"As soon as you near St Helena by a few miles, the trade-wind falls
light, and making the rock, as you do from the South Atlantic, a good
deal to leeward of the harbour, 'twould be pretty slow work beating
round to north-east, but for the breeze always coming off the height,
with the help of which one can coast easy enough along. Captain Wallis
said no more than to bid the first lieutenant make the brig's number at
her mast-head, while she still bore in direct upon the breast of the
land, as much out of soundings as the day before; the smooth heavy swell
seeming to float the island up in one huge lump ahead of us, till you
saw it rolling into the very foot, with a line of surf, as if it all
rose sheer out of the bottom of the sea; as grim and hard as a block of
iron, too, and a good deal the same colour. By noon it hung fairly, as
it were, over our mast-heads, the brig looking by comparison as tiny and
as ticklish as a craft made of glass, she coasting away round, with
yards braced first one way then another, and opening point after point
from three hundred to two thousand feet high; while at times she would
go stealing in with a faint ripple at her bows, near enough to hear the
deep sound of the sea plunging slowly to the face of the rock, where the
surf rose white against it without a break.
"There wasn't so much as a weed to be seen, the rocks getting redder and
more coppery, sending out the light like metal, till you'd have thought
they tingled all over with the heat. Then as you opened another bulge in
the line, the sharp sugar-loaf hills, far away up, with the ragged
cliffs and crags, shot over against the bare white sky in all sort of
shapes; and after a good long spell of the sea, there was little fancy
needed to give one the notion that they were changing into these, as we
passed ahead, to mock you. There was one peak for all the world like
the top of St Paul's, and no end of church spires and steeples, all
lengths and ways; then big bells and trumpets, mixed with wild beasts'
heads, grinning at each other across some split in the blue beyond, and
soldiers' helmets--not to speak of one huge block, like a nigger's face
with a cowl behind it, hanging far out over the water. Save for the
colour of it all, in fact, St Helena reminds one more of a tremendous
iceberg than an island, and not the less that it looks ready in some
parts to topple over and show a new face; while the sea working round
it, surging into the hollows below water-mark, and making the air groan
inside of them, keeps up a noise the like of which you wouldn't wish to
cruise alongside of every day. The strangest thing about it, however,
was that now and then, as you came abreast of some deep gully running up
inland, a sudden blast of wind would rush out of it, sufficient to make
the _Podargus_ reel--with a savage thundering roar, too, like the howl
out of a lion's mouth; while you looked far up a narrow, bare, black
glen, closing into a hubbub of red rocks, or losing itself up a grey
hillside in a white thread of a water-course; then the rough shell of
the island shut in again, as still as before, save the light breeze and
the deep hum of the surf along its foot. Curiously enough in a latitude
like St Helena's, the island seems, as it were, a perfect bag of air.
What with the heat of the rock, its hollow inside, the high peaks of it
catching the clouds, and the narrow outlets it has, 'tis always brewing
wind, you may say, to ventilate that part of the tropics--just as one
may keep up cold draughts through and through a wet heap of loose
stones, no matter how hot the weather is, as long as he pleases. As for
a landing-place, though, there wasn't one of the gullies that didn't
yawn over without falling to the sea; and, not to mention the surf
underneath, where the dark swell came in unbroken from deep water
without a shoal to soften it, why, watching it from the brig's side, I
shouldn't have said a cat could scramble up or down the steep slopes and
the wreck of stones, from the water's edge to the jaws of the easiest
gully you saw.
"Once or twice, standing farther off, we caught sight of Diana's Peak
over the shoulder of a hill, with the light haze melting about it; at
last you noticed a large gun mounted against the sky on a lofty peak,
where it looked like a huge telescope; and on clearing another
headland, a beautiful frigate came in between us and the burst of light
to seaward, cruising to windward under easy sail. She bore up and stood
towards the brig-of-war, just as the line of wall was to be seen winding
round the middle of Sugarloaf Point, where the sentry's bayonet
glittered near his watch-box, and the soldiers' red coats could be seen
moving through the covered passage to the batteries. Five minutes after,
the _Podargus_ swept round the breast of Rupert's Hill into the bay, in
sight of Jamestown and the ships lying off the harbour; clewing up her
sails and ready to drop anchor, as the frigate hove to not far astern.
"You can fancy land heaving in sight after thrice as many weeks as
you've been at sea, ladies; or the view of a ship to a man that's been
long laid up in bed ashore; or a gulp of fresh water in a sandy
desert--but I question if any of them matches your first glimpse of
Jamestown from the roadstead, like a bright piece of fairy-work in the
mouth of the narrow brown valley, after seeing desolation enough to make
you wish for a clear horizon again. More especially this time, when all
the while one couldn't help bringing to mind one's notion of the French
Emperor, how, not long ago, the sight of the French coast, or a strange
frigate over the Channel swell, used to make us think of him far ashore,
with half the earth for his own, and millions of soldiers. We reefers
down in the cockpit would save our grog to drink confusion to Napoleon,
and in a rough night near a lee-shore, it was look alive aloft, or
choose betwixt cold brine and the clutch of a gendarme hauling you to
land. I do believe we looked upon him as a sort of god, as Captain
Wallis did in the Temple; every ship or gunboat we saw taken, or had a
hand in the mauling of, why, 'twas for the sheer sake of the thing, and
scarce by way of harm to Boney; while nothing like danger, from breakers
on the lee-bow to a November gale, but had seemingly a taste of him.
