Tom Cringle's Log Part 5

Here Mr----exchanged looks with his sisters.

"Certainly," said the young officer; "and I will myself see you safe into the city."

Who says that eels cannot be made used to skinning? The poor girls continued their little preparations with an alacrity and presence of mind that truly surprised me. There was neither screaming nor fainting, and by the time the carriage was at the door, they, with two female domestics, were ready to mount. I cannot better describe their vehicle, than by comparing it to a canoe mounted on four wheels, connected by a long perch, with a coachbox at the bow, and three gig bodies hung athwart ships, or slung inside of the canoe, by leather thongs. At the moment we were starting, Mr ---- came close to me and whispered, "Do you think your ship will still be in the river?"

I answered that I made no doubt she was.

"But even if she be not," said he, "the Holstein bank is open to us.

Anywhere but Hamburgh now." And the scalding tears ran down his cheeks.

At this moment there was a bustle on the hill top, and presently the artillery began once more to play, while the musketry breezed up again in the distance. A mounted bugler rode half way down the hill, and sounded the recall. The young officer hesitated. He man waved his hand, and blew the advance.

"It must be for us--answer it." His bugle did so. "Bring the pitch, men the flax--so now--break the windows, and let the air in--set the house on fire; and, Sergeant Guido, remain to prevent it being extinguished I shall fire the village as we pa.s.s through."

He gave the word to face about; and, desiring the men to follow at the same swinging run with which the whole of the infantry had originally advanced, he spurred his horse against the hill, and soon disappeared.

My host's resolution seemed now taken. Turning to the sergeant, "My good fellow, the reconnoissance will soon be returning; I shall precede it into the town."

The man, a fine vieux moustache, hesitated.

My friend saw it, and hit him in a Frenchman's most a.s.sailable quarter.

"The ladies, my good man--the ladies!--You would not have them drive in pell-mell with the troops, exposed most likely to the fire of the Prussian advanced-guard, would you?"

The man grounded his musket, and touched his cap--"Pa.s.s on." Away we trundled, until, coming to a cross-road, we turned down towards the river; and at the angle we could see thick wreaths of smoke curling up into the air, showing that the barbarous order had been but too effectually fulfilled.

"What is that?" said----.

A horse, with his rider entangled and dragged by the stirrup, pa.s.sed us at full speed, leaving a long track of blood on the road.

"Who is that?"

The coachman drove on, and gave no answer; until, at a sharp turn, we came upon the bruised and now breathless body of the young officer, who had so recently obeyed the savage behests of his brutal commander. There was a musket-shot right in the middle of his fine forehead, like a small blue point, with one or two heavy black drops of blood oozing from it. His pale features wore a mild and placid expression, evincing that the numberless lacerations and bruises, which were evident through his tom uniform, had been inflicted on a breathless corpse.

The stuhl wagen had carried on for a mile farther or so, but the firing seemed to approximate, whereupon our host sung out, "Fahrt Zu, Schwager--Wir Kommen nicht weiter."

The driver of the stuhl wagen skulled along until we arrived at the beautiful, at a mile off, but the beastly, when close to, village of Blankanese.

When the voiture stopped in the village, there seemed to be a nonplusation, to coin a word for the nonce, between my friend and his sisters. They said something very sharply, and with a degree of determination that startled me. He gave no answer. Presently the Amazonian attack was renewed.

"We shall go onboard," said they. "Very well," said he; "but have patience, have patience!"

"No, no. Wann wird man sich einschiffen mussen?"

By this time we were in the heart of the village, and surrounded with a whole lot, forty at the least, of Blankanese boatmen. We were not long in selecting one of the fleetest-looking of those very fleet boats, when we all trundled on board; and I now witnessed what struck me as being an awful sign of the times. The very coachman of the stuhl wagen, after conversing a moment with his master, returned to his team, tied the legs of the poor creatures as they stood, and then with a sharp knife cut their jugular veins through and through on the right side, having previously reined them up sharp to the left, so that, before starting, we could see three of the team, which consisted of four superb bays, level with the soil and dead; the near wheeler only holding out on his fore-legs.

We shoved off at eleven o'clock in the forenoon; and after having twice been driven into creeks on the Holstein sh.o.r.e by bad weather, we arrived about two next morning safely on board the Torch, which immediately got under weigh for England. After my story had been told to the Captain, I left my preserver, his father, and his sisters in his hands, and I need scarcely say that they had as hearty a welcome as the worthy old soul could give them, and dived into the midshipmen's berth for a morsel of comfort, where, in a twinkling, I was far into the secrets of a pork pie.

CHAPTER II.--The Cruise of the Torch.

Sleep, gentle sleep-- Wilt thou, upon the high and giddy mast, Seal up the shipboy's eyes, and rock his brains, In cradle of the rude imperious surge; And in the visitation of the winds, Who take the ruffian billows by the top, Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them With deafning clamour in the slippery clouds, That, with the hurry, death itself awakes-- Canst thou, O partial sleep! give thy repose To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude?

2 HENRY IV, Ill. 1. 5, 18--27.

Heligoland light-north and by west--so many leagues--wind baffling weather hazy--Lady Pa.s.sengers on deck for the first time.

