Idonia: A Romance of Old London

by Arthur Frederick Wallis

  CHAPTER XXIII

  THE VOYAGE OF THE _SARACEN'S HEAD_

  Whatever the doubts I may at first have entertained, it was soon enoughabundantly clear that the _Saracen's Head_ was under way toward theopen sea; for from my place in the hold I could hear the shipmencalling to one another as such and such a landmark or hamlet came intosight; as the green heights of Greenwich; and Tilbury, where there wasa troop of horse at exercise, the which sight was occasion of a gooddeal of rough wit amongst the crew. At the mouth of the Medway wespoke a great merchant galley that was returned from Venice, and put into Rochester for repairs, she having come by some damage in the latestorm. Of the passage of time I soon lost count lying in the darkbottom of the ship, where was nought to denote those petty accidents bywhich we customarily reckon it. So I knew not positively whether'twere day or night I waked and slept in nor whether we made goodprogress or slow. For awhile I tried to keep measure of the hours byour meals, as it might be three meals to an whole day; but this wouldnot hold neither, for there was no regularity in the serving of them,they being brought us quite by haphazard and as they were thought on:which was seldom enough, and the food so stale and nauseating, as ledme suppose we only received it by afterthought, or in such grudgingcontempt as is sometimes termed charity. To do him right, I must allowthat my uncle took this reversal of his fortunes with a perfectindifference; as no doubt in the like situation my father would havedone, though upon a loftier consideration; but however come by, hispatience shamed me, who could by no means attain thereto, nor I thinkdid seriously attempt it. My sufferings were indeed very great, and inthat voyage I conceived such a passionate disgust of the sea as hathcaused me to regard it as being (what in fact it is) the element thenearest to chaos, and therefore the least to be accounted forperfect--and yet perhaps not altogether the least, for I soon foundmyself doubting if a man's stomach were every way a sound device; itbeing very certain that mine often fell away into the originalincoherence that all things had before the Creation, or ever I had gonethree leagues from the shore.

  No loathing can compare with that a man experienceth at such a time,when dinner is a greater insult than a blow. And I am ashamed even nowto remember the hate I cherished for the honest mariner that stumbleddown the companion bearing my platter of salt beef; which feeling foundits vent in my imagining a world of tortures for the bearer of the beefand for all jovial ruddy mariners, and for every shipwright since thedays of Noah.

  Nevertheless, since into what state soever we come, we be so framed asby degrees to acquire a sort of habit, if not a content, therein, so itbefell that I also, in due time, from my amazing and profound maladyrecovered some fragment of a willingness to live. It might have beenthe third or fourth day after, that I ate without such consequences asI had supposed necessarily incident to the act, and life came to assumean aspect wherein it stood on favourable terms with sudden death. Thissurprised me, seeing that of late I had conceived life to be (at thebest) but a protracted and indefinite dissolution; and I ate again....

  "The devil take you!" I cried to the fellow that had just entered thehold with a handful of biscuits and a little rundlet of burnt wine."What a meal is that to set before starving men?"

  "Courage, master," said the mariner with a great laugh, "we be comewithin but a few leagues of the Straits, and perhaps shall touch at oneof the Spanish ports, where we may better provision the ship than ourCaptain thought it altogether safe to do, the night we set sail."

  "And shall we be released then?" I asked eagerly.

  The man shrugged up his shoulders with a grin, and for the first timemy uncle, who all these days had lain quite silent in the dark of thehold, leaned over from his place among the stuff, and thus accosted me--

  "Are you so great a fool yet? When the pawn is taken, it is castaside, and the game goes on. Teach your mind to expect nothing, andyour tongue to require nothing. There is an hell where they and Ishall meet." He paused a space, and then with an intensity of purposethat held my blood in the veins: "We shall meet there," he addedslowly, "and shall need all eternity for that we shall there do. 'Tisthe privilege of hell that no enmities be in that place forgot, norforgiven."

