Foxholme Hall, and Other Tales

“I cannot describe to you the feelings which took possession of our hearts. It was the blankest despair: Derick alone seemed indifferent to our fate, and only felt enraged at not having been able to overtake the witch. I believe we were capable of jumping overboard, or of rushing at each other with our knives and fighting till we had stabbed each other to death, when, as I was standing upon the thwarts to look around, I saw the ship dead to leeward. I pointed her out to the captain and men.

”‘We’ll return on board then,’ he answered, coolly, as if nothing had happened. ‘And mind, let none of you talk about our chase after that accursed old hag – we shall have the people fancying next, I suppose, that the ship is doomed.’

”‘Ay, ay, sir,’ we answered; but though I said nothing about it, I believe the men did not hold their tongues a moment after, they got down into the fore-peak. As the sea went down after this we had little difficulty in getting on board again. When we did so, we found that for some time they had given us up as lost.

“Fortunately, poor Mrs Derick did not return to consciousness till just as her husband got on board, so that she was spared the misery of believing him lost. He had her taken below, and sat up watching her most tenderly till she recovered. In two days she was better, and on deck again, but I observed a great change in her. She looked pale and anxious, and all her life and spirits were gone. I fear she began to suspect that there was good reason for the old witch to haunt us. The loss of six of our best hands was very serious, especially as we had no prospect of supplying their places in any port at which we were likely to touch. On, however, we must go, and make the best of it. The wind now came ahead, and we were obliged to make tack and tack, scarcely ever getting a fair slant till we reached the latitude of Cape Horn.

“One would have supposed that we had had enough of storms and accidents for one voyage, but we had soon to learn that we had something more to go through. Mrs Derick had by this time become something like herself again, and as for the captain, though he felt more than any one, he never changed. He sang and joked as much as ever, and even sneered at the old woman and her jolly-boat, as he called it. I cannot describe what happened every day of the voyage, so I must merely mention the most remarkable events. It was in the afternoon watch, when, as I was sweeping the horizon with my glass, I observed an unusual dark appearance on the water. Some said that it was a sand-bank, others an island, some a shoal fish, but I saw that it was a heavy squall driving furiously over the hitherto smooth unruffled sea. I was not mistaken. I called Captain Derick on deck, and the hands were sent aloft to lower topgallant yards and to furl every sail, except the fore-topsail, which was closely reefed. The men sprang to their duty, for they saw that not a moment was to be lost. The ship was put before the wind just in time. Down came the squall upon us, roaring, and tearing, and hissing along the ocean. Away we flew before it like a sea-bird on the wing. Our only danger was lest we should not be far enough to the south to clear the land of the Patagonians – the renowned Cape Horn.

“Every moment the fury of the gale increased, the waves rose higher, and the wind roared louder. Everything on deck was secured, and preventer braces were put on the fore and fore-topsail yards to assist in securing them. As night approached the terrific contest increased. The sea, which ran on either beam in high mountainous surges, broke with an awful roar; the stern of the ship now lifted on the summit of a wave, and the next instant her bow was plunging madly into the dark trough which yearned apparently to engulf her. The thunder rattled loudly through the heavy sky, the vivid lightning played threateningly round the masts, and the wind howled and whistled through the rigging. Those who had never before felt fear in a storm, now trembled with alarm. On we drove with impetuous violence, the hands at the wheel scarcely able to keep the ship before the boiling seas, which, as they curled up astern, seemed ready to rush down on our decks and overwhelm us.

“It was in the middle watch, and the captain had just joined me on deck, when one of the look-outs shouted, ‘Land on the starboard bow.’ The startling cry was echoed through the ship, and every man sprang on deck. We were clearly in dangerous proximity to the coast, and with the foreboding of mischief on the minds of all, many thought that our time had arrived. All eyes were directed anxiously towards the coast, which every instant was growing more distinct. The wheel was kept a few spokes more to starboard, but we could not venture to haul the ship more up lest she should broach to, and as no land appeared ahead, we hoped to be able, if it were Cape Horn we saw, to scrape round it; at all events a short time would decide our fate.

“The captain went into the cabin with me to consult the chart, and we had every reason to hope that the land we saw was the southernmost part of Cape Horn. When we returned on deck we had drawn awfully near the coast, but it was broad on our starboard beam.

”‘We shall be round the Cape in another half hour,’ exclaimed the captain in a cheerful tone, ‘and then, my lads, we shall be clear of the accursed witch and her devilish tricks.’

