CHAPTER X
THE SIEGE OF THE ROUND-HOUSE
But now our time of truce was come to an end. Those on deck had waitedfor my coming till they grew impatient; and scarce had Alan spoken, whenthe captain showed face in the open door.
"Stand!" cried Alan, and pointed his sword at him. The captain stood,indeed; but he neither winced nor drew back a foot.
"A naked sword?" says he. "This is a strange return for hospitality."
"Do ye see me?" said Alan. "I am come of kings; I bear a king's name. Mybadge is the oak. Do ye see my sword? It has slashed the heads off mairWhigamores than you have toes upon your feet. Call up your vermin toyour back, sir, and fall on! The sooner the clash begins, the soonerye'll taste this steel throughout your vitals."
The captain said nothing to Alan, but he looked over at me with an uglylook. "David," said he, "I'll mind this;" and the sound of his voicewent through me with a jar.
Next moment he was gone.
"And now," said Alan, "let your hand keep your head, for the grip iscoming."
Alan drew a dirk, which he held in his left hand in case they should runin under his sword. I, on my part, clambered up into the berth withan armful of pistols and something of a heavy heart, and set open thewindow where I was to watch. It was a small part of the deck that Icould overlook, but enough for our purpose. The sea had gone down, andthe wind was steady and kept the sails quiet; so that there was agreat stillness in the ship, in which I made sure I heard the sound ofmuttering voices. A little after, and there came a clash of steel uponthe deck, by which I knew they were dealing out the cutlasses and onehad been let fall; and after that, silence again.
I do not know if I was what you call afraid; but my heart beat like abird's, both quick and little; and there was a dimness came before myeyes which I continually rubbed away, and which continually returned. Asfor hope, I had none; but only a darkness of despair and a sort of angeragainst all the world that made me long to sell my life as dear as I wasable. I tried to pray, I remember, but that same hurry of my mind, likea man running, would not suffer me to think upon the words; and my chiefwish was to have the thing begin and be done with it.
It came all of a sudden when it did, with a rush of feet and a roar, andthen a shout from Alan, and a sound of blows and some one crying outas if hurt. I looked back over my shoulder, and saw Mr. Shuan in thedoorway, crossing blades with Alan.
"That's him that killed the boy!" I cried.
"Look to your window!" said Alan; and as I turned back to my place, Isaw him pass his sword through the mate's body.
It was none too soon for me to look to my own part; for my head wasscarce back at the window, before five men, carrying a spare yard fora battering-ram, ran past me and took post to drive the door in. I hadnever fired with a pistol in my life, and not often with a gun; far lessagainst a fellow-creature. But it was now or never; and just as theyswang the yard, I cried out: "Take that!" and shot into their midst.
I must have hit one of them, for he sang out and gave back a step, andthe rest stopped as if a little disconcerted. Before they had time torecover, I sent another ball over their heads; and at my third shot(which went as wide as the second) the whole party threw down the yardand ran for it.
Then I looked round again into the deck-house. The whole place was fullof the smoke of my own firing, just as my ears seemed to be burst withthe noise of the shots. But there was Alan, standing as before; onlynow his sword was running blood to the hilt, and himself so swelledwith triumph and fallen into so fine an attitude, that he looked to beinvincible. Right before him on the floor was Mr. Shuan, on his handsand knees; the blood was pouring from his mouth, and he was sinkingslowly lower, with a terrible, white face; and just as I looked, some ofthose from behind caught hold of him by the heels and dragged him bodilyout of the round-house. I believe he died as they were doing it.
"There's one of your Whigs for ye!" cried Alan; and then turning to me,he asked if I had done much execution.
I told him I had winged one, and thought it was the captain.
"And I've settled two," says he. "No, there's not enough blood let;they'll be back again. To your watch, David. This was but a dram beforemeat."
I settled back to my place, re-charging the three pistols I had fired,and keeping watch with both eye and ear.
Our enemies were disputing not far off upon the deck, and that so loudlythat I could hear a word or two above the washing of the seas.
"It was Shuan bauchled* it," I heard one say.
* Bungled.
And another answered him with a "Wheesht, man! He's paid the piper."
After that the voices fell again into the same muttering as before. Onlynow, one person spoke most of the time, as though laying down a plan,and first one and then another answered him briefly, like men takingorders. By this, I made sure they were coming on again, and told Alan.
"It's what we have to pray for," said he. "Unless we can give them agood distaste of us, and done with it, there'll be nae sleep for eitheryou or me. But this time, mind, they'll be in earnest."
By this, my pistols were ready, and there was nothing to do but listenand wait. While the brush lasted, I had not the time to think if I wasfrighted; but now, when all was still again, my mind ran upon nothingelse. The thought of the sharp swords and the cold steel was strong inme; and presently, when I began to hear stealthy steps and a brushingof men's clothes against the round-house wall, and knew they were takingtheir places in the dark, I could have found it in my mind to cry outaloud.
All this was upon Alan's side; and I had begun to think my share of thefight was at an end, when I heard some one drop softly on the roof aboveme.
Then there came a single call on the sea-pipe, and that was the signal.A knot of them made one rush of it, cutlass in hand, against the door;and at the same moment, the glass of the skylight was dashed in athousand pieces, and a man leaped through and landed on the floor.Before he got his feet, I had clapped a pistol to his back, and mighthave shot him, too; only at the touch of him (and him alive) my wholeflesh misgave me, and I could no more pull the trigger than I could haveflown.
