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diff --git a/1406-h/1406-h.htm b/1406-h/1406-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7e771de --- /dev/null +++ b/1406-h/1406-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2154 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>The Perils of Certain English Prisoners</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">The Perils of Certain English Prisoners, by Charles Dickens</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Perils of Certain English Prisoners, by +Charles Dickens + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Perils of Certain English Prisoners + + +Author: Charles Dickens + +Release Date: April 3, 2005 [eBook #1406] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PERILS OF CERTAIN ENGLISH +PRISONERS*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1894 Chapman and Hall “Christmas Stories” +edition by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p> +<h1>THE PERILS OF CERTAIN ENGLISH PRISONERS</h1> +<h2>CHAPTER I—THE ISLAND OF SILVER-STORE</h2> +<p>It was in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and forty-four, +that I, Gill Davis to command, His Mark, having then the honour to be +a private in the Royal Marines, stood a-leaning over the bulwarks of +the armed sloop Christopher Columbus, in the South American waters off +the Mosquito shore.</p> +<p>My lady remarks to me, before I go any further, that there is no +such christian-name as Gill, and that her confident opinion is, that +the name given to me in the baptism wherein I was made, &c., was +Gilbert. She is certain to be right, but I never heard of it. +I was a foundling child, picked up somewhere or another, and I always +understood my christian-name to be Gill. It is true that I was +called Gills when employed at Snorridge Bottom betwixt Chatham and Maidstone +to frighten birds; but that had nothing to do with the Baptism wherein +I was made, &c., and wherein a number of things were promised for +me by somebody, who let me alone ever afterwards as to performing any +of them, and who, I consider, must have been the Beadle. Such +name of Gills was entirely owing to my cheeks, or gills, which at that +time of my life were of a raspy description.</p> +<p>My lady stops me again, before I go any further, by laughing exactly +in her old way and waving the feather of her pen at me. That action +on her part, calls to my mind as I look at her hand with the rings on +it—Well! I won’t! To be sure it will come in, +in its own place. But it’s always strange to me, noticing +the quiet hand, and noticing it (as I have done, you know, so many times) +a-fondling children and grandchildren asleep, to think that when blood +and honour were up—there! I won’t! not at present!—Scratch +it out.</p> +<p>She won’t scratch it out, and quite honourable; because we +have made an understanding that everything is to be taken down, and +that nothing that is once taken down shall be scratched out. I +have the great misfortune not to be able to read and write, and I am +speaking my true and faithful account of those Adventures, and my lady +is writing it, word for word.</p> +<p>I say, there I was, a-leaning over the bulwarks of the sloop Christopher +Columbus in the South American waters off the Mosquito shore: a subject +of his Gracious Majesty King George of England, and a private in the +Royal Marines.</p> +<p>In those climates, you don’t want to do much. I was doing +nothing. I was thinking of the shepherd (my father, I wonder?) +on the hillsides by Snorridge Bottom, with a long staff, and with a +rough white coat in all weathers all the year round, who used to let +me lie in a corner of his hut by night, and who used to let me go about +with him and his sheep by day when I could get nothing else to do, and +who used to give me so little of his victuals and so much of his staff, +that I ran away from him—which was what he wanted all along, I +expect—to be knocked about the world in preference to Snorridge +Bottom. I had been knocked about the world for nine-and-twenty +years in all, when I stood looking along those bright blue South American +Waters. Looking after the shepherd, I may say. Watching +him in a half-waking dream, with my eyes half-shut, as he, and his flock +of sheep, and his two dogs, seemed to move away from the ship’s +side, far away over the blue water, and go right down into the sky.</p> +<p>“It’s rising out of the water, steady,” a voice +said close to me. I had been thinking on so, that it like woke +me with a start, though it was no stranger voice than the voice of Harry +Charker, my own comrade.</p> +<p>“What’s rising out of the water, steady?” I asked +my comrade.</p> +<p>“What?” says he. “The Island.”</p> +<p>“O! The Island!” says I, turning my eyes towards +it. “True. I forgot the Island.”</p> +<p>“Forgot the port you’re going to? That’s +odd, ain’t it?”</p> +<p>“It is odd,” says I.</p> +<p>“And odd,” he said, slowly considering with himself, +“ain’t even. Is it, Gill?”</p> +<p>He had always a remark just like that to make, and seldom another. +As soon as he had brought a thing round to what it was not, he was satisfied. +He was one of the best of men, and, in a certain sort of a way, one +with the least to say for himself. I qualify it, because, besides +being able to read and write like a Quarter-master, he had always one +most excellent idea in his mind. That was, Duty. Upon my +soul, I don’t believe, though I admire learning beyond everything, +that he could have got a better idea out of all the books in the world, +if he had learnt them every word, and been the cleverest of scholars.</p> +<p>My comrade and I had been quartered in Jamaica, and from there we +had been drafted off to the British settlement of Belize, lying away +West and North of the Mosquito coast. At Belize there had been +great alarm of one cruel gang of pirates (there were always more pirates +than enough in those Caribbean Seas), and as they got the better of +our English cruisers by running into out-of-the-way creeks and shallows, +and taking the land when they were hotly pressed, the governor of Belize +had received orders from home to keep a sharp look-out for them along +shore. Now, there was an armed sloop came once a-year from Port +Royal, Jamaica, to the Island, laden with all manner of necessaries, +to eat, and to drink, and to wear, and to use in various ways; and it +was aboard of that sloop which had touched at Belize, that I was a-standing, +leaning over the bulwarks.</p> +<p>The Island was occupied by a very small English colony. It +had been given the name of Silver-Store. The reason of its being +so called, was, that the English colony owned and worked a silver-mine +over on the mainland, in Honduras, and used this Island as a safe and +convenient place to store their silver in, until it was annually fetched +away by the sloop. It was brought down from the mine to the coast +on the backs of mules, attended by friendly Indians and guarded by white +men; from thence it was conveyed over to Silver-Store, when the weather +was fair, in the canoes of that country; from Silver-Store, it was carried +to Jamaica by the armed sloop once a-year, as I have already mentioned; +from Jamaica, it went, of course, all over the world.</p> +<p>How I came to be aboard the armed sloop, is easily told. Four-and-twenty +marines under command of a lieutenant—that officer’s name +was Linderwood—had been told off at Belize, to proceed to Silver-Store, +in aid of boats and seamen stationed there for the chase of the Pirates. +The Island was considered a good post of observation against the pirates, +both by land and sea; neither the pirate ship nor yet her boats had +been seen by any of us, but they had been so much heard of, that the +reinforcement was sent. Of that party, I was one. It included +a corporal and a sergeant. Charker was corporal, and the sergeant’s +name was Drooce. He was the most tyrannical non-commissioned officer +in His Majesty’s service.</p> +<p>The night came on, soon after I had had the foregoing words with +Charker. All the wonderful bright colours went out of the sea +and sky in a few minutes, and all the stars in the Heavens seemed to +shine out together, and to look down at themselves in the sea, over +one another’s shoulders, millions deep. Next morning, we +cast anchor off the Island. There was a snug harbour within a +little reef; there was a sandy beach; there were cocoa-nut trees with +high straight stems, quite bare, and foliage at the top like plumes +of magnificent green feathers; there were all the objects that are usually +seen in those parts, and <i>I</i> am not going to describe them, having +something else to tell about.</p> +<p>Great rejoicings, to be sure, were made on our arrival. All +the flags in the place were hoisted, all the guns in the place were +fired, and all the people in the place came down to look at us. +One of those Sambo fellows—they call those natives Sambos, when +they are half-negro and half-Indian—had come off outside the reef, +to pilot us in, and remained on board after we had let go our anchor. +He was called Christian George King, and was fonder of all hands than +anybody else was. Now, I confess, for myself, that on that first +day, if I had been captain of the Christopher Columbus, instead of private +in the Royal Marines, I should have kicked Christian George King—who +was no more a Christian than he was a King or a George—over the +side, without exactly knowing why, except that it was the right thing +to do.</p> +<p>But, I must likewise confess, that I was not in a particularly pleasant +humour, when I stood under arms that morning, aboard the Christopher +Columbus in the harbour of the Island of Silver-Store. I had had +a hard life, and the life of the English on the Island seemed too easy +and too gay to please me. “Here you are,” I thought +to myself, “good scholars and good livers; able to read what you +like, able to write what you like, able to eat and drink what you like, +and spend what you like, and do what you like; and much <i>you</i> care +for a poor, ignorant Private in the Royal Marines! Yet it’s +hard, too, I think, that you should have all the half-pence, and I all +the kicks; you all the smooth, and I all the rough; you all the oil, +and I all the vinegar.” It was as envious a thing to think +as might be, let alone its being nonsensical; but, I thought it. +I took it so much amiss, that, when a very beautiful young English lady +came aboard, I grunted to myself, “Ah! <i>you</i> have got a lover, +I’ll be bound!” As if there was any new offence to +me in that, if she had!</p> +<p>She was sister to the captain of our sloop, who had been in a poor +way for some time, and who was so ill then that he was obliged to be +carried ashore. She was the child of a military officer, and had +come out there with her sister, who was married to one of the owners +of the silver-mine, and who had three children with her. It was +easy to see that she was the light and spirit of the Island. After +I had got a good look at her, I grunted to myself again, in an even +worse state of mind than before, “I’ll be damned, if I don’t +hate him, whoever he is!”</p> +<p>My officer, Lieutenant Linderwood, was as ill as the captain of the +sloop, and was carried ashore, too. They were both young men of +about my age, who had been delicate in the West India climate. +I even took <i>that</i> in bad part. I thought I was much fitter +for the work than they were, and that if all of us had our deserts, +I should be both of them rolled into one. (It may be imagined +what sort of an officer of marines I should have made, without the power +of reading a written order. And as to any knowledge how to command +the sloop—Lord! I should have sunk her in a quarter of an +hour!)</p> +<p>However, such were my reflections; and when we men were ashore and +dismissed, I strolled about the place along with Charker, making my +observations in a similar spirit.</p> +<p>It was a pretty place: in all its arrangements partly South American +and partly English, and very agreeable to look at on that account, being +like a bit of home that had got chipped off and had floated away to +that spot, accommodating itself to circumstances as it drifted along. +The huts of the Sambos, to the number of five-and-twenty, perhaps, were +down by the beach to the left of the anchorage. On the right was +a sort of barrack, with a South American Flag and the Union Jack, flying +from the same staff, where the little English colony could all come +together, if they saw occasion. It was a walled square of building, +with a sort of pleasure-ground inside, and inside that again a sunken +block like a powder magazine, with a little square trench round it, +and steps down to the door. Charker and I were looking in at the +gate, which was not guarded; and I had said to Charker, in reference +to the bit like a powder magazine, “That’s where they keep +the silver you see;” and Charker had said to me, after thinking +it over, “And silver ain’t gold. Is it, Gill?” +when the beautiful young English lady I had been so bilious about, looked +out of a door, or a window—at all events looked out, from under +a bright awning. She no sooner saw us two in uniform, than she +came out so quickly that she was still putting on her broad Mexican +hat of plaited straw when we saluted.</p> +<p>“Would you like to come in,” she said, “and see +the place? It is rather a curious place.”