CHAPTER SEVEN.
THE UNION JACK BEATS--THE RAFT STILL UNSEEN--THE PRIVATEER--DEATH OF OLDJEFFERIES--THE FRENCH CAPTAIN.
The loss of her mizen-mast did not appear to damp the ardour of theBritish frigate's crew. The firing was continued with unabated fury onboth sides, neither ship apparently moving through the water; now theywere shrouded in smoke--now the smoke was blown away, and the firingceased. "The Frenchman's foremast is tottering!" shouted Harry. "See!see! David. Down it comes--hurrah! hurrah!" Still the flags of theirrespective countries waved at the mastheads of the frigates. The mastdid not come down either when Harry thought it would, neither did thefiring cease altogether. Faint sounds of musketry or pistol-shots cameacross the water--then three or four great guns were fired--the sides ofthe ships were close together, or rather, the bow of the English frigatewas fast to the Frenchman's side.
"They are boarding," cried Harry; "I know it must be that--then ourfellows will win the day.--The Frenchman's flag will be down directly.Watch! watch! I know it will."
They waited eagerly, looking out for some time. Suddenly a cloud ofsmoke ascended from one of the ships. It was difficult to say fromwhich; again and again the guns were fired. "I am afraid that after allour friends are getting the worst of it," remarked David, with a sigh.
"Oh, no, no! impossible!" exclaimed Harry. "See, see! down comes theFrenchman's flag--hurrah! hurrah! I knew it would be so. Englishmenare never licked. We would go down first with our colours flying.Hurrah! hurrah! we've gained the day." Harry waved his cap above hishead, and shouted long and loudly, communicating his enthusiasm, notonly to David, but to the old man himself; but so vehement in hisdemonstrations of joy did he become at last, that he nearly upset theraft, and then well-nigh fell overboard himself. David was rather morequiet in his demonstrations, still he did not feel less satisfactionprobably than his friend.
"We must get on board to congratulate them," exclaimed Harry; "Iwouldn't miss that on any account; if we pull hard we shall be able toget up to them--eh, Mr Jefferies? They will be some time repairingdamages and shifting the prisoners, and they are not likely to make sailtill then."
"We mustn't count too much upon that, young gentleman; we are furtheroff than you think, and darkness will be down over the ocean long beforewe can get up to them. Besides, do you know, I don't think the sightsaboard those ships, either the conqueror or the conquered, would be sopleasant as you suppose. I know what a man-of-war is after ahard-fought battle. The decks strewn with the dead, and slippery withblood and gore, the cockpit full of wounded men, lately strong andhardy, now cripples for life, many dying, entering into eternity,without a hope beyond their ocean grave, Christless, heathens in realityif not in name, stifled groans and sighs, and oftentimes shrieks ofdespair on every side. Such sights I have seen in my youth, and I speakthe language of some of the great preachers who have come down to theseparts, and boldly put forth the gospel of salvation to perishing sinnersunder the blue vault of heaven. You only look at one side of thepicture, and that quickly vanishes away; mine, unhappily, is too real tobe wiped out quickly." The old man spoke in a tone he had not hithertoused, which showed that his education had been superior to that whichmen of his vocation generally possess.
This remark, it must be confessed, considerably damped the ardour of theyoung midshipman. The latter, however, still continued to urge him andDavid to try and get on board one of the ships. They were in reality asanxious as he was to do so, for they could not but feel that they wereexposed to many dangers while they remained on the raft. The wind haddropped, and in one respect this was in their favour, as the frigatescould not sail away; but what little wind there was was against them,and this made rowing their heavy craft more tedious. They progressedvery slowly, and after two hours' hard rowing they seemed no nearer thanbefore. The day was drawing on; still they persevered. Hope continuedto cheer the two boys, whatever the old man might have thought about thematter. At last Harry stopped. "They are making sail, and the breezeis getting up. Oh dear! oh dear! They'll be off before we can reachthem. Still we'll try--pull away, David, pull away, there's a goodfellow."
All the efforts of the lads brought them no nearer the two frigates.They could see the British ensign run up above that of the French.Still it was evident that they themselves were not observed: no wonder,under the circumstances, as everybody on board must have been busilyengaged. Still thus, as it were, to be deserted, was very trying to theyoung lads. They bore up, however, manfully under the disappointment.
