"There's Jonathan, that lucky lad,
Who knows it from the root, sir;--
He sucks in all that's to be had,
And always trades for boot, sir."
14,763D VERSE OF YANKEE DOODLE.
Il Capitano Smeet' was not sorry to get out of the government
house--palazzo, as some of the simple people of Elba called the
unambitious dwelling. He had been well badgered by the persevering
erudition of the vice-governatore; and, stored as he was with nautical
anecdotes and a tolerable personal acquaintance with sundry seaports,
for any expected occasion of this sort, he had never anticipated a
conversation which would aspire as high as the institutions, religion,
and laws of his adopted country. Had the worthy Andrea heard the
numberless maledictions that the stranger muttered between his teeth, as
he left the house, it would have shocked all his sensibilities, if it
did not revive his suspicions.
It was now night; but a starry, calm, voluptuous evening, such as are
familiar to those who are acquainted with the Mediterranean and its
shores. There was scarcely a breath of wind, though the cool air, that
appeared to be a gentle respiration of the sea, induced a few idlers
still to linger on the heights, where there was a considerable extent of
land that might serve for a promenade. Along this walk the mariner
proceeded, undetermined, for the moment, what to do next. He had
scarcely got into the open space, however, before a female, with her
form closely enveloped in a mantle, brushed near him, anxiously gazing
into his face. Her motions were too quick and sudden for him to obtain a
look in return; but, perceiving that she held her way along the heights,
beyond the spot most frequented by the idlers, he followed until
she stopped.
"Ghita!" said the young man, in a tone of delight, when he had got near
enough to the female to recognize a face and form she no longer
attempted to conceal; "this _is_ being fortunate, indeed, and saves a
vast deal of trouble. A thousand, thousand thanks, dearest Ghita, for
this one act of kindness. I might have brought trouble on you, as well
as on myself, in striving to find your residence."
"It is for that reason, Raoul, that I have ventured so much more than is
becoming in my sex, to meet you. A thousand eyes, in this gossiping
little town, are on your lugger, at this moment, and be certain they
will also be on its captain, as soon as it is known he has landed. I
fear you do not know for what you and your people are suspected, at this
very instant!"
"For nothing discreditable, I hope, dear Ghita, if it be only not to
dishonor your friends!"
"Many think, and say, you are Frenchmen, and that the English flag is
only a disguise."
"If that be all, we must bear the infamy," answered Raoul Yvard,
laughing. "Why, this is just what we are to a man, a single American
excepted, who is an excellent fellow to make out British commissions,
and help us to a little English when harder pushed than common; and why
should we be offended, if the good inhabitants of Porto Ferrajo take us
for what we are?"
"Not offended, Raoul, but endangered. If the vice-governatore gets this
notion, he will order the batteries to fire upon you, and will destroy
you as an enemy."
"Not he, Ghita. He is too fond of le Capitaine Smeet', to do so cruel a
thing; and then he must shift all his guns, before they will hurt _le
Feu-Follet_ where she lies. I never leave my little Jack-o'-Lantern[1]
within reach of an enemy's hand. Look here, Ghita; you can see her
through this opening in the houses--that dark spot on the bay,
there--and you will perceive no gun from any battery in Porto Ferrajo
can as much as frighten, much less harm her."
[1] The English of _Feu Follet_.
"I know her position, Raoul, and understand why you anchored in that
spot. I knew, or thought I knew you, from the first moment you came in
plain sight; and so long as you remained outside, I was not sorry to
look on so old a friend--nay, I will go further, and say I rejoiced, for
it seemed to me you passed so near the island just to let some whom you
knew to be on it understand you had not forgotten them; but when you
came into the bay, I thought you mad!"
"Mad I should have been, dearest Ghita, had I lived longer without
seeing you. What are these _misérables_ of Elbans, that I should fear
them! They have no cruiser--only a few feluccas--all of which are not
worth the trouble of burning. Let them but point a finger at us, and we
will tow their Austrian polacre out into the bay, and burn her before
their eyes. Le Feu-Follet deserves her name; she is here, there, and
everywhere, before her enemies suspect her."
