Tales from Blackwood Volume Ix Part 12

In the course of the evening Manuel asked me if I thought Mr R---- would recover from his wound. I told him that I feared he would soon be relieved from the inconvenience of having such a pa.s.senger on board. "So I suspect," returned he; "but what is to become of his daughter and the mulatto woman? I wish I had sent them off in the boat to-night."--"It would have been unmerciful," said I; "perhaps the seamen themselves may perish."--"Don't fear; don't fear," cried he; "I treated them very generously. Most pirates would have left the whole party to drown in the brig, and been glad of such an opportunity of getting them out of the way. I gave them a good boat and plenty of provisions; they will easily reach Matanzas. My crew are enraged at my conduct in this affair. I must be on my guard; and, listen to me, be you also on yours!"

A short time before midnight Mr R---- complained of the oppressive closeness of the cabin, and begged to be lifted upon deck. We immediately complied with his wishes, and spread a mattress for him near the stern of the vessel. Elizabeth, his daughter, seated herself beside his couch, and the mulatto woman waited behind. I threw myself upon a _ceroon_ at a little distance, and felt so fatigued that I gradually began to slumber, although within hearing of the sick man's feeble groans and hurried inspirations.

I was suddenly awakened by the sound of light footsteps. I opened my eyes, and saw Elizabeth. "My father is----" She could say no more. I rose and followed her. Mr R---- lay upon his back with half-closed eyes, and seemed scarcely sensible of our approach; but in a little time he turned his face towards me, and tried to smile. He then took hold of his daughter's hand, and attempted to greet her in the same way, but it was impossible; his lips trembled, and some tears rushed down his cheeks.

None of us uttered a word, or even ventured to sigh.

It was the finest moonlight, and the whole heavens were covered with one continuous expanse of dappled white clouds. The celestial network, extending from horizon to horizon, floated in motionless repose, and the stars could be seen twinkling faintly through its apertures. The calm was such that our sails scarcely even flapped upon the masts, and our vessel lay as still as if she had been imbedded in a field of crystal.

The balmy murmurings of the little surges upon the distant beach swelled upon the ear, and died away again, with a caprice that seemed in unison with the irregular motions of a tall cocoa-nut tree, which stood alone upon a projecting rock, and was waved in a melancholy manner by a land-breeze too feeble and unsteady to reach or affect us.

Elizabeth knelt silently beside her father, with clasped hands, and had that frozen look of condensed despair, which is almost too terrible for an inhabitant of this world. Her face and lips were colourless, and she seemed like a spirit waiting for a departing soul. None of us knew the exact moment at which Mr R---- died. I soon after took his daughter by the hand, and conducted her to the cabin. She neither spoke a word nor made the least resistance, and I began to fear that grief had bewildered her perceptions. Her attendant followed us, and I left them together.

I did not attempt to sleep any that night. I was occupied in thinking of Elizabeth, who had soon awakened to a full sense of her misery, and whose sobs haunted my ears wherever I went. In the morning she sank into a gentle slumber, which, after continuing two hours, left her in a state of comparative rationality and composure. I requested to see her, and we had an interview. I offered myself as a protector, and promised to do everything in my power to extricate her from her present unhappy situation, and said I would escort her to a place of safety whenever I had the good fortune to effect this. I then told who I was, and related the circ.u.mstances that had induced me to seek an asylum among the pirates. In return, she thanked me for my unremitting attentions to her father, and declared that she fully believed me to be what I professed.

The calm continued during the whole of that day, and Manuel exhibited many signs of impatience at its long duration; and the more so, as the current was gradually carrying us towards Matanzas, a place which he wished anxiously to avoid. Next morning a gentle breeze sprung up, and we had scarcely begun to profit by it, when we discovered a small brig of war, with American colours, bearing towards us under full sail.

Manuel ordered his men to crowd all canva.s.s, and tried various nautical manoeuvres in the hope of escaping her; but she gained upon us every moment.

The negroes, when they perceived that we could not get out of her reach, were thrown into a state of consternation, and totally neglected their duty. They a.s.sembled together in groups, and conversed with outrageous looks and violent gesticulations, occasionally throwing baleful glances at Manuel. He saw that a storm was gathering, and immediately went below, and secured the door of the apartment which contained the arms.

He then appeared upon deck, with a brace of pistols in his girdle, a dagger by his side, and a naked scimitar in his hand, and took his station beside the companion door.

