"_A LA MORT_"
So it had come to this, that before the dust of my father's fields was
well off my shoes I was committed to a duel to the death with a
desperate, vindictive man, who had been steeped in bloodshed before I
had ever handled a sword, and that man my own near kinsman.
At the time I was less frightened than I have often been since in
thinking over it. The others were more alarmed for me than I was for
myself, and I heard Mr. Sims and old Muzzy urging upon Rupert to let
the matter go no further. But this he would not now hear of, and in
the state of mind I was then in I should have been little better
satisfied than he to have had the affair patched up.
At last they saw it was of no use to seek an accommodation between us,
and they withdrew together to settle how we were to fight, Captain
Sims, as I understood, acting in my cousin's interest, while the
boatswain did the same office for me.
While they were discussing it, which it took them some time to do,
Rupert and I sat on opposite sides of the room. He put on a great air
of indifference, talking familiarly with those of his friends who
stood about him, while I could do nothing but stare across at him with
a horrible fascination, as the man by whose hand, in all likelihood, I
was to die within the next half-hour. I remember noting for the first
time what a finely formed person he had, tall and supple as a lath of
steel. As far as that went I was no weakling, and I have been told
that at that time we greatly resembled each other, though I do not
think I can ever have shared my cousin's good looks.
I was becoming feverish over the delay of our seconds, if such they
can be called, when they rose from their corner, and the boatswain
came across to me with a very grave air, Mr. Sims at the same time
going over to Rupert.
"We have arranged," the boatswain said to me, in a serious voice,
"that you are to fight out at sea. A boat is to be moored to the buoy
off the mouth of the river, and you will be rowed out and put into it
together, one at each end. You are to be armed with cutlasses and left
there together. There will be a pair of sculls on board, and the one
who kills the other will throw his body overboard, so as to leave no
trace, and then row ashore. If the boat does not return at the end of
an hour, we shall come out to her to see what has happened. Do you
agree to this?"
He spoke these words in a distinct, loud voice, so as to be overheard
by those who stood next. Then, before I could answer, he bent over
quickly and laid his lips to my ear, whispering--
"Refuse it, boy, refuse it! It will be a narrow match enough between
you with the cutlass, which was the weapon I stuck out for for your
sake. But out in a trumpery rocking boat, with you a landlubber
against a man that has been at sea these ten years, I would not give a
farden for your life."
He said this with many strong oaths, for I honestly believe the old
pirate had got an affection for me. But he wasted his breath as far as
I was concerned, my pride being then too fierce to admit of my
shrinking from any terms that might be offered by the other side.
"Tell them I accept," I said sullenly, "and make no more ado about it.
How soon can we reach this place?"
The old fellow cursed me roundly for an obstinate, bloody-minded young
fool.
"Give me a hug," he wound up by saying, "for blast me if you ain't a
youngster after my own heart!" And he fell to and embraced me
heartily, kissing me on both cheeks, and shedding tears plentifully;
for he was three-parts drunk, and clearly looked upon me as a dead
man.
And in that light I saw that the company present regarded me, my
cousin's prowess being well known by many duels which he had fought in
the past; and though I had pretty well made up my mind that I was to
die, I suffered no small discouragement and chagrin from the
compassionate looks which were cast upon me. My old enemy, Trickster
Tim, also thought this a safe occasion to insult me, coming up close
before me and peering into my face, as if I were already so much
carrion. Nor had I the spirit to resent his insolence.
Captain Sims now led the way out of the house, holding Rupert by the
arm, while I followed with my friend. The rest of the crew swarmed out
after us, but old Muzzy sharply ordered them back, taking only two men
to pull the oars, for we had a long way to row before the buoy could
be reached.
It was a miserable voyage for me, sitting there in the stern, not
three paces from Rupert, shivering in the cold night air, and perhaps
from fear as well, as we dropped slowly down the river, past the black
piles of the landing jetties and the sleeping ships. Our course was
lit only by the stars, save where a ship's light cast a sickly gleam
upon the water as we approached it, and faded away as we rowed on. The
whole way I never once opened my lips, but the others talked together
in low voices, turning themselves away from me in the same manner as
if I were a convict being led to execution. And as for my own
thoughts, they were distracted enough, especially when I called to
mind my dear mother and my good and upright father, and how little
they imagined the business in which I was now engaged. These
reflections so softened me that I believe if my cousin had made the
least move towards a reconcilement my whole wrath would have melted
away. But no doubt he had made up his mind that only my death could
restore his authority amongst the ruffians whom he led.
At last our dreary passage was ended, and we were arrived at the place
agreed on for the encounter. We had towed down a smaller boat in our
wake, and this they now fastened to the buoy, and we stepped into it,
Rupert at the bows and I at the stern. Then the boatswain gripped my
hand for the last time, whispering to me to beware of Gurney's
upper-cut, and so they bade us farewell and rowed off quickly in the
darkness, like men who would avoid the sight of a murder.
