The Death ship : or, The Pirate's bride and the maniac of the deep. A nautical romance

Chapter I. Tuk Legend Of The Death Ship

— THE WARNING CRY. On the summit of a lofty hill on the western coast of England, backed by scenery of the most diversified and romantic description, and immediately proximate to the vast waters of the ocean, a large, black, and ancient stone building reared its head, and there had stood from time immemorial, bidding defiance to the ravages of age or tempest. For what purpose it had originally been built, there were no records extant to show, but it was now, and had been for many years, the rgsidence of a stout, staunch, and benevolent yeoman ; who, after haying passed his youthful days in the No.l. service of his king and country on the perilous deep, had retired with his family to this strange edifice, on the proceeds of his hard-earned savings, and the bequest of a deceased relation, which enabled him to live in comfortable independence, if not in affluence.

Michael Belford (for such was the veteran's name) would not have exchanged his unsightly dwelling for a palace, and rude though and cheerless as was its out ward appearance, the comforts within far more than compensated for it. There, then, stood the old stone house, braving both time and weather ; the boiling sea, when it howled in its tempest wrath ; the furious hurricane that carried devastation around, alarmed not its peaceful and contented inmates ; and often was that lcnely dwelling frequented by many humble inhabitants cf an adjacent village, who always sound a hearty welcome and assistance from honest Michael, as far as his means permitted, in the time of need. Gloomy winter had now spread his hoary mantle over the face of nature ; bleak winds swept the bare summits of the hills and precipices; fearful storms frequently howled and foamed in the neighbouring offing; every vestige of foliage was torn from nature's tall, variegated, and luxuriant bosom, and the deep valley presented to the eye a desolated blank of universal whiteness.

No more did the shallow rivulet meander over its pebbly channel; its water was now bound in icy fetters ; arrested were its wanderings, and its lucid current was congealed in the dismal silence and chill of death itself. All nature's beauties slept, but to awaken again to increased glory, like the careworn spirit escapes from its earthly tenement to the realms of immortal bliss. No longer the feathered choir attuned their downy throats to dulcet strains of harmony, but on the leafless branches sat moping, or pecking the wild berries left by the ravages of unpropitious skies ; it was the scanty pittance allowed to nature's little commoners. Here and there, upon the snow-encrusted earth, a plumy victim sound a spotless grave. The winter squirrel, now crouched, almost famished, in the hollow of an aged tree, upon whose plenteous boughs he had lately sed, till the appetite was sated with ihe luxuriant banquet.

All, all was rapacious, and nothing satisfied. The day had been bitter cold ; the frost was nipping, but no snow had fallen, and scarcely was there a breath of wind stirring. The forenoon passed away, and the darkness gradually increased; the sky was black as marble, or a funereal pall, and everything gave token of a coming storm. The day, which had been scarcely distinguishable from sight, closed, and an universal and impenetrable darkness prevailed. By slow degrees the winds arise, louder and louder, until they howl toge ther in fierce contention and strife, like demons exulting over their destined prey, and savagely anticipating the total wreck of human nature. Heaven protect those unfortunate beings who are exposed to the fury of the elemental strife in this terrible hour ! Around the old stone house the tempest howled with terrific violence ; the win dows rattled in their frames; and even that firm building, which had bravely stood the test of ages, was shaken to its very foundation.

But from its lower windows gleamed the red reflection of a cheerful fire, and between the pauses of the blast, the hearty laugh that rose upon the air, showed that all were happy within. Cheerful indeed was the party assembled around that happy hearth, apart from the sympathy they felt for their less fortunate fellow-creatures who were exposed to the horrors of the storm. It consisted of Michael and his wife, Kit Hayward (an old friend of the family, who often called in to see them, and enjoy the pleasure of their company), and Frank Trevors, a handsome youth, whose fine bright eyes were rivetted upon an object, who seemed to engross the whole of his attention, notwithstanding lie at times took part in the conversation, and was always foremost in the merry laugh which followed any joke uttered by the senior members of the company.

And who was the fair being who brought the glow of rapture in the face of Frank Trevors, and kindled the fire of admiration in his eyea? It was she who had been the companion of his earlier days, the being who constantly occupied his thoughts, whose smiles it was his greatest triumph to obtain — the one fair bein" whom he would have braved death in its most terrible shape to serve, — the young, and lovely daughter of Michael Beiford. And, surely, Rosetta Belford was a being formed in nature's most perfect mould sor universal love — to raise the soul to rapture and a sublimity of admiration of the most lovely portion of God's creations ! To say that the poet's muse, or the painter's pencil, could do anything like adequate justice to her transcendent charms, would he presumption. For fifteen years had Rosetta bloomed to shed a bright lustre upon her sex, and to impart happiness to her fond parents and all who knew her.

