 | CHAPTER V. Rafael |  |
5. CHAPTER V.
As the schooner was taken and sunk in the Spanish waters, Wordley resolved
to stand into Havana, and surrender his prisoners to Tacon who was
then governor-general of Cuba. The wounded buccaneer Captain remained
an inmate of the cabin, and as he seemed to be a person of education and polished
manners, Wordley treated him with great kindness and attention; for
he was not a man to triumph over the unfortunate and guilty.
The appearance of the young man deeply interested us both. He was about
eight and twenty years of age, with a clear blue eye and fair waving
hair, and a countenance naturally mild; but to which familiarity with stern
scenes had given a character of decision. The wound which he had received
was comparatively slight and did not produce a single complaint. He remained
reclining upon a setee which Wordley had fitted up for him, with a mattrass
and pillow, and seemed lost in painful thought. At intervals he would raise
his eyes and turn them towards me as I sat reading in the pleasant draft of the
cabin windows. Seeing that he looked as if he wished to address me, I laid
down my book and went to his side. Hitherto he had not made any reply to
any questions put to him, but seemed to desire to be left to himself.
`Can I do any thing for you, senor?' I asked in Spanish.
`You are very kind,' he answered in pure English. `I would like to know
if I am to be taken into Havana?'
`Yes. We are within three hours sail of that Port now,' answered Wordley,
who came into the cabin at the same moment.
The pirate's countenance became very pale, and he appeared to be strug
gling with some strong emotion. With an effort he resumed his composure,
and said—
`I would prefer being taken to the States!'
`It matters little whether you end your days at Key-West or in Havana, I
should suppose,' answered Wordley.
`I have reasons for not wishing to be delivered to Governor Tacon,' he said
impressively.
`You should have considered those reasons, senor, before you hoisted the
ree flag!'
He made no answer; but pressing his hand upon his forehead seemed as if
either in mental or physical pain. Wordley was shortly after called to the
deck by his second in command, when the prisoner turning to me said—
`I should like to relate to you if you will listen to me, the circumstances
which have brought me into the condition you now behold me. If Captain
Wordley will come into the cabin I should be glad to have him hear what I
Wordley accompanied me below. `My motive in entering upon this narrative
of the history of the past,' he said after we were seated by his couch, `is
not to excite your sympathy or seek to escape the punishment that is justly
my due! I know that I have incurred the highest penalty of the laws of nations,
and I am ready to meet my doom, though I would have chosen death by
the hands of the hangman than that I am destined to suffer!'
`How do you mean?' asked Wordley with surprise. `Tacon never honor's
buccaneers by shooting them!'
No; would that such could be my death? But I am doomed to a more
dreadful end! know you that I have once been tried and condemned for this
very offence against the laws, and that I escaped from the foot of the scaffold
on the morning of my intended execution. Tacon, the Captain-general, issued
a proclamation offering a large reward for my capture and declaring at the
time that if I were re-taken, I should be broken daily upon the wheel till life
was extinct! This is the horrible death that awaits me if I am taken to Cuba.
But I am not a man to supplicate! I have sown and I am willing to reap!'
`Under what name was you sentenced?' asked Wordley with interest.
`Under that of Captain Rafael!'
`Is it possible that Rafael the pirate is my prisoner! Your men refused to
give me any other name for you than `El Capitan!'
`I am the Rafael Mutes,' answered the young man with a flush of pride.
`But you are not a Spaniard? You speak English with too much purity,'
said Wordley.
`I am an American!'
`An American!' we both repeated with surprise, for we had made our minds
from his very fair complexion that he must be a young Englishman.
`Yes, senores, I am an American and a native of Virginia, of what part I will
not now reveal. If you would like to know the events which led to the present
result I will relate them to you. You will then, perhaps, find that I am
less to blame than I seem; though I do not desire to palliate my conduct!—
Circumstances may force men to crime, but the guilt incurred is not lessened
thereby; for death is easier and more honorable than life supported by crime;
and the brave can meet death in a hundred battle fields on the earth, for wars
cease not even among waters!
`My father was a man of fortune, holding a large estate, and the owner of
more than a hundred slaves. I and a sister, two years my junior, were his only
children. At the age of eighteen I was sent from home to a northern university,
where I remained until I was twenty-one, when I returned home to find
my father on his death bed. On entering his chamber and approaching his
bed-side he waved me indignantly away and closing his eyes refused to
look upon me!
`Father, my dear father!' I cried rushing forward; `do you not know me!