None of us any more thought of bringing him to this, than we did of his
marching into London, or of a French frigate being able to rake our old
_Pandora_ in a set-to on green water or blue, with us to handle her.
"But _there_ was the neat little cluster of houses, white, yellow, and
green, spreading down close together in the bottom of the valley, and
out along the sea's edge; the rough brown cliffs sloping up on each
side, with the ladder-like way to the fort on the right, mounting, as it
were, out of the very street, to the flagstaff on the top, and dotted
with red-coats going up and down; a bright line of a pier and a wall
before the whole, the Government House dazzling through a row of
spreading trees, and a little square church-tower to be seen beyond.
'Twas more like a scene in a play, than aught else; what with the
suddenness of it all, the tiny look of it betwixt the huge rocks, the
greenness of the trees and bushes, and patches of garden struggling up
as far as they could go into the stone, and the gay little toys of
cottages, with scarce flat enough to stand upon; save for the blue swell
of the sea plunging lazily in through the bit of a bay, and the streak
of air behind, that let you in high over the head of the hollow, up
above one height and another, to a flat-headed blue rise in the
distance, where Longwood could be seen from the maincross-trees I had
gone to as the sails were furled.
"The sunlight, striking from both the red sides of the ravine, made the
little village of a place, trees and all, glitter in a lump together,
out of it, like no spot in the rest of the world; while elsewhere there
wasn't so much as a weed to be seen hanging from the rock, nor the sign
of another human habitation, saving the bare batteries on each hand,
with a few sheds and warehouses over the beach along the landing-place.
Once or twice the same sudden gust as before would come slap down
through the valley into the brig's bare rigging, hot as the air was,
with a howling kind of a sigh you took some time to get accustomed to,
lest there was a hurricane to follow: in fact, one didn't well know
whether it was the wild look of it outside, or the lovely spot in its
grim mouth of a landing-place, but the whole island gave you the notion
of a thing you couldn't be long sure of, without fancying it would give
a shake some day or other again; or else spout fire, as no doubt it had
done before, if there wasn't more fear of Napoleon getting back somehow
to France, and wreaking bloody vengeance on the kings that shut him up
in St Helena.
"There was apparently a busy scene ashore, however, both in the little
town, which has scarce more than a single street, and along the quay,
full of residents, as well as passengers from two Indiamen lying
in-shore of us, while the Government esplanade seemed to be crowded
with ladies, listening to the regimental band under the trees. The
_Newcastle_ frigate, with Sir Dudley Aldcombe's flag hoisted at her
mizzen, was at anchor out abreast at Ladder Hill; and our first
lieutenant had scarce pulled aboard of the _Hebe_, which was hove-to off
the brig's quarter, before I noticed the Admiral's barge lying alongside
the _Hebe_.
"Seeing Mr Aldridge on his way back shortly after, I came down the
rigging, more anxious than ever to have my own matter settled; indeed,
Captain Wallis no sooner caught sight of my face, uncomfortable as I
daresay it looked, than he told me he was going to wait on the Admiral
aboard the _Hebe_, and would take me with him at once, if I chose. For
my part, I needed nothing but the leave, and in ten minutes' time I
found myself, no small mark of curiosity, betwixt the waist and the
quarter-deck of the _Hebe_, where the officers eyed me with as little
appearance of rudeness as they could help, and I overhauled the spars
and rigging aloft as coolly as I could, waiting to be sent for below.
The _Hebe_, in fact, was the very beauty of a twenty-eight; taking the
shine, and the wind, too, clean out of everything even at Plymouth,
where I had seen her once a year or two before; our poor dear old _Iris_
herself had scarce such a pattern of a hull, falling in, as it did, from
the round swell of her bilge, to just under the plank-sheer, and
spreading out again with her bright black top-sides, till where the
figure-head shot over the cutwater, and out of her full pair of bows,
like a swan's neck out of its breast. As for the _Iris_, our boatswain
himself one day privately confessed to me, almost with tears in his
eyes, that she tumbled home a thought too much just in front of the
fore-chains, and he'd tried to get it softened off with dead planking
and paint, but it wouldn't do; everybody saw through them. The truth
was, to feel this fine ship under one, with her loose topsails hanging
high against the gloom of the red gully towards Longwood, and the gay
little town peeping just over her larboard bow, a mile away, it somehow
or other cleared one's mind of a load.
"I was thinking already how, if one had the command of such a craft, to
do something with her at sea--hang it! but surely that old judge
couldn't be too proud to give him a fair hearing. By Jove! thought
I--had one only wild enough weather, off the Cape, say--if I wouldn't
undertake to bother even a seventy-four a whole voyage through, till she
struck her flag; in which case a fellow might really venture to hold his
head up and speak his mind, lovely as Violet Hyde would be in Calcutta.
But then, again, _there_ was St Helena towering red and rough over the
ships, with the grand French Emperor hidden in it hard and fast, and all
the work he used to give us at an end!
