CHAPTER XXVIII. THE HONOUR OF M. DE RIVAROL
During the capitulation and for some time after, Captain Blood and thegreater portion of his buccaneers had been at their post on the heightsof Nuestra Senora de la Poupa, utterly in ignorance of what was takingplace. Blood, although the man chiefly, if not solely, responsiblefor the swift reduction of the city, which was proving a veritabletreasure-house, was not even shown the consideration of being called tothe council of officers which with M. de Rivarol determined the terms ofthe capitulation.
This was a slight that at another time Captain Blood would not haveborne for a moment. But at present, in his odd frame of mind, and itsdivorcement from piracy, he was content to smile his utter contempt ofthe French General. Not so, however, his captains, and still lesshis men. Resentment smouldered amongst them for a while, to flameout violently at the end of that week in Cartagena. It was only byundertaking to voice their grievance to the Baron that their captain wasable for the moment to pacify them. That done, he went at once in questof M. de Rivarol.
He found him in the offices which the Baron had set up in the town, witha staff of clerks to register the treasure brought in and to cast up thesurrendered account-books, with a view to ascertaining precisely whatwere the sums yet to be delivered up. The Baron sat there scrutinizingledgers, like a city merchant, and checking figures to make sure thatall was correct to the last peso. A choice occupation this for theGeneral of the King's Armies by Sea and Land. He looked up irritated bythe interruption which Captain Blood's advent occasioned.
"M. le Baron," the latter greeted him. "I must speak frankly; and youmust suffer it. My men are on the point of mutiny."
M. de Rivarol considered him with a faint lift of the eyebrows.
"Captain Blood, I, too, will speak frankly; and you, too, must sufferit. If there is a mutiny, you and your captains shall be held personallyresponsible. The mistake you make is in assuming with me the tone of anally, whereas I have given you clearly to understand from the first thatyou are simply in the position of having accepted service under me.Your proper apprehension of that fact will save the waste of a deal ofwords."
Blood contained himself with difficulty. One of these fine days, hefelt, that for the sake of humanity he must slit the comb of thissupercilious, arrogant cockerel.
"You may define our positions as you please," said he. "But I'll remindyou that the nature of a thing is not changed by the name you give it.I am concerned with facts; chiefly with the fact that we enteredinto definite articles with you. Those articles provide for a certaindistribution of the spoil. My men demand it. They are not satisfied."
"Of what are they not satisfied?" demanded the Baron.
"Of your honesty, M. de Rivarol."
A blow in the face could scarcely have taken the Frenchman more aback.He stiffened, and drew himself up, his eyes blazing, his face of adeathly pallor. The clerks at the tables laid down their pens, andawaited the explosion in a sort of terror.
For a long moment there was silence. Then the great gentleman deliveredhimself in a voice of concentrated anger. "Do you really dare so much,you and the dirty thieves that follow you? God's Blood! You shall answerto me for that word, though it entail a yet worse dishonour to meet you.Faugh!"
"I will remind you," said Blood, "that I am speaking not for myself,but for my men. It is they who are not satisfied, they who threaten thatunless satisfaction is afforded them, and promptly, they will take it."
"Take it?" said Rivarol, trembling in his rage. "Let them attempt it,and...."
"Now don't be rash. My men are within their rights, as you are aware.They demand to know when this sharing of the spoil is to take place, andwhen they are to receive the fifth for which their articles provide."
"God give me patience! How can we share the spoil before it has beencompletely gathered?"
"My men have reason to believe that it is gathered; and, anyway, theyview with mistrust that it should all be housed aboard your ships, andremain in your possession. They say that hereafter there will be noascertaining what the spoil really amounts to."
"But--name of Heaven!--I have kept books. They are there for all tosee."
"They do not wish to see account-books. Few of them can read. They wantto view the treasure itself. They know--you compel me to be blunt--thatthe accounts have been falsified. Your books show the spoil of Cartagenato amount to some ten million livres. The men know--and they are veryskilled in these computations--that it exceeds the enormous total offorty millions. They insist that the treasure itself be produced andweighed in their presence, as is the custom among the Brethren of theCoast."
"I know nothing of filibuster customs." The gentleman was disdainful.
"But you are learning quickly."
"What do you mean, you rogue? I am a leader of armies, not of plunderingthieves."
