Foxholme Hall Part 11

I remained with him for the greater part of that night; and, at length, quitted him more composed in mind and resigned to his fate than I could have expected. The next morning was to be his last; and at his particular request, I accompanied him to the fatal scaffold. A large crowd had a.s.sembled--blacks and whites, soldiers and sailors, to witness the execution of the noted pirates. With a firm step he walked from his prison to the foot of the gibbet, and mounted the steps. Resting a moment, he addressed the spectators, exhorting them to take example from his dreadful fate, and to avoid the evil courses which had, step by step, conducted him to it. At length the executioner warned him that his time was up.

"I am ready," he answered, and was about to submit his neck to the fatal noose, when, starting back, he exclaimed in a voice of agony, "He is come! he is come! Oh, save me from him!--save me!"

Before he could utter more, the drop was let fall, and all was soon over. The rest of the crew died making no sign.

Such was the closing scene in the life of a pirate--the dreadful phantom conjured up by his conscience haunting him to the last.

STORY SIX, CHAPTER ONE.

STORY SIX--THE SPIRIT OF THE STORM.

There once existed in the Pacific Ocean a beautiful island, called the Island of Gracia. In the early ages of the world, before the human race had begun to explore the more distant regions of the globe, it was probably a wild and barren rock, with abrupt sharp-edged hills and dark pools of stagnant water, without a patch of green herbage, or animal or vegetable life of any description to enliven its solitude; while the only sound heard around it was that of the wild waves das.h.i.+ng ceaselessly on its rugged sh.o.r.es. Ages pa.s.sed away, and those indefatigable insects, the coral worms, built up their wonderful habitations, like lofty walls, around it; toiling, seemingly, for no other purpose than to show how for their structures can surpa.s.s in size the most mighty efforts of men. The reefs thus created broke the force of the fierce waves; a soft yellow sand was formed, and sh.e.l.ls of many shapes and delicate tints were washed up uninjured on the beach. The sun and rain, with alternate influence, softened also the hard rock, and a soil was formed, and birds of the air rested there in their pa.s.sage across the ocean, and brought seeds of various descriptions from far-distant lands, which took root and sprung up; and the hills became clothed with fragrant shrubs and gorgeous flowers, and tall trees with luscious fruits grew in the valleys, and a soft green herbage covered the banks of the silent lakes and murmuring streams. Thus the island became a fit habitation for man. Now, it happened that a canoe or a galley with many oars, or a vessel of some description, such as was used in ancient times, with a chief and his followers, and their wives and children, set sail from a remote country. Either they fled from their victorious enemies, or they were driven by a storm so far from their native sh.o.r.es that they could not return. Thus they floated over the ocean, till they reached the Island of Gracia. So shattered was their vessel by the tempest, and so delighted were the chief and his people with the appearance of that beautiful land, that they were well contented to remain. Their chief now became their King.

In the course of a few generations the descendants of the first adventurers had thickly peopled the whole island, and had lost all record of the land from whence they came, nor did they know whether it lay to the north or south, or to the east or west.

Monarch succeeded monarch, till King Zaphor came to the throne of Gracia. Everybody loved King Zaphor, for he was a benignant and paternal sovereign, who attended to the wants of his subjects. The King had a daughter, the Princess Serena; he loved his people, but he absolutely doted on his daughter. She was the child of his affections, the sole relic of a departed wife, the soother of his regal cares, the companion of his hours of retirement. The people loved their King, but they almost adored the Princess, and there was not a man in the island who would not have gladly died to protect her from harm.

Her heart was tender and good, and if she heard of any persons who were ill or in trouble, she was not contented till she had done her utmost to relieve them. Her blooming countenance was radiant with smiles and animation, and she was beautiful, too, as she was amiable. The poets of Gracia used to liken her to a graceful sea-bird floating on the calm bosom of the deep, as, followed by her attendant maidens, as was her daily custom, she tripped across the flowery mead, or through the shady woods, or along the yellow sands, herself the fairest and most agile of them all!

The Princess and her youthful maids loved to pluck the sweet-scented flowers to make chaplets for their hair, or wreaths to twine round their sylph-like forms. At other times they would amuse themselves by dancing on the smooth sands, or they would plunge fearlessly into the water, and would sport like sea-nymphs in the clear bright waves within the coral reefs, while the rocks and adjacent woods rang with their joyous laughter.

