Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1900 — The Sea King. [ARTICLE]

The Sea King.

ROMANCE OF THE WAR OF

By CAPTAIN MARRYAT.

CHAPTER XX-.—(Continued.) "‘Surely; of course; what of her? What ■do you mean, Montgomery? Speak, man!" cried- Hamilton, half believing ■ that his companion had lost his senses through the violence of his passions. “Listen. After I recovered from the wound I received that night I heard what you have told me, that he was engaged to Anna Hamilton before I ever saw her. •Of that wrong, therefore. I acquitted him. I came hither, joined Morelos, ■fought-- how yotf know, and with what ■fortune! A year ago I was wounded, and then a long truce, which we all be- ' lieved would end in a permanent peace, followed. I came hither, was received hospitably, kindly, by the Governor, was . pleased with Carlotta, loved her. She became my promised bride. Again he ■ came ” “Who came?” “Harry Sutherland.” “Ha!” “Ay, ha! He was invited to dinner at the Governor’s, and I was asked to meet him. I feigned urgent business at a distance, mounted my horse and rode away, I cared not .whither, determined, not to return until the Sparrow Hawk should be gone. I know not how long nor where I tarried. I was half mad between hate and jealousy and the desire of vengeance! I returned. The Sparrow Hawk was gone. She was gone, too.” “She! who?" exclaimed Hamilton, springing to his feet and laying his hand -on his sword’s hilt “Who?” , “Carlotta.” •“Whither?” ■■ ... ~ “She is there now!” said Montgomery, speaking very slowly through his set teeth, pointing to the quarter where the ‘Sparrow Hawk might be supposed to lie; ’“on board his ship.” Hamilton paused, and then called out tones that made the cabin ring: “On deck vthere!” “Ay, ay, sir!” And in an instant a steward entered. “Tell Captain Atherley I will be glad to speak with him.” Not a word was interchanged between those two who remained alone together until Atherley entered. Their hearts •wore too full for words. “Atherley, things have come to light this night which must be avenged, but never revealed. My career must be here, in this ship— must here end, in this ship; I would not.give the .chance. oXicapturing. that cruiser and slaying her captain with this right hand—no, not to win the crown of the whole universe! Go, commune with your officers; if you agree to fight that ship to-morrow, to the last shot in the locker, beat to quarters and tell the men my terms. If they say ay, I am again your captain!” Atherley bowed without speaking and withdrew. “He does not half like it, Montgomery. If they say no we will have the dingey and board the Sparrow Hawk alone, • defy him to his teeth and make him fight us to the death. His fate cries out; ■or mine! Whether of the two, heaven .knows!” “Amen!” said Montgomery. “But if he escape thee he has yet me to deal with, and I have twice to be avenged tomorrow!” CHAPTER XXL With a sensation akin to rapture Harry Sutherland beheld and recognized the Sea King; for he knew and felt that the . advantage was all his own. He had the ■ weather-gauge and held his enemy at bay, with a dead lee shore behind him, so that now he had no chance to escape by dint of his matchless sailing. Sutherland knew, too, by his own personal experience and observation the superiority of his own armainent; the whilom privateer being mounted only with sixteen eight-een-pound carronades, while his own ship, in addition to twenty carronades of the same caliber, carried two long twen-ty-four pounders on pivots upon the fore- ■ castle. He beat immediately to quarters, the . long guns were cleared away and doubleshotted, arm-chests were emptied on the ■decks, and within twenty minutes of the • discovery of the rover the Sparrow Hawk was prepared for action and running down at a tremendous rate on her -anticipated prey. When he discovered, however, the red ensign floating at the Sea King’s gaff, the exultation of the young captain was converted into fierce and bitter rage. “Aloft there!” he shouted. •“Ay, ay. sir!” ■“Shake out your royals and sheet .’home! alow and aloft, set the larboard studding-sails! so! Mr. Yarnall, show .those knaves the Stars and Stripes! give them an ensign at every mast! three cheers for our country and her flag!” And as the cheering ended, he ascended lhe forecastle and stood by the breech of •-the long gun, around which were clustered the boatswain and his crew. “I think,” said Sutherland, "we can speak to him now, so that he shall understand our Yankee English. See if your gun cannot do something for the Spanrow Hawk.” “Ay,' ay, your honor! That ca nshe — I’ll warrant her:” and the speaker took . a long sight at the rover. "That’ll do. Watch the roll of her —now she rises! •fire!” > The heavy piece exploded, and, as the white smoke drifted away to leeward, the ball was seen to strike the billows a few ■yards shore of her, and, ricochetting from the surface, made a great rent in her .foresail. Immediately the Sea King was heading toward them, braced sharp up on the wind, fell off a little, and simultaneously eight bright flashes burst from her gunwales. with a clond of white smoke; but die iron hull of the carronades fell short by a cable’s length of the corvette, calling forth a derisive cheer from the crew •f the Bpadrow Hawk. Butheriand sighted lhe forward gun carefully, and pulled the lanyard with his

