A CRUISE IN THE MOUNTAINS----EL CAFETAL.[1]
[1] _Cafetal_--Coffee estate.
We arrived, at five in the afternoon, at Mr Hudson's property, having
stopped, during the heat of the day, under a large deserted shed,
situated in the middle of a most beautiful grass plat, and overshadowed
by splendid trees. A rill of clear cold water ran past, in which we
cooled our liqueurs; and the substantial lunch we made, enabled all of
us to hold out gallantly until our journey was finished. The road at
one time had wound along the margin of the sea; at another it diverged
inland amongst tree-covered knolls, and at every turn one was refreshed
by splashing through a crystal-clear stream.
Towards the afternoon we appeared to have made a longer detour, and to
have struck farther into the country than we had hitherto done. We
passed several sugar estates, and then came to a large new settled
coffee property, with the bushes growing amongst the fire-scathed
stumps of the recently felled trees (up which the yam vines twisted
luxuriantly, as if they had been hop-poles), loaded with red berries,
that glanced like ripe cherries amongst the leaves, dark and green as
those of the holly. We had just been greeted by the uncouth shouts of
a gang of newly imported Africans, that under white superintendents
were cultivating the ground, when Listado's horse suddenly started and
threw him, as he rode ahead of us pioneering the way for the ladies,
who were by this time mounted on their ponies, the volante having been
left at the estate below. He fell amidst a heap of withered plantain
suckers, which crashed under him,--in an instant a hundred vultures,
hideous creatures, with heads as naked of feathers as a turkey-cock,
the body being about the same size, flew up with a loud rushing noise,
and a horrid concert of croaking, from the carcass of a bullock they
were devouring, that lay right in the path, and which had startled the
horse. We were informed by one of the superintendents that the
creature had only died the night before; although by the time we saw
it, there was little remaining but the bones--indeed half a dozen of
the obscene birds were at work like quarrymen in the cavity of the ribs.
"Now, Listado, dear," said I, "you made an empty saddle of it very
cleverly--no wax there--why you shot out like a sky-rocket--but never
mind, I hope you are not hurt?"
He laughed louder than any of us, and again pricked a-head as zealously
as before. The Patlander was at this time making sail past Dicky
Phantom, who was strapped on to a chair, that a negro had slung at his
back, knapsack fashion, and who kept way with us, go as fast as we
chose, apparently without the least inconvenience.
"I tink, Mr Listado," said the child to our friend, as he pushed a-head
to resume his station in the van--"I tink you wantee jomp upon de back
of one of dem big crow, Mr Listado. Horse must hurt you some place, so
you want ride upon big turkey, eh?"
"You _tink_, you tiny little rascal, you! who put that quip in your
head?"
"Mamma Hudson, Miss Helen tell me say so."
"Bah," quoth Lorenzo, and shoved on.
"Hold hard," I shouted, as the road dipped abruptly into the recesses
of the natural forest; and I pulled up, for fear of my mule stumbling
or running me against a tree, or one of my companions; so sudden had
the change been from the fierce blaze of the sun in the cleared ground,
to the dark green twilight of the wood. However, although the trees,
as we rode on, grew higher, and their intertwined branches became even
more thickly woven together, and the matted leaves overhead more
impervious to the light and heat, yet we all quickly became so
accustomed to the dark shade that we very soon saw every thing
distinctly.
"Good-morning, ladies," quoth Listado, as they dawned on him in all
their loveliness; "how do you do? I have not seen you for some
time--do you know, the beautiful verdure of your cheeks, in this light,
is quite entirely captivating. You would be the envy of all the
mermaids of the ocean if they saw you--but I believe they are not given
to walk much in woods. Miss Hudson's beautiful face is of a cool
refreshing pea-green, as I am a gentleman; and her fair nose of the
colour of a grey parrot's bill, or an unboiled lobster's claw,--as for
Mademoiselle Duquesné--may I die an ould maid, if you are not a
delicate shade darker--and look if the child don't look as green as a
fairy. Did ever mortal man see such a shamrock of a picanniny? But it
is past meridian--stop till I take an observation."--Here our noisy
friend put a bottle of vin-de-grave to his head.
"Do you know," said he, "I really require a cordial after my ground and
lofty tumbling amongst those very damnable craturs, the turkey buzzards
down below there."
"Very true," said Miss Hudson; "and I presume, Mr Listado, since you
are dealing in nicknames, and have already ran through all the shades
of your national colour, you will not fire, if we call you Mr
Bottlegreen."
"Fair enough that same, Helen--Fire!--why, I have half a mind to shoot
you with this bottle of soda water," taking one from his holster--"if I
could only get the string loosened--Ah, Miss Hudson, would that my
heart strings were as tough." And he made a most lamentable face, as
if his interior was disarranged, and heaved a sigh fit to turn the
sails of a windmill.
"There he goes with his mock sentimentality again," cried the sweet
girl, laughing.
We rode on, the ground becoming more rugged and rocky at every step,
but perfectly clear of underwood--the dry grey limestone rocks
increasing and shooting up all round us, like pinnacles, or Druidical
monuments: but still immense trees found nourishment enough in the
black mould amongst the fissures, dry as they appeared to be, and the
shade continued as deep as ever; while, as the afternoon wore on, the
musquittoes increased most disagreeably.
"Look at these two guanas chasing each other up that tree," shouted
Listado; "what horrid ugly things they are. I declare that large one
is three feet long from stem to stern, as friend Benjie there would
have said." As we all stopped to look at the hideous lizard, it seemed
to think, on the principle of fair play, that it might take a squint at
us, and accordingly came to a stand-still on a branch, about three
fathoms above where the negro stood with little Dicky on his back.
"What ugly beast," quoth the little fellow, as he lay back and looked
up at it--a musket shot at this instant was fired close to us from the
wood--the sharp report shattering from tree to rock, until it rattled
to rest in tiny echoes in the distance. At first we all started, and
then peered anxiously about us, but we could only see a thin white puff
of smoke rise and blow off through a small break or vista in the
forest, and smell the gunpowder--we could perceive no one. I looked
up, the guana had been wounded, as it was now clinging to the branch
with its two hind feet and its long tail, and fiercely biting and
tearing its side with its fore claws, as it hung with its head
downwards, and swung and struggled about in agony. I made sure this
was the spot where the bullet had struck it, and just as the negro who
had fired, a sort of gamekeeper of Mr Hudson's, appeared at the top of
the path, the dragon-looking lizard dropped right down on poor little
Dicky Phantom, as he sat lashed into his chair, unable to escape. Here
was the devil to pay with a vengeance. The child shrieked, as the
abominable reptile twined and twisted about him, with its snake-like
tail, and formidable claws, and threatening him with its crocodile
looking snout. I saw it bite him on the arm--this was the signal for
the women to scream, and Listado to swear, and for me to seize the
creature by the tail, and endeavour to drag him away--but I was
terrified to use force, lest I should lacerate poor Dicky--while the
negro, who carried the child, became frantic with fright, and jumped
and yelled amongst the trees, like an ourang-outang bitten by a
rattlesnake. The guana still kept his hold of the child, however,
making a chattering noise between its teeth, like that of a small
monkey, when Listado came up to me--"Stop, Brail, give me"--and he
twitched the animal away with a jerk, and the sleeve of Dicky's frock
in its teeth; but it instantly fastened on his own leg, and if the
black game-keeper had not, with more presence of mind than any one of
us possessed, come up, and forcibly choked the creature off with his
bare hands, although he thereby got several severe scratches, he might
have been seriously injured. However, it turned out that the damage
was not very serious after all, little Dicky having been more
frightened than hurt, as the guana's teeth had fastened in his clothes,
and not in his flesh, so we all soon got into sailing condition again,
and proceeded on our way.
