'If I were cast into a deep pit,' saith the quaint Hobbes, 'and the devil put down his cloven-foot, I would take hold thereof, to be drawn out by it.'
This is an apt, but somewhat fallacious application of the mode of working ascribed, with what truth I say not, to the Jesuits, viz., that we may do evil if good should come of it; and of the system upheld by the philosopher of Malmesbury, 'that it is lawful to make use of an ill instrument to do ourselves good.'
Callum and I, though sunk in dejection, dispirited, and exasperated, and feeling ourselves fitted to attempt or encounter anything desperate to achieve our liberty, had scarcely reached the climax referred to by the learned Hobbes. I thought of bribery; but my foster-brother, though poor as a cadger, was proud as a king, and with some scorn rejected my proposal to tamper with our not over-scrupulous Turkish guards and turnkeys.
These officials (as Achmet Effendi informed me), by the connivance of the governor and his subalterns, could favour or permit the escape of the worst malefactor committed to their care, if there were friends without, who were ready to pay down the requisite number of piastres, on receipt of which their names would at once be struck off the books of the Bagnio as dead.
'Suppose cholera should break out here?' said I, one day, when almost suffocated by the overpowering malaria of the prison.
'In the name of mercy do not think of it!' replied the Turkish lieutenant; 'I have seen that dreadful pest more than once within these walls, and all the Koran says of hell cannot equal the horrors of the scene. The dead, collapsed, pale, and frightful, have lain among us in their chains for days, until the governor, by offers of liberty, bribed some of the prisoners, and by threats of death forced others, to convey them from this vault, into which the vilest of his slaves refused to enter.'
These brief conversations increased my desire to leave the place. My horror of it; my anger at being detained; my anxiety for the issue, and for the construction which the regiment might put upon my unaccountable disappearance, with a thousand other exciting reflections, rendered me at times only fit company for a maniac. Often my spirit sank to the lowest ebb; and, crouched at the foot of a pillar, with my head resting on kind Callum's brawny shoulder, I have slept, or striven to sleep, through the long and dreary hours of a monotonous night, after the equally long and dreary hours of a horrible day. And even these snatches of uneasy slumber were filled by countless dreams, visions, and thoughts of incidents long past, and places, faces, and voices far, far away.
Amid all this misery I thought much of Iola, who was now where her errors would be more lightly judged than by the sons of men.
Strange it was that when I dreamt of her—her death, that scene of horror, seemed alla dream, that had passed away with night and sleep. She was again alive and beside me, as of old, with her soft angelic smile! Again her lips were warm and breathing; and her breath came hot and fragrant, as her white bosom palpitated against mine. Dear Iola! Then the atmosphere seemed dense and full of languor; again I was trembling, dazzled, and confused with delight, as she lay within my arms in all her Oriental beauty, waking in my heart a thousand thoughts and aspirations hitherto unknown to me.
Then her face would fade like the dissolving views of a magic-lantern; melting half away, it changed and brightened into another that resembled Laura Everingham; then I would start with a convulsive shudder and awake, to find around me the grizzly, unshaven, and dreadful visages of my Asiatic and Turkish companions, with all the horrors of that earthly hell, the Mohammedan Bagnio.
Many a time the scenery of my native land came before me. Again, in fancy, I trod the purple heath, and heard the roar of the Uisc-dhu, as it thundered over its steep precipice into the black linn below; again I saw my mother's grave, and the old jointure-house shining in the sunlight; the lofty scalp of Ben Ora capped with the snows of the past winter, and its sides clothed with bronze-like thickets of larch and pine; again I saw the azure loch on which the wild swans floated, bordered by its groves of silver birch, of wavy ash, and the rowan with its scarlet berries; and out of that deep, dark, and pestilential vault, the desolate glen of the Ora passed thus before me like a panorama, with all its moss-grown hearths and roofless homes; the waving woods, the rocks, and mountains, shining under a glorious sun.
On waking from dreams like these my spirit sank lower, but sturdy Callum never quailed, for he cuffed and kicked the Turkish prisoners, and sang 'The Brown-eyed Maid,' or whistled endless and interminable pibrochs, as he said, 'just to relieve his mind and let off the steam a little.'
Anon I was with the regiment again—'roughing it,' among rough and gallant spirits, who hovered round me in all the glittering appurtenances of Highland chivalry. I heard the comic song, the glee, the laughter of the mess; or I was again at sea on board theVestal, passing over the waste of water like a floating spirit, and gliding along the dim and distant coasts of France and Spain—that seemed pale and blue by sunny day, and dark by starry night—or lit only by the solitary light-houses that burned like ocean-stars upon the horizon's tremulous verge; on—on—on the wings of steam, swiftly, silently, and mysteriously.
Iola still!
It would come before me again and again, that face of tender beauty and reproachful sadness. Her eyes were ever on me, by night, when all was darkness and profundity; and in the day-time, when the misty flakes of sunshine fell through the prison-bars, in waking or in sleeping, they were ever gazing on me—those dark and sad, but sweet imploring eyes.
Eve fell even in Paradise—why not Iola?
With such thoughts for my companions, how heavy was my sorrow, how dull and monotonous my captivity!
At last, even Callum, who could boldly face all those disagreeables which usually rise like dust along the roadway of life, began to sink under the weariness of our existence in this hideous place; and once, to my surprise, I discovered tears hovering in his eyes.
'Co-dhalta,' said I, kindly, placing a hand on his shoulder; 'what are you thinking of?'
'I am thinking, Mac Innon, of that green place where God gives rest to the weary—the old kirkyard at home, where your mother and mine, too, are sleeping under the shadow of the old stone cross; and I was pondering on——'
'What?'
'Ourchances of ever being laid beside them.'
'Let us rather think of escape.'
'To work, then,' said Callum, briskly; 'let us not continue to waste what little Father Raoul was wont to term the poor man's best inheritance?'
'What may that be, Callum?'
'Time,' was the pithy reply.
This brief conversation was interrupted by the arrival of two more prisoners, who were immediately greeted by the usual appalling chorus of yells, cries, curses, and laughter, together with that clattering accompaniment of chains, bolts and fetters, which had so strangely startled Callum and me on our first entrance to this Cimmerian and infernal abode.
Escorted by a party of Turkish police, or personages armed with similar authority, and accoutred with yataghan and pistols, of course, for these are as indispensable to an Osmanli as his nose and eyes, our new companions who entered were two hideous and ferocious Asiatic Turks, with receding foreheads, sharp temples, ana shaggy eyebrows—black and sinister eyes—hooked noses and long moustaches, having a savage curl, round almost to their ears. While they were being secured by the legs to the wall, a gleam of sunlight from one of the grated slits fell upon them, and I recognised Zahroun and another of the Turks who had assisted the Moolah Moustapha in committing Iola to her dreadful tomb amid the waters.
I stepped towards them, with a dark frown on my face and a twitching in my hands, as if I could have sprung upon their throats; and Callum followed me close, with a gleam in his dark eye that betokened mischief.
Zahroun recognised us, and pointed his dirty brown fingers at me with mockery, while his companion gave us but a scowl and a sullen stare.
'Chaoush,' said I, to the sergeant of the guard, 'of what have these men been guilty?'
'Murder and piracy,' replied the soldier, briefly, as he drew a key from the fetter-lock of Zahroun.
'Murder!—where?—near Rodosdchig?'
