THE REVENGE
The position that Captain Conyngham and his crew found themselves in
was peculiar. But few of his men had actually been placed under arrest.
The Frenchmen who had shipped in the Surprise, though well known to
the authorities, had been unmolested, nor could the imprisonment of
the few others be considered in the light of a great hardship. The men
occupied roomy quarters facing on the main courtyard, were allowed
to purchase extra supplies, and in squads of five or six they were
permitted to exercise in the open air of the court. Captain Conyngham
was in a different wing of the jail, but was treated more as a guest
than as a prisoner; still, until almost a week had gone by he had found
it impossible to communicate with any friends in the outside world. One
day, to his surprise, however, he heard a cheery voice calling to him
from the doorway of his large cell, for, being in a prison, every room
was supposed to hold prisoners. Looking up, Conyngham saw his friend
Allan standing laughing at him cheerfully. He had a long apron hanging
from his shoulders and a baker’s basket on his arm.
“Any bread this morning, sir?” he asked in French. “I have some good
Yankee bread with raisins and sweetening.”
“Ah, but it’s good to have a sight of you, friend Allan!” exclaimed
Conyngham, rushing up and grasping the imitation baker by both hands,
that, to carry out the illusion, Allan had daubed with flour. “Aren’t
you running great risks?” he asked.
“Risks?” laughed Allan. “Why, if the Frenchmen found out that I was
bringing in food to their starving prisoners, I would be hung, drawn,
and quartered.”
“So you donned this disguise,” laughed Conyngham in reply, “and they
never suspected you of such a thing. But news! news! my friend; that’s
what I am starving for--it’s the heart and the soul of me that’s crying
and not my stomach, for that the head jailer has looked after well.
Are they going to hand us over to the Britishers?--that’s the first
question.”
“They are and they aren’t,” replied Allan, “but this news I got this
morning from Paris: ‘Tell Conyngham to sit tight and not worry. All is
apparently going well.’ But the French are great people--they must do
everything like a play or a spectacle. Here I was told that I should
be allowed to see you if I applied to the commandant, and he informs
me that I certainly can do so, but requests that I shall put on a
disguise. I tried on three uniforms, but there were none that would
button or allow me to sit down.”
“Which by the same token I haven’t asked you to do myself yet,” was
Conyngham’s reply.
Allan seated himself in the big rush-bottom chair and placed his basket
on the floor.
“The English expect that you are to be handed over for a certainty,”
Allan continued. “They have prepared the sloop of war to receive you,
and I understand that another is on its way. Instructions, too,
have been sent to Portsmouth or Southampton, but we will disappoint
them. The French Government is playing its little game of ‘wait a bit
longer,’ and never letting their right hand see what their left hand is
doing.”
“I knew that Dr. Franklin would take care of that,” returned Conyngham,
“but how long is it going to last?”
“Have patience!” replied Allan, “it certainly will not be long. I am
expecting Mr. Hodge to-morrow or the day after from Paris.”
“Have the crew been informed?”
“All but four of them escaped last night,” answered Allan.--“How
careless these Frenchmen are!--There will be another row when the
English hear of it; but I must be going, as they have spies by day
watching the entrance to the prison and overlooking the yard, from the
tall house next to the church.”
With that he picked up his basket, and after shaking hands went out
into the yard, where the sentry, evidently under orders, allowed him to
proceed to another part in an endeavor to dispose of his wares.
The next day Conyngham had another unexpected visitor, but it was not
Mr. Hodge, and happened thus: He was out in the inclosure amusing
himself and at the same time taking exercise by bounding a rubber ball
back and forth against the high brick sides of the building, when one
of the under jailers called to him from the entrance. At the same time
a red-faced man who accompanied the jailer stepped forward, and telling
the jailer to go, stood as if waiting for Conyngham to approach, but
the latter paid no attention and went on with his game. At last the man
drew near and spoke.
“I am Captain Cuthbertson of his Majesty’s sloop-of-war Alert. Your
name is Conyngham,” he said.
“Now, somebody must have told you that,” returned Conyngham. “But it is
my name, and I am captain of the armed cruiser the Surprise.”
