Captain Kyd Volume Ii Part 31

He waved his arms upward, and a sound like the rus.h.i.+ng of wind pa.s.sed over them, and every torch flickered with the sudden agitation of the atmosphere.

"By earth we call on thee!"

He cast into the air a handful of the grave-dirt, which fell back to the ground with a hollow noise like the rumbling sound of an earthquake.

Every man stood appalled. Suddenly he ceased, and took, with much form and ceremony, a black cat from a pouch slung at his waist. He elevated her in one hand, while in the other he held a drawn knife above her, and chanted, turning the animal slowly round,

"No spot of white Must meet the sight!

Thrice shall it wave Above the grave!

At a single blow The blood must flow!"

He waved his knife at the repet.i.tion of the second couplet thrice above the grave, and at the close of the last line severed the head of the animal, which, with the body, he dropped into it. Instantly there issued flames and dense smoke from it, which first lighted up the scene wildly for a moment, and then left it in murky darkness. When the black volumes of vapour rolled away, the wizard was standing astride the grave in the att.i.tude of a sacrificer, his blood-dripping knife in his outstretched arm: he then began to chant,

"'Tis kindled, kindled!

Lucifer our prayer has heard!

In his name Feed the flame!

If dies the fire, the charm is broken!"

Then turning to Kyd, he cried,

"The book with name not to be spoken!

The book, the book to feed the flame, The book, the book none dare to name!"

"Think he means the Holy Bible, Captain Kyd?" demanded Loff, with religious horror.

"Silence!" cried the pirate chief.

He took from the folds of his cloak as he spoke a thick book, and gave it to the wizard, who received it with three several prostrations. He then tore it in pieces and cast the leaves into the grave. Instantly blue flame rose from it to a great height, thunder rolled in startling peals, while the most vivid lightning hissed and glared around them; at the same instant the bell in the church tower tolled without human aid with a sound so deep and solemn, so wild and unearthly, that every man was filled with consternation and horror. The wizard alone stood unmoved; and standing with one foot upon the treasure, chanted,

"One half the sacrifice is o'er.

In the grave your treasure pour!

He who seeks must seek again, He who digs will dig in vain!"

"Thus much is over," said Kyd, advancing. "Pour the coin and jewels into the grave."

"s.h.i.+ver my timbers! if I understand this!" exclaimed Loff. "There is more of Old Hoofs to do in the matter than I expected, or you wouldn't have caught me here. Umph! this black wizard smells of brimstone!"

After all the treasure was poured into the grave, the wizard, looking, as the moon shone upon his form and features, more like a demon than human, stood across it, and looked around malevolently upon the pirates as they leaned upon their spades prepared to refill it. After a moment's silence he began, in the same wild, monotonous chant:

"Safe from every human eye Shalt this gold securely lie; When a mortal who has seen The treasure placed the grave within, Shall in the grave alive be thrown: This done, the spot shall ne'er be known.

And finish'd then the rites will be, Mortal, thou hast sought from me!"

"If I had my doubts before about his being leagued with Beelzebub, not one have I left now," said Loff, with indignation. "I can see a fellow walk a plank or seized up to the yardarm, but I am too tender-hearted to see such a thing done as he hints at in his infernal rhymes."

The whole pirate crew seemed to be animated by the same feelings. At first general consternation prevailed; but, gathering confidence, they whispered together, casting the while revengeful looks towards the wizard. Suddenly, by one impulse, they laid their hands, without speaking, upon him, and cast him headlong into the grave; and then, acting as one man, filled it up with its living occupant in a moment of time. The first action of Kyd was to spring forward and rescue him; but the determined att.i.tude of his men, whose minds were too highly wrought up to be held under control, checked the impulse. He stood by till the grave was smoothed over, so that not a vestige of it remained, and was then about to command them to return to the brig, which was seen through the trees lying at her anchor near the land; but ere he could give the order, the flame of a gun fired from her flashed upon his eyes, followed by a loud report, that echoed in many a deep, rumbling note along the wooded sh.o.r.e.

"A signal of alarm!" he cried; "to your boats all!"

