The Heir of Kilfinnan: A Tale of the Shore and Ocean

by William Henry Giles Kingston

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

  Mr Finlayson and the two young ladies stood watching the progress ofthe labouring frigate.

  "Heaven have mercy on them," exclaimed the Widow O'Neil, extending herclasped hands towards the ship. "See, see, she draws towards the reef!No hope! no hope! She has struck! she has struck!"

  The fishwife spoke but too truly. Fearful seas came rolling in, and,meeting with an opposition not hitherto encountered, dashed in hugemasses directly over her. In another instant, the foremast, hithertostanding, tottered and fell. Stout as were her timbers, unable toresist such fierce assaults, they were in a brief space burst asunder,and scattered around in the troubled sea. A cry of horror escaped theyoung ladies as they witnessed the fearful catastrophe.

  "Oh, how many brave men are at this moment carried into a watery grave!"exclaimed Lady Sophy.

  Nora was silent. A fearful apprehension seized her.

  "The last time we heard from Captain Denham, he told us that he wasappointed to a frigate!" she exclaimed suddenly. "Oh, suppose that isthe ship he commands?"

  "Can no one go to the help of those poor men?" asked Mr Finlayson."Surely there are boats on the coast which might go off to them!"

  The fishwife turned as he spoke.

  "There are boats, sir, but it would be hard to find the men who wouldventure off in such a sea as that; but if, as I believe, the wind isfalling, there is yet some hope; if it goes down as rapidly as itsometimes does in summer, frail as are our boats, we may be able toreach the frigate."

  The ship was too far off for those on shore to witness the dyingstruggles of those who were washed into the sea, but yet they could nottear themselves from the spot. Gradually the gale abated, seeminglycontented with the mischief it had caused. Still, however, the seasrolled in with fearful force. Suddenly, a thought seemed to seize WidowO'Neil.

  "I must go, I must go!" she exclaimed. "If no men are to be found, I,at least, will go off!"

  "Why, you would not venture out in such a sea as that?" cried MrFinlayson, calling after her as she began to descend the cliffs.

  "That I will, sir, and go alone if no men will accompany me."

  From the position of the coast in which the cottage was situated, it waseasy to launch a boat, although the sea was agitated outside. Onreaching her hut, the widow found her brother Shane standing outside it.

  "Shane," she exclaimed, "you promised to stand by me on all occasions,now prove your words. I am resolved to go out to yonder vessel; theremay be some alive on board. My heart tells me there are, and we mustsave them. O stir up some of the other men, and bid them follow us, ifthey are worthy of the name of men."

  "I would go with you, sister," answered Shane, "if I could get others togo, but they will not raise a finger to save any on board a king'sship."

  "But sure, they are our fellow-creatures, brother Shane," exclaimed thefishwife. "Shame on the cowards if they dare not come, and shame onyou, brother, if you will not help me. Listen now; I dreamed last nightthat he who has been so long away is coming back. It is not the firsttime I have dreamed it either, and you may say if you will, that this isonly another fancy, but my days are numbered, and I know that before Idie he will come back; he promised, and Dermot was not the boy to breakhis word. Come, Shane, come. Look, the sea has gone down, and you andI with your boy Patrick, though he may have less sense than other lads,will go off to the ship."

