"After all this, you may suppose one didn't weary so much, even of the
calm. As soon as the decks were clear, most of us took tea on the poop,
for fear of meeting the brigadier's lady below, everyone holding his cup
ready for a start. Rollock, the planter, who had slept and swung in his
cot half the day, was like to split his sides when he heard the story;
by-the-way, I believe both the little pups lived and throve on goat's
milk, and the men called one of them 'Young Jonah,' though he had so
much of the terrier that the old lady disowned him.
"It was quite dark, and cool for a night near the Line, though not a
ripple stirred, and I stayed after the rest to smoke a cigar, stopping
every now and then near the aftermost bull's-eye, that shone through the
deck, and thinking of Lota. 'By Jove!' thought I, 'she hasn't said a
word to the judge about our having met before. Think of having a secret,
almost, with _her_!' After all, though, I felt well enough I might as
soon hope for the Emperor of China's daughter as for such a creature,
unless something wonderfully strange fell out; deucedly in love as I
was, I wasn't puppy enough to fancy I'd ever succeed by mere talk; 'but
here's for a bold heart and a weather eye,' I thought; 'and if these
can't do it, I _will_!' said I aloud, when someone clapped me on the
shoulder.
"'Well, Tom, are you there?' said I, thinking it was Westwood. 'Why,'
answered old Rollock, laughing, 'not so far wrong, my boy--but as it's
thirty years since anyone called me so, I thought you _were_, for a
moment!--Meditating, eh?' 'Only a cigar before bedtime--will you have
one, sir?' 'Ah--well,' said the planter, 'I'll take a light at
least--queer life this, eh? Shouldn't know this _was_ water, now--more
like train-oil! Looks _junglish_ a little under the stars yonder.'
'Nothing but the haze come down,' said I; ''tis clear enough aloft,
though--look out for squalls ere long.' 'As your friend Ford would have
it,' said Rollock; 'but how a lad of your spirit can manage to stand
this so well, I can't think!' 'Deyvilish dull, sir!' said I, with a lazy
drawl, 'but can't be helped, you know.' 'Come, come, now, don't mend it
by copying poor Winterton,' chuckled Rollock; 'you're no fool, Collins,
so don't pretend to be. I say though, Collins, my boy,' continued he
rather gravely, 'there is one really soft piece I begin to notice in you
lately--I fear you're falling in love with that girl!' '_I_, sir!' said
I; 'dear me, what makes you----' 'My dear boy,' went on the kind-hearted
old fellow, 'I take an interest in you; no lad of your stuff practises
all this tomfoolery without something under it, and I see you've _some_
serious meaning or other. Did you know her before?' 'Oh--why--not
exactly,' I dropped out, taken rather short. 'I see, I see!' he went on;
'but I tell you what, Collins, a cadet can do nothing madder than marry
at first landing; she had better be a cold-hearted flirt, after
all--though, God knows, no man can say what _that_ does but one
that's--felt it!--_I_--I mean I _knew_--a young fellow that went out as
ambitious as you can be, and he----'
"Here the planter's voice shook a little, and he stopped, puffing at his
cheroot till the short end of it just lighted up his hook nose and part
of his big white whiskers in the dark, only you saw his eye glistening,
too. 'Devil take it!' thought I, 'who'd have expected the old boy to be
so sharp, though?' 'Well but, Collins,' said he at last, 'just you enter
heart and soul into your profession; I'd stake my life you'll rise, who
knows how far--when you get captain's pay even, _then_ you may think of
it--that is, if she----' 'Why,' said I, 'd'ye suppose the judge
would----' '_Judge!_' exclaimed Mr Rollock--'worse and worse! Weren't we
talking of pretty little Kate Fortescue? My _dear_ boy, you don't intend
to say you mean Miss Hyde! I left _that_ to your puppy of a "first
officer," as they call him! Why, that young girl will be the beauty of
Calcutta.' At this I fancied someone else gave a whistle near us. 'Of
course, sir,' said I, raising my voice, 'you didn't suppose me such a
fool.' In fact, Miss Fortescue had never entered my head at all.
'Something strange about _you_, Collins!' said the planter, a little
shortly; 'you puzzle me, I must say.' As we turned to go below, I heard
somebody walk down the poop-ladder, and then the mate's voice sung out
from the binnacle to 'strike eight bells!'
