THE SAVING SHOT.

Little or nothing could be done by Captain Stevens that night. His men were exhausted, and threw themselves down anywhere and everywhere. The proprietor of the tavern took Fernando, Sukey, Terrence and Lieutenant Willard of the marines to his house, where they were furnished beds and slept soundly.

The morning of September 14, 1814, came. Fernando, at his request, was awakened early, and with Lieutenant Willard went out to examine the fort and artillery. It was scarcely daylight when they mounted the works and gazed off the bay. They could not see as far as Duck and Mud Islands, and sat down upon the gun carriages to await the rising of the sun.

A hundred stalwart Marylanders came from their houses with axes, picks and shovels, ready to resume work on the redoubt.

"Lieutenant Willard." said Fernando, "your judgment is perhaps better than mine. Will you give these men direction in regard to the works?"

Lieutenant Willard mounted the earthworks and walked along the entire line, closely inspecting them and directing the improvement of what was already quite a formidable fortification.

The guns were next examined and changed so as to more completely sweep the bay. While the lieutenant was doing this, Fernando, with three or four fishermen went down to the water with a glass to take a look for the Xenophon. She could be seen still anchored off Mud Island.

"The vind be strong off shore," said Tris Penrose the Cornish fisherman. "Aw, she cannot sail in the teeth o' it."

"How far is it to Mud Island?" asked Fernando.

"It be about five mile," the fisherman answered.

"I am going out to that headland!" he said pointing to the rocky promontory.

"It be dangerous, Capen; the ship's big guns, they reach to the headland;" but Fernando insisted on being rowed to the headland, and four fishermen, including Tris Penrose, took him to it in a boat. The memories this early morning visit awoke in his breast are indescribable. Years seemed to have been rolled back, and he was once more with Morgianna, within the pale of hope. Ascending the promontory, he saw the Xenophon lying at anchor not over three or four miles away. Two boats loaded down with marines put off from the ship and rowed to the point of land half a mile away. There they landed, formed, and marched to reinforce Matson on the neck of the peninsula. Three hundred men and two small cannon were now on land.

Fernando went back, convinced that for some hours at least the attack would be delayed. Lieutenant Willard was working with a will to strengthen the redoubt. Bomb-proof apartments were made for the women and children. They were still uncertain of the fate of Baltimore, and knew that the whole coast was threatened by the British fleet.

While sitting at breakfast, Fernando received a note from Captain Lane informing him that a sudden attack of rheumatism prevented him from leaving his bed, and asked him to call at the house if he wished to consult him. Never in his life was Fernando more glad to receive a summons, and never did he so dread answering it.

"I am foolish!" he thought. "She cares nothing for me. She has told me as much, and she cannot have changed her mind. I will go, but as the commandant and not as a supplicant--or lover."

Fernando was in the uniform of a captain of infantry of 1812, the handsomest uniform ever adopted by the American army. His dark blue coat, buttoned to his chin, his sash, his belt and gilt sword, his chapeau-bras with flowing plume, set off his manly form.

Fernando, as he ascended the path to the house, did not dream that he was heroic or fine-looking.

When he reached the house, he paused a moment on the piazza, just as he had on that evening five years before, to school his rebellious heart. To his knock a servant answered, and he was hurried up to the room of Captain Lane. At every corner he expected Morgianna; but she did not appear. Perhaps she was with her father; but no, the captain was alone.

"It's too bad, Captain Stevens," the old sea-dog declared. "Here I am with this infernal rheumatism holding me down like an anchor, when we are threatened with a squall."

"Don't trouble yourself, captain," said Fernando. "I fancy there are young men enough to fight our battles."

"But one likes to have a hand in such affairs, you know."

"Certainly, but don't worry yourself. The wind is still off shore, and the bay is so narrow that, unless they get out a warp, they cannot haul in the Xenophon."

"I have wondered they did not do that before," said the old sailor. "It could be done."

"Perhaps they have some other plan. They landed a hundred more men this morning."

"They can't be going to make a land attack."

"No, the land forces are to cut off retreat."

"It's that infernal Matson--Lieutenant Matson--curse him! He is the son of my friend; but I say curse him, for all that!" cried the old sea-dog, his face expressing mingled rage and agony.