  When the mariner had left us, I asked my uncle what he considered ourfate would be; who answered that, as it had been put into the articlesof the false contract he had made with Spurrier, that offers of helpshould be made to the Spaniards, in the which embassage he himself hadpromised (though he intended nothing less) to undertake the chiefestpart; so, he being now deposed, it was probable that Spurrier wouldtake upon him the fulfilment of that office.

  "In the which event," he said with great deliberation, "we shallcertainly be given over to those devils, to be clapped up in theirfilthy dungeons, or else sent to New Spain, to work in the mines there.You spoke of a release a little since; there is but one release fromthis pass."

  We conversed in this strain from time to time; but ordinarily keptsilence. By the running out of a cable, we knew that we were come intothat harbour the seaman spoke of, and momently looked for the trapabove in the deck to be opened, and ourselves to be haled out to ourdooms. A curious sense of unreality came over me in this interval, yetjoined to a minute perception of all that passed, as though I couldactually see the same with my eyes. For I seemed to detect thedeparture of our Captain, that went ashore; I heard the rattle of theoars against the pins as he was rowed off. Later, I understood that hewas returned again, and with him another, whose step upon the deck wasfirm and stately. His spurs jangled as he moved. "It is the Governorof this Port," I said to myself, "and they debate of treason together."

  The most of the crew hung about amidships; the principal persons beingupon the quarterdeck, and there remaining a great while. Some littlemovement as of men dissatisfied, I noted later; and then there was thebusiness of the Governor's leaving us, I supposed to consult withothers, his lieutenants, upon the quay.

  Presently I was startled by the firing of a cannon, which made our shipto reel as she would have split, and there was trampling and shoutedwords of command. Spurrier's bargain had failed.

  "They had best have left it," said my uncle with a sneering laugh, whenhe saw how things had gone. "A greedy boastful knave as Spurrier is,none will be matched with. I know this Governor well, if this place webe come to be, as I think, Puerto Real. 'Twas his brother I slew, DonFlorida. He would inquire after him, like enough, and wherefore he hadnot returned into Spain, to which Spurrier would answer him astray andthen lie to mend it; a paltry bungler as he is! I might have playedthis hand through, Denis, had I chosen. But being no traitor I wouldnot. Well, let them look to their stakes!"

  It may appear a strange thing, but 'tis true, that our old animosityhad quite sunk between us and although we used no particular courtesyin our scanted speech, yet my uncle and I nevertheless found (Ibelieve) an equal pleasure in our enforced companionship. In thepresence of almost certain death, whether men fear or contemn it, thereis in the mere thought of it a compelling quality that directs the mindto it only; and where two minds be thus constrained to the same point,along whatever paths they may have moved, there is of necessity a kindof sympathy betwixt them, and a resolution of their differences in thatcommon attent.

  Succeeding upon that firing of the great gun there was an immediateconfusion wherein we in our dungeon were wholly forgot. A cannon fromthe fort answered our challenge a while after, but by its faintness'twas easy to suppose we had got a good way out of the harbour and thuswere free from any present danger from a land attack. But whetherthere were in the roads gathered any vessels of war that might do usharm upon the sea we could not conjecture, though it appeared notaltogether likely, or at the least that they were not at all pointsprepared upon the sudden to give chase. Our main fear lay in theprobability that, the alarm being given, messengers would be dispatchedto all points of the coast, with particulars given of the rank andappearance of our ship, in order that, attempting to sail through theStraits into the Mediterranean or
to slip away again northward, weshould be made to answer for our gunnery salute in such sort as wouldhardly please us.

  But however these considerations affected his two censors in the hold,Captain Spurrier was evidently nothing moved thereby, who warped hisship as it were along the very shore with a most insensate impudencyuntil he had her within the narrow waters about Gibraltar, where a mancould have slung a stone upon our decks, so nearly did we ventureourselves into the enemy's power. Nay, a general madness seemed tohave grown to possess the whole crew, so disappointed were they of theoutcome of their late negotiations and proffers of treachery; and nofolly that presented itself to them, but they took it as a drunken mantakes water, feverishly. Thus our cannon were continually being shotoff, not of offence but for the mere show of bravery it put upon us;and so likewise of defence, there was no order taken nor was anyespecial guard kept, so far as we could tell who knew not the watches,but yet could distinguish well enough the sounds of cups clinking andof quarrelling and curses. Indeed I doubt whether, at any hour of thisour frenzied voyage, had a cock-boat of resolute men put out tointercept us, we should not have been made prize of, before we wereaware that opposition was so much as offered.

