The Water-Witch | Page 8

of the prudence of our measures. The amount is
written in this bit of paper."
"Two thousand pounds, my Lord!"
"Pardon me, dear Sir; not a penny more than one for each of you.

Justice to Van Staats requires that you let him into the affair. Were it
not for the suit with your niece, I should take the young gentleman with
me, to push his fortunes at court."
"Truly, my Lord, this greatly exceeds my means. The high prices of
furs the past season, and delays in returns have placed a seal upon our
silver--"
"The premium would be high."
"Coin is getting so scarce, daily, that the face of a Carolus is almost as
great a stranger, as the face of a debtor--"
"The returns certain."
"While one's creditors meet him, at every corner--"
"The concern would be altogether Dutch."
"And last advices from Holland tell us to reserve our gold, for some
extraordinary movements in the commercial world."
"Mr. Alderman Myndert Van Beverout!"
"My Lord Viscount Cornbury--"
"Plutus preserve thee, Sir--but have a care! though I scent the morning
air, and must return, it is not forbid to tell the secrets of my
prison-house. There is one, in yonder cage, who whispers that the
'Skimmer of the Seas' is on the coast! Be wary, worthy burgher, or the
second part of the tragedy of Kidd may yet be enacted in these seas."
"I leave such transactions to my superiors," retorted the Alderman, with
another stiff and ceremonious bow. "Enterprises that are said to have
occupied the Earl of Bellamont, Governor Fletcher, and my Lord
Cornbury, are above the ambition of an humble merchant."
"Adieu, tenacious Sir; quiet thine impatience for the extraordinary
Dutch movements!" said Cornbury, affecting to laugh, though he

secretly felt the sting the other had applied, since common report
implicated not only him, but his two official predecessors, in several of
the lawless proceedings of the American Buccaneers: "Be vigilant, or la
demoiselle Barbérie will give another cross to the purity of the stagnant
pool!"
The bows that were exchanged were strictly in character. The
Alderman was unmoved, rigid, and formal, while his companion could
not forget his ease of manner, even at a moment of so much vexation.
Foiled in an effort, that nothing but his desperate condition, and nearly
desperate character, could have induced him to attempt, the degenerate
descendant of the virtuous Clarendon walked towards his place of
confinement, with the step of one who assumed a superiority over his
fellows, and yet with a mind so indurated by habitual depravity, as to
have left it scarcely the trace of a dignified or virtuous quality.
Chapter II.

"His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles; His love sincere, his
thoughts immaculate;--"
Two Gentlemen of Verona.
The philosophy of Alderman Van Beverout was not easily disturbed.
Still there was a play of the nether muscles of the face, which might be
construed into self-complacency at his victory, while a certain
contraction of those which controlled the expression of the forehead
seemed to betray a full consciousness of the imminent risk he had run.
The left hand was thrust into a pocket, where it diligently fingered the
provision of Spanish coin without which the merchant never left his
abode; while the other struck the cane it held on the pavement, with the
force of a resolute and decided man. In this manner he proceeded in his
walk, for several minutes longer, shortly quitting the lower streets, to
enter one that ran along the ridge, which crowned the land, in that
quarter of the island. Here he soon stopped before the door of a house
which, in that provincial town, had altogether the air of a patrician

dwelling.
Two false gables, each of which was surmounted by an iron
weathercock, intersected the roof of this building, and the high and
narrow stoop was built of the red free-stone of the country. The
material of the edifice itself was, as usual, the small, hard brick of
Holland, painted a delicate cream-color.
A single blow of the massive glittering knocker brought a servant to the
door. The promptitude with which this summons was answered showed
that, notwithstanding the early hour, the Alderman was an expected
guest. The countenance of him who acted as porter betrayed no surprise
when he saw the person who applied for admission, and every
movement of the black denoted preparation and readiness for his
reception. Declining his invitation to enter, however, the Alderman
placed his back against the iron railing of the stoop, and opened a
discourse with the negro. The latter was aged, with a head that was
grizzled, a nose that was levelled nearly to the plane of his face,
features that were wrinkled and confused, and with a form which,
though