CHAPTER XX
"The captain was sitting with one foot upon the carronade in hisouter-cabin, looking through the port at the heavy Indiaman, as sheslued about and plunged in the blue surge, with all sorts of ugly ropeshanging from her bows, dirty pairs of trousers towing clear of the waterwhen she lifted, and rusty stains at her hawse-holes. A stout-built,hard-featured man he was, with bushy black eyebrows, and grizzled blackhair and whiskers, not to speak of a queer, anxious, uneasy look in thekeen of his eyes when he turned to me. However, he got half up on mycoming in, and I saw he was lame a little of one foot, while heoverhauled me all over with his eye. 'I'm sorry to have to send for youin this way, sir,' said he, rather surprised at my rig,apparently--'very sorry, sir, and no more about it; but I can't help it,confound me--_must_ do my duty.' 'Certainly, sir,' I said. 'In fact,'said Captain Wallis, 'the Admiral ordered us to see after you--_him_,that's to say--at the Cape, you know.' 'Ay, ay, sir,' said I, watchingthe Indiaman's poop-nettings through the port over his head, as he satdown. 'Pooh, pooh,' continued he, 'you can't be the man--just say youdon't belong to the service--confound it, I'll pass you!' 'Why, sir,'said I, 'I can't exactly say _that_.' 'I hear you're Westwood of the_Orestes_, though,' said he; 'now I don't ask you to say _no_, sir; buteverybody knew the _Orestes_, and I don't like the thing, I must say: soperhaps you're able to swear _he_ is not aboard the Indiaman--just now,you know, sir--_just now_, eh?'
"This tack of his rather dumfoundered me, seeing the captain of the brigmeant it well; but deuced unlucky kindness it was, since I couldn'tswear to the very thing he fancied so safe, and his glance was as quickas lightning, so he caught the sense of my blank look in a moment--as Ifancied, at least. 'The fact is, sir,' added he,'the surgeon told mejust now he knows Lieutenant Westwood well enough by sight so theylocked him up! You see we could have made you out at any rate,sir--however, we'll let the doctor stay till we're clear of theIndiaman, I think.' 'Then you take me for the gentleman you speak of,Captain Wallis?' asked I, faintly; for at the same moment I could see alight-coloured dress and a white ribbon fluttering on the_Seringapatam's_ poop, the look of which sent the blood about my heart.'Twas hard to settle betwixt a feeling of the kind, and fear forWestwood; it struck me Captain Wallis wasn't very eager in the affair,and 'twas on my lips to assure him I wasn't the man. 'Hark'ee,' broke inhe, with almost a wink, and a smile ready to break out on his mouth,'the short and the long of it is, I'll take _you_! We must have somebodyto show in the case; though now I remember, there was someone else saidto've gone off with you--but we won't trouble _him_! If we've broughtaway the wrong man, why, hang it, so much the better! If you'reWestwood, I can tell you, they'll run ye up to a yardarm, sir! Much morecomfortable than ten years or so in a jail, too, as--as no one knowsbetter than _I_ do myself.'
"Here the captain's face darkened, his eye gleamed, and he rose with alimp to ring a hand-bell on the table. 'White,' said he to the marinethat put his head in at the door, with his hand up to it, 'desire thefirst lieutenant, from me, to send a boat aboard for this gentleman'sthings.' 'I'm afraid, sir,' continued he gravely to me, 'you'll have toreckon yourself under arrest--but you'll find the gentlemen in thegun-room good company, I hope, for a day or two, till we make StHelena.' I saw the captain's mind was made up, and for the life of me Ididn't know what to say against it; but speak I could not, so with astiff bow and a sick sort of a smile I turned out of the door, andwalked along to the gun-room, which was empty. I could see the boat soonafter under the ship's side, dipping and rising as they handed down mycouple of portmanteaus to the man-o'-war's men; the young reefer camedown again as nimble as a monkey, with some letters in his hand, tookoff his cap to some ladies above, and sang out to give way; five or sixflashing feathers of the oars in the sunlight, and they were cominground the brig's stern.
"The brig was just squaring away her main-yard at the whistle from theboatswain's mates, when the whole run of the Indiaman's bulwarks wascrowded with the passengers' and men's faces, watching the brig gatherway to pass ahead; I could hear the officers on deck hail the Indiamates, wishing them a good voyage, the ladies bowing and waving theirhandkerchiefs to the British Union-Jack. Some sort of confusion seemedto get up, however, about the ship's taffrail, where Rollock, Ford, andsome others were standing together; the planter jumped up all at once onthe quarter-mouldings nearest the brig, then jumped down again, and hisstraw hat could be seen hurrying towards the quarter-deck.