Her form was the animated portrait of her mind : truth, benignity, pure and unstudied delicacy, the meekness of sensibility and the dignity of innate virtue, claimed the esteem, whilst the bewitching countenance captivated the heart of every beholder. She was tall, and finely pioportioned ; her complexion, though not insipidly fair, nor partak ing of the masculine shade of the brunette, was all that the most ardent admirer of female delicacy could imagine or desire ; the freshness of health glowed upon her cheek, while the lustre of her dark blue eyes borrowed its splendour from the un sullied flame thai gave her mind the perfection of intellect. Milder even than the cooings of the ring-dove was her voice, and her smile was the gentle harbinger of tenderness and complacency. The poet's lines convey but a faint portraiture of her : — " Light, lovely limbs, to which the spirits play, Gave motion, airy as the dancing spray, When from its stem the small bird wings away.

Lips, in whose rosy labyrinth, when she smil'd, The soul was lost, and blushes swift and wild As are the momentary meteors sent Across the uncalm, but beauteous firmament. And then her look ! — Oh ! where's the heart so wise Could, unbewilder'd, meet those matchless eyes ?" In short, she was everything that fancy could picture or conviction adore ! Per fection could go no further. Such, then, was the party assembled in the stone-house on the awful and mo mentous evening on which our narrative commences. But ever and anon Rosetta would raise her eyes towards the window as the roaring blast swept by, and while compassion filled her gentle bosom, she uttered a brief but fervent prayer to Heaven for the protection of the houseless wanderer, or those poor creatures who had to brave the fury of the tempest on the wide waste of troubled waters.

" Ay, my love," observed Michael, " and may Heaven preserve us from a visi tation of the Death Ship, for wherever and whenever it appears seme awful event is sure to follow." The females shuddered, and Michael, after a pause, continued, — " Ah! it is just five years this very night since she was seen buffeting about off this coast, with her white sails reflected upon by the ghastly blue lights she had hoisted, and looking like so many giant spectres of the deep, and the frightful emblems upon her black flag as visible as at noonday. Chase was given to her, but she dashed before the wind like a spirit of the ocean, over which she had supreme control, and vanished as if by maeic. Great were the calamities which followed this visit : a storm arose that lasted for four days, and raged with greater violenee than ever I, all the years I was at sea, remembered before."

" Gracious Heaven !" cried the terrified Mrs. Belford : " well do I remember it, and reason enough have I to do so ; for, alas, Michael, you know, that very night we lost our poor boy, and " " True— true," interrupted Michael, with much emotion ; " but it is no use to think of the sorrows of the past ; poor boy, he is a saint in heaven now, and at this moment is very likely supplicating the protection of the Great Commander for us all." Tears started to the eyes of Rosetta at this melancholy reminiscence, and she hid her face in her mother's bosom, while she listened appalled to the conversation that followed. . . . " And then the dreadful crv that proceeded from the strange form which flew past our house and down the hill "with the speed of lightning," said Mrs. Belford ; "it still seems to ring in mv ears.

Oh, truly, it was a most awful event. No one could discover the features of that mysterious being, but you know there were many who, at the time, did not hesitate to assert that it was seen to enter the Manor House." " Psha, dame !" returned Michael, " that* must have been all imagination, for, although there are strange things rumoured of Sir.Horace Middleton, and he is cer tainly°a man of very eccentric habits, we must not believe all we hear." " He is a miserable old dotard," said Kit Hayward, " and it's little enough the poor in the neighbourhood have to thank him for ; and then, there is that harum-scarum nephew of his, Raymond Middleton, who only appears at the Manor House now and then ; and the less he does so the better ; he— but this is nothing to do with the subject we were talking about.

Michael, from what you have said, one might be in clined to think that this vessel was the very devil's ship, and was manned by beings of another world." "Why, you see, Kit, I am an old sailor," answered Michael, " and, although they spin remarkable yarns, and some of them entertain strange superstitions, such as the Flying Dutchman, and all that sort of thing, I flatter myself that 1 am not so foolish. Certainly, the extraordinary events connected with the Death Ship, and the manner in which she has for so many years been able to escape from pursuit, are enough to create fearful ideas ; but she is known to be a notorious pirate, though some go so far as to assert that she is commanded by Lucifer himself." " Has she ever been engaged with any vessel ?" asked Frank. " Engaged, ah ! times and oft," answered Michael, " and in all parts of the world ; and bloody engagements they have been, for but few ever lived to tell the dreadful tale, and they have been saved by a miracle."