"But her enemies suspect her now, and you cannot be too cautious. My
heart was in my throat a dozen times, while the batteries were firing at
you this evening."
"And what harm did they? they cost the Grand Duke two cartridges, and
two shot, without even changing the lugger's course! You have seen too
much of these things, Ghita, to be alarmed by smoke and noise."
"I have seen enough of these things, Raoul, to know that a heavy shot,
fired from these heights, would have gone through your little
Feu-Follet, and, coming out under water, would have sunk you to the
bottom of the Mediterranean."
"We should have had our boats, then," answered Raoul Yvard, with an
indifference that was not affected, for reckless daring was his vice,
rather than his virtue; "besides, a shot must first hit before it can
harm, as the fish must be taken before it can be cooked. But enough of
this, Ghita; I get quite enough of shot, and ships, and sinkings, in
everyday life, and, now I have at last found this blessed moment, we
will not throw away the opportunity by talking of such matters--"
"Nay, Raoul, I can think of nothing else, and therefore can talk of
nothing else. Suppose the vice-governatore should suddenly take it into
his head to send a party of soldiers to le Feu-Follet, with orders to
seize her--what would then be your situation?"
"Let him; and I would send a boat's crew to his palazzo, here"--the
conversation was in French, which Ghita spoke fluently, though with an
Italian accent--"and take him on a cruise after the English and his
beloved Austrians! Bah!--the idea will not cross his constitutional
brain, and there is little use in talking about it. In the morning, I
will send my prime minister, mon Barras, mon Carnot, mon Cambacérès, mon
Ithuel Bolt, to converse with him on politics and religion."
"Religion," repeated Ghita, in a saddened tone; "the less you say on
that holy subject, Raoul, the better I shall like it, and the better it
will be for yourself, in the end. The state of your country makes your
want of religion matter of regret, rather than of accusation, but it is
none the less a dreadful evil."
"Well, then," resumed the sailor, who felt he had touched a dangerous
ground, "we will talk of other things. Even supposing we are taken, what
great evil have we to apprehend? We are honest corsairs, duly
commissioned, and acting under the protection of the French Republic,
one and undivided, and can but be made prisoners of war. That is a
fortune which has once befallen me, and no greater calamity followed
than my having to call myself le Capitaine Smeet', and finding out the
means of mystifying le vice-governatore."
Ghita laughed, in spite of the fears she entertained, for it was one of
the most powerful of the agencies the sailor employed in making others
converts to his opinions, to cause them to sympathize with his
light-hearted gayety, whether it suited their natural temperaments or
not. She knew that Raoul had already been a prisoner in England two
years, where, as he often said himself, he stayed just long enough to
acquire a very respectable acquaintance with the language, if not with
the institutions, manners, and religion, when he made his escape aided
by the American called Ithuel Bolt, an impressed seaman of our own
Republic, who, fully entering into all the plans imagined by his more
enterprising friend and fellow-sufferer, had cheerfully enlisted in the
execution of his future schemes of revenge. States, like powerful
individuals in private life, usually feel themselves too strong to allow
any considerations of the direct consequences of departures from the
right to influence their policy; and a nation is apt to fancy its power
of such a character, as to despise all worldly amends, while its moral
responsibility is divided among too many to make it a matter of much
concern to its particular citizens. Nevertheless, the truth will show
that none are so low but they may become dangerous to the highest; and
even powerful communities seldom fail to meet with their punishment for
every departure from justice. It would seem, indeed, that a principle
pervades nature, which renders it impossible for man to escape the
consequences of his own evil deeds, even in this life; as if God had
decreed the universal predominance of truth and the never-failing
downfall of falsehood from the beginning; the success of wrong being
ever temporary, while the triumph of the right is eternal. To apply
these consoling considerations to the matter more immediately before us:
The practice of impressment, in its day, raised a feeling among the
seamen of other nations, as well as, in fact, among those of Great
Britain herself, that probably has had as much effect in destroying the
prestige of her nautical invincibility, supported, as was that prestige,
by a vast existing force, as any other one cause whatever. It was
necessary to witness the feeling of hatred and resentment that was
raised by the practice of this despotic power, more especially among
those who felt that their foreign birth ought at least to have insured
them immunity from the abuse, in order fully to appreciate what might so
readily become its consequences. Ithuel Bolt, the seaman just mentioned,
was a proof, in a small way, of the harm that even an insignificant
individual can effect, when his mind is fully and wholly bent on
revenge. Ghita knew him well; and, although she little liked either his
character or his appearance, she had often been obliged to smile at the
narrative of the deceptions he practised on the English, and of the
thousand low inventions he had devised to do them injury. She was not
slow, now, to imagine that his agency had not been trifling in carrying
on the present fraud.