The boldness of his deportment seemed to increase the fury of the blacks; some of whom called out, "Down with him! down with him! he has betrayed us." Manuel paid no attention to their cries, but ordered them, in a voice of thunder, to load the guns, and rushed forward, waving his sword in the air. They became intimidated, and hastened to obey him; and while they were engaged in doing so, I ran down to the cabin, and armed myself as well as possible, at the same time comforting Elizabeth, and bidding her remain in her state-room.

When I went upon deck again I found that the negroes had openly mutinied. They were ranged round the foremast, and stood glaring at Manuel, and at each other, like a set of demons. "h.e.l.l curse you, captain!" cried one of them, "what right had you to bring us here? Were we all to be sent to the devil, that you might put ash.o.r.e them d.a.m.ned whites that you picked out of the brig?"--"Ay, ay, it was mercy that made him do so," said another; "but see if we'll get any mercy from the tyrants that are in chase of us. Ha, Mr Manuel! I would almost be hanged myself to have the satisfaction of seeing you swing by the throat!"--"They couldn't get him hanged," vociferated a third, "for he would always untie the rope with his right hand. Oh, captain, may the devil scorch your soul for bringing us here!"--"He thinks us a set of _niger_ slaves," cried the first speaker, "who haven't spirit to do anything but what he bids us--but we'll show him another story. Come on; let us have revenge! Down with him and his companion!"

Several of the crew now rushed towards us with threatening gestures.

Manuel fired a pistol among them, and wounded one with his scimitar, and I struck down another with the b.u.t.t-end of a blunderbuss, and then acted upon the defensive. They were repelled; but would apparently have made a second attack, had not a shot from the brig raked us fore and aft, and carried away the binnacle. "Now, now!" shouted Manuel, "if you are worth anything, fight for your lives! The enemy is close upon us; we shall be blown out of the water! Here is the key of the armoury--go and equip yourselves, and show some real spirit."

The negroes were almost instantaneously animated by a new feeling. Some provided themselves with muskets and cutla.s.ses, and others took their station at the guns. They all had a look of savage and determined resistance; which showed that they would rather perish in battle, than run the risk of terminating their lives upon a scaffold.

The brig had now come nearly alongside of us, and her captain commanded us to heave-to, if we desired any quarter. He was answered by the discharge of four cannon, and by a shower of musket-b.a.l.l.s. They gave a broadside in return, which carried away our mainmast, and then bore down upon the schooner, with the intention of boarding her. The smoke prevented the helmsman of the brig from steering justly, and he suddenly brought her so close to us that she swept away our chains, and stove in our bulwarks, and dragged us through the water for a considerable distance. The fight now became very desperate. The bayonet and cutla.s.s had usurped the place of firearms, and the negroes, who were not provided with weapons of any kind, attacked the American seamen with their fists, beating them down, attempting to choke them, and pushing them overboard. They all the while animated each other with shouts, execrations, and blasphemous cries, and rushed furiously to the combat, half-naked, and covered with dust, and sweat, and blood.

I kept as near Manuel as possible. He sometimes fought vigorously for a few moments, and then stood idle, apparently irresolute what to do. At last he cried out, "It is easy to see how this day will end, but I must hasten its termination," and then hurried down to the cabin. I instinctively followed him, and found Elizabeth and her maid nearly speechless with terror. Manuel tore open the hatch in the floor, and pulled up a small cask, the head of which he knocked in with his hand.

It was full of gunpowder. He placed it upon the table. I grew breathless. He put a steel between his teeth, and then seizing a flint, began to strike the one against the other. The pulsations of my heart ceased, and my eyes became dim. Manuel seemed suddenly to dilate into fearful and gigantic size, and to pour torrents of fire upon the gunpowder. My senses were suddenly recalled by a loud crash, and by the appearance of water rushing down upon us through the skylight. I thought we were going to the bottom, and started up and pulled the fainting Elizabeth towards the gangway. There we encountered an American officer; he gave us a look of astonishment, and hastening towards Manuel, seized his arm, and said, "Surrender yourself--you are my prisoner."

Manuel did not attempt any resistance, but followed the officer upon deck. Having left Elizabeth, whose recollection was now pretty well restored, with her maid, I went there also. Everything had become quiet.

The American seamen were in possession of the schooner, and the negroes had been removed on board the brig of war. Her captain ordered Manuel to be put in irons, and directed that Elizabeth and I should have accommodations in his own vessel.

