Sustained honor Part 45

This announcement brought St. Mark to his feet, and his usually placid features exhibited the wildest excitement. "Never married! But your daughter--"

"Only daughter by adoption, s.h.i.+pmate. She is no blood relation to me, though I love her as dearly as any father could."

"But her father--her mother?"

"I don't know who either of them are, I can only suspect."

"Don't you know their names?"

"I never did."

"This is remarkable!" and the features of the usually quiet man betrayed the greatest excitement. "Where did you find her and when?"

"I found her at sea when she was a baby, too young to speak or remember anything of herself."

"Captain Lane, do you mind telling me all about the finding of her?"

The captain did not, and proceeded to tell him the story of Morgianna, which the reader already knows. St. Mark had regained his composure at the conclusion of the story and, in a calm, clear voice, said:

"Captain, I may have the sequel to your story. I am a native of Vermont and, at the age of twenty-two, married Bertha Rigdon of Boston, whose brother Alfred, like myself, was a sea captain. We were both young, ardent lovers of liberty, and thoroughly imbued with the ideas of Thomas Jefferson in regard to the French Revolution. When our government refused to take up the quarrel with France, we determined to espouse her cause ourselves. Both our fathers had died prisoners on board the old _Jersey_ prison s.h.i.+p, and we felt that our lives should be devoted to avenging them. This resolution was wicked, and perhaps the punishment which followed we deserved.

"We each commanded a vessel which began a warfare on English commerce, defying all their embargo acts and neutrality laws. We were soon declared outlaws and prices set on our heads. Not only Great Britain, but Spain, Prussia and Austria declared us pirates, and our own government dared not shelter us.

"My wife, with our infant child, accompanied me on my last voyage. I was sailing in company with her brother, Captain Alf Rigdon, when we were chased by some British cruisers off Rio in June, 1796, and Alf's brig being the swiftest sailer, I sent my wife and child aboard his vessel, with a large sum of money to have them conveyed to the United States and cared for until we could return.

"I parted from the s.h.i.+p and after a three days' chase was overhauled by the British cruisers and captured. I was forced to join her navy to save my life, and served Great Britain until I deserted during the siege of Mariana. I have never heard of my brother-in-law, my wife or child since."

Captain Lane prided himself on being able to control his feelings under all circ.u.mstances; but it required no little effort for him to do so now. After a few moments, he asked:

"What was the name of your brother-in-law's s.h.i.+p?"

"_Morgianna_!"

Captain Lane did not start, for he expected this.

"Was he a free mason?"

"Yes, sir."

"Can you describe how he looked then?"

"He was about thirty-five years of age, a little above middle height, with a broad forehead, over which fine brown hair fell in careless folds; he wore his beard and mustache long, the beard extending in a point two or three inches below the throat. His eyes were brown, large and full of expression while in conversation. He was brave, n.o.ble, and all that goes to make up a grand man."

"And your wife, can you describe her?"

"She was an exact counterpart of your daughter."

Captain Lane rose and with considerable emotion grasped the hand of St.

Mark, and said:

"My daughter is your daughter."

Then came the serious task of breaking the intelligence to Morgianna.

It was done deliberately and quietly, without any sensational scene. Yet her joy at discovering her father increased her happiness almost to overflowing. "I am more blest than most girls," she declared. "I have two fathers, and while I will learn to love my new father, I will not forget to love my old father."

The marriage of Fernando and Morgianna was celebrated the following autumn at the new church which had been erected over the Ashes of the former one. Both of Morgianna's fathers were present; but to her real father was consigned the honor of giving away the bride.

Terrence and Sukey were present. The Irishman declared the matter might have been consummated long ago if they had only left it to him.

The wedding day was made a public holiday in the village. Never in all its existence was the little hamlet so gay. Bands played, choruses sang, and the old cannon, still left at the tumble-down fort, fired a salute, while American flags waved from every house. The local orator, who still entertained hopes of the legislature, delivered a stirring address.

Job, who heard of the happy event, came all the way from Baltimore to shake the hand of "Ma.s.sa Stevens" and wish him much joy.

"I iz all right now, ma.s.sa," he declared. "I iz found my own sure enough ma.s.sa agin, an' I'm goin' back to work for him all de time. No more goin' to sea fer me; I iz no Britisher."

Fernando and his father-in-law, soon after his marriage, engaged in manufacturing enterprises in New England, with Captain Lane as the silent partner and moneyed man of the enterprise. Home industries having been fostered by the war, American manufactures promised a bright future.

Sukey was for many years a prominent minister of the Gospel in Ohio.

Terrence studied law and became a leading member of the Philadelphia bar.

Mariana is now no more. Time and disaster have swept it from the peninsula, and to-day it remains only in the memory of the oldest inhabitants. The Stevens family, though subjected to many disasters, has grown, and become a part of the history of the country. The humble part played by Fernando in sustaining the honor of his country has never been recorded by the general historian; but it lingers in the memory of the grateful posterity of many of the heroic men and women who lived in the trying days of the early history of the Great Republic of the New World.

THE END.