"Is he in command?" asked Fernando. Before either could speak, a light tread warned Fernando that a third person had entered the room. He started to his feet and, turning about, bowed to Morgianna.

"Captain Stevens, I am proud to welcome you back to Mariana; but I am sorry it could not have been under other circumstances." She was beautiful--more beautiful than when he left; but there was not expressed by either voice, eye, or flushed cheek any symptom of a more tender regard than friendship. Fernando had so schooled himself, that, as he took her hand, he said in a most commonplace manner:

"I was sent here, Miss Lane. I am a soldier, and wherever duty calls, I go, be it pleasant or unpleasant."

Morgianna was not prepared for this. The cool, off-hand manner seemed to hardly indicate the respect of friendship. Her face grew deathly pale for a moment, and she almost ceased breathing; but she gained her self-control, and, in a tone as commonplace and cool as his own, hoped he was well and that he would not be killed in the coming struggle. The coming struggle with the Xenophon was nothing compared to his present struggle. Fernando still loved Morgianna. Five years had only added to the intensity of his love; but he had once made a simpleton of himself, and he determined not to do so again. Thus two hungry souls, thirsting for each other's love, acted the cold part of casual acquaintances. Could the veil have been lifted, could the barriers have been broken down, what misery might have been spared! but it is ever thus. Humanity is contradictory and the heart's impulses are held in check.

"Miss Lane, this house cannot be a safe place in the coming struggle," said Fernando. "We have prepared bomb-proof shelters for the women and children, and I hope you will accept refuge in one."

She said something about her father.

"He shall be cared for. I hope you will let me send a sergeant with a dozen men to convey you both to a place of safety."

She assented, and he left. Her face was still white, her chin was quivering, and her eyes were growing moist.

"What's the matter, Morgianna?" asked Captain Lane.

She did not venture an answer, but running to her own room, fell weeping on the couch.

"After five long years, to return so changed--so cold--oh, God, this punishment is greater than I can bear!" she sobbed.

By the middle of the afternoon, the wind changed slightly, shifting to the northeast, and some activity was evinced on board the Xenophon. Fernando thought longer delay was dangerous. Captain Lane and his daughter, with all other women and children, were conveyed to the bomb-proof houses, which had been constructed for them. He was so busy all that day, that he only caught an occasional glimpse of Morgianna.

When night came, the Xenophon had left her moorings, and Fernando predicted she would be brought in broadside to begin the cannonade at daybreak. He retired to his bed at eleven o'clock and at four Lieutenant Willard came to him and said: "Captain, the wind has shifted due east."

"How is the night?"

"Dark and cloudy."

"Can anything be seen of the Xenophon?"

"No."

"Send a dozen men to the promontory and build a fire. The light would show her to us."

A dozen bold fishermen, who knew the coast well, went out in their boats, hugging the rocky shore until the promontory was gained, and gathering up great heaps of driftwood on the edge of the bluff, set it on fire, and pulled back.

As the flames shot up, they revealed the Xenophon slowly and carefully feeling her way into the bay. Not a shot was fired, for she was still far away.

Thus the night wore on. Day began to dawn slowly, and as the first light fell on bay and sea it revealed the dread enemy lying like a monster sea-bird in the bay, not a mile away.

The Xenophon was in no hurry to commence. She had her prey so that there was no possible chance of escape, and the officers and men ate breakfast and walked about the deck, talking and joking on the work before them. Through a powerful glass, which Captain Lane furnished him, Fernando recognized Captain Snipes standing on the quarter deck, smoking a cigar.

Fernando had the guns loaded and shotted. They were sighted and ready when the Xenophon should take the initiative.

"Say, Capen, dat Britisher doan git dis chile no more," said Job. "I can't find my real massa, but, by golly, I've saved up fifty dollars to buy a new one, 'fore I go for to be a Britisher agin."

Before Fernando could answer, Sukey came running along the breastwork and said:

"Fernando! Fernando--he is there! Captain Snipes is aboard that ship!"

Sukey's face was deathly white, and his fingers convulsively clutched the air as if grasping at an imaginary throat.

Fernando was standing on the parapet, when a wreath of smoke curled up from the ship's side, followed by the boom of a heavy gun, and a ball came whizzing through the air, and struck the breastwork.

