Alonzo. "Good boatswain, have care."--_Tempest._
The instant the stranger had separated from the credulous tailor, he lost
his assumed air in one far more natural and sedate. Still it would seem
that thought was an unwonted, or an unwelcome tenant of his mind; for,
switching his boot with his little riding whip, he entered the principal
street of the place with a light step and a wandering eye. Though his look
was unsettled, few of the individuals, whom he passed, escaped his quick
glances; and it was quite apparent, from the hurried manner in which he
began to regard objects, that his mind was not less active than his body.
A stranger thus accoutred, and one bearing about his person so many
evidences of his recent acquaintance with the road, did not fail to
attract the attention of the provident publicans we have had occasion to
mention in our opening chapter. Declining the civilities of the most
favoured of the inn-keepers, he suffered his steps to be, oddly enough,
arrested by the one whose house was the usual haunt of the hangers-on of
the port.
On entering the bar-room of this tavern, as it was called, but which in
the mother country would probably have aspired to be termed no more than a
pot-house he found the hospitable apartment thronged with its customary
revellers. A slight interruption was produced by the appearance of a guest
who was altogether superior, in mien and attire, to the ordinary customers
of the house, but it ceased the moment the stranger had thrown himself on
a bench, and intimated to the host the nature of his wants. As the latter
furnished the required draught, he made a sort of apology, which was
intended for the ears of all his customers nigh the stranger, for the
manner in which an individual, in the further end of the long narrow room,
not only monopolized the discourse, but appeared to extort the attention
of all within hearing to some portentous legend he was recounting.
"It is the boatswain of the slaver in the outer harbour, squire," the
worthy disciple of Bacchus concluded; "a man who has followed the water
many a day, and who has seen sights and prodigies enough to fill a smart
volume. Old Bor'us the people call him, though his lawful name is Jack
Nightingale. Is the toddy to the squire's relish?"
The stranger assented to the latter query, by smacking his lips, and
bowing, as he put down the nearly untouched draught. He then turned his
head, to examine the individual who might, by the manner in which he
declaimed, have been termed, in the language of the country, the second
"orator of the day."
A stature which greatly exceeded six feet; enormous whiskers, that quite
concealed a moiety of his grim countenance; a scar, which was the memorial
of a badly healed gash, that had once threatened to divide that moiety in
quarters; limbs in proportion; the whole rendered striking by the dress of
a sea man; a long, tarnished silver chain, and a little whistle of the
same metal, served to render the individual in question sufficiently
remarkable. Without appearing to be in the smallest decree aware of the
entrance of one altogether so superior to the class of his usual auditors,
this son of the Ocean continued his narrative as follows, and in a voice
that seemed given to him by nature as if in very mockery of his musical
name; indeed, so very near did his tones approach to the low murmurings of
a bull, that some little practice was necessary to accustom the ear to the
strangely uttered words.
"Well!" he continued, thrusting his brawny arm forth, with the fist
clenched, indicating the necessary point of the compass by the thumb; "the
coast of Guinea might have lain hereaway, and the wind you see, was dead
off shore, blowing in squalls, as a cat spits, all the same as if the old
fellow, who keeps it bagged for the use of us seamen, sometimes let the
stopper slip through his fingers, and was sometimes fetching it up again
with a double turn round the end of his sack.--You know what a sack is,
brother?"