'No—for murdering a Frankish officer off the coast of Natolia a night or two ago, in a solitary caique; but they are safe enough till the ferashes of the Bostandgi Bashi lead them out to take their last view of the setting sun.'
Yells, hoots, and groans, whistling and laughter, greeted the chaoush as he retired, and I turned away with aversion from the two wretched assassins who had been added to the number already round us. But their arrival excited a little curiosity in this strange community, and by those who were chained on each side of them, and opposite, they were loudly and vociferously pressed to relate the story of their crime and the cause of their incarceration there.
It was briefly told, for the Turk is neither verbose nor circumlocutory.
They, and a few others, all well armed in a fleet caique, were hovering about the coast of Natolia, on the look-out for any smaller craft they might be able to overpower or pick up, when they discovered, in a creek of the opposite Isle of Marmora, an English pleasure-yacht ashore, wedged upon the sand, and left almost dry, as her crew, without the assistance of a large steamer, were totally unable to get her off. Barek Allah! here was a prize! A well-found, taut-rigged, sharp-prowed, and strong English yacht, of some three hundred tons, pierced for twelve eight-pounder carronades, and handsomely fitted up.
In those disorderly times, when the shores of Asia Minor were swarming with lawless bands, and Greece was vibrating with incipient insurrection, what havoc could be made in the Archipelago with such a craft as this English yacht! But then her owner was a sturdy, burly old infidel, who, since she had gone ashore, had stuck a huge cutlass and four pistols in his girdle. He had a well-picked crew of forty men, all well armed, and who loved fighting better than idleness, for these Ingleez galiondgis were the very devil! He had on board, also, a British officer from Sebastopol, and two Ingleez ladies, beautiful as the houris of Paradise, moon-faced and cushion-hipped (and here the hideous Asiatic rolled his black goggle eyes, and licked his blubber lips), and so the yacht with her twelve brass guns, plunder, et cetera, was deemed well worth venturing one's hide under pewter and steel for.
While Zahroun and his companion Abdul Basig watched her in a little caique, pretending to fish by day and to sleep in an adjoining creek by night; others, their comrades in many a crime, were scouring all the sea-port towns about Rodosdchig and the Natolian coast, to muster enough of lads on whom, by old experience, they could depend—choice and sturdy sons of the handjiar and pistol, to assist in surprising the grounded yacht some cloudy night when the moon was below the horizon, and no help was nigh; for with enough of hands she could easily be boarded in the dark—the throats of the Ingleez cut from clew to earring, and then the whole craft, with all her plunder, provisions, women, wine, plate, and everything, would belong to the captors. Inshallah! was it not a notable speculation?
'One evening,' continued this exulting ruffian, 'Abdul and I were hovering near the creek in our caique, looking at the stranded yacht, and admiring her beautiful mould, and clean run under the counter, as she lay with a heel over to her port side, when suddenly, while we were speaking, her colours were run up to the foremast-head to gain our attention, and a giaour on deck waved his hat to us. Then we pulled alongside, but cautiously and slowly.
'The Effendi to whom she belonged had grown weary of lying in a few feet of water among the woods of that secluded creek, and impatiently proposed that, for so many piastres, we should convey the bearer of a message towards the mouth of the Dardanelles, where he would be sure of falling in with one of the many British cruisers, whose captain would at once lend him all the assistance necessary, on merely mentioning his name; for this stout old infidel in the square-tailed coat, white trousers, and straw hat, evidently deemed himself a great man in his own country; and so perhaps he may be, for Abdul tells me that it is an island of white chalk, where the sun never shines, and whose shores are surrounded by a thousand leagues of mud; and that its mountains are peopled by Arnaouts, who wear a striped camise round their middle like yonder giaour (pointing to Callum Dhu), and that they have tails—Allah Ackbar!—of which, however, they are deprived by the Moolahs at their birth.
'Be that as it may, we agreed with the Frankish Effendi to take his messenger to a castle of the Dardanelles, and for three hundred piastres, which were at once paid over the capstan-head, to set off that very night. Before he left the yacht, his messenger, a handsome Ingleez captain—a Yuze Bashi in the Guards, and bearded like a Janissary, or like all those infidels who come from the war, kissed the unbelieving women before descending to our boat—kissed them before us all, without their yashmacks; and then we put off, set our sail, shipped the sweeps, and pulled away to sea.
'The night was beautiful, and muffled in a coat which had a hooded cape like that of a Bashi Bozook, the Ingleez captain lolled in the stern-sheets of the caique, smoking cigars, speaking, as all these Ingleez do, about the weather, and looking upward at the stars, or back to the Isle of Marmora, where he had left his two wives, for such I took the women to be; but now the Isle was diminished to a dim blue speck upon the waters, and we could no longer see the creek where the yacht lay.
'He had a fine ring on the fourth finger of his left hand; it flashed as he gave us each a few cigars, and lit a fresh one for himself. He had a noble gold watch (all these infidels have such), and he looked at it from time to time, as he hummed a song, and after telling us to "pull like devils, as we should be well paid," fell fast asleep, for he feared nothing.
'Abdul and I continued to pull, but less vigorously than before. We looked slyly at each other, and thought of the watch and the ring. The sea was very quiet and smooth; there was not a ripple on it, and no eye beheld us, but the winking stars. The infidel-dog slept soundly, and he was smiling in his sleep, as he dreamt perhaps of his two Ingleez wives, or his island of mud and fog, for we could see his white teeth shining under his dark moustache in the starlight. We were some miles off Cape Karaburun, for we could see its lighthouse glimmering on our lee. Everything was quiet and lonely as it may well be upon the midnight ocean. We exchanged another glance, and in a moment more, the throat of the infidel was gaping with a red slash of my handjiar, which nearly cut his head off!
'Abdul Rasig made a snatch at the gold watch, and just as we tossed him overboard, I tore off the diamond ring with my teeth, and, Allah Kebir! a mouthful of his unclean flesh came off with it; but here it is—the ring, not the flesh!'
In the excitement of his narrative the wretch forgot himself so much as to exhibit the ring. It was a chaste little jewel—a pure diamond, set round with pearls; and on beholding it, I started back as if a thunderbolt had burst at my ear.
That identical ring I had seen a hundred times on the finger of Laura Everingham; and I had last observed it, to my pique and grief, on the hand of her lover—her husband Clavering—when he dined at our mess in the Castle of Dumbarton!
Astonishment and horror chained all my faculties, and meanwhile the exulting Zahroun continued his revolting narrative.
'We flung him over, and he sunk like a stone; then we put the helm up, and bore away for the river Ustuola, our point of rendezvous on the coast of Natolia—a lonely place, where all our armed caiques were to meet for attacking and taking the yacht. But a storm came on; wallah! a storm of wind and lightning, a flash of which shaved my left whisker clean off, as you may see; we were driven up the Sea of Marmora, and after losing both sweeps and sail, were drifting at the mercy of the wind and tide, when an armed boat of the Bostandgi Bashi—may dogs defile his beard!—overhauled us, just when we were quarrelling and mauling each other about the respective merits of the watch and ring, for Abdul Rasig was wrathful at the splendour of my diamond, vowing, that for every para the watch was worth I had got a piastre, and a para being worth only the thirtieth part of a piastre, four of which now go to make a shilling Ingleez, we loudly accused each other of murder and robbery, like the fathers of fools.
