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The Wing and Wing by J. Fenimore Cooper

J >> J. Fenimore Cooper >> The Wing and Wing




"Here is a boat close to our gangway," said the officer of the deck, who
had kindly interested himself in behalf of so interesting a girl, "with
a single man in it; a few grani would induce him to put you ashore."

The fellow in the boat was of the class of the lazzaroni, wearing a
clean cotton shirt, a Phrygian cap, and cotton trousers that terminated
at the knees, leaving his muscular arms and legs entirely bare; models
for the statuary, in their neatness, vigor, and proportions. The feet
alone formed an exception to the ordinary attire, for they were cased in
a pair of quaint canvas shoes that were ornamented a little like the
moccasins of the American Indian. Carlo caught the eye of this man, who
appeared to be eagerly watching the frigate's gangway for a fare, and
holding up a small piece of silver, in a moment the light boat was at
the foot of the accommodation-ladder. Ghita now descended; and as soon
as her uncle and she were seated, the skiff, for it was little more,
whirled away from the ship's side, though two or three more, who had
also been left by recreant boatmen for better fares, called out to him
to receive them also.

"We had best go alone, even though it cost us a heavier price," quietly
observed Carlo to his niece as he noted this occurrence. "Pull us a
short distance from the ship, friend;--here, where there are fewer
boats, and thou shalt meet with a fair reward. We have an interest in
this solemn scene, and could wish not to be observed."

"I know that well, Signor Carlo," answered the boatman; "and will see
that you are not molested."

Ghita uttered a faint exclamation, and, looking up, first saw that the
feigned lazzarone was no other than Raoul Yvard. As her uncle was too
unobservant in general to detect his disguise, he made a sign for her to
command herself, and continued rowing as if nothing had occurred.

"Be at ease, Ghita," said Carlo; "it is not yet the time, and we have
twenty good minutes for our aves."

Ghita, however, was far from being at ease. She felt all the risks that
the young man now ran, and she felt that it was on her account solely
that he incurred them. Even the solemn feeling of the hour and the
occasion was disturbed by his presence, and she wished he were away on
more accounts than one. Here he was, nevertheless, and in the midst of
enemies; and it would not have been in nature for one of her tender
years and sex, and, most of all, of her feelings, not to indulge in a
sentiment of tender gratitude toward him who had, as it were, thrust his
head into the very lion's mouth to do her a service. Between Raoul and
Ghita there had been no reserves on the subject of parentage, and the
former understood why his mistress was here, as well as the motive that
brought her. As for the last, she glanced timidly around her, fearful
that the lugger, too, had been brought into the throng of ships that
crowded the anchorage. For this, however, Raoul was much too wary,
nothing resembling his little craft being visible.

The reader will have understood that many vessels of war, English,
Russian, Turkish, and Neapolitan, were now anchored in the bay. As the
French still held the castle of St. Elmo, or the citadel that crowns the
heights, that in their turn crown the town, the shipping did not lie
quite as close to the mole as usual, lest a shot from the enemy above
might do them injury; but they were sufficiently near to permit all the
idle and curious of Naples, who had the hearts and the means, to pull
off and become spectators of the sad scene that was about to occur. As
the hour drew near, boat after boat arrived, until the Minerva was
surrounded with spectators, many of whom belonged even to the higher
classes of society.

The distance between the Neapolitan frigate and the ship of the English
rear-admiral was not great; and everything that occurred on board the
former, and which was not actually hidden by the sides and bulwarks of
the vessel itself, was easily to be seen from the decks of the latter.
Still the Foudroyant lay a little without the circle of boats; and in
that direction Raoul had pulled to avoid the throng, resting on his oars
when about a third of a cable's length from the British admiral's stern.
Here it was determined to wait for the awful signal and its fatal
consequences. The brief interval was passed by Ghita in telling her
beads, while Carlo joined in the prayers with the devotion of a zealot.
It is scarcely necessary to say that all this Raoul witnessed without
faith, though it would be doing injustice to his nature, as well as to
his love for Ghita, to say he did so without sympathy.

