the_death_ship_a_strange_story_vol_3
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| + | < | ||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <h1> | ||
| + | THE DEATH SHIP<br /> | ||
| + | A STRANGE STORY;< | ||
| + | </h1> | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | AN ACCOUNT OF A CRUISE IN "THE FLYING DUTCHMAN," | ||
| + | FROM THE PAPERS OF THE LATE MR. GEOFFREY FENTON, OF POPLAR,< | ||
| + | MASTER MARINER.< | ||
| + | <br /> | ||
| + | BY<br /> | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | W. CLARK RUSSELL,< | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | AUTHOR OF<br /> | ||
| + | "THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR," | ||
| + | ETC., ETC.<br /> | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | <br /> | ||
| + | IN THREE VOLUMES< | ||
| + | <br /> | ||
| + | VOL. III<br /> | ||
| + | <br /> | ||
| + | LONDON< | ||
| + | HURST AND BLACKETT, LIMITED< | ||
| + | 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET< | ||
| + | 1888<br /> | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | PRINTED BY<br /> | ||
| + | TILLOTSON AND SON, MAWDSLEY STREET< | ||
| + | BOLTON< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | OF<br /> | ||
| + | THE THIRD VOLUME. | ||
| + | </h2> | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <table border=" | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | WE TELL OUR LOVE AGAIN.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I had passed from the deck, where I slept, to | ||
| + | the cabin in too great a hurry to notice the | ||
| + | weather. Now, reaching the poop, I stood a | ||
| + | moment or two to look around, being in my | ||
| + | way as concerned about the direction of the | ||
| + | wind as Vanderdecken himself.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It still blew fresh, but the heavens lay open | ||
| + | among the clouds that had thickened their | ||
| + | bulk into great drooping shining bosoms, as | ||
| + | though indeed the crystalline blue under | ||
| + | which they sailed in solemn procession< | ||
| + | mirrored the swelling brows of mighty snow-covered | ||
| + | mountains. The sea ran in a very | ||
| + | dark shade of azure, and offered a most | ||
| + | glorious surface of colours with the heave | ||
| + | of its violet hills bearing silver and pearly | ||
| + | streakings of sunshine and foam upon their | ||
| + | buoyant floating slopes, and the jewelled | ||
| + | and living masses of froth which flashed | ||
| + | from their heights and stormed into their | ||
| + | valleys as they raced before the wind which | ||
| + | chased them with noisy whistlings and notes | ||
| + | as of bugles. The Death Ship was close-hauled& | ||
| + | was the day to come when | ||
| + | I should find her with her yards squared?& | ||
| + | on the larboard tack, so that they | ||
| + | must have put the ship about since midnight; | ||
| + | and the sun standing almost over the | ||
| + | mizzen topsail yard-arm showed me that we | ||
| + | were doing some westing, for which I could | ||
| + | have fallen on my knees and thanked God.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Vanderdecken abreast of the tiller, Van<span class=" | ||
| + | Vogelaar twenty paces forward of him, both | ||
| + | still and stiff, gazing seawards with faces | ||
| + | whose expressionlessness forbade your comparing | ||
| + | them to sleeping dreamers. They | ||
| + | looked the eternity that was upon them, and | ||
| + | their ghastliness, | ||
| + | the ship, fell with a shock upon the perception | ||
| + | to the horrible suggestions of those two | ||
| + | figures and of the face at the tiller, whose | ||
| + | tense and bloodless skin glared white to the | ||
| + | sun as the little eyes, like rings of fire eating | ||
| + | into the sockets beneath the brows, glanced | ||
| + | from the card to the weather edges of the | ||
| + | canvas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | posture and disregard of me, for the less I | ||
| + | engaged their attention the safer I should be | ||
| + | whilst in their ship, and memory being with | ||
| + | them a deceptive and erratic quality, I might | ||
| + | hope in time to find that they had forgot to | ||
| + | hate me.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I quitted the poop, not choosing to keep< | ||
| + | myself in view of Vanderdecken and Van | ||
| + | Vogelaar, and walked about the quarter-deck, | ||
| + | struggling hard with the dreadful despondency | ||
| + | which clouded my mind, whilst imagination | ||
| + | furiously beat against the iron-hard conditions | ||
| + | which imprisoned me, as a bird rends its | ||
| + | plumage in a cage, till my heart pulsed with | ||
| + | the soreness of a real wound in my breast. | ||
| + | The only glimmer of hope I could find lay, as | ||
| + | I had again and again told Imogene, in the | ||
| + | direction of the land. But who was to say | ||
| + | how long a time would pass before the needs | ||
| + | of the ship would force Vanderdecken shore-wards? | ||
| + | And if the wind grew northerly and | ||
| + | came feeble, how many weeks might we have | ||
| + | to count ere this intolerable sailer brought | ||
| + | the land into sight? Oh! I tell you, such | ||
| + | speculations were sheerly maddening when I | ||
| + | added to them the reflection that the heaving | ||
| + | of the land into view might by no means | ||
| + | prove a signal for our deliverance.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | deck I had succeeded in tranquilising my | ||
| + | mind. She took some turns with me and | ||
| + | then went to the captain on the poop and | ||
| + | stayed with him, that is, stood near him, | ||
| + | though I do not know that they conversed, | ||
| + | till he went to his cabin; whereupon I joined | ||
| + | her, neither of us deigning to heed the mate's | ||
| + | observation of us, and for the rest of the | ||
| + | morning we were together, knitting our | ||
| + | hearts closer and closer whilst we talked of | ||
| + | England, of her parents, the ship her father | ||
| + | had commanded, and the like, amusing ourselves | ||
| + | with dreams of escape, till hope grew | ||
| + | lustrous with the fairy light our amorous | ||
| + | fancies flung upon it. And lo! here on the | ||
| + | deck of this Death Ship, with Van Vogelaar | ||
| + | standing like a statue within twenty paces of | ||
| + | us, and the dead face of a breathing man at | ||
| + | the tiller, and silent sailors languidly stirring | ||
| + | forwards or voicelessly plying the marline-spike | ||
| + | or the serving-mallet aloft, where the | ||
| + | swollen canvas swayed under the deep-breasted< | ||
| + | clouds like spaces of ancient tapestry | ||
| + | from which time has sponged out all bright | ||
| + | colours& | ||
| + | that surged with the silence of the tomb in | ||
| + | her through hissing seas and aslant whistling | ||
| + | winds, did I, in the course of our talk, find | ||
| + | myself presently speaking of my mother, | ||
| + | of the little town in which she lived, | ||
| + | of the church to which, under God, I would | ||
| + | lead my sweetest, there to make her my | ||
| + | bride!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | marked the passionate gladness of her love | ||
| + | in the glance she gave me, as she lifted the | ||
| + | fringes of her white eyelids to dart that | ||
| + | exquisite gleam, whilst she held her chaste | ||
| + | face drooped. But looking, as though some | ||
| + | power drew me to look, at Van Vogelaar, | ||
| + | I met his malignant stare full, and the chill | ||
| + | and venom of his storm-bruised countenance | ||
| + | fell upon my heart like a sensible atmosphere | ||
| + | and poison.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | shudder that ran through my frame. "Do | ||
| + | you believe," | ||
| + | Death Ship have any power of blighting | ||
| + | hope and emotion by their glance? The | ||
| + | mere sighting of this vessel, it is said, is | ||
| + | sufficient to procure the doom of another!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | say she could not tell.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | strongest man's blood in the expression Van | ||
| + | Vogelaar sometimes turns upon me. There | ||
| + | is an ancient story of a bald-pated philosopher | ||
| + | who, at a marriage-feast, | ||
| + | looked a bride, and the wondrous pavilion | ||
| + | which the demons she commanded had | ||
| + | built, into emptiness. He stared her and her | ||
| + | splendours into thin air, sending the bridegroom | ||
| + | to die with nothing but memory to | ||
| + | clasp. There may be no philosophy in | ||
| + | yonder Dutch villain, but surely he has all | ||
| + | the malignity of Apollonius in his eyes."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | said she, smiling.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I, with a temper that owed not a little | ||
| + | of its heat to the heavy fit of superstition | ||
| + | then upon me. "In the times of that | ||
| + | rogue it was believed a man could pray | ||
| + | another dead; but did one ever hear of | ||
| + | a stare powerful enough to dematerialise | ||
| + | a body? Sweet one, if that pale ruffian | ||
| + | there could look you into space, what form | ||
| + | would your spirit take? Would you become | ||
| + | to me, as did the girl of his heart to the old | ||
| + | poet& | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | "The very figure of that Morning Star<br /> | ||
| + | That, dropping pearls and shedding dewy sweets,< | ||
| + | Fled from the greedy waves when I approached."< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "Let me be your Morning Star, indeed, | ||
| + | flying to you from the greedy waves, not | ||
| + | from you, Geoffrey! Do not speak to me of | ||
| + | Van Vogelaar, nor look his way. Tell me<span class=" | ||
| + | again, dear, of your mother' | ||
| + | me of flowers& | ||
| + | that old church."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | WE SIGHT A SAIL.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>As the day advanced, the breeze weakened, | ||
| + | the sea grew smoother, the surge flattened | ||
| + | to the swell, and the wind did little more | ||
| + | than crisp with snowy feathers those long, | ||
| + | low, broad-browed folds swinging steadily | ||
| + | and cradlingly out of the heart of the mighty | ||
| + | southern ocean. Every cloth the Braave | ||
| + | carried had been sheeted home and hoisted. | ||
| + | She looked as if she had been coated with | ||
| + | sulphur, as she slipped rolling up one slant | ||
| + | and down another brimming to her channels; | ||
| + | the hue of her was as if she had been | ||
| + | anchored all night near to a flaming hill | ||
| + | and had received for hours the plumy, | ||
| + | pumice-coloured discharge of the volcano.< | ||
| + | There was nothing to relieve this sulphurous | ||
| + | reflection with flash or sparkle; the sunshine | ||
| + | died in the green backs of the brass swivels, | ||
| + | it lay lustreless upon the rusty iron cannons, | ||
| + | it found no mirror in the dry and honeycombed | ||
| + | masts, and it touched without vitalising | ||
| + | the rounded canvas, whose breasts had | ||
| + | nothing of that hearkening, seeking look | ||
| + | which you find in the flowing swelling of a | ||
| + | ship's sails yearning horizon-wards to the | ||
| + | land beyond the sea.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | north, on the larboard tack, the yards as hard | ||
| + | fore and aft as they would lie; and though | ||
| + | she was making more leeway than headway, | ||
| + | 'twas certain her bowsprit& | ||
| + | during the days I had spent in her& | ||
| + | pointing fair for the Cape passage. It was | ||
| + | this that had softened Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | As bit by bit the Death Ship stole up | ||
| + | to this heading, so had his temper improved; | ||
| + | insomuch that throughout the afternoon he<span class=" | ||
| + | had exhibited towards me a manner marked | ||
| + | in no small degree by the haughty courtesy | ||
| + | and solemn and stately urbanity which I had | ||
| + | observed in his treatment of me in the first | ||
| + | day or two of my being with him. This, | ||
| + | I promise you, singularly rejoiced me, as | ||
| + | exhibiting precisely the influence necessary | ||
| + | to neutralise the hideous malignity of the | ||
| + | mate. It also showed that he was still so | ||
| + | much a sea-captain in soul as to be rendered | ||
| + | bland and obliging, or savage and dangerous, | ||
| + | by the turn of the weather, or rather by the | ||
| + | direction and strength of the wind. Indeed, | ||
| + | had his character contained more strokes of | ||
| + | the humanity that is familiar to us, I should | ||
| + | have heartily sympathised with the rage | ||
| + | which contrary gales aroused in him. But | ||
| + | the Curse had made a < | ||
| + | Much of what had, in 1653, been sailorly had | ||
| + | been eaten out by time, and he flourished | ||
| + | chiefly on those instincts which had miserably | ||
| + | won him his doom. Hence, however greatly< | ||
| + | you wished to feel pity, you found you could | ||
| + | not compassionate him as you would a living | ||
| + | and real person. And of this, indeed, I | ||
| + | was especially sensible that afternoon, whilst | ||
| + | watching him and reflecting that though to | ||
| + | be sure he could speak to me now without | ||
| + | striving to blast me with his eyes and to | ||
| + | damn me with his frown, yet let the wind | ||
| + | suddenly head us and blow hard, and 'twas | ||
| + | odds but that I should be hiding away from | ||
| + | him, in the full conviction that it might need | ||
| + | but a single indiscreet word to procure my | ||
| + | being thrown overboard.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It was half-past five o' | ||
| + | I had come up from supper, leaving | ||
| + | Vanderdecken smoking at the head of the | ||
| + | table. Imogene had gone to her cabin for her | ||
| + | hat. Van Vogelaar was off duty, and very | ||
| + | likely lying down. Arents had the watch. | ||
| + | There was a fine sailing wind blowing, and | ||
| + | but for the choking grip of the trim of the | ||
| + | yards on the creaking, high, old fabric, I<span class=" | ||
| + | believe the ship would have got some life out | ||
| + | of it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It was the first dog-watch& | ||
| + | all the ghostly crew were assembled | ||
| + | forward, every man smoking, for tobacco was | ||
| + | now plentiful; and their postures, their faces, | ||
| + | their different kinds of dress, their lifelessness, | ||
| + | save for the lifting of their hands to their | ||
| + | pipes, and above all their silence, made a | ||
| + | most wonderful picture of the decks their | ||
| + | way; the foreground formed of the boats, | ||
| + | a number of spare booms, the close quarters | ||
| + | for the live-stock, the cook-house chimney | ||
| + | coming up through the deck and trailing a | ||
| + | thin line of blue smoke, whilst under the | ||
| + | arched and transverse foot of the foresail | ||
| + | you saw the ship's beak, the amazing relic of | ||
| + | figure-head, | ||
| + | sprit-topsail pulling aslant& | ||
| + | the men, a dismal, white and speechless | ||
| + | company, with the thick fore-mast rising | ||
| + | straight up out of the jumble of them, whilst< | ||
| + | the red western light flowed over the pallid | ||
| + | edges of the canvas, that widened out to the | ||
| + | crimson gold whose blaze stole into the | ||
| + | darkened hollows this side and enriched the | ||
| + | aged surfaces with a rosy atmosphere.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I stood right aft, carelessly running my | ||
| + | eye along the sea-line that floated darkening | ||
| + | out of the fiery haze under the sun on our | ||
| + | weather-beam, | ||
| + | deep, blue line so exquisitely clear and pure | ||
| + | that it made you think of the sweep of a | ||
| + | camel' | ||
| + | without expectation of observing the least | ||
| + | break or flaw in that lovely, darkling continuity, | ||
| + | and 'twas with a start of surprise and | ||
| + | doubt that I suddenly caught sight of an | ||
| + | object orange-coloured by the light far down | ||
| + | in the east, that is to say, fair upon our lee-quarter. | ||
| + | It was a vessel' | ||
| + | question; the mirroring of the western glory | ||
| + | by some gleaming cloths; and my heart | ||
| + | started off in a canter to the sight, it being< | ||
| + | impossible now for a ship to heave into view | ||
| + | without filling me with dread of a separation | ||
| + | from Imogene, and agitating me with other | ||
| + | considerations, | ||
| + | with, on a ship receiving me, if they discovered | ||
| + | I had come from the Flying Dutchman.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I waited a little to make sure, and then | ||
| + | called to the second mate, who stood staring | ||
| + | at God knows what, with unspeculative eyes.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I point."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He quickened out of his death-like repose | ||
| + | with the extraordinary swiftness observable | ||
| + | in all these men in this particular sort of | ||
| + | behaviour, came to my side, gazed attentively, | ||
| + | and said, "Yes; how will she be heading?" | ||
| + | He went for the glass, and whilst he adjusted | ||
| + | the tubes to his focus Captain Vanderdecken | ||
| + | arrived with Imogene.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | captain.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Fenton."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | it, and after a brief inspection handed me the | ||
| + | tube. The atmosphere was so bright that | ||
| + | the lenses could do little in the way of clarification. | ||
| + | However, I took a view for courtesy' | ||
| + | sake, and seemed to make out the square | ||
| + | canvas and long-headed gaff-topsail of a | ||
| + | schooner as the sails slided like the wings | ||
| + | of a sea-bird along the swell.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | Arents.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | her canvas be a mere imagination of mine, | ||
| + | she is close-hauled on the larboard tack and | ||
| + | looking up for us as only a schooner knows | ||
| + | how."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | imperiously.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | since their invention I could not know, but it | ||
| + | was certain the word schooner conveyed no | ||
| + | idea. It was amazing beyond language that | ||
| + | hints of this kind should not have made his | ||
| + | ignorance significant to him.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | quarter put an expression of anxiety into | ||
| + | Imogene' | ||
| + | in silence, with parted lips and shortened | ||
| + | breathing, her fragile, her too fragile profile | ||
| + | like a cameo of surpassing workmanship, | ||
| + | against the soft western splendour, the gilding | ||
| + | of which made a trembling flame of one | ||
| + | side of the hair that streamed upon her back. | ||
| + | Presently turning and catching me watching | ||
| + | she smiled faintly, and said in our tongue, | ||
| + | "The time was, dear, when I welcomed a | ||
| + | strange sail for the relief& | ||
| + | promised. But you have taught me to dread | ||
| + | the sight now."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I answered, speaking lightly and easily,< | ||
| + | and looking towards the distant sail as | ||
| + | though we talked of her as an object of slender | ||
| + | interest, "If our friend here attempts to | ||
| + | transfer me without you, I shall hail the | ||
| + | stranger' | ||
| + | is, and warrant them destruction if they offer | ||
| + | to receive me."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | watching, now and again taking a turn | ||
| + | for the warmth of the exercise. As on the | ||
| + | occasion of our pursuit by the Centaur, so | ||
| + | now Vanderdecken stood to windward, rigid | ||
| + | and staring, at long intervals addressing | ||
| + | Arents who, from time to time, pointed the | ||
| + | glass as mechanically as ever Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | piping shepherd lifted his oaten reed to his | ||
| + | mouth.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | who was followed by the boatswain, Jans; | ||
| + | and there they hung, a grisly group, whilst | ||
| + | the crew got upon the booms, or overhung | ||
| + | the rail, or stood upon the lower ratlines, with< | ||
| + | their backs to the shrouds, suggesting interest | ||
| + | and excitement by their posture alone, for, as | ||
| + | to their faces, 'twas mere expressionless glimmer | ||
| + | and too far off for the wild light in their | ||
| + | eyes to show.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | heaving solemnly as she went, with tinkling | ||
| + | noises breaking from the silver water that | ||
| + | seethed from her ponderous bow, as though | ||
| + | every foam bell were of precious metal and | ||
| + | rang a little music of its own as it glided | ||
| + | past. But by this time the sail upon our | ||
| + | lee-quarter had greatly grown, and the | ||
| + | vigorous red radiance, rained by the sinking | ||
| + | luminary in such searching storms of light | ||
| + | as crimsoned the very nethermost east to the | ||
| + | black water-line, clearly showed her to be a | ||
| + | small but stout schooner, hugging the wind | ||
| + | under a prodigious pile of canvas, and eating | ||
| + | her way into the steady breeze with the ease | ||
| + | and speed of a frigate-bird that slopes its | ||
| + | black pinions for the windward flight. Her<span class=" | ||
| + | hull was plain to the naked eye and resembled | ||
| + | rich old mahogany in the sunset. Her sails | ||
| + | blending into one, she might, to the instant' | ||
| + | gaze, have passed for a great star rising out | ||
| + | of the yellow deep and somewhat empurpled | ||
| + | by the atmosphere. It was our own desperately | ||
| + | sluggish pace that made her approach | ||
| + | magical for swiftness; but there could be | ||
| + | no question as to the astonishing nimbleness | ||
| + | of her heels.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | warmed to the sight, and fell a-talking to one | ||
| + | another with some show of eagerness, and | ||
| + | a deal of pointing on the part of Jans and | ||
| + | Arents, whilst Van Vogelaar watched with a | ||
| + | hung head and a sullen scowl. Occasionally, | ||
| + | Vanderdecken would direct a hot, interrogative | ||
| + | glance at me; suddenly he came to | ||
| + | where we stood.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mynheer?" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | not like her appearance. Two voyages ago | ||
| + | my ship was overhauled by just such another | ||
| + | fellow as that yonder; she proved to be a | ||
| + | Spanish picaroon. We had a hundred-and-fifty | ||
| + | troops who, with our sailors, crouched | ||
| + | behind the bulwarks and fired into her | ||
| + | decks when she shifted her helm to lay us | ||
| + | aboard, and this reception made her, I | ||
| + | suppose, think us a battle-ship, | ||
| + | sheared off with a great sound of groaning | ||
| + | rising out of her, and pelted from us under | ||
| + | a press as if Satan had got hold of her tow-rope."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | represent?" | ||
| + | with his hand raised to keep the level rays | ||
| + | of the sun off his eyes.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | or Spanish; I do not believe her English | ||
| + | by the complexion of her canvas. She | ||
| + | may prove an American, for you may see | ||
| + | that her cloths are mixed with cotton."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | him as much as the word schooner had, | ||
| + | for in his day an American signified an | ||
| + | Indian of that continent. However, I | ||
| + | noticed that if ever I used a term that | ||
| + | was incomprehensible to him, he either dismissed | ||
| + | it as coming from one who did | ||
| + | not always talk as if he had his full mind, | ||
| + | or as some English expression of which | ||
| + | the meaning& | ||
| + | no concern whatever to his Dutch prejudices.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | judgment?" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I answered "Yes; and more likely a | ||
| + | pirate than a privateer, if indeed the terms | ||
| + | are not interchangeable."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>On this he went to the others, and they | ||
| + | conversed as if he had called a council of | ||
| + | them; but I could not catch his words, nor | ||
| + | did I deem it polite to seem as if I desired to | ||
| + | hear what was said.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | say, Geoffrey?" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | before we shall have her near enough to | ||
| + | make out her batteries and judge of her | ||
| + | crew; but she has the true piratical look, | ||
| + | a most lovely hull& | ||
| + | powerful& | ||
| + | cutwater like a knife, a noble length of | ||
| + | bowsprit, and jibbooms, and a mainsail | ||
| + | big enough to hold sufficient wind to send | ||
| + | a Royal George along at ten knots. If she | ||
| + | be not a picaroon, what is her business | ||
| + | here? No trader goes rigged like that | ||
| + | in these seas. ' | ||
| + | this the Pacific. She may be a letter of | ||
| + | marque."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | flag."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I hollowed my hands and used them for | ||
| + | telescopes. The bunting streamed away over | ||
| + | the stranger' | ||
| + | big flag, and its size, coupled with the | ||
| + | wonderful searching light going to her | ||
| + | in crimson lancing beams out of the hot | ||
| + | flushed west, helped me to discern the | ||
| + | tricolour.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | breath.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was examining it through his ancient | ||
| + | tubes. After a little he gave the glass | ||
| + | to Van Vogelaar, who, after inspecting the | ||
| + | colour, handed it to Arents; then Jans | ||
| + | looked.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | is that she hath flying?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I responded, "The flag of the French | ||
| + | Republic."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He started, gazed at the others, and then | ||
| + | glanced steadfastly at me as if he would | ||
| + | assure himself that I did not mock him. He | ||
| + | turned again to the schooner, taking the | ||
| + | telescope from Jans.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with a tremble of wonderment in his rich | ||
| + | notes. The mate shrugged his shoulders, | ||
| + | with a quick, insolent turning of his back | ||
| + | upon me; and the white, fat face of Jans | ||
| + | glimmered past him, staring with a gape | ||
| + | from me to the schooner. But now the | ||
| + | lower limb of the sun was upon the sea-line; | ||
| + | it was all cloudless sky just where he was, | ||
| + | and the vast, rayless orb, palpitating in | ||
| + | waving folds of fire, sank into his own | ||
| + | wake of flames. The heavens glowed | ||
| + | red to the zenith, and the ruby-coloured | ||
| + | clouds moving before the wind looked like | ||
| + | smoke issuing from behind the sea where | ||
| + | the world was burning furiously. The | ||
| + | grey twilight followed fast, and the ocean | ||
| + | turned ashen under the slip of moon | ||
| + | over the fore yard-arm. The stealing in | ||
| + | of the dusk put a new life into the wind, | ||
| + | and the harping in our dingy, faded | ||
| + | heights was as if many spirits had<span class=" | ||
| + | gathered together up there and were | ||
| + | saluting the moon with wild hymns faintly | ||
| + | chanted.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | THE DEATH SHIP IS BOARDED BY A PIRATE.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I will not say that there is more of melancholy | ||
| + | in the slow creeping of darkness over | ||
| + | the sea than in the first pale streaking of the | ||
| + | dawn, but the shining out of the stars one by | ||
| + | one, the stretching of the great plain of the | ||
| + | deep into a midnight surface, whether snow-covered | ||
| + | with tossing surges or smooth as | ||
| + | black marble and placid as the dark velvet | ||
| + | sky that bends to the liquid confines, has a | ||
| + | mystic character which, even if the dawn | ||
| + | held it, would be weak as an impression | ||
| + | through the quick dispelling of it by the | ||
| + | joyous sun, but which is accentuated in the | ||
| + | twilight shadows by their gradual darkening | ||
| + | into the blackness of night. I particularly< | ||
| + | felt the oncoming of the dusk this evening. | ||
| + | The glory of the sunset had been great, the | ||
| + | twilight brief. Even as the gold and orange | ||
| + | faded in the west so did the canvas of our | ||
| + | ship steal out spectrally into the grey gloom | ||
| + | of the north and east; the water washed past | ||
| + | wan as the light of the horny paring of moon; | ||
| + | the figures of the four men to windward were | ||
| + | changed into dusky, staring statues, and the | ||
| + | wake sloped out from the starboard quarter | ||
| + | full of eddying sparkles as green as emeralds. | ||
| + | The canvas of the schooner, that had shone | ||
| + | to the sunset with the glare of yellow satin, | ||
| + | faded into a pallid cloud that often bothered | ||
| + | the sight with its resemblance to the large | ||
| + | puffs of vapour blowing into the east.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | said I, uneasily. "If she be a piratical craft | ||
| + | it will not do for you to be seen by her | ||
| + | people, Imogene. Is it curiosity only that | ||
| + | brings them racing up to us? May be& | ||
| + | be! They will be having good glasses aboard< | ||
| + | and have been excited by our extraordinary | ||
| + | rig."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | asked my innocent girl.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with and carry you off."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | she, planting her little hand under my arm.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | calling," | ||
| + | vessel that, at the pace she was tearing | ||
| + | through it, would be on our quarter within | ||
| + | hailing distance in twenty minutes.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | He made no sign. Fear and passion enough | ||
| + | had been raised in him by the Centaur' | ||
| + | was I to suppose that yonder schooner | ||
| + | had failed to alarm him because he was | ||
| + | puzzled by her rig and by the substitution of | ||
| + | the tricolour for the royal < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | may follow. They may resent any hints< | ||
| + | from me if I break in upon them on a | ||
| + | sudden.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "is not that vessel chasing us?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He rounded gravely upon her: "She is | ||
| + | apparently desirous of speaking with us, my | ||
| + | child. She will be hailing us shortly."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he demanded.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in any case her hurry to come at us, her | ||
| + | careful luff and heavy press of sail, should | ||
| + | justify us in suspecting her intentions and | ||
| + | preparing for her as an enemy."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | captain, if it comes to that?" exclaimed Van | ||
| + | Vogelaar, in his harshest, most scoffing voice.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | low voice to Imogene, speaking quickly, | ||
| + | "< | ||
| + | Frenchman' | ||
| + | doom. I am worried on your account. | ||
| + | Dearest, when I bid you, steal to my cabin& | ||
| + | know where it is?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I can think of. If they board us and | ||
| + | rummage the ship& | ||
| + | events. In a business of this kind the turns | ||
| + | are sudden. All that I can plan now is to | ||
| + | take care that you are not seen."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I should have been glad to arm myself, | ||
| + | but knew not where to seek for a weapon; | ||
| + | but thinking of this for a moment, it struck | ||
| + | me that if the schooner threw her people | ||
| + | aboard us, my being the only man armed | ||
| + | might cost me my life; therefore, unless the | ||
| + | whole crew equipped themselves I should | ||
| + | find my safest posture one of defencelessness.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Imogene.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to do so since I have been in the ship,"< | ||
| + | she answered. "But I do not think they | ||
| + | would fight. They are above the need of | ||
| + | it."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and this should prove them in possession of | ||
| + | instincts which would prompt them to protect | ||
| + | their property."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | said she. "They cannot be reasoned about | ||
| + | as men with the hot blood of life in them | ||
| + | and existing as we do."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | avidity with which they seized whatever of | ||
| + | treasure or merchandise they came across | ||
| + | in abandoned ships, nor could I reconcile it | ||
| + | with the ugly cupidity of the mate and the | ||
| + | lively care Vanderdecken took of those capacious | ||
| + | chests of which he had exposed to me | ||
| + | the sparkling contents of two. Blind as they | ||
| + | were, however, to those illustrations of the | ||
| + | progress of time which they came across in | ||
| + | every ship they encountered, | ||
| + | be insensible to the worthlessness of their | ||
| + | aged and cankered sakers and their green | ||
| + | and pivot-rusted swivels. Their helplessness | ||
| + | in this way, backed by the perception in them | ||
| + | all that for some reason or other no harm | ||
| + | ever befel them from the pursuit of ships or | ||
| + | the approach of armed boats, might furnish a | ||
| + | clue to the seeming indifference with which | ||
| + | they watched the pale shadow of the schooner | ||
| + | enlarging upon the darkling froth to leeward, | ||
| + | though I am also greatly persuaded that | ||
| + | much of the reason of their stolidity lay in | ||
| + | their being puzzled by the rig of the schooner | ||
| + | and the flag she had flown; nor perhaps were | ||
| + | they able to conceive that so small a craft | ||
| + | signified mischief, or had room for sailors | ||
| + | enough to venture the carrying of a great tall | ||
| + | craft like the Braave. But Vanderdecken | ||
| + | could not know to what heights piracy had | ||
| + | been lifted as a fine art by the audacity and | ||
| + | repeated triumphs of the rogues whose real | ||
| + | ensign, no matter what other colours they fly,< | ||
| + | is composed of a skull, cross-bones, | ||
| + | upon a black field.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | full of a weak dawn-like glimmer from the | ||
| + | wash of the running waters and from the | ||
| + | stars which shone brightly among the clouds. | ||
| + | In all this while the schooner had never | ||
| + | started a rope-yarn. Her white and leaning | ||
| + | fabric, swaying with stately grace to the | ||
| + | radiant galaxies, resembled an island of ice in | ||
| + | the gloom, and the illusion was not a little | ||
| + | improved by the seething snow of the cleft | ||
| + | and beaten waters about her like to the boiling | ||
| + | of the sea at the base of a berg. She | ||
| + | showed us her weather side, and heeled so | ||
| + | much that I could not see her decks, but | ||
| + | there was nothing like a gun-muzzle to be | ||
| + | perceived along her. A gilt band under her | ||
| + | wash-streak shone out dully at intervals to | ||
| + | her plunges, as though a pencil had been | ||
| + | dipped in phosphorus and a line of fire | ||
| + | drawn.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | settle herself upon our weather quarter. | ||
| + | Nothing finer as a spectacle did I ever behold | ||
| + | at sea than this spacious-winged vessel | ||
| + | when she crossed our wake, rearing and | ||
| + | roaring through the smother our own keel | ||
| + | was tossing up, flashing into the hollows and | ||
| + | through the ridges with spray blowing aft | ||
| + | over her as though she were some bride | ||
| + | of the ocean and streamed her veil behind | ||
| + | her as she went, the whole figure of her | ||
| + | showing faint in the dull light of the night, | ||
| + | yet not so feeble in outline and detail but | ||
| + | that I could distinguish the black, snake-like | ||
| + | hull hissing through the seas, her sand-coloured | ||
| + | decks, a long black gun on the | ||
| + | forecastle, and a glittering brass stern-chaser | ||
| + | abaft the two black figures gripping the tiller, | ||
| + | the great surface of mainsail going pale to | ||
| + | its clew at the boom end, a full fathom | ||
| + | over the quarter, the swelling and mounting | ||
| + | canvas, from flying-jib to little fore-royal,< | ||
| + | from the iron-hard stay-foresail to the | ||
| + | thunderous gaff-topsail on high, dragging and | ||
| + | tearing at the sheets and bringing shroud | ||
| + | and backstay, guy and halliard, sheet and | ||
| + | brace so taut that the fabric raged past with | ||
| + | a kind of shrieking music, filling the air | ||
| + | as though some giant harp were edging | ||
| + | the blast with the resonance of fifty wind-wrung | ||
| + | wires. Great heaven! how did my | ||
| + | heart go to her! Oh, for two months' | ||
| + | of that storming clipper with Imogene | ||
| + | on board!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I have told you, saving a few men in the | ||
| + | bows and a couple of figures watching us | ||
| + | near to the two helmsmen. If she mounted | ||
| + | guns or swivels along her bulwarks I did not | ||
| + | see them.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I overheard Vanderdecken exclaim, "It is | ||
| + | as I surmised; she hath but a handful of a | ||
| + | crew; she merely wishes to speak us."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in which he introduced my name, but that | ||
| + | was all I heard of it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | schooner ported her helm, luffing close; | ||
| + | her gaff-topsail, | ||
| + | sail melted to the hauling upon clewlines | ||
| + | and downhauls as though they had been | ||
| + | of snow and had vanished upon the black | ||
| + | damp wind; but even with the tack of her | ||
| + | mainsail up, they had to keep shaking the | ||
| + | breeze out of the small sail she showed, to | ||
| + | prevent her from sliding past us.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | two figures on the quarter-deck, | ||
| + | coming down to the lee rail to hail, "What | ||
| + | sheep air you?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>As with the Centaur, so now, Vanderdecken | ||
| + | made no response to this inquiry. | ||
| + | He and the others stood grimly silent | ||
| + | watching the schooner, as immobile as | ||
| + | graven images.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I said to Imogene, "' | ||
| + | show the phosphor upon the ship. That | ||
| + | should give them a hint. Mark how vividly | ||
| + | the shining crawls about these decks."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the schooner that lay to windward, tossing | ||
| + | her bows and shaking the spray off her like | ||
| + | any champing and curvetting steed angrily | ||
| + | reined in and smoking his impatience through | ||
| + | his nostrils. "What sheep air you?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | on to the bulwark; "The Braave," | ||
| + | sending his majestic voice ringing like a note | ||
| + | of thunder through the wind.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the question, but probably assuming | ||
| + | that these sea-interrogatories followed in the | ||
| + | usual manner, answered, "From Batavia to | ||
| + | Amsterdam," | ||
| + | did in English, but with an accent as strongly | ||
| + | Dutch as the other' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Holland ship, and as France and their | ||
| + | High Mightinesses are on good terms he | ||
| + | may sheer off. But even as this fancy or | ||
| + | hope crossed my mind, a sudden order was | ||
| + | shouted out on the schooner and in a breath | ||
| + | the vessel' | ||
| + | They tumbled up in masses, blackening the | ||
| + | white decks, and a gleam of arms went | ||
| + | rippling among them.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | fellow is a pirate! Mind, sir, or she will be | ||
| + | aboard of you in another minute!" | ||
