LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2431, 20 January 1882, Page 4

LITERATURE.

A FOECBD MARRIAGE. [From " London Sooiety." {Concluded.) ' Can't you leave the colonel alone ?' he cried ; ' she said No, and I suppose there's an end of the thing.' *My good Hugh, don't be in such a deuce of a rjge about it. Upon my word, if I didn't know how matters stood between yon and Pauline, I would swear you were jealous.' ' I—jealous ? what—of Pauline! Confound it all, I've dropped my cigar somewheie! Give me a light, old man.' ' Yea,' repeated Jacques steadily, looking his friend full in the face, as they paused a moment while Hugh kindled a fresh cigar, 'to tell you the truth, I should certainly have thought you were jealous. Come; iait bo 1 Have you betrayed yourself ?' 'Look hero, Jacques, old fellow,' said Hugh after a pause of brief duration occupied by several violent puffs at the cigar, ' 1 don't exaotly know what it is I feel on this subject; and, upon my honour, if I am jealous, you have found it out first. The fact is, Jacques, can you keep a secret ?' ' I can when it's necessary,' returned his cousin laconically. ' Well, when they wanted me to marry Pauline, you know, she took considerable pains to make it evident to me that I didn't please her, and, as you know, also, she expressed the opinion to her mother. In fact, she was bo extremely distant and cold and—and unaffectlonate, and put on suoh an air of ' touch me not' towards me, that I thought her a very unpleasant young person, and was much relieved to find my antipathy reciprocated. But the first time I met her in tewn—at Lady Leigh's, you remember—she was totally changed—charming, vivacious full of smile?, and so she has been ever since. I have seen her during the last six weeks un<?er a perfe:tly new asoect, and perhaps", old man, if she hadn't been Pauline, I might have been jealous of the colonel.' ' What a drama in two actsl' cried Jacques, ' But is the fact of this young woman's identity really an insuperable obstacle ? ' Why not speak to her, or to my mother, now V ' Speak about what V retorted Hugh ; ' why should I go and make a fool of myself ? Don't yon know that Pauline made up her mind long ago to look on me as a cjusin only?' ' I know she did—long ago,'cried Jacques, ai a sudden light broke in on him ; but why may not she also have come to look on you in a new light ? Do you know, it aeems possible to me that just such a change on her part may be the explanation of those other enigmatical tears, and of a certain trsgio utterance of my mother's which oaught my ear as I opened the door so opportunely. Hugh, old man, are you really in earnest this time ? Do you really think you would be happy with my sister ?' 'Upon my word, Jacques,' answered Hugh, somewhat agitated, 'I begin to believe that I oannot be happy without her; but if it hadn't been for this confounded colonel, I declare I don't think I should ever have found out the true state of the case I'

' Then follow my advice, man, and let me take yon home to dinner this evening. Now ia your time ; for, judging from my own observations of Miss Pauline and the present aspect of &ffairs, I wonld not mind venturing a considerable sum on the successful issue of an appeal suit. Only be sure you know your mind this time, for Pauline may not be inolined to let you off again, and you might find your last state worse than your first if another repentance were to set in on your part.' ' Don't congratulate me too soon, old fellow. Of myself 1 am sure enough, but of Pauline —Ah, Jacques, perhaps if your people nnd mine had not been at so much trouble to bring us together, we might have found one another out and fallen In love naturally! As it is, you see ' ' My good Hugh, I see nothing but a very logical and comprehensible state of things. Four months age when you were strangers, you chose to exhibit yourself—forgive me—in a very unpleasant light; now Pauline knows

