_Par_. You give me most egregious indignity.
_Laf_. Ay, with all my heart; and thou art worthy of it.
"ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL."
Naturally anxious to behold a country from which we had hitherto been
excluded for so many years, we all applied for leave to go on shore, and
obtained it. Even the seamen were allowed the same indulgence, and went
in parties of twenty and thirty at a time. We were followed and gaped
at by the people; but shunned at the same time as "hereticos." The inns
of the town, like all the rest of them in Spain, have not improved since
the days of the immortal Santillana--they were all more or less filled
with the lowest of the rabble and a set of bravos whose calling was
robbery, and who cared little if murder were its accompaniment. The
cookery was execrable. Garlic and oil were its principal ingredients.
The olla podrida, and its constant attendant, the tomato sauce, were
intolerable, but the wine was very well for a midshipman. Whenever we
had a repast in any of these houses, the bravos endeavoured to pick a
quarrel with us; and these fellows being always armed with stilettos, we
found it necessary to be equally well prepared; and whenever we seated
ourselves at a table, we never failed to display the butts of our
pistols, which kept them in decent order, for they are as cowardly as
they are thievish. Our seamen, not being so cautious or so well
provided with arms, were frequently robbed and assassinated by these
rascals.
I was, on one occasion, near falling a victim to them. Walking in the
evening with the second master, and having a pretty little Spanish girl
under my arm,--for, to my shame be it spoken, I had already formed an
acquaintance with the frail sisterhood,--four of these villains accosted
us. We soon perceived, by their manner of holding their cloaks, that
they had their stilettos ready. I desired my companion to draw his
dirk, to keep close to me, and not to let them get between us and the
wall. Seeing that we were prepared, they wished us "_buenos noches_"
(good night), and, endeavouring to put us off our guard by entering into
conversation, asked us to give them a cigar, which my companion would
have done, had I not cautioned him not to quit his dirk with his right
hand, for this was all they wanted.
In this defensive posture we continued until we had nearly reached the
plaza or great square, where many people were walking, and enjoying
themselves by moonlight, the usual custom of the country. "Now," said I
to my friend, "let us make a start from these fellows. When I run, do
you follow me, and don't stop till we are in the middle of the square."
The manoeuvre was successful; we out-ran the thieves, who were not aware
of our plan, and were encumbered with their heavy cloaks. Finding we
had escaped, they turned upon the girl, and robbed her of her miserable
earnings. This we saw, but could not prevent, such was the police of
Spain then, nor has it improved since.
This was the last time I ventured on shore at night, except to go once
with a party of our officers to the house of the Spanish admiral, who
had a very pretty niece, and was _liberale_ enough not to frown on us
poor heretics. She was indeed a pretty creature: her lovely black eyes,
long eyelashes, and raven hair, betrayed a symptom of Moorish blood, at
the same time that her ancient family-name and high good-breeding gave
her the envied appellation of _Vieja Christiana_.
This fair creature was pleased to bestow a furtive glance of approbation
on my youthful form and handsome dress. My vanity was tickled. I spoke
French to her: she understood it imperfectly, and pretended to know
still less of it, from the hatred borne by all the Spaniards at that
time to the French nation. We improved our time, however, which was but
short, and, before we parted, perfectly understood each other. I
thought I could be contented to give up everything, and reside with her
in the wilds of Spain. The time of our departure came, and I was torn
away from my Rosaritta, not without the suspicions of my captain and
shipmates that I had been a too highly favoured youth. This was not
true. I loved the dear angel, but never had wronged her; and I went to
sea in a mood which I sometimes thought might end in an act of
desperation; but salt water is an admirable specific against love, at
least against such love as that was.
We joined the admiral off Toulon, and were ordered by him to cruise
between Perpignan and Marseilles. We parted from the fleet on the
following day, and kept the coast in a continued state of alarm. Not a
vessel dared to show her nose out of port: we had her if she did.
Batteries we laughed at, and either silenced them with our long
eighteen-pounders, or landed and blew them up. In one of these little
skirmishes I had very nearly been taken, and should, in that case, have
missed all the honour and glory and hair-breadth escapes which will be
found related in the following pages. I should either have been sabred
in mere retaliation, or marched off to Verdun for the remaining six
years of the war.
We had landed to storm and blow up a battery, for which purpose we
carried with us a bag of powder and a train of canvas. Everything went
on prosperously. We came to a canal which it was necessary to cross,
and the best swimmers were selected to convey the powder over without
wetting it. I was one of them. I took off my shoes and stockings to
save them; and, after we had taken the battery. I was so intent on
looking for the telegraphic signal-box, that I had quite forgotten the
intended explosion, until I heard a cry of "Run, run!" from those
outside, who had lighted the train.
