Won from the Waves Part 45

Harry would often gladly have talked with Jacob about Hurlston and his family, but the etiquette of a man of war prevented him from doing so.

He thus remained in ignorance of a circ.u.mstance which would have greatly raised his hopes of overcoming his father's objection to his marriage with May, for all the time he had supposed that Sir Ralph believed May to be, as he did, Dame Halliburt's daughter, and had been surprised that he had not spoken more strongly on the subject. His only other supposition was that Sir Ralph had made no enquiries as to May's parentage, and took it for granted that she was the orphan child of some friends of his cousins, whom they had charitably adopted.

The _Thisbe_ continued her course day after day over the world of waters. Though a constant look-out had been kept, no prizes had been made, and no enemy's cruisers encountered. Both the captain and officers hoped before long to find some work either to bring them credit or prize money.

Light and baffling winds had of late detained the _Thisbe_, when, having got somewhat out of her course, Saint Ann, one of the Seych.e.l.le Islands, was sighted. Captain Headland stood in for the Mahe Roads, in the hopes that some of the enemy's privateers or merchantmen might be anch.o.r.ed there, and might be cut out without detaining him long.

The opportunity must not be lost. The wind favoured them, for, instead of blowing off-sh.o.r.e as it generally does, the sea-breeze carried them swiftly towards the harbour.

Eager eyes were on the look-out. A large ship was discovered at anchor without her foremast. From her appearance she would evidently be a prize worth taking; but whether or not she was too strongly armed to allow the _Thisbe_ to make the attempt was the question. As she could not move, Captain Headland stood in close enough to ascertain this, and determined, should her size give him a fair hope of conquest, to attack her.

The cables were ranged with springs ready for anchoring, and the ship cleared for action. All on board eagerly hoped that they might have work to do, and every telescope was turned towards the stranger.

The _Thisbe_ had hoisted French colours, that her expected antagonist might not take the alarm, and run on sh.o.r.e to avoid her.

It was at length ascertained that the stranger was a flush deck ship, and ten guns were counted on the only side visible. Though she was apparently larger than the _Thisbe_, and more heavily armed, Captain Headland no longer hesitated, while the master volunteered to take the ship in among the numerous shoals which guarded the entrance of the harbour. Taking his station on the fore-yardarm, guided by the colour of the water, he gave directions to the helmsman how to steer.

The stranger remained quietly at anchor, apparently not suspecting the character of her visitor.

Harry was amused, as he went from gun to gun, to hear the remarks of some of the men who saw the French flag flying at the peak of the corvette.

"I thought our craft was an English ship, and we British tars, and now I see we be turned into mounseers," said one, c.o.c.king his eye at the tricoloured flag.

"If we be, my boy, we will show yonder ship that the mounseers can fight their guns as well as British tars for once in a way," remarked another who stood near him.

"Never you fear, mate, that gay-coloured flag will come down fast enough before we open fire."

The last speaker was right--the moment to which all were looking forward was approaching. Every man was at his station. Not a word was now spoken except by the master as he issued his orders from the yardarm.

The stranger gave no signs that she was aware of the approach of an enemy.

"We will run alongside and carry her by boarding; it will save our anchoring, and we shall not injure her spars--an important object, as I hope we may have to carry her off to sea," observed the captain to his first lieutenant.

The _Thisbe_ was now within 200 yards of the stranger's bows, when the master gave notice that there was a shoal ahead extending on either hand, while on sh.o.r.e a battery was seen commanding the pa.s.sage, and several smaller vessels at anchor under it.

Headland instantly gave the order to anchor. The crew swarmed aloft to hand sails, the French colours was hauled down, and the English run up at the peak. At the same moment the stranger opened a hot fire from the whole of her broadside.

"Fire," cried Captain Headland, and the _Thisbe_ returned the warm salute she had received.

The battery on sh.o.r.e and the small vessels at the same time began peppering away at her.

Broadsides were exchanged with great rapidity between the combatants.

The firing calming the light wind which had been blowing, the two ships were soon shrouded in a canopy of smoke. The English crew redoubled their efforts. Several had been struck, yet two only lay dead on her deck.

The Frenchman's fire, however, at length began to slacken, and in little more than a quarter of an hour down came the tricoloured flag, loud cheers bursting from the throats of the _Thisbe's_ crew. A boat was instantly sent under the command of the second lieutenant to take possession of the prize, but as he was pulling alongside the Frenchmen were seen lowering their boats, in which a considerable number made their escape to the sh.o.r.e.

The battery continued firing, and Captain Headland directed Harry to land with a boat's crew and silence it. Jacob accompanied him. The smaller vessels meantime cut their cables, some running on sh.o.r.e, and others endeavouring to make their escape through the intricate pa.s.sages, where the English ship could not follow them.

Harry, ordering his men to give way, pulled rapidly for the beach, exposed to a hot fire of musketry in addition to that from the heavy guns in the battery. Forming his men, he led the way up the steep bank.

The battery had been rapidly thrown up, and offered no insuperable impediment. Sword in hand he leaped over the parapet, followed closely by Jacob and the rest of his men.

