The Eve of All-Hallows Volume Ii Part 3

Our readers then will vouchsafe to recollect of what importance, as a seaport, Ostend is, and ever has been considered, being only second in rank to Dunkirk. Indeed the possession of Ostend in every war has been always accounted of the highest consequence by every belligerent power, as well as by the sovereigns too of the Low Countries. The oriental situation of Ostend has given to it its name, by which one might express _a port which looks to the east_; and its armorial bearing[12] implies that it is one of the princ.i.p.al keys of Austrian Flanders.

[12] "The armorial escutcheon of Ostend bears a chevron sable on a gold ground, charged with three keys, sable blazoned on the dexter and sinister chiefs, and on the middle base point of the s.h.i.+eld.

The supporters a seaman and a mermaid."--_Les Delices des Pays Bas._

Ostend had formerly been the simple station of fishermen, established between Nieuport and Helvoetsluys; but, increasing from various combining events, it gradually arose to consequence, numerous causes having co-operated to its enlargement. The origin of the civil wars--the fears created by the numerous pirates throughout the entire provinces of the Low Countries, &c., these gradually led to its increase, and Ostend became a place of strength and importance; her port enriching her trade and revenue by bringing home the merchandize of Europe; while her strong fortifications protected and secured the inhabitants from the machinations of their enemies; and, finally, the peace of Ghent having completely established the power of the confederated states.

At the period of which we speak Ostend was progressively recovering from the fatal effects of a protracted siege, conducted by the Spaniards under Spinola, which had lasted for the s.p.a.ce of three years; and upon the last day of the siege it was as uncertain as upon the first whether it would be captured by the Spaniards or not; or to which side victory finally would belong. The account of the loss of lives on the part of the besiegers and the besieged in this disastrous siege, is truly most formidable; it is computed that fifteen thousand of the latter perished; some slain by the sword of war, others fell by pestilence, and others perished the victims of the marshy climate of Ostend, from fatigue of the siege, the sorties, engagements, and fire of the enemy; while the Spaniards suffered the severe loss of upwards of seventy-eight thousand men.[13]

[13] See "Grotius Annales et Histoires des Troubles du Pays Bas,"

lib. X. p. 491. See also the "Cardinal Bentivoglio," lib. III. p.

6. And see "Histoire des Provinces Unies, par M. Le Clerc," vol.

I. p. 215, 229, Amsterdam, folio, 1723. In these three works will be found a full account of Spinola's attempt on Ostend, and the reader will be tempted to exclaim:--Unhappy Belgium! whose beauteous domains have been doomed to blaze beneath the torch of war, from the days of Tiberius down to those of Napoleon!

But we must now return to the detail of our voyagers, who having ate a hearty supper at their hotel, soon retired to repose in their respective chambers. Oh, how refres.h.i.+ng to the wearied spirit is the renovating balm of sleep; and how invigorating is a night's undisturbed repose! And how great, how unspeakable the change, and how joyful the contrast, from the almost certain expectancy of death by a watery grave, it is upon the succeeding morning to awake, as if from the tomb, upon a bed of down, and to hail the blessed cheering light of morning! Who could forbear to raise the adoring eye and the grateful heart to heaven, for an escape so unexpected and providential! All this they deeply and devoutly felt.

The morning succeeding their preservation, while they were actively and busily occupied in the important despatch of an incomparable breakfast, and the fellow-sufferers were pa.s.sing a high and well deserved eulogium on some excellent Malines ham, to their great surprise and dismay a party of _Gens d'Armes_, as has been before remarked, arrived at their hotel, when (the three of them) the colonel, his servant, and Doctor M'Kenzie, were arrested under suspicion of being spies, and were thrown into prison.

"This is somewhat too hard," observed Doctor M'Kenzie, "not to be allowed to swallow our rations of excellent ham! A few hours ago to have escaped the whirlpool of Charybdis, and this morn to be s.h.i.+pwrecked on the rock of Scylla! The sea was well nigh swallowing us yesterday, and to-day we are to be immured in prison on suspicion of being spies;

'Dextrum Scylla latus, laevum implacata Charybdis Obsidet.'"

