by G.P.R. James, Esq.
Originally published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine (Harper and Brothers) vol.8 #45 (Feb 1854).
January 27, 183—.
Went to dine with Colonel A—l, the American Consul, one of the most high-toned and agreeable men I ever met. He has lost his arm. I wonder how. One must feel very lopsided without an arm. I should almost fancy that it must give a bias to the mind as well as the body, were it not that the Colonel is so just and equitable in all his notions and feelings—even as between the United States and England, which can not be said of all Americans or of many Englishmen. Perhaps it may be that he had a leaning toward America before he lost his arm, and that has righted him.
The darkest, foggiest night I almost ever saw, and yet frosty—the lamps all looking through the mist like dissipated, worn out comets. Went in a hackney-coach smelling peculiarly fusty, and jolting beyond conception. Found the Colonel, Mr. and Mrs. H— (American), Sir Uvedale P— and his niece (English), Mrs. W—, the charming young widow (English), and Mr. M— M— (American).
The latter looks quite a young man, though he must be older than he looks; for he has seen, and gained by seeing, a vast deal of the world, and been in active life during the last war of 1812. He is a very gentlemanly man, and the best teller of a story I almost ever heard. We did not sit long over our wine, but joined the ladies almost immediately. In truth, they wanted comfort, for the wind had risen in a single hour's time; and I believe they fancied it was going to blow the house down. Mr. M— sat himself down, however, by the pretty widow—I should think he rather liked pretty widows, by his look—and began telling her stories, which not only drew her attention from the wind, but gathered most of us round him. One struck me particularly.
Memorandum: To put it down to-morrow as he told it, as nearly as possible.
I was living as quite a young man, said Mr. M—, in the principal sea-port of one of the Middle States of America, when the war between my country and yours, my dear Madam, unfortunately broke out. I need not tell you all the little incidents of this war which came under my own notice; but a rather interesting occurrence took place, in which I had a share, that I think you may like to hear, as you tell me that your mother was a lady from Havana. We had contrived to pick up a few English prisoners of war, to whom we endeavored to make captivity light; and, among other amusements, in which the officers on parole used to join us, was the good old English game of cricket. We had one French gentleman of our club, an excellent swordsman, but bad cricketer; and one day he brought with him a fellow-country-man, more to see our sports than to join in them. The latter went by the name of M. de la Rue, and he was one of the handsomest Frenchmen I ever saw, and one of the most athletic, though rather muscular than stout. Between the games, the two Frenchmen amused themselves with fencing at each other with sticks; and Monsieur de la Rue, as he called himself, threw off his coat and bared his arms, when we saw that his right arm was scarred all over with what seemed the marks of old wounds. He was a very remarkable man, and I inquired in the city who and what he was; but nobody could tell me any thing about him. His business there was undivulged, and he seemed only known to the gentleman who had introduced him to our club, I felt a little curiosity, and perhaps might have indulged in that inquisitiveness with which you people of Europe reproach us Americans; but other circumstances called off my attention, and the matter was for the time forgotten.
My father's house had at that time some very extensive transactions with Spain, and he was himself intimately acquainted with Señor O—, the Spanish minister at Washington. I was not, therefore, much surprised to be ordered by my respected parent to prepare for a voyage to Cuba, nor to find a fast-sailing Baltimore schooner chartered, and in rapid progress of equipment before I was at all aware of my destination; but I was a little surprised to be sent off in haste to Washington to confer with Señor O—, at his own request. My father could tell me nothing of what he wanted, but he showed me the letter he had received, which was merely to desire that, as the Señor had heard I was going to Cuba, I would not fail to let him see me before I sailed. As no time was to be lost, I started for Washington at once, and reached the Spanish embassy at night, about seven o'clock. Señor O— gracefully got rid of two gentlemen who had been dining with him, and then, to my surprise, ran out of the room himself. I had hardly time to examine a very beautiful painting of a saint, who, I must say, looked much more like a sinner, before he returned with a leathern bag in his hands tightly locked and sealed, and then opened his business. He wished me, he said, to carry that bag with me to Havana, and deliver it, the moment I arrived, into the hands of the Governor, and into no other hands but his.
