Books: A Modern Telemachus
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Charlotte M. Yonge >> A Modern Telemachus
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Hebert had not the least hope that they could be saved, but he would
not grieve the child by saying so, and his present object was to get
her dressed before any one was awake to watch, and perhaps appropriate
her upper garments. He was a fatherly old man, and she let him help
her with her fastenings, and comb out her hair with the tiny comb in
her etui. Indeed, friseurs were the rule in France, and she was not
unused to male attendants at the toilette, so that she was not shocked
at being left to his care.
For the rest, the child had always dwelt in an imaginary world, a
curious compound of the Lives of the Saints and of Telemaque. Martyrs
and heroes alike had been shipwrecked, taken captive, and tormented;
and there was a certain sense of realised day-dream about her, as if
she had become one of the number and must act up to her part. She
asked Hebert if there were a Sainte Estelle, what was the day of the
month, and if she should be placed in the Calendar if she never
complained, do what these barbarians might to her. She hoped she
should hold out, for she would like to be able to help all whom she
loved, poor papa and all. But it was hard that mamma, who was so good,
could not be a martyr too; but she was a saint in Paradise all the
same, and thus Estelle made her little prayer in hope. There was no
conceit or over confidence in the tone, though of course the poor child
little knew what she was ready to accept; but it was a spark of the
martyr's trust that gleamed in her eye, and gave her a sense of
exaltation that took off the sharpest edge of grief and fear.
By this time, however, the animals were stirring, and with them the
human beings who had lain down in their clothes. Peace was over; the
Abbe awoke, and began to call for Laurent and his clothes and his
beads; but this aroused the master of the house, who started up, and
threatening with a huge stick, roared at him what must have been orders
to be quiet.
Estelle indignantly flew between and cried, 'You shall not hurt my
uncle.'
The commanding gesture spoke for itself; and, besides, poor Phelim
cowered behind her with an air that caused a word and sign to pass
round, which the captives found was equivalent to innocent or imbecile;
and the Mohammedan respect and tenderness for the demented spared him
all further violence or molestation, except that he was lost and
miserable without the attentions of his foster-brother; and indeed the
shocks he had undergone seemed to have mobbed him of much of the small
degree of sense he had once possessed.
Coming into the space before the doorway, Estelle found herself the
object of universal gaze and astonishment, as her long fair hair
gleamed in the sunshine, every one coming to touch it, and even pull it
to see if it was real. She was a good deal frightened, but too high-
spirited to show it more than she could help, as the dark-skinned,
bearded men crowded round with cries of wonder. The other two
prisoners likewise appeared: Victorine looking wretchedly ill, and
hardly able to hold up her head; Lanty creeping towards the Abbe, and
trying to arrange his remnant of clothing. There was a short respite,
while the Arabs, all turning eastwards, chanted their morning devotions
with a solemnity that struck their captives. The scene was a fine one,
if there had been any heart to admire. The huts were placed on the
verge of a fine forest of chestnut and cork trees--and beyond towered
up mountain peaks in every variety of dazzling colour--red and purple
beneath, glowing red and gold where the snowy peaks caught the morning
sun, lately broken from behind them. The slopes around were covered
with rich grass, flourishing after the summer heats, and to which the
herds were now betaking themselves, excepting such as were detained to
be milked by the women, who came pouring out of some of the other huts
in dark blue garments; and in front, still shadowed by the mountain,
lay the bay, deep, beautiful, pellucid green near the land, and shut in
by fantastic and picturesque rocks--some bare, some clothed with
splendid foliage, winter though it was--while beyond lay the exquisite
blue stretching to the horizon. Little recked the poor prisoners of
the scene so fair; they only saw the remnant of the wreck below, the
sea that parted them from hope, the savage rocks behind, the barbarous
people around, the squalor and dirt of the adowara, as the hamlet was
called.
Comparatively, the Moor who had swum ashore to reconnoitre seemed like
a friend when he came forward and saluted Estelle and the Abbe
respectfully. Moreover the lingua Franca Lanty had picked up
established a very imperfect double system of interpretation by the
help of many gestures. This was Lanty's explanation to the rest: in
French, of course, but, like all his speech, Irish-English in
construction.
