CHAPTER XXI
"As soon as you near St Helena by a few miles, the trade-wind fallslight, and making the rock, as you do from the South Atlantic, a gooddeal to leeward of the harbour, 'twould be pretty slow work beatinground to north-east, but for the breeze always coming off the height,with the help of which one can coast easy enough along. Captain Wallissaid no more than to bid the first lieutenant make the brig's number ather mast-head, while she still bore in direct upon the breast of theland, as much out of soundings as the day before; the smooth heavy swellseeming to float the island up in one huge lump ahead of us, till yousaw it rolling into the very foot, with a line of surf, as if it allrose sheer out of the bottom of the sea; as grim and hard as a block ofiron, too, and a good deal the same colour. By noon it hung fairly, asit were, over our mast-heads, the brig looking by comparison as tiny andas ticklish as a craft made of glass, she coasting away round, withyards braced first one way then another, and opening point after pointfrom three hundred to two thousand feet high; while at times she wouldgo stealing in with a faint ripple at her bows, near enough to hear thedeep sound of the sea plunging slowly to the face of the rock, where thesurf rose white against it without a break.
"There wasn't so much as a weed to be seen, the rocks getting redder andmore coppery, sending out the light like metal, till you'd have thoughtthey tingled all over with the heat. Then as you opened another bulge inthe line, the sharp sugar-loaf hills, far away up, with the raggedcliffs and crags, shot over against the bare white sky in all sort ofshapes; and after a good long spell of the sea, there was little fancyneeded to give one the notion that they were changing into these, as wepassed ahead, to mock you. There was one peak for all the world likethe top of St Paul's, and no end of church spires and steeples, alllengths and ways; then big bells and trumpets, mixed with wild beasts'heads, grinning at each other across some split in the blue beyond, andsoldiers' helmets--not to speak of one huge block, like a nigger's facewith a cowl behind it, hanging far out over the water. Save for thecolour of it all, in fact, St Helena reminds one more of a tremendousiceberg than an island, and not the less that it looks ready in someparts to topple over and show a new face; while the sea working roundit, surging into the hollows below water-mark, and making the air groaninside of them, keeps up a noise the like of which you wouldn't wish tocruise alongside of every day. The strangest thing about it, however,was that now and then, as you came abreast of some deep gully running upinland, a sudden blast of wind would rush out of it, sufficient to makethe _Podargus_ reel--with a savage thundering roar, too, like the howlout of a lion's mouth; while you looked far up a narrow, bare, blackglen, closing into a hubbub of red rocks, or losing itself up a greyhillside in a white thread of a water-course; then the rough shell ofthe island shut in again, as still as before, save the light breeze andthe deep hum of the surf along its foot. Curiously enough in a latitudelike St Helena's, the island seems, as it were, a perfect bag of air.What with the heat of the rock, its hollow inside, the high peaks of itcatching the clouds, and the narrow outlets it has, 'tis always brewingwind, you may say, to ventilate that part of the tropics--just as onemay keep up cold draughts through and through a wet heap of loosestones, no matter how hot the weather is, as long as he pleases. As fora landing-place, though, there wasn't one of the gullies that didn'tyawn over without falling to the sea; and, not to mention the surfunderneath, where the dark swell came in unbroken from deep waterwithout a shoal to soften it, why, watching it from the brig's side, Ishouldn't have said a cat could scramble up or down the steep slopes andthe wreck of stones, from the water's edge to the jaws of the easiestgully you saw.
"Once or twice, standing farther off, we caught sight of Diana's Peakover the shoulder of a hill, with the light haze melting about it; atlast you noticed a large gun mounted against the sky on a lofty peak,where it looked like a huge telescope; and on clearing anotherheadland, a beautiful frigate came in between us and the burst of lightto seaward, cruising to windward under easy sail. She bore up and stoodtowards the brig-of-war, just as the line of wall was to be seen windinground the middle of Sugarloaf Point, where the sentry's bayonetglittered near his watch-box, and the soldiers' red coats could be seenmoving through the covered passage to the batteries. Five minutes after,the _Podargus_ swept round the breast of Rupert's Hill into the bay, insight of Jamestown and the ships lying off the harbour; clewing up hersails and ready to drop anchor, as the frigate hove to not far astern.
"You can fancy land heaving in sight after thrice as many weeks asyou've been at sea, ladies; or the view of a ship to a man that's beenlong laid up in bed ashore; or a gulp of fresh water in a sandydesert--but I question if any of them matches your first glimpse ofJamestown from the roadstead, like a bright piece of fairy-work in themouth of the narrow brown valley, after seeing desolation enough to makeyou wish for a clear horizon again. More especially this time, when allthe while one couldn't help bringing to mind one's notion of the FrenchEmperor, how, not long ago, the sight of the French coast, or a strangefrigate over the Channel swell, used to make us think of him far ashore,with half the earth for his own, and millions of soldiers. We reefersdown in the cockpit would save our grog to drink confusion to Napoleon,and in a rough night near a lee-shore, it was look alive aloft, orchoose betwixt cold brine and the clutch of a gendarme hauling you toland. I do believe we looked upon him as a sort of god, as CaptainWallis did in the Temple; every ship or gunboat we saw taken, or had ahand in the mauling of, why, 'twas for the sheer sake of the thing, andscarce by way of harm to Boney; while nothing like danger, from breakerson the lee-bow to a November gale, but had seemingly a taste of him.None of us any more thought of bringing him to this, than we did of hismarching into London, or of a French frigate being able to rake our old_Pandora_ in a set-to on green water or blue, with us to handle her.
