The Red Rover Part 63

Happily a fresh burst of riotous clamour, from one of the hatchways, interrupted the intention; and then was heard the cry of,---

"A priest! a priest! Pipe the rogues to prayers, before they take their dance on nothing!"

The ferocious laughter with which the freebooters received this sneering proposal, was hushed as suddenly as though One answered to their mockery, from that mercy-seat whose power they so sacrilegiously braved, when a deep, menacing voice was heard in their midst, saying,--

"By heaven, if touch, or look, be laid too boldly on a prisoner in this ship, he who offends had better beg the fate ye give these miserable men, than meet my anger. Stand off, I bid you, and let the chaplain approach!"

Every bold hand was instantly withdrawn, and each profane lip was closed in trembling silence, giving the terrified and horror-stricken subject of their liberties room and opportunity to advance to the scene of punishment.

"See," said the Rover, in calmer but still deeply authoritative tones; "you are a minister of G.o.d, and your office is sacred charity: If you have aught to smooth the dying moment to fellow mortal, haste to impart it!"

"In what have these offended?" demanded the divine, when power was given to speak.

"No matter; it is enough that their hour is near. If you would lift your voice in prayer, fear nothing. The unusual sounds shall be welcome even here. Ay, and these miscreants, who so boldly surround you, shall kneel, and be mute, as beings whose souls are touched by the holy rite. Scoffers shall be dumb, and unbelievers respectful, at my beck.--Speak freely!"

"Scourge of the seas!" commenced the chaplain, across whose pallid features a flash of holy excitement had cast its glow, "remorseless violator of the laws of man! audacious contemner of the mandates of your G.o.d! a fearful retribution shall avenge this crime. Is it not enough that you have this day consigned so many to a sudden end, but your vengeance must be glutted with more blood? Beware the hour when these things shall be visited, in almighty power on your own devoted head!"

"Look!" said the Rover, smiling, but with an expression that was haggard, in spite of the unnatural exultation that struggled about his quivering lip, "here are the evidences of the manner in which Heaven protects the right!"

"Though its awful justice be hidden in inscrutable wisdom for a time, deceive not thyself; the hour is at hand when it shall be seen and felt in majesty!"

The voice of the chaplain became suddenly choaked, for his wandering eye had fallen on the frowning countenance of Bignall, which, set in death, lay but half concealed beneath that flag which the Rover himself had cast upon the body. Then, summoning his energies, he continued, in the clear and admonitory strain that befitted his sacred calling: "They tell me you are but half lost to feeling for your kind; and, though the seeds of better principles, of better days, are smothered in your heart, that they still exist and might be quickened into goodly"

"Peace! You speak in vain. To your duty with these men, or be silent."

"Is their doom sealed?"

"It is."

"Who says it?" demanded a low voice at the elbow of the Rover, which, coming upon his ear at that moment, thrilled upon his most latent nerve, chasing the blood from his cheek to the secret recesses of his frame. But the weakness had already pa.s.sed away with the surprise, as he calmly, and almost instantly answered,--

"The law."

"The law!" repeated the governess. "Can they who set all order at defiance, who despise each human regulation, talk of law! Say, it is heartless, vindictive vengeance, if you will; but call it not by the sacred name of law.--I wander from my object! They have told me of this frightful scene, and I am come to offer ransom for the offenders. Name your price, and let it be worthy of the subject we redeem; a grateful parent shall freely give it all for the preserver of his child."

"If gold will purchase the lives you wish," the other interrupted, with the swiftness of thought, "it is here in h.o.a.rds, and ready on the moment.

What say my people! Will they take ransom?"

A short, brooding pause succeeded; and then a low, ominous murmur was raised in the throng, announcing their reluctance to dispense with vengeance. A scornful glance shot from the glowing eye of the Rover, across the fierce countenances by which he was environed; his lips moved with vehemence; but, as if he disdained further intercession, nothing was uttered for the ear. Turning to the divine, he added, with all the former composure of his wonderful manner,--

"Forget not your sacred office--time is leaving us." He was then moving slowly aside, in imitation of the governess, who had already veiled her features from the revolting scene, when Wilder addressed him.

"For the service you would have done me, from my soul I thank you," he said. "If you would know that I leave you in peace, give yet one solemn a.s.surance before I die."

"To what?"

"Promise, that they who came with me into your ship shall leave it unharmed, and speedily."

"Promise, Walter," said a solemn, smothered voice, in the throng.

"I do."

"I ask no more.--Now, Reverend Minister of G.o.d, perform thy holy office, near my companions. Then ignorance may profit by your service. If I quit this bright and glorious scene, without thought and grat.i.tude to that Being who, I humbly trust, has made me an heritor of still greater things, I offend wittingly and without hope. But these may find consolation in your prayers."

Amid an awful and breathing silence, the chaplain approached the devoted companions of Wilder. Their comparative insignificance had left them un.o.bserved during most of the foregoing scene; and material changes had occurred, unheeded, in their situation. Fid was seated on the deck, his collar unb.u.t.toned, his neck encircled with the fatal cord, sustaining the head of the nearly helpless black, which he had placed, with singular tenderness and care, in his lap.

"This man, at least, will disappoint the malice of his enemies," said the divine, taking the hard hand of the negro into his own; "the termination of his wrongs and his degradation approaches; he will soon be far beyond the reach of human injustice.--Friend, by what name is your companion known?"

"It is little matter how you hail a dying man," returned Richard, with at melancholy shake of the head. "He has commonly been entered on the ship's books as Scipio Africa, coming, as he did, from the coast of Guinea; but, if you call him S'ip, he will not be slow to understand."

"Has he known baptism? Is he a Christian?"

