“ Ay, that
way goes the game,
Now I perceive that she hath
made compare
Between our statures ”
Midsummer-Night’s Dream.
The tide of existence floats downward,
and with it go, in their greatest strength, all those
affections that unite families and kindred. We
learn to know our parents in the fullness of their
reason, and commonly in the perfection of their bodily
strength. Reverence and respect both mingle with
our love; but the affection, with which we watch the
helplessness of infancy, the interest with which we
see the ingenuous and young profiting by our care,
the pride of improvement, and the magic of hope, create
an intensity of sympathy in their favor, that almost
equals the identity of self-love. There is a
mysterious and double existence, in the tie that binds
the parent to the child. With a volition and passions
of its own, the latter has power to plant a sting
in the bosom of the former, that shall wound as acutely
as the errors which arise from mistakes, almost from
crimes, of its own. But, when the misconduct of
the descendant can be traced to neglect, or to a vicious
instruction, then, indeed, even the pang of a wounded
conscience may be added to the sufferings of those
who have gone before. Such, in some measure,
was the nature of the pain that Alderman Van Beverout
was condemned to feel, when at leisure to reflect on
the ill-judged measure that had been taken by la belle
Barberie.
“She was a pleasant and coaxing
minx, Patroon,” said the burgher, pacing the
room they occupied, with a quick and heavy step, and
speaking unconsciously of his niece, as of one already
beyond the interests of life; “and as wilful
and headstrong as an unbroken colt. Thou
hard-riding imp! I shall never find a match for
the poor disconsolate survivor. But the
girl had a thousand agreeable and delightful ways with
her, that made her the delight of my old days.
She has not done wisely, to desert the friend and
guardian of her youth, ay, even of her childhood, in
order to seek protection from strangers. This
is an unhappy world, Mr. Van Staats! All our
calculations come to nought; and it is in the power
of fortune to reverse the most reasonable and wisest
of our expectations. A gale of wind drives the
richly-freighted ship to the bottom; a sudden fall
in the market robs us of our gold, as the November
wind strips the oak of its leaves; and bankruptcies
and decayed credit often afflict the days of the oldest
houses, as disease saps the strength of the body: Alida!
Alida! thou hast wounded one that never harmed thee,
and rendered my age miserable!”
“It is vain to contend with
the inclinations,” returned the proprietor of
the manor, sighing in a manner that did no discredit
to the sincerity of his remark. “I could
have been happy to have placed your niece in the situation
that my respected mother filled with so much dignity
and credit, but it is now too late ”
“We don’t know that; we
don’t know that;” interrupted the Alderman,
who still clung to the hope of effecting the first
great wish of his heart, with the pertinacity with
which he would have clung to the terms of any other
fortunate bargain. “We should never despair,
Mr. Van Staats, as long as the transaction is left
open.”
“The manner in which Mademoiselle
Barberie has expressed her preference, is so very
decided, that I see no hope of completing the arrangement.”
“Mere coquetry, Sir, mere coquetry!
The girl has disappeared in order to enhance the value
of her future submission. One should never regard
a treaty at an end, so long as reasonable hopes remain
that it may be productive to the parties.”
“I fear, Sir, there is more
of the coquette in this step of the young lady, than
a gentleman can overlook,” returned the Patroon
a little dryly, and with far more point than he was
accustomed to use. “If the commander of
Her Majesty’s cruiser be not a happy man, he
will not have occasion to reproach his mistress with
disdain!”
“I am not certain, Mr. Van Staats,
that in the actual situation of our stipulations,
I ought to overlook an innuendo that seems to reflect
on the discretion of my ward. Captain Ludlow well,
sirrah! what is the meaning of this impertinence?”
“He’m waiting to see Masser,”
returned the gaping Erasmus, who stood with the door
in his hand, admiring the secret intelligence of his
master, who had so readily anticipated his errand.
“Who is waiting? What does the simpleton
mean?”
“I mean ’a gentle’um Masser say.”
“The fortunate man is here to
remind us of his success,” haughtily observed
Van Staats of Kinderhook. “There can be
no necessity of my presence at an interview between
Alderman Van Beverout and his nephew.”
The justly-mortified Patroon bowed
ceremoniously to the equally disappointed burgher,
and left the room the moment he had done speaking.
The negro took his retreat as a favorable symptom for
one who was generally known to be his rival; and he
hastened to inform the young captain, that the coast
was clear.
