Kitabı oku: «Foxholme Hall, and Other Tales», sayfa 17
”‘I’ve as much right to be here as you have,’ answered the old woman. ‘I’ve come to see my grandchild, and I should like to know what fault you can find with that!’
”‘You come to see your grandchild! – you Amy’s grandmother! I don’t believe it,’ he exclaimed, starting back from her with a look of horror. ‘You, you wizen-faced, shrivelled old hag!’
”‘What! you dare to call me names!’ screamed the old woman; ‘you’ll repent it – that you will, my master.’
“On this, Derick turned to Amy and asked if the old woman spoke the truth. Amy confessed that she was her grandmother, and then burst into tears, which so enraged the dame that she went away muttering curses between her teeth, which Derick could not understand. They had a great effect upon him, and from that time his love for the beautiful gipsy began to cool. I ought to have said that before Derick had fallen in with the poor girl he had been paying his addresses to a young lady of family and fortune who had been captivated by his handsome face and figure. While the above affair had been going on he had neglected his former attentions to this lady, but he now began to resume them. He never told her the reason of his absence, and he made so much play to recover his lost ground, that he was soon reinstated in her good graces. She was not only rich, but handsome and clever, and she so quickly enslaved the heart of Derick, that he neglected poor Amy altogether. He next proposed marriage to her; he was accepted, and the day of the wedding was fixed.
“Poor Amy had heard nothing about it, whatever she might have suspected, and she had grown accustomed to his long absences, though her heart was breaking at his coldness. Well, Captain Derick and his beautiful bride went to church to be married, and a very grand wedding it was, and numbers of relations and friends attended. Just as the service began, a alight female figure, wrapped close in a cloak with a hood, was seen to steal into the church, and to hide itself behind one of the pillars which supported the roof. Derick observed the circumstance and changed colour, and his hand trembled as he put the ring on his wife’s finger. Just at that moment a piercing scream was heard ringing through the aisles and vaulted roof of the church, and filling the hearts of everybody present with dismay. They searched the church throughout for the stranger in the hooded cloak, they looked around in every direction, but she was nowhere to be found, and no one had seen her quit the church, nor had any one observed her in the neighbourhood. That night there was a fierce storm of thunder and lightning, wind and rain, and on the following morning the young and once beautiful Amy Kirby was found a blackened corpse on the very spot where Ashby Derick had first met her. Some said that she had been killed by lightning, but it was generally supposed that she had died by poison, which she had taken in her despair.
“The old grandmother was the first person to tell Derick of what had happened, though he was a hundred miles or so from the spot on his wedding tour. She came into the room where he and his young wife were sitting, without any one announcing her, and nearly frightened the bride to death by the way she swore and cursed Derick, so that at last he became so enraged that he called up the servants and turned her out of the house by main force. She went away threatening that she would shortly wreak a bitter vengeance on him for his murder of the only being she loved on earth. The same evening she was back again in her now desolate hut near Liverpool. If she had with some reason been before suspected of being a witch, she was thought to be one now to a certainty from her strange look and ways of going on, and she took delight in making everybody believe her one. The sudden appearance of the old woman so frightened the young bride that she fell ill, and the doctors all agreed that the best thing to restore her shattered nerves would be for her to take a long voyage to a southern climate. Derick was not sorry to hear of this advice, for though he loved his wife, so he did his profession, and had no intention of giving that up, especially when he could take her with him. At first her friends did not like the idea of her going, but he soon persuaded them, and she, poor young thing! was delighted at the thought of accompanying him, and of visiting foreign countries. She had been nurtured in every sort of luxury, and had never been to sea before, so she little knew what she had to undergo. However, he had a cabin fitted up for her very elegantly, so that she might be as comfortable as possible. The cargo was stowed, the ship was cleared at the custom-house, the lady and all her things were on board, our owners and different friends had gone on shore, and Captain Derick was standing close to the taffrail and waving his hat, as the ship, all her fastenings being cast off, moved away from the quay, when on a sudden there appeared at the end of a jetty, close to which we had to pass, the old hag, Dame Kirby.