  In the meanwhile we in our chains were, as I say, left undisturbed; andas hour after hour went by the hunger we suffered increased so that Ithink another day of such absolute privation, and of the burning thirstthat went with it, would have ended our business altogether. Yet itwas to this incredible affliction we owed our resolution to get free,come what would thereafter.

  I must have fallen into some raving speech, that served to makemanifest to my uncle the abject condition I was in, for before I knewof it, he had dragged himself over to me, and with his skeleton fingershad loosened the band at my throat and chafed my hands together betweenhis own.

  "Oh, let me die," I cried fiercely.

  "You are like to," said he, without the least resentment; "but if youwill take the advice I shall give, you will either notably increaseyour chances of it, or else will get what is hardly less to be desired,I mean food."

  Too faint to demand what he intended by that, I lay still, carelesswhether he made his purpose clear or not.

  "Seeing that we cannot get off our irons," he went on, "we must eat ordie, bound. Now I believe that it is night and most of the crew drunk.If it be so, we shall get food enough and perhaps our freedom too. Ifit be not so, you shall have your will presently and die; for it is youwho must go above, Denis, seeing I cannot do so, that have my anklebroke with this cursed chain."

  I got upon my feet, all confused as I was and sick with famine; but hisgreater courage moved me to obey him in this if I could, though Iexpected but little good of it.

  "They will hear my chains," I said.

  "I will muffle them," he replied, and tore off three or four strips ofhis silken coat that he yet wore, and with them wrapped up the links insuch sort as I should move along without noise, though still heavily.After that I left him, going up the ladder to the trap in the roof ofthe hold, which none had troubled to make fast, knowing, or at leastbelieving, that we were safe enough in our shackles, without furtherprecaution taken.

  It was indeed night, as my uncle had supposed; and such a night asseemeth to lift a man out of his present estate, so limited and beatupon by misfortunes, and to touch his lips with a savour of thingsdivine. There is a liberation in the wide spaces of the night, and aglory unrevealed by any day.

  I stood awhile where I was upon the deck, simply breathing in the coolair and taking no thought for my safety. A gunner lay beside his gun,asleep with his head upon the carriage; I could have touched him withmy outstretched arm....

  I looked about me. We were riding at anchor in a little bay that fromthe aspect of the stars I took to be upon the Moorish side of theStraits: an opinion that became certainty when I gradually made out theform of that huge rock of Gibraltar to the northward and themountainous promontory which lieth thereabout. There was no wind atall, which something excused the slack seamanship that was used amongstus, and in this principally showed, that our sails were but some ofthem furled up, although we rode at anchor; and the rest of them hungflat upon the yards. The moon had not risen, or was already set, butthere was that soft diffused pallor of the stars by which, afterawhile, I could see very well. In the general negligence the ship'slanterns were left unlit, but the gunner had one beside him, and also(what imported me more to find) a few broken morsels of bread. Tocarry these and the lantern down to the hold was my next concern, andwas happily effected; but I judged my enterprise incomplete until I hadgot wine, or at least water, to wash it down, for even less to besupported than our hunger was our horrible scorching thirst.

  Now, how I should have fared in my quest of that commodity I know not,seeing I did not proceed further in it than just so far as theprostrate gunner, whose leg in passing I chanced to touch and so wokehim. He raised himself on his elbow, grumbling that he waso'er-watched, and would stand sentinel no more for all the Moors inBarbary. Upon the impulse I fell upon and grappled with him, managingthe chain betwixt my wrists so that I had his neck in a loop of it,upon which I pulled until his eyes and mouth were wide and the bloodpouring from his nose. Gradually I slackened my hold to let himbreathe, for he was pretty far gone.

