Sylvanus Cobb

“ Be wise and let it rest as it is. Be sure of one thing, if ever you suffer harm in life, if calamity of any kind shall befall you, it shall not be from me. I can not forget you are my mother. Mother! Mother! My last word to you shall be, from the very depths of my heart, God bless and keep you now and evermore!”
Half an hour later the cart had gone, bearing away Percy and all his personal possessions; and Margery Maitland, having gazed after it until it had gone from sight, for the first time since her husband died sat down and wept bitter tears. ”

“ Cordelia met him in the outer hall. She had not been present at the interview just closed; but she could not let him go without seeing, and speaking with him before he went. She wanted to thank him for the pleasure he had afforded her; she wanted to bless him, and she wanted to kiss him.
“Oh, my dear love!” she murmured, with her hands on his shoulders, and her eyes gazing up into his own. “I can not tell you how happy I am. Will anything ever come to mar the perfect bliss?”
“Let us hope not, my darling. My trust is in heaven, and in your truth. I do not think either can fail me. ”

“ The heart of the orphan boy had turned towards our hero the first time he had ever seen him.
Percy had gone on board the brig about a year before, and met the little fellow in the gangway, and something in the handsome boyish face and in the great bright, honest eyes, had at once appealed to his deepest heart, and he had laid his hand on the boy’s head and blessed him, and spoke cheerily and encouragingly to him; had hoped he would love his old uncle and grow up to be a good man and true. ”

“ She had reached the place—an inclosure within the outer walls of the castle—and was slowly and thoughtfully walking in one of the graveled paths, when she was startled by the sound of a quick, heavy footfall behind her, and on turning she found herself face to face with Matthew Brandon—by courtesy Lord Oakleigh.
He was not a pleasant man to look at, and yet many might have called him good looking—perhaps handsome. If he had any beauty it was of the Mephistophelean order. He was tall and strong, and dressed in a costly garb of embroidered velvet and satin. ”

“ Allow a man to spit out his feelings when he’s in a tight place, can’t ye? I didn’t mean that oath for you, Percy. I was swearing at my own hard luck. Look ye, it will be a dead loss to me of more than £500 if I can’t be in Bathgate to-morrow. The brig will be outside in the early morning, and the chances are that a king’s ship—sloop of war—will be at her heels. If it was to be a flood tide we might trust Rodney to run her in: but it will be on the ebb, and he is shaky. Come, come, Percy, say you’ll do it, that’s a good fellow!!”
“Tryon, I don’t like it. ”

“ You will be her guardian. Promise me that.”
At first George Brandon had been unwilling to listen to any such thing as his friend’s dying; but, at length, when the baronet had pushed him into a corner, he had replied:
“Look ye, William, you are going to Allerdale. That is settled. If you are to die, as you seem to think may be possible, you will die there. If that is to be, let my father be your daughter’s guardian. She could not have a better. You can arrange with him, if you please, that should he die while Cordelia is under age and I should survive him, he may transfer the authority to me. ”

“ A few moments later the brig’s main top-gallant mast came tearing down over the lee rail.
“Cut away! Cut everything clear!” shouted our hero. He paused here, and looked around upon the men who came crowding upon the quarter-deck.
The brig’s crew numbered five-and-fifty men, only thirty of whom had been with the old commander, Captain Maitland. The five-and-twenty new men had been added by Tryon, and they were a dark-visaged, evil-eyed looking set. The only thing that Percy could think of when he looked at them, was five-and-twenty pirates! ”

“ Let us become more used to our new-found joy. I have no wish to deceive the dear old man, and at a proper time I shall tell him. I expect he will be surprised; perhaps disappointed; but I can not believe he will be angry. At all events no power on earth shall take our love from us nor separate us.”
“Oh, Cordelia!”
“Percy!”
“God grant that our love may prosper! Something whispers to me that I may hope.”
“Yes, dear love, hope, and trust in me. I will forsake you never, never!”
83Just then they heard the footfall of the maid drawing near, and Cordelia turned to speak with her. ”

