The Middy and the Moors - Robert Michael Ballantyne (best ebook reader android .TXT) 📗

many nations. Among them he observed the fair hair and blue eyes of the Saxon, the dark complexion and hair of the Spaniard and Italian, and the black skin of the negro--but all resembled each other in their looks and lines of care, and in the weary anxiety and suffering with which every countenance was stamped,--also in the more or less dejected air of the slaves, and the soiled ragged garments with which they were covered.

But if some of the resemblances between these poor creatures were strong, some of their differences were still more striking. Among them were men whose robust frames had not yet been broken down, whose vigorous spirits had not been quite tamed, and whose scowling eyes and compressed lips revealed the fact that they were "dangerous." These walked along with clanking chains on their limbs--chains which were more or less weighty, according to the strength and character of the wearer. Others there were so reduced in health, strength, and spirit, that the chain of their own feebleness was heavy enough for them to drag to their daily toil. Among these were some with hollow cheeks and sunken eyes, whose weary pilgrimage was evidently drawing to a close; but all, whether strong or weak, fierce or subdued, were made to tramp smartly up the steep street, being kept up to the mark by drivers, whose cruel whips cracked frequently on the shoulders of the lagging and the lazy.

With a heart that felt as if ready to burst with conflicting emotions, the poor midshipman looked on, clenching his teeth to prevent unwise exclamations, and unclenching his fists to prevent the tendency to commit assault and battery!

"This is dreadful," he said, in a low voice, when the gang had passed.

"Yes, Geo'ge, it _is_ drefful--but we's used to it, you know. Come, we'll foller dis gang."

Keeping about twenty yards behind, they followed the slaves into the Kasba, where they met with no interruption from the guards, who seemed to be well acquainted with Peter the Great, though they did not condescend to notice him, except by a passing glance.

"How is it that every one lets you pass so easily?" asked Foster, when they had nearly reached the southern wall of the fortress.

"Eberybody knows me so well--das one reason," answered the negro, with a grin of self-satisfaction.

"I's quite a public krakter in dis yar city, you mus' know. Den, anoder t'ing is, dat our massa am a man ob power. He not got no partikler office in de state, 'cause he not require it, for he's a rich man, but he's got great power wid de Dey--we's bof got dat!"

"Indeed; how so?"

"Stand here, under dis doorway, and I tell you--dis way, where you can see de splendid view ob de whole city an' de harbour an' sea b'yond. We kin wait a bit here while de slabes are gittin' ready to work. You see de bit ob wall dat's damaged dere? Well, dey're goin' to repair dat. We'll go look at 'em by-an'-by."

As the incident which Peter narrated might prove tedious if given in his own language, we take the liberty of relating it for him.

One fine morning during the previous summer the Dey of Algiers mounted his horse--a fiery little Arab--and, attended by several of his courtiers, cantered away in the direction of the suburb which is now known by the name of Mustapha Superieur. When drawing near to the residence of Ben-Ahmed the Dey's horse became unmanageable and ran away. Being the best horse of the party, the courtiers were soon left far behind. It chanced that Ben-Ahmed and his man, Peter the Great, were walking together towards the city that day. On turning a sharp bend in the road where a high bank had shut out their view they saw a horseman approaching at a furious gallop.

"It is the Dey!" exclaimed Ben-Ahmed.

"So it am!" responded Peter.

"He can't make the turn of the road and live!" cried the Moor, all his dignified self-possession vanishing as he prepared for action.

"I will check the horse," he added, in a quick, low voice. "You break his fall, Peter. He'll come off on the left side."

"Das so, massa," said Peter, as he sprang to the other side of the narrow road.

He had barely done so, when the Dey came thundering towards them.

"Stand aside!" he shouted as he came on, for he was a fearless horseman and quite collected, though in such peril.

But Ben-Ahmed would not stand aside. Although an old man, he was still active and powerful. He seized the reins of the horse as it was passing, and, bringing his whole weight and strength to bear, checked it so far that it made a false step and stumbled. This had the effect of sending the Dey out of the saddle like a bomb from a mortar, and of hurling Ben-Ahmed to the ground. Ill would it have fared with the Dey at that moment if Peter the Great had not possessed a mechanical turn of mind, and a big, powerful body, as well as a keen, quick eye for possibilities. Correcting his distance in a moment by jumping back a couple of paces, he opened his arms and received the chief of Algiers into his broad black bosom!

The shock was tremendous, for the Dey was by no means a light weight, and Peter the Great went down before it in the dust, while the great man arose, shaken indeed, and confused, but unhurt by the accident.

Ben-Ahmed also arose uninjured, but Peter lay still where he had fallen.

