sand? So I turned my back on the diamond merchant, and looked out of the
window, waiting all the while to catch the slightest word that might
come from his lips.

I have found then and at other times that in such moments, though the
mind be occupied entirely by one overwhelming thought, yet the eyes take
in, as it were unwittingly, all that lies before them, so that we can
afterwards recall a face or landscape of which at the time we took no
note. Thus it was with me that night, for though I was thinking of
nothing but the jewel, yet I noted everything that could be seen through
the window, and the recollection was of use to me later on. The window
was made in the French style, reaching down to the floor, and opening
like a door with two leaves. It led on to a little balcony, and now stood
open (for the day was still very hot), and on the wall below was trained
a pear-tree, which half-embowered the balcony with its green leaves. The
window could be well protected in case of need, having latticed wooden
blinds inside, and heavy shutters shod with iron on the outer wall, and
there were besides strong bolts and sockets from which ran certain wires
whose use I did not know. Below the balcony was a square garden-plot,
shut in with a brick wall, and kept very neat and trim. There were
hollyhocks round the walls, and many-coloured poppies, with many other
shrubs and flowers. My eyes fell on one especially, a tall red-blossomed
rushy kind of flower, that I had never seen before; and that seemed
indeed to be something out of the common, for it stood in the middle of a
little earth-plot, and had the whole bed nearly to itself.

I was looking at this flower, not thinking of it, but wondering all the
while whether Mr. Aldobrand would say the diamond was worth ten thousand
pounds, or fifty, or a hundred thousand, when I heard him speaking, and
turned round quick. 'My sons, and you especially, son John,' he said, and
turned to me: 'this stone that you have brought me is no stone at all,
but glass--or rather paste, for so we call it. Not but what it is good
paste, and perhaps the best that I have seen, and so I had to try it to
make sure. But against high chymic tests no sham can stand; and first it
is too light in weight, and second, when rubbed on this Basanus or
Black-stone, traces no line of white, as any diamond must. But, third and
last, I have tried it with the hermeneutic proof, and dipped it in this
most costly lembic; and the liquor remains pure green and clear, not
turbid orange, a diamond leaves it.'

As he spoke the room spun round, and I felt the sickness and
heart-sinking that comes with the sudden destruction of long-cherished
hope. So it was all a sham, a bit of glass, for which we had risked our
lives. Blackbeard had only mocked us even in his death, and from rich men
we were become the poorest outcasts. And all the other bright fancies
that had been built on this worthless thing fell down at once, like a
house of cards. There was no money now with which to go back rich to
Moonfleet, no money to cloak past offences, no money to marry Grace; and
with that I gave a sigh, and my knees failing should have fallen had not
Elzevir held me.

'Nay, son John,' squeaked the old man, seeing I was so put about, 'take
it not hardly, for though this is but paste, I say not it is worthless.
It is as fine work as ever I have seen, and I will offer you ten silver
crowns for it; which is a goodly sum for a sailor-lad to have in hand,
and more than all the other buyers in this town would bid you for it.'

'Tush, tush,' cried Elzevir, and I could hear the bitterness and
disappointment in his voice, however much he tried to hide it; 'we are
not come to beg for silver crowns, so keep them in your purse. And the
devil take this shining sham; we are well quit of it; there is a curse
upon the thing!' And with that he caught up the stone and flung it away
out of the window in his anger.

This brought the diamond-buyer to his feet in a moment. 'You fool, you
cursed fool!' he shrieked, 'are you come here to beard me? and when I say
the thing is worth ten silver crowns do you fling it to the winds?'

I had sprung forward with a half thought of catching Elzevir's arm; but
it was too late--the stone flew up in the air, caught the low rays of the
setting sun for a moment, and then fell among the flowers. I could not
see it as it fell, yet followed with my eyes the line in which it should
have fallen, and thought I saw a glimmer where it touched the earth. It
was only a flash or sparkle for an instant, just at the stem of that same
rushy red-flowered plant, and then nothing more to be seen; but as I
faced round I saw the little man's eyes turned that way too, and perhaps
he saw the flash as well as I.

'There's for your ten crowns!' said Elzevir. 'Let us be going, lad.' And
he took me by the arm and marched me out of the room and down the stairs.

'Go, and a blight on you!' says Mr. Aldobrand, his voice being not so
high as when he cried out last, but in his usual squeak; and then he
repeated, 'a blight on you,' just for a parting shot as we went through
the door.

We passed two more waiting-men on the stairs, but they said nothing to
us, and so we came to the street.

