NAVAL STORIES William Leggett Published on demand by UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS University Microfilms Limited, High Wycomb, England A Xerox Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan, US.A. NAVAL STORIES- 13 Y WILLIAM LEGGETT, i i I litre loTttl Ibce, Oo*an ! nii my joy Of youthful poiti wai on thy brosl to be Born< t ) ic thy t illowj, cawnrJi. Byrttk SECOND EDITION, NEW-YORK: G. ^ C. CARVILL&, CO No. JOS Broadwav. /\ ^f\ 1835. \ LOAN STAO? J Entered, ao.cordlng to &ct of Congress, in the ycnr 1S34, by WILLIAM LEGGETT, in the Clerk s otlico of tlic District Court of the United Statei for the Southern District of New- York. JAMER VAN NORDIN, HUNTER. CONTENTS. PAOX. Tho Encounter, 9 A Night at Gibraltar, t , 33 Merry Terry, Cl The Mess.Chest, 87 Tho Main Truck, or a Leap for Life, 109 Firo and Water, 127 Brought to the Gangway, 151 A Watch in the Main Top, 181 072 " j THE ENCOUNTER. A THE ENCOUNTER. One universal shriek there rushed, Louder than tho loud ocean, liko a crash Of echoing thunder; and then all was hushed Save the wild wind, and tie remorseless dash Of billows. . yron.. THE Active, Sloop of War, had been lying all day becalmed, in mid ocean, and was rolling ani pitching in a heavy ground swell, which was tho only trace led of the gale she had lately encoun tered. The sky was of as tender and serene a bluo as if it had never been deformed with clouds ; and the atmosphere was bland and pleasant, although the latitude and the season might both have led one to expect different weather. Since the morning watch, when the wind, after blowing straight an end for several days together, had died suddenly away, there had not been enough air stirring to lift tho dog-vane from its staff, down which it hung in mo tionless repose, except when raised by the heave of the vessel, as she laboured in the trough of the sea. Her courses had been hauled up, and she lay under 12 THE ENCOUNTER. her threo topsails, braced on opposite tacks, ready to take advantage of the first breath of wind, from whatever quarter it might come. The crew were disposed in various groups about the deck, some idling away in listless ease the inter val of calm ; some, with their clothes-bags besid.i them, turning it to account in overhauling their dun nage; while others moved fidgety about, on the forecastle and in the waist, eyeing, ever and anon, the horizon round, as if already weary of their short holiday on the ocean, and impatiently watching for some sign of a breeze. To a true sailor there arc few circumstances more annoying than a perfect calm. The same principle of our nature which makes the traveller on land, though journeying with out any definite object, desire the postilion to whip up his horses and hasten to the end of his stage, is manifested in a striking degree ai* -ig seamen. The end of one voyage is but the beginning of another, * O O and their life is a constant succession of hard ships and perils; yet they cannot abide that the elements should grant them a moment s respite. As the wind dies away their spirits /lag; they move heavily and sluggishly about while the calm con tinues; but rouse at the first whisper of the breeze, and arc never gayer or more animated than when their canvass swells out to its utmost tension in the gale. On the afternoon in question, this feeling of rest- THE ENCOUNTER. 13 Icssncss at the continuance of the calm was not con* fined to the crew of the Active. Her commander had been nearly all day on deck, walking to and fro, on the starboard side, with quick impatient strides, or now stepping into one gangway, and now into tlio other, and casting anxious and searching looks into all quarters of the heavens, as if it were of the ut most consequence that a breeze should spring up and enable him to pursue his way. Indeed it was whis pered among the officers, that there were reasons of state which made it important they should reach their point of destination as speedily as possible ; though where that point-was, or what those reasons were, not a soul on board knew, except the captain and he was nut a man likely to enlighten their ignorance on the subject. Few words, in truth, did any one ever hear from Black Jack, as the reefers nicknamed him ; and when he did speak, what lie said was not generally of a kind to make them desire he should often break his taciturnity. He was a straight, tall, stern-looking man, just passed the prime of life, as might be inferred from the wrinkles on his thoughtful brow, and the slightly grizzled hue of the locks about his temples ; though his hair, elsewhere, was as black as the raven. IJis face bore the marks both of storm and battle : it was furrowed and deeply embrowned by long exposure to every vicissitude of weather ; arid a deep scar across the left brow told a tale of dangers braved 14 THE ENCOUNTER. and overcome. His eyes were large, black and piercing; and the habitual compression and curve of his lip indicated both firmness and haughtiness of character indications which those who sailed with him had no reason to complain of as deceptive. 13ul notwithstanding his impatience, and the ur- gcncy of his mission, whatever it was, the Active continued to roil heavily about at the sport of the big round billows, which swelled up and spread and tumbled over so lazily, that their glassy surfaces were not broken by a ripple. The sun went down clear, but red and fiery ; and the sky, though its blue faded to a duskier tint, still remained un flecked by a single cloud. As the broad round disk disap peared beneath the wave, all hands were called to stand by thoir hanuno cks ; and when the stir and bustle incident to that piece of duty had subs dcd, an unwonted degree of stillness settled on the vessel. Tin s was owing in part, no doubt, to the presence of the commander, before whom the crew were not apt to indulge in any great exuberance of merriment ; but the sluggish and unusual state of the weather had probably the largest share in the effect. The captain continued on deck, pacing up and down the starboard side ; the lieutenant of the watch leaned over the fafirel, his trumpet idly dangling by its bcckct from his. arm; and tho two quarter-deck midshipmen walked in the gangway, beguiling their THE ENCOUNTER. 15 watch with prattle about homo, or gay anticipations of the future. * "We .shall have a dull and lazy right of it, Vangs," said the master s mate of the forecastle, as he returned forward from adding on the log. si ate another "ditto" to the long column of them which recorded the history of the day. The person ho addressed stood on the heel of the bowsprit, with his arms folded on his breast, and his gaze fixed intently on the western horizon, from which the daylight had now so completely faded, that it required a practised and keen eye to discern where the sky and water met. He was a tall, square-framed, aged looking seaman, whose thick gray hair shaded a strongly marked and weather-beaten face, and whose shaggy overcoat, buttoned to the throat, covered a form that for forty years had breasted the storms and perils of every sea. lie did not turn his head, nor withdraw his eyes from the spot they rested on, as he said, in a low tone, " We shall have work enough before morning, Mr. Garnet." " Why, where do you read that, Vangs?" inquired the midshipman " thcro is nothing of the sort in my reckoning." "I read it in a book I have studied through many a long cruise, Mr. Garnet, and though my eyes aro getting old, I think I can understand its meaning yet. Hark ye, young man, the hammocks aro piped down, A3 1(5 THE ENCOUNTER. and the watch is set; but there will be no watch in this night mark my words." " Why, Vangs, you arc turning prophet," replied the master s-mate, who was a* rattling young fellow, full of blood and blue veins. "I shouldn t wonder to sec you strike tarpauling when the cruise is up, rig out in a Methodist s broad brim and straight togs, and ship the next trip for parson." " My cruisings arc pretty much over, Mr. Gar- net, and my next trip, I am thinking, is one I shall have to go alone though there s a sign in the heavens this night makes me fear I shall have but too much company." " Why, what signs do you talk of, mui ?" asked the young officer, somewhat startled by the quiet and impressive tone and mariner of the old quarter master. " I see nothing that looks like a change of weather, and yet I see all there is to be seen." "I talked in the same way, once, I remember," said Vangs, "when I was about your age, as we lay becalmed one night in the old Charlotte East India- man, heaving and pitching in the roll of a ground swell, much as we do now. The next morning found me clinging to a broken topmast, the only thing left of a fine ship of seven hundred tons, which, with every soul on board of her, except me, had gono to the bottom. That was before you were born, Mr. Garnet." THE ENCOUNTER. 