Part 30 (1/2)
”Go,” said the soldier; ”but stay; is he a half-and-half--an amphibious--pshaw! I mean a marine?”
”He is, sir, a captain in that corps----”
”The very man,” interrupted Borroughcliffe; ”I thought I recollected the liquid sounds of his voice. It will be well to speak to him of the good fare of St. Ruth; and you may add, that I know my man: I shall besiege, instead of storming him, with the certainty of a surrender when his canteen is empty. The vault he is in holds no such beverage as the cellars of the Abbey.”
Griffith smiled, in spite of the occasion and his vexation; and making a slight inclination of his head he pa.s.sed into the vault, giving notice to his friends, by his voice, in order to apprise them who approached.
He found six of the marines, including the sentinel, lying dead on the ragged pavement, and four others wounded, but stifling their groans, by the order of their commander, that they might not inform the enemy of his weakness. With the remainder of his command Manual had entrenched himself behind the fragment of a wall that intersected the vault, and, regardless of the dismaying objects before him, maintained as bold a front, and as momentous an air, as if the fate of a walled town depended on his resolution and ingenuity.
”You see, Mr. Griffith,” he cried, when the young sailor approached this gloomy but really formidable arrangement, ”that nothing short of artillery can dislodge me: as for that drinking Englishman above, let him send down his men by platoons of eight or ten, and I'll pile them up on those steps, four and five deep.”
”But artillery can and will be brought, if it should be necessary,” said Griffith; ”and there is not the least chance of your eventual escape: it may be possible for you to destroy a few of the enemy, but you are too humane to wish to do it unnecessarily.”
”No doubt,” returned Manual with a grim smile; ”and yet methinks I could find present pleasure in shooting seven of them--yes, just seven, which is one more than they have struck off my roster.”
”Remember your own wounded,” added Griffith; ”they suffer for want of aid, while you protract a useless defence.”
A few smothered groans from the sufferers seconded this appeal, and Manual yielded, though with a very ill grace, to the necessity of the case.
”Go, then, and tell him that we will surrender as prisoners of war,” he said, ”on the conditions that he grants me my side-arms, and that suitable care shall be taken of the sick--be particular to call them sick--for some lucky accident may yet occur before the compact is ratified, and I would not have him learn our loss.”
Griffith, without waiting for a second bidding, hastened to Borroughcliffe with his intelligence.
”His side-arms!” repeated the soldier, when the other had done; ”what are they, I pray thee--a marlinespike! For if his equipments be no better than thine own, my worthy prisoner, there is little need to quarrel about their owners.h.i.+p.”
”Had I but ten of my meanest men, armed with such half-pikes, and Captain Borroughcliffe and his party were put at deadly strife with us,”
retorted Griffith, ”he might find occasion to value our weapons more highly.”
”Four such fiery gentlemen as yourself would have routed my command,”
returned Borroughcliffe, with undisturbed composure. ”I trembled for my ranks when I saw you coming out of the smoke like a blazing comet from behind a cloud! and I shall never think of somersets without returning inward thanks to their inventor. But our treaty is made; let your comrades come forth and pile their arms.”
Griffith communicated the result to the captain of marines, when the latter led the remnant of his party out of his sunken fortress into the open air.
The men, who had manifested throughout the whole business that cool subordination and unyielding front, mixed with the dauntless spirit that to this day distinguishes the corps of which they were members, followed their commander in sullen silence, and stacked their arms with as much regularity and precision as if they had been ordered to relieve themselves after a march. When this necessary preliminary had been observed, Borroughcliffe unmasked his forces, and our adventurers found themselves once more in the power of the enemy, and under circ.u.mstances which rendered the prospect of a speedy release from their captivity nearly hopeless.
CHAPTER XX.
If your father will do me any honor, so; If not, let him kill the next Percy himself: I look to be either earl or duke, I can a.s.sure you.
Falstaff.
Manual cast sundry discontented and sullen looks from his captors to the remnant of his own command, while the process of pinioning the latter was conducted, with much discretion, under the directions of Sergeant Drill, when meeting, in one of his dissatisfied glances, with the pale and disturbed features of Griffith, he gave vent to his ill- humor, by saying:
”This results from neglecting the precautions of military discipline.
Had the command been with men, who, I may say, without boasting, have been accustomed to the duties of the field, proper pickets would have been posted, and instead of being caught like so many rabbits in a burrow, to be smoked out with brimstone, we should have had an open field for the struggle; or we might have possessed ourselves of these walls, which I could have made good for two hours at least, against the best regiment that ever wore King George's facings.”
”Defend the outworks before retreating to the citadel!” cried Borroughcliffe; ”'tis the game of war, and shows science: but had you kept closer to your burrow, the rabbits might now have all been frisking about in that pleasant abode. The eyes of a timid hind were greeted this morning, while journeying near this wood, with a pa.s.sing sight of armed men in strange attire; and as he fled, with an intent of casting himself into the sea, as fear will sometimes urge one of his kind to do, he luckily encountered me on the cliffs, who humanely saved his life, by compelling him to conduct us. .h.i.ther. There is often wisdom in science, my worthy contemporary in arms; but there is sometimes safety in ignorance.”