Part 3 (1/2)
”You seeentlemen,” he observed, with a courteous tone, in pure Romaic ”Unfortunately, I do not enjoy the same happiness Will you inform me where it e met?”
”Pardon, sir, for our rudeness,” answered one of the three, rather abashed ”Weto recollect where we had seen you”
”It is not impossible that you may have met me before, if you have been in Italy, in which country I have resided for some years; or lately in Sicily,” answered the Greek ”In the fair city of Valetta you could not have seen o from the last-mentioned island, and in our native Greece, I have not been since the days ofthither”
”Then, clearly, we are mistaken,” replied another of the three ”We, ourselves, arrived here only yesterday froers Ao, our vessel was boarded by a rascally pirate, manned, too, by our own country we possessed, which they could carry off, and we fully believe they would have sunk the shi+p, and ht, and made them sheer off before they had completed their work”
”I dare say they would,” replied the Greek, quietly ”Such gentry, I have heard, generally consider that the only safe plan of avoiding detection, and the troublesoreeable result, is to stop the mouths of those they plunder beneath the waves, lest they should afterwards tell inconvenient tales of theht you had escaped, they would take very good care another time not to commit such a blunder”
”Why, it was certainly from no leniency on the part of the villains that ere not drowned, for they had bored holes in our shi+p's bottoht we should have sunk at once; but, fortunately, a fresh breeze brought up the side of us before ent down, and her people stopped the leak, and saw us safely into port”
”I regret to hear this account you give ratulate you on your narrow escape,--I enerality of people who fall into the hands of those gentry, I should think I was in hopes that our countryle to throw off the foul Turkish yoke, had abandoned all their reat cause against the common enemy I, too, am personally interested; as I am about to embark on board some merchant vessel for the East and may fare as badly as you have done, if not worse Do you know any particulars of the pirate who attacked you? I should like to learn all about him, that we may, if possible, avoid the vessel if we see her at a distance”
”It was dark when she boarded us, so that we had not an opportunity of scrutinising her near,” answered the person addressed, as evidently, by his costume and appearance, a Greek er men with him were his sons ”Our misfortune happened in this way We sailed, you antine froe was performed in safety; but when soo, we lay becalmed the whole day Our captain and the es they call their saints, for a breeze; and, at last, it came; but to prove what sort of characters their saints are, at the sa, of a very rakish look, stealing round the east end of the island The stranger brought the wind up with her, and, as she neared us, the captain, who had been eyeing her earnestly, grew into a state of great trepidation, and began to pray harder than ever; but this ti his hands, and beat his breast, and said that the stranger had a very suspicious look, and that he did not like it at all After sta his hair for some tiht hi to escape froht as well try to outstrip the fleet hunter The stranger ca away froed to set all the sail the vessel could carry, and, with the wind right aft, we began to glide through the water On, however, caet away, he did not intend that we should do so, and all of a sudden he yawed to port, and let fly a bow chaser right at us; the shot did not hit us, but it frightened our captain excessively-- for it flew directly over our heads I verily believe, if we had not stopped hi, and waited patiently to be robbed and ed hi The breeze freshened, and we held on, and, though the stranger still continued to overhaul us, he did not co dark; and as there was noour wind, to slip away fro hit till darkness had coain yawing, let fly another shot at us; though his gunnery was not particularly good--for he againthe Neapolitanlike madmen; they leaped and jumped, and twisted and turned, and tore their hair, and prayed and swore, all in the same breath They prayed for themselves, and swore at their enemies, and at their own hard fate should they be taken; for they all had a venture on board, I believe
Though two shots had missed, it was not to be expected that all should have such ill-luck, and accordingly, when the brig yawed a third time and fired, down caht before, when they were not hit, it must be supposed that they were now in a complete paroxysm of terror; their first impulse was to let fly all the tacks and sheets, and to jam down the helm, so as to let the vessel fly up into the wind; their next was to rush below to put on their best clothes, and the very little ain at praying and beating their breasts
