YOUNGEST MACDONNELL.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17384, 21 April 1928, Page 16 (Supplement)

YOUNGEST MACDONNELL.

AND A BASKET OF FRUIT.

One afternoon in 1816 a fair mother tried to hush her fretful child to rest on the flat roof-top of her house. Such a young mother! The Danish admiral's daughter was only fiftocvi when she became the child bride of Mr Macdonnell, the British Consul at Algiers. She had three stepdaughters older than herself, all married. Th 3 - youngest, Letitia, was her own age, and at that moment was engaged in helping her to take care of her baby girl. The youngest Miss Macdonnell was an apple blossom of an infant, with red-gold down on her head —very knowing, so her proud mother thought. From the very first she refused to be handled or hushed by dark-skinned nurses, and was only happy in the arms of her mother or her sister. The tiny tyrant gave way to sleep at last, and was carefully laic* down in the cradle. The sweet of the evening was theirs to enjoy. The peak of the hill where Algiers stood was crowned by the Kasbah, which dominated the town and cast a grim and threatening shade even upon the house of the man who stood for England. It was the fortress palace of the Dey of Algiers, a savage despot with whom tortures and executions were the usual events of the week. Secure in his own cunning and the ! traditional strength of his pirate fleet, he held the Powers of Europe in con-, tempt, tossing the gifts which kings were mean-spirited enough to give him disdainfully to his cook, exacting blackmail,! breaking his treaties, consigning the captives of his corsairs ti dungeons or to slavery Against the British Consul he harboured the deepest spite, and the ladies of Mr Macdonnell's household very rarely ventured out of doors. 01 late, while his difficulties with the English were at their height, the Consul had been put on guard, and his familv driven from the country residence to live in their town house. The sun was sinking in the west when Letitia started to her feet, sayin" to her stepmother, who was pacing the roof with the baby again swaying on her slim ankles with just the right rocking motion that soothed the spoiled child — ■ "Dearest, Father is calling us to come down. He sounds as if he were in haste 1" , , , . , Quickly the two girls descended, carrying the mite with them. They were drawn by Mr Macdonnell into a small upper chamber. Carefully he closed the door behind them and drew a curtain across it. "My dears," said he, "I have grave news -for you.' There will be danger to face, but I trust in your courage. I ord Exmouth is. without in the roads with a fleet of twenty-five men-of-war. He has been to Tunis and Tripoli, and made the two Beys promise to put an end completely to Christian slavery, and now he has come to read our enemy a lesson No longer shall he palter with Great Britain and break his treaties. Algiers is to be bombarded." . "At last," cried Letitia, "he will learn what it is to defy England!" "Foolish children! A naval bombardment is a terrible thing," said her father. "And we stand in the same danger as oiir enemy. Captain Dashwood, of the Prometheus, has come ashore with a party of officers and seamen to effect the escape of my family before the attack begins. You two my wife and daughter, are to go first, in the disguise of naval officers, for if you are recognised the guards will stop you at the Marine Gate." "Darling, I will not go without you I exclaimed his wife. , "Women and children first is the rule of the Navy," Macdonnell returned; "I will follow with the third party. Make haste and dress. I will hold the baby while you change. Do not' call any of the native women. "Xou will find me in the dining-room with Captain Dashwood." Five minutes later two very handsome midshipmen, with three-cornered hats and clubbed, powdered hair, slipped downstairs and entered the room where the rescue party was gathered together. The smaller one stretched out small white hands to the Consul, saying: I am ready; give me baby." "No- she is to follow with the second detachment," said the father. "Leave my child behind as well as you!" cried his wife tearfully. "I shall not go without her!" . "If you take her, Madam, she will be the destruction of the whole party," said Tim O'Hagan, the ship's surgeon. "Sure, nobody at all, black or white, ever saw such a thing as a young gentleman of the King's Navy carrving an infant-in-arms. Leave her "to me; I will bring her safely. Have I not had six of my own?" "She will be safer with him," said Macdonnell. "Go, dearest ones. There i s not a minute to lose. Keep close to Captain Dashwood and in the middle of the group as you walk." \s the door closed behind the party the Consul turned to O'Hagan. "But, Doctor I am puzzled to think how you will smuggle this baby aboard. She has the loudest voice and the most masterful disposition of any of my children. Only her mother can manage her." „ L ~,,. "Give her here to me,' said tno doctor. "I have a soothing- syrup which will work wonders." After the dose, deftly given, the youngest Miss Macdonnell composed herself to slumber deep. The doctor, laid her gently down m a long basket. He covered her with grapes and oranges. "What more natural than that we should be carrying fruit back to the ship?" said he. "Let us be taking the road now." A party of eighteen, they went down to the quay, the doctor carrying the ljisko t Through streets of scowling Moors they passed, till at last they reached the Marine Gate. Only a few yards away they could see the boat which was'to convey them back to the Prometheus, bobbing about at its moorings. Safely seemed in sight when there was an ominous stir in the basket. Snuffles followed, angry coughs that, worked up to an outraged roar, ear-piercing. "A screech like a peacock!" O'Hagan said afterwards. With drawn scimitars Hie Moorish guard rushed upon the ship's parly. "Lo! Hie infidel dogs arc stealing away a child of Ihe True Believers!" But when the dusky hands had torn away the fruit and the red-haired, fair-skinned baby was revealed the Moors' cry changed. "it is the child.of the British Consul! The rats are leaving the ship." Bound, and prisoners, the whol3 party was rushed up Hie hill lo thf Kasbah. The baby in the basket was laid at the fcCt of the Ley. He bent his vulture face over her, and (here comes the strange part of the story)

it took the child's fancy—perhaps it was a colourful picture, the blue cloak adorned with gold, the long locks and beard coppered over with henna, the green turban capping all, twinkling with rubies and diamonds. Anyway, the baby stopped crying, and smiled up fearlessly in the face of the tyrant.

That Dey was a tiger in man's form. In "all his life he only did one good deed, Lord Exmouth said in his despatch afterwards, and it deserved to be recorded. He sent the little redhaired baby back in safety to her mother. As for the eighteen of the rescue party, they were cast into dungeons Mr Macdonell was herded with murderers and threatened daily with torture and impalement. The day of the bombardment came, and Lord Exmouth blew all the harbour defences and the Corsairs' fleet to pieces. The Dey had to take a humbler tone and to endure the presence of Mr Macdonell for a while longer. He did his best, though, to wreak vengeance on those people who had cut his talons.

When plague broke out in Algiers the Dey sent his stricken ships to ell Tiie ports in the Mediterranean so as to spread the disease. He cast the cloak of a man suffering from the plague over the shoulders of Mr Macdonell.

But it was the Dey himself who died of the plague, and not the Consul.