"Next I caught a bright glimpse of Violet Hyde's face, as the sun shoton it free of the awnings--her eyes wandering with the brig's motion, Ifancied, along the deck above me, till suddenly she seemed to start, andWestwood appeared behind her. The next thing I saw was the black-facedfigure-head of the _Seringapatam_ rising below her bowsprit, about sixtyyards from the gun-room port where I was, and down she went again with aheavy plash, as Tom Westwood himself leapt up between the knight-headsat the bow, hailing the brig's deck with a voice like a trumpet. 'Ahoy!the _Podargus_ ahoy! For mercy's sake, heave to again, sir!' he sungout. 'I'm the man you want!' 'The Indiaman ahoy!' I heard Captain Wallishimself hail back. 'What d'ye say?' The creak of our yards, with theflap of the jib, and the men's feet, drowned Westwood's second hail, asit came sharp up to windward; the sailors in the Indiaman's bows weregrinning at him behind, while the first lieutenant of the brig shoutedgruffly that she had no time to wait for more letters; and I heard thegun-room steward say to the marine, on going out with the dirtybreakfast-cloth, he wondered if 'that parson cove thought the _Pedarkis_wanted a chapling,' or was only 'vun of these fellers that's sotroublesome to see the French Hemperor.'
"'Well,' said the marine, ''twas pretty queer if he took the _Pedarkis_for the ship to carry him there. I don't think the captain would let arat into the island if he could help it' 'Not he,' said the steward;'plenty on 'em in already, Vite, my man--I do think they used to swimoff on board here, by the way our cheese vent.' All this time I neverstirred from the port, watching with my chin on the muzzle of the guntill the Indiaman was half-a-mile to windward of us, her big hull stillrising and falling on the same swells, topped with clusters of heads;her topsails lowered in honour of the flag, the ensign blowing outhalf-mast high for the death of Captain Williamson; a long wash of thewater ran outside the brig's timbers, surge after surge, and the plungeat her bows showed how fast she began to run nor'-westward before thewind. You may well fancy my state, after all I'd done for weeks; infact, one scarce knew the extent of what he'd felt, what he'd lookedforward to, till he found himself fairly adrift from it; 'twould evenhave been nothing, after all, could I just have thought of Violet Hydeas I'd done two hours ago, on waking with last night in the river on mymind.
"As it was, 'twould have taken little to make me jump out of the portinto the sweep of blue water swelling toward the brig's counter; the_Seringapatam_ being by this time astern. I couldn't even see her, oraught save the horizon, to windward; but at this moment the young secondlieutenant came below, and, seeing me, he began in a polite enough way,with a kindly manner about it, trying to raise my spirits. 'I suppose,sir,' said I, rather sulkily I daresay, 'I can have a berth just now?''Oh, certainly,' said he, 'the steward has orders to see to it at once.Will you come on deck a minute or two in the meantime, sir?'
"I looked back from the ship astern to the brig-of-war's clean whitedecks, flush fore and aft, with the men all forward at their stations,neatly dressed in regular man-o'-war style, everyone alike--a sight thatwould have done me good at another time, small as she was by comparison;but the very thought of the Indiaman's lumbering poop and galleries wastoo much for me--'twas as if you'd knocked out those two round-housedoors of hers, and let in a gush of bare sky instead. The ship-shapeman-o'-war cut of things was nothing, I fancied, to the snug spot underthose top-gallant bulwarks of hers, and the breezy poop all a-flutterwith muslin of an evening, where you found books and little basketaffairs stuck into the coils of rope. I thought the old _Seringapatam_never looked so well, as she commenced trimming sail on a wind,beginning
to go drive ahead, with a white foam at her bows, and herwhole length broadside-on to us. All at once we saw her clue up coursesand to'-gallant sails, till she was standing slowly off under the threetopsails and jib; the two lieutenants couldn't understand what she wasabout, and the captain put the glass to his eye, after which he saidsomething to the second lieutenant, who went forward directly.
"The next thing I saw was the Indiaman coming up in the wind again forabout a minute; she had her stern nearly to us, when the moment after,as she rose upon a long sea, you saw something flash white off her leegangway in the sunlight, that dropped against it into the hollow of awave. The next minute she fell off again with her topsails full, and thefirst shower of spray was rising across her forefoot, when the flash ofa gun broke out of her side, and the sound came down to us; then asecond and a third. The brig gave her the same number in answer, and assoon as the smoke betwixt us had cleared away, the ship could be seenunder full sail to the south-westward by west. '_That_'s her poorskippers hammock dropped alongside, gentlemen,' said Captain Wallis tohis officers; 'God be with him.' 'Amen,' said the first lieutenant, andwe put our caps on again. 'Set stu'nsails, Mr Aldridge,' said thecaptain, limping down the hatchway; as for me, I leant I don't know howlong over the brig's taffrail, watching the ship's canvas grow in one,through the width of air betwixt us; my heart full, as may be supposed,not to say what notions came into my head of what might happen to herunder Finch's charge, ere she reached Bombay. No one belonging to thebrig spoke to me, out of kindness, no doubt; and the ship was hull-downon the horizon, to my fancy with somewhat of a figure like _hers_, whenshe stood with the cashmere shawl over her head in the dusk. Then I wentgloomily down to my berth, where I kept close by myself till I fellasleep, though the gun-room steward was sent to me more than once tojoin the officers.
