The following evening, an armed schooner was lying at anchor in the road
stead of Buffalo, at the southern extremity of Lake Erie, and within a
mile of the American shore. It was past midnight--and although the lake
was calm and unbroken as the face of a mirror, a dense fog had arisen
which prevented objects at the head of the vessel from being seen from
the stern. Two men only were visible upon the after-deck; the one lay
reclining upon an arm chest, muffled up in a dread-nought pea jacket,
the other paced up and down hurriedly, and with an air of
pre-occupation. At intervals he would stop and lean over the gangway,
apparently endeavoring to pierce through the fog and catch a glimpse of
the adjacent shore, and, on these occasions, a profound sigh would burst
from his chest.
"Sambo," he at length exclaimed, addressing the man in the pea-jacket
for the first time. "I shall retire to my cabin, but fail not to call me
an hour before daybreak. Our friends being all landed, there can be
nothing further to detain us here, we will therefore make the best of
our way back to Amherstburg in the morning."
"Yes, Massa Geral," returned the negro, yawning and half raising his
brawny form from his rude couch with one hand, while he rubbed his heavy
eyes with the knuckles of the other.
"How is your head to-night?" inquired the officer in a kind tone.
"Berry well, Massa Geral--but berry sleepy."
"Then sleep, Sambo; but do not fail to awaken me in time: we shall weigh
anchor the very first thing in the morning, provided the fog does not
continue. By the bye, you superintended the landing of the baggage--was
everything sent ashore?"
"All, Massa Geral, I see him all pack in he wagon, for he Bubbalo
town--all, except dis here I find in Miss Mungummery cabin under he
pillow."
As he spoke, the negro quitted his half recumbent position, and drew
from his breast a small clasped pocket book, on a steel entablature
adorning the cover of which, were the initials of the young lady just
named.
"How is it Sambo, that you had not spoken of this? The pocket book
contains papers that may be of importance; and yet there is now no means
of forwarding it unless I delay the schooner."
"I only find him hab an hour ago, Massa Geral, when I go to make he beds
and put he cabin to rights," said the old man, in a tone that showed he
felt and was pained by the reproof of his young master. "Dis here too,"
producing a small ivory handled penknife, "I find same time in he
Gubbanor daters' bed."
Gerald extended his hand to receive it, "A penknife in the bed of the
Governor's daughters!" he repeated with surprise. Ruminating a moment he
added to himself, "By heavens, it must be so--it is then as I expected.
Would that I had had this proof of their participation before they
quitted the schooner. Very well, Sambo, no blame can attach to you--go
to sleep my good fellow, but not beyond the time I have given you."
"Tankee, Massa Geral," and drawing the collar of his pea jacket close
under his ears, the negro again extended himself at his full length upon
the arm chest.
In the fulness of his indignation at the young ladies' duplicity, he now
came to the resolution of staying the departure of the schooner yet a
few hours, that he might have an opportunity of going ashore himself,
presenting this undoubted evidence of their guilt, and taxing them
boldly with the purpose to which it had been appropriated. Perhaps there
was another secret motive which induced this determination, and that
was, the opportunity it would afford him of again seeing his beloved
Matilda, and delivering her pocket book with his own hand.
This resolution taken, without deeming it necessary to countermand his
order to Sambo, he placed the knife in a pocket in the breast of his
uniform, where he had already deposited the souvenir; and having retired
to his own cabin, was about to undress himself, when he fancied he could
distinguish through one of the stern windows of the schooner, sounds
similar to those of muffled oars. While he yet listened breathlessly to
satisfy himself whether he had not been deceived, a dark form came
hurriedly, yet noiselessly, down the steps of the cabin. Gerald turned,
and discovered Sambo, who now perfectly awake, indicated by his manner,
he was the bearer of some alarming intelligence. His report confirmed
the suspicion already entertained by himself, and at that moment he
fancied he heard the same subdued sounds but multiplied in several
distinct points. A vague sense of danger came over the mind of the
officer, and although his crew consisted of a mere handful of men, he at
once resolved to defend himself to the last, against whatever force
might be led to the attack. While Sambo hastened to arouse the men, he
girded his cutlass and pistols around his loins, and taking down two
huge blunderbusses from a beam in the ceiling of the cabin, loaded them
heavily with musket balls. Thus armed he sprang once more upon deck.
The alarm was soon given, and the preparation became general, but
neither among the watch, who slumbered in the forecastle, nor those who
had turned into their hammocks, was there the slightest indication of
confusion. These latter "tumbled up," with no other addition to the
shirts in which they had left their cots, than their trousers, a light
state of costume to which those who were "boxed up" in their pea jackets
and great coats on the forecastle, soon reduced themselves also--not but
that the fog admitted of much warmer raiment, but that their activity
might be unimpeded--handkerchiefed heads and tucked up sleeves, with the
habiliments which we have named, being the most approved fighting dress
in the navy.
