“Beseech you, Sir, were
you present at this relation?”
Winter’s Tale.
On the following morning, the windows
of the Lust in Rust denoted the presence of its owner.
There was an air of melancholy, and yet of happiness,
in the faces of many who were seen about the buildings
and the grounds, as if a great good had been accompanied
by some grave and qualifying circumstances of sorrow.
The negroes wore an air of that love of the extraordinary
which is the concomitant of ignorance, while those
of the more fortunate class resembled men who retained
a recollection of serious evils that were past.
In the private apartment of the burgher,
however, an interview took place which was characterized
by an air of deep concern. The parties were only
the free-trader and the Alderman. But it was apparent,
in the look of each, that they met like men who had
interesting and serious matters to discuss. Still,
one accustomed to the expressions of the human countenance
might have seen, that while the former was about to
introduce topics in which his feelings were powerfully
enlisted, the other looked only to the grosser interests
of his commerce.
“My minutes are counted;”
said the mariner, stepping into the centre of the
room, and facing his companion. “That which
is to be said, must be said briefly. The inlet
can only be passed on the rising water, and it will
ill consult your opinions of prudence, were I to tarry,
till the hue and cry, that will follow the intelligence
of that which has lately happened in the offing, shall
be heard in the Province.”
“Spoken with a rover’s
discretion! This reserve will perpetuate friendship,
which is nought weakened by your activity in our late
uncomfortable voyage on the yards and masts of Queen
Anne’s late cruiser. Well! I wish
no ill-luck to any loyal gentleman in Her Majesty’s
service; but it is a thousand pities that thou wert
not ready, now the coast is clear, with a good heavy
inward cargo! The last was altogether an affair
of secret drawers, and rich laces; valuable in itself,
and profitable in the exchange: but the colony
is sadly in want of certain articles that can only
be landed at leisure.”
“I come on other matters.
There have been transactions between us, Alderman
Van Beverout, that you little understand.”
“You speak of a small mistake
in the last invoice? ’Tis all explained,
Master Skimmer, on a second examination; and thy accuracy
is as well established as that of the bank of England.”
“Established or not, let him
who doubts cease to deal. I have no other
motto than ‘confidence,’ nor any other
rule but ‘justice.’”
“You overrun my meaning, friend
of mine. I intimate no suspicions; but accuracy
is the soul of commerce, as profit is its object.
Clear accounts, with reasonable balances, are the
surest cements of business intimacies. A little
frankness operates, in a secret trade, like equity
in the courts; which reestablishes the justice that
the law has destroyed. What is thy purpose?”
“It is now many years, Alderman
Van Beverout, since this secret trade was commenced
between you and my predecessor, he, whom
you have thought my father, but who only claimed that
revered appellation by protecting the helplessness
and infancy of the orphan child of a friend.”
“The latter circumstance is
new to me;” returned the burgher, slowly bowing
his head. “It may explain certain levities
which have not been without their embarrassment.
’Tis five-and-twenty years, come August, Master
Skimmer, and twelve of them have been under thy auspices.
I will not say that the adventures might not have
been better managed; as it is, they are tolerable.
I am getting old, and think of closing the risks and
hazards of life two or three, or, at the
most, four or five, lucky voyages, must, I think,
bring a final settlement between us.”
“’Twill be made sooner.
I believe the history of my predecessor was no secret
to you. The manner in which he was driven from
the marine of the Stuarts, on account of his opposition
to tyranny; his refuge with an only daughter, in the
colonies; and his final recourse to the free-trade
for a livelihood, have often been alluded to between
us.”
“Hum I have a good
memory for business, Master Skimmer, but I am as forgetful
as a new-made lord of his pedigree, on all matters
that should be overlooked. I dare say, however,
it was as you have stated.”
“You know, that when my protector
and predecessor abandoned the land, he took his all
with him upon the water.”