17 " Such things have often been, no doubt, said Garnet, " and such tilings will bo again nay, may happen as you say, before morning.- But because you were once wrecked in a gale of wind that sprung up out of a calm, it is no reason that every calm is to be followed by such a gale. Show me a sign of wind, and I may believe it ; but for my part, I see no likelihood of enough even to blow away the smoke of that cursed galley, which circles and dances about here on the forecastle, as if it was master s mate of the watch, and was ordered to keep a bright look-out." "Turn your eye in that direction, Mr, Garnet. Do you not see a faint belt of light, no broader than my finger, that streaks the sky where the sun went down ? It is not daylight, for I watched that all fade away, and the last glimmer of it was gono before that dim brassy streak began to show itself. And carry your eye in a straight line above it do you not mark how thick and lead-like the air looks? There is that there," said the old man, (laying his hand on the bowsprit, as he prepared to sit down between the night-heads) " will try what stuff these sticks are made of before the morning breaks." Young Garnet put his hand over his brow, and half shutting his eyes, peered intently in the direc tion the old seaman indicated ; but no sign pregnant with such evil as ho foreboded, or no appearance even of the wished for breeze, met his vision. Irn- 18 TUB ENCOUNTER. puling the predictions of Vangs to those megrims which old sailors are apt to have in a long calm, or perhaps to a desire to play upon his credulity, he folded his pea-coat more closely about him, and taking his seat on the nettings in such a position that he could lean hack against the fore-rigging, pre pared to settle himself down in that delicious state of repose between sleeping and waking, in which he thought he might with impunity doze away such a quiet watch as his promised to be. lie had scarcely closed his eyes, however, when a sound rung in his cars that made him spring to the deck, and at once dispelled all disposition to slumber. It was the clear trumpet-like voice of the captain himself] hailing the forecastle. "Sir!" bawled the startled master s mate. "Have your halliards clear for running, sir! your cluelines led along, and the men all at their stations." "Ay, ay,, sir!" sung Garnet in reply, and then muttered to himself, " here s the devil to pay and no pitch hot. What is the meaning of all this, I won der? Has the skipper seen old Vangs s streak of brass, too ? or does he hope to coax the wind out, by raising such a breeze on deck ?" And he stepped upon a shot box, and cast another long, searching glance into the western horizon ; but there was no sign there which to his inexperienced eye boded any change of weather. THE ENCOUNTEIl. 19 "Fo castlc, there!" again sounded from the quarter-deck, but it was now the voice of the lieute nant of the watch, hailing through his trumpet, "Sir !" answered the mate. " Send the fo castle-mcn aloft to furl the foresail. Quarter-gunner and after-guard, do you hear ! lay aloft lay out furl away !" These and other similar orders were quickly obeyed, and stillness again succeeded. But the at tention of all on deck was now aroused ; and every one watched in silence for some less questionable forerunner of wind than was yet visible to their eyc. They all noticed, however, that the sky had grown thicker and of a dingier hue, and that not a single star peeped through the gloom. But there was not a breath of air yet stirring. The topsails continued to flap heavily against the masts, as they were swayed to and fro by the motion of the vessel ; tho lower yards creaked in their slings ; and the ship headed now one way and now another, as she yawed and swung round, completely at the mercy of the swell. The seamen gathered in groups at their several stations, and waited in silence the result which all now began to apprehend. But while these feelings of indefinite fear were entertained by those on deck, the watch below were disturbed by no such anxiety. The officers in the gun-room were variously occupied, according to their different tastes and inclinations ; some amusing 20 t THE ENCOUNTER. themselves by reading, some writing, and others stretched upon the chairs or in their berths, dream ing away the interval of rest. The midshipmen in the steerage had gathered round their mess-table, and were engaged in lively chat and repartee, arid in cracking nautical jokes and witticisms upon each oilier. Their discourse was plenti- fully interlarded with sea-phrases ; for thcsc-juvcnilc sons of Neptune, however slender their seamanship in other respects, have commonly great volubility in rattling off the technicals of their profession, and a surprising facility in applying them to the ordinary topics of conversation. With the omission of a single letter, the distich describing Iludibras might be applied to them, or, if a poor pun be allowable, it may be said to fit them to a t, for they cannot opo Their mouths, but nut there fulls a ropo. One of the merriest and noisiest of the group in the Active s steerage was a little, rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed reefer, whose flaxen hair curled in natu ral ringlets around his temples, and was surmounted by a small low-crowned tarpauling hat, cocked knowingly on one side, in amusing imitation of the style of the full-grown jack tar. " Hullo, Jigger, how does she head now ?" cried the little wag to one of the mcssboys, aj his bandy legs made their appearance do\vn the companion ladder. THE ENCOUNTER. 21 "She head cbery which way, Misser Burton," answered the black, his shining face dilated with a. prodigious grin, showing he relished the humour of the question. "It is a dead calm on deck youknow, Misser Burton, and de main yard is brace frat aback." "0, 1 sec," rejoined the urchin, "they have hovo her to, Jigger, to give her half a lemon to keep her from fainting. She has outsailed the wind, and is lying by to wait for it." " Lying by, indeed /" said another ; " she is going like atop." " And if she keeps on," added a third, "she will soon go as fast as the Dutchman s schooner, when she stood into port under a heavy. press of bolt-ropes, the sails having blown clean out of them at sea." "Oh, I heard of that schooner," resumed little Burton, the first speaker. "It was she that sailed so fast, that when they broke up her hatches, they found she had sailed her bottom off." "Her skipper," interrupted another, "was both master and chief mate, and they made the duty easy by dividing it between them, watch and watch." "Yet the Dutchman grew so thin upon it," added little Burton, " that when he got home his mother and sister could nt both look at him at once." "And his dog," said the other, "got so weak, it had to lean against the mast to bark." l>: Come, come, take a turn there, and belay," 22 THE ENCOUNTER. cried one of the older midshipmen, who was stretched at full length upon a locker. " Come, you have chased that joke fur enough. ITcavc about, and see if you can t give us something better on t other lack." "Well, Tom Derrick, if you don t like our rigs, tip us a twist, yourself. Come, spin us a yarn, my boy, if you have your jaw-tacks aboard." "No, no, Charley Burton, I can t pay out any slack to-night. I am as sleepy as a lookout in a calm. My eyes feel like the marine s when his cue was served so taught, lie could nt make his eyelids meet. Hullo, Jigger, rouse out my hammock from that heap and hang it up you know which it is, don t you?" " Ki ! I wish I had as much tobacco as I know which Misscr Derrick s hammock is!" eagerly re plied the negro. This characteristic speech produced a hearty burst of laughter; and in chat and merriment of this sort the evening slipped away, until the hour for extin guishing the lights arrived, and the quarter-master came down- to douse the glim. "Well, \ 7 angs," cried the ever ready Burton, "it is blowing an Irishman s hurricane on deck, is nt it straight up and down, like a pig s eye?" " It is all quiet yet," replied Yangs, " but the sky has a queer look, and there will bo a hurricane of a THE ENCOUNTER. 