CHAPTER FIVE.
My life is spanned already: ... Go with me, like good angels, to my end. "HENRY VIII."
Danger, like an ague, subtly taints Even then when we sit idly in the sun. "TROILUS AND CRESSIDA."
I had never been able to regain the confidence and esteem of the firstlieutenant since the unfortunate affair of the mast-head. He wascertainly an excellent and a correct officer, too much so to overlookwhat he considered a breach of honour. I therefore easily reconciledmyself to a separation which occurred very soon after. We chased a shipinto the Bay of Arcasson, when, as was customary, she sought safetyunder a battery; and the captain, according to our custom, resolved tocut her out. For this purpose the boats were manned and armed, andevery preparation made for the attack on the following morning. Thecommand of the expedition was given to the first lieutenant, whoaccepted of it with cheerfulness, and retired to his bed in highspirits, with the anticipation of the honour and profit which the dawnof day would heap upon him. He was proverbially brave and cool inaction, so that the seamen followed him with confidence as to certainvictory. Whether any ill-omened dreams had disturbed his rest, orwhether any reflections on the difficult and dangerous nature of theservice had alarmed him, I could not tell; but in the morning we allobserved a remarkable change in his deportment. His ardour was gone; hewalked the deck with a slow and measured pace, apparently in deepthought; and contrary to his usual manner, was silent and melancholy,abstracted, and inattentive to the duties of the ship.
The boats prepared for the service were manned; the officers had takentheir seats in them; the oars were tossed up; the eyes of the youngwarriors beamed with animation, and we waited for Mr Handstone, whostill walked the deck, absorbed in his own reflections. He was atlength recalled to a sense of his situation by the captain, who in atone of voice more than usually loud, asked him if he intended to takethe command of the expedition? He replied, "Most certainly;" and, witha firm and animated step, crossed the quarter-deck, and went into hisboat.
I, following, seated myself by his side; he looked at me with aforeboding indifference; had he been in his usual mood, he would havesent me to some other boat. We had a long pull before we reached theobject of our intended attack, which we found moored close in shore, andwell prepared for us. A broadside of grape-shot was the first salute wereceived. It produced the same effect on our men as the spur to a fierysteed. We pulled alongside, and began to scramble up in the best mannerwe could. Handstone in an instant regained all his wonted animation,cheered his men, and with his drawn sword in his hand, mounted theship's side, while our men at the same time poured in volleys ofmusketry, and then followed their intrepid leader.
In our boat, the first alongside, eleven men, out of twenty-four, laykilled or disabled. Disregarding these, the lieutenant sprang up. Ifollowed close to him; he leaped from the bulwark in upon her deck, andbefore I could lift my cutlass in his defence, fell back upon me,knocked me down in his fall, and expired in a moment. He had thirteenmusket-balls in his chest and stomach.
I had no time to disengage myself before I was trampled on, and nearlysuffocated by the pressure of my shipmates, who, burning to gain theprize, or to avenge our fall, rushed on with the most undaunted bravery.I was supposed to be dead, and treated accordingly, my poor body beingonly used as a stop for the gangway, where the ladder was unshipped.There I lay fainting with the pressure, and nearly suffocated with theblood of my brave leader, on whose breast my face rested, with my handscrossed over the back of my head, to save my skull, if possible, fromthe heels of my friends and the swords of my enemies; and while reasonheld her seat, I could not help thinking that I was just as well where Iwas, and that a change of position might not be for the better. Abouteight minutes decided the affair, though it certainly did seem to me, inmy then unpleasant situation, much longer. Before it was over I hadfainted, and before I regained my senses the vessel was under weigh, andout of gun-shot from the batteries.
The first moments of respite from carnage were employed in examining thebodies of the killed and wounded. I was numbered among the former, andstretched out between the guns by the side of the first lieutenant andthe other dead bodies. A fresh breeze blowing through the ports revivedme a little, but, faint and sick, I had neither the power norinclination to move; my brain was confused; I had no recollection ofwhat had happened, and continued to lie in a sort of stupor, until theprize came alongside of the frigate, and I was roused by the cheers ofcongratulation and victory from those who had remained on board.