"The calm was as dead as ever next morning, and, if possible, hotter
than before--not a rope changed aloft, nor a cloth in the sails moved;
but it was pretty hazy round us, which made the water a sort of pale
old-bottle blue, that sickened you to look at; and a long dipping and
drawling heave gradually got up as if there were blankets on it; the
ship, of course, shifting round and round again slowly, like a dog going
to lie down, and the helm giving every now and then a sudden jolt. Near
noon it cleared up with a blaze of light, as it were; the sole
difference at first being, that what looked like melting lead before now
turned into so many huge bright sheets of tin, every sudden bend of it
as good as flashing up thousands of needles in your eyes. A good deal
surprised we were, however, shortly after, to find there was a sail in
sight, another square-rigged vessel, seemingly standing up on the
horizon six or seven miles off. Being end on to us at the time, though
every glass in the ship was brought to bear on her, 'twas hard to say
what she was; then she and we went bobbing and going up and down with a
long round heave between us, slowly enough, but always at cross
purposes, like two fellows see-sawing on a plank over a dyke. When she
was up, we were down, and we just caught sight of her royal, no bigger
than a gull on the water; jerk went our rudder, and next time she seemed
to have vanished out of the glasses altogether, till we walked round to
the other side, and made her out again under the awning on the opposite
beam. At length she lifted broad to us for a moment or two, showing a
long pale sort of hull with a red streak, apparently without ports, and
brig-rigged, though the space betwixt her two masts was curious for that
kind of craft.
"'Wonderful light-sparred for her size that brig, sir,' said the third
officer, dropping his glass. 'Ay, so she is, Mr Small,' replied Captain
Williamson; 'what would you call her then? You've as good knowledge of
craft as any man, Mr Small, I think.' 'Why,' said the old mate, screwing
his eye harder for a long look, 'I'd say she's--not a cruiser, Captain
Williamson--no, nor a Greenock Indyman--nor a----' 'Oh!' said Finch,
'some African timberer or other, I daresay, Small.' 'Well, Mr Finch,'
said the third mate, handing him the glass, 'mayhap you'll just say
yourself, sir.' 'No, no, Mr Small,' said the captain; 'I'd trust to you
as soon as any man, sir, in a matter of the kind.' 'Why, the hull of
her's wonderful Yankee-like, sir,' said Small again; 'I'm thinking
they've been and _squared_ her out of a schooner--and made a bad job of
it too, sir! Bless us! what a lean-headed pair o' taups'ls--as high as
our fore one, sir.' Suddenly the old mate gave his thigh a slap, and
laid down his glass on the capstan; 'Lor', sir!' said he, 'that's the
thing; she's nothing more nor less but a John Crapeau, Captain
Williamson!'
"'I daresay you're right, Mr Small,' said the skipper, taking the glass;
'just so--ay, ay--I thought it myself!' 'Pity Old Nap's boxed up yonder
nowadays, then, sir,' said the first officer, rubbing his hands and
pointing to eastward, where he thought St Helena was; 'why, sir, we
should have the peppering of the Frenchman; I don't suppose we'd need to
care though she were twice the size--and what's more, we want fresh
water before seeing the Cape, sir!' 'Well,' said the old skipper,
laughing, 'that is the worst of it, Finch! As for spirit, you've as much
as any man, Mr Finch, and I _do_ think we'd know how to take the
weather-hand of him--eh?' 'I'll be bound we should!' said Finch,
laughing too. As for the Frenchman, both Westwood and I had made him out
by his rig at once, thanks to man-o'-war practice; but we smiled to each
other at the notion of making a prize of Monsieur, under Finch's
management, with not a gun that could have been used for half a day, and
everything else at sixes and sevens.
"In a little while it was proposed amongst the cadets, hot as the calm
was, to make a party to go and see the French vessel. Ford of course was
at the head of it. Winterton thought they would no doubt have plenty of
champagne on board, and some others, who could row, wanted to try their
hands. Accordingly the captain's gig was got ready, a sort of awning
rigged over it, and two or three of them got in; when one, who was Miss
Fortescue's cousin, persuaded her to join, if Mr Rollock would come.
Then the brigadier, being rather a good-humoured man, said he should
like to face the French once more, and Daniel Snout shoved himself
eagerly in without asking, by your leave. One of the men was sent to
take charge; and as there was room still, I was just going to jump in
too, for the amusement of it, when Mrs Brady hurried to the taffrail
with her parasol up, and said, if the brigadier went she should go as
well--in fact, the old woman's jealousy of her rib was always laughably
plain. 'Hang it! then,' thought I, 'catch me putting myself in the same
boat with _her_! the same ship is enough in all conscience!' So away
they were lowered off the davits, and began pulling in tolerable style
for the brig, a couple of hours' good work for such hands at midday,
smooth water as it was.
