When he saw that the boat was
beginning to move through the water, he found leisure to bestow some
observation on his fellow-voyagers. The first that met his bold and
reckless eye was Francois, the domestic of Alida.
"If it come to blow in squalls, Commodore," observed the intruder, with a
gravity that half deceived the attentive Frenchman, while he pointed to
the bag in which the latter wore his hair, "you'll be troubled to carry
your broad pennant. But so experienced an officer has not put to sea
without having a storm-cue in readiness for foul weather."
The valet did not, or affected not to understand the allusion, maintaining
an air of dignified but silent superiority.
"The gentleman is in a foreign service, and does not understand an English
mariner! The worst that can come, after all, of too much top-hamper, is to
cut away, and let it drift with the scud. May I make bold to ask, judge,
if the courts have done any thing, of late, concerning the freebooters
among the islands?"
"I have not the honor to bear Her Majesty's commission," coldly returned
Van Staats of Kinderhook, to whom this question had been hardily put.
"The best navigator is sometimes puzzled by a hazy observation, and many
an old seaman has taken a fog-bank for solid ground. Since you are not in
the courts, Sir, I wish you joy; for it is running among shoals to be
cruising there, whether as judge or suitor. One is never fairly snug and
landlocked, while in company of a lawyer, and yet the devil himself cannot
always give the sharks a good offing.
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