Part 23 (2/2)
”In troth did they,” said Bryce; ”that is, they said something about a partner that had gone down to Davie Jones in these seas.”
”And did you tell them what you knew of her?” said the Udaller.
”And wha the deevil wad hae been the fule, then,” said the pedlar, ”that I suld say sae? When they kend what came of the s.h.i.+p, the next question wad have been about the cargo,--and ye wad not have had me bring down an armed vessel on the coast, to harrie the poor folk about a wheen rags of duds that the sea flung upon their sh.o.r.es?”
”Besides, what might have been found in your own pack, you scoundrel!”
said Magnus Troil; an observation which produced a loud laugh. The Udaller could not help joining in the hilarity which applauded his jest; but instantly composing his countenance, he said, in an unusually grave tone, ”You may laugh, my friends; but this is a matter which brings both a curse and a shame on the country; and till we learn to regard the rights of them that suffer by the winds and waves, we shall deserve to be oppressed and hag-ridden, as we have been and are, by the superior strength of the strangers who rule us.”
The company hung their heads at the rebuke of Magnus Troil. Perhaps some, even of the better cla.s.s, might be conscience-struck on their own account; and all of them were sensible that the appet.i.te for plunder, on the part of the tenants and inferiors, was not at all times restrained with sufficient strictness. But Cleveland made answer gaily, ”If these honest fellows be my comrades, I will answer for them that they will never trouble the country about a parcel of chests, hammocks, and such trumpery, that the Roost may have washed ash.o.r.e out of my poor sloop.
What signifies to them whether the trash went to Bryce Snailsfoot, or to the bottom, or to the devil? So unbuckle thy pack, Bryce, and show the ladies thy cargo, and perhaps we may see something that will please them.”
”It cannot be his consort,” said Brenda, in a whisper to her sister; ”he would have shown more joy at her appearance.”
”It must be the vessel,” answered Minna; ”I saw his eye glisten at the thought of being again united to the partner of his dangers.”
”Perhaps it glistened,” said her sister, still apart, ”at the thought of leaving Zetland; it is difficult to guess the thought of the heart from the glance of the eye.”
”Judge not, at least, unkindly of a friend's thought,” said Minna; ”and then, Brenda, if you are mistaken, the fault rests not with you.”
During this dialogue, Bryce Snailsfoot was busied in uncoiling the carefully arranged cordage of his pack, which amounted to six good yards of dressed seal-skin, curiously complicated and secured by all manner of knots and buckles. He was considerably interrupted in the task by the Udaller and others, who pressed him with questions respecting the stranger vessel.
”Were the officers often ash.o.r.e? and how were they received by the people of Kirkwall?” said Magnus Troil.
”Excellently well,” answered Bryce Snailsfoot; ”and the Captain and one or two of his men had been at some of the vanities and dances which went forward in the town; but there had been some word about customs, or king's duties, or the like, and some of the higher folk, that took upon them as magistrates, or the like, had had words with the Captain, and he refused to satisfy them; and then it is like he was more coldly looked on, and he spoke of carrying the s.h.i.+p round to Stromness, or the Langhope, for she lay under the guns of the battery at Kirkwall. But he”
(Bryce) ”thought she wad bide at Kirkwall till the summer-fair was over, for all that.”
”The Orkney gentry,” said Magnus Troil, ”are always in a hurry to draw the Scotch collar tighter round their own necks. Is it not enough that we must pay _scat_ and _wattle,_ which were all the public dues under our old Norse government; but must they come over us with king's dues and customs besides? It is the part of an honest man to resist these things. I have done so all my life, and will do so to the end of it.”
There was a loud jubilee and shout of applause among the guests, who were (some of them at least) better pleased with Magnus Troil's lat.i.tudinarian principles with respect to the public revenue, (which were extremely natural to those living in so secluded a situation, and subjected to many additional exactions,) than they had been with the rigour of his judgment on the subject of wrecked goods. But Minna's inexperienced feelings carried her farther than her father, while she whispered to Brenda, not unheard by Cleveland, that the tame spirit of the Orcadians had missed every chance which late incidents had given them to emanc.i.p.ate these islands from the Scottish yoke.
”Why,” she said, ”should we not, under so many changes as late times have introduced, have seized the opportunity to shake off an allegiance which is not justly due from us, and to return to the protection of Denmark, our parent country? Why should we yet hesitate to do this, but that the gentry of Orkney have mixed families and friends.h.i.+p so much with our invaders, that they have become dead to the throb of the heroic Norse blood, which they derived from their ancestors?”
The latter part of this patriotic speech happened to reach the astonished ears of our friend Triptolemus, who, having a sincere devotion for the Protestant succession, and the Revolution as established, was surprised into the e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n, ”As the old c.o.c.k crows the young c.o.c.k learns--hen I should say, mistress, and I crave your pardon if I say any thing amiss in either gender. But it is a happy country where the father declares against the king's customs, and the daughter against the king's crown! and, in my judgment, it can end in naething but trees and tows.”
”Trees are scarce among us,” said Magnus; ”and for ropes, we need them for our rigging, and cannot spare them to be s.h.i.+rt-collars.”
”And whoever,” said the Captain, ”takes umbrage at what this young lady says, had better keep his ears and tongue for a safer employment than such an adventure.”
”Ay, ay,” said Triptolemus, ”it helps the matter much to speak truths, whilk are as unwelcome to a proud stomach as wet clover to a cow's, in a land where lads are ready to draw the whittle if a la.s.sie but looks awry. But what manners are to be expected in a country where folk call a pleugh-sock a markal?”
”Hark ye, Master Yellowley,” said the Captain, smiling, ”I hope my manners are not among those abuses which you come hither to reform; any experiment on them may be dangerous.”
”As well as difficult,” said Triptolemus, dryly; ”but fear nothing, Captain Cleveland, from my remonstrances. My labours regard the men and things of the earth, and not the men and things of the sea,--you are not of my element.”
”Let us be friends, then, old clod-compeller,” said the Captain.
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