"Just at the moment, happening to catch sight of the American mate's
sallow black visage over the brig-of-war's hammock-cloths, peering as he
did from the cliffs to the lofty spars of the frigate, while his negro
shipmates were to be made out nearer the bows--somehow or other the
whole affair of their being burnt out and picked up started into my mind
again, along with our late queer adventures in the Indiaman. Not to
mention Captain Wallis's story, it flashed upon me all at once, for the
first time, that the strange schooner was after some scheme as regarded
the island; and a man more likely to try something uncommon than the
Frenchman I never had seen yet. The truth was, but for my thoughts being
otherwise taken up, I'd have wondered at my own confounded stupidity in
not fathoming the thing sooner; whereas now I'm not going to deny it, I
half began actually to wish him good success, or else a close miss of
it, where either way one couldn't well fail having a share in the
squall.
"At any rate, I saw it was cunningly enough gone about; this same burnt
barque of the Yankee's, I perceived in a moment, was part of the plot;
though as for meddling in it till I saw more, 'twas likely to spoil the
whole; let alone making an ass of oneself in case of mistake. I was
eyeing the shipwrecked mate, indeed, when one of the lieutenants told me
politely the Admiral wanted to see me in the cabin below.
"Not being much accustomed to admirals' society, as a little
white-haired fellow-reefer of mine once said at a tea-party ashore, I
came in at the door with rather an awkward bow, no doubt; for Sir
Dudley, who was sitting on the sofa with his cocked hat and sword beside
him, talking to Captain Wallis, turned his head at the captain's word,
as if he were trying to keep in a smile. A tall, fine-looking man he
was, and few seamen equal to him for handling a large fleet, as I knew,
though his manners were finished enough to have made him easy in a
king's court. As for the captain of the _Hebe_, he was leaning out of an
open stern-window, seemingly a young man; but who he might be I didn't
know at the moment. The Admiral had only a question or two to put,
before he looked back to Captain Wallis again, remarking it was clear he
had brought away the wrong man. 'I didn't think you were so dull in the
_Podargus_,' said he, smiling, 'as to let an Indiaman play off such a
trick on you--eh, Captain Wallis!'
"Captain Wallis glanced round the cabin, and then sideways down at Sir
Dudley's cocked hat, in a funny enough way, as much as to say he took
all the blame on himself; and it struck me more than ever what a kind
heart the man had in him--if you only set aside his hatred to Bonaparte,
which in fact was nothing else but a twisted sort of proof of the same
thing. 'Pooh, pooh, Wallis,' continued Sir Dudley, 'we can't do anything
in the matter; though, if the service were better than it really is at
present, I should certainly incline to question a smart young fellow
like this, that has held His Majesty's commission, for idling in an
Indiaman after the lady passengers! I am afraid, sir,' said he to me,
'you've lost your passage, though--unless the captain of the _Hebe_ will
give you his second berth here, to make amends. You need not be afraid,
Lord Frederick!' added he, looking toward the captain of the frigate,
and raising his voice; 'you do not know him, after all, I suppose!' The
captain drew in his head, saying he had been doubtful about one of the
pivots of the rudder, then turned full round and looked uneasily at me,
on which his face brightened immediately, and he said, 'No, Sir Dudley,
I do not!' I was still in ignorance for a moment or so, myself, who this
titled young post-captain might be, though I had certainly seen him
before; till all at once I recollected him, with a start as pleasant to
me as his seemed to him at _not_ knowing me. Both Westwood and I had
been midshipmen together for a while in the _Orion_, fifty-gun ship,
where _he_ was second lieutenant, several years before. As for me, I was
too fond of a frigate to stay longer in her than I could help; but I
remembered my being a pest to the second lieutenant, and Tom's being a
favourite of his, so that he stayed behind me, and got master's-mate as
soon as he was 'passed.'
"The Honourable Frederick Bury he was then, and the handsomest young
fellow in the squadron, as well as the best-natured aboard; I don't
believe he knew how to splice in a dead-eye, and any of the
masters'-mates could take charge of the ship better in a rough night, I
daresay; but for a gallant affair in the way of hard knocks, with
management to boot, there wasn't his match. He never was known to fail
when he took a thing in hand; lost fewer men, too, than anyone else did;
and whenever there turned up anything ticklish for the boats, it was
always 'Mr Bury will lead.' 'The Honourable Bury,' we used to call him,
and 'Fighting Free-the-deck.' Westwood was one of his school, whereas
_I_ had learnt from Jacobs in a merchantman's forecastle; and many a
time did we play off such tricks on the second lieutenant as coming
gravely aft to him during the watch, three or four of us together, me
carrying a bit of rope where a 'Turk's-head' or a 'mouse' was to be
worked, while I asked him innocently to show us the way. Or else it was
some dispute we contrived beforehand, as to the best plan of sending up
new topmasts at sea, or running out of a 'round' gale in the Indian
Ocean, on which the men forward would be all ready to break out
laughing; and the second lieutenant, after thinking a moment, would
quietly pitch upon me to go aloft, and study the point for two hours at
the mast-head.
