The Rock of the Lion

by Molly Elliot Seawell

  CHAPTER X

  When Archy went below, after dining in the Admiral's cabin, he wasdistressed to find that Langton had grown worse instead of better duringthe day, and was in a high fever. As the night wore on it increased todelirium. His injuries in the shipwreck began to trouble him again,especially his three broken ribs, and the mere motion of the ship atanchor gave him poignant pain. Towards morning Dr. MacBean, who hadwatched him, with Archy, all night, said:

  "Mr. Langton must be taken ashore immediately, and there will be no morecruising for him for a good long time."

  Archy heard this with mixed pleasure and regret. He was truly distressedat Langton's sufferings. But the idea that he would have his friend'scompany at Gibraltar, for what he thought would be a short and ratherinteresting period, was undeniably pleasing to him. They got Langtonashore early that morning and established him in the old stone buildingwhich served for a hospital, and there Archy nursed him faithfully, butvery awkwardly, for many days. Langton was desperately ill; and,although it was known that he would probably recover, it was out of thequestion that he should leave with the fleet, which was to sail thefirst fair wind after the 10th of February.

  Archy's sole recreation in those dreary days of watching Langton'ssufferings, when the issue might be life or death, was a solitaryevening walk up to Europa Point and back. He did not forget his newfriends, the Curtises, and their kindness and sympathy were grateful tohim. One of the first things Captain Curtis said to him was:

  "The Spanish lines are advancing so rapidly that I make no doubt theywill soon get the range of the hospital, and if your friend has to bemoved you could not do better than come up here. It is safe, and it ishealthier, I think, than the spots lower down."

  Archy thanked him warmly, and immediately went to work to have a hut setup, like Mrs. Curtis's, and very close to it. He got some blankets andmattresses from the ship, and in a day or two he had a place to takeLangton whenever the hospital shared the fate of most of the buildingsin the lower town, and began to fall about their ears.

  On the morning of the 13th of February, the wind being fair, AdmiralRodney's fleet picked up their anchors, and, amid a roar of cheers andthe thunder of guns, the ships took their way towards the open sea. Thegarrison, refreshed and encouraged, and with supplies for many months,yet with sorrow, saw them go; and as Archy, standing on the mole, caughtsight of the _Royal George_ rounding Cabrita Point in her usual grandstyle and leading the fleet, as she always did, his heart gave a greatthump of regret--vain as most regrets are. He had been a prisoner onher--he had not been a free man for many long months--but he had beenkindly treated, he had made friends, and it seemed more natural to him,sailor that he was, to be afloat than ashore. But he had readily adoptedthe sanguine view of the officers of the fleet, and most of those of thegarrison, that the siege was nearing an end; nor was this pleasingdelusion shattered until sunset of the day that had seen the Britishfleet sail away.

  Just as the sun was sinking he left Langton in charge of a nurse andclimbed to the top of Jacob's-ladder. When he found himself on thehighest point of the Rock, he thought he had never seen a loveliersight, except on that evening, four months before, when he had caughtthe first glimpse of Gibraltar from the deck of the _Seahorse_. Deeplyblue and deliciously calm lay the Mediterranean, spread before him inthe soft glow of evening. The little British squadron which wasstationed at Gibraltar lay motionless at anchor, the work of the daydone. From the batteries below him he could hear the faint commotion ofrelieving the guard, and the mellow notes of a single bugle floated up.Then the sunset gun boomed over the waters, and the salute was soundedon the ships; but the exquisite silence, the hour, the scene, thedistance, made it all seem like the music of a dream.

  Archy was of a nature susceptible to these charms, and from impetuousactions and uproarious spirits he often fell into moments of soft andnot unpleasing melancholy. He was thinking of the history of theRock--the valor that had won it, the patriotic anguish of the Spaniardsthat another nation should possess it, the gallant lives laid down oneither side in the effort to take it or to keep it--when he heard astep behind him, and Captain Curtis was standing near him.

  "Good-evening, Mr. Baskerville. I see we have the same taste inselecting this spot for an evening walk. Usually, I find it quitedeserted at this time of day."

  "I find my only chance of air and exercise is at this time, when I canleave my friend and cousin, Mr. Langton, for an hour or two. He isbetter now than he has been, and I hope in a week or two I may be ableto leave him and get through the Spanish lines, on my way to France."

  "Do you think the Spaniards will let you through?"

