Page:Once a Week June to Dec 1863.pdf/724

714 this coast reach the altitude of forty feet. By the signs which are placed on some of these rocks, the fisherman is able to run his boat ashore without risk of bringing it in contact with the sharp granite points concealed within a few inches of the surface; but though the fisherman, who has been accustomed to the port from his boyhood, may do this, any other man attempting it would surely be wrecked, and in that case his chances of escape from death would be small indeed. Strangely as the name of this castle may sound in English ears, it is associated with events among the most interesting in our national history. Held in turn by Frenchmen, Englishmen, and natives of the island, all of whom have been besiegers and besieged, there can hardly be a square yard of the rock on which it stands from which a soul has not departed to give an account of its deeds. Sometimes it has been a place of refuge, at other times a prison. It was the former to the young man Charles Stuart, the latter to the unfortunate Prynne, the uncompromising enemy of his house, whose miserable cell is still to be seen. In fact, the castle is still in excellent preservation, and little injured by the events of the past; and so slight is the influence which time can exercise on the granite blocks of which it is built, that it may continue to occupy its present position for ages to come.

Not many days since, while examining the external works, my eye was caught by the appearance of a chain dangling from the wall of the highest part of the castle. The links were of considerable thickness, and were terminated by a stout ring; the upper end of the chain being attached to the wall by means of a staple driven into the mortar between two stones as far below the parapet as a man could reach by bending over. I afterwards found that this chain, though strong in appearance, was in reality so eaten into by rust as to be incapable of sustaining even a moderate weight. At the moment when my attention was first drawn to it I was conversing with an old gentleman, who had selected the lower parapet as an eligible spot from which to enjoy the view and his book, and at the same time to inhale the pure air which swept across the sea. Though a stranger—or, perhaps, because I was a stranger—to him, he freely gave me all the information concerning the castle which he possessed; and if he had lived in it all his days, and his days had been as many as those of Methuselah, and he had been a witness of the landing of Cæsar on the part of the island where it stands, I doubt whether he could have been better acquainted with the minute details of its history. To my inquiry as to the purpose for which the chain was fastened in such a place, he replied:

“That chain is connected with one of the most exciting incidents enacted here, and but for its assistance England would never have numbered among its kings a second Charles Stuart.”

“Will you be good enough,” I asked, “to tell me what that incident was?”

“Certainly,” he answered.

I seated myself on one of the guns, and imagining, from the deliberate manner in which the old gentleman chose a spot to sit down upon, that his tale would be a long one, I lighted a cigar, which I had bought at a shop before beginning the ascent, in payment for which I had tendered a shilling, and received in return the cigar and twelvepence change—an advantageous arrangement for the purchaser, not attainable, I imagine, in any other portion of Her Majesty’s dominions.

During the time (he began) that King Charles was in Jersey, several attempts were made to carry him off by private adventurers, who knew that wealth, if not honours, would be accorded to the man who should be fortunate enough to place him in the hands of Cromwell. Among those whose ambition or thirst for gold, or some other motive, prompted them to ponder on a method of effecting his capture, was a man whose real name was unknown, but who was afterwards spoken of by the natives of Jersey as the Gipsy, or Captain Whitehead. That he was not really a gipsy, however, was evident from his appearance. Though swarthy as one of that race, he had not their dark hair or eyes, but, on the contrary, was a fair-haired man with blue eyes. He was rather short and strongly built, wore his hair and beard cut close; and his aspect altogether is said to have excited the suspicion that he was of a very superior class to the gipsies with whom he associated. By some he was said to have joined these wanderers out of love for a girl of the gang, others said he had been a soldier among the Royalists, and had been bribed by the Parliamentarians to try to capture the fugitive prince; and many other rumours were current in the island concerning him. Probably most of these rumours were only originated after the occurrence I am going to tell you; but one thing is pretty certain, that he was a man of great determination, and, whether actuated solely by hatred of Charles, or by this feeling and ambition combined, that he was no stranger to him.

I should mention here that what I am about to relate came to my knowledge while examining a great chest of papers which was left by my wife’s father, who was one of the jurats of the island. The manuscript was not in his writing, though not unlike it, which satisfied me that if not written by him, it was probably written by his father or grandfather; for I dare say you have noticed that a striking resemblance exists in the handwriting of the male descendants of a family: I have myself seen this resemblance so strong, that it was only by a close comparison I could detect any difference in that of the father or the grandfather, and their issue.

The tide was dashing fiercely against a rugged mass of granite, beating itself into a heap of foam, or flying into the air in large drops, which sparkled like diamonds where the misty vapour which rose with them was thin enough to allow the white rays of the morning sun to shine upon them. On this rock was seated two gipsies, one of whom, with outstretched arm, was trying to indicate the exact position of a boat to Captain Whitehead, who was standing a little above them, his hand held above his eyes to shield them from the sun.

“Aye,” said the captain, “I can see it plainly enough. Turner must be a fool to keep on