Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 277 — page 27: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

fae edisplayed no more concern about the still : _ my report to the Secretary, when I go into port . had been so many - “ 7 caught the frigate for at least two good minutes | before it favored the English sbips. Away glided ‘‘ Old lronsides” with that puff, and drew out of gunshot with a rapidity that mary f amazed her pursuers. Every sail drew; and fo ‘went to sleep,” in nautical wet gy ers other words, were full enough to keep them from flapping, as the support of the wind left them. Then the superiority of the Constitution in sailing became apparent at once, as the English ships caught the breeze and tried to keep the time. ~ The Saucy r the first time in twenty-four hours they | relative distance that had been maintained be- | fcre the wind came. She drew ahead faster at every foot of pro- | | want you to work lively when you do work.” | eo and when the little puff died away, which t did in about ten minutes, she was out of reach of the longest guns in the British squadron, and out of all immediate danger as well. From this time till sunset, it was calm again, and the weary towing of the ships was resumed Dy all concerned. At seven in the evening the nstitution sounded in twenty-four fathoms, and kept at her kedging till ten. At eleven an- other breeze came up, and set the sails asleep once more, The boats of the gallant ship were drawn up alongside with a promptitude that showed how well the captain kept all his men in hand; and for the first time ina day of bard toil, the sailors of Old Jronsides were able to lie down on the decks and catch a little sleep, The wind failed again at midnight; but the English captains did not order out their crews again after the bard day’s work they bad al- ready had, and the hunters and hunted lay mo- tionless on the waters all the rest of the night. In the morning the wind aroseagain; but with so little force that the rate of progress of the ships was very slow. They had all got on the same tack, and were standing to the southwest, every rag of canvas hoisted and drawing, as the stately vessels urged their way through the little ripples and swells that alone disturbed the serenity of the sea. By noon the American frigate had drawn so much ahead, that the Shannon and Belvidera, with the Guerriere, were the only sbips near enough to have closed if they had had the wind to do it, and the Africa was already dipping her hull below the level of the horizon. The schooner, Saucy Jane, was all this time drawing ahead of the whole squadron, outside of the dangerous circle within which was *‘ Old Ironsides,” and at about three o’clock in the af- ternoon she had got abeam of the frigate and was near enough to speak ber as she passed. In those light winds the Saucy Jane could outsail any ship that ever floated, thongh in a heavy sea-way soe would have been overmatched. As the vessels passed within bail of each other, Eaton asked for Captain Hull. The commander’s face made its appearance over the od rail, almost immediately, and he called out: ‘‘ Happy to see you, Mr. Eaton. What can I do for you, this morning! We are not in a con- dition to invite you to board us, unless you are prepared to climb the side of the ship while she’s under full way; but if there is anyching that does not require privacy, I am at your ser- vice, allthe time. Allow me to tbank you for the handsome way in which you have eer | the ship, stim all her peril. I especially ad- mired the way in which you set that frigate to thinking that a Yankee schooner might figbt a British ship, and not be so much the worse off, ell, sir, have you any communication to make to me?’ ‘*T have the honor to report that I succeeded in recapturing the Nautilus, last night; but was unable to bring ber away, for want of wind, sir,” Eaton replied modestly. “I am also pained to report that I found, on board the brig, a wounded prisoner, Commodore Barton, of the retired list, and that he died before he could be removed to the schooner. His body is now on board this vessel, sir; and I desire to ask per- mission to part company with the frigate now ene it is plain that there will be no further dif- culty in the escape of the Constitution. I also wish to report that I was obliged to scuttle the poor little Nautilus, sir, and that she lies sunk, so that the British cannot have any sort of triumph over us about her.” tain Hull listened attentively to the whole of this report, and when Eaton had fin- ished. he asked: ‘* Have you any prisoners on board, from the Nautilus? ‘‘ Yes, sir, the English lieutenant, Mr. Ever- ton, and about fifteen seamen, some of them wounded. That is another reason why lam not a little anxious to go into New York; but I do not like to do so, if you think that there is any use in my remaining.” Hull waved his band graciously. “lam freely willing that you should go, sir, and I think that it is your plain duty now, on account of the body of the commodore. I