Having satisfied ourselves that the French frigate had actually struck,
we filled on the schooner and ran down under the lee of the brig, where
we once more hove to; our gig was lowered and manned, and I proceeded on
board to see if my services were further required.
On reaching the deck I was met by a man of some five-and-thirty years of
age, evidently the skipper of the craft, who held out his hand to me
most cordially, and exclaimed:
"Welcome, young gentleman, on board his Britannic majesty's brig _Dido_.
You hove in sight just in the nick of time this morning, for, but for
your very effective help, we should have been the captured instead of
the captors by this time. What is the name of your schooner?"
"The _Dolphin_," I replied, "cruising; sixteen days out from Port
Royal."
"The _Dolphin_, eh?" said he. "Well, she is a remarkably fine and
powerful craft; carries heavy metal too; and your skipper evidently
knows how to handle her. What is his name, by the bye?"
I modestly explained that I was in command of the craft; an announcement
which created quite a sensation among the officers who had gathered
round.
"_You_!" exclaimed the skipper incredulously. "Well, then, I can only
say, young gentleman, that you are shaping well--very well indeed.
There is not a man in the service who could have fought that vessel more
gallantly, or with better judgment than you did; and I shall take care
to say so to the admiral when we get in. You have rendered a very
important service, my lad, let me tell you; for you have not only saved
the old _Dido_ from being taken, and helped in the capture of a fine
frigate, but you have also saved some most urgent and important
despatches which we have on board. Have you lost many men in the
action?"
"Not one," said I; "nor have we, so far as I know, a single man with a
wound worth mentioning."
"Ah, you are lucky!" he remarked. "But for that you may thank your
heavy metal and the way in which it was served; you were able to cripple
the frigate before she could touch you. Well, come down into the cabin
and take a glass of wine with me whilst we talk over what is next to be
done. Mr Thompson, let Mr Rogers come down to me with his report when
he returns from the frigate. Now then, Mr--a--ah--this way, please.
By the way, I did not catch your name just now."
There was a very good reason for that, as I had never mentioned it to
him; however, I did so then; he informed me that his name was Venn, and
that he held the rank of commander, and by the time that we had come to
this understanding we found ourselves in the cabin, a much smaller and
plainer apartment than that of the _Dolphin_, by the bye.
Wine was produced, we drank a glass together, and then my new friend
proceeded to explain to me that, as the brig had suffered rather
severely, and had had a great many men wounded in her running fight with
the frigate, he would be obliged to draw rather heavily upon the
_Dolphin_ to make up a crew for the prize, and that, under the
circumstances, he considered it would be advisable for us to accompany
the _Dido_ and her prize into Port Royal.
This arrangement suited me very well indeed, as I thought it just
possible there might be letters for me, if not from my father at least
from Inez; and I was just about to return on board the schooner to give
the necessary orders, when a midshipman, who had accompanied the first
lieutenant of the _Dido_ on board the prize to take possession, returned
with the information that the frigate was named the _Cythere_, mounting
thirty-two twelve-pounders, with a crew originally of three hundred and
twenty-eight all told; her loss during the action amounting to thirty
two killed and sixty-eight wounded, her captain being among the former.
By eight bells in the afternoon watch we had managed to make up between
us and transfer to the frigate a very respectable prize-crew, after
which hawsers were passed on board the prize from the _Dido_ and the
_Dolphin_, the brig taking up a position upon the frigate's larboard bow
whilst we stationed ourselves on the starboard, when sail was made upon
both the towing vessels and we shaped a course for Jamaica, the prize-
crew busying themselves meanwhile in getting up new spars and repairing
damages in the standing and running rigging. By daylight next morning
this was so far accomplished that we were able to cast off the towing
hawsers, when the three craft proceeded in company, arriving without
mishap or adventure in Port Royal harbour on the morning of the sixth
day succeeding the action.
Commander Venn was as good as his word in framing his report of the
capture, in consequence of which I rose higher than ever in the favour
of the admiral, who showed his appreciation of our services by filling
up our provisions and water with all possible speed and hurrying us off
to sea again.