'The Kadi before whom we were brought carefully wound up the watch, applied it to his ear, and as it ticked to his satisfaction, he solved the matter by depositing it in his judicial pocket. He would also have quieted me, by slipping my ring on his finger, but I placed it in my mouth, and swore, by every hair in the boards of the two hundred and twenty-seven thousand prophets of Islam, that I had swallowed it; then we were marched off to the Bagnio, and so are here.'
'Ay, here we are, a thousand burning curses on your folly!' growled Abdul; 'for the four caiques will leave the mouth of the Ustuola on the fourth night from this; the yacht will be boarded and taken, and neither of us will be there to share the plunder or the pleasure; and wallah! I had set my whole soul on having one of those white-skinned Ingleez women!'
It is impossible for me to analyze my thoughts or reflections, on hearing this terrible relation of Clavering's lonely and helpless butchery in his sleep, by the hands of villains such as these Turkish galiondgis.
Poor Tom Clavering! his well-whiskered face and manly figure came vividly before me, as I had last seen them in Dumbarton Castle, when he seemed the jolliest of our merry mess; and when full of joy at his approaching marriage, and all thoughtless that I was his rival, he spoke to me of his love for Laura; of her beauty, and that which was better than beauty, her worth; and when, in the fulness of his heart, he generously placed his purse at my service with all the frankness of a soldier and of an English gentleman.
But he was gone, and Laura was a widow now.
A widow at two-and-twenty, or thereabout!
Here was food for thoughts of hope and ardour, for now she would be free to choose another; and though the pale image of Iola still hovered painfully and oppressively before me at times, I felt that I loved Laura still. Then came the crushing and startling thought of the dangers which menaced her, and the words of the villain Abdul were yet tingling in my ears.
'The caiques will leave the Ustuola on the fourth night from this, and the yacht will be boarded and taken!'
Taken by those Greek pirates and Turkish outlaws whose savage barbarity have long made terrible the shores and isles of the Ægean sea!
So Laura was with me in this land so distant from our home; she was within a few miles of me, and a great longing seized my soul—a longing to look once more upon her face—to hear her voice again; the voice that in other times had thrilled through my inmost heart, which now began to 'ache with the thought of all that might have been;' but it stood still, forgetting almost to beat, while my blood ran cold at the reflection that I was a prisoner, and totally incapable of assisting, warning, or protecting her or her friends.
All my soul seemed now to be with that stranded yacht on the Isle of Marmora, which was more than forty miles distant, as a bird would fly.
Oh, to be free! my longing and my horror were fast becoming insupportable.
How often had the same unavailing exclamation left my lips, as with clenched hands, and teeth that gnawed my nether lip, I trod to and fro in wretchedness, despondency, and bitterness of heart, in the narrow passage or aisle formed by the double line of captives chained on each side of the Bagnio.
I had long since discovered the futility of attempting to soften, bribe, or terrify the chaoush who commanded the guard, for he feared us, as prisoners of the Moolah Moustapha; thus the rascal seemed incorruptible.
The story of Clavering's fate, and the adventure of the diamond-ring, haunted me as much as the doom that overhung the yacht of Sir Horace and her crew. Could I rest while, almost within arm's length of me, there was this jewel which had been on the white hand of a pure and innocent English girl like Laura Everingham (and which, moreover, had been her gift to a brave and honest hearted fellow like Clavering) remaining in possession of a vile and polluted assassin like Zahroun?
Twenty times I stepped towards him, with the intention of clutching his throat, though he seemed to possess thrice my strength; and I as often drew back on reflecting that, in case of a brawl, I might be torn to pieces by the prisoners if I came within arm's length of them, or perhaps I might be shot by the guards from without, as Achmet Effendi informed me that, on scuffles ensuing, they frequently fired through the gratings, without the least remorse or ceremony; and he added, that if we escaped a round of ball-cartridge we would assuredly be chained, like the rest, to the walls.
To Callum Dhu I translated the horrible story of Zahroun, and the honest heart of my foster-brother was fired with rage and sorrow when he heard the fate of Captain Clavering. The frank and manly bearing of the English Guardsman, with his love of old Highland sports, had made a most favourable impression on the mind of my follower, whose heart was apt to become somewhat encrusted by jealousy and prejudice on the approach of strangers; and now, whispering fiercely in my ear, he swore by the stones of Iona to tear the head off the shoulders of Zahroun.
The sunset had faded away; the eight reflections of the eight narrow slits which, from a shady verandah, admitted light into our vault, had disappeared from the stained and dirty walls; the place was so dark that we could not see each other's faces, as on this night the chaoush of the Turkish guard had omitted to light the lantern which usually swung from a pillar of our den; or perhaps the quartermaster of the castle had no oil in store; but what ever the reason may have been, we were left quite in the dark when I finished my translation of the story, and then Callum Dhu, filled by a sudden tempest of Highland fury, and regardless of all consequences, sprang upon Zahroun, and seizing him by the throat, endeavoured to hurl him beneath his feet; but the bare-legged and bare-armed galiondgi was brawny, muscular, and strong as himself, so the struggle that ensued between these two athletes was alike fierce and terrible! Their hard, constrained breathing; their half-suffocated exclamations, threats, and execrations in hoarse Gaelic on one hand, and guttural Turkish on the other, were drowned amid the noise made by the prisoners, who began their usual infernal chorus of shrieks, yells, oaths, and laughter, with loud and impetuous inquiries on all hands as to what was the matter, while the general row was increased by the swinging and dashing of chains.
'Callum! Callum!' I exclaimed, 'here are lights—the Turkish guards may fire upon us.'
'Let them blaze away!' was the answer of Callum, who, wholly intent on battling with his ferocious antagonist (whom he had now beaten to the ground, and on whose brawny chest he had planted his kilted knees), heeded me not, for his Celtic blood was fairly up, and his mouth, moreover, was full of it, as Zahroun, with one of his iron fetters, had given him a blow on the jaws. While they continued to fight thus, like two wild panthers, writhing, twisting, and struggling, sundry pleasant adjectives in their different languages were resorted to.
'Dioul!' was freely invoked on one side, and all the genii of hell, with the beards of the twelve imaums, and the same reverend appendages of the two hundred and twenty-seven thousand prophets of Islam wore summoned in vain on the other, while the storm of swinging chains and clamorous voices rang in the arched vault like the bellowing of a stormy sea.
A red light flashed fitfully through one of the iron gratings, and the swarthy visage, heavy moustache, and scarlet fez of the Turkish sergeant appeared, as he held up a flaring torch and gazed in, with something of wonder and alarm in his dark and dilating Asiatic eyes. The iron door was hastily opened, and several soldiers, clad in short blue jackets, and tight red trousers, ran down the steps, and preceded by the chaoush with the torch, began to lay about them on all sides with bamboo rods, caning all without discrimination.
As the sergeant rushed forward, a prisoner, in sheer mischief, put out a foot and tripped him up. With a malediction the non-commissioned officer fell flat on his face, with the burning link almost in his mouth, by which—Barek Allah!—his sacred moustaches were scorched off in a moment; and as the light went out, two or three of his comrades fell over him in the dark, increasing the confusion. A hand now grasped mine with fierce energy. It was Callum's.
'Now,' said he, 'now or never! follow me!'
And he dragged me up the steps and through the open door, which we could easily distinguish by a faint light beyond it. As we issued into the yard before the Turkish guard-house, Callum, with admirable presence of mind, closed the barrier of the vault, turned the key, and by an additional wrench broke it in the lock, leaving the chaoush and his soldiers to fight or fraternise with the prisoners, as they pleased.