He hastened forward to the verge of the promontory where the prospect was un.o.bstructed, and, casting his eyes down the narrow strait that opens seaward between Staten Island and Sandy Hook, beheld not a mile off, coming round the headland, a large s.h.i.+p, her tall sails glancing like snow in the moonlight. Loud and clear rung his voice hastening his men to the brig, while gun after gun flashed and thundered from her, calling them on board to her defence. In less than five minutes three boats loaded with the pirates put off from the sh.o.r.e and pulled swiftly in the direction of the brig. Kyd stood up steering the foremost one.

But the wind blew steadily and strong in from sea, and the strange s.h.i.+p came on so fast that she was soon no farther off from their vessel than they themselves. It was plain she knew what she was about.

"Strain every nerve, men!" he cried, in an even, determined voice that reached every ear, while its coolness was more effectual in inspiring confidence than loud shouts would have been. "Pull together and steadily! She must not reach the brig before us. Now, all together!

Lively, lively! A few strokes and we shall reach her."

But they were yet several hundred yards from her, and the stranger came ploughing his way down without taking in a sail or altering his course, save just enough to enable him to cut off the boats, the approach of which, as well as the relative position of the brig with the sh.o.r.e, he was able to discern by the aid of the moon, which filled the atmosphere with brilliant light. In the mean while the brig cut her anchor, and, swinging round, with her diminished force directed a feeble and irregular fire towards her. But she kept on her course in majestic silence, without returning it and without apparent injury; and, ere the boats could reach their vessel, she sailed in between it and them, and poured a broadside into each. The brig felt the fire in every spar; but the boats, being so low in the water, escaped without injury, the shot flying high above the heads of the pirates, and cras.h.i.+ng among the forests on the sh.o.r.e. The brig was now evidently in the power of the s.h.i.+p; and Kyd, finding that it would be impossible to reach her, shouted through the smoke, that settled thickly over the water, to his mate Lawrence whom he had left on board with but a dozen men,

"Let them not take her! Blow her up, and to your boat!"

His voice was distinctly heard by every man both in the brig and s.h.i.+p.

"Hard up! hard, hard!" was instantly heard in the clear voice of Fitzroy; and the s.h.i.+p, which was steering so as to lay the brig aboard, fell off and stood in towards sh.o.r.e. The moment afterward a small boat was seen to put off from the brig, which a few seconds afterward blew up with a terrible explosion, suddenly turning night, for many miles around, into broad day, and shaking the earth with the tremendous concussion. For an instant the air was filled with a shower of missiles, and trains of fire lighting up sea, forest, and boats with a momentary and wild glare; then all sunk into darkness, and the pale moon once more struggled to a.s.sert her right to the empire of her own gentle light, which had been so suddenly invaded.

"Now, my men, we are left to our own resources," said Kyd. "There is not water enough for this s.h.i.+p to pa.s.s up this narrow sound. Let us pull through it. Who our pursuer is I have no idea: a small corvette, sent expressly by the king in pursuit, doubtless. But let us do our best to get off. We shall find some trader in the harbour, and will cast ourselves on board of her. There is no other chance!"

His address was received with a shout, and the four boats, Lawrence having now joined them, began to pull northward through the Staten Island Sound. The s.h.i.+p, in the mean while, after recovering the ground she had lost in avoiding the explosion, stood steadily on after the boats, which were not a quarter of a mile ahead, occasionally firing a bowchaser at the little fleet. The chase continued for half an hour, the pirates keeping the lead gallantly, and, being enabled to cross shoals by their lighter draught, occasionally they got far ahead, while the s.h.i.+p was slowly following the circuitous channel.

"She has a pilot who knows the ground," said Kyd, as he beheld the s.h.i.+p navigate safely an intricate reach of the narrow pa.s.sage. "If he clears the Red Bank we have just come across, he will do what s.h.i.+p has never done before--go through into York Bay! Now she comes to it!" he cried, with animation, rising in his boat and watching the advance of the s.h.i.+p across the shoal. Suddenly he exclaimed, while a shout went up from the men, who were so interested at this crisis of the pursuit that they forgot to pull at the oar,

"She has struck, and heavily too! There goes her fore-topgallant-mast like a pipestem!"

"She will off with the flood," said Lawrence.

"It is full flood now. She will stick there as long as two timbers hold together, unless they pitch their guns overboard," said Loff.

"Ho, my lads, all!" suddenly cried Kyd, addressing them; "she is now ours. Back water! Let us carry her as she lies!"

