CHAPTER V.
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“He then would make the nearest isle,
And go at night by stealth,
To hide within the earth a while
His last ill-gotten wealth.”
H. F. Gould.
Towards the approach of evening on the day
following the events related in the last chapter, Kate
Bellamont was walking beneath the noble oaks
that shaded the lawn lying between the front of
White Hall and the water. She had been for some
time watching the slow progress of a brig into the
harbour, which, on first discerning it from the balcony,
her spyglass told her was the “Ger-Falcon.”
Her impatience had drawn her to the water side,
where the thin waves uncurled upon a silvery beach
at her feet.
Slowly it advanced up towards the town, and
the shouts of the citizens, and gun after gun from
the Rondeel, welcomed her return. It was nearly
night when, coming between Governor's Island and
the city, she fired a gun without coming to; the
British ensign was lowered at the same instant, and
up in its place went the black flag of the bucanier.
A loud wail seemed to fill the town.
“The Kyd! the Kyd!” rung through the streets
and everywhere spread consternation. The battery
on the Rondeel opened a heavy fire, which was
returned by two broadsides from the brig, which
then stood across towards Brooklyn, and anchored
east of the town out of the range of the guns of the
fort.
Kate had witnessed all this, at first, with surprise,
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which grew to terrible anxiety and alarm; and
when the return of the fire confirmed the hostile
character of the vessel, now too plainly captured by
the corsair, a faintness came over her and she leaned
against an oak for support. “Where was Fitzroy?
A prisoner or slain?” were questions that
she dared not ask herself. Overcome by her feelings,
she was ready to sink at the foot of the tree
in almost a state of insensibility, when she saw a
skiff containing two men, which had been making its
way from the direction of “The Kills,” land not far
from the “Rondeel.” The twilight was sufficiently
strong to enable her to see a fisherman step from
it and approach her by the winding of the shore.
She struggled against her feelings, for his manner
seemed to betoken news; and with a quick step she
advanced several paces to meet him.
“Do you bring news of Captain Fitzroy, or come
you to confirm my suspicions?” she cried, as he
came near her.
“Sweet lady,” he said, wrapping his ample jacket
closer about his person, “I am but a poor shipwrecked
mariner. Yet I do bear sad news for
thee.”
“Of whom?” she asked, quickly, vainly endeavouring,
in the dusk of evening, to read in his shaded
features all he had not revealed.
“Captain Fitzroy!”
“Ha! speak! Words! words! why are you
silent? I will hear thee.”
“He has been captured by a pirate.”
“I knew it.”
“And is now prisoner to his captor in yonder
brig.”
“His own courage should have kept it.”
“Nay, lady, he did all he could to save his vessel.”
“What fate met he? What became of him,
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seaman? There is life and death in your answer!
Lives he?”
“We were captured by Kyd, who now holds our
vessel, and all were condemned to walk the plank.”
“Ha! and he?”
“Nay, lady, he lives! He, besides myself, alone
escaped the death designed for us.”
“Lives, lives! 'Tis happiness to know it!
How escaped you?”
“I took the leap into the sea. By floating and
swimming I was half an hour afterward picked up
by a fisherman, who brought me hither.”
“And Edwin, his secretary?”
“Alas, I know not.”
“Direful, dreadful news! Fitzroy, Fitzroy! oh
that I had died ere this sad news of thy dishonour,
perhaps thy death, had reached me! Merciful
God! sustain me in this hour!”
She buried her face in her hands, and seemed
overcome by grief.
“Nay, Kate, dearest Kate, I am here! Fitzroy
is before you; it is your Rupert who clasps you to
his heart. Speak! I am by you, and fold you in my
arms!”
He cast off his fisherman's coat and bonnet as
he spoke, and she looked up revived at his voice,
and beheld, indeed, the face of him whom she had
mourned as dead or lost to her for ever.
“Fitzroy!”
“Fitzroy, and none else, dearest Kate!”
“How could you put me to such a trial?” she
cried, almost weeping on his shoulder.
“Nay, forgive me! I planned it not beforehand;
but seeing, as I approached you, that you knew me
not, the fisher's coat and cap I borrowed of him who
fished me from the water having disguised me even
to your keen-eyed love, I was tempted to try your
affections.”
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“Nay, Rupert, did you doubt it?”
“I have no cause,” he said, embracing her.
“And did you escape as you just now said?”
“Yes. My brig was taken by a strange fatality
after I had sunk the pirate vessel. All my
men were slain—none, save Edwin and myself, left
alive. I, from some strange thirst for blood that
possesses Kyd—for I can divine no other motive—
was condemned by him to walk the plank. I succeeded
in snatching a cutlass, for the purpose of
selling my life dearly as might be, but at length
was driven overboard. I had, before sunset, seen
a fisher's skiff a mile off at anchor; and, rising far
from the vessel towards her bows, struck out, when
she had passed me, towards it. It so chanced that
he had seen the brig lying to, and pulled towards
her to find a market for his fish, when I hailed him
and was taken on board. Knowing that the pirate
would steer directly to this port, I bribed the man
to bring me hither through the Staten Island Sound:
and here I am once more in your loved presence.”
She mused while he spoke, and then, as if unconscious
of his presence, said,
“Robert, poor Robert, to what height of crime
has passion led thee—to what abyss will it plunge
thee! Thou wert my first, my only love! As
some wild vine clings around a stately trunk, curling
its tendrils about its topmost limbs, as if in one
embrace 'twould clasp it all, so did I entwine my
heart around thee, taking thy shape! But, at last,
the tempest came and swept my stately oak away.
Lonely and lost, I stretched my wounded tendrils
on every side, seeking some branch to cling to;
then fell down, and lay in ruins along the ground.—
Ha, Fitzroy! Why is thy eye with such fierce
scrutiny fixed upon me?”
The lover started, and then a moment or two
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hurriedly paced the sward ere, with hesitation and
embarrassment, he said,
“It has reached my ears—how, it matters not—
that, since my departure, you and this freebooter
Kyd have met in private. From his own lips there
fell dark words of favours given or received! The
thoughts (forgetful of my presence) you now gave
tongue to put to this, together, the one strenghtened
by the other, give—”
“Fitzroy, cease! why will you seek to cast a
cloud over the heaven your presence makes so
bright?”
“Forgive me, but some demon tortures me with
suspicion, spite of my confidence in thy love!”
“Ha, dost thou know this Kyd?”
“Only as a pirate! There is meaning in your
question,” he said, earnestly. “Who is he other
than he seems?”
“To keep the secret from thee would be doing
injustice to my pride of spirit. I have pledged my
father to marry thee; I look upon thee as my
husband; I will keep nothing from thee.”
“Do you not love me, Kate?”
“If I had never loved till now, I should love thee,
Rupert, next to my life. I have told thee the secret
of my former love, and thou didst say thou wouldst
take the half of my heart if thou couldst get no
more!”
“I did, dearest Kate! The intensity of my love
is alone my apology for intruding upon the sacredness
of an earlier passion! Yet I thought thou
hadst forgotten this—”
“I had—I but speak of it now. It is forgotten.”
She now seemed to struggle with some powerful
emotion, and then said quickly,
“The Kyd—is—is Lester!”
“By Heaven! your words have solved a strange
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feeling that governed me when I was in his presence
to call him by a familiar name! But—”
“He is Lester—and Lester is `the Kyd.”'
“He fled to sea I have learned, strangely leaving
his title, wealth, and home. A pirate?”
“A pirate.”
“How learned you this?”
“Through the sorceress Elpsy, and, more recently,
through himself.”
“You have met him, then?”
“I have, Rupert.”
“He pressed upon thee his former passion?”
“He did.”
“And you—”
“Fitzroy, enough; I will not be interrogated.
If you doubt me, I am unworthy your love; you
to suspect my truth, unworthy mine.”
“Forgive me, Lady Catharine! Yet you met?”
“For a moment. I told him I was betrothed to
thee, and he left me, as I believe, to pursue thee.”
“This accounts for his vindictiveness. Pardon
me if I have wronged thee. You do not hear.”
“I was thinking of Lester,” she said, with unsuspecting
frankness.
