Part 25 (1/2)
”In the calmest season of the year, the surf will hinder any such operation And you will also bear in , that landing could not be covered by the shi+ps' guns In fact, it is the landing parties would be in danger froht, as I propose, covering will be unnecessary You should be ashore in force before the Spaniards are aware of the intent”
”You are assuena is a city of the blind, that at this verythemselves e are and e intend”
”But if they feel theest,” cried the Baron impatiently, ”that very security will lull them”
”Perhaps But, then, they are secure Any attempt to land on this side is doomed to failure at the hands of Nature”
”Nevertheless, we htiness would not allow him to yield before his officers
”If you still choose to do so after what I have said, you are, of course, the person to decide But I do not lead er”
”If I co But Blood unceremoniously interrupted hied us on your behalf, it was as e and experience of this class of warfare as on account of our strength I have placed e and experience in this particular matter at your disposal I will add that I abandonedin sufficient strength at the time to force the entrance of the harbour, which is the only way into the city The strength which you now command is a that, the Spaniards will have tireat part of the wealth this city holds We ed ”If this is araid, that, of course, is a prime consideration It ith me But if you are concerned to abate the pride of Spain and plant the Lilies of France on the forts of this settleh for loomy eye smouldered as it considered the self-contained buccaneer
”But if I coo - to make the attempt?” he asked ”Answer me, monsieur, let us know once for all where we stand, and who commands this expedition”
”Positively, I find you tireso to M de Cussy, who sat there gnawing his lip, intensely uncomfortable ”I appeal to you, monsieur, to justify loomy abstraction He cleared his throat He was extremely nervous
”In viehat Captain Blood has submitted”
”Oh, to the devil with that!” snapped Rivarol ”It seems that I am followed by poltroons Look you, M le Capitaine, since you are afraid to undertake this thing, I will myself undertake it The weather is cal If I do so, I shall have proved you wrong, and I shall have a word to say to you to-enerous with you, sir” He waved his hand regally ”You have leave to go”
It was sheer obstinacy and empty pride that drove him, and he received the lesson he deserved The fleet stood in during the afternoon to within a mile of the coast, and under cover of darkness three hundred ro contingent having been pressed into the undertaking - were pulled away for the shore in the canoes, piraguas, and shi+ps' boats Rivarol's pride compelled him, however much he may have disliked the venture, to lead theht in the surf, and pounded into fragments before their occupants could extricate themselves The thunder of the breakers and the cries of the shi+pwrecked warned those who followed, and thereby saved theent orders they pulled away again out of danger, and stood about to pick up such survivors as contrived to battle towards theether with half-a-dozen boats stored with auns
The Baron went back to his flagshi+p an infuriated, but by no ent wisdom experience thrusts upon us - is not for such as M de Rivarol His anger es, but focussed chiefly upon Captain Blood In so he held the buccaneer chiefly responsible for thisfuriously what he should say to Captain Blood upon thethunder of guns Ehtcap and slippers, he beheld a sight that increased his unreasonable and unreasoning fury The four buccaneer shi+ps under canvas were going through extraordinary manoeuvre half a mile off the Boca Chica and little more than half a mile away from the remainder of the fleet, and fro each tiuarded that narrow entrance The fort was returning the fire vigorously and viciously But the buccaneers ti; then as they drew the Spaniards' fire, they swung away again not only taking care to be ever ets, but, further, to present no more than bow or stern to the fort, their masts in line, when the heaviest cannonades were to be expected
Gibbering and cursing, M de Rivarol stood there and watched this action, so presumptuously undertaken by Blood on his own responsibility The officers of the Victorieuse crowded round hiroup that he opened the sluices of his rage And M de Cussy hiht hi a proper satisfaction in the energy of the hed ”He understands his business, eh, this Captain Blood He'll plant the Lilies of France on that fort before breakfast”
The Baron swung upon hi ”He understands his business, eh? His business, let me tell you, M de Cussy, is to obey my orders, and I have not ordered this Par la Mordieu! When this is over I'll deal with him for his damned insubordination”
”Surely, M le Baron, he will have justified it if he succeeds”
”Justified it! Ah, parbleu! Can a soldier ever justify acting without orders?” He raved on furiously, his officers supporting him out of their detestation of Captain Blood
Meanwhile the fight wentbadly Yet for all theirpunishunwale of the Atropos had been haht her astern in the coach The Elizabeth was badly battered about the forecastle, and the Arabella's maintop had been shot ahilst' towards the end of that engageht with a shattered rudder, steering herself by sweeps
The absurd Baron's fierce eyes positively gleamed with satisfaction
”I pray Heaven they may sink all his infernal shi+ps!” he cried in his frenzy
But Heaven didn't hear him Scarcely had he spoken than there was a terrific explosion, and half the fort went up in fragments A lucky shot froazine
It may have been a couple of hours later, when Captain Blood, as spruce and cool as if he had just come from a levee, stepped upon the quarter-deck of the Victoriense, to confront M de Rivarol, still in bedgown and nightcap
”I have to report, M le Baron, that we are in possession of the fort on Boca Chica The standard of France is flying from what remains of its tower, and the way into the outer harbour is open to your fleet”
M de Rivarol was coh it choked hi his officers had been such that he could not continue as he had begun Yet his eyes were er
