Some twenty-five minutes later Don Luis returned; and so colourless were
his lips, so wild his eyes, so dreadfully agitated his entire appearance
that I saw in a moment something had gone very radically wrong
somewhere. Dona Inez saw it too, and approaching, laid her hand
soothingly upon his arm as she anxiously asked:
"What is it, Luis? What is the matter, _mi querido_? Tell me; I can
bear it."
"I could never have believed it!" ejaculated Don Luis, clasping his
hands in front of him and wringing them, in his distress and
disappointment. "I have always believed every one of my negroes to be
absolutely faithful to me; yet now, upon the news that the outlaws are
out, more than half of them have left me, and quite possibly will, an
hour or two hence, be joining in the attack upon this house. The
ungrateful wretches, the--!"
"Precisely," I cut in; "they are all that and more. But what about
those who remain? Are any of them trustworthy enough to be permitted to
assist us; or must we do the best we can without them?"
"Oh no," answered Don Luis emphatically. "Thank God, I can trust every
one of those who remain. And, as for the forty-nine whom I have chosen
to come into the house to help us--well, I am going to demonstrate the
extent of my faith in them by placing all our lives at their mercy. Oh
yes; I have no shadow of doubt, so far as they are concerned."
"Very well, then," said I; "in that case they had better be admitted at
once, for all our defences have still to be made. What are you going to
do with those who are not wanted?"
"I have given them instructions to go away and conceal themselves in the
woods until we have beaten off the attack," answered Don Luis. "Then
they will return and help us to put right whatever damage may have been
done during the fight."
"Will they?" thought I. "I very much doubt it!" But I kept my doubts
to myself, and turned instead to another matter.
"The next thing that we have to consider is the safety of the ladies,"
said I. "What is to be done with them during the fight?"
Don Luis looked at me rather blankly.
"The ladies!" he ejaculated. "But surely, my dear Don Ricardo, they
will be more safe in this house than anywhere else, will they not?"
"It all depends," I answered. "If you think it would be safe for them
to start on horseback for the nearest town, either alone or escorted by
a few of the most trusty of your negroes--"
"Oh no, no!" exclaimed Dona Inez and Dona Christina in the same breath;
"you must not propose anything of that kind, Don Ricardo. We will not
be separated from our husbands. If they are to face danger, we will
face danger with them."
Then Don Luis broke in. "I do not altogether like your suggestion that
the ladies should attempt to make their way to the nearest town," he
said. "For, you see, we have no means of knowing what is the state of
the intervening country. An hour ago I might have deemed the suggestion
an excellent one, but now, after the shameless desertion of half my own
`boys,' I know not what to think."
"I suppose there is no snug, secret place of concealment, such as a
cave, or something of that sort, the existence of which is known only to
yourselves?" I suggested.
"The very thing!" exclaimed Don Luis enthusiastically. "There _is_ such
a place, and its existence and locality are known to absolutely no one
but Dona Inez and myself--"
"It is useless to speak of it," interrupted Dona Inez in a tone of
finality. "I will not go there, or anywhere else; I remain here with
you, Luis. If Dona Christina, or Dona Eugenia would like to go, let
them do so by all means."
But Dona Christina and Dona Eugenia were quite as emphatic as their
hostess in their determination not to be separated from their men-folk;
so that question was very soon settled. After that there was nothing to
be done but to call up our black auxiliaries, and put the house in as
efficient a state of defence as the means at our disposal permitted; and
this we at once proceeded to do.
Don Luis seemed naturally to look to me to take the lead in our warlike
preparations; and this I as naturally did, finding that he had only very
hazy notions of how to set to work. In the first place, the house
itself was excellently adapted for defence, the outside walls being
built of stone, and about two feet thick, to keep out the heat, while
the roof was tiled; there was consequently very little danger of the
place being set on fire from the outside, and ourselves burnt out of it.
Its chief weakness consisted in the exceptionally large size of the
door and window openings; but I thought I could see a way to minimise
that evil. While out walking with Don Luis and his wife, I had noticed
a spot that I remarked at the time might be very easily converted into
an excellent sand and gravel pit; while only a few days prior to the
eventful morning when Don Esteban de Mendouca and his party had burst in
upon us with the news of the negro outbreak, Don Luis had received a
large consignment of new sacks destined to receive the crop of coffee,
cocoa, and other products that were at that moment coming forward upon
the estate.
