"I know, Jack," said Cleveland, (in reply to Bunce, who had urged him to recommence Pirate, promised him that he should be instantly elected captain by the Rovers, and pressed his love for Cleveland as the motive of his conduct,)" that you really love me; and since we have come thus far in this talk, I will trust you entirely. Now tell me, why should I be refused the benefit of this gracious proclamation? I have borne a rough outside, as thou knowest; but, in time of need, I can shew the number of lives which I have been the means of saving, the property of which I have restored to those who owned it, when, without my intercession, it would have been wantonly destroyed. In short, Bunce, I can shew-" "That you were as gentle a thief as Robin Hood himself," said Bunce," and for that reason, I, Fletcher, and the better sort amongst us, love you as one who saves the character of us Gentlemen Rovers from utter reprobation.---Well, suppose your pardon made out, what are you to do next?-what class in society will receive you ?--with whom will you associate? Old Drake, in Queen Bess's time, could plunder Peru and Mexico without a line of commission to shew for it, and, blessed be her memory, he was knighted for it on his return. And there was Hal Morgan, the Welchman, nearer our time, in the days of merry King Charles, brought all his gettings home, had his estate and his country-house, and who but he. But that is all ended now-once a pirate, and an outcast for ever. The poor devil may go and live, shunned and despised by every one, in some obscure sea-port, with such part of his guilty earnings as courtiers and clerks leave him--for pardons do not pass the seals for nothing;---and when he takes his walk along the pier, if a stranger asks, who is the down-looking, swarthy, melancholy man, for whom all make way, as if he brought the plague in his person? the answer shall be, that is such-a-one, the pardoned pirate. No honest man will speak to him---no woman of repute will give him her hand. "Your picture is too highly coloured, Jack," said Cleveland, suddenly interrupting his friend; "there are women--there is one at least, that would be true to her lover, even if he were what you have described." Bunce was silent for a moment, and looked fixedly at his friend. "By my soul!" he said at length, "I begin to think myself a conjuror. Unlikely as it all was, I could not help suspecting from the beginning that there was a girl in the case. Why, this is worse than Prince Volcius in love, ha! ha! ha!" "Laugh as you will," said Cleveland, "it is true;---there is a maiden who is contented to love me, pirate as I am; and I will fairly own to you, Jack, that though I have often at times detested our roving life, and myself for following it, yet I doubt if I could have found resolution to make the break which I have now resolved on, but for her sake." "Why, then, God-a-mercy!" replied Bunce," there is no speaking sense to a madman; and love in one of your trade, Captain, is little better than lunacy. The girl must be a rare creature, for a wise man to risk hanging for her. But hark ye, may she not be a little touched as well as yourself?---and is it not sympathy that has done it? She is, I understand, not one of our ordinary cockatrices, but a girl of conduct and character." "Both are as undoubted as that she is the most beautiful and bewitching creature whom the eye ever opened upon," answered Cleveland. "And she loves thee, knowing thee, most noble Captain, to be a commander among those gentlemen of fortune whom the vulgar call Pirates ?" "Even so-I am assured of it," said Cleveland. "Why, then," answered Bunce," she is either mad in good earnest, as I said before, or she does not know what a pirate is." i "You are right in the last point," replied Cleveland. "She has been bred in such remote simplicity, and utter ignorance of what is evil, that she compares our occupation with that of the old Northmen, who swept sea and haven with their victorious galleys, established colonies, conquered countries, and took the name of Sea Kings." "And a better one it is than that of Pirate, and comes much to the same pur"But pose, I dare say," said Bunce. this must be a mettled wench!-why did you not bring her aboard? methinks it was pity to baulk her fancy." "And do you think," said Cleveland, "that I could so utterly play the part of a fallen spirit, as to avail myself of her en thusiastic error, and bring an angel of beauty and innocence acquainted with such a hell as exists on board of yonder infernal ship of ours?-I tell you, my friend, that were all my former sins doubled in weight and in dye, such a villainy would have outglared and outweighed them all." "Why, then, Captain Cleveland," said his confidant, "methinks it was but a fool's part to come hither at all. The news must one day have gone abroad, that the celebrated pirate, Captain Cleve. land, with his good sloop the Revenge, had been lost on the Mainland of Zetland, and all hands perished; so you would have remained hid both from friend and ene my, and might have married your pretty Zetlander, and converted your sash and scarf into fishing-nets, and your cutlass into a harpoon, and swept the seas for fish instead of florins." "And so I had determined," said the Captain; but a Jagger, as they call them here, like a meddling, peddling thief as he is, brought down intelligence to Zetland of your lying here, and I was fain to set off, to see if you were the consort of whom I had told them, long before I thought of leaving the roving trade." "Ay," said Bunce," and so far you judged well; for as you had heard of our being at Kirkwall, so we should have soon learned