Suddenly, the road abutted on a high white wall, the trees growing
close up to it, without any previous indications of cleared ground or
habitation. This was the back part of Mr Hudson's house, which stood
on the very edge of the forest we had come through. It was a large
stone edifice of two stories, plastered and white-washed, built in the
shape of a square, with a court in the centre, and galleries on both
floors all round the inside, after the pattern of the houses of the
nobility in Old Spain, especially in the Moorish towns. We alighted at
a large arched gateway, and having given our horses to two black
servants that were in attendance, entered the court, where the taste of
the American ladies shone conspicuous.
In the centre there was a deep basin, hewn roughly, I should rather say
ruggedly, out of the solid rock, and filled with the purest and most
limpid water. Several large plantain suckers grew on the edge of it,
in artificial excavations in the stone, to the height of twenty feet,
so that their tops were on a level with the piazza above; and a
fountain or jet of water was forced up from the centre of the pool, in
a whizzing shower, amongst their broad and jagged leaves, whereon the
large drops of moisture rolled about with every motion, like silver
balls on green velvet. Beneath the proverbially cool shade of these
plantain suckers, a glorious living mosaic of most beautiful flowers,
interspersed with myrtle and other evergreens, filled the parterre,
which was divided into small lozenges by tiny hedges of young box and
lime bushes; while the double jessamine absolutely covered the pillars
of the piazza, as I have seen ivy clinging round the columns of a
ruined temple, scattering its white leaves like snow-flakes at every
gush of the breeze; yet all these glorious plants and flowers grew out
of the scanty earth that filled the crevices of the rock, seemingly
depending more on the element of water than on the soil. Every thing
in the centre of the small square appeared so natural, so devoid of
that art, largely employed, yet skilfully masked, that I never would
have tired gloating on it.
"Now, Master Hudson," quoth Listado, "you have made two" [pronouncing
it _tew_] "small mistakes here. First, you have the trees too near the
house, which brings the plague of musquittoes upon you; secondly, this
fountain, how pretty soever to look at, must make the domicile
confoundedly damp, and all your capital New York cheeses prematurely
mouldy. I declare," feeling his chin, "I am growing mouldy myself, or
half of my beard has been left unreaped by that villanous razor of
Brail's there, that I scraped with this morning--shaving I could not
call it."
"Come, come," said I, "the fountain is beautiful, and don't blame the
razor until you have a better of your own."
"It is, indeed, beautiful," said Mrs Hudson; "but, alas! that such a
paradise should not be fenced against the demon of yellow fever!"
The supply of water to the basin of the said fountain, by the way,
which came from the neighbouring hill; wras so ample, that it forced
the jet from a crater-like aperture in the bottom, without the aid of
pipe or tube of any kind, full six feet above the surface in a solid
cone, or cube, of two feet in diameter; and the spray some eight feet
higher. No one who has lived in such a climate, and witnessed such a
scene, can ever forget the delicious rushing, and splashing, and
sparkling of the water, and the rustling, or rather pattering, of the
plantain leaves, and of the bushes, as the breeze stirred them.
The lower gallery was paved with small diamond-shaped slabs of blue and
white marble, the very look of which added to the coolness. "Why, Mr
Hudson, how glorious! nothing superior to this even in _ould_ Ireland."
The American laughed, and nodded in the direction of his daughter. I
turned my eye in the same direction, and met hers. She had apparently
been observing how I was affected, at least so my vanity whispered: she
blushed slightly, and looked another way.
I saw I must say something. "Indeed, Miss Hudson, I thought you had
not been above two months in the island. Did you not come down in the
American frigate"----
She smiled.
"I did, Mr Brail; but it was the cruise before last--we have been six
months here."
"Six months! and are all these glorious plants the growth of six
months?"
"Ay, that they are," quoth Listado; "most of them have not been planted
more than _six weeks_."
The inside of this large mansion was laid out more for comfort than
show; the rooms, that all opened into the corridors already mentioned,
were large and airy, but, with the exception of a tolerable
dining-room, drawing-room, and the apartments of the ladies, very
indifferently furnished. They were lit from without by the usual heavy
wooden unglazed balconies, common both in New and Old Spain, which
appear to have been invented more for the purpose of excluding the heat
than admitting the light.
In front of the house, and on each side, were large white terraced
platforms, with shallow stone ledges, built in flights, like gigantic
stairs on the hillside. On this the coffee was thickly strewed in the
red husk, or pulp, as it is called, to dry in the sun. Little Dicky
took the berries to be cherries, until the pulp stuck in his little
teeth.
The opposite hill had been cleared, and was covered with coffee-bushes;
and right below us, in the bottom of the deep ravine, a tree-screened
rivulet murmured and brawled alternately over a rugged bed of limestone
rock, as the breeze rose and fell.
In the northernmost nook of the cleared field, the negro houses, as
usual surrounded with palm, star-apple, and orange trees, were
clustered below an overhanging rock like eagles' nests, with blue
threads of smoke rising up from them in still spiral jets, until it
reached the top of the breezy cliff that sheltered them, when it
suddenly blew off, and was dissipated. Beyond these lay a large field
of luxuriant guinea grass, covered with bullocks and mules, like black
dottings on the hillside. In every other direction one unbroken forest
prevailed; the only blemish on the fair face of nature was man: for
although the negroes that we saw at work appeared sleek and fat, yet,
being most of them fresh from the ship, there was a savageness in the
expression of their countenances, and in their half-naked bodies, that
had nothing Arcadian in it.
We were all, especially the ladies, pretty well tired; so, after a
comfortable dinner, we betook ourselves to rest betimes. Next morning,
at seven o'clock, we again mustered in force in the breakfast room, and
the instant I entered, little Dicky, to my surprise, bolted from Helen
Hudson's side, dashing away her hand from him angrily, and ran to
me--"Massa Brail, Miss Hudson tell lie."
"Dicky, mind what you say."
"Oh, yes; but yesterday she say--Dicky Phantom, you put on petticoat
and frock--to-morrow you put on trowsers again."
"Oh, Dicky, Dicky," cried Helen, laughing.
"Well, my dear boy, Miss Hudson must be as good as her word, and
restore your trowsers: she does not mean to _wear_ them, does she?"
"Indeed, Dicky, Helen did quite right to dress you as you are," said
Mrs Hudson, perceiving her daughter a little put out; "your little
trowsers were all tar and pitch, and you are too young to leave off
frocks yet."
The child, although there was no help at hand, determined to show he
would not be imposed on, so, like a little snake casting his skin, he
deliberately shook himself, and with a wriggle of his shoulders slid
out of his clothes altogether; and there he stood like a little naked
Cupidon--"Now I shall go and catch fis," said the little fellow
laughing. With that he toddled away into the basin of water, that was
gurgling and splashing in the court-yard. I wish there had been a
painter to have caught the group. Sophie Duquesné and Helen Hudson
running about the small walks of the rocky parterre, dashing the water
spangles from the flowers with their light feet, and laughing loudly as
they strove to catch Dicky, who kept just beyond their reach, squealing
with child-like joy, and splashing them: a perfect shower of spray
descending all the time on the beautiful urchin's own curly pate; while
the plantain leaves were shaking in the breeze, and checkering the blue
sky overhead. At length De Walden caught him, and swung him out of the
water by the arms into Helen Hudson's lap.
When breakfast was over, we again mounted our mules, to explore the
neighbourhood towards the coast; for notwithstanding the tortuosity of
the road we had come, we were not, Mr Hudson said, above three miles
distant from the sea after all. Listado, honest gentleman, chose to
mount the smallest mule that could be had; and as he was upwards of six
feet high, he looked, as he paced along, more like an automaton mounted
on a velocipede than any thing else.