The Princess also had a beautiful bower, where none but her own attendants dared intrude. It was formed of branches of red and white coral, beautifully polished and interlaced. The roof was covered with the long, thick leaves of the palmetto, and the outside walls were built of the long-enduring bamboo, so closely placed together that neither wind nor rain could penetrate; while the whole was shaded by a wide-spreading palm-tree, and surrounded by a grove of cocoa-nut and plantain-trees. In front, through an opening in the wood, the sands of the sea-sh.o.r.e and its fantastic-shaped rocks, and the blue ocean, glittering in the suns.h.i.+ne, could be seen.

Here the Princess Serena and her attendants used to retire during the heat of the day, to partake of their simple but delicious repasts of bread made from the quick-growing cariaca or the ca.s.sada root, the nutritive and luscious plantain, the heads of the c.o.c.karito-palm, and boiled pappaws, with sea-side grapes, and other fruits and vegetables too numerous to mention; or they would ply the distaff, or would make dresses of feathers and baskets of reeds, while they amused themselves with pleasant talk; and thus their days pa.s.sed innocently and happily away.

STORY SIX, CHAPTER TWO.

In the very deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean, directly under the Equator, Neptune, the Sovereign of the Seas, once held his regal court.

His palace was of vast dimensions, capable of holding all the Ocean Spirits, the rulers and guardians of the realms of water below, and of all the islands which adorn its surface. Its outside was composed of huge black rocks piled up like mountains, one upon another, and covered with dark ma.s.ses of seaweed, which, floating upward, appeared like a forest of trees, of a growth far more gigantic than the earth can produce, and yet it seemed but like lichens growing on the roof of a house in comparison with the size of the edifice. The inside was more magnificent than mortal eye has ever seen. There was one vast hall, pervaded by a green yet clear light, which came from above, and increased the grandeur and solemnity which reigned around. To say that the walls were of red coral and immense sh.e.l.ls, each of which was as large as many a vessel which floats on the ocean, while pearls of surpa.s.sing brilliancy and whiteness were interspersed among them, and that the roof was of crystal of gorgeous tinge, can in no way picture the surpa.s.sing magnificence of the structure. At one end was a lofty throne, proportioned to the size of the building, of jet-black rock, glittering with that gold which the toil of man had won from the bowels of the earth, but which his carelessness had lost in the stormy sea. It was surrounded by many thousand other thrones, the seats of Neptune's va.s.sal Spirits--his Governors, Tritons, and other attendants. It must be understood that, once upon a time, whatever may now be the case, every fish which swims, every insect which crawls in the sea, had its governor and king. The largest was the King of the Whales. He was a vast monster of dark form, whose dwelling was in the regions of icebergs and glaciers at the North Pole. The fiercest was the King of the Sharks; he had sharp teeth, and eyes full of malignancy and hatred to the human race. He was the most wicked of all the Spirits. The fastest and most beautiful was the King of the Dolphins; the most unwieldy the King of the Porpoises; the ugliest the King of the Cat-fish; and the tallest the King of the Big Sea Serpents--for they all partook somewhat of the forms of the fish over whom they were placed to govern. Their thrones, too, were of appropriate forms; some sat on huge sea-eggs, others on sh.e.l.ls. The King of the Whales sat on an iceberg, but the King of the Big Sea Serpents was obliged to twist himself in and out about the pillars of the hall to find room for his long body. It is impossible to describe their vast mysterious forms, shrouded as they were in their dark-green mantles of vapours and obscurity.

That portion of the Pacific Ocean in which the Island of Gracia is situated was ruled over by a sea spirit of the name of Borasco. As he was not the king of any particular fish (indeed, he was superior in power to most of them), his appearance was a mixture of many. His body was covered with scales, and from his back mighty wings projected, to aid him in his flight across the ocean, while his feet were like those of a seal; his eyes were large, fierce, and glowing; his mouth had large tusks, and on either side were black bunches, like the feelers of a walrus. On his head grew ma.s.ses of long hair, like seaweed, streaming in the wind; while his arms and hands had more the appearance of the claws of a sh.e.l.l-fish than of anything else; at the same time that his vast size, and the indistinctness which surrounded him, gave to his appearance a grandeur which partook more of the terrific than the hideous. Borasco had a palace which might vie in magnificence and beauty, though not in size, with that of Neptune. One day he sallied forth, and mounting his prancing steed, which was a huge wave with a foaming crest, he rode furiously off, as he was accustomed to do, over the ocean. The water roared and hissed, the mid wind howled, as, shouting loudly with a voice like thunder, onward he went in his fierce career; and these were the words he uttered:--

