 | CHAPTER X. Lafitte |  |
10. CHAPTER X.
“Some of the severest naval battles in which we have recently
been engaged, in the West Indian seas, were between our cruisers
and the pirates who infest them
“These daring men, had fortified themselves in the natural caverns,
abounding in those regions, in some cases rendering them almost impregnable,
from which, in large armed vessels, they issued and spread
devastation among our commerce.”
Residence in the West Indies.
PLAN OF ESCAPE—A SURPRISE—FIGHT WITH AN AMERICAN
CRUISER—LAFITTE.
The night had far advanced before the Castillian
maiden completed her relation.
“Dearest Constanza, how much you have passed
through! and this Lafitte---he has magnanimity of
soul, which, in a man of his lawless character, surprises
me. But men, however lost to virtue, are
never wholly depraved. The heavenly spark will
yet linger in the heart, though hid from the eyes of
men, and now and then will break suddenly out
into flame.
I must meet this man---there is a nobleness about
him that captivates me, and the more so, that it
was unlooked for. Now that you are safe, dearest
Constanza, my revenge is gone---I would know
and redeem this extraordinary man. But,” he
added quickly, “let us escape from this fearful
spot. He is not here to control the wild beings that
surround us. There are several boats lying in the
basin. Once outside---we can seize one of them,
Cape St. Nicholas, where we shall be safe from pursuit.
This Théodore, of whom you speak so
warmly, will he not favour our escape?”
“Ask him not, Alphonse---he would not refuse.
Ask him not---although his benefactor be an outlaw,
let us not tempt him to betray him. I would
rather wait the return of Lafitte, than implicate
this youth in our escape.”
“You are right, noble girl! There is,” he continued
in a low, eager tone “but a single sentinel,
at the mouth of the grotto, and here are weapons;”
he exclaimed, with joyful surprise, as his eye rested
upon a pair of pistols left by Théodore, “and loaded
too! with these, and this pike, I can overcome
all opposition. Come Constanza, my brave one!
this shall be the last trial of your fortitude. Lean
upon my arm—heavier! the occasion has given
me back my full strength. Juana, will you go
with us—or stay with the pirates?”
“Ol' Juana go wid young buckra lady. If she
be nigger she lub de lily 'ooman. Ol' Juana neber
leab her if massa say.”
“Take up that basket of fruit, and this carpet and
cushion, to place in the boat and follow then, good
Juana,” he said to her, placing the pistols in his
belt.
Then conducting Constanza, through the breach
he had made in the wall, he led her into the chamber
he had occupied.
“And here was your prison!” She said with
feeling---“how lonely you must have been here, and
wounded too! But blessed be the kind Maria for
this meeting! If we escape not---I can die cheerfully
in your arms. Happy thought! If we fail
in our purpose, we can die together. Oh let us
hasten, Alphonse!”
The count, lingered a moment to remove the
it to the slave, “go before with this light, we
will follow some distance behind you in the darkness.
The sentinel will perhaps let you pass to
the outside, or if he stops you, to ask any questions,
draw him aside and so glare the light upon
his eyes, that we may pass him unseen. Have you
tact enough for it.”
“Hi! yes massa, Juana un'stand ebery ting---she
know how mak fool ob Gaspàr.”
The faithful slave, her singleness of heart singularly
preserved in the rude life she had passed---
whom the gentleness of Constanza had devoted to
her interest---moved silently in advance, through the
narrow passage, which after many windings, opened
upon the terrace. The count, followed at a short
distance, so as to be invisible in the shadow cast by
the intervening person of the slave---the trembling
Constanza leaning upon his arm, which
passed around her waist, supported her drooping
form. Solitude reigned in silence around them.
Solitary cells branched out on either side, whose
gloom, the rays of the lamp could not penetrate.
The walls were encrusted with gray stalactite or
black, and covered with deep mould. As they
advanced, the passage became narrower, and the
roof descended within reach of their hands. All
at once they entered a large dome, open to the
sky—a hundred feet above them, waved heavily in
the night winds, the branches of trees, overhanging
the verge—thin white clouds drifted along the sky,
and burning afar off, here and there appeared a
star.