Arrived in the Downs--ordered by signal from the guard--ship to proceed to Portsmouth. Arrived at Spithead--ordered to fit to receive a general officer, and six pieces of field artillery, and a Spanish Ecclesiastic, the Canon of----. Plenty of great guns, at any rate--a regular park of artillery.

Received General ---- and his wife, and aide-de-camp, and two poodle dogs, one white man-servant, one black ditto, and the Canon of ----, and the six nine-pound field-pieces, and sailed for the Cove of Cork.

It was blowing hard as we stood in for the Old Head of Kinsale pilot boat breasting the foaming surge like a sea gull--"Carrol Cove" in her tiny mainsail-pilot jumped into the main channel a bottle of rum swung by the lead line into the boat--all very clever.

Ran in, and anch.o.r.ed under Spike Island. A line-of-battle ship, three frigates, and a number of merchantmen at anchor-men of war lovely craft, bands playing--a good deal of the pomp and circ.u.mstance of war. Next forenoon, Mr Treenail, the second lieutenant, sent for me.

"Mr Cringle," said he, "you have an uncle in Cork, I believe?"

I said I had.

"I am going there on duty to-night; I daresay, if you asked the Captain to let you accompany me, he would do so." This was too good an offer not to be taken advantage of. I plucked up courage, made my bow, asked leave, and got it; and the evening found my friend the lieutenant, and myself, after a ride of three hours, during which I, for one, had my bottom sheathing grievously rubbed, and a considerable botheration at crossing the Ferry at Pa.s.sage, safe in our inn at Cork. I soon found out that the object of my superior officer was to gain information amongst the crimp shops, where ten men, who had run from one of the West Indiamen, waiting at Cove for convoy, were stowed away, but I was not let farther into the secret; so I set out to pay my visit, and after pa.s.sing a pleasant evening with my friends, Mr and Mrs Job Cringle, the lieutenant dropped in upon us about nine o'clock.

He was heartily welcomed, and under the plea of our being obliged to return to the ship early next morning, we soon took leave, and returned to the inn. As I was turning into the public room, the door was open, and I could see it full of blowsy-faced monsters, glimmering and jabbering, through the mist of hot brandy grog and gin twist; with poodle Benjamins, and greatcoats, and cloaks of all sorts and sizes, steaming on their pegs, with Barcelonas and comforters, and damp travelling caps of seal-skin, and blue cloth, and tartan, arranged above the same.

Nevertheless, such a society in my juvenile estimation, during my short escapade from the middy's berth, had its charms, and I was rolling in with a tolerable swagger, when Mr Treenail pinched my arm.

"Mr Cringle, come here, into my room."

From the way in which he spoke, I imagined, in my innocence, that his room was at my elbow; but no such thing--we had to ascend a long, and not overclean staircase, to the fourth floor, before we were shown into a miserable little double-bedded room. So soon as we had entered, the lieutenant shut the door.

"Tom," said he, "I have taken a fancy to you, and therefore I applied for leave to bring you with me; but I must expose you to some danger, and, I will allow, not altogether in a very creditable way either. You must enact the spy for a short s.p.a.ce."

I did not like the notion certainly, but I had little time for consideration.

"Here," he continued--"here is a bundle." He threw it on the floor. "You must rig in the clothes it, contains, and make your way into the celebrated crimp shop in the neighbourhood, and pick up all the information you can regarding the haunts of the pressable men at Cove, especially with regard to the ten seamen who have run from the West Indiaman we left below. You know the Admiral has forbidden pressing in Cork, so you must contrive to frighten the blue jackets down to Cove, by representing yourself as an apprentice of one of the merchant vessels, who had run from his indentures, and that you had narrowly escaped from a press-gang this very night here."

I made no scruples, but forthwith arrayed myself in the slops contained in the bundle; in a pair of s.h.a.g trowsers, red flannel shirt, coa.r.s.e blue cloth jacket, and no waistcoat.

"Now," said Mr Treenail, "stick a quid of tobacco in your cheek, and take the c.o.c.kade out of your hat; or stop, leave it, and ship this striped woollen night-cap--so--and come along with me."

We left the house, and walked half a mile down the Quay.

Presently we arrived before a kind of low grog-shop--a bright lamp was flaring in the breeze at the door, one of the panes of the gla.s.s of it being broken.

Before I entered, Mr Treenail took me to one side--"Tom, Tom Cringle, you must go into this crimp shop; pa.s.s yourself off for an apprentice of the Guava, bound for Trinidad, the ship that arrived just as we started, and pick up all the knowledge you can regarding the whereabouts of the men, for we are, as you know, cruelly ill manned, and must replenish as we best may." I entered the house, after having agreed to rejoin my superior officer, so soon as I considered I had obtained my object. I rapped at the inner door, in which there was a small unglazed aperture cut, about four inches square; and I now, for the first time, perceived that a strong glare of light was cast into the lobby, where I stood, by a large argand with a brilliant reflector, that like a magazine lantern had been mortised into the bulkhead, at a height of about two feet above the door in which the spy-hole was cut. My first signal was not attended to; I rapped again, and looking round I noticed Mr Treenail flitting backwards and forwards across the doorway, in the rain with his pale face and his sharp nose, with the sparkling drop at the end on't, glancing in the light of the lamp. I heard a step within, and a very pretty face now appeared at the wicket.

"Who are you saking here, an' please ye?"