Read Ebook: The Three Midshipmen by Kingston William Henry Giles Prout Victor Illustrator

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Ebook has 1230 lines and 135074 words, and 25 pages

"No; I hope you are not," said Murray.

"Can't say for a certainty," answered Terence; "I feel a funny stinging sensation in my side as if something or other was the matter."

Whatever it was it did not impede his speed. At length it seemed to strike the Egyptians that though they could not manage to knock over the young giaours with their matchlocks they might with their scimitars; so a band of fierce-looking fellows with long moustachios, wonderfully wide breeches, and gleaming blades, sallied out of the fortress to endeavour to overtake them. The Egyptians ran very fast and felt very savage, but they might just as well have tried to catch three active tomcats. Dick Needham, their companion, was the first to perceive that the enemy was in pursuit of them.

"There's a lot on 'em a scampering after us, sir," he observed coolly.

"All right," answered Terence. "Their friends inside the fort, then, will be less likely to keep firing at us; and I should like to see the followers of the prophet, whether Turk or Egyptian, who can catch us in a fair race like this."

To do them justice, however, the enemy made good play over the ground. The outside garden wall was reached and leaped, and now the three adventurers had a fair run for it along the beach towards their boat with the red-capped gentlemen, as Adair called them, in hot pursuit. A long straggling branch of a tree had been thrown upon the beach. Adair did not observe it, and suddenly he found himself toppled over on his head. He thought that he had broken his leg.

"Take the flag and run, Alick," he exclaimed, throwing the flag-staff to Murray. "Never mind me, I'm too much, hurt to move."

"Not when I have a pair of legs to run off with you, sir," cried Dick Needham, lifting Paddy upon his shoulders, running off with him as if he had been a baby. "It was not for that, sir, that I comed here to look after you."

Paddy felt that it was not a moment to stand on his dignity, so he was very much obliged to Dick for carrying him. Murray took the flag, but would not leave him till he had seen him hoisted upon Dick's shoulders. Away they went then as before; but the Egyptians had gained considerably on them, and hallooed and shouted, and, worse than all, fired off their pistols with as good an aim as they could take, running as they were at full speed. Fortunately the bullets did not reach the fugitives; just then the latter caught sight of their boat, which they had left under shelter of a rock. The Egyptians did not see her, and so they ran on, which they otherwise would not have done. What was their surprise, then, to find themselves saluted with a round of grape-shot from a gun in her bows, and a volley of musketry, while a true British cheer reached their ears. Dick and Murray responded to it, and so did Paddy in a voice which showed that there was not much the matter with him, and all three very speedily tumbled into the boat, while the enemy turned tail and scampered back to the fort. The boat immediately shoved off to return to the frigate.

"What is the matter with you, Paddy?" asked Murray, as soon as they had taken their seats. "I hope you are not much hurt. Let me see."

"My knee bothers me a little, but my side is the worst," answered Adair. "And, as I am a gentleman, look here, the fellows have shot away the handle of my sword!"

Such was the case. Adair had indeed had a narrow escape; his coat was torn and his skin slightly grazed. An eighth of an inch on one side, and he would have received a very ugly, if not a mortal, wound. Happily he was very little hurt, and the cheers with which the boat was received, as she got alongside the frigate, made him forget entirely that anything was the matter with him.

"Oh! I am so jealous of you two fellows," exclaimed Jack, as they were all seated together in the berths. "You'll make me volunteer to lead a forlorn hope, or to do something terrifically heroic. However, the fun is not over yet; we shall have plenty more work to do before long."

The fun, as Jack called it, was not over. Sidon was soon afterwards attacked by a squadron under Sir Charles Napier, in his usual slap-dash gallant determined-to-conquer manner. The ships bombarded, then the Turks, marines, and bluejackets were landed, and stormed one castle after another, killing or putting to flight every one who opposed them. Jack, Murray, and Adair, to their great delight, were all on shore together. The cannonading had not, however, driven the Egyptians from their entrenchments, so the ships again opened their fire. Captain Austin, at the head of a Turkish battalion, had taken one castle, Captain Mansel, with great gallantry, led a body of marines into another, and then they fought their way into another castle which overlooked the town, not, however, without some loss. And now the commodore conceived that the time had come for storming the town itself, and, putting himself at the head of the troops, he led them on. The three midshipmen, with a body of seamen from the different ships, were with him. They broke into some strongly fortified barracks, and drove out the enemy, then they fought their way through the streets to the citadel. Several boats had brought their ensigns, Jack carried theirs at the end of a pole.

