Mr. Midshipman Easy, Frederick Marryat [best books to read for young adults .TXT] 📗

and he contrived to make a ladder with three or four poles which were upstairs, used for drying linen. He fixed them against the wall without noise, all ready for the evening. It was a beautiful, clear moonlight night, when he went up, accompanied by Jack. The air was again sung, and repeated by Gascoigne, who then softly mounted the ladder, held by Jack, and raised his head above the wall; he perceived a young Moorish girl, splendidly dressed, half-lying on an ottoman, with her eyes fixed upon the moon, whose rays enabled him to observe that she was indeed beautiful. She appeared lost in contemplation; and Gascoigne would have given the world to have divined her thoughts. Satisfied with what he had seen, he descended, and singing one of the airs, he then repeated the words, “Do not be afraid-I love you-I cannot speak your language.” He then sang another of the airs, and after he had finished he again repeated the words in Arabic; but there was no reply. He sang the third air, and again repeated the words, when, to his delight, he heard an answer in Lingua Franca.

“Can you speak in this tongue?”

“Yes,” replied Gascoigne, “I can, Allah be praised! Be not afraid-I love you.”

“I know you not; who are you? you are not of my people.”

“No, but I will be anything that you wish. I am a Frank, and an English officer.”

At this reply of Gascoigne there was a pause.

“Am I then despised?” said Gascoigne.

“No, not despised; but you are not of my people, or of my land; speak no more, or you will be heard.”

“I obey,” replied Gascoigne, “since you wish it; but I shall pine till tomorrow’s moon. I go to dream of you. Allah protect you!”

“How amazingly poetical you were in your language, Ned,” said Easy, when they went down into their room.

“To be sure, Jack, I’ve read the Arabian Nights. You never saw such eyes in your life; what a houri she is!”

“Is she as handsome as Agnes, Ned?”

“Twice as handsome by moonlight.”

“That’s all moonshine, and so will be your courting, for it will come to nothing.”

“Not if I can help it.

“Why, Gascoigne, what would you do with a wife?”

“Just exactly what you would do, Jack.”

“I mean, my dear Ned, can you afford to marry?”

“Not while the old Governor lives, but I know he has some money in the funds. He told me one day that I could not expect more than three thousand pounds. You know I have sisters.”

“And before you come into that you’ll have three thousand children.”

“That’s a large family, Jack,” replied Gascoigne, bursting out into laughter, in which our hero joined.

“Well, you know I only wanted to argue the point with you.”

“I know that, Jack. But I think we’re counting our chickens before they are hatched, which is foolish.”

“In every other case except when we venture upon matrimony.”

“Why, Jack, you’re becoming quite sensible.”

“My wisdom is for my friends, my folly for myself. Goodnight.”

But Jack did not go to sleep.

“I must not allow Gascoigne to do such a foolish thing,” thought he. “Marry a dark girl on midshipman’s pay, if he succeeds-get his throat cut if he does not.”

As Jack said, his wisdom was for his friends, and he was so generous that he reserved none for his own occasions.

Miss Julia Hicks, as we before observed, set the fashions at Tetuan, and her style of dress was not unbecoming. The Moorish women wore large veils, or they may be called what you will, for their head-dresses descend to their heels at times and cover the whole body, leaving an eye to peep with, and hiding everything else. Now Miss Hicks found this much more convenient than the bonnet, as she might walk out in the heat of the sun without burning her fair skin, and stare at everybody and everything without being stared at in return. She therefore never went out without one of these overalls, composed of several yards of fine muslin. Her dress in the house was usually of coloured sarcenet, for a small vessel came into the port one day during her father’s lifetime, unloaded a great quantity of bales of goods with English marks, and, as the vessel had gone out in ballast, there was a surmise on his part by what means they came into the captain’s possession. He therefore cited the captain up to the Governor, but the affair was amicably arranged by the vice-consul receiving about one quarter of the cargo in bales of silks and muslins. Miss Hicks had therefore all her dresses of blue, green, and yellow sarcenet, which, with the white muslin overall, made her as conspicuous as the only Frankish lady in the town had a right to be, and there was not a dog which barked in Tetuan which did not know the sister of the vice-consul, although few had seen her face.

Now it occurred to Jack, as Gascoigne was determined to carry on his amour, that in case of surprise it would be as well if he dressed himself as Miss Hicks. He proposed it to Gascoigne the next morning. who approved of the idea, and in the course of the day, when Miss Hicks was busy with Captain Hogg, he contrived to abstract one of her dresses and muslin overalls, which he could do in safety, as there were plenty of them, for Miss Hicks was not troubled with mantua-makers’ bills.