"It wasn't till the next day, in fact, when I went on the quarter-deckat noon, wearied for a fresher gulp of air, that I saw any of them; andthe breeze having fallen lighter that morning, they were too busytrimming sail and humouring her to give me much notice. I must say I hadseldom seen a commander seem more impatient about the sailing of hiscraft, in time of peace, than the captain of the _Podargus_ appeared tobe; walking the starboard side as fast as the halt in his gait would lethim, and the anxious turn of his eyes plainer than before, while helooked from the brig's spread of stu'nsails to the horizon, through theglass, which, I may say, he never once laid down. From where the brigspoke the Indiaman, to St Helena, would be about two or three days' sailwith a fair wind, at the ordinary strength of the south-east trade;though, at this rate, it might cost us twice the time. I noticed the menon the forecastle look to each other now and then knowingly, at somefresh sign of the captain's impatience; and the second lieutenant toldme in a low voice, with his head over the side near mine, Captain Wallishad been out of sorts ever since they lost sight of the island. 'You'dsuppose, sir,' said he, laughing, 'that old _Nap_ was his sweetheart, bythe way he watches over him; and now, I fancy, he's afraid St Helena maybe sunk in blue water while we were away! In fact, Mr Westwood,' addedhe, 'it looks devilish like as if it had come up from Davy Jones, allstanding; so I don't see why it shouldn't go down to him again some day;I can tell you it's tiresome work cruising to windward there, though,and we aren't idle at all!'
"'Did you ever see the French Emperor yourself, sir?' asked I--for Imust say the thought of nearing the prison such a man was in made me alittle curious. 'Never, sir, except at a mile's distance,' said thesecond lieutenant; 'indeed, it's hard to get a pass, unless you know thegovernor. But I've a notion,' continued he, 'the governor's carefulnessis nothing to our skipper's! Indeed, they tell a queer story of how SirHudson Lowe was gulled for months together, when he was governor ofCapri island, in the Mediterranean. As for the captain, again, you'dseek a long time ere you found a better seaman--he's as wide awake, too,as Nelson himself; while the curious thing is, I believe, he never onceclapped eyes on Bonaparte in his life! But good cause he has to hatehim, you know, Mr Westwood!' 'Indeed,' said I, taking a moment'sinterest in the thing; and I was just going to ask the reason, when thefirst lieutenant came over to say Captain Wallis would be glad if Iwould dine with him in the cabin.
"At dinner-time, accordingly, I put on a coat, for the first time, lesslike those the cadets in the _Seringapatam_ wore, and went aft, where Ifound the first lieutenant and a midshipman with the captain. He did hisbest to soften my case, as I saw by his whole manner during dinner;after which, no sooner had the reefer had his one glass of wine, than hewas sent on deck to look out to windward. 'Well, sir,' said CaptainWallis thereupon, turning from his first luff to me, 'I'm sorry for thisdisagreeable business! I believe you deny being the person at all,though?' 'Why, sir,' said I, 'I am certainly no more the firstlieutenant of the _Orestes_ than yourself, Captain Wallis! 'Twas allowing to a mistake of that India mate, who owed me a grudge.' 'Oh, oh, Isee!' replied he, beginning to smile, 'the whole matter's as plain as ahandspike, Mr Aldridge! But I couldn't do less, on the information.''However, sir,' put in the first lieutenant, 'there's no doubt the realman must have been in the ship, or the mistake could not have happened,sir!' 'Well--you look at things too square, Aldridge,' said the captain.'All _you_'ve got to do, I hope, sir, is just to prove you're notWestwood; and if you want still to go out to the East Indies, why, Idaresay you won't be long of finding some outward-bound ship or otheroff Jamestown. Only, I'd advise you, sir, to have your case over withSir Pulteney, before Admiral Plampin comes in--as I fear he would sendyou to England.' 'It matters little to me, sir,' I answered; 'seeing thereason I had for going out happens to be done with.' Here I couldn'thelp the blood rising in my face; while Captain Wallis's steady eyeturned off me, and I heard him say in a lower key to the lieutenant, hedidn't think it was a matter for a court-martial at all. 'Pooh,Aldridge!' said he, 'some pretty girl amongst the passengers in thecase, I wager!' 'Why,' returned Aldridge, carelessly, 'I heard Mr Mooresay some of the ladies were pretty enough, especially one--some Indiajudge or other's young daughter--I believe he was in raptures about,sir.' This sort of thing, as you may suppose, was like touching one onthe raw with a marling-spike; when the captain asked me--partly tosmooth it over, maybe--'By-the-by, sir, Mr Aldridge tells me there wassomething about a pirate schooner, or slaver, or some craft of thekind, that frightened your mates--that's all stuff, I daresay--but whatI want to know is, in what quarter you lost sight of her, if yourecollect?' 'About nor'-west by north from where we were at the time,sir,' said I. 'A fast-looking craft was she?' asked he. 'Athorough-built smooth-going clipper, if ever there was one,' I said. Atthis the captain mused for a little, till at last he said to hislieutenant: 'They daren't risk it; I don't think there's the Frenchmanborn, man enough to try such a thing by water, Aldridge?' 'Help _him_out, you mean, sir?' said the luff; 'why, if he ever got as far as thewater's edge, I'd believe in witchcraft, sir!' 'Give a man time, MrAldridge,' answered the captain, 'and he'll get out of anything wheresoldiers are concerned--every year he's boxed up sharpens him till hisvery mind turns like a knife, man! It makes one mad on every pointbesides, I tell you, sir--whereas after he's free, perhaps, it's just on_that only_ his brain has a twist in it!' 'No doubt, Captain Wallis,'said Aldridge, glancing over to me, as his commander got up and beganwalking about the cabin, spite of his halt. 'D'ye know,' continued he,'I've thought at times what I should like best would be to have _him_ahead of the brig, in some craft or other, and we hard in chase--I'd goafter that man to the North Pole, sir, and bring him back! Without oncegoing aboard to know he was there, I'd send word it was Jack Wallis hadhim in tow!' 'What is Bonaparte like, then, after all, sir?' I asked,just to fill up the break. 'I never saw him, nor he me,' replied CaptainWallis, stopping in his walk; 'but every day he may have a sight of thebrig cruising to windward; and as for the island, we see plenty of _it_,I think, Aldridge?' 'Ay, ay, sir,' said Aldridge, 'that we do! For mypart, I can't get the ugly stone steeples of it out of my head!' 'Well,'continued the captain, 'at times, when we're beating round S