"'Now, gentlemen,' said the first officer briskly, as we looked after
them dipping over the long bright blue heave--'now, gentlemen, and
ladies also, if you please, we'll have another party as soon as the men
get their dinner--give these gentlemen a full hour's law, we'll overhaul
them. See the larboard quarter-boat clear, Jacobs.' It was just the
least possible hazy again behind the brig in the distance, and as the
judge stood talking to his daughter on the poop, I heard her say, 'Is
the other vessel not coming nearer already, papa? See how much more
distinct its sails are this moment--there!--one almost observes the
white canvas!' 'Pooh, Lota, child!' answered Sir Charles, 'that cannot
be--'tis perfectly calm, don't you know?' In fact, however, Lota showed
a sailor's eye for air, and I was noticing it myself; but it was _only_
the air made it look so. 'Ah! now,' exclaimed she again, ''tis as
distant as ever! That must have been the light'; besides, the brig had
been lifting on a wide swell.
"'I beg pardon, Sir Charles,' said the mate, coming up and taking off
his cap, 'but might I use the freedom--perhaps yourself and Miss Hyde
would like to visit the French brig?' The judge looked at his daughter
as much as to ask if she would like it. 'Oh yes! so much!' exclaimed
she, her bright eyes sparkling, 'shall we?' 'No! Not _I_!' said Sir
Charles. 'I shall take my siesta. Quite safe, sir--eh?' 'Oh, quite safe,
Sir Charles!' said Finch, 'a dead calm, sir--I'll take the utmost care
you may be sure, Sir Charles--as safe as the deck, sir!' 'Oh, very
well,' replied the judge, and he walked down to see after his tiffin.
The young lady was going down the quarter-gallery stair, when I caught
my opportunity to say--'I hope you'll excuse it, Miss Hyde, ma'am--but
I _do_ trust you'll not risk going in the boat so far, just now!' Half a
minute after I spoke, she turned round, and looked at me with a curious
sort of expression in her charming face, which I couldn't make
out--whether it was mischievous, whether it was pettish, or whether
'twas inquisitive.
'Dear me!' said she, 'why--do you----' 'The weather might change,' I
said, looking round about, 'and I shouldn't wonder if it did--or a swell
might get up--or----' 'I must say, Mr--Mr Collins,' said she, laughing
slightly, 'you are very gloomy in your anticipations--almost timorous, I
declare! I wonder how you came to be so weather-wise! But why did you
not advise poor Mrs Brady, now?' I couldn't see her face as she spoke,
but the tone of the last words made me feel I'd have given worlds to
look round and see what it was like at the moment. 'Perhaps, ma'am,'
said I, 'you may remember the _rain_?' 'Well, we shall see, sir!'
replied she, glancing up with a bright sparkle in her eye for an
instant, but only toward the end of the spanker-boom, as it were; and
then tripping down the stair.
"I kept watching the gig pull slowly toward the brig in the distance,
and the cutter making ready on our quarter till the men were in, with
Jacobs amongst them; where they sat waiting in no small glee for the
mate and his party, who came up a few minutes after; and I was just
beginning to hope that Violet Hyde had taken my advice, when she and
another young lady came out of the round-house, dressed for the trip,
and the captain gallantly handed them in. 'My compliments to the French
skipper, Mr Finch,' said the captain, laughing, 'and if he ain't better
engaged, happy to see him to dinner at--two bells[18] in the dog-watch,
we'll make it!' 'Ay, ay, sir,' said Finch. 'Now then!--all ready?'
'Smythe's coming yet.' said a 'writer.' 'We can't wait any longer for
him,' replied the mate; 'ease away the falls, handsomely, on deck!'
'Stop,' said I, 'I'll go then!' 'Too late, young gentleman,' answered
the mate, sharply, 'you'll cant us gunnel up, sir!--lower away, there!'
However, I caught hold of a rope and let myself down the side, time
enough to jump lightly into her stern-sheets the moment they touched the
water. The officer stared at me as he took the yoke-lines to steer, but
he said nothing, and the boat shoved off; while Miss Hyde's blue eyes
only opened out, as it were, for an instant, at seeing me drop in so
unceremoniously; and her companion laughed.
[18] Five o'clock P.M.