Cowardly fools that they were; had they held on likeplundered at all In ten minutes after the last shot had created such confusion on board, a boat pulled alongside, and a dozen fellows in Greek dresses jumped over the bulwarks down upon our decks We three, nified as Turks, and as all the creere below, there was not the slightest show of resistance Our countrymen--for such I am sorry to say they were--seemed inclined to be civil to us, but vowed they would punish the Neapolitans for an plundering the vessel; and hauling out the master from his berth, into which he had crept, they htening his wits up every now and then with a rope's end How the poor fellow did howl! but he deserved it; for he was an arrant coward The leader of the pirates who boarded us was a very polite young man: he told us, that he should be sorry to be under the necessity of cutting our throats, or of otherwise sending us out of the world; but that he was afraid he should be compelled to do so, except ould consent to come on board his vessel, where he would make us take the vow of secrecy, and re-land us in Greece He told us that he was in earnest, and would give us till the last moment to consider on the subject before he quitted the vessel By this we concluded that he intended to antine
It is very extraordinary, and I hope that you will pardonreseer, and it was this circumstance that first attracted our attention to you”
The Greek stranger who had been standing against the wall, with his ar this narrative, at different parts indulging in a slight sht
”An extraordinary coincidence as you say, h I confess that I would rather not bear so striking a reseentleht be unpleasant; and I trust that no relative of er brother nor cousin, has turned his hand to so disreputable an occupation Men of the first families, it is true, have become pirates, especially in these disordered tiainst their natural enemies, the Turks or Moors I cannot solve the o on with it”
”Before I say another word, I must entreat your pardon for the remark I just made,” said the Greek merchant; ”I was compelled to do so to account for our apparent rudeness”
”Oh, certainly, er, ”I pardon you with allthat you will not repeat the observation to any one else The consequences you know reeable suspicions in men's minds as to the rectitude of my character; but pray continue your tale”
It h there were numbers of people within earshot, as this conversation was carried on in the Romaic, none of theer friend, as it would certainly have drawn their attention towards hihtest shade of suspicion thrown on him, is sufficient to blacken his character to the darkest tint
The Greek rubbed his red cap off and on his head two or three tihten his recollection, and then continued--
”While the pirates were ransacking below, their vessel ran alongside, and our decks were soon croith a cut-throat set of felloho speedily joined their co they considered of value to their own shi+p It is extraordinary hat rapidity bales and packages were handed out of one vessel into the other The rascalswas done with the greatest regularity; their young leader directing all their movements It did not take them a quarter of the time to unload that it had taken to load the vessel Such discri the most valuable merchandise
”In the e sail was in sight, right to ard, bearing down on us With all their avidity for booty, the fellows had kept their eyes about the on board his own vessel to have a clearer view He was convinced that the strange vessel was an eneh a friend to us; and calame of play, he issued his orders The first was to tell his people to quit the brigantine, and toThe second, part of which I heard, made my heart sink within me, and my blood run cold He did not seem to think it had reached our ears,-- indeed, I believe he had forgotten all about us; the words were--
”'Sink her--drown the people No help for it--patience; we should otherwise be suspected'
”Directly afterwards, severalholes, went below, and quickly returning, knocked our boat to pieces, and jumped on board their own vessel As soon as all the pirates had quitted us, the brig sheered off Just as she did so, I heard some one exclaim--
”'Our countryotten theret for us could have been very great, for the next moment they fired a broadside slap into our hull, betind and water, to try toall sail, stood away fro breeze would carry them Two of the crew had been knocked on the head by the pirates, and their broadside killed two more The master and the survivors were utterly incapacitated fro the soed the pumps which had escaped destruction, and set to work to keep the water froh on her to send us to the botto beloas able to plug several of the holes, which had been very imperfectly bored Some of the crew, also, at last recovered their senses and assisted us in our labours; so that we continued to keep the craft afloat till the vessel, which had frightened away the pirates, ca-of-war, the _cockroach_, and a boat i was about Our condition proved the truth of our story; and we entreated the officer who boarded us not to desert us, as the sacrifice of our lives would have been the inevitable consequence; whereas, the ireat The British are a very humane people, I will say that for thely sent two boats' crews on board us, with the carpenter and his crew, and they plugged the holes, and thruot it under our bottom Some manned the pumps, to which they quickly drove the Neapolitans with a rope's end; and nextwe made sail for Zante, which we reached in safety, escorted by our preservers, who iain in search of the pirate”
”Did they fall in with him, do you know?” asked the Greek, carelessly
”Can you catch a sunbeam?” said the first speaker ”Shecan catch him”