23 different sort before you are many hours older, Mr. Charles." " Is there really any prospect of wind?" asked the midshipman we have called Derrick. " There is something brewing in the clouds we none of us understand," answered the old man, in his low quiet tone. We shall have more wind than \vo want before long, or I am out in my reckoning." "Let it come but-cnd foremost, if it chooses, and the sooner the better," said young Burton, laughing; " any weather rather than this ; for this is neither fish, flesh, nor red herring. Let it blow, Vangs, and I would nt mind if it were such a breeze as you had in the old Charlotte, you know, when it blew the Sheet-anchor into tho foretop, and took three men to hold the captain s hair on his head." The old quarter-master turned a grave and thoughtful look on the round face of the lively boy, and seemed meditating an answer that might repress what probably struck him as untimely mirth ; but even while he was in the act to speak, the tempest he had predicted burst in sudden fury upon the vessel. The first indication those below had of its approach was the wild rushing sound of the gust, which broke upon their ears like the roar of a vol. cano. The heaving and rolling of the ship ceased all at once, as if the waves had been subdued and chained down by the force of a mighty pressure. The vessel stood motionless an instant, as if instinct 24 THE* ENCOUNTER. with life, and cowering in conscious fear of the ap proaching strife; the tempest then burst upon her but-cnd foremost, as Burton expressed it, and the stately mass reeled and fell over before it, like a tower struck down by a thunderbolt. The surge was so violent that the ship was thrown almost on her beam-ends, and every thing on board, not secured in the strongest manner, was pitched with great force to leeward. Midshipmen, mess-table, ham- mocks, and the contents of the mess lockers, fell rustling, rattling, and mixed in strange disorder, to the Ice-scuppers; and when the ship slowly righted, straining and trembling in every plank, it was a moment or two before those who had been so un expectedly heaped together in the bends, could ex tricate themselves from the confusion, and make their way to the upper deck. There, a scene of fearful grandeur was presented. The sky was of a murky, leaden hue, and appeared to bend over the ship in a nearer and narrower arch, binding the ocean in so small a round, that the eye could trace, through the whole circle, the line where the sickly looking heaven rested on the sea. The air was thick and heavy; and the water, covered with driving snow-like foam, seemed tD be packed and flattened down by the fury of the blast, which scattered its billows into spray as cutting as the sleet of a December storm. The wind howled i^Aid screamed through the rigging with an appalling THE ENCOUNTER. 25 sound, that might be likened to the shrieks and wail. ings of angry fiends ; and the ship fled before the tempest, like an affrighted thing, with a velocity that piled the watei in a huge bank around her bows, and sent it off, whirling and sparkling, in lines of dazzling whiteness, soon lost in the general huo of the ocean, which resembled a wild waste of drift. ing snow. There was one^on deck, however, who had fore, seen this awful change, arid made preparations to meet it ; and when the tempest burst, in full, fell swoop, upon his ship, it found nothing but the baro hull and spars to oppose its tremendous power. Every sail had been closely and securely furled, ex. ceptthc fores to rm staysail, which was set for a reason that seamen will understand ; but being hauled well aft by both sheets, r: was stretched stiilly amidships, and presented nothing but the bolt rope for the wind to act upon. The masts and yards, with their snug and well-bound rolls of canvass, alone encountered the hurricane. But even these were tried to the uttermost. The topmasts bent and creaked before the blast, and the royal poles of the topgallantmasts, which extended above the crosstrecs, whipped and thrashed about like pliant rods. The running rig- ging rattled against- the spars, and the shrouds and backstays strained and cracked, as if striving to draw the strong bolts which secured them to thd vessel. B, 20 THE ENCOUNTKR. For more than an hour did the Active flee along in this way, like a wild horse foaming and stretch- ing at liis utmost speed, driven onward in the van of the tempest, and exposed to its fiercest wrath. At length, the first fury of the ga e passed away, and the wind, though still raging tempestuously, swept over her with less appalling force. The ocean, now, as if to revenge itself for its constrained inactivity, roused from its brief repose, and swelled into billows that rolled and chased each other with the wild glee of ransomed demons. Wave upon wave, in multi tudinous confusion, came roaring in from astern ; and their white crests, leaping) ai!d sparkling, and hissing, formed a striking feature in the scene. The wind, fortunately, issued from the right point, and drove the Active towards her place of destination. The dun pall of clouds, which from the commence ment of the gale, had totally overspread the heavens, except in the quarter whence the blast proceeded, now began to give way, and a reddish light shone out here and there, iu long horizontal streaks, liko the glow of expiring coals between the bars o"a fur nace. Though the first dreadful violence of the storm was somewhat abated, it still raved with too much fierceness and power to admit of any relaxa tion of vigilance. The commander himself still re tained the trumpet, and every oiilccr stood in silence at his station, clingLng to whatever might assist him to maintain his diilicult footing. Till* ENCOUNTER. .27 "Light, oh !" cried the lookout on one of the cat heads. "Where away?" demanded the captain. "Dead ahead." " What does it look like, and how far off?" shouted the captain, in a loud and earnest voice. " Can see nothing now, sir ; the glim is doused." , " Here, Mr. Burton," cried the commander, "take this night glass ; jump aloft on the fbreyard, sir, and see if you can make out any object ahead. Hurry up, hurry up, and let me hear from you immediately, sir ! Lay ail to the braces ! Forecastle, there! have hands by your staysail sheets on both sides! fore- yard, there!" Bui before the captain had finished his hail, the voice of little Burton was heard, singing out, "sail oh!" "What docs she look like, and where away?" "A large vessel lying to under bare poles star board your helm, sir, quick hard a starboard, or you will fall aboard of her!" This startling intelligence was hardly communi cated before the vessel descried from aloft loomed suddenly into siijlit from deck through the thick r , O weather to leeward. ITcr dusk and shadowy form seemed to rise up from the ocean, so suddenly did it open to view, as the driving mist was scattered for a moment. She lay right athwart the Active s bows, and almost under her fore-foot as it seemed 28 THE ENCOUNTER. while she pitched into the trough of an enormous sea and the Active rode on the ridge of the sue- cccding wave, which curled ahove the chasm, as if to overwhelm the vessel beneath. "Starboard your helm, quarter-master ! hard a- starboard!" cried the commander of the Active, in a tone of startling energy. "Starboard!" repeated the deep solemn voice of old Vangs, who stood on the quarter-nettings, his tall f gure propped against the rnizcn rigging, and his arm wreathed round the shroud. "Jump to the braces, men !" continued the captain strenuously "haul in your starboard braces, haul! case of] your larboard ! does she come to, quarter master ? Fo castle there ! ease off your larboard staysail sheet let all go, sir!" These orders were promptly obeyed, but it was too late for them to avail. The wheel, in the hands of four stout and experienced seamen, was forced swiftly round, and the effect of the rudder was as. sistcd by a pull of the starboard braces; but in such a gale, and under bare poles, the helm exerted but little power over the driving and ponderous mass. She had headed off hardly a point from her course, when she was taken up by a prodigious surge, and borne onward with fearful velocity. The catastro phe was now inevitable. In an instant the two ships fell together, their massive timbers crashing with the fatal force of the concussion. A wild THU ENCOUNTER. 