When Gascoigne went up on the roof the ensuing night, he put on the apparel of Miss Hicks, and looked very like her as far as figure went, although a little taller. He waited for the Moorish girl to sing, but she did not; so he crept up the ladder and looked over the wall, when he observed that she was reclining as before in deep thought. His head, covered with the muslin, caught her eye, and she gave a faint scream.

“Fear not, lady,” said Gascoigne, “it is not the first time that I have beheld that sweet face. I sigh for a companion. What would I not give to be sitting by your side! I am not of your creed, ‘tis true, but does it therefore follow that we should not love each other?”

The Moorish girl was about to reply, when Gascoigne received an answer from a quarter whence he little expected it. It was from the Moor himself, who, hearing his daughter’s scream, had come swiftly up to the roof.

“Does the Frankish lily wish to mingle her perfumes with the dark violet?” said he; for he had often seen the sister of the vice-consul, and he imagined it was she who had come on the roof and ascended the wall to speak with his daughter.

Gascoigne had presence of mind to avail himself of this fortunate mistake.

“I am alone, worthy Moor,” replied he, pulling the muslin over his face, “and I pine for a companion. I have been charmed by the nightingale on the roof of your dwelling; but I thought not to meet the face of a man when I took courage to climb this ladder.”

“If the Frankish lily will have courage to descend, she can sit by the side of the dark violet.’

Gascoigne thought it advisable to make no reply

“Fear not,” said the old Moor; “what is an old man but a woman!” and the Moor brought a ladder, which he placed against the wall.

After a pause Gascoigne said, “It is my fate”; and he then descended, and was led by the Moor to the mattress upon which his daughter reclined. The Moor then took his seat near them, and they entered into conversation. Gascoigne knew quite enough of the vice-consul and his sister to play his part, and he thought proper to tell the Moor that her brother wished to give her as wife to the captain of the ship, whom she abhorred, and would take her to a cold and foggy climate; that she had been born here, and wished to live and die here, and would prefer passing her life in his women’s apartments to leaving this country. At which, Abdel Faza, for such was his name, felt very amorous. He put his hand to his forehead, salaamed, and told Gascoigne that his zenana, and all that were in it, were hers, as well as his house and himself. After an hour’s conversation, in which Azar, his daughter, did not join, the old Moor asked Gascoigne to descend into the women’s apartment; and observing his daughter’s silence, said to her-

“Azar, you are angry that this Frankish houri should come to the apartments of which you have hitherto been sole mistress. Fear not, you will soon be another’s, for Osman Ali has asked thee for his wife, and I have listened to his request.”

Now Osman Ali was as old as her father, and Azar hated him. She offered her hand tremblingly, and led Gascoigne into the zenana. The Moor attended them to the threshold, bowed, and left them.

That Gascoigne had time to press his suit, and that he did not lose such a golden opportunity, may easily be imagined, and her father’s communication relative to Osman Ali very much assisted our midshipman’s cause.

He left the zenana, like most midshipmen, in love; that is, a little above quicksilver boiling heat. Jack, who had remained in a state of some suspense all this time, was not sorry to hear voices in an amicable tone, and in a few minutes afterwards he perceived that Gascoigne was ascending the ladder. It occurred to our hero that it was perhaps advisable that he should not be seen, as the Moor in his gallantry might come up the ladder with his supposed lady. He was right, for Abdel Faza not only followed her up the ladder on his side but assisted her to descend on the other, and with great ceremony took his leave.

Gascoigne hastened to Jack, who had been peeping, and gave him a detail of what had passed, describing Azar as the most beautiful, fascinating, and fond creature that ever was created. After half an hour’s relation he stopped short, because he discovered that Jack was fast asleep.

The visits of Gascoigne were repeated every night; old Abdel Faza became every time more gallant, and our midshipman was under the necessity of assuming a virtue if he had it not. He ‘pretended to be very modest.

In the meantime Captain Hogg continued his attentions to the real Miss Hicks. The mate proceeded to get the bullocks on board, and as more than three weeks had already passed away, it was time to think of departing for Toulon; but Captain Hogg was too much in love; and as for Gascoigne, he intended, like all midshipmen in love, to give up the service. Jack reasoned with the captain, who appeared to listen to reason, because Miss Hicks had agreed to follow his fortunes, and crown his transports in the transport Mary Ann. He therefore proposed that they should get away as fast as they could, and as soon as they had weighed the anchor he would come on shore, take off Miss Hicks, and make all sail for Toulon.

Jack might have suffered this; the difficulty was with Gascoigne, who would not hear of going away without his lovely Azar. At last Jack planned a scheme which he thought would succeed, and which would be a good joke to tell the Governor. He therefore appeared to consent to Gascoigne’s carrying off his little Moor, and they canvassed how it was to be managed. Jack then told Gascoigne that he had hit upon a plan which would succeed. “I find,” said he, “from Captain Hogg, that he has an intention of