Добавил:
ivanov666
Опубликованный материал нарушает ваши авторские права? Сообщите нам.
Вуз:
Предмет:
Файл:Afloat and Ashore
.pdf
AFLOAT AND ASHORE
and, the mother not appearing, I at once guessed the truth.
Mrs. Merton was an invalid when I knew her, though I had
not anticipated for her so speedy a death. I thought Captain
Le Compte appeared vexed at my reception. Still, he did not
forget his good manners; and he rose, saying he would leave
me with my friends to make mutual explanations, while he
proceeded to overlook the duty of the day. On taking his leave,
I was not pleased to see him approach and kiss Emily’s hand.
The act was done respectfully, and not entirely without grace;
but there were a feeling and manner in it that could not well
be mistaken. Emily blushed, as she wished him good morning,
and turning to look at me, in spite of a kind of dog-in-themanger sensation, I could not forbear smiling.
“Never, Mr. Wallingford, never!” Emily said, with emphasis, the instant her admirer was out of hearing. “We are at his
mercy, and must keep terms with him; but I can never marry
a foreigner.”
“That is poor encouragement for Wallingford, my dear,”
said her father, laughing, “should he happen to take a fancy to
you himself.”
Emily looked confused, but, what, for the circumstances,
was better still, she looked concerned.
“I am sure, dear sir,” she answered, with a quickness I
thought charming, “I am sure Mr. Wallingford will not suppose I meant anything so rude. Then, he is no importunate
suitor of mine, like this disagreeable Frenchman, who always
seems to me more like a Turkish master, than like one who really respects a woman. Besides – ”
331
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
“Besides what, Miss Merton?” I ventured to ask, perceiving
that she hesitated.
“Besides, Americans are hardly foreigners to us,” added Emily, smiling; “for we have even American relatives, you know,
father.”
“Quite true, my dear, and came near being Americans ourselves. Had my father established himself where he married,
as had been his first intention, such would have been our national character. But, Mons. Le Compte has given us a moment
to tell our stories to each other, and I think it will not be a very
long moment. Let one of us commence, if we wish the offices
done without unpleasant listeners.”
Emily urged me to begin, and I did not hesitate. My story
was soon told. Major Merton and his daughter understood all
about the capture of the ship in the basin, though they were
ignorant of the vessel’s name. I had only to relate our voyage
on the main, and the death of Captain Williams, therefore, to
have my whole story told. I made it all the shorter, from an
impatience to hear the circumstances which had thrown my
friends into their present extraordinary position.
“It seems extraordinary enough, beyond doubt,” Major
Merton began, the moment I left him an opening by my closing remark, “but it is all very simple, when you commence at
the right end of the sad story, and follow events in the order in
which they occurred.”
“When you left us in London, Wallingford, I supposed we
were on the point of sailing for the West Indies, but a better
appointment soon after offering in the East, my destination
was changed to Bombay. It was important that I should reach
332
AFLOAT AND ASHORE
my port at as early a day as possible; and, no regular Indiaman
being ready, I took passage in a licensed running vessel, a ship
of no size, or force. Nothing occurred until we had got within
three or four days’ sail of our port, when we fell in with la Pauline, and were captured. At first, I think Captain Le Compte
would have been willing to let me go on parole, but no opportunity offered, and we went with the ship to Manilla. While
there, the melancholy loss happened, which, no doubt, you
have comprehended from our mourning; and I was strongly
in hopes of making some arrangements that would still enable me to save my situation. But, by this time, Monsieur Le
Compte had become an open admirer of Emily, and I suppose
it is hopeless to expect any liberation, so long as he can invent
excuses to frustrate it.”
“I trust he does not abuse his power, in any way, and annoy
Miss Merton with importunities that are unpleasant to her.”
Emily rewarded me for the warmth with which I spoke,
with a sweet smile and a slight blush.
“Of that I cannot accuse him, in one sense at least,” resumed Major Merton. “Mons. Le Compte does all for us that
his sense of delicacy can suggest; and it was not possible for
passengers to be more comfortable, or retired, on board ship,
than we were in the Pauline. That vessel had a poop, and its
cabin was given up entirely to our use. At Manilla, I was permitted to go at large, on a mere verbal assurance of returning;
and, in all other particulars, we have been treated as well as
circumstances would very well allow. Nevertheless, Emily is
too young to admire a suitor of forty, too English to admire
a foreigner, and too well-born to accept one who is merely a
333
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
merchant sailor – I mean one who is nothing, and has nothing, but what his ship makes him, or can give him.”