"Yes, my Reverend Friend," replied the colonel, "this is all but too true, we have had our share of suffering indeed; but while we feel it as men, let us also bear it like men, and hope the best! For my own lot I care not; to me death, not captivity, would be welcome!"

To account for this arrest we must apprise our readers that Marshal de Rantzau had made a desperate attempt with only two thousand French troops, a very few years previous to the period of which we now speak.

But eventually the French force was put to flight, with the loss of twelve hundred brave and gallant men, who fatally fell in this rash attempt. And this event it was which caused such alertness and suspicion regarding strangers to be adopted by the government and garrison of Ostend.

The prisoners were marched along under a strong escort of the _Gens d'Armes_, and were conducted to the chief prison, and handed over to the surveillance of the head gaoler, Mr. Phelim O'Neale, who, by the way, happened to be a countryman of the Reverend Doctor M'Kenzie. At that period the janitor of a gaol did not enjoy the present high diplomatique distinction of being termed the _governor_ or _warder_ of a grated citadel.

While Mr. Phelim O'Neale was showing his prisoners the apartments allotted to them, he said, addressing the Reverend Clerk:--"I know that your Riverence is my countryman, and perhaps I know still more; I therefore feel all the respect and affection which I ought to do for a countryman in a foreign land. My life has been a varied and changeable one, and it may perchance beguile away an hour of captivity, that you should deign to listen to my story. Och, I was once a roving and untamable bird, wild as the haggard-hawk[14] of my native hills, that is ever on the excursive wing; and like to it, I was not to be tamed at all; but now, in troth, I am tame enough, any how! For the present I shall only say, that from peculiar and urgent circ.u.mstances I was compelled to leave my native land. I embarked from the bay of Tyrconnel in Ireland, in a vessel bound for Virginia; at sea I was taken prisoner by the fleet and squadron of Marshal de Rantzau; and with the force of his Highness I was landed at this good city, ould Ostind. Well here I was a wandering raw recruit on Flemish ground, an unknown exile and outcast, forsaken by all, from Dan to Beersheba! Howsomdever, I was shortly thrown in the way of my brave countryman, Count Dillon, whom I knew when I was a gossoon. He was a lieutenant curnell, sarving under the marshal; and he was not slow in discovering that I possessed both cuteness and genus.--_Vous avez razon mun infant!_ he would often say to me, (he had lived for years in France,) and yit, by my blessed sowl, I often thought that his honourable wors.h.i.+p himself had no razon at all, at all!"

[14] Haggard, in falconry, means a hawk or falcon not taken in the nest, but after she had been inured to liberty, and preying for herself. Haggard-hawks are hard to be tamed and brought under discipline. The haggard-falcon is also called _Peregrine-falcon_, pa.s.senger and traveller, from its wandering more than any other sort of its kind; it is strong, courageous, hardy, and persevering. This bird is distinguished from the common falcon as being larger, &c. &c. The haggard-falcon, when wild and unreclaimed, takes the greatest liberty of all other birds, living either by land or sea; and formed of such absolute power, that wherever she comes all flying fowl stoop under her subjection.

"Fie, fie! Mr. Phelim O'Neale; swear not at all! it is a work of supererogation for selling yourself, both body and soul, gratis to the infernal power! Let me hear no more of it."

"Well, your Riverence, no sooner said than done," says poor Phelim O'Neale; "by ---- I will swear no more!"

"There again!--swearing an oath that you will not swear! Who ever heard the like before;--what impious inconsistency!"