Meanwhile, although nothing could be distinguished through the fog, the
sounds which had originally attracted the notice of the officer and his
trusty servant, increased, despite of the caution evidently used, to
such a degree as to be now audible to all on board. What most excited
the astonishment of the crew, and the suspicion of Gerald, was the
exactness of the course taken by the advancing hosts, in which not the
slightest deviation was perceptible. It was evident that they were
guided by some one who had well studied the distance and bearing of the
schooner from the shore, and as it was impossible to hope that even the
fog would afford them concealment from the approaching enemy, all that
was left them was to make the best defence they could. One other
alternative remained it is true, and this was to cut their cable and
allow themselves to drop down silently out of the course by which the
boats were advancing, but as this step involved the possibility of
running ashore on the American coast, when the same danger of captivity
would await them, Gerald, after an instant's consideration, rejected
the idea, preferring the worthier and more chivalrous dependence on his
own and crew's exertions.
From the moment of the general arming, the long gun, which we have
already shown to constitute the sole defence of the schooner, was
brought nearer to the inshore gangway, and being mounted on an
elevation, with its formidable muzzle overtopping and projecting above
the low bulwarks, could in an instant be brought to bear on whatever
point it might be found advisable to vomit forth its mass of wrath,
consisting of grape, cannister and chain shot. On this gun, indeed, the
general expectation much depended; for the crew, composed of sixteen men
only, exclusive of petty officers, could hope to make but a poor
resistance, despite all the resolution they might bring into the
contest, against a squadron of well-armed boats, unless some very
considerable diminution in the numbers and efforts of these latter
should be made by "Old Sally," before they actually came to close
quarters. The weakness of the crew was in a great degree attributable to
the schooner having been employed as a cartel--a fact which must
moreover explain the want of caution, on this occasion, on the part of
Gerald, whose reputation for vigilance, in all matters of duty, was
universally acknowledged. It had not occurred to him that the instant he
landed his prisoners, his vessel ceased to be a cartel, and therefore a
fit subject for the enterprise of his enemies, or the probability is,
that in the hour in which he had landed them, he would again have
weighed anchor, and made the best of his way back to Amherstburg.
"Stand by your gun, men--steady," whispered the officer, as the noise of
many oars immediately abreast, and at a distance of not more than twenty
yards, announced that the main effort of their enemies was about to be
made in that quarter. "Depress a little--there, you have her--now into
them--fire."
Fiz-z-z-z, and a small pyramid of light rose from the breech of the gun,
which sufficed, during the moment it lasted, to discover three boats
filled with armed men, advancing immediately opposite, while two others
could be seen diverging, apparently one towards the quarter, the other
towards the bows of the devoted little vessel. The crew bent their gaze
eagerly over her side to witness the havoc they expected to ensue among
their enemies. To their surprise and mortification there was no report.
The advancing boats gave three deriding cheers.
"D----n my eyes, if I didn't say she would miss fire, from having her
breech unkivered last night," shouted the man who held the match, and
who was no other than Tom Fluke. "Quick, here--give us a picker!"
A picker was handed to him, by one who also held the powder-horn for
priming.
"It's no use," he pursued, throwing away the wire and springing to the
dock. "She's a spike in the touch-hole, and the devil himself wouldn't
get it out now."
"A spike!--what mean you?" eagerly demanded Gerald.
"It's too true, Mr. Grantham," said the boatswain, who had flown to
examine the touch-hole, "there is a great piece of steel in it, and for
all the world like a woman's bodkin, or some such sort of thing."
"Ah! it all comes o' that wench that was here on deck last night,"
muttered the helmsman, who had succeeded Sambo on duty the preceding
night. "I thought I see her fiddlin' about the gun when the chase was
made after the Yankee, although I didn't think to say nothin' about it
when you axed Tom Fluke about Sal's apron."
Whatever conjecture might have arisen with others, there was no time to
think of, much less to discuss it--the boats were already within a few
yards of the vessel.
"Steady, men--silence!" commanded Gerald, in a low tone. "Since she has
failed us, we must depend upon ourselves. Down beneath the bulwarks and
move not one of you until they begin to board; then let each man single
his enemy and fire; the cutlass must do the rest."
The order was obeyed. Each moment brought the crisis of action nearer:
the rowers had discontinued their oars, but the bows of the several
boats could be heard obeying the impetus already given them, and
dividing the water close to the vessel.
"Now then, Sambo," whispered the officer. At that moment a torch was
raised high over the head of the negro and his master. Its rays fell
upon the first of the three boats, the crews of which were seen standing
up with arms outstretched to grapple with the schooner. Another instant,
and they would have touched. The negro dropped his light.