Harry’s shot took effect in the head of the foremast, and, after swaying for an instant to and fro, down crashed fore-’ topmast, foretop-gallant-mast and fore-royal,-with all their pyramid of snowy canvas, dragging the maintop-gallant-mast, with all its superincumbent spars, and lhe mizzen-royal-mast after it. Three wild, exulting cheers burst from the lips of the crew, as again the Sea King’s broadside was discharged, and again fell short of the corvette. -■ “-Let. everything draw now, Mr. 'Yarnail; lay us across her bows, within half pistol shot. We will rake her till she’s sick of showing her red bunting to a cruiser.” And with the word, with her snowy canvas perfect and unspotted, and her three starry ensigns floating sublime from her trucks, she swooped down like her own glorious eagle upon the shattered pirate. L Having now gained what is called the point of impunity, whence her own whole broadside could sweep the decks of the rover from stem to stern with a hurricane of round and grape, while only the bridle port guns of the Sea King could respond to her devastating fire, the fight might be said to be ended. But the pirates, fighting with halters around their necks, fought indeed the fight of despair.. Hoisting three blood-red ensigns on the stumps of their masts, they replied with musketry and hand grenades most ineffectually, but not for that the less reso-lutely,-to the sustained and incessant cannonade of the Sparrow Hawk. At last their every cannon was dismounted; the very stumps of their masts were shorn away flush with the decks, the blood streamed in torrents from her hawse-holes and scuppers, and of her crew four-fifths lay prostrate on the decks. “Have you surrendered?” shouted Harry Sutherland, as the last mast toppled overboard, and the last bloody ensign fell. !‘Not yet, sir!” answered Manly, in a firm, deep tone. “You can resist no longer; will you take quarter?” “Will you give it?” shouted Montgomery, for in the midst of all the havoc these two, bearing, as it seemed, charmed lives, stood unwounded. “Surely I will. Range alongside them, Mr. Yarnall; heave the grapnels in; they have no boats that will swim.” And, obedient to his wdrd, the stately ship ran round her bows, and fell alongside her, their yards interlocking as thejcame together. At this instant, however, when the crew of the Sparrow Hawk, supposing the battle won, were entirely off their guard, many of them having cast aside their arms, the surviving pirates poured in, some twenty-five in number, three close volleys with their muskets and pistols, before a shot could be returned, killing Yarnall outright, with above thirty of the Sparrow Hawks, and severely wounding Topblock and many others of the men. Sutherland, who stood in the very center of the iron shower, escaped unharmed. Under cover of this treacherous fire, the desperate pirates leaped forward with cutlass” and tomahawk, Manly and Montgomery leading; the former intent only on dying by a soldier’s weapon, not by the shameful halter, the latter bent on a twofold vengeance. The surprise failed, however, for the marines, leveling their arms, poured in a close volley and charged bayonets, followed by the whole crew of the Sparraw Hawk, with the exception of her captain only, who was 'engaged hand to hand with the pirate chief.. Montgomery was stricken down by a blow on the” head from a marine’s musket butt, and tell stunned, and for the moment senseless. Thereupon ensued a strange, and perhaps unparalleled scene. Every man and boy, unwounded and able to ply a weapon, dashed forward, madly beating the boarders of the rover back, and following them to their own ship, where they pursued them into every nook and corner of the vessel, slaughtering them without mercy. Meanwhile, on the deck of the victorious corvette, the two captains stood, in deadly duel, with the man at the wheel, and the helplessly wounded alone looking on as arbiters of that fell •contest. But fierce as it 'was, it was unequal; for Manly fought to die, only; and, either paralyzed by a sense of guilt, or unwilling to injure further one whom he felt that he had injured deeply, fought, but' weakly, and on the defensive. While the duel continued, Montgomery raised his head, dizzily, and gazing about him, scarcely conscious, as it jseemed, of what was passing. Suddenly perceiving his proximity to the open hatchway of the companion, and appearing to be possessed with some new and sudden frenzy, he gathered his limbs under him, unsheathed his knife, and plunged head foremost down into the cabin before asy eye perceived him. Meanwhile the blade of Sutherland had thrice pierced the broad chest of Manly, and he fell severely wounded, but not slain outright, while the young avenger stood erect,, gloomy and terrible, above him. “Hamilton,” he exclaimed, "Hamilton, destroyer of my father’s peace, know you by whose" hands you have fallen, know you by whom heaven has avenged your crimes on your own guilty head?” “It is well, Henry Sutherland! It is well! I know all. I have looked, hoped, and prayed for this. It is well, I say, and one good deed done, Ldie happy. Let me make you the only ’amends I can now for the ruin of your family, the mis l efy of yourself. Anna is not my brother’s daughter, is not a Hamilton at all. Nay, hear me—her true name is Piercy, thy daughter of a noble English captain who died upon his quarter deck, which I had with difficulty conquered. Take her. There is no obstacle. None of the guilty blood runs in her veins. I saved her.