"'What is _your_ name then, young man?' inquired Sir Dudley Aldcombe of
me. The instant I told him, Lord Frederick Bury gave me another look,
then a smile. 'What?' said he, 'Collins that was in the _Orion_?' 'Yes,
Lord Frederick,' said I, 'the same; I was third in the _Iris_ off the
West African coast since then.' 'Why,' said he, 'I recollect you quite
well, Mr Collins, although you have grown a foot, I think, sir--but your
eye reminds me of sundry pranks you used to play on board! What nickname
was it your messmates called you, by-the-by?' 'Something foolish enough,
I suppose, my lord,' replied I, biting my lip; 'but I remember clearly
having the honour to steer the second cutter in-shore one dark night
near Dunkirk, when your lordship carried the Dutch brig and the two
French chasse-marées----'
"'Faith,' broke in the captain of the _Hebe_, 'you've a better memory
than I have--I do not recollect any chasse-marées at all that time, Mr
Collins!' 'Why,' said I, 'I got a knock on the head from a fellow in a
red shirt--that always kept me in mind.' 'Oh,' remarked the Admiral to
Captain Wallis, laughing, 'Lord Frederick Bury must have had so many
little parties of the kind that his memory can't be expected to be very
nice! However, I shall go ashore at present, gentlemen, leaving the
_Hebe_ and you to dispose of this runaway lieutenant in some way or
other. Only you'd better settle it before Admiral Plampin arrives!'
'Have you seen the--the--Longwood lately, Sir Dudley?' asked the captain
of the _Podargus_ carelessly. 'Yes, not many days ago I had an
interview,' said the Admiral gravely; 'proud as ever, and evidently
resolved not to flinch from his condition. 'Tis wonderful the command
that man has over himself, Wallis--he speaks of the whole world and its
affairs like one that sees into them, and had them still nearly under
his foot! All saving those miserable squabbles with Plantation House,
which--but, next time I shall take my leave, and wash my hands of the
whole concern, I am glad to think!'
"Lord Frederick was talking to me meanwhile at the other end of the
cabin, but I was listening in spite of myself to Sir Dudley Aldcombe,
and noticed that Captain Wallis made no answer. 'By-the-way, Wallis,'
continued the Admiral, ''tis curious that he seemed anxious more than
once to know what you think of him--I believe he would like to see you!'
'To see _me_!' said the commander of the _Podargus_, suddenly. 'At last,
does he! No, Sir Dudley, he and I never _will_ meet; he ought to have
thought of it twelve years sooner! God knows,' he went on, 'the
commander of a ten-gun brig is too small a man to see the Emperor
Napoleon a prisoner; but in ten years of war, Sir Dudley, what mightn't
one have been, instead of being remembered after as only plain John
Wallis, whom Bonaparte kept all that time in prison, and who was sent in
course of time, to cruise off St Helena?' Here the Admiral said
something about a British sailor not keeping malice, and Captain Wallis
looked up at him gravely. 'No,' replied he; 'no, Sir Dudley, I shouldn't
have _chosen_ the thing; but in the meantime I'm only doing my duty.
There's a gloomy turn in my mind by this time, no doubt; but you've no
idea, Sir Dudley, how the thought of other people comes into one's head
when he's years shut up--so _I_ may stand for many a one Bonaparte will
never see more than myself, that'll ring him round surer than those
rocks there, though they're dead and in their graves, Sir Dudley!' The
Admiral shook his head, observing that Napoleon was no common man, and
oughtn't to be judged as such. 'Too many victories in that eye of his, I
suspect, Captain Wallis,' said he, 'for either Plantation House or his
own conscience to break his spirit!'
"Ay, ay, sir,' answered the captain respectfully, 'excuse me, Sir
Dudley, but there it is--so long as he's got his victories to fall back
upon, he can't see how, if he'd regarded common men more, with all
belonging to them, he wouldn't have been here! Why did Providence shut
him up in a dead volcano, with blue water round it, Sir Dudley, if it
wasn't to learn somehow or other he was a man after all?' Sir Dudley
Aldcombe shrugged his shoulders and looked to Lord Frederick, upon which
he rose, and the two captains followed him out of the cabin; in five
minutes I heard the side piped for the Admiral's leaving, and soon after
the captain of the _Hebe_ came below again.
"'This is a disagreeable affair of your old messmate's, Mr Collins,'
said he seriously. 'You are, perhaps, not aware that Captain Duncombe
was a relative of my own, and the fact of his property having fallen by
will to myself, rendered my position the more peculiarly disagreeable,
had I been obliged not only to recognise Lieutenant Westwood here, but
afterwards to urge proceedings against him, even if he were let off by
court-martial. I cannot tell you how the sight of a stranger, as I
thought, relieved me, sir!' 'Indeed, Lord Frederick!' replied I, too
much confused in the circumstances to say more. However, his lordship's
manner soon set me at my ease, the old good-humoured smile coming over
his fine features again, while he went on to offer me the place of his
second lieutenant, who was going home very ill by one of the
homeward-bound Indiamen; adding, that Sir Dudley would confirm the
appointment; indeed, he could scarce help himself, he said, as there was
nobody else he could get at present.