He gazed upon her absent countenance a few
seconds, struck his temples with vehemence, and
groaned with anguish. Suddenly he turned towards
her and said, with the sternness of grief mingled
with reluctant jealousy,
“Lady Catharine of Bellamont, answer me in
pity, by the love I bear you, by the troth you have
plighted me! With all his insatiate avarice and
thirst for blood, his moral baseness and his numerous
crimes, does there not linger in the embers of
your earlier passion one single spark a proper wind
may kindle into flame?”
“There is deeper meaning beneath your words
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than floats upon the surface,” she replied, with dignity;
“my woman's pride should rise in my defence,
and meet with scorn the foul suspicion that
lurks beneath them! But I will excuse you. I
will think you soured by the recent loss of your
brig, and so forgive you.”
“This is no answer, lady! This Lester or Kyd, I
well know, loves you! Thinking me dead, he soon
will press his suit. By soft words, vows, and deep
protestations of innocence and promises of reform,
will he seek to reinstate himself in your affections—
if perchance they are forfeited! He is rich, noble,
and smooth-tongued. I am, as now you see
me, a shipwrecked mariner, with only my commission
and my sword! Nay, you have even cast the
loss of my vessel in my teeth!”
The handsome young man, with clouded brow,
grieved and goaded spirit, turned away as he spoke,
and, folding his arms, gazed moodily on the waves
as they unrolled at his feet, tossing liquid diamonds
upon the sand. Each word he uttered only served
as weapons against him. Suspicion and jealousy
will never turn back the current of woman's love if
it has once flowed a contrary way. Gentleness will
govern it and guide it; but violence opposed to it
will, like a dam, convert it into an ungovernable cataract.
The attachment between Kate Bellamont
and Fitzroy was properly, so far as impassioned
love was concerned, only on one side. Fitzroy, or
Mark Meredith, had held her from youth in his eye
as the star both of his ambition and his love; and
when, by a fortuitous circumstance, five years after
his departure as an humble lad from the fisherman's
hut at Castle Cor, he found himself commander
of the vessel destined to convey her to the
New World, he, unrecognised by her, and under
the name he had assumed, wooed her with
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diffidence, yet with the perseverance of a love that had
strengthened with his strength and grown with his
growth. She, in the mean while, was pleased by
his attentions, flattered by his devotion, and not insensible
to his love. She knew him only as Captain
Fitzroy, who had been knighted for his gallantry
on the sea, and whose youth only prevented
him from attaining the highest rank in the navy.
The earl (for the lovely Countess of Bellamont
had deceased the year before) seconded the young
hero's addresses, anticipating for the youthful knight
the highest name and rank.
At length, on the day they arrived in New-York
Bay she gave him the promise of her hand, though
her heart went not with it. It was her father's wish
that she should marry, and she herself believed Lester
no longer lived. Fitzroy was therefore accepted;
and though she did not regard him with the devotion
of love, she esteemed him as a friend; while
the gratitude she felt for his attachment he mistook
for love. Although such second attachments are
not altogether consistent with the character of a
true heroine, yet they are not inconsistent with the
character of a true woman!
The betrothed lady looked upon her lover with
surprise as he concluded, and said mildly,
“This is strange! You are not wont to yield to
moods of jealousy, Fitzroy!”
“Jaundiced and jealous I confess I am, until you
answer me!” he said, with nervous impatience.
“Thou art ill, I fear,” she said, laying her hand
upon his shoulder tenderly; “and what at other
times I might take deep offence at, having given no
cause, I'll now regard as the workings of disease
tinging your speech, which else were fair and worthy
of you.”
“I am not sick unless at heart,” he said, burying
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his face in his hands. “She loves me not,” he uttered
to himself; “she loves me not! I have been
blinded by my own deep passion! She loves me
not! The hopes, the dreams of years are dissipated!
She loves me not!”
All at once he turned to her and said,
“Once more forgive me, dearest lady! I was
not myself just now; I knew not—I knew not what
I said! 'Tis over now; forget it!”
“I knew thou wert not thyself, and felt not thy
words,” she said, with sweet dignity. “Nay,
shrink not from my embrace, Rupert.”
“I am unworthy!”
“Nay, Rupert, I know your thoughts! You do
yourself injustice. So far as my love can be bestowed
on any one, it is bestowed on thee. That I
think of Lester as he once was with tenderness, I
do not deny; that I now pity and fear him, you
need not be told. Still I do confess to you, that,
were he Lester now, and worthy of his name, my
love would be his did he claim it. But we can never
be aught to each other more. Be jealous no
longer! 'Tis unworthy thee; and I will henceforth
give thee no cause.”
“Nay, lady,” he said, with seriousness, kneeling
and taking her hand, “though I love thee truly and
tenderly; though I have loved thee since my heart
was first awakened to passion; and although this
hand has been the goal of my ambition, and is at
length surrendered to me, and is thus clasped in
mine, yet I resign it, and here tender back to thee
thy reluctantly given troth, and leave thee free!”
“Thou wilt not, then,” she said, playfully, after
hesitating in what vein to reply, “deign to accept
my heart, while one little corner is reserved for the
memory of a youthful passion?”
“Nay, if that little corner alone were wholly
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mine, and the rest were sacred to that youthful love,
I should feel myself most happy—most blessed.
But not that I may be free, but that thou mayest be,
do I make this sacrifice.”
“Then it need not be made, Rupert. For it
would be also a sacrifice to me.”
“Do you say that truly?” he asked, with warmth.
“Truly.”
“I am then happy.”
“You will not be jealous again?”
“No. But it was my love.”
“I confess you had cause. But it exists no
longer. Let us return to the Hall.”
“I will escort thee there, and then, as I should
have done ere this, aid the earl in preparing to defend
the town, for it doubtless will be attacked
ere morning by Kyd. Lester—Lester, said you?
How strange, how very strange! An earldom
thrown away; the haughty, highborn noble! Nay,
I can scarce believe it. Yet, now I call him to
mind, I do recognise the noble in `the Kyd.' At
another time, fair Catharine, you must explain this
mystery to me!”
They advanced towards the Hall as he was
speaking, and were soon lost in the shadows that
were cast by the trees, that stretched their gnarled
limbs on every side, covering the lofty roof of the
White Hall with a canopy of the densest foliage.
They found in the library the Earl of Bellamont,
attended by the captain of the Rondeel and two or
three of his council, who were also the principal
citizens of the town, in some excitement on account
of the reappearance of the Ger-Falcon under
the pirate flag. In a few words Fitzroy informed
them of the particulars of his meeting with
the pirate, the loss of his vessel, and his own escape.
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“To the Rondeel, Captain Van Hooven!” said
the earl to the commander of the fort, with animation,
as he ended. “We shall doubtless be attacked.
Let nothing be wanting to defend your
position and protect the town. Attended by these
gentlemen and Captain Fitzroy, I will visit the
other forts and stir the citizens to arms. Watch
any movement from the brig, and fire at whatever
moves on the water.”
They instantly separated: the captain hastening
to his fort, the governor and his party to visit the
town and the two other forts, situated the one at the
Countess's slip, and the other at the foot of the
Wall-street, and Kate was left alone. When their
departing footsteps had died away, she felt an undefinable
curiosity to watch the motions of the
vessel, the appearance of which created such a sensation
in town and hall. She therefore hastened
to her boudoir and took her station upon the balcony.
The night had already set in, and the brig lay
dark, still, and indistinct where she had at first anchored.
All was silent in that direction, and her
nicest sense of hearing could not detect a ripple on
the water. Did she listen for one? Did she expect
one? Did she hope, yet fear; doubt, yet
believe, that the outcast Lester would seek her
presence once more? There is a difficulty in saying
what emotions passed through the maiden's
mind. It is puzzling to tell which way the beam
of a lady's thoughts will turn when a lover is in
each scale! Yet it by no means requires a skilful
analyzer of the female heart to tell which of two
lovers—a first one unforgotten, though discarded; a
second unloved, though endured—will be most in
her thoughts. It has ever been a noble, yet weak
trait in woman, to love unworthiness, and rarely has
there been found a man, however black with crime,
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however despised by his fellow-men, who has not
been, in his lowest estate of guilt and degradation,
the object of some woman's devoted and undying
love. Such love for such beings seems to be allied
to the tender pity with which angels regard
the whole erring race of mortals! It is not intended
by these reflections to say anything of Kate's
feelings that can be construed into disloyalty towards
Fitzroy: they are only intended to show
that women are good, kind, forgiving, charitable, and
somewhat capricious creatures, and that, in loving,
they obey the heart rather than the head.
