Marmaduke Merry Part 10

I consequently walked on till I met the boatswain, and delivered the order to him that he might see it executed. "This will never do, Lukyn," I heard the captain say. "We must get alongside her again."

The sails were accordingly trimmed, and we ran right down on the enemy, pouring into her as we did so a fire of round-shot, grape, and musketry, but, I must own, getting as much in return, and having our rigging terribly cut about. The French ship had at the time little way on her, so we shot ahead; both of us, after exchanging a couple of broadsides, falling off before the wind. We had now separated considerably. The hands were sent aloft to knot and splice the rigging, to enable us to work the ship, which we otherwise could not do. While we were thus employed, the French frigate hauled up, and, pa.s.sing our stern diagonally, raked us, but at too great a distance to do us much damage.

Every officer and man was exerting himself to renew the fight, when once more the French ship bore up, and showed that she was going again to pa.s.s under our stern.

"Down, with your faces on the deck, all of you, my lads," shouted the captain, the order being repeated by the other officers. I observed, however, that both he and Mr Lukyn stood upright. The expected shower came, the enemy pa.s.sing within pistol shot. I looked up anxiously to ascertain if either of my superiors was hurt. There they stood as calm as before, but Mr Lukyn's hat had been knocked off, and two bullets had pa.s.sed through the sleeve of his coat.

"That was a narrow shave," observed the captain, as Mr Lukyn stooped down and picked up his hat. Had the men been standing up, great numbers, probably, would have been killed or wounded. The enemy after this hauled up on the larboard tack, and was about to pour her starboard broadside into us, when, our crew springing to their feet, our sails were thrown back, and the French frigate's larboard bow came directly on to our starboard quarter. As she did so, the boatswain with his mates sprang aft, and in a moment it seemed that the enemy's bowsprit, or rather jib-boom, was lashed to our mizen-rigging, in spite of a heavy rattling fire of musketry, kept up on them by the French marines on their forecastle. A body of our marines came aft to reply to them, and numbers were dropping on both sides. While this was going forward, I saw a French officer walking along the bowsprit with a musket in his hand. He rested it on the stay, and was taking a deliberate aim at Captain Collyer, who stood, not observing this, encouraging the men to work the after guns. At that instant a marine who had just loaded his musket was shot dead. I seized it as he fell, and in the impulse of the moment, dropping on my knee, raised it to my shoulder and fired at the Frenchman on the bowsprit who at the same time fired. A ball pa.s.sed through the captain's hat--he turned his head and observed that I had just fired, and saw also the Frenchman falling headlong into the water.

"Thank you, Mr Merry, you have saved my life," he said, turning a look of approval on me; but there was no time for more. Everything I have described pa.s.sed like a flash of lightning. All was now smoke and noise, the men straining at the gun-tackles, sponging and loading; the marines firing and stooping down, as they had been ordered, to load, to avoid the bullets of the French marines who were so much above them.

Meantime the French had been mustering on deck, and suddenly appearing on their forecastle, they rushed along the bowsprit, and were leaping down on our hammock nettings, the headmost reaching the deck.

"Boarders, repel boarders!" shouted Mr Bryan; and he with one or two mates, followed by Jonathan Johnson, with his doughty cutla.s.s, hurried aft to meet them. What had become of the captain and Mr Lukyn I could not tell. Fierce was the encounter, for the French seamen fought desperately, and their marines kept blazing away faster than ever. Mr Bryan and the French officer leading the boarders met,--their blades flashed rapidly for a few seconds, and the Frenchman fell mortally wounded. Mr Johnson was in his glory: the first time he led on his followers, however, the Frenchmen withstood him for some seconds, and, more of them pouring down on the deck, he was driven back a foot or two, but it was only for a moment. With a loud shout, he made a furious dash at the boarders: Mr Bryan, with several mates and midshipmen, of whom I was one, seconded by our gallant purser, who with a brace of pistols in his belt and a sharp cutla.s.s in his hand, instead of remaining below, had come on deck to share the danger and aid in the fight; and of the whole number of the enemy who had reached the deck of the Doris, not one quarter escaped on board their own ship unwounded, and very nearly half were killed outright, or were taken prisoners. We, however, did not get off scathless. The enemy still continued to annoy us with their foremost guns; while the shot from their muskets rattled thickly round our heads, our main royal-mast and main-topsail yard had been shot away, and the gaff was so severely wounded, that when the Frenchmen fell aboard us, it dropped over his deck. At this moment we saw some of the crew tear our ensign from the gaff and carry it aft as a trophy; there was not a man in our ship who would not have gladly rushed aboard the enemy to recover it.

