CHAPTER XXVI.--Of the strange Plight in which Will found Katherine.

Will had the good fortune to be among the seamen and marine forces landed under Captain Troubridge to reduce the strong Citadel of St. Elmo, which dominates all the city of Naples, and which, though it had only five hundred French within it, rendered the occupation of the said city, and the return of the King, impracticable until it should be reduced.

The day after the execution of that long-time traitor Caracciolo, we began operations in good earnest by mounting the two heavy pieces on the landward side of the Castle of Uovo, for the reduction of a battery and small fort which stood on the summit of the highest rock on the sea face of Naples, known as the Pizzofalcone--that being necessary both for the safe occupation of the Castle of Uovo, and because it was the best point for playing on the Citadel. This was our first advance, and from that we won our way a few yards at a time up the tremendous hill on which the Castle of St. Elmo stands, as it were, right on the top of the monastery of S. Martino.

The last position we carried was a little _fortalice_ or outwork on the brow of the hill; and we had not fired above a few shots when they signalled to parley, and in due time a Neapolitan officer appeared, for it was in the hands of the Jacobins, and not of the French, who were all within the Citadel. His message put Captain Troubridge in rather a dilemma. He would have nothing but unconditional surrender from rebels.

"That's mighty fine," said the Neapolitan, through Will; "but as we neither desire to take away our cannon nor our ammunition, and should be well content to leave our small arms with them, if it were not for the 'Christian army' who are scouring the country, hunting us down like wild beasts, and not above torturing us when they find us, you are hardly in a position to prevent us slipping away. The only question is whether we are to have time to pack the poor possessions which are all we have left between us and starvation in these stormy times?"

Our commander assured him once more that it was not in his power to accept anything but unconditional surrender.

"May I make a suggestion, Signor Capitano?" asked the officer, who was a gentleman and of good family.

"I cannot prevent that," said Captain Troubridge, rather roughly, for he had an inborn mistrust of Neapolitans, whom he hated nearly as badly as the French, I verily believe for the change that had come over the Admiral at Naples. Also he suspected the messenger of being, like most of them, a wily coward who wished to come round him with an oily tongue. He was one of the bravest men that ever lived; and when it came to dealing with French and Jacobins, who had been guilty of so many excesses in cold blood, he wanted no parleying or treaties, but to lead storming parties that asked and received no quarter. The chicanery of the South Italians maddened and disgusted him.

"I have your permission, sir?" said the officer, with studied courtesy; and when our commander growled assent, he simply said, "On my honour as a gentleman, I would advise you to fire past the fort from the moment the white flag goes down until it is hoisted again, and then to send a party of occupation as fast as their legs can carry them; and also to observe the little window to the left of the passage leading up from the gate, which shall have a handkerchief showing at it."

Captain Troubridge had an eye for a true man, and recognised that he was talking to one; so he replied: "I do not think that we shall be firing at your fort for the next hour or so."

"And I for my part," rejoined the Neapolitan, "can assure you that if we perceive that, deeming us unworthy of your newly mounted heavy ordnance, which could reduce us to ashes in a few minutes, you are finding the range for St. Elmo, no guns will be fired by us to provoke you."

With that he took his leave; and though the grim captain could not bring himself to pay the same marks of respect to a rebel as he would to a proper enemy come on such an errand, I could see his face soften when the other's back was turned.

It was not an hour--though it seemed several--before the white flag, which had been hauled down as soon as the messenger regained the fort, ran up again; and instantly the boarding party--for such in fact it was--dashed across a kind of garden, which had at its end zigzag paths and steps carved in the rock; the officer having as he went out volunteered to show Will, who had acted as interpreter, this short cut, telling him that it would be mighty important for the occupying party not to lose a minute of time in taking possession.

"I would willingly have told you more, sir," he added; "but I have some pride left in my misfortunes, and your commander's attitude makes it impossible for me to mention that which was the chief part of our terms."

By Captain Troubridge's leave, Will, who had no fear, accompanied him alone, it being undesirable to draw attention; nor was he in any great danger so long as he was with the officer who had borne the flag of truce, or afterwards, but from a chance musket-shot fired by some rebel too insubordinate to obey his officers.