"Oh, but of course!" Blood's irony laughed in his eyes. "Yet, whateveryou may be, I warn you that unless you yield to a demand that I considerjust and therefore uphold, you may look for trouble, and it would notsurprise me if you never leave Cartagena at all, nor convey a singlegold piece home to France."
"Ah, pardieu! Am I to understand that you are threatening me?"
"Come, come, M. le Baron! I warn you of the trouble that a littleprudence may avert. You do not know on what a volcano you are sitting.You do not know the ways of buccaneers. If you persist, Cartagena willbe drenched in blood, and whatever the outcome the King of France willnot have been well served."
That shifted the basis of the argument to less hostile ground. Awhileyet it continued, to be concluded at last by an ungracious undertakingfrom M. de Rivarol to submit to the demands of the buccaneers. He gaveit with an extreme ill-grace, and only because Blood made him realize atlast that to withhold it longer would be dangerous. In an engagement,he might conceivably defeat Blood's followers. But conceivably he mightnot. And even if he succeeded, the effort would be so costly to him inmen that he might not thereafter find himself in sufficient strength tomaintain his hold of what he had seized.
The end of it all was that he gave a promise at once to make thenecessary preparations, and if Captain Blood and his officers would waitupon him on board the Victorieuse to-morrow morning, the treasureshould be produced, weighed in their presence, and their fifth sharesurrendered there and then into their own keeping.
Among the buccaneers that night there was hilarity over the suddenabatement of M. de Rivarol's monstrous pride. But when the next dawnbroke over Cartagena, they had the explanation of it. The only shipsto be seen in the harbour were the Arabella and the Elizabeth ridingat anchor, and the Atropos and the Lachesis careened on the beach forrepair of the damage sustained in the bombardment. The French ships weregone. They had been quietly and secretly warped out of the harbour undercover of night, and three sails, faint and small, on the horizon towestward was all that remained to be seen of them. The absconding M. deRivarol had gone off with the treasure, taking with him the troops andmariners he had brought from France. He had left behind him at Cartagenanot only the empty-handed buccaneers, whom he had swindled, but alsoM. de Cussy and the volunteers and negroes from Hispaniola, whom he hadswindled no less.
The two parties were fused into one by their common fury, and before theexhibition of it the inhabitants of that ill-fated town were strickenwith deeper terror than they had yet known since the coming of thisexpedition.
Captain Blood alone kept his head, setting a curb upon his deep chagrin.He had promised himself that before parting from M. de Rivarol he wouldpresent a reckoning for all the petty affronts and insults to which thatunspeakable fellow--now proved a scoundrel--had subjected him.
"We must follow," he declared. "Follow and punish."
At first that was the general cry. Then came the consideration thatonly two of the buccaneer ships were seaworthy--and these couldnot accommodate the whole force, particularly being at the momentindifferently victualled for a long voyage. The crews of the Lachesisand Atropos and with them their capta
ins, Wolverstone and Yberville,renounced the intention. After all, there would be a deal of treasurestill hidden in Cartagena. They would remain behind to extort it whilstfitting their ships for sea. Let Blood and Hagthorpe and those whosailed with them do as they pleased.
Then only did Blood realize the rashness of his proposal, and inattempting to draw back he almost precipitated a battle between the twoparties into which that same proposal had now divided the buccaneers.And meanwhile those French sails on the horizon were growing less andless. Blood was reduced to despair. If he went off now, Heaven knew whatwould happen to the town, the temper of those whom he was leaving beingwhat it was. Yet if he remained, it would simply mean that his ownand Hagthorpe's crews would join in the saturnalia and increase thehideousness of events now inevitable. Unable to reach a decision, hisown men and Hagthorpe's took the matter off his hands, eager to givechase to Rivarol. Not only was a dastardly cheat to be punished butan enormous treasure to be won by treating as an enemy this Frenchcommander who, himself, had so villainously broken the alliance.
When Blood, torn as he was between conflicting considerations, stillhesitated, they bore him almost by main force aboard the Arabella.
Within an hour, the water-casks at least replenished and stowed aboard,the Arabella and the Elizabeth put to sea upon that angry chase.
"When we were well at sea, and the Arabella's course was laid," writesPitt, in his log, "I went to seek the Captain, knowing him to be ingreat trouble of mind over these events. I found him sitting alonein his cabin, his head in his hands, torment in the eyes that staredstraight before him, seeing nothing."