29 shriek ascended from the deck of the stranger, and woman s shrill voice mingled with the sound. All was now confusion and uproar on board both ves sels. The Active had struck the stranger broad on the bows, while the bowsprit of the latter, rushing in between the foremast and the starboard fore- rigging of the Active, had snapped her shrouds and stays, and torn up the bolts and chainplates, as if they had been thread and wire. Staggering back from the shock, she was carried to some distance by a refluent wave, which suddenly subsiding, she gave such a heavy lurch to port that the foremast now wholly unsupported on the starboard side snapped short oil* like a withered twig, and fell with a loud plash into the ocean. "The foremast is gone by the board!" shouted the ofiicer of tho forecastle. " .My Clod !" exclaimed the captain r " and Charles Burton has gone with it ! J^o castlc there ! Did Charles Burton come down from the ibreyard?" <k Burton ! Burton ! Burton !" called twenty voices, and "Burton!" was shouted loudly over the side; but there was no reply ! In the mean while another furious billow lifted the vessel on its crest, and the two ships closed again, like gladiators, faint and stunned, but still compelled to do battle. The bows of the stranger this time drove heavily against the bends of the Active just abaft her main-rigging, and her bowsprit darted 30 THE ENCOUNTER. quivering in over the bulwarks, as if it were the arrowy tongue of some huge sea monster. At tins, instant a wild sound of agony, between a shriek andi #roan, was heard in that direction, and^hose who .turned to ascertain its cause saw, as the vessels , again separated, a human body, swinging and writh ing at the stranger s bowsprit head. The vessel! heaved up into the moonlight, and showed the face of poor Vangs, the quarter-master, his back ap parently crushed and broken, but his arms clasped round the spar, to which lie appeared to cling with convulsive tenacity. The bowsprit had caught him on its end as it ran in over the Active s side, and driving against the mi /zenmast, deprived the poor wretch of all power to rescue himself from the dreadful situation. While a hundred eyes were fastened in a gaze of horror on the impaled seaman, thus dangling over the boiling ocean, the strange ship again reeled forward, as if to renew the terrible en- counter. But her motion was now slow and labour- ing. She was evidently settling by the head ; she paused in mid career, gave a heavy drunken lurch to starboard, till her topmasts whipped against the rigging of her antagonist, then rising slowly on the ridge of the next wave, she plunged head foremost, and disappeared for ever. One shriek of horror and despair rose through the storm one wild delirious shriek ! The waters swept over the drowning wretches, and hushed their gurgling cry. Then all THE ENCOUNTER. 31 was still! nil but the rush and whirl of waves as they were sucked into the vortex, and the voice of the storm, which howled its wild dirge above the spot. When day dawned on the ocean, the Active pre- scntcd a different appearance from that which she exhibited but a few short hours before. Her fore mast gone, her bowsprit sprung, her topgallantrrmsts struck, her bulwarks shattered, her rigging hanging loose, and whitened by the wash of the spray she looked little like the gay and gallant thing which, at the same hour of the previous day, had ploughed her course through the sea, despite the adverse gale, and moved proudly along under a cloud of canvass, as if she defied the fury of the elements. Now, "how changed ! how sad the contrast ! The appearance of .such of the officers and crew as were moving about the deck harmonized with that of the vessel. They looked pale arid dejected : and the catas trophe they had witnessed had left traces of horror stamped on every brow. The Active was still near the spot of the fatal event, having been lying to under a close reefed mainsail, which the lulling of the wind had enabled her to bear. As the dawn advanced, the upper deck became crowded, and long and searching looks were cast over the ocean in every direction, in the hope to discover some vestige of those who had met their doom during the night. Such of the boats as had not been staved 133 \vcro lowered, and long and patient efforts were made to discover traces of the wreck. But the search was fruitless, and was at last reluctantly abandoned. The boats were again hauled up and stowed ; the Active filled away, and under such sail as she could carry in her crippled state, crept for. ward towards her goal. During the rest of her voyage no merry laugh, no lively prattle, cheered the steerage mess-table. The bright eyes of Charles Burton were closed his silvery voice was hushed his gay heart was cold and his messmates mourned his timeless fate with real sorrow. In a few days, the Sloop of War reached her port, and was immediately warped to the dock-yard, where she was stripped, hove down, and thoroughly overhauled. The officers and crew lent themselves earnestly to the duty, and a short time served to accomplish it. In less than a week, every thing set up and all a-taunto, the ship hauled out again, gleaming with fresh paint, and looking as proud and stately as before the disaster. But where was she that had been wrecked in the encounter ? Where and who were tho.sc thiit perished witli her? Fond hearts were doubtless eagerly awaiting them, and anxious eyes strained over the ocean " to hail the bark that never could return." No word, no whis per ever told their fate. They who saw them per- ish knew not the victims, and the deep gave not up its dead. A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. THE: of Get] and its scenery UU for the i teriglii and bot steed ft with i!x ; A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. The raisUboil up around rno, and tho clouds Rise curling fast beneath me, white and sulphury f Liko foam from tho roused ocoan of deep boll. I nm most nick nt heart nay, raip rno not I a:n all feeb!eno>s the mountains whirl Spinning cround mo I grow blind What art thou J Byron, THE first time I ever saw the famous Rock of "Gibraltar was on a glorious afternoon in the month of October. The sun diffused just heat enough through the air to give it an agreeable temperature, and its soft and somewhat hazy light, showed the scenery of the Straits to the best advantage. We had had a rough, but uncommonly short passage ; for the wind, though tempestuous, had blown from the right quarter; and our gallant frigate dashed and bounded over tnc waves before it, "like a steed that knows his rider." I could not then add with the poet, from whom I have borrowed this quotation, "Welcome to their roar !" for I was a novice on the ocean in those days, and had not en tirely recovered from certain uneasy sensations 36 A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. ..I about the region of the epigastrium, which by no 1 means rendered the noise of rushing waters the most agreeable sound to my cars, or the rolling of the vessel the most pleasant motion for my body. Never did old sea-dog of a sailor, in the horse lati tudes, pray more sincerely for a wind, than I did for a calm, during that boisterous passage ; and never, I may add, did the selfish prayer of a sinner prove less availing. The gale kept " due on the Propontic and the Hellespont," and it )lew so hard that it sometimes seemed to lift our old craft almost out of water. When we came out of port, we had had our dashy fair-weather spars aloft, with skysail yards athwart, a moonsail to the main, and hoist enough for the broad blue to show itself above that. But before the pilot left us, our topgallant-poles were under the boom-cover, and storm-stumps in their, places ; and the first watch was scarcely relieved, when the boatswain s call repeated by four mates, whose lungs seemed formed on purpose to outroar a. tempest rang through the ship, " All hands to house topgallantmasts, ahoy !" From that time till we made the land, the gale continued with unintcr- mittccl violence, to the great delight of the old tars, and the manifest annoyance of the green reefers, of whom we had rather an unusual number on board. If my pen were endued with the slightest portion of the quality which distinguished Hogarth s pencil, I might A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. 