The eagerness, I may almost say the nervousness of his manner, showed me at once that the contents were precious, and I doubted not at all that they were dispatches of great importance. He did not deny the fact when I put the question to him directly; and then I demurred considerably to the undertaking of the task. The English cruisers were thick in the Gulf and on the Florida coast, and I saw both danger, inconvenience, and discredit in prospect if my schooner were taken and these dispatches found in my baggage. He urged me so strongly, however, by the mutual regard existing between himself and my father, that I at length entered into a compromise with him. He agreed that if I saw any certainty of the vessel which carried me being taken, I should be at liberty to pitch the bag and its contents into the sea. I made him attach weights to it before I would receive it, however, and exacted from him written authority to dispose of the dispatches, as I have stated, in case of danger. This being arranged, he entertained me very hospitably; and on the following day I returned to the port. Every thing was ready on the following morning; but we waited till evening, in order to get out of the harbor under favor of the night. It was at that time blowing a pretty taught breeze, and the wind was favorable. The moon did not rise till nearly morning, and we sneaked out quietly without being perceived, though there were two enemy's brigs of war and a frigate within fifteen miles of us. As soon as we were in the clear, open sea, every reef of canvas was stretched to the breeze, and away we went, bowling over the waters like a ball over a cricket-ground. Day dawned without a sail in sight; but as the sun rose the wind went down, and from that moment we had, for four days, to record nothing on the log but "light winds and variable."
We had been very lucky all this time, for though we had seen a few boats of no great size, nothing in the shape of a ship of war had come across us; but just as we were running along at an easy rate by the eastern end of the Great Bahama, we suddenly descried a suspicious-looking sail to windward. How we had not perceived it before I do not know; for it seemed to me to start suddenly out of the water, and the ship, whatever she was, could not be more than ten miles off. She brought the wind with her too, for while we had nothing but light, baffling airs, she came up with every sail full, and we soon saw her signals going up, and that plaguy Union Jack, which certified her character plainly enough.
We had nothing for it but to run, and soon after we caught the wind. She sailed well, but we sailed better. The breeze, however, seemed resolved to favor her; for, as will sometimes happen in those latitudes, at least a dozen times in the following three days, during which time she chased us, she seemed to have a gale while we could not get a cupful. Twice she was near enough to send a shot after us, but we slipped away from her, and made the most curious dodging flight of it that ever I saw. I was full of anxiety about my papers, and for two whole nights kept pacing the deck with hardly a wink of sleep. During the second day's chase, when she pressed us the hardest, I stood with the bag in my hand for six whole hours, ready to drop it into the sea in case her guns begun to tell upon us with such effect as to force us to bring to. At length, however, we got into the Old Bahama channel, and, amidst the islands and banks that stud it, got off, though it was not without great risk; for there was not a man on board who had ever been there before, and our chart was a bad one.
Well satisfied was I, it must be confessed, when we got under the guns of the Moro Castle, for I did not at all like the idea of passing an indefinite time in an English prison, or on board a pontoon.
We were soon permitted to land, and I only waited to rub off the rust of voyaging before I hurried up in search of the Governor, with a black fellow to show me the way. I only was suffered to penetrate to the ante-room, however; for there I was encountered by an aid-de-camp, who insisted upon knowing my business before he would let me pass further.
I know not whether I have any thing very murderous in my look, continued Mr. M—, with a complacent smile, in the consciousness of a fine person, but I fancy the worthy Spaniard took me for an assassin. When I insisted that my business was with the Governor, and the Governor alone, he called another head to council, an old, gray-haired gentleman, with a very hidalgoish look; but they both came to the same conclusion, that I could not be admitted.
I then entered my protest with American freedom, told them to remember that they had positively refused to admit me, although aware that I came from Señor O—, at Washington, on important business, and that I held them responsible for all the consequences. Thus saying, I left the palace and walked away.