It was nine minutes after ten o'clock when the first shot was fired. This shot was the signal for a broadside, and a shower of balls with three or four shells came screaming through the air striking the walls of the fort, or exploding over it. One of the shells buried itself in the sand but a few feet from Fernando, and burst, scattering sand and gravel over him.

"Fire!" cried Fernando, without moving from his position.

Immediately the thirty-two pounder and four smaller guns belched forth fire and thunder. Fernando watched the effect through the glass. The thirty-two went wild, and the shots from the smaller pieces fell short. He turned and gave some instructions to the gunners, while a shell came screaming over his head and burst a short distance away, killing one of the marines.

"Fernando, there ain't no need of you standing up there!" cried Sukey. "You ain't in the game, till we get near enough to use rifles."

"Divil a bit will the blackguards iver come near enough for that," cried Terrence, boldly mounting the breastwork. "Captain, lave me have a squint through yer glass," and Terrence, assuming a liberty which he only could, took the glass from his hand. The screaming shell and whistling shot continued to come from the Xenophon. "Faith, thim bees buzz nicely round a fellow's ears," added Terrence.

Fernando seized his glass, when the thirty-two was again sighted and fixed it on the ship. As the heavy boom shook the earth, he saw a great splash of water twelve feet from the bow.

"Let some one else train the gun," he cried. "You miss the mark."

All appeals to Fernando to come down from his dangerous position were unavailing. His anxiety to pierce the Xenophon with the thirty-two kept him on the parapet directing the gunners, while balls and shells shrieked about him. Job tried three shots; but only one did any injury, and that was some insignificant damage to the rigging. Fernando saw at once their disadvantage.

"Oh, if we only had one experienced gunner, he would drive the ship from the harbor," he thought.

Lieutenant Willard tried three or four shots, and one struck the bow. With glass in hand, Fernando remained on the earthworks, watching the effect of their balls and giving orders to the gunners, while balls and shells flew screaming around him. One shell exploded near the embrasure of one of the smaller guns killing one and wounding four. As yet, they had not touched one of the enemy, and the young commandant was chagrined, anxious and annoyed. He lost his temper and raved at the gunners, who were doing their best. They lacked science.

His brave riflemen stood under the earthworks, grasping their guns which were useless now, while they lamented that the Britons were not in range.

Officers, citizens and even privates implored Fernando to come down. A shell exploded in the air, and a piece grazed his shoulder, yet he kept his place on the rampart. Terrence Malone, who could see no reason for courting death, had sought shelter behind a gun carriage. Fernando's anxiety and mortification increased as he witnessed the repeated failures of his gunners to hull the Xenophon. Amid smoke, dust and whizzing missiles, he kept his post. The thunder of guns, the whizzing balls, and shrieking shells were unheard in his great anxiety to defeat the British.

Suddenly a hand clutched his arm, and a silvery voice, which he recognized in an instant, cried:

"This is folly! Come down--come down from this certain death!"

"Morgianna, you here!" he cried. "For Heaven's sake, go to the bomb-proof shelter. You must not expose yourself here."

"I will not go a step until you come from the rampart." She clung to him, and appealed so earnestly, the tears of anxiety and fear starting from her eyes, while her white, pleading face was upturned to his, that he could not deny her. All other appeals had been unheeded, but Morgianna's he could not refuse.

A wild cheer went up from the Americans within the fort as Morgianna descended from the redoubt with the daring captain. He hurried her away to the bomb-shelter, where her father lay raging and fuming, because his infirmity would not allow him to take part in the contest. Fernando obtained a promise from Morgianna that she would not venture from the shelter, by promising in return to keep off the redoubt.

The British shells were telling on the American fort. Though the walls were strong and resisted their balls, several men had fallen beneath their shells. Two solid shot and one shell struck Captain Lane's elegant mansion on the hill, fired from spite, as the house was far removed from the fort, and no one was near it. A cannon-ball entered the great, broad bay window overlooking the sea, made a wreck of the furniture in the parlor, crashed through the wall, shivering a tall mirror and spreading havoc in the room beyond.

