CHAPTER ELEVEN.
THE ROAD TO AJACCIO.
My descent to the midshipmen's berth for the purpose of making my fewpreparations was the signal for a general fusillade of questions from myinquisitive messmates as to the why and wherefore of my summons to thecabin, and great was the disgust which each felt that _he_ had beenpassed over in favour of so unimportant a personage as myself. It wasquite true that no one of them could claim to possess more than themerest rudimentary knowledge of French, yet each was prepared with whathe considered an amply sufficient reason why he should have beenspecially selected for the service.
Mr Midshipman Raleigh maintained that the duty was his by right, invirtue of his seniority; and as to his ignorance of French, that was amere trifle which he was quite satisfied would never have proved theslightest impediment to his success.
Little Percy Neville--a blue-eyed, golden-haired lad whom not even ablind man could well have mistaken for anything else than pure Anglo-Saxon--flattered himself that "the cut of his jib" was so eminentlyFrench as to deceive even the most practised eye; while as to language,he could say _bonjour or bon soir_, and bow with the air of a bornParisian. These accomplishments were, he considered, amply sufficientto ensure his perfect safety while travelling, and to enable himtriumphantly to accomplish his mission--if need were--in the full lightof day, and under the very eyes of unsuspecting thousands.
Mr Robert Summers was of opinion that that was all very well, and_might_ do; but if _he_ had been entrusted with the duty, his first stepwould have been to proceed straight to Ajaccio, and there disburse someof the French coin in the acquisition of an organ and monkey, togetherwith a full suit of picturesque Italian rags, all of which he knew wouldbe easily procurable; and provided with these, he would have feltprepared to face with the most unruffled nonchalance the severestscrutiny of a whole regiment of French detectives--the acuteness of themere soldiery he considered would have proved simply beneath hiscontempt.
Each of the other "young gentlemen" was equally ready to suggest aninfallible scheme for baffling the vigilance of the enemy; and if theconversation had no other value, it at least served to amuse me whilemaking my preparations for the expedition.
The money was mostly paper, and my first act was to carefully secrete itamong the lining of the suit of "long togs" which I had decided to bendfor my cruise ashore. I then packed a small leather bag with a shirt ortwo, selecting such as--I say it with shame--I had been too lazy tomark, a pair of socks, a brush and comb, a piece of soap--afterwardsrejected upon the urgent representation of Bob Summers that the French_never_ used soap, much less carried it about with them--and a few othernecessaries of trifling bulk, together with a small sketch-book and abox of colours; my idea being that the best way to elude inconvenientattention was by neither courting nor avoiding it, and my intention wasto endeavour to pass as a young German artist student on a sketchingtour, a sufficient knowledge of German and drawing for such a purposebeing among my accomplishments. Lastly, I summoned up courage to ask ofMr Annesley the loan of a pair of beautiful little pocket-pistols whichI had frequently noticed when I had had occasion to go to his cabin.
This completed my equipment, and by the time that I was ready and oncemore on deck the frigate had approached to within some six miles of theland, and was in the act of heaving-to, it being considered that we werenow as close in as it was prudent to go.
When I stepped on deck, Captain Hood was on the quarter-deck, talking toMr Annesley and Mr Rawlings, the master--who was so far convalescentas to be able once more to resume the duties of his post--and as Iapproached the group, I heard the skipper remark, "And so you knowAjaccio well, Mr Rawlings?"
"Ay, ay, sir," responded the master, "almost as well as I knowPortsmouth Harbour; I have been in there twice, and can put the shipwherever you want her, within a fathom or so, dark as it is."
"Is there not a ruin of some sort close to the water's edge, about sixmiles to the southward of the town?"
"There is, sir; an old chapel I believe it is. The ground rises rathersteeply from the water's edge there, and is covered with trees. Theruin stands just on the edge of an over-hanging bank, about thirty feetabove high-water mark; and the beach below is--or was when I saw itlast--littered with stones and blocks of masonry which have fallen fromthe building."
"Would it be safe to attempt a landing there with a boat on such a nightas this?" asked the skipper.
"Couldn't find a safer spot to land on anywhere in the island,"confidently replied Rawlings. "The beach is all shingle, and prettysteep, bottom quite clear of rocks, and not a ripple there with the windthis way. Run the boat's nose up high and dry, and jump out on to thebeach without wetting your feet. Then, as to the chance of beingdiscovered, the place is dreadful lonesome, specially at night--they dosay as it's ha'nted, though I can't vouch for the truth of the story;but I _do_ know this much, that the last time I was ashore there, I tooka stroll out as far as the ruin towards nightfall, and they told me as Idon't know what would happen if I went there; nobody ever went a-nearthe place at nightfall, so they said."