"What now, Peter?" cried the young Somerset mariner. "Lord, man, what isthere here to fret you? Surely 't isn't the thought of Rivarol!"
"No," said Blood thickly. And for once he was communicative. It may wellbe that he must vent the thing that oppressed him or be driven mad byit. And Pitt, after all, was his friend and loved him, and, so, a properman for confidences. "But if she knew! If she knew! O God! I had thoughtto have done with piracy; thought to have done with it for ever. Yethere have I been committed by this scoundrel to the worst piracy thatever I was guilty of. Think of Cartagena! Think of the hell those devilswill be making of it now! And I must have that on my soul!"
"Nay, Peter--'t isn't on your soul; but on Rivarol's. It is that dirtythief who has brought all this about. What could you have done toprevent it?"
"I would have stayed if it could have availed."
"It could not, and you know it. So why repine?"
"There is more than that to it," groaned Blood. "What now? What remains?Loyal service with the English was made impossible for me. Loyal servicewith France has led to this; and that is equally impossible hereafter.What to live clean, I believe the only thing is to go and offer my swordto the King of Spain."
But something remained--the last thing that he could haveexpected--something towards which they were rapidly sailing overthe tropical, sunlit sea. All this against which he now inveighed sobitterly was but a necessary stage in the shaping of his odd destiny.
Setting a course for Hispaniola, since they judged that thither mustRivarol go to refit before attempting to cross to France, the Arabellaand the Elizabeth ploughed briskly northward with a moderatelyfavourable wind for two days and nights without ever catching aglimpse of their quarry. The third dawn brought with it a haze whichcircumscribed their range of vision to something between two and threemiles, and deepened their growing vexation and their apprehension thatM. de Rivarol might escape them altogether.
Their position then--according to Pitt's log--was approximately 75 deg.30' W. Long. by 17 deg. 45' N. Lat., so that they had Jamaica on theirlarboard beam some thirty miles to westward, and, indeed, away to thenorthwest, faintly visible as a bank of clouds, appeared the great ridgeof the Blue Mountains whose peaks were thrust into the clear upper airabove the low-lying haze. The wind, to which they were sailing veryclose, was westerly, and it bore to their ears a booming sound which inless experienced ears might have passed for the breaking of surf upon alee shore.
"Guns!" said Pitt, who stood with Blood upon the quarter-deck. Bloodnodded, listening.
"Ten miles away, perhaps fifteen--somewhere off Port Royal, I shouldjudge," Pitt added. Then he looked at his captain. "Does it concern us?"he asked.
"Guns off Port Royal... that should argue Colonel Bishop at work. Andagainst whom should he be in action but against friends of ours I thinkit may concern us. Anyway, we'll stand in to investigate. Bid them putthe helm over."
Close-hauled they tacked aweather, guided by the sound of combat, whichgrew in volume and definition as they approached it. Thus for an hour,perhaps. Then, as, telescope to his eye, Blood raked the haze, expectingat any moment to behold the battling ships, the guns abruptly ceased.
They held to their course, nevertheless, with all hands on deck,eagerly, anxiously scanning the sea ahead. And presently an objectloomed into view, which soon defined itself for a great ship on fire. Asthe Arabella with the Elizabeth following closely raced nearer on theirnorth-westerly tack, the outlines of the blazing vessel grew clearer.Presently her masts stood out sharp and black above the smoke andflames, and through his telescope Blood made out plainly the pennon ofSt. George fluttering from her maintop.
"An English ship!" he cried.
He scanned the seas for the conqueror in the battle of which this grimevidence was added to that of the sounds they had heard, and whenat last, as they drew closer to the doomed vessel, they made out theshadowy outlines of three tall ships, some three or four miles away,standing in toward Port Royal, the first and natural assumption wasthat these ships must belong to the Jamaica fleet, and that the burningvessel was a defeated buccaneer, and because of this they sped on topick up the three boats that were standing away from the blazing hulk.But Pitt, who through the telescope was examining the receding squadron,observed things apparent only to the eye of the trained mariner, andmade the incredible announcement that the largest of these three vesselswas Rivarol's Victorieuse.
They took in sail and hove to as they came up with the drifting boats,laden to capacity with survivors. And there were others adrift on someof the spars and wreckage with which the sea was strewn, who must berescued.