“ Did
I tell this,
Who would believe me?”
Measure for Measure.
The time of the interview related
in the close of the preceding chapter, was in the
early watches of the night. It now becomes our
duty to transport the reader to another, that had
place several hours later, and after day had dawned
on the industrious burghers of Manhattan.
There stood, near one of the wooden
wharves which lined the arm of the sea on which the
city is so happily placed, a dwelling around which
there was every sign that its owner was engaged in
a retail commerce, that was active and thriving, for
that age and country. Notwithstanding the earliness
of the hour, the windows of this house were open; and
an individual, of a busy-looking face, thrust his
head so often from one of the casements, as to show
that he already expected the appearance of a second
party in the affair that had probably called him from
his bed, even sooner than common. A tremendous
rap at the door relieved his visible uneasiness; and,
hastening to open it, he received his visiter,
with much parade of ceremony, and many protestations
of respect, in person.
“This is an honor, my lord,
that does not often befall men of my humble condition,”
said the master of the house, in the flippant utterance
of a vulgar cockney; “but I thought it would
be more agreeable to your lordship, to receive the
a a here, than in the place where
your lordship, just at this moment, resides.
Will your lordship please to rest yourself, after
your lordship’s walk?”
“I thank you, Carnaby,”
returned the other, taking the offered seat, with
an air of easy superiority. “You judge with
your usual discretion, as respects the place, though
I doubt the prudence of seeing him at all. Has
the man come?”
“Doubtless, my lord; he would
hardly presume to keep your lordship waiting, and
much less would I countenance him in so gross a disrespect.
He will be most happy to wait on you, my lord, whenever
your lordship shall please.”
“Let him wait: there is
no necessity for haste. He has probably communicated
some of the objects of this extraordinary call on my
time, Carnaby; and you can break them, in the intervening
moments.”
“I am sorry to say, my lord,
that the fellow is as obstinate as a mule. I
felt the impropriety of introducing him, personally,
to your lordship; but as he insisted he had affairs
that would deeply interest you, my lord, I could not
take upon me to say, what would be agreeable to your
lordship, or what not; and so I was bold enough to
write the note.”
“And a very properly expressed
note it was, Master Carnaby. I have not received
a better worded communication, since my arrival in
this colony.”
“I am sure the approbation of
your lordship might justly make any man proud!
It is the ambition of my life, my lord, to do the duties
of my station in a proper manner, and to treat all
above me with a suitable respect, my lord, and all
below me as in reason bound. If I might presume
to think in such a matter, my lord, I should say, that
these colonists are no great judges of propriety,
in their correspondence, or indeed in any thing else.”
The noble visiter shrugged
his shoulder, and threw an expression into his look,
that encouraged the retailer to proceed.
“It is just what I think myself,
my lord,” he continued, simpering; “but
then,” he added, with a condoling and patronizing
air, “how should they know any better?
England is but an island, after all; and the whole
world cannot be born and educated on the same bit
of earth.”
“’Twould be inconvenient,
Carnaby, if it led to no other unpleasant consequence.”
“Almost, word for word, what
I said to Mrs. Carnaby myself, no later than yesterday,
my lord, only vastly better expressed. ’Twould
be inconvenient, said I, Mrs. Carnaby, to take in
the other lodger, for every body cannot live in the
same house; which covers, as it were, the ground taken
in your lordship’s sentiment. I ought to
add, in behalf of the poor woman, that she expressed,
on the same occasion, strong regrets that it is reported
your lordship will be likely to quit us soon, on your
return to old England.”
“That is really a subject on
which there is more cause to rejoice than to weep.
This imprisoning, or placing within limits, so near
a relative of the crown, is an affair that must have
unpleasant consequences, and which offends sadly against
all propriety.”
“It is awful, my lord!
If it be not sacrilege by the law, the greater the
shame of the opposition in Parliament, who defeat so
many other wholesome regulations, intended for the
good of the subject.”
“Faith, I am not sure I may
not be driven to join them myself, bad as they are,
Carnaby; for this neglect of ministers, not to call
it by a worse name, might goad a man to even a more
heinous measure.’
“I am sure nobody could blame
your lordship, were your lordship to join any body,
or any thing but the French! I have often told
Mrs. Carnaby as much as that, in our frequent conversations
concerning the unpleasant situation in which your
lordship is just now placed.”
“I had not thought the awkward
transaction attracted so much notice,” observed
the other, evidently wincing under the allusion.
“It attracts it only in a proper
and respectful way, my lord. Neither Mrs. Carnaby,
nor myself, ever indulges in any of these remarks,
but in the most proper and truly English manner.”
