“Yon swaggering bully is an arrant coward,” said Gervase, “and I wonder how he came to be chosen for a work like this. For all his bluster I saw that he was quailing, and I was determined that he should hear the truth for once in his life.”
“He didn´t hear a third of it, but I´m thinking he heard as much as was good for him. Will they move, think ye?”
“He´s a man at any rate; I´d like to know what he says.”
“That we´ll see what we´ll see. He thinks my speech hath done little harm, but I know not whether it hath done any good. God grant that it hath.”
“Amen and Amen to that. Now let us go aboard, and let us see whether your adventure has taken away your appetite.”
CHAPTER XX. OF HOW THE GREAT DELIVERANCE WAS WROUGHT.
On their regaining the deck of the _Phoenix_ McKeller manifested great anxiety to hear the result of the interview, and the master had a greatly interested audience as he proceeded to describe the scene with many embellishments and quaint touches of his own. What seemed to have struck him most was Kirke´s helpless rage, and the speechless anger he exhibited at the attack upon his courage and capacity.
Gervase lay against the bulwarks listening without a word; his eyes were fixed on the square tower of the Cathedral rising through the pall of smoke that overhung the city. In thought he saw the haggard gunners on the war-torn battlements, and the sorrowing crowd pouring out from the morning service. His mind was filled with the horror and misery of it, and his heart was bitter within him. He suddenly started and cleared his eyes as if he could not trust his sight; then he looked again. “Merciful God!” he cried, “the flag is down.”
The little knot of men round him turned to look too, and they saw with sinking hearts that the flag, the garrison´s token of defiance, was no longer waving on the Cathedral tower. A great silence fell upon them all--a silence in which one heard the lapping of the water about the bows and the distant scream of the sea-birds, startling and shrill.
“God´s curse light on all traitors and cowards!” cried McKeller.
Then they saw two jets of fire spurt forth from the tower, and a little later the sullen roar of the ordnance, and the hope came into their hearts that it was only in sign of their dire extremity that the garrison had hauled down the flag. And they waited and watched, and again they heard the thunder of the cannon pealing from the tower. Then above the crown of smoke they saw the crimson flag run up the staff, and they knew the city was still inviolate. An involuntary cheer broke from the crew of the _Phoenix_, which was taken up by the other vessels, and a minute or two afterwards the _Swallow_ fired a salvo in response.