The meeting, that instantly succeeded,
was sufficiently constrained and awkward. Alderman
Van Beverout assumed a manner of offended authority
and wounded affection; while the officer of the Queen
wore an air of compelled submission to a duty that
he found to be disagreeable. The introduction
of the discourse was consequently ceremonious, and
punctiliously observant of courtesy.
“It has become my office,”
continued Ludlow, after the preliminaries had been
observed, to express the surprise I feel, that a vessel
of the exceedingly equivocal appearance of the brigantine,
that is anchored in the Cove, should be found in a
situation to create unpleasant suspicions concerning
the commercial propriety of a merchant so well known
as Mr. Alderman Van Beverout.”
“The credit of Myndert Van Beverout
is too well established, Captain Cornelius Ludlow,
to be affected by the accidental position of ships
and bays. I see two vessels anchored near the
Lust in Rust, and if called upon to give my testimony
before the Queen in Council, I should declare that
the one which wears her royal pennant had done more
wrong to her subjects than the stranger. But
what harm is known of the latter?”
“I shall not conceal any of
the facts; for I feel that this is a case, in which
a gentleman of your station has the fullest right to
the benefit of explanations ”
“Hem ” interrupted
the burgher, who disliked the manner in which his
companion had opened the interview, and who thought
he saw the commencement of a forced compromise in
the turn it was taking; “Hem I
commend your moderation, Captain Ludlow. Sir,
we are flattered in having a native of the Province
in so honorable a command on the coast. Be seated,
I pray you, young gentleman, that we may converse more
at leisure. The Ludlows are an ancient and well-established
family in the colonies; and though they were no friends
of King Charles, why we have others here
in the same predicament. There are few crowns
in Europe that might not trace some of their discontented
subjects to these colonies; and the greater the reason,
say I, why we should not be too hasty in giving faith
to the wisdom of this European legislation. I
do not pretend, Sir, to admire all the commercial
regulations which flow from the wisdom of Her Majesty’s
counsellors. Candor forbids that I should deny
this truth: but what of the brigantine
in the Cove?”
“It is not necessary to tell
one so familiar with the affairs of commerce, of the
character of a vessel called the Water-Witch, nor of
that of its lawless commander, the notorious ‘Skimmer
of the Seas.’”
“Captain Ludlow is not about
to accuse Alderman Van Beverout of a connexion with
such a man!” exclaimed the burgher, rising as
it were involuntarily, and actually recoiling a foot
or two, apparently under the force of indignation
and surprise.
“Sir, I am not commissioned
to accuse any of the Queen’s subjects. My
duty is to guard her interests on the water, to oppose
her open enemies, and to uphold her royal prerogatives.”
“An honorable employment, and
one I doubt not that is honorably discharged.
Resume your seat, Sir; for I foresee that the conference
is likely to end as it should, between a son of the
late very respectable King’s counsellor and
his father’s friend. You have reason then
for thinking that this brigantine, which has so suddenly
appeared in the Cove, has some remote connexion with
the Skimmer of the Seas?”
“I believe the vessel to be
the famous Water-Witch itself, and her commander to
be, of course, that well-known adventurer.”
“Well, Sir well,
Sir this may be so. It is impossible
for me to deny it but what should such
a reprobate be doing here, under the guns of a Queen’s
cruiser?”
“Mr. Alderman, my admiration
of your niece is not unknown to you.”
“I have suspected it, Sir;”
returned the burgher, who believed the tenor of the
compromise was getting clearer, but who still waited
to know the exact value of the concessions the other
party would make, before he closed a bargain, in a
hurry, of which he might repent at his leisure “Indeed,
it has even been the subject of some discourse between
us.”
“This admiration induced me
to visit your villa, the past night, ”
“This is a fact too well established, young
gentleman.”
“Whence I took away ”
Ludlow hesitated, as if anxious to select his words
“Alida Barberie.”
“Alida Barberie!”
“Ay, Sir; my niece, or perhaps
I should say my heiress, as well as the heiress of
old Etienne de Barberie. The cruise was short,
Captain Cornelius Ludlow; but the prize-money will
be ample unless, indeed, a claim to neutral
privileges should be established in favor of part of
the cargo!”
“Sir, your pleasantry is amusing,
but I have little leisure for its enjoyment.
That I visited the Cour lies Fees, shall not be
denied. I think la belle Barberie will not be
offended, under the circumstances, with this acknowledgment.”
“If she is, the jade has a rare
squeamishness, after what has passed!”
“I pretend not to judge of more
than my duty. The desire to serve my royal mistress
had induced me, Mr. Van Beverout, to cause a seaman
of odd attire and audacious deportment to enter the
Coquette. You will know the man, when I tell
you that he was your companion in the island ferry-boat.”