"It will never do to be without a flag," said I to Grey. "I propose we go aloft and nail a couple to the mast."

"With all my heart," he answered; and he getting a boat's ensign and I a union-jack from the signal locker, we ran aloft with them before any one saw what we were about. We agreed, however, that they would look best at each end of the cross-jack, and accordingly, quick as lightning, we lashed them there. The Frenchmen might certainly have picked us off, but, as many of their nation have much chivalry in their composition, when they saw that we were young midshipmen, and what we were about, I suspect refrained from firing. At all events, we accomplished our dangerous exploit, and returned on deck. Scarcely had we reached it, and stood amid the shower of bullets whistling along it, than, to my great sorrow, I saw Grey fall; he uttered no cry; I ran towards him to lift him up; he said that he was not badly hurt, but he fainted, and Mr Bryan ordered him at once to be carried below. Directly afterwards Mr Bryan fell; he, however, raised himself on his arm, and with the help of two seamen, in a short time stood up, and refused to leave the deck.

Mr Collman, our brave purser, tried to persuade him to go below.

"Let the surgeon look to you, and if he thinks you are fit you can return."

"No, no; thank you, Collman," he answered. "I don't know what may happen while I'm away. Time enough to go to the doctor when we've thrashed the Frenchmen."

It was my duty, as I said, to stay by the first-lieutenant. I was inquiring for him, when I saw a number of the French marines peppering away at the after ports in the captain's cabin. I instantly bethought me that the captain and Mr Lukyn must be there, and accordingly hurried to the main-deck.

Our captain had, without asking leave of the dock yard authorities, cut two ports in his cabin on each side next the quarter, in readiness for the very contingency which had now occurred. Our carpenter had, however, stupidly forgotten to drive in ring bolts to work the guns, while the gunner had not prepared tackles of sufficient length to haul the aftermost guns from the side to the new ports.

When I reached the cabin, the captain and first and third lieutenants, and the gunner and carpenter, and other officers and men, were working away to find means to train aft a gun. The marines, however, stationed along the larboard gangway of the enemy had found them out, and as I reached the cabin it seemed as if a hailstorm was playing into it, and the bulkheads were literally riddled with bullets. Several men lay dead about the decks, and every now and then another sank down wounded, while many were labouring away with the blood flowing from their sides or limbs. I ran in and asked Mr Lukyn if he wanted me.

"No, no, Merry; go out of this, boy," he answered kindly.

At that time it was certainly the part of the ship suffering most. As I was going out I pa.s.sed Mr Downton, our third lieutenant. He was reeving a rope through a block to form a tackle, when a shot struck him in the head. He fell forward in the way of the gun. He was dragged unceremoniously out of it by the legs, and the men cheered as they hauled it aft. I ran to help poor Mr Downton. I lifted him up. He gave a look so full of pain and woe in my face that I would gladly have shut it out, and then with a deep sigh breathed his last. I never felt so sad before. He was a good kind officer, and I liked him very much.