| + | stopping to heed the effect of my words, I | ||
| + | grasped Imogene by the hand and ran with | ||
| + | her off the poop. "Get you to my cabin, | ||
| + | dearest, they are pirates and will be tumbling | ||
| + | in masses over the rail directly."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I pressed my lips to her cheek and she | ||
| + | glided like a phantom down the hatch-ladder.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I could not have explained; since those | ||
| + | who rummaged the vessel were pretty sure< | ||
| + | to enter the cabins. But my instincts urging | ||
| + | me to hide her away from the first spring of | ||
| + | the men on to our deck, I took their counsel | ||
| + | as a sort of mysterious wisdom put into me | ||
| + | by God for her protection; it coming to this | ||
| + | in short& | ||
| + | their overlooking her if she hid below, whereas | ||
| + | they were bound to see her if she remained | ||
| + | on deck, to be ravished by her beauty, and, | ||
| + | supposing them pirates, to carry her off as a | ||
| + | part of their booty, according to the custom | ||
| + | of those horrid villains.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I stepped away from the hatch, lest it | ||
| + | might be supposed I was guarding it, and | ||
| + | stationed myself in the deep shadow under | ||
| + | the quarter-deck ladder, where it and the | ||
| + | overhanging deck combined cast an ink-like | ||
| + | shade. There was small need to look for | ||
| + | the schooner, you could hear her hissing like | ||
| + | red-hot iron through the water as she came | ||
| + | sweeping down upon our quarter under a | ||
| + | slightly ported helm, ready to starboard for<span class=" | ||
| + | the heave of the grapnels and the foaming | ||
| + | range alongside. There was no show of | ||
| + | consternation among the crew of the Death | ||
| + | Ship; nay, if emotion of any sort were at all | ||
| + | visible, you would have termed it a mere kind | ||
| + | of dull, muddled, Dutch curiosity. I had | ||
| + | fancied they would jump to arm themselves | ||
| + | and assume some posture of defence; instead | ||
| + | of this they had gathered themselves together | ||
| + | in several lounging groups about the waist | ||
| + | and gangway, many of them with pipes in | ||
| + | their mouths, the fire of which glowed in | ||
| + | bright, red spots against the green and | ||
| + | lambent glitterings upon such woodwork as | ||
| + | formed their background; and thus they | ||
| + | hung with never a monosyllable uttered | ||
| + | among them, their silence, their indifference, | ||
| + | their combination of ghostly characteristics, | ||
| + | with their substantial, | ||
| + | terrifying to my mind than had every man of | ||
| + | them a carbine pointing from his shoulder, | ||
| + | with a crew forward as numerous again< | ||
| + | standing match in hand at twenty murdering | ||
| + | pieces!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | schooner' | ||
| + | the gloom upon our decks with a midnight | ||
| + | tincture; you heard the snarling wash of | ||
| + | water boiling between the two vessels; the | ||
| + | claws of the grapnels flung from the bows | ||
| + | and stern of the Frenchman gripped our aged | ||
| + | bulwark with a crunching sound, and the | ||
| + | mystical fires in the wood burnt out to the | ||
| + | biting iron like lighted tinder blown upon. | ||
| + | Then, in a breath, I saw the heads of twenty | ||
| + | or thirty fellows along the line of the bulwark | ||
| + | rail, and as they sprang as monkeys might | ||
| + | into our ship, one of them that grasped a | ||
| + | pistol exploded it, and the yellow flash was | ||
| + | like the swift waving of a torch, in the glare | ||
| + | of which the faces of the silent, staring, indifferent | ||
| + | sailors of the Braave glanced in a very | ||
| + | nightmare of white, unholy countenances.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | among the Frenchmen as they tumbled inboard& | ||
| + | the seamen of that nation | ||
| + | cannot budge an inch without making as | ||
| + | much noise as would last a British forecastle | ||
| + | several voyages; but their clamour sounded | ||
| + | to me very much like the cries of men who | ||
| + | did not relish their errand and raised these | ||
| + | shouts for the same reason that sets a boy | ||
| + | whistling on a road in a dark night. They | ||
| + | jumped from the rail in slap-dash style indeed, | ||
| + | waving their cutlasses and flourishing their | ||
| + | pikes; but whether it was that they were | ||
| + | suddenly confounded by the silence on our | ||
| + | decks, or that they had caught sight in the | ||
| + | pistol flash of the faces of the Death Ship's | ||
| + | crew, or that the suspicion of our true character, | ||
| + | which must have been excited in them | ||
| + | by the glow upon our hull and by the ancient | ||
| + | appearance of our spars, was quickly and in | ||
| + | a panic way confirmed and developed by the | ||
| + | glitterings upon our deck, the aspect of our | ||
| + | ordnance, the antiquity suggested by the<span class=" | ||
| + | arrangement of our quarter-deck and poop& | ||
| + | of these points visible enough in the wild, | ||
| + | faint light that swarmed about the air but all | ||
| + | of them taking ghostly and bewildering, | ||
| + | and terrifying emphasis from the very dusk | ||
| + | in which they were surveyed; whatever the | ||
| + | cause, 'tis as sure as that I live who write this, | ||
| + | that instead of their making a scamper along | ||
| + | the decks, charging the Dutch seamen, flinging | ||
| + | themselves down the hatchways and the | ||
| + | like, all which was to have been expected, they | ||
| + | suddenly came to a dead stand, even massing | ||
| + | themselves in a body and shoving and elbowing | ||
| + | one another, for such courage, maybe, as | ||
| + | is to be found in the feel of a fellow-being' | ||
| + | ribs, whilst they peered with eyes bright with | ||
| + | alarm at the phlegmatic sailors of Vanderdecken | ||
| + | and around then at the ship, talking | ||
| + | in fierce short whispers and pointing.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It takes time to record the events of thirty | ||
| + | seconds, though all that now happened might | ||
| + | have been compassed whilst a man told that< | ||
| + | space. 'Twas as if the frosty, blighting Curse | ||
| + | of the ship they had dashed into had come | ||
| + | upon their tongues, and hearts and souls. | ||
| + | Over the side, where the grappling schooner | ||
| + | lay, heaving with a cataractal roaring of water | ||
| + | sounding out of the sea between, as the Flying | ||
| + | Dutchman rolled ponderously towards | ||
| + | her, loud orders in French were being delivered, | ||
| + | mixed with passionate callings to the | ||
| + | boarders upon our decks; the schooner' | ||
| + | sails waved like the dark pinions of some | ||
| + | monstrous sea-fowl past ours, which still | ||
| + | drew, no brace having been touched. I | ||
| + | guessed there were thirty in all that had | ||
| + | leapt aboard, some of them negroes, all of | ||
| + | them wildly attired in true buccaneering | ||
| + | fashion, so far as the darkness suffered my | ||
| + | eyes to see, in boots and sashes, and blouses | ||
| + | and lolling caps; there they stood in a | ||
| + | huddle of figures with lightning-like twitching | ||
| + | gleams shooting off their naked weapons as | ||
| + | they pointed or swayed or feverishly moved,< | ||
| + | staring about them. Some gazed up at the | ||
| + | poop, where, as I presently discovered, stood | ||
| + | the giant figure of Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | and the boatswain beside him, shapes of | ||
| + | bronze motionlessly and silently watching. | ||
| + | But the affrighting element& | ||
| + | than the hellish glarings upon the planks, | ||
| + | bulwarks and masts, more scaring than the | ||
| + | amazing suggestions& | ||
| + | the old guns, the two boats and all other such | ||
| + | furniture as was to be embraced in that gloom& | ||
| + | the crowd of glimmering faces, the | ||
| + | mechanic postures, the grave-yard dumbness | ||
| + | of the body of spectral mariners who surveyed | ||
| + | the boarding party in clusters, shadowy, and | ||
| + | spirit-like.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I felt the inspiration, | ||
| + | Heaven-directed sympathy with the terrors | ||
| + | working in the Frenchmen' | ||
| + | needed but a cry to make them explode, I | ||
| + | shouted from the blackness of my ambush, in | ||
| + | a voice to which my sense of the stake the<span class=" | ||
| + | warning signified in its failure or success, lent | ||
| + | a hurricane note: "< | ||
| + | vous! C'est l' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and with what accent delivered, I never | ||
| + | paused to consider; the effect was as if a | ||
| + | thunder-bolt had fallen and burst among | ||
| + | them. With one general roar of < | ||
| + | Volant!</ | ||
| + | side, many dropping their weapons the better | ||
| + | to scramble and jump. Why, you see that | ||
| + | shout of mine exactly expressed their fears, | ||
| + | it made the panic common; and 'twas with | ||
| + | something of a scream in their way of letting | ||
| + | out the breath in their echoing of my shout | ||
| + | that they vanished, leaping like rats without | ||
| + | looking to see what they should hit with | ||
| + | their heads or tails.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I sprang up the quarter-deck ladder to observe | ||
| + | what followed, and beheld sure enough, | ||
| + | the towering outline of Vanderdecken standing | ||
| + | at the rail that protected the fore-part< | ||
| + | of the poop-deck gazing down upon the | ||
| + | schooner with his arms folded and his attitude | ||
| + | expressing a lifelessness not to be conveyed | ||
| + | by the pen, though the greatest of living | ||
| + | artists in words ventured it. Against the | ||
| + | side were the two mates and Jans looking | ||
| + | on at a scene to whose stir, clamour, excitement, | ||
| + | they seemed to oppose deaf ears and | ||
| + | insensible eyes. Small wonder that the | ||
| + | Frenchmen should have fled to my shout, | ||
| + | fronted and backed as they were in that | ||
| + | part of the ship into which they had leapt, | ||
| + | and where they had come to an affrighted | ||
| + | stand, by the grisly and sable shapes of | ||
| + | Vanderdecken and his comrades aft, and by | ||
| + | the groups of leprous-tinctured anatomies | ||
| + | forward.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I peered over the rail. The two vessels | ||
| + | lay grinding together, and as the tall fabric | ||
| + | of the Death Ship leaned to the schooner, | ||
| + | you thought she would crush and beat her | ||
| + | down, but with the regularity of a pulse the<span class=" | ||
| + | dark folds of water swept the little vessel | ||
| + | clear, sometimes raising her when our ship | ||
| + | lay aslant to the level of our upper deck, and | ||
| + | giving me, therefore, a mighty good prospect | ||
| + | of what was happening in her. Both vessels | ||
| + | were off the wind and were surging through | ||
| + | it with a prodigious hissing betwixt their | ||
| + | sides.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | contagious. I shall never forget the sight! | ||
| + | Small as the schooner was, there could not | ||
| + | have been less than ninety men on her decks, | ||
| + | and they made a very hell of the atmosphere | ||
| + | about them with the raving notes in their | ||
| + | cries and bawlings. My knowledge of | ||
| + | French was small, but some of their screams | ||
| + | I could follow, as for instance: "' | ||
| + | Flying Dutchman!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | off! Shove her off! Pole her, my children, | ||
| + | with a couple of sweeps!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | her? Ha! ha! the weather topsail-brace | ||
| + | has fouled the Hollander' | ||
| + | No use going aloft! Let go of it& | ||
| + | go of it& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with the guttural thickness of the negro' | ||
| + | utterance& | ||
| + | orders such as those of which I have given | ||
| + | you specimens! Figure the decks throbbing | ||
| + | with men rushing with apparent aimlessness | ||
| + | from one side to the other, from one end to | ||
| + | the other& | ||
| + | them& | ||
| + | from between the ships where some wretch | ||
| + | that had fallen overboard was holding on& | ||
| + | sails shaking, the water washing | ||
| + | beyond in a glaring white that gave a | ||
| + | startling distinctness to the shape of the | ||
| + | schooner as she rose softly to the level of | ||
| + | our upper deck bulwarks upon the seething | ||
| + | snow!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | should present the picture, what is the simulacrum | ||
| + | as compared to that reality which I | ||
| + | need but close these eyes to witness afresh? | ||
| + | The wildness of the scene took a particular | ||
| + | spirit from the frowning, rocking mass of | ||
| + | the Death Ship& | ||
| + | still and glooming shapes watching | ||
| + | the throes and convulsions of the terrified | ||
| + | Frenchmen and negroes from the poop and | ||
| + | forward over the rail& | ||
| + | in her timbers& | ||
| + | canvas like the nodding of leviathan funeral | ||
| + | plumes& | ||
| + | moon among the rigging, defining the vast | ||
| + | platforms of the barricaded tops, monstrous | ||
| + | bulgings of blackness up there as though a | ||
| + | body of electric cloud swung bulbously at | ||
| + | each lower masthead.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | held them by their grapnels to our ship, and | ||
| + | presently to my great joy& | ||
| + | true pirates, as there was good reason to believe | ||
| + | from their appearance and manner of | ||
| + | laying us aboard, 'twas impossible to feel | ||
| + | sure that the fiercer spirits among them | ||
| + | might not presently rally the rest& | ||
| + | schooner went scraping and forging past | ||
| + | ahead of us; snapping her topgallant mast | ||
| + | short off, with the royal yard upon it, by | ||
| + | some brace, stay or backstay fouling us in | ||
| + | a way the darkness would not suffer me to | ||
| + | witness, and in a few minutes she had | ||
| + | crossed our bows and was running away | ||
| + | into the north east, rapidly expanding her | ||
| + | canvas as she went, and quickly melting | ||
| + | into the darkness.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I stopped to fetch a few breaths and to | ||
| + | make sure of the Frenchman' | ||
| + | by watching. More excitement and dread | ||
| + | had been packed into this time than I know | ||
| + | how to tell of.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I slipped to the hatch on the upper deck, | ||
| + | descended a tread or two, and softly called.< | ||
| + | In a minute I espied the white face of my | ||
| + | dearest upturned to me amidst the well-like | ||
| + | obscurity.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | over."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Save yourselves!'" | ||
| + | with a music almost of merriment in her | ||
| + | voice. "It was a bold fancy! What helter-skelter | ||
| + | followed!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I took her hand and we entered the | ||
| + | cabin. The richly-coloured old lamp was | ||
| + | alight, the clock ticked hoarsely, you heard | ||
| + | the scraping of the parrot clawing about | ||
| + | her cage.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | is that they have given you to sleep in! | ||
| + | I believed I was hardened to the dreadful | ||
| + | flickerings upon the deck and sides, but | ||
| + | they scared me to the heart in that cell& | ||
| + | the noises too in the hold! Oh, Geoffrey,< | ||
| + | how severe is our fate! Shall we ever | ||
| + | escape?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | have all along told you. A chance will offer, | ||
| + | and be you sure, Imogene, it will find me | ||
| + | ready. Wondrous is God's ordering! Think, | ||
| + | my dear, that in the very Curse that rests | ||
| + | upon this ship has lain our salvation! Suppose | ||
| + | this vessel any other craft and boarded | ||
| + | by those villains, negroes of the Antilles, and | ||
| + | white ruffians red-handed from the Spanish | ||
| + | Main& | ||
| + | cruising here for the rich traders& | ||
| + | time where would my soul be? and < | ||
| + | there is a virtue in this Curse! It | ||
| + | is a monstrous thought& | ||
| + | could take Vanderdecken by the hand | ||
| + | for the impiety that has carried you clear | ||
| + | of a destiny as awful in its way as the | ||
| + | doom these unhappy wretches are immortally | ||
| + | facing."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | looked at me with eyes the brighter for those | ||
| + | tears which I dared not kiss away in that | ||
| + | public cabin.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | MY LIFE IS AGAIN ATTEMPTED.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | soon after this, and Prins set a bowl of punch | ||
| + | before them. The captain seated himself in | ||
| + | his solemn way, and the mate took Imogene' | ||
| + | place& | ||
| + | being at my side. They filled their pipes | ||
| + | and smoked in a silence that, saving | ||
| + | Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | I believe, have remained unbroken but for | ||
| + | Imogene.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | hope, of those pirates attempting to board us | ||
| + | again in the darkness?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | pirates?" | ||
| + | of expression he was used to look upon | ||
| + | her with.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | it signify? They are gone; I do not fear | ||
| + | they will return."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sense he had of this strange adventure, I | ||
| + | exclaimed, "It is very surprising, mynheer, | ||
| + | that a score of ruffians, armed to the teeth, | ||
| + | should fling themselves into this ship for no | ||
| + | other purpose, seemingly, than to leap out of | ||
| + | her again."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | said Van Vogelaar, with a snarl in his | ||
| + | voice and a sneer on his lip.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I did not instantly catch the drift of his | ||
| + | sarcasm.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | rearing his great figure and proudly | ||
| + | surveying me, "that the guns of our admirals | ||
| + | have thundered in vain? You seek an interpretation< | ||
| + | of the Frenchman' | ||
| + | Surely by this time all Englishmen should | ||
| + | understand the greatness of the terror our | ||
| + | flag everywhere strikes! Twice you have | ||
| + | witnessed this& | ||
| + | man-of-war, and this night in the conduct of | ||
| + | the French schooner. Tell me," he cried, | ||
| + | with new fires leaping into his eyes, "how I | ||
| + | am to resolve the panic-terror of the boarding | ||
| + | party, if I am not to believe that until they | ||
| + | were on our decks, had looked round them | ||
| + | and beheld our men, they knew not for | ||
| + | certain the nation to which the Braave | ||
| + | belonged?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I bowed very gravely as I acquiesced.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | likely that they imagined us English? They | ||
| + | showed no fear till our country spoke in the | ||
| + | faces of our sailors."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A faint smile of scorn curled the lips of | ||
| + | Imogene, but the contempt of her English | ||
| + | heart quickly faded into an expression of<span class=" | ||
| + | compassion and sadness when she let her | ||
| + | eyes travel from the sinister and ugly mate | ||
| + | to the majestic countenance of the commander. | ||
| + | But no more was said. The two | ||
| + | men puffed at their pipes and sipped at their | ||
| + | silver mugs in silence, and at long intervals | ||
| + | only did Imogene and I exchange a word.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to satisfy the surprise which the behaviour of | ||
| + | the schooner must have excited in them was | ||
| + | astonishing. Yet a little reflection made me | ||
| + | see that, since they did not know they were | ||
| + | accurst and were ignorant of the horror and | ||
| + | terror with which mariners of all countries | ||
| + | viewed them, it was almost inevitable they | ||
| + | should attribute the flight of ships from them | ||
| + | either to a selfishness and indifference to | ||
| + | their needs or to the dread which they inspired | ||
| + | as a vessel that flew the Dutch flag. | ||
| + | Yet may I, without irreverence, | ||
| + | much of the venom of the Curse must be | ||
| + | neutralised by their ignorance of their condition< | ||
| + | and their inability to drive conjecture | ||
| + | to the truth of whatever befel them? The | ||
| + | shaping of their doom is beyond the power of | ||
| + | reason to grasp, and I feel, therefore, the | ||
| + | impiety of criticism. Nevertheless, | ||
| + | say that, since it is Heaven' | ||
| + | wretches should be afflicted with earthly immortality, | ||
| + | it is inexplicable that the torments | ||
| + | which perception of the truth would create, | ||
| + | should be balsamed into painlessness by | ||
| + | ignorance. For hath not the Curse the idleness | ||
| + | of that kind of human revenge which | ||
| + | strikes and mutilates an enemy already dead?</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | half-an-hour after nine; Vanderdecken went | ||
| + | on deck and I sat alone smoking, thinking of | ||
| + | the surprising events of the evening, scheming | ||
| + | how to escape and making my heart very | ||
| + | heavy with a passionate hopeless yearning | ||
| + | for the time to come when, secure upon the | ||
| + | soil of our beloved land, I should be calling | ||
| + | the delicate, lovely, lonely girl& | ||
| + | fairy of this Death Ship& | ||
| + | The slow, rusty, saw-like ticking of the ancient | ||
| + | clock was an extremely melancholy noise, | ||
| + | and I abhorred its chimes too, not because of | ||
| + | the sound, that was very sonorously melodious, | ||
| + | but because it startled the parrot into | ||
| + | its ugly, hobgoblin croak. It was a detestable | ||
| + | exclamation to salute the ears of a man | ||
| + | whose thoughts ran in the very strain of that | ||
| + | coarse, comminatory confirmation of them.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ship& | ||
| + | it was somewhat mitigated forward by | ||
| + | the greasy smoke and steam of the cook-house& | ||
| + | a peculiar accentuation to the various | ||
| + | shinings of the lamp, in whose many-coloured | ||
| + | radiance some of the dusky oval-framed | ||
| + | paintings loomed out red, others green, the | ||
| + | ponderous beams of the upper deck blue, the | ||
| + | captain' | ||
| + | so on; all these tints blending into a faint | ||
| + | unearthly atmosphere as they stole dying to<span class=" | ||
| + | the bulkhead of the state-room, behind | ||
| + | whose larboard door my love lay sleeping.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I was glad to quit the place, and went | ||
| + | on deck. There was nothing to be seen | ||
| + | saving the foam that flashed near and | ||
| + | crawled afar, the glitter of the low-lying | ||
| + | stars like the sparkle of torches on ships | ||
| + | dipping upon the horizon, a sullen movement | ||
| + | of dark clouds on high, and the moon red as | ||
| + | an angry scar up-curled over the western | ||
| + | horizon. 'Twas on a sudden I noticed that | ||
| + | we were making a fair wind of the breeze. | ||
| + | Yes, on looking aloft I perceived that the | ||
| + | yards were braced in, lying so as to show the | ||
| + | wind to be blowing about one point abaft | ||
| + | the beam. It was strange that in the cabin | ||
| + | I had not heard any noise to denote that the | ||
| + | men were trimming sail, no sound of rope | ||
| + | flung down in coils, no rusty cheeping cry | ||
| + | from the aged blocks, no squeak of truss or | ||
| + | parrel, or tread of foot. That was, maybe, | ||
| + | because the men had fallen dumbly, as usual,< | ||
| + | to the job of hauling and pulling, so that my | ||
| + | attention had not been drawn to such noises | ||
| + | as were raised. Be this as it may, for the | ||
| + | first time since I had been in the ship the | ||
| + | wind had come fair. By the situation of the | ||
| + | Cross, I guessed she was being headed about | ||
| + | west-north-west, | ||
| + | Agulhas, and also into the Ethiopic Sea.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of excitement; there had come a break; it | ||
| + | was no longer a hopeless ratching to the | ||
| + | north, then a bleak, slanting drift into the | ||
| + | mighty solitude of the south; the ship was | ||
| + | going home! But with that thought my | ||
| + | spirits sank. Home? What home had she | ||
| + | but these wild, wide waters? What other | ||
| + | lot than the gentle cradling or tempestuous | ||
| + | smiting of these surges, the crying of the | ||
| + | winds of the southern ocean in her rigging, | ||
| + | the desolate scream of the lonely sea-bird in | ||
| + | her wake, the white sunshine of the blue | ||
| + | heavens, the levin-brand of the electric storm,< | ||
| + | the midnight veil of the black hurricane, the | ||
| + | wide, snow-like light of the northern moon, | ||
| + | over and over again! No! I was mortal, at | ||
| + | least, with the plain understanding of a | ||
| + | healthy man, and was not to be cheated by a | ||
| + | flowing sheet as though mine, too, was the | ||
| + | unholy immortality with its human yearnings | ||
| + | and earthly labours of the men who manned | ||
| + | this Death Ship. The change was but one | ||
| + | of the deceits of their heavy sentence, and | ||
| + | with an inward prayer that for me and for my | ||
| + | precious one it might work out some profitable | ||
| + | issue, I went to my cabin.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | by the length of a finger; outside swung the | ||
| + | lamp that sent light sufficient to me through | ||
| + | the interstice. At midnight, this lamp was | ||
| + | borne away by Prins, whose final duty before | ||
| + | going to his sleeping-place lay in this. It | ||
| + | was a regular custom, and whenever it happened | ||
| + | that I stayed on deck beyond midnight, | ||
| + | then I had to "turn in," as best I could, in<span class=" | ||
| + | the dark. Yet, dark I could not term my | ||
| + | cabin at night, 'twas rather " | ||
| + | as Milton hath it; for though the glowing | ||
| + | crawlings yielded no radiance, no, no more | ||
| + | than a mirrored star shining out of the wet | ||
| + | blackness of a well, yet such objects as intercepted | ||
| + | it, it revealed, as a suspended coat, | ||
| + | for instance, that, hanging against the bulkhead, | ||
| + | had its figure limned against the | ||
| + | phosphor, as though 'twas blotted there in | ||
| + | ink, very faithful in outline.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | evening to keep my brain occupied and my | ||
| + | eyes open, and I lay thus for some half-hour, | ||
| + | thinking and watching the unnatural lights, | ||
| + | and wondering why they should be there, | ||
| + | since I had never beheld the like glowing in | ||
| + | the most ancient marine structure I had ever | ||
| + | visited, when, on a sudden, I was sensible of | ||
| + | someone standing outside the cabin door and | ||
| + | listening, as it appeared. It was a peculiar, | ||
| + | regular breathing sound, that gave me to<span class=" | ||
| + | know this& | ||
| + | a sleeping man whose slumber is peaceful. | ||
| + | An instant after I heard the < | ||
| + | of the door lightly lifted out of the staple, but | ||
| + | all so quietly that the noise would have been | ||
| + | inaudible amid the straining of the rocking | ||
| + | vessel if my attention had not been rendered | ||
| + | piercing by that solemn and strong breathing, | ||
| + | rising very plainly above the sounds in the | ||
| + | hold.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I sprang on to the deck; being in my | ||
| + | socks I fell on my feet noiselessly. Against | ||
| + | the greenish glitterings about the cabin I | ||
| + | easily made out the figure of a man, standing | ||
| + | within the door, holding it in a posture of | ||
| + | eager listening. My breath grew thick and | ||
| + | short; the horror of this situation is not to | ||
| + | be conceived. It was not as though I were | ||
| + | in an earthly ship, for in that case, no matter | ||
| + | who the midnight intruder, he would have | ||
| + | had a mortal throat for my fingers to close | ||
| + | upon. But whoever this shape might be he<span class=" | ||
| + | belonged to the Death Ship, and 'twas | ||
| + | frightful to see his outline, black as the | ||
| + | atmosphere of a churchyard grave, thrown | ||
| + | out, in its posture of watching and listening, | ||
| + | by the fiery, writhing fibrines of the phosphor, | ||
| + | to know that the deep and hollow | ||
| + | breathing came from a figure in whom life | ||
| + | was a monstrous simulation, to feel that his | ||
| + | confrontment by an Hercules or a Goliath | ||
| + | would as little quail his endevilled spirit as | ||
| + | the dead are to be terrified by the menaces | ||
| + | of the living.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I watched with half-suffocated respiration. | ||
| + | Since his outline was plain it was sure mine | ||
| + | was so likewise; but I could not distinguish | ||
| + | that he was looking towards the place where | ||
| + | I stood, that is, in the middle of the after | ||
| + | bulkhead, a couple of paces from the foot of | ||
| + | the bed, whither I had backed on his entering.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He very softly closed the door, on which I | ||
| + | drew myself up waiting for the onslaught I | ||
| + | was certain he designed, though when I considered< | ||
| + | what thing it was I should be dealing | ||
| + | with, the sense of my helplessness came very | ||
| + | near to breaking me down. Having closed | ||
| + | the door he approached the bed, and bent his | ||
| + | head down as though listening; then, with | ||
| + | amazing swiftness, stabbed at the bed four | ||
| + | times, each blow, with the vehemence of it, | ||
| + | making a distinct sound; after which he hung | ||
| + | over the bed with his arm uplifted and his | ||
| + | head bent as though he would make sure by | ||
| + | listening that he had dispatched me. His | ||
| + | figure was so plain that it was as if you should | ||
| + | cut out the shape of a man in black paper and | ||
| + | paste it upon a dull yellow ground. From | ||
| + | the upraised hand I could distinguish the | ||
| + | projection of a knife or small sword not less | ||
| + | than a foot long. He was not apparently | ||
| + | easily satisfied that I lay dead; for he kept | ||
| + | his menacing, hearkening posture while I | ||
| + | could have counted sixty; he then went | ||
| + | lightly to the door, opened it and passed | ||
| + | out.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | his motions were those of a somnambulist& | ||
| + | whether he was influenced by some | ||
| + | condition of his doom, of a character as | ||
| + | unconjecturable as the manner in which | ||
| + | vitality was preserved among the crew, who | ||
| + | were years and years ago dead in time, I | ||
| + | could not conceive; but, resolved to discover | ||
| + | him if I could, I followed on his heels, catching | ||
| + | the door as it swung from his grasp; but | ||
| + | there was no need to close it nor slip a foot | ||
| + | beyond the coaming; for, the glimmer all | ||
| + | about serving my sight, I saw him enter the | ||
| + | cabin opposite& | ||
| + | slept, whereby I knew who it was that would | ||
| + | have assassinated me that night had I slept | ||
| + | when I lay down.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | murdered sleep so far as I was concerned. I | ||
| + | would not go on deck, and I would not lie | ||
| + | down either, for what I had beheld had so | ||
| + | wrought in my imagination that the mere< | ||
| + | idea of resting upon the holes which the | ||
| + | villain' | ||
| + | filled me with horror. So for the rest of the | ||
| + | night I walked about the cabin or rested on | ||
| + | the edge of the bed, praying for daylight, and | ||
| + | repeatedly commending myself to God; for, | ||
| + | this being the second time my life had been | ||
| + | attempted by the same hand, I could not | ||
| + | question, if it was the will of Heaven this | ||
| + | hideous cruise should be prolonged, the third | ||
| + | venture would be successful, and in the | ||
| + | dreadful loneliness and luminous blackness | ||
| + | of that cabin I viewed myself as a dead man, | ||
| + | and could have wept with rage and grief | ||
| + | when thinking of my helplessness and of | ||
| + | Imogene' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | attend my telling Vanderdecken of his mate's | ||
| + | hunger for my life. If Van Vogelaar had | ||
| + | walked in his sleep he would not know what | ||
| + | he had done; he would call me a liar for | ||
| + | charging him with it, and I might count< | ||
| + | upon Vanderdecken siding with him in any | ||
| + | case. The Dutch are a less savage people | ||
| + | than they were, but in the age to which this | ||
| + | ship's company belonged they were the most | ||
| + | inhuman people in Europe, perhaps in the | ||
| + | world, and such were the barbarities they | ||
| + | were guilty of, that the passage of two centuries& | ||
| + | it would be the same if it were | ||
| + | the passage of two hundred centuries& | ||
| + | their crimes as fresh and smoking to God as | ||
| + | the blood of their victims at the time of their | ||
| + | being done to death. Consider their treatment | ||
| + | of sailors: how for a petty theft they | ||
| + | would proclaim a man infamous at the fore-mast; | ||
| + | torture him into confession by attaching | ||
| + | heavy weights to his feet, running him | ||
| + | aloft, and then letting him fall; keel-haul | ||
| + | him, that is, draw him several times under the | ||
| + | ship's keel; affix him to the mast by nailing | ||
| + | him to it by a knife passed through his | ||
| + | hand; flog him to the extent of three hundred | ||
| + | to five hundred strokes, then pickle his bleeding< | ||
| + | mangled back; fling him ironed into the | ||
| + | hold: there half-starve him till they met with | ||
| + | a bare, barren, lonely rock upon which they | ||
| + | would set and leave him. Read how they | ||
| + | treated the English at Amboyna! No! I had | ||
| + | the Dutch of the seventeenth century to deal | ||
| + | with in these men, not the Hollanders of my | ||
| + | day, borrowing fine airs from the Germans | ||
| + | and sweetening their throats with French <i>à | ||
| + | la mode</ | ||
| + | There were moments when I paced my cabin | ||
| + | like a madman and with a madman' | ||
| + | in me too.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I brought a haggard face with me to the | ||
| + | breakfast table, and Imogene surveyed me | ||
| + | with an eye full of inquiry and anxiety. My | ||
| + | thoughts, acting with my wakefulness, | ||
| + | told, and I fancied that even Vanderdecken | ||
| + | suffered his gaze to rest upon me as though | ||
| + | he marked a change. Van Vogelaar' | ||
| + | manner satisfied me that he had acted in his | ||
| + | sleep or under some spell that stupefied the<span class=" | ||
| + | understanding whilst it gave the spirit full | ||
| + | play, for he discovered nothing of that wonder | ||
| + | and terror which had been visible in him | ||
| + | when I entered the cabin after his former | ||
| + | attempt to destroy me, which certainly had | ||
| + | not been the case had he quitted my | ||
| + | bedside in the belief that I was dead of my | ||
| + | wounds.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sort of satisfaction illuminated his sombre | ||
| + | austerity; though his dignity was prodigious | ||
| + | and his commanding manner full of an | ||
| + | haughty and forbidding sternness, he was | ||
| + | nevertheless politer to me than he had ever | ||
| + | yet been, going to the length of talking | ||
| + | about the food on the table, the excellent | ||
| + | quality of the African Guinea fowl and | ||
| + | bustard, recommending me to taste of a dish | ||
| + | of marmalade, and relating a story of a | ||
| + | privateer having left behind him, in a ship he | ||
| + | had clapt aboard of, a number of boxes which | ||
| + | seemed to be full of marmalade, but which< | ||
| + | in reality were loaded with virgin silver. | ||
| + | But it was the fair wind that produced this | ||
| + | civility, though after last night' | ||
| + | 'twas welcome enough let the cause be what | ||
| + | it would.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>No sooner had Imogene and I a chance | ||
| + | of speaking alone than she asked me what | ||
| + | was the matter. I told her how Van | ||
| + | Vogelaar had entered my cabin and stabbed | ||
| + | at my bed. She turned white; her beautiful | ||
| + | eyes grew large and bright with terror; she | ||
| + | clasped her hands and for some moments | ||
| + | could not speak. Her agitation diminished, | ||
| + | however, when she understood that Van | ||
| + | Vogelaar walked in his sleep, though she | ||
| + | was still very white when she cried: "If | ||
| + | you had been sleeping when he entered you | ||
| + | would now be dead!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I answered: "What he does in his sleep | ||
| + | he may do awake. This action is like the | ||
| + | whispers of a dreamer, babbling out his | ||
| + | conscience. It is in his soul to kill me, and<span class=" | ||
| + | long thinking upon it has moved him to the | ||
| + | deed in his sleep."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | your door?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | warrant you. But why should this man, of all | ||
| + | the others, especially thirst for my life? How | ||
| + | have I wronged him?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of my ship had fired upon him; also that in | ||
| + | the days of his natural life he was no doubt a | ||
| + | villain at heart and that all the features of his | ||
| + | devilish nature attended him through his | ||
| + | doom; that being more jealous, rapacious | ||
| + | and avaricious than the others, he might | ||
| + | regard my presence as a menace to his share | ||
| + | of the treasure, and hunger after my destruction; | ||
| + | so that, come what might, I should | ||
| + | never be able to report the wealth that lay in | ||
| + | the ship's hold.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | impossible as I found it to reconcile these< | ||
| + | earthly and human passions and motives | ||
| + | with his supernatural being; and particularly | ||
| + | the indifference he exhibited on the previous | ||
| + | evening when the Frenchman came running | ||
| + | us aboard, with his concern for his share in | ||
| + | the gold, jewels and plate below. But I had | ||
| + | long abandoned all speculation concerning | ||
| + | what I must term the intellectual aspect of | ||
| + | these miserable creatures. You will suppose | ||
| + | that we found a fruitful text in this mate's | ||
| + | somnambulistic attack upon me, and that we | ||
| + | talked at great length about our chances of | ||
| + | escape and the necessity Van Vogelaar' | ||
| + | malignant hate put me under of inventing | ||
| + | some method to deliver ourselves by, be | ||
| + | the risks of it what they might. Yet it was | ||
| + | but talk.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | more hopeless. Compared to this floating | ||
| + | jail, compassed about by the mighty sea, the | ||
| + | walls of a citadel were as paper, the bars | ||
| + | of a dungeon' | ||
| + | the most bitter and invincible barrier of | ||
| + | all was Captain Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | carry Imogene with him in this ship to | ||
| + | Amsterdam.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | A TEMPEST BURSTS UPON US.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I did not, as I had told Imogene, need a | ||
| + | second hint to secure my life by night, however | ||
| + | it might fall out with me in the day. | ||
| + | By looking about I met with a piece of ratline | ||
| + | stuff which I hid in my cabin, and when the | ||
| + | night came I secured one end to the hook of | ||
| + | the door, passing the other end through the | ||
| + | staple and then making it fast to my wrist; | ||
| + | so that, the door being shut, no one could | ||
| + | enter without tweaking or straining my arm | ||
| + | with such violence as was sure to awake me.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | blowing about south, a pleasant breeze that | ||
