Frank Mildmay; Or, the Naval Officer

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER SIX.

  _Par_. You give me most egregious indignity.

  _Laf_. Ay, with all my heart; and thou art worthy of it.

  "ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL."

  Naturally anxious to behold a country from which we had hitherto beenexcluded for so many years, we all applied for leave to go on shore, andobtained it. Even the seamen were allowed the same indulgence, and wentin parties of twenty and thirty at a time. We were followed and gapedat by the people; but shunned at the same time as "hereticos." The innsof the town, like all the rest of them in Spain, have not improved sincethe days of the immortal Santillana--they were all more or less filledwith the lowest of the rabble and a set of bravos whose calling wasrobbery, and who cared little if murder were its accompaniment. Thecookery was execrable. Garlic and oil were its principal ingredients.The olla podrida, and its constant attendant, the tomato sauce, wereintolerable, but the wine was very well for a midshipman. Whenever wehad a repast in any of these houses, the bravos endeavoured to pick aquarrel with us; and these fellows being always armed with stilettos, wefound it necessary to be equally well prepared; and whenever we seatedourselves at a table, we never failed to display the butts of ourpistols, which kept them in decent order, for they are as cowardly asthey are thievish. Our seamen, not being so cautious or so wellprovided with arms, were frequently robbed and assassinated by theserascals.

  I was, on one occasion, near falling a victim to them. Walking in theevening with the second master, and having a pretty little Spanish girlunder my arm,--for, to my shame be it spoken, I had already formed anacquaintance with the frail sisterhood,--four of these villains accostedus. We soon perceived, by their manner of holding their cloaks, thatthey had their stilettos ready. I desired my companion to draw hisdirk, to keep close to me, and not to let them get between us and thewall. Seeing that we were prepared, they wished us "_buenos noches_"(good night), and, endeavouring to put us off our guard by entering intoconversation, asked us to give them a cigar, which my companion wouldhave done, had I not cautioned him not to quit his dirk with his righthand, for this was all they wanted.

  In this defensive posture we continued until we had nearly reached theplaza or great square, where many people were walking, and enjoyingthemselves by moonlight, the usual custom of the country. "Now," said Ito my friend, "let us make a start from these fellows. When I run, doyou follow me, and don't stop till we are in the middle of the square."

  The manoeuvre was successful; we out-ran the thieves, who were not awareof our plan, and were encumbered with their heavy cloaks. Finding wehad escaped, they turned upon the girl, and robbed her of her miserableearnings. This we saw, but could not prevent, such was the police ofSpain then, nor has it improved since.

  This was the last time I ventured on shore at night, except to go oncewith a party of our officers to the house of the Spanish admiral, whohad a very pretty niece, and was _liberale_ enough not to frown on uspoor heretics. She was indeed a pretty creature: her lovely black eyes,long eyelashes, and raven hair, betrayed a symptom of Moorish blood, atthe same time that her ancient family-name and high good-breeding gaveher the envied appellation of _Vieja Christiana_.

  This fair creature was pleased to bestow a furtive glance of approbationon my youthful form and handsome dress. My vanity was tickled. I spokeFrench to her: she understood it imperfectly, and pretended to knowstill less of it, from the hatred borne by all the Spaniards at thattime to the French nation. We improved our time, however, which was butshort, and, before we parted, perfectly understood each other. Ithought I could be contented to give up everything, and reside with herin the wilds of Spain. The time of our departure came, and I was tornaway from my Rosaritta, not without the suspicions of my captain andshipmates that I had been a too highly favoured youth. This was nottrue. I loved the dear angel, but never had wronged her; and I went tosea in a mood which I sometimes thought might end in an act ofdesperation; but salt water is an admirable specific against love, atleast against such love as that was.

  We joined the admiral off Toulon, and were ordered by him to cruisebetween Perpignan and Marseilles. We parted from the fleet on thefollowing day, and kept the coast in a continued state of alarm. Not avessel dared to show her nose out of port: we had her if she did.Batteries we laughed at, and either silenced them with our longeighteen-pounders, or landed and blew them up. In one of these littleskirmishes I had very nearly been taken, and should, in that case, havemissed all the honour and glory and hair-breadth escapes which will befound related in the following pages. I should either have been sabredin mere retaliation, or marched off to Verdun for the remaining sixyears of the war.

  We had landed to storm and blow up a battery, for which purpose wecarried with us a bag of powder and a train of canvas. Everything wenton prosperously. We came to a canal which it was necessary to cross,and the best swimmers were selected to convey the powder over withoutwetting it. I was one of them. I took off my shoes and stockings tosave them; and, after we had taken the battery. I was so intent onlooking for the telegraphic signal-box, that I had quite forgotten theintended explosion, until I heard a cry of "Run, run!" from thoseoutside, who had lighted the train.