that you were at Zetland; and some of us for friendship, some for hatred, and some for fear of your play ing Harry Glasby upon us, would have come down for the purpose of getting you into our company again." "I suspected as much," said the Cap tain," and therefore was fain to decline the courteous offer of a friend, who proposed to bring me here about this time; besides, Jack, I recollected that, as you say, my pardon will not pass the seals without money, my own was waxing low-no wonder, thou knowest I was never a churl of it." "And so you came for your share of the cobs ?" replied his friend-" It was wisely done; and we shared honourably -so far Goffe has acted up to articles, it must be allowed. But keep your pur pose of leaving him close in your breast, for I dread his playing you some dog's trick or other, for he certainly thought him. self sure of your share, and will hardly forgive your coming alive to disappoint him.” "I fear him not," ," said Cleveland, "and he knows that well. I would I were as well clear of the consequences of having been his comrade, as I hold myself to be of all those which may attend his ill-will. Another unhappy job I may be troubled with-I hurt a young fellow, who has been my plague for some time, in an unhappy brawl that chanced the morning I left Zetland." "Is he dead?" asked Bunce; "it is a more serious question here than it would be on the Grand Caimains, or the Bahama Isles, and where a brace or two of fellows may be shot in a morning, and no more heard of or asked about them than if they were so many wood-pigeons. But here it may be otherwise, so I hope you have not made your friend immortal." "I hope not," said the Captain, "though my anger has been fatal to those who have given me less provocation. To say the truth, I was sorry for the lad notwithstanding, and especially as I was forced to leave him in mad keeping." "In mad keeping!" said Bunce; "why, what means that ?" "You shall hear, replied his friend. "In the first place, you are to know, this young man came suddenly on me while I was trying to gain Minna's ear for a private interview before I set sail, that I might explain my purpose to her. Now to be broken in on by the accursed rudeness of this young fellow at such a moment." "The interruption deserved death," said Bunce," by all the laws of love and honour." "A truce with your ends of plays,' Jack, and listen one moment-The brisk youth thought proper to retort when I commanded him to be gone. I am not, thou knowest, very patient, and enforced my commands with a blow, which he returned as roundly. We struggled, till I became desirous that we should part at any rate, which I could only effect by a stroke of my poniard, which, according to old use, I have, thou knowest, always about me. I had scarce done this when I repented; but there was no time to think of any thing save escape and concealment, for if the house rose on me, I was lost; as the fiery old man who is head of the family would have done jus tice on me had I been his brother. I took the body hastily on my shoulders to carry it down to the sea-shore, with the hasty purpose of throwing it into a riva, as they call them, or chasm of great depth, where it would have been long enough in being discovered. This done, I intended to jump into the boat, which I had lying ready, and set sail for Kirk. wall. But as I walked hastily towards the beach with my burthen, the poor young fellow groaned, and so apprised me that the wound had not been instantly fatal. I was by this time well conceal. ed amongst the rocks, and far from de siring to complete my crime, I laid the young man on the ground, and was do ing what I could to staunch the blood, when suddenly an old woman stood be fore me. She was a person whom I had frequently seen while in Zetland, and to whom they ascribe the character of a sorceress, or, as the negroes say, an Obi woman. She demanded the wounded man of me, and I was too much pressed for time to hesitate complying with her request. More she was about to say to me, when we heard the voice of a silly old man, belonging to the family, sing. ing at some distance. She then pressed her finger on her lip as a sign of secrecy, whistled very low, and a shapeless, deformed brute of a dwarf, coming to her assistance, they carried the wounded man into one of the caverns with which the place abounds, and I got to my boat and to sea with all expedition. Soon after this interview, given, as the reader will perceive, with unrivalled dramatic effect, Cleveland, and his companion Bunce, sally forth into the market; when the first thing that attracted the sharp eye of the former was a booth, tenanted by our worthy friend the jagger, and furnished out with all and sundry the goods, gear, chattels, effects, and wearing apparel, of Captain Cleveland, these having been abstracted by the "conscientious pedlar," by and with the aid of that godly professor, Mrs Swertha, housekeeper to Basil Mertoun, constituted custodier of the Captain's chest when rescued from the Roost of Sumburgh, by the decisive interposition of Norna of the Fitful-head. The Pirate instantly and peremptorily challenges and demands the surrender of his property-a request with which, however reasonable on his part, the jagger feels very little disposed to comply. A scuffle ensues, the Pirate drubs the pedlar soundly with his cane, but being overpowered by the posse comitatus of the Orcadian Capital, is made prisoner;-a plight from which, however, he is speedily rescued by Jack Bunce, with a boat's crew of his brother desperadoes from the quay, who bore their Captain off in triumph to the ship. In the mean while, Norna visits Mordaunt