Now, the moment that the question of defending the house was raised,
these sacks and the sand pit came into my mind. The first thing I did,
therefore, was to get hold of the six overseers, instruct them to
organise into gangs the blacks who still remained on the estate: equip
one party of them with pick and shovel; set a second party to bring the
sacks from the store, as required; a third party to fill the sacks with
the gravel and sand as excavated; and the remainder to carry the filled
sacks up to the house on hand-barrows and arrange them in the door and
window openings under my direction. While this was being done, Don Luis
produced his stock of firearms and ammunition; then he, Don Esteban, and
Don Pedro set to work to clean them, oil the locks, and generally put
the weapons in reliable working order; while Don Silvio, aided by his
sister and Dona Inez, lighted a fire in the dining-room and went to work
upon the task of casting bullets for the pistols, it proving upon
examination that only a very small stock of these remained on hand.
And, lastly, while Mama Elisa and Teresita busied themselves in the
detached kitchen, cooking an ample supply of food for the little
garrison, Dona Christina so far laid aside her dignity as to prepare the
dining-room table and set it for breakfast; for day was by this time
breaking, and we had decided that it would be sound policy to snatch a
meal, if possible, before the fight began.
My scheme of defence consisted in blocking up all the door and window
openings throughout the building with a good substantial wall of
sand-bags, leaving here and there small loopholes just wide enough to
admit of a musket being pointed through them. My musketrymen would be
stationed at these loopholes, each man having an assistant who would
stand by to pass him a fresh cartridge and bullet as soon as his weapon
was discharged; and of course the musketrymen and their assistants would
be moved from room to room as required, according to the point against
which the attack was most strongly directed. I considered that we ought
to stand a very good chance of making an effective defence, because it
would be exceedingly difficult for our assailants to force a way into
the building so long as our sand-bag walls stood firmly, and I believed
it would require more courage than a negro possessed to charge home to
them and overthrow them in the face of such a fire as we could direct
upon them from the advantageous position which we should occupy.
Moreover, we should possess the important advantage of being almost
completely protected from their fire, and consequently should be able to
take aim coolly and collectedly, while they would be fully exposed,
there being no better cover for them than a few scattered bushes here
and there, which I determined to remove, should there be time after our
more important defences were complete.
At length, after some two hours of the most strenuous work that those
negroes had ever performed in their lives, we had done everything that
it was possible to do; so, first stationing a dozen of our best men at
various commanding points, to act as pickets and give us timely warning
of the approach of the enemy, we went to breakfast, most of us with
excellent appetites, although I am bound to admit that the ladies did
not eat much. When the meal was over, without any news from our
pickets, I went out through an opening that we had purposely left in the
front door barricade, and took a good look round. Passing from picket
to picket, I questioned each man closely as to whether he had seen any
signs of the enemy; but they all replied in the negative. Indeed,
although I carefully scanned every open space I could see, even
examining it with the telescope, not the faintest indication of lurking
danger could I anywhere discover, although Montpelier was by this time a
mere smouldering ruin, to all appearance utterly deserted.
I was about to return to the house to inquire whether, after all, we
might not have taken too much for granted in assuming as a certainty
that Bella Vista would be attacked, when one of the pickets uttered a
shout and, raising his hand, pointed. I looked in the direction
indicated, and there, sure enough, I beheld a party of negroes marching
confidently toward the house. How many there were I could not tell--for
they were just then winding their way through thick detached masses of
scrub beyond the boundaries of the estate--but the confident manner of
their approach led me to suppose that they believed they were quite
strong enough to achieve an easy conquest of the place.
Raising a whistle to my lips, I blew a shrill call, not only as a
warning to those in the house to be on the _qui vive_, but also as a
signal for the pickets to fall back; then, when I had made sure that the
latter were all on the run toward the house, I brought my telescope to
bear upon the approaching party, with the view of learning a little more
concerning their equipment and, if possible, their numbers.