"'I shouldn't have supposed you so nimble, Mr Collins!' said the writer,
looking at me through his eyeglass. 'Oh,' said I, 'Ford and I have
practised climbing a good deal lately.' 'Ha! ha!' said the civilian,
'shouldn't be surprised, now, if your friend were to take the navigation
out of Mr Finch's hands, some day!' 'Bless me, yes, sir!' said Finch,
with a guffaw, as he sat handling the lines carelessly, and smiling to
the ladies, with his smart cap over one ear; 'to be sure--ha! ha!
ha!--it's certain, Mr Beveridge! Wouldn't you take the helm here, sir?'
to me. 'Oh, thank you, no, sir!' replied I, modestly, 'I'm not quite so
far _yet_--but we've got a loan of Hamilton Moore and Falconer's
Dictionary from the midshipmen, and mean to----' 'No doubt you'll teach
us a trick or two yet!' said Finch, with a sneer. 'Now, for instance,'
said I, coolly, 'aloft yonder, you've got the _throat halliards_ jammed
in the block with a gasket, and the mizzen-topsail cluelines rove wrong
side of it, which Hamilton Moore distinctly----'
"'Hang the lubber that did it, so they are!' exclaimed the mate, looking
through the spy-glass we had with us. 'Now you've your _jibs_ hauled
down, sir,' continued I, 'and if a squall came on abeam, no doubt they'd
wish to shorten sail from _aft_, and keep her away--however, she would
broach-to at once, as Hamilton Moore shows must----' 'You and Hamilton
Moore may----Well, no fear of a squall just now, at any rate, ladies,'
said he. 'Stretch out, men--let's head upon Mr Ford and his gig, yet!'
"Terribly hot it was, close to the water, and so stifling that you
scarce could breathe, while the long glassy swell was far higher than
one thought it from the ship's deck; however, we had an awning hoisted,
and it refreshed one a little both to hear the water and feel it below
again, as the cutter went sliding and rippling over it to long slow
strokes of the oars; her crew being all men-o'-war's-men, that knew how
to pull together and take it easy. The young ladies kept gazing rather
anxiously at the big old _Seringapatam_, as she rose and dropped heavily
on the calm, amused though they were at first by a sight of their late
home turning 'gable' on to us, with her three masts in one, and a white
straw hat or two watching us from her taffrail; whereas, ahead, they
only now and then caught a glimpse of the brig's upper canvas, over a
hot, hazy, sullen-looking sweep of water as deep-blue as indigo--with
six hairy brown breasts bending before them to the oars, and as many
pair of queer, rollicking, fishy sort of eyes, fixed steadily on the
bonnets aft, in a shame-faced, down-hill kind of way, like fellows that
couldn't help it. In fact, I noticed a curious grin now and then on
every one of the men's faces, and a look to each other when they caught
sight of myself sitting behind the mate, as he paid out his high-flying
speeches; Jacobs, again, regarding me all the while out of the whites of
his eyes, as it were, in a wooden, unknowing fashion fit to have made a
cat laugh--seeing he never missed his mark for one moment, and drew back
his head at every pull with the air of a drunken man keeping sight of
his own waistcoat buttons.
"By the time we were halfway, the swell began to get considerable, and
the mate stepped up abaft to look for the gig. 'Can't see the boat yet,'
said he; 'give way there, my lads--stretch out and bend your backs!
there's the brig!' 'Hallo!' exclaimed he again, 'she's clued up royals
and to'gallants'ls! By heavens! there go her tops'ls down too! Going to
bend new sails, though, I daresay, for it looks clear enough there.'
'The ship's run up a flag, aft sir,' said Jacobs. 'The----so she has,'
said Finch, turning round; 'recall signal! What's wrong? Sorry _we_
can't dine aboard the French vessel this time, ladies!' said he,
'extremely _so_--and the griffins there after all, too. I hope _you_
won't be disappointed in any great measure, Miss Hyde; but if you wished
it now, miss, I'd even _keep_ on, and----'
"The young lady coloured a little at this, and turned to her companion
just as I remembered her doing from the dragoon in the ball-room. 'Do
you not think, Miss Wyndham,' said she, '_we_ ought not to wish any
officer of the ship should get reproved, perhaps, on _our_ account?' 'Oh
dear, no,' said Miss Wyndham: 'indeed, Mr Finch, you had better go back,
if the captain orders you.'