As I had hoped, there were two letters for me, one from my father and
one from Inez; but as the former was written in the same unsatisfactory
strain as those which had preceded it, and as the latter contained
nothing of interest to anyone but myself, I shall not trouble the reader
with even so much as an extract from either, but pass on to incidents
which were destined to very materially affect the happiness of my whole
future life, and that of others as well. Having filled up our
provisions and water, as already stated, and having received on board
again the hands who had helped to take the _Cythere_ into port, we
sailed once more on the second day following our arrival, and proceeded
again over the ground we had already beaten so successfully. We were
even more fortunate on this occasion than we had been before, though we
found that it was no longer possible to take our enemies by surprise as
we had done at first; they had learned wisdom from experience and had
become aware of our tactics, notwithstanding which we took four
privateers, one of which we cut out from under a battery, and made
several recaptures, two of which proved to be very valuable. But as
these incidents happened to be mere interludes, as it were, in my story,
having no special significance, I shall leave them without further
mention and pass on. The reader will therefore please understand that I
had been in command of the _Dolphin_ rather more than six months when
the incident occurred to which I am about to refer.
The time was about half an hour, or thereabouts, after midnight, and our
position was about sixty miles south-east of Beata Point, the
southernmost point on the mainland of Saint Domingo. The day had been
fine, with a very nice pleasant working breeze, but as the sun had
declined toward the horizon the wind had shown signs of dropping,
gradually dying away after sunset, until toward the end of the first
watch it had fallen so completely calm that we had furled all our canvas
to save wear and tear, and were, at the time mentioned, lying under bare
poles, slowly drifting with the current to the westward. The night was
pitch-dark, for there was no moon, and with the dying away of the wind a
great bank of heavy thunderous-looking cloud had gradually worked up
from the westward, imperceptibly expanding until it had at length
obscured the entire firmament, promising a thunder-storm which would
doubtless be all the heavier when it broke from the length of time which
it took in the brewing. I had remained on deck until midnight; but
observing, when the middle watch was called, that the barometer had
dropped only the merest trifle, had gone below upon the deck being
relieved, and, leaving orders with young Boyne to call me in the event
of any change in the weather, had flung myself, half undressed, into my
cot, hoping to get a nap before the storm broke, and feeling pretty
confident that when it did nothing very serious could happen, the
schooner being under bare poles.
But somehow I could not get to sleep, probably on account of the
oppressive closeness of the atmosphere, for it was stiflingly hot,
although the skylights and companion were wide open; and there I lay,
tossing restlessly from side to side in a state of preternatural
wakefulness, listening to the lap and gurgle of the water against the
ship's side, the creaking of the bulk-heads, the rattling of the hooks
which held the cabin doors wide open, the _yerking_ of the main-sheet
blocks, the _jerk-jerk_ of the rudder and of the lashed wheel above it,
with the swish of the water under the counter and about the stern-post
as the vessel rolled lazily upon the long sluggish swell which came
creeping slowly up from the eastward. And if by chance a momentary
feeling of drowsiness happened to steal over me, which, carefully
fostered, might have eventually led to my falling asleep, it was sure to
be put to flight by some ill-timed movement or speech by those on the
deck above me, although I will do them the justice to say that, so far
as speech was concerned, they spoke but seldom, and then in subdued
tones. At length, however, I was going off, the varied sounds I have
mentioned had lost their distinctness, had changed their character, and
were beginning to merge themselves into the accompaniments of what, a
few minutes later, would have been a dream, when I heard Pottle's voice
exclaim with startling suddenness:
"Hillo! what was that?"
To which young Boyne replied, in unmistakably sleepy tones:
"What was what, Mr Pottle?"
"Why," replied Pottle, "I thought I saw--Ha! look, there it is again!
Did you not see something like a flash away off there on our starboard
beam?"
"No, sir," said Boyne, evidently a little more wide-awake, "I cannot say
I did. Probably it was lightning; we _must_ have it before long."
"Lightning!" exclaimed Pottle contemptuously; "d'ye think I don't know
lightning when I see it? No, it looked more like--by George, there it
is again!"
At the same moment one of the men forward hailed, but I could not catch
what he said for the creaking of the bulk-heads.
"Ay, ay, I saw it," answered Pottle. "What did it look like to you,
Martin?"
