their adversaryhad time to give them a second broadside; the seeing which much animatedthe men.
"Well done, my gallant fellows!" cried the Captain; "remember that youare Portuguese and good Catholics, and that yonder ship contains a crewof vile infidels. Our colours are still flying at our peak, and therethey shall fly till I am knocked overboard; so all you have to do is tofire away as hard as you can, and by the blessing of the Holy Virgin weshall be the conquerors." This short, pithy speech much animated thecrew; who, putting firm confidence in the courage and sagacity of theirleader, renewed their efforts with redoubled vigour. "See, Don Luis,"added the Captain, "the infidel is near enough to feel our swivels andlight guns, and if you will undertake to command them, they may do someservice." Don Luis sprang gladly to obey the captain's order, followedby Pedro; who, now that he could not avoid fighting, exerted himself aswell as the bravest, working the guns with considerable effect.
The firing on both sides had now become warm; the enemy being inearnest, and evidently eager, on some account or other, to bring thecontest to a speedy close. Their guns were discharged as rapidly asthey could be loaded, doing much execution on board the corvette,striking down several men on the main-deck, and one on the poop, closeto Don Luis, though each shot was returned with equal vigour. Theflashes of the guns clearly showed the enemies to each other, for theywere now running along not a quarter of a cable's length apart; thePortuguese aiming always at the hull of their opponent, with thedetermination of sinking her, if possible; while she fired in the hopesof cutting away their spars and rigging, and crippling their masts;that, unable to escape, she might be able to take possession of them atleisure: the only objects the rovers sought in victory being booty andprisoners.
A truly awful scene was that night-engagement, as the two small barks,on that vast wild waste, surrounded with all the majestic horrors ofocean strife, filled with human beings regardless of Heaven's wrath,strove, with all the animosity of demons, to hurl each other todestruction, nor thinking of their own fate.
The infidel had wrongly calculated on an easy victory, when he attackeda ship commanded by so hardy and brave a seaman as Joze Pinto; for hiscrew, confiding in his courage and seamanship, fought as well as anyseamen in the world--as the Portuguese always will do when well led--and, after an hour's engagement, the effect of their efforts becameperceptible, in the slackened fire of the enemy. Both the wind and seahad now much fallen; and, as the storm broke, flashes of lightningdarted from the clouds--for a moment casting a lurid glare on thehostile ships and the foaming cauldron between them--again leaving amore fearful gloom on the scene. "Where is the infidel, where is theinfidel?" was again shouted by the crew, after a bright flash haddazzled their eyes, and she had for the last minute ceased firing."She's gone, she's gone!" The officers looked eagerly out--no one couldsee the pirate ship--but they dreaded some treachery: the guns,therefore, were loaded and run out; the crew waiting in breathlessexpectation to catch sight of her, when she was again perceived comingup close on their quarter, with the intent, it seemed, to range upalongside; yet nothing but madness or desperation could have instigatedthem to the act, for certain destruction threatened both, if she shouldattempt to board; for, once joined, the sea must overwhelm them both.
"Boarders, come aft," shouted the Captain: "starboard the helm." Themanoeuvre caused the rover to miss his aim, and as he threw hisgrapnels, they fell into the water. "Steady, again," the Captain cried;but the rover was not to be deceived a second time; for, with determineddaring, putting his helm also to starboard, he ranged alongside, andlocked his yard-arms in a deadly embrace with those of the Portuguese.A loud shriek of horror arose from many, even of the brave, on board."Silence, men, silence!" cried Captain Pinto: "aloft, and cut away: beprepared to repel boarders." The men sprang to the rigging as ordered:all knew that their lives depended on their activity. A loud crashingnoise was heard as the stout spars tore and wrenched each other from theropes which held them, falling in splinters from aloft; but as yet thehulls of the ships had not touched, the sea in foaming torrents dashingup between them, and inundating the decks of both. What we have beendescribing took place in a few seconds.
"Fire!" shouted the Captain; and the balls were seen to tear up thesides of the rover, who appeared to be incapable of answering thedischarge.