Kate, after watching the still waters of the bay
for some time, and catching no sign of movement,
hostile or otherwise, on board the vessel, descended
the steps of the balcony to the lawn, and, advancing
across it, approached the gate that led towards
the inn of Jost Stoll, in the direction of which
she heard the voices of many citizens congregated
there and discussing the crisis of affairs. As she
came near it it was opened, and a person hastily
entered and closed it after him. She started at the
intrusion, and was about to turn towards the Hall,
when the stranger called her by name in a low tone.
She stopped and surveyed him an instant as he
slowly approached.
“Edwin Gerald, is it you? You are then safe!
I congratulate you with all my heart!”
“I am, lady,” said the youth, sadly. “But—”
and he hesitated.
“You bring me news of Fitzroy's death.”
“You speak full lightly of it,” he said, with surprise,
“did you believe such my message. I know
not whether he lives or not. Our vessel was taken
by Kyd, who now holds it. Captain Fitzroy and
myself alone were spared. He for a dreadful death,
I for the more dreadful fate of surviving him.”
“You were attached to him?”
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“I was. Now that he is no more, I have no
longer reason for this disguise, and here—”
“Nay; do nothing rashly, fair sir; if you were
about to tell me he loved me, I can tell you he has
told me so himself within the half hour.”
“How? Explain!”
“He is alive and well.”
“Alive. Heaven, thou art kind! most kind!
How was it?”
“He was driven overboard, as you believe, but
was saved in a fisherman's boat. He will be rejoiced
to learn of your escape. How was it, fair
sir?”
“Kyd retained me prisoner to bear a courteous
message to his lady love. I swore, to purchase
my life, to be its bearer when he came to port.
For this purpose I was landed above the town on
the western side, and guided by him to this gate.
He now awaits an answer to this billet. This done,
I am released from my solemn oath to him. Fitzroy
lives, said you, lady?”
She heeded not his words, but snatching the
note from his hands, said hurriedly,
“Wait my return.”
She flew to the balcony and shut herself in her
boudoir, and, drawing the curtains close, half opened
the letter, when she hesitated.
“Nay, it must not be! 'Tis wrong. I will return
it.—But perhaps it contains something I should
know! I should like to hear what the lost Lester
can say. He comes, too, in such gentle guise! I
will read it!”
The next moment it was open in her hand, and
she read with a fluttering pulse,
“Dearest Kate,
“Let me see you for a brief moment just as the
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moon rises, by the linden that grows at the foot of
the Rondeel. My temporal, nay, spiritual welfare
hangs upon your answer. I am penitent. I appeal
to you as to a heavenly intercessor! Refuse
not this request, lest the guilt of my suicidal blood
fall on your soul.
Lester.”
She looked at the lines till they seemed composed
of words of fire. Her brain reeled, her heart
swelled, and she seemed torn by emotions of terrible
power.
“Heaven guide me in this strait!” she cried,
falling impulsively on her knees and clasping the
letter in her folded hands. “Sudden and strange
events crowd thick upon me, with tales of murder
foul, and this newborn jealousy of Rupert—whom
I know not if I love or no, yet whom I should love
had he not risen from the grave, as 'twere, to step
between me and my newly-plighted troth! My
brain is crazed!”
She rose to her feet and walked the room thoughtfully,
with the letter in her hand, now looking at it
with tenderness, now crumpling it with disdain.
Suddenly she stopped and said with energy,
“The struggle is over! I will meet him.”
She stepped to the balcony, beneath which the
young secretary stood, and said calmly,
“Return, and say I'll come.”
She withdrew herself hastily into the boudoir as
she spoke, and the youth left her to bear the message
back to the bucanier, and thereby redeem his
oath and regain his liberty.
The moon was just rising above the Heights of
Brooklyn, when, wrapped in a mantle, her face
concealed by its folds, thrown over her head in the
shape of a hood, Kate Bellamont left her boudoir
by the door that communicated with the main body
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of the house. With light and hasty footsteps she
traversed a long passage that led to the library.
She cautiously opened the door, and, evidently to
her surprise and pleasure, found no one within.
She crossed it to an opposite door, which she opened
with the same caution, and found herself in the
family chapel, dimly lighted by two wax tapers
placed upon a small stand before a crucifix. She
gathered the folds of her mantle closer about her
form, and, looking round the obscure apartment to
see if she was observed, kneeled a moment in silent
prayer before the altar, looking heavenward as
she prayed, as if she sought guidance and protection.
She then rose to her feet, and hastily
walked towards a door partly concealed by tapestry,
and passed through it into a conservatory verdant
and fragrant with rare plants. A little wicket
inserted in the Venetian blinds which surrounded
this floral gallery she pushed open, and issued into
the open air and upon a lawn that extended close
up to the foot of the glacis that environed the Rondeel.
She paused an instant ere she crossed the
green, as if hesitating. The delay was but for an
instant; for she directly afterward moved forward
with a rapid pace towards a lofty tree, the topmost
branches of which towered above the walls of the
fort. Its foot was buried in deep shadow, the rising
moon having only touched, as yet, the upper
wall. Beneath it walked a man with a hasty and
impatient tread, who at every third step stopped
and looked towards the Hall with anxious scrutiny.
“'Tis past the hour; the moon is mounting high
in the heavens, and yet she comes not!” he said, as
he paused and surveyed the darkly-shaded lawn that
stretched between him and the mansion. “Cursed
oversight in making this boy my messenger! He
has doubtless told the tale of Fitzroy's fate, and
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she'll not meet his murderer. Ha! a form! Hers
in a thousand! She comes! Now aid me, all
good angels!”
He advanced to meet her as she came near the
tree, and said in a low tone, lest he should be over-heard
by the sentry on the parapet above,
“Most kind, dear Kate! Forgive the rude and
angry haste with which I last left you! You are
indeed kind! My strong love told me my appeal
would not be made in vain.”
He kneeled at her feet as he spoke and attempted
to take her hand. She drew back with dignity,
and said with firmness,
“Let this distance be between us. You have
desired to see me!”
“I have. Is there no hope for me, Kate?”
“How mean you?”
“Do you believe me so far steeped in guilt that
heartfelt penitence for what is past will not replace
me in the seat of your affections, which I do
confess most justly I have forfeited? Is there no
hope of pardon for the penitent?”
“The thief found mercy on the cross. Heaven
still forgives the penitent.”
“And will you be less indulgent? I speak not
now of heaven. The seat I have lost is in your
heart! It is there, sweet Kate, I would be replaced!”
“Cease, sir. I came not hither, Robert, to hold
converse on this theme. Your epistle, which
brought me here against my will and better judgment,
discoursed other language; atonement to
Heaven, not to me. If other than your soul's weal
be your aim, then is our conference ended.”
She turned to leave him as she spoke, but he
caught her hand.
“Stay! be not so hasty! I do confess there is
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some ground for Rumour's widespread tales, but I
am not so guilty as she'd make me. Is there no
pathway to your forgiveness?”
“Yes, when you have atoned to Heaven!”
“None to your love?”
“None!”
“Nothing's proved!” he cried, with animation;
“I bear the king's commission against piracy.”
“The more guilty then, that, under cover of it,
you commit piracies. This king's commission!
Do not all men know 'twas given thee because you
knew the haunts of a dangerous horde of pirates in
the Indian seas, having been one of them, though
now their foe and rival; and, by giving thee employment,
to keep thee out of mischief?”
“'Tis false!”
“I've heard enough. More I could tell thee of
recent occurrence.”
“Ha, dost thou know—has the boy told—”
“Nothing. I know enough. Your guilt is written
out upon the sky! He that runs may read it!