I understood Major Merton’s distinction; he saw a difference between the heir of Clawbonny, pursuing his adventures
for the love of the sea, and a man who pursued the sea as an
adventurer. It was not very delicately made, but it was pretty
well, as coming from an European to an American; the latter
being assumed ex gratia, to be a being of an inferior order,
morally, politically, physically, socially and in every other
sense, but the pecuniary. Thank Heaven! the American dollar is admitted, pennyweight for pennyweight, to a precedency
immediately next to that of the metal dollar of Europe. It even
goes before the paper thaler of Prussia.
“I can readily imagine Miss Merton would look higher than
Captain Le Compte, for various reasons,” I answered, making
a sort of acknowledgment for the distinction in my favour,
by bowing involuntarily, “and I should hope that gentleman
would cease to be importunate as soon as convinced he cannot
succeed.”
“You do not know a Frenchman, Mr. Wallingford,” rejoined Emily. “He is the hardest creature on earth to persuade
into the notion that he is not adorable.”
“I can hardly believe that this weakness extends as far as
the sailors,” said I, laughing. “At all events, you will be released
the instant you reach France.”
“Sooner too, I trust, Wallingford,” resumed the father.
“These Frenchmen can have it their own way, out here in the
solitude of the Pacific; but, once in the Atlantic, I shall ex-
334
AFLOAT AND ASHORE
pect some British cruiser to pick us up, long ere we can reach
France.”
This was a reasonable expectation, and we conversed about
it for some time. I shall not repeat all that passed; but the reader can have no difficulty in understanding, that Major Merton and myself communicated to each other every fact that
was likely to be of interest to men in our situation. When I
thought it prudent to take my leave, he walked some distance
with me, holding his way to a point on the outer side of the
island, where I could get a view of the wreck. Here he left me,
for the moment, while I proceeded along the beach, ruminating on all that had passed.
The process by which nature uses her materials to found islands in the midst of oceans like the Pacific, is a curious study.
The insect that forms the coral rock, must be an industrious
little creature, as there is reason to think that some of the reefs
that have become known to navigators within the last sixty
or seventy years, have since been converted into islands bearing trees, by their labours. Should the work go on, a part of
this vast sea will yet be converted into a continent; and, who
knows but a railroad may yet run across that portion of our
globe, connecting America with the old world? I see that Captain Beechy, in his voyage, speaks of a wreck that occurred in
1792, on a reef, where, in 1826, he found an island near three
leagues long, bearing tall trees. It would be a curious calculation to ascertain, if one family of insects can make an island
three leagues long, in thirty-four years, how many families it
would take to make the grading of the railroad I have mentioned. Ten years since, I would not have ventured a hint of
335
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
this nature, for it might have set speculation in motion, and
been the instrument of robbing more widows and orphans
of their straitened means; but, Heaven be praised! we have at
length reached a period in the history of the country, when a
man may venture on a speculation in the theory of geography
without incurring the risk of giving birth to some wild – if not
unprincipled – speculation in dollars and cents.
As I drew near the outer shore of the island, opposite to
the wreck, I came unexpectedly on Marble. The poor fellow
was seated on a raised projection of coral rock, with his arms
folded, and, was in so thorough a brown study, that he did not
even hear my footsteps in approaching, though I purposely
trod heavily, in order to catch his ear. Unwilling to disturb
him, I stood gazing at the wreck myself, for some little time,
the place affording a much better view of it than any other
point from which it had met my eye. The French had made far
greater inroads upon their vessel, than the elements. She had
struck to leeward of the island, and lay in a spot where, indeed,
it might take years to break her entirely up, in that placid sea.
Most of her upper works, however, were gone; and I subsequently discovered that her own carpenters had managed to
get out even a portion of her floor-timbers, leaving the fabric
bound together by those they left. Her lower masts were standing, but even her lower yards had been worked up, in order
to make something useful for the schooner. The beach, at no
great distance, was still strewed with objects brought from the
reef, and which it had not yet been found necessary to use.
At length a movement of mine attracted Marble’s attention, and he turned his head towards me. He seemed glad I
336
AFLOAT AND ASHORE
had joined him, and expressed himself happy, also, that he saw
me alone.
“I have been generalizing a little on our condition, Miles,”
he said, “and look at it which end forward I may, I find it bad
enough; almost enough to overcome me. I loved that ship, Mr.
Wallingford, as much as some folks love their parents – of
wife or children, I never had any – and the thought that she
has fallen into the hands of a Frenchman, is too much for my
natur’. Had it been Smudge, I could have borne up against
it; but, to haul down one’s colours to a wrack, and a bloody
French wrack, too, it is superhuman!”
“You must remember all the circumstances, Captain Marble, and you will find consolation. The ship was surprised, as
we surprised the Lady of Nantes.”
