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diff --git a/78318-0.txt b/78318-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..065c333 --- /dev/null +++ b/78318-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,986 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78318 *** + + + + + [No. 7. + +THE + +DEMON SHIP, + +OR + +THE PIRATE + +OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. + +[Illustration] + +EDINBURGH: PRINTED & PUBLISHED BY J. BRYDONE, SOUTH HANOVER STREET. + + + + +THE DEMON SHIP, &c. + + +I was the only son of a widowed mother, who, though far from affluent, +was not pennyless;--you will naturally suppose, therefore, I was a +most troublesome, disagreeable, spoiled child. Such I might have been, +but for the continual drawback on all my early gratifications, which +my maternal home presented, in the shape of an old dowager countess, +a forty-ninth cousin of my mother’s. Whatever I was doing, wherever +I was going, there was she reproving, rebuking, exhorting, and all +to save me from idling, or drowning, or quarrelling, or straying, or +a hundred etceteras. I grew up, went to school, to college--finally, +into the army, and with it to Ireland; and had the satisfaction, at +five-and-twenty, to hear the dowager say I was good for nothing. She +was of a somewhat malicious disposition, and perhaps I did not well +to make her my enemy. At this time I had the offer of a good military +appointment to India, and yet I hesitated to accept it. There was in +my native village a retired Scotch officer, for whom I had conceived a +strong attachment. His daughter I had known and loved from childhood, +and when this gave place to womanhood, my affection changed in kind +while it strengthened in degree. Margaret Cameron was at this period +seventeen, and, consequently, eight years my junior. She was young, +beautiful, and spoiled by a doating parent--yet I saw in her a fine +natural disposition, and the seeds of many noble qualities. To both +father and daughter I openly unfolded my affection. Captain Cameron, +naturally, pleaded the youth of his daughter. Margaret laughed at the +idea of my even entertaining a thought of her, and declared she would +as soon think of marrying an elder brother as myself. I listened to her +assertions with profound silence, scorned to whine and plead my cause, +bowed with an air of haughty resignation, and left her. + +When next I saw Margaret I was in a travelling dress at her +father’s residence. I found her alone in the garden, occupied +in watering her flowers. ‘I am come, Margaret,’ I said, ‘to bid +you farewell.’--‘Why, where are you going?’--‘To London, to sea, +to India.’--‘Nonsense!’--‘You always think there is nonsense +in truth; every thing that is serious to others is a jest to +you.’--‘Complementary this morning.’--‘Adieu, Margaret; may you retain +through life the same heartlessness of disposition. It will preserve +you from many a pang that might reach a more sensitive bosom.’--‘You +do my strength of mind infinite honour. Every girl of seventeen can +be sentimental, but there are few stoics in their teens. I love to +be _coldly great_. You charm me.’--‘If heartlessness and mental +superiority are with you synonymes,’ I said, with gravity, ‘count +yourself, Miss Cameron, at the very acmé of intellectual greatness, +since you can take leave of one of your earliest friends with such easy +indifference.’--‘Pooh! pooh! I know you are not really going. This +voyage to India is one of your favourite threats in your dignified +moments. I think this is about the twentieth time it has been made. +And for early friends, and so forth, you have contrived to live within +a few hundred feet of them without coming in their sight for the last +month; so they cannot be so very dear.’--‘Listen to me, Margaret,’ +said I, with a grave, and, as I think, manly dignity of bearing; ‘I +offered you the honest and ardent, though worthless gift of a heart, +whose best affections you entirely possessed. I am not coxcomb enough +to suppose that I can at pleasure storm the affections of any woman; +but I am man enough to expect that they should be denied me with some +reference to the delicate respect due to mine. But you are, of course, +at full liberty to choose your own mode of rejecting your suitors; +only, as one who still views you as a friend, I would that that manner +shewed more of good womanly feeling, and less of conscious female +power. I am aware, Margaret, that this is not the general language of +lovers; perhaps if it were, woman might hold her power more gracefully, +and even Margaret Cameron’s heart would have more of greatness and +generosity than it now possesses.’ While I spoke, Margaret turned +away her lovely face, and I saw that her very neck was suffused. I +took her hand, assured her that the journey I had announced was no +lover’s _ruse_, and that I was really on the point of quitting my +native land.--‘And now, Margaret,’ I said, ‘farewell--you will scarce +find in life a more devoted friend--a more ardent desirer of your +happiness, than him you have driven from your side.’ I stretched out my +hand to Margaret for a friendly farewell clasp. But she held not out +her’s in return; she spoke not a word of adieu. I turned an indignant +countenance towards her, and, to my unutterable surprise, beheld my +beautiful young friend in a swoon. And was this the being I had accused +of want of feeling! We left the garden solemnly plighted to each other. +But I pass briefly over this portion of my history. I was condemned by +the will of Captain Cameron, and by the necessity of obtaining some +professional promotion, to spend a few years in India before I could +receive the hand of Margaret. + +I reached my Asiatic destination--long and anxiously looked for +European letters--took up one day by accident an English paper, and +there read--‘Died, at the house of Captain Cameron, in the village of +A----, Miss Margaret Cameron, aged eighteen.’ I will not here dwell on +my feelings. I wrote a letter of despair to Captain Cameron, informing +him of the paragraph I had read, imploring him, for the love of mercy, +if possible, to contradict it, and declaring that my future path in +life now lay stretched before me like one wild waste. The Countess of +Falcondale answered my epistle by a deep, black-margined letter, with +a sable seal as large as a saucer. My sole parent was no more;--for +Captain Cameron--he had been seized by a paralytic affection in +consequence of the shock his feelings had sustained. + +The appearance of my name about five years afterwards, among the +‘Marriages’ in the Calcutta Gazette, was followed by successive +announcements among the ‘Births and Deaths,’ in the same compendious +record of life’s changes. My wife perished of malignant fever, and two +infant children speedily followed her. I set out to return over-land to +my native country, a sober, steady, and partially grey-haired colonel +of thirty-six. My military career had been as brilliant as my domestic +path had been clouded. I arrived at a port of the Levant, and thence +took ship for Malta, where I landed in safety. + +At this period, the Mediterranean traders were kept in a state of +perpetual alarm by the celebrated ‘DEMON SHIP.’ Though distinguished by +the same attractive title, she in nowise resembled the phantom terror +of the African Cape. She was described as a powerful vessel, manned +by a desperate flesh-and-blood crew, whose rapacity triumphed over +all fear of danger, and whose cruelty forbade all hope of mercy. Yet, +though she was neither ‘built’ of air, nor ‘manned’ by demons, her +feats had been so wonderful, that there was at length no other rational +mode of accounting for them than by tracing them to supernatural, +and, consequently, demoniacal, agency. She had sailed through fleets +undiscovered; she had escaped from the fastest pursuers; she had +overtaken the swiftest fugitives; she had appeared where she was not +expected, and disappeared when even her very latitude and longitude +seemed calculable. Her fearful title had been first given by those +who dreaded to become her victims; but she seemed not ill pleased by +the appalling epithet, and shortly shewed the word DEMON in flaming +letters on her stern. Some mariners went so far as to say that a smell +of brimstone, and a track of phosphoric light, marked for miles the +pathway of her keel in the waves. Others declared that she had the +power, through her evil agents, of raising such a strange, dense, +and portentous mist in the atmosphere, as prevented her victims from +descrying her approach until they fell, as it were, into her very jaws. +Innumerable were the vessels that had left different ports in the +Mediterranean to disappear for ever. It seemed the cruel practice of +the Demon to sink her victims in their own vessels. + +The Demon Ship was talked of from the ports of the Levant to Gibraltar; +and no vessel held herself in secure waters until she had passed the +Straits. Of course, such a pest to these seas was not to be quietly +suffered; so several governments began to think of preparing to put +her down. To the surprise, however, of all, she seemed suddenly to +disappear from the Mediterranean. Some said that her crew, having sold +themselves to the father of all evil for a certain length of time, and +the period having probably expired, the desperadoes were now gone to +their own place, and the seas would consequently be clear again. Others +deemed that the Demon Ship had only retired for some deep purpose, and +would shortly reappear with more fearful power. + +Most of the trading vessels then about to quit the port of Valetta, +had obtained convoy from a British frigate and sloop of war, bound +to Gibraltar, and thence to England. So eager were all passengers +to sail under such protection, that I had some difficulty in +obtaining a berth in any of the holes and corners of the various +fine fast-sailing copper-bottomed brigs, whose cards offered such +‘excellent accommodations for passengers.’ At length, I went on +board the ‘Elizabeth Downs,’ a large three-masted British vessel, +whose size made the surrounding brigs dwindle into insignificance, +and whose fresh-painted sides seemed to foreshew the cleanliness +and comfort that would be found within. One little hen-pen of a +cabin on deck alone remained at the captain’s disposal. However, I +was fond of a cabin on deck, and paid half my passage-money to the +civil little captain, who testified much regret that he could not +offer me the ‘freedom of the quarter-deck,’ as the whole stern end +of the vessel had been taken by an English lady of quality, who +wished for privacy. He added that she was a dowager countess. ‘I +hate dowager countesses,’ said I, irreverently; ‘what is the name of +your passenger?’--‘Passenger!’--‘Well--countess--what is the title +of your countess?’--‘The Countess of Falcondale.’--‘What!’ thought +I; ‘cannot I even come as near to my former home as Malta, without +again finding myself under her influence? My dear fellow, give me back +my passage-money, or accept it as a present at my hands, for I sail +not with you,’ said I. But a man at thirty-six will hardly sacrifice +his personal convenience to the whimsies of twenty-five; so I stood +to my bargain, determined to keep myself as much as possible from +the knowledge of my old tormentor. Conscious of my altered personal +appearance, I resolved to travel charmingly _incog._, and assumed the +name and title of Captain Lyon, which had been familiar to me in my +childhood, as belonging to a friend of Captain Cameron. + +It was the month of June, and the weather was oppressively hot. There +was so little wind stirring after we set sail, that for several days +we made scarcely any way under all the sail we could carry. The first +night I stretched my limbs on a long seat which joined the steps of the +quarter-deck. I was now then really on my way to my native shores, and +should not step from the vessel in which I sailed until I trode the +land of my fathers! Naturally enough, my thoughts turned to former days +and old faces. From time to time, these thoughts half sunk into dreams, +from which I repeatedly awoke, and as often dozed off again. At length, +my memory, and consequently my dreams, took the shape of Margaret +Cameron. The joyous laugh of youth seemed to ring in my ears; and when +I closed my eyes, her lovely bright countenance instantly rose before +them. Yet I had the inconsistent conviction of a dreamer that she was +dead, and as my slumber deepened, I seemed busied in a pilgrimage +to her early grave. I saw the church-yard of A----, with the yellow +sunlight streaming on many a green hillock; and there was one solitary +grass grave, that, as if by a strange spell, drew my steps, and on an +humble head-stone I read the name of ‘Margaret Cameron, aged 18.’ To +my unspeakable emotion I heard, beneath the sods, a sound of sweet and +soothing, but melancholy music. While I listened with an attention that +apparently deprived my senses of their power, the church-yard and grave +disappeared, and I seemed, by one of those transitions to which the +dreamer is so subject, to be sailing on a lone and dismal sea, whose +leaden and melancholy waves reflected no sail save that of the vessel +which bore me. The heat became stifling, and my bosom oppressed, yet +the music still sounded, low, sweet, and foreboding in my ear. A soft +and whitish mist seemed to brood over the stern of the ship. According +to the apparently established laws of spiritual matter, the mist +condensed, then gradually assumed form, and I gazed, with outstretched +arms, on the figure of Margaret Cameron. She seemed in my vision as +one who, in quitting earth, had left not only its passions but its +affections behind her; and there was something forbidding in the wan +indifference of that eye. Yet was her voice passing sweet, as still its +sad cadences fell on my ear, in the words of a ballad I had once loved +to sing with her-- + + ‘The green sod is no grave of mine, + The earth is not my pillow, The + grave I lie in shall be _thine_, + Our winding sheet--the billow.’ + +I awoke,--yet for a moment appeared still dreaming; for there, hovering +over the foot of my couch, I seemed still to behold the form of +Margaret Cameron. She was leaning on the rail of the quarter-deck, and +overlooking my couch. I sat up, and gazed on the objects around me, +in order to recover my apparently deluded senses. The full moon was +in her zenith. The heat was intense, the calm profound. There lay the +different vessels of our little squadron, nought seen save their white +sails in the moonlight, and nought heard save their powerless flapping, +and the restless plashing of the becalmed waves, only agitated by +the effort of our vessel to cleave them. Still the moonlight fell on +the white form and pale countenance of Margaret. I started up. ‘This +is some delusion,’ said I, ‘or because one of the countess’s women +resembles my early idol, must I turn believer in ghost-stories, and +adopt at thirty-six what I scouted at sixteen?’ The suddenness of my +rising seemed to scare my fair phantom; and, in the hastiness of her +retreat, she gave ample proof of mortal fallibility by stumbling over +some coils of cable that happened to lie in her way. The shock brought +her to her knees. I was up the steps in one instant; seized an arm and +then a hand, soft, delicate, and indubitably of flesh and blood, and +restored the lady to her feet. She thanked me in gentle tones that +sent a thrill through all my veins, and made me again half deem that +‘the voice of the dead was on mine ear.’ I now expressed my fears that +my sudden gestures had been the cause of this little accident. ‘I +fear,’ she replied, ‘my reckless song disturbed your slumbers.’ After +a few more words had passed between us, I ventured to ask in a tone +as indifferent as I could assume, whether she claimed kindred with +Captain Hugh Cameron, of A----? The striking likeness which she bore to +his amiable and deceased daughter must, I observed, plead my apology. +She looked at me for a moment with unutterable surprise; then added, +with dignity and perfect self-possession, ‘I have then, probably, the +pleasure of addressing some old acquaintance of Captain Cameron? How +the mistake arose which induced any one to suppose that his child was +no more, I confess myself at a loss to imagine. I am the daughter of +Captain Cameron; and, after this self-introduction, may, perhaps, claim +the name of my father’s former acquaintance.’ You may be sure I was in +no mood to give it. I rushed to the side of the vessel, and, hanging +over it, gasped with an emotion which almost stopped respiration. +It is inexpressible what a revulsion this strange discovery made in +my feelings. I felt that there had been treachery. I became keenly +sensible that I must have appeared a traitor to Margaret, and hurriedly +resolved not to declare my name to her until I had in some way cleared +my character. + +I was still sufficiently a man of the world to have my feelings in +some mastery, and returned to the side of Margaret with an apology +for indisposition, which in truth was no subterfuge. I verily +believe, as the vessel had given a sudden lurch at the moment she had +discovered herself, and my pendant posture over the ship’s side might +be an attitude of rather dubious construction, she passed on me the +forgiveness of a sea-sick man. Margaret added, that she presumed she +had the pleasure of addressing her fellow-passenger, Captain Lyon? She +had often, she observed, heard her father mention his name, though not +aware until this moment of his identity with her brother-voyager. I was +not displeased by this illusion, though I thus found myself identified +with a man twenty years my senior. I remarked, with an effort at +ease, that I had certainly once the advantage of Captain Cameron’s +acquaintance, but that a lapse of many years had separated me from him +and his family. ‘There was, however,’ I remarked, ‘a Captain, since +made Colonel, Francillon, in India, who had been informed, or rather, +happily for her friends, _mis_informed, of the death of Miss Cameron.’ +Margaret smiled incredulously; but with a dignified indifference, +which created a strange feeling within me, seemed willing to let the +subject pass. Margaret’s spirits seemed to have lost their buoyancy, +and her cheek the bloom of youth. But there was an elegance, a sort +of melancholy dignity in her manner, and a touching expression on her +countenance, to which both before had been strangers. Observing her +smile, and perceiving that, with another graceful acknowledgment of my +assistance, she was about to withdraw, I grew desperate, and ventured, +with some abruptness, to demand if she had herself known Colonel +Francillon? She answered, with a self-possession which chilled me, that +she had certainly _in her youth_ been acquainted with a Lieutenant +Francillon, who had since been promoted in India, and probably was +the _officer_ of whom I spoke. ‘Perhaps,’ observed I, ‘there is not +a man alive for whom I feel a greater interest than for Colonel +Francillon.’--‘He is fortunate in possessing so warm a friend,’ said +Margaret, with careless politeness; but I thought I perceived, through +this nonchalance, a slight tone of pique, which was less mortifying +than her indifference. ‘I know not,’ said I, ‘any thing which causes +such a sudden and enchantment-like reversion of the mind to past scenes +and feelings, as an unexpected rencontre with those who were associated +with us in the earliest and freshest days of our being.’--‘Nothing +certainly,’ answered Margaret, ‘reminds us so forcibly of the _change_ +that has taken place in our being and our feelings.’--‘True,’ replied +I; ‘yet for the moment the change itself seems annihilated; our hearts +beat with the same pulse that before animated them, and time seems +to have warred on their feelings in vain.’--‘Perhaps to have taught +a lesson in vain,’ said my companion. I added, rather diffidently, +‘and what lesson _should_ time teach us?’--‘It should teach us,’ she +answered, ‘that our heart’s best and warmest feelings may be wasted +on that which may disappoint, and cannot satisfy them.’--‘I read your +lesson with delight,’ answered I; ‘the only danger is lest we mistake +the coolings of time for the conquests of principle.’ She seemed +pleased by the sentiment, and by the frankness of the caution.’ ‘It +may be,’ she said, ‘in the power of Time and Disappointment to detach +from the world, or at least to produce a barren acknowledgment of its +unsatisfactoriness, but it is beyond their unassisted power to attach +the soul with a steady and _practical_ love to the only legitimate, +the only rational source of happiness. Here is the touch-stone which +the self-deceiver cannot stand.’ I was silent. There was a delicious +feeling in my bosom that is quite indescribable.--‘These,’ I said, +‘are the sentiments of Colonel Francillon; and since we have been +on the subject of old friends, I could almost make up my mind to +give you his history. It really half resembles a romance. At least, +it shows how often, in real life, circumstances--I had almost said +adventures--arise, which in fiction we should deride as an insult to +our taste, by the violence done to all probability. Come, shall I +give you the history of your former _acquaintance_?’--‘Give _me_ the +history!’ said Margaret, involuntarily, and with some emotion--it +seemed the emotion of indignation.--‘Ay, why not? I mean, of course, +his Indian history; for of that in England, perhaps, as your _families_ +were acquainted, you may know as much as I can.’ + +I confess my heart began to beat quick and high, as, taking advantage +of Margaret’s silence, I began to tell my own history.--Francillon +had, I observed, arrived in India, animated in his endeavours to +obtain fortune and preferment by one of the dearest and purest motives +which can incite the human bosom. Here Margaret turned round with a +something of dignified displeasure, which seemed to reprobate this +little delicate allusion to her past history. I proceeded as though I +marked not her emotion.--Francillon was under an engagement to a young +and lovely compatriot, whose image was the idol of his bosom, but whose +name, from natural and sacred feelings, had never passed his lip to +human being. Here I thought Margaret seemed to breathe again. So I told +my history simply and feelingly, and painted my grief on hearing of the +death of Margaret with such depth of colouring, that I had well nigh +identified the narrator with the subject of his biography. She said, in +a peculiar tone, with which an assumed carelessness in vain struggled, +‘It is singular that a married man should have thus grieved over the +object of an unextinguished attachment.’--‘Captain Francillon,’ I +observed, ‘was not married until five years after the period we speak +of,--when he gave his hand to one of whom I trust he has too much manly +feeling ever to speak save with the tender respect she merited, but to +whom he candidly confessed that he brought but a blighted heart, the +better half of whose affections lay buried in the grave of her who had +first inspired them.’ + +I continued my history--brought myself to Malta, and placed myself on +board an _English vessel_. Here, I confess, my courage half-failed me; +but I went on.