The Pilot (47 page)

Although Katherine suspected most painfully that Borroughcliffe had
received intelligence that might prove dangerous to her lover, she
looked around her in vain, on gaining the open air, to discover any
alteration in the arrangements for the defence of the abbey, which might
confirm her suspicions, or the knowledge of which might enable her to
instruct Barnstable how to avoid the secret danger. Every disposition
remained as it had been since the capture of Griffith and his companion.
She heard the heavy, quick steps of the sentinel, who was posted beneath
their windows, endeavoring to warm himself on his confined post; and as
she paused to listen, she also detected the rattling of arms from the
soldier who, as usual, guarded the approach of that part of the building
where his comrades were quartered. The night had set in cloudy and dark,
although the gale had greatly subsided towards the close of the day;
still the wind swept heavily, and, at moments, with a rushing noise,
among the irregular walls of the edifice; and it required the utmost
nicety of ear to distinguish even these well-known sounds, among such
accompaniments. When Katherine, however, was satisfied that her organs
had not deceived her, she turned an anxious eye in the direction of what
Borroughcliffe called his "barracks." Everything in that direction
appeared so dark and still as to create a sensation of uneasiness, by
its very quiet. It might be the silence of sleep that now pervaded the
ordinarily gay and mirthful apartment! or it might be the stillness of a
fearful preparation! There was no time, however, for further hesitation,
and Katherine drew her cloak more closely about her form, and proceeded
with light and guarded steps to the appointed spot. As she approached
the wicket the clock struck the hour, and she again paused, while the
mournful sounds were borne by her on the wind, as if expecting that each
stroke on the bell would prove a signal to unmask some secret design of
Borroughcliffe. As the last vibration melted away, she opened the little
gate, and issued on the highway. The figure of a man sprang forward from
behind an angle of the wall, as she appeared; and while her heart was
still throbbing with the suddenness of the alarm, she found herself in
the arms of Barnstable. After the first few words of recognition and
pleasure which the young sailor uttered, he acquainted his mistress with
the loss of his schooner, and the situation of the survivors.

"And now, Katherine," he concluded, "you have come, I trust, never to
quit me; or, at most, to return no more to that old abbey, unless it be
to aid in liberating Griffith, and then to join me again forever."

"Why, truly, there is so much to tempt a young woman to renounce her
home and friends, in the description you have just given of your
condition, that I hardly know how to refuse your request, Barnstable.
You are very tolerably provided with a dwelling in the ruin; and I
suppose certain predatory schemes are to be adopted to make it
habitable! St. Ruth is certainly well supplied with the necessary
articles, but whether we should not be shortly removed to the Castle at
York, or the jail at Newcastle, is a question that I put to your
discretion."

"Why yield your thoughts to such silly subjects, lovely trifler!" said
Barnstable, "when the time and the occasion both urge us to be in
earnest?"

"It is a woman's province to be thrifty, and to look after the comforts
of domestic life," returned his mistress; "and I would discharge my
functions with credit. But I feel you are vexed, for to see your dark
countenance is out of the question, on such a night. When do you propose
to commence housekeeping, if I should yield to your proposals?"

"I have not concluded relating my plans, and your provoking wit annoys
me! The vessel I have taken will unquestionably come into the land, as
the gale dies; and I intend making my escape in her, after beating this
Englishman, and securing the liberty of Miss Howard and yourself. I
could see the frigate in the offing, even before we left the cliffs."

"This certainly sounds better!" rejoined Katherine, in a manner that
indicated she was musing on their prospects; "and yet there may exist
some difficulties in the way that you little suspect."

"Difficulties there are none—there can be none."

"Speak not irreverently of the mazes of love, Mr. Barnstable. When was
it ever known to exist unfettered or unembarrassed? Even I have an
explanation to ask of you, that I would much rather let alone.

"Of me! ask what you will, or how you will; I am a careless, unthinking
fellow, Miss Plowden; but to you I have little to answer for—unless a
foolish sort of adoration be an offence against your merits."