'This Moor, Hassan, wants to stand our friend in his own fashion, but
he says they care not the value of an empty mussel-shell for the
French, and no more for the Dey of Algiers than I do for the Elector of
Hanover. He has told them that M. l'Abbe and Mademoiselle are brother
and daughter to a great Bey--but it is little they care for that. Holy
Virgin, they took Mademoiselle for a boy! That is why they are gazing
at her so impudently. Would that I could give them a taste of my cane!
Do you see those broken walls, and a bit of a castle on yonder headland
jutting out into the sea? They are bidding Hassan say that the French
built that, and garrisoned it with the help of the Dey; but there fell
out a war, and these fellows, or their fathers, surprised it, sacked
it, and carried off four hundred prisoners into slavery. Holy Mother
defend us! Here are all the rogues coming to see what they will do
with us!'
For the open space in front of the huts, whence all the animals had now
been driven, was becoming thronged with figures with the haik laid over
their heads, spear or blunderbuss in hand, fine bearing, and sometimes
truculent, though handsome, browse countenances. They gazed at the
captives, and uttered what sounded like loud hurrahs or shouts; but
after listening to Hassan, Lanty turned round trembling. 'The
miserables! Some are for sacrificing us outright on the spot, but this
decent man declares that he will make them sensible that their prophet
was not out-and-out as bad as that. Never you fear, Mademoiselle.'
'I am not afraid,' said Estelle, drawing up her head. 'We shall be
martyrs.'
Lanty was engaged in listening to a moan from his foster-brother for
food, and Hebert joined in observing that they might as well be
sacrificed as starved to death; whereupon the Irishman's words and
gesticulations induced the Moor to make representations which resulted
in some dry pieces of samh cake, a few dates, and a gourd of water
being brought by one of the women; a scanty amount for the number, even
though poor Victorine was too ill to touch anything but the water;
while the Abbe seemed unable to understand that the servants durst not
demand anything better, and devoured her share and a quarter of Lanty's
as well as his own. Meantime the Cabeleyzes had all ranged themselves
in rows, cross-legged on the ground, opposite to the five unfortunate
captives, to sit in judgment on them. As they kept together in one
group, happily in the shade of a hut, Victorine, too faint and sick
fully to know what was going on, lay with her head on the lap of her
young mistress, who sat with her bright and strangely fearless eyes
confronting the wild figures opposite.
Her uncle, frightened, though not comprehending the extent of his
danger, crouched behind Lanty, who with Hebert stood somewhat in
advance, the would-be guardians of the more helpless ones.
There was an immense amount of deafening shrieking and gesticulating
among the Arabs. Hassan was responding, and finally turned to Lanty,
when the anxious watchers could perceive signs as if of paying down
coin made interrogatively. 'Promise them anything, everything,' cried
Hebert; 'M. le Comte would give his last sou--so would Madame la
Marquise--to save Mademoiselle.'
'I have told him so,' said Laurence presently; 'I bade him let them
know it is little they can make of us, specially now they have stripped
us as bare as themselves, the rascals! but that their fortunes would be
made--and little they would know what to do with them--if they would
only send M. l'Abbe and Mademoiselle to Algiers safe and sound. There!
he is trying to incense them. Never fear, Master Phelim, dear, there
never was a rogue yet, black or white, or the colour of poor Madame's
frothed chocolate, who did not love gold better than blood, unless
indeed 'twas for the sweet morsel of revenge; and these, for all their
rolling eyes and screeching tongues, have not the ghost of a quarrel
with us.'
'My beads, my breviary,' sighed the Abbe. 'Get them for me, Lanty.'
'I wish they would end it quickly,' said Estelle. 'My head aches so,
and I want to be with mamma. Poor Victorine! yours is worse,' she
added, and soaked her handkerchief in the few drops of water left in
the gourd to lay it on the maid's forehead.
The howling and shrieking betokened consultation, but was suddenly
interrupted by some half-grown lads, who came running in with their
hands full of what Lanty recognised to his horror as garments worn by
his mistress and fellow-servants, also a big kettle and a handspike.
They pointed down to the sea, and with yells of haste and exultation
all the wild conclave started up to snatch, handle, and examine, then
began rushing headlong to the beach. Hassan's explanations were
scarcely needed to show that they were about to ransack the ship, and
he evidently took credit to himself for having induced them to spare
the prisoners in case their assistance should be requisite to gain full
possession of the plunder.
