unconscious silent attentions had made the impression he anticipated, it
so came to pass that, in a short time, the fair widow seemed to feel a
pleasure in my society beyond that of any other on board. A slight
degree of mutual good understanding soon ripens into intimacy on board a
ship, where circumstances throw people into such close and constant
communion; the flimsy veil of mere artificial politeness is soon seen
through, and the character of each individual shows itself in its true
colours. The more I saw of hers, the more I admired it; she was so free
from the petty vanities of the sex, and so sweet and equable in her
temper. She was the daughter of a highly respectable physician in the
west of England, whose professional income had enabled him to bestow on
all his family a liberal education, and to bring them up suitably to
their apparent prospects, and to the station he expected them to fill
in society. Her elder brother had gone out to India in a mercantile
capacity, and had returned home to recruit his health in his native
vale. During the interval of his visit, his father, who had long been in
declining health, died, and, contrary to expectation, left his children
but poorly provided for; and the brother, after having arranged the
family affairs, and placed the juniors under the guardianship of an old
and tried friend, persuaded his sister to accompany him to the East.
When they arrived at Madras, my fair friend, whom I shall call Emily,
was not long without admirers. Among others was an elderly civilian,
high in the service, of great wealth and irreproachable character. He
urged his suit with the greatest assiduity; and, notwithstanding Emily's
evident coldness, he laid his heart and fortune at her feet.
All Emily's friends were urgent with her not to reject so advantageous a
settlement. Her brother _said_ nothing on the subject; but she had
learned to read his wishes in his countenance. She thought of the almost
destitute state of her family at home, and of the opportunities which
the wealth and liberality of so excellent a man might afford her of
benefiting them; and, after a long struggle of contending feeling, she
consented to become the wife of Mr Stacey. He was for two years all he
had promised--affectionate, considerate, and attentive to her slightest
wishes. She respected and esteemed him, and, when she closed his eyes in
a foreign land, she mourned for him as a sincere and valued friend. He
had left her by his will the sole and uncontrolled command of his large
fortune; and she was now returning home to comfort the declining years
of her mother, and rejoicing in the thought that her wealth would enable
her effectually to promote the interests of the junior members of her
family.
But I must proceed to other matters. Our passage from the Cape had been
a long, but to me a most delightful, one, and we were expecting to
_make_ the Lizard next day. The captain was very anxious to have a good
_landfall_, as his best chronometer had met with an accident a few days
before, and he was rather doubtful as to its correctness. The breeze was
light and fair, and the waves were breaking short and crisp, curling
their little white crests as they rose and fell in rapid succession; but
there was a long, heavy under-swell from the southward, which gave rise
to many an ominous shake of the head among the experienced hands on
board. For my part, I dreaded no danger, and I enjoyed to the utmost the
really beautiful scene around me. There was nothing, to be sure, to be
seen but sea and sky; but it was beautiful and boundless nature--nature
in her solitude and strength. There were no crowds of human beings
jostling and hurrying past each other, as in the haunts of man and of
art; but there was the glorious sun, shining in almost unclouded
splendour--the sea, with its playful waves dancing and smiling in the
sunbeam, and teeming with life and energy. Whole shoals of flying-fish
quivered their little wings, glittering like silver in the sun, and then
dropped fluttering into the waters; while those "hunters of the sea,"
dolphins, and bonitos, and albecores, darted, leaped, and plunged in
pursuit of them--sometimes rising six or seven abreast, and making
immense flying leaps together, as if emulating each other, and putting
to shame the steeple-chasing "lords of creation." My attention was
diverted from the water by the gradual _heeling over_ of the vessel, and
the creaking noise of the blocks, as the freshening breeze gave
additional tension to the tacks and sheets; at the same time, I heard
one of the men muttering to another, as they stood by the royal
cluelines--
"This here breeze is a-freshening fast, Bill. I doesn't like to see them
beggars a-galloping round the ship like so many mad horses; and look how
the cat's a-whisking about! There's a gale of wind in her tail, I'll
take my 'davy."
"Man the royal cluelines!" shouted the officer of the watch. "Haul taut!
In royals!"
