Foxholme Hall, and Other Tales

by William Henry Giles Kingston

“As soon as all was over, for an instant we sat silent and stupefied, and then shipping our oars, we pulled towards the cutter as hard as we could, away from the accursed spot. We had not pulled many strokes when a horror seized me. I could have shrieked aloud, but my fear was too great, for there, directly in our wake, was Arnold! Up he had risen—his body half out of the water—his countenance blue and livid—his eyes starting from his head—his hair on end—his arms extended towards us, as if he would clasp the boat in his embrace, and carry us down with him to the dreadful place he had come from! Larger and larger he grew—a pale flame seemed to play round his features, distorted with rage and agony! As fast as we could pull, he came hissing after us! We all shrieked with horror—we stretched every nerve to get away from him—but the harder we pulled the faster he came along. We sent the water flying from our bows, our oars bent and cracked; but nothing would do—on, on he came! Oh, how I wished I had had nothing to do with the foul deed! We had shown no mercy to him—we knew he would show none to us. You do not believe what I am saying; but it is as true as that I am speaking to you. See, sir!—see, there is his face at the farther end of the room—just as he appeared to me on that fatal night! He has never quitted me since, and never will—he will be with me on the scaffold to-morrow, jeering and cursing me, and I shall meet him where I am hound to in the other world. Oh! why did I do that deed?

“The dead man had got within a few fathoms of us, when, expecting every moment to feel myself within his cold grasp, I could bear it no longer, and swooned away.

“The pale, waning moon was shining on my face from out of the pure sky when I came to my senses, and I found myself lying on the deck of the cutter, which was running briskly across the Channel. I got up and looked around me; all that had passed seemed a horrid dream, but I knew it was too true. I was afraid to speak of what had happened, and, when I once referred to it to one of my partners in crime, he reminded me with a dreadful threat of my oath of secrecy. In vain I tried to banish the thoughts of it from my own mind; every night did the accusing spectre recall it with terrible certainty, for no sooner did darkness appear, than, whenever I looked out on the sea, whether in storm or calm, when the stars shone bright, or the sky was overcast, there, in the wake of the ship, appeared the blue, livid figure of the wretched Arnold. It was very, very dreadful, sir. I dared not return to my native place, nor to any neighbourhood where I was known, for I felt that everybody would point at me as a murderer; I knew the mark of Cain was on my brow. I grew weary of existence, even a smuggling life was too tame for me; I longed for a change of scene, for more excitement; and falling in with a French brig bound for the coast of Africa, I shipped on board her. Her sails were loose and her anchor spread, as I handed my traps on deck, and, before I had time to see the faces of all her crew, we were standing with a strong breeze out of the harbour of Bordeaux.

“My evil destiny still pursued me. There was one on board, whom rather than have met I would have jumped overboard and swam on shore again, had it been possible. That man was Brand Hallton. He had been the first to lead me into crime, and I knew of so many black deeds he had done, that I feared and hated him more than any man alive, though I could never withstand his evil persuasions. A short time passed before he came on deck, as he had been attending to some duty below. I knew him in a moment, but he pretended not to recognise me, though he soon afterwards took an opportunity to assure me that he would stand my friend if I would not attempt to claim his acquaintance. I found that he had entered before the mast under an assumed name, but on what account he did not choose to inform me, though I had little doubt it was for the sake of performing some piece of villainy or other. I dared not disobey him; indeed, I should have gained nothing if I had attempted to betray him, and thus we appealed by degrees to form an intimacy.

“We had on board a freight of coloured cottons, beads, and other trinkets, with hard dollars to exchange for slaves, with manacles to keep them quiet when in our power. That coast of Africa is a deadly, burning place, as we had soon reason to know; but I cared not for heat or for sickness—neither could increase the wretchedness of my own miserable fate. For some days after sailing I began to hope that I had escaped from my tormentor, but one night, on going on deck to keep my watch, as I looked over the side to observe how fast the ship was going through the water, there, on the sea, a few fathoms only from her, appeared that dreadful figure. He has never since then quitted the ship I have sailed in. Sometimes, as the moonbeams played upon the waters, I have seen him following in our wake, with his arms spread out, leaping from the waves and making horrid faces at me. When I have been keeping a look-out ahead, he has appeared as if leading the way, pointing with one hand and threatening with the other, and every now and then turning round his gibbering distorted countenance, his eyeballs starting from their sockets, and his hair on end as I first saw him. Night after night have I thus been haunted, till life became a burden to me, and I should have jumped overboard and drowned myself, but I knew that he in a moment would fly at me like a shark at its prey, and carry me down in his cold clasp to the unfathomed depths of the ocean. I was afraid to ask any of my shipmates if they saw him, for they would at once have said I was a murderer; and thus my mind was left to brood in silence on my awful destiny; yet I fear, sir, there were many of those with me who were likely to have seen sights almost as dreadful. Oh! what a dreary voyage that was. At last, we sighted a long, low line of coast, with the trees gradually rising from the water, and a grey, sandy beach below them. This was the deadly coast of Africa, somewhere about the mouth of the Gambia; but we stood on farther to the south, and came to an anchor a short way up the Gaboon River, our yard-arms almost touching the lofty palms, cotton-trees, and monkey-bread trees, which grew on its banks. It was a beautiful-looking spot, but death was in every gale, and those of our crew who slept on shore died soon afterwards of a fever, which carried off several others of our men. I wished to be of the number, but neither sickness, shot, nor the sea, could have power over one accursed like me.

“We found the greater part of our living cargo already assembled in barracoons close down to the shore; and the remainder arrived in a few days from the interior—men, women, and children, to the number of three hundred. They were all prisoners, taken in war with a neighbouring tribe—hostilities being continued solely for the purpose of making slaves. As we received them on board, we stowed them away as close as they would pack between low decks, where there was barely room for them to sit upon their hams; but you know what a hell-afloat a slave-ship presents, and, though we did our best to keep them alive, we lost many before the voyage was over. After leaving the coast, we shaped our course for Martinique, where our captain intended to dispose of his slaves, and then to go back for another cargo. What with the stench of the slaves, the heat of the weather, our bad food and water, I wonder any of us survived. We used to have the poor wretches in gangs at a time upon deck to air themselves and to take exercise, but they were quickly sent down again below, and I believe, had it not been for fear of their dying, they would never have been allowed to taste the fresh air of heaven. The captain and the first mate used to sleep in a sort of round-house on the after-part of the deck, with arms by their side ready to defend themselves in case of a surprise, for they had not much confidence even in their own crew, though they were not worse than the general run of slavers.

“One day I was sitting in the shade under the foot of the foresail, trying to get a little fresh air as it blew off the sail, when Hallton placed himself near me, pretending to be busily engaged in working a Turk’s head, or some such thing. The rest of the people were either in the after-part of the ship, or lying about the decks asleep. Looking cautiously round to see that no one observed him, he addressed me.

”‘How like you a slaving life?’ he began; ‘pleasant isn’t it? Black fever, yellow fever, and the stench of these negroes in one’s nose all one’s days. For my part, I’d as soon mend shoes, or turn tailor, as spend my time in this way.’

”‘Then why did you join the brig? You knew how she was to be employed,’ I observed.

”‘I, my fine fellow! I never, for a moment, intended to keep at this work; I had other objects in view. I know I can trust to you, so I do not mind talking of them. I have long formed a plan by which we can make a rapid fortune, and spend our days, like gentlemen, in luxury and independence. Ah! you are a lad of spirit, and will join me; but the idea must not be hinted at, even to the stars.’