"And _did_ anything happen?" inquired Mr Annesley.
"Lord bless you! no, sir. I enjoyed the walk amazingly; sat and smokedmy pipe among the ruins, and watched the sun go down; stayed there tillthe moon rose, and then walked back again to the town, and never saw asoul within a mile of the spot all the while I was there."
"Does not the high road to Ajaccio pass close by the ruin?" inquired theskipper.
"Within a cable's length of it," replied Rawlings. "And when onceyou're in the road, turn to the left, and it's all plain sailing for therest of the way right into the town. There's only one turning in theroad, and that's just after you leave the ruin; but it is only a narrowroad; it turns to the right, and leads off somewhere among the hills."
"Just so," remarked the skipper in a tone of great satisfaction. "WhatRawlings says agrees most accurately with the information supplied tous, you see," he continued, addressing Mr Annesley; "so I think ifyoung Chester only follows out his instructions with ordinary care, heshould have no difficulty in finding the place to which he is sent."
"None whatever, I should imagine," returned Mr Annesley. "He is veryyoung, I admit, to be entrusted with such important documents, but onthat very account he is all the less likely to attract attention; and Ihave the utmost faith in his readiness of resource, which I believe isquite equal to the task of keeping him clear of all difficulty. Do youstill feel quite confident of success?" he asked, turning to me.
"Perhaps I ought not to say quite so much as that, sir," I replied, "butI feel no nervousness whatever, and I will do all I possibly can tosucceed."
"That is quite sufficient," said the skipper. "And now it is time youwere off. Let them man my gig, the crew taking their sidearms withthem. And as you know the place so well, Mr Rawlings, I will ask youto take command of the expedition, and kindly put Mr Chester fairly inthe main road to Ajaccio. Remember, Mr Chester--the first turning tothe right."
"Ay, ay, sir," I replied. A few brief and final instructions were givenme; the skipper once more shook hands, and wished me success, MrAnnesley following suit; and then, the gig being by that time manned andin the water, I slipped down the side and seated myself in the stern-sheets alongside old Rawlings, the bowman shoved off, and the crew,dropping their oars with a splash into the water and dashing it intoliquid fire, stretched out to their work, sending the light boat dancingover the wavelets toward the distant shore, and leaving far astern aluminous wake, with six small whirlpools of fire eddying on each side ofit.
We pulled steadily on for half an hour, and then, that no precautionmight be omitted, the crew were ordered to muffle their oars. Thisdone, we resumed our way, but at a much quieter pace, the land rising upbefore us an uniform black mass against the deep violet of the star-studded sky, without the faintest suggestion of detail of any kindwhereby to direct our course. How Rawlings could possibly hit a spot soabsolutely invisible as t
he ruin seemed quite incomprehensible to me;but there is no doubt he was specially gifted in that respect, it beingapparently impossible for him to forget or confuse the slightest detailsof any locality which he had once visited.
Be that as it may, we paddled gently on until the boat was so completelywithin the shadow of the land that we were in utter darkness, it beingimpossible to distinguish the face of the stroke oarsman from where Isat. A few more strokes, and Rawlings uttered in a low tone the word"oars!" they were noiselessly laid in, and in another moment the boat'sbow grated upon the shingle of the beach.
"Now as soon as we have landed, shove off to about fifty or sixtyfathoms from the beach, and lay on your oars, ready to pull quietly inagain when you hear me whistle three times. But if I _hail_ instead ofwhistling, bend your backs and send her in upon the beach with all yourstrength, and then jump out and shove her off again the moment I'maboard, for in that case I shall have Johnny Crapaud after me," saidRawlings to the coxswain, as we stepped gingerly forward to the bow ofthe boat.
As soon as our feet touched the shingle, we turned round, and giving theboat's nose a vigorous shove launched her off the beach, with enoughstern-way upon her to carry her the prescribed distance from the beachwithout the aid of the oars. As we stood for a moment watching her, wewere much disconcerted to observe how distinctly she could be seen uponthe surface of the starlit water by eyes which had become accustomed tothe surrounding gloom.
I should have been seriously apprehensive of almost instant discovery,but for Rawlings's steady adherence to his original statement that noone would ever approach the place after dusk upon any consideration. Asit was, I felt that the sooner Rawlings was once more on board and onhis way back to the ship, the easier should I be in my mind; I thereforeproposed that we should push ahead for the high road without furtherpause.
