Chapter XLIX
"She stood a moment as a Pythoness Stands on her tripod, agonised and full Of inspiration gather'd from distress, When all the heart-strings, like wild horses, pull The heart asunder; then, as more or less Their speed abated or their strength grew dull, She sunk down on her seat by slow degrees, And bow'd her throbbing head o'er trembling knees."
BYRON.
It was with deep regret that Newton gave directions for the ship's head tobe again directed on her course to England; but the property under hischarge was of too great value to warrant risking it by cruising after thepirates, the superior sailing of whose vessel afforded no hopes of success.The melancholy situation of Madame de Fontanges threw a gloom over theparty, which was communicated even to the seamen; while the anguish of M.de Fontanges, expressed with all the theatrical violence characteristic ofhis nation, was a source of continual reminiscence and regret. They hadbeen four days on their voyage, making little progress with the light andbaffling winds, when they were shrouded in one of those thick fogs whichprevail in the latitude of the Cape de Verds, and which was rendered moredisagreeable by a mizzling rain.
On the sixth day, about twelve o'clock, the horizon cleared to thenorthward, and the fog in that quarter was rolled away by a strong breezewhich rippled along the water. Newton, who was on deck, observed thedirection of the wind to be precisely the reverse of the little breeze towhich their sails had been trimmed; and the yards of the _Windsor Castle_were braced round to meet it. The gust was strong, and the ship, laden asshe was, careened over to the sudden force of it, as the top-gallant sheetsand halyards were let fly by the directions of the officer of the watch.The fog, which had still continued thick to leeward, now began to clearaway; and, as the bank dispersed, the Marquis de Fontanges, who wasstanding on the poop by the side of Newton, cried out, "_Voila unbatiment!_" Newton looked in the direction pointed out, and discovered thehull of a vessel looming through the fog, about a quarter of a mile toleeward of the _Windsor Castle_. One minute's scrutiny convinced him thatit was the pirate, who, not having been expeditious in trimming his sails,_laid in irons_, as seamen term it, heeling over to the blast. The _WindsorCastle_ was then running free, at the rate of four miles an hour.
"Starboard the helm--all hands to board--steady so. Be smart, my lads--it'sthe pirate--port a little. Hurrah! my lads--be quick, and she's all ourown. Quartermaster, my sword--quick!"
The crew, who were all on deck, snatched their cutlasses from thecapstern-head, in which they were inserted, and before three minuteselapsed, during which the pirate had not time to extricate himself from hisdifficulty, were all ready for the service. They were joined by the Flemishsailors belonging to the neutral vessel, who very deliberately put theirhands in their breeches-pockets, and pulled out their knives, about as longas a carpenter's two-foot rule, preferring this weapon to anything else.
Monsieur de Fontanges, bursting with impatience, stood with Newton, at thehead of the men. When the collision of the two vessels took place, the_Windsor Castle_, conned so as not to run down the pirate, but to sheeralongside, stove in the bulwarks of the other, and carried away hertopmasts, which, drawn to windward by the pressure on the back-stays, fellover towards the _Windsor Castle_, and, entangling with her rigging,prevented the separation of the two vessels.
"No quarter, my friends!" cried Monsieur de Fontanges, who darted on boardof the pirate vessel at the head of some men near the main-rigging, whileNewton and the remainder, equally active, poured down upon his quarter.
