Part 43 (1/2)
”Well, well, signora,” returned Zappa. ”You and your attendant are welcome to do your best to prevent the man from dying, though he deserves nothing at my hands; but whatever men may say of me, they shall not justly accuse me of being a murderer in cold blood. Your countrymen do not appear to be in a fighting mood. Perhaps they are afraid of firing, lest they should hurt you. Is it not so, lady? I know more of their plans than you suspect. The expedition is led by the captain of the _Ione_, in person, and he was on the look out for you, when we so inopportunely came up, and spoilt your arrangements.”
”Can it be so?” thought Ada. ”Is he really ignorant that Fleetwood is close to him? Alas, he may be deceiving me, and if I pretend to agree to his a.s.sertions, he will but use it as a weapon against me. The right and best plan is to refuse to give an opinion on the subject.”
”I am your prisoner, signor,” she said, aloud; ”and as such I claim every right to endeavour to escape as I best can. It would therefore be folly in me to acknowledge by what means I have communicated with my countrymen, even if I had done as you suppose, lest you should prevent my doing so another time.”
”_Per bacco_, you are a brave girl!” exclaimed the pirate, in a tone in which Ada felt that admiration was too much mingled with a familiarity she had endeavoured to avoid. ”I would rather be your friend than your enemy, if you would let me. Faith, you deserve your liberty, or anything else that you desire; but it would tax my generosity too much to give it to you.”
What he said further, Ada did not hear; for the noise of the firing, which then commenced from the cliffs above, as well as from the boats, drowned his words. She trembled for the fate of the _Tone's_ crew, who were coming to her a.s.sistance; for she was sufficiently acquainted with the nature of military defences, to know the impracticable character of the harbour into which the pirates, she was afraid, would try to draw them.
The firing increased; and she judged, by the gestures of the Greeks, who were rowing, that her countrymen were close upon them. Again the hope revived that, even then, Fleetwood might be rescued. The shouts of the British seamen rang in her ears. She could scarcely refrain from rising and waving to them to urge them on to the succour of their captain; but, just as she fancied they would be alongside, she saw the cliffs, at the entrance of the harbour, towering above her, and the boat shooting in; directly after, the _Sea Hawk_ opened her fire, and her ears were deafened with the reverberating reports of the guns, and the shouts and shrieks of the pirates. The moment the boat touched the sh.o.r.e, Zappa and his companions sprang out, he shouting,--”To the castle--to the castle! We will give them the guns as they retreat.”
And Ada found herself left alone with Pietro and Marianna. In vain she endeavoured to arouse her lover to a state of consciousness--the same frightful torpor continued which the wound had caused; and her heart almost broke with anguish, as she began to fear he might die before he could receive any proper a.s.sistance.
”The pirate talks of his generosity. Would he allow him to be sent on board the _Ione_ with a flag of truce?” she thought. ”No, no; it were vain to hope it; and the very entreating him to do so would betray Charles to him.”
She then remembered the medical knowledge possessed by Paolo Montifalcone, and the great a.s.sistance he had been to her; but she had no means of testing his surgical skill, though she understood that Zappa had, at first, detained him, that he might be useful to any of his followers who were wounded--but then the idea occurred to her--though, perhaps, she did not express it in so many words,--”Can I trust him? He has confessed his unhappy attachment to me. I told him that, if no other circ.u.mstance prevented my marrying him, my heart was another's, and can I dare to place that favoured rival in his power? He is, apparently, generous, and possesses many excellent qualities; but he is an Italian; and if the tales I have heard of Italians are true, they are less scrupulous than other persons of ridding themselves of those they hate. Perhaps he would not contemplate such a deed--he might now shudder at the thought of it; but if the temptation were thrown in his way, could he withstand it? I might, were I to trust him, be guilty of my Charles's death, and of causing that unhappy youth to commit a murder. Oh! G.o.d help me! What shall I do?”
Just then, some rapid steps were heard of a person running along the sands. They attracted the attention of Marianna, who had begun to recover from her fright; and looking over the side of the boat, she screamed out,--”Is it you, Mr Raby? Oh, come here--come here! We want you very much.”
She was right in her supposition; and the next instant the mids.h.i.+pman had sprung into the boat.
”What, Miss Garden! Are you left here alone? And, good heavens! is that the captain?” he exclaimed, in a tone of voice which showed how deeply he felt, joyous and careless as he was on ordinary occasions.
