Ronald Morton, or the Fire Ships Part 3

"I am glad, cousin, that you have charge of so fine a s.h.i.+p. I hope it will be as profitable as a voyage to Greenland. We are all cousins here, you see, captain--that is to say, all of true Norse blood; and, moreover, are not ashamed of our connections. Here we have Rolf Morton, as pretty a man as you may wish to see, though not Shetland born, as far as we know, married to young Bertha Eswick, daughter to our good cousin Dame Eswick, at present governess, manager, or housekeeper of Lunnasting Castle. Thus, you understand, Rolf Morton is our cousin by marriage; and who would disown him because he is at present but an humble pilot!

A finer fellow or a truer seaman does not step, though I say it to his face."

Morton had not listened to these remarks; but Don Hernan had heard sufficient to understand their tenor, and to make him feel that he was not wrong in placing perfect reliance on his pilot's seamans.h.i.+p and knowledge of the coast. Hilda, who had never before been on board a large s.h.i.+p, was delighted with the sight as she gazed upwards on the towering ma.s.s of canvas which seemed to rise into the very blue sky itself; then around on the rich carving and gilt work; on the polished bra.s.s, of which several of the guns were formed; on the fresh, bright painting, and the various other embellishments of the s.h.i.+p.

Directed by Morton, the "Saint Cecilia" soon glided out through the narrow entrance to the Sound, so close to the black rocks on one side that a good leaper could almost have sprung on sh.o.r.e. The officers turned their eyes now and anon from the rocks, which threatened destruction to their beautiful s.h.i.+p, to the pilot, but his calm, self-confident look a.s.sured them that there was no danger, and soon she was rising and falling to the undulations of the open sea, while Whalsey and the other outlying islands blended rapidly into one, and soon could not be distinguished from the main land.

"This is indeed truly enchanting!" exclaimed Hilda. "Though I have frequently been at sea, it has always been on board some slow-sailing trader or packet, where sights and sounds and a.s.sociations were all unpleasant together. In a s.h.i.+p like this, how delightful to sail round the world! I should never weary of such a life."

"Then share it with me, Hilda," was the natural though unexpected rejoinder of the Spanish captain, spoken in a low voice. "Oh do not raise hopes and thoughts and aspirations, only to hurl them overboard!

We rovers of the sea have but little time to give to wooing. Be mine now and for ever."

Hilda's countenance betrayed the agitation, doubt, and astonishment which filled her bosom.

"Dearest lady! I would not thus hurriedly press my suit, but any post may bring me orders to leave the coast, never again to return. Your own words betrayed me into uttering a prayer I might not otherwise have ventured so soon to urge; but now it has been made, do not compel me to retract it."

He stopped a moment to allow his words to take effect. Two or three of his own officers and men only were within hearing, and his calm att.i.tude and manner did not betray the subject of their conversation. Her countenance would have done so to Bertha or Morton, but she turned her head towards the side, apparently watching the s.h.i.+p's course through the water. No one valued her own position more than did Hilda; she had long been taught the importance of keeping her feelings and words under control, from the very reason that she was well aware should she once give them rein they would run wildly off beyond her power. Her thoughts, unhappily, she had never been able to command; and now she found her feelings for this stranger--for stranger he was, though he came in the guise of a kinsman--too powerful for her to conquer. Don Hernan stood gazing into her countenance with as great anxiety, apparently, as if his life hung on her decision. The struggle within her--and a violent one it was--continued till it well-nigh overcame her.

She had to hold on to the bulwarks to support herself. Don Hernan began to fear that she would decide against him.

"Speak, Hilda--relieve me from the misery of this suspense!" he exclaimed in a low voice, which could but just reach her ear.

She looked up, and gasped faintly forth--"I am yours, now and for ever."

Don Hernan poured forth, with all the vehemence of a Spaniard, his expressions of grat.i.tude and joy.

"Happily, there exists no impediment to our immediate union," he added.

"I have, as you know, a priest of my own faith on board, and he tells me that there exists on your island a chapel built by some of the seamen of the holy Armada under the direction of my ancestor, and that, although decaying, it is still in a sufficient state of preservation to allow the ceremonies of our religion to be performed in it. Under his directions some of my crew shall be employed, with your permission, in restoring it sufficiently to enable our nuptials to take place there, and your own minister shall afterwards perform the marriage ceremony according to the rites of your church. We will deposit the doc.u.ments with trustworthy persons, so that no one may afterwards cast discredit on my honour, or utter a word against your fair fame."

"You have been thoughtfully careful of my interests and happiness, Don Hernan," answered Hilda. "I feel that both are safe in your hands."

