There is a strong similarity between the aspects of physical nature and
those exhibited by man, as an individual, and in the aggregate.
Before any outbreak or great commotion, from the disorganised condition
of the moral body, there are observed signs of discontent, murmurings,
and complaints, fierce looks and threats--these, at length, disappear,
and people seem to be seized with a sudden apathy and indifference,
which is as quickly cast aside, and all is rage, havoc, and confusion.
So, likewise, before the coming of a storm, clouds are seen gathering in
the horizon, murmurs and growls are heard, then the wind dies away, and
a perfect calm, for a short time, succeeds the fury of the tempest, and,
in both instances, the more perfect the calm, the more is the subsequent
outbreak to be feared.
The wind had gradually died away, till the sea became smooth as glass,
and rose and fell in gentle undulations, which made the vessel roll from
side to side, and caused every timber and bulkhead to groan and creak.
It appeared not to have been absolutely necessary to shorten sail so
soon; but as there was a dead calm, this was of no consequence, and the
most prudent seamanship; as it is, at times, difficult to judge the
period a squall my take to travel up to a ship.
The brig still lay with her head a little to the northward of east, and
her yards were now braced up on the starboard tack to meet the wind
which gave signs of coming from the southward and east. Every
preparation was made, and all hands were at their stations, ready to
execute any of their commander's orders which the emergency might
require, when Ada, wearied of remaining in the hot cabin, came on deck,
followed by her little maid; and before Bowse, who was looking to the
southward, perceived them, they had gained the poop.
"This is no place for you, miss, I am sure," he exclaimed, on seeing
her. "You do not know what risk you run. Oh, go below again--go
below."
"Why, what is the matter, Captain Bowse?" she replied, laughing, and
looking at the calm sea. "My uncle told me that we were to have a
tremendous storm, and I do not feel a breath of wind."
"And so we shall, miss," he exclaimed. "You have no time to go below
now without assistance. Hold on by these cleats, and tell your maid to
do so too. Here it comes!"
As he spoke, the mass of clouds which had been collecting to the
eastward, and gradually approaching, now came driving up bodily across
the sky at a rapid rate--the dark waters below it, hitherto so smooth
and calm, presented a sheet of snow-white foam, hissing and bubbling as
if it were turned up and impelled onward by some gigantic besom. Ada,
as she gazed with feelings of mingled terror and admiration, saw it in
one long line near the brig--it reached her side--the white foam flew
upwards, curling over them, and the wind, at the same instant, striking
her canvas, her tall masts seemed to bend to its fury, and then pressed
downwards, the hull heeled over till the lee bulwarks were nearly
submerged.
Two strong hands were at the helm, ready to turn it a-weather, should it
be necessary to scud; but, in an instant, the gallant ship rose again--
and then, like a courser starting for the race, she shot forward through
the boiling cauldron, heeling over till her guns were in the water, but
still bravely carrying her canvas. Not a rope nor a lanyard had
started--not a seam in her topsails had given, and away she flew on her
proper course. The veteran master stood on the poop watching for any
change or increase of wind. The safety of the ship depended on his
promptitude. The sea was rapidly rising; and this was soon perceptible
by her uneasy motion, as she rose and fell to each receding wave, the
last always appearing of greater height than its predecessors. Any
moment it might be necessary either to keep her away, and, furling
everything, to let her drive before the gale under bare poles, or to put
her helm down and heave her to, thus to let her lie forging slowly
a-head, till the gale had abated. A few minutes only had passed since
the brig first felt the force of the gale, and the whole sky was now a
mass of dark clouds, and the sea a sheet of white driving foam--out of
which lofty waves seemed to lift their angry heads, and to urge each
other into increased violence. The wind howled and whistled through the
rigging; the spars creaked and bent; and the whole hull groaned with the
exertion as she tore onwards. Ada, who had, when the ship heeled over,
held firmly on to the weather bulwarks, gazed at the scene, to her, so
novel and grand, with intense pleasure, from which fear was soon
banished; and little Marianna, having followed the example of her
mistress in securing herself, imitated her also in her courage. Indeed,
as yet, except that they were rather wetted by the foam which came on
board, when the squall first struck the brig, there was no object of
terror to alarm them. The moment Bowse could withdraw his attention
from the care of the ship, he hurried to assist Ada and her attendant,
and to place them on the seat which surrounded the cabin skylight, where
she might enjoy the magnificent spectacle of the tumultuous ocean,
without the fatigue of standing, and having to hold on by the bulwarks.
