Chapter 23 - Page 2

movements I loosened the cords of discipline myself to-day," he added,
after a moment's pause, "and in some measure invited the broil that
followed: But it is passed, like the hurricane and the squall; and the
ocean is not now smoother than the tempers of my knaves."

"I have often witnessed these rude sports in vessels of the King; but I do
not remember to have known any more serious result than the settlement of
some ancient quarrel, or some odd freak of nautical humour, which has
commonly proved as harmless as it has been quaint."

"Ay; but the ship which often runs the hazards of the shoals gets wrecked
at last," muttered the Rover "I rarely give the quarter-deck up to the
people, without keeping a vigilant watch on their humours;
but--to-day"----

"You were speaking of to-day."

"Neptune, with his coarse devices, is no stranger to you, Madam."

"I have seen the God in times past."

"'Twas thus I understood it;--under the line?"

"And elsewhere."

"Elsewhere!" repeated the other, in a tone of disappointment. "Ay, the
sturdy despot is to be found in every sea; and hundreds of ships, and
ships of size too, are to be seen scorching in the calms of the equator.
It was idle to give the subject a second thought."

"You have been pleased to observe something that has escaped my ear."

The Rover started; for he had rather muttered than spoken the preceding
sentence aloud. Casting a swift and searching glance around him, as it
might be to assure himself that no impertinent listener had found means to
pry into the mysteries of a mind he seldom saw fit to lay open to the free
examination of his associates, he regained his self-possession on the
instant, and resumed the discourse with a manner as undisturbed as if it
had received no interruption.

"Yes, I had forgotten that your sex is often as timorous as it is fair,"
he added, with a smile so insinuating and gentle, that the governess cast
an involuntary and uneasy glance towards her charge, "or I might have been
earlier with my assurance of safety."

"It is welcome even now."

"And your young and gentle friend," he continued, bowing openly to
Gertrude, though he still addressed his words to the governess; "her
slumbers will not be the heavier for what has passed."

"The innocent seldom find an uneasy pillow."

"There is a holy and unsearchable mystery in that truth: The innocent
pillow their heads in quiet! Would to God the guilty might find some
refuge, too, against the sting of thought! But we live in a world, and a