" Was she ever seen near this coast before the times you mention ?" asked Kit, eagerly. " Ay," replied Michael ; " every five years for the last twenty years, and always on the same day of the month. But have you never heard the story of Hugh Clif ton, who is supposed to have been the captain of the Death Ship, and may be so still for what I know?" - " I have heard something about that guilty man," said Kit, " but could never gather all the particulars." " Then I will tell you all about it," returned Michael ; "but first throw another log on the fire, dame, and replenish the glasses, for it is a fearful tale, and we shall need something to refresh us while I relate it." "Oh, Heaven! what was that?" exclaimed Rosetta, in a voice of terror, and starting from her chair, while she gazed towards the window.

" Nothing — nothing, child," replied her father. " What did you think it was ?" " I — I thought I heard a dismal cry, such as that my mother has described," faltered out Rosetta. " God bless us I" cried the alarmed Mrs. Belford. " Nay, Rosetta," observed Frank, " it was only your imagination ; rest assured it was no more." " It was rnly the howling of the tempest," remarked Michael ; " but had not you and your rjother better retire to another room, for you are in no condition to hear that I aro about to relate?" " No — no !" answered the maiden, endeavouring to recover herself, for she was anxious to hear the story. " It — it could only have been fancy, and certainly the horrors of this night are enough to create strange and fearful ideas in the breast." " True," coincided Michael, " it is an «.wful night ; but here we are safe from harm.

So do as I desired you, dame, and then for the legend." The dams obeyed, and tfe/l she and her daughter having drawn their chairs closer to Michael and his compo 3:0ns, he thus commenced : " It is now more than twenty years since Hugh Clifton resided in this part of the country, and in this very house !" "In this house!" cried the listeners in a breath; and Rosetta and her mother trembled violently. " Yes," answered Michael ; " in this house ; it is useless to deny it, for you would piobably hear it some timG or other. But he was then good and esteemed, and few would have believed that he could become the wretch he afterwards did. He once lived in happiness, and endeavoured by his industry to gain an honest liveli hood for himself and family. He was afisherman, but fortune at length frowned upon him.

He was capsised in a storm — his only son sank to rise no more, as it was then supposed, and Hugh with difficulty reached the shore. But from that moment all his hopes were wrecked ; he became reckless of his future destiny, and min came upon him. Principle at the same time fled, and with his wise he retired farther up the coast, where he became one of those wretches, who make the shattered bark, tossed on the foamy deep, their plunder." " Miserable wretch !" ejaculated Kit. " True, he was ; but no one was ever. driven more rapidly down the stream of crime. The misfortunes he had met with seemed to steel his heart against every feeling of humanity, and he commenced a terrible war upon his fellow creatures. I need net describe to you what miscreants those wreckers are ; but Hugh Clifton appeared to take a delight in endeavouring to surpass them all in atrocity.

Blood, human blood, he shed with indifference, so great was his thirst for gold ! Gold — gold ! that was his only thought by night and day, and he cared not whom he might sacri fice to obtain it." " Oh, God ! and he was the inhabitant of this house !" ejaculated Rosetta, with a shudder of horror, and once more glancing towards the window, as if she expected the grim visage of Hugh Clifton, or his ghastly phantom, to be glaring upon her. The tempest continued to increase rather than to abate in violence : and the lightning blazed ir at the window, adding to the terrors which had taken possession of the damsel's feelings. Frank whispered to her some words of confidence, but her cheeks remained blanched, notwithstanding she was so eager to hear the remainder of the tale, that she resisted all the endeavours of her father to persuade her to retire.

"But his wise, Michael," said Kit Hayward; "did she become as bad as himself?" " In some respects she did," answered Michael, " of course she was aware of his unlawful proceedings, but it is said she knew not that he had ever shed the blood of his fellow creatures. How true that may be, I cannot say. Well, some time passed on in this way, and the more success that Hugh met with, the more it lured him on to crime, the more he trampled with impunity upon the laws of nature. Well, so goes the story, as I had it from the lips of an aged man when first I came to this place. One fine summer's evening, Hugh Clifton walked forth from his lonely hut, and made his way to the 3andy beach. He had been for the last few weeks unfortunate in his guilty course, and his mind was more than unusually stern and determined.

It was a dead calm, and the ocean was spread before him, glittering beneath the sun's departing rays, scarcely ruffled by a single billow. His eyes rolled wildly to the west, and the calm scene that met his gaze added to the discontent of his guilty mind. Then he muttered a bitter curse, for when Nature wore her gayest smiles, fortune frowned upon him. The setting sun damped all his guilty hopes. He paced the beach, and more disordered became his brain, and more bitter were the curses he growled in the inge and disappointment of his soul. Oh, it must have been terrible to have seen that unhappy wretch at that moment. But the crisis of his evil destiny was approaching. " One little cloud now appeared, and the villain's hopes revived. That cloud might turn the balance yet. He loughed wildly as this thought darted across his brails, and with a savage smile, he directed his eyes towards the south, in which that one little cloud, black and portentous, had met his eager gaze.