`Away—you are no longer my son!' he cried in stern accents, articulating
with difficulty. I looked at my sister who stood by his pillow, but her silent
glance seemed to reprove me, while she said in an under tone—
`Leave the room, I beg of you, brother! Your presence affects him!'
`And why should it?' I cried with indignant surprise. `Is he not my father?
am I not his son? Who should kneel by his bedside and close his dying
eyes but his son? There is some horrible mystery here!' And thus expressing
my emotion, I caught my father's hand and pressed it to my lips and kneeling
by his side, with tears implored his blessing and his forgiveness if I had
done any thing to incur his displeasure.
`The words `False and degenerate son!' escaped brokenly from his lips,
and after a brief struggle for breath he resigned it forever. I rose to my feet
and stood gazing upon him with horror. My sister flung herself shrieking upon
his body, and overwhelmed with horror at the words that rung in my ears,
I rushed from the chamber.
What had I done? What had brought upon me the dying anger of my
father? I was unable to answer the question. I put to myself a hundred
times as I paced madly up and down the long piazza. At length I became
more calm and resolved to seek my sister and learn what had produced this
change in my beloved father's manner towards me; for I had always loved and
honored him, and he had been proud of my filial affection for him. My conscience
accused me of nothing! I found my sister Anna weeping in her chamber!
`For God's sake, dear Anna, what does all this mean?' I asked as I entered
the room; `I have not been at home an hour and I am received like an enemy!'
`I am surprised you should ask brother,' she said with a cold look.
`And you my foe too!' I cried in a sort of despair. `What horrible mystery
is this? What have I done? Speak! You shall answer me and not fly from
the room as if I were a monster! It is enough for me to have my father's dying
curse ringing in my ears, without your hatred, sister! Why am I recieved
and treated thus?'
`Do you mock me! My father's displeasure was just! What you have recieved
you have only merited!'
`His displeasure just! Merited what I have received,' I repeated in astonishment.
`Three years I have been absent from home during which time,
I have acted honorably in all my intercourse with the world. I have not in
that time seen you nor my father but once, two summer's ago, when you came
to visit me for a few weeks and I went to Saratoga with you. Then we parted
as father and son, as brother and sister should part. Since then I have
not met my father to incur his displeasure. What dreadful crime am I supposed
to be guilty of?'
`You cannot deceive me into the belief that you feel now differently from
enemy to my father and to me, Rafael, as well as a foe to your native state,
and a rebel against its laws!'
`Are you mad?' I asked with astonishment. `I must believe that my
father's reason wandered in his dying moments and that his death has turned
your brain, Anna!' I said kindly; for I had no suspicions of the astounding
crime of which I was supposed to be guilty.
`No, Rafael,' she answered me disengaging her hand and going out of the
room, `I am not deranged, neither was our father, as you well knew I have
loved you Rafael as a sister until the developments of your true character
made it known to me that you were unworthy of the affection of a true daughter
of Virginia. Recreant to your native land! Defiler of her good name!—
An enemy to her institutions! A rebel and a conspirator how could I acknowledge
you as brother? How did you expect your father would, on your return,
recognise you as a son?'
I was utterly confounded. I gazed upon her with a surprise too great for
utterance. Conscious that I had been innocent of every act unworthy a gentle
man or a true son of Virginia, it was easier to believe that she was deranged
then to accuse myself of any unworthy deed.
`Anna,' I said following her into the hall and speaking as soothingly as it
was in my power to do; for I was excited by grief and surprise.
`I cannot talk with you, Rafael,' she answered me with an air of haughty
displeasure; and passing into a room opposite, she closed the door and turned
the key on the inside.
I stood petrified with amazement. At this instant a footstep on the gallery
caused me to turn. I beheld with pleasure a gentleman who had been my
tutor and my sister's before I entered college; and who had for a year or two
after I had left continued to instruct Anna. He was a New England man about
thirty years of age, with an intelligent countenance, and a manner and
smile extremely prepossessing. He had been the past year post-master in the
town near which we lived, and to which all our letters came. He also was a
lawyer having been engaged in reading laws while he was tutor in my father's
family.
On seeing him, I hastened towards him with my hand extended, for I had
always liked the man, and to do him justice he was a very thorough teacher.
He advanced also reaching forth his hand he warmly shook mine, expressing
his gratification at seeing me returned; but at the same time manifested his
sorrow at the death of my father.
I felt relieved to find one person to meet me with cordiality; and as soon as
we had interchanged the first words of meeting, I implored him to tell me if
he knew, what fearful mystery was hanging over me!'
| CHAPTER V. Rafael | |