A boat instantly brought the surgeon and his assistants to inspect thedead and assist the living. Murphy came along with them. He had notbeen of the boarding party; and seeing my supposed lifeless corpse, hegave it a slight kick, saying, at the same time, "Here is a young cockthat has done crowing! Well, for a wonder, this chap has cheated thegallows."
The sound of the fellow's detested voice was enough to recall me fromthe grave, if my orders had been signed: I faintly exclaimed, "You are aliar!" which, even with all the melancholy scene around us, produced aburst of laughter at his expense. I was removed to the ship, put tobed, and bled, and was soon able to narrate the particulars of myadventure; but I continued a long while dangerously ill.
The soliloquy of Murphy over my supposed dead body, and my laconicreply, were the cause of much merriment in the ship. The midshipmenannoyed him by asserting that he had saved my life, as nothing but hishated voice could have awoke me from my sleep of death. The fate of thefirst lieutenant was justly deplored by all of us, though I cannot denymy Christian-like acquiescence in the will of Providence in this as wellas on a former occasion, when the witnesses of my weakness had beenremoved for ever out of my way. As I saw it was impossible to regainhis good opinion, I thought it was quite as well that we should partcompany. That he had a strong presentiment of his death was proved; andthough I had often heard these instances asserted, I never before had itso clearly brought home to my senses.
The prize was called _L'Aimable Julie_, laden with coffee, cotton, andindigo; mounted fourteen guns; had, at the commencement of the action,forty-seven men, of whom eight were killed, and sixteen wounded. Theperiod of our return into port, according to our orders, happened tocoincide with this piece of good fortune, and we came up to Spithead,where our captain met with a hearty welcome from the admiral. Havingdelivered his "butcher's bill," i.e. the list of killed and wounded,together with an account of our defects, they were sent up to theAdmiralty; and, by return of post, we were ordered to fit foreign: andalthough no one on board, not even the captain, was supposed to know ourdestination, the girls on the Point assured us it was the Mediterranean;and this turned out to be the fact.
A few days only were spent in hurried preparation, during which Icontinued to write to my father and mother. In return I received all Irequired, which was a remittance in cash. This I duly acknowledged by afew lines as the ship was unmooring. We sailed, and soon after arrivedwithout accident at Gibraltar, where we found general orders for anyship that might arrive from England, to proceed and join the admiral atMalta. In a few hours our provisions and water were complete; but wewere not in so much haste to arrive at Malta as we were to quitGibraltar--hugging the Spanish coast, in hopes of picking up somethingto insure us as hearty a welcome at Valetta as we found on our lastreturn to Portsmouth.
Early on the second morning of our departure we made Cape de Gaete. Asthe day dawned we discovered four sail in the wind's eye, and close inshore. The wind was light, and all sail was made in chase. We gainedvery little on them for many hours, and towards evening it fell calm.The boats were then ordered to pursue them, and we set off, diverging alittle from each other's course, or, as the French would say, _deploye_,to give a better chance of falling in with them. I was in the gig withthe master, and, that being the best running boat, we soon came up withone of the feluccas. We fired musketry at her: but having a lightbreeze, she would not bring-to. We then took good aim at the helmsman,and hi
t him. The man only shifted the helm from his right hand to hisleft, and kept on his course. We still kept firing at this intrepidfellow, and I felt it was like wilful murder, since he made noresistance, but steadily endeavoured to escape.