Gradually the wind arose, and rippled the bright blue waters, while the departing sun was hid behind a misty veil. The wrecker's steps became firmer every moment, and his countenance more calm, as his eyes wandered over the ocean. The winds still more powerfully arose, and the billows gently heaved. Fast the varying clouds gathered upon the horizon ; but ere the last rays of the sun sank in the bosom of the ocean, a distant speck appeared on the horizon, which the wrecker's eye quickly marked, and he laughed aloud in fiendish exultation. He knew it to be a ship, and soon her scudding sails were distinctly revealed to him. But now dense clouds overhung the ocean ; but the wind had increased, the waves foamed and bubbled, and rolled beneath the stormy influence ; the thunder in heavy peals shook the air, the light ning's flash ever and anon illumined the foaming deep, and revealed to Hugh Clifton his hoped-for prey, rolling and struggling with the mighty waves, hastening fast to a watery grave.

Mingled hopes and fears filled the villain's breast, lest the shattered bark should perish ere she could approach near enough to afford him his wished-fer booty. But on she came, rushing and plunging, anon her signals vying with the roaring thunder. Hugh Clifton prepared his lantern, and displayed it be fore a rock, which was now obscured by the bounding surf, and the crew of the hapless vessel beholding the beacon, were lured to their destruction. Nearer and nearer she came, and in a loud, hoarse voice, the wretch shouted to them to steer that wav. A few minutes more, and one loud, one hideous shriek was heard, which rose even above the voice of the thunder, or the howling wind. It is the piercing shriek of death. The vessel had struck upon the fatal rock, and the next instant the ill-fated crew were engulphed in death."

" Oh, horrible !" exclaimed Rosetta, shuddering at the dreadful recital. " Ay, my lass, it was," said Michael ; " but still the most fearful part of the story is to come. Hugh Clifton viewed the awful work of his hands with mingled feelings of exultation and fear. But not all of the crew had perished ; one still survived, and struggled with the waves to reach the shore. Clifton watched him with eager eyes, and when he saw the bounding billows heave him to the beach, he hastened towards him. ' Save me ! oh, save me !' the unhappy man gasped forth in a faint voice. ' Yes, thus ! thus !' shouted the ruffian, and at the same instant plunged his knife in his victim's heart. Then he stooped over the bloody corpse, and commence4 searching his pockets, with the hope of finding money or jewels, for what apparel the unfortunate man had on, denoted him to be something more than a common sea man.

He searched in vain, for nothing but an old coin, suspended from his neck, could he discover ; and muttering fears jl curses, he raised the still warm body from the earth, and was about to plunge it in the deep, when a piercing shriek sounded in his ears, and his arm was arrested by some one behind. He dropped the corpse upon the blood-stained beach, and terrified, turned round to see who the person was that had stayed him in his purpose, and the blue lightning's vivid glare revealed to him the ghastly countenance of his wife ! She had beheld him plunge his knife in the defenceless man's breast, and then, for the first time, knew that her husband was a murderer ! We must imagine the scene that followed ; but at length the eyes of the wretched woman were attracted to the coin which her husband still held in bis hand, and snatching it from him by the lightning's flash, eagerly examined it.

A frightful scream escaped her lips, and she directed the murderer's attention to wards it. ' Look ! look !' she cried, ' it is the very coin we placed around the neck of our child in his infancy !' " The guilty man did look, and his blood sioze with horror as he recognised the well-known bauble. Then with delirious haste they both stooped and exa mined the features of the murdered sailor. Every lineament of that countenance, though changed by manhood and by death, was the samej and a particular mark on his right breast, and some papers, which they sound in oue of his pockets, and had escaped the observation of Clifton, eonfiimed them in the horrible truth. Hugh Clifton had murdered his own son !" Michael paused, for the feelings of his auditors were worked up to the highest pitch of horror, and it was some minutes before they recovered themselves.

