We were conducted by our guide--an ancient and somewhat pompous
individual--to a large and very pleasantly situated room in the north
wing of the castle, from whence, through an opening between the trees, a
glimpse of the sea was to be obtained; the foreground being occupied by
a kitchen-garden. This room, it seemed, was to be our sleeping
apartment. It was somewhat meagrely furnished, according to our English
ideas, and there was only one bed in it--our guide informing us,
however, that the commandant had ordered another to be placed there
forthwith--but what little furniture the apartment contained was good,
and everything was scrupulously clean, so that, in comparison with our
recent quarters, those we were now to occupy seemed absolutely palatial.
And our gratification was considerably increased when we were informed
that another very large and handsomely furnished room, through which we
had passed to gain access to our sleeping quarters, was to be devoted to
our exclusive use and occupation during the day at such times as we were
not engaged in the park. We voted the commandant a trump, there and
then, and mutually resolved to do all that in us lay to retain our
exceedingly comfortable berths until we should find opportunity to quit
them of our own accord for good and all.
Having duly installed us, and suggestively directed our attention to the
toilet gear--of which in truth we both most grievously stood in need--
the major-domo left us, first informing us, however, that if, when we
were ready, we would ring a bell, the cord of which he pointed out to
us, a servant would bring us some refreshment.
We lost no time in freshening ourselves up and making ourselves as
presentable as circumstances would permit, and then sat down to a plain
but substantial meal, which, after our meagre and coarse prison fare,
seemed a veritable banquet. At the conclusion of this meal we were
informed that the commandant awaited us below, upon which we followed
our informant down a sort of back staircase, and issuing from a little
side door found ourselves in the garden before mentioned. It was walled
in on all sides, but a door in the wall adjoining the house was pointed
out to us, and issuing through it we found ourselves on the noble
terrace which stretched along the whole front of the castle. Here we
discovered the commandant pacing up and down with a cigar in his mouth,
and joining him he proposed to conduct us to the scene of our future
labours.
With all his stateliness, which he never laid aside, Don Luis de Guzman
knew how to be very affable when he chose, and he chose to be so with
us. Commencing a long conversation by courteously expressing a hope
that our apartments were to our liking, and kindly informing us that, if
they were not, a hint to the major-domo would be sufficient to secure
the rectification of whatever might be amiss, he then went on to speak
of "the unnecessary haste" with which we had been removed from the ship,
and of the inconvenience which we must have experienced from the
scantiness of our wardrobe, an inconvenience which, he said, he would
"take the liberty" of having remedied as speedily as might be. This, of
course, was very kind of him, and we ungrudgingly credited him with the
most generous of motives; at the same time I have no doubt that the
stately don was as heartily ashamed of the two scarecrows who
accompanied him as we were of our own appearance.
Having thus cleared the ground, as it were, our benefactor proceeded to
question us closely as to the circumstances connected with and which led
up to the mutiny, at which he expressed the most unqualified
reprobation; and when we had told him all we knew about it he informed
us that the British government had made a formal demand for the
restitution of the frigate and the surrender of the mutineers, as well
as the captive officers, a demand which, he said, the Spanish government
had seen fit to refuse; and I thought, from his manner of speaking upon
the subject, that he by no means favourable regarded the action of his
countrymen in the matter. This conversation, and indeed all that we
subsequently held with him, was, I ought to say, conducted in English.
He asked us questions innumerable--indeed more than we were able to
fully answer--respecting the habits and customs of our nation, our mode
of government, and what not; and it was not long before we were able to
perceive that his liking for the English was as strong as it was
possible for a thorough-bred Spanish noble to entertain.
A walk, or rather a saunter, of about a mile and a half through the park
brought us to the scene of our future operations--a lake of, I should
say, some four or five acres in extent--and here the subject of our
conversation was diverted to the theme of the commandant's requirements
of us.
The lake, it appeared, was a natural feature of the landscape, with a
stream some twenty feet in width flowing through it. A walk had been
constructed right round it, crossing the stream by a couple of rustic
bridges; and for about one-half its length the banks had been most
beautifully laid out as a flower-garden. For the remaining half of its
length, however, nature had been allowed to have pretty much her own
way, except at the point where the stream entered the lake. There the
ground had been carefully cleared of trees, and trimmed so as to present
the aspect of a low flat shore, with hills in the rear. And on this
shore, covering an area of some fifty feet square on each side of the
stream, the commandant had caused to be constructed an exceedingly
pretty and carefully finished model of a town, with streets, houses,
public buildings, squares, and even monuments, with a harbour, including
moles, piers, lighthouses, batteries, etcetera, complete down to the
minutest detail. It had evidently been a labour of love with him, as
could be seen at a glance from the care and finish lavished upon the
work; and we afterwards learned that it had occupied him and a staff of
a dozen workmen for more than a year. It was to blockade this miniature
town and port that the fleet of ships which we were to construct was
required, the trenches and investing earthworks and batteries on the
land side being already finished. It was surprising to see how this
most dignified Spaniard unbent, and how enthusiastic he became as he
described his plans to us and gave us instructions respecting the
dimensions and number of his pigmy fleet. He was evidently much pleased
with the admiration we expressed at the care and skill exhibited in
working out his quaint idea; and when we had minutely inspected every
part of it he led us to a comfortable airy little workshop, concealed in
a kind of brake among the trees, where we found a good stock of wood,
with a capital supply of tools and everything necessary to the proper
carrying out of our task. We did not do anything in the way of work on
that day, however, for by the time that we had seen everything and had
taken a walk to the seaward extremity of the park the sun was getting
low, and the time had arrived for us to see about getting back to the
castle.