At length we got close under the stern, and hooked on with ourboat-hook. This the Spaniard unhooked, and we dropped astern, havinglaid our oars in; but the breeze dying entirely away, we again pulledalongside, and took possession. The poor man was still at the helm,bleeding profusely. We offered him every assistance, and asked why hedid not surrender sooner. He replied that he was an old Castilian.Whether he meant that an earlier surrender would have disgraced him, orthat he contemplated, from his former experience, a chance of escape tothe last moment, I cannot tell. Certain it is that no one ever behavedbetter; and I felt that I would have given all I possessed to havehealed the wounds of this patient, meek, and undaunted old man, whouttered no complaint, but submitted to his fate with a magnanimity whichwould have done credit to Socrates himself. He had received fourmusket-balls in his body, and, of course, survived his capture but avery few hours.
We found, to our surprise, that this vessel, with the three others, oneof which was taken by another of our boats, were from Lima. They weresingle-masted, about thirty tons burthen, twelve men each, and wereladen with copper, hides, wax, and cochineal, and had been out fivemonths. They were bound to Valentia, from which they were only oneday's sail when we intercepted them. Such is the fortune of war! Thisgallant man, after a voyage of incredible labour and difficulty, wouldin a few hours have embraced his family, and gladdened their hearts withthe produce of honest industry and successful enterprise; when, in amoment, all their hopes were blasted by our legal murder and robbery;and our prize-money came to our pockets with the tears, if not thecurses, of the widow and the orphan!
From some information which the captain obtained in the prize, he wasinduced to stand over towards the Balearic Islands. We made Ivica, andstood past it; then ran for Palma Bay, in the island of Majorca; here wefound nothing, to our great disappointment, and continued our courseround the island.
An event occurred here, so singular as scarcely to be credible; but thefact is well attested, as there were others who witnessed it besidemyself. The water was smooth, and the day remarkably fine; we weredistant from the shore more than a mile and a quarter, when the captain,wishing to try the range of the main deck guns, which were longeighteen-pounders; ordered the gunner to elevate one of them, and fireit towards the land. The gunner asked whether he should point the gunat any object. A man was seen walking on the white sandy beach, and asthere did not appear to be the slightest chance of hitting him, for heonly looked like a speck, the captain desired the gunner to fire at him;he did so, and the man fell. A herd of bullocks at this moment was seencoming out of the woods, and the boats were sent with a party to shootsome of them for the ship's company.
When we landed we found that the ball had cut the poor man in two; andwhat made the circumstance more particularly interesting was that he wasevidently a man of consequence. He was well dressed, had on blackbreeches and silk stockings; he was reading Ovid's Metamorphoses, andstill grasped the book, which I took out of his hand.
We have often heard of the miraculous powers ascribed to a chance shot,but never could we have supposed that this devilish ball could have goneso far, or done so much mischief. We buried the remains of theunfortunate gentleman in the sand; and having selected two or threebullocks out of the herd, shot them, skinned and divided them intoquarters, loaded our boat, and returned on board. I had taken the bookout of the hand of the deceased, and from his neck a small miniature ofa beautiful female. The brooch in his shirt I also brought away; andwhen I gave an account to the captain of what had happened, I offeredhim these articles. He returned them all to me, desired me to keep themuntil I could see any of the friends of the deceased, and appeared somuch distressed at the accident, that we never mentioned it afterwards;and in the course of the time we were together, it was nearly forgotten.The articles remained in my possession unnoticed for many years.
Two days after, we fell in with a vessel of suspicious appearance; andit being calm, the boats were sent in chase. They found her, on theirapproach, to be a xebeque, under French colours; but these were verysoon hauled down, and showed no others. As we came within hail, theytold us to keep off, and that if we attempted to board they should fireinto us. This was not a threat likely to deter a British officer, andparticularly such fire-eaters as ours. So to it we went, and adesperate struggle ensued, the numbers being nearly equal on both sides;but they had the advantage of their own deck and bulwarks. We got onboard, however, and in a few minutes gained possession, with a loss onour side, of sixteen; and on that of our opponent's of twenty-six killedand wounded. But great was our sorrow and disappointment when wediscovered that we had shed the blood of our friends, while we had lostour own. The vessel, it appeared, was a Gibraltar privateer; they tookus for French, our boats being fitted with tholes and grummets for theoars in the French fashion; and we supposed them to be French from theircolours and the language in which they hailed us. In this affair we hadthree officers killed or wounded, and some of our best men. Theprivateer was manned by a mixed crew of all nations, but chiefly Greeks;and although ostensibly with a commission signed by the Governor ofGibraltar, were no doubt little scrupulous as to the colours of anyvessel they might encounter, provided she was not too strong for them.