A solemn and expecting silence reigned in all the neighboring ships. The
afternoon was calm and sultry, the zephyr ceasing to blow earlier than
common, as if unwilling to disturb the melancholy scene with its
murmurs. On board the Minerva no sign of life--scarcely of death--- was
seen; though a single whip was visible, rigged to the fore-yard arm,
one end being led in-board, while the other ran along the yard, passed
through a leading block in its quarter, and descended to the deck. There
was a platform fitted on two of the guns beneath this expressive but
simple arrangement; but, as it was in-board, it was necessarily
concealed from all but those who were on the Minerva's decks. With these
preparations Raoul was familiar, and his understanding eye saw the
particular rope that was so soon to deprive Ghita of her grandfather;
though it was lost to her and her uncle among the maze of rigging by
which it was surrounded.

There might have been ten minutes passed in this solemn stillness,
during which the crowd of boats continued to collect; and the crews of
the different ships were permitted to take such positions as enabled
them to become spectators of a scene that it was hoped might prove
admonitory. It is part of the etiquette of a vessel of war to make her
people keep close; it being deemed one sign of a well-ordered ship to
let as few men be seen as possible, except on those occasions when duty
requires them to show themselves. This rigid rule, however, was
momentarily lost sight of, and the teeming masses that floated around La
Minerva gave up their thousands like bees clustering about their hives.
It was in the midst of such signs of expectation that the call of the
boatswain was heard piping the side on board the Foudroyant, and four
side-boys lay over on the accommodation-ladder, a mark of honor never
paid to one of a rank less than that of a captain. Raoul's boat was
within fifty yards of that very gangway, and he turned his head in idle
curiosity to see who might descend into the gig that was lying at the
foot of the long flight of steps. An officer with one epaulette came
first, showing the way to two civilians, and a captain followed. All
descended in a line and entered the boat. The next instant the oars
fell, and the gig whirled round under the Foudroyant's stern and came
glancing up toward his own skiff. Four or five of the strong man-of-war
jerks sufficed to send the long, narrow boat as far as was desired, when
the men ceased rowing, their little craft losing her way within ten feet
of the skiff occupied by our party, Then it was that Raoul, to his
surprise, discovered that the two civilians were no other than Andrea
Barrofaldi and Vito Viti, who had accompanied Cuffe and Griffin, their
companions in the gig, on a cruise, of which the express object was to
capture himself and his vessel.

Another man would have been alarmed at finding himself in such close
vicinity to his enemies; but Raoul Yvard was amused, rather than
rendered uneasy, by the circumstance. He had faith in his disguise; and
he was much too familiar with incidents of this sort not to retain his
self-command and composure. Of course he knew nothing of the persons of
the two Englishmen; but perfectly aware of the presence of the
Proserpine, he guessed at their identity, and very correctly imagined
the circumstances that brought companions so ill-assorted together. He
had taken no precautions to disguise his face; and the red Phrygian cap
which he wore, in common with thousands on that bay, left every feature
and lineament fully expressed. With Ghita, however, the case was
different. She was far better known to the two Elbans, as indeed was the
person of her uncle, than he was himself; but both had veiled their
faces in prayer.

"I do not half like this business, Griffin," observed the captain, as
his gig entirely lost its way; "and wish with all my heart we had
nothing to do with it. I knew this old Caraccioli, and a very good sort
of man he was; and as to treason, it is not easy to say who is and who
is not a traitor in times like these, in such a nation as this. Ha! I
believe my soul, this is the same old man and the same pretty girl that
came to see Nelson half an hour ago about this very execution?"

"What could _they_ have to do with Prince Caraccioli or his treason,
sir? The old chap looks bookish; but he is not a priest; and, as to the
girl, she is trim-built enough; I fancy the face is no great matter,
however, or she would not take so much pains to hide it."

Raoul muttered a "sacr-r-re," between his teeth, but he succeeded in
suppressing all outward expression of feeling. Cuffe, on the contrary,
saw no other motive for unusual discretion, beyond the presence of his
boat's crew, before whom, however, he was accustomed to less reserve
than with his people in general.

"If she be the same as the one we had in the cabin," he answered, "there
is no necessity for a veil; for a prettier or a more modest-looking girl
is not often fallen in with. What she wanted exactly is more than I can
tell you, as she spoke Italian altogether; and 'miladi' had the
interview pretty much to herself. But her good looks seem to have taken
with this old bachelor, the justice of the peace, who eyes her as if he
had an inclination to open his mind to the beauty. Ask him in Italian,
Griffin, what mare's nest he has run foul of now."

"You seem to have found something to look at besides the Minerva, Signor
Podesta," observed Griffin, in an undertone. "I hope it is not Venus."