He had dropped his cutlass as he jumped, and when he felt the pistol,whipped straight round and laid hold of me, roaring out an oath; and atthat either my courage came again, or I grew so much afraid as came tothe same thing; for I gave a shriek and shot him in the midst of thebody. He gave the most horrible, ugly groan and fell to the floor. Thefoot of a second fellow, whose legs were dangling through the skylight,struck me at the same time upon the head; and at that I snatched anotherpistol and shot this one through the thigh, so that he slipped throughand tumbled in a lump on his companion's body. There was no talk ofmissing, any more than there was time to aim; I clapped the muzzle tothe very place and fired.
I might have stood and stared at them for long, but I heard Alan shoutas if for help, and that brought me to my senses.
He had kept the door so long; but one of the seamen, while he wasengaged with others, had run in under his guard and caught him about thebody. Alan was dirking him with his left hand, but the fellow clung likea leech. Another had broken in and had his cutlass raised. The door wasthronged with their faces. I thought we were lost, and catching up mycutlass, fell on them in flank.
But I had not time to be of help. The wrestler dropped at last; andAlan, leaping back to get his distance, ran upon the others like abull, roaring as he went. They broke before him like water, turning, andrunning, and falling one against another in their haste. The swordin his hands flashed like quicksilver into the huddle of our fleeingenemies; and at every flash there came the scream of a man hurt. I wasstill thinking we were lost, when lo! they were all gone, and Alan wasdriving them along the deck as a sheep-dog chases sheep.
Yet he was no sooner out than he was back again, being as cautious as hewas brave; and meanwhile the seamen continued running and crying out asif he was still behind them; and we heard them tumble one upon anotherinto the forecastle, and clap
-to the hatch upon the top.
The round-house was like a shambles; three were dead inside, anotherlay in his death agony across the threshold; and there were Alan and Ivictorious and unhurt.
He came up to me with open arms. "Come to my arms!" he cried, andembraced and kissed me hard upon both cheeks. "David," said he, "I loveyou like a brother. And O, man," he cried in a kind of ecstasy, "am I noa bonny fighter?"
Thereupon he turned to the four enemies, passed his sword clean througheach of them, and tumbled them out of doors one after the other. As hedid so, he kept humming and singing and whistling to himself, like a mantrying to recall an air; only what HE was trying was to make one. Allthe while, the flush was in his face, and his eyes were as bright as afive-year-old child's with a new toy. And presently he sat down upon thetable, sword in hand; the air that he was making all the time began torun a little clearer, and then clearer still; and then out he burst witha great voice into a Gaelic song.
I have translated it here, not in verse (of which I have no skill) butat least in the king's English.
He sang it often afterwards, and the thing became popular; so that Ihave heard it and had it explained to me, many's the time.
"This is the song of the sword of Alan; The smith made it, The fire setit; Now it shines in the hand of Alan Breck.
"Their eyes were many and bright, Swift were they to behold, Many thehands they guided: The sword was alone.
"The dun deer troop over the hill, They are many, the hill is one; Thedun deer vanish, The hill remains.
"Come to me from the hills of heather, Come from the isles of the sea. Ofar-beholding eagles, Here is your meat."
Now this song which he made (both words and music) in the hour of ourvictory, is something less than just to me, who stood beside him inthe tussle. Mr. Shuan and five more were either killed outright orthoroughly disabled; but of these, two fell by my hand, the two thatcame by the skylight. Four more were hurt, and of that number, one (andhe not the least important) got his hurt from me. So that, altogether,I did my fair share both of the killing and the wounding, and might haveclaimed a place in Alan's verses. But poets have to think upon theirrhymes; and in good prose talk, Alan always did me more than justice.
In the meanwhile, I was innocent of any wrong being done me. For notonly I knew no word of the Gaelic; but what with the long suspense ofthe waiting, and the scurry and strain of our two spirts of fighting,and more than all, the horror I had of some of my own share in it, thething was no sooner over than I was glad to stagger to a seat. There wasthat tightness on my chest that I could hardly breathe; the thoughtof the two men I had shot sat upon me like a nightmare; and all upon asudden, and before I had a guess of what was coming, I began to sob andcry like any child.
Alan clapped my shoulder, and said I was a brave lad and wanted nothingbut a sleep.
"I'll take the first watch," said he. "Ye've done well by me, David,first and last; and I wouldn't lose you for all Appin--no, nor forBreadalbane."
So I made up my bed on the floor; and he took the first spell, pistolin hand and sword on knee, three hours by the captain's watch upon thewall. Then he roused me up, and I took my turn of three hours; beforethe end of which it was broad day, and a very quiet morning, with asmooth, rolling sea that tossed the ship and made the blood run to andfro on the round-house floor, and a heavy rain that drummed upon theroof. All my watch there was nothing stirring; and by the banging of thehelm, I knew they had even no one at the tiller. Indeed (as I learnedafterwards) there were so many of them hurt or dead, and the rest in soill a temper, that Mr. Riach and the captain had to take turn and turnlike Alan and me, or the brig might have gone ashore and nobody thewiser. It was a mercy the night had fallen so still, for the wind hadgone down as soon as the rain began. Even as it was, I judged by thewailing of a great number of gulls that went crying and fishing roundthe ship, that she must have drifted pretty near the coast or one ofthe islands of the Hebrides; and at last, looking out of the door of theround-house, I saw the great stone hills of Skye on the right hand, and,a little more astern, the strange isle of Rum.