The siege continued all day long, and late in the afternoon, just one hour before sunset, the redcoats appeared on the wooded hill back of the town, and opened fire with two small pieces and muskets. Fernando's riflemen had been waiting for this, and, with wild yells, they leaped the redoubts, deployed along the stone fences and houses and picked off the redcoats so rapidly, that they fled pell mell to their own works, glad to escape the bullets of those unerring riflemen.

The cannonade kept up until long after midnight. The sky was ablaze with circling shells, and the headlands reverberated with ten thousand echoes.

All the guns in the fort save the thirty-two were silent, for the smaller cannon at that range were useless. The soldiers in the fort lay on their arms, and Fernando slept none. With anxious face he went the rounds of the fort, occasionally watching through an embrasure the ship beyond and the circling shells. During the night, three more of their number were killed and six wounded, while as yet they had done the enemy no hurt.

Shortly after midnight, the firing grew slower and an hour later ceased altogether. Morning dawned slowly, and the flag still floated over the badly battered fort. A sullen, gloomy silence had fallen over the officers and men. They watched the enemy, who at daylight began to warp the ship in a little nearer, that her guns might be more effective. Fernando was silent and his brow dark. There seemed but one thing possible and that was defeat. Reinforcements need not be expected.

The Xenophon came a little nearer to shore, then let go her anchors again and lay broadside to the fort. It was quite evident that she was afraid to come too close, lest some blundering shot would strike her. All of a sudden, a sheet of flame and cloud of smoke from her side concealed the ship from view, and balls once more rained about the fort. The fire this day was more destructive than on the preceding. One house within the enclosure was completely battered down. The church which had been converted into a hospital was set on fire. Fernando discovered it in flames and ran thither to hurry out the wounded. Entering the burning building, through which a shell went screaming, he was horror-stricken and amazed to find Morgianna at one of the bunks, binding up the wounds of a sufferer.

"Morgianna, Morgianna!" he cried, "why do you risk your life here?"

"There is suffering and death here!" she answered. "Am I better than those who risk their lives for me?"

"Morgianna, you must not, yours is no common life--" he began. In the excitement of the moment he almost forgot himself. She was about to answer, when he said, "Noble woman! do not, for Heaven's sake, run needless danger."

They hurried the wounded from the burning building. Another house, lower down the hill, was also on fire. It was so near to the great gun, that the heat almost blistered the men who worked it, and for awhile their magazine was in great peril.

The soldiers did all in their power to extinguish the flames; but both church and house burned to the ground.

Night came once more, and the Americans were reduced to the sorest straits. Soon after dark, the cannonading ceased and a silence of death fell over the fort, broken only by the groans of some poor, wounded fellow. The people within the fort went about talking in whispers. Three bodies, which they had not had time to bury, lay, stark and silent under the shed, and there were nine fresh graves on the hillside. In addition, more than thirty of the defenders were disabled from wounds.

Captain Stevens, Sukey, Terrence and Lieutenant Willard were holding a consultation in a room of the old tavern. Lieutenant Willard said:

"Captain Stevens, there is no other alternative, we must surrender. To hold out longer is murder. If we had a few competent gunners we might drive her away, but with our inexperienced men, we are wasting ammunition and life to resist."

"There is one chance," said Fernando. "Perhaps we could carry the ship by the board."

"By the board! divil a bit!" put in Terrence. "Why they'd sink us all before we could get within a hundred yards of the plagued ship."

Sukey, remembering that Captain Snipes, his avowed enemy, was on board the Xenophon, was eager to make the effort to carry her by the board.

"It will be a desperate undertaking," said Lieutenant Willard. "If we had sailors instead of riflemen it might be done very easily; but it is a desperate chance; yet we are in a desperate situation."

"And faith ye'll come to a desperate end, if ye thry to carry that ship by the board," interrupted Terrence.

Fernando mustered three hundred men and, ascertaining there were boats to take them to the Xenophon, was about to give the orders to march to the water, when, suddenly, volley after volley of muskets and pistols rang out from the ship. The Americans had passed from the works and were drawn up on the sands. When they heard the firing at the Xenophon, they came to a halt, to guess and wonder at the cause.