It did not occur to her that Don Hernan must have felt tolerably sure of success, to have made all the arrangements of which he spoke.

Calm and collected as the two lovers believed themselves, many eyes on board had been watching their proceedings. Their conversation was interrupted by Rolf Morton coming aft to the captain and inquiring in what direction he would prefer standing.

It was late in the day before the corvette, on her return, approached the Sound. The wind had got round so much to the northward, that Morton determined on taking the corvette into the Sound by the same narrow pa.s.sage through which she had pa.s.sed in the morning. Don Hernan consented to his proposal; but when Pedro Alvarez saw the course that was being steered, he showed every disposition to mutiny.

"Because our captain wishes to suit the convenience of a fair lady, and his own pleasure, he will run the risk of casting away our gallant s.h.i.+p.

Why not run for Bra.s.sy Sound, which is open before us, with a safe entrance?"

These remarks were made to some of his messmates, who were generally ready to a.s.sent to his proposals. However, guided by Morton, the corvette stood on, though even Hilda, who had the most perfect confidence in the pilot, as she saw the fierce, foaming waves das.h.i.+ng high up with a loud roar over the rocks to the very summit of the cliffs, could scarcely persuade herself that the s.h.i.+p was not rus.h.i.+ng on destruction. The captain stood by the helmsman's side to repeat the pilot's orders. Now nothing but a wall of rocks and foam appeared before them.

"Steady!" cried Morton, "starboard a little. Steady!" he again cried.

The captain echoed his cry; the pa.s.sage opened before them; in an instant the s.h.i.+p flew past the rocks; even the oldest sailor breathed more freely when she glided on inside the Sound.

The sails were furled, the anchor was dropped, as she reached the spot from which she had weighed in the morning. The captain insisted on escorting Hilda and her companions on sh.o.r.e.

"In three days, then, at midnight, all will be ready," he whispered, as he parted from her at the castle landing-place.

CHAPTER FIVE.

LAWRENCE'S EXPEDITION--HILDA'S MARRIAGE IN THE OLD CHAPEL--A STORM.

Although the sun during the middle of the Shetland summer scarcely ceases to s.h.i.+ne, the inhabitants of these isles, like other mortals, require sleep, and take it at the usual time. Soon after the sea trip Miss Wardhill had taken on board the "Saint Cecilia," Lawrence Brindister was seen one afternoon to descend from his room, booted and spurred, as if for a distant excursion, Hilda, who had her reasons for so doing, watched him anxiously. He stamped about the house, clattering his spurs, and muttering to himself, as was his custom, when anything out of the usual course occupied his mind. At last, going to Surly Grind's kennel, he loosed the dog, and entering his skiff, crossed the voe, as if about to proceed to the mainland. Hilda breathed more freely when he had gone, but seldom had she appeared so distracted, and little at her ease, as she did till the usual hour of closing the castle gates.

The keys were brought to her, as was the custom, by David Cheyne, the old butler, or Major Domo. As he made his bow, he cast a hurried glance at her countenance, and on his way down stairs he shook his head, muttering to himself, "This foreign gallant will bring no good to the house of Lunnasting--that I see too well; and the sooner the islands are quit of him and his s.h.i.+p--for all he looks so brave and so bonnie--the better it will be for the young mistress."

Hilda, instead of retiring to rest, went to her tower; there she remained for some time, pacing up and down the room, now glancing out on the wide ocean, now clasping her hands in a manner expressive of doubt and indecision.

"It is too late to retract," she exclaimed, at length; "why should I think of it? What right has my father to complain? He leaves me here without compunction, and am I to await his tardy permission to act, as I have a full right to do, without it? No, that point is settled. Then Bertha suggests that the world will call me unmaidenly, more than indiscreet, and will say that I have been ready to throw myself into the arms of the first stranger I have met; but what care I for this little world of Shetland? I stand on my own rect.i.tude. I shall be far away, and can afford to despise all such insinuations. But the greatest doubt Bertha, in her over-anxious love, has raised up before me, is that regarding Hernan himself. Still I feel sure that he is all that is honourable and n.o.ble. He has given me numberless a.s.surances, undoubted, that he is what he represents himself. The proofs he offers are so clear, can I for a moment doubt him? His I have promised to be: his I will be. I should be unworthy of the name of woman were I now to discard him."

Such was the style of argument with which Hilda Wardhill persuaded herself that she was right in the course she had resolved to adopt.

The marriage was duly solemnised according to the terms of the Roman Catholic Church by Father Mendez. Hilda and Don Hernan signed their names on a parchment placed before them, Bertha and Nanny Clousta signing as witnesses, while Rolf Morton stepped forward and added his name.