Go on; slay and pillage. You have a love of human
blood, and, like the wolf, who, once tasting it,
will touch no other, glut thyself till satiate.”
“Kate!”
“Away, sir! Speak not, come not near me!
Thy touch, thy very glance is pollution.”
She turned to fly towards the Hall as she spoke,
but, darting forward, he caught her by the arm.
“By the cross! if you will act the queen, then
will I play the king. I have been an angler, and
have learned from it a lesson in love. My letter to
thee was but a hook cunningly baited with a gilded
fly I knew you would snap at! I have given
thee line enough, and now will draw thee in captive!”
He threw his arm about her as he spoke, and
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was bearing her around the bastion of the fort towards
his boat, which, by making a circuit from his
vessel round the bay and approaching the town on
the North River side, he had succeeded in running
into a little cove west of the Rondeel unperceived.
The surprise of the maiden was at first so great
as to deprive her of the power of speech. But, as
she was borne round the fort by his strong arm,
she said, in a tone of perfect self-command,
“Unhand me, Lester! Release me. I forgive
you.”
“You are mine, proud beauty!” he replied,
through his clinched teeth. “I have been the plaything
of thy pride full long.”
“Unhand me, sir.”
“Pardon me if I am somewhat rough,” he said,
ironically; “on shipboard I will atone for it.”
“Heaven, then, has given me this in my hour of
need,” she cried, snatching a pistol from his belt,
and by a sudden effort disengaging herself and
springing away from him several feet. As she
spoke she levelled it against his person.
“Ha, ha! my pretty one, you do the heroine
excellently. Give me that pretty toy, sweet Kate,”
he said, advancing towards her; “it becomes not
a lady's fingers.”
“Back, sir,” she replied with resolution, presenting
it full at his breast.
“Nay, nay, then.”
He sprung upon her at the same instant to secure
the weapon, when she cried,
“God forgive me, then!” and fired.
Instantly he released her wrist, which he had
seized, with a cry of pain mingled with an exclamation
of rage and disappointment.
The report of the pistol was answered by the
roll of a drum on the Rondeel, and was followed
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by the noise of alarm and confusion in the town.
Kate fled like a deer towards the Hall, while Kyd,
wrapping his cloak about his left arm, which was
bleeding freely, glided beneath the locust-trees that
surrounded the Bowling Green, and gained his boat.
“Shall we pull back by the way we came?”
asked the coxswain.
“No. Give me the helm.”
The man obeyed his stern voice, and, after the
boat had cleared the rocks, he steered her directly
across the line of fire from the Rondeel towards
his vessel.
Without hesitating, the men pulled steadily and
in silence in the face of the fort, and, as the moon
was now up, they could not remain long undiscovered.
In a few seconds they were challenged from
the battery. There was no reply. A second time
they were hailed, but still the boat kept on her
course straight for the brig.
“Fire!” cried a voice. “'Tis `the Kyd.”'
Instantly, one after another, the heavy guns opened
upon them from the parapet, but the balls went
roaring through the air high above their heads.
Still steadily and silently the boat kept on her
course. A discharge of firearms followed with
more effect. Three of the eight oarsmen were
shot dead as they sat, and scarcely one escaped
unhurt. The desperate helmsman sat stern and
silent, and only with an impatient wave of his hand
bid them row on. A second volley reached them,
and but three oarsmen remained seated and labouring
faintly at their oars. Kyd left the helm and
caught the fourth oar as the dead man dropped it,
and, cheering them on, soon reached his brig, amid
a third volley that rattled around him like hail.
“Ship your oars,” he cried, as they came alongside,
rising to his feet.
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Not a man moved.
“Spring to the bows and fend off!” he shouted.
There was no reply; the men sat upright, and
swayed their bodies to and fro, and still pulled at
their sweeps!
The boat, at the same instant, came against the
brig's counter with a shock, and the three men
were thrown from their seats backward to the bottom
of the boat. They were dead! He had been
pulling an oar the last few seconds with corpses.
He shuddered and sprung up the side.
Instantly the brig got under weigh, and, sailing up
East River to Hell Gate, passed through the dangerous
pass, and came to, not far from the Witch's
Isle. A boat was lowered, and Kyd descended
into it and landed there. As he entered the hut
the witch was seated on the ground over a fire, rocking
her body to and fro, and chanting a wild song.
“Welcome, Robert Kyd,” she said, without
turning round. “Umph! I smell blood!” she cried
the instant after. “Thou hast been at thy old trade.
Hast thou had revenge?”
“I have. His vessel is mine. Him I have
slain.”
“Did I not promise thee this?” she said, rising
and speaking with triumph. “Now thou art come
to do my will and to fulfil thy oath.”
“I have seen her within the hour,” he said, with
settled hate.
“And she has scorned thee?”
“Yes. I tried love at first, but it would not do,
and—”
“You then tried force?”
“I did,” he said, ferociously.
“And she is now in thy state-cabin?”
“No. I bore her part way to my boat, when she
drew a pistol from my belt and shot me here.”
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“And she—”
“The garrison was instantly in arms; the town
rose clamorous; she fled like a deer, and mocked
pursuit. I barely escaped to my boat, and reached
my brig with the loss of every man. By Heaven!
I believe a score of balls struck my person, yet
they seemed to fall from my cloak harmlessly like
hailstones.”
“It was the amulet!”
“True, woman! Yet I was wounded by a pistol
in this girl's hand. Your charm here failed.”
“No. Did I not tell thee—if not, be it known
to thee, Robert Kyd—that ne'er devil wrought a
charm a woman may not undo. Ball from men
can harm thee not, but if a woman use the weapon
the charm is naught. What wilt thou now do?”
“Return to Ireland and lay claim to the earldom.
Perhaps, when I leave my present course of
life, she will listen to me. By the cross! I am
ashamed to woo a noble maiden whom I have
loved, and still love, so roughly.”
“I will woo her for thee.”
“Nay.”
“I will not heed thy nay! She must be thine.
Yet I like this determination to assume your earldom.
Go bury your treasures that are here, in
some safe place, and sail for Ireland. After thou
art become Lord of Lester, they can then be removed,
and enable thee to support thy rank with
princely state.”
“I will take them with me, Elpsy.”
“Thou wilt lose them, then, if pursued by a cruiser
and forced to desert your vessel. Bury them
here, and, when thou art an earl, thou canst come
for them thyself, and bear them home without suspicion.”
“Perhaps you are right; none will see in the
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Earl of Lester the outlaw Kyd. Save thyself and
Kate of Bellamont, the secret is locked from all
human knowledge.”
“Her pride will keep her from revealing it, and
my projects for thy aggrandizement seal my own
lips,” said the sorceress. “Here are the treasures
which for three years thou hast accumulated,” she
added, removing a stone from a crevice in the rock
against which her hut was built, and exposing, by
a torchlight, a cavity therein filled with vast piles
of gold and silver coins, countless rings for the ears
and fingers, cups of chased gold set with precious
stones, bracelets, ducal coronets sparkling with
diamonds, and innumerable jewels of every description.
He surveyed the valuable deposite, and then,
shaking his head, slowly said,
“They have cost much blood, Elpsy.”
“Therefore should they be well kept. Take
them with thee, and hide them in some secret place,
easy of access from the sea, till thou hast need of
them.”
“I know a spot where three tides meet, which
will be a safe repository for them.”
“Call thy men and bear them to thy vessel.”
“Wilt thou go with me to perform the rites?”
“I have other things to do in town. I have
made a discovery there that has filled my soul with
joy! Ho, I will tell it you when you return, for
it concerns you, boy. Cusha shall go with thee.
Slave, appear!”
From an obscure corner of the hut the hideous
African made his appearance, his malicious and
cunning features glowing with the hateful look they
habitually wore.
“Slave, take with thee thy charms and follow
thy master here! See that the gold is buried with
all the rites of our mystic art.”
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He prostrated himself to the floor, and left her to
obey her commands.