It was decided to march the men by a round-about course to the promontory and embark in boats for the ship. By doing this, they could come upon the vessel from the side opposite to the fort, and effect a more complete surprise. Two dozen bold fishermen were entrusted to take the boats along the rocky shore to the point of embarkation. The night was quite dark, and, the water rough, so it required great skill to accomplish this difficult feat.

Fernando and his troops had gained the neck of land reaching to the promontory, and, fearing that the enemy might have landed a force there, and that they would be drawn into an ambuscade, he halted his troops in a dense growth of wood and left them with Lieutenant Willard, while he, with Sukey, Terrence and Job, crept forward to reconnoitre. They had almost reached the promontory, and, convinced that there was no one in ambush, were about to return to the main force, when suddenly an object presented itself to their eyes, which absolutely rooted them to the spot. At about twenty or thirty yards distant, where but the moment before the long line of horizon terminated the view, there now stood a strange figure, which might be six and might be twelve feet in height. It had evidently risen up out of the ground and was floating in the air, as there seemed to be nothing to connect it with the earth. There was a body of spotless white, an obscure mass which might be a head, and two long, white, straight arms, spread apart like a cross. This strange creature was advancing toward them.

"Oh, golly! massa, look ye dar! dat am a ghost!" whispered the darkey.

"A banshee, begorra!" said Terrence.

Fernando was impressed that the strange vision was the result of some English trickery, while Sukey, cocking his gun, declared:

"If it's mortal, I'll soon make it immortal."

"Hold, Sukey!" whispered Fernando, "let us see what it is before you fire."

"Golly! massa, it am comin' dis way!"

Fernando could see that the object, with its strange incongruous head, its long arms, of which it now seemed to have three or four, was advancing toward them over the uneven ground; and he gave the order to fall back until they were nearer the troops.

When within about one hundred paces, Fernando made a stand and cried:

"Halt!"

This was the first word uttered loud enough to reach the strange four-armed, one-headed, but legless spectre. It produced a wonderful effect, for the odd figure wheeled about and started off at something like a run. Sukey brought his gun to his shoulder and fired.

The report of the gun was the signal for the riflemen under Lieutenant Willard to charge, and all gave chase to the spectre.

"Don't fire another shot!" cried Fernando. The spectre had not gone a hundred paces, before it stumbled over a loose stone and fell. In a moment, Terrence Malone had seized it and cried:

"Huzzah! boys, I've caught the divil himsilf."

The spectre proved to be a very material like person in the form of a tall sailor with a white jacket and cap and blue trousers. His superabundance of arms could be accounted for by the long, white oar, which he had been carrying on his shoulder, and which he explained was his only weapon, offensive or defensive.

"Where are you from?" asked Fernando.

"I am from his majesty's frigate Xenophon," he answered.

"Are you a deserter?" asked Fernando.

"Yes, sir; I am an American by birth, and will die before I raise my hand against my country. To-day, because I refused to work at the guns, I was arrested, to be flogged in the morning, hung or shot at the pleasure of Captain Snipes."

"I believe I know that voice--" began Captain Stevens.

"Holy golly! it am Massa St. Mark!" yelled a voice behind them, and Job tore his way through the crowd and, flinging his arms about the sailor, cried: "Massa St. Mark! Massa St. Mark! am it you?"

"Faith, it's the best gunner in the British navy!" cried Terrence.

Fernando had no trouble in recognizing in the stranger the gentlemanly gunner of the Macedonian, who had saved him from being flogged. Terrence, Fernando, Job and Sukey crowded about the newcomer and for a moment plied him with questions. He explained that, having slipped his handcuffs, he rushed on deck, seized the oar, which he still carried, knocked down two sentries and leaped overboard. They fired a hundred shots at him; but, being an excellent swimmer, and the night being dark, he managed to escape. Lying on his back, holding to the oar, he watched for the flash of their guns and pistols, and, when they fired, ducked his head under the water.

The appearance of Mr. Hugh St. Mark naturally caused another consultation. He discouraged their desperate attempt to carry the ship by the board, and Fernando, after sending six fishermen to the headland to acquaint their companions there with the change, marched with his force back to the fort. An hour later the others came.