| + | yielded a pure blue sky and small puff-shaped | ||
| + | clouds exceedingly white; the sea was also of<span class=" | ||
| + | a very lovely sapphire, twinkling and sparkling | ||
| + | in the north like a sheet of silver cloth | ||
| + | set a-trembling. The Braave stole along | ||
| + | softly, with but little seething and hissing | ||
| + | noises about her now that her yards lay | ||
| + | braced well in. I would think whilst I | ||
| + | watched her flowing sheets, the long bosoms | ||
| + | of her canvas swelling forwards with the slack | ||
| + | bolt-ropes arched like a bow, and the mizzen | ||
| + | rounding from its lateen yard, backed by the | ||
| + | skeleton remains of the great poop lantern, | ||
| + | that she needed but the bravery of fresh | ||
| + | paint, a new ancient, pennons and streamers, | ||
| + | bright pettararoes or swivels, glass for the | ||
| + | lanterns and gilt for her galleries and beak, to | ||
| + | render her as picturesque and romantic a | ||
| + | vessel as ever sailed in that mighty procession, | ||
| + | in whose van streamed the triumphant | ||
| + | insignia of the great Spanish, Dutch and | ||
| + | Portuguese Admirals.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in the ship believed that he was going home< | ||
| + | this time. There was an air of alacrity in | ||
| + | them that had never before been noticeable. | ||
| + | They would look eagerly seawards over the | ||
| + | bows, gazing thus for long minutes at a time. | ||
| + | Whenever the log was hove I'd mark one or | ||
| + | more inquire the speed of the men who had | ||
| + | held the reel or dragged in the line, as they | ||
| + | went forward. They smoked incessantly, | ||
| + | with an air of dull and heavy satisfaction in | ||
| + | their faces.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I observed a lifting, so to speak, of the | ||
| + | stupor off Vanderdecken. His trances& | ||
| + | mean those sudden fits of death-like insensibility | ||
| + | which I can only liken to cataleptic | ||
| + | attacks& | ||
| + | his spirit, or whatever might be the nature of | ||
| + | the essence that owned his great and majestical | ||
| + | frame for a tabernacle& | ||
| + | increase of vitality from the invigorated hope | ||
| + | and brisk desires which the fair wind had | ||
| + | raised. In Van Vogelaar I witnessed no | ||
| + | change. Possibly the dark shadows of my<span class=" | ||
| + | fears being on him held him gloomy and | ||
| + | malignant to my sight. Likewise, I was | ||
| + | careful to keep a wide space between us, save | ||
| + | at meals, and never to have my back upon | ||
| + | him, for to be sure, if I was to be murdered | ||
| + | by the rogue, it should not be for the want of | ||
| + | a bright look-out on my part.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | days. A powerful current runs to the westward | ||
| + | in these seas, and adding its impulse | ||
| + | to our progress, I calculated that in those | ||
| + | seventy-two hours we made not less than an | ||
| + | hundred and thirty-three leagues. As time | ||
| + | passed my wonder increased, for though I | ||
| + | knew not our position, and never durst ask | ||
| + | Vanderdecken what situation his dead-reckoning | ||
| + | assigned us, I could not conceive& | ||
| + | the place in which the Saracen | ||
| + | was when we sighted the Death Ship& | ||
| + | we had been blown, during the time I had | ||
| + | been on board, into a very remote sea; and | ||
| + | hence 'twas reasonable that I should think it<span class=" | ||
| + | wanted but a few days sailing after this | ||
| + | pattern to carry us round the Cape. Therefore | ||
| + | I say my wonder grew, for whilst it | ||
| + | was impious to suppose that the Devil could | ||
| + | contrive that this ship should outwit the | ||
| + | Sentence, yet our steady progress caused me | ||
| + | to waver in my faith in the stern assurance | ||
| + | of the vessel' | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I would say to Imogene: "The breeze | ||
| + | holds; see how steady is the look of the | ||
| + | southern sky! Is it possible that this wind | ||
| + | will carry her round?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>To which she would answer: "No, the | ||
| + | change will come. Oh, Geoffrey, it will come, | ||
| + | though no more than the ship's length lay | ||
| + | between her and the limit which you believe | ||
| + | the Curse has marked out for her upon this | ||
| + | sea."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | coming on deck in the afternoon, or | ||
| + | next morning, and finding the Death Ship | ||
| + | pushing along, her head pointing north-west,< | ||
| + | her sails full, the wake sliding away astern | ||
| + | in a satin smoothness, wonder and doubt | ||
| + | would again possess me, and twenty odd | ||
| + | fancies occur, such as, " | ||
| + | has been remitted! Suppose it be | ||
| + | the Will of Heaven this ship should return | ||
| + | to Amsterdam, that a final expiation of | ||
| + | Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | accomplished in his and his miserable crew's | ||
| + | beholding with their own eyes the extinction | ||
| + | of those houses they had yearned for, and | ||
| + | the tombs& | ||
| + | remain& | ||
| + | hoped to feel upon their own?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Imogene.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Texel! What consternation, | ||
| + | would she arouse! What mighty | ||
| + | crowds would flock to view her!" And in the | ||
| + | hurry and ardency of my imagination, | ||
| + | go on figuring the looks and behaviour of<span class=" | ||
| + | the people as our ghastly crew stepped | ||
| + | ashore, asking one and another after their | ||
| + | wives and children, those Alidas, Geertruidas, | ||
| + | Titias, Emelies, Cornelias, Johannas, Fedoras, | ||
| + | Engelinas, and Christinas, and those Antonys, | ||
| + | Hendricks, Jans, Tjaarts, Lodewyks, Abrahams, | ||
| + | Willems, Peters, and Fredericks, whose | ||
| + | very memory, let alone their dust, was as | ||
| + | utterly gone as the ashes in any pipe forward | ||
| + | there when the fire had been tapped out of | ||
| + | the bowl overboard.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | held steadily. I left the deck a little before | ||
| + | midnight, having passed some hours of the | ||
| + | darkness in the company of my love, and | ||
| + | our sails were then full with the prosperous | ||
| + | wind, the ship passing along over the quiet | ||
| + | sea in a great shadow, the stars very piercing, | ||
| + | and the light of their colours sharp and | ||
| + | lovely; but on coming from my cabin next | ||
| + | morning, I found the breeze gone; the ship | ||
| + | was rolling upon a swell coming with some< | ||
| + | power from the westwards; and the dead | ||
| + | cloths of the canvas striking a small thunder | ||
| + | into the motionless air as they beat against | ||
| + | the masts with the weary, monotonous swaying | ||
| + | of those spars.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | full of foreboding; it was as my heart had | ||
| + | foreseen, spite of the wonder and inventions | ||
| + | of my imagination; | ||
| + | perception of that polished sea heaving into | ||
| + | the dimness of the distant sky, the sight of | ||
| + | the deadness of the calm that had slued the | ||
| + | Death Ship till her sprit-topsail veiled and | ||
| + | disclosed the oozing sun as she bowed with | ||
| + | her beak pointing into the east, brought | ||
| + | a disappointment that sickened me to the | ||
| + | soul.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | this experience to end only with my death!" | ||
| + | and I entered the cabin in so melancholy a | ||
| + | mood that I could scarce hold up my head | ||
| + | for the heaviness in my eyes and brain.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and fondled it. She instantly observed my | ||
| + | depression, and said, gently, "I feared this | ||
| + | calm would dishearten you. But it was inevitable, | ||
| + | dear. It was impossible a change of | ||
| + | some kind should be delayed."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | another long, soul-starving, | ||
| + | the south-east, another terrible spell of | ||
| + | Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | Vogelaar' | ||
| + | hopelessness afterwards. Oh, my love! the | ||
| + | hopelessness afterwards!& | ||
| + | breaks and the wind blows fair again. Will | ||
| + | it never end?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of her finger to her lips. I turned, as | ||
| + | Vanderdecken approached. The darkness of | ||
| + | his inward rage lay heavy upon the folds | ||
| + | of his brow; 'tis no exaggeration to apply | ||
| + | to his appearance the strong words of | ||
| + | Beaumont:</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | "There are a thousand furies in his looks,< | ||
| + | And in his deadly silence more loud horror< | ||
| + | Than, when in Hell, the tortur' | ||
| + | Contend whose shrieks are greatest!"< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He came without speaking to his chair, turning | ||
| + | his fiery eyes from Imogene to me without | ||
| + | saluting us. A moment after Van Vogelaar | ||
| + | arrived.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>We took our places, but none spoke. One | ||
| + | side-long look the mate darted at me under | ||
| + | his parchment-coloured lids, and malice and | ||
| + | hate were strong in it. I could see that | ||
| + | Imogene was awed and terrified by the captain' | ||
| + | manner. You dreaded to hear him | ||
| + | speak. His stillness was that of a slowly | ||
| + | ripening tempest and his sultry, forbidding, | ||
| + | darkening bearing seemed to thicken the | ||
| + | very atmosphere about him till you drew your | ||
| + | breath with labour. He drank a silver cupfull | ||
| + | of wine, but ate nothing.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | knife and fork with a surly heartiness. For | ||
| + | my part, I felt as though a mouthful must< | ||
| + | choke me; yet I made out to eat that | ||
| + | these men should not think I was afraid. | ||
| + | I believe Imogene would have gone to | ||
| + | her cabin but for her anxiety to support | ||
| + | and encourage me, so to say, by her | ||
| + | presence.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ship," presently exclaimed Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | speaking with a hoarse muttering that had | ||
| + | no note of the familiar melodious richness, | ||
| + | "that all winds which might blow us westwards | ||
| + | die before the meridian of Agulhas is | ||
| + | reached? What is there in these masts to | ||
| + | poison the breeze? Do we spread sails | ||
| + | woven in the Devil' | ||
| + | Jonah among us?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Herr Fenton, think you? Measure the luck | ||
| + | he carries by what hath happened since he has | ||
| + | been in this ship. Six days of storm!" | ||
| + | held up his fingers with a furious gesture. | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | treasure, our ship been imperilled! Note, | ||
| + | now, this westerly swell, this stagnant atmosphere, | ||
| + | and a dimness in the west that will | ||
| + | have grown into storm and wind ere the | ||
| + | afternoon watch be ended."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | addressing Vanderdecken; | ||
| + | His tongue is injurious to the Hollander' | ||
| + | love of honour. Mynheer, consider: | ||
| + | He talks of the six days of storm& | ||
| + | weather had been brewed before my ship | ||
| + | sighted yours. Of the English man-of-war | ||
| + | and the French pirate; why not of the wreck | ||
| + | that yielded you a bountiful store of needful | ||
| + | things? He knows& | ||
| + | that Englishmen& | ||
| + | English mariners& | ||
| + | practise sorcery. This change is the concern | ||
| + | of that Being who has yet to judge this man. | ||
| + | If he charges me with the control of the | ||
| + | elements, then, by the Majesty of Heaven, | ||
| + | he basely lies even in his rash and impious< | ||
| + | effort to do me, a weak and erring mortal, | ||
| + | honour!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | stared at him with eyes fuller of more potent | ||
| + | fury flashed into them by the rage of my | ||
| + | healthy, earthly manhood than could possibly | ||
| + | possess him out of that dusty sepulchre of | ||
| + | his body which lived by the Curse alone. | ||
| + | He shrunk away from me, looking at his | ||
| + | skipper.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sweet voice of Imogene, "you will not let | ||
| + | Herr Van Vogelaar' | ||
| + | influence your love of justice. Herr Fenton | ||
| + | is not accountable for this calm; 'tis monstrous | ||
| + | to suppose it. Charge me sooner with witchcraft; | ||
| + | I have been longer in this ship than | ||
| + | he; in that time you have met many adverse | ||
| + | winds; and if his being an Englishman is | ||
| + | his wrong, hold me also answerable for the | ||
| + | failure of your hopes, since I am English too!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He looked at her, then at me, then back< | ||
| + | to her, and methought her beauty coloured | ||
| + | the stormy cloud of his expression with a | ||
| + | light of its own, not softening it, but robbing | ||
| + | it somewhat of its terror. He moved his lips, | ||
| + | talking to himself, folded his arms and leaned | ||
| + | back, staring straight up at the deck.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I fancied by saying more yet I could mend | ||
| + | my case, and would not meet Imogene' | ||
| + | for fear of being checked.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | shipwrecked man& | ||
| + | generosity as a fellow-being, | ||
| + | have given me so abundant an illustration that | ||
| + | my heart sinks when I consider that I am | ||
| + | too poor to make you any return saving in | ||
| + | thanks. Had I tenfold the powers your | ||
| + | mate imputes to me, could I work you evil? | ||
| + | Give me the control of the wind, and such a | ||
| + | gale would follow this ship that you should | ||
| + | be speedily counting the date of your arrival | ||
| + | at Amsterdam in hours. Is it reasonable | ||
| + | that I should seek to delay this voyage? I,<span class=" | ||
| + | who have but these clothes in which I stand& | ||
| + | am divorced from my home& | ||
| + | helpless and defenceless among the enemies | ||
| + | of my country& | ||
| + | should have nothing to hope if they had not | ||
| + | long given the world to know that their generosity | ||
| + | as foes is alone equalled by their | ||
| + | heroism as mariners!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He had slowly turned his eyes upon me | ||
| + | when I began to speak, and now made a | ||
| + | haughty gesture with his hand as if bidding | ||
| + | me hold my peace. And perhaps my conscience | ||
| + | felt the rebuke, though he merely | ||
| + | designed to let me know that I had said | ||
| + | enough; for, between ourselves, I had as little | ||
| + | opinion of Dutch generosity as I had of | ||
| + | Dutch valour, and should have despised myself | ||
| + | for this flattering had I been talking to | ||
| + | human beings.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | that lay muzzled in the captain' | ||
| + | Whether my standing up for myself, my<span class=" | ||
| + | heated manner towards his mate, gave a new | ||
| + | turn to his mood, he did not speak again of | ||
| + | the change of weather, and as speedily as | ||
| + | ceremony would permit, I got up, made my | ||
| + | bow, and went on deck.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | enough, though merely with a faintness there | ||
| + | that was unrelieved by any edging or | ||
| + | shouldering outline of cloud. A few patches | ||
| + | of vapour lay streaked along the sky, otherwise | ||
| + | the heavens hovered in an unstained | ||
| + | hollow, but of a faded, watery blue, unwholesome | ||
| + | and with a sort of blindness of fog in it; | ||
| + | and up in the north-east hung the sun, shorn | ||
| + | of his rays, a squeezed yet uncompacted mass | ||
| + | of dazzle, like as I have seen him show when | ||
| + | setting in a belt of vapour that has not | ||
| + | entirely hid him, and casting a wake as dim | ||
| + | as burning oil. The swell had grown in | ||
| + | weight even while we had been breaking our | ||
| + | fast. There being not the faintest draught | ||
| + | of air to steady the vessel& | ||
| + | as to put the most delicate curl of shadow | ||
| + | upon the heads of the muddy-blue, grease-smooth, | ||
| + | liquid roundings which came with a | ||
| + | sulky brimming to the channels. She rolled | ||
| + | with stupid heaviness, her sails rattling like | ||
| + | a discharge from great ordnance, and a sort | ||
| + | of song-like cries twanging out from the sharp | ||
| + | fierce strains put upon the shrouds and backstays, | ||
| + | and many noises in her hold. You | ||
| + | would have thought that her huge round-tops | ||
| + | and heavy furniture of spar and rigging | ||
| + | would have given some regularity to her | ||
| + | pendulous swaying: but the contrary was | ||
| + | the case, her action being so jerky, abrupt, and | ||
| + | unforegatherable by the legs, that walking | ||
| + | was impossible.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I passed the morning partly on deck, partly | ||
| + | in the cabin, nearly all the while in Imogene' | ||
| + | society, Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | being too vehement to suffer him to notice | ||
| + | either me or my dearest. Indeed, I sought | ||
| + | the cabin chiefly to remove myself from his<span class=" | ||
| + | sight, for as the weather darkened round | ||
| + | his wrath mounted with it& | ||
| + | tempestuous stridings, and above all, in the | ||
| + | flaming and cursing eyes he would again and | ||
| + | again level at the heavens; and I sometimes | ||
| + | felt that nothing less than my life might be | ||
| + | the forfeit of my even provoking his regard | ||
| + | and constraining his attention to me in his | ||
| + | present satanic posture of mind.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ordered Prins to bring him some drink on | ||
| + | deck: he could not eat. All the morning he | ||
| + | had been directing his gaze into the south | ||
| + | and north and east for any blurr of the | ||
| + | polished folds that should exhibit movement | ||
| + | in the air in those quarters; and from the | ||
| + | undulating sea-line, which he searched in | ||
| + | vain, his eyes seemed to reel with the very | ||
| + | sickness of wrath into the west where, as I | ||
| + | knew, the Curse was busy.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | table. We had agreed not to utter a syllable< | ||
| + | whilst the mate was present, and some time | ||
| + | before he had finished his meal, we left the | ||
| + | cabin for the quarter-deck, | ||
| + | hidden from Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | about the poop near the tiller, with a tread | ||
| + | whose echo rang through the solid deck, and | ||
| + | with a mien that made me ready to witness | ||
| + | him at any minute repeat, waking and sensible, | ||
| + | the horrid blasphemous part he had | ||
| + | performed in his sleep.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | thickness. The atmosphere grew hot, and | ||
| + | the fanning of the canvas that had before | ||
| + | filled the decks with chilling draughts became | ||
| + | a refreshment. By two o' | ||
| + | the heads and shoulders of ponderous storm-clouds | ||
| + | had shaped themselves above the | ||
| + | dingy blueish obscurity in the west; they | ||
| + | jutted up with a ghastly sheen of sickly | ||
| + | bronze upon their peaks and brows and made | ||
| + | a very frightful appearance. You would have | ||
| + | thought there was a great motionless fold of<span class=" | ||
| + | heat suspended, viewless, in the middle of | ||
| + | the heavens, and that it was magnetically | ||
| + | drawing up volumes of black fumes from | ||
| + | some pestilential land lying hidden behind | ||
| + | the sea. The strange light, rusty with the | ||
| + | ominous storm-tinge, | ||
| + | round and hard, cheating the eye with the | ||
| + | illusive complexion, till the eastern sea-line | ||
| + | looked thirty leagues distant, and not closer | ||
| + | westwards either, spite of its fading out in a | ||
| + | jumble of ugly shadow that way. The sky | ||
| + | still had a dirty sort of blue where the sun | ||
| + | went out behind it, and I tell you 'twas scaring | ||
| + | to find him sunk out of sight in a kind of | ||
| + | ether whose hue, deceptive as it was, caused | ||
| + | it to look clear enough for him to float in. | ||
| + | It was in its way a sheer drowning of the | ||
| + | luminary, like the foundering of a flaming | ||
| + | fabric in the sea.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | as though some giant hand was warily drawing | ||
| + | a sable curtain over our mastheads.< | ||
| + | Never did I watch the growth of a storm | ||
| + | with such awe as now filled me. To my | ||
| + | alarmed sight, the gathering seemed like an | ||
| + | embodiment of the Curse in dreadful, swelling, | ||
| + | livid vapours, whose dull hectic, whose | ||
| + | sallow bronze glaring out of the murkiness, | ||
| + | showed like the overflowing of the blue and | ||
| + | scarlet and sunlight fires pent up in those | ||
| + | teeming surcharged bosoms. My plain sense | ||
| + | assured me that the tempest could not hold | ||
| + | for this Death Ship the menace that would | ||
| + | render its aspect terrifying to the mariner on | ||
| + | board an earthly craft; yet it was impossible | ||
| + | for my instincts as a seaman to accommodate | ||
| + | themselves to the supernatural conditions | ||
| + | which begirt me, and I found myself trembling | ||
| + | for the safety of the ship when I discovered | ||
| + | that the tempest was suffered to grow | ||
| + | without an order being given to the men to | ||
| + | shorten sail and prepare for it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I left Imogene and stepped furtively along | ||
| + | the quarter-deck to command the poop, and<span class=" | ||
| + | saw Vanderdecken standing aft, surveying | ||
| + | the storm with his arms folded, his chin | ||
| + | depressed, and his face staring out ashenly | ||
| + | against the gloom. I watched him for some | ||
| + | minutes, but never once did he stir. Arents | ||
| + | and Van Vogelaar were on the other side of | ||
| + | the deck, leaning over the rail, gazing at God | ||
| + | knows what, but never speaking as I could | ||
| + | be sure in the silence that rested upon the | ||
| + | ship. The men hung about in groups forward; | ||
| + | mere cunningly devised shapes of | ||
| + | human beings without the faintest stir of restlessness | ||
| + | among them. Many of them | ||
| + | smoked, and the pale wreaths went from their | ||
| + | paler lips into the air straight as staffs.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "did mortal ever behold the like of it?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | twilight, in which the sails to the flattened | ||
| + | swell swayed like visionary wings grown | ||
| + | languid with long flight, and feebly hovering | ||
| + | and almost noiselessly beating over the ship;< | ||
| + | out of the gloom over the side came now and | ||
| + | again the yearning moan of water, foamlessly | ||
| + | laving the bends and run of the vessel; in | ||
| + | each death-like pause you heard the silence | ||
| + | tingling in the air with the low phantasmal | ||
| + | muttering of a weltering sea, a sound as of | ||
| + | an imagination of unreal breakers upon a | ||
| + | faery shore.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | darling looked as I pointed. In the extreme | ||
| + | west the shade of the heavens was a sort of | ||
| + | dismal slate, and there was an incessant | ||
| + | winking of lightning all about it, like a mad | ||
| + | dancing of stars of piercing brilliance; this | ||
| + | enlarged into dense masses of dark vapour | ||
| + | streaked as sand is ribbed by the action of | ||
| + | surf; then zenith-wards was a space of faint | ||
| + | green sky, very dim as though beheld through | ||
| + | smoke, and past this lay a floating body of | ||
| + | thin vapour thickening over our mastheads | ||
| + | into an amazing appearance of clouds like to | ||
| + | the bush that shags the New Holland slopes,< | ||
| + | merging eastwards into a vast array of clouds | ||
| + | twisted into the aspect of whirlpools, and | ||
| + | in their brooding motionlessness resembling | ||
| + | vortices suddenly arrested when most madly | ||
| + | gyrating. But this description, | ||
| + | to the life, conveys not the least idea of the | ||
| + | horrid appearance of that sky, for there is | ||
| + | nothing in words to express the effect upon | ||
| + | the mind of the contrast of the several shades | ||
| + | of colour all combinating to fill the sea with a | ||
| + | malignant hue, and the keen throbbing of the | ||
| + | lightning low down, the washing sweep of the | ||
| + | sick and ghastly ocean into the western | ||
| + | dusk, the stooping soot of the vaporous | ||
| + | maelstroms overhead, only waiting, as it | ||
| + | seemed, for some storm-signal to start off | ||
| + | every one of them into a very madness of | ||
| + | revolution, boiling out into wet and crimsoned | ||
| + | tempests.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | into one great cloud of an indigo tint, ridged | ||
| + | with layers of black vapour and blackening< | ||
| + | into very midnight on the western seaboard | ||
| + | where the lightning was shooting. The sea | ||
| + | had strangely flattened; the weighty swells | ||
| + | which had precoursed the growth of the | ||
| + | storm had run away down the eastern waters; | ||
| + | it was as though the hot heaviness of the | ||
| + | rising and spreading blackness had pressed | ||
| + | down the ocean into a smooth plain.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>As not an order had yet been given, not a | ||
| + | clewline nor a halyard touched, I had made | ||
| + | up my mind to presently behold an astonishing | ||
| + | exhibition of magic; that is to say, I was | ||
| + | to witness a sudden violent blast of storm | ||
| + | strike this Death Ship with every sail she | ||
| + | carried abroad, and no harm to come to her | ||
| + | from it. All at once there was a great stroke | ||
| + | of lightning that flashed up the heavy oppressive | ||
| + | obscurity, and the whole ship leapt | ||
| + | to the eye in a blaze of emerald fire. There | ||
| + | fell a few huge drops of rain, covering the | ||
| + | decks with circles as big as saucers. A sullen | ||
| + | shock of thunder boomed in a single report< | ||
| + | out of the west, and then it was that the | ||
| + | voice of Vanderdecken rang out like a | ||
| + | vibratory echo of the deep storm-note that | ||
| + | had died away.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sails!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | aft!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mizzen!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | by one, and they were repeated by the two | ||
| + | mates and the boatswain.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I cannot believe that any fantastic vision | ||
| + | was ever wilder, stranger, more impressive | ||
| + | than the picture offered by the Death Ship | ||
| + | when her men went to work to snug her | ||
| + | down. Their mechanically-moving shapes | ||
| + | hauling upon the ropes, running like shadows | ||
| + | along the decks, vanishing in the sullen,< | ||
| + | swarming thickness as they mounted the | ||
| + | shrouds, every man as silent as a spectre; | ||
| + | the fitful trembling out of the whole vessel to | ||
| + | the white and green and violet glimmer of | ||
| + | the yet distant lightning; the dark sea dimly | ||
| + | glancing into a kind of light, wan and indeterminable | ||
| + | as the sheen of stars in polished | ||
| + | steel, under the play of those western glitterings; | ||
| + | the blackness overhead now settled | ||
| + | down to the eastern seaboard, over the | ||
| + | horizon of which there yet hovered a streak | ||
| + | of dusty green& | ||
| + | the hand of Dante or Milton.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Compar' | ||
| + | Hell somewhat lightsome, the Bermudas calm;<br /> | ||
| + | Darkness, Light' | ||
| + | Claims o'er the World!< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It was as black as night. What the men | ||
| + | were about, with what dispatch they worked, | ||
| + | it was impossible to see. No songs or cries | ||
| + | came from them to enable me to guess their | ||
| + | movements. If ever Imogene and I exchanged | ||
| + | a word it was in a whisper, so heart< | ||
| + | subduing was the darkness and the horrible | ||
| + | element of suspense and uncertainty in it. I | ||
| + | had her close to the cabin-front under the | ||
| + | poop, ready for the shelter of it at the outburst. | ||
| + | Ten minutes went by, and then it | ||
| + | seemed to me as if a deeper shade yet had | ||
| + | penetrated the darkness. Suddenly, I heard | ||
| + | a far-off humming noise, a kind of growling | ||
| + | sound, not to be likened to thunder, though | ||
| + | you seemed to catch the note of that too in | ||
| + | the multitudinous crying. It was as if the | ||
| + | denizens of a thousand forests were flying | ||
| + | before the roaring of a tornado among the | ||
| + | trees, every savage beast raising its own | ||
| + | savage cry as it went, the whole uproar so | ||
| + | remote as to resemble a mountain' | ||
| + | of the horrible clamour leagues and | ||
| + | leagues distant inland.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in twain by a blast of lightning that looked | ||
| + | to fly like a dazzling shaft of flame from the<span class=" | ||
| + | north sheer over our mastheads into the | ||
| + | south. It was almost instantly followed by a | ||
| + | crash of thunder, ear-splitting as the explosion | ||
| + | of the batteries of a dozen first-rates all discharged | ||
| + | at one moment. And then fell the | ||
| + | rain in a whole body of water, charged with | ||
| + | hailstones as big as pigeon' | ||
| + | raised such an uproar on our decks that you | ||
| + | looked to see the whole substantial fabric | ||
| + | shattered by it. The surface of the sea | ||
| + | foamed in fire to that lashing of water and | ||
| + | hail. There was now a perpetual blaze of | ||
| + | lightning, but the thunder merely deepened | ||
| + | the prodigious noise of the rushing wet without, | ||
| + | its claps being distinguishable in the | ||
| + | dreadful tumult. We had immediately withdrawn | ||
| + | to the cabin, and closing the door, | ||
| + | stood looking on through the window. The | ||
| + | decks were full of water, which, cascading | ||
| + | through the ports and all other freeing orifices, | ||
| + | added its roaring to the other notes of the | ||
| + | tempest. The ship seemed on fire to as high< | ||
| + | as we could see with the hellish and continual | ||
| + | flaming of the lightning.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | breath you saw spars, rigging, bulwark-rails, | ||
| + | all blazing out as though lumined with | ||
| + | brushes dipped in blue and crimson, and star-white | ||
| + | and yellow and dark violet fires.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I could tell by the droop of the fore-course | ||
| + | hanging by its gear, and faintly fanning dark | ||
| + | and wet from its yard. But I knew it could | ||
| + | not be far off. Those sounds I had heard as | ||
| + | of a thousand affrighted wild beasts were& | ||
| + | ear well knew the noise& | ||
| + | high in the middle air of a prodigious wind | ||
| + | bellowing as it swept the ocean into white | ||
| + | rage. My heart beat swiftly; all was so | ||
| + | fearfully real that I could not grasp the supernatural | ||
| + | conditions of the life of this ship and | ||
| + | crew, which had otherwise assured me that | ||
| + | the Curse that triumphed over the monarch | ||
| + | Death must be superior to the wildest< | ||
| + | hurricane that ever piled the ocean into | ||
| + | mountains.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | as I spoke the gale smote us like a bolt from | ||
| + | heaven, falling upon us with a long and frightful | ||
| + | scream and amid a volley of lightning that | ||
| + | made the sky a blinding purple dazzle from | ||
| + | sea-line to sea-line. I held with both hands | ||
| + | to one side of the frame of the window, and | ||
| + | Imogene, half-swooning with terror, lay against | ||
| + | me, nothing but my body saving her from | ||
| + | being dashed against the side of the cabin. | ||
| + | Such was the sharpness of the angle to which | ||
| + | the first frenzy of the liberated hurricane | ||
| + | heeled the vessel, that for some minutes I | ||
| + | veritably believed she was foundering. The | ||
| + | ocean boiled in a flat plain of froth, and the | ||
| + | ship lay steady upon the enraged whiteness, | ||
| + | with the rail of her bulwarks under, and you | ||
| + | heard amid the seething and shrill shrieking | ||
| + | of the wind, the sound of the water pouring | ||
| + | on to her decks over the upper and quarter-deck< | ||
| + | and forecastle-rails, | ||
| + | thunders, coiling with a pure head, over the | ||
| + | edge of some rocky abrupt. If I had opened | ||
| + | the door& | ||
| + | action on that violent headlong steep of deck& | ||
| + | would have merely been to drown the | ||
| + | cabin and Imogene and myself. There was | ||
| + | nothing to be done but attend the issue, and | ||
| + | for several minutes, I say, I stood holding | ||
| + | on, my dearest clasping me and so supporting | ||
| + | herself, scarce knowing whether the vessel | ||
| + | was under water or not, unable to speak for | ||
| + | the horrible clamour without, the lightning | ||
| + | continuously holding the fabric visible through | ||
| + | the window in its mani-coloured blaze, and | ||
| + | the enduring steadiness of the hull upon the | ||
| + | flat foam putting a terror into the situation | ||
| + | you would not have remarked in her labouring | ||
| + | in a hollow sea.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | she was recovering her upright posture. They | ||
| + | had succeeded in getting her to pay off, and | ||
| + | after a little, giving her tall stem to the gale,< | ||
| + | she went before it as upright as a church, the | ||
| + | water on her decks pouring away overboard, | ||
| + | the piercing fury of the wind robbed to the | ||
| + | extent of the velocity with which the vessel | ||
| + | drove, and no other sound rising up off the | ||
| + | sea but the amazing hissing of foam.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | knows his business as a sailor, and | ||
| + | call me a Dutchman if here has not been | ||
| + | a noble stroke of seamanship!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | WE SPRING A LEAK.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I never remember the like of such a storm | ||
| + | as this in these seas, though I have made the | ||
| + | passage of the Cape four times and have met | ||
| + | some frightful weather off the great Agulhas | ||
| + | Bank. Amazing suddenness and violence in | ||
| + | the first bursting of a storm you have reason | ||
| + | to expect in the inter-tropical regions eastwards | ||
| + | of the African continent, but not down | ||
| + | here. Captain George Bonny, of the ship | ||
| + | Elizabeth Tudor, is the only person that I | ||
| + | am acquainted with who has had experience | ||
| + | of so sudden a tempest as I have attempted | ||
| + | to describe off this African headland; and | ||
| + | who is to say that he had not happened upon | ||
| + | the neighbourhood of the Death Ship and<span class=" | ||
| + | unwottingly tasted somewhat of the doom of | ||
| + | that vessel, whose passage over the limits of | ||
| + | her fate the storm the Elizabeth Tudor | ||
| + | encountered was designed to furiously arrest?</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>Be this as it will. I passed from the cabin | ||
| + | into as raging and affrighting a scene as was | ||
| + | ever witnessed in any ocean. The sky was | ||
| + | made unearthly by the flashes of lightning, | ||
| + | whose blinding leaps seemed to bring the | ||
| + | blackness down like a wall upon the eyes, | ||
| + | and if ever an interval lasted long enough to | ||
| + | suffer the light to resume its powers, then | ||
| + | you found that blackness horrible with the | ||
| + | unspeakable shade it took from the plain of | ||
| + | boiling froth that stretched like a world | ||
| + | covered with snow to the sea-girdle, fading | ||
| + | from startling, staring, glaring whiteness | ||
| + | around us into a pallid, ghastly dimness, | ||
| + | where it sank and melted into the levin-riven | ||
| + | inky folds.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I struggled on to the poop and crawled on | ||
| + | my hands and knees to the little deck-house,< | ||
| + | against the foremost end of which I stationed | ||
| + | myself; and here I was protected from the | ||
| + | rain and wind. Straight as an arrow over | ||
| + | the seething smother the Death Ship was | ||
| + | running, and her keel slided smooth as a | ||
| + | sledge through the feathery surface. The | ||
| + | tempest lay like a red-hot iron sheet upon | ||
| + | the waters, making it boil and furiously hiss, | ||
| + | but stifling all life of billow, ay, of ripple | ||
| + | even, out of it. The men had contrived to | ||
| + | shorten sail down to the double-reefed fore-course, | ||
| + | and under that strip of curved and | ||
| + | lifted canvas& | ||
| + | cloud against the white water beyond the | ||
| + | bows& | ||
| + | the great tiller, and others attending the | ||
| + | tackles attached to it. With every blue or | ||
| + | green or yellow flash, you saw the rain | ||
| + | sweeping along in crystal lines, complexioned | ||
| + | by the electric dartings, now like silver wire, | ||
| + | now as if the heavens were shedding blood. | ||
| + | 'Twas like a sea of water in the wind, and the<span class=" | ||
| + | shrill harsh singing of it above, and the | ||
| + | vehement sobbing of it upon the decks, were | ||
| + | sounds of themselves amid the universal | ||
| + | shrieking and hissing. There was an incessant | ||
| + | explosion of thunder, sometimes right | ||
| + | overhead, the echoes answering in volleys, | ||
| + | and the rattling sharper than the speaking of | ||
| + | great guns in mountain scars and hollows. | ||
| + | The dazzling play made a fiery tapestry of | ||
| + | the scene, and the flying ship came and went | ||
| + | in flames, leaping out of the black tempest, | ||
| + | then vanishing like a burning shape, eclipsed | ||
| + | and revealed by the speeding of sooty | ||
| + | vapours.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | catch sight of the towering form of Vanderdecken | ||
| + | standing at the mizzen-rigging, | ||
| + | hand on a shroud or backstay, sloping his | ||
| + | figure against the tempest and his beard | ||
| + | blown straight out before him. The others | ||
| + | being abaft the little house I could not see. | ||
| + | The scene now did indeed astonishingly< | ||
| + | realise the doubtful traditions which depicture | ||
| + | the Flying Dutchman perpetually sailing amid | ||
| + | storm. Since I had been on board I had | ||
| + | viewed her in many conditions of weather; | ||
| + | but though her supernatural qualities and | ||
| + | characteristics best appeared when they stole | ||
| + | out to the faint, waving silver of the moonshine | ||
| + | trembling along the oil-like blackness | ||
| + | of a midnight calm, yet she could never | ||
| + | be more impressive than when, as she was | ||
| + | now, fleeing like a witch driven mad by | ||
| + | pursuing demons, whose numbers darkened | ||
| + | the heavens, the lightning streaming about | ||
| + | her like ordnance in Titanic hands fired to | ||
| + | bring her to, all her rigging in a scream as | ||
| + | she ran, showing in the spaces of dusk | ||
| + | betwixt the flashes a great, black, phantasmal | ||
| + | shape upon the floor of ringing and frenzied | ||
| + | whiteness which the tempest swept along | ||
| + | with her, and which broke not therefore in | ||
| + | the lightest curl from her stern, nor yielded a | ||
| + | hand' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | every minute her keel passed over as many | ||
| + | fathoms of sea as would take her hours of | ||
| + | plying to recover. I frequently directed my | ||
| + | eyes at Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | and prepared for a tragical exhibition, whose | ||
| + | furiousness should be in awful correspondence | ||
| + | with this insanity of sea and sky, but had the | ||
| + | life been struck out of him as he stood there | ||
