The Pirate of the Mediterranean Part 43

"Well, well, signora," returned Zappa. "You and your attendant are welcome to do your best to prevent the man from dying, though he deserves nothing at my hands; but whatever men may say of me, they shall not justly accuse me of being a murderer in cold blood. Your countrymen do not appear to be in a fighting mood. Perhaps they are afraid of firing, lest they should hurt you. Is it not so, lady? I know more of their plans than you suspect. The expedition is led by the captain of the _Ione_, in person, and he was on the look out for you, when we so inopportunely came up, and spoilt your arrangements."

"Can it be so?" thought Ada. "Is he really ignorant that Fleetwood is close to him? Alas, he may be deceiving me, and if I pretend to agree to his a.s.sertions, he will but use it as a weapon against me. The right and best plan is to refuse to give an opinion on the subject."

"I am your prisoner, signor," she said, aloud; "and as such I claim every right to endeavour to escape as I best can. It would therefore be folly in me to acknowledge by what means I have communicated with my countrymen, even if I had done as you suppose, lest you should prevent my doing so another time."

"_Per bacco_, you are a brave girl!" exclaimed the pirate, in a tone in which Ada felt that admiration was too much mingled with a familiarity she had endeavoured to avoid. "I would rather be your friend than your enemy, if you would let me. Faith, you deserve your liberty, or anything else that you desire; but it would tax my generosity too much to give it to you."

What he said further, Ada did not hear; for the noise of the firing, which then commenced from the cliffs above, as well as from the boats, drowned his words. She trembled for the fate of the _Tone's_ crew, who were coming to her a.s.sistance; for she was sufficiently acquainted with the nature of military defences, to know the impracticable character of the harbour into which the pirates, she was afraid, would try to draw them.

The firing increased; and she judged, by the gestures of the Greeks, who were rowing, that her countrymen were close upon them. Again the hope revived that, even then, Fleetwood might be rescued. The shouts of the British seamen rang in her ears. She could scarcely refrain from rising and waving to them to urge them on to the succour of their captain; but, just as she fancied they would be alongside, she saw the cliffs, at the entrance of the harbour, towering above her, and the boat shooting in; directly after, the _Sea Hawk_ opened her fire, and her ears were deafened with the reverberating reports of the guns, and the shouts and shrieks of the pirates. The moment the boat touched the sh.o.r.e, Zappa and his companions sprang out, he shouting,--"To the castle--to the castle! We will give them the guns as they retreat."

And Ada found herself left alone with Pietro and Marianna. In vain she endeavoured to arouse her lover to a state of consciousness--the same frightful torpor continued which the wound had caused; and her heart almost broke with anguish, as she began to fear he might die before he could receive any proper a.s.sistance.

"The pirate talks of his generosity. Would he allow him to be sent on board the _Ione_ with a flag of truce?" she thought. "No, no; it were vain to hope it; and the very entreating him to do so would betray Charles to him."

She then remembered the medical knowledge possessed by Paolo Montifalcone, and the great a.s.sistance he had been to her; but she had no means of testing his surgical skill, though she understood that Zappa had, at first, detained him, that he might be useful to any of his followers who were wounded--but then the idea occurred to her--though, perhaps, she did not express it in so many words,--"Can I trust him? He has confessed his unhappy attachment to me. I told him that, if no other circ.u.mstance prevented my marrying him, my heart was another's, and can I dare to place that favoured rival in his power? He is, apparently, generous, and possesses many excellent qualities; but he is an Italian; and if the tales I have heard of Italians are true, they are less scrupulous than other persons of ridding themselves of those they hate. Perhaps he would not contemplate such a deed--he might now shudder at the thought of it; but if the temptation were thrown in his way, could he withstand it? I might, were I to trust him, be guilty of my Charles's death, and of causing that unhappy youth to commit a murder. Oh! G.o.d help me! What shall I do?"