  The widow's exhortations made Shane promise to accompany her. Her boatwas ill-fitted for the task, yet for some distance they could pull outunder shelter of a point which projected north of the cove. As the windhad hauled round somewhat more to the north also, it might be possibleto set a sail, and with less difficulty reach the frigate. Patrick wassummoned, and with his father and the fishwife, the boat was launched.She was cleared of all superfluous lumber, while Shane lashed under herthwarts several empty casks, which would assist in giving her buoyancy.It was a simple attempt at a life-boat, yet with all these precautions,the old fishing craft was but ill-fitted for the undertaking. Thefishwife again and again urged her brother to hasten his work, so eagerwas she to reach the wreck. At length the boat was ready. The boy wasplaced at the helm, and the fishwife and her brother took the oars.They pulled boldly out of the cove, and then along the shore for somedistance, where the water was rather smoother than further out. Eventhere, however, the exertion was considerable, and those who looked onfrom above dreaded every moment to see the frail skiff overturned by therough seas. Now, however, the head of the boat was turned seaward.Shane and his sister increased their exertions. Often the waters brokeon board, when Patrick, steering with one hand, bailed it out with theother; still they continued their course. At length they succeeded ingaining a considerable distance from the shore, when the seas, as issometimes the case, came with less force, and gradually sank in height.There was only one point where they could approach the wreck. Justwithin sight was a small bay, or opening in the reef; the seas on everyother side were dashing over the frigate, and would have immediatelyoverwhelmed the frail boat. Bravely they rowed on, and they might haveput to shame many of the sturdy men who had collected on the shore.Several times those who watched the progress of the boat from the clifffancied she was overwhelmed. Now she sank into the trough of the sea,and the huge wave seemed about to dash over her. Again rising to thesummit of a foam-crested wave, she was tossed for a few seconds ere sheplunged into the watery vale below. More than once Shane proposedsetting a sail, but the widow declared that her arms were still strongenough to pull the boat, and that it would considerably prolong the timebefore they could reach the wreck, as it would thus be impossible tomake a straight course. She seemed, indeed, endued with super-humanstrength, for even her brother's arms began to fail him. Again andagain she urged him to renewed exertions, with a voice tremulous witheagerness.

  "We shall reach the ship before long--we shall reach the ship," she keptexclaiming; "row, Shane, row. Oh, brother, if you have ever loved me,do not fail me now."

  Thus they continued rowing on. Not an hour before it would have beenimpossible for the boat to have made any progress; now, however, by thesubsidence of the gale, the undertaking, though difficult and dangerous,was possible. As they drew near, even now several struggling forms wereseen in the foaming waters, but ere they could reach them, one afteranother sank beneath the waves. A few, however were clinging to planksand spars, but the widow refused to go near them; it might have provedthe destruction of the boat, had the attempt been made.

  "They are floating, and will in time reach the shore," she said toShane, "or if the sea goes down still more, we may return to pick themup. There are still some alive on board the ship; even just now, I sawan arm waving. Row on, row on, we may yet be in time--we may yet be intime."

  The larger portion of the wreck had before this, however, been brokenup, but the after-part and the starboard side of the quarter-deckremained entire. As the boat approached the wreck, broken planks andtimbers continued to be washed away, till but a small portion appearedto remain.

  By persevering efforts, the boat, however, drew nearer and nearer,avoiding, though not without difficulty, the masses of wreck whichfloated by. As the fishwife and her brother looked up, they saw twohuman beings still clinging to the remaining fragments of the ship; onewas waving his hand as if to urge them to greater speed. No other humanbeings were to be seen on board. A few had just before apparentlycommitted themselves to a raft, and with this support were nowapproaching the shore. They had, however, passed at some littledistance from the boat. Sea after sea rolling in dashed against thewreck, sometimes the spray almost hiding those on board from view.Larger and larger portions continued to give way; every sea which rolledin carried off the timbers or more planks from the sides. The boat waswithin fifty fathoms or so of the rocks, Shane looking out anxiously forany part of the wreck by which it might be approached with least danger.It seemed scarcely possible for them to get near enough to aid those onboard.r />
  "I fear, sister, we shall be too late," exclaimed Shane; "even nowyonder sea which comes in looks as if it were about to tear theremainder of the wreck to fragments."

  With a thundering sound the sea he pointed at broke against the wreck.In an instant the remaining masses of timber gave way, and were dashedforward into the boiling sea.

  "Pull on, Shane, pull on," cried the widow. "I see two men stillstruggling in the waves; one is supporting the other, and guarding himfrom the timbers which float around."

  "Which timbers may stave in the boat, and drown us all," observed Shane.

  "No matter, Shane, pull on--pull on; let us not set our lives againstthose of the brave men who are floating yonder. What matters it afterall if we are lost? Death can come but once to any of us." It isimpossible to give the force of those words, uttered, as they were, inthe native tongue of the Irish, which she spoke. "Pull on, Shane, pullon," again she cried. "Boy, steer for those men; see, they are stillfloating above the waves."

  In spite of the masses of timber, which appeared to be thrownprovidentially on either side, the boat approached the two men, whostill floated above the water.

