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The Rover's Secret: A Tale of the Pirate Cays and Lagoons of Cuba

by Harry Collingwood · English · Gutenberg #21071 · 707,930 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: The Rover's Secret: A Tale of the Pirate Cays and Lagoons of Cuba

Author: Harry Collingwood

Illustrator: William Christian Symons


        
Release date: April 13, 2007 [eBook #21071]

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21071

Credits: Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROVER'S SECRET: A TALE OF THE PIRATE CAYS AND LAGOONS OF CUBA ***




Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England




The Rover's Secret
A Tale of the Pirate Cays and Lagoons of Cuba

By Harry Collingwood
________________________________________________________________________
It was a bit puzzling to to work out who or what the Rover was, and what
the secret was.  The word Rover is not mentioned once in the body-text
of the book, and the word secret only three or four times.  However,
eventually I sussed it out.  The Rover is a pirate who figures enough in
the book for one to be aware he is there.  He is mortally wounded, and
in the last chapter he tells his secret before he dies, thus providing
an explanation for several other puzzling things that we have been told,
or that happened, in the book.

On the other hand I was not too happy with the overall style of the
book, which is too florid and long-winded. Practically every sentence
could be greatly shortened without loss, and it is sometimes an amusing
exercise to rest from reading, and then try to re-phrase the current
paragraph.

Apart from those things, the book is written in a style much like that of
Kingston.  This is typical of Collingwood, but one sometimes thinks he is
a bit plagiaristic. That doesn't stop it from being quite an enjoyable
book.  There is some evidence that there are some missing commas in the
text as I have presented it, but I do not think that this will at all
impede the flow of the story as it unfolds.
________________________________________________________________________
THE ROVER'S SECRET
A TALE OF THE PIRATE CAYS AND LAGOONS OF CUBA

BY HARRY COLLINGWOOD



CHAPTER ONE.

MY CHILDHOOD.

My father--Cuthbert Lascelles--was the great painter who, under a
pseudonym which I need not mention here, was a few years ago well known
in the world of art, and whose works are now to be found enshrined in
some of the noblest public and private collections both at home and
abroad.

He was a tall and singularly handsome man; with clear grey eyes, and a
stern resolute-looking mouth shadowed by a heavy moustache which, like
his short curly hair and carefully trimmed beard, was of a pale golden
tint.

My mother died in giving me birth; and this, together with the fact that
she was a native of Italy, was all I, for some years, knew concerning
her.

One of the earliest impressions made upon my infant mind--for I cannot
recall the time when I was free from it--was that my parents suffered
great unhappiness during the latter part of their short married life;
unhappiness resulting from some terrible mistake on the part of one or
the other of them; which mistake was never explained and rectified--if
explanation and rectification were indeed possible--during my mother's
lifetime.

Having received this impression at so very early an age, I cannot, of
course, say with certainty whence I derived it; but I am inclined to
attribute it chiefly to the singularity of my father's conduct toward
myself.

I was his only child.

He was a man to whom solitude and retirement appeared to be the chief
essentials of existence.  Though living in London, he very rarely
mingled in society, yet I have since heard that he always met with a
most cordial welcome when he did so--and it was seldom indeed that his
studio doors unfolded to admit anyone but their master.  If he went into
the country, as of course was often the case, in search of subjects, he
never by any chance happened to be going in the same direction as any of
his brethren of the brush; his destination was invariably some wild
spot, unfrequented--possibly even unknown--alike by painter and tourist.
And there--if undisturbed--he would remain, diligently working all day
in the open air during favourable weather; and, when the elements were
unpropitious for work, taking long walks over solitary heaths and
desolate mountain sides, or along the lonely shore.  And when the first
snows of winter came, reminding him that it was time to turn his face
homeward once more, he would pack up his paraphernalia and return to
town, laden with studies of skies and seas, of barren moorland, rocky
crag, and foaming mountain torrent which provoked alike the envy and the
admiration of his brother artists.

It will naturally be supposed that, to a man of such solitary habits as
these, the society of his only child would be an unspeakable comfort.
But, with my father, this did not appear to be by any means the case.
He never took me out of town with him on his annual pilgrimage to the
country; and, when he was at home, it often happened that I did not see
him, face to face, for weeks together.  As a consequence of this
peculiar arrangement, almost the whole of the time which I spent indoors
was passed in the nursery, where also my meals were served, and wherein
my only companion was Mary, the nursemaid.

The only exceptions to this isolated state of existence were those rare
occasions when my father, without the slightest warning, and apparently
with as little reason, used to send for me to visit him in his studio.
It was during these interviews that his peculiar treatment of me became
most noticeable.  As a general rule, when--after a vigorous cleansing of
my face and hands and a change of my raiment had been effected by the
nursemaid--I was introduced into the studio, my father would ensconce me
in a roomy old easy-chair by the fire; provide me with a picture-book of
some kind wherewith to amuse myself; and then take no further notice of
me.  This, however, seemed to depend to some extent upon the greeting
which I received from him, and that proved to be a tolerably accurate
index of the humour which happened to possess him at the moment.
Sometimes the greeting would consist of a cold shake of the hand and an
equally cold "I hope you are well, boy," accompanied by a single keen
glance which seemed at once to take in every detail of my person and
clothing.  Sometimes the shake of the hand would be somewhat warmer, the
accompanying remark being, perhaps, "I am glad to see you looking so
well, my boy."  And occasionally--but very rarely--I was agreeably
surprised to find myself received with an affectionate embrace and
kiss--which I always somewhat timidly returned--and the words, "Lionel,
my son, how are you?"

When the greeting reached this stage of positive warmth, it usually
happened that, instead of being consigned at once to the arm-chair and
the picture-book, I was lifted to my father's knee, when, laying aside
palette and brushes, he would proceed to ask me all sorts of questions,
such as, What had I been doing lately; where had I been, and what had I
seen worthy of notice; did I want any new toys? and so on; enticing me
out of my reserve until he had coaxed me into talking freely with him.
On these especial occasions he had a curious habit of wheeling round in
front of us a large mirror which constituted one of his studio
"properties," and into this, whilst talking to me, he would intently
gaze at his own reflected image, and mine, laying his cheek beside mine
so as to bring both our faces to the same level, and directing me also
to look into the mirror.  Sometimes this curious inspection terminated
satisfactorily; in which case, after perhaps an hour's chat on his knee,
I was tenderly placed in the easy-chair, in such a position that my
father could see me without his work being materially interfered with;
our conversation was maintained with unflagging spirit on both sides;
and the day was brought to a happy close by our dining together, and
perhaps going to the theatre or a concert afterwards.  There were
occasions, however, when this pleasant state of affairs did not obtain--
when the ordeal of the mirror did not terminate so satisfactorily.  It
occasionally happened that, whilst gazing at my father's reflected
features, I observed a stern and sombre expression settling like a heavy
thunder-cloud upon them; and this always sufficed to speedily reduce me
to silence, however garrulous I might before have been.  The paternal
gaze would gradually grow more intense and searching; the thunder-cloud
would lower more threateningly; and unintelligible mutterings would
escape from between the fiercely clenched firm white teeth.  And,
finally, I would either be placed--as in the last-mentioned instance--
where my father could look at me whilst at work--and where he _did_
frequently look at me with appalling sternness--or I was at once
dismissed with a short and sharp "Run away, boy; I am busy."

Looking back upon the first eight years of my existence, and
contemplating them by the light of my now matured knowledge, I am
inclined to regard them as quite an unique experience of child-life; at
all events I would fain hope that but few children have suffered so
keenly as I have from the lack of paternal love.  And yet I cannot say
that I was absolutely unhappy, except upon and for a day or two after
those chilling dismissals from my father's presence to which I have
briefly referred; the _suffering_, although it existed, had by long
usage become a thing to which I had grown accustomed, and it consisted
chiefly in a yearning after those endearments and evidences of affection
which I instinctively felt were my due.  The conviction that _my
father_--the one to whom my childish heart naturally turned for sympathy
in all my little joys and sorrows--regarded me coldly--for his
demonstrations of affection were indeed few and far between--exercised a
subduing and repressive influence upon me from which, even now, I have
not wholly recovered, and which will probably continue to affect me to
the latest hour of my life.  What made my position decidedly worse was
that my father had, so far, not deemed it necessary to send me to
school; and I had, therefore, no companions of my own age, none of _any_
age, in fact, except Mary, the nursemaid aforementioned, and Mrs
Wilson, the housekeeper; the latter--good motherly body--so far
compassionating the state of utter ignorance in which I was growing up
that, in an erratic, unmethodical sort of way, she occasionally devoted
half an hour or so of her time of an evening to the task of forwarding
my education.  In consequence of this state of things I often found it
difficult to effect a satisfactory disposal of the time left to lie
somewhat heavily on my hands.

I have said that Mrs Wilson was kind enough to undertake my education;
and very faithfully and to the best of her ability, poor soul, she
carried on the task.  But nature had evidently intended the old lady to
be a housekeeper, and not an instructress of youth; for whilst she
performed the duties of the former post in a manner which left
absolutely nothing to be desired, it must be confessed that in her self-
imposed task of schoolmistress she failed most lamentably.  Not through
ignorance, however, by any means.  She was fairly well educated, having
"seen better days," so she was possessed of a sufficiency of knowledge
for her purpose had she but known how to impart it.  Unfortunately,
however, for me she did not; she was entirely destitute of that tact
which is the great secret of successful instruction; she had not the
faintest conception of the desirability of investing my studies with the
smallest particle of interest; and they were in consequence dry as the
driest of dry bones and unattractive in the extreme.  She never dreamed
that it might be advantageous to explain or point out the ultimate
purpose of my lessons to me, or to illustrate them by those apposite
remarks which are often found to be of such material assistance to the
youthful student; if I succeeded in repeating them perfectly "out of
book" the good woman was quite satisfied; she never attempted to
ascertain whether I understood them or not.

Under such circumstances it is probable that I should have derived
little or no advantage from my studies had not my preceptress possessed
a valuable ally in my own inclinations.  Writing I was fond of; reading
I had an especial desire to master, for reasons which will shortly
become apparent; but arithmetic I at first found difficult, and utterly
detested--until I had mastered its rules, after which I soon reached a
point where the whole became clear as the noonday light; and then I fell
under the magical influence of that fascination which figures for some
minds is found to possess.  But geography was my favourite study.  There
was an old terrestrial globe in the nursery, the use of which my father
had taught me in one of his rare genial moments; and over this globe I
used to stand for hours, with my geography in my hand and a gazetteer on
a chair by my side, finding out the positions of the various places as
they occurred in the books.

It sometimes happened that Mrs Wilson went out to spend the evening
with a married daughter who resided somewhere within visiting distance;
and, when this was the case, my studies were of course interrupted, and
other means of employing my time had to be found.  Thanks, chiefly, to
the fact that these occasions afforded Mary, my particular attendant, an
opportunity of escape from the somewhat dismal lonesomeness of the
nursery, these evenings were very frequently spent in the servants'
hall, where I had an opportunity of enjoying the conversation of the
housemaid Jane, the cook, and Tim, the presiding genius of the knife-
board and boot-brushes.  I always greatly enjoyed these visits to the
lower regions, for two reasons; the first of which was that they were
surreptitious, and much caution was needed, or supposed to be needed, in
order that my journey down-stairs might be accomplished without
"master's" knowledge; the remaining reason for my enjoyment being that I
generally heard something which interested me.  Whether the interest
excited was or was not of a healthy character the reader shall judge.

The cook, of course, reigned supreme in the servants' hall, the other
occupants taking their cue from her, and regulating their tastes and
occupations in accordance with hers.  Now this woman--an obese, red-
armed, and red-visaged person of about forty years of age--was possessed
by a morbid and consuming curiosity concerning all those horrors and
criminal mysteries which appear from time to time in the public prints;
and the more horrible they were, the greater was her interest in them.
The evening, after all the work was done and there was opportunity to
give her whole attention to the subject, was the time selected by her
for the satisfaction of this curiosity; and it thus happened very
frequently that, when I made my appearance among the servants, they were
deep in the discussion of some murder, or mysterious disappearance, or
kindred matter.  If the item under discussion happened to be fresh, the
boy Tim was delegated to search the newspaper and read therefrom every
paragraph bearing upon it, the remainder of the party listening intently
and open-mouthed as they sat in a semicircle before the blazing fire.
And if the item happened to be so stale as to have passed out of the
notice of the papers, the cook would recapitulate for our benefit its
leading features, together with any similar events or singular
coincidences connected with the case which might occur to her _memory_
at the moment.  From the discussion of murders to the relation of ghost
stories is a natural and easy transition, and here Jane, the housemaid,
shone pre-eminent.  She would sit there and discourse by the hour of
lonely and deserted houses, long silent galleries, down which misty
shapes had been seen to glide in the pallid moonlight, gaunt and ruinous
chambers, the wainscot of which rattled, and the tattered tapestry of
which swayed and rustled mysteriously; gloomy passages through which
unearthly sighs were audibly wafted; dismal cellars, with never-opened
doors, from whose profoundest recesses came at dead of night the muffled
sound of shrieks and groans and clanking chains; "of calling shapes, and
beckoning shadows dire, and airy tongues that syllable men's names on
sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses," until not one of the party,
excepting myself, dared move or look round for fear of seeing some dread
presence, some shapeless dweller upon the threshold, some horrible
apparition, the sight of which, Medusa-like, should blast them into
stone.  Not infrequently the situation was rendered additionally
harrowing by the cook, who would suddenly interrupt the narrative, send
an icy thrill down our spines, and cause the unhappy Tim's scalp to
bristle even more than usual, by exclaiming in a low startling whisper:

"_Hark_! didn't you hear something move in the passage just then?"

Whereupon Jane and Mary would spring to their feet, and, with pallid
faces, starting eyes, and blanched lips, cling convulsively to each
other, convinced that at last their unspoken fears were about to be
dreadfully realised.

It will naturally be supposed that these _seances_ would have a
dreadfully trying effect upon my infantile nerves; but, strangely
enough, they did not.  I never looked beneath my cot with the
expectation of discovering a midnight assassin; for, in the first place,
the outer doors of the house were always kept so carefully closed that I
did not see how such an individual could well get in; and, in the second
place, admitting, for argument's sake, the possibility of his effecting
an entrance, I did not for a moment believe he would give himself the
wholly unnecessary trouble of murdering a little boy, or girl either,
for that matter.  Then, as to the ghosts, though it never occurred to me
to doubt their existence, I entirely failed to understand why people
should be afraid of them.  I felt that, in regarding these beings as
objects of dread and apprehension, the housemaid, the cook, and in fact
everybody who took this view of them, entirely misunderstood them, and
were doing the poor shadows a most grievous injustice.  My own
experience of ghosts led me to the conclusion that, so far from their
being inimical to mankind, they were distinctly benign.  There was one
ghost in particular to whose visitations I used to look forward with the
greatest delight; and I was never so happy as when I awoke in the
morning with the vague remembrance that, at some time during the silent
watches of the past night, I had become conscious of a sweet and
gracious presence beside my cot, bending over me with eyes which looked
unutterable love into mine, and with lips which mingled kisses of
tenderest affection with softly-breathed blessings upon my infant head.
At first I used to mention these visitations to Mary, my nurse, but I
soon forbore to do so, noticing that she always looked uncomfortably
startled for a moment or two afterwards, and generally dismissed the
subject somewhat hurriedly by remarking:

"Ah, poor lamb! you've been dreaming about your mother."

Which remark annoyed me, for I felt convinced that so realistic an
experience could not possibly result from a mere dream.

It sometimes happened that there were no tragedies or other horrors in
the newspapers sufficiently piquant to tempt the cook's intellectual
palate; and in the absence of these, if it happened also to be Jane's
"evening out," Mary would occasionally produce a well-thumbed copy of
the _Arabian Nights_, or some old volume of fairy tales, from which she
read aloud.

How I enjoyed those evenings with the old Eastern romancist!  How I
revelled in the imaginary delights and wonders of fairydom!  Of course I
pictured myself the hero of every story, the truth of the most
outrageous of which it never occurred to me to doubt.  Sitting at Mary's
feet, on a low stool before the fire, with the old cat blinking and
purring with drowsy satisfaction upon my knee, I used to gaze
abstractedly at the glowing coals, now thinking myself the prince in
"Cinderella," now the happy owner of "Puss in Boots," and now the
adventurous Sindbad.  There was one story, however--I quite forget its
title--which, in strong contrast with the others, instead of affording
me gratification, was a source of keen annoyance and vexation to me
whenever I heard it.  It related to a boy who on one occasion had the
good fortune to meet, in the depths of the forest, a little old man in
red cap and green jerkin--a gnome or fairy, of course--who with the
utmost good-nature offered to gratify any single wish that boy might
choose to express.  Here was a glorious chance, the opportunity of a
lifetime!  The boy's first thought was for ginger-bread, but before the
thought had time to clothe itself in words the vision of a drum and
trumpet flashed across his mind.  He was about to express a wish for
these martial instruments, and a real sword, when it occurred to him
that the fairies were quite equal to the task of providing gifts of
infinitely greater value and splendour than even these coveted articles.
And then that unfortunate boy completely lost his head; his brain
became muddled with the endless variety of things which he found he
required; and he took so long a time to make up his mind that, when, in
desperation, he finally did so, the unwelcome discovery was made that
his fairy friend, disgusted at the delay and vacillation, had vanished
without bestowing upon him so much as even one poor ginger-bread
elephant.  It was that boy's first and last opportunity, and he lost it.
He never again met a fairy, though he wandered through the forest, day
after day, week after week, and year after year, until he became an old
man, dying at last in a state of abject poverty.

The moral of this story was obvious even to my juvenile mind.  It
plainly pointed to the necessity for being prepared to take the fullest
advantage of every opportunity, whenever it might present itself; and I
was resolved that, if ever I encountered a fairy, he should find me
fully prepared to tax his generosity to its utmost limit.  And,
forthwith, I began to ask myself what was the most desirable thing at
all likely to be within a fairy's power of bestowal.  At this point I,
for the first time, began to realise the difficulties of the situation
in which the unhappy boy of the story found himself.  I thought of
several things; but none of them came quite up to my idea of a gift such
as would do full honour and justice to a fairy's power of giving; the
utmost I could imagine was a real ship full of real sailors, wherein I
might roam the seas and perform wonderful voyages like Sindbad; and, in
my efforts to achieve a still higher flight of imagination, I found
myself so completely at a loss that I was fain to turn to Mary for
counsel.  Accordingly, as I was being escorted by that damsel upstairs
to bed one night, I broached the subject by saying:

"Mary, supposing you were to meet a fairy, what would you ask him to
give you?"

"Lor'!  Master Lionel, I dun know," she replied.  "That's a question I
shouldn't like to answer just off-hand; I should want to think it over a
good bit.  I should read a lot of books, and find out what was the best
thing as was to be had."

"What sort of books?"  I asked.

"Oh! any sort," was the reply; "books such as them down-stairs in your
pa's lib'ry; them's downright _beautiful_ books--your pa's--full of all
sorts of wonderful things such as you never heard tell of."

This reply afforded me food for a considerable amount of profound
reflection before I went to sleep that night; the result of which was
that on the following morning, as soon as I had taken my breakfast, I
descended to the "lib'ry," opened the doors of one of the book-cases,
and dragged down upon my curly pate the most bulky volume I could reach.
With the expenditure of a considerable amount of labour I conveyed it
to the nursery, and, flinging it and myself upon the floor, opened it
hap-hazard, feeling sure that, in a book of such imposing dimensions, I
should find something valuable wherever I might open it.  It was an
English work of some kind, I remember; but, alas for my aspirations! it
might almost as well have been Greek.  I was equal, just then, to the
mastery of words of two syllables, but no more; and the result was that,
though I occasionally caught a glimpse of the meaning of a sentence here
and there, the subject matter of the book, as a whole, remained a
profound mystery to me.  My want of knowledge was at once made most
painfully apparent to myself; I discovered that I had a very great deal
to learn before the treasures of wisdom by which I was surrounded could
be made available; and I forthwith bent all my energies to the task of
perfecting myself in the art of reading as a first and indispensable
step.



CHAPTER TWO.

MY MOTHER'S PORTRAIT.

