We must now go back to the day on which our story commences, or rather,
at an early hour on the following morning, when the young Greek, Argiri
Caramitzo, and his Italian companion, Paolo Montifalcone, left the
ball-room of the Auberge de Provence.
Highly satisfied with the adventures of the evening, Caramitzo took his
way to the abode of the Jew, Aaron Bannech, not deeming it prudent to
sleep under any other roof; perhaps he would not have trusted himself
under that of the Israelite, had he not felt assured that the
preservation of his life and liberty was of very considerable importance
to his host. As he reached the door of the house, he encountered the
beggar Giacomo, who had concealed himself, till his approach, beneath a
neighbouring archway.
"Hist, signor," said the beggar, hobbling up. "I'm glad you are at
length come. I have long waited for you, to give you some important
information regarding your safety. But who is the person with you? May
I speak before him?"
"He is a friend--say on," replied the Greek.
"Well, signor, what I have to say is, that before long you will find
this city too hot for you," answered Giacomo. "As you directed me, I
watched the three Greeks you left at the _caffe_. For a long time they
remained inside, and at last when they came out I followed them for some
distance, and heard them making inquiries for the office of the police.
They went to the wrong one first, and then I followed them to the other.
Fortunately the office was closed, and they were told that they could
not make their complaint till to-morrow. I could understand but little
that they said, yet I am certain that they spoke of having seen you
here."
"You have done well," returned the Greek. "You saw where they lodge?"
"_Si, signor_, certainly."
"Then follow them to-morrow, and let me know the result of their
information."
Saying this, the Greek summoned the Jew to admit him and his companion
to the house.
"I shall have to quit you to-morrow," he observed, as their host, after
examining numerous bolts and bars, followed them to the only
sitting-room the Jew possessed; his dining-room, library, and sanctum,
where all his most private and important business was transacted.
"What! will you not take a passage by the good brig, the _Zodiac_,"
asked the Jew. "I had arranged everything for you, and should not have
had to appear in the affair."
"I had done my part also at the ball to-night, and I flatter myself the
English colonel and his niece would have been pleased to have my
company. All would have gone well, had it not been for the appearance
of those Greeks, who fancy they know me, and will swear that I am no
other than the pirate Zappa, which, by the bye, exhibits the folly of
being merciful. Now, though with your assistance, my friend, I might
easily prove who I am, still, as you know I might find the detention
inconvenient, I shall therefore sail early in the speronara. Your
letters may be addressed to me as before, but bear in mind that your
information is generally too stale. Now I will get a little rest, if
you will show me where I am to sleep."
"Wonderful man," muttered the Jew, as he quitted his guest, who had
thrown himself on a couch, and was already asleep. "He has no fear of
treachery."
The Greek knew that the Jew was a wise man, and would not kill his
golden goose. The Jew had procured some ordinary morning dresses for
the Greek and his companion, and habited in them, with Italian cloaks
thrown round them, they next morning fearlessly took their way to the
quays.
Manuel was in attendance, and Paolo immediately embarked, and went on
board the speronara, while the Greek returned once more into the city.
Had any one watched the movements of the two strangers, they would have
observed that the Greek never for an instant allowed the Italian to
leave his side while they were on shore, and that the latter regarded
him with a look much more of fear than of affection, somewhat as an
ill-used dog does his master, though he still follows his footsteps.
As the Greek walked along, he made observations on several vessels which
had been mentioned to him by the beggar, and afterwards looked into the
police-office, where his accusers had not arrived. Again, therefore,
returning to the quay, he summoned the boatman, Manuel, who had returned
for him, and directed him to pull on board the speronara, to which he
had previously sent an order by Paolo to get under weigh, and heave to
till he should come on board.
"Let draw," he exclaimed, as soon as he stepped on board, "we will try
the quality of your craft, Master Alessandro, steer as if we were bound
for Syracuse, and afterwards we will run off shore. In case any vessel
should be sent in chase, I wish to mislead them as to the course we have
taken."
"_Capisco_--I understand, signor," said the Sicilian. "We have a good
breeze, and shall reach the _Sea Hawk_, if she is at her post, long
before dark."
"Did you ever know her miss her rendezvous?" said the Greek. "And now,
my good Paolo, let me ask how it has fared with you since yesterday?"
"As it may with a man weary of the world," returned the youth, sighing
deeply.
"You will yet do bravely, Paolo," said Caramitzo. "How like you now the
life of a sailor? We have variety and excitement enough to please you?"
"Too much--I should prefer less change, and a more tranquil existence,"
returned the youth. "But I am willing to undergo all to please you."
"The very words your sister would have spoken. Come, come, Paolo, you
must rouse yourself, and learn to enjoy the pleasures of life, instead
of moping and weeping as she does."
As the Greek spoke, the youth's eyes flashed angrily; but as if with an
effort, he controlled himself, and his countenance directly assumed its
usual dejected look.
