Chapter XLV
Some remarkable occurrences take place in the letter of marque--Oldfriends with improved faces--The captor a captive; but not carried away,though the captive is, by the ship's boat--The whole chapter a mixtureof love, war, and merchandise.
We had had possession of the vessel about an hour, when the man who wassentry over the hatchway told me that one or the prisoners wished tospeak with the English commanding officer, and asked leave to come ondeck. I gave permission, and a gentleman came up, stating that he was apassenger; that the ship was a letter of marque, from Bordeaux; thatthere were seven lady passengers on board, who had come out to jointheir husbands and families; and that he trusted I would have noobjection to put them on shore, as women could hardly be considered asobjects of warfare. As I knew that O'Brien would have done so, and thathe would be glad to get rid of both women and prisoners if he could, Ireplied "Most certainly;" that I would heave-to, that they might nothave so far to pull on shore, and that I would permit the ladies andother passengers to go on shore. I begged that they would be as quick aspossible in getting their packages ready, and that I would give them twoof the boats belonging to the ship, with a sufficient number of Frenchseamen belonging to her to man the boats. The Frenchman was verygrateful, thanked me in the name of the ladies, and went down below toimpart the intelligence. I then hove-to, lowered down the boats from thequarters, and waited for them to come up. It was daylight before theywere ready, but that I did not care about; I saw the brig in the offingabout seven miles off, and I was well clear of the batteries. At lastthey made their appearance, one by one coming up the ladder, escorted byFrench gentlemen. They had to wait while the packages and bundles wereput into the boats. The first sight which struck them with horror wasthe many dead and wounded Englishmen lying on the decks. Expressingtheir commiseration, I told them that we had attempted to take theprivateer, and had been repulsed, and that it was coming out of theharbour that I had fallen in with their ship and captured it. All theladies had severally thanked me for my kindness in giving them theirliberty, except one, whose eyes were fixed upon the wounded men, whenthe French gentleman went up to her, and reminded her that she had notexpressed her thanks to the commanding officer.
She turned round to me--I started back. I certainly had seen that facebefore--I could not be mistaken; yet she had now grown up into abeautiful young woman. "Celeste," said I, trembling. "Are you notCeleste?"
"Yes," replied she, looking earnestly at me, as if she would discoverwho I was, but which it was not very easy to do, begrimed as my face waswith dust and gunpowder.
"Have you forgotten Peter Simple?"
"Oh! no--no--never forgot you!" cried Celeste, bursting into tears, andholding out her hands.
This scene occasioned no small astonishment to the parties on deck, whocould not comprehend it. She smiled through her tears, as I told her howhappy I was to have the means of being of service to her. "And where isthe colonel?" said I.
"There," replied she, pointing to the island; "he is now general, andcommands the force in the garrison. And where is Mr O'Brien?"interrogated Celeste.
"There," replied I; "he commands that man-of-war, of which I am thesecond lieutenant."
A rapid exchange of inquiries took place, and the boats were stoppedwhile we were in conversation. Swinburne reported that the brig wasstanding in for us, and I felt that in justice to the wounded I could nolonger delay. Still I found time to press her hand, to thank her for thepurse she had given me when I was on the stilts, and to tell her that Ihad never forgotten her, and never would. With many remembrances to herfather, I was handing her into the boat, when she said, "I don't knowwhether I am right to ask it, but you could do me such a favour."
"What is it, Celeste?"
"You have allowed more than one-half of the men to pull us on shore;some must remain, and they are so miserable--indeed it is hardly yetdecided which of them are to go. Could you let them all go?"
"That I will, for your sake, Celeste. As soon as your two boats haveshoved off, I will lower down the boat astern, and send the rest afteryou; but I must make sail now--God bless you!"
