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charge. I do not talk of my own risk, for I have lived in danger, and love it; it is not every one, however, would have ventured so near the furious animal to save one with whom they had no connection.”
“It is not every one, indeed, who could have saved him,” answered Minna gravely; “ but every one who has courage and generosity would have attempted it. The giddy-brained Claud Halcro would have done as much as you, had his strength been equal to his courage, — my father would have done as much, though having such just cause of resentment against the young man, for his vain and braggart abuse of our hospitality. Do not, therefore, boast of your exploit too much, my good friend, lest you should make me think that it required too great an effort. I know you love not Mordaunt Mertoun, though you exposed your own life to save his.”
“Will you allow nothing, then,” said Cleveland, “ for the long misery I was made to endure from the common and prevailing report, that this beardless bird-hunter stood betwixt me and what I on earth coveted most — the affections of Minna Troil?”
He spoke in a tone at once impassioned and insinuating, and his whole language and manner seemed to express a grace and elegance, which formed the most striking contrast with the speech and gesture of the unpolished seaman, which he usually affected or exhibited. But his apology was unsatisfactory to Minna.
“You have known,” she said, “perhaps too soon, and too well, how little you had to fear, — if you indeed feared. — that Mertoun, or any other, had interest with Minna Troil. — Nay, truce to thanks and protestations; I would accept it as the best proof of gratitude, that you would be reconciled with this youth, or at least avoid every quarrel with him.”
“That we should be friends, Minna, is impossible,” replied Cleveland; “even the love I bear you, the most powerful emotion that my heart ever knew, cannot work that miracle.”
“And why, I pray you?” said Minna; “there have been no evil offences between you, but rather an exchange of mutual services; why can you not be friends? — I have many reasons to wish it.”
“And can you, then, forget the slights which he has cast upon Brenda, and on yourself, and on your father’s house?”
“I can forgive them all,” said Minna; — ”can you not say so much, who have in truth received no offence?”
Cleveland looked down, and paused for an instant; then raised his head, and replied, “ I might easily deceive you, Minna, and promise you what my soul tells me is an impossibility; but I am forced to use too much deceit with others, and with you I will use none. I cannot be friend to this young man; — there is a natural dislike — an instinctive aversion — something like a principle of repulsion in our mutual nature which makes us odious to each other. Ask himself — he will tell you he has the same antipathy against me. The obligation he conferred on me was a bridle to my resentment; but I was so galled by the restraint, that I could have gnawed the curb till my lips were bloody.”
“You have worn what you are wont to call your iron mask so long, that your features,” replied Minna, “ retain the impression of its rigidity even when it is removed.”
“You do me injustice, Minna,” replied her lover, “ and you are angry with me because I deal with you plainly and honestly. Plainly and honestly, however, will I say, that I cannot be Mertoun’s friend, but it shall be his own fault, not mine, if I am ever his enemy. I seek not to injure him; but do not ask me to love him. And of this remain satisfied, that it would be vain even if I could do so; for as sure as I attempted any advances toward his confidence, so sure would I be to awaken his disgust and suspicion. Leave us to the exercise of our natural feelings, which, as they will unquestionably keep us as far separate as possible, are most likely to prevent any possible interference with each other. — Does this satisfy you?”
“It must,” said Minna, “since you tell me there is no remedy.-^And now tell me why you looked so grave when you heard of your consort’s arrival, — for that it is her I have no doubt, — in the port of Kirkwall?”
“I fear,” replied Cleveland “ the consequences of that vessel’s arrival with her crew, as comprehending the ruin of my fondest hopes. I had made some progress in your father’s favour, and, with time, might have made more, when hither come Hawkins and the rest to blight my prospects for ever. I told you on what terms we parted. I then commanded a vessel braver and better found than their own, with a crew who, at my slightest nod, would have faced fiends armed with their own fiery element; but I now stand alone, a single man, destitute of all means to overawe or to restrain them; and they will soon show so plainly the ungovernable licence of their habits and dispositions, that ruin to themselves and to me will in all probability be the consequence.”
“Do not fear it,” said Minna; “ my father can never be so unjust as to hold you liable for the offences of others.”
“But what will Magnus Troil say to my own dements, fair Minna? “ said Cleveland, smiling.
My father is a Zetlander, or rather a Norwegian,” said Minna, “ one of an oppressed race, who will not care whether you fought against the Spaniards, who are the tyrants of the New World, or against the Dutch and English, who have succeeded to their usurped dominions. His own ancestors supported and exercise? the freedom of the seas in those gallant barks, whose pennons were the dread of all Europe.”
“I fear, nevertheless,” said Cleveland, “ that the descendant of an ancient Sea-King will scarce acknowledge a fitting acquaintance in a modern rover. I have not disguised from you that I have reason to dread the English laws; and Magnus, though a great enemy to taxes, imposts, scat, wattle, and so forth, has no idea of latitude upon points of a more general character; — he would willingly reeve a rope to the yard-arm for the benefit of an unfortunate buccaneer.”
“Do not suppose so,” said Minna; “ he himself suffers too much oppression from the tyrannical laws of our proud neighbours of Scotland. I trust he will soon be able to rise in resistance against them. The enemy — such I will call them — are now divided amongst themselves, and every vessel from their coast brings intelligence of fresh commotions — the Highlands against the Lowlands — the Williamites against the Jacobites — the Whigs against the Tories, and, to sum the whole, the kingdom of England against that of Scotland. What is there, as Claud Halcro well hinted, to prevent our availing ourselves of the quarrels of these robbers, to assert the independence of which we are deprived?”
“To hoist the raven standard on the Castle of Scalloway,” said Cleveland, in imitation of her tone and manner, “and proclaim your father Earl Magnus the First!”
“Earl Magnus the Seventh, if it please you,” answered Minna; “for six of his ancestors have worn, or were entitled to wear, the coronet before him. — You laugh at my ardour, — but what is there to prevent all this?”
“Nothing will prevent it,” replied Cleveland, “ because it will never be attempted — Anything might prevent it, that is equal in strength to the long-boat of a British man-of-war.”
“You treat us with scorn, sir,” said Minna; “ yet yourself should know what a few resolved men may perform.”
“But they must be armed, Minna,” replied Cleveland, “ and willing to place their lives upon each desperate adventure. — Think not of such visions. Denmark has been cut down into a secondrate kingdom, incapable of exchanging a single broadside with England; Norway is a starving wilderness; and, in these islands, the love of independence has been suppressed by a long term of subjection, or shows itself but in a few muttered growls over the bowl and bottle. And, were your men as willing warriors as their ancestors, what could the unarmed crews of a few fishing-boats do against the British navy? — Think no more of it, sweet Minna — it is a dream, and I must term it so, though it makes your eye so bright, and your step so noble.”
“It is indeed a dream!” said Minna, looking down, “and it ill becomes a daughter of Hialtland to look or to move like a freewoman. — Our eye should be on the ground, and our step slow and reluctant, as that of one who obeys a taskmaster.”
“There are lands,” said Cleveland,