I now, I own, began to think that we were getting the worst of it, and should have to strike our colours, or go down with them flying. Just then the gun, double shotted, was run out aft, and fired right into the enemy's bows. Our men's cheers drowned the shrieks and cries which followed from the French ship. Again the gun was loaded and fired with the same terrific effect. The French marines continued blazing away at the people in the cabin, but were at length driven from the gangway by the hot fire of our jollies and small-armed men. The latter had also to direct their attention to a carronade which the enemy had got on his forecastle, and which might have done us a vast deal of mischief, but such a shower of musket b.a.l.l.s whistled round it the instant a Frenchman got near, that none would venture to work it.

As Mr Lukyn had ordered me out of the cabin when I found that I could be of no use to Mr Downton, I went on deck again. The bullets were whistling along the deck as thick as hailstones. This sort of work would have continued probably till we had treated each other like the Kilkenny cats, or till the French ship had given in, when her jib-boom gave way, and she forged ahead. As she did so, our next aftermost gun was manned and fired, cutting away her head rails, and, what was of greater consequence, the gammoning of her bowsprit.

"Hurrah, lads! the day's ours," shouted Mr Collman; "over to the starboard guns."

The master was on the main-deck with the captain.

"Now the battle's going to begin in earnest, Mr Merry," observed the boatswain, near whom I found myself.

Thought I to myself, "It has been going on in pretty serious earnest for the last two hours or more."

Now both frigates, running on yard-arm to yard-arm, fired their guns in succession as they could be brought to bear; but our people, from constant practice, tossed our guns in and out twice as rapidly as the Frenchmen. This soon told; the enemy's main-topmast was shot away, the foremast was badly wounded, several of her ports were knocked into one, and instead of the cloud of canvas which lately swelled proudly to the breeze, her sails were riddled, and, with rope ends, hung useless from every shattered yard. In some respects we were not much better off, and our rigging was so cut about that the ship was no longer manageable.

Taking advantage of her greater speed, our antagonist drew ahead till she got out of gun-shot, greatly to the rage and annoyance of the crew, who bestowed on her three loud groans, and many an anathema on finding that she had escaped them.

It now came on calm, and she could not get far off. Not a moment, however, was lost before all hands were set to work to repair damages; never was rigging more rapidly knotted and spliced. My eye was seldom off our enemy. A slight breeze had again sprung up, when suddenly I saw her foremast rock, it seemed, and over it went with a crash, carrying a number of her crew on it into the water. A loud cheer burst from our men, as they saw what had occurred, and they redoubled their efforts to get the Doris ready to renew the action. By noon we had knotted and spliced all the standing rigging, rove new braces, and had got the ship under perfect command, while the freshening breeze carried us rapidly up towards our opponent.

The heat of the sun and our exertions made us feel very hot, and now the Yankee's oranges came into requisition. Both midshipmen and men might be seen sucking them heartily, as we once more stood into action. The enemy seemed still disposed to defend himself as we stood across his stern, so that he could bring no guns to bear on us. He, however, trusting to the effect his large body of marines might produce, fired a rattling volley as we were about to pour in our broadside. Spellman and I were at the moment standing near the boatswain. As the French marines fired, I felt a sharp burning pang in my shoulder, which made me jump on one side, while I saw Spellman's orange flying away, and, putting up both his hands, he cried out, "Oh, my orange! my orange!--and they have riddled my cheeks, the blackguards."

I could not help laughing at his exclamation and face of astonishment, in spite of the sickness which was creeping over me.

"It's lucky it was not through your head, Mr Spellman," observed the boatswain, picking up the orange and handing it to him, but he was in no way inclined to suck it, for his mouth was full of blood, which he began vehemently spluttering out over the deck.

Now our frigate sent forth a roaring broadside; the enemy's ship was for an instant shrouded in smoke. As it cleared away, down came the French ensign, and an officer was seen to spring on to the taffrail, and, with the politest of bows, signify that they had struck. Loud, hearty cheers was the answer returned by our brave fellows, who by sheer hard fighting, and rapid working of their guns, had achieved, in little more than three hours, a victory over a foe so vastly superior. Those cheers, though pleasant sounds to our ears, must have been very much the contrary to our enemies.