Actuated by what was to me so powerful an incentive, my progress toward
proficiency as a reader was rapid; and, in a comparatively short time, I
felt equal to a renewed effort to sound the depths of the well of
knowledge.

On this momentous occasion--momentous to me, at least, for I am
convinced that it exercised a very material influence on my eventual
choice of a career--I chanced upon an illustrated volume of _Travels by
Land and Sea_.  I opened it at the title-page, down which I patiently
and conscientiously waded; then on to the preface--which, luckily, was a
short one--and so into the body of the book.  I of course encountered a
great deal that I could only imperfectly understand; and I detected
within myself a rapidly-growing disposition to skip all the hard words;
but, notwithstanding these drawbacks, I contrived to catch a glimmering,
if not something more, of the author's meaning.  It was hard work, but I
struggled on, down page after page, fascinated, my imagination vividly
depicting the various scenes of which I read.  I saw the deep blue
tropic sea heaving and sparkling in the joyous sunshine, and the stout
ship, with her gleaming wide-spread canvas, sweeping bravely over its
bosom.  I stood upon the deck of that ship, among the seamen, peering
eagerly ahead, and saw a faint grey cloud gradually shape itself in the
midst of the haze on the far western horizon.  I heard the joyous shout
of "Land ho!" break from the lips of the lookout at the mast-head; and
watched the cloud gradually hardening its outlines and changing its
tints until it assumed the unmistakable aspect of land; saw the distant
mountains steal into view, and the trees emerge into distinct and
prominent detail along the shore; saw, at length, the strip of sandy
beach, dazzlingly white in the blazing sunlight; heard the deep hoarse
roar of the breakers, and saw the flashing of the snow-white foam as the
rollers swept grandly on and dashed themselves into surf and diamond
spray upon the strand.  Then I saw the natives launching their light
canoes and paddling off through the surf to the ship; or leapt eagerly
into the boat alongside; reached the strip of dazzling beach--strewn now
with beautiful shells; plunged into the grateful shade of enticing
groves rich with the prodigal luxuriance and fantastic beauty of
tropical growth, ablaze with flowers of gorgeous hues, alive with birds
whose plumage flashed like living gems, and breathed an atmosphere
oppressive with perfume.

From that hour forward the entertainments of the servants' hall paled
their ineffectual fires before the superior effulgence of those
delightful visions which I now possessed the power of summoning at will;
books or stories of travel and adventure alone had now any charm for me;
and these I devoured with an appetite which grew by what it fed on.  The
natural consequence of all this will readily be foreseen: a desire
sprang up, which steadily ripened into a resolve, that, when I should
become a man, I too would be a traveller, and--like those of whom I was
never tired of reading--would make my home upon the pathless sea.

Thus matters went on until the arrival of the eighth anniversary of my
birthday, on the morning of which, soon after I had finished my
breakfast, I was summoned to my father's studio.  I was received
somewhat coldly; and, after indicating to me the chair which he had
placed for my occupation, my father resumed his work and continued it
for some time without taking the slightest further notice of me.

A silence of perhaps half an hour ensued; when, laying down his brush,
he said:

"I am glad to learn from Mrs Wilson that you are making very
satisfactory progress with your studies; that, in fact, you are
exhibiting a marked disposition to acquire knowledge.  This is well;
this is as it should be; and, to mark my appreciation of your conduct, I
have resolved to further your desires and give you increased facilities
for study, by sending you to school, where you will have the advantage
of such guidance and assistance as only trained masters can give; and
where you will also enjoy the companionship and association of lads of
your own age.  I hope the prospect is a pleasant one to you."

As this last remark seemed to partake somewhat of the form of a
question, I replied that the prospect _was_ pleasant, and that I felt
very much obliged to him for his kind and thoughtful intentions.  I
wanted to say a great deal more by way of thanks; I wished him to
understand how delightful to me would be the change which this
arrangement involved; how I had longed for some one to take me by the
hand, to guide my erratic footsteps and lead me by the shortest way to
that fountain of knowledge for the waters of which I was just beginning
to thirst; and I wished him to understand, too, how welcome would be the
companionship of the other boys, after so lonely a life as mine had
been.  But to make all this clear to him through my imperfect method of
expressing myself would have involved quite a long speech on my part;
and, as my eager glance fell on his unsympathetic face, the words failed
me, and I held my peace.

"The school I have selected is a large one," my father continued.  "I am
informed that the pupils at present number over two hundred; and it is
quite in the country.  The principal encourages every kind of innocent
pastime, such as cricket, football, swimming, skating in the winter, and
so on; so you will not lack amusements--the necessaries for joining in
which I will take care that you shall be provided with.  And I have
arranged that, for the present, you shall receive from the headmaster
sixpence a week as pocket-money--a sum which I consider quite sufficient
for a boy of your age.  With regard to your studies, I would urge you to
make the most of your opportunities; as, on the completion of your
education, you will have to make your own way in the world.  My
profession, as you will perhaps better understand later on, is somewhat
a precarious one.  As long as I retain my health and strength and the
unimpaired use of all my faculties, matters will no doubt go well with
me; but accident, disease, or the loss of sight may at any moment
interrupt my labours or stop them altogether: in which case my income,
which I derive solely from the use of my brush, would cease altogether.
You will easily comprehend, therefore, that it would be unwise in the
extreme for you to depend upon me in any way to provide for your future.
Now, do you think you clearly comprehend what I have been saying?"

I replied, `Yes, I believed I did.'  I wanted to add that there was one
thing, however, that I did _not_ understand, which was, how a father
could communicate to his only child so lengthy an explanation on a
subject of so much importance without giving one word or sign of
affection to that child, and that I was most earnestly anxious to know
the reason, if any, for so marked an omission; but, whilst I was
hesitating how to frame my remark in such a manner as to avoid the
giving of offence, my father rose from before his easel, and, unlocking
a cabinet which stood in the room, said:

"One word more.  You will probably be asked by your companions all
manner of questions about your home and your parents.  Now, with regard
to your mother, you know nothing about her beyond, possibly, the fact
that she died when you were born; and that is quite as much as I
consider it needful for you to know.  But you may perhaps be glad to be
made acquainted with her personal appearance; you may, possibly, at some
future day--if you have not already experienced such a desire--be
anxious to possess the means of bringing her before you as something
more than a mere _name_.  I will therefore give you this miniature,
which is a correct and striking likeness of what your mother was when I
painted it."

And, as he finished speaking, my father placed in my hand a small velvet
case, to which was attached a thin gold chain by which it might be
suspended from the neck.

I was about to open the case; but my father somewhat hastily prevented
the action by throwing the chain round my neck, thrusting the miniature
into the bosom of my dress, and dismissing me with the words:

"There! run away now and make your preparations.  We shall set out for
your school to-morrow, immediately after breakfast."

I hastened away to my play-room, and, once fairly within the bounds of
my own domain, drew forth the miniature case and opened it.  As the lid
flew back at the pressure of my finger upon the spring a thrill of half
joy, half terror, shot through me; for I instantly recognised in the
features of the portrait a vivid presentment of that sweet dream-face
whose visits to me during the silent and lonely night-watches had
flooded my infant soul with such an ecstasy of rapture and delight.  The
portrait, which is before me as I write, was that of a young and
beautiful girl.  The complexion was clearest, faintest, most transparent
olive; the face a perfect oval, crowned with luxuriant masses of wavy,
deep chestnut hair, the colour almost merging into black; indeed it
would have been difficult to decide that it was _not_ black but for the
lights in it, which were of a deep dusky golden tone.  The eyebrows were
beautifully arched, and the lashes of the eyes were represented as
unusually long.  The eyes themselves were very deep hazel, or black--it
was impossible to say which; the nose perfectly straight; the lips, of a
clear, rich, cherry hue, were full and slightly pouting; the mouth
perhaps the merest shade larger than it ought to have been for perfect
beauty; the chin round, with a well-defined dimple in its centre.
Altogether, it was the loveliest face I had ever seen; and I stood for
some time gazing in a trance of admiration on it, the feeling being
mingled with one of deep regret that fate had, in snatching away the
living original, deprived me of such rich possibilities of mutual love.
I felt keenly that, had she continued to live, my life would, in all
probability, have been widely different and very much happier than it
ever had been.  Musing thus, I turned the case over in my hand, and
found that there was a contrivance for opening it at the back.  I soon
discovered the spring, upon pressing which the back flew open,
disclosing a circlet of glossy chestnut hair reposing upon an oval of
pale yellow silk, in the centre of which were painted the words "Maria
Lascelles; aet. 18.  C.L."

Closing the case again and placing it carefully in my bosom, I turned my
thoughts to my new prospects; and whilst collecting together a few of my
more treasured valuables to take with me, and packing the remainder away
in a place of safety, I suffered myself to indulge in much pleasant
speculation upon my immediate future.

On the following morning, about ten o'clock, my father and I left town
in a post-chaise, and, stopping only for an hour about mid-day to dine
at a pleasant little road-side country inn, arrived, at about seven
o'clock in the evening, at our destination.  This was a large brick-
built edifice evidently constructed especially to serve the purposes of
a scholastic establishment, standing in its own somewhat extensive
grounds, and situated in a lonely spot about half a mile from the sea,
and--though actually in Hampshire--some four miles only from the port of
Poole in Dorsetshire.  I was speedily presented to the principal, who at
once made a favourable impression upon me, afterwards abundantly
confirmed; and, after perhaps half an hour's conversation with him, my
father formally delivered me over to his care and left me--his leave-
taking, though somewhat hurried, being decidedly warmer than his
abstracted manner during the journey had led me to expect.

At this school, let it suffice to say, I remained for the following
seven years; enjoying, during that period of my life, such happiness as,
up to then, my imagination had never been able to conceive; and devoting
myself to my studies with a zest and enthusiasm which won the warmest
encomiums from the several masters who had charge of my education.
French, geography, mathematics, and navigation were my favourite
subjects; and I also developed a very fair amount of talent with my
pencil.  Athletics I especially excelled in; and by the time I had been
three years at the school I had become almost amphibious.  It affords me
particular pleasure to reflect that, notwithstanding my previous total
want of training, I was, from the very outset of my school career, an
especial favourite with my fellow-pupils, never having had more than one
quarrel serious enough to result in a fight, on which occasion I
succeeded in giving my antagonist--a great bully who had been cruelly
tyrannising over a smaller boy--so severe a trouncing that a resort to
this rough-and-ready mode of settling a dispute never again became
necessary, so far as I was concerned.  During this period there was only
one thing that troubled me, which was, that I never saw my father.
Owing to what at the time seemed to me an uninterrupted series of
unfortunate coincidences, it invariably happened that when holiday-time
came round my father had urgent business calling him away from home; and
arrangements had accordingly to be made for my spending my holidays at
the school.  This, in itself, constituted no very great hardship; there
were several other lads--Anglo-Indians and others whose friends resided
at too great a distance to admit of the holidays being spent with them--
who always remained behind to bear me company; and, as we were allowed
to do pretty much what we liked so long as we did not misconduct
ourselves or get into mischief, the time was passed pleasantly enough;
but, notwithstanding his singular treatment of me, I loved my father,
and regarded it as a positive hardship that so long a time should be
permitted to elapse without my seeing him.  I was continually in hopes
that, as we were unable to meet at holiday-time, he would run down into
the country and pay me a visit, but he never did, and this was another
disappointment.

At length, however, an end came to my disappointment and to my school-
days together; for, on the morning of my fifteenth birthday, I was sent
for by the principal of the school, who, after complimenting me upon my
diligence and the progress I had made whilst under his care, informed me
that the day had arrived when my school-boy life was to cease, and when
I must go out into the world and commence that great battle of life,
which all of us have to fight in one shape or another.  He added to his
communication some most excellent advice, the value of which I have
since had abundant opportunity of proving; and concluded with the
announcement that my father would make his appearance that same evening
and take me away with him.

Within a quarter of an hour of the time specified, the grinding sound of
wheels upon the gravel drive in front of the building suggested the
probability that the moment of my departure was at hand; and, a few
minutes later, I was summoned to the library to meet my father.  With my
heart throbbing high with mingled feelings of joy and trepidation, I
hastened to the spot, and, before I well knew where I was, found myself
in the presence of the parent who had allowed seven full years to elapse
without an attempt to see his only child.  For an instant--which
sufficed me to note that those seven years had left abundant traces of
their passage on the once almost unwrinkled brow--we stood gazing with
equal intentness in each others' faces; then my father grasped the
outstretched hand which I offered, and said, somewhat constrainedly:

"So this is the once quiet dreamy little Leo, is it?  I am glad to see
you once more, my boy; glad to see you looking so strong and well--so
wonderfully improved in appearance in every way, in fact; and glad, too,
to hear that Dr Tomlinson is able to confirm so thoroughly the good
reports of your conduct which he has sent me from time to time."  He
paused, and I was about to make a suitable answer to his greeting, when
he continued--half unconsciously, it seemed to me, but with a quite
perceptible ring of harshness in his voice:

"You are wonderfully like your mother, boy; no one who knew her would
ever mistake you for anyone else than her son."

The words were simple, but were accompanied by such a regretful look,
deepening into a baleful frown as he regarded me fixedly, that I was
completely startled, and in fact so overwhelmed with astonishment that,
for the moment, I was quite unable to make any reply; and before I could
recover myself my father appeared to have become conscious of his
singularity of manner, which he evidently overcame by a very powerful
effort.  Laying his hand somewhat heavily upon my shoulder, he said:

"Do not be frightened, Leo; I have been far from well lately, and my
illness seems to have slightly affected my brain; sometimes I detect
myself saying things which I had not the remotest intention of saying a
moment before.  If you should observe any little peculiarity of that
kind in me, take no notice of it, let it pass.  And now, if your boxes
are all ready--as I suppose they are--let them be brought down and put
on the chaise; we shall sleep in Poole to-night, and we can converse at
the hotel, over a good dinner, as well as here."

An hour later we were discussing that same good dinner, and maintaining
a tolerably animated conversation over it, too.  My father put a few
adroit questions to me relative to my school experiences, which had the
effect of "drawing me out," and he listened to all I had to say with
just that appearance of friendly interest which is so flattering and
encouraging to a youthful talker.  His treatment of me was everything
that could be desired--except that he seemed to be rather taking the
ground of an elder friend than of a parent.  I should have preferred a
shade less of the polite suavity of his manner and a more distinct
manifestation of fatherly affection.  He seemed anxious to efface the
memory of the singularity which marked our first meeting; and yet I
thought that, later on in the evening, when our conversation assumed a
more general character, I could detect a disposition on his part to
again approach the subject, these approaches being accompanied by a very
perceptible nervousness and constraint of manner.  But, though my father
certainly led the conversation once or twice in that direction, he as
often changed the subject again, and nothing more was said about it
until our bed-room candles were brought to us and we were about to
retire for the night.  Then, as we vacated the chairs we had been
occupying during the evening, and rose to our feet, he grasped me by the
arm and planted me square in front of the chimney-piece, which was
surmounted by a pier-glass, and, placing himself beside me, remarked,
looking at our reflected images:

"You have grown tremendously, Leo, during the seven years you have been
at school.  I really believe you will develop into as tall a man as I
am.  But," (taking a candlestick in his hand and holding it so as to
throw the light full upon our faces) "you are so like your mother, so
painfully like your mother;" and again the frown darkened his face and
for a moment he seemed almost to shrink from me.

"Well, sir," said I, "it seems to me that I have your forehead, your
mouth, and your chin; we both possess considerable width between the
eyes; and my hair, though dark, is curly, like your own."

"Ah, yes!" he answered, somewhat impatiently; "the latter, however, is a
mere accident; and, as to the other points you have mentioned, I really
_cannot_ see any positive resemblance; I wish I could--I earnestly wish
that my son resembled me rather than--Ah! there I go again, saying words
which positively have _no_ meaning.  I really _must_ take rest and
medical advice; I have executed several very important commissions
during the past year, and the strain upon my imagination and upon my
nerves has been almost too much for me.  Now, I'll be bound, Leo, that
you have noticed more than once this evening that there are moments when
I am not--well, not exactly my natural self."

"Well, sir," I hesitatingly replied, "I must confess that--that--"

"That you have," my father interrupted.  "Very well; take no notice of
it; forget it; it means nothing.  Good night, boy; good night."

"Good night, sir," I replied.  "I hope you will sleep soundly, and rise
in the morning refreshed.  And, oh father!  I wish I could do anything
to help you--"

"So you can, my son; so you can.  Thank you, Leo, for your kind wish.
You _can_ help me very greatly, by taking no notice whatever of any
little eccentricities you may observe in my behaviour, and by
remembering that they are entirely due to overwork.  Now, good night,
once more; and remember that we must be stirring early in the morning,
as we have a long journey before us."

And, with this very peculiar mode of dismissal, my father gently forced
me out of the room, and closed the door upon me.



CHAPTER THREE.

I JOIN THE "HERMIONE."

On the following morning, after an early breakfast, we set out for
London; where we safely arrived on the evening of the same day.  At the
outset of the journey my father appeared to be in tolerably good
spirits, conversing with much animation upon the subject--which he had
introduced--of my future career.  I explained to him that my great
desire was, and had been for some time, to become a sailor; and that I
hoped he would be able to see his way to forward my views.  Contrary, I
must confess, to my expectations, my father raised no objections,
stipulating only that I should enter the naval service; and he promised
me that he would use his best efforts to secure my nomination as a
midshipman; but he cautioned me that, as he scarcely knew to whom to
apply for this service, I might have to wait some time for the
gratification of my wishes.  The conversation which settled this, to me,
important matter took place in the forenoon, the subject being finally
disposed of and dismissed just as we alighted for luncheon.  On the
resumption of our journey the conversation was by no means so lively,
and it distressed me much to observe that my father was gradually
sinking back into the same strange moody state of mind which had
possessed him on the previous day.  I made several efforts to win him
back to a more cheerful condition, but they were quite ineffectual; and,
after receiving two or three increasingly impatient replies, I was
compelled to abandon the attempt.  For several days the same
unsatisfactory state of affairs continued, my father and I only meeting
at breakfast and dinner, and then exchanging scarcely half a dozen words
beyond the ordinary courtesies; I was therefore not only considerably
surprised but much gratified when he one morning informed me that he had
succeeded in securing my appointment as midshipman on board the frigate
_Hermione_, then about to sail for the West Indies.  He added that there
was no time to lose if I wished to go out in her; and that it would
consequently be necessary for us to set out for Portsmouth on the
following morning.  This promptitude was rather more than I had
bargained for; notwithstanding my father's very peculiar behaviour I was
much attached to him, and had hoped to have enjoyed at least a month or
two of his society; moreover, I felt very anxious as to his peculiar
condition, and would fain have remained with him until I could have seen
some improvement in his mental state; but, on my mentioning this, he
seemed so singularly averse to any delay of my departure that I saw
nothing for it but to acquiesce.

A week later I had joined my ship, and on November 18th, 1796, we were
bowling down channel under double-reefed topsails.

We duly arrived at our destination--Port Royal, Jamaica--after a tedious
passage of over two months' duration; and, having landed our despatches,
were ordered to cruise between Cape Tiburon and the Virgin Islands.

By this time I had pretty well settled down into my proper place, had
ceased to be the butt of the other midshipmen; and, having a real liking
for my duties, had learned to perform them pretty satisfactorily.  Mr
Reid, the first lieutenant, had expressed the opinion that I "shaped
well."  But, even before our arrival at Jamaica, I had made the
unwelcome discovery that the _Hermione_ was by no means likely to prove
a comfortable ship.  The vessel herself there was no fault whatever to
find with; she was a noble frigate of thirty-two guns, very fast, and a
splendid sea-boat.  But the skipper--Captain Pigot--was a regular
tartar.  He was a tall, powerful man, and would have been handsome but
for his somewhat bloated features.  Even to his officers he was
arrogant, overbearing, and discourteous to an almost unbearable degree;
to the men he was simply an unmitigated tyrant.  There was certainly
some excuse for severity of discipline and occasional loss of temper,
had it gone no further than that, for our crew was, as a whole, the
worst I have ever had the misfortune to be associated with, several of
them being foreigners, and of the remainder a good sprinkling were men
who had been _sentenced_ by the magistrates _to serve the King_.
Possibly in other and more patient hands they might have developed into
a good smart body of men, and such it was doubtless the skipper's hope
and intention to make them.  But he most unfortunately went the wrong
way to work.  Punishment was his doctrine; the "cat" was his sovereign
remedy for all evils.  He flogged almost daily, even for the most
trivial offences, and our "black list" was probably the longest in the
navy for a ship of our size.  As might be expected, with a captain of
this kind, we poor unfortunate mids were constantly in trouble, and the
greater part of our time was spent at the mast-heads.

