The Buccaneer Chief: A Romance of the Spanish Main

CHAPTER XI
FRANCE, FAREWELL!

The Major had scarce landed at Sainte Marguerite, ere everything were in commotion in the fort.

On leaving the isle on the previous evening, the governor had stated that he was going on a journey, and would be absent a week, perhaps two.

The Lieutenant, intrusted with the command of the fort during his absence, eagerly hastened to meet him, curious to learn the motive for such a speedy return.

The Major at first replied evasively, that news he had received on landing on the mainland, had necessitated the immediate interruption of his journey; and, while conversing thus, he entered the fort and proceeded to his apartments, followed by the Lieutenant whom he had invited to accompany him.

"Sir," he said to him so soon as they were alone, "you will immediately choose from the garrison ten resolute men; and proceed with them on board the fishing vessel I noticed at anchor when I entered the fort. The missive I entrust to you is most important, and if you carry it out thoroughly, may have important results for you; it must be managed with the most profound secrecy, however, for it is a secret of state."

The Lieutenant bowed gratefully, evidently flattered at the confidence his chief placed in him.

The Major continued.

"You will land on the coast a little below Antibes, and keep the boat, which you will use for your return; you will manage so as not to enter the town till nightfall, without attracting any attention, you will lodge your men as best you can without arousing suspicions, but so as to have them under hand at any moment. Tomorrow morning at ten o'clock, you will present yourself to the town commandant, hand him a letter I shall give you, and place yourself at his disposal. Have you understood me thoroughly, sir?"

"Perfectly, Mr. Governor."

"Before all, I recommend you the most utter discretion; remember that your fortune probably depends on the success of the mission."

"I will obey you, Major, and I hope that you will only have compliments to pay me on my return."

"I trust so too, sir, but make haste, for you must be gone in half an hour. During your preparations I will write the letter; it will be ready when you come to take leave again."

The lieutenant, after bowing respectfully, retired with a joyous heart, not having the slightest suspicion of the treachery meditated by his chief, and went off at full speed to make all the preparations for his departure.

The Major had under his orders a garrison of fifty men, commanded by three officers, a captain and two lieutenants.

This captain, the next in rank to him, would doubtless have greatly impeded the success of the bold stroke he meditated, owing to the pretext he would have been obliged to invent, in order to account for the want of a release in writing for the Count.

By sending him away, the Major had only to deal with two subalterns, ranking too low in the military scale to venture to make observations, or hesitate to accomplish his orders, the more so, because during the ten or twelve years M. de l'Oursière had commanded Fort Sainte Marguerite, nothing in his conduct had led to the slightest painful suspicions about his honour.

Forced by circumstances to betray his duty and quit his native land forever, which he knew he should never see again after this audacious scheme, the Major wished to leave nothing to chance, but turn his lost position to the greatest possible advantage. He hoped that the measures he had taken would protect him from any danger, when his treachery was eventually discovered.

But, through a very laudable feeling of justice, especially on the part of such a man and under such circumstances, the Major desired alone to bear the burden of his infamous conduct and not to attract suspicion of complicity on his poor officers, whom duty compelled to obey him, in what they considered a portion of their military service.

Hence he wrote to the governor of Antibes a very circumstantial letter, in which he narrated, without the slightest omission, the treason he meditated, and which would be carried out at the time when the governor read the strange missive; he explained the motives that obliged him to act as he was doing, while taking on himself all the responsibility of such a deed, and acquitting his officers and soldiers, not only of all co-operation, but of all cognisance, even indirect, of his project.

These duties scrupulously accomplished – for it was impossible for the governor to be deceived as to the frankness of his confession, or to doubt them for a moment – the Major folded the letter, sealed it carefully, and laid it on the table while awaiting the return of his second in command.

Now, as his vessels were burnt, M. de l'Oursière could no longer retreat; he must push on and succeed; the certainty of certain ruin if his scheme were foiled, removed his last doubts, and restored him all the necessary calmness to act with the coolness demanded by the strange circumstances in which he found himself placed.

The Captain entered.

"Well?" the Major asked him.

"I am ready to start, Mr. Governor; my soldiers are already on board the fishing boat, and we shall have left the island in ten minutes."

