sea, firing guns for help this stormy night. Oh, Michael! this is what
you wish for! This is the life you love so much! Can you say you wish to
be a sailor now?"
"I wish," answered Michael, "I had been sailor enough to go off in the
pilot-boat I saw trying to put off just now as I came under the cliffs.
There's a brave ship--a king's ship, I believe,--has been in distress
all the evening; and they want a pilot to go to her, for they fear she
will be driven by the gale right on to the bar;--but the wind and waves
run so contrary, that though they have been trying for this hour, they
cannot get the boat off. Hark! there is another gun! She has certainly
struck! Oh that I could help them!"
Michael now started up, and sprang to the door; but Amy ran after him,
and held him back. "Oh, stay, my dear boy," she cried; "don't go off to
sea! Don't let me see another child perish before these old eyes!"
"No," said Michael, turning round, "I will not disobey you; besides, I
have not experience enough to be of any great use. Our brave pilots
would help them, if help were possible."
"See, brother!" said James, "there lies the ship; she is beating on the
Barnet-reef, sure enough; and yet the moon shines bright through the
storm."
"Yes," said Michael; "and could they have got a pilot that knew the
coast, they might have been saved. Look! they are putting out boats.
See! There are two!"
"Where? where?" asked James: "the white flashing billows dazzle my eyes.
I can see but one little black speck dancing among the waves."
"Oh, yes!" said Amy, "even I can see two; but they will never reach the
shore. See, there goes down one of them!"
"No, no! I hope not," said James; "it is only hidden for a moment
between the high waves."
"I tell you it is gone," said Amy. "Alas! I know that shocking sight
too well?--Don't I _know_ what it is to see a boat swallowed by the sea?
Come in, boys, or I shall think I see your father again washed on shore
at my feet."
"Go you in," said Michael; "but I will stay and see if indeed some one
be thrown on shore; for we may give timely help."
As he spoke, he plainly discovered some one struggling with the waves at
a little distance. The brothers hastened to the spot just as the man was
thrown with violence on the sands by the huge breakers; they seized and
dragged him out of the reach of the waves, and Amy ran out of the
cottage to help them.
"Is he dead?" said she, fearfully.
"I am afraid," said Michael, "that the waves, in throwing him ashore,
have beaten the breath out of him; but he was alive just now, for I saw
him struggle with the breakers."
They carried the poor man into the cottage, and tried every means in
their power to revive him; but Amy had nothing better than a little
elder wine to give him. This she hastened to warm; and James ran to the
town to borrow or buy a little brandy, and to get medical assistance. He
soon procured the liquor; but the doctor was so busy attending other
sufferers who had been washed ashore, that he could not leave them.
James thought it best to return quickly with the spirits; and he had the
pleasure to see the person they had saved sitting in the chimney-corner;
and after he had taken the brandy which James had brought, he seemed
considerably revived.
It was not till he was out of danger that the kind cottagers remarked
that the dress and appearance of their guest were far above those of a
common seaman. Amy had put him on some dry clothes, which were more
comfortable (though very coarse) than his dripping garments; and on
holding up the latter to dry, an elegant watch fell from one of the
pockets. This she hung up before the fireplace; and soon afterwards the
weary stranger retired to rest, the brothers having cheerfully given up
their bed, and slept that night on a heap of old nets and sea-weed in
the cow-shed.
Early in the morning, the doctor came to visit the shipwrecked stranger,
and brought with him one of the sailors, who had got safe to land in the
other boat. As soon as they entered the cottage, the seaman cast his
eyes on the uniform that hung at the fire, and eagerly asked if the
owner of it were alive. He was informed that he was alive, and likely to
do well; but that he was then asleep.
"Then the storm has spared one of the bravest captains in his Majesty's
fleet," said the sailor.
"What! is he a sea-captain?" asked Michael.
"Yes," answered the sailor: "our brave Captain Lucas."
A voice from the inner room now called, "Is that you, Tom?"
"Yes, your Honour," said the sailor, who immediately recognised the
voice of Captain Lucas, his commander. Captain Lucas called the sailor
to him, and asked, with much anxiety, how many of the ship's company
were lost? "Only ten," said he; "the long-boat came safe ashore; and
several of those in the boat with you were picked up by the good
town's-people. We thought all night that you were lost: it would have
been a bitter loss to us, Captain; for you are, indeed, the sailor's
friend. It was a dreadful sight for us to see your boat go down; but
your Honour knows that we all begged you to go in the long-boat, for we
said the other could not live in such a sea."
"Well, Tom," said the Captain, "mine was but a single life; most of you
were fathers and husbands. I am thankful that so many have been spared;
and, as for myself, I could not have fallen into better hands. Mind and
get a good Christmas dinner, you and your messmates, to cheer your poor
hearts; I'll be at the expense: thank God! I have enough to spare a few
comforts for my brave sailors, after all their sufferings."
Tom, having made a sailor's acknowledgment, hastened to the town to tell
his messmates the joyful news, that their noble captain was saved.
