One, midst the forests of the west,
By a dark stream is laid ——
The indian knows his place of rest,
Far in the cedar shade.
The Sea Mew swiftly breasted the bounding billows, bearing the lost children to the arms of their sorrowing parent; but the thoughts of our exile, as he marked hill after hill of the coast that were so rapidly left behind him on his return but had cost him so much toil to pass upon his journey northward, were of a very foreboding cast.
“True,” thought he, “I may fairly claim sorne consideration from the Colonel for preserving the lives of his children and for restoring them to his embrace in safety and in honour. But is it likely that an officer so high in the service will deem that he can even owe thanks to a doubly convicted felon? Will it not appear to him to be his duty to give me up to the law for punishment, which cannot fail to award me an ignominious death as having participated in an act of piracy, for such no doubt they will call the seizure of the little boat, especially as it was attended with a resistance to the authorities of Newcastle that ended in the death of at least one commissioned officer in the army.”
At length he bethought himself that as all his boat companions were dead it would be impossible for anyone to prove he had ever been of their party, and as there were every day, generally, some prisoners running away from the limeburners, who for the most part either perished miserably in the bush of starvation or joined the blacks, why might he not be believed if he stated that he had absconded by land as so many others had done before him? This result appeared so probable, and in case it should prove to be true, the consequences so trifling, that he resolved to attempt this method of escaping from the difficulty of his position, as he knew that at the worst the period of his banishment to the Coal river having long since expired, the only punishment likely to be inflicted on him for absconding would be perhaps fifty lashes, when he would revert to the condition of an ordinary convict.
The day prior to that of their expected arrival at Sydney, Rashleigh sought an interview with Mrs Marby and acquainted her, after apologizing for not having told her the truth before, that he was, in fact, a runaway, and that he trusted, in consideration of his services to her, she would endeavour to prevail upon Colonel Woodville to use Ins interest in obtaining pardon from the Governor for his colonial offences.
The lady heard his tale with great surprise, though she remarked she had often wondered at his superior intelligence; but with ready female wit she added, “As you have deceived me and all that are on board this vessel, you may deceive many others into the belief you are really an aboriginal black. So, for fear the Colonel may not have the power to get you your liberty, I desire you will not perrnit any other person to share in the secret you have told me until I shall request it. For, to say the least of it, it would be such a dreadful thing that you should lose your freedom through saving our lives as I cannot bear to think of; and it were better for you to fly into the wildest bush again, there to persevere in the savage mode of life you have now become accustomed to, than that you should again be subject to the miseries you relate having suffered at the place you ran away from. At any rate, I will do my best to interest my father in your behalf; but until I can do this, pray remain black, although I should like to see what kind of a white man you would make!”
There was an air of truthfulness in this lady’s address which inspired Rashleigh with confidence, so he lay down to rest with a much lighter heart; and ere he awoke next morning the Sea Mew was running up the harbour of Port Jackson. To the surprise of Captain Bell, our exile, instead of dressing himself in the best European clothes he had got, stripped himself of those he then wore, and assuming the opossum cloak and other paraphernalia of a native warrior, caused Enee to paint his body and dress up his hair with grass and feathers before he went on shore.
Colonel Woodville, having been informed of the safe arrival of his daughters, sent a carriage for them to the wharf, himself being confined to his bed of sickness. Mrs Marby requested our adventurer to accompany them to his residence, and Rashleigh left the schooner, promising the captain, who was very loath to part with him, that he would soon return. The Colonel’s domestics, who idolized their young ladies and had understood the obligations they lay under to the sooty personage who followed them, received Rashleigh very cordially, welcoming him to the house, where they said it was their master’s order an apartment was to be provided for Bealla — the native name of our exile — and his two gins. The former, however, was rather puzzled and not a little annoyed at the absurd remarks that greeted his every word and action, proceeding from the female servants, who were not long in the Colony and appeared to consider a native black of Australia as only a higher sort of brute; and they were consequently much astonished to observe that Ralph knew the usages of civilized life, until he told them he had been bred in a white family, when their exclamations of surprise at his having again taken to the bush almost deafened him.
In the afternoon Mrs Marby sent for our exile and informed him that the joy of their meeting had so much overpowered the Colonel as to make him rather worse. She said she had therefore postponed until another day any mention of the real position of their deliverer, whom, however, their father was most anxious to see, that he might return thanks in person for those exertions that had preserved his daughters. The lady also offered Rashleigh money and begged of him to bring Tita and Enee home to their house, which she insisted none of them were to quit any more, as the Colonel had declared, while he had a shilling left, Bealla and his gins should have a portion of it.