"W'en I come-to to myself," continued Peter, on reaching this point in his narrative, "de fus' t'ing I t'ink was dat I'd been bu'sted. Den I look up, an' I sees our black cook. She's a nigger, like myself, only a she one.

"`Hallo, Angelica!' says I; `wass de matter?'

"`Matter!' says she; `you's dead--a'most, an' dey lef' you here wid me, wid strik orders to take care ob you.'

"`Das good,' says I; `an' you better look out an' obey your orders, else de bowstring bery soon go round your pritty little neck. But tell me, Angelica, who brought me here?'

"`De Dey ob Algiers an' all his court,' says she, wid a larf dat shut up her eyes an' showed what a _enormous_ mout' she hab.

"`Is _he_ all safe, Angelica,' says I--`massa, I mean?'

"`Oh, I t'ought you meant de Dey!' says she. `Oh yes; massa's all right; nuffin'll kill massa, he's tough. And de Dey, he's all right too.'

"`Das good, Angelica,' says I, feelin' quite sweet, for I was beginnin' to remember what had took place.

"`Yes, das _is_ good,' says she; `an', Peter, your fortin's made!'

"`Das awk'ard,' says I, `for I ain't got no chest or strong box ready to put it in. But now tell me, Angelica, if my fortin's made, will you marry me, an' help to spend it?'

"`Yes, I will,' says she.

"I was so took by surprise, Geo'ge, when she say dat, I sprung up on one elber, an' felled down agin wid a howl, for two o' my ribs had been broke.

"`Neber mind de yells, Angelica,' says I, `it's only my leetle ways. But tell me why you allers refuse me before an' accep' me _now_. Is it--de--de fortin?' Oh, you should have seen her pout w'en I ax dat. Her mout' came out about two inch from her face. I could hab kissed it--but for de broken ribs.

"`No, Peter, for shame!' says she, wid rijeous indignation. `De fortin hab nuffin to do wid it, but your own noble self-scarifyin' bravery in presentin' your buzzum to de Dey ob Algiers.'

"`T'ank you, Angelica,' says I. `Das all comfrably settled. You's a good gall, kiss me now, an' go away.'

"So she gib me a kiss an' I turn round an' went sweetly to sleep on de back ob dat--for I was awrful tired, an' de ribs was creakin' badly."

"Did you marry Angelica?" asked our middy, with sympathetic interest.

"Marry her! ob course I did. Two year ago. Don' you know it's her as cooks all our wittles?"

"How could I know, Peter, for you never call her anything but `cook?' But I'm glad you have told me, for I'll regard her now with increased respect from this day forth."

"Das right, Geo'ge. You can't pay 'er too much respec'. Now we'll go an' look at de works."

The part of the wall which the slaves were repairing was built of great blocks of artificial stone or concrete, which were previously cast in wooden moulds, left to harden, and then put into their assigned places by slave-labour. As Foster was watching the conveyance of these blocks, it suddenly occurred to him that Hester Sommers's father might be amongst them, and he scanned every face keenly as the slaves passed to and fro, but saw no one who answered to the description given him by the daughter.

From this scrutiny he was suddenly turned by a sharp cry drawn from one of a group who were slowly carrying a heavy stone to its place. The cry was drawn forth by the infliction of a cruel lash on the shoulders of a slave. He was a thin delicate youth with evidences of fatal consumption upon him. He had become faint from over-exertion, and one of the drivers had applied the whip by way of stimulus. The effect on the poor youth was to cause him to stumble, and instead of making him lift better, made him rest his weight on the stone, thus overbalancing it, and bringing it down. In falling the block caught the ankle of the youth, who fell with a piercing shriek to the ground, where he lay in a state of insensibility.

At this a tall bearded man, with heavy fetters on his strong limbs, sprang to the young man's side, went down on his knees, and seized his hand.

"Oh! Henri, my son," he cried, in French; but before he could say more a whip touched his back with a report like a pistol-shot, and the torn cotton shirt that he wore was instantly crimsoned with his blood!

The man rose, and, making no more account of his fetters than if they had been straws, sprang like a tiger at the throat of his driver. He caught it, and the eyes and tongue of the cruel monster were protruding from his head before the enraged Frenchman could be torn away by four powerful janissaries. As it was, they had to bind him hand and foot ere they were able to carry him off--to torture, and probably to death. At the same time the poor, helpless form of Henri was borne from the place by two of his fellow-slaves.

Of course a scene like this could not be witnessed unmoved by our midshipman. Indeed he would infallibly have rushed to the rescue of the bearded Frenchman if Peter's powerful grip on his shoulder had not restrained him.

"Don't be a fool, Geo'ge," he whispered. "Remember, we _must_ submit!"

Fortunately for George, the guards around were too much interested in watching the struggle to observe his state of mind, and it is doubtful whether he would have been held