The Red Rover Part 55

"Oh! that was an excellent military ruse! I shall certainly write the particulars of that deception home."

"Do so; do so, sir; you may get knighthood for the exploit."

"Horrible, Bignall! my Lady mother would faint at the suggestion. Nothing so low has been in the family, I do a.s.sure you, since the time when chivalry was genteel."

"Well, well, Captain Howard, it was happy for us both that you got rid of your Gallic humour so soon; for a little more time would have drawn a broadside from me. By heavens, sir, the guns of this ship would have gone off of themselves, in another five minutes!"

"It is quite happy as it is.--What do you find to amuse you (yawning) in this dull quarter of the world, Bignall?"

"Why, sir, what between his Majesty's enemies, the care of my ship, and the company of my officers, I find few heavy moments."

"Ah! your officers: True, you _must_ have officers on board; though, I suppose, they are a little oldish to be agreeable to _you_. Will you favour me with a sight of the list?"

The Commander of the 'Dart' did as he was requested, putting the quarter-bill of his ship into the hands of his unknown enemy, with an eye that was far too honest to condescend to bestow even a look on a being so much despised.

"What a list of thorough 'mouthers! All Yarmouth, and Plymouth, and Portsmouth, and Exmouth names, I do affirm. Here are Smiths enough to do the iron-work of the whole ship. Ha! here is a fellow that might do good service in a deluge. Who may be this Henry Ark, that I find rated as your first lieutenant?"

"A youth who wants but a few drops of your blood, Captain Howard, to be one day at the head of his Majesty's fleet."

"If he be then so extraordinary for his merit, Captain Bignall, may I presume on your politeness to ask him to favour us with his society. I always give my lieutenant half an hour of a morning--if he be genteel."

"Poor boy! G.o.d knows where he is to be found at this moment. The n.o.ble fellow has embarked, of his own accord, on a most dangerous service, and I am as ignorant as yourself of his success. Remonstrance and even entreaties, were of no avail. The Admiral had great need of a suitable agent, and the good of the nation demanded the risk; then, you know, men of humble birth must earn their preferment in cruising elsewhere than at St. James's; for the brave lad is indebted to a wreck, in which he was found an infant, for the very name you find so singular."

"He is, however, still borne upon your books as first lieutenant?"

"And I hope ever will be, until he shall get the ship he so well merits.--Good Heaven! are you ill Captain Howard? Boy, a tumbler of grog here."

"I thank you, sir," returned the Rover, smiling calmly, and rejecting the offered beverage, as the blood returned into his features, with a violence that threatened to break through the ordinary boundaries of its currents.

"It is no more than an ailing I inherit from my mother. We call it, in our family, the 'de Vere ivory;' for no other reason, that I could ever learn, than that one of my female ancestors was particularly startled, in a delicate situation, you know, by an elephant's tooth. I am told it has rather an amiable look, while it lasts."

"It has the look of a man who is fitter for his mother's nursery than a gale of wind. But I am glad it is so soon over."

"No one wears the same face long now-a-days, Bignall.--And so this Mr Ark is not any body, after all.

"I know not what you call 'any body,' sir; but, if sterling courage, great professional merit, and stern loyalty, count for any thing on your late cruising grounds, Captain Howard, Henry Ark will soon be in command of a frigate."

"Perhaps, if one only knew exactly on what to found his claims," continued the Rover, with a smile so kind, and a voice so insinuating, that they half counteracted the effect of his a.s.sumed manner, "a word might be dropped, in a letter home, that should do the youth no harm."

"I would to Heaven I dare but reveal the nature of the service he is on!"

eagerly returned the warm-hearted old seaman, who was as quick to forget, as he was sudden to feel, disgust. "You may, however, safely say, from his general character, that it is honourable, hazardous, and has the entire good of his Majesty's subjects in view. Indeed, an hour has scarcely gone by since I thought that, it was completely successful.--Do you often set your lofty sails, Captain Howard, while the heavier canvas is rolled upon the yards? To me, a ship clothed in that style looks something like a man with his coat on, before he has cased his legs in the lower garment."

"You allude to the accident of my maintop-gallant-sail getting loose when you first made me?"

"I mean no other. We had caught a glimpse of your spars with the gla.s.s; but had lost you altogether, when the flying duck met the eye of a look-out. To say the least, it, was remarkable, and it might have proved an awkward circ.u.mstance."

"Ah! I often do things in that way, in order to be odd. It is a sign of cleverness to be odd, you know.--But I, too, am sent into these seas on a special errand."

"Such as what?" bluntly demanded his companion with an uneasiness about his frowning eye that he was far too simple-minded to conceal.

"To look for a ship that will certainly give me a famous lift, should I have the good luck to fall in with her. For some time, I took you for the very gentle man I was in search of; and I do a.s.sure you, if your signals had not been so very unexceptionable, something serious might have happened between us."

"And pray, sir, for whom did you take me?"

"For no other than that notorious knave the Red Rover."

"The devil you did! And do yon suppose, Captain Howard, there is a pirate afloat who carries such hamper above his head as is to be found aboard the Dart?' Such a set to her sails--such a step to her masts--and such a trim to her hull? I hope, for the honour of your vessel, sir, that the mistake went no further than the Captain?"

"Until we got within leading distance of the signals, at least a moiety of the better opinions in my ship was dead against you, Bignall, I give you my declaration. You've really been so long from home, that the 'Dart'

is getting quite a roving look. You may not be sensible of it, but I a.s.sure you of the fact merely as a friend."