| + | his posture could not have been more fixed | ||
| + | and unmoving.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It was, however, impossible for such wind | ||
| + | as this to blow many minutes without raising | ||
| + | a sea. The increased soaring and falling of | ||
| + | the black wing of canvas forward against the | ||
| + | boiling that rose in a faintness of spume and | ||
| + | lustre of its own into the air denoted the | ||
| + | gradual hollowing of the water, and then no | ||
| + | sooner had the talons of the storm succeeded | ||
| + | in scooping shallow troughs out of the levelness | ||
| + | of foaming snow than the surge grew | ||
| + | magically. Every liquid side was shouldered< | ||
| + | by the tempest into hills, and the hills | ||
| + | swelled into such mountains as you must | ||
| + | come down into these seas to behold the like | ||
| + | of. Half-an-hour after the first of the hurricane | ||
| + | the ship was plunging and laying | ||
| + | along amid a very cauldron of infuriate | ||
| + | waters, scarcely visible amid the fleecy fog of | ||
| + | spray, heights of the sea reaching to her tops, | ||
| + | spouting their prodigious lengths alongside, | ||
| + | sometimes tumbling in thunder upon her | ||
| + | forward decks, sometimes curling in blown | ||
| + | snakings ahead of her. Heavy as had been | ||
| + | some of the hours of my first six days | ||
| + | of storm, the wildest of that time was but | ||
| + | as a feather to the weight of this tempest. | ||
| + | The lightning ceased, and but for the evening | ||
| + | that was now descending, and that had put | ||
| + | the shadow of night into the shade of the | ||
| + | storm, the heavens must have shown somewhat | ||
| + | pale by the thinning of the electrical | ||
| + | vapour; but this scarce perceptible clearance | ||
| + | did but leave larger room for the wind, and it<span class=" | ||
| + | was now blowing with extraordinary spite. | ||
| + | It would be impossible for the ship to run | ||
| + | long before the swollen acclivities, | ||
| + | foaming heads appeared to brush the black | ||
| + | ceiling under which they coursed as they | ||
| + | arched in the wake of the vessel' | ||
| + | stern, and methought they would have to | ||
| + | bring her to speedily if she was not to be | ||
| + | pooped and swept and smothered.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | voice of Vanderdecken swept in a | ||
| + | roar along the deck.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sail!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | show the foot of it as she rounds!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | than the hands of men going prosaically to | ||
| + | work on jeers and clew-garnets when the | ||
| + | fore-yard slowly slided down to the bulwark-rails, | ||
| + | and the sail was smothered as though | ||
| + | frapped by airy fingers forked out of the<span class=" | ||
| + | whirling dusk. Some of the crew with glimmering | ||
| + | faces came crawling aft, probing the | ||
| + | solid substance of the wind with figures | ||
| + | bowing sheer into it, and all in silence the | ||
| + | helm was put down amid a sudden mad | ||
| + | flogging of liberated cloths aft, and the ship | ||
| + | lying along gave her round bow and side to | ||
| + | the seas which flashed in storms of water over | ||
| + | her as she met them to the pressure of the | ||
| + | hard-over rudder.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ancient structure rose as buoyantly as a | ||
| + | wooden castle to the heave of the mighty | ||
| + | surge, for all her labouring with full decks | ||
| + | and the veiling of her by clouds and storms | ||
| + | of spray. But had her situation looked to be | ||
| + | one of frightful and imminent peril, I must | ||
| + | by this time have viewed it with unconcern. | ||
| + | The sense of the Curse that held the ship | ||
| + | vital was strong in me. Out of the first | ||
| + | terrific blast of the hurricane 'twas odds if the | ||
| + | newest and stoutest ship could have emerged< | ||
| + | without damage, supposing she had not been | ||
| + | sunk outright; yet did this vessel survive | ||
| + | that fearful outfly, aged as she was. Not a | ||
| + | yarn of her old ropes broken, nor a spar nor | ||
| + | yard, whose rottenness caused them to glow | ||
| + | in the dark, sprung or strained; more | ||
| + | staunchly than could have been possible to | ||
| + | her, even in the hour of her launch, did she | ||
| + | breast the great black seas which swept her | ||
| + | to their mountain-tops with yelling rigging | ||
| + | and masts aslant, to hurl her a breathless | ||
| + | moment afterwards into stagnant valleys, | ||
| + | echoing the thunder of the gale that touched | ||
| + | not their depths.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I quitted the deck and returned to Imogene | ||
| + | in the cabin. The lighted lamp swung wildly, | ||
| + | and though the uproar of the tempest was | ||
| + | muffled below, yet the noise of straining | ||
| + | was so great that I had to put my lips close | ||
| + | to my dear girl's ear to make myself heard. | ||
| + | I gave her a description of the sea, | ||
| + | acquainted her with the posture in which the<span class=" | ||
| + | ship lay, and told her that the incredible | ||
| + | violence of the storm was promise enough | ||
| + | that it would not endure; though it was | ||
| + | horrible to think of the miles we had been | ||
| + | forced to run into the eastwards, and of the | ||
| + | leagues off our course the drift of the ship, | ||
| + | even in twelve hours, would compel us to | ||
| + | measure.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | answered " | ||
| + | dismal I had ever spent in the accursed ship. | ||
| + | I held my sweetheart' | ||
| + | being, as I have said, as good as impossible, | ||
| + | I afflicted myself with a thousand miserable | ||
| + | thoughts and dark and ugly fancies. Great | ||
| + | heaven! With what loathing did I regard the | ||
| + | sickly mask of the ship's side, the gloomy | ||
| + | ovals, the ghastly revelry of the lantern' | ||
| + | colours flashing to the prodigious swinging of | ||
| + | the tempest-tossed fabric! And from time | ||
| + | to time the parrot, affrighted by the noises | ||
| + | and by the dashing of her cage against the<span class=" | ||
| + | bulkhead, burst suddenly out with her horrid | ||
| + | croak of "Wy zyn al Verdomd!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | below. Nothing could better have illustrated | ||
| + | their ignorance of their true state than the | ||
| + | anxieties which held them to the deck in the | ||
| + | heart of that raging wind. Their solicitude | ||
| + | might indeed deserve another name for the | ||
| + | impious passions which informed it, yet it | ||
| + | had a character sailorly enough to make it | ||
| + | intelligible to human sympathy, and 'twas | ||
| + | truly soul-subduing to sit in that cabin and | ||
| + | hear the uproar of the tormented waters | ||
| + | without, the outcry in the rigging, the straining | ||
| + | and groaning below, and think of those | ||
| + | men& | ||
| + | his ship as though Batavia were but six | ||
| + | weeks distant and Amsterdam a certain port | ||
| + | presently.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>At half-past nine Imogene withdrew. I | ||
| + | led her to her cabin door, tenderly kissed her, | ||
| + | then returning called for a cup of spirits and<span class=" | ||
| + | water and went to my sleeping place. I | ||
| + | thought to have stayed a minute on deck to | ||
| + | look about me, but the wind came with so | ||
| + | much fury of wet in it that, having no mind | ||
| + | to turn in with drenched clothes, I hastily | ||
| + | raised the hatch and dropped below. I believe | ||
| + | I lay awake the greater part of the | ||
| + | night. My memory is not clear owing to the | ||
| + | confusion my brain was in. It was not only | ||
| + | a feeling akin to conviction that my fate was | ||
| + | sealed, that my dearest and I were never to | ||
| + | be rescued nor suffered to deliver ourselves | ||
| + | from this Death Ship, though to be sure such | ||
| + | apprehensions, | ||
| + | caused a stouter mind than mine to fall distraught, | ||
| + | the movements of the ship were so | ||
| + | excessive, being very high, light and broad, | ||
| + | and the seas so extraordinarily hollow, that, | ||
| + | without disordering me with sickness, they | ||
| + | wrought an alarming giddiness in me, and I | ||
| + | lay as one in a sort of fit.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>In some such condition as this I languished,< | ||
| + | I believe, through the greater part of the | ||
| + | night, but contrived to snatch sleep enough | ||
| + | to refresh me, so that when I awoke I felt | ||
| + | better, the dizziness gone and with it something | ||
| + | of the distress of mind. The action of | ||
| + | the ship showed that the gale was considerably | ||
| + | abated, but I had no sooner my senses | ||
| + | than I took notice of an unusual sound, like | ||
| + | a slow and measured beating in the ship, as | ||
| + | though some stout fellow with a heavy mallet | ||
| + | regularly struck a hollow object in the hold. | ||
| + | This excited my curiosity, and I went on | ||
| + | deck. The moment my head was through | ||
| + | the hatch I saw what produced the noise. | ||
| + | The men were pumping. There was but | ||
| + | one pump seemingly that would work, and | ||
| + | this four seamen were plying, the water | ||
| + | gushing freely from the pipe and washing | ||
| + | away overboard through the scuppers.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | uncommon a sound that I might have lain a | ||
| + | week in my bed speculating upon it, without< | ||
| + | even hitting the truth. I took notice that | ||
| + | the water came up clear and bright as glass, | ||
| + | a sure sign that it was entering freely. A | ||
| + | sullen shade still hung in the weather, the | ||
| + | sky was of slate, with a small scud flying | ||
| + | under it of the hue of sulphur, but the breeze | ||
| + | was no more than a fresh gale of which we | ||
| + | were making a fair wind, the yards braced | ||
| + | very nearly square, and the Braave sulkily | ||
| + | swinging through it with a noise of boiling at | ||
| + | her bows.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I was not a little excited by this combination | ||
| + | of glass-bright gushing and square yards, | ||
| + | and after going forward for the comfort and | ||
| + | sweetness of a canvas bucketful of salt water | ||
| + | foaming like champagne as I lifted it out of | ||
| + | the snow-flaked, | ||
| + | on to the poop, where stood Arents alone, | ||
| + | and stepped up to the binnacle. The card | ||
| + | made a west-north-west course, the wind | ||
| + | on the larboard quarter. I ran my eye over | ||
| + | the sea, but the olive-complexioned hue<span class=" | ||
| + | worked with a sulky sinuosity naked against | ||
| + | the livid shadow, and the deep looked indescribably | ||
| + | gloomy and swollen and confused, | ||
| + | though the sun had been risen above | ||
| + | half-an-hour. Arents was not a man I held | ||
| + | in awe, albeit many might have deemed his | ||
| + | unearthly pallor more dreadful than most of | ||
| + | the others because of the great breadth of | ||
| + | fat and hairless face it overlay; yet I was | ||
| + | determined not to question him lest he | ||
| + | should repulse me. I therefore contented | ||
| + | myself with a short salute and lay over the | ||
| + | rail watching the swollen bodies of water and | ||
| + | wondering what plan Vanderdecken was now | ||
| + | upon, until the chimes of the clock in the | ||
| + | cabin made me know it was breakfast time.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | stern and bitter expression in his countenance. | ||
| + | It was possible he had been on deck throughout | ||
| + | the greater part of the night, but he | ||
| + | exhibited no trace of the fatigue you would | ||
| + | expect to see in one that was of this earth.< | ||
| + | Methought, as I glanced at him, that sleep | ||
| + | must be a mockery to these men, who, being | ||
| + | deathless, stood in no need of that repose | ||
| + | which counterfeiting death, reinvigorates our | ||
| + | perishable frame every morning with a quickening | ||
| + | as of a resurrection. What has one to | ||
| + | whom the grave is denied to do with slumber? | ||
| + | Yet if a whiter pallor was possible in Vanderdecken | ||
| + | I fancied I witnessed it in him now. | ||
| + | His eyes were angry and bright; the skin of | ||
| + | his forehead lay in folds upon his heavy | ||
| + | brows, and yet there was the stillness of a | ||
| + | vitality, numbed or blasted by disappointment | ||
| + | or exhausted by passion, in his manner.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was sleeping, with Arents' | ||
| + | watch on deck. Imogene had a wan and | ||
| + | drooping look. She answered my concerned | ||
| + | gaze by saying she had not slept, and she | ||
| + | smiled as she spoke, but never more sadly to | ||
| + | my knowledge; it seemed but as a light | ||
| + | playing over and revealing her melancholy.< | ||
| + | Lovely she appeared, but too fragile for my | ||
| + | peace, and with too much of the sorrowful | ||
| + | sweetness of the moon-lily when it hangs | ||
| + | down its white beauty and contracts its milky | ||
| + | petals into leanness with the waning of the | ||
| + | silver orb it takes its name from.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | that sound?" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of the ship," I replied.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | heard it indistinctly and have ever since been | ||
| + | listening to it with a languid, drowsy wonder, | ||
| + | not imagining its nature. It has been working | ||
| + | continuously. Is there water in the ship?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with a side-long look at Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | ate mechanically without heeding us.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | on the arm with her hand, which glittered | ||
| + | with his jewels, "the men have been pumping | ||
| + | for some hours& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He brought his eyes slowly to hers with | ||
| + | a blank look that caused her to repeat her | ||
| + | question.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | working of the ship in the small hours has | ||
| + | caused her to start a butt or hidden end."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He answered: "Yes, my child."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | encouraged to these questions by my glances.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | does not gain. Continuous pumping keeps | ||
| + | the water level. We shall have to careen to | ||
| + | get at the leak."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | IMOGENE FEARS FOR ME.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>On hearing that we were sailing to the coast | ||
| + | my delight was so keen that I came near to | ||
| + | suffocating myself by the sudden checking of | ||
| + | the shout of joy that rose to my throat like | ||
| + | an hysteric throttling thickness in the windpipe. | ||
| + | To be sure, had anyone asked what | ||
| + | there was in the news to fill me with this | ||
| + | transport I should not have been able to offer | ||
| + | a sufficient reason, for it was not as though | ||
| + | Vanderdecken meant to steer for a port. I | ||
| + | was sensible that he would head for some | ||
| + | desolate bay upon a hot shore of sand, | ||
| + | backed by great mountains, and leagues | ||
| + | distant from any settlement, whether Dutch | ||
| + | or British. Yet so great had been the<span class=" | ||
| + | depression excited by the tempest and the | ||
| + | barrenness of our chances, that the mere circumstance | ||
| + | of a change having come about, | ||
| + | the mere happening of a departure from our | ||
| + | rueful business of beating to the windward, | ||
| + | raised my spirits to a very great height; | ||
| + | nor must it be forgotten that though I | ||
| + | conjectured in darkness, I had for a long | ||
| + | time felt persuaded that if ever we were | ||
| + | to remove ourselves from the Death Ship, | ||
| + | the only opportunity that could offer would | ||
| + | attend our dropping anchor off the African | ||
| + | Coast.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I will not say that Vanderdecken did not | ||
| + | observe the change in my countenance when | ||
| + | he made his answer to Imogene. But whatever | ||
| + | might have been his reflections they | ||
| + | were concealed by his frowning brow and the | ||
| + | dark and stormy shadow of passion upon his | ||
| + | face. He ceased to speak when she ceased | ||
| + | to question, and went on deck without calling | ||
| + | for his usual pipe of tobacco, which was a<span class=" | ||
| + | very remarkable illustration in him of his | ||
| + | wrath and concern.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "it has been a dark and cheerless night with | ||
| + | you I fear. Would to God it were this day | ||
| + | in my power to give redness to the roses that | ||
| + | now lie white in your cheeks. Yet this is | ||
| + | great news that Vanderdecken has given us."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | certain that we shall never escape from this | ||
| + | Death Ship whilst she sails the seas. But | ||
| + | though I could not here say for the life of me | ||
| + | what the land may do for us, I feel that the | ||
| + | coming to an anchor close to it may give us | ||
| + | a chance, and it will go hard indeed if a | ||
| + | sailor' | ||
| + | not contrive some remedy for this horrible | ||
| + | enthralment."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | have made up my mind to this: if you can | ||
| + | carry me away with you I will go& | ||
| + | resolution you may form will be mine, as shall | ||
| + | be your fortune. But, dearest," | ||
| + | smiling to my grasp of her hand, "I am also | ||
| + | determined that your liberty shall not depend | ||
| + | upon my escape; if you are able to get away | ||
| + | alone, but not with me, then I stay."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | gaze cannot have sunk very deep into me or | ||
| + | you would not talk thus."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | consider this. You are a man, you are | ||
| + | young, the world is before you, liberty is your | ||
| + | precious jewel& | ||
| + | mother to return to. I am an orphan& | ||
| + | in this great world of water as any sea-bird | ||
| + | that solitarily follows our ship. I sometimes | ||
| + | feel that there is a cold hand on my | ||
| + | heart and that my time is not long. If it | ||
| + | is to be my destiny to remain in this vessel, I | ||
| + | am too certain of a short residence to fear it."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>We were alone, and I took her in my arms.< | ||
| + | I saw how it was with her, how the fear of | ||
| + | the tempest, how sleeplessness, | ||
| + | in her delicate health and depressed her | ||
| + | powers, and I comforted and cherished her | ||
| + | as my heart' | ||
| + | foreboding concerning her time in this world | ||
| + | struck a chill into my blood, for it just then | ||
| + | found solemn accentuation in her unusual | ||
| + | pallor, her languid eyelids, the sadness of her | ||
| + | smile, her low voice and tears.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | reflection that the health of the heartiest | ||
| + | maiden might well fail in such an existence | ||
| + | as this girl passed, spite of the wine-like | ||
| + | invigoration of the salt winds; that she had | ||
| + | survived hard upon five years of experiences | ||
| + | so wild and amazing that a few weeks had | ||
| + | tended not a little to pale my own face and | ||
| + | even rob me of something of my manhood; | ||
| + | that it was inevitable she should break down | ||
| + | from time to time, but that her sweetness | ||
| + | would soon bloom and be coloured into a<span class=" | ||
| + | loveliness of health when this Death Ship | ||
| + | had become a thing of the past, and when I | ||
| + | had safely lodged her as my bride in my | ||
| + | mother' | ||
| + | and fields to wander in, upon floors unrocked | ||
| + | by billows, in rooms irradiated at night by | ||
| + | fires never more mystical than the soft flame | ||
| + | of oil or the silver of star and moonshine.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | By noon the sky had broken into | ||
| + | lagoons of blue, with fine large clouds that | ||
| + | rained here and there upon the horizon and | ||
| + | filled the air down there with broken shafts | ||
| + | of rainbow, like to windgalls, only that the | ||
| + | colours were very sharp and even glorious. | ||
| + | There was now plenty of sunshine to give life | ||
| + | and splendour to the ocean, whose dye of | ||
| + | azure looked the purer and more sparkling | ||
| + | for its cleansing by the great wind and rain | ||
| + | and fire-bolts of the past night. The swell | ||
| + | of the sea was from the southward, no longer | ||
| + | a turbulent movement, but a regular respiratory< | ||
| + | action, with weight and volume yet that | ||
| + | made you think of the deep as a sentient | ||
| + | thing, with something of the violence of its | ||
| + | hellish conflict yet lurking in its rhythmic | ||
| + | breathing.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | their black, wet backs at the distance of a | ||
| + | mile. The sunshine turned their spoutings | ||
| + | into very beautiful fountains, which fell in | ||
| + | showers of diamonds and rubies and emeralds; | ||
| + | and their great shapes and solemn | ||
| + | movements, with now and again the dive of | ||
| + | one with a breathless lingering of tail that | ||
| + | showed like a gigantic fan of ebony, or the | ||
| + | rise of another, floating its sparkling blackness | ||
| + | above the violet fold of a brimming | ||
| + | swell, as though a little island had been hove | ||
| + | to the surface by some deep-sea convulsion, | ||
| + | afforded Imogene and me some twenty minutes | ||
| + | of very agreeable diversion. The wind was | ||
| + | a trifle to the southward of west, a brisk | ||
| + | breeze, and the ship swarmed and swirled< | ||
| + | and rolled along at a speed of some five or | ||
| + | six marine miles in the hour, every cloth | ||
| + | abroad and already dried into its usual dingy | ||
| + | staring tones. But the pump was worked | ||
| + | without intermission. The clanging of the | ||
| + | brake upon its pin, the gushing of the bright | ||
| + | water flowing to the scuppers and flooding | ||
| + | the deck thereabouts with every roll, the | ||
| + | hissing of the slender cascades over the side, | ||
| + | grew into sounds as familiar as the creaking | ||
| + | of the bulkheads, or the cries of the rudder | ||
| + | upon its ancient rusty pintles.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mysterious sight. They toiled, but their | ||
| + | labour was not that of living seamen who | ||
| + | change their posture again and again, who | ||
| + | let go an instant with one hand to smear | ||
| + | the sweat from their brows or to bite an | ||
| + | end of tobacco, who break into choruses | ||
| + | as they ply their arms or growl out curses | ||
| + | upon this hardest of marine tasks, or raise | ||
| + | a cheerful call of encouragement one to<span class=" | ||
| + | another. There was the same soullessness | ||
| + | in this as in all else they did. No dew was | ||
| + | distilled from their death-like faces. Once at | ||
| + | the pump they never shifted their attitudes. | ||
| + | A seaman of seventy, and perhaps older yet, | ||
| + | would work side by side with one of twenty | ||
| + | years, and at the end of the hour's labour& | ||
| + | each gang was relieved every hour& | ||
| + | aged sailor would exhibit no more fatigue | ||
| + | than the younger one. Their aspects came | ||
| + | out startlingly as they stood close together, | ||
| + | their countenances bearing expressions as | ||
| + | undeterminable as the faint smile or the dim | ||
| + | frown of horror or the slumberous placidity | ||
| + | on the features of the dead; and never was | ||
| + | the sense of the wild conjecture of the | ||
| + | Saracen' | ||
| + | when I viewed one group after another | ||
| + | coming to this pumping business, and contrasted | ||
| + | their faces and perceived how every | ||
| + | man& | ||
| + | in dreadful vitality the appearance he would< | ||
| + | have offered at the hour of his death, no | ||
| + | matter his years, had the Curse not stood | ||
| + | between him and the grave.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the poop& | ||
| + | when she was absent I was more alone, | ||
| + | though the whole of that ship's grisly company | ||
| + | had gathered around me, than ever I | ||
| + | could have been if marooned on some mid-ocean | ||
| + | rock& | ||
| + | monotonous beat of the pump-gear, a thought | ||
| + | came into my head and I stepped over to | ||
| + | Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | his chin upon his hand.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | for breaking in upon you. The labour of | ||
| + | pumping is severe& | ||
| + | stern experiences." | ||
| + | slowly looked round to me. "This ship," I | ||
| + | continued, "has rescued me from death and | ||
| + | proved an asylum to me. 'Tis but right I | ||
| + | should share in the general toil. Suffer me<span class=" | ||
| + | then, mynheer, to take my turn at the pump | ||
| + | with the others."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He eyed me a little with his wonderful | ||
| + | fiery gaze, and answered: "It is not necessary. | ||
| + | Our company is numerous, there are | ||
| + | hands enough. Besides, sir, there is no | ||
| + | urgency, the water doth not gain if it do not | ||
| + | decrease."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I bowed, and was leaving him, but he | ||
| + | added: "I fear you have but an imperfect | ||
| + | knowledge of the character of the Dutch. | ||
| + | Yet you tell me you have often visited | ||
| + | Rotterdam."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | liberated o' nights and forced therefore to | ||
| + | form his judgment on such company as the | ||
| + | ale-house supplies."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | would suspect from such treatment as we | ||
| + | have shown you that we regard you as a | ||
| + | guest, and it is not customary among us to | ||
| + | use our guests as labourers."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I bowed again, contenting myself with | ||
| + | merely thinking how, as a guest, I went in | ||
| + | fear of my life& | ||
| + | however, I would use his seeming willingness | ||
| + | to converse with me, and said in as deferential | ||
| + | a manner as I could command, "Sir, | ||
| + | the mere circumstance of my being your | ||
| + | guest should properly teach me to believe | ||
| + | that a time must come when I shall have | ||
| + | wearied your courtesy by imposing too great | ||
| + | a burden of my company upon it."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I paused, hoping he would make haste to | ||
| + | assure me to the contrary; but he did not | ||
| + | speak, merely eyeing me steadfastly.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | continued, "that I am actuated by no idle | ||
| + | motive of curiosity in asking you whether | ||
| + | your present design is to steer the ship to a | ||
| + | port?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I told him I did not know.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | there on this seaboard? You do not suppose | ||
| + | that, with yonder pump going day and night, | ||
| + | I should be willing to head for any other | ||
| + | point of the coast than the nearest bay in | ||
| + | which to careen and get at the leak?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | speaking with the utmost modesty and deference, | ||
| + | "be far distant?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He answered: "It lies a few miles south | ||
| + | of the parallel of thirty-four degrees. To | ||
| + | reach it we shall have to sail an hundred and | ||
| + | eighty leagues."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with an involuntary dejected glance | ||
| + | aloft and at the passing water. "At this | ||
| + | rate of progress, sir, the passage will occupy | ||
| + | about five days."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a sudden fire in his eyes.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | have in your mind depend upon the time we | ||
| + | will take in reaching the coast?" | ||
| + | suspicion sounding fiercely in the rich deep | ||
| + | notes of his utterance.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I felt the blood in my face as I answered: | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | if you sailed to a port, you would rid yourself | ||
| + | of my company. I have been long in your | ||
| + | ship; every day increases my sense of trespass& | ||
| + | which said, I broke off, being | ||
| + | really dismayed by the passionate fixity of | ||
| + | his regard. Such a searching for the heart | ||
| + | in one's face was unbearable. My imagination, | ||
| + | perhaps my conscience, imparted a | ||
| + | wizard-like power to his burning eyes, and I | ||
| + | felt that if I lingered, I should be constrained | ||
| + | into a revelation of my intention to escape | ||
| + | with Imogene, as certain birds are fascinated | ||
| + | into motionlessness and charmed to their | ||
| + | devourment by the gaze of serpents. With | ||
| + | the abruptness of alarm I bowed and left | ||
| + | him. As I walked I could feel that his | ||
| + | searching, scorching gaze followed me.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | out our whereabouts, | ||
| + | intention, and to be able to calculate the time | ||
| + | of our arrival off the coast. On this I plumed | ||
| + | myself, making pretty sure that if my questions | ||
| + | had caused him to suspect some project | ||
| + | in my mind, his memory would loose its hold | ||
| + | of the thing after a few hours. But I was | ||
| + | mistaken, as you shall now see.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with us in that Death Ship formed of soup or | ||
| + | wine for drink, and such victuals as remained | ||
| + | from dinner, I observed a peculiar air of distress | ||
| + | and anxiety in Imogene' | ||
| + | know that she made the least effort to disguise | ||
| + | it. A sharp gleam of resentment would | ||
| + | sparkle in the soft violet depths of her eyes | ||
| + | as she now and then turned them on Van | ||
| + | Vogelaar or Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | came to me they would soften into an exquisite | ||
| + | wistfulness that was very near to a | ||
| + | look of grievous pain.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>On the captain filling his pipe I went on<span class=" | ||
| + | deck and stood out of sight of the cabin on | ||
| + | the poop-front, wondering what Imogene' | ||
| + | manner signified. Presently she joined me.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | singly or in clouds of bright dust over our | ||
| + | northward-pointing bowsprit, and the air | ||
| + | was soft and faint with the delicate light | ||
| + | of the moon that was drawing out of her | ||
| + | first quarter, and that could now rain her | ||
| + | pearls with power into the dark waters under | ||
| + | her.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | her hand in mine, and moved in a way I | ||
| + | could not give expression to by the pallor | ||
| + | of her face, her eyes showing large and dark, | ||
| + | the paleness of lip and hair and throat& | ||
| + | whole countenance, | ||
| + | stealing out of their realness into an elfin-like | ||
| + | unsubstantiality to the wan complexion of the | ||
| + | moon.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sorry you had questioned Vanderdecken?< | ||
| + | He is full of suspicion, and there is always | ||
| + | Van Vogelaar at hand to exasperate his | ||
| + | captain' | ||
| + | of his own reptile-nature."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | questions?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | is this:& | ||
| + | in my cabin. The air was close, and I put | ||
| + | the door on the hook and was near it combing | ||
| + | my hair. Vanderdecken came into the | ||
| + | cabin and spoke to Prins. Soon afterwards | ||
| + | Van Vogelaar entered, and told the captain | ||
| + | that he had been among the crew and informed | ||
| + | them that he hoped to make the coast | ||
| + | in four or five days, and that on their arrival | ||
| + | at Amsterdam they would receive additional | ||
| + | pay for their labour at the pump. They | ||
| + | talked a little, but I should not have heeded | ||
| + | them had not I suddenly caught the sound of | ||
| + | your name. On this I left off combing my | ||
| + | hair and crept close to the door. Vanderdecken< | ||
| + | said: 'I believe he hath some | ||
| + | scheme. He shrunk from my gaze and the | ||
| + | colour mounted to his cheeks. He quitted | ||
| + | me with the air of one whose conscience is | ||
| + | like an exposed nerve.'"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | true Dutchman is very fit to be a hangman. | ||
| + | Yet this unholy creature did certainly look at | ||
| + | me to some purpose. 'Twas time I walked | ||
| + | off!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'I would not trust that man further away from | ||
| + | me than my hand could seize him. Skipper, | ||
| + | I ask your pardon, but was it wise, think | ||
| + | you, to exhibit samples of the treasure below | ||
| + | to this Englishman? There is a noble | ||
| + | fortune for him in those chests could he but | ||
| + | come at them. What sort of egg is that | ||
| + | which, beyond question, his mind is sitting | ||
| + | upon, and that will be presently hatched? | ||
| + | He is eager to learn your intentions. He | ||
| + | manifests this eagerness in defiance of the<span class=" | ||
| + | contempt and anger with which you have | ||
| + | again and again crushed down his curiosity | ||
| + | into the silence of terror. Suppose he hath | ||
| + | some plot to secure the stranding of this ship; | ||
| + | or that he intends her a mischief that shall | ||
| + | force us to beach and perhaps abandon her? | ||
| + | He is a sailor and an Englishman; we are | ||
| + | Hollanders! Skipper, the like of that man | ||
| + | needs no help from sorcery to contrive our | ||
| + | ruin.' Vanderdecken answered, 'He must | ||
| + | be got rid of,' in a voice that showed how | ||
| + | Van Vogelaar' | ||
| + | not need to look, Geoffrey, to know what | ||
| + | sort of expression his face wore. They were | ||
| + | silent awhile. Vanderdecken then said: | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | to take his life; there is no evidence against | ||
| + | him. But we have a right to protect ourselves | ||
| + | since he hath been mad and ungenerous | ||
| + | enough to raise our suspicions& | ||
| + | Vogelaar interrupted: | ||
| + | conviction with me, skipper& | ||
| + | 'This occurs to me as a remedy,' | ||
| + | 'he must be set ashore before we | ||
| + | sail; but he shall not be left to starve. A | ||
| + | musket and ammunition will provide him | ||
| + | with food, and he shall have a week's provisions. | ||
| + | He is young, and with stout legs, | ||
| + | and cannot miss his way to our Settlement if | ||
| + | he hold steadfastly to the coast.' | ||
| + | said, 'Ay, that will be dismissing him lovingly.' | ||
| + | They then went to the other end | ||
| + | of the cabin and talked, but I could not hear | ||
| + | them."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I cried, "to hang, or stab or drown me, but | ||
| + | kindness, nay, lovingness, to set me ashore | ||
| + | with a week's provisions and a fowling-piece, | ||
| + | to give me a night to be torn to pieces in by | ||
| + | wild beasts, or a week to be enslaved by the | ||
| + | Homadods, or a month to perish of hunger! | ||
| + | The villains! Is this to be their usage of | ||
| + | me?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | follow. The future that is good enough | ||
| + | for you is good enough for me. And, indeed, | ||
| + | I would rather die a hard death on shore | ||
| + | than be left to miserably live with men | ||
| + | capable of cruelly destroying you."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I reflected a little, and said, "Their resolution | ||
| + | keeps me safe for the present, at all | ||
| + | events. If I am to be marooned they will | ||
| + | let me alone meanwhile. Therefore I consider | ||
| + | that their determination greatly improves our | ||
| + | chances.... No! there is nothing in | ||
| + | their intention to scare me. I like their | ||
| + | meaning so well that our prayer to God must | ||
| + | be that Vanderdecken may not change his | ||
| + | mind."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | pointed out that, as I gathered from her | ||
| + | report, they would not send me ashore until | ||
| + | just before they were about to sail, so that I | ||
| + | should have plenty of time to look about me | ||
| + | and consider the surest method of escaping, | ||
| + | whilst the ship was being careened and the<span class=" | ||
| + | leak repaired and the vessel in other ways | ||
| + | doctored.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | this with you, too: that sooner than remain | ||
| + | with these fierce and dreadful people you will | ||
| + | take your chance of that African coast you so | ||
| + | greatly feared."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | life or death& | ||
| + | nestling close and looking up at me out of | ||
| + | the phantom faintness of her face with her | ||
| + | large eyes in whose liquid darkness the moon | ||
| + | was reflected in two stars.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | If the terrors of the shore& | ||
| + | savage, the wild beast, the poisonous serpent& | ||
| + | over your desire of escape, I | ||
| + | would remain with you, Imogene, if they | ||
| + | would let me. ' | ||
| + | us both, dearest, to wear out our lives in this | ||
| + | ship. But we cannot be parted& | ||
| + | own will, at least, however God may deal< | ||
| + | with us, or the knife or yard-arm halter of | ||
| + | these villains. Wherever you are I must | ||
| + | be& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ourselves by using the coast. Another | ||
| + | scheme is in my head, though of it I will | ||
| + | say nothing, since too much of fortune must | ||
| + | enter it to fit it for cold deliberation. But it | ||
| + | may end in our escaping to the land and | ||
| + | lurking there in hiding till the ship sails. | ||
| + | And it makes my heart feel bold, Imogene, | ||
| + | to hear you say that sooner than languish and | ||
| + | miserably end your days in this accursed | ||
| + | fabric you will dare with me the natural | ||
| + | perils of that shore."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | life would prove the forfeit of attempting to | ||
| + | escape by the coast, I would have welcomed | ||
| + | death for her and myself sooner than live to | ||
| + | think of her locked up in this detested ship, | ||
| + | passing the long horrid days in the society< | ||
| + | of unearthly men condemned of Heaven, and | ||
| + | stealthily weeping away her heart at the | ||
| + | thought of our severance.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | LAND.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with Van Vogelaar, I should never | ||
| + | have been able to guess that there was any | ||
| + | change in Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | me; I mean any change in his intention | ||
| + | to carry me to Europe in his ship. There | ||
| + | was the same uniformity in the variety of his | ||
| + | moods; he was sullen, haughty, morose, | ||
| + | often insanely fierce, sometimes talkative, | ||
| + | then falling into trances, in all such exhibitions | ||
| + | as heretofore. In Van Vogelaar, however, | ||
| + | there was a slight alteration. At | ||
| + | moments I caught him peering at me with | ||
| + | a look in his eyes that might have answered | ||
| + | very well as a dark malicious merriment of<span class=" | ||
| + | soul of which the countenance was capable of | ||
| + | expressing the villainous qualities only, I | ||
| + | mean, not the mirth also. Sometimes he | ||
| + | would make as though to converse; but this | ||
| + | I cut short, repelling him very fearlessly now | ||
| + | that I understood his and his captain' | ||
| + | and that I had nothing to fear this side the | ||
| + | execution of it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>On my side, I was extremely wary, walking | ||
| + | cautiously in all I said and did, and never | ||