“Oh that we were as free as those clouds!” exclaimed
Constanza, gazing upward at the lovely
scene. “How happy I shall be to behold the blue
heavens once more, and feel that I am free. Oh!
that dismal cavern! To-night I awoke and the
crevice in the ceiling. It fell full upon my face,
and I felt it was the augury of happiness. The
song you taught me, and say you love to hear me
sing, came involuntary to my lips---and I had
hardly ceased when I heard your voice, and sprung
at the sound---and when I reflected a moment, I
feared it was not yours; but, when assured of it,
the tide of joy was too great! Oh the joy with
which my heart bounded when I saw you bending
over me!”
“Dearest Constanza!” he exclaimed, pressing
her to his heart.
During this brief conversation, they had traversed
the pavement of the dome and entered a
dark narrow passage, which, after a few steps, grew
broarder and higher, and the cool wind came circling
past them, from without.
“Hold Juana!” he called in a suppressed voice,
we are now near the mouth—do you reccollect my
instructions?” he inquired, as the negress obeyed
him. “Hark! what is that—a gun---another---a
cannonading! Heaven avert danger! Constanza
my dearest one! be not alarmed!” he said, feeling
the form of the maiden shrink and tremble, as the
loud reports fell upon her ear---“exert all your firmness
for now we need it,” he added, cheerfully and
encouragingly, as he warmly pressed her hand,
and, parting the rich hair, he imprinted a kiss upon
her brow.
“I will—I will---Alphonse---it was but a momentary
weakness---I will nerve myself for this hour of
trial, I will be worthy of you.” “Thank you, dearest---now
remain here in this niche, with your faithful
Juana, while I go and reconnoitre. Nay, do not
be alarmed, I shall not expose myself to danger. I
cannot forget that your life and happiness depend
upon my caution. I will be with you in a moment,”
feeling his way with his pike, he advanced towards
the entrance of the cave.
The firing still continued, and every succeeding
report appeared nearer. Suddenly a ray of light,
pencilled along the wall, caught his eye and turning
an abrupt angle, a lamp suspended above him,
glared brightly upon his face. Starting back into
the shadow of the projecting rock, he looked cautiously
forward and saw, although at some distance,
the mouth of the cave, beyond which, was a glimpse
of the moonlit bay---and the figure of a man, relieved
against the silvery sheen of the sea, standing
upon a projecting rock, far from the entrance of the
grotto. This he concluded must be the guard, who
had left his post attracted by the cannonading, with
which, was now mingled the firing of musketry,
and the shouts of combatants.
The officer passed hastily under the lamp, and
approached the entrance with a noiseless footstep.
Within a few feet of the exterior, was a shelf
elevated the height of a man above the floor. This
he lightly ascended, fearing to emerge into the
moonlight, where the sentinel might observe him.
From this point, thrown into shade by the overhanging
arch of the cave, he obtained a view of
the strait which led from the base of the cliff,
between lines of rocks to the open sea.
About a mile from the shore, clouds of white
smoke rested upon the water, from which could be
seen the sails and spars of a large vessel, apparently
a brig, above which rolled dense volumes of smoke,
accompanied by the roar and flash of cannon.
Nearer the shore, and just entering the narrow
avenue which led from the sea into the basin, at the
foot of the cave, was a large schooner under press
of sail, occasionally discharging a gun at the other
vessel, which appeared in chase of her.
As the count climbed to the shelf, the cannonading
ceased, the smoke rolled away over the
water to the leeward shore, and circling up the cliff
settled upon their summits, and the clear moonlight
shone quietly upon the scene, whitening the canvass
of the approaching vessel, which was now passing
up the strait. The large vessel was discovered
lying to, and three boats apparently filled with armed
men---for the light glanced from many musket
barrels and cutlasses, as the boats pulled silently
and rapidly into the shore.