"But _there_ was the neat little cluster of houses, white, yellow, andgreen, spreading down close together in the bottom of the valley, andout along the sea's edge; the rough brown cliffs sloping up on eachside, with the ladder-like way to the fort on the right, mounting, as itwere, out of the very street, to the flagstaff on the top, and dottedwith red-coats going up and down; a bright line of a pier and a wallbefore the whole, the Government House dazzling through a row ofspreading trees, and a little square church-tower to be seen beyond.'Twas more like a scene in a play, than aught else; what with thesuddenness of it all, the tiny look of it betwixt the huge rocks, thegreenness of the trees and bushes, and patches of garden struggling upas far as they could go into the stone, and the gay little toys ofcottages, with scarce flat enough to stand upon; save for the blue swellof the sea plunging lazily in through the bit of a bay, and the streakof air behind, that let you in high over the head of the hollow, upabove one height and another, to a flat-headed blue rise in thedistance, where Longwood could be seen from the maincross-trees I hadgone to as the sails were furled.
"The sunlight, striking from both the red sides of the ravine, made thelittle village of a place, trees and all, glitter in a lump together,out of it, like no spot in the rest of the world; while elsewhere therewasn't so much as a weed to be seen hanging from the rock, nor the signof another human habitation, saving the bare batteries on each hand,with a few sheds and warehouses over the beach along the landing-place.Once or twice the same sudden gust as before would come slap downthrough the valley into the brig's bare rigging, hot as the air was,with a howling kind of a sigh you took some time to get accustomed to,lest there was a hurricane to follow: in fact, one didn't well knowwhether it was the wild look of it outside, or the lovely spot in itsgrim mouth of a landing-place, but the whole island gave you the notionof a thing you couldn't be long sure of, without fancying it would givea shake some day or other again; or else spout fire, as no doubt it haddone before, if there wasn't more fear of Napoleon getting back somehowto France, and wreaking bloody vengeance on the kings that shut him upin St Helena.
"There was apparently a busy scene ashore, however, both in the litt
letown, which has scarce more than a single street, and along the quay,full of residents, as well as passengers from two Indiamen lyingin-shore of us, while the Government esplanade seemed to be crowdedwith ladies, listening to the regimental band under the trees. The_Newcastle_ frigate, with Sir Dudley Aldcombe's flag hoisted at hermizzen, was at anchor out abreast at Ladder Hill; and our firstlieutenant had scarce pulled aboard of the _Hebe_, which was hove-to offthe brig's quarter, before I noticed the Admiral's barge lying alongsidethe _Hebe_.
"Seeing Mr Aldridge on his way back shortly after, I came down therigging, more anxious than ever to have my own matter settled; indeed,Captain Wallis no sooner caught sight of my face, uncomfortable as Idaresay it looked, than he told me he was going to wait on the Admiralaboard the _Hebe_, and would take me with him at once, if I chose. Formy part, I needed nothing but the leave, and in ten minutes' time Ifound myself, no small mark of curiosity, betwixt the waist and thequarter-deck of the _Hebe_, where the officers eyed me with as littleappearance of rudeness as they could help, and I overhauled the sparsand rigging aloft as coolly as I could, waiting to be sent for below.The _Hebe_, in fact, was the very beauty of a twenty-eight; taking theshine, and the wind, too, clean out of everything even at Plymouth,where I had seen her once a year or two before; our poor dear old _Iris_herself had scarce such a pattern of a hull, falling in, as it did, fromthe round swell of her bilge, to just under the plank-sheer, andspreading out again with her bright black top-sides, till where thefigure-head shot over the cutwater, and out of her full pair of bows,like a swan's neck out of its breast. As for the _Iris_, our boatswainhimself one day privately confessed to me, almost with tears in hiseyes, that she tumbled home a thought too much just in front of thefore-chains, and he'd tried to get it softened off with dead plankingand paint, but it wouldn't do; everybody saw through them. The truthwas, to feel this fine ship under one, with her loose topsails hanginghigh against the gloom of the red gully towards Longwood, and the gaylittle town peeping just over her larboard bow, a mile away, it somehowor other cleared one's mind of a load.
"I was thinking already how, if one had the command of such a craft, todo something with her at sea--hang it! but surely that old judgecouldn't be too proud to give him a fair hearing. By Jove! thoughtI--had one only wild enough weather, off the Cape, say--if I wouldn'tundertake to bother even a seventy-four a whole voyage through, till shestruck her flag; in which case a fellow might really venture to hold hishead up and speak his mind, lovely as Violet Hyde would be in Calcutta.But then, again, _there_ was St Helena towering red and rough over theships, with the grand French Emperor hidden in it hard and fast, and allthe work he used to give us at an end!
