Graham's Magazine, Vol. XL, No. 6, June 1852Various
General
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XL, No. 6, June 1852
Various
Literature -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals
thought the hoary granite was piling over you. The first rush of the
swell in the cove broke over the ship, deluging her fore-and-aft, as it
heaped up in the strait in one tremendous surge, which tore the frigate
from her anchor, and dashed her high against the rocks. The lighter
craft fared no better, being swept from their moorings like drift wood;
however, while the horrible work was going on below, the second mate had
let go a second anchor, while the stern-hawser parted like pack-thread,
and showing the head of the foretopmast-staysail, while some of them aft
managed to get the spanker-gaff partly hoisted, and others jammed the
helm hard down, the ship brought up with a surge which shook her in
every timber; and, as you drew another breath in the melee below, where
one man was contending with fifty, you heard the hurricane roaring over
her mast-heads, like the rush of Milton’s legions to the field.
“I was thrust hither and thither, splashing in the water, nearly
knee-deep on the deck, amid the clash of steel and the shrinking back of
the Arabs, until a blade whizzed past my ear, falling with a dull ring
on the head of some unhappy wretch, whose hot blood spouted in my face.
Half blinded, I stumbled over a prostrate body, clearing my eyes as I
brought up against my own berth, when another flash showed every object
distinctly, and I saw the two mutes throw themselves before the eunuch
upon Halil; then followed a deadly struggle from the mast through the
cabins to the transom, during which Hadji’s shrill voice screamed to the
executioners to use dagger or bowstring—then a heavy fall and a
gasp—woman’s fearful shriek—and again you heard over all, the defying
roar of the tempest.
“Torches, which had been extinguished by the wind on deck, were now
relighted in the cabin, revealing a sight which was terrible to look
upon. Three dead bodies lay on the deck, or across the table, besides
that of the Arab chief, who had been thrice stabbed, and afterward
strangled. Scarlet caps, cleft turbans, and pieces of rent apparel were
washing about, with the fragments of the swinging lamp; while the table
and the cabin partitions were reeking with gore.
“The Frenchman was dead as a door-nail when they raised him up, which
was some comfort, though the three blacks had escaped without a scratch,
except one of the mutes, whose hands were gashed with a dagger. The
soldiers now closed the doors between the cabins, having first dropped
the dead-lights, and after the eunuch came out, the bodies were removed
out of sight in the sail-room, all except that of the chief, which was
laid on the table, a dreadful sight, after the fever of the thing was
past, since you could not keep from looking at the blackened face, with
the eyes staring out of it, as if he were ready to start up again—the
frown being still on the brow, though the orbs were glazed, and the arm
hung nervelessly down.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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