"Perhaps the wind may fall or shift again, and they may have after allto take a tack this way," exclaimed Harry, whose hopeful enthusiasm itwas impossible to damp. At last the night returned, and the darknessshut out the frigates from their sight. The lads had to while away thetime by conversation, and expressed their intentions of not going tosleep during the night; they, however, stowed themselves away in theiraccustomed places, where, should they by any chance begin to slumber,they might not run the risk of falling into the sea. For some time theykept to this resolution, Harry still buoyed up with the hope that theymight get on board the frigate in the morning. At last David's voicebegan to get very drowsy, so even did Harry's, and in spite of theirstrange position and their anxiety, first one and then the other droppedoff to sleep. The old man leaned forward to ascertain that they wereboth secure.
"Sleep on, lads! sleep on!" he muttered. "He who reigns above can alonetell whether or not this is the last night you will spend on earth. Iliked not the look of the sky when the sun went down, and before manyhours have passed this frail raft may be tossing on an ocean of foamingseas." The old man was silent, but he did not sleep. Often he prayed.He thought over many things of his past life, as men under suchcircumstances are apt to do. Happy are those who have not to reflect oncrimes committed, injuries done to others too late to remedy! and stillmore fearful must be the thoughts of those who are not trusting to theperfect and complete sacrifice offered on Calvary--whose sins have notbeen washed away in the blood of the Lamb. The old man knew in whom hetrusted, and no bitterness entered his thoughts. The hours passed on;stars became obscured; clouds were seen chasing each other across thedark sky, slowly at first, then more and more rapidly; the raft began torock, scarcely perceptibly, then gently, then with more and moremovement, but the boys slept on; accustomed to spend their time on theheaving wave, they did not feel the motion. At length a grey cold lightbegan gradually to steal over the foam-covered ocean. The boys stillslept on. The old man alone was awake on the raft. He lifted himselfup, and bent forward as if in prayer. Thus he remained for some time.At length David, less accustomed to the sea than Harry, awoke from themotion of the raft. The exclamation to which he gave utterance arousedhis companion; David quickly started to his feet, and gazed anxiouslyaround the horizon. The two frigates had disappeared. No sail was insight; nothing was to be seen but the heavy leaden-coloured waves, whilethe clouds seemed to come closely down on all sides. The raft drovequickly on before the storm.
"In what direction are we going?" asked David.
"To the south-west, I have an idea," answered Harry; "but I should notmind that, if I thought we were likely to fall in with the twofrigates."
"Trust in God, my lads," said old Jefferies.
He spoke truly; for already the raft gave signs of breaking up, from theviolence to which it had been exposed. The old man and the two boys didall they could to secure it more strongly by such ropes as they stillhad to spare, but it was difficult and dangerous to move from theirpositions. The seas followed rapidly, and more than once had almostbroken over them. Still, while their mast stood, and they could keeptheir sail set, they hoped to continue running before the sea. Theyspoke but little to each other, and continued looking out on eitherside, in the hope of seeing some vessels which might afford them arefuge. Still none appeared. The old man continued steering the raftwith great judgment and dexterity, but it was clear that the gale wasincreasing, and that
in a very short time the frail structure on whichthey floated could not hold together amidst the fierce waves to which itwould be exposed. Still, serious as was their position, the boys didnot forget that they had had nothing to eat since the previous night.Harry dived down into their provision-box, and produced some biscuitsand a piece of tongue. Their first care was to offer some to the oldman.
"No, thank you, good lads, I've no hunger," he answered.
In spite of their pressing, he refused to take any of the food.
"I can't say that I'm not hungry," cried Harry, "though I'm afraid wemust go without our tea."
David, who felt something like old Jefferies, when pressed, however, byHarry, gladly joined him in discussing such provisions as they couldeasily get at. Both of them were much refreshed by the nourishment, andin spite of the foreboding looks of the old man could not help holdingsanguine hopes of escaping from their perilous position. Still theywere hoping against hope, for in spite of the additional lashings theyhad cast round their raft, first one piece of plank and then another wastorn off.
"Hold on tight!" cried Harry, as he gazed astern, "here comes atremendous sea, and I don't know how we shall keep before it."
As he spoke a high foaming wave came roaring up. Already the raft wasmounting a wave in front, or the consequences would have been moredisastrous. The upper part of the sea broke completely over the raft,but it still floated on. Those on it looked anxiously round to see ifany of their number were missing. The old man was still at his post atthe helm, and the two boys at their places. It was evident, however,that a few more such seas would utterly destroy the raft. As Harryagain gazed astern, he saw to his dismay many similar seas preparing tofollow; still he would not say this, even to David, and tried in his ownhearty way to keep up his companions' spirits. An hour or so thuspassed away, when the raft gave stronger signs than ever of not havingpower to hold together.