  I was at that moment on the wall of the fort, nearly thirty feet high,but sloping. I jumped one part, and scrambled the other, and ran awayas fast as I could, amidst a shower of stones, which fell around me likean eruption of Vesuvius. Luckily I was not hit, but I had cut my footin the leap, and was in much pain. I had two fields of stubble to pass,and my shoes and stockings were on the other side of the canal--thesharp straw entered the wound, and almost drove me mad, and I wastempted to sit down and resign myself to my fate. However, Ipersevered, and had nearly reached the boats which were putting off, notaware of my absence, when a noise like distant thunder reached my ears.This I soon found was cavalry from Cotte, which had come to defend thebattery. I mustered all my strength, and plunged into the sea to swimoff to the boats; and so little time had I to spare, that some of theenemy's chasseurs, on their black horses, swam in after me, and firedtheir pistols at my head. The boats were at this time nearly a quarterof a mile from the shore; the officers in them fortunately perceived thecavalry, and saw me at the same time: a boat laid on her oars, which,with great difficulty, I reached, and was taken in; but so exhaustedwith pain and loss of blood, that I was carried on board almost dead; myfoot was cut to the bone, and I continued a month under the surgeon'scare.

  I had nearly recovered from this accident, when we captured a ship, withwhich Murphy was sent as prize-master; and the same evening a schooner,which we cut out from her anchorage. The command of this latter vesselwas given to me--it was late in the evening, and the hurry was so greatthat the keg of spirits intended for myself and crew was not put onboard. This was going from one extreme to the other; in my last ship wehad too much liquor, and in this too little. Naturally thirsty, ourdesire for drink needed not the stimulus of salt fish and calavances,for such was our cargo and such was our food, and deeply did we deplorethe loss of our spirits.

  On the third day after leaving the frigate, on our way to Gibraltar, Ifell in with a ship on the coast of Spain, and knew it to be the oneMurphy commanded, by a remarkable white patch in the main-topsail. Imade all sail in chase, in hopes of obtaining some spirits from him,knowing that he had more than he could consume, even if he and hispeople got drunk every day. When I came near him, he made all the sailhe could. At dusk I was near enough almost to hail him, but he stoodon; and I, having a couple of small three-pounders on board, with somepowder, fired one of them as a signal. This I repeated again and again;but he would not bring-to; and when it was dark, I lost sight of him,and saw him no more until we met at Gibraltar.

  Next morning I fell in with three Spanish fishing-boats. They took mefor a French privateer, pulled up their lines, and made sail. I came upwith them, and, firing a gun, they hove-to and surrendered. I orderedthem alongside; and, finding they had each a keg of wine
on board, Icondemned that part of their cargo as contraband; but I honestly offeredpayment for what I had taken. This they declined, finding I was"_Ingles_," too happy to think they were not in the hands of the French.I then gave each of them a pound of tobacco, which not only satisfiedthem, but confirmed them in the newly-received opinion among theircountrymen, that England was the bravest as well as the most generous ofnations. They offered everything their boat contained; but I declinedall most nobly, because I had obtained all I wanted; and we parted withmutual good will, they shouting, "Viva Inglaterra!" and we drinking thema good passage in their own wine.

  Many days elapsed before we reached Gibraltar: the winds were light, andthe weather fine; but as we had discovered that the fishing-boats hadwine, we took care to supply our cellar without any trouble from theexcise; and, from our equitable mode of barter, I had no reason to thinkthat His Majesty King George lost any of his deserved popularity by ourconduct. When we reached Gibraltar, I had still a couple of good kegswherewith to regale my mess-mates; though I was sorry to find thefrigate and the rest of her prizes had got in before us. Murphy,indeed, did not arrive till the day after me.

  I was on the quarter-deck when he came in; and, to my astonishment, hereported that he had been chased by a French privateer, and had beatenher off after a four hours' action--that his rigging had suffered a gooddeal, but that he had not a man hurt. I let him run on till theevening. Many believed him; but some doubted. At dinner in thegun-room, his arrogance knew no bounds; and when half drunk, my threemen were magnified into a well manned brig, as full of men and guns asshe could stuff!