"Just at the moment, happening to catch sight of the American mate'ssallow black visage over the brig-of-war's hammock-cloths, peering as hedid from the cliffs to the lofty spars of the frigate, while his negroshipmates were to be made out nearer the bows--somehow or other thewhole affair of their being burnt out and picked up started into my mindagain, along with our late queer adventures in the Indiaman. Not tomention Captain Wallis's story, it flashed upon me all at once, for thefirst time, that the strange schooner was after some scheme as regardedthe island; and a man more likely to try something uncommon than theFrenchman I never had seen yet. The truth was, but for my thoughts beingotherwise taken up, I'd have wondered at my own confounded stupidity innot fathoming the thing sooner; whereas now I'm not going to deny it, Ihalf began actually to wish him good success, or else a close miss ofit, where either way one couldn't well fail having a share in thesquall.
"At any rate, I saw it was cunningly enough gone about; this same burntbarque of the Yankee's, I perceived in a moment, was part of the plot;though as for meddling in it till I saw more, 'twas likely to spoil thewhole; let alone making an ass of oneself in case of mistake. I waseyeing the shipwrecked mate, indeed, when one of the lieutenants told mepolitely the Admiral wanted to see me in the cabin below.
"Not being much accustomed to admirals' society, as a littlewhite-haired fellow-reefer of mine once said at a tea-party ashore, Icame in at the door with rather an awkward bow, no doubt; for SirDudley, who was sitting on the sofa with his cocked hat and sword besidehim, talking to Captain Wallis, turned his head at the captain's word,as if he were trying to keep in a smile. A tall, fine-looking man hewas, and few seamen equal to him for handling a large fleet, as I knew,though his manners were finished enough to have made him easy in aking's court. As for the captain of the _Hebe_, he was leaning out of anopen stern-window, seemingly a young man; but who he might be I didn'tknow at the moment. The Admiral had only a question or two to put,before he looked back to Captain Wallis again, remarking it was clear hehad brought away the wrong man. 'I didn't think you were so dull in the_Podargus_,' said he, smiling, 'as to let an Indiaman play off such atrick on you--eh, Captain Wallis!'
"Captain Wallis glanced round the cabin, and then sideways down at SirDudley's cocked hat, in a funny enough way, as much as to say he tookall the blame on himself; and it struck me more than ever what a kindheart the man had in him--if you only set aside his hatred to Bonaparte,which in fact was nothing else but a twisted sort of proof of the samething. 'Pooh, pooh, Wallis,' continued Sir Dudley, 'we can't do anythingin the matter; though, if the service were better than it really is atpresent, I should certainly incline to question a smart young fellowlike this, that has held His Majesty's commission, for idling in anIndiaman after the lady passengers! I am afraid, sir,' said he to me,'you've lost your passage, though--unless the captain of the _Hebe_ willgive you his second berth here, to make amends. You need not be afraid,Lord Frederick!' added he, looking toward the captain of the frigate,and raising his voice; 'you do not know him, after all, I suppose!' Thecaptain drew in his head, saying he had been doubtful about one of thepivots of the rudder, then turned full round and looked uneasily at me,on which his face brightened immediately, and he said, 'No, Sir Dudley,I do not!' I was still in ignorance for a moment or so, myself, who thistitled young post-captain might be, though I had certainly seen himbefore; till all at once I recollected him, with a start as pleasant tome as his seemed to him at _not_ knowing me. Both Westwood and I hadbeen midshipmen together for a while in the _Orion_, fifty-gun ship,where _he_ was second lieutenant, several years before. As for me, I wastoo fond of a frigate to stay longer in her than I could help; but Iremembered my being a pest to the second lieutenant, and Tom's being afavourite of his, so that he stayed behind me, and got master's-mate assoon as he was 'passed.'
"The Honourable Frederick Bury he was then, and the handsomest youngfellow in the squadron, as well as the best-natured aboard; I don'tbelieve he knew how to splice in a dead-eye, and any of themasters'-mates could take charge of the ship better in a rough night, Idaresay; but for a gallant affair in the way of hard knocks, withmanagement to boot, there wasn't his match. He never was known to failwhen he took a thing in hand; lost fewer men, too, than anyone else did;and whenever there turned up anything ticklish for the boats, it wasalways 'Mr Bury will lead.' 'The Honourable Bury,' we used to call him,and 'Fighting Free-the-deck.' Westwood was one of his school, whereas_I_ had learnt from Jacobs in a merchantman's forecastle; and many atime did we play off such tricks on the second lieutenant as cominggravely aft to him during the watch, three or four of us together, mecarrying a bit of rope where a 'Turk's-head' or a 'mouse' was to beworked, while I asked him innocently to show us the way. Or else it wassome dispute we contrived beforehand, as to the best plan of sending upnew topmasts at sea, or running out of a 'round' gale in the IndianOcean, on which the men forward would be all ready to break outlaughing; and the second lieutenant, after thinking a moment, wouldquietly pitch upon me to go aloft, and study the point for two hours atthe mast-head.