"'Hold on there with your larboard oars, you lubbers!' sang out Finch,
biting his lip, and round we went, pulling for the Indiaman again; but
by this time the swell was becoming so heavy as to make it hard work,
and it was soon rarely we could see her at all; for nothing gets up so
fast as a swell, sometimes, near the Line; neither one way nor the
other, but right up and down, without a breath of wind, in huge smooth
hills of water darker than lead, not a speck of foam, and the sky hot
and clear. 'Twas almost as if a weight had been lifted from off the long
heaving calm, and the whole round of it were going up dark into the sky,
in one weltering jumble, the more strange that it was quiet; sweep up it
took the boat, and the bright wet oar-blades spread feathering out for
another stroke to steady her, let alone making way; though that was
nothing to the look of the Indiaman when we got near. She was rolling
her big black hull round in it as helpless as a cask; now one side, then
the other, dipping gunwale to in the round swell that came heaping up
level with her very rail, and went sheeting out bright through the
bulwarks again; the masts jumping, clamps and boom-irons creaking on the
yards, and every sail on her shaking, as her lower yard-arms took it by
turns to aim at the water--you heard all the noise of it, the plunge of
her flat broadside, the plash from her scuppers, the jolts of her
rudder, and voices on board; and wet you may be sure she _was_ from stem
to stern.
"'Comfortable,' thought I; 'we've come home too soon of a washing-day,
and may wait at the door, I fear!' 'Oh dear,' exclaimed the three
griffins, 'how are we to get in!' and the young ladies looked pale at
the sight. The mate steered for her larboard quarter without saying a
word, but I saw he lost coolness and got nervous--not at all the man for
a hard pinch: seemingly, he meant to make a dash alongside and hook on.
'If you do, sir,' said I, 'you'll be smashed to staves'; and all at once
the ship appeared almost over our heads, while the boat took a send in.
I looked to Jacobs and the men, and they gave one long stroke off, that
seemed next heave to put a quarter of a mile between us. 'Close shave
that,' said the bowman. 'Begs pardon, sir,' said Jacobs, touching his
hat, with his eyes still fixed past the mate, upon me; 'hasn't we better
keep steadying off, sir, till such time as a sulk in the swell----'
'Hold your jaw, sirrah,' growled Finch, as he looked ahead still more
flurried; 'there's a _squall_ coming yonder, gentlemen, and if we don't
get quick aboard, we may lose the ship in it! Pull round, d' ye hear
there!' Sure enough, when we lifted, there was the French brig clear
out against a sulky patch of dark-grey sky, growing in, as it were, far
off behind the uneven swell, till _it_ began to look pale; the
Indiaman's topsails gave a loud flap out, too, one after the other, and
fell to the mast again.
"Suddenly I caught the glance of Violet Hyde's eyes watching me
seriously, as I sat overhauling the Indiaman for a notion of what to do,
and I fancied the charming girl had somehow got nearer to me during the
last minute or two, whether she knew it or not; at any rate, the thought
of having such a creature to protect made all my blood tingle. 'Never
fear, ma'am,' said I, in a half whisper; when Finch's eye met mine, and
he threw me a malicious look, sufficient to show what a devil the fellow
would be if ever he had occasion; however, he gave the sign for the men
to stretch out again, and high time it was, as the Indiaman's
main-topsail made another loud clap like a musket-shot. Still he was
holding right for her _quarter_--the roll the ship had on her was
fearful, and it was perfect madness to try it; but few merchant mates
have chanced to be boating in a Line swell, I daresay; when just as we
came head on for her starboard counter, I took the boat's tiller a
sudden shove with my foot, as if by accident, that sent us sheering in
close under her _stern_. The bowman prized his boat-hook into the
rudder-chains, where the big hull swung round us on both sides like an
immense wheel round its barrel, every stern window with a face watching
us--though one stroke of the loose rudder would have stove us to bits,
and the swell was each moment like to make the men let go, as it hove us
up almost near enough to have caught a hand from the lower-deck.
"'For God's sake steady your wheel,' said I; 'hard a port!' while the
mate was singing out for a line. 'Now, up you go,' said I to Jacobs in
the hubbub, 'look sharp, and send us down a whip and basket from the
boom-end, as we did once in the _Pandora_, you know!' Up the rope went
Jacob like a cat, hand over hand; and five minutes after, down came the
'basket' over our heads into the boat, made out of a studding-sail and
three capstan-bars, like a big grocer's scale dangling from the
spanker-boom. The mate proposed to go up first with Miss Hyde, but she
hung back in favour of her companion; so away aloft went Miss Wyndham
and he, swinging across the Indiaman's stern as she rolled again, with a
gant-line to steady them in--Finch holding on to the whip by one hand,
and the other round the young lady, while my blood crept at the thought
how it might have been Lota herself!