</p> +<p>We thanked the young lady, and said we didn’t wish to be troublesome; +but, she said it could be no trouble to an English soldier’s daughter, +to show English soldiers how their countrymen and country-women fared, +so far away from England; and consequently we saluted again, and went +in. Then, as we stood in the shade, she showed us (being as affable +as beautiful), how the different families lived in their separate houses, +and how there was a general house for stores, and a general reading-room, +and a general room for music and dancing, and a room for Church; and +how there were other houses on the rising ground called the Signal Hill, +where they lived in the hotter weather.</p> +<p>“Your officer has been carried up there,” she said, “and +my brother, too, for the better air. At present, our few residents +are dispersed over both spots: deducting, that is to say, such of our +number as are always going to, or coming from, or staying at, the Mine.”</p> +<p>(“<i>He</i> is among one of those parties,” I thought, +“and I wish somebody would knock his head off.”)</p> +<p>“Some of our married ladies live here,” she said, “during +at least half the year, as lonely as widows, with their children.”</p> +<p>“Many children here, ma’am?”</p> +<p>“Seventeen. There are thirteen married ladies, and there +are eight like me.”</p> +<p>There were not eight like her—there was not one like her—in +the world. She meant single.</p> +<p>“Which, with about thirty Englishmen of various degrees,” +said the young lady, “form the little colony now on the Island. +I don’t count the sailors, for they don’t belong to us. +Nor the soldiers,” she gave us a gracious smile when she spoke +of the soldiers, “for the same reason.”</p> +<p>“Nor the Sambos, ma’am,” said I.</p> +<p>“No.”</p> +<p>“Under your favour, and with your leave, ma’am,” +said I, “are they trustworthy?”</p> +<p>“Perfectly! We are all very kind to them, and they are +very grateful to us.”</p> +<p>“Indeed, ma’am? Now—Christian George King?—”</p> +<p>“Very much attached to us all. Would die for us.”</p> +<p>She was, as in my uneducated way I have observed, very beautiful +women almost always to be, so composed, that her composure gave great +weight to what she said, and I believed it.</p> +<p>Then, she pointed out to us the building like a powder magazine, +and explained to us in what manner the silver was brought from the mine, +and was brought over from the mainland, and was stored here. The +Christopher Columbus would have a rich lading, she said, for there had +been a great yield that year, a much richer yield than usual, and there +was a chest of jewels besides the silver.</p> +<p>When we had looked about us, and were getting sheepish, through fearing +we were troublesome, she turned us over to a young woman, English born +but West India bred, who served her as her maid. This young woman +was the widow of a non-commissioned officer in a regiment of the line. +She had got married and widowed at St. Vincent, with only a few months +between the two events. She was a little saucy woman, with a bright +pair of eyes, rather a neat little foot and figure, and rather a neat +little turned-up nose. The sort of young woman, I considered at +the time, who appeared to invite you to give her a kiss, and who would +have slapped your face if you accepted the invitation.</p> +<p>I couldn’t make out her name at first; for, when she gave it +in answer to my inquiry, it sounded like Beltot, which didn’t +sound right. But, when we became better acquainted—which +was while Charker and I were drinking sugar-cane sangaree, which she +made in a most excellent manner—I found that her Christian name +was Isabella, which they shortened into Bell, and that the name of the +deceased non-commissioned officer was Tott. Being the kind of +neat little woman it was natural to make a toy of—I never saw +a woman so like a toy in my life—she had got the plaything name +of Belltott. In short, she had no other name on the island. +Even Mr. Commissioner Pordage (and <i>he</i> was a grave one!) formally +addressed her as Mrs. Belltott, but, I shall come to Mr. Commissioner +Pordage presently.</p> +<p>The name of the captain of the sloop was Captain Maryon, and therefore +it was no news to hear from Mrs. Belltott, that his sister, the beautiful +unmarried young English lady, was Miss Maryon. The novelty was, +that her christian-name was Marion too. Marion Maryon. Many +a time I have run off those two names in my thoughts, like a bit of +verse. Oh many, and many, and many a time!</p> +<p>We saw out all the drink that was produced, like good men and true, +and then took our leaves, and went down to the beach. The weather +was beautiful; the wind steady, low, and gentle; the island, a picture; +the sea, a picture; the sky, a picture. In that country there +are two rainy seasons in the year. One sets in at about our English +Midsummer; the other, about a fortnight after our English Michaelmas. +It was the beginning of August at that time; the first of these rainy +seasons was well over; and everything was in its most beautiful growth, +and had its loveliest look upon it.</p> +<p>“They enjoy themselves here,” I says to Charker, turning +surly again. “This is better than private-soldiering.”</p> +<p>We had come down to the beach, to be friendly with the boat’s-crew +who were camped and hutted there; and we were approaching towards their +quarters over the sand, when Christian George King comes up from the +landing-place at a wolf’s-trot, crying, “Yup, So-Jeer!”—which +was that Sambo Pilot’s barbarous way of saying, Hallo, Soldier! +I have stated myself to be a man of no learning, and, if I entertain +prejudices, I hope allowance may be made. I will now confess to +one. It may be a right one or it may be a wrong one; but, I never +did like Natives, except in the form of oysters.</p> +<p>So, when Christian George King, who was individually unpleasant to +me besides, comes a trotting along the sand, clucking, “Yup, So-Jeer!” +I had a thundering good mind to let fly at him with my right. +I certainly should have done it, but that it would have exposed me to +reprimand.</p> +<p>“Yup, So-Jeer!” says he. “Bad job.”</p> +<p>“What do you mean?” says I.</p> +<p>“Yup, So-Jeer!” says he, “Ship Leakee.”</p> +<p>“Ship leaky?” says I.</p> +<p>“Iss,” says he, with a nod that looked as if it was jerked +out of him by a most violent hiccup—which is the way with those +savages.</p> +<p>I cast my eyes at Charker, and we both heard the pumps going aboard +the sloop, and saw the signal run up, “Come on board; hands wanted +from the shore.” In no time some of the sloop’s liberty-men +were already running down to the water’s edge, and the party of +seamen, under orders against the Pirates, were putting off to the Columbus +in two boats.</p> +<p>“O Christian George King sar berry sorry!” says that +Sambo vagabond, then. “Christian George King cry, English +fashion!” His English fashion of crying was to screw his +black knuckles into his eyes, howl like a dog, and roll himself on his +back on the sand. It was trying not to kick him, but I gave Charker +the word, “Double-quick, Harry!” and we got down to the +water’s edge, and got on board the sloop.</p> +<p>By some means or other, she had sprung such a leak, that no pumping +would keep her free; and what between the two fears that she would go +down in the harbour, and that, even if she did not, all the supplies +she had brought for the little colony would be destroyed by the sea-water +as it rose in her, there was great confusion. In the midst of +it, Captain Maryon was heard hailing from the beach. He had been +carried down in his hammock, and looked very bad; but he insisted on +being stood there on his feet; and I saw him, myself, come off in the +boat, sitting upright in the stern-sheets, as if nothing was wrong with +him.</p> +<p>A quick sort of council was held, and Captain Maryon soon resolved +that we must all fall to work to get the cargo out, and that when that +was done, the guns and heavy matters must be got out, and that the sloop +must be hauled ashore, and careened, and the leak stopped. We +were all mustered (the Pirate-Chace party volunteering), and told off +into parties, with so many hours of spell and so many hours of relief, +and we all went at it with a will. Christian George King was entered +one of the party in which I worked, at his own request, and he went +at it with as good a will as any of the rest. He went at it with +so much heartiness, to say the truth, that he rose in my good opinion +almost as fast as the water rose in the ship. Which was fast enough, +and faster.</p> +<p>Mr. Commissioner Pordage kept in a red-and-black japanned box, like +a family lump-sugar box, some document or other, which some Sambo chief +or other had got drunk and spilt some ink over (as well as I could understand +the matter), and by that means had given up lawful possession of the +Island. Through having hold of this box, Mr. Pordage got his title +of Commissioner. He was styled Consul too, and spoke of himself +as “Government.”</p> +<p>He was a stiff-jointed, high-nosed old gentleman, without an ounce +of fat on him, of a very angry temper and a very yellow complexion. +Mrs. Commissioner Pordage, making allowance for difference of sex, was +much the same. Mr. Kitten, a small, youngish, bald, botanical +and mineralogical gentleman, also connected with the mine—but +everybody there was that, more or less—was sometimes called by +Mr. Commissioner Pordage, his Vice-commissioner, and sometimes his Deputy-consul. +Or sometimes he spoke of Mr. Kitten, merely as being “under Government.”</p> +<p>The beach was beginning to be a lively scene with the preparations +for careening the sloop, and with cargo, and spars, and rigging, and +water-casks, dotted about it, and with temporary quarters for the men +rising up there out of such sails and odds and ends as could be best +set on one side to make them, when Mr. Commissioner Pordage comes down +in a high fluster, and asks for Captain Maryon. The Captain, ill +as he was, was slung in his hammock betwixt two trees, that he might +direct; and he raised his head, and answered for himself.</p> +<p>“Captain Maryon,” cries Mr. Commissioner Pordage, “this +is not official. This is not regular.”</p> +<p>“Sir,” says the Captain, “it hath been arranged +with the clerk and supercargo, that you should be communicated with, +and requested to render any little assistance that may lie in your power. +I am quite certain that hath been duly done.”</p> +<p>“Captain Maryon,” replied Mr. Commissioner Pordage, “there +hath been no written correspondence. No documents have passed, +no memoranda have been made, no minutes have been made, no entries and +counter-entries appear in the official muniments. This is indecent. +I call upon you, sir, to desist, until all is regular, or Government +will take this up.”</p> +<p>“Sir,” says Captain Maryon, chafing a little, as he looked +out of his hammock; “between the chances of Government taking +this up, and my ship taking herself down, I much prefer to trust myself +to the former.”</p> +<p>“You do, sir?” cries Mr. Commissioner Pordage.</p> +<p>“I do, sir,” says Captain Maryon, lying down again.</p> +<p>“Then, Mr. Kitten,” says the Commissioner, “send +up instantly for my Diplomatic coat.”</p> +<p>He was dressed in a linen suit at that moment; but, Mr. Kitten started +off himself and brought down the Diplomatic coat, which was a blue cloth +one, gold-laced, and with a crown on the button.</p> +<p>“Now, Mr. Kitten,” says Pordage, “I instruct you, +as Vice-commissioner, and Deputy-consul of this place, to demand of +Captain Maryon, of the sloop Christopher Columbus, whether he drives +me to the act of putting this coat on?”</p> +<p>“Mr. Pordage,” says Captain Maryon, looking out of his +hammock again, “as I can hear what you say, I can answer it without +troubling the gentleman. I should be sorry that you should be +at the pains of putting on too hot a coat on my account; but, otherwise, +you may put it on hind-side before, or inside-out, or with your legs +in the sleeves, or your head in the skirts, for any objection that I +have to offer to your thoroughly pleasing yourself.”</p> +<p>“Very good, Captain Maryon,” says Pordage, in a tremendous +passion. “Very good, sir. Be the consequences on your +own head! Mr. Kitten, as it has come to this, help me on with +it.”</p> +<p>When he had given that order, he walked off in the coat, and all +our names were taken, and I was afterwards told that Mr. Kitten wrote +from his dictation more than a bushel of large paper on the subject, +which cost more before it was done with, than ever could be calculated, +and which only got done with after all, by being lost.