Such had been the rapidity of the junction, and such the impetuosity of theattack, that most of the pirates had not had time to arm themselves, which,considering the superiority of their numbers rendered the contest moreequal. A desperate struggle was the result;--the attacked party neitherexpecting, demanding, nor receiving quarter. It was blow for blow, woundfor wound, death to one or both. Every inch of the deck was disputed, andnot an inch obtained until it reeked with blood. The voices of Newton andMonsieur de Fontanges, encouraging their men, were answered by anothervoice,--that of the captain of the pirates,--which had its due effect uponthe other party, which rallied at its sound. Newton, even in the hurry andexcitement of battle, could not help thinking to himself that he had heardthat voice before. The English seamen gained but little ground, soobstinate was the resistance. The pirates fell; but as they lay on thedeck, they either raised their exhausted arms to strike one last blow ofvengeance before their life's blood had been poured out, or seized upontheir antagonists with their teeth in their expiring agonies. But a party,who, from the sedateness of their carriage, had hitherto been almostneutral, now forced their way into the conflict. These were the Flemishseamen, with their long snick-a-snee knives, which they used with as muchimperturbability as a butcher professionally employed. They had gained themain-rigging of the vessel, and, ascending it, had passed over by thecatharpins, and descended, with all the deliberation of bears, on the otherside, by which tranquil manoeuvre the pirates were taken in flank; andhuddled as they were together, the knives of the Flemings proved much moreeffective than the weapons opposed to them. The assistance of the Flemingswas hailed with a shout from the English seamen, who rallied, and increasedtheir efforts. Newton's sword had just been passed through the body of atall, powerful man, who had remained uninjured in the front of the opposingparty since the commencement of the action, when his fall discovered toNewton's view the captain of the vessel, whose voice had been so oftenheard, but who had hitherto been concealed from his sight by the athleticform which had just fallen by his hand. What was his astonishment and hisindignation when he found himself confronted by one whom he had longimagined to have been summoned to answer for his crimes--his formerinveterate enemy, Jackson!
Jackson appeared to be no less astonished at the recognition of Newton,whom he had supposed to have perished on the sand-bank. Both mechanicallycalled each other by name, and both sprang forward. The blow of Newton'ssword was warded off by the miscreant; but at the same moment that ofMonsieur de Fontanges was passed through his body to the hilt. Newton hadjust time to witness the fall of Jackson, when a tomahawk descended on hishead; his senses failed him, and he lay among the dead upon the deck.
There was a shriek, a piercing shriek, heard when Newton fell. It passedthe lips of one who had watched, with an anxiety too intense to bepourtrayed, the issue of the conflict;--it was from Isabel, who had quittedthe cabin at the crash occasioned by the collision of the two vessels, andhad remained upon the poop "spectatress of the fight." There were nofire-arms used; no time for preparation had been allowed. There had been nosmoke to conceal--all had been fairly presented to her aching sight. Yes!there she had remained, her eye fixed upon Newton Forster, as, at the headof his men, he slowly gained the deck of the contested vessel. Not one worddid she utter; but, with her lips wide apart from intensity of feeling, shewatched his progress through the strife, her eye fixed--immovably fixedupon the spot where his form was to be seen; hope buoyant, as she saw hisarm raised and his victims fall--heart sinking, as the pirate sword aimedat a life so dear. There she stood like a statue--as white as beautiful--asmotionless as if, indeed, she had been chiselled from the Parian marble;and had it not been for her bosom heaving with the agony of tumultuousfeeling, you might have imagined that all was as cold within. Newtonfell--all her hopes were wrecked--she uttered one wild shriek, and felt nomore.
After the fall of Jackson, the pirates were disheartened, and theirresistance became more feeble. M. de Fontanges carved his way to thetaffrail, and then turned round to kill again. In a few minutes the mostfeeble-hearted escaped below, leaving the few remaining brave to be hackedto pieces, and the deck of the pirate vessel was in possession of theBritish crew. Not waiting to recover his breath, M. de Fontanges rushedbelow to seek his wife. The cabin door was locked, but yielded to hisefforts; and he found her in the arms of her attendants in a state ofinsensibility. A scream of horror at the sight of his bloody sword, andanother of joy at the recognition
of their master, was followed up with theassurance that Madame had only fainted. M. de Fontanges took his wife inhis arms, and carried her on deck, where, with the assistance of theseamen, he removed her on board of the _Windsor Castle_, and in a shorttime had the pleasure to witness her recovery. Their first endearmentsover, there was an awkward question to put to a wife. After responding toher caresses, M. de Fontanges inquired, with an air of anxiety veryremarkable in a Frenchman, how she had been treated. "Il n'y a pas de mal,mon ami," replied Madame de Fontanges. This was a Jesuitical sort ofanswer, and M. de Fontanges required further particulars. "Elle avaittemporise" with the ruffian, with the faint hope of that assistance whichhad so opportunely and unexpectedly arrived. M. de Fontanges was satisfiedwith his wife's explanation; and such being the case, what passed betweenJackson and Madame de Fontanges can be no concern of the reader's. As forMimi and Charlotte, they made no such assertion; but, when questioned, thepoor girls burst into tears, and, calling the captain and first lieutenantof the pirate vessel barbarians and every epithet they could think of,complained bitterly of the usage which they had received.