t Helena ofa night, I'll be hanged if I haven't thought it began to loom as if theFrench Emperor stood on the top of it, like a shadow looking out to seathe other way--and I've gone below lest he'd turn round till I saw hisface. I've a notion Mr Aldridge, if I once saw his face, I'd lose what Ifeel against him, just as I used always to fancy, the first five yearsin the _Temple_, if he were only to see _me_, he would let me out! Butthey say he's got a wonderful way of coming over everyone, if helikes!' After this, Captain Wallis sat down and passed the decanters,the first lieutenant observing, he supposed Bonaparte was a great man inhis way, but nothing to Nelson. 'Don't tack them together, Aldridge!'said his commander quickly; 'Nelson was a man all over, he'd got thefeelings of a man and his faults; but I call _him_, yonder, a perfectdemon let loose upon the world! To my mind all the blood thoserepublicans shed, with their murdered king's at bottom of it, gotsomehow into him, till he thought no more of human beings, or aughtconcerning 'em, than I do of so many cockroaches! But the terrible thingwas, sir, his infernal schemes, and his cunning: why, he'd twist you onecountry against another, and get hold of both, like a man bendingstu'nsail halliards; there were men grew up round him quick asmushrooms, fit to carry out everything he wanted; so one couldn't wonderat him enough, Mr Aldridge, if it was only natural! I can't tell youanything like what I felt,' he went on, 'when I was in Sir SydneySmith's ship, cruising down Channel, and we used to see the gun-boatsand flat-bottoms he got together for crossing the straits; or one nightwith poor Captain Wright, that we stood in near enough to get a shotsent at us off the heights--the whole shore about Boulogne was onetwinkle of lights and camp-fires, and you heard the sound of the hammerson planks and iron, with the carts and gun-carriages creaking--not tospeak of a hum from soldiers enough, you'd have thought, to eat OldEngland up! And where are they now?' 'I don't know, sir, indeed,' saidthe first lieutenant gravely, supposing by the captain's look, no doubt,that it was a question. 'What, Captain Wallis!' exclaimed I, 'were youwith Captain Wright, then, sir?' Of course, like everyone in theservice, I had heard Captain Wright's story often, with ever so manyversions; there was a mystery about his sad fate that made me curious tohear more of what gave the whole navy, I may say, a hatred to Bonapartenot at all the same you regard a fair enemy with.
"'_With_ him, say you, sir?' repeated the captain of the _Podargus_, 'aywas I! I was his first lieutenant, and good cause I had to feel for theend he came to, as I'll let you hear. One night Captain Wright wentashore, as he'd often done, into the town of Beville, dressed like asmuggler; for the fact was the French winked at smuggling, only I mustsay _we_ used to land men instead of goods. I didn't like the thing thatnight, and advised him not to go, as they'd begun to suspect somethingof late! However, the captain by that time was foolhardy, owing tohaving run so many risks, and he was bent on going in before we left thecoast; though, after all, I believe it was only to get a letter that anyfisherman could have brought off. The boat was lying off and on behind arocky point, and we waited and waited, hearing nothing but the sound ofthe tide making about the big weedy stones, in the shadow from thelights of the town; when at last the French landlord of the littletavern he put up at came down upon the shingle and whistled to us. Hegave me a message from Captain Wright, with the private word we hadbetween us, saying he wanted me to come up to the town on a particularbusiness. Accordingly I told the men to shove out again, and away I wentwith the fellow.
"'No sooner did I open the door of the room, however, than three or fourgendarmes had hold of me, and I was a prisoner: as for Captain Wright, Inever saw him more. The morning broke as they brought me up on horsebackin the middle of them, along the road to Paris, from whence I could makeout the cutter heeling to the breeze a mile or two off the land, withtwo or three gun-boats hard in chase.
"'Well, sir, at Paris they clapped me into a long gloomy-like piece ofmasonwork called the _Temple_, close alongside of the river, whereplenty of our countrymen were; Captain Wright and Sir Sydney Smithhimself among the rest, as I found out afterwards. The treatment wasn'tso bad at first; but when you climbed up to the windows, there wasnothing to be seen but the top of a wall and roofs of houses all round,save where you'd a glimpse of the dirty river and some pig-trough of aboat. One day I got a letter from Captain Wright--how they let me haveit I don't well know--saying he was allowed a good deal of comfort inthe meantime, but he suspected some devilish scheme in it, to make himbetray the British Government, or something of the kind; that he'd heardone of the French royalist generals had choked himself in his prison,but never to believe he'd do the same thing, though every night he wokeup thinking he heard the key turn in the door. The next thing I heardof was that Captain Wright had made away with himself, sir!'