I had not reached the house where I lodged, before I was overtaken by two Spanish soldiers, coming at a great rate, who told me civilly, but peremptorily enough, that I must go back with them to the Governor; and, accordingly, turning round, I retrod my steps. I was ushered from one chamber to another, through a long suite of rooms, till at length passing an ante-chamber, where a number of officers were collected, comprising the two scrupulous gentlemen I had previously seen, I entered a small cabinet, where I found a little, ugly man in uniform, whose countenance and demeanor, however, at once impressed one with respect, if not with love. There was something stern, uncompromising, and even haughty in his look, but his manners had much dignified suavity in them, and, after a glance at me from head to foot, he asked me to be seated.
"I understand," he said at length, when I had taken a chair, "that my aid-de-camp, Don Ramon de Roya y Pensalar, under a mistaken impression, refused to admit you. You have something to communicate from Señor Don Alphonso de O——, I believe; what is it?"
"I undertook, your Excellency," I answered, "to deliver into your own hand these dispatches, as soon as [ arrived on the island. I know they are of much importance, from the earnest recommendations to speed and secrecy which were given me by my good friend, Señor O—."
Thus saying, I handed him the bag, and he first looked at the lock, and then in my face.
"I have not the key," I said, answering his look.
"We must find one," replied the Governor, dryly; and, taking a pen-knife from the table, he deliberately slit open the bag, and took out the dispatches, which were only two in number. He read the shortest first; and, as he did so, bowed his head politely to me, saying, "Señor M—, I presume. I am very glad to see you, Sir. His Excellency's wishes shall be complied with."
He then turned to the other and longer paper, and perused it with a face full of the liveliest emotions. More than once a coarse Spanish exclamation of surprise burst from his lips, and then a look of triumph lighted up his dark flashing eyes.
"This is brave!" he said, with an exuberant burst of joy. "We shall catch them all four. I am greatly indebted to you, Sir, for your promptness. Pray, give me an account of your voyage."
I did so very succinctly, and the more so, as I saw he was musing over something else all the while, though not sufficiently abstracted to lose all that I said. He smiled at the account of our chase by the English brig of war, and said, laughing, "You need not have been so alarmed about the dispatches. The English, if they had taken them, would have forwarded them to me without loss of time. You did not know their contents; but they need be no secret now, as they have arrived in time. His Imperial Majesty, Napoleon Bonaparte, judges that Europe is not sufficiently large for his dominion, and would fain add the pleasant little island of Cuba, as a sort of summer garden, I suppose. He destines me the honor of a visit from four very distinguished officers of his army; but unfortunately, he has commanded them to come without the usual formalities, and in the guise of simple citizens. Now the Spaniards have an unpleasant habit, when they find an officer of an enemy's army within their limits, out of uniform, and with no external mark of his profession, to look upon him as a spy, and strangle him without mercy. I fear that these gentlemen put their necks in jeopardy. Don Ramon! Don Ramon!"
The aid-de-camp instantly appeared from the other room, and the Governor whispered to him some private orders, after which he introduced me formally to him as his particular friend, directed him to put the palace entirely at my disposal and to look upon my commands as his. I was too well acquainted with Spanish forms and manners not to know that this merely meant to treat me with polite attention, and I soon after took my leave to pursue the business which had called me to Havana. However I was honored the next day with an invitation to dine with the Governor, and, partly on account of having rendered him an important service in bringing him the dispatches, partly on account of the information I gave him regarding the United States, a very friendly feeling established itself between us, and he lost no opportunity of showing me kindness and attention as long as I staid on the island. He expressed great distress and regret that a war had broken out between England and the United States, and did not scruple to intimate an opinion that there had been faults on both sides, in which I could not, of course, agree, though I wished the war over as heartily as any one.
In the mean time I frequently pondered over what the Governor had told me of the contents of his dispatches; and from Don Ramon, who became a constant companion of my leisure hours, I learned something more. It seemed that the four French officers commissioned by Napoleon to land in Cuba, were instructed to enter into communication with all the discontented inhabitants of the island, and to arrange with them for a general rising against the Spanish authorities, to be supported by a large French force. I found that measures had been taken to insure that a strict examination of every stranger arriving at any of the ports should be instituted, and that all persons presenting themselves under any suspicious circumstances should be immediately sent to Havana.
"Do you think the Governor would really hang them if he found them?" I asked Don Ramon.