I was a good deal astonished to meet with several of the crew that had belonged to the brig we had plundered, and to hear them say that they were the means of capturing the schooner. Having been fortunate enough to reach Matanzas the day after Manuel had set them adrift in the boat, they found an American brig of war there, which had run into the harbour that she might repair some damage she had sustained while on her voyage from Jamaica to Charleston. They immediately gave her captain information respecting the pirate, and he set out in pursuit of them, making the seamen warp his brig along, till a breeze sprang up which enabled him to come in sight of the schooner. During the battle, a young officer who boarded her along with the American crew, happened to observe Manuel's attempts to blow them up, and with great presence of mind, dashed his foot through the skylight, and averted the danger, by pouring down a large quant.i.ty of water upon the gunpowder.

A few hours after the capture of the schooner, we set sail for Charleston, where the brig was bound. We reached that port in ten days.

The pirate crew were immediately lodged in jail. I underwent an examination, and was then taken into custody, it being evident, from my own confession, that I had not been forced on board the schooner.

Elizabeth, to whom I had hourly become more devoted during the voyage, found an asylum in the house of a distant relation, who resided in Charleston, and was summoned as a witness against the negroes. In three weeks their trial came on, and Manuel and seven others were condemned to death. No evidence having appeared against me, I was liberated from confinement at an early period, by the intercession of several persons who appeared to take an interest in my fate. I supplied myself with means of support, by disposing of some valuables I had in my possession.

I was filled with sorrow when I heard that Manuel was condemned to death, aware that he deserved a better fate. I visited him in jail, the day after he had received his sentence. He was loaded with fetters, and occupied a small cell by himself, through which he paced as quickly as the weight of his irons would permit; though he had a subdued look, the expression of his countenance was neither abject nor sorrowful.

"Ah, is it you, sir?" cried he, advancing towards me, as I entered; "you are the person I most wished to see. How kind it is in you to visit a poor negro! For I am no more now. I am glad to be treated as a rational creature by at least one white man. I wonder they have let you escape.

In this country it is a crime for a man to have anything to do with blacks, except in the way of flogging them."--"You do not deserve to die," said I, after a pause.--"Oh, perhaps not," returned he; "but law--law--law, you know--however, 'tis better I should. I had a weary life of it. I was chased from the land, and took refuge upon the sea; but, notwithstanding that, I could not escape the blood-hounds of the Southern States of America. But here I have written out something for you. Take this letter to Gustavus H----, and accept what he gives you in return, as a remembrance of me. But don't tell him that I'm sentenced to death." He then presented me with a paper, and having given directions where I should find the person to whom it was addressed, bid me farewell.

I immediately proceeded in search of Manuel's acquaintance, and after some time reached his house, which was situated in the most obscure part of a narrow and dirty alley. The door was opened by an old negro, and I inquired if Gustavus H---- lived there. "I am the man," returned he; "walk in, master." I entered, and gave him the letter, and at his request seated myself upon an old stool in one corner of the apartment until he read it. "Strange, very strange," muttered he, gazing on me intently. "How is Mr Manuel?"--"Well enough at present," returned I; "but----." He stood still a moment, as if waiting the conclusion of my reply, and then went out of the room, but soon came back, carrying a bag, which he immediately put into my hands. Its weight was immense.

"That's all," said he, "I guess Manuel don't intend that I should be his _bankeer_ long. Good morning, sir."

When I returned to my lodgings, I opened the bag, and, to my astonishment, found it full of doubloons. I could not believe that Manuel intended leaving me such a legacy, and went to the prison in the afternoon, that I might see him, and converse with him upon the subject; but I arrived there too late; he had antic.i.p.ated the law by putting a period to his existence.

Fortune had now bestowed upon me the means of returning to my native country. I communicated this to Elizabeth, and entreated that we might make the journey of life together. She consented, and our mutual happiness was soon as great as our individual misery had been, when fate first brought us together.

THE PANDOUR AND HIS PRINCESS.

A HUNGARIAN SKETCH.

[_MAGA._ JULY 1832.]

"What is the day's news? Tell me something, my dear Colonel, for I am dying of _ennui_," said the showy Prince Charles of Buntzlau, one of the handsomest men about the court, and incomparably the greatest c.o.xcomb.