"Cospetto!" grunted Vito Viti, nudging his neighbor, the
vice-governatore, and nodding toward the other boat; "if that be not
little Ghita, who came into our island like a comet and went out of
it--to what shall I liken her sudden and extraordinary disappearance,
Signor Andrea?--"

"To that of le Feu-Follet, or ze Ving-y-Ving," put in Griffin, who, now
he had got the two functionaries fairly afloat, spared none of the jokes
that come so easy and natural to a man-of-war's man. "_She_ went out,
too, in an 'extraordinary disappearance,' and perhaps the lady and the
lugger went out together."

Vito Viti muttered an answer; for by this time he had discovered that he
was a very different personage on board the Proserpine from what the
other had appeared to consider him while in his native island. He might
have expressed himself aloud, indeed; but at that instant a column of
smoke glanced out of the bow port of the Minerva--a yellow flag was
shown aloft--and then came the report of the signal gun.

It has been said that vessels of war of four different nations were at
that time lying in the Bay of Naples. Nelson had come in but a short
time previously, with seventeen ships of the line; and he found several
more of his countrymen lying there. This large force had been assembled
to repel an expected attack on the island of Minorca; and it was still
kept together in an uncertainty of the future movements of the enemy. A
Russian force had come out of the Black Sea, to act against the French,
bringing with it a squadron of the Grand Signor; thus presenting to the
world the singular spectacle of the followers of Luther, devotees of the
Greek church, and disciples of Mahomet, uniting in defence of "our
rights, our firesides, and our altars!" To these vessels must be added a
small squadron of ships of the country; making a mixed force of four
different ensigns that was to witness the melancholy scene we are about
to relate.

The yellow flag and the signal gun brought everything in the shape of
duty to a standstill in all the fleets. The hoarse commands ceased--the
boatswains and their mates laid aside their calls, and the echoing
midshipmen no longer found orders to repeat. The seamen gathered to the
sides of their respective vessels--every part glistened with expectant
eyes--the booms resembled clusters of bees suspended from the boughs of
a forest; and the knight-heads, taffrails, gangways, and stretchers of
the rigging were garnished with those whose bright buttons, glazed hats,
epaulets, and dark-blue dresses denoted to belong to the privileged
classes of a ship. Notwithstanding all this curiosity, nothing like the
feeling which is apt to be manifested at an exhibition of merited
punishment was visible in a single countenance. An expression resembling
a sombre gloom appeared to have settled on all those grim warriors of
the deep; English, Russian, Neapolitan, or Turk, apparently reserving
all his sympathies for the sufferer, rather than for the majesty of
justice. Still, no murmur arose--no sign of resistance was made--no look
of remonstrance given. The unseen mantle of authority covered all; and
these masses of discontented men submitted as we bow to what is believed
to be the fiat of fate. The deep-seated and unresisting habit of
discipline suppressed complaint, but there was a general conviction that
some act was about to be committed that it were better for humanity and
justice should not be done; or, if done at all, that it needed more of
form, greater deliberation and a fairer trial, to be so done as to
obtain the commendation of men. The Turks alone showed apathy; though
all showed submission. These subjects of destiny looked on coldly,
though even among them a low rumor had passed that a malign influence
prevailed in the fleet; and that a great and proud spirit had got to be
mastered by the passion that so often deprives heroes of their
self-command and independence.

Ghita ceased her prayers, as the report of the gun broke rudely on her
ears, and with streaming eyes she even dared to look toward the frigate.
Raoul and all the rest bent their gaze in the same direction. The
sailors, among them, saw the rope at the fore-yard-arm move, and then
heads rose slowly above the hammock-cloths; when the prisoner and his
attendant priest were visible even to their feet. The unfortunate
Caraccioli, as has been said, had nearly numbered his threescore and ten
years, in the regular course of nature; and his bare head now showed the
traces of time. He wore no coat; and his arms were bound behind his
back, at the elbows, leaving just motion enough to the hands to aid him
in the slighter offices about his own person. His neck was bare, and the
fatal cord was tightened sufficiently around it to prevent accidents,
constantly admonishing its victim of its revolting office.