Captain Lucas was so much bruised, that the doctor told him he must keep
in bed for a day or two, and take the medicine which he would send him;
but the captain seemed averse to physic, and thought that Amy's
treacle-possets did him more good. He refused to be removed from the
cottage, saying that he could not find better quarters anywhere. Michael
attended him with the greatest care, and his sailors came daily to see
him.
Michael was delighted with the frankness and noble bearing of the
Captain, and with the affection his men bore him: and Captain Lucas was
as much pleased with the honest and warm-hearted Michael. "You are the
brave fellow," he said to him one day, "that pulled me ashore."
"I helped my brother James," said Michael.
"It is not always," said the Captain, "that shipwrecked men fall into
such good hands; but it shall be the better for you, my lad."
Captain Lucas was not a man to keep his bed a long time for a few
bruises. He was soon able to walk about; and his first care was to see
the bodies of the drowned seamen decently buried. He attended their
funeral, with all the surviving crew, and showed himself to be as pious
as he was brave.
The night before he departed for London, he handsomely rewarded old Amy
and her grandsons for their kindness to him; and as he put some broad
pieces into Michael's hand, he said, "My young friend, I thought of
giving you and your brother the watch and rings which I had about me
when I was thrown ashore; but I think these pieces will be more
serviceable: and I give them to you as much for your uncommon honesty as
the humanity you have shown to me."
"Ah, Sir!" said Michael, laying the gold on the table, "you could do me
a favour, that I should prize more than your little golden clock[12] and
all the Caroluses[13] in the world."
[Footnote 12: Watches were only in general use at court, in the time of
Charles the Second.]
[Footnote 13: The gold coinage in the reigns of the Stuarts were
commonly called Caroluses and Jacobuses.]
"Ah!" said the Captain; "and what is that, my lad?"
"To persuade my grandmother to let me go to sea with you."
"Well, my brave boy, I should be glad to have you under my command. What
do you say, Amy? You hear your grandson's wish. But, remember, that I
will never repay your hospitality so basely, as to take him away without
your consent."
Amy sighed. "Well, your Honour, as it is Michael's desire, and as he has
wished it for a long time, I wont deny him; for I see his heart is
wholly set on being a sailor. I should have thought that the lives he
had just seen lost would have shown him his folly; but, as it is, I
would rather he should go to sea with such a noble gentleman as yourself
than with any one else."
Michael rejoiced that his grandmother had at last given her consent.
"While I can have Captain Lucas for a commander, and King Charles for a
master," said he, "I never will serve a Suffolk farmer."
The Captain was pleased with his spirit; but Michael's heart rather
failed him, when he bade farewell, the next day, to his good grandmother
and his twin-brother. "I know the Captain wont despise me for crying,"
he said to Tom; for "I saw _him_ weep when the poor sailors were
buried."
"Ay! ay!" said Tom, "he has a tender heart, and he is the better for it,
and so are you; and considering as how you are but a young one, I think
you have borne it very well. Why I sometimes pipe a bit myself when I
bid good b'ye to my Jane, and mother, and the little ones."
Captain Lucas was soon appointed to another ship; and Michael sent word
to Amy and James, that he loved the life he had chosen better than ever,
and that he would not change it for any other.
For a long time Michael was sadly missed at the cottage. James and Amy
would look sorrowfully at one another, and shake their heads when they
saw Michael's empty place at dinner, and the vacant corner where he used
to put his three-legged stool by the chimney-side--and it was war-time.
England was engaged in a severe struggle with the Dutch for naval
pre-eminence in those days; and perhaps she never had to sustain a more
arduous maritime contest; and Michael had many perils to encounter
besides the danger of the stormy seas; but then he was very punctual in
writing to his relatives--they were sure to have a letter from him at
every opportunity; and Michael took a pride in sending home a
considerable portion of his pay. Amy had so often heard that Michael was
safe and well, that it was only after hearing of some sharp engagement
that her heart ached for him. James was as diligent and industrious as
ever, and kept his old place, and pleased his good master. Poor Amy had
nourishing food and warm clothing, and more comforts in her old age than
she had ever expected.
Three years passed quickly away, and James had grown a fine-looking
young man. Old Amy, though healthy and strong for her years, seemed to
fear that she should not see her dear Michael before she died.
The war now raged more fiercely than ever between the English and Dutch;
and it was said that the fleets would soon come to action in the seas
between England and Holland. James and Amy understood very little about
this. All their care was to know whether it was likely for Michael's
ship to be in the action: this they could not learn; but they saw a
great fleet nearly opposite at sea, hovering to and fro, and many seamen
and officers came on shore; but they neither saw nor heard anything of
Michael; so they hoped he was not in the fleet.