“ If he would win his ward from the unfortunate love, he would not do it by beginning now to make her miserable and unhappy. He would wait. Who should say what of good the future might bring? He kissed her and blessed her, and the conference ended.
While this scene had been transpiring in the breakfast-room of the castle, another, of a somewhat different character, had been taking place in the wood by the river, not a great way off.
Lord Oakleigh had left his grandfather feeling about as angry—as thoroughly mad with rage and passion—as a naturally perverse and passionate man could be. ”

“ Such was the man, who, for two years and a little more, had held the office which Hugh Maitland had once filled—chief of the Smugglers of King’s Cove.
“You are wanted to pilot in the Staghound,” was Tryon’s answer to Percy’s demand.
“Pilot in the Staghound!” repeated the youth in blank surprise. “Why don’t you do it yourself?”
“Because I must go another way. I have business that I can not put aside.”
“Donald Rodney is on board, is he not?”
“Yes, but he can not run her in safely. I would not trust him, and he dare not trust himself. No, no, you must do it.” ”

“ Henceforth the end and aim of his existence would be to care for and bless the dear one who had so frankly and nobly trusted him; and for the present, for her comfort and well-being, their love must be known only to themselves.
Ah! he would be very careful that he did not give any one cause for suspicion. He could not be quite so free as he had been. He would go on his present excursion alone, and Cordelia should decide for herself how it should be thereafter.
It was near noon when Percy reached the old chapel. He entered and looked around. ”

“ He could not do it now—could not tell her that he was dying; but he told her she must be brave and strong; and she must remember that, even though he should be taken from her, she would have her dear grandpa left, who would love her always.
With regard to Percy, of whom his daughter had spoken, the baronet had no fixed thoughts of any kind. He knew the boy—knew him to be the son of a man who was said to be a noted smuggler; but, somehow, the idea of smuggling, as an offence, did not strike him with anything akin to horror. ”

“ Touching the matter of money, he had plenty to spend; more, in fact, than he should have had, but his father had left him a goodly sum. He had also inherited from his mother, so his guardian, as the less of two evils, had let him have about all he had asked for. The greater evil, which the earl could not have put away, was debt.
During his visits to the castle, from first to last, Lord Oakleigh had given Cordelia but little trouble; though he sometimes looked at her in a manner that made her afraid. ”

“ And now, I must confess to you, I love Percy Maitland with all my heart, and all my strength. I love him as I never loved another—as I never can love another—with a love that would be my death if he were taken from me. ”

“ With regard to the sin of smuggling I will not speak, unless, indeed, I may be permitted to say that nothing in the world, not even starvation, would induce me to place myself in the position of an outlaw.
“But there are a certain number of the old crew of the brig—men who sailed with my father—who, as I have before remarked, would not, I am confident, commit what they believed to be a crime. In fact they can not, in the very nature of the case, of the facts surrounding them, look upon themselves as great criminals. ”

“ Percy held his watch in his hand, waiting for the next gleam of heaven’s light, and when it came he saw that it was close upon seven o’clock.
The sun had been gone little more than half an 89hour. Cordelia nestled close, held firmly in his loving embrace. And here, and thus, they exchanged the first sweet, ecstatic kiss of love.
“Oh, Percy! What would life be without your dear companionship, without your blessed love?”
“My love, darling, you will always possess. No power on earth can take it from you. ”

“ I have never watched you, never spied upon you, and never will. Heaven knows I seek only your good. Surely, you can not wonder that I, when I have seen a man so familiar and so warmly welcomed beneath this roof as is Ralph Tryon, should be anxious to know who and what he is. That, you know, I am convinced. What objections have you to telling me?”
“My dear boy, you see him commander of the Staghound and chief of the King’s Cove smugglers. Is not this enough? ”

