Enough has been betrayed, in the course of the narrative, perhaps, to show that Ludlow distrusted, though he could not avoid wondering at, what he had seen. He was not entirely free from the superstition that was then so common among seamen; but his education and native good sense enabled him, in a great measure, to extricate his imagination from that love of the marvellous, which is more or less common to all. He had fifty conjectures concerning the meaning of what had passed, and not one of them was true; though each, at the instant, seemed to appease his curiosity, while it quickened his resolution to pry further into the affair. As for the Patroon of Kinderhook, the present day was one of rare and unequalled pleasure. He had all the gratification which strong excitement can produce in slow natures; and he neither wished a solution of his doubts, nor contemplated any investigation that might destroy so agreeable an illusion. His fancy was full of the dark countenance of the sorceress; and when it did not dwell on a subject so unnatural, it saw the handsome features, ambiguous smile, and attractive air, of her scarcely less admirable minister.
As the boat got to a little distance from the vessel, Tiller stood erect, and ran his eye complacently over the perfection of her hull and rigging.
“Our mistress has equipped and sent upon the wide and unbeaten sea, many a bark,” he said; “but never a lovelier than our own!—Captain Ludlow, there has been some double-dealing between us; but that which is to follow, shall depend on our skill, seamanship, and the merits of the two crafts. You serve Queen Anne, and I the sea-green lady. Let each be true to his mistress, and Heaven preserve the deserving!—Wilt see the book, before we make the trial?”
Ludlow intimated his assent, and the boat approached the figure-head. It was impossible to prevent the feeling, which each of our three adventurers, not excepting the Alderman, felt when they came in full view of the motionless image. The mysterious countenance appeared endowed with thought, and the malign smile seemed still more ironical than before.
“The first question was yours, and yours must be the first answer,” said Tiller, motioning for Ludlow to consult the page which was open. “Our mistress deals chiefly in verses from the old writer, whose thoughts are almost as common to us all, as to human nature.”
“What means this?” said Ludlow, hastily—
“She, Claudio, that you wrong’d, look, you restore.
—love her Angelo;
I have confess’d her, and I know her virtue.”
“These are plain words; but I would rather that another priest should shrive her whom I love!”
“Hist!—Young blood is swift and quickly heated. Our lady of the bark will not relish hot speech, over her oracles.—Come, Master Patroon, turn the page with the rattan, and see what fortune will give.”
Oloff Van Staats raised his powerful arm, with the hesitation, and yet with the curiosity, of a girl. It was easy to read in his eye, the pleasure his heavy nature felt in the excitement; and yet it was easy to detect the misgivings of an erroneous education, by the seriousness of all the other members of his countenance. He read aloud—