"Here Captain Wallis got up again, walking across the cabin, seeminglymuch moved. 'Well, after that I slept with the dinner-knife in mybreast, till the jailer took it away; for I thought at the time thatpoor Wright had been murdered, though I found cause to change my mindwhen I knew what loneliness does with a man, not to speak of the notionbeing put before him to take his own life. For a while, too, CaptainShaw was in the same cell; by which time we had such bad food, and solittle of it, that one day when a pigeon lighted on the window, whichused to come there for a crumb or two every afternoon, right along withthe gold gleam of the sun as it shot over the dark houses to thatwindow, I jumped up and caught it. Shaw and I actually tore it in bits,and ate it raw on the spot; though 'twas long ere I could get rid of thenotion of the poor bird fluttering and cooing against the bars, andlooking at me with its round little soft eye as it pecked off the slab.But what was that to the thought of my old father that had hurt himselfto keep me in the navy, and me able now to make his last dayscomfortable? or the innocent young girl I had married the moment I gotmy commission of first lieutenant, expecting to be flush of prize-money?It even came into my head often, when I sat by myself in the cell theyafterwards put me into, alone, how that little blue pigeon might havecarried a letter to England for me; at any rate it was the only thinglike a chance, or a friend, I ever saw the whole time I was there; andfoolish as the notion may look, why the window was too high in a smoothwall for me once to reach it.
"'I heard all Paris humming round the thick of the stone every day, andsometimes the sound of thousands of soldiers tramping past below, overthe next bridge, with music and such like--no doubt when the FirstConsul, as they called him, went off to some campaign or other: then I'ddream I felt the deck under me in a fresh breeze at night, till the soulsickened in me to wake up and find the stones as still as before, andnow and then hear the sentries challenging on their rounds.
"'Well, one day, a fellow in a cloak, with a slouch hat over hisforehead, was let in to try, as I thought, if there was anything to begot out of me, as they tried two or three times at first; some spy hewas, belonging to that police devil Fouche. What did he offer me, d'yethink, after beating about the bush for half-an-hour, but the command ofa French seventy-four under the Emperor, as he was by that time, and, ifI would take it, I was free! On this I pretended to be thinking of it,when the police fellow sidled near me, to show a commission signed withthe Emperor's name at the foot.
"'In place of taking hold of it, however, I jumped up and seized thevillain's nose and chin before he saw my purpose, stuffed the parchmentinto his mouth by way of a gag, and made him dance round the cell, withhis cloak over his head and his sword dangling alongside of him, to keephis stern clear of my foot; till the turnkey heard the noise, and hemade bolt out as soon as the door was opened. You'd wonder how long thatsmall matter served me to laugh over, for my spirit wasn't broken yet,you see; but even then, in the very midst of it, I would all of a suddenturn sick at heart, and sit wondering when the exchange of prisonerswould be made that I looked for. The worst of it was, at times a horridnotion would come into my head of the French seventy-four being at seaat the moment, and me almost wishing they'd give me the offer overagain--I fancied I felt the very creak of her straining in the trough ofa sea, and saw the canvas of her top
sails over me, standing on her poopwith a glass in my hand, till she rose on a crest, and there were the_Agamemnon's_ lighted ports bearing down to leeward upon us, till Iheard Nelson's terrible voice sing out, "Give it to 'em, my lads!" whenthe flash of her broadside showed me his white face under the cockedhat, and it came whizzing over like a thirty-two-pound shot right intomy breast, as I sunk to the bottom, and found myself awake in theprison.
"'I don't know how long it was after, but they moved me to anotherberth, where a man had shot himself through the head, for we actuallymet his body being carried along the passage; and more than that, sir,they hadn't taken the trouble to wash his brains off the wall they werescattered on. There I sat one day after another, watching the spotmarked by them turn dry, guessing at everything that had gone throughthem as long as he was alive in the place, till my own got perfectlystupid; I was as helpless as a child, and used to cry at other timeswhen the jailer didn't bring me my food in time. I fancied they'd forgetall about me in England; and as for time, I never counted it, except bythe notion I had been two or three years in.