</p> +<p>Our work went on merrily, nevertheless, and the Christopher Columbus, +hauled up, lay helpless on her side like a great fish out of water. +While she was in that state, there was a feast, or a ball, or an entertainment, +or more properly all three together, given us in honour of the ship, +and the ship’s company, and the other visitors. At that +assembly, I believe, I saw all the inhabitants then upon the Island, +without any exception. I took no particular notice of more than +a few, but I found it very agreeable in that little corner of the world +to see the children, who were of all ages, and mostly very pretty—as +they mostly are. There was one handsome elderly lady, with very +dark eyes and gray hair, that I inquired about. I was told that +her name was Mrs. Venning; and her married daughter, a fair slight thing, +was pointed out to me by the name of Fanny Fisher. Quite a child +she looked, with a little copy of herself holding to her dress; and +her husband, just come back from the mine, exceeding proud of her. +They were a good-looking set of people on the whole, but I didn’t +like them. I was out of sorts; in conversation with Charker, I +found fault with all of them. I said of Mrs. Venning, she was +proud; of Mrs. Fisher, she was a delicate little baby-fool. What +did I think of this one? Why, he was a fine gentleman. What +did I say to that one? Why, she was a fine lady. What could +you expect them to be (I asked Charker), nursed in that climate, with +the tropical night shining for them, musical instruments playing to +them, great trees bending over them, soft lamps lighting them, fire-flies +sparkling in among them, bright flowers and birds brought into existence +to please their eyes, delicious drinks to be had for the pouring out, +delicious fruits to be got for the picking, and every one dancing and +murmuring happily in the scented air, with the sea breaking low on the +reef for a pleasant chorus.</p> +<p>“Fine gentlemen and fine ladies, Harry?” I says to Charker. +“Yes, I think so! Dolls! Dolls! Not the sort +of stuff for wear, that comes of poor private soldiering in the Royal +Marines!”</p> +<p>However, I could not gainsay that they were very hospitable people, +and that they treated us uncommonly well. Every man of us was +at the entertainment, and Mrs. Belltott had more partners than she could +dance with: though she danced all night, too. As to Jack (whether +of the Christopher Columbus, or of the Pirate pursuit party, it made +no difference), he danced with his brother Jack, danced with himself, +danced with the moon, the stars, the trees, the prospect, anything. +I didn’t greatly take to the chief-officer of that party, with +his bright eyes, brown face, and easy figure. I didn’t much +like his way when he first happened to come where we were, with Miss +Maryon on his arm. “O, Captain Carton,” she says, +“here are two friends of mine!” He says, “Indeed? +These two Marines?”—meaning Charker and self. “Yes,” +says she, “I showed these two friends of mine when they first +came, all the wonders of Silver-Store.” He gave us a laughing +look, and says he, “You are in luck, men. I would be disrated +and go before the mast to-morrow, to be shown the way upward again by +such a guide. You are in luck, men.” When we had saluted, +and he and the lady had waltzed away, I said, “You are a pretty +follow, too, to talk of luck. You may go to the Devil!”</p> +<p>Mr. Commissioner Pordage and Mrs. Commissioner, showed among the +company on that occasion like the King and Queen of a much Greater Britain +than Great Britain. Only two other circumstances in that jovial +night made much separate impression on me. One was this. +A man in our draft of marines, named Tom Packer, a wild unsteady young +fellow, but the son of a respectable shipwright in Portsmouth Yard, +and a good scholar who had been well brought up, comes to me after a +spell of dancing, and takes me aside by the elbow, and says, swearing +angrily:</p> +<p>“Gill Davis, I hope I may not be the death of Sergeant Drooce +one day!”</p> +<p>Now, I knew Drooce had always borne particularly hard on this man, +and I knew this man to be of a very hot temper: so, I said:</p> +<p>“Tut, nonsense! don’t talk so to me! If there’s +a man in the corps who scorns the name of an assassin, that man and +Tom Packer are one.”</p> +<p>Tom wipes his head, being in a mortal sweat, and says he:</p> +<p>“I hope so, but I can’t answer for myself when he lords +it over me, as he has just now done, before a woman. I tell you +what, Gill! Mark my words! It will go hard with Sergeant +Drooce, if ever we are in an engagement together, and he has to look +to me to save him. Let him say a prayer then, if he knows one, +for it’s all over with him, and he is on his Death-bed. +Mark my words!”</p> +<p>I did mark his words, and very soon afterwards, too, as will shortly +be taken down.</p> +<p>The other circumstance that I noticed at that ball, was, the gaiety +and attachment of Christian George King. The innocent spirits +that Sambo Pilot was in, and the impossibility he found himself under +of showing all the little colony, but especially the ladies and children, +how fond he was of them, how devoted to them, and how faithful to them +for life and death, for present, future, and everlasting, made a great +impression on me. If ever a man, Sambo or no Sambo, was trustful +and trusted, to what may be called quite an infantine and sweetly beautiful +extent, surely, I thought that morning when I did at last lie down to +rest, it was that Sambo Pilot, Christian George King.</p> +<p>This may account for my dreaming of him. He stuck in my sleep, +cornerwise, and I couldn’t get him out. He was always flitting +about me, dancing round me, and peeping in over my hammock, though I +woke and dozed off again fifty times. At last, when I opened my +eyes, there he really was, looking in at the open side of the little +dark hut; which was made of leaves, and had Charker’s hammock +slung in it as well as mine.</p> +<p>“So-Jeer!” says he, in a sort of a low croak. “Yup!”</p> +<p>“Hallo!” says I, starting up. “What? +You <i>are</i> there, are you?”</p> +<p>“Iss,” says he. “Christian George King got +news.”</p> +<p>“What news has he got?”</p> +<p>“Pirates out!”</p> +<p>I was on my feet in a second. So was Charker. We were +both aware that Captain Carton, in command of the boats, constantly +watched the mainland for a secret signal, though, of course, it was +not known to such as us what the signal was.</p> +<p>Christian George King had vanished before we touched the ground. +But, the word was already passing from hut to hut to turn out quietly, +and we knew that the nimble barbarian had got hold of the truth, or +something near it.</p> +<p>In a space among the trees behind the encampment of us visitors, +naval and military, was a snugly-screened spot, where we kept the stores +that were in use, and did our cookery. The word was passed to +assemble here. It was very quickly given, and was given (so far +as we were concerned) by Sergeant Drooce, who was as good in a soldier +point of view, as he was bad in a tyrannical one. We were ordered +to drop into this space, quietly, behind the trees, one by one. +As we assembled here, the seamen assembled too. Within ten minutes, +as I should estimate, we were all here, except the usual guard upon +the beach. The beach (we could see it through the wood) looked +as it always had done in the hottest time of the day. The guard +were in the shadow of the sloop’s hull, and nothing was moving +but the sea,—and that moved very faintly. Work had always +been knocked off at that hour, until the sun grew less fierce, and the +sea-breeze rose; so that its being holiday with us, made no difference, +just then, in the look of the place. But I may mention that it +was a holiday, and the first we had had since our hard work began. +Last night’s ball had been given, on the leak’s being repaired, +and the careening done. The worst of the work was over, and to-morrow +we were to begin to get the sloop afloat again.</p> +<p>We marines were now drawn up here under arms. The chace-party +were drawn up separate. The men of the Columbus were drawn up +separate. The officers stepped out into the midst of the three +parties, and spoke so as all might hear. Captain Carton was the +officer in command, and he had a spy-glass in his hand. His coxswain +stood by him with another spy-glass, and with a slate on which he seemed +to have been taking down signals.</p> +<p>“Now, men!” says Captain Carton; “I have to let +you know, for your satisfaction: Firstly, that there are ten pirate-boats, +strongly manned and armed, lying hidden up a creek yonder on the coast, +under the overhanging branches of the dense trees. Secondly, that +they will certainly come out this night when the moon rises, on a pillaging +and murdering expedition, of which some part of the mainland is the +object. Thirdly—don’t cheer, men!—that we will +give chace, and, if we can get at them, rid the world of them, please +God!”</p> +<p>Nobody spoke, that I heard, and nobody moved, that I saw. Yet +there was a kind of ring, as if every man answered and approved with +the best blood that was inside of him.</p> +<p>“Sir,” says Captain Maryon, “I beg to volunteer +on this service, with my boats. My people volunteer, to the ship’s +boys.”</p> +<p>“In His Majesty’s name and service,” the other +answers, touching his hat, “I accept your aid with pleasure. +Lieutenant Linderwood, how will you divide your men?”</p> +<p>I was ashamed—I give it out to be written down as large and +plain as possible—I was heart and soul ashamed of my thoughts +of those two sick officers, Captain Maryon and Lieutenant Linderwood, +when I saw them, then and there. The spirit in those two gentlemen +beat down their illness (and very ill I knew them to be) like Saint +George beating down the Dragon. Pain and weakness, want of ease +and want of rest, had no more place in their minds than fear itself. +Meaning now to express for my lady to write down, exactly what I felt +then and there, I felt this: “You two brave fellows that I had +been so grudgeful of, I know that if you were dying you would put it +off to get up and do your best, and then you would be so modest that +in lying down again to die, you would hardly say, ‘I did it!’”</p> +<p>It did me good. It really did me good.</p> +<p>But, to go back to where I broke off. Says Captain Carton to +Lieutenant Linderwood, “Sir, how will you divide your men? +There is not room for all; and a few men should, in any case, be left +here.”</p> +<p>There was some debate about it. At last, it was resolved to +leave eight Marines and four seamen on the Island, besides the sloop’s +two boys. And because it was considered that the friendly Sambos +would only want to be commanded in case of any danger (though none at +all was apprehended there), the officers were in favour of leaving the +two non-commissioned officers, Drooce and Charker. It was a heavy +disappointment to them, just as my being one of the left was a heavy +disappointment to me—then, but not soon afterwards. We men +drew lots for it, and I drew “Island.” So did Tom +Packer. So of course, did four more of our rank and file.</p> +<p>When this was settled, verbal instructions were given to all hands +to keep the intended expedition secret, in order that the women and +children might not be alarmed, or the expedition put in a difficulty +by more volunteers. The assembly was to be on that same spot at +sunset. Every man was to keep up an appearance, meanwhile, of +occupying himself in his usual way. That is to say, every man +excepting four old trusty seamen, who were appointed, with an officer, +to see to the arms and ammunition, and to muffle the rullocks of the +boats, and to make everything as trim and swift and silent as it could +be made.</p> +<p>The Sambo Pilot had been present all the while, in case of his being +wanted, and had said to the officer in command, five hundred times over +if he had said it once, that Christian George King would stay with the +So-Jeers, and take care of the booffer ladies and the booffer childs—booffer +being that native’s expression for beautiful. He was now +asked a few questions concerning the putting off of the boats, and in +particular whether there was any way of embarking at the back of the +Island: which Captain Carton would have half liked to do, and then have +dropped round in its shadow and slanted across to the main. But, +“No,” says Christian George King. “No, no, no! +Told you so, ten time. No, no, no! All reef, all rock, all +swim, all drown!” Striking out as he said it, like a swimmer +gone mad, and turning over on his back on dry land, and spluttering +himself to death, in a manner that made him quite an exhibition.</p> +<p>The sun went down, after appearing to be a long time about it, and +the assembly was called. Every man answered to his name, of course, +and was at his post. It was not yet black dark, and the roll was +only just gone through, when up comes Mr. Commissioner Pordage with +his Diplomatic coat on.</p> +<p>“Captain Carton,” says he, “Sir, what is this?”</p> +<p>“This, Mr. Commissioner” (he was very short with him), +“is an expedition against the Pirates. It is a secret expedition, +so please to keep it a secret.”</p> +<p>“Sir,” says Commissioner Pordage, “I trust there +is going to be no unnecessary cruelty committed?”</p> +<p>“Sir,” returns the officer, “I trust not.”</p> +<p>“That is not enough, sir,” cries Commissioner Pordage, +getting wroth. “Captain Carton, I give you notice. +Government requires you to treat the enemy with great delicacy, consideration, +clemency, and forbearance.”</p> +<p>“Sir,” says Captain Carton, “I am an English officer, +commanding English Men, and I hope I am not likely to disappoint the +Government’s just expectations. But, I presume you know +that these villains under their black flag have despoiled our countrymen +of their property, burnt their homes, barbarously murdered them and +their little children, and worse than murdered their wives and daughters?”</p> +<p>“Perhaps I do, Captain Carton,” answers Pordage, waving +his hand, with dignity; “perhaps I do not. It is not customary, +sir, for Government to commit itself.”