wish you good fortune, in yo home voyage, and I can promise you that I shall not forget you, in dar usly-near English squadron than if the ed trading Tebooners, now that ti : | ha me “i Care. —_ he had a wind to put them on an equality, and he was right, as the event proved, before that day was over. the Saucy Jane parted company witb the frigate, a squall was seen, coming down from windward, wrapped in a dark cloud, and bring- ing with it any quantity of wind. The last words that Eaton beard from the lips of the captain, as the schooner passed away, were: ‘No hurrying, men, no hurrying. Plenty of Hands by the clew-lines and braces! Stand by to let go and furl! Nohurry! Ishall keep everything standing to the last minute; but Then the Saucy Jane went out of bearing, and was enveloped in the embrace of the squall, from which time, till it cleared off again, in about half an hour, nothing was seen by any one on board of either party to the hunting of ** Old Lronsides,” When it finally cleared away, the schooner, from her weatherly qualities, was a long way from all of the ships; but tbe Constitution had increased her distance from the English, till the nearest of the frigates was at Jeast four miles off, and it was plain that there was no further hope of doing anything to complete the capture of the Yankee frigate that the English had thought their own that morning. For the rest of the day the wind continued fair, with a smooth sea, and toward night an- o' her squall came up, under cover of which and the Aadhneia combined, the chase of ‘‘ Old Iron- sides” came to an end, When morning dawned again not one of the English vessels was in sight, and Hull proceeded on his cruise as if nothing had happened, and arrived in port at the end of the month with several prizes that he had taken; most of them, American merchantmen, recaptured. The Saucy Jane arrived in New York harbor on the day after she left the Constitution. CHAPTER XXXVI. CONCLUSION. THE tale of the first cruise of the Saucy Jane, Privateer, is told, and the reader can guess with- out much trouble that the first thing Eaton and bis lady love a Be of, after they had commodore buried, with all honors, in Trinity churchyard, was what they should do in the future. It seemed to be too irreverent to the memory of tbe veteran to get married at a time like _ that; but there was no help for it as the matter | | h y stood. Commodore Barton had died a poor man, and had been going out to take charge of a navy- yard in the Southern States when he had been captured in the Nautilus. His savings from his pay had been very small, as be had always lived up to the extent of his income, and it bad become necessary for him to obtain active em- ployment in order to keep his daughter from actual want. ; He had no near relatives, and poor Lily had literally nowhere to go after she had seen the body deposited in the grave and paid the heavy funeral expenses, Thé result of the whole matter was that, one fine morning in the middle, of August Eaton and Lily were married in the chancel o Trinity Church, with only Blair and Lady Jane oer and went off to Eaton’s house, which e had left in the dress of a common sailor at the opening of the war. He was by no means the poor man that might have appeared the case from that circumstance, for his private fortune was by no means lack- ing in comfort, though he was not what would have been called rich even in those times. He had a mother living with him, who was well acquainted with Lily at the time of his first engagement, and she welcomed the father- less girl with an affection that promised well for one mother-in-law at least, out of that sadly maligned race. But the honeymoon could not last long for Eaton in those times, Blair, now that he was married to Lady Jane, and had settled down to the realities of life, with that very pretty bat hot-tempered hire n= found that he was not able to control the earl’s daughter with the ease he had expected. The two Lady Jane Blairs, married and single, were different persons altogether. The temper that had been restrained by the lover, was dis- played to the husband, with a freedom that was only made more trying by the fact that the lady was very jealous, and laid all her temper to the score of her intense Jove for her busband., As for letting bim go to sea again, that was out of the question, after Blair began to get restless and hint as much to his wife, She knew him to be a rich man, or it is probable that she would not have run away with him, for all the love she bore him. Earls’ daughters are generally too well brought up to fail to understand the value of money; and in the bringing up of Lady Jane Blair, the influence of her canny old father ad not been without its effect, though she had made a runaway match. Therefore, Eaton, who had seen a good deal bad ~*~ ‘ap 3 Jane, Privateer. ' | | | ot the 3 | 4 e,% + A ‘) ’: LL f* 2 Q ‘ rs - —— re wt ae Yee a ?., Pom ve, a ad it aA ‘ae 7 ‘Java, will be told some day O7 of what was going on in the Blair mansion, was