"'What is _your_ name then, young man?' inquired Sir Dudley Aldcombe ofme. The instant I told him, Lord Frederick Bury gave me another look,then a smile. 'What?' said he, 'Collins that was in the _Orion_?' 'Yes,Lord Frederick,' said I, 'the same; I was third in the
_Iris_ off theWest African coast since then.' 'Why,' said he, 'I recollect you quitewell, Mr Collins, although you have grown a foot, I think, sir--but youreye reminds me of sundry pranks you used to play on board! What nicknamewas it your messmates called you, by-the-by?' 'Something foolish enough,I suppose, my lord,' replied I, biting my lip; 'but I remember clearlyhaving the honour to steer the second cutter in-shore one dark nightnear Dunkirk, when your lordship carried the Dutch brig and the twoFrench chasse-marees----'
"'Faith,' broke in the captain of the _Hebe_, 'you've a better memorythan I have--I do not recollect any chasse-marees at all that time, MrCollins!' 'Why,' said I, 'I got a knock on the head from a fellow in ared shirt--that always kept me in mind.' 'Oh,' remarked the Admiral toCaptain Wallis, laughing, 'Lord Frederick Bury must have had so manylittle parties of the kind that his memory can't be expected to be verynice! However, I shall go ashore at present, gentlemen, leaving the_Hebe_ and you to dispose of this runaway lieutenant in some way orother. Only you'd better settle it before Admiral Plampin arrives!''Have you seen the--the--Longwood lately, Sir Dudley?' asked the captainof the _Podargus_ carelessly. 'Yes, not many days ago I had aninterview,' said the Admiral gravely; 'proud as ever, and evidentlyresolved not to flinch from his condition. 'Tis wonderful the commandthat man has over himself, Wallis--he speaks of the whole world and itsaffairs like one that sees into them, and had them still nearly underhis foot! All saving those miserable squabbles with Plantation House,which--but, next time I shall take my leave, and wash my hands of thewhole concern, I am glad to think!'
"Lord Frederick was talking to me meanwhile at the other end of thecabin, but I was listening in spite of myself to Sir Dudley Aldcombe,and noticed that Captain Wallis made no answer. 'By-the-way, Wallis,'continued the Admiral, ''tis curious that he seemed anxious more thanonce to know what you think of him--I believe he would like to see you!''To see _me_!' said the commander of the _Podargus_, suddenly. 'At last,does he! No, Sir Dudley, he and I never _will_ meet; he ought to havethought of it twelve years sooner! God knows,' he went on, 'thecommander of a ten-gun brig is too small a man to see the EmperorNapoleon a prisoner; but in ten years of war, Sir Dudley, what mightn'tone have been, instead of being remembered after as only plain JohnWallis, whom Bonaparte kept all that time in prison, and who was sent incourse of time, to cruise off St Helena?' Here the Admiral saidsomething about a British sailor not keeping malice, and Captain Wallislooked up at him gravely. 'No,' replied he; 'no, Sir Dudley, I shouldn'thave _chosen_ the thing; but in the meantime I'm only doing my duty.There's a gloomy turn in my mind by this time, no doubt; but you've noidea, Sir Dudley, how the thought of other people comes into one's headwhen he's years shut up--so _I_ may stand for many a one Bonaparte willnever see more than myself, that'll ring him round surer than thoserocks there, though they're dead and in their graves, Sir Dudley!' TheAdmiral shook his head, observing that Napoleon was no common man, andoughtn't to be judged as such. 'Too many victories in that eye of his, Isuspect, Captain Wallis,' said he, 'for either Plantation House or hisown conscience to break his spirit!'
"Ay, ay, sir,' answered the captain respectfully, 'excuse me, SirDudley, but there it is--so long as he's got his victories to fall backupon, he can't see how, if he'd regarded common men more, with allbelonging to them, he wouldn't have been here! Why did Providence shuthim up in a dead volcano, with blue water round it, Sir Dudley, if itwasn't to learn somehow or other he was a man after all?' Sir DudleyAldcombe shrugged his shoulders and looked to Lord Frederick, upon whichhe rose, and the two captains followed him out of the cabin; in fiveminutes I heard the side piped for the Admiral's leaving, and soon afterthe captain of the _Hebe_ came below again.
"'This is a disagreeable affair of your old messmate's, Mr Collins,'said he seriously. 'You are, perhaps, not aware that Captain Duncombewas a relative of my own, and the fact of his property having fallen bywill to myself, rendered my position the more peculiarly disagreeable,had I been obliged not only to recognise Lieutenant Westwood here, butafterwards to urge proceedings against him, even if he were let off bycourt-martial. I cannot tell you how the sight of a stranger, as Ithought, relieved me, sir!' 'Indeed, Lord Frederick!' replied I, toomuch confused in the circumstances to say more. However, his lordship'smanner soon set me at my ease, the old good-humoured smile coming overhis fine features again, while he went on to offer me the place of hissecond lieutenant, who was going home very ill by one of thehomeward-bound Indiamen; adding, that Sir Dudley would confirm theappointment; indeed, he could scarce help himself, he said, as there wasnobody else he could get at present.