We walked along together for some time without a word, and then
Elzevir said, 'Cheer up, lad, cheer up. Thou saidst thyself thou
fearedst there was a curse on the thing, so now it is gone, maybe we
are well quit of it.'

Yet I could not say anything, being too much disappointed to find the
diamond was a sham, and bitterly cast down at the loss of all our hopes.
It was all very well to think there was a curse upon the stone so long as
we had it, and to feign that we were ready to part with it; but now it
was gone I knew that at heart I never wished to part with it at all, and
would have risked any curse to have it back again. There was supper
waiting for us when we got back, but I had no stomach for victuals and
sat moodily while Elzevir ate, and he not much. But when I sat and
brooded over what had happened, a new thought came to my mind and I
jumped up and cried, 'Elzevir, we are fools! The stone is no sham; 'tis a
real diamond!'

He put down his knife and fork, and looked at me, not saying anything,
but waiting for me to say more, and yet did not show so much surprise as
I expected. Then I reminded him how the old merchant's face was full of
wonder and delight when first he saw the stone, which showed he thought
it was real then, and how afterwards, though he schooled his voice to
bring out long words to deceive us, he was ready enough to spring to his
feet and shriek out loud when Elzevir threw the stone into the garden. I
spoke fast, and in talking to him convinced myself, so when I stopped for
want of breath I was quite sure that the stone was indeed a diamond, and
that Aldobrand had duped us.

Still Elzevir showed little eagerness, and only said--

''Tis like enough that what you say is true, but what would you have us
do? The stone is flung away.'

'Yes,' I answered; 'but I saw where it fell, and know the very place; let
us go back now at once and get it.'

'Do you not think that Aldobrand saw the place too?' asked Elzevir; and
then I remembered how, when I turned back to the room after seeing the
stone fall, I caught the eyes of the old merchant looking the same way;
and how he spoke more quietly after that, and not with the bitter cry he
used when Elzevir tossed the jewel out of the window.

'I do not know,' I said doubtfully; 'let us go back and see. It fell
just by the stem of a red flower that I marked well. What!' I added,
seeing him still hesitate and draw back, 'do you doubt? Shall we not go
and get it?'

Still he did not answer for a minute, and then spoke slowly, as if
weighing his words. 'I cannot tell. I think that all you say is true, and
that this stone is real. Nay, I was half of that mind when I threw it
away, and yet I would not say we are not best without it. 'Twas you who
first spoke of a curse upon the jewel, and I laughed at that as being a
childish tale. But now I cannot tell; for ever since we first scented
this treasure luck has run against us, John; yes, run against us very
strong; and here we are, flying from home, called outlaws, and with blood
upon our hands. Not that blood frightens me, for I have stood face to
face with men in fair fight, and never felt a death-blow given so weigh
on my soul; but these two men came to a tricksy kind of end, and yet I
could not help it. 'Tis true that all my life I've served the
Contraband, but no man ever knew me do a foul action; and now I do not
like that men should call me felon, and like it less that they should
call thee felon too. Perhaps there may be after all some curse that hangs
about this stone, and leads to ruin those that handle it. I cannot say,
for I am not a Parson Glennie in these things; but Blackbeard in an evil
mood may have tied the treasure up to be a curse to any that use it for
themselves. What do we want with this thing at all? I have got money to
be touched at need; we may lie quiet this side the Channel, where thou
shalt learn an honest trade, and when the mischief has blown over we will
go back to Moonfleet. So let the jewel be, John; shall we not let the
jewel be?'

He spoke earnestly, and most earnestly at the end, taking me by the hand
and looking me full in the face. But I could not look him back again, and
turned my eyes away, for I was wilful, and would not bring myself to let
the diamond go. Yet all the while I thought that what he said was true,
and I remembered that sermon that Mr. Glennie preached, saying that life
was like a 'Y', and that to each comes a time when two ways part, and
where he must choose whether he will take the broad and sloping road or
the steep and narrow path. So now I guessed that long ago I had chosen
the broad road, and now was but walking farther down it in seeking after
this evil treasure, and still I could not bear to give all up, and
persuaded myself that it was a child's folly to madly fling away so fine
a stone. So instead of listening to good advice from one so much older
than me, I set to work to talk him over, and persuaded him that if we got
the diamond again, and ever could sell it, we would give the money to
build up the Mohune almshouses, knowing well in my heart that I never
meant to do any such thing. Thus at the last Elzevir, who was the
stubbornest of men, and never yielded, was overborne by his great love to
me, and yielded here.

