THE LOVERS AND THE PRESS-GANG
About a mile to the eastward of the ancient town of Arbroath the
shore abruptly changes its character, from a flat beach to a range
of, perhaps, the wildest and most picturesque cliffs on the east
coast of Scotland. Inland the country is rather flat, but elevated
several hundred feet above the level of the sea, towards which it
slopes gently until it reaches the shore, where it terminates in
abrupt, perpendicular precipices, varying from a hundred to two
hundred feet in height. In many places the cliffs overhang the water,
and all along the coast they have been perforated and torn up by the
waves, so as to present singularly bold and picturesque outlines,
with caverns, inlets, and sequestered "coves" of every form and size.
To the top of these cliffs, in the afternoon of the day on which our
tale opens, a young girl wended her way,--slowly, as if she had no
other object in view than a stroll, and sadly, as if her mind were
more engaged with the thoughts within than with the magnificent
prospect of land and sea without.
The girl was
"Fair, fair, with golden hair,"
and apparently about twenty years of age. She sought out a quiet nook
among the rocks at the top of the cliffs, near to a circular chasm,
with the name of which (at that time) we are not acquainted, but
which was destined ere long to acquire a new name and celebrity from
an incident which shall be related in another part of this story.
Curiously enough, just about the same hour, a young man was seen to
wend his way to the same cliffs, and, from no reason whatever with
which we happened to be acquainted, sought out the same nook! We say
"he was seen", advisedly, for the maid with the golden hair saw him.
Any ordinary observer would have said that she had scarcely raised
her eyes from the ground since sitting down on a piece of
flower-studded turf near the edge of the cliff, and that she
certainly had not turned her head in the direction of the town. Yet
she saw him,--however absurd the statement may appear, we affirm it
confidently,--and knew that he was coming. Other eyes there were that
also saw the youth--eyes that would have caused him some degree of
annoyance had he known they were upon him--eyes that he would have
rejoiced to tinge with the colours black and blue! There were
thirteen pair of them, belonging to twelve men and a lieutenant of
the navy.
In those days the barbarous custom of impressment into the Royal Navy
was in full operation. England was at war with France. Men were
wanted to fight our battles, and when there was any difficulty in
getting men, press-gangs were sent out to force them into the
service. The youth whom we now introduce to the reader was a sailor,
a strapping, handsome one, too; not, indeed, remarkable for height,
being only a little above the average--five feet, ten inches, or
thereabouts--but noted for great depth of chest, breadth of shoulder,
and development of muscle; conspicuous also for the quantity of
close, clustering, light-brown curls round his head, and for the
laughing glance of his dark blue eyes. Not a hero of romance, by any
means. No, he was very matter of fact, and rather given to meditation
than to mischief.
The officer in charge of the press-gang had set his heart on this
youth (so had another individual, of whom more anon!) but the youth,
whose name was Ruby Brand, happened to have an old mother who was at
that time in very bad health, and she had also set her heart, poor
body, on the youth, and entreated him to stay at home just for one
half-year. Ruby willingly consented, and from that time forward led
the life of a dog in consequence of the press-gang.
Now, as we have said, he had been seen leaving the town by the
lieutenant, who summoned his men and went after him--cautiously,
however, in order to take him by surprise, for Ruby, besides being
strong and active as a lion, was slippery as an eel.
Going straight as an arrow to the spot where she of the golden hair
was seated, the youth presented himself suddenly to her, sat down
beside her, and exclaiming "Minnie", put his arm round her waist.
"Oh, Ruby, don't," said Minnie, blushing.
Now, reader, the "don't" and the blush had no reference to the arm
round the waist, but to the relative position of their noses, mouths,
and chins, a position which would have been highly improper and
altogether unjustifiable but for the fact that Ruby was Minnie's
accepted lover.
"Don't, darling, why not?" said Ruby in surprise.
"You're so rough," said Minnie, turning her head away.