"Your pardon, Riverend Father, for this time, and you shall no more catch me tripping, nor stumbling, nor swearing. Och, murder! although I have endured enough to make any feeling Christian swear hard enough--at times, any how, to be sure! by ---- I mean maybe through a thick deal board itself! Well, your Riverence, to continue the thrid of my story:--Count Dillon one day took me aside, and said, 'Phelim, I clearly persave that you are a quick, cute lad, and you must a.s.sist me in a plan which I have in disjunction joined with the Marshal Rantzau, for suddenly surprising Ostind, and taking it by a parabolous stratagism, the most admirable and intripid that was ever known, thought of, or yet imagined by any bould pioneer,' as your Riverence shall hear anon. It was in the month of June, and upon the memorable fifteenth day thereof, in the year 1600 and--though I can't precisely recollect the date upon which we resolved for the execution of this intended daring and glorious enterprise, for our attacking force consisted of but two thousand men.

Our stratigismus was to surprise Ostind by the gate of Nieuport, which lay upon the land side, and next to the town of Nieuport. We hoped that by the introduction of a large body of men we might possibly, perhaps certainly, possess ourselves of the town and citadel of ould Ostind.

Accordingly, to be sure, with this intint, we well surveyed the gate; and before that we had geoggraphyz'd the intire country, and all the roads and pa.s.ses disjacent, whersomby that by every measure and means, and all due secrecy, that our attacking force might be intraducted, and back our n.o.ble and elegant enterprise. Accordingly some half dozen soldiers, clad in garb of Flemish peasants, in their blue caps and blue frocks; and wherewithal supporting upon their backs sacks well stored with chesnuts, walnuts, &c., were to seem as if they had brought them for sale into town; and thin, upon an appointed signal, (the sacks loosely tied,) the pretinded peasants were to let them fall, (accidently on purpose no doubt,) and scatter their contints around upon the ground, which was to cause a general scramble, and take off the attention of the guard from the object which we had in view. This having taken place, the fore-said soldiers, or disguised peasants, were to rally around a waggon, or, as they call it here, a charabbon, under the same pretence, laden with baskets of fruit and vegetables, strawberries, cherries, peas, beans, &c. &c. The thing was so managed that within the waggon there were concealed about thirty soldiers. As being the chief projector, the honourable post of heading this desperate attempt, (which, if it succeeded, was soon to be followed by a powerful force,) was consigned, gentle Sirs, to your intripid and very devoted sarvant, Phelim O'Neale."

"And pray, Mr. Phelim O'Neale, if it be not taking too great a liberty, may I inquire what induced Count Dillon to place such confidence in _you_, and make _you_ the head of the pioneers, or of this stratagem, upon the success of which, it would appear, turned the entire success of the attack?"

"Och, botheration! and that too I will confiss to your Riverence. 'I think,' says I, Curnell, plaze your worthy honour's wors.h.i.+p, that I could suggist a matter to your grace's judgment that would, all in all, carry the day, and, in troth, we should soon be in possession of ould Ostind!'

"'Indeed! Mr. Phelim O'Neale; pray tell, are you on the staff?--I suppose a general at least!' said he.

"'Not I, by my own sowl!' says I. 'No, not even a corporal! But then your n.o.ble and valiant wors.h.i.+p knows, howsomdever, that there is a little fish, not larger than four inches in lingth, and about one in bridth, that pilots and leads on the great commodore of the ocean; I mean, plaze your most n.o.ble wors.h.i.+p, the pilot fish,[15] that steers onward the mighty shark, the goliathan of the ocean, to the wictims of his prey! What do you think now, n.o.ble commander, of this apt dissimilitude?'

[15] The pilot fish, called in ichthyology, _Gasterosteus Ductor_.

"'Oh, pardon, good honest friend O'Neale, _vous este une bon garcon_!'

"Upon my own conscience we call this better in ould Ireland by the name of gossoon!--but no matter as to that. He then axed me if I had any patience; 'for,' said he, 'you Irish have no patience at all;' and then talked to himself, that the Irish were like one fiery hot Harry Hotspur, an Hottentot I suppose, that had no forbearance nor patience at all, at all!

"'Och, then, n.o.ble commander,' said I, 'I am the patient, enduring boy after all; I am stationary as an owl at mid-day within an ivy bus.h.!.+ and as patient and forbearing (baring till the time comes) as a heron perched upon the brink of a fish-brook! Och, then, by my own sowl, 'tis I am the lad that will wait for you till the very cows come home!--troth, sure enough, I would at any hop of the ball!'