We left Newton floored (as Captain Oughton would have said) on the deck ofthe pirate vessel, and Isabel in a swoon on the poop of the _WindsorCastle_. They were both taken up, and then taken down, and recoveredaccording to the usual custom in romances and real life. Isabel was thefirst to _come to_, because, I presume, a blow on the heart is not quite soserious as a blow on the head. Fortunately for Newton, the tomahawk hadonly glanced along the temple, not injuring the skull, although it stunnedhim, and detached a very decent portion of his scalp, which had to bereplaced. A lancet brought him to his senses, and the surgeon pronouncedhis wound not to be dangerous, provided that he remained quiet.
At first Newton acquiesced with the medical adviser, but an hour or twoafterwards a circumstance occurred which had such a resuscitating effect,that, weak as he was with the loss of blood, he would not resign thecommand of the ship, but gave his orders relative to the captured vessel,and the securing of the prisoners, as if nothing had occurred. What hadcontributed so much to the recovery of Newton was simply this, that_somehow or another_ Mrs Enderby left him for a few minutes, _tete-a-tete_with Isabel Revel: and, during those few minutes, _somehow or another_, avery interesting scene occurred, which I have no time just now to describe.It ended, however, _somehow or another_, in the parties plighting theirtroth. As I said before, love and murder are very good friends; and a chopfrom a tomahawk was but a prelude for the descent of Love, with "healing onhis wings."
The _Windsor Castle_ lost five men killed and eleven wounded in this hardcontest. Three of the Flemings were also wounded. The pirate had sufferedmore severely. Out of a crew of seventy-five men, as no quarter had beengiven, there remained but twenty-six, who had escaped and secretedthemselves below, in the hold of the vessel. These were put in irons underthe half-deck of the _Windsor Castle_, to be tried upon their arrival inEngland. As I may as well dispose of them at once, they were all sentencedto death by Sir William Scott, who made a very impressive speech upon theoccasion; and most of them were hanged on the bank of the Thames. Thepolite valet of the Marquis de Fontanges hired a wherry, and escortedMademoiselles Mimi and Charlotte to witness the "_barbares_" dangling intheir chains; and the sooty young ladies returned much gratified with theirinteresting excursion.
It will be necessary to account for the reappearance of Jackson. The readermay recollect that he made sail in the boat, leaving Newton on the islandwhich they had gained after the brig had been run on shore and wrecked.When the boat came floating down with the tide, bottom up, Newton made surethat Jackson had been upset and drowned; instead of which, he had beenpicked up by a Providence schooner; and the boat having been allowed to goadrift with the main-sheet belayed to the pin, had been upset by a squall,and had floated down with the current to the sand-bank where Newton wasstanding in the water. Jackson did not return to England, but had enteredon board of a Portuguese slave-vessel, and continued some time employed inthis notorious traffic, which tends so much to demoralise and harden theheart. After several voyages, he headed a mutiny, murdered the captain andthose who were not a party to the scheme, and commenced a career of piracy,which had been very successful, from the superior sailing of the vessel,and the courage of the hardened villains he had collected under hiscommand.