Oh, how we enjoyed the luxury of that first dinner at the castle!--the
only decent meal of which we had partaken since our landing--with the
quiet evening which followed it, spent in a large, lofty, well-furnished
apartment, lighted up by a massive silver lamp of elaborate workmanship,
and cooled by the light evening breeze which floated in through the
widely-opened casements. Stretched luxuriously in a couple of low
comfortable sloping-backed chairs, we sat at one of these open casements
discussing a bottle of excellent wine, and looking out upon the dark
woods which surrounded the building, watching the full moon soar into
the cloudless sky from behind the gently-swaying foliage, and listening
to the song of the nightingale, amidst which we once or twice thought we
detected the tinkling sounds of a guitar apparently issuing from one of
the open windows in another wing of the castle.
We retired early to rest that night, after a bath, not so much because
we were tired, but rather to enjoy the unwonted luxury of rest in an
actual bed, with the pleasant accompaniment of clean sweet-smelling
linen.
We were disappointed, however, in our anticipations of a sound night's
sleep. After making shift for so long with a heap of straw spread on a
hard pavement, the beds seemed too soft and yielding to our unaccustomed
limbs, and we lay tossing to and fro for a long time before we
eventually dropped off to sleep. This trifling inconvenience
disappeared, however, after a few nights' experience.
We were up and stirring by daybreak next morning, and a few minutes
later we might have been seen scudding across the park on our way to a
certain rocky pool on the beach, which the commandant had pointed out to
us the day before as a place where we might safely venture to indulge in
a swim without fear of the sharks. Taking his word for it we plunged in
and swam off, until we found ourselves almost among the breakers, then
returned to the shore, dressed, and made our way back to the castle,
which we reached in good time for breakfast. That meal over we set out
for the workshop, Pedro--the servant who seemed to have been appointed
to wait upon us--informing us as we started that he had orders to have
luncheon ready for us by one o'clock. Arrived at the scene of our
labours we each selected a suitable block of wood, and whilst Courtenay
set to work upon a model of the _Hermione_, I, with greater ambition,
devoted all my energies to the hewing out of a line-of-battle ship.
Thus occupied the time passed swiftly away, and almost before we were
aware of it the commandant, who had looked in upon us to see how we were
progressing, announced that it was time for us to see about returning to
the castle. He walked back with us, chatting most affably all the way;
and on reaching our rooms we found a tailor awaiting us, by his orders,
to take our measures for a new outfit of rigging. The first instalment
of this, in the shape of a loose white nankin suit apiece, with shirt,
stockings, light shoes of tan-coloured leather, crimson silk sashes--to
serve instead of braces--and broad-brimmed cane-hat, all complete,
awaited us on our waking a couple of mornings later, much to our
gratification, as the idea grew upon us that the castle contained other
inmates besides the commandant, and we were anxious to avoid a rencontre
with these so long as we retained our ragged, scarecrow appearance.
We had been at work about a week; Courtenay had completed the hull of
his frigate, and was busy about her spars, whilst I was putting the
finishing touches to a figure-head for my seventy-four, when, about four
o'clock in the afternoon, our workshop suddenly became darkened to such
an extent that we could no longer see to work. Looking up and glancing
out of the window, we observed that, unnoticed by us, a heavy thunder-
storm had been gathering over the sea, and the clouds, setting
shoreward, were now hovering immediately overhead. That it was likely
to be a severe storm was manifest, the sky being blacker than I had ever
seen it before. We were debating upon the advisability of effecting an
immediate retreat to the castle, and taking our chance of reaching it
before the storm should burst, when a vivid flash of lightning, green
and baleful, quickly succeeded by a most deafening peal of thunder,
decided us to remain where we were. Another flash and another rapidly
followed, and then down came the rain in a perfect deluge. It fell, not
in drops but in regular _sheets_ of water, lashing the surface of the
lake into a plain of milky foam, and so completely flooding the ground
that in five minutes the water everywhere, as far as we could see from
the window at which we had taken our stand, must have been ankle-deep.