"Not much more than yesterday," was the answer of Colonel the Baron von Herbert. "The world goes on pretty much the same as ever. We have an Emperor, five Electors, and fifty sovereign princes, in Presburg; men eat, drink, and sleep notwithstanding; and, until there is some change in these points, one day will not differ much from another to the end of the world."

"My dear Colonel," said the Prince, smoothing down the blackest and longest pair of mustaches in the imperial cuira.s.siers, "you seem to think little of us, the blood, the _couronnes_, the salt of the earth, who preserve Germany from being as vulgar as Holland. But I forget; you have a partiality for the _gens du peuple_."

"Pardon me, Prince," said Herbert, with a smile, "I pity them infinitely, and wish that they might exchange with the Landgraves and Margraves, with all my heart. I have no doubt that the change would often be advantageous to both, for I have seen many a prince of the empire who would make a capital ploughman, while he made but a very clumsy prince; and I have, at this moment, three prodigiously high personages commanding three troops in my regiment, whom nature palpably intended to clean their own horses' heels, and who, I charitably believe, might, by dint of drilling and half-a-dozen years' practice, make three decent dragoons."

"Just as you please, Colonel," said the Prince, "but beware of letting your private opinion go forth. Leopold is one of the new light, I allow, and loves a philosopher; but he is an Emperor still, and expects all his philosophers to be of his own opinion.--But here comes Collini."

Collini was his Italian valet, who came to inform his Highness, that it was time for him to pay his respects to the Princess of Marosin. This Italian's princ.i.p.al office was, to serve his master in place of a memory--to recognise his acquaintance for him as he drove through the streets--and to tell him when to see and when to be blind. The Prince looked at his diamond watch, started from the sofa, gave himself a congratulatory glance in a mirror, and, turning to Collini, asked, "When am I to be married to the Princess?"

"Poh, Prince," interrupted the Colonel, with something of disdain, "this is too absurd. Send this grimacing fellow about his business, and make love on your own account, if you will; or if not, choose some woman whose beauty and virtue, or whose want of them both, will not be dishonoured by such trifling."

"You then actually think _her_ worth the attentions of a Prince of the Empire?" said the handsome c.o.xcomb, as, with one finger curling his mustaches, he again, and more deliberately, surveyed himself in the mirror.

"I think the Princess of Marosin worthy of the attentions of any King on earth," said the Baron, emphatically; "she is worthy of a throne, if beauty, intelligence, and dignity of mind, can make her worthy of one."

The Prince stared. "My dear Colonel!" he exclaimed, "may I half presume you have been speculating on the lady yourself? But I can a.s.sure you it is in vain. The Princess is a woman; and allowing, as I do,"--and this he said with a Parisian bow, that bow which is the very language of superiority,--"the infinite pre-eminence of the Baron von Herbert in everything, the circ.u.mstance of her being a woman, and my being a Prince, is prodigiously in my favour."

The Baron had involuntarily laid his hand upon his sword at the commencement of this speech, but the conclusion disarmed him. He had no right to quarrel with any man for his own good opinion, and he amused himself by contemplating the Prince, who continued arranging his mustaches. The sound of a trumpet put an end to the conference.

"Well, Prince, the trumpet sounds for parade," said the Baron, "and I have not time to discuss so extensive a subject as your perfections. But take my parting information with you. I am not in love with the lady, nor the lady with me; her one-and-twenty, and my one-and-fifty, are sufficient reasons on both sides. You are not in love with the lady either, and--I beg of you to hear the news like a hero--the lady is _not_ in love with you; for the plain reason, that so showy a figure cannot possibly be in love with anything but itself; and the Princess is, I will venture to say, too proud to share a heart with a bottle of lavender water, a looking-gla.s.s, and a poodle."

The Prince raised his eyebrows, but Von Herbert proceeded. "Buntzlau will be without a female sovereign, and its very accomplished Prince will remain, to the last, the best dressed _bachelor_ in Vienna. _Au revoir_, I see my Pandours on parade."

Von Herbert and the Prince parted with mutual smiles. But the Prince's were of the sardonic order; and after another contemplation of his features, which seemed, unaccountably, to be determined to disappoint him for the day, he rang for Collini, examined a new packet of uniforms, bijouterie, and otto of roses, from Paris, and was closeted with him for two profound hours.

A forest untouched since the flood overhung the road, and a half-ruined huge dwelling.

"Have the patrol pa.s.sed?"

"Within the last five minutes."