He nodded with a dark smile, saying, "He is not tender."
Without any very definite cause my mind reverted to the handsome and gallant looking De la Rue, who had appeared at our cricket club, and I could not help entertaining a suspicion that he was one of the adventurous men who had undertaken the Emperor's perilous commission. I held my tongue upon the subject, however, and a few days after my suspicions were strengthened by a letter from my father. He told me, after speaking of other business, that he had had a long conversation with the Spanish consul in our city regarding a Frenchman I must have seen there, a certain Monsieur De la Rue. That gentleman, he said, had chartered a small sloop to take him to Cuba, and intelligence of the fact having reached the consul—as fine a specimen of the old Castilian gentleman as ever lived—he had sent a message requesting the Frenchman to call upon him. Monsieur De la Rue had net complied, affecting to treat the request as a want of courtesy, and the consul had, in consequence, visited him. Their meeting was very cold; but after a few preliminary observations the Spaniard said, "I have thought it best, Monsieur, to attempt to dissuade you from visiting Cuba. I am prompted merely by humanity, but that impels me to tell you that the Spanish government and the authorities at Havana, have received intimation that four of your countrymen have been commissioned by your sovereign to enter the island of Cuba, for purposes dangerous to the peace of the place and to the rights of our monarch. We seek not to entrap any one—not even an enemy—and therefore I think it better to warn you that every one in Cuba is on his guard, that the whole coast is strictly watched, and that if you should be found to be one of the four persons designated to us, or in any way sharing in their designs, death—a horrible and unsoldier-like death—will be your fate as certainly as you and I now live."
Monsieur De la Rue, my father said, had thanked the consul for the interest he had expressed with a quiet and easy smile, assured him that he was entirely mistaken as to his character and views, and adding, "as my papers are, I believe, in perfect order, I shall assuredly go, without any apprehensions whatever." My father added, that notwithstanding these assurances, both he and the consul entertained strong doubts, more especially as the Frenchman had hurried all his preparations from the moment of the interview, and would probably be in Cuba before the letter reached me.
In the latter supposition he was mistaken: the sloop was detained by an accident, and did not appear at Havana for three days after the letter.
On the morning of her arrival I was walking out with a merchant of the city, and saw her sail gayly in and bring to, without the slightest attempt at concealment. But a Spanish armed boat had gone off the moment she hove in sight, having my good friend Don Ramon himself on board with a guard of soldiers. We saw the boat board the sloop, and after spending about twenty minutes alongside of her pull back toward the shore. She directed her course toward a landing, from which the general public was excluded; but I was, by this time, a sort of privileged person, on account of the favor shown me by the Governor, and feeling a good deal of interest in what was taking place I walked down uninterrupted. I soon perceived that, seated among the soldiers, there was a person in the garb of a civilian, and when the boat touched, Monsieur De la Rue was marched up to the castle between two soldiers with fixed bayonets, while one of the boatmen carried up a trunk upon his shoulders, which seemed to have suffered some very hard usage, for the bottom was broken in. Though very pale, Monsieur De la Rue's face was perfectly calm, and catching sight of me as he passed, he noticed me by a courteous bow.
It did not escape the eyes of Don Ramon, who was following, and taking my art, he said, "Come up, come up. Do you know that man?"
"He has been staying for some weeks at —," I answered; "and he passed a day with myself and some friends at a cricket club. We could none of us make out who or what he is."
"I will tell you what he is," answered Don Ramon bitterly; "he is a spy and a traitor, and you will see him hanged before to-morrow night. This is one of the very men for whom we have been looking. He thought he had made all safe by having a double bottom to his trunk—no sliding contrivance, but tight fixed and glued together. The butt end of a musket soon opened it, however; and I have got his commission, and all his papers, in my pocket—enough to hang a score."
This was all said as we were walking on, for I did not choose to show any reluctance to accompany the Governor's aid-de-camp; and we were soon in the little cabinet, in presence of his Excellency himself. I shall not easily forget the look of bitter exultation which lighted up his dark face while, in a low voice, Don Ramen made his report, and laid the papers he had discovered and seized before him. De la Rue, as he had called himself, was in the mean while standing between the two soldiers at the other side of the room, with an air perfectly easy and graceful, though not without a certain degree of calm sternness on his countenance. The Governor eyed him from time to time, while listening to Don Ramon, and at length, raising his head, he said in a loud voice, and in French, "What is your name?"
