GAMBLING--AN UNLUCKY HIT.
The day wore on without any thing worth relating. At length I was
disturbed by a loud burst of laughter on deck, and adjourned to the
open air. The first thing that struck me was poor little Dicky
Phantom, a close prisoner in a turkey basket--a large wicker
cage-looking affair, that we had originally brought from the frigate
with poultry. He was crying bitterly.
"Dogvane, what has the child been doing that you have imprisoned him in
this way?"
"Why, sir," said Mr Weevil, the purser, "it is a vagary of Lennox's.
The child was certainly nearly overboard to-day, so, for fear of
accidents, he has chosen to coop him up in this fantastical manner, as
if he had been a turkey."
"Poo, poo--release him. Here, Dicky, come out, will you?"
I undid the latch, and the little fellow crept out on all-fours. As
soon as he was at large, he laid hold of the cage, and would have
thrown it overboard, if I had not prevented him.
"No, no, Master Dicky, it is a good idea of Lennox's; and mind,
whenever you are a bad boy, in you go again."
"I was not bad boy," said the urchin; "Lennox' big mens were bad boy."
"How, Dicky, how?"
"Oh, dem shame poor Quacco--see, see, dere."
I looked forward, and noticed Quacco coming on deck through the
fore-hatchway, a very extraordinary-looking figure certainly. It
seemed that our sable friend had missed muster twice running; so the
men thought they would fall on a method of curing him; but before they
could put it in force, they had to imprison poor little Dicky, who was
much attached to the negro, and evinced great grief when they commenced
operations.
Their plan was this. They got some molasses, and anointed his woolly
pate as he slept, and then, with the cook's dredging-box, they
plastered the same over with flour, and left him in his hammock, in
place of rousing him out to take his morning watch. They thus
converted his pate into a regular cockroach trap, for those horrible
beetles crowded from all corners of the 'tween-decks, and settling down
on the molasses and flour, soon got their feet entangled and their
wings besmeared in such a way that they could not start either tack or
sheet, but were glued in a living web of abomination to the poor
devil's head. I took Dicky in my arms, and Quacco toddled aft.
Although I was angry, I could not help laughing at the figure he cut,
with his white head, like a large cauliflower, bespangled, not with
bees, but with large brown beetles, who were fluttering with their
wings, and shaking their long feelers or antennae, and struggling to
get their legs out of the bog of treacle and flour; while the poor
fellow, half asleep, was as yet in a great measure unconscious of his
situation. At this nick, Old Lanyard came on deck.
"Who has done this? I say, men, if you make a beast of the poor devil
in this way again, mind your hands--that's all. Here, cook, take
Quacco into the bows, and let your mate scrub him clean."
"Why, we shall have to cut his wool out, sir."
"Hair, if you please, Massa Draining," interjected the culprit himself;
"sheep hab wool--black gentleman wear hair."
"Yes, and he should pay the powder tax," said I, laughing against my
will.
"Well, well, Drainings," continued the lieutenant, "do as you please,
but have him cleaned instantly; his appearance, with those crawling
insects amongst the wool--hair, I beg pardon--is shocking; so forward,
Master Quacco, and be scrubbed."
"Ay," quoth little Dicky, "forward Massa Quacco, and be scrub;" and
great was the laughter and shouting at the shearing of Serjeant Quacco.
* * * * *
"What is that flying on board the Gazelle, Mr Peak?" said Lanyard.
"The signal to chase in the north-west, sir."
"Mast-head there," the lookout-man answered; "do you see any thing in
the north-west quarter?'
"No, sir," replied the man.
"Very well. Turn the hands up, Mr Peak, and make sail."
This was accordingly done; and, after having hauled our wind about an
hour, we saw the vessel, which the frigate had seen so much sooner than
us in consequence of the greater height of her masts. We chased the
whole forenoon; and, as we rose her, made her out to be a large
merchant-ship under all sail, evidently desirous of avoiding the
pleasure of our society if she could; for, verily, like the ugly face
of many an honest man, our appearance was far from being the best of
us, our rig being deucedly roguish.
By five o'clock in the afternoon we were within half a mile, when we
hoisted our colours and pennant, and fired a gun to make our friend
heave to; but this she declined to do, and we now guessed that she was
one of the large London traders. There were, we could see, a number of
people on deck, some of them apparently passengers.
"Why, Mr Wadding," said Mr Lanyard to the gunner, "he seems determined
to lead us a dance; we must send the next shot nearer him."
The old man was looking through the glass at her. "If I don't mistake,
they are training two guns aft, sir, there, through the stern-ports;
and she must have a crew of some forty hands, I think, from those I see
on deck. There are a number of amphiberous-looking people besides on
the poop--passengers, I suppose--busy with muskets, sir. If he
persists in refusing to let us board him, he will bother us a little."
"That is his look out," said Dick. "Set every rag that will draw; pack
on her, Mr Marline, and clear away both guns. Pipe away the cutter's
crew, boatswain, and see they are properly armed." Then to me--"I say,
Benjie, any objections to a lark--Mr Marline is going in the boat, eh?"
"None in the world--so here's with you, Master Marline, my boy."