“I have not yet described her. She had in her youth been very tall, but she was now bent nearly double, though she contrived to raise herself at times of great excitement to nearly her former height. She was thin and wizened, with large prominent features, and eyes once large, now sunk so deep in her head that they would have been scarcely perceptible, except from their extraordinary lustre. In her hand she carried a long twisted staff to support herself, and she wore a red cloak and a queer little hat, from under which her long grey locks straggled in the wind. Her gown, such as it was, all rags and tatters, was looped up in front to enable her to walk, and as she raised herself up, her long bony leg, which was advanced forward, looked so like that of a skeleton that it was impossible to believe that it belonged to a living being. Her arms, which were also quite bare, appeared composed of nothing but bone and sinew, and the skin which covered them, like that of her face, was as yellow as parchment. They, as well as her hands and fingers, were of great length, and as she walked along in her usual way, she almost touched the ground with them. When the captain first saw her standing directly in front of him, with her hideous features scowling malignantly on him, appearing, as she did, the prominent figure, while his friends faded in the distance, he started back and trembled violently. He quickly, however, recovered himself, especially when he found his wife, who had come upon deck, close to his side. Her presence seemed to enrage the old woman greatly. She slowly raised up her bent body till she seemed taller than any woman I ever saw, and stretching out her staff, waved it round and round in the direction of the ship.
”‘Curses attend you, and follow all who sail with you,’ she shrieked out, in a loud shrill voice, which pierced through our ears, and made the oldest seaman on board turn pale with apprehension. ‘False-hearted, perjured murderer, betrayer of innocence, deceiver of a faithful heart, destroyer of one who would have clung to you through weal and through woe, through good report and evil report, through life unto death! Now take the consequence. As you valued not the treasure of her love, you shall rue the bitterness of my hate. You are proud of your knowledge, you are proud of your hardy crew, you are proud of your stout ship, but your knowledge shall not avail you in the fierce tempest I will raise; the waters shall drown your hardy crew, and the hard rocks shall batter in pieces your stout ship! Wherever you go I will follow you; in the furthermost parts of the wide ocean you shall find me, in the howling of the raging storm you shall hear me, in the flashes of the vivid lightning you shall see me. My vengeance will not sleep, my hate will not abate. Your bold heart shall quail and sink like a woman’s, your cheek shall blanch, when you feel that I am nigh, and hiss into your ears the name of her you murdered, and you see borne before your eyes on the whirlwind the writhing form of her who was once so lovely, dying in agony on the wild heath alone and hopeless. Blasted shall be the beauty of which you are proud, withered shall be your form, frozen your heart, and she who now stands in youth and loveliness by your side shall learn to repent she knew you, and shall share your fate. Sail onward on your course, but never shall your eyes again behold your native land, or hear the greeting of the friends you leave behind. But me you shall hear, and me you shall see, when you would give all the wealth of India not to see me or to hear me, and wish that I never existed. Go now – sail – sail – sail away over the wide sea! Curses hover over you where’er you go! Curses attend your hardy crew! Curses follow after the stout ship which hears you!’
“While uttering these dreadful imprecations, she whirled her staff still more violently in the air, and uttered shrieks louder than ever, until she almost drove the captain and everybody on board mad with horror; and while we were all wondering what she would do next, a sudden squall took the ship aback, and it was of such violence that we were as nearly as possible driven stern on to the pier. Everybody had to run to the braces, tacks, and sheets, and sharp work we had to slew the yards round in time; and when we looked again for the old woman, she was nowhere to be seen. I never before or since have met in the Mersey a squall so sudden, or so violent, and in a minute it was over, and the wind blew as it had done before. What was also strange was, that not one of the other ships in the river had felt it. The old pilot who was taking us clear of the sands shook his head and said he did not at all like the look of things, that no good ever came of such strange doings; but Captain Derick, who was himself again the moment Dame Kirby had disappeared, laughed, and asked him what harm could possibly happen from the ravings of an old mad woman.
