“What country, friends,
is this?”
“ Illyria,
lady.”
What You Will.
Men are as much indebted to a fortuitous
concurrence of circumstances, for the characters they
sustain in this world, as to their personal qualities.
The same truth is applicable to the reputations of
ships. The properties of a vessel, like those
of an individual, may have their influence on her
good or evil fortune; still, something is due to the
accidents of life, in both. Although the breeze,
which came so opportunely to the aid of the Water-Witch,
soon filled the sails of the Coquette, it caused no
change in the opinions of her crew concerning the
fortunes of that ship; while it served to heighten
the reputation which the ‘Skimmer of the Seas’
had already obtained, as a mariner who was more than
favored by happy chances, in the thousand emergencies
of his hazardous profession. Trysail, himself,
shook his head, in a manner that expressed volumes,
when Ludlow vented his humor on what the young man
termed the luck of the smuggler; and the crews of
the boats gazed after the retiring brigantine, as the
inhabitants of Japan would now most probably regard
the passage of some vessel propelled by steam.
As Mr. Luff was not neglectful of his duty, it was
not long before the Coquette approached her boats.
The delay occasioned by hoisting in the latter, enabled
the chase to increase the space between the two vessels,
to such a distance, as to place her altogether beyond
the reach of shot. Ludlow, however, gave his
orders to pursue, the moment the ship was ready; and
he hastened to conceal his disappointment in his own
cabin.
“Luck is a merchant’s
surplus, while a living profit is the reward of his
wits!” observed Alderman Van Beverout, who could
scarce conceal the satisfaction he felt, at the unexpected
and repeated escapes of the brigantine. “Many
a man gains doubloons, when he only looked for dollars;
and many a market falls, while the goods are in the
course of clearance. There are Frenchmen enough,
Captain Ludlow to keep a brave officer in good-humor;
and the less reason to fret about a trifling mischance
in overhauling a smuggler.”
“I know not how highly you may
prize your niece, Mr. Van Beverout; but were I the
uncle of such a woman, the idea that she had become
the infatuated victim of the arts of yon reckless
villain, would madden me!”
“Paroxysms and straight-jackets!
Happily you are not her uncle, Captain Ludlow, and
therefore the less reason to be uneasy. The girl
has a French fancy, and she is rummaging the smuggler’s
silks and laces; when her choice is made, we shall
have her back again, more beautiful than ever, for
a little finery.”
“Choice! Oh, Alida, Alida!
this is not the election that we had reason to expect
from thy cultivated mind and proud sentiments!”
“The cultivation is my work,
and the pride is an inheritance from old Etienne de
Barberie;” dryly rejoined Myndert. “But
complaints never lowered a market, nor raised the
funds. Let us send for the Patroon, and take
counsel coolly, as to the easiest manner of finding
our way back to the Lust in Rust, before Her Majesty’s
ship gets too far from the coast of America.”
“Thy pleasantry is unseasonable,
Sir. Your Patroon is gone with your niece, and
a pleasant passage they are likely to enjoy, in such
company! We lost him, in the expedition with
our boats.”
The Alderman stood aghast.
“Lost! Oloff Van
Staats lost, in the expedition of the boats! Evil
betide the day when that discreet and affluent youth
should be lost to the colony! Sir, you know not
what you utter when you hazard so rash an opinion.
The death of the young Patroon of Kinderhook would
render one of the best and most substantial of our
families extinct, and leave the third best estate
in the Province without a direct heir!”
“The calamity is not so overwhelming;”
returned the captain, with bitterness. “The
gentleman has boarded the smuggler, and gone with la
belle Barberie to examine his silks and laces!”
Ludlow then explained the manner in
which the Patroon had disappeared. When perfectly
assured that no bodily harm had befallen his friend,
the satisfaction of the Alderman was quite as vivid,
as his consternation had been apparent but the moment
before.
“Gone with la belle Barberie,
to examine silks and laces!” he repeated, rubbing
his hands together, in delight. “Ay, there
the blood of my old friend, Stephanus, begins to show
itself! Your true Hollander is no mercurial Frenchman,
to beat his head and make grimaces at a shift in the
wind, or a woman’s frown; nor a blustering Englishman
(you are of the colony yourself, young gentleman)
to swear a big oath and swagger; but, as you see,
a quiet, persevering, and, in the main, an active son
of old Batavia, who watches his opportunity, and goes
into the very presence of ”
“Whom?” demanded
Ludlow, perceiving that the Alderman had paused.
“Of his enemy; seeing that all
the enemies of the Queen are necessarily the enemies
of every loyal subject. Bravo, young Oloff! thou
art a lad after my own heart, and no doubt no
doubt fortune will favor the brave!
Had a Hollander a proper footing on this earth, Captain
Cornelius Ludlow, we should hear a different tale
concerning the right to the Narrow Seas, and indeed
to most other questions of commerce.”
Ludlow arose with a bitter smile on
his face, though with no ill feeling towards the man
whose exultation was so natural.
“Mr. Van Staats may have reason
to congratulate himself on his good fortune,”
he said, “though I much mistake if even his enterprise
will succeed, against the wiles of one so artful,
and of an appearance so gay, as the man whose guest
he has now become. Let the caprice of others be
what it may, Alderman Van Beverout, my duty must be
done. The smuggler, aided by chance and artifice,
has thrice escaped me; the fourth time, it may be
our fortune. If this ship possesses the power
to destroy the lawless rover, let him look to his
fate!”
With this menace on his lips, Ludlow
quitted the cabin, to resume his station on the deck,
and to renew his unwearied watching of the movements
of the chase.