After riding along for half an hour, in a path cut through the
otherwise impervious wood, we came to a naked, storm-scathed, and
sun-baked promontory of red clay and grey stone, which beetled over the
sea so abruptly, that the line of vision struck the water at least a
mile beyond the beach, which was thus entirely hid from our sight. The
spot where we stood seemed to be the eastern headland, or cape, of a
small and most beautiful bay, which opened to our view down to leeward.
Beyond us, out at sea, the water was roughened by a fiery
sea-breeze--to use the West Indian phrase--the blue water being thickly
speckled with white crests; and from the speed with which the white
sails in the offing slid along their liquid way, like feathers, or
snow-flakes floating down the wind, it might be called a brisk gale.
Every now and then a tiny white speck would emerge from under the bluff
into sight, and skim away until lost in the misty distance; and a
coaster from the offing, as she hauled in for the bay, would as
suddenly vanish for a time, until she again appeared, diminished in the
distance to a sea-bird, gliding slowly along the glasslike surface of
the small bay, when she would fold her white wings, and become
stationary at anchor near the shipping-place, or Barquedier, as it is
called.
"We must go down and see that beautiful bay, Helen--Miss Hudson, I
mean--beg pardon"----
"We have not time, Mr Brail, to-day; we must return, as my father
wishes us to visit some beautiful scenery in the woods; but we shall
ride to it another forenoon--only, why will you distress yourself about
calling me Helen--why, I _am_ Helen--every body calls me Helen--with
your precise _Miss_ Hudson, and _Mademoiselle_ Duquesné. If you stick
to such formalities, I will positively treat you to a few
_calculations_ and _guessings_." Here the laughing girl gave the true
nasal twang of Jonathan himself.
"Well, well--agreed--Helen you shall be--my Helen." She looked at me,
and blushing, held up her finger, and shook her head--as if she had
said--"No, no,--not quite _yet_." My heart stopped a beat to gather
strength, and then gave such a devil of a bounce--"Hillo," thought
I--"Ha, ha, Master Benjamin!"
We therefore returned homewards, and having extended our ride in
another direction, and been highly gratified by the scenery, we found
ourselves seated at dinner, in the lower piazza of the court facing the
east, so as to be screened from the rays of the setting sun by the roof
of the house.
The water of the clear pool in the centre of the yard was led away, on
the side we sat on, in a little canal, amongst the rocks, out of which
it was hewn, and this was thickly planted with lotuses. We had dined,
and the golden sky overhead began to be spangled with a bright silver
star here and there, and the distant and scarcely perceptible buzz of a
solitary scout of a musquitto, would every now and then suddenly
increase to a loud singing noise, as he reconnoitred your
auricle--presently you heard the hum of a whole picket of them--the
advanced guard of a host of winged pests, which were thus giving token
of the approach of evening.
"Master Hudson," quoth Listado again--"you have a beautiful situation
here, certainly; magnificent scenery, and a good house; fine water, and
pure air--but a damnable quantity of musquittoes--beg, pardon, ladies,
for the lapse--yet really, just as I am expatiating, one of those
devils has flown into my eye, half-a-dozen into my mouth, and--Lord, if
a big fellow has not got into my ear, and is at this identical moment
thundering away at the timpanum, ay, as if he were a bass drummer!"
Here our friend started up, and began to dance about and shake his
head, as if he would have cast it from his shoulders into the pool.
"Mr Brail," said Helen, laughing, as soon as the Irishman had
subsided--"do you see how carefully those beautiful water-lilies have
folded up their silver leaves before retiring to their watery
pillows?--there, that one nearest your foot has already sunk below the
water; and the largest, that is still gently moved by the small ripple
that radiates from the splashing water in the middle of the basin, will
soon follow--See, it is gone"--as, one by one, the whole of the
beautiful plants gradually sank under the surface for the night.
I was struck with this, and fascinated by the tone and manner of the
speaker;--when suddenly the lotuses again emerged.
"Heyday," said De Walden--"your poetry is all lost, Miss Hudson; the
flowers don't seem to sleep sound on the watery pillows you spoke
of--they are as gallant and complimentary as Don Lorenzo there; for
see, they are all back to have another peep at you."
"Probably they found their beds were not made, De Walden," rapped out
Listado.
"Very extraordinary; what can that mean?" said Sophie Duquesné.
"My dear Miss Duquesné," said Listado, "I see I must give you some
lessons in pronunciation still--why will you worry your R's so in your
beautiful throat?"
"It is my French accent, you know, and I cannot help it," said the
lovely creature, laughing.
"But really what _is_ this?" said Helen; and as she spoke, the jet
gradually became weaker and weaker; the water in the pool rapidly
subsided for a minute; and then, with a loud, gurgling noise,
disappeared altogether, leaving the rocky bed dry, and the poor pet
mountain-mullets walloping amongst the water-plants like so many silver
wedges.
"Hillo," shouted Listado, in extreme surprise--"Hillo, who has stolen
our purling stream?--what the devil has become of the river, Master
Hudson?" This was a thing neither Mr Hudson nor any one else could
tell--that it had absolutely vanished as described was clear enough;
but just as the girls and De Walden had secured the fish in a tub, the
basin was again filled, as suddenly as it had been emptied, with the
same loud gurgle, too, and in ten minutes one could not have told that
any thing had happened.
"There must have been some subterranean convulsions to produce this
phenomenon," said I.
"No doubt of it," rejoined Listado--"Old Nicholas had run short of
water for his tay, and borrowed our beautiful jet for a little--but,
hush! he has heard me, so sure as peas are pays in Ireland, and has
turned off the water again--Hush!"
It once more disappeared in the same manner, and with the same loud,
gurgling noise as before; but after the basin was dry this time, we
distinctly heard several distant reports, in the bowels of the earth,
like the far-off reverberations of a cannon-shot amongst the hills.
"There was no earthquake?" said Mr Hudson, looking round enquiringly,
after we had a little recovered from our surprise--no one had perceived
it if there had been. "I should not be surprised if this be the
precursor of one, however," he continued, "after this long drought and
intense heat."
* * * * *
The following evening was the one we had fixed on, according to
previous arrangement, to ride to the beautiful bay lying within the
promontory already described.
The weather, as already hinted, for several weeks preceding this had
been uncommonly hot, even for that climate; and the earth was parched
and rent by intense drought. In many places in our rides we came upon
fissures a foot wide, and several fathoms deep; and the trees had, in
general, assumed the hue of our English leaves in November. There had
been several "temblores de tierra," or shocks of earthquake, within
this period--slight at first, but they seemed to increase in strength
and frequency, as the dry weather continued; and it was therefore
reasonable to refer the sudden disappearing of the jet of water to some
internal convulsion of this nature.
On the day in question there was not a cloud to be seen--a hot blending
blue blaze hung over the land and water, through which every object
trembled as if the earth and sea had sent up a thin smoke through
intensity of heat.
The sun when he rose, and until high up in heaven, had the same red
magnified disk, as in a foggy winter morning in England; and a lurid
purple hue pervaded all nature, as if he had been suffering a temporary
eclipse; while the usual sea breeze entirely failed.
About noon every thing was deadly still,--the cattle had betaken
themselves to the small river, where they stood listlessly chewing
their cuds, as if overpowered by the density of the air. Not a bird
was hopping in the no longer vocal trees; the very lizards were still:
the negroes employed in cleaning the coffee pieces worked in silence,
in place of shouting and laughing, and gabbling to each other, as is
their wont--and when the driver or black superintendent gave his
orders, the few words he uttered sounded loud and hollow, echoing from
hill to hill. I could hear distinctly what he said on the opposite
mountain side, situated above a mile off, although I was persuaded at
the same time that he spoke in his natural tone, and with no greater
exertion than he used in common conversation. The very clink of the
negroes' hoes in the rocky soil was unaccountably distinct and sharp.
