Chapter XXI
In which are narrated the adventures which took place in the corporal'scruise in the jolly-boat.
Corporal Van Spitter, so soon as he had expended all his breath inshouting for help, sat down with such a flop of despair on the thwart ofthe boat, as very nearly to swamp it. As it was, the water poured inover the starboard-gunnel, until the boat was filled up to his ankles.This alarmed him still more, and he remained mute as a stockfish for aquarter of an hour, during which he was swept away by the tide until hewas unable to discover the lights on shore. The wind freshened, and thewater became more rough, the night was dark as pitch, and the corporalskimmed along before the wind and tide. "A tousand tyfels!" at lastmuttered the corporal, as the searching blast crept round his fat sides,and made him shiver. Gust succeeded gust, and, at last, the corporal'steeth chattered with the cold: he raised his feet out of the water atthe bottom of the boat, for his feet were like ice, but in so doing, theweight of his body being above the centre of gravity, the boat careenedover, and with a "Mein Gott!" he hastily replaced them in the coldwater. And now a shower of rain and sleet came down upon the unprotectedbody of the corporal, which added to his misery, to his fear, and tohis despair.
"Where am I?" muttered he; "what will become of me? Ah, mein Gott!twenty tousand tyfels--what had I to do in a boat--I, Corporal VanSpitter?" and then he was again silent for nearly half an hour. The windshifted to the northward, and the rain cleared up, but it was only tomake the corporal suffer more, for the freezing blast poured upon hiswet clothes, and he felt chilled to the very centre of his vitals. Hiswhole body trembled convulsively, he was frozen to the thwart, yet therewas no appearance of daylight coming, and the corporal now abandonedhimself to utter hopelessness and desperation, and commenced praying. Heattempted the Lord's Prayer in Dutch, but could get no further than "artin heaven," for the rest, from disuse, had quite escaped the corporal'smemory. He tried to recollect something else, but was equallyunsuccessful; at last, he made up a sad mixture of swearing and praying.
"Mein Gott--a hundred tousand tyfels--gut Gott--twenty hundred tousandtyfels! Ah, Gott of mercy--million of tyfels! holy Gott Jesus! twentymillions of tyfels--Gott for dam, I die of cold!" Such were theejaculations of the corporal, allowing about ten minutes to intervenebetween each, during which the wind blew more freshly, the waves rose,and the boat was whirled away.
But the corporal's miseries were to be prolonged; the flood-time ofwater was now spent, and the ebb commenced flowing against the wind andsea. This created what is called boiling water, that is, a contestbetween the wind forcing the waves one way, and the tide checking themthe other, which makes the waves to lose their run, and they rise, anddance, and bubble into points. The consequence was, that the boat, asshe was borne down by the tide against them, shipped a sea every moment,which the wind threw against the carcass of the corporal, who was nowquite exhausted with more than four hours' exposure to a wintry night,the temperature being nearly down to zero. All the corporal's stoicismwas gone; he talked wildly, crouched and gibbered in his fear, when hewas suddenly roused by a heavy shock. He raised his head, which had sunkupon his chest, and beheld something close to him, and to the gunnel ofthe boat. It was a thin, tall figure, holding out his two arms at rightangles, and apparently stooping over him. It was just in the positionthat Smallbones lay on the forecastle of the cutter on that day morning,when he was about to keel-haul him, and the corporal, in his state ofmental and bodily depression, was certain that it was the ghost of thepoor lad whom he had so often tortured. Terror raised his hairerect--his mouth was wide open--he could not speak--he tried to analyseit, but a wave dashed in his face--his eyes and mouth were filled withsalt water, and the corporal threw himself down on the thwarts of theboat, quite regardless whether it went to the bottom or not; there helay, half groaning, half praying, with his hands to his eyes, and hishuge nether proportion raised in the air, every limb trembling withblended cold and fright. One hour more, and there would have beennothing but corporal parts of Corporal Spitter.
The reason why the last movement of the corporal did not swamp the boat,was simply that it was aground on one of the flats; and the figure whichhad alarmed the conscience-stricken corporal, was nothing more than theoutside beacon of a weir for catching fish, being a thin post with across bar to it, certainly not unlike Smallbones in figure, supposinghim to have put his arms in that position.