Even in the short while that Will was away the occupying party had been formed, headed by Captain Troubridge himself, who had divined from the brave officer's manner that there was an affair of grave importance in the air. The garrison kept their word about doing nothing to draw our fire. Presently Will returned, and led the party to the appointed place, where they were sheltered from observation of the sentries by a little grove of orange trees, and could yet see the flagstaff. As soon as the white flag ran up, they dashed through one of the ornamental gardens which the Italians fashion so quaintly out of the sides of rocks, paying little heed, you may be sure, to shrubs or statues, but with their eyes bent on the breastwork at the top of the zigzag paths they had to climb, from which they as good as expected a sharp fusillade or a volley of boulders. But the officer had kept his word, and they gained the breastwork uninjured, finding its gate open. It was a very few yards from this to the fort, where likewise they found the gate open and no guards; but from which they could hear the sounds of an angry tumult and one or two shots. Drawing pistols, and gripping swords and cutlasses, they were led at a rush up the steep slippery stone incline from the gate into the interior of the fort; and there they came upon a mob of Jacobins of the lower class who were battering at a door and firing from time to time at a little window, fortunately high up, from which was waving a handkerchief. In an instant Captain Troubridge and Vassall and Will, who were leading our column, were slashing among them, driving straight for such as were armed with muskets or pistols.

The white flag, it will be remembered, was not in sign of surrender, but in sign that the fort had been abandoned; Captain Troubridge having refused to make any kind of terms beyond the announcement that for such a space of time he should not be firing in that direction; and the officer having hinted plainly that he should not be able to enforce the withdrawal of certain of his men.

In a very short space these men were all slain or had laid down their arms; and then the sailors commenced battering in the doors with a light brass gun which they took off its carriage and slung in cords--an expedient which had fortunately not occurred to the rebels, who, disarmed and under guard, watched the operations sullenly.

No sooner had they delivered a batter or two, and a third would have done the business, than they heard an English voice from within--a gruff voice, which called--

"Hi there! An English storming party?"

"Yes," shouted a dozen voices.

"Heads, then! the key is coming out of the window;" and out came a great rusty key above a foot long, which looked as if it had been made for centuries; but the lock was too battered for the key to turn, and the cry went back--

"Stand clear while we stove the door in!"

But the Captain stopped them, and called out--

"You there, inside, is there room to stand clear?"

"Aye, aye," said the gruff voice; and they thought it must be a sailor, though they had no note of any captured ones.

"Are you ready?" rang out the Captain's voice.

"Aye, aye."

"All together!" The gun swung well back, and coming against the door like a Roman battering-ram, carried away the staple of the lock.

"Now then, my man, come out," said the Captain; but his face suddenly changed in blank astonishment, and he drew himself up and saluted, as stump, stump, on the stone flags came into view His Majesty's Admiral the Lord Eastry; and even blanker was his astonishment when the old Lord was followed by Katherine.

Her beautiful face was certainly anxious, but her healthy cheeks were not blanched, and fear had not robbed her of the uprightness of her carriage.

To her father death was a commonplace. He had faced it times countless, when he had all his life before him; and now it was near its end, and he had his dearest possession to defend. He had, I noticed, a sword, and a pistol of foreign make.

Captain Troubridge, having sent round search parties and satisfied himself that there were no ambuscades, was cheerily making his excuses for not recognising his lordship, when the old Admiral called out--

"God bless my soul, there's Will! Come here, my boy."

Will had been very much "on duty," for he was crushed with shamefacedness before Katherine. He looked for leave to the Captain, who with one of his great laughs said that the Admiral was the senior officer present.

Will came forward, and the old man in his heartiness did not note the ashamedness of Will's handshake. Will's respectful silence was rather what you would have looked for in him.

"What d'ye think I have here, Will?--here's Kitty!"

Katherine came forward, perfectly self-possessed, and with a gentle welcome.

"Oh, Will, I am glad to see you. How thankful I shall always be that you were one of our preservers!"

"I wish I could have died for you," he cried, with passionate earnestness.

"She'd rather you lived for her," grunted her father.

Will felt that he had no right to be so sure of this.