"You do not openly call your lugger le Feu-Follet, Raoul," she answered,
after a minute's pause; "that would be a dangerous name to utter, even
in Porto Ferrajo. It is not a week since I heard a mariner dwelling on
her misdeeds, and the reasons that all good Italians have to detest her.
It is fortunate the man is away, or he could not fail to know you."
"Of that I am not so certain, Ghita. We alter our paint often, and, at
need, can alter our rig. You may be certain, however, that we hide our
Jack-o'-Lantern, and sail under another name. The lugger, now she is in
the English service, is called the 'Ving-and-Ving.'"
"I heard the answer given to the hail from the shore, but it sounded
different from this."
"Non--Ving-and-Ving. Ithuel answered for us, and you may be sure he can
speak his own tongue. Ving-and-Ving is the word, and he pronounces it
as I do."
"Ving-y-Ving!" repeated Ghita, in her pretty Italian tones, dropping
naturally into the vice-governatore's fault of pronunciation--"it is an
odd name, and I like it less than Feu-Follet."
"I wish, dearest Ghita, I could persuade you to like the name of Yvard,"
rejoined the young man, in a half-reproachful, half-tender manner, "and
I should care nothing for any other. You accuse me of disrespect for
priests; but no son could ever kneel to a father for his blessing, half
so readily or half so devoutly, as I could kneel with thee before any
friar in Italy, to receive that nuptial benediction which I have so
often asked at your hand, but which you have so constantly and so
cruelly refused."
"I am afraid the name would not then be Feu-Follet, but Ghita-Folie,"
said the girl, laughing, though she felt a bitter pang at the heart,
that cost her an effort to control; "no more of this now, Raoul; we may
be observed and watched; it is necessary that we separate."
A hurried conversation, of more interest to the young couple themselves
than it would prove to the reader, though it might not have been wholly
without the latter, but which it would be premature to relate, now
followed, when Ghita left Raoul on the hill, insisting that she knew the
town too well to have any apprehensions about threading its narrow and
steep streets, at any hour, by herself. This much, in sooth, must be
said in favor of Andrea Barrofaldi's administration of justice; he had
made it safe for the gentle, the feeble, and the poor, equally, to move
about the island by day or by night; it seldom happening that so great
an enemy to peace and tranquillity appeared among his simple dependants,
as was the fact at this precise moment.
In the mean time, there was not quite as much tranquillity in Porto
Ferrajo as the profound silence which reigned in the place might have
induced a stranger to imagine. Tommaso Tonti was a man of influence,
within his sphere, as well, as the vice-governatore; and having parted
from Vito Viti, as has been related, he sought the little _clientelle _
of padroni and piloti, who were in the habit of listening to his
opinions as if they were oracles. The usual place of resort of this set,
after dark, was a certain house kept by a widow of the name of Benedetta
Galopo, the uses of which were plainly enough indicated by a small bush
that hung dangling from a short pole, fastened above the door. If
Benedetta knew anything of the proverb that "good wine needs no bush,"
she had not sufficient faith in the contents of her own casks to trust
to their reputation; for this bush of hers was as regularly renewed as
its withering leaves required. Indeed, it was a common remark among her
customers, that her bush was always as fresh as her face, and that the
latter was one of the most comely that was to be met with on the island;
a circumstance that aided much indifferent wine in finding a market.
