Part 59 (2/2)
”Do they want to go b.u.mp on sh.o.r.e, then?” said the Factor--”how the devil should I pilot them, that never touched rudder in my life?”
”Hus.h.!.+--hus.h.!.+--be silent!” said the Provost; ”if the people of this town heard ye say such a word, your utility, and respect, and rank, and every thing else, is clean gone!--No man is any thing with us island folks, unless he can hand, reef, and steer.--Besides, it is but a mere form; and we will send old Pate Sinclair to help you. You will have nothing to do but to eat, drink, and be merry all day.”
”Eat and drink!” said the Factor, not able to comprehend exactly why this piece of duty was pressed upon him so hastily, and yet not very capable of resisting or extricating himself from the toils of the more knowing Provost--”Eat and drink?--that is all very well; but, to speak truth, the sea does not agree with me any more than with the Treasurer; and I have always a better appet.i.te for eating and drinking ash.o.r.e.”
”Hus.h.!.+ hus.h.!.+ hus.h.!.+” again said the Provost, in an under tone of earnest expostulation; ”would you actually ruin your character out and out?--A Factor of the High Chamberlain of the Isles of Orkney and Zetland, and not like the sea!--you might as well say you are a Highlander, and do not like whisky!”
”You must settle it somehow, gentlemen,” said Captain Cleveland; ”it is time we were under weigh.--Mr. Triptolemus Yellowley, are we to be honoured with your company?”
”I am sure, Captain Cleveland,” stammered the Factor, ”I would have no objection to go anywhere with you--only”----
”He has no objection,” said the Provost, catching at the first limb of the sentence, without awaiting the conclusion.
”He has no objection,” cried the Treasurer.
”He has no objection,” sung out the whole four Bailies together; and the fifteen Councillors, all catching up the same phrase of a.s.sent, repeated it in chorus, with the additions of--”good man”--”public-spirited”--”honourable gentleman”--”burgh eternally obliged”--”where will you find such a worthy Factor?” and so forth.
Astonished and confused at the praises with which he was overwhelmed on all sides, and in no shape understanding the nature of the transaction that was going forward, the astounded and overwhelmed agriculturist became incapable of resisting the part of the Kirkwall Curtius thus insidiously forced upon him, and was delivered up by Captain Cleveland to his party, with the strictest injunctions to treat him with honour and attention. Goffe and his companions began now to lead him off, amid the applauses of the whole meeting, after the manner in which the victim of ancient days was garlanded and greeted by shouts, when consigned to the priests, for the purpose of being led to the altar, and knocked on the head, a sacrifice for the commonweal. It was while they thus conducted, and in a manner forced him out of the Council-chamber, that poor Triptolemus, much alarmed at finding that Cleveland, in whom he had some confidence, was to remain behind the party, tried, when just going out at the door, the effect of one remonstrating bellow.--”Nay, but, Provost!--Captain!--Bailies!--Treasurer! Councillors!--if Captain Cleveland does not go aboard to protect me, it is nae bargain, and go I will not, unless I am trailed with cart-ropes!”
His protest was, however, drowned in the unanimous chorus of the Magistrates and Councillors, returning him thanks for his public spirit--wis.h.i.+ng him a good voyage--and praying to Heaven for his happy and speedy return. Stunned and overwhelmed, and thinking, if he had any distinct thoughts at all, that remonstrance was vain, where friends and strangers seemed alike determined to carry the point against him, Triptolemus, without farther resistance, suffered himself to be conducted into the street, where the pirate's boat's-crew, a.s.sembling around him, began to move slowly towards the quay, many of the townsfolk following out of curiosity, but without any attempt at interference or annoyance; for the pacific compromise which the dexterity of the first Magistrate had achieved, was unanimously approved of as a much better settlement of the disputes betwixt them and the strangers, than might have been attained by the dubious issue of an appeal to arms.
