“My dear young lady, and you, ma’am, do go below, let me pray you; this is no place for you,” he said, with deep earnestness. “Any moment we may have the masts and spars rattling down on our heads, or the enemy’s shot flying along our decks. Please Heaven, while the masts stand we’ll hold on. They can but take us in the end; but, dear ladies, do go below. We shall act more like men if we know that you are safe.”
Thus urged, most unwillingly Edda and her mother retired to the cabin. The colonel, however, remained on deck.
“It shall never be said that where danger was present I was absent,” he remarked.
“Maybe, but you would be of much more use looking after your wife and daughter in the cabin,” muttered the honest old captain.
Edda and Mrs Armytage went into their own cabin. They knelt down. They could not strive like men, but they could pray that the ship might be preserved from the threatened danger, or, if it was Heaven’s will that it should overtake her, that they might have strength given them to bear whatever it was their lot to suffer.
The breeze was freshening rapidly, the movement of the brig increased as she plunged with a violent jerk into one sea, and then rose up the watery ridge only to sink down again into another watery valley. Still on she tore. The master was keeping his word. On a sudden there was a cry; then followed a fearful crash.
“Oh, my father! he may have been killed,” exclaimed Edda, as she rushed on deck.
Both the masts had gone by the board, and the brig lay a helpless wreck on the tossing waters. The frigate was close to them. For an instant a wild hope rose in Edda’s heart. Was she after all the “Imperious?”
The hope was soon banished. The flag of France flew out from the stranger’s peak. Edda looked round for her father, trembling with fear. He had fallen, and lay on the deck unable to rise. She rushed towards him, all his unkindness, his harshness and injustice forgotten. She attempted to lift him up; but her strength was unequal to the task. He soon somewhat recovered.
“I am not materially injured, I fancy,” he said at length. “This is a fearful accident; I was struck by a falling block, and was stunned. I shall be myself again directly. But where is the master? What has become of the crew?”