appeared as if leading the way, pointing withone hand and threatening with the other, and every now and then turninground his gibbering distorted countenance, his eyeballs starting fromtheir sockets, and his hair on end as I first saw him. Night afternight have I thus been haunted, till life became a burden to me, and Ishould have jumped overboard and drowned myself, but I knew that he in amoment would fly at me like a shark at its prey, and carry me down inhis cold clasp to the unfathomed depths of the ocean. I was afraid toask any of my shipmates if they saw him, for they would at once havesaid I was a murderer; and thus my mind was left to brood in silence onmy awful destiny; yet I fear, sir, there were many of those with me whowere likely to have seen sights almost as dreadful. Oh! what a drearyvoyage that was. At last, we sighted a long, low line of coast, withthe trees gradually rising from the water, and a grey, sandy beach belowthem. This was the deadly coast of Africa, somewhere about the mouth ofthe Gambia; but we stood on farther to the south, and came to an anchora short way up the Gaboon River, our yard-arms almost touching the loftypalms, cotton-trees, and monkey-bread trees, which grew on its banks.It was a beautiful-looking spot, but death was in every gale, and thoseof our crew who slept on shore died soon afterwards of a fever, whichcarried off several others of our men. I wished to be of the number,but neither sickness, shot, nor the sea, could have power over oneaccursed like me.
"We found the greater part of our living cargo already assembled inbarracoons close down to the shore; and the remainder arrived in a fewdays from the interior--men, women, and children, to the number of threehundred. They were all prisoners, taken in war with a neighbouringtribe--hostilities being continued solely for the purpose of makingslaves. As we received them on board, we stowed them away as close asthey would pack between low decks, where there was barely room for themto sit upon their hams; but you know what a hell-afloat a slave-shippresents, and, though we did our best to keep them alive, we lost manybefore the voyage was over. After leaving the coast, we shaped ourcourse for Martinique, where our captain intended to dispose of hisslaves, and then to go back for another cargo. What with the stench ofthe slaves, the heat of the weather, our bad food and water, I wonderany of us survived. We used to have the poor wretches in gangs at atime upon deck to air themselves and to take exercise, but they werequickly sent down again below, and I believe, had it not been for fearof their dying, they would never have been allowed to taste the freshair of heaven. The captain and the first mate used to sleep in a sortof round-house on the after-part of the deck, with arms by their sideready to defend themselves in case of a surprise, for they had not muchconfidence even in their own crew, though they were not worse than thegeneral run of slavers.
"One day I was sitting in the shade under the foot of the foresail,trying to get a little fresh air as it blew off the sail, when Halltonplaced himself near me, pretending to be busily engaged in working aTurk's head, or some such thing. The rest of the people were either inthe after-part of the ship, or lying about the decks asleep. Lookingcautiously round to see that no one observed him, he addressed me.
"`How like you a slaving life?' he began; `pleasant isn't it? Blackfever, yellow fever, and the stench of these negroes in one's nose allone's days. For my part, I'd as soon mend shoes, or turn tailor, asspend my time in this way.'
"`Then why did you join the brig? You knew how she was to be employed,'I observed.
"`I, my fine fellow! I never, for a moment, intended to keep at thiswork; I had other objects in view. I know I can trust to you, so I donot mind talking of them. I have long formed a plan by which we canmake a rapid fortune, and spend our days, like gentlemen, in luxury andindependence. Ah! you are a lad of spirit, and will join me; but theidea must not be hinted at, even to the stars.'
"He thus continued for some time, letting out by degrees what he wasthinking of, so that the whole of his proposal should not take me bysurprise, when he explained it to me.
"Well, we reached Martinique in safety, and, after landing the slaves,prepared for another trip across the Atlantic. How Brand Hallton gainedthe information, I do not know; but, while lying here, he learned thaton our return the brig was to be fitted up with cabins, and that themerchant who owned her intended to return in her to France, with hisfamily and all the wealth he had amassed. In the meantime, he wasbusily employed in working his way into the confidence of the worstdisposed of the crew, and was very active in engaging several new handsto supply the place of those who died by fever.