So there were we, left alone in that frail compartment, out there upon
the heaving water, with nothing but death in our hearts. I had but
time to breathe a prayer, which I did with some misgiving as to how it
would be received, when my cousin drew his cutlass and stepped into
the centre of the boat. I rose to meet him with my weapon in my hand,
and we stood there facing one another, with only the width of the seat
between us.
"Are you ready?" says Rupert quickly. And before I had time to answer
he brought down his cutlass with such force that unless I had guarded
it the blade would have split open my head.
It was now that I had reason to be thankful for the lessons I had
received at the hands of the boatswain, for Rupert's blows came so
thick and fast that I had all I could do to parry them. I bore his
last caution to me in mind, and soon found the importance of it, for
though my cousin made many feints at my shoulder and other parts of my
body, yet the only blow into which he put his real force was the
upper-cut at my head.
I kept my eyes fixed upon his, as I had been taught, and soon saw a
savage light arising therein when he found he made so little
impression on me. Indeed, if we had fought on firm ground I believe
that, as the boatswain said, I should have been his match, but the
rocking of the boat gave him an advantage, and presently he pursued a
feint further than I expected, and gave me a gash of about three
inches long in my left thigh.
The first smart of the wound made me gasp for breath, but the next
moment it had so raised my fury that I left off the defensive and fell
upon my enemy with all my might, hitting and slashing so desperately
that, do what he would, I broke down his guard and laid open his
forehead over his right eye, and the blood began to trickle down his
face.
This transformed his own anger into a tempest, and now, indeed, we
went at it more like two savages than Christian men. For the cutlass,
by the very reason that it is not so deadly an instrument as the
small-sword, is capable of inflicting a very great many wounds before
any fatal effect takes place. And so, becoming less heedful of our
guard as we warmed to it, we wounded each other all over the body in a
most desperate manner, till my cousin seemed to me to be covered with
blood from head to foot, and I can have been little better, for I felt
the blood running from me at above a dozen places.
My enemy was the first to see the folly of this, for he began to
change his tactics, drawing back from my assault and keeping on the
defensive till he should lure me on to give him an advantage. And in
this at length he had nearly succeeded, but happening to forget the
seat which lay behind him in the bows of the boat, he overbalanced
himself against it and fell backwards, still gripping his weapon in
his hand.
I scorned to take advantage of this accident, but stayed where I was
to give him time to get up. He lay upon his back for a minute, glaring
sullenly at me to see if I would kill him. But finding that I had no
such mind he recovered himself nimbly enough. And being, no doubt,
still further enraged at this accident having put him, as it were,
into my power, he now made at me with the most terrible vehemence,
raining down blows upon me sufficient to have felled an ox. And then
in the midst of it all, while I was warding off his fury, and the
sparks flew from our weapons every instant, I suddenly felt my hand
jarred as though I had touched a conger, and the blade of my cutlass
snapped off at the hilt with a crash, and I stood there at his mercy.
He stopped short, as much astonished as I was, while I sank down on
the seat next the stern, ready to sob, and put up my hands before my
face.
"That cursed Jew has cheated me of my life!" I groaned between my set
teeth.
Rupert rested the point of his cutlass upon the seat in front of him
and looked over at me curiously.
"Young man," he said, "your life is forfeit to me, and it hath never
been said that Rupert Gurney spared an enemy. Yet, inasmuch as you are
of my blood and but raw in the world, I have half a mind to make terms
with you. Will you make your apology for the violence you put upon me
in the tavern, and swear to repeat its terms before all those who were
witnesses of our dispute?"
I looked up at him and smiled bitterly in his face.
"Do you understand me so little, and you a Ford by the mother's side?"
I answered him. "Now that I have no weapon you may murder me if you
will, but apology you shall have none from me--unless," I added, "you
take back your insult to the woman I love."
"You young fool!" he ground out savagely. "That drab you make such a
to-do about has been mine this two months past."
I leave it unsaid how these words affected me, both then and for long
afterwards. For up to that moment I had looked upon the girl with as
pure a reverence as any boy ever cherished for a maid, and my cousin's
vile boast, cast it back to him as I might, sank into my mind and
worked there like a poison.
"I believe you lie," I said to him with marvellous coldness. For what
with the loss of blood, and the despair which had seized upon me at
the breaking of my weapon, and the news I had just received, I was
become quite dispirited, and was indifferent to what he might do with
me.
"Die, then, since you will have me kill you!" he exclaimed, and began
advancing down the boat towards me.
But as he stepped over the middle seat it chanced that he struck his
foot against one of the oars which lay along the boat's bottom; and
the rattling of this oar put a new thought into my mind.
It so happened that I had been used to play with the quarterstaff at
home, and old Sugden, the rat-catcher, who was esteemed the greatest
proficient in this sort of exercise in our part of the country, had
had many a bout with me, in which, before I ran away, he had been
forced to confess that I was very well able to cope with him. Now,
therefore, in my extremity, seeing death so near at hand--for up to
this moment I had hardly believed that my cousin would kill me--I made
shift to snatch at an oar, and drawing it to me just in time put
myself in a posture of defence before he could strike me.
