Santa Cruz did not wait for the tedious embarkation of the troops,
now under orders for Africa; but set forward immediately, accompanied
by his wife and daughter; who both assumed the privileged habits of
_Sisters of Mercy_, in this their pilgrimage to a land of war and
suffering.
When he arrived at Ceuta, he was ignorant of the attempt at storming
the place. The courier with that intelligence, had been taken by an
Algerine row-boat, and carried into Oran.
By this capture, Ripperda became acquainted with all that had passed
in the rescued fortress; for the messenger was sent in irons to him:
and the dastardly communicativeness of the man was too clear an
interpreter of the brief account in the dispatches.
The Basha's wounds being aslant, and in the muscles of his breast, were
slight and easy of cure; but that on his mind was not to be healed,
when on awaking from his swoon, he found himself thrown across a camel,
and in full retreat from the fortress he believed in his hands. He was
no sooner within his own entrenchments, than both officers and men felt
the weight of his disappointment. He summoned their several commanders
into his pavilion, and accused them of cowardice, for having made so
unnecessary, and therefore shameful a flight.
Adelmelek pleaded two reasons for this conduct. Their Basha's supposed
mortal wound; and its befalling him in the moment of sun-rise, seemed
so signal a judgement on the Moors for their breach of the prophet's
ordinance, in pursuing the warfare into the sabbath morn, that with
one consent they made the only expiation in their power, by abandoning
the scene of their impiety.
Enraged at the subtlety of this apology, in which Ripperda saw that the
jealousy of the Hadge was at the bottom of this retreat, he turned on
him with derision, and bade him take that excuse to the Emperor, and
see whether he most respected the enlargement of his empire, or the
superstition of a coward.
"Aben Humeya," replied the Hadge, regarding him with equal scorn; "If
I am to be your messenger, one truth at least you shall learn of me
before I set out on my journey! It is impossible for a bad Christian to
become a good Mussulman. Devout men are no changelings. He has little
of the spirit of religion, who finds an insurmountable stumbling-block
in any dispute about the letter; and in my opinion, the man who more
than once alters his faith, may shew himself a consummate hypocrite,
but he persuades no one to doubt the nothingness of his religion."
"Your head, proud bigot, shall answer for this insult!" exclaimed
Ripperda, starting from the cushion on which he lay.
"The event of this siege," replied the Hadge, "will determine the fate
of yours!" and with a threatening countenance, he left the apartment.
Nothing awed, by what he called this insolence in a man whose talents
he despised, Ripperda was the more incited to shew his contempt of
superstition; and the moment he withdrew, his reproaches to the
officers were augmented in severity and reproof. He punished the
soldiers in a more exemplary way; and published a proclamation,
declaring that he would put to death any officer, let his rank be what
it would, who should henceforth presume at any time to disobey his
orders, or to desert his post on any pretence whatever. He finished by
pronouncing himself, as the leader of the Mohammedan armies in Barbary,
the best interpreter of the prophet's laws; and that while he bore the
standard of Mecca, the sabbaths of Jews, Mussulmen, or Christians,
should be alike free to the progress of his arms.
The rigor of these threats, and this last assertion, so contrary to the
customs of their faith, filled the Moors with terror and amazement: but
the full effects of the manifesto were to be seen hereafter.
While these punishments and intimidations were going on, the courier
taken at Oran, was brought to the camp before Ceuta. The Basha was
now convalescent; and while the reading of the dispatches inspired
his coadjutor Sidi Ali, with renewed confidence in the reduction of
the fortress, it doubly exasperated the passions of Ripperda, when he
gathered from the report the dangerous state of his son.
The courier was commanded into his presence; and on examining him it
was found that three parts of the garrison had fallen in the sortie and
the defence of the town; that the Count de Blas was dead of his wounds;
the commander, de Penil, incapable of service; and that the young
Marquis de Montemar, whose gallant exertions filled so great a part in
the dispatches, was in such extremity when the messenger came off, that
it was impossible he could now be alive.
Ripperda was no stranger to the voice that rushed between him and his
assailants in the breach; but it passed by him as the wind. Vengeance
was then all that possessed his soul! But now that voice was hushed for
ever. In his first field his son had perished,--and perished against
whom?
He sprang on his feet as the horrible images pressed upon his brain.
Regardless of who were present, he snatched up his sword:--
"I am alone!" cried he, "the last! the last! But I will yet uproot
thee, murderous Spain, that dost thus riot in my vitals!"
The prisoner and the attendants all fled from before the terrible
enunciation of his eyes. Sidi Ali alone had courage to remain and seize
the aimless weapon.
"Aben Humeya!" said he, "what unmans you thus, before the eyes of
slaves?"
"Were I less a man," cried Ripperda, turning his burning eye-balls upon
him; "I could bear it. But now the curse has found me!"