One afternoon--it was on the 22nd of March, 1797--being off Zaccheo, the
lookout aloft reported that a brig and several smaller vessels were at
anchor inshore between that island and the larger one of Porto Rico.
The first lieutenant thereupon at once went aloft with his telescope,
where he made a thorough examination of the strangers and their
position; having completed which to his satisfaction, he returned to the
deck and made his report to Captain Pigot.  The ship's head was
immediately directed inshore; and the pinnace, first and second cutters,
and gig were ordered away, under lieutenants Reid and Douglas, to go in,
as soon as the ship had anchored, and cut out the vessels.  Mr Reid,
with whom, I think, I was somewhat of a favourite, kindly selected me to
take charge of the gig; and young Courtenay, my especial chum, was
fortunate enough to be chosen by Mr Douglas to command the second
cutter.  By Courtenay's advice, I procured from the armourer a ship's
cutlass, to replace my almost useless dirk; and having carefully loaded
and primed a very excellent pair of pistols with which my father had
presented me, I thrust those useful articles into my belt and hastened
on deck, just as the frigate was rounding to preparatory to anchoring.
A couple of minutes later the anchor was let go abreast of and scarcely
half a mile distant from a small battery, the guns of which commanded
the vessels we were about to attack, and the canvas was very smartly
clewed up and furled.

The men were still aloft when the battery, which had hoisted Spanish
colours, opened fire upon us, the first shot severing our larboard main-
topgallant back-stay.  This damage, slight as it was, sufficed to
effectually rouse Captain Pigot's hasty, irritable temper; and, hurrying
the men down from aloft, he ordered the larboard broadside to be manned,
and the guns to be directed upon the audacious battery.  A couple of
well-directed broadsides sufficed to silence its fire, and the boats
were then immediately piped away.

"Mark my words, Lascelles," said Courtenay, as we trundled down the
ship's side together, "we are going to have a tough time of it with
those craft in there; three of them have boarding nettings triced up,
and are evidently preparing to give us a warm reception.  They look like
privateers, and if so, I daresay they are full of men, who will have
ample opportunity to bowl us over at their leisure whilst we are pulling
in upon them.  And we shall have no help from the frigate's guns, for
the rascals are beyond their reach."

"Now then, Courtenay, no croaking, young gentleman, if you please, or I
shall be under the painful necessity of sending you back on board, and
taking Mr Maxwell in your place," said Mr Douglas, who was following
us down the side, and who happened to overhear Courtenay's encouraging
remarks.

"Oh, no, sir, you can't be so heartless as to do that; have some
consideration for my feelings," laughed Courtenay; and flinging himself
down in the stern-sheets of the boat, he drew his cutlass, and affected
to be very cautiously feeling its edge, to the covert amusement of the
men who happened to see him.

"It's a'most sharp enough for you to shave with, ain't it, sir?"
demurely inquired the smart fore-topman, who was stroke-oar in
Courtenay's boat, at which there was another grin; Courtenay's chin
being as guiltless of hair as the back of a lady's hand, notwithstanding
which it was whispered that he assiduously shaved every morning with his
penknife.

"Now, are we all ready, Douglas?" asked Mr Reid, as he stood in the
stern-sheets of the pinnace, and ran his eye critically over the boats.
"Then, shove off; let fall and give way, lads.  Lascelles and I will
tackle the brig, Mr Douglas, whilst I must leave you and Mr Courtenay
to give a good account of those two schooners which have hoisted their
colours.  We will take matters quietly, so as to spare the men as much
as possible, until the shot begins to drop round us, when we must make a
dash and get on board as quickly as we can."

Courtenay's assumption that the three vessels we had marked out for
attack were privateers was speedily strengthened by the circumstance
that boats were seen to put off from the smaller craft--doubtless prizes
of the others--conveying what were probably the prize-crews back to
their own ships, to assist in their defence.  As we neared the land we
made out that the people in the battery were still standing to their
guns, and we momentarily expected them to open fire upon us; but they
were wise enough to refrain, evidently having already had a sufficient
experience of the frigate's broadsides, the destructive effects of which
became distinctly visible as we pulled past.

Upon our arriving abreast the battery, the brig and the two schooners,
for which we were heading, having got springs upon their cables and
hoisted French colours, brought their broadsides to bear upon us, and
commenced firing, whereupon we separated, taking "open order," as the
marines say, so as to offer as small a mark as possible.  It was the
first time I had "smelt powder," and as the shot began to hum past us, I
must plead guilty to having at the outset experienced a certain amount
of nervous trepidation.  I had an idea that every shot would find its
mark, that "every bullet has its billet," and I momentarily expected to
feel the crushing blow which would tell me that I had been hit.  But on
we swept, the shot flying close over our heads, or just past us on
either side, occasionally striking the water within such near proximity
as to dash a little shower of spray right over the boat, and presently
the musketry bullets came whistling about our ears, yet we remained
unscathed.  This opened my eyes, and gave me a juster appreciation than
I had had before of the perils of warfare.  I saw that it was by no
means the necessarily deadly thing I had hitherto imagined it to be, and
my courage came back to me, my spirits rising momentarily higher in
response to the increasing excitement of the occasion.  For we were now
dashing forward upon our several quarries at racing speed, the men
straining at the oars until the stout ashen staves bent like willow
wands, and the water buzzed and foamed and bubbled, hissing past us in a
regular series of miniature whirlpools, whilst the boats seemed every
now and then as though they were about to be lifted clear out of the
water by the herculean efforts of their panting crews.

Once within musket-shot of the vessels, a very few minutes at this pace
sufficed us to cover the remaining distance, when we dashed alongside--
the first lieutenant ranging up on the brig's starboard quarter, whilst
we in the gig took her in the larboard fore-chains--and a stubborn hand-
to-hand fight immediately commenced.  The craft we had attacked proved
to be full of people; and upon our attempting to board, we found that
they had been divided into two distinct parties, one of which was
successfully opposing Mr Reid, whilst the other seemed determined at
all costs to prevent my own little party from gaining a footing upon the
deck.  Twice were we forced back into the boat, and I saw that two or
three of the men were bleeding from pike or bullet wounds.  A third time
we made the attempt, and as I was scrambling up into the brig's channels
a Frenchman thrust his pike through a port at me.  I grasped the weapon,
and partly through my antagonist's efforts to wrench it away again, and
partly with the aid of a friendly push behind from one of our own lads,
I suddenly found myself shot in through the port, and safely landed on
the brig's deck.  Springing to my feet in an instant, I laid fiercely
about me with my cutlass, and thus cleared a way for the gig's crew to
follow me.  In less than a minute the gigs were in possession of the
fore part of the deck, and so quickly was the thing done, and with such
good-will did our lads lay about them, that the party opposed to us
recoiled in a sudden panic.  Taking instant advantage of this, we
charged them with a wild hurrah, whereupon they fairly turned tail and
fled before us, rushing helter-skelter in among the other party.  The
whole body of defenders being thus thrown into disorder, the first
lieutenant's party managed to make good their footing on deck; and then,
after one desperate but ineffectual charge on the part of the Frenchmen,
we had no further trouble, the defenders throwing down their weapons and
calling for quarter.  This was, of course, at once accorded them, and
they were ordered below, the hatches being clapped over them, whilst the
ship was subjected to an overhaul.  She proved to be both empty and old,
besides being apparently a particularly leaky tub; she was consequently
valueless, and except for the purpose of destroying her, and thus
putting a stop to her depredations, not worth the trouble of taking.
This fact definitely ascertained, Mr Reid ordered the crew on deck
again; and, giving them five minutes in which to collect their personal
belongings, directed them to take the brig's boats and make the best of
their way ashore.  The crew thus got rid of, the vessel herself was
effectually set on fire in three places, and as soon as the flames had
taken such a hold as to prevent all possibility of their extinction we
left her.

Meanwhile, the second lieutenant and Courtenay had been equally
successful with ourselves, each having captured one of the schooners
without very much difficulty.  They proved, however, to be, like the
brig, very old and weak, having evidently been strained all to pieces in
the effort to make them perform services for which they were never
built.  They, therefore, were also set on fire.  And as for their
prizes, they consisted of half a dozen wretched little dirty coasters,
the largest of which could not have measured over sixty tons.  Their
crews, we were informed, had been landed on various parts of the coast,
so, their lawful owners not being there to take possession of them,
these craft were likewise devoted to the flames.  By the time that the
Frenchmen had all been got rid of, and the little fleet effectually set
on fire, it had fallen dark, and all hands being pretty well tired out,
we made the best of our way back to the frigate.  We had eight hands
wounded in this skirmish, all the wounds proving fortunately of a very
trifling character, so much so indeed that not one of the wounded was
put on the sick list for even a single day.

The _Hermione_ remained at anchor all night; and on the following
morning Mr Douglas, with a boat's crew, went on shore, drove the small
garrison out of the fort, and spiked and dismounted the guns.

Thus, harmlessly, so far at least as I was concerned, ended my first
brush with the enemy; and though I never heard anything further of the
affair, I received the gratifying information that the first lieutenant
had spoken very highly of my conduct on the occasion when making his
report to Captain Pigot.



CHAPTER FOUR.

AN UNSUCCESSFUL CHASE.

A fortnight later we fell in with and were ordered to join the squadron
of Vice-admiral Parker.

This arrangement was, to the _Hermione's_ officers at least, a source of
intense gratification.  For whereas, whilst we were cruising alone, our
opportunities for social intercourse were limited to an occasional
invitation to dine with the captain--and that, Heaven knows, was poor
entertainment enough!--we now had frequent invitations to dine with the
officers of the other ships, or entertained them in return in our own
ward-room.  But, though matters were thus made more pleasant for the
officers of the _Hermione_, I cannot say that the change wrought any
improvement in the condition of the ship's company--quite the reverse,
indeed.  For, so anxious was Captain Pigot that his ship should be the
smartest in the fleet, that when reefing topsails at night, if any other
ship happened to finish before us, the last man of the yard of the
dilatory topsail was infallibly booked for a flogging next day.  And so
with all other evolutions.  The result of which was, that while our crew
became noted for their smartness, they daily grew more sullen, sulky,
and discontented in their dispositions, shirking their work whenever
there was a possibility of doing so undetected, and performing their
duties with an ill-will which they took little pains to conceal.  This,
of course, only tended to make matters still worse.  The skipper could
not fail to notice his increasing unpopularity, and this wounded his
self-love; added to which he soon got the idea into his head--and
certainly not altogether without reason--that the men were combining
together to thwart and annoy him.  And this only made him still more
irritable and severe.  It seemed at length as though matters were
steadily approaching the point when it would become an open and
recognised struggle between the captain and the crew for supremacy in
respect of dogged obstinacy and determination.  What made it all the
worse was that the officers, in the maintenance of proper order and
discipline in the ship, were compelled--very much against their will--to
support and countenance the skipper in his arbitrary mode of dealing
with the crew; thus dividing the inmates of the frigate into two well-
defined parties--namely, those on the quarter-deck and those on the
forecastle.  We were _all_ unpopular in varying degrees, from the
captain down to the midshipmen.  I have good reason to believe that the
first lieutenant on more than one occasion remonstrated with Captain
Pigot upon his excessive harshness to the men, and strongly urged him to
try the effect of more lenient measures with them; but, if such was the
case, the remonstrances proved wholly unavailing.  Added to all this
there was, especially after we joined the squadron, incessant sail, gun,
musketry, and cutlass drill, in addition to the daily combined
evolutions of the ships; all of which made our poor lads pray for a
change of some sort--they cared not what--it could scarcely be for the
worse, and might very reasonably be hoped to be somewhat for the better.

Under such circumstances the joy of the men may be imagined when, one
morning at daylight, the signal was made by the admiral to chase to the
eastward.  Nevertheless, our unfortunate lookout aloft was promptly
booked for two dozen at the gangway that day because he had failed to be
the first to discover the stranger.

We were cruising at this time in the Windward Channel, the squadron
being at the moment of the discovery about midway between Points Malano
and Perle.  We were working to windward under double-reefed topsails on
the starboard tack, the trade-wind blowing fresh at about east-nor'-
east.

The strange sail was about ten miles dead to windward of us; and that
she had sharp eyes on board her was manifest from the fact that, before
we had time to acknowledge the admiral's signal, she had shaken the
reefs out of her topsails and had set topgallant-sails.  Every ship in
the squadron of course at once did the same, and forthwith a most
animated chase commenced.  The _Hermione_ happened to be the weathermost
British ship, and, consequently, nearest the chase; and most anxiously
did Captain Pigot struggle to maintain this enviable position; albeit we
were closely pressed by the frigates _Mermaid_ and _Quebec_, which were
thrashing along, the one on our lee bow and the other on our lee beam, a
distance of a bare cable's length separating the three ships from each
other.  It was an interesting and exhilarating spectacle to watch these
two graceful craft leaping and plunging over the swift-rushing foam-
capped emerald surges, spurning them aside with their swelling bows and
shivering them into cloud-like showers of snowy spray which they dashed
as high as their fore-yards; now rolling heavily to windward as they
slid down into a liquid valley, and anon careering to leeward under the
influence of wind and wave, as they mounted to the succeeding crest,
until their wet gleaming sides and glistening copper flashed in the sun
almost down to their garboard strakes.  Nor did our own ship present a
less gallant spectacle as she careered madly forward through the hissing
brine, now burying her bows deep in a fringe of yeasty foam, and next
moment soaring aloft as though she meant to forsake the ocean
altogether; her steeply-inclined deck knee-deep with the rushing
cataracts of water which poured over her to windward, her canvas tugging
at the stout spars until they bent and sprang like fishing-rods, and the
wind singing through her tautly-strained rigging as through the strings
of a gigantic Aeolian harp.  The bearings of the chase were promptly
taken by Mr Southcott, the master; and a single hour sufficed to show
that we were not only fore-reaching, but also weathering upon her.  By
that time we had brought her a couple of points abaft our weather-beam,
and the _Hermione_ was then hove about, this manoeuvre temporarily
bringing the chase fair in line with our jib-boom end; whilst the
_Mermaid_ lay broad away on our lee quarter fully a mile distant, with
the _Quebec_ half a mile astern of her.  With the rising of the sun the
breeze freshened still more; and it soon became evident, from the first
lieutenant's manner, that he was beginning to feel anxious about his
spars.  Captain Pigot, however, who was on deck, would not allow the
canvas to be reduced by so much as a single thread; so Mr Reid was at
length compelled (at considerable risk to the men who executed the duty)
to get up preventer back-stays fore and aft; and to this precaution was
doubtless due the ultimate success which crowned our efforts.  Another
hour brought us fairly astern of the chase; and, the moment that her
three masts were in line, we again tacked and stood after her, being now
directly in her wake and about nine miles astern.  Meanwhile the rest of
the squadron had also tacked, and were now to be seen tailing out in a
long straggling line on our lee quarter--the _Mermaid_ leading, the
_Quebec_ next, and the rest--nowhere, as the racing men say.

Breakfast was now served, and by the time that I again went on deck we
had so far gained upon the chase that the foot of her courses could be
now and then seen as we rose upon the crest of a sea.  She was evidently
a very smart as well as a very fine ship; yet we were overhauling her,
hand over hand, as our ships pretty generally did those of the French.
It was freely admitted on all hands that the French were better
shipbuilders than ourselves, yet our ships generally proved the faster
in a chase like the present; and I had often wondered how it was.  _Now_
I saw and could understand the reason.  It was because the British ships
were better sailed and better _steered_ than those of our enemies.  Even
at our then distance it was painfully apparent that the yards of the
chase were trimmed in the most slovenly manner, and in the matter of
steering she was sheering and yawing all over the place; whilst for
ourselves, our canvas was trimmed with the utmost nicety; and we had a
man at the wheel who never for a single instant removed his glance from
the weather-leach of our main-topgallant--sail, which was kept the
merest trifle a-lift--just sufficiently so, and no more, to show that
the frigate was looking up as high as it was possible for her to go,
whilst the remainder of her canvas was clean full and dragging her along
at race-horse speed.  The result was that, though our ship was possibly
the slower of the two, her wake was as straight as though it had been
_ruled_ upon the heaving water; whilst that of the chase was so crooked
that she must have travelled over nearly half as much ground again as
ourselves, thus losing through faulty steering more than she gained
through superiority in speed.

At 10 a.m., by which time we had neared the chase to within a distance
of six miles, the stranger hove about for the first time and stood to
the southward and eastward, close-hauled on the larboard tack.  At 10:30
we followed suit, and half an hour later the high land behind Jean
Rabel, Saint Domingo, was sighted from aloft Captain Pigot now came to
the conclusion that the stranger was aiming to take refuge in Port au
Paix; and, should she succeed in effecting her design, it might prove
difficult if not impossible to capture her.  His anxiety to speedily get
alongside her and force her to action accordingly grew almost
momentarily more intense, as also did his acerbity of temper, until at
length he became so nearly unbearable that, had he just then happened to
have been washed overboard, I believe not a single man in the ship--
apart from the officers, that is, of course--would have raised a hand or
joined in any effort to save him.

At noon, however, matters grew a little more tolerable; for it had by
that time become apparent that, unless favoured by some unforeseen
accident, the chase could not possibly escape us.  At Jean Rabel the
land begins to trend to the southward and westward, extending in that
direction a distance of some four or five miles, when it bends somewhat
more to the westward, thus forming a shallow bay.  It was towards the
bottom of this bay that the chase was now heading; and it speedily
became apparent that, if she would avoid going ashore, there would soon
be only two alternatives open to her; one of which was to go round upon
the starboard tack and make a stretch off the land sufficient to allow
of her fetching Port au Paix on her next board--in which event she would
have to pass us within gun-shot; and the other was to bear up and run to
the southward and westward, when she would have to run the gauntlet of
the whole remaining portion of the squadron; in which case her fate
could only be certain capture.  We hoped and believed she would choose
the first of these two alternatives.

We were both nearing the land very rapidly--the chase now only some
three miles ahead of us--and at length Captain Pigot, feeling certain
that the stranger must now very soon heave in stays, ordered our own
people to their stations, resolved to tack simultaneously with the
chase, and thus, by remaining some three miles further in the offing,
retain the advantage of a stronger and truer breeze.  Minute after
minute lagged slowly by, however, and still the French ship kept
steadily on, with her bows pointing straight toward the land.  Suddenly,
without warning or premonition, her three masts, with all their spread
of canvas, were seen to sway violently over to leeward; and, before any
of us fully realised what was happening, they lay prone in the water
alongside, snapped short off by the deck.  The next moment the ship
swung round, broadside on to the land, and the sea began to break over
her.  Her captain had actually run her on shore to escape us.

Sail was at once shortened on board the _Hermione_, and the ship hove
to, with her head off-shore.  Captain Pigot then sent for his telescope,
and, with its aid, made a thorough inspection of the stranded frigate;
most of the officers following his example.  Yes, there could be no
possible mistake about it, she was hard and fast on shore, bumping
heavily to all appearance, and with the sea breaking over her from stem
to stern.  Not satisfied, however, with this distant inspection, the
skipper caused his gig to be lowered, and in her proceeded as near to
the scene of the wreck as prudence would allow.  He was absent two full
hours, and on his return we learnt that the French ship was hopelessly
lost; that the crew were with the utmost difficulty effecting a landing
on the beach; and that the craft herself was already breaking up.  He
was highly exasperated, as indeed were we all, at this noble prize thus
slipping through our fingers, at a moment, too, when escape seemed
absolutely impossible; and in the heat of temper he denounced the French
captain as a dastardly poltroon, a disgrace to his uniform; and swore
that, could he but have got hold of him, he would have seized him to a
grating and given him five dozen at the gangway.  And I firmly believe
he fully meant what he said.  As for me, though I--youngster that I
was--felt, perhaps, as keenly disappointed as the skipper himself, I yet
thought that the French captain had more thoroughly performed his duty
to his country than he would have done had he remained afloat and fought
us.  For, with the vastly superior force of an entire squadron on our
side, escape would then have been for him impossible; his ship must
inevitably have been captured; with the sequence that, in the hands of a
British crew, she would have become a formidable foe to the country
which had recently owned her.  Whereas, now, though that country had
lost her, her guns could at least never be turned against it.