Barnstable felt the little hand that was supported on his arm, pressing
the limb, as Katharine replied, in a tone so changed from its former
forced levity, that he started as the first sounds reached his ears.
"Merry has brought in a horrid report!" she said; "I would I could
believe it untrue! but the looks of the boy, and the absence of Dillon,
both confirm it."

"Poor Merry! he too has fallen into the trap! but they shall yet find
one who is too cunning for them. Is it to the fate of that wretched
Dillon that you allude?"

"He
was
a wretch," continued Katherine, in the same voice, "and
he deserved much punishment at your hands, Barnstable; but life is the
gift of God, and is not to be taken whenever human vengeance would
appear to require a victim."

"His life was taken by Him who bestowed it," said the sailor. "Is it
Katherine Plowden who would suspect me of the deed of a dastard!"

"I do not suspect you—I did not suspect you," cried Katherine; "I will
never suspect any evil of you again. You are not, you cannot be angry
with me, Barnstable? Had you heard the cruel suspicions of my cousin
Cecilia, and had your imagination been busy in portraying your wrongs
and the temptations to forget mercy, like mine, even while my tongue
denied your agency in the suspected deed, you would—you would at least
have learned how much easier it is to defend those we love against the
open attacks of others, than against our own jealous feelings."

"Those words, love and jealousy, will obtain your acquittal," cried
Barnstable, in his natural voice; and, after uttering a few more
consoling assurances to Katherine, whose excited feelings found vent in
tears, he briefly related the manner of Dillon's death.

"I had hoped I stood higher in the estimation of Miss Howard than to be
subjected to even her suspicions," he said, when he had ended his
explanation. "Griffith has been but a sorry representative of our trade,
if he has left such an opinion of its pursuits."

"I do not know that Mr. Griffith would altogether have escaped my
conjectures, had he been the disappointed commander, and you the
prisoner," returned Katherine; "you know not how much we have both
studied the usages of war, and with what dreadful pictures of hostages,
retaliations, and military executions our minds are stored! but a
mountain is raised off my spirits, and I could almost say that I am now
ready to descend the valley of life in your company."

"It is a discreet determination, my good Katherine, and God bless you
for it; the companion may not be so good as you deserve, but you will
find him ambitious of your praise. Now let us devise means to effect our
object."

"Therein lies another of my difficulties. Griffith, I much fear, will
not urge Cecilia to another flight, against her—her—what shall I call
it, Barnstable—her caprice, or her judgment? Cecilia will never consent
to desert her uncle, and I cannot muster the courage to abandon my poor
cousin, in the face of the world, in order to take shelter with even Mr.
Richard Barnstable!"

"Speak you from the heart now, Katherine?"

"Very nearly—if not exactly."

"Then have I been cruelly deceived! It is easier to find a path in the
trackless ocean, without chart or compass, than to know the windings of
a woman's heart!"

"Nay, nay, foolish man; you forget that I am but small, and how very
near my head is to my heart; too nigh, I fear, for the discretion of
their mistress! but is there no method of forcing Griffith and Cecilia
to their own good, without undue violence?"

"It cannot be done; he is my senior in rank, and the instant I release
him he will claim the command. A question might be raised, at a leisure
moment, on the merits of such a claim—but even my own men are, as you
know, nothing but a draft from the frigate, and they would not hesitate
to obey the orders of the first lieutenant, who is not a man to trifle
on matters of duty."

"Tis vexatious, truly," said Katherine, "that all my well-concerted
schemes in behalf of this wayward pair should be frustrated by their own
willful conduct! But after all, have you justly estimated your strength,
Barnstable? are you certain that you would be successful, and that
without hazard, too, if you should make the attempt?"