The speronara, as has been described, kept first to the northward; and
after standing in that direction for six or seven miles, she eased off
her sheets, and ran off to the eastward. After three hours a large
polacca brig was seen from her deck a couple of points on her larboard
bow. On this a small flag was run up to the end of her main-yard, which
was immediately answered by the brig. The speronara then hauled her
wind on the starboard tack which brought her head looking almost into
Valetta harbour, while the brig hove to on the same tack.
The Greek had for some time been looking through a spy-glass towards
Malta, which lay like a line of blue hillocks rising from the sea.
"Here Paolo," he said, at length. "Do you take the glass, and tell me,
what vessels you see, which appear to have come out of the port we left
this morning."
For some time Paolo made no answer. He was examining the intervening
space between them and the shore.
The Greek, meantime, reclined on a seat to rest, for he was weary with
his exertions.
Paolo at last addressed him.
"I make out a square-rigged vessel of some sort, steering this way. She
looms large."
The Greek sprang to his feet, and took the glass.
"She is the one we are in search of," he exclaimed. "Up with the helm
and let draw the head sheets."
The orders were obeyed, and the speronara ran off again before the wind
towards the brig, with which she had communicated, and the head of whose
topsails were just seen above the horizon. It took a couple of hours
before the speronara hove to close to her, by which time the day was
almost over.
The brig was a remarkably fine looking vessel, with a long low hull,
painted black, with sharp bows, a clean run and a raking counter. She
was what is denominated polacca-rigged; a name given to designate those
vessels which have their lower masts and topmast in one piece; thus
evading the necessity of tops and caps, and much top-weight. Her yards
were very square; her masts, which were polished, raked somewhat; her
rigging was well set up, and very neat; and her canvas looked white and
new. She was in truth a very rakish-looking and beautiful craft. As
the speronara drew near, a boat was lowered from the brig and manned,
and now came alongside.
As soon as the boat, which was full of armed men in the picturesque
costume of Greek sailors, came alongside, Caramitzo turned to the
padrone of the speronara:--
"Alessandro," he said, "your personal services to me are over, for the
present; but I have occasion for the use of your vessel for a few hours
longer. Do you and your people go quietly on board the brig, and remain
till my return. Some few of my followers will man the speronara in the
mean time."
The padrone of the speronara would have expostulated, but the Greek cut
him short, and intimated that, as just then his will was law, if he did
not consent with a good grace, he would be compelled to do so--pointing
at the same time to the boatload of desperadoes alongside. Seeing
therefore that resistance was useless, the padrone and his crew were
transferred to the brig, and thirty Greek seamen took their place. The
exchange was made very rapidly, as their chief, for such he was whom we
have known as Argiri Caramitzo, appeared in a hurry.
An officer, who seemed to have charge of the brig, came off in a smaller
boat at the summons of the captain.
"Understand," he said, "you are, if possible, to keep the English brig,
you see to the westward, just in sight; at, indeed, about the same
distance we are now from her. Steer east-northeast, which is her
course, and look out for the speronara. I am about to visit the brig,
and may perhaps be able to render you a good account of her."
The officer bowed.
"I understand your orders clearly," he said. "We would rather, however,
see you returning in the brig, than in the speronara."
"I will not forget your wishes," the chief answered laughing, as the
boat shoved off.
"Now my men let draw the foresheet--now she has way on her--haul it well
aft, and see if she will lay up for the brig yonder. Ah, she does it
bravely--call me when we near her."
And wrapping himself in his cloak he lay down to sleep, or, it might
have been, to meditate on the daring plans and projects working in his
active brain. The speronara flew over the waves like a sea-bird on the
wing. She soon neared the brig which Paolo at once recognised as the
English merchantman they had passed in Valetta harbour. He had heard
from the chief who were the passengers on board, and the _ruse_ to be
practised had also been confided to him. He had been endeavouring to
beguile, to him, the weary hours of the voyage with reading, while the
chief slept, for sleep refused to visit his eyelids. A thought seemed
to strike him. He wrote hastily in the book, and tearing out the leaf,
placed it in his bosom. He then roused his companion from his slumber.
The Greek started up and eyed the approaching brig.