Then, and not till then, did Mr Bryan consent to be carried below. I have no personal knowledge of what happened after this, for even before the cheering had ceased, I should have sunk fainting on the deck, had not the boatswain caught me. When I came to myself, I was undressed in my hammock, and, except a pain and stiffness in my shoulder, there was nothing, I thought, very much the matter with me, though when I tried to rise I found that to do so was out of the question. Spellman and Grey were in their hammocks close to me. Though Spellman was least seriously hurt of either of us, his appearance, from having his head bound up with two huge plasters over his cheeks, was by far the most lugubrious, as he sat up and looked first at Grey, and then at me, and said, "Well, I hope you like it."

"Thank you, Miss Susan," said I. "We might be worse off, but we shan't have to go whistling through the world in future as you will, and if ever you fall into the hands of savages they'll put a rope through your cheeks and drag you along like a tame bear."

"You don't think so, Merry, I'm sure," he answered, in a tone of alarm, which showed that he vividly pictured the possibility of such an occurrence; "do you, Grey?"

Poor Grey was too weak to say much, but he gave Spellman very little encouragement to hope for the best, and when Macquoid visited us, entering into the joke, he said nothing to remove his apprehensions.

My chief anxiety was now about Toby Bluff, and I was very glad to find that he had not been hurt. At last, when he came to me, I had some difficulty in quieting his apprehensions, and in persuading him that it was a very fine thing to be wounded, and that I should have lots of honour and glory, and be made more of when I got home than I had ever been before in my life, and that he would share in it without having had the disagreeable ceremony to go through of being wounded.

"As to the glory, and all that sort of thing, I'd as lief have let it alone, if it was to cost a bullet through me, Muster Merry," he answered. "But I'd have been main glad if the mounseers had just shot me instead of you. It wouldn't have done me no harm to matter."

"He is a faithful fellow, certainly," I thought, "but he has no chivalry in his composition."

From the jabbering we heard around us, we found that the French prisoners had been brought on board, and Macquoid told us that every man who could be spared was employed in repairing the prize. Mr Lukyn had gone to take command of her, with Perigal as his second in command, and I was very glad to find that the old mate was unhurt.

Our prize was the Aigle. She carried six guns more than we had, and they were of heavier calibre. She was nearly three hundred tons larger, and her crew numbered a hundred men more than we had. We had beaten her because our men were better gunners, and had fired half as rapidly again as had her crew. We had lost fourteen killed and thirty wounded, and she thirty-four killed and sixty wounded.

"Ah! young gentlemen," said Mr Johnson, who in the intervals of his labour paid us a visit, "it was as pretty a stand-up fight and as well won a battle as I ever heard of, or you'll ever see probably."

At length both frigates were refitted, and, as we understood, steering a course for old England. We three midshipmen found it rather dull work staying in our hammocks all day, as it was too dark to read, though we managed to sleep, as only midshipmen can sleep, and we agreed that we would get the boatswain, when he had leisure, to come and sit by us to go on with his history. We succeeded, and, seated on a bucket, he began:--

"Well, young gentlemen, flesh and blood wants some rest, though I can do more than most men in the way of work, and instead of taking a doze in my cabin I'll indulge you, and the service shall not suffer. Ah, ah!

let me see:--I was telling you of my childhood. I very soon grew up. I didn't take long to do that. By the time I was fifteen I knew a thing or two, and there wasn't a seaman aboard my father's ship who could beat me at anything."

"At pulling the long bow especially," said a deep voice from one of the hammocks.

"Who spoke?" inquired Mr Johnson, turning round sharply. "I'll tell you what, whoever you are, a man may shoot with a long bow, or a man may shoot with a short bow; but for my part I say a man has a right to use the weapon which suits him best; and so, Mr Bow-wo-wo, just bowse taut that jaw-tackle of yours, and don't let's hear any more of your pertinent remarks, I'll thank ye, my bo." Mr Johnson then continued, "At last, said my father one day to me--'Jonathan, you are big enough and strong enough to go without leading strings, and the sooner a lad does that the better.'