As soon as the royals were furled, the boatswain piped to dinner; the
men went below, and I hastened to my cabin. As I sat at the open port, I
could not help recalling the conversation I had overheard, and, looking
out, I observed that the clouds were rapidly rising from the southward,
and forming into dense dark masses; and I was aware, from the increasing
motion of the ship, and the long, crashing rush of the sea under the
counter, that the breeze was freshening. "The fellow is a true prophet,
after all," muttered I to myself; and, just as I spoke, the ship gave a
heavy lurch, and my bookcase, which was badly secured, _fetched way_,
and, with a heavy crash, fell on the deck. Fortunately, there was but
little mischief done to my books, and I sent for one of the carpenter's
mates to secure the case again. Scarcely had the poor fellow left my
cabin, after having finished his work, when I heard the sharp warning
_tweet tweet_ of the boatswain's call instantly echoed from three
different parts of the lower deck; then came the sound of hurrying feet,
and then a long, loud, shrill whistle, followed by a hoarse cry of "All
hands reef topsails, ahoy!" then were heard the loud, clear orders, "In
topgallantsails! Lower away the topsails!" followed by the whirring,
rattling sound of blocks, and the dull flapping of the sails, as the
yards were pointed to the wind. Poor Evans, the carpenter's mate of whom
I spoke above, was stationed on the foretopsailyard, and in his hurry to
_lay out_, his foot slipped, he lost his hold of the yard, and fell head
foremost downwards. The ship was rolling to windward at the time, so
that he fell outside the bulwark, struck the anchor in his descent, and
must have been senseless when he reached the surface of the water; for,
although he went down head-foremost, he _struck out_ mechanically, as if
endeavouring to dive, and never rose again. For an instant this sudden
and dreadful accident paralysed both officers and men; but it was only
for an instant.
"Poor fellow!" said the commanding officer, "he's gone! Come, bear a
hand, there aloft! Lay out!--lay out! Tie away!--lay down!"
Again the _tweet tweet_ was heard. "Hoist away!" was the order; and,
with a quick and steady tramp, a hundred feet kept time with the merry
notes of the fife. The sails were set, the yards trimmed, and, under her
reduced canvas, the ship bounded along with great lightness and ease.
But the face of nature was no longer smiling: the heavy masses of vapour
had risen from the southern horizon, one dense body seeming to push
another upwards, as it rose from the gulf of darkness, till the whole
surface of the heavens was covered with a veil of gloomy and
wildly-driving clouds. The waves were no longer, as Wilson says, "like
playful lambs on a mountain's side," but were rushing after each other
like wild beasts in search of prey. It was evident that the breeze was
freshening fast; but, as it was still _free_, the ship was making rapid
way through the water. I will pass over the next twenty-four hours,
during which the breeze continued strong, but steady. At about five P.M.
of the next day, a darkness like that of night hung over the horizon to
windward, which gradually rose in the centre, forming a hard, clear,
well-defined arch, which rapidly enlarged and enlarged, the centre part
becoming dim with driving rain.
"Call the hands out--reef topsails!" shouted the captain; and again all
was bustle and animation. The sound of the boatswain's cry was hardly
out of our ears, before the men were on deck, full of eagerness and
emulation, their energies seeming to rise in proportion to the demand
upon them. Our topsails were double-reefed and on the caps when the
squall struck us; we could hear it howling over the water long before it
reached us, the rain driving fiercely before it, mixed with the spray of
the waves, which was dashed abroad like mist.
"Lower the driver!--man the gear of the mainsail!"
"All ready, sir!"
"Up mainsail!"
The men who were stationed at the mainsheet unfortunately let it run
through their hands; the sail bellied up over the leeyardarm, gave one
loud, heavy flap, and, with a report like that of a cannon, split right
across, and was blown in pieces, and the tattered remnants fluttered
from the yard, as if struggling to escape, and cracking like ten
thousand whips. As soon as the blast had expended its fury, the
fragments of the mainsail were unbent, and a new sail got up in their
place.
"Away, aloft there, topmen!--get the topgallantyards ready for coming
down!" was now the cry.
"All ready forward, sir!"
"Ready abaft?"
"All ready, sir!"
"Haul taut!--sway away!--high enough!--lower away!" And, in a few
minutes, the topgallantyards were safely landed on deck, and secured on
the booms.