"It is she," he exclaimed. "That vessel, my men, is to be your prize;
but much caution will be required to take her. She is armed, that is to
say, she has four real guns and two wooden ones; but from what I saw of
her captain and crew, I think they are likely to fight. They are very
different sort of characters, are those English, to the Italians we are
accustomed to deal with, who call on their saints to help them, and from
the Turks, who make up their minds it is their fate to be taken and
thrown overboard. The difficulty, on the contrary, with these English,
is ever to persuade them that they are beaten; and, as they don't care
for the Saints, and don't fear the devil--heretics that they are--they
trust to their own right arm, their cutlasses, and big guns; and by
Achilles, if you do manage to throw them overboard, they will swim about
in the hopes of getting a cut at you. Now, where we cannot succeed by
force, we must employ stratagem; and I intend to go on board and to
inform them that the _Sea Hawk_ is an Austrian ship-of-war, anxious to
protect merchantmen from the attacks of the corsair Zappa, and to
revenge herself on him for his capture of one of their brigs of war, of
which they will have heard. If I find them unprepared and unsuspicious
of us, we will at once run alongside and take possession; and, as I am
anxious not to be under the necessity of throwing the crew overboard, we
will stow them all away in the hold of the vessel, and make the padrone
carry them with him to Sicily. If he murder them on the voyage that
will be no fault of ours; and if he lands them, they can be no evidence
against us at any time, for they have not seen our brig, and Signor
Sandro will not dare to give any correct information, though, of course,
he will tell a number of lies to exonerate himself; but for that we are
not to blame. Now we will heave to, to windward of our friend, and see
the boat clear for launching, to carry me and Paolo on board her."
Having concluded his observations, the chief and Paolo went below, and
soon returned so completely disguised in the costume of Sicilian
boatmen, as I have described, that the Greeks at first scarcely knew
them.
As they passed the brig, they hailed her, and then hove to. The pirate,
for there is little use concealing the character of the pretended
prince, with his young companion, whom he had instructed how to act,
stepped into the boat, manned by two stout hands, and pulled alongside
the brig. He was somewhat startled and disappointed on discovering the
preparations which were made to receive him, should he appear as an
enemy; and, seeing Colonel Gauntlett at the gangway, with whom he had
held so much conversation on the previous day, it occurred to him at
once that it might be dangerous to trust his own voice, and he therefore
resolved to make Paolo the spokesman. His greatest trial, however, was
to come, when, in the presence of Ada Garden, his countenance was
exposed to the bright light of the cabin lamp. The admiration he had
felt for her at the ball was increased when he beheld her again; but it
was not so great as to make him forget that now was not the time to show
it, and it was with some feeling of relief that he found himself once
more in his boat, fully convinced that, even with his thirty men, it
would be a work of considerable danger to attempt the capture of the
_Zodiac_ by means of the speronara. He accordingly determined to return
on board the brig, dismiss the speronara, and keep a bright look out
after the merchantman, till he should find a favourable opportunity to
take her unawares. As the speronara sailed almost two feet to one of
the _Zodiac_, he was soon able to pass her and to reach the polacca brig
before she was discernible through the darkness. As the Greek stepped
on the deck of the brig, the crew received him with a shout of welcome.
"Long life to our captain," they exclaimed. "Long life to Zappa."
The Prince Caramitzo or the pirate Zappa, for under either of those
names that worthy person may in future be recognised, assured his
followers of the satisfaction their affection afforded him, and then
ordered them to tumble the Sicilians into their speronara, and to make
all sail without delay.
The _Sea Hawk_ was kept before the wind, and next morning, at daybreak,
they found themselves still a long way ahead of the English brig. The
pirates, who had on board a number of Austrian uniforms, and seamen's
dresses, and flags, indeed every means of disguising the ship to appear
like a man-of-war of that nation, now, by their chief's orders, set to
work on the necessary preparations to make her assume that character,
while Zappa himself appeared in the uniform of an Austrian captain.
His purpose was to dodge on, under easy sail, till the _Zodiac_ came up
with him; and then, under pretext of friendly converse, to run her
alongside, and to pour his men on her decks before her crew should have
time to make any resistance. The gale of wind, which so suddenly sprang
up, prevented the execution of this plan, and preserved the _Zodiac_.
When Zappa observed her bearing down on him, he was in hopes that his
ruse had succeeded, and that his vessel was taken for what he wished her
to appear; but when he saw, on his following her, that the English brig
made more sail in the very height of the gale, and at last carried on in
a way that seemed even greatly to hazard her safety, he began to fear
that he was suspected. He, however, was determined not to lose sight of
her again, and accordingly made sail in chase, with the hopes of finding
a favourable opportunity to execute his purpose at the termination of
the gale. At length it fell calm, and his vessel lay about four miles
from her.
We have seen that he was a man of extraordinary nerve, and he bethought
him that he would try once more to blind the master and crew of the
_Zodiac_, and, ordering a boat to be manned, he pulled boldly on board
her. Had not Bowse been forewarned, there can be little doubt but that
he would have triumphantly succeeded, and there can be no reflection on
his want of talent either in planning or executing that he did not do
so. Had he known as much as does the reader, he would probably have had
nothing to do with the speronara, which was suspected, but would at once
have run alongside the _Zodiac_ in his own vessel which was unknown.
When he found himself, on his second visit to the _Zodiac_, so nearly
caught in his own net, he pulled back to the _Sea Hawk_, vowing that he
would not again be foiled.