I went below to dress myself, and as I was putting on my jacket, bang,
I heard a gun fired at us.
"Call Mr Brail, Lennox," said Mr Lanyard. "Tell him the chase has run
out two stern chase-guns, and has just fired at us."
I came on deck as he spoke.
"Did the shot come near you, Mr Marline?" continued Lanyard.
"It whistled right over our masthead, sir--it was very well aimed."
"Never mind, haul as close by the wind as you can, and gain the weather
gage if possible. I want to creep alongside on his weather quarter."
This was done; and seeing that we sailed so much faster than he did,
and that, as we hauled up across his stern within musket-shot, with
both guns pointed at him, we could rake him if we chose, he did not
venture to fire again. Presently we were within hail, and found that
it was the Roger Beresford, or some such name, from London, bound to
Antigua.
"Heave-to, and I will send a boat on board of you."
But although his fight had considerably evaporated, yet he seemed
noways inclined to do this thing, even after he had been told who we
were, and that the vessel astern was his Majesty's frigate the Gazelle.
He kept his people all at quarters, and I noticed that his broadside
consisted of six twelve-pound carronades, and a long gun amidships;
rather too many pills for a comfortable dose to so small a hooker as
the Midge, if he should prove obstinate, besides the absurdity of the
thing in being peppered by one of our own merchant craft, through a
vagary of the master's.
As we approached, one of the muskets of the motley group that were
clustered on the poop went off, apparently from awkwardness or
accident, which the others took for a signal, and four or five were let
drive, but fortunately mighty wide of their mark.
"Mr Peak, fire that musket close over the heads of these heroes."
Crack--the whole bunch bobbed, as if they had seen the bullet coming;
and immediately the gallant band tumbled down, one over another, on the
quarterdeck, in much admired disorder. We ranged close alongside, with
the boat towing astern, ready manned and armed, and all hands at
quarters. This formidable manoeuvre seemed to quail the courage of the
chase a little.
"I shall board you, whether you will or not, my fine fellow; so round
to this instant, or I fire into you."
Seeing Lanyard was angry and in earnest, he now did as desired. So we
were presently on his deck, when we found he was a running ship, who,
not liking our appearance, had very properly tried to escape in the
first instance, and, finding that impossible, to fight, if need were,
in the second. All his papers were right, and I had time to take a
squint at the passengers. There were several ladies on board--three, I
think--an elderly one, and two very handsome girls. They were now all
on deck, surrounded by the male passengers, the Spartan band who had
made such a hostile demonstration on the poop, some of whom cut rather
conspicuous figures, in their shooting jackets, with bran-new red
turkey leather pocketbooks peeping out of the numberless pockets, and
gay seal-skin caps, and natty waistcoats, with lots of chains and
seals--every thing, in fact, of the newest and gaudiest--and oh for the
murder and piracy of his Majesty's English amongst the Cockney crew!
One spruce young fellow--the youth whose musket had gone off by
mistake--had chosen to equip himself, sailor fashion, jacket, trowsers,
and white vest, with a straw hat and black ribbon, and lots of bright
brass buttons, all astonishingly fine. He kept swaggering about the
deck, on which, by the way, he could hardly stand, and twice, rather
unceremoniously, thrust himself between me and one of the young ladies,
to whom I happened to be speaking. I determined to give him a fright.
So I tipped the wink to Marline.
"Dogvane, order the boat's crew on deck."
"Ay, ay, sir."
"Now, captain, have the kindness to muster your people, if you please."
The man remonstrated, but the midshipman insisted; and presently the
poor fellows were ranged on the lee-side of the quarterdeck, each in
momentary dread of being selected as pressed men.
"Why, sir," persisted the captain, "I solemnly protest against this; we
carry a letter of marque, sir; and it is more than your rating is worth
to take any of my hands. I solemnly protest against such conduct."
Marline apparently gave in.
"Very well, sir; but we must be manned by hook or crook, you know,
however unwilling to distress running ships. Oh, I see--_there_ is a
smart hand, in the gay jacket there, who does not seem to belong to
your crew--a good seaman, evidently, by the cut of his jib."
This last part of his speech was intended to be overheard by the
fresh-water sailor with the brass buttons, who now toddled up--the
vessel was rolling a good deal--smirking and smiling--"Why, captain, I
have paid great attention since we embarked, and really I have become a
very capital sailor, sir. Do you know I have been twice through the
lubber's hole?"
"Really! I knew you were a thorough good bit of stuff;" and then in a
gruff voice, "so hand up your bag, sir, and step into the boat."
"Hand up my bag, and step into the boat!" said the poor fellow, all
abroad; "my bag! la, sir, my clothes a'n't packed, and why should I go
into your boat?"
"Simply," said Marline, slapping him on the shoulder with force to make
him wince again, "that you are the very man I want. Your nautical air
and speech have betrayed you, sir; and I can see with half an eye that
you are second-mate of some vessel; I therefore press you into the
service, to serve his Majesty on board of his gallant frigate the
Gazelle there"--pointing to her, as she was fast coming up astern.
He shrank back in great alarm.
"Lack-a-daisy, sir, it's all a mistake--I am no sailor, sir--I am Joe
Wilkins the draper, son of old Joe Wilkins, number so-and-so, Coleman
Street. Me a sailor! my wig!"