'Let us be but through the outer barrier, and we are free!' said I.
The night was starry but dark, for the moon had not yet risen, and an increasing wind rolled the waves of the Propontis on the rocky beach.
There was no time for calm deliberation; no leasure to undo an error, for we had nothing to guide our decision but the quickness of instinct and the rapidity of desperation. Our lives would be lost or won in less than five minutes—a dreadful reflection to me, even now, when all the danger is over and I sit in my quiet quarters writing of what is all happily past.
The gate was closed and secured by a transverse wooden bar. Muffled in his blue greatcoat, the Turkish sentinel stood near it, with his musket on his shoulder, and the long bushy tassel of his scarlet cap drooping down his back. I could mark his sharp Asiatic features defined against the sky. He stood still and motionless as a bronze statue, with his lacklustre eyes fixed on the stars, and absorbed apparently in one of those waking dreams peculiar to those Osmanlies who spend their spare paras in opium and raki.
'Mac Innon,' whispered Callum, 'to you I leave the undoing of the gate; give me the sentinel to manage—'
'You will not kill him?' said I, hurriedly, seeing that there was a wild gleam in Callum's eyes, and that he had, between his teeth, a skene-dhu, which, by being concealed in his hose, had hitherto escaped the search of our captors.
'Kill him? not if I can help it; but I would rather be shot here, sir, than go back to that infernal prison. Dioul! do you hear how the old chaoush is bellowing at the door?'
Roused by the unusual noise, the dreamy sentinel turned his head half round to listen, and at that moment Callum sprang upon him, and grasped his throat with a clutch into which he threw all the muscular strength of his sinewy arms and fingers. The swarthy visage of the poor Turk became distorted; his eyes almost started from their sockets, and the musket fell from his shoulder. I snatched up the weapon, and (while Callum hurled the soldier to the ground) endeavoured to throw off its iron hooks a solid cross bar that secured the wicket in the gate, which was composed of strong vertical palisades.
This bar was secured in its place by a chain and large brass padlock, the key of which was probably at the belt of the chaoush, whose outcries we dreaded would momently rouse the rest of his comrades in the little fortress.
Heavens, what a chaos were then my thoughts! All seemed a dream, and we did everything as if in a dream; yet all we did was wisely and correctly done. I unfixed the bayonet from the musket; inserted its triangular blade into the loop of the padlock; grasped the socket with my right hand, the point with my left, and using the weapon as a lever, wrenched it fiercely round, and burst the impediment. Thus the chain which secured the bar was loosened; the wicket stood open, and the sentinel lay breathless on the ground.
'I hope the poor fellow will soon recover—he was only doing his duty,' said I.
'He'll be able to bawl for help in three minutes; Dioul! if he does, I'll go back with my skene and gralloch him like a dead deer; see he is stirring already!' said Callum, as we leaped through the gate; and intent only on placing the greatest possible distance between ourselves and the Bagnio of Selyvria, hastened along the sea-shore, avoiding the high road which traverses the rugged coast, and which we naturally supposed would be the first line of search and of pursuit.
The shore was sandy, broken here and there by masses of black rocks, and fringed by groves and thickets, which afforded every means of concealment, if we were pursued. Moreover, many little caiques and fishing-craft were moored in the creeks and inlets for nearly three miles beyond Selyvria: thus we had every means of escape to seaward, if closely pressed by the soldiers from the castle. I had still the sentinel's loaded musket; but was resolved to toss it into some pool of water or olive-thicket when day dawned, lest the circumstance of having it in my possession might excite remark or suspicion; and we intended to pass ourselves off to the Osmanlies as shipwrecked British prisoners, escaped from a Greek pirate—a story probable enough, if told at a moderate distance from Selyvria.
A hundred times we paused anxiously to listen, assured that we heard the noise of pursuit, rising above the far-sounding murmur of the eternal sea that rolled upon the sandy beach. Now it seemed the baying of dogs; then the tramping of horses on the paved road that led to the bridge of the Saltmarsh; next it was the tread of men's feet and the clink of accoutrements; but these were all the effect of an over-excited fancy; for after listening breathlessly, with heads stooped low, we became assured that there was no sound in the night air, but the sighing of the wind through the olive and orange groves, and the murmur of the Propontis as it broke on the silent shore.
We were progressing in the direction of Heraclea, where Major Catanagh lay with the rest of our comrades and the regiment of the Mir Alai Saïd. Callum urged that we should lose no time in repairing there, and insuring our own safety; but I was more intent on reaching Rodosdchig, where I could draw off my little party, embark them in boats, and sail for the opposite Isle of Marmora, as I had now no thought in this world but to save or rescue Sir Horace and his friends from the danger that menaced them.
'But if our detachment has been recalled from Rodosdchig?' said Callum; 'what then?—we have been absent several weeks, I think, though I forgot to reckon the time in yonder atrocious den.'
I had not thought of this chance, and it puzzled me.
Major Catanagh, may have been ordered to join at head-quarters, for all that we know to the contrary, sir, and may have marched for Constantinople, said he.
Still my resolution was not altered.
'Let us reach Rodosdchig,' said I, doggedly.
The silent night wore away; pale Phosphorus, the morning star of the old Greeks, melted into the rosy sky of sunrise, as the god of day ascended from the distant Ægean sea, and tipped the hills and castles of the Dardanelles with fire. The waves of the Propontis gleamed in gold, and rolled like liquid light upon its fertile shores. We found ourselves in a lonely place, where the sea broke in surf on one hand, and on the other lay a marshy waste, where buzzards and vultures seemed the only living things, with a few of those solemn-looking storks, which are so often to be found perched on the roofs of Turkish houses; or peeping out of nests of twigs and clay, made under their eaves.
Day had now fully broken. I concealed the bayonet in my sleeve as a weapon of defence; but threw the musket into the sea. Then Callum and I put our sorely-soiled uniforms into the best order, and though the amount of hair which flourished around our visages gave us rather a Crimean aspect, it mattered not in Turkey, and we stepped forward with growing confidence, looking about for some one to direct us, as the dome and minarets of a mosque (like a punch-bowl between two champagne bottles) appeared at a distance, and indicated the vicinity of a town.
Near a well on the wayside, we found an old woman, of an aspect rather Ghoulish, with her eyes shining through the holes in her yashmack, which was carefully drawn over her head, though her poor mammary region was bare and flat as a drumhead. She was filling a vase of most classical aspect, with the pure water of the circular well, over which drooped the long branches of a solitary date-palm.
On my inquiring the name of the little town which was now visible above the orange-groves, she hastily flung down her pitcher in great alarm, and muttering something about 'Franks and Giaours,' fled from us.
'The devil's in the cailloch,' said Callum; 'does she take us for ogres?'
Rather discouraged by the impression our appearance seemed to make, we pressed on towards the town, beyond which we saw a chain of snow-capped hills, sparkling in the sunshine like cones of polished silver. We studied our plans and distances over and over again; and I shuddered as I thought of the hopeless captivity that might succeed our recapture—the danger that hung over the Everinghams—the dreadful Bagnio; and with that recollection there came before me in fancy the careworn smile of poor Achmet Effendi, and his miserable comrade the lieutenant of artillery, who were still lingering there.