It was ten o'clock before we set out together, to go again to
Aldobrand's, meaning to climb the garden wall and get the stone. I walked
quickly enough, and talked all the time to silence my own misgivings, but
Elzevir hung back a little and said nothing, for it was sorely against
his judgement that he came at all. But as we neared the place I ceased my
chatter, and so we went on in silence, each busy with his own thoughts,
We did not come in front of Aldobrand's house, but turned out of the main
street down a side lane which we guessed would skirt the garden wall.
There were few people moving even in the streets, and in this little lane
there was not a soul to meet as we crept along in the shadow of the high
walls. We were not mistaken, for soon we came to what we judged was the
outside of Aldobrand's garden.

Here we paused for a minute, and I believe Elzevir was for making a last
remonstrance, but I gave him no chance, for I had found a place where
some bricks were loosened in the wall-face, and set myself to climb. It
was easy enough to scale for us, and in a minute we both dropped down in
a bed of soft mould on the other side. We pushed through some
gooseberry-bushes that caught the clothes, and distinguishing the outline
of the house, made that way, till in a few steps we stood on the
_Pelouse_ or turf, which I had seen from the balcony three hours before.
I knew the twirl of the walks, and the pattern of the beds; the rank of
hollyhocks that stood up all along the wall, and the poppies breathing
out a faint sickly odour in the night. An utter silence held all the
garden, and, the night being very clear, there was still enough light to
show the colours of the flowers when one looked close at them, though the
green of the leaves was turned to grey. We kept in the shadow of the
wall, and looked expectantly at the house. But no murmur came from it, it
might have been a house of the dead for any noise the living made there;
nor was there light in any window, except in one behind the balcony, to
which our eyes were turned first. In that room there was someone not yet
gone to rest, for we could see a lattice of light where a lamp shone
through the open work of the wooden blinds.

'He is up still,' I whispered, 'and the outside shutters are not closed.'
Elzevir nodded, and then I made straight for the bed where the red flower
grew. I had no need of any light to see the bells of that great rushy
thing, for it was different from any of the rest, and besides that was
planted by itself.

I pointed it out to Elzevir. 'The stone lies by the stalk of that
flower,' I said, 'on the side nearest to the house'; and then I stayed
him with my hand upon his arm, that he should stand where he was at the
bed's edge, while I stepped on and got the stone.

My feet sank in the soft earth as I passed through the fringe of poppies
circling the outside of the bed, and so I stood beside the tall rushy
flower. The scarlet of its bells was almost black, but there was no
mistaking it, and I stooped to pick the diamond up. Was it possible? was
there nothing for my outstretched hand to finger, except the soft rich
loam, and on the darkness of the ground no guiding sparkle? I knelt down
to make more sure, and looked all round the plant, and still found
nothing, though it was light enough to see a pebble, much more to catch
the gleam and flash of the great diamond I knew so well.

It was not there, and yet I knew that I had seen it fall beyond all room
for doubt. 'It is gone, Elzevir; it is gone!' I cried out in my
anguish, but only heard a 'Hush!' from him to bid me not to speak so
loud. Then I fell on my knees again, and sifted the mould through my
fingers, to make sure the stone had not sunk in and been overlooked.

But it was all to no purpose, and at last I stepped back to where Elzevir
was, and begged him to light a piece of match in the shelter of the
hollyhocks; and I would screen it with my hands, so that the light should
fall upon the ground, and not be seen from the house, and so search round
the flower. He did as I asked, not because he thought that I should find
anything, but rather to humour me; and, as he put the lighted match into
my hands, said, speaking low, 'Let the stone be, lad, let it be; for
either thou didst fail to mark the place right, or others have been here
before thee. 'Tis ruled we should not touch the stone again, and so 'tis
best; let be, let be; let us get home.'

He put his hand upon my shoulder gently, and spoke with such an
earnestness and pleading in his voice that one would have thought it was
a woman rather than a great rough giant; and yet I would not hear, and
broke away, sheltering the match in my hollowed hands, and making back to
the red flower. But this time, just as I stepped upon the mould, coming
to the bed from the house side, the light fell on the ground, and there I
saw something that brought me up short.

It was but a dint or impress on the soft brown loam, and yet, before my
eyes were well upon it, I knew it for the print of a sharp heel--a sharp
deep heel, having just in front of it the outline of a little foot. There
is a story every boy was given to read when I was young, of Crusoe
wrecked upon a desert isle, who, walking one day on the shore, was
staggered by a single footprint in the sand, because he learnt thus that
there were savages in that sad place, where he thought he stood alone.
Yet I believe even that footprint in the sand was never greater blow to
him than was this impress in the garden mould to me, for I remembered
well the little shoes of polished leather, with their silver buckles and
high-tilted heels.

