inhabitants of Japan would now most probably regard the passage of some vessel propelled by steam.  As Mr. Luff was not neglectful of his duty, it was not long before the Coquette approached her boats.  The delay occasioned by hoisting in the latter, enabled the chase to increase the space between the two vessels, to such a distance, as to place her altogether beyond the reach of shot.  Ludlow, however, gave his orders to pursue, the moment the ship was ready; and he hastened to conceal his disappointment in his own cabin.

“Luck is a merchant’s surplus, while a living profit is the reward of his wits!” observed Alderman Van Beverout, who could scarce conceal the satisfaction he felt, at the unexpected and repeated escapes of the brigantine.  “Many a man gains doubloons, when he only looked for dollars; and many a market falls, while the goods are in the course of clearance.  There are Frenchmen enough, Captain Ludlow to keep a brave officer in good-humor; and the less reason to fret about a trifling mischance in overhauling a smuggler.”

“I know not how highly you may prize your niece, Mr. Van Beverout; but were I the uncle of such a woman, the idea that she had become the infatuated victim of the arts of yon reckless villain, would madden me!”

“Paroxysms and straight-jackets!  Happily you are not her uncle, Captain Ludlow, and therefore the less reason to be uneasy.  The girl has a French fancy, and she is rummaging the smuggler’s silks and laces; when her choice is made, we shall have her back again, more beautiful than ever, for a little finery.”

“Choice!  Oh, Alida, Alida! this is not the election that we had reason to expect from thy cultivated mind and proud sentiments!”

“The cultivation is my work, and the pride is an inheritance from old Etienne de Barberie;” dryly rejoined Myndert.  “But complaints never lowered a market, nor raised the funds.  Let us send for the Patroon, and take counsel coolly, as to the easiest manner of finding our way back to the Lust in Rust, before Her Majesty’s ship gets too far from the coast of America.”

“Thy pleasantry is unseasonable, Sir.  Your Patroon is gone with your niece, and a pleasant passage they are likely to enjoy, in such company!  We lost him, in the expedition with our boats.”

The Alderman stood aghast.

“Lost!—­Oloff Van Staats lost, in the expedition of the boats!  Evil betide the day when that discreet and affluent youth should be lost to the colony!  Sir, you know not what you utter when you hazard so rash an opinion.  The death of the young Patroon of Kinderhook would render one of the best and most substantial of our families extinct, and leave the third best estate in the Province without a direct heir!”

“The calamity is not so overwhelming;” returned the captain, with bitterness.  “The gentleman has boarded the smuggler, and gone with la belle Barberie to examine his silks and laces!”