"My Lord," began Captain Troubridge, "since you know Lieutenant Hardres, I shall with your permission detail him for attendance on you. I shall shortly, when my main body arrives by the carriage road with the stores, have a meal to offer you; and, judging by the dungeon in which you have been confined, I expect you need it."

The chamber they had lately quitted was certainly poor accommodation for an old lord and a young lady; for it was not a dozen feet long or much over half a dozen feet wide, and was lighted only by a very small barred window near the vaulted roof, and paved with dirty flagstones. It was indeed a sort of strong store-room, generally used for provisions of a less perishable kind, and a few barrels were still about, on one of which Katherine had stood while she was waving her handkerchief--the prearranged signal.

"Kitty is as good as a boy, after all, Will," said his Lordship, with the greatest pride, and to Will's pride too, though he was so disconcerted. "First she stood the fire of the great guns lately mounted on your works down there, and they knocked our feeble walls about to some tune; and then she first held her handkerchief, and then bound it to the bars under a dropping fire of musketry from those gallant gentry you have out there. With my legs you know I could no more reach the top of a barrel than a masthead."

Will's eyes were full of pride and admiration.

"Do you mind telling me how you got here, my Lord?" asked Captain Troubridge.

"I'm d--d if I quite know, except how we got into this last hole. We were put there as a favour."

"A curious sort of favour," said Captain Troubridge.

"Oh, we haven't been locked up here for a month on the bread and water of affliction," retorted Katherine gaily. "The fact is, Captain Troubridge," she said, suddenly growing serious, "that our lives have been saved, and we have been spared not only outrages but discomforts by the chivalrousness of the gentleman who brought the flag of truce to you; and I was hoping that you would have come to terms with him, so that we could have informed you in his presence of all he has done for us."

The Captain was moved, but silent. He had obeyed his orders; and it was not his way to throw the blame on them.

"You tell him the rest, father," said Katherine, a little nettled, perhaps: "people always suspect a woman of putting a better or worse complexion on everything."

"Well, d--n it," he said, "there isn't much to say, except that at first every one hoped to be at war with the French without the French knowing it, and then found the French at war with him without his knowing it. And that's how we were in for it. That miserable shilly-dallying Emperor thought he could avoid war with the the French, but he was only letting them choose their own time; and when they chose it we were at Vienna, for the doctors had recommended a change for Kitty. How we were to get out of it was the puzzle, for the French seemed to be everywhere between us and England. We stayed on for weeks to find out; and last of all there seemed no better way than to make our way to Trieste--that was all through territory at present unoccupied by the enemy--and take ship there for Naples (which we were told had been recovered and was under the guns of the British fleet); and from thence make our way to England by the first of His Majesty's ships which was going home. We did not attempt the Strait of Messina, because there was no sea room to cut and run if we met an enemy, and we gave Sicily a wide berth for the same reason; and finally we made the Bay of Naples at the very time when you had called the blockading squadron off to Maritimo from the intelligence of the French fleet having passed the Straits. There were a few small English craft patrolling, but in the thick weather we missed them, and ran into the midst of Commodore Caracciolo's gunboats. Fortunately we fell into the hands of the Count of Tanagra, who came to see you this morning, a very brave and chivalrous man reduced to a great state of hopelessness from having been induced to embrace the pernicious revolutionary doctrines of the wicked French by the frightful abuses which have been going on in these kingdoms unknown to their Majesties. But he has found that no country in the world could be in so vile a state, under the worst of kings, as under these robbers and murderers; and he and the best of those with him would gladly have left the French and rejoined their Majesties if they could have come to terms."

"The Admiral's orders, my Lord, were most positive, not to make any terms with the rebels but unconditional surrender; and I think that anything but hanging is too good for a man who fires upon his own flag."

"Agreed, agreed," cried his Lordship. "Agreed: I am not the one to advance that when a king leaves his country the inhabitants should ally themselves with the invaders, though I am convinced that this Count of Tanagra, who is a brave gentleman, honestly thought so. And as most of these d--d little Italian states are for ever being taken by a new master, there is something in his view of the case."

"I can't see it," said Troubridge. "Why don't they fight like men, and maintain their independence against all comers, instead of for ever betraying the weakening power?"