In a short time the pirate's crew had conveyed
the treasure from the hut to their boat, and thence
on board the brig, and before daybreak the vessel
was many leagues up the Sound, steering an easterly
course. The succeeding morning she doubled
the easternmost cape of Long Island, and, altering
her course to the southwest, stood towards Sandy
Hook under a stiff breeze from the southeast. By
night she entered the Sound between Sandy Hook
and the south side of Staten Island, and, steering
directly across the mouth of the Raritan, anchored
close to an elevated peninsula that formed the
northern shore of the river.
The report of the pistol fired by Kate Bellamont
not only alarmed the garrison and the town, but
brought out the earl from the library, whither he
had just retired with his friends, after having taken
the rounds of the threatened town.
“What means this, dearest Kate?” he cried,
meeting her flying across the lawn.
“Nothing, nothing, father!” she gasped, flinging
herself into his arms.
“My child is not injured? What is this firing and
sudden alarm? Why are you here, and flying as if
for life?” he asked, with anxious solicitude.
“The Kyd—the pirate!” she exclaimed, with
indignation.
“Ha!” he cried, bounding forward towards the
Rondeel, and thence instinctively to the nearest
shore where he anticipated he should meet him.
A boat was just putting off. Without delay he
hastened back to the Rondeel, and, taking the commander
by the arm, led him to the rampart, and said,
“There is the pirate's cutter. Bring your guns
to bear upon her.”
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The result of the fire is already known. When
he saw that the boat reached the brig, and that she
immediately got under weigh, he left the fort and
returned to the Hall to seek his daughter. On his
way he met Fitzroy, who had just arrived at the
Hall, after having, through the governor, chartered
a Bristol ship that was lying in the East Dock
ready for sea, with the intention of putting on board
of her the guns of the Rondeel, and attacking Kyd
as he was at anchor in the harbour.
“She can be got ready for sea in twenty-four
hours, my lord,” he said with animation, as he met
the earl. “But what is this confusion and heavy
firing?”
“You are well met, Fitzroy! Go to my daughter,
while I return to the fort! The bucanier has
landed, so far as I can learn, and like to have carried
Kate off, I believe. But I have had no time
to inquire.”
“I will see her at once,” said Fitzroy, leaving
him hastily.
“You will find her in her boudoir. I will remain
and see that our defences are kept up! Ha!
the pirate is under sail, and is moving up the Sound.”
“He is going to sea again, doubtless; but, as
our guns command both the channels out, he has
taken the way by Long Island Sound.”
“Heaven grant it be so!” said the earl, as he entered
the Rondeel.
Kate Bellamont was walking her room with a
rapid pace, a flushed cheek, and a flashing eye as
Fitzroy entered.
“Ha, Fitzroy, you have come,” she said, with
the tone and bearing of Elizabeth of England
when insult had touched her pride. “I am glad
to see you! I have been insulted.”
“Then you shall be avenged!” he said, taking
her hand.
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“Do you promise it?”
“By the love I bear you, I swear it!”
“Avenge me—wipe out the stain my woman's
pride has suffered, and I will be thy slave!”
“Nay, dearest Kate, I would rather thou wouldst
be my bride,” he said, smiling and kissing her
cheek.
“Rupert Fitzroy, touch me not! Think not
of love! When thou hast captured this freebooter—
when I behold him bound at my feet so low that
I can place my foot upon his neck, I will then be
thy bride. Ay, to the music of his clanking chains
shall be performed the marriage rites.”
“If not my own honour, thine at least demands
his capture and death. Catharine of Bellamont,”
he said, kneeling before her and solemnly elevating
his hands, “I swear by the cross that is the emblem
of our holy faith that thou shalt be avenged!”
She looked on his animated features a moment
steadily with her full black eyes, and then said,
“'Tis enough! By thy urgency in this matter
thou wilt show thy love for me, and by my determination
to press it to its issue thou mayest construe
mine for thee. I am now calm. Here is
the flag I have worked for thee. It bears thy initials,
with the arms of my house, conjoined. Take
it, and beneath it win thy bride.”
“Lady, it shall be done, or I will never see thy
face more!”
“Ay, it should be for the world's weal that it
should be done,” she said, with eloquent fervour,
“when every breeze comes tainted with the smell
of blood; when wondering crowds, each with a
tale that outweighs that his fellow bears, in nimble
speech deal out to one another hourly marvels!
When in bolts, bars, and locks before unknown in
this peaceful land, each household, for leagues
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along the coast, seeks ill security against midnight
dangers! When the fisherman fears to launch his
boat, and towns count their strength and weigh the
odds (as if a foe were thundering at their gates)
against sudden surprise. When he who spreads
such terror is captured, I will then be thine!”
“For this very enterprise am I now preparing.
Within this last half hour I have got a ship that
sails like the wind, which, with arms and ammunition
on board, will place me on a better deck than
that I have lost.”
“Why did you delay to tell this, and lead me to
blame you in my thoughts for supineness?”
“I would have kept it secret from thee till I had
sailed.”
“Wherefore?”
“Having,” he said, with hesitation, “some regard
for your former love—friendship, I should
say.”
“Love it once was, therefore speak out and call
it love!”
“I feared this might lead you to dissuade me
from it. But this sudden attitude you have assumed
fills me with surprise and admiration.”
“Rupert Fitzroy, have you not been told from
what peril I was but now saved? Have you forgotten
how, in a jealous fit, you have unawares let
drop that Robert Kyd, with his false lips, had said—
no matter what—but, being false, can never be
forgiven? Until this man is captive and lying at her
feet in chains, Catharine of Bellamont's hand shall
not be given in marriage. You have heard me,
Fitzroy?” she added, retiring to the farther part of
her room, as if she would be left alone.
“I have, and you shall be obeyed,” he replied,
leaving the boudoir.
The next morning but one a merchant-ship was
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hauled from the dock in which she had been several
weeks lying, undergoing repairs; and two guns
from the Rondeel, and several from the other forts,
were placed on board of her, making eight in all.
With a bold and willing crew, most of whom had
volunteered on the service, at sundown she got under
weigh, under the command of Fitzroy, accompanied
by Edwin his secretary, and put to sea in
search of the bucanier. She sailed through the Narrows
instead of Hell Gate, a fisherman having informed
him, as they were getting under weigh, that
he had seen a vessel answering the description of
the pirate sailing towards the mouth of the Raritan;
and as sufficient time had elapsed to have enabled
him to sail up through the Sound and double
Montauk Point, Fitzroy determined to go in pursuit
of the vessel mentioned by the fisherman.
The promontory off which Kyd had anchored at
the mouth of the Raritan, now called Perth Amboy,
descended on the south side to the river above
named, with a gentle inclination. On the east it
was washed by the waters of Staten Island Sound,
and the island which gives name to it stretched
east of it, with its high wooded bank far towards
the north, till it terminated in New-York Bay. On
the summit of the promontory was a small rustic
church, with a slender spire towering high above
the surrounding trees and humble hamlets. Around
the church was a primitive graveyard, with here and
there the unpretending tombstone which designated
the last resting-place of some English Protestant
or French Huguenot. From this rural cemetery
was a wide view of island, main, and ocean.
It was twilight when the bucanier's vessel anchored
beneath this promontory. At midnight
the little churchyard presented a singular scene.
In a deep shadow cast by the moon on the west
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side of the lonely church, were gathered a group
of men—the pale light shining broadly upon their
rude costume and savage features, mingled with
the red flame of dark lanterns, giving them a singularly
wild appearance. They were standing with
superstitious awe round an open grave, from which
the fresh body had just been dishumed and was
now lying white and glaring in its shroud upon the
ground not far off. Over the grave stood the wizard
Cusha, and beside it glittered heaps of treasure.
Apart walked Kyd in thought, occasionally turning
to the grave, and then walking with quicker pace
and uttering his thoughts half aloud:
“Though reason tells me there is nothing in it,
and laughs at charms, spells, and incantations
curling her lip with incredulity, I cannot get the
mastery o'er this superstition, but live its very
slave, using the instruments of her dark craft as if
my destiny and they were linked, yet scorning
while I use them.”
“All's ready, sir, black wizard and all,” said
the mate, approaching him and interrupting his
meditations.