  "Of course," cried Archy, amazed and disconcerted at Captain Curtis'stone.

  "I hope so, for your sake, but I question it. You can undoubtedly get tothe headquarters of the Spanish commander, Don Martin de Soltomayer, atany time you like, under a flag of truce; but I have very littleexpectation that they will let you through their lines--certainly notnow, when the fortress has just been revictualled, and you wouldprobably represent to the outside world that we are in no danger ofstarvation for a long time to come. It is the Spanish policy to maketheir people think that we are on the verge of surrender. Besides, theywill at once suspect you to be a spy, and it takes a long time to removesuspicion from the Spanish mind. And what object have they in lettingany one out of here? Not the smallest. So, Mr. Baskerville, I think thatyour anticipation of getting away, like that of some of our military andnaval friends here and abroad, who believe the siege will shortly beraised, is a mistake. You are in for a good long term--that you maydepend upon."

  Archy was staggered by this, and walked along in silence by CaptainCurtis's side, wondering at his rash presumption that he could get outof Gibraltar as easily as he had got in. Suddenly he burst out:

  "What folly was mine! I should have remained with the fleet!"

  Archy's heart sank lower and lower as Captain Curtis continued:

  "I know the temper of the Spanish people, and they mean to takeGibraltar if it is in the power of mortal man. They will soon have theassistance of the French; and a French engineer is a very dangerousperson to his enemies, I can tell you. The garrison is relieved atpresent--but I look for an attack by land and sea that will test ourmettle. Luckily, we have a Governor who does not know the meaning of theword surrender. He set the example to the garrison of having his ownhorse killed and distributed for food, and has lived, for some timepast, on a few ounces of rice a day, and the little fish we catch, thatare no larger than sprats."

  Archy was silent with disappointment and consternation after this. Atlast he said, determinedly:

  "At all events, I shall do my best to get Don Martin de What's-his-nameto let me out."

  "Come," said Captain Curtis, feeling sorry for him, "let us go up to myhut and see my wife and little girl. You are a prime favorite with themboth already."

  As they neared the hut they heard the sound of singing--a man'sbarytone, full and rich, and a child's treble, shrill but sweet.

  "That is my little girl," said Captain Curtis, with a smile, "and my manJudkins. He carried Dolly in his arms when she was a baby, and, Ibelieve, loves her better than anything on earth. Her first playthingswere his cap and belts, and he is still her favorite playfellow. He hasa fine voice, as you can tell, and has taught Dolly every song in theBritish army, but none of the navy songs; for Judkins was in the armybefore he was a marine."

  "I understand," replied Archy, laughing. "There is no love lost betweensailors and marines."

  Presently they could distinguish the two companions--the old marine andthe little girl--sitting together on a rock, Dolly wrapped up in a hugecloak of Judkins's, and both of them singing, at the top of theirvoices, the fine old song "The British Grenadiers."

  "Whene'er we are commanded to storm the palisades, Our leaders march with fuses and we with hand-grenades; We throw them from the glacis about the enemy's ears. Sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, row, for th
e British Grenadiers."

  Just then the singers became aware of their audience. Judkins stoppedshort in the midst of a "tow, row, row," and jumped as if he were shot,while Dolly ran and swung around her father's legs, and then turned herattention to Archy.

  "I haven't been hungry since you came," she said, "and Judkins and I cansing a great deal louder and better when we aren't hungry--can't we,Judkins?"

  "Yes, miss," replied Judkins, standing rigidly at "attention," anddeeply embarrassed.

  Archy begged them to continue, and Dolly quite readily, and Judkinsblushing very much, evidently enduring agonies of sheepishness, yetobeyed orders, and gave "The Lincolnshire Poacher," "The Dashing WhiteSergeant," and other famous songs of the British army.

  Nothing could exceed the kindness and sweetness of Mrs. Curtis towardsArchy. In some way she at once divined that he was motherless, and histenderness to Dolly showed that he had a good heart. As for Archyhimself, in spite of his fondness for "seeing life" and his adventurousdisposition, he felt all the sweetness and charm of domestic life, andwas quite happy to be even a chance partaker in the home circle that wasyet to be found in the rude shelter to which the Spanish cannonade haddriven his new-found friends. He remained until it was time for CaptainCurtis to return to his ship, and after a cordial invitation from Mrs.Curtis to visit them often, and an affectionate good-night from Dolly,Archy returned to his quarters at the hospital.