yon better, and she has seen through the fraud you put on her. Our people made a mess of the thing, as folks always do when they try to manage the matrimonial concerns of others. Love should be led, not driven ; and when my turn comes, let's hope they will show that they've learnt wisdom, and not get manoeuvring on my behalf with any desirable ynung person. Well, it's halfpaßt six, and if we are to ba home in time for dinner we ought to be making tracks. Later on that same eventful day, in aremote corner of Madame Lestrange'a drawing room, over two cups of post-prandial coffee, Hugh and Mademoiselle Pauline privately arranged their own love-affairs very much to their individual satisfaction, and to the subsequent joy and gratulatlon of the parties secondarily concerned. And I only hop* that the cgallant and rejected colonel found -balm for his disappointment in the reflection that bnt for his timely intervention two foolish young persons whom Nature had designed for each other, would probably have nesur told their love, and might have gone qe until the end of this dispensation mistaking the ardour of Cupid's flame for the mild effulgence of cousinly affeotlon. THE MYSTERIOUS BRIG. One day, when we were lying in the forecastle, our heads leaning on the guncarriages and surrounded by a cloud of tobacco smoke, Master Ivcn took his pipe from between his teeth, and, instead of refilling it, shook out the asheß on bis thumbnail, with a meditative air. We understood from this that the old sea-dog was about to if peak. '■ We will have a fine story to-night, will we not, Master Ivon I ' said I, as I watched his action. He' did not reply, bat after carefullyputting his pipe away in the bottom of his otter-skin tobacco pouch, and.having assured himself. that every one was listening, he commenced in this way : It was during the empire, at the time when kings of the raft were retired like old useless masts, the islander had closed all our: ports, and the .English vessels were moored ( at the entrance of our anchorage roads, like lobsters spreading out their nippers and blocking up the way, so that the trade of Corsaire had become absurd, and cruises in 'that line always terminated in the prisons of Plymouth. Everybody stayed at home and the entire French marine was like an old vessel thrown on the rocks and left to warm her keel in the sun. Bat for all that, there were still left a few brave fellows who had the courage to run the gauntlet and give the English an occasions 1 kick, by way of paying off old scores and in order to keep their hand In. Now, Captain' Kerkof was one of thess men. A true Breton, hard, black, stubborn as a mule, thirsty as a cook, and amorous as a lover, and, withal, a good Christian, because he never failed to say mass whenever he started on a cruise, and he had given ! a beautiful ship to the chapel of Ste. Barbe de Koscof ; but 'all this did not prevent him from being a tough old duck, capable of sitting down to a friendly smoke with a ' shark.

Korkof was then on a cruise in spite of the English, and was .lounging about in the Northern sea on his' pretty schooner, the Sans quartler, looking listlessly to see which way the wind came, with his hands In his pookets, and only for an opportunity to put them in the pookets of somebody else. There was a fog that day as if all the angels of heaven had been smoking cigars at the same time, so that the horizon could soarcely be seen. Nevertheless, in the midst of the fog the captain thought he peroeived what might be called the shadow of a brig sticking to the wind and running her_ broadside obliquely toward,the Hans quartior. He looked again, when the look-out man orled ' ship to starboard.' Kerbof was not mistaken.

« What can be that devil of a sea hog that thinks best to come to swim in the waters of the Sans-quartler ? He must be blinder than a bat not to have seen ns. If lam not mistaken, it is an islander that wishes to make a tour in Francs for the benefit of his health. Come, my hearties, clear for action ; all sail out, and send your carte de yisite to Sour neighbor. . It is not enough to be a corsair, we must also be' polite.' Kerkof had soarcely finished speaking, when a ball was fired through the fog and was lost among the freight of the mysterious brl ß . , There was » mom»nt'a waiting, but the Invitation to raise her flag, which the French Corsaire had given in such an unusual and brutal manner, w»s understood, and in a moment a little English flag glided along the halyard and floated on the peak of the brig, ' Good,' cried Kerkof, as he filled his pipe, ' now my boys, to your guns, and give the Englishman a piece of your mind.' The Saus-quartier manoeuvred lightly and advanced towards her prey with wings extended like a hawk. The position of the brig was evidently desperate, because the point towards which she was going would be reached by the Sans-quartier as soon as by the brig, and the course she was taking led her directly under the oannons of her terrible adversary- But notwithstanding 'the peril of .her position, the brig did not alter her course. The two vessels formed in their course the two sides of a triangle, whose apex was the point of meeting,' They approached nearer and nearer, and it became eaay, in spite of the fog, to seo all the manoeuvres of the brig, but as she became more and more diatinot, the surprise of Kerkof and his orew augmented. 'What bark is that?'said the captain at last. ' Have you ever seen such a rigging as that my hearties ? It looks as much like a telegraph station as a brig. With such an outfit one could not traverse a glass of water In three days, and yet it goes at the rate of a dozen knots under our eyes. There is something about it that seems very funny to me.'