Benedetta bore a reasonably good name, nevertheless, though it was
oftener felt, perhaps, than said, that she was a confirmed coquette. She
tolerated 'Maso principally on two accounts; because, if he were old and
unattractive in his own person, many of his followers were among the
smartest seamen of the port, and because he not only drank his full
proportion, but paid with punctuality. These inducements rendered the
pilot always a welcome guest at La Santa Maria degli Venti, as the house
was called, though it had no other sign than the often-renewed bush
already mentioned.
At the very moment, then, when Raoul Yvard and Ghita parted on the hill,
'Maso was seated in his usual place at the table in Benedetta's upper
room, the windows of which commanded as full a view of the lugger as the
hour permitted; that craft being anchored about a cable's length
distant, and, as a sailor might have expressed it, just abeam. On this
occasion he had selected the upper room, and but three companions,
because it was his wish that as few should enter into his counsels as at
all comported with the love of homage to his own experience. The party
had been assembled a quarter of an hour, and there had been time to
cause the tide to ebb materially in the flask, which, it may be well to
tell the reader at once, contained very little less than half a gallon
of liquor, such as it was.
"I have told it all to the podestà," said 'Maso, with an important
manner, as he put down his glass, after potation the second, which
quite equalled potation the first in quantity; "yes, I have told it all
to Vito Viti, and no doubt he has told it to Il Signor Vice-governatore,
who now knows as much about the whole matter as either of us four.
Cospetto!--to think such a thing dare happen in a haven like Porto
Ferrajo! Had it come to pass over on the other side of the island, at
Porto Longone, one wouldn't think so much of it, for _they_ are never
much on the lookout: but to take place here, in the very capital of
Elba, I should as soon have expected it in Livorno!"
"But, 'Maso," put in Daniele Bruno, in the manner of one who was a
little sceptical, "I have often seen the pavilion of the Inglese, and
this is as much like that which all their frigates and corvettes wear,
as one of our feluccas is like another. The flag, at least, is right."
"What signifies a flag, Daniele, when a French hand can hoist an English
ensign as easily as the king of Inghilterra himself? If that lugger was
not built by the Francese, you were not built by an Italian father and
mother. But I should not think so much of the hull, for that may have
been captured, as the English take many of their enemies on the high
seas; but look at the rigging and sails--Santa Maria! I could go to the
shop of the very sailmaker, in Marseilles, who made that foresail! His
name is Pierre Benoit, and a very good workman he is, as all will allow
who have had occasion to employ him."
This particularity greatly aided the argument; common minds being seldom
above yielding to the circumstances which are so often made to
corroborate imaginary facts. Tommaso Tonti, though so near the truth as
to his main point--the character of the visitor--was singularly out as
to the sail, notwithstanding; le Feu-Follet having been built, equipped,
and manned at Nantes, and Pierre Benoit never having seen her or her
foresail either; but it mattered not, in the way of discussion and
assertion, one sailmaker being as good as another, provided he
was French.
"And have you mentioned t his to the podestà?" inquired Benedetta, who
stood with the empty flask in her hand, listening to the discourse; "I
should think that sail would open his eyes."
"I cannot say I have; but then I told him so many other things more to
the point, that he cannot do less than believe this, when he hears it.
Signor Viti promised to meet me here, after he has had a conversation
with the vice-governatore; and we may now expect him every minute."
"Il Signor Podestà will be welcome," said Benedetta, wiping off a spare
table, and bustling round the room to make things look a little smarter
than they ordinarily did; "he may frequent grander wine-houses than
this, but he will hardly find better liquor."
"Poverina!--Don't think that the podestà comes here on any such errand;
he comes to meet _me,_" answered 'Maso, with an indulgent smile; "he
takes his wine too often on the heights, to wish to come as low as this
after a glass. Friends of mine _(amigi mii),_ there is wine up at that
house, that, when the oil is once out of the neck of the flask[2], goes
down a man's throat as smoothly as if it were all oil itself! I could
drink a flask of it without once stopping to take breath. It is that
liquor which makes the nobles so light and airy."