I was at that moment on the wall of the fort, nearly thirty feet high,
but sloping. I jumped one part, and scrambled the other, and ran away
as fast as I could, amidst a shower of stones, which fell around me like
an eruption of Vesuvius. Luckily I was not hit, but I had cut my foot
in the leap, and was in much pain. I had two fields of stubble to pass,
and my shoes and stockings were on the other side of the canal--the
sharp straw entered the wound, and almost drove me mad, and I was
tempted to sit down and resign myself to my fate. However, I
persevered, and had nearly reached the boats which were putting off, not
aware of my absence, when a noise like distant thunder reached my ears.
This I soon found was cavalry from Cotte, which had come to defend the
battery. I mustered all my strength, and plunged into the sea to swim
off to the boats; and so little time had I to spare, that some of the
enemy's chasseurs, on their black horses, swam in after me, and fired
their pistols at my head. The boats were at this time nearly a quarter
of a mile from the shore; the officers in them fortunately perceived the
cavalry, and saw me at the same time: a boat laid on her oars, which,
with great difficulty, I reached, and was taken in; but so exhausted
with pain and loss of blood, that I was carried on board almost dead; my
foot was cut to the bone, and I continued a month under the surgeon's
care.
I had nearly recovered from this accident, when we captured a ship, with
which Murphy was sent as prize-master; and the same evening a schooner,
which we cut out from her anchorage. The command of this latter vessel
was given to me--it was late in the evening, and the hurry was so great
that the keg of spirits intended for myself and crew was not put on
board. This was going from one extreme to the other; in my last ship we
had too much liquor, and in this too little. Naturally thirsty, our
desire for drink needed not the stimulus of salt fish and calavances,
for such was our cargo and such was our food, and deeply did we deplore
the loss of our spirits.
On the third day after leaving the frigate, on our way to Gibraltar, I
fell in with a ship on the coast of Spain, and knew it to be the one
Murphy commanded, by a remarkable white patch in the main-topsail. I
made all sail in chase, in hopes of obtaining some spirits from him,
knowing that he had more than he could consume, even if he and his
people got drunk every day. When I came near him, he made all the sail
he could. At dusk I was near enough almost to hail him, but he stood
on; and I, having a couple of small three-pounders on board, with some
powder, fired one of them as a signal. This I repeated again and again;
but he would not bring-to; and when it was dark, I lost sight of him,
and saw him no more until we met at Gibraltar.
Next morning I fell in with three Spanish fishing-boats. They took me
for a French privateer, pulled up their lines, and made sail. I came up
with them, and, firing a gun, they hove-to and surrendered. I ordered
them alongside; and, finding they had each a keg of wine on board, I
condemned that part of their cargo as contraband; but I honestly offered
payment for what I had taken. This they declined, finding I was
"_Ingles_," too happy to think they were not in the hands of the French.
I then gave each of them a pound of tobacco, which not only satisfied
them, but confirmed them in the newly-received opinion among their
countrymen, that England was the bravest as well as the most generous of
nations. They offered everything their boat contained; but I declined
all most nobly, because I had obtained all I wanted; and we parted with
mutual good will, they shouting, "Viva Inglaterra!" and we drinking them
a good passage in their own wine.
Many days elapsed before we reached Gibraltar: the winds were light, and
the weather fine; but as we had discovered that the fishing-boats had
wine, we took care to supply our cellar without any trouble from the
excise; and, from our equitable mode of barter, I had no reason to think
that His Majesty King George lost any of his deserved popularity by our
conduct. When we reached Gibraltar, I had still a couple of good kegs
wherewith to regale my mess-mates; though I was sorry to find the
frigate and the rest of her prizes had got in before us. Murphy,
indeed, did not arrive till the day after me.
I was on the quarter-deck when he came in; and, to my astonishment, he
reported that he had been chased by a French privateer, and had beaten
her off after a four hours' action--that his rigging had suffered a good
deal, but that he had not a man hurt. I let him run on till the
evening. Many believed him; but some doubted. At dinner in the
gun-room, his arrogance knew no bounds; and when half drunk, my three
men were magnified into a well manned brig, as full of men and guns as
she could stuff!
