The Young Llanero Part 22

"Only that I have come to tell you that you are to be put to death to-morrow--which is a very unpleasant announcement," he answered.

"However, the commandant, being a religious man, will send a padre to you, that you may confess to him, and prepare yourself for your inevitable fate."

"Am I to be shot?" I asked, in a tone as full of alarm as I could a.s.sume.

"No," he answered. "A new machine has just arrived from Spain, called a garotte. From what I hear, it is a very clever invention. You will only have to sit down in a chair which has a hollow in the back, and a piece of wood which is also hollowed out comes in front; then, by turning a large screw, the two are pressed together till the windpipe is stopped up. In consequence, you will cease to breathe; but do not be alarmed, you will find it very easy, if not agreeable. You will afterwards be cut up, and the portions of your body will be exposed in various parts of the town, to show our brave soldiers how traitors are treated; but that will be a matter of indifference to you, I suppose. I only mention it that you may give a full description to your friends of what is to happen, to whom I would advise you to write during the day.

You will be furnished with paper and ink for the purpose. In the meantime, the padre will visit you, and you will be wise to make a clean breast to him."

The man spoke with a sardonic grin on his countenance, which would have been very trying had I not fully expected to disappoint him. Leaving me an ample supply of provisions, he went away, chuckling at my fancied alarm.

As soon as he closed the door, I got up and made a capital breakfast, and then prepared to receive the padre whenever he should come. My chief fear was that the doctor might not be allowed again to visit me, and that I should lose the opportunity of fixing a time with Captain Longswill for making my escape. I did not wish to offend the padre; at the same time, I determined not to make a confession of any sort to him.

He might prove a kind-hearted man; and if so, I would spend the time of his visit in trying to get him to intercede for me.

I had just finished my meal, when a friar with a cowl over his head entered the cell.

"I can give you half an hour, senor padre. That will be long enough to shrive the young Englishman," observed the jailer, as he closed the door.

"You are in a bad case, my son, I fear," said the monk as he approached me.

I knew the voice, though the cowl, in the gloom of the cell, prevented me from seeing my visitor's features.

"What, Padre Pacheco!" I exclaimed. "My dear padre! how could you have risked your safety by coming here?"

"For your sake, Barry, I would go through much greater danger," he answered. "I followed you to this place, being resolved to attempt your liberation; and I have heard all about you from our friend the doctor.

It being reported that you and others are to be put to death to-morrow, on finding that he would not be allowed to visit you again I boldly came to the prison, letting the jailer suppose that the commandant had sent for me to shrive you. He at once admitted me; and here I am to tell you that your friend the English captain will send a boat in to-night at eleven o'clock, when all the garrison, with the exception of the guards, will be asleep. The doctor will come to visit his patients late in the day, and will then find out who is to be on guard, and will do his best to give them sleeping potions, so that you may boldly pa.s.s between them and scramble over the wall. I do not, therefore, consider that you will have to run any great risk."

The padre talked on in a low voice. When I expressed my fears that he would compromise his own safety, he answered that as soon as he knew that I had escaped he intended to get away, if possible, on board the _Flying Fish_, and that he had engaged a boat to take him off. This much relieved my mind.

We were still conversing when we heard the jailer turn the key in the lock. On this the padre got up and went towards the door. "He has made as good a confession as I could have expected," he observed to the jailer as he went out; "I hope, my friend, you will be as prepared to die, when your time comes, as he is."

I was after this left alone for the greater part of the day; and towards evening the jailer brought me some more food. I was very thankful to see his back as he went out, and heartily trusted that I might never set eyes on him again.

I could only calculate the time by hearing the guards changed. At last, believing that it was nearly eleven o'clock, I prepared for my adventure. Putting up my bedstead as before, I climbed to the window, from which I noiselessly removed the bar; then getting outside, I replaced it, and dropped a height of ten feet or so into a sort of inner ditch. It was perfectly dry, and as the ground was hard I felt somewhat shaken; but recovering myself, I crawled along till I could mount the bank at a spot whence I could observe the sentries on either side. One, as he did not move, had, as I hoped, taken the doctor's potion; but the other still walked backwards and forwards, evidently wide-awake. At last he sat down, and as I watched him I saw that he was overcome with drowsiness. I at once crept across the intervening s.p.a.ce, and gained the top of the wall without being seen. Glancing downwards, the height appeared considerable; but hesitation might prove my destruction, so throwing myself over, I dropped a height of not much under thirty feet,--happily alighting on the soft sand which the doctor had told me of.