I laughed.
"Well, well, Mr Joseph Wilkins, I begin to think I may be wrong; but
never pass yourself off for a sailor again, lest worse come of it; and
never take firearms into your hands until you learn how to manage them.
Why, sir," continued Marline sternly, "you were the cause of five
musket shots being fired at us, and the blood of men who were doing no
more than their duty, sir, might have been spilt by your swaggering."
As he spoke, Joey had gradually crept away towards the companion, and
by this time nothing but his head was above deck. I made a sudden
spring at him, when he vanished in a moment, amid a volley of laughter
from all hands. We now made our bows to the ladies, apologizing for
any little alarm we might have caused, and bidding the captain good-by,
were speedily at home again.
The period was now approaching when we were to part company, the
Gazelle for Jamaica, and the Midge for Havanna; and on such a day,
Lanyard having received his orders, we altered our course a point or
two to the northward, and lost sight of the commodore before the night
fell.
Nothing particular occurred until we arrived within a couple of days'
run of Havanna, when we made out a sail lying becalmed right a-head.
We carried the breeze up to within half a mile of her, when it failed
us also; and there we both lay rolling on the glass-like swell of the
great Bahama Channel, one of the hottest quarters of the globe in a
calm that ever I was in. The heat was absolutely roasting. The vessel
we had seen was a brig with bright sides, which, as we approached, had
hoisted a signal of distress at the mizen peak, the American ensign,
with the stars down, and the stripes uppermost. A boat was immediately
manned, and pulled towards her, for apparently she had none of her own.
I went in her--any thing to break the tedium of a sea life. As we
neared her, the crew, some six or eight hands, were seen running about
the deck, and holding out their hands imploringly towards us, in a way
that I could not account for. As we came closer, the master hailed in
a low husky voice, "For Heaven's sake send us some water, sir, we are
perishing of thirst--water, sir, water, for the love of God!" We were
now alongside, when three men absolutely _tumbled_ over the brig's side
into the boat, and began, before we could recover our surprise, to
struggle who should first get his lips into the small puddle of dirty
water in the bottom of it. Brackish as it must have been, it was drank
up in a moment. The extremity of the poor fellows was evidently great,
so I jumped on deck, and the boat was immediately sent back for a
breaker of water.
Sailors have their virtues and vices like other men, but I am not
arrogating for them when I say, that a scene like this, in all its
appalling bearings; that misery, such as we saw before us, so
peculiarly incidental to his own condition, would, were it from this
cause alone, thrill to a sailor's heart, with a force unknown and
undreamt of by any other human being. Dogvane, the old quartermaster,
had steered us on board. He now jumped up in the stern sheets, and
cast off his jacket--"You, Jabos, you limber villain," said he to a
slight boy who pulled the foremost oar, "come out of the bow, and take
the tiller, will ye? and mind you steer steady. Shift forward, my
hearties, and give me the stroke oar." The boat's crew at this hint
tore their hats off, with a chance of a stroke of the sun before their
eyes, and dashed them to the bottom of the boat, stripped up their
frock sleeves to their armpits, undid the ribbons that fastened their
frock collars, new-fitted their stretchers, and wetting the palms of
their hands, feathered their oars, and waited for the word. "Now mind
your strain, my lads," again sung out old Dogvane, "until the boat
gathers way--no springing of the ash staves, do you hear? Give way
now." The boat started off like an arrow--the oars groaned and
cheeped, the water buzzed away into a long snow-white frothy wake, and
in _no time_ she was alongside the felucca, on whose deck, in his
red-hot haste, the quartermaster first toppled down on his nose, and
then, scarcely taking time to touch his hat to Mr Lanyard, we saw him
bundle down the main hatchway; in another moment a small cask, ready
slung, slowly ascended, and was rolled across the deck into the boat.
But this was not all; the Midges on board the felucca were instantly
all astir, and buzzing about at a devil of a rate--out sweeps was the
word, and there was the black hull of the little vessel torn along the
shining surface of the calm sea, right in the wake of the boat, by
twelve long dark sweeps, looking for all the world, in the distance,
like a beetle chasing a common fly across a polished mirror blazing
with intolerable radiance under the noon-dav sun.
It appeared that, first of all, the brig had been a long time baffled
in the Horse latitudes, which ran their supply of water short; and,
latterly, they had lain a whole week becalmed where we found them.
Several days before we fell in with them, they had sent away the boat
with three hands to try and reach the shore, and bring back a supply,
but they had never returned, having in all likelihood either perished
from thirst before they got to land, or missed the brig on their way
back. No soul on board, neither captain nor crew, had cooled his
parched tongue for eight-and-forty hours before we boarded them--_this
in such a climate_!
There was not only no water, but not a drop of liquid unconsumed of any
kind or description whatever, saving and excepting some new rum, which
the men had freely made use of at first, until two of them died raving
mad in consequence. When I got on board, the cask was lying open on
the tap, and, perishing as they were, not one of them could swallow a
drop of it if they had tried; they said it was like taking aquafortis
or melted lead into their mouths, when at any time they were driven, by
the fierceness of their sufferings, to attempt assuaging their thirst
with it. I had not been five minutes on board, when the captain seemed
to go mad altogether.
