The Mask of the Red Death - Graham's Magazine, May 1842 — reading text

they are changed into an ocean of flame, few of the countless scenes I have witnessed, which hissing and roaring. Unheard, save at intervals, is are terrible to man, but to me a delight. the cry of the watchman, and the ringing bells; and ‘An hundred miles away, there is a lonely cot- muffied are the hasty footsteps of the thronging tage on the border of an inland lake. An hour ago multitude, for the snow is deep. Slowly do the en- I passed by there, and a mingled sound of woe came gines rumble along, while strained to their utmost from its inmates, for they were poor and sick, and are the sinews of those hardy firemen. But useless had no wood. A miserable starving dog was whin- is all this noise and labor, for the receptacles of ing at their door. I laughed with joy and left them water are blocked with ice. Fire! fire!! fire!!!” to their suffering. And here endeth the song of Euroclydon, which ‘““T came to a broad river, where two ferrymen was listened to on the 16th of December, 1835. It were toiling painfully at their work. I loosened the will be recollected, that when the sun rose in un- ice that had been formed farther up, and it crushed clouded beauty on the following morning, six hundred them to death in its mad career. buildings had been consumed, many lives lost and * Beside a mountain, a solitary, foot-traveller, of twenty millions of property destroyed. MYSTERYX. ALL things are dark! A mystery shrouds the same Like some mad mind with its own self at war: Yon gorgeous sun or twilight’s feeble star. And many will repine, repine in vain, We feel, but who can analyze the flame And in their impious frenzy almost curse That wanders calmly from those realms afar? This all-encircling, adamantine chain Science may soar, but soon she finds a bar That binds the portal of the Universe. Against her wing: and so she spends a life Not so the wize! for they delight to see Of sleepless doubt and agonizing strife, His might and glory in this.mystery  HARRY CAVENDISH. BY THE AUTHOR OF ‘‘CRUIZING IN THE LAST WAR,”’ ‘‘ THE REEFER OF 776,’ ETC. ETC. THE EXPEDITION. prisoners of the whole nest of freebooters. As, how- ever, the spies of the gang were known to infest Ir was a melancholy day when the body of the the town, it was necessary to carry on the prepara- murdered Mr. Neville was deposited in the burial tions for the expedition with the utmost caution, so ground of the port of- ; and if strangers shed that no intelligence of the contemplated attack shonld tears at his funeral what must have been the emo- reach the pirates to warn them of their danger. tions of his orphaned daughter! All that kindness While, therefore, the authorities were apparently could do, however, was done to alleviate her grief; occupied with the approaching trial to the exclusion her friends crowded around her to offer consolation ; of everything else, they were, in fact, secretly mak- and even our hardy tars showed their sympathy ing the most active exertions to fit out an expedition for her by more than one act. It was a fortu- for the purpose of breaking up the haunts of the nate occurrence that she had a near relative in town, gang. Several vessels were purchased, ostensibly and in his family accordingly she took up her resi- for private purposes; and soldiers drafted into them, dence, where she could indulge her sorrow on the under the cloud of night. The vessels then left the bosoms of those who were united to her by natural harbor, cleared for various ports, with the under- ties, and could sympathize with her the more sin- standing, however, that they should all rendezvous cerely because they knew the worth of which she on an appointed day at a cape a few leagues distant had been deprived. It is one of the wisest dispensa- from the retreat of the pirates. So adroitly was the tions of Providence that our grief should be shared, affair managed, that the various vessels composing and as it were soothed, by those we love. the expedition left the port unsuspected—even high The pirates had no sooner been committed to pri- officers of government who were not admitted to the son than endeavors were made, on the part of the secret, regarding them merely as common merchant- authorities, to ascertain the haunt of the gang}, for ynen departing on their several voyages. Indeed, its depredations had been carried on during the past ad.an attack been contemplated on a hostile power ee year to an extent that left no doubt that the prisoners the,preparations could not have been more secret or formed only a detachment of a larger body,..which, eomprehensive. The almost incredible strength of dividing into different parties, preyed on, the fon, the piratical force rendered