"'You must be a thorough good sailor by this time, Collins,' continued
he, 'if you have gone on at the rate you used to do. I remember how fond
you were of having charge for a minute or two of the old _Orion_, or
when I let you put her about in my watch. Why they called you "Young
Green" I never could understand, unless it was _ut lucus a non lucendo_,
as we used to say at Eton, you know. Well, what do you say?' Now, as you
may suppose, the idea of boxing about St Helena, for Heaven knew how
long, didn't at all suit my liking--with the thought of the
_Seringapatam_ steering away from Bombay the whole time, and a hundred
notions of Violet Hyde in India--'twould have driven me madder than the
Temple did Captain Wallis: but it was only the _first_ part of my mind I
gave Lord Frederick. 'What!' exclaimed he, with a flush over his face,
and drawing up his tall figure, 'you didn't suppose, _I_ should remain
here? Why, the _Hebe_ is on her way for Calcutta and Canton, and will
sail as soon as the _Conqueror_ arrives at Jamestown with Admiral
Plampin.' 'Your lordship is very kind,' said I, looking down to cover my
delight; 'and if I am not worthy of the post it shan't be my fault, Lord
Frederick.' 'Ah, very good!' said he smiling; ''tis an opportunity you
oughtn't to let slip, Collins, let me tell you! For my own part, I
should just as soon cut out a pirate in the Straits of Malacca as a
French brig in the Channel; and there are plenty of them, I hear, there.
As for a chase, sir, I flatter myself you won't easily see a finer thing
than the _Hebe_ spreading her cloth after one of those fast proas will
be--I think you are just the fellow to make her walk, too, Mr
Collins--pah! to compare a day on the Derby turf with _that_, would be a
sin! You have no idea, sir, how one longs for a fair horizon again, and
brisk breezes, when so ineffably tired out of all those ball-rooms, and
such things as you see about town just now--only I fear I shall wish to
be second lieutenant again, eh?'
"The noble captain of the _Hebe_ turned to look out through the stern
window to seaward, his face losing the weary sort of half-melancholy
cast it had shown for the last minute, while his eye glistened; and it
struck me how well matched the _Hebe_ and her commander were; you'd have
said both had good blood in them, both being models to look at of their
kind, and the frigate lifting under you at the moment, from the keel
upward, with a check aloft in her main-topsail, that lifted her stem to
the surge. A small telescope rolled off the sofa on to the cabin deck,
and as I picked it up, another gust could be heard coming down St James
Valley from inside the island; through the gun-port one saw the trees
wave over the hot white houses in the bright-coloured little town, while
the ship's canvas gave another flutter above-decks. Lord Frederick
laughed, and said, 'Then I suppose we need say no more about it, Mr
Collins, except referring once for all to Sir Dudley?' I bowed, and the
upshot was, that, an hour or two after, I had my acting commission sent
me from the Admiral, the same boat having called at the _Podargus_ for
my things; upon which Lord Frederick introduced me to the first
lieutenant, and I found myself once more doing duty in the service--the
_Hebe_ standing out to leeward with the last light, just as the
_Podargus_ was tripping anchor to beat round again the other way. As for
our friends from the burnt vessel, I must say I had forgot them already,
for the time at least.
"Every block, crag, and knot in the huge crust of the rock shone
terribly bright for a minute or two, aloft from over the yard-ends, as
she stood suddenly out into the fiery gleam of the sun going down many a
mile in the Atlantic. Then up leapt the light keener and keener to the
very topmost peak, till you'd have thought it went in like a living
thing behind a telegraph, that stood out against a black cleft betwixt
two cliffs. We saw the evening gun off Ladder Hill flash upon the deep
blue of the sky, seemingly throwing up the peak and flagstaff a dozen
feet higher; and the boom of the gun sounding in among the wild hills
and hollows within the island, as if one heard it going up to Longwood
door. Scarce was it lost, ere a star or two were to be seen in the
shadow on the other side, and you listened almost, in the hush following
upon the gunfire, for an echo to it, or something stranger; in place of
which the _Hebe_ was already forging ahead in the dark to get well clear
of the land, every wave bringing its own blackness with it up toward her
fore-chains, then sparkling back to her waist in the seeth of foam as
she felt the breeze; while St Helena lay towering along to larboard,
with its ragged top blotting against the deep dark blue of the sky, all
filling as it was with the stars.
"I had the middle watch that night, the ship being under short canvas,
and slowly edging down to make the most leewardly point of the island,
from which she was to beat up again at her leisure by the morning. All
we had to do was to keep a good look-out, on the one hand, into the
streak of starlight to seaward, and on the other along the foot of the
rocks, as well as holding her well in hand, in case of some sudden
squall through the valleys from inside.
"However, I shan't easily forget the thoughts that ran in my mind,
walking the quarter-deck with the frigate under charge, the first time I
noticed Orion and the Serpent begin to wheel glittering away from over
Diana's Peak--the others stealing quietly into sight after them, past
the leech of our main-topsail; scarce an English star to be seen for the
height of the island off our quarter; some of the men on one side of the
booms humming a song about Napoleon's dream, which you'll hear to this
day in ships' forecastles; another yarning solemnly, on the other side,
about some old sweetheart of his--but all of them ready to jump at my
own least word. In the morning, however, there we were, stretching back
by degrees to go round the lee side of the island again, the haze
melting off Diana's Peak as before, and the sea rolling in swells as
blue as indigo, to the huge red lumps of bare crag; while the bright
surges leapt out of them all along the frigate's side, and the spray
rose at times to her figure-head.
