DIGGING FOR THE TREASURE--A NOONDAY REST--THE GHASTLY TENANT OF THE
TREASURE HOUSE--WE FIND THE TREASURE--AN ACCOUNT OF WHAT WE
DISCOVERED.
By noon we had a well-like hole about seven feet deep, and found as we
dug that the soil became drier the lower we went, which was unusual, as
generally it gets more moist, so that digging at length becomes very
arduous.
Although not more than seven feet deep, the earth we had piled all round
made the hole look at least ten feet to the bottom, and it had now
become very difficult to throw the earth over the edge of the opening
above.
It was a hot August day, and the sun poured its almost vertical rays
upon us, so that the perspiration broke out at every pore, and bathed us
in moisture; but still we toiled on, till, as I say, noon arrived,
without our finding any token of treasure trove.
Then said Monday, "What say you now of your quest, Crusoe? Don't you
think it's all moonshine, or rather (wiping the perspiration from his
brow) sunshine and shadow?"
I was fain to confess that it did seem like it, but asked,
"Will you help me dig to a depth of ten feet from the surface? and if
nothing gives indication of what we are in search, I will then give up."
"What, dig down ten feet, and be buried alive in this crumbling grave?
Just look at it, it is ready even now to tumble its sides in upon us."
"Well, but," persisted I, "let us shore it up as we go down."
"Very well then," he rejoined, "but I bargain for one hour's rest before
we delve further, and here goes for a swim."
Then climbing up our improvised ladder away he went to the beach,
whither "Begum" and I quickly followed, and in five minutes we, who had
been so lately in a grave, were swimming about in the deliriously cool
water, dog and men thoroughly enjoying the exhilarating reaction.
Our bathe being over, we strolled up to the house, and made another
attack upon Adam and Eve, and this time finished them; they were
delicious. As Monday would have his full sixty minutes' cessation, just
as Shylock would have his pound of flesh, we smoked the rest of the time
away, and then resumed our labours.
We first took the precaution to shore up the sides of our pit with stout
pieces of wreckage and any other wood we could find, for fear of a
landslip, which might have resulted in serious if not fatal consequences
to us.
Before we had dug ten minutes my spade struck on something hard and
hollow, which quite startled us; but clearing the mould away from the
spot, I soon discovered the impediment to be a kind of wooden floor.
This we quickly cleared, and found it covered a space about four feet by
three. As we lifted the first piece with great expectancy, we found it
was oak, about two inches thick, and very little the worse for its long
burial, as the surrounding soil was dry.
We looked into the narrow aperture left by the taking out of the oaken
plank, but could see nothing, as the depth of our pit made it somewhat
dark at the bottom, so I knelt down, and thrust my hand through the
opening and felt about. Presently I felt something hard, like a bundle
of sticks, and with a tug drew them through the opening, only to drop
them the next minute with a cry of horror, for it was a skeleton's hand
that came to view in my grasp.
We looked at each other in dismay, as if to say,
"How awful! what shall we do now?"
Then we paused, and looked at each other again, till I broke out with,
"There, Alec, your prophecy has come true, I _have_ 'shaken hands with a
shadow,' or what is very near it--a skeleton. What shall we do next?"
"Had we not better take up the flooring and see if we have come simply
upon a grave or what else is beneath us?"
To this I acquiesced. The hole we had dug was about six feet square, to
enable both of us to work in it at once; so in this pit or chamber we
had plenty of room, and as I have already said, the oak floor we came
upon was only four feet by three feet, so that we could stand at the
side of the flooring as we removed it piece by piece.
At last we had taken up the nine narrow pieces of oak which formed the
floor, and there before us lay the entire skeleton of a man, some
remnants of the clothes still covering parts of the frame, and a few
locks of yellow hair still adhering to the cranium.
The skeleton was lying face downward, and neither of us liked to turn it
over to see if anything could be gathered from an inspection of the
front of it, or to ascertain if anything were hidden beneath it; so we
both knelt down, and bodily lifted the light but hideous occupant of
this awful pit, and placed it in a sitting posture in one corner. As we
did so, first a foot and then a leg dropped off at the knee joint, and
fell back into the hole, which sent an indescribable thrill of horror
through me, and no doubt it acted upon Alec in the same manner.
When we came to look at the awful thing, Alec noticed something glitter
at its breast, and reaching forth his hand, attempted to take it to see
what it was.