"'At last the turnkey got so used to me, thinking me no doubt such aharmless sort of a poor man, that he would sit by and talk to me, givingaccounts of the Emperor's battles and victories, and such matters. Imust say I began to feel as if he was some sort of a god upon earththere was no use to strive against, just as the turnkey seemed to do,more especially when I heard of Nelson's death; so when he told me onetime it wouldn't do for Fouche or the Emperor to let me out yet, I saidnothing more. "Will the Emperor not let me out _now_?" asked I, a longtime after. "_Diable!_" said the man, "do you think His Majesty has timeto think of such a poor fellow as you, among such great matters? No, no,_pauvr' homme_!" continued he; "you're comfortable here, and wouldn'tknow what to do if you were out! No fear of your doing as your Capitaine_Ourite_ did, since you've lived here so long, monsieur." "How long isit now, good Pierre?" asked I, with a sigh, as he was going out at thedoor; and the turnkey counted on his fingers. "Ulm--Austerlitz--Jena,"said he slowly; "_oui, oui_--I scarcely thought it so much--it wantsonly six or seven months of ten years!" and he shut-to the door. Isprang up off the bed I was sitting on, wild at the thought--I may say,for a day or two I was mad--ten years! ten years!--and all this timewhere was my poor innocent Mary, and the child she expected to bear whenI left Exeter--where was my old father? But I couldn't bear to dwell onit. Yes, Aldridge, by the God above, they had kept me actually _tenyears_ there, in that cursed Temple while _he_ was going on all the timewith his victories, and his shows, and his high-flown bulletins! Yet hewasn't too high, it seems, to stoop to give out, through his tools, howWright and I had both killed ourselves for fear of bringing in theBritish Government--not to offer me a seventy-four in a dungeon--_me_, aman used to wind and water, that loved a breeze at sea like life. 'Twasthe very devil's temptation, sir; but I'll tell you what, both CaptainWright and myself had been with Sir Sidney Smith at Acre, when _he_ wasbaffled for the first time in his days--_that_ was the thing, I believefrom my soul, that he hated us for. _I_ had a right to be exchanged tentimes over, though he might have called Wright a spy; but what was mypoor wife and her new-born baby, or my old father's gray hairs to _him_,and his great ambition to make everything his own--and when the verythought of me in my hole at the Temple would strike him in the midst ofhis victories, where he hadn't time, forsooth, to trouble himself abouta poor man like me. The fact was, I could tell how he offered a Britishseaman, that had had a finger in nettling him, the command of one of hisseventy-fours, which he had nobody fit to manage--and that in a prisonwhere I'd be glad even of fresh air.
"''Twas then, in fact, the purpose rose firmer and firmer in me, out ofthe fury that was like to drive me mad, how I'd get out of his clutches,and spend my life against the very pitch of his power I knew so wellabout. Till that time I used to look through the bars of the window atthe Seine, without ever fancying escape, low down as it was, comparedwith my last cell. There was a mark in the stone floor with my walkingback and forward since they put me in; and by this time I had thecunning of a beast, let alone its strength, in regard of anything I tookinto my head; often I used to think I saw the end of my finger, or thecorner of a stone, more like the way a fly sees them, than a man. Theturnkey, Pierre, would never let me have a knife to eat my food with,lest I should do as he said all we English were apt to do--killmyself--which, by-the-way, is a lie; and I think that fiend of anEmperor yonder must have taught them to blame us with their own crime.However, latterly he let me have a fork for half-an-hour at dinner; andfor a quarter of an hour every day, except those when he stayed to talkto me as I ate it, did I climb up and work with that fork at the top andbottom of one of the window-bars, taking care not to break the fork, andjumping down always in time to finish the meal. It took me four wholemonths, sir, to loosen them! Such deadly fear as I was in, too, lesthe'd find it out, or lest they moved me to another cell--you'd havethought I was fond of the walls round the place, where hundreds of menbefore me had scrawled their last words; and the one that shot himselfhad written, "_Liberte--aneantissement!_ "Liberty--annihilation!" justover where the spatter of his brains had stuck when he laid his head tothe spot! If Pierre had noticed what I'd been about, my mind was made upto kill him, and then make the trial before they missed him; but _that_I had a horror of, after all, seeing the man had taken a sort of likingto me, and I knew he had a wife.
"'Well, at last, one day I had the thing finished; when midnight came Itrembled like a leaf, till I began to fear I couldn't carry it through.I tore my shirt and the blanket in strips, to twist into a line, got outthe bar by main force, squeezed through, and let myself down. The linewas just long enough to let me swing against the cold wall, over asentry's head going round the parapet below; as soon as he was past, Idropped on the edge of the wall, and fell along it, my fingers scrapingthe smooth stone to no purpose, till I was sliding off into the dark,with the river I didn't know how far below me, though I heard it lappingagainst some boats at the other side.
"'For a few moments I was quite senseless from the fall into the water.The splash roused the sentinels, and three or four bullets whizzed intoit about me, as I struck out for the shore. Still the night was thickenough to help me clear off among the dark lanes in the city; and theupshot of it was that I found out some royalists, who supplied me with apedlar's dress; till, in the end, after I can't tell you how manyticklish chances, where my luck hung upon a hair, I reached the coast,and was taken off to a British frigate. At home, sir--at home, I foundI'd been given up long ago for a dead man in Bonaparte's prisons,and--and--the old man had been buried seven years, Aldridge--but not solong as my--wife. The news of my taking my own life in the Temple savedher the rest--'twas too much for her at the time, Aldridge--both she andher little one had lain in the mould nine years, when I stood looking atthe grass under Exeter Cathedral. I was a young man almost, still; butmy hair was as grizzled when I got out of the Temple in 1813, as you seeit now, and I'll never walk the deck fairly again. Aldridge,' added thecaptain of the _Podargus_, turning round and standing still, with a lowsort of a deep whisper, ''tis a strange thing, the Almighty's way ofworking--but I never thought--in the Temple yonder, longing for a heaveof the water under me--I I little thought John Wallis would ever cometo keep guard over his Majesty, the Emperor Napoleon!'