  "Save him, friends; never mind me," said a voice as they lifted theperson he supported, and who, by his uniform appeared to be an officer,into the arms of Shane, he himself holding on to the gunnel of the boat.The officer was quickly placed in the stern-sheets, when Shane helpedhis companion on board, and then again grasping his oar, pulled the boatsafely round before the sea had time to catch her on the beam andoverturn her.

  The seaman hauled out of the water, the stimulus to exertion havingceased, sank down fainting by the side of his officer. The danger ofreturning was as great as that which they experienced in approaching thewreck. The spray flew over them, and it seemed that every billowy wavewould overwhelm the frail bark. All this time they were watched eagerlyby the young ladies and their old friend from the cliff above. On theboat came; now a vast sea threatened her with instant destruction, butthe fishwife and her brother, rowing till the stout oars bent with theirexertions, urged on their boat and escaped the danger. Nearer andnearer she approached the shore; now a huge roller came thundering upclose to her stern, and seemed about to turn her over and over, but itbroke just before it reached her, and by vigorous strokes, forced ahead,she escaped its power. In another instant lifted on a foaming sea, sheglided forward, arriving high up on the sandy beach of the little cove.

  "There are two people in her," exclaimed Nora, who had been eagerlywatching them. "We will go down and help them, for they evidentlyrequire assistance."

  "Those two poor fellows must be nearly drowned," observed Mr Finlayson,as he accompanied the ladies to the hut. "I wish we had a medical manhere, but for the want of one, I must take his place and prescribe forthem. These fishermen are more likely to kill than to revive them bytheir rough treatment. Come, I will push ahead and try to save the menbefore they press the breath out of their bodies."

  In spite, however, of the active movements of the lawyer, the youngladies kept up with him, and they arrived in front of the cottage justas Shane and his son, aided by the widow, were lifting one of the menthey had saved out of the boat. She insisted on taking the seamanfirst, and not till she had carried him up and placed him on her own bedwould she help to carry the other. The lawyer, however, arrived in timeto aid Shane in carrying up the young officer, for such he appeared tobe. As soon as they arrived at the hut, the apparently drowned man wasplaced by Mr Jamieson's orders in front of the fire, then, having takenoff his coat, he knelt down and gently rubbed his chest. On the arrivalof the young ladies, such blankets and clothes as the widow possessedwere, by the lawyer's directions, placed to warm before the fire, thatthe half-drowned men might be wrapped in them. No sooner, however, didLady Nora's eyes fall on the officer's countenance, than she uttered anagonised cry, and threw herself by his side.

  "Oh, it is Captain Denham--it is Captain Denham!" she exclaimed, "and heis dead--he is dead." Pale and trembling she hung over him.

  "No, my dear young lady," observed the lawyer, "he is still breathing,and I trust that he will soon recover,--I already indeed see signs ofreturning consciousness."

  While Nora, regardless of all conventionalities, was assisting thelawyer and her cousin in rubbing the captain's hands and feet, the widowwas bending over the inanimate form of the seaman.

  "Shane," she exclaimed, "I told you my boy would come back, and here heis; I feel it, I know it. Oh, Dermot, Dermot, speak to me," sheexclaimed. "Do not die now that you have come as you promised. Surelyit is not to break your old mother's heart that you have just returnedto die in her arms?"

  Hearing these exclamations, the old lawyer turned round, and went to theside of the widow.

  "You will be wiser, my good woman, if you were to place some hot clothesupon his chest, and chafe his hands and feet, instead of calling out inthat way. There is no fear about him; he has over-exerted himself, andhis immersion in salt water has for the time deprived him of his senses;but stay, I see you have a kettle boiling on the hearth. It is time nowto pour some hot whisky and water down his throat. As I left thecastle, I took the precaution of putting a flask into my pocket."Saying this, the kind old man mixed a mug of spirits and water, which heat once applied to the sailor's lips. It slipped without difficultydown his throat. The effect was almost instantaneous; he opened hiseyes and looked around with astonishment.

  "Dermot, speak to me, my boy, my own boy," exclaimed the widow in Irish,as she threw her arms around his neck.

  "What does she say?" he asked, in a faint voice.

  "Dermot, Dermot, speak to me," she again exclaimed, but this time shespoke in English.

  "That is not my name, good mother," answered the seaman; "you must bemistaken; I am not your son. I never was in these parts before exceptonce, when I came with my captain, though I have often enough been offthe coast with him and others."