Meanwhile, as they went slowly along, Triptolemus had time to study the appearance, countenance, and dress, of those into whose hands he had been thus delivered, and began to imagine that he read in their looks, not only the general expression of a desperate character, but some sinister intentions directed particularly towards himself. He was alarmed by the truculent looks of Goffe, in particular, who, holding his arm with a gripe which resembled in delicacy of touch the compression of a smith's vice, cast on him from the outer corner of his eye oblique glances, like those which the eagle throws upon the prey which she has clutched, ere yet she proceeds, as it is technically called, to plume it. At length Yellowley's fears got so far the better of his prudence, that he fairly asked his terrible conductor, in a sort of crying whisper, ”Are you going to murder me, Captain, in the face of the laws baith of G.o.d and man?”
”Hold your peace, if you are wise,” said Goffe, who had his own reasons for desiring to increase the panic of his captive; ”we have not murdered a man these three months, and why should you put us in mind of it?”
”You are but joking, I hope, good worthy Captain!” replied Triptolemus.
”This is worse than witches, dwarfs, dirking of whales, and cowping of cobles, put all together!--this is an away-ganging crop, with a vengeance!--What good, in Heaven's name, would murdering me do to you?”
”We might have some pleasure in it, at least,” said Goffe.--”Look these fellows in the face, and see if you see one among them that would not rather kill a man than let it alone?--But we will speak more of that when you have first had a taste of the bilboes--unless, indeed, you come down with a handsome round handful of Chili boards[37] for your ransom.”
”As I shall live by bread, Captain,” answered the Factor, ”that misbegotten dwarf has carried off the whole hornful of silver!”
”A cat-and-nine-tails will make you find it again,” said Goffe, gruffly; ”flogging and pickling is an excellent receipt to bring a man's wealth into his mind--twisting a bowstring round his skull till the eyes start a little, is a very good remembrancer too.”
”Captain,” replied Yellowley, stoutly, ”I have no money--seldom can improvers have. We turn pasture to tillage, and barley into aits, and heather into greensward, and the poor _yarpha_, as the benighted creatures here call their peat-bogs, into baittle gra.s.s-land; but we seldom make any thing of it that comes back to our ain pouch. The carles and the cart-avers make it all, and the carles and the cart-avers eat it all, and the deil clink doun with it!”
”Well, well,” said Goffe, ”if you be really a poor fellow, as you pretend, I'll stand your friend;” then, inclining his head so as to reach the ear of the Factor, who stood on tiptoe with anxiety, he said, ”If you love your life, do not enter the boat with us.”
”But how am I to get away from you, while you hold me so fast by the arm, that I could not get off if the whole year's crop of Scotland depended on it?”
”Hark ye, you gudgeon,” said Goffe, ”just when you come to the water's edge, and when the fellows are jumping in and taking their oars, slue yourself round suddenly to the larboard--I will let go your arm--and then cut and run for your life!”
Triptolemus did as he was desired, Goffe's willing hand relaxed the grasp as he had promised, the agriculturist trundled off like a football that has just received a strong impulse from the foot of one of the players, and, with celerity which surprised himself as well as all beholders, fled through the town of Kirkwall. Nay, such was the impetus of his retreat, that, as if the grasp of the pirate was still open to pounce upon him, he never stopped till he had traversed the whole town, and attained the open country on the other side. They who had seen him that day--his hat and wig lost in the sudden effort he had made to bolt forward, his cravat awry, and his waistcoat unb.u.t.toned,--and who had an opportunity of comparing his round spherical form and short legs with the portentous speed at which he scoured through the street, might well say, that if Fury ministers arms, Fear confers wings. His very mode of running seemed to be that peculiar to his fleecy care, for, like a ram in the midst of his race, he ever and anon encouraged himself by a great bouncing attempt at a leap, though there were no obstacles in his way.
There was no pursuit after the agriculturist; and though a musket or two were presented, for the purpose of sending a leaden messenger after him, yet Goffe, turning peace-maker for once in his life, so exaggerated the dangers that would attend a breach of the truce with the people of Kirkwall, that he prevailed upon the boat's crew to forbear any active hostilities, and to pull off for their vessel with all dispatch.
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