“ Another thing Cordelia saw: an opening into another cave, a chamber beyond this. Tryon saw that she had discovered it, and he bade her to come with him and look.
He did not offer to lay a hand upon her. She followed him, and soon entered another apartment, not so large as the first, but much like it. Here was more furniture, and here was a bed, seemingly clean and freshly made.
“My dear lady, here you will tarry until to-morrow. You will here be safe. No harm can possibly come to you. You shall have plenty to eat; yonder bed is sweet and clean; and you may rest in it without dread.” ”

“ He could not believe that his grandfather would allow Cordelia to marry with the outlaw’s offspring; but there was no telling what the girl herself might do. So far as true love—or real love of any kind—was concerned, he felt not a particle of it in his heart for his grandfather’s fair ward. But he had never seen a girl he had liked better; and, surely, he had never seen one more beautiful.
In truth, he did not believe there was a more beautiful woman in the kingdom. At some time he would be earl of Allerdale; and he would want a mistress to preside over his household ”

“ How do you like the picture?”
“Lord Oakleigh! Let me go! I have no more to say.”
“I ask you, how do you like the picture I have drawn?”
“And I ask you to let me go.”
“Won’t you answer me?”
“You need no answer. You do not wish for an answer. If you can find delight in torturing me I suppose I must submit until I can break from you.”
“Why don’t you call me, Monster!—as I see it plainly in your mind to call me?”
“Simply, sir, because I prefer that you should characterize yourself.”
“Cordelia! By —! I would give a thousand pounds if you could be a man for just one poor minute! ”

“ The brig was now within a few minutes’ run of the southern headland of Raven Bay, and between that headland and Hood’s Island was a broad, fair opening to the inlet beyond; but close behind it, lurking in the hidden depths like hungry beasts of prey were the sunken rocks of Dead Man’s Reef. 54The reef stretched the whole distance, on a line between the headland and the island; and never yet within the knowledge of man had a vessel larger than a common pleasure-boat dared to attempt the passage. ”

“ His grandson has given him trouble—has often caused his heart to ache; but the bright angel of the household—his ward Cordelia—has given him joy and gladness enough to make up for all the pain from other sources.
A day that had been fair and bright, of the first week of September, was drawing to a close as Percy Maitland pulled his light, handsome skiff from the waters of the bay up into the river. He kept on until he had reached a point where, on the other side, toward the stone cottage, a small bay or inlet made up into the shore. Into this he turned his boat and shortly after landed. ”

“ On the premises was a cat—it had been a little kitten when Hugh Maitland died—which the smugglers, when on shore and stopping at the cottage, had taught to lick up wine as it did milk, and more than once had poor puss been reduced to a state of utter inebriety in furnishing sport for the seamen.
“I’ll tell you what I will do, mother,” said our hero, after a little thought. “Sometimes I am thirsty in the night. Suppose I take the bottle up to my chamber.”
“Do so,” responded Margery, quickly. “And let me once more assure you, you’ll find it about the finest wine you ever tasted. ”

“ Cordelia looked up into the old man’s face searchingly. She looked so sharply, and with so much of meaning in the look, that he shrank away from it, and his eyes, usually so honest and true, wavered.
“Grandpa! grandpa! There is something you do not tell me. What is it? Come, you surely can have nothing that you would wish to hide from your darling.”
“Child! child! why are you so eager? Ah! tell me, were you in the chapel through the storm? ”

“ The sloop-of-war, as I live!” He made sure there could be no mistake, then he put away the glass and resumed his place at the helm.
The corvette was, as nearly as he could judge, three miles distant from the brig and she appeared to be gaining. At first Percy was surprised. He had not thought there was a ship in the British navy that could sail with the Staghound; but he very soon solved the mystery. The latter’s lee scuppers were under water. She was loaded as he had never seen her loaded before. Only a reckless, unreliable man could have done such a thing. ”