Part 23 (1/2)
”You may save yourself the trouble, you dingy gut-sc.r.a.per,” replied O'Brien; ”the lady is under my protection, so take your ugly black face out of the way, or I'll show you how I treat a ''Badian who is really too brave.'”
”So 'elp me Gad, Ma.s.sa Lieutenant, 'pose you put a finger on me, I show you what 'Badian can do.”
Apollo then attempted to insert himself between O'Brien and his lady, upon which O'Brien shoved him back with great violence, and continued his course towards the door. They were in the pa.s.sage when I came up, for hearing O'Brien's voice in anger, I left Miss Minerva to s.h.i.+ft for herself.
Miss Eurydice had now left O'Brien's arm, at his request, and he and Mr Apollo were standing in the pa.s.sage, O'Brien close to the door, which was shut, and Apollo swaggering up to him. O'Brien, who knew the tender part of a black, saluted Apollo with a kick on the s.h.i.+ns, which would have broken my leg. Ma.s.sa Johnson roared with pain, and recoiled two or three paces, parting the crowd away behind him. The blacks never fight with fists, but b.u.t.t with their heads like rams, and with quite as much force. When Mr Apollo had retreated he gave his s.h.i.+n one more rub, uttered a loud yell, and started at O'Brien, with his head aimed at O'Brien's chest, like a battering-ram. O'Brien, who was aware of this plan of fighting, stepped dexterously on one side, and allowed Mr Apollo to pa.s.s by him, which he did with such force, that his head went clean through the panel of the door behind O'Brien, and there he stuck as fast as if in a pillory, squealing like a pig for a.s.sistance, and foaming with rage. After some difficulty he was released, and presented a very melancholy figure. His face was much cut, and his superb jabot all in tatters; he appeared, however, to have had quite enough of it, as he retreated to the supper-room, followed by some of his admirers, without asking or looking after O'Brien.
But if Mr Apollo had had enough of it, his friends were too indignant to allow us to go off scot-free. A large mob was collected in the street, vowing vengeance on us for our treatment of their flash man, and a row was to be expected. Miss Eurydice had escaped, so that O'Brien had his hands free. ”Cam out, you hangman tiefs, cam out! only wish had rock stones to mash your heads with,” cried the mob of negroes. The officers now sallied out in a body, and were saluted with every variety of missile, such as rotten oranges, cabbage-stalks, mud, and cocoa-nut sh.e.l.ls. We fought our way manfully, but as we neared the beach the mob increased to hundreds, and at last we could proceed no further, being completely jammed up by the n.i.g.g.e.rs, upon whose heads we could make no more impression than upon blocks of marble. ”We must draw our swords,”
observed an officer. ”No, no,” replied O'Brien, ”that will not do; if once we shed blood, they will never let us get on board with our lives.
The boat's crew by this time must be aware that there is a row.”
O'Brien was right. He had hardly spoken, before a lane was observed to be made through the crowd in the distance, which in two minutes was open to us. Swinburne appeared in the middle of it, followed by the rest of the boat's crew, armed with the boat's stretchers, which they did not aim at the heads of the blacks, but swept them like scythes against their s.h.i.+ns. This they continued to do, right and left of us, as we walked through and went down to the boats, the seamen closing up the rear with their stretchers, with which they ever and anon made a sweep at the black fellows if they approached too near. It was now broad daylight, and in a few minutes we were again safely on board the frigate. Thus ended the first and last dignity ball that I attended.
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
I AM CLAIMED BY CAPTAIN KEARNEY AS A RELATION--TRIAL OF SKILL BETWEEN FIRST LIEUTENANT AND CAPTAIN WITH THE LONG BOW--THE SHARK, THE PUG DOG, AND THE WILL--A QUARTER-DECK PICTURE.
As the admiral was not one who would permit the s.h.i.+ps under his command to lie idle in port, in a very few days after the dignity hall which I have described, all the squadron sailed on their various destinations.
I was not sorry to leave the bay, for one soon becomes tired of profusion, and I cared nothing for either oranges, bananas, or shaddocks, nor even for the good dinners and claret at the tables of the army mess and gentlemen of the island. The sea breeze soon became more precious to us than anything else; and if we could have bathed without the fear of a shark, we should have equally appreciated that most refres.h.i.+ng of all luxuries under the torrid zone. It was therefore with pleasure that we received the information that we were to sail the next day to cruise off the French island of Martinique. Captain Kearney had been so much on sh.o.r.e that we saw but little of him, and the s.h.i.+p was entirely under the control of the first lieutenant, of whom I have hitherto not spoken. He was a very short, pock-marked man, with red hair and whiskers, a good sailor, and not a bad officer; that is, he was a practical sailor, and could show any foremast man his duty in any department, and this seamen very much appreciate, as it is not very common; but I never yet knew an officer who prided himself upon his practical knowledge, who was at the same time a good navigator; and too often, by a.s.suming the Jack Tar, they lower the respect due to them, and become coa.r.s.e and vulgar in their manners and language. This was the case with Mr Phillott, who prided himself upon his slang, and who was at one time ”hail fellow, well met” with the seamen, talking to them, and being answered as familiarly as if they were equals, and at another, knocking the very same men down with a handspike if he were displeased.
He was not bad tempered, but very hasty; and his language to the officers was occasionally very incorrect--to the mids.h.i.+pmen invariably so. However, on the whole, he was not disliked, although he was certainly not respected as a first lieutenant should have been. It is but fair to say that he was the same to his superiors as he was to his inferiors; and the bluntness with which he used to contradict and a.s.sert his disbelief of Captain Kearney's narratives often produced a coolness between them for some days.
The day after we sailed from Carlisle Bay I was asked to dine in the cabin. The dinner was served upon plated dishes, which looked very grand, but there was not much in them. ”This plate,” observed the captain, ”was presented to me by some merchants for my exertions in saving their property from the Danes, when I was cruising off Heligoland.”
”Why, that lying steward of yours told me that you bought it at Portsmouth,” replied the first lieutenant: ”I asked him in the galley this morning.”
”How came you to a.s.sert such a confounded falsehood, sir?” said the captain to the man who stood behind his chair.
”I only said that I thought so,” replied the steward.
”Why, didn't you say that the bill had been sent in, through you, seven or eight times, and that the captain had paid it with a flowing sheet?”
”Did you dare say that, sir?” interrogated the captain, very angrily.
”Mr Phillott mistook me, sir,” replied the steward. ”He was so busy d.a.m.ning the sweepers, that he did not hear me right. I said, the mids.h.i.+pmen had paid their crockery bill with the fore-topsail.”
”Ay, ay,” replied the captain, ”that's much more likely.”
”Well, Mr Steward,” replied Mr Phillott, ”I'll be d.a.m.ned if you ar'n't as big a liar as your--” (master he was going to plump out, but fortunately the first lieutenant checked himself, and added)--”as your father was before you.”
The captain changed the conversation by asking me whether I would take a slice of ham. ”It's real Westphalia, Mr Simple; I have them sent me direct by Count Troningsken, an intimate friend of mine, who kills his own wild boars in the Hartz mountains.”
”How the devil do you get them over, Captain Kearney?”
”There are ways and means of doing everything, Mr Phillott, and the First Consul is not quite so bad as he is represented. The first batch was sent over with a very handsome letter to me, written in his own hand, which I will show you some of these days. I wrote to him in return, and sent to him two Ches.h.i.+re cheeses by a smuggler, and since that they came regularly. Did you ever eat Westphalia ham, Mr Simple?”
”Yes, sir,” replied I: ”once I partook of one at Lord Privilege's.”