“A buccaneer chased by a cruiser!” he exclaimed.
“Heaven grant she may be captured. There is a
better chance of our escape than I looked for---if victory
side with the right.”
The schooner now approached so near the termination
of the long rocky passage, that the voices on
board reached his ears, with the sound of hasty feet
upon her deck, the creaking of rigging, and the
rushing of the water, as she ploughed it up before
her. He watched her until she almost came under
the cliffs, so that the tops of her masts were level
with his eye, when she bore up into the basin at the
base of the rock, and was laid with great skill
alongside its perpendicular face. Loud voices of
men mingled with fierce oaths and execrations, and
groans of wounded men rose tumultuously from
below.---
“Ho, there! Gaspàr! The rock, ho!” shouted
a stern voice---“Are you asleep?---bring the gun to
bear upon the hindermost boat, and discharge it.”
Gaspàr who had deserted his post for a moment,
to witness the chase, sprung to the platform and
swinging the piece round, levelled it,---then rushing
into the cave, and passing directly under the
count, he seized a match---lighted it at the distant
lamp, and returning, applied the flaming rope to the
nearest boat became at once a scene of confusion,
while shrieks and loud voices filled the air.
“Bravely done, my good Gaspàr!” said a man
who, ascending the rigging of the schooner, and
stepping along the fore-top-sail-yard, sprung upon
the terrace.
The count, as the figure of the stranger was relieved
against the sky, thought he had never seen
so commanding a person, so much muscular power
united with such grace and activity.
“This must be Lafitte!” he exclaimed, mentally.
The individual who attracted his attention turning
at the moment, the moon shone full upon his face,
displaying his fine aquiline features---his dark eye,
and brown cheek.
“It is indeed he! That face and form can belong
to no other,” said he mentally, drawing himself farther
within the shadow of the rock, that he might
observe, unseen, the movements of the buccaneers.
The pirate had hardly ascended to the platform
before he was followed by a dozen of his crew, who,
with astonishing rapidity, mounted the rigging after
him, each man heavily armed, and many of them
wild and fierce-looking men---nearly as brown and
as naked as savages.
“Ho, there below!” shouted their leader. “Bring
the guns to bear on those boats, and rake them as
they come up the passage.”
The boats, one of which had evidently been
struck by the shot from the gun fired by Gaspàr,
rapidly advanced, although the one injured by the
ball and which had taken the lead, was now laboriously
pulling on last of all.
They had yet some distance to row directly in
range of the gun on the platform, and exposed to the
fire of the pirate's schooner, which was drawn up
enemy, a formidable battery.
“Let them come within pistol shot!” exclaimed
the leader, “then wait the word---Aim every piece at
the stern of each boat---Powder and balls here, for
this gun,---charge her briskly, men! and with double
shot---Ho, the Gertrude!” he shouted, looking down
upon the deck of his vessel---“think you have men
enough on board, Ricardo, to hold her---if too hard
pressed retreat and join us---they are sending
another boat from the brig---we shall have enough
to do—be cool and firm,—remember all of you, we
fight at an advantage, and no man will forget he
fights for his head.”
“Fire, Carlos!” he cried in a loud voice after
giving his orders, and disposing his men on different
parts of the platform, and around the gun. “Sink
that nearest boat, and you shall command the
schooner.”
Half a dozen flashes gleamed above the rock,
and the whole broadside of the schooner, which commanded
the whole breadth of the channel, was discharged
at once. As soon as a cloud of thick
smoke which rolled up before the platform was
b'own along the cliff—the pirate bent an eager eye
upon the boats, which, still to his astonishment,
approached uninjured, and with renewed velocity.
“Holy devils! who aimed those guns,” he shouted
in a voice of thunder.—By the God that made
you, men! you shall rue such boy's play. Away
from this gun!”—he shouted, sweeping a circle
around him with his cutlass—as he sprung to the
gun, and with a single hand, wheeled it to the
verge and depressed it upon the leading boat. Then,
snatching a match from the hand of one of his men,
he applied it to the powder.