Captain Pigot's inspection over, and the gig hoisted in, the
_Hermione's_ main-topsail was filled and we made sail for the offing,
where the remainder of the squadron was now hove to awaiting the
progress of events.

On the following day the hands were mustered to witness punishment, and,
to the unspeakable surprise and indignation of everybody, officers as
well as men, the whole of the poor fellows who had steered the ship
during the unlucky chase of the preceding day were ordered to receive
three dozen apiece, "for culpable negligence in the performance of their
duty," Captain Pigot choosing to assert that, had the ship been properly
steered, we should have overtaken and brought the French frigate to
action.  Now the manner in which the _Hermione's_ helm had been
manipulated on the occasion in question had excited the admiration of,
and extorted frequent favourable comments from the officers; there was a
stiff breeze blowing at the time; and the frigate, when heavily pressed
upon a taut bowline, had a most unhandy knack of griping;
notwithstanding which, as I have before stated, her wake had been as
straight as though ruled upon the water.  But Captain Pigot was bitterly
chagrined at his want of success--quite unreasonably, for he and
everybody else had done all that was possible to secure it--and he could
not rest until he had vented his ill-humour upon some of the
unfortunates placed in his power.  Hence the cruel and unjust order; the
issuing of which very nearly ended in results most disastrous, so far as
I was personally concerned.

For, when the first man of the unfortunate batch had stripped and was
seized up, seeing that the skipper actually intended to carry out his
monstrous resolve--a fact which, until that moment, I had doubted--
forgetting for the time everything but the cruelty and injustice of the
action, I sprang forward and placing myself immediately in front of our
frowning chief, exclaimed:

"No, no; do not do it, sir!  I assure you that you are mistaken.  The
men do not deserve it, sir; they did their utmost, I am sure; indeed I
heard Mr Reid remark to Mr Douglas that he had _never_ seen the ship
so beautifully steered before.  Didn't you, sir?"  I continued,
appealing to the first lieutenant.

"Young gentleman, you have placed me in a very awkward position,"
replied poor old David, turning to me, very red in the face; "but I'll
not deny it; I _did_ say so, and I meant it, too."

Captain Pigot turned absolutely livid with fury; he was white even to
the lips; his eyes literally blazed like those of a savage animal about
to spring upon its prey; his hands were tightly clenched; and, for a
moment, I felt that he would strike me.  He did not, however; possibly
even at that moment some instinct may have warned him that he was on the
verge of committing a very grave imprudence; and, instead of striking
the blow I had expected, he turned short on his heel and walked into his
cabin.  Then, and not until then--when I glanced about me and noted the
universal consternation with which I was regarded--did I fully realise
the enormity of the offence of which I had been guilty.

Captain Pigot was absent from the deck for perhaps ten minutes.  When he
returned the low hum of conversation which had set in on his
disappearance abruptly ceased, and every eye was turned upon him in
anticipation of the next act in this little drama.

He had evidently made a successful effort to subdue his excitement, for
he was now, to all outward appearance, perfectly calm; this somewhat
abrupt calmness seeming to me, I must confess, even more portentous than
his recent exhibition of passion had been.  Halting before me, he
pointed sternly to the hatchway, and said:

"Go below, sir; and regard yourself as under arrest.  I will consider
your case by and by.  So grave a dereliction of duty as that of which
you have been guilty is not to be dealt with hurriedly."

I bowed, and turned to go below; and, as I did so, I heard him say to
the first lieutenant:

"Since you, Mr Reid, appear to have taken a different view of these
men's conduct from that which I had entertained, and have, moreover,
seen fit to publicly express that view, I have no alternative but to
give the fellows the benefit of our difference of opinion, and withhold
that punishment which I still think they richly deserve.  But I will
take this opportunity of explaining to you, and to every other officer
and man in this ship, that I reserve to myself the exclusive right of
expressing an opinion as to the behaviour, individually and
collectively, of those under my command; and, whatever any of you may
choose to _think_ upon such a matter, I shall expect that you will
henceforward keep your opinion strictly to yourselves.  Now, let the
hands be piped down."

I had paused just below and under cover of the coamings long enough to
hear this speech to its conclusion; now, as the boatswain's pipe sent
forth its shrill sounds, I scurried off and made the best of my way to
the midshipmen's berth.  I felt that I had allowed my sympathy to get
the better of my discretion, and in so doing had plunged myself into a
very awkward predicament, out of which I did not at all clearly see how
I was to extricate myself; but, whatever might be the result to myself
of my imprudence, it had at least been the means of saving several men
from an undeserved flogging, and this reflection served somewhat to
comfort me.  I was speedily joined by those of the midshipmen whose
watch below it then happened to be; and with them came a master's mate
named Farmer--a man of some thirty-five years of age, whose obscure
parentage and want of influential friends had kept him back from
promotion, and who in consequence of countless disappointments had grown
chronically morose and discontented.  My fellow-mids were very
enthusiastic in their expressions of admiration for what they were
pleased to term "the pluck with which I had tackled the skipper;" and
equally profuse in the expression of their hopes and belief of a
successful issue of the adventure.  Farmer, however, speedily put a
stopper upon their tongues by growling impatiently:

"Belay there with that jabbering, you youngsters; you don't know what
you are talking about.  The fact is that Lascelles there has made a fool
of himself and an enemy of the skipper; and to do the latter, let me
tell you, is no joke, as he will probably discover to his cost.  He has,
however, done a kindly thing; and perhaps, in the long run, he may have
no reason to regret it."

I was suspended from duty for the remainder of that day, until late in
the evening, when a marine made his appearance at the door of the berth,
with an intimation that he had orders to conduct me to the captain's
cabin; and in the custody of this man--who was armed with a drawn
bayonet--I was accordingly marched into the presence of the skipper.  On
entering the cabin, I found Captain Pigot sitting over his wine, with
the first lieutenant seated on the opposite side of the table.  When I
entered the apartment Mr Reid was leaning across the table, talking to
his superior in a low earnest tone of voice, but upon my entrance the
conversation abruptly ceased.  The marine saluted, announced me as "The
prisoner, sir!" and then, facing automatically to the right, took up a
position just outside the cabin door.  I approached until within a
respectful distance of the table, and then halted; the first lieutenant
rising as I did so and closing the door.

"Well, young gentleman," said the skipper when old David had resumed his
seat, "have you anything to say by way of excuse for or explanation of
your extraordinary and--and--insubordinate conduct this morning?"

"Nothing, sir," I replied, "except that I felt you were about--under the
influence of a grave misapprehension--to inflict punishment upon men who
had not deserved it; and that if you did so you would certainly regret
the act most deeply.  It was from no motive of disrespect that I acted
as I did, I assure you, sir; it was done on the impulse of the moment,
and because I felt that if the evil was to be prevented it must be done
instantly.  I acted as I should have wished another to act had I been in
your place, sir."

This I felt was but a lame explanation, and not likely to help me to any
great extent out of my difficulty; but there was really nothing else I
could say without directly charging the skipper with wanton tyranny,
which it was certainly not the place of a reefer on his first cruise to
do; if Mr Reid and the rest of the officers were content with the
position of affairs it was not for me to gainsay them.

"Very well, young gentleman," answered the skipper, after a somewhat
lengthy pause, "I am willing to accept your explanation, and to believe
that you acted upon a good motive the more readily that Mr Reid here
has been most eloquent pleading your cause, and giving you the best of
characters.  But, hark ye, Mr Lascelles, never, for the future, presume
to form _any_ opinion--good or bad--upon your captain's conduct; nor,
under any circumstances, attempt to put him right.  You are too young
and too inexperienced to be capable of forming a just judgment of the
actions of your superiors; moreover, a midshipman's duty is to _obey_,
not to judge or advise his superior officers.  You may return to your
duty, sir; and let the unpleasant incident of to-day be a warning to you
throughout the remainder of your career."

Highly delighted, and, I must confess, equally surprised in so easy an
escape from what threatened at the outset to be an exceedingly awkward
scrape, I stammered out a few confused words of thanks and assurances of
good behaviour for the future, bowed, and executed a somewhat hasty
retreat.



CHAPTER FIVE.

A "CUTTING-OUT" EXPEDITION.

On going on deck to stand my watch that night shortly after my dismissal
by Captain Pigot, found the squadron heading to the northward on an easy
bowline, under reefed topsails, with the island of Tortuga bearing
south-east, about ten miles distant.  We continued on the starboard tack
during the whole of that night, tacking at eight o'clock on the
following morning, and heading in toward the land once more, at the same
time shaking the reefs out of our topsails.  An hour later the lookout
aloft reported a sail to leeward; and, on signalling the fact to the
admiral, the _Hermione_ received permission to chase.

We managed to approach within ten miles of the stranger without exciting
his suspicions; but shortly afterwards a doubt appeared to enter his
mind as to the honesty of our intentions, and he tacked, no doubt with
the object of ascertaining whether our business had anything to do with
him or not.  He soon found that it _had_; for before he was fairly round
our course had been altered so as to intercept him.  This sufficed to
thoroughly alarm him, and, wearing short round, he went square off
before the wind, setting every stitch of canvas his little vessel--a
schooner of some seventy tons--could spread to the breeze.  The chase
now showed herself to be a very smart little craft, staggering along
under her cloud of canvas in a really surprising manner; indeed, had the
pursuit lasted an hour longer we should probably have lost her, for she
was within five miles of the harbour of Jean Rabel when we succeeded in
bringing her to.

The obstinate craft having at length consented to back her topsail,
Courtenay was sent away in the gig, with the crew fully armed, to give
her an overhaul.

He remained on board nearly half an hour, and when he returned he
brought the skipper of the schooner, a negro, with him.  The little
vessel, it now appeared, was a coaster, sailing under French colours,
and was bound from Jean Rabel to Porto Caballo.  She was consequently a
prize, though utterly valueless to us; and Courtenay's instructions had
been that, if such proved to be the case, he was to take her crew out of
her and set her on fire.  She, however, belonged to the negro who
commanded her, and he had begged so earnestly that his property might be
spared, and had backed up his petition by representations of so
important a nature, that Courtenay had deemed it best, before carrying
out his instructions, to bring the man on board the _Hermione_, and give
him an interview with Captain Pigot.  The skipper was in his cabin when
the gig returned alongside, so Courtenay went in and made his report,
the result being that the negro was speedily admitted to Captain Pigot's
presence.  The next thing that happened was the summoning of the first
lieutenant to the cabin, Courtenay being at the same time dismissed.  A
conference of some twenty minutes' duration now ensued, at the
termination of which Courtenay, with half a dozen men as a prize-crew,
was sent away to take charge of the schooner; and on the return of the
boat, both vessels filled away and stood off the land on a taut bowline,
the negro owner of the schooner being detained on board the frigate.

Early the next morning the remainder of the squadron was sighted, and
immediately after breakfast Captain Pigot boarded the commodore, taking
the negro with him.  He was absent for the greater part of the morning,
and that something of moment was on the _tapis_ soon became apparent,
from the fact that the captains of the _Quebec, Mermaid, Drake_, and
_Penelope_ were signalled for.  Everybody was now on the _qui vive_, a
pleasant excitement taking the place of that stolid sullen indifference
and apathy on the part of our crew which had gradually resulted from the
skipper's ill-advised harshness to them.  At length the boats were seen
to push off on their way back to their respective ships; and, a few
minutes later, Captain Pigot passed up the gangway and came in on deck.
Everybody now waited in breathless expectation for the anticipated order
which should convey to us an inkling of the nature of the work in hand;
but, to our general disappointment, no such order was given.  The
skipper's face, however, wore a look of exultant satisfaction, and his
demeanour was so much less unpleasant than usual that we felt convinced
there was something in the wind; and all hands settled down accordingly
to await, with what patience we could muster, the development of events.

It was not, however, until two days later, the 20th of April, that our
curiosity was satisfied.  A signal from the commodore requesting the
captains of the _Hermione, Quebec, Mermaid, Drake_, and _Penelope_ to
repair on board him, was the first incident of the day; and this was
followed by a conference so protracted that the gigs' crews only got
back to their ships barely in time for dinner.  A most careful and
scrupulous inspection of the arm-chest consumed nearly the whole of the
afternoon watch; and finally, at eight bells, or four o'clock p.m.,
after a considerable amount of signalling, the ships already named
detached themselves from the rest of the squadron, and, under Captain
Pigot's orders, made sail to the westward; the negro captain being at
the same time restored to his command and allowed to proceed on his way.

Urged forward by a brisk trade-wind, to which we exposed every possible
stitch of canvas, the little squadron made short miles of it, arriving,
at three o'clock in the morning, off Port a l'Ecu; where, at a distance
of about a mile off the shore and some two miles from the harbour of
Jean Rabel on the one hand, and Port au Paix on the other, the trade-
wind encountering the land-breeze, we ran into a calm.  A carefully-
masked lantern was now exhibited on board the _Hermione_, the utmost
caution being observed to prevent its light being seen from the shore,
and at the same moment our launch, pinnace, and first and second
cutters, the two former each carrying a boat's gun in the bows, were
ordered away.

To Mr Reid, who, in conjunction with Lieutenant Burdwood of the
_Penelope_, had been closeted with the skipper for at least two hours
previously, was intrusted the command of one division of the boats which
was about to be sent away, Lieutenant Burdwood being placed at the head
of the other division.  Mr Reid went, of course, in our launch; Mr
Douglas commanded the pinnace; Farmer, a master's mate, was put in
charge of the first cutter; and, to my supreme surprise and
gratification, I was instructed to take charge of the second.

In less than five minutes, so well planned had been Captain Pigot's
arrangements, our boats were joined by the rest of the flotilla; and,
the whole having been quietly but rapidly marshalled by Mr Reid into
two divisions, our muffled oars dropped simultaneously into the water,
and we departed on our several ways.

Mr Burdwood, with his division, consisting of four boats from the
_Mermaid_, two from the _Drake_, and two from his own vessel, pulled
briskly away to the eastward, his destination being, as I shortly
afterwards learned, Port au Paix, whilst the division to which I
belonged headed west for Jean Rabel.

The night was fine, but very dark; a broad belt of dappled cloud
overspreading almost the entire heavens, and permitting only an isolated
star or two to twinkle feebly through it here and there.  A couple of
miles in the offing the trade-wind was blowing briskly, and inshore of
us, at a distance of less than a quarter of a mile, the land-breeze was
roaring down off the hills with the strength of half a gale.  Where the
two met there occurred a narrow belt of calm, broken into momentarily by
an eddying puff of wind, now warm, as the trade-wind got slightly the
better of the land-breeze, and anon cool, refreshing, and odoriferous
with the perfume of a thousand flowers, as the land-breeze regained the
ascendency and pushed forward in its turn on the domain of the trade-
wind.  Mr Reid availed himself of the opportunity afforded by our
passage across this narrow belt of calm to rally the rest of the boats
round the launch for a moment, in order to explain the object of the
expedition, and to give a few brief directions respecting the movements
of each boat.  From this explanation we now learned that we were about
to make an attack upon two privateer brigs, together with a ship and
brig which had been captured by them, all of which were lying in Jean
Rabel harbour, and were believed to be well protected and very strongly
manned.  The ship--a very fine vessel, which had recently been armed
with eighteen 9-pounder brass guns, and manned by a crew of over one
hundred men--our gallant "first" proposed to attack in person, the
launch being supported by the first and second cutters.  Mr Douglas,
our second lieutenant, aided by the _Quebec's_ launch, was to tackle the
heaviest of the privateer brigs; the _Quebec's_ first and second cutters
were to attack the other; whilst the _Mermaid's_ second cutter and the
_Quebec's_ gig were to make a dash at the remaining brig, a prize, and,
having secured her, hold themselves in readiness to lend a hand wherever
their presence might seem to be most required.  Our work having thus
been explicitly set out for us, Mr Reid gave the word for us to renew
our advance, and we once more pushed ahead.

No night could well have been more favourable for such an attack as
ours--which was meant to be a surprise, if possible--than the one
selected; so dark, indeed, was it that, by a piece of the rarest good
fortune, we had actually entered the harbour before we were able to
completely identify our whereabouts.

It now became necessary for us to pause for a moment and look about us,
in order to ascertain the locality of our game; and the word was
accordingly quietly passed from boat to boat for the men to lay on their
oars.  At first it was simply impossible for us to distinguish
anything--except the land, which loomed vague and dark, like a broad
shadow, above the water.  At length, however, one of the men in the
launch announced, in a low cautious whisper, that he could make out the
spars of a vessel directly ahead; and immediately afterwards, the clouds
overhead breaking slightly away for a moment, we were able to
distinguish the craft herself.

Feeling sure that this must be one of the vessels of which we were in
quest, Mr Reid at once gave the order for the flotilla to again move
cautiously forward; and the boats' oars immediately dipped into the
phosphorescent water, causing it to gleam and flash brilliantly.  There
is no doubt that this vivid phosphorescence of the water--which must
have been visible at a long distance in the intense darkness of the
night--occasioned the premature discovery of our presence which now took
place; for the men had not pulled half a dozen strokes before a startled
hail came pealing out across the water; to which we of course paid not
the slightest attention.  Failing to get a reply, the hail was hurriedly
repeated, a musket was fired, and a port-fire was burned on board the
craft first sighted, which now proved to be the brig which our pinnace
and the _Quebec's_ launch were destined to attack.  For the burning of
this port-fire, though it rendered further concealment on our part
impossible, we were very much obliged, as by its unearthly glare we were
enabled to discern the whereabouts of the remaining vessels, at which,
with a wild cheer, the crews of the boats at once dashed with the most
commendable promptitude.

The ship happened to be moored in the innermost berth, or that which was
farthest up the harbour; our contingent, therefore--consisting of the
_Hermione's_ launch, first, and second cutters--was the last to get
alongside; and by the time that we reached the craft her crew were quite
ready to receive us.  She was, fortunately for us, riding head to wind,
with her bows pointing up the harbour, and her stern directly towards
us; consequently the only guns which she could bring to bear upon us
were her two stern-chasers, each of which she fired twice, without
effect.  We were within twenty yards of her when the guns were fired for
the second time; and immediately afterwards a most formidable volley of
musketry was poured into us.  Strange to say, though the bullets sent a
perfect shower of splinters flying about our ears, not a man in either
boat was hit; and before the Frenchmen had time to load again we were
alongside--the launch on the port quarter, the first cutter under the
main chains on the starboard side, and my boat under the bows.  Luckily
for us, they had not had time to trice up the boarding nettings, so
that, with the aid of a volley from our pistols, we had not much
difficulty in making our way in over the craft's low bulwarks.  But when
we gained the deck we found it literally crowded with Frenchmen, who met
us with a most stubborn resistance; and had there been light enough for
them to see what they were doing, we should probably have been driven
back to our boats in less than three minutes.  But the port-fire had by
this time burnt itself out, or been extinguished, and the darkness, save
for the intermittent flash of the pistols, was profound; so that,
although there was a great deal of firing, of hacking, and hewing, and
shouting, there was very little harm being done, at least to our side,
so far as I could see.  And if the French had the advantage of us in
point of numbers, we had the advantage of them in an equally important
matter; for whilst our men were dressed in their ordinary rig of blue-
jackets and trousers, rendering them almost invisible in the darkness,
the suddenness of our attack had compelled our enemies to turn out on
deck in their shirts only, by which we were able to distinguish them
pretty clearly.

The fight had been progressing in this unsatisfactory manner for about
ten minutes, when suddenly the dash and rattle of oars was heard
alongside, immediately followed by a ringing British cheer.  In another
instant a ghastly blue glare of light illumined the decks; and we saw
Douglas, at the head of the pinnace's crew, fling himself in over the
bulwarks, with a lighted port-fire held aloft in one hand, whilst he
brandished his sword with the other.  This timely reinforcement at once
brought the fight to a conclusion, the Frenchmen forthwith flinging down
their weapons and crying for quarter.  The help came not a moment too
soon, so far as Farmer was concerned; for the very first act of Mr
Douglas, on reaching the deck, was to cleave to the chin a Frenchman
whom he saw with both knees on Farmer's chest and with his sword
shortened in his hand about to pin the unfortunate master's mate to the
deck.