He gave the object a pull, but instead of coming away in his hand, it
only had the effect of pulling the ghastly form down upon him, so that
the orbless skull came with some force, right into his face. He uttered
a cry of dismay, and was about to fly up the ladder, when I arrested his
movements by bursting out laughing. The whole thing, although hideous
and startling, was rendered ludicrous by the accelerated movements of
Alec when the grinning jaws snapped right in his face. To save himself
from falling into the hole beneath, he clutched the frail form round the
body, causing its rags and bones to fall in tatters and pieces on to
something below, which gave a metallic ring.
[Illustration: THE TENANT OF THE TREASURE HOUSE.]
The first shock of his fright being over, for he thought the man had
come to life again, we again propped it up in the corner, and examined
it closely.
The glittering projection on the breast was the jewelled haft of a
dagger, the blade of which was thrust quite through the sternum or
breastbone, showing that a most powerful blow had given the poor man,
whoever he was, his _quietus_. Death must have been instantaneous, for
the position of the blade shewed that it had probably passed quite
through the heart.
Another thing also attracted our attention; this was a pair of keys
suspended round the neck by a rusty chain. We took possession of both
dagger and keys; then placing the bony one in a piece of sail cloth,
hoisted him above ground and covered him up.
Down into the hole we went again, almost breathless with excitement, and
recommenced our now light task of making further search for whatever
might be of value, being fully persuaded that something really worth
having now awaited us.
Nor were we wrong in our conjecture, for the first things we came upon
were four large dishes of metal, resembling gold; but as they had been
rolled up like a scroll by some great force, we did not stop to unroll
them to enquire of what metal they really were. Beside them were five or
six golden cups of curious work, being beautifully chased, two of them
containing jewels in the band of raised work which encircled the stems.
Then there were two utensils about a foot high, something in shape
between a pitcher and a flagon, which were perfect in form, not a dent
being visible in them, their only blemish being the tarnish with which
more than a century had marred them, but this could easily be removed.
There were many bundles containing lace, but for the most part this was
so mouldy and musty, that it came to pieces with very little pulling, so
we threw it aside. Then we came upon quite an armoury of swords,
daggers, and pistols; but as most of them were much rusted, we only
selected a few of the better preserved ones, and left the rest.
Among those we kept were three pairs of pistols, one pair of which were
a marvel of workmanship. The barrels were of silver, and engraved all
over with fruit and flowers, while the stocks of ivory were also carved
in every part, and were quite perfect, not even discoloured like the
wood work in the pit. They were wrapped in soft leather, and enclosed in
a velvet case which was in a somewhat discoloured and decayed state, but
still in a sufficiently whole form to preserve the pistols intact.
Several swords I kept for decorative purposes, and also some of the huge
flintlock pistols.
The bottom of the treasure-hole was filled with bundles of what had once
been costly garments of silk, velvet, satin, cloth with gold braid, and
wonderfully fine linen; but these were now useless, for time had quite
spoiled them. Among these raiments of a bygone age were a number of
copes, chasubles, stoles, and such-like ecclesiastic raiment; there was
also a beautifully worked mitre, and as these were in good condition we
kept them. Their preservation was evidently owing to their being
contained in a bullock's hide, which was sewn together apparently by the
sinews of the same animal.
Then we came upon a whole pile of sashes, and breeches, and boots, and
goodness knows what in the way of wearing apparel, all in a state of dry
rot; in fact, they made such a dust that we ascended to _terra firma_
for a few minutes to get it out of our throats.
We now appeared to have cleared the place, but what of the "petite
fées"? Had we seen them or what were they? To make sure we had secured
everything, we cleared the hole completely out, and in doing so luckily
saw the end of a box protruding from the side of the treasure chamber. A
kind of cave or tunnel had been made for the reception of this chest,
and it was a wonder we did not miss seeing it altogether.
No doubt it contained the "petite fées," whatever they were; but to our
astonishment it was so heavy we could not move it. We therefore set to
work, and cleared away the surrounding earth, and by dint of hard
tugging in the confined space, we at length drew it from its hiding
place into the centre of the pit. It was securely locked with two huge
padlocks.
We concluded we would hoist it out of its bed and examine it at our
leisure above ground. To compass this we had to erect a kind of tripod
of three long pieces of deal, which had evidently at some time been
top-sail yards of some vessel probably wrecked on rocky Jethou. From
this we suspended a block and fall, and soon had our iron chest safely
above ground.
About this time an unaccountable feeling seized us both; I know not what
it was, but it appeared to us that we were doing something wrong,
violating the grave of the dead man near us, or something of the kind.
