Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 239: what you’re looking at

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

eee eee mnimer Tamm. »” 226 JOSEPH WILMOT; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT. was spread. Almost immediately afterwards the CHAPTER CXXIV. second lieutenant entered my cabin; and saluting me with sufficient respect, but still with the same THE ATHENE. cold distant reserve as on the preceding night, he intimated that if the refreshments served up were I xNEW not how long I had slept, when I was| not to my fancy, and if I were habituated to suddenly awakened by the harsh jarring sounds of | others, they should at once be supplied. The veriest a voice chuckling in the large cabin adjoining. | epicure in the universe could not possibly have At first methought that it was merely the pro-| quarrelled with the materials for breakfast which longed idea of something which had naturally | were spread upon that tray; and I expressed my- enough been haunting me in my dreams: but that | self to a similar effect. The officer and the page hideous chuckling continued—there was no longer | retired ; and soon afterwards I heard Mr. Lanoyer any doubt. or mistake as to its reality—and I | issue forth from the adjoining state-room. It was therefore knew that Lanover himself was now on | about eight o’clock when I again rang the bell as board. I heard the second lieutenant say some- | a summons for the page to clear away the breakfast- thing to him, preceded by a hasty and impatient | things; and so soon as he had done this, the sécond “hush !”—then the door of an adjoining state- | lieutenant again visited me. room opened ; and I caught Lanover’s voice, say-| ‘You appear disposed, Mr. Wilmot,” he said, ing, “ Good night!” with a slight unbending from the former cold But what the second lieutenant himself had pre- | haughtiness of his manner, “ to observe on board viously said, I had totally failed to hear. this vessel a demeanour suitable to your condition A taper was burning im my room: I consulted| as a captive. I have already assured you that my watch—and found that it was one o’clock in| there is no desire on our part to display un- the morning. I had not therefore slept more than | necessary harshness: indeed, E will go further and an hour: for it was midnight when I sought my | declare that our order§ are positive to that effect. couch. And now Lanover was an inmate of the | Therefore, if it be agreeable, you are welcome to Athene!—a- mere thin partition of mingled ma- | take an airing upon the deck—under such restric- hogany and painted panels, separated his cabin ; tions as it may be deemed expedient to impose.” from mine! But as well might an entire ocean| I bowed an acknowledgement of this permis- have divided us, so far as my present ability to | sion; and follewed the officer to the deck. Sure thwart his schemes, to reproach or to chastise him | enough, as he had led me to anticipate, there was with ‘any effect, was concerned. a sailor with a drawn. sword im his hand, anda And now what argument was I to deduce from | couple of huge pistols in his belt, pacing to and the fact that Lanover had come on board the! fro near the head of the staircase. The lieutenant pirate-ship this night—evidently, too, to take up | infimated that I was free to walk about from stem his quarters there—instead of adhering to the, to stern, but that should any boat approach the original understanding, which was that he should schooner on the one side, I was at onee to pass embark on the ensuing night at ten o'clock? | over to the other; and that if I ventured to ery out Was it because having heard that I was a captive _ anything to the persons in such. boat, the privilege in the vessel, he had nothing further to detain him | of open air exercise would be at once taken away in the town of Civita Vecchia?—or was it that|from me. He likewise observed that 1 must not the measures devised by the Judge and Cosmo for | be astonished if, under existing circumstances, a his capture at the place of embarkation for the | seaman followed me about the ship; and then the next night, had by some means or another come to | lieutenant immediately added, “ But you may con- his knowledge, and he had deemed it prudent to | trive to forget, Mr. Wilmot, that such is the fact: lose no time in placing himself within the protec- | for his conduct shall nut be. obtrusive, and’ shall tion of the pirates? And if this were so, then | have as little the air of a guard as possible.” might the scheme devised by the Judge and-Cosmo| I bowed coldly—and turned away. I soon saw for the capture of Durazzo, have also transpired?! that the seaman who was armed in the manner I —and alas! alas! there was an end of the only | have described, left the head of the staircase and hope with which I had been buoying myself up. | kept within half-a-dozen paces of me: and I had no For two long hours did I lie awake, torturing my- | difficulty in comprehending that this precaution self with all these reflections and apprehensions: | was adopted in order to prevent me from taking a and when at length slumber once more came upon | leap into the sea and trusting to my powers of swim- my eyes, my sleep was troubled, uneasy, and | ming to carry me to the steps of the lower pier, or haunted by hideous dreams. When I awoke the light was penetrating, but | boats were moored : dimly, from the adjacent cabin—the taper had| Almost the first circumstance which now struck gone out—and my watch told me that it was six| me, was a certain difference between the present o’clock in the morning. I rose and dressed my-| aspect of the sweeping deck of the Athene from self; and then was it that for the first time I dis-| what it was on the occasion of my former visit. covered that circular air-hole~or scuttle, as the! Then the port-holes were closed, and the car- technical ‘term is—which I have described. I| ronades were run in and turned round:so as to be opened it; and the fresh air entering freely, fanned) parallel against the bulwarks: mow the ports my feverish countenance. In about an hour I! were all open, and the cannon were run out. agitated the silver bell: the youthful Greek page at! Round the lower part of ‘the masts there were once appeared; and the instant he saw that I was’ stands of fire-arms—two cireulur arrays of long up and dressed, he vanished again. - But in about! burnished muskets thus perperdicularly bristling. a couple of minutes he re-appeared, bearing the mas- | Quantities of cutlasses, pistols, hatchets, boarding- tive silver salver ; and on this an elegant breakfast | pikes, and grapnels—besides large cases evidently to the rocky.island, against which two or three ECORNIC OOOKSseO