Just then, some rapid steps were heard of a person running along the sands. They attracted the attention of Marianna, who had begun to recover from her fright; and looking over the side of the boat, she screamed out,--"Is it you, Mr Raby? Oh, come here--come here! We want you very much."

She was right in her supposition; and the next instant the midshipman had sprung into the boat.

"What, Miss Garden! Are you left here alone? And, good heavens! is that the captain?" he exclaimed, in a tone of voice which showed how deeply he felt, joyous and careless as he was on ordinary occasions.

"Oh, Miss Garden, he is not dead!"

"I trust in Heaven he is not, Mr Raby," replied Ada. "He has been stunned and severely wounded, and, had no one been with him, would have bled to death; even now, I know not what may happen if he does not speedily receive a.s.sistance. Had we the strength to do so, we might convey him up to the tower, where I suppose I shall be again shut up, and his wounds might thus be properly dressed."

"I am afraid that you, and Marianna, and I, should never be able to carry him all that way without hurting him," returned Jack Raby. "If I could find our companions, we could easily do it; but I don't know what became of them. I was dragged into a boat by myself, and knocked down, and told to be quiet; out, as soon as we got in here, the rascals went off to man their guns, and quite forgot me, I suppose; so, directly I found that they were gone, I felt to see if my head was hurt, and feeling it all right, I jumped out and set off, determined to try and find out what had become of you and the rest. If I could not succeed, I thought about going up to the Italian lady, and getting her to make interest for us all. I was in a great hurry, because I did not know when the pirates might come back; and they will, probably, shut me up somewhere, so that I cannot get to speak to her."

"Your suggestion, Mr Raby, affords much hope that we may obtain a.s.sistance for Captain Fleetwood," said Ada. "Oh! hurry up to the tower, and I am certain that the Signora Nina will exert herself to the utmost in our favour. Tell her all that happened--tell her that the life of one very dear to me depends on her sending us aid; and she will find some one who will come and a.s.sist to carry your captain to a place of safety. I need scarcely advise you to take every precaution to avoid being stopped on your way."

"Never fear me, Miss Garden," answered the midshipman, as he leaped on sh.o.r.e. "If I hear any one coming near me, I'll stow myself away under the rocks, or climb right up the cliffs over their heads. It's fortunately so dark, that there's very little chance of my being seen, and I'll be back again as fast as I can."

Nina Montifalcone was sitting, solitary and sad, at the window of her tower, gazing out on the sea, and watching the scene enacting below her.

She had risen from her couch on hearing the firing and noise, and had gone to where she now was, to learn the cause of it. The rapid discharge of the guns from the brig and fort told her that fighting was going on, and the British boats in full retreat explained what else had happened. So interested was she on what was going on without, that she did not hear the sound of the footsteps of a person who entered the room.

"Signora, signora," said a voice near her; she started on hearing herself addressed, and saw Jack Raby standing at her elbow. "I have come in a great hurry, and have not a moment to spare, to tell you that Signora Garden, your friend, is on the sh.o.r.e of the bay in a boat, and that there is a person very badly wounded in it, who will die if you cannot send him a.s.sistance; and also that, if you do not intercede for us with the pira--I mean with the chief of this island,--I and my companions shall, very likely, to-morrow morning, be hung, or shot, or have our throats cut, or be thrown over the cliffs, or, at all events, sent out of the world."

"The Signora Garden, and one in whom she is interested, wounded,"

repeated Nina. "Ah! I see how it is. Tell me, frankly, boy. Is it the captain of the English brig who is wounded?"

"_Signora, si_, I will not deny it," said the midshipman. "There is, therefore, you will see, still greater necessity for you to interfere in his favour."

"I tell you, boy, if it were known who he was, and for what purpose he came here, I could not preserve his life for one instant," replied Nina.

"He must not be brought up here on any account, for he would be certainly recognised in the morning. Have you met my brother, Signor Paolo. He alone can a.s.sist us."

"What, the Italian gentleman? No, signora. I took too much care in coming up here to fall in with anybody," said Jack.