The first thing that impressed me with regard to them was that they were
a remarkably fine, stalwart-looking set of men, hard, wiry, and full of
endurance, as indeed might be expected from the history of them which I
had gathered by snatches from Don Luis during our preparations that
morning. It appeared that they were practically all runaway slaves, or
the descendants of such, who had made good their escape from the various
plantations on the island before slavery was abolished a few years prior
to the date of this story. These men had established themselves in
mountain fastnesses, so difficult of approach and so easy to defend
that, although the attempt had often been made, it had been found
impossible to dislodge them. In those mountain fastnesses they had
increased and multiplied prodigiously, raising their own cattle, growing
their own corn, and supporting themselves generally in a state of
comfort, if not of actual luxury, that to those who had not seen it,
seemed incredible. To them fled every criminal, for every desperate
character in the island found welcome and a safe sanctuary among them.
Of course, they were all outlaws; their hand against every man, and
every man's hand against them; and of late--that is to say, within a
year or so of the time of which I am now writing--they had adopted a
policy of sallying forth from their mountain retreats at irregular
intervals, attacking isolated plantations, looting and destroying the
buildings, and either murdering or carrying off captive the whites;
their avowed intention being to terrorise and drive every white person
off the island and make it their own. Although most of them had been
brought up in the Catholic religion, it was said that they had all
reverted to heathenism, and were addicted to the practice of voodooism,
snake worship, and other hideous barbaric rites.
But although the physique of the men was good enough, I did not think
very much of their equipment. It appeared that about every fourth man
of them carried a firearm of some kind, with powder flask suspended by a
cord round his neck, and bullet pouch attached to his belt, while the
remainder carried cutlasses, pikes, and, in some cases, axes, cane
knives, or even scythe blades lashed to the end of long poles.
Having learned as much of the approaching enemy as it was possible for
me to ascertain without exposing myself to the risk of capture by having
my retreat cut off, I retired in good order to the house, pausing at the
detached kitchen on my way, and ordering Mama Elisa and Teresita to
hasten at once to the house, with such provisions as they had been able
to prepare. I waited until they were fairly on the way, and then set
fire to the place, for it was within about sixty yards of the house, and
would have afforded excellent cover for a dozen sharpshooters who, from
its shelter, might have galled us rather severely. It was a flimsy
structure, the walls built of wattles plastered with mud, while the roof
was of thatch; by the time, therefore, that I reached the house it was
blazing furiously, and a quarter of an hour later was a mere heap of
smouldering ashes.
The sight of the blazing kitchen caused the approaching outlaws to raise
a shout of triumph--possibly they were under the impression that the
building had been fired by some of the negroes belonging to the estate
who were about to join forces with them and had already begun the work
of destruction--but when they saw me retiring toward the house their
shouts quickly changed their note from triumph to anger, and several of
them who carried guns halted, dropped on one knee, and proceeded to take
pot shots at me. A few of their bullets came quite near--indeed, much
too near to be pleasant; but the bulk of them flew wide, and I made good
my retreat to the house, untouched, and was at once admitted by my
friends, who immediately proceeded to block up with sand-bags the
aperture by which I had entered.
The moment that the motley army of our assailants came close enough to
the house to enable them to see that it had been put into a state of
defence, they halted, and some half-a-dozen of them clustered about an
immensely tall and powerful-looking negro who was attired in the stained
and somewhat tattered uniform of a Spanish infantry colonel, and wore a
sword buckled about his waist, with a pair of big horse pistols thrust
into his belt. Apparently they were conferring together as to what was
to be done under the unexpected circumstances; for it now appeared that,
so completely had they succeeded in terrorising the whites, serious
resistance to their raids had practically become a thing of the past.
The appearance among the attacking force of the big negro
above-mentioned seemed to fill Don Luis and Don Esteban with
consternation, for they recognised him at once as the chief of the
outlaws, and a man with a reputation for ruthless savagery that had
caused his name to become a word of terror among the whites on the
island, only to be mentioned with bated breath.
"It is Petion himself!" gasped Don Esteban in accents of dismay, "and if
we should be so unfortunate as to fall into his hands after resisting
him, our fate will be too dreadful for description! Would it not be
better," he suggested, with quivering ashen lips, "that we should
surrender at discretion, without attempting resistance? If we do so we
shall probably be shot, out of hand; but even that would be preferable
to being carried off into the mountains, and there dying a lingering
death by torture, as we know that many other whites have done who have
dared to resist Petion."
