Held Fast For England Part 25

"Bob hasn't had much chance, yet," Captain O'Halloran said, laughing. "He is new to the place, as yet; and besides, he is really working hard, and hasn't much time for mischief; but I don't flatter myself that it is going to last."

"Well, Mr. Sankey, you may as well take your friend down, and introduce him formally to your messmates," the captain said; and Jim, who had been feeling extremely uncomfortable since the talk had turned on the subject of mastheading, rose and made his escape with Bob, leaving the elders to their wine.

The proposed excursion to the Spanish lines did not come off, as the Brilliant put to sea again, on the day fixed for it. She was away a fortnight and, on her return, the captain issued orders that none of the junior officers, when allowed leave, were to go beyond the lines; for the rumours of approaching troubles had become stronger and, as the peasantry were a.s.suming a somewhat hostile att.i.tude, any act of imprudence might result in trouble. Jim often had leave to come ash.o.r.e in the afternoon and, as this was the time that Bob had to himself, they wandered together all over the Rock, climbed up the flagstaff, and made themselves acquainted with all the paths and precipices.

Their favourite place was the back of the Rock; where the cliff, in many places, fell sheer away for hundreds of feet down into the sea. They had many discussions as to the possibility of climbing up on that side, though both agreed that it would be impossible to climb down.

"I should like to try, awfully," Bob said, one day early in June, as they were leaning on a low wall looking down to the sea.

"But it would never do to risk getting into a sc.r.a.pe here. It wouldn't, indeed, Bob. They don't understand jokes at Gib. One would be had up before the big wigs, and court-martialled, and goodness knows what. Of course, it is jolly being ash.o.r.e; but one never gets rid of the idea that one is a sort of prisoner. There are the regulations about what time you may come off, and what time the gate is closed and, if you are a minute late, there you are until next morning. Whichever way one turns there are sentries; and you can't pa.s.s one way, and you can't go back another way, and there are some of the batteries you can't go into, without a special order. It never would do to try any nonsense, here.

"Look at that sentry up there. I expect he has got his eye on us, now; and if he saw us trying to get down, he would take us for deserters and fire. There wouldn't be any fear of his. .h.i.tting us; but the nearest guard would turn out, and we should be arrested and reported, and all sorts of things. It wouldn't matter so much for you, but I should get my leave stopped altogether, and should get into the captain's black books.

"No, no. I don't mind running a little risk of breaking my neck, but not here on the Rock. I would rather get into ten sc.r.a.pes, on board the frigate, than one here."

"Yes, I suppose it can't be done," Bob agreed; "but I should have liked to swing myself down to one of those ledges. There would be such a scolding and shrieking among the birds."

"Yes, that would be fun; but as it might bring on the same sort of row among the authorities, I would rather leave it alone.

"I expect we shall soon get leave to go across the lines again.

There doesn't seem to be any chance of a row with the dons; I expect it was all moonshine, from the first. Why, they say Spain is trying to patch up the quarrel between us and France. She would not be doing that, if she had any idea of going to war with us, herself."

"I don't know, Jim. Gerald and Dr. Burke were talking it over last night, and Gerald said just what you do; and then Dr. Burke said:

"'You are wrong, entirely, Gerald. That is just the dangerous part of the affair. Why should Spain want to put a stop to the war between us and the frog eaters? Sure, wouldn't she look on with the greatest pleasure in life, while we cut each other's throats and blew up each other's ships, and put all the trade of the Mediterranean into her hands? Why, it is the very thing that suits her best.'

"'Then what is she after putting herself forward for, Teddy?'

Gerald said.

"'Because she wants to have a finger in the pie, Gerald. It wouldn't be dacent for her to say to England:

"'"It is in a hole you are, at present, wid your hands full; and so I am going to take the opportunity of pitching into you."

"'So she begins by stipping forward as the dear friend of both parties; and she says:

"'"What are you breaking each other's heads for, boys? Make up your quarrel, and shake hands."

"'Then she sets to and proposes terms--which she knows mighty well we shall never agree to, for the letters we had, the other day said, that it was reported that the proposals of Spain were altogether unacceptable--and then, when we refuse, she turns round and says:

"'"You have put yourself in the wrong, entirely. I gave you a chance of putting yourself in the right, and it is a grave insult to me for you to refuse to accept my proposals. So there is nothing for me to do, now, but just to join with France, and give you the bating you desarve."'