This abrupt question was put to the gaping bumpkin, already known to the
reader, who, with the nether garment just received from the tailor under
his arm, had lingered, to add the incidents of the present legend to the
stock of lore that he had already obtained for the ears of his kinsfolk in
the country. A general laugh, at the expense of the admiring Pardon
succeeded. Nightingale bestowed a knowing wink on one or two of his
familiars, and, profiting by the occasion, "to freshen his nip," as he
quaintly styled swallowing a pint of rum and water, he continued his
narrative by saying, in a sort of admonitory tone,--
"And the time may come when you will know what a round-turn is, too, if
you let go your hold of honesty. A man's neck was made, brother, to keep
his head above water, and not to be stretched out of shape like a pair of
badly fitted dead-eyes. Therefore have your reckoning worked up in season,
and the lead of conscience going, when you find yourself drifting on the
shoals of temptation." Then, rolling his tobacco in his mouth, he looked
boldly about him, like one who had acquitted himself of a moral
obligation, and continued: "Well, there lay the land, and, as I was
saying, the wind was here, at east-and-by-south or mayhap at
east-and-by-south-half-south, sometimes blowing like a fin-back in a
hurry, and sometimes leaving all the canvas chafing ag'in the rigging and
spars, as if a bolt of duck cost no more nor a rich man's blessing. I
didn't like the looks of the weather, seeing that there was altogether too
much unsartainty for a quiet watch, so I walked aft, in order to put
myself in the way of giving an opinion if-so-be such a thing should be
asked. You must know, brothers, that, according to my notions of religion
and behaviour, a man is not good for much, unless he has a full share of
manners; therefore I am never known to put my spoon into the captain's
mess, unless I am invited, for the plain reason, that my berth is
for'ard, and his'n aft. I do not say in which end of a ship the better man
is to be found; that is a matter concerning which men have different
opinions, though most judges in the business are agreed. But aft I walked,
to put myself in the way of giving an opinion, if one should be asked; nor
was it long before the thing came to pass just as I had foreseen. 'Mister
Nightingale,' says he; for our Captain is a gentleman, and never forgets
his behaviour on deck, or when any of the ship's company are at hand,
'_Mister_ Nightingale,' says he, 'what do you think of that rag of a
cloud, hereaway at the north-west?' says he. 'Why, sir,' says I, boldly,
for I'm never backward in speaking, when properly spoken to, so, 'why,
sir,' says I, 'saving your Honour's better judgment,'--which was all a
flam, for he was but a chicken to me in years and experience, but then I
never throw hot ashes to windward, or any thing else that is warm--so,
'sir,' says I, 'it is my advice to hand the three topsails and to stow the
jib. We are in no hurry; for the plain reason, that Guinea will be
to-morrow just where Guinea is to-night. As for keeping the ship steady in
these matters of squalls, we have the mainsail on her--'"
"You should have furl'd your mainsail too," exclaimed a voice from behind,
that was quite as dogmatical, though a little less grum, than that of the
loquacious boatswain.
"What know-nothing says that?" demanded Nightingale fiercely, as if all
his latent ire was excited by so rude and daring an interruption.
"A man who has run Africa down, from Bon to Good-Hope, more than once, and
who knows a white squall from a rainbow," returned Dick Fid, edging his
short person stoutly towards his furious adversary, making his way through
the crowd by which the important personage of the boatswain was environed
by dint of his massive shoulders; "ay, brother, and a man, know-much or
know-nothing, who would never advise his officer to keep so much
after-sail on a ship, when there was the likelihood of the wind taking her
aback."
To this bold vindication of an opinion which all present deemed to be so
audacious, there succeeded a general and loud murmur. Encouraged by this
evidence of his superior popularity, Nightingale was not slow, nor very
meek, with his retort; and then followed a clamorous concert, in which the
voices of the company in general served for the higher and shriller notes,
through which the bold and vigorous assertions, contradictions, and
opinions of the two principal disputants were heard running a
thorough-bass.
For some time, no part of the discussion was very distinct, so great was
the confusion of tongues; and there were certain symptoms of an intention,
on the part of Fid and the boatswain, to settle their controversy by the
last appeal. During this moment of suspense, the former had squared his
firm-built frame in front of his gigantic opponent, and there were very
vehement passings and counter-passings, in the way of gestures from four
athletic arms, each of which was knobbed, like a fashionable rattan, with
a lump of bones, knuckles, and sinews, that threatened annihilation to any
thing that should oppose them. As the general clamour, however, gradually
abated, the chief reasoners began to be heard; and, as if content to rely
on their respective powers of eloquence, each gradually relinquished his
hostile attitude, and appeared disposed to maintain his ground by a member
scarcely less terrible than his brawny arm.
"You are a bold seaman, brother," said Nightingale resuming his seat,
"and, if saying was doing, no doubt you would make a ship talk. But I, who
have seen fleets of two and three deckers--and that of all nations,
except your Mohawks, mayhap, whose cruisers I will confess never to have
fallen in with--lying as snug as so many white gulls, under reefed
mainsails, know how to take the strain off a ship, and to keep my
bulkheads in their places."