I knew well the danger and the difficulty attending two unarmed strangers travelling on foot in such a country as Turkey; for at the present hour I need scarcely remind the reader that even in the streets of Stamboul, notwithstanding the presence of regular troops and patrols of armed police, robberies and assassinations of every description, by the handjiar, the pistol, the bludgeon, and strangulation, are of constant occurrence in open day. If such is the case in the capital of 'the Lord of the Black and White Seas, and Keeper of the Holy Cities of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem,' our prospects in his rural districts were not very encouraging.
By the side of a rivulet we found a dreamy Osmanli reclining under an orange-tree, regaling himself on dates and cold water, with a paper cigar in his mouth. He was basking in the sunshine, and believing himself, perhaps, in the Garden of Delights, though minus the river of fragrant wine, the fruits of the giant Toaba, and the caresses of the black-eyed girls, with their limbs of snow, and scanty cymars of green.
With the usual greeting, I inquired if he knew the town now before us.
He replied in the affirmative; but the name I cannot now remember, and no map that I have seen bears it.
'Whence come you?' he inquired.
'Frangistan.'
'That I can perceive—but how?'
'By a ship.'
'Allah Kebir! I did not expect you to fly.'
'Of course not—she was wrecked upon the coast.'
'And you escaped?'
'Narrowly, as you may see—all we possess is upon us, and we are almost famished.'
'Bismillah! now I remember having smoked pipe with you once.'
'Where, Aga?'
'In the khan at Heraclea.'
'I think I remember you,' said I; though in truth I had no recollection of the worthy man whatever.
'I have some dates and the spring-water here; but you are welcome to both. Eat with me, and we shall be friends. I am no Aga, but a humble dealer in cherry-sticks, and having sold all my stock in Selyvria, am now returning home.'
'To yonder town?'
'Exactly.'
'Has it a Kadi?
'Yes, and none in Roumelia knoweth better the hundred and fourteen chapters of the Koran. Whenever his carpet is spread, heels are turned up and heads sliced off in a twinkling! Wallah! he knows the law well, Hadjee Sohail Ebn Amru; and more than all, he is my elder brother, and has built for the public use a mosque and fountain, surrounded by cypresses and mulberry-trees. I had the misfortune to come into existence a little later than he, so our father left him every asper he had in the world: thus the Kadi Sohail is a rich dealer in shawls, silks, and carpets, while I am a poor vender of cherry-sticks; but what seek you of the Kadi?'
'Not money, my friend.'
'You are wise—what then?'
'Horses to take us to Stamboul.'
'But who will pay for them?'
'Our ambassador.'
'Wallah!' replied the pipe-stick vender; 'all the world say he is breaking his heart about the fall of Kara; but all the world are liars, I think. However, as you came to fight for the Faithful, horses you shall have, if my brother the Kadi can find them.'
The acquaintance of this garrulous fellow was quite a boon to us; and encouraged by his free and talkative manner, and not a little amused by the airs of patronage and protection he assumed, we stepped boldly into the town, giving out, on all hands, that we required horses for Stamboul.
I found that these Turks were fast making me as sly and reserved as themselves.
Assisted by our new friend, we reached the house and bazaar of the Kadi Sohail Ebn Amru, who, on our uniforms, and hearing that we required two horses for the Sultan's service, after wonderfully little delay, ordered that they should be procured,i.e., taken, or forcibly pressed, from the first or nearest persons who were not included in the circle of his acquaintance. While the nags were being brought, the seller of pipe-sticks bustled about, and set before us a repast of mutton-ham, cheese, white bread, and Kirkissa wine, and we seated ourselves on some of those soft carpets of Irann, which are the pride of the Stambouli housewives.
The Kadi was not present, being closeted in an inner apartment with a stranger, a brother Hadjee, whom he appeared to treat with great reverence. Ere long he came out, and invited us to enter and 'partake of coffee with his friend, who had travelled a long way on foot and was weary.'
'A friend?' said I, hesitating.
'Yes, Aga.'
'A soldier?'
'No—a Moolah.'
'But a Moolah may not like us.'
'He is sure to do so.'
'But then we are soldiers,' I continued, still hesitating; 'and Moolahs hate all soldiers.'
'Mashallah!' said the Kadi; ''tis the famous Hadjee Moustapha, who has himself been a soldier, and a brave one too.'
We were both confounded by lighting on this devil of a Moolah even here! I scarcely dared now to whisper our danger to Callum, lest the visitor might overhear, as a partition formed of striped cloth, covered with sentences from the Koran alone separated us; and if discovered by him, all the wealth of Karoon (Crœsus) could not save us. While pondering what excuse to make, and finding that the more I pondered the more obstinate my invention became, luckily the horses—two fine Arabs—ready accoutred, with high demi-pique saddles, and having bridles and cruppers covered with brass knobs and long red tassels, were led up by grooms wearing each a red fez and voluminous blue breeches; then bidding the Kadi and his brother farewell, and hastily leaving a receipt and order on the regimental paymaster for the alleged value of the horses, if not safely returned, we trotted 'away,' as we said, 'for Stamboul;' and then, from the street corner, started at full gallop for Bodosdchig.
The town we left was garrisoned by two battalions of the Egyptian contingent, consisting entirely ofone-eyed men. So great is the horror of military service in the land of Pharaoh in this age of steam, that the people mutilate themselves in such numbers to avoid soldiering, that the Pasha has been compelled to enrol those having right eyes in one regiment, and those having left eyes in another.
We rode at great speed, and when the sun was verging towards the long chain of the Tekir mountains, we saw before us the crenelated walls, the old castle, the flat roofs, the gilded mosques and white minars of Bodosdchig, with the tall, solemn cypresses, and the green City of the Silent, where I had first met Iola; and there lay the ruined hermitage of St. Basil amid its beautiful groves, and the Holy Well still sparkling in the setting sunshine. My heart filled with tender memories, and I shuddered when I saw her dreadful grave—the waves of the blue Propontis—gleaming far beyond the landscape; but I thrust away such thoughts, and gnawing my nether lip, strove to think only of Laura and the desperate task I had before me.
Laura and Iola!
The struggle is a sore one, when there is butoneheart fortwoloves!
As we approached the castle, all heedless of the clamour excited among the usually inert and sullen Turks by our appearance when galloping through the muddy streets, Callum uttered a shout of satisfaction on seeing the red coat, the green tartans, and glittering bayonet of a Highland sentinel at the castle gate.
'Now God and Mary be thanked, our men are here yet!' exclaimed he, in Gaelic.
As we rode in, our comrades hurried forth to meet us, and in a trice we had Serjeant Mac Ildhui, Corporal Donald Roy, and every man of my little detachment around us with clamorous tongues, and hands outstretched in joyous congratulation, with many an inquiry, while the Turkish guard of Topchis looked on with a sullen and dogged stare from under their bushy eyebrows.
Roused by their clamour, an officer in a scarlet jacket and tartan trews, with a Turkish fez, a bearded chin, and a meerschaum in his mouth, jumped over a window on the ground-floor, and joined the group in the castle-yard.
'Mac Innon—Allan Mac Innon!' he exclaimed.
'Jack Belton!'
We shook hands warmly as I dismounted.
'By all the powers, where have you been? In the hands of the evil genii?'
'Where I cannot tell you, at present.'
'We all feared you had bid farewell——'
'To what?'
'The great scuffle of life.'
'Not at all—but how came you here?'
