Sustained honor Part 41

Amid the exciting scenes which followed in such rapid succession, no one had noticed that the weather had undergone a wonderful change. By the time the prisoners were comfortably quartered the sun had set, and the sky was obscured with dark clouds from which constant flashes of lightning were emitted. The distant roll of thunder and the sighing of the wind gave warning of the approach of a storm.

"The _Xenophon_ is in a poor condition to weather a storm to-night,"

said Lieutenant Willard. "With her hull raked fore and aft a dozen times, her mizzen gone, her foremast shot through, and her rigging so cut to pieces, she can hardly be managed in good weather. A storm would surely drive her on the rocks."

The vessel could be seen by the flashes of lightning, struggling to get to sea. At last she disappeared. The storm rose and the wind blew a perfect hurricane. Fernando had gone to see Captain Lane to make a full report. It was midnight, and he was still with the captain, when the boom of a gun at sea was heard. That was no gun of battle but a signal of distress.

"What is it?" cried Captain Lane.

"It's the _Xenophon_. I fear she cannot weather the storm."

Then they listened for an hour or more to the occasional boom of a cannon.

"She's comin' right in on the stony point sou'east o' the bay," cried Captain Lane.

Fernando started to his feet and said:

"We must go to their rescue."

At this Morgianna, who had been ministering to the wounded, entered and said:

"Are they not enemies?"

"Yes, but fellow-creatures, also. Those signal guns call out humanity, and the bravest are the most humane," said Fernando.

"I am glad you said that!" she remarked as Fernando hurriedly left the shelter in which the captain lay.

Day dawned and the _Xenophon_ was a broken wreck scattered along the Maryland coast. Occasionally a bruised and bleeding form was picked up senseless or dead among the rocks, or on the beach. Sukey was busiest among the searchers; but the scenes of horror and suffering which everywhere met his view changed his hatred to pity.

At last he came upon a poor, bruised, thoroughly soaked, wretched-looking man lying among some rocks, where the angry waves and receding tide had left him. His once elegant uniform was now rotten, dirty rags. One gold epaulet was gone, and the other was so mud-besmeared that one could scarce tell what it was composed of.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SUKEY'S THUMB LIFTED THE HAMMER OF HIS GUN.]

It required a second look for Sukey to recognize in that miserable creature, drawing every breath in pain, the haughty Captain Snipes, who had scourged and disgraced him. Snipes had severe internal injuries and was dying. Sukey's thumb lifted the hammer of his gun, then he gazed on the agonized face of his enemy, and, the tears starting to his eyes, he let down the hammer. At this moment Fernando came up, and Sukey cried:

"I can't do it, Fernando,--I can't do it! I've prayed for this, for years, but now that it's given me, I can't. It's Captain Snipes, but he's too bad hurt to kill."

"G.o.d has punished him," said Fernando, solemnly. "Verily, 'vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.'"

They lifted their enemy as gently as if he had been their dearest friend and bore him to a fisherman's cottage, where Sukey did all in his power to alleviate his suffering; but his time on earth was short. Captain Snipes sank rapidly. That he was conscious and recognized his nurse no one can doubt, for just half an hour before he died, he took Sukey's hand and spoke the only words he was heard to utter after the wreck.

"Forgive me!" he said.

"I do, captain, G.o.d knows I do!" Sukey cried warmly, and the haughty, cruel Captain Snipes pa.s.sed away, the victim of G.o.d's vengeance.

The day after the wreck of the _Xenophon_, news came from Baltimore of the repulse of the British fleet and army. It was a day of general rejoicing. A squadron was to be sent to guard the coast and relieve Fernando at Mariana. For some time he had been asking to be attached to some western regiment with his recruits. He received official notice that he had been a.s.signed to a Kentucky regiment under Colonel Smiley, and, with the notice, came a commission to the rank of major. Fernando was ordered to join the regiment at Nashville, Tenn., to act under General Jackson in the South.

The war was s.h.i.+fting to the South; and the western and southern troops were hastening to its defence. Fernando notified his men of the order and Sukey volunteered to go with them. Job also enlisted as cook; but Terrence, having been notified that _Privateer Tom_ ready for sea, once more bade them adieu, and departed for Philadelphia, taking Mr. Hugh St.

Mark the gunner with him.

Fernando went to the great white stone house, which had been repaired and again occupied by Captain Lane and his daughter. Captain Lane and Morgianna were alone in the large sitting-room when he entered. The captain was convalescent, but not wholly recovered from his attack of rheumatism.

"So you are going away?" said Captain Lane when Fernando had told him of his last order.

"Yes, captain, a soldier belongs to his country."

"I know it. I don't blame you one bit. So you will serve under Jackson.

Well, I don't think another s.h.i.+p will venture to bombard Mariana. Have you sent the prisoners to Baltimore?"

"Yes, sir, all save Lieutenant Matson. I took his parole, and he still remains in the village, I presume, during his pleasure. He will be required to report once a week to Baltimore, but that need not be in person."

The captain was silent. While speaking, Fernando kept his eyes from the face of Morgianna. He could not look at her and be a witness to the glow of joy which he knew must warm her cheek on being informed that her lover was to remain. She quietly left the apartment while he was conversing with the captain, and when he left, he found her alone in the hall.

It was almost dark; but her face in its beauty seemed to illumine the hall. He took her hand in his own, and felt that same old thrill of five years before.

"I am going away, Miss Lane," he said, "and I cannot go without bidding you adieu and telling you how much I appreciate your brave, n.o.ble, self-sacrificing efforts in caring for the wounded."

Fernando really had a different opinion of Morgianna from that he had at first entertained. He had thought of her only as a gay, frivolous girl, witty, brilliant and beautiful; but the scenes of death, the siege and carnage had shown him a new Morgianna;--it was Morgianna the heroine. She made several efforts to speak before she could fully control herself.

"Major Stevens," she faintly said after a struggle, "the people of this poor little village can never feel too grateful to you, for your brave and unselfish defence of their homes!"

"I am a soldier, Miss Lane, and I trust I did my duty."

Then they stood silent. Fernando would have given worlds to speak the promptings of his heart: but stubborn pride forbade him.

"Whither do you go?" she asked.

"To the South; what point I do not know, save that we join our regiment at Nashville."

"Will you ever come back, major?"

"If duty calls me--"

"But have you no friends," she asked slowly, "no friends here, whom you would like to see after the war is over?"

"Many, Miss Lane. These brave men and n.o.ble women, who have shared my toils and dangers, are very dear to my heart, and when the Britons have been driven from our country, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to renew my acquaintance with them."

"You are always welcome, major," she said, deeply moved. "Will you make me a promise?"

"What is the promise?"

"That you will come as soon as the war is over."

"It is only a polite way of inviting me to her wedding," he thought; then he asked:

"Will you be here?"

"If heaven spares me, I shall."

"Then I will return, Miss Lane, if I live."