A low murmur arose among the people in the boats as this spectacle
presented itself to their eyes; and many bowed their faces in prayer.
The condemned man caught a ray of consolation from this expression of
sympathy; and he looked around him an instant, with something like a
return of those feelings of the world which it had been his effort and
his desire totally to eradicate since he had taken, leave of Ghita, and
learned that his last request--that of changing his mode of
punishment--had been denied. That was a fearful moment for one like Don
Francesco Caraccioli, who had passed a long life in the midst of the
scene that surrounded him--illustrious by birth, affluent, honored for
his services, and accustomed to respect and deference. Never had the
glorious panorama of the bay appeared more lovely than it did at that
instant, when he was about to quit it for ever, by a violent and
disgraceful death. From the purple mountains--the cerulean void above
him--the blue waters over which he seemed already to be suspended--and
the basking shores, rich in their towns, villas, and vines, his eye
turned toward the world of ships, each alive with its masses of living
men. A glance of melancholy reproach was cast upon the little flag that
was just waving at the mizzen-masthead of the Foudroyant; and then it
fell on the carpet of faces beneath, that seemed fairly to change the
surface of the smooth sea into an arena of human countenances. His look
was steady, though his soul was in a tumult. Ghita was recognized by her
companion and by her dress. He moved toward the edge of his narrow
scaffolding, endeavored to stretch forth his arms, and blessed her again
aloud. The poor girl dropped on her knees in the bottom of the boat,
bowed her head, and in that humble attitude did she remain until all was
over; not daring once to look upward again.

"Son," said the priest, "this is a moment when the earth and its
feelings must be forgotten."

"I know it, father," answered the old man, his voice trembling with
emotion, for his sensations were too powerful, too sublime, even, for
the degrading passion of fear--"but never before did this fair piece of
the creation seem so lovely in my eyes as now, when I am about to quit
it for the last time."

"Look beyond this scene, into the long vista of eternity, son; there
thou wilt behold that which mocks at all human, all earthly means. I
fear that our time is but short--hast thou aught yet to say in
the flesh?"

"Let it be known, holy priest, that in my dying moment I prayed for
Nelson, and for all who have been active in bringing me to this end. It
is easy for the fortunate and the untempted to condemn; but he is wiser,
as he is safer, who puts more reliance on the goodness of God than on
his own merits."

A ray of satisfaction gleamed athwart the pale countenance of the
priest--a sincerely pious man, or fear of personal consequences might
have kept him aloof from such a scene--and he closed his eyes while he
expressed his gratitude to God in the secret recesses of his own spirit.
Then he turned to the prince and spoke cheeringly.

"Son," he said, "if thou quittest life with a due dependence on the Son
of God, and in this temper toward thy fellow-creatures, of all this
living throng thou art he who is most to be envied! Address thy soul in
prayer once more to Him who thou feelest can alone serve thee."

Caraccioli, aided by the priest, knelt on the scaffold; for the rope
hung loose enough to permit that act of humiliation, and the other bent
at his side.

"I wish to God Nelson had nothing to do with this!" muttered Cuffe, as
he turned away his face, inadvertently bending his eyes on the
Foudroyant, nearly under the stern of which ship his gig lay. There, in
the stern-walk, stood the lady, already mentioned in this chapter, a
keen spectator of the awful scene. No one but a maid was near her,
however; the men of her companionship not being of moods stern enough
to be at her side. Cuffe turned away from this sight in still stronger
disgust; and just at that moment a common cry arose from the boats.
Looking round, he was just in time to see the unfortunate Caraccioli
dragged from his knees by the neck, until he rose, by a steady
man-of-war pull, to the end of the yard; leaving his companion alone on
the scaffold, lost in prayer. There was a horrible minute of the
struggles between life and death, when the body, so late the tenement of
an immortal spirit, hung, like one of the jewel-blocks of the ship,
dangling passively at the end of the spar, as insensible as the wood
which sustained it.



CHAPTER XV.


"Sleep, sleep, thou sad one, on the sea;
The wash of waters lulls thee now;
His arm no more will pillow thee,
Thy hand upon his brow;
He is not near, to hurt thee, or to save:
The ground is his--the sea must be thy grave."

DANA.