'To take command of your detachment, when Serjeant Mac Ildhui reported your lamentable demise, and we had the big drum covered respectably up with crape, and funeral knots tied on our sword-hilts. We are to march to-morrow, so had you been a few hours later, we had been off for Stamboul.'
'Fortunate!' said I, with a glance at Callum; 'but you must delay your march a little time, Jack. I have a small expedition cut out for you—'
'Of a warlike nature?'
'Yes.'
'And I have some news foryou.'
'Indeed!'
'We are both gazetted Lieutenants,viceCameron and Moray, dead—one of wounds at Sebastopol, the other of cholera at Scutari—poor fellows! So we have two commissions to wet—I, yours—and you, mine. I have another box of cheroots and some prime Cavendish, with a jar of Kirkissa wine. Come along—I'll hear all your news in my room—'
'And the Yuze Bashi—how is he?'
'Oh, a most unamiable old fellow—in the sick-list still, having been powdered and pilled by a Jew Hakim, till he cannot move.'
'Long may he remain so!' said I, revengefully, as we entered Jack's quarters.
In a few minutes I had refreshed myself, changed my attire, anil sat down to such a repast as Jack's servant could prepare in haste; we lighted our cigars; Jack drank his wine out of a tumbler, and I mine out of a cream-jug, as our utensils were meanly and in a dilapidated condition. Jack smoked in silence and patience, waiting to hear a story which I knew not how to begin, as I was loth—exceedingly loth—to account for that remarkable cruise undertaken by Callum and me at night; so there was a long silence, during which Jack whiffed away, and then he stared inquiringly at me.
'You sigh?' said he; 'what the deuce is the matter? Fill your cup with wine again—and drink, my boy. Remember the mess-room song—
'Since the chief end of life is to live and be jolly,To be sad about trifles is trifling and folly.'
En avant! What have you been about, Allan? We heard that you had been making love to a Haidee—a flower of "the Isles of Greece," or some Turkish odalisque—but you lost her? Never mind, my boy—she'll soon prove, "though lost to sight, to memoryqueer," when we change quarters.'
I quieted Jack's raillery by a grave relation of my adventures; and his wonder, anger, and resentment were excited alternately by the horrors I had undergone, and by the heartless assassination of poor Clavering; but the moment I mentioned the danger of the yacht, he started to his feet, exclaiming—
'O hang it! this can never be permitted! We can't march for Heraclea to-morrow.'
'Of course not, with this devilish business on the tapis.'
'It is our duty—our bounden duty—to march at once with every man we have, and to save Sir Horace and his people from these butcherly Mohammedans.'
'March?—sail you mean!' said I.
'And we must get a craft to-night—it is not yet too late,' he exclaimed, looking at his watch.
'Callum! call Serjeant Mac Ildhui—our lads must all be in marching order, with haversacks and ammunition, an hour before daylight to-morrow.'
'Very well, sir.'
'Bravo!' added Jack; 'we shall cut a dash, and have a little war on our own account.'
'An entire column in the "Times" to ourselves.'
'And a sketch in the "Illustrated News," of course.'
'There go the pipes for tattoo—fill your wine-horn again, Allan! Here's success to our expedition in the morning!'
The morning was cold and frosty, though in the last days of February. The sun was yet below the horizon; but all the sea that stretched away towards the mouth of the Bosphorus on one hand, and the Dardanelles on the other, was covered by a golden brilliance; and a rosy gleam in the east indicated the quarter from which, without any lingering twilight, he would climb at once the azure sky. No cloud shaded the surface of the latter, and scarcely a ripple seemed to curl the still and beautiful bosom of the Propontis.
Callum brought me my only heir-loom, the old claymore, on the blade of which my father—in some old Flemish camp, when serving under York—had written the two words,Biodh Treun(be valiant). I stuck my revolver and dirk in my belt, and descended to the parade-ground full of enthusiasm and hope.
My little band of Highlanders mustered in the chill morning with alacrity. They were all in light marching order, and in addition to their arms and accoutrements, carried only their greatcoats and wooden canteens. I carefully inspected their ammunition, and then marched them to the landing-place, where a large kochamba, which had been procured overnight, and which was manned by eight stout galiondgis, awaited us. Before marching out, I had no little difficulty in explaining to the Yuze Bashi's second in command the nature of the expedition on which we were departing, and that we must necessarily return for our baggage, knapsacks, and squad-bags, before marching to Heraclea. To the Major I despatched a mounted Topchi, with a letter acquainting him with my return to my party, my late adventures, and the nature of the service on which I had gone—a service of which I was convinced he would approve, as the necessary protection of British subjects had forced me upon it, and as there was no vessel of war near with which I could communicate, and, save my Highlanders, no other armed force on which I could rely.
Of these Highlanders, whose task was now to save Sir Horace from the pirates,eightwere evicted Mac Innons of Glen Ora; and in the ranks I heard them recalling to each other the day 'when the glen was desolated,' as we marched from the castle with our pipe playing, and embarked in the kochamba; then we shipped eight long sweeps, with two men to each, hoisted the long and tapering lateen sail, and stood out of the harbour of Rodosdchig, with a fair wind that bore us away southward for the Isle of Marmora.
As we put to sea, Callum urged me in a whisper to have the boat's head shot first to starboard—'the deisuil,' as he said, 'in honour of the sun'—an old superstitious custom, for which, like many others, he was a great stickler; and as I had the tiller-ropes, it was at once complied with.
My fellows were all lively and merry at the prospect of a brush with any one; and this duty seemed a stirring change after the dull monotony of mounting guard in that old castle, whose shadow fell far across the shining water, and where their only companions were the stolid, opium-drugged, big-breeched, raki-drinking, and chibouque-smoking Topchis of the Yuze Bashi Hussein.
With their broad chests heaving, and their bearded faces flushed by exertion as they bent to their task, Callum Dhu, Donald Roy, and Serjeant Mac Ildhui sang an old Highland boat-song, to which the rowers kept time with their broad-bladed sweeps, that flashed like fire as they threw the silver spray towards the rising sun—the glorious sun of Asia, which filled all that morning sea with his dazzling splendour—and while the piper played in the prow, all the soldiers joined in parts, their thirty voices making the sky ring when they united in one volume, to the astonishment of the immovable Turks, and to the great amusement of Jack Belton, who enjoyed our enthusiasm, but laughed like a Lowlander at the strange words of the chorus, which suited the action of the oars, and were somewhat to the following purpose:—
'Horo, horo, horo elé,Horo, horo, horo elé;Hu ho i o 'sna ho elé,' &c.
'Well, 'pon my soul,' said Jack, as he lolled in the stern-sheets of the boat, polishing the barrel of a finished Colt with the ashes of his cheroot, 'this is better fun than blowing on the flute, or pumping on an accordion all day long in one's barrack-room for lack of something to do.'
'Wait,' said I, 'until you have seen Fanny Clavering; your mind will then be fully occupied.'
'By love for her?'
'Of course.'
'Query—is she beautiful?'
'I don't think Heaven ever created another so brilliant and so fascinating.'
'Indeed! you quite interest me. The deuce! I shall be in danger of losing both life and liberty; but I don't mean to wed in a hurry.'
'Fanny has a handsome fortune—she is rich.'
'Money is nothing to a sub of a year or two's standing.'
'True—but we may remain jolly subs long enough now.'
'Don't think of it, pray—but alas! peace will soon be proclaimed now, as we have polished off the imperial boots of His Majesty of Russia, and all the additional battalions must be reduced.'