"My poor wife, sir--oh, God, she is dying in the cabin, sir--she may be
dead--she must be dead--but I dare not go below to look at her.--Oh, as
you hope for mercy at your dying day, hail your people to make haste,
sir--half an hour may be too late"--and the poor fellow dashed himself
down on the deck, writhing about, like a crushed reptile, in a paroxysm
of the most intense agony; while the men, who were all clustered
half-naked in the bows, with wet blankets on their shoulders, in the
hope that nature would in this way absorb some moisture, and thus
alleviate their sufferings, were peering out with their feverish and
blood-shot eyes, and wan faces, at the felucca; watching every motion
on board with the most breathless anxiety.
"There, there--there is the cask on deck--they are lowering it into the
boat--they have shoved off--oh, great God in Heaven, we shall be saved
after all!"--and the poor fellows raised a faint hurrah, and closed in
on me, some shaking my hands, others dropping on their knees to bless
me; while one poor creature lay choking on the hard deck in a fit of
hysterical laughter, as if he had been a weakly woman.
The boat could not possibly be back under ten minutes; so I went below
into the cabin, and never did I behold such a heart-rending sight. The
small table that had stood in the centre had been removed; and there,
stretched on a coarse wet blanket, lay a half-naked female--pale and
emaciated--her long hair dishevelled, and hanging over her face, and
down her back, in wet clotted strands, with a poor miserable infant
puling and nuzzling at her wasted breast; while a black woman, herself
evidently deep sunk in the same suffering, was sprinkling salt water
from a pail on the unhappy creature and her child.
"Oh, massa," cried the faithful negress--"oh, massa, give missis some
water, or him dead--I strong, can last some time yet--but poor
missis"--and here she sobbed, as if her heart would have burst; but the
fountains of her tears were dried up. The white female was unable to
raise her head--she lay moaning on the deck, and mumbling audibly with
her dry and shrunken lips, as if they had been ossified; but she could
not speak.
"Keep a good heart, madam," said I--"we have sent on board for
water--it will be here in a minute." She looked doubtingly at me,
clasped her hands together above her child's head, and seemed to pray.
I ran on deck--the boat, in an incredibly short time, was alongside
again, with the perspiration pouring down the flushed faces and
muscular necks of the kind-hearted fellows in her--their duck-clothing
as wet and dank as a boat-sail in a race.
"Now, Dogvane--hand up the breaker--quick, man, quick." My request was
unnecessary; it was on deck in an instant; but before I could turn
round, the men of the brig made a rush aft, and seized the cask, making
a vain attempt to carry it forward; alas! poor fellows, they had not
the strength of children. We easily shoved them aside, as it was
necessary they should not get water-logged by too free a use of it at
first.--"Now, Dogvane, mind what I tell you--make that small tub there
full of five-water grog--no stronger, mind--and serve out a pint to
each of these poor fellows, and not a drop more at present." I seized
a glass of the first of it, and ran below. "Here," said I, to the
black servant--"here, take a mouthful yourself, and then give some to
your mistress." She shook her head, and made as if she would have
helped her mistress first; but the selfishness of her own grinding
misery conquered the poor creature's resolution; and dashing, rather
than carrying the glass to her mouth, she ravenously swallowed the
whole contents in a second, and then fell flat on the deck with a wild
laugh.
"Oh, massa, I can't help it--nobody love missis like Juba; but once I
taste him, I could not help it for de life-blood of me, massa. Oh, my
eye, my eye like cinder--like red-hot bullet dem is, massa--oh, for one
tear, one leetle tear--oh, dere come one tear; but God, God, him is hot
more as boiling rum, and salt--ah, ah, ah"--and the poor creature
rolled about the deck in the uttermost distress.
The master of the vessel had by this time entered, and lifted up his
wife into a sitting position; and there she sat, with her parched mouth
all agape, the black fur on her tongue, and with glazed and half-shut
eyes; her pinched features, and death-like complexion evincing
tearfully the strength of her sufferings.
He poured some water into her mouth, but she could not swallow it; he
tried again, and from the gurgling noise in her throat, I thought she
was suffocating, especially as I noticed, as if conscious that she was
departing, she now clutched her poor wasted baby to her shrunk bosom
with all the little strength she possessed. But she _had_ swallowed a
little, and this revived her; and after several other trials, the poor
fellow had the happiness to see his wife snatched from the jaws of
death, and able to sit up by herself with her back against the locker.