He _had_ been here before us. I found another footprint, and another
leading towards the middle of the bed; and then I flung the match away,
trampling the fire out in the soil. It was no use searching farther now,
for I knew well there was no diamond here for us.

I stepped back to the lawn, and caught Elzevir by the arm. 'Aldobrand has
been here before us, and stole away the jewel,' I whispered sharp; and
looking wildly round in the still night, saw the lattice of lamplight
shining through the wooden blinds of the balcony window.

'Well, there's an end of it!' said he, 'and we are saved further
question. 'Tis gone, so let us cry good riddance to it and be off.' So he
turned to go back, and there was one more chance for me to choose the
better way and go with him; but still I could not give the jewel up, and
must go farther on the other path which led to ruin for us both. For I
had my eyes fixed on the light coming through the blinds of that window,
and saw how thick and strong the boughs of the pear-tree were trained
against the wall about the balcony.

'Elzevir,' I said, swallowing the bitter disappointment which rose in my
throat, 'I cannot go till I have seen what is doing in that room above. I
will climb to the balcony and look in through the chinks'. Perhaps he is
not there, perhaps he has left our diamond there and we may get it back
again.' So I went straight to the house, not giving him time to raise a
word to stop me, for there was something in me driving me on, and I was
not to be stopped by anyone from that purpose.

There was no need to fear any seeing us, for all the windows except that
one, were tight shuttered, and though our footsteps on the soft lawn woke
no sound, I knew that Elzevir was following me. It was no easy task to
climb the pear-tree, for all that the boughs looked so strong, for they
lay close against the wall, and gave little hold for hand or foot. Twice,
or more, an unripe pear was broken off, and fell rustling down through
the leaves to earth, and I paused and waited to hear if anyone was
disturbed in the room above; but all was deathly still, and at last I got
my hand upon the parapet, and so came safe to the balcony.

I was panting from the hard climb, yet did not wait to get my breath, but
made straight for the window to see what was going on inside. The outer
shutters were still flung back, as they had been in the afternoon, and
there was no difficulty in looking in, for I found an opening in the
lattice-blind just level with my eyes, and could see all the room inside.
It was well lit, as for a marriage feast, and I think there were a score
of candles or more burning in holders on the table, or in sconces on the
wall. At the table, on the farther side of it from me, and facing the
window, sat Aldobrand, just as he sat when he told us the stone was a
sham. His face was turned towards the window, and as I looked full at him
it seemed impossible but that he should know that I was there.

In front of him, on the table, lay the diamond--our diamond, my diamond;
for I knew it was a diamond now, and not false. It was not alone, but had
a dozen more cut gems laid beside it on the table, each a little apart
from the other; yet there was no mistaking mine, which was thrice as big
as any of the rest. And if it surpassed them in size, how much more did
it excel in fierceness and sparkle! All the candles in the room were
mirrored in it, and as the splendour flashed from every line and facet
that I knew so well, it seemed to call to me, 'Am I not queen of all
diamonds of the world? am I not your diamond? will you not take me to
yourself again? will you save me from this sorry trickster?'

I had my eyes fixed, but still knew that Elzevir was beside me. He would
not let me risk myself in any hazard alone without he stood by me himself
to help in case of need; and yet his faithfulness but galled me now, and
I asked myself with a sneer, Am I never to stir hand or foot without this
man to dog me? The merchant sat still for a minute as though thinking,
and then he took one of the diamonds that lay on the table, and then
another, and set them close beside the great stone, pitting them, as it
were, with it. Yet how could any match with that?--for it outshone them
all as the sun outshines the stars in heaven.

Then the old man took the stone and weighed it in the scales which stood
on the table before him, balancing it carefully, and a dozen times,
against some little weights of brass; and then he wrote with pen and ink
in a sheepskin book, and afterwards on a sheet of paper as though casting
up numbers. What would I not have given to see the figures that he wrote?
for was he not casting up the value of the jewel, and summing out the
profits he would make? After that he took the stone between finger and
thumb, holding it up before his eyes, and placing it now this way, now
that, so that the light might best fall on it. I could have cursed him
for the wondering love of that fair jewel that overspread his face; and
cursed him ten times more for the smile upon his lips, because I guessed
he laughed to think how he had duped two simple sailors that very
afternoon.