"Hurrah, now!" he sang out; "let us have our colours on the top of the wall before any one else." Terence and Murray echoed the sentiment; and, leading on some of their men, they endeavoured to reach the spot before a boat's crew of their Austrian allies, led on by a midshipman, as well as before other parties of British seamen. Never was there a better race. No one felt inclined to stop at obstacles, and everybody who attempted to oppose them was killed. The governor of the town was encountered. He was offered quarter, but he would not receive it, and before any officers could interfere two marines ran the brave old gentleman through the body, and he died like a true Turk as he was.

When the enemy saw that their chief was dead, and that there was no one to lead them, they wisely threw down their arms, resolved, like brave men, to live and fight another day for a more profitable cause.

Jack and his companions pushed on, and having now fewer enemies to encounter, made still greater progress. The higher part of the town was reached; with shouts and loud huzzas they scrambled up to the summit of the walls, and, planting the British banner, Sidon was proclaimed to have fallen into the power of the allies. Fortunately the commodore and his followers came upon a thousand men concealed in a vaulted barrack, who were prepared to rush out and cut them off, but who, instead, were very glad to lay down their arms, and in the end every one of the garrison, three thousand in number, was captured. Tyre, that ancient city, was next captured; so was Caiffa, Tortosa, and other places; and at last the fleet appeared before Acre, still one of the most important places on the Syrian coast. Here the midshipmen saw what real fighting was. Acre presents two sides to the sea, one facing south and the other west. In consequence of this it was necessary that the fleet should attack in two divisions. It was a grand sight to see the mighty line-of-battle ships and the fine steamers, armed with their engines of destruction, approaching in order the devoted town, and still more when they began thundering away from a thousand loud-mouthed guns, confusing the senses with their roars and filling the air with their smoke. Even Jack felt his spirits awed as hour after hour, without cessation, the mighty uproar continued, and houses were overthrown and strong stone walls were seen crumbling away before the reiterated shocks of the iron shower levelled at them. The enemy, too, were not idle, and shots and shell came whizzing about the ships, striking down here and there many a gallant seaman and marine.

"Well, Alick, what do you think of it?" asked Jack, as, in the course of their duty, the two friends were brought together.

"That we are in earnest in what we are about; though I wish I could feel the poor fellows we are slaughtering deserved their fate more than I think they do," answered Murray.

"I don't understand those niceties," observed Terence, who had just then come up. "Those fellows don't do what we tell them, so we've a perfect right to kill and destroy them as fast as we can; but, halloo, what's that?"

As Adair was speaking a terrific noise, ten times louder than the roar of all the guns of the squadron put together, was heard, and high up into the air were seen to ascend fragments of walls, and beams, and human bodies, succeeded by a dense smoke, out of which flames burst forth and raged furiously. The castle had blown up, or rather the grand magazine within it, and in a moment nearly two thousand persons were hurried into eternity. The firing ceased--the combatants held their breath, aghast at the dreadful catastrophe; but the Egyptians, undaunted, soon again recommenced the action, and the ships bombarded on as before till sunset, when the action was discontinued.

"What tough fellows those must be to hold out so long," said Jack. "I should have thought they would have had enough of it before this."

"Hurrah for old England!" was the joyous cry on board, and no one enjoyed the thoughts of returning home more than did the three friends, and yet there was a lump of bitter in the bottom of the cup to spoil this pleasure. It was the thought that in all probability they would be soon separated, for how long they could not guess--perhaps years might pass away before they could again meet. They resolved, however, to stick together if they could, and, at all events, never to fail in letting each other know their whereabouts.