"Here is the letter you have to deliver into the hands of the Governor of Antibes, sir; remember my instructions."

"I will obey them in every point."

"In that case, Heaven guard you! and good-bye," the Major said, as he rose.

The officer saluted, and left the room.

The Major watched through the open window of his room; he saw him leave the fort, go down to the shore, and on board the fishing vessel; the sail was hoisted, and ere long the boat started, slightly heeling over under the power of the breeze.

"Ough!" said the Major, closing the window, with a sigh of relief – "that's one, now for the other."

But, before aught else, the old officer shut himself up in his room, burnt certain papers, pocketed others, put some clothes in a small valise, as he did not wish to take all belonging to him, through fear of arousing suspicions, and carefully wrapping up in his cloak a small and very heavy iron casket, which, doubtless, contained his ready money, he assured himself by a glance around that everything was in order, opened the door again, and called.

A soldier appeared.

"Beg Mess. de Castaix and de Mircey to come here," he said, "as I wish to speak to them."

They speedily arrived, greatly puzzled at this unexpected interview, for usually the Governor talked but little with his officers.

"Gentlemen," he said to them, after returning their salute, "an order from the King caused me to return here in all haste. I have to take our prisoner, M. de Barmont, to Antibes, where your Captain has preceded me with a sufficient escort to prevent any attempt at escape on the part of the prisoner. I have acted thus because it is the King's good pleasure that this transference of the Count from one prison to another may have the appearance of a liberation, and I shall explain it in that sense to the prisoner, in order that he may have no suspicion of the new orders I have received. Until my return, which will be in two days at the least, you, Monsieur de Castaix, as senior officer, will assume the command of the fortress. I am pleased to believe, gentlemen, that I shall only have to praise the aptitude you will display in performing your duties during my absence."

The two officers bowed: accustomed to the Cardinal's tortuous and mysterious policy, the Major's remarks did not at all surprise them, for, although His Eminence was dead, the event had not occurred so long that the King should have in any way modified his sullen mode of governing.

"Be kind enough to give orders for the prisoner to be brought into my presence, while I inform him of his liberation," he added, with a mocking smile, whose strange meaning the officers did not comprehend. "You will have all the effects belonging to him placed in the boat of the smuggling lugger on board which I came back. Go, gentlemen."

The officers withdrew.

The Count was greatly surprised when La Grenade opened the door of his cell, and begged him to follow him, as the Governor wished to speak with the prisoner.

He fancied the Major on the road to Paris, as had been arranged between them on the previous evening, and did not at all understand his presence at the fort after the solemn promise he had made.

Another thing also caused him great surprise – ever since he had been a prisoner at Saint Marguerite the Governor had not once sent for him; on the contrary, he had always put himself out of the way by visiting his cell.

But the thing that completely routed his ideas was La Grenade's recommendation to him, to place all his belongings in a trunk, and take the key.

"Why this most unnecessary precaution?" the Count asked him.

"No one ever knows what may happen, sir," the gaoler replied, cunningly; "it is as well to take precautions; and stay, if I were you I would put on my hat and take my cloak."

And while speaking thus, the soldier actively helped him to pack his trunk.

"There, that's done," he said, with a grin of satisfaction, when the Count had taken out the key; "here are your hat and cloak."

"My hat, if you like," the young man remarked, laughingly, "but why my cloak? I run no risk of catching a pleurisy in my short walk to the Governor's presence."

"Will you not take it?"

"Certainly not."

"Then I will; you'll see you will want it."

The young gentleman shrugged his shoulders, without replying, and they left the room, the door of which the gaoler did not take the trouble to lock after him.

The Major was walking up and down his room while awaiting the prisoner. La Grenade showed him in, laid the cloak on a chair, and withdrew.

"Ah, ah!" said the Major, with a laugh – "I see that you suspected something."

"I, Mr. Governor? What was it, if you please?"

"Zounds! you appear to be dressed as if for a journey."

"It is that ass of La Grenade, who, I know not for what reason, obliged me to put on my hat, and insisted on bringing my cloak here."

"He was right."

"How so?"

"My lord, I have the honour to inform you that you are a free man."

