Shortly afterwards Mammy rose and left the room, and then I spoke to the party, and told them that they were driving the poor woman to extremities. The planters agreed with me, and we argued the case with them, but the majority were, of course, against us, and the young merchants appeared to be very much inclined to be personal with me. At last I replied, "Very well, gentlemen--as you please; but as I happen to be well known both to the admiral and governor I give you fair warning that, if this continues much longer, I will report the affair. I should be very sorry to do so; but the house is now very uncomfortable, and you have no right to remain when the landlady insists upon your going."
At this reply of mine the naval portion of the guests were silent, but the civilians more insolent than before. I did not wish to come to open war, so I said nothing more, and left the table. After I was gone, the refractory parties made more noise than ever. Just before the dinner hour on the following day, Mammy Crissobella sent a circular round to the young men, stating that she could not receive them at dinner. They all laughed, and went down to table as before. The dinner was better than usual, and they complimented Mammy upon it. Mammy, who had taken her seat with a scowl on her brow, and had not spoken a word, merely bowed her head in reply to their observations.
Dinner was over, and then Mammy desired Leila to bring her a goblet which was on the sideboard, and a small white jug which was in the _buffet_. She appeared much distressed, and hesitated a good deal, putting the goblet to her lips, and then putting it down on the table without tasting it. This conduct induced us all to look seriously at her. At last she took it up, sighed deeply, and drank the whole off at a draught. For a few seconds she held her hand over her forehead, with her elbows resting on the table. At last she looked up and said, "Gemmen, I got a little speech to make--I very sorry dat I not drink your health; but it no use--dat why you see me drink; I tell plenty time you make me mad--you make me drink obeah water--make me kill myself.
Now I ab done it--I drink pison water just now. In two hour I dead woman."
At this communication, the truth of which appeared confirmed by the woman"s behaviour, all the company started from their chairs.
"Gemmen, I dare say you all very sorry; you be more sorry by-and-by.
Captain, I beg your pardon; Mr W---, Mr G (the two planters), I beg your pardon; I not mean hurt you, but could not help it. Now I tell all company, all drink the pison water--because I not like die on the jibbit, I drink de pison water--Gemmen your dinner all pison, and you all pisoned. Yes, all pisoned," cried Mammy Crissobella at the highest pitch of her voice, and rushing out of the room.
At this announcement, I started from my chair and clasped my hands, as if in agony. I looked round me--never did I witness such a variety of horror as was expressed in the different faces at the hotel. The old planter; Mr D, who sat next to me, and who was in the secret as well as Mr G, laid his head on the table with a groan. "The Lord have mercy on my sins," exclaimed Mr G; Mr Lieutenant Maxwell looked me in the face, and then burst into tears; Mr Lieutenant Dott put his fingers down his throat, and with three or four more getting rid of their dinner as fast as they could.
At last I sprang up to ring the bell; no one answered. I rang again more furiously. At last a slave appeared.
"Where"s my servant?"
"Not here, sar."
"Where"s all the people of the house?"
"All with missy, sar; Mammy Crissobella die."
"Run down then to the beach, and desire the surgeon of the brig to come up immediately."
"Yes, sar," replied the negro, leaving the room.
"Oh, I feel it now--here," exclaimed I, putting my hand to my chest; "I"m suffocating."
"And so do I," replied one of the midshipmen, weeping.
The girl Leila now entered the room in tears. "Mammy dead," said she.
"Oh Captain Keene, I very sorry for you: you come with me, I give you something. I know how stop pison."
"Do you, Leila? then give it me; quick, quick."
"Yes, yes; give it us quick."
"I not stuff enough but I make more when I gib what I ab to Captain Keene. You all stay still, not move; pose you move about, make pison work. I come back soon as I can."
Leila then took my arm and led me tottering out of the room, when I went to Mammy Crissobella, and laughed till I cried; but the punishment was not over. After remaining about ten minutes looking at each other, but neither speaking nor moving, in pursuance of Leila"s direction, with the utmost despair in their countenances, they were gladdened by the return of Leila with a large jug, out of which she administered a gla.s.s of some compound or another to each of them. I watched at the door, and the eagerness with which they jostled and pushed each other to obtain the dose before the rest was very amusing, and never did they swallow any liquor with so much avidity, little imagining that, instead of taking what was to cure them, they were now taking what was to make them very sick; but so it was; and in a few minutes afterwards the scene of groaning, crying, screaming, writhing with pain, was quite awful.
After a time, the slaves came in and carried them all to their respective beds, leaving them to their own reflections, and the violent effects of the drugs administered, which left them no repose for that night, and in a state of utter exhaustion on the following morning.