“Yes, yes, I confess there was
a mariner of the long voyage there, who caused much
surprise, and some uneasiness, to myself and niece,
as well as to Van Staats of Kinderhook.”
Ludlow smiled, like one not to be
deceived, as he continued.
“Well, Sir, this man so far
succeeded, as to tempt me to suffer him to land, under
the obligation of some half-extorted promise we
came into the river together, and entered your grounds
in company.”
Alderman Van Beverout now began to
listen like a man who dreaded, while he desired to
catch, each syllable. Observing that Ludlow paused,
and watched his countenance with a cool and steady
eye, he recovered his self-command, and affected a
mere ordinary curiosity, while he signed to him to
proceed.
“I am not sure I tell Alderman
Van Beverout any thing that is new,” resumed
the young officer, “when I add, that the fellow
suffered me to visit the pavilion, and then contrived
to lead me into an ambush of lawless men, having previously
succeeded in making captives of my boat’s-crew.”
“Seizures and warrants!”
exclaimed the burgher in his natural strong and hasty
manner of speeking.
“This is the first I have heard
of the affair. It was ill-judged, to call it
by no other term.”
Ludlow seemed relieved, when he saw,
by the undisguised amazement of his companion, that
the latter was, in truth, ignorant of the matter in
which lie had been detained.
“It might not have been, Sir,
had our watch been as vigilant as their artifice was
deep,” he continued. “But I was little
guarded, and having no means to reach my ship, I ”
“Ay, ay, Captain Ludlow; it
is not necessary to be so circumstantial; you proceeded
to the wharf, and ”
“Perhaps, Sir, I obeyed my feelings,
rather than my duty,” observed Ludlow, coloring
high, when he perceived that the burgher paused to
clear his throat “I returned to the pavilion,
where ”
“You persuaded a niece to forget
her duty to her uncle and protector.”
“This is a harsh and most unjustifiable
charge, both as respects the young lady and myself.
I can distinguish between a very natural desire to
possess articles of commerce that are denied by the
laws and a more deliberate and mercenary plot against
the revenue of the country. I believe there are
few of her years and sex, who would refuse to purchase
the articles I saw presented to the eyes of la belle
Barberie, especially when the utmost hazard could
be no more than their loss, as they were already introduced
into the country.”
“A just discrimination, and
one likely to render the arrangement of our little
affairs less difficult! I was sure that my old
friend the counsellor would not have left a son of
his ignorant of principles, more especially as he
was about to embark in a profession of so much responsibility. And
so, my niece had the imprudence to entertain a dealer
in contraband?”
“Alderman Van Beverout, there
were boats in motion on the water, between this landing
and the brigantine in the Cove. A periagua even
left the river for the city, at the extraordinary
hour of midnight!”
“Sir, boats will move on the
water, when the hands of man set them in motion; but
what have I to answer for in the matter? If goods
have entered the Province, without license, why, they
must be found and condemned; and if free-traders are
on the coast, they should be caught. Would it
not be well to proceed to town, and lay the fact of
this strange brigantine’s presence before the
Governor, withou delay?”
“I have other intentions.
If, as you say, goods have gone up the bay, it is
too late for me to stop them; but it is not too late
to attempt to seize yon brigantine. Now, I would
perform this duty in a manner as little likely to
offend any of reputable name, as my allegiance will
admit.”
“Sir, I extol this discretion not
that there is any testimony to implicate more than
the crew, but credit is a delicate flower, and it
should be handled tenderly. I see an opening for
an arrangement but, we will, as in duty
bound, hear your propositions first, since you may
be said to speak with the authority of the Queen.
I will merely surmise that terms should be moderate,
between friends; perhaps I should say, between
connexions, Captain Ludlow.”
“I am flattered by the word,
Sir,” returned the young sailor, smiling with
an expression of delight. “First suffer
me to be admitted to the charming Cour des
Fees, but for a moment.”
“That is a favor which can hardly
be refused you, who may be said to have a right, now,
to enter the pavilion at pleasure,” returned
the Alderman, unhesitatingly leading the way through
the long passage to the deserted apartments of his
niece, and continuing the blind allusions to the affairs
of the preceding night, in the same indirect manner
as had distinguished the dialogue during the whole
interview. “I shall not be unreasonable,
young gentleman, and here is the pavilion of my niece;
I wish I could add, and here also is its mistress!”
“And is la belle Barberie no
longer a tenant of la Cour des Fees!”
demanded Ludlow, in a surprise too natural to be feigned.
