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Hold Fast, Tom · The Art of Story-Telling by Julia Darrow Cowles

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty eight of the Art of Storytelling with nearly
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  Speaker 1: half a hundred stories. This is a LibriVox recording. All
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
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  Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by
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  Speaker 1: Andy Glover, The Art of Storytelling by Julia Darywcowles, hold
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  Speaker 1: fast Tongue. The sun was setting over the Island of
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  Speaker 1: Saint Helena on a spring evening in sixteen seventy three,
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  Speaker 1: and in its red glow, the vast black cliffs stood
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  Speaker 1: out like the walls of a fortress above the great
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  Speaker 1: waste of lonely sea that lay around them as far
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  Speaker 1: as the eye could reach. Very quiet and very lonesome
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  Speaker 1: did it appear, that tiny islet of Saint Helena, far
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  Speaker 1: away in the heart of the boundless ocean. But there
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  Speaker 1: was one part of the island that was busy and
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  Speaker 1: noisy enough, and that was the spot where the low
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  Speaker 1: white houses and single church spire of Jamestown, half buried
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  Speaker 1: in clustering leaves, nestled in a deep gully close to
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  Speaker 1: the water's edge, walled in by two mighty precipices nearly
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  Speaker 1: a thousand feet in height, All along the line of
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  Speaker 1: forts and batteries perched like birds nests among the frowning
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  Speaker 1: crags that overhung the sea. There was an unwonted stir
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  Speaker 1: and bustle. Cannon were rumbling to and fro. Rusty pikes
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  Speaker 1: and muskets were being dragged forth and laid in readiness.
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  Speaker 1: Soldiers and buff jackets and big looped up hats were
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  Speaker 1: clustering along the ramparts, while hoarse words of command, clinking swords,
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  Speaker 1: the ceaseless tramp of feet, and the clatter of gunstocks
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  Speaker 1: and pike staves made every cranny of the surrounding cliffs
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  Speaker 1: echo again. What could it all be? It meant that
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  Speaker 1: the stout hearted Dutchman who had taken the island from
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  Speaker 1: England a few months before, were about to have their
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  Speaker 1: courage again put to the proof. Those five ships of
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  Speaker 1: war in the offing, coming down before the wind under
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  Speaker 1: a full press of sail, had just hoisted the red
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  Speaker 1: Cross of Saint George not yet changed into the Union
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  Speaker 1: jack and Englishmen and Dutchmen alike were eager to try
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  Speaker 1: whether John or Jan be the better man. As one
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  Speaker 1: of their favorite songs worded it, neither side certainly lost
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  Speaker 1: any time. In beginning, the sturdy Hollanders did not wait
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  Speaker 1: even for a summons to surrender. The foremost English ship
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  Speaker 1: had barely dropped her anchor in front of the Swartzsteen
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  Speaker 1: battery when there was a red flash from the old
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  Speaker 1: gray wall, a loud bay, and then a cannonball came
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  Speaker 1: tearing through the foretop sail and splash ushed into the
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  Speaker 1: water far beyond bang with the Englishman's whole broadside in return.
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  Speaker 1: And the balls were heard rattling among the rocks, or
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  Speaker 1: crashing into the front of the breastwork. And now the
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  Speaker 1: fight began in earnest fire, smoke, flying shot, crashing timbers,
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  Speaker 1: deafening uproar, multiplied a thousand fold by the echoes of
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  Speaker 1: the surrounding hills. It was a hard fight, for there
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  Speaker 1: were Dutchmen behind those batteries who had swept the channel
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  Speaker 1: with Van Trump, and there were Englishmen aboard those ships
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  Speaker 1: who had fought him and his men yard arm to
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  Speaker 1: yard arm under Robert Blake. And it would have been
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  Speaker 1: hard to tell which were the braver or the more
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  Speaker 1: stubborn of the two fire away boys. For the honor
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  Speaker 1: of old England, shouted Captain Richard Munden, pacing up and
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  Speaker 1: down the quarter deck of the British flagship amid a
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  Speaker 1: hail of shot. Stand to it, my sons, as if
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  Speaker 1: Father van Trump were with you, still cried the brave
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  Speaker 1: old Dutch commandant Peter van Gembhart, as he leveled a
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  Speaker 1: gun with his own hands over the fast crumbling parapet.
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  Speaker 1: Fear not the fire and smoke, it is but the
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  Speaker 1: Englishman lighting his pipe. Both signs fought stoutly, and men
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  Speaker 1: began to fall fast. But it seemed as if on
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  Speaker 1: the whole the Dutch were getting the best of it.
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  Speaker 1: The ships lying out upon the smooth water made an
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  Speaker 1: excellent mark, while the rock cut batteries could hardly be
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  Speaker 1: distinguished from the cliff itself. But just at that moment,
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  Speaker 1: a very unexpected turn of fortune changed the whole face
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  Speaker 1: of the battle. To explain clearly how this happened, we
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  Speaker 1: must go back a little way. The Dutch garrison had
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  Speaker 1: given their whole attention to the attack in front, feeling
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  Speaker 1: sure that this was the only point from which they
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  Speaker 1: could be assailed, and they reasoned well, for everywhere else
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  Speaker 1: the coast was merely one great precipice of several hundred
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  Speaker 1: feet rising so sheer out of the sea that it
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  Speaker 1: seemed as if nothing without wings could possibly scale it.