The change in the wind was altogether
in favor of the brigantine. It brought her to
windward, and was the means of placing the two vessels
in positions that enabled the Water-Witch to profit
the most by her peculiar construction. Consequently,
when Ludlow reached his post, he saw that the swift
and light craft had trimmed every thing close upon
the wind, and that she was already so far ahead, as
to render the chances of bringing her again within
range of his guns almost desperate; unless, indeed,
some of the many vicissitudes, so common on the ocean,
should interfere in his behalf. There remained
little else to be done, therefore, but to crowd every
sail on the Coquette that the ship would bear, and
to endeavor to keep within sight of the chase, during
the hours of darkness which must so shortly succeed.
But before the sun had fallen to the level of the water,
the hull of the Water-Witch had disappeared; and when
the day closed, no part of her airy outline was visible,
but that which was known to belong to her upper and
lighter spars. In a few minutes afterwards, darkness
covered the ocean; and the seamen of the royal cruiser
were left to pursue their object, at random.
How far the Coquette had run during
the night does not appear, but when her commander
made his appearance on the following morning, his long
and anxious gaze met no other reward than a naked
horizon. On every side, the sea presented the
same waste of water. No object was visible, but
the sea-fowl wheeling on his wide wing, and the summits
of the irregular and green billows. Throughout
that and many succeeding days, the cruiser continued
to plow the ocean, sometimes running large, with every
thing opened to the breeze that the wide booms would
spread, and, at others, pitching and laboring with
adverse winds, as if bent on prevailing over the obstacles
which even nature presented to her progress. The
head of the worthy Alderman had got completely turned;
and though he patiently awaited the result, before
the week was ended, he knew not even the direction
in which the ship was steering. At length he
had reason to believe that the end of their cruise
approached. The efforts of the seamen were observed
to relax, and the ship was permitted to pursue her
course, under easier sail.
It was past meridian, on one of those
days of moderate exertion, that Francois was seen
stealing from below, and staggering from gun to gun,
to a place in the centre of the ship, where he habitually
took the air, in good weather, and where he might
dispose of his person, equally without presuming too
far on the good-nature of his superiors, and without
courting too much intimacy with the coarser herd who
composed the common crew.
“Ah!” exclaimed the valet,
addressing his remark to the midshipman who has already
been mentioned by the name of Hopper “Voila
la terre! Quel bonheur! I
shall be so happy lé bâtiment
be trop agréable, maïs vous savez,
Monsieur Aspirant; que je ne suis
point marin What be lé nom du
pays?”
“They call it, France,”
returned the boy, who understood enough of the other’s
language to comprehend his meaning; “and a very
good country it is for those that like
it.”
“Ma foi, non!” exclaimed
Francois, recoiling a pace, between amazement and
delight.
“Call it Holland, then, if you prefer that country
most.”
“Dites-moi, Monsieur
Hoppair,” continued the valet, laying a trembling
finger on the arm of the remorseless young rogue; “est-ce
la France?”
“One would think a man of your
observation could tell that for himself. Do you
not see the church-tower, with a chateau in the back-ground,
and a village built in a heap, by its side. Now
look into yon wood! There is a walk, straight
as a ship’s wake in smooth water, and one two three ay,
eleven statues, with just one nose among them all!”
“Ma foi dere is not
no wood, and no chateau and no village, and no statue,
and no no nose, maïs Monsieur,
je suis age est-ce
la France?”
“Oh, you miss nothing by having
an indifferent sight, for I shall explain it all,
as we go along. You see yonder hill-side, looking
like a pattern-card, of green and yellow stripes,
or a signal-book, with the flags of all nations, placed
side by side well, that is les
champs; and this beautiful wood, with all the branches
trimmed till it looks like so many raw marines at
drill, is la forêt ”
The credulity of the warm-hearted
valet could swallow no more; but, assuming a look
of commiseration and dignity, he drew back, and left
the young tyro of the sea to enjoy his joke with a
companion who just then joined him.
In the meantime, the Coquette continued
to advance. The chateau, and churches, and villages,
of the midshipman, soon changed into a low sandy beach,
with a back-ground of stunted pines, relieved here
and there, by an opening, in which appeared the comfortable
habitation and numerous out-buildings of some substantial
yeoman, or occasionally embellished by the residence
of a country proprietor. Towards noon, the crest
of a hill rose from the sea: and, just as the
sun set behind the barrier of mountain, the ship passed
the sandy cape, and anchored at the spot that she
had quitted when first joined by her commander after
his visit to the brigantine. The vessel was soon
moored, the light yards were struck, and a boat was
lowered into the water. Ludlow and the Alderman
then descended the side, and proceeded towards the
mouth of the Shrewsbury. Although it was nearly
dark before they had reached the shore, there remained
light enough to enable the former to discover an object
of unusual appearance floating in the bay, and at
no great distance from the direction of his barge.
He was led by curiosity to steer for it.
“Cruisers and Water-Witches!”
muttered Myndert, when they were near enough to perceive
the nature of the floating object. “That
brazen hussy haunts us, as if we had robbed her of
gold! Let us set foot on land, and nothing short
of a deputation from the City Council shall ever tempt
me to wander from my own abode, again!”
Ludlow shifted the helm of the boat,
and resumed his course towards the river. He
required no explanation, to tell him more of the nature
of the artifice, by which he had been duped.
The nicely-balanced tub, the upright spar, and the
extinguished lantern, with the features of the female
of the malign smile traced on its horn faces, reminded
him, at once, of the false light by which the Coquette
had been lured from her course, on the night she sailed
in pursuit of the brigantine.