"I deny the judgment of heaving-to a boat under her after square-sails,"
retorted Dick. "Give her the stay-sails, if you will, and no harm done;
but a true seaman will never get a bagful of wind between his mainmast and
his lee-swifter, if-so-be he knows his business. But words are like
thunder, which rumbles aloft, without coming down a spar, as I have yet
seen; let us therefore put the question to some one who has been on the
water, and knows a little of life and of ships."
"If the oldest admiral in his Majesty's fleet was here, he wouldn't be
backward in saying who is right and who is wrong. I say, brothers, if
there is a man among you all who has had the advantage of a sea education,
let him speak, in order that the truth of this matter may not be hid, like
a marling-spike jammed between a brace-block and a blackened yard."
"Here, then, is the man," returned Fid; and, stretching out his arm, he
seized Scipio by the collar, and drew him, without ceremony, into the
centre of the circle, that had opened around the two disputants "There is
a man for you, who has made one more voyage between this and Africa than
myself, for the reason that he was born there. Now, answer as if you were
hallooing from a lee-earing, S'ip, under what sail would you heave-to a
ship, on the coast of your native country, with the danger of a white
squall at hand?"
"I no heave-'em-to," said the black, "I make 'em scud."
"Ay, boy; but, to be in readiness for the puff, would you jam her up under
a mainsail, or let her lie a little off under a fore course?"
"Any fool know dat," returned Scipio, grumly and evidently tired already
of being thus catechised.
"If you want 'em fall off, how you'm expect, in reason, he do it under a
main course? You answer me dat, misser Dick."
"Gentlemen," said Nightingale, looking about him with an air of great
gravity, "I put it to your Honours, is it genteel behaviour to bring a
nigger, in this out-of-the-way fashion, to give an opinion in the teeth of
a white man?"
This appeal to the wounded dignity of the company was answered by a common
murmur. Scipio, who was prepared to maintain, and would have maintained,
his professional opinion, after his positive and peculiar manner, against
any disputant, had not the heart to resist so general an evidence of the
impropriety of his presence. Without uttering a word in vindication or
apology, he folded his arms, and walked out of the house, with the
submission and meekness of one who had been too long trained in humility
to rebel. This desertion on the part of his companion was not, however, so
quietly acquiesced in by Fid, who found himself thus unexpectedly deprived
of the testimony of the black. He loudly remonstrated against his retreat;
but, finding it in vain, he crammed the end of several inches of tobacco
into his mouth, swearing, as he followed the African, and keeping his eye,
at the same time, firmly fastened on his adversary, that, in his opinion,
"the lad, if he was fairly skinned, would be found to be the whiter man of
the two."
The triumph of the boatswain was now complete; nor was he at all sparing
of his exultation.
"Gentlemen," he said, addressing himself, with an air of increased
confidence, to the motley audience who surrounded him, "you see that
reason is like a ship bearing down with studding-sails on both sides,
leaving a straight wake and no favours. Now, I scorn boasting, nor do I
know who the fellow is who has just sheered off, in time to save his
character, but this I will say, that the man is not to be found, between
Boston and the West Indies, who knows better than myself how to make a
ship walk, or how to make her stand still, provided I"--
The deep voice of Nightingale became suddenly hushed, and his eye was
riveted, by a sort of enchantment on the keen glance of the stranger in
green, whose countenance was now seen blended among the more vulgar faces
of the crowd.
"Mayhap," continued the boatswain, swallowing his words, in the surprise
of seeing himself so unexpectedly confronted by so imposing an eye,
"mayhap this gentleman has some knowledge of the sea, and can decide the
matter in dispute."
"We do not study naval tactics at the universities," returned the other
briskly, "though I will confess, from the little I have heard, I am
altogether in favour of _scudding._"
He pronounced the latter word with an emphasis which rendered it
questionable if he did not mean to pun; the more especially as he threw
down his reckoning and instantly left the field to the quiet possession of
Nightingale. The latter, after a short pause, resumed his narrative,
though, either from weariness or some other cause, it was observed that
his voice was far less positive than before, and that his tale was cut
prematurely short. After completing his narrative and his grog, he
staggered to the beach, whither a boat was shortly after despatched to
convey him on board the ship, which, during all this time, had not ceased
to be the constant subject of the suspicious examination of the good-man
Homespun.
In the mean while, the stranger in green had pursued his walk along the
main street of the town. Fid had given chase to the disconcerted Scipio,
grumbling as he went, and uttering no very delicate remarks on the
knowledge and seamanship of the boatswain. They soon joined company again,
the former changing his attack to the negro, whom he liberally abused, for
abandoning a point which he maintained was as simple, and as true, as
"that yonder bit of a schooner would make more way, going wing-and-wing,
than jammed up on a wind."