Estelle and Victorine were committed to the charge of a forbidding-
looking old hag, the mother of the sheyk of the party; the Abbe was
allowed to stray about as he pleased, but the two men were driven to
the shore by the eloquence of the club. Victorine revived enough for a
burst of tears and a sobbing cry, 'Oh, they will be killed! We shall
never see them again!'
'No,' said Estelle, with her quiet yet childlike resolution, 'they are
not going to kill any of us yet. They said so. You are so tired, poor
Victorine! Now all the hubbub is over, suppose you lie still and
sleep. My uncle,' as he roamed round her, mourning for his rosary, 'I
am afraid your beads are lost; but see here, these little round seeds,
I can pierce them if you will gather some more for me, and make you
another set. See, these will be the Aves, and here are shells in the
grass for the Paters.'
The long fibre of grass served for the string, and the sight of the
Giaour girl's employment brought round her all the female population
who had not repaired to the coast. Her first rosary was torn from her
to adorn an almost naked baby; but the Abbe began to whimper, and to
her surprise the mother restored it to him. She then made signs that
she would construct another necklace for the child, and she was
rewarded by a gourd being brought to her full of milk, which she was
able to share with her two companions, and which did something to
revive poor Victorine. Estelle was kept threading these necklaces and
bracelets all the wakeful hours of the day--for every one fell asleep
about noon--though still so jealous a watch was kept on her that she
was hardly allowed to shift her position so as to get out of the sun,
which even at that season was distressingly scorching in the middle of
the day.
Parties were continually coming up from the beach laden with spoils of
all kinds from the wreck, Lanty, Hebert, and a couple of negroes being
driven up repeatedly, so heavily burthened as to be almost bent double.
All was thrown down in a heap at the other end of the adowara, and the
old sheyk kept guard over it, allowing no one to touch it. This went
on till darkness was coming on, when, while the cattle were being
collected for the night, the prisoners were allowed an interval, in
which Hebert and Lanty told how the natives, swimming like ducks, had
torn everything out of the wreck: all the bales and boxes that poor
Maitre Hebert had secured with so much care, and many of which he was
now forced himself to open for the pleasure of these barbarians.
That, however, was not the worst. Hebert concealed from his little
lady what Lanty did not spare Victorine. 'And there--enough to melt
the heart of a stone--there lay on the beach poor Madame la Comtesse,
and all the three. Good was it for you, Victorine, my jewel, that you
were not in the cabin with them.'
'I know not,' said the dejected Victorine; 'they are better off than
we?'
'You would not say so, if you had seen what I have,' said Lanty,
shuddering. 'The dogs!--they cut off Madame's poor white fingers to
get at her rings, and not with knives either, lest her blessed flesh
should defile them, they said, and her poor face was an angel's all the
time. Nay, nor that was not the worst. The villainous boys, what must
they do but pelt the poor swollen bodies with stones! Ay, well you may
scream, Victorine. We went down on our knees, Maitre Hebert and I, to
pray they might let us give them burial, but they mocked us, and bade
Hassan say they never bury dogs. I went round the steeper path, for
all the load at my back, or I should have been flying at the throats of
the cowardly vultures, and then what would have become of M. l'Abbe?'
Victorine trembled and wept bitterly for her companions, and then asked
if Lanty had seen the corpse of the little Chevalier.
'Not a sight of him or M. Arthur either,' returned Lanty; 'only the
ugly face of the old Turk captain and another of his crew, and them
they buried decently, being Moslem hounds like themselves; while my
poor lady that is a saint in heaven--' and he, too, shed tears of hot
grief and indignation, recovering enough to warn Victorine by no means
to let the poor young girl know of this additional horror.
There was little opportunity, for they had been appropriated by
different masters: Estelle, the Abbe, and Hebert to the sheyk, or
headman of the clan; and Lanty and Victorine to a big, strong, fierce-
looking fellow, of inferior degree but greater might.
This time Estelle was to be kept for the night among the sheyk's women,
who, though too unsophisticated to veil their faces, had a part of the
hut closed off with a screen of reeds, but quite as bare as the
outside. Hebert, who could not endure to think of her sleeping on the
ground, and saw a large heap of grass or straw provided for a little
brown cow, endeavoured to take an armful for her. Unluckily it
belonged to Lanty's master, Eyoub, who instantly flew at him in a fury,
dragged him to a log of wood, caught up an axe, and had not Estelle's
screams brought up the sheyk, with Hassan and one or two other men, the
poor Maitre d'Hotel's head would have been off. There was a sharp
altercation between the sheyk and Eyoub, while Estelle held the
faithful servant's hand, saying, 'You did it for me! Oh, Hebert, do
not make them angry again. It would be beautiful to die for one's
faith, but not for a handful of hay.'