  He lay awake that night, troubled by what Captain Curtis had told him;but in the morning his irrepressible spirits reasserted themselves, andhe began to think that, after all, he might get away.

  That day Langton was much better in health, but low in his mind over thedeparture of the fleet, and Archy very indiscreetly let out CaptainCurtis's opinion as to the length of the siege.

  "Then we shall lose Gibraltar, I am afraid," said Langton, sadly.

  "What are you talking about?" cried Archy. "It takes a lot of beating towhip an Englishman--_we_ know it to our sorrow. But, nevertheless, wewill soon chase all of your beggarly redcoats out of America; then youcan turn your whole attention to the Don Spaniards; and then--Lord help'em! And you will be going back to England and be adopted by LordBellingham in lieu of me, while I shall be captain of a smart littlefrigate under the American colors, and I'll call and see you atBellingham Castle. Oh, great guns, what fun I'll have! You ought to knowyour venerable grandfather, my boy; you'll often wish, when you arerolling in splendor at Bellingham, that you were at Gibraltar living onrice and salt fish. Uncle Baskerville is a trump--as fine an old chapas I know, if he would but leave off his sermons to me about returningto my allegiance to my king and country, and taking my place as theprospective heir and head of the Baskerville family. But ourgrandfather--oh, ye gods!"

  Langton laughed feebly at this, and Archy, hauling a letter out of hispocket, said, "Here is a copy of the letter I sent by the fleet, and Ishall send this copy by the first expedition to the African coast, inhopes that in one way or the other it may reach Bellingham Castle. Thisis to my grandfather." And Archy read with a great flourish:

  "'HONORED SIR,--I take the first opportunity of communicating with you and my uncle, after my singular disappearance from York, at the Assizes. The story of my adventures is briefly this: A press was organized at York, and I, happening to be in the tavern when it took place, got my head cracked, and knew no more until I found myself aboard of His Majesty's ship of the line _Royal George_, in Biscay Bay, bound for Gibraltar, in Rodney's fleet, with a convoy for the relief of the garrison. And here I am, sir, on Gibraltar Rock, preferring to take my chances of getting to France from here than with the fleet, which goes to the Leeward Islands. This place has been hotly besieged, and some think we have not seen the worst of it yet; but my expectation is that Great Britain will shortly abandon her hopeless attempt to coerce the independent American colonies--'

  "The footstool will fly, and everything else handy, when the oldgentleman reads this paragraph," interrupted Archy in his reading.

  --"'and then the fortress will be relieved. But no one dreams of surrender, and all reports of that kind reaching England must be discredited.

  "'You perhaps know by this time, from the _Gazette_, that your grandson, Trevor Langton, Esq., was saved, and not lost, at the wreck of the _Seahorse_, and behaved with the greatest gallantry in the action of the 16th of January with Admiral Juan de Langara's fleet. An old wound, reopened, has given him great pain, and he was in grave danger for a while, but is now convalescing. Being unable to sail with the fleet, he is now here in hospital, and there is no immediate prospect of his getting away. We are better friends than ever since finding out our relationship, and he is so fine a young gentleman, and so good an officer, that I think you could not do better than to make him your heir in lieu of my unworthy self.'

  "My boy, I am afraid I have murdered all your chances by that sentence,for our respected grandfather goes by the rule of contrary.

  "'Please present my uncle with my most respectful compliments, and assure him of my warmest affection. I shall endeavor to remember and profit by all his kind counsels except one--to abandon my country; but I was born an American and I mean to die one.'"

  "You could not help putting that in, could you?" languidly remarkedLangton. "You are a great fellow for proclaiming what everybody knows,and thereby showing yourself very, very young."

  "And you are so prudent and oyster-like that you appear very, very old,"retorted Archy, good-naturedly, "but not so very, very wise. However,see how respectfully I end my letter:

  "'With sincere good wishes for your lordship's health and happiness, and high appreciation of your lordship's extreme kindness to me, I beg leave to subscribe myself your lordship's affectionate grandson and obedient servant,

  "'ARCHIBALD BASKERVILLE, "'_Midshipman in the Continental Navy_.'"