Mertoun, whom she had conveyed to a place of safety, on the night when he was wounded in the scuffle with Cleveland, and who, as the injury was not deadly, was rapidly recovering under her maternal care; and when he had gained sufficient strength to endure the surprise of such a communication, the sybil suddenly declares herself his mother, and claims from him the duties and affections of a son. Un der this impression she had all along acted-had watched his steps-had endeavoured to reconcile' to him the haughty and offended Udaller-and had, after his rencounter with Cleve land, received him from the Pirate apparently a lifeless corpse. On board Cleveland's consort a strange scene, in the meantime, occurred. Goffe, the "black-haired, bull-necked, beetle-browed" savage, who commanded, had become such a slave to beastly intoxication, that a party, headed by Bunce, was formed to dispossess him of his command, or at least compel him to share it with his rival; the buccaneers having heard of the approach of the Halcyon king's frigate, and being anxious to victual and be off with the utmost expedition. Notwithstanding the length of some of the preceding extracts, the scene is so inimitably drawn, that we cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of adding this to the number. At length Goffe broke silence-"You are welcome aboard, Captain Cleveland. -Smash my taffrail! I suppose you think yourself commodore yet! but that was over, by G-, when you lost your ship, and be d-d!" To his insinuations, that he was come on board to assume the chief command, Cleveland replied, that he neither desired, nor would accept, any such promotion, but would only ask Captain Goffe for a cast of the boat, to put him ashore in one of the other islands, as he had no wish either to command Goffe, or to remain in a vessel under his orders. "I wonder which of these capital seamen it was," said Cleveland, coolly, "that laid the ship under the fire of yon six-gun battery, that could blow her out of the water, if they had a mind, before you could either cut or slip! Elder and better sailors than I may like to serve under such a lubber, but I beg to be ex cused for my own share, Captain-that's all I have got to tell you." "By G-, I think you are both mad!" said Hawkins, the boatswain.“ I propose, that there should be a general council called in the great cabin, according to our articles, that we consider what course we are to hold in this matter." A general assent followed the boatswain's proposals; for every one found an account of his own in these general councils, in which each of the rovers had a free vote. By far the greater part of the crew only valued this franchise, as it allowed them, upon such solemn occasions, an unlimited quantity of liquor-a right which they failed not to exercise to the uttermost, by way of aiding their deliberations. But a few of those amongst the adventurers, who united some degree of judgment with the daring and profligate character of their profession, were wont, on such occasions, to limit themselves within the bounds of sobriety; and by these, under the apparent form of a vote of the general council, all things of moment, relating to the voyage and undertaking of the pirates, were in fact determined. The rest of the crew, when they recovered from their intoxication, were easily persuaded that the resolution adopted had been the legitimate cffort of their own wisdom. Upon the present occasion, the debauch had proceeded until the greater part of the crew were, as usual, displaying inebriation in all its more brutal and disgraceful shapes-swearing empty and unmeaning oaths-venting the most horrid imprecations in the mere gaiety of their heartsinging songs, the ribaldry of which was only equalled by their profaneness, and, from the middle of this earthly hell, the two Captains, together with one or two of the principal adherents of each, with the carpenter and boatswain, who always took a lead on such occasions, had drawn together into a knot, to consider what was to be done; for, as the boatswain metaphorically observed, they were in a narrow channel, and behoved to keep sounding the tide-way. When they began their deliberations, the friends of Goffe observed, to their great displeasure, that he had not observed the wholesome rule to which we have just alluded; but that, in endeavouring to drown his mortification at the sudden appearance of Cleveland, and the reception he met with from the crew, he had not been able to do so without overflowing his reason at the same time. His natural sullen taciturnity has prevented this from being observed until the council began its deliberations, when it proved impossible to hide it. The first person who spoke was Cleveland, who said, that, so far from desiring the command of the vessel, he desired no favour at any one's hand, except to land him upon some island or holm at a dis tance from Kirkwall, and leave him to shift for himself. The boatswain remonstrated strongly against this resolution. "The lads," he said, "all knew Cleveland, and could trust his seamanship, as well as his courage; besides, he never let the grog get quite uppermost, and was always in proper trim, either to sail the ship or to fight the ship, whereby she was never without some one to keep her course when he was on board.