The storm gained in intensity with startling rapidity, the lightning
blazing and flashing about us so uninterruptedly that the whole
atmosphere seemed a-quiver with the greenish-blue glare; whilst the
rattling crash and roar of the thunder went on absolutely without any
intermission, filling the firmament with one continuous chaos of
deafening sound and causing the very earth beneath our feet to tremble.
This had been going on for some eight or ten minutes, perhaps, when we
caught sight, through the streaming deluge outside, of a couple of
white-clad flying figures making their way down the path from the rustic
bridge toward the workshop. I sprang to the door and threw it open; and
in another moment two young women plunged through the doorway--their
light flimsy garments streaming with water and clinging about their
limbs--and flung themselves breathlessly down upon a bench, the taller
and darker of the two panting out:
"A thousand thanks, senors! Madre de Dios, what a storm!"
"It is indeed terrible," I replied in my best Spanish, as I closed the
door again. "And you have been fairly caught in it. Have you come from
a distance?"
"Only from the castle. I am Inez de Guzman, the commandant's daughter,
and this," pointing to her companion, "is Eugenia Gonzalez, my foster-
sister. We left home about two hours ago to walk through the park as
far as the beach; and it was not until we had emerged from among the
trees near the shore that we noticed the gathering storm. Then we
hastened back homeward as quickly as possible, but were overtaken before
we could gain shelter anywhere. I hope you will excuse our bursting in
so unceremoniously upon you. You are the young English officers who
have come to assist my father, I presume?"
Courtenay and I bowed our affirmatives with all the grace we could
muster.
"Poor papa!" she continued. "Are you not amused at his having taken so
much, so _very_ much trouble just to work out and illustrate his pet
theories?"
"By no means," we hastened to assure her. "On the contrary," said I, "I
regard it as an evidence of the thoroughness with which the commandant
carries out all his undertakings."
"Ah, yes!" said she, evidently well pleased, "I see you understand my
father. He is just the same in everything. Heavens, what a flash!
Will the storm _never_ cease!"
"There is no present indication of its ending," said I as I glanced
through the window at the blackness outside illumined only by the
quivering lightning flashes. "However, it surely _cannot_ last very
much longer. Meanwhile you are both wet to the skin, and I fear we are
utterly destitute of means to remedy the disaster. I am afraid you will
be chilled sitting there in your drenched garments; and indeed--if you
will forgive me for saying so--I think that, since you cannot possibly
be made more wet than you now are, you would run less risk of taking
cold if you were to proceed home to the castle at once, even though you
would have to walk through the storm. We would of course accompany you
if you would permit us that honour."
"But," said she with a little shudder indicative of incipient chill,
"you are both of you dry and comfortable."
"That is nothing," said I. "It is evident that we shall have to go
through it sooner or later; so perhaps the sooner the better."
After a little more persuasion on our part and protestations on theirs
our fair companions acceded to our suggestion, and we set out, I leading
the van with the commandant's daughter, and Courtenay following with the
foster-sister.
We stepped out briskly, so as to avert, if possible, any evil
consequences of the drenching already received; and as we picked our way
along the partially submerged footpath, giving the trees as wide a berth
as possible for fear of the lightning which still played vividly about
us, my fair companion informed me that the commandant on returning from
his visit to us that morning had found an urgent summons to Cartagena
awaiting him, and that he had started in obedience thereto within half
an hour of its receipt, mentioning, as he hastily bade her farewell,
that he could not get back in less than a fortnight at the earliest. We
discussed this subject and her father's probable present whereabouts for
a few minutes, and then the young lady asked me to detail to her the
particulars of the mutiny on board the _Hermione_, which I did as fully
as I possibly could, exciting thereby her keenest anger against the
mutineers and her tenderest commiseration for the sufferers.
"Poor boy!" said she as I concluded my narrative, "what a dreadful
experience for you to pass through!"
After that we seemed to get along capitally together; and in due time--
an incredibly short time it seemed to me--we reached the castle without
misadventure; and, parting with our charges at the chief entrance,
Courtenay and I repaired to our own quarters to take a bath and don dry
clothing preparatory to sitting down to dinner.
Courtenay, it seemed, had been as favourably impressed with his
companion as I had been with mine; and for the next two or three days we
could talk of little but the two charming girls who had burst in upon us
so unexpectedly on the afternoon of that, for us, lucky thunder-storm,
reiterating our hopes that the soaking had done them no harm, and
wondering whether we should ever be favoured with another meeting, and,
if so, when. And, indeed, trivial as the incident may seem, it
exercised an important and beneficial influence on our lives after the
eight months of hardship and misery unspeakable which we had so recently
experienced; it gave us something fresh and pleasant to think about, and
prevented our dwelling for ever upon the subject of our escape, which
event seemed every day to assume a more thoroughly impossible aspect.