He drew back, greatly astounded, and swore beneath his breath.
"What fool's game is this, boy? Would you break honour with me? We
were agreed to fight with cutlasses."
"And now that my cutlass is broke foully you would take and murder
me!" I retorted, and being now incensed at his bloodthirstiness, after
I had once spared his life, I cursed him in the face for a coward.
This was more than he could bear. He leaped across the seat, with his
head stooped, to come inside the sweep of my weapon, but this was a
trick I had had experience of, and though I found my oar very heavy
and cumbrous I yet managed to repulse him with a crack on the head.
And immediately he raised his cutlass to strike back I caught him a
very smart blow on the knuckles, and sent his weapon flying over the
side of the boat into the water, where it instantly sank.
By this time I think we were both too furious to be willing to end the
combat without one or the other's death. Rupert, as soon as he knew
what had happened, fairly sprang upon me, and clutched my throat,
bearing me down with him into the boat. Here he knelt above me,
squeezing my windpipe, and emitting horrid snarls like a wild beast.
My senses began to forsake me, and I was as good as lost, when, by the
direct mercy of Providence, my right hand encountered the blade of my
own cutlass, lying close beside us, which I instantly snatched at,
and plunged as hard as I could thrust into Rupert's side. And with
that, feeling his fingers relax themselves as he tottered sideways
from off me, I raised myself half up, lifted him by the thighs, and
cast him clean over the side of the boat into the sea. And that done I
sank down again in a bloody swoon, and perceived nothing more.
* * * * *
It was, as I learned, above a week afterwards when I fully came to
myself, and discovered that I was lying in my former garret at the
"Three-decker." There was an old woman coming into the room to wait
upon me, who told me that I had been brought ashore on the night of
the duel by men wearing masks; and one of them, whom she knew by his
voice and carriage to be the boatswain of the _Fair Maid_, had given
money out of his pocket for me to be taken care of till such time as I
should recover.
In the state of weakness to which I was reduced I shed tears at
hearing of this kindness on the part of that rough man, who was, I
sadly feared, a great scoundrel, of most villainous evil life. My next
business was to ask what had become of him and the rest of the _Fair
Maid's_ crew.
"The _Fair Maid_ sailed yesterday," the crone answered. "They warped
her out on the afternoon ebb. 'Tis said she sails under a privateer's
commission against the French."
I scarce knew whether to be glad of this news, or sorry. I told
myself that I could hardly have looked for a welcome among those men
after being the means of their lieutenant's death; and, moreover, I
had learnt enough of their character to feel strongly averse to a
cruise in such company. Yet they were the only friends I had, and I
was grown used to them; and the thought that I was left there, as it
were, alone, with nothing to turn to, made me very dismal after all.
It seemed somewhat strange to me, during the rest of that day, that
Marian had never once come to inquire for me; but I put off speaking
about it to the morrow. In the morning I awoke greatly refreshed, and
feeling well enough to leave my bed, which I did, and came down into
the bar of the house to look for her.
I found only her uncle, a weazened, peevish man, who had showed
himself very little while the privateersmen were about his house. I
bade him a courteous good morrow.
"Good morrow t'ye," he snapped out churlishly. "I'm glad to see you're
about again, as I daresay you know your reckoning has run out."
This I did not believe, but thought it beneath me to pick a quarrel
with such a man. Besides, he was Marian's uncle.
"Any charges you may have against me shall be fairly met," I answered
proudly. "But where is Mistress Marian? I have not seen her these two
days."
"And you're not like to see her again, I take it," he returned
disagreeably. "At least, not in my house; I've had enough of the
impudent baggage."
"What are you saying, man?" I demanded, much dismayed. "You need not
miscall your own niece, I should think. But what of her? Do you mean
she has left you?"
"Aye, what else should I mean? And right glad I am to be rid of such a
trollop, drawing all the rapscallions of the port in here, and
bringing my tavern into disrepute."
He spoke so bitterly that I believe he was trying to talk himself into
thinking he had profited by her departure. For in reality she had
brought him the chief part of his custom, and there was at that
moment, as I could perceive, not a soul in the tavern beside
ourselves. But I did not stop to reflect on this.
"Where has she gone? What has happened?" I questioned breathlessly,
with a terrible fear in my heart.
"Nay, whither she has gone is more than I can tell you, for as likely
as not the jade has lied to me. But she left this place two days ago,
in the afternoon, and all the account she gave me was that she had
taken her passage in the _Fair Maid_ for her father's house in
Calcutta."
I fell down on a bench, like a man stunned, and groaned aloud. Then I
sprang to my feet again and made for the door.
"I will follow her!" I cried out madly. "If she has gone to the end of
the world I will go after her, and all the devils in hell shall not
hold me back!"
And leaving the man there, staring at me as if he thought I was
crazed, I ran out of the house, and so stumbled right into the arms of
a pressgang come ashore off a king's ship which had that morning
dropped anchor in Yarmouth Roads.