“You treat too lightly these ceremonies, mate!
There may be deeper meaning in them than you
dream of.”
“If the infernal pit is at the bottom of them,
they are deep enough! This negro wizard looks
ugly enough to be the devil's grandfather.”
“No more, Loff. Is all prepared?”
“All.”
“Then give orders to the men.”
“Ay, ay, sir. All hands to bury money!”
The pirates gathered round the grave, part of
their number thrown into the shadow cast by the
tower of the church, the remainder exposed to
the full light of the moon. And moon scarcely
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ever shown on stranger or wilder scene. The
negro was seated sullenly, with his head on his
knees, upon the pile of grave-dirt, nor had he spoken
until Kyd now approached and addressed him.
“If, as thou dost profess, dark slave, power to
thee is delegated, by her whom thou hast served,
to deal with beings of another world, by this amulet
I wear I command thy service and obedience!”
As he spoke he held the amulet up to his view.
The wizard crossed his hands on his breast, and
bowed himself to the ground.
“Cusha is thy slave. Speak.”
“There lies heaped beside thee countless treasure—
jewels, stones of price, gold and silver coin
untold—each ounce of which has been purchased
by its weight of human blood. What is so dearly
bought should be safely stored and guarded. Perhaps
some future day, awearied of the ocean, we
may give up our roving life and settle down honest
country gentlemen. We shall then need it to buy
men's tongues and memories! Now perform the
mystic orgies prescribed for such occasions.”
The wizard slowly rose to his feet, and walked
deliberately three times around the grave, the pirates
giving back as he walked in superstitious
alarm. The third time he began to chant, in a low
key, unintelligibly; but, gradually rising in wildness
and distinctness, he, with strange gestures
and contortions of form and face, broke forth into
the following chant:
“Beelzebub, prince of air!
Mortals worship thee.”
He elevated his arms as he sung this in an attitude
of wild devotion.
“Apollyon, prince of sea!
Mortals worship thee.”
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He stretched his arms towards the sea as he
chanted, and a sudden dash and roar of its waves
upon the beach rose to the ears of the listeners
with an appalling sound.
“Sathanas, prince of earth!
Mortals worship thee.”
He struck the earth with his foot as he repeated
the words, and then, prostrating himself, kissed the
ground.
“Lucifer, prince of air!
Mortals worship thee.”
The wind seemed to sigh through the trees and
to howl about the church tower as he recited the
mystic verse. Then, with a singular union of all
the gestures and ceremonies he had hitherto used,
he chanted, in a tone that echoed like a chorus of
demons through the surrounding forests,
“Prince of air, earth, sea, and fire!
Mortals bow and worship thee!”
“It's an accursed lie!” suddenly cried Loff, the
mate, who, with the pirate crew, had been an appalled
listener and spectator of the scene.
“Hist!” exclaimed Kyd, in a suppressed voice,
forcibly grasping his arm; “a word of incredulity
will destroy the spell.”
“I have too much respect for my soul, captain,
to let this black son of darkness sell it to the devil
so glibly.”
“Silence! Observe him!”
The wizard again began to chant, acknowledging
the presence of each element by some appropriate
gesture as he named it:
“By thy four great names we call thee!
By the power thou hast conferr'd,
Let our voices now be heard!
By fire we call on thee!”
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He then seized a torch held by one of the men,
and waved it to and fro above his head.
“By water we call on thee!”
From a cruise that he had placed beside him, he
took up water in his palm and cast it into the air.
“By air we call on thee!”
He waved his arms upward, and a sound like
the rushing of wind passed over them, and every
torch flickered with the sudden agitation of the atmosphere.
“By earth we call on thee!”
He cast into the air a handful of the grave-dirt,
which fell back to the ground with a hollow noise
like the rumbling sound of an earthquake.
Every man stood appalled. Suddenly he ceased,
and took, with much form and ceremony, a black
cat from a pouch slung at his waist. He elevated
her in one hand, while in the other he held a drawn
knife above her, and chanted, turning the animal
slowly round,
“No spot of white
Must meet the sight!
Thrice shall it wave
Above the grave!
At a single blow
The blood must flow!”
He waved his knife at the repetition of the second
couplet thrice above the grave, and at the close
of the last line severed the head of the animal,
which, with the body, he dropped into it. Instantly
there issued flames and dense smoke from
it, which first lighted up the scene wildly for a
moment, and then left it in murky darkness.
When the black volumes of vapour rolled away,
the wizard was standing astride the grave in the
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attitude of a sacrificer, his blood-dripping knife in
his outstretched arm: he then began to chant,
“'Tis kindled, kindled!
Lucifer our prayer has heard!
In his name
Feed the flame!
If dies the fire, the charm is broken!”
Then turning to Kyd, he cried,
“The book with name not to be spoken!
The book, the book to feed the flame,
The book, the book none dare to name!”
“Think he means the Holy Bible, Captain Kyd?”
demanded Loff, with religious horror.
“Silence!” cried the pirate chief.
He took from the folds of his cloak as he spoke
a thick book, and gave it to the wizard, who received
it with three several prostrations. He then
tore it in pieces and cast the leaves into the grave.
Instantly blue flame rose from it to a great height,
thunder rolled in startling peals, while the most
vivid lightning hissed and glared around them; at
the same instant the bell in the church tower tolled
without human aid with a sound so deep and solemn,
so wild and unearthly, that every man was
filled with consternation and horror. The wizard
alone stood unmoved; and standing with one foot
upon the treasure, chanted,
“One half the sacrifice is o'er,
In the grave your treasure pour!
He who seeks must seek again,
He who digs will dig in vain!”
“Thus much is over,” said Kyd, advancing.
“Pour the coin and jewels into the grave.”
“Shiver my timbers! if I understand this!” exclaimed
Loff. “There is more of Old Hoofs to
do in the matter than I expected, or you wouldn't
have caught me here. Umph! this black wizard
smells of brimstone!”
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After all the treasure was poured into the grave,
the wizard, looking, as the moon shone upon his
form and features, more like a demon than human,
stood across it, and looked around malevolently
upon the pirates as they leaned upon their spades
prepared to refill it. After a moment's silence he
began, in the same wild, monotonous chant:
“Safe from every human eye
Shall this gold securely lie;
When a mortal who has seen
The treasure placed the grave within,
Shall in the grave alive be thrown:
This done, the spot shall ne'er be known.
And finish'd then the rites will be,
Mortal, thou hast sought from me!”
“If I had my doubts before about his being
leagued with Beelzebub, not one have I left now,”
said Loff, with indignation. “I can see a fellow
walk a plank or seized up to the yardarm, but I
am too tender-hearted to see such a thing done as
he hints at in his infernal rhymes.”
The whole pirate crew seemed to be animated by
the same feelings. At first general consternation
prevailed; but, gathering confidence, they whispered
together, casting the while revengeful looks towards
the wizard. Suddenly, by one impulse, they laid
their hands, without speaking, upon him, and cast
him headlong into the grave; and then, acting as
one man, filled it up with its living occupant in a
moment of time. The first action of Kyd was to
spring forward and rescue him; but the determined
attitude of his men, whose minds were too highly
wrought up to be held under control, checked
the impulse. He stood by till the grave was
smoothed over, so that not a vestige of it remained,
and was then about to command them to return
to the brig, which was seen through the trees
lying at her anchor near the land: but ere he could
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give the order, the flame of a gun fired from her
flashed upon his eyes, followed by a loud report, that
echoed in many a deep, rumbling note along the
wooded shore.
“A signal of alarm!” he cried; “to your boats
all!”
He hastened forward to the verge of the promontory
where the prospect was unobstructed, and, casting
his eyes down the narrow strait that opens seaward
between Staten Island and Sandy Hook, beheld
not a mile off, coming round the headland, a large
ship, her tall sails glancing like snow in the moonlight.
Loud and clear rung his voice hastening his
men to the brig, while gun after gun flashed and
thundered from her, calling them on board to her defence.