"That is Teddy Burke's idea, Jim; and though he is so full of fun, he is awfully clever, and has got no end of sense; and I'd take his opinion about anything. You see how he has got me on, in these four months, in Latin and things. Why, I have learnt more, with him, than I did all the time I was at Tulloch's. He says most likely the negotiations will be finished, one way or the other, by the middle of this month; and he offered to bet Gerald a gallon of whisky that there would be a declaration of war, by Spain, before the end of the month."

"Did he?" Jim said, in great delight. "Well, I do hope he is right.

We are all getting precious tired, I can a.s.sure you, of broiling down there in the harbour. The decks are hot enough to cook a steak upon. When we started, today, we didn't see a creature in the streets. Everyone had gone off to bed, for two or three hours; and the shops were all closed, as if it had been two o'clock at night, instead of two o'clock in the day. Even the dogs were all asleep, in the shade. I think we shall have to give up our walks, till August is over. It is getting too hot for anything, in the afternoon."

"Well, it is hot," Bob agreed. "Carrie said I was mad, coming out in it today; and should get sunstroke, and all sort of things; and Gerald said at dinner that, if it were not against the regulations, he would like to shave his head, instead of plastering it all over with powder."

"I call it disgusting," Jim said, heartily. "That is the one thing I envy you in. I shouldn't like to be grinding away at books, as you do; and you don't have half the fun I do, on sh.o.r.e here without any fellows to have larks with; but not having to powder your hair almost makes up for it. I don't mind it, in winter, because it makes a sort of thatch for the head; but it is awful, now. I feel just as if I had got a pudding crust all over my head."

"Well, that is appropriate, Jim," laughed Bob; and then Jim chased him all along the path, till they got within sight of a sentry in a battery; and then his dignity as midshipman compelled them to desist, and the pair walked gravely down into the town.

That evening after lessons were over Dr. Burke, as usual, went up on to the terrace to smoke a cigar with Captain O'Halloran.

"It is a pity altogether, Mrs. O'Halloran," he said, as he stood by her side, looking over the moonlit bay, with the dark hulls of the ships and the faint lights across at Algeciras, "that we can't do away with the day, and have nothing but night of it, for four or five months in the year. I used to think it must be mighty unpleasant for the Esquimaux; but faith, I envy them now. Fancy five or six months without catching a glimpse of that burning old sun!"

"I don't suppose they think so," Mrs. O'Halloran laughed, "but it would be pleasant here. The heat has been dreadful, all day; and it is really only after sunset that one begins to enjoy life."

"You may well say that, Mrs. O'Halloran. Faith, I wish they would let me take off my coat, and do my work in my shirtsleeves down at the hospital. Sure, it is a strange idea these military men have got in their heads, that a man isn't fit for work unless he is b.u.t.toned so tightly up to the chin that he is red in the face. If nature had meant it, we should have been born in a suit of scale armour, like a crocodile.

"Well, there is one consolation--if there is a siege, I expect there will be an end of hair powder and cravats. It's the gineral rule, on a campaign; and it is worth standing to be shot at, to have a little comfort in one's life."

"Do you think that there is any chance at all of the Spaniards taking the place, if they do besiege us?" Bob asked, as Dr. Burke took his seat.

"None of taking the place by force, Bob. It has been besieged, over and over again; and it is pretty nearly always by hunger that it has fallen. That is where the pinch will come, if they besiege us in earnest: it's living on mice and gra.s.s you are like to be, before it is over."

"But the fleet will bring in provisions, surely, Dr. Burke?"

"The fleet will have all it can do to keep the sea, against the navies of France and Spain. They will do what they can, you may be sure; but the enemy well know that it is only by starving us out that they can hope to take the place, and I expect they will put such a fleet here that it will be mighty difficult for even a boat to find its way in between them."

"Do you know about the other sieges?" Mrs. O'Halloran asked. "Of course, I know something about the last siege; but I know nothing about the history of the Rock before that, and of course Gerald doesn't know."

"And why should I, Carrie? You don't suppose that when I was at school, at Athlone, they taught me the history of every bit of rock sticking up on the face of the globe? I had enough to do to learn about the old Romans--bad cess to them, and all their bothering doings!"

"I can tell you about it, Mrs. O'Halloran," Teddy Burke said.