</p> +<p>“It matters very little, Mr. Pordage, whether or no. +Believing that I hold my commission by the allowance of God, and not +that I have received it direct from the Devil, I shall certainly use +it, with all avoidance of unnecessary suffering and with all merciful +swiftness of execution, to exterminate these people from the face of +the earth. Let me recommend you to go home, sir, and to keep out +of the night-air.”</p> +<p>Never another syllable did that officer say to the Commissioner, +but turned away to his men. The Commissioner buttoned his Diplomatic +coat to the chin, said, “Mr. Kitten, attend me!” gasped, +half choked himself, and took himself off.</p> +<p>It now fell very dark, indeed. I have seldom, if ever, seen +it darker, nor yet so dark. The moon was not due until one in +the morning, and it was but a little after nine when our men lay down +where they were mustered. It was pretended that they were to take +a nap, but everybody knew that no nap was to be got under the circumstances. +Though all were very quiet, there was a restlessness among the people; +much what I have seen among the people on a race-course, when the bell +has rung for the saddling for a great race with large stakes on it.</p> +<p>At ten, they put off; only one boat putting off at a time; another +following in five minutes; both then lying on their oars until another +followed. Ahead of all, paddling his own outlandish little canoe +without a sound, went the Sambo pilot, to take them safely outside the +reef. No light was shown but once, and that was in the commanding +officer’s own hand. I lighted the dark lantern for him, +and he took it from me when he embarked. They had blue lights +and such like with them, but kept themselves as dark as Murder.</p> +<p>The expedition got away with wonderful quietness, and Christian George +King soon came back dancing with joy.</p> +<p>“Yup, So-Jeer,” says he to myself in a very objectionable +kind of convulsions, “Christian George King sar berry glad. +Pirates all be blown a-pieces. Yup! Yup!”</p> +<p>My reply to that cannibal was, “However glad you may be, hold +your noise, and don’t dance jigs and slap your knees about it, +for I can’t abear to see you do it.”</p> +<p>I was on duty then; we twelve who were left being divided into four +watches of three each, three hours’ spell. I was relieved +at twelve. A little before that time, I had challenged, and Miss +Maryon and Mrs. Belltott had come in.</p> +<p>“Good Davis,” says Miss Maryon, “what is the matter? +Where is my brother?”</p> +<p>I told her what was the matter, and where her brother was.</p> +<p>“O Heaven help him!” says she, clasping her hands and +looking up—she was close in front of me, and she looked most lovely +to be sure; “he is not sufficiently recovered, not strong enough +for such strife!”</p> +<p>“If you had seen him, miss,” I told her, “as I +saw him when he volunteered, you would have known that his spirit is +strong enough for any strife. It will bear his body, miss, to +wherever duty calls him. It will always bear him to an honourable +life, or a brave death.”</p> +<p>“Heaven bless you!” says she, touching my arm. +“I know it. Heaven bless you!”</p> +<p>Mrs. Belltott surprised me by trembling and saying nothing. +They were still standing looking towards the sea and listening, after +the relief had come round. It continuing very dark, I asked to +be allowed to take them back. Miss Maryon thanked me, and she +put her arm in mine, and I did take them back. I have now got +to make a confession that will appear singular. After I had left +them, I laid myself down on my face on the beach, and cried for the +first time since I had frightened birds as a boy at Snorridge Bottom, +to think what a poor, ignorant, low-placed, private soldier I was.</p> +<p>It was only for half a minute or so. A man can’t at all +times be quite master of himself, and it was only for half a minute +or so. Then I up and went to my hut, and turned into my hammock, +and fell asleep with wet eyelashes, and a sore, sore heart. Just +as I had often done when I was a child, and had been worse used than +usual.</p> +<p>I slept (as a child under those circumstances might) very sound, +and yet very sore at heart all through my sleep. I was awoke by +the words, “He is a determined man.” I had sprung +out of my hammock, and had seized my firelock, and was standing on the +ground, saying the words myself. “He is a determined man.” +But, the curiosity of my state was, that I seemed to be repeating them +after somebody, and to have been wonderfully startled by hearing them.</p> +<p>As soon as I came to myself, I went out of the hut, and away to where +the guard was. Charker challenged:</p> +<p>“Who goes there?”</p> +<p>“A friend.”</p> +<p>“Not Gill?” says he, as he shouldered his piece.</p> +<p>“Gill,” says I.</p> +<p>“Why, what the deuce do you do out of your hammock?” +says he.</p> +<p>“Too hot for sleep,” says I; “is all right?”</p> +<p>“Right!” says Charker, “yes, yes; all’s right +enough here; what should be wrong here? It’s the boats that +we want to know of. Except for fire-flies twinkling about, and +the lonesome splashes of great creatures as they drop into the water, +there’s nothing going on here to ease a man’s mind from +the boats.”</p> +<p>The moon was above the sea, and had risen, I should say, some half-an-hour. +As Charker spoke, with his face towards the sea, I, looking landward, +suddenly laid my right hand on his breast, and said, “Don’t +move. Don’t turn. Don’t raise your voice! +You never saw a Maltese face here?”</p> +<p>“No. What do you mean?” he asks, staring at me.</p> +<p>“Nor yet, an English face, with one eye and a patch across +the nose?”</p> +<p>“No. What ails you? What do you mean?”</p> +<p>I had seen both, looking at us round the stem of a cocoa-nut tree, +where the moon struck them. I had seen that Sambo Pilot, with +one hand laid on the stem of the tree, drawing them back into the heavy +shadow. I had seen their naked cutlasses twinkle and shine, like +bits of the moonshine in the water that had got blown ashore among the +trees by the light wind. I had seen it all, in a moment. +And I saw in a moment (as any man would), that the signalled move of +the pirates on the mainland was a plot and a feint; that the leak had +been made to disable the sloop; that the boats had been tempted away, +to leave the Island unprotected; that the pirates had landed by some +secreted way at the back; and that Christian George King was a double-dyed +traitor, and a most infernal villain.</p> +<p>I considered, still all in one and the same moment, that Charker +was a brave man, but not quick with his head; and that Sergeant Drooce, +with a much better head, was close by. All I said to Charker was, +“I am afraid we are betrayed. Turn your back full to the +moonlight on the sea, and cover the stem of the cocoa-nut tree which +will then be right before you, at the height of a man’s heart. +Are you right?”</p> +<p>“I am right,” says Charker, turning instantly, and falling +into the position with a nerve of iron; “and right ain’t +left. Is it, Gill?”</p> +<p>A few seconds brought me to Sergeant Drooce’s hut. He +was fast asleep, and being a heavy sleeper, I had to lay my hand upon +him to rouse him. The instant I touched him he came rolling out +of his hammock, and upon me like a tiger. And a tiger he was, +except that he knew what he was up to, in his utmost heat, as well as +any man.</p> +<p>I had to struggle with him pretty hard to bring him to his senses, +panting all the while (for he gave me a breather), “Sergeant, +I am Gill Davis! Treachery! Pirates on the Island!”</p> +<p>The last words brought him round, and he took his hands of. +“I have seen two of them within this minute,” said I. +And so I told him what I had told Harry Charker.</p> +<p>His soldierly, though tyrannical, head was clear in an instant. +He didn’t waste one word, even of surprise. “Order +the guard,” says he, “to draw off quietly into the Fort.” +(They called the enclosure I have before mentioned, the Fort, though +it was not much of that.) “Then get you to the Fort as quick +as you can, rouse up every soul there, and fasten the gate. I +will bring in all those who are at the Signal Hill. If we are +surrounded before we can join you, you must make a sally and cut us +out if you can. The word among our men is, ‘Women and children!’”</p> +<p>He burst away, like fire going before the wind over dry reeds. +He roused up the seven men who were off duty, and had them bursting +away with him, before they know they were not asleep. I reported +orders to Charker, and ran to the Fort, as I have never run at any other +time in all my life: no, not even in a dream.</p> +<p>The gate was not fast, and had no good fastening: only a double wooden +bar, a poor chain, and a bad lock. Those, I secured as well as +they could be secured in a few seconds by one pair of hands, and so +ran to that part of the building where Miss Maryon lived. I called +to her loudly by her name until she answered. I then called loudly +all the names I knew—Mrs. Macey (Miss Maryon’s married sister), +Mr. Macey, Mrs. Venning, Mr. and Mrs. Fisher, even Mr. and Mrs. Pordage. +Then I called out, “All you gentlemen here, get up and defend +the place! We are caught in a trap. Pirates have landed. +We are attacked!”</p> +<p>At the terrible word “Pirates!”—for, those villains +had done such deeds in those seas as never can be told in writing, and +can scarcely be so much as thought of—cries and screams rose up +from every part of the place. Quickly lights moved about from +window to window, and the cries moved about with them, and men, women, +and children came flying down into the square. I remarked to myself, +even then, what a number of things I seemed to see at once. I +noticed Mrs. Macey coming towards me, carrying all her three children +together. I noticed Mr. Pordage in the greatest terror, in vain +trying to get on his Diplomatic coat; and Mr. Kitten respectfully tying +his pocket-handkerchief over Mrs. Pordage’s nightcap. I +noticed Mrs. Belltott run out screaming, and shrink upon the ground +near me, and cover her face in her hands, and lie all of a bundle, shivering. +But, what I noticed with the greatest pleasure was, the determined eyes +with which those men of the Mine that I had thought fine gentlemen, +came round me with what arms they had: to the full as cool and resolute +as I could be, for my life—ay, and for my soul, too, into the +bargain!</p> +<p>The chief person being Mr. Macey, I told him how the three men of +the guard would be at the gate directly, if they were not already there, +and how Sergeant Drooce and the other seven were gone to bring in the +outlying part of the people of Silver-Store. I next urged him, +for the love of all who were dear to him, to trust no Sambo, and, above +all, if he could got any good chance at Christian George King, not to +lose it, but to put him out of the world.</p> +<p>“I will follow your advice to the letter, Davis,” says +he; “what next?”</p> +<p>My answer was, “I think, sir, I would recommend you next, to +order down such heavy furniture and lumber as can be moved, and make +a barricade within the gate.”</p> +<p>“That’s good again,” says he: “will you see +it done?”</p> +<p>“I’ll willingly help to do it,” says I, “unless +or until my superior, Sergeant Drooce, gives me other orders.”</p> +<p>He shook me by the hand, and having told off some of his companions +to help me, bestirred himself to look to the arms and ammunition. +A proper quick, brave, steady, ready gentleman!</p> +<p>One of their three little children was deaf and dumb, Miss Maryon +had been from the first with all the children, soothing them, and dressing +them (poor little things, they had been brought out of their beds), +and making them believe that it was a game of play, so that some of +them were now even laughing. I had been working hard with the +others at the barricade, and had got up a pretty good breastwork within +the gate. Drooce and the seven men had come back, bringing in +the people from the Signal Hill, and had worked along with us: but, +I had not so much as spoken a word to Drooce, nor had Drooce so much +as spoken a word to me, for we were both too busy. The breastwork +was now finished, and I found Miss Maryon at my side, with a child in +her arms. Her dark hair was fastened round her head with a band. +She had a quantity of it, and it looked even richer and more precious, +put up hastily out of her way, than I had seen it look when it was carefully +arranged. She was very pale, but extraordinarily quiet and still.</p> +<p>“Dear good Davis,” said she, “I have been waiting +to speak one word to you.”</p> +<p>I turned to her directly. If I had received a musket-ball in +the heart, and she had stood there, I almost believe I should have turned +to her before I dropped.</p> +<p>“This pretty little creature,” said she, kissing the +child in her arms, who was playing with her hair and trying to pull +it down, “cannot hear what we say—can hear nothing. +I trust you so much, and have such great confidence in you, that I want +you to make me a promise.”</p> +<p>“What is it, Miss?”</p> +<p>“That if we are defeated, and you are absolutely sure of my +being taken, you will kill me.”</p> +<p>“I shall not be alive to do it, Miss. I shall have died +in your defence before it comes to that. They must step across +my body to lay a hand on you.”</p> +<p>“But, if you are alive, you brave soldier.” How +she looked at me! “And if you cannot save me from the Pirates, +living, you will save me, dead. Tell me so.”