Chapter 22

"What country, friends, is this?"
"--Illyria, lady."

What You Will.

Men are as much indebted to a fortuitous concurrence of circumstances, for
the characters they sustain in this world, as to their personal qualities.
The same truth is applicable to the reputations of ships. The properties
of a vessel, like those of an individual, may have their influence on her
good or evil fortune; still, something is due to the accidents of life, in
both. Although the breeze, which came so opportunely to the aid of the
Water-Witch, soon filled the sails of the Coquette, it caused no change in
the opinions of her crew concerning the fortunes of that ship; while it
served to heighten the reputation which the 'Skimmer of the Seas' had
already obtained, as a mariner who was more than favored by happy chances,
in the thousand emergencies of his hazardous profession. Trysail, himself,
shook his head, in a manner that expressed volumes, when Ludlow vented his
humor on what the young man termed the luck of the smuggler; and the crews
of the boats gazed after the retiring brigantine, as the inhabitants of
Japan would now most probably regard the passage of some vessel propelled
by steam. As Mr. Luff was not neglectful of his duty, it was not long
before the Coquette approached her boats. The delay occasioned by hoisting
in the latter, enabled the chase to increase the space between the two
vessels, to such a distance, as to place her altogether beyond the reach
of shot. Ludlow, however, gave his orders to pursue, the moment the ship
was ready; and he hastened to conceal his disappointment in his own cabin.

"Luck is a merchant's surplus, while a living profit is the reward of his
wits!" observed Alderman Van Beverout, who could scarce conceal the
satisfaction he felt, at the unexpected and repeated escapes of the
brigantine. "Many a man gains doubloons, when he only looked for dollars;
and many a market falls, while the goods are in the course of clearance.
There are Frenchmen enough, Captain Ludlow to keep a brave officer in
good-humor; and the less reason to fret about a trifling mischance in
overhauling a smuggler."

"I know not how highly you may prize your niece, Mr. Van Beverout; but
were I the uncle of such a woman, the idea that she had become the
infatuated victim of the arts of yon reckless villain, would madden me!"

"Paroxysms and straight-jackets! Happily you are not her uncle, Captain
Ludlow, and therefore the less reason to be uneasy. The girl has a French
fancy, and she is rummaging the smuggler's silks and laces; when her
choice is made, we shall have her back again, more beautiful than ever,
for a little finery."

"Choice!