"Bob's professor, who comes to have a talk with me for half an hour every day, has been telling me all about it; and if Gerald will move himself, and mix me a gla.s.s of grog to moisten my throat, I will give you the whole story of it.

"You know, no doubt, that it was called Mount Calpe, by Gerald's friends the Romans; who called the hill opposite there Mount Abyla, and the two together the Pillars of Hercules. But beyond giving it a name, they don't seem to have concerned themselves with it; nor do the Phoenicians or Carthaginians, though all of them had cities out in the low country.

"It was when the Saracens began to play their games over here that we first hear of it. Roderic, you know, was king of the Goths, and seems to have been a thundering old tyrant; and one of his n.o.bles, Julian--who had been badly treated by him--went across with his family into Africa, and put up Mousa, the Saracen governor of the province across there, to invade Spain. They first of all made a little expedition--that was in 711--with one hundred horse, and four hundred foot. They landed over there at Algeciras and, after doing some plundering and burning, sailed back again, with the news that the country could be conquered. So next year twelve thousand men, under a chief named Tarik, crossed and landed on the flat between the Rock and Spain. He left a party here to build the castle; and then marched away, defeated Roderic and his army at Xeres, and soon conquered the whole of Spain, except the mountains of the north.

"We don't hear much more of Gibraltar for another six hundred years. Algeciras had become a fortress of great strength and magnificence, and Gibraltar was a mere sort of outlying post.

Ferdinand the Fourth of Spain besieged Algeciras for years, and could not take it; but a part of his army attacked Gibraltar, and captured it. The African Moors came over to help their friends, and Ferdinand had to fall back; but the Spaniards still held Gibraltar--a chap named Vasco Paez de Meira being in command.

"In 1333 Abomelique, son of the Emperor of Fez, came across with an army and besieged Gibraltar. Vasco held out for five months, and was then starved into surrender, just as Alonzo the Eleventh was approaching to his a.s.sistance. He arrived before the town, five days after it surrendered, and attacked the castle; but the Moors encamped on the neutral ground in his rear, and cut him off from his supplies; and he was obliged at last to negotiate, and was permitted to retire. He was not long away. Next time he attacked Algeciras; which, after a long siege, he took in 1343.

"In 1349 there were several wars in Africa, and he took advantage of this to besiege Gibraltar. He was some months over the business, and the garrison were nearly starved out; when pestilence broke out in the Spanish camp, by which the king and many of his soldiers died, and the rest retired.

"It was not until sixty years afterwards, in 1410, that there were fresh troubles; and then they were what might be called family squabbles. The Africans of Fez had held the place, till then; but the Moorish king of Grenada suddenly advanced upon it, and took it.

A short time afterwards, the inhabitants rose against the Spanish Moors, and turned them out, and the Emperor of Morocco sent over an army to help them; but the Moors of Grenada besieged the place, and took it by famine.

"In 1435 the Christians had another slap at it; but Henry de Guzman, who attacked by sea, was defeated and killed. In 1462 the greater part of the garrison of Gibraltar was withdrawn to take part in some civil shindy, that was going on at Grenada; and in their absence the place was taken by John de Guzman, duke of Medina-Sidonia, and son of the Henry that was killed. In 1540 Gibraltar was surprised and pillaged by one of Barossa's captains; but as he was leaving some Christian galleys met him, and the corsairs were all killed or taken.

"This was really the only affair worth speaking of between 1462, when it fell into the hands of the Spaniards, and 1704, when it was captured by us. Sir George Rooke, who had gone out with a force to attack Cadiz--finding that there was not much chance of success in that direction--resolved, with Prince George of Hesse and Darmstadt--who commanded the troops on board the fleet--to make an attack on Gibraltar.

"On the 21st of July, 1704, the English and Dutch landed on the neutral ground and, at daybreak on the 23rd, the fleet opened fire.

The Spaniards were driven from their guns on the Molehead Battery.

The boats landed, and seized the battery, and held it in spite of the Spaniards springing a mine, which killed two lieutenants and about forty men. The Marquis de Salines, the governor, was then summoned, and capitulated. So you see, we made only a day's work of taking a place which the Spaniards thought that they had made impregnable. The professor made a strong point of it that the garrison consisted only of a hundred and fifty men; which certainly accounts for our success, for it is no use having guns and walls, if you haven't got soldiers to man them.