“He took a wholesome and good-going
schooner, Master Skimmer, with an assorted freight
of chosen tobacco, well ballasted with stones from
off the seashore. He was no foolish admirer of
sea-green women, and flaunting brigantines. Often
did the royal cruisers mistake the worthy dealer for
an industrious fisherman!”
“He had his humors, and I have
mine. But you forget a part of the freight he
carried; a part that was not the least valuable.”
“There might have been a bale
of marten’s furs for the trade was
just getting brisk in that article.”
The Alderman made an involuntary movement
which nearly hid his countenance from his companion.
“There was, indeed, a beautiful,
and, as you say, a most warm-hearted girl, in the
concern!” he uttered, in a voice that was subdued
and hoarse. “She died, as I have heard
from thyself, Master Skimmer, in the Italian seas.
I never saw the father, after the last visit of his
child to this coast.”
“She did die, among the islands
of the Mediterranean. But the void she left in
the hearts of all who knew her, was filled, in time,
by her daughter.”
The Alderman started from his chair,
and, looking the free-trader intently and anxiously
in the face, he slowly repeated the word
“Daughter!”
“I have said it. Eudora
is the daughter of that injured woman need
I say, who is the father?”
The burgher groaned, and, covering
his face with his hands, he sunk back into his chair,
shivering convulsively.
“What evidence have I of this?”
he at length muttered “Eudora is thy
sister!”
The answer of the free-trader was
accompanied by a melancholy smile.
“You have been deceived.
Save the brigantine my being is attached to nothing.
When my own brave father fell by the side of him who
protected my youth, none of my blood were left.
I loved him as a father, and he called me son, while
Eudora was passed upon you as the child of a second
marriage But here is sufficient evidence of her birth.”
The Alderman took a paper, which his
companion put gravely into his hand, and his eyes
ran eagerly over its contents. It was a letter
to himself from the mother of Eudora, written after
the birth of the latter, and with the endearing affection
of a woman. The love between the young merchant
and the fair daughter of his secret correspondent had
been less criminal on his part than most similar connexions.
Nothing but the peculiarity of their situation, and
the real embarrassment of introducing to the world
one whose existence was unknown to his friends, and
their mutual awe of the unfortunate but still proud
parent, had prevented a legal marriage. The simple
forms of the colony were easily satisfied, and there
was even some reason to raise a question whether they
had not been sufficiently consulted to render the
offspring legitimate. As Myndert Van Beverout,
therefore, read the epistle of her whom he had once
so truly loved, and whose loss had, in more senses
than one, been to him an irreparable misfortune, since
his character might have yielded to her gentle and
healthful influence, his limbs trembled, and his whole
frame betrayed the violence of extreme agitation.
The language of the dying woman was kind and free
from reproach, but it was solemn and admonitory.
She communicated the birth of their child; but she
left it to the disposition of her own father, while
she apprized the author of its being of its existence;
and, in the event of its ever being consigned to his
care, she earnestly recommended it to his love.
The close was a leave-taking, in which the lingering
affections of this life were placed in mournful contrast
to the hopes of the future.
“Why has this so long been hidden
from me?” demanded the agitated merchant “Why,
oh reckless and fearless man! have I been permitted
to expose the frailties of nature to my own child?”
The smile of the free-trader was bitter, and proud.
“Mr. Van Beverout, we are no
dealers of the short voyage. Our trade is the
concern of life; our world, the Water-Witch.
As we have so little of the interests of the land,
our philosophy is above its weaknesses. The birth
of Eudora was concealed from you, at the will of her
grandfather. It might have been resentment; it
might have been pride. Had it been affection,
the girl has that to justify the fraud.”
“And Eudora, herself? Does
she or has she long known the truth?”
“But lately. Since the
death of our common friend, the girl has been solely
dependent on me for counsel and protection. It
is now a year since she first learned she was not
my sister. Until then, like you, she supposed
us equally derived from one who was the parent of neither.