--‘Francillon,’ I said, ‘now began to realize his return +to his native land. On the first night of his voyage, he threw himself, +in meditative mood, on the deck, and half in thought, half in dreams, +recalled former scenes. But there was one form which constantly arose +before his imagination. He dreamed, too, of something--I know not +what--of a pilgrimage to the lone grave of her he had loved and lost; +and then a change came upon his slumbering fancy, and he seemed to be +ploughing some solitary and dismal sea; but even there a form appeared +to him, whose voice thrilled on his ear, and whose eye, though it had +waxed cold to him, made his heart heave with strange and unwonted +emotion. He awoke--but oh!--the vision vanished not. Still in the +moonlight he saw her who had risen on his dreams. Francillon started +up. The figure he gazed on hastily retreated. He followed her in time +to raise her from the fall her precipitate flight had occasioned, +and discovered that she whom he beheld was indeed the object of his +heart’s earliest and best feelings--was Margaret Cameron!’ I believe +my respiration almost failed me as I thus ended. Margaret sprang to +her feet with astonishment and emotion. ‘Is it possible!--have I then +the pleasure to see--I am sure--I am most fortunate--’ again and again +began Margaret, and gave way to an honest flood of tears. I felt +that I had placed her in an embarrassing situation. Seating myself, +therefore, by her, and taking her hand,--‘Margaret,’ I said, ‘I fear +I have been somewhat abrupt with you. Forgive me if I have been too +bold in thus forcing on you the history of one for whom I have little +reason and less right to suppose you still interested. Bury in oblivion +some passages in it, and forgive the biographer if he have expanded a +little too freely on feelings which may be unacceptable to your ear.’ I +stretched out my hand as I spoke, and we warmly shook hands, as two old +friends in the first moment of meeting. + +I had been longing to know somewhat of Margaret’s own +history,--wherefore she had visited Malta, &c.; but she seemed to have +no intention of gratifying my curiosity, and I only too feelingly +divined that her parent’s altered circumstances had sent her out the +humble companion of the Countess of Falcondale. ‘I am aware,’ I said, +smiling, ‘that I have more than one old acquaintance in this vessel; +and, in truth, when I heard that my former friend--I had nearly said +enemy--the Countess of Falcondale, was on board, I felt half-inclined +to relinquish the voyage.’ Margaret hesitated--then said, half-smiling, +half-sad, ‘I cannot _autobiographize_ as my friend has done. +But--but--perhaps you heard of the unhappy state of my dear parent’s +affairs--and his daughter was prevailed on to take a step--perhaps +a false one. Well, well, I cannot tell my history. Peace be with +the dead!--every filial, every _conjugal_ feeling consecrate their +ashes!--but make yourself easy; my _mother-in-law_ is not here. You +will find but one dowager-countess in this vessel, and she now shakes +your hand, and bids you a good night.’ Margaret hastily disappeared +as she spoke, and left me in a state--but I will teaze no one with my +half-dream like feelings on that night. + +Well, I failed not to visit my _noble_ fellow-passenger on the morrow; +and day after day, while we lay on those becalmed waves, I renewed +my intercourse with Margaret. It can easily be divined that she had +given her hand to save a parent, and that she had come abroad with a +husband, who, dying, had there left her a widow, and, alas for me! +a rich widow. If limits would allow, I could tell a long tale of +well-managed treachery and deception; how the ill-natured countess +suffered me to _remain_ in the belief that the death of Captain +Cameron’s niece, which occurred at A----, was that of my own Margaret; +how, in her character of supreme manager of the paralytic officer’s +affairs, she kept my letters; how she worked on Margaret’s feelings +to bring about a marriage with the Earl of Falcondale, in the hope of +again acquiring a maternal footing in her son’s house, and the right of +managing a portionless daughter-in-law; how Margaret held out stoutly +until informed of my broken faith; and how her marriage was kept from +the public papers. One night, I thought, as I bade the countess good +night, that I perceived a light breeze arising. This I remarked to +her, and she received the observation with a pleasure which found no +correspondent emotion in my own bosom. As I descended to my berth, I +fancied I descried among the sailors one Girod Jacqueminot, whose face +I had not before remarked. He was a Frenchman, to whom I had, during my +residence abroad, rendered some signal services, and who, though but a +wild fellow, had sworn to me eternal gratitude. He skulked, however, +behind his fellows, and did not now, it appeared, choose to recognise +his benefactor. + +I believe I slept profoundly that night. When I awoke, there was a +sound of dashing waves against the vessel, and a bustle of sailors’ +voices, and a blustering noise of wind among the sails and rigging; and +I soon perceived that our ship was scudding before a stiff, nay, almost +stormy gale. I peeped through the seaward opening of my little cabin. +The scene was strangely changed. It was scarcely dawn. I looked for +the white sails of our accompanying vessels, and our convoy. All had +disappeared. We seemed alone on those leaden-coloured billows. At this +moment, I heard a voice in broken English say, ‘Confound--while I reef +tose tammed top-sails, my pipe go out.’--‘Light it again, then, at the +binnacle, Monseer,’ said a sailor.--‘Yes, and be hanged to de yard-arm +by our coot captain for firing de sheep. Comment-faire? Sacrebleu! I +cannot even _tink_ vidout my pipe. De tought! Monsieur in de leetle +coop dere have always de lamp patent burning for hees lecture. He +sleep now. I go enter gently--light my pipe.’ He crept into my cabin +as he spoke. ‘How’s this, my friend?’ said I, speaking in French; +‘does not your captain know that we are out of sight of convoy?’ Girod +answered in his native language,--‘Oh! that I had seen you sooner. You +think, perhaps, I have forgotten all I owe you? No--no--but ’tis too +late now!’ He pointed to the horizon. On its very verge one sail was +yet visible. A faint rolling noise came over the water. ‘It is the +British frigate,’ said Girod, ‘firing to us to put our ship about, and +keep under convoy. But our captain has no intention of obeying the +signal; and if you get out of sight of that one distant sail, you are +lost.’--‘Think you, then, that the Demon Ship is in these seas?’ said +I, anxiously. Girod came close to me. With a countenance of remorse +and despair which I can never forget, he grasped my arm, and held it +towards heaven,--‘Look up to God!’ he whispered; ‘_you are on board the +Demon Ship!_’ A step was heard near the cabin, and Girod was darting +from it; but I held him by the sleeve. ‘For heaven’s sake, for miladi’s +sake, for your own sake,’ he whispered, ‘let not a look, a word, shew +that you are acquainted with this secret. All I can do is to try and +gain time for you. But be prudent, or you are lost!’ and quitted the +cabin as he spoke. When I thought how long, and how fearlessly, the +‘Elizabeth’ had lain amid the trading-vessels at Valetta, and how +she had sailed from that port under a powerful convoy, I was almost +tempted to believe that Girod had been practising a joke on me. ‘What +have you been doing there?’ said a voice I had never heard before, +and whose ruffianly tones could hardly be subdued by his efforts at a +whisper. ‘My pipe go out,’ answered Girod Jacqueminot, ‘and I not so +imprudent to light it at de beenacle. So I go just hold it over de lamp +of Monsieur, and he sleep, sleep, snore, snore all de while, and know +noting. I have never seed one man dorme so profound.’ + +I now heard the voices of the captain, Girod, and the ruffian, in +close and earnest parlance. The expletives that graced it shall be +omitted. But what first confirmed my fears, was the hearing our captain +obsequiously address the ruffian-speaker as commander of the vessel, +while the former received from his companion the familiar appellative +of Jack. They were walking the deck, and their whispered speech only +reached me as they from time to time approached my cabin, and was +again lost as they receded. I thought, however, that Girod seemed, +by stopping occasionally, as if in the vehemence of speech, to draw +them, as much as possible, towards my cabin. I then listened with an +intentness which made me almost fear to breathe. ‘But again I say, +Jack,’ said the voice of the real captain, ‘what are we to do with +these fine passengers of ours? I am sick of this stage-play work; and +the men are tired, by this time, of being kept down in the hold. We +shall have them mutiny if we stifle them much longer below. Look how +that sail is sinking on the horizon. She can never come up with us now. +There be eight good sacks in the forecastle, and we can spare them due +ballast. That would do the job decently enough for our passengers--ha!’ +‘Oh! mine goot captain, you are man of speeret,’ observed Jacqueminot; +‘but were it not wise to see dat sail no more, before we shew dat +we no vile merchanters, but men of de trade dat make de money by de +valour.’--‘There is something in that,’ observed Jack; ‘if the convoy +come up, and our passengers be missing, ’tis over with us.’ ‘And de +coot sacks wasted for noting,’ said Jacqueminot, with a cool ingenuity +that contrasted curiously with his vehement and horror-stricken manner +in my cabin. ‘Better to wait one day--two day--parbleu! tree day--than +spoil our sport by de precipitation.’--‘I grudge the keep of these +dainty passengers all this while,’ said the captain, roughly;--‘my lady +there, with her chickens, and her conserves, and her pasties; and Mr +Molly-flower Captain here, with his bottles of port and claret, and +cups of chocolate and Mocha coffee. Paying, too, forsooth! with such +princely airs for every thing, as if we held not his money in our own +hands already. Hunted as we then were, ’twas no bad way of blinding +governments, by passing for traders, and getting monied passengers +on board; but it behoves us to think what’s to be done now?’--‘My +opinion is,’ said Jack, ‘that we keep up the farce another day or two +until we get into clear seas again. That vessel, yonder, still keeps +on the horizon, and she has good glasses on board.’--‘And the men?’ +asked the captain. ‘I had rather, without more debate, go into this +hen-pen here, and down into the cabin below, and in a quiet way _do_ +for our passengers, than stand the chance of a mutiny among the crew.’ +Here my very blood curdled in my veins. ‘Dat is goot, and like mine +brave capitain,’ said the Frenchman; ‘and yet Monsieur Jean say well +mosh danger kill at present; but why not have de crew _above_ deck +vidout making no attention to de voyagers. Dey take not no notice. +Miladi tink but of moon, and stars, and book; and for de _sleeping +Lyon dere_, it were almost pity to cut his troat in any case. He +ver coot faillow; like we chosen speerit. Sacre-bleu! I knew him a +boy.’--[I had never seen the fellow until I was on the wrong side of +my thirtieth birth-day.]--‘Alvays for de mischief,--stealing apples, +beating his school-fellows, and oder lite speerited tricks. At last, +he was expell de school. I say not dis praise from no love to him; +for he beat me one, two time, when I vas secretaire to his uncle; and +den run off vid my _soodheart_--so I vas well pleased make him bad +turn.’--‘Look, look!’ said Jack, ‘the frigate gains on us; I partly +see her hull, and the wind slackens.’ I now put my own glass through +my little window, and could distinctly see the sails and rigging and +part of the hull of our late convoy. I could perceive that many of her +crew were aloft. It was a comfortable sight to see a friendly power +apparently so near; and there was a feeling of hopeless desolation +when, on removing the glass, the vessel shrank into a dim, grey speck +on the horizon. The captain uttered an infernal oath, and called aloud +to his sailors, ‘Seamen--ahoy--ahoy! Make all the sail ye can. Veer out +the main-sheet--top-sails unreefed--royals and sky-sails up,’ [&c. &c.] +‘Stretch every stitch of canvass. Keep her to the wind--keep her to the +wind!’ I was surprised to find that our course was suddenly changed, +as the vessel, which had previously driven before the breeze, was now +evidently sailing with a side wind. + +The Demon Ship was made for fast sailing, and she literally flew like a +falcon over the waves. Once more I turned to the horizon. God of mercy! +the frigate again began to sink upon the waters. + +I felt that in a few hours I might not only be butchered in cold blood +myself, but might see Margaret--that was the thought that unmanned +me. I tried to think if aught lay in our power to avert our coming +fate. Nothing offered itself. We were entirely in the power of the +Demon buccaneers. And I saw that all Girod could do was to gain a few +hours’ delay. My earnest desire now was to inform Margaret as quickly +as possible of her coming fate. But after Girod’s parting injunction, +I feared to precipitate the last fatal measures by any step that +might seem taken with reference to them. I therefore lay still until +morning was farther advanced. I then arose, and left my cabin. It was +yet scarcely broad day, but many a face I had not before seen met +my eye, many a countenance, whose untameable expression of ferocity +had doubtless been deemed, even by the ruffian commander himself, +good reason for hitherto keeping them from observation. All on the +quarter-deck was quiet, and it seemed that the countess and her female +attendants were still enjoying a calm and secure repose. I longed to +descend and arouse them from a sleep which was so soon to be followed +by a deeper slumber. + +I had now an opportunity of discovering the real nature of my +sentiments towards Margaret. They stood the test which overthrows many +a summer-day attachment. I felt that, standing as my soul now was on +the verge of its everlasting fate, it lost not one of its feelings of +tenderness. The sun arose, and the countess appeared on deck. I drew +her to the stern of the vessel, so that her back was to the crew, and +there divulged the fearful secret which so awfully concerned her. +At first, her cheek was pale, her lips bloodless, and respiration +seemed almost lost in terror and overpowering astonishment. She soon, +however, gained comparative self-possession. ‘I must be alone for a +few moments,’ she said; ‘perhaps you will join me below in a brief +hour.’ When I joined her at the time she had appointed, a heavenly calm +had stolen over her countenance. ‘Come and sit by me, my friend; our +moments seem numbered on earth, but, oh! what an interminable existence +stretches beyond it. In such a moment as this, how do we feel the +necessity of some better stay than aught our own unprofitable lives can +yield!’ Margaret’s Bible lay before her. It was open at the history of +_His_ sufferings on whom her soul relied. She summoned her maidens, and +we all read and prayed together. Her attendants were two sisters, of +less exalted mind than their mistress, but whose piety, trembling and +lowly, was equally genuine. + +It was a difficult day to pass, urged by prudence, and the slender +remains of hope, to appear with our wonted bearing before the crew. +Too plain indications that our sentence was at length gone forth soon +began to shew themselves. Margaret held me to her with a gentle and +trembling tenacity, that rendered it difficult for me to leave her +even for a moment; but I felt the duty of ascertaining whether any aid +yet appeared in view, or whether Girod could effect aught for us. I +walked, towards evening, round the quarter-deck--not a sail was to be +seen on the horizon. I endeavoured to speak to Girod, but he seemed +studiously and fearfully to avoid me. The captain was above, and the +deck was thronged. I believe this desperate crew was composed of ‘all +people, nations, and languages.’ Once only I met Girod’s eye as he +passed me quickly in assisting to hoist a sail. He looked me fixedly +and significantly in the face. It was enough: that expressive regard +said, ‘Your sentence has gone forth!’ I instantly descended to the +cabin, and my fellow-victims read in my countenance the extinction of +hope. We now fastened the door, I primed my pistols, and placed them +in my bosom, and clinging to one another we waited our fate. Margaret +put her hand in mine with a gentle confidence, which our circumstances +then warranted, and I held her close to me. She stretched out her other +hand to her female attendants, who, clinging close together, each held +a hand of their mistress. ‘Dear Edward!’ said Margaret, grasping my +arm. It was almost twelve years since I had heard these words from her +lips. Unrestrained, at such a moment, by the presence of the domestics, +Margaret and I used the most endearing expressions, and, like a dying +husband and wife, bade solemn farewell to each other. We all then +remained silent, our quick beating hearts raised in prayer, and our ear +open to every sound that seemed to approach the cabin. The ocean must +undoubtedly be our grave; but whether the wave, the cord, the pistol, +or the dagger, would be the instrument of our destruction, we knew not. + +The sun sunk in the waters, and the wind, as is often the case at +sunset, died on the ocean. At this moment, I heard the voice of the +captain--‘Up to the top of the mainmast, Jack, and see if there be any +sail on the horizon.’ We distinguished the sound of feet running up the +shrouds. A few moments elapsed ere the answer was received. At length, +we heard a--‘Well, Jack, well?’--which was followed by the springing +of a man on deck, and the words, ‘not a sail within fifty miles, I’ll +be sworn.’--‘Well, then, do the work below!’ was the reply. ‘But (with +an oath) don’t let’s have any squealing or squalling. Finish them +quietly. And take all the trumpery out of the cabin, for we shall hold +revel there to-night.’ A step now came softly down the cabin stair, +and a hand tried the door, but found it fastened. I quitted Margaret, +and placed myself at the entrance of the cabin. ‘Whoever,’ said I, +‘attempts to come into this place, does it at the peril of his life. +I fire the instant the latch is raised.’--A voice said, ‘Laissez moi +entrer donc.’ I then unfastened the door. Girod entered, and locked +it after him. He dragged in with him four strings, with heavy stones +appended to them, and the same number of sacks. The females sunk on +the floor. In the twinkling of an eye, Girod rolled up the carpet of +the cabin, and took up the trap-door, which every traveller knows is +to be found in the cabins of merchantmen. ‘In--in,’ he said in French +to the countess and myself. I immediately descended, received Margaret +into my arms, and was holding them out for the other females, when the +trap-door was instantly closed and bolted, the carpet laid down, the +cabin door unlocked, and Girod called out, ‘Here you, Harry, Jack, +how call you yourselves, I’ve done for two of dem. I can’t manage +no more. Dat tamned Captain Lyon, when I stuff him in de sack, he +almost brake de arm.’ Heavy feet trampling over the cabin floor, with +a sound of scuffling and struggling, were now heard over our head. +A stifled shriek, which died into a deep groan, succeeded--then two +heavy splashes into the water, with the bubbling noise of something +sinking beneath the waves, and the fate of the two innocent sisters was +decided. ‘Where’s Monsieur Girod?’ at length said a rough voice.--‘Oh, +he’s gone above,’ was the reply; ‘thinks himself too good to kill any +but _quality_.’--‘No, no,’ answered the other, ‘I’m Girod’s, through to +the back-bone--the funniest fellow of the crew. But he had a private +quarrel against that captain down at the bottom of the sea there, so +asks our commander not to let any body lay hands on him but himself. +A very natural thing to ask. There--close that locker, heave out the +long table, there’ll be old revel here to-night.’--At this moment, +Girod again descended. ‘All hands aloft, ma lads,’ he cried, ‘make no +attention to de carpet dere--matters not, for I most fairst descend, +and give out de farine for pasty. We have no more cursed voyagers, so +may make revel here to naight vidout no incommode.’ He soon descended +with a light into our wooden dungeon. + +‘Poor Katie, poor Mary. Alas! for their aged mother!’ she said, while +looking with horror at Girod.--‘I would have saved you all, had it +been possible,’ said Jacqueminot, in French. ‘But how were all to be +hid, and kept in this place? What I have done is at the risk of my +life. But there is not a moment to be lost. I have the keeping of the +stern-hold. Look you--here be two rows of meal sacks fore and aft. If +you, miladi, can hide behind one, and you, colonel, behind the other, +ye may have, in some sort, two little chambers to yourselves; or if +you prefer the same hiding-place, take it, in heaven’s name, but lose +not a moment.’--‘And what will be the end of all this?’ asked I, after +some hurried expressions of gratitude.--‘God knoweth,’ he replied. ‘I +will from time to time, when I descend to give out meal, and clean +the place, bring you provisions. How long this can last--where we are +going--whether in the end I can rescue you, time must be the shewer. +Hide, hide--I dare not stay one moment longer.’ He rolled down a heap +of biscuits, placed a pitcher of water by them, and departed. + +That night the Demon crew held their wild revelry over our head. Their +fierce and iniquitous speech, their lawless songs, their awful and +demoniac oaths, their wild intoxication, made Margaret thrill with a +horror that half excited the wish to escape in death from the polluting +vicinity of such infernal abominations. The light streamed here and +there through a crevice in the trap-door, and I involuntarily trembled +when I saw it fall on the white garment of Margaret, as if, even in +that concealment, it might betray her. We dared scarcely whisper a word +of encouragement or consolation to each other--dared scarcely breathe, +or stir even a hand from the comfortless attitude in which we were +placed. The captain expressed his regret that we had not, as matters +turned out, been earlier disposed of, and made a sort of rough apology +to his shipmates for the inconvenience our prolonged existence must +have occasioned them. At length, the revellers broke up. I listened +attentively until I became convinced that no one occupied the cabin +that night. + +Towards morning, as I supposed, I again distinguished voices in the +cabin. ‘It blows a stiff gale,’ was the observation of Jack.--‘So +much the better,’ replied the captain; ‘the more way we make, the +farther we get from all those cursed government vessels. I think we +might now venture to fall on any merchantman that comes in our way. +We must soon do something, for we have as yet made but a sorry sum +out of our present voyage. Let’s see--four thousand sterling pounds +that belonged to the captain there--rather to us--seeing we had taken +him on board.’--‘Yes, yes, we have sacked the captain,’ observed +Jack, facetiously. His companion went on--‘His watch, rings, and +clothes; and two thousand dollars of the countess’s, and her jewels. +This might be a fine prize to a sixteen-gun brig of some dozing +government, but the Demon was built for greater things.’