Hitherto the weather had been dry and fine, except during the squalls;
but, as the night closed in, a thick drizzling rain came on, which drove
all the passengers below.
The ship was now plunging and rolling heavily, and the white foam of the
long tumbling seas looked doubly ghastly through the gloom, while their
roaring formed dismal harmony with the howling of the wind.
Our party was small at the cuddy-table that evening, when we met at
eight bells (eight o'clock) to discuss our hot grog and negus. Some of
the gentlemen were sick, others tired, and some alarmed at the
appearance of things around them.
The mercury in the barometer had fallen considerably; and the captain,
as he sat at the table rallying some of his passengers on the
extraordinary length of their phizzes, was evidently assuming a
cheerfulness he did not feel; and at times looked absent and uneasy.
"Has not the glass fallen very fast, captain?" said one of the military
officers.
"Yes," replied he, "a little. That question recalls to my recollection a
most ludicrous circumstance that occurred on board a free-trader of
which I was mate. I was keeping the middle watch on a beautiful night,
when a fine light breeze filled all the _small kites_, and the weather
was looking remarkably steady and clear. All at once the captain came
running out in his nightcap and slippers, looked at the compass, and
then aloft, and said, 'What kind of night is it, Mr Darby?'
"'Very fine, sir; steady breeze, smooth water; every stitch of sail set
that will draw.'
"'Take in all your small sails, sir, as fast as you can; the glass has
fallen considerably since I turned in; we are going to have a breeze.'
"I looked at him with surprise, and then to windward; but to hear was to
obey--the stunsails, smallstaysails, and royals were taken in. This was
scarcely done, when the captain again made his appearance. 'Darby, the
glass is falling fast--call the hands out, double-reef the topsails, and
down topgallant and royal yards.'
"'Sir!' answered I, staring at him with astonishment.
"'Bear a hand, sir, and get the sail off the ship,' said he, sharply.
"His orders were obeyed, greatly to the surprise of all on board. But
even this did not appear to satisfy him. He came on deck again, and this
time I kept at a most respectful distance, for I really began to think
his head was cracked, and that he might perhaps wish to try how I would
look in the same predicament.
"'It's very odd, Darby,' said he; 'I don't understand it; the glass is
still falling. Come and look at it.'
"I went with him into his cabin, where the barometer was hanging near
his cot, with a swinging lamp beside it. The mercury was very low,
uncommonly so; but, while I was looking at it, I heard a heavy drop upon
the deck, and, looking downwards, I saw something glittering below the
lamp. I stooped to look what it was, and the mystery was solved at once:
there was a hole in the bottom of the tube, and the mercury had been
oozing out. The captain looked very foolish at first, and then, staring
me full in the face, burst into an uproarious fit of laughter, in which
I heartily joined him. At daybreak the hands were called out again; but
for a very different purpose. 'Crack on everything!' was now the cry;
and we were soon spanking along again under a cloud of canvas. But you
are not to suppose," continued Captain Darby, "from this anecdote, that
I mean to depreciate the value of the marine barometer; it is the
seaman's invaluable friend--a prophet whose warnings are not to be
disregarded. Many and many a time has it enabled me to prepare in time
for a coming gale, which would otherwise have assailed me unawares."