"I have taken the liberty of an old seaman to look in on you, gentlemen, on this occasion, uninvited; for I saw you just as you were all brought together, and I was anxious to meet you again before you all separate, probably for ever," said the Admiral--who, as may be supposed, was most cordially welcomed--after waiting for some time till the speech-making had begun. "You have had, I am glad to find from my friend Rogers, a happy ship. Many of you will, I hope, some day be captains; and let me impress it on you that on you yourselves will then mainly depend whether your ships also are happy ships or the reverse. To make them so, you must command your tempers , you must endeavour to study and promote the true interests of all under you, and you must act justly towards all men. To do this I must not fail to remind you that you must pray for strength whence alone strength for all difficult tasks can be given."

The Admiral's speech in no way interrupted the hilarity of the evening, and he added much to it by several amusing anecdotes, at which no one laughed more heartily than he did. The next day he accompanied Jack to Northamptonshire. No one was ever more cordially welcomed in a happy home than was Jack. It need not be said that, for at least three days, everybody did their very utmost to spoil him, though after that time he was treated very much as he used to be before he became a midshipman.

BOUND FOR AFRICA.

"Dear me!" observed Mrs Rogers, "I am afraid that Captain Lascelles will not like that; I should always have such a horror of that dreadful station."

"Oh, mother, don't pray entertain such a notion as that," said Jack, with no little emphasis. "There is in the first place plenty of work to be done there, which in these piping times of peace is a great consideration. Only think of the fun of capturing a slaver, and what is more, of getting an independent command; or at least that is of a prize, you know, and being away from one's ship for weeks together. And then there is cruising in open boats, and exploring rivers, and fights with pirates or slavers; perhaps a skirmish with the dependents of some nigger potentate, and fifty other sorts of adventures, not to speak of prize-money and all that sort of thing, you know. Oh, to my mind, the coast of Africa is one of the best stations in the world, in spite of what is said against it."

"Why, Jack, we might suppose that you were contemplating going out there from the way you talk about those places," observed one of his brothers, who wanted to bring some other subject on the tapis.

"And so of course I am," exclaimed Jack. "I should like to stay at home among you all; but as I have chosen a profession, and there is not another like it, I hope to stick to it, and I intend always to look out where there is most work to be done, and to go there."

"My dear child," said his mother, "but not to the coast of Africa."

Then Jack went into all the arguments in its favour, which he flattered himself had made so favourable an impression at breakfast, but which he found had all been forgotten, while the original very natural prejudice against it had once more asserted a pre-eminence in the minds of his family.

The next morning Jack was unusually fidgety till the post came in, and there was a blank look on his countenance when the post-bag was opened and it produced no letter for him. Soon after breakfast, however, Admiral Triton's carriage drove up to the door, and out of it stepped the admiral himself. He quickly stumped into the drawing-room, and having made his salaams to the ladies, produced an official-looking document from his pocket. Jack had followed him eagerly into the room.

"In ten days or a fortnight I think that I could get his shirts and flannel waistcoats made, and his socks marked, and his--"

"Their friends may take some trouble to get them on board a ship going to the Mediterranean, or to keep them on the Home station; but depend on it they will not bestir themselves to have them sent out to the Coast," he remarked.

Captain Lascelles' character was well-known, so he soon got his ship manned and ready for sea. Admiral Triton had gone over to the Isle of Wight, and now came off to Spithead to see the last of them. There was still room for another midshipman. They were expecting every day to sail, and Jack was in despair at not hearing from either of his friends, wondering what would have become of them, when a shore-boat was seen coming off to the ship, and Paddy Adair and his chest came up the side.

"Hurrah!" exclaimed Jack, as soon as he saw him; "that is jolly. But I say, old fellow, where is Murray? I wish that he was here too."

"I say, Paddy," observed the former, "I wonder whether you or I shall be sent away in her when we take her. Will Hemming go in command, or will one of the mates?--Lee or Weedon, perhaps."