"The second voyage was much like the first. We took on board a stilllarger number of blacks, and lost many of the whites by sickness. Dayafter day we lost one or other of our crew, till scarcely any of thosewho sailed with us from France remained. The first man we lost diedraving mad: it was dreadful to listen to him. No sooner did he touchthe water than there was Arnold's ghost, with its fierce staring eyes,surrounded by a pale, blue light, and, seizing the corpse in its grasp,it turned it round and round, gibbering and mowing at it with delight,it seemed, and then plunged with it beneath the waters. I shuddered asI saw it, for I felt that such would be my fate, or, perhaps, a worseone; for I fancied that if I was seized with the fever, I, perhaps,should be thrown overboard while yet alive, and I pictured to myself thehorror of feeling myself in _his_ power, carried down--down--down toeternal fire and torment. I could not withdraw my eye from the spotwhere I had seen the corpse disappear. As I watched, that dreadedfigure again rose to the surface without his prey; and, as we sailedalong, he kept following in our course, his countenance now assuming alook of eagerness, as if watching for further victims. He was notdisappointed: two days afterwards, another Frenchman died, and his fatewas like that of the first; and such was the lot of every one who diedon board the ship. Though I felt on each occasion that my turn wouldcome next, I lived on, and did not even catch the fever. After landingthe blacks in Martinique, we found that Hallton's information wascorrect; and the brig, a remarkably fast sailer and a fine vessel inevery way, quickly prepared to take the merchant, his money-chests, andhis wife and daughters, on board. Once or twice I thought of warningthem of what I more than expected their fate would be; but fear ofHallton, and the influence he had gained over me, prevented me fromsaying anything; and they embarked.
"The old gentleman was in high glee at the thought of returning oncemore to his _belle France_. His wife was a Creole, and did not seemmuch to like the trouble of moving; but his daughters were in raptureswith the idea of visiting Paris and all its wonders. There were threeof them; all remarkably handsome girls, tall and slight, with clearolive complexions and sparkling eyes. The old man loved his daughtersalmost as much as his dollars, of which he had many thousands on board,the greater part of the wealth he had accumulated during upwards ofthirty years' banishment from his native land. For some days aftersailing all appeared to go on well, and I hoped that Hallton had givenup the evil intentions I knew he had entertained; for I began to feel atender interest in one of the younger daughters of our owner. What isstrange, sir, is, that whenever she was on deck at night, where sheoften came to watch the bright stars glittering in the water, thedreaded ghost of Arnold never appeared. Those few days were the onlyones of anything like peace or happiness I have enjoyed since I plungedso deeply into crime. She was indeed to me a ministering angel: and Idetermined, for her sake, to try and reform. Hallton suspectedsomething and watched me narrowly, keeping his plans entirely from me,so that I was not prepared for the tragedy which was soon to follow.Two of our mates having died from the fever, I was appointed to do dutyin the place of the youngest, and, by this means, had opportunities,which I should not otherwise have enjoyed, of paying slight attentionsto the young ladies.
"I was not long in discovering that my unfeigned devotion had its dueeffect on the heart of Mdlle. Julie, the youngest of the three. Thoughrespectful and tender in my manner, I was bolder than under othercircumstances I should have been towards one so much my superior in rankand education. She either did not consider how much below h
er I wasplaced, or disregarded the circumstance, for in perfect innocence ofheart she encouraged my advances; and her old father and mother beinggenerally in their cabin below, had no opportunity of discovering whatwe were about. At last I ventured to offer my arm to assist her inwalking the deck when the ship rolled much. She accepted it with butslight hesitation; and from that day forward I was her constantcompanion, her sisters being rather amused than otherwise by what theyconsidered merely a sailor's gallantry towards the youngest andprettiest lady present; the captain, who, in his way, was a veryrespectable man, taking them under his especial care. They were,however, not so fond of the fresh air as Mdlle. Julie, and thus she wasoften on deck alone with me. Often would she stay by my side, watchingthe sun sink with a halo of ruddy flame into the ocean, till thetwinkling stars came out, and the pale moon cast its tranquil
Foxholme Hall, and Other Tales Page 21