Probably diverted with the touches of peculiar character he had detected
in this singular pair of confederates, or possibly led by his own wayward
humour, the stranger followed their footsteps. After turning from the
water, they mounted a hill, the latter a little in the rear of his pilots,
until he lost sight of them in a bend of the street, or rather road; for
by this time, they were past even the little suburbs of the town.
Quickening his steps, the barrister, as he had announced himself to be,
was glad to catch a glimpse of the two worthies, seated under a fence
several minutes after he had believed them lost. They were making a frugal
meal, off the contents of a little bag which the white had borne under his
arm and from which he now dispensed liberally to his companion, who had
taken his post sufficiently nigh to proclaim that perfect amity was
restored, though still a little in the back ground, in deference to the
superior condition which the other enjoyed through favour of his colour.
Approaching the spot, the stranger observed,--
"If you make so free with the bag, my lads, your third man may have to go
supperless to bed."
"Who hails?" said Dick, looking up from his bone, with an expression much
like that of a mastiff when engaged at a similar employment.
"I merely wished to remind you that you had another messmate," cavalierly
returned the other.
"Will you take a cut, brother?" said the seaman, offering the bag, with
the liberality of a sailor, the moment he fancied there was an indirect
demand made on its contents.
"You still mistake my meaning; on the wharf you had another companion."
"Ay, ay; he is in the offing there, overhauling that bit of a light-house,
which is badly enough moored unless they mean it to shew the channel to
your ox-teams and inland traders; hereaway, gentlemen, where you see that
pile of stones which seems likely to be coming down shortly by-the-run."
The stranger looked in the direction indicated by the other, and saw the
young mariner, to whom he had alluded, standing at the foot of a ruined
tower, which was crumbling under the slow operations of time, at no great
distance from the place where he stood. Throwing a handful of small change
to the seamen, he wished them a better meal, and crossed the fence, with
an apparent intention of examining the ruin also.
"The lad is free with his coppers," said Dick, suspending the movements of
his teeth, to give the stranger another and a better look; "but, as they
will not grow where he has planted them, S'ip, you may turn them over to
my pocket. An off-handed and a free-handed chap that, Africa; but then
these law-dealers get all their pence of the devil, and they are sure of
more, when the shot begins to run low in the locker."
Leaving the negro to collect the money, and to transfer it, as in duty
bound, to the hands of him who, if not his master, was at all times ready
and willing to exercise the authority of one, we shall follow the stranger
in his walk toward, the tottering edifice. There was little about the ruin
itself to attract the attention of one who, from his assertions, had
probably often enjoyed the opportunities of examining far more imposing
remains of former ages, on the other side of the Atlantic. It was a small
circular tower, which stood on rude pillars, connected by arches, and
might have been constructed, in the infancy of the country, as a place of
defence, though it is far more probable that it was a work of a less
warlike nature. More than half a century after the period of which we are
writing, this little edifice, peculiar in its form, its ruinous condition,
and its materials, has suddenly become the study and the theme of that
very learned sort of individual the American antiquarian. It is not
surprising that a ruin thus honoured should have become the object of many
a hot and erudite discussion. While the chivalrous in the arts and in the
antiquities of the country have been gallantly breaking their lances
around the mouldering walls, the less instructed and the less zealous have
regarded the combatants with the same species of wonder as they would have
manifested had they been present when the renowned knight of La Mancha
tilted against those other wind-mills so ingeniously described by the
immortal Cervantes.
On reaching the place, the stranger in green gave his boot a smart blow
with the riding whip, as if to attract the attention of the abstracted
young sailor, and freely remarked,--
"A very pretty object this would be, if covered with ivy, to be seen
peeping through an opening in a wood. But I beg pardon; gentlemen of your
_profession_ have little to do with woods and crumbling stones. Yonder is
the tower," pointing to the tail masts of the ship in the outer harbour,
"you love to look on; and your only ruin is a wreck!"
"You seem familiar with our tastes, sir," coldly returned the other.
