Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver
So I thought it best not to undeceive the industrious wretches, and,
accordingly, dismissed each of them with a few kind words, and
promised to accept their offers when I became a little more familiar
with my quarters.
After breakfast, I made a tour of the corridors, to see whether the
representations of my morning courtiers were true; and found the
shoemakers and tailors busy over toeless boots and patchwork garments.
One alcove contained the violinist and dancing-master, giving lessons
to several scapegraces in the _terpsichorean_ art; in another was the
letter-writer, laboriously adorning a sheet with cupids, hearts,
flames, and arrows, while a love-lorn booby knelt beside him,
dictating a message to his mistress; in a hall I found two pupils of
Monsieur Laramie at _quart_ and _tierce_; in the corridors I came upon
a string of tables, filled with cigars, snuff, writing-paper, ink,
pens, wax, wafers, needles and thread; while, in the remotest cell, I
discovered a pawnbroker and gambling-table. Who can doubt that a real
Gaul knows how to kill time, when he is unwillingly converted into a
"government boarder," and transfers the occupations, amusements, and
vices of life, to the recesses of a prison!
* * * * *
Very soon after my incarceration at Brest, I addressed a memorial to
the Spanish consul, setting forth the afflictions of twenty-two of his
master's subjects, and soliciting the interference of our ambassador
at Paris. We were promptly visited by the consul and an eminent
lawyer, who asserted his ability to stay proceedings against the
ratification of our sentence; but, as the Spanish minister never
thought fit to notice our misfortunes, the efforts of the lawyer and
the good will of our consul were ineffectual. Three months glided by,
while I lingered at Brest; yet my heart did not sink with hope
delayed, for the natural buoyancy of my spirit sustained me, and I
entered with avidity upon all the schemes and diversions of our
stronghold.
Blon kept me busy discounting his twenty _sous_ notes, which I
afterwards always took care to lose to him at cards. Then I patronized
the dancing-master; took two months' lessons with Laramie and Zouche;
caused my shoes to be thoroughly mended; had my clothes repaired and
scoured; and, finally, patronized all the various industries of my
comrades, to the extent of two hundred francs.
Suddenly, in the midst of these diversions, an order came for our
immediate transfer to the _civil prison_ of Brest, a gloomy tower in
the walled _chateau_ of that detestable town.
CHAPTER XLV.
I was taken from one prison to the other in a boat, and once more
spared the mortification of a parade through the streets, under a
guard of soldiers.
A receipt was given for the whole squad to the _brigadier_ who
chaperoned us. My men were summarily distributed by the jailer among
the cells already filled with common malefactors; but, as the
appearance of the _officers_ indicated the possession of cash, the
turnkey offered "_la salle de distinction_" for our use, provided we
were satisfied with a monthly rent of ten _francs_. I thought the
French government was bound to find suitable accommodations for an
involuntary guest, and that it was rather hard to imprison me first,
and make me pay board afterwards; but, on reflection, I concluded to
accept the offer, hard as it was, and, accordingly, we took possession
of a large apartment, with two grated windows looking upon a narrow
and sombre court-yard.
We had hardly entered the room, when a buxom woman followed with the
deepest curtseys, and declared herself "most happy to have it in her
power to supply us with beds and bedding, at ten sous per day." She
apprised us, moreover, that the daily prison fare consisted of two
pounds and a half of black bread, with water _a discretion_, but if we
wished, she might introduce the _vivandiere_ of the regiment,
stationed in the chateau, who would supply our meals twice a day from
the mess of the petty officers.
My money had not been seriously moth-eaten during our previous
confinement, so that I did not hesitate to strike a bargain with
Madame Sorret, and to request that _la vivandiere_ might make her
appearance on the theatre of action as soon as possible. Presently,
the door opened again, and the dame reappeared accompanied by two
Spanish women, wives of musicians in the corps, who had heard that
several of their countrymen had that morning been incarcerated, and
availed themselves of the earliest chance to visit and succor them.
For the thousandth time I blessed the noble heart that ever beats in
the breast of a Spanish woman when distress or calamity appeals, and
at once proceeded to arrange the diet of our future prison life. We
were to have two meals a day of three dishes, for each of which we
were to pay fifteen _sous in advance_. The bargain made, we sat down
on the floor for a chat.
My brace of Catalan visitors had married in this regiment when the
Duke d'Angouleme marched his troops into Spain; and like faithful
girls, followed their husbands in all their meanderings about France
since the regiment's return. As two of my officers were Catalonians by
birth, a friendship sprang up like wildfire between us, and from that
hour, these excellent women not only visited us daily, but ran our
errands, attended to our health, watched us like sisters, and procured
all those little comforts which the tender soul of the sex can alone
devise.
I hope that few of my readers have personal knowledge of the treatment
or fare of civil prisons in the provinces of France during the
republican era of which I am writing. I think it well to set down a
record of its barbarity.