“The young bride also did not at all like it, for she could not help recognising her as the old hag who had come and frightened her on the day of their marriage; and though Derick did his best to persuade her that there was nothing of truth in what she said, she could not bring herself to believe him. Those dreadful shrieks and curses had pierced her young heart, and struck her soul with dread.
”‘Why, my love,’ he said, ‘what power to do us harm can a wretched old creature like that have? She is some unfortunate maniac who has escaped from her keepers, and has got this story about a grandchild she has lost, and whom, perhaps, some man has neglected, into her head, and has fixed it upon me. Poor old hag! she is more to be pitied than feared. It would have been a mercy to have sent a bullet through her head, and put her out of her misery, when she was howling at us leaving the quay, and I confess I felt not a little inclined to do so. I don’t mean to say that it would have been right to hurt her – of course, I would not, poor thing. So now let us laugh at the foolish fears of the crew, and think no more about the matter.’
“Even while he was speaking, I saw his lip tremble, and his eye belied his words. His wife, who by this time knew him pretty well, was aware all the time that he was not speaking his real feelings, though perhaps he was trying to deceive himself, as well as her and others.
“Mrs Derick was certainly a very handsome woman, and she did not want wit or sense. She was dotingly fond of her husband, though she had found out that he had a good number of faults to weigh in the scale against his good looks, which is what many a woman is apt to discover when she marries a man for his handsome face, instead of for his sense and goodness. Though the captain appeared in high spirits, and laughed and talked as gaily as need be, the crew could not get the thought of the old hag out of their heads; and when the pilot left us, he looked very grave, and said that his heart would not be light again till he saw the ship safe back in the Mersey once more. I believe that at that time one-half of the men would have left the ship if they could have done so. Indeed, some attempted to follow the pilot, but Derick rushed on deck with his pistols in his hands, and swore that he would blow out the brains of the first man who should attempt such a trick.
”‘You confounded idiots!’ he exclaimed. ‘I thought I had shipped a crew of men, who would face the devil if I led them; instead of that, I’ve got a number of sucking babies on board. Pity I did not ship some casks of pap to feed you on! But now I’ve got you, I intend to keep you, and to try if I can’t make men of you; so I don’t mean to part company just now, and shall keep my powder dry for ready use.’
“This speech had the effect of shaming the men into their duty, and for some time we heard no more of the old witch. I ought to have said that we were bound for Chili and the western coast of South America, and were to visit some of the islands in the Pacific before we returned home, so that we thus expected to be away the best part of two years. We had a fair wind after leaving the Mersey, and enjoyed a fine run clear of the Channel, and until we got into the latitude of Gibraltar, so that the men entirely recovered their spirits and good humour, and, with the carelessness of seamen, even began to laugh at their former fears. Mrs Derick took a great liking to the sea, and told her husband that she should always be ready to go with him. Poor thing! she had only yet seen the bright face of it. Those who know the ocean can say, that, like many a beautiful woman, it wears two very different aspects at different times. We all began to like the lady very much, which officers and crew do not always do the skipper’s wife; but she was like a gleam of sunshine on a cloudy day, and stood between us and the somewhat dark temper which the captain now often showed. Thus things went on very well on board the Chameleon, and there appeared to be every prospect of a pleasant voyage.
“I said that we were bound for Chili and the western coast of South America. In those days the jealous and narrow-minded commercial policy of Spain prohibited the ships of any other nation than their own trading with her colonies. The consequence was, that those provinces, notwithstanding their internal sources of wealth, remained poor and insignificant, and their inhabitants ignorant and bigoted, while in North America a state was springing up which not only surpassed their whole united provinces in power and influence, but soon became in a condition to bid defiance to the rest of the world. We, therefore, did not hope to carry on a regular trade with these degenerate Spaniards, but our intention was to call off different parts of the coast, and to sell our goods wherever we found people ready to buy them, without troubling ourselves by entering at any custom-house. There was some risk, it is true, in this species of traffic, but there was also some adventure, and it required considerable sagacity and courage, and this exactly suited Derick’s taste. I forgot to say that we carried four guns on a side, and were well supplied with muskets, pistols, and boarding-pikes, both to defend ourselves against the Spanish custom-house officers, and also against any piratical rovers, who, in that day, were known at times to frequent those seas, to rob any unarmed merchantmen they might fall in with.