After this unfortunate mistake we proceeded to Malta: the captainexpecting a severe rebuke from his admiral, for his rashness in sendingaway his boats to attack a vessel without knowing her force.Fortunately for him, the admiral was not there; and before we met him,the number of prizes we had taken was found sufficient in his eyes tocover our multitude of sins, so the affair blew over.
While we lay in Malta Harbour, my friend Murphy fell overboard onenight, just after all the boats were hoisted in; he could not swim, andwould have been drowned if I had not jumped overboard and held him upuntil a boat was lowered down to our assistance. The officers andship's company gave me more credit for this action than I reallydeserved. To have saved any person under such circumstances, they said,was a noble deed; but to risk my life for a man who had always, from myfirst coming into the ship, been my bitterest enemy, was more than theycould have expected, and was undoubtedly the noblest revenge that Icould have taken. But they were deceived--they knew me not: it was myvanity, and the desire of oppressing my enemy under a weight ofobligation, that induced me to rush to his rescue; moreover, as I stoodon the gangway witnessing his struggles for life, I felt that I wasabout to lose all the revenge I had so long laid up in store; in short,I could not spare him, and only saved him, as a cat does a mouse, totorment him.
Murphy acknowledged his obligations, and said the terrors of death wereupon him; but in a few days forgot all I had done for him, consummatedhis own disgrace, and raised my character on the ruins of his own. Onsome frivolous occasion he threw a basin of dirty water in my face as Ipassed through the steerage; this was too good an opportunity to gratifymy darling passion. I had long watched for an occasion to quarrel withhim; but as he had been ill during our passage from Gibraltar to Malta,I could not justify any act of aggression. He had now recovered, andwas in the plentitude of his strength, and I astonished him by strikingthe first blow. A set-to followed; I brought up all my scientificpowers in aid of my strength and the memory of former injuries. I mustdo him the justice to say he never showed more game--but he hadeverything to contend for; if I was beaten I was only where I wasbefore, but with him the case would have been different. A fallentyrant has no friends. Stung to madness by the successful hits Iplanted in his face, he lost his temper, while I was cool; he foughtwildly, I stopped all his blows, and paid them with interest. He stoodforty-three rounds, and then gave in with his eyes bunged up and hisface so swollen and so covered with blood, as not to be known by hisfriends, if he had had any.
I had hardly a mark; mo
st of our midshipmen were absent in prizes; butthe two seniors of our berth, an old master's mate past promotion, andthe surgeon's assistant, who had held my wrist when I was cobbed, werepresent as the supporters of Murphy during the combat. I alwaysdetermined, whenever I gained a battle, to follow it up. The shouts ofvictory resounded in the berth--the youngsters joined with me in songsof triumph, and gave great offence to the trio. The young Esculapius, awhite-faced, stupid, pock-marked, unhealthy-looking man, was fool enoughto say that although I had beaten Murphy, I was not to suppose myselfmaster of the berth. I replied to this only by throwing a biscuit athis head, as a shot of defiance; and, darting on him before he could gethis legs from under the table, I thrust my fingers into his neckcloth,which I twisted so tightly, that I held him till he was nearly choked,giving his head, at the same time, two or three good thumps against theship's side.