"'You must be a thorough good sailor by this time, Collins,' continuedhe, 'if you have gone on at the rate you used to do. I remember how fondyou were of having charge for a minute or two of the old _Orion_, orwhen I let you put her about in my watch. Why they called you "YoungGreen" I never could understand, unless it was _ut lucus a non lucendo_,as we used to say at Eton, you know. Well, what do you say?' Now, as youmay suppose, the idea of boxing about St Helena, for Heaven knew howlong, didn't at all suit my liking--with the thought of the_Seringapatam_ steering away from Bombay the whole time, and a hundrednotions of Violet Hyde in India--'twould have driven me madder than theTemple did Captain Wallis: but it was only the _first_ part of my mind Igave Lord Frederick. 'What!' exclaimed he, with a flush over his face,and drawing up his tall figure, 'you didn't suppose, _I_ should remainhere? Why, the _Hebe_ is on her way for Calcutta and Canton, and willsail as soon as the _Conqueror_ arrives at Jamestown with AdmiralPlampin.' 'Your lordship is very kind,' said I, looking down to cover mydelight; 'and if I am not worthy of the post it shan't be my fault, LordFrederick.' 'Ah, very good!' said he smiling; ''tis an opportunity yououghtn't to let slip, Collins, let me tell you! For my own part, Ishould just as soon cut out a pirate in the Straits of Malacca as aFrench brig in the Channel; and there are plenty of them, I hear, there.As for a chase, sir, I flatter myself you won't easily see a finer thingthan the _Hebe_ spreading her cloth after one of those fast proas willbe--I think you are just the fellow to make her walk, too, MrCollins--pah! to compare a day on the Derby turf with _that_, would be asin! You have no idea, sir, how one longs for a fair horizon again, andbrisk breezes, when so ineffably tired out of all those ball-rooms, andsuch things as you see about town just now--only I fear I shall wish tobe second lieutenant again, eh?'
"The noble captain of the _Hebe_ turned to look out through the sternwindow to seaward, his face losing the weary sort of half-melancholycast it had shown for the last minute, while his eye glistened; and itstruck me how well matched the _Hebe_ and her commander were; you'd havesaid both had good blood in them, both being models to look at of theirkind, and the frigate lifting under you at the moment, from the keelupward, with a check aloft in her main-topsail, that lifted her stem tothe surge. A small telescope rolled off the sofa on to the cabin deck,and as I picked it up, another gust could be heard coming down St JamesValley from inside the island; through the gun-port one saw the treeswave over the hot white houses in the bright-coloured little town, whilethe ship's canvas gave another flutter above-decks. Lord Fredericklaughed, and said, 'Then I suppose we need say no more about it, MrCollins, except referring once for all to Sir Dudley?' I bowed, and theupshot was, that, an hour or two after, I had my acting commission sentme from the Admiral, the same boat having called at the _Podargus_ formy things; upon which Lord Frederick introduced me to the firstlieutenant, and I found myself once more doing duty in the service--the_Hebe_ standing out to leeward with the last light, just as the_Podargus_ was tripping anchor to beat round again the other way. As forour friends from the burnt vessel, I must say I had forgot them already,for the time at least.
"Every block, crag, and knot in the huge crust of the rock shoneterribly bright for a minute or two, aloft from over the yard-ends, asshe stood suddenly out into the fiery gleam of the sun going down many amile in the Atlantic. Then up leapt the light keener and keener to thevery topmost peak, till you'd have though
t it went in like a livingthing behind a telegraph, that stood out against a black cleft betwixttwo cliffs. We saw the evening gun off Ladder Hill flash upon the deepblue of the sky, seemingly throwing up the peak and flagstaff a dozenfeet higher; and the boom of the gun sounding in among the wild hillsand hollows within the island, as if one heard it going up to Longwooddoor. Scarce was it lost, ere a star or two were to be seen in theshadow on the other side, and you listened almost, in the hush followingupon the gunfire, for an echo to it, or something stranger; in place ofwhich the _Hebe_ was already forging ahead in the dark to get well clearof the land, every wave bringing its own blackness with it up toward herfore-chains, then sparkling back to her waist in the seeth of foam asshe felt the breeze; while St Helena lay towering along to larboard,with its ragged top blotting against the deep dark blue of the sky, allfilling as it was with the stars.
"I had the middle watch that night, the ship being under short canvas,and slowly edging down to make the most leewardly point of the island,from which she was to beat up again at her leisure by the morning. Allwe had to do was to keep a good look-out, on the one hand, into thestreak of starlight to seaward, and on the other along the foot of therocks, as well as holding her well in hand, in case of some suddensquall through the valleys from inside.
"However, I shan't easily forget the thoughts that ran in my mind,walking the quarter-deck with the frigate under charge, the first time Inoticed Orion and the Serpent begin to wheel glittering away from overDiana's Peak--the others stealing quietly into sight after them, pastthe leech of our main-topsail; scarce an English star to be seen for theheight of the island off our quarter; some of the men on one side of thebooms humming a song about Napoleon's dream, which you'll hear to thisday in ships' forecastles; another yarning solemnly, on the other side,about some old sweetheart of his--but all of them ready to jump at myown least word. In the morning, however, there we were, stretching backby degrees to go round the lee side of the island again, the hazemelting off Diana's Peak as before, and the sea rolling in swells asblue as indigo, to the huge red lumps of bare crag; while the brightsurges leapt out of them all along the frigate's side, and the sprayrose at times to her figure-head.