"No, certainly not!" answered Don Luis with decision. "I will never
agree to it. Our young friend, Don Ricardo, here, seems to be of
opinion that the house is capable of being defended effectively, and he
ought to know, since fighting is his trade. And I do not suppose that
the mere fact of Petion's appearance among our assailants is going to
make him alter his opinion. Is it, Don Ricardo?"
"By no means," said I. "Rather the other way about. For if we can only
contrive to bowl over Mister Petion--"
Don Esteban uttered an ejaculation of horror. "Kill Petion!" he
exclaimed. "My good sir, I most fervently hope that no one in this
house will be so ill-advised as to attempt Petion's life. For if
anything were to happen to him his followers would be so incensed, so
utterly maddened with fury, that they would simply pull the place down
about our ears, and drag us out from among the ruins to die a death of
unimaginable horror!"
"My dear Don Esteban," I retorted, "do you really believe that those
fellows will fight any the more courageously if their leader happens to
be slain? Because I do not; on the contrary, I am firmly convinced that
if the head is destroyed the body will also lose vitality, and very
speedily collapse. Therefore I, for one, shall make it a point of
honour to do my best to kill Petion, if he will only afford me the
chance, and I very strongly recommend that the rest should do the same.
If Petion falls, his followers will very soon be discouraged."
"Yes, yes, I quite agree with you, Don Ricardo," exclaimed Don Luis.
"Nothing is so likely to discourage those fellows as to see their leader
fall, therefore let us kill Petion, if we can--although he is popularly
believed to bear a charmed life."
"It will need a very much more potent charm than any that he is at all
likely to possess to stop a bullet, if I can only get a fair shot at
him," I exclaimed. "But, come, gentlemen, let us get back to our posts.
We must watch their every move now, or they may take us unawares and
play us some very ugly trick."
Our dialogue had lasted less than five minutes; but, brief as it was, it
had outlasted the consultation between Petion and his lieutenants, who,
I was annoyed to find upon returning to my point of observation, had
retired and were now out of sight.
A period of suspense lasting nearly ten minutes now ensued, at the end
of which a whistle sounded shrilly from somewhere, and at the sound of
it the whole band of outlaws, numbering somewhere about four hundred,
suddenly broke cover and, with a yell, came charging down upon all sides
of the house, firing as they ran. Their aim was not bad, considering
that none of them paused to bring their pieces up to the shoulder, but
just pointed the weapon in the direction of the house and pulled the
trigger while still on the run. But although we heard several of the
bullets strike the walls and roof, not one came through our loopholes,
or penetrated to the interior of the house, and none of us were hit.
The next second an irregular, straggling sort of volley rattled out from
the house by way of reply; but I could not see that anybody was a penny
the worse for it, at least on that side of the house where I was
stationed. So far as I was concerned, I had not attempted to fire,
having made up my mind that I would not pull trigger during the fight
until I could be certain of making a hit; but the negro who had been
told off to help in the defence of the window at which I was stationed
had simply thrust his musket through his loophole and blazed away,
apparently without taking the trouble even to sight along the barrel.
"My friend," I said, digging him savagely in the ribs, "which of those
fellows was it that you aimed at?"
"Which of them, Senor?" he echoed in astonishment. "I did not aim at
any one in particular; I simply fired my piece, believing that the
bullet would be certain to hit some one."
"Just so," I retorted. "Well, that is not at all the way to win a
fight, for, you see, your bullet has hit no one. Next time you shoot,
aim straight at some particular individual, and make sure that your gun
is pointing straight before you pull the trigger. For example--you see
that big man running straight toward us, the man with the scythe on the
end of a pole? Well, keep your eye on him for a moment, and see what
happens."
The man in question was coming straight for our window, with the
intention, probably, of attempting to dislodge some of the sand-bags and
force his way into the house. He was only about ten yards away when,
having carefully covered his chest with my two sights, I gently pressed
the trigger. When the smoke blew away the fellow was lying motionless
upon his face, and some twenty others who had been following him had
come to an abrupt halt, and were gazing with indecision, first at the
house and next at him.