Alderman Van Beverout regarded the
young man in wonder; pondered a moment, to consider
how far denying a knowledge of the absence of his niece
might benefit the officer, in the pending negotiation;
and then he dryly observed, “Boats passed on
the water, during the night. If the men of Captain
Ludlow were at first imprisoned, I presume they were
set at liberty at the proper time.”
“They are carried I know not
whither the boat itself is gone, and I am
here alone.”
“Am I to understand, Captain
Ludlow, that Alida Barberie has not fled my house,
during the past night, to seek a refuge in your ship?”
“Fled!” echoed the young
man, in a voice of horror. “Has Alida de
Barberie fled from the house of her uncle, at all?”
“Captain Ludlow, this is not
acting. On the honor of a gentleman, are you
ignorant of my niece’s absence?”
The young commander did not answer;
but, striking his head fiercely, he smothered words
that were unintelligible to his companion. When
this momentary burst of feeling was past, he sunk
into a chair, and gazed about him in stupid amazement.
All this pantomime was inexplicable to the Alderman,
who, however, began to see that more of the conditions
of the arrangement in hand were beyond the control
of his companion, than he had at first believed.
Still the plot thickened, rather than grew clear; and
he was afraid to speak, lest he might utter more than
was prudent. The silence, therefore, continued
for quite a minute; during which time, the parties
sat gazing at each other in dull wonder.
“I shall not deny, Captain Ludlow,
that I believed you had prevailed on my niece to fly
aboard the Coquette; for, though a man who has always
kept his feelings in his own command, as the safest
manner of managing particular interests, yet I am
not to learn that rash youth is often guilty of folly.
I am now equally at a loss with yourself, to know what
has become of her, since here she is not.”
“Hold!” eagerly interrupted
Ludlow. “A boat left your wharf, for the
city, in the earlier hours of the morning. Is
it not possible that she may have taken a passage
in it?”
“It is not possible. I
have reasons to know in short, Sir, she
is not there.”
“Then is the unfortunate the
lovely the indiscreet girl for ever lost
to herself and us!” exclaimed the young sailor,
actually groaning under his mental agony. “Rash,
mercenary man! to what an act of madness has this
thirst of gold driven one so fair would
I could say, so pure and so innocent!”
But while the distress of the lover
was thus violent, and caused him to be so little measured
in his terms of reproach, the uncle of the fair offender
appeared to be lost in surprise. Though la belle
Barberie had so well preserved the decorum and reserve
of her sex, as to leave even her suitors in doubt
of the way her inclinations tended, the watchful Alder
man had long suspected that the more ardent, open,
and manly commander of the Coquette was likely to
triumph over one so cold in exterior, and so cautious
in his advances, as the Patroon of Kinderhook.
When, therefore, it became apparent Alida had disappeared,
he quite naturally inferred that she had taken the
simplest manner of defeating all his plans for favoring
the suit of the latter, by throwing herself, at once,
into the arms of the young sailor. The laws of
the colonies offered few obstacles to the legality
of their union; and when Ludlow appeared that morning,
he firmly believed that he beheld one, who, if he
were not so already, was inevitably soon to become
his nephew. But the suffering of the disappointed
youth could not be counterfeited; and, prevented from
adhering to his first opinion, the perplexed Alderman
seemed utterly at a loss to conjecture what could
have become of his niece. Wonder, rather than
pain, possessed him; and when he suffered his ample
chin to repose on the finger and thumb of one hand,
it was with the air of a man that revolved, in his
mind, all the plausible points of some knotty question.
“Holes and corners!” he
muttered, after a long silence; “the wilful minx
cannot be playing at hide-and-seek with her friends!
The hussy had ever too much of la famille
de Barberie, and her high Norman blood about her,
as that silly old valet has it, to stoop to such childish
trifling. Gone she certainly is,” he continued,
looking, again, into the empty drawers and closets,
“and with her the valuables have disappeared.
The guitar is missing the lute I sent across
the ocean to purchase, an excellently-toned Dutch
lute, that cost every stiver of one hundred guilders,
is also wanting, and all the hem the
recent accessions have disappeared. And there,
too, are my sister’s jewels, that I persuaded
her to bring along, to guard against accidents while
our backs are turned, they are not to be seen.
Francois! Francois I Thou long-tried servitor
of Etienne Barberie, what the devil has become of
thy mistress?”
“Mais, Monsieur,” returned
the disconsolate valet, whose decent features exhibited
all the signs of unequivocal suffering, “she
no tell lé pauvre Francois! En
supposant, que Monsieur ask lé capitaine,
he shall probablement know.”