and he brought her up. My brother has the papers.” “Manly, at such a moment I think you would not lie to. me.” “Not for my life. Not for my soul. It is true, Sutherland, as true as that I—l am dying. For—forgive me, Sutherland.” “As I pray that heaven may forgive me, Hamilton!” But as he spoke, a fearful shriek from the cabin startled him, and these appall- ‘ ing words, the very words of her hideous delirium: “My best beloved, my own beloved Sutherland, save'me, save me!” Sword in hand, he dashed down the companion—the Cabin door stood open, but he was too late. Carlotta lay outstretched in her inno-' cent blood, but her glazing eyes met his with a glance of gratitude, of confident and pure affection; while over her, with his back toward him, stood her bloodthirsty slayer. Her lovely eyes closed for a -moment and reopened. She was dead; happy to die unconscious of her lover's changed affection. Montgomery turned; and, as’be turned, was cut down on the instant by Sutherland’s avenging weapon before the avenger of blood had so much as suspected whom he slew. But, as Montgomery fell, his deep voice filled Sutherland’s ears with sudden and most painful recognition. “Once, twice,' thrice, four times have you conquered me! My curse upon you, Harry Sutherland!” And at the words, the young conqueror sunk down among the corpses with scarce more lisp than they, and it was weeks and weeks, and the Sparrow Hawk had sailed leagues on her homeward route e’er he awakened from the stupor into which this shock and horror .had plunged him. ******* Slow was Hamilton’s recovery, tedious, and oft interrupted, and when it was complete, so far as it could be called complete, the' surgeon pronounced, what the patient felt beforehand, that it Was but for a time; and, at Hamilton's express desire and entreaty, stated at last that before the leaves, which were beginning already to grow sere on. the woodland shores which they were coasting, should be green in spring, he would sleep with his fathers. For a long time Hamilton positively refused to see Sutherland or speak with him; Imt at length, when the young man,, suspecting the cause of his obduracy; opened his heart to the surgeon, in so far as he could do with propriety and honor, and that functionary satisfied the invalid that in the whole matter of Carlotta, Sutherland was indeed entirely blameless, he began to see that he might have been as much misinformed and mistaken in other matters, and took time to consider. When they met tears were in the eyes of both, and prayers on their tongues, and perhaps both these for t|ie first time with both; Long explanations followed, and all that had been dark was made light; and much that had ’appeared black as night with pestilent guilt was alleviated, if not made white as snow. The meeting between the brothers was most affecting, but both felt that God is "wiser titan man. and that ’it'was'Tndeed" better for James Hamilton to die as he did, before the leaves .were green, in penitence and peace; aqd when rhe world knew that the wild, wicked James Hamilton was one and the same with the great Captain Manly, they forgot the vices of the one, in the glories of the other. James Hamilton died before the leaves were green, but not before he had given his adopted daughter, Anna Hamilton, for she was never suffered to know that she was not the daughter of the good man she had ever loved as a father, to Sutherland, his slayer. But none, not even William Hamilton, ever knew that it was the sword of Harry Sutherland which had led to the disease that cut off his brother! and Anna never was told the sad tale of Carlotta; nor yet the lamentable end of the gifted yet perverse Montgomery. But these two were the only concealments, from that day forth, between Harry Sutherland and bis beautiful wife. She always said that she was the happiest of wives and he the best of men. But he knew the truth, what indeed he had been; and in that truth lived and died, not a sadder, but a wiser and a better man. (The end.)