She now began to moan heavily, and to rock herself to and fro over her
helpless, all but dead infant, as it lay, struggling faintly, and
crying with its small imploring voice, on her knee; at length she
acquired sufficient strength to gasp out, "God bless you, sir--God
bless you--you have saved my child, and all of us--God bless you,"--and
then resumed her moaning, as if she was suffering something that she
herself could not describe. I sent on board for more water, and some
tea and other small luxuries from my private stock; and that same
evening, as the sun was setting, under a canopy of glorious clouds,
beneath which the calm sea glowed like molten gold, gradually melting
into gorgeous purple, I saw a small dark ripple ruffling its
mirror-like surface in the east, and gradually steal down towards where
we lay. The next moment I felt a light zephyr-like air on the palm of
my wet hand as I held it up. Presently, as the grey cat's-paws became
darker, and fluttered down stronger and nearer to us, and were again
withdrawn, and shifted about, shooting out and shortening like
streamers, Mr Peak sung out, "There, there's the breeze at last, sir,
there;" and the smooth shining canals that divided the blue shreds of
ripples gradually narrowed, while the latter increased and came down
stronger, until the whole sea to windward was roughened into small dark
waves, that increased as the night fell, and both the Midge and brig
were buzzing along on their course to Havanna before a six-knot breeze.
The next evening we were under the Moro Castle, where we anchored. At
daylight on the following morning we ran in through the narrow
entrance, under the tremendous forts that crown its high banks on each
side, and anchored before this most magnificent city, this West Indian
Liverpool; while its batteries and bastions, with the grinning cannon
peering through numberless embrasures, the tall spires and towers, the
highest of the houses, the masts and drying sails of numberless
vessels, with their gay flags, British, American, French, Spanish, and
of almost every country in the world, were glancing bright and fresh in
the early sunbeams, under a floating canopy of thin blue smoke from the
charcoal fires. All which magnificent description goes for this much:
the unsentimental Dons were doffing their nightcaps, and donning their
breeches, while the fires were lighting to prepare their coffee and
chocolate.
That forenoon I went on shore, and delivered my letters to Mr M----,
one of the most extensive English merchants in the place, a kind and
most hospitable man. He invited me to dine with him, and to accept of
a bed at his house in the evening, both of which were too good offers
to be sneezed at. We had a very large party at dinner, composed of a
lot of Mr M----'s clerks, several masters of merchantmen, and the
captain and two lieutenants of an American frigate lying there, all
three of the latter, by the way, extremely pleasant men.
There was one of Mr M----'s adherents present, a very odd creature, and
rather a wildish one, an Irishman; what his real name was I forget now,
but he was generally called Listado. His prime object during dinner
was to quiz the Americans, but they took it very good-naturedly. He
then tried his hand on me, in what I believe is vulgarly called
trotting, which is to get one on his hobby, and appear to listen most
anxiously all the while, although every one but yourself sees you are
made to show your paces more for the amusement of the company than
their information. At length I saw through the rogue, and dismounted,
laughing heartily at the cleverness with which he had paraded me.
In the evening, the mercantile members of our party retired to the
counting-house, the Americans returned to their ship, and I strolled
about the town until the night fell, when I returned by appointment for
Listado, with whom I went to the opera, which far surpassed any thing I
expected to see or hear in that quarter of the world. After it was
over, we adjourned to some lodging-house or tavern in the
neighbourhood, and perpetrated the heinous sin of eating a heavy
supper, for which I paid afterwards, as will be seen.
It so happened that the aforesaid Monsieur Listado had given up his bed
to me, and slept himself on a small pallet beside the wall in the same
room. At the right hand of the head of my bed, a lofty door opened
into an adjoining room, a large dreary unfurnished apartment, with
several packages of goods scattered about on the floor. On
examination, I found there was no window in it, nor any light admitted
except through the door into our room, which was the only opening into
it. It was a regular _cul de sac_.
We must have been some hours asleep when I awoke, or thought I did,
pretty much the same thing so far as my feelings at the moment went,
lying on my back, with my hands crossed on my breast, like the statue
of a knight templar. These said paws of mine seemed by the way to be
of an inconceivable weight, as if they had actually been petrified, and
to press so heavily on my chest as to impede my breathing. Suddenly
one of my little fingers grew, like Jonah's gourd, to a devil of a
size; and next moment the thumb of the other hand, as if determined not
to be outdone by the minikin on the left, became a facsimile of a
Bologna sausage; so there I lay like a large lobster, with two
tremendous claws. My nose then took its turn, and straightway was
converted into one of Mr M----'s cotton bags, that lay in the store
below, containing three hundred-weight, more or less.
"Oh!" said I now to myself, "what a fool I have been!
Nightmare--nightmare."
"Hookey, but it isn't though," said Listado.
"Hillo," said I to myself again--for I was quite certain I had not
spoken--"how the deuce can Listado answer my _thoughts_, which I have
never uttered?"--And I tried to ask him, but my nose, or the cotton
bag, would not let me speak. "Why, it must be nightmare," again
thought I to myself.
"The devil a nightmare is it," again said Listado.
And I now began to take fright in earnest; when, on the opposite wall,
for I could only see in the direction of the foot of my bed, a
gradually increasing gleam of pale glow-worm-coloured light fell;
streaming apparently through the door that opened at my shoulder into
the large lumber-room already described.
The light seemed to proceed from the further end of this apartment,
because the shadow of one of the boxes of goods that lay scattered
about the floor was cast strongly against the wall of my room at the
foot of the bed.
"What can this mean?" for I knew from actual survey the geography of
the apartment from whence the glare proceeded; "what can this mean?
Some trick of Listado's. Snapdragon, snapdragon."
"Snapdragon be d--d simply," quoth Listado's voice once more.
"Heyday," quoth I.