The spot was indeed of a character calculated to impress with awe andsuperstitious dread the uneducated mind. The ground sloped steeplytoward the shore, terminating, at its juncture with the beach, in a sortof low cliff or precipitous bank about thirty feet high, the face ofwhich was densely overgrown with shrubs of various kinds, from the midstof which irregular strata of a coarse dirty-white marble cropped out.On the extreme verge of the cliff stood the shattered ruin alreadyreferred to, barely distinguishable from where we stood, as a gaunt,shapeless, indefinable mass; while the beach below was encumbered withstones and blocks of masonry which had fallen from it from time to time.The uneven surface of the ground for some distance on each side of theruin, and as far back as the road, was completely overshadowed byenormous cypress-trees, all of which seemed extremely ancient, whilesome appeared quite dead and withered. There was, in addition to thesetrees, a thick undergrowth of long rank grass and stunted shrubs, amongwhich an outrageously prickly variety of the cactus made itselfconspicuously apparent to the touch; while, more than half hidden by theundergrowth, there were dotted here and there a few sepulchral stonesand monuments in the very last stage of irretrievable dilapidation. Addto these sombre surroundings the melancholy sighing of the night-windthrough the branches of the trees overhead, and the occasional weird cryof some nocturnal bird, and it will not be wondered at if I confess Ifelt a strong desire to get beyond the precincts of the eerie place withas little delay as possible.
After listening intently for a minute or two, without hearing any soundwhatever indicative of the proximity of the enemy, our eyes meanwhilegrowing more accustomed to the intense darkness, we pushed forward asrapidly as the nature of the ground would permit, and in about tenminutes more found ourselves in an excellent road about sixty feet wide,which Rawlings informed me led direct to Ajaccio, distant about sevenmiles.
"Now, Mr Chester," said he, "my duty is ended as far as you areconcerned, and all I have to do is to slip back to the beach and get offto the ship as soon as possible, and we shall not be long running out toher with this pretty little breeze. I only wish your task was as easyas the remainder of mine--but there, if it was, there'd be no honour norcredit in the doing of it, whereas I make no manner of doubt that if yousucceed in this business your promotion will be certain the momentyou've sarved long enough, and anyway it'll be a fine feather in yourcap. I got an inkling of what it is, while talking to the skipper justnow, but didn't get quite the rights of it; is it a secret?"
"Certainly not from _you_" I replied; "at least I have not been given tounderstand so. My errand is merely to deliver certain papers into thehands of a certain individual ashore here, and then rejoin the ship asearly as possible. The task would be absurdly easy, were it not for theunsettled state of the country, which seems to be all up in arms, whatwith the French, the insurgent Corsicans, and the banditti, the latterbeing, I am told, especially dangerous."
"No doubt--no doubt!" remarked Rawlings in an absent sort of way."Well, I wish you well over your cruise, my lad; keep a cool head, forit seems to me that you've white water all round you, whichever way youshape a course. Concerning the rejoining business, how are you going toset about that?"
"Captain Hood advised me to make the best of my way to the northern endof the island, as soon as I have delivered my despatches; he thinks itmost likely I shall find the `Juno' there."
"Ay, ay? So that's it, eh?" ejaculated Rawlings. "Well, I s'poseyou'll haul your land-tacks aboard for that trip; it'll be a change fromknocking about at sea. But if you find you can't work that traverse,just you slip down to Ajaccio some quiet night; there's a whole fleet ofpleasure-boats of all sorts and sizes there; just jump aboard one of'em, slip your moorings, and make a coasting v'yage of it. They're mostof 'em capital sea-boats, and you know a good model when you see one bythis time, I s'pose. Don't take a larger craft than you can handle,and, above all, don't take a lateener; they're fine craft when they havea full crew aboard as knows how to handle 'em, but they're dreadfulawkward for one hand. You'll find some little things about five-and-twenty foot over all; they're plenty large enough, and some of 'em areregular leg-o'-mutton-rigged--a big sail for'ard and a jigger aft; theysail like witches, and'll go right in the wind's eye. Look out for oneof them chaps; one man can handle 'em in any weather. And now I must beoff. Good-bye, my lad, and good luck to ye."
So saying, he shook hands, and, plunging into the shrubbery,disappeared.
Under the Meteor Flag: Log of a Midshipman during the French Revolutionary War Page 11