</p> +<p>Well! I told her I would do that at the last, if all else failed. +She took my hand—my rough, coarse hand—and put it to her +lips. She put it to the child’s lips, and the child kissed +it. I believe I had the strength of half a dozen men in me, from +that moment, until the fight was over.</p> +<p>All this time, Mr. Commissioner Pordage had been wanting to make +a Proclamation to the Pirates to lay down their arms and go away; and +everybody had been hustling him about and tumbling over him, while he +was calling for pen and ink to write it with. Mrs. Pordage, too, +had some curious ideas about the British respectability of her nightcap +(which had as many frills to it, growing in layers one inside another, +as if it was a white vegetable of the artichoke sort), and she wouldn’t +take the nightcap off, and would be angry when it got crushed by the +other ladies who were handing things about, and, in short, she gave +as much trouble as her husband did. But, as we were now forming +for the defence of the place, they were both poked out of the way with +no ceremony. The children and ladies were got into the little +trench which surrounded the silver-house (we were afraid of leaving +them in any of the light buildings, lest they should be set on fire), +and we made the best disposition we could. There was a pretty +good store, in point of amount, of tolerable swords and cutlasses. +Those were issued. There were, also, perhaps a score or so of +spare muskets. Those were brought out. To my astonishment, +little Mrs. Fisher that I had taken for a doll and a baby, was not only +very active in that service, but volunteered to load the spare arms.</p> +<p>“For, I understand it well,” says she, cheerfully, without +a shake in her voice.</p> +<p>“I am a soldier’s daughter and a sailor’s sister, +and I understand it too,” says Miss Maryon, just in the same way.</p> +<p>Steady and busy behind where I stood, those two beautiful and delicate +young women fell to handling the guns, hammering the flints, looking +to the locks, and quietly directing others to pass up powder and bullets +from hand to hand, as unflinching as the best of tried soldiers.</p> +<p>Sergeant Drooce had brought in word that the pirates were very strong +in numbers—over a hundred was his estimate—and that they +were not, even then, all landed; for, he had seen them in a very good +position on the further side of the Signal Hill, evidently waiting for +the rest of their men to come up. In the present pause, the first +we had had since the alarm, he was telling this over again to Mr. Macey, +when Mr. Macey suddenly cried our: “The signal! Nobody has +thought of the signal!”</p> +<p>We knew of no signal, so we could not have thought of it.</p> +<p>“What signal may you mean, sir?” says Sergeant Drooce, +looking sharp at him.</p> +<p>“There is a pile of wood upon the Signal Hill. If it +could be lighted—which never has been done yet—it would +be a signal of distress to the mainland.”</p> +<p>Charker cries, directly: “Sergeant Drooce, dispatch me on that +duty. Give me the two men who were on guard with me to-night, +and I’ll light the fire, if it can be done.”</p> +<p>“And if it can’t, Corporal—” Mr. Macey strikes +in.</p> +<p>“Look at these ladies and children, sir!” says Charker. +“I’d sooner <i>light myself</i>, than not try any chance +to save them.”</p> +<p>We gave him a Hurrah!—it burst from us, come of it what might—and +he got his two men, and was let out at the gate, and crept away. +I had no sooner come back to my place from being one of the party to +handle the gate, than Miss Maryon said in a low voice behind me:</p> +<p>“Davis, will you look at this powder? This is not right.”</p> +<p>I turned my head. Christian George King again, and treachery +again! Sea-water had been conveyed into the magazine, and every +grain of powder was spoiled!</p> +<p>“Stay a moment,” said Sergeant Drooce, when I had told +him, without causing a movement in a muscle of his face: “look +to your pouch, my lad. You Tom Packer, look to your pouch, confound +you! Look to your pouches, all you Marines.”</p> +<p>The same artful savage had got at them, somehow or another, and the +cartridges were all unserviceable. “Hum!” says the +Sergeant. “Look to your loading, men. You are right +so far?”</p> +<p>Yes; we were right so far.</p> +<p>“Well, my lads, and gentlemen all,” says the Sergeant, +“this will be a hand-to-hand affair, and so much the better.”</p> +<p>He treated himself to a pinch of snuff, and stood up, square-shouldered +and broad-chested, in the light of the moon—which was now very +bright—as cool as if he was waiting for a play to begin. +He stood quiet, and we all stood quiet, for a matter of something like +half-an-hour. I took notice from such whispered talk as there +was, how little we that the silver did not belong to, thought about +it, and how much the people that it did belong to, thought about it. +At the end of the half-hour, it was reported from the gate that Charker +and the two were falling back on us, pursued by about a dozen.</p> +<p>“Sally! Gate-party, under Gill Davis,” says the +Sergeant, “and bring ’em in! Like men, now!”</p> +<p>We were not long about it, and we brought them in. “Don’t +take me,” says Charker, holding me round the neck, and stumbling +down at my feet when the gate was fast, “don’t take me near +the ladies or the children, Gill. They had better not see Death, +till it can’t be helped. They’ll see it soon enough.”</p> +<p>“Harry!” I answered, holding up his head. “Comrade!”</p> +<p>He was cut to pieces. The signal had been secured by the first +pirate party that landed; his hair was all singed off, and his face +was blackened with the running pitch from a torch.</p> +<p>He made no complaint of pain, or of anything. “Good-bye, +old chap,” was all he said, with a smile. “I’ve +got my death. And Death ain’t life. Is it, Gill?”</p> +<p>Having helped to lay his poor body on one side, I went back to my +post. Sergeant Drooce looked at me, with his eyebrows a little +lifted. I nodded. “Close up here men, and gentlemen +all!” said the Sergeant. “A place too many, in the +line.”</p> +<p>The Pirates were so close upon us at this time, that the foremost +of them were already before the gate. More and more came up with +a great noise, and shouting loudly. When we believed from the +sound that they were all there, we gave three English cheers. +The poor little children joined, and were so fully convinced of our +being at play, that they enjoyed the noise, and were heard clapping +their hands in the silence that followed.</p> +<p>Our disposition was this, beginning with the rear. Mrs. Venning, +holding her daughter’s child in her arms, sat on the steps of +the little square trench surrounding the silver-house, encouraging and +directing those women and children as she might have done in the happiest +and easiest time of her life. Then, there was an armed line, under +Mr. Macey, across the width of the enclosure, facing that way and having +their backs towards the gate, in order that they might watch the walls +and prevent our being taken by surprise. Then there was a space +of eight or ten feet deep, in which the spare arms were, and in which +Miss Maryon and Mrs. Fisher, their hands and dresses blackened with +the spoilt gunpowder, worked on their knees, tying such things as knives, +old bayonets, and spear-heads, to the muzzles of the useless muskets. +Then, there was a second armed line, under Sergeant Drooce, also across +the width of the enclosure, but facing to the gate. Then came +the breastwork we had made, with a zigzag way through it for me and +my little party to hold good in retreating, as long as we could, when +we were driven from the gate. We all knew that it was impossible +to hold the place long, and that our only hope was in the timely discovery +of the plot by the boats, and in their coming back.</p> +<p>I and my men were now thrown forward to the gate. From a spy-hole, +I could see the whole crowd of Pirates. There were Malays among +them, Dutch, Maltese, Greeks, Sambos, Negroes, and Convict Englishmen +from the West India Islands; among the last, him with the one eye and +the patch across the nose. There were some Portuguese, too, and +a few Spaniards. The captain was a Portuguese; a little man with +very large ear-rings under a very broad hat, and a great bright shawl +twisted about his shoulders. They were all strongly armed, but +like a boarding party, with pikes, swords, cutlasses, and axes. +I noticed a good many pistols, but not a gun of any kind among them. +This gave me to understand that they had considered that a continued +roll of musketry might perhaps have been heard on the mainland; also, +that for the reason that fire would be seen from the mainland they would +not set the Fort in flames and roast us alive; which was one of their +favourite ways of carrying on. I looked about for Christian George +King, and if I had seen him I am much mistaken if he would not have +received my one round of ball-cartridge in his head. But, no Christian +George King was visible.</p> +<p>A sort of a wild Portuguese demon, who seemed either fierce-mad or +fierce-drunk—but, they all seemed one or the other—came +forward with the black flag, and gave it a wave or two. After +that, the Portuguese captain called out in shrill English, “I +say you! English fools! Open the gate! Surrender!”</p> +<p>As we kept close and quiet, he said something to his men which I +didn’t understand, and when he had said it, the one-eyed English +rascal with the patch (who had stepped out when he began), said it again +in English. It was only this. “Boys of the black flag, +this is to be quickly done. Take all the prisoners you can. +If they don’t yield, kill the children to make them. Forward!” +Then, they all came on at the gate, and in another half-minute were +smashing and splitting it in.</p> +<p>We struck at them through the gaps and shivers, and we dropped many +of them, too; but, their very weight would have carried such a gate, +if they had been unarmed. I soon found Sergeant Drooce at my side, +forming us six remaining marines in line—Tom Packer next to me—and +ordering us to fall back three paces, and, as they broke in, to give +them our one little volley at short distance. “Then,” +says he, “receive them behind your breastwork on the bayonet, +and at least let every man of you pin one of the cursed cockchafers +through the body.”</p> +<p>We checked them by our fire, slight as it was, and we checked them +at the breastwork. However, they broke over it like swarms of +devils—they were, really and truly, more devils than men—and +then it was hand to hand, indeed.</p> +<p>We clubbed our muskets and laid about us; even then, those two ladies—always +behind me—were steady and ready with the arms. I had a lot +of Maltese and Malays upon me, and, but for a broadsword that Miss Maryon’s +own hand put in mine, should have got my end from them. But, was +that all? No. I saw a heap of banded dark hair and a white +dress come thrice between me and them, under my own raised right arm, +which each time might have destroyed the wearer of the white dress; +and each time one of the lot went down, struck dead.</p> +<p>Drooce was armed with a broadsword, too, and did such things with +it, that there was a cry, in half-a-dozen languages, of “Kill +that sergeant!” as I knew, by the cry being raised in English, +and taken up in other tongues. I had received a severe cut across +the left arm a few moments before, and should have known nothing of +it, except supposing that somebody had struck me a smart blow, if I +had not felt weak, and seen myself covered with spouting blood, and, +at the same instant of time, seen Miss Maryon tearing her dress and +binding it with Mrs. Fisher’s help round the wound. They +called to Tom Packer, who was scouring by, to stop and guard me for +one minute, while I was bound, or I should bleed to death in trying +to defend myself. Tom stopped directly, with a good sabre in his +hand.</p> +<p>In that same moment—all things seem to happen in that same +moment, at such a time—half-a-dozen had rushed howling at Sergeant +Drooce. The Sergeant, stepping back against the wall, stopped +one howl for ever with such a terrible blow, and waited for the rest +to come on, with such a wonderfully unmoved face, that they stopped +and looked at him.</p> +<p>“See him now!” cried Tom Packer. “Now, when +I could cut him out! Gill! Did I tell you to mark my words?”</p> +<p>I implored Tom Packer in the Lord’s name, as well as I could +in my faintness, to go to the Sergeant’s aid.</p> +<p>“I hate and detest him,” says Tom, moodily wavering. +“Still, he is a brave man.” Then he calls out, “Sergeant +Drooce, Sergeant Drooce! Tell me you have driven me too hard, +and are sorry for it.”</p> +<p>The Sergeant, without turning his eyes from his assailants, which +would have been instant death to him, answers.</p> +<p>“No. I won’t.”</p> +<p>“Sergeant Drooce!” cries Tom, in a kind of an agony. +“I have passed my word that I would never save you from Death, +if I could, but would leave you to die. Tell me you have driven +me too hard and are sorry for it, and that shall go for nothing.”</p> +<p>One of the group laid the Sergeant’s bald bare head open. +The Sergeant laid him dead.</p> +<p>“I tell you,” says the Sergeant, breathing a little short, +and waiting for the next attack, “no. I won’t. +If you are not man enough to strike for a fellow-soldier because he +wants help, and because of nothing else, I’ll go into the other +world and look for a better man.”