such preparations, how- merce of the surrounding islands, from as, many dif ENG", [ot only desirable but necessary. ferent points. Where the head quarters of the, pinates ood Was one among the few admitted to the secret, were held was however unknown; as every, attempt 4or,the governor-general did me the honor to con- to discover them, or even to capture any of the gang suit me on several important particulars respecting had hitherto proved abortive. The authorities were, ihe-expedition. Tired of the life of inactivity I was therefore, anxious to get one or more of the, prisoners deading, and anxious to see the end of the adven- on sit Saeed knee to reveal the retreat of their messmates on ja, pro- ture, I offered to accompany the enterprise as a vo- mise of pardon; but for some time their efforts were dunteerp-an offer which his excellency gladly ac- unavailing, as each prisoner knew, that if any-of the cepted. gang escaped, the life of the traitor woyld not be We set sail in a trim little brig, disguised as a worth a moment’s purchase. At length, however, merchantman; but as soon as morning dawned and the temptations held out to two of the prisoners we had gained an offing, we threw off our disguise, proved irresistible, and they revealed the secret and presented an armament of six guns on a side, which the governor-general was so anxious to know. with a proportionable number of men. Our craft, The head-quarters of the pirates proved to be on a indeed, was the heaviest one belonging to the expe- small island, some leagues north of the spot where dition, and all on board acquainted with her destina- we captured the prisoners. The place was said to tion were sanguine of success. be admirably fortified by nature, and there was no The wind proved favorable, and in less than forty- doubt, from the prisoners’ confession, that art had eight hours we made Capo del Istri, where the four been called in to render the retreat impregnable. vessels composing the expedition were to rendez- The number of the pirates usually left behind to vous. As we approached the promontory, we dis- protect their head-quarters was said to amount to a covered one after another of the little fleet, for as considerable force. Notwithstanding these things, we had been the last to leave port, our consorts had the governor-general resolved on sending a secret naturally first reached the rendezvous, and in a few expedition to carry the place and, if possible, make minutes we hove to in the centre of the squadron ee Y ea eee ee eew  HARRY CAVENDISH. 289 hoisting a signal for the respective captains to come almost noiselessly along the smooth surfaee of the aboard, in order to consult respecting the attack. strait; while the men lying close at their quarters; The den of the pirates was situated at the head of fully armed for the combat, breathlessly awaited the a narrow strait, communicating with a lagoon of moment of attack, the intensness of their excitement some extent, formed by the waters of a river col- increasing as the period approached. lecting in the hollow of three hills, before they dis- My own emotions I will not attempt to pourtray. charged themselves into the sea. Across the mouth We were already within a cable’s length of the end of this lagoon was moored the hull of a dismasted of the strait, and in rounding-to into the lagoon we ship, in such a position that her broadside com- would if our approach had been detected, have to manded the entrance to the lake. Behind, the huts run the gauntlet of the broadside of the craft guard- of the piratical settlement stretched along the shore, ing this approach to the pirates’ den—a broadside while the various vessels of the freebooters lay an- which if well delivered would in all probability send chored in different positions in the lagoon. Such, at us to the bottom. Our peril was indeed imminent. least, we were told, was the appearance of the place And the uncertainty whether our approach had been when the pirates were not absent on their expeditions. detected or not created a feeling of nervous suspense Our plan of attack was soon arranged. It was de- which increased our sensation of our peril. termined to divide our forces into two divisions, so ** A minute more and we shall shoot by the pirate,” that while one party should attack the pirates in front said I to the captain of our craft. the other should take a more circuitous path, and ‘* Ay !” said he, ‘‘ I have just passed the word for penetrating by land to the back of the settlement, the men to lie down under the shelter of the bul- take the enemy in the rear. As night was already warks, so that if they pour a fire of musketry into closing in, it was determined to disembark the latter us, we shall escape it as much as