The burgher cast a quick suspicious
glance at Ludlow, and shook his head, to express his
belief that the young man was true.
“Go; desire Mr. Van Staats of
Kinderhook to favor us with his company.”
“Hold,” cried Ludlow,
motioning to the valet to withdraw. “Mr.
Beverout, an uncle should be tender of the errors
of one so dear as this cruel, unreflecting girl.
You cannot think of abandoning her to so frightful
a fortune!”
“I am not addicted to abandoning
any thing, Sir to which my title is just and legal.
But you speak in enigmas. If you are acquainted
with the place where my niece is secreted, avow it
frankly, and permit me to take those measures which
the case requires.”
Ludlow reddened to his forehead, and
he struggled powerfully with his pride and his regrets.
“It is useless to attempt concealing
the step which Alida Barberie has been pleased to
take,” he said, a smile so bitter passing over
his features, as to lend them the expression of severe
mockery; “she has chosen more worthily than
either of us could have believed; she has found a
companion more suited to her station, her character,
and her sex, than Van Staats of Kinderhook, or a poor
commander of a Queen’s ship!”
“Cruisers and manors! What
in the name of mysteries is thy meaning? The
girl is not here; you declare she is not on board of
the Coquette, and there remains only ”
“The brigantine!” groaned
the young sailor uttering the word by a violent effort
of the will.
“The brigantine!” repeated
the Alderman, slowly “My niece can have nothing
to do aboard a dealer in contraband. That is to
say, Alida Barberie is not a trader.”
“Alderman Van Beverout, if we
wish to escape the contamination of vice, its society
must be avoided. There was one in the pavilion,
of a mien and assurance the past night, that might
delude an angel. Ah! woman! woman! thy mind is
composed of vanities, and thy imagination is thy bitterest
foe!”
“Women and vanities!”
echoed the amazed burgher. “My niece, the
heiress of old Etienne Marie de Barberie, and the
sought of so many of honorable names and respectable
professions, to be a refugee with a rover! always
supposing your opinions of the character of the brigantine
to be just. This is a conjecture too improbable
to be true.”
“The eye of a lover, Sir, may
be keener than that of a guardian call it
jealousy, if you will, would to Heaven my
suspicions were untrue! but if she be not
there, where is she?”
The opinion of the Alderman seemed
staggered. If la belle Barberie had not yielded
to the fascinations of that wayward, but seductive,
eye and smile, to that singular beauty of face, and
to the secret and often irresistible charm that encircles
eminent personal attractions, when aided by mystery,
to what had she yielded, and whither had she fled?
These were reflections that now began
to pass through the thoughts of the Alderman, as they
had already planted stings in the bosom of Ludlow.
With reflection, conviction began slowly to assert
its power. But the truth did not gleam upon the
mind of the calculating and wary merchant, with the
same instinctive readiness that it had flashed upon
the jealous faculties of the lover. He pondered
on each circumstance of the interview between the
dealer in contraband and his niece; recalled the manner
and discourse of the former; drew certain general
and vague conjectures concerning the power which novelty,
when coupled with circumstances of romance, might
exercise over a female fancy; and dwelt long and secretly
on some important facts that were alone known to himself, before
his judgment finally settled down into the same opinion,
as that which his companion had formed, with all the
sensitiveness of jealous alarm.
“Women and vagaries!”
muttered the burgher, after his study was ended.
“Their conceits are as uncertain as the profits
of a whaling voyage, or the luck of a sportsman.
Captain Ludlow, your assistance will be needed in
this affair; and, as it may not be too late, since
there are few priests in the brigantine always
supposing her character to be what you affirm my
niece may yet see her error, and be disposed to reward
so much assiduity and attachment.”
“My services shall always be
ready, so long as they can be useful to Alida Barberie,”
returned the young officer with haste, and yet a little
coldly. “It will be time enough to speak
of the reward, when we shall have succeeded.”
“The less noise that is made
about a little domestic inconvenience like this, the
better; and I would therefore suggest the propriety
of keeping our suspicions of the character of the
vessel a secret, until we shall be better informed.”
The captain bowed his assent to the proposal.
“And now that we are of the
same mind in the preliminaries, we will seek the Patroon
of Kinderhook, who has a claim to participate in our
confidence.”
Myndert then led the way from the
empty and melancholy Cour des Fees,
with a step that had regained its busy and firm tread,
and a countenance that expressed far more of vexation
and weariness, than of real sorrow.