“Ha! blessed St. Antonio,” he exclaimed, as a
loud crash, and shouts, and yells, followed the
score of men struggling in the water, and clinging
to the oars and fragments of their shattered boat.
“Fire upon them, men,” he shouted, “makey our
pistols ring merrily—one more broadside, Ricardo,
and I forgive the last,” he cried, with exultation in
his voice and manner. But the other boats were
too near for the large guns to bear upon them, as
emerging from the straits, they rapidly approached,
one on the quarter, and the other on the bows
of the schooner. Those belonging to the last boat
who were not shot in the head as they swam, were
either picked up by the other boats, or gained the
rocks on one side of the basin, or with uncooled
daring, reached the schooner just as the remaining
two boats struck her side.
With the courage of lions, the, till now, passive
men, leaped from their boats, and poured over the
vessel's side, in spite of the desperate struggles of the
buccaneers, to hurl them over into the water. In a
few seconds the deck of the schooner exhibited a
scene of fearful carnage. The pirates were overpowered
by the superior numbers of their opponents,
and began to give way. Their chief who had his
hand upon a stay, and was about descending to endeavour,
to turn the tide of battle, witnessing the
unequal contest, paused and shouted to them to
mount, and leave the vessel to the enemy.—All at
once the rigging was alive with the pirates, who
ascended, before their astonished foes, with often
practised activity, and threw themselves from the
yards upon the terrace.
“Up men, follow them!” cried the leader of the
party who had boarded the vessel—“never let American
tars be outdone by those cowardly Spanish
cut-throats!” and he sprung into the rigging as he
spoke, rapidly followed by his band; and ascending,
with reckless daring, he gained the topmast cross-trees,
upon the terrace into the midst of his foes, before
his real character was discovered.
“Over with him!” cried a dozen voices. “Heave
him into the sea!” and a host of cutlasses were
brandished about his head. But he was so rapidly
seconded by his men, who leaped from the yards
upon the rock as fast as they could follow one
another, that the pirates had not time to deal him
a fatal blow, before each one found himself in mortal
combat with an American sailor.
Long and bloody was the fight. Living men
were hurled upon the deck of the vessel below with
terrific violence, or into the deep flood beneath.
Blood flowed like water, and the cries, groans, and
shouts of the combatants rose wildly in the air, multiplied
into a thousand echoes among the cliffs. The
pirates numbered about fifty, and the force of the
Americans was nearly equal. The deck of the vessel
was deserted, save by a solitary figure crawling
about; and wounded and slain men were locked in
the deadly embrace in which they had fallen from
the cliff, and limbs and bones were strewed in great
numbers through the vessel. The fight raged
fiercely directly in front of the cavern, and the
pirates at last, hotly pressed, retreated to its mouth.
Here their leader, whose form the count had seen
like the genius that directed the battle, whenever the
fight raged hottest, whose voice of command and
encouragement was heard above the din of the conflict,
and whose arm carried death wherever it fell.
Many of his men had fallen around him, yet he remained
cool and undaunted; and collecting his followers
about him, he slowly retreated down the terrace
to the entrance of the cave.
“Press him hard---drive him to his den, my
hearties!” shouted the officer who had first ascended
the rigging, and who, through the whole conflict
for which American sailors are distinguished.
The terrace was strewed with the dead and dying;
and Lafitte, with half the original number of his
men, stood near the mouth of the cavern, fighting
hand to hand with the officer, who had sought him
out, like a tiger at bay.
The count had remained in his concealment a
witness of the fight, until the retreat of the pirates
towards the mouth of the cavern, just within which
he stood. As they filled the entrance, full of alarm
for Constanza, whom he had left in the grotto, he
suddenly sprung from the elevated station upon
which he stood during the fight, on to the floor of
the cave, and flew towards its interior. But the
noise he made alarmed the buccaneers, who turned
and gazed upon his retreating figure with astonishment.