| + | venturing a remark to Imogene, even when | ||
| + | we had reason to believe we were absolutely | ||
| + | alone, without sinking my voice after a careful | ||
| + | probing glance around as if I expected to | ||
| + | see an human ear standing out on any beam | ||
| + | or bulkhead my sight went to.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I busied myself in certain preparations | ||
| + | in which I got Imogene to help me. Since, | ||
| + | in any case, our escape to the land would | ||
| + | have to be profoundly secret, 'twas necessary | ||
| + | we should get ready a small stock | ||
| + | of food to carry away with us, and I told< | ||
| + | Imogene to make some bags out of the | ||
| + | stoutest stuff she could come at to store it in, | ||
| + | and to privately convey to me such provisions | ||
| + | as I indicated, which she, as well as I, was | ||
| + | to secrete when alone, during Prins' absence, | ||
| + | when the table was prepared.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I said: "You have needles and thread?" | ||
| + | for she had told me that some of the apparel | ||
| + | Vanderdecken lent or gave her she had been | ||
| + | obliged to alter. "We shall require three or | ||
| + | four bags. Linen will do for the material."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | will make the bags. But what is your project, | ||
| + | Geoffrey? Tell me your full scheme& | ||
| + | may be able to put something to it."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I will speak only of the one that concerns the | ||
| + | shore. Vanderdecken is sure to bring up | ||
| + | close to the land; I have little doubt of being | ||
| + | able to swim the distance, and shall make a | ||
| + | small frame of wood to sit about your waist | ||
| + | on which you will float when I lower you into< | ||
| + | the water, and then I shall softly let myself | ||
| + | down and tow you to the land by swimming."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I thought to see her countenance change, | ||
| + | but she regarded me fearlessly, indeed with | ||
| + | an emotion as of triumph colouring her face.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | asked.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | outside your cabin," | ||
| + | not great. The blackness under the counter | ||
| + | will hide you, and I shall contrive to float us | ||
| + | both away very quietly."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | now imagine us arrived on shore."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | will suffer," | ||
| + | will send in pursuit of us, but there | ||
| + | should be no lack of dense vegetation full of | ||
| + | hiding places. Yet in this as in all other | ||
| + | things, my dearest, we must rely upon God's | ||
| + | help. That given there is nothing to fear;< | ||
| + | denied& | ||
| + | threw myself overboard at once."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | you, dear heart, for dread of what we may | ||
| + | encounter, but merely that by letting your | ||
| + | plans lie in my mind my girlish spirit may | ||
| + | grow used to them and unswervingly help | ||
| + | you when the time comes."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | believe I could misjudge you. You would | ||
| + | ask me what is to follow when this vessel | ||
| + | quits the coast and leaves us alone there? | ||
| + | How can I answer? We must attempt | ||
| + | what others have successfully achieved, and | ||
| + | struggle onwards to some settlement. I | ||
| + | know& | ||
| + | is black and affrighting. But consider what | ||
| + | our choice signifies; the fate that awaits us if | ||
| + | you remain and I am marooned; or the | ||
| + | chances& | ||
| + | offer if we escape to the land. | ||
| + | And we shall be together, dearest!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I kissed her brow, and her love leapt in | ||
| + | her to my impassioned greeting; beautiful as | ||
| + | she was, yet did she appear transfigured by | ||
| + | the rich hue in her cheeks, her smile, the | ||
| + | sparkle of her chaste and maidenly joy in the | ||
| + | dark heaven of her eyes. Call me not cruel | ||
| + | for thus deliberately preparing to bring her | ||
| + | face to face with the horrors of the African | ||
| + | coast& | ||
| + | her heart had long ago recoiled from the mere | ||
| + | thought of. She was my sweetheart& | ||
| + | affianced& | ||
| + | to me for her beauty, her sweetness, her | ||
| + | passion for me, the miracle of our meeting, | ||
| + | her loneliness under the sun and stars of the | ||
| + | mighty Southern Ocean, amid shapes more | ||
| + | spectral than ghosts, more horrible with their | ||
| + | survival of human vices than had they been | ||
| + | dead bodies quickened into life without soul | ||
| + | or brain.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | endure the idea of my being forced ashore& | ||
| + | of her sailing away forever from | ||
| + | me in this grisly company? I had considered | ||
| + | all these things; how if we gained the beach | ||
| + | she would have to walk, as far as her limbs | ||
| + | suffered, in drenched clothes and her delicate | ||
| + | flesh chilled to the bone; how in our hiding-place | ||
| + | the dews of a deadly climate would fall | ||
| + | upon her by night, with creeping abominations | ||
| + | of reptile and vermin swarming in the | ||
| + | tangle where she lay& | ||
| + | all perils which experience or imagination | ||
| + | could crowd into such a deliverance as that | ||
| + | I had in my mind and was steadfastly working | ||
| + | out had been present to me from the | ||
| + | beginning& | ||
| + | make me feel with the power of every | ||
| + | instinct, with the impulse and strength of all-influencing | ||
| + | and heated passions, that my | ||
| + | fortune must be hers and that we could not | ||
| + | part!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A sailor will wonder perhaps to hear me | ||
| + | speak of three or four bags of provisions, and<span class=" | ||
| + | wonder also that I should not see that | ||
| + | if there was the least movement in the | ||
| + | water when I lowered Imogene with these | ||
| + | bags about her into it, the provisions would | ||
| + | be spoiled by the wet. But 'tis proper to say | ||
| + | here that this proposal to float her in a frame | ||
| + | and tow her ashore by swimming was but an | ||
| + | alternative scheme which, at all hazards, I | ||
| + | would go through with, if the other and less | ||
| + | perilous venture should prove impracticable, | ||
| + | and in case this should be so, I said nothing | ||
| + | to her about it, that by her growing accustomed | ||
| + | to the dismal and dangerous project | ||
| + | she would not tremble and shrink if it came, | ||
| + | as I feared it might, to our having to escape | ||
| + | ashore. Three small bags secured about my | ||
| + | darling' | ||
| + | were less likely to be wetted than one big | ||
| + | one that must needs hang low, trice it as I | ||
| + | might; and anyway the three would be as | ||
| + | good as one, let the manner of our escape be | ||
| + | what it would.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in my cabin, along with some biscuit which | ||
| + | had been taken from the wreck, a few pieces | ||
| + | of salted meat cooked, a small jar of flour, a | ||
| + | little silver cup for drinking, and other compact | ||
| + | and portable things, such as the flat | ||
| + | banana cakes the cook sent to the cabin, a | ||
| + | bottle of marmalade of the size of a small | ||
| + | pickle jar, and the like. These things she | ||
| + | and I took from the table by degrees, and | ||
| + | they were not missed. I would have given a | ||
| + | finger for a musket and powder and balls; | ||
| + | but if there was an arms-chest on board | ||
| + | neither she nor I knew where to find it. | ||
| + | And suppose it had been possible to me to | ||
| + | have secreted a musket& | ||
| + | believe, for shooting game and cattle were | ||
| + | match-locks with barrels about three and a | ||
| + | half feet long, and the bore of the bigness of | ||
| + | a horse-pistol, | ||
| + | canes, each holding a charge of powder& | ||
| + | was not to be had without asking.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | found when loaded would be as heavy a load | ||
| + | as it was prudent to put upon her; because | ||
| + | when I came to look about me for wood for | ||
| + | a frame for her to float in I could only meet | ||
| + | with five small pieces, and even the purloining | ||
| + | of these was attended with prodigious | ||
| + | anxiety and trouble, as you will judge when | ||
| + | I say that to get them I had to watch till I | ||
| + | was unobserved and then kick a piece, as if | ||
| + | by accident, under a gun, or to any corner | ||
| + | where it might lie until I could carry it below | ||
| + | under cover of the night.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in my cabin, where I had very little fear of | ||
| + | their being found; for the good reason that, | ||
| + | to my knowledge, no one ever entered the | ||
| + | berth.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the third day& | ||
| + | atmosphere and a flat and brilliant sea, | ||
| + | followed by a shift into the westward of<span class=" | ||
| + | south that worked into a hearty wind, before | ||
| + | which the Death Ship drove under all cloths, | ||
| + | the clear water gushing from her scuppers | ||
| + | to the clanking and spouting of her | ||
| + | pump. Bearing in mind our situation after | ||
| + | the tempest, as given me by Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | and narrowly, if furtively, observing the | ||
| + | courses we made, I kept a dead reckoning | ||
| + | of our progress& | ||
| + | measure the vessel' | ||
| + | correctly as ever the log could give it& | ||
| + | when the fifth day arrived I knew that at | ||
| + | eight o' | ||
| + | some twelve leagues distant from the African | ||
| + | coast or that Vanderdecken was amazingly | ||
| + | wrong in his calculations.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>My excitement bade fair to master me. It | ||
| + | needed a power of will such as I could never | ||
| + | have supposed I possessed to subdue my | ||
| + | demeanour to that posture of calmness which | ||
| + | the captain and his mates were used to see | ||
| + | in me. Happily, Imogene was at hand< | ||
| + | to control any exhibition of impatience or | ||
| + | anxiety.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | she would say. "Van Vogelaar watches | ||
| + | you closely; the least alteration in you might | ||
| + | set him conjecturing. Who knows what | ||
| + | fancies his base and malignant mind is capable | ||
| + | of? His heart is bent on your destruction, | ||
| + | and though he hopes that must follow your | ||
| + | being left alone on the coast, yet a change in | ||
| + | your ordinary manner might fill his cruel soul | ||
| + | with fear that you had some plan to escape | ||
| + | with your life, in which case I fear, Geoffrey, | ||
| + | he would torment and enrage Vanderdecken | ||
| + | into slaying you either here or on shore."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | morning I reckoned we were some twelve | ||
| + | leagues distant from the coast. The breeze | ||
| + | had slackened somewhat, but it still blew a | ||
| + | fresh air, and the water being quiet and such | ||
| + | small swell as there was, together with the | ||
| + | billows, chasing us, our speed was a fair five< | ||
| + | and a half knots. Yet there was no sign to | ||
| + | advertise us of the adjacency of land. A few | ||
| + | Cape hens flew along with us on our starboard | ||
| + | beam, but this kind of sea-fowl had | ||
| + | accompanied the ship when we were as far | ||
| + | south as ever we were driven since I had | ||
| + | been in her, and they could not be supposed | ||
| + | to signify more than that we were " | ||
| + | South African headland& | ||
| + | stand for the measure of a vast extent of sea. | ||
| + | The ocean was of as deep and glorious a blue | ||
| + | as ever I had beheld it in the middle of the | ||
| + | Atlantic. My suspense grew into torment; | ||
| + | anxiety became anguish, the harsher and | ||
| + | fiercer for the obligation of restraint. There | ||
| + | was no dependence to be placed on Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | reckoning. For several days he | ||
| + | had been hove-to, and his log would certainly | ||
| + | neither tell him his drift nor how the currents | ||
| + | served him. My only hope then was in the | ||
| + | supernatural guiding of the ship. I might | ||
| + | believe, at least, that the instincts of the sea-bird< | ||
| + | would come to one whose dreadful and | ||
| + | ghostly existence lay in an aimless furrowing | ||
| + | of the mighty waters, and that he would | ||
| + | know how to steer when the occasion arose, | ||
| + | as does the ocean-fowl whose bed is the surge | ||
| + | as its pinion is its pillow, but whose nest | ||
| + | must be sought in rocky solitudes, leagues | ||
| + | and leagues below that sea-line in whose | ||
| + | narrow circle you find the creature flying.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I dared not seem to appear to stare | ||
| + | earnestly ahead; the part I had to play was | ||
| + | that of extreme indifference; | ||
| + | were the looks I directed over either bow, | ||
| + | my eyes would reel with the searching, | ||
| + | passionate vehemence of my stare, and the | ||
| + | blue horizon wave to my sight as though it | ||
| + | swam upon a swooning view.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | alone on the forward end of the poop, | ||
| + | when I observed a clear shade of blue haze | ||
| + | upon the horizon directly ahead. I watched | ||
| + | it a little while, believing it no more than a<span class=" | ||
| + | darkening in the dye of the sky that way; | ||
| + | but on bringing my eyes to it a second time, | ||
| + | I found a fixity in the atmospheric outlining | ||
| + | of the shadow that was not to be mistaken for | ||
| + | anything but the blue faintness and delicate | ||
| + | dim heads of a distant hilly coast. I turned, | ||
| + | with a leap of heart that was a mingling of | ||
| + | rapture and dread, to win Imogene by my | ||
| + | manner to view the land, too; but she | ||
| + | stood with Vanderdecken near the tiller, with | ||
| + | her back upon me, apparently watching the | ||
| + | motions of a bird that steadily flew along | ||
| + | with us, some three cables' | ||
| + | larboard quarter, flying no faster than we | ||
| + | sailed, yet going through the air as straight | ||
| + | as a belated homeward-bound rook. One of | ||
| + | the men forward saw the azure shadow, and | ||
| + | seemed to call the attention of two or three | ||
| + | others to it in that voiceless, mechanical | ||
| + | way, which furnished a ghostlier and grislier | ||
| + | character to the bearing and movements of | ||
| + | the crew than ever they could have taken< | ||
| + | from the paleness of their faces, and the | ||
| + | glittering, unreal vitality of their eyes only; | ||
| + | and they went towards the beak to look, | ||
| + | dropping whatever jobs they might have | ||
| + | been upon, with complete disregard of discipline.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | scene with the familiar and humanising glory | ||
| + | of the blessed golden sunshine and the snow-topped | ||
| + | peaks of shallow liquid sapphire | ||
| + | ridges, yet the figures of those men, showing | ||
| + | under the swelling and lifting foot of the foresail, | ||
| + | peering under the sharp of their hands | ||
| + | against their foreheads, silent in postures of | ||
| + | phlegmatic observation, | ||
| + | of the ship a wild and dismal colour and | ||
| + | appearance, and the black melancholy, the | ||
| + | cold unholiness of it, stole biting as polar | ||
| + | frost-smoke to the senses through the genial | ||
| + | splendour of the noon-tide. Yet, like those | ||
| + | men, did I stand looking with my hand against | ||
| + | my brow, for there was a wonderful and almost< | ||
| + | blinding magnificence of light upon the | ||
| + | shivering waters under the sun that was | ||
| + | now floated north, but the resplendent haze | ||
| + | did not dim the substantial line that was | ||
| + | growing with a deepening hue into the | ||
| + | atmosphere, and already methought I could | ||
| + | discern the curve and sweep of inland airy | ||
| + | altitudes with the dainty silver of clouds | ||
| + | streaking them.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | my ear.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I started. Van Vogelaar stood close beside | ||
| + | me, pointing with a pale leathern forefinger, | ||
| + | his harsh and rugged face smileless, | ||
| + | though his eyes grinned with malice as they | ||
| + | lay fastened upon mine.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | exclaimed. "Your countrymen will not count | ||
| + | you as a mariner of theirs if you love not the | ||
| + | land! See! Remote and faint though it be, | ||
| + | how substantial even in its blue thinness doth< | ||
| + | it show! No sea-sickness there, Herr Fenton! | ||
| + | No hollow seas yawning black as | ||
| + | vaults!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | but to catch him by the scroff and breech and | ||
| + | bring his spine to my knee to kill him. And | ||
| + | he looked so much as if I could have served | ||
| + | him so that it was hard to regard him without | ||
| + | pity. I said, quietly, "Will that be the land | ||
| + | the captain desires to make?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | are sailors."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I thought to myself, yes, when they have | ||
| + | the Devil for a sea-cunny they will hit their | ||
| + | port.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | half-an-hour?" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | master," | ||
| + | low ha! ha! broke from him, muffled as the | ||
| + | sound of a saw worked under deck, as | ||
| + | musical too, and as mirthless. Yet Imogene' | ||
| + | quick ear caught it, and she turned swiftly to | ||
| + | look. And methought it had penetrated | ||
| + | further yet, for upon the heels of it, there | ||
| + | rose up, as an echo, from the cabin, that | ||
| + | harsh and rusty cry, "Wy zyn al Verdomd!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | WE BRING UP IN A BAY.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I could not at that time know what part of | ||
| + | the South African coast was this we had | ||
| + | made, but I have since learnt that it lies a | ||
| + | few miles to the eastward of the meridian of | ||
| + | twenty-two degrees, and about an hundred | ||
| + | and sixty miles from Cape Agulhas. When | ||
| + | it first came into sight, as I have said, it was | ||
| + | but a faint, long-drawn shade in the light | ||
| + | blue of the sky over the horizon, with such a | ||
| + | fairy tincture of flanking eminence beyond | ||
| + | that the whole was as delicately tender as | ||
| + | the visionary shore of a dream.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | round we had stolen nearly two leagues | ||
| + | closer to it, and the coast lay plain enough< | ||
| + | and very brave with colours, the green of | ||
| + | several dyes, the mountain sky-lines of an | ||
| + | exquisite clearness of cutting in the radiant | ||
| + | atmosphere and against the hard azure | ||
| + | brilliance of the heavens, and the tracts | ||
| + | of white sand low down as lustrous as the | ||
| + | foam of a dissolving surge.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Imogene joined me. She had kept her | ||
| + | feelings under whilst near Vanderdecken. | ||
| + | Now, by my side, she stood with twenty | ||
| + | emotions working in her, her nostrils quivering, | ||
| + | her lips pale, the colour coming and | ||
| + | going in her cheeks, the bright light that a | ||
| + | passing hope flashed into her eyes dying | ||
| + | out to the tearful shadowing of some bitter | ||
| + | fear.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I said to her, very softly, and keeping my | ||
| + | face as expressionless as my inward agitation | ||
| + | would permit& | ||
| + | mates conferred together near us, sometimes | ||
| + | stopping close, sometimes pacing& | ||
| + | pace holds our anchor should be down by | ||
| + | dusk."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | myself," | ||
| + | this earth& | ||
| + | No sooner were they come to an anchor than | ||
| + | they would turn to and get the guns and | ||
| + | cargo over to one side, that by listing the | ||
| + | ship they might bring the leak out of water | ||
| + | and save themselves this starving job of | ||
| + | pumping. But we have to base conjecture | ||
| + | upon men who are neither dead nor alive, | ||
| + | who are Dutchmen besides, I mean of a | ||
| + | dull and apathetic habit, and they may wait | ||
| + | for daylight and so obtain rest, of which | ||
| + | they should get as much as they want with | ||
| + | the reliefs they are able to send to the | ||
| + | pump."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Geoffrey?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to escape we shall need a deserted deck and | ||
| + | a sleeping ship."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | you make the venture?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the cargo after coming to an anchor with the | ||
| + | idea of raising the leak clear, the work may | ||
| + | occupy them all night. So all night long the | ||
| + | ship will be alive and busy, and there will be | ||
| + | no chance for me."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | continue to ply the pump, which must be | ||
| + | done if she is not to sink."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to-morrow night."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | face that cruelly proved her stock of strength | ||
| + | but slender, "If they careen the ship to-night | ||
| + | they will be able to repair the leak in the | ||
| + | morning, and be ready to sail before the | ||
| + | evening."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | will put you on shore before sailing& | ||
| + | stopped, bringing her hands together with a | ||
| + | passionate clasp.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | will depend on where the leak is. If it be | ||
| + | low down they may not be able to come at | ||
| + | it without discharging cargo, which, seeing | ||
| + | that they have but those two boats yonder | ||
| + | to work with, and that they will have to | ||
| + | make tents ashore and protect themselves | ||
| + | against the natives& | ||
| + | keep them on the move for a long | ||
| + | month. No, dearest, I do not fear that they | ||
| + | will get away by to-morrow night& | ||
| + | they were ten times as numerous and as | ||
| + | nimble; nor is it probable that Vanderdecken | ||
| + | would suffer me to be marooned till the | ||
| + | ship is ready to start. My one anxiety is | ||
| + | just now the weather. There is tranquility | ||
| + | in that dark blue sky over us; the wind | ||
| + | weakens as we approach the land, and there< | ||
| + | is promise of a calm night. May God help | ||
| + | me to achieve my purpose before another | ||
| + | twelve hours have rolled by."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | alarm. " | ||
| + | lies here for days, as you imagine, how, when | ||
| + | we are ashore, dare we hope to escape the | ||
| + | strenuous search Vanderdecken is certain to | ||
| + | make for us?" I smiled; she continued, with | ||
| + | a feverish whisper: " | ||
| + | we are captured& | ||
| + | God knows into what barbarities his rage | ||
| + | may drive him!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | out of the ship."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | had lasted long enough. Soon after this we | ||
| + | went below to dinner. At the start we none | ||
| + | of us spoke, our behaviour and perhaps our appearance | ||
| + | answering very exactly to the poet's | ||
| + | description of a party in a parlour who sat& | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | "All silent and all damned!"< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | blue air had the purity of polished glass; | ||
| + | but only a small portion of light found admission | ||
| + | through the small windows in the | ||
| + | cabin front, and we ate and gazed upon one | ||
| + | another in a sullen atmosphere as gloomy | ||
| + | as the expression on Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | At this moment I see him plain, as on that | ||
| + | day; his beard falling to his waist, his head | ||
| + | slightly bowed, and his glance travelling in | ||
| + | a gaze that would often stop and become | ||
| + | fixed, his skin bleak and high and drawn | ||
| + | with pallor. He was attired in a sort of | ||
| + | blouse of dark-green cloth, confined about | ||
| + | his waist by a yellow belt fastened by a | ||
| + | small metal clasp, that would have given him | ||
| + | a romantic and buccaneering look but for | ||
| + | the austere majesty and fateful character of | ||
| + | his appearance, which inevitably neutralised | ||
| + | every suggestion that did not accord with | ||
| + | the solemn, horrible mystery of his being.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>We sat for some time, as I have said, as<span class=" | ||
| + | silent as the dead; but on reflecting that there | ||
| + | was nothing, in reason, I could say likely to | ||
| + | procure me a harder fate than that already | ||
| + | designed by these men, I determined to ask | ||
| + | a question or two, and said: "Has your carpenter | ||
| + | ascertained in what part of the ship | ||
| + | the leak is, mynheer?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He turned his eyes round upon me slowly. | ||
| + | He was indeed stately in all he did. I never | ||
| + | beheld him glance quickly nor start, and the | ||
| + | only time in which his dignity fell, torn in | ||
| + | rags from him, was that night when he acted | ||
| + | over the scene of the Curse in his sleep.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He answered, " | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | strakes," | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I dropped my knife on to the deck for the | ||
| + | excuse to pick it up that I might hide the | ||
| + | delight in my face. A list of four strakes | ||
| + | would prove but a very small matter to bring | ||
| + | about, and my fears that the vessel would< | ||
| + | linger for days, perhaps for a month, on this | ||
| + | coast vanished.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | than a started butt-end."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Fenton?" | ||
| + | ugliest manner. "Dost suppose our pump | ||
| + | can deliver half the great South Sea with | ||
| + | every stroke?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | working," | ||
| + | start afresh snugly stowed."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | no doubt?" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | captain."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | is in a hurry to get home! We should put | ||
| + | him in the way of making a speedy passage."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | speaking with my eyes on Vanderdecken.< | ||
| + | "I am well satisfied. Nothing stauncher | ||
| + | floats. Consider, mynheer, how nobly she | ||
| + | has acted in the gales we have encountered. | ||
| + | It would please me to entreat you to use | ||
| + | such poor skill as I have as a mariner in | ||
| + | helping your men; but your courtesy is | ||
| + | magnanimous& | ||
| + | in highest perfection in the Hollander of | ||
| + | lineage& | ||
| + | by further requests."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He motioned with his hand, contenting | ||
| + | himself with whatever answer the gesture | ||
| + | signified. I perceived there was no further | ||
| + | information to be obtained from him& | ||
| + | Van Vogelaar nothing but sneers and insults& | ||
| + | so held my peace. Yet I had learnt | ||
| + | something.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | land looked as near again as it had when I | ||
| + | went below. This was owing to the amazing | ||
| + | transparency and purity of the atmosphere, | ||
| + | insomuch that every twenty fathoms the ship< | ||
| + | measured was like adding a fresh lens to a | ||
| + | perspective glass. Yet it was not until four | ||
| + | o' | ||
| + | every detail of it a visible thing, and then the | ||
| + | sight was helped by the sun being on the | ||
| + | larboard side and showering his glory aslant, | ||
| + | which, mingling with the golden splendour | ||
| + | rising out of his wake in the sea, put an extraordinary | ||
| + | shining into the atmosphere, but | ||
| + | without the lustrous haze that had been | ||
| + | rising when he was right over the land and | ||
| + | kindling the water under our bows. 'Twas a | ||
| + | picture of a bay with a shelving beach thickly | ||
| + | green with bushes and trees, in and out of | ||
| + | which there winded lengths and lines of | ||
| + | exceeding white sand that trembled to the | ||
| + | sunshine with the shivering metallic sheen of | ||
| + | frosted silver. The sea went blue as the sky | ||
| + | to the shore and tumbled into foam, in some | ||
| + | places leaping up in creamy dartings, in | ||
| + | others making a small crystal smoke with its | ||
| + | boiling, elsewhere lapping tenderly and expiring< | ||
| + | in ripples. The azure heights beyond, | ||
| + | which had seemed to closely flank the coast | ||
| + | when first beheld, drew inland with our | ||
| + | approach, marking their remoteness by the | ||
| + | retention of their lovely atmospheric delicacy | ||
| + | of colour, and their height by the lengths of | ||
| + | vapour that clung to their mighty slopes at | ||
| + | various altitudes, like fragments of great | ||
| + | silken veils or cloths of pale gold which had | ||
| + | been rent whilst blowing along. The seaboard | ||
| + | went in a rugged line east and west by | ||
| + | the compass, sometimes coming very low | ||
| + | down, sometimes soaring into great forelands, | ||
| + | plentifully covered with wild growths, as you | ||
| + | saw by the several dyes of green that coated | ||
| + | it, and in one place& | ||
| + | bay& | ||
| + | bush-fire, and, as it was easy to suppose, the | ||
| + | presence of natives.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | hardness from the westering sun, and the | ||
| + | complexion of it where the mountain heights< | ||
| + | were somehow made you think of measureless | ||
| + | miles of hot and cloudy sand glowing | ||
| + | yellowly up into that feverish reflection. The | ||
| + | weak swell that lifted us rolled in wind-wrinkled | ||
| + | folds into the bay, which yawned | ||
| + | unsheltered to the south. I knew from experience | ||
| + | that it needs no great wind on this | ||
| + | coast to raise a monstrous sea, and it was | ||
| + | with unspeakable eagerness and anxiety that | ||
| + | I directed my eyes from the land to the sky | ||
| + | overhead and on our quarters. But the | ||
| + | promise of tranquility seemed to deepen with | ||
| + | the drawing down of the sun. It was sheer | ||
| + | sapphire in the south, melting eastwards into | ||
| + | violet, and the sea that way was like an | ||
| + | English lake, and to the left of the sun | ||
| + | there floated a few purple clouds, which I | ||
| + | watched some time with attention but could | ||
| + | not tell that they moved, though a breeze | ||
| + | was still about us, humming pleasantly aloft, | ||
| + | keeping our old sails rounded, and sending | ||
| + | the aged structure gliding at four knots an<span class=" | ||
| + | hour as quietly through it as a seagull | ||
| + | paddling in the level water of an harbour.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and the fountain-sounds of its discharge, the | ||
| + | stillness on board would have been as deep | ||
| + | as the hush upon the land. Still, lovely as | ||
| + | was that afternoon, I very well remember | ||
| + | wishing it had been a month earlier or | ||
| + | later than this. We were in the stormy time | ||
| + | of the year in these parts, though it was | ||
| + | summer at home, and a violent change might | ||
| + | quickly come. If it came, Vanderdecken | ||
| + | would have to put to sea, leak or no leak, for | ||
| + | it was not to be supposed that mere hemp | ||
| + | could partake of the Curse; and the cables | ||
| + | which I saw some of the crew getting up out | ||
| + | of the hold and bending to the anchors at | ||
| + | the bows were assuredly not going to hold | ||
| + | this lump of a craft, high out of water and as | ||
| + | thick as a tower aloft, for twenty solid | ||
| + | minutes in a seaway and in the eye of a stout | ||
| + | wind.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Imogene, the coast being then about a league | ||
| + | distant and the sun low, that I said to her: | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | a desperate effort to get away with you | ||
| + | to-night."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "you need but tell me what to do."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | weather," | ||
| + | a change may come in half-a-dozen hours and | ||
| + | force Vanderdecken to sea with his pump | ||
| + | going. Imogene, it must not find us aboard."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | must be away before she rises, for she will | ||
| + | glow brightly in that sky."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "But, Geoffrey, risk nothing on the mere | ||
| + | chance that the weather will change. You | ||
| + | might imperil your life by haste& | ||
| + | night may be as reposeful as this< | ||
| + | that approaches, and with a later moon | ||
| + | too!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | exclaimed. "We must risk everything& | ||
| + | chances aboard and our chances out of | ||
| + | the ship& | ||
| + | this vessel for life."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | her with passionate inquiry, but never did a | ||
| + | braver and more resolved heart gaze at a | ||
| + | lover from a maiden' | ||
| + | fearlessness of her devotion the more admirable | ||
| + | for the dread she had expressed concerning | ||
| + | the perils of the coast, and for her | ||
| + | speaking thus to me with the land close to | ||
| + | and all its wildness and melancholy visible to | ||
| + | her, together with the distant smoke, towards | ||
| + | which I had seen her glance again and again, | ||
| + | and whose meaning she perfectly understood.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | coast dried the wind out of the atmosphere, | ||
| + | but so much the better, for there was enough< | ||
| + | to carry us in, and then it could not die too | ||
| + | soon to serve my turn. All was ready with | ||
| + | the anchors forward, and the men hung about | ||
| + | in pallid gangs waiting for orders to take sail | ||
| + | off the ship. The vitality of the wondrous | ||
| + | craft seemed to lie in the pump and its | ||
| + | automatic plyers, so deep was the silence | ||
| + | among the crew and so still their postures; | ||
| + | but now and again the heavy courses would | ||
| + | swing into the masts to the soft bowing of | ||
| + | the fabric and raise a feeble thunder-note like | ||
| + | to the sound of bowls rolling over hollow | ||
| + | ground. The red light in the west lay upon | ||
| + | the head of the shaggy line of coast, and the | ||
| + | far-off mountains that had been blue went up | ||
| + | in a dim purple to the sky; the crimson haze | ||
| + | seemed to float over the rugged brink and | ||
| + | roll down the slope to the shore, so that the | ||
| + | scene was bathed in a most exquisite delicate | ||
| + | light& | ||
| + | as of English autumn upon the green; the | ||
| + | white sand gleaming rosily, and great spaces< | ||
| + | of reddish rubble-like ground glowing dark | ||
| + | as blood. But the loneliness! I figured | ||
| + | myself ashore there& | ||
| + | gone! I stood in fancy upon the | ||
| + | beach looking out on this bare sea; an aged, | ||
| + | perhaps worthless firelock by my side, a few | ||
| + | cartridges, a week's store of provisions! The | ||
| + | moan of the surf was in my ear; every | ||
| + | creaking and rustling of the wind in the near | ||
| + | bushes startled me. To right and left rolled | ||
| + | the coast for endless leagues, and the vast | ||
| + | plain of sea, whose multitudinous crying | ||
| + | found echoes in a thousand caverns, east and | ||
| + | west, and in the reverberating heart of giant | ||
| + | cliffs, whose walls were best measured in | ||
| + | parallels and meridians, went down into the | ||
| + | heavens where the uttermost ends of the | ||
| + | earth were.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | shore when I thought of myself marooned | ||
| + | upon it, its horrors shrunk into mere perils, | ||
| + | such as courage, patience and resolution< | ||
| + | might overcome, when my imagination put | ||
| + | my darling by my side, and with her hand in | ||
| + | mine, I looked round me upon the vast | ||
| + | scene of solitude. In her weakness I found | ||
| + | my strength; in her devotion my armour. | ||
| + | Great God! How precious to man is Thy | ||
| + | gift of woman' | ||
| + | where would have been my purpose and | ||
| + | determination? | ||
| + | condition of my spirits when I looked at the | ||
| + | shore and thought of myself as alone there | ||
| + | to know.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | had melted into darkness, and the sky | ||
| + | was full of stars, when the Death Ship floated | ||
| + | in a breathless manner to abreast of the | ||
| + | eastern bluff or foreland of the bay, and with | ||
| + | an air as faint as the sigh of a spirit expiring | ||
| + | upon the black drapery of her higher canvas, | ||
| + | she slided the blotting head of coast on to | ||
| + | her quarter, and came to a dead stand within | ||
| + | half-a-mile of the beach.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I heard Vanderdecken tell Arents to drop | ||
| + | the lead over the side. This was done. The | ||
| + | captain exclaimed: "What trend hath she?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | an iron bar."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Up with the courses. See all ready to let go | ||
| + | the anchors, Van Vogelaar."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the decks were alive with dusky shapes of | ||
| + | moving men; one after another the sails | ||
| + | dissolved against the stars like clouds, amid | ||
| + | the hoarse rumbling of blocks, the whistling | ||
| + | of running ropes, the rattle of descending | ||
| + | yards.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | his rich voice going in notes of | ||
| + | deep-throated music up into the gloom.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the forecastle.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was followed by a hot seething sound of cable | ||
| + | torn through the hawse-pipe; the water | ||
| + | boiled to the launching blow from the bow | ||
| + | and spread out in a surface of dim green fire.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I watched to see if the vessel would swing: | ||
| + | but there was no air, neither was there tide | ||
| + | or current to slue her, and she hung in a | ||
| + | shadow like that of a thunder-cloud over her | ||
| + | own anchor, her mastheads very softly beating | ||
| + | time to the slow lift and fall of the light | ||
| + | swell.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | exclaimed Vanderdecken. " | ||
| + | cable to the fifty fathom scope. Aloft men and | ||
| + | stow the canvas. Carpenter!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A hoarse voice answered, " | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | water there is."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>In a few minutes a lantern flickered like an | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | of men as its gleam passed over the decks | ||
| + | which rippled in faint sheets of phosphoric< | ||
| + | light. He who bore it was the carpenter. | ||
| + | When he came to the pump he handed it to | ||
| + | a seaman whilst he dropped the sounding-rod | ||
| + | down the well. The light was yellow, and | ||
| + | the figures of the fellows who were pumping | ||
| + | and the stooping form of the carpenter stood | ||
| + | out of the gloom like an illuminated painting | ||
| + | in a crypt. A foot or two of water gushing | ||
| + | from the pump sparkled freely to where the | ||
| + | darkness cut it off. Against the glittering | ||
| + | lights in the sky you saw the ink-like outlines | ||
| + | of men dangling upon the yards, rolling up | ||
| + | the canvas. I watched the carpenter pore | ||
| + | upon the rod to mark the height to which the | ||