"I thought it looked like the flash of firearms," was the reply, which I
this time heard distinctly.
"So did I," gruffly remarked Pottle. "Depend on't, Mr Boyne, there's
something going on down there to the south'ard which ought to be looked
into. Just step down below and give Mr Lascelles a call, will ye?"
I sprang out of my cot, slipped my stockingless feet into my shoes, drew
on my jacket, and met young Boyne at the cabin door.
"Well, Mr Boyne," said I, "what is the news? I heard Mr Pottle ask
you to call me."
"Yes, sir," said the lad. "He says he has seen something like the flash
of firearms down in the southern quarter, and the lookout also has
reported it."
"All right," said I. "I will be up in a moment."
And turning up the cabin lamp for an instant to take a look at the
barometer, which I found to be steady, I stumbled up the companion-
ladder, and, blinking like an owl in daylight, made my way out on deck.
"Whew!" I exclaimed, "this _is_ darkness, indeed. Where are you, Mr
Pottle?"
"Here I am, sir," answered the quarter-master; and turning in the
direction of his voice I saw a tiny glowing spark which proved to be the
ignited end of a cigar which he had between his teeth.
"Now," said I, as I groped my way to his side, "whereaway was this
flashing appearance which you say you saw?"
"Just about in that direction, sir," was the reply; "or stay--we may
have swung a bit since I saw it," and he walked aft and carefully raised
a jacket which he had thrown over the lighted binnacle. "No," he
continued, "that's where it was, just sou'-sou'-west, for I took the
bearing of it when I saw it the third time; and I thought that, in case
of anything being wrong, it wouldn't be amiss to mask the binnacle
light."
"Quite right," said I, peering first at the compass card and then away
into the opaque darkness which prevented our seeing even the surface of
the water alongside. It was manifestly hopeless to think of seeing
anything through such impenetrable obscurity as that which surrounded
us; and I was just wondering what steps to take, under the
circumstances, peering meanwhile in the direction indicated by Pottle,
when I caught a momentary glimpse of a tiny spark-like flash--which the
ejaculations of my comrades told me they also had observed--and in
another instant a glare of ghastly blue-white radiance streamed out over
the sea and revealed to us two vessels alongside each other, the canvas
of the one--a large lumbering full-rigged ship, gleaming spectrally in
the light of the port-fire, whilst the sails of the other--a brigantine,
which happened to be on the side next us--stood out black as ebony
against the light. They were about two miles off; and even at that
distance we could see with the naked eye that a struggle of some sort
was going forward on the decks of the larger of the two craft. The
nature of the affair was apparent in a moment to every one of us. The
big ship was unmistakably an Indiaman, probably a fellow-countryman; at
least so we judged by the imperfect view of his canvas which the
flickering light of the port-fire afforded us; whilst, if appearances
were to go for anything, the brigantine could be nothing else than a
French picaroon. At all events our duty was now plain enough, we ought
to investigate the affair without a moment's unnecessary delay; and I
accordingly gave orders for all hands to be immediately called, and for
the pinnace and the two gigs to be lowered and manned. This was done
with an alacrity which I venture to believe would have gratified even my
old friend the admiral himself; and in less than a quarter of an hour
from the moment of giving the order we were in the boats and well away
from the schooner. The pinnace was in charge of the boatswain; Pottle
had the command of one of the gigs; and, as there seemed to be no
prospect of any worse outcome, in the shape of weather, than a thunder-
storm, I did not hesitate to take charge of the other gig myself,
leaving Woodford in temporary command of the schooner with instructions
how to proceed in the event of a breeze springing up before we were able
to rejoin him.