"During the day we cruised farther out, and the _Hebe_ had enough to do
in seeing off one Indiaman for home, and speaking another outward-bound
craft, that passed forty miles off or so, without touching; the
Governor's telegraphs were eternally at work on the heights, bothering
her for the least trifle, and making out a sail sixty miles off, it was
said. For my part, I was pretty well tired of it already, sincerely
wishing for the _Conqueror_, with Admiral Plampin, to heave in sight;
but glad enough all aboard the _Hebe_ were, when, after an entire week
of the thing, it came to her turn, with the _Newcastle_ and _Podargus_,
to lie at anchor off Jamestown, where half the ship's company at a time
had their liberty ashore.
"For my part, I had to see after the frigate's water-tanks, and a gang
at the rigging, till the afternoon, when Lord Frederick took the first
lieutenant and myself ashore with him in his gig; and no joke it was
landing even there, where the swell of the surf nigh-hand hove her
right up on the quay, while you had to look sharp, in case the next wave
washed you back again off your feet. The whole place was hot as could be
from the sun's rays off the rocks, slanting bare red to the cloudless
sky, on both sides of the neat little gaudy houses crowded in the mouth
of the valley, which narrowed away beyond the rise of the street, till
you didn't see how you'd get farther. But for the air of the sea,
indeed, with now and then a breath down out of the hills, 'twas for all
the world like a half-kindled oven; except under the broad trees along
the Government esplanade, where one couldn't have stood for people. What
with blacks, lascars, Chinamen, and native 'Yamstocks,' together with
liberty-men from the men-of-war and Indiamen, as well as reefers
trotting about on ponies and donkeys, the very soldiers could scarce get
down the foot of the road up Ladder Hill; as for the little town holding
one half of them, it was out of the question, but the noise and kick-up
were beyond aught else of the kind, save in a Calcutta bazaar.
Accordingly, it was pleasant enough at last to come within a shady walk
of thick green fig-trees, growing almost out of the rock near the main
battery, above the small sound of the water far below; the very sea
looking bluer through the leaves, while some birds no bigger than wrens
hopped, chirruping, about the branches.
"Here we met Sir Dudley Aldcombe coming down from the batteries along
with some Company's officers from India, and he stopped to speak to Lord
Frederick, giving the first lieutenant and me a bow in return, as we
lifted our hats and waited behind. The Admiral proposed to get Lord
Frederick a pass to visit Napoleon along with himself next day, as the
_Conqueror_ would probably arrive very soon. 'You will oblige me
greatly, Sir Dudley,' said the captain of the _Hebe_. 'He seems as fond
of seeing a true sailor,' said the Admiral, 'as if we'd never done him
harm. Things will be worse after I go. By-the-way,' added he suddenly,
''tis curious enough, but there's one person in the island at present
has made wonderful progress in Sir Hudson's good graces, for the short
time--that American botanist, or whatever he calls himself, that Captain
Wallis took off the burnt vessel on his way here. Your new lieutenant
was aboard at the time, you know, Lord Frederick.' 'You saw him, sir, of
course?' said the Admiral looking to me. 'Only for a minute that night,
Sir Dudley,' said I; 'and afterwards both he and his servant were under
the surgeon's charge below.' 'Well,' continued Sir Dudley to the
captain, 'they seem quite recovered now; for I saw them to-day up at
Plantation House, where the philosopher was in close discourse with the
Governor about plants and such things; while her ladyship was as much
engaged with the assistant, who can only speak Spanish. A remarkable
looking man the latter is, too; a Mexican, I understand, with Indian
blood in him, apparently--whereas his principal has a strong Yankee
twang; and queer enough it was to hear him snuffling away as solemnly as
possible about _buttany_ and such things--besides his hinting at some
great discovery likely to be made in the island, which Sir Hudson seemed
rather anxious to keep quiet from _me_.'
"What Sir Dudley said made me prick up my ears, as you may fancy. I
could scarce believe the thing; 'twas so thoroughly rich and so
confoundedly cool at once, to risk striking at the very heart of things
this way with the Governor himself; but the whole scheme, so far,
flashed upon me in a moment, evidently carried on, as it had been all
along, by some one bold enough for anything earthly, and with no small
cunning besides. All that he needed, no doubt, was _somebody else_ with
the devil's own impudence and plenty of talk; nor, if I'd thought for a
day together, could one have pitched easily upon a customer as plausible
as our friend Daniel, who hadn't a spark of fear in him, I knew, just
owing to his want of respect for aught in the entire creation. Still, I
couldn't, for the life of me, see what the end of their plan was to be,
unless the strange Frenchman might have been some general or other under
Bonaparte, and just wanted to see his old commander once more; which,
thought I, I'll be hanged if I don't think fair enough, much pains as he
had put himself to for the thing.