A cloak was thrown round her feet, and as she reclined back in the seat,
she declared she felt like an ocean queen in her barge of state,
reviewing her watery realms. The colonel's appearance on deck,
supported by his man Mitchell, whose usual cadaverous countenance looked
still more ghastly, drove away the romance in which she was beginning to
indulge. He scolded her roundly for venturing on deck without his
escort, and insisted on her promising never to do so again, on pain of
being compelled instantly to go below.
The mate had returned to his post. The brig behaved beautifully; though
she heeled over to the force of the wind, she rose buoyantly to each
mountain wave, which reared its crest before her, and though the light
spray which the short seas so quickly aroused would fly high above her
bows, and come in showers down on her forecastle, little of it found its
way aft, and not a sea which struck her came over her bulwarks. Bowse
looked delighted and proud at the behaviour of his brig, as he pointed
out her good qualities to his passengers.
"There's many a craft, which is looked upon as a clipper, won't behave
as she does, that I'll answer for," he observed.
He was going on with his panegyrics when his voice became silent, and
his eye riveted ahead. The atmosphere, which, when the gale first came
on, had been somewhat thick, had now partially cleared, and revealed to
him, at the distance of little more than a mile, a large polacca brig
hove to on the starboard tack. He instantly summoned his first officer
to his side, and pointed out the stranger to him.
"What think you of that fellow, Timmins?" he asked.
The mate took a look at the stranger through his glass.
"A fine polacca brig, sir, as one can see with half an eye," he answered
deliberately; "but more of her I cannot say, as she shows no colours.
We must keep away a little though, sir, or we shall be right down upon
her."
"We should--starboard the helm a point my lads," exclaimed the master.
"Steady, that will take us clear, and we shall be near enough to have a
look at him. Ah! there goes some buntin' aloft. What colours are they,
Timmins?"
"The Austrian ensign, sir," replied the mate. "A black eagle on a white
ground, and there flies a pennant at his mast head."
"That's extraordinary indeed," exclaimed the master. "Hoist the ensign
there," he shouted. "Austrian or devil, we'll show him that we are not
ashamed of our flag, and will not strike it either in a hurry. Come
here, Timmins, we mustn't frighten the young lady by what we say. You
know the paper dropped on board here last night; now it's my opinion
that that's the very brig it speaks about, and the one the felucca's two
men tried to persuade us was an Austrian man-of-war. To my eye, she
looks fifty times more like a Greek than an Austrian, for all that her
colours say. Well, what's your opinion that we ought to do?"
"With respect to her being a Greek, I think she is," answered the mate.
"And if she's a pirate, we ought to do our best to stand clear of her,
seeing that we were commissioned to carry merchandise, and not to look
after such gentry; but if she comes after us, and we can't get clear of
her, that alters the case, sir, and we must stand to our guns and fight
her."
"I am glad to hear you say so, Timmins," answered the master, laying his
hand on the mate's arm.
"Turn the hands up, my good fellow, and let them go to quarters." (The
people were at their breakfast.) "We will not fire the first shot; but
if she attacks us, we will give it them as well as we can. One
satisfaction is, that they cannot board us while the gale lasts." While
the mate flew forward to execute the orders, Bowse approached his
passengers, and, pointing out the stranger to them, to which they were
now rapidly drawing near, told them his suspicions as to her character,
and advised them to go below.
"But do you think he will fire into us?" inquired the colonel.
"He would gain little by so doing, while the gale lasts," replied Bowse,
"and he might get injured in return, as he probably knows that we have
guns on board."
"There you see, Ada, there is little chance of any of us being hurt, but
there is a possibility--so you must go below again."
This the colonel said in a positive tone, and his niece was obliged to
comply.
"Oh, how I wish Captain Fleetwood was here in the _Ione_," she thought,
as she quitted the deck. "No pirate would dare to molest us."
The stranger was hove to, under her fore-topsail, and appeared to be
making what seamen call very fine weather of it. The _Zodiac_ came down
scarcely a cable's length from her quarter, but the stranger gave no
sign of any intention of accompanying her. Very few seamen appeared on
her deck, and two or three officers only, whose uniform, seen through
the glass, was evidently that of Austria. One of them, who, from his
wearing an epaulette on either shoulder, Bowse thought must be the
captain, leaped up on the taffrail, and waved his hat to them, while
another, in the _lingua franca_, sung out through a speaking trumpet--
"Heave to, and we will keep your company."