The port-fire on board the Indiaman having long before burnt-out, we had
taken the precaution to provide each boat with a compass, the light of
which was most carefully-masked; but this precaution soon proved to be
unnecessary, the boats having traversed less than half the distance
between the schooner and the other two vessels when vivid sheet
lightning began to play along the south-western horizon, lighting up the
scene with its weird radiance frequently enough to enable us to steer a
perfectly straight course. The fight was still going on when we left
the schooner; but it appeared to cease soon afterwards, and we came to
the conclusion that the crew of the Indiaman had been overpowered and
the ship taken. Our chief anxiety now was lest our approach should be
discovered in time to enable the Frenchman to make preparations for
resisting our attempts to board them when we should arrive alongside;
but, fortunately for us, the chief play of the lightning was in the
quarter almost opposite that from which we were approaching, and I was
in hopes that they would be too busy just then plundering the prize to
keep a very strict lookout. In this, however, I was doomed to be
disappointed; for when we had arrived within a quarter of a mile of the
brigantine a sudden flashing of lights appeared on board her, and before
we could get alongside a broadside of four guns, loaded with grape, was
hastily discharged at us. Luckily, beyond revealing the fact that we
had been discovered, the broadside did us no harm; and, with a cheer,
our tars bent to their oars and, with a few lusty strokes, sent us
alongside with a rush.
The brigantine, a long and exceedingly rakish-looking craft, sat very
low in the water, so that it appeared to be one of the easiest things in
the world to scramble in over her bulwarks from the boats; but we found
those bulwarks lined from stem to stern with as resolute-looking a set
of fellows as one need wish to see, and their reception of us, as
regards warmth, left absolutely nothing to be desired. They evidently
knew and fully appreciated the advantage they possessed over us in
having a good roomy deck to fight upon, and they seemed fully resolved
to retain that advantage as long as possible. Three separate and
distinct attempts did we make to surmount the low barrier; and as many
times were we forced back into the boats, each occasion being marked by
the accession of some three or four to the number of our wounded. On
the fourth occasion, however, I determined that gain the deck of that
brigantine _I would_, by hook or by crook; so calling Collins, the
coxswain of my boat, and another man to my aid, I ordered them each to
seize me by a leg and _fling_ me on board, which they did with a regular
man-of-war's-man's "one--two--three--heave!" and away I went in over the
bulwarks like a rocket, alighting fairly on the shoulders of a great
burly fellow who had already lodged a pistol bullet in the fleshy part
of my left arm--and to whom I consequently owed a grudge--beating him
down to the deck, only to find myself in the very thickest of the crowd,
every man of which seemed more anxious than the others to get a fair
blow at me. I was, however, by this time no mere novice in the use of
the sword, and I no sooner felt myself fairly on my feet than I made the
weapon spin about my adversaries' heads in such good earnest that they
were compelled to recoil. Meanwhile my lads had no sooner launched me
into space than they sprang after me, and, pressing forward to my side
with their cutlasses advanced, we soon made room enough for the rest of
our party to follow. But though we had gained the deck we had by no
means won the ship, our antagonists rallying time after time as we drove
them back, and stubbornly contesting with us the possession of every
inch of plank. Meanwhile the storm which had so long been brewing had
at length burst almost immediately overhead, the lightning flashing and
playing about the mast-heads of the ships with a dazzling vividness
which was almost blinding, whilst the thunder crashed and roared and
rolled along the heavens absolutely without intermission. The general
effect was impressive and appalling in the extreme--or would have been
had we been in a mood to properly appreciate it; but just then our only
thought--or mine, at least--with regard to it was that it afforded us
light enough to fight by and to distinguish friends from foes. And it
was by the friendly aid of the lightning that I was, in the midst of the
_melee_, enabled to identify an object, which I had once or twice kicked
from under my feet, as a flannel cartridge. I had already noticed
several charges of grape ranged along the shot-racks; and it now
occurred to me that one of these discharged into the thick of our
enemies might help very materially to mitigate their ardour. So,
turning to some of the lads behind, I directed them to run in one of the
guns, load it, and slue it fore and aft, with its muzzle pointing toward
the taffrail, in which direction we were slowly pressing the crew of the
brigantine. This was soon done; when, taking advantage of a momentary
lull in the confusion of sound which raged about us, I shouted:
"Back, _Dolphins_, into the waist, for your lives; we are about to treat
them to a dose of grape!"
Our lads luckily heard and understood me; we pressed forward with
increased energy for a moment, huddling the Frenchmen all up in a heap
together just about the companion-way, and then suddenly retired
forward, leaving the gun, a nine-pounder, grinning open-mouthed fair at
them. The moment that the last of our men was fairly out of danger the
topman who had taken charge of the gun discharged it; we immediately
rushed aft again, charging through the smoke, found the foe, as we had
expected, quite confused and demoralised from the effect of the fire,
and, pressing upon them more fiercely than ever, compelled them to throw
down their arms and cry for quarter, though not until I had been
compelled in self-defence to run their leader through with my sword.
