resignation,and even with a sense of comfort, mingled with sorrow, that he had atlength fallen, leading the way in a gallant and honourable enterprise,which was successfully accomplished by those companions, to whom hisdetermined bravery had opened the road. Bunce, his fantastic follower ingood, as formerly in evil, transmitted an account to Minna of thismelancholy event, in terms which showed, that though his head was weak,his heart had not been utterly corrupted by the lawless life which hehad for some time led, or at least that it had been amended by thechange; and that he himself had gained credit and promotion in the sameaction, seemed to be of little consequence to him, compared with theloss of his old captain and comrade.[41] Minna read the intelligence,and thanked Heaven, even while the eyes which she lifted up werestreaming with tears, that the death of Cleveland had been in the bed ofhonour; nay, she even had the courage to add her gratitude, that he hadbeen snatched from a situation of temptation ere circumstances hadovercome his new-born virtue; and so strongly did this reflectionoperate, that her life, after the immediate pain of this event hadpassed away, seemed not only as resigned, but even more cheerful thanbefore. Her thoughts, however, were detached from the world, and onlyvisited it, with an interest like that which guardian spirits take fortheir charge, in behalf of those friends with whom she lived in love, orof the poor whom she could serve and comfort. Thus passed her life,enjoying from all who approached her, an affection enhanced byreverence; insomuch, that when her friends sorrowed for her death, whicharrived at a late period of her existence, they were comforted by thefond reflection, that the humanity which she then laid down, was theonly circumstance which had placed her, in the words of Scripture, "alittle lower than the angels!"

  FOOTNOTES:

  [41] We have been able to learn nothing with certainty of Bunce's fate;but our friend, Dr Dryasdust, believes he may be identified with an oldgentleman, who, in the beginning of the reign of George I., attended theRose Coffee-house regularly, went to the theatre every night, toldmercilessly long stories about the Spanish Main, controlled reckonings,bullied waiters, and was generally known by the name of Captain Bounce.