"I'm a wandering spirit where rolls the broad sea, For no bonds, for no bonds, can e'er fetter me: My steed is a wave, with a white crest of foam, Which gallantly bears me wherever I roam; Lashed to fury, he dashes the waters on high, As bounding he lifts his proud head to the sky.

Oh! no charger of earth can so rapidly flee, While no bonds, while no bonds, can e'er fetter me.

"I fly on the tempest while loud shrieks are heard, And more shrilly I cry than the roaming sea-bird: When rocks are resounding with ocean's loud roar, And forms are rebounding, pale waifs on the sh.o.r.e-- When barks are deserted to roam o'er the waves, And mortals are hurled unprepared to their graves-- Then, then is the time I shriek loudest with glee, And no bonds are so strong they can e'er fetter me.

"My hair, the thick mist or the wild-driving snow, All wildly floats round when the northern blasts blow; My breath's in the whirlwind, my voice in the clouds, And night, as a mantle, my stern visage shrouds.

The vivid fork'd lightnings which dart from mine eyes Flash fearfully over the dark low'ring skies: Oh! then my wild voice is heard shouting with glee, As I ride o'er the boundless and fathomless sea."

On, on he flew, terror before him, devastation in his rear; the footsteps of his steed, the dark furrows of the foaming waves; his track marked by the shattered wrecks of the hapless barks over which he pa.s.sed, till at length he reached the Island of Gracia, his strength exhausted and his fury a.s.suaged. He gazed, delighted, on its smooth yellow sands, sparkling in the beams of the sun, its cool and waving groves giving forth their rich perfumes, and resounding with the harmonious notes of their feathered denizens; its smiling hills, its green meadows, and the thousand beauties of the landscape before him.

The light spray, tinted with the varied hues of the rainbow, played round his mysterious form, as his steed, with a loud roar with echoed from rock to rock, receding towards the ocean, left him standing on the sh.o.r.e.

Wildly throwing his arms around, he shook the water from his robe, which, as it fell, appeared like the spray from some mighty cataract, and then, reclining beneath the shade of an overhanging rock, he stretched forth his huge limbs, and, calmed by the fragrant air and the tranquillity of the scene, he slept.

Tempted by the beauty of the evening, after the fierce storm which had raged all day, the Princess Serena and a troop of youthful maidens took their way to the sea-sh.o.r.e. For a time they sang and sported in exuberance of spirits; then they formed a circle and danced around their mistress; then they bound her hair with bright flowers, and decked her neck with softly-tinted sh.e.l.ls, and then, hand-in-hand, they ran towards the water; now they retired, and now advanced, uttering peals of laughter, as the bright waves rippled over their feet. At last one, more daring, rushed into the sea; others followed, and as they threw about the sparkling spray in mimic fight, the rocks and woods echoed with their merriment.

The sounds reached the ears of the sleeping Borasco. He awoke, and rising, listened, when, advancing from among the rocks which had hitherto concealed him, he suddenly appeared before the eyes of the astonished maidens. No sooner did they see the monster, than with shrieks of terror they fled into the woods, forgetting even the Princess--or, rather, they thought she was flying with them.

Instead of flying, however, she stood entranced with horror, her feet refusing to move, and her eyes fixed on the hideous being before her.

Borasco gazed at the Princess with deep admiration. Neither on the sea nor under the sea had he ever in all his wanderings beheld anything to be compared to her in beauty. Feelings totally strange and new to him rushed like a torrent into his bosom.

The purest and most exalted love took possession of his soul; horror, disgust, and loathing, were the feelings most powerful in the breast of the Princess as she beheld him. At length, forgetting the hideousness of his shape, and the natural repugnance she must have felt for him, he advanced towards her to address her. "Beautiful creature!" he exclaimed in a voice as loud as thunder--"What are you? Whence come you?" No sooner did he speak than the spell was broken, and with a cry of fear she fled away from him as fleetly as a startled fawn.