'Fanny's bright hazel eyes—'
'Will not lure me into matrimony, pin-money, and baby-jumpers. I mean not to think of such things until I require cotton caps, water-gruel, and hot bottles at night; until I give up the polka, relinquish my pipe, and vote the mistletoe a most improper appendage to a Christmas chandelier; when I consider music a bore, and babiesnota bother; when I deem flirtation disgraceful, and prefer a quiet game at crown-points to whirling with Maria or Louisa in thedeux temps—I shall think of it seriously, and prepare to take upon my knee a little Jack Belton, and sing "Ride a cock horse to Bambury Cross," or of old "Humpty Dumpty who sat on a wall," and so forth.'
While Jack ran on thus, Callum Dhu, who sat near me with his belt and jacket off, pulling the stroke oar, was listening to him with a quiet smile, for he liked his rattling, off-hand manner.
'Callum,' said I, 'youremember Miss Clavering?'
'Many a time, sir, I have led her pony up Ben Ora, and round the Craig-na-tuirc! Who that ever saw her could forget her?' he replied, as his eye sparkled and his cheek flushed, while he gave fresh energy to tugging at the bending sweep; 'She was ever so gay, so beautiful, so joyous and flattering!'
'And Miss Everingham, too,' I added, in a low voice; 'Mrs. Clavering, I should say.'
Callum gave me a glance full of deep and sorrowful meaning; but he only bit his proud nether lip, and bent more lustily to the oar. He was as full of ardour at the prospect of risking his life in defence of these two ladies as if he was the accepted lover of them both; for poor Callum's heart was chivalrous as it was kind and true; and though, like himself, more than one soldier in that huge lumbering boat had good reason to curse the intrusive name of Everingham, and that feudal law which enabled a landlord to evict the people, they were all ready to face fire and water, shot and steel, to rescue him and his friends from the perils that surrounded them. Fresh hands were laid on the oars; the sun attained its meridian height; the outlines of the Isle of Marmora began to rise higher to the southward; sturdily pulled the Highland oarsmen, and still their strange wild chorus was wafted to leeward on the Grecian sea—
'Horo, horo, horo el,Horo, horo, horo elé;Hu ho i o 'sna ho elé.'
I gazed alternately on the distant island that was now rising faint and blue from the shining sea, and on the huge lateen sail that tapered far away aloft upon its slender yard, which resembled a fishing-rod, while Belton still lounged in the stern-sheets, and lunched on sliced Bologna sausages, biscuits, and sherry.
'Yonder Isle of Marmora has some interest for me,' said he; 'I had an uncle who got his wife out of that identical place.'
'From the marble quarries, perhaps.'
'Not at all—he was no Pygmalion. He was first-lieutenant in the flagship here, about ten years ago, and being in hopeless ill health, was landed, with six months' leave to remain at the house of an Armenian merchant, who treated him with great kindness, and whose daughter—young and lovely, of course—nursed him with the most enchanting tenderness. So whether it was owing to the fresh breezes from the Propontis, the cool wines of old Greece, or the charms of the soft maid of Armenia, I know not; but before the six months were up, mine uncle reported himself to the Admiral as "fit for duty," and joined his ship. He thought very sadly about his Armenian for a time, and felt very restless in his cot at night; but soon dismissed her from his thoughts, as the ship had to be painted and overhauled, and sent home to Portsmouth. A year after he was with our fleet at Stamboul, and while rambling there with a brother captain—for he had his own frigate then—they entered the slave-market in disguise. There he saw—what?—his beautiful Armenian friend—his kind little nurse—the daughter of his hospitable entertainer—offered for sale as a slave! She knew him, and in tears and agony stretched her pretty hands towards him; for she was a Christian woman, and felt keenly all the horrors of her situation. Her story was soon told. Her father's ships had perished at sea; his wealth had passed away; he died, and his Turkish creditors had remorselessly seized everything, even to the carpet his daughter sat on. Then they seized her too, and offered her for sale—and there she stood, with a ticket on her breast, and her price marked thereon.
'For sale! My uncle was an honest fellow—he damned their eyes all round, and swore he felt it in his heart to flog one-half Stamboul and keelhaul the other. An Unbeliever cannot purchase women; but my uncle knew a Turkish officer, who was an Irishman—Bim Bashi O'Toole—who, for a dozen of wine, undertook to manage the affair; so for four hundred guineas he bought the fair Armenian, and married her at the ambassador's chapel. Then he brought her home in his own frigate. He is now posted, a C.B., on half-pay, and resides with his Armenian wife, and six little half-Scotch, half-Armenian imps, in one of the prettiest villages in Strathearn; so you see, Mac Innon, this classic island of Marmora has quite a family interest for me.'
While Jack ran on in this fashion, I was wholly occupied in thinking of two soft eyes, and a certain fair, pale, English face, with its chestnut braids and rosy lips, and of a low sweet voice, that seemed already whispering in my ear—the voice of Laura, whose tones had come to me so often in the dreams of night. In imagination I again beheld her, and that peculiarindividualitywhich indicates every one by habit, gesture, form, and smile, came all before me in one gush of memory.
The nut-brown sail, with its broad, black stripes, bellied out in the light wind that played over the ripples of the noonday sea, but ere long the wind grew light, and as it died away, the sail flapped heavily and the kochamba lurched and rolled upon the glassy swell.
The day drew on, and soon the rosy tints of sunset lingered on the shore, bathing with a ruby gleam each wooded bay and rocky cape that stretched into the dim and azure haze, far, far away. The coast of Roumelia seemed all of sapphire hue; the little Isle of Coudouri beamed from the blue sea like a huge amethyst sparkling with diamonds—these were the casements of its little town, that were glittering in the western light.
The Isle of Marmora now looked close and high, and I sighed for the lagging wind, as we lay becalmed about four miles off its western promontory, and one mile due east of Coudouri, with the sea darkening fast around us, and the stars coming out one by one from the sky of brilliant amber.
While we continued to scan the coast with our telescopes, as it was in this part of the Isle the yacht was ashore, Jack Belton discovered the masts and hull of a smart schooner, which lay pretty high up in one of the sandy bays that now opened upon our view; and this we had no doubt was the craft we were in quest of, as the position in which she lay, and her appearance, exactly corresponded to what we had heard of theFairy Bell, Sir Horace's vessel. Being somewhat tired by the exertions of the past day, my soldiers and the galiondgis had relinquished their oars, and sat gazing dreamily either at the glassy water or the little black speck which indicated the hull of the yacht ashore.
'Suppose the islanders were to rise upon us, and assist these Oriental ticket-of-leavers!' said Belton.
'You are most unpleasantly suggestive,' said I; 'but let them rise, they are welcome.'
'Indeed!'
'Yes. With thirty Highlandmen, I would not fear to face three hundred Greeks.'
'Even those of Leonidas?'
'Yes, Jack—even those of Leonidas!'
'Bravo!—but this may prove more than a mere melo-dramatic performance.'
'It may—but ha!—what is that?' I exclaimed.
'A gun—a flash on the shore!'
'Another!'
'And another!'
'Now, heavens above, what may this mean?'
'The pirates.'
'The pirates already!'
'We have been anticipated by the four caiques!' cried several voices.
'Out with the sweeps and oars!—down with the mast and yard!—in with the sail!' I commanded, with excited energy, and the orders were obeyed with alacrity.