" And did it ever transpire how the unfortunate son of Hugh Clifton was res cued from a watery grave in the first instance ?" interrogated Hayward. I THE DEATH SHIP. 7 " No," answered Michael ; " but it is supposed that he had been picked up by some vessel, und on his recovery had been induced to enter the service." *' But the sequel of this fearful tale, Mr. Belford f asked Frank, eagerly. " When the wise of Clifton had made this dreadful discovery," continued Mi chael, " she uttered one piercing shriek, and immediately sank insensible upon the corpse of her murdered son. The murderer, for a few moments, stood appalled, and gazed vacantly around him ; his eyes seemed to burn in their sockets, — his broad chest heaved wilh a convulsive feeling, and the large drops of agony rolled down his cheeks ; then, with a loud and hysterical laugh, he dashed wildly from the spot.

But he returned no more to his hut. His wife was shortly afterwards sound, but she lived no longer than to relate those dreadful particulars. Hugh Clifton was seen no more in the neighbourhood of his horrible crimes." " Then what is there to connect him with the Death Ship ?" asked Kit. " Why, it is said that one of the crew of a vessel which had been attacked by the pirate, and who alone had escaped from the awful massacre that took place, knew Hugh Clifton well, and had declared positively that the wretch who was act ing as captain of the Death Ship at that time, was the same. The legend goes so far as to state, that Clifton, after the murder of his son, had sold himself to Satan, and became the master of a vessel, the crew of which certainly appear to act more under supernatural agency than anything else.

Others assert that Hugh destroyed himself, and that it is his troubled spirit that haunts the spot of his hideous crime, and this spot, whenever that awful cry is heard, wliich 1 have described. Certain it is, that whenever the Death Ship has appeared off this coast, it has been in the same month, and on the same date, as when the horrible event took place. Such is the legend of thc Death Ship, and may Heaven preserve us from another visit, I pray." " Amen !" ejaculated Mrs. Belford ; " and may we also soon leave this house altogether, for I shall never be able to sleep quietly in it again." " Psha ! dame," interposed Michael ; " I thought you possessed more good sense than to talk thus ; what have we to fear who never did anybody harm, if even this old building, for which I have so great a regard from particular circumstances, was once the residence of the villain Clifton?"

" Oh, mention not his name," said the old woman ; " for it freezes my very blood with horror." " I am sorry that I related the story to you," said Michael, " since it has taken such an effect upon you.'.- But replenish the fire and the grog, for it is impossible that our guests can leave the house while the tempest continues to rage so violently. We will talk about something else." The storm did, indeed, rage more terrifically than ever ; the roaring wind and heavy peals of thunder were deafening, and the vivid flashes of lightning rendered the horrors of the hour complete. In vain Michael endeavoured to engage his companions in cheerful conversation ; their thoughts were totally engrossed by the fearful legend he had related, and the terrors of the night served to increase the oppressive weight of their feelings.

Suddenly, however, the storm appeared to have ceased, and a deathlike silence still more awful succeeded. Not a breath of wind seemed to stir, not a sound could be heard, and they looked at each other with amazement, as if something of a dreadful and mysterious nature was about to happen. Neither of them could speak, and it was quite evident that the same strange and indefinable feelings presided in every breast. But it was only for a short time that this solemn silence lasted, and then it was broken in a manner which served to appal them all. A low moaning sound was at first heard, like the distant sighing of the wind ; louder and louder it became, until it swelled itself into one piercing shriek, of such magnitude that human imagina tion could form but a faint idea of its horror. Rosetta uttered a cry of terror, and clun" to her father, while they all stared at each other aghast, and for some time neither of them could utter a syllable.

The fearful sound died away in lengthened echoes upon the air, and then again the storm arose with renewed violent '.; peal after peal of thunder following each other in rapid succession, and shaking the very hill upon which the building stood to its eentre. " Merciful Father piotect is!" at length she gasped forth; " this cannot be treated with indifference ; we all heardthat fearful cry, that cry to wliich no human voice could give utterance. " " It is certainly very strange, and very alarming," observed Kit Hayward. " I am not much given to fear, but never, in thc whole course of my life, did I before hear a cry like that." " After all," said Michael, " I am inclined to think that we suffered our fears to deceive us, or that it was only the scream of the sea-gull." " No, Michael," returned Kit, shaking his head, " a thousand sea-gulls combined could not have produced such a cry as that."

" It was just such a cry as we heard on that fatal night five years ago," remarked Mrs. Belford, violently agitated, and looking in the pale face of her trembling dauahter, who was still clinging to the arms of her father. "It might only have been the distant roaring of the troubled sea," remarked Frank Trevors ; "we must endeavour to combat those fears." They again seated themselves, and by degrees became more calm, but still Rosetta in vain tried to banish from her mind the horrible impression that the ex traordinary event, coupled with the awful recital of her father, had made upon it. It was not long, however, before they were again startled, for between the pauses of the thunder, the loud report of a gun reverberated upon the air. " It is the signal from a ship in distress," said Michael.