In less than five minutes three boats loaded
with the pirates put off from the shore and pulled
swiftly in the direction of the brig. Kyd stood up
steering the foremost one. But the wind blew
steadily and strong in from sea, and the strange ship
came on so fast that she was soon no farther off
from their vessel than they themselves. It was
plain she knew what she was about.
“Strain every nerve, men!” he cried, in an even,
determined voice that reached every ear, while its
coolness was more effectual in inspiring confidence
than loud shouts would have been. “Pull together
and steadily! She must not reach the brig before
us. Now, all together! Lively, lively! A
few strokes and we shall reach her.”
But they were yet several hundred yards from
her, and the stranger came ploughing his way down
without taking in a sail or altering his course, save
just enough to enable him to cut off the boats, the
approach of which, as well as the relative position
of the brig with the shore, he was able to discern by
the aid of the moon, which filled the atmosphere
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with brilliant light. In the mean while the brig cut
her anchor, and, swinging round, with her diminished
force directed a feeble and irregular fire towards
her. But she kept on her course in majestic silence,
without returning it and without apparent injury;
and, ere the boats could reach their vessel, she sailed
in between it and them, and poured a broadside
into each. The brig felt the fire in every spar; but
the boats, being so low in the water, escaped without
injury, the shot flying high above the heads of
the pirates, and crashing among the forests on the
shore. The brig was now evidently in the power of
the ship; and Kyd, finding that it would be impossible
to reach her, shouted through the smoke, that
settled thickly over the water, to his mate Lawrence
whom he had left on board with but a dozen men,
“Let them not take her! Blow her up, and to
your boat!”
His voice was distinctly heard by every man
both in the brig and ship.
“Hard up! hard, hard!” was instantly heard in
the clear voice of Fitzroy; and the ship, which was
steering so as to lay the brig aboard, fell off and
stood in towards shore. The moment afterward
a small boat was seen to put off from the brig,
which a few seconds afterward blew up with a
terrible explosion, suddenly turning night, for many
miles around, into broad day, and shaking the earth
with the tremendous concussion. For an instant
the air was filled with a shower of missiles, and
trains of fire lighting up sea, forest, and boats with
a momentary and wild glare; then all sunk into
darkness, and the pale moon once more struggled
to assert her right to the empire of her own gentle
light, which had been so suddenly invaded.
“Now, my men, we are left to our own resources,”
said Kyd. “There is not water enough
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for this ship to pass up this narrow sound. Let
us pull through it. Who our pursuer is I have no
idea: a small corvette, sent expressly by the king
in pursuit, doubtless. But let us do our best to get
off. We shall find some trader in the harbour, and
will cast ourselves on board of her. There is no
other chance!”
His address was received with a shout, and the
four boats, Lawrence having now joined them, began
to pull northward through the Staten Island
Sound. The ship, in the mean while, after recovering
the ground she had lost in avoiding the explosion,
stood steadily on after the boats, which were
not a quarter of a mile ahead, occasionally firing a
bowchaser at the little fleet. The chase continued
for half an hour, the pirates keeping the lead gallantly,
and, being enabled to cross shoals by their
lighter draught, occasionally they got far ahead,
while the ship was slowly following the circuitous
channel.
“She has a pilot who knows the ground,” said
Kyd, as he beheld the ship navigate safely an intricate
reach of the narrow passage. “If he clears
the Red Bank we have just come across, he will
do what ship has never done before—go through into
York Bay! Now she comes to it!” he cried, with
animation, rising in his boat and watching the advance
of the ship across the shoal. Suddenly he
exclaimed, while a shout went up from the men,
who were so interested at this crisis of the pursuit
that they forgot to pull at the oar,
“She has struck, and heavily too! There goes
her fore-topgallant-mast like a pipestem!”
“She will off with the flood,” said Lawrence.
“It is full flood now. She will stick there as
long as two timbers hold together, unless they
pitch their guns overboard,” said Loff.
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“Ho, my lads, all!” suddenly cried Kyd, addressing
them; “she is now ours. Back water!
Let us carry her as she lies!”
He was answered by a loud hurrah, and the
boats' heads were instantly turned towards the ship,
which was about half a mile off. The boats shot
forward with velocity, pushing before them vast
surges which their ploughing bows turned up from
the surface. They had got within half their distance
of her, when boats were lowered from every
part of her, and, as if by magic, filled with men.
“They are on the alert! He who commands
her knows his business!” said Kyd, who, as his
boats approached, had stood up in the stern of his
own, with his drawn cutlass extended towards the
vessel, inspiring his men and panting for the conflict.
But, at this indication of their readiness to
receive him, he suddenly cried, turning and waving
his hand to the boats in the rear,
“Hold on!”
He then surveyed the enemy, and said in a calm,
deep tone, every accent of which was expressive
of his determined purpose,
“There are six boats, with at least twenty men
in each; we number fifty or sixty only. Nevertheless,
we must fight them!”
This proposition, notwithstanding the previous
ardour of the crew, was received with a universal
murmur of dissent.
“We are willing to pull towards New-York
Bay, Captain Kyd,” said Loff, “and take possession
of some of the craft there; but there are too
many odds against us to risk fighting yonder
barges. Besides, on the bows of the largest boat
I can see a gun relieved against the wake of the
moon.”
“It is too true. We shall be likely to have the
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worst of it,” said Kyd, suppressing his rage, which
was ready to burst forth at the refusal of his men,
and satisfied on a second glance that it would be
useless to attempt, with his ill-armed crew, to capture
a flotilla of boats so well prepared both for
attack and defence. “Put away, and let us get
through this narrow sound at our best speed! If
they pursue us we will lead them a long chase.”
He was answered by a cheer from his men and
a simultaneous dash of the numerous oars into the
water, under the force of which the boats moved
up the strait with direct and rapid motion. At
the same instant a gun of heavy metal was discharged
from the bows of the headmost boat of
their pursuers, loaded with grape; but the leaden
shower fell far short of them; while, at the same
instant, with loud cheers, all the barges left the side
of the ship and commenced hot pursuit of the pirate
boats.
“A twelve-pounder, by its report,” said Kyd,
“and it would have done mischief if it had been elevated
half an inch higher. Pull, men! they will
shoot better the next time!” he shouted, waving his
sword with animation and cheering them on.
Away they flew, pursuing and pursued! At one
moment the ship's boats would be almost upon them,
when the pirates would shoot from the main channel
into some creek or bayou intersecting the marshy
shores, and re-enter the Sound far above them. At
intervals the twelve-pounder broke with a loud roar
upon the night, echoing among the woods of Staten
Island and the Jersey shore in multiplied reverberations;
and, like a hurricane, its cloud of bullets
would rush along the air, or plough and skip along
the surface of the water, but with little effect. On
they went, pursuing and pursued, neither yielding
or showing signs of fatigue. At length the moon
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hung low over the western horizon, and shone with
a cold, watery look; in the east flakes of light
spotted the sky, and the darkness began to break
before the dawn. Gradually the ashy hue of the
sky became clearer, and changed to a delicate pink;
and then, waxing brighter, grew to vermillion, till
the whole eastern sky blushed with the incipient
dawn. The clouds that hung about the path of
the coming sun began to turn out edges of gold,
and the sky to the zenith to radiate with beams of
glorious dies. The whole heaven, even down to
the low west, had changed its livery of blue for the
rose, while the jealous moon, disdaining to look on
a rival whose coming was so gorgeously heralded,
threw a snowy veil over her brow, and sunk, scarce
visible on the brow of morning, beneath the horizon!
Suddenly up rose the sun and filled the
world with light!
As the day approached the hostile parties became
plainly visible to one another, and were able to count
each other's force. At sunrise the pirate's boats
entered the bay of New-York, leaving Staten Island
on the right, and closely followed within a
third of a mile by their pursuers, pulled directly towards
the town, which, with its wall and Rondeel,
was seen rising from the water a league distant.
Not far from the shore, between the Governor's
Island and the town, lay three or four small Dutch
yachts at anchor, waiting for the change of tide
to take them up to Albany. It was evident, from
the course he took, that it was the intention of Kyd
to throw himself on board one of these vessels,
and effect the escape of himself and crew. This
seemed to be the idea suggested to the mind of the
leader of the pursuing boats, and he urged his men
forward in the most animated and eager manner.