There was the diamond in his hands--our diamond, my diamond--in his
hands, and I but two yards from my own; only a flimsy veil of wood and
glass to keep me from the treasure he had basely stolen from us. Then I
felt Elzevir's hand upon my shoulder. 'Let us be going,' he said; 'a
minute more and he may come to put these shutters to, and find us here.
Let us be going. Diamonds are not for simple folk like us; this is an
evil stone, and brings a curse with it. Let us be going, John.'

But I shook off the kind hand roughly, forgetting how he had saved my
life, and nursed me for many weary weeks and stood by me through bad
and worse; for just now the man at the table rose and took out a little
iron box from a cupboard at the back of the room. I knew that he was
going to lock my treasure into it, and that I should see it no more.
But the great jewel lying lonely on the table flashed and sparkled in
the light of twenty candles, and called to me, 'Am I not queen of all
diamonds of the world? am I not your diamond? save me from the hands of
this scurvy robber.'

Then I hurled myself forward with all my weight full on the joining of
the window frames, and in a second crashed through the glass, and through
the wooden blind into the room behind.

The noise of splintered wood and glass had not died away before there was
a sound as of bells ringing all over the house, and the wires I had seen
in the afternoon dangled loose in front of my face. But I cared neither
for bells nor wires, for there lay the great jewel flashing before me.
The merchant had turned sharp round at the crash, and darted for the
diamond, crying 'Thieves! thieves! thieves!' He was nearer to it than I,
and as I dashed forward our hands met across the table, with his
underneath upon the stone. But I gripped him by the wrist, and though he
struggled, he was but a weak old man, and in a few seconds I had it
twisted from his grasp. In a few seconds--but before they were past the
diamond was well in my hand--the door burst open, and in rushed six
sturdy serving-men with staves and bludgeons.

Elzevir had given a little groan when he saw me force the window, but
followed me into the room and was now at my side. 'Thieves! thieves!
thieves!' screamed the merchant, falling back exhausted in his chair and
pointing to us, and then the knaves fell on too quick for us to make for
the window. Two set on me and four on Elzevir; and one man, even a giant,
cannot fight with four--above all when they carry staves.

Never had I seen Master Block overborne or worsted by any odds; and
Fortune was kind to me, at least in this, that she let me not see the
issue then, for a staff caught me so round a knock on the head as made
the diamond drop out of my hand, and laid me swooning on the floor.




CHAPTER 17

AT YMEGUEN

As if a thief should steal a tainted vest,
Some dead man's spoil, and sicken of his pest--_Hood_


'Tis bitterer to me than wormwood the memory of what followed, and I
shall tell the story in the fewest words I may. We were cast into prison,
and lay there for months in a stone cell with little light, and only foul
straw to lie on. At first we were cut and bruised from that tussle and
cudgelling in Aldobrand's house, and it was long before we were recovered
of our wounds, for we had nothing but bread and water to live on, and
that so bad as barely to hold body and soul together. Afterwards the
heavy fetters that were put about our ankles set up sores and galled us
so that we scarce could move for pain. And if the iron galled my flesh,
my spirit chafed ten times more within those damp and dismal walls; yet
all that time Elzevir never breathed a word of reproach, though it was my
wilfulness had led us into so terrible a strait.

At last came our jailer, one morning, and said that we must be brought up
that day before the _Geregt_, which is their Court of Assize, to be tried
for our crime. So we were marched off to the court-house, in spite of
sores and heavy irons, and were glad enough to see the daylight once
more, and drink the open air, even though it should be to our death that
we were walking; for the jailer said they were like to hang us for what
we had done. In the court-house our business was soon over, because there
were many to speak against us, but none to plead our cause; and all being
done in the Dutch language I understood nothing of it, except what
Elzevir told me afterwards.

There was Mr. Aldobrand in his black gown and buckled shoes with
tip-tilted heels, standing at a table and giving evidence: How that one
afternoon in August came two evil-looking English sailors to his house
under pretence of selling a diamond, which turned out to be but a lump of
glass: and that having taken observation of all his dwelling, and more
particularly the approaches to his business-room, they went their ways.
But later in the same day, or rather night, as he sat matching together
certain diamonds for a coronet ordered by the most illustrious the Holy
Roman Emperor, these same ill-favoured English sailors burst suddenly
through shutters and window, and made forcible entry into his
business-room. There they furiously attacked him, wrenched the diamond
from his hand, and beat him within an ace of his life. But by the good
Providence of God, and his own foresight, the window was fitted with a
certain alarm, which rang bells in other parts of the house. Thus his
trusty servants were summoned, and after being themselves attacked and
nearly overborne, succeeded at last in mastering these scurvy ruffians
and handing them over to the law, from which Mr. Aldobrand claimed
sovereign justice.