A long summer's evening did the body of Francesco Caraccioli hang
suspended at the yard-arm of the Minerva; a revolting spectacle to his
countrymen and to most of the strangers who had been the witnesses of
his end. Then was it lowered into a boat, its feet loaded with a
double-headed shot, and it was carried out a league or more into the bay
and cast into the sea. The revolting manner in which it rose to the
surface and confronted its destroyers a fortnight later has passed into
history; and, to this day, forms one of the marvels related by the
ignorant and wonder-loving of that region[6]. As for Ghita, she
disappeared no one knew how; Vito Viti and his companions being too
much absorbed with the scene to note the tender and considerate manner
in which Raoul rowed her off from a spectacle that could but be replete
with horrors to one so situated. Cuffe himself stood but a few minutes
longer; but he directed his boat's crew to pull alongside of the
Proserpine. In half an hour after the execution took place this frigate
was aweigh; and then she was seen standing out of the bay, before a
light air, covered with canvas from her truck to her hammock-cloths.
Leaving her for the moment, we will return to the party in the skiff.

[6] Singular as was this occurrence, and painful as it must have proved
to the parties to the execution, it is one of the simplest consequences
of natural causes. All animal matter swells in water previously to
turning corrupt. A body that has became of twice its natural size, in
this manner, as a matter of course, displaces twice the usual quantity
of water; the _weight_ of the mass remaining the same. Most human frames
floating, in their natural state, so long as the lungs are inflated with
air, it follows that one in this condition would bring up with it as
much weight in iron, as made the difference between its own gravity and
that of the water it displaced. The upright attitude of Caraccioli was
owing to the shot attached to the feet; of which, it _is_ also probable,
one or two had become loosened.

Neither Carlo Giuntotardi nor Ghita Caraccioli--for so we must continue
to call the girl, albeit the name is much too illustrious to be borne by
one of her humble condition in life--but neither of these two had any
other design, in thus seeking out the unfortunate admiral, than to
perform what each believed to be a duty. As soon as the fate of
Caraccioli was decided, both were willing to return to their old
position in life; not that they felt ashamed to avow their connection
with the dead, but because they were quite devoid of any of that worldly
ambition which renders rank and fortune necessary to happiness.

When he left the crowd of boats, Raoul pulled toward the rocks which
bound the shores of the bay, near the gardens of Portici. This was a
point sufficiently removed from the common anchorage to be safe from
observation; and yet so near as to be reached in considerably less than
an hour. As the light boat proceeded Ghita gradually regained her
composure. She dried her eyes and looked around her inquiringly, as if
wondering whither their companion was taking them.

"I will not ask you, Raoul, why you are here at a moment like this, and
whence you have come," she said; "but I may ask whither you are now
carrying us? Our home is at St. Agata, on the heights above Sorrento,
and on the other side of the bay. We come there annually to pass a month
with my mother's sister, who asks this much of our love."

"If I did not know all this, Ghita, I would not and could not be here. I
have visited the cottage of your aunt this day; followed you to Naples,
heard of the admiral's trial and sentence, understood how it would
affect your feelings, traced you on board the English admiral's ship,
and was in waiting as you found me; having first contrived to send away
the man who took you off. All this has come about as naturally as the
feeling which has induced me to venture again into the lion's mouth."

"The pitcher that goes often to the well, Raoul, gets broken at last,"
said Ghita, a little reproachfully, though it surpassed her power to
prevent the tones of tenderness from mingling with her words.

"You know all, Ghita. After months of perseverance and a love such as
man seldom felt before, you deliberately and coldly refused to be my
wife;--nay, you have deserted Monte Argentaro purposely to get rid of my
importunities; for there I could go with the lugger at any moment; and
have come here, upon this bay, crowded with the English and other
enemies of France, fancying that I would not dare to venture hither.
Well, you see with what success; for neither Nelson nor his two-deckers
can keep Raoul Yvard from the woman he loves, let him be as victorious
and skilful as he may!"

The sailor had ceased rowing, to give vent to his feelings in this
speech, neither of the two colloquists regarding the presence of
Giuntotardi any more than if he had been a part of themselves. This
indifference to the fact that a third person was a listener proceeded
from habit, the worthy scholar and religionist being usually too
abstracted to attend to concerns as light as love and the youthful
affections. Ghita was not surprised either at the reproaches of her
suitor or at his perseverance; and her conscience told her he uttered
but the truth, in attributing to her the motives he had, in urging her
uncle to make their recent change of residence; for, while a sense of
duty had induced her to quit the towers, her art was not sufficient to
suggest the expediency of going to any other abode than that which she
was accustomed to inhabit periodically, and about which Raoul knew, from
her own innocent narrations, nearly as much as she knew herself.