</p> +<p>Tom swept upon them, and cut him out. Tom and he fought their +way through another knot of them, and sent them flying, and came over +to where I was beginning again to feel, with inexpressible joy, that +I had got a sword in my hand.</p> +<p>They had hardly come to us, when I heard, above all the other noises, +a tremendous cry of women’s voices. I also saw Miss Maryon, +with quite a new face, suddenly clap her two hands over Mrs. Fisher’s +eyes. I looked towards the silver-house, and saw Mrs. Venning—standing +upright on the top of the steps of the trench, with her gray hair and +her dark eyes—hide her daughter’s child behind her, among +the folds of her dress, strike a pirate with her other hand, and fall, +shot by his pistol.</p> +<p>The cry arose again, and there was a terrible and confusing rush +of the women into the midst of the struggle. In another moment, +something came tumbling down upon me that I thought was the wall. +It was a heap of Sambos who had come over the wall; and of four men +who clung to my legs like serpents, one who clung to my right leg was +Christian George King.</p> +<p>“Yup, So-Jeer,” says he, “Christian George King +sar berry glad So-Jeer a prisoner. Christian George King been +waiting for So-Jeer sech long time. Yup, yup!”</p> +<p>What could I do, with five-and-twenty of them on me, but be tied +hand and foot? So, I was tied hand and foot. It was all +over now—boats not come back—all lost! When I was +fast bound and was put up against the wall, the one-eyed English convict +came up with the Portuguese Captain, to have a look at me.</p> +<p>“See!” says he. “Here’s the determined +man! If you had slept sounder, last night, you’d have slept +your soundest last night, my determined man.”</p> +<p>The Portuguese Captain laughed in a cool way, and with the flat of +his cutlass, hit me crosswise, as if I was the bough of a tree that +he played with: first on the face, and then across the chest and the +wounded arm. I looked him steady in the face without tumbling +while he looked at me, I am happy to say; but, when they went away, +I fell, and lay there.</p> +<p>The sun was up, when I was roused and told to come down to the beach +and be embarked. I was full of aches and pains, and could not +at first remember; but, I remembered quite soon enough. The killed +were lying about all over the place, and the Pirates were burying their +dead, and taking away their wounded on hastily-made litters, to the +back of the Island. As for us prisoners, some of their boats had +come round to the usual harbour, to carry us off. We looked a +wretched few, I thought, when I got down there; still, it was another +sign that we had fought well, and made the enemy suffer.</p> +<p>The Portuguese Captain had all the women already embarked in the +boat he himself commanded, which was just putting off when I got down. +Miss Maryon sat on one side of him, and gave me a moment’s look, +as full of quiet courage, and pity, and confidence, as if it had been +an hour long. On the other side of him was poor little Mrs. Fisher, +weeping for her child and her mother. I was shoved into the same +boat with Drooce and Packer, and the remainder of our party of marines: +of whom we had lost two privates, besides Charker, my poor, brave comrade. +We all made a melancholy passage, under the hot sun over to the mainland. +There, we landed in a solitary place, and were mustered on the sea sand. +Mr. and Mrs. Macey and their children were amongst us, Mr. and Mrs. +Pordage, Mr. Kitten, Mr. Fisher, and Mrs. Belltott. We mustered +only fourteen men, fifteen women, and seven children. Those were +all that remained of the English who had lain down to sleep last night, +unsuspecting and happy, on the Island of Silver-Store.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER III <a name="citation1"></a><a href="#footnote1">{1}</a>—THE +RAFTS ON THE RIVER</h2> +<p>We contrived to keep afloat all that night, and, the stream running +strong with us, to glide a long way down the river. But, we found +the night to be a dangerous time for such navigation, on account of +the eddies and rapids, and it was therefore settled next day that in +future we would bring-to at sunset, and encamp on the shore. As +we knew of no boats that the Pirates possessed, up at the Prison in +the Woods, we settled always to encamp on the opposite side of the stream, +so as to have the breadth of the river between our sleep and them. +Our opinion was, that if they were acquainted with any near way by land +to the mouth of this river, they would come up it in force, and retake +us or kill us, according as they could; but that if that was not the +case, and if the river ran by none of their secret stations, we might +escape.</p> +<p>When I say we settled this or that, I do not mean that we planned +anything with any confidence as to what might happen an hour hence. +So much had happened in one night, and such great changes had been violently +and suddenly made in the fortunes of many among us, that we had got +better used to uncertainty, in a little while, than I dare say most +people do in the course of their lives.</p> +<p>The difficulties we soon got into, through the off-settings and point-currents +of the stream, made the likelihood of our being drowned, alone,—to +say nothing of our being retaken—as broad and plain as the sun +at noonday to all of us. But, we all worked hard at managing the +rafts, under the direction of the seamen (of our own skill, I think +we never could have prevented them from oversetting), and we also worked +hard at making good the defects in their first hasty construction—which +the water soon found out. While we humbly resigned ourselves to +going down, if it was the will of Our Father that was in Heaven, we +humbly made up our minds, that we would all do the best that was in +us.</p> +<p>And so we held on, gliding with the stream. It drove us to +this bank, and it drove us to that bank, and it turned us, and whirled +us; but yet it carried us on. Sometimes much too slowly; sometimes +much too fast, but yet it carried us on.</p> +<p>My little deaf and dumb boy slumbered a good deal now, and that was +the case with all the children. They caused very little trouble +to any one. They seemed, in my eyes, to get more like one another, +not only in quiet manner, but in the face, too. The motion of +the raft was usually so much the same, the scene was usually so much +the same, the sound of the soft wash and ripple of the water was usually +so much the same, that they were made drowsy, as they might have been +by the constant playing of one tune. Even on the grown people, +who worked hard and felt anxiety, the same things produced something +of the same effect. Every day was so like the other, that I soon +lost count of the days, myself, and had to ask Miss Maryon, for instance, +whether this was the third or fourth? Miss Maryon had a pocket-book +and pencil, and she kept the log; that is to say, she entered up a clear +little journal of the time, and of the distances our seamen thought +we had made, each night.</p> +<p>So, as I say, we kept afloat and glided on. All day long, and +every day, the water, and the woods, and sky; all day long, and every +day, the constant watching of both sides of the river, and far ahead +at every bold turn and sweep it made, for any signs of Pirate-boats, +or Pirate-dwellings. So, as I say, we kept afloat and glided on. +The days melting themselves together to that degree, that I could hardly +believe my ears when I asked “How many now, Miss?” and she +answered “Seven.”</p> +<p>To be sure, poor Mr. Pordage had, by about now, got his Diplomatic +coat into such a state as never was seen. What with the mud of +the river, what with the water of the river, what with the sun, and +the dews, and the tearing boughs, and the thickets, it hung about him +in discoloured shreds like a mop. The sun had touched him a bit. +He had taken to always polishing one particular button, which just held +on to his left wrist, and to always calling for stationery. I +suppose that man called for pens, ink, and paper, tape, and scaling-wax, +upwards of one thousand times in four-and-twenty hours. He had +an idea that we should never get out of that river unless we were written +out of it in a formal Memorandum; and the more we laboured at navigating +the rafts, the more he ordered us not to touch them at our peril, and +the more he sat and roared for stationery.</p> +<p>Mrs. Pordage, similarly, persisted in wearing her nightcap. +I doubt if any one but ourselves who had seen the progress of that article +of dress, could by this time have told what it was meant for. +It had got so limp and ragged that she couldn’t see out of her +eyes for it. It was so dirty, that whether it was vegetable matter +out of a swamp, or weeds out of the river, or an old porter’s-knot +from England, I don’t think any new spectator could have said. +Yet, this unfortunate old woman had a notion that it was not only vastly +genteel, but that it was the correct thing as to propriety. And +she really did carry herself over the other ladies who had no nightcaps, +and who were forced to tie up their hair how they could, in a superior +manner that was perfectly amazing.</p> +<p>I don’t know what she looked like, sitting in that blessed +nightcap, on a log of wood, outside the hut or cabin upon our raft. +She would have rather resembled a fortune-teller in one of the picture-books +that used to be in the shop windows in my boyhood, except for her stateliness. +But, Lord bless my heart, the dignity with which she sat and moped, +with her head in that bundle of tatters, was like nothing else in the +world! She was not on speaking terms with more than three of the +ladies. Some of them had, what she called, “taken precedence” +of her—in getting into, or out of, that miserable little shelter!—and +others had not called to pay their respects, or something of that kind. +So, there she sat, in her own state and ceremony, while her husband +sat on the same log of wood, ordering us one and all to let the raft +go to the bottom, and to bring him stationery.</p> +<p>What with this noise on the part of Mr. Commissioner Pordage, and +what with the cries of Sergeant Drooce on the raft astern (which were +sometimes more than Tom Packer could silence), we often made our slow +way down the river, anything but quietly. Yet, that it was of +great importance that no ears should be able to hear us from the woods +on the banks, could not be doubted. We were looked for, to a certainty, +and we might be retaken at any moment. It was an anxious time; +it was, indeed, indeed, an anxious time.</p> +<p>On the seventh night of our voyage on the rafts, we made fast, as +usual, on the opposite side of the river to that from which we had started, +in as dark a place as we could pick out. Our little encampment +was soon made, and supper was eaten, and the children fell asleep. +The watch was set, and everything made orderly for the night. +Such a starlight night, with such blue in the sky, and such black in +the places of heavy shade on the banks of the great stream!</p> +<p>Those two ladies, Miss Maryon and Mrs. Fisher, had always kept near +me since the night of the attack. Mr. Fisher, who was untiring +in the work of our raft, had said to me:</p> +<p>“My dear little childless wife has grown so attached to you, +Davis, and you are such a gentle fellow, as well as such a determined +one;” our party had adopted that last expression from the one-eyed +English pirate, and I repeat what Mr. Fisher said, only because he said +it; “that it takes a load off my mind to leave her in your charge.”</p> +<p>I said to him: “Your lady is in far better charge than mine, +Sir, having Miss Maryon to take care of her; but, you may rely upon +it, that I will guard them both—faithful and true.”</p> +<p>Says he: “I do rely upon it, Davis, and I heartily wish all +the silver on our old Island was yours.”</p> +<p>That seventh starlight night, as I have said, we made our camp, and +got our supper, and set our watch, and the children fell asleep. +It was solemn and beautiful in those wild and solitary parts, to see +them, every night before they lay down, kneeling under the bright sky, +saying their little prayers at women’s laps. At that time +we men all uncovered, and mostly kept at a distance. When the +innocent creatures rose up, we murmured “Amen!” all together. +For, though we had not heard what they said, we know it must be good +for us.</p> +<p>At that time, too, as was only natural, those poor mothers in our +company, whose children had been killed, shed many tears. I thought +the sight seemed to console them while it made them cry; but, whether +I was right or wrong in that, they wept very much. On this seventh +night, Mrs. Fisher had cried for her lost darling until she cried herself +asleep. She was lying on a little couch of leaves and such-like +(I made the best little couch I could for them every night), and Miss +Maryon had covered her, and sat by her, holding her hand. The +stars looked down upon them. As for me, I guarded them.</p> +<p>“Davis!” says Miss Maryon. (I am not going to say +what a voice she had. I couldn’t if I tried.)</p> +<p>“I am here, Miss.”</p> +<p>“The river sounds as if it were swollen to-night.”</p> +<p>“We all think, Miss, that we are coming near the sea.”</p> +<p>“Do you believe now, we shall escape?”