On the fourth day after the eventful one of the storm, and just when we
were beginning to despair of ever seeing our fail acquaintances again,
we were agreeably surprised by seeing them enter the workshop one
afternoon, about half an hour after we had returned from luncheon.
They paused just within the threshold, and Dona Inez, glancing somewhat
shyly at me, said:
"Will you allow us to come in and sit down for a little while? We
should like to watch you at your work."
We replied, as coherently as our fluster of delight would allow us, that
nothing would give us greater pleasure; and, flinging down our tools,
Courtenay and I hastened to dust down a bench, place a tool-box in such
a position that it would serve for a footstool, and in other ways
arrange as far as we could to make our visitors comfortable.
Our preparations completed, the young ladies sat down, and, Courtenay
and I pairing off as before, an animated conversation ensued which
lasted for the remainder of the afternoon, during which I am ashamed to
say that very little work was done.
If we were charmed at our first interview with these young ladies, when
they appeared under all the disadvantages incidental to a condition of
utter limpness of soaked and draggled clothing, I fear I should lay
myself open to the charge of indulging in unbridled rhapsody were I to
attempt a description of the effect produced upon our rather susceptible
hearts on the occasion of this their second visit. Not that on the
present occasion their charms were very greatly enhanced by the
adventitious aid of dress; far from it--but the present opportunity is
as good as any to describe their appearance.
Dona Inez Isolda Aurora Dolores Maria Francesca de Guzman was a little
above the average height of her countrywomen, with a somewhat slender
yet perfectly-proportioned figure. Her skin was dazzlingly fair; her
luxuriant hair, which floated unconfined in long wavy tresses down her
back, was of so deep a chestnut hue that it might easily have been
mistaken for black; and her eyes--well, they sparkled and flashed so
brilliantly that it was difficult for a stranger to determine their
precise colour. Her features were perhaps scarcely formed with
sufficient regularity to warrant her being termed strictly _beautiful_,
but she was most assuredly, at least in my eyes, bewitchingly lovely.
She possessed just sufficient colour in her cheeks and lips to give
assurance of her being in the most perfect health, and the music of her
voice and laugh was nothing short of a revelation to me. I could see
that, being an only child, she had not wholly escaped being spoiled; but
the slight touch of hauteur and imperiousness which was noticeable in
her manner was only just sufficient to add to it another piquant charm.
Like her foster-sister she was attired in white, the bodice being
fastened with a white silken lace or cord, and having no sleeves, a
couple of shoulder-straps trimmed with lace taking their place. That
was the fashion of the country, and was doubtless adopted for the sake
of coolness and comfort. Neither of the girls wore a hat or head-gear
of any description, a most graceful and picturesque substitute therefore
being a lace mantilla folded over the crown of the head with the ends
brought down over the shoulders and knotted across the bosom. A
handsome feather fan fastened to the loose silken girdle or sash about
the waist was both useful and ornamental, and gave the only finishing
touch required to as piquant and graceful a costume as I ever saw.
Courtenay's companion, little Eugenia Gonzalez, was a striking contrast
to her foster-sister. She was a couple of inches shorter in stature,
and less slender in figure; a blonde, with blue eyes and just the
faintest suggestion of ruddiness in the tints of her hair; a merry,
good-humoured expression of countenance; and altogether, though of
humble parentage, as dainty, piquant a little beauty as anyone would
wish to see.
As may be supposed, with such visitors as these to entertain, our work
that afternoon did not progress very rapidly; but Courtenay and I
quieted our consciences by entering into a mutual compact to exercise
such increased diligence in the future as should fully make up for lost
time. But when, an afternoon or two later, we overtook our fair friends
in the park as we were making our way back to the workshop after our
mid-day meal, and they seemed again inclined to favour us with their
company, our good resolves took flight and we once more neglected our
work in the enjoyment of their society.
This, however, I saw would never do. It seemed pretty evident that,
being so strictly secluded within the confines of the castle demesne as
these two girls were, our appearance upon the scene had assumed almost
the importance of an event in their lives, and had wrought so
interesting a change in the somewhat monotonous daily routine of their
existence that the unsophisticated creatures had each inwardly resolved
to make the most of the novelty whilst the opportunity to do so
remained. And in that case our work was likely to suffer both in
quality and quantity. This, I felt, ought not to be allowed. At the
same time the pleasure to be derived from their society was a thing not
to be lightly given up; and so the end of it all was that we prevailed
upon the two girls to walk with us in the park after dinner instead of
visiting the workshop. This arrangement was rendered all the more easy
by the arrival of a letter from the commandant announcing his detention
at Cartagena, and the probable delay of a month in the date of his
return.