'Ah! my dear demoiselle, what would my poor ladies say to see you
sleeping on the bare ground in a filthy hut?'
'I slept well last night,' returned Estelle; 'indeed, I do not mind!
It is only the more like the dungeon at Lyon, you know! And I pray
you, Hebert, do not get yourself killed for nothing too soon, or else
we shall not all stand out and confess together, like St. Blandina and
St. Ponticus and St Epagathius.'
'Alas, the dear child! The long names run off her tongue as glibly as
ever,' sighed Hebert, who, though determined not to forsake his faith,
by no means partook her enthusiasm for martyrdom. Hassan, however,
having explained what the purpose had been, Hebert was pardoned, though
the sheyk scornfully observed that what was good enough for the
daughters of a Hadji was good enough for the unclean child of the
Frankish infidels.
The hay might perhaps have spared a little stiffness, but it would not
have ameliorated the chief annoyances--the closeness, the dirt, and the
vermin. It was well that it was winter, or the first of these would
have been far worse, and, fortunately for Estelle, she was one of those
whom suffocating air rather lulls than rouses.
Eyoub's hovel did not rejoice in the refinement of a partition, but his
family, together with their animals, lay on the rocky floor as best
they might; and Victorine's fever came on again, so that she lay in
great misery, greeted by a growl from a great white dog whenever she
tried to relieve her restless aching limbs by the slightest movement,
or to reach one of the gourds of water laid near the sleepers, like
Saul's cruse at his pillow.
Towards morning, however, Lanty, who had been sitting with his back
against the wall, awoke from the sleep well earned by acting as a beast
of burthen. The dog growled a little, but Lanty--though his leg still
showed its teeth-marks--had made friends with it, and his hand on its
head quieted it directly, so that he was able cautiously to hand a
gourd to Victorine. The Arabs were heavy sleepers, and the two were
able to talk under their breath; as, in reply to a kind word from
Lanty, poor Victorine moaned her envy of the fate of Rosette and
Babette; and he, with something of their little mistress's spirit,
declared that he had no doubt but that 'one way or the other they
should be out of it: either get safe home, or be blessed martyrs,
without even a taste of purgatory.'
'Ah! but there's worse for me,' sighed Victorine. 'This demon brought
another to stare in my face--I know he wants to make me his wife! Kill
me first, Laurent.'
'It is I that would rather espouse you, my jewel,' returned a tender
whisper.
'How can you talk of such things at such a moment?'
''Tis a pity M. l'Abbe is not a priest,' sighed Lanty. 'But, you know,
Victorine, who is the boy you always meant to take.'
'You need not be so sure of that,' she said, the coy coquetry not quite
extinct.
'Come, as you said, it is no time for fooling. Give me your word and
troth to be my wife so soon as we have the good luck to come by a
Christian priest by our Lady's help, and I'll outface them all--were it
Mohammed the Prophet himself, that you are my espoused and betrothed,
and woe to him that puts a finger on you.'
'You would only get yourself killed.'
'And would not I be proud to be killed for your sake? Besides, I'll
show them cause not to kill me if I have the chance. Trust me,
Victorine, my darling--it is but a chance among these murdering
villains, but it is the only one; and, sure, if you pretended to turn
the back of your hand to me when there were plenty of Christian men to
compliment you, yet you would rather have poor Lanty than a thundering
rogue of a pagan Mohammedan.'
'I hope I shall die,' sighed poor Victorine faintly. 'It will only be
your death!'
'That is my affair,' responded Lanty. 'Come, here's daylight coming
in; reach me your hand before this canaille wakes, and here's this good
beast of a dog, and yonder grave old goat with a face like Pere
Michel's for our witnesses--and by good luck, here's a bit of gilt wire
off my shoulder-knot that I've made into a couple of rings while I've
been speaking.'
The strange betrothal had barely taken place before there was a stir,
and what was no doubt a yelling imprecation on the 'dog Giaours' for
the noise they made.
