atman!"--but pursuit
and opposition were in vain. I pursued my career; the smell of the sea,
I suppose, led me to Leith, where, soon after, I found myself walking
very quietly on the shore, admiring the tough round and sound cordage
of the vessels, and thinking how a loop, with a man at the end of one of
them, would look, by way of tassel.

'I was opposite to the rendezvous, formerly my place of refuge--in
I bolted--found one or two old acquaintances, made half a dozen
new ones--drank for two days--was put aboard the tender--off to
Portsmouth--then landed at the Haslar hospital in a fine hissing-hot
fever. Never mind--I got better--nothing can kill me--the West Indies
were my lot again, for since I did not go where I deserved in the
next world, I had something as like such quarters as can be had in
this--black devils for inhabitants--flames and earthquakes, and so
forth, for your element. Well, brother, something or other I did or
said--I can't tell what--How the devil should I, when I was as drunk
as David's sow, you know? But I was punished, my lad--made to kiss the
wench that never speaks but when she scolds, and that's the gunner's
daughter, comrade. Yes, the minister's son of no matter where--has the
cat's scratch on his back! This roused me, and when we were ashore with
the boat, I gave three inches of the dirk, after a stout tussle, to the
fellow I blamed most, and took the bush for it. There were plenty of
wild lads then along shore--and, I don't care who knows--I went on the
account, look you--sailed under the black flag and marrow-bones--was a
good friend to the sea, and an enemy to all that sailed on it.'

Fairford, though uneasy in his mind at finding himself, a lawyer, so
close to a character so lawless, thought it best, nevertheless, to put a
good face on the matter, and asked Mr. Ewart, with as much unconcern as
he could assume, 'whether he was fortunate as a rover?'

'No, no--d--n it, no,' replied Nanty; 'the devil a crumb of butter was
ever churned that would stick upon my bread. There was no order among
us--he that was captain to-day, was swabber to-morrow; and as for
plunder--they say old Avery, and one or two close hunks, made money; but
in my time, all went as it came; and reason good, for if a fellow had
saved five dollars, his throat would have been cut in his hammock. And
then it was a cruel, bloody work.--Pah,--we'll say no more about it.
I broke with them at last, for what they did on board o