"During the day we cruised farther out, and the _Hebe_ had enough to doin seeing off one Indiaman for home, and speaking another outward-boundcraft, that passed forty miles off or so, without touching; theGovernor's telegraphs were eternally at work on the heights, botheringher for the least trifle, and making out a sail sixty miles off, it wassaid. For my part, I was pretty well tired of it already, sincerelywishing for the _Conqueror_, with Admiral Plampin, to heave in sight;but glad enough all aboard the _Hebe_ were, when, after an entire weekof the thing, it came to her turn, with the _Newcastle_ and _Podargus_,to lie at anchor off Jamestown, where half the ship's company at a timehad their liberty ashore.
"For my part, I had to see after the frigate's water-tanks, and a gangat the rigging, till the afternoon, when Lord Frederick took the firstlieutenant and myself ashore with him in his gig; and no joke it waslanding even there, where the swell of the surf nigh-hand hove herright up on the quay, while you had to look sharp, in case the next wavewashed you back again off your feet. The whole place was hot as could befrom the sun's rays off the rocks, slanting bare red to the cloudlesssky, on both sides of the neat little gaudy houses crowded in the mouthof the valley, which narrowed away beyond the rise of the street, tillyou didn't see how you'd get farther. But for the air of the sea,indeed, with now and then a breath down out of the hills, 'twas for allthe world like a half-kindled oven; except under the broad trees alongthe Government esplanade, where one couldn't have stood for people. Whatwith blacks, lascars, Chinamen, and native 'Yamstocks,' together withliberty-men from the men-of-war and Indiamen, as well as reeferstrotting about on ponies and donkeys, the very soldiers could scarce getdown the foot of the road up Ladder Hill; as for the little town holdingone half of them, it was out of the question, but the noise and kick-upwere beyond aught else of the kind, save in a Calcutta bazaar.Accordingly, it was pleasant enough at last to come within a shady walkof thick green fig-trees, growing almost out of the rock near the mainbattery, above the small sound of the water far below; the very sealooking bluer through the leaves, while some birds no bigger than wrenshopped, chirruping, about the branches.
"Here we met Sir Dudley Aldcombe coming down from the batteries alongwith some Company's officers from India, and he stopped to speak to LordFrederick, giving the first lieutenant and me a bow in return, as welifted our hats and waited behind. The Admiral proposed to get LordFrederick a pass to visit Napoleon along with himself next day, as the_Conqueror_ would probably arrive very soon. 'You will oblige megreatly, Sir Dudley,' said the captain of the _Hebe_. 'He seems as fondof seeing a true sailor,' said the Admiral, 'as if we'd never done himharm. Things will be worse after I go. By-the-way,' added he suddenly,''tis curious enough, but there's one person in the island at presenthas made wonderful progress in Sir Hudson's good graces, for the shorttime--that American botanist, or whatever he calls himself, that CaptainWallis took off the burnt vessel on his way here. Your new lieutenantwas aboard at the time, you know, Lord Frederick.' 'You saw him, sir, ofcourse?' said the Admiral looking to me. 'Only for a minute that night,Sir Dudley,' said I; 'and afterwards both he and his servant were underthe surgeon's charge below.' 'Well,' continued Sir Dudley to thecaptain, 'they seem quite recovered now; for I saw them to-day up atPlantation House, where the philosopher was in close discourse with theGovernor about plants and such things; while her ladyship was as muchengaged with the assistant, who can only speak Spanish. A remarkablelooking man the latter is, too; a Mexican, I understand, with Indianblood in him, apparently--whereas his principal has a strong Yankeetwang; and queer enough it was to hear him snuffling away as solemnly aspossible about _buttany_ and such things--besides his hinting at somegreat discovery likely to be made in the island, which Sir Hudson seemedrather anxious to keep quiet from _me_.'
"What Sir Dudley said made me prick up my ears, as you may fancy. Icould scarce believe the thing; 'twas so thoroughly rich and soconfoundedly cool at once, to risk striking at the very heart of thingsthis way with the Governor himself; but the whole scheme, so far,flashed upon me in a moment, evidently carried on, as it had been allalong, by some one bold enough for anything earthly, and with no smallcunning besides. All that he needed, no doubt, was _somebody else_ withthe devil's own impudence and plenty of talk; nor, if I'd thought for aday together, could one have pitched easily upon a customer as plausibleas our friend Daniel, who hadn't a spark of fear in him, I knew, justowing to his want of respect for aught in the entire creation. Still, Icouldn't, for the life of me, see what the end of their plan was to be,unless the strange Frenchman might have been some general or other underBonaparte, and just wanted to see his old commander once more; which,thought I, I'll be hanged if I don't think fair enough, much pains as hehad put himself to for the thing.