“I do not know what madness induced him to remind the people of the old hag; it showed what his own mind was running on, notwithstanding all his pretended indifference and disbelief. At all events he had better have let the subject alone; for at that instant, as if to refute his assertion, a roll of thunder, louder than was ever heard before, sounded in our ears, and in a blaze of forked lightning which flashed continually from the skies, the old woman herself was seen, increased into gigantic proportions, standing on a lofty rock at the very southernmost point of the Cape, exactly as she had appeared on the pier at Liverpool, and waving round in the air her long twisted staff, about which the most vivid flashes played in fiery circles. Her face full of malignant fury, lighted up as now, was of a livid hue, her garments and her grey looks streamed in the wind, and as she pointed towards the western ocean she seemed by her gestures to threaten us with further mishaps. Her lips moved and gibbered, but if she spoke, not a sound reached us.

“We had two of the guns mounted, and on beholding the terrific figure, Derick ordered one of them to be loaded and run out.

”‘I’ll see what impression a cannon ball can make on her,’ he exclaimed, in a voice of mingled excitement, rage, and horror. ‘Bring a lighted match here, one of you.’

“While the match was being brought, he stood eyeing the witch with a look of defiance. He seized the light eagerly from the hand of a seaman, and though, as you may suppose, in the tremendous way the ship was rolling and pitching, it was impossible to take an aim, he fired. The gun went off with an explosion louder than I ever heard before, and a flash far more vivid. The noise was answered by a shriek of mocking laughter, and the flash only served to show still more clearly the hideous figure of the witch, jeering at us and threatening us with her staff.

“Onward we rushed, and while the lightning lasted there she was seen as clearly, I tell you, as we had seen her at home. When the lightning ceased, the darkness of the night shut her out from our sight, but some even then affirmed that they saw the dim outline of her form against the northern sky.

“Not a man on board turned in again that night, you may be sure, but all the watch who should have been below shrunk together in knots uttering their forebodings to each other, and earnestly wishing for the return of day. The longest night must have an end, and so had this, and, as the morning broke, the wind settled down into a moderate gale, which sent as forward on our course at the rate of twelve knots an hour.

“The land was no longer in sight, the glorious sun came out bright and warm, and cheered our hearts, and we almost forgot the terrors of the night. I said that Mrs Derick had not witnessed the sight we had, but from her husband’s manner, when he went below, she discovered that there was something wrong, and she would not rest till he had told her. He, as usual, tried to laugh it off, and to declare that there was nothing in it, but I saw that she was not satisfied, and that the circumstance was preying sadly on her mind.

“In two days, by an observation made, we found that we were well to the westward of the south coast of America, and the wind veering round to the south, we kept away on a northerly course. Every day, as we got into more temperate latitudes, the weather became finer and warmer, and the spirits of the seamen rose proportionably, though they were not the men they would have been in the natural course of things. They had plenty of work to do, which kept their minds employed, in preparing for our visit to the Spanish coast; we got up the remainder of the guns from the hold and shipped them on their carriages, we sent up topgallant masts and yards, got out the flying jib-boom, and repaired the damages we had received in the gale. The carpenters also set to work to build a boat to supply the place of the one we had lost; while the captain and supercargo made arrangements for their transactions on the coast.

“I am not giving you extracts from my log, so that I need only tell you that about a month was consumed in successful trading with the Spaniards, in spite of the men-of-war on the look out for us at sea, and the custom-house officers and soldiers sent to intercept us in shore. We touched, I remember, at Conception, Coquimbo, Huasco, Point Negra, and other places on the coast of Chili.

“At last the vigilance of the Spanish authorities being completely aroused, it was thought better to keep away from the shore for a short time, to throw them off their guard. Captain Derick accordingly determined to visit a group of islands some distance to the westward, to lay in a stock of turtle, with which those islands abound. I think they were the Gallipagos, but as we never reached them, I am not certain. The Pacific is very properly so called, but when the wind does take it into its head to blow, then it makes up for its general idleness. The weather had long continued calm and beautiful, and everything went well on board. Captain Derick once more laughed and joked, and his wife looked happy and contented. Not satisfied, however, to let things alone, he must bring up the subject of the old witch again, and declared that the whole story, from first to last, was trumped up by the crew, and that neither he nor any one else on board had ever set eyes on her since the day we left Liverpool. How he could venture on such assertions I don’t know, but he wanted to persuade others of what he wished to believe himself.

“The evening was beautifully calm and serene: it put me in mind of the one we had before the night on which we had lost our masts off the coast of Brazil, only this was calmer and warmer. Not a breath of air was felt, the sails hung listlessly down against the masts, the sea was smooth as a polished mirror, and the sky of the purest blue; the atmosphere, notwithstanding the warmth, was pleasant, and every one on board was in good spirits. As the night drew on, however, the air became more stagnant, the heat increased, and as there was not even a swell moving the bosom of the Pacific, the dead silence which prevailed became absolutely oppressive.