Several inexplicable noises had been heard during the forenoon from the
head of the ravine; and once or twice a strong rushing sound, like the
wind amongst trees, passed over our heads, although there was not a
zephyr moving; a poet might have fancied it cohorts of invisible
spirits charging each other in the air. At other times, a gradually
increasing subterraneous grumbling noise would spring up, at first
undistinguishable from distant thunder, but coming apparently nearer,
it would end in a series of deadened reports, like a distant cannonade;
and this again would be followed by a sharp hissing or hurtling in the
sky, altogether different from the rushing noise already described;
more resembling that made by streamers in a high latitude, or the
flight of a congreve rocket than any thing else. But the most
startling sound of all was the solitary wild cry of a crane, now and
then; resembling for all the world the high note of a trumpet, blown
short and quick.
We had all been puzzling ourselves with these appearances and strange
noises during the forenoon,--some arguing that a hurricane was
impending, others that they betokened an earthquake; but the stillness
continued without either occurring, and the day wore on very much as
usual.
In the evening, the sun was again shorn of his flaming beams, as he
sank in the west, and became magnified as in the morning, when he
dipped in the haze near the horizon, into a broad moonlike globe.
"Come," said our excellent host, "we have had no exercise to-day, I
calculate, so let us order the mules, and ride to Helen's beautiful
bay, that she raves about; we shall at least breathe fresher air there."
"Oh, papa, I don't _rave_ about it," said she; "it is only Sophia and
Mr Listado who _rave_;" whereupon the ladies vanished, but soon
reappeared all ready, when we mounted and set off.
By the time we reached the eastern cape, or headland of the small bay,
the sun, near his setting, had tinged the whole calm sea, as far as the
eye could reach, with a bluish purple. The stars appeared larger than
usual; some of them surrounded with tiny haloes; and the planet Venus,
as she struggled up in the east, loomed like a small moon.
We wound downwards along a zig-zag path, hewn out of the rock, until we
arrived at the beautiful white beach, which we had admired so much from
above.
The swell from the offing tumbled in towards the land, in long purple
undulations, and as it broke on the rocky coast beyond the promontory,
the noise was like the distant roar of a populous town, borne on the
swell of the breeze. In the bay itself, however, all was still; the
surface of the sea clear and calm as a mirror. The sun was still
visible to us, but already every thing was in shade on the opposite
side of the anchorage--here about a quarter of a mile across, where the
dark trees and bushes were reflected with startling distinctness: There
was no ascertaining the water line in that direction, as the bank was
high and precipitous, and the foliage darkened down to the very water's
edge; on our side, at the head of the bay, there was a small wooden
wharf that ran into the sea, alongside of which lay a shallop with her
sails hoisted, but hanging motionless in the dead calm, from the spars.
A solitary negro was walking slowly up and down this erection, smoking;
his shadow in the water looking like his _doppel ganger_, or a familiar
spirit. There was a large schooner lying right in the centre of the
bay, very heavily rigged, and apparently armed, but I could see no one
on deck at first; presently, however, there was a bustle on board of
her, and two boats were hoisted out.
"What schooner is that?" I asked Mr Hudson--he did not know--it must be
some coaster he thought.
"It cannot be that they are startled at our appearance, surely," said
Helen; "yet it looks like it."
"Oh, nonsense!" cried Don Lorenzo--"a drogger waiting for coffee; a
drogger, Miss Hudson, believe me."
But I was not sure of this, for all at once, under the cliff on the
opposite side, we heard the sound of a hammer, and could see a forge at
work, by the sparks that rose up like clouds of fire-flies, and the
sudden jets of light that glanced on the water: flashing on the hairy
chest and muscular arms of a swarthy-looking fellow, naked all to his
trowsers, who was busily employed with his hammer, and on the dingy
figure of a negro that worked the bellows for him.
"When Vulcan forged the bolts of Jove,"
sang Listado, but the sound of his own voice in the unnatural
stillness, startled both himself and us, and he broke off abruptly.
Next moment the flame of the forge disappeared, the clink of the
hammer, and the creaking and puffing of the bellows ceased. A boat now
put off from the schooner, and pulled in the direction of the forge.
From the clash and tinkling of the materials, as they were taken on
board, it was evident that the whole apparatus had been hurriedly
dismounted.
"I really do believe that we are the cause of all this bustle," said De
Walden; "that schooner is deuced like the craft I have been accustomed
to see employed as slavers."
When the people returned towards the schooner, we heard a voice from
the brake close to us, as of some one weak from disease, hail them to
make haste and come for him, as the person speaking "did not like the
look of the weather." This made us all start--but we saw no one until
the boat touched the beach, when a tall figure in the dress of a
Spanish seaman, walked slowly from the wood, got on board apparently
with great difficulty; and the boat pushed off.
I noticed De Walden start as the man pushed past. The instant they got
on board, another anchor was let go, topmasts and yards were struck,
and had down on deck, boats were hoisted in, and other precautions were
doubtless taking, from the bustle we heard, which we could not see, to
ensure her riding easily through the coming night. Soon all was still
again. The fire-flies now began to sparkle amongst the trees, when, as
we turned to reascend the path by which we had come, De Walden
whispered me, in an agitated voice,--"That was the man that stabbed
you, as sure as I live."
"The devil!" said I, turning suddenly round in my saddle, as if I had
expected him to jump up behind me; "but come, don't let us alarm the
party."
Mr Hudson here said he thought the water of the bay trembled, and that
the stars twinkled in it, but before I perceived any thing it was again
calm as glass. Presently several fish leaped out, as if startled,
shattering the surface into circling and sparkling ripples; others
skimmed on the top with an arrowy rush, their heads above water, and
several owls broke from the shelter of the bushes opposite with a
hoarse screech, rustling among the leaves, and after a struggling and
noisy flutter at the start, flitted across to us; ruffling the
glass-like bay with the breezy winnowing of their wings.
"What can all this mean?" said Listado. "Did you perceive any thing,
Brail?"
He was standing beside his mule as he spoke, but none of the rest of us
had dismounted.
"No; did you?"
"I thought there was a slight shock of an earthquake just now; but you
might not have felt it from being mounted. There, listen!"
A rushing, as of a mighty wind, the same kind of mysterious sound that
we had heard from the wood in the morning, now breezed up in the
distance once more; mingled with which, a report like a distant cannon
shot was every now and then heard.
It was evident that some tremendous manifestation of the power of the
Invisible was at hand; but none of us moved. Some unaccountable
fascination held us riveted to the spot. We were all spell-bound.
What, indeed, was the use of flight? Where could we have hid ourselves
from Him, to whom the darkness is as the noonday, and whose power
pervades all space? The water in the bay now began to ebb suddenly,
until it retired about twenty paces, leaving a broad white sandy beach
where before there had been but a narrow stripe of pebbles. In another
moment it again rushed in with a loud _shaling_ noise--I coin the word
for the sound--in _bores_ nearly ten feet high, and thundered against
the rocks, with a violence as if it had been the swell of the
everlasting deep, hove by a storm against their iron ribs; and flashing
up in white smoke all round us and over us. The very next moment, a
huge mass of the grey cliff above was disruptured, and thundering with
increasing bounds, pitched right over our heads (distinctly visible
between us and the sky), a pistol-shot into the sea, where it dashed
its shadow in the water into fragments, as it fell with a flash like
fire; rotten branches and sand showered down in all directions; the dew
was shaken like a fall of diamonds from the trees, the schooner's crew
shouted, birds and beasts screamed and bellowed, and the mules we rode
started and reared as the earth quaked beneath their feet, and yelled
forth the most unearthly sounds that ever issued from the throat of
quadruped. The shallop at the wharf was hove bodily forward on the
crest of a tremendous sea, like a moving mountain, and then dashed on
the shore; the schooner first dragged her anchors by the sudden and
tumultuous ebb, and then drove with inconceivable violence against the
wharf, where I thought she would have been stranded; but the retiring
surge again floated her back, and the next minute she was fast drifting
out of the bay. She had parted both cables.