"I free!" the Count exclaimed, turning pale with joy and emotion.

"The King has deigned to sign your liberation, and I received the orders on landing at Antibes."

"At last!" the Count burst forth, but then immediately recovered himself. "Can you show me the order, sir?"

"Excuse me, my lord, that is forbidden."

"Ah! For what reason?"

"It is a general precaution, sir."

"In that case I will not press it: at least, you are permitted to tell me at whose request my liberty was granted me?"

"I see no objection to that, sir – it was at the request of the Duc de Bellegarde."

"The dear Duke! – a real friend!" the Count cried, in great emotion.

The Major, with the utmost coolness, handed him a pen, and pointed to a blank space in the register.

"Will you be kind enough, sir, to sign this register?"

The Count hurriedly perused it, and saw that it was a species of certificate of the honourable way he had been treated during the period of his detention. He signed.

"Now, sir, as I am free, for I presume I am so – " "Free as a bird, my lord."

"In that case I can retire. I know not why, but during the last instant these thick, gloomy walls, seem to stifle me, and I shall not breathe at my ease till I feel myself in the open air."

"I understand that, sir. I have made every preparation, and we will embark whenever you please."

"We?" the Count asked, in surprise.

"Yes, my lord, I shall accompany you."

"For what reason, may I ask?"

"To do you honour, sir – for no other reason."

"Very good," he said, thoughtfully; "let us go, then; but I have some traps here."

"They are already on board: come, sir."

The Major took up his valise and casket, and left the room, followed by the Count.

"Did I not tell you you would want your cloak?"

La Grenade said to M. de Barmont, with a bow, as he passed – "Pleasant voyage to you, sir, and good luck."

They went down to the waterside. During the walk, which was not very long, the Count's brow became more and more clouded; he fancied he could notice a certain sorrow on the faces of the officers and soldiers who were watching his departure – they whispered together, and pointed to the Count in anything but a reassuring way, and it gave him much cause for anxiety.

Every now and then he took a side-glance at the Major, but he appeared calm, and had a smile on his face.

They at length reached the boat, and the Major stepped aside to let the Count get into it first.

As soon as they were both in, the boat was pushed off. During the whole passage from the shore to the lugger the Count and the Major remained silent.

At length they came along side the little vessel, a rope was thrown to them, and they went up the side.

The yawl was immediately hauled up, all sail was set, and the lugger stood out to sea.

"Ah!" the Count exclaimed on perceiving Michael, "You are here, then I am saved!"

"I hope so," the latter replied; "but come, my lord, we have matters to discuss."

They went down into the cabin, followed by the Major.

"There, now we can talk, Captain – the first thing is to settle our accounts."

"Our accounts?" M. de Barmont repeated, in surprise.

"Yes, let us proceed regularly. You promised this gentleman 50,000 livres?"

"Yes, I did."

"And you authorize me to give them to him?"

"Certainly."

"Good; in that case he shall have them." Then, turning to the Major – "You have scrupulously kept your promises, and we will keep ours as loyally. Here, in the first place, is your diamond, which I give you back: I will hand you over the money in a moment. I suppose you no more wish to remain in France than we do – eh?"

"I do not wish it the least in the world," the Major replied, delighted at having regained possession of his diamond.

"Where would you like to be landed? Will England suit you, or do you prefer Italy?"

"Well, I do not exactly know."

"Do you like Spain better? 'Tis all the same to me."

"Why not Portugal?"

"Done for Portugal. We will drop you there in passing."

The Count had listened with growing surprise to this conversation, which was incomprehensible to him.

"What is the meaning of all this?" he at length asked.

"It means, Captain," Michael distinctly answered, "that the King has not signed the pardon – that you are a prisoner, and would probably have remained so all your life had not this gentleman, luckily for you, consented to open the door."

"Sir!" the Count exclaimed, making a movement toward the Major.

Michael stopped him.

"Do not be in a hurry to thank him," he said – "wait till he has told you what has occurred, and in what way he found himself obliged to set you at liberty, when he would probably have preferred not to do so."

"Come, come!" said the Count, stamping his foot passionately – "Explain yourself! I understand nothing of all this. I wish to know everything – everything, I tell you!"