| + | wet rose; he then came on to the poop and | ||
| + | spoke to Vanderdecken in a voice too low for | ||
| + | me to catch what he said.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and I stood alone in the deeper shade made | ||
| + | in the gloom upon the poop by the mizzen-rigging. | ||
| + | The beating of my heart was painful | ||
| + | with anxiety. From one moment to<span class=" | ||
| + | another I could not tell what the next order | ||
| + | might be, and if ever I seemed to feel | ||
| + | a breath of air upon my hot temples, I | ||
| + | trembled with the fear that it was the forerunner | ||
| + | of a breeze. As it stood, 'twas such a | ||
| + | night to escape in that my deepest faith in | ||
| + | God's mercy had never durst raise my hopes | ||
| + | to the height of its beauty and stillness.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>On the opposite side of the poop slowly | ||
| + | walked Vanderdecken; | ||
| + | of his skin as showed was as white as wax; | ||
| + | he sometimes looked aloft at the men there, | ||
| + | sometimes around at the ocean, sometimes | ||
| + | coming to a stand to mark the gradual swinging | ||
| + | of the ship that was now influenced by | ||
| + | some early trickling of tide or by the motions | ||
| + | of the small heaving in the sea, or by some | ||
| + | ghostly whisperings of air overhead.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was full of business, not a sound broke from | ||
| + | the men, and the hush you felt upon the dark | ||
| + | line of shore would have been upon the<span class=" | ||
| + | vessel but for the clanking jerks of the pump-brake | ||
| + | and the noise of flowing water.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A figure came up the poop-ladder and | ||
| + | softly approached. It was Imogene. I | ||
| + | lightly called and she came to my side in the | ||
| + | shadow.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | as yet," I answered.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of water to-night?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mean to do."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | always answers my questions."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I seized her hand. "No! He may suspect | ||
| + | I sent you. Let us walk carelessly | ||
| + | here and there. Lurking in the shadow | ||
| + | might give an air of conspiracy to the prattle | ||
| + | of infants to the suspicions of such a mind | ||
| + | as his."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>We moved towards the taffrail& | ||
| + | was lashed and abandoned& | ||
| + | to and fro, speaking under our breath.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | when we get on shore; have you provided | ||
| + | for that?" she said.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I started. I had thought of all things, as | ||
| + | I fancied; yet I had overlooked the most | ||
| + | essential of our certain needs.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | exclaimed. "How now to manage?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | There is a pitcher there and the sight of it | ||
| + | put it into my head to ask if you had included | ||
| + | water in your stock of provisions. It holds | ||
| + | about two gallons. It has a narrow neck | ||
| + | and may be easily corked. But how can we | ||
| + | convey it ashore. My weight and the bags | ||
| + | and it would sink a bigger frame than the | ||
| + | one that is to float me."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I said: "Is there fresh water in it?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I said: "Are bottles to be had?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | jars in which wine is kept, but I do not know | ||
| + | where to find them."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "There is a silver flagon in the box under | ||
| + | the table; that which Prins took away | ||
| + | last week and brought back filled with | ||
| + | sherry for Vanderdecken. Can you get | ||
| + | it?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | it. Vanderdecken shall not say that we have | ||
| + | plundered him though we must risk a graver | ||
| + | charge even than that if there be occasion. | ||
| + | Dearest, convey that flagon to your cabin. | ||
| + | Fill it with fresh water in readiness. We | ||
| + | shall find fresh water sweeter than the richest | ||
| + | wine. Also contrive to have the pitcher | ||
| + | filled to the brim. Prins will do that and | ||
| + | suspect nothing. You will invent a reason, | ||
| + | and when it is filled cork it as securely< | ||
| + | as possible and bind the head with stout rag | ||
| + | that what you use as a cork may not fall | ||
| + | out."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | once.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | window of your quarter-gallery open?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | cough. Then grasp a rope that I will let | ||
| + | hang against the window and coil it away as | ||
| + | you pull it in."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sailor' | ||
| + | left me. The mizzen-yard was lowered; the | ||
| + | sail had been stowed some time. Rove | ||
| + | through a small block at the end of the yard | ||
| + | was a length of thin line termed signal halliards | ||
| + | used for the showing of colours. I | ||
| + | waited till Vanderdecken came to a stand at | ||
| + | the head of the ladder that was, of course, at | ||
| + | the forward end of the poop, and then with< | ||
| + | a mariner' | ||
| + | through the block, catching the end as it fell | ||
| + | that it might not strike the deck, and threw | ||
| + | it over the quarter, coughing distinctly as I | ||
| + | did so. I felt her pull it; I paid it out | ||
| + | cautiously, narrowly watching Vanderdecken | ||
| + | till the whole length was gone, then sauntered | ||
| + | forward to where the shadow of the | ||
| + | mizzen-rigging blackened the air.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I had not stood there a minute when Vanderdecken | ||
| + | cried out, "Van Vogelaar!" | ||
| + | mate answered from the forecastle.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | yard to receive a tackle for hoisting out both | ||
| + | boats."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I turned my back, putting both my hands | ||
| + | to my face in an ecstatic burst of gratitude | ||
| + | to the great God of Heaven for this signal | ||
| + | mercy. 'Twas what I had been hoping | ||
| + | and waiting for, with a heart sickened by | ||
| + | doubt and fear. The order was given, and | ||
| + | had I been suddenly transported with< | ||
| + | Imogene into a ship bound for England my | ||
| + | soul could not have swelled up with keener | ||
| + | exultation!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | THE WEATHER HELPS MY SCHEME.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I will say now that the alternate scheme I | ||
| + | had all along had in my mind was escaping | ||
| + | by means of one of the boats. But I had | ||
| + | held this project back from Imogene; nay, | ||
| + | had kept it in hiding almost away from my | ||
| + | own consideration for fear that I should be | ||
| + | unable to secure a boat. Perhaps, indeed, I | ||
| + | had counted upon Vanderdecken practising | ||
| + | the custom of his day, which was to get the | ||
| + | boats over on coming to an anchor; yet it | ||
| + | was but a hope, and not daring to think too | ||
| + | heartily in this direction I had talked wholly | ||
| + | to Imogene of delivering ourselves by floating | ||
| + | and swimming ashore.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the side, and my next proceeding must therefore | ||
| + | be to watch an opportunity to enter one | ||
| + | of them with Imogene and silently sneak | ||
| + | away.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>To see what they were about, the men | ||
| + | hung several lanterns about the waist and | ||
| + | gangways. The canvas had been furled, and | ||
| + | the yards lay in thick black strokes against | ||
| + | the stars. The coast looked like peaked | ||
| + | heights of pitch, and the sea, with a sort of | ||
| + | dead gleaming floating in it with the motion | ||
| + | of the folds, spread out brimful to the dim | ||
| + | flashing of the surf. You could hear nothing | ||
| + | for the noise of the pumping, yet it seemed | ||
| + | to me but for that, God knows what mysterious | ||
| + | whisperings, | ||
| + | howling cries, what strange airy creeping of | ||
| + | hisses and the seething of swept and disturbed | ||
| + | foliage and burrowed bush I might | ||
| + | catch the mingled echo of, hovering in a kind | ||
| + | of cloud of sound, and coming, some of it, | ||
| + | from as far away as the deeper blackness< | ||
| + | that you saw in the land where the cerulean | ||
| + | giants of the afternoon steadied their burdened | ||
| + | postures by pressing their brows | ||
| + | against the sky. There was a red spot upon | ||
| + | that part of the coast over which you would | ||
| + | be looking for the crimson forehead of the | ||
| + | moon presently. 'Twas a league off, and | ||
| + | expressed a big area of incandescence, | ||
| + | was the fire whence the smoke I had noticed | ||
| + | arose.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | clear of the rail to the water, and secured the | ||
| + | ends of their painters, or the lines by which | ||
| + | they were fastened, to a pin, on either quarter, | ||
| + | thus leaving both boats floating under the | ||
| + | counter. Vanderdecken then gave orders | ||
| + | for the second anchor to be let go, the ship | ||
| + | having some time since slided imperceptibly | ||
| + | back to the fair tension of the cable already | ||
| + | down.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I now thought I had been long enough on | ||
| + | deck, that further lingering must suggest too<span class=" | ||
| + | much persistency of observation; | ||
| + | to the cabin. It was empty. I coughed, and | ||
| + | in a minute or two Imogene came from her | ||
| + | berth. The lamp swung over the table and | ||
| + | the white light that fell through the open | ||
| + | bottom of it streamed on my face.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and look glad! What is it, Geoffrey?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | stared at me. Then I explained how Vanderdecken | ||
| + | had ordered the boats over as | ||
| + | though in sober truth he had as great a mind | ||
| + | as I that we should escape; how our deliverance | ||
| + | by one of the boats had been my second | ||
| + | but concealed scheme; how both boats were | ||
| + | under the counter, to our hands almost; and | ||
| + | how nothing more remained to be done but | ||
| + | wait a chance of entering one of them and | ||
| + | dropping hiddenly out of sight.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I said, " | ||
| + | and looked at me with a rapture that made< | ||
| + | me see how heavy though secret had lain the | ||
| + | horror of escape by the shore upon her.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I said to her: "Slip into your quarter-gallery | ||
| + | and look over and tell me which boat | ||
| + | lies under it, whether the little or the large | ||
| + | one. Also if the rope that holds her is | ||
| + | within reach. Also distinguish what furniture | ||
| + | of oars and sails are in the boats& | ||
| + | there be. I dare not go to your cabin lest | ||
| + | Vanderdecken should arrive as I come out."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | minutes. During this interval I took notice | ||
| + | of a sobering down of the movements of the | ||
| + | men about the deck, as though they were | ||
| + | coming to an end with their various jobs of | ||
| + | coiling away and clearing up. But the pump | ||
| + | gushed incessantly. I grew extremely eager | ||
| + | to know if they meant to handle the cargo | ||
| + | and guns, towards careening the vessel, that | ||
| + | night. But whether or no, I was determined | ||
| + | to leave the Death Ship, and before the moon | ||
| + | rose& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Imogene returned. She glanced about her | ||
| + | to make sure I was alone, and seating herself | ||
| + | close to me, said: "It is the bigger boat | ||
| + | that is under my quarter-gallery."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | for our purpose."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | so thick 'tis impossible to see what is in her. | ||
| + | But I can distinctly perceive the outline of a | ||
| + | sail in the big boat."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "Since the sail is there she will have been | ||
| + | lowered fully equipped. And the rope that | ||
| + | holds her?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the boat and the heaving of the ship," she | ||
| + | replied. "But I think it may be grasped by | ||
| + | standing upon the rail of the galley."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a very short scope of line.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the line you dragged in, when middled and | ||
| + | doubled, will serve me to lower you down | ||
| + | with. When in the boat, you must throw | ||
| + | the line off you, so that I may use it to send | ||
| + | down the pitcher of water and the bags of | ||
| + | provisions. I will then come down by it myself. | ||
| + | Retire as early as you may under | ||
| + | pretence of being weary, then clothe yourself | ||
| + | in your warmest attire and select such apparel | ||
| + | as fits most closely, for flowing drapery cannot | ||
| + | but prove troublesome. Leave your | ||
| + | cabin door unlatched, but seemingly shut, | ||
| + | that I may enter by pushing only. Meanwhile, | ||
| + | stay here. I shall return in a few | ||
| + | minutes."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I walked to my cabin below. The gang of | ||
| + | pumpers clove to the brake like a little | ||
| + | company of spectres clothed as seamen, and | ||
| + | their manner of toiling suggested a horrid | ||
| + | mockery of the labour of earthly beings. I | ||
| + | shot a swift glance along the deck ere | ||
| + | descending the hatch, but, saving the men<span class=" | ||
| + | who pumped, could see no more than a | ||
| + | shadow or two moving in the distance | ||
| + | forward. I took the bags of provisions from | ||
| + | under the bed; the smallest of the three | ||
| + | fitted my hat, which I put on my head; the | ||
| + | other two I crammed into my coat pockets, | ||
| + | which were extremely capacious. A goodly | ||
| + | portion of the bag in the larboard pocket | ||
| + | stood up, and the head of the other was very | ||
| + | visible; but I covered them by keeping my | ||
| + | arms up and down; and so conveyed them | ||
| + | to the cabin, which I surveyed through the | ||
| + | door before entering.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and then returned. She had scarce resumed | ||
| + | her seat when Vanderdecken entered. He | ||
| + | came to the table and looked on a moment, | ||
| + | and said: " | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He stepped to the door and called, and | ||
| + | then came to his chair and seated himself, | ||
| + | not offering to speak till Prins arrived.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of brandy punch. My limbs ache. I have | ||
| + | stood too long."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the silence, I said, " | ||
| + | may I ask if it is your intention to | ||
| + | careen to-night?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He looked at me sullenly and with a frown, | ||
| + | and said: "Why do you inquire?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | cabin is close to the pump; the clattering of | ||
| + | that engine is extremely disturbing, and | ||
| + | therefore I would ask your permission to use | ||
| + | this bench for a bed to-night if you do not | ||
| + | intend to careen to the leak, and so render | ||
| + | further pumping unnecessary."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He considered awhile, eyeing me sternly; | ||
| + | but it was not conceivable that he should find | ||
| + | any other than the surface-meaning in this | ||
| + | request.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He answered: "I do not intend to | ||
| + | careen; the weather hath every promise< | ||
| + | of continued fairness; the men shall have | ||
| + | their night' | ||
| + | briskly for it to-morrow. As the pump must | ||
| + | be kept going, your request is reasonable. | ||
| + | You can use this cabin, and Prins shall | ||
| + | give you one of my cloaks to soften your | ||
| + | couch."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I made him a low grateful bow, secretly | ||
| + | accepting his civility, however, as does a man | ||
| + | condemned to death the attentions of a gaoler | ||
| + | or the tenderness of the hangman.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | then set a bowl of steaming punch before the | ||
| + | captain. Shortly afterwards arrived Van | ||
| + | Vogelaar and Arents. Our party was now | ||
| + | complete, and we fell to. I said: " | ||
| + | you will forgive the curiosity of an | ||
| + | English mariner who is unused to the discipline | ||
| + | of the Batavian ships. How, Mynheer | ||
| + | Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | arranged when in harbour, as in a sense we | ||
| + | may take ourselves now to be?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | help and said in Dutch: "The practice is as | ||
| + | with our countrymen, Herr Fenton."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | till midnight, and the mates together till sunrise," | ||
| + | said I, speaking inaccurately that I | ||
| + | might draw them into speech.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | commander keeps no watch. The mates | ||
| + | take the deck as at sea, I till midnight, | ||
| + | Van Vogelaar till four, then I again."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | into Arents' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in his coarse sarcastic voice, "that English | ||
| + | sailors should apply to the Dutch for correct | ||
| + | ideas on true marine discipline."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | learnt much since I have been with you."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | at me. And it was made infernal by the | ||
| + | twist of leering triumph in his heavy lips,< | ||
| + | though he could not suppose I exactly understood | ||
| + | what it meant.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>We fell silent. Vanderdecken served out | ||
| + | the punch with a small silver goblet. I | ||
| + | drank but a mouthful or two, dreading the | ||
| + | fumes. The others quaffed great draughts, | ||
| + | making nothing of the potency of the liquor, | ||
| + | nor of the steaming heat of it. Had they | ||
| + | been as I was or Imogene& | ||
| + | should have rejoiced in their intemperance; | ||
| + | but 'twas impossible to suppose that | ||
| + | the fumes of spirits could affect the brains of | ||
| + | men immortal in misery.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | for pipes, and Vanderdecken told Prins to | ||
| + | bring him such and such a cloak, naming | ||
| + | and describing it. The fashion of it was | ||
| + | about eighty years old; 'twas of very dark | ||
| + | velvet, with a silver chain at the throat and | ||
| + | silk under-sleeves. He motioned to Prins to | ||
| + | put it down, giving me to know by the same | ||
| + | gesture that it was at my service. I thanked< | ||
| + | him with a slight inclination of the head, | ||
| + | grateful that he did not speak, as I knew not | ||
| + | what effect the news of my desire to sleep in | ||
| + | the cabin might have upon the malignant | ||
| + | mate's suspicious mind.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I caught her looking at Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | sometimes round upon the cabin. At such | ||
| + | moments there came a softened light of wistfulness | ||
| + | into her eyes; nay, rather let me call | ||
| + | it pensiveness, | ||
| + | yearning in it& | ||
| + | would attend the thought that, under God, | ||
| + | this was the last night she would ever pass | ||
| + | in the Death Ship; the last hours she would | ||
| + | ever spend in the company of Vanderdecken. | ||
| + | The old fabric had for nearly five years been | ||
| + | her ocean home& | ||
| + | world for her. 'Twas associated with the | ||
| + | desolation of her orphaned state& | ||
| + | anguish of her loneliness in the open boat. | ||
| + | Her very being had merged into the ancient< | ||
| + | timbers& | ||
| + | an expression had been given by each hollow | ||
| + | straining sound, by the roar of wind in the | ||
| + | rigging, by the musical stirrings of air in the | ||
| + | quiet night, by the sob of gently-passing | ||
| + | waters, by the thunder of the storm-created | ||
| + | surge. And he at whom she gazed& | ||
| + | fierce, scowling, imperious as he was& | ||
| + | God-defying eyes to the heavens, his giant | ||
| + | frame volcanic with the desperate perturbations | ||
| + | of a soul of fire& | ||
| + | ever been gentle to her& | ||
| + | with something of a father' | ||
| + | held her to his breast as an ocean-stray | ||
| + | for whom, Heaven help him! he believed | ||
| + | that there was an asylum, that there was | ||
| + | affection, that there was motherly and sisterly | ||
| + | sympathy in his distant home at Amsterdam. | ||
| + | She could not have been the Imogene of my | ||
| + | adoration, the fresh, true-hearted virginal | ||
| + | being of this Death Ship, mingling something | ||
| + | of the mystery of the doomed structure< | ||
| + | and something of the mighty deep, with the | ||
| + | pure, chaste, exquisite vitality of a living and | ||
| + | a loving woman, had not her violet eyes | ||
| + | saddened to the thought of parting for ever | ||
| + | from her floating home and from that stately, | ||
| + | bearded figure whose affection for her was | ||
| + | even fuller of pathos than his dream of those | ||
| + | whom he deemed yet slumbered at night in | ||
| + | far-off Amsterdam.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | view of him. To me, that was to be put | ||
| + | ashore by his command and left miserably to | ||
| + | perish there, he was a cruel and a murderous | ||
| + | rascal; of which qualities in him I had so | ||
| + | keen a sense that I never for a moment questioned | ||
| + | that if my scheme miscarried and he | ||
| + | found out what I intended, he would have me | ||
| + | swung at the yard-arm right away out of | ||
| + | hand, though it should be pitch dark and they | ||
| + | should have to hang me by lantern-light.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | went on deck. Van Vogelaar, leaning on his<span class=" | ||
| + | elbow midway across the table, muttered with | ||
| + | the long shank of his pipe between his teeth | ||
| + | to Vanderdecken about the routine and rotation | ||
| + | of the pumping-gangs. The captain let | ||
| + | fall a few instructions touching the morning' | ||
| + | work. Imogene rose.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | she said, smiling, whilst her pale face | ||
| + | fully warranted her assurance. "I shall go | ||
| + | to bed."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | clock; "you seem dispirited, my dear. It | ||
| + | will not be this brief halt here, I trust? We | ||
| + | shall be under weigh again in a couple of | ||
| + | days, homeward-bound& | ||
| + | already traversed. Think of that!" She | ||
| + | put her fingers to her mouth simulating a | ||
| + | yawn. "But if you are weary," | ||
| + | "go to rest, my dear."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and with a half-bow to Van Vogelaar went to | ||
| + | her cabin.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | into the punch-bowl, bade me extend my cup. | ||
| + | I thanked him, said my head ached, and that | ||
| + | with his leave I would take the air above for | ||
| + | a spell. On gaining the poop I walked right | ||
| + | aft and looked over the taffrail. The boats | ||
| + | there rose and fell in two lumps of blackness | ||
| + | under the quarters. They strained very | ||
| + | quietly at the lines which held them, and this | ||
| + | enabled me to observe, by noting the trend | ||
| + | of the land, that such surface-motion as the | ||
| + | water had was westerly. I was fretted to | ||
| + | observe the sea unusually phosphorescent. | ||
| + | Every time the rise and fall of the ship's | ||
| + | stern flipped at one or the other of the boat's | ||
| + | lines the sudden drag raised a little foam about | ||
| + | her, and the bubbling flashed like the reflection | ||
| + | of sheet lightning in a mirror. This, I | ||
| + | say, vexed me; for the dip of an oar must | ||
| + | occasion a fire as signalling in its way as a | ||
| + | flare or a lantern, though the boat itself | ||
| + | should be buried in the darkness.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I came away from the taffrail after a very | ||
| + | brief look over. Arents at the head of the | ||
| + | poop-ladder stood apparently gazing at the | ||
| + | men pumping on the main-deck, but I knew | ||
| + | the motionless postures into which he and | ||
| + | the others fell too well to guess that any | ||
| + | speculation would be found in his eyes could | ||
| + | they be peered into. The bush fire burnt | ||
| + | like a great red spark on the black outline to | ||
| + | starboard. Out of the western ocean the | ||
| + | stars looked to be floating as though they | ||
| + | were a smoke of silver sparkles, meeting in a | ||
| + | mass of diamond-light over our swaying | ||
| + | mastheads, with scatterings of brilliant dust | ||
| + | among them, suggesting the wakes of winged | ||
| + | star-ships; but past the starboard yard-arms | ||
| + | all this quick, glorious scintillation of planet | ||
| + | and meteor, of fixed stars and the Magellanic | ||
| + | clouds, with the beautiful Cross sweetly | ||
| + | dominant, went wan and dying into mere | ||
| + | faintness. This however I did not particularly | ||
| + | heed, though the habits of a sailor< | ||
| + | would cause me to fasten my eye upon the | ||
| + | appearance; but presently looking for the | ||
| + | crimson scar of bush-fire, I found it was gone | ||
| + | with many of the stars which had been glittering | ||
| + | above and against it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A few minutes put an end to conjecture; | ||
| + | 'twas a true South African fog coming along, | ||
| + | white as gunpowder smoke, and eating out | ||
| + | the prospect with long feelers and winding | ||
| + | limbs till the whole body was fluffing thick | ||
| + | and soft as feathers about the ship, eclipsing | ||
| + | everything save a golden spike or two of the | ||
| + | lighted lantern that hung against the main-mast | ||
| + | for the comfort or convenience of the | ||
| + | pumpers.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | MY POOR DARLING.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It was ten o' | ||
| + | been sitting in the cabin alone waiting for | ||
| + | Vanderdecken to come below and go to bed. | ||
| + | I heard the parrot angrily clawing about her | ||
| + | cage to the chiming of the bell, as if impatient | ||
| + | of the slowness of the strokes and | ||
| + | enraged by their disturbing notes; and when | ||
| + | the last chime died out she violently flapped | ||
| + | her wings and cried, with an edge of scream | ||
| + | in the ordinary harshness of her voice, "Wy | ||
| + | zyn al Verdomd!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | thought I, involuntarily clenching my fist as | ||
| + | I looked towards her. "Such another yell | ||
| + | might bring Van Vogelaar out of his berth."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | curse in my hearing.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I went to the cabin door, and found the | ||
| + | thickness boiling black about the decks, not | ||
| + | an outline visible, nothing to be seen but the | ||
| + | lantern-shine, | ||
| + | crystalline denseness. The clanking of the | ||
| + | pump seemed to find twenty echoes in the | ||
| + | great concealed fabric of round-tops and | ||
| + | square yards on high. How ghostly the | ||
| + | stillness with which the brake was plied! | ||
| + | You listened till your ear seemed in pain for | ||
| + | the sound of a human laugh, the growl of a | ||
| + | human voice.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Vanderdecken came down the quarter-deck | ||
| + | ladder. The wet of the fog sparkled in his | ||
| + | beard, and his fur cap glistened to the lamplight. | ||
| + | He stood in the doorway and stared | ||
| + | at me under his great heavy brows as though | ||
| + | surprised, and even startled, to see me; then | ||
| + | exclaimed, "< | ||
| + | in this cabin to-night. The lamp can be left | ||
| + | alight, if you please."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of careless indifference in my voice. In fact | ||
| + | I would rather have been in darkness, but it | ||
| + | was my policy to seem as if his wishes were | ||
| + | all the same to me, let them run as they | ||
| + | would.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he should leave the lamp burning," | ||
| + | speaking quietly and in a manner that recalled | ||
| + | my earliest impressions of him when he | ||
| + | talked low lest he should disturb Imogene. | ||
| + | He gave me a stiff bow and walked to his | ||
| + | cabin.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | voice, "that the lamp should be kept alight."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | speech.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | as you know, that the pump may be less disturbing.< | ||
| + | Captain Vanderdecken is good | ||
| + | enough to consult my comfort, but as the light | ||
| + | is bright, pray dim it, Prins. That may be | ||
| + | managed, I hope?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the table to come at the lamp.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "how is that, Herr Fenton?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Prins. Have you made an end of your work? | ||
| + | I am in no hurry to lie down."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He slipped off the table with a look round, | ||
| + | and said: "My work is finished, Herr. You | ||
| + | can take your rest at once for me." He | ||
| + | yawned. "These African fogs make one | ||
| + | gape. Good-night, sir."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He halted in the doorway.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | out," he said. I motioned with my hand as | ||
| + | though bidding him shut it, which he did, | ||
| + | and I was left alone.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I wrapped Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | about me, and stretched myself along the | ||
| + | bench, using my arm as a pillow. I resolved | ||
| + | to lie thus for at least half-an-hour, | ||
| + | that this would be long enough to weary any | ||
| + | one who should take it into his head to watch | ||
| + | me through the cabin window. As to Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | I did not fear his seeing me | ||
| + | whilst he kept his door closed. The bulkhead | ||
| + | of his berth was thick and apparently | ||
| + | seamless, and his door fitted into overlaps of | ||
| + | the jambs, for the exclusion of draughts of air | ||
| + | after the fashion in old shipbuilding. I lay | ||
| + | very quiet hearkening to the dulled beating | ||
| + | of the pump and watching the clock, the | ||
| + | great hand of which was just visible. When | ||
| + | it came round so as to lie upon the quarter | ||
| + | before the hour, I rose with the utmost | ||
| + | stealth, arranging the cloak in such a fashion | ||
| + | as to make the dark shape of it resemble a | ||
| + | recumbent form, and holding my breath, stole | ||
| + | on tiptoe to Imogene' | ||
| + | door. It opened; I entered and pushed the | ||
| + | door to again, and it jammed noiselessly upon | ||
| + | the soft substance that had kept it closed | ||
| + | before.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | exactly resembled the bed in Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | room which I have described. She was fully | ||
| + | dressed, and had on a fur or sealskin cap, | ||
| + | with flaps for the ears. A small silver lamp | ||
| + | of a very ancient pattern hung from a hook | ||
| + | in the great beam that traversed the ceiling | ||
| + | of her cabin, but she had trimmed or depressed | ||
| + | the mesh into a feeble gleam. The | ||
| + | little door that led to the quarter-gallery | ||
| + | stood open. I kissed her cold forehead, and | ||
| + | whispered, "Are you ready?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I held her hand whilst I could have | ||
| + | counted ten, but found it steadier than mine.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | into the gallery.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the air, and the chill of it was like frost upon | ||
| + | the flesh. But for the phosphorescence of | ||
| + | the sea, which I had before lamented, I | ||
| + | should not have been able to see the boat | ||
| + | under the counter. As it was, the tweaking | ||
| + | of the line to the rise and fall of the Death | ||
| + | Ship kept a small stir of water about the | ||
| + | boat; the greenish-yellow shining showed | ||
| + | through the fog and threw out the figure of | ||
| + | the structure. The railing of the gallery rose | ||
| + | to the height of my breast. I leaned over it, | ||
| + | waving my hand in the blackness for the | ||
| + | rope, and not catching it, bade Imogene | ||
| + | seize my coat to steady me, and jumped on | ||
| + | to the rail, and in a moment felt the line and | ||
| + | grasped it; then dismounted, holding the | ||
| + | rope. In a few seconds I had the boat's | ||
| + | head& | ||
| + | will remember& | ||
| + | in that posture I secured her by hitching the | ||
| + | slack of the line to the rail.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | fog, that made an astonishing blackness of | ||
| + | the night, though I guessed this would grow | ||
| + | into a pallid faintness presently, when the | ||
| + | moon was up and had gathered power; next | ||
| + | the phosphoric shinings upon which the boat | ||
| + | rose and fell like a great blot of ink; then | ||
| + | the noise of the pump, which, to the most | ||
| + | attentive ear on deck, would absorb all such | ||
| + | feeble sounds as our movements were likely | ||
| + | to cause; and again, there was the small | ||
| + | but constant grinding of the sudden jumping | ||
| + | of the rudder to the action of the swell, | ||
| + | very nicely calculated to lull the suspicions of | ||
| + | Vanderdecken in the adjacent cabin should | ||
| + | he be awake and hear us. But this I did | ||
| + | not fear, for the quarter-gallery was outside | ||
| + | the ship, and we worked in the open air, and | ||
| + | made no noise besides.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I had unrove from the mizzen-peak lay in a | ||
| + | heap at my feet. I ran the length through, | ||
| + | doubled it, and made a bowline-on-the-bight< | ||
| + | of the two thicknesses. This bight or loop I | ||
| + | slipped over Imogene' | ||
| + | the running or lowering part in front of her | ||
| + | that there should be no pressure to hurt her | ||
| + | tender breasts, and then took two turns round | ||
| + | a stancheon on the quarter-gallery.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a stout heart and do exactly as I bid. First, | ||
| + | in what part of the cabin shall I find the | ||
| + | pitcher and the provisions?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | door. They are covered with a dress."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | into the boat. I will lower very gently. | ||
| + | The moment your feet touch the boat, cough& | ||
| + | not loudly& | ||
| + | handsomely, for the rise and fall of the boat | ||
| + | necessitates smart action. When you are | ||
| + | safe& | ||
| + | middle of the boat& | ||
| + | rope off you. I will then send down the | ||
| + | pitcher and bags by the line which you will< | ||
| + | cast adrift from them. It will then be my | ||
| + | turn to join you."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>So saying I took her in my arms and | ||
| + | lifted her on to the rail, seating her there | ||
| + | an instant, then taking in one hand the end | ||
| + | of the rope which was twisted round the | ||
| + | stancheon, with the other I gently slided her | ||
| + | over the rail, easing her down with my arm | ||
| + | round her till she hung by the line. In | ||
| + | another moment she was in the boat.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I hauled up the line, went for the pitcher | ||
| + | and bags and sent them down to her, she | ||
| + | receiving and detaching them from the line | ||
| + | with a promptitude equal to anything I could | ||
| + | have hoped to find in that way in a sailor. | ||
| + | I called to her softly& | ||
| + | why I lingered& | ||
| + | cloak," | ||
| + | up my mind to carry it off as a covering for | ||
| + | Imogene.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I opened her cabin door breathlessly and | ||
| + | peered out; then stole soft as a mouse to the<span class=" | ||
| + | cloak and threw it over my arm. The | ||
| + | interior lay in a sullen gloom to the dim | ||
| + | shining of the lamp. Our stock of provisions | ||
| + | was small, and my eye catching sight of the | ||
| + | chest under the table I recollected having | ||
| + | seen Prins put a canvas bag full of biscuit into | ||
| + | it after supper. This I resolved to take. So | ||
| + | I went to the chest, raised the lid, and found | ||
| + | the bag, but my hurry and agitation being | ||
| + | great I let fall the lid which dropped with a | ||
| + | noisy bang. Heaping curses upon my clumsiness, | ||
| + | I fled like a deer into the cabin and | ||
| + | on to the quarter-gallery, | ||
| + | bag into the boat, and followed headlong | ||
| + | down the rope I had left dangling from the | ||
| + | rail.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I was scarce arrived when the faint light | ||
| + | that streamed from Imogene' | ||
| + | quarter-gallery was obscured, and to my | ||
| + | horror I saw the loom of a human shape | ||
| + | overhanging the rail.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | back!" rang out Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | thrilling voice. "Herr Fenton, restore to | ||
| + | me the treasure thou wouldst rob me of and | ||
| + | I swear not a single hair of thy head shall be | ||
| + | harmed."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>In mad haste I sawed through the rope | ||
| + | that held the boat with my pocket-knife. | ||
| + | He could not see, but he heard me; and | ||
| + | springing on to the rail, roared, in his | ||
| + | thunderous notes, " | ||
| + | Englishman hath seized one of the boats | ||
| + | and is kidnapping Miss Dudley. Do you | ||
| + | hear me? Speak& | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I heard the clattering of heavy boots | ||
| + | running along the tall echoing poop high | ||
| + | over our heads.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | bawled Arents.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | hurricane note fit to awaken the echoes of | ||
| + | the inland mountains, "The Englishman is | ||
| + | kidnapping Miss Dudley, and hath already< | ||
| + | seized the larger boat. Send the men from | ||
| + | the pump to man the other boat!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mad with the excitement of the minute. The | ||
| + | line that held us was severed; the boat's | ||
| + | head swung round; I leaned half my length | ||
| + | over the gunwale, caught the other boat, and | ||
| + | severed the rope that secured her to the | ||
| + | ship; then, in a frenzy of haste, tumbled a | ||
| + | couple of oars over and pulled away. But | ||
| + | I had not measured five boat's lengths when | ||
| + | the fog in which the ship, even at that | ||
| + | short distance, lay completely swallowed was | ||
| + | gashed and rent by a blaze of red fire. The | ||
| + | explosion of a musket followed. I knew, by | ||
| + | the flame leaping out of the quarter-gallery, | ||
| + | that it was Vanderdecken who had fired, and | ||
| + | with set teeth strained with all my might at | ||
| + | the oars.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A dead stillness reigned. The clanking of | ||
| + | the chains had ceased. I could hear nothing | ||
| + | but the grind of the oars in the pins, and the<span class=" | ||
| + | sound of the water seething to the unnatural | ||
| + | vigour with which I rowed. After a little I | ||
| + | paused to gather from the noise of the surf | ||