When day dawned, the Xenophon renewed her cannonading. Mr. Hugh St. Mark was given charge of the thirty-two, and after carefully measuring the distance with an experienced eye, he weighed the powder and loaded the gun. Fernando watched the flight of the first ball, which went whizzing over the leeward rail across the deck and out at the opposite port into the sea. The second shot cut some of the rigging. The British supposed those two shots accidents, but after the third, they were convinced that there was an experienced hand at the gun.

Fernando, in his anxiety to mark the effect of the third shot, forgot his promise to Morgianna and, with the glass in hand, mounted the rampart. The heavy boom of the cannon shook sea and shore. There was no need of a glass to mark the effects. The ball crashed through from side to side sending the splinters flying in every direction. A wild cheer rose from the fort, and Fernando saw five or six carried below the deck, while one of the guns was dismounted and useless. In a few seconds the great gun was again loaded. This, time the ball crashed through the hull. The fifth shot struck the mizzenmast about four feet above deck, and cut it almost away.

"Victory is ours!" cried Fernando, waving his sword in the air.

"Hurrah for ould Ireland and the United States foriver!" shouted Terrence, leaping on the embankment, and dancing a jig. But the Xenophon had not given up the contest yet. She continued to fire her balls and shells with murderous intent until the balls from St. Mark's direction had cut her mainmast down. It fell over on the lee side dragging with it the fore mainstay and crippling the rigging to such an extent that Captain Snipes began to fear he could not get his vessel out of the harbor. The weight of the mainmast hanging over the side of the vessel was so great that the vessel heeled over to leeward. A dozen carpenters with axes flew to cut away the wreck and the ship righted herself.

While others were rejoicing, Hugh St. Mark was busy sending ball after ball crashing into the Xenophon as if he had many old scores to settle. Sukey, who stood by his side, said:

"Mr. St. Mark, don't hit the captain--leave him for me."

The wind and tide bore the Xenophon to the mouth of the harbor just beyond the point of Duck Island, where she was temporarily safe from the balls of the avenging thirty-two.

It soon became evident that the land force under Lieutenant Matson intended to march to the point of land, embark, and return to the ship. Fernando determined to spoil their plan. He mustered two hundred and fifty of his soldiers, marines and militia and started to head them off. Lieutenant Willard was left alone in charge of the fort.

A villager who knew a nearer route guided them by it to a pass between two hills, where the Britons would be compelled to march. Sukey and Terrence were sent forward to reconnoitre, and as they came in sight of the narrow valley surrounded by hills they saw the head of the column of redcoats coming, their banner upheld to the breeze. Terrence wheeling about, ran with all speed back to the advancing soldiers, and cried:

"Come on, me boys! it's a divil's own time we'll have of it in the valley, all to ourselves."

"Halt! fix bayonets!" commanded Fernando. In a moment, the gleaming bayonets were on each gun. "Forward!--Double--Quick!"

The soldiers, at a run, dashed into the valley just as the British appeared, two volleys delivered in quick succession and they were at it steel to steel. Fernando, bareheaded, engaged a stout Briton in a hand-to-hand struggle, which a quick thrust from Sukey's bayonet ended. Next, Captain Stevens found himself hotly engaged with his old enemy Lieutenant Matson. Their blades flashed angrily for a moment, but as the lieutenant's men threw down their arms and begged for quarters, he realized the folly of resisting longer and yielded. His stubborn pride made the struggle hard. He offered his sword to his victor, which he politely declined.

"Keep your sword, lieutenant," said Fernando. "Though you are my enemy, I trust you have not forgotten that you are a gentleman."

"I trust not."

"You shall be paroled as soon as we reach the fort."

The Britons stacked their arms, and marched in double file under a guard to the fort. Oxen and carts were sent out for the arms and two pieces of artillery which were brought into the fort.

Silent and majestic as an uncrowned prince, seeming neither elated nor depressed by the victory, stood the gunner Hugh St. Mark by the side of the old thirty-two, with which he had fired the shots that saved the fort.

He was tall, straight, broad-shouldered, with hair once chestnut, but now almost gray. His age might be anywhere between forty and fifty years. So calm, majestic and mysterious did he seem, as, with folded arms, he stood gazing unconcernedly about him, that Fernando was constrained to ask himself:

"Who is he?"