CHAPTER XVII
THE _JULES VERNE_
The swell of the sea caused the strange-looking craft to rise and sink alittle, and sometimes the water ran bubbling all around the low rim of theaperture, in the center of which the red-capped man stood, resting on someinvisible support, repeating his salutations and amicable smiles, andbalancing his body to the rocking of the waves with the unconsciousskill of a sailor.
The Ark was running slowly, but it would very soon have left the strangerin its wake if he had not also been in motion. It was evident that theobject under his feet must be a submersible vessel of some kind, althoughit was of a type which Captain Arms, standing beside Cosmo on the bridge,declared that he had never set eyes on before. It lay so low in the waterthat nothing could be seen of its motive machinery, but it kept its placealongside the Ark with the ease of a dolphin, and gradually edged in closerand closer.
When it was so near that he could be heard speaking in a voice hardlyraised above the ordinary pitch, the man, first again lifting his cap withan easy gesture, addressed Cosmo Versal by name, using the English languagewith a scarcely perceptible accent:
"M. Versal, I offer you my felicitations upon the magnificent appearance ofyour Ark, and I present my compliments to the ladies and gentlemen of yourcompany."
And then he bowed once more to the passengers, who were almost crowdingeach other over the side in their eagerness to both see and hear.
"Thank you," responded Cosmo, "but who are you?"
"Capitaine Yves de Beauxchamps, of the French army."
"Where's the navy, then?" blurted out Captain Arms.
De Beauxchamps glanced at the speaker a little disdainfully, and thenreplied gravely:
"Alas! At the bottom of the sea--with all the other navies."
"And how have you escaped?" demanded Cosmo Versal.
"As you see, in a submersible."
"Can it be possible!" exclaimed Cosmo. "And you have been in the sea eversince the beginning of the flood?"
"Since the first rise of the ocean on the coast at Brest."
"Have you no companions?"
"Six--in truth, seven."
"Astonishing!" said Cosmo Versal. "But I heard nothing of the preparationof a submersible. In fact, the idea of such a thing never occurred to me.You must have made your preparations secretly."
"We did. We did not share your certainty, M. Versal, concerning the arrivalof a deluge. Even when we embarked we were not sure that it would be morethan an affair of the coasts."
"But you must be on the point of starvation by this time. The flood hasonly begun. This cessation is but for a time, while we are passing a gap inthe nebula. You will come aboard the Ark. I had chosen my company, but yourgallant escape, and the ability that you have shown, prove that you areworthy to aid in the re-establishment of the race, and I have no doubt thatyour companions are equally worthy."
The Frenchman bowed politely, and with a slight smile replied:
"I believe, M. Versal, that the _Jules Verne_ is as safe and comfortable,and proportionately as well provisioned, as your Ark."
"So you call it the _Jules Verne?_" returned Cosmo, smiling in his turn.
"We were proud to give it that name, and its conduct has proved that it isworthy of it."
"But you will surely come aboard and shake hands, and let us offer you alittle hospitality," said Cosmo.
"I should be extremely happy to pay my compliments to the ladies,"responded De Beauxchamps, "but I must postpone that pleasure for thepresent. In the meantime, however, I should be glad if you would lower alanding stage, and permit me to send aboard the seventh member of ourparty, who, I venture to think, may find the Ark a more comfortable abodethan our submersible."
"And who may that person be?"
"_The King of England._"
Exclamations of surprise and wonder were heard on all sides.
"Yes," resumed the Frenchman, "we picked up his majesty the first day afterthe deluge began to descend from the sky."
"I will lower a ladder at once," Cosmo called out, and immediately ran downto the lowest deck, commanding his men to make haste.
The _Jules Verne_ was skillfully brought close up to the side of the Ark,so that the visible part of her rounded back was nearly in contact with thebottom of the companion-ladder when it had been lowered. The sea was socalm that there was little difficulty in executing this maneuver. DeBeauxchamps disappeared in the depths of the submersible, and after a fewminutes re-emerged into sight, supporting on his arm a stout, rather shortman, whose face, it was evident, had once been full and ruddy, but now itwas pale and worn.