  The cannonade from the Spanish lines had been booming all the time Archyand Langton were talking, but it sounded strangely near just then; andwhen Archy went to the window and looked towards the isthmus he saw thata new battery had been unmasked in the advanced lines of the Spaniards.Suddenly a deafening crash resounded behind him. A round shot had burstthrough the wall, and, amid the d?bris, lay the cot on which Langton waslying. He was unhurt, but Archy said:

  "Come, it is too hot here for us. I must get help and carry you up tothe hut in the rocks." And in an hour Langton lay under the rude butsafe shelter provided for him under the rocks at Europa Point.

  For the first week or two Archy was taken up with caring for Langton,and trying to make their cranny in the rocks comfortable. In this efforthe met with the greatest kindness from Mrs. Curtis; and the deftnesswith which, out of their few belongings, she made them really atolerably comfortable place to live, caused Archy to exclaim withenthusiasm:

  "I have always heard, ma'am, that one woman could do as much as twelvemen and a boy; and now I know it!"

  Judkins's help was by no means to be despised, however, and with theresources of an old campaigner he showed them marvels. Archy was eagerto begin the effort for his exchange immediately, but the garrison knewthat Don Martin, the Spanish Commander-in-Chief, after the departure ofthe British fleet, had gone away for a few weeks to recover his health,and both Captain Curtis and General Eliot, to whom Captain Curtisintroduced Archy, advised him to wait until Don Martin's return, as thesecond in command would probably do nothing in his absence. Archyacquiesced in this, and settled himself to spend the intervening time aspatiently as he could. He was courteously, and even kindly, treated byeverybody, and with his gay and jovial nature he soon becamehail-fellow-well-met with the whole garrison and population, with oneexception. This was the officers of the Hanoverian regiment, for KingGeorge had let some of his German troops for hire to fight the Spanish,as he had hired Hessians to fight the Americans. Archy found that theEnglish officers and soldiers had but
little more liking for theHanoverians than he had, although it could not be denied that theGermans did their duty, and suffered and fought along with the rest.Archy took a malicious delight in telling how, in America, the Hessianswere chiefly good for eating up the provender, and when there wasfighting for dinner these prudent Teutons usually retired, and left theBritish to settle with the Americans. Archy, boy-like, although he hadthe stature of a man, avoided the Hanoverian officers ostentatiously,mimicked their droll accent whenever he had a chance, and took a vastamount of trouble to let them know how lightly he esteemed them--ofwhich the stolid Germans were generally unconscious, and to which theywere always indifferent.

  The bombardment kept up steadily, but the loss of life was singularlysmall. The people grew accustomed to it in the day, but those who hadfled southward in the beginning, to temporary shelter, were stillalarmed by it during the night, and so remained in their miserable huts.As the case always is, after the first horror people began to see theamusing side of even very dreadful events, and it became a relief tolaugh at the grotesque things that happened.

  One evening, in the spring, about twilight, Archy Baskerville andCaptain Curtis were walking soberly through one of the narrow streets ofthe upper town, passing the barracks of Colonel Schlippersgill'sHanoverian regiment. The windows of a small room, used as a mess-hall,were open, and around the table in the middle of the floor they couldsee a dozen burly German officers wreathed in smoke from their longpipes, and with great mugs of beer before them--for a supply of beer hadbeen laid in especially for them.

  "Look at them," said Archy, in a tone of deep disgust, "smoking andguzzling--guzzling and smoking--nothing but that."

  "Nonsense," replied Captain Curtis, briskly. "Those poor Hanoverians cando nothing to please you. Their smoking is harmless, and their guzzlingis of beer, which is much better for them than the rum and grog we giveour men."

  Just then they noticed, in the soft dusk of evening, a two-legged blackshadow moving around the parapet of the long, low building in which wasthe mess-hall.

  "It is a peacock," said Archy, after watching this mysterious creaturefor a while, "and a big one, too. Where do you suppose such a creaturecould come from?"

  "It is some one's pet peacock, no doubt," was Captain Curtis's reply, ina low voice--"some one who has managed to conceal it all this time." Foranimal pets had disappeared long before this, and had, generallyspeaking, been made into broth.

  The peacock tiptoed gingerly along the ledge, and then, going towardsthe centre of the roof, peered curiously down a small skylight that hadbeen left open in the mess-room for the benefit of the air.

  "The peacock knows where to go for company," whispered Archy. "I alwaysthought those German officers, with their everlasting strut, firstcousin to the peacock family."