"True, dear, I forgot to shave this morning----"
"I don't mean that," interrupted the girl quickly, "I mean rude
and--and--is that a sea-gull?"
"No, sweetest of your sex, it's a butterfly; but it's all the same,
as my metaphysical Uncle Ogilvy would undertake to prove to you,
thus, a butterfly is white and a gull is white,--therefore, a gull is
a butterfly."
"Don't talk nonsense, Ruby."
"No more I will, darling, if you will listen to me while I talk
sense."
"What is it?" said the girl, looking earnestly and somewhat anxiously
into her lover's face, for she knew at once by his expression that he
had some unpleasant communication to make. "You're not going away?"
"Well, no--not exactly; you know I promised to stay with mother; but
the fact is that I'm so pestered and hunted down by that rascally
press-gang, that I don't know what to do. They're sure to nab me at
last, too, and then I shall have to go away whether I will or no, so
I've made up my mind as a last resource, to----" Ruby paused.
"Well?" said Minnie.
"Well, in fact to do what will take me away for a short time,
but----" Ruby stopped short, and, turning his head on one side, while
a look of fierce anger overspread his face, seemed to listen
intently.
Minnie did not observe this action for a few seconds, but, wondering
why he paused, she looked up, and in surprise exclaimed--
"Ruby! what do you----"
"Hush! Minnie, and don't look round," said he in a low tone of
intense anxiety, yet remaining immovably in the position which he had
assumed on first sitting down by the girl's side, although the
swelled veins of his neck and his flushed forehead told of a fierce
conflict of feeling within.
"It's the press-gang after me again. I got a glance of one o' them
out of the tail of my eye, creeping round the rocks. They think I
haven't seen them. Darling Minnie--one kiss. Take care of mother if
I don't turn up soon."
"But how will you escape----"
"Hush, dearest girl! I want to have as much of you as I can before I
go. Don't be afraid. They're honest British tars after all, and won't
hurt _you_, Minnie."
Still seated at the girl's side, as if perfectly at his ease, yet
speaking in quick earnest tones, and drawing her closely to him, Ruby
waited until he heard a stealthy tread behind him. Then he sprang up
with the speed of thought, uttered a laugh of defiance as the sailors
rushed towards him, and leaping wildly off the cliff, fell a height
of about fifty feet into the sea.
Minnie uttered a scream of horror, and fell fainting into the arms of
the bewildered lieutenant.
"Down the cliffs--quick! he can't escape if you look alive. Stay, one
of you, and look after this girl. She'll roll over the edge on
recovering, perhaps."
It was easy to order the men down the cliffs, but not so easy for
them to obey, for the rocks were almost perpendicular at the place,
and descended sheer into the water.
"Surround the spot," shouted the lieutenant. "Scatter
yourselves--away! there's no beach here."
The lieutenant was right. The men extended themselves along the top
of the cliffs so as to prevent Ruby's escape, in the event of his
trying to ascend them, and two sailors stationed themselves in ambush
in the narrow pass at the spot where the cliffs terminate in the
direction of the town.
The leap taken by Ruby was a bold one. Few men could have ventured
it; indeed, the youth himself would have hesitated had he not been
driven almost to desperation. But he was a practised swimmer and
diver, and knew well the risk he ran. He struck the water with
tremendous force and sent up a great mass of foam, but he had
entered it perpendicularly, feet foremost, and in a few seconds
returned to the surface so close to the cliffs that they overhung
him, and thus effectually concealed him from his pursuers.
Swimming cautiously along for a short distance close to the rocks, he
came to the entrance of a cavern which was filled by the sea. The
inner end of this cave opened into a small hollow or hole among the
cliffs, up the sides of which Ruby knew that he could climb, and thus
reach the top unperceived, but, after gaining the summit, there still
lay before him the difficulty of eluding those who watched there. He
felt, however, that nothing could be gained by delay, so he struck at
once into the cave, swam to the inner end, and landed. Wringing the
water out of his clothes, he threw off his jacket and vest in order
to be as unencumbered as possible, and then began to climb
cautiously.