But there he lay, full in the stream of light, apparently sound asleep;
and so transmogrified under its baleful influence, that he looked more
like a corpse than a living man.
"Murder! what comes next?" groaned I--for I could now speak--as the
shadow of the figure of the poor woman rescued from perishing with
thirst on board of the American brig glided along the wall with her
infant in her arms and her clothes in disorder, the wet blanket which
the poor negro had been moistening, when I first saw her, hanging from
her shoulders, and her hair dishevelled; her figure, in fact, in every
point precisely as I had seen her in the cabin. The apparition seemed
to pause for a moment, and then stepped towards the box of dry goods,
and setting itself down, began to rock itself and moan; and the poor
picaniny began to struggle and pule at its mother's bosom for all the
world as naturally as it had done in the brig.
"There's a phantasmagoria for you, Master Benjie;--free gratis for
nothing, Master Benjie," said I to myself; whereupon my thumb, of the
size of the Bologna sausage, took my nose, of the size of the cotton
bag, such a crack! I thought it was knocked off. Presently I felt as
if the latter had been set a-bleeding so furiously as to float the bed
off the floor, and me in it. By and by the room became filled with
blood; and there I lay, cruising about in the floating bed, until the
door gave way, when the crimson torrent rushed down stairs like the
rapids of Niagara, bursting into the other sleeping apartments in its
descent--I could hear the suffocating coughs of the inmates as they
were drowning. At length, the blood having had vent, the bed once more
subsided, and took the ground on the very spot from whence it had
originally been floated. The light on the wall, however, was still as
strong as ever, but had changed from the moonlight tinge to a hot, deep
red glare, such as the devils break out of rocks with in theatres.
The shadow of the box had disappeared, and so had the figure of the
poor woman and her child; but I now heard a noise as of some one
singing snatches of the Carnival of Venice to himself, and dancing as
if practising a new step, with occasionally a tap tap on the floor, as
if the performer had been the owner of a wooden leg.
"Come along, my lad," thought I; "why, what next, what next?"--on which
the figure of a man, dressed in the old-fashioned coat commonly worn by
physicians in Havanna, with frills at his wrists, and tight
inexpressibles on, glided across the wall and disappeared. Presently I
was conscious he was in the room, which became suddenly hot and choky,
and, in fact, standing at my bedside, for I could hear some one
breathe, although I had not the power of turning my neck to look at him.
"Have the kindness," said he, in some unknown tongue, but which was
quite intelligible to me--"have the kindness to let me feel your
pulse." Scarcely knowing what I did, I held out my hand. "Your nose,
if you please," quoth the physician; on which he took it, big as it
was, between his finger and thumb, and gave it such a squeeze, that it
burst with a noise like thunder, and instantly relapsed into its former
shape. At the report, I could hear the sentries on the walls a mile
off, hailing--"quien viva, quien viva," along the whole line. The
figure now came forward, so that I could see him. He was a tall and
very handsome man, but his complexion, pale and ashy, had the
self-radiant appearance of steel at a white heat; indeed the glow of
his face was like to roast my skin into parchment. His features were
good, but there was rather a peculiar cast in his eye. He wore a black
silk cowl, which stuck out a little over his ears on each side, as if
two small horns had been concealed under it; and he was dressed in deep
black. One leg was symmetry itself, but the other was shaped like that
of a satyr, and ended in a hoof; however, the shank was covered with a
silk stocking, and the hoof by a curiously-shaped shoe, made by Hoby to
fit with wonderful neatness.
"You will do very well now," said he, "so I will see how Mr Listado
comes on;" and, as he turned to where he lay, I saw a small barbed
tail, glowing like red-hot iron, protruding from between the voluminous
skirts of his coat, that corruscated, and sent sparks all about the
room. It kept twisting about like a live eel, and jerking in a fidgety
manner; and I was puzzling myself how it did not burn the cloth of his
skirts, when my attention was fixed on what the figure was doing.
Listado was still sound asleep; there was a basin of water on a chair
close to his head;--the figure dipped the end of the tail into it, when
it instantly began to boil furiously, so that the spray of the bubbles,
as they frothed and poppled about, burnt Listado's face, and he awoke.
"Who has scalded me in this way?" quoth he.
"Only have patience, my dear sir," said the physician; "it is all meant
kindly,--merely to season you; merely to season you."
"Season me--season me to what, d--n me"--quoth Listado in a fury.
"With all the pleasure in life, my dear sir," said the figure, nipping
off the tail of Listado's exclamation as if it had been a leech in the
hands of my friend Majendie; "I will do any thing to oblige you, and
d--d you shall be with all the comfort in life; only wait a
moment;"--and he thereupon took a small very natty toasting fork out of
his coat pocket; but, in the act, burnt his fingers against his red-hot
tail. "Curse the tail," quoth he, as he pulled out the joints of the
fork, until it was about a yard long. All this while Listado, blasted
by the deep red glare into a dark crimson, lay like a big lobster newly
boiled, looking at the physician's preparations, apparently fascinated,
and without the power of motion. The figure now looked at me over his
shoulder, and winked knowingly, when some vapour, like an escape from
the safety-valve of a steam-boiler, puffed out of his mouth; but he
apologized, and said, he had been smoking, although the flavour had
more of brimstone than tobacco in it. "Good by, Mr Brail; I will come
for _you_ by and by."--"You need not hurry, my dear fellow," thought
I;--and so saying, he, with all the coolness in life, clapped the fork
into Listado's stern-frame, and, begging pardon for the trouble he was
putting him to, lifted him, writhing like an impaled frog, on the
instrument, and as if he really had been no heavier. He then calmly
walked right through the solid wall with him, as if it had been a
cloud, and disappeared. I could hear Listado roaring lustily all the
while, and the physician making numberless apologies, always concluding
with "I shall be as gentle with you, Mr Listado, as your request to be
d--d will permit."