He was answered by a loud hurrah, and the boats' heads were instantly turned towards the s.h.i.+p, which was about half a mile off. The boats shot forward with velocity, pus.h.i.+ng before them vast surges which their ploughing bows turned up from the surface. They had got within half their distance of her, when boats were lowered from every part of her, and, as if by magic, filled with men.

"They are on the alert! He who commands her knows his business!" said Kyd, who, as his boats approached, had stood up in the stern of his own, with his drawn cutla.s.s extended towards the vessel, inspiring his men and panting for the conflict. But, at this indication of their readiness to receive him, he suddenly cried, turning and waving his hand to the boats in the rear,

"Hold on!"

He then surveyed the enemy, and said in a calm, deep tone, every accent of which was expressive of his determined purpose,

"There are six boats, with at least twenty men in each; we number fifty or sixty only. Nevertheless, we must fight them!"

This proposition, notwithstanding the previous ardour of the crew, was received with a universal murmur of dissent.

"We are willing to pull towards New-York Bay, Captain Kyd," said Loff, "and take possession of some of the craft there; but there are too many odds against us to risk fighting yonder barges. Besides, on the bows of the largest boat I can see a gun relieved against the wake of the moon."

"It is too true. We shall be likely to have the worst of it," said Kyd, suppressing his rage, which was ready to burst forth at the refusal of his men, and satisfied on a second glance that it would be useless to attempt, with his ill-armed crew, to capture a flotilla of boats so well prepared both for attack and defence. "Put away, and let us get through this narrow sound at our best speed! If they pursue us we will lead them a long chase."

He was answered by a cheer from his men and a simultaneous dash of the numerous oars into the water, under the force of which the boats moved up the strait with direct and rapid motion. At the same instant a gun of heavy metal was discharged from the bows of the headmost boat of their pursuers, loaded with grape; but the leaden shower fell far short of them; while, at the same instant, with loud cheers, all the barges left the side of the s.h.i.+p and commenced hot pursuit of the pirate boats.

"A twelve-pounder by its report," said Kyd, "and it would have done mischief if it had been elevated half an inch higher. Pull, men! they will shoot better the next time!" he shouted, waving his sword with animation and cheering them on.

Away they flew, pursuing and pursued! At one moment the s.h.i.+p's boats would be almost upon them, when the pirates would shoot from the main channel into some creek or bayou intersecting the marshy sh.o.r.es, and re-enter the Sound far above them. At intervals the twelve-pounder broke with a loud roar upon the night, echoing among the woods of Staten Island and the Jersey sh.o.r.e in multiplied reverberations; and, like a hurricane, its cloud of bullets would rush along the air, or plough and skip along the surface of the water, but with little effect. On they went, pursuing and pursued, neither yielding or showing signs of fatigue. At length the moon hung low over the western horizon, and shone with a cold, watery look; in the east flakes of light spotted the sky, and the darkness began to break before the dawn. Gradually the ashy hue of the sky became clearer, and changed to a delicate pink; and then, waxing brighter, grew to vermillion, till the whole eastern sky blushed with the incipient dawn. The clouds that hung about the path of the coming sun began to turn out edges of gold, and the sky to the zenith to radiate with beams of glorious dies. The whole heaven, even down to the low west, had changed its livery of blue for the rose, while the jealous moon, disdaining to look on a rival whose coming was so gorgeously heralded, threw a snowy veil over her brow, and sunk, scarce visible on the brow of morning, beneath the horizon! Suddenly up rose the sun and filled the world with light!

As the day approached the hostile parties became plainly visible to one another, and were able to count each other's force. At sunrise the pirate's boats entered the bay of New-York, leaving Staten Island on the right, and closely followed within a third of a mile by their pursuers, pulled directly towards the town, which, with its wall and Rondeel, was seen rising from the water a league distant. Not far from the sh.o.r.e, between the Governor's Island and the town, lay three or four small Dutch yachts at anchor, waiting for the change of tide to take them up to Albany. It was evident, from the course he took, that it was the intention of Kyd to throw himself on board one of these vessels, and effect the escape of himself and crew. This seemed to be the idea suggested to the mind of the leader of the pursuing boats, and he urged his men forward in the most animated and eager manner. At the stern of his launch, which took the lead, and in the bows of which was mounted a twelve-pound carronade, floated a silken flag, on which were conspicuous the initials of his name and the crest of the house of Bellamont.