The brigantine was now our own, so leaving Pottle and the boatswain to
secure the prisoners, which task they set about without a moment's
delay, I rallied my own boat's crew about me and led them on board the
Indiaman to take possession of her. We met with no opposition whilst
climbing the ship's lofty sides; but on gaining the deck a group of some
half a dozen figures were discovered mounting guard over the fore-
scuttle. Despatching the coxswain and three hands to secure these, and
the remainder of the crew to hunt up any stray Frenchmen who might
happen to be lurking about the decks, I turned my steps in the direction
of the poop cabin, and calling one hand to attend me, at once made my
way thither.
One of the doors was standing wide open, with a brilliant stream of
light pouring through it, lighting up the massive mainmast and the gear
attached to it for a height of some twelve feet above the deck, and
revealing the fact that the quarter-deck guns at least of the vessel had
never been cast loose, thus confirming me in the suspicion I had before
entertained that the vessel had been taken by surprise. Entering the
cabin, a strange scene presented itself. The apartment itself was very
spacious, being of the full width of the ship, and extending right aft
(the sleeping cabins and the captain's private quarters, I subsequently
discovered, were situated below, on the main-deck); and it was very
handsomely fitted up with rosewood and maple panels, a great deal of
gilt moulding, several mirrors, and some half a dozen very decently
executed pictures; whilst a handsome five-light chandelier--with one of
the lamps recently broken--swung from the beams overhead. Against the
forward bulkhead and between the two doors giving admission to the cabin
there stood a very massive and handsomely carved buffet, on which stood
a quantity of finely cut crystal, several decanters containing wine and
spirits, and some fruit dishes loaded with fruit. A long table stood
fore and aft in the centre of the saloon with, perhaps, a couple of
dozen luxurious-looking chairs ranged round it; and along each side of
the cabin ran a range of wide handsomely upholstered sofa lockers. The
floor was covered with a thick Turkey carpet of handsome design. But it
was not so much the rich furnishing of the saloon which made it
remarkable; it was the aspect and grouping of the people I found there.
A dozen or more gentlemen, clad only in their shirts and trousers, and
several of them bleeding from wounds, were seated on the lockers, with
their feet lashed together and their arms tied behind them. At the far
end of the cabin, abaft the table, and crouching on the floor, huddled a
number of ladies and children in their night-dresses, all of them pale
as death and looking dreadfully frightened, whilst one of the ladies was
weeping hysterically over a little chubby, fair, and curly-headed boy of
some six or seven years old, who was moaning piteously the while the
blood trickled from a wound in his head, matting his golden curls
together into a gory mass and slowly spreading out in a great
ensanguined stain on the sleeve of his mother's night-dress. Near the
door by which I entered lay the apparently dead bodies of two men, who I
took, from their dress, to be the captain and chief mate of the ship;
and close to them stood a tall, handsome, dark-skinned Frenchman, with
gold rings in his ears, a naval cap with a gold band on his head, a
crimson silk sash round his waist, fairly bristling with pistols, a
drawn sword in his right hand and a pistol in his left, evidently
mounting guard over the prisoners. As I entered the cabin this fellow
turned to meet me. The moment he saw me to be a stranger up went his
pistol, and, before I had time to realise what he was about, there was a
flash, a blow followed by a sharp stinging sensation along the left side
of my head, a thud, a groan, and a fall behind me; then came a lunging
thrust from his sword, which I had the good luck to parry; this parry I
followed up with a lightning-like thrust; my sword passed through his
heart, and he fell dead on the carpet close to the two bodies I have
already mentioned. All this passed as it were in a moment, with such
startling suddenness, indeed, that it left me quite dazed, so that for a
few seconds I could scarcely realise exactly what had happened. On
recovering my self-possession, my first thought was for the man who had
been following me into the cabin. I turned round to ascertain whether
the groan had proceeded from him, and there, prone in the passage-way
behind me, lay the poor fellow on his back, stone dead, the bullet
having crashed into his brain through his right eye.