The crew only replied to this by manifesting, still more strongly their surprise and. even fright. Nevertheless, all the preparations were made aa ordered. The gunners were at their posts and the torches were lighted. • Attention,' cried Kerkof,' whether it Is a brig or a cathedral, we must teat the strength of her sides. Attention, men, here we are In line, now fire !' A terrible explosion shook all the timbers of the Sans-quartior, which remained in a cloud of smoke. When this cloud disappeared, everybody eagerly sought for the brig in the place where they had seen it a moment before, it had disappeared. ' Escaped, escaped 1' cried a dozen voices In stupefaotion. ' Silence,' cried Kerkof, whose astonished gaze described a circle around the schooner ; suddenly it rested on a point to larboard, all eyes were turned in that direction. The brig was there, balanced easily on the waves, and with sails furled ; a sudden exclamation from the crew, accompanied by oaths that would have knocked the holy virgin senseless, resounded throughout the entire length of the ship. Then there was a silence, quite a long silence* ' Fire again 1' cried Kerkof, in a hoarse voice

This time the order was not so promptly obeyed, because the strangeness of the spectacle had attracted the sailors away from their posts ; it was obeyed, however, but the brig was already too far for the shot to be very damaging. Without sails, without oars, as if by magic it skipped away, and had already half-disappeared in the fog, where it was very Boon lost entirely to view.

Kerkof had followed all these movements with a stupid astonishment. Perched on the barricading he was still gazing in the direction in which the strange vessel had vanished, when the voice of his first mate interrupted his stupor. ' Captain ?' He turned suddenly, * Well ?' ' Captain, you have seen that brig ?' « Yes.'

* Confound it, yes.' ' Well, I wish the devil may make a gunoartrldge of me, if that is not the same one that followed us, day by day, in the English Channel!'

' What do you say ?' ' Yes, captain, day by day. You will remember that it was Good Friday; the crew, It seems, were not in a state of grace, and the brig came to demand our prayers.' ' You are a confounded lubber.'

« That may be, captain.* ' Away to your post and trouble me no more with your superstitious fears.' The old sailor walked away, slowly Bhaking his head. Hereof leaned over the side of the Sans-quart lor, looking upon the water, and engaged In deep meditation. Night came on, and the Oorsalre continued her bourse with a good breeao. All the

crew were chattering about the strange brig they had just met, when suddenly a great cry was heard on the deck. Kerkof raised his head and recoiled with surprise. The strange brig, with sails furled, was sailing but a short distance in the same direction as the Corsaira. Between its two masts was an enormous single black column vomiting out smoke and sparks ; a single man was at the helm. ' The Norwegian brig,' murmured a smothered voice near to Kerkof. •Let it be the devil. Every man to his post, and fire, fire like demons 1' It was the captain who spoke. Soarcely had he finished his command, pronounoed in a hoarse panting voice, when the frightful ship, as if it had heard his order, changed her course and reappeared on the other side of the Oorsairo, and black as ever, and, with her crew of one man and column of fire, it passed so near to Sans-quartier that one could hear in her hold the roaring of the flames, and see through the port holes a brilliant fire, in the midst of which wero several shadows moving about. This time there was not a word pronounced on board of the French Corsaire ; all the orew had fallen on their knees, and ten minutes afterwards Kerkof himself was seen with bowed and uncovered head and his crucifix in his hand. A few days afterward the Sans-quartier was moored in a port of Bretagne. It was never known to a certainty just what the brig was that so frightened Kerkof and his crew; but the English newspapers of this period announced the arrival in London of a steamboat coming from the North, and the first to attempt that voyage.