The King's Own

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER SEVEN.

  To the seas presentlye went our lord admiral, With knights couragious and captains full good; The brave Earl of Essex, a prosperous general, With him prepared to pass the salt flood.

  At Plymouth speedilye took they ship valiantlye, Braver ships never were seen under sayle, With their fair colours spread, and streamers o'er their head: Now, bragging foemen, take heed of your tayle. OLD BALLAD, 1596.

  Many and various were the questions that were put by our little hero toAdams and others, relative to the fate of his parents. That they wereboth dead was all the information that he could obtain; for, to thehonour of human nature, there was not one man in a ship's companycomposed of several hundred, who had the cruelty to tell the child thathis father had been hanged. It may, at first, appear strange to thereader, that the child himself was not aware of the fact, from what hehad witnessed on the morning of execution; but it must be recollectedthat he had never seen an execution before, and had therefore nothingfrom which to draw such an inference. All he knew was, that his fatherwas on the quarter-deck, with a night-cap on, and that he told him thathe was going to sleep. The death of his mother, whose body he was notpermitted to see, was quite as unintelligible, and the mystery whichenveloped the whole transaction added no little to the bereavement ofthe child, who, as I have before stated, from his natural talent andpeculiar education was far more reflective and advanced than childrenusually are.

  Adams returned to his little charge with pleasure: he had now a right toadopt the child, and consider him as his own. In the ship, the boy wassuch an object of general sympathy, that not only many of the men, butsome of the officers, would gladly have taken him, and have brought himup. The name of his father was, by general consent, never mentioned,especially as Adams informed the officers and men that Peters had been a"_purser's name_," adopted by the child's father, and that, although theclergyman had stated this, he had not intrusted him with the real namethat the child was entitled to bear. As, therefore, our little hero wasnot only without parents, but without name, he was re-christened byAdams by the cognomen of the "King's Own," and by that title, or hisChristian name, Willy, was ever afterwards addressed, both by officersand men.

  There is an elasticity supplied to the human mind by unerring Wisdom,that enables us, however broken down by the pressure of misfortune, torecover our cheerfulness after a while, and resign ourselves to thedecrees of Heaven. It consoles the widow--it supports the bereavedlover, who had long dwelt upon anticipated bliss--it almost reconcilesto her lot the fond and forsaken girl, whose heart is breaking.

  Unusually oppressed as Willy was, with the loss of those to whom he hadso fondly clung from his birth, in a few months he recovered his wontedspirits, and his cheeks again played with dimples, as his flashing eyebeamed from under his long eyelashes. He attached himself to the oldquarter-master, and seldom quitted him--he slept in his hammock, hestood by his side when he was on deck, at his duty, steering the ship,and he listened to the stories of the good old man, who soon taught himto read and write. For three years thus passed his life; at the end ofwhich period he had arrived at the age of nine years.

  After a long monotony of blockade service, the ship was ordered to hoistthe flag of a commodore, who was appointed to the command of anexpedition against the western coast of France, to create a diversion infavour of the Vendean chiefs. Captain A---, whether it was that he didnot like to receive a superior officer on board of his ship, or that hedid not admire the service upon which she was to be employed, obtainedpermission to leave his ship for a few months, for the restoration ofhis health, to the great joy of the officers and crew; and an actingcaptain of well-known merit, was appointed in his stead.

  The squadron of men-of-war and transports was collected, the commodore'sflag hoisted, and the expedition sailed with _most secret_ orders,which, as usual, were as well known to the enemy, and everybody inEngland, as they were to those by whom they were given. It is thecharacteristic of our nation, that we scorn to take any unfairadvantage, or reap any benefit, by keeping our intentions a secret. Weimitate the conduct of that English tar, who, having entered a fort, andmeeting a Spanish officer without his sword, being providentiallysupplied with two cut-lasses himself, immediately offered him one, thatthey might engage on fair terms.

  The idea is generous, but not wise. But I rather imagine that this wantof secrecy arises from all matters of importance being arranged bycabinet councils. In the multitude of counsellors there may be wisdom,but there certainly is not secrecy. Twenty men have probably twentywives, and it is therefore twenty to one but the secret transpiresthrough that channel. Further, twenty men have twenty tongues; and muchas we complain of women not keeping secrets, I suspect that men deservethe odium of the charge quite as much, if not more, than women do. Onthe whole, it is forty to one against secrecy, which, it must beacknowledged, are long odds.