  The peacock, as if satisfied with his view, came back to the parapet,and then a voice was heard in an eager whisper from the street, saying,in Italian:

  "Pippo! my Pippo! Come back to me. Come back to me, Pippo. Ungratefulbird! For you I have nearly starved myself, and have remained in mycellar when I might have been safe elsewhere. Dear Pippo, come back!"

  A dark spot against the wall, under the window, resolved itself into thefigure of an old Genoese woman, well known as Mother Nina, whose pet thepeacock had been for many years, and who had miraculously kept the birdout of sight for months.

  Pippo seemed totally disinclined to accept this cordial invitation toreturn to his foster-mother, and showed his indifference by againtipping cautiously towards the open skylight. Archy, however, felt sorryfor the poor old woman crouching under the window, and, seeing atrellis-work covered with vines by the side of the building, he quicklyswung himself up on the roof, and moved softly towards the peacock,which seemed absorbed in contemplation of Colonel Schlippersgill and hiscompanions under the skylight. Some words now floated up from the deep,guttural German throats. Archy did not understand German, but presentlyColonel Schlippersgill himself spoke in English:

  "Eef it were not for dose damned golonies in Ameriga, der blace wouldhaf been reliefed long ago. I would be glad der see der defel himselfeef he would shtop der bang, bang--"

  That allusion to "damned golonies" was too much for Archy's temper. Heseized the huge old peacock by the legs, and, giving it a vicious swing,which brought a frantic and ear-piercing squawk from the creature and anagonized shriek from the old woman, dashed the bird down the skylightinto the laps of the German officers; and, at the same moment, the lastshell of the day's bombardment struck a corner of the building with aloud explosion, hurling the old woman through the open window, where heryells, the peacock's screams, and the violence of the explosion madeBedlam. The uproar raised the whole street, and a crowd collected as ifby magic. The German officers, wildly excited, rushed about bawling inGerman and English, while the old woman and the peacock maintained aduet of screams that could be heard half a mile.

  Meanwhile Archy, as innocent as a lamb, was at Captain Curtis's side,who, leaning up against the wall, added his robust haw-haws to thegeneral commotion.

  In the midst of the racket and confusion, Colonel Schlippersgill rushedto the door, and, raising his hand for silence, bellowed out:

  "Mine friends, 'twas der peacock."

  At this a clear, boyish voice on the edge of the crowd rang out:

  "The peacock was looking for company." The people roared with laughter,except the German officers, while Colonel Schlippersgill shouted,angrily:

  "Arrest dot man!"

  To this the voice replied:

  "You'd better arrest the peacock."

  Another roar saluted this, but the old Genoese woman, supposing thepeacock was about to be taken from her, began to screech:

  "Arrest my Pippo! Pippo mio--" and then poured out, at the top of herlungs, in English and Italian, the story of Pippo, varied with callingdown maledictions on the head of Colonel Schlippersgill, whom, in someway, she held accountable for Pippo's misfortunes. She was interruptedby a file of soldiers marching down the narrow street in double time,with orders to investigate the disturbance. It did not take them half aminute to arrest the old woman and catch the peacock. ColonelSchlippersgill and his officers, swelling with rage, accompanied themvoluntarily to the Provost Marshal's office. Captain Curtis and Archyfollowed, and the procession took its way towards headquarters. GeneralEliot happened to be there when the party appeared, and theinvestigation began. Colonel Schlippersgill and the old woman begantheir respective stories in English, but it soon resolved itself into averbal duel in which the Colonel took to his native German and the oldwoman to her native Italian, with the result that even General Eliot'sstern face resolved itself into a smile, the auditors were convulsed,and the soldier who held the peacock by the legs inadvertently let itgo. When Pippo flew out of the window the old woman flew out of the doorafter it, and the investigation turned into a roaring farce, except sofar as Colonel Schlippersgill was concerned, who went off swearing thathe "would be damned but dat rapscallion dot galled der Cherman officersa beacock shouldt be arrested." The culprit, meanwhile, took his waygleefully up to Europa Point with Captain Curtis, and told the story inwhispers to Mrs. Curtis and Langton. Judkins, who was cooking supperover a meagre fire, managed to catch it, and for once his hard featuresrelaxed into a grin. After the scanty supper was over, when Archy, witha look of seraphic innocence was walking out of the hut, Judkins caughthis eye, and, touching his cap, said, in a grim whisper:

  "Sarved them Dutchmen right, sir."