Chapter XXII.
"What country, friends, is this?"
"--Illyria, lady."
What You Will.
Men are as much indebted to a fortuitous concurrence of circumstances, for
the characters they sustain in this world, as to their personal qualities.
The same truth is applicable to the reputations of ships. The properties
of a vessel, like those of an individual, may have their influence on her
good or evil fortune; still, something is due to the accidents of life, in
both. Although the breeze, which came so opportunely to the aid of the
Water-Witch, soon filled the sails of the Coquette, it caused no change in
the opinions of her crew concerning the fortunes of that ship; while it
served to heighten the reputation which the 'Skimmer of the Seas' had
already obtained, as a mariner who was more than favored by happy chances,
in the thousand emergencies of his hazardous profession. Trysail, himself,
shook his head, in a manner that expressed volumes, when Ludlow vented his
humor on what the young man termed the luck of the smuggler; and the crews
of the boats gazed after the retiring brigantine, as the inhabitants of
Japan would now most probably regard the passage of some vessel propelled
by steam. As Mr. Luff was not neglectful of his duty, it was not long
before the Coquette approached her boats. The delay occasioned by hoisting
in the latter, enabled the chase to increase the space between the two
vessels, to such a distance, as to place her altogether beyond the reach
of shot.
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