The boats then shoved off, the passengers waving their handkerchiefs tous, and I made sail for the brig. As soon as the stern-boat wasalongside, the rest of the crew were called up and put into her, andfollowed their companions. I felt that O'Brien would not be angry withme for letting them all go: and especially when I told him who beggedfor them. The vessel's name was the _Victorine_, mounting fourteen guns,and twenty-four men, with eleven passengers. She was chiefly laden withsilks and wine, and was a very valuable prize. Celeste had time to tellme that her father had been four years in Martinique, and had left herat home for her education; and that she was then coming out to join him.The other ladies were all wives or daughters of officers of the Frenchgarrison on the island, and the gentlemen passengers were some of themFrench officers; but as this was told me in secrecy, of course I was notbound to know it, as they were not in uniform.
As soon as we had closed with the brig, I hastened on board to O'Brien;and as soon as a fresh supply of hands to man the boats, and the surgeonhad been despatched on board of the prize, to superintend the removal ofthe wounded, I went down with him into the cabin, and narrated what hadoccurred.
"Well," said O'Brien, "all's well that ends well; but this is not theluckiest hit in the world. Your taking the ship has saved me, Peter; andI must make as flourishing a despatch as I can. By the powers but it'svery lucky that she has fourteen guns--it sounds grand. I must muddle itall up together, so that the admiral must think we intended to cut themboth out--and so we did, sure enough, if we had known she had beenthere. But I am most anxious to hear the surgeon's report, and whetherpoor Osbaldistone will do well. Peter, oblige me by going on board, andput two marines sentry over the hatchway, so that no one goes down andpulls the traps about; for I'll send on shore everything belonging tothe passengers, for Colonel O'Brien's sake."
The surgeon's report was made--six killed and sixteen wounded. Thekilled were, O'Farren and Pepper, midshipmen, two seamen and twomarines. The first lieutenant, Osbaldistone, was severely wounded inthree places, but likely to do well; five other men were dangerouslywounded: the other ten would, in all probability, return to their dutyin less than a month. As soon as the wounded were on board, O'Brienreturned with me to the prize, and we went down into the cabin. All thepassengers' effects were collected; the trunks which had been left openwere nailed down: and O'Brien wrote a handsome letter to GeneralO'Brien, containing a list of the packages sent on shore. We sent thelaunch with a flag of truce to the nearest battery; after some demur itwas accepted, and effects landed. We did not wait for an answer, butmade all sail to join the admiral at Barbadoes.
The next morning we buried those who had fallen. O'Farrell was a fineyoung man, brave as a lion, but very hot in his temper. He would havemade a good officer had he been spared. Poor little Pepper was also muchregretted. He was but twelve years old. He had bribed the bowman of thesecond cutter to allow him to conceal himself under the fore-sheets ofthe boat. His day's allowance of spirits had purchased him this objectof his ambition, which ended so fatally. But as soon as the bodies haddisappeared under the wave, and the service was over, we all felthappier. There is something very unpleasant, particularly to sailors, inhaving a corpse on board.
We now sailed merrily along, the prize keeping company with us; and,before we reached Barbadoes, most of the men were convalescent.Osbaldistone's wounds, were, however, very severe; and he wasrecommended to return home, which he did, and obtained his promotion assoon as he arrived. He was a pleasant messmate, and I was sorry to losehim; although, the lieutenant appointed in his room being junior to me,I was promoted to be first lieutenant of the brig. Soon afterOsbaldistone went home, his brother broke his neck when hunting, andOsbaldistone came into the property. He then quitted the service.
We found the admiral at Barbadoes, who received O'Brien and his despatchvery well. O'Brien had taken tw
o good prizes, and that was sufficient tocover a multitude of sins, even if he had committed any; but thedespatch was admirably written, and the admiral, in his letter to theAdmiralty, commented upon Captain O'Brien's successful and daringattack; whereas, if the truth had been known, it was Swinburne's adviceof pulling up the weather shore, which was the occasion of our capturingthe _Victorine_; but it is very hard to come at the real truth of thesesort of things, as I found out during the time that I was in HisMajesty's service.