  Sick of all this nonsense, I then simply related the story as it hadoccurred, and sent for the quarter-master, who was with me, and whoconfirmed all my statement. From that moment he was a mark of contemptin the ship. Every he was a Murphy, and every Murphy a liar. He darednot resent this scorn of ours; and found himself so uncomfortable, thathe offered no objection to the removal proposed by the captain; hischaracter followed him, and he never obtained promotion. It is asatisfaction to me to reflect that I not only had my full revenge onthis man, but that I had been the instrument of turning him out of anhonourable profession which he would have disgraced.

  This was no time for frigates to be idle; and if I chose to give thename of mine and my captain, the naval history of the country wouldprove that ours, of all other ships, was one of the most distinguishedin the cause of Spanish freedom. The south of Spain became the theatreof the most cruel and desolating war. Our station was off Barcelona;and thence to Perpignan, the frontier of France on the borders of Spain.Our duty (for which the enterprising disposition of our captain wasadmirably calculated) was to support the guerilla chiefs; to cut off theenemy's convoys of provisions, either by sea or along the road which layby the sea-shore; or to dislodge the enemy from any stronghold he mightbe in possession of.

  I was absent from the ship on such services three and four weeks at atime, being attached to a division of small-arm men under the command ofthe third lieutenant. We suffered very much from privations of allkinds. We never took with us more than one week's provision, and werefrequently three weeks without receiving any supply. In the article ofdress, our "catalogue of negatives," as a celebrated author says, "wasvery copious;" we had no shoes nor stockings, no linen, and not all ofus had hats; a pocket-handkerchief was the common substitute for thisarticle; we clambered over rocks, and wandered through the flinty ormuddy ravines in company with our new allies, the hardy mountaineers.

  These men respected our valour, but did not like our religion or ourmanners. They cheerfully divided their rations with us, but were alwaysinexorable in their cruelty to the French prisoners; and no persuasionof ours could induce them to spare the lives of one of these unhappypeople, whose cries and entreaties to the English to intercede for orsave them were always unavailing. They were either stabbed before ourfaces, or dragged to the top of a hill commanding a view of somefortress occupied by the French, and, in sight of their countrymen,their throats cut from ear to ear.

  Should the Christian reader condemn this horrid barbarity, as hecertainly will, he must remember that those people were men whose everyfeeling had been outraged. Rape, conflagration; murder, and famine hadeverywhere followed the step of the cruel invaders; and, however wemight lament their fate and endeavour to avert it, we could not butadmit that the retaliation was not without justice. In this irregularwarfare, we sometimes revelled in luxuries, and at others were nearlystarved. One day, in particular, when fainting with hunger, we met afat, rosy-looking capuchin: we begged him to show us where we mightprocure some food, either by purchase or in any other way; but heneither knew where to procure any nor had he any money: his order, hesaid, forbade him to use it. As he turned away from us in someprecipitation, we thought we heard something rattle; and as necessityhas no law, we took the liberty of searching the padre, on whose personwe found forty dollars, of which we relieved him, assuring him that ourconsciences were perfectly clear, since his order forbade him to carrymoney; and that as he lived amongst good Christians, they would notallow him to want. He cursed us; but we laughed at him, because he hadproduced his own misfortune by his falsehood and hypocrisy.

  This was the manner in which the Spanish priests generally behaved tous; and in this way we generally repaid them when we could. We kept theplunder--converted it into food--joined our party soon after, andsupposed the affair was over; but the friar had followed us at adistance, and we perceived him coming up the hill where we werestationed. To avoid discovery we exchanged clothes, in such a manner asto render us no longer cognisable. The friar made his complaint to theguerilla chief, whose eyes flashed fire at the indignant treatment hispriest had received; and it is probable that bloodshed would have ensuedhad he been able to point out the culprit.

  I kept my countenance though I had changed my dress, and as he looked atme with something beyond suspicion, I stared him full in the face withthe whole united power of my matchless impudence, and in a loud andmenacing tone of voice, asked him in French if he took me for a brigand.The question, as well as the manner in which it was put, silenced, ifit did not satisfy, the priest. He seemed to listen with apparentconviction to the suggestion of some of our people, that he had beenrobbed by another party, and he set out in pursuit of them. I was quitetired of his importunities, and glad to see him depart. As he turnedaway, he gave me a very scrutinising look, which I returned withanother, full of well dissembled rage and scorn. My curling hair hadbeen well flattened down with a piece of soap, which I had in my pocket,and I had much more the appearance of a Methodist parson than apickpocket.

  Some time previous to this, the frigate to which I belonged had beenordered on other services; and as I had no opportunity of joining her, Iwas placed, _pro tempore_, on board of another. But as this chapter hasalready spun out its length, I shall refer my reader to the next forfurther particulars.