light uponthe sea. She used to recount to me, with artless simplicity, the eventsof her short life, and all her hopes and prospects for the future. Shewas not ambitious: she would like to see Paris and all its wonders; butafter that, she would be content to settle down in a quiet littlecountry village, with--
"`One you love,' I added, as she paused.
"`Yes,' she answered, blushing. And I thereon spoke of my love anddevotion, but confessed my poverty and the hopelessness of ever gainingsufficient to support her.
"She smiled at my scruples; told me that she had wealth enough for both,and that she valued a true and honest heart more than all the riches ofthe world.
"Poor girl! she little knew the accursed wretch to whom she was ready tolink her fate. Once or twice I thought of telling her the truth; but Idared not: indeed, while I was by her side, I already felt better, andthought I might reform. Dreams--dreams, which were soon to fade away,and leave the frightful reality more glaring before my eyes. Some timehad thus passed; the winds were light and baffling, so we had not mademuch way, when one night, during my watch on deck, I found Brand Halltonstanding close by me, just before the mainmast. Besides the man at thewheel, there was only one lookout man forward awake; the rest of thewatch were fast asleep, stowed away under the poop-deck.
"`How fares your love with the old Frenchman's pretty daughter?' saidHallton, touching my arm.
"I shuddered as he did so, and could scarcely answer.
"`What matters that to you?' I at length replied. `She is not likelyto think of one so mean and poor as I am,' I added.
"`No, no,' he answered, in a low, jeering tone; `you can't deceive me,my man. She looks upon you as an officer and a gentleman. Ha, ha, ha!With one like me, a poor man before the mast, the case would bedifferent. I'll tell you what it is, Hawkins. The girl loves you, andwould marry you to-morrow, if we had a priest to join your hands. Shedoes not know that you are a murderer,' he hissed in my ear. `If anyone told her, she would not believe it. I know what women are when theyare in love, as that girl is with you; but the old father would not beso deaf; and, at all events, he would as soon see his daughter in thegrave as married to one like you. Ha, ha, ha!'
"`I do not know what you are aiming at,' I exclaimed, turning round onmy tormentor. `Do you wish to provoke me?'
"`Pardon me, Mr Officer,' he answered, laughing; `I forgot your rank.No, I do not wish to provoke you; but I wish to tell you the truth, thatyou are following a wild-goose chase, which will only lead you amongshoals at last. Take my advice: change your course, and give up thissentimental work. The girl shall be yours, if you follow my advice; butif not, you will lose her to a certainty, and do yourself no good intothe bargain.'
"I told you, sir, how complete was the power that man exercised over mefrom my having participated with him in the murder of Arnold, nor was helenient in exercising it. Though my spirit was rising, he soon made mequail before him. He so worked upon me, that he at length brought meover to agree to a plan he had formed. This was to put under hatchesthe master and such of the crew as would not join us; then to alter theship's course towards the coast of America, where he proposed to makeoff with as much of the gold as the boats would carry--with Mdlle.Julie as my share--after cutting away the masts, so that we could not bepursued, should the master and his companions, by any chance, breakloose from the hold. He sneered when I told him, that as there was tobe no bloodshed, I did not object to join him in his plan. I was verywicked, I know it; but bad as I was, he was worse. I was tempted by thehopes of winning Julie, for he had convinced me that I could never gainher by fair means. He was deceiving me all the time.
