The day after the execution of the sentence on the Moor, the north wind
was blowing with increasing violence.
The waves hurled themselves with fury against the girdle of rocks
through which opened the narrow passage which led into the road of
Tolari.
About eleven o’clock in the morning, Captain Simon, mounted on the
platform of the rambade, was talking with Captain Hugues about the
punishment which occurred the day before, and of the courage of the
Moor.
Suddenly they saw a polacre, her sails almost torn away, flying before
the tempest with the rapidity of an arrow, and about to enter the
dangerous pass of which we have spoken.
Sometimes the frail vessel, rising on the crest of the towering waves,
would show the edge of her keel running with foam like the breast of a
race-horse.
Again, sinking in the hollow of the waves, she would plunge with such
violence that her stem would be almost perpendicular.
Soon they could distinguish on the deluged deck two men enveloped in
brown mantles with hoods, who were employing every possible effort to
hold the whip-staff of the rudder.
Five other sailors, squatting at the prow, or holding on to the rigging,
awaited the moment to aid in the manoeuvre.
So, by turns carried to the top of the waves and plunged in their
depths, the polacre was hastening with frightful speed to tie narrow
entrance of the channel, where the waves were dashing with fury.
“By St Elmo!” cried Captain Simon, “there’s a ship gone to
destruction!”
“She is lost,” replied Hugues, coldly; “in a few minutes her
rigging and hull will be nothing but a wreck, and her sailors will be
corpses. May the Lord save the souls of our brothers!”
“Why did he dare venture in this passage at such a time?” said the
gunner.
“If a man is to be shipwrecked it is better to perish with a feeble
hope. When a man hopes, he prays, and dies a Christian; when he
despairs, he blasphemes, and dies a pagan.
“Look, look, Simon, there is the little boat going into the breakers;
it is all up with her!”
At that moment the commander, who had been informed of the approach of
the vessel and of her desperate condition, appeared on deck with all the
chevaliers, officers, and others who manned the galley.
After carefully examining the polacre and the breakers, Pierre des
Anbiez called out, in a loud and solemn voice:
“Let the two long-boats be ready and equipped to gather the corpses on
the beach: no human power can save this unfortunate ship. Only God can
help her.” While the overseers superintended the execution of this
order, the commander, turning to the chaplain, said:
“My brother, let us say the prayers for the dying, for these
unfortunate men. Brothers, on your knees. Let the crew uncover.”
It was a grand and imposing spectacle.
All the chevaliers, clothed in black, were kneeling bareheaded on the
deck; the bell for prayer dolefully tolled a funeral knell amid the wild
shrieks of the tempest.
The slaves were also on their knees and uncovered.
In the rear, in the middle of a group of chevaliers dressed in black,
Father Elzear in his white cassock could be distinguished.
Prayers for the dying were said with as much solemnity as if they were
being recited in a church on land, or in a cloister.
It was not a mere form; these monk-soldiers were sad and contemplative.
As sailors they saw a vessel without hope; as Christians they prayed
for the souls of their brothers. In fact the polacre seemed in danger of
going down every moment. The furious waves, rushing into the channel on
their way to the sea, broke the current and whirled and tossed in every
direction. Her sails, by which she might have made steady headway, were
blown under the enormous rocks; her rudder was useless, and she was
at the mercy of the wind and waters which rushed back and forth in
unabating rage.
The prayers and chants continued without cessation.
Above all the other voices could be heard the manly, sonorous voice of
the commander. The slaves on their knees looked in sullen apathy on this
desperate struggle of man against the elements.
Suddenly, by an unhoped-for chance, either because the polacre was
of such perfect construction, or because she responded finally to the
action of her rudder, or because the little triangular sail that she
hoisted caught some current of the upper air, the gallant little vessel
steadied herself, resumed her headway, and cleared the dangerous passage
with the rapidity and lightness of a sea-gull.
A few minutes after she was out of danger, calmly sailing the waters of
the road.
This manoeuvre was so unforeseen, so wonderful, and so well executed,
that for a moment astonishment suspended the prayers of the chevaliers.
The commander, amazed, said to the officers, after a few moments of
breathless silence:
“My brothers, let us thank the Lord for having heard our prayers, and
let us sing a song of thanksgiving.”
While the galley resounded with this pious and solemn invocation, the
polacre, _The Holy Terror to the Moors_, for it was she, was beating
about in the road with very little sail, in order to approach the black
galley.
She was but a little distance from her when a cannon-shot, sent from the
rambade of _Our Lady of Seven Sorrows_, signalled her to hoist her flag
and lie to.