“The reservation might palliate
a greater error. That word proper is a prudent
term, and expresses all one could wish. I had
not thought you so intelligent and shrewd a man, Master
Carnaby: clever in the way of business, I always
knew you to be; but so apt in reason, and so matured
in principle, is what I will confess I had not expected.
Can you form no conjecture of the business of this
man?”
“Not in the least, my lord.
I pressed the impropriety of a personal interview;
for, though he alluded to some business or other, I
scarcely know what, with which he appeared to think
your lordship had some connexion, I did not understand
him, and we had like to have parted without an explanation.”
“I will not see the fellow.”
“Just as your lordship pleases I
am sure that, after so many little affairs have passed
through my hands, I might be safely trusted with this;
and I said as much, but as he positively
refused to make me an agent, and he insisted that
it was so much to your lordship’s interests why,
I thought, my lord, that perhaps just now ”
“Show him in.”
Carnaby bowed low and submissively,
and after busying himself in placing the chairs aside,
and adjusting the table more conveniently for the elbow
of his guest, he left the room.
“Where is the man I bid you
keep in the shop?” demanded the retailer, in
a coarse, authoritative voice, when without; addressing
a meek and humble-looking lad, who did the duty of
clerk. “I warrant me, he is left in the
kitchen, and you have been idling about on the walk!
A more heedless and inattentive lad than yourself
is not to be found in America, and the sun never rises
but I repent having signed your indentures. You
shall pay for this, you ”
The appearance of the person he sought,
cut short the denunciations of the obsequious grocer
and the domestic tyrant. He opened the door, and,
having again closed it, left his two visiters together.
Though the degenerate descendant of
the great Clarendon had not hesitated to lend his
office to cloak the irregular and unlawful trade that
was then so prevalent in the American seas, he had
paid the sickly but customary deference to virtue,
of refusing on all occasions, to treat personally
with its agents. Sheltered behind his official
and personal rank, he had soothed his feelings, by
tacitly believing that cupidity is less venal when
its avenues are hidden, and that in protecting his
station from an immediate contact with its ministers,
he had discharged an important, and, for one in his
situation, an imperative, duty. Unequal to the
exercise of virtue itself, he thought he had done
enough in preserving some of its seemliness.
Though far from paying even this slight homage to decency,
in his more ordinary habits, his pride of rank had,
on the subject of so coarse a failing, induced him
to maintain an appearance which his pride of character
would not have suggested. Carnaby was much the
most degraded and the lowest of those with whom he
ever condescended to communicate directly; and even
with him there might have been some scruple, had not
his necessities caused him to stoop so far as to accept
pecuniary assistance from one he both despised and
detested.
When the door opened, therefore, the
lord Cornbury rose, and, determined to bring the interview
to a speedy issue, he turned to face the individual
who entered, with a mien, into which he threw all the
distance and hauteur that he thought necessary for
such an object. But he encountered, in the mariner
of the India-shawl, a very different man from the
flattering and obsequious grocer who had just quitted
him. Eye met eye; his gaze of authority receiving
a look as steady, if not as curious, as his own.
It was evident, by the composure of the fine manly
frame he saw, that its owner rested his claims on
the aristocracy of nature. The noble forgot his
acting under the influence of surprise, and his voice
expressed as much of admiration as command when he
said
“This, then, is the Skimmer of the Seas!”
“Men call me thus: if a
life passed on oceans gives a claim to the title,
it has been fairly earned.”
“Your character I
may say that some portions of your history, are not
unknown to me. Poor Carnaby, who is a worthy and
an industrious man, with a growing family dependent
on his exertions, has entreated me to receive you,
or there might be less apology for this step than I
could wish. Men of a certain rank, Master Skimmer,
owe so much to their station, that I rely on your
discretion.”
“I have stood in nobler presences,
my lord, and found so little change by the honor,
that I am not apt to boast of what I see. Some
of princely rank have found their profit in my acquaintance.”
“I do not deny your usefulness,
Sir; it is only the necessity of prudence, I would
urge. There has been, I believe, some sort of
implied contract between us at least, so
Carnaby explains the transaction, for I rarely enter
into these details, myself by which you
may perhaps feel some right to include me in the list
of your customers. Men in high places must respect
the laws, and yet it is not always convenient, or even
useful, that they should deny themselves every indulgence,
which policy would prohibit to the mass. One
who has seen as much of life as yourself, needs no
explanations on this head; and I cannot doubt, but
our present interview will have a satisfactory termination.”