Her voice and action would have convinced an ordinary mortal that he had no hope of gaining her affections. Not so the Spirit of the Storm.

"Stay, sweet being! oh, stay and listen to me!" he repeated, but the words only hastened her flight. He gazed after her till she disappeared, and when he found that it was useless to follow, and that there was not the remotest chance of her returning, he sat himself down on a rock which hung over the sea to consider what he should do. As he sat, the water became perfectly calm as a gla.s.s mirror; and looking into it, after some minutes' deep meditation he beheld the reflection of his own monstrous form. He had been so long accustomed to look at Tritons, and other sea spirits as hideous as himself, that he was not aware how ugly he was. Now, with grief at his heart, he at once saw the difference between the Princess Serena and himself. His late exposure to the sun had not added to his beauty, for his hands and arms and the top of his head had become red, while the anguish he was suffering increased the wild expression of his countenance.

With good reason, he was at length very nearly giving way to despair.

"Alas! unhappy spirit that I am," he cried, "why did I look at that mortal maiden? Why do I long for what is beyond my reach? Why am I not content with the enjoyment proper to my own fierce nature? Alas! this new feeling overpowers me, and a delicate maiden has enslaved the mighty Borasco." While he was speaking a sound reached his ears. He knew it well, for it was the summons to Neptune's conclave. "Ah!" he exclaimed, "I will consult King Neptune, and ask his aid. If any one can help me, he can, to win the heart of that lovely damsel.

"And now my bold steed, with the white-flowing crest, Come hither, come hither, arouse thee from rest.

Oh! what courser like thee can so rapidly bound, When I mount thee to ride o'er the waters profound?

Then haste, my brave steed, again hie to me, And together once more we will range o'er the sea."

While he was uttering these words, a mighty wave rolled in towards the sh.o.r.e. Leaping on it, away he went over the ocean at a rapid rate, leaving in his track a line of glittering foam, till he reached the centre of the Atlantic, over the palace of Neptune--then down, down he descended, till he entered the gateway of its rocky halls.

STORY SIX, CHAPTER THREE.

King Neptune, in great state, sat on his throne; the Tritons stood before him, but the chief seats were empty. Waving his trident round his head, he spoke. The words were those which reached the ears of Borasco, then thousands of miles away:--

"Haste hither, wild Spirits, Who wandering roam The wide-rolling ocean, When covered with foam.

Abandon your fierce work Of death and dismay; Haste, fly o'er the billows, My mandate obey.

From where the north gales So ragingly blow, On whiten'd wing flying From frost and from snow; Ye, in the storm striving, To swell the loud blast, The helpless bark driving, While s.h.i.+vers the mast, When a shriek is heard sounding Mid ocean's wild roar, And the doom'd bark is grounding Upon the dark sh.o.r.e, Haste hither, Sea Spirits, I bid ye appear; Haste, haste, at my call; I summon ye here!"

Even while Neptune was speaking, troops of sea-monsters of every wonderful form, and of every colour, came rus.h.i.+ng into the hall, and having made their obeisance to him, took their seats on their respective thrones. In they came, till the edifice, vast as it was, was almost full of them. There were the King of the Whales, the King of the Sharks, the King of the Porpoises, and the King of the Dolphins, the King of the Cat-fish, and the King of the Big Sea Serpents; the Kings of Ice and Snow, of Tempests and Whirlpools, and there were the guardian spirits of every headland and bay, and of every island and river in the universe; so that it is not surprising that their number should have been so considerable. Neptune then inquired in a loud voice how each had been occupied since the last convocation.

"I," answered the King of the Whales, "have been engaged in protecting my subjects by hurling together large ma.s.ses of ice, and by crus.h.i.+ng the s.h.i.+ps which come to attack them, even to the very heart of my kingdom."