We hastened home, where we found every thing in great confusion. The
house was filled with dust, the walls and roof cracked in many places,
and the wooden frames of the windows in two instances forced from their
embrasures by the sinking of the walls. The field negroes were
crowding round in great dismay, and the house servants were no less so;
but, amidst all this hubbub--lo!--the beautiful fountain was once more
bubbling, and hissing, and splashing in its rocky basin, and amongst
the leaves, as cheerily as if it had never intermitted at all.
"The old one has slaked his thirst. You see we have got back our
purling stream again, Mr Hudson," said Listado.
The ladies immediately retired, their nerves having been desperately
shaken; and I for one was right glad to follow their example. Before
we males retired, however, we had a long discussion, as to the
possibility or impossibility of the suspicious chap we had seen at the
bay being Adderfang; who at the moment ought to have been in prison at
Havanna. De Walden continued thoroughly persuaded of his identity;
but, at the same time, could not conceal his lingering kindness for
him. So we finally determined to let the villain alone, if it really,
against all probability, were he, so far as we were concerned.
On the following forenoon, we once more took the road to Havanna. On
starting, it came to be my lot, purely by accident, of course, to
assist Miss Hudson to mount her mule, and in the action it was equally
natural to squeeze her hand a little. I _thought_ the squeeze was
returned; and "hilloa!" said I to myself again.
The evening following our return Mrs Hudson gave a small party; and,
recollecting the transaction of the former day, as I took my partner's
hand in the dance, for by another accident Miss Hudson was the lady, I
thought I would see whether I was mistaken or not; so I tried the
telegraph again, and gave her fair hand a gentle but _significant_
pressure this time. By heaven! it was now returned beyond all
doubt,--and I started, and blushed, and fidgeted, as if the whole room
had seen the squeeze, while a thrill of pleasure--no, not pleasure;
of--of--phoo, what does it signify; but it was something very funny and
delightful at any rate. I looked at the fair little woman, and, as if
to make assurance doubly sure, I saw the eloquent blood mantling in her
cheek, and tinging her lovely neck like the early dawn in June.
"Oh Lord! I am a done man; quite finished for ever and aye."
"Why, Brail, what the deuce are you after?" shouted Listado, as he
thundered against me in a furious _poussette_. "You are in every
body's way, and your own too; mind, man, mind."
With that he again floundered past me with his partner, a bouncing
girl, the daughter of an American merchant of the place, contriving in
their complex twirlifications not only to tread heavily on my toes with
his own hoofs, but to hop his partner repeatedly over the same
unfortunate members.
Nothing worth recording happened after this event for three weeks; or,
rather, I thought nothing unconnected with it of any the smallest
importance, until Mr Hudson one morning at breakfast asked Listado, who
had just entered, and who was a very frequent visitor, if he had ever
heard any thing more of Adderfang?
"Yes; De Walden and I have just heard very surprising things of him.
Tell it, De Walden; I have had such a long walk this morning that I am
very sharp set. Coffee, if you please; Brail, some of that
fowl.--So--Now, De Walden, about Adderfang--you have nearly
breakfasted, you know."
"Come, De Walden," said I; "let us hear the story, since we can get
nothing out of Listado there."
"Out of me, Brail? you are mighty unreasonable; how the devil can you
get any thing out of an empty vessel, which I am at this
blessed"--nuzzle--nuzzle--nuzzle. Here, in his zeal to stow his cargo,
he became quite unintelligible, and I again asked the midshipman to
enlighten us.
"Why, sir," said he, "I know nothing regarding it, saving what Monsieur
Listado _told_ me."
"Well, tell what I told you, then; that's a good fellow"--mumble,
mumble, munch, munch, quoth our amigo.
"Brail, some of that ham;--go on, De Walden, will ye--devil take the
fellow;--bread, if you please, Monsieur Duquesné--thank you. How
deucedly hungry I am, to be sure;--that claret, Brail--and the _monkey_
of cool water--thank you--work along, Henry."
The handsome boy laughed. "Really, Mr Brail, I don't know that any
thing I have heard can interest you--Monsieur Listado there has been
frequently at the prison confabulating with the hangman."
"Bah, you be hanged yourself, Henry," shouted our uproarious friend,
with his mouth full of bread and butter.
"Well, he is the jailer at the genteelest, then--and he, it seems, told
him first of all that Adderfang had been unexpectedly better--then,
that he grew worse--then better again, until yesterday, when he told
our accomplished friend"----
"Henry, do you value your life, you villain?" said Listado, threatening
him with his knife in one hand, and the bread in another, as if he
would have cast it at his head, but still munching away.
"To be sure I do, Listado, so let me get on. As I was saying, when he
called yesterday--lo! the prison had been broken into some weeks ago,
and the villain stolen--that's all."
"All!" echoed I; "so you were really right as to the man we saw being
Adderfang."
"I never had a doubt of it in my own mind," said the midshipman.
"Why," I continued, "there must have been connivance."
M. Duquesné smiled. "Ah, Monsieur Brail, de road--way you call, of dis
country, and de habitants, you not know--I make no vonder not large at
all--it has happen very customary."
"And so it has," said Mr Hudson; "the truth is, Mr Brail, that here in
Havanna few people are inimical to the trade Adderfang was engaged in;
on the contrary, it is all but openly encouraged; nor have they any
great horror even to a piratical cruise now and then, _if_ successful;
and where could they get such a determined fellow for a leader as this
same Adderfang, who, I learn, was bred a sailor in early life, although
for some years after his father's death he remained at home and studied
for the bar? at least so said your man Lennox."
"What a splendid specimen of the powers of the garrote we have lost!"
quoth Monsieur Listado, still busied in making a most substantial
meal;--"a small cup of that excellent coffee, Miss Helen--bless your
lovely fingers--But, my dear boy, flown the villain is," continued the
Irishman, addressing me, "however it came about; and before long he
will be on the high seas once more, I make no manner of doubt; whether
as slaver or pirate, heaven knows. Of course, your friends the Midges,
Master Brail, will rejoice at this, as I would at the escape of a
snared fox, which might afford sport another day; but, for one, I
should be deucedly loath to fall into his hands, that's all."
"And I agree with you for once, Listado, for no joy in the world have
I, that a scoundrel, who obliged me with six inches of steel under my
ribs, should escape."
"Pray, Miss Sophie," said he, without noticing the interruption, "have
you ever seen him, this Adderfang? Fine man--square shoulders--small
waist--a piece of that yam, Mrs Hudson--thank you--but a regular Don
Juan--a devil among the ladies--and--oh, Lord, I declare a bone has
stuck in my throat."
On that day week, the frigate arrived. I was very curious to see how
the commodore would meet De Walden; but it seems the latter had written
him to Jamaica, and there was no scene, although I could perceive the
kind old man's eye sparkle, and a tear of joy trickle down his furrowed
cheek, whenever he could steal what he thought an unobserved glance at
him. However, it was not my province to pry into his secret, if secret
there was.
The commodore now determined to sell the Midge all standing, and to
draft her crew to Gazelle once more--and it was accordingly done.
As old Dogvane came over the side, after having given up charge of her
to the Spanish sailors that came to take possession, he grumbled
out--"That same wicked little Midge an't done with her buzzing or
stinging either, or I mistake. She has fallen among thieves, or little
better, that's sartain, judging from the sample we have here,"--eyeing
the strangers,--"and I'll lay a pound of baccy, she will either be put
in the contraband slaving on the coast of Africay again, or to some
worse purpose, among them keys and crooked channels hereaways. I say,
my hearties," turning to the Spaniards, "what are your masters agoing
to do with this here fellucre?"