"Then I must go in search of him. We shall probably find him among the spectators of the fight. I will send him down to the boat. Tell the signora that there is a cottage close to the sh.o.r.e on the other side of the bay, to the inhabitants of which my brother has been of great service, by preserving the lives of their children in a dire sickness, and thither the wounded man shall be conveyed. If they have any grat.i.tude in their nature, they will perform any service Paolo may require; and the English captain will be safe with them, even should they discover who he is. Now, hasten back to the bay with the message, and entreat Signora Garden to return to her tower, and to appear to take no further interest in him. It will betray him, to a certainty, if she does, and it can do him no good. I will, however, endeavour to arrange that you shall remain with him to attend on him. Tell her that, as soon as I have dispatched Paolo, I will go myself to meet her."

While Nina was speaking, she took out of a chest the _capote_ she had worn on the previous occasion, and, throwing it over her shoulders, led the way down the steps. While Jack Raby hurried off down the ravine, she took her way towards the edge of the cliffs, where she saw a number of people, some of them still firing in the direction where the boats were supposed to be, though they must by that time have been beyond the range of the guns; it served, however, to occupy their attention, so that no one perceived her. She wandered among them for some time in vain, looking for her brother, till, at last, she found him, leaning against a part of the ruins on a high spot, from where he could overlook the whole scene. Twice she called him, but so absorbed was he in his own thoughts that he did not answer her, till she climbed up over the broken fragments at his feet, and touched his arm.

"Paolo, my brother," she said, "I come to ask you to perform a generous and a n.o.ble work, from which you must not shrink. You love the English lady who has been held captive here. I knew it from the first, and I know that she cannot return your love, for her heart is another's. Now listen: the man to whom her heart is given, your rival if you will, lies now in the island, wounded almost to death, and on your skill depends, probably, whether he lives or dies. Promise me, then, as you hope for salvation in another world, for peace of mind in this, to exert that skill to the utmost to preserve his life, to conceal his real character from my husband, and to aid him to escape from the island. Say you will do this, my brother, and I believe, from what I have seen of that fair girl, you are far more likely to win her regard by such conduct, and ultimately, perhaps, even her love, than were her lover to die without an attempt on your part to save him."

Paolo listened without interrupting her, and did not immediately answer.

"Her love! Do you think it possible that I should gain her love?" he at length exclaimed, as if he had not heard anything else she had said. "I would sacrifice life itself for that bright jewel."

"It would be wrong were I to hold hope out to you to induce you to act as I could wish, Paolo," said Nina. "Think not of any other reward than such as your own heart will afford you. Her love I do not believe that you will attain, even were her lover to die. One of her nature places her heart on one object, and when that is torn from her, it never again finds a resting-place. All you may expect, and that, be a.s.sured, she will give you, is her grat.i.tude and esteem. With that you must be content."

"It is bitter to think so, and yet I have long ceased to hope," murmured Paolo. "Tell me though, Nina, what would you have me do?"

His sister told him of the arrangement she had already made with Jack Raby.

"Come, my brother, decide what part you will take--there is no time to be lost; oh! let it be that one worthy of your generous nature."

"Nina, I will do as you wish," Paolo gasped forth, after a long silence.

"I will endeavour to save the life of this man, even though my heart break when I see him united to her he loves."

"Swear it, then, Paolo--swear it by the Holy Apostles--swear it, as you hope for Heaven's mercy hereafter," exclaimed Nina. "Not only for your own sake do I impose this oath, but for the sake of the sweet girl herself, that she may know that, though her lover is in his rival's power, he is as safe as in the hands of his dearest friend."

Paolo took the oath his sister prescribed, and leaping off the ruins, hurried, at headlong speed, down to the bay.

Nina followed at a slower pace.

The flight of the fugitives had been discovered by old Vlacco, even before they had quitted the bay. He had awoke in the night, he stated, and had taken it into his head, that he would go to see if they were safe in their prison. He was so astonished and confused on finding they were not there, that, at first, he could not decide what course to take.