Thus much Elzevir explained to me afterwards, but at that time when
that pretender spoke of the diamond as being his own, Elzevir cut in
and said in open court that 'twas a lie, and that this precious stone
was none other than the one that we had offered in the afternoon, when
Aldobrand had said 'twas glass. Then the diamond merchant laughed, and
took from his purse our great diamond, which seemed to fill the place
with light and dazzled half the court. He turned it over in his hand,
poising it in his palm like a great flourishing lamp of light, and
asked if 'twas likely that two common sailor-men should hawk a stone
like that. Nay more, that the court might know what daring rogues they
had to deal with, he pulled out from his pocket the quittance given him
by Shalamof the Jew of Petersburg, for this same jewel, and showed it
to the judge. Whether 'twas a forged quittance or one for some other
stone we knew not, but Elzevir spoke again, saying that the stone was
ours and we had found it in England. When Mr. Aldobrand laughed again,
and held the jewel up once more: were such pebbles, he asked, found on
the shore by every squalid fisherman? And the great diamond flashed as
he put it back into his purse, and cried to me, 'Am I not queen of all
the diamonds of the world? Must I house with this base rascal?' but I
was powerless now to help.

After Aldobrand, the serving-men gave witness, telling how they had
trapped us in the act, red-handed: and as for this jewel, they had seen
their master handle it any time in these six months past.

But Elzevir was galled to the quick with all their falsehoods, and burst
out again, that they were liars and the jewel ours; till a jailer who
stood by struck him on the mouth and cut his lip, to silence him.

The process was soon finished, and the judge in his red robes stood up
and sentenced us to the galleys for life; bidding us admire the mercy
of the law to Outlanders, for had we been but Dutchmen, we should sure
have hanged.

Then they took and marched us out of court, as well as we could walk for
fetters, and Elzevir with a bleeding mouth. But as we passed the place
where Aldobrand sat, he bows to me and says in English, 'Your servant,
Mr. Trenchard. I wish you a good day, Sir John Trenchard--of Moonfleet,
in Dorset.' The jailer paused a moment, hearing Aldobrand speak to us
though not understanding what he said, so I had time to answer him:

'Good day, Sir Aldobrand, Liar, and Thief; and may the diamond bring you
evil in this present life, and damnation in that which is to come.'

So we parted from him, and at that same time departed from our liberty
and from all joys of life.

We were fettered together with other prisoners in droves of six, our
wrists manacled to a long bar, but I was put into a different gang from
Elzevir. Thus we marched a ten days' journey into the country to a place
called Ymeguen, where a royal fortress was building. That was a weary
march for me, for 'twas January, with wet and miry roads, and I had
little enough clothes upon my back to keep off rain and cold. On either
side rode guards on horseback, with loaded flint-locks across the
saddlebow, and long whips in their hands with which they let fly at any
laggard; though 'twas hard enough for men to walk where the mud was over
the horses' fetlocks. I had no chance to speak to Elzevir all the
journey, and indeed spoke nothing at all, for those to whom I was chained
were brute beasts rather than men, and spoke only in Dutch to boot.

There was but little of the building of the fortress begun when we
reached Ymeguen, and the task that we were set to was the digging of the
trenches and other earthworks. I believe that there were five hundred men
employed in this way, and all of them condemned like us to galley-work
for life. We were divided into squads of twenty-five, but Elzevir was
drafted to another squad and a different part of the workings, so I saw
him no more except at odd times, now and again, when our gangs met, and
we could exchange a word or two in passing.

Thus I had no solace of any company but my own, and was driven to
thinking, and to occupy my mind with the recollection of the past. And at
first the life of my boyhood, now lost for ever, was constantly present
even in my dreams, and I would wake up thinking that I was at school
again under Mr. Glennie, or talking in the summer-house with Grace, or
climbing Weatherbeech Hill with the salt Channel breeze singing through
the trees. But alas! these things faded when I opened my eyes, and knew
the foul-smelling wood-hut and floor of fetid straw where fifty of us lay
in fetters every night; I say I dreamt these things at first, but by
degrees remembrance grew blunted and the images less clear, and even
these sweet, sad visions of the night came to me less often. Thus life
became a weary round, in which month followed month, season followed
season, year followed year, and brought always the same eternal
profitless-work. And yet the work was merciful, for it dulled the biting
edge of thought, and the unchanging evenness of life gave wings to time.