--‘I suppose, +captain,’ said Jack, ‘we go on our usual plan, eh? The specie to be +distributed among the ship’s company, and the jewels and personals to +be appropriated, in a quiet way, by the officers? I hope there be no +breach of discipline, Captain Vanderleer, in asking where might be +deposited that secret casket, containing, you and I and one or two more +know what? I mean that we took from the Spanish-American brig.’--‘It +is in the stern-hold, beneath our feet at this moment,’ answered the +captain.--‘A good one for dividing its content,’ said Jack. ‘I’ll fetch +a light in the twinkling of an eye.’--‘No need,’ replied the captain. +‘I warrant me I can lay my hand on it in the dark.’ Without the warning +of another moment the Demon commander was in our hold. I suppose it +was about four in the morning. I had laid Margaret down on some old +signal flags, in that division of the hold which Girod had assigned +her, and had myself retired behind my own bulwark of meal-sacks, in +order that my companion might possess, for her repose, something like +the freedom of a small cabin to herself. I had scarcely time to glide +round to the side of Margaret ere the merciless buccaneer descended. We +almost inserted ourselves into the wooden walls of our hiding-place, +and literally drew down the sacks upon us. The captain felt about the +apartment with his hand, sometimes pushing it behind the sacks, and +sometimes feeling under them. And now he passed his arms through those +which aided our concealment. Gracious heaven! his hand discovered +the countess’s garments; he grasped them tight; he began to drag her +forward; but at this moment his foot struck against the casket for +which he was searching. He stooped to seize it, and, as his hold on +Margaret slackened, I contrived to pass towards his hand a portion of +the old flag-cloth, so as to impress him with the belief that it was +the original object of his grasp. He dragged it forward, and let it +go. But he had disturbed the compact adjustment of the sacks; and as +the vessel was now rolling violently in a tempestuous sea, a terrible +lurch laid prostrate our treacherous wall of defence, and we stood full +exposed, without a barrier between ourselves and the ruffian commander +of the Demon. He had gone to the light to pass his casket through the +trap-door. The sun was rising, and the crimson hues of dawn meeting no +other object in the hold save the depraved and hardened countenance +of our keeper, threw on its swart complexion such a ruddy glow, +as--contrasted with the surrounding darkness--gave him the appearance +of some foul demon emerging from the abodes of the condemned, and +bearing on his unhallowed countenance the reflection of the infernal +fires he had quitted. That glow was, however, our salvation. The +captain turned with an oath to replace the fallen sacks, and we felt +half-doubtful, as he pushed them with violence against the beams where +we stood, whether he had not actually discovered our persons, and taken +this method of at once destroying them by bruises and suffocation. His +work was, however, only accompanied by an imprecatory running comment +on Girod’s careless manner of stowage. We were now again buried in +our concealment; but another danger awaited us. Jacqueminot descended +to the cabin. An involuntary though half-stifled shriek escaped him +when he saw the trap-door open. He sprang into the hold, and when he +beheld the captain, his ghastly smile of enquiry, for he spoke not, +demanded if his ruin were sealed. ‘I have been seeing all your pretty +work here, Monsieur,’ said the gruff captain, pointing to the deranged +sacks, behind which we were concealed. I caught a glimpse through +them of Girod’s despairing countenance. It was a fearful moment, for +it seemed as if we were about to be involuntarily betrayed by our +ally, at the very instant when we had escaped our enemy. Girod’s teeth +literally chattered, and he murmered something about French gallantry +and honour; and the countess being a lady, and the Captain Francillon +an old acquaintance. ‘And so because you cut the throats of a couple +of solan geese, you think he must not even see to the righting of his +own stern-hold?’ said the captain, with a gruff and abortive effort at +pleasantry, for he felt Girod’s importance in amusing and keeping in +good-humour his motley crew. Jacqueminot’s answer shewed that he was +now _au fait_; and thus we had a fourth rescue from the very jaws of +death. + +Day after day passed away, and still we were the miserable, +half-starved, half-suffocated, though unknown prisoners of this Demon +gang. Girod at this period rarely dared to visit us. He came only +when the business of the ship actually sent him. The cabin above +was occupied at night by the captain and some of his most depraved +associates, so that small alleviation of our fears was afforded us +either by day or by night. At length, I began to fear that Margaret +would sink under the confined air, and the constant excitement. It was +agony indeed to feel her convulsed frame, and hear her faintly-drawn +and dying breath, and know that I could not carry her into the +reviving breezes of heaven, nor afford a single alleviation of her +suffering, without at once snapping that thread of life which was now +wearing away by a slow and lingering death. At length, her respiration +began to partake of the loud and irrepressible character which is so +often the precursor of dissolution. She deemed her hour drawing on, +yet feebly essayed, for my sake, to stifle those last faint moans +of expiring nature which might betray our concealment. I supported +her head, poured a faltering prayer into her dying ear, wiped the +death-dews from her face, and essayed to whisper expressions of deep +and unutterable affection. At this moment, Girod descended to the +hold. He put his finger on his lips significantly, and then whispered +in French--‘Courage--Rescue! There is a sail on our weather bow. She +is yet in the offing. Our captain marks her not; but I have watched +her some time with a glass, and she appears to be a British sloop of +war.’ I grasped Margaret’s hand. She faintly returned the pressure, +but gently murmured, ‘Too late.’ Ere the lapse of a moment, it was +evident that our possible deliverer was discovered by the Demon crew, +for we could hear by the bustle of feet and voices that the ship +was being put about; and the ferocious and determined voice of the +buccaneer chief was heard, giving prompt and fierce orders to urge +on the Demon. Girod promised to bring us more news, and quitted us. +The rush of air into the hold seemed to have revived Margaret, and my +hopes began to rise. Yet it was too soon evident that the motion of +the vessel was increased, and that the crew were straining every nerve +to avoid our hoped-for deliverer. After a while, however, the stormy +wind abated; the ship became steadier, and certainly made less way in +the waves. A voice over our head said distinctly in French--‘The sea +is gone down, and the sloop makes signal to us to lay to.’ A quarter +of an hour elapsed, and the voice again said, ‘The sloop chaces us!’ +Oh! what inexpressibly anxious moments were those. We could discover +from the varying cries on deck that the sloop sometimes gained on the +Demon, while at others the pirate got fearful head of her pursuer. +At length, Girod descended to the hold. ‘The die is cast!’ he said +in his native language. ‘The sloop gains fast on us. We are about to +clear the deck for action.’--‘God be praised!’ I ejaculated.--‘Amen!’ +responded a faint and gentle voice.--‘Do not praise him too soon,’ +said Girod, shrugging his shoulders; ‘our captain is preparing for a +victory. The Demon has mastered her equals, ay, and her superiors, and +this sloop is our inferior in size and numbers. The captain has hoisted +the Demon flag, and restored her name to the stern.’