The morning began as before, with the exception that Estelle had
established a certain understanding with a little chocolate-coloured
cupid of a boy of the size of her brother, and his lesser sister, by
letting them stroke her hair, and showing them the mysteries of cat's
cradle. They shared their gourd of goat's-milk with her, but would not
let her give any to her companions. However, the Abbe had only to hold
out his hand to be fed, and the others were far too anxious to care
much about their food.
A much larger number of Cabeleyzes came streaming into the forum of the
adowara, and the prisoners were all again placed in a row, while the
new-comers passed before them, staring hard, and manifestly making
personal remarks which perhaps it was well that they did not
understand. The sheyk and Eyoub evidently regarded them as private
property, stood in front, and permitted nobody to handle them, which
was so far a comfort.
Then followed a sort of council, with much gesticulation, in which
Hassan took his share. Then, followed by the sheyk, Eyoub, and some
other headmen, he advanced, and demanded that the captives should
become true believers. This was eked out with gestures betokening that
thus they would be free, in that case; while, if they refused, the
sword and the smouldering flame were pointed to, while the whole host
loudly shouted 'Islam!'
Victorine trembled, sobbed, tried to hide herself; but Estelle stood
up, her young face lighted up, her dark eyes gleaming, as if she were
realising a daydream, as she shook her head, cried out to Lanty, 'Tell
him, No--never!' and held to her breast a little cross of sticks that
she had been forming to complete her uncle's rosary. Her gesture was
understood. A man better clad than the rest, with a turban and a broad
crimson sash, rushed up to her, seized her by the hair, and waved his
scimitar over her head. The child felt herself close to her mother.
She looked up in his face with radiant eyes and a smile on her lips.
It absolutely daunted the fellow: his arm dropped, and he gazed at her
like some supernatural creature; and the sheyk, enraged at the
interference with his property, darted forth to defend it, and there
was a general wrangling.
Seconded by their interpreter, Hassan, who knew that the Koran did not
prescribe the destruction of Christians, Hebert and Lanty endeavoured
to show that their conversion was out of the question, and that their
slaughter would only be the loss of an exceedingly valuable ransom,
which would be paid if they were handed over safe and sound and in good
condition.
There was no knowing what was the effect of this, for the council again
ended in a rush to secure the remaining pillage of the wreck. Hebert
and Lanty dreaded what they might see, but to their great relief those
poor remains had disappeared. They shuddered as they remembered the
hyenas' laughs and the jackals' howls they had heard at nightfall; but
though they hoped that the sea had been merciful, they could even have
been grateful to the animals that had spared them the sight of
conscious insults.
The wreck was finally cleared, and among the fragments were found
several portions of books. These the Arabs disregarded, being too
ignorant even to read their own Koran, and yet aware of the Mohammedan
scruple which forbids the destruction of any scrap of paper lest it
should bear the name of Allah. Lanty secured the greater part of the
Abbe's breviary, and a good many pages of Estelle's beloved Telemaque;
while the steward gained possession of his writing case, and was
permitted to retain it when the Cabeleyzes, glutted with plunder, had
ascertained that it contained nothing of value to them.
After everything had been dragged up to the adowara, there ensued a
sort of auction or division of the plunder. Poor Maitre Hebert was
doomed to see the boxes and bales he had so diligently watched broken
open by these barbarians,--nay, he had to assist in their own
dissection when the secrets were too much for the Arabs. There was the
King of Spain's portrait rent from its costly setting and stamped upon
as an idolatrous image. The miniature of the Count, worn by the poor
lady, had previously shared the same fate, but that happily was out of
sight and knowledge. Here was the splendid plate, presented by crowned
heads, howled over by savages ignorant of its use. The silver they
seemed to value; but there were three precious gold cups which the salt
water had discoloured, so that they were taken for copper and sold for
a very small price to a Jew, who somehow was attracted to the scene,
'like a raven to the slaughter,' said Lanty.
This man likewise secured some of the poor lady's store of rich
dresses, but a good many more were appropriated to make sashes for the
men, and the smaller articles, including stockings, were wound turban
fashion round the children's heads.
Lanty could not help observing, 'And if the saints are merciful to us,
and get us out of this, we shall have stories to tell that will last
our lives!' as he watched the solemn old chief smelling to the
perfumes, swallowing the rouge as splendid medicine, and finally
fingering a snuff-box, while half a dozen more crowded round to assist
in the opening, and in another moment sneezing, weeping, tingling,
dancing frantically about, vituperating the Christian's magic.
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