"'How!' asked Lord Frederick, 'a discovery did you say, Sir Dudley?''Oh, nothing of the kind _we_ should care about, after all,' said theAdmiral; 'from what I could gather, 'twas only scientific, though theAmerican called it "_a_ pretty importaint fact." This Mr MathewsonBrown, I believe, was sent by the States Government as botanist in anexpedition to southward, and has leave from Sir Hudson to use hisopportunity before the next Indiaman sails, for examining part of theisland, and to-day he thought he found the same plants in St Helena ashe did in Gough's Island and Tristan d'Acunha, twelve hundred miles off,near the Cape, showing, as he said, how once on a time there must havebeen land between them, perhaps as far as Ascension!' 'Why,' put in LordFrederick,' that would have made a pretty good empire, even forNapoleon!' 'So it would, my lord,' said Sir Dudley, 'much better thanElba; but the strangest part of it is, this Mr Brown was just tellinghis Excellency, as I entered the room, that some of the ancientphilosophers wrote about this said country existing in the Atlanticbefore the Flood--how rich it was, with the kings it had, and the warscarr
ied on there; till, on account of their doings, no doubt, what withan earthquake, a volcano, and the ocean together, they all sunk to thebottom except the tops of the mountains! Now, I must say,' continued theAdmiral, 'all this learning seemed to one to come rather too much byrote out of this gentleman's mouth, and the American style of his talkmade it somewhat ludicrous, though he evidently believed in what may beall very true--particularly in mentioning the treasures that must lieunder water for leagues round, or even in nooks about the St Helenarocks; I thought his very teeth watered. As for Sir Hudson, he hadcaught at the idea altogether, but rather in view of an historical workon the island, from the earliest times till now--and I believe he meansto accompany the two botanists himself over toward Longwood to-morrow,where we may very likely get sight of them.'
"'O--h!' thought I, and Lord Frederick Bury smiled. 'Rather a novelty,indeed!' said he; and the first lieutenant looked significantly enoughto me, as we leant over the battery-wall, watching the hot horizonthrough the spars of the ships before Jamestown. 'What amused me,' SirDudley said again, 'was the American botanist's utter indifference, whenI asked if he had seen anything of "The General" in the distance. TheGovernor started, glancing sharp at Mr Brown, and I noticed his darkcompanion give a sudden side-look from the midst of his talk with herladyship; whereupon the botanist merely pointed with his thumb to thefloor, asking coolly 'what it was to science?' 'At this,' added SirDudley to the captain, 'His Excellency seemed much relieved; and afterhaving got leave for myself and your lordship to-morrow, I left themstill in the spirit of it. It certainly struck me that, in the UnitedStates themselves, educated men in general couldn't have such a vulgarmanner about them--in fact, I thought the Mexican attendant more thegentleman of the two--his face was turned half from me most of the time,but still it struck me as remarkably intelligent.' 'Ah,' said LordFrederick carelessly, 'all the Spaniards have naturally a noble sort ofair, you know, Sir Dudley--they'll never make republicans!' 'And I mustsay,' added the Admiral, as they strolled out of the shade up thebattery-steps, 'little as I know of Latin, what this Mr Brown used _did_seem to me fearfully bad!'
"'And no wonder!' thought I, from a Yankee schoolmaster as I had foundmy late shipmate was, before he thought of travelling; but the valuableDaniel turning his hand to help out some communication or other, nodoubt, with Napoleon Bonaparte in St Helena, took me at first as soqueer an affair, that I didn't know whether to laugh at him or admirehis Yankee coolness, when he ran such risks. As for the feasibleness ofactually getting the prisoner clear out of the island, our cruising onguard was enough to show me it would be little short of a miracle; yet Icouldn't help thinking they meant to try it; and in case of a darknight, which the south-easter was very likely to bring, if it shifted orfreshened a little, why, I knew you needn't call anything impossiblethat a cool head and a bold heart had to do with, provided only theycould get their plans laid inside and out so as to tally. The more eagerI got for next day, when it would be easy enough for any of us to go upinland after Lord Frederick, as far as Hut's Gate at least. Meantime,the first lieutenant and I walked up together to where the little townbroke into a sort of suburb of fancy cottages, with verandahs and greenvenetians in bungalow style, scattered to both sides of the rock amongstlittle grass-plots and garden patches--every foot of ground made use of.And a perfect gush of flowers and leaves it was, clustering over thetiles of the low roofs, while you saw through a thicket of poplars andplantains right into the back of the gully, with a ridge of black rockclosing it fair up, and Side Path, as they call the road to windward,winding overhead along the crag behind the houses, out of sight round amass of cliffs. Every here and there, a runlet of water came tricklingdown from above the trees to water their roots; you saw the mice inhundreds scampering in and out of holes in the dry stone, with now andthen a big ugly rat that turned round to face you, being no doubt finegame to the St Helena people, ill off as they all seemed for somethingto do--except the Chinese with their huge hats, hoeing away under almostevery tree one saw, and the Yamstock fishermen to be seen bobbing formullet outside the ships, in a blaze of light sufficient to bake anyheads but their own. Every cottage had seven or eight parrots in it,apparently; a cockatoo on a stand by the door, or a monkey up in abox--not to speak of canaries in the window, and white goats feedingabout with bells round their necks: so you may suppose what a jabbering,screaming, whistling, and tinkling there was up the whole hollow, addedto no end of children and young ladies making the most of the shade asit got near nightfall--and all that were out of doors came flocking downSide Path.