“The captain and his wife were sitting aft and leaning against the taffrail with their hands clasped in each other’s, for they were as fond now as when they were bride and bridegroom; the work of the day was over, and the crew were lying listlessly about the decks, not even amusing themselves with talking as usual. I do not believe a person on board had uttered a word for a quarter of an hour. I never felt so complete a silence; when on a sudden it was broken by a loud, piercing, derisive cackle, sounding close under our quarter. Every one knew the voice, and as we sprang up and looked over the bulwarks, we saw, as we expected, the old witch, gliding along the smooth sea, and taking a course directly ahead of us, while she howled and jeered, and pointed with her staff just as she had done before.

“The captain saw her too. ‘Damn her!’ he exclaimed, fiercely; ‘what does she want here?’

“The words were scarcely out of his mouth, when an answer was given back which fully accounted for her presence. Right astern there appeared, where a moment before the sky had been of beautiful blue, a cloud black as ink, spreading across the whole eastern horizon. We all saw what was coming – the men instinctively sprang to the brails.

”‘Clew up, haul down, let fly everything!’ shouted the captain.

“It was too late: before a tack could be let go, or a brail hauled on, the fierce hurricane struck us. In a moment, ere we could look round, the stout ship heeled over, and trembled in every timber. Crash upon crash was heard, mingled with the shrieks of the seamen, and she was left without a mast standing, a mere hull upon the water. Derick was the most undaunted, though he must have felt on whose account all these disasters were happening. He sprang up with an axe in his hand, and summoning the crew, set to work to cut away the shrouds to clear the shattered spars from the ship. It was done, and the ship drove furiously on before the howling blast.

”‘We shall ride it out and disappoint the accursed old hag; so never mind, my boys!’ he shouted, as he worked away.

”‘Land right ahead,’ sang out a man forward.

”‘Land on the starboard bow,’ cried another.

”‘Land on the larboard bow,’ exclaimed a third.

”‘Then we are lost!’ shrieked out many voices, in an agony of despair.

“Onward we drove before the hurricane. ‘Breakers on the starboard and larboard bows,’ cried the first mate, who had rushed forward to look out for any passage among the reefs through which to steer the ship, while I, with the third mate and another hand, went to the helm.

“The darkness of the night came down, and added to the horrors of the scene. ‘Breakers right ahead!’ he shouted; ‘all’s lost!’ He had scarcely uttered the words when the ship struck with tremendous violence on some rocks; the sea lifted her, but it was to let her fall with still greater force, amid a foaming caldron of waters. The surges fiercely broke over us, and washed man after man from his hold. Shrieks and cries rose on every side from the manly bosoms which had never before felt fear.

“The captain stood firm, clasping his wife in his arms, for she had from the first refused to go below. His countenance, as the lightning flashed brightly round him, looked deadly pale; she had fainted, and was happily senseless. A third time the ship lifted, and down she came with a tremendous crash, every timber in her parting at the instant. Two things I saw at that awful moment: the despairing countenance of the captain as the foaming waves whirled him and her he loved away in their wild embrace, his starting eyeballs to the last fixed on the malignant features of the fearful witch, whom I beheld sailing round us in her skiff, unharmed, among the breakers, her loud shrieks of triumphant laughter sounding high above the roaring of the tempest.

“Notwithstanding the horrors of the scene, the principle of self-preservation prompted me to seize a plank, and supported by it, I found myself, I scarcely know how, carried by the waves on to a sandy beach. A rock was near. I climbed to its summit, and from thence I beheld, amid successive flashes of lightning, the old witch whirling her staff in triumph over her head, while her skiff scudded at lightning speed in the direction of Cape Horn. I was on an uninhabited island. I searched anxiously on every side to see if any of my shipmates had escaped, but alas! none appeared, and I discovered with sorrow that I was the sole survivor of the Chameleon’s gallant crew.

“After living some months on the island, I was taken off, and in two years found my way back to Liverpool. I had the curiosity to make inquiries for old Dame Kirby, and learned that she had been for months absent from home, and that nobody knew what had become of her, but that at length she returned, and was heard to boast that she had been doing a deed much to her satisfaction, but would tell no one what it was. I inquired the date of her return; it was exactly five days after our shipwreck, so that although she must have made a quick passage, there could be no longer any doubt on the mind of a reasonable man that she had been the cause of all the disasters which had happened to us, and of the destruction of the Doomed Ship.”