“The plan, in dealing with the Spaniards, when I had been in that part of the world before, was to call off the coast two or three leagues away from a town, and to send on shore, by some fishing-boat, to the merchants, to say what goods we had, and that we were ready to deal with them. They would then send back word when they would come, probably on that or the following night. If the weather were fine we used to anchor close in shore, always keeping a bright look out in case of treachery. As soon as it was dark, the merchant”, or their agents, would come off in their boats, and take the goods on shore, and pay us good prices in hard dollars. So much for restrictive duties. Scarcely a ship entered at the custom-house at any of those ports, and the Government got no revenue, while, on account of the difficulties and risks, the people had to pay just as much as they would have done for the goods had moderate dues been levied, and the trade been regular and above board. But I am running away from the subject of my story. Well, as I was saying, we made very fine weather of it, though the wind was seldom fair, till we reached about twenty-seven degrees north latitude, when we got into the north-east trade-winds, which carried us along at a spanking pace, with studding sails alow and aloft on either side, till we were nearly in the latitude of Rio do Janeiro. It was enough to make a man vain of his ship, of himself, and of the art which formed her, to see her thus walking along the water, with her wide spread of snowy canvas proudly sweeping the blue vault of heaven. Captain Derick rubbed his hands, and smiled with satisfaction, as he walked the deck and looked up at the well-set sails, and then over the side, to watch the sparkling foam as it quickly flew past and formed a long wake astern. He amused his young wife and himself in teaching her the names of the ropes and sails, and she fully shared his pleasure and satisfaction. I remember them as if it were yesterday; she was sitting on the bench, on the after-part of the deck, with one arm resting on his shoulder, and her face looking up at his, while he was explaining some point she could not at first understand. They certainly were a handsome couple. The sea was smooth, the sky was blue, and the air was pure and warm. That evening was the last we saw of fine weather. It seemed sent us on purpose to show how pleasant the world could be, and to make us wish the more to remain in it. On the morning following the one I have described, a dark mass of clouds was seen gathering in the south-west, rising out of the sea, and every instant growing denser and broader, as recruits from all quarters arrived; then, like some mighty host, which has been waiting the arrival of its various divisions, onward it began its march towards us. As the dark body advanced, its movement became more rapid, and at last, as if urged on by some irresistible impulse, it rushed forward in an impetuous charge, covering the whole sky with its overwhelming masses. The captain had been called on deck the moment the sky had assumed this threatening aspect, and he immediately ordered all the lighter sails to be handed, the courses to be brailed up, and the ship to be kept on the starboard tack, under her topsails. As yet there had been a perfect calm, and the sails flapped idly against the masts, though the ship rolled heavily in the smooth ominous billows, which had been rising for some hours past. Suddenly, the wind burst forth from the dark clouds, accompanied with rain and hail, and struck the ship on her broadside, while the forked lightning played round her on every side, as if eager to make her feel its power. Like a reed bent before the wind, the stout ship yielded to the fierce blast. It howled in triumph over her. In an instant, her gunwale was under water, and the waves washed up her decks and threatened to fill her hold. She was in as bad a position as a ship can be placed in, and it seemed that every moment would he her last. Derick now showed that he was a good seaman, cool and fearless in danger.
”‘Furl the mizzen-topsail,’ he shouted out. ‘Up with her helm – brail up the main-topsail – furl it – she’ll not steer without it.’ The mizzen-topsail and main-topsail were furled, the fore-topsail was backed against the mast, the fore-staysail and jib were set, but to no purpose. Still she lay like a log upon the waters with her broadside to the sea.”