-And as for the noble Captain Goffe," continued the mediator, "he is as stout a heart as ever broke biscuit, and that I will uphold him; but then, when he has his grog aboard-I speak it to his face-he is so damned funny with his cranks and his jests, that there is no living with him. You all remember how nigh he had run the ship on that cursed Horn of Copinsha, as they call it, just by way of frolic, and then you know how he shot off his pistol under the table, when we were at the great council, and shot Jack Jenkins in the knee, and cost the poor devil his leg, with his pleasantry." "Jack Jenkins was not a chip the worse," said the carpenter; "I took the leg off with my saw as well as any loblol ly-boy in the land could have doneheated my broad axe, and seared the stump-ay, by! and made a juryleg, that he shambles about with as well as ever he did---for Jack could never cut a feather!"# 66 "You are a clever fellow, carpenter!" replied the boatswain, “a d▬▬d clever fellow! but I had rather you tried your saw and red-hot axe upon the ship's kneetimbers than on mine, sink me!-But that here is not the case--The question is, if we shall part with Captain Cleveland here, who is a man of thought and action, whereby it is my thought it would be heaving the pilot overboard when the gale is blowing on a lee-shore.-And I must say, it is not the part of a true heart to leave his mates, who have been here waiting for him till they have missed stays. Our water is well nigh out, and we have junketed till provisions are low with us. We cannot sail without provisions---we cannot get provisions without the good-will of the Kirkwall folks. If we remain here longer, the Halcyon fțigate will be down upon us--she was seen off Peterhead two days since-and we shall hang up at the yard-arm to be sundried. Now, Captain Cleveland will get us out of the hobble, if any can. He can play the gentleman with these Kirkwall A ship going fast through the sca is said to cut a feather, alluding to the ripple which she throws off from her bows. folks, and knows how to deal with them on fair terms, and foul too, if there be occasion for it." "And so you would turn honest Captain Goffe a-grazing, would ye ?" said an old weather-beaten pirate, who had but one eye; "what though he has his humours, and made my eye dowse the glim in his fancies and frolics, he is as honest a fellow as ever walked a quarter-deck, for all that; and d-n me but I stand by him so long as 'tother lantern is lit!" "Why, you would not hear me out," said Hawkins; "a man might as well talk to so many negers!-I tell you propose that Cleveland shall only be Captain from one, post meridiem, to five, a. m., during which time Goffe is always drunk." "But, nevertheless," continued Derrick," it will never do to have two cap tains in the same day. I think week about might suit better-and let Cleveland take the first turn." "There are as good here as any of them," said Hawkins; "howsomedoever, I object nothing to Captain Cleveland, and I think he may help us into deep wa ter as well as another." 66 Ay," exclaimed Bunce," and a better figure he will make at bringing these Kirkwallers to order than his sober predecessor!--So Captain Cleveland for ever!" "Stop, gentlemen!" said Cleveland, who had hitherto been silent; "I hope you will not chuse me Captain without my own consent!" "Ay, by the blue vault of heaven will we, if it be pro bono publico !” "But hear me, at least!" said Cleveland-"I do consent to take command of the vessel, since you wish it, and because I see you will ill get out of the scrape without me." “Then I say Cleveland for ever again!" shouted Bunce. The matter was now put to the vote; and so confident were the crew in Cleve land's superior address and management, that the temporary deposition of Goffe found little opposition, even amongst his own partizans, who reasonably enough VOL. IX. observed, he might at least have kept sober to look after his own business-E'en let him put it to rights again himself next morning, if he will." Cleveland is accordingly installed in the room of Goffe; and, with the reckless hardihood of Pirates and Rovers, lands, attended by only a small party, to negociate supplies with the provost and bailies of Kirkwall; the worthy agriculturist Yellowley being assigned over to Goffe (now second in command) as a hostage; but, by the connivance and treachery of Goffe, the hapless improver gets a broad hint to slew himself round, and to cut and run for his life. is detained a prisoner-a consummaThe consequence is, that Cleveland tion which "his majesty's worship," Dick Fletcher provost Torfe, as named him, contemplated from the very beginning, regarding the chance of the Rovers skivering the poor fac tor with the classic name, or chopping him into gimlet pies, as a risk that a wise politician must submit to, in order to attain his purpose of delivering over to the captain of the Halcyon the chief of the Rovers. Knowing, however, that he had desperadoes to deal with, he did not proceed to extremities with Cleveland, but allowed him greater latitude of perambulation than his prudence would have otherwise dictated. This was not well of the provost. When walking solitary, and meditating on his misspent life in the aisle of the Cathe dral, the omnipresent Norna makes her appearance to Cleveland, and, by a secret passage, known only to the beadle and herself, conveys him to liberty, and the repossession of his newly-acquired honours. The detention of their leader had enraged and disconcerted the friends of Cleveland aboard, and given secret pleasure to the adherents of Goffe, However, buccaneers are always men of decision. Bunce, warmly seconded by the greater part of the crew, instantly resolved on seizing and detaining all that came in their way, and making them security for the good treatment and ultimate safety of Captain Cleveland. By the overruling decrees of fate, the brig, having on board the Udaller, his daughters, and the facetious and lively minstrel Claud Halcro, unhappily 3 Y |