At the same moment a bullet struck him on the shoulder, and a tall French officer, supported by a party of his men, was on the point of cutting him down as he fell forward, when Jacob, with uplifted cutla.s.s, saved him from the blow, returning it with such interest that his a.s.sailant fell back wounded among his men.

At this juncture a number of the French who had landed from the ship entered the fort to a.s.sist its defenders, and attacked the small party of English who had accompanied Harry. Jacob threw himself across the body of his lieutenant, and defended him bravely from the attacks of the French, who attempted to bayonet him as he lay on the ground. The remainder of the boat's crew springing over the entrenchments now came to Jacob's support. The garrison fought bravely, and disputed every inch of ground. Jacob's great object, however, was to protect Harry, and as soon as the Frenchmen had given way, springing back, he lifted Harry on his shoulders, and leaping over the entrenchments, carried him down to the boat.

In the meantime, Headland suspecting that the fort was stronger than he had at first supposed, despatched another boat to Harry's a.s.sistance.

The men sent in her landed just as a party of Frenchmen had come round the hill, and were on the point of intercepting Jacob, who was hurrying down with his burden, regardless of the shot whistling by him.

The Frenchmen on seeing this took to flight, while the last party of English climbing the hill threw themselves into the fort, and quickly cleared it of its defenders. The French flag was hauled down by the young midshipman who had led the second party, and that of England hoisted in its stead.

No further opposition was made, the French seeking shelter in the neighbouring woods, where they were not likely to be followed. A few had been cut down while defending the fort, while others, unable to make their escape, were taken prisoners.

The fort was found to contain six guns landed from the ship, as also a furnace for heating shot.

As soon as the Frenchmen had disappeared, one of the boats was sent back with the wounded lieutenant, and two of the men who had also been hurt.

Jacob carried Harry up the side, evidently considering that it was his duty to attend on him till he had placed him in the surgeon's hands.

No time was lost in getting the captured vessel ready for sea, while the guns belonging to her, which had been in the fort, were brought on board. A new mast was found on the beach, ready to be towed off. It was soon got on board and stepped, and in a couple of days the _Concord_, a fine new sloop of 22 guns, was following the _Thisbe_ out of the roads.

The command had of necessity been given to Lieutenant De Vere, as Harry was unable to a.s.sume it.

The surgeon looked grave when he spoke to the captain about him.

"We must keep a careful watch over him, for he has a good deal of fever, and in these warm lat.i.tudes it is somewhat a serious matter."

Harry had expressed a wish to have Jacob Halliburt to attend on him, and as it was necessary that some one should be constantly at his side, Jacob was appointed to that duty.

It would have been impossible to have found a more tender nurse, and no one could have attended more carefully to the directions given by the surgeon.

The fever the surgeon dreaded, however, came on, and for several days Harry was delirious. Often the name of "May" was on his lips, and Jacob, as he listened, discovered that his lieutenant loved her.

Several days went by, and Harry appeared to get worse. On his return to consciousness he felt how completely his strength had deserted him, and though the doctor tried to keep up his spirits by telling him that he would get better in time, so great was his weakness that he felt himself to be dying. He was anxious not to alarm his friend Headland; but as Jacob stood by his bedside, he told him what he believed would be the case.

"And I hope, my good fellow, that you will be able to return to your home, and if you do, I wish you to bear a message to your father and mother, and to your sister. I know that she no longer lives with them, and has become fit to occupy a different station in life; but you, I doubt not, love her notwithstanding as much as ever. Tell your parents how much I esteem them, and say to your sister that my love is unchangeable, that my dying thoughts were of her, my last prayers for her welfare. I have done what I could to secure it, and have left her all the property I possess. Mr Shallard, the lawyer at Morbury, will enable her to obtain possession of it."

"Miss May my sister!" exclaimed Jacob in a tone which aroused Harry's attention. "I will tell her what you say, sir, if my eyes are ever blessed by seeing her again, but she is not father and mother's child.

Father found her on board a wreck when she was a little child, and though she is now a grown young lady, she does not mind still calling them as she did when she lived with us, and that's made you fancy she is their daughter."

This answer of Jacob's had a wonderful effect on Harry. He asked question after question, entirely forgetting the weakness of which he had been complaining. Jacob gave him a full account of the way May had been preserved, how she had been brought up by his parents, and how the Miss Pembertons had invited her to come and live with them.

At length the doctor coming into the cabin put an end to the conversation.

From that moment Harry began to recover. It seemed to him at once that the great difficulty which he had dreaded was removed, and, ready as he had been to marry May although she was a fisherman's daughter, he was not the less gratified to hear that she was in all probability of gentle birth although her parents were unknown. How he had not learned this before surprised him. He could only, as was really the case, fancy that the Miss Pembertons and May herself supposed him to be aware of the truth, and had therefore not alluded to it. He thought over all his conversations with May; he recollected that they had generally spoken of the future rather than of the past, by which alone he could account for her silence on the subject.

"How remarkable it is," he thought, "that my beloved May and Headland should be placed in precisely similar situations, both ignorant of their parents, and yet enjoying the position in life in which they were evidently born."

Headland was as much surprised as his friend when he heard the account Harry gave him.