Ralph returned thanks for all this kindness and promised next day to bring the two females with him. He declined to receive any money, however, as he had several pieces of gold in his belt, and besides, only intended to go back on board the Sea Mew for that night. He then took his leave and returned to the vessel, where he found Captain Bell eagerly awaiting his arrival, and Tita and Enee not less so, the latter being very impatient to display a whole milliner’s shop of finery, which the captain and crew had purchased for their use, and both these sable specimens of feminine loveliness were now arrayed in costume which, considering that expense had not been spared to make a show, and that the steward, who purveyed the “rigging”, as he called it, had endeavoured as closely as he could to copy the dress worn by Poll Blazer of Portsmouth point, had at least the merit, perhaps a questionable one, of being exceedingly original; though to judge from the extraordinary attitudes assumed by both Tita and Enee, the latter considered their pink silk bonnets with enormous green veils streaming behind them in the breeze — as Captain Bell swore, like the commodious broad pendant — and surmounted by a host of magnificent blue and white feathers, as being the very ne plus ultra of black elegance. A burst of uproarious laughter from Ralph, as he surveyed the extraordinary. garb of the gins, rather discomposed the majestic airs of the latter; but Captain Bell, taking their part against our adventurer, good-humouredly said that he only laughed to conceal his anger at not being able to cut such a dash himself, when Enee at once pulled off her bonnet and begged Bealla to put it on. Nor was it until Ralph promised to go and dress himself that the gin could he induced to desist in pressing that novel head-dress for a male upon his notice.
At length they, and the urgent entreaties of the sailors, induced Rashleigh to array himself once more in European clothing; and although he put on a pair of broad pink-striped seaman’s trousers and an anchor-patterned shirt, with a flowing handkerchief, and all else to correspond, he was scarcely fine enough for the fastidious taste of the crew, who, with their captain at their head, now insisted on the whole party adjourning to a public-house, known as the Old Black Dog, on the Rocks, where a separate room, two fiddlers and a proportionate number of nymphs of the pavé being engaged, the jovial mariners passed the night in having what they called “a jolly good spree”, the party not breaking up until an hour after sunrise next morning, when they were fairly dead beat.
Night after night the same sport was pursued by the crew, and they would fain have had both Rashleigh and the gins to accompany them; but the former often excused himself, and the latter, who now lived with the ladies at Colonel Woodville’s mansion, could not be induced to go among the females on the Rocks any more, for they had been quite frightened by a fight that took place the first night between two of the ladies, and they used to say, “White man sometimes pretty quiet, but white woman big devil when they drink fire-water.”
It was nearly a month before Colonel Woodville recovered sufficiently to see our adventurer. When he did so he returned his warmest thanks to him as the preserver of three beings so dear to him that he declared he felt as if he could not have survived their loss. And the old gentleman, moved even to tears, on concluding, said, “Now, Bealla, if there’s anything in the world I can do for you, you have only got to name it. At any rate, you will always stop here, and I will take care neither you nor yours shall ever want.”
Rashleigh was much affected, and on looking to Mrs Marby, who was present, he thought he read in that lady’s eye permission to tell his true history to her father. So he said, “I hope, Colonel Woodville, for your daughter’s sake, you will pardon my having attempted to deceive you, for it was Mrs Marby that desired me to wait your recovery before I sought to make you acquainted with my true position. You see before you, Colonel, a runaway convict, one driven to abscond by such sufferings as rarely fall to the lot of human beings, but whose colonial career, at least, has been unstained by the commission of any crime, save that of attempting his escape from too galling a servitude.”
Colonel Woodville looked with amazement upon our exile, but spoke not for several minutes. At length he said, “I never felt until now how hard it may become to perform a duty. Still, hard though it be, it must be done. So long as I thought you to be unstained by crime, my home and all its comforts were free to you; but now that you have yourself avowed you are a fugitive criminal, I have but one course to adopt.”
Mrs Marby here stopped her father’s hand as he was about to ring the bell, saying in tones of the deepest emotion. “Oh papa, what are you about to do?”
“My duty, child, to give the runaway up,” replied her father, almost as much agitated as his daughter.
“What! Because he has saved all our lives and confided in your generosity, will you hand him back to those cruel beings that tortured him nearly to death before? Fly, Rashleigh! Seek the bush again! There you can live and there you must strive to forget the ingratitude of your countrymen; but if ever I can help you, you shall not reproach a woman with ingratitude.”
“No, lady!” replied our exile. “I do not blame the Colonel, for I know he is only about to do his duty. But I trust, if he should find what I have stated respecting my colonial career being free from crime is true, that he will intercede to prevent my being again sent back to the horrid scenes which I absconded to avoid.”
The Colonel had sunk into a seat. His head was buried in his hands. He said, “Neither man nor woman before could ever accuse Hugh Woodville of ingratitude. And you, Lucy, know not how you have wrung your father’s heart. But listen to ............