Necessity has compelled me, of late, to keep her much
in the brigantine.”
“The retribution is righteous!”
groaned the Alderman, “I am punished for my
pusillanimity, in the degradation of my own child!”
The step of the free-trader, as he
advanced nearer to his companion, was full of dignity;
and his keen eye glowed with the resentment of an
offended man.
“Alderman Van Beverout,”
he said, with stern rebuke in his voice, “you
receive your daughter, stainless as was her unfortunate
mother, when necessity compelled him whose being was
wrapped up in hers, to trust her beneath your roof.
We of the contraband have our own opinions, of right
and wrong, and my gratitude, no less than my principles,
teaches me that the descendant of my benefactor is
to be protected, not injured. Had I, in truth,
been the brother of Eudora, language and conduct more
innocent could not have been shown her, than that
she has both heard and witnessed while guarded by
my care.”
“From my soul, I thank thee!”
burst from the lips the Alderman. “The girl
shall be acknowledged; and with such a dowry as I can
give, she may yet hope for a suitable and honorable
marriage.”
“Thou may’st bestow her
on thy favorite Patroon;” returned the Skimmer,
with a calm but sad eye. “She is more than
worthy of all he can return. The man is willing
to take her, for he is not ignorant of her sex and
history. That much I thought due to Eudora herself,
when fortune placed the young man in my power.”
“Thou art only too honest for
this wicked world, Master Skimmer! Let me see
the loving pair, and bestow my blessing, on the instant!”
The free-trader turned slowly away,
and, opening a door, he motioned for those within
to enter. Alida instantly appeared, leading the
counterfeit Seadrift, clad in the proper attire of
her sex. Although the burgher had often seen
the supposed sister of the Skimmer in her female habiliments,
she never before had struck him as a being of so rare
beauty as at that moment. The silken whiskers
had been removed, and in their places were burning
cheeks, that were rather enriched than discolored by
the warm touches of the sun. The dark glossy
ringlets, that were no longer artfully converted to
the purposes of the masquerade, fell naturally in curls
about the temples and brows, shading a countenance
which in general was playfully arch, though at that
moment it was shadowed by reflection and feeling.
It is seldom that two such beings are seen together,
as those who now knelt at the feet of the merchant.
In the breast of the latter, the accustomed and lasting
love of the uncle and protector appeared, for an instant,
to struggle with the new-born affection of a parent.
Nature was too strong for even his blunted and perverted
sentiments; and, calling his child aloud by name,
the selfish and calculating Alderman sunk upon the
neck of Eudora, and wept. It would have been difficult
to trace the emotions of the stern but observant free-trader,
as he watched the progress of this scene. Distrust,
uneasiness, and finally melancholy, were in his eye.
With the latter expression predominant, he quitted
the room, like one who felt a stranger had no right
to witness emotions so sacred.
Two hours later, and the principal
personages of the narrative were assembled on the
margin of the Cove, beneath the shade of an oak that
seemed coeval with the continent. The brigantine
was aweigh; and, under a light show of canvas, she
was making easy stretches in the little basin, resembling,
by the ease and grace of her movements, some beautiful
swan sailing up and down in the enjoyment of its instinct.
A boat had just touched the shore, and the ‘Skimmer
of the Seas’ stood near, stretching out a hand
to aid the boy Zephyr to land.
“We subjects of the elements
are slaves to superstition;” he said, when the
light foot of the child touched the ground. “It
is the consequence of lives which ceaselessly present
dangers superior to our powers. For many years
have I believed that some great good, or some greater
evil, would accompany the first visit of this boy
to the land. For the first time, his foot now
stands on solid earth. I await the fulfilment
of the augury!”
“It will be happy;” returned
Ludlow “Alida and Eudora will instruct
him in the opinions of this simple and fortunate country,
and he seemeth one likely to do early credit to his
schooling.”