The Frenchmen were at once driven below and the hatches clapped over
them; after which our lads were sent aloft to loose the topsails; and,
the cable being cut, the ship was got under weigh.  Whilst this was
doing, I had time to question our gallant "second" as to the cause of
his opportune appearance; and I then learned that so complete had been
the surprise that the other craft had been taken almost without an
effort; and that as soon as this was accomplished and the crews secured
Mr Douglas had hastened to our assistance, rightly surmising that, from
the longer warning given to the ship's crew and their great strength, we
should have our hands pretty full with them.  The moon, in her last
quarter, and dwindled to the merest crescent, was just rising over the
hills to the eastward of us as we swept before the land-breeze out of
Jean Rabel harbour; and by her feeble light I was enabled with some
difficulty to discern that, by my watch, it was just four o'clock in the
morning.  Thus satisfactorily terminated this cutting-out expedition;
the most surprising circumstance connected with which was, perhaps, the
fact that, when the hands were mustered, not one was found to have
received a hurt worthy of being termed a wound.

We had scarcely got clear of the land with our prizes--consisting of one
ship and three brigs--when we discovered three schooners and two sloops
standing out from Port au Paix; and as they, like ourselves, were
heading directly for the squadron in the offing, we conjectured--and
rightly, as it afterwards proved--that they were the vessels which
Lieutenant Burdwood had been sent in to attack.

Late in the evening of the following day we rejoined the remainder of
the squadron, and Captain Pigot at once proceeded on board the admiral
to report the complete success of the expedition.  Nothing was settled
that night as to the disposal of the prizes, but on the following
forenoon it was arranged that, as both the _Quebec_ and ourselves were
getting short of provisions and water, we should escort the prizes into
Port Royal, and at the same time avail ourselves of the opportunity to
revictual.

We reached our destination in due time without adventure, and as it then
seemed likely that there would be some delay in the matter of
revictualling, Mr Reid improved the occasion to give the spars and
rigging a thorough overhaul.  This, with such repairs and renewals as
were found necessary, kept all hands busy for four full days, at the end
of which time the ship was once more all ataunto.  Meanwhile, from some
unexplained cause or other, the provisions were coming on board very
slowly, much, it must be confessed, to the delight of the crew, who,
having worked hard at the overhauling and repairs of the rigging--to say
nothing of their behaviour at Jean Rabel--now confidently expected at
least a day's liberty with its accompanying jollification ashore.  But
when the request for it was made Captain Pigot point-blank refused in
language of the most intemperate and abusive character, stigmatising the
whole crew as, without exception, a pack of skulking, cowardly ruffians.
He added a pretty broad hint that in his opinion the officers were
nearly, if not quite as bad as the men, and finished up by swearing
roundly that not a man or boy, forward or aft, should set foot on shore,
even though the ship should remain in harbour until she grounded upon
her own beef-bones.

This was exasperating enough in all conscience, even for the hands
forward, who, though there were certainly some rough characters among
them, were by no means _all_ bad--indeed a full half of the entire crew
were really as smart willing fellows as one need wish to see; but it was
even worse for the officers, for we had all been looking eagerly forward
to a certain ball which was about to be given by the governor, to which
every one of us had received an invitation.  The disappointment was so
keen and so general that good-natured "old David"--as our genial "first"
was dubbed by all hands--took it upon himself to respectfully
remonstrate with the skipper upon so arbitrary and high-handed a
treatment of the ship's company, with no result, however, except that
the first lieutenant received an unmitigated snubbing for his pains.

The revictualling of the ship was completed about five o'clock in the
evening upon which the ball was to take place; there was plenty of time,
therefore, for us aft to have availed ourselves of the governor's
invitation had the skipper seen fit, but he remained obdurate, and we
consequently had to content ourselves with watching the departure of the
officers from the other ships, and framing such excuses as came
uppermost at the moment in reply to the inquiries of such of them as
passed near us as to why we were not going.  This was made all the more
difficult from the fact that, though we were under orders to sail at
daybreak next morning, there were no less than three other ships in
harbour similarly circumstanced, the officers of which were nevertheless
going to be present at the ball.  The only consolation we could find was
in the reflection that, whereas the others would commence the duties of
the next day fagged out with a long night's dancing, we should rise to
them refreshed, with a more or less sound night's rest; and with this
small crumb of comfort we were fain to go below and turn in.

When the hands were called next morning it was found that Captain Pigot
was still absent from the ship, but as he was expected to turn up at any
moment the messenger was passed and the cable hove short.  A slight stir
was occasioned by the crews of the other three ships making preparations
to get under way; and as these craft one after the other let fall and
sheeted home their topsails, finally tripping their anchors and making
their way to sea with the last of the land-breeze, it became evident
that something out of the ordinary course must have occurred to delay
our skipper.  It was close upon eight bells when the gig was sighted
pulling down from the direction of Kingston, and when a few minutes
later Captain Pigot came up over the side, it was noticed that he was
ghastly pale and that his right arm was in a sling.  He seemed to be
suffering considerably, and it was in a somewhat wavering voice that he
said to the first-lieutenant:

"Are you all ready, Mr Reid?  Then get your anchor, sir, and let us be
off at once.  And, Mr Courtenay, be good enough to tell the surgeon I
wish to see him in my cabin."

With which he turned short round and walked somewhat unsteadily away,
not making his appearance on deck again for nearly a week.

It afterwards transpired that his awkward temper had led to a quarrel,
during the progress of the ball, between himself and one of the soldier
officers from Up-park Camp, which quarrel had terminated in a meeting on
the Palisades, the soldier escaping unscathed, whilst Captain Pigot had
emerged from the encounter with his arm broken by a bullet from his
adversary's pistol.

Noon that day found us off Morant Point thrashing to windward under
single-reefed topsails, with a sea running which every now and then made
the frigate careen gunwale-to.



CHAPTER SIX.

A REMONSTRANCE--AND ITS SEQUEL.

Our instructions, it seemed, were that we should cruise to the southward
of Saint Domingo, from Cape Tiburon as far eastward as the Mona Passage,
giving an occasional look into Port-au-Prince.  We accordingly carried
on all that day, taking a second reef in the topsails at sunset, and
heaving the ship round on the starboard tack at midnight, which brought
us well in under the lee of Cape Tiburon by daybreak next morning.  We
were then on our cruising ground; sail was shortened, and the frigate,
being hove about, was allowed to jog along under easy canvas.
Thenceforward, until Captain Pigot reappeared on deck, we had a pleasant
and comfortable time of it; for although the discipline of the ship was
never for one moment relaxed, there was an utter absence of all that
worry and petty tyranny, and, above all, those daily floggings which the
skipper seemed to consider essential to the maintenance of a proper
degree of subordination and smartness on the part of the crew.

With the reappearance of Captain Pigot on deck, however, this brief
period of rest and quietness came to an end.  The pain and irritation of
his wound, together, perhaps, with the reflection that he had been
worsted in an encounter brought about by his own arrogant and
overbearing demeanour, seemed to have chafed his temper almost to the
point of madness.  The floggings were resumed with greater severity than
ever; and every time the hands were turned up a boatswain's-mate, armed
with a colt, was stationed at each hatchway, with instructions to
"freshen the way" of the last man on the ladder.  And the same with
shortening or making sail, the last man out of the rigging on each mast
received a liberal application of the execrable colt to his shoulders.
It certainly had the effect of making the men smart in a double sense,
but it also made them, perhaps, the most discontented crew in the
service.

Thus matters went on, steadily growing from bad to worse, until the
month of September set in.  We had been dodging off and on, carefully
beating over every inch of our cruising ground and looking into every
likely and unlikely spot, in the hope of picking up a prize or two, and
our non-success had been simply phenomenal.  It really seemed as though
every craft worth the trouble of capture had deserted our part of the
world altogether.  This of course resulted, as was perhaps only natural,
in a further accession of acerbity fore and aft, the brunt of which of
course fell upon the hands forward, who--what with drill of one sort and
another, perpetual making and shortening of sail, shifting of spars and
canvas, overhauling and setting-up of the rigging, lengthy, tedious, and
wholly unnecessary boat expeditions, in addition to the incessant
floggings and coltings already referred to--at length found their lives
a positive burden to them.  This kind of treatment could, of course,
produce but one result, and, by the period before-named, the crew had
been wrought up to such a pitch of exasperation and revengeful fury,
that I am convinced they would have refused to go to the guns had we
encountered an enemy.  It may easily be imagined how difficult and
anxious a task it was for the officers to carry on the duty of the ship
under such circumstances as these.

It had by this time become clear to everybody--excepting, apparently,
Captain Pigot himself--that the existing state of affairs could not
possibly last much longer; and at length the first lieutenant,
recognising the gravity of the situation, took it upon himself to invite
the second and third lieutenants and the master to a consultation in his
own cabin, the result of which consultation was a resolve to adopt the
extreme measure of making a collective representation and appeal to the
skipper.  This being decided, it was determined to carry out the resolve
on that same evening, the time to be during the first dog-watch, it
being Captain Pigot's habit to retire to his cabin after eight bells had
been struck, and to devote an hour or so to reading before dinner.

Accordingly, no sooner had the skipper left the deck than I was
despatched by Mr Reid to apprise Mr Douglas, Mr Maxwell, and Mr
Southcott of the fact, and to state that the first lieutenant awaited
them on the quarter-deck.  We midshipmen had of course been left in the
dark as to the proposed interview; but the message of which I was the
bearer was of so very unusual a character that I at once suspected there
must be something out of the common in prospect; and when, a few minutes
later, I saw the four principal officers of the ship march with
portentously solemn faces into the cabin, I determined that, right or
wrong, I would know what was in the wind.

Fortunately for my purpose it was my watch below, and my absence from
the deck would consequently not be noticed.  It took me but a moment to
form my plans, and not much more to execute them.  The ship had a full
poop, under which the captain's cabin was situated; the weather was
warm, and all the ports were open.  Slipping off my shoes and thrusting
them beneath a gun, where they were not likely to be discovered, I made
my way in my stockings up on to the poop, which was entirely deserted,
and at once slipped over the side into the mizzen channels.  The lid of
one of the ports was then immediately beneath me, and I knew beforehand
that there was just room for me to squeeze in upon it, where, though my
attitude must be somewhat constrained, I should be perfectly concealed
from every eye, whilst I should also be able to hear with tolerable
distinctness every word which might be spoken in the cabin in an
ordinary conversational tone of voice.

Now, I am not going to defend my conduct.  I know, and I knew at the
time, that I was doing what I had no business to do, but I was quite
free from any feeling of absolute wrong-doing; I had an instinctive
perception that the interview in which I was about to play the part of
eaves-dropper was in some way connected with the critical state of
affairs then prevailing on board, and I felt that whilst my cognisance
of what was about to pass could be hurtful to nobody, the knowledge
might be advantageous to myself, and possibly to others also.  If I
acted wrongly I must be content to bear the blame; the fact remains that
I posted myself safely and undetected in the position I had fixed upon,
and overheard almost every word which passed in the brief interview
between the skipper and his visitors.

As I swung myself out over the channels and settled myself into my
somewhat cramped quarters I heard Captain Pigot's strident voice
speaking in a tone of surprised inquiry; but I was too busy just then to
catch what he said.  By the time he had finished, however, I was all
ready to listen; and I presently heard Mr Reid reply:

"We have taken the unusual step, sir, of waiting upon you thus in a
body, to direct your attention, in the most respectful manner, to the
present condition and temper of the ship's company, the which we
conceive to have resulted wholly from your excessive severity toward
them.  They are, almost to a man, in such an excited and dangerous frame
of mind that we have the greatest difficulty in maintaining discipline,
and keeping them under proper control.  Indeed, to adequately carry on
the duty of the ship has become almost an impossibility; and--to speak
the truth frankly, sir--on comparing notes with my brother officers we
have come to the conclusion that the men are no longer to be depended
upon in case of an emergency.  Matters cannot possibly remain much
longer in their present state, a change of some sort is inevitable; and
we would most respectfully suggest, sir, to your earnest and immediate
consideration the desirability of adopting a more lenient and generous
line of policy--"

"Great Heaven! man, do you know what you are saying?" gasped the
skipper.  And the crash of a falling chair together with the quiver in
his voice seemed to indicate that he had started to his feet in a
paroxysm of fury which he was ineffectually struggling to suppress.
"How dare you," he continued--"how dare anyone or all of you presume to
call in question my conduct, or dictate to me the line of policy which I
shall pursue with regard to my crew--a lazy, skulking, cowardly set of
vagabonds, three-fourths of whom are foreigners?  Why, man, if it had
not been for the severe discipline of which you complain they would have
had the ship away from us ere now.  I know the class of men I have to
deal with, aboard here, and I also know how to deal with them; and you
may take my word for it that I will never rest satisfied until I have
made them the smartest crew in the service.  As to the difficulty you
profess to experience in carrying on the duty of the ship, I must
confess I have not observed it, the rascals have always appeared active
and willing enough whenever I have been on deck--thanks to that
wholesome fear of the cat with which I have imbued them; and if the
difficulty _really_ exists, I cannot but think, gentlemen, the fault
must be with yourselves, and it can easily be cured by a somewhat firmer
maintenance, rather than a relaxation, of that rigid discipline which
you deprecate.  And I will take this opportunity of mentioning, whilst
we are upon the subject, my very strong disapproval of the manifest
tendency which I have observed in the officers of this ship to overlook
and condone what I suppose _they_ would term _trifling_ infractions of
duty.  In so doing, gentlemen, you have made a most grievous mistake,
which, however, I will do my best to remedy in the immediate future.
There is nothing like plenty of flogging if you wish to keep such curs
in proper order."

During the progress of this speech the skipper had gradually recovered
the control of his temper; the tremulous tones of anger in his voice
were succeeded by those of bitter sarcasm; and the manifest sneer with
which he concluded made my blood boil.

There was a momentary pause, then I heard the first lieutenant say:

"With all submission, sir, permit me to say that I believe--nay, that I
am _convinced_--you wholly misunderstand the character and disposition
of the crew.  Some of them--far too many of them, indeed--_are_
foreigners, who have neither the strength nor the spirit to perform
their duties as efficiently as Englishmen would, but I believe that, for
the most part, they honestly do their best; and for honest service,
faithfully performed, perpetual flogging seems to me but a poor reward.
The jail-birds among our own countrymen are the most difficult subjects
to deal with, and flogging only hardens them; if I had to deal with them
I should be far more disposed to look for a cure from the contempt and
raillery of their shipmates.  Besides, the rogues are so cunning that
they frequently succeed in shifting the blame on to other shoulders; and
when one man gets punished for another's offences we know that the
tendency is to make him sullen and discontented.  I could name at least
a dozen men who, from being bright smart, active, reliable men at the
commencement of the cruise, have degenerated into as many idle skulks,
solely because their good qualities have received no recognition, and
they have been punished over and over again for the faults of others.
And as to our leniency toward the men--"

"There, that will do, Mr Reid; the less said on that head the better,"
interrupted the skipper impatiently.  "This discussion has gone far
enough," he continued, "and I must now request you all to withdraw.  You
have--relieved your consciences, let us say, by entering this formal
protest and expressing your disapproval of my method of dealing with the
hands forward; now let the matter drop.  And hark ye, one and all, if
there is any repetition of this impertinent interference with me, by the
Heaven above us I will clap the presumptuous individual who attempts it
in irons, and bring him to court-martial at the first convenient port we
reach.  Now go, and be hanged to you!"

"Very well, sir," said old David, "we _will_ go; but, before we leave
your presence, permit me to observe that--"

I heard no more, for, perceiving that the interview was about to
somewhat abruptly terminate, I judged it best to effect an escape from
my place of concealment whilst escape was still possible, and I
forthwith proceeded hurriedly to do so.  I managed to make my way back
to the quarter-deck without attracting attention, and had barely secured
my shoes and replaced them on my feet when the first lieutenant and his
companions emerged from the poop cabin and began to pace the quarter-
deck in apparently careless conversation, though I could tell, by the
gloomy expression of their countenances, that they were discussing an
anything but agreeable topic.

At length the westering sun approached the horizon; and Mr Douglas and
Mr Southcott retired to their cabins in anticipation of Captain Pigot's
appearance on deck to watch the nightly operation of reefing topsails,
leaving Mr Reid and Mr Maxwell to slowly pace the quarter-deck side by
side.  It being now my watch on deck, I stationed myself in the waist on
the larboard side of the deck and endeavoured to forget the gloomy
forebodings which had arisen out of the conversation I had recently
overheard by abandoning myself to the soothing influences of the
glorious eventide.

It was indeed a glorious evening, such as is seldom or never to be met
with outside the tropics.  The wind had gradually fallen away during the
afternoon until it had dropped stark calm; and there the ship lay, with
her head to the northward, gently rolling on the long glassy swell which
came creeping stealthily up out from the northward and eastward.  The
small islands of Mona and Monita--the latter a mere rock--lay broad on
our larboard quarter about eight miles distant, two delicate purplish
pink blots on the south-western horizon, whilst Desecho reared its head
above the north-eastern horizon on our starboard bow, a soft grey
marking in the still softer grey haze of the sky in that quarter.  A
great pile of delicately-tinted purple and ruby clouds with golden edges
lay heaped up in detached fantastic masses along the glowing western
horizon, shaped into the semblance of an aerial archipelago, with far-
stretching promontories and peninsulas, and boldly jutting capes and
headlands with deep gulfs and winding straits of rosy sky between.  Some
of these celestial islands were shaped along their edges into a series
of minute gold-tipped projections and irregularities, which needed only
the slightest effort of the fancy to become converted into the spires
and pinnacles of a populous city or busy seaport; whilst certain minute
detached flakelets of crimson and golden cloud dotted here and there
about the aerial channels might easily be imagined to be fairy argosies
navigating the celestial sea.  Gazing, as I did, enraptured, upon that
scene of magical beauty, it was not difficult to guess at the origin of
that most poetical--as it is perhaps the oldest--nautical superstition,
which gives credence to the idea that there exists, far away beyond the
sunset, an enchanted region which poor storm-beaten sailors are
sometimes permitted to reach, and wherein, during an existence which is
indefinitely prolonged, they enjoy a complete immunity from all those
perils and hardships with which the seaman's life is ordinarily
environed; wherein life is one long day of ineffable peace and rest and
tranquillity; and from whence every disagreeable influence is
permanently banished.

I was abruptly aroused from my fanciful musings by the sound of the
ship's bell, four strokes upon which proclaimed the end of the first
dog-watch.  The momentary bustle of calling the watch immediately
followed, in the midst of which came the customary orders to reef
topsails.  Simultaneously with the appearance of the larboard watch,
Captain Pigot issued from his cabin and, ascending the poop ladder, made
his way aft to the taffrail, from which position he was able to command
a view of the proceedings on each topsail-yard.  The royals and
topgallant-sails were very smartly clewed up and furled; and, as the
topsail halyards were let run, I saw the skipper pull out his watch and,
noting the time by it, hold it face upwards in his hand.

"Soho!" thought I, "that does not look very much as though the first
lieutenant's remonstrance had produced any beneficial effect; there's
trouble in store for some of those unfortunates on the yards if they are
not exceptionally lively."

The hands themselves, who had not failed to mark the skipper's actions,
seemed to think so too, and they set about their work with the activity
of wild-cats.  But "the more hurry the less speed" is an old adage; and
so it proved in the present case, the men on the mizzen topsail-yard
managing so to bungle matters that when, on the expiration of two and a
half minutes--the outside limit of time allowed by the skipper for
reefing a topsail--Captain Pigot closed his watch with a snap and
replaced it smartly in his pocket, several of the reef-points still
remained to be tied.

"Now," thought I, "look out for squalls."  And as the thought passed
through my mind the squall came, in the shape of a hail from the skipper
himself.

"Mizzen topsail-yard, there!" he shouted, "what are you about, you lazy
lubbers?  Do you intend to spend the remainder of the watch in reefing
that topsail?  Wake up, and put some life into your motions, for (and
here came an oath) I'll flog the last man off the yard."