For upwards of an hour did the corporal lie reversed, when the daydawned, and the boat had been left high and dry upon the flat. Thefishermen came down to examine their weir, and see what was theirsuccess, when they discovered the boat with its contents. At first theycould not imagine what it was, for they could perceive nothing but thecapacious round of the corporal, which rose up in the air, but, bydegrees, they made out that there was a head and feet attached to it,and they contrived, with the united efforts of four men, to raise himup, and discovered that life was not yet extinct. They poured a littleschnappes into his mouth, and he recovered so far as to open his eyes,and they having brought down with them two little carts drawn by dogs,they put the corporal into one, covered him up, and yoking all the dogsto the one cart, for the usual train could not move so heavy a weight,two of them escorted him up to their huts, while the others threw thefish caught into the cart which remained, and took possession of theboat. The fishermen's wives, perceiving the cart so heavily laden,imagined, as it approached the huts, that there had been unusualsuccess, and were not a little disappointed when they found that insteadof several bushels of fine fish, they had only caught a corporal ofmarines; but they were kind-hearted, for they had known misery, and VanSpitter was put into a bed, and covered up with all the blankets theycould collect, and very soon was able to drink some warm soup offered tohim. It was not, however, till long past noon, that the corporal wasable to narrate what had taken place.
"Will your lieutenant pay us for saving you and bringing him his boat?"demanded the men.
Now, it must be observed, that a great revolution had taken place in thecorporal's feelings since the horror and sufferings of the night. Hefelt hatred towards Vanslyperken, and good-will towards those whom hehad treated unkindly. The supernatural appearance of Smallbones, inwhich he still believed, and which appeared to him as a warning--what hehad suffered from cold and exhaustion, which by him was considered as apunishment for his treatment of the poor lad but the morning before, hadchanged the heart of Corporal Van Spitter, so he replied in Dutch,
"He will give you nothing, good people, not even a glass of schnappes, Itell you candidly--so keep the boat if you wish--I will not say a wordabout it, except that it is lost. He is not likely to see it again.Besides, you can alter it, and paint it."
This very generous present of his Majesty's property by the corporal,was very agreeable to the fishermen, as it amply repaid them for alltheir trouble. The corporal put on his clothes, and ate a hearty meal,was freely supplied with spirits, and went to bed quite recovered. Thenext morning, the fishermen took him down to Amsterdam in their ownboat, when Van Spitter discovered that the _Yungfrau_ had sailed; thiswas very puzzling, and Corporal Van Spitter did not know what to do.After some cogitation, it occurred to him that, for Vanslyperken's sake,he might be well received at the Lust Haus by widow Vandersloosh, littleimagining how much at a discount was his lieutenant in that quarter.
To the Frau Vandersloosh accordingly he repaired, and the first personhe met was Babette, who finding that the corporal was a Dutchman, andbelonging to the _Yungfrau_, and who presumed that he had always feltthe same ill-will towards Vanslyperken and Snarleyyow, as did the restof the ship's company, immediately entered into a narrative of theconduct of Snarleyyow on the preceding night, the anger of her mistress,and every other circumstance with which the reader is alreadyacquainted. Corporal Van Spitter thus fortunately found out how mattersstood previous to his introduction to the widow. He expatiated upon hissufferings, upon the indifference of his lieutenant in sailing as towhat had become of him, and full
y persuaded Babette not only that he wasinimical, which now certainly he was, but that he always had been so,to Mr Vanslyperken. Babette, who was always ready to retail news, wentup to the widow, and amused her, as she dressed her, with the corporal'sadventures, and the widow felt an interest in, before she had seen,Corporal Van Spitter, from the account of his "moving accidents by floodand field."
But if prepossessed in his favour before she saw him, what did she feelwhen she first beheld the substantial proportions of Corporal VanSpitter! There she beheld the beau ideal of her imagination--the veryobject of her widow's dreams--the antipodes of Vanslyperken, and assuperior as "Hyperion to a Satyr." He had all the personal advantages,with none of the defects of her late husband; he was quite as fleshy,but had at least six inches more in height, and, in the eyes of thewidow, the Corporal Van Spitter was the finest man she ever had beheld,and she mentally exclaimed, "There is the man for my money;" and, at thesame time, resolved that she would win him. Alas I how short-sighted aremortals; little did the corporal imagine that the most untoward event inhis life would be the cause of his being possessed of ease andcompetence. The widow received him most graciously, spoke in no measuredterms against Vanslyperken, at which the corporal raised his hugeshoulders, as much as to say, "He is even worse than you think him," wasvery violent against Snarleyyow, whom the corporal, aware that it was nomutiny, made no ceremony in "damning in heaps," as the saying is.
The widow begged that he would feel no uneasiness, as he should remainwith her till the cutter returned; and an hour after the firstintroduction, Corporal Van Spitter had breakfasted with, and wasactually sitting, by her request, on the little fubsy sofa, in the veryplace of Vanslyperken, with Frau Vandersloosh by his side.