“Which has been turned over to his Majesty’s Government with the other
vessels that you piratically took off the coast of Holland,” replied
the officer.
“Indeed?” was the reply, “That must be gratifying to his Majesty. But
now, captain, won’t you take off your coat and have a game with me? It
is a pleasant little occupation that two can play at better than one.
I have little with me to wager but my shoe-buckles. I will play mine
against yours. Or we’ll put up our wigs,” he continued.
“You’ve played for a larger stake than that and you’ve lost,” replied
Captain Cuthbertson. “How can you, knowing that your very life is in
jeopardy, indulge in such pastimes?”
“If my life was in jeopardy, I am sure it would be in a good cause. I
ask for no favors except a little more elbow room, for you’re standing
just where I wish to begin playing.”
“Listen to me first,” spoke the officer, not noticing that a dangerous
flash had come into Conyngham’s eyes. “His Majesty might be disposed to
be lenient--aye, more than that--if you will listen to reason. Perhaps
it might be possible to arrange a pardon for you--and more. You have
once been a British subject. Return to your allegiance and loyalty. I
doubt not that it might be so arranged that a good place could be found
for you in the naval establishment, and that with your talents a sure
advancement would follow.”
Conyngham threw the ball into the air and caught it. “You may tell
those who sent you,” he replied, “that his Majesty might offer me the
position of an admiral of the blue, and I would tell him that I would
rather spend my days in the hold of a prison-hulk than accept it. As
you will not play with me, I shall have to ask you to stand aside
again. Some day we may meet where the game will be played for larger
stakes and there will be harder missiles flying. Good morning, sir.”
The officer stamped his foot and started to reply, then he changed his
mind quickly and left the jail-yard without a word.
Conyngham stopped playing and went to his cell. Before an hour had
passed another visitor was announced. It was Mr. Hodge. He was not
disguised, but dressed in his usual habit, that of a merchant in
prosperous circumstances.
“I expected to see you as a cat’s-meat man or a turbaned Turk, my dear
sir,” was Conyngham’s greeting, “and yet here you come as if you were
dropping into the tavern of our friend on the hill.”
Hodge smiled. “There is very little more trouble. I bore some
instructions from Paris that have made the commandant of the prison a
very subservient individual.”
“Then you have brought me my release!”
“No, not that, but it will follow in due time. In some way the
commissioners have got the French ministry between the grindstones,
or--a better simile perhaps--Dr. Franklin is about to checkmate de
Vergennes and the latter is apparently glad to call the game a draw.
Good news also has come from America, though no great victory has yet
been won. Grand, our banker in Paris, has now another hundred thousand
livres at the disposal of the commissioners. What we must do is to
spend it in such a manner as will best benefit the cause.”
“Then force the hand of the French Government,” replied Conyngham.
“Everything that you do to make them sever relations formed on any
friendly basis with England, will lend more assistance than the capture
of a dozen packets.”
“And how is it best to do that?” asked Mr. Hodge.
“I will answer that with a question first,” replied Conyngham. “How
much longer shall I be detained in this ‘durance vile’? By the Powers,
I’m tired of it.”
“Four or five days, perhaps a week.”
“That is right and will do well. You’re supposed by many to be an
English merchant here, Mr. Hodge. I am, and will be for a little time,
a prisoner. You did not figure in the purchase of the Surprise, but
there is a fine two-masted craft of something over a hundred tons lying
moored at the end of the long wharf. She is for sale. Buy her at once.”
“And then what?”
“Fit her out with stores for a two months’ cruise. I will secure her
armament and crew upon my release.”
“We shall surely be in trouble again.”
“Not much this time. To my thinking, the French Government will be glad
to be rid of us. To the south of us lies Spain with its open market, to
the west of England lies Ireland with many a well-provisioned port and
friendly hand, and there is always our own country. Had my last vessel
been big enough to have crossed safely and had we not taken those
unlucky mails, it was for home that I would have headed the Surprise.”
“She lived up to the definition of her name; what would you call this
one?”
“I would be after calling her,” replied Conyngham slyly and in the
softest of brogues, “I’d be after calling her the Revenge.”