37 here give a description of a man-of-war s steerage in a storrn, which should force a smile from the most saturnine reader. I must own I did not much relish the humour of the scene then pars mognafui that is, I was sea-sick myself; but often since, sometimes in my hammock, sometimes during a cold mid. watch on deck, I have burst into a hearty laugh, as the memory of our grotesque distresses, and of the odd figures we cut during that passage, has glanced across my mind. But the longest day must have an end, and the stillest breeze cannot last for ever. The wind, which for a forfnight had been blowing as hard as a trum peter for a wager, blew itself out at last. About dawn one morning it began to lull, and by the time the sun was fairly out of the water, it full flat calm. It was rny morning watch, and what with sea-sickness, hard duty, and having been cabined, cribbed, confined for so long a time in my narrow and unaccustomed lodgings, I felt worn out, and in no mood to exult in the choice I had made of a profession. I stood hold- ing by one of the belaying pins of the main fife-rail, for I had not yet, as the sailors phrase it, got my seaJegs aboard, and I looked, I suppose, as melan choly as a sick monkey on a lee backstay, when a cry from the foretopsail-yard reached my ear, that instantly thrilled to my heart, and set the blood run ning in a lively current through my veins. " Land, oh!" cried the jack-tar on the lookout, in a cable- 38 A NIGHT AT G1HKALTAK. tier voice, which seemed to issue from the bottom of his stomach. I have heard many delightful sounds in. my time, but few which seemed plcasanter than the rough voice of that vigilant sailor. 1 do verily believe, that not seven bells (grog time of day) to a thirsty tar, the dinner bell to a hungry alderman, or the passing bell of some rich old curmudgeon to a prodigal heir, ever gave greater- rapture. The how-d ye-do of a friend, the good-by of a country cousin, the song of tiie Signorlna, and Paganini s fiddle, may all have music in them ; but the cry of land to a sea-sick midshipman is sweeter than them all. We made what, in nautical language, is termed a good land-fall so good, indeed, that it was well for us the night and the wind both ceased when they did; for, had they lasted another hour, we should have found ourselves landed, and in a way that even I, much as I wished to set my foot once more on terra firma, should not have relished very much. On its becoming light enough to ascertain our whereabout, it was discovered that we were within the very jaws of the Straits, completely land-locked by the "steepy shore," where " Europe and Afric on each other gozo ;" and already beginning to feel the influence of the strong and ceaseless easterly current which rushes into the Mediterranean through that passage at the rate of four or five knots an hour. A gentle land- A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. 39 breeze sprung up in the course of the morning watch, which, though not exactly fair, yet coming from the land of the " dusky Moor," had enough of southing in it to enable us, with the set of the current, to get along tolerably well, beating with a long and a short leg through the Straits. But there is no reason that I should make my story of the passage as tedious as the reality; so, here s fur a fair breeze and square away ! And now, let the reader fancy himself riding at anchor in the beautiful but unsafe bay of Gibraltar, Directly opposite and almost within the very shadow of the grand and gigantic fortress, which nature and art have vied with each other in rendering, impregnable. No one who has looked on that vast and forted rock, with its huge granite outline shown in bold relief against the clear sky of the south of Europe its towering and ruin-crowned peaks its enormous crags, caverns, and precipices and its rich histori cal associations, shedding a powerful though vague interest over every feature can easily forget the impression which that imposing and magnificent spectacle creates. The flinty mass rising abruptly to an elevation of fifteen hundred feet, and surround- cd on every side b v* the waters of the Mediterranean, save a narrow slip of level sand which stretches from its northern end and connects it with the main land, has, added to its other claims to admiration, the strong interest of utter insolation. 40 A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. For a while, the spectator gazes on the "stu pendous whole" with an expression of pleased wonder at its height, extent, and strength, and without becoming conscious of the various oppo site features which make up its grand effect of sublimity and beauty. He sees only the giant rock spreading its vast dark mass against the sky, its broken and wavy ridge, its beetling pro jections, its "steep down gulfs," and dizzy precipices of a thousand fuet perpendicular descent. After a tune, his eye becoming in some degree familiarized with the main and sterner features of the scene, he perceives that the granite mountain is variegated by here and there some picturesque work of art, or spot of green beauty, smiling with surpassing love liness in contrast with the savage roughness around it. Dotted about at long intervals over the steep sides of the craggy mass, arc seen the humble cot tages of the soldiers wives, or, perched on the very edges of the clilKs, the guard-houses of the garrison ; before which, ever and anon, .may be descried the vigilant sentry, dwindled to a pigmy, walking to and fro on his allotted and dangerous post. Now and then, the eye detects a more sumptuous edifice, half hid in a grove of acacias, orange, and almond trees, clustering around it, as if to shut from the view of its inhabitant, in his eyrie-like abode, the scene ofdeso. late grandeur above, beneath hiin, and on every side. At the foot of the rock, on a small and nar row slip, less precipitous than the rest, stands the A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. 41 town of Gibraltar, which, as seen from the bay, with its. dark-coloured houses, built in the Spanish style, and rising one above another in ampithcatri- cal order; the ruins of the Moorish castle and dc- fences in the rear ; and the high massive walls which enclose it at the water s edge, and v. hich, thick, planted with cannon, seem formed to "laugh a seige to scorn, * has a highly picturesque effect. The mili tary works of Gibraltar are on a scale of magnifi cence commensurate with the natural grandeur of the scene. Its wails, its batteries, and its moles, v/hich, bristling with cannon, stretch far out into tho bay, and against whose solid structures the waves spend their fury in vain, arc works of art planned with great genius, and executed with consummate skill. An indefinite sensation of awe mixes with the stranger s feelings, as gazing upon the defences which every where meet his eye, he remembers, that the strength of Gibraltar consists not in its visible works alone, but that, hewn in the centre of the vast and perpendicular rock, there are long galleries and ample chambers, where the engines of war are kept always ready, and whence, at any moment, the fires of death may be poured down upon an assailant. Though the rock is the chief feature of interest in the bay of Gibraltar, yet, when fatigued by long gazing on its barren and solitary grandeur, there are not wanting. other objects on which the eye of the stranger may repose with pleasure. The green V.; A NIG JIT AT GIBRALTAR. shore? of Andalusia, encircling the bay in their semi- circ i? ir sweep, besides the attraction which ver- diu.t itills and valleys always possess, have the super- added charm of being linked with many classical and r-.mantic associations. The picturesque towns of Si. lloque and Algesiras, the one crowning a *niOv,-! : i eminence at some distance from the shore, an .l t!ic other occupying a gentle declivity that sinks gradually down to the sparkling waters of the bay the mountains of Spain, fringed with cork forests, in the back ground the dimly seen coast of Morocco across the Straits, with the white walls of Ceuta just discernible on one of its promontories the tower ing form of Abila, which not even the unromantic modern name of Apes-hill can devcst of all its in terest as one of "the trophies of great Hercules" these arc all attractive features in the natural land scape, and, combined, render it a scene of exceeding beauty. The clear blue waters of the bay itself common ly present an appearance of great variety and ani mation. Here may at all times be seen, moored closely together, a numerous fleet of vessels, from every quarter of the globe, of every fashion of struc ture, and manned by beings of every creed, land, arid colour. The flags and pennons which float from their masts, the sounds which rise from their decks, and the appearance and employments of the moving throngs upon them, all tend to heighten the charm. A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. 