Ringwood the Rover

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Excerpt from Ringwood the Rover: A Tale of FloridaThe eyes of all that little group were intently fixed upon the sea, from which it would appear the apprehended danger - if apprehended danger it were, that gave rise to those takens of surprise and prepartion - was most to be expected, and in the visages of all, an evident expression of anxiety and doubt was marked, in its least doubtful character. But in the face of no one there, were there such signs of perturbation and dismay, as in that of the governor. He was a man of large and heavy build, a veteran of many a bloody war, with limbs which, although deprived somewhat of agility and lightness by the unsparing hand of time, were cast in a mould of iron, his features prominent, bold, and haughty, with a world of iron resolution in the firmly-compressed mouth and massive jaw, and a glance of intolerable fire in the dark eye, and his bearing, such as became a cavalier to whom the camp and court had been alike familiar from his first boyhood. But now his rich dress was in disarray, a leathern shoulder-belt with an immense two-handed sword attached to it, and a display of cumbersome and ill - wrought pistols thrust hastily into a broad buff-girdle, as reportedly with a fair garb of courtly fashion, his long hair, once as black as jet, but now discolored with full many a streak of wintry gray, hung in disordered masses over his broad brow, lank, and uncurled, and graceless - and on his brow the perspiration stood in drops, like bubbles on the be some of some turbid stream - and the deep olive tints of his complexion wore an unnatural and ghastly hue - and, as he grasped a powerful perspective-glass with which he ever and anon swept the horizon, his fingers might be seen to work in quick convulsive twitches, as though they would have bedded themselves into the polished brass."Nothing!" he said, after a long and wistful gaze, "I can sec nothing seaward. Yet right sure am I, that those sounds were of far - distant ordnance. It is the twelfth too of the month, and long ere this, the caravel we were advised of should have been safe in harbor. Hark! hark! heard ye not then, " he cried, "heard ye not that dull roar to the eastward? Pedro, Gutierrez, hearken - what say ye, cavaliers, is't not the voice of ordnance?"Past doubt, it is, " replied the elder of the gentlemen he had addressed, "and heavy ordnance too."And lo! a sail!" exclaimed the other, who had directed his glass instantly toward the quarter whence the sounds proceeded, "I marvel how we saw her not before. Here! here, your Excel lency ! here ! bring yon palmetto in the range of the east angle of the demilune, and you will catch her! Now, by St. Jago, I can see her to the courses, three tiers of wide-spread canvas!"I have her now, " replied Melendez, thoughtfully, "I have her now. 'Tis she, it is El Santo Espiritu, past doubt, but wherefore was she firing ? Pray heaven, these cursed English, these infernal rovers, be not upon her track 1"I fear me much it is so, " answered Gutierrez. "I fear me much it is so, for ever and anon, I fancy I catch glimpses, as they rise upon the waves, of smaller sails behind, and further yet to the eastward. Lo! now, in range with yon skiff upon the beach-there ! it has sunk again-and now, again, I catch it!"Ay! and again she fires! pray heaven she have the heels of them, once under our guns, she were in safety from any armament which they can bring against her!"Meanwhile the vessel, which had been first seen hull-down in the far offing, was rising rapidly as she drew near, not having met as yet the counter-influence of the land-breeze-but scarce less rapidly rose, one by one, the smaller barques, which had at first escaped the notice of the eager and excited watchers, until five low and rakish craft, with long yard-arms and lateen sails, might be distinctly seen in chase of the tall frigate. - One somewhat larger than the r...