| + | how the boat headed. I bent my ear and | ||
| + | found that the boiling was on my left.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | asked, in a broken voice, being terribly | ||
| + | distressed for breath.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | on your left."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | are heading out to sea. The breakers are | ||
| + | heavy in the west, and 'tis down there the | ||
| + | noise of them seems greatest. We must | ||
| + | head right out, or this bay will prove worse | ||
| + | than a rat-trap."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>As I spoke I heard the scattering reports | ||
| + | of some six or eight muskets discharged one | ||
| + | after another, but the glare of the explosions | ||
| + | was absorbed by the fog.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I fell to rowing again, and held to the<span class=" | ||
| + | weighty job stoutly for a good quarter-of-an-hour. | ||
| + | Weighty it was, for not only was the | ||
| + | boat extremely cumbrous about the bows& | ||
| + | one square end of her more than another | ||
| + | could be so termed& | ||
| + | the blades being spoon-shaped, | ||
| + | and the harder to work not only for the | ||
| + | breadth of the boat, but because of the pins | ||
| + | being fixed too far abaft the seats.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I had now not much fear of being chased. | ||
| + | Even if they found the boat I had liberated | ||
| + | by sending men overboard to swim in search | ||
| + | of it& | ||
| + | water to glide it very swiftly into obscurity& | ||
| + | did not apprehend they would venture to | ||
| + | pursue me in so great a fog. I threw in my | ||
| + | oars and listened. A faint air stirred in the | ||
| + | blackness, and if I was correct in supposing | ||
| + | that we were heading seawards, then this | ||
| + | draught was coming about south-east. The | ||
| + | sound of the surf was like a weak rumbling of | ||
| + | thunder. I strained my hearing to the right< | ||
| + | is, to starboard, for I sat with my back | ||
| + | to the bows; but though indeed I could catch | ||
| + | a faint, far-off moan of washing waters that | ||
| + | way, the noise of the boiling was on our | ||
| + | left.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "were we penetrating it we should be by this | ||
| + | time among the breakers. I heartily pray | ||
| + | now this fog will soon thin out. It may | ||
| + | whiten into something like light when the | ||
| + | moon rides high. There is a faint wind, and | ||
| + | I should be glad to step the mast and set the | ||
| + | sail. But that isn't to be done by feeling. | ||
| + | Besides, there is no rudder, and what there | ||
| + | may be in the stern to steady an oar with I | ||
| + | cannot conceive."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I paused, thinking she would speak. | ||
| + | Finding she was silent, and fearing her to be | ||
| + | cold and low-hearted, | ||
| + | you will gain confidence with the light. | ||
| + | Meanwhile, we have good reason to be grateful | ||
| + | for this blackness. They might have< | ||
| + | killed us could they have seen the boat, for | ||
| + | they were prompt with their fire-arms."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | same low voice I had before noticed in her, | ||
| + | "I fear I am wounded."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | feet.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was he& | ||
| + | blow in my shoulder. I am very cold just | ||
| + | there; I am bleeding, I believe."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | for now she spoke at some little length I | ||
| + | could hear in her voice the pain she was in; | ||
| + | and the feebleness of her voice was like to | ||
| + | break my heart, as was the thought of her | ||
| + | suffering and bleeding in silence until I had | ||
| + | rowed the boat a long distance from the | ||
| + | ship.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I felt for her, and took her in my arms, | ||
| + | but the shiver that ran through her warned | ||
| + | me that my caress increased her pain. I<span class=" | ||
| + | would have given ten years of my life for | ||
| + | a light. 'Twas maddening to have to sit in | ||
| + | such blackness, with nothing but a dim star | ||
| + | or two of the green sea-glow rising with the | ||
| + | invisible heave of the water to the gunwale | ||
| + | for the eye to rest upon, and to think of my | ||
| + | precious one bleeding& | ||
| + | death& | ||
| + | could not staunch her wound, nor comfort | ||
| + | her except by speech, nor help her in any | ||
| + | way. 'Twas the doing of Vanderdecken! | ||
| + | the murderer! Oh, why, when there was all | ||
| + | the wide black air for the shot to whistle | ||
| + | through, had it struck my life, my love, the | ||
| + | darling whom I had snatched to my heart | ||
| + | from the huge desolation of the deep, and | ||
| + | from the horrible companionship of beings | ||
| + | accurst of God?</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I groped about for the cloak I had flung | ||
| + | into the boat, and found it; I made a bed of | ||
| + | it, and pulling off my jacket rolled it up into | ||
| + | a pillow. I felt for her again, and told her<span class=" | ||
| + | that the bleeding might lessen if she would | ||
| + | lie down. She answered, "I will lie down, | ||
| + | dearest."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I took her in my arms very tenderly and | ||
| + | carefully, and laid her upon the cloak with | ||
| + | the wounded shoulder uppermost, covered | ||
| + | her as far as the skirts of the cloak would | ||
| + | suffer, and chafed her hands. I was in so | ||
| + | great a confusion and agony of mind that had | ||
| + | I heard the dip of the oars astern and knew | ||
| + | Vanderdecken was after me in the other boat, | ||
| + | I should not have let go her hand. I could | ||
| + | not have stirred from my kneeling posture | ||
| + | beside her to help myself. But now that | ||
| + | we were out of the bay, as I might be sure | ||
| + | by the sound of the surf, I knew that our | ||
| + | keel would be in the grip of the westerly | ||
| + | current, and that whether I rowed or not | ||
| + | every hour must increase our distance from | ||
| + | the Death Ship, and improve our prospect of | ||
| + | escape.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I asked her if she was thirsty, understanding< | ||
| + | how quickly wounded persons crave in | ||
| + | this direction. She answered " | ||
| + | believed, out of the sweetness of her heart, to | ||
| + | save me anguish by any kind of confession of | ||
| + | suffering beyond what she had already owned | ||
| + | to. Believing her to be bleeding all the time, | ||
| + | I held her hand, in constant expectation of | ||
| + | feeling it frosted and turning heavy with | ||
| + | death. The sea, in its mighty life of a | ||
| + | thousand centuries, has upborne many dismal | ||
| + | and affrighting pictures to the chill eye of the | ||
| + | moon, to the fiery inspection of the sun, to | ||
| + | the blindness of the cloud-blackened sky; but | ||
| + | none worse than what our boat made; no | ||
| + | torments direr than what I suffered. I could | ||
| + | not see her face to observe whether she | ||
| + | smiled upon me or not; the love in her eyes | ||
| + | was hidden from me, and my heart could | ||
| + | take no comfort from imagination when, for | ||
| + | all I knew, the glazing of approaching dissolution | ||
| + | might have iced those liquid violet | ||
| + | impassioned depths into an unmeaning stare.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and bleeding; add to the anguish with which | ||
| + | I probed the ebon smother for the merest | ||
| + | glimpse of her, till my eyes burned like red-hot | ||
| + | balls of fire under my brows; add to this, | ||
| + | those elements of mystery, of horror, which | ||
| + | entered into and created that black, sightless | ||
| + | time; the desolate thunder of surf, defining | ||
| + | to the ear the leagues and leagues of savage | ||
| + | coast aswarm with roaring beasts, with hissing | ||
| + | reptiles, with creatures in human form | ||
| + | fiercer and of crueller instincts than either; | ||
| + | the magnitude of the ocean on whose breathing | ||
| + | breast our tiny bark lay rocking; the | ||
| + | wondrous darkness of the deep shadow of | ||
| + | the fog upon the natural gloom of the night; | ||
| + | the commingling of sullen and mysterious | ||
| + | tones in the sulky obscurity& | ||
| + | seemed to come out of the seaward infinity, | ||
| + | that seemed to rise from each swinging respiring | ||
| + | fold under us, in voiceless sound that | ||
| + | made you think of a moody conscience in<span class=" | ||
| + | some labouring breast troubling the ear of | ||
| + | imagination with mutterings whose audibility | ||
| + | was that of the inarticulate speech of phantoms.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I AM ALONE.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It was about midnight, as I was able presently | ||
| + | to gather, when a sort of paleness | ||
| + | entered into the fog; and hard upon the | ||
| + | heels of this change, the air, that had been | ||
| + | weakly breathing, briskened somewhat, fetching | ||
| + | a deeper echo from the booming roll of | ||
| + | the surf on the starboard side; and the water | ||
| + | came to the boat in a shivering phosphoric | ||
| + | light of ripples that set her a-dabbling.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | growing more luminous, without appearing | ||
| + | to thin& | ||
| + | with her furniture, such as the sail | ||
| + | and the oars. I tenderly laid Imogene' | ||
| + | hand down, and turning the sail over, found& | ||
| + | I had expected& | ||
| + | it; and partly peering and partly groping, I | ||
| + | made out an iron clamp fitted to the foremost | ||
| + | thwart or seat, with an hollow under it in the | ||
| + | bottom of the boat for receiving the heel of | ||
| + | the mast.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I lifted the spar and very easily stepped | ||
| + | it, discovering that the halliards for hoisting | ||
| + | the sail were ready rove through a small | ||
| + | block seized to the head of the mast. I | ||
| + | hauled upon this rope to clear the sail, and | ||
| + | perceived it to be shaped like a lug, fitted to | ||
| + | a yard, only the yard was arched, causing the | ||
| + | head of the sail to appear like a bow when | ||
| + | the arrow is drawn upon it. Before setting | ||
| + | the sail I went aft, and by dint of feeling and | ||
| + | staring discovered a rope grummet or hempen | ||
| + | hook fastened to the larboard horn, but close | ||
| + | in, so that it lay out of sight against the | ||
| + | boat's stern. 'Twas very clear that this was | ||
| + | meant to receive an oar for steering; but | ||
| + | whether or not it would serve my turn for<span class=" | ||
| + | that purpose; so without more ado I rove an | ||
| + | oar through the grummet, then hoisted the | ||
| + | sail, making the tack fast to the larboard horn | ||
| + | on the bow, and came aft with the sheet.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the wind being abaft the beam, she slipped | ||
| + | along like a sledge, as you will suppose, when | ||
| + | I say that her bottom was shaped like the | ||
| + | side of a pea-shell, and that her whole frame | ||
| + | might have been imitated from one of those | ||
| + | black pods of sea-weed which are furnished | ||
| + | by nature with wire-like projections, | ||
| + | which may be found in plenty upon our sea-coast. | ||
| + | The oar controlled her capitally.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | from this place& | ||
| + | and so get light to enable me to minister to | ||
| + | Imogene, and next to remove myself so far | ||
| + | from the Death Ship as to render pursuit | ||
| + | hopeless even should the thickness in the bay | ||
| + | clear up and enable Vanderdecken to recover | ||
| + | his boat which I had cut adrift; this double< | ||
| + | motive, I say, lifted my anxiety and eagerness | ||
| + | to the height of madness. My dearest lay | ||
| + | with her head towards me, and in the glistening | ||
| + | white obscurity I could discern her pale | ||
| + | face upon the pillow of my coat, but could not | ||
| + | tell whether her eyes were open or shut. | ||
| + | She did not moan; she lay as still as the | ||
| + | dead. I asked her if she was in pain. She | ||
| + | said " | ||
| + | to bend my ear to catch the syllable.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I could not think of her but as slowly | ||
| + | dying to the streaming away of her precious | ||
| + | blood. What to do I knew not; and in | ||
| + | addition to this dreadful state of despair was | ||
| + | the obligation upon me to watch the boat | ||
| + | and shrewdly and seriously attend to my | ||
| + | course by the warning surf-thunder floating | ||
| + | back against the wind from the echoing | ||
| + | strand. From time to time I would address | ||
| + | Imogene, always with a terror in me of | ||
| + | winning no reply, of touching her and | ||
| + | finding her dead. Once she answered that< | ||
| + | she believed the bleeding in her shoulder | ||
| + | had stopped; the icy-coldness was gone, and | ||
| + | there was a small smarting there as if she | ||
| + | had been burnt, but nothing that she could | ||
| + | not easily endure. But I knew by the tone | ||
| + | of her voice that she spoke only to give me | ||
| + | comfort; either that she was suffering above | ||
| + | the power of her love for me to conceal in | ||
| + | her faltering whispers or that her strength | ||
| + | was unequal to the labour of utterance.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was no chirurgeon; and I wonder that my | ||
| + | heart did not break to the bending of my | ||
| + | scorching eyes upon my love lying wounded | ||
| + | and bleeding at my feet.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>An hour passed; the fog still compassed | ||
| + | us, but the white splendour of the moon was | ||
| + | upon it. Methought that I heard Imogene | ||
| + | whisper; I dropped on my knee, and she | ||
| + | asked for water. I let go the steering oar, | ||
| + | that jammed in the grummet and that could | ||
| + | not therefore go adrift, and with great< | ||
| + | trouble found the little cup that I had hidden | ||
| + | in one of the bags, and poured some water | ||
| + | out of the pitcher into it. She moaned in | ||
| + | pain when I put my arm under her head to | ||
| + | raise it; but she drank greedily, nevertheless, | ||
| + | and thanked me in a whisper when I tenderly | ||
| + | let sink her head on to the jacket.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I resumed my place at the oar, and through | ||
| + | the blackness drove the boat, the sail pulling | ||
| + | briskly, the water shining very brightly in | ||
| + | our wake, and, as my ear seemed to fancy, | ||
| + | the noise of the surf dwindling somewhat, | ||
| + | whence I conjectured we were hauling off the | ||
| + | coast and standing more directly seawards. | ||
| + | I do not know that I should have been without | ||
| + | hope for my beloved if it had not been | ||
| + | for the haunting and blasting thought that | ||
| + | nothing but misery could attend association | ||
| + | with Vanderdecken and his doomed ship. It | ||
| + | seemed to me now& | ||
| + | been too eager to escape with her, too | ||
| + | wrapped up in my love for such consideration< | ||
| + | to occupy my mind& | ||
| + | the death of one of us could expiate our | ||
| + | involuntary and unhappy connexion with the | ||
| + | banned and fated craft. Ships that spoke | ||
| + | her perished, often with all hands; misfortunes | ||
| + | pursued those who merely sighted her. | ||
| + | What sort of death could the Curse involve | ||
| + | for one who had lived for years or for weeks | ||
| + | in the monstrous fabric, who had conversed | ||
| + | familiarly with her abhorred occupants, who | ||
| + | had been admitted into close inspection of | ||
| + | her secret life, beheld the enactment by Vanderdecken | ||
| + | in his sleep of the impious and | ||
| + | horrible drama of his Christ-defying wrath, | ||
| + | eat of his bread, drank of his cup, yea, and | ||
| + | hearkened with sympathy to his talk of home, | ||
| + | to his yearning speech concerning those he | ||
| + | loved there?</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | as upon me& | ||
| + | beautiful life, upon me in my love for her, | ||
| + | upon both in the crushing separation of the<span class=" | ||
| + | grave, whether 'twas for her to die or for me; | ||
| + | oh! I say, the sense of this thing weighed as | ||
| + | iron and as ice upon my heart, crushing out | ||
| + | all hope and leaving me as blind in my soul | ||
| + | as my eyes were in the fog to steer the boat | ||
| + | through the silence of that vaporous night, | ||
| + | hearing nothing but the rippling of the water, | ||
| + | and the blunted edge of the surf's wild beat, | ||
| + | and beholding nothing but the outline of my | ||
| + | dearest& | ||
| + | at my feet!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | about two o' | ||
| + | league-long streaks, lunar-tinted here and | ||
| + | there into an ærial mockery of the rainbow, | ||
| + | and over the edge of one great steam-like | ||
| + | body the moon with an ice-like, diamond-splendour | ||
| + | of radiance looked down upon us | ||
| + | out of a pool of black sky. The lustre had | ||
| + | something of the sharpness of daylight, only | ||
| + | that the flooded pearl of it wore the complexion | ||
| + | of death, all things showing out wan;< | ||
| + | and in that illumination the delicate gold of | ||
| + | Imogene' | ||
| + | pallor of the forehead on which it stirred to | ||
| + | the wind, and her lips were of the colour of | ||
| + | her cheeks, and her half-closed lids like wax.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I let go the oar to kneel and look at her. | ||
| + | She lay so still, with such unheeding eyes, | ||
| + | that I made sure she was dead, and my brain | ||
| + | reeled as though my heart had stopped.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I said hoarsely and hollowly, " | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | marked a faint smile on her lips.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I said "I shall be able to see the wound | ||
| + | now, and perhaps check the bleeding. I can | ||
| + | cut the dress clear of the shoulder and you | ||
| + | need not stir."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | let me lie as I am," speaking | ||
| + | with a sort of sigh between each word. | ||
| + | And then she added, "Kiss me."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I pressed my lips to hers; they were cold | ||
| + | as the mist that was passing away in wreaths | ||
| + | and clouds. I saw how it was and let her | ||
| + | have her way. It would have been cruel to | ||
| + | touch her with more than my lips. And | ||
| + | even though I should have cut away her | ||
| + | apparel to the wound and saw it, what could | ||
| + | I do? Suppose the bleeding internal& | ||
| + | bullet lodged within, the lung touched, or | ||
| + | some artery severed?</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A wild feeling seized me; I felt that I must | ||
| + | leap upon a seat and rave out madly or my | ||
| + | head would burst. The efforts to control | ||
| + | myself left me trembling and weeping. I | ||
| + | wiped from my brow the sweat that had leapt | ||
| + | in drops there out of my weakness, and put | ||
| + | my hand upon the oar afresh. The fog had | ||
| + | settled away to leeward; it looked like a | ||
| + | vast cliff of snow-covered ice, and the moonshine | ||
| + | worked in it in shifting veins of delicate | ||
| + | amber and dim steel-blue. Out of it, trending | ||
| + | a little to the south of west, rolled the loom of<span class=" | ||
| + | the dusky land; it died out in the showering | ||
| + | haze of the moonlight, whence ran the dark | ||
| + | sea-line to right astern of us& | ||
| + | sight but the land growing out of the fog. | ||
| + | Over the horizon the stars hung like dew-drops, | ||
| + | giving back the glory of the central | ||
| + | luminary and set twinkling by the wind. | ||
| + | They soared in sparkling dust, rich with large | ||
| + | jewels, till they died out in the cold silvering | ||
| + | of the sky round about the moon.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>My hysteric fit sobered down and I fell to | ||
| + | sharply thinking. The nearest refuge was | ||
| + | Simon' | ||
| + | or four hundred miles distant. How long | ||
| + | would it take me to sail the boat there? | ||
| + | Why, 'twas a thing idle to calculate. Give | ||
| + | me steady favourable winds and smooth seas | ||
| + | and I could answer; but here was a boat | ||
| + | that, like the ship she belonged to, was fit | ||
| + | only to be blown along. She could not beat, | ||
| + | she had no keel for holding to the water. | ||
| + | Hence progress, if any was to be made, was<span class=" | ||
| + | so utterly a matter of chance that conjecture | ||
| + | fell dead to the first effort of thought. If I | ||
| + | was blown out to sea we might be picked up | ||
| + | by a ship; if we were blown ashore I might | ||
| + | contrive to find a smooth spot for landing; if | ||
| + | the wind came away from the east and south | ||
| + | it might, if it hung there, drive me round | ||
| + | Agulhas and perhaps to Simon' | ||
| + | how it stood& | ||
| + | much worse you may reckon when you reflect | ||
| + | in what part of the ocean we were, when you | ||
| + | consider the season of the year, how few in | ||
| + | comparison with the mighty expanse of those | ||
| + | waters were the ships which sailed upon it, | ||
| + | how worthless the boat as a sea-going fabric, | ||
| + | how huge the billows which the gales raised, | ||
| + | how murderous the shore to which the | ||
| + | breakers, roaring on it, might forbid escape.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | time she thanked me with a smile, but the | ||
| + | mere task of swallowing seemed to rob her | ||
| + | lips of the power of pronouncing words. The<span class=" | ||
| + | moon went down in the west towards the | ||
| + | black line of land, and when it hung a rusty-red | ||
| + | over the ebon shadow under which trickled | ||
| + | the blood-like flakes of its reflection, the | ||
| + | dawn broke. For above an hour I had not | ||
| + | been able to see Imogene, so faint had fallen | ||
| + | the light of the westering orb, and for longer | ||
| + | than that time had she neither moaned, nor | ||
| + | whispered, nor stirred.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I directed my burning eyes into the east | ||
| + | for the sun, and when the pink of him was | ||
| + | in the sky, ere yet his brow had levelled | ||
| + | the first flashing beam of day, I looked at | ||
| + | Imogene.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>I looked, and yet looked; then knelt. She | ||
| + | was smiling, and by that I believed she lived; | ||
| + | but when I peered into the half-closed lids& | ||
| + | great God! The sun flamed out of the | ||
| + | sea in a leap then, and I sprang to my feet | ||
| + | and cursed him with a scorching throat for | ||
| + | finding me alone!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | must be told by another pen.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>On the morning of the second day of | ||
| + | October, one thousand seven hundred and | ||
| + | ninety-six, the full-rigged ship Mary and | ||
| + | James, bound from Tonquin to London, | ||
| + | dropped anchor in Table Bay. She had | ||
| + | scarcely swung to her cable when the gig | ||
| + | was lowered, and her master, Captain William | ||
| + | Thunder, a small, bow-legged man, with a | ||
| + | fiery nose and a brown wig, entered her and | ||
| + | was rowed ashore. He marched, or rather | ||
| + | rolled, into the town, which in those days | ||
| + | was formed of a mere handful of low-roofed, | ||
| + | strongly-built houses, and knocking at one | ||
| + | of them, situated not a musket shot distant | ||
| + | from the grounds of the building of the | ||
| + | Dutch East India Company, inquired for | ||
| + | Mr. Van Stadens. The coloured slave, or | ||
| + | servant, showed him into a parlour, and | ||
| + | presently Mr. Van Stadens, an extremely | ||
| + | corpulent Dutchman, entered.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Stadens was the South African agent for the | ||
| + | owner of the Mary and James, and then said | ||
| + | Captain Thunder:</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the most wonderful thing you ever heard in | ||
| + | all your life."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | replied Van Stadens.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | forehead with so much energy that he unconsciously | ||
| + | shifted his wig, "we were about | ||
| + | ninety miles to the eastwards of Agulhas, the | ||
| + | weather clear, the wind about south, a quiet | ||
| + | breeze, the ship under all plain sail, and the | ||
| + | second officer in charge of the deck, when a | ||
| + | hand aloft sung out there was a vessel three | ||
| + | points on the lee bow. When we had her in | ||
| + | sight from the poop and caught her fair in | ||
| + | the glass, I was so much struck by the cut of | ||
| + | her canvas, which was a lug, narrow in the | ||
| + | head and secured to a yard more arched than< | ||
| + | either of my legs, that I bore down to see | ||
| + | what was to be made of her by a close | ||
| + | squint."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and putting his hands upon his waistcoat in a | ||
| + | posture of prayer.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Captain Thunder, " | ||
| + | like one of Crusoe' | ||
| + | sticking out at each square end of her. She | ||
| + | was, or I should say she had been, painted | ||
| + | red inside. The blades of her oars, shaped | ||
| + | like a Japanese fan, were also painted red. | ||
| + | Her sail looked to be an hundred years old& | ||
| + | never saw the like of such canvas. The | ||
| + | most perfect description of its colour, patches, | ||
| + | texture would have sounded an abominable | ||
| + | lie to me if I hadn't viewed it myself."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | four chins, which resembled layers of pale | ||
| + | gutta-percha, | ||
| + | that stuff.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was of the exact fashion of the boats you see | ||
| + | in old Dutch paintings& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Thunder.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | top of Table Mountain, Mr. Van Stadens," | ||
| + | answered the captain. "I said to the second | ||
| + | mate, ' | ||
| + | If she belongs to the age in which she | ||
| + | appears to have been built she ought to have | ||
| + | been powder or ooze a hundred and fifty | ||
| + | years ago. Can you make out anybody in | ||
| + | her?' He said ' | ||
| + | that there was something unnatural about her, | ||
| + | and recommended that we should haul to the | ||
| + | wind again and appear as if we hadn't seen | ||
| + | her, but my curiosity was tickled and we | ||
| + | stood on. Well, Mr. Van Stadens, we passed | ||
| + | close and what we saw fetched a groan out of<span class=" | ||
| + | every man that was looking and brought our | ||
| + | main-topsail to the mast in the wink of a | ||
| + | muskeety' | ||
| + | bottom of the boat. She looked beautiful | ||
| + | in death, in life she must have been as lovely | ||
| + | as the prettiest of the angels of God. But | ||
| + | her dress! Why, Mr. Van Stadens, it | ||
| + | belonged to the time the boat was built in. | ||
| + | Ay, as I sit here to say it!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | shall see it for yourself!" | ||
| + | Thunder, with excitement. "We all said | ||
| + | she had been floating about in that boat for | ||
| + | two hundred years, and was a dead saint | ||
| + | watched by the eye of God, and not to be | ||
| + | corrupted as you and me would be. There | ||
| + | were three Dagos in our crew, and when | ||
| + | they saw her they crossed themselves. But | ||
| + | that wasn't all& | ||
| + | lay the figure of a seaman& | ||
| + | dressed as my mate is. We thought he was<span class=" | ||
| + | dead, too, till we lowered a boat, when on a | ||
| + | sudden he lifted his head out of his arms and | ||
| + | looked at us. There was a shine in his eye | ||
| + | that showed us his wits were gone. Such a | ||
| + | haggard face, Mr. Van Stadens!& | ||
| + | for weeks, and his hair all of a mat; yet you | ||
| + | saw he had been a handsome man and was | ||
| + | a young one too. Well, his being alive | ||
| + | settled any hesitation I might have felt had | ||
| + | they both been corpses. I sung out to my | ||
| + | second mate to bring him aboard and the | ||
| + | girl's body also, proposing decent burial; but | ||
| + | the sailor man wasn't to be coaxed out of the | ||
| + | boat; he grinned with rage to Mr. Swillig' | ||
| + | invitations, | ||
| + | howling like a dog when my men boarded | ||
| + | him, and caused such a scuffle and a melee | ||
| + | that both boats came very near to being | ||
| + | swampt. They bound him with the painter, | ||
| + | and brought him and the corpse on board | ||
| + | along with three bags of provisions-such | ||
| + | bags, Mr. Van Stadens, and such provisions,< | ||
| + | sir! But ye shall see ' | ||
| + | and a pitcher half full of water and a silver | ||
| + | cup& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to der fonders."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He pulled a ring out of his waistcoat | ||
| + | pocket and held it up. It was a diamond | ||
| + | ring of splendour and beauty. The gems | ||
| + | flashed gloriously and Van Stadens gaped at | ||
| + | their brilliance like a wolf yawning at the | ||
| + | moon.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Van Stadens."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | but dot ring is der fonderfullest part of your | ||
| + | story as yet."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>He took it in his hand and his eyes danced | ||
| + | greedily to the sparkle of the beautiful bauble.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | put the man into a spare cabin, and gave the | ||
| + | job of watching him to the steward, a stout | ||
| + | hearty fellow. The girl was stone-dead, of | ||
| + | course. I ordered her dress, jacket and hat | ||
| + | to be removed, likewise the jewellery about | ||
| + | her& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | cried Van Stadens.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | shall see with your own eyes!" exclaimed the | ||
| + | captain. "I gave these orders more with | ||
| + | the idea of the things proving of use to | ||
| + | identify her by than for their value. I never | ||
| + | saw such under-linen, | ||
| + | fine and choice. Beyond description, | ||
| + | Van Stadens. There was a ball-wound in | ||
| + | her shoulder, with a caking of blood about it. | ||
| + | That the fellow below had done this thing I | ||
| + | could not suppose. There were no arms of | ||
| + | any kind& | ||
| + | him or in his boat. We buried the poor,< | ||
| + | sweet, murdered thing in her fine linen, | ||
| + | giving her a sailor' | ||
| + | and a sailor' | ||
| + | the boat, she looked unnatural and unlucky, | ||
| + | and I think my men would have mutinied | ||
| + | if I had ordered them to sling her over | ||
| + | the side. We unstepped the mast and sent | ||
| + | her adrift for the <span class=" | ||
| + | pick up, if so be he stands in need of | ||
| + | her."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in a low voice, and with as much awe in | ||
| + | his face as his fiery pimple of a nose would | ||
| + | suffer to appear.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Flying Deutchman!"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | smiled, and then broke into a roar of | ||
| + | laughter.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | done," exclaimed Thunder, with his face full< | ||
| + | of blood. "All that day the man remained | ||
| + | moody, with a lunatic' | ||
| + | refused to eat or drink. I was in and out a | ||
| + | dozen times but couldn' | ||
| + | Well, sir, at nine o' | ||
| + | steward came and told me he was asleep. | ||
| + | He was watched all night, but never stirred; | ||
| + | all next night, and the day after that, and the | ||
| + | night after that, sir, but he never stirred. | ||
| + | For sixty hours he slept, Mr. Van Stadens, | ||
| + | or may I not leave this room alive! and I | ||
| + | thought he meant dying in that fashion. | ||
| + | Then he awoke, sat up and talked rationally. | ||
| + | His mind had come back to him and he was | ||
| + | as sensible as you or me."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | feeling stronger, he told me his story." | ||
| + | here Captain Thunder repeated what is | ||
| + | already known to the reader.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | full of incredulity.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | isn't true."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | "Blast the Flying Dutchman! who doubts | ||
| + | him?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Stadens.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | account to me for the boat I saw him in, for | ||
| + | his female companion lying dead of a gunshot | ||
| + | wound; for this," said he, holding up the | ||
| + | diamond ring, "and for other matters I'll | ||
| + | show you when we get aboard."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Stadens.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Geoffrey Fenton in the cabin. He looked | ||
| + | haggard, weak, extremely sorrowful; but he | ||
| + | was as sane as ever he had been at any time | ||
| + | of his life. Thunder introduced Van Stadens, | ||
| + | and to this Dutchman Fenton repeated his | ||
| + | story, relating it so artlessly, with such< | ||
| + | minuteness of detail, above all unconsciously | ||
| + | using so many old-fashioned Dutch words, | ||
| + | which he had acquired from Vanderdecken, | ||
| + | that the wonder in Van Stadens' | ||
| + | into a look of stupefaction. He muttered, | ||
| + | frequently, " | ||
| + | amazing!" | ||
| + | Thunder' | ||
| + | was not full till the articles belonging to | ||
| + | Fenton& | ||
| + | produced. Van Stadens examined the pearls, | ||
| + | the rings which poor Imogene had worn, the | ||
| + | silver goblet, the antique dress, jacket and | ||
| + | sealskin cap, Vanderdecken' | ||
| + | the pitcher, the articles of food which had | ||
| + | been preserved, these things, I say, Van | ||
| + | Stadens examined with mingled admiration | ||
| + | and consternation, | ||
| + | to whom another exhibits a treasure he has | ||
| + | sold his soul to the Devil for.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Thunder.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the Dutchman. "Do you go home with | ||
| + | Toonder, Herr Fenton?"</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | not do it. The crew have got scent of the | ||
| + | experiences of our friend here and wouldn' | ||
| + | sail with him for tenfold the value of the | ||
| + | plate and silver in the Death Ship's hold."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a melancholy smile.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | this, Mr. Van Stadens," | ||
| + | "You are a man of honour and will see that | ||
| + | right is done to this poor gentleman."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Thunder.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Fenton.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | captain. "No one need know how they | ||
| + | were obtained; not a syllable of Mr. Fenton' | ||
| + | story must be repeated; otherwise he'll get | ||
| + | no ship to carry him home."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in Dutch: "I will buy these goods from | ||
| + | you. Their value shall be assessed to our | ||
| + | common satisfaction. Meanwhile, a room | ||
| + | in my house& | ||
| + | service. Remain awhile to recruit your | ||
| + | strength, and I will secure you a passage to | ||
| + | Amsterdam in the Indiaman that is due here | ||
| + | about the end of this month."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Fenton had taken leave of Captain Thunder | ||
| + | and his ship.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>It is proper to say here that the hospitable | ||
| + | but shrewd Dutchman gave Fenton eight | ||
| + | hundred dollars for the Vanderdecken relics, | ||
| + | and when Fenton had sailed, sold them for | ||
| + | three thousand ducatoons, of eighty stivers | ||
| + | each, after clearing some thousands of dollars | ||
| + | by exhibiting them.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Fenton in Europe may be gathered from his | ||
| + | narrative. Necessity forced him back to his | ||
| + | old vocation and he continued at sea, holding | ||
| + | various important commands down to the age | ||
| + | of sixty. Among his papers is a curious note | ||
| + | relating to the fate of the vessels which had | ||
| + | encountered the Death Ship during the time | ||
| + | to which his narrative refers. The Plymouth | ||
| + | snow, after speaking the Saracen, was never | ||
| + | again heard of; the Saracen was lost on one | ||
| + | of the islands of the Chagos Archipelago, | ||
| + | her people were saved to a man by the boats. | ||
| + | The Centaur, three days after sighting the | ||
| + | Death Ship, was dismasted in a hurricane | ||
| + | and struggled into Simon' | ||
| + | condition. The fate of the French corsair is | ||
| + | not known, but it is satisfactory to know | ||
| + | that the James and Mary reached the Thames | ||
| + | in safety after an uneventful passage.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | PRINTED BY<br /> | ||
| + | TILLOTSON AND SON, MAWDSLEY STREET< | ||
| + | BOLTON< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <h2> | ||
| + | HURST & BLACKETT' | ||
| + | STANDARD LIBRARY.< | ||
| + | </h2> | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | LONDON:< | ||
| + | 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET, W.<br /> | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | OF CHEAP EDITIONS OF<br /> | ||
| + | POPULAR MODERN WORKS.< | ||
| + | ILLUSTRATED BY<br /> | ||
| + | <span class=" | ||
| + | John Leech, John Tenniel, J. Laslett Pott, etc.</ | ||
| + | Each in a Single Volume, with Frontispiece, | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | forms a very good beginning to what will doubtless be a very successful undertaking. | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | and well entitled to the large circulation which it cannot fail to obtain in its | ||
| + | present convenient and cheap shape. The volume combines with the great recommendations | ||
| + | of a clear, bold type and good paper, the lesser, but attractive merits of being well | ||
| + | illustrated and elegantly bound."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | success. John Halifax, the hero of this most beautiful story, is no ordinary hero, and | ||
| + | this his history is no ordinary book. It is a full-length portrait of a true gentleman, one | ||
| + | of nature' | ||
| + | The work abounds in incident, and many of the scenes are full of graphic power and true | ||
| + | pathos. It is a book that few will read without becoming wiser and better."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | beautifully painted, as are the pictures of their domestic life, and the growing up of their | ||
| + | children; and the conclusion of the book is beautiful and touching."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | information, | ||
| + | which its descriptions are enlivened. Among its greatest and most lasting charms is its | ||
| + | reverent and serious spirit."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Travel' | ||
| + | while the ' | ||
| + | course are narrated with a spirit which shows how much he enjoyed these reliefs from | ||
| + | the ennui of every-day life."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | attractive. Its matter is good. A sentiment, a tenderness, are commanded by her which | ||
| + | are as individual as they are elegant. We should not soon come to an end were we to | ||
| + | specify all the delicate touches and attractive pictures which place ' | ||
| + | books of its class."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | think: they are much more to the purpose than the treatises upon the women and daughters | ||
| + | of England, which were fashionable some years ago, and these thoughts mark the | ||
| + | progress of opinion, and indicate a higher tone of character, and a juster estimate of | ||