"Armand, Baron de Boisrobin, chef d'eseadron unattached in the army of his Majesty the Emperor Napoleon," replied the Frenchman at once.
The Governor quietly inclined his head, saying, "It is so;" and then whispered a word to Don Ramon. The prisoner was immediately removed from the room, and I was about to follow, but the Governor beckoned me up, and I found that Ramon had not forgotten to report the Baron's recognition of my humble self.
"What do you know of that man?" asked the Governor.
I repeated what I had told his aid-de-eamp, and he then asked me a dozen or more questions concerning him, to all which I answered as well as I could.
"Come up and pass the evening with us," said his Excellency when he had done; "we have got one of the villains, and we must make him discover the other three."
"Does your Excellency believe that any of them ever have landed?" I ventured to ask.
He slowly nodded his head, and I retired. I passed an exceedingly pleasant evening with the Governor, his family, and a small party. We had music and dancing, and very pleasant conversation. He was affable, and indeed in his family circle charming: fond of his daughters, especially the little one, almost to doting; and seeing him with them, and some intimate friends, I felt as if the words of Don Ramon—"He is not too tender"—were almost a libel. I little knew what was going on in a dungeon hard by, while we were dancing and singing in the sweet air of a Cuban evening. It has often struck me as strange, and almost marvelous, to see men, the most susceptible of kindly affections when the avenues of the heart are accidentally opened by domestic ties or old associations, shut and barricade those avenues, as if with bars of steel, against their fellow men of the general world.
I was detained at Havana longer than I expected: the business I had to transact proved more difficult than it had at first seemed; but often there were long pauses, during which I had nothing to do but to amuse myself with what was going on in the place. About this time there was a great deal of excitement. Messengers were coming and going; boats were searched very strictly, passports examined with the utmost care. Men were arrested in various pans of the island, and almost a cordon of troops was drawn round Matanzas, from some suspicion, the exact cause of which I never discovered. Of the Baron de Boisrobin no one beard any thing definite. Some people said he had been tried and strangled in prison; others that he was still alive: and Don Ramon was peculiarly mysterious, assuring me that he knew less than any one in the city—which I did not believe.
One day, however, about two o'clock, the Governor sent for me, and after delaying as long as I decently could—for it was very hot—I went up to him. I found shim in his shippers and robe de chambre, puffing away a cigar, on a little low Moorish looking couch, and in a blessedly cool room. He gave me a cigar and some sugar and water, and as soon as his servant was gone approached his business, by saying, "You speak French, I think."
"Yes," I answered; "I have been a good deal in the habit of speaking it."
"As well as Spanish?" asked the Governor.
"Better, I trust," was my reply; for though I could talk Spanish fluently enough, I often made a gross blunder.
"I dare say you would like to see your acquaintance, Monsieur Boisrobin," said the Governor.
I paused ere I answered, for I was not sure what might come next, and I rather suspected that an interview with the prisoner, without being of any benefit to him, might be very painful to myself. "Our acquaintance, your Excellency, is very slight," I said at length; "and I know not whether it might be agreeable to him to see me."
"Oh, yes. He will be glad to see any body," replied the Governor. "You had better go to him; and I wish you would make him comprehend that his safety and his comfort depend upon his making the revelations I have required of him regarding the landing-place of his comrades."
I drew myself up, and answered gravely: "Any message that your Excellency chooses to send I will convey; but on such subjects I can say nothing as from myself."
He frowned a little, but he replied: "Well, well. Tell him what I say. The truth is Ramon speaks hardly any French at all. My secretary, unfortunately, is ill; and of course it does not befit me to visit a prisoner in his cell."
Then pausing for a minute, he added slowly: "I wish that he should know his fate. It is in his own hands; but it can not be much longer delayed. A clear and full confession, or—the garotte!" and he pronounced the last word from the bottom of his throat, with a guttural tone that seemed to give it tenfold bitterness; and simply replying, "I will tell him exactly what your Excellency says," I looked round for some one to guide me.