“I fear the boy will regret
the lessons of the sea-green lady! Captain
Ludlow, there is yet a duty to perform, which, as a
man of more feeling than you may be disposed to acknowledge,
I cannot neglect. I have understood that you
are accepted by la belle Barberie?”
“Such is my happiness.”
“Sir, in dispensing with explanation
of the past you have shown a noble confidence, that
merits a return. When I came upon this coast,
it was with a determination of establishing the claims
of Eudora to the protection and fortune of her father.
If i distrusted the influence and hostility of one
so placed, and so gifted to persuade, as this lady,
you will remember it was before acquaintance had enabled
me to estimate more than her beauty. She was
seized in her pavilion by my agency, and transported
as a captive to the brigantine.”
“I had believed her acquainted
with the history of her cousin, and willing to aid
in some fantasy which was to lead to the present happy
restoration of the latter to her natural friends.”
“You did her disinterestedness
no more than justice. As some atonement for the
personal wrong, and as the speediest and surest means
of appeasing her alarm, I made my captive acquainted
with the facts. Eudora then heard, also for the
first time, the history of her origin. The evidence
was irresistible, and we found a generous and devoted
friend where we had expected a rival.”
“I knew that Alida could not
prove less generous!” cried the admiring Ludlow,
raising the hand of the blushing girl to his lips.
“The loss of fortune is a gain, by showing her
true character!”
“Hist hist ”
interrupted the Alderman “there is
little need to proclaim a loss of any kind. What
must be done in the way of natural justice, will doubtless
be submitted to; but why let all in the colony know
how much, or how little, is given with a bride?”
“The loss of fortune will be
amply met;” returned the free-trader. “These
bags contain gold. The dowry of my charge is ready
at a moment’s warning, whenever she shall make
known her choice.”
“Success and prudence!”
exclaimed the burgher. “There is no less
than a most commendable forethought in thy provision,
Master Skimmer; and whatever may be the opinion of
the Exchequer Judges of thy punctuality and credit,
it is mine that there are less responsible men about
the bank of England itself! This money
is, no doubt, that which the girl can lawfully claim
in right of her late grand father!”
“It is.”
“I take this to be a favorable
moment to speak plainly on a subject which is very
near my heart, and which may as well be broached under
such favorable auspices as under any other. I
understand, Mr. Van Staats, that, on a further examination
of your sentiments towards an old friend, you are
of opinion that a closer alliance than the one we had
contemplated will most conduce to your happiness?”
“I will acknowledge that the
coldness of la belle Barberie has damped my own warmth;”
returned the Patroon of Kinderhook, who rarely delivered
himself of more, at a time, than the occasion required.
“And, furthermore, I have been
told, Sir, that an intimacy of a fortnight has given
you reason to fix your affections on my daughter, whose
beauty is hereditary, and whose fortune is not likely
to be diminished by this act of justice on the part
of that upright and gallant mariner.”
“To be received into the favor
of your family, Mr. Van Beverout, would leave me little
to desire in this life.”
“And as for the other world,
I never heard of a Patroon of Kinderhook who did not
leave us with comfortable hopes for the future; as
in reason they should, since few families in the colony
have done more for the support of religion than they.
They gave largely to the Dutch churches in Manhattan;
have actually built, with their own means, three very
pretty brick edifices on the Manor, each having its
Flemish steeple and suitable weather-cocks besides
having done something handsome towards the venerable
structure in Albany. Eudora, my child, this gentleman
is a particular friend, and as such I can presume
to recommend him to thy favor. You are not absolutely
strangers; but, in order that you may have every occasion
to decide impartially, you will remain here together
for a month longer, which will enable you to choose
without distraction and confusion. More than
this, for the present, it is unnecessary to say; for
it is my practice to leave all matters of this magnitude
entirely to Providence.”
The daughter, on whose speaking face
the color went and came like lights changing in an
Italian sky, continued silent.