I had still some distance to run along the beach: on I went, hoping that the two sentries would not awake till I had gained the shelter of some rocks. I then stopped an instant to ascertain whether I was taking the right direction. There was sufficient light to enable me to discern the point where the boat was to meet me. No noises proceeded from the fort.

I made my way among the rocks with caution, to avoid the risk of slipping down and hurting myself; and at length, to my infinite satisfaction, I heard Captain Longswill's voice.

"All right, Barry," he said; "we are here. Give me your hand, and I will show you the boat."

Never did I more thankfully grasp a man's hand; and in a few seconds I was seated in the stern-sheets of his boat, and we were pulling off for the _Flying Fish_, which lay in the offing.

I told the captain of my anxiety about the doctor and Padre Pacheco.

"They will be all right," he answered; "I promised to burn a blue light as soon as you were safe on board, when they were immediately to shove off. It may puzzle the Spaniards somewhat to know what it means; but as they are not fond of turning out of their beds, we shall be away long before they come to look after us."

The schooner was under way, standing on and off sh.o.r.e, when we got on board. We afterwards ran in closer, and, to my great joy, made out a boat pulling towards us, out of which presently stepped the doctor and the padre. The boat then pulled away; and we ran to the northward, so that we might be out of sight of land before the morning.

I asked the captain where he was going.

"I have received directions to proceed up the Orinoco to Angostura," he answered. "As that city is in the hands of your friends, I conclude that you would wish to go there. If not, I will keep you on board and land you at Jamaica, or any other English island where you may desire to remain."

"By all means let me go on sh.o.r.e at Angostura," I said, "for I am as anxious as ever to help to drive the Spaniards out of the country."

The doctor and the padre were greatly pleased when they found that the schooner was about to proceed up the Orinoco.

"I shall thus be able to recover my chests," observed the former; "it would have broken my heart to leave them. I shall also, I hope, be able to remain till I see the patriotic cause triumphant, and you, Barry, settled happily at home. You make a very good soldier; but you are cut out for something better than shooting your fellow-creatures, and running the risk of being shot in return."

"And I shall be able to get back to my people; and, I hope, have liberty to preach the gospel to them in quiet," observed the padre.

We were soon out of the Caribbean Sea, when, the wind s.h.i.+fting to the north-east, we ran along the eastern sh.o.r.e of the beautiful island of Trinidad. The yellow water amid which we afterwards sailed showed us that we were off the mouth of the mighty Orinoco. The sh.o.r.es on both sides of the river were so low that we could see only the mangrove bushes rising out of the water, with tall trees farther off. Having taken a pilot on board, and the wind being from the eastward, we sailed rapidly up the stream, notwithstanding the strong current running against us. The river being in the hands of the patriots, who commanded it with strong flotillas of flecheras or gun-boats, we sailed on without molestation from the Spaniards, and at last, after a voyage of ten days or more, reached Angostura.

Hearing that General Bolivar had already left the place with his forces, and was marching towards the plains of Apure, my friends and I determined to follow him. Finding that we could perform two or three hundred miles or so of the distance by water, we engaged a canoe to take us up.

When bidding farewell to my friend Captain Longswill, he put a purse into my hand; observing,--"You are in want of funds, and you or your uncle can repay me some day if you have the opportunity. If not, you are welcome to the money; I have made a successful voyage, and can spare it."

I thanked him much for his generosity, for I was unwilling to be indebted either to the doctor or the padre,--who would, however, I am sure, have been ready to help me. I was thus able to purchase a rifle and other weapons. The doctor had preserved his; and the padre supplied himself with arms at the same time.

We set off towards the middle of the day, and had thus made some progress before sunset. Our life was very similar to that which we led when coming up the Magdalena. We landed at night on the sh.o.r.e, where we built some huts for shelter, lighted a fire, cooked our provisions, and then lay down to rest.

I was on foot before my companions the next morning; and rambling, gun in hand, along the bank of a small stream which ran into the main river, was much struck with the calm beauty of the scene, so different from anything I had witnessed for many months. The vegetation was rich in the extreme,--creepers with gay colours hanging from all the branches, with graceful reed-like plants springing up at the water's edge, while on the surface floated large green leaves,--on which I saw a long-footed jacana standing while engaged in fis.h.i.+ng for her breakfast. The idea came across my mind, How much happier it would be to live amid scenes like this, instead of having to go back to the wild turmoil of the camp or engage in the heady fight; but while my country remained enslaved, it was my duty to risk life and limb, and to sacrifice everything else, to set her free,--so I quickly banished the thought, and hastened back to my friends.