We must pass over the few days during which the cutter was away. Widowshave not that maiden modesty to thwart their wishes, which so oftenprevents a true love tale from being told. And all that the widow couldnot tell, Babette, duly instructed, told for her, and it was understood,before the cutter's arrival, that Corporal Van Spitter was the acceptedlover of the Frau Vandersloosh. But still it was necessary that thereshould be secrecy, not only on account of the corporal's being under thecommand of the lieutenant, who, of course, would not allow himself to becrossed in his love without resenting it, but also, because it was notadvisable that the crew of the _Yungfrau_ should not be permitted tospend their money at the Lust Haus. It was therefore agreed that thelieutenant should be blinded, as to the real nature of the intimacy, andthat nothing should take place until the cutter was paid off, andCorporal Van Spitter should be a gentleman at large.
Independent of the wisdom of the above proceedings, there was a secretpleasure to all parties in deceiving the deceiver Vanslyperken. Butsomething else occurred which we must now refer to. The corporal'sresidence at the widow's house had not been unobserved by the Jesuit,who was the French agent in the house opposite, and it appeared to him,after the inquiries he had made, that Corporal Van Spitter might be madeserviceable. He had been sent for and sounded, and it was canvassed withthe widow whether he should accept the offers or not, and finally it wasagreed that he should, as there would be little or no risk. Now, it sohappened, that the corporal had gone over to the Jesuit's house to agreeto the proposals, and was actually in the house conversing with him,when Vanslyperken arrived and knocked at the door. The corporalascertaining who it was by a small clear spot left in the painted windowfor scrutiny, begged that he might be concealed, and was immediatelyshown into the next room by a door, which was hid behind a screen. TheJesuit did not exactly shut the door, as he supposed he did, and thecorporal, who wondered what could have brought Vanslyperken there, keptit ajar during the whole of the interview and the counting out of themoney. Vanslyperken left, and as he shut the other door the corporaldid the same with the one he held ajar, and took a seat at the other endof the room, that the Jesuit might not suspect his having overheard allthat had passed.
Now the Jesuit had made up his mind that it was better to treat with theprincipal than with a second, and therefore did not further require theservices of Corporal Van Spitter. He told him that the lieutenant havingreceived private information that one of the people of the cutter hadbeen seen at his house, and knowing that he was the French agent, hadcome to inform him that if he attempted to employ any of his men incarrying letters, that he would inform against him to the authorities.That he was very sorry, but that after such a notice he was afraid thatthe arrangements could not proceed. The corporal appeared to besatisfied, and took his final leave. No wonder, therefore, that thewidow and Babette were on the watch, when they saw Vanslyperken enterthe house, at the very time the corporal was there also.
The corporal went over to the widow's, and narrated all that he hadheard and seen.
"Why, the traitor!" exclaimed the widow.
"Yes, mein Gott!" repeated the corporal.
"The villain to sell his country for gold."
"Yes, mein Gott!" repeated the corporal.
"Fifty guineas, did you say, Mynheer Van Spitter?"
"Yes, mein Gott!" repeated the corporal.
"Oh, the wretch!--well," continued the widow, "at all events he is inyour power."
"Yes, mein Gott!"
"You can hang him any day in the week."
"Yes, mein Gott!"
"Ho, ho! Mr Vanslyperken:--well, well, Mr Vanslyperken, we will see,"continued the widow, indignant at the lieutenant receiving so large asum, which would otherwise have been, in all probability, made over toCorporal Van Spitter, with whom she now felt that their interests werein common.
"Tousand tyfels!" roared the corporal, dashing his foot upon one of theflaps of the little table before them with so much force, that it wasbroken short off and fell down on the floor.
"Hundred tousand tyfels!" continued the corporal, when he witnessed theeffects of his violence.
Although the widow lamented her table, she forgave the corporal with asmile; she liked such proofs of strength in her intended, and she,moreover, knew that the accident was occasioned by indignation atVanslyperken.
"Yes, yes, Mr Vanslyperken, you'll pay me for that," exclaimed she; "Iprophesy that before long you and your nasty cur will both swingtogether."
The corporal now walked across the little parlour and back again, thenturned to the widow Vandersloosh, and with a most expressive lookslowly muttered,
"Yes, mein Gott!"
After which he sat down again by the side of the widow, and they had ashort consultation; before it was over, Corporal Van Spitter declaredhimself the deadly enemy of Lieutenant Vanslyperken; swore that he wouldbe his ruin, and ratified the oath upon the widow's lips. Alas! whatchanges there are in this world!
After which solemn compact the corporal rose, took his leave, went onboard, and reported himself, as we have stated in the preceding chapter.
Snarleyyow, or, the Dog Fiend Page 22
