As the sun declined toward the west, the light breeze which had
prevailed throughout the day became still lighter, dwindling away to
such an extent that when, about two bells in the first watch (nine
o'clock p.m.), we returned to the deck after partaking of our first sea
dinner, the water was like glass for the smoothness of it, while our
canvas drooped limp and apparently useless from the yards and stays; a
faint rustle aloft now and again, with an accompanying rippling patter
of reef-points, betraying rather some subtle heave of the glassy sea
than any sign that the breeze still lingered. Yet there must have been
a light draught of air aloft, for the vane at our main-royal-masthead
occasionally fluttered languidly out along the course we were steering,
and our royals exhibited an occasional tendency to fill, albeit they as
often collapsed again softly rustling to the masts. Moreover, the
barque still retained her steerage-way. I remarked upon this to the
mate, who had charge of the deck. He laughed.
"Ay," said he, "that is one of the _Esmeralda's_ little tricks. I've
seen her, before now, sneak up to and right through a large fleet of
ships, every one of which, excepting ourselves, was boxing the compass.
When this little barkie refuses to steer, you may take your Davy to it,
sir, that there ain't enough wind to be of any use to anybody."
It was a glorious evening. We were off Deal, slowly drifting past the
town on the ebb tide; our progress made apparent only by the quiet,
stealthy way in which the masts of the vessels lying at anchor in the
roadstead successively approached, covered, and receded from some
prominent object on shore, such as a church spire, a lofty building, a
tall chimney, and what not. The sun had sunk behind the land, leaving
behind him a clear sky of softest primrose tint, against which the
outline of the land cut sharply, the town being steeped in rich dusky
shadow, out of which the lights were beginning to twinkle here and
there. We were close enough in to catch an occasional faint, indefinite
sound from the shore, accentuated at intervals by the sharp, clear note
of a railway whistle, or the low, intermittent thunder of a moving
train; while, nearer at hand, came the occasional splash of oars in the
still water, or their thud in the rowlocks; the strains of a concertina
played on the forecastle-head of one of the craft lying at anchor; a
gruff hail; a laugh; or the hoarse rattle of chain through a hawse-pipe
as one of the drifting vessels came to an anchor. Our own lads were
very quiet, the watch below having turned in, while those on deck, with
the exception of the lookout, had arranged themselves in a group about
the windlass, and were conversing in suppressed tones well befitting the
exceeding quiet of the night. Lady Desmond, well wrapped up in a
fur-lined cloak, occupied a large wicker reclining chair placed close to
the after skylight, where it was well out of everybody's way, and was
languidly listening to the conversation which was passing between her
sister and my mother, in which she occasionally joined for a moment;
while Sir Edgar was down below, chatting and laughing with the two
children during their preparation by the nurse for bed. The two maids
were also below, busy in their mistress's cabin.
The ship having been all day--as she still was--in charge of the pilot,
I had had leisure to make the first advances toward an acquaintance with
my passengers; and, from what I had thus far seen of them, I had every
reason to hope that the association would be a particularly pleasant
one.
Sir Edgar was a fine, handsome man, of about thirty-five years of age,
standing some five feet nine or ten inches in his stockings, well made,
with dark brown hair that covered his head in short wavy curls. He had
dark blue eyes, with which he looked one frankly and pleasantly in the
face; and his manner, while it possessed all the polish of the perfect
gentleman, was particularly frank and genial.
Lady Desmond appeared to be some eight or nine years younger than her
husband, and was unquestionably an exceedingly handsome woman. She was
perhaps three inches less in height than her husband, but, when standing
apart from him, gave one the impression of being the taller of the two,
probably because she happened to be very thin and fragile-looking when
she first joined the _Esmeralda_. She had evidently only just emerged
from a very severe illness, for all her movements were marked by the
slowness and languor of one who is still an invalid. She had not a
vestige of colour, and her hands, when I saw them ungloved at the dinner
table, were attenuated to a degree that was painful to contemplate; but
her eyes were magnificent, and her voice, albeit it was weak and low
like that of an invalid, was very sweet and sympathetic in tone. I had
not been enlightened as to the nature of her illness; but its most
marked symptom appeared to be a profound melancholy and depression of
spirits which it seemed utterly impossible for her to shake off.
Her sister, Miss Merrivale, was her exact counterpart, except that the
latter was the junior by some three or four years, and was, both in form
and complexion, the very picture of exuberant health and spirits. She
possessed a singularly agreeable and engaging, though high-bred manner;
and the patient tenderness with which she studied her invalid sister's
whims quickly won my warmest admiration.
Of the two children, the elder was a fine sturdy boy, about seven years
old, named after his father; while the other was a sweet little tot of a
girl, about five years old, with the prettiest, most lovable, and
confiding ways I had ever beheld in a child. They were both very merry,
light-hearted, buoyant-spirited children, but exceedingly well-behaved,
very tender and affectionate toward each other; and perfect patterns of
obedience while they remembered the parental injunctions laid upon them
from time to time; but it must be admitted that their memories in this
respect were, like those of most children, a little apt to be
short-lived.
And, as to the two maids and the nurse, they impressed me as being very
quiet, respectable well-behaved representatives of their class, and not
at all likely to give me trouble by encouraging any attempts at
flirtation on the part of the men. So that altogether I thought I had
every reason to congratulate myself upon my first experience in the
command of a passenger-ship.