The work was completed ere he had finished speaking, and the men began
hurriedly and in some little confusion to lay in off the yard.  There
was a decided scramble for the topmast rigging, each man naturally
striving to be off the yard before his neighbour, and thus exposing
himself and those immediately about him to a very considerable amount of
peril.

Mr Reid, who was also on the poop near the skipper, saw this, and
hailed the men with:

"Steady, there, on the mizzen topsail-yard; steady, men, and take things
quietly, or some of you will be meeting with a nasty accident."

The men's fear of an accident was, however, less than their dread of a
flogging, and the hustling went on, much, apparently to the amusement of
Captain Pigot, who smiled cynically as he silently watched the struggle.
The two captains of the to were in the most disadvantageous position of
all, as they, bent supposed to be the two smartest hands on the yard,
had laid out, one to each yard-arm to pass and haul out the earrings and
they would consequently, in the ordinary course of things be the last
men off the yard.  This, however, meant a flogging for at least one of
them, which they were resolved to escape if possible.  Instead,
therefore, of laying in along the foot-rope like the rest of the men,
they scrambled up on the yard, by the aid of the lifts, and standing
erect on the spar, started to run in along it toward the mast.  They
managed very well until they reached the little struggling crowd about
the topmast rigging, when, to avoid them, the two men made a spring
simultaneously for the back-stays.  How it happened can never be known,
but, somehow or other, both overleaped themselves missed the back-stays,
and came crashing down on the poop where they lay motionless upon the
white planks which in another moment were crimsoned with their blood.

Captain Pigot turned ghastly pale as this sudden and terrible
consequence of his tyrannical behaviour presented itself to him; but he
never moved a single step to help either of the injured men.  The first
lieutenant, however, sprang forward and raised the head of one poor
fellow, whilst I, springing up the poop ladder, went to the assistance
of the other.  The man to whom I went lay on his face, and, as I turned
him over and raised his head, I turned sick and faint at the ghastly
sight which met my horrified gaze.  The features were battered out of
all recognition, the lower jaw was broken, and from what appeared to be
the crushed face the blood was spurting in a torrent which almost
instantly drenched through my small-clothes and wetted me to the skin.
Unable to endure the terrible spectacle, I turned my eyes in Mr Reid's
direction, only to see that the unfortunate man whom he supported was in
quite as bad a plight.  It was evident not only that the poor fellow was
dead, but also that death must have been instantaneous, the neck being
broken, and the crown of the skull apparently crushed in such a way that
the brain could be seen protruding, and the deck also was bespattered.

"Pass the word for the surgeon, there, somebody, and tell him to look
smart!" gasped poor old David in a voice so hoarse and changed with
horror and grief that I should never have recognised it as his had I not
seen his lips move.

In a minute or two the surgeon made his appearance on the scene, and a
very brief examination sufficed to enable him to pronounce both the men
dead.

The first lieutenant undertook to announce the sad intelligence to the
skipper, who still remained standing in the same position, apparently as
unconcerned as if nothing had happened.  I must confess that I, for one,
fully expected to see some very decided manifestation of emotion on the
captain's part when he learned the tragical nature of the disaster; but,
instead of that, on being told the news, he--to the horror and
indignation of everybody who heard him--simply said:

"Um! dead, are they?  Then throw the lubbers overboard!"  And this was
actually done.  Without the slightest pretence to ceremony or reverence
of any kind, without so much as a single prayer to consecrate their
dismissal to their final resting-place in the bosom of the deep, without
even pausing to sew up the poor fellows in their hammocks, with a shot
at their feet to ensure their safe arrival in the quiet and peaceful
region of the ocean's bed, the bodies were straightway raised from the
deck and, with a "One, two, three, _heave_!" were flung over the side,
to be instantly fought over and torn to pieces by some half a dozen
sharks which had put in an unsuspected appearance on the scene.  Many a
curse, "not loud but deep," was called down upon the skipper's head that
night by the shipmates of the murdered men--for murdered they
undoubtedly were--and many a vow of complete and speedy vengeance was
solemnly registered.  Insulted, scoffed at, derided, their last spark of
self-respect--if indeed any such thing still remained to them--outraged
and trodden under foot, the crew were that night changed from men to
devils; and if, at the conclusion of those unceremonious obsequies, a
leader had but stepped forward and placed himself at their head, they
would have risen upon us and, all unarmed as they were, torn us to
pieces.

No such thought or fear, however, appeared to present itself to Captain
Pigot, for, instead of evincing or expressing any sorrow for what had
occurred, he imperiously ordered the hands to be mustered in the waist,
with the evident intention of "reading them a lecture," as he was wont
to term his too frequent hectoring addresses.

The men, sullen, and with suppressed fury blazing in their eyes and
revealing itself in their every gesture, swarmed aft and stood in
reckless expectation of some further outrage.  Nor were they
disappointed.

"I have sent for you," the skipper began, in his most sneering and
contemptuous accents, "not to express any hypocritical sorrow for the
occurrence which has just taken place, but to point out to you the
obvious lesson which is to be learned from it--a lesson which I fear
your dense ignorance, your utter destitution of discernment and common-
sense, would prevent your ever discovering for yourselves.  Within the
last half-hour two men have come to their deaths.  How?  Why, by a
sneaking, cowardly attempt to evade the punishment justly due to the
lazy, skulking, lubberly way in which they performed their duty.  It
would have been better for them had they listened to the first
lieutenant's admonition and come quietly down from aloft, to receive at
a proper time the punishment which they richly deserved.  But they must
needs attempt to shirk it, with the consequences which you have all
witnessed; and, so far as I am concerned, I can only say that I think
they have met with no more than their just deserts.

"But it is not of them I want to speak to you; it is of yourselves.  The
same shirking, idle, rebellious spirit which distinguished them is
conspicuous in every one of you.  It is little more than a couple of
hours ago that your officers waited upon me in a body to make formal
complaint of your idleness and insubordinate conduct.  There was no
necessity for them to do any such thing, for I am not altogether lacking
in powers of observation, and I have not failed to notice that for some
time past there has been a general disposition on the part of all hands
to thwart and oppose me in every possible way; but I just mention the
fact of this complaint to show you that I am not alone in my opinion as
to your conduct.  Now, my lads, you are a great many, and I am only one
man; but if you suppose that on that account you will be able to get
your own way, or successfully oppose me, you will discover that you
never made a greater mistake in your lives.  You may shirk your work, or
perform it in a slovenly, unseamanlike manner as long as you please, but
I warn you, one and all, that I have made up my mind to convert you from
the lazy, skulking, mutinous set of tinkers and tailors you now are,
into the smartest and best-disciplined crew in the service; and by
Heaven I will do it too, even though it should be necessary to
administer a daily flogging to every man in the ship.  There are some
few of you who are a shade worse--a shade more idle, and lubberly, and
insubordinate--than the rest; you, Jones, are one; you, Hoskings, are
another, and you, Thomson, Kirkpatrick, Davis, Morrison, I have my eye
upon all of you; you are booked, every man of you, for an early taste of
the cat; and I assure you that when it comes it will be a sharp one.
You shall learn that, in laying yourselves out to oppose your captain,
you have undertaken a task altogether beyond your strength.  You shall
have neither rest nor peace day or night, henceforward, until I have
completely quelled your present rebellious spirit and brought you to a
proper condition of subordination and smartness.  So now, my lads, you
know what you have to expect, and, whatever happens, you will never be
able to say that I did not give you due warning.  Pipe down!"

The men turned away and dispersed in perfect silence.  Usually after the
administration of a lecture, however severe, some irrepressible joker
might be detected with his head cocked on one side and his face with a
waggish grin upon it, turned toward his next neighbour, evidently giving
utterance to some jocular comment upon the lately-delivered address, as
he gave his breeches the true nautical hitch forward and abaft; but on
this occasion there was nothing of the kind, the indignation and disgust
aroused by the skipper's arrogant and threatening speech appeared to be
altogether too overpowering to allow of the escape of a humorous idea to
the surface.

The silence of the men was so complete as to be, to my mind, ominous,
whilst their bearing was marked by that peculiar air of defiant
recklessness which is to be observed in individuals who feel that
Fortune has at length done her very worst for them.  How much longer, I
wondered, would they thus tamely suffer themselves to be hectored and
browbeaten? how much longer go quietly to the gangway and submit to be
severely flogged for the most trifling offences?  Then, too, I felt
indignant at the unscrupulous way in which the skipper had
misrepresented the nature of the officers' recent interview with him,
and had conveyed the impression that they were rather favouring than
deprecating the severity of his discipline.  Such conduct struck me as
being not only barbarously tyrannical, but also in the highest degree
impolitic; for what could any man of sense expect but that, by
persistence in it, he would make good men bad, and bad men worse.  And
if the men were to turn restive in the presence of an enemy--which was,
to my mind, not unlikely, though I never anticipated anything worse--
what would be the result?  The whole aspect of affairs looked
unsatisfactory in the extreme, and when I turned into my hammock that
night it was to indulge in sundry very gloomy forebodings before I
finally dropped off to sleep; though Heaven knows how far I was from
guessing at the scenes of horror of which the frigate was to be the
theatre before another twenty-four hours had passed over my head.



CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE MUTINY.

During the night a little air of wind sprang up from the eastward which
carried us out clear of the Mona Passage, and when day dawned we found
ourselves with a clear horizon all round the ship.  At noon we wore
round to retrace our steps, and by sunset we were within a dozen miles
of the spot we had occupied at the same hour on the previous evening.

The day, for a wonder, had passed almost pleasantly; there had been no
flogging; Captain Pigot had scarcely showed himself on deck, except for
a few minutes after breakfast and again at noon; and the officers of the
watches, glad to be freed from his obnoxious presence, had been careful
not to unnecessarily hurry and badger the men whilst carrying on the
duty of the ship.  The only circumstance which, to my mind, seemed
disquieting, was the unusual demeanour of the men, who performed their
work, steadily enough indeed, but in a moody, unnatural silence,
wearing, meantime, a gloomy, preoccupied air, whilst they at the same
time--at least so it appeared to me--seemed to be, one and all, in a
restless, anxious, watchful frame of mind, as though they were in
momentary expectation of something happening.  I could not at all
understand this state of things, which was something quite new, for,
notwithstanding the skipper's intolerable tyranny, there were a few of
the men--and those among the best and smartest hands we had in the
ship--who had hitherto contrived to maintain a fairly cheerful
demeanour, and who seldom let slip such an opportunity as that afforded
by the captain's absence from the deck to indulge in the exchange of a
quiet bit of nautical humour or a harmless practical joke with their
next neighbour.  To-day, however, this sort of thing was conspicuously
absent; and I was at first disposed to attribute the unwonted gloom to
the men's horror and regret at the lamentable accident of the previous
evening.  But that, I felt again, would scarcely account for it; for,
however sincere may be Jack's attachment to his shipmates whilst they
are alive and with him, they are no sooner dead and buried than, from
his quickly acquired habit of promptly casting behind him all
disquieting memories, he forgets all about them and their fate.

At length, as the day wore on and drew to a peaceful close, my
misgivings, such as they were--and they were, after all, so slight as
scarcely to deserve mention--passed away; and at eight bells I retired
to my hammock with a dawning hope that perhaps, after all, the
collective remonstrance of the officers was about to bear good fruit.

My mind being thus at rest, I at once sank into a profound sleep, from
which I was abruptly startled by a loud noise of some kind, though what
it was I could not for the moment make out.  Almost immediately
afterwards, however, I heard it again--a loud furious combined shout of
many voices from the fore part of the ship.  Feeling instinctively that
something was wrong, I leaped from my hammock--as also did Courtenay, my
only companion in the berth--and began hurriedly to search for my
clothes by the dim light of the smoky lamp which hung swaying from the
deck-beam overhead.  Before, however, I had time to do more than don my
socks, a grizzled weatherbeaten main-topman named Ned Sykes made his
appearance in the doorway of the berth, with a drawn cutlass in his hand
and a pair of pistols in his belt.  He looked intently at us both for a
moment, and then said, in a gruff but kindly tone of voice:

"Muster Lascelles, and Muster Courtenay, ain't it?  Ha! that's all
right; I reckoned I should find you two young gen'lemen here, safe
enough.  Now, you two, just slip into your hammicks again as fast as you
knows how, and stay there until I gives you leave to get out of 'em."

"Why, what is the matter, Ned?  What is all the row about?" asked
Courtenay, with wide-staring, horrified eyes.  For, by this time, the
shouting and yelling were tremendous, and accompanied by a loud
thumping, rumbling sound, produced, as we afterwards ascertained, by the
shot which the men were flinging about the decks.

"The matter is just this here, young 'un," replied Ned, entering the
berth and seating himself on a chest, "The hands for'ard has made up
their minds not to have no more such haccidents as them two that
occurred last night; nor they ain't a-goin' to have no more floggin' nor
bully-raggin', so they've just rose up and are takin' possession of the
ship--Aha!  I'm terrible afeard that means bloodshed," as a piercing
shriek echoed through the ship.  "Now," he continued, seeing that we
evinced a strong disinclination to return to our hammocks, "you just
tumble into them hammicks and lie down, _quick_; you couldn't do a
morsel of good, e'er a one of yer, if you was out there on deck--you'd
only get hurted or, mayhap, killed outright,--and I've been specially
told off to come here and see as neither of yer gets into trouble;
you've both been good kindly lads, you especial, Muster Lascelles--
you've never had your eyes open to notice any little shortcomin's or
skylarkin's on the part of the men, nor your tongues double-hung for to
go and report 'em, so the lads is honestly anxious as you sha'n't come
to no harm in this here rumpus."

"Then the men have actually mutinied," said I--and there I stopped
short, for at that moment came the sound of a rush aft of many feet,
with shouts and curses, mingled with which I heard the loud harsh tones
of Captain Pigot's voice raised in anger.  The _melee_, however, if such
there was, quickly swept aft, and there was a lull for perhaps two or
three minutes, followed by the sounds of a brief struggle on the
quarter-deck, a few shrieks and groans, telling all too plainly of the
bloody work going forward, and then silence, broken only now and then by
the sound of Farmer's voice, apparently issuing orders, though what he
was actually saying we could not distinguish.

During all this time Courtenay and I lay huddled up in our hammocks, too
terrified and horror-stricken to say a word.  At length, after the lapse
of about an hour of quietness on deck, Sykes--after cautioning us most
earnestly not, on any account, to move from where we were until his
return--set out with the expressed intention of ascertaining how the
land lay.  He was absent about a quarter of an hour; and on his return
he informed us in horrified accents that, out of all the officers of the
ship, there remained alive only Mr Southcott the master, the gunner,
the carpenter, Courtenay, myself--and Farmer, the master's mate, who, it
appeared, had taken a leading part in the mutiny, and had been elected
to the command of the ship.  It was evident, from the scared and
horrified appearance and manner of our informant, that he had never
anticipated any of this awful violence and bloodshed, though he frankly
admitted that he had been a consenting party to the mutiny--the general
understanding being that the officers were all to be secured in the
first instance, and afterwards handed over as prisoners to the enemy--
and he hurriedly explained to us that, for his own safety's sake, it
would now be necessary for him to leave us and join the rest of the
mutineers without delay, but that he would return to us as soon as he
possibly could; and that, in the meantime, we were on no account to
leave the berth, or our lives would certainly be sacrificed.

After hearing such statements as these, no further warning was needed to
keep us two unhappy mids close prisoners for the rest of the night.
Further sleep was of course quite out of the question; so we hastily
dressed, and, closing the door of the berth, seated ourselves on a sea-
chest, where we passed the remainder of the night discussing the awful
tragedy which had so suddenly been enacted, comparing notes as to our
mutual forebodings of some such disaster, and, lastly, wondering what
would be the ultimate fate of ourselves and the few other surviving
officers.

At length, after what appeared to be a very eternity of suspense and
anxiety, steps were heard approaching the berth; and, upon our throwing
open the door, Sykes, somewhat the worse for liquor, made his
appearance, hailing us, in tones of obviously forced joviality, with:

"Well, what cheer, my fighting cocks--my bully bantams?  How goes it?
Hope your honours has passed a comfortable night," with a ghastly grin
at his own facetiousness.  Then, with considerably more seriousness of
manner, he continued:

"Well, young uns, Farmer--or _Mister_ Farmer, I should say--has been
axing arter you, and his instructions am that you may now go 'pon deck.
But--hark 'e, my bullies, keep your weather eyes a-liftin' and a stopper
upon your tongues.  Whatsomever you may happen to see don't you be led
away into indulgin' in any onpleasant remarks upon it; nor don't you go
for to try and talk over any of the lads into `returning to their duty,'
or any rot of that sort; for so sure as either of you attempts anything
like that, so surely will you get your brains blowed out.  The ship's
took--what's done is done--and neither you nor nobody else can make or
mend the job; the men is in a mighty ticklish humour, I can tell 'e, and
if you wants to save your precious carcasses you'll have to walk mighty
carcumspect.  And that's the advice and opinion of a friend, all free,
gratis, and for nothink.  Now, come along, my hearties; show a leg!"

We followed our well-meaning guide up the ladder to the quarter-deck,
where we found Farmer apparently awaiting our appearance.  He was
standing or rather leaning in a wearied attitude against a gun on the
starboard side of the deck; his cheeks were flushed and his eyes gleamed
feverishly; he looked a good twenty years older than he had appeared to
be on the previous day; and, like a good many of the other mutineers, he
appeared to have been indulging somewhat freely in liquor.  He roused
himself at our approach, and, seating himself in a negligent, careless
attitude on the breech of the gun, said:

"Good morning, young gentlemen.  I am glad to see you both safe and
sound.  Sykes has of course informed you of what has taken place--he had
my instructions to do so, as also to see that you were kept out of
harm's way last night.  Now, what I have to say to you is this.  You two
lads having invariably manifested kindness and sympathy for the men,
they were especially anxious that whenever the rising might take place
your lives should be spared.  This has been done.  You are alive and
unharmed this morning, whilst others have gone to render an account of
their manifold misdeeds--their countless acts of oppression and
cruelty--before that Judge in whose sight their lives are not one whit
more valuable than the lives of those whom they have goaded and driven
to death--ay, and to _worse_ than death--to such frantic desperation as
can only be allayed by the shedding of blood like water.  Now, mark me
well, both of you; you have had neither part nor lot in this matter--
those who wished you well have so managed that, whether or no, you
should be kept strictly neutral throughout the affair; all those to whom
you owed obedience are either dead or prisoners; you are not asked or
expected to join us--we do not want you and should not care to have you
even if you were willing--you are therefore relieved from duty; and all
that is asked of you is that you shall interfere in no way, either by
word or deed, with the working of the ship or with our plans.  If you
are agreeable to abide by this proposal, well and good; you will be
welcome to come and go as you like until we find it convenient to land
you; you will be allowed to occupy your former quarters, and your
rations will be regularly served out to you.  But if on the other hand
you make the slightest attempt to communicate with the prisoners, or
endeavour in any way to seduce any of the men from their loyalty to the
rest, I will hang you both that same hour, one from each yard-arm.  That
is understood and agreed to, is it not, men?" he continued, raising his
voice and appealing to the crowd of mutineers who had gathered round us.

"Ay, ay, that's agreed; that's fair enough," was the unanimous reply.

With that, Farmer waved his hand to us by way of dismissal; and
considerably thrown off our balance by the address to which we had just
listened, and by the terrible turn affairs had taken generally, we slunk
off to the poop, so as to be as far away as possible from the murderous
gang and from the ghastly puddles of coagulated blood about the quarter-
deck, which still bore witness to heaven against them.

At this moment a man on the forecastle electrified all hands by
shouting:

"Sail ho!"

I saw Farmer start from his seat on the gun as if shot, his flushed
features turned ashen pale, and for a moment his palsied lips refused to
give utterance to a sound.

"Sail ho!" repeated the man in a louder hail, thinking, I suppose, that
his first intimation had passed unnoticed.  This second hail fairly
startled the men, and in a moment everything was bustle and confusion
and panic.  It aroused Farmer too; he pulled himself together
sufficiently to respond to the hail with the usual question, "Where
away?" and, on receiving the reply, "Two points on the larboard bow,"
walked forward to personally inspect the stranger.  We, of course,
likewise directed our glances in the specified direction; and there she
was, sure enough, a large ship, on the starboard tack, with every stitch
of canvas set that would draw, and steering a course which would take
her across our bows at a distance of about a mile.