  On the arrival of the squadron at the point of attack, a few more dayswere thrown away,--probably upon the same generous principle of allowingthe enemy sufficient time for preparation. Troops had been embarked,with the intention of landing them, to make a simultaneous attack withthe shipping. Combined expeditions are invariably attended with delay,if not with disagreement. An officer commanding troops, who if oncelanded, would be as decided in his movements as Lord Wellington himself,does not display the same decision when out of his own element. Fromhis peculiar situation on board,--his officers and men distributed indifferent ships,--the apparent difficulties of debarkation, easilyremedied, and despised by sailors, but magnified by landsmen,--from thegreat responsibility naturally felt in a situation where he must trustto the resources of others, and where his own, however great, cannot becalled into action,--he will not decide without much demur upon thesteps to be taken; although it generally happens, that the adviceoriginally offered by the naval commandant has been acceded to. Unlessthe military force required is very large, marines should invariably beemployed, and placed under the direction of the naval commander.

  After three or four days of _pros_ and _cons_, the enemy had completedhis last battery, and as there was then no rational excuse left forlonger delay, the debarkation took place, without any serious loss onour side, except that of one launch, full of the --- regiment, which wascut in halves by the enemy's shot. The soldiers, as they sank in thewater, obeyed the orders of the sergeant, and held up theircartouch-boxes, that they might not be wetted two seconds sooner thannecessary,--held fast their muskets,--and, without stirring from thegunnels of the boat, round which they had been stationed, went down inas good order as could be expected, each man at his post, with hisbayonet fixed. The sailors, not being either so heavily caparisoned orso well drilled, were guilty of a _sauve qui peut_, and were picked upby other boats. The officer of the regiment stuck to his men, and it isto be hoped that he marched the whole of his brave detachment to heaven,as he often had before to church. But we must leave the troops to formon the beach as well as they can, and the enemy's shot will permit, andretire on board.

  The commodore's arrangement had been punctually complied with. Theships that were directed to cover the landing of the troops, knockeddown many of the enemy, and not a great many more of our own men. Thestations of the other ships were taken with a precision deserving of thehighest encomiums; and there is no doubt, that, had not the enemy hadthe advantage of stone walls, they must have had the worst of it, andwould have been well beaten.

  The commodore himself, of course, took the post of honour. Anchoredwith springs on his cables, he alternately engaged a heavy battery onhis starboard bows, a much heavier, backed by a citadel, throwingshells, on his beam, and a masked battery on his quarter, which he hadnot reckoned upon. The latter was rather annoying, and the citadelthrew shells with most disagreeable precision. He had almost as much todo as Lord Exmouth at Algiers, although the result was not so fortunate.

  A ship engaging at anchor, with very little wind, and that wind lulledby the percussion o
f the air from the report of the guns, as it alwaysis, has the disadvantage of not being able to disengage herself of thesmoke, which rapidly accumulates and stagnates as it were between thedecks. Under these circumstances you repeatedly hear the order passedupon the main and lower deck of a line-of-battle ship, to point the gunstwo points abaft the beam, point-blank, and so on. In fact, they are asmuch in the dark as to the external objects, as if they wereblindfolded; and the only comfort to be derived from this seriousinconvenience, is, that every man is so isolated from his neighbour thathe is not put in mind of his own danger by witnessing the death of thosearound him, for they may fall three or four feet from him without hisperceiving it:--so they continued to fire as directed, until they areeither sent down to the cock-pit themselves, or have a momentary respitefrom their exertions, when, choked with smoke and gunpowder, they go aftto the scuttle-butt, to remove their parching thirst. So much for thelower and main deck. We will now ascend to the quarter-deck, where weshall find old Adams at the conn, and little Willy standing behind him.

  The smoke is not so thick here, but that you may perceive the commodoreon the poop, walking a step or two to star-board, and then turning shortround to port. He is looking anxiously through his glass at theposition of the troops, who are ashore to storm the batteries, hoping tosee a diversion in our favour made by them, as the affair becomesserious. By a singular coincidence, the commandant of the troops onshore is, with his telescope, looking anxiously at the shipping, hopingthe same thing from the exertions of the navy. The captain of marineslies dead upon the poop; both his legs have been shot off by a spentshot--he is left there, as no surgeon can help him; and there are twosignalmen lying dead alongside him.