It was a lovely morning in the latter end of May, and James had been
some time at work in his master's fields, when he was suddenly startled
with a tremendous noise, louder than any thunder he had ever heard. He
looked round about, and up at the heavens; all was blue and serene
there, and he could see no traces of a thunder-cloud: still the roar
continued in horrid bursts that seemed to shake the shores and the very
ground he stood on, and it rang and rebounded through the hollow coast
with the most frightful din.[14] At last he cast his eyes towards the
East, and there he saw, in the bar, white clouds of smoke, mixed with
flashes of flame. "The sea-fight has surely begun," he said aloud, "so
near in shore! Our cottage will certainly be knocked down with the
balls." This thought induced him to throw down his hoe, and away he ran
towards his home, thinking of nothing but his poor grandmother.
[Footnote 14: In an old song, published a few days after Solebay fight,
there are the following lines:--
"Well might you hear their guns, I guess,
From Sizewell Gap to Easton Ness;
They fill'd up all the hollow coast,
From Walberswick to Dunwich."]
He got safely down the cliffs, though the cannon-balls were coming on
shore very near him, and in some places they actually shattered large
pieces of earth and stones from the cliffs. James found poor old Amy
kneeling by the bed in the inner room, hiding her face and half dead
with terror. He wanted to take her farther up the country, out of the
reach of danger; but Amy dared not venture out of the house, and James
could not persuade her that the cottage would be no defence in case a
cannon-ball should strike it. He determined at first to take her in his
arms and carry her away to a place of safety: "But, who knows," thought
he, "but I may drag her into the very danger she dreads so much?" So he
determined to stay with her at every risk, and they spent the day
half-deafened with the roar of the cannon, expecting every moment that
their little home would be shattered about them.
Towards evening, the firing grew weaker and weaker, and the people who
were beholding the fight from the cliffs, shouted that the Duke of York
had gained the victory. But before the action was quite over, a boat was
seen making to the shore; it seemed to bear in the direction of Amy's
cottage, and actually ran on shore within a few yards of it. The
sailors leaped out, and, lifting an officer in their arms, bore him
towards the cottage; whilst a young sailor walked slowly after, leaning
on an old seaman's arm. James flung open the cottage door, and told them
to place the officer on the bed. They accordingly laid him down. He
moaned faintly with pain. At the sound of his voice, the young sailor
approached the bed with an unsteady step. Amy gazed wistfully on the
young man, and then on James;--they were exactly alike. "It is my own
boy Michael!" she cried at last.
"Yes, it is Michael!" said James, throwing himself on his neck.
"Ah, my poor grandmother! and my dear James!" said Michael, "I have come
home to you in a sorrowful hour! My noble Captain is mortally wounded."
"Is this the brave gentleman who took you away, and behaved so kindly to
us? Alas, how wan he looks!" said Amy, looking mournfully on the pale
features of Captain Lucas, as he lay fainting on the lowly bed, where
they had placed him.
"But you look as white and ill as he does, Michael!"
"Yes," said he faintly, pointing to his side, from which the blood
slowly trickled; "I was wounded whilst fighting near him--I return to my
home once more; but it is to die. Our Captain's brother took the command
of the ship after he fell; and when the fight slackened, he sent the
boat ashore with him, in hopes of getting better assistance. He did not
know I was wounded, but he told me to go on shore with my master, and
take care of him. Instead of suffering the sailors to take him to the
town, I bade them steer direct for the cottage on the beach. He laid his
noble head there when he was in distress before; and I resolved that he
should not die among strangers."
Here Michael's voice faltered with grief and pain; and he was so faint
that he would have sunk from his seat, had not James supported him in
his arms. A surgeon arrived soon after, and at once pronounced that the
Captain's wounds were mortal, and that Michael was in a dangerous state.
Before night, Captain Lucas's brother came on shore, and hastened to the
cottage: Captain Lucas held out his hand when he saw his brother.
"William," said he, "is England victorious?" William Lucas turned from
his dying brother, and wept.--"Oh yes, Charles! The Duke has gained the
battle, but it is a dearly-purchased victory."
"Many a one has fallen, William, who will be more missed than I shall
be," replied the Captain. "I have but one dear brother to weep my
loss.--Hear my last request: you know, by my will, you inherit my
estates;--but give my faithful Michael the gold in my portmanteau, and a
hundred pounds besides, to be divided between him and his brother: if
Michael should die, give his share to his grandmother--I fear I have
robbed her of one of the props of her age! It is owing to the good
inhabitants of this cottage that my death has been a glorious one: three
years ago they saved my life from the waves on this coast."
Captain Lucas did not live through that night: and Michael only survived
him two days. They were buried together, with many a hero who fell in
that engagement. Captain William faithfully executed his brother's dying
request. But it was not the riches they obtained that could console Amy
and James for the loss of their dear Michael;--it was long before they
could think, without extreme sorrow, on his untimely death.
James's good master assisted him with his advice in laying out the
Captain's legacy, which amounted to more than five hundred pounds. James
took a good farm, and, by his unremitting industry, soon became a rich
man; and old Amy had the pleasure of seeing her great grandchildren born
to affluence: yet the beautiful month of May never returned but she
remembered with sadness the fall of her brave sailor-boy and his noble
captain.
THE END