“We are surprised!” shouted several voices, and
two or three of the pirates darted after him, and before
he could pass round the angle in the passage,
near which the lamp was suspended, he was compelled
to turn upon his pursuers and defend his life.
Two of the pirates assailed him at once, and he had
only his pike to parry the blows of their cutlasses,
when a thrust of his weapon through the sword arm
of one of them caused him to drop his cutlass, which,
with an exclamation of joy, the count seized, and
rained blows upon his unwounded antagonist, whom
he soon disabled. But before he could avail himself
of this advantage, he was assailed by others of the
band, who, on hearing the cry that they were taken
in the rear, left the mouth of the cave, and turned
their blades upon their new enemy.
The passage was narrow, scarcely admitting the
wielding of their weapons with full effect. At this
point the fight now became desperate. Driven into
the cave by their opponents, and finding their way
fiends. Five of them fell beneath the cutlass of the
count, who, fearing the fatal consequences of their
entrance to Constanza's safety, and aware that his
own life also was at stake, and perhaps actuated by
a desire to second the attack of the American sailors,
fought with the power and effect of an armed phalanx
in his single arm.
The American officer had fallen severely wounded
before the vigorous attacks of the outlaw, and
leaving the less distinguished of his antagonists to
his men, the victor turned upon the daring stranger,
who, single-handed, stood defending the narrow passage.
“Santo Diablo! whom have we here? Give back,
men—give back! he has sent enough of you to the
devil;” and treading over the dead bodies of his
men, who had fallen by the hand of the desperate
Frenchman, he shouted, “Let me cross blades
with this stranger,” aiming, as he spoke, a blow at
the head of the officer, which was parried and returned
with the skill of a master of the weapon.
For several seconds their rapidly clashing weapons
rung against each other, flashing fiercely in
the light of the lamp suspended above their heads.
The count, weak from his former wounds, and
bleeding from fresh ones, soon began to show signs
of exhaustion. His opponent discovered this, and
changing his mode of fighting, used all his skill to
disarm him and take him prisoner.
“Surrender, sir—it is madness to contend against
such odds,” cried the pirate. The only reply he
received was a stroke from the count's cutlass, which
nearly cleft the thick cap he wore through to his
head. Enraged, the pirate raised his weapon,
throwing all his muscular power into his arm for a
decisive blow, when a wild shriek rang through
the vault, and Constanza suddenly appeared before
dishevelled and floating over her shoulders, and her
mantle disarranged in her struggles to break away
from her faithful attendant, who would have held
her.
The pirate started at the shriek and figure of the
maiden, indistinctly seen in the obscurity of the
cavern, and suddenly arrested his weapon, but too
late to withhold the blow, which descended with
half its original force upon the defenceless head of the
count. He staggered and fell into the arms of Constanza,
who, with an eye in which timidity had
given place to resolution, caught his head upon her
bosom, over which sprinkled the warm blood of her
lover, and erecting her figure to its full height, with
her disengaged arm, she drew a pistol from his belt,
and levelled it at the heart of the buccaneer. The
motion brought her brow under the full light of the
lamp, and he, with an exclamation of surprise, as
he recognized, in those full features, stamped with
heroic energy and woman's self-devotion, the fair
Castillian, for whom, but a few days before, he had
made magnanimous sacrifice of his love.
“Doña Constanza! can it be!” he cried, in
amazement. Then instantly changing his tone,
he laid his hand upon his heart, and said, with a
voice of emotion and humility, “Fire, lady! thus
shall be expiated my crime!”
The pistol dropped from her hand---“Lafitte!”
she exclaimed, after an instant's silent surprise,
during which doubt and confidence struggled within
her bosom. “Oh, what have you done? This is
your bloody deed. Help, help, or he will die in my
arms!” and tearing her mantilla, she attempted to
staunch the blood which flowed freely from a slight
cut in his head.