</p> +<p>“I do now, Miss, really believe it.” I had always +said I did; but, I had in my own mind been doubtful.</p> +<p>“How glad you will be, my good Davis, to see England again!”</p> +<p>I have another confession to make that will appear singular. +When she said these words, something rose in my throat; and the stars +I looked away at, seemed to break into sparkles that fell down my face +and burnt it.</p> +<p>“England is not much to me, Miss, except as a name.”</p> +<p>“O, so true an Englishman should not say that!—Are you +not well to-night, Davis?” Very kindly, and with a quick +change.</p> +<p>“Quite well, Miss.”</p> +<p>“Are you sure? Your voice sounds altered in my hearing.”</p> +<p>“No, Miss, I am a stronger man than ever. But, England +is nothing to me.”</p> +<p>Miss Maryon sat silent for so long a while, that I believed she had +done speaking to me for one time. However, she had not; for by-and-by +she said in a distinct clear tone:</p> +<p>“No, good friend; you must not say that England is nothing +to you. It is to be much to you, yet—everything to you. +You have to take back to England the good name you have earned here, +and the gratitude and attachment and respect you have won here: and +you have to make some good English girl very happy and proud, by marrying +her; and I shall one day see her, I hope, and make her happier and prouder +still, by telling her what noble services her husband’s were in +South America, and what a noble friend he was to me there.”</p> +<p>Though she spoke these kind words in a cheering manner, she spoke +them compassionately. I said nothing. It will appear to +be another strange confession, that I paced to and fro, within call, +all that night, a most unhappy man, reproaching myself all the night +long. “You are as ignorant as any man alive; you are as +obscure as any man alive; you are as poor as any man alive; you are +no better than the mud under your foot.” That was the way +in which I went on against myself until the morning.</p> +<p>With the day, came the day’s labour. What I should have +done—without the labour, I don’t know. We were afloat +again at the usual hour, and were again making our way down the river. +It was broader, and clearer of obstructions than it had been, and it +seemed to flow faster. This was one of Drooce’s quiet days; +Mr. Pordage, besides being sulky, had almost lost his voice; and we +made good way, and with little noise.</p> +<p>There was always a seaman forward on the raft, keeping a bright look-out. +Suddenly, in the full heat of the day, when the children were slumbering, +and the very trees and reeds appeared to be slumbering, this man—it +was Short—holds up his hand, and cries with great caution: “Avast! +Voices ahead!”</p> +<p>We held on against the stream as soon as we could bring her up, and +the other raft followed suit. At first, Mr. Macey, Mr. Fisher, +and myself, could hear nothing; though both the seamen aboard of us +agreed that they could hear voices and oars. After a little pause, +however, we united in thinking that we <i>could</i> hear the sound of +voices, and the dip of oars. But, you can hear a long way in those +countries, and there was a bend of the river before us, and nothing +was to be seen except such waters and such banks as we were now in the +eighth day (and might, for the matter of our feelings, have been in +the eightieth), of having seen with anxious eyes.</p> +<p>It was soon decided to put a man ashore, who should creep through +the wood, see what was coming, and warn the rafts. The rafts in +the meantime to keep the middle of the stream. The man to be put +ashore, and not to swim ashore, as the first thing could be more quickly +done than the second. The raft conveying him, to get back into +mid-stream, and to hold on along with the other, as well is it could, +until signalled by the man. In case of danger, the man to shift +for himself until it should be safe to take him on board again. +I volunteered to be the man.</p> +<p>We knew that the voices and oars must come up slowly against the +stream; and our seamen knew, by the set of the stream, under which bank +they would come. I was put ashore accordingly. The raft +got off well, and I broke into the wood.</p> +<p>Steaming hot it was, and a tearing place to get through. So +much the better for me, since it was something to contend against and +do. I cut off the bend of the river, at a great saving of space, +came to the water’s edge again, and hid myself, and waited. +I could now hear the dip of the oars very distinctly; the voices had +ceased.</p> +<p>The sound came on in a regular tune, and as I lay hidden, I fancied +the tune so played to be, “Chris’en—George—King! +Chris’en—George—King! Chris’en—George—King!” +over and over again, always the same, with the pauses always at the +same places. I had likewise time to make up my mind that if these +were the Pirates, I could and would (barring my being shot) swim off +to my raft, in spite of my wound, the moment I had given the alarm, +and hold my old post by Miss Maryon.</p> +<p>“Chris’en—George—King! Chris’en—George—King! +Chris’en—George—King!” coming up, now, very +near.</p> +<p>I took a look at the branches about me, to see where a shower of +bullets would be most likely to do me least hurt; and I took a look +back at the track I had made in forcing my way in; and now I was wholly +prepared and fully ready for them.</p> +<p>“Chris’en—George—King! Chris’en—George—King! +Chris’en—George—King!” Here they are!</p> +<p>Who were they? The barbarous Pirates, scum of all nations, +headed by such men as the hideous little Portuguese monkey, and the +one-eyed English convict with the gash across his face, that ought to +have gashed his wicked head off? The worst men in the world picked +out from the worst, to do the cruellest and most atrocious deeds that +ever stained it? The howling, murdering, black-flag waving, mad, +and drunken crowd of devils that had overcome us by numbers and by treachery? +No. These were English men in English boats—good blue-jackets +and red-coats—marines that I knew myself, and sailors that knew +our seamen! At the helm of the first boat, Captain Carton, eager +and steady. At the helm of the second boat, Captain Maryon, brave +and bold. At the helm of the third boat, an old seaman, with determination +carved into his watchful face, like the figure-head of a ship. +Every man doubly and trebly armed from head to foot. Every man +lying-to at his work, with a will that had all his heart and soul in +it. Every man looking out for any trace of friend or enemy, and +burning to be the first to do good or avenge evil. Every man with +his face on fire when he saw me, his countryman who had been taken prisoner, +and hailed me with a cheer, as Captain Carton’s boat ran in and +took me on board.</p> +<p>I reported, “All escaped, sir! All well, all safe, all +here!”</p> +<p>God bless me—and God bless them—what a cheer! It +turned me weak, as I was passed on from hand to hand to the stern of +the boat: every hand patting me or grasping me in some way or other, +in the moment of my going by.</p> +<p>“Hold up, my brave fellow,” says Captain Carton, clapping +me on the shoulder like a friend, and giving me a flask. “Put +your lips to that, and they’ll be red again. Now, boys, +give way!”</p> +<p>The banks flew by us as if the mightiest stream that ever ran was +with us; and so it was, I am sure, meaning the stream to those men’s +ardour and spirit. The banks flew by us, and we came in sight +of the rafts—the banks flew by us, and we came alongside of the +rafts—the banks stopped; and there was a tumult of laughing and +crying, and kissing and shaking of hands, and catching up of children +and setting of them down again, and a wild hurry of thankfulness and +joy that melted every one and softened all hearts.</p> +<p>I had taken notice, in Captain Carton’s boat, that there was +a curious and quite new sort of fitting on board. It was a kind +of a little bower made of flowers, and it was set up behind the captain, +and betwixt him and the rudder. Not only was this arbour, so to +call it, neatly made of flowers, but it was ornamented in a singular +way. Some of the men had taken the ribbons and buckles off their +hats, and hung them among the flowers; others had made festoons and +streamers of their handkerchiefs, and hung them there; others had intermixed +such trifles as bits of glass and shining fragments of lockets and tobacco-boxes +with the flowers; so that altogether it was a very bright and lively +object in the sunshine. But why there, or what for, I did not +understand.</p> +<p>Now, as soon as the first bewilderment was over, Captain Carton gave +the order to land for the present. But this boat of his, with +two hands left in her, immediately put off again when the men were out +of her, and kept off, some yards from the shore. As she floated +there, with the two hands gently backing water to keep her from going +down the stream, this pretty little arbour attracted many eyes. +None of the boat’s crew, however, had anything to say about it, +except that it was the captain’s fancy.</p> +<p>The captain—with the women and children clustering round him, +and the men of all ranks grouped outside them, and all listening—stood +telling how the Expedition, deceived by its bad intelligence, had chased +the light Pirate boats all that fatal night, and had still followed +in their wake next day, and had never suspected until many hours too +late that the great Pirate body had drawn off in the darkness when the +chase began, and shot over to the Island. He stood telling how +the Expedition, supposing the whole array of armed boats to be ahead +of it, got tempted into shallows and went aground; but not without having +its revenge upon the two decoy-boats, both of which it had come up with, +overhand, and sent to the bottom with all on board. He stood telling +how the Expedition, fearing then that the case stood as it did, got +afloat again, by great exertion, after the loss of four more tides, +and returned to the Island, where they found the sloop scuttled and +the treasure gone. He stood telling how my officer, Lieutenant +Linderwood, was left upon the Island, with as strong a force as could +be got together hurriedly from the mainland, and how the three boats +we saw before us were manned and armed and had come away, exploring +the coast and inlets, in search of any tidings of us. He stood +telling all this, with his face to the river; and, as he stood telling +it, the little arbour of flowers floated in the sunshine before all +the faces there.</p> +<p>Leaning on Captain Carton’s shoulder, between him and Miss +Maryon, was Mrs. Fisher, her head drooping on her arm. She asked +him, without raising it, when he had told so much, whether he had found +her mother?</p> +<p>“Be comforted! She lies,” said the Captain gently, +“under the cocoa-nut trees on the beach.”</p> +<p>“And my child, Captain Carton, did you find my child, too? +Does my darling rest with my mother?”</p> +<p>“No. Your pretty child sleeps,” said the Captain, +“under a shade of flowers.”</p> +<p>His voice shook; but there was something in it that struck all the +hearers. At that moment there sprung from the arbour in his boat +a little creature, clapping her hands and stretching out her arms, and +crying, “Dear papa! Dear mamma! I am not killed. +I am saved. I am coming to kiss you. Take me to them, take +me to them, good, kind sailors!”</p> +<p>Nobody who saw that scene has ever forgotten it, I am sure, or ever +will forget it. The child had kept quite still, where her brave +grandmamma had put her (first whispering in her ear, “Whatever +happens to me, do not stir, my dear!”), and had remained quiet +until the fort was deserted; she had then crept out of the trench, and +gone into her mother’s house; and there, alone on the solitary +Island, in her mother’s room, and asleep on her mother’s +bed, the Captain had found her. Nothing could induce her to be +parted from him after he took her up in his arms, and he had brought +her away with him, and the men had made the bower for her. To +see those men now, was a sight. The joy of the women was beautiful; +the joy of those women who had lost their own children, was quite sacred +and divine; but, the ecstasies of Captain Carton’s boat’s +crew, when their pet was restored to her parents, were wonderful for +the tenderness they showed in the midst of roughness. As the Captain +stood with the child in his arms, and the child’s own little arms +now clinging round his neck, now round her father’s, now round +her mother’s, now round some one who pressed up to kiss her, the +boat’s crew shook hands with one another, waved their hats over +their heads, laughed, sang, cried, danced—and all among themselves, +without wanting to interfere with anybody—in a manner never to +be represented. At last, I saw the coxswain and another, two very +hard-faced men, with grizzled heads, who had been the heartiest of the +hearty all along, close with one another, get each of them the other’s +head under his arm, and pommel away at it with his fist as hard as he +could, in his excess of joy.</p> +<p>When we had well rested and refreshed ourselves—and very glad +we were to have some of the heartening things to eat and drink that +had come up in the boats—we recommenced our voyage down the river: +rafts, and boats, and all. I said to myself, it was a <i>very</i> +different kind of voyage now, from what it had been; and I fell into +my proper place and station among my fellow-soldiers.