"With you there; but it's just what they can't do. These fellows have no fight in them, but when they have a strong foreigner at their back. They are mere camp-followers. The army has to be supplied from elsewhere."

"They aren't worth thinking about, my Lord: the only thing to do is to catch the traitors who have led them and string them up; and I should like to tie every one of them up to the gratings before I hung them."

"But I wish something could be done for this Count of Tanagra. He was a brave man, though misguided, and could have brought the best of those who were with him back to be faithful servants of the King; they have seen too much of the French ever to want any more of them. The first thing the French did was to strip their own friends of nearly everything they possessed to satisfy the greed of their soldiers, till they should have time to conquer their enemies."

"You can't trust them, my Lord; you can't trust any of them."

"I have pretty good reason for trusting this one. I suspect we owe our lives to him; and he certainly saved my daughter from the insults of the French."

"Indeed, the kindness of this gentleman knew no bounds," burst in Katherine, "for he kept us prisoners for our own safety in his palace. He was living in his own palace until the city was invested by the fleet; and then, for our greater safety, he bore us first to one of the castles, and, when they were bombarded, up to this fortress--for the French would not have anything but French in the Citadel itself."

"Quite right too," snorted out our Captain; "a Neapolitan would sell his own home to the enemy."

"Well, when he came down to you this morning he was hoping to have made terms with you, by which he, and those of his mind, could have returned to the service of their Majesties, and kept us in safety until they were strengthened by the forces from the ships. But since you would grant no terms, and he had no mercy to hope from those of the King's party to whom he was well known as the most daring of the gunboat officers, he had to save himself and his comrades by marching out before you came in."

"My dear young lady, in the time of war we can only deal with general rules, and not particular instances. I am convinced that our great Admiral is right in proclaiming no terms for the Jacobins, or in this land of liars there would not be a rebel to hang in all Naples."

"_He_ is no Jacobin," she said hotly. "I have had many conversations with him since I have been his prisoner." (She had her Italian from Will's mother, which accounted partly for another circumstance.)

"In any case," said her father, "he treated us with the utmost consideration. We were his guests rather than his prisoners, though indeed we were safer as the latter. He even concealed from his men my rank in His Majesty's service, which he had had from my daughter in conversation, fearing that he might not be able to protect a British Admiral, though it came near to being worse that I was an English lord. For on the approach of Admiral Lord Nelson and his fleet, when it became certain that the city must fall, the common sort among his men, who are pure brigands, announced their intention of carrying us off to the mountains, and on the pain of death to me (which would doubtless have been suggested by a present of my cars) and selling my daughter to the French, extracting a great ransom. To cut a long story short, and knowing the unbending character of yourself and Nelson, we had many conversations through my daughter, and the best that could be done for us seemed to be that he should come to you as he came, and in the event of failure should, after warning you to take possession in the shortest possible time, lock us up in the store-room where you found us, pass the key in through the window, and endeavour to frighten the baser sort of his men into flying with him, without thought of us. But he warned us, in case of accidents, not to attempt to let ourselves out until we heard the voices of the English force, and then to show a white handkerchief and parley."

"So ho!" ejaculated the Captain.

"Our precautions nearly cost us our liberty. The Count had become extremely attached to my daughter, and she was in such peril when these heavy guns of yours began to play on this old cockleshell--though I must say she stood fire like a man while it was being knocked to pieces over our heads--that he begged you not to fire while he was evacuating. This encouraged the brigands to steal back again as soon as they had evacuated, and search the fort. Fortunately for us they were some time in finding us, and the door was very strong."

"You have forgotten, father, that he gave you back your sword and one of his two pistols before he locked us up."

"Yes, that he did: a pistol for Kitty to use on them or herself, and my sword that I might end as most of us Fleets have ended; and, egad! I am glad that we were captured to know what a daughter I have, for it has been a bitter thing to me that the last of the Fleets should be a woman. But the way she stood the cannonade, even that did not come up to her conduct in the store-room. As soon as they found us out and began their assault on the door, leaping on a barrel she flew her white flag at the window. They yelled out their '_Buono! buono!_' and bade us open. We took no notice, and they became furious; and then first one and then another fired at the flag she was holding. None of the balls hit her, though she had some nasty cuts from stone splinters; but the fire became so hot that she had to tie the handkerchief to the bars, which she did without further hurt, though they fired at her all the time she was tying it. And then you came."

