The smuggler led the way, down a circuitous ravine, to the mouth of a
cavern. Several mules were feeding near its entrance. Louis heard the
sound of boisterous jollity; and as he advanced, he discerned, in the
depth of the cave, many persons seated on the ground, under the light
of a huge iron lamp that hung from the roof.
Had he wished to recede, retreat would have been impossible. But
all thoughts of personal hazard were lost in the one eager desire
of learning some certain tidings of his father. The smugglers'
communications to each other, being uttered when they were ignorant
of being overheard, and, therefore, when they could have no intention
to deceive, had awakened doubts in him of Ripperda having reached
Gibraltar. Perhaps he had been overtaken by his enemies; and was now
secretly managing with these adventurous men, to effect his escape
from some second Alcazar in the bosom of the mountains! The minister's
silence to Santa Cruz, or even to the Queen, on such a re-capture,
was no argument against its probability; and impressed with these
apprehensions, Louis hurried onward, impatient to see Martini, and to
learn how he might yet reach his father.
At the mouth of the cavern he stopped. His guides drew close to him.
They saw no sign of intimidation in his face; and the former spokesman
stepping forward, announced to his comrades the arrival of a stranger,
who called himself the son of the Duke de Ripperda. Every man rose
at a moment, and with a murmur, and a clangor of heavy arms against
the rocky floor, that might have appalled more veteran nerves. Louis
comprehended his danger. His eye had ranged at a glance through the
crowd, and he saw no Martini. He recoiled a step, and placing his hand
on his sword, said in a firm voice:--
"Gentlemen! I am here, on the faith of that man. He brought me to meet
Martini d'Urbino, my father's servant; and I demand to see him."
The smuggler put his hand upon the arm of Louis.
"Signor, you have a stout heart. From that alone, I believe you to be
what you say. Enter the cavern, and you will find the man."
The smuggler turned, and said something in an unknown language to his
comrades. Louis regarded him with a dauntless, but stern brow; for
while he spoke, the men drew gradually around, though at some little
distance, muttering to each other, and fixing their eyes on their
prisoner. Such Louis believed himself to be. The only point that was
open for his advance was into the cave. All seemed vacancy there,
excepting the pendent lamp, which shewed the fragments of the yet
unfinished revel.
"Can my father be reduced to league with men like these?"
It was frenzy to suppose it; and if it were not so, Louis himself were
lost. He had gone too far to retreat; and with a step, which announced
the resolution with which he would defend his life, should it be
assailed, he went forward into the den.
The captain of the band followed him. He passed him, and was
immediately obscured in the deeper gloom of the interior rock. Louis
saw no human being in the wide range, though many might be hidden in
the shadowy depths of its farther excavations. He fixed himself with
his back against the side of the cavern; and with his hand on his
sword, stedfastly regarded the spot where the smuggler disappeared.
His comrades remained without, and evidently watched any egress
unsanctioned by their chief.
Louis heard the advance of hasty steps from the interior vaults. He
planted himself more firmly in his position, and half drew his weapon.
The smuggler emerged from the recesses with another person, and in
the instant of his appearance, pointed to Louis, and said to his
companion:--
"Do you know that cavalier?"
The twain were in the deepest shadow of the rock; hence Louis could not
distinguish, otherwise than by the voice, which of the two were his
conductor. But himself being on a spot where the light fell direct on
his face, the immediate response to the demand of the smuggler, was an
amazed cry:--
"It is the Marquis de Montemar!" "'Tis well!" rejoined the outlaw,
"else he must have slept without his ancestors."
The voice of him who had recognised Louis, was indeed Martini's; and
that faithful servant was the next moment at the feet of his master's
son.
The smuggler joined his comrades on the rock; and Louis immediately
enquired the fate of his father. To his astonishment, Martini informed
him that more than two months ago, that very man had conveyed the Duke
to the coast of Barbary.
"Had he been refused admission into Gibraltar?"
"No; he had never sought it."
"What was his object in going to Barbary?"
To this, Martini gave a confused and unsatisfactory reply. All that
Louis could gather from his agitated and sometimes contradictory
accounts, was, that after their escape from the Alcazar, and during
their progress towards the sea, his master never emerged from an
intense reverie, except to give orders; and then he only delivered
his commands and strait was profoundly silent again. It was not until
they reached the borders of the Mediterranean, that the object of his
meditation seemed explained. While Martini was foddering down his
weary mules, Ripperda entered the shed, accompanied by Roderigo the
smuggler. In few words, he declared his intention to embark that night
for Tangier; and asked Martini whether he chose to share his fortunes
in that land, or to return whence he came. Martini swore to live and
die with him; and the next sun rose upon Ripperda in the kingdom of the
Moors.
This intelligence confounded Louis; it was so contrary to his father's
written intention, and so totally inexplicable on any principle of
his former conduct. While Martini gave his hurried narration, he did
it with evident fear of saying too much; and yet he appeared hovering
on the point of saying more. Louis told him, there was something in
his manner that excited his suspicions. He feared he withheld some
communication, which, as the son of the Duke de Ripperda, he ought to
know. Martini's confusion encreased with the earnest remonstrance of
his young master; and, at last he confessed, that the Duke was engaged
in some projects, the consequences of which he dreaded, but he was
bound by oath not to betray.