"This man will tell you it, Captain; but he is afraid at present of the consequences of his confession, and that is why he hesitates to make it."

M. de Barmont smiled disdainfully.

"This man is beneath my contempt," he said; "whatever he may say I will not take the slightest vengeance on him – he is pardoned beforehand, I pledge him my word as a gentleman."

"Now speak, Major," said Michael; "during that time I will go on deck again with Skipper Nicaud, or, if you prefer it, Bowline, who has played his part remarkably well throughout the affair."

Michael left the cabin, and the two men remained alone.

The Major understood that it was better to make a clean breast of it: hence he told the Count, without any equivocation, the full details of his treachery, and in what manner Michael had compelled him to save him, when, on the contrary, he was paid to ruin him.

Although the name of the Duc de Peñaflor had not once been mentioned during the Major's narration, the Count divined that it was he alone who had dealt him all the blows he had felt so severely during the last eighteen months; however great his resolution might be, this depth of hatred, this Machiavellian vengeance terrified him; but in this extremely detailed narrative one point seemed to him obscure, and that was, how Michael had discovered the final machinations of his enemies, and done so opportunely enough to be able to foil them.

All the questions the Count asked on this head the Major was unable to answer, for he was ignorant.

"Well," asked the sailor, suddenly entering the cabin, "are you now informed, Captain?"

"Yes," the latter replied, with a certain tinge of sadness, "except on one point."

"What is it, Captain?"

"I should like to know in what manner you detected this cleverly contrived plot."

"Very simply, Captain, and I will tell you the whole affair in a couple of words. Bowline and I, without the Major suspecting it, followed him carefully into the ruins, while cautiously avoiding being seen; in this way no part of his conversation with the stranger escaped us. When the Major handed him the papers, and the stranger retired, I jumped at his throat, and, with Bowline's help, took the papers from him – "

"Where are these papers?" the Count interrupted him eagerly.

"I will give them to you, Captain."

"Thanks, Michael; now go on."

"Well, my story's finished; I gagged him to prevent him calling out, and after tying him up like a plug of tobacco to stop him running after us, I left him there and went away."

"What, you went away, Michael, leaving the man thus gagged and bound on a desert isle?"

"What would you have had me do with him, Captain?"

"Oh, perhaps it would have been better to kill him, than leave him exposed to such a horrible punishment."

"He had been so precious tender to you, hadn't he, Captain? Stuff! Pity for such a ferocious brute would be madness on your part; besides, the fiend always protects his creatures, you may be sure, and I am certain that he has escaped."

"How so?"

"Hang it, he didn't swim off to Saint Honorat; his people were probably concealed somewhere: tired of not seeing him return, they will have set out to seek him, and picked him up where I put him to bed; he will probably have got off with gnawing the bit for two or three hours."

"Well, that is possible, Michael, and even probable. Where are you taking us?"

"Zounds, you are the commander here, Captain; we will go wherever you please."

"I will tell you, but first let us land the Major, for I fancy he wishes to be free of our company as much as we do of his."

At this moment Bowline's voice was heard.

"Hilloh, Michael," he shouted, "we have a large vessel to windward."

"Confusion!" said the sailor, "Has she hoisted her colours?"

"Yes; she is a Norwegian."

"That will be a good opportunity for you, Major," said the Count.

"Eh, helmsman," Michael shouted, without awaiting the Major's answer, "steer down to the Norwegian."

The Major considered it useless to protest.

Two hours later the vessels were within speaking distance: the stranger was bound for Helsingfors, and the captain consented to take the passenger offered him.

The Major was consequently transported on board, with everything belonging to him.

"Now, Captain," said Michael, when the boat had returned, "where shall we steer?"

"Let us go to the islands," the Count answered sadly, "henceforth we shall only find a shelter there and taking a last glance at the coast of France, whose outline was beginning to fade away in the distant horizon," he muttered, with a sigh, and concealing his face sorrowfully in his hands, "Farewell, France!"

In these two words was exhaled the last human feeling that remained at the bottom of the heart of this man who had been so tried by adversity, and who, vanquished by despair, was going to ask of the new world the vengeance which the old world so obstinately refused him.