[2] It is a practice in Tuscany to put a few drops of oil in the neck of
each flask of the more delicate wines, to exclude the air.
"I know the washy stuff," put in Benedetta, with more warmth than she
was used to betray to her customers; "well may you call it smooth, a
good spring running near each of the wine-presses that have made it. I
have seen some of it that even oil would not float on!"
This assertion was a fair counterpoise to that of the sail, being about
as true. But Benedetta had too much experience in the inconstancy of
men, not to be aware that if the three or four customers who were
present should seriously take up the notion that the island contained
any better liquor than that she habitually placed before them, her
value might be sensibly diminished in their eyes. As became a woman who
had to struggle singly with the world, too, her native shrewdness taught
her, that the best moment to refute a calumny was to stop it as soon as
it began to circulate, and her answer was as warm in manner as it was
positive in terms. This was an excellent opening for an animated
discussion, and one would have been very likely to occur, had there not
fortunately been steps heard without, that induced 'Maso to expect the
podestà. Sure enough, the door opened, and Vito Viti appeared, followed,
to the astonishment of all the guests, and to the absolute awe of
Benedetta, by the vice-governatore himself.
The solution of this unexpected visit is very easily given. After the
departure of the Capitano Smees, Vito Viti returned to the subject of
'Maso's suspicions, and by suggesting certain little circumstances in
the mariner's manner, that he had noted during the interview, he so far
succeeded in making an impression on himself, that, in the end, his own
distrust revived, and with it that of the deputy-governor. Neither,
however, could be said to be more than uneasy, and the podestà happening
to mention his appointment with the pilot, Andrea determined to
accompany him, in order to reconnoitre the strange craft in person. Both
the functionaries wore their cloaks, by no means an unusual thing in the
cool night air of the coast, even in midsummer, which served them for
all the disguise that circumstances required.
"Il Signor Vice-governatore!" almost gasped Benedetta, dusting a chair,
and then the table, and disposing the former near the latter by a sort
of mechanical process, as if only one errand could ever bring a guest
within her doors; "your eccellenza is most welcome; and it is an honor I
could oftener ask. We are humble people down here at the water side, but
I hope we are just as good Christians as if we lived upon the hill."
"Doubt it not, worthy Bettina--"
"My name is Benedetta, at your eccellenza's command-Benedittina if it
please the vice-governatore; but not Bettina. We think much of our
names, down here at the water side, eccellenza."
"Let it be so, then, good Benedetta, and I make no doubt you are
excellent Christians.--A flask of your wine, if it be convenient."
The woman dropped a curtsey that was full of gratitude; and the glance
of triumph that she cast at her other guests may be said to have
terminated the discussion that was about to commence, as the dignitaries
appeared. It disposed of the question of the wine at once, and for ever
silenced cavilling. If the vice-governatore could drink her liquor, what
mariner would henceforth dare calumniate it!
"Eccellenza, with a thousand welcomes," Benedetta continued, as she
placed the flask on the table, after having carefully removed the cotton
and the oil with her own plump hand; this being one of half a dozen
flasks of really sound, well-flavored, Tuscan liquor, that she kept for
especial occasions; as she well might, the cost being only a paul, or
ten cents for near half a gallon; "Eccellenza, a million times welcome.
This is an honor that don't befall the Santa Maria degli Venti more than
once in a century; and you, too, Signor Podestà, once before only have
you ever had leisure to darken my poor door."
"We bachelors"--the podestà, as well as the vice-governor, belonged to
the fraternity--"we bachelors are afraid to trust ourselves too often in
the company of a sprightly widow like yourself, whose beauty has rather
improved than lessened by a few years."
This brought a coquettish answer, during which time Andrea Barrofaldi,
having first satisfied himself that the wine might be swallowed with
impunity, was occupied in surveying the party of silent and humble
mariners, who were seated at the other table. His object was to
ascertain how far he might have committed himself, by appearing in such
a place, when his visit could not well be attributed to more than one
motive. 'Maso he knew, as the oldest pilot of the place, and he had also
some knowledge of Daniele Bruno; but the three other seamen were
strangers to him.