  "You must knock off my irons," I whispered, "or else I will strangleyou outright," and made as if to begin again.

  He was beyond speech, but made signs he would do it, and implored mewith his eyes to desist. Then he made me to understand that his toolswere abaft in the gunroom, so that I was fain to follow him thither, orrather to go beside him with my arms about his neck like a dear friend.We encountered some dozen men in the way, but all sleeping, save onethat I made my captive put to silence, which he did very properly andworkmanlike.

  Not to be tedious in this matter, I say that at length I stood free;for the which enfranchisement when my man had perfected it, perceivingthat he was like to be called in question, he fell on his knees beforeme and besought me to let him escape with me.

  "I have had pity of you many a time," he cried, "when, but for me, youmust have starved;" which was indeed true, he being the bluff ruddyfellow that had brought us our meals from time to time.

  Nevertheless I would not altogether promise to do as he wished, butcommanded him first to fetch drink and more food to my uncle, and to metoo; which when he had done, I told him we would at our leisureconsider of the success.

  "At your leisure, quotha!" cried the man, whose name was Attwood (aMidland man and a famous forger of iron as I found). "'Twill be but anhour ere the sun rise."

  "Whither are we bound?" I demanded.

  "To some port of Italy," he replied, "or Sicily, as I think. But uponour voyage it is intended to snap up whatever craft we shall encounterand may not be able to withstand us; at which trade, if it prosper, itis purposed we shall continue, and perhaps join with others that do thelike. And to this course our Captain is principally moved by one, arascal Greek, that affecteth to have knowledge of a certain strongholdand harbourage in an island to the northward of Sicily, where he saithhe is acquainted with a notable commander of armed galleys that shouldwelcome our adherence."

  "Bring forth our supper therefore, Master Attwood," said I, "for if notnow, I see not when we shall eat it."

  We ate and drank very heartily together; for we made Attwood of thecompany, who knocked off my uncle's chains and bound his ankle verydeftly betwixt two battens to set it. Our conversation was naturallyupon what should be our means of escape, which would have been settledout of hand had it not been for my uncle's broken bone that preventedhis swimming ashore as else we might have done; for our cock-boat hadbeen lost at the start in the gale, and we had nothing of which to makea raft, or at least none we could get loose without risk of alarmingthe crew.

  But as was usual my uncle gave the word by which we were ready toabide, and that was that I should swim to shore alone and seize uponone of the boats that would certainly be to be found d
rawn up on thesands (for we lay close under the shore), and with this returning withall dispatch, take them off that awaited me. Accordingly, I let myselfdown by the side, Attwood assisting me, and swam toward the shore. Butscarce had I set foot upon it, when I saw a long boat, filled with atroop of half-naked Moors, that rowed out from beyond the point andaimed directly for the vessel I had left.

  Without any other thought but to save them if I could, I shouted toAttwood that they were threatened by the Moors, and the distance beingas I say but small betwixt us, he heard me, and ran to his cannon. Butthe stir he made aroused two or three of the mariners, so that soon allstood upon their guard to defend themselves. The Captain ordered thegunner to lay to his piece and sink the enemy, but they got away in thedark, and so nothing was done. However, the Captain, who was greatlyaffrighted by this accident, called out to them to weigh anchor, for hewould presently be gone; and about sunrise, a wind springing up, heloosed from his moorings and made away eastward under all sail.

  Now, if it be admired why I neither returned to the ship, rather thanremain alone in this barbarous unknown country, nor yet extended afinger to help my uncle and Attwood to their freedom, I must answerthat it was because I could not. For I had not stood above threeminutes upon that starlit shore, ere I was seized by two Moors, thatcarried me with them to a rough hutch of skins they had hard by thequay. And here they told me, by signs, I must await their king and byhim be judged for my swimming ashore in the night; which manner ofreaching the country was, I understood, as well open to suspicion as anotable infraction of the rights of the licensed ferrymen. They seemedto be honest fellows enough, and except that they kept me in prettyclose ward in the tent, treated me, in all else, very well.