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thickets, and where subjection is unknown, except that of thev brave to the bravest, and of all to the most beautiful.”
Minna paused a moment ere she spoke, and then answered, (i No, Cleveland. My own rude country has charms for me, even desolate as you think it, and depressed as it surely is, which no other land on earth can offer to me. I endeavour in vain to represent to myself those visions of trees, and of groves, which my eye never saw; but my imagination can conceive no sight in nature more sublime than these waves, when agitated by a storm, or more beautiful, than when they come, as they now do, rolling in calm tranquillity to the shore. Not the fairest scene in a foreign land, — not the brightest sunbeam that ever shone upon the richest landscape, would win my thoughts for a moment from that lofty rock, misty hill, and wide-rolling ocean. Hialtland is the land of my deceased ancestors, and of my living father; and in Hialtland will I live and die.”
“Then in Hialtland,” answered Cleveland, “ will I too live and die. I will not go to Kirkwall, — I will not make my existence known to my comrades, from whom it were else hard for me to escape. Your father loves me, Minna; who knows whether long attention, anxious care, might not bring him to receive me into his family? Who would regard the length of a voyage that was certain to terminate in happiness?”
‘‘Dream not of such an issue,” said Minna; “it is impossible. While you live in my father’s house, — while you receive his assistance, and share his table, you will find him the generous friend, and the hearty host; but touch him on what concerns his name and family, and the frank-hearted Udaller will start up before you the haughty and proud descendant of a Norwegian Jarl. See you, — a moment’s suspicion has fallen on Mordaunt Mertoun, and he has banished from his favour the youth whom he so lately loved as a son. No one must ally with his house that is not of untainted northern descent.”
“And mine may be so, for aught that is known to me upon the subject,” said Cleveland.
“How!” said Minna; “ have you any reason to believe yourself of Norse descent?”
“I have told you before,” replied Cleveland, “ that my family is totally unknown to me. I spent my earliest days upon a solitary plantation in the little island of Tortuga, under the charge of my father, then a different person from what he afterwards became. We were plundered by the Spaniards, and reduced to such extremity of poverty, that my father, in desperation, ana in thirst of revenge, took up arms, and having become chief of a little band, who were in the same circumstances, became a buccaneer, as it is called, and cruised against Spain, with various vicissitudes of good and bad fortune, until, while he interfered to check some violence of his companions, he fell by their hands — no uncommon fate among the captains of these rovers. But whence my father came, or what was the place of his birth, I know not, fair Minna, nor have I ever had a curious thought on the subject.”
“He was a Briton, at least, your unfortunate father? “ said Minna.
“I have no doubt of it,” said Cleveland; “ his name, which I have rendered too formidable to be openly spoken, is an English one; and his acquaintance with the English language, and even with English literature, together with the pains whicn he took, in better days, to teach me Doth, plainly spoke him to be an Englishman. If the rude bearing which I display towards others is not the genuine character of my mind and manners, it is ito my father, Minna, that I owe any share of better thoughts and principles, which may render me worthy, in some small degree, of your notice and approbation. And yet it sometimes seems to me, that I have two different characters; for I cannot bring myself to believe, that I, who now walk this lone beach with the lovely Minna Troil, and am permitted to speak to her of the passion which I have cherished, have ever been the daring leader of the bold band whose name was as terrible as a tornado.”
“You had not been permitted,” said Minna, “ to use that bold language towards the daughter of Magnus Troil, had you not been the brave and undaunted leader, who, with so small means, has made his name so formidable. My heart is like that of a maiden of the ancient days, and is to be won, not by fair words, but by gallant deeds.”
“Alas! that heart,” said Cleveland; “ and what is it that I may do — what is it that man can do, to win in it the interest which I desire?”
“Rejoin your friends — pursue your fortunes — leave the rest to destiny,” said Minna. “ Should you return, the leader of a gallant fleet, who can tell what may befall?”
“And what shall assure me that, when I return — if return I ever shall — I may not find Minna Troil a bride or a spouse? — No, Minna, I will not trust to destiny the only object worth attaining, which my stormy voyage in life has yet offered me.”
“Hear me,” said Minna. “ I will bind myself to you, if you dare accept such an engagement, by the promise of Odin,1 the most sacred of our northern rites which are yet practised among us, that I will never favour another, until you resign the pretensions which I have given to you. — Will that satisfy you? — for more I cannot — more I will not give.”
“Then with that,” said Cleveland, after a moment’s pause, “ I must perforce be satisfied; — but remember, it is yourself that throw me back upon a mode of life which the laws of Britain denounce as criminal, and which the violent passions of the daring men by whom it is pursued, have rendered infamous.”
“But I,” said Minna, “ am superior to such prejudices.
1 Note XI. Promise of Odin
In warring with England, I see their laws in no other light than as if you were engaged with an enemy, who, in fulness of pride and power, has declared he will give his antagonist no quarter. A brave man will not fight the worse for this; — and, for the manners of your comrades, so that they do not infect your own, why should their evil report attach to you?”
Cleveland gazed at her as she spoke, with a degree of wondering admiration, in which, at the same time, there lurked a smile at her simplicity.
“I could not,” he said, “ have believed, that such high courage could have been found united with such ignorance of the world as the world is now wielded. For my manners, they who best know me will readily allow, that I have done my best, at the risk of my popularity, and of my life itself, to mitigate the ferocity of my mates; but how can you teach humanity to men burning with vengeance against the world by whom they are proscribed, or teach them temperance and moderation in enjoying the pleasures which chance throws in their way, to vary a life which would be otherwise one constant scene of peril and hardship? — But this promise, Minna — this promise, which is all I am to receive in guerdon for my faithful attachment — let me at least lose no time in claiming that.”
“It must not be rendered here, but in Kirkwall. — We must invoke, to witness the engagement, the Spirit which presides over the ancient Circle of Stennis. But perhaps you fear to name the ancient Father-of the Slain too, the Severe, the Terrible?”
Cleveland smiled.
“Do me the justice to think, lovely Minna, that I am little subject to fear real causes of terror; and for those which are visionary, I have no sympathy whatever.”
“You believe not in them, then?” said Minna, “and are so far better suited to be Brenda’s lover than mine.”
“I will believe,” replied Cleveland, “in whatever you believe. The whole inhabitants of that Valhalla, about which you converse so much with that fiddling, rhyming fool, Claud Halcro — all these shall become living and existing things to my credulity. But, Minna, do not ask me to fear any of them.”
“Fear! no — not to fear them, surely,” replied the maiden; “ for, not before Thor nor Odin, when they approached in the fulness of their terrors, did the heroes of my dauntless race yield one foot in retreat. Nor do I own them as Deities — a better faith prevents so foul an error. But, in our own conception, they are powerful spirits for gopd or evil. And when you boast not to fear them, bethink you that you defy an enemy of a kind you have never yet encountered.”
“Not in these northern latitudes,” said the lover, with a smile, “where hitherto I have seen but angels; but