The Three Midshipmen

The crew of their boat were delighted at hearing what the midshipmen had resolved to do, and pulled back to the sh.o.r.e with a will.

As they pa.s.sed Captain A--"s boat Adair sang out, "There"s an English flag left flying on the sh.o.r.e there, sir; those red-capped fellows will boast that they took it from us if we let it stay. May we go and get it?"

The commander of the expedition saw that if it was to be done, no time was to be lost, as the risk to be run would increase by delay, or the Egyptians might see the flag, and sally out and take it.

"A brave idea; go and prosper, my lads," he answered promptly.

"Thank you, sir, thank you," answered Murray and Adair in one breath, while their crew bent with all their might to their oars.

"Oh, Alick," said Adair, "I do so wish that Rogers was with us. This is just the thing of all others he would have liked."

"I wish he was, indeed," answered Murray. "But I dare say something else will turn up before long in which he may be able to take a part."

The boat very soon reached the sh.o.r.e. All the crew wanted to go on the expedition, but the midshipmen would only consent to take one. They had their cutla.s.ses by their sides, and pistols in their belts, but their arms were not likely to be of much use. The instant the boat"s stem touched the beach, they sprang on sh.o.r.e; and, running along across the beach, scrambled over the first wall they encountered, and found themselves in the garden.

Scarcely were they there, when the sharp eyes of the enemy fell on them, and they were saluted with a hot fire of musketry.

"Skip about--dodge them--fly here--fly there; take care they don"t hit you," sang out Paddy, suiting the action to the word. "The more we jump, the less chance we shall have of being hit."

The midshipmen"s movements, as they hurried on, were not unlike those of Wills-of-the-Wisp.

The enemy could not conceive what they had come for, and probably supposed that they were madmen who had escaped on sh.o.r.e, and were coming to join them. For a short time the firing ceased. As the smoke cleared off, those on board the ships could see what was taking place, as well as could the enemy. Every gla.s.s was turned towards them. Jack among others recognised his friends, and saw what they were about. They were not wrong in supposing that he would long to be with them. He would have given a finger, or even a right arm, for the sake of being of their party.

On they went. They had another wall to get over. They climbed to the top of it. The enemy at last suspected what they were about, and came to the conclusion that if they were mad they had method in their madness, so they began once more furiously firing away at them. Eastern matchlocks are fortunately not like Enfield rifles; or their lives, if they had had nine, like cats, whom they so resembled in their activity, would not have been worth a moment"s purchase. Murray and Adair raced on as merrily as if they had been playing a game of prisoner"s base.

They clambered up a wall, at the top of which the flag-staff had been placed. They waved it about their heads; and, giving a loud cheer, down they leaped to the ground, where their companion was ready to receive them. Happily they did so, for the next moment a thick shower of musket-b.a.l.l.s came rattling across the spot they had left.

"Not hit, Alick?" asked Adair, as they scampered back as hard as their legs would carry them.

"No; I hope you are not," said Murray.

"Can"t say for a certainty," answered Terence; "I feel a funny stinging sensation in my side as if something or other was the matter."

Whatever it was it did not impede his speed. At length it seemed to strike the Egyptians that though they could not manage to knock over the young giaours with their matchlocks they might with their scimitars; so a band of fierce-looking fellows with long moustachios, wonderfully wide breeches, and gleaming blades, sallied out of the fortress to endeavour to overtake them. The Egyptians ran very fast and felt very savage, but they might just as well have tried to catch three active tomcats. d.i.c.k Needham, their companion, was the first to perceive that the enemy was in pursuit of them.

"There"s a lot on "em a scampering after us, sir," he observed coolly.

"All right," answered Terence. "Their friends inside the fort, then, will be less likely to keep firing at us; and I should like to see the followers of the prophet, whether Turk or Egyptian, who can catch us in a fair race like this."

To do them justice, however, the enemy made good play over the ground.

The outside garden wall was reached and leaped, and now the three adventurers had a fair run for it along the beach towards their boat with the red-capped gentlemen, as Adair called them, in hot pursuit. A long straggling branch of a tree had been thrown upon the beach. Adair did not observe it, and suddenly he found himself toppled over on his head. He thought that he had broken his leg.

"Take the flag and run, Alick," he exclaimed, throwing the flag-staff to Murray. "Never mind me, I"m too much, hurt to move."

"Not when I have a pair of legs to run off with you, sir," cried d.i.c.k Needham, lifting Paddy upon his shoulders, running off with him as if he had been a baby. "It was not for that, sir, that I comed here to look after you."

Paddy felt that it was not a moment to stand on his dignity, so he was very much obliged to d.i.c.k for carrying him. Murray took the flag, but would not leave him till he had seen him hoisted upon d.i.c.k"s shoulders.