"I'll see you damned first, my fine fellow," answered the master, who
had been attentively surveying them through his glass. "I wish I was as
certain of heaven as I am that the fellow who waved to us is the same
who came on board when in Malta harbour. I know his face, spite of his
changed dress."
"I don't think he's unlike, except that he didn't look so tall quite as
the Greek you mean," observed the mate. "However, as they did not fire
at us, and don't seem inclined to keep company with us either, I suppose
they are after other and surer game."
The _Zodiac_ had by this time left the stranger far astern, and
numberless were the surmises of the crew as to what she was and what she
was about. All agreed in pronouncing her a Greek-built craft. She was
a large vessel, too, and well armed, if all the ports which showed on a
side had guns to them; and she was, probably, as are most of the Greek
vessels of that class, very fast. It is odd that they did not, however,
regard her with half the suspicion that they did the little speronara,
which could scarcely have harmed them, by mortal means, if she had
tried.
The _Zodiac_ had left the polacca brig about eight or ten miles astern,
and her topsails could just be seen rising and falling above the boiling
cauldron of waters which intervened, as she remounted the seas or sunk
into the trough between them.
The ship had also by this time assumed her usual peaceful appearance;
the shot and powder had been returned below, the guns were run in and
secured, the small arms had been replaced in their racks, and the
colonel had withdrawn the charges of his pistols, and sent Mitchell with
them to his cabin.
"Well, I suppose as soon as this tornado blows over, we shall have a
tranquil time of it, and hear no more of your Flying Dutchman and bloody
pirates," he observed to the master, as he held on the weather bulwarks.
"I did not bargain for all this sort of work, I can tell you, when I
refused a passage in a king's ship in order that I might avoid the
society of those young jackanapes of naval officers, and save my little
girl from being exposed to their interested assiduities."
"Can't say what may happen to us," returned Bowse, who was a great
stickler for the honour of the navy, and did not at all relish the
colonel's observations. "I've done my best to please you, and I'm sure
the officers of any of his Majesty's ships would have done the same.
I've belonged myself to the service, and have held the king's warrant,
and I have had as good opportunities of judging of the character of a
very large number of officers as any in the same station, and I must
say, sir, in justice to them, though with all respect to you, Colonel
Gauntlett, that a less interested and less money-loving set of men than
they are, are not to be found in any profession."
"Well, well, Mr Bowse," answered the colonel, seeing by the frown on
the master's good-natured countenance that he was in earnest, "I did not
want to hear a defence of the navy, but I should like to have your
opinion as to when there is a probability of our enjoying a little quiet
again, and whether we are likely to be molested by these reputed pirates
after all."
"I do not think, by the looks of it, that the gale will last as long as
I at first supposed," said the master, at once appeased. "As for the
matter of the pirates, no man can answer; I'm sure I can't."
"Well, but what do you think, Mr Timmins?" said the colonel, turning to
the mate.
Now, although the officer would not have ventured to give an opinion in
opposition to his superior, yet, as Bowse had not expressed one, he felt
himself at liberty to pronounce his judgment.
"Why, sir--looking at the state of the case on both sides--the long and
short of it is, in my opinion, that there has been a bit of free-trading
going on with some of the Liverpool merchantmen, which isn't at all
unusual; and that those chaps who came about us mistook us for one of
their friends; and then, when they found their mistake, wanted to bung
up our eyes with a cock and a bull story about pirates. That's what I
think about it. You see that brig, whether Austrian or not, was looking
out for some one else."
"Was she, though?" exclaimed the master, with sudden animation. "I
think not; for, by Heavens, here she comes."
All those who heard the exclamation turned their eyes over the taffrail.
Just astern was the polacca brig--her head had paid off, and, with a
reef shaken out of each of her topsails, she was seen heeling over to
the gale, and tearing away through the foaming waves in chase of them.
The master, whose suspicions as to the honesty of her character had
never been removed, now no longer hesitated to declare that he believed
her to be the very pirate of whom he had been warned. He felt that he
was now called on to decide what course it would be wisest to pursue.