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  Speaker 1: But they might perhaps have been less confident had they
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  Speaker 1: seen what was going on just then at the opposite
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  Speaker 1: side of the island, when the English ships first advanced
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  Speaker 1: to the attack, the hindmost of them, while still hidden
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  Speaker 1: from the Dutch by the huge black pyramid of sugar
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  Speaker 1: Loaf Point, had lowered several large boats filled with armed men,
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  Speaker 1: which instantly shot away round the great rocky bluff of
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  Speaker 1: the barn as fast as eight oars apiece could carry
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  Speaker 1: them away. They went past headland after headland, while every
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  Speaker 1: eye was fixed upon the rocky shore, as if seeking
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  Speaker 1: something which was not easily to be found at length.
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  Speaker 1: Just when they rounded the bold, craggy promontory of King
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  Speaker 1: and Queen Point, a dull boom reached their ears, followed
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  Speaker 1: instantly by the thunder of a sustained candidade. At that
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  Speaker 1: familiar sound, the sailors clenched their teeth savagely as they
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  Speaker 1: looked up at the tremendous precipices that seemed to shut
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  Speaker 1: them out from all hope of taking part in the battle.
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  Speaker 1: Can't we get up anywhere? Growled the captain of the frigate,
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  Speaker 1: who is in the foremost boat. We're disgraced forever if
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  Speaker 1: they do the job without us. With your honor's leave,
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  Speaker 1: broke in a stalwart young topman, touching his thick brown forelock.
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  Speaker 1: I think I could get up that rock yonder and
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  Speaker 1: fasten a rope for the rest to climb by. What
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  Speaker 1: up there? Cried the captain, glancing doubtfully from the young
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  Speaker 1: sailor's bright, fearless face to the tremendous height above. Well,
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  Speaker 1: my lad, if you could do it, I'll give you
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  Speaker 1: fifty guineas it's for the honor of the flag, not
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  Speaker 1: for the money, sir, answered the seaman, springing from the
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  Speaker 1: boat to the lowest ledge of the terrorble. Rock up up,
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  Speaker 1: up ever higher he clambered, with the rising wind flinging
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  Speaker 1: his loose hair to and fro, and the startled sea
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  Speaker 1: birds whirling around him with hoarse screams of mingled fear
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  Speaker 1: and rage. To the watching eyes far below, the tiny
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  Speaker 1: points of rock to which he clung were quite invisible,
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  Speaker 1: and he seemed to be hanging in mid air like
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  Speaker 1: a fly on the side of a wall. And now
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  Speaker 1: he was two thirds of the way up the precipice,
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  Speaker 1: and now he was within a few yards of the top,
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  Speaker 1: and now his hand almost touched the highest ledge, when
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  Speaker 1: suddenly his feet were seen to slide from under him,
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  Speaker 1: and in a moment he was swinging in the empty air,
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  Speaker 1: grasping a projecting crag with the strength of desperation. Hold fast,
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  Speaker 1: Tom yelled the comrades as they saw him. Tom did
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  Speaker 1: hold fast, and the strong hands that had defied the
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  Speaker 1: full fury of an Atlantic gale to loosen them from
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  Speaker 1: the slippery rigging, did him good service. Once more he
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  Speaker 1: regained his footing, and the indrawn breadth of the anxious
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  Speaker 1: gazers below sounded like a hiss in the grim silence
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  Speaker 1: as they watched the final effort that brought him safely
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  Speaker 1: to the top. The rope was soon fixed, and the
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  Speaker 1: last man had scarcely mounted when the daring band were
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  Speaker 1: hurrying across the ridgy interior of the island toward the spot.
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  Speaker 1: Whence the cannonade still boomed upon the evening air. And
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  Speaker 1: there it was at last, as they crowned the farthest ridge,
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  Speaker 1: the tall masts standing up through billowy smoke, and the
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  Speaker 1: batteries marked out amidst the gathering darkness by the flashes
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  Speaker 1: of their own cannon. A deadly volley of English musketry
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  Speaker 1: cracked along the cliff, and several of the Dutch were
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  Speaker 1: seen to fall, while dismay and confusion spread fast among
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  Speaker 1: the survivors. Thus, caught between two fire, with the British
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  Speaker 1: ships thundering upon them from below and the British marksmen
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  Speaker 1: shooting them down from above, the defenders had no chance,
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  Speaker 1: and at length brave Old van Gebhart, with a look
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  Speaker 1: of bitter grief on his iron face, slowly hauled down
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  Speaker 1: the Dutch flag in token of surrender. Mine here, said
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  Speaker 1: he to the English captain, as the latter came marching
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  Speaker 1: into the fort at the head of his men. My
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  Speaker 1: followers have done all that men could do, but yours
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  Speaker 1: have done more. And if we had not done more,
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  Speaker 1: we could have never beaten, the gallant Dutchman, answered the captain,
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  Speaker 1: taking off his battered, cocked hat with a polite bow.
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  Speaker 1: Thus it was that the English regained Saint Helena, over
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  Speaker 1: which the British flag flies to this day. Nor has
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  Speaker 1: the brave fellow who let that daring attack been forgotten.
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  Speaker 1: For the crag which he scaled, and very grim looking crag.
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  Speaker 1: It is still goes by the name of hold Fast
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  Speaker 1: tak Endsection twenty eight