The Skimmer scarce deemed it necessary
to conceal the contempt that caused his lip to curl,
while the other was endeavoring to mystify his cupidity;
and when the speaker was done, he merely expressed
an assent by a slight inclination of the head.
The ex-governor saw that his attempt was fruitless,
and, by relinquishing his masquerade, and yielding
more to his natural propensities and tastes, he succeeded
better.
“Carnaby has been a faithful
agent,” he continued, “and by his reports,
it would seem that our confidence has not been misplaced.
If fame speaks true, there is not a more dexterous
navigator of the narrow seas than thyself, Master
Skimmer. It is to be supposed that your correspondents
on this coast, too, are as lucrative as I doubt not
they are numerous.”
“He who sells cheap can never
want a purchaser. I think your lordship has no
reason to complain of prices.”
“As pointed as his compass!
Well, Sir, as I am no longer master here, may I ask
the object of this interview?”
“I have come to seek your interest
in behalf of one who has fallen into the grasp of
the Queen’s officers.”
“Hum the amount of
which is, that the cruiser in the bay has entrapped
some careless smuggler. We are none of us immortal,
and an arrest is but a legal death to men of your
persuasion in commerce. Interest is a word of
many meanings. It is the interest of one man to
lend, and of another to borrow; of the creditor to
receive, and of the debtor to avoid payment.
Then there is interest at court, and interest in court in
short, you must deal more frankly, ere I can decide
on the purport of your visit.”
“I am not ignorant that the
Queen has been pleased to name another governor over
this colony, or that your creditors, my lord, have
thought it prudent to take a pledge for their dues,
in your person. Still, I must think, that one
who stands so near the Queen in blood, and who sooner
or later must enjoy both rank and fortune in the mother
country, will not solicit so slight a boon as that
I ask, without success. This is the reason I
prefer to treat with you.”
“As clear an explanation as
the shrewdest casuist could desire! I admire
your succinctness, Master Skimmer, and confess you
for the pink of etiquette. When your fortune
shall be made, I recommend the court circle as your
place of retirement. Governors, creditors, Queen,
and imprisonment, all as compactly placed, in the
same sentence, as if it were the creed written on
a thumb-nail! Well, Sir, we will suppose my interest
what you wish it. Who and what is the delinquent?”
“One named Seadrift, a
useful and a pleasant youth, who passes much between
me and my customers; heedless and merry in his humors,
but dear to all in my brigantine, because of tried
fidelity and shrewd wit. We could sacrifice the
profits of the voyage, that he were free. To me
he is a necessary agent, for his skill in the judgment
of rich tissues, and other luxuries that compose my
traffic, is exceeding; and I am better fitted to guide
the vessel to her haven, and to look to her safety
amid shoals and in tempests, than to deal in these
trifles of female vanity.”
“So dexterous a go-between should
not have mistaken a tide-waiter for a customer how
befell the accident?”
“He met the barge of the Coquette
at an unlucky moment, and as we had so lately been
chased off the coast by the cruiser, there was no choice
but to arrest him.”
The dilemma is not without embarrassment.
When once his mind is settled, it is no trifle that
will amuse this Mr. Ludlow. I do not know a more
literal construer of his orders in the fleet; a
man, Sir, who thinks words have but a single set of
meanings, and who knows as little as can be imagined
on the difference between a sentiment and a practice.”
“He is a seaman, my lord, and
he reads his instructions with a seaman’s simplicity.
I think none the worse of him, that he cannot be tempted
from his duty; for, let us understand the right as
we will, our service once taken, it becomes us all
to do it faithfully.”
A small red spot came and went on
the cheek of the profligate Cornbury. Ashamed
of his weakness, he affected to laugh at what he had
heard, and continued the discourse.
“Your forbearance and charity
might adorn a churchman, Master Skimmer!” he
answered. “Nothing can be more true, for
this is an age of moral truths, as witness the Protestant
succession. Men are now expected to perform, and
not to profess. Is the fellow of such usefulness
that he may not be abandoned to his fate?”
“Much as I dote on my brigantine,
and few men set their affections on woman with a stronger
love, I would see the beauteous craft degenerate to
a cutter for the Queen’s revenue, before I would
entertain the thought! But I will not anticipate
a long and painful imprisonment for the youth, since
those who are not altogether powerless already take
a deep and friendly concern in his safety.”
“You have overcome the Brigadier!”
cried the other, in a burst of exultation, that conquered
the little reserve of manner he had thought it necessary
to maintain; “that immaculate and reforming representative
of my royal cousin has bitten of the golden bait,
and proves a true colony governor after all!”
“Lord Viscount, no. What
we have to hope or what we have to fear from your
successor, is to me a secret.”