"When Captain Wallis stopped, the long send of the sea lifting the brigbelow us, with a wild, yearning kind of ripple from her bows back to hercounter, and weltering away astern--one felt it, I may say, somewhatlike an answer to him, for the breeze had begun to freshen: it had gotall of a sudden nearly quite dark, too, as is the case inside thetropics, without the moon. 'Let's go on deck, gentlemen,' said thecaptain, coming to himself; 'now clap on those other topmost stu'nsails,Mr Aldridge, and make her walk, sir'--'No saying,' I heard him mutter,as he let us go up before him--'no saying what the want of the_Podargus_ might do, off the island, these dark nights--with wateralongside, one can't be sure. I warrant me if _that man's_ dreams came
true, as mine did, he would be at the head of his thousands again,ruining the whole world, with men rotting out of sight in dungeons whilethe wind blows! Ay, dreams, young gentleman!' said he to me as we stoodon deck; 'I'll never get rid of that prison, in my head, nor the waythat dead man's brain seemed to come into mine, off the wall! But for mypart, off St Helena, 'tis Napoleon Bonaparte's dreams that enter into myhead. If you'll believe it, sir, I've _heard_ them as it were creepingand tingling round the black heights of the island at dead of night,like men in millions ready to break out in war-music, as I used to hearthem go over the bridge near the Temple--or in shrieks and groans; weall the time forging slowly ahead, and the surf breaking in at the footof the rocks. I know then _who's_ asleep at the time up in Longwood!'
"The brig-of-war was taking long sweeps and plunges before the wind; theSouthern Cross right away on her larboard quarter, and the very samestars spread all out aloft, that I watched a couple of nights before,close by Violet Hyde. The whole of what I'd just heard was nothing to mein a single minute, matched with the notion of never seeing her more.Everything I'd thought of since we left England was gone, even one'sheart for the service; and what to do now, I didn't know. I scarcenoticed it commence to rain, till a bit of a squall had come on, andthey were hauling down stu'nsails: the dark swells only to be seenrising with the foam on them, and a heavier cover of dull cloud risenoff the brig's beam, as well as ahead; so that you merely saw hercanvas lift before you against the thick of the sky, and dive into itagain. 'Twas just cleared pretty bright off the stars astern of us,however, wind rather lighter than before the squall, when the captainthought he made out a sail near about the starboard beam, where theclouds came on the water-line; a minute or two after she was plainenough in the clear, though looming nearly end-on, so that one couldn'twell know her rig. Thinking at first sight it might be the schooner,Captain Wallis was for bracing up, to stand in chase and overhaul her;but shortly after she seemed either to yaw a little, or fall off againbefore the wind like ourselves, at any rate showing three sticks on thehorizon, with square canvas spread, and evidently a small _ship_.
"'Some homeward-bound craft meaning to touch at the island,' saidCaptain Wallis, telling the first lieutenant to keep all fast; by whichtime she was lost in the dusk again, and I wasn't long of going below. Afancy had got hold of me for the moment, I can't deny, of its being the_Seringapatam_ after us on Westwood's owning himself; whereupon Ipersuaded myself Captain Wallis might perhaps take the risk on him ofletting us both go. For my part, I felt by this time as if I'd rather bein the same ship with _her_, hopeless though it was, than steer this wayfor the other side of the line; and I went down with a chill at my heartlike the air about an iceberg.
"Not being asleep, however, a sudden stir on deck, an hour or two afterthat, brought me out of my cot, to look through the scuttle in the side.The brig had hauled her wind from aft on to her starboard quarter,making less way than _before_ it, of course; I heard the captain's voicenear the after-hatchway, too; so accordingly I slipped on my clothes,and went quietly up. The _Podargus_ was running through the long broadswells usual thereabouts, with her head somewhere toward north-east; theofficers all up, the whole of the crew in both watches clustered beyondthe brig's fore-course, and the captain evidently roused, as well asimpatient; though I couldn't at first make out the reason of her beingoff her course. As soon as she fell off a little, however, to my greathorror I could see a light far ahead of us, right in the gloom of theclouds, which for a moment you'd have supposed was the moon rising redand bloody, till the heave of the sea betwixt us and it showed how bothof us were dipping: and now and then it gave a flaring glimmer fair outfrom the breast of the fog-bank, while the breeze was sending a brownpuff of smoke from it now and then to leeward against the clouds;through which you made a spar or two licking up the flame, and a rag ofcanvas fluttering across on the yard.
"Twas neither more nor less than a ship on fire--no doubt the vesselseen abeam of us that evening--a sight at which Captain Wallis seeminglyforgot his hurry to make St Helena, in the eagerness shown by all aboardto save the poor fellows. Suddenly there was another wild gleam from theburning craft, and we thought it was over altogether, when up shot awreath of fire and smoke again, then a fierce flash with a blue burst offlame, full of sparks, and all sorts of black spots and broken things,as if she had blown up while she heaved the last time on the swell.Everything was pitch dark next minute in her place, as if a big blot ofink had come instead; the brig-of-war herself rolling with a flap of herheadsails up against the long heavy bank of cloud that blocked thehorizon. 'Keep her away, sirrah!' shouted Captain Wallis, and the_Podargus_ surged ahead as before, all of us standing too breathless tospeak, but counting the heads of the waves as they flickered past herweather-beam. 'God's sake!' exclaimed the captain at last, 'this isterrible, Aldridge. If I had only overhauled her, as I meant at first,we might have helped them in time; for no doubt the fire must have beencommenced when we noticed her yawing yonder a couple of hours ago, sir.''I think not, sir,' said his lieutenant; '_we_ were against the clear;and if they'd been in danger _then_, she'd have fired a distress-gun.There couldn't have been much powder aboard, sir--more likely rum, Ithink!'