"If he be not, I don't know who the devil is!" responded Richard, with an asperity that might be deemed a little unseasonable. "A man who serves his country, is true to his messmate, and has no skulk about him, I call a saint, so far as mere religion goes. I say, Guinea, my hearty, give the chaplain a gripe of the fist, if you call yourself a Christian. A Spanish windla.s.s wouldn't give a stronger screw than the knuckles of that n.i.g.g.e.r an hour ago; and, now, you see to what a giant may be brought."

"His latter moment is indeed near. Shall I offer a prayer for the health of the departing spirit?"

"I don't know, I don't know!" answered Fid, gulping his words, and uttering a hem, that was still deep and powerful, as in the brightest and happiest of his days. "When there is so little time given to a poor fellow to speak his mind in, it may be well to let him have a chance to do most of the talking. Something may come uppermost which he would like to send to his friends in Africa; in which case, we may as well be looking out for a proper messenger. Hah! what is it, boy? You see he is already trying to rowse something up out of his ideas."

"Misser Fid--he'm take a collar," said the black, struggling for utterance.

"Ay, ay," returned Richard, again clearing his throat, and looking to the right and left fiercely, as if he were seeking some object on which to wreak his vengeance. "Ay, ay, Guinea; put your mind at ease on that point, and for that matter on all others. You shall have a grave as deep as the sea, and Christian burial, boy, if this here parson will stand by his work. Any small message you may have for your friends shall be logg'd, and put in the way of coming to their ears. You have had much foul weather in your time, Guinea, and some squalls have whistled about your head, that might have been s.p.a.ced, mayhap, had your colour been a shade or two lighter. For that matter, it may be that I have rode you down a little too close myself, boy, when over-heated with the conceit of skin; for all which may the Lord forgive me as freely as I hope you will do the same thing!"

The negro made a fruitless effort to rise, endeavouring to grasp the hand of the other, saying, as he did so,--

"Misser Fid beg a pardon of a black man! Ma.s.ser aloft forget he'm all, misser Richard; he t'ink 'em no more."

"It will be what I call a d----'d generous thing, if he does," returned Richard, whose sorrow and whose conscience had stirred up his uncouth feelings to an extraordinary degree. "There's the affair of slipping off the wreck of the smuggler has never been properly settled atween us, neither; and many other small services of like nature, for which, d'ye see, I'll just thank you, while there is opportunity; for no one can say whether we shall ever be borne again on the same ship's books."

A feeble sign from his companion caused the topman to pause, while he endeavoured to construe its meaning as well as he was able. With a facility, that was in some degree owing to the character of the individual his construction of the other's meaning was favourable to himself, as was quite evident by the manner in which he resumed,--

"Well, well, mayhap we may. I suppose they birth the people there in some such order as is done here below, in which case we may be put within hailing distance, after all. Our sailing orders are both signed; though, as you seem likely to slip your cable before these thieves are ready to run me up, you will be getting the best of the wind. I shall not say much concerning any signals it may be necessary to make, in order to make one another out aloft taking it for granted that you will not overlook master Harry, on account of the small advantage you may have in being the first to shove off, intending myself to keep as close as possible in his wake, which will give me the twofold advantage of knowing I am on the right tack, and of falling in with you"--

"These are evil words, and fatal alike to your own future peace, and to that of your unfortunate friend," interrupted the divine. "His reliance must be placed on One, different in all his attributes from your officer, to follow whom, or to consult whose frail conduct, would be the height of madness. Place your faith on another"----

"If I do, may I be----"

"Peace," said Wilder. "The black would speak to me."

Scipio had turned his looks in the direction of his officer, and was making another feeble effort towards extending his hand. As Wilder placed the member within the grasp of the dying negro, the latter succeeded in laying it on his lips, and then, flourishing with a convulsive movement that herculean arm which he had so lately and so successfully brandished in defence of his master, the limb stiffened and fell, though the eyes still continued their affectionate and glaring gaze on that countenance he had so long loved, and which, in the midst of all his long-endured wrongs, had never refused to meet his look of love in kindness. A low murmur followed this scene, and then complaints succeeded, in a louder strain, till more than one voice was heard openly muttering its discontent that vengeance should be so long delayed.

"Away with them!" shouted an ill-omened voice from the throng. "Into the sea with the carca.s.s, and up with the living."

"Avast!" burst out of the chest of Fid, with an awfulness and depth that stayed even the daring; movements of that lawless moment. "Who dare to cast a seaman into the brine, with the dying look standing in his lights, and his last words still in his messmate's ears? Ha! would ye stopper the fins of a man as ye would pin a lobster's claw! That for your fastenings and your lubberly knots together!" The excited topman snapped the lines by which his elbows had been imperfectly secured, while speaking and immediately lashed the body of the black to his own, though his words received no interruption from a process that was executed with all a seaman's dexterity. "Where was the man in your lubberly crew that could lay upon a yard with this here black, or haul upon a lee-earing, while he held the weather-line? Could any one of ye all give up his rations, in order that a sick messmate might fare the better? or work a double tide, to spare the weak arm of a friend? Show me one who had as little dodge under fire, as a sound mainmast, and I will show you all that is left of his better. And now sway upon your whip, and thank G.o.d that the honest end goes up, while the rogues are suffered to keep their footing for a time."

"Sway away!" echoed Nightingale, seconding the hoa.r.s.e sounds of his voice by the winding of his call; "away with them to heaven."

"Hold!" exclaimed the chaplain, happily arresting the cord before it had yet done its fatal office. "For His sake, whose mercy may one day be needed by the most hardened of ye all, give but another moment of time!

What mean these words! read I aright? 'Ark, of Lynnhaven!'"