To avoid her by outsailing her, he knew to be hopeless--except that, by
carrying on sail to the very last, he might induce her to do the same,
till, perhaps, she might carry away her masts or spars, and the victory
might remain with the stoutest and best-found ship. His next resource
was the hope of crippling her with his guns, as she drew near, and thus
preventing her from pursuing, while he escaped; and if both means
failed, he trusted that Providence would give the victory to British
courage and seamanship, should she attempt to engage him alongside. He
explained his intentions to his officers and Colonel Gauntlett, who
fully agreed with him, and, acting on the first plan he proposed trying,
he immediately ordered a reef to be shaken out of the topsails. The men
flew aloft obedient to the order--the reefs were quickly shaken out, and
the yards again hoisted up.
Bowse watched with anxiety to see how the brig bore the additional
canvas. A few minutes' trial convinced him that she might even carry
more without much risk. If any difference was perceptible, it was that
the crests of the seas she met broke in thicker showers of spray over
her bows; but she did not seem to heel over to it more than before.
The crew, called on deck to make sail, at once divined, by seeing the
stranger in their wake, the reason of it, and flew with alacrity to
their duty. They were all ready to fight, if necessary; they would
rather have been chasing a vessel which they might hope to make their
prize; but they were in no way indifferent to the excitement of
endeavouring to outsail another craft, even though they might have been
accused of being employed in the inglorious business of running away.
"Bless the little beauty, she goes along nicely through it, don't she,
old ship," said Jem Marlin to his chum. "Them outlandish mounseers
astern there will be clever if they comes up to us."
All hands remained on the deck, for they had not been piped below again.
Bowse, every now and then, gave a scrutinising glance astern at the
stranger; but it was impossible to determine whether there was any
difference in their relative distance.
The two brigs were now under the same canvas, for the stranger had not
shaken out a second reef in the topsails, when the _Zodiac_ shook out
the first.
The crew stood at their station ready to obey the next order.
"She'll bear the fore-sail on her, Mr Timmins, if we close reef it,"
said Bowse; "send some hands up and loose it, and hook on reef-burtons
ready for reefing."
As soon as the sail was let fall it flew out in thundering claps, as if
it would fly away from the yard, and there was some danger of carrying
it away or springing it, but steady hands were there, and the clew
garnets being eased down, the reef-burtons hauled out, the ear-rings
were soon secured, and the points tied; the lee clew garnet was then
eased off, and the sheet steadied aft. The tack was roused down,
another pull had of the sheet, and the bowline hauled taut, the
weather-lift and brace being hauled taut, the sail stood like a board.
With this sail she carried too much lee helm, and it was difficult work
for the helmsman to lift her, so as to let her rise over the seas, which
now came one after the other in quick succession, rushing up her bows,
and threatening to curl bodily over her bulwarks.
"Now, my lads, aft here, and shake a reef out of the fore-and-aft
mainsail."
Led by the mate, the men sprung aft, the points were soon cast off, and
the reef-pendant eased off. The throat and peak halyards were manned,
the main-sheet was slightly eased off, and the sail, thus enlarged, was
hoisted to the mast. The instant effect was to make her carry a
weather-helm, and great care was now required to prevent her flying up
into the wind, and being taken aback; a most perilous position to be
placed in under the present circumstances.
To prevent this, the fore-stay-sail was hoisted. As the master watched
the effect of all the canvas he had packed on the brig, he saw clearly
that she would not bear another stitch; indeed, she had already very
much more set than under any but the most extraordinary circumstances he
would have ventured to carry. He, however, felt that he could do more
with her than could any stranger. He knew that every timber and plank
in her was sound, every spar had been well proved, and the canvas was
all new, and every inch of rigging about her he or his mate had seen
fitted and turned in. He knew, indeed, that all was good, and it was
this feeling, with a right confidence in his own knowledge and judgment,
which gave him courage on this trying occasion.
Onward the brig tore through the foaming waves, her lee-scuppers
completely under water. Now a dark sea would appear right a-head,
seemingly about to overwhelm her, but buoyantly her bow would rise to
it, the foam on its summit alone sweeping over her; then another would
come of less height, and, as if disdaining to surmount it, she would
cleave her way through it, while her decks were deluged as a punishment
for her audacity. Nearly everything on deck had been properly secured,
and such trifling articles as were not, were soon washed into the
lee-scuppers or overboard. The crew, driven from forward, were huddled
together close to the break of the poop, under shelter of the
weather-bulwark, while Bowse and the first mate stood at their old post.
"It's as much as she'll carry," said Timmins.
He thought it was a great deal too much, but did not like to say so.