43 of novelty and variety. In one place, may bo seen, perhaps, a shattered and dismantled hulk, on board of which some exiled Spanish patriot, with his family, has taken refuge, dwelling there full in the sight of his native land, which yet he can scarcely hope ever to tread again : in another on the high latticed stern of a tall, dark-looking craft, whoso raking masts, black bends, and trig, warlike appearance excite a doubt whether she be merchantman or pirate a group of Turks, in their national and beautiful costume, smoking their long chiboques with an air of as much gravity as if they were engaged in a matter on which their lives, or the lives of their whole race, depended. Beside them lies a heavy, clumsy dogger, on board of which a company of industrious, slow-moving Dutchmen arc engaged in trafficking away their cargo of cheese, butter, Bo- logna sausages, and real Schiedam; and not far away from these, a crew of light-hearted Genoese sailors arc stretched at length along the deck of their polacca, chanting, in voices made musical by dis. tance, one of the rich melodies with which their language abounds. Boats are continually passing hither and thither between the vessels and the shore ; arid every now and then, along and slender felucca, with its slanting yards, and graceful lateen sails, glides across the bay, laden with the products of tho fruitful soil of Andalusia, which are destined to sup. 44 A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. ply tho tables of the pent-up inhabitants of the gar rison. . I have mentioned that it was on a fine day in Oc tober that we arrived at Gibraltar, and I have ac cordingly sketched the Rock, and the adjacent scenery, as they appeared to me through the mellow light of that pleasant afternoon. To one viewing the scene from a different point from that which I occupied, our own gallant frigate would have pre sented no unattractive object in the picture. While we were beating through the Straits, the gunner s crew had been employed in blacking the bends, somewhat rusty from the constant wash of a stormy sea; and we had embraced the opportunity of the gentle land breeze to replace our taunt fair-weather poles, and to bend and send aloft topgallant-sails, royals, and skysails, for which there had not before been any recent occasion. Thus renewed, and all a-taunto, with our glossy sides glistening in the sun, our flags flying, and the broad blue streaming at the main, there was no object in all that gay and animated bay on which the eye could rest with greater pleasure. The bustle consequent upon :oming to anchor was, among our active and dis ciplined crew, of but brief duration. In a very few ninutcs, every yard was squared with the nicest precision ; every rope hauled taught, and laid down n a handsome Flemish coil upon the deck ; and the A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. 45 vast symmetrical bulk, with nothing to indicate its recent bufferings with the storm, lay floating quietly on the bright surface, u As idlo QS a painted ship Upon a painted ocean." I had been on duty ever since the previous mid- night, but I felt no disposition to go below. For more than an hour after the boatswain piped down, I remained on deck, gazing, with unsatcd eyes, on the various and attractive novelties around me. A part of the fascination of the scene was doubtless owing to that feeling of young romance, which invests every object with the colours of the imagination ; and a part, to its contrast with the dull and monotonous prospect to which 1 had lately been confined, till my heart fluttered, like a caged bird, to be once moro among the green trees and rustling grass to sco fields covered with golden grain, and swelling away in their fine undulations to scent the pleasant odour of the meadows, and range at will through those leafy forests, which, I began to think, were ill ex- changed for the narrow and heaving deck of a forty, four. Thoughts of this kind mingled with my musings, as I leaned over the taffercl, with my eyes bent on the verdant hills and slopes of Spain; and so absorbed was I in contemplation, that I heard not my name pronounced, till it was repeated two or three times, by the officer of the deck. "Mr. Transom!" cried he, in a quick and irn- 46 A XIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. patient voice, " are you deaf or asleep, sir ? Here, jump into the first cutter alongside ! Would you keep the commodore waiting all -day?" I felt my check redden at this speech of the lieu tenant one of those popinjays who, dressed in a little brief authority, think to show their own conse quence by playing off impertinent airs upon those of inferior station. I had seen enough of naval ser vice, however, to know that no good comes of re plying to the insolence of a superior ; so, suppressing the answer that rose to my lips, I hastened down the side into the boat, in the stern-sheets of which my commander was already seated. " Shove off, sir," said he. "Let fall! give way!" cried I to the men, who sprang to their oars with alacrity, making the boat skim through the water lightly and fleetly as a swal low through the air. In five minutes wo were floating alongside the stone- quay at tho Water.Port as the principal and strongly fortified entrance to the garrison from the bay is called. " You will wait here for me," said the commodore, as he stepped outof the boat. " Should I not return before the gate, is closed, pull round to tho Ragged- Stall"," (the name of the other landing-place,) " and wait there." " Ay, ay, sir." But though I answered promptly, and with a tone of alacrity, I was not, in truth, very well pleased at the prospect of a long and A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. 47 tedious piece of service, fatigued ns I already was with my vigil of the previous night, and the active duties of the day. Little cared the old commodore, however, whether I was pleased or ofiended. With out honouring me with a look, he turned away as lie gave the order, and stepping quickly over the drawbridge which connects the quay with the for tress, disappeared under the massive archway of the gate. For a while, the scene at the Water-Port afforded abundant amusement. The quay, beside which our boat was lying, is a small octangular wharf, construct ed of hugu blocks of granite, strongly cemented together. It is the only place which boats, except those belonging to the garrison, or national vessels in the harbour, are permitted to approach; and though but a few yards square in extent, is enfiladed in several directions by frowning batteries of granite, mounted with guns, of which a single discharge would shiver tho whole structure to atoms. Mcr. chant vessels lying in the bay arc unloaded by means of lighters, which, with the boats of passage continually plying between the shipping and the shore, and the market-boats from the adjacent coast of Spain, all crowd round this narrow quay, render, ing it. a place of singular business and bustle. As the sunset hour approaches, the activity and con- fusion increases. Crowds of people, of all nations, and every variety of costume and language, jostle C3 48 A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. each other as they hurry through the gate. The stately Greek, in his embroidered jacket, rich purple cap, and flowing capote, strides carelessly along. The Jew, with bent h ,-ad, shaven crown, and coarse, though not unpicturesque gaberdine, glides with a noiseless step through the crowd, turning from side to side quick wary glances from underneath his downcast brows. The Moor, wrapped close in his white bernoosc, stalks sullenly apart, as if he alone had no business in the stirring scene; while the noisy Spaniard at his side wages an obstreperous argument, or shouts in loud guttural sounds for his boat. French, English, and Americans, oflicers, merchants, and sailors, arc all intermingled in the motley mass, each engaged in his own business, and each adding his part to the Babel-like clamour of tongues. High on the walls, the sentinels, with their arms glistening in the sun, walk to arid fro on their posts, and look down with indiQerence or ab straction on the scene of hurry and turmoil beneath them. Among the various striking figures that attracted my attention, as I reclined in the stern-sheets of the cutter, gazing on the shifting throng before me, there was one the appearance arid manners of whom awakened peculiar interest. He was a tall, muscu lar, dark-looking Spaniard, whoso large frarne^ and strong and well proportioned limbs were set olf to good advantage by the national dress of the pea- A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. 