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All vestiges of the Catholic religion were carefully removed, and the door, at last, thrown open. The crowd entered. Hurried explanations ensued; but we could not conceal from the magistrate that a robbery had been planned and nearly effected, and that the real culprits, for whom, at first, Pigtop and I had been mistaken, had escaped.
The midshipmen were drinking, out of the still unbroken cups and two or three tin pannikins, their grog at eight o'clock in the evening, when our unshod and dirty attendant spoke thus: "Oh, Mr Pigtop! such news! such strange news! You'll be so very sorry to hear it, sir, and so will all the young gentlemen." "What, has the ship tumbled overboard, or the pig-ballast mutinied for arrears of pay?"
After the best was done for it, the poor fellow cut but a sorry appearance; still his extreme hunger, made almost furious by the vision of the turtle-soup, so artfully conjured up by the malicious Joshua, got the better of his sense of pain; and with a great band of black plaster reaching transversely from the right nostril to the left corner of his mouth, the grim-looking Mr Pigtop made haste to don the new uniform.
Altogether, a more comfortless, a more dispiriting view could hardly have been presented; and its disconsolateness was much increased by the dim and fitful light that a young moon gave at intervals, upon gables, casements, and clumps of funereal yews. "And this," as we stood before the portals, said I to Pigtop, "is my inheritance mine. Is it not a princely residence?"
Upon my persisting to refuse, for some time, to strip, that the wound might be examined, the magistrate began to look grave, and the surgeon hinted that it was, perhaps, as well not to seek for what was not to be found. The dread of being looked upon as an impostor overcame my shame at the expose of my romantic weakness. Poor Pigtop had alarms upon totally other grounds.
As the attacks on the door of the apartment became more energetic, and we concluded that Joshua was now safe, we were going to give the authorities entrance, when we heard a dreadful crash on the outside of the window. "The lubber's gone by the run, by God!" said Pigtop; "he'll escape hanging, after all!" "Let us hope in mercy not," said Sir Reginald, shuddering. "I trust it is not so.
Mr Pigtop was opposed to this, lest I should die upon the spot; but I gave the magistrate more satisfaction by telling him I had good reason to suppose that the ball had not penetrated deeply. I was the last examined; and I almost electrified Pigtop when I deposed that I knew well the person of my murderous assaulter, and that it was Joshua Daunton.
Take a housekeeper! oh Lord! oh Lord! oh Lord! I would just as soon see you married, or in your coffin." "But some such a person is absolutely necessary in an establishment of this extent; so a housekeeper I'll have, of some sort." "Why the devil need it be a woman, then? why won't a man do why won't I do?" "You?" "Yes, me Andrew Pigtop.
A stubble of your growth, sir, always requires a double lathering don't speak. Oh, sir, you are a happy man exceeding. Your face will be as smooth as a man's borrowing money. You, boy, just run up the after-hatchway, and tell the captain's steward that Mr Pigtop will be in the cabin in the flourish of a razor, or before a white horse can turn grey.
With many compliments from the surgeon also, and a roller or two of cotton round my chest, we mutually took leave of each other; the gentleman very considerately refusing the guinea that I tendered him. Having discharged the post-chaise, Mr Pigtop, his two companions, and myself, left the office, I bearing in my hand the handkerchief nearly filled with mould.
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