"Madam," said our famous Captain Troubridge, unbuckling his sword-belt, "I hope I may be permitted"; and with that he advanced to her and presented his sword.

Katherine blushed with pleasure, and found a happy way out of her embarrassment by passing the belt twice round her own waist and getting the buckle to meet; while Captain Troubridge put on the cutlass of one of our men, the only one who had been hurt in the short _mêlée_.

Then an escort was sent under Lieutenant Vassall's command--for Will was in attendance on Admiral the Lord Eastry--to conduct the rescued prisoners to the Castel dell' Uovo until word could be got off to the flagship about them. They got there without mishap, though Will would have been mighty glad to have changed places with Vassall. He had no desire for conversation yet; and for guarding Katherine, Vassall was quite sufficiently near.

Arrived at the Castle, Lord Eastry and his daughter were conducted to the Governor's apartments, which had a flat roof, where there was mounted a powerful glass beside our lately added heavy ordnance.

What happened thereafter I had from Will, and have heard with much more humour, since their happy marriage, from Katherine. I don't know by what chance or design his lordship stumped up to the roof alone--a difficult matter for him; but certain it is that very soon after their arrival Will found himself subjected to the severest fire of the whole campaign in a _tête-à-tête_ with Katherine.

Katherine came straight to him with both hands outstretched. He took them, and held her at arms' length.

"Well, Will, aren't you going to kiss me? Is this what the dying away of letters meant?"

He hung his head, and did not speak for a little, while Katherine in all the glory of her fairness regarded him in a rather mystified, rather hurt, but wholly affectionate way, instead of with offended pride, as he had hoped in his self-degradation. Now that he saw his betrothed before him, in her superb health, and with the pride natural to the daughter and heir of a wealthy peer, tempered by honest affection--now, while he had still burning in his brain the remembrance, only an hour or two old, of the slim young beauty showing under fire the courage of her sea-dog forefathers--the image of poor Rusidda faded away. But as the sweet Indian fruit leaves behind it an evil taste, the infidelity to Katherine in having loved Rusidda left a memory as bitter as wormwood.

At last he spoke. "I am not fit to kiss you, Kitty Fleet: I have been living for the love of another woman."

"What do you mean, Will?" she asked, with burning cheeks. As he did not answer she continued, "I suppose all men are alike when they are long away, though I thought you would have been disdainful of that. I think I can forgive, though I am foolish enough to be disappointed. But you will not see her again?"

"She is dead, poor soul."

"Death wipes out all debts, even of a life like hers."

"I pray so," he said, and then, in his turn, fired up to the roots of his hair. "Kitty, is it possible that you could have thought that of me?" he asked, as a new light broke upon him.

"I forgave you; but oh, Will, I am glad it was not that."

"Nay, I think it was worse--I forgot you, and loved her with all my heart and soul."

Katherine, as she has often told Cecilia, looked at Will, and felt her heart soften. Will's mother had told her how lightly their vows lay on Italian wives; and she felt how Will's fair English face, with its beauty and its haughtiness and its courageousness, must have appealed to such women. She could imagine a tender, lovely wife, who in England would have been beyond the reach of temptation--some woman perhaps supremely lovable--yearning to youth so godlike, and she forgave her the wrong done to his betrothed.

"Did you bring her trouble, Will?"

"But once--with a sorry jest of proposing for her hand." He told her of his escapade at Syracuse.

"And then she married some man she did not love?"

"She never married."

"And yet----?"

"Never--never, Kitty. But afterwards I longed for her as my wife, and begged and prayed her, and tried with my whole heart and strength to will her into marrying me. For weeks and weeks I have lived for nothing else."

"And you failed because she was the Princess of Favara and you only a lieutenant in His Majesty's Navy?"

"Nay, not that, Kitty. Rusidda loved me more than a brother, and loved that I should love her; let me be with her and caress her as much as I would; prayed that I might make her love me enough to marry me,--to marry me would have been to conquer herself."