Sick of all this nonsense, I then simply related the story as it had
occurred, and sent for the quarter-master, who was with me, and who
confirmed all my statement. From that moment he was a mark of contempt
in the ship. Every he was a Murphy, and every Murphy a liar. He dared
not resent this scorn of ours; and found himself so uncomfortable, that
he offered no objection to the removal proposed by the captain; his
character followed him, and he never obtained promotion. It is a
satisfaction to me to reflect that I not only had my full revenge on
this man, but that I had been the instrument of turning him out of an
honourable profession which he would have disgraced.
This was no time for frigates to be idle; and if I chose to give the
name of mine and my captain, the naval history of the country would
prove that ours, of all other ships, was one of the most distinguished
in the cause of Spanish freedom. The south of Spain became the theatre
of the most cruel and desolating war. Our station was off Barcelona;
and thence to Perpignan, the frontier of France on the borders of Spain.
Our duty (for which the enterprising disposition of our captain was
admirably calculated) was to support the guerilla chiefs; to cut off the
enemy's convoys of provisions, either by sea or along the road which lay
by the sea-shore; or to dislodge the enemy from any stronghold he might
be in possession of.
I was absent from the ship on such services three and four weeks at a
time, being attached to a division of small-arm men under the command of
the third lieutenant. We suffered very much from privations of all
kinds. We never took with us more than one week's provision, and were
frequently three weeks without receiving any supply. In the article of
dress, our "catalogue of negatives," as a celebrated author says, "was
very copious;" we had no shoes nor stockings, no linen, and not all of
us had hats; a pocket-handkerchief was the common substitute for this
article; we clambered over rocks, and wandered through the flinty or
muddy ravines in company with our new allies, the hardy mountaineers.
These men respected our valour, but did not like our religion or our
manners. They cheerfully divided their rations with us, but were always
inexorable in their cruelty to the French prisoners; and no persuasion
of ours could induce them to spare the lives of one of these unhappy
people, whose cries and entreaties to the English to intercede for or
save them were always unavailing. They were either stabbed before our
faces, or dragged to the top of a hill commanding a view of some
fortress occupied by the French, and, in sight of their countrymen,
their throats cut from ear to ear.
Should the Christian reader condemn this horrid barbarity, as he
certainly will, he must remember that those people were men whose every
feeling had been outraged. Rape, conflagration; murder, and famine had
everywhere followed the step of the cruel invaders; and, however we
might lament their fate and endeavour to avert it, we could not but
admit that the retaliation was not without justice. In this irregular
warfare, we sometimes revelled in luxuries, and at others were nearly
starved. One day, in particular, when fainting with hunger, we met a
fat, rosy-looking capuchin: we begged him to show us where we might
procure some food, either by purchase or in any other way; but he
neither knew where to procure any nor had he any money: his order, he
said, forbade him to use it. As he turned away from us in some
precipitation, we thought we heard something rattle; and as necessity
has no law, we took the liberty of searching the padre, on whose person
we found forty dollars, of which we relieved him, assuring him that our
consciences were perfectly clear, since his order forbade him to carry
money; and that as he lived amongst good Christians, they would not
allow him to want. He cursed us; but we laughed at him, because he had
produced his own misfortune by his falsehood and hypocrisy.
This was the manner in which the Spanish priests generally behaved to
us; and in this way we generally repaid them when we could. We kept the
plunder--converted it into food--joined our party soon after, and
supposed the affair was over; but the friar had followed us at a
distance, and we perceived him coming up the hill where we were
stationed. To avoid discovery we exchanged clothes, in such a manner as
to render us no longer cognisable. The friar made his complaint to the
guerilla chief, whose eyes flashed fire at the indignant treatment his
priest had received; and it is probable that bloodshed would have ensued
had he been able to point out the culprit.
I kept my countenance though I had changed my dress, and as he looked at
me with something beyond suspicion, I stared him full in the face with
the whole united power of my matchless impudence, and in a loud and
menacing tone of voice, asked him in French if he took me for a brigand.
The question, as well as the manner in which it was put, silenced, if
it did not satisfy, the priest. He seemed to listen with apparent
conviction to the suggestion of some of our people, that he had been
robbed by another party, and he set out in pursuit of them. I was quite
tired of his importunities, and glad to see him depart. As he turned
away, he gave me a very scrutinising look, which I returned with
another, full of well dissembled rage and scorn. My curling hair had
been well flattened down with a piece of soap, which I had in my pocket,
and I had much more the appearance of a Methodist parson than a
pickpocket.
Some time previous to this, the frigate to which I belonged had been
ordered on other services; and as I had no opportunity of joining her, I
was placed, _pro tempore_, on board of another. But as this chapter has
already spun out its length, I shall refer my reader to the next for
further particulars.