Story 13-Chapter II
“I ought to have said that all this time Mrs Derick, who had refused to stay below, was on deck seated aft under the weather bulwarks, and looking on less frightened perhaps than awe-struck at the wild scene before her. On finding that the ship still refused to wear, the captain summoned the mates with some of the best hands aft, and gave them the order to cut away the mizzen mast. With gleaming axes in our hands we set to work, the shrouds were severed, and after a few sharp strokes the mast tottered and fell with a crash into the boiling sea. The looked-for effect was not produced – still the ship would not wear. Another mast must be sacrificed; no other remedy remained. Again we gave the fatal strokes which must reduce our ship to a wreck upon the waters; over fell the tall mast with its spars and rigging, and a few more cuts served to sever it from the labouring hull. The effect was instantly perceptible – the ship righted, the helm was kept up, and away she flew before the howling tempest.
“Scarcely was she before the wind than the storm increased with tenfold fury, the wind blew more fiercely, the thunder rolled more loudly, the rain and hail came down in thicker torrents, the lightning flashed more vividly, while the waves rose on every side in black mountainous ridges covered with curling crests of foam, which the wind sent in showers on our decks even when the water itself did not break over us.
“The foremast had hitherto stood secure, though weakened by the loss of the mainmast, but now as the tempest came down stronger on us, that too tottered, and went by the board, carrying the bowsprit with it. As this last accident happened, the captain’s wife shrieked with terror; it was answered by a shout of shrill laughter, so loud, so piercing, and so unnatural, that it made the heart of every one on board tremble. It might well do so, for as we looked over the side of the driving ship, what should we see right abreast of us, in a small skiff, gliding over the frothy summits of the waves, but the very old woman who had uttered such dreadful curses at us as we were quitting Liverpool – Dame Kirby! There she sat in the stern sheets of the boat, steering by an oar with one hand, while the left bony arm was stretched out pointing derisively at us, and her countenance, as full of malignant revenge as is possible for any being possessing human features, was turned full upon us. A large sail was hoisted on the single mast, enough, one would have supposed, to lift the light skiff right out of the water; but she sat as composedly as if she were floating on a lake on a summer’s evening; her boat did not seem to ship a drop of water, nor ever to sink into the trough of the sea, but it somehow or other went along on the summit of every wave.
“Every one on board saw the old woman, and knew her to be Dame Kirby. So did poor Mrs Derick; and after gazing at her wildly for some time, she could bear the dreadful sight no longer, and fell back in a swoon. Her husband ran to raise her, and as he supported her in his arms, he shouted out to the old woman to begone, and to be content with the mischief she had already caused. Indeed, there was not a soul on board who did not believe that she had done all the damage we had suffered. The hag only laughed and jeered at him the more he stormed, and so madly enraged did he become at her mockery, that I do believe had he not been holding his wife in his arms, he would in his passion have flung himself overboard to get hold of her.
“It must not be supposed that the officers and crew were idle all this time, for as soon as the foremast went we set to work to get up a jury mast on the stump of the foremast, to prevent the ship from broaching to; this, three men at the wheel had meantime the greatest difficulty in preventing her doing. At length, after much labour, we got up a spare topgallant mast, and set a topgallant sail on it, and all present danger was over. No sooner had we done this, than the witch uttered a loud ‘Ha, ha, ha,’ which sounded like what one might suppose to be the croak of a frog in a merry mood, only a hundred times louder and shriller than any frog ever croaked; and about she put her skiff, and away she went right in the wind’s eye, accompanied by a storm of lightning and rain, at the rate of not less than twenty knots an hour. When she had disappeared, the poor lady began to come to herself again, and her husband tried to persuade her that what she had seen was all fancy, and laughed heartily at the idea of an old woman in a red cloak coming out into the middle of the Atlantic in a skiff, which could not live a moment in such a sea as there was running.
“But she knew well enough all the time what she had seen, and nothing he could say to the contrary could persuade her that some dreadful disaster would not happen to them. I will do him the justice to say that, with all his faults, he was as brave a fellow as ever stepped, or he would not have borne up as he did. Any one to look at him, or to hear him, would suppose that he had no more seen the old woman than if she had never existed, while all the time it was on his account especially that she thus haunted us.