The Governor rang a little silver bell, and a fantastically dressed negro boy appeared. He was told to call somebody else; and that somebody was sent for a jailer. The latter arrived at length, and having received his orders, conducted me to the dungeons of the castle. It would take a long while to describe either my long walk to the dungeons, or the sensations which it produced, They were all very melancholy, that I know; and the sight of the barred doors and damp passages roused feelings partaking in some degree of indignation, and in some degree of sorrow. At length we stopped at a heavy door, iron bound, bolted, and barred. The jailer opened it, but at first I could hardly see any thing within. It was broad daylight without, and the passages were not very dark, but here all was dim obscurity, with nothing but a faint square patch of light, coming apparently from above, in one corner of the dungeon. I thought I could discover something like a low bed in one corner, and the figure of a man stretched upon it; but I was not sure till he spoke to me.
The jailer had been told to let me converse with the prisoner alone; and, therefore, telling me he would wait near in the passage, he suffered me to enter, and closed the door behind me. I said that Monsieur de Boisrobin spoke to me, for his eyes, accustomed to the twilight of his dungeon, saw and recognized me at once.
"Ah, Mr. M—" he said, as the man was shutting the door, "this is very kind of you to come and see a poor prisoner."
His voice sounded faint and hollow, but I could not yet discern his features clearly enough to trace what effect confinement had wrought upon them, although he rose from the bed as he spoke, and I could hear the heavy chains clank upon his limbs.
"I must not take any credit to myself," I answered; "for the truth is, Monsieur De la Rue, the Governor has sent me to you, charged with a message, which I must deliver, though I fear it will be without effect."
"De la Rue!" he said, with a slight laugh. "Call me Boisrobin, my good friend; no use of keeping up assumed names now. They know all. But what says the Governor?"
"Pray remember," I replied, advancing and shaking hands with him, "that the words I am going to speak are the Governor's, not mine, and I only undertook to repeat them to you because it gave me a chance of seeing you. The truth is, the secretary is ill, and the Governor has no one else he chooses to trust who can speak French."
Anticipating his feelings, I was anxious to prevent him from thinking that I would strive to lead him into the betrayal of his comrades; but he answered so frankly, "Ah, go on; go on. I know the difference between an American and a Spaniard," that I proceeded to tell him, word for word, what the Governor had said.
All my precautions had not been too much. He started up like one stung by a snake, and exclaimed, "Do you speak this to me? Do you, an American gentleman, propose treason, baseness, cowardice? Let them take me to the garrote. You shall see how a Frenchman can die, rather than commit an act of treachery. Sacre die! do you take me for a lache?"
"Not in the least," I replied, well comprehending the feelings in which this burst of angry indignation originated. "Pray remember that I told you I only undertook to repeat to you the Governor's words in order to gain admission to you. I knew what you would feel, and told him I would not add one word of persuasion from myself."
"You did right—you did right!" he said, a little pacified, but yet with a good deal of heat. "Tell him for me that I say, No! If it be in his power, and if a civilized world will tolerate it, let him light a pile in the market-place and burn me alive. He shall not wring one word from my lips."
"I doubt it not, my dear Sir," I answered; "but pray be calm. I have done my errand. You have given your answer, and it I will deliver, Let us now talk of other things. Is there any thing in my power that can be done for you?"
He seated himself again on the side of the bed, and remained for a moment or two in silence. I seated myself beside him, and, with eyes more accustomed than at first to the obscurity, perceived that he was terribly emaciated.
"There is little that can be done for me in this world," he said, at length, in a sad and hollow tone. "I have but to die, and that there is no escape from. Yet, one thing. I have a wife, Mr. M—. I should wish her to know that I died like a man of honor. Whatever death they may put me to matters little. There is no dishonor really in any kind of death, but the death of a coward. I wish after I am dead that you would let her know that I died as I have lived, fearless—that I betrayed no one. Have you a pencil and paper? Let me give you her address. Can you see to write it down?"
