coast
between Fundy and Horn, is as familiar to my eye, as an admirer to this
pretty young lady; and as to the other shore, I have run it down oftener
than the Commodore, here, has ever set his pennant, blow high or blow low.
A cruise like this is a Sunday in my navigation; though I dare say, you
took leave of the wife, blessed the children, overhauled the will, and
sent to ask a good word from the priest, before you came aboard?"

"Had these ceremonies been observed, the danger would not have been
increased," said the young Patroon, anxious to steal a glance at la belle
Barberie, though his timidity caused him, in truth, to look the other way.
"One is never nearer danger, for being prepared to meet it."

"True; we must all die, when the reckoning is out. Hang or drown--gibbet
or bullet clears the world of a great deal of rubbish, or the decks would
get to be so littered that the vessel could not be worked. The last cruise
is the longest of all; and honest papers, with a clean bill of health, may
help a man into port, when he is past keeping the open sea. How now,
schipper! what lies are floating about the docks this morning? when did
the last Albany-man get his tub down the river, or whose gelding has been
ridden to death in chase of a witch."

"The devil's babes!" muttered the Alderman; "there is no want of
roisterers to torment such innocents!"

"Have the buccaneers taken to praying, or does their trade thrive in this
heel of the war?" continued the mariner of the India-shawl, disregarding
the complaint of the burgher. "The times are getting heavy for men of
metal, as may be seen by the manner in which yon cruiser wears out her
ground-tackle, instead of trying the open sea. May I spring every spar I
carry, but I would have the boat out and give her an airing, before
to-morrow, if the Queen would condescend to put your humble servant in
charge of the craft! The man lies there, at his anchors, as if he had a
good freight of real Hollands in his hold, and was waiting for a few bales
of beaver-skins to barter for his strong waters."

As the stranger coolly expressed this opinion of Her Majesty's ship
Coquette, he rolled his glance over the persons of his companions,
suffering it to rest, a moment, with a secret significance, on the steady
eye of the burgher.

"Well--" he continued, "the sloop answers for a floating vane to tell
which way the tide is running, if she does nothing better; and that must
be a great ass