“Few who wear that livery have ever before seen the lady of our brigantine,” continued the free-trader, addressing himself to Ludlow; “and it is proof that she has less aversion to your cruiser, than she in common feels to most of the long pennants that are abroad on the water.”

“Thy mistress, thy vessel, and thyself, are alike amusing!” returned the young seaman, again smiling incredulously, and with some little official pride.  “It will be well, if you maintain this pleasantry much longer, at the expense of Her Majesty’s customs.”

“We trust to the power of the Water-Witch.  She has adopted our brigantine as her abode, given it her name, and guides it with her hand.  ’Twould be weak to doubt, when thus protected.”

“There may be occasion to try her virtues.  Were she a spirit of the deep waters, her robe would be blue.  Nothing of a light draught can escape the Coquette!”

“Dost not know that the color of the sea differs in different climes?  We fear not, but you would have answers to your questions.  Honest Tiller will carry you all to the land, and, in passing, the book may again be consulted.  I doubt not she will leave us some further memorial of her visit.”

The free-trader then bowed, and retired behind the curtain, with the air of a sovereign dismissing his visiters from an audience; though his eye glanced curiously behind him, as he disappeared, as if to trace the effect which had been produced by the interview.  Alderman Van Beverout and his friends were in the boat again, before a syllable was exchanged between them.  They had followed the mariner of the shawl, in obedience to his signal; and they quitted the side of the beautiful brigantine, like men who pondered on what they had just witnessed.

Enough has been betrayed, in the course of the narrative, perhaps, to show that Ludlow distrusted, though he could not avoid wondering at, what he had seen.  He was not entirely free from the superstition that was then so common among seamen; but his education and native good sense enabled him, in a great measure, to extricate his imagination from that love of the marvellous, which is more or less common to all.  He had fifty conjectures concerning the meaning of what had passed, and not one of them was true; though each, at the instant, seemed to appease his curiosity, while it quickened his resolution to pry further into the affair.  As for the Patroon of Kinderhook, the present day was one of rare and unequalled pleasure.  He had all the gratification which strong excitement can produce in slow natures; and he neither wished a solution of his doubts, nor contemplated any investigation that might destroy so agreeable an illusion.  His fancy was full of the dark countenance of the sorceress; and when it did not dwell on a subject so unnatural, it saw the handsome features, ambiguous smile, and attractive air, of her scarcely less admirable minister.

As the boat got to a little distance from the vessel, Tiller stood erect, and ran his eye complacently over the perfection of her hull and rigging.