</p> +<p>But, when we halted for the night, I found that Miss Maryon had spoken +to Captain Carton concerning me. For, the Captain came straight +up to me, and says he, “My brave fellow, you have been Miss Maryon’s +body-guard all along, and you shall remain so. Nobody shall supersede +you in the distinction and pleasure of protecting that young lady.” +I thanked his honour in the fittest words I could find, and that night +I was placed on my old post of watching the place where she slept. +More than once in the night, I saw Captain Carton come out into the +air, and stroll about there, to see that all was well. I have +now this other singular confession to make, that I saw him with a heavy +heart. Yes; I saw him with a heavy, heavy heart.</p> +<p>In the day-time, I had the like post in Captain Carton’s boat. +I had a special station of my own, behind Miss Maryon, and no hands +but hers ever touched my wound. (It has been healed these many +long years; but, no other hands have ever touched it.) Mr. Pordage +was kept tolerably quiet now, with pen and ink, and began to pick up +his senses a little. Seated in the second boat, he made documents +with Mr. Kitten, pretty well all day; and he generally handed in a Protest +about something whenever we stopped. The Captain, however, made +so very light of these papers, that it grew into a saying among the +men, when one of them wanted a match for his pipe, “Hand us over +a Protest, Jack!” As to Mrs. Pordage, she still wore the +nightcap, and she now had cut all the ladies on account of her not having +been formally and separately rescued by Captain Carton before anybody +else. The end of Mr. Pordage, to bring to an end all I know about +him, was, that he got great compliments at home for his conduct on these +trying occasions, and that he died of yellow jaundice, a Governor and +a K.C.B.</p> +<p>Sergeant Drooce had fallen from a high fever into a low one. +Tom Packer—the only man who could have pulled the Sergeant through +it—kept hospital aboard the old raft, and Mrs. Belltott, as brisk +as ever again (but the spirit of that little woman, when things tried +it, was not equal to appearances), was head-nurse under his directions. +Before we got down to the Mosquito coast, the joke had been made by +one of our men, that we should see her gazetted Mrs. Tom Packer, <i>vice</i> +Belltott exchanged.</p> +<p>When we reached the coast, we got native boats as substitutes for +the rafts; and we rowed along under the land; and in that beautiful +climate, and upon that beautiful water, the blooming days were like +enchantment. Ah! They were running away, faster than any +sea or river, and there was no tide to bring them back. We were +coming very near the settlement where the people of Silver-Store were +to be left, and from which we Marines were under orders to return to +Belize.</p> +<p>Captain Carton had, in the boat by him, a curious long-barrelled +Spanish gun, and he had said to Miss Maryon one day that it was the +best of guns, and had turned his head to me, and said:</p> +<p>“Gill Davis, load her fresh with a couple of slugs, against +a chance of showing how good she is.”</p> +<p>So, I had discharged the gun over the sea, and had loaded her, according +to orders, and there it had lain at the Captain’s feet, convenient +to the Captain’s hand.</p> +<p>The last day but one of our journey was an uncommonly hot day. +We started very early; but, there was no cool air on the sea as the +day got on, and by noon the heat was really hard to bear, considering +that there were women and children to bear it. Now, we happened +to open, just at that time, a very pleasant little cove or bay, where +there was a deep shade from a great growth of trees. Now, the +Captain, therefore, made the signal to the other boats to follow him +in and lie by a while.</p> +<p>The men who were off duty went ashore, and lay down, but were ordered, +for caution’s sake, not to stray, and to keep within view. +The others rested on their oars, and dozed. Awnings had been made +of one thing and another, in all the boats, and the passengers found +it cooler to be under them in the shade, when there was room enough, +than to be in the thick woods. So, the passengers were all afloat, +and mostly sleeping. I kept my post behind Miss Maryon, and she +was on Captain Carton’s right in the boat, and Mrs. Fisher sat +on her right again. The Captain had Mrs. Fisher’s daughter +on his knee. He and the two ladies were talking about the Pirates, +and were talking softly; partly, because people do talk softly under +such indolent circumstances, and partly because the little girl had +gone off asleep.</p> +<p>I think I have before given it out for my Lady to write down, that +Captain Carton had a fine bright eye of his own. All at once, +he darted me a side look, as much as to say, “Steady—don’t +take on—I see something!”—and gave the child into +her mother’s arms. That eye of his was so easy to understand, +that I obeyed it by not so much as looking either to the right or to +the left out of a corner of my own, or changing my attitude the least +trifle. The Captain went on talking in the same mild and easy +way; but began—with his arms resting across his knees, and his +head a little hanging forward, as if the heat were rather too much for +him—began to play with the Spanish gun.</p> +<p>“They had laid their plans, you see,” says the Captain, +taking up the Spanish gun across his knees, and looking, lazily, at +the inlaying on the stock, “with a great deal of art; and the +corrupt or blundering local authorities were so easily deceived;” +he ran his left hand idly along the barrel, but I saw, with my breath +held, that he covered the action of cocking the gun with his right—“so +easily deceived, that they summoned us out to come into the trap. +But my intention as to future operations—” In a flash +the Spanish gun was at his bright eye, and he fired.</p> +<p>All started up; innumerable echoes repeated the sound of the discharge; +a cloud of bright-coloured birds flew out of the woods screaming; a +handful of leaves were scattered in the place where the shot had struck; +a crackling of branches was heard; and some lithe but heavy creature +sprang into the air, and fell forward, head down, over the muddy bank.</p> +<p>“What is it?” cries Captain Maryon from his boat. +All silent then, but the echoes rolling away.</p> +<p>“It is a Traitor and a Spy,” said Captain Carton, handing +me the gun to load again. “And I think the other name of +the animal is Christian George King!”</p> +<p>Shot through the heart. Some of the people ran round to the +spot, and drew him out, with the slime and wet trickling down his face; +but his face itself would never stir any more to the end of time.</p> +<p>“Leave him hanging to that tree,” cried Captain Carton; +his boat’s crew giving way, and he leaping ashore. “But +first into this wood, every man in his place. And boats! +Out of gunshot!”</p> +<p>It was a quick change, well meant and well made, though it ended +in disappointment. No Pirates were there; no one but the Spy was +found. It was supposed that the Pirates, unable to retake us, +and expecting a great attack upon them to be the consequence of our +escape, had made from the ruins in the Forest, taken to their ship along +with the Treasure, and left the Spy to pick up what intelligence he +could. In the evening we went away, and he was left hanging to +the tree, all alone, with the red sun making a kind of a dead sunset +on his black face.</p> +<p>Next day, we gained the settlement on the Mosquito coast for which +we were bound. Having stayed there to refresh seven days, and +having been much commended, and highly spoken of, and finely entertained, +we Marines stood under orders to march from the Town-Gate (it was neither +much of a town nor much of a gate), at five in the morning.</p> +<p>My officer had joined us before then. When we turned out at +the gate, all the people were there; in the front of them all those +who had been our fellow-prisoners, and all the seamen.</p> +<p>“Davis,” says Lieutenant Linderwood. “Stand +out, my friend!”</p> +<p>I stood out from the ranks, and Miss Maryon and Captain Carton came +up to me.</p> +<p>“Dear Davis,” says Miss Maryon, while the tears fell +fast down her face, “your grateful friends, in most unwillingly +taking leave of you, ask the favour that, while you bear away with you +their affectionate remembrance, which nothing can ever impair, you will +also take this purse of money—far more valuable to you, we all +know, for the deep attachment and thankfulness with which it is offered, +than for its own contents, though we hope those may prove useful to +you, too, in after life.”</p> +<p>I got out, in answer, that I thankfully accepted the attachment and +affection, but not the money. Captain Carton looked at me very +attentively, and stepped back, and moved away. I made him my bow +as he stepped back, to thank him for being so delicate.</p> +<p>“No, miss,” said I, “I think it would break my +heart to accept of money. But, if you could condescend to give +to a man so ignorant and common as myself, any little thing you have +worn—such as a bit of ribbon—”</p> +<p>She took a ring from her finger, and put it in my hand. And +she rested her hand in mine, while she said these words:</p> +<p>“The brave gentlemen of old—but not one of them was braver, +or had a nobler nature than you—took such gifts from ladies, and +did all their good actions for the givers’ sakes. If you +will do yours for mine, I shall think with pride that I continue to +have some share in the life of a gallant and generous man.”</p> +<p>For the second time in my life she kissed my hand. I made so +bold, for the first time, as to kiss hers; and I tied the ring at my +breast, and I fell back to my place.</p> +<p>Then, the horse-litter went out at the gate with Sergeant Drooce +in it; and the horse-litter went out at the gate with Mrs. Belltott +in it; and Lieutenant Linderwood gave the word of command, “Quick +march!” and, cheered and cried for, we went out of the gate too, +marching along the level plain towards the serene blue sky, as if we +were marching straight to Heaven.</p> +<p>When I have added here that the Pirate scheme was blown to shivers, +by the Pirate-ship which had the Treasure on board being so vigorously +attacked by one of His Majesty’s cruisers, among the West India +Keys, and being so swiftly boarded and carried, that nobody suspected +anything about the scheme until three-fourths of the Pirates were killed, +and the other fourth were in irons, and the Treasure was recovered; +I come to the last singular confession I have got to make.</p> +<p>It is this. I well knew what an immense and hopeless distance +there was between me and Miss Maryon; I well knew that I was no fitter +company for her than I was for the angels; I well knew, that she was +as high above my reach as the sky over my head; and yet I loved her. +What put it in my low heart to be so daring, or whether such a thing +ever happened before or since, as that a man so uninstructed and obscure +as myself got his unhappy thoughts lifted up to such a height, while +knowing very well how presumptuous and impossible to be realised they +were, I am unable to say; still, the suffering to me was just as great +as if I had been a gentleman. I suffered agony—agony. +I suffered hard, and I suffered long. I thought of her last words +to me, however, and I never disgraced them. If it had not been +for those dear words, I think I should have lost myself in despair and +recklessness.</p> +<p>The ring will be found lying on my heart, of course, and will be +laid with me wherever I am laid. I am getting on in years now, +though I am able and hearty. I was recommended for promotion, +and everything was done to reward me that could be done; but my total +want of all learning stood in my way, and I found myself so completely +out of the road to it that I could not conquer any learning, though +I tried. I was long in the service, and I respected it, and was +respected in it, and the service is dear to me at this present hour.</p> +<p>At this present hour, when I give this out to my Lady to be written +down, all my old pain has softened away, and I am as happy as a man +can be, at this present fine old country-house of Admiral Sir George +Carton, Baronet. It was my Lady Carton who herself sought me out, +over a great many miles of the wide world, and found me in Hospital +wounded, and brought me here. It is my Lady Carton who writes +down my words. My Lady was Miss Maryon. And now, that I +conclude what I had to tell, I see my Lady’s honoured gray hair +droop over her face, as she leans a little lower at her desk; and I +fervently thank her for being so tender as I see she is, towards the +past pain and trouble of her poor, old, faithful, humble soldier.</p> +<h2>FOOTNOTES</h2> +<p><a name="footnote1"></a><a href="#citation1">{1}</a> +Dicken’s didn’t write the second chapter and it is omitted +in this edition. In it the prisoners are firstly made a ransom +of for the treasure left on the Island and then manage to escape from +the Pirates.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PERILS OF CERTAIN ENGLISH</p> +<pre> +PRISONERS*** + + +***** This file should be named 1406-h.htm or 1406-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/1406 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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