“Forgive! forgive! lady!” cried the chief, springing
to her assistance. “Leave this wounded stranger
Go, señora, I will attend you; such a scene
as this is not for your presence. Leave him to my
care---I see you feel an interest in him!---that is
enough for me-- he shall be cared for as if he were
a brother. Nay, nay,” he added, suddenly changing
countenance; “as if he were Constanza Velasquez,”
and he spoke the last words tenderly.
She resigned him to his arms, and cried earnestly,
“Bear him into the inner cave. The light, Juana!”
and with eager footsteps she preceded the outlaw,
who bore the wounded officer in his arms. Entering
the cave originally occupied by the count, and
directing him to be laid on the bamboo rushes in the
niche, she kneeled beside him, and forgetful of the
presence of the chief, seemed wholly absorbed in her
wounded lover.
By the activity of Juana, the presence of mind
and experience of the outlaw, and the angelic tenderness
of the maiden---all those attentions which
his state required, were completed, and the count,
who had not been wholly unconscious, although he
betrayed his sense of consciousness only by an occasional
writhing of his features, fell into a broken
sleep. From the moment she kneeled by his couch,
she had remained silent; but when the eyes of her
lover were closed, she looked up into the face of
Lafitte, who, after his services were no longer required,
stood, with folded arms and a thoughtful
brow, gazing in silence upon the scene.
“Señor Lafitte!” said the lady, “did you know
of his capture?”
“No, lady, nor your own! I am surrounded
with mystery. Why do I find you here? Why
this interest in this wounded man?” he suddenly
exclaimed, striking his forehead,—“ah! can it be!
it is—?”
“The Count D'Oyley of the French navy, Señor,
and dignity.
The face of the pirate changed, and a slight flush
passed across his brow. But this momentary
exhibition of feeling gave place to an expression
of interest.
“Lady!” he said, with a slight embarassment
in his manner, “this officer shall be cared for. I
regard him as a sacred trust!—moreover, he is
free from this moment! Tell me, lady, how you
came to be once more a captive—voluntarily to
share a prison with him? Resolve this mystery,
which I cannot fathom.”
In a few words she related to him the incidents
of her re-capture, and her conveyance to the cavern—the
expedition of her lover—his capture—their
meeting in the cavern—and their attempt to
escape, just as his vessel was chased in by the
American cruiser.
“Would to God, lady, you had both escaped, before
I had again met you! But, adieu! Señora, I
must leave you for the present,” he exclaimed, as
the report of the gun at the mouth of the cavern
reverberated through the long passages of the
grotto. “Where is Théodore, lady? I will send
him to you.”
“I know not, Señor, but perhaps he is near.
He was sleeping in the outer apartment, by the
door, when I left it. I thank you, Señor,” she
added, struck with the outlaw's delicacy, in proposing
Théodore to watch over the count—“Juana
will call him—happy youth!—he has slept
amid all this storm of death!”
A loud shout without, now called Lafitte away,
after assuring her that she should be sacred from
intrusion, and Constanza was left alone by the
couch of her lover. Clasping her hands, she raised
her full eyes to heaven, and remained several
shade, her lovely face, lost in devotion. “Thy
will, not mine, be done,” she said aloud, with a
voice of resignation, as she rose from her devotional
attitude, and with a more cheerful brow and lighter
heart, she turned and addressed her young attendant,
who, with surprise pictured upon his countenance,
was listening to the strange recital of the
events of the night, which Juana, with characteristic
volubility was detailing to him.
“Shame upon my drowsy eyes,” said Théodore,
with evident mortification in his manner,—“You
find me but a poor knight, lady. But who is this
pale stranger?” he exclaimed, inquiringly, as his
eye fell upon the handsome features of the wounded
count.
“He is an officer of the French navy, the count
D'Oyley. Théodore, you have heard me speak of
him,” she added, with a faint and sweet smile, “he
is severely wounded; I fear I need your aid to
nurse him.”
The youth expressed his devotion to her slightest
wish, and, placing himself near the sleeper, passed
the succeeding hour in listening to the thrilling tale,
told by the maiden, with an absorbing interest, that
swallowed all time but the present moment.
| CHAPTER X. Lafitte | |