"As soon as it came down again, she looked for a moment from me to
Jacobs, when Captain Williamson himself shouted over the taffrail!
'Sharp, sharp, there! the squall's coming down! she'll be up in the
wind! let's get the helm free!' and directly after I found myself
swinging twenty feet over the water with Violet Hyde, as the ship heeled
to a puff that filled the spanker, and rose again on a huge swell,
gathering steerage way, while every bolt of canvas in her flapped in
again at once like thunder. I felt her shudder and cling to me--there
was one half-minute we swung fairly clear of the stern; they stopped
hoisting--and I almost thought I'd have wished that same half-minute
half-a-day; but a minute after she was in the judge's arms on the poop;
the men had contrived to get the cadets on board, too, and the boat was
dragging astern, with the line veered out, and her crew still in it
baling her out.
"I fixed my eyes at once, breathless as we of the boat party were, on
the weather-signs and the other vessel, which everybody on the poop was
looking at, as soon as we were safe, and our friends in the gig had to
be thought of. The short top-swell was beginning to soften in long
regular seas, with just air enough aloft to give our light sails a
purchase on it, and put an end to the infernal clatter; but the vapour
had gathered quicker than you could well fancy behind the brig in the
distance, so that she looked already a couple of miles nearer, rising up
two or three times on as many huge swells that shone like blue glass,
while she steadied herself like a tight-rope dancer on the top of them,
by a studding-sail set high from each side. On the far horizon beyond
her, you'd have thought there was a deep black ditch sunk along under
the thickening blue haze, as it stretched out past her to both hands,
till actually the solid breast of it seemed to shove the brig bodily
forward over the oily-like water, every spar and rope distinct; then the
fog lifted below as if the teeth of a saw came splitting through it, and
we saw her bearing down towards us--cloud, water, and all, as it
were--with a white heap of foam at her bows.
"'Brace up sharp, Mr Finch!' said the old skipper hastily, 'and stand
over to meet her. Confound this! we _must_ have these people out of
that brig in a trice; we shall soon have a touch of the Horse Latitudes,
or my name's not Richard Williamson--ay, and bid good-bye to 'em too, I
think!'
"For a quarter of an hour or so, accordingly, we kept forging slowly
ahead, while the brig continued to near us. No one spoke, almost--you
heard the lazy swash of the water round our fore-chains, and the
stillness aboard had a gloomy enough effect, as one noticed the top of
the haze creep up into round vapoury heads upon the sky, and felt it
darkening aloft besides. We were scarce three-quarters of a mile apart,
and could see her sharp black bows drip over the bright sheathing, as
she rolled easily on the swell; when the Indiaman suddenly lost way
again, sheered head round, and slap went all her sails from the royals
down, as if she had fired a broadside. Almost the next moment, a long
low growl ran muttering and rumbling far away round the horizon, from
the clouds and back to them again, as if they had been some huge monster
or other on the watch, with its broad green muzzle shooting quietly over
us as it lay; the brig dipped her gilt figure-head abeam of us, and then
showed her long red streak; the swell sinking fast, and the whole sea
far and wide coming out from the sky as dark and round as the mahogany
drum-head of the capstan.
"'Bless me, Small,' said the captain, 'but I hope they've not knocked a
hole in my gig--ay, there _they_ are, I think, looking over the brig's
quarter--but don't seem to have a boat to swim! Get the cutter hauled
alongside, Mr Stebbing,' continued he to the fourth mate, 'and go aboard
for them at once--confounded bothering, this! Mind get my gig safe, sir,
if you please--can ye _parley-voo_, though, Mr Stebbing?' 'Not a word,
sir,' said the young mate, a gentlemanly, rather soft fellow, whom the
other three all used to snub. 'Bless me, can't we muster a bit o' French
amongst us?' said the skipper; 'catch a _monshoor_ that knows a word of
English like any other man--'specially if they've a chance of keeping my
gig!' 'Well, sir,' said I, 'I'll be happy to go with the officer, as I
can speak French well enough!' 'Thank ye, young gentleman, thank ye,'
said he, 'you'll do it as well as any man, I'm sure--only look sharp, if
you please, and bring my gig with you!' So down the side we bundled into
the cutter, and pulled straight for the brig, which had just hoisted
French colours, not old 'three-patches,' of course, but the new
Restoration flag.