49 santry of his country. His sombrero, slouched in a studied manner over his eyes, as if to conceal their fierce rolling balls, shaded a face, the sun-burnt hue of which showed that it had not always been so carefully protected. From the crimson sash which was bound round his waist, concealing the connex ion of his embroidered velvet jacket with his nether garments, a long knife depended ; and this, together with a sinister expression of countenance, and an in- dcscribablc something in the general air and bear ing of the man, created an impression which caused me to shrink involuntarily from him whenever he ap proached the boat. He himself seemed actuated by similar feelings. On first meeting my eye, he drew his sombrero deeper over his brow, and hastily re tired to another part of the quay; but every now and then I could seo his dark face above a group of the intervening throng, and his keen black eyes seemed always directed towards me, till, perceiving that I noticed him, he would turn away, and mix again among the remoter portion of the crowd. I endeavoured to follow this singular figure in one of his windings through the multitude, when my attention was drawn in another direction by a loud, long call from a bugle, sounded within the walls, and, in an instant after, repeated with a clearer and louder blast from their summit* This signal gave new motion and activity to the crowd. A few hur ried from the quay into the garrison, but a greater 50 A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. number poured from the interior, and hastily crossed the drawbridge to the quay, and all appeared anx ious to depart. Boat after boat was drawn up, re- ceived its burden, and darted ofF, while others took their places, and were in turn soon filled by the retir ing crowd. Soldiers from the garrison came out upon the quay to urge the tardy into qulckcr.motion ; mingled shouts, calls, and curses resounded on every side ; and for a few minutes confusion seemed worse confounded. But in a short time the last loiterer was hurried away the last felucca shoved off, and was seen gliding on it course, the sound of its oars almost drowned in the noisy gabble of its Andalusian crew. As soon as the quay became entirely de serted, the military returned within the walls, and a pause of silence ensued then pealed the sunset gun from the summit of the rock the drawbridge, by some unseen agency, was rolled slowly back, till it disappeared within the arched passage the ponde rous gates turned on their enormous hinges and Gibraltar was closed for the night against the world. D O Thus shut out at the Water-Port, I directed the boat s crew, in compliance with my orders, to pull round to the Ragged-Staff. The wall at this place is of great height, and near its top is left a small gate, at an elevation of fifty or sixty feet above the quay, which projects into the bay beneath. It is attained by a spiral staircase, erected about twenty feet from the wall, and communicating with it at the A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. 51 top by means of a drawbridge. This gate is little used, except for the egress of those who arc per mitted to leave the garrison after nightfall. On reaching the quay, I sprang ashore, and walking to a favourable position, endeavoured to amuse myself once more by contemplating from this new point of view the hills and distant mountains of Spain. But the charm was now fled. Night was fast stealing over the landscape, and rendering its features misty and indistinct : a change, too, had taken place in my own feelings, since, a few hours before, I had found so mucli pleasure in dwelling on the scene around me. I was now cold, fatigued, and hungry : my eyes had been fed with novelties until they were weary with gazing : my mind had been crowded with a succession of new images, until its vigour was exhausted. I cast my eyes up to the Rock, but it appeared cold and desolate in the deepening twi light, and I turned from its steep, flinty sides, and dreadful precipices, with a shudder. The waves and ripples of the bay, which the increasing evening wind had roughened, broke against the quay where I was standing with a sound that created a chilly sensation at my heart. Even the watch-dog s bark, from on board some vessel in the bay, gave me no pleasure, as it was borne faintly to my car by the eastern breeze ; for it was associated with sounds of home, and awakened me to a painful consciousness of tho distance I had wandered, and the fatigues and 52 " A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. perils to which I was exposed ; and a train of somhro thoughts, despite my efforts to drive them away, took possession of my mind. At length, yielding to their influence, I climbed to the top of a rude heap of stones, which had been piled on the end of the pier, and seating myself where my eye could embrace every portion of the shadowy landscape, I gave free rein to melancholy fancies. My wandering thoughts roamed over a thousand subjects ; but one subject predominated over all. My memory recalled many images ; but one image it presented with the vividness of life., and dwelt on with the partiality of love. It was the image of one who had been the object of my childhood s love, whom I had loved in boyhood, and whom now, in opening manhood, I still loved with a passionate and daily increasing affection. Linked with the memory of that s\vcet being, came thoughts of the rival who had sought to win her heart from me, and who, foiled in his purpose, had conceived and avowed the bitterest enmity to me : and from him, my thoughts glided, under the influence of some strange association, to the tall and singular-looking Spaniard whom I had seen at the Water-Port. In this way my vagrant meditations ranged from topic to topic, with all that wildncss of transition which is sometimes produced by the excitement of opium. "While thus engaged, I kno\v not how long a time slipped by ; but at length rny thoughts A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. 53 began to grow less distinct, and my eyes to feel heavy ; and had I not been restrained by a sense of shame and duty as an officer, I should have been glad to resign myself to sleep. My eyelids, in des pite of me, did o ;ce or twice close for -an instant or two ; and it was in an effort to arouse myself from one of these little attacks of somnolency, that I v/os startled by seeing an object before me, the appear, ancc of whom in that place struck me with surprise. The moon had risen, and was just shedding a thin and feeble glimmer over the top of the Rock, the broad deep shadow of which extended almost to the spot where I was sitting. Emerging from this shadow, I saw approaching me the identical Spa- niard whoso malign expression of countenance and general appearance had so strongly attracted my attention at the Water-Port. That it was the same I could not doubt, for his height, his dress, his air, all corresponded exactly. He had the same long peculiar step ; he still wore the same large sombrero, which, as before, was drawn deep over his brows; the same glistening knife was thrust through his sash ; and the same fantastically stamped leather gaiters covered his legs. He approached close to me, and in a voice, which, though hardly above a whisper, thrilled me to the bone, informed me that the com- modore had sent for me, and bade me follow him. As he spoke these words he turned away, and walked tf>U/n Vita tlir nrn.vvionrt .QM-r>11 r f*n,-rt -!