”Oh, Miss Garden, he is not dead!”
”I trust in Heaven he is not, Mr Raby,” replied Ada. ”He has been stunned and severely wounded, and, had no one been with him, would have bled to death; even now, I know not what may happen if he does not speedily receive a.s.sistance. Had we the strength to do so, we might convey him up to the tower, where I suppose I shall be again shut up, and his wounds might thus be properly dressed.”
”I am afraid that you, and Marianna, and I, should never be able to carry him all that way without hurting him,” returned Jack Raby. ”If I could find our companions, we could easily do it; but I don't know what became of them. I was dragged into a boat by myself, and knocked down, and told to be quiet; out, as soon as we got in here, the rascals went off to man their guns, and quite forgot me, I suppose; so, directly I found that they were gone, I felt to see if my head was hurt, and feeling it all right, I jumped out and set off, determined to try and find out what had become of you and the rest. If I could not succeed, I thought about going up to the Italian lady, and getting her to make interest for us all. I was in a great hurry, because I did not know when the pirates might come back; and they will, probably, shut me up somewhere, so that I cannot get to speak to her.”
”Your suggestion, Mr Raby, affords much hope that we may obtain a.s.sistance for Captain Fleetwood,” said Ada. ”Oh! hurry up to the tower, and I am certain that the Signora Nina will exert herself to the utmost in our favour. Tell her all that happened--tell her that the life of one very dear to me depends on her sending us aid; and she will find some one who will come and a.s.sist to carry your captain to a place of safety. I need scarcely advise you to take every precaution to avoid being stopped on your way.”
”Never fear me, Miss Garden,” answered the mids.h.i.+pman, as he leaped on sh.o.r.e. ”If I hear any one coming near me, I'll stow myself away under the rocks, or climb right up the cliffs over their heads. It's fortunately so dark, that there's very little chance of my being seen, and I'll be back again as fast as I can.”
Nina Montifalcone was sitting, solitary and sad, at the window of her tower, gazing out on the sea, and watching the scene enacting below her.
She had risen from her couch on hearing the firing and noise, and had gone to where she now was, to learn the cause of it. The rapid discharge of the guns from the brig and fort told her that fighting was going on, and the British boats in full retreat explained what else had happened. So interested was she on what was going on without, that she did not hear the sound of the footsteps of a person who entered the room.
”Signora, signora,” said a voice near her; she started on hearing herself addressed, and saw Jack Raby standing at her elbow. ”I have come in a great hurry, and have not a moment to spare, to tell you that Signora Garden, your friend, is on the sh.o.r.e of the bay in a boat, and that there is a person very badly wounded in it, who will die if you cannot send him a.s.sistance; and also that, if you do not intercede for us with the pira--I mean with the chief of this island,--I and my companions shall, very likely, to-morrow morning, be hung, or shot, or have our throats cut, or be thrown over the cliffs, or, at all events, sent out of the world.”
”The Signora Garden, and one in whom she is interested, wounded,”
repeated Nina. ”Ah! I see how it is. Tell me, frankly, boy. Is it the captain of the English brig who is wounded?”
”_Signora, si_, I will not deny it,” said the mids.h.i.+pman. ”There is, therefore, you will see, still greater necessity for you to interfere in his favour.”
”I tell you, boy, if it were known who he was, and for what purpose he came here, I could not preserve his life for one instant,” replied Nina.
”He must not be brought up here on any account, for he would be certainly recognised in the morning. Have you met my brother, Signor Paolo. He alone can a.s.sist us.”
”What, the Italian gentleman? No, signora. I took too much care in coming up here to fall in with anybody,” said Jack.
”Then I must go in search of him. We shall probably find him among the spectators of the fight. I will send him down to the boat. Tell the signora that there is a cottage close to the sh.o.r.e on the other side of the bay, to the inhabitants of which my brother has been of great service, by preserving the lives of their children in a dire sickness, and thither the wounded man shall be conveyed. If they have any grat.i.tude in their nature, they will perform any service Paolo may require; and the English captain will be safe with them, even should they discover who he is. Now, hasten back to the bay with the message, and entreat Signora Garden to return to her tower, and to appear to take no further interest in him. It will betray him, to a certainty, if she does, and it can do him no good. I will, however, endeavour to arrange that you shall remain with him to attend on him. Tell her that, as soon as I have dispatched Paolo, I will go myself to meet her.”