Away they went then as before; but the Egyptians had gained considerably on them, and hallooed and shouted, and, worse than all, fired off their pistols with as good an aim as they could take, running as they were at full speed. Fortunately the bullets did not reach the fugitives; just then the latter caught sight of their boat, which they had left under shelter of a rock. The Egyptians did not see her, and so they ran on, which they otherwise would not have done. What was their surprise, then, to find themselves saluted with a round of grape-shot from a gun in her bows, and a volley of musketry, while a true British cheer reached their ears. d.i.c.k and Murray responded to it, and so did Paddy in a voice which showed that there was not much the matter with him, and all three very speedily tumbled into the boat, while the enemy turned tail and scampered back to the fort. The boat immediately shoved off to return to the frigate.

"What is the matter with you, Paddy?" asked Murray, as soon as they had taken their seats. "I hope you are not much hurt. Let me see."

"My knee bothers me a little, but my side is the worst," answered Adair.

"And, as I am a gentleman, look here, the fellows have shot away the handle of my sword!"

Such was the case. Adair had indeed had a narrow escape; his coat was torn and his skin slightly grazed. An eighth of an inch on one side, and he would have received a very ugly, if not a mortal, wound. Happily he was very little hurt, and the cheers with which the boat was received, as she got alongside the frigate, made him forget entirely that anything was the matter with him.

"Oh! I am so jealous of you two fellows," exclaimed Jack, as they were all seated together in the berths. "You"ll make me volunteer to lead a forlorn hope, or to do something terrifically heroic. However, the fun is not over yet; we shall have plenty more work to do before long."

The fun, as Jack called it, was not over. Sidon was soon afterwards attacked by a squadron under Sir Charles Napier, in his usual slap-dash gallant determined-to-conquer manner. The ships bombarded, then the Turks, marines, and bluejackets were landed, and stormed one castle after another, killing or putting to flight every one who opposed them.

Jack, Murray, and Adair, to their great delight, were all on sh.o.r.e together. The cannonading had not, however, driven the Egyptians from their entrenchments, so the ships again opened their fire. Captain Austin, at the head of a Turkish battalion, had taken one castle, Captain Mansel, with great gallantry, led a body of marines into another, and then they fought their way into another castle which overlooked the town, not, however, without some loss. And now the commodore conceived that the time had come for storming the town itself, and, putting himself at the head of the troops, he led them on. The three midshipmen, with a body of seamen from the different ships, were with him. They broke into some strongly fortified barracks, and drove out the enemy, then they fought their way through the streets to the citadel. Several boats had brought their ensigns, Jack carried theirs at the end of a pole.

"Hurrah, now!" he sang out; "let us have our colours on the top of the wall before any one else." Terence and Murray echoed the sentiment; and, leading on some of their men, they endeavoured to reach the spot before a boat"s crew of their Austrian allies, led on by a midshipman, as well as before other parties of British seamen. Never was there a better race. No one felt inclined to stop at obstacles, and everybody who attempted to oppose them was killed. The governor of the town was encountered. He was offered quarter, but he would not receive it, and before any officers could interfere two marines ran the brave old gentleman through the body, and he died like a true Turk as he was.

When the enemy saw that their chief was dead, and that there was no one to lead them, they wisely threw down their arms, resolved, like brave men, to live and fight another day for a more profitable cause.

Jack and his companions pushed on, and having now fewer enemies to encounter, made still greater progress. The higher part of the town was reached; with shouts and loud huzzas they scrambled up to the summit of the walls, and, planting the British banner, Sidon was proclaimed to have fallen into the power of the allies. Fortunately the commodore and his followers came upon a thousand men concealed in a vaulted barrack, who were prepared to rush out and cut them off, but who, instead, were very glad to lay down their arms, and in the end every one of the garrison, three thousand in number, was captured. Tyre, that ancient city, was next captured; so was Caiffa, Tortosa, and other places; and at last the fleet appeared before Acre, still one of the most important places on the Syrian coast. Here the midshipmen saw what real fighting was. Acre presents two sides to the sea, one facing south and the other west. In consequence of this it was necessary that the fleet should attack in two divisions. It was a grand sight to see the mighty line-of-battle ships and the fine steamers, armed with their engines of destruction, approaching in order the devoted town, and still more when they began thundering away from a thousand loud-mouthed guns, confusing the senses with their roars and filling the air with their smoke. Even Jack felt his spirits awed as hour after hour, without cessation, the mighty uproar continued, and houses were overthrown and strong stone walls were seen crumbling away before the reiterated shocks of the iron shower levelled at them. The enemy, too, were not idle, and shots and sh.e.l.l came whizzing about the ships, striking down here and there many a gallant seaman and marine.

"Well, Alick, what do you think of it?" asked Jack, as, in the course of their duty, the two friends were brought together.

"That we are in earnest in what we are about; though I wish I could feel the poor fellows we are slaughtering deserved their fate more than I think they do," answered Murray.