“Where we should have got to, I don’t know, at the rate we were driving, but the next day the wind shifted right round again to the north-east, and sent us back as fast as we came till we were off the city of Rio de Janeiro, in the Brazils.
“We managed to steer into that magnificent harbour, and as we were in evident distress we were allowed to remain and refit; but the Portuguese in those days were not a bit wiser than their Spanish neighbours, and would allow no foreign trader to come into their ports.
“The harbour of Rio is a magnificent expanse of water, and the country would be the finest in the world in the hands of any of the northern nations of Europe; but the Portuguese did not know how to take advantage of the blessings given them by Heaven, either at home or in the colonies, and except in the neighbourhood of Rio itself, the greater portion of the Brazils was uncultivated. It is, however, a very pleasant place to visit, and our captain, leaving the ship in charge of the first mate, took his wife on shore, where, among the delightful orange groves and gardens, she soon recovered from the shock her spirits had received from the events I have described.
“We remained here for several weeks refitting the ship, for the Portuguese carpenters and riggers, though they did their work well, got through it very slowly, and though our owners suffered by the delay, we had no reason to complain. At last the ship was all ataunto and ready for sea. As Captain Derick with his pretty wife on his arm came down on the quay before going on board, he stopped to admire the appearance of the Chameleon. He pointed out her beauties with satisfaction as she lay in all her pride a short distance from the shore, looking as if nothing had ever hurt her.
”‘There she is, my love, as stout and brave a ship as ever sailed the salt ocean,’ he exclaimed. ‘We may bid defiance to the old woman, if she ever thinks fit to come near us again. Not that I believe one was really seen – it was fancy, my love, fancy, the work of the imagination, that often plays strange freaks. I was wrong to allude to the subject.’ He spoke hurriedly, and afterwards broke into a laugh, for fear his wife should suspect he and the rest of us really had seen the witch. They came on board, the anchor was run up cheerily to the bows, the sails were loosened, and with a fine northerly breeze we stood out of the harbour, and kept away once more on our course. We had beautiful weather for some days, and as our spirits rose in the pure fresh air, we forgot all our former fears, and fully believed that we were going to have a prosperous cruise.
“An event, however, soon occurred, to make us think differently. We were within sight of land, with the sky overhead bright and blue, and the sea calm as a millpond, when on a sudden a tremendous squall struck the ship, carrying away our topgallant masts, sails, and yards, and throwing her on her beam ends. The topsails were clewed up, and the men were sent on the yards to furl them. I was at the weather earing, on the main-topsail-yard, when just as she was righting, a second squall struck and hove her down again so suddenly that three of our best hands were shaken from their hold and hurled into the hissing waters under our lee. Their loud shrieks reached our ears, but when we looked for them they were nowhere to be seen. At that moment, I, as well as every man on board, beheld as clearly as I do you, right to windward of us, the old witch, in her skiff, skimming over the frothy waters, and pointing jeeringly at us with her bony hand.
“There was not much sea on, and as soon as we could we hove the ship to, and Captain Derick ordered a boat to be lowered to look for the men. Now I believe our crew were as brave men as any fellows of their class, but when they prepared to lower the boat, instead of flying as usual on such occasions, to try and be the first in her, they all hung back, and not one of them would go. They did not like the look of the old woman, even when they were comparatively safe on the deck of the vessel, but the idea of finding her close to them in the boat, perhaps of feeling the touch of her staff or the gripe of her bony fingers, was too dreadful to be thought of.
”‘What, you cowards, are you afraid of?’ shouted the captain, in a furious rage. ‘Your shipmates will be drowned while you’re skulking there – lower away the boat, or I’ll shoot some of you.’
“These words had the desired effect. Three hands sprang into the boat to be lowered in her, the third mate and another were following, when through the fright and carelessness of some of the people, one of the falls was let run too soon, the boat was swamped alongside, and the three hands were washed out of her before they could get hold of anything to save themselves. A loud cackling peal of laughter was heard as this second catastrophe occurred, and the witch was seen whirling her staff round on the other side of the ship.
