University of Virginia Library

31. CHAPTER XXXI.
The battle between the wrecked pirates and their wrecked enemies,
and what happened therein to Robin Day.

I have no words to express the awful situation in
which we were now placed, stranded among breakers
that went roaring over us, lifting the brig from
one rock only to dash her against another, until we
were at last wedged tight among them; still less am
I able to describe the confusion and dismay, the
prayers and shrieks of the pirates, some of whom
were washed overboard and drowned, while others
lashed themselves to different parts of the vessel for
safety.

Brown alone maintained his courage, and continued
his oaths and maledictions, calling vociferously
for help to cut away the masts; which, at last, he attempted
himself; at least, he began to hack away
with an axe at the shrouds of the mainmast, to which
I was still tied, with the expectation that it would
then fall over by its own weight. I called to him—
for the love of life was not yet so completely extinguished
as I thought—begging him to release me,
before he cut away, lest I should be killed by the
fall of the mast; but he replied only with a horrid
oath of disregard and indifference, and proceeded in
his work. The shrouds were cut, and the mast fell;
but it broke off above my head, and I was not hurt

by it, although injured by some of the ropes, which,
as it washed overboard, lashed violently against my
body.

We remained in this condition until the dawn of
day; by which time the storm had greatly abated,
although the breakers still ran very high; and finding
that the land, which was very high, rocky, and
desolate, was but a mile off, and that the brig was
fast going to pieces, the despairing crew listened to
Brown's commands, and constructed hasty rafts,
which were our only means of reaching the shore,
the boats having been long since stove or washed
away.

Upon these perilous floats, in parties of five or six,
they launched themselves among the waves, one
party after another; and I thought they would have
abandoned me to perish alone; but presently Brown
came and cut me loose, saying, I should have as good
a chance for my life as another; and almost before I
knew what had happened, I found myself in the
surf, clinging to the same raft on which he had taken
refuge.

We reached the shore in safety, with fourteen
others, the only survivors out of a crew of thirty-five
or six; and we reached it to find a peril staring
us in the face greater than we had left behind us on
the wreck.

The Vengador, whose disaster, similar to our own,
we had rather inferred than known, for none had
actually seen her go ashore, had struck upon the
reef scarce a quarter of a mile distant, where she
was still lying, but deserted by her crew, who had
left her, some on rafts like ourselves, but the greater
number in the long boat, which had survived the
shocks of the night. In this manner, some twenty
or twenty-five of them reached the land at the same

time with ourselves; and no sooner had they done
so, than, with a fury which the horrors of shipwreck
had not quelled, they rushed upon the pirates,
with such arms as they had preserved, calling to one
another to “give no quarter, nor let a dog of them
escape.” Escape, indeed, was impossible: we had
landed upon a little cove scooped in a wall of precipices,
which, on one hand, ran out into the sea, preventing
flight in that direction; while, on the other,
the path was intercepted by the enemy.

Flight was impossible, surrender equally so; the
pirates were armed only with their knives, and
some few with cutlasses; but if the enemy displayed
muskets and pistols, it scarcely needed the encouraging
assurance of Brown, that “no gun ever blew
out a man's brains, when full of salt water,” to convince
the desperadoes their enemy could boast no
actual superiority over them but in numbers.

Unfortunately for the pirates, who prepared to
meet the assailants with all the rancorous courage of
despair, the assurance that they had little to fear
from the fire-arms was disproved by a sudden volley
from six or seven guns, that sent among us as many
bullets, by one of which I was struck down, without,
at the time, knowing that I was hurt by it. I
had reached the shore benumbed and exhausted, and
was scarcely able to stand erect; and my feebleness
was increased by the agitation of mind I was thrown
into by the unexpected prospect of deliverance. I
summoned, or endeavored to summon, strength for
an effort which I was resolved to make; and I was
on the very point of running from the pirates to
their enemies, when I sank upon the beach, sick,
giddy, and powerless, and attributing my fall only
to the impotence of exhaustion.

My eyes closed, or my mind wandered for an instant:

I was recalled to my senses by the shrill tones
of a well-known voice crying above the roar of the
breakers—

“Bloody Volunteers! if there are any of you
with the enemy, step forward and join your
captain!”

It was the voice of Dicky Dare; and as I raised
upon an elbow—for I could do no more—and
looked around for him, I beheld him at the head of
the Vengadores, marching among several officers
who led them on against the pirates. At the same
moment, four of the latter suddenly parted from
their comrades, and ran towards the assailants: they
were all that remained of the Bloody Volunteers, of
whom four others had been drowned in the wreck.

The next moment, the assailants came rushing on,
charging the pirates with their cutlasses. The latter
yielded to the fury of the attack, which was, indeed,
irresistible; but though broken, and reduced to contend
singly, sometimes each man with several antagonists,
each better armed than himself, they fought
desperately, selling their lives only at the price of
lives.

Among others my eye was attracted by the appearance
of Brown, who was pressed by three enemies,
one of them an officer, and that so warmly that
he was obliged to give back, approaching very near
where I lay; but he wielded his cutlass with astonishing
address, defending himself from the blows of his
antagonists, inflicting others, in fact, many more than
he himself received. One dexterous thrust rid
him of the officer, who fell at his feet, mortally
wounded; but his place was immediately supplied
by another officer in military garb, who sprang forward,
crying, with a voice of thunder, in the Spanish

tongue—“I have found the miscreant—leave him
to me!”

It was the Intendant, Colonel Aubrey, my uncle
—the avenger of his brother and of Isabel.

“Ready for all of you, d—n my blood!” cried
Hellcat, meeting the new assailant with the greater
intrepidity as the two others, obeying my uncle's
furious injunction, stepped back, leaving him to subdue
the outlaw alone. A few ferocious blows were
exchanged between them; but the advantage of skill
and the energy that arises from deep passion and
determination, were on the side of my kinsman,
who with one savage blow wounded, and well nigh,
disabled his antagonist, and with another would have
slain him, but that the treacherous steel fell to pieces
in his hand. “It is my turn now, sink me to h—!”
cried Brown, rushing forward and putting all his
remaining strength into an effort meant to despatch
his enemy; but was arrested by yet another antagonist,
no less a person, indeed, than the gallant Captain
Dare, who, running suddenly up, struck Brown
at unawares under the sword-arm, and ran him
through the body.

“You have robbed me of my vengeance, but you
have saved my life!” cried Colonel Aubrey, as
Brown measured his length on the sands; and then,
catching up the wounded officer's sword, my kinsman
sprang forward, to seek other objects of vengeance.
His eye fell upon me, and it was burning
with unsated lust of blood: I had raised myself again
upon my elbow, and strove to rise to my feet, but
could not; I endeavoured to speak, to call him by
name, to avert, by a single word, the wrath that
seemed about to destroy me; but nothing came from
my lips but a gush of bloody foam, and I fell down
upon my face without sense or motion.