At last the sounds died away, and I began to think of going to sleep;
when an instrument that I at once knew to be our friend the physician's
fork was thrust into me from below, through the mattrass. "Hillo,
hillo, hillo," roared I; "this will never do, by"----
"What the devil do you grunt and growl so much in your sleep for?"
shouted Listado.
"Devil!" quoth I, rubbing my eyes; "oh! confound the poached eggs."
About a fortnight after this, Listado and I, along with one of the
young American officers, looked in at a monte-table and staked our
doubloon a-piece; both of my friends lost, but I was most unaccountably
fortunate; for, without knowing any thing of the game, or the chances
of it, I found, when I rose to go away, that I had no less than fifty
doubloons in my fob. As we left the house I noticed a stout,
dark-complexioned young man, with great whiskers, dressed, like most of
the others present, in a light gingham coat and white trowsers, but
without either waistcoat or neckcloth, eye me very fiercely. He had
been one of the heaviest sufferers by my winnings; and when I rose, he
followed me. I thought nothing of this at the time, and walked on with
the American and Listado, who had agreed to adjourn to a tavern to sup
together; but I had had enough of suppers for some time, and therefore
parted with them at the street corner, and bore up alone for Mr M----'s.
It was by this time near twelve o'clock at night, very dark and gusty;
and as I proceeded, the rain splashed in my face, and there were
several flashes of lightning, followed by loud claps of thunder. By
one of the former I thought I saw the person from whom I had won so
much, skulking behind a pillar that formed part of a colonnade in front
of one of the public buildings; and I will not conceal that an uneasy
feeling arose in my mind, as I recalled the numberless stories of
Spanish vindictiveness to my recollection.
"Poo, poo," said I to myself, ashamed of my weakness--"all romance, all
romance." As I spoke, I was nearly blinded by a flash of lightning,
and clapt my hand to my eyes, "Ah--what is that?" I exclaimed, as I
received a blow under my fifth rib, on the right side, that made me
stagger to the wall. Another flash showed me the figure of the man,
gliding rapidly away into the darkness. I put my hand to my side, and
felt the blood streaming down. I had been wounded, and was becoming
faint, faint. I tried to proceed, but could only stagger against a
pillar, to which I clung. I could no longer breathe--every thing swam
around me, and I became deadly cold. "I am gone!" I gasped out, as I
sank on my knees, and leant my head against the wall. "Oh God, forgive
my sins, and receive my soul--My mother--bless my poor mother!"----
* * * * *
When my recollection returned, I was lying on a low bed, or _quatre_,
without curtains or canopy of any kind, in the middle of a very large
and lofty room. It was greatly darkened, but I could perceive, from
the bright pensiles of light that streamed through the crevices of the
closed shutters, that it was broad day. For some time, as my
consciousness gradually awoke, I lay watching the motes dancing and
revolving in the sunbeams, and then looked up towards the bare timbers
of the floor above me. "Where _can_ I be--and what _has_ happened?" I
murmured to myself.
"Hush!" said a low female voice close to me--"hush! Doctor Delaville
says you are not to speak, sir,--not even to turn, if you can help it."
"Doctor Delaville--not speak! Call Lennox, will ye?" and I again began
to waver.--"Mr Marline, how is her head? Oh, my side--merciful
Providence! what has befallen--what _is_ wrong with me?"--as I tried to
move round in order to see the person who had spoken. I effected my
purpose so far as to half turn my face from the light--"Oh, Heaven have
mercy on me!--my senses are gone, and I am mad." I shut my eyes, and
under this heart-crushing belief, wept bitterly.
