CHAPTER XIII.
Deliverance.—I see my native land again.—O Macao!—My immortality.
I had only to sustain this siege, instigated, I was well aware, by the purest devotion, for a very few minutes longer, to ensure being murdered without the shadow of a doubt; everything was being destroyed and was falling around me, when all at once three cannon-shots sounded in the distance. Did I hear aright? I listen. Three fresh reports follow those which have already aroused my attention.
Thank God, I am not the only one who hears them. The besiegers below have also caught the sound.
In a moment the entire island is all attention.
The boom of the cannon is heard for the third time: there are three more reports.
I start to my feet. It must be a vessel, then! a vessel which is arriving at the island! a vessel which is about to disembark someone! A vessel! a vessel! Hurrah!
The reports continue to resound.
The besiegers, confounded and uneasy at the noise of these detonations, repeated several times over by the echoes of the island, brought their operations to a decided standstill.
With stones in their hands, with their muzzles turned in the direction of the wind, with outstretched necks, hair standing on end, and ears pricked up, they sought to explain to themselves what I should have liked exceedingly to have been able to have explained myself.
What had happened? Had this vessel come to deliver me? Still all those reports could not be for me alone? Ah, no. Was it some ship in danger signalling for assistance? Or rather, was it the Malay pirates about to make another descent on the island? But what could they come to steal here? They had already taken everything. Was it a battle between them and some European ship of war?
Ah! my anxieties were infinite.
Half-an-hour after the first of these reports I heard drums, brass instruments, and martial music. It was a disembarkation! a conquest! the tune seemed to tell of victory.
My loving and hostile subjects appeared to me more and more astounded. With many this astonishment took the nature of fear, and some were already seeking with furtive glances favourable openings for an immediate flight.
With these combined noises of cannons and wind instruments shouts of enthusiasm and words of command speedily became mixed. The troops were evidently advancing; were they coming in this direction? Surely they were, since before long I saw glittering in the air, at the end of one of those fine avenues which I had had opened by my subjects, muskets, bayonets, golden sword-hilts, and brilliant uniforms. These uniforms, which stood out in strong relief from the blue distance, were evidently those of the English army and navy.
The reader may imagine that my sight and mind alike dwelt on the least movements of that mass of men who advanced with such rapidity and precision towards the spot whence my eyes were devouring them.
At a whistle, which came, I do not doubt, from the metallic lungs of Karabouffi, my prime minister, and I believe in some degree my successor in his own mind, ever since I had disregarded the love of my people, all the apes, the strong, the cunning, the bold, the slow, the quick, the subtle, the obstinate, completely disappeared; they vanished like air through the openings: not a single one remained!
The vast space in front of the verandah was empty in the twinkling of an eye.
An instant after the troops occupied this space left so rapidly free by the apes.
A superior officer placed himself in the centre of the little army, which was formed in a circle of considerable size. What a joyous and inexpressible surprise for me! In this officer I recognised the brave Vice-Admiral Campbell himself. I uttered a cry, but it was too far off to be heard.
Admiral Campbell made a sign that he was about to speak; the men were all attention, and he said:—
“Officers and men,—You all know by what a miserable snare we were carried off from this island some five months since.
“You all know of the chastisement which our brave countrymen belonging to the squadron which arrived so opportunely in the Indian seas some six months sooner than it was expected have inflicted on the Sultan of Sooloo. His capital has been burnt; the Halcyon has been retaken from the Malay pirates who had treacherously carried her off; one hundred and fifty of these scoundrels have suffered the punishment reserved for pirates, and have been hung to the yard-arms of their junks and praus. Indemnities have been paid to the families of the brave sailors who have perished through this outrage committed in utter defiance of the law of nations.
“A further act of reparation was due to us. To-day, officers and men, with your assistance, I retake possession of this island, in the name of Her Most Gracious Majesty!”
Covered with my tattered and well-worn skin, but still holding sufficiently together for me to be taken for a mandrill.—[Page 147.]
Loud cheers here interrupted the vice-admiral, who, after a brief pause, concluded with these words:—
“I plant here the noble flag of England, which I now call upon you to salute with military honours.”
A number of simultaneous discharges responded to the vice-admiral’s appeal, and the British flag unfurled itself in all its majesty in the courtyard of the verandah.
The ceremony of retaking possession was about coming to a close.
It was at this moment that I left the ruins of the verandah, covered with my tattered and well-worn skin, but still holding sufficiently together for me to be taken for a mandrill by all the English present.
They were all struck with astonishment on seeing an ape of the largest kind thrust himself into the midst of their solemn meeting. Their surprise turned into laughter, which all the detachment joined in, when they heard me speak English to the vice-admiral. A speechifying mandrill! well, what next? thought they.
“Who are you?” inquired the admiral, thoroughly embarrassed by the nature of the being—half man, half ape—which addressed him.
“A Christian,” I answered, “who has lived three months among the apes.”
“Are you an ape, then?”
“No, my lord. This skin is not mine.”
“We are perfectly convinced of that—perfectly sure of that,” exclaimed a young Irish lieutenant who was standing behind me, loud enough for me to hear.
“But how comes it that you are wearing it? How the deuce, too, have you got here—you, whom, if I am not mistaken, I left bird-fancier at Macao, since I think I recognise you?”
“My lord, it is a very long story, so long that I should not dare to relate it to you if it were not intimately connected with your own.”
“With mine!”
“Yes, my lord, with yours.”
They looked at me, and then burst out in another fit of laughter.
“I shall take the liberty of relating it to you, my lord, when I am in a more fit state of mind and body. I shall only say one word to your lordship so as to warn you that my story is worthy of attention.”
“What is the word?”
“My lord, I am the last king of this island.”
This answer was not calculated to check the jeering laughter of my hearers, who were for the most part very young, and consequently very little disposed to make allowances. Besides, I must admit that this half-naked king who stood before them clad in an ape’s tattered skin fully justified the reception accorded to my royal words.
Admiral Campbell asked me laughingly if I had any objection, as I was king, to his taking possession of the island of Kouparou.
I besought him not to laugh at an unhappy man who had lost everything he possessed by his shipwreck.
The admiral, shaking my hand, then said, “Mr. Marasquin, you will have lost nothing; England, I promise you, will indemnify you.”
England has amply fulfilled the promises of the noble sailor who, a few days after his return to the island of Kouparou, deigned to listen to the recital of troubles I had undergone in the midst of this community of apes. He took such a lively interest in all my vicissitudes that he made me promise to publish them in the unpretentious form in which I produce them to-day; and I publish them, you may believe me, less from an author’s pride than as an example and an encouragement to those unfortunate beings who might be tempted to give way to discouragement and despair if they should chance to suffer shipwreck as I did, and be cast like I was, on an island peopled by apes. Besides, I look only for honour and profit from my proper profession.
Thanks to the kindness of Admiral Campbell, who advanced me several sums of money, and the sympathy of his officers, who became better customers of mine than ever, I occupy an excellent position at Macao, where I carry on my business of dealer in wild and tame animals.
As a sort of crown to the many kindnesses which Admiral Campbell had already shown me, he ordered that one of the numerous isles of the Sooloo Archipelago should be called on the last geographical charts of that part of India Polydorus Marasquin Island.
To-day I am alike prosperous, happy, and respected. I may add, also, that I have three children and a wife who loves me.
Well, would it be believed? I sometimes surprise myself murmuring between my lips, “Ah! the old times when I was an ape!”
