  LEGEND OF HAMILTON TIGHE. Friend Bentley,—I see you have got hold of some of our family secrets; but Seaforth was always a blab. No matter: as you have found your way into our circle, why, I suppose we must even make the best of it, and let you go on. The revival of "Old Sir Giles's" story has set us all rummaging among the family papers, of which there is a large chest full "apud castro de Tappington," as a literary friend of mine has it. In the course of her researches, Caroline the other day popped upon the history of a far-off cousin, some four or five generations back,—a sad story,—a sort of Uriah business,—in which a principal part was played by a great-great-aunt of ours. In order to secure her own child's succession to a fair estate, she was always believed to have wantonly exposed the life of her husband's only son by a former marriage; and through the assistance of her brother, a sea-captain, to have at least thrust him unnecessarily into danger, even if their machinations went no farther. The lad was killed; and report said that an old boatswain confessed on his death-bed—But Miss Simpkinson will tell you the story better than I can. She has dished it up for you in her choicest Pindarics; and though the maiden is meek, her muse is masculine. Yours, as it may be, Thomas Ingoldsby. THE LEGEND OF HAMILTON TIGHE.The captain is walking his quarter-deck, With a troubled brow and a bended neck; One eye is down through the hatchway cast, The other turns up to the truck on the mast; Yet none of the crew may venture to hint "Our skipper hath gotten a sinister squint!" The captain again the letter hath read Which the bum-boat woman brought out to Spithead— Still, since the good ship sailed away, He reads that letter three times a-day; Yet the writing is broad and fair to see As a skipper may read in his degree, And the seal is as black, and as broad, and as flat, As his own cockade in his own cock'd hat: He reads, and he says, as he walks to and fro, "Curse the old woman—she bothers me so!" He pauses now, for the topmen hail— "On the larboard quarter a sail! a sail!" That grim old captain he turns him quick, And bawls through his trumpet for Hairy-faced Dick. "The breeze is blowing—huzza! huzza! The breeze is blowing—away! away! —"On the foeman's deck, where a man should be, With his sword in his hand, and his foe at his knee. Cockswain, or boatswain, or reefer may try, But the first man on board will be Hamilton Tighe!" ———————— Hairy-faced Dick hath a swarthy hue, Between a gingerbread nut and a Jew, And his pigtail is long, and bushy, and thick, Like a pump-handle stuck on the end of a stick. Hairy-faced Dick understands his trade; He stands by the breech of a long carronade, The linstock glows in his bony hand, Waiting that grim old skipper's command. "The bullets are flying—huzza! huzza! The bullets are flying—away! away!" The brawny boarders mount by the chains, And are over their buckles in blood and brains: On the foeman's deck, where a man should be, Young Hamilton Tighe Waves his cutlass high, And Capitaine Crapaud bends low at his knee. Hairy-faced Dick, linstock in hand, Is waiting that grim-looking skipper's command:— A wink comes sly From that sinister eye— Hairy-faced Dick at once lets fly, And knocks off the head of young Hamilton Tighe! ———————— There's a lady sits lonely in bower and hall, Her pages and handmaidens come at her call: "Now haste ye, my handmaidens, haste and see How he sits there and glow'rs with his head on his knee!" The maidens smile, and, her thought to destroy, They bring her a little pale mealy-faced boy; And the mealy-faced boy says, "Mother dear, Now Hamilton's dead, I've a thousand a-year!" The lady has donn'd her mantle and hood, She is bound for shrift at St. Mary's Rood:— "Oh! the taper shall burn, and the bell shall toll, And the mass shall be said for my step-son's soul, And the tablet fair shall be hung up on high, Orate pro anima Hamilton Tighe!" Her coach and four Draws up to the door, With her groom, and her footman, and half a score more; 'Tis ever the same, in hall or in bower, Wherever the place, whatever the hour, That lady mutters and talks to the air, And her eye is fixed on an empty chair; But the mealy-faced boy still whispers with dread, "She talks to a man with never a head!" ———————— There's an old yellow admiral living at Bath, As grey as a badger, as thin as a lath; And his very queer eyes have such very queer leers, They seem to be trying to peep at his ears. That old yellow admiral goes to the Rooms, And he plays long whist, but he frets and fumes, For all his knaves stand upside down, And the Jack of clubs does nothing but frown; And the kings, and the aces, and all the best trumps, Get into the hands of the other old frumps; While, close to his partner, a man he sees Counting the tricks with his head on his knees. In Ratcliffe Highway there's an old marine store, And a great black doll hangs out at the door; There are rusty locks, and dusty bags, And musty phials, and fusty rags, And a lusty old woman, called Thirsty Nan, And her crusty old husband's a hairy-faced man! That hairy-faced man is sallow and wan, And his great thick pigtail is wither'd and gone; And he cries, "Take away that lubberly chap That sits there and grins with his head in his lap!" And the neighbours say, as they see him look sick, "What a rum old covey is Hairy-faced Dick!" That admiral, lady, and hairy-faced man May say what they please, and may do what they can; But one thing seems remarkably clear,— They may die to-morrow, or live till next year,— But wherever they live, or whenever they die, They'll never get quit of young Hamilton Tighe. |
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