"Morally, and what is better, physically certain. My men are closely
hid, where no one suspects an enemy to lie; they are anxious for the
enterprise, and the suddenness of the attack will not only make the
victory sure, but it will be rendered bloodless. You will aid us in our
entrance, Katherine; I shall first secure this recruiting officer, and
his command will then surrender without striking a blow. Perhaps, after
all, Griffith will hear reason; if he do not, I will not yield my
authority to a released captive, without a struggle."

"God send that there shall be no fighting!" murmured his companion, a
little appalled at the images his language had raised before her
imagination; "and, Barnstable, I enjoin you, most solemnly, by all your
affection for me, and by everything you deem most sacred, to protect the
person of Colonel Howard at every hazard. There must be no excuse, no
pretence, for even an insult to my passionate, good, obstinate, but kind
old guardian. I believe I have given him already more trouble than I am
entitled to give any one, and Heaven forbid that I should cause him any
serious misfortune!"

"He shall be safe, and not only he, but all that are with him, as you
will perceive, Katherine, when you hear my plan. Three hours shall not
pass over my head before you will see me master of that old abbey.
Griffith, ay, Griffith, must be content to be my inferior, until we get
afloat again."

"Attempt nothing unless you feel certain of being able to maintain your
advantage, not only against your enemies, but also against your
friends," said the anxious Katherine. "Rely on it, both Cecilia and
Griffith are refining so much on their feelings, that neither will be
your ally."

"This comes of passing the four best years of his life within walls of
brick, poring over Latin grammars and syntaxes, and such other nonsense,
when he should have been rolling them away in a good box of live-oak,
and studying, at most, how to sum up his day's work, and tell where his
ship lies after a blow. Your college learning may answer well enough for
a man who has to live by his wits, but it can be of little use to one
who is never afraid to read human nature, by looking his fellow-
creatures full in the face, and whose hand is as ready as his tongue. I
have generally found the eye that was good at Latin was dull at a
compass, or in a night squall: and yet, Griff is a seaman; though I have
heard him even read the Testament in Greek! Thank God, I had the wisdom
to run away from school the second day they undertook to teach me a
strange tongue, and I believe I am the more honest man, and the better
seaman, for my ignorance!"

"There is no telling what you might have been, Barnstable, under other
circumstances," retorted his mistress, with a playfulness of manner that
she could not always repress, though it was indulged at the expense of
him she most loved; "I doubt not but, under proper training, you would
have made a reasonably good priest."

"If you talk of priests, Katherine, I shall remind you that we carry one
in the ship. But listen to my plan: we may talk further of priestcraft
when an opportunity may offer."

Barnstable then proceeded to lay before his mistress a project he had
formed for surprising the abbey that night, which was so feasible that
Katharine, notwithstanding her recent suspicions of Borroughcliffe's
designs, came gradually to believe it would succeed. The young seaman
answered her objections with the readiness of an ardent mind, bent on
executing its purposes, and with a fertility of resources that proved he
was no contemptible enemy, in matters that required spirited action. Of
Merry's remaining firm and faithful he had no doubt; and although he
acknowledged the escape of the peddler boy, he urged that the lad had
seen no other of his party besides himself, whom he mistook for a common
marauder.

As the disclosure of these plans was frequently interrupted by little
digressions, connected with the peculiar motions of the lovers, more
than an hour flew by, before they separated. But Katherine at length
reminded him how swiftly the time was passing, and how much remained to
be done, when he reluctantly consented to see her once more through the
wicket, where they parted.

Miss Plowden adopted the same precaution in returning to the house she
had used on leaving it; and she was congratulating herself on its
success, when her eye caught a glimpse of the figure of a man, who was
apparently following at some little distance, in her footsteps, and
dogging her motions. As the obscure form, however, paused also when she
stopped to give it an alarmed, though inquiring look, and then slowly
retired towards the boundary of the paddock, Katherine, believing it to
be Barnstable watching over her safety, entered the abbey, with every
idea of alarm entirely lost in the pleasing reflection of her lover's
solicitude.