"Inquire if we are among friends, here, and worthy subjects of the Grand
Duke, all," observed Andrea to Vito Viti, in a low voice.
"Thou hearest, 'Maso," observed the podestà; "canst thou answer for all
of thy companions?"
"Every one of them, Signore: this is Daniele Bruno, whose father was
killed in a battle with the Algerines, and whose mother was the daughter
of a mariner, as well known in Elba as--"
"Never mind the particulars, Tommaso Tonti," interrupted the
vice-governatore--"it is sufficient that thou knowest all thy companions
to be honest men, and faithful servants of the _sovrano_. You all know,
most probably, the errand which has brought the Signor Viti and myself
to this house, to-night?"
The men looked at each other, as the ill-instructed are apt to do, when
it becomes necessary to answer a question that concerns many; assisting
the workings of their minds, as it might be, with the aid of the senses;
and then Daniele Bruno took on himself the office of spokesman.
"Signore, vostro eccellenza, we think we do," answered the man. "Our
fellow, 'Maso here, has given us to understand that he suspects the
Inglese that is anchored in the bay to be no Inglese at all, but either
a pirate or a Frenchman. The blessed Maria preserve us! but in these
troubled times it does not make much difference which."
"I will not say as much as that, friend--for one would be an outcast
among all people, while the other would have the rights which shield the
servants of civilized nations," returned the scrupulous and just-minded
functionary. "The time was when His Imperial Majesty, the emperor, and
his illustrious brother, our sovereign, the Grand Duke, did not allow
that the republican government of France was a lawful government; but
the fortune of war removed his scruples, and a treaty of peace has
allowed the contrary. Since the late alliance, it is our duty to
consider all Frenchmen as enemies, though it by no means follows that we
are to consider them as pirates."
"But their corsairs seize all our craft, Signore, and treat their people
as if they were no better than dogs; then, they tell me that they are
not Christians--no, not even Luterani or heretics!"
"That religion does not flourish among them, is true," answered Andrea,
who loved so well to discourse on such subjects, that he would have
stopped to reason on religion or manners with the beggar to whom he gave
a pittance, did he only meet with encouragement; "but it is not as bad
in France, on this important head, as it has been; and we may hope that
there will be further improvement in due time."
"But, Signor Vice-governatore," put in 'Maso, "these people have treated
the holy father and his states in a way that one would not treat an
Infidel or a Turk!"
"Aye, that is it, Signori," observed Benedetta--"a poor woman cannot go
to mass without having her mind disturbed by the thoughts of the wrongs
done the head of the church. Had these things come from Luterani, it
might have been borne; but they say the Francese were once all good
Catholics!"
"So were the Luterani, bella Benedetta, to their chief schismatic and
leader, the German monk himself."
This piece of information caused great surprise, even the podestà
himself turning an inquiring glance at his superior, as much as to
acknowledge his own wonder that a Protestant should ever have been
anything but a Protestant--or rather, a Lutheran anything but a
Lutheran--the word Protestant being too significant to be in favor among
those who deny there were any just grounds for a protest at all. That
Luther had ever been a Romanist was perfectly wonderful, even in the
eyes of Vito Viti.
"Signore, you would hardly mislead these honest people, in a matter as
grave as this!" exclaimed the podestà.
"I do but tell you truth; and one of these days you shall hear the whole
story, neighbor Viti. 'Tis worth an hour of leisure to any man, and is
very consoling and useful to a Christian. But whom have you below,
Benedetta--I hear steps on the stairs, and wish not to be seen."
The widow stepped promptly forward to meet her new guests, and to show
them into a commoner room, below stairs, when her movement was
anticipated by the door's opening, and a man's standing on the
threshold. It was now too late to prevent the intrusion, and a little
surprise at the appearance of the new-comer held all mute and observant
for a minute.