“You have happily put aside
the curtain which concealed a mystery that no longer
gave me uneasiness;” interrupted Ludlow, addressing
the free-trader. “Can you do more, and
say whence came this letter?”
The dark eye of Eudora instantly lighted.
She looked at the ’Skimmer of the Seas,’
and laughed.
“’Twas another of those
womanly artifices which have been practised in my
brigantine. It was thought that a young commander
of a royal cruiser would be less apt to watch our
movements, were his mind bent on the discovery of
such a correspondent.”
“And the trick has been practised before?”
“I confess it. But
I can linger no longer. In a few minutes, the
tide will turn, and the inlet become impassable.
Eudora, we must decide on the fortunes of this child.
Shall he to the ocean again? or shall he
remain, to vary his life with a landsman’s chances?”
“Who and what is the boy?” gravely demanded
the Alderman.
“One dear to both,” rejoined
the free-trader “His father was my nearest friend,
and his mother long watched the youth of Eudora.
Until this moment, he has, been our mutual care, he
must now choose between us.”
“He will not quit me!”
hastily interrupted the alarmed Eudora “Thou
art my adopted son, and none can guide thy young mind
like me. Thou hast need of woman’s tenderness,
Zephyr, and wilt not quit me?”
“Let the child be the arbiter
of his own fate. I am credulous on the point
of fortune, which is, at least, a happy belief for
the contraband.”
“Then let him speak. Wilt
remain here, amid these smiling fields, to ramble
among yonder gay and sweetly-scented flowers? or
wilt thou back to the water, where all is vacant and
without change?”
The boy looked wistfully into her
anxious eye, and then he bent his own hesitating glance
on the calm features of the free-trader.
“We can put to sea,” he
said; “and when we make the homeward passage
again, there will be many curious things for thee,
Eudora!”
“But this may be the last opportunity
to know the land of thy ancestors. Remember how
terrible is the ocean in its anger, and how often the
brigantine has been in danger of shipwreck!”
“Nay, that is womanish! I
have been on the royal-yard in the squalls, and it
never seemed to me that there was danger.”
“Thou hast the unconsciousness
and reliance of a ship-boy! But those who are
older, know that the life of a sailor is one of constant
and imminent hazard. Thou hast been among
the islands in the hurricane, and hast seen the power
of the elements!”
“I was in the hurricane, and
so was the brigantine; and there you see how taut
and neat she is aloft, as if nothing had happened!”
“And you saw us yesterday floating
on the open sea, while a few ill-fastened spars kept
us from going into its depths!”
“The spars floated, and you
were not drowned; else, I should have wept bitterly,
Eudora.”
“But thou wilt go deeper into
the country, and see more of its beauties its
rivers, and its mountains its caverns, and
its woods. Here all is change, while the water
is ever the same.”
“Surely, Eudora, you forget
strangely! Here it is all America.
This mountain is America; yonder land across the bay
is America, and the anchorage of yesterday was America.
When we shall run off the coast, the next land-fall
will be England, or Holland, or Africa; and with a
good wind, we may run down the shores of two or three
countries in a day.”
“And on them, too, thoughtless
boy! If you lose this occasion, thy life will
be wedded to hazard!”
“Farewell, Eudora!” said
the urchin, raising his mouth to give and receive
the parting kiss.
“Eudora, adieu!” added
a deep and melancholy voice, at her elbow. “I
can delay no longer, for my people show symptoms of
impatience. Should this be the last of my voyages
to the coast, thou wilt not forget those with whom
thou hast so long shared good and evil!”
“Not yet not yet you
will not quit us yet! Leave me the boy leave
me some other memorial of the past, besides this pain!”
“My hour has come. The
wind is freshening, and I trifle with its favor.
’Twill be better for thy happiness that none
know the history of the brigantine; and a few hours
will draw a hundred curious eyes, from the town, upon
us.”