"To rone between Jamaica and dis wid goods--passengers--one trader to
be."
"One trader--no honest one, I'll venture--but all's one to old Dogvane."
Next morning, De Walden came to my room as I was dressing, with a
packet from Jamaica, that had been sent to Batabano, and thence across
the island to Havanna. I opened it, and had to read it twice over
before I could comprehend the contents, or ascertain what the writer
wanted to be at.
To understand this letter sufficiently, be it known that the author
thereof was suffering at the time from gout in his hand, and in
consequence had to employ a brown clerk as an amanuensis--a simple
creature, as I afterwards found, when I came to know him, whose only
qualification for his post was the writing, like all his cast, a most
beautiful hand; but, unfortunately, in his blind zeal, he had given a
little more than had been intended to stand as the text by the party
whose signature was appended to it; in fact, he had written down,
_verbatim et literatim, all_ that his master _had said_ while dictating
the letter; and the effect of the patchwork was infinitely ridiculous.
The reason why the superfluous dialogue in it had not been expunged was
the want of time, and loss of the spectacles, as stated.
"_Ballywindle Estate, Jamaica,_
"_Such a date._
"MY DEAR NEPHEW,--I had letters from England, although none from
you--you boy of slender manners. Knowing how much I made of you when
you were a little potato button, I expected other things;--but to the
letters--they told me--the devil fly away with this infernal gout, that
makes me employ a brown chap, who, they say, is somewhat like me about
the snout, as an amanuensis--mind you spell that word now--and
fortunately for you I do so employ him, as he writes as beautiful a
fist as one would like to see in a long winter's morning when the fog
is thick--but, as I was saying, I had letters telling me that you had
gone out with your kit packed in a ready-made coffin, to the coast of
Africa, with my excellent old friend Sir Oliver Oakplank; who, as a
recompense for a life spent in the service, had been sent to die in the
bight of Benin--that's a parenthesis, mind--to gather negroes from
others who stole them--and that, according to practice, the Gazelle,
that is the name of the commodore's ship, although it is probable you
already know as much, having been by this time three months on board of
her from all accounts--put that in a parenthesis also--was to make the
round voyage by Jamaica to Havanna, and home. Judge, then, my great
surprise when, after trudging to Kingston, I found that you were not
there in the old frigate at all, but had chosen to go to Havanna in the
tender; and what was worse, I was at the same time told by your uncle's
correspondents, my excellent friends Peaweep, Snipe, and Flamingo (what
a broth of a boy that same young Flamingo is!) that you were to be
taken into the Liverpool House, and to return direct from Havanna,
without visiting me at all, at all.
"Now, if that old villain, Peter Brail, your excellent uncle, and all
the rest of it, has had the heart to do this, may the devil burn me if
he shall ever get another tierce of coffee from Lathom Frenche. He has
plenty of young friends to bring on, while I have none but you, Benjie;
so he _must_ give you up, or I shall murder him. But stop till I tell
my story properly.
"So, you see, after I heard of this change I was in such a taking,
that, to drown my disappointment, I had a wet week with Sir Oliver and
some Kingston friends; for it was the rainy season, you must know, and
devils are those same Kingstonians, in the way of gentleman-like
libations of tepid Madeira and cold claret, whereby I got another touch
of my old remembrancer the gout, under which I am at this blessed
moment suffering severely--I say, boy, bring me a rummer of Madeira
sangaree, and a hot yam with the brown, crisp and well scraped, do you
hear--well I declare the skin of it is as beautiful as a berry, and the
mealy inside as fragrant as the dryest potato from Ballywindle in old
Ireland--so here's the 'glorious and immortal memory,' and confound the
Pope; but never mind, although, you may just confound the gout too,
when you are at it.--But, as I was saying, I came home with the gout
brewing all the way, and got so wet one day, that I dreaded lest, it
should be driven into that fortress, or rather that citadel, the
stomach--there's a poetical image for you--so I took a warming, that
is, I made another comfortable week of it on my return home, just to
keep up the circulation, and to drive the enemy--don't be surprised at
the militariness of my lingo, for I am colonel of the regiment of foot
militia here--another parenthesis, Timothy--from, the interior, and
compel him to develope his strength in the outworks, or rather to
retreat to them, which he, the gout, viz. has done with a vengeance,
let me tell you; having clapperclawed what you would call my larboard
peg, and my starboard fin, zig-zagging in his approaches, as regularly
as Vauban or Cohorn--fair play, you know--a sound limb on each side,
which is a mercy of its kind; so I hop from table to bed, and _vice
versa_, and balance myself the whole way like a rope-dancer; for I hate
a crutch--what are you stopping for, Timothy--oh, I see, to mend your
pen--sangaree, Tim--bless me, how thirsty I am, to be sure!--I hate a
crutch, and my servants, curiously enough, for we don't often agree,
are unanimous with me in that same, as somehow I break one a-day, when
I am driven to it, over their woolly skulls: and that costs money--if
you could pick up a cheap lot of lancewood spars, now, in Havanna, that
would stand a blow--you might fetch me a hundred or so--it is tough,
and bends, and doesn't break like mahogany or cedar.
"During my confinement, old Jacob Munroe, the storekeeper at Montego
bay, called to see me, and get his account settled. He brought a
handsome clergyman-looking man with him, dressed in black--ah, you may
leave that out--he will guess as much, if I tell him he was a
clerical-looking person--whom he introduced to me as _Mister_ Lennox,
and who had arrived in one of the Cuba smugglers some days before.
Judge my surprise when this young gentleman told me, with all the
appearance of truth, that he had been a corporal of marines on board
the Gazelle, although old Jacob called him at first an _officer_ of
marines, forgetting to say whether _commissioned_ or not, and had
actually been with you in the Midge--how could you trust yourself in
such a mussel-shell?--until he had, through the interest of his friends
at home, obtained his discharge.
"He told me the whole story of your being wounded, and taken into a
Frenchman's house, and being desperately in love with some young
American lady--but you know, Benjie, I don't like Americans--a Yankee
girl, forsooth!--put the Yankee girl in a parenthesis--and a variety of
other entertaining anecdotes, which made my heart yearn towards the
only son of my dear sister Jane, although you have had the misfortune
to have a Scotchman to your father--but, poor boy, he can't help that;
so, Timothy, out with all about the Scotchman--he was born in Ireland,
anyhow--for I am getting old now, Benjamin; and although rich enough, I
begin to feel desolate and lonely, being without chick or child to
comfort me, excepting some yellowhammers--no, not you, Timothy--so
write away, my good lad--that claim a sort of left-handed interest in
me here. But I have been kind to them, and no doubt must answer for
the sins of my youth; but they are not just the sort of representatives
one would wish to leave behind them; although, indeed, if this blessed
state of things goes on at the pace it is doing at home, we may see a
woolly-headed Lord Chancellor shortly--I hope he will have a civil
tongue in his head--and a flat-nosed dingy-skinned Speaker of the
honourable House.