surprised, one day, when Blair came to him with a rueful fave, tosay: ‘* Raton, my dear fellow, J can't go.” They had planning a new cruise in the privateer, and it had been arranged Eaton should be second in command again, as be had been in the starting of the first voyage of the Saucy Jane. Meany had been their plans of making themselves rich in a very short time by the capture of British merchant vessels, that they knew to be swarming the seas and loaded with valuable cargoes. The W+st Indies had proved such a place for one sort of good luck to the priyateersman, on the first vovage, that he was anxious totry again, whether the luck of love in one would be followed by the luck of war in the other. As for Eaton, he had serious need to replenish his coffers, for the income which was enough for himself and his mother, threatened to prove inadequate to take care of a wife into the bar- gain, withoutsome help. As for children, when | they came (as was to be expected) it was a sure thing that the husband and father would have to go to sea or make money on shore, to fill the small mouths that grow more hungry all the time, But all these bright hopes were dashed to the ground in an instant by those words of Blair: ‘* Eaton, my dear fellow, I CAN’T GO.” Eaton stared at bis friend, aghast. ‘*Not go! Why | thought it was all arranged. The schooner is in the best possible trim, and I got the new men out of a Jot of men-of-war’s- men, just come in from the President.” Blair ground bis teeth in the bitterness of his. disappointment, but he managed to say, after a pause to control his feelings: ‘*That’s all right, and there is nothing to pre- vent your going. But that is not what is the matter, It is / thatcannot go. She won't let me! Swears that she will die if 1 go, and all that sort of thing, you know. I say, Eaton, does your wife go on so?” Eaton smiled and shook bis head. Blair considered a minute before he answered: ‘*Ah, yes; that is because she doesn’t love you, Jane says. I tell you what it is, Eaton it’s a terrible hard ny to have a wife so fond of you that she won’t let you have a little fun, for fear you might go and fall in love with some other woman. Jenny is getting a per- fect termagant, and the worst of it is that. she won’t give me a chance to get mad and leave the house, for it is perfectly plain that she loves me to distraction, and a man can’t find it in his heart to be harsh to a woman who loves him; can he, now?” Eaton made no answer, for it was plain that none was required, and Blair continued without noticing his silence: ‘You don’t know what a trying thing it is to bave married an earl’s daughter, and to. be at war with the country from which she comes. I hardly tell ber any good news for our side, for fear that she will burst out crying and tell me I am a brute, and that I brought her away from a comfortable home, to make miserable by insulting her. I swear I don’t. know what to do sometimes; but this she made me phe ge this morning that 1 would. not go out on this voyage, but send you in eommand, So, old fellow, I wish you joy of your luck, and all I stipulate is that you. shall take the revenge on the Johnny Bulls that ] should bave taken if I had been able to go. Eaton, though he was rather disa inted at the prospective absence of Blair, whom be- had’ grown to like and esteem very highly, was sensible that the proposed arrangement was one that. would be very advantageous i t: rfect the re-babiltation © of his name, for which he was working, and: | bimself, on account of the portunity would give him to possible aid in securing a reversal, by the omnipotent Congress, of the unjust sentence: under which he had so long suffered. It was, therefore, with but a semblance of | sorrow for the loss of his commander’s society, tbat he consented to the arrangement and tock his departure the next week in the schooner on a new cruise in search of any prizes that might fallin bis way. How he succeeded in his. expedition is a story too long to be told at this pege of a book that bas already lasted long enough. When the Saucy Jane again struck the port © of New.York, he bad taken enough prizes from the British to make the owner of the Saucy Jane a rich man for the rest of bis days, and his own share of the proceeds of the voyage, when reduced to gold and silver, filled a chest that would not go under an ordinary cbair, > What became of him in the interim, and@~ what were his adventures, as also how he met ‘‘ Old Ironsides” again and bow he became witness of her most famous victory over the of these lines, who here takes his most re- pet om = ey of the reader, and bids — ei : THE END, (E(@) 100 im (E by the autbor ———t™S . eS Z ra - or. d ’ 7 - : ee 8" SV. . 4 ) ie ~ ee eo eee _— oe et Pitt ~~ ot ath © w ~ . ; fe! ~ > - . * = = “ ~ > Lan ~ } > at . nie + te f ~ oe Sty SB er e,' : oo OR a . “a OD ee Yt i a ween * - a es AS iat ~ ‘a ¢ "A Ce lide * 4 eo ey: 7 a ee. er be ‘ “yr - sa ey ca bd . i 1s 4 . . * Fan in | ‘ . . 7 : bai * we a°* .¢ - ¥ ii e. eed az -7 - 4h ~P aS -