I took out my memorandum-book and wrote what he dictated, and he then asked earnestly, "You will write to her! You will let her know?"
"On my honor I will," I answered; "but is there nothing I can do for you in life, Monsieur de Boisrobin?"
"I should wish you," he continued, pursuing the same train of thought, "to be present at my death, if they put me to a public death. Then you can testify to her that I died honorably."
"What do you mean," I asked," by a public death? You do not surely think they will assassinate you here in prison?"
He drew a little closer to me, and said, in a low tone, "Here, feel my hand!"
I did as he asked, and found the once strong, muscular hand merely a bunch of bones; and then, speaking almost in a whisper, he added, "They are starving me to death!"
I shuddered as if a chill blast of wind had struck me; but he went on to say, "They give me nothing but a small piece of bread and that pitcher of water each day. Every night a physician comes and feels my pulse. He asks me questions of me, and I ask him none. He knows by the pulse how long it will last, and I shall know soon enough."
"Good God! this is horrible!" I exclaimed.
"But they dare not carry forward such atrocity, and yet admit me to see you."
"Perhaps it may not be their intention to carry it to death itself," he answered. "I hope not, for then no one would know how I died. Probably their intention is—the base hounds!—to break my spirit—to bow my heart, in the hope of wringing from the starving prisoner the betrayal of his friends. They may think to tame me by want of food. I have heard that men tame wild beasts so, But if they do put me to death publicly, you be near the scaffold, and mark me well."
"Horrible as it must be, I will," I answered. "But now, Monsieur de Boisrobin, let me do something more for you. Let me supply you with money. Here, take my purse. I am sorry there is not more in it; but I did not know for what purpose the Governor desired to see me."
Again he laughed, this time almost gayly. "Money!" he said, "what should I do with money here, mon eher ami?"
"More perhaps than you imagine," I replied; "these jailers are all to be bribed; and by giving them money, you may, perhaps, obtain some wholesome food."
He seemed to think over what I said for a minute or two, but then answered firmly, "No! It would only prolong my misery. Although there is a gnawing devil here within me, that makes my heart beat at the very name of food, yet I will not give way to the weakness. The sooner it is over, the better. I thank you from my soul for your kindness, but I will not have the money with me lest I be tempted. All I seek is a speedy death."
Just then the jailer opened the door and asked if I had done, saying doggedly that he could not wait longer.
"Two minutes more, my friend," I answered in Spanish; and then as he once more partially closed the door, I inquired if the prisoner had any thing more to say.
"No," he answered sadly; "yet I would fain have you stay with me. This solitude and the utter absence of all occupation depresses me more than even the starvation. Try and gain admission to me again. Tell them you will attempt to persuade me to what they want—and you shall, too, if you like—I will not misunderstand you again. But never let them think you have shaken me in the least—remember that. Still try to come. Oh! it is a pleasant sound, a friend's voice, and I would fain hear it once again before I die."
I could have wept, and indeed I believe I did; but I could not linger longer, and promising to do my best, I wrung his hand and left him.
Vain was the brighter light—vain was the fresh air to remove the impression of all I saw and heard in that dim, noxious cell. My heart was wrung, and all that my return to open day did was to rouse grief into feelings of anger. Had the way not been long, I should have met the Governor, as cold and haughty as himself. But I had time to reflect, that if I did so, I should deprive myself of all chance of seeing the poor captive again.
I found his Excellency in the room where I had left him, and seated on the same sofa, quietly smoking another cigar. His little daughter came in, and he patted her head and pinched her cheek. Good Heaven! can such things be? Are there such contrasts in human nature?
I told him the answer to his message, and at first he only said, "Obstinate fool?" A minute after, however, he added, "Well, he is a brave man and a man of honor. Yet he must die if he persists. It can not be tolerated that emissaries of this French usurper should roam the island, stirring up the people against their lawful sovereign, unpunished."
"Perhaps, your Excellency, if I were permitted to see him again when he has thought more of the proposal," I answered, "I might be able to persuade him."