--‘But has his +motley crew,’ whispered I, anxiously, ‘ever encountered a _British_ foe +of equal strength?’--‘I cannot tell; I have been in her but a short +time, and will be out of her on the first occasion,’ said Girod, as +he hastily quitted us. We now heard all the noise of preparation for +an engagement. Cannon were lashed and primed; concealed port-holes +opened, and guns placed at them. Seeing ultimate escape impossible, the +captain took in sail, and determined to give his vessel the advantage +of awaiting the foe in an imposing state of preparation for action. He +harangued his men in terms calculated to arouse their brute courage, +and excite their cupidity. I heard the captain retire to that part +of the vessel which had been the countess’s cabin, and there take a +solemn and secret oath of his principal shipmates, that they would, if +boarded by a successful enemy, scuttle the Demon, and sink her, and her +crew, and her captors, in one common grave. It appeared, then, that +either the failure or the success of the sloop would alike seal our +destruction. + +Not a ray of light now penetrated through the chinks of the trap-door, +and, from the heavy weights which had fallen over it, I was inclined to +think that shot, or even cannon-balls, had been placed over the mouth +of our prison. I listened anxiously for a signal of the sloop’s nearing +us. At length, a ship-trumpet, at a distance, demanded, safe and +unhurt, the persons of Colonel Francillon, the Countess of Falcondale, +and two female domestics. It was then evident that the pirate’s +stratagem at Malta had transpired. The Demon’s trumpet made brief and +audacious reply:--‘Go seek them at the bottom of the sea.’ A broadside +from the sloop answered this impudent injunction, and was followed by a +complement in kind from the Demon, evidently discharged from a greater +number of guns. Long and desperately raged the combat above us; but the +pirates’ yells waxed fainter and fainter; while the victorious shouts +of the British seamen, mixed with the frequent and fearful cry, ‘No +quarter, no quarter to the robbers!’ became each instant louder and +more triumphant. At length, every sound of opposition from the Demon +crew seemed almost to cease. But there was still so much noise on deck, +that I in vain essayed to make my voice heard;--and for the trap-door, +it defied all my efforts--it was immovable. At this crisis, the ship, +which had hitherto been springing and reeling with the fierce fire +she had received from her adversary, and the motion of her own guns, +suddenly began to _settle_ into an awful and suspicious quiescence. But +the victors were apparently too busy in the work of retribution to heed +this strange and portentous change. _I_ perceived, however, only too +clearly that the Demon was about finally to settle for sinking. After +the lapse of a few seconds, it seemed that the conquerors themselves +became at last aware of the treacherous gulf that was preparing to +receive them; and a hundred voices exclaimed, ‘To the sloop!--to +the sloop! The ship is going down--the ruffians are sinking her!’ I +now literally called out until my voice became a hoarse scream. I +struck violently against the top of our sinking dungeon. I pushed the +trap-door with my whole force. All was in vain.--I heard the sailors +rushing eagerly to their own vessel, and abandoning that of the pirates +to destruction. I took Margaret’s hand, and held it up towards heaven, +as if it could better than my own plead there for us. All was silent. +Not a sound was heard in the once fiercely manned Demon, save the +rushing of the waters in at the holes where she had been scuttled by +her desperate crew. At last, as if she had received her fill, she began +to go down with a rapidity which seemed to send us, in an instant, many +feet deeper beneath the waves, and I now expected every moment to hear +them gather over the deck, and then overwhelm us for ever. I uttered +a prayer, and clasped Margaret in my arms. But no voice, no sigh, +proceeded from the companion of my grave. + +At this moment, voices were heard; weights seemed to be removed from +the trap-door! It was opened; and the words, ‘Good heaven! the fellow +is right; they are here, sure enough!’ met my almost incredulous ear. +I beheld a British officer, a sailor or two, and Girod, with his hands +tied behind him. I held up my precious burden, who was received into +the arms of her compatriots, and then, like one in a dream, sprang +from my long prison. Perhaps it might be well that Margaret’s eye was +half-closed in death at that moment; for the deck of the sinking Demon +offered no spectacle for woman’s eye. I shall never forget the scene +of desolation presented by that deck, lying like a vast plank or raft +of slaughtered bodies, almost level with the sea, whose waters dashed +furiously over it, and then receding from their still ineffectual +attempt to overwhelm the vessel, returned all dyed with crimson to +the ocean; while the sun setting in a stormy and angry sky, threw his +rays--for the last time--in lurid and fitful gleams on the ruined Demon. + +As we hurriedly prepared to spring into the boat, I saw that Girod’s +pinioned members refused him the prompt aid necessary for effecting +an escape at such a moment. I returned, seized a bloody cutlass that +lay on deck, and, without leave of the officer, cut at once through +the bonds which confined our first deliverer. ‘This man,’ I said, +as we seated ourselves, ‘has been the instrument of Heaven for our +preservation. I will make myself answerable for his liberty and kind +treatment.’ Girod seized my hand, which received a passionate Gallic +salute. Our sailors now rowed hard to avoid being drawn into the vortex +of the sinking ship. Merciful God! we were then _out of the Demon_! I +supported Margaret in my arms; and as I saw her bosom heave, a renewed +glow of hope rushed to my heart. + +We had not been on board the sloop many minutes, ere, slowly and +awfully, the Demon sunk to the same eternal grave to which she had so +often doomed her victims. We saw the top of the main-mast, which had +borne her fatal flag above the waters, tremble like a point on their +very surface, and then vanish beneath them. A frightful chasm yawned +for a moment--it was then closed by the meeting waters, which soon +rolled peacefully over the vessel they had engulfed; and the Demon, so +long the terror of the seas and the scourge of mariners, disappeared +for ever. + + * * * * * + +Should any reader have felt just sufficient interest in the narrative +to _wonder_ whether Margaret died, and whether Colonel Francillon +attended her funeral as chief-mourner; or whether she recovered, and +was married to the Colonel,--I can only briefly say, that the sloop +put into Naples, where the countess was soon placed under a skilful +physician. He pronounced her case hopeless, and my relative had only +the melancholy satisfaction of reflecting that her dying hour would +be peaceful, and her lovely remains honoured by Christian burial. +She passed from the hands of her physician into those of the British +ambassador’s chaplain; but I do not think it could have been for the +purpose of religious interment--as I enjoyed, for nearly forty years +after this period, the inestimable privilege of calling the colonel and +the countess my revered father and mother! + + + + +Transcriber’s Notes + + + 1. All spelling kept as in the original, including variations in + hyphenation. + + 2. Letters missing from original scan. Best approximation of the text + is, “I vas well pleased make him bad turn.” + + 3. Page 15, line 13: best effort was made to account for the missing + words in the original scan: “Once more I turned to the horizon. + God of mercy! the frigate again”. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78318 *** |