"Ah, Tom Ogle," said he. "Don't give way, my man. We were doing our
duty, and there's One aloft who'll not forget us if we trust in Him."
"Bless you for those words, Mr Sumner," Tom Ogle gasped out between the
paroxysms of his pain; "they do a poor fellow's heart good."
All this time we were running off the land, with a strong fair breeze,
every moment the enemy's shot falling farther and farther astern. My
great fear now was that some of my men would bleed to death before they
could receive surgical help. However, they had bound up each other's
wounds in the best way they could. From the enemy we at all events were
safe. I did my utmost to keep up the spirits of my men. I was thereby
performing, I knew, half the doctor's work. I had been eagerly looking
out in the offing for our squadron. To my intense satisfaction I now
made out a sail standing towards us from the northward. I pointed her
out to Grampus.
"She's the `Orpheus,' sir. I knows the look of them taw'sels too well
to be deceived," he answered, after watching her for a few moments.
"You're right, Grampus. It's her without doubt," said I. "Hurrah, my
lads! We'll soon be snug on board the old barkie."
We neared the ship rapidly. Many eager faces were looking out at us as
we got alongside. Poor little Harry Sumner first claimed my attention.
I stooped down to lift him up, that he might be handed on deck. His
cheeks were blanched, his eyes were closed.
"Oh, dear, oh dear! is the child dead?" exclaimed old Grampus, as he
took him from me.
"I fear so," I answered with a sad heart. "Let the doctor look to him
at once."
One after the other the wounded men were handed up.
"This is sad work, Mr Hurry," said Captain Hudson, as I went to report
myself on the quarter-deck. I told him how it happened.
"We must send in again, though, and punish the rascals," said he.
Notice was forthwith given that another attempt was to be made to get
off the brig. Plenty of volunteers came forward; indeed, they are never
wanting when any hazardous work is in hand. The way we had been treated
had excited great indignation against the enemy among our people. Job
Samson, our old boatswain, volunteered to head the expedition. He had
an idea that what others failed to do he could always find out some mode
of accomplishing, and, to do him justice, he was ever ready to attempt
to carry out his plans in spite of every risk, though he did not
invariably succeed. He soon had his expedition ready. We heartily
wished him success as he pulled in towards the shore. The Amazon had in
the meantime come up, and as she was in-shore of us and drew less water,
she was ordered to stand in and cover the attack. We eagerly, with our
glasses, watched the proceedings. We could see the enemy, in great
numbers, mustering on shore. Probably they did not expect that the
Amazon's guns were going to take part in the fray. She stood in as
close as she could venture, and then opened her fire: but the enemy,
nothing daunted, returned it manfully from an earth battery, which had
been thrown up near the brig. In the meantime, in the face of this
fire, old Samson advanced boldly to the attack; but round-shot and
musket-balls are stubborn things to contend against, and the boatswain
seeing, however easy it might be theoretically to capture the brig, that
practically, if he attempted it, he should lose the boat with himself
and every man in her, very wisely resolved to return on board, and wait
for another opportunity of signalising himself. We afterwards found
that, in this instance, the grapes really were sour, as the sloop and
schooner had taken in the most valuable part of the brig's cargo, and
that she had remaining on board only ninety tons of salt. We made
several attempts during the afternoon to cut out these vessels, but so
well guarded were they from the shore by riflemen and flying artillery,
that after all our exertions we were compelled to abandon the attempt.
Happily, however, no one was hit except those who had been wounded in my
boat. In the evening, before turning in, I went round to see how the
poor fellows were getting on. They all received me cheerfully.
"We're better off, sir, than if we had been boxed up in a Yankee prison,
even though as how we've got some eyelet holes through us, d'ye see?"
said Bob Nodder, who was the most severely wounded of any of the party.
He observed that I was grieved to see the sufferings they were enduring.
"It could not be helped, Mr Hurry. You did your best for us, and if
you had not kept cool, sir, we might every one of us have been riddled
with rifle-bullets."
I felt still greater pain when I went to the side of little Harry
Sumner's cot. He was in the officers' sick-bay, and the doctor had done
his best to make him comfortable. He was slumbering, so I did not
speak. I stood for some minutes watching his youthful countenance. It
was almost feminine in its beauty--so clear, so fair, so free from the
effects of the evil passions which distort and disfigure so often the
features of those of older years. His long light-brown hair had fallen
off his clear broad forehead, and his lips were parted, and moved
slightly, as if he were speaking to himself. A sickly gleam of light
from the ship's lanthorn, which hung from a beam above, fell on his
countenance, and gave it a hue so pallid that I thought the shades of
death were fast gathering over him. My heart sank within me. Were his
anticipations, then, of evil so soon to be realised? Of evil? Would
it, indeed, be an evil to him, poor child, to be removed from all the
temptations to vice, from the scenes of violence and wrong with which he
was surrounded? I felt it would not, and still I could not bear the
thought of losing him; and there was another, far, far away, who would
mourn him still more--his mother. Who would have the courage to tell
her that she would see her boy no more? I trusted that I might not have
the painful task to perform. I prayed earnestly, for his widowed
mother's sake, that he might recover; that he might go through his fiery
trials in the world unscathed; that he might withstand the world, the
flesh, and the devil, and, through the merits of our Master, attain
eternal happiness in the end. The surgeon entered the sick-bay. I
signed to him that the boy was sleeping.
"What do you think of his case, doctor?" said I with an anxious face.
"Will he recover?"
"If fever does not set in he'll do," answered the medico. "McCallum
will keep a constant watch on him during the night. He'll call me if
any change takes place. Ye need not fash yourself, Hurry; the boy is in
no danger, I tell you."
These words consoled me. Still I was not perfectly satisfied. The
heart of a sailor, far removed as he is from the social influences of
the shore, looks out for something on which to set its more tender
affections.
I felt for that lone boy as if he had been a young brother or sister.
My feelings were, I dare say, shared by many of my messmates. We most
of us, if not cast originally in the same mould, had by circumstances
become shaped very much alike as to the inner man; the same prejudices,
the same affections, the same passions, the same ideas of honour, and I
will say the same tender feelings and generous impulses, were shared by
most of us alike. But I was speaking of Harry Sumner. Several times
during my watch below I turned out to see how he was getting on.
McCallum reported favourably of him; so, tolerably contented, I went
back to my hammock and slept soundly.