"'Bravo, bravo! my bould boy;' replied Count Dillon, 'you are the very boy for my business and project--all shall go on well!' He then ejoculated, '_vous avez razon, vous avez razon_,' until I fairly thought that he would have lost his own razon all out and out, any how!"

"But pray proceed, Mr. Phelim O'Neale, with your narrative, in which I begin to take some little interest."

"Thus emboldened, your Riverence, as I was by my commander's lave, I up and tould him, as I till you and your friend, all my plan, of which he highly approbated. Every matter being duly prepared, a time for making the grand attack was appointed. The soldiers who were to make the attempt, as I have already tould your Riverence, were all disguised as Flemish peasants, in their blue caps and blue frocks, and were each man to have a Flanders' pipe stuck in his jaw, and smoking away briskly, as much as to say, _the devil may care for yeez all_! I will now till the whole of my contrivance, as plotted and planned from the first to the last, without any deviation or prevarication from the truth at all, at all! To go on then with my story:--the charabbon, or waggon, contained, as already I have said, thirty soldiers, who upon this occasion were to be headed by me; in the cart we had several stout planks of oak, which were destinated for a treble purpose: firstly, to hide us who were packed beneath, but whose hearts were strong and unbending as the planks over our heads; and secondly, to support some baskets of fruit and vegetables, for which this country is most remarkable."

"Yes," said Doctor M'Kenzie, addressing Colonel Davidson, "it is recorded that when Anne of Cleves, the queen consort of King Henry VIII., wanted a sallad, she used to despatch a messenger to Flanders to procure one."

The colonel nodded his a.s.sent, and requested Mr. Phelim O'Neale to proceed onward with his tale.

"Well the planks were, as I said, destinated for a treble purpose, I have tould two of these; the third was, in the last place, to erect them as uprights, to prevent the falling of the portcullis upon our skulls who were to make the attack. And the charabban was intentionally, on purpose to be sure, to be overturned at the door of the guard-house to block up the guard while cracking their walnuts, &c. If this attempt of gaining the Nieuport-gate had succeeded, a carabine was to have been fired to give a signal to the Marshal de Rantzau, who was stationed with the remainder of our force, which, as I have already obsarved, amounted to two thousand men; and upon their coming up in time, in obedience to the signal, we were sure and sartin of the capture of Ostind.

"We had thus anxiously planned, and with strong grounds and hopes of success, this elegant enterprise, which was to burst forth upon the fifteenth day of June; whether the termination was fortunate or the reverse will soon be tould yeez. The military gait and air of the supposed peasants it is thought led to suspicion, and seemed to awaken the attention of the garrison. Just when the charabbonier[16] drove up his wehicle in which I was, and approached to the Nieuport-gate of Ostind, forward advanced the d.a.m.niers, (douaniers,[17] or custom-house officers,) and with their accustomed agility forth flew their rapiers, flas.h.i.+ng in the bright summer glow of the harvest moon; they cut, and thrust, and terced, prodding the contints of the waggon without any distinction or respect of persons or property, whether dead or alive stock, but according to custom, searching for counter-brand goods and chattels. At length a sharp Toledo of one of these d.a.m.ned d.a.m.niers stuck in one of my ribs, and sure enough the blood began to leak. 'Arah,'

roared I, 'what the d--l are you perpetrating; and would you be after murdering me, you Flanders' boucher!'

[16] Charabbonier means the driver, or waggoner, of a Flemish waggon.

[17] It is usual for the douaniers, or custom-house officers, of Flanders, to attend at the gates of the different cities, who search, by means of prodding with a foil, all merchandize coming into or out of town, in order to detect any goods that may prove to be contraband, or smuggled.

