Part 32 (1/2)
Chapter XXII.
”What country, friends, is this?”
”--Illyria, lady.”
What You Will.
Men are as much indebted to a fortuitous concurrence of circ.u.mstances, for the characters they sustain in this world, as to their personal qualities.
The same truth is applicable to the reputations of s.h.i.+ps. The properties of a vessel, like those of an individual, may have their influence on her good or evil fortune; still, something is due to the accidents of life, in both. Although the breeze, which came so opportunely to the aid of the Water-Witch, soon filled the sails of the Coquette, it caused no change in the opinions of her crew concerning the fortunes of that s.h.i.+p; while it served to heighten the reputation which the 'Skimmer of the Seas' had already obtained, as a mariner who was more than favored by happy chances, in the thousand emergencies of his hazardous profession. Trysail, himself, shook his head, in a manner that expressed volumes, when Ludlow vented his humor on what the young man termed the luck of the smuggler; and the crews of the boats gazed after the retiring brigantine, as the inhabitants of j.a.pan would now most probably regard the pa.s.sage of some vessel propelled by steam. As Mr. Luff was not neglectful of his duty, it was not long before the Coquette approached her boats. The delay occasioned by hoisting in the latter, enabled the chase to increase the s.p.a.ce between the two vessels, to such a distance, as to place her altogether beyond the reach of shot. Ludlow, however, gave his orders to pursue, the moment the s.h.i.+p was ready; and he hastened to conceal his disappointment in his own cabin.
”Luck is a merchant's surplus, while a living profit is the reward of his wits!” observed Alderman Van Beverout, who could scarce conceal the satisfaction he felt, at the unexpected and repeated escapes of the brigantine. ”Many a man gains doubloons, when he only looked for dollars; and many a market falls, while the goods are in the course of clearance.
There are Frenchmen enough, Captain Ludlow to keep a brave officer in good-humor; and the less reason to fret about a trifling mischance in overhauling a smuggler.”
”I know not how highly you may prize your niece, Mr. Van Beverout; but were I the uncle of such a woman, the idea that she had become the infatuated victim of the arts of yon reckless villain, would madden me!”
”Paroxysms and straight-jackets! Happily you are not her uncle, Captain Ludlow, and therefore the less reason to be uneasy. The girl has a French fancy, and she is rummaging the smuggler's silks and laces; when her choice is made, we shall have her back again, more beautiful than ever, for a little finery.”
”Choice! Oh, Alida, Alida! this is not the election that we had reason to expect from thy cultivated mind and proud sentiments!”
”The cultivation is my work, and the pride is an inheritance from old Etienne de Barberie;” dryly rejoined Myndert. ”But complaints never lowered a market, nor raised the funds. Let us send for the Patroon, and take counsel coolly, as to the easiest manner of finding our way back to the l.u.s.t in Rust, before Her Majesty's s.h.i.+p gets too far from the coast of America.”
”Thy pleasantry is unseasonable, Sir. Your Patroon is gone with your niece, and a pleasant pa.s.sage they are likely to enjoy, in such company!
We lost him, in the expedition with our boats.”
The Alderman stood aghast.
”Lost!--Oloff Van Staats lost, in the expedition of the boats! Evil betide the day when that discreet and affluent youth should be lost to the colony! Sir, you know not what you utter when you hazard so rash an opinion. The death of the young Patroon of Kinderhook would render one of the best and most substantial of our families extinct, and leave the third best estate in the Province without a direct heir!”
”The calamity is not so overwhelming;” returned the captain, with bitterness. ”The gentleman has boarded the smuggler, and gone with la belle Barberie to examine his silks and laces!”
Ludlow then explained the manner in which the Patroon had disappeared.
When perfectly a.s.sured that no bodily harm had befallen his friend, the satisfaction of the Alderman was quite as vivid, as his consternation had been apparent but the moment before.
”Gone with la belle Barberie, to examine silks and laces!” he repeated, rubbing his hands together, in delight. ”Ay, there the blood of my old friend, Stepha.n.u.s, begins to show itself! Your true Hollander is no mercurial Frenchman, to beat his head and make grimaces at a s.h.i.+ft in the wind, or a woman's frown; nor a bl.u.s.tering Englishman (you are of the colony yourself, young gentleman) to swear a big oath and swagger; but, as you see, a quiet, persevering, and, in the main, an active son of old Batavia, who watches his opportunity, and goes into the very presence of----”
”Whom?”--demanded Ludlow, perceiving that the Alderman had paused.
”Of his enemy; seeing that all the enemies of the Queen are necessarily the enemies of every loyal subject. Bravo, young Oloff! thou art a lad after my own heart, and no doubt--no doubt--fortune will favor the brave!
Had a Hollander a proper footing on this earth, Captain Cornelius Ludlow, we should hear a different tale concerning the right to the Narrow Seas, and indeed to most other questions of commerce.”
Ludlow arose with a bitter smile on his face, though with no ill feeling towards the man whose exultation was so natural.
”Mr. Van Staats may have reason to congratulate himself on his good fortune,” he said, ”though I much mistake if even his enterprise will succeed, against the wiles of one so artful, and of an appearance so gay, as the man whose guest he has now become. Let the caprice of others be what it may, Alderman Van Beverout, my duty must be done. The smuggler, aided by chance and artifice, has thrice escaped me; the fourth time, it may be our fortune. If this s.h.i.+p possesses the power to destroy the lawless rover, let him look to his fate!”