"Let us catch our hare before we eat her," said Adair. "I tell you what I do wish; that we were in a smaller craft, and then you and I would have a chance of getting sent away together. Wouldn't that be fun?" Jack agreed that it would, but both of them began to look very blank when darkness closed in on them, and the chase was still several miles ahead. When the frigate first made out the chase she was standing to the eastward, and was about a hundred miles off Cape Palmas. She was then running towards the Bight of Biafra. Captain Lascelles kept the frigate on nearly the same course, edging slightly in towards the land, for he suspected that the ship was bound in for one of the harbours on the Gold or Slave-Coast, and would probably stand in towards the land during the night. Neither of the midshipmen turned in that night. The thought that they were about to take their first prize kept, indeed, many others out of their hammocks, and sharp eyes were on the watch for her in every direction during the night. In spite of their sharpness, however, not a sign of the chase could be discovered. Yet as she was not seen on either hand, the probabilities were that she was still ahead.

"Do you know, Terence, this reminds me of the time when we chased the Turkish frigate which had you on board off the Egyptian coast," said Jack. "I only hope that we may be more fortunate, and catch her before she gets on shore and blows up."

"I shall be glad if we can catch her on the water, or earth, or sky," answered Terence. "These slavers are slippery fellows, and it is no easy matter to get hold of them."

The night wore on. When the morning at length broke the mast-heads were crowded with visitors. They rubbed their eyes and their telescopes, and then looked through the latter, and rubbed and rubbed again; and then they pulled very long faces at each other, for the ship could nowhere be seen. Many of them remained aloft, still looking for her, but at last they came down and looked at each other, and voted themselves sold. However, they went to breakfast, and as they walked the deck after it they hoped that they might have better luck next time.

The men's dinner was just over, when once more everybody was put on the alert by hearing "Sail ho!" sung out from the mast-head.

"Where away?" asked Captain Lascelles, who was walking the deck at the time.

"Right ahead, sir," was the answer.

The captain himself went aloft. When he came down again he told Mr Holt that he believed she was the identical ship they had chased the previous day. The frigate rapidly got up with her.

"How jolly to think that we shall catch her after all," exclaimed Jack, as they got near enough to the chase to see halfway down her courses. "But what is the matter with her? She seems to have altered her course."

"She is becalmed, to be sure," answered Lieutenant Hemming, who heard the question. "Daddy Neptune has brought her up all standing, to place her as a punishment in our power. I only hope he will not make a mistake and becalm us till we get up to her."

In another hour or less the stranger was seen floating in the middle of a shining sheet of water of silvery hue. Still the frigate carried on the breeze. It was a question whether the stranger would get it, and perhaps make a fresh start, leaving her pursuer in the lurch. The excitement on board the frigate became greater than ever when the stranger was seen, for there was no longer any doubt about her character. Her taut masts, her square yards, the great hoist of her topsails, and her light cotton canvas, all showed her to be a slaver, probably combined with the occupation of a pirate. Gradually the wind decreased as the frigate neared her; when within about a couple of miles it fell a dead calm. Captain Lascelles gave a rapid glance round the horizon, and then ordered away the first and second cutters with a large whale-boat, and directed the second and third lieutenants and one of the mates to join them. Jack and Terence got leave to accompany Mr Hemming. It was very evident, from the appearance of the stranger, that she would give them some tough work before they took her. With loud cheers the expedition shoved off from the frigate's side and pulled away for the ship. The three boats contained altogether from five and thirty to forty hands. It was broad daylight. There would have been no use in disguising their intentions. If the slaver attempted to defend herself at all, they might well expect some desperate fighting, and from her appearance it could scarcely be expected that she would do otherwise. Hemming's boat, which pulled the fastest, got the lead. The men every now and then gave a cheer to animate each other. They rapidly neared the slaver, as the smooth shining water bubbled and hissed under the boats' bows. Oh, how hot it was, as the sun's rays came directly down on their heads; but no one thought of the heat, and they laughed and joked as if they were employed in some amusing occupation.

"I say, Paddy, I think we could do a beefsteak brown on these stern-sheets," observed Jack, putting his hand down by his side.

"That to be sure we might," answered Terence. "And here comes the pepper for them," he added, as the pirate sent a shower of round shot, grape, and canister flying around, and stirring up the water on every side, though fortunately no one was hit.

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