"Bring me the spy-glass out of the cabin, somebody!" hailed Farmer from
the forecastle.  The glass--a very powerful one and a favourite
instrument with the murdered captain--was handed him by one of the
quarter-masters, and he applied it to his eye.  A breathless silence now
prevailed fore and aft for the stranger had all the look of a British
man-of-war, and everybody was waiting to hear what Farmer's verdict
would be.  The inspection was a long-sustained and evidently anxious
one.  At length, dropping the glass into the hollow of his arm Farmer
turned and said:

"Bring Mr Southcott on deck, and let us hear his opinion of yonder
hooker."

In a few minutes the master was escorted on deck by a couple of armed
seamen, and led forward to where Farmer was standing.

"Mr Southcott," said the mutineer, turning toward the individual
addressed, and perceptibly shrinking as their glance met, "be good
enough to take this glass, and let me know wha' you think of the
stranger yonder."

"Stranger!" ejaculated Southcott.  "Where away?  Ah, I see her!" and he
took the glass from Farmer's extended hand.

"Well, what think you of her?" asked Farmer impatiently, after the
master had been silently working away with the glass for some two or
three minutes.

"One moment, please," answered Southcott with his eye still glued to the
tube; "I think--but I am not quite sure--if she would only keep just the
merest trifle more away--so as to permit of my catching a glimpse--"

"Sail ho!" shouted a man in the fore-top; "two of 'em, a brig and a ship
on the starboard beam, away in under the land there!"

Farmer unceremoniously snatched the glass away from the master and
levelled it in the direction indicated.

"Ay, ay, I see them," said he.  "That is the _Drake_ nearest us, and the
_Favourite_ inshore of her.  They are all right; we have nothing to fear
from them.  It is this stranger here ahead of us that bothers me.  Come,
Mr Southcott," he continued, "you ought to know something about her by
this time--you have been looking at her long enough; do you think you
ever saw her before?"

The master took the glass, had another long squint at the ship ahead,
then handed the instrument back to Farmer, with the answer:

"I decline to say whether I have or not."

"That is enough," said Farmer; "your answer but confirms me in my
conviction as to the identity of yonder frigate.  It is the _Mermaid_.
Speak, sir, is it not so?"

"You are right, Farmer, it _is_ the _Mermaid_, thank God! and you cannot
escape.  See! she is already hauling up to speak us; and in another
twenty minutes will be alongside.  Now, sir, resign to me the command
which you have with so much violence and bloodshed usurped; and you,
men," he continued, turning round and in a loud voice addressing the
rest of the crew, "return at once to your duty.  Support and assist me
in recovering the command of the ship, and I promise--"

"Silence!" roared Farmer, striking the master a heavy blow full in the
mouth with his clenched fist.  "Seize him, you two," he continued to the
men who had charge of the prisoner, "and if he offers to speak again to
the men clap a belaying-pin between his teeth.  My lads, you now know
the truth; yonder frigate is our old acquaintance the _Mermaid_.  Mr
Southcott proposes that I should surrender the command of this ship to
him; and if I do so we all know what will follow.  Most of us will
dangle at the yard-arm; and though, _through the royal clemency_," (with
a bitter sneer), "a few may be allowed to escape with a flogging through
the fleet, with left-handed boatswains' mates to cross the lashes--think
of that, men, and compare it with the mere two or three dozen at the
gangway which most of you have tasted since you joined the _Hermione_--
where is the man among you, I ask, who can point to himself and say, `I
shall be one of the _fortunate_ few?'  No, no, my lads! after last
night's work there must be no talk of surrender; the ropes are already
round our necks, and as surely as we ever find ourselves beneath the
British flag again, so surely will those ropes be hauled taut and
ourselves bowsed up to the yard-arm.  And, even if our lives could be
assured to us, what inducement is there to us to serve under British
bunting again?  I say there is _none_.  We must choose, then, between
two alternatives; we must either fight or fly.  Which is it to be?"

The rest of the mutineers huddled together, evidently irresolute; each
man eagerly sought his neighbour's opinion, the _pros_ and _cons_ of
Farmer's question were hurriedly discussed, and I saw with inexpressible
delight that a good many of the men were more than half disposed to fall
in with the master's suggestion.

Mr Southcott must have seen this too, for he wheeled round upon Farmer
and exclaimed:

"Surely, Farmer, you are not mad enough to entertain the idea of
fighting the _Mermaid_?  Why, man, you could not stand up before her for
five minutes with the men in their present undisciplined state and no
one but yourself to direct operations.  Your defeat under such
circumstances is an absolute certainty; and think what would be the fate
of yourself and your misguided followers if taken in arms against the
flag under which they have sworn to serve.  At present some at least of
them may hope for mercy if they will but--"

"Away with him!  Take him below!" shouted Farmer, "and if he attempts to
open his mouth again put a bullet through his brains.  Now, shipmates,"
he continued, as the master was hurried below, "make up your minds, and
quickly too; which will you have, the yard-rope or a pitched battle?"

"What occasion is there for either?" inquired a burly boatswain's-mate.
"There's more ways of killing a cat than choking of her with cream.
Let's square dead away afore it and set stunsails alow and aloft, both
sides.  I'll lay my life we run far enough away from the _Mermaid_ afore
sunset to dodge her in the dark."

"No good," dissented Farmer.  "The _Mermaid_ could beat us a couple of
knots off the wind in this breeze."

"Ay, ay; that's true enough; she could so," assented a topman.  "But we
have the heels of her on a taut bowline; so why not brace sharp up on
the starboard tack, pass between the islands, and then make for Porto
Rico?"

"What! and run the gauntlet of those two cruisers inshore there, as well
as take our chance of falling in with the _Magicienne_ and the
_Regulus_, which we know are knocking about somewhere in that direction!
Is that the best counsel you can give, Ben?"

"Well, then, let's haul close in with the land, set fire to the ship,
and take to the boats," answered Ben.

"And what then?" sneered Farmer.

"Why, land, to be sure, and take sarvice with Jack Spaniard," was the
reply.

"Why, man, do you suppose they would welcome us if we went to them
empty-handed?" asked Farmer.  "No, no, that will never do.  If we join
the Spaniards we must take the ship with us to ensure a welcome; and I'm
half inclined to think that will be the best thing we can do.  But not
now; that must be thought over at leisure.  Meanwhile, what is to be
done in the present emergency?  We have no time for further argument.
Will you stand by me and obey my orders?"

"Ay, ay, we will, every man Jack of us, sink or swim, fight or fly," was
the reply from a hundred throats.

"That's well, my lads," exclaimed Farmer exultantly; "it shall go hard
but I will bring you through somehow.  Starboard your helm, there," to
the man at the wheel; "let her come to on the larboard tack; to your
stations, men; let go the larboard sheets and braces, and round in on
the starboard.  Smartly, my bullies; let's have no bungling, now, or
Captain Otway there will at once suspect that something is amiss.
That's well; ease up the lee topgallant and royal-braces a trifle; well
there of all; belay!  Afterguard, muster your buckets and brushes and
wash down the decks.  Roberts, go below with a gang and rouse the
hammocks on deck; and quarter-masters, see that they are snugly stowed.
Where's the signal-man?  Bend the ensign on to the peak-halliards and
our number at the main; and main-top, there I stand by to hoist away the
pennant.  Gunner, muster your crew; go round the quarters with them; and
see that everything is ship-shape in case we should have to make a fight
of it."

I was surprised to see how, as Farmer issued his orders in a tone of
authority, the instinct of discipline asserted itself; the men sprang to
their stations as nimbly and executed their several duties as smartly as
though Captain Pigot himself had been directing their movements.  The
_Hermione_ was braced sharp up on the larboard tack and heading as near
as she would lay for the _Mermaid_, which was now about a point and a
half on our weather bow, about four miles distant, and nearing us fast;
whilst the _Favourite_ and the _Drake_ were stretching out from under
the land to join her.

Presently a string of tiny balls went soaring aloft to the _Mermaid's_
main-royal mast-head, to break abroad as they reached it and stream out
in the fresh morning breeze as so many gaily coloured signal flags.

"There goes the _Mermaid's_ bunting, sir!" sang out the signal-man, "she
is showing her number."

"Ay, ay, I see it," exclaimed Farmer.  "And, by Heaven," he added, "it
never struck me until this moment that Pigot was senior captain.  Hoist
away your ensign and pennant! up with the number!  We are all right, my
hearties; I know how to trick them now."

He raised the telescope to his eye and brought it to bear upon the
_Mermaid_.

"All right," he exclaimed a few seconds later, "she sees our number--
haul down!  Now signal her to chase in the north-eastern quarter.
Hurrah, my hearties, that's your sort!  There goes her answering
pennant; and there she hauls to the wind on the starboard tack.  That
disposes of her at all events.  Now signal the _Favourite_ and _Drake_
to chase to the nor'ard; that will send them through the Mona Passage,
and leave us with a clear sea."

A quarter of an hour later the three cruisers which had caused the
mutineers so much uneasiness were thrashing to windward under every rag
they could spread; when Farmer bore up and ran away to the southward and
westward with studding-sails set on both sides of the ship.



CHAPTER EIGHT.

LA GUAYRA.

After breakfast that morning the men were mustered on the quarter-deck;
and Farmer, with some half a dozen of the other mutineers, discussed in
their presence and hearing the question of what should be done with the
ship now that they had her.  There was, of course, a great deal of wild
talk, especially among the foreigners--of whom, most unfortunately for
the ill-fated officers of the ship, there were far too many on board--
and at one period of the discussion it seemed by no means improbable
that the frigate would be converted into a pirate, in which event there
can be no doubt but that, for a time at least, she would have proved a
terrible scourge to all honest navigators in those seas.  Farmer,
however, was strongly in favour of going over to the Spaniards; and in
the end his counsels prevailed, though he met with a great deal of
opposition.

This point settled, the ship's head was laid to the southward; and
sunrise on the fourth morning succeeding the mutiny found us off La
Guayra, with a flag of truce flying.  The signal was duly observed and
answered from the shore; upon which the gig was lowered, and, with a
white flag floating from her ensign staff, her crew in their holiday
rig, and Farmer with three other ringleaders of the mutiny in her stern-
sheets, she shoved off for the harbour.  She was absent for the greater
part of the day, it being seven bells in the afternoon watch before she
was observed pulling out of the harbour again; and when she made her
appearance it was at once observed that she was accompanied by several
heavy launches full of men.  It took the flotilla fully an hour to pull
off to us, and when they reached the frigate it was seen that the
occupants of the shore-boats were Spanish seamen, with a sprinkling of
officers among them.  On coming alongside the entire rabble at once
boarded; the ship was formally handed over by Farmer to an officer in a
resplendent uniform, whose first act was to direct one of his aides to
strike the white flag and hoist the Spanish ensign at the peak; and the
surviving officers--five of us in number--were then mustered and ordered
into one of the boats alongside.  We were compelled to bundle down over
the side just as we were, without a single personal belonging, or
article of clothing except what we stood in; and, the boat being manned
by some twenty as bloodthirsty-looking desperadoes as I ever clapped
eyes on, we were forthwith pulled ashore and at once marched off to
prison.

It was dark by the time that we reached the harbour; we were
consequently unable to see much of the place that night beyond the fact
that it lay at the base of a lofty range of hills.  We were received at
the landing-place by a party of soldiers with fixed bayonets, who had
evidently been awaiting our arrival, and, escorted by them, we arrived--
after a march of about a mile--at the gates of a most forbidding-looking
edifice constructed of heavy blocks of masonry, and which had all the
appearance of being a fortress.  Passing through the gloomy gateway--
which was protected by a portcullis--we found ourselves in a large open
paved courtyard, across which we marched to a door on the opposite side.
Entering this door, we wheeled to the right and passed along a wide
stone passage which conducted us to a sort of guard-room.  We were here
received by a lanky, cadaverous-looking individual with a shrivelled
yellow parchment skin, hands like the claws of a vulture, piercing black
eyes, and grizzled locks and moustache, who, with but scant courtesy,
took down the name and rank of each of us in a huge battered volume;
after which we were conducted through another long echoing passage, and
finally ushered into a sort of hall, about sixty feet long by forty feet
wide, with a lofty stone groined roof, and six high, narrow, lancet-
shaped windows in each of the two longer walls.  These windows we
subsequently found were closely grated on the outside with heavy iron
bars.  The moment that we crossed the threshold the heavy oaken door was
closed and barred upon us, and we were left to shift for ourselves as
best we could.

The first thing of which I was distinctly conscious on entering the hall
was the volume of sound which echoed from the walls and the groined
roof.  Singing, laughter, conversation, altercation were all going on at
the same moment at the utmost pitch of the human voice, and apparently
with the whole strength of the assembled company, which, after winking
and blinking like an owl for several moments, I succeeded in dimly
making out through the dense cloud of suffocating smoke which pervaded
the place, and which appeared to emanate from a wood fire burning on the
pavement at the far end of the hall, and from some three or four flaring
oil lamps which were suspended from nails driven into the walls between
the joints of the masonry.

It was a minute or two before any of the noisy company appeared to
notice us.  At length, however, one man, rising to his feet and shading
his eyes with his hand as he looked in our direction, ejaculated:

"Who have we here?  More companions in misfortune?"

Then advancing with outstretched hand he exclaimed uproariously:

"What cheer, my hearties?  Welcome to Equality Hall!"

Then, as he for the first time noticed our uniforms, he muttered:

"Why, dash my old frizzly wig if they ain't navy gents!" adding in a
much more respectful tone of voice: "Beg pardon, gentlemen, I'm sure,
for my familiarity.  Didn't notice at first what you was.  Come forward
into the range of the light and bring yourselves to an anchor.  I'm
afraid you'll find these but poor quarters, gentlemen, after what you've
been used to aboard a man-o'-war.  And you'll find us a noisy lot too;
but the fact is we're just trying to make the best of things here,
trying to be as happy as we can under the circumstances, as you may say.
Here, you unmannerly lubbers," he continued, addressing a group who
were sprawling at full length on a rough wooden bench, "rouse out of
that and make room for your betters."

The men scrambled to their feet and made way for us good-naturedly
enough; and we seated ourselves on the vacated bench, feeling--at least
I may answer for myself--forlorn enough in the great dingy, dirty,
comfortless hole into which we had been so unceremoniously thrust.  Our
new friend seated himself alongside Mr Southcott, and, first informing
that gentleman that the company in which we found ourselves were the
crews of sundry British merchantmen which had been captured by the
Spaniards, and that he was the ex-chief mate of a tidy little Liverpool
barque called the _Sparkling Foam_, proceeded to inquire into the
circumstances which had led to our captivity.  The account of the mutiny
was received by the party, most of whom had gathered round to listen to
it, with expressions of the most profound abhorrence and indignation,
which were only cut short by the appearance of a sergeant and a file of
soldiers bearing the evening's rations, which were served out raw, to be
immediately afterwards handed over to a black cook who answered to the
name of "Snowball," and who had good-naturedly constituted himself the
cook of the party.  The rations, which included a portion for us
newcomers, consisted of a small modicum of meat, a few vegetables, a
tolerably liberal allowance of coarse black bread, and water _ad
libitum_.  The little incident of the serving out of rations having come
to an end, and the sergeant having retired with his satellites, our
friend of the _Sparkling Foam_--whose name, it transpired, was Benjamin
Rogers--resumed his conversation with us by proceeding to "put us up to
a thing or two."

"I've no doubt, gentlemen," he said, "but what you'll be asked to give
your parole to-morrow, if you haven't already--you haven't, eh? well, so
much the better; you'll be asked to-morrow.  Now, if you'll take my
advice you won't give it; if you do, you'll simply be turned adrift into
the town to shift for yourselves and find quarters where you can.  If
you've got money, and plenty of it, you might manage to rub along pretty
well for a time; but when your cash is gone where are you?  Why, simply
nowheres.  Now, this is a roughish berth for gentlemen like you, I'll
allow; but within the last few days we've been marched out every morning
and set to work patching up an old battery away out here close to the
beach, and we've been kept at it all day, so that we get plenty of fresh
air and exercise, and merely have to ride it out here during the night.
There's only some half-a-dozen soldiers sent out to watch us; and it's
my idea that it might be no such very difficult matter to give these
chaps the slip some evening, and at nightfall make our way down to the
harbour, seize one of the small coasting craft which seem to be always
there, and make sail for Jamaica.  At least that's my notion, gentlemen;
you are welcome to it for what it's worth, and can think it over."

We thanked our new friend for his advice, which we followed so far as to
think and talk it over before stowing ourselves away for the night upon
the bundle of straw which constituted the sole apology for a bed and
covering allowed us by the Spaniards.

Mr Southcott, the master, was indignant beyond measure at the scurvy
treatment thus meted out to us as prisoners of war, and talked a great
deal about the representations he intended to make to the authorities
with regard to it; but in the meantime he decided to give his parole, in
the hope of a speedy exchange, and strongly recommended us to do the
same.  He was possessed of a little money, it seemed, which he had taken
the precaution of secreting about his person immediately on the ship
making the land, in anticipation of his speedily finding a use for it;
and this money he most generously offered to share with us as far as it
would go.  To this, however, none of us would listen; and as we were
wholly without means the only alternative left to us was to refuse our
parole, and put up as best we could with such board and lodging as the
Spaniards might be disposed to give us, and to bend all our energies to
the accomplishment of a speedy escape.  As for me, I still held in vivid
remembrance the statement which my father had made to me on the eve of
my departure for school, and the caution he had given me against
expecting any assistance from him after I had once fairly entered upon
my career; and I resolved to endure the worst that could possibly befall
me rather than act upon a suggestion which the master threw out, to the
effect that possibly someone might be found in the town willing to cash
(for a heavy premium) a draft of mine upon my father.

Rogers' expectation that we should be asked for our parole was verified
next morning; and Southcott, giving his, bade us a reluctant farewell
after a further ineffectual effort to persuade us to reconsider our
decision.  Finding that we were not to be persuaded he bade us take
heart and keep up our spirits, as his very first task should be to make
such representations to the authorities as must result in a very speedy
and considerable amelioration of our condition.  We parted with many
expressions of mutual regret; and that was the last any of us ever saw
of the poor fellow, nor were our subsequent inquiries as to what had
become of him in the slightest degree successful.

As for us who remained, upon our explaining, through the medium of a
very inefficient interpreter, that the lack of means to support
ourselves precluded the possibility of our giving our parole upon the
terms offered us, we were brusquely informed that we must then be
content to be classed among the common prisoners, to put up with their
accommodation, and to take part in the tasks allotted to them.  We were
then abruptly dismissed, and, without further ceremony, marched off to
the scene of our labours, which we found to be the fort mentioned by
Rogers--an antiquated structure in the very last stage of dilapidation,
which it was the task of the prisoners to repair.

To be obliged to work was, after all, no very great hardship.  We were
in the fresh open air all day, which was infinitely better than
confinement between four walls, even had those walls inclosed a far
greater measure of comfort than was to be found within the confines of
our prison-house.  The physical exertion kept us in a state of excellent
health, and consequently in fairly good spirits; the labour, though of
anything but an intellectual character, kept our minds sufficiently
employed to prevent our brooding over our ill fortune; we were allowed
to take matters pretty easily so long as we did not dawdle too much, and
thus entail upon our lounging guard the unwelcome necessity of
scrambling to their feet and hunting up our whereabouts; our daily
labours brought with them just that amount of fatigue which ensured
sound sleep and a happy oblivion of the dirt and manifold discomforts of
our night quarters; and finally, there was the prospect that at any
moment some lucky chance might favour our escape.