"Another cartridge, quick!" I whispered, thrusting my hand out behind
me. A small, soft hand met mine, thrusting a cartridge between my
fingers, and glancing hastily over my shoulder, in some surprise, I saw
that it was Teresita who had established herself as my assistant. The
next moment I had bitten off the end of the cartridge, poured the powder
down the barrel, thrust the empty paper after it by way of a wad, and
was ramming a bullet home on top of all. Then, peeping through the
loophole as I cocked the lock, I saw that a party of four of his
comrades had picked up the stricken man, and were just about to carry
him away, while the others were in full retreat for a clump of bushes
not very far away, probably for the purpose of securing cover while they
reloaded their weapons. The four bearers, however, were still within
easy range, and, taking careful aim for a moment, I caught one of them
fair between the shoulders, and down he went on top of the man who was
being carried away. The other three at once took to their heels and
ran, but did not finally get away scot free, for I snatched the now
reloaded musket from my assistant's hand and was lucky enough to bring
one of them down with a shot in the leg, though he was up and limping
away the next instant.
"There," I said to the negro who was supposed to be helping me; "you see
how it is done? Very well; see to it, my friend, that you make no more
misses." And he did not; or, at least, not very often. Meanwhile, the
firing from the other rooms had been proceeding pretty briskly, though
with what results, so far as the other three sides of the house were
concerned, I could not tell. But it had been fairly effective on my
side of the building; for, in addition to the three men for whom I had
accounted, there were five motionless figures lying on the grass within
view of my loophole, while I had seen others go staggering away palpably
hit. I imagined that the outlaws were somewhat disconcerted at finding
so many guns in the house, and had not very much stomach for a fight,
wherein it was possible that a good many of them might get very
seriously hurt. Hitherto, it appeared, the utmost resistance which they
had met with had amounted to nothing more formidable than a few hasty,
ill-aimed shots, followed by the immediate retreat of the defending
party. But this adventure upon which they were now engaged was quite a
different matter. Here was a good, solidly built house, constructed of
materials which it was scarcely possible to set fire to from the
outside, well barricaded, and evidently full of resolute men quite
determined to sell their lives dearly. Oh yes, this was quite
different, and it looked as though they did not half like it, for,
having failed in that first rush, they had now withdrawn out of range
and were apparently discussing some new scheme of operations. During
this pause I visited the other rooms in succession to see how the
occupants had been faring, and what measure of success they had met
with. The result of my inspection was the discovery that twenty-seven
of the attacking party had lost that number of their mess, while nearly
double as many had been more or less seriously hurt in that first rush;
which was quite as good as could reasonably have been expected; and it
seemed fully to account for the shyness which the enemy was now
exhibiting. I stated what had happened at my own window, urged every
man individually to keep quite cool, and to take careful aim before
pulling trigger; and then returned to my post, just in time to see some
sixty negroes emerge from the bush bearing the trunk of a palm-tree
which they had cut down, and which they were apparently about to employ
as a battering-ram with which to batter in some of our defences. The
men in the adjoining room saw it at the same moment, and instantly, in
spite of the warning which I had so recently given, two shots rang out
from the window at which they were stationed. The range, however, was
too long, and nobody was hurt. Hurrying from my own room into the one
from which the shots had come, I found that it was occupied by one of
the overseers and a negro. I was engaged in giving them as severe a
lecture as my knowledge of Spanish permitted, when there was a sudden
call for all hands from the front of the house, and, rushing round, I
saw that a party of about a hundred of the enemy were charging across
the lawns in open order, leaping from side to side as they came, in a
manner admirably adapted to render our aim utterly ineffective. A man
was crouching at every loophole in the room, with the barrel of his
piece projecting through it, and even as I entered one of the pieces
spoke, ineffectively. The man who fired was Don Pedro, and he turned
from the loophole with a savage execration at his failure.
"It is not of the slightest use to attempt to pick them off at long
range while they are jumping about in that fashion," I exclaimed. "Wait
until they are so close that you can make sure of them, and then shoot.
To drop them at twenty yards, or even ten, or five, is just as effective
as though you bowled them over at a hundred. And as each man fires, let
him step aside and make room for another."