Then, as to the ship herself. Though it was early yet to form a
distinct and definite opinion of her, having had only a few hours'
experience of her under sail, and that, too, in a light breeze and
smooth water, still her behaviour under those circumstances had been
such as led me to feel assured, from past experience, that she was
everything a seaman's heart could wish. That she was certain to prove
extraordinarily fast I was convinced, even before we had spread a single
cloth of canvas, by the ease with which the tug had walked away down the
river with her. And after the tug had let go our hawser and left us to
our own devices, we had overhauled and passed everything in our company
with an ease and rapidity that proved her to be a perfect witch in light
breezes; while now, when the rest of the fleet were either drifting
helplessly with the tide and heading to all points of the compass, or
anchoring to avoid falling foul of something else, we were sneaking
along at a good two knots through the water, with the ship under perfect
command of her helm.
At length the sounds of the children's happy voices ceased down below:
and, a few minutes later, Sir Edgar emerged from the saloon companion.
He paused for a moment to address a cheery remark or two to the little
party aft, and then joined me near the break of the poop, where I had
been standing for some time gazing abstractedly about me in a contented,
half-dreamy fashion at our surroundings. He made some conventional
remark as to the wonderful calmness and beauty of the evening, and
offered me a cigar; upon which, responding to his friendly overtures, I
turned, and we proceeded to quietly pace the deck together; the
baronet--for such he proved to be--confiding to me, in an easy, chatty
manner, the circumstances that had led to the family undertaking the
voyage.
At length, when the dusk of evening had fairly merged into the darkness
of night, and the illimitable vault above us had become spangled and
powdered with stars innumerable of every magnitude, a delicate sheen
appeared on the eastern horizon, glowing faintly and softly at first as
the tremulous shimmer of summer lightning, but brightening by
imperceptible degrees until it revealed a hitherto invisible bank of
fleecy vapour lying low along the horizon's margin, the rounded edges of
which it daintily touched here and there with glowing silver. Rapidly,
yet with the most subtle mutations, the glow increased in strength and
splendour, the colour at the same time deepening to a warm orange hue;
and presently, above the upper edge of the cloud-bank, the sharp rim of
the moon's broad disc soared into view, ruddy as a shield of burning
gold, while simultaneously a wavering line of ruddy gold flashed across
the gleaming surface of the water almost to the ship's side. Slowly and
majestically, as befits the movements of the stately queen of night, the
glowing orb rose clear of the cloud-bank, her orange beams flowing
softly into the shadows of the night and revealing here and there in
clear but delicate outline the forms and details of craft that had
before appeared but as black shapeless blots against the starlit
heavens; while the hull and canvas of our craft, that had hitherto worn
the aspect of a huge black shadow upon sky and water, now glowed faint
but clear in the warm light, with rich touches of ruddy gold here and
there where the radiance struck and was reflected from the dew-wetted
bulwarks, the glistening spars, the taut rigging, or the polished brass
and glass about the deck fittings and skylights.
The misty light now revealed to us that we were in the very heart of a
fleet numbering some two hundred and fifty sail, most of which were at
anchor, many with their canvas more or less snugly stowed; but there
were a few--perhaps a dozen in all--on board which the canvas hung in
the brails, all ready for sheeting home and hoisting away at a moment's
notice. There were also a few--obviously outward-bound, like
ourselves--who were--also like ourselves--holding on in the evident hope
that with the rising of the moon, or at all events before the turn of
the tide, a little breeze might spring up which would obviate the
necessity of letting go the mud-hook, with the attendant loss of time
and expenditure of labour in getting it again and making sail once more.
It was soon evident that this hope was to be realised, for the moon had
scarcely been above the horizon half an hour when a narrow dark line
appeared stretching along the horizon beneath her, and gradually
widening, until at length a very pretty little easterly breeze reached
us, under the influence of which, heeling slightly and coquettishly away
from it, the saucy _Esmeralda_ began to slip along, with scarcely more
than a ripple at her sharp bows, at the rate of a good honest seven
knots.
Impelled by this most welcome breeze, we were soon round the South
Foreland and off Dover, where we hove-to to land the pilot. In
executing this manoeuvre we passed close under the stern of a
magnificent topsail schooner-yacht, as large as ourselves, with hull
painted a brilliant white, which, in the pale moonlight and with her
snow-white canvas, made her look like a beautiful phantom craft. She
was getting under way, and had just tripped her anchor and was canting
to the southward when we rounded to under her stern; and I noticed Mr
Roberts, my chief mate, looking long and admiringly at her as she
gathered way and, swinging her fore-yard, glided swiftly, yet with a
stately movement, out from among the crowd of craft by which she was
surrounded. Turning away at last, as if regretfully, from the
contemplation of the noble vessel, Roberts stamped his foot impatiently,
and, striding up to the pilot, demanded--
"I say, Mr Pilot, is there any chance of those mates of yours catching
sight of our signals to-night, think ye, or are they keeping a lookout
from between the blankets?"
The pilot, whose perfect calmness and indifference were in ludicrous
contrast to the mate's impatience, turned slowly round and eyed his
questioner deliberately from top to toe before he deigned to answer.
"They will be alongside in less than a minute, mister. They are shut in
behind that billy-boy just now; but--Ah, here they come!"
"Lay aft here, one of you," shouted the mate, "and stand by with a line
for that boat."
"You will come below and take a glass of wine or a glass of grog before
you go ashore, pilot?"