"It is he!" exclaimed an English member of Cosmo's company to some of hisfellow-countrymen who had forced their way to the front.
_"It is the king!"_
And then occurred a singular thing, inspired by the marvelous circumstancesof this meeting of the sovereign of a drowned kingdom, upon the bosom ofthe waters that had destroyed it, with the mere handful which remainedalive out of all the millions of his subjects.
These loyal Englishmen bared their heads (and there were three women amongthem) and sang, with a pathos that surely the old hymn had never expressedbefore, their national anthem: "God Save the King."
The effect was immense. Every head aboard the Ark was immediatelyuncovered. De Beauxchamps removed his cap, and one or two bared heads couldbe seen peering out of the interior of the submersible below him. As theking was steadied across to the bottom of the companion-ladder, the voicesof the singers rose louder, and many of the other passengers, moved bysympathy, or carried away by epidemic feeling, joined in the singing. Neverhad any monarch a greeting like that! Its recipient was moved to the depthsof his soul, and but for the aid given him would have been unable to ascendthe swaying steps.
As he was assisted upon the deck, the song ceased and a great cheer brokeforth. There were tears in his eyes, and he trembled in every limb, when hereturned the welcoming pressure of Cosmo Versal's hand.
The moment he saw that the king was safely aboard the Ark, De Beauxchamps,with a farewell salutation, disappeared into the interior of the _JulesVerne_, and the submersible sank out of sight as gently as if it had been ahuge fish that had come to the top of the sea to take a look about.
After the sensation caused by the arrival of the English monarch aboard theArk had somewhat quieted down, and after his majesty had had an opportunityto recover himself, Cosmo Versal invited his new guest to tell the story ofhis escape. They were seated in Cosmo's cabin, and there were presentJoseph Smith, Professor Jeremiah Moses, Professor Abel Able, and AmosBlank, beside several other members of the ship's company, including two ofthe loyal Englishmen who quite naturally had been the first to strike upthe national anthem on seeing their rescued king.
Richard Edward, or Richard IV as he was officially entitled, was one of thebest kings England ever had. He was popular not only because of his almostdemocratic manners and the simplicity of his life, but more because he wasa great lover of peace. We have already seen how he was chosen, solely onthat account, to be of the number of the rulers invited to go in the Ark.He had not even replied to Cosmo's invitation, but that was simply because,like everybody about him in whom he placed confidence, he regarded CosmoVersal as a mere mountebank, and thought that there was no more danger of aflood that would cover the earth than of the fall of the moon out of thesky.
Before responding to Cosmo's request he made a gracious reference to theindifference with which he had formerly treated his present host.
"I am sorry, Mr. Versal," he said, with a deprecatory smile, "that I didnot sooner recognize the fact that your knowledge surpassed that of myscientific advisers."
"Your majesty was not alone," replied Cosmo gravely, turning with hisfinger a small globe that stood on his desk. "From all these deep-sunkencontinents" (waving his hand toward the globe), "if the voices once heardthere could now speak, there would arise a mighty sound of lament for thatgreat error."
The king look
ed at him with an expression of surprise. He glanced fromCosmo's diminutive figure to his great overhanging brow, marked with thelines of thought, and a look of instinctive deference came into his eyes.
"But," continued Cosmo Versal, "it is bootless to speak of these thingsnow. I beg that your majesty will condescend to enlighten us concerning thefate of that great kingdom, of ancient renown, over which you so worthilyreigned."
An expression of deepest pain passed across the face of Richard Edward. Forsome moments he remained buried in a mournful silence, and many sighs camefrom his breast. All looked at him with profound commiseration. At last heraised his head, and said, sorrowfully and brokenly:
"My kingdom is drowned--my subjects have perished, almost to the lastsoul--my family, my gracious consort, my children--all, all--gone!"
Here he broke down, and could speak no more. Not a word was heard, for atime in the room, and the two Englishmen present wept with theirunfortunate king.