"However, so far as I see, that will be a while yet; and, in the mean
time, I want you to give up old Peter, if you can do so honourably, and
pin your faith on me. But as I am a reasonable man, and may not like
you after all, when I do see you, I think it but fair to send you the
enclosed notarial copy of a bond in your favour for L.10,000 sterling
as a sort of compensation for the measure I recommend, _if you take
it_; but which expresses in the body of it, as you see, that it is only
to become onerous on me, when you arrive in my house here, after having
made your election, as aforesaid. Now, Benjie, dear, if you are
conscious that you are a gentlemanlike, pleasant, honourable young
fellow, who can ride a bit, and shoot, and drink a bottle of claret now
and then--alas! there are no foxhounds here--foxhounds in a parenthesis
again, Tim--come to me and change your ploughshare into a
pruning-hook--no, that's not it--your ploughshare into a billhook--no,
and that's not it neither--your bill-hook into a pruning-hook--bah!
botheration!--if you are all that I ask you, and what my nephew _ought
to be_ by descent, and be d----d to him--if, in one word, _you are a
gentleman_--come to me, man--come and comfort the poor, desolate, old
fellow, who is pining in his helpless days for the want of something to
love; and who, since he made up his mind to write for you, is every
moment grappling you to his Irish heart, in joyous anticipation, with
hooks of steel. Write me immediately, and follow yourself as soon as
you can--or you may follow yourself first, if equally convenient, and
let your letter come after--and enclosed you have also a draft on Mr
M---- for 1000 dollars as earnest, and to clear you at Havanna.
"Regards to Sir Oliver, who will by this time--no, write that
time--_that_ is, by the time when he will get this--be with you, and to
young Donovan--a prime boy that same Donovan would make, with a little
training, as ever carried a shamrock in his hat-band, or a shillelah in
his fist--and old Sprawl, I love the rum-looking, warm-hearted
creature, because he likes you--what shall I ever dislike that you
love, Benjie?--so, believe me, your attached uncle,
"LATHOM FRENCHE.
"P.S.--The post is just going off to Montego bay, so I have no time to
have this corrected; nor, indeed, could I read it over if I had, as I
have mislaid my spectacles--so excuse blunders."
Here was a new vista opening up with a vengeance--so, after having read
over the letter repeatedly, I determined to submit it at once to Mr
Hudson, whom I knew to be a clear-headed man, notwithstanding his
guessings and calculations, and friendly withal. He thought the advice
given sound.
"And as a proof of it," said he, "if my son were in your position, and
had such an offer made to him, I would not hesitate a moment in
recommending him to accept it. Indeed, you are in a great measure in
duty bound to obey a kinsman, who, by your own account, has been so
kind to you; and who can be of such essential service to you,
especially when he counsels you so reasonably."
I will not conceal that many a fond hope fluttered about my heart, as I
reflected what this new state of things might bring about; and that
very morning I struck while the iron was hot, and, like a very wise
person, took Miss Helen Hudson, of all people on earth, to my councils,
and asked _her_ advice, forsooth.
"Helen, what would _you advise_ me to do?"
"Benjamin, I cannot _advise_--I am a simple girl--but whatever you may
do, or wherever you may be--heaven knows"--her voice faltered--"heaven
knows your happiness will always be," &c. &c. &c. So she burst into
tears, and I caught her in my arms, and--oh Lord, what a devil of a
bother this same love is!
"Now, Helen," said I, "let us compose ourselves--I am as yet in a
manner unknown to you; but to convince you that I am an honourable man,
all that I ask is, that you shall hold this engagement sacred, until I
can communicate with my uncle. If I find my prospects as satisfactory
as I expect, I will immediately return, and throw myself at your feet;
if I do not, I do not say that I will not still prefer my suit; _but
you shall not be bound by your promise_. So my Helen, now."
"Yes," said the darling girl, as she rose, smiling through her tears
like--oh, all ye gods, for a simile! but never mind--from the sofa
where we had been sitting--"yes; _your_ Helen now, Benjamin."
"Heyday," quoth Mrs Hudson, as she entered the room; "here's a scene.
Why, Helen, you have been weeping, I see--and Mr Brail!--Now what is
wrong? Tell me, dearest?"
"Oh, not now, mother--not now. Come with me--come, and I will tell you
all."
And as they passed towards the door, who should stumble in upon us but
Monsieur Listado.
"Good-morning, Mrs Hudson--good-morning. Halloo--and is it off they
are, without so much as a bow, or--Brail, what is the meaning of all
this?--Miss Hudson is weeping, as I am a gentleman. You cannot have
been uncivil to her--it is impossible. But, Benjamin Brail, much as I
esteem you, if I thought"----
"Out of my way, you troublesome blockhead," said I, in the hurry and
confusion of the moment; and I brushed past him and fled to my own
room, with the most comical mixture of feelings possible. It was full
half an hour before I could control them, and recover my composure; and
I had just begun to subside into my everyday character, when I received
a message from Mr Hudson, to whom his wife had communicated all that
had passed between his daughter and me. I never can forget the anxiety
I felt to construe the expression of his face, when I first entered the
room. It was favourable, heaven be thanked.
"Mr Brail, I know what has passed between you and Helen,"--oh Lord,
thought I--"I would have been better pleased, had you explained
yourself either to Mrs Hudson or me, before matters had gone so far;
but this cannot be helped now."--He paused a good while. "From what I
know of you, Mr Brail, I have more confidence in you, I rejoice to say,
than I ever had before in any young man I have known for so short a
period." I bowed. "And your very prudent proposals to my daughter
argue you possessed of sound discretion." Beyond my hopes, thought I.
"So I calculate you had better let me see that same letter of your
uncle's again that I read before; and we will also take a look at the
bond."
Here shone out the Yankee; but he was using no more than common
circumspection, in a matter involving his daughter's happiness so
largely. Both were submitted to him, and on the morrow we were to hold
a grand palaver on the subject. He had left me, and I had just dressed
for dinner, when a gentle tap was heard, and an officer of the American
frigate presented himself with a grave face at the door.
"Beg pardon, Mr Brail; I am sorry our friend Listado should have
pressed me into the service in this matter; but I pray you to believe
that I shall be most happy, if I can be instrumental in making up the
quarrel, without resorting to extreme measures."
"Here's a coil," thought I. "Mr Listado! a quarrel! I have no quarrel
with Mr Listado that I am aware of."
"My dear sir, I am afraid he thinks otherwise. Here is his letter,"
said the American, handing it to me.
"Let me see," I opened it.
"SIR--I am as little given to take unnecessary offence as any man; but
as I have good reason to believe, from what I saw, that you have
affronted Miss Hudson; and as I am _quite_ certain you have slighted
me, I request you will either apologize to her and myself"--(her and
myself, indeed, interjected I)--"or give me a meeting to-morrow
morning, at any hour most convenient for you, that does not interfere
with breakfast.--I remain, your humble servant,
"LAURENCE LISTADO."
"Now, Mr Crawford," said I, "this is a mighty ridiculous affair
altogether. I am not aware, as I said before, of having given Listado
any offence; and what he can mean by attempting to fasten this very
unnecessary quarrel on me, I cannot for the life of me divine."
"So far as his own injuries are concerned," said Crawford, "I am
authorized to say, that he perceived you were confused at the time, and
did not well know, apparently, what you were about; so he makes no
account of your conduct to himself; but the affront to Miss Hudson "--
Here William Hudson entered with a knowing face; and on being informed
what had happened, he burst into a long fit of laughter. Crawford
looked aghast, and was beginning to get angry, just as Hudson found his
tongue.
"Now, Crawford, back out of this absurd affair altogether; why, surely
_I_ am the man to take up my sister's quarrel, if quarrel there must
be."
"I'll be d----d if you or any man shall take up her quarrel, now since
I have made it mine," quoth Listado, swinging suddenly into the room.
"What brings _you_ here, in the name of all that is absurd?" said
Hudson.
"Why, William, I was thinking that the loud laughing possibly portended
some fresh insult; at any rate, from the time Crawford was taking to
fix matters, I began to fear that the quarrel might miss fire after
all."
"Be quiet now, Listado," said Hudson, still scarcely able to speak;
"who ever saw a matter of this kind managed by the principals. I am
Brail's second; leave me to deal with Crawford."
