Scotland/Scots > Wilson's tales of the Borders and of Scotland > Volume 3

78
TALES OF THE BORDERS.
boarded you unawares. I sprang on deck with the rest,
in hopes that I might be able to prevent some bloodshed;
but, when I was violently attacked, my passions were
aroused, and I fbught desperately for my life. Just as
you tumbled me over the gangway, the gleam of moonshine
showed me your face. I recognised you immediately;
and, when I rose to the surface of the water again after
my plunge, I blessed heaven that I had been spared the
guilt of murder. I reached the boat which was still hang¬
ing under your quarter, cut the painter, and in the con¬
fusion, escaped unnoticed. I immediately made for the
shore; and after many hair-breadth escapes from my
old associates, I volunteered on board one of the cruisers
on the Jamaica station. At length she returned home,
the crew were paid off, and I determined to seek you out.
On inquiring at the office of the owners of the Albion, in
Liverpool, they told me that the late chief mate had
settled, some years before, in the neighbourhood of Eothe*
say, in the Isle of Bute, and was still alive. Thank
heaven ! I have found you at last 1 I should like to live,
Charles, to prove to you my sorrow and repentance for
the past; but, as heaven has willed it otherwise, the blessed
assurance of your forgiveness will lighten death of half its
terrors.”
The poor fellow breathed his last a few days afterwards.
Douglas mourned long and deeply for his brother’s death;
but after time had soothed his grief, he became quite an
altered man. His mind and spirits recovered their elas¬
ticity, after the load which had so long weighed them
down was removed. He did not resume his own name;
but lived many years afterwards, contented and happy, in
the humble station of a fisherman; and it was not till
after his death that his old companions discovered how
justly the name of “ Gentleman Douglas ” had been applied
to him. His tombstone bore the simple inscription, “ Charles