'For Heaven's sake!' continued the captain, 'let's look about--she mustsurely have had boats out, or something, Mr Aldridge! The best thing wecan do is to fire a few times as we bear down--see that bow-gun clearedaway, Mr Moore, and do it!'
"We might have been about a mile, as was guessed, from where she waslast seen, when the brig fired a gun to windward, still standing onunder everything. At the second flash that lighted up the belly of theclouds, with the black glitter of the swells below them, I fancied Icaught a moment's glimpse of something two or three miles away. It wastoo short to say, however; and soon after the twinkle of a light,seemingly hoisted on a spar, was seen little more than half-a-mile uponthe brig's lee-bow, dipping and going out of sight at times, but plainenough when it rose. Down went the _Podargus_ for the spot, sending thefoam off her cutwater; and it was no long time before a wild hail fromseveral voices could be made out almost close aboard. Ten minutes aftershe was brought to the wind, heaving a rope to the men on a loose raftof casks and spars, as it pitched alongside of her, with the sail hauleddown on a spar they had stuck up, and a lantern at the head of it; afterwhich the raft was cast off, and the poor fellows were safe on board.
"Two of them seemed to be half-drowned, the one wrapped up in a wetpilot-coat, his face looking white and frightened enough by the glimmerof the lanterns: the other darker a good deal, so far as I could makehim out for the crowd about him, and he didn't seem able to speak;accordingly both of them were taken at once below to the surgeon. Therest were four half-naked blacks, and a little chap with earrings and aseaman's dress who was the spokesman on the quarter-deck to thecaptain's questions--plainly American by his snuffling sort of drawl.
"'Are there no more of you afloat?' was the first thing asked, to whichthe Yankee sailor shook his head. She was an American bark, he said,from a voyage of discovery round the two Capes; and he was mate himself,and the skipper, being addicted to his cups, had set a cask of rum onfire; so finding they couldn't get it under besides being wearied at thepumps, on account of an old leak, the men broke into the spirit-room,and got dead drunk. He and the blacks had patched up a raft in a hurryfor bare life, barely saving the passenger and his servant who hadjumped overboard; the passenger was a learned sort of a man, and hisservant was a Mexican. Most of this I found next day, from the gun-roomofficers; however, I heard the mate of the burnt barque inquire of thecaptain whereabouts they were, as the skipper was the only man who coulduse a chronometer or quadrant, and the last gale had driven them out oftheir reckonings a long way. 'Somewhere south of the Line, I guess?'said he; but, on being told, the fellow gave a bewildered glance roundhim, seemingly, and a cunning kind of squint after it, as I fancied.'Well,' said he, 'I guess we're considerable unlucky; but I consider toturn in, if agreeable!' The man had a way, in fact, half fr
ee-and-easy,half awkward that struck me; especially when he said, as he went below,he supposed 'this was a war-brig,' and hoped there 'wasn't war betweenthe States and the old country?' 'No, my man,' said the captain, 'youmay set your mind at ease on that point; but I'm afraid, nevertheless,we'll have to land you at St Helena!'
"'What, mister?' said the American, starting, 'that's where you've gotBoneyparty locked up? Well now, if you give me a good berth for a few,mister, I guess I'll rayther ship aboard you, till I get a better!What's your wage just now, if I may ask, captain?' 'Well, well,' saidthe captain, laughing, 'we'll see to-morrow, my man!'--and the Americanwent below. 'Set stu'nsails again, Mr Aldridge,' continued CaptainWallis, 'and square yards. Why, rather than have such a fellow in theship's company, Aldridge, I'd land him without Sir Hudson's leave!'
"For my own part, next day, I should have given more notice to our newshipmates while the brig steered fair before the wind--the blacks andthe mate leaning about her forecastle, and the other two being expectedby the surgeon to come pretty well round before night, though thecaptain had gone to see them below; but a thing turned up all at oncethat threw me once more full into the thought of Violet Hyde, till I wasperfectly beside myself with the helpless case I was in. The note TomWestwood had shown me was still in the pocket of my griffin's coat,though I hadn't observed it till now; and what did I feel at findingout, that, instead of one from her to Westwood, it was a few words frommy own sister, little Jane, saying in a pretty, bashful sort of way,that her brother Ned must come home before she could engage to anything!You may fancy how I cursed myself for being so blind; but a fellow neverthinks his own sister charming at all--and what else could I have doneat any rate? All I hoped for, was to get aboard of some Indiaman at StHelena, and there was nothing else I wearied to see the island againfor. I may say I walked the brig's lee quarter-deck till daybreak; butanyhow the look-out from the foreyard had scarce sung out 'St Helena onthe weather-bow!' when I was up, making out the round blue cloud in themidst of the horizon, with a white streak across it, like a bird afloatin the hazy blue, with the clear gleam from eastward off our starboardquarter running round to it.
The Green Hand: Adventures of a Naval Lieutenant Page 23