A second cannon-shot ordered her to send her captain on board the black
galley. Whatever interest this vessel inspired in the commander when
she was in danger, her perils past, she must conform to the established
rules for visiting ships.
Soon the polacre lay to, and her little boat, equipped with two rowers
and steered by a third sailor, approached the stem of the galley.
The man who was at the helm left the whip-staff, slowly climbed the
stairs of the first seat of rowers, and stood before the commander and
his chevaliers, who had gathered together in the rear of the galley. The
sailor in question was no other than our old acquaintance, the worthy
Luquin Trinquetaille. His hooded mantle, his boots, and his breeches of
coarse wool were running with water.
As he set foot on the deck of the galley he respectfully allowed his
hood to fall back on his shoulders, and it could be easily seen that his
good, honest face was still excited by the terrible experience through
which he had just passed.
The commander, in his visits to Maison-Forte, had often seen Luquin, and
was agreeably surprised to recognise a man who could give him some news
of his brother, Raimond V.
“The Lord has rescued your ship from a great peril,” said the
commander to him. “We have already prayed for your soul, and the souls
of your companions.’’
“May all of you be blessed, M. Commander; we had need of it, for our
situation was awful; never since I have been at sea did I ever take part
in such a frolic.”
The commander replied to the captain, sternly, “The trials that the
Lord sends us are not frolics. How is my brother Raimond?”
“Monseigneur is well,” replied Trinquetaille, a little ashamed of
having been reproved by the commander. “I left him in good health, day
before yesterday, when I left Maison-Forte.”
“And how is Mlle, des Anbiez?” asked Father Elzear, who had come
near.
“Mlle, des Anbiez is very well, father,” replied Luquin.
“Where did you sail from, and where are you going?” asked the
commander.
“M. Commander, yesterday I came out of La Ciotat, with three
fishing-boats, all armed, in order to cruise two or three leagues from
the coasts to discover the pirates.”
“The pirates?”
“Yes, M. Commander. A pirate chebec appeared three days ago; Master
Peyrou discovered it. All the coast is alarmed; they expect a descent
from the pirates, and they are right, because a tartan from Nice, that
I met before this squall, told me that on the east of Corsica had been
seen three vessels, and one of them is the _Red Galleon_ of Pog-Reis,
the renegade.”
“Pog-Reis!” exclaimed the commander.
“Pog-Reis!” repeated the chevaliers, who surrounded the commander.
“Pog-Reis!” again said Pierre des Anbiez, with an expression of
savage satisfaction, as if at last he was about to meet an implacable
enemy he had long sought, but who, by some fatality, had always escaped
him.
“What were you going to do at Tolari?” asked the commander of
Trinquetaille.
“To speak truly, M. Commander, I was not going for pleasure. Surprised
by the squall yesterday, I was beating about as I could, but the weather
became so violent, and thinking my polacre doomed, I made a vow to Our
Lady of Protection, and risked entering the pass, that I was acquainted
with, for I have anchored there many a time, coming from the coasts of
Sardinia.”
“The Lord grant that this north wind may stop blowing!” said the
commander; then, addressing his expert pilot, he said, “What do you
think of the weather, pilot?”
“M. Commander, if the wind increases until sunset, there is a chance
that it will cease at the rising of the moon.”
“If that is so, and you can put out to-night without danger,” said
the commander to Trinquetaille, “go to La Ciotat and inform my brother
of my arrival.”
“And that will be a great joy to Maison-Forte, M. commander, although
your arrival there may be useless, for a vessel from Marseilles, that I
met, told me that soldiers had been sent to La Ciotat with the captain
of the company of the guards attending the Marshal of Vitry. They said
that these troops were to be sent to Maison-Forte, in consequence of the
affair of the recorder Isnard.”
“And what is that?” asked the commander of Luquin.
The captain then told how Raimond V., instead of submitting to the
orders of the Governor of Provence, had had his emissary chased by
bulls.
As he listened to the narration of this imprudent pleasantry on the
part of Raimond V., the commander and Father Elzear looked at each
other sadly, as if they deplored the foolish and rash conduct of their
brother.
“Go below to the refectory, and the head waiter will give you
something to warm and strengthen you,” said the commander to Luquin.
The captain obeyed this order with gratitude, and returned to the prow,
followed by a few curious sailors, anxious to learn all the news of
Provence.
The commander entered his chamber with his brother, and said to him:
“As soon as the weather will permit, we will depart for Maison-Forte.
I fear much that Raimond may be the victim of his rashness concerning
the creatures of the cardinal. The Lord grant that I may meet Pog-Reis,
and that I may be able to prevent the evil which he is no doubt
preparing for this shore, which is so defenceless, and for the
unfortunate city of La Ciotat.”