"How fearful it would be if we were separated!" said David, who clearlycomprehended what was likely to happen. Just then another tremendoussea came rolling up, and washed over the raft. The boys clung on fortheir lives, but when the raft once more rose to the surface, the mastwas gone.
"No hope, I fear," said David.
"Yes, there is!" cried Harry; "I see a vessel bearing down directly forus."
The boys eagerly turned their eyes towards the stranger. It seemeddoubtful, however, whether the raft would hold together till herarrival, or whether they could avoid being washed off the raft by thesea, which kept continually rolling over them. On she rapidly came.
"I don't much like her appearance," said the old man; "she doesn't lookmuch better than the craft which we before refused to go on board."
"We have no choice at all," said Harry. "She looks like a Frenchman;but even the Monsieurs, considering our circumstances, would not treatus otherwise than with kindness," said David.
The boys waved and shouted with all their might. It seemed doubtfulwhether or not they were observed; still the stranger, a large topsailschooner, was standing directly for them. Presently they saw hershorten sail.
"All right!" cried Harry; "we're seen."
She rounded-to close to them, so close, indeed, that the two boys wereable to grasp the ropes which were thrown to them, and were immediatelyhauled up on deck.
"But old Jefferies, we mustn't desert him!" cried Harry, as he saw theold man still on the raft. "Here! fasten this rope round my waist, andI'll go and haul him in."
The crew of the stranger seemed to understand him, but at that moment asea rolling up drove the raft completely under the schooner's bottom. Afew fragments again appeared, but the old man was not to be seen.
"Oh, where is he? where is he?" cried David and Harry; "we must save thegood old man."
The people on board looked round on every side. So deep was the griefof the boys for his loss, that they scarcely for the moment seemed tothink of their own preservation, nor of the character of the vessel onboard which they had got. It was very clear that the old man had sunkfor ever, as no signs of him appeared. Once more the vessel was putbefore the wind, and flew onward on her course.
Harry and David, on looking round, observed she was an armed vessel,carrying sixteen long guns, with swivels and other pieces. From thelanguage they heard spoken by the crew, they knew she was French; while,from the varied dresses of the men and officers, they suspected she wasa privateer, and not a man-of-war.
"I'm afraid we shall not much like our quarters here," said Harry. "Thebest thing we can do is to put a good face on the matter, and go aft andthank the captain for saving our lives; he will see by my uniform that Iam an officer, and treat us as gentlemen."
Poor Harry's patch of white cloth, however, was not likely to be treatedwith much respect by a French privateer captain of those days.
"I wonder which of these fellows is captain," said Harry, as theyapproached three or four rough-looking fellows, as they were walking thedeck with the air of officers. "Oh, I wonder whether they willunderstand English, for not a word of French can I speak."
"Nor can I indeed," said David; "I didn't think of that."
"We must make our intentions known, however," said Harry, "and I mustmuster up what I can say. I know they always begin by saying `Monsieur'if they want to be polite, so I'll say `Monsieur Captain, MonsieurCaptain,'" looking round as he spoke, "we have to thank you for takingus aboard your vessel, and should be still further obliged if you couldgive us a change of clothes while ours are drying."
The Frenchmen looked at the boys with an air of indifference.
"Monsieur Captain," again began Harry, "I say we want to thank you forpulling us out of the water."
"Perhaps the captain is not among these men," suggested David.
"I want to see the captain," said Harry, bowing as before.
At length a small wizen-faced man appeared from below. His countenancewore anything but a pleasant aspect. By his dress, and the respect withwhich the others seemed to treat him, the boys had little doubt that hewas the person of whom they were in search. They accordingly approachedhim.
"Are you the captain?" said Harry, bowing as before, for he did notforget his politeness, in spite of his wet clothes.
"Yes, I am," said the wizen-faced man.
"Oh, you speak English; how glad we are!" answered Harry, "because wecan thus thank you for saving our lives."
"No great reason to thank me," said the man, in an unpleasant tone.
"You speak English very well, sir," said Harry, wishing to soothe him.
"I have had plenty of time to learn it," said the captain.
"Where was that, sir?" asked Harry.
"In an English prison," answered the Frenchman, with a grin, turning onhis heel; "and I've no great cause to love those who kept me there, ortheir countrymen."
"I'm afraid we've gained very little by the expression of ourgratitude," said David; "what are we to do?"