Four days from the date of our incarceration the muster-roll of the
prison was increased by the addition of the names of half a dozen
Spanish smugglers, who had been captured a few miles up the coast by one
of the guarda-costas and brought into La Guayra.  They were a rough,
reckless-looking set of vagabonds; but their looks were the worst part
of them, for they all turned out to be gay, jovial spirits enough,
taking their reverse of fortune with the utmost nonchalance, and having
a laugh and a jest for everything and everybody, the guards included,
with whom they soon became upon the most amicable terms.  One of these
men, a fellow named Miguel--I never learned his other name--was attached
to the gang of labourers to which I belonged; and though I fought rather
shy of him for a time his hearty good-nature and accommodating
disposition soon overcame my reserve, and I gradually grew to be on the
best of terms with him.  He could speak a word or two of English, and,
seeming to have taken a fancy to me, he would strike up a conversation
with me as often as the opportunity offered, much to his own amusement
and mine, since we rarely succeeded in comprehending each other.  These
efforts at conversation, however, inspired me with the idea that this
man's companionship afforded me an opportunity to acquire a knowledge of
Spanish, which could not fail to be of service to me; and this idea I at
length with some difficulty succeeded in conveying to my smuggler
friend.  He pantomimically expressed himself as charmed with the
suggestion, which he intimated might be improved upon by my undertaking
in return to teach him English; and, a satisfactory understanding being
arrived at, we commenced our studies forthwith.  We were of course
utterly destitute of all aid from books, and we were therefore compelled
to fall back upon the primitive method of pointing out objects to each
other and designating them alternately in English and Spanish, each
repeating the word until the other had caught its proper pronunciation.
From this we advanced to short simple sentences, the meaning of which we
conveyed as well as we could by appropriate gestures; and though we
sometimes made the most ridiculous mistakes through misunderstanding the
meaning of those gestures, yet on the whole we managed tolerably well.
The first steps were the most difficult, but every word mastered cleared
the way to the comprehension of two or three others; so that by the time
we had been a couple of months at our studies we found ourselves making
really satisfactory progress.  And when seven months had been thus
spent, though neither could speak the language of the other like a
native, each could converse in the other's language with tolerable
fluency and make himself perfectly understood.  I had, long before this,
however, after considerable hesitation and cautious feeling of my
ground, broached to Miguel the question of escape, and had been
considerably chagrined to learn from him that, unless aided by friends
outside the prison, there was hardly the remotest chance of success.
The only way in which it could be done was, in his opinion, to obtain
shelter and concealment for, say a month, in some family in the
immediate neighbourhood; and _then_, when the scent had grown cold and
the zeal of the pursuers had died away, a dark night and some assistance
might enable one to get safely off the coast.  If _he_ were free now, he
was good enough to say, the thing might be managed, for a consideration,
without any very great difficulty; but--a shrug of the shoulders and a
glance at the prison dress which he was condemned to wear for more than
a year longer eloquently enough closed the sentence.

About this time--or, to speak more definitely, some eight months from
the date of our landing at La Guayra--a change in our fortunes occurred,
which, whilst it had the immediate result of considerably ameliorating
Courtenay's and my own condition, was destined to ultimately--but avast!
I must not get ahead of my story.  It happened in this way.  One
morning after we had been out at work about a couple of hours the
military engineer who was in charge of our operations rode up to the
battery, accompanied by a very fine, handsome, middle-aged man,
evidently also a soldier, for he was attired in an undress military
uniform.

"Hillo!" exclaimed Miguel, as he noticed the new arrivals, "what is in
the wind now?  That is the commandant of the district with Senor
Pacheco."

The appearance of such a notability naturally created a profound
sensation; but we were of course obliged to go on with our work all the
same.  The commandant dismounted, and, accompanied by Senor Pacheco,
proceeded to make an inspection of the battery, which by this time was
beginning to assume the appearance of a tolerably strong fortification.
That done, the sergeant of the guard was summoned, and something in the
nature of a consultation ensued, which terminated in Courtenay and
myself being ordered to drop our tools and step forward to where the
commandant was standing.

The great man regarded us both fixedly for a moment or two, and then
said, of course in Spanish:

"I understand that you are two of the officers who were landed here from
the British frigate _Hermione_?"

I replied that we were.

"Well," he said, "I suppose, in that case, you know all about ships, or,
at all events, sufficient to be able to construct and rig a few models?"

I answered that we certainly did.

"Very well," said he, turning to Senor Pacheco, "in that case they will
serve my purpose very well, and you may send them up to the castle at
once.  And, as they are, after all, merely a couple of boys, I think we
shall run no very great risk of losing them if we arrange for them to
stay about the place altogether; what say you?--it will be much more
convenient for me; and I will find rations and quarters for them; and
they can report themselves periodically at the citadel, if need be."

Senor Pacheco expressed himself as perfectly satisfied with the proposed
arrangement; and we were forthwith instructed to leave work there and
then and make the best of our way to a chateau which was pointed out to
us, and which lay embosomed in trees some three miles to the westward of
the town and about a mile from the shore.  We had no packing to do, as
we possessed nothing in the world but the clothes we stood up in--and
which, by the way, were now in the very last stage of "looped and
windowed raggedness"--so we simply nodded a "good-bye" to such of our
envious acquaintances as happened to be within saluting range, and at
once set off up the road which we were informed would conduct us to our
destination.

Once fairly away from the scene of our late labours, Courtenay and I
gave full rein both to our tongues and to our imaginations, discussing
and wondering what in the world the commandant could possibly want with
ship-models; but that, after all was a question which we did not greatly
trouble ourselves to solve; the dominant thought and reflection in our
minds that we were likely to be, for some time at least, absentees from
the prison and all the discomfort and wretchedness connected with it,
and which I have not dwelt upon or attempted to describe for the one
simple reason that it was wholly undescribable.  We never thought of
escaping, although we soon found ourselves passing through a thinly-
inhabited country where our abandonment of the high-road and concealment
in the neighbouring woods could have been accomplished without the
slightest risk of observation; but we had learned by this time that
escape was no such easy matter; it was a something which would have to
be carefully planned beforehand and every possible precaution adopted to
ensure success, and had we been foolishly tempted to try it then and
there our non-arrival at the chateau would speedily have been reported,
with the result that a search would have been instituted, followed by
our speedy recapture and ignominious return to the abhorred prison.  No;
we were very thankful for and very well satisfied with the sudden change
in our fortunes which had been so unexpectedly wrought, for, though we
could of course form no very clear idea of what our lot would be in the
service of the commandant, we felt pretty certain it would be much
easier than what we had been obliged to put up with since our landing
from the frigate; and, for the rest, we were content to wait and see
what time had in store for us, whilst we were fully resolved to keep a
bright lookout for and to take the utmost advantage of any opportunity
for escape which might be opened out to us.

We had just arrived at a handsome pair of park gates which we
conjectured gave admittance to the castle grounds when we were overtaken
by the commandant, on horseback.  He nodded to us; remarked, "I see you
have found your way all right;" shouted for the ancient custodian to
open the gates; and then, as the heavy iron barriers swung back,
dismounted, threw the bridle over his arm, and walked up the long avenue
with us.

We now had an opportunity to observe him a little more closely than at
our first interview; and we found him to be a tall and strikingly
handsome man, somewhere about fifty years of age, as we judged; with
piercing black eyes which seemed to read one's very thoughts, yet which
were by no means devoid of amiable expression, and black hair and
moustache thickly dashed with grey.  Somewhat to our surprise, we found
that he could speak English very fairly.  His demeanour to us was
characterised by that lofty stately courtesy peculiar to the old
nobility of Castile (of which province he was a native); and we
subsequently learned that he was as gallant a warrior as he was a
polished gentleman, having served with much distinction in various parts
of the world.  His style and title, we afterwards ascertained, was El
Commandant Don Luis Aguirre Martinez de Guzman; and we speedily found
that he had a very strong predilection for the English, attributable to
the fact--which ultimately leaked out--that his first and deepest love
had been won by an English girl, whom, however,--the course of true love
not running smoothly--he never married.

As we walked up the noble avenue side by side he questioned us as to our
names, ages, and rank, how long we had been prisoners, and so on; and
expressed his astonishment at the harsh treatment which we had received
at the hands of the prison authorities.  Upon this I thought it
advisable to mention to him our refusal to give our parole, stating as
our reason our total lack of funds.

"Oh, well," he said laughingly, "that need no longer influence you, you
know.  You will have free quarters and rations at the castle, in
addition to the remuneration to which you will be entitled for your
services, so you can give your parole when next you report yourselves at
the citadel, and that will end the matter."

This, however, would not suit our views at all, though we did not choose
to say so; we therefore changed the subject by asking him what more
particularly were the services which we should be asked to perform.  His
answer was to the effect that his especial hobby was the study of
fortification, respecting which, it seems, he had several rather novel
theories, in the working out and testing of which--and also by way of
amusement--he had constructed the model of a fortified town on the
shores of a small lake within the castle grounds; and he had sought our
assistance to enable him to place a fleet of ship-models before this
town, to illustrate his method of overcoming the difficulties attendant
upon a state of siege and blockade.  By the time that this fancy of his
had been fully explained we had reached the castle--a noble building as
to size but of no very great pretensions from an architectural point of
view--and, the major-domo having been summoned, we were handed over to
him with the necessary instructions for our proper housing and so on.



CHAPTER NINE.

INEZ DE GUZMAN.

We were conducted by our guide--an ancient and somewhat pompous
individual--to a large and very pleasantly situated room in the north
wing of the castle, from whence, through an opening between the trees, a
glimpse of the sea was to be obtained; the foreground being occupied by
a kitchen-garden.  This room, it seemed, was to be our sleeping
apartment.  It was somewhat meagrely furnished, according to our English
ideas, and there was only one bed in it--our guide informing us,
however, that the commandant had ordered another to be placed there
forthwith--but what little furniture the apartment contained was good,
and everything was scrupulously clean, so that, in comparison with our
recent quarters, those we were now to occupy seemed absolutely palatial.
And our gratification was considerably increased when we were informed
that another very large and handsomely furnished room, through which we
had passed to gain access to our sleeping quarters, was to be devoted to
our exclusive use and occupation during the day at such times as we were
not engaged in the park.  We voted the commandant a trump, there and
then, and mutually resolved to do all that in us lay to retain our
exceedingly comfortable berths until we should find opportunity to quit
them of our own accord for good and all.

Having duly installed us, and suggestively directed our attention to the
toilet gear--of which in truth we both most grievously stood in need--
the major-domo left us, first informing us, however, that if, when we
were ready, we would ring a bell, the cord of which he pointed out to
us, a servant would bring us some refreshment.

We lost no time in freshening ourselves up and making ourselves as
presentable as circumstances would permit, and then sat down to a plain
but substantial meal, which, after our meagre and coarse prison fare,
seemed a veritable banquet.  At the conclusion of this meal we were
informed that the commandant awaited us below, upon which we followed
our informant down a sort of back staircase, and issuing from a little
side door found ourselves in the garden before mentioned.  It was walled
in on all sides, but a door in the wall adjoining the house was pointed
out to us, and issuing through it we found ourselves on the noble
terrace which stretched along the whole front of the castle.  Here we
discovered the commandant pacing up and down with a cigar in his mouth,
and joining him he proposed to conduct us to the scene of our future
labours.

With all his stateliness, which he never laid aside, Don Luis de Guzman
knew how to be very affable when he chose, and he chose to be so with
us.  Commencing a long conversation by courteously expressing a hope
that our apartments were to our liking, and kindly informing us that, if
they were not, a hint to the major-domo would be sufficient to secure
the rectification of whatever might be amiss, he then went on to speak
of "the unnecessary haste" with which we had been removed from the ship,
and of the inconvenience which we must have experienced from the
scantiness of our wardrobe, an inconvenience which, he said, he would
"take the liberty" of having remedied as speedily as might be.  This, of
course, was very kind of him, and we ungrudgingly credited him with the
most generous of motives; at the same time I have no doubt that the
stately don was as heartily ashamed of the two scarecrows who
accompanied him as we were of our own appearance.

Having thus cleared the ground, as it were, our benefactor proceeded to
question us closely as to the circumstances connected with and which led
up to the mutiny, at which he expressed the most unqualified
reprobation; and when we had told him all we knew about it he informed
us that the British government had made a formal demand for the
restitution of the frigate and the surrender of the mutineers, as well
as the captive officers, a demand which, he said, the Spanish government
had seen fit to refuse; and I thought, from his manner of speaking upon
the subject, that he by no means favourable regarded the action of his
countrymen in the matter.  This conversation, and indeed all that we
subsequently held with him, was, I ought to say, conducted in English.
He asked us questions innumerable--indeed more than we were able to
fully answer--respecting the habits and customs of our nation, our mode
of government, and what not; and it was not long before we were able to
perceive that his liking for the English was as strong as it was
possible for a thorough-bred Spanish noble to entertain.

A walk, or rather a saunter, of about a mile and a half through the park
brought us to the scene of our future operations--a lake of, I should
say, some four or five acres in extent--and here the subject of our
conversation was diverted to the theme of the commandant's requirements
of us.

The lake, it appeared, was a natural feature of the landscape, with a
stream some twenty feet in width flowing through it.  A walk had been
constructed right round it, crossing the stream by a couple of rustic
bridges; and for about one-half its length the banks had been most
beautifully laid out as a flower-garden.  For the remaining half of its
length, however, nature had been allowed to have pretty much her own
way, except at the point where the stream entered the lake.  There the
ground had been carefully cleared of trees, and trimmed so as to present
the aspect of a low flat shore, with hills in the rear.  And on this
shore, covering an area of some fifty feet square on each side of the
stream, the commandant had caused to be constructed an exceedingly
pretty and carefully finished model of a town, with streets, houses,
public buildings, squares, and even monuments, with a harbour, including
moles, piers, lighthouses, batteries, etcetera, complete down to the
minutest detail.  It had evidently been a labour of love with him, as
could be seen at a glance from the care and finish lavished upon the
work; and we afterwards learned that it had occupied him and a staff of
a dozen workmen for more than a year.  It was to blockade this miniature
town and port that the fleet of ships which we were to construct was
required, the trenches and investing earthworks and batteries on the
land side being already finished.  It was surprising to see how this
most dignified Spaniard unbent, and how enthusiastic he became as he
described his plans to us and gave us instructions respecting the
dimensions and number of his pigmy fleet.  He was evidently much pleased
with the admiration we expressed at the care and skill exhibited in
working out his quaint idea; and when we had minutely inspected every
part of it he led us to a comfortable airy little workshop, concealed in
a kind of brake among the trees, where we found a good stock of wood,
with a capital supply of tools and everything necessary to the proper
carrying out of our task.  We did not do anything in the way of work on
that day, however, for by the time that we had seen everything and had
taken a walk to the seaward extremity of the park the sun was getting
low, and the time had arrived for us to see about getting back to the
castle.

Oh, how we enjoyed the luxury of that first dinner at the castle!--the
only decent meal of which we had partaken since our landing--with the
quiet evening which followed it, spent in a large, lofty, well-furnished
apartment, lighted up by a massive silver lamp of elaborate workmanship,
and cooled by the light evening breeze which floated in through the
widely-opened casements.  Stretched luxuriously in a couple of low
comfortable sloping-backed chairs, we sat at one of these open casements
discussing a bottle of excellent wine, and looking out upon the dark
woods which surrounded the building, watching the full moon soar into
the cloudless sky from behind the gently-swaying foliage, and listening
to the song of the nightingale, amidst which we once or twice thought we
detected the tinkling sounds of a guitar apparently issuing from one of
the open windows in another wing of the castle.

We retired early to rest that night, after a bath, not so much because
we were tired, but rather to enjoy the unwonted luxury of rest in an
actual bed, with the pleasant accompaniment of clean sweet-smelling
linen.

We were disappointed, however, in our anticipations of a sound night's
sleep.  After making shift for so long with a heap of straw spread on a
hard pavement, the beds seemed too soft and yielding to our unaccustomed
limbs, and we lay tossing to and fro for a long time before we
eventually dropped off to sleep.  This trifling inconvenience
disappeared, however, after a few nights' experience.

We were up and stirring by daybreak next morning, and a few minutes
later we might have been seen scudding across the park on our way to a
certain rocky pool on the beach, which the commandant had pointed out to
us the day before as a place where we might safely venture to indulge in
a swim without fear of the sharks.  Taking his word for it we plunged in
and swam off, until we found ourselves almost among the breakers, then
returned to the shore, dressed, and made our way back to the castle,
which we reached in good time for breakfast.  That meal over we set out
for the workshop, Pedro--the servant who seemed to have been appointed
to wait upon us--informing us as we started that he had orders to have
luncheon ready for us by one o'clock.  Arrived at the scene of our
labours we each selected a suitable block of wood, and whilst Courtenay
set to work upon a model of the _Hermione_, I, with greater ambition,
devoted all my energies to the hewing out of a line-of-battle ship.
Thus occupied the time passed swiftly away, and almost before we were
aware of it the commandant, who had looked in upon us to see how we were
progressing, announced that it was time for us to see about returning to
the castle.  He walked back with us, chatting most affably all the way;
and on reaching our rooms we found a tailor awaiting us, by his orders,
to take our measures for a new outfit of rigging.  The first instalment
of this, in the shape of a loose white nankin suit apiece, with shirt,
stockings, light shoes of tan-coloured leather, crimson silk sashes--to
serve instead of braces--and broad-brimmed cane-hat, all complete,
awaited us on our waking a couple of mornings later, much to our
gratification, as the idea grew upon us that the castle contained other
inmates besides the commandant, and we were anxious to avoid a rencontre
with these so long as we retained our ragged, scarecrow appearance.

We had been at work about a week; Courtenay had completed the hull of
his frigate, and was busy about her spars, whilst I was putting the
finishing touches to a figure-head for my seventy-four, when, about four
o'clock in the afternoon, our workshop suddenly became darkened to such
an extent that we could no longer see to work.  Looking up and glancing
out of the window, we observed that, unnoticed by us, a heavy thunder-
storm had been gathering over the sea, and the clouds, setting
shoreward, were now hovering immediately overhead.  That it was likely
to be a severe storm was manifest, the sky being blacker than I had ever
seen it before.  We were debating upon the advisability of effecting an
immediate retreat to the castle, and taking our chance of reaching it
before the storm should burst, when a vivid flash of lightning, green
and baleful, quickly succeeded by a most deafening peal of thunder,
decided us to remain where we were.  Another flash and another rapidly
followed, and then down came the rain in a perfect deluge.  It fell, not
in drops but in regular _sheets_ of water, lashing the surface of the
lake into a plain of milky foam, and so completely flooding the ground
that in five minutes the water everywhere, as far as we could see from
the window at which we had taken our stand, must have been ankle-deep.
The storm gained in intensity with startling rapidity, the lightning
blazing and flashing about us so uninterruptedly that the whole
atmosphere seemed a-quiver with the greenish-blue glare; whilst the
rattling crash and roar of the thunder went on absolutely without any
intermission, filling the firmament with one continuous chaos of
deafening sound and causing the very earth beneath our feet to tremble.
This had been going on for some eight or ten minutes, perhaps, when we
caught sight, through the streaming deluge outside, of a couple of
white-clad flying figures making their way down the path from the rustic
bridge toward the workshop.  I sprang to the door and threw it open; and
in another moment two young women plunged through the doorway--their
light flimsy garments streaming with water and clinging about their
limbs--and flung themselves breathlessly down upon a bench, the taller
and darker of the two panting out:

"A thousand thanks, senors!  Madre de Dios, what a storm!"

"It is indeed terrible," I replied in my best Spanish, as I closed the
door again.  "And you have been fairly caught in it.  Have you come from
a distance?"

"Only from the castle.  I am Inez de Guzman, the commandant's daughter,
and this," pointing to her companion, "is Eugenia Gonzalez, my foster-
sister.  We left home about two hours ago to walk through the park as
far as the beach; and it was not until we had emerged from among the
trees near the shore that we noticed the gathering storm.  Then we
hastened back homeward as quickly as possible, but were overtaken before
we could gain shelter anywhere.  I hope you will excuse our bursting in
so unceremoniously upon you.  You are the young English officers who
have come to assist my father, I presume?"

Courtenay and I bowed our affirmatives with all the grace we could
muster.

"Poor papa!" she continued.  "Are you not amused at his having taken so
much, so _very_ much trouble just to work out and illustrate his pet
theories?"

"By no means," we hastened to assure her.  "On the contrary," said I, "I
regard it as an evidence of the thoroughness with which the commandant
carries out all his undertakings."

"Ah, yes!" said she, evidently well pleased, "I see you understand my
father.  He is just the same in everything.  Heavens, what a flash!
Will the storm _never_ cease!"

"There is no present in

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