"The gale is freshening fast, sir," said an officer, putting his head
into the cuddy-door. The captain hurried out, and gave orders for
reefing the courses; and, during the whole of that long and, to us,
miserable night, all hands were kept constantly at work; and we heard
the loud orders of the officers, and the cries of the answering seamen,
confusedly and at intervals, through the roaring of the wind and the
rushing of the seas. I slept, or rather lay (for I could not sleep), in
one of the round-house cabins; the edge of my cot, at every roll of the
ship, knocking against the beams from which it was suspended; and I was
every now and then nearly jerked out by the violent pitching, when the
ship seemed as if she were endeavouring to dive head-foremost into the
depths, to escape the violence of the winds. The ladies' cabins were
abaft the round-house; the fair widow's divided from mine only by a thin
bulkhead. I would have given all I was worth to be allowed to sit near
her, to revive her spirits, and to soothe her fears. I was aware that
she was dreadfully alarmed; for, whenever the vessel staggered under the
overwhelming attacks of the sea, I heard from her cabin a shuddering of
nervous terror. The gentlemen passengers actually envied the poor seamen
who were exposed to the pelting of the pitiless storm: _they_ were
actively employed, the excitement of the storm left no time for
reflection--besides, storm, tempest, and danger were their elements; but
we lay idle and helpless, knowing just enough of our danger to imagine
it to be much greater--brooding over the chimeras of our own fancies,
and anticipating we knew not what of approaching calamity. The continual
creak, creak, creaking of the bulkheads--the pattering of the thick
shower of spray upon our decks, following the dull, heavy "thud" of some
giant sea, which made the ship reel and tremble through every
timber--the cries of the seamen, heard indistinctly and at intervals,
and then borne far away to leeward on the gale, as if the spirits of the
air were shrieking above and around us--formed altogether a fearful
medley of wild sounds. At length, towards morning, nothing was heard on
deck but the deep, moaning voice of the gale, and the roar of the sea;
but new and more ominous sounds arose from the lower deck: there was the
monotonous clanking of the pumps, and the rash of water from side to
side of the ship, as she rolled heavily and deeply. I could lie in my
cot no longer--my nerves were worked up to such a state of excitement;
and I rushed on deck to breathe the fresh air, and to see the state of
affairs there. It was to me a beautiful, though awful, sight. The sun
was just beginning to rise; and the lurid, threatening, angry glare he
shed over the horizon gave additional horror to the gloomy scene. The
ship looked almost a wreck to my eyes. The topgallantmasts had been got
on deck; the booms were crowded with wet sails and rigging; the small
ropes aloft were bellying out with the wind, and then striking violently
against the mast with the roll of the ship; the hatches were battened
down; lifelines were stretched along from the poop to the forecastle;
heavy seas were striking the bow, every now and then pouring volumes of
clear blue water over the decks, while the spray flew like a thick
shower overhead, nearly half-mast high; the horizon all round was pitchy
black, except where a dull, hazy, fiery gleam marked its eastern verge;
the surface of the water was one wide sheet of white foam, glistening
through the gloom; and the strength of the gale seemed absolutely to
blow the tops off the giant seas, and scattered them abroad in showers
of spoon drift. The deck was deserted, except by the captain and the
officer of the watch--one watch of the men having been sent below to the
pumps, and the other to their hammocks. The captain was standing under
the lee of the weather bulwark, holding on by the main brace, looking
pale and exhausted; near him, with his arm round the poop-ladder, stood
the officer of the watch, muffled up in his pea-jacket, his eyes red and
inflamed, and speaking in a low, husky whisper, his voice being
completely broken with the exertion of the night.
"Ah, Mr. Wentworth," said the captain, when I made my appearance, "you
are soon tired of your cot. I did not expect to see any of you idlers on
deck in such weather as this."
"It is more pleasant here than down below, I should think, Captain
Darby. Sleep is out of the question. I hope the gale is not going to
last much longer?"
"There is no chance of its moderating at present," said he; "the glass
is still falling, and the appearance of the weather is as bad as it well
can be!"
"Whereabouts are we now, captain? Are we not very near the English
coast?"
"Yes--we're not very far from it; I hope we shall make the land soon."
I asked one or two more questions, which the captain evidently evaded
answering. I accordingly desisted from my inquiries; but a dark and
undefined presentiment of evil came over me, which I strove in vain to
shake off. Finding the captain so uncommunicative, and the spray, that
was constantly dashing over the decks, anything but comfortable, I
thought my wisest plan would be to crawl to my cot again. On my way to
my cabin, I lingered for a few minutes under the poop awning, and
happened to overhear the captain say, in a low voice, to the chief
mate--
"Charters, I wish the sun would show his face again--I don't like this
groping work. I'd give a hundred _pounds_ to be as many _miles_ to the
westward--we are much too near a lee shore, for my taste."
"Oh, sir, we shall, perhaps, see some of the pilot-boats soon, and then
we shall be right enough."
"Ten chances to one against it," replied the other, "in such weather as
this. However, we will fire a gun every five minutes, in case any of
them should be cruising in our neighbourhood. I wish we had bent our
cables before this gale set in. As soon as the hands are called out, we
will bend them, and get the anchors clear, that we may be prepared for
the worst."