"Well, Brail," quoth Listado, addressing _me direct_, to my great
surprise, "let you and I sit down here, until our friends there fix
when and where we may shoot each other comfortably;" and he hauled me
away by the button-hole as familiarly as ever.
The two lieutenants walked to the other end of the room, where
Crawford's face soon became "as joyous as Hudson's had been; and both
of them had to turn their backs on us, and apply their handkerchiefs to
their mouths to conceal their laughter. At length they mustered
sufficient command of feature to turn towards us, and approach; but
every now and then there was a sudden involuntary jerk of Hudson's
shoulders, and a lifting of his eyebrows, and a compression of his
lips, that showed how difficult it was for him to refrain from a
regular explosion.
"If I understand you rightly," began Crawford, slowly and sedately
addressing his principal, "you do not press for an apology on account
of any slight to yourself in this matter, whether intentional or not on
the part of Mr Brail?"
"Certainly not--by no manner of means--I have a great regard for him,
and I am convinced he intended none. I perceived he had been pushed
off his balance, some how or other, and I can allow for it."
"Spoken like a reasonable being, and a right good fellow. Then, as I
take it," continued the American lieutenant, "the whole quarrel depends
on this: Mr Brail has, _according to your belief, affronted Miss
Hudson_; he must therefore either apologize for what he said or did to
her, or turn out with you?"
"Do you know, Crawford," said our friend, rubbing his hands, "you are a
devilish clever fellow; you have hit it to a nicety, upon my honour."
"Well, now," quoth Crawford, turning to me, "will you, Mr Brail, to
save further bother, make this apology to Mr Listado?"
"No," said I, deliberately, and with a strong emphasis.
"That's right, Benjie," quoth Listado, fidgetting with delight, as if
the certainty of the quarrel was now put beyond all doubt. "Didn't I
tell you that he would make no apology? Now, mind you, don't interfere
with the breakfast hour to-morrow, Crawford, as I am invited to come
here."
Hudson could stand it no longer.--"I'll tell you what, my dear Listado,
I have my sister's, Miss Helen Hudson's, commands, that nothing more be
done in this matter; and farther, that so far from Mr Brail having
affronted her, he really paid her the most profound compliment that a
gentleman can pay to a lady."
"As how, so please you?" quoth Listado, with a most vinegar grin,
although deucedly puzzled at the same time; "a lady don't weep at a
compliment usually."
"In plain English, then, Laurence, Mr Brail had just, as you entered,
asked my sister to--_to marry him_."
Listado's face altered--his jaw fell--"_Marry him_! I thought so; why,
this is worse and worse. Now, I will pink him, by Jupiter! Marry
_him_, indeed! While Laurence Listado lives she shall be _compelled_
to do no such thing. I am a man of some fortune, and, as you all know,
I am desperately in love with her myself; so fix time and place, and
damn the hour of breakfast now entirely. I will shoot him--any
time--now--across that table. Oh Brail! you incomparable hyp"----
"Hush! hush!" said Hudson, clapping his hand on Listado's mouth; "hush!
he has not only had the insolence to ask her to marry him--[here
Listado clenched his hand, bit his lip, and gave three or four
tremendous strides to the other end of the room]--not only has he asked
her to marry him, but--_but he has been accepted_!"
Poor Laurence faced right round. "Say so again, and----Poo, Hudson,
you are jesting with me; but here comes Mrs Hudson. Madam, has Mr
Brail had the audacity to ask your daughter in marriage? And has she
had the egregious folly to accept him in preference to your servant,
and her humble admirer, Laurence Listado?"
Mrs Hudson looked at me, and then at her son, and then at me again--as
much as to say--"very indelicate conduct this, on _your part_, at any
rate"--at length, "Mr Brail, I am thunderstruck--how came my daughter
to have been made the subject of a brawl?--was this"----
"My dear mother," chimed in her son--"it is all a mistake--Brail is not
to blame, and no more is Listado--say, has Helen Hudson accepted Brail,
or has she not?"
"She certainly has accepted him--_on conditions_."
Listado's eyes, during this colloquy, were riveted on Mrs Hudson's
face. When she uttered these words, he slowly turned them on me, and
while the tears hopped over his cheek, he advanced, and took my hand.
"Brail, I wish you joy--from my soul, I do--even although I--curse it,
never mind--but, man, could you not take Sophie Duquesné?--yet--even at
the eleventh hour, Benjamin?--it would mightily oblige me, do you know."
I smiled.
"Well, well, I have been a fool; and I have ill-used you, Brail, but I
am sorry for it--so, God bless you, my dear boy--you are a fortunate
fellow"--and thereupon, he ran out of the room, without saying good-by
to any one.
Next morning, I had a visit from him, before I got out of my bed. He
came into my room with a most ludicrous, serio-comic expression of
countenance, and drawing a long sigh, sat down on a chair by my bedside
without uttering a word.
As I had not forgotten his strange conduct the day before, I thought I
would let him have his own way, and leave him to break ground first.
He sat still about a minute longer, and then clasping his hands
together, with his Barcelona most pathetically sticking out between his
fingers--he turned round, and looked at me with his great prominent
goggle eyes.
"Do I look as if I had been weeping, Benjamin--are my eyes bloodshot?"
"They are certainly inflamed," said I, rather shortly.
"Ah," said he, in a small, dolorous whine--"I knew it, Benjie--my heart
is as soft this morning as a waxy potato. I was a great big fool last
evening, Brail, and I don't think I am much wiser to-day, and all for a
little, hook-nosed, dumpy woman. Do you know, I took the affair so
deeply to heart, that I went home, and drank three bottles of claret
_solus_, and afterwards topped off with hot brandy grog?"--(a very
sufficing reason for your bloodshot eyes, thought I),--"and I believe I
will go hang myself."
"Poo, poo--hang cats and blind puppies, man," said I. "Come, come,
now, Listado--you are not here to renew our quarrel, or rather _your_
quarrel, for I declare I have none with you--but why bring Miss Hudson
on the carpet again? She did not deceive you, Listado--you know she
never gave you any encouragement."
"_She did not deceive me_, certainly; but did she not persave that I
admired her; _so why did she allow me to deceive myself_?"
I laughed outright--"Come, man, you are expecting too much at the hands
of a young lady, who of course is accustomed to admiration. She was
not aware you entertained any very tender regard for her; why, it was
only three days ago at breakfast that you broke off in the middle of a
beautiful compliment to her eyebrow--the worst feature in her face, by
the way--to ask for a plate of broiled ham and eggs. You may rest
assured, my dear Listado, that Miss Hudson never dreamed you were in
love with her--and, in sober earnest, are you so, now?--come, out with
it."
He looked at me, with the strangest twinkle of his eye, then slewing
his head from side to side, he twitched up one corner of his mouth, as
he said--"Will you, or will you not, take Sophie Duquesné,
Brail?--Lord, man, she is the finer woman of the two, and surely you
have known neither of the girls long enough to have any peculiar
preference."
The idea of my _swopping_ my betrothed wife, as one would do a horse,
merely, forsooth, to oblige him, was exceedingly entertaining.
"Really, Listado, you are a most curious animal--I have told you
No--and I reiterate, No."
"Well then, Brail, may the devil fly away with you and your dearie
both, for, since you must know, I was not in love after all--I am sure
I was not, although I confess being at one time very near it--so all
happiness to you, my darling. Do you know, Benjie, that I have been
quizzing you all this while?"
I did not know it, nor did I believe it, but, by way of letting him
down gently, I said nothing; and that very day, I took an affectionate
leave of my excellent old friend Sir Oliver, who was that day to drop
down under the Moro, preparatory to sailing; of my worthy cousin Dick
Lanyard, Mr Sprawl, and the other Gazelles and Midges, who had been
kind to me; and next morning I secured my passage in a Kingston trader,
that was to sail for Jamaica that day week.