At the stern of his launch, which took the lead,
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and in the bows of which was mounted a twelve-pound
carronade, floated a silken flag, on which
were conspicuous the initials of his name and the
crest of the house of Bellamont.
“By the cross!” exclaimed Kyd, as the sunlight
struck on this flag, and a passing breeze unfolded
it to his eye as he turned to watch the chase, “'tis
the same flag!”
“What flag?” inquired Loff, taking a pocket
spyglass from his jacket.
“Ha! you have a glass! Give it me!” he cried,
hastily. “By Heaven!” he cried, after a moment's
surveying, “'tis the same! The very initials.
Now the wind opens it. 'Tis the same with the
earl's crest! What can it mean? This youth Edwin
may have become her champion since I so
foolishly gave him his liberty! He, and none else,
commands the barges! But there is too much skill
displayed in directing the pursuit to emanate from
a boy like him! Yet why this flag? Among the
dense mass of heads beneath I cannot distinguish
the leader's features!”
“Shall we board the nearest yacht?” asked Loff.
“We shall soon be close upon them.”
Kyd turned and found that he was within a mile
of three sloops that lay under the guns of the Rondeel.
He looked back and saw that the barges
were coming with increased speed, and would be
up with him by the time he could reach the vessels.
He cheered on his men with every gesture
and word of encouragement; but, with all their exertions,
he perceived that at every dip of their
sweeps his pursuers gained on him.
At length the carronade from the leading boat
opened upon them for the first time since sunrise
and with terrible effect upon the nearest boat, commanded
by Lawrence. Nearly every bullet told in
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[figure description] Page 218.[end figure description]
the plank or flesh; and the ill-fated boat, which
seemed to have received the whole charge from
the piece, instantly went down, leaving (so effectually
had it been converted into their coffin) only
Lawrence and one of his comrades floating wounded
upon the surface.
“For the yacht—never stop to pick him up! for
the yacht! Your lives depend on your reaching
it!” shouted Kyd, with desperation. “Pull, ye
dogs! Strong! together all! Bend to your
sweeps like devils! In five minutes we'll be on
board.”
But the crew of the sloop, consisting of three or
four men only, were already aware of their danger;
and, cutting their cable, hoisted their jib and mainsail
with what haste the occasion demanded, and,
aided by the wind and tide, moved swiftly down
the harbour beyond their reach. The other vessels
followed this example as rapidly as possible;
and, ere the pirates could get alongside, they were
sailing away at a rate that defied pursuit.
“We are foiled by the devil's own aid!” said
Kyd. He paused a moment. His pursuers were
close upon him, and, save the shore, there was no
avenue of escape. To delay and fight with his reduced
number, even if his jaded and dispirited men
would consent to it, would have been certain capture
and death. For an instant he paused, and
then said, in the calm, deliberate tone he was accustomed
to use in times of most imminent peril,
“We must pull in shore and fight our way
across the town to the East River, where we can
cut out one of the vessels in the dock. There is
no alternative! The town's people will scarce resist
us! Will you land and let me lead you,
men?”
“Ay, to the shore!” was the general cry; and
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swiftly the boats cut their way towards the foot of
the Rondeel, which they approached on the western
side, out of the range of its few remaining guns.
Close in hot pursuit came the barges, pouring in
upon them a constant and fatal discharge of fire-arms.
The carronade was no longer fired, as its
rebound so materially checked the speed of the boat
that it soon fell behind all the others.
“Leave your oars and draw your cutlasses!”
cried Kyd, as the boats struck the beach near the
spot where he had landed when he attempted to
convey Kate Bellamont to it. It was not far from
the Rondeel, on the west of the governor's house.
With a shout the pirates bounded on shore, about
forty in number, and, hastily forming in a body,
headed by Kyd, with drawn sabres and pistols,
were rapidly led by him around the base of the fort
and across the lawn in the direction of Jost Stoll's
tavern and the West Dock. The garrison in the
Rondeel was so taken by surprise at the boldness
of the bucaniers, that, before they could prepare to
dispute their landing, they were moving at a rapid
and steady pace across the grounds in front of the
White Hall towards the wicket that led into the
town. But here they were met with unexpected
resistance. At the head of full eighty burghers,
whom he had hastily armed and assembled to oppose
this strange invasion from the sea, the Earl of
Bellamont advanced upon them through the gate.
“Be men!” cried the earl to his command. “Remember,
though unused to arms, you now fight for
your homes, your wives, your children, your own
lives, and all ye hold dear. Charge them ere they
can form their body!”
The governor himself rushed forward, sword in
hand, as he spoke, the sturdy burghers with a shout
pressed on, and the two parties were immediately
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engaged in a sanguinary conflict. The pirates
fought with demoniac fury, while the townsmen,
excited by the smell of powder and the clash of steel,
dealt blows that told wherever they fell. Nevertheless,
the bucaniers, by long habit, discipline, and
indifference to danger, got the better of them, though
scarcely numbering half their force, and drove them,
in spite of the cries and commands of the earl, towards
the gate. Everywhere Kyd was present,
and high above the sounds of conflict was heard
his voice cheering and encouraging. But, though
victors for the moment, they were soon confronted
with a fresh and better disciplined foe. The barges
had by this time landed their crews, and they now
advanced upon them with loud cries and in overpowering
numbers.
“Face them! Fight each man for his own life!”
shouted Kyd, as, on turning from the discomfiture
of the burghers, he beheld the advance of his pursuers.
The combat was now waged with terrific fury.
Now the victor, now the vanquished, Kyd attacked
and defended with a degree of skill and courage
that, employed in a better cause, should have had
a better result. At length his men, being broken
into small parties, were overpowered, and either
slain or disarmed. He alone defended himself
against a numerous division that had pressed him
towards an oak, the branches of which grew near
the window of Kate Bellamont's boudoir. They
would have cut him down by mere force of numbers
if they had not suddenly been restrained by
the commanding voice of Fitzroy, who hitherto had
been engaged in another part of the field.
“Hold, men! Back, and leave him to me!” he
cried, advancing towards Kyd through the lane
opened to him by his men.
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“Ha! does the sea give back its dead?” cried
Kyd, with horror, dropping his red cutlass and
gazing upon him with mortal fear. “Can it be!
Speak, I conjure thee, if thou art flesh and blood!”
“Monster, this day shall terminate thy career
of crime!” replied Fitzroy, preparing to cut him
down.
“By the mass! flesh or blood, I'll have a bout
with thee!” cried Kyd, reassured by his voice,
seizing a sabre from one of the men he had slain.
“Ho! for Kate Bellamont!”
“Ha, villain! For thyself, then!”
A fierce broadsword combat ensued between
them, and continued for a few seconds with equal
skill and energy. At length the sword of Fitzroy
caught in the strand of hair about Kyd's neck and
severed it. Instantly the amulet it sustained dropped
to the ground. Kyd's confidence and courage
seemed to fail him at once, and, striking at random,
he was soon disarmed by his cooler adversary, and
his life placed at his mercy.
“Strike!” said the bucanier, despondingly.
The victor was about to obey, when his uplifted
arm was arrested by a shriek from the balcony, and
the voice of Kate Bellamont crying,
“Spare him! save him, Fitzroy!”
The point of his weapon sunk at his feet, and he
bent low to her in acquiescence; then turning to
his men, he said,
“Bind him. My lord, what shall be done with
him? He is at your disposal.”
“Bear him to the prison of the Rondeel, there
to await his trial!”
Silent and desponding, yet still holding himself
with a dignified and lofty bearing, the captive pirate
chief was borne, with his few surviving followers,
to a dungeon in the Rondeel, while the earl,
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Fitzroy, and Edwin (who had not participated in the
contest) together entered the Hall, leaving their victorious
party to clear the ensanguined field of the
melancholy traces of the morning's fight.
Ingraham, J. H. (Joseph Holt), 1809-1860 [1839], Captain Kyd, or, The wizard of the sea Volume 2 (Harper & Brothers, New York) [word count] [eaf158v2].