He then bethought him that his duty required him to inform his chief, and as soon as Zappa was made aware of the fact, the whole island was in commotion, and the pursuit was commenced.

It was with very great satisfaction that Nina heard of Ada's flight, and most earnestly did she pray that she might not be overtaken. For the fair girl's sake, she wished this, and for her own, even still more so.

She admired her beauty, she was inclined to love her as a sister--and yet she could not conceal from herself that she greatly feared her as a rival in her husband's affections. She had lately learned, too surely to doubt it, that his love was waning, and that he himself was far different from the character she had supposed him.

By his own acknowledgment, he was a blood-stained pirate; and she had already too many proofs of the fact, even had he not, now that he was indifferent to her love, boasted to her of his deeds. Sometimes, alas, the dreadful thought would occur to her, that even her life would not be safe, if it stood between him and his wishes; and yet, woman-like, she still loved on. She tried to shut her eyes to his faults, to forget his unkindness, and to discover only the n.o.ble qualities she at first believed he possessed. Though she feared Ada, she could not hate her; and would not have harmed her, now that she felt sure she would never consent to become the pirate's bride should she die, much less his mistress; but she was not the less anxious for her departure, and proportionably grieved when she heard that she was once more a prisoner in the island. With natural jealousy, when Zappa spoke of obtaining a ransom for Ada, she had endeavoured to ascertain what steps he had taken, for the purpose of arranging it; and by no means could she learn that he had even made any attempts to open negotiations on the subject with any persons at Malta, or elsewhere; and this confirmed her in her fears that this was simply a pretext to weary out his prisoner, and to reconcile her to her fate. She was certain, also, that Captain Fleetwood could have heard nothing on the subject; as he would, she thought, have preferred so safe a way of recovering her, instead of the dangerous one he had attempted. Such were the subjects which occupied her mind, as she walked down the ravine to meet her rival. In the meantime, Ada had watched, with an anxiety scarcely describable, for the return of Raby; every instant expecting to have the pirates come back; and to have her lover dragged roughly from her; and to have to run the risk either of betraying him, or of allowing him to perish without a.s.sistance.

At last Jack arrived, followed at an interval by Paolo.

"Signora," he said, "I have come to take charge of a man I hear is sorely wounded. Do not doubt me; I repeat the oath I have given my sister, that I will, to the best of my abilities, endeavour to restore him to health, and if an occasion occurs, to aid in his escape from hence. I ask--I look for no reward."

"I trust you, signor," replied Ada, giving him her hand. "You could not commit so black an act as to deceive me, and now, oh! hasten to put your good intentions into execution."

On this Paolo told her of the fisherman's hut, to which he purposed to convey Captain Fleetwood, and hurried off to summon the old man. He soon returned, stating that he was from home, and as no time was to be lost, he proposed that he and Raby should carry the wounded officer there at once, with the aid of Ada and Marianna. This they accomplished without much difficulty, by means of a cloak found at the bottom of the boat, and then, urged by Paolo and Raby, Ada tore herself away from him, and with Marianna, endeavoured to find her way up the ravine, while Jack remained to keep watch over his commander.

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

Lieutenant Saltwell, on whom, in his captain's absence, had devolved the command of the _Ione_, walked her quarterdeck on the night on which the events we have been describing took place, with a mind very ill at ease.

He had been during the whole afternoon endeavouring, by every possible means in his power, to get the brig up to the spot agreed on, off the island of Lissa, so that he might dispatch the boats at dark to wait still closer in for the coming of Fleetwood and his companions. The breeze with which they had started had failed them soon afterwards, so the sweeps had been got out, and the boats had towed ahead, till he was fearful of knocking up their crews and unfitting them for the work they had still to perform; and yet, do all they could, he was obliged to dispatch them, under the orders of the several lieutenants, with a pull of some eighteen or twenty miles before them.

"For heaven's sake, make the best speed you can," said Saltwell, as he bade his brother officers good bye. "Our captain will make the attempt to-night, depend on it, and it will be sad work if he cannot find the boats."