“Ply him with promises, Master
Skimmer set golden hopes before his imagination;
set gold itself before his eyes, and you will prosper.
I will pledge my expected earldom that he yields!
Sir, these distant situations are like so many half-authorized
mints, in which money is to be coined; and the only
counterfeit is your mimic representative of Majesty.
Ply him with golden hopes; if mortal, he will yield!”
“And yet, my lord, I have met
men who preferred poverty and their opinions, to gold
and the wishes of others.”
“The dolts were lusus naturae!”
exclaimed the dissolute Cornbury, losing all his reserve
in a manner that better suited his known and confirmed
character. “You should have caged them,
Skimmer, and profited by their dullness, to lay the
curious under contribution. Don’t mistake
me, Sir, if I speak a little in confidence. I
hope I know the difference between a gentleman and
a leveller, as well as another; but trust me, this
Mr. Hunter is human, and he will yield if proper appliances
are used; and you expect from me ?”
“The exercise of that influence
which cannot fail of success; since there is a courtesy
between men of a certain station, which causes them
to overlook rivalry, in the spirit of their caste.
The cousin of Queen Anne can yet obtain the liberty
of one whose heaviest crime is a free trade, though
he may not be able to keep his own seat in the chair
of the government.”
“Thus far, indeed, my poor influence
may yet extend, provided the fellow be not named in
any act of outlawry. I would gladly enough Mr.
Skimmer end my deeds in this hemisphere, with some
act of graceful mercy, if indeed I
saw the means ”
“They shall not be wanting.
I know the law is like any other article of great
price; some think that Justice holds the balance, in
order to weigh her fees. Though the profits of
this hazardous and sleepless trade of mine be much
overrated, I would gladly line her scales with two
hundred broad pieces, to have that youth again safe
in the cabin of the brigantine.”
As the ‘Skimmer of the Seas’
thus spoke, he drew, with the calmness of a man who
saw no use in circumlocution, a heavy bag of gold from
beneath his frock, and deposited it, without a second
look at the treasure, on the table. When this
offering was made, he turned aside, less by design
than by a careless movement of the body, and, when
he faced his companion again, the bag had vanished.
“Your affection for the lad
is touching, Master Skimmer,” returned the corrupt
Cornbury; “it were a pity such friendship should
be wasted. Will there be proof to insure his
condemnation?”
“It may be doubted. His
dealings have only been with the higher class of my
customers, and with but few of them. The care
I now take is more in tenderness to the youth, than
with any great doubts of the result. I shall
count you, my lord, among his protectors, in the event
that the affair is noised?”
“I owe it to your frankness but
will Mr. Ludlow content himself with the possession
of an inferior, when the principal is so near? and
shall we not have a confiscation of the brigantine
on our hands?”
“I charge myself with the care
of all else. There was indeed a lucky escape,
only the last night, as we lay at a light kedge, waiting
for the return of him who has been arrested.
Profiting by the possession of our skiff; the commander
of the Coquette, himself, got within the sweep of my
hawse nay, he was in the act of cutting
the very fastenings, when the dangerous design was
discovered. ’Twould have been a fate unworthy
of the Water-Witch, to be cast on shore like a drifting
log, and to check her noble career by some such a
seizure as that of a stranded waif!”
“You avoided the mischance?”
“My eyes are seldom shut, lord
Viscount, when danger is nigh. The skiff was
seen in time, and watched; for I knew that one in whom
I trusted was abroad. When the movement
grew suspicious, we had our means of frightening this
Mr. Ludlow from his enterprise, without recourse to
violence.”
“I had not thought him one to
be scared from following up a business like this.”
“You judged him rightly I
may say we judged him rightly. But when his boats
sought us at our anchorage, the bird had flown.”
“You got the brigantine to sea,
in season?” observed Cornbury, not sorry to
believe that the vessel was already off the coast.
“I had other business.
My agent could not be thus deserted, and there were
affairs to finish in the city. Our course lay
up the bay.”
“Ha! Master Skimmer, ’twas
a bold step, and one that says little for your discretion!”
“Lord Viscount, there is safety
in courage,” calmly and perhaps ironically returned
the other. “While the Queen’s captain
closed all the outlets, my little craft was floating
quietly under the hills of Staten. Before the
morning watch was set, she passed these wharves; and
she now awaits her captain, in the broad basin that
lies beyond the bend of yonder head-land.”
“This is a hardiness to be condemned!
A failure of wind, a change of tide, or any of the
mishaps common to the sea, may throw you on the mercy
of the law, and will greatly embarrass all who feel
an interest in your safety.”