"His Excellency," continued he, "has laid the same bonds on Rodrigo;
who, with other men of his trade, are sworn to serve him. My present
errand to Spain, was to bring away certain treasures he left at the
Castle de Montemar. They are now on the backs of the mules you saw
feeding without; and, by to-morrow night, they will be in Barbary."
Louis was lost in conjecture. "Are you sure, Martini, my father
received no insulting repulse from Gibraltar?"
"I am sure, he never made any application there."
"It is very extraordinary!--But you dare not satisfy me. I will know it
all from himself; and, whatever may be his reasons, his destiny shall
be mine."
Martini now acknowledged to Louis, that Ripperda's indignation was so
high against him, there could not be a hope of his admitting him to his
presence.
"Every day, my Lord," continued the faithful creature, "he names you
in his general maledictions on the ungrateful world; he names you in
terms, that I have often deprecated from you on my knees; and, as often
he has commanded me from his sight, till I knew how to distinguish
between loyalty and parricide."
"But I do not deserve his curse, Martini," replied Louis, "and I will
appear before him. He shall not want a comforter, and an honourable
confidant, while he has a son. You must engage this Rodrigo, to give me
a passage in his vessel."
Martini went out of the cavern to prevail on the smuggler to this
purpose, and Louis was left to his bewildering thoughts. That he saw
the usually festive spirits of the Italian so completely subdued,
redoubled the uneasiness with which he considered the vow that had been
exacted from him and the smugglers. Louis's open and honourable mind
shrunk from such ill-assorted mystery; till finding some condemnation
of his father in this repugnance, he reproached himself for having
conceived the nameless dread he felt creeping over him. He recalled his
injured parent's undeviating career of public virtue; he dwelt on the
magnanimous features of his character; and could find no argument in
either, to sanction his present inexpressible forebodings.
"Yet why," cried he, "does he take refuge with infidels; why associate
his honourable name with these desperate men?"
After he had settled with Rodrigo the terms of his voyage to the
opposite coast; he and Martini repaired to the rock he had appointed to
Lorenzo for their mutual rendezvous. Lorenzo was sitting by the mules,
anxiously awaiting the appearance of his master, when he descried
him on the heights with his companion. It was now deep twilight; but
the light was sufficient when the latter drew near, for Lorenzo to
recognise his brother; and the lively pleasure of their meeting, was
only checked by recollection of the calamitous situation of their
respective lords.
Lorenzo informed his master, he could not procure a boat to go round to
Gibraltar; the strait being too much infested with Barbary pirates,
for small vessels to put to sea. Martini sighed heavily, at this
information. Louis attributed it, to apprehension for the treasure he
had to convey, and made a remark to that purpose.
"No," replied the Italian, "Rodrigo carries a safe conduct;
nevertheless, I am Catholic enough, to wish every corsair at the bottom
of the sea!"
A few minutes communicated to Lorenzo, that his master's voyage was now
to be to Barbary, where the Duke de Ripperda was already arrived. The
faithful servant regarded all places alike, to which he was to follow
his Lord; and, having received his orders, he went apart with Martini,
to discuss, with freedom, the subjects most interesting to them both.
The night was balmy and serene; and Louis kept his station in the
open air. After their conference, the brothers drew near, and slept
by his side; but he watched and mused, and silently prayed to Him who
was above the stars. The moon arose. As he contemplated that lovely
planet; considering it as walking in beauty and loneliness, like the
youthful saint who had urged him to persist in the virtue that was his
principle, he could, almost, have bowed to the bright similitude. But,
when he recollected that, by the vague light of this very moon, the
secret depredator crept from his covert; and each deed that shuns the
ken of man, steals upon his slumbers, he shuddered; and turning from
its beams,--beheld the long shadow of a figure approaching him. It was
Rodrigo from the beach beneath. He came to say, that his men were on
board, the packages stowed, and all were ready to sail.
In the course of half an hour Louis found himself on board an out-law's
vessel, with the crescent of Mahommed flying from the mast. This, was
the "safe conduct" Martini spoke of; and was sufficient to protect him
from the corsairs. Their light galliots scudded by in every direction,
and hailed the smuggler as he passed; Rodrigo stood on the deck with a
turban on his head, replying, through a trumpet, in the barbarous slang
of rapine.
The dark blue sea, innocent of the guilty keels which shot across
its bosom, heaved its reflecting waves under the brilliant orbs of a
midnight African sky. All was tranquil; all in harmony with the first
fiat of its creator; excepting the breast of rapacious man; excepting
the heart of an anxious son, ruminating on conjectures, hopes, and
fears. He leaned on the railing of the deck, in a more wretched
state of mind, than he could have believed possible to be his, when
approaching the goal of his many prayers: the presence of his father.
There was something within him, that would not be satisfied with
his present companions; with his father having made such men his
confidential agents; and, in the midst of his troubled thoughts, he
often murmured to himself--
"Oh, why did he fly!"
The night continued bright, and the wind fair; and, having smoothly
passed Europa point, the little vessel turned into the strait between
the far-famed pillars of Hercules,--Calpe and Abyla. Louis gazed on
both; on the fortified heights of the one, on the barren cliffs of the
other. He thought on Gerizim and Ebal.--On one, rests the blessing; on
the other, the curse! "Chuse ye, between them!"