At daylight I went into Mr Dott"s room with the surgeon, to whom I had confided the secret. Tommy was a miserable object.
"Thank heaven! here is one still alive," said the surgeon to me.
"Oh! Captain Keene," said Tommy, "I"m glad to see that you are so well; but you had the remedy given you long before we had."
"Yes," replied I, "it was given me in good time; but I hope it was not too late with you."
"I feel very bad," replied Tommy. "Doctor, do you think I shall live?"
The doctor felt his pulse, and looked very grave; at last he said, "If you get over the next twelve hours, I think you may."
"How many are dead?" inquired Tommy.
"I don"t know; you are the first that I have visited; it"s a shocking business."
"I"ve been thinking that we were very wrong," said Tommy; "we ought not to have driven the poor woman to desperation. If I do recover, her death will be on my conscience."
"I"m glad to hear you say that, Tommy," replied I; "but the doctor says you must remain very quiet, and therefore I shall leave you. Good-bye; I will see you again this evening."
"Good-bye, sir, and I hope you"ll forgive me for not having been so respectful as I should have been."
"Yes, yes, Tommy; we have been friends too long for that."
Mammy Crissobella"s dose had certainly put an end to all Tommy"s spirit of resistance. All the others who had been victims to our plot were kept in the dark as to the real facts, and, as soon as they were able to be moved, paid their bills to Leila, and left the house.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
On the third day, Tommy Dott and Mr Maxwell went on board, imagining that they had had a miraculous escape, and the two old planters and I were left the only inmates of the house to welcome the resurrection of Mammy Crissobella, who was again as busy as before. She said to me, "Ma.s.sy Keene, I really under great obligation to you; suppose you want two, three hundred, five hundred pounds, very much at your service; never mind pay back."
I replied that I did not want any money, and was equally obliged to her.
But the affair had already made a great noise. It was at first really supposed that Mammy Crissobella had poisoned them as well as herself, and I was obliged to refute it, or the authorities would have taken it up. As the admiral sent down to make inquiries, I went up to him and told him the whole story; I was obliged to do the same to the governor, and it was the occasion of great mirth all over the island, and no small mortification to those who had been the sufferers. Mammy Crissobella was complimented very much upon her successful stratagem to clear her house, and she was quite in ecstasies at the renown that she obtained.
One day the admiral sent for me, and said--"Keene, I can wait no longer the arrival of another vessel. I must send you to England with despatches: you must sail to-morrow morning."
As I was all ready, I took my leave of the admiral, who promised me every a.s.sistance if on his station, and his good word with the Admiralty, and said that he would send down my despatches at daylight.
I went on board, gave the necessary orders, and then returned to the hotel to pack up my portmanteau and pay my bill; but Mammy Crissobella would not hear of my paying anything; and as I found that she was beginning to be seriously angry, I gave up the point. So I gave the old lady a kiss as a receipt-in-full, and another to Leila, as I slipped a couple of doubloons into her hand, and went on board. The next morning shortly after daylight the despatches were on board, and the Diligente was under all the sail she could carry on her way to England.
The Diligente sailed as well as ever, and we made a very quick pa.s.sage.
I found my ship"s company to be very good, and had no trouble with my officers. Tommy Dott was very well behaved, notwithstanding all his threats of what he would do. It was therefore to be presumed that he was not very ill treated.
We were now fast approaching the end of our pa.s.sage, being about a hundred miles to the South West of the Scilly Islands, with a light wind from the southward when, in the middle watch, Bob Cross, who had the charge of it, came down and reported firing in the South East. I went up, but, although we heard the report of the guns, we could not distinguish the flashes. I altered our course to the direction, and we waited till daylight should reveal what was going on. Before daybreak we could see the flashes, and make out one vessel, but not the other.
But when the sun rose the mystery was cleared off. It was a French schooner privateer engaging a large English ship, apparently an East-Indiaman. The ship was evidently a good deal cut up in her spars and rigging.
Bob Cross, who was close to my side when I examined them with my gla.s.s, said, "Captain Keene, that rascally Frenchman will be off as soon as he sees us, if we hoist English colours; but if you hoist French colours, we may get down and pin him before he knows what we are."
"I think you are right, Bob," says I. "Hoist French colours. He will make sure of his prize then, and we shall laugh at his disappointment."
As Cross turned away to go aft, I perceived a chuckle on his part, which I did not understand, as there was nothing particular to chuckle about.
I thought it was on account of the Frenchman"s disappointment, when he found that we were not a friend, as he might suppose.
"Hadn"t we better fire a gun, Captain Keene, to attract their attention?"