As I before said, the _regular ration_ consisted exclusively of black
bread and water. Nine pounds of straw were allowed weekly to each
prisoner for his _lair_. Neither blankets nor covering were furnished,
even in the winter, and as the cells are built without stoves or
chimneys, the wretched convicts were compelled to huddle together in
heaps to keep from perishing. Besides this, the government denied all
supplies of fresh raiment, so that the wretches who were destitute of
friends or means, were alive and hideous with vermin in a few days
after incarceration. No amusement was allowed in the fresh air save
twice a week, when the prisoners were turned out on the flat roof of
the tower, where they might sun themselves for an hour or two under
the muzzle of a guard.
Such was the treatment endured by twelve of my men during the year
they continued in France. There are some folks who may be charitable
enough to remark--_that slavers deserved no better!_
I believe that convicts in the central prisons of France, where they
were either made or allowed to work, fared better in every respect
than in the provincial lock-ups on the coast. There is no doubt,
however, that the above description at the epoch of my incarceration,
was entirely true of all the smaller jurisdictions, whose culprits
were simply doomed to confinement without labor.
Often did my heart bleed for the poor sailors, whom I aided to the
extent of prudence from my slender means, when I knew not how long it
might be my fate to remain an inmate of the chateau. After these
unfortunate men had disposed of all their spare garments to obtain now
and then a meagre soup to moisten their stony loaves, they were nearly
a year without tasting either meat or broth! Once only,--on the
anniversary of ST. PHILIPPE,--the Sisters of Charity gave them a pair
of bullock's heads to make a _festival_ in honor of the Good King of
the French!
CHAPTER XLVI.
As the apartment rented by us from the jailer was the only one in the
prison he had a right to dispose of for his own benefit, several other
culprits, able to pay for comfortable lodgings, were from time to time
locked up in it. These occasional visitors afforded considerable
entertainment for our seclusion, as they were often persons of quality
arrested for petty misdemeanors or political opinions, and sometimes
_chevaliers d'industrie_, whose professional careers were rich with
anecdote and adventure.
It was probably a month after we began our intimacy with this
"government boarding-house" that our number was increased by a
gentleman of cultivated manners and foppish costume. He was, perhaps,
a little too much over-dressed with chains, trinkets, and perfumed
locks, to be perfectly _comme il faut_, yet there was an intellectual
power about his forehead and eyes, and a bewitching smile on his lips,
that insinuated themselves into my heart the moment I beheld him. He
was precisely the sort of man who is considered by nine tenths of the
world as a very "fascinating individual."
Accordingly, I welcomed the stranger most cordially in French, and was
still more bewitched by the retiring shyness of his modest demeanor.
As the jailer retired, a wink signified his desire to commune with me
apart in his office, where I learned that the new comer had been
arrested under a charge of _counterfeiting_, but on account of his
genteel appearance and blood, was placed in our apartment. I had no
doubt that neither appearance nor blood had been the springs of
sympathy in the jailer's heart, but that the artificial money-maker
had judiciously used certain lawful coins to insure better quarters.
Nevertheless, I did not hesitate to approve the turnkey's disposal of
the suspected felon, and begged him to make no apologies or give
himself concern as to the quality of the article that could afford us
a moment's amusement in our dreary den.
I next proceeded to initiate my gentleman into the mysteries of the
_chateau_; and as dinner was about serving, I suggested that the most
important of our domestic rites on such occasions, imperatively
required three or four bottles of first-rate claret.
By this time we had acquired a tolerable knack of "slaughtering the
evening." Our Spanish girls supplied us with guitars and violins,
which my comrades touched with some skill. We were thus enabled to
give an occasional _soiree dansante_, assisted by la Vivandiere, her
companions Dolorescita, Concha, Madame Sorret, and an old maid who
passed for her sister. The arrival of the counterfeiter enabled us to
make up a full cotillon without the musicians. Our _soirees_,
enlivened by private contributions and a bottle or two of wine, took
place on Thursdays and Sundays, while the rest of the week was passed
in playing cards, reading romances, writing petitions, flirting with
the girls, and cursing our fate and the French government. Fits of
wrath against the majesty of Gaul were more frequent in the early
morning, when the pleasant sleeper would be suddenly roused from happy
dreams by the tramp of soldiers and grating bolts, which announced the
unceremonious entrance of our inspector to count his cattle and sound
our window gratings.
But time wastes one's cash as well as one's patience in prison. The
more we grumbled, danced, drank, and eat, the more we spent or
lavished, so that my funds looked very like a thin sediment at the
bottom of the purse, when I began to reflect upon means of
replenishing. I could not beg; I was master of no handicraft; nor was
I willing to descend among the vermin of the common chain-gang. Shame
prevented an application to my relatives in France or Italy; and when
I addressed my old partner or former friends in Cuba, I was not even
favored with a reply. At last, my little trinkets and gold chronometer
were sacrificed to pay the lawyer for a _final memorial_ and to
liquidate a week's lodging in advance.
"Now, _mon enfant_," said Madame Sorret, as she took my
money,--trimming her cap, and looking at me with that thrifty interest