Finding that he grew black in the face, I let him go, and asked if herequired any further satisfaction, to which he replied in the negative,and from that day he was always dutiful and obedient to me. The oldsuperannuated mate, a sturdy merchant seaman, seemed greatly dismayed atthe successive defeats of his allies, and I believe would have gladlyconcluded a separate peace. He had never offered to come to theassistance of the doctor, although appealed to in the most pitiablegestures. This I observed with secret pleasure, and would the morewillingly have given him a brush, as I saw he was disinclined to makethe attempt. I was, however, determined to be at the head of the mess.At twelve o'clock that night I was relieved from the first watch, andcoming down I found the old mate in a state of beastly intoxication.Thus he went to his hammock, and fell asleep. While he lay "dormant," Itook a piece of lunar caustic, which I wetted, and drew stripes andfigures all over his weather-beaten face, increasing his naturalugliness to a frightful degree, and made him look very like a NewZealand warrior. The next morning, when he was making his toilet, myparty were all ready prepared for the _eclaircissement_. He opened hislittle dirty chest, and having strapped an old razor, and made a latherin a wooden soap-box which bore evident marks of the antique, he placeda triangular piece of a looking-glass against the reclining lid of thechest, and began the operation of shaving. His start back with horror,when he beheld his face, I shall never forget: it outdid the youngRoscius, when he saw the ghost of Hamlet. Having wetted his forefingerwith his tongue, the old mate tried to remove the stain of the caustic,but the "damned spot" still remained, and we, like so many young imps,surrounded him, roaring with laughter.
I boldly told him that he bore my marks as well as Murphy and thedoctor; and I added, with a degree of cruel mockery which might havebeen spared, that I thought it right to put all my servants in blackto-day. I asked whether he was contented with the arrangement, orwhether he chose to appeal against my decree; he signified that he hadno more to say.
Thus, in twenty-four hours, I had subdued the great allies who had solong oppressed me. I immediately effected a revolution; dismissed thedoctor from the office of caterer, took the charge on myself, andadministered the most impartial justice. I made the oldsters pay theirmess, which they had not correctly done before; I caused an equaldistribution of all luxuries, from which the juniors had till then beendebarred; and I flatter myself I restored, in some degree, the goldenage in the cockpit. There were no more battles, for there was no hopeof victory on their part, nor anything to contend for on mine. I nevertook any advantage of my strength further than to protect theyoungsters. I proved by this that I was not quarrelsome, but had onlystruggled for my own emancipation--that gained, I was satisfied. Myconduct was explained to the captain and the officers; and being fullyand fairly discussed, did me great service. I was looked upon withrespect, and treated with marks of confidence not usual towards a personso young.
We left Malta, expecting to find our commander-in-chief off Toulon; butit seldom happens that the captain of a frigate is in any hurry to joinhis admiral, unless charged with despatches of importance. This notbeing our case, we somehow or other tumbled down the Mediterraneanbefore a strong Levanter, and then had to work back again along thecoast of Spain and France. It is an ill wind, they say, that blowsnobody good; and we found it so with us; for off Toulon, in company withthe fleet, if we did take prizes they became of little value, becausethere were so many to share them. Our captain, who was a man of themost consummate _ruse de guerre_ I ever saw or heard of, had two reasonsfor sending his prizes to Gibraltar. The first was, that we should, inall probability, be sent down there to receive our men, and have theadvantage of the cruise back; the second, that he was well aware of thecorrupt practices of the Admiralty-Court at Malta.
All the vessels, therefore, which we had hitherto captured, were sent toGibraltar for adjudication, and we now added to their number. We hadthe good fortune to take a large ship laden with barilla, and a brigwith tobacco and wine. The charge of the last I was honoured with: andno prime minister ever held a situation of such heavy responsibilitywith such corrupt supporters. So much was the crew of the frigatereduced by former captures and the unlucky affair with the Malteseprivateer, that I was only allowed three men. I was, however, sodelighted with my first command, that, I verily believe, if they hadonly given me a dog and a pig I should have been satisfied.
The frigate's boat put us on board. It blew fresh from the eastward,and I instantly put the helm up, and shaped my course for the old rock.The b