"And I," said the King of the Sharks, "have been engaged in sinking all the s.h.i.+ps I could meet, so that I might give to my subjects an abundance of the food they like best." The King of the Porpoises replied, that he had been teaching his subjects to keep in the deep sea out of harm's way; and the King of the Cat-fish said, he had advised his to make themselves as disagreeable as possible, so that no one would wish to catch them; while the tall monarch of the Big Sea Serpents observed that he had strictly enjoined his to keep out of sight altogether, which fully accounts, for so few of them having ever been seen. Among the Spirits there was one who, in beauty of form, surpa.s.sed them all, for it was almost that of a human being, but more grand and majestic. The Spirit rose and spoke:--

"I have, mighty sovereign, been engaged in watching over the island of which you have made me guardian. I found the women good and beautiful, and the men brave and hardy, true sons of the ocean, their barks roving to every distant clime, and bringing back the produce of each to their sea-girt sh.o.r.e."

"'Tis well, Britannia," said the sovereign of the ocean; "let them understand, that as long as they remain faithful to me--as long as they keep their fleets well manned, their sea-barks ready to repel any aggression--as long as they refuse to submit to the slightest interference of any foreign prince or potentate, Albion shall be my favoured isle, the land of peace and liberty."

When Neptune had ceased speaking, all the Kings of the Sea and Tritons signified their desire to support their sovereign's wishes. Neptune then looked round, and seeing Borasco's throne vacant, inquired what had become of him. Before any one could answer, the Spirit of the Storm entered the hall, and making a low obeisance, walked with a dejected air to his seat.

To the customary inquiry, Borasco informed his sovereign of all the storms which had blown, and the s.h.i.+pwrecks which had occurred.

"Now tell me, Borasco," asked the monarch, "why have you the downcast look I see you wear?"

Borasco replied, "Dread chief, I come to crave your aid for a cause in which all the power I possess I find of no avail. As I was lately wandering over the ocean, I reached the sh.o.r.es of a lovely island clothed with beautiful shrubs and trees and sweet-scented flowers, and canopied by skies of purest blue. Never have I seen a spot more beautiful; and yet it is but the setting of a precious jewel--a pearl of matchless price. That jewel is a lovely and youthful maiden, a princess, the daughter of the mortal sovereign of that island. As I slept, concealed beneath the rocks, she and her maidens, she outs.h.i.+ning them all, came to sport upon the sands. Their laughter, sweet as the murmuring of the breeze upon the summer waves, roused me from my slumber; but no sooner did I present myself before them, than they fled with shrieks of terror, fast as the fleet dolphin from the voracious shark. She alone remained behind. I gazed delighted. I endeavoured to approach her, to behold her nearer; but no sooner did I move, than, affrighted, she fled far away from me into the woods, where I could not follow. I endeavoured to shout to her, to entreat her to tarry, to listen to what I had to say; but my voice (it was somewhat loud, I confess) only made her fly the faster. When she and her attendants had disappeared, I sat me down on a rock, disconsolate, to consider the state of the case, when I by degrees began to suspect that she was frightened by the form I am doomed to wear, which I fear is somewhat more hideous than she is accustomed to see. I meditated still further, and at length I came to the conclusion that I am what human beings call desperately in love. Yes, dread Sovereign, the fierce Borasco is in love!"

On hearing this confession of Borasco, all the Kings of the Sea and Tritons lifted up their hands with surprise, and a smile of incredulity rested on their countenances, while a murmur ran through the hall, "Borasco in love! Borasco in love! oh, oh!" for no one would have guessed that he could have become a slave to the tender pa.s.sion. They smiled, too, at his only then having discovered his own ugliness, for, frightful as they were themselves, they all fancied that he was more so.

Britannia was the only spirit who compa.s.sionated him, and she pleaded his cause with Neptune so successfully, that the Monarch expressed his willingness to a.s.sist him, if means so to do could be found. "Tell me by what rules, in thy favoured island, youths manage to win the hearts of the maidens they love?" said Neptune, addressing Britannia.

The Spirit smiled and replied: "In the first place, the youths wear forms somewhat more attractive than that of Borasco; but as to rules, I can lay down none, so various are the means by which the hearts of maidens are won, and of such different materials do they appear to be made. Some seem to me to be composed of iron or adamant, some of gla.s.s, some of wax, some of lead, and some of stuff not more consistent than b.u.t.ter, while a few, I suspect, have no hearts at all. Sighs and timid looks attract some, laughter and bold admiration others, and gold has no little influence in affairs of that description; but the man who requires rules to make love has but small chance indeed."