Still onward dashed the ships, their spars and rigging yet lockedtogether, the wild sea threatening each moment to claim them as itsprize; when, as for an instant their hulls ground together, a form wasseen to spring from the shrouds of the pirate ship on to the deck of theChristian. "Faithless tyrants, I am no longer your slave!" heexclaimed, as he hurled his gleaming sabre among the people he had justquitted: "I may now die among my countrymen." The words were scarceheard amid the tumult, or the action seen; and, as he fell, the cutlassof a seaman brought him bleeding to the deck, where he lay, trampled onand disregarded, amid some of the Portuguese who had been struck down.At the same moment, the glare of the forked lightning exhibited ahundred swarthy turbaned figures on the nettings and lower rigging ofthe Rover, and, like a rush of fierce vultures on their prey, with loudyells, the foremost threw themselves on the deck of the corvette, whenthe upper works of the two ships again separated.
"Onward, my men, onward!" shouted Captain Pinto, rushing forward torepel them at the head of a party of his best seamen, with Don Luis byhis side, who, at the first fierce onset, warded off a blow which mighthave proved fatal to the gallant chief. But the pirates fought with allthe ferocity of despair and fanaticism, for they neither expected norasked for mercy; their only hope was in victory. Yet, notwithstandingthe desperate resistance they made, they could not withstand thesuperior numbers of the Portuguese: loudly rung their fierce war cries;their sharp sabres flashed brightly as they strove for life, everymoment expecting to be reinforced by their friends, who waited but thereturning roll, when the upper works of the ships should again meet, torush on board; the flashes from the muskets of the marines, and thepistols of the seamen, between the gleams of lightning, alone exhibitingthe combatants to each other, all the lights on board having beenextinguished to prevent the enemy from taking aim. Again they rallied,the Portuguese giving way. A gigantic Moor, who had fallen as theyfirst leapt on board, now extricating himself, attacked Don Luis withsuch desperate fury, that, although he defended himself with courage andcoolness, he would have been overthrown, had not Pedro contrived to geta cut at the Moor's arm, which brought him bleeding to the deck. Thebrave captain once more calling upon his men, pressed the Moors hard:inch by inch they were cut down, or forced back, till they were drivenover the nettings into the dark yawning gulf below, or ground by thesides of the ships. But this short success had cost the Portuguesedear, and even their chief felt that they could with difficulty contendagainst the swarm of desperate miscreants, who were ready at the momentto throw themselves headlong among them, nor had the people aloft yetsucceeded, in spite of all their efforts, in clearing the rigging.
Again the nettings of the two ships touched, and, uttering loud yells,crowds of the foemen hurled themselves from their posts in the riggingwith their gleaming sabres in hand; but it was to destruction; for atthat instant a tremendous sea rushed up between the two ships, tearingaway all the fastenings which held them aloft.
The Rover made one roll to starboard; a vivid flash of lightning threw amomentary lurid glare over her, as her crew were seen to spring thelarboard rigging, every lineament of their dark features distorted withthe wildest rage and despair: those livid, demoniacal countenances werelong fixed in the memory of all who saw them. The wild frothy sealeaped high between the two barks, but the pirate rose not again: apiercing shriek of agony was the last sound heard ascending in the nightair, high above the loud roaring of the tempest. For one instant onlywere the masts and spars of the Salee rover seen ere the dark wavesrolled triumphantly over the spot where she had been.
The Portuguese gazed with horror, for from such a fate, too, had theynarrowly escaped through Heaven's me
rcy. Continuous flashes oflightning darted from the clouds, exhibiting, far astern, theoutstretched arms and despairing features of the sinking wretches; butthey were pirates, accursed by Heaven and man, and deserved no aid,could any have been afforded them, and the victors bounded on proudly intheir course.
Volume 1, Chapter III.
Scarcely had the lawless career of the Salee rover thus awfullyterminated, as we have narrated at the end of our last chapter, than thespirit of the storm, as if satisfied with the sacrifice offered to him,began to relax his fury. The heavy clouds cleared gradually away, andthe bright stars (those cheering beacons to the mariner) were seenglimmering from the clear dark blue sky: the wind, too, shifted to thesouthward of east, and the sea fell considerably, so that the repairs ofthe corvette could be carried on
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