While I was thus exhorting my companions I stepped to the loophole which
had just been vacated by Don Pedro, and thrust the muzzle of my weapon
through it, sighting along the barrel. There was an individual coming
toward me, jumping from side to side like the rest, first to the right,
then to the left. I watched him for a moment or two, and noticed that
each spring of his to the left brought him exactly in line with a tall,
slender tree stem, some distance in his rear; I, therefore, aimed
straight for this stem, and then waited until he made his next spring to
the left, when I pulled the trigger, and down he toppled. Almost at the
same instant three or four other shots rang out, and each proved
sufficiently well aimed to reach its mark. A few seconds later another
half-dozen shots followed, and down went four more of the charging
negroes. The effect was instantaneous; at least half of them halted, in
manifest indecision, some wheeled abruptly round and fled, and only
about a dozen of the boldest maintained their rush. Another quick
discharge brought even these to a halt, with the loss of four of their
number; and while they stood, hesitating whether to advance or retreat,
we peppered them again, to their manifest astonishment and
consternation--possibly they thought that, with our guns empty, they
were reasonably safe for a minute or so--whereupon they turned and fled,
leaving six of their comrades prostrate on the ground. At this moment a
cry from Teresita sent us all with a rush, helter-skelter, to the room
which I had originally undertaken to defend; and here we found a
critical state of affairs indeed. For while we had all been engaged in
checking the rush upon the front of the house, the party with the
palm-tree battering-ram had, under cover of various patches of
vegetation, stolen up to within a hundred yards of the side, and were
now manifestly preparing to make a rush across the open, bearing their
battering-ram with them. Thanks, however, to Teresita's warning cry, we
were just in good time to pour in a brisk fire upon them almost before
they had fairly started upon their rush, and three or four men went
down, throwing the others into momentary confusion, which afforded us
the opportunity to treat them to a second volley. As this second volley
crashed out I, having reloaded my weapon, stepped forward to take my
place at a loophole just vacated by some one else, and as I did so I
observed that the whole party had been thrown into great confusion by
the second volley, the tree trunk having fallen to the ground, or been
dropped. That, however, was not all; the negro dressed in Spanish
infantry uniform had come to the front and was standing stock still,
with his back toward the house, haranguing the battering-ram contingent
and apparently urging them to pick up the tree again and make another
attempt. The opportunity was too good to be lost, for he was within
long range, and it was quite worth while to throw away a shot on the
chance of hitting him; I therefore levelled my piece, aiming steadily at
an imaginary point about two inches immediately above his head--feeling
certain that, with this amount of elevation, I should get him
somewhere--and pulled the trigger. The smoke of the discharge obscured
my view for a second or two, but a wild shout of triumph from those in
the next room told me that my shot had been successful; and then, as the
smoke drifted away, I saw the fellow lying prone on the ground, with his
men standing staring at him, as though fascinated, yet seemingly afraid
to approach and attempt to raise him. As I stood, still peering through
the loophole at the scene, my empty piece was gently withdrawn from my
hand by some one behind me, and a loaded one substituted for it,
whereupon I chose another mark and fired, bringing that man down also.
This second casualty, at such long range, seemed to galvanise the party
into sudden life; for, raising their weapons, they poured in a
straggling, irregular, but ineffective volley, as though in obedience to
an order, and then turned and raced for the nearest cover, followed by a
few dropping shots, which at least served to freshen their way, if it
did nothing else.
The entire attacking party now took cover, and opened fire upon the
house at long range. Apparently they possessed little or no skill in
the use of firearms, for, although a few shots struck the house, not one
of them came anywhere near the loopholes, and every one of the garrison
remained unscathed. Our foes were amply strong enough to have carried
the building by assault had they but possessed the courage and
resolution to charge across the open, right up to the house, and tear
down but a single one of our barricades; but they had already learned by
experience that this meant certain death to some of them; and while, if
report did not belie them, they were all ready enough to take the lives
of others with every accompaniment of the most atrocious cruelty, there
was apparently none among them willing to contribute to the success of
his party by sacrificing his own. This innocuous fusillade of the house
continued for nearly two hours, during which we made no pretence of
reply except when some individual, in a temporary access of courage,
attempted to slip across from one piece of cover to another situated a
few yards nearer the house, when he was immediately subjected to a
volley that either laid him low, or sent him scuttling back, like a
scared rabbit, to his former place of refuge.