Cosmo Versal was no less deeply moved than the others. He sat, for a while,in complete silence. Then he arose and, going to the king, put his handupon his shoulder, and talked to him long, in a low, consoling voice. Atlast the broken-spirited monarch was able to suppress his emotionssufficiently to recite, but with many interruptions while he remasteredhis feelings, the story of his woes and of his marvelous escape.
"Sir Francis Brook," he said, "prepared a barge, when the water invadedLondon, and in that barge we escaped--her royal majesty, our children, anda number of members of the royal household. The barge was the only vesselof levium that existed in England. Sir Francis had furnished andprovisioned it well, and we did not think that it would be necessary to gofarther than to some high point in the interior. Sir Francis was of theopinion that Wales would afford a secure refuge.
"It was a terrible thing to see the drowning of London, the sweeping of theawful bore that came up the Thames from the sea, the shipping wrecked bythe tearing waves, the swirl of the fast-rising water round the immensebasin in which the city lay, the downfall of the greatbuildings--Westminster Abbey was one of the first that succumbed--theoverturned boats, and even great vessels floating on their sides, orbottom up, the awful spectacle of the bodies of the drowned tossing inthe waves--all these sights were before our horrified eyes while thevast eddy swept us round and round until the water rose so high that wewere driven off toward the southwest.
"That we should have escaped at all was a miracle of miracles. It was thewonderful buoyancy of the levium barge that saved us. But the terrors ofthat scene can never fade from my memory. And the fearful sufferings ofthe queen! And our children--but I _cannot_ go on with this!"
"Calm yourself, your majesty," said Cosmo sympathetically. "The wholeworld has suffered with you. If we are spared and are yet alive, it isthrough the hand of Providence--to which all of us must bow."
"We must have passed over Surrey and Hampshire," the king resumed, "theinvasion of the sea having buried the hills."
"I am surprised at that," said Cosmo. "I did not think that the sea hadanywhere attained so great an elevation before the nebula condensed. AtNew York the complete drowning of the city did not occur until thedownpour from the sky began."
"Oh! that deluge from the heavens!" cried the king. "What we had sufferedbefore seemed but little in comparison. It came upon us after night;and the absolute darkness, the awful roaring, the terrific force of thefalling water, the sense of suffocation, the rapid filling of the bargeuntil the water was about our necks--these things drove us wild withdespair.
"I tried to sustain my poor queen in my arms, but she struggled to seizethe children and hold them above the water, and in her efforts she escapedfrom my hands, and henceforth I could find her no more. I stumbled about,but it was impossible to see; it was impossible to hear. At last I fellunconscious face downward, as it afterward appeared, upon a kind of benchat the rear end of the barge, which was covered with a narrow metallicroofing, and raised above the level of the bulwarks. It was there that Ihad tried to shelter the queen and the children.
"In some way I must have become lodged there, under the awning, in such aposition that the pitching of the barge failed to throw me off. I neverregained consciousness until I heard a voice shouting in my ear, and feltsome one pulling me, and when I had recovered my senses, I found myself in the submersible."
"And all your companions were gone?" asked Cosmo, in a voice shaking withpity.
"Yes, oh, Lord! All! They had been swept overboard by the waves--and wouldthat I had gone with them!"
The poor king broke down again and sobbed. After a long pause Cosmo askedgently:
"Did the Frenchman tell you how he came upon the barge?"
"He said that in rising to the surface to find out the state of thingsthere the submersible came up directly under the barge, canting it in sucha way that I was rolled out and he caught me as I was swept close to theopening."
"But how was it that the downpour, entering the submersible, when the coverwas removed, did not fill it with water?"
"He had the cover so arranged that it served as an almost completeprotection from the rain. Some water did enter, but not much."
"A wonderful man, that Frenchman," said Cosmo. "He would be an acquisitionfor me. What did he say his name was? Oh, yes, De Beauxchamps--I'll make anote of that. I shouldn't wonder if we heard of him again."
Cosmo Versal was destined to encounter Yves de Beauxchamps and hiswonderful submersible _Jules Verne_ sooner, and under more dramaticcircumstances than he probably anticipated.