“That’s just it – put that on a general principle, now, and
where are you? Surprisers mustn’t be surprised. Had we set a
quarter-watch, sir, it never could have happened; and nothing
less than a quarter-watch should have been set in a strange
haven. What mattered it, that it was an uninhabited island,
and that the ship was land-locked and well-moored, and the
holding-ground was capital? It is all of no account when you
come to look at the affair in the way of duty. Why, old Robbins,
with his rivers in the ocean, would never have been caught in
this miserable manner.”
Then Marble fairly gave in, placed his two hard hands on
his face, and I could see tears trickling from beneath them, as
if water were squeezed from a stone.
“The chances of the sea, Captain Marble,” I said, greatly
shocked at such an exhibition, coming from such a quarter –
337
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
“the chances of the sea are sometimes too much for the best
sailors. We should look at this loss, as we look at the losses occasioned by a gale – then there is some hope left, after all.”
“I should like to know what – to me, there is no land
ahead.”
“Surprisers may not only be surprised, but they may carry on their old trade again, and surprise once more, in their
turn.”
“What do you mean by that, Miles,” said Marble, looking
up eagerly, and speaking as quick as lightning; “are you generalizing, or have you any particular project in view?”
“Both, Sir. Generalizing, so far as taking the chances of war
are concerned, and particularizing, as to a certain notion that
has come into my head.”
“Out with the last, Miles – out with it, boy; the Lord made
you for something uncommon.”
“First, let me know, Captain Marble, whether you have had
any further conversation with Monsieur Le Compte? whether
he has said any more on the subject of our future proceedings?”
“I just left the grinning rascal – these amiable smiles of his,
Miles, are only so many grins thrown into our faces to let us
feel his good luck; but, d – n him, if I ever get home, I’ll fit out
a privateer and be after him, if there’s a fast-going schooner to
be had in all America for love or money. I think I’d turn pirate,
to catch the villain!”
Alas! poor Marble. Little would he, who never got higher
than a mate, unless by accident, be likely to persuade your cau-
338
AFLOAT AND ASHORE
tious ship-owners to intrust him with a vessel of any sort, to go
tilting against wind-mills afloat, in that fashion.
“But, why go to America for a schooner, Captain Marble,
when the French are polite enough to give us one here, exactly
where we are?”
“I begin to understand you, boy. There is a little consolation in the idee, but this Frenchman has already got my commission, and without the document we should be no better
than so many pirates.”
“I doubt that, sir, even were a ship to act generally, provided she actually sailed with a commission, and lost it by accident. Commissions are all registered, and proof of our character could be found at home.”
“Ay, for the Crisis, but not for this ‘Pretty Polly’” – for so
Marble translated Petite Pauline – “The commission is only
good for the vessel that is named in it.”
“I don’t know that, Captain Marble. Suppose our ship had
been sunk in an action in which we took our enemy, could we
not continue our voyage in the prize, and fight anything that
came in our way, afterwards?”
“By George, that does look reasonable. Here was I just
threatening to go out as a pirate, yet hesitating about taking
my own.”
“Do not the crews of captured vessels often rise upon their
captors, and recapture their own vessels? and were any of them
ever called pirates? Besides, nations at war authorise almost
every sort of hostile act against their enemies.”
“Miles, I have been mistaken – you are a good seaman, but
natur’ meant you for a lawyer! Give me your hand, boy; I see
339
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
a gleam of hope ahead, and a man can live on less hope than
food.”
Marble then told me the substance of the conversation he
had held with Captain Le Compte. The latter had expressed
a sudden and violent impatience to be off – I understood
the cause in a moment; he wished to separate Emily from her
old acquaintance, as soon as possible – intending to put the
schooner into the water for us, that very afternoon, and to sail
himself in the morning. This was a sudden resolution, and the
French were moving heaven and earth to carry it into effect. I
confess to some little regret at hearing it, for it was pleasant to
meet the Mertons in that unexpected manner, and the influence of woman in such a solitude is unusually great. I now told
Marble of my discovery, and when he had got through with his
expressions of wonder, I carried him to the tents, and led him
into the presence of his old acquaintances. In consequence of
this visit, I enjoyed another half hour’s tête à tête with Emily,
Marble soon taking the Major to walk with him, beneath the
trees.
We were both recalled to a sense of our real situation, by
the reappearance of Monsieur Le Compte. I cannot say that
our conqueror behaved in the least unhandsomely towards us,
notwithstanding his evident jealousy. He had the tact to conceal most of his feelings, and owing either to liberality or to art,
he assumed an air of generous confidence, that would be much
more likely to touch the feelings of the maid he sought, than
any acts of severity. First asking permission of Miss Merton, he
even invited us, and himself, to dine with the Major, and, on
the whole, we had an agreeable entertainment. We had turtle
340
Соседние файлы в предмете [НЕСОРТИРОВАННОЕ]