Just above the spot where Ruby ascended there chanced to be stationed
a seaman named Dalls. This man had lain down flat on his breast, with
his head close to the edge of the cliff, so as to observe narrowly
all that went on below, but, being a stout, lethargic man, he soon
fell fast asleep! It was just at the spot where this man lay that
Ruby reached the summit. The ascent was very difficult. At each step
the hunted youth had to reach his hand as high above his head as
possible, and grasp the edge of a rock or a mass of turf with great
care before venturing on another step. Had one of these points of
rock, or one of these tufts of grass, given way, he would infallibly
have fallen down the precipice and been killed. Accustomed to this
style of climbing from infancy, however, he advanced without a
sensation of fear.
On reaching the top he peeped over, and, seeing that no one was near,
prepared for a rush. There was a mass of brown turf on the bank above
him. He grasped it with all his force, and swung himself over the
edge of the cliff. In doing so he nearly scalped poor Dalls, whose
hair was the "turf" which he had seized, and who, uttering a hideous
yell, leaped upon Ruby and tried to overthrow him. But Dalls had met
his match. He received a blow on the nose that all but felled him,
and instantly after a blow on each eye, that raised a very
constellation of stars in his brain, and laid him prone upon the
grass.
His yell, however, and the noise of the scuffle, were heard by those
of the press-gang who were nearest to the scene of conflict. They
rushed to the rescue, and reached the spot just as Ruby leaped over
his prostrate foe and fled towards Arbroath. They followed with a
cheer, which warned the two men in ambush to be ready. Ruby was lithe
as a greyhound. He left his pursuers far behind him, and dashed down
the gorge leading from the cliffs to the low ground beyond.
Here he was met by the two sailors, and by the lieutenant, who had
joined them. Minnie was also there, having been conducted thither by
the said lieutenant, who gallantly undertook to see her safe into the
town, in order to prevent any risk of her being insulted by his men.
On hearing the shout of those who pursued Ruby, Winnie hurried away,
intending to get free from the gang, not feeling that the
lieutenant's protection was either desirable or necessary.
When Ruby reached the middle of the gorge, which we have dignified
with the name of "pass", and saw three men ready to dispute his
passage, he increased his speed. When he was almost up to them he
turned aside and sprang nimbly up the almost perpendicular wall of
earth on his right. This act disconcerted the men, who had prepared
to receive his charge and seize him, but Ruby jumped down on the
shoulders of the one nearest, and crushed him to the ground with his
weight. His clenched fist caught the lieutenant between the eyes and
stretched him on his back--the third man wisely drew aside to let
this human thunderbolt pass by!
He did pass, and, as the impetuous and quite irresistible locomotive
is brought to a sudden pause when the appropriate breaks are applied,
so was he brought to a sudden halt by Minnie a hundred yards or so
farther on.
"Oh! don't stop," she cried eagerly, and hastily thrusting him away.
"They'll catch you!"
Panting though he was, vehemently, Ruby could not restrain a laugh.
"Catch me! no, darling; but don't be afraid of them. They won't hurt
you, Minnie, and they _can't_ hurt _me_--except in the way of cutting
short our interview. Ha! here they come. Goodbye, dearest; I'll see
you soon again."
At that moment five or six of the men came rushing down the pass with
a wild cheer. Ruby made no haste to run. He stood in an easy attitude
beside Minnie; leisurely kissed her little hand, and gently smoothed
down her golden hair. Just as the foremost pursuer came within
fifteen yards or so of them, he said, "Farewell, my lassie, I leave
you in good hands"; and then, waving his cap in the air, with a cheer
of more than half-jocular defiance, he turned and fled towards
Arbroath as if one of the nor'-east gales, in its wildest fury, were
sweeping him over the land.