The Lonely Island - Robert Michael Ballantyne (free novel 24 .TXT) 📗

juvenile audience; "I'll behave better in futur' if you'll forgive me this time. Well, as I was about to say, when you sent that round shot across my bows and brought me up, Nelson he would have fought 'em if they'd had ten times the number o' ships that we had. As it was, the enemy had thirty-three sail of the line and seven frigates. We had only twenty-seven sail of the line and four frigates, so we was outnumbered by nine vessels. Moreover the enemy had 4000 lobsters on board--"

"Lobsters bein' land sodgers, my dears," remarked Adams, in explanation, "so-called 'cause of their bein' all red-coated; but the French sodgers are only red-trousered, coats bein' blue. Axin' your pardon, Brace, go on."

The seaman, who had availed himself of the interruption to stir up and stuff down his pipe, resumed.

"Likewise one of their line-o'-battle ships was a huge four-decker, called the _Santissima Trinidad_, and they had some of the best Tyrolese riflemen that could be got scattered throughout the fleet, as we afterwards came to find out to our cost.

"Soon after daylight Nelson came on deck. I see him as plain as if he was before me at this moment, for, bein' stationed in the mizzen-top o' the _Victory_--that was Nelson's ship, you know--I could see everything quite plain. He stood there for a minute or so, with his admiral's frock-coat covered with orders on the left breast, and his empty right sleeve fastened up to it; for you must know he had lost his right arm in action before that, and also his right eye, but the arm and eye that were left were quite enough for him to work with. After a word or two with the officers, he signalled to bear down on the enemy in two lines.

"Then it seemed to have occurred to him that the smoke of battle might render the signals difficult or impossible to make out, for he immediately made one that would serve for everything. It was this: `if signals can't be seen, no captain can do wrong if he places his ship alongside an enemy.' Of coorse we all knew that he meant to win that battle; but, for the matter of that, every soul in the fleet, from the admiral to the smallest powder-monkey, meant--"

"Boasting not allowed," said Dan McCoy, displaying his fine teeth from ear to ear.

The seaman looked at him with a heavy frown.

"You young slip of a pump-handle, what d'ye mean?"

"The king's orders," said Dan, pointing to Adams, while the rest of the Pitcairners seemed awestruck by his presumption.

The frown slowly left the visage of Jack Brace. He shut his eyes, smiled benignly, and delivered a series of heavy puffs from the starboard side of his mouth.

Then a little squeak that had been bottled up in the nose of Otaheitan Sally forced a vent, and the whole party burst into hilarious laughter.

"Just so," resumed Brace, when they had recovered, "that is exactly what we did in the mizzen-top o' the _Victory_ when we made out the signal, only we stuck a cheer on to the end o' the laugh. After that came another signal, just as we were about to go into action, `England expects that every man will this day do his duty.' The effect of that signal was just treemendious, _I_ tell you.

"I noticed at this time that some of Nelson's officers were botherin' him,--tryin' to persuade him, so to speak, to do somethin' he didn't want to. I afterwards found out that they were tryin' to persuade him not to wear his orders, but he wouldn't listen to 'em. Then they tried to convince him it would be wise for him to keep out of action as long as possible. He seemed to give in to this, for he immediately signalled the _Temeraire_ and _Leviathan_, which were abreast of us, to pass ahead; but in _my_ opinion this was nothin' more than a sly joke of the Admiral, for he kept carrying on all sail on the _Victory_, so that it wasn't possible for these ships to obey the order.

"We made the attack in two lines. The _Victory_ led the weather-line of fourteen ships, and Collingwood, in the _Royal Sovereign_, led the lee-line of thirteen ships.

"As we bore down, the enemy opened the ball. We held our breath, for, as no doubt you know, messmate, just before the beginnin' of a fight, when a man is standin' still an' doin' nothin', he's got time to think; an' he _does_ think, too, in a way, mayhap, that he's not much used to think."

"That's true, Jack Brace," responded Adams, with a grave nod; "an', d'ye know, it strikes me that it would be better for all of us if we'd think oftener in that fashion when we've got time to do it."

"You're right, John Adams; you're right. Hows'ever, we hadn't much time to think that morning, for the shot soon began to tell. One round shot came, as it seemed, straight for my head, but it missed me by a shave, an' only took off the hat of a man beside me that was about a fut shorter than myself.

"`You see the advantage,' says he, `o' bein' a little feller.' `That's so,' says I, but I didn't say or think no more that I knows on after that, for we had got within musket range, and the small bullets went whistling about our heads, pickin' off or woundin' a man here an' there.