”You are fortunate, M Blood, that you succeeded,” he said ”It would have gone very ill with you had you failed Another tiood as to await my orders, lest you should afterwards lack the justification which your good fortune has procured you this ”
Blood slad of your orders now, General, for pursuing our advantage You realize that speed in striking is the first essential”
Rivarol was left gaping a er, he had considered nothing But he made a quick recovery ”To my cabin, if you please,” he co to lead the hen Blood arrested him
”With submission, my General, we shall be better here You behold there the scene of our co action It is spread before you like a oon, the country flanking it and the considerable city standing back froestion” He paused M de Rivarol looked at hi irony But the swarthy face was bland, the keen eyes steady
”Let us hear your suggestion,” he consented
Blood pointed out the fort at the mouth of the inner harbour, which was just barely visible above the waving palue of land He announced that its armament was less formidable than that of the outer fort, which they had reduced; but on the other hand, the passage was very much narrower than the Boca Chica, and before they could attempt to make it in any case, they must dispose of those defences He proposed that the French shi+ps should enter the outer harbour, and proceed at once to bombardment Meanwhile, he would land three hundred buccaneers and sooon, beyond the fragrant garden islands dense with richly bearing fruit-trees, and proceed simultaneously to storm the fort in the rear Thus beset on both sides at once, and deer outer fort, he did not think the Spaniards would offer a very long resistance Then it would be for M de Rivarol to garrison the fort, whilst Captain Blood would sweep on with his men, and seize the Church of Nuestra Senora de la Poupa, plainly visible on its hill immediately eastward of the town Not only did that ee, but it coena to the interior, and once it were held there would be no further question of the Spaniards atte to remove the wealth of the city
That to M de Rivarol was - as Captain Blood had judged that it would be - the crowning argument Supercilious until that moment, and disposed for his own pride's sake to treat the buccaneer's suggestions with cavalier criticised He became alert and brisk, went so far as tolerantly to coht be taken upon it at once
It is not necessary to follow that action step by step Blunders on the part of the Frenchof their shi+ps led to the sinking of two of theunfire But by evening, owing largely to the irresistible fury hich the buccaneers stormed the place from the landward side, the fort had surrendered, and before dusk Blood and his men with some ordnance hauled thither by hts of Nuestra Senora de la Poupa
At noon on the morrow, shorn of defences and threatened with boena sent offers of surrender to M de Rivarol
Swollen with pride by a victory for which he took the entire credit to himself, the Baron dictated his terms He demanded that all public effects and office accounts be delivered up; that the oods held by them for their correspondents; the inhabitants could choose whether they would remain in the city or depart; but those ent must first deliver up all their property, and those who elected to remain ious houses and churches should be spared, but they must render accounts of all reed, having no choice in the matter, and on the next day, which was the 5th of April, M de Rivarol entered the city and proclai M de Cussy its Governor Thereafter he proceeded to the Cathedral, where very properly a Te Deurace, whereafter M de Rivarol proceeded to devour the city The only detail in which the French conquest of Cartagena differed fro raid was that under the severest penalties no soldier was to enter the house of any inhabitant But this apparent respect for the persons and property of the conquered was based in reality upon M de Rivarol's anxiety lest a doubloon should be abstracted fro into the treasury opened by the Baron in the naolden stream had ceased, he removed all restrictions and left the city in prey to his e it of that part of their property which the inhabitants who became French subjects had been assured should remain inviolate The plunder was enormous In the course of four days over a hundred old went out of the city and down to the boats waiting at the beach to convey the treasure aboard the shi+ps
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE HONOUR OF M DE RIVAROL
During the capitulation and for soreater portion of his buccaneers had been at their post on the heights of Nuestra Senora de la Poupa, utterly in ignorance of as taking place Blood, although the man chiefly, if not solely, responsible for the swift reduction of the city, which was proving a veritable treasure-house, was not even shown the consideration of being called to the council of officers which with M de Rivarol deterht that at another time Captain Blood would not have borne for a moment But at present, in his odd frame of mind, and its divorcement from piracy, he was content to smile his utter contempt of the French General Not so, however, his captains, and still less his st them for a while, to flaena It was only by undertaking to voice their grievance to the Baron that their captain was able for the moment to pacify them That done, he went at once in quest of M de Rivarol
He found him in the offices which the Baron had set up in the toith a staff of clerks to register the treasure brought in and to cast up the surrendered account-books, with a view to ascertaining precisely ere the su ledgers, like a city ures to make sure that all was correct to the last peso A choice occupation this for the General of the King's Armies by Sea and Land He looked up irritated by the interruption which Captain Blood's advent occasioned
”M le Baron,” the latter greeted him ”I must speak frankly; and you must suffer it My men are on the point of mutiny”
M de Rivarol considered him with a faint lift of the eyebrows
”Captain Blood, I, too, will speak frankly; and you, too, must suffer it If there is a mutiny, you and your captains shall be held personally responsible Thewith iven you clearly to understand fro accepted service under me Your proper apprehension of that fact will save the waste of a deal of words”