The whole night long the pirates worked hard, doing what we could not
see, neither could our captain at all understand their conduct. "If it
was not too good to be true, they have been chased," said he, "and have
come into harbour to hide. Did anyone look over the sea?" he continued.
No, we had all been too much engaged.
_Captain._--"Then the first thing I shall do on the dawn will be to scan
the sea. Something unusual must have occurred to put the pirates to all
this pother."
With the first streak of day came the pirate captain with his flag of
truce, and again made his offers of peace, friendship, and civility, and
again met with a vehement negative, though most forlorn were now our
hopes and fortunes. To our surprise we now only saw La Luna. There was
not a vestige of the pirate ship.
The pirate king had now recourse to threats, which we heard in
disdainful silence. After spending half an hour in oaths and threats, he
waved his hand, and, stamping with anger, pointed to La Luna. "I give
you one hour," he cried, "if by that time you do not come down
voluntarily, I intend sweeping the top of your rock with those two
guns." We looked towards the vessel; she had been brought within gun
shot, and her brass cannons were placed directly before us. "I know,"
continued the pirate, "who you all are, and I have no wish to harm you,
but rather to gain the rewards offered for your recovery. Be persuaded
and be reasonable."
_Mother._--"Captain, what do you think, what shall we do, he speaks
fair?"
_Captain._--"Madam, we must not trust him. I feel sure they have some
reason for this bustle and activity all night, and I feel persuaded they
have scuttled their ship and sunk her. Look round, and you will see that
when they retire into the caverns, there is not a trace of human beings
about save our own vessel, and that looks weather-beaten and old enough
to have been riding at anchor there for ages. No doubt they have
concealed all traces of themselves in her. If they get us down they will
use us as hostages for their own safety, or they may murder us at once,
and thus leave no one to tell the tale of the caverns. As long as we are
alive that secret cannot be kept, and, having made a settlement here, I
think there is every probability that they will commit any crime sooner
than suffer such a convenient and suitable stronghold for them to be
discovered. I trust them not, let us trust in God."
_Mother._--"And you, Schillie, tell me what do you advise?"
Schillie rose up, and drawing me to the highest part of the rock, turned
her broad white forehead to the ship, while her clear eyes, darkened in
their beauty by the emotions of the hour, looked steadily down into the
mouths of the guns.
_Schillie._--"June, do you believe that the spirits of the departed know
what occurs on earth, and with unseen forms can visit those they love?"
_June._--"I hold some such doctrine, my Schillie, but whether there is
truth in it or not, the departed alone can tell."
_Schillie._--"I'll put faith in your doctrine, my mistress, and think
that in an hour I may behold my children, though unseen by them."
_June._--"And is it this feeling that makes you gaze so boldly into the
jaws that are so shortly to breathe forth death to us?"
_Schillie._--"It may be so, or it may be the strength given from on high
for such emergencies as these. In this awful hour I feel no fear; a
sacred calm is filling my heart. My God, I feel Thou art near; Thou
knowest this is not presumption that I bow me in humility before Thy
throne, that I approach it under the shadow of my Saviour's wing."
I gazed in her face, flushed with ardour, refulgent with her inspired
feelings, and thought her half way to heaven already.
_June._--"My Schillie, ere you go, take my thanks take my heartfelt
gratitude with you for all you have been to me."
_Schillie._--"We go together, June, we shall not be separated in the
happy pasture fields of our immortal shepherd. You will come with me to
gaze on my children, and whisper holy dreams of goodness and truth into
their childish ears to prepare them for the burdens of life, such as we
have gone through. Our fates in life were thrown together, and the last
act of mercy received from our gracious Father is this, that we die
together."
_June._--"But with my mortal lips and mortal heart receive my thanks,
for, without you, what should I have done? Without your brave heart and
good spirit to help me I must have given way. Without your hopeful,
strong, and Godly mind I, guilty of ungrateful murmurs, should have
forfeited the right of comfort from on high. Ah! my Schillie, take my
thanks, for next to my Father, Saviour, God in heaven, what do I not owe
to you?"
_Schillie._--"Enough, enough, we give and take in this world. Our
obligations to each other are mutual. We have an eternity before us to
settle the debt between us. Our time on earth draws to a close. It is
fit we prepare the young and weak for the fate they seem hardly to
realize."
_June._--"I shrink from them. Oh, my Schillie, do me a last act of
kindness, and keep them from my sight."
_Schillie._--"Nay, rouse yourself, and remember you take all you love
with you."
_June._--"But such a death! and they so young, so beloved, so lovely and
gifted, to die in so horrible a manner."
_Schillie._--"Then think of the fate you would have them live for. But
one hour of mental agony, and they are safe in their Saviour's arms."
_June._--"And, oh, Schillie, one more horrible fear I have. Suppose
those dreadful guns do not fully complete their dreadful work. Think if
some are left, wounded and maimed, yet more wounded in heart at the
death of those they loved."
_Schillie._--"Call them, and give each their choice."
They came, but it was only to group themselves in one close embrace
about us. They replied not to the words we uttered, but looking as
fearlessly as Schillie did down on the brazen mouths of death, they
turned their loving eyes in unutterable affection towards us. The
beaming light of Schillie's countenance seemed reflected on each young
face, until we thought an halo of glory already surrounded them.
The two men tenderly lifted up Madame, and laid her moaning and
unconscious at our feet, and then placed themselves on each side of the
group.
"See," said Schillie, half smiling and waving her hand, "your last fear
is groundless, it will take but one of those cannon to deliver us all at
the same moment from this mortal coil. Let us lift up our hearts to
God."