Having breakfasted, we proceeded on our voyage. Our canoe was a curious craft: she was formed of a single vast trunk (hollowed out by fire and the axe), forty feet in length, and scarcely more than three in beam, with upper works added to her; and on the after part was a platform projecting over the sides, on which was erected a small low cabin or toldo. The deck, if I may so term it, was covered with jaguar-skins, on which we could stretch ourselves when we wished to escape from the heat of the sun. A dozen Indian rowers sat, two and two, in the fore part, with paddles three feet long in the form of spoons; and they kept very regular stroke by singing songs, which were of a somewhat sad and monotonous character.

Our craft was so crank that one of us could not venture to lean over on one side unless we gave notice to balance the boat by inclining on the other. Still we made very good progress, considering the current that was against us.

During the excessive heat of the day, we landed to allow the crew to take some rest. The doctor on these occasions bade me remark the silence which reigned over nature. The beasts of the forest had retired to the thickets; the birds had hidden themselves beneath the foliage of the trees. Yet when we ceased speaking our ears caught a dull vibration, a continual murmur,--the hum of insects filling all the lower strata of the air, while a confused noise issued from every bush, from the decayed trunks of the trees, from the clefts of the rocks, and from the ground undermined by lizards, crickets, millipedes, and other creatures. Myriads of insects were creeping upon the soil and fluttering round the plants parched by the heat of the sun,--showing us by their countless voices that all nature was breathing, and that under a thousand different forms life was diffused throughout the cracked and dusty soil, as well as in the bosom of the waters and in the air circulating round us.

We landed one night on a sand-bank, when, finding no tree, we stuck some long poles in the ground, to which we fastened our hammocks, with blazing fires around. It was a beautiful moonlight night, calm and serene. We observed numerous alligators with their heads above the surface; others were stretched along the opposite sh.o.r.e, with their eyes turned towards the fire, which seemed to attract them as it does fish and other inhabitants of the water.

The first part of the evening pa.s.sed away quietly enough, but an hour before midnight so terrific a noise arose in the neighbouring forest that we in vain tried to sleep. It appeared as if all the wild beasts of the continent had collected together in an endeavour to out-howl each other. We could not distinguish one from the other; but the Indians, by listening attentively, caught the voices of those which sounded for an instant at intervals while the rest ceased. Among the strange cries were those of the sapajous, the moans of the alouati monkeys, the howlings of jaguars and pumas, the shrieks and grunts of peccaries, the calls of the cura.s.sow, the paraka, and other fowls. Jumbo added his voice to the turmoil, barking furiously; but suddenly he ceased; then again began to howl, and tried to jump into his master's hammock.

"He knows that a jaguar is approaching," observed the doctor. "I only hope that the brute will show his ugly nose here."

"Take care that he does not leap into your hammock," I remarked.

"Not while I keep my weather-eye open," observed the doctor.

As a precautionary measure, however, the doctor got out of his hammock and piled wood on all the fires. These, I suppose, kept the jaguars from actually attacking us; but the next morning we found the traces of several which had come down to the river to drink.

Continuing our voyage, the men, after having paddled against a strong current, begged for a noonday rest, which we were compelled to allow them. The forest appeared tolerably open, so the doctor proposed that we should take our guns and shoot any animals we might come across. The padre, he, and I accordingly landed; and observing that the ground rose to some height inland, we pushed forward in that direction. In addition to my gun, I had armed myself with a long spear,--a useful weapon under most circ.u.mstances in that region, although it could not be employed to much effect in a thick forest.

We shot a paca and several birds, and had got some way up the hill, which was densely covered with trees to the summit, when the doctor suggested that it was time to return.

"Gladly, my friends," answered the padre; "hill-climbing does not quite suit me, unless on the back of a stout mule; and I am, besides, very hungry. I hope our people will have prepared dinner for us. Hark! what is that noise?"

We listened, and could distinguish a confused sound of grunting and squeaking coming from a distance amid the trees.

"Pigs, I suspect," observed the padre. "We may shoot one or two, and they will prove a welcome addition to our larder."

"Pigs they certainly are; but of a species which I have no wish to encounter unless I am safe out of their reach," exclaimed the doctor.