CHAPTER XII
THE BEGINNING OF THE ADVENTURE

The seventeenth century was a period of transition between the middle ages, that were exhaling their last sigh, and the modern era, which the great thinkers of the eighteenth century were destined to constitute so splendidly.

Under the repeated blows of the implacable Cardinal de Richelieu, that gloomy filler of the unity of the despotic power of kings, an immense reaction had been effected in ideas. It was a silent reaction, that from the outset sapped the minister's work, and he was far from suspecting its causes or power. It was more especially in the latter half of the seventeenth century that the world offered a strange spectacle.

At that period, the Spaniards, who were possessors, by the right of force, of the greater part of America, where they had multiplied colonies, were masters of the sea which the celebrated "broom of Holland" had not yet swept. The English navy was only beginning to be formed, and, in spite of the continuous efforts of Richelieu, the French navy was not in existence.

Suddenly several adventurers sprang up, no one knew whence, who, alone, castaways of civilization, men of all classes, from the highest to the most humble, belonging to all nations, but chiefly to the French, perched themselves like vultures on an imperceptible islet in the Atlantic, and undertook to contend against the Spanish power, after declaring a merciless war on their private authority. Attacking the Spanish fleet with unheard-of audacity, and, like a gadfly fastened to a lion's flank, holding in check the Spanish Colossus, they compelled it to treat with them on equal terms, with no other help but their courage and their energetic will.

In a few years their incredible exploits and audacious coups de main inspired the Spaniards with such terror, and acquired for themselves such a great and merited reputation, that the disinherited of fortune, the seekers of adventures, flocked from all parts of the world to the island that served them as a refuge, and their number was so enormously augmented, that they almost succeeded in forming themselves into a nationality by the sole force of their will, and their boldness. Let us say in a few words, who these men were, and what was the origin of their strange fortune.

For this purpose we must return to the Spaniards.

The latter, after their immense discoveries in the New World, had obtained from Pope Alexander VI. a bull which conceded to them the exclusive possession of the two Americas.

Supported by this bull, and considering themselves the sole owners of the New World, the Spaniards tried to keep all other nations away from it, and began to treat as corsairs all the vessels they came across between the two tropics.

Their maritime power, and the important part they played at that time on the American continent did not leave the governments the power of protesting, as they would have desired, against this odious tyranny.

Then it happened that English and French outfitters, excited by the thirst of gain, and paying no heed to the Spanish pretensions, equipped vessels which they dispatched to the so-coveted rich regions, to cut off the Spanish transports, plunder the American coast, and fire the town.

Treated as pirates, these bold sailors frankly accepted the position offered them, committed awful excesses wherever they landed, carried off rich spoil, and despising the law of nations, and not caring whether the Spaniards were at war or not with the countries to which they belonged, they attacked them wherever they met them.

The Spaniards, entirely engaged with rich possessions in Mexico, Peru, and generally on the Continent, which were mines of inexhaustible wealth for them, had committed the fault of neglecting the Antilles, which stretch from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of Maracaibo, and only established colonies in the four large islands of that archipelago.

Hidden in bays behind the windings of the coast, the adventurers dashed suddenly at the Spanish vessels, carried them by boarding, and then returned ashore to share the plunder.

The Spaniards, in spite of the great number of their vessels, and the active watch they kept up, could no longer traverse the Caribbean Sea, which the adventurers had selected as the scene of their exploits, without running the risk of obstinate engagements with men, whom the smallness and lightness of their vessels rendered almost intangible.

This wandering life possessed such charms for the adventurers, who had assumed the characteristic name of filibusters or freebooters, that for a long time the idea did not occur to them of forming a permanent settlement among the islands, which they employed as a temporary retreat.

Things were in this state when, in 1625, a cadet of Normandy, of the name of d'Esnambuc, to whom the law of entail left no hope of fortune, except what he could acquire by his industry or courage, fitted out at Dieppe a brigantine of about seventy tons, on board which he placed four guns and forty resolute men, and set out to chase the Spaniards and try to enrich himself by some good prize.

On arriving at the Caymans, small islands situated between Cuba and Jamaica, he suddenly came across the track of a Spanish vessel bearing thirty-five guns and a crew of three hundred and fifty men; it was a critical situation for the corsair.