"Ay, ay, sir."
This was pretty comfort for me; but as I knew that talking would not
mend matters, I did not mention what I had heard to any of the other
passengers. A very short time had elapsed when the hands were called
out, and the orders of the captain were carried into effect as actively
as possible. It was a work of considerable difficulty and no little
danger to bend the cables, as the ship was plunging and rolling awfully,
and every now and then taking green seas over all, and volumes of water
rushed through the open hawse-hole into the lower deck. At last it _was_
accomplished, and the men had a temporary respite from their labour. The
gale, so far from moderating, rather increased in fury; but the leak had
not gained upon us, and the maintopmast still seemed to stand stiffly up
to the gale, with the close-reefed sail upon it. About four o'clock in
the afternoon, a heavy sea struck the quarter, filled one quarter-boat,
and broke it away from the tackles, and stove the other; and at the same
time the ship _lurched_ so deeply, that the muzzles of her quarterdeck
guns were buried in the water, one of the maintopmast backstays gave
way, and the mast, with a loud crash, went toppling over the side. I was
standing under the poop awning at the time, and was nearly washed off my
feet by a body of water rushing out of the cuddy; and at the same time I
heard the screaming of the ladies in the after cabin. I ran aft, and
knocking at the fair widow's door, was immediately admitted, and found
everything in the greatest confusion, and herself in extreme alarm. The
sea had burst in the quarterport, and deluged the cabin with water; the
deck was strewed with furniture, dashing and tumbling about with the
motion of the ship; and Emily herself was clinging to one of the
stanchions, pale with terror, and drenched to the skin. "Oh, Mr
Wentworth!" was all she could utter, before she fell fainting into my
arms. I will not enter into a description of my feelings at that moment,
when the only woman I had ever truly loved was lying helpless in my
embrace; suffice it that I felt I could die for her. In a short time she
revived; and blushing deeply, apologised for the trouble and alarm she
had occasioned me. My heart was on my lips. I had hitherto, from a
feeling of delicacy, abstained from expressing all I felt towards her;
but now she looked so lovely, so gentle, so confiding, that I was just
on the point of giving utterance to the emotions of my heart, when the
entrance of the servants coming to secure the furniture interrupted the
unseasonable disclosure. I then hastened on deck, where a sight awaited
me which almost paralysed my excited nerves. The ship was _lying to_,
but anything but lying _still_, under the storm mainstaysail; the wreck
of the maintopmast was hanging down the lee-mainrigging, banging
backwards and forwards with the motion of the ship; the men were
clinging like cats to the mainrigging, actively employed in endeavouring
to secure and clear away the wreck; the wind had drawn more round to the
eastward, and was blowing a perfect hurricane--when all at once a loud
cry was heard from the forecastle, of "Breakers on the leebeam!" and
their white tumbling crests were soon distinctly seen by all on deck,
and it was evident we were fast approaching them. For an instant there
was a pause of dead silence among the crew; officers and men looked at
each other, and at the breakers, with blank dismay. The sharp, quick,
distinct tones of the captain's voice startled them into habitual
attention and activity.
"Stations, wear ship! hard up with the helm! run up the forestaysail!
square away the afteryards!"
The staysail just _bellied out_ with the gale, and blew to rags; the
ship fell off for a moment, and then flew up to the wind again. "Cut
away the mizzenmast!" was the next order; and in five minutes the tall
mast fell crashing over the side. The helm was again put up, but in
vain; the ship would not pay off; and we were bodily and rapidly
drifting down upon the breakers.
"Have both bower cables clear below, and all ready with the sheet!"
shouted the captain.
I ran, or rather staggered, as fast as I could to the after cabin, and
requested admittance. Emily was there, looking dreadfully pale. I
suppose my countenance betrayed the agitation of my mind; for she
instantly exclaimed--and her demeanour was unnaturally calm and
collected, though her voice trembled, and her cheek was blanched with
terror--
"Is there any hope, Mr Wentworth? Tell me the worst; I am prepared for
it, and can bear it calmly." I hesitated. "You need not speak," said
she; "your silence tells me there is no hope."
"There is indeed none," replied I, "but in the mercy of an overruling
Providence. In another hour, our doom, whether for life or for death,
will be sealed."