"It was just then that I thought it time to put my pipe in my pocket, for, you see, I had been havin' a puff on the sly as we was bearin' down; an' I put up my fore-finger to shove the baccy down, when one o' them stingin' little things comes along, whips my best cutty out o' my mouth, an' carries the finger along with it. Of coorse I warn't goin' below for such a small matter, so I pulls out my hankerchief, an' says I to the little man that lost his hat, `Just take a round turn here, Jim,' says I, `an' I'll be ready for action again in two minutes.' Jim, he tied it up, but before he quite done it, the round shot was pitchin' into us like hail, cuttin' up the sails and riggin' most awful.

"They told me afterwards that Nelson gave orders to steer straight for the bow of the great _Santissima Trinidad_, and remarked, `It's too warm work to last long,' but he did not return a single shot, though about fifty of our men had been killed and wounded. You see, he never was fond of wastin' powder an' shot. He generally reserved his fire till it could be delivered with stunnin' effect.

"Just then a round shot carried away our main-topmast with all her stun-s'ls an' booms. By good luck, however, we were close alongside o' the enemy's ship _Redoubtable_ by that time. Our tiller ropes were shot away too, but it didn't matter much now. The word was given, and we opened with both broadsides at once. You should have felt the _Victory_ tremble, John Adams. We tackled the _Redoubtable_ with the starboard guns, and the _Bucentaur_ and _Santissima Trinidad_ with the port guns. Of course they gave it us hot and strong in reply. At the same time Captain Hardy, in the _Temeraire_, fell on board the _Redoubtable_ on her other side, and the _Fougueux_, another o' the enemy, fell on board the _Temeraire_; so there we were four ships abreast--a compact tier-- blazin' into each other like mad, with the muzzles of the guns touchin' the sides when they were run out, an' men stationed with buckets at the ports, to throw water into the shot-holes to prevent their takin' fire.

"It was awful work, I tell you, with the never-stopping roar of great guns and rattle of small arms, an' the smoke, an' the decks slippery with blood. The order was given to depress our guns and load with light charges of powder, to prevent the shot going right through the enemy into our own ship on the other side.

"The _Redoubtable_ flew no colours, so we couldn't tell when she struck, and twice the Admiral, wishing to spare life, gave orders to cease firing, thinking she had given in. But she had not done so, and soon after a ball from her mizzen-top struck Nelson on the left shoulder, and he fell. They took him below at once.

"Of course we in the mizzen-top knew nothing of this, for we couldn't see almost anything for the smoke, only here and there a bit of a mast, or a yard-arm, or a bowsprit, while the very air trembled with the tremendous and continuous roar.

"We were most of us wounded by that time, more or less, but kept blazing away as long as we could stand. Then there came cheers of triumph mingling with the shouts and cries of battle. The ships of the enemy were beginning to strike. One after another the flags went down. Before long the cry was, `Five have struck!' then `Ten, hurrah!' then fifteen, then twenty, hurrah!"

"Hurrah! Old England for ever!" cried Adams, starting to his feet and waving his hat in a burst of irrepressible excitement, which roused the spirits of the youths around, who, leaping up with flushed faces and glittering eyes, sent up from the groves of Pitcairn a vigorous British cheer in honour of the great victory of Trafalgar.

"But," continued Jack Brace, when the excitement had abated, "there was great sorrow mingled with our triumph that day, for Nelson, the hero of a hundred fights, was dead. The ball had entered his spine. He lived just long enough to know that our victory was complete, and died thanking God that he had done his duty."

"That was truly a great battle," said Adams, while Brace, having concluded, was refilling his pipe.

"Right you are, John," said the other; "about the greatest victory we ever gained. It has settled the fleets of France and Spain, I guess, for the next fifty years."

"But what was it all for?" asked Bessy Mills, looking up in the sailor's face with much simplicity.

"What was it for?" repeated Brace, with a perplexed look. "Why, my dear, it was--it was for the honour and glory of Old England, to be sure."

"No, no, Jack, not quite that," interposed Adams, with a laugh, "it was to clap a stopper on the ambition of the French, as far as I can make out; or rather to snub that rascal Napoleon Bonnypart, an' keep him within bounds."

"But he ain't easy to keep within bounds," said Brace, putting his pipe in his pocket and rising; "for he's been knockin' the lobsters of Europe over like ninepins of late years. Hows'ever, we'll lick him yet on land, as we've licked him already on the sea, or my name's not--"

He stopped abruptly, having caught sight of Dan McCoy's twinkling eye.

"Now, John Adams, I must go, else the Cap'n'll think I've deserted altogether."

"Oh, _don't_ go yet; please don't!" pleaded Dolly Young, as she grasped and fondled the seaman's huge hand.

Dolly was at that time about nine years of age, and full of enthusiasm. She was seconded in her entreaties by Dinah Adams, who seized the