"Both of us having leave ashore that night, for a ball in one of thesesame little bungalows near the head of the valley, 'twas no use to thinkof a bed, and as little to expect getting off to the ship, which nonecould do after gunfire. For that matter, I daresay there might be twentysuch parties, full of young reefers and homeward-bound old East Indians,keeping it up as long as might be, because they had nowhere to sleep.The young lady of the house we were in was one of the St Helenabeauties, called 'The Rosebud,' from her colour. A lovely creature shewas, certainly, as it was plain our _Hebe's_ first lieutenant thought,with several more to boot: every sight of her figure gliding aboutthrough the rest, the white muslin floating round her like haze,different as her face was, made one think of the _Seringapatam's_ deckat sea, with the men walking the forecastle in the middle watch, and thepoop quiet over the judge's cabins.
"Two or three times I had fancied for a moment that, if one had somewhatstirring to busy himself with, why, he might so far forget what was nodoubt likely to interfere pretty much with a profession like my own; andso it might have been, perhaps, had I only seen her ashore; whereas now,whether it was ashore or afloat, by Jove! everything called her somehowto mind. The truth is, I defy you to get rid very easily of the thoughtabout one you've sailed in the same ship with, be it girl or woman: thesame bottom betwixt you and the water, the same breeze blowing yourpilot-coat in the watch on deck that ripples past her ear below, and theself-same dangers to strive against! At a break in the dance I went outof the dancing-room into the verandah, where the cool of the air amongthe honeysuckle-flowers and creepers was delightful to feel; though itwas quite dark in the valley, and you couldn't make out anything but thesolemn black-blue of the sky full of stars above you, between the twocliffs; or right out, where the stretch of sea, widening to the horizon,looked almost white through the mouth of the valley over the house-roofsbelow; one heard the small surf plashing low and slow into the littlebay, with the boats dipping at their moorings, but I never saw sea lookso lonely. Then up at the head of the gully one could mark the steepblack crag that shut it up, glooming quiet and large against a gleamfrom one of the clusters of stars; the sight of it was awful, I didn'tknow well why, unless by comparison with the lively scene inside, not tosay with one's own whole life afloat, as well as the wishes one had atheart. 'Twas pretty late, but I heard the music strike up again in theroom, and was going back again, when all of a sudden I thought thestrangest sound that ever came to one's ears went sweeping round andround far above the island, more like the flutter of a sail miles widethan aught else I can fancy; then a rush of something like those sameblasts of wind I was pretty well used to by this time--but wind it wasnot--growing in half-a-minute to a rumbling clatter, and then to asmothered roar, as if something more than mortal shot from inland downthrough the valley, and passed out by its mouth into the open sea atonce. I scarce felt the ground heave under me, though I thought I sawthe black head of the ravine lift against the stars--one terrible plungeof the sea down at the quays and batteries, then everything was stillagain; but the whole dancing-party came rushing out in confusion at myback, the ladies shrieking, the men looking up into the sky, or at thecliffs on both sides; the British flag, over the fort on Ladder Hill,blowing out steadily to a stiff breeze aloft. It wasn't for some time,in fact, that they picked up courage again to say it had been anearthquake. However, the ball was over, and, as soon as matters could beset to rights, it was nothing but quest
ions whether it had aught to dowith _him_ up at Longwood, or hadn't been an attempt to blow up theisland--some of the officers being so much taken aback at first, thatthey fancied the French had come.
"At last, however, we, who had nothing else for it, got stowed away onsofas or otherwise about the dancing-room; for my part, I woke up justearly enough to see the high head of the valley coming out as clearly asbefore against the morning light, and the water glancing blue out milesaway beyond the knot of ships in the opening. The news was only thatNapoleon was safe, having been in his bed at the time, where he laythinking one of the frigates had blown up, they said. Not a word of histhat got wind but the people in Jamestown made it their day's text--inthe want of which they'd even gossip about the coat he wore thatmorning; till you'd have said the whole nest of them, soldiers and all,lay under his shadow as the town did at the foot of the cliffs, justready to vanish as soon as he went down. The Longwood doctor had toldsomeone in the Jew Solomon's toy-shop, by the forenoon, that Bonapartecouldn't sleep that night for making some calculations about a greatbattle he had fought, when he counted three separate shocks of thething, and noticed it was luckily right up and down, or else Jamestownwould have been buried under tons of rock. The doctor had mentionedbesides that there was twice an earthquake before in the island, informer times; but it didn't need some of the townspeople's looks to tellyou they'd be afraid many a night after, lest the French Emperor shouldwake up thinking of his battles; while, as for myself, I must say thenotion stuck to me some time, along with my own ideas at that exactmoment; at any rate, not for worlds would I have lived long ashore in StHelena.