Gerald pulled the trigger of his blunderbuss, aimed into the very centre
of the boat. Shrieks, curses and plashings as of bodies falling in the
water, succeeded; and in the confusion occasioned by the murderous fire,
the first boat evidently fell off.
"Again, Sambo," whispered the officer. A second time the torch streamed
suddenly in air, and the contents of the yet undischarged blunderbuss
spread confusion, dismay and death, into the second boat.
"Old Sal herself couldn't have done better: pity he hadn't a hundred of
them," growled Tom Fluke, who, although concealed behind the bulwarks,
had availed himself of a crevice near him, to watch the effect produced
by the formidable weapons.
There was a momentary indecision among the enemy, after the second
destructive fire; it was but momentary. Again they advanced, and closing
with the vessel, evinced a determination of purpose, that, left little
doubt as to the result. A few sprang into the chains and rigging, while
others sought to enter by her bows; but the main effort seemed to be
made at her gangway, at which Gerald had stationed himself with ten of
his best men, the rest being detached to make the best defence they
could, against those who sought to enter in the manner above described.
Notwithstanding the great disparity of numbers, the little crew of the
schooner had for some time a considerable advantage over their enemies.
At the first onset of these latter, their pistols had been discharged,
but in so random a manner as to have done no injury--whereas the
assailed, scrupulously obeying the order of their commander, fired not a
shot until they found themselves face to face with an enemy; the
consequence of which was that every pistol-ball killed an American, or
otherwise placed him _hors du combat_. Still, in spite of their loss,
the latter was more than adequate to the capture, unless a miracle
should interpose to prevent it; and, exasperated as they were by the
fall of their comrades, their efforts became at each moment more
resolute and successful. A deadly contest had been maintained in the
gangway, from which, however, Gerald was compelled to retire, although
bravely supported by his handful of followers. His force now consisted
merely of five men remaining of his own party, and three of those who
had been detached, who, all that were left alive, had been compelled to
fall back on their commander. How long he would have continued the
hopeless and desperate struggle in this manner is doubtful, had not a
fresh enemy appeared in his rear. These were the crews of two other
boats, who, having boarded without difficulty, now came up to the
assistance of their comrades. So completely taken by surprise was Gerald
in this quarter, that the first intimation he had of his danger was, in
the violent seizure of his sword arm from behind, and a general rush
upon and disarming of the remainder of his followers. On turning to
behold his enemy, he saw with concern the triumphant face of Desborough.
"Every dog has his day, I guess," huskily chuckled the settler, as by
the glare of several torches which had been suddenly lighted, he was now
seen casting looks of savage vengeance, and holding his formidable knife
threateningly over the head of the officer whom he had grappled. "I
reckon as how I told you it would be Jeremiah Desborough's turn next."
"Silence, fellow--loose your hold," shouted one, whose authoritative
voice and manner announced him for an officer, apparently the leader of
the boarding party.
"I regret much, sir," pursued the American commander, seriously, and
turning to Gerald, "that your obstinate defence should have been carried
to the length it has. We were given to understand that ours would not be
an easy conquest, yet little deemed it would have been purchased with
the lives of so many of our force. Still, even while we deplore our
loss, have we hearts to estimate the valor of our foe. I cannot give you
freedom, since the gift is not at my disposal; but at least I may spare
you the pain of surrendering a blade you have so nobly wielded. Retain
your sword, sir."
Gerald's was not a nature to remain untouched by such an act of
chivalrous courtesy, and he expressed, in brief but pointed terms, his
sense of the compliment.
Five minutes afterwards Gerald, who had exchanged his trusty cutlass for
the sword he had been so flatteringly permitted to retain, found himself
in the leading boat of the little return squadron, and seated at the
side of his generous captor.
"I think you said," he observed, "that you had been informed the
conquest of the schooner would not be an easy one. Would it be seeking
too much to know who was your informant."
The American officer shook his head. "I fear I am not at liberty exactly
to name--but thus much I may venture to state, that the person who has
so rightly estimated your gallantry, is one not wholly unknown to you."
"This is ambiguous. One question more--were you prepared to expect the
failure of the schooner's principal means of defence, her long gun?"
"If you recollect the cheer that burst from my fellows at the moment
when the harmless flash was seen ascending, you will require no further
elucidation on that head," replied the American evasively.
This was sufficient for Gerald. He folded his arms, sank his head upon
his chest, and continued to muse deeply. Soon afterwards the boat
touched the beach, where many of the citizens were assembled to hear
tidings of the enterprize and congratulate the victors. Thence he was
conducted to the neat little inn, which was the only accommodation the
small town, or rather village of Buffalo, at that time afforded.