"'Ah, hah!--_Jean Bull!_--_Jean diable!_' cried he aloud, '_emportez soldats! ca herse--bas--bas--ouvrez le fenetre!_' Which every body knows is 'shut the gate!' And sure enough bang down went the portcullis, up leapt the draw-bridge; and closed and securely bolted and barred in no time were the gates. And, oh, 'tis true enough, poor Phelim O'Neale had got sartain and sure at the wrong side of the gate, where he was soon made prisoner, and all his brave plans completely dumb-foundered and knocked upon the head in one short and sad moment. I with several others, thus caught in this Flemish trap, were made prisoners; while suspicion being aroused, and all our resources having been cut off, outnumbered as Marshal Rantzau was by the enemy, it was only left him to sound a retreat, and retire to his chaloupes, (large boats.)

"After having remained for a long period in prison, I at last caught the attention of the head gaoler, who taking a fancy to me, made me his under gaoler; and some years after, (seven I think,) upon his death, I was constatuted head gaoler. And here I am; I have a good salary, a good roomy house, and with the allowance of coals and candles. I am married to a pretty, and what is far better, to a good Flemish la.s.s; and we have already four childer in the s.p.a.ce of three years, and the Lord be praised they are all the right sort--they are all of the emasculate ginder! So that I am, in troth, in some sort of mizzure ind.a.m.nified for my losses and sufferings by the post which I here hould."

Mr. Phelim O'Neale, the head gaoler, or, in phrase modern, _diplomatique_, the head governor of the citadel, paid the most marked attention to his prisoners; and said, that before the morning's dawn he would think of something that would ixtrickate them from their prison.

"For when a man gets into a sc.r.a.pe or difficulty, Riverend Father, he has only to consult an Irishman, who will be sure and sartain to get him safely and genteely out of it."

"Ay, the Nieuport-gate of Ostend and the Spanish Toledo to wit," thought Doctor M'Kenzie to himself, "is a full elucidation of the truth of this proposition!"

Now having left them a most comfortable dinner, or supper, and which answered for both; with a bottle or two of _vin du pays_, and some true and veritable Rhenish wine, the warder of the citadel wished his inmates a good night. But before he departed he took Doctor M'Kenzie aside, and whispered him--"I have so managed it that by to-morrow you and your friend shall have separate apartments at night; to-morrow the arrangement shall take place, and I have much to say to you, holy Father, in secret, and to make many confissions when we shall meet alone on the morrow."

The next morning by times the warder arrived, and introduced a plentiful and excellent breakfast, not forgetting some excellent Malines ham, in the digestion of which they had been so rudely interrupted at the inn of the old Saint Michael. When breakfast was over he again returned; when opening his cloak, he produced a violin and clarionet. "Do any of you play upon these instruments?" said Phelim O'Neale.

"Yes," rejoined Doctor M'Kenzie, "I was wont in happier days than these to play for my pastime upon the violin. But such a question now in such a place--say to what can it tend? I have no such fancy indeed at present, I can a.s.sure you, my good and kind Mr. Phelim O'Neale." Who, however, proceeded, quite unrestrained by his Reverence's rebuke--"Can n.o.body play upon the clarionet?"

After some delay and hesitation, at length with diffidence the colonel's servant said, "Yes, Sir, I once could play upon it when I was----"

"Oh, that," said Phelim, "will do capitally! excellent! quite enough!

strim-stram--drimendreuch! All will now, in troth, go on quite well, and with grate success, any how!"

He then laid down the musical instruments, and putting his hands in his pocket, produced several files and saws of various forms and sizes, and then produced a bottle of vitriol. "My plan," added he, "is now fully ripening for the liberation of yeez three; these instruments and implements are intinded to saw asunder the prison bars of your dungeon window, which being within a short distance from the ground, your freedom easily can be afficted without either damage or difficulty, or even resaving a slight prod in the small ribs, when you shall have duly accomplished the nibbling asunder of the meshes which confine yeez! And the Rev. Doctor with his fiddle, and this honest-faced lad with his clarionet--och, och, it will all do bravely and rarely to murder and drown, aye, and bother, that brave and grave gentleman's operatusses in sawing the bars; och, by my sowl, the filing will be fairly bothered.