Two of Don Hernan's officers, Pedro Alvarez and another, signed their names to the doc.u.ment as witnesses; whilst Lawrence protested against the marriage, as being without the consent or knowledge of Hilda's father, and, therefore, according to Shetland law, invalid. This protest he made with an air of dignity wholly different from his usual manner.

The midnight wedding ceremony at the old chapel terminated in a most terrific hurricane, and the new married couple were compelled to take refuge from the storm in the house of Bertha Morton.

CHAPTER SIX.

ROLF MORTON'S HISTORY--DON HERNAN AND HILDA IN THE MORTON'S HOUSE-- MORTON DISPATCHED TO THE CORVETTE.

Bertha Morton had been considered not only one of the prettiest girls in that part of Shetland where she was known, but as good and modest as she was pretty, which is saying much in her favour, where beauty, modesty, and kindness of heart are the characteristics of the people. Her cottage, which was one of the largest in the island, was fitted up with more taste and comfort than was usually found in others, and everything about it bore the marks of competency and good taste. She had but lately married Rolf Morton, who had, a year or two before, been left a small property by his friend and guardian, Captain Andrew Scarsdale.

Rolf Morton's own history was somewhat romantic.

Captain Scarsdale, a Shetlander by birth, commanded one of the many Greenland whalers belonging to Hull, Aberdeen, and other northern parts, which touched at Lerwick on their outward and homeward voyages. At length, however, having fallen into ill-health, he was advised to try the effects of a southern clime; and having in his youth made two or three voyages to the South Seas, he was induced to take the command of a South-Sea whaler, which would keep him out three years, or probably more: having no family to bind his affections to England, this was of little consequence.

On his outward voyage, when nearly half way across the Atlantic, he fell in with a raft, on which were three men and a young boy. The men stated that the s.h.i.+p to which they belonged had foundered, and that the boy, whose name they stated was Rolf Morton, belonged to a lady and gentleman among the pa.s.sengers on board. The rest of the people had perished, and they, with no little exertion, had contrived to save the child.

Captain Scarsdale had, from the first, rather doubted the correctness of their statement, and on his cross-questioning the men separately, his suspicions that there was some mystery in the matter were further confirmed. However, they suspected his object, and he was unable to elicit what he could suppose to be the truth from them. He would have remained altogether in ignorance had not one of them been seized with an illness, and believing himself to be dying, sent for the captain, and made what he a.s.serted to be a full confession of all he knew about the boy.

Captain Scarsdale, who was a cautious man, wrote down all that was told him, and induced the man to sign it. He then instantly sent for the other two men, and telling them what he knew, induced them to confess the truth, and, partly by threats, and partly by persuasions, made them sign the same doc.u.ment. He then carefully locked it up in his chest, and being an upright and kind-hearted man, it was with great satisfaction that he believed he had it in his power to right the wronged.

"Man proposes, G.o.d disposes," is a proverb, day after day proved to be true in the lives of every man. The sick seaman recovered, and he and his comrades, after serving some months on board deserted the s.h.i.+p; and although Captain Scarsdale hunted everywhere, he could gain no further tidings of them.

The child thus strangely found became a fine intelligent boy, and attached himself warmly to him. His recollections, faint though they were, all tended to corroborate the account the seamen had given.

Captain Scarsdale would have sent home the information he had received, and placed the cause of the boy in proper hands; but the men having disappeared, he was afraid to trust the doc.u.ment to a stranger, with the numberless chances of a long sea voyage, against its ever reaching its destination. Unexpected events, however, kept him out in the South Seas far longer than he had antic.i.p.ated. He did not object to this, for he had the boy as his companion, and he devoted himself to his education.

Young Rolf did not show any great talent, but he gave every promise of becoming a fine, manly, true-hearted sailor, and with that his kind patron was amply satisfied.

At length, just as the s.h.i.+p had nearly completed her cargo of sperm oil, and was about to return home, she was overtaken by a hurricane, and driven on sh.o.r.e and lost; the crew were saved, and so was the captain's chest. Most of Captain Scarsdale's hard-earned gains were swallowed up; and the command of another whaler, whose master had died, being offered him, he gladly accepted it, in the hopes that, by remaining out a few years longer, he should be able to retrieve his fortunes; and what was still nearer his heart, of obtaining the means for, as he told his acquaintance, of establis.h.i.+ng young Morton's rights. What he considered those rights to be he wisely told no one.

"No, no," he replied, when asked; "no one but a fool sounds a trumpet before him to give notice of his approach, that the enemy may be prepared to receive him."

Rolf Morton had by this time become all that his friend antic.i.p.ated; but though well-informed for his age, his knowledge of the world and its ways, it must be owned, was not extensive.