There was a large balcony or open window in the wall of the apartment
farthest from the street, towards which I had turned my face, that
opened into a room beyond, at a height of about three feet from the
floor. It was fitted with shutters opening inwards, like those of the
external windows. The saloon into which I looked was apparently a
lofty room, and lighted, so far as I could judge, entirely from the
roof. I also inferred that this part of the house projected back from
the main building, and that it was lower, and overshadowed by green
trees; for the light that shone from above was subdued, and green, and
cold, and more like moonlight than that of the sun. On the walls
beyond I could see pictures; and a piano stood near the window, and
several sofas were scattered about, so that it appeared better
furnished than most houses I had seen in the place; and I knew, that
although I was certainly not in Mr M----'s house, neither was I in that
of a Spaniard. There was a very handsome geranium, in an ornamented
porcelain jar, in the window, which, in some measure, impeded my view
at the top; although near the sill there was only the solitary stalk,
naked of leaves. Presently, as my eyes got accustomed to the twilight,
I noticed gloves, and bonnets, and several large green fans, lying on a
table beyond the window, as if this had been the retreat of some of the
females of the family; all continued as still as death--and the
coolness and freshness of the apartment I looked into, was grateful
beyond belief to my feverish eye and swimming brain. By and by I heard
a rattling and creaking volante drive past, and the shouts of the
driver to his mule, which excited me; and I once more asked the person
who was sitting knitting beside me, where I was. "Hush, hush--until
the doctor comes," was still the answer,--and I again turned my eyes in
the direction of the balcony, and gloated on the flowers and leaves of
the noble plant on the window-sill, which seemed jet black, as they
twinkled in the breeze between me and the light. I could now hear the
sea-breeze set in, and rush amongst the branches of the trees, and moan
through the long galleries and lofty apartments of the house--slamming
a shutter to here, and making a door bang there, and rustling the
shawls, and bonnets, and female gear in the boudoir.
The effect of this on my shattered nerves was delightful; and, for the
first time since I had recovered my recollection, I lay back with my
heart full of gratitude to the Almighty for his mercy towards me. I
now remembered that I had been wounded, and began to piece together in
my mind the transactions at the gaming-table, and the various
circumstances that had preceded my sallying forth, and wondering who
had been the good Samaritan who had poured oil and wine into my wounds.
I again looked earnestly round. "There--what do I see--_who_ is
that--_what_ is that? Oh, I am mad--I am mad--and all this is a
dream." I looked again. The soft mysterious light already mentioned
now floated over the figure of a tall and very handsome young man,
dressed with great simplicity--a bluejacket, red striped shirt, open at
the collar, with his loose black neckerchief untied, the ends hanging
down on his bosom, and white trowsers. He was seated at an easel in
the boudoir, under the geranium, and close to the window, with his
profile towards me, a palette and paint-brush in one hand, while with a
finger of the other he seemed to be in the act of tracing a line on the
canvass before him. His complexion was very dark and sunburnt, his
mouth and nose beautifully formed, and his forehead, on which the cold
light from above was cast clear and strong, was very high and pale,
contrasting finely with the bronzing of his lower features; his hair
especially caught my attention--it was black, glossy, and curling.
"Great God! is it _him_, or his disembodied spirit?"
A young female, who until this moment I had scarcely noticed, stood
behind his chair, and bent over him, looking also earnestly at the
half-finished painting on the easel;--a tall and light-formed girl,
very pale, and wearing her hair dressed high on her head without any
ornament whatever; she was habited in a plain white frock, low cut at
the bosom, with a pale green band round her waist, and had one of her
beautifully-rounded arms extended over his shoulder, while the other
rested on the back of his chair, as, with lips apart, she pointed to
some particular part of the painting.
Both continued so perfectly immovable that I could not even discern his
breathing, nor the heaving of her lovely bosom. "Were they beings of
this world?--was it him in very truth?" At this moment the leaves of
the trees above were agitated by the passing breeze, for small
twittering shadows were suddenly cast on the faces and figures of the
group, so as to alter the expression of the former in a startling way,
making them flit and gibber, as it were. I thought some horrid change
was coming o'er the spirit of my dream, as I exclaimed,--"Oh, no,
no!--he is gone, poor fellow--gone--cold at the bottom of the sea--and
I am mad--Oh God, I am a lunatic!" And I once more shut my eyes and
wept, until I thought my very heart would have burst in twain; but they
were blessed tears, for they revived me, and my soul felt lighter as I
again thanked Heaven for my deliverance, and tried to convince myself
that all I had seen was but the phantoms of my weakness. A minute
might have fled before I looked up again, but the lovely delusion was
gone, as the servant or nurse who was attending me, perceiving me so
excited by what I had seen in the other apartment, had risen and closed
the window-blinds; thus shutting out every thing in the room beyond
from my view.
The doctor now arrived, and, sliding up to my bedside, made his
enquiries as to how I felt, and was greatly pleased with my amendment.
"This will be great joy to all of them, sir," said he, in broken
English; "so, Mrs Gerard, give your patient his draught, and after the
sleep I hope it will procure"----
I interrupted him. "Pray, doctor, how long have I been ill?--and how
is all going on in the little Midge?--and in whose house am I?--and who
were the young lady and gentleman that I saw?"
He laughed. "Why, Mr Brail, you have fired off one whole broadside of
questions at me; but rest satisfied--all is right on board of de leetle
vessel; and you are in my friend Mr Duquesné's house, who (if you will
only take my advice, and try and obtain some rest, for you have not
slept since you were wounded a week ago) will have the pleasure of
paying his respects to you--and Miss Helen Hudson, too, longs----But I
declare I am forgetting my own instructions--so not vone oder vord,
monsieur,--not vone vord--Adieu until de afternoon." And he vanished
out of the room in the same noiseless cat-like way he had entered it.
To obtain any information from the nurse that sat beside me, I knew was
out of the question; so I took the medicine, and soon fell into a balmy
sleep.
END OF VOLUME ONE.
EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND CO., PAUL'S WORK.