“So far as this apprehension
is connected with my welfare, I thank you much, my
lord; but, trust me, many hazards have left me but
little to learn in this particular. We shall
run the Hell-Gate, and gain the open sea by the Connecticut
Sound.”
“Truly, Master Skimmer, one
has need of nerves to be your confidant! Faith
in a compact constitutes the beauty of social order;
without it, there is no security for interests, nor
any repose for character. But faith may be implied,
as well as expressed; and when men in certain situations
place their dependence on others who should have motives
for being wary, the first are bound to respect, even
to the details of a most scrupulous construction,
the conditions of the covenant. Sir, I wash my
hands of this transaction, if it be understood that
testimony is to be accumulated against us, by thus
putting your Water-Witch in danger of trial before
the Admiralty.”
“I am sorry that this is your
decision,” returned the Skimmer. “What
is done, cannot be recalled, though I still hope it
may be remedied. My brigantine now lies within
a league of this, and ’twould be treachery to
deny it. Since it is your opinion, my lord, that
our contract is not valid, there is little use in
its seal the broad pieces may still be
serviceable, in shielding that youth from harm.”
“You are as literal in constructions,
Master Skimmer, as a school-boy’s version of
his Virgil. There is an idiom in diplomacy, as
well as in language, and one who treats so sensibly
should not be ignorant of its phrases. Bless
me, Sir; an hypothesis is not a conclusion, any more
than a promise is a performance. That which is
advanced by way of supposition, is but the ornament
of reasoning, while your gold has the more solid character
of demonstration. Our bargain is made.”
The unsophisticated mariner regarded
the noble casuist a moment, in doubt whether to acquiesce
in this conclusion, or not; but ere he had decided
on his course, the windows of the room were shaken
violently, and then came the heavy roar of a piece
of ordnance.
“The morning gun!” exclaimed
Cornbury, who started at the explosion, with the sensitiveness
of one unworthily employed. “No! ’tis
an hour past the rising of the sun!”
The Skimmer showed no yielding of
the nerves though it was evident, by his attitude
of thought and the momentary fixedness of his eye,
that he foresaw danger was near. Moving to the
window, he looked out on the water, and instantly
drew back, like one who wanted no further evidence.
“Our bargain then is made,”
he said, hastily approaching the Viscount, whose hand
he seized and wrung in spite of the other’s obvious
reluctance to allow the familiarity; “our bargain
then is made. Deal fairly by the youth, and the
deed will be remembered deal treacherously,
and it shall be revenged!”
For one instant longer, the Skimmer
held the member of the effeminate Cornbury imprisoned;
and then, raising his cap with a courtesy that appeared
more in deference to himself than his companion, he
turned on his heel, and with a firm but quick step
he left the house.
Carnaby, who entered on the instant,
found his guest in a state between resentment, surprise,
and alarm. But habitual levity soon conquered
other feelings, and, finding himself freed from the
presence of a man who had treated him with so little
ceremony, the ex-governor shook his head, like one
accustomed to submit to evils he could not obviate,
and assumed the ease and insolent superiority he was
accustomed to maintain in the presence of the obsequious
grocer.
“This may be a coral or a pearl,
or any other lion ha! do I not see the
masts of a ship, moving above the roofs of yonder line
of stores?”
“Well, your lordship has the
quickest eye! and the happiest way of seeing
things, of any nobleman in England! Now I should
have stared a quarter of an hour, before I thought
of looking over the roofs of those stores, at all;
and yet your lordship looks there at the very first
glance.”
“Is it a ship or a brig, Master
Carnaby you have the advantage of position,
for I would not willingly be seen speak
quickly, dolt; is it ship, or brig?”
“My lord ’tis
a brig or a ship really I must
ask your lordship, for I know so little of these things ”
“Nay, complaisant Master Carnaby have
an opinion of your own for one moment, if you please there
is smoke curling upward, behind those masts ”
Another rattling of windows, and a
second report, removed all doubts on the subject of
the firing. At the next instant, the bows of a
vessel of war appeared at the opening of a ship-yard,
and then came gun after gun in view, until the whole
broadside and frowning battery of the Coquette were
visible.
The Viscount sought no further solution
of the reason why the Skimmer had left him so hurriedly.
Fumbling a moment in a pocket, he drew forth a hand
filled with broad pieces of gold. These he appeared
about to lay upon the table; but, as it were by forgetfulness,
he kept the member closed, and bidding the grocer
adieu, he left the house, with as firm a resolution
as was ever made by any man, conscious of having done
both a weak and a wicked action, of never again putting
himself in familial contact with so truckling a miscreant.