Bowse looked at the stranger before answering.
"I only hope she will try to carry a great deal more," he replied.
"See, they are beginning to follow our example."
The polacca brig had now not only set her foresail and mainsail, but had
also shaken another reef out of her topsails. She thus already had more
sail on her than the _Zodiac_.
"Now, then," said Bowse, "if we do but hold our own, she will begin to
think we shall escape her, and they will be shaking another of those
reefs out."
"If they do, they will just get the drop in the pitcher too much," said
the mate.
"That's just what I wish they may do," replied the master. "But, ah!
hold on for your lives, my lads."
A dark, circling wave appeared directly ahead of the vessel, as if it
had risen suddenly out of the water. She rose at it like a bold hunter,
without hesitation, attempting to take a high fence beyond his powers.
Its force was too great for her, she stopped, and trembled in every
timber, then again she tried, and dashing headlong into it, the watery
hill came thundering down on her decks, tearing away her long boat and
spare spars, hencoops, caboose, and water casks, and, making a breach
through the lee-bulwarks, washed them overboard. Had not the hatches
been well secured the _Zodiac_, with all in her, might never have risen
again. Cries of terror were heard, and many a bold seaman turned pale;
but none of the crew were injured, and the ship again flew buoyantly
onward.
"That's what we may call our drop too much," said the mate. "Don't you
think we ought to take some of the canvas off her, sir?"
"Timmins, we've long known each other, and you know I'm no coward; but I
tell you that my conviction is, that there will be no child's play with
that fellow astern if he comes alongside us. Heaven only knows who'll
come off the best if it comes to blows. He has twice as many guns as we
have, if not more, and longer pieces, depend on it, and, probably, five
times as many hands. These are fearful odds, and I don't think any man
can say it's cowardly to shrink from them. I know, too, the sort of
fellows those are on board yonder craft, and sooner than fall into their
power, I would run the brig, and all in her, under water. Till she made
sail in chase, I had my doubts about her; I now have none. You see I
don't risk the loss of our masts without good cause, and now see to
getting life-lines along the lee-bulwarks, and secure them as you best
can."
The mate made no answer, except a hurried acquiescence in his chief's
reasons; and then calling three seamen to him, he worked his way forward
to the forecastle, to search for the requisite cordage for passing fore
and aft along the sides of the vessel.
Colonel Gauntlett had gone below to explain the state of affairs to poor
Ada, and to endeavour to tranquillise her alarms. Nothing daunted the
old veteran himself; a soldier of the great duke's school, he was
accustomed to hardships and vicissitudes of all sorts. Brave as his
sword, and delighting in the excitement of danger, his spirits rose in
proportion to its imminence, and all the sour testiness of his temper
vanished; a temper which had grown on him since the return of peace
caused him to sheath his sword, and tempted him to commit the folly, as
an old bachelor, of leading an idle life. Married, and with a family,
he would have had them to interest him; but, as it was, he had only to
think of his own aches and ills, and, perhaps, past follies; and to
brood over what he called the neglects he had experienced from his
ungrateful country. No man on board, perhaps, was so anxious as he was
to have a skirmish with the rover, but he was not aware of the dreadful
odds which would be opposed to him, and of the too probable fate which
would await all hands, should victory side with the enemy. His
arguments had some effect in calming his niece's fears; but not those of
poor little Marianna, who, pale and weeping, sat at the feet of her
mistress, imploring her to urge the captain and her uncle to return to
Malta.
Ada, in her turn, had to act the part of comforter, and she promised her
uncle that she would constantly remain below till they had escaped from
the pirate, and the storm was over. Her uncle had not attempted to
deceive her, nor did she shut her eyes to the greatness of the
threatening danger--yet hope rose triumphant in her bosom. Though the
storm had, at first, appeared very terrific, she got accustomed by
degrees to the noise and commotion, and she could not persuade herself
that a British vessel, manned by so many brave men, would not prove the
victor against a pirate, of whatever nation she might be. By the faint
light which found its way into her cabin, she was able to read; and that
book was in her hand from which the truest source of comfort can be
drawn, and which she, in her turn, imparted to her ignorant and
trembling companion. Thus, between reading herself and explaining the
subject to Marianna, and, at times, approaching the footstool of her
Maker in prayer, Ada passed many hours, which would otherwise have
become insupportable through anxiety and fear, and thus employed, we
must leave her, to return on deck.