We seemed to feel that the bones should again be buried as quickly as
possible, for fear someone should see us at our task. Why this feeling
came over us I know not, but it did, so we fastened the rope attached to
the block round the waist of the grinning skeleton, and commenced to
lower him into his last home again; but he saved us further trouble by
breaking in two just above the hips and falling into the bottom of the
well-like hole. We quickly covered him with old clothes and hid him from
view.
It was a work of some difficulty to get the iron chest to the house, but
this we accomplished at last with the donkey's help, and having brought
in the other goods, we cleared up for the day, completely tired out.
At nine o'clock, an hour after supper, we retired to bed, each of us
fancying we should have our rest stopped by hideous dreams; but we were
mistaken, for we slept like the dead in the pit till six o'clock, when
we arose much refreshed by our long night's rest.
It was raining fast, and as the drops pattered on the window pane, they
seemed like tears for the poor fellow lying unburied in the hole
yonder; but we let him lie unburied, as we knew he was past all harm
from catarrh or rheumatism, and every other ailment of this world.
We did not go out all day, but devoted our time to examining the great
find. The keys (as we suspected) which depended from the neck of the
skeleton, belonged to the iron chest; but as they were rusty, we had to
clean the wards with oil and ashes, but even then we could not shoot the
bolts in the locks, as probably they were rusty. There was but one way
left, and that was to raise the lid by force; but even this we did in a
gentle manner by filing through the hinges and finishing with a few taps
from a heavy hammer.
No wonder the chest was so heavy, for the bottom of it was covered with
seventeen leather bags, each containing one hundred Spanish coins,
called doubloons, which I believe are worth for the mere intrinsic value
of the metal, about ten shillings each, but their monetary value was
about twelve shillings and sixpence each. This was something like a
find.
At the end of the chest was a portion partitioned off, which contained
two drawers, a large and a small one, both of iron, lined with wood. The
large one contained three parchment books written in French, the first
of which Alec declared was an account of the life of Barbe Rouge, and
the other two were log books of his various voyages.[5]
In the right hand or small drawer was a very small gold casket of
exquisite workmanship, filled quite full of precious stones in their
natural rough state, together with a few cut gems of medium size. I
should say altogether they would have just filled a half-pint measure;
not that I believe they are ever sold in this manner, as if they were
nuts or peas. These then were Tussaud's "petite fées," and pretty ones
too.
Of course we put a fabulous price on this part of our treasure; I think
in our ignorance we mentioned ten thousand pounds as about their value;
but when they were sold in London some months after, in a well-known
auction room, they realised but little more than a tithe of this amount.
Next day being fine we carefully filled the hole up again, ramming the
earth down with a heavy wooden ram, and finished up by replanting the
currant bush, which I believe still lives, or its descendant, to mark
the spot where we discovered Jean (Barbe Rouge) Tussaud's treasures.
We presumed at the time that the skeleton we found was that of the mate,
William Treffry, mentioned in the document, who had quarrelled with Red
Beard as to the property, and that the latter had stabbed him to the
heart, afterwards throwing the corpse upon the treasure, thus burying
his guilt and his goods at the same time. A translation of the books we
found corroborated us in this surmise, and accounted for many other
things regarding the property which at the time we could not understand.
I may add that among the clothing, we found a number of odds and ends,
relics of the eighteenth century, which I still treasure in my home, one
room of which forms quite a respectable museum, as since my sojourn in
Jethou I have brought many curious things from Holland, France, and
Spain, many of which have pleasant stories attached to them.
We found miniature portraits of a Spanish gentleman, and a handsome
fresh-coloured young lady with an English name, for their names were
painted round the margin; a pair of gloves apparently blood-stained, a
case of writing materials, four jewelled rings, a tress of dark brown
hair nearly four feet long, an English Bible, two watches with enamelled
cases (about the size of small turnips), and several other things which
need not be mentioned here, but of which we discovered the history in
the parchment books.[6]
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FOOTNOTES:
5: These books I have since had translated, and find them to
be full of "Red Beard's" personal adventures; most of them of such an
interesting nature, that coupled with our discovery of his treasure, and
what I have since learned of him from various sources, I have no doubt
the public would be interested in them. Possibly at no very distant
period I may publish a book embodying the principal adventures set forth
in these manuscripts, as many of the events in the life of Barbe Rouge
are of a startling character.
6: See Appendix--"Modern Treasures."
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