A CURSE FALLS UPON THE WOLVES.
I parted from him, to go to my cell. Later, before dusk fell, I went
out to take an evening jaunt, betaking myself to the cliff.
At the fortifications I stood to watch divers men who cleaned the great
guns.
They were Frenchmen, and chattered over their work, with much
gesticulation. I spoke to them; but they would not be troubled with me,
and returned me no answer. So I left them, to go my way.
I rambled on along the cliff about half an hour without observing
anything remarkable; and was going about to return, when, on a sudden,
I heard a sound of branches shaken in a little thicket that skirted my
path, and, to my great joy, beheld Thalass, the Mosquito Indian.
And, for his part, the faithful, affectionate creature was so rejoiced
to see me, that he knew not how to express it sufficiently, casting
himself flat at my feet, or embracing me with a thousand extravagant
antics. Hereafter he wended beside me along the cliff. But, on a
sudden, he came to a stand, looking fixedly to the sea-board.
He turned; and, plucking my arm, pointed to the horizon. I looked,
straining my sight to have made out what he descried; but I could not.
He told me it was the topsails of a ship.
This put me in a ferment to know what manner of ship it was: a King’s
ship, I hoped; but doubted she would prove to be but a vessel of the
pirates returning home. However, the wind coming briskly to the shore,
and the ship bearing directly in, soon I descried her. But now the
shades of night began to fall, so that she was no longer visible to us.
On this we turned, and started back along the cliff.
As we drew near to the fortifications, there came a sound of voices;
and soon we beheld a gang of pirates gathered about the guns. A
small man, having a scarlet feather stuck in his hat, stood a little
apart from the rest. He beckoned to Thalass, who went to him. But I,
bethinking me of Ambrose, and of how the news of this coming of a ship
might avail to distract his melancholy thoughts, determined to go to
him.
Accordingly I took the path of the woods, following it to the Cells.
I found the knob beneath the creepers, and tried to open the door;
but I could not. Thereupon I cast about for a stone, to have knocked
upon the door with it. Whilst I did so, there came the dull booming
of cannonading out at sea. It ceased; then, like a dread answer, the
volcan roared loud and long. Presently the cannonading began again.
This made me mighty eager to learn what these cannon-shots might mean.
I was willing, also, to find out what was doing at the fortifications.
Accordingly I gave over trying to open the door, and started back to
the cliff; the cannonading, meanwhile, being continued. The heavens
were splendid with the hosts of the stars; the moon was not yet risen.
I reached the outward of the wood, and looked keenly forth upon the
fortifications. They were full of men; and every gunner was plainly to
be distinguished by a point of yellow flame that shone at the end of
his linstock. But there came no longer a sound of voices, and at that I
wondered; until I spied the form of Doctor Copicus.
He stood at the nearer end of the battery, looking out to the
sea-board; and his tall, bowed figure, dressed in the scarlet robe,
upon which his white locks fell glistening, had an eldritch look in the
starlight.
I stepped boldly forth, and took my station by his side. He turned on
my approach, and I saw that his face was all alight with excitement,
like an eager child’s. But he said nought to me.
I looked upon the starlit sea, and was amazed. For, instead of one
ship, as I had expected, there were four; and three were in chase of
the other. The pursuers sailed almost abreast of one another, were
close upon their quarry, and kept firing at her. The ships were about
a mile and a half from the shore. None had any flag abroad. Thus they
came on straight under the fortifications.
Suddenly the Doctor turned, and spoke to me.
“See you my little lamb?” said he soft and low, “See you my little lamb
pursued by wolves? Do you not weep? Doth not your heart burn within you
to behold this thing? But is there none to help? Must I, then, stand by
to see my children devoured by ravenous beasts?”
And suddenly plucking hold on my shoulder, he turned about, and strode
on before the fortifications, drawing me after him.
“Ho! Benedict,” cried he to the master-gunner, “here’s a little lad
come to see our pretty things, our wondrous toys, our popguns! Show him
how they shoot, Benedict! Let him see them hit a mark, Benedict!”
The small man grinned with his teeth, and shouted an order; there fell
a stir and business and a _clang, clang, clang_ of metal.
It ceased, and there was silence--for no sound of cannonading came from
the ships at sea.
The small man passed his gaze along the line; then “_Fire!_” cried he.
There was a crash and a roar. To me it seemed the very earth did split,
and quake and stagger. Stunned, I fell to the ground.
The Doctor himself raised me up, and, “See! See!” cried he, pointing
out beneath the lifting cannon-smoke, “a curse is fallen upon the
wolves! They die! they die! They go down! down! There shall not a one
of them escape!”
The ship that had been pursued sailed slowly in, and I could see
the men crowding in the bows, waving scarfs to us, and, doubtless,
cheering. But of the other craft, there remained but a confused wrack
driving in the waves, swarmed over with struggling seamen, as with rats.
I turned from the spectacle, sick at heart. I knew not, and I know not
to this day, what the murdered men were--whether pirates or honest
merchantmen; but the fact of that disaster smote upon me like a private
calamity.
I returned to the Cells; and, contriving this time to open the door,
passed within and made my way to Ambrose’s chamber.
The poor man sat as I had left him, sunk into a dull dejection, so
that he scarce took any notice of my entering in. I told him what had
befallen; but he merely said:
“That’s the _Vandal_, I suppose, come home.”
“She had a stormy home-coming then,” said I.
“Ay,” said he.
“What were the other ships, I wonder,” said I.
But he returned me no answer.