"I don"t understand those niceties," observed Terence, who had just then come up. "Those fellows don"t do what we tell them, so we"ve a perfect right to kill and destroy them as fast as we can; but, halloo, what"s that?"

As Adair was speaking a terrific noise, ten times louder than the roar of all the guns of the squadron put together, was heard, and high up into the air were seen to ascend fragments of walls, and beams, and human bodies, succeeded by a dense smoke, out of which flames burst forth and raged furiously. The castle had blown up, or rather the grand magazine within it, and in a moment nearly two thousand persons were hurried into eternity. The firing ceased--the combatants held their breath, aghast at the dreadful catastrophe; but the Egyptians, undaunted, soon again recommenced the action, and the ships bombarded on as before till sunset, when the action was discontinued.

"What tough fellows those must be to hold out so long," said Jack. "I should have thought they would have had enough of it before this."

The governor had already come to the same conclusion, and during the night he and his followers evacuated the place, and in the morning some Turks and Austrians were sent on sh.o.r.e to take possession. The capture of Acre terminated the war in Syria, for many of the tribes which had been hesitating which side to choose, joined the Sultan"s forces, and the army of Ibrahim Pacha dwindled from 75,000 to 20,000 men. Sir Charles Napier went to Alexandria, and Mehemet Ali, persuaded that the tide of war had turned against him, undertook to evacuate Syria, and to restore the Turkish fleet, as soon as the Sultan should send him a firman, granting him the hereditary government of Egypt. Everybody engaged in the Syrian war got a great deal of credit, and my three friends came in for a midshipman"s share of the honours showered on the victors. Once more the _Racer_ was ploughing the waters of the Mediterranean with her head to the westward. She had been her full time on the station, and it was the general expectation that she would speedily be ordered home.

"Hurrah for old England!" was the joyous cry on board, and no one enjoyed the thoughts of returning home more than did the three friends, and yet there was a lump of bitter in the bottom of the cup to spoil this pleasure. It was the thought that in all probability they would be soon separated, for how long they could not guess--perhaps years might pa.s.s away before they could again meet. They resolved, however, to stick together if they could, and, at all events, never to fail in letting each other know their whereabouts.

The _Racer_ reached Portsmouth at last. There was a paying off dinner, given by the midshipmen to the gun-room officers, at the far-famed _Blue Posts_. Old Hemming presided, and a very good president he made. The first course was over when a stumping on the stairs was heard, and the waiter, opening the door, announced Admiral Triton. Jack sprang up and grasped his hand warmly.

"I have taken the liberty of an old seaman to look in on you, gentlemen, on this occasion, uninvited; for I saw you just as you were all brought together, and I was anxious to meet you again before you all separate, probably for ever," said the Admiral--who, as may be supposed, was most cordially welcomed--after waiting for some time till the speech-making had begun. "You have had, I am glad to find from my friend Rogers, a happy ship. Many of you will, I hope, some day be captains; and let me impress it on you that on you yourselves will then mainly depend whether your ships also are happy ships or the reverse. To make them so, you must command your tempers (you cannot begin too soon to practise the difficult task), you must endeavour to study and promote the true interests of all under you, and you must act justly towards all men. To do this I must not fail to remind you that you must pray for strength whence alone strength for all difficult tasks can be given."

The Admiral"s speech in no way interrupted the hilarity of the evening, and he added much to it by several amusing anecdotes, at which no one laughed more heartily than he did. The next day he accompanied Jack to Northamptonshire. No one was ever more cordially welcomed in a happy home than was Jack. It need not be said that, for at least three days, everybody did their very utmost to spoil him, though after that time he was treated very much as he used to be before he became a midshipman.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

BOUND FOR AFRICA.

One morning, towards the termination of breakfast, Jack Rogers was leaning back in his chair, with a bit of b.u.t.tered toast in one hand and the _Times_ in the other, on the contents of which he was making a running commentary, when he stopped short, put down his toast, took a hurried sip of his tea, and exclaimed, "So my old skipper has got a ship again, and they say is going out as commodore to the coast of Africa."

"Dear me!" observed Mrs Rogers, "I am afraid that Captain Lascelles will not like that; I should always have such a horror of that dreadful station."

"Oh, mother, don"t pray entertain such a notion as that," said Jack, with no little emphasis. "There is in the first place plenty of work to be done there, which in these piping times of peace is a great consideration. Only think of the fun of capturing a slaver, and what is more, of getting an independent command; or at least that is of a prize, you know, and being away from one"s ship for weeks together. And then there is cruising in open boats, and exploring rivers, and fights with pirates or slavers; perhaps a skirmish with the dependents of some n.i.g.g.e.r potentate, and fifty other sorts of adventures, not to speak of prize-money and all that sort of thing, you know. Oh, to my mind, the coast of Africa is one of the best stations in the world, in spite of what is said against it."