  On the hammock-nettings of the quarter-deck stands the acting captain ofthe ship, erect, and proud in bearing, with an eye of defiance and scornas he turns towards the enemy. His advice was disregarded; but he doeshis duty proudly and cheerfully. He is as cool and unconcerned as if hewere watching the flying fish as they rise from the bows of the ship,when running down the tropics, instead of the enemy's shot, as theysplash in the water alongside, or tear open the timbers of the vessel,and the bodies of his crew. The men still ply their half-manned guns;but they are exhausted with fatigue, and the bloody deck proves thatmany have been dismissed from their duty. The first-lieutenant ismissing; you will find him in the cock-pit--they have just finishedtaking up the arteries of his right arm, which has been amputated; andthe Scotch surgeon's assistant, who for many months bewailed the want ofpractice, and who, for having openly expressed his wishes on thatsubject, had received a sound thrashing from the exasperated midshipmen,is now complimenting the fainting man upon the excellent stump that theyhave made for him: while fifty others, dying or wounded, with as muchvariety as Homer's heroes, whose blood, trickling from them in severalrivulets, pours into one general lake at the lowest level of the deck,are anxiously waiting their turn, and distract the purser's steward bytheir loud calls, in every direction at the same time for the tin-pot ofwater, with which he is relieving their agonising thirst.

  A large shark is under the counter; he is so gorged with human flesh,that he can scarcely move his tail in the tinged water; and he now hearsthe sullen plunges of the bodies, as they are launched through thelower-deck port, with perfect indifference. "Oh! what a gloriousthing's a battle!"

  But to return to our particular narrative. As we mentioned before, thecitadel threw shells with remarkable precision, and every man who hadbeen killed on the quarter-deck of the commodore's ship, towards whichthe attention of the enemy was particularly directed, had been laid lowby these horrible engines of modern warfare. The action stillcontinued, although the fire on both sides had evidently slackened, andthe commodore's glass had at several intervals been fruitlessly directedtowards the troops on shore, when accident brought about a change infavour of our countrymen. Through some unknown cause, the magazine ofthe enemy's largest battery exploded, and buried the fabric with itstenants in one mass of ruin. The enemy were panic-struck with theirmisfortune--our troops and sailors inspired with fresh courage--and thefire was recommenced with three cheers and redoubled vigour. The troopspushed on, and succeeded in taking possession of the masked battery,which had so long and so effectually raked the commodore.

  A few minutes after this had occurred, the citadel recommenced its fire,and a shell, descending with that terrific hissing peculiar to itselfalone, struck the main-bitts on the quarter deck, and, rolling aft,exploded. Its fragments scattered death around, and one piece took thehat off the head of little Willy, who was standing before Adams, andthen buried itself in the old man's side. He staggered forward, andfell on the coils of rope, near the companion-hatch; and when the mencame to assist him below, the pain of moving was so intense, that herequested to be left where he was, that he might quietly breathe hislast.

  Willy sat down beside his old friend, holding his hand.--"A littlewater, boy--quick, quick!" It was soon procured by the active andaffectionate child; who, indifferent to the scene around him, thoughtonly of administering to the wants, and alleviating the misfortune, ofhis dearest friend. Adams, after he had drunk, turned his head round,apparently revived, and said, in a low and catching voice, as if hispowers were fast escaping, "Willy, your father's name was not Peters--Ido not know what it was; but there is a person who does, and who takesan interest in your welfare--he lives in--"

  At this moment another shell bounded through the rigging, and fellwithin a few feet of the spot where Willy and old Adams were speaking.Willy, who was seated on a coil of rope, supporting the head of hisbenefactor, no sooner perceived the shell as it rolled towards the side,with its fuse pouring out a volume of smoke, than, recollecting theeffects of the former explosion, rather than the danger of the attempt;he ran towards it, and not being able to lift it, sank down on hisknees, and, with astonishing agility, succeeded in rolling it overboard,out of the larboard entering-port, to which it was near. The shellplunged into the water, and, before it had descended many feet, explodedwith a concussion that was communicated to the ship fore and aft. Ourhero then resumed his station by the side of Adams, who had witnessedwhat had taken place.

  "You have begun well, my boy," said the old man, faintly. "There'sne'er a man in the ship would have done it. Kiss me, boy."

  The child leaned over the old man, and kissed his cheek, clammy with thedews of death. Adams turned a little on one side, uttered a low groan,and expired.