"I overhauled her well as we got near, and a beautiful long
schooner-model she was, with sharp bows, and a fine easy-run hull from
stem to stern, but dreadfully dirty and spoilt with top-bulwarks, as if
they meant to make her look as clumsy as possible; while the brig-rig of
her aloft, with the ropes hanging in bights and hitches, gave her the
look of a hedge-parson on a race-horse; at the same time, I counted six
closed ports of a side, in her red streak, the exact breadth and colour
of itself. Full of men, with a long gun, and schooner-rigged, she could
have sailed round the Indiaman in a light breeze, and mauled her to any
extent.
"They hove us a line out of the gangway at once, the mate got up her
side as she rolled gently over, and I followed him: the scene that met
our eyes as soon as we reached the deck, however, struck me a good deal
on various accounts. We couldn't at first see where Mr Rollock and his
party might be, for the shadow of a thick awning after the glare of the
water, and the people near the brig's gangway; but I saw two or three
dark-faced, very French-like individuals, in broad-brimmed straw hats
and white trousers, seemingly passengers; while about twenty Kroomen and
negroes, and as many seamen with unshaven chins, earrings, and striped
frocks, were in knots before the long-boat, turned keel up amidships,
careless enough, to all appearance, about us. One of the passengers
leant against the mainmast, with his arms folded over his broad chest,
and his legs crossed, looking curiously at us as we came up; his dark
eyes half closed, the shadow of his hat down to his black moustache, and
his shirt-collar open, showing a scar on his hairy breast; one man, whom
I marked for the brig's surgeon, beside him; and another waiting for us
near the bulwarks--a leathery-faced little fellow, with twinkling black
eyes, and a sort of cocked hat fore-and-aft on his cropped head. '_Moi_,
monsieur,' said he, slapping his hand on his breast as the mate looked
about him, 'oui, je suis capitaine, monsieur.'
"'Good-day, sir,' said Stebbing, 'we've just come aboard for our
passengers--and the gig--sir, if you please.' 'Certainement, monsieur,'
said the French skipper, bowing and taking a paper from his pocket,
which he handed to the mate, 'I comprind, sare--monsieur le
capitaine d' la frégate Anglaise, il nous demande nos--vat you
call--_peppares_--voilà! I have 'ad le honneur, messieurs, to be already
sarch by vun off vos _crusoes_--pour des _esclaves_! vous imaginez
_cela_, messieurs!' and here the worthy Frenchman cast up his hands and
gave a grin which seemed meant for innocent horror. '_Slaifs! chez_ le
brigantin _Louis Bourbon_, Capitaine Jean Duprez? _Non!_' said he,
talking away like a windmill, 'de Marseilles à l'Isle de France, avec
les vins choisis----' 'You mistake, monsieur,' said I, in French; 'the
ship is an Indiaman, and we have only come for our _friends_, who are
enjoying your wine, I daresay, but we must----' 'Comment?' said he,
staring, '_what_, monsieur? have de gotness to----'
"Here the moustached passenger suddenly raised himself off the mast, and
made one stride between us to the bulwarks, where he looked straight out
at the Indiaman, his arms still folded, then from us to the French
master. He was a noble-looking man, with an eye I never saw the like of
in anyone else, 'twas so clear, bold, and prompt--it actually went
_into_ you like a sword, and I couldn't help fancying him in the thick
of a battle, with thousands of men and miles of smoke. 'Duprez,' said
he, quickly, 'je vous le dis encore--debarquez ces misérables!--nous
_combattrons_!' 'Then, mon ami,' said the surgeon, in a low, cool,
determined tone, stepping up and laying a hand on his shoulder, 'aussi,
_nous couperons les ailes de l'Aigle_, seulement!--Hush, mon ami,
restrain this unfortunate madness of yours!--c'est bien mal-à-propos à
present!' and he whispered something additional, on which the passenger
fell back and leant against the mainmast as before. 'Ah!' said the
French master in his own language, shaking his head, and giving his
forehead a tap, 'le pauvre homme-là! He has had a coup-de-soleil,
messieurs, or rather of the _moon_, you perceive, from sleeping in its
rays! _Ma foi!_' exclaimed he, on my explaining the matter, 'c'est
pos-_sible_?--we _did_ suppose your boat proposed us the honour to
visit, when evidently deterred by the excessive undulation!--My friends,
resign yourselves to a misfort----' 'Great heavens! Mr Stebbing,' said
I, 'the boat is _lost_!' 'By George! what _will_ the captain say, then!'
replied he; however as soon as I told him the sad truth, poor Stebbing,
being a good-hearted fellow, actually put his hands to his face and
sobbed.