In all the years the locusts ate for me at Ymeguen, there is but one
thing I need speak of here. I had been there a week when I was loosed one
morning from my irons, and taken from work into a little hut apart, where
there stood a half-dozen of the guard, and in the midst a stout wooden
chair with clamps and bands. A fire burned on the floor, and there was a
fume and smoke that filled the air with a smell of burned meat. My heart
misgave me when I saw that chair and fire, and smelt that sickly smell,
for I guessed this was a torture room, and these the torturers waiting.
They forced me into the chair and bound me there with lashings and a
cramp about the head; and then one took a red-iron from the fire upon the
floor, and tried it a little way from his hand to prove the heat. I had
screwed up my heart to bear the pain as best I might, but when I saw that
iron sighed for sheer relief, because I knew it for only a branding tool,
and not the torture. And so they branded me on the left cheek, setting
the iron between the nose and cheek-bone, where 'twas plainest to be
seen. I took the pain and scorching light enough, seeing that I had
looked for much worse, and should not have made mention of the thing here
at all, were it not for the branding mark they used. Now this mark was a
'Y', being the first letter of Ymeguen, and set on all the prisoners that
worked there, as I found afterwards; but to me 'twas much more than a
mere letter, and nothing less than the black 'Y' itself, or _cross-pall_
of the Mohunes. Thus as a sheep is marked, with his owner's keel and can
be claimed wherever he may be, so here was I branded with the keel of
the Mohunes and marked for theirs in life or death, whithersoever I
should wander. 'Twas three months after that, and the mark healed and
well set, that I saw Elzevir again; and as we passed each other in the
trench and called a greeting, I saw that he too bore the _cross-pall_
full on his left cheek.

Thus years went on and I was grown from boy to man, and that no weak one
either: for though they gave us but scant food and bad, the air was fresh
and strong, because Ymeguen was meant for palace as well as fortress, and
they chose a healthful site. And by degrees the moats were dug, and
ramparts built, and stone by stone the castle rose till 'twas near the
finish, and so our labour was not wanted. Every day squads of our
fellow-prisoners marched away, and my gang was left till nearly last,
being engaged in making good a culvert that heavy rains had broken down.

It was in the tenth year of our captivity, and in the twenty-sixth of my
age, that one morning instead of the guard marching us to work, they
handed us over to a party of mounted soldiers, from whose matchlocks and
long whips I knew that we were going to leave Ymeguen. Before we left,
another gang joined us, and how my heart went out when I saw Elzevir
among them! It was two years or more since we had met even to pass a
greeting, for I worked outside the fortress and he on the great tower
inside, and I took note his hair was whiter and a sadder look upon his
face. And as for the _cross-pall_ on his cheek, I never thought of it at
all, for we were all so well used to the mark, that if one bore it not
stamped upon his face we should have stared at him as on a man born with
but one eye. But though his look was sad, yet Elzevir had a kind smile
and hearty greeting for me as he passed, and on the march, when they
served out our food, we got a chance to speak a word or two together.
Yet how could we find room for much gladness, for even the pleasure of
meeting was marred because we were forced thus to take note, as it were,
of each other's misery, and to know that the one had nothing for his old
age but to break in prison, and the other nothing but the prison to eat
away the strength of his prime.

Before long, all knew whither we were bound, for it leaked out we were
to march to the Hague and thence to Scheveningen, to take ship to the
settlements of Java, where they use transported felons on the sugar
farms. Was this the end of young hopes and lofty aims--to live and die a
slave in the Dutch plantations? Hopes of Grace, hopes of seeing
Moonfleet again, were dead long long ago; and now was there to be no
hope of liberty, or even wholesome air, this side the grave, but only
burning sun and steaming swamps, and the crack of the slave-driver's
whip till the end came? Could it be so? Could it be so? And yet what
help was there, or what release? Had I not watched ten years for any
gleam or loophole of relief, and never found it? If we were shut in
cells or dungeons in the deepest rock we might have schemed escape, but
here in the open, fettered up in-droves, what could we do? They were
bitter thoughts enough that filled my heart as I trudged along the rough
roads, fettered by my wrist to the long bar; and seeing Elzevir's white
hair and bowed shoulders trudging in front of me, remembered when that
head had scarce a grizzle on it, and the back was straight as the
massive stubborn pillars in old Moonfleet church. What was it had
brought us to this pitch? And then I called to mind a July evening,
years ago, the twilight summer-house and a sweet grave voice that said,
'Have a care how you touch the treasure: it was evilly come by and will
bring a curse with it.' Ay, 'twas the diamond had done it all, and
brought a blight upon my life, since that first night I spent in
Moonfleet vault; and I cursed the stone, and Blackbeard and his lost
Mohunes, and trudged on bearing their cognizance branded on my face.