The person who had followed his ears, and thus reached the sanctum
sanctorum of Benedetta, was no other than Ithuel Bolt, the American
seaman, already named in the earlier part of this chapter. He was backed
by a Genoese, who had come in the double capacity of interpreter and
boon companion. That the reader may the better understand the character
he has to deal with, however, it may be necessary to digress, by giving
a short account of the history, appearance, and peculiarities of the
former individual.
Ithuel Bolt was a native of what, in this great Union, is called the
Granite State, Notwithstanding he was not absolutely made of the stone
in question, there was an absence of the ordinary symptoms of natural
feeling about him, that had induced many of his French acquaintances in
particular to affirm that there was a good deal more of marble in his
moral temperament, at least, than usually fell to the lot of human
beings. He had the outline of a good frame, but it was miserably
deficient in the filling up. The bone predominated; the sinews came next
in consideration, nor was the man without a proper share of muscle; but
this last was so disposed of as to present nothing but angles, whichever
way he was viewed. Even his thumbs and fingers were nearer square than
round; and his very neck, which was bare, though a black silk kerchief
was tied loosely round the throat, had a sort of pentagon look about it,
that defied all symmetry or grace. His stature was just six feet and an
inch, when he straightened himself; as he did from time to time,
seemingly with a desire to relieve a very inveterate stoop in his
shoulders; though it was an inch or two less in the position he most
affected. His hair was dark, and his skin had got several coats of
confirmed brown on it, by exposure, though originally rather fair; while
the features were good, the forehead being broad and full, and the mouth
positively handsome. This singular countenance was illuminated by two
keen, restless, whitish eyes, that resembled, not spots on the sun, but
rather suns on a spot.
Ithuel had gone through all the ordinary vicissitudes of an American
life, beneath those pursuits which are commonly thought to be confined
to the class of gentlemen. He had been farmer's boy, printer's devil,
schoolmaster, stage-driver, and tin-pedlar, before he ever saw the sea.
In the way of what he called "chores," too, he had practised all the
known devices of rustic domestic economy; having assisted even in the
washing and house-cleaning, besides having passed the evenings of an
entire winter in making brooms.
Ithuel had reached his thirtieth year before he dreamed of going to sea.
An accident, then, put preferment in this form before his eyes, and he
engaged as the mate of a small coaster, for his very first voyage.
Fortunately, the master never found out his deficiencies, for Ithuel had
a self-possessed, confident way with him, that prevented discovery,
until they were outside of the port from which they sailed, when the
former was knocked overboard by the main boom, and drowned. Most men, so
circumstanced, would have returned, but Bolt never laid his hand to the
plough and looked back. Besides, one course was quite easy to him as
another. Whatever he undertook he usually completed, in some fashion or
other, though it were often much better had it never been attempted.
Fortunately it was summer, the wind was fair, and the crew wanted little
ordering; and as it was quite a matter of course to steer in the right
direction, until the schooner was carried safely into her proper port,
she arrived safely; her people swearing that the new mate was the
easiest and _cleverest_ officer they had ever sailed with. And well they
might, for Ithuel took care not to issue an order until he had heard it
suggested in terms by one of the hands; and then he never failed to
repeat it, word for word, as if it were a suggestion of his own. As for
the reputation of "cleverest" officer, which he so easily obtained, it
will be understood, of course, that the term was used in the provincial
signification that is so common in the part of the world from which
Ithuel came. He was "clever" in this sense, precisely in proportion as
he was ignorant. His success, on this occasion, gained him friends, and
he was immediately sent out again as the regular master of the craft, in
which he had so unexpectedly received his promotion. He now threw all
the duty on the mate; but so ready was he in acquiring, that by the end
of six months he was a much better sailor than most Europeans would have
made in three years. As the pitcher that goes too often to the well is
finally broken, so did Ithuel meet with shipwreck, at last, in
consequence of gross ignorance on the subject of navigation. This
induced him to try a long voyage, in a more subordinate situation, until
in the course of time he was impressed by the commander of an English
frigate, who had lost so many of his men by the yellow fever that he
seized upon all he could lay his hands on, to supply their places, even
Ithuel being acceptable in such a strait.