“What care I for their opinions? thou
wilt not cannot leave me, yet!”
“Gladly would I stay, Eudora,
but a seaman’s home is his ship. Too much
precious time is already wasted. Once more, adieu!”
The dark eye of the girl glanced wildly
about her. It seemed, as if in that one quick
and hurried look, it drank in all that belonged to
the land and its enjoyments.
“Whither go you?” she
asked, scarce suffering her voice to rise above a
whisper. “Whither do you sail, and when
do you return?”
“I follow fortune. My return
may be distant never! Adieu then,
Eudora be happy with the friends that Providence
hath given thee!”
The wandering eyes of the girl of
the sea became still more unsettled. She grasped
the offered hand of the free-trader in both her own,
and wrung it in an impassioned and unconscious manner.
Then releasing her hold, she opened wide her arms,
and cast them convulsively about his unmoved and unyielding
form.
“We will go together! I am thine,
and thine only!”
“Thou knowest not what thou
sayest, Eudora!” gasped the Skimmer “Thou
hast a father friend husband ”
“Away, away!” cried the
frantic girl, waving her hand wildly towards Alida
and the Patroon, who advanced as if hurrying to rescue
her from a precipice “Thine, and
thine only!”
The smuggler released himself from
her frenzied grasp, and, with the strength of a giant,
he held the struggling girl at the length of his arm,
while he endeavored to control the tempest of passion
that struggled within him.
“Think, for one moment, think!”
he said. “Thou wouldst follow an outcast an
outlaw one hunted and condemned of men!”
“Thine, and thine only!”
“With a ship for a dwelling the tempestuous
ocean for a world! ”
“Thy world is my world! thy home,
my home! thy danger, mine!”
The shout which burst out of the chest
of the ‘Skimmer of the Seas’ was one of
uncontrollable exultation.
“Thou art mine!” he cried.
“Before a tie like this, the claim of such a
father is forgotten! Burgher, adieu! I
will deal by thy daughter more honestly than thou
didst deal by my benefactor’s child!”
Eudora was lifted from the ground
as if her weight had been that of a feather; and,
spite of a sudden and impetuous movement of Ludlow
and the Patroon, she was borne to the boat. In
a moment, the bark was afloat, with the gallant boy
tossing his sea-cap upward in triumph. The brigantine,
as if conscious of what had passed, wore round like
a whirling chariot; and, ere the spectators had recovered
from their confusion and wonder, the boat was hanging
at the tackles. The free-trader was seen on the
poop, with an arm cast about the form of Eudora, waving
a hand to the motionless group on the shore, while
the still half-unconscious girl of the ocean signed
her faint adieus to Alida and her father. The
vessel glided through the inlet, and was immediately
rocking on the billows of the surf. Then, taking
the full weight of the southern breeze, the fine and
attenuated spars bent to its force, and the progress
of the swift-moving craft was apparent by the bubbling
line of its wake.
The day had begun to decline, before
Alida and Ludlow quitted the lawn of the Lust in Rust.
For the first hour, the dark hull of the brigantine
was seen supporting the moving cloud of canvas.
Then the low structure vanished, and sail after sail
settled into the water, until nothing was visible
but a speck of glittering white. It lingered for
a minute, and was swallowed in the void.
The nuptials of Ludlow and Alida were
touched with a shade of melancholy. Natural affection
in one, and professional sympathy in the other, had
given them a deep and lasting interest in the fate
of the adventurers.
Years passed away, and months were
spent at the villa, in which a thousand anxious looks
were cast upon the ocean. Each morning, during
the early months of summer, did Alida hasten to the
windows of her pavilion, in the hope of seeing the
vessel of the contraband anchored in the Cove: but
always without success. It never returned; and
though the rebuked and disappointed Alderman caused
many secret inquiries to be made along the whole extent
of the American coast, he never again heard of the
renowned ‘skimmer of the seas’
or of his matchless water-witch.