"'How!' asked Lord Frederick, 'a discovery did you say, Sir Dudley?'
'Oh, nothing of the kind _we_ should care about, after all,' said the
Admiral; 'from what I could gather, 'twas only scientific, though the
American called it "_a_ pretty importaint fact." This Mr Mathewson
Brown, I believe, was sent by the States Government as botanist in an
expedition to southward, and has leave from Sir Hudson to use his
opportunity before the next Indiaman sails, for examining part of the
island, and to-day he thought he found the same plants in St Helena as
he did in Gough's Island and Tristan d'Acunha, twelve hundred miles off,
near the Cape, showing, as he said, how once on a time there must have
been land between them, perhaps as far as Ascension!' 'Why,' put in Lord
Frederick,' that would have made a pretty good empire, even for
Napoleon!' 'So it would, my lord,' said Sir Dudley, 'much better than
Elba; but the strangest part of it is, this Mr Brown was just telling
his Excellency, as I entered the room, that some of the ancient
philosophers wrote about this said country existing in the Atlantic
before the Flood--how rich it was, with the kings it had, and the wars
carried on there; till, on account of their doings, no doubt, what with
an earthquake, a volcano, and the ocean together, they all sunk to the
bottom except the tops of the mountains! Now, I must say,' continued the
Admiral, 'all this learning seemed to one to come rather too much by
rote out of this gentleman's mouth, and the American style of his talk
made it somewhat ludicrous, though he evidently believed in what may be
all very true--particularly in mentioning the treasures that must lie
under water for leagues round, or even in nooks about the St Helena
rocks; I thought his very teeth watered. As for Sir Hudson, he had
caught at the idea altogether, but rather in view of an historical work
on the island, from the earliest times till now--and I believe he means
to accompany the two botanists himself over toward Longwood to-morrow,
where we may very likely get sight of them.'
"'O--h!' thought I, and Lord Frederick Bury smiled. 'Rather a novelty,
indeed!' said he; and the first lieutenant looked significantly enough
to me, as we leant over the battery-wall, watching the hot horizon
through the spars of the ships before Jamestown. 'What amused me,' Sir
Dudley said again, 'was the American botanist's utter indifference, when
I asked if he had seen anything of "The General" in the distance. The
Governor started, glancing sharp at Mr Brown, and I noticed his dark
companion give a sudden side-look from the midst of his talk with her
ladyship; whereupon the botanist merely pointed with his thumb to the
floor, asking coolly 'what it was to science?' 'At this,' added Sir
Dudley to the captain, 'His Excellency seemed much relieved; and after
having got leave for myself and your lordship to-morrow, I left them
still in the spirit of it. It certainly struck me that, in the United
States themselves, educated men in general couldn't have such a vulgar
manner about them--in fact, I thought the Mexican attendant more the
gentleman of the two--his face was turned half from me most of the time,
but still it struck me as remarkably intelligent.' 'Ah,' said Lord
Frederick carelessly, 'all the Spaniards have naturally a noble sort of
air, you know, Sir Dudley--they'll never make republicans!' 'And I must
say,' added the Admiral, as they strolled out of the shade up the
battery-steps, 'little as I know of Latin, what this Mr Brown used _did_
seem to me fearfully bad!'
"'And no wonder!' thought I, from a Yankee schoolmaster as I had found
my late shipmate was, before he thought of travelling; but the valuable
Daniel turning his hand to help out some communication or other, no
doubt, with Napoleon Bonaparte in St Helena, took me at first as so
queer an affair, that I didn't know whether to laugh at him or admire
his Yankee coolness, when he ran such risks. As for the feasibleness of
actually getting the prisoner clear out of the island, our cruising on
guard was enough to show me it would be little short of a miracle; yet I
couldn't help thinking they meant to try it; and in case of a dark
night, which the south-easter was very likely to bring, if it shifted or
freshened a little, why, I knew you needn't call anything impossible
that a cool head and a bold heart had to do with, provided only they
could get their plans laid inside and out so as to tally. The more eager
I got for next day, when it would be easy enough for any of us to go up
inland after Lord Frederick, as far as Hut's Gate at least. Meantime,
the first lieutenant and I walked up together to where the little town
broke into a sort of suburb of fancy cottages, with verandahs and green
venetians in bungalow style, scattered to both sides of the rock amongst
little grass-plots and garden patches--every foot of ground made use of.
And a perfect gush of flowers and leaves it was, clustering over the
tiles of the low roofs, while you saw through a thicket of poplars and
plantains right into the back of the gully, with a ridge of black rock
closing it fair up, and Side Path, as they call the road to windward,
winding overhead along the crag behind the houses, out of sight round a
mass of cliffs. Every here and there, a runlet of water came trickling
down from above the trees to water their roots; you saw the mice in
hundreds scampering in and out of holes in the dry stone, with now and
then a big ugly rat that turned round to face you, being no doubt fine
game to the St Helena people, ill off as they all seemed for something
to do--except the Chinese with their huge hats, hoeing away under almost
every tree one saw, and the Yamstock fishermen to be seen bobbing for
mullet outside the ships, in a blaze of light sufficient to bake any
heads but their own. Every cottage had seven or eight parrots in it,
apparently; a cockatoo on a stand by the door, or a monkey up in a
box--not to speak of canaries in the window, and white goats feeding
about with bells round their necks: so you may suppose what a jabbering,
screaming, whistling, and tinkling there was up the whole hollow, added
to no end of children and young ladies making the most of the shade as
it got near nightfall--and all that were out of doors came flocking down
Side Path.