'Clap on to the sweeps now!'
'Give way, my boys—give way with a will!' said Belton.
Flash after flash came rapidly and redly from the dark and wooded bay; the boom of carronades pealed over the water, and then came the patter of small arms.
My soul was full of anxiety; I panted rather than breathed, for I was without a doubt that we had been anticipated—that those wretches had commenced their attack, and that Sir Horace was fighting gallantly, like a brave English gentleman.
'But see,' said Callum, to whom I had freely communicated all my fears, 'there are three or four vessels now rounding the promontory and entering the bay, for good or for evil?'
'The telescope, Jack—the telescope, for God's sake!—thank you,' said I, adjusting it for a night observation, as the darkness had now almost set in; but I could distinctly perceive four long, low, and sharply-built caiques, full of men, many of whom appeared to be armed with muskets, pulled swiftly round a black promontory of rock which jutted into that sea of amber, and each in succession shot swiftly into the wooded bay.
Several brilliant rockets now hissed upward into the blue sky; and as their sparkles descended in a shower among the woods, or on the rippled water all became dark and still—so deathly still, that I heard only the beating of my heart, and the half-suppressed breathing of the rowers, three of whom were bending on every sweep, and the splashing of the water, as we neared the eastern headland of the little bay in which the yacht was beached, and into which these dark and mysterious craft had glided so noiselessly.
The Island of Marmora—the Elephonesos of the ancients—is a dependency of an Anatolian Sanjiack, and lies sixty miles south-west of Stamboul. It is about ten miles long, and has a miserable little town of romantic-looking wigwams on its southern coast, and a Turkish pharos on a promontory towards the Bosphorus. Of old, it was famous for its marble quarries, but now is noted only for sterility, and its meagre population of bare-footed and blue-breeched Greek fishermen.
The bay, however, which we were now stealthily entering, was richly wooded; but many of the trees were bare, for the black gusts of the last autumn had swept both sea and shore; but there the wild almond was wont to shed its silver blossoms in spring, and even now, the wild thyme, the caper-shrub, the rose-laurel, the woodbine, and the china-rose, made all the inlet beautiful; nor were the scarlet lotus, or the graceful date-palm, which an Oriental poet likens to a young beauty bending her head; or the soft perfume of the sweet El-caya tree of Yemen, wanting to complete the charm of this dark and shady cove. Softly we stole in, with handkerchiefs tied round our sweeps to muffle them; and while we pulled swiftly, keeping close in shore, and under the deep shadow thrown by the woods upon the starlit water, we carefully loaded and capped our fire-arms, all of which were fortunately Minie rifles, as my detachment belonged to the Light Company.
Now at the end of the bay the moon rose broad and full, and as her giant disc heaved up in all its bright effulgence from the shining sea, a column of light flashed from the horizon into the wooded creek, and displayed its sylvan scenery.
We could see the yacht—theFairy Bell—as she lay in the shallow water careened to port; she was tautly rigged; her foremast was strong; her mainmast tall, and tapering away aloft like the finest willow wand. Her hull was long and low; her breadth of beam was great, and the copper on her sharp bows shone like burnished gold in the moonlight; her decks were flush, level, and had twelve carronades—all of which, however, were quite useless, by the elevation of their muzzles on one side, and the consequent depression on the other; and I saw at a glance that, unless vigorously defended, this smart little yacht, the flower of Cowes, the pink of the Channel squadron, and the winner of five silver cups which adorned the library at Elton Hall, would fall a prey to these piratical caiques.
We were all nearing her rapidly; but fortunately the dark shadow of the wooded shore completely veiled the kochamba, while the caiques were fully visible in the blaze of a moonlight that filled the bay. A half-shout, half-cheer, from the crew of the yacht—now distant from us about five hundred yards—announced that her people were on the alert. Then a garland of fire zoned her low black gunwale round, as a volley of fire-arms was poured upon the approaching boats, and crashed through their planking.
'Hurrah!' cried Jack Belton; 'the old M.P. is quite up to the mark, I think!'
'Keep close in—keep in the shadow,' said I; 'or, by Jove! we may come in for a dose of that, too, before they know who we are.'
'That fire was well directed,' said Callum.
'It has staggered those devils in the boats—I see them throwing aside their oars,' added Jack.
'Stretch out—stretch out!' I exclaimed, drawing my sword; 'and be ready, every man of yous to fire the moment I give the word!'
It was most unfortunate for the yacht that her guns were rendered useless by her heel to port; but the fire of her small-arms was brisk; and a yell replied, as the caiques, which had been warily pulled in a line duly astern of her, now dashed upon her quarters, and a vigorous attempt was made by the Turks to board. In the moonlight we could see the momentary gleam of sabres as they were brandished, and of bayonets as they were pointed; the flashing of pistols, and the appearance of dark faces and darker figures, as they strove to gain a footing on the side-chains, and to force a passage, by fighting, to the schooner's deck, but were thrust over by the bayonet or beaten down by the clubbed musket; and were dashed, wounded and bleeding, into the sandy and blood-stained water, which took them up to the girdle, or little above it. With all their efforts, it was evident the yachts-men would have the worst of it ere long, for some of the Greek villains had just forced a passage to the deck, when one more stroke of the sweeps brought us within sure range.
'Now, Highlanders,' cried I, 'ready!—present!—you can pick off these fellows like a covey of partridges.'
'Or sparrows on a midden,' added Callum, as thirty Minie rifles, levelled low, were fired out of the gloomy shade, and thirty spherical rifled bullets whistled among the dark crowd which filled the caiques.
'Keep up your fire, my lads,' cried I, 'and give way—stretch out!' I added to the galiondgis; 'close up—let us only come hand to hand with them; pull right across the stern of the yacht, and rake the boats alongside.'
This enabled us to sweep the caiques on both sides of her; and my men kept up a brisk fire. As they had sixty rounds each, there was no danger of their running short of ammunition. Yells of fear and rage were now blended with those of pain, and the water was full of dead and wounded wretches, from among whom some forty or fifty of the survivors were frantically endeavouring to escape; and to the astonishment of the yachts-men, who were totally unable to comprehend from what quarter this unexpected succour had come, the attack was abandoned with precipitation; and two of the caiques were pulled rapidly away, while the others floated alongside, deserted by their crews; for all who were not lying dead on the thwarts, or struggling with wounds and broken limbs in the water, had scrambled ashore and fled.
The attack had been made by not less than sixty outlaws—all savage-looking Suliotes, half-black Natolians, wild Arabs, and Candiote mariners. Of these nearly twenty had been sent to their last account; but the affair was not over yet.
Four or five had fought their way on board the yacht; but when our fire had swept the water alongside, they all sprang overboard, save one, who concealed himself in one of the quarter-boats, at the moment we boarded the schooner.
As I ascended the side, a strange-looking personage, clad in a light-blue uniform jacket minus tails, a pair of checked Tweed trousers, and wearing a cavalry helmet of unique form, appeared to welcome us. He was armed with a large sabre, and though his upper lip had been put on the war establishment, and wore a grisly moustache—and though the costume he had so hastily donned was partly the uniform of the South Pedlington Yeomanry, of which he was Lieutenant-Colonel, I had no difficulty in recognising the sleek round visage and well-curved paunch of old Sir Horace Everingham, all breathless and blown, and decidedly more 'out of sorts' than ever I had seen him, when toiling up my Highland hills at home.