"'Yes, father, I am,' said I, and I was, for I was six feet two inches high, and could knock over an ox with my fist, as I'd done many a time to save the butcher trouble.

"'You must look out for a ship, my son,' said my father.

"'I will,' said I, and I did. I shipped on board a Greenland whaler, the Blazylight, and sailed the next day for the North Pole. We had a fine run to our fishing ground, and soon began to kill our whales at a great rate. It was the sort of sport which just suited me. I never could stand angling for minnows; but whale-fishing is a very different sort of work, I guess.

"We had got a full ship, and were thinking of turning south, when we were becalmed near the land, and as the ship could not move, I, with four or five more, started on an expedition to shoot polar bears, which were pretty common thereabouts. We had got a good way from the ship, when a thick fog--not an unfrequent visitor to those parts--came on. I had a pocket-compa.s.s with me, and so I wasn't a bit alarmed. However, when we tried to find the old Blazylight again, I must confess we could not. We wandered about till all my companions died from sheer fright and fatigue; and I should have died, too, if I had given in; but I wouldn't do that; so I collected all my shipmates' ammunition, and set to work to kill and pot bears. I lived like a prince, as far as quant.i.ty was concerned, but I got rather tired of bear's flesh at last.

I rubbed myself over with the grease, and was soon covered from head to foot with a hide of the finest wool, so that I didn't feel the cold a bit. It was cold, however, at times, with a vengeance. Frequently the frost was so severe, that it froze up even the very air, and if I had not melted it every now and then, by firing off my gun, I should have died for want of breath; and often it wasn't possible to move without cutting a way for myself through the atmosphere with my axe. I suspected, as I afterwards found to be the case, that what we had taken, to be land, was in reality an unusually large field of ice, with icebergs imbedded in it, and that we had been carried by some unknown current imperceptibly towards the north for a considerable distance.

Now, when we had left the ship, we had kept to the westward. When we wished to return, we had steered east by the pocket-compa.s.s I told you of. On, and on, and on, I kept on the same course. What do you think I was doing? Why I was walking round and round the North Pole, and should have kept on walking till now, for nothing would have made me give in--I promise you that wasn't my way--had I not come upon the print of my own footsteps in the snow. This made me aware of my error; so I sat down to consider how it could have happened, and at last the truth flashed on my mind. You see it was a very natural mistake I had made, for the needle of my compa.s.s was all the time pointing to the North Pole, just as a capstan-bar does to the capstan, while I was running round at the other end of it. I was rather puzzled to know what to do, for had I walked south, not having the means of ascertaining my longitude, I might, I thought, find myself on the other side of the globe, somewhere, perhaps near Behring's Straits, leading into the Sea of Kamtschatka, where there would be little chance of my falling in with a ship.

"I had sat cogitating for some time, and was beginning to get rather chilly, when it occurred to me that I might render a great service to science, by going chock up to the North Pole, and ascertaining of what it is composed. I instantly rose from my seat, put my compa.s.s down to strike the course I was to take, fired off my gun to clear myself a path through the frozen atmosphere, secured my stock of bear's flesh on my back for provisions, and manfully set forward, with my face away from all human beings."

"But how could you see, Mr Johnson?" asked Grey. "I always thought it was dark in those regions during winter!"

"See! why perfectly well," answered the boatswain promptly. "If the stars and moon happened not to be shining, there was always the aurora borealis blazing up, like a great fire, right ahead of me. You have seen the northern lights on a winter's night, but they are a very different affair up there to what they appear so far south. If it wasn't for them, in my opinion, there would be no living in those regions, but by their warmth they keep the atmosphere round them in a very pleasant state. Well, on I walked, sleeping at night in the huts I made in the snow, leaving a small hole open to breathe through; and it was not disagreeably cold, owing to the warm whiffs which came every now and then from the Pole.