D'Esnambuc, without giving the Spaniards time to look about them, steered down and attacked them. The action lasted for three hours with extraordinary obstinacy; the Dieppois defended themselves so well, that the Spaniards despairing of conquest and having lost one-half their crew, were the first to decline fighting, and shamefully fled from the small vessel.

Still, the latter had suffered severely, and could be hardly kept above water, ten men had been killed, and the rest of the crew, being covered with wounds, were not worth much more.

As the isle of Saint Kitts was no great distance off, d'Esnambuc reached it with much difficulty, and took refuge there to careen his vessel, and cure his wounded. Then calculating, that, for the success of his future expeditions, he required a sure retreat, he resolved to establish himself on this island.

St. Kitts, which the Caribs called Liamuiga, is situated in 17 to 18 degrees N. latitude and 65 W. longitude. It is 23 leagues W.N.W. of Antigua, and about 3 leagues to the N.W. of Guadeloupe, and is one of the Caribbean Islands.

The general aspect of this island is remarkably beautiful, it is commanded by Mount Misery, an extinct volcano, three thousand five hundred feet high, which occupies the whole northwest part, and gradually descends in lower ranges, till it dies away on the South in the plains of the Basse terre.

The barrenness of the mountains forms a striking contrast with the fertility of the plains.

The valleys display a really extraordinary wealth of vegetation, while the mountains only offer to the eye a confused chaos of broken rocks, whose interstices are filled up with a clayey matter that checks all vegetation.

Water is rare, and of a bad quality, for the few streams that descend from Mount Misery are strongly impregnated with saline particles, to which strangers find a difficulty in growing accustomed.

But a precious thing for the filibusters, Saint Kitts possesses two magnificent ports, well sheltered and easy of defence, and its coasts are serrated with deep bays, where, in case of danger, their light vessels would easily find a shelter.

D'Esnambuc, on landing, found several refugee Frenchmen who lived on good terms with the Caribs, and who not only received him with open arms, but joined him and selected him as their leader.

By a singular chance, on the same day that the Dieppois landed at St. Kitts, English freebooters commanded by Captain Warner, who had also suffered in an engagement with the Spaniards, took refuge at another point in it.

The corsairs of the two nations who could not be separated by any idea of conquest, agriculture, or commerce, and who pursued the same object, fighting the Spaniards, and establishing a refuge against the common enemy, easily came to an understanding; then, after dividing the island, they settled down side by side, and lived for a long time on excellent terms, which nothing disturbed.

On one occasion they even combined their arms against the Caribs, who, alarmed by the progress of their new settlement, attempted to expel them.

The filibusters made a horrible carnage among the Indians, and forced them to implore for mercy.

A few months after, Warner and d'Esnambuc put out to sea again; the latter proceeded to Paris, the former to London, each for the purpose of soliciting the protection of his government for the rising colony.

As usual, these men, who at the beginning had only sought a temporary refuge, now felt a desire to see the development of a settlement founded by themselves, and which in a short time had assumed a real importance.

Cardinal de Richelieu, ever disposed to favour projects tending to augment the foreign power of France, received the filibuster with the greatest distinction, entered into his views, and formed a company, called "The Company of the Islands," in order to promote the interests of the colony.

The capital was 45,000 livres, of which Richelieu subscribed for his part 10,000.

D'Esnambuc was invested with the supreme command.

Among the claims stipulated in his commission there is one which we must quote, owing to its strangeness, for it imposed on white men in America a temporary slavery harsher even than that of the Negro.

This is the clause, whose sinister consequences we shall see developed during the course of this story.

"No labourer intended for the colony will be allowed to embark, unless he engages to remain for three years in the service of the company, which will have the right to employ him on any task it thinks proper, without granting him the right to complain or break the contract entered into by him."

These labourers were called Engagés or "thirty-six monthers," a polite way of getting rid of the word slave.

Captain Warner, who had been more highly favoured, returned with a large body of colonists. Still the good understanding was kept up for some time between the two nations; but the English took advantage of the weakness of the French, who could not oppose their usurpations, to encroach on their rights, and formed a fresh settlement at Nevis, the next island to St. Kitts.