"All this time the brig's crew were gabbling and kicking up a confounded
noise about something they were at with the spare spars, and in throwing
tarpaulins over the hatches; for it was fearfully dark, and going to
rain heavy; the slight swell shone and slid up betwixt the two vessels
like oil, and the clouds to south-westward had gathered up to a steep
black bank, with round coppery heads, like smoke over a town on fire.
'Will you go down, messieurs,' said the Frenchman, politely, 'and taste
my _vin de_----' 'No, sir,' said I, 'we must make haste off, or
else--besides, by-the-way, we couldn't, for you've got all your hatches
battened down!' 'Diable, so they are!' exclaimed he, '_par honneur_,
gentlemen, I regret the occasion of--ha!' Just before, a glaring brassy
sort of touch had seemed to come across the face of the immense cloud;
and though everything, far and wide, was as still as death, save the
creaking of the two ships' yards, it made you think of the last
trumpet's mouth! But at this moment a dazzling flash leaped zigzag out
of it, running along from one cloud to another, while the huge dark
mass, as it were, tore right up, changing and turning it inside out like
dust--you saw the sea far away under it, heaving from glassy blue into
unnatural-like brown--when crash broke the thunder over our very heads,
as if something had fallen out of heaven, then a long bounding roar. The
mad French passenger stood up, walked to the bulwarks, and looked out
with his hand over his eyes for the next; while the young mate and I
tumbled down the brig's side without further to-do, and pulled fast for
the ship, where we hardly got aboard before there was another wild
flash, another tremendous clap, and the rain fell in one clash, more
like stone than water, on sea and decks. For half an hour we were
rolling and soaking in the midst of it, the lightning hissing through
the rain, and showing it glitter; while every five minutes came a burst
of thunder and then a rattle fit to split one's ears. At length, just as
the rain began to slacken, you could see it lift bodily, the standing
sheets of it drove right against our canvas and through the
awnings--when we made out the French brig with her jib, topsails, and
boom-mainsail full, leaning over as she clove through it before the
wind.
"The squall burst into our wet topsails as loud as the thunder, with a
flash almost like the lightning itself, taking us broad abeam; the ship
groaned and shook for a minute ere gathering way and falling off, and
when she rose and began to go plunging through the black surges no brig
was to be seen: every man on deck let his breath out almost in a cry,
scarce feeling as yet but it was equal to losing sight for ever of our
late shipmates, or the least hope of them. The passengers, ladies and
all, crowded in the companion-hatch in absolute terror, every face
aghast, without thinking of the rain and spray; now and then the sulky
crest of a bigger wave would be caught sight of beyond the bulwarks, as
the sea rose with its green back curling over into white; and you'd have
said the shudder ran down into the cabin, at thought of seeing one or
other of the lost boat's crew come weltering up from the mist and vanish
again. I knew it was of no use, but I held on in the weather
mizzen-rigging, and looked out to westward, against a wild break of
light which the setting sun made through the troughs of the sea; once
and again I could fancy I saw the boat lift keel up, far off betwixt me
and the fierce glimmer.
"'Oh, do you see them? _do_ you not see it yet?' was passed up to me
over and over, from one sharp-pitched voice to another; but all I could
answer was to shake my head. At last, one by one, they went below; and
after what had happened, I must say I could easily fancy what a chill,
dreary-like, awful notion of the sea must have come for the first time
on a landsman, not to speak of delicate young girls fresh from home, at
sight of the drenched quarter-deck leaning bare down to leeward, the
sleet and spray battering bleak against the round-house doors, where I
had seen Miss Hyde led sobbing in, with her wet hair about her face;
then the ship driving off from where she had lost them, with her three
strong lower masts aslant into the gale, ghastly-white and dripping--her
soaked sheets of canvas blown grey and stiff into the rigging, and _it_
strained taut as iron; while you saw little of her higher than the tops,
as the scud and the dark together closed aloft. Poor Miss Fortescue's
mother was in fits below in her berth--the two watches were on the yards
aloft, where no eye could see them, struggling hard to furl and reef; so
altogether it was a gloomy enough moment. I stayed awhile on deck,
wrapped in a pea-coat, keeping my feet and hanging on, and thinking how
right down in earnest matters _could_ turn of a sudden. I wasn't
remarkably thoughtful in these days, I daresay, but there did I keep,
straining my eyes into the mist to see, I couldn't tell what, and
repeating over and over again to myself these few words out of the
Prayer-book, 'In the midst of life we are in death,' though scarce
knowing what I said.