A pocket telescope in his hand, with which
he reconnoitred every boat that moved upon the water. Large
square-rigged vessels seemed to excite but little attention; but the
moment he descried any thing with a shoulder-of-mutton sail, or that a
barge, or yawl, or jolly boat hove in sight, up went the telescope, and
he examined it with the most scrupulous attention.
All this might have passed without much notice, for in those times the
province was so much the resort of adventurers of all characters and
climes that any oddity in dress or behavior attracted but little
attention. But in a little while this strange sea monster, thus
strangely cast up on dry land, began to encroach upon the
long-established customs and customers of the place; to interfere in a
dictatorial manner in the affairs of the ninepin alley and the
bar-room, until in the end he usurped an absolute command over the
little inn. It was in vain to attempt to withstand his authority. He
was not exactly quarrelsome, but boisterous and peremptory, like one
accustomed to tyrannize on a quarter deck; and there was a dare-devil
air about every thing he said and did, that inspired a wariness in all
bystanders. Even the half-pay officer, so long the hero of the club,
was soon silenced by him; and the quiet burghers stared with wonder at
seeing their inflammable man of war so readily and quietly
extinguished.
And then the tales that he would tell were enough to make a peaceable
man's hair stand on end. There was not a sea fight, or marauding or
free-booting adventure that had happened within the last twenty years
but he seemed perfectly versed in it. He delighted to talk of the
exploits of the buccaneers in the West-Indies and on the Spanish Main.
How his eyes would glisten as he described the waylaying of treasure
ships, the desperate fights, yard arm and yard arm - broadside and broad
side - the boarding and capturing of large Spanish galleons! with what
chuckling relish would he describe the descent upon some rich Spanish
colony; the rifling of a church; the sacking of a convent! You would
have thought you heard some gormandizer dilating upon the roasting a
savory goose at Michaelmas as he described the roasting of some Spanish
Don to make him discover his treasure - a detail given with a minuteness
that made every rich old burgher present turn uncomfortably in his
chair. All this would be told with infinite glee, as if he considered
it an excellent joke; and then he would give such a tyrannical leer in
the face of his next neighbor, that the poor man would be fain to laugh
out of sheer faint-heartedness. If any one, however, pretended to
contradict him in any of his stories he was on fire in an instant. His
very cocked hat assumed a momentary fierceness, and seemed to resent
the contradiction. - "How the devil should you know as well as I! I tell
you it was as I say!" and he would at the same time let slip a
broadside of thundering oaths and tremendous sea phrases, such as had
never been heard before within those peaceful walls.
Indeed, the worthy burghers began to surmise that he knew more of these
stories than mere hearsay. Day after day their conjectures concerning
him grew more and more wild and fearful. The strangeness of his
manners, the mystery that surrounded him, all made him something
incomprehensible in their eyes. He was a kind of monster of the deep to
them - he was a merman - he was behemoth - he was leviathan - in short,
they knew not what he was.
The domineering spirit of this boisterous sea urchin at length grew
quite intolerable. He was no respecter of persons; he contradicted the
richest burghers without hesitation; he took possession of the sacred
elbow chair, which time out of mind had been the seat of sovereignty of
the illustrious Ramm Rapelye. Nay, he even went so far in one of his
rough jocular moods, as to slap that mighty burgher on the back, drink
his toddy and wink in his face, a thing scarcely to be believed. From
this time Ramm Rapelye appeared no more at the inn; his example was
followed by several of the most eminent customers, who were too rich to
tolerate being bullied out of their opinions, or being obliged to laugh
at another man's jokes. The landlord was almost in despair, but he knew
not how to get rid of this sea monster and his sea-chest, which seemed
to have grown like fixtures, or excrescences on his establishment.
Such was the account whispered cautiously in Wolfert's ear, by the
narrator, Peechy Prauw, as he held him by the button in a corner of the
hall, casting a wary glance now and then towards the door of the
bar-room, lest he should be overheard by the terrible hero of his tale.
Wolfert took his seat in a remote part of the room in silence;
impressed with profound awe of this unknown, so versed in freebooting
history. It was to him a wonderful instance of the revolutions of
mighty empires, to find the venerable Ramm Rapelye thus ousted from the
throne; a rugged tarpaulin dictating from his elbow chair, hectoring
the patriarchs, and filling this tranquil little realm with brawl and
bravado.
The stranger was on this evening in a more than usually communicative
mood, and was narrating a number of astounding stories of plunderings
and burnings upon the high seas. He dwelt upon them with peculiar
relish, heightening the frightful particulars in proportion to their
effect on his peaceful auditors. He gave a long swaggering detail of
the capture of a Spanish merchantman.