We marched back to the Hague, and through that very street where
Aldobrand dwelt, only the house was shut, and the board that bore his
name taken away; so it seemed that he had left the place or else was
dead. Thus we reached the quays at last, and though I knew that I was
leaving Europe and leaving all hope behind, yet 'twas a delight to smell
the sea again, and fill my nostrils with the keen salt air.




CHAPTER 18

IN THE BAY

Let broad leagues dissever
Him from yonder foam,
O God! to think man ever
Comes too near his home--_Hood_


The ship that was to carry us swung at the buoy a quarter of a mile
offshore, and there were row-boats waiting to take us to her. She was a
brig of some 120 tons burthen, and as we came under the stern I saw her
name was the _Aurungzebe_.

'Twas with regret unspeakable I took my last look at Europe; and casting
my eyes round saw the smoke of the town dark against the darkening sky;
yet knew that neither smoke nor sky was half as black as was the prospect
of my life.

They sent us down to the orlop or lowest deck, a foul place where was no
air nor light, and shut the hatches down on top of us. There were thirty
of us all told, hustled and driven like pigs into this deck, which was to
be our pigsty for six months or more. Here was just light enough, when
they had the hatches off, to show us what sort of place it was, namely,
as foul as it smelt, with never table, seat, nor anything, but roughest
planks and balks; and there they changed our bonds, taking away the bar,
and putting a tight bracelet round one wrist, with a padlocked chain
running through a loop on it. Thus we were still ironed, six together,
but had a greater freedom and more scope to move. And more than this, the
man who shifted the chains, whether through caprice, or perhaps because
he really wished to show us what pity he might, padlocked me on to the
same chain with Elzevir, saying, we were English swine and might sink or
swim together. Then the hatches were put on, and there they left us in
the dark to think or sleep or curse the time away. The weariness of
Ymeguen was bad indeed, and yet it was a heaven to this night of hell,
where all we had to look for was twice a day the moving of the hatches,
and half an hour's glimmer of a ship's lantern, while they served us out
the broken victuals that the Dutch crew would not eat.

I shall say nothing of the foulness of this place, because 'twas too
foul to be written on paper; and if 'twas foul at starting, 'twas ten
times worse when we reached open sea, for of all the prisoners only
Elzevir and I were sailors, and the rest took the motion unkindly.

From the first we made bad weather of it, for though we were below and
could see nothing, yet 'twas easy enough to tell there was a heavy
head-sea running, almost as soon as we were well out of harbour.
Although Elzevir and I had not had any chance of talking freely for so
long, and were now able to speak as we liked, being linked so close
together, we said but little. And this, not because we did not value
very greatly one another's company, but because we had nothing to talk
of except memories of the past, and those were too bitter, and came too
readily to our minds, to need any to summon them. There was, too, the
banishment from Europe, from all and everything we loved, and the awful
certainty of slavery that lay continuously on us like a weight of lead.
Thus we said little.

We had been out a week, I think--for time is difficult enough to measure
where there is neither clock nor sun nor stars--when the weather, which
had moderated a little, began to grow much worse. The ship plunged and
laboured heavily, and this added much to our discomfort; because there
was nothing to hold on by, and unless we lay flat on the filthy deck, we
ran a risk of being flung to the side whenever there came a more violent
lurch or roll. Though we were so deep down, yet the roaring of wind and
wave was loud enough to reach us, and there was such a noise when the
ship went about, such grinding of ropes, with creaking and groaning of
timbers, as would make a landsman fear the brig was going to pieces. And
this some of our fellow-prisoners feared indeed, and fell to crying, or
kneeling chained together as they were upon the sloping deck, while they
tried to remember long-forgotten prayers. For my own part, I wondered why
these poor wretches should pray to be delivered from the sea, when all
that was before them was lifelong slavery; but I was perhaps able to look
more calmly on the matter myself as having been at sea, and not thinking
that the vessel was going to founder because of the noise. Yet the storm
rose till 'twas very plain that we were in a raging sea, and the streams
which began to trickle through the joinings of the hatch showed that
water had got below.

'I have known better ships go under for less than this,' Elzevir said to
me; 'and if our skipper hath not a tight craft, and stout hands to work
her, there will soon be two score slaves the less to cut the canes in