* rr/-.n + lr vnnt l 54 A MGHT AT GIBRALTAR. er? A sensation of fear crept over me at the idea that I was to follow this herculean and sinister-look ing Spaniard, and I had some faint misgivings wheth er I ought to obey his summons. But I reflected that he Avas probably a servant or messenger of some officer or family where the commodore was visiting; that l:e could have no motive to mislead me ; and that, were I to neglect obeying the order through apprehension of its bearer, because he was tall, had whiskers, and wore a sombrero, I should deservedly bring down upon myself the ridicule of every midshipman in the Mediterranean. Besides, thought I, how foolish should I feel, if it should turn out, as is very likely, that this is some ball or party to which the commodore has been urged to stay, and, unwilling to keep me waiting for him so long in this dreary place, he has sent to invite me to join him. This last reflection turned the scale; so slip ping down from my perch, I followed towards the gate. The form of the stranger had already dis appeared in the shadow of the Rock ; but on reach ing the foot of the spiral staircase which led up to the drawbridge, I could hear his heavy tread as cending the steps. Directly after, the gate was un barred, the bridge lowered, and a footstep crossing it announced that the Spaniard was within the walls. I followed as rapidly as I could, and got within the gate just in time to see the form of rny conductor disappear round one of the angles of the fortifica. A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. 55 tions ; but quickening my pace, I overtook him as he reached the foot of a path winch seemed to ascend towards the southern end of the Rock. " This way lies the town," said I, pointing in the op- positc direction ; " you surely have mistaken the route." The Spaniard made no answer, but pointed with his hand up the narrow and difficult path, and beck- oning me to follow him, began the ascent. The moon shone on his countenance for a moment as ho turned towards me, and I thought I could perceive that the sinister expression which had been one of the first things that drew my attention to him, was now aggravated into a smile of more decided malig nity. I continued to follow, however, and struggled hard to overtake him. J3ut the path was steep and very rugged, and my conductor walked with great speed. His footing seemed sure as that of the mountain goat. I became wearied, exhausted, almost ready to drop with fatigue, and with all my efforts was unable to diminish the interval between us. The ascent continually grew more difficult* and it soon became so steep, indeed, that 1 could scarcely clamber up it. My feet were bruised through the thin soles of my pumps, and in toiling on my hands and knees over some of the most abrupt pitches, the jagged points of the rock penetrated my flesh. After thus slowly and painfully groping my way for a considerable distance, we at lenirth reach- 56 A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. ed a place where the path pursued a level course but what a path ! what a place ! A narrow ledge, scarce two feet wide, had been formed, partly by nature, partly by art, at the height of a thousand feat above the water, around a sweep of the rock where it rose perpendicularly from its base to its extreme summit. This ledge was covered with loose stones, which, at every step, fell rattling and thundering down the mighty precipice, till the sound died a\yay in the immense depths below. 1 could not conjecture whither the Spaniard was leading me; but I had now gone too far to think of retreat ing. Every step was now at the hazard of life. The ledge was so narrow, the loose stones which covered it rolled so easily from under my. feet, and my knees trembled so violently from fear and fatigue, that I could scarcely hope to continue much further in safety over such a pathway. At last we reached a broader spot. I sunk down exhausted, yet with a feeling of joy that I had escaped from the perilous path I had just been treading. The Spaniard stood beside me, and I thought a smile of malign satisfac tion played round his lips as he looked down upon me, panting at his feet. He suffered me to rest but a moment, when he motioned me to rise. I obeyed the signal, as if it were the behest of my evil genius. " Look round you," said he, " and tell me what you behold !" J glanced my eyes round, and shuddering, with- A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. 57 drew them from the fearful prospect. The ledge or platform on which we were standing was but a fcv/ feet square ; behind, a largo and gloomy cavern opened its black jaws ; and in front, the rock de* sccnded to the sea with so perpendicular a front, that a stone, dropped from its edge, would have fallen without interruption straight down into the waves. "Arc you ready to make the leap ?" said tho Spaniard, in a smooth, sneering tone, seeing, and seeming to enjoy, the terror of my countenance. " For heaven s sake/ cried I, "who are you? and why am I made your victim? "Look 1 !" cried lie, throwing the sombrero from his head, and approaching close to me, "look ! know you not these features? They are those of him whose path you have crossed- once, but shall never cross again!" He seized hold of me as he spoke, with a fiendish grasp, and strove to hurl me headlong from the rock. I struggled with all the energy of desperation, and for a moment bailled the design. lie released his hold round my body, and stepping back, stood an instant gazing on me with the glaring ^eyeballs of a tiger about to spring upon its prey; then darting towards me, he grappled me with both hands round the throat, arid dragged me, despite my struggling, to the very verge of the precipice. With a power- ful exertion of strength, which I was no longer ablo to resist, he dashed my body over the edge, D OS A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. . ftncl held me out at arm s length above the dread abyss. The agony of years of wretchedness com. pressed into a single second, could not exceed the horror of the moment I remained so suspended. There was a small tree or bush which grew out of a cleft just beneath the ledge. In my despairing, frantic struggle, I caught hold of a branch of it, just nt the critical instant when the Spaniard relaxed liis grasp, intending to drop me down the fearful gulf. His purpose was again baillcd for another moment of horror. He gnashed his teeth as he fiaw me swing off upon the fragile branch, which cracked and bent beneath my weight, and, at most, could save me from his fury but for a fleeting mo ment. That moment seemed too long for his impatient hate. He sprang to the very verge of the ledge, and placing his foot firmly on the tree, pressed it down with all his strength. In vain, with chattering teeth and horror-choked voice, I implored him to desist. He answered not, but stamped furiously on the tree. The root began to give way - the loosened dirt fell from around it the trunk snapped, cracked, and separated and the fiend set up an inhuman laugh, which rung in my cars like the mocking of a demon, as down down down I O, through the chill, thick, pitchy air, till striking with a mighty force on the roeks beneath 1 >vakcd, and lo, it was a dream! It was broad daylight. In my sleep I had rolled from A NIGHT AT GIBRALTAR. 59 the heap of stones which had furnished me with my evening seat of meditation, and which, during my sleep, had supplied my imagination with abundant materials for yawnhg gulfs and chasms. The laugh of the infernal Spaniard turned out to be only a burst of in- nocent merriment at my plight from little Paul Mes senger, a rosy, curly-haired midshipman, and ono of the finest little fellows in the world. The matter was soon explained. The commodore, returning to the boat, and seeing me sleeping on a bed of my own choosing, as he expressed it, had chosen to punish me by leaving me to my slumbers. So shoving oft , without waking me, he had returned to the ship ; on reaching which, however, he gave the ofliccr of the deck directions to send a boat for me at daylight. Little Paul, always ready to do a kind act, asked to go officer of her ; and we pulled back to the frigate, laughing over my story of the imaginary adventures of the night. MERRY TERRY. MERRY TERRY, His breast with wounds unnumbered riven, His back to earth, his face to heaven, Fallen Hassan lieshis unclosed eyo Yet lowering on hit) enemy, Asiflho hour that seaU-cl hiufato, Surviving left Ms quenchless hnte: And o er him hcnila his foe, with brow As dark as his that bled below. ME, spin us a yarn, Jack, my boy," said a curly-headed, rosy-cheeked young midshipman, to old Jack Palmer, one evening, as the vessel to which they were attached was running down the Spanish Main, before as sweet a breeze as ever filled a topgallant- sail. Jack Palmer was an old sea-dog, and a clever fellow, that is to say, in the Yankee sense of the word. He had seen all sorts of service, and knew all sorts of stories, which were perhaps not the less amusing for the nautical phraseology in which, they were expressed. lie w-is master s mate of the gun-deck ; hut when called upon for a story by Rosy Willy, (tire name of the little reefer that had asked Jack fora yarn,) his business for the day n i