Foxholme Hall, and Other Tales

by William Henry Giles Kingston

“Scarcely was she before the wind than the storm increased with tenfold fury, the wind blew more fiercely, the thunder rolled more loudly, the rain and hail came down in thicker torrents, the lightning flashed more vividly, while the waves rose on every side in black mountainous ridges covered with curling crests of foam, which the wind sent in showers on our decks even when the water itself did not break over us.

“The foremast had hitherto stood secure, though weakened by the loss of the mainmast, but now as the tempest came down stronger on us, that too tottered, and went by the board, carrying the bowsprit with it. As this last accident happened, the captain’s wife shrieked with terror; it was answered by a shout of shrill laughter, so loud, so piercing, and so unnatural, that it made the heart of every one on board tremble. It might well do so, for as we looked over the side of the driving ship, what should we see right abreast of us, in a small skiff, gliding over the frothy summits of the waves, but the very old woman who had uttered such dreadful curses at us as we were quitting Liverpool—Dame Kirby! There she sat in the stern sheets of the boat, steering by an oar with one hand, while the left bony arm was stretched out pointing derisively at us, and her countenance, as full of malignant revenge as is possible for any being possessing human features, was turned full upon us. A large sail was hoisted on the single mast, enough, one would have supposed, to lift the light skiff right out of the water; but she sat as composedly as if she were floating on a lake on a summer’s evening; her boat did not seem to ship a drop of water, nor ever to sink into the trough of the sea, but it somehow or other went along on the summit of every wave.

“Every one on board saw the old woman, and knew her to be Dame Kirby. So did poor Mrs Derick; and after gazing at her wildly for some time, she could bear the dreadful sight no longer, and fell back in a swoon. Her husband ran to raise her, and as he supported her in his arms, he shouted out to the old woman to begone, and to be content with the mischief she had already caused. Indeed, there was not a soul on board who did not believe that she had done all the damage we had suffered. The hag only laughed and jeered at him the more he stormed, and so madly enraged did he become at her mockery, that I do believe had he not been holding his wife in his arms, he would in his passion have flung himself overboard to get hold of her.

“It must not be supposed that the officers and crew were idle all this time, for as soon as the foremast went we set to work to get up a jury mast on the stump of the foremast, to prevent the ship from broaching to; this, three men at the wheel had meantime the greatest difficulty in preventing her doing. At length, after much labour, we got up a spare topgallant mast, and set a topgallant sail on it, and all present danger was over. No sooner had we done this, than the witch uttered a loud ‘Ha, ha, ha,’ which sounded like what one might suppose to be the croak of a frog in a merry mood, only a hundred times louder and shriller than any frog ever croaked; and about she put her skiff, and away she went right in the wind’s eye, accompanied by a storm of lightning and rain, at the rate of not less than twenty knots an hour. When she had disappeared, the poor lady began to come to herself again, and her husband tried to persuade her that what she had seen was all fancy, and laughed heartily at the idea of an old woman in a red cloak coming out into the middle of the Atlantic in a skiff, which could not live a moment in such a sea as there was running.

“But she knew well enough all the time what she had seen, and nothing he could say to the contrary could persuade her that some dreadful disaster would not happen to them. I will do him the justice to say that, with all his faults, he was as brave a fellow as ever stepped, or he would not have borne up as he did. Any one to look at him, or to hear him, would suppose that he had no more seen the old woman than if she had never existed, while all the time it was on his account especially that she thus haunted us.

“Where we should have got to, I don’t know, at the rate we were driving, but the next day the wind shifted right round again to the north-east, and sent us back as fast as we came till we were off the city of Rio de Janeiro, in the Brazils.

“We managed to steer into that magnificent harbour, and as we were in evident distress we were allowed to remain and refit; but the Portuguese in those days were not a bit wiser than their Spanish neighbours, and would allow no foreign trader to come into their ports.

“The harbour of Rio is a magnificent expanse of water, and the country would be the finest in the world in the hands of any of the northern nations of Europe; but the Portuguese did not know how to take advantage of the blessings given them by Heaven, either at home or in the colonies, and except in the neighbourhood of Rio itself, the greater portion of the Brazils was uncultivated. It is, however, a very pleasant place to visit, and our captain, leaving the ship in charge of the first mate, took his wife on shore, where, among the delightful orange groves and gardens, she soon recovered from the shock her spirits had received from the events I have described.

“We remained here for several weeks refitting the ship, for the Portuguese carpenters and riggers, though they did their work well, got through it very slowly, and though our owners suffered by the delay, we had no reason to complain. At last the ship was all ataunto and ready for sea. As Captain Derick with his pretty wife on his arm came down on the quay before going on board, he stopped to admire the appearance of the Chameleon. He pointed out her beauties with satisfaction as she lay in all her pride a short distance from the shore, looking as if nothing had ever hurt her.

”‘There she is, my love, as stout and brave a ship as ever sailed the salt ocean,’ he exclaimed. ‘We may bid defiance to the old woman, if she ever thinks fit to come near us again. Not that I believe one was really seen—it was fancy, my love, fancy, the work of the imagination, that often plays strange freaks. I was wrong to allude to the subject.’ He spoke hurriedly, and afterwards broke into a laugh, for fear his wife should suspect he and the rest of us really had seen the witch. They came on board, the anchor was run up cheerily to the bows, the sails were loosened, and with a fine northerly breeze we stood out of the harbour, and kept away once more on our course. We had beautiful weather for some days, and as our spirits rose in the pure fresh air, we forgot all our former fears, and fully believed that we were going to have a prosperous cruise.