| + | woman' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | written in an earnest, philanthropic, | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | admirable pictures of Scottish life and scenery. The plot is cleverly complicated, | ||
| + | there is great vitality in the dialogue, and remarkable brilliancy in the descriptive passages, | ||
| + | as who that has read ' | ||
| + | But the story has a ' | ||
| + | feminine delicacy of thought and diction, and in the truly womanly tenderness of its | ||
| + | sentiments. The eloquent author sets before us the essential attributes of Christian | ||
| + | virtue, their deep and silent workings in the heart, and their beautiful manifestations in | ||
| + | the life, with a delicacy, a power, and a truth which can hardly be surpassed."& | ||
| + | Post.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | MODERN INSTANCES.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | will stand as long as that of Scott' | ||
| + | its purpose, and the happy description it affords of American life and manners, still continue | ||
| + | the subject of universal admiration. To say thus much is to say enough, though we | ||
| + | must just mention that the new edition forms a part of the Publishers' | ||
| + | Library, which has included some of the very best specimens of light literature that ever | ||
| + | have been written."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | OF THE LAST FOUR POPES.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Catholic. Cardinal Wiseman has here treated a special subject with so much generality | ||
| + | and geniality that his recollections will excite no ill-feeling in those who are most conscientiously | ||
| + | opposed to every idea of human infallibility represented in Papal domination."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and she has the power not only to conceive clearly what it is that she wishes to | ||
| + | say, but to express it in language effective and vigorous. In 'A Life for a Life' she is | ||
| + | fortunate in a good subject, and she has produced a work of strong effect. The | ||
| + | reader, having read the book through for the story, will be apt (if he be of our persuasion) | ||
| + | to return and read again many pages and passages with greater pleasure | ||
| + | than on a first perusal. The whole book is replete with a graceful, tender delicacy; | ||
| + | and, in addition to its other merits, it is written in good careful English."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | masterly hand; the events are dramatically set forth; the descriptions of scenery and | ||
| + | sketches of society are admirably penned; moreover, the work has an object& | ||
| + | defined moral& | ||
| + | strong, reflective mind visible which lays bare the human heart and human mind to the | ||
| + | very core."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | pleasant reading."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | his reminiscences of Johnson."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | themselves. They will find it well worth their while. There are a freshness and originality | ||
| + | about it quite charming, and there is a certain nobleness in the treatment both of | ||
| + | sentiment and incident which is not often found."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | safer guide than the talented author of this work, who, by a residence of half a century, | ||
| + | has practically grasped the habits, manners, and social conditions of the colonists he describes. | ||
| + | All who wish to form a fair idea of the difficulties and pleasures of life in a new | ||
| + | country, unlike England in some respects, yet like it in many, should read this book."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | elements of a very wide popularity. It will please its thousands."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | book. We have seldom met with any work in which the realities of history and the | ||
| + | poetry of fiction were more happily interwoven."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | OF THE ARISTOCRACY.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | have regard to its excellent plan or its not less excellent execution. It ought to be found | ||
| + | on every drawing-room table. Here you have nearly fifty captivating romances with the | ||
| + | pith of all their interest preserved in undiminished poignancy, and any one may be read | ||
| + | in half an hour. It is not the least of their merits that the romances are founded on fact& | ||
| + | what, at least, has been handed down for truth by long tradition& | ||
| + | of reality far exceeds the romance of fiction."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Standard Library. For neatness, elegance, and distinctness the volumes in this series | ||
| + | surpass anything with which we are familiar. 'The Laird of Norlaw' | ||
| + | the author' | ||
| + | of sympathy that never flags."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | exquisite of modern novels."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | acquainted with the inner life and habits of a part of the Italian peninsula which is the | ||
| + | very centre of the national crisis. We can praise her performance as interesting, | ||
| + | and full of opportune instruction."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | is impossible to close the book without liking the writer as well as the subject. The work | ||
| + | is engaging, because real."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | one of the most popular works of the day. There is a force and truthfulness about these | ||
| + | tales which mark them as the production of no ordinary mind, and we cordially recommend | ||
| + | them to the perusal of all lovers of fiction."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | NAVARRE.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | it to general perusal. It reflects the highest credit on the industry and ability of Miss | ||
| + | Freer. Nothing can be more interesting than her story of the life of Jeanne D' | ||
| + | and the narrative is as trustworthy as it is attractive."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'The Caxtons.'"& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | SCENES, AND ANECDOTES FROM COURTS OF JUSTICE.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of singular and highly romantic stories."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | attention. The present cheap and elegant edition includes the true story of the Colleen | ||
| + | Bawn."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | full of delicate character-painting. The interest kindled in the first chapter burns brightly | ||
| + | to the close."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Bull.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | novel."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | fueling, and occasionally lightened by touches of quiet, genial humour. The volume is remarkable | ||
| + | for thought, sound sense, shrewd observation, | ||
| + | for all things good and beautiful."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | book will not diminish the reputation of the accomplished author."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | characters are true to human nature, and the story is interesting."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the circulating library."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | has, out of hundreds of volumes, collected thousands of good things, adding thereto | ||
| + | much that appears in print for the first time, and which, of course, gives increased value | ||
| + | to this very readable book."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | study."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | stories."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | It is a vigorous novel."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | are delineated with great power. Above and beyond these elements of a good novel, | ||
| + | there is that indefinable charm with which true genius invests all it touches."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | whole; it abounds with details of unequalled beauty. M. Victor Hugo has stamped upon | ||
| + | every page the hall-mark of genius."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | graceful and charming book, with a well-managed story, clearly-cut characters, and | ||
| + | sentiments expressed with an exquisite elocution. The dialogues especially sparkle with | ||
| + | repartee. It is a book which the world will like. This is high praise of a work of art | ||
| + | and so we intend it."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in every gallery of religious biography. There are few lives that will be fuller of instruction, | ||
| + | interest, and consolation."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | experience and knowledge of the world. The whole book is worth reading."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | more. It is written with unflagging ability, and it is as even as it is clever. The author | ||
| + | has determined to do nothing short of the best, and has succeeded."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | render human nature so truly, to penetrate its depths with such a searching sagacity, and | ||
| + | to illuminate them with a radiance so eminently the writer' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the work from the first page to the last."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to read ' | ||
| + | manly superiority to tears. We fancy a good many hardened old novel-readers will feel | ||
| + | a rising in the throat as they follow the fortunes of Alec and Annie."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | are always to be found high principle, good taste, sense, and refinement. ' | ||
| + | a story whose pathetic beauty will appeal irresistibly to all readers."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | better for the effort."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | skill with which they are made to work out a story of powerful and pathetic interest."& | ||
| + | News.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Dixon' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | interest. It is a book to be returned to again and again for the deep and searching | ||
| + | knowledge it evinces of human thoughts and feelings."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and noblest kind of domestic stories."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | masterpieces. Edna is worthy of the hand that drew John Halifax."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sparkles with wit and humour."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | readers."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | author' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | history deserves to stand foremost among the author' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | circle of readers. The character of Hannah is one of rare beauty."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | successful novelist."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | previous works."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and simplicity, seem to us to possess a charm even beyond the authoress' | ||
| + | novels. Of none of them can this be said more emphatically than of that which opens the | ||
| + | series 'The Unkind Word.' It is wonderful to see the imaginative power displayed in | ||
| + | the few delicate touches by which this successful love-story is sketched out."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | touching which we owe to the industry and talent of Mrs. Oliphant, and may hold its own | ||
| + | with even 'The Chronicles of Carlingford.'"& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | book is charming. It is interesting in both character and story, and thoroughly good of | ||
| + | its kind."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | which introduced us to 'Salem Chapel,' | ||
| + | Ph& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | popular English history of Marie Antoinette."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | novel-writing, | ||
| + | variety, cheerful dialogue, and general ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | worth reading a second time, were it only for the sake of one ancient Scottish spinster, | ||
| + | who is nearly the counterpart of the admirable Mrs. Margaret Maitland."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | THE POET'S LIFE.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | place in Byronic literature; and it may reasonably be anticipated that this book will be | ||
| + | regarded with deep interest by all who are concerned in the works and the fame of this | ||
| + | great English poet."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | 'SAM SLICK, THE CLOCKMAKER.'< | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | miscellany of sharp sayings, stories, and hard hits. It is full of fun and fancy."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | this. Every line of it tells in some way or other& | ||
| + | wittily. Admiration of Sam's mature talents, and laughter at his droll yarns, constantly | ||
| + | alternate as with unhalting avidity we peruse the work. The Clockmaker proves himself | ||
| + | the fastest time-killer a-going."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | author' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | please some readers& | ||
| + | suit readers of every humour."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | visitor; smiles greet his approach, and wit and wisdom hang upon his tongue. We promise | ||
| + | our readers a great treat from the perusal of these 'Wise Saws,' which contain a | ||
| + | world of practical wisdom, and a treasury of the richest fun."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | humorous, and most interesting works which have proceeded from the prolific pen of its | ||
| + | author. We all know what shrewdness of observation, | ||
| + | what natural resources of drollery, and what a happy method of hitting off the | ||
| + | broader characteristics of the life he reviews, belong to Judge Haliburton. We have all | ||
| + | those qualities here; but they are balanced by a serious literary purpose, and are employed | ||
| + | in the communication of information respecting certain phases of colonial experience | ||
| + | which impart to the work an element of sober utility."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | inimitable ' | ||
| + | transatlantic progeny. His present collection of comic stories and laughable traits is a | ||
| + | budget of fun, full of rich specimens of American humour."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | entertaining sketches. The work embraces the most varied topics& | ||
| + | religious eccentricities, | ||
| + | all come in for their share of satire; while we have specimens of genuine American | ||
| + | exaggerations and graphic pictures of social and domestic life as it is. The work will | ||
| + | have a wide circulation."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | from the inexhaustible store of our Yankee friend. In the volume before us he dishes up, | ||
| + | with his accustomed humour and terseness of style, a vast number of tales, none more | ||
| + | entertaining than another, and all of them graphically illustrative of the ways and manners | ||
| + | of brother Jonathan. The anomalies of American law, the extraordinary adventures | ||
| + | incident to life in the backwoods, and, above all, the peculiarities of American society, are | ||
| + | variously, powerfully, and, for the most part, amusingly exemplified."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | features, no writer equals Judge Haliburton, and the subjects embraced in the present | ||
| + | delightful book call forth, in new and vigorous exercise, his peculiar powers. 'The | ||
| + | Americans at Home' will not be less popular than any of his previous works."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN.< | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | from boyhood to age of a perfect man& | ||
| + | both well and highly wrought. Throughout it is conceived in a high spirit, and written | ||
| + | with great ability. This cheap and handsome new edition is worthy to pass freely from | ||
| + | hand to hand as a gift-book in many households."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | beautifully painted, as are the pictures of their domestic life, and the growing up of their | ||
| + | children, and the conclusion of the book is beautiful and touching."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | success. John Halifax, the hero of this most beautiful story, is no ordinary hero, and this | ||
| + | his history is no ordinary book. It is a full-length portrait of a true gentleman, one of | ||
| + | nature' | ||
| + | The work abounds in incident, and is full of graphic power and true pathos. It is a book | ||
| + | that few will read without becoming wiser and better."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | true-hearted, | ||
| + | may thank the author for means of doing so."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | charity, and the well-earned reputation of the author of 'John Halifax.'"& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | written in an earnest, philanthropic, | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and she has the power not only to conceive clearly what it is that she wishes to say, but | ||
| + | to express it in language effective and vigorous. In 'A Life for a Life' she is fortunate | ||
| + | in a good subject, and she has produced a work of strong effect. The reader, having read | ||
| + | the book through for the story, will be apt (if he be of our persuasion) to return and read | ||
| + | again many pages and passages with greater pleasure than on a first perusal. The whole | ||
| + | book is replete with a graceful, tender delicacy; and, in addition to its other merits, it is | ||
| + | written in good careful English."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | one of the most popular works of the day."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | energy of human portraiture, | ||
| + | stamped this author as one of the first novelists of our day."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and noblest kind of domestic stories. The novelist' | ||
| + | and sweetness."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | are masterpieces. Edna is worthy of the hand that drew John Halifax."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | feeling, and occasionally lightened by touches of quiet genial humour. The volume is remarkable | ||
| + | for thought, sound sense, shrewd observation, | ||
| + | for all things good and beautiful."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of a single volume the writer has hit off a circle of varied characters, all true to nature& | ||
| + | true to the highest nature& | ||
| + | in suspense till the knot is happily and gracefully resolved; while, at the same time, a | ||
| + | pathetic interest is sustained by an art of which it would be difficult to analyse the secret. | ||
| + | It is a choice gift to be able thus to render human nature so truly, to penetrate its depths | ||
| + | with such a searching sagacity, and to illuminate them with a radiance so eminently the | ||
| + | writer' | ||
| + | that even he would pronounce ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | bookseller, for it deserves a place in that little collection of clever and wholesome stories | ||
| + | which forms one of the comforts of a well-appointed home."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | spirit of the whole work is excellent."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of a generous heart the purest truths of life.'& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | better."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | by a pure and noble spirit."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | author' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | successful novelist."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | circle of readers. The character of Hannah is one of rare beauty."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mind nothing from her pen that has a more enduring charm than the graceful sketches in | ||
| + | this work. Such a character as Jessie stands out from a crowd of heroines as the type of | ||
| + | all that is truly noble, pure, and womanly."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in elevation of thought and style, it is perhaps their superior in interest of plot and | ||
| + | dramatic intensity. The characters are admirably delineated, and the dialogue is natural | ||
| + | and clear."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | MRS. OLIPHANT.< | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | admirable pictures of Scottish life and scenery. The plot is cleverly complicated, | ||
| + | there is great vitality in the dialogue, and remarkable brilliancy in the descriptive passages, | ||
| + | as who that has read ' | ||
| + | But the story has a ' | ||
| + | feminine delicacy of thought and diction, and in the truly womanly tenderness of its | ||
| + | sentiments. The eloquent author sets before us the essential attributes of Christian | ||
| + | virtue, their deep and silent workings in the heart, and their beautiful manifestations in | ||
| + | the life, with a delicacy, a power, and a truth which can hardly be surpassed."& | ||
| + | Post.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Standard Library. For neatness, elegance, and distinctness the volumes in this series | ||
| + | surpass anything with which we are familiar. 'The Laird of Norlaw' | ||
| + | the author' | ||
| + | of sympathy that never flags."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | exquisite of modern novels."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a very pretty one. It would be worth reading a second time, were it only for the sake of | ||
| + | one ancient Scottish spinster, who is nearly the counterpart of the admirable Mrs. Margaret | ||
| + | Maitland."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | always to be found high principle, good taste, sense, and refinement. ' | ||
| + | whose pathetic beauty will appeal irresistibly to all readers."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | touching which we owe to the industry and talent of Mrs. Oliphant, and may hold its own | ||
| + | with even 'The Chronicles of Carlingford.'"& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | which introduced us to 'Salem Chapel,' | ||
| + | Ph& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in every gallery of religious biography. There are few lives that will be fuller of instruction, | ||
| + | interest, and consolation."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | GEORGE MAC DONALD, LL.D.<br /> | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the work from the first page to the last."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to read ' | ||
| + | manly superiority to tears. We fancy a good many hardened old novel-readers will feel | ||
| + | a rising in the throat as they follow the fortunes of Alec and Annie."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | more to the souls of men and women than to their social outside. He reads life and | ||
| + | Nature like a true poet."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | interest. It is a work to be returned to again and again for the deep and searching | ||
| + | knowledge it evinces of human thoughts and feelings."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | excels, charming transcripts of Nature, full of light, air, and colour."& | ||
| + | Review.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | genius."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Quarterly Review.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to make them in themselves an intellectual treat to which the reader returns again and | ||
| + | again."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | readers."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | extremely well drawn."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | close. It may be doubted if Sir Walter Scott himself ever painted a Scotch fireside with | ||
| + | more truth than Dr. Mac Donald."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | descriptions of natural scenery are vivid, truthful, and artistic; the general reflections are | ||
| + | those of a refined, thoughtful, and poetical philosopher, | ||
| + | of the book is lofty, pure, and invigorating."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | life-like. There are many powerful scenes, and the portraits will stay long in our | ||
| + | memory."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | insight into character, and happy touches of description."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | for many years. It is not a novel to be idly read and laid aside; it is a grand work, to be | ||
| + | kept near at hand, and studied and thought over."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | EACH IN ONE VOLUME CROWN 8vo, 6s. | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | gallant unconventionality of its author. ' | ||
| + | something more and better. It should do as much good as the best sermon ever written | ||
| + | or delivered extempore. The story is told with a grand simplicity, an unconscious poetry | ||
| + | of eloquence which stirs the very depths of the heart. One of the main excellencies of | ||
| + | this novel is the delicacy of touch with which the author shows her most delightful characters | ||
| + | to be after all human beings, and not angels before their time."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | by rays of genuine humour. Altogether this story is more and better than a novel."& | ||
| + | Post.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the action and interest are unflaggingly sustained from first to last, and the book is pervaded | ||
| + | by an atmosphere of elevated, earnest thought."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | reading about. The central figure of her story is Algernon Sydney; and this figure she | ||
| + | invests with a singular dignity and power. He always appears with effect, but no liberties | ||
| + | are taken with the facts of his life. The plot is adapted with great felicity to them. | ||
| + | His part in it, absolutely consistent as it is with historical truth, gives it reality as well as | ||
| + | dignity. Some of the scenes are remarkably vivid. The escape is an admirable narrative, | ||
| + | which almost makes one hold one's breath as one reads."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | displays on every page the grace and quiet power of her former works."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | is a wide humanity in the book that cannot fail to accomplish its author' | ||
| + | World.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | feeling, and its elevated morality. It forms an additional proof, if such were needed, | ||
| + | that Miss Lyall has a mandate to write."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | little impulsive French heroine, who endures their cold hospitality and at last wins | ||
| + | their affection, is thoroughly charming; while throughout the book there runs a golden | ||
| + | thread of pure brotherly and sisterly love, which pleasantly reminds us that the making | ||
| + | and marring of marriage is not, after all, the sum total of real life."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <h2> | ||
| + | HURST & BLACKETT' | ||
| + | LIST OF NEW WORKS.< | ||
| + | </h2> | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | LONDON:< | ||
| + | 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET, W.<br /> | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | <span class=" | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | India</ | ||
| + | from original Drawings by the Author. 1 vol. small 4to. 10s. 6d.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | have met and those who desire to meet the king of the Indian fauna in his own | ||
| + | dominions."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | work of travel in an already well-known country."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to our great Eastern possessions, | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | useful hints with regard to outfit, & | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | By the <span class=" | ||
| + | of the Court and Times of King Ernest of Hanover." | ||
| + | With Portrait of Dr. Keate. 1 vol. crown 8vo. 6s.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | full of good stories, and will be a joy to all Etonians."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | arising out of his main text."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of a thoroughly enthusiastic Etonian."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | nine years' sojourn."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Historical Biography based on Letters and other Documents in | ||
| + | the possession of <span class=" | ||
| + | By <span class=" | ||
| + | &c. 2 vols. crown 8vo. 21s.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | been able to throw upon the public and private conduct both of Lady Hamilton | ||
| + | and of Nelson."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | thorough way in which he has dealt with the story of Lady Hamilton, | ||
| + | without offending the moral sense of his readers."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | marshalling facts, and at least a genuine tribute of admiration may be offered to | ||
| + | the author for the discreet and scholarly manner in which he has treated a matter | ||
| + | bristling with dangers to an inexperienced or careless writer."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | volumes which he has devoted to Lady Hamilton."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | YACHT. By <span class=" | ||
| + | Wood</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | agreeable reading, and to intending travellers in the same track it contains many | ||
| + | useful hints and suggestions."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | account of a pastime peculiar to the Anglo-Saxon race."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Field Sports</ | ||
| + | With Eight Illustrations, | ||
| + | small 4to. 10s. 6d.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and containing just those particulars that a sportsman wishes to know."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | pleasant fashion as to make his pages agreeable reading to all for whom the | ||
| + | subject itself has attractions; | ||
| + | spirited illustrations."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | capital spirit and style; there are some thrilling pages on pig-sticking and tiger-shooting."& | ||
| + | World.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of " | ||
| + | With Illustrations and Map of the Author' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Telegraph.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | an entertaining and chatty narration of incidents of travel."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | TIMES OF KING ERNEST OF HANOVER. By the Rev. <span class=" | ||
| + | A. Wilkinson</ | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | the King. 6s.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | precedence according to military rank, of the characters he met with, and of the | ||
| + | Hanoverian clergy of those days, will be found decidedly interesting."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in anecdotes of many celebrities, | ||
| + | century, and, indeed, of all kinds and conditions of men and women with whom | ||
| + | the author was brought in contact by his courtly or pastoral office."& | ||
| + | Gazette.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | good and new stories of King Ernest, and also of a perfect host of celebrities, | ||
| + | English and German."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | <span class=" | ||
| + | 2 vols. crown 8vo. 21s.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | than one half the professedly sensational novels."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and are extremely interesting reading."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Gentleman." | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | instructive reading. The contents of Mrs. Craik' | ||
| + | kind, but all the papers are good and readable, and one at least of them | ||
| + | of real importance."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | IN MANY LANDS. By <span class=" | ||
| + | Author of " | ||
| + | Sutherland Highlanders," | ||
| + | H. R. H. the PRINCESS LOUISE</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | be instructive as well as interesting."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | information which they give and the spirit which informs them."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and the Events which led to them.</ | ||
| + | Barrister-at-Law. 2 vols. demy 8vo. With Maps and Plans. 30s.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | not only the entire military drama, but also the political events connected with | ||
| + | it, and whoever reads the book with care has gone a considerable way towards | ||
| + | mastering the difficult Egyptian question."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | judicious historian. From a literary point of view, his volumes may be thought | ||
| + | to contain too many unimportant incidents, yet their presence was necessary, | ||
| + | perhaps, in a complete record, and the most fastidious reader will unhesitatingly | ||
| + | acquit Mr. Royle of filling his pages with anything that can be called padding."& | ||
| + | James' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Ashton</ | ||
| + | 1 vol. small 4to. 12s.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | is certainly not a dull page in the volume."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Post.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | By His Daughter, Madame <span class=" | ||
| + | <span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of his life. Mrs. Simpson' | ||
| + | in accuracy and grace worthy of the original and of the subject."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | THOSE IN SORROW. Dedicated by Permission to <span class=" | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | readers. They are greatly superior to the average of what is called religious | ||
| + | literature."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | profit."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Ethics</ | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and brilliancy. It is eminently suggestive and stimulating."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES. By Mrs. <span class=" | ||
| + | Vols. 1 and 2, demy 8vo. 30s.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with the history of Scandinavia, | ||
| + | during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The work is likely to be of permanent | ||
| + | value to the students of history."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | PUBLISHED BY HURST & BLACKETT. | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | By <span class=" | ||
| + | of the Grosvenor," | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | book of his is one of the finest books of its kind in our language."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A HOUSE PARTY. By <span class=" | ||
| + | 1 vol. crown 8vo. 6s.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | firm and clear outline."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>ON THE SCENT. By <span class=" | ||
| + | Author of ' | ||
| + | crown 8 vo. 6s.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Author of " | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | healthy purpose with which it is animated."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | <span class=" | ||
| + | Race," &c. 2 vols.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | adventure."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A BRETON MAIDEN. By <span class=" | ||
| + | Author of "Till my Wedding-Day." | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | admirable novel."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | spirit of the time she depicts."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 3 vols.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | from the reproach of dulness."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A NEW FACE AT THE DOOR. By <span class=" | ||
| + | Author of "A Daughter of the Gods." 2 vols.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | clever hand, and standing out distinctly in their several ways as real persons."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A WILY WIDOW. By <span class=" | ||
| + | of "A Modern Greek Heroine," | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | pages are almost as captivating as the painful interest of his more tragic ones, | ||
| + | and altogether the story is readable and thrilling."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Age.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | whose uncovenanted friendship for each other survives a host of trials, and at | ||
| + | last, though somewhat late in life, is rewarded."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | account of a Cruise in 'The Flying Dutchman,' | ||
| + | the Papers of the late <span class=" | ||
| + | Mariner. By <span class=" | ||
| + | Grosvenor,' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Robinson</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A DAUGHTER OF DIVES. By <span class=" | ||
| + | Author of ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and worked out with considerable acquaintance of peoples and climes."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | story of 'The Duchess' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A CREATURE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. By | ||
| + | <span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | scarcely a chapter that could be passed over from absence of interest."& | ||
| + | Society Herald.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A MODERN DELILAH. By <span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | simple force with which its main characters are presented."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Fothergill</ | ||
| + | 1 vol. crown 8vo. 6s.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | story which makes the book peculiarly enjoyable."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A BITTER REPENTANCE. By <span class=" | ||
| + | Sandars</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | author has a fertile imagination, | ||
| + | in which she places her personages."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>IN WHITE AND GOLD. A Story. By Mrs. <span class=" | ||
| + | H. Williamson</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and whose sayings she records with a natural fidelity which reminds one | ||
| + | of Anthony Trollope."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Tale</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with restrained pathos, and keeps his pastoral romance strictly within the limits | ||
| + | of his knowledge and sympathy; the result is a most agreeable story of English | ||
| + | country life."& | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | EACH IN ONE VOLUME CROWN 8vo. | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>By the Author of 'Molly Bawn,' ' | ||
| + | Lilian,' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>By the Author of ' | ||
| + | and their Seaboard,' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>By <span class=" | ||
| + | First Violin,' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>By <span class=" | ||
| + | Wreck of the Grosvenor,' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>ON THE SCENT.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>By <span class=" | ||
| + | More,' ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>By the Author of 'John Halifax, Gentleman,' | ||
| + | Life,' ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>MY LORD AND MY LADY.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>By Mrs. <span class=" | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>By <span class=" | ||
| + | Barrington,' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A HOUSE PARTY.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>By <span class=" | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>By Mrs. <span class=" | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>By <span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>By the Author of 'John Halifax, Gentleman,' | ||
| + | Mother,' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>By the Right Hon. <span class=" | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr class=" | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | </ | ||
the_death_ship_a_strange_story_vol_3.txt · Last modified: 2020/02/08 04:23 by briancarnell