"It is by instinct, then; for it is certain I have had but little
opportunity of acquiring my knowledge by actual communion with any of
the--cloth; nor do I perceive that I am likely to be more fortunate at
present. Let us be frank, my friend, and talk in amity: What do you see
about this pile of stones, that can keep you so long from your study of
yonder noble and gallant ship?"
"Did it then surprise you that a seaman out of employment should examine a
vessel that he finds to his mind, perhaps with an intention to ask for
service?"
"Her commander must be a dull fellow, if he refuse it to so proper a lad!
But you seem to be too well instructed for any of the meaner births."
"Births!" repeated the other, again fastening his eyes, with a singular
expression, on the stranger in green.
"Births! It is your nautical word for 'situation, or; station;' is it not?
We know but little of the marine vocabulary, we barristers; but I think I
may venture on that as the true Doric. Am I justified by your authority?"
"The word is certainly not yet obsolete; and, by a figure, it is as
certainly correct in the sense you used it."
"Obsolete!" repeated the stranger in green, returning the meaning look he
had just received: "Is that the name of any part of a ship? Perhaps, by
_figure_, you mean figure-head; and, by _obsolete_, the long-boat!"
The young seaman laughed; and, as if this sally had broken through the
barrier of his reserve, his manner lost much of its cold restraint during
the remainder of their conference.
"It is just as plain," he said, "that you have been at sea, as it is that
I have been at school. Since we have both been so fortunate, we may afford
to be generous and cease speaking in parables. For instance, what think
you has been the object and use of this ruin, when it was in good
condition?"
"In order to judge of that," returned the stranger in green, "it may be
necessary to examine it more closely. Let us ascend."
As he spoke, the barrister mounted, by a crazy ladder, to the floor which
lay just above the crown of the arches, through which he passed by an open
trapdoor His companion hesitated to follow; but, observing that the other
expected him at the summit of the ladder, and that he very kindly pointed
out a defective round, he sprang forward, and went up the ascent with the
agility and steadiness peculiar to his calling.
"Here we are!" exclaimed the stranger in green, looking about at the naked
walls, which were formed of such small and irregular stones as to give the
building the appearance of dangerous frailty, "with good oaken plank for
our deck, as you would say, and the sky for our roof, as we call the upper
part of a house at the universities. Now let us speak of things on the
lower world. A--a--; I forget what you said was your usual appellation--"
"That might depend on circumstances. I have been known by different names
in different situations However, if you call me Wilder, I shall not fail
to answer."
"Wilder!" a good name; though, I dare say, it would have been as true were
it Wildone. You young ship-boys have the character of being a little
erratic in your humours at times. How many tender hearts have you left to
sigh for your errors, amid shady bowers, while you have been
ploughing--that is the word, I believe--ploughing the salt-sea ocean?"
"Few sigh for me," returned Wilder, thoughtfully, though he evidently
began to chafe a little under this free sort of catechism. "Let us now
return to our study of the tower. What think you has been its object?"
"Its present use is plain, and its former use can be no great mystery. It
holds at this moment two light hearts; and, if I am not mistaken, as many
light heads, not overstocked with the stores of wisdom. Formerly it had
its granaries of corn, at least, and, I doubt not, certain little
quadrupeds, who were quite as light of fingers as we are of head and
heart. In plain English, it has been a mill"
"There are those who think it had been a fortress."
"Hum! The place might do, at need," returned he in green, casting a rapid
and peculiar glance around him. "But mill it has been, notwithstanding one
might wish it a nobler origin. The windy situation the pillars to keep off
the invading vermin, the shape, the air, the very complexion, prove it.
Whir-r-r, whir-r-r; there has been clatter enough here in time past, I
warrant you. Hist! It is not done yet!"
Stepping lightly to one of the little perforations which had once served
as windows to the tower, he cautiously thrust his head through the
opening; and, after gazing there half a minute, he withdrew it again,
making a gesture to the attentive Wilder to be silent. The latter
complied; nor was it long before the nature of the interruption was
sufficiently explained.
The silvery voice of woman was first heard at a little distance; and then,
as the speakers drew nigher the sounds arose directly from beneath, within
the very shadow of the tower. By a sort of tacit consent, Wilder and the
barrister chose spots favourable to the execution of such a purpose; and
each continued, during the time the visiters remained near the ruin,
examining their persons, unseen themselves, and we are sorry we must do so
much violence to the breeding of two such important characters in our
legend, amused and attentive listeners also to their conversation.