"Why, then, did she not marry you? All the love in life would have come afterwards."

"Can you not see, Kitty, that there was another, whom she could not marry, and that it was from this passion that she sought to save herself?"

"And could you not save her, Will?" asked Katherine, with a lump in her throat, and wondering how a passionate woman could have resisted his suit.

He shook his head.

"And did she die of shame?"

"There was no shame--except my shame in having lived for her pure caresses. She killed herself for love."

"What manner of man was he, this man, who took away her eyes for you, Will? Was he of mighty stature, or born to the mastery of women?"

"He was a little plain man, with one eye and one arm, who was born to the mastery of every man or woman who ever came under his magic influence."

"A little man no bigger than Admiral Nelson?"

"A little man no bigger than the Admiral."

"It was he?"

He nodded.

"And did he know of it?"

Will told her of the interview we had involuntarily witnessed.

"And you say she is dead?"

"That is the saddest of all. The Princes of Favara were of the ancient family of Mardolce, so called from the little lake of good water which was the most valued possession of the Norman founder of their family--a mere pond now. There was a prophecy that the last of the race should perish through the love of a fair-haired stranger from the North; and the sweetest woman of Sicily, the last of her race, drowned herself in the Mardolce for love of the Admiral."

"Did every one know it?--had it become a scandal?"

"No; only he and My Lady, and Trinder, who sent me up word, knew of the cause, when the news was brought to the flagship by the _Sirena_ from Palermo yesterday. She had, it seems, begged the Admiral to bring her in the _Foudroyant_ with the Hamiltons, when he left Palermo for Naples two or three weeks since; and, when he refused, she humbled her pride and begged my Lady Hamilton, whom she hated, as her worst enemy, and despised, to intercede for her. My Lady is generous, and used her utmost entreaties--though she knew the reason--but in vain; and the next day after we sailed poor Rusidda was found in the Mardolce," replied Will, very white.

Presently, when he had recovered himself a little, Katherine, who had heard no rumours, asked, "And Lady Hamilton--what of her?"

To which Will replied stoutly, "The Admiral loves her," and from that he would not be budged.

While Katherine had been questioning him of Donna Rusidda and the Admiral, Will had forgotten his ashamedness a little, and no longer held her at arms' length, but by the hands loosely.

By the slightest movement, she was holding his hands, instead of he hers. But the movement was full of consciousness.

"Will," she said, forcing him to raise responding eyes, "do you love me now?"

"With all the strength of shame, Kitty, and before everything in the world. But can you forgive?"

"You haven't kissed me yet, Will!"

* * * * *

I will not write down what Katherine said when, loverlike, he insisted upon going over all his iniquities again, to be forgiven in detail. For all her life was a forgiveness. And how wisely the wench did, for with whom could she have known such proud happiness as with Will? He has had eyes for no other woman since--not even for their lovely daughter, who is by just a look of her father the more regal of the two women.

And she--she has had the greatest pride that life can give a woman: the double knowledge that she does not fear the proud, grim, masterful man whom one can hardly meet without being daunted, she who has to face him in all his moods, and to stand between him and his wrath; and that though they have been married these twenty years, her favour is of such moment to him that he will pause in his anger to win a gracious look.

I could fill another book with the stories of the neighbours about the noble fashion in which Katherine comforted herself during Will's long absences at sea for years after this; of the gaiety of heart and graciousness which she maintained with a spotless reputation. It was in those years, through ten of their dozen, that she was in London, one of the rulers of society, and the most courted of women, keeping house with Will's mother for her father. But when her father died she went down to Eastry to mourn him, nor ever came to London again without her husband.

In the year 1817 his own dear mother, who in the midst of her daughter-in-law's triumphs had remained as simple and quietly beautiful as a Kentish primrose, died in Will's arms, a week or so after he had homed from one his cruises; and Will, having compassion on Katherine's widowed state, and having himself made a goodly fortune out of prize money, in addition to the great fortune they had of her father, retired to their mansion-house of Eastry, where we were sitting that morning when we were brought that wonderful Journal of the Admiral.