"And, perhaps, since you did me the honour to mistake my vessel for a freebooter," returned the old tar, smothering his ire in a look of facetious irony, which changed the expression of his mouth to a grim grin, "you might have conceited this honest gentleman here to be no other than Beelzebub."

As he spoke, the Commander of the ship, which had borne so odious an imputation, directed the eyes of his companion to the form of a third individual, who had entered the cabin with the freedom of a privileged person, but with a tread so light as to be inaudible. As this unexpected form met the quick, impatient glance of the pretended officer of the Crown, he arose involuntarily, and, for half a minute, that admirable command of muscle and nerve, which had served him so well in maintaining his masquerade, appeared entirely to desert him. The loss of self-possession, however, was but for a time so short as to attract no notice; and he coolly returned the salutations of an aged man, of a meek and subdued look, with that air of blandness and courtesy which he so well knew how to a.s.sume.

"This gentleman is your chaplain, sir, I presume, by his clerical attire,"

he said, after he had exchanged bows with the stranger.

"He is, sir--a worthy and honest man, whom I am not ashamed to call my friend. After a separation of thirty years, the Admiral has been good enough to lend him to me for the cruise; and, though my ship is none of the largest, I believe he finds himself as comfortable in her as he would aboard the flag.--This gentleman, Doctor, is the _honourable_ Captain Howard, of his Majesty's ship 'Antelope.' I need not expatiate on his remarkable merit, since the command he bears, at his years, is a sufficient testimony on that important particular."

There was a look of bewildered surprise in the gaze of the divine, when his glance first fell upon the features of the pretended scion of n.o.bility; but it was far less striking than had been that of the subject of his gaze, and of much shorter continuance. He again bowed meekly, and with that deep reverence which long use begets, even in the best-intentioned minds, when brought in contact with the fancied superiority of hereditary rank; but he did not appear to consider the occasion one that required he should say more than the customary words of salutation. The Rover turned calmly to his veteran companion, and continued the discourse.

"Captain Bignall," he said, again wearing that grace of manner which became him so well, "it is my duty to follow your motions in this interview. I will now return to my ship; and if, as I begin to suspect we are in these seas on a similar errand, we can concert at our leisure a system of co-operation, which, properly matured by your experience, may serve to bring about the common end we have in view."

Greatly mollified by this concession to his years and to his rank, the Commander of the "Dart" pressed his hospitalities warmly on his guest, winding up his civilities by an invitation to join in a marine feast at an hour somewhat later in the day. All the former offers were politely declined, while the latter was accepted; the invited making the invitation itself an excuse that he should return to his own vessel in order that he might select such of his officers as he should deem most worthy of partic.i.p.ating in the dainties of the promised banquet. The veteran and really meritorious Bignall, notwithstanding the ordinary st.u.r.dy bl.u.s.tering of his character, had served too long in indigence and comparative obscurity not to feel some of the longings of human nature for his hard-earned and protracted preferment. He consequently kept, in the midst of all his native and manly honesty, a saving-eye on the means of accomplishing this material object. It is to occasion no surprise, therefore, that his parting from the supposed son of a powerful champion at Court was more amicable than had been the meeting. The Rover was bowed, from the cabin to the deck, with at least an appearance of returning good-will. On reaching the latter, a hurried, suspicious, and perhaps an uneasy glance was thrown from his restless eyes on all those faces that were grouped around the gangway, by which he was about to leave the ship; but their expression instantly became calm again, and a little supercilious withal, in order to do no discredit to the part in the comedy which it was his present humour to enact. Then, shaking the worthy and thoroughly-deceived old seaman heartily by the hand, he touched his hat, with an air half-haughty, half-condescending to his inferiors. He was in the act of descending into the boat, when the chaplain was seen to whisper something, with great earnestness, in the ear of his Captain. The Commander hastened to recall his departing guest, desiring him, with startling gravity to lend him his private attention for another moment Suffering himself to be led apart by the two the Rover stood awaiting their pleasure, with a coolness of demeanour that, under the peculiar circ.u.mstances of his case, did signal credit to his nerves.

"Captain Howard," resumed the warm-hearted Bignall, "have you a gentleman of the cloth in your vessel?"

"Two, sir," was the ready answer.

"Two! It is rare to find a supernumerary priest in a man of war! But, I suppose, Court influence could give the fellow a bishop," muttered the other. "You are fortunate in this particular, young gentle man, since I am indebted to inclination, rather than to custom, for the society of my worthy friend here he has, however, made a point that I should include the reverend gentleman--I should say gentle_men_--in the invitation."

"You shall have all the divinity of _my_ ship, Big nail, on my faith."

"I believe I was particular in naming your first lieutenant."

"Oh! dead or alive, he shall surely be of your party," returned the Rover, with a suddenness and vehemence of utterance that occasioned both his auditors to start with surprise. "You may not find him an ark to rest your weary foot on; but, such as he is, he is entirely at your service. And now, once more, I salute you."

Bowing again, he proceeded, with his former deliberate air, over the gangway, keeping his eye riveted on the lofty gear of the "Dart," as he descended her side, with much that sort of expression with which a pet.i.t-maitre is apt to regard the fashion of the garments of one newly arrived from the provinces. His superior repeated his invitation with warmth, and waved his hand in a frank but temporary adieu; thus unconsciously suffering the man to escape him whose capture would have purchased the long postponed and still distant advantages for whose possession he secretly pined, with all the withering longings his hope cruelly deferred.

Chapter XXVIII.

----"Let them accuse me by invention; I will answer in mine honour."--_Coriola.n.u.s._