"Both of us having leave ashore that night, for a ball in one of these
same little bungalows near the head of the valley, 'twas no use to think
of a bed, and as little to expect getting off to the ship, which none
could do after gunfire. For that matter, I daresay there might be twenty
such parties, full of young reefers and homeward-bound old East Indians,
keeping it up as long as might be, because they had nowhere to sleep.
The young lady of the house we were in was one of the St Helena
beauties, called 'The Rosebud,' from her colour. A lovely creature she
was, certainly, as it was plain our _Hebe's_ first lieutenant thought,
with several more to boot: every sight of her figure gliding about
through the rest, the white muslin floating round her like haze,
different as her face was, made one think of the _Seringapatam's_ deck
at sea, with the men walking the forecastle in the middle watch, and the
poop quiet over the judge's cabins.
"Two or three times I had fancied for a moment that, if one had somewhat
stirring to busy himself with, why, he might so far forget what was no
doubt likely to interfere pretty much with a profession like my own; and
so it might have been, perhaps, had I only seen her ashore; whereas now,
whether it was ashore or afloat, by Jove! everything called her somehow
to mind. The truth is, I defy you to get rid very easily of the thought
about one you've sailed in the same ship with, be it girl or woman: the
same bottom betwixt you and the water, the same breeze blowing your
pilot-coat in the watch on deck that ripples past her ear below, and the
self-same dangers to strive against! At a break in the dance I went out
of the dancing-room into the verandah, where the cool of the air among
the honeysuckle-flowers and creepers was delightful to feel; though it
was quite dark in the valley, and you couldn't make out anything but the
solemn black-blue of the sky full of stars above you, between the two
cliffs; or right out, where the stretch of sea, widening to the horizon,
looked almost white through the mouth of the valley over the house-roofs
below; one heard the small surf plashing low and slow into the little
bay, with the boats dipping at their moorings, but I never saw sea look
so lonely. Then up at the head of the gully one could mark the steep
black crag that shut it up, glooming quiet and large against a gleam
from one of the clusters of stars; the sight of it was awful, I didn't
know well why, unless by comparison with the lively scene inside, not to
say with one's own whole life afloat, as well as the wishes one had at
heart. 'Twas pretty late, but I heard the music strike up again in the
room, and was going back again, when all of a sudden I thought the
strangest sound that ever came to one's ears went sweeping round and
round far above the island, more like the flutter of a sail miles wide
than aught else I can fancy; then a rush of something like those same
blasts of wind I was pretty well used to by this time--but wind it was
not--growing in half-a-minute to a rumbling clatter, and then to a
smothered roar, as if something more than mortal shot from inland down
through the valley, and passed out by its mouth into the open sea at
once. I scarce felt the ground heave under me, though I thought I saw
the black head of the ravine lift against the stars--one terrible plunge
of the sea down at the quays and batteries, then everything was still
again; but the whole dancing-party came rushing out in confusion at my
back, the ladies shrieking, the men looking up into the sky, or at the
cliffs on both sides; the British flag, over the fort on Ladder Hill,
blowing out steadily to a stiff breeze aloft. It wasn't for some time,
in fact, that they picked up courage again to say it had been an
earthquake. However, the ball was over, and, as soon as matters could be
set to rights, it was nothing but questions whether it had aught to do
with _him_ up at Longwood, or hadn't been an attempt to blow up the
island--some of the officers being so much taken aback at first, that
they fancied the French had come.
"At last, however, we, who had nothing else for it, got stowed away on
sofas or otherwise about the dancing-room; for my part, I woke up just
early enough to see the high head of the valley coming out as clearly as
before against the morning light, and the water glancing blue out miles
away beyond the knot of ships in the opening. The news was only that
Napoleon was safe, having been in his bed at the time, where he lay
thinking one of the frigates had blown up, they said. Not a word of his
that got wind but the people in Jamestown made it their day's text--in
the want of which they'd even gossip about the coat he wore that
morning; till you'd have said the whole nest of them, soldiers and all,
lay under his shadow as the town did at the foot of the cliffs, just
ready to vanish as soon as he went down. The Longwood doctor had told
someone in the Jew Solomon's toy-shop, by the forenoon, that Bonaparte
couldn't sleep that night for making some calculations about a great
battle he had fought, when he counted three separate shocks of the
thing, and noticed it was luckily right up and down, or else Jamestown
would have been buried under tons of rock. The doctor had mentioned
besides that there was twice an earthquake before in the island, in
former times; but it didn't need some of the townspeople's looks to tell
you they'd be afraid many a night after, lest the French Emperor should
wake up thinking of his battles; while, as for myself, I must say the
notion stuck to me some time, along with my own ideas at that exact
moment; at any rate, not for worlds would I have lived long ashore in St
Helena.