  "Not my son--not my son," ejaculated the widow, gazing at him, andputting back his hair, and again looking at his countenance. "Oh, howhave I been deceived, and do you again say that your name is not DermotO'Neil?" exclaimed the widow, wringing her hands, "and I thought I hadbrought my boy safe on shore, and that he was to be folded once more inhis mother's arms. Oh, Dermot O'Neil--Dermot O'Neil, why are you thuskeeping so long, long away from the mother who loves you more than herown life?"

  The young officer, who by this time had been revived by the applicationof the good lawyer's remedies, now wildly gazed around him.

  "That voice," he exclaimed, as if to himself; "I believed that she waslong ago numbered with the dead, and yet it must be. Oh! mother,mother, I am Dermot O'Neil," he cried out to her, "your long absentson."

  The widow rushed across the room, and patting aside those who kneeledaround him, she threw herself by his side.

  "You Dermot, you my son Dermot?" she exclaimed, looking at him. "Oh,how could I for a moment have been deceived?" She bent over him, andpressed many a kiss upon his brow. "Yes, those eyes, I know them now,and those features, too; I cannot again be deceived. No, no, see hereis the sign by which I should have known him, even though he had beengiven back to me as I dreaded, a lifeless corpse. But my Dermot isalive, my Dermot has come back to me." As she spoke she drew back thesleeve of his shirt, and there upon his arm she exhibited the blood-redcross with which her son had been born.

  During this scene, the countenance of Lady Nora exhibited many changes;now a deadly pallor overspread her face, then again the rich bloodrushed back from her heart. Still she kneeled by Captain Denham's side.His strength gradually returned, and supported in the arms of the oldfishwife, he sat up. His face was turned away from Nora, and his eyesrested on the features of the former. He took her hand between his.

  "Mother," he whispered, "I have been cruelly deceived. The only letterI received from my native land told me that you were dead, and fromhenceforth I felt the tie which had bound me to it was severed. Once Ireturned to it, an
d my fondest wish was to visit again the cottage whereI was born, made sacred to me because it had been your dwelling. I wasprevented from carrying out my intention, and from that day to this Ihave never had the opportunity of returning, but the life you have savedshall be henceforth devoted to watching over you, I have gained fame inmy profession, and I prize it, but it is nothing compared to the joy ofbeing restored to you. Oh, mother, I have loved you as a son should hisparent who has loved him as you have done me."

  "Dermot, my boy, dear Dermot, I never doubted your love. I have alwayssaid that you were true and faithful, and now you have proved it; but,my son, I shall not long require your care. My days are numbered; but Iknew that you would come back, and I was not deceived. My prayers wereheard in spite of all the threats and curses of Father O'Rourke. Now Ihave pressed you to my heart once more, and when I have seen you strongand hearty, I shall be content to place my head under the green turf andsleep in peace."

  During this scene Lady Sophy and the lawyer had retired to the furtherend of the hut. Mr Finlayson had, in the meantime, suggested to Shane,that he might assist the seaman, who was earnestly inquiring for hiscaptain.

  "It is all right," he exclaimed, when told that Captain Denham was doingwell. "Heaven be praised that he is saved, when so many fine fellowshave lost their lives. We were sadly short-handed on board the frigate,or I do not believe this would have happened; but the gale was cruellyagainst us. Are we the only ones who have escaped from the wreck?"

  "I hope not," answered Shane. "I saw a raft drifting towards the baywith several people on her, and many more may have been washed on shoreon planks and spars."

  "Then we should be up, and go and help them," exclaimed Ned Davis,endeavouring to haul on his wet jacket. "Are we to let our shipmatesperish and lie here idle? It is not what the captain would have thoughtof; and if he had not been wounded he would have been up now, andlooking out to help them."

  This was the first intimation Mr Finlayson had that Captain Denham waswounded.

  "Why, that must be looked to," he observed. "Really, I do not think hecan be attended to properly in this hut. We must manage to get a litterof some sort to carry him to the castle."

  This remark was made to Lady Sophy. She appeared to hesitate.

  "What will Nora say?" she observed.

  "Say! my dear lady! What possible difficulty can there be about thematter," exclaimed the lawyer.

  He might not have interpreted aright the agitation exhibited by LadyNora on discovering the parentage of the rescued officer.