"I think not," answered the Governor; "the same proposal was made to him before through my secretary. I offered him a free pardon, and even his liberty, if he would tell where his companions were to land, and where he now supposed them to be; and he made the same reply, only a little more fiercely than you have stated it. However, we will see. If on thinking over the matter, I judge you can help me, I will trouble you," and then he offered me hospitalities which I declined, and went home with a sad heart.
During the next four days I saw Don Ramon three times, and spoke to him very freely my opinion of starving a prisoner.
"It is for his own good," answered the young officer, "merely to bring down his stout resolution, and induce him to tell all. However, he will not be starved to death. A physician sees him every day, and as soon as it comes near death, he will be publicly executed. The Governor would fain spare him; for we all admire his almost Castilian honor, but he must either speak or die, that is clear."
I did not see the consequence; and remarked that to my mind they should either have executed him at once, in which I admitted they would have been fully justified, or having tortured him as they had done should give him his life.
Don Ramon looked upon these things easily, and merely shrugged his shoulders at my American notions.
I was never permitted to see poor Monsieur de Boisrobin in prison again; but at the end of five long days, I learned that his execution was to take place in the Plaza at noon. The platform and the pillar with its iron screw and the chair, were already there when I received the intelligence; but mindful of my promise, though with a feeling of sickening horror, I went out, and, by favor, got close to the scaffold. Don Ramon, whom I saw with the guard, told me that the prisoner had remained firm to the last; and that as the physician had pronounced he had not more than four-and-twenty hours to live without a change of diet, it had been judged better to bring the fearful ordeal to an end, and put him to death at once.
"The Governor is very much moved," he said. "I never saw him so much affected in my life. But his duty must be done, you know, and he has tried every thing to save him."
I had to wait a long while—at least the time seemed frightfully long to me; for I was in a state of nervous excitement indescribable. All sorts of passions seemed warring in my breast, and when the executioner took his place behind the chair, I felt that if I had had a pistol with me I should have shot him. At length came the roll of a muffled drum; for in those days they performed such acts with ceremony at Havana; and being a tall man, as you see, could descry the terrible procession winding on over the heads of the crowd. In that procession, however, there was but one figure that my eves particularly remarked. I caught a glimpse indeed of a Catholic priest in his robes, and several functionaries; but the Baron de Boisrobin was all to me.
He was very pale and terribly emaciated. He was evidently feeble too; how could he be otherwise? But still he marched with a military air and a firm step, his head raised and erect, and his eye running over the crowd of people which nearly filled the Plaza. As he came near, his eye lighted upon me; a smile, transient but pleasant, passed over his worn features, and he slightly inclined his head. He mounted the few steps leading to the platform with as much firmness and dignity as if he had been about to take his place on a throne, and seated himself in the fatal chair without profering a word to the populace, who could not have understood much of what he said, whether he had spoken in French or in Spanish. They tied down his arms, and then the executioner fastened the hateful collar round his neck, while a priest held up the crucifix before his eyes. I could not perceive the slightest change of countenance, and the minister of vengeance took the fatal screw in his hands.
At that moment the Governor's secretary stepped up to his side, and addressed him in French in a loud voice, supposing, I imagine, that his thoughts might be confused and require arousing before he could comprehend.
"Monsieur," he said, "his Exeelleney the Governor is touched with your courage and your chivalrous character, and is willing to make one more effort to save you from a terrible fate. He now by my lips offers you what must do away with all scruples on the score of honor. He bids me say, that if you will state where your comrades landed, and where on your conscience you believe they are to be found, not only shall you yourself have life and liberty, but they also shall be pardoned."
Every word reached me clear and distinct, for the whole crowd kept breathless silence at that moment, and I gazed on Boisrobin's face with eager hope. I could see he was shaken. A momentary look of hesitation passed over his fine countenance; but then a stern, resolute expression succeeded.
"Tell the Governor," he said, "I thank him. When we four departed from France we swore never in any circumstances to betray each other, and to aim at our own object till death ended our efforts. They may succeed, though I have failed!"
He ceased. The secretary took a step back and made a sign. The vile screw turned; the gallant man's head fell suddenly forward on his bosom, and a fiend-like shout burst forth from the mob.
I have never been in Havana since, for the sight of that spot would be insupportable to me.