"It did once cross my mind that I would try to make amends for my formercrimes by endeavouring to save the old merchant, and trust to hisgratitude to reward me by his daughter's hand; but my courage failed mewhen I thought of the difficulties I should have to encounter, besidesthe risk, even should I succeed in preserving the father, after all, oflosing the young lady. You see, sir, I had no ballast to keep mesteady; from the want of it the first breeze capsized me, as it willevery man who attempts to sail without it. The next morning the younglady came on deck, looking fresh and fair as the flowers in May. Iwalked with her as usual before her sisters appeared, but there was thaton my countenance which prevented me meeting her eye. She rallied me onmy silence, and I tried to recover my spirits, but in vain. I was onthe point of telling her of the danger she was in, and of vowing toprotect her and her family with my life, when, as my lips were about toutter the words, I caught the dark eye of Brand Hallton watching me at adistance: pretending that the duty of the ship called me away, I quittedher side. I cannot tell you, sir, what my feelings were as I walkedfor'ard. I would gladly have cut the villain down as I passed him, butI dared not, my eye quailed before his dark sneering glance. I divedbelow to my cabin, and buried my face in my hands; I thought my heartwould have burst. Again and again I cursed the bitter fate which haddelivered me into the power of that more than fiend. I was aroused frommy stupor by a dreadful shriek. I rushed on deck. Near the companionlay the old merchant, life ebbing fast away from a deep gash on hishead, which had rendered him all but senseless; one of his daughters waskneeling over him, her hands uplifted as if to protect him from furtherviolence. Brand Hallton was furiously engaged with the captain, whom hehad driven right aft, and, as I appeared, a blow from his cutlass senthim reeling into the sea. Giving one cry for help, which Halltonanswered with a laugh of derision, he cast a look of despair towards theship, and the waters closed over him for ever. The murderer thenturning upon me, exclaimed--
"`You would have betrayed us, would you? You shall suffer for it.'
"I was unarmed, and before I could seize anything to defend myself, ablow from his cutlass stretched me on the deck, but not senseless; Iwish that I had been so, I should have been spared the horrors I waswitness to.
"Apparently satisfied with his vengeance, the miscreant turned to otheracts of blood. Some of the men had overpowered the first mate, who hadremained faithful to the master, and who, even now, while death wasstaring him in the face, refused to accept his life on the dreadfulterms the mutineers proposed. Lashing his hands behind him, they placedhim at the outer end of a plank, which they shoved over the stern of thevessel, some of them holding it down in-board.
"`Will you join us?' said Hallton.
"The mate was a brave fellow.
"`No!' he exclaimed with a firm voice; `never!'
"`Let go,' cried Hallton, with an oath, `he would have hung us if hecould.'
"The man jumped off the plank. Not a cry escaped the mate, as, with asullen splash, he fell into the sea, and sank immediately.
"The deeds of horror which followed I will not describe.
"The ship was now entirely in the power of a gang of the most murderousruffians who ever dared the vengeance of Heaven.
"During all this time the eldest of the three young ladies lay senselesson the deck; but what had become of Julie and her sister I knew not. Aminute afterwards I heard a shriek; I opened my eyes; Julie herselfrushed on deck. She cast one terrified glance around--not a friendlyeye met her sight.
"She saw me bleeding, and apparently dead; she would have thrown herselfdown near me"; but she encountered Hallton on the way. Darting from hisgrasp, before any one could stop her, she fled aft, and threw herselfover the taffrail into the sea. Hallton immediately ordered a boat tobe lowered, but the falls were unrove, and it was some time before itwas in the water, and the brig hove up into the wind. Oh! what an agonyI was in! I did not wish her to be saved.
"I could only hear Brand shouting to the men in the boat, and pointingout to them the direction they were to pull; I watched every movementanxiously; I conjectured that she was still struggling in the waves--love of life triumphing over her fears--and probably kept up by hergarments.
"`Pull away, and you'll have her yet,' shouted the chief mutineer.There was another horrid pause. `No, she has sunk,' he cried. `A
fewstrokes more, and watch for her if she rises. I see her hair below thewater. Oh, you fools, you have missed her!'
"He still stood watching--an age it seemed to me. My feelings almostoverpowered me. He stepped down on the deck. I heard the boatalongside: the men came on deck: they brought not Julie. She hadescaped them; and, had I dared to pray, I would have thanked Heaven forit.
"After this, I know not what occurred for several days. I was in araging fever; and, had I not lost so much blood, I should have died.